Tutorial's End

The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick

A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones

Most young beings begin to flag in their advancement once they've reached rank twenty or so. This is the period wherein most take a sabbatical, of sorts, if they can.

Assuming their superiors approve a contract pause or a leave of absence with some penalty, a year or two of self discovery is often healthy.

The climb itself is exhausting enough, but this is generally when most begin to question their value and place. In an endless world, with unlimited possibilities, each individual must eventually decide where and why they fit.

Willow

Shandy's Cups, Vesheen City, Shee

Staring down at the little pink glob of mucus, Willow could only scowl. After Ravvy had gotten himself back under control, the three of them had done their best to figure out just what the weird little thing was. They had failed.

At first, Willow had assumed it was like a baby slime or something, but if so it was stupid even for its kind. Luzzi had confirmed that slimes were indeed real, but their consistency was closer to jello than… this.

Carefully tipping her hand over the room's singular desk, Willow watched the pink goo with pursed lips, crinkled nose, and narrowed eyes. The marble-sized blob slowly slid down her hand, leaving a faint trail of sparkly slime behind it. The ooze maintained some level of continuity, not turning entirely into a smear, stretching and pulling in a disturbing manner.

Despite the trail the thing left, it didn't seem to get any smaller. Maybe it was just leaving behind some kind of condensation? Moisture pulled from the air? The slow-moving blip finally reached the edge of her hand and slowly stretched down toward the desk surface, threads doing their best to keep her hand and the main body of the slime connected until the last second. Once the majority of the body had reached the desk-top, the rest finally snapped down to join itself.

"What kind of guide are you?" She asked aloud, hoping for a simple path to answers. No such luck.

Tapping her foot, she stared down at the blob. A brilliant idea struck her and Willow spun in a quick circle, searching for what she'd need. Eyes landing on her bulging and somewhat ripped and beaten pack, Willow rushed over and began eagerly unpacking it.

Dirty clothes, bolts of cloth, random bits and bobs, even a few weapons, she took everything out quickly but carefully. Stacking items by general material feel, she soon had four piles: soft, hard, flexible, and gross.

Looking through the pile of hard-stuff, she found what she was looking for. Picking up the small desk-lamp, she rushed to prepare her prisoner for interrogation.

"WHAT ARE YOU?! WHO DO YOU WORK FOR?!" The Bad Cop screamed, spittle frothing on her mouth as an alien hat approximating a custodian helmet wobbling.

Bright yellow light beat down on the suspect, yet their pink surface remained cool and silent.

Bad Cop pulled away, snarling, "We've got a quiet one here, eh?! Think you're cool, do ya?! WELLL…. We have WAYS of making people TALK!"

She stepped forward with a knife, but spun away in a blur, hat removed to reveal a messy bun. The knife was nowhere to be seen.

"Stop, stop! They just need to understand they're hurting people, we don't need to be so rough!"

Another spin, Bad Cop retorted angrily while looking at the empty space where Good Cop had just been, "Ooooh you ALWAYS think the GENTLE approach is going to work! And how often has it?! Huh, ROOKIE?! Never! Just let me stab this-"

Swirl. "No, no! It's fine, they'll be our friend! Look, the poor dear is sweating!" Good Cop plead, back and shoulders slumped, eyes looking up toward the wall and ceiling crease: where Bad Cop had been mere moments before.

"HAH!" Swirl. "Look at you, pathetic! It's sweating because it knows it has no recourse but to spill the beans!"

Bad Cop cackled.

"What are you doing?"

Turning, Bad Cop was furious at the interruption. Seeing Ravvy staring up with naked mirth and Luzzi looking on in concern, Willow flushed, just slightly. Removing the hat she'd taken from one of the rat-king scenarios, couldn't really remember which, she cleared her throat.

"Uhhhm, I am… Trying… Different tactics to figure out how to use the guide! Yeah, tactics!"

She put the hat back on and growled irritably, "It was just about to talk! Now we're going to have to put the screws to it again, all the tension's gone! Broken! Ya'll are horrible interrogators!"

Five eyes blinked slowly at her, while a tail twitched around wildly in response.

A new head peaked in from the side to Luzzi's left, "Ma'am, you're disturbing the customers below. I've been asked several times about the racket."

"Huh?" Willow frowned at the tall gangly humanoid. His double noses were both sniffing rapidly while his eye wouldn't meet either of hers. His large ears flopped around as he shifted in place under her scrutiny. She recognized the barman who had served them earlier.

Deciding she'd had her fun and didn't need to disturb anyone further, Willow groaned, "Fiiiine."

Throwing her hat toward the soft-pile to one side of the room, she strode over to the desk. The pink blob sitting under the mana powered desk lamp was still sweating.

"Think it's supposed to do that?" She called back to Luzzi and Ravvy. The later entered to get a look at what she was asking about while the former quietly conversed with the barman.

Eyes just barely clearing the edge of the desk, Ravvy hopped on the stool to get a look. "Huh, clearly the heat is causing some kind of reaction. I can see a lot of complex interactions occurring. We should turn up the heat and see what happens."

Tapping her foot, Willow thought it over. She didn't want to destroy her prize for completing Sheerna, but so far this was the most reaction they'd got out of the little glob of goop. Though, that doesn't mean much, considering we haven't really tried anything else…

"Should we not bring it to an appraiser, a guide expert, or a loremaster rather than melting it?" Luzzi's reasonable voice cut in before Willow could answer Ravvy.

Nodding, she agreed, "Yeah, that's probably a better idea. That was our plan from earlier already, so might as well start there. If they can't tell us, then maybe we should try heating it up more."

So decided, Willow reached over and clicked the desk-light off, plunging the room into gloom. Curious just how much heat had been cast on the pink orb of mess, she reached out and poked it.

"It's barely above room temperature." She muttered, confused. "Being in my hand would have heated it just as much."

"We shall have our answers tomorrow, after you sell your…" Luzzi waved toward the haphazard piles of stuff Willow had painstakingly thrown together, "…loot."

After seeing the others out, Willow got herself and her room ready for bed. She carefully packed up all of her items, making sure her bag was neat and organized so she could easily find items as she wanted to sell them.

When she found a cute miniature jewelry box, something that might be appropriate to hold a single earing, she dubbed it her goo-guide-holder and unceremoniously dropped the pink blob into it.

Last, but not least, she finally stopped to go through all of her UICI alerts. The first dozen or so were messages from Jonah and Naomi. Naomi sent progressively more detailed 'reports' of their situation. She outlined a kind of political intrigue where she and Jonah had to carefully maneuver to gain power and influence. It was fascinating, but very clinical.

Jonah's, on the other hand, was much more colorful but missing the sense of purpose Naomi's had. He wrote small stories about things that happened from day to day, wrote that he was worried about the pressure their plan was putting on Naomi, and even told her about pretty much redoing his whole game system thing!

Feeling a pang of regret that she hadn't received these messages as they were sent so she could reply, she spent an hour or two replying while splayed out on the bed. She sent one message to each of them, but made sure to reply to all of the most important bits from each of the messages they sent.

She also explained to both of them why it'd taken her so long to reply, partially, saying the rift had apparently blocked all messages and it had taken a long time to complete. She left out that she'd ended up 'completing' it more literally than intended. They could talk about that in person, she wasn't really sure who all could see their messages - regardless of what the orientation had claimed about security.

That done, she looked through her last few notices.

NEW INSIGHT CONFIRMED!

Congratulations!

You have developed a new insight!

. . . .

Insight not cataloged in CHM database.

Please name your insight by focusing on the particular insight and directing your intention to name it. Alternatively, focus on your insight and say, "Name insight: [My insight name]" out-loud.

NEW MANA ASPECT CONFIRMED!

Congratulations!

You have successfully used mana processed into a new aspect by your soul nexus!

. . . .

Aspect not cataloged in CHM database.

Please name your aspect by focusing on the particular mana aspect and directing your intention to name it. Alternatively, focus on your mana aspect and say, "Name aspect: [My aspect name]" out-loud.

Willow rolled her eyes at the messages, she wasn't really sure what the point of the UICI cataloging her insights and mana aspects was if it was private to herself. And the 'please share this with us' message when she labeled her aspects indicated it was private unless she allowed otherwise. She guessed maybe if she did provide the information to the Sentekko faction it could help someone else if they somehow ended up with the same in the future?

Except, in order for someone to have an insight, they had to understand it. Which meant the name was irrelevant. She dismissed both prompts without naming anything, she'd been dumb to give names to her other insights, aspects, and abilities. At least she'd been dumb to register them in the UICI. There was definitely something less scrupulous going on with that than met the eye.

I guess I can still name them for myself… I dub my new insight 'Passionate Purpose' and my new mana aspect… Hmm… Would it be purpose mana, or passion mana?

Curious, she dropped into her dojo. Everything was more or less how she'd left it, though everything was just a little bit tidier and more solid, an indicator that her discipline mana's capacity had grown significantly. Her avatar also waved at her from where she was performing a series of jabs, showing a bit more awareness than before. Though, she was still more of a caricature of Willow than a true clone.

Stepping into her newest room, her gymnasium, she watched the little fairy light wisps as they danced and played. She couldn't help but smile every time she saw this childhood memory brought to life, with whimsical glowing little figures as its occupants no less!

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Using both of her initial mana types had been as natural as breathing. At least, pulling them into her ability had been. She expected this mana would be the same, but she wanted to see if she could test its effects here, rather than in the real world. It wasn't something she'd ever tried, but why not? Her entire dojo was literally intended for training.

Starting simply, she called her moment of focus. The ability worked perfectly, catching several of the little lights floating around and holding them firmly. Interestingly, the ability used a minuscule amount of mana here.

She had thought it might use the normal amount, or maybe none at all. It was interesting that it used some but a lesser amount, but she wouldn't let herself be distracted.

Releasing the ability, she called it again, but this time she tried to add her newest mana. It flowed into the ability as easily as the others had, like a missing piece. The area of her ability flowed out, capturing and holding everything around her, the world within her tiny domain went gray.

She couldn't see any difference using her ability with the new mana versus without it.

Undeterred, she walked back out to her dojo's main chamber as she pulled a strand of the new mana by itself. Picking up one of the training weapons, she infused the mana into the object, looking for a connection similar to her other mana types.

While she held the mana it felt like either of her other aspects, but once she directed it outside of herself it seemed to disconnect entirely and could no longer be controlled or altered.

"How's this related to purpose, or passion?" She muttered, rotating a small ball of the mana around her open hand in an orbit.

She spent a good few hours messing with her new mana aspect but failed to figure out what it did. Trying to use it like either of her other mana types was a bust. It didn't seem to do anything at all! Stupid mana, I WILL crack your secrets! But…

Sighing, she pulled her mind out of her inner world and opened her eyes to see the faux-wood ceiling of the inn's room. It was getting late and she had stuff to do tomorrow, this was one mystery that would have to wait.

Besides, she had one more UICI message to check out.

NEW BOON CONFIRMED!

Congratulations, you have been granted a new boon!

Boon Name: Data Mind

You may choose to store any piece of information permanently. It may be recalled at will. Moreover, the Data Mind boon may be used run advanced calculations based on the information available.

Note: The Data Mind boon is a soul-grafted boon. It will be lost on death.

Huh, that's pretty cool! Couldn't I already kind of do that, though? I definitely did something similar when I made a DVD of my memories after that dream a while ago… I guess it's better somehow? Eh, this is more of a Jonah thing. I'll see what he thinks.

She wrote a quick follow-up to her previous message and sent it off to Jonah before getting comfortable and settling in for the night.

Wandering the city, which was masquerading as a massive quaint village, was fun. Grand cobbled streets connected plazas, warehouses, storefronts, residences, inns and taverns, and everything else. All of the buildings did their best to pretend they were little cottages, even the most opulently sprawling multi-story buildings. Every exterior was clad in stone, or faux-stone at least, siding. Each roof was pitched and topped with some material which looked like straw at first glance, but clearly couldn't be given how entirely indifferent to the rare strong gust of wind.

"We should have done this instead of going to the fair when we got here." Willow commented while weaving between the thick press of bodies congesting the central market street they'd just entered.

"You would prefer to get crushed by over-large beings than enjoy fried foods and rides." Ravvy sniped between rapidly dancing around legs, tentacles, and other limbs which disregarded the possibility of accidentally crushing a smaller creature.

Chortling, Willow shot back, "Oh, you prefer being covered in manure, eh?"

"Now, listen here you little…" He called in mock outrage, but went silent before finishing. Glancing back over her shoulder, Willow immediately saw the reason. A group of centaurs had exited a miniature castle building and Ravvy had been forced to wait for the small herd to cross before continuing on. He could have just jumped over them, Willow knew, but he didn't.

That brought up a question she'd had but had never had an opportunity to ask, "Why do people have any manners?"

"I'm sorry?" Luzzi answered, having made her way back to stand with Willow as the waited for their delayed party member.

"It's just, you and Ravvy both said that if someone is strong enough, they can do whatever they want. So why doesn't Ravvy just hop over those guys?"

"Ah, because the street goes both ways."

Confused, Willow tilted her head toward her left shoulder like she'd seen Luzzi do a few times. The paavaras chuckled and rewarded her by answering the unspoken question, "If one of those centaurs are more powerful than Ravavka, they might take offense and strike his leaping form from the air."

"Ooooh… Yeah, that makes sense. Weird way for law and order to be maintained… Also, can't beings sense each other's power? Madrick always knows what rank I'm at, somehow."

"Ah, yes. A topic I've been meaning to broach. We should teach you to develop your soul sense, it may help keep you out of trouble."

"Hah! I never get in trouble!" Willow declared as the frankly ridiculously long line of half-horse half-humans finished crossing and Ravvy rejoined them. The three continued on their way.

Luzzi didn't answer her statement, but launched into an explanation instead, "A refined soul sense can indeed gauge the power of others, especially relative to oneself. However, this sense primarily provides insight into another being's rank and soul-nexus composition. This is helpful to gauge power, but is not definite. As you are well aware by now, rank is not necessarily synonymous with combat power. Furthermore, combat potential is not the only kind of personal power you should be concerned with. Connections and wealth are both their own sort of power."

"You telling Willow she should work on her soul sensing? Yeah, that's a good idea. Wonder if she'll be any good at it, though, given how thick-headed she is. It's usually considered a delicate art. A craft of skill and dedication, rather than brute force." Ravvy's center eye flicked toward and away from Willow rapidly. He was clearly just trying to get a rise.

Reaching over and gently patting the top of Ravvy's bald head, Willow spoke reassuringly, "Don't worry, lil guy, I won't rub it in when I'm better at it than you are within a month."

Before they could continue their contest of wit, someone bumped into Willow from her right.

Reacting on training re-enforced and honed during her time in Sheerna, Willow took a step to her left to reduce the impact and reached out to grasp her would-be tackler in a firm grip.

Only at the last second did she remember they were in a crowded and civilized place, unclenching and lowering her right fist. Realizing she'd also stepped into her moment, Willow took a second to investigate who had collided with her.

To her surprise, she saw his eyes darting around in panic. It seemed he was only partially held by her ability. Interesting, everyone else around seemed stuck as normal. She wondered, if she put a little more concentration and pushed her instruction mana just a bit like… His eyes froze while staring at her face.

Liquid gold stared down at her in static horror. The man's skin was a dull shade of silver, with deep channels on his forehead and laugh-lines around his mouth. A little of his messy hair was currently parted enough to reveal small, almost perfectly circular, ears. She could see sharp top and bottom canines peaking out from his slightly opened mouth.

Flicking her eyes from his face down to the arm she was holding, she found lean, tightly compacted, muscle fully revealed by the vest he wore open, exposing an equally chiseled torso.

Both of his arms were wrapped tightly around a large crate, which clearly obscured his vision and had likely lead to him running into her. Wow, I'm twitchy. It's just some day laborer doing his best and I almost punched him.

Still, she quickly glanced over him in full, searching for weapons. Just in case. She decided it was unlikely he was carrying anything dangerous on him, besides the massive closed crate. The open vest, which wasn't even concealing his body much less a weapon, semi-tight fitting trousers which didn't seem to be tailored in a way that would hide a weapon, and no belt.

Before she released the man, she realized one of his ankles was twisted at an awkward angle. He'd definitely fall over. While that might be kind of funny, there were a ton of people walking around and she thought plenty of them were likely to simply trample the poor man if he fell. People falling was funny, falling people getting hurt was not.

Bracing herself a bit better, she released her moment and caught the man's tripping form.

With a grunt, one of his arms slipped and the crate fell, crashing to the ground with the distinctive sound of shattering glass.

"OOooh, that sucks." Willow winced in sympathy. The poor guy looked devastated.

After staring down at the crate for a beat, he turned to look at Willow. "I… Guess… Thanks for catching me." He muttered in a soft baritone. Even softer, she heard him questioning himself about 'time stopping eyes.'

"Sure, uh… Need help… Cleaning up?" She wasn't sure what the liquid seeping out of the crate was, but she stepped away just in case.

"It smells like bone-fire potion." Luzzi noted, also carefully not stepping in the puddle. "A very painful concoction."

Ravvy pulled back a curious toe and took his own steps back. They formed a small circle around the crate, with the silver man not bothering to step out of the slowly growing pool of liquid. The bright white shoes he was wearing appeared to be keeping any of it from actually getting onto him.

"What's going on?!"

"Get the hell moving!"

"Who's holding everything up?!"

The grumbling started in mere moments as people became frustrated that the semi-organized traffic stream was forced to split around the new obstruction, slowing everything down.

"If you could go get something to clean this stuff up with, we'll keep people from stepping in it?" Willow offered, partially just to snap the guy out of his funk.

Taking a deep breath, he raised his gazed to look at Willow and nodded sharply. Turning on his heel, he marched quickly away.

In total, helping the man, who upon returning had introduced himself as Slyth, had taken about a half hour.

Willow, Luzzi, and Ravvy helped out mostly by keeping people from stepping in the dangerous spilled concoction. None of them had any way to actually clean it, though Ravvy did mention trying to burn it with a star flare. Willow and Luzzi had both rejected the idea sharply. There was no knowing whether the stuff would explode!

Thankfully, Slyth had been able to get a towel that was apparently enchanted specifically to deal with dangerous alchemical spills. Once he'd returned, it had only been the work of a handful of minutes to get the street cleaned up.

Shaking each of their hands, Slyth thanked them. "Sorry for bumping into you and getting you all into this mess… And uh…" He looked at Willow, "Thanks for catching me, if I'd fallen and got that stuff all over me…"

He shuddered at the thought.

Luzzi had explained that bone-fire potion was named for the feeling it invoked. Apparently, if any of the liquid touched the skin of a being with bones it would set their nerves off in a way which felt as if their bones were burning. It was physically harmless, as the potion didn't actually cause any damage at all, but the pain was enough to drive beings mad if subjected to too much of the stuff.

"Why were you carrying it around like that instead of with some kind of like… Sealed and locked box? Maybe some enchanted thing that doesn't let anything inside get jostled? Something like that does exist, right?" She looked around at her friends and received nods from each.

Slyth's shoulders slumped and he sighed, "Can't afford it. I opted out of joining any groups when I arrived and… Things have been a bit tough."

Taking a deep breath, he squared his shoulders and shook his head, "No matter. You saved me from an even worse outcome, things are… Fine. Looking up, even!" He nodded firmly, though Willow noticed his left hand was firmly clasped in his right. Each of his four fingers and his thumb were all tipped with sharp looking black claws, which were drawing a bit of violet blood. His head slowly dropped, eye searching the ground for… Something.

Thinking this might be a chance to save themselves some time, and distract the poorly distraught man, Willow drawled slowly, "Sooo, you wouldn't happen to be an expert in weird magical thingies, would you?"

As he slowly lifted his head, blinking rapidly, Willow pulled a tiny jewelry box from a side-pocket on her bag and flipped the lid open to reveal her beautiful - disgusting - pink goop.

Looking between Willow's face and the proffered substance he took a slow step back, "No… Sorry, no."

He stared into Willow's eyes for another long moment before blinking and shaking his head. "Ah, I, yeah. I guess I should. I'd… I'd like to buy you all lunch as thanks, but I… Well I honestly can't even afford my own right now. I'm very sorry, all I can offer is my apologies and thanks. And, yes, of course I'll get out of your hair." He bowed from the waist in a quick, formal, manner before turning and walking away.

Willow considered calling after him, feeling like she'd asked the wrong question. Of course some rando wasn't going to magically have all of her answers, right? Who thought like that? Why'd she even ask? She snapped the box shut and watched black hair and silver shoulders as Slyth faded into the crowd.

I should have asked about his situation instead. He probably thinks I'm weird. Hm. She was also curious about someone else who hadn't taken a contract. She could probably catch him if she rushed off… But she and the others had their own stuff to do today. Or, am I being self-centered again? Should I be more worried about strangers and their plights?

Before she could think through the ethical quandary, Ravvy and Luzzi had already turned back in the direction they had collectively been heading to resume their mission. Right, I'm not by myself. Gotta think of my group first, and random people that bump into me after.

So determined, Willow followed after the others.

"No idea." The six armed, twelve-eyed, six tongued creature hissed. Two of her hands adjusted the weird device she'd had Willow place her goop-guide into to get it tested.

Looking into the futuristic device, Willow couldn't help but be disappointed. The bowl-shaped apparatus was surrounded by sensors of every imaginable shape and size. Cameras, spectrometers, microphones, and lots of stuff she couldn't identify. Beyond those, the bowl itself was etched with what looked like magical circuits, copper lines formed the alternately graceful and sharp script she'd come to associate with magic items.

Willow sighed, disappointed but not surprised. "Wizzmmer's Oddities" was their eighth stop so far. They'd visited magical item shops, loot-drop testing, curio shops, alchemist labs, even a couple enchanter stations. No one had been able to tell them much of anything.

"I'll give you two thousand XZE for it." She offered.

"Rude." Willow muttered as she reached into the weird contraption and pulled out her precious goop-guide.

The creature just shrugged all three of her shoulders. "Well, I can give you a print up of everything the AI module measured from the thing, that'll be… Say… Hmm…"

"A hundred XZE?" Ravvy chimed in from where he was touching things on one of the small shop's shelves.

Large ochre lips turned downward, "Nah. Just two hundred R2-EB."

Considering the UICI prompt which popped up to confirm the transaction, Willow shrugged and accepted. Might as well use some of her EBs. While she didn't have a ton, she'd found it was always just a bit more than she needed. Which made her think back to her earlier assumption that Slyth would somehow magically be an expert on magical items just because that's what she was looking for.

So… Confirmation bias? It's not baseless arrogance if it's always proven out to be true, right? Or maybe I formed bad habits while I was in that rat-king loop? Everything there was literally centered around me and my narrative. Gotta watch out for that kind of thinking… She glanced with a little more worry at her paltry EB balance, then remembered if worst came to worst she could find some arena to fight in to earn more. Not to mention she literally had a backpack full of goods they still needed to sell. She dismissed the entire train of thought.

Another message popped up, alerting her that she'd been sent a copy of a "Wizzmmer's Oddities Comprehensive Scan #219478."

Looking over it, Willow frowned a bit, "Your scan says it's heat resistant up to 1000 degrees kelvin?"

"Yep, sure is. Got a flamethrower right here I can test it out with if you want. Report's guaranteed accurate up to 1% margin of error."

"Huh, okay, thanks!" Willow turned and went to gather Ravvy. Plopping her goop back in its small box, Willow packed the box into the side-pouch on her bulging backpack as she left the store.

The two made their way to the small cafe Luzzi had gone ahead to reserve a table at in silence. Both clearly thinking about the heat resistance thing.

Once they'd found their table and regrouped, including forwarding the report to Luzzi and Ravavka both, Willow couldn't help but proclaim. "It's time to burn the goop!"

A long conversation followed, primarily filled with thinking through possible issues and contingencies. In particular, Luzzi got them to agree to wait on any experimentation with unknown, and possibly dangerous, substances until they had a suitable place to do so. According to the others, there should be lab space for rent somewhere around the city, they'd just need to find it.

Seeing a waiter slipping around the bustling cafe carrying a large platter stacked high with steaming panini-like sandwiches, sauces, and brightly colored drinks, Willow's urgency to experiment cooled sharply.

After lunch. It can definitely wait until after lunch.