Tutorial's End

The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick

A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones

Godhood. The goal which every new arrival shares for a time. Unfortunately, it's a goal only the elite and connected are ever likely to achieve. While there are plenty of folk heroes, beings who have not been favored by their faction, order, guild, or other organization, there are vanishingly few. One in every seven billion beings can be expected to reach godhood. Of those, one in perhaps every three to four million are not supported and propped up from below.

Your best shot at reaching godhood is to play nice with whatever organization you find yourself bound to. Work toward their interest, align your goals with theirs, and work to be noticed by someone with influence. Perhaps they will raise you up alongside themselves, and you may repeat the cycle when you notice someone with potential.

Although one would be excused for assuming all beings will eventually make it to the lauded rank one hundred, it's simply untrue. The stronger one becomes, the further they must go to grow. The further one explores, the more danger they place themselves in and the more likely their death and respawn becomes.

Willow

Alchemist Experimentation Fields, Vesheen City, Shee

Hefting the large pile of safety gear from the counter with an, "oof", Willow grunted her best thanks through the mountain suddenly obscuring her vision. The attendant's high-pitched squawk of a laugh was her only reply as she carefully turned.

Unable to see, Willow called, "Marco!" The word bursting out in a gasping breath under the strain.

No one answered her.

"Uncultured." she muttered, before feeling a gentle hand on her shoulder. Recognizing Luzzi's six-fingered touch, she followed her silent guidance.

"This is great, we should have you haul around… However many hundreds of kilograms that is. You're so much quieter! Easier to look at, too." Ravvy prodded.

Shifting her burden in her arms, Willow just managed to free enough of her right hand to raise her middle finger toward her persecutor. She'd have rebuked the little terror, but found herself more interested in finding their assigned station so she could put everything down.

Minutes later, Luzzi's guiding hand patted her shoulder before retreating. She confirmed the meaning of the gesture with a simple, "We're here, go ahead and put that stuff down."

Squatting carefully, Willow took the time to delicately rest one corner of the tightly bound pile on the grass before letting the whole thing down and stepping back. She stared at the fifty centimeter square bundle of what she'd have generously labeled 'junk', had she seen it without any context.

"Do we really need all of this?" She asked while taking deep breaths to recover from the strain.

Ravvy snorted, "Of course. Watch, simpleton." Stepping forward, he flicked his finger along one side of the sparkly looking rope which kept the entire bundle tightly contained.

"How do you snort, you don't even have a nose?"

"It's a closely guarded secret of my people."

The rope immediately parted under Ravvy's touch. Almost like a belt-buckle being released, the rope retracted around the entire thing and slipped into the base pallet-like platform everything was balanced on.

The stack of 'equipment' tottered precariously for a moment, then predictably, fell. Less predictably, however, the fall appeared to have been meticulously planned by whoever packed the bundle as every piece of equipment hit the ground, bounced, spun, or otherwise crashed into clearly intended positions. Finally, once everything had fallen from it, the metal pallet-thing sprung upward, legs which had apparently been compressed by the load slowly extending. The square became a perfect little table, with a shelf half way down and everything. Within a few seconds of loud crashing, clanking and hissing, the spot Luzzi had rented for the group was filled with a professional appearing station.

Small cabinets with a mix of filled and empty glass beakers, vials, and jars sat to the right of the table. The top of the cabinet was raised just above the table top and had two circles which clearly marked burners. To the table's left was a rack of hanging materials. Wires, strips of cloth, strings, ropes, a trio of what appeared eerily similar to hazmat suits all hung neatly. Finally, just behind the table was a large green and red metal ring which had 'clunked' solidly into the grass and was giving off an ominous red glow.

Willow was fairly certain the ring had been the heaviest thing in the bundle, as nothing else really seemed to account for the insane weight she'd just hauled from the check in station.

Stretching out her muscles, which were protesting the sudden strain, she took in the so-called 'Alchemist Fields'.

The entire area was probably three to four hectares. It was entirely cleared of all foliage, other than the low-cut and shockingly spongy grass. Demarcating the fields as a whole was a large five meter fence, which glowed softly yellow anytime a being or object got within an arm's length of it. The crow like creature which had rented them the slot in the field had sharply cawed at them in no uncertain terms, letting them know touching the fencing would result in a violent and unpleasant reaction. Willow wanted to throw something at it to see what that meant. Maybe when we're leaving.

Within the walls, the field was bustling in an impressive show of industrious purpose. Several hundred beings, if not a thousand, worked and bustled within their own rented spaces. The low murmur of the crowd was ever-present, but not overwhelming. The enchantments laid around each individual slot made sure of that, according to the crow attendant.

Looking at the yellow lines painted in a perfect five meter square around them, Willow saw the faint outline of alternatively sharp and flowing script carefully drawn in white within the hand-width yellow lines. I wonder if the yellow is an intentional choice? The wall and the lines are both yellow… Seems like something else would be more aesthetically pleasing. Maybe easier to see on the green grass, too. Speaking of… Shouldn't the grass moving around mess up those enchantment lines?

"Hey, when you're done staring at your shoes, let's see that guide of yours." Ravvy's voice broke through Willow's contemplation.

Pursing her lips, she stood and pulled her tiny jewelry box turned goop-bed from the side of her bag. Realizing they'd likely be here for a while, she also pulled the bag from her shoulders and set it against the glassware cabinet.

"Right, where should I put Mr. gooptacular here?"

"Rude, that's clearly a woman."

"What?! No shot. Don't you see how gross it is?"

"Right. Woman."

"In the center of the testing ring, if you please, Willow." Luzzi's voice broke through the bickering.

Switching gears, Willow pretended she'd never taken Ravvy's bait. Striding forward, she crossed into the ring before hesitating. Turning back, she asked, "In the box? Or just on the ground, you think?"

"You can just put it on the grass, the box will just be melted." Ravvy answered, while Luzzi nodded her agreement.

Tipping the container over, Willow waited for the slow but eventual "splat." Then snapped the box shut and stepped out of the ring.

"Okay, what ne-" A blinding light interrupted her question with an unflattering scream of surprise and pain. Staggering back, Willow activated her back into it skill to repair her damaged eyes.

Just as she was blinking her eyes clear, Luzzi began berating Ravavka. "You must warn others before using spells with such powerful secondary effects!" In an uncharacteristic display of anger, Luzzi's tail tips were wrapped together and jabbing toward Ravvy's center eye.

"Sorry, sorry! I just thought she'd have no problem with it, you know how tough that human is…" He backed up, hands raised.

Tail still jabbing, Luzzi growled deep in her throat. "Do not lie to me. Your verbal bait has ceased to cause Willow outrage and you're looking to escalate to satisfy your need for entertainment. This is your only warning, I will not continue to partner with you if you become a liability or danger to myself or others."

As the paavaras' words registered, Willow realized that Ravavka hadn't just gotten over-eager and acted without thought. He'd done something to intentionally cause her harm. The thought incensed her, yet the last part about him doing it to get a rise out of her froze the fury before it could tempt her to act.

"You're right…" Ravavka answered Luzzi with a wince. "I got carried away. But, ah…" His center eye flicked toward Willow, then to the ring. His eyes brightened, "The goop's entirely unchanged!"

Quickly stepping past Luzzi, he pulled some kind of device Willow hadn't noticed from its position hanging on the rack and made his way into the circle. Clearly looking to distract from his actions, the little gray man moved the squarish block around the goop which lay in a patch of black ash, entirely unaffected.

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Frowning, Willow glanced at Luzzi, who still appeared upset. She saw her one of her furry hands rubbing the back of the other, while her tail flicked about in agitation. Somehow knowing Willow was looking, she turned her head in her direction and very intentionally shrugged.

It was clear Luzzi was as uncertain where to go from here as Willow was. Ravavka was obviously intending to continue on as if nothing had happened. For the time being, she supposed that was essentially the only option unless she wanted to miss the chance to figure out what her guide was. Or more preferably how to use it…

She'd think about the rest later. For now, they had about five hours to perform whatever dangerous tests they could think of on the innocent pink blob.

Four hours later, Willow glared up at the blue-red sky. The pink slime hadn't changed at all, no matter what they'd done.

They'd put it through a true gauntlet of tests. Extreme heat, extreme cold, light, dark, splashing different liquids on it, nothing seemed to have the slightest impact.

Ravavka and Luzzi had discussed each test in advance, knowing all about the different chemicals and potions available in their temporary testing setup. Ravavka had applied several variations of his highly destructive mana, using spells and abilities, yet the goop didn't seem to care.

To Willow, it seemed to be mocking them. An enigma which refused to give them even the slightest hint. A riddle which didn't care to be solved.

After the first hour, she'd grown both frustrated and bored. She had nothing to contribute to Luzzi and Ravavka's speculation and hypothesis, having never been much of a scientist: much less an alchemist.

So, she'd spent the majority of the time keeping half an ear on the pair while she went through various minor stretching and exercises which she could perform within their very limited space. Given none of them were very strenuous, she'd also continued to experiment with her newest mana aspect.

Yet another mystery. At least she had both clues and a context for this one. Sitting up, Willow ran a hand through her hair to remove any dead grass which may have clung on and noted it had gotten long, landing just below her shoulders now. Hm, I guess the time within Sheerna was real enough for my body to change a bit then, that's interesting…

"Uhm… Hi there, are you okay?" Asked a somewhat familiar voice.

Turning around, Willow found a familiar silver-skinned man staring toward Luzzi and Ravavka with clear concern as they argued about their latest test. The current argument was weather acid being absorbed without causing any damage indicated the goo was a base, or if it was simply magically resistant.

"They're fine, probably." Willow muttered, then realizing she was being rude she quickly stood and held out a hand. "Good to see you again. Siiiiil…. Shoot… Silver? No, that'd be too on the nose. Silf?"

Soft golden eyes seemed to dance in amusement as her took her hand, "You're close with that last one. Slyth."

"Yeah! That's it! Hm…" She stared for a minute, twisting her lips back and forth.

"What?" He asked, expressive eyes suddenly seeming more guarded. He pulled his hand away while fidgeting under her gaze.

After another moment, she shrugged, "I was trying to decide if I should give you a nick name! I'm way better at remembering names I give people than their real ones."

"That's… Okay? Well, I just saw you all here and thought I'd come see if you needed help with something…" His head turned back toward her arguing team, "They seem to be at some kind of impasse… And seeing as alchemy is my specialty, I thought I'd try and pay your help back a bit. If you wanted, of course."

His lips turned quickly up, before returning to their natural position. Noting that his lips seemed to be quirked upward even while not smiling, Willow wondered if that was something all of his race had in common or if he just had a pleasant default expression.

"Well, I definitely wouldn't say no to some help! But, I don't know about them… We only have a bit under an hour left here anyway, though."

"What are they trying to do?"

"Ehhh… Less do, more figure out…" Willow pointed into the testing circle, "Trying to figure out what the pink stuff there is."

"Oh! The thing you asked me about earlier. I… Uh, sorry about how I reacted. I thought I'd lost my job, and… Well, my mind wasn't in the best place." He clasped his left hand with his right, holding it much less tightly than he had earlier. His claws weren't drawing blood, at least.

Walking toward the circle, Willow gestured for him to follow as she replied, "It's fine. It was a weird thing to ask you. I should have asked what it's been like, being unbound by any faction or anything. I haven't met any others who didn't take a contract until you!"

"You too? I hadn't met anyone else 'free' either." He emphasized 'free' with finger quotes and a scowl. Clearly, things weren't quite going as he'd like.

Before she could answer, Luzzi and Ravavka noticed their approach. Actually, Luzzi had probably heard their entire conversation as she didn't seem surprised at all. Ravavka was staring at the silver man with open curiosity.

Before the troublesome hazzabi could try to start anything, Willow explained, "Slyph offered to help us out!"

"Sylth…" He corrected with a slight smile.

Nodding along, Willow continued "Right! Sylth! He said his expertise is in alchemy, so maybe he can help with… Whatever you're doing now?"

Ravavka immediately began getting him up to speed, "We're trying to determine the escalarity of the material that pink thing is made of. My current hypothesis is that it's an anti-magic object which generates a secondary field of self-protection, or potentially regeneration. The problem is, the only actual change any of our tests elicit are reverted within two or fewer seconds. Physical manipulation has the most consistent and strongest affect."

"If you're trying to test escalarity, how are you measuring anti-magic emissions? As far as I know, there's no mana reading apparatus included with the temporary testing gear you all rented…." Slyth commented as he carefully inspected the surrounding equipment.

"True. That is… A problem." Ravavka deflated a bit.

Luzzi took the opportunity to present her own perspective, "I disagree with his assessment that the object is anti-magic. I believe it's simply exceptionally resistant to all forms of permanent change."

Nodding, thoughtfully, Slyth asked, "What mana aspects have you directly applied to the substance so far?"

"Starburn, nova, and black hole void." Ravavka answered.

Luzzi frowned slightly, "You said directly applied? I don't know whether casing a spell on counts as directly applying the mana…"

Shaking his head, Slyth made his way around the desk toward the testing circle to look at the 'substance' himself. Willow followed, curious if he'd immediately think of anything the others hadn't already.

"Spells, generally, apply one or more effects fueled by the mana aspect used. There may be traces of the mana aspect in the effect, but it's certainly not the same thing as a direct application of mana." Looking up from the pink slime, which sat on a surface of sparkly black and gray glass, he asked, "May I touch it?"

"Yeah!" Willow answered before the others, "It's gross."

Lip twitching upward again, Slyth started by gently pressing a claw into the goo. It hardly resisted, but as he pulled his hand away the hole closed behind the sharp tip exited. Next, he pushed the flat of his finger down, squishing the small blob flat. Slowly pulling his hand back upward. He watched intently as it pulled slightly at his finger before releasing, the little stuck tendril snapping back and the goop's shape body once again all together.

"Interesting. Can I try to pull it apart? He asked while still prodding the pink gel. Willow thought it was beginning to look more nervous, so she agreed. That's what you get for being so mysterious, you little jerk!

Carefully gripping two edges of the glob, Slyth slowly began pulling it apart. To Willow's surprise, it came apart easily but never fully disconnected. By the time Slyth had fully extended each of his arms out from his body, there was a thin but still noticeable thread connecting the two parts.

"Can you take this side and walk slowly away?" He suggested, holding one piece to Willow. She took it and started slowly stepping backwards, curious.

"Why didn't we try this before?" She asked Ravavka and Luzzi, both of whom were watching with a bit of chagrin.

Ravavka defended their choices, "It's a magical substance! Why do mundane testing?"

Rolling her eyes, Willow got to the edge of the testing circle. Stepping over it, she continued her slow backwards march until she reached the edge of their slot. Slyth stood and began walking backward himself, the goo continued to stretch.

Reaching the opposite side, the substance still hadn't snapped. Reaching a sharp claw out, Slyth hooked the barely visible thread connecting the two pieces and pulled. The taut thread simply moved with the claw rather than being cut.

Releasing the thread, he reached into a pocket on the inside of his open vest and pulled out a knife. Bringing it to the thread, he pressed with the sharp blade, once again simply moving the determined thread. Pulling the knife away, he cut suddenly upward. The goopy thread was unimpressed.

With a nod, Slyth put the knife away, then called to Willow, "On one, release your side please. Three… Two… One."

Both of them let go at the same time. Rather than snapping back together, the two parts very slowly began sliding toward each other. As they watched, Slyth explained, "I'm currently inclined to agree with miss Luzzi, at least in part. This substance certainly has a great degree of flexibility in terms of changing shape. However, it appears extremely resistant to permanent damage. My knife is enchanted and can cut through steel without much trouble."

Feeling a new respect for the cheeky guide, Willow whistled softly, "And it couldn't cut the pink menace! Wow!"

"Pink menace?" He asked with raised eyebrows.

Crossing her arms and glaring down at the slowly, but inevitably, dragging piece of gloop nearest her, Willow confirmed, "Yep. It's menaced me for the last day, refusing to give up its secrets! I got it to sweat once, but we can't figure out why… We thought heat, because it was under a lamp, but…" She shrugged.

"Oh? What were the exact circumstances in which it was sweating? Have you been able to recreate them, yet?"

"Uhm…" Willow felt blood rush to her cheeks, "I was interrogating it?"

After a moment of silence, he just waved in a, 'go on…' manner.

"She was acting like a fool!" Ravavka joyously butted in. "The pink slime was settled under a desk lamp and she was taking turns arguing with herself. Yelling at it, then pleading with it, in turn."

"Hm, interesting. Do you have the lamp with you, by chance?" Slyth answered without batting an eye at the accusation of 'acting like a fool.'

Shooting a dirty look in Ravavka's direction, Willow retrieved the lamp from her bag. Suddenly pleased they hadn't had time to sell anything yet.

Handing it over, she watched Slyth carefully examine the device. He turned it on and off several times, then positioned it in the test area. After a total of around fifteen minutes, the slime finally finished rejoining itself. The gloopy body had returned to its previous state of gross mucus-like ball-ishness.

Positioning the lamp over it within the testing ring, they all watched. After ten minutes of nothing happening, Willow sighed, "I wasn't playing with it for this long, I don't think. It was only like… Five minutes?"

Luzzi shrugged, "That seems about right, perhaps a a couple more minutes, as we and the bartender had time to go check on you."

"Eh… Right…"

"Hmm… Then there were other variables at play. You were speaking to the substance? Arguing with it?"

"Kinda?" Willow forced herself to meet everyone's eyes, daring them to make fun. Only Ravavka snickered a bit, typical.

With a nod, Slyth waved toward the lamp-illuminated spot of pink, "Would you mind doing the same now?"

"I… Yeah, sure…" She sighed and made her way over. Unable to work up the enthusiasm she'd had while playing around before, she did her best to act the part anyway.

After her lack-luster performance failed to produce any results, she decided she should at least get the same props she'd been using. Finding the police-like hat, she tried again, forcing herself to act more gregariously. More like she had the night before.

Noticing a slight smile on both Luzzi and Slyth's lips, she ignored Ravavka's snickering and got more into character. A few minutes later, she was properly worked up.

"LITTLE BASTARD!" She roared, grabbing the lamp and hefting it up, "I'll smoosh you like the roach you are! HAH-YES! You'd BETTER be sweating! Do you KNOW how much trouble you're in!?"

Quickly putting down the lamp, she leapt back to her good-cop position, kneeling a couple steps away. "Please! We don't even know if they're guilty! You could be traumatizing an innocent!"

"PAH! Certainly not!" She answered after blurring back into bad-cop position. "If it was innocent, it would SPEAK!"

She roared the last word down at her hapless victim.

"I'm so sorry!" A burbling voice squeaked. Willow froze, eyes wide as she stared at the little mouth-shaped goop.

Slyth quickly approached and tapped the goo with a finger, "Ow, ow! Don't do that, man! I told you, I'm sorry! I promise not to do it again! I confess, man! Just let me go free! I'm a good person, man!"

"Whaaaat?" Willow asked, leaning back a bit.

Grinning, Slyth asked in a knowing tone, "So, which mana aspects did you let leak while interrogating our little friend here?"

"I'm no friend of pigs, man! Unhand me, you barbarian!"

Eyes wide, Willow looked within herself and immediately found her answer. Her new gymnasium was a little dimmer than it had been while she was testing things in it earlier, with fewer dancing motes of fairy light playing.

"Ooooooooh… Whaat? How?" She muttered.

"Your reservation of this slot will be concluded in five minutes. Please take all personal effects. If you have not vacated before your reservation ends, we will be forced to remove you. Also, be advised, a city enforcer is waiting here to meet with you." A bored voice boomed around their slot. Everyone jumped a little at the unexpected interruption.

"Why can't anyone just let me have cool moments?!" Willow snapped back at the uncaring, and likely unhearing, voice.