Tutorial's End

The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick

A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones

The value of a rift may be calculated based on what the owners expect to earn from the totality of their monetization strategy. A rift evaluated as being suitable to low ranked beings may not be many magnitudes more valuable than a rift evaluated as suitable for rankers, or even gods.

As any sufficiently experienced being can attest, the two greatest measures of personal power are influence and money. Anyone can learn to punch very hard, but only the elite learn to wield their names and wallets effectively.

Therefore, the ultimate goal of any ambition rifter should be to gain enough of both to find an unclaimed rift, secure, and protect it. This is the main strategy which famous self-made beings such as Weslon Silk and Heriear Farshnek followed. It is the least impossible possible way to join the ranks of the truly elite: besides being favored by an organization, of course.

Willow

Alchemist Experimentation Fields, Vesheen City, Shee

"NOOO!!! Don't take me to your black site! I'll talk, I'll talk! I'll spill every secret I've ever had! I'll tell ya what my gra'ma did in 88! I'll give you names of every mob member! I swear!" Screamed the pink blob, continuing the monologue which Willow and all three of the others had all tried to interrupt as they made their way back toward the single entrance and exit from the alchemist fields. Isn't that a health and safety hazard? What if one of the tests goes bad and the entire field catches on fire? So many beings will die…

The flat-faced troll-looking man sitting in the gate booth glared, unaware and uncaring of Willow's concerns for people's health should disaster strike. "Shut up! Quit yellin', ya annoyin' the customa's!"

Spittle flew as the brutish guy shouted, his oversize flat teeth and bulbous tongue ill-suited for clean speech. "Sorry, can't!" Willow hollered over the still wailing 'suspect.'

"Our experiment got cut short, you'll have to deal with it!" She continued loudly, feeling only slightly guilty as she saw many beings in line covering their ears and muttering angrily. "Come on, it's not that loud!" These folks wouldn't last a half hour at one of gram-gram's fish boils.

Oversized teeth grinding so obviously that Willow felt her own hurt in sympathy, the booth troll pointed a massive calloused finger, "Enforcer fo' ya. Git."

Curious as to what an 'enforcer' was, exactly, Willow nodded and walked in the direction indicated. She kept her steps even, not rushing to give herself a bit of time.

"What's an enforcer?" She asked under pink's babbling about 'unfair and unconstitutional treatment.'

Slyth's eyes flicked to the side, glancing at her quickly, before he opened his mouth to answer. Before he managed a word, though, Ravavka was already explaining. "They're bounty hunters for different organizations. They 'enforce' contracts of all kinds, ergo their name. They're always strong, though not all in the same way. Some of them are brutes who are good at hurting or containing beings who break agreements, others are investigators with skills and abilities which let them figure out what's what, and others have weirder more esoteric capabilities. All enforcers are outliers, though. Never expect one to be a push over. Actually, I bet if you'd joined up, you'd have been trained to be one. In fact-"

Both Ravavka's explanation and goop's insentient chattering cut off suddenly. Glancing around curiously, Willow didn't see any particular reason for their abrupt quiet.

Thinking there was probably a spell or something, she asked, "Uhhh… Testing?"

So, not a silence spell, then?

"A quaint reaction." A voice with a whisper-like tone, despite its volume matching her own, responded.

Turning in a circle, Willow looked for the voice's source. Instead, she found herself alone in an empty street. Seeing movement in her peripheral vision, she spun back around. The edges of her vision were filled with something like smeared paint, everything other than her direct line of sight entirely obscured.

Her hair flicked into her eye-line for a moment at the end of Willow's sharp turn, but she ignored it. Fixated on the singular figure. The tree-man sat in a stark metal chair across from an equally uninspired steel table.

Ashy gray skin looked most similar to bark in texture, though it looked to be smooth rather than rough, other than his upturned hands which rested on the table as if asking Willow to sit and hold them. They looked like harsh grit sandpaper, with stiff ridges along the outer edge of each of his four fingers and thumb.

The man's body and limbs all twisted and arced in seemingly random directions, seeming to grow in patterns more similar to a plant than a human. Even his proportions were irregular, thick in some places while thin in others, one arm looked thick and powerful, while the other was slender and seemed flexible. Two knots seemed to indicate eyes set into the middle of the oblong shaped head. Golden hair cascaded from the crown of the oddly shaped head, over and around broad but twisted and differently proportioned shoulders. The hair fell like a curtain around the tree-man's body, parting unnaturally like curtains to reveal his 'eyes'.

Why do I even assume it's a him? Would 'it', or 'they' be more appropriate? It/they aren't wearing any clothes, so maybe gender-less? Or is the bark like clothing?

"And an equally quaint reaction, how…. Disappointing." Their voice whispered loudly, the hair around its chest moving as if blown by a gentle breeze.

Doing her best to get her thoughts in order, Willow asked her most pressing question, "Did you kidnap me?"

The twisting knots bent toward their centers, the top and bottom edge of each pulling up and down in a disturbing display of impossibility. The sight made goose-flesh prick along Willow's arms and down her back, the sight of wood-grains moving disturbing on an instinctual level.

"You are where you are. You are here to answer my questions: questions related to the destruction of the planet's rift, Sheerna. Our conversation may take some time, please sit." One of the upturned hands twisted in a waving gesture which caused Willow's skin crawl. The hands were connected directly to arms, with no wrist and no joints. They simply twisted and bent like rubber.

Feeling a bit weird-ed out - Nope, this is fine. It's normal. Yep, totally normal. - Willow took the couple steps forward necessary to reach the empty chair facing the table and her strange interrogator. "You're the enforcer?"

"I am." He answered calmly, still other than the weirdly moving hair around his chest when he spoke. Willow was beginning to suspect that's where his mouth was. Back to 'him', am I?

"Are you a man?" She asked bluntly, annoyed at the distraction.

His neck bent forward slightly in something like a nod, once more without the aid of joints, "Yes."

"Great! I mean… Ah… I was right. Sorry, it's just I've never met a… Treant?" She took a stab, wondering as she did if it was rude to guess at someone's race.

Neck unbending, he returned to the exact same pose he'd been in before, "I am fae. Treants are less… Mobile." He whisper-spoke in a manner which Willow thought indicated amusement.

"Oh, right. Great. Thanks, sorry, I'm a new arrival. I don't know a lot of stuff."

Nice, now he won't expect me to know much about what happened! Willow patted herself on the back for her excellent verbal strategics.

"Quite. Are you comfortable enough to get started?"

Realizing her peripheral was still filled with something smear-like, Willow turned her neck to either side, her bile rising as she did. It made her dizzy, as her vision blurred and spun uncomfortably. Her hands reached out and took hold of the back of the metal chair in front of her, catching her balance as she snapped her head back straight to look at the enforcer.

He didn't move, apparently feeling no need to rush her. "Why is everything around us like… That?"

"I'm afraid that you having this information will not assist my investigation. As such, I will not be providing it." His tone was polite, consolatory even, but firm and certain.

Deciding if he wasn't going to play nice, she wouldn't either, Willow activated her moment of focus. The world around her… Stayed exactly the same. No field of gray expanded from her, the enforcer was as still as he'd ever been but the slight movement of his golden hairs proved he wasn't frozen by her ability. In fact, despite feeling it was active, Willow felt as if nothing had changed at all.

Well… That's bad.

"What's your name?" She tried, looking for a way to distract him while she figured out how to break free of whatever he'd done to her.

Her having the answer to this question would apparently 'assist his investigation', as he answered immediately. "You may call me enforcer Tather. Now, allow me to present my first question."

"What is your name?" He asked, not waiting for her nod of acknowledgement.

"Willow."

"Willow, what is your primary affiliation?"

"I don't know what that means."

Tather hesitated a moment, then explained, "Who holds your contract, or to whom do you primarily owe loyalty?"

"Oh. Myself, no one?"

Another pause, "You are unaffiliated? You are bound by no contracts?"

"None I agreed to or signed." Willow agreed. This line of questioning was a bit worrying and she started to wonder if she should have lied. Would this tree-man, or whoever he worked for, try to strong arm her now that he knew she had no backing? Hah, like he wasn't already. She tried pressing more mana into her ability, which resulted in absolutely no change.

"Are you bound by a contract you didn't sign?"

"I don't know." She answered honestly, not knowing how the master-apprentice thing with Madrick worked. Was she 'legally' bound by some contract, despite not having agreed to anything? She'd never thought to look into it.

A few seconds passed as Tather apparently tried to think through her answers. Willow took the opportunity to keep experimenting, sending an imperative command into the chair she was still holding, 'break'. Nothing happened.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Finally, the enforcer asked, "Are you under any conditions which lead you to think you may have some affiliation to another entity or group?"

Blinking as she thought through the question, Willow decided this guy didn't need to know about her uncertain Madrick situation. "No."

A slight pause.

"Please answer all questions honestly. Lies shall be treated as an attempt to subvert justice, regardless of your motivation. Please answer the former question honestly."

Burned-gumbo! He's a lie detector? Or has one on him? Urgh.

Grudgingly, she answered, "Yes."

"Thank you for your honesty. What is the aforementioned condition?"

Does it matter if I tell him? It's not like I've hidden it from other people, right? Whatever.

"I'm Madrick's apprentice."

"Which Madrick?"

That one… Stumped her for a moment. Why hasn't anyone else ever asked that?! Surely there's more than one dude named Madrick? Maybe even some girls?

Bringing up her UICI, Willow sorted through her past notifications until she found the one informing her of her new "disciple" status. When she found it, she answered, "Madrick Lark, the Dominator."

After a long pause, he answered, "Thank you. Do you follow the path of True Domination?"

"No."

"What is your path?"

"I haven't named it."

"What is the primary focus of the path?"

Narrowing her eyes, Willow decided she'd had enough, "I'm sorry, can I talk to a lawyer?"

She flexed her ability and realized something odd. Testing her realization, she spun the metal chair around so she could sit on it backwards. She'd be able to move easily enough if she needed to escape the tree-man from this position, more easily than if she sat properly at least. More importantly, though, Moving isn't using up any extra mana. When I'm still the ability isn't usually very expensive, but as I move it always pulls more… Why isn't it using any mana?

Another long pause, "I am the closest thing to a 'lawyer' which exists, according to how the UICI defines the term."

"I want someone who can represent me, who knows all the rules and will not try to take advantage of me or try to pry irrelevant information out of me." She clarified.

"I am the closest such being you have access to."

They stared at each other for a while, then Willow sighed and leaned back. "I see. Well, I won't be answering any questions regarding my path."

"Failure to supply relevant information to an enforcer during an ongoing investigation is grounds for immediate execution, followed by imprisonment." He stated calmly.

Yep, there's the blatant strong arm tactic.

"Try it." Willow answered coldly.

They stared at each other for a long moment. Finally, he apparently decided it wasn't worth the fight, "Why did you delve into Sheerna?"

"Madrick told me to." Then, realizing that wasn't really her reason for going in, just the reason she was able to, she clarified, "…and I wanted to."

"Did you enter the rift with the intention of destroying it?"

"No."

"Did you destroy the rift?"

"No." Hah! Glad he asked it like that. I didn't destroy anything, it self-destructed.

"Are you aware of how it was destroyed?"

"It exploded."

A long pause, then, "Do you know the cause of the rift's destruction?"

"It exploded."

Another long pause, "Are you intentionally answering in a manner which is misleading, while being technically truthful?"

She thought about that for a moment, I'm answering with the briefest and most honest answer I have available. She decided. But… Will that count as a lie? It's true, but it's not my main motivation. Maybe… Before she answered, she channeled her discipline and instruction mana through herself and created an imperative command, 'Believe.'

This time the spell worked properly. The command felt weird, as she could sense her mind shift subtly. She went from thinking her explanation was plausible, to believing it was true. Scary… I… Should be careful doing that.

"No." She answered shortly, watching curiously as Tather paused.

Then he continued as if unphased, "Are you aware your party members, Luzzi and Ravavka, both believe you caused the rift's destruction?"

"It wouldn't be surprising, they usually think it's my fault when something breaks."

What the… How would he know that? Did he already interview them somehow? Was I unconscious for a while before I realized I was here? I don't have any gaps in my memory, I don't think…

"Why is that their default assumption?" He pressed.

"I don't know." How would I know why anyone else thinks anything?

"A half truth. Please elaborate."

Controlling her desire to scowl at the annoying tree, she shrugged, "I can't know why anyone thinks anything."

Trying something new, Willow carefully extended a bit of mixed discipline and instruction mana outside of her body. A small clump of the mana hovered outside of herself, but Tathar didn't seem to notice. She sent it toward the man. Once it reached him, she tried to press it into him. While she wasn't sure exactly what she'd do with her mana-clump, she had the vague idea of creating an imperative command without touching him. She hadn't done that before, but surely it was possible. Unfortunately for her plot, the mana passed through the man without connecting to him at all.

"Have you done anything which might justify such a thought?"

"Any thought can be justified. After all, someone had it, so there's a reason for them to have it."

After a long moment, which Willow spent trying to get her mana to interact with him, the enforcer tried again, "Have you done anything which you, yourself, would believe warrants them believing you to be responsible when something breaks?"

"No."

Willow's lip twitched as she could swear she heard a soft sigh of annoyance escape Tather's chest-mouth.

Tather

Metra's Tasties, Vesheen City, Shee

Sitting on the rooftop balcony several blocks from the alchemist fields, Tather's dark eyes had a perfect vantage as he stared at the four beings standing frozen in place in the isolated corner between three buildings. The corner which he had directed the field's attendant to send his suspects to, perhaps five kilometers away as the arrow flies from his current position.

His lady was intrigued by the mystery of who had destroyed the rift, and why. She believed it was some grand conspiracy which had been hidden so skillfully that neither herself nor her loyal servant had noticed it. He was certain the explanation was simpler. Further, he believed the party of three lead by the human 'Willow' was at the center of the simple explanation.

Perfectly formed bark-fingers tapped the tabletop, as he sipped at the bitter drink he had ordered so his presence here would not be noteworthy. No need to waste mana, when such a simple solution was available.

His plan, his trap, was laid perfectly. As always. Yet incomplete information had left him with something of a problem. He had only had time to ask the three beings following the human a handful of questions each, before she had done something. It was unclear what, exactly, the human had done. He wasn't near enough to sense her mana, to try and untangle any curse she may have laid on the area. He would not be going near to that washed out landscape, either.

Just before beginning her interrogation, the woman had done something which affected the real world. Despite clearly being properly trapped within his own private interview ability. It wasn't unheard of for abilities to work properly, despite the mind being unable to perceive what they were doing. Likely a very rigid contingency power intended to keep her safe in dire circumstances.

A soft sigh escaped Tather's lips, where they hid behind his sheet of golden hair-like vines. The ability activating wasn't the issue. No, the problem was that it somehow interfered with her party. As soon as the gray field appeared in the real world, each participant of his other private interview instances vanished. The minds of the paavaras, hazzabi, and ozkri suddenly escaping his own ability's hold. The instances of his ability were still running, so the ability itself hadn't been interfered with. Rather, Willow had somehow disconnected their minds from their instances.

This much would have been annoying, but hardly disheartening. Tather had simply dropped his private interview instances and tried to re-establish them. That attempt was still, somehow, ongoing. He'd never before felt his ability delay. It either worked, or it did not work. Yet, this time, he felt his mana slowly draining away as if the ability was in the process of activating without any result. Worse, he couldn't cancel the ability, not while it was mid-activation.

He had perhaps an hour before his mana was drained in its entirety, due to the high up-front cost of establishing a private interview. An up-front cost that was being charged over and over again.

To add to the annoyance, the human woman was being cagey. She was giving one-word answers, or a short sentence which revealed little beyond directly answering the question. It was as if she had been trained to perfectly counter those on the path of the hidden eye.

"From quaint, to vexing…" Tather whispered to himself. Focusing fully on the interview again, he asked another question.

"Do you know how to destroy a rift?"

"No."

She hadn't answered with a single lie since the first time, at least according to the various highly potent monitoring spells woven into the private interview ability. Some beings could overcome the truth detection, but he suspected the human couldn't. Especially if she was truly a new arrival as she mentioned at the beginning of the interview. She was likely a few hundred years from arrival, at the most. Likely in the process of recovering from her first respawn.

"Do you know why the rift was destroyed?"

"No."

He pressed his advantage, "A half truth. Please elaborate."

She hesitated for a moment, then suddenly smiled, "Oh, so you're not really here. That's why my mana can't touch you."

A sensation akin to noticing a predator's attention on oneself full upon Tather. A premonition of danger struck him a moment before the woman's next word. "Break"

The feeling of his ability shattering. His soul being ripped asunder. Tather screamed, losing himself to the unique pain only known by those with a damaged soul.

His entire world was pain. Suffering. Agony. Endless torture. He reached, desperately, toward the dependency bond link to his lady. He pulled at it, insistent. His body and mind convulsing beneath his wounded soul.

Jonah

Frazzlen Debriefing Chamber, Farcem City, Motrendi

Leaning back in the uncomfortable chair, Jonah's secondary point of view stared up at a blank ceiling. The more time passed, the less he considered his eyes to be his primary source of information. It was still an important one, though. And, despite being more limited than his overhead view, he was still constantly amazed by just how powerful they were.

His vision on earth had been bad enough that he'd been classified as legally blind. Unable to drive, or do anything where not having good-enough vision might put himself or others at risk. That was despite corrective surgery and glasses.

He'd never stop using his eyes. Just as he'd never stop using his legs. He'd never take those gifts for granted. Even so, he wouldn't neglect his innate talents just because his disadvantages had been removed. Those thoughts had been what lead him to realize he didn't have to choose. He'd been thinking too small. Especially given how much banked experience he'd been squirreling away.

There had been no choice to make.

He watched the two suited beings, one a familiar elf, the other an unfamiliar human, stopped at a lift and waited for it while quietly talking. He also examined the uninspired ceiling of this barren beige room. He focused, trying to see through the outer wall. He knew the room was heavily enchanted, because his party channel with Naomi had been blocked since he entered. Yet, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make out any of the markings he'd come to expect to indicate enchantments.

His other abilities also didn't seem to be hampered in the least. His RTS view was a good example. His simulate was another. He amused himself by running a few simple simulations while watching the colony of workers, and in particular the two he suspected would be coming to 'debrief' him.

As soon as he and Naomi had officially taken control of the Trading Barge from the O.F.F. shaman Jemer, Chaven had insisted on them returning to Motrendi to be debriefed. No matter that their contract still stated they needed to go help Willow. Apparently, either himself or Naomi had let slip to the avron that their friend was in a rift. Which, according to Chaven, meant they wouldn't be able to get to her to help anyway.

Their 'best effort' should thus be spent helping Willow in other ways until she was accessible again. Such as following faction protocol so as not to become liabilities. As it turned out, owning a ship was a big deal. They had already let anyone who wanted off the Barge, which they'd renamed 'Phoenix's Nest' as something of a joke. They had also negotiated new contracts with the crew. Most of whom had their prior contracts voided through various loop holes which Chaven had helped them identify.

The enforcer's help with them was actually the reason Naomi and Jonah had agreed to come to this 'debriefing' in the first place. He'd been remarkably helpful and hadn't asked for any recompense. It was a bit suspicious, so Naomi and Jonah both agreed this meeting was likely to come with its own set of new problems.

Thankfully, he and Naomi had very carefully drafted and edited the new contracts given to the crew. The key parts of the contracts which, they hoped, would entice the crew to stay loyal to them were a direct share in profit and an at-will termination clause for both sides.

Essentially, every member of the crew would get a cut of the profit generated using the Nest. Beyond that, if anyone ever wanted to leave, they could. No strings attached, they would be dropped off at the next port with all owed payments transferred over. It was an employment contract, rather than the near-slave sentence which was commonplace from most organizations.

The two men finally reached the second floor from the bottom, where Jonah and Naomi had been placed in identical rooms directly across from each other. He watched curiously as the elf knocked on his door, hearing the sound at the same time he saw the fist land.

The door opened in the next moment and Jonah dropped his gaze from the ceiling to the doorway.

Jonah smiled, "Hi Ki'ai'en."