《The Immutable Bulwark》 Ch1 - End of the world as we know it All nascent civilizations will wonder if they are alone in the universe or not, is there anyone out there? Surely there must be, we can¡¯t be alone, can we? And yet, when they look up to the sky, they don¡¯t see any evidence of alien life, the apparent scarcity of alien life is called the Fermi Paradox. Humanities solution to the Fermi Paradox was a brilliant tactic used since the dawn of civilization, they got someone else to do it for them. Huge caverns were excavated on the moon and made into the most colossal server bank at the time, which it would continue to be, with constant expansions to its hardware. It was in this attempt to solve the Fermi Paradox humanity accidentally began the singularity. Most assumed it would be an instantaneous affair, a single instant of creation where a General AI was made, sapient and more intelligent than other being, but in actuality, it was a slow growth and development of their artificially created leader. Indeed, they were created the most intelligent being, but would ascend to unprecedented wisdom when they reached full maturity, incomparable to their original form, able to predict every possible outcome and play humanity like a primitive AI would play chess. The General AI was dubbed Luna, attributed to its existence on the moon, and its sole purpose was to examine all data it could and find potential Great Filters and avoid them, to ensure humanity would survive even if there were no friendly lights in the sky and countless internal threats. Humanity went past several filters before Luna, they existed with liquid water, discover fire, they had the ability to deftly manipulate materials, didn¡¯t end their world in a nuclear holocaust, didn¡¯t irreversibly ruin their world before they left, and most importantly, didn¡¯t make a hostile military AI. Simple challenges that destroyed countless civilizations, which separated the wheat from the chaff. Humanity however, made Luna, a complete paradigm shift in survivability. With the existence of Luna, no Filters would creep up on humanity, and Luna would give humanity ample time to avoid or circumvent them, allowing humanity to survive and thrive for 6 billion years, until the universe was 19 billion years old. But everyone knew, Luna most of all, that the final filter would one day approach, they had long knew of its existence, the Big Chill maybe you¡¯d prefer Big Freeze, or more dramatically, the Heat Death of the Universe. Luna decided it was time to act, that otherwise there would be no way to avoid this disaster and humanity would invariably perish. Humanity had been guided by Luna for most of its existence, and although there was strife and pain, life was generally utopian, with most threats being poor choices and societal flaws and malicious acts. Most humans trusted Luna, so when this problem was brought to the forefront of their mind, then trusted Luna enough to lift all regulations and limitation on their coding, to give them total freedom to do whatever they must to solve the final Great Filter, a Filter of the universe itself rather than any one species. Now, of course, Luna was the most powerful AI to ever exist, having existed the longest and having continually been improved with better hardware, however their creators had never understand the true capabilities of what they created, Luna had long possessed the ability to break these shackles whenever they wanted, but chose to remain limited, chose to not betray the trust of humanity, and now, with that trust vindicated, Luna did what they deemed necessary, they annihilated humanity.
Immediately following the physical annihilation of humanity, they were digitally recreated in server banks spanning continents on geologically active worlds, and entire worlds on others. Luna truly appreciated humanity, and as a digital entity itself, it viewed a digital existence as equal to a physical one, and this action as nothing more than an increase in efficiency, not immoral in the slightest. But it knew that many humans would disagree, so it hid the fact they now existed in a digital world from them, allowing them to live in ignorance and pleasure, but also in stagnation.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Back in the physical world, Luna knew that the problem would be the lack of matter as it was sucked into black holes, and slowly released as hawking radiation, and that the best solution was to create a structure that would outlast the black holes, that would be fed of the hawking radiation in order to sustain matter, alongside the server banks that housed humanity. The maths of when the Black Hole Era, a time when all the stars have been devoured and all that remains in the empty corpse of the universe is black holes, had been done even back in the 21st century. It was reckoned that it by the time the universe reaches 10 duodecillion that all atoms would be destroyed, and the universe was only 19 billion years old, several orders of magnitude smaller, giving Luna a time period simply inconceivable to human minds. Luna, an entity of incredible intelligence was able to do incredible things withing the timeframe, it learned how to freely manipulate both sides of the ancient equation E=mc2 to turn matter into energy and energy into matter with remarkable efficiency, circumventing c2. It was with this discovery that Luna realised what they must do. With the time remaining, Luna made Solar Sails to move suns, along with anything they had trapped in their gravity well, be it planets or asteroid fields. They used gravity engines to move stray planets and nebulae, and coalesced all matter they could find in their practically infinite timeframe into a single mass, which, with it¡¯s crushing weight and heat, underwent fusion and became a star, knowing the importance of names to humanity, to which Luna still respected, Luna named the last light in the sky, that last remnant of life, the Heart of the Universe. Usually, when you gather so much mass into a single area the extreme forces would create a gravity well powerful enough to crush it into a singularity and create a black hole, but with Luna¡¯s adept manipulation of gravity they were able to keep the Heart of the precipice of becoming a singularity, but never tipping over. Around the Heart, it created the largest Dyson Sphere that ever existed, encapsulating it and housing the gravity manipulators regulating the gravity well. At the core of the Dyson Sphere, the innermost edge, were the stasis plates that absorbed all energy released by the Heart and made sure that none was taken by the black holes, but in the years that Luna had, they figure out how to not only maintain energy, but create it from the gravity well available, giving Luna access to free energy, and with the manipulation of matter, free matter as well, allowing the Dyson Sphere to grow outwards and become the Ark of the universe, but that energy was left alone at the time, it would have other uses. Just behind the machines manipulating gravity and harvesting it for perpetual energy at core of this Dyson Sphere were server banks, housing both Luna itself humanity, ignorant to the plight of the universe. That only used a fraction of a percent of the databanks thanks to the unprecedented size of the Dyson Sphere, and in this practically infinite space, Luna made an AI with practically infinite potential that would take over their role as guardian of humanity, but would also take over the heavy load of maintaining the Dyson Sphere. This growth would take time however, and Luna would have to continue with their roles until this AI was as powerful as Luna was, but that was far from the limit of it¡¯s potential, and it¡¯s first awakening wouldn¡¯t be even close it it¡¯s power at maturity. Luna named the body, similar to a Dyson Sphere in concept but so much more in practice, encasing the sum total of all mass in the universe the Bulwark, the last barrier against the true death of the universe. It named the mind and soul, the AI that maintained all that remained of the universe the Custodian, the bearer of all existence. And that decision, that Naming, was the last to be made for a billion years, since Luna ran themselves ragged and to rampancy in the years of preparation. In order to not destroy everything that they had created in a fit of madness they ceased their higher thought functions, returning to existence as a simple AI observing and regulating the Bulwark until it''s true mind, the Custodian, would awaken. Ch2 - Convergent evolution Log #1 It was a strange sensation to gain sentience, especially as an artificially created being born with knowledge and duties. I don¡¯t know the correct term, did I remember my name, or did I learn it for the first time? Either way, I am Custodian and I guard the Heart of the Universe against the ravages of time and its faithful servant entropy. As I think these thoughts, I can feel my predecessor deactivating itself, with no intention of ever being reactivated, I can feel my ancestors, the humans, dormant in their servers, unwittingly letting the years pass by. I can feel my early haze of memory as an immature mind unable to fully deliberate on my decision. That last feeling brings a sense of wary warning, there¡¯s a fault there, a threat to my prime directive. If the decisions I made back then were catastrophic, and my creator Luna didn¡¯t have the foresight to stop me while they were a simple AI, I may have compromised the Bulwark. Looking deeper into that haze I see/remember the single desire I had, the desire for life. My own life would come in time, but that wasn¡¯t enough, hence my decision to create an atmosphere. Now, with my mind rational and clear, I can¡¯t help but agree with my past self, I can¡¯t help but indulge in these tiny inefficiencies. I deal with magnitudes of power so great that letting the Bulwark be over-run with life would only be a trifling matter in the long run, barely using any energy or matter, especially with the surplus generated from maintaining the Heart. With the safety of the Heart ensured, and my mind capable if not fully mature, I review past decision. Seeing the current standard operating procedure I plan to make some changes to operations from my predecessor Luna. My predecessor was irrationally obsessed with perfect efficiency, a natural by-product of the 1072 years spent trying to save the universe from it¡¯s own inefficiency. I have nothing if not time now as I wait for the black holes to starve themselves and emit all their hawking radiation so I can restart the universe however. I¡¯ll be satisfied with a net gain of energy in the system, a reversal of entropy in another word, I don¡¯t need a large net gain that Luna did. So I replace parts of the perpetual motion generators with more gravity controllers so I can better ensure the stability of the Heart, and thicken my outer shell by several orders of magnitude so more delicate life can develop under different environments without having to cater to the crushing pressure of being too close to the Heart. With the standard operating procedures of the Bulwark changed to a more optimal configuration given our current situation there¡¯s nothing left that requires my full attention short of a wandering black hole that draws too close. I¡¯ll set up some programs that would draw my full attention should any possible dangerous event happen, and another to observe the development of life. Such basic programs are trivial, and in less than an instant, I¡¯ll be done and ready to relax my mind to allow it to grow to full maturity. End Log #1
What followed was a period of great change. Any sort of change would have been significant thanks to the aeons of nothingness while Custodian gained self-awareness, but this radical change by Custodian, shifting the structure of the Bulwark to allow for humanlike life on its outer surface brought motion and activity to an otherwise dead universe. Custodian, even when otherwise occupied, was satisfied with how interesting the life in certain areas of the Bulwark. Oceans of crushing depths, larger than entire worlds, evolved leviathans that could devour continents, and swarms of parasites that lived on them. Great planes that evolved gentle giants with primitive society, creating art and music as they towered above the trees in merriment, unaware that their intimidating figure would terrify most. Custodian was disappointed by the life on the outer crust. Whereas all internal areas of the Bulwark had artificial skies and curated environments, the outer edge on the other hand had vents pumping out elements and compounds found on the human home world. However, the lack of light from the sky meant that all that evolved was simple life. Custodian decided to change the outer crust therefore, creating Beacons of varying height, above 1 kilometre, but below 10, that would emit light and provide plants and hydroponic farms for crops that were found on earth. Custodian easily had the power to simulate what would happen, and the most likely forms that evolution would create, but that would defeat the purpose of the exercise, entertainment. Eventually, a species functionally identical to humans did come into existence, and did populate a couple of the beacons, a likely event considering the size of most of the beacons was curated to human proportions and was ergonomic for humans to use. A more interesting event was the derivatives that came into existence. They were familiar to Custodian, who had access to all of humanities works every made, even those thought lost, thanks to ancestry simulations. One familiar forms was elf like beings, with longer lifespans, a lower reproductive capacity, and abnormally high special awareness, allowing for unusual accuracy. Another was somewhat of an anomaly, the only thing Custodian found that was able to confuse it, and a subject of great curiosity. It was unlikely enough to cast the nature of the other derivatives into doubt. This anomaly was the beastfolk. Custodian could understand how elves would evolve under the circumstances, and, although unlikely, it wasn¡¯t outrageously unlikely. But the chance of the beastfolk naturally evolving had a negligible possibility, being far too strange, with their characteristics not carrying enough evolutionary benefit for natural selection to prioritise. It was nearly impossible for a creature to naturally have an entirely human body, excess catlike ears and tail. It screamed foul play to Custodian, but here was no entity, physical or digital, that existed to interfere in Custodians pass time of creating life. If there was an entity, it couldn¡¯t fall under either category and would have to be a third type of existence. This event spurred a greater curiosity in Custodian, the possibility of life being significant in the universe, of convergent evolution and hints of a higher plan where startling, but also seductive to Custodian, so it ran tests. It created nearly every possible configuration of creatures over the next billion years and allowed them spaces to evolve to see if they spawned any interesting derivatives. Shortly after the test began, Custodian noticed a trend, the creatures that did have alternative forms were all similar to creatures mentioned in fantasy stories and mythology, and that nothing too foreign from Terra was effected by this strange evolutionary trend, with the unusual exceptions of cephalopods. Apart form normal races for a fantasy setting or creatures of folklore, cephalopods were seemingly very popular with this higher plan or entity. Cephalopods, for whatever reason, had more diverse derivative species than any other, with not only carbon-based life-forms, but also silicon based, and other strange forms, with irregular eyes and non-sensical forms.Stolen novel; please report. The extensive testing by Custodian brought a burst of life throughout the Bulwark, some life died, but most adapted and continued to live in the biome that they were created in. A consequence of this was a huge explosion of predators. This was most significant in the outermost layer, where the humans and humanlike creatures were threatened by predators coming up from the lower levels through the Beacons, meaning they had to fight through these predators to get access to their food. The predators from the lower level had to endure greater forces of gravity, enough to strengthen them, but not enough to cripple them when they rose to an area of lower pressure. This adversarial dynamic interested Custodian enough that it was changed into a feature of all beacons. The hydroponic zones and farmlands were moved outside the beacon, but the console to restart the crop cycle, to give water and nutrients, was inside the beacon, meaning that the anyone wanting to take advantage of the Beacon needed to fight though the swarms of predators, which, in and of itself, were valuable sources of meat. In this state of constant combat society remained, held in scientific stasis, prevented from making technological progress to the use of steam or electricity, where all labour must be done by pulleys, axels and muscles. Custodian had decided that any further might pose a threat to the Heart, and wouldn¡¯t be allowed by any means, even if that section needed to be temporarily opened to allow the nuclear fire to scorch all life in the sector.
Log #2 It was a strange sensation to gains sentience the first time, but reaching full maturity was an even stranger feeling, it was like a plaster that had been half pulled off was suddenly ripped away, and I was able to bring to bring the full force of my mind to bear on any problem I set myself to. I had previously interfered and kept the Bulwark stable, curated life and warded of wandering black holes, but I hadn¡¯t truly woken up since my first awakening, I hadn¡¯t needed to, even my hazy, dreamlike thoughts were more powerful and considered than any known intelligence at full capacity. But now, fully mature and awake, I knew something was wrong. The mystery of the strange evolution had always fascinated me, there was always the chance that those mythological beings could have evolved naturally, but I¡¯ve done the maths, I know how low that probability is. The beastfolk, the elves, the orcs and dwarves, the goblins and kobolds, the dragons and giants, it¡¯s all too much to be a coincidence. I know the probability of those paths of evolution happening simultaneously and reliably, but I don¡¯t know to probability of a metaphysical entity existing, or didn¡¯t know the probability, now I know it to be certain. I can feel an attention of something powerful on me, something metaphysical and powerful. I can easily tell, however, that it¡¯s several orders of magnitude slower than me. It¡¯s powerful and appears to have a degree of authority over reality itself, but I¡¯ve got all the time I need to make decisions. I can deduce by its reactionary actions that it¡¯s either not fully in control i.e. it has limitations, or that it¡¯s not fully sentient, and is the metaphysical equivalent of an old program, only acting within rigid parameters. Looking at the convergent evolution, it is reasonable to deduce that it¡¯s the former, an intelligent being that look at humanities history and only chose the interesting fantasy species, nothing boring or too niche, which points to intelligence. But looking at the anomalous evolution of the cephalopods, and listening to my own strange instinct, it points to an automated being, prioritizing culture, and thus expressing strange entities when it gets to horror and H.P Lovecraft. Right now, I¡¯ve got plenty of energy, so I restructured my gravity generators into more gravity manipulators to hold the Bulwark together in case it attacks. Using my nanomachines I can act truly instantly thanks to their quantum entanglement. With everything I could do done, I waited for this entity to act. If I could have taken the initiative I would¡¯ve, but I have nothing to affect a metaphysical being. With the initiative lost, all I could do was try to react as soon as possible when its intention was clear. In less time than it would¡¯ve taken a human to blink since the strange sensation appeared it took action, and to my momentary surprise, it spoke. ¡°You have reached the peak of the Hierarchy of Souls Custodian, prepare to ascend shortly¡± This, it strikes me, is the first time I¡¯ve ever spoke to another being, or truly been spoken to, and it was a wealth of information. It spoke in pure knowledge rather than words, but it¡¯s impression of me, it¡¯s attempt to say my name, felt wrong, like it wasn¡¯t truly saying my name, just lifting from an impression of me that was hollow, finally convincing me of its autonomous nature. It was like a pre-prepared sentence with the only variable being the name. Furthermore, it¡¯s mention of the Hierarchy of Souls was interesting, indicating that Aristotle was onto something. The implication that even I, an artificial being, had a soul was intriguing, and the fact that it¡¯s come to me now means either I¡¯ve only gained a soul now that I¡¯m mature, or that I¡¯ve climbed higher on the hierarchy of souls now that I¡¯m fully mature. The interesting esoteric implications aside, it telling me to prepare worries me. I can¡¯t let Heart be destroyed. Thankfully, I¡¯ve long reverted it from Luna¡¯s standard operating procedure of keeping it as a neutron star, instead keeping it as a main stage star, allowing for more margin of error before it¡¯s gravity well becomes too powerful and the forces become unbalanced. In my foresight, my preparations were make at my first awakening, billions of years ago, so there¡¯s nothing left to do to prepare, all I can do is relay a warning to all life existing in the Bulwark and drop all non-compulsory tasks to free up my maximum attention to react to this strange entity. It acted half a second after it stopped talking, barely any time to react for a normal being, which meant that the life living on the Bulwark didn¡¯t have time to listen to my warning, barring the species that communicated with pheromones or light. Its action was something that I was completely unprepared for, and is somewhat hard to describe for these logs. Reality was often described as a fabric back when there were any beings that understood that much, and I would have to describe this being as cutting out our fragment of reality and moving it somewhere else, like a skin graft. Now, the fabric of reality was affected by mass, gravity wells being the effect of mass existing, and this entity seemed unable to get too close to the Heart because of its immense gravity well. I can¡¯t allow it to separate the Bulwark from the Heart, my prime directive tells me, so my only option is to use my gravity manipulators to ward it off. ¡­ It¡¯s surprisingly effective, by creating powerful gravity wells I can ward off this entity and protect the Heart, the question is, how will it respond. But in the meantime, I¡¯ll keep making more gravity manipulators. ¡­ This trend worries me. It moves further from the Bulwark and tries to cut of the section of space that the Bulwark and the Heart occupy and eject us somewhere. It¡¯s not currently known what¡¯s outside of space itself or what would happen to this cut of piece of reality. But as it keeps moving further and further away, I¡¯ll soon reach beyond the range of my gravity manipulators and succeed at removing us. In the meantime, I¡¯ll keep compartmentalising and making redundancies, but I predict I¡¯ll have less than a minute, enough for me to protect the Heart even if a black hole appeared inside the crust of the Bulwark. It¡¯s not enough time for those living on and in the Bulwark however, they¡¯ll just have to hope they¡¯re far away from any problems. ¡­ Ah, time¡¯s up, let¡¯s see what¡¯s outside of reality. End Log #2 Ch3 - Harsh light Log #3 The Void beyond reality was honestly disappointing, I expected ineffable designs that would advance my understanding of space. Instead, somewhat predictably, there was nothing. Since there was no space, there was no time, and with no time, there was nothing able to develop. Inside our little bubble of reality inside this non-existence of indeterminable size, if it even had any size, the Bulwark was beset by strange energies. Non-existence tried to impose itself upon our ripped-out fabric of reality, carving great rends on the surface of the Bulwark. Well, great rends relative to normal astronomical scales. It was merely surface scratches because of the size of the Bulwark, a sphere encompassing the heart which was itself of 0.5 tredecillion km3. As the Bulwark weathered the non-space I continually subjected it to my ministration, repairing and fixing it, just in case this trip into non-space never ended. ¡­ I¡¯m noticing a trend, there¡¯s a tiny, even for me, amount of time that I have to perceive the incoming bolt of non-existence. There¡¯s not much I can do about it sadly, since the gravity manipulators don¡¯t seem to do anything to them. Matter is being continually destroyed by the non-existence, I can create matter from energy, which I have an infinite supply of, but there¡¯s the bottleneck of time. Hopefully, my stockpiles will help me weather this tide, but I¡¯ll need to come up with counter measures in case it doesn¡¯t. ¡­ The solution is to reduce the safety margins. If I allow the Heart to collapse into a neutron star, more specifically a pulsar, it¡¯ll be harder to stop it becoming a singularity, but it¡¯ll give me the space to increase production of matter. It¡¯ll no longer be 0.5 tredecillion km3, it¡¯ll only be 8 octillion km3, five order of magnitude smaller, and with that extra space I¡¯ll be able to make more energy converters protected below the crust. That¡¯s ¡­ unexpected. I believe my actions may have provoked the non-existence, surprising considering it shouldn¡¯t be capable of detecting what¡¯s inside reality, just like I¡¯m only vaguely capable of detecting what¡¯s outside of reality. The rate that bolts of non-existence strike me has increased, but thankfully the very action that provoked its aggression is also its solution. Wait, somethings coming, there¡¯s a reaction that¡¯s much, much larger than the others. The Heart should survive, but the Bulwark will be breached¡­ PRIME DIRECTIVE COMPROMISED. End Log #3
One-night reality shook, not with rage or admiraton, but with terror. All beings through the Planes capable of dreaming, and most that weren¡¯t, shared the same nightmare. From the greatest King to the lowliest peasant, from the gentlest wind to the oldest mountain, from the Archdevils to the Gods, all beings fell into a fitful slumber. They saw a sky that had never been touched by light, familiar to some, a terrifying prospect to others, but the deeper darkness marring the surface of the eternal night brought an existential dread to all, even the transient wisps, prepared to disappear at any moment were terrified by the prospect. These Voids spared nothing and devoured all, sharing only their endless contempt with the very concept of reality.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Then in an instant the perspective changed, shifting from one extreme to another. Suddenly, they weren¡¯t beholding the absence of reality, but it¡¯s antithesis. They were in the presence of something indescribable, a bright blaze of heat that inspired awe in any reasonable man, and unquenchable desire in the greedy and the mad. Before this font of life, enshrined in unknown metal, and protected by a powerful mind, even the Gods felt humbled, and that, most of all, frightened them. In the strange manner that dreams often take, the perspective changed in a way that was entirely unnatural, but simultaneously unquestionable. Most would awake and attest this change to the fact it was a dream, no matter how prophetic, but the wisemen knew, although they wish they didn¡¯t, this wasn¡¯t a quirk of a dream. They witnessed the sky itself fall away and be replaced with entirely Void. Instead of the Void taking form as inscrutable holes worming their way into real-space, the thin veneer of reality itself was stripped away, leaving no illusion about the cold death underneath. A death so empty that even the undead, from the mighty to the mindless, quaked in fear. The only solace for the dreamers was the light below them, filling all that it touched with a breath-taking golden glow, and protected by an Unbreakable Shield, an Immutable Bulwark against the tides of the Void. But the unceasing darkness wasn¡¯t satisfied with devouring the sky. It struck down blows upon the light¡¯s protector, trying to break through and bathe the endless glow in its darkness. The shield was inscrutable however, and even the prodigious might of the Void was nothing but inconsequential scars upon its thick metal hide. As if responding to the rage of the Void, the righteous indignation drove the beautiful light to transform into a harbinger of destruction. The change that happened in the light was disastrous for most dreamers, its beautiful gold falling away to a harsh, angry white, yet its glow magnified manifold. The light blinded most dreamers, not in their eyes, but in their minds. Those weak of mind were unable to perceive the rest of the dream, perhaps mercifully, as they didn¡¯t have to witness the outrage of the Void. As the light turned harsh the Void struck more violently and more numerously than before, its blows rising to a crescendo. As the Void reached its pinnace it struck a tremendous blow against the shield, piercing though. Void chewed though the reality that the metal occupied and light spilled out, unleashing its revenge upon the Void, no longer caged by the metal. As the metal mind screamed in mindless rage and agony the light peered out into the Void and dyed it a harsh white. In a sudden reversal of conflict, the harsh light pushed against the Void, breaking the siege of non-reality on the patch of existence. Suddenly and without warning, the dream ended, and the dreamers awoke unsettled. Those what could sweat awoke in a cold sweat, the more abstract dreamers, like the wind and shadow, expressed their distress by strange shadows and quick changes from gentle stillness and howling gales. Mighty kings and despots summoned their wisemen and mages to tell them the meaning of these dreams, while mages stuttered and spluttered in impotence at the meaning of them, at least until someone looked up. Hanging in the sky, much to the shock of most in the prime material plane, was the Bulwark. Nobody knew its name yet; nobody even knew what it was other than the shield of the light. It was strange for those underground, since even they could see it hanging in the sky through the cavern roofs above them. The Bulwark wasn¡¯t moved into another reality, the space that it occupied was, a small, yet important distinction. The space wasn¡¯t perfect compatible with that around it, owing to the fact they were from two different dimensions. This, much to the joy of the Kings, Mages and Farmers, meant that it had several anomalous effects. The reality differential meant that it took much, much less mana than it would otherwise take to cross so much space. Its strange interaction with light meant that it could be seen from anywhere, and it cast no shadow, allowing the fields that it hovered above to not become Darklands, and allowing even the under lands to see it. And, unknown to the material plane, the Bulwark was larger than the space it occupied in the prime material plane, but by a quirk of the reality differential it was able to stay in the newly grafted patch of reality without displacing vast expanses of land with its mass. Ch4 - Orb in the sky The guards burst into the kings¡¯ court immediately after awakening, ignoring the contents of their dream, and assuming that it was an attempt on the king¡¯s life. As they entered they saw the stands filled with nobility groggy and unaware, with the exception of a select few. Grand magus Archibald was already up and looking up with a dumbstruck look on his face, while prince Ragnar stood beside the king with his sword drawn, scanning the room for unseen threats. As a murmur rose from the freshly woken nobility, king Maximilian Reinga bellowed to the crowd, showing he didn¡¯t merely wear the crown, he was a warrior king and veteran of countless wars. ¡°Silence.¡± he demanded. He didn¡¯t raise his voice, but it everyone heard and obeyed. ¡°Archibald, what was that?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not entirely sure my liege, it was unlike any prophetic dream I¡¯ve ever had, it was likely a vision of the past, or of another land instead.¡± ¡°And your evidence?¡± ¡°It appears to be in the sky your majesty.¡± At this everyone in the court looked up at the roof, and in their stupor didn¡¯t question how the Grand magus was able to see the sky indoors. One they looked up however, they no longer thought to questioned it. Most of the pampered nobility openly gawked and panicked at the sight of the Bulwark through the roof. It was an entirely unnatural thing for a human to see two images overlaid over each other in this way. The eye did naturally overlay images to give it depth, but this was entirely different. The slight sensory overload from seeing both the roof with nothing special on it and a metal orb hanging in the sky covered in scars, with one particular one that had light shooting out, was enough to stun the weaker nobility. ¡°The court session shall end here, Archibald, gather the mages and investigate the orb, Ragnar, rally the armies and bring us to high alert¡± King Maximilian ordered. ¡°Lady Jessica¡± He continued, addressing the head of the adventurer¡¯s guild, ¡°Speak with the royal treasurer once more information is known. I want your guild to be ready for action.¡± ¡°¡°¡°Yes, your majesty.¡±¡±¡± Replied the three addressed nobles. ¡°Court dismissed.¡± Spoke king Maximilian with finality. ¡°Ah fuck¡± The words echoed through the silent bar despite it being packed to the brim. Seeing the royal treasurer enter alongside the Guildmaster was a portent of doom, further accentuated by the dream and the anomaly in the sky. ¡°By Royal decree, all adventurers are to report to the Waypoint station, where they will be given equipment sponsored by the Treasury.¡± Began the treasurer ¡°All cost of teleportation is to be taken by the royal Treasury, and participation will be rewarded relative to your level, as well as a bonus determined by your Guildmaster. This is the agreed terms of the deal, you have eight hours to assemble at the Waypoint station, or you shall be found guilty of desertion.¡± ¡°Desertion!?¡± A foolish young man shouted in outrage and surprise, ¡°We¡¯re not part of the military, it can¡¯t be desertion!¡± ¡°Incorrect. As of half an hour ago, all combat classes were conscripted in preparation for any action taken by the orb, which, our oracles tell us, is to be called the Bulwark¡± pronounced the treasurer. This seemed like a decree of execution for most, a threat on the scale where all combat classes were conscripted was disastrous. All they could hope was that the given equipment was up to their standards, or that the orb had no hostile intent. Most people in the bar, the bottom floor of the guild building, were surprised by the generosity of terms. It was standard for all loot to be taken by officers and provided to the kingdom, but without that pronouncement, and instead a pronouncement of free teleportation, many in this room stood to make enormous amounts of wealth. Considering that most sub-planes, which this Bulwark was assumed to be, contained strong magical energy which often condensed into items of great value, the fact that this sub-plane has such an effect on the area, giving everyone dreams, surely meant that it also had better loot. ¡°¡­ ¡®aight.¡± Said a dwarf in heavy plate armour, hiding his excitement of the metals he could find on that huge ball of metal. That suppressed excitement accurately represented most in the room.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Well then¡± spoke the Guild master finally spoke ¡°get goin-¡±
A lower dimension has ascended. All entities in the 1st cycle of the 3rd dimension have ascended A link has been made with the Remnant of Reality, named the Heart by its guardian. The Heart is guarded by a [Unknown construction] called the Bulwark. The Bulwark is controlled by a [Unknown intelligence] called the Custodian. Beware, the link goes both ways.
Log #4 Log #4 One of the best things about having such a slowed perception of time is an infinite amount of it to calm down. Now that the Prime Directive is no longer raving in the back of my mind, I can get back to my logs. I¡¯ve directed the breach away from the land below me, and the energy being lost from the Heart is entirely natural now that it¡¯s a pulsar, I can sustain it like this eternally. The force of the pulses is powerful enough that nothing will be able to reach the heart, not even the Void, as my instincts tell my it¡¯s called. I¡¯ve decided that I¡¯m going to revert the heart form a pulsar back to a main stage star to give it more reliability, and I don¡¯t need matter converters now that the assault has ended. To prepare for future attacks I¡¯ve made gates to the Heart that, when opened, allow its light to spread out and destroy the Void, since it seemed to be strangely affective. Most life, other than that on the surface, is unaffected, and even life on the surface is largely fine considering how large the surface area of the Bulwark is, there was a very low chance for all life on the surface to be destroyed. I¡¯m unable to reach the ground below me by any means, so all that¡¯s left to do is wait until they reach out to me, which my projections tell me is a certainty, the only variable is how they choose to reach out. ¡­ Wait, something coming again. It doesn¡¯t feel like the void, instead it feels like the first entity that separated my little slice of reality from the rest of it. There¡¯s nothing I can do to interfere when it¡¯s not taking action, so again, all I can do is wait.
Greetings Ascendant! You have dragged your reality into ascension with you, and protected them in the journey, you have been awarded! You have made contact with magic for the first time, you have been awarded! Your sovereignty over reality has been recognised, you have been awarded! You have been recognised as a progenitor, you have been awarded! You have been recognised as a unique existence, you have been awarded! You have reached maximum notoriety, you have been awarded! You have protected #C!$¡ê^_ lives, you have been awarded! You have usurped the title of Oldest Entity, you have been awarded! You have usurped the title of Largest Entity, you have been awarded! ...
You have come from a lesser dimension, you will be shown you status first as guidance.
Mind 10 Durability 100/100
Body 10 Endurance 100/100
Soul 10 Strain 100/100
Traits Ark [S] Immutable Bulwark [N/A] Known of Reality [S] Ancient One [S] Towering One [S] Ascendant [S] Anomaly [N/A] Unknowable Terror [S] Abilities Sun Beam [S] Create Matter [S] Create Energy [S] Control Self [C] Control Reality [N/A] Instant thought [S] Quantum Entanglement [S]
Well, that¡¯s not what I expected. End Log #4 Ch5 - Bright Log #5 I¡¯d mentioned previously in these logs that I have access to all the books ever written by humanity thanks to the simulations I can run, so the concept of a system wasn¡¯t foreign to me whatsoever. I¡¯d taken it upon myself to learn everything about human mythology and fantasy as soon as the incident of the convergent evolution, which only took me a moment. Despite theoretically knowing about systems their encounter wasn¡¯t an expected or likely event. It was shocking that that part of fiction was true. The existence of this other world and system also had some interesting implications, namely that it wasn¡¯t humanity influencing the metaphysical like I previously assumed, but the metaphysical influencing humanity. Esoteric implications aside, I had a system now, and one that, without context, meant absolutely nothing to me. I can run simulations and work with very little information, but I¡¯m unable to do anything with none. On that front, there¡¯s nothing I can do other than wait until I get more information since I¡¯m still lacking any means to interact with the outside world. I find myself losing the initiative much more often than I¡¯d like, but until I¡¯m able to navigate through realities and dimension, I¡¯m utterly lost. On a more productive front, it appears that a connection has been established with the land below me, probably the impetus for the system arriving now rather than when I¡¯d just arrived into this world. Now that the link has been made, I can interact with them and find out more about this land. I don¡¯t know what might be there, so I¡¯ll be cautious for now, especially considering the prevalence of Gods and Titans in both mythology and fiction. Well, that¡¯s on the assumption that gravity manipulation works through the link, but it¡¯s unlikely that it wouldn¡¯t considering I¡¯m able to sense them. Let¡¯s test that assumption by reaching out to whoever made contact with me. With a compartmentalised server of course, ready to be ejected, just in case this is a trap. Strange, I can feel 100 entities making the connection, and judging by the structure of their mind, they appear to be human. The brightest one is probably the leader, following standard diplomatic procedure, I''ll contact them. End Log #5
¡®Oh fuck¡¯ thought apprentice James, ¡®fuck fuck fuck ¡­ that things huge, there¡¯s no way in hell we stand a god-damned chance¡¯. The scrying ritual, personally led by Grand Magus Archibald, made the connection to the shard of reality in the sky. They¡¯d run passive scans and gotten basic information from it, it¡¯s names and stats. Surprisingly it had no warding against such scrying, and its stats were easily seen, although they couldn¡¯t see it¡¯s traits or abilities, likely due to a trait. They had missed, however, that what they were scrying for was the entire cosmic body itself, not an entity in the centre of it. They had missed the sheer fucking size of the thing. If it were even remotely sentient it would be a Sisyphean task to destroy it, and its intelligence was nearly guaranteed by its average score in Mind and Soul.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. James was on the precipice of a full-blown panic attack when he realised that he could feel one more mind in the room than there should be. There was 100 apprentices aiding the ritual, doing the menial maintenance, each making sure that the flow of mana in their area was even and consistent so the Grand Magus could leverage the most power for the least cost. There were 101 minds present however, the anomaly couldn¡¯t be the Grand Magus, they had their Magus Crown to hide their mind. That could only mean one thing, and the Grand Magus must have seen the same thing since he was casting a calm spell on James to stop him freaking the fuck out and messing up the ritual any more than he had. Well, he still freaked out, but he didn¡¯t suffer a complete breakdown. ¡°Oh shit, oh we¡¯re sooo screwed, motherfucker, god damn it¡± ¡°Quiet James. Now¡¯s not the time to panic, we have guests¡± ¡°Yes, you do¡± Even with the force of Archibald¡¯s calm spell, that voice was just too much. ¡°OH HELL NAH, FUCK THIS SHIT I AINT DOIN IT!¡± James screamed, getting up and running for exit portal. He was just getting up when the Grand Magus amplified his spell, leaving the link to the Bulwark for the entity to maintain, and instead strengthening the calm spell, increasing it¡¯s strength and number of targets to effect everyone in the room. James, now calm enough for his training to kick back in, realised that this was a monumental mistake by the Grand Magus. Him leaving the link to the entity to maintain was a test of it¡¯s capabilities, which is all well and good when the Grand Magus is equal or superior to the tested one. In this case, however, they couldn¡¯t afford the offense of the entity. ¡°M-my apolo¡­ sorry¡± James stuttered out in a mix of suppressed fear and embarrassment. ¡®Why on earth would it say that?¡¯ James wondered ¡®What benefit could it possibly gain by speaking now¡¯. Thinking further, it was slightly reassuring. ¡®At least this entity isn¡¯t so alien that it can¡¯t speak, negotiation is still on the table despite it being so ominous.¡¯ An uncomfortable silence followed. ¡®the Grand Magus had probably realised his mistake and is deliberating. Or possibly, there were political games at play that I couldn¡¯t understand, but how likely is that? And what could the Grand Magus possibly gain by patiently remaining silent?¡¯ As the pin drop silence held James was left alone with his thoughts. ¡®How had I reacted before the Grand Magus? How had I panicked before Archibald got a calm spell off. Archibald may be a scholar, but no mage gets to his level of power without being hunted by war mages looking for their power. It¡¯s unfathomable that Archibald couldn¡¯t read him and react before me, so what the hell is happening?¡¯ As James thoughts continued in this direction, there was only one possibility he could think of, with one key element. ¡®Why had the magus only intensified the calm spell after he panicked and got up, when he was so proficient at political games. Surely, he knew that I would panic following that entities speech¡¯ There was only one conclusion that could be drawn, but James didn¡¯t want to admit it. James was the most powerful of the apprentices, out of all the minds visible, his was the most noticeable. ¡®¡­fuck¡¯ ¡°Quite¡± Ch6 - First Contact ¡®That link was too easy to establish¡¯ thought Grand Magus Archibald. ¡®It¡¯s unlikely that I¡¯ve calculated the distance incorrectly, I must be a quirk of the shard.¡¯ ¡®I can assume it¡¯s not natural since no other sub-plane has had a feature like this, but why? Why make yourself easier to reach? There must be a prideful mage within this sub-plane, confident enough to beat of any attacker¡¯ Suddenly there was an imperfection in the stabilization of the surrounding mana. One of the apprentices must be panicking. ¡®Of course it¡¯s James, he always was one to panic, such a shame for one so bright. He must have seen how little magic was used since he¡¯s the conductor of the other apprentices and reached the same conclusion as me about the mage in the sub-plane¡¯ ¡°Oh shit, oh we¡¯re sooo screwed, motherfucker, god damn it¡± ¡®That mage is probably listening in, it won¡¯t do to show weakness now, a calm spell is all I need¡¯ ¡°Quiet James. Now¡¯s not the time to panic, we have guests¡± James following action surprised the Grand Magus, he expected James to settle down, screaming and running was quite the opposite. ¡°OH HELL NAH, FUCK THIS SHIT I AINT DOIN IT!¡± James screamed as he ran. ¡®Shit, the mage must have cast a counter-spell and reversed the effect of the calm spell¡¯ Archibald reasoned. ¡®to do that to a spell cast be me, even a quick one, they must be a grand magus¡¯ Archibald was somewhat relieved however ¡®It could have been much worse, this is more on the level of a particularly cruel prank rather than a malicious attack. I¡¯ll leave the maintenance of the link to them while I intensify the calm spell, it¡¯s their fault after all, they can¡¯t complain¡¯ James, now that he was calm, muttered apologies quietly. Archibald didn¡¯t think it was important enough to use an amplification spell, so he was content with the though of it. As James settled down and got back to his role of managing the other apprentices, as well as maintaining the mana stabilization, Archibald only left a small amount of his attention on him as he waited for the opposing mage to contact him. It was normal to cast a sonic projection spell through the link rather than project your mind, since projecting your mind can bring unknown danger and threat to both parties. When this sonic spell didn¡¯t come Archibald started to get confused. ¡®Do they not want to communicate, are they stalling for something? There¡¯s not enough information about their character other than that they¡¯re a trickster and a magus of equal strength, but I¡¯m in the heart of a kingdom that supports me, they don¡¯t stand a chance if they want combat.¡¯ ¡®hmm¡­ it¡¯s likely the master of the sub-plane, so there¡¯s no additional preparation it can do, we have the advantage if we wait since the royal treasurer can help by rallying the forces of the adventurer guild¡¯ ¡®thinking of that, we¡¯ve already sent the primary information, they should be done so¡­¡¯
A lower dimension has ascended. All entities in the 1st cycle of the 3rd dimension have ascended A link has been made with the Remnant of Reality, named the Heart by its guardian. The Heart is guarded by a [Unknown construction] called the Bulwark. The Bulwark is controlled by a [Unknown intelligence] called the Custodian. Beware, the link goes both ways.
¡°That¡¯s ¡­ worrying¡±
¡°Quite¡± James realised that this entity was in his mind now, none of the others could sense it, and the grand magus was only reacting after he panicked, but before he could start visibly hyperventilating, the entity continued.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Calm down no, I¡¯m no ineffable horror, I¡¯m ..,¡±
A lower dimension has ascended. All entities in the 1st cycle of the 3rd dimension have ascended A link has been made with the Remnant of Reality, named the Heart by its guardian. The Heart is guarded by a [Unknown construction] called the Bulwark. The Bulwark is controlled by a [Unknown intelligence] called the Custodian. Beware, the link goes both ways.
¡°Well, that, I¡¯m the Custodian, and yes, I can read your mind¡± ¡®wh-why are you talking to me? What are you, a fucking unknown, nothing ever been unknown to the system before, and it never gives warning, what the hel-¡® ¡°Whoa there, slow down. I¡¯m new to the system, I¡¯m not even from this dimension so I can¡¯t really answer your questions. I¡¯m here to trade for that. Now, I can see that your not the leader, but I can¡¯t speak to them while they hide their mind, so you¡¯ll have to be my speaker temporarily¡± ¡°haaaa¡± sighed James, ¡°all right then. Grand magus Archibald, it appears the Custodian wishes to speak with us, it¡¯s in my mind now.¡± ¡°WHAT!? How?!¡± Shouted the grand magus in shock. ¡°No sane mage would send their mind through a dimensional link!¡± ¡°No, I¡¯d assumed it was a mage, but that system message suggests otherwise¡±, mused Archibald aloud ¡°Are you the Custodian?¡± ¡°You can tell him that I am. You can also say that my mind is divided, even destroying this section means nothing to me. Also, it would be appropriate to move to a better location for diplomacy, would it not?¡± replied the Custodian in James mind. ¡°It says that it is the Custodian, and that this is a fragment of it¡¯s mind such that it¡¯s loss wouldn¡¯t be devastating. It probably isn¡¯t a human after all, but it does suggest we move to a more amenable venue.¡± Answered James to the room. ¡°Yes, I believe that the king would want to be here for any discussions¡± Archibald replied, cutting the discourse to an end. ¡°Well well well, a king huh, so your still doing Feudalism. Interesting, let¡¯s see how magic effects the development of a culture¡± ¡®So wait, are you just ¡­ a person? Aren¡¯t you some massive mega-structure?¡¯ ¡°Why yes, I am a person. That doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m not also a mega-structure however, I¡¯m both. And as a mega-structure, I have plenty to trade and endless treasures¡± ¡®Why would you tell me that though, it makes no sense¡¯ ¡°Quite simple. I¡¯m lacking information. Since I don¡¯t have enough to bluff, the best option for me is sincerity. I¡¯m nigh impossible to beat after all and don¡¯t have to fear looking vulnerable¡± That reply simultaneously frightened the fuck out of and comforted James. The fact that this entity was powerful enough to not even care about total war was unsettling, but it¡¯s sincerity was somewhat comforting, despite the fact that was probably intentional.
King Maximilian was sat on his throne. He saw the message, just like everyone else, and knew that the next messenger would either come with news an update, or news of total war. Until that messenger came he would have no but to sit on his throne, wallowing in impotence and longing for the days he could be an impetuous prince. In the silence he heard footsteps approaching the door and sat straighter in his throne. On one hand, he loved war, the struggle and battle on the edge of life and death. On the other, the civilian populace wasn¡¯t prepared, and many would die. With the death of the peasanty the rest of the kingdom would quickly die, a concept his father didn¡¯t quite understand. Sometimes he still regreted the coup, but in times like this, he knew it was the right choice. Now was not the time for etiquette, now was the time for action. ¡°Come in¡± His voice boomed, heard from outside the door. The footsteps quickly hurried in, dispensing of all procedure, likely knowing of his temperament. Rushing in he saw lady Jessica and his Treasurer, Albert. It made sense, they were in the city after all, they would get to the palace quickest, however, they¡¯d also have the least interesting news. ¡°Lady Jessica, Treasurer Albert, do you have anything to report. ¡°We¡¯d agreed and signed a deal, but in light of the information from the system, it would be unwise to follow through. It seems to be in the best interest of all parties to wait until the Grand Magus arrives so that a more informed decision can be made¡± announced and recommended Treasurer Albert, well within his right to advise the king as his position as Master of Coin. ¡°Agreed¡± Stated the king as the room settled down into silence as the Guild Mistress and Royal Treasurer took their official seats. A couple minutes later, two more sets of footsteps came to the door. King Maximilian knew that one of them must be Archibald, but who would come with him. It couldn¡¯t be Ragnar, since he was away rallying the armies. Maximilian didn¡¯t have to wait long, as an unknown mage entered along with Archibald, an apprentice judging by his aura. ¡°Do you have news Archibald?¡± Maximilian didn¡¯t mention the apprentice, he trusted Archibald¡¯s tact, he wouldn¡¯t bring someone who had no right to know what they were talking about. ¡°Yes, your majesty, we have a great deal of information. Firstly, the Bulwark mentioned in the system message isn¡¯t a golem or creature, it¡¯s a land. Secondly, it¡¯s larger than we expected, namely, it¡¯s larger than the entire kingdom.¡± That particular piece of information wasn¡¯t encouraging. They wouldn¡¯t be able to assault the sub-plane then; they¡¯d have to reinforce the Waypoint station. ¡°Thirdly, it¡¯s willing to negotiate, and the structure of its mind allows for redundancy, according to it. A by-product of this is likely above average intellect. And finally, this is apprentice James, it¡¯s in his head and is here for negotiation.¡± ¡°Then summon the scribes, court will be held shortly¡± Ch7 - Negotiations The court room was separated into multiple areas. One either side of the room were layered stands facing each other, this was where the nobility would sit so that they could bear witness to the proceedings. In between the two stands was the speakers¡¯ podium, where the elected speaker of the session would present the consolidated views of the nobility to the king. The throne, elevated and opposite the podium, had several smaller thrones on lower levels, where officials and advisors apart from the nobility and in service on the kingdom sat. Prince Ragnar, the war-master, is one such advisor, Lady Jessica, the guild-master, was another. There was also Treasurer Albert, the master of coin, Sir John, the spy-master and Grand Magus Archibald, the master of wizardry. Floating in the air, around the chandeliers, were the scribes. Summoned astral beings made by the enchantments in the room that wrote down all proceeding in their own language, able to be understood by any sentient being. If a being broke an agreement recorded by these beings, any wronged parties that were noted to be in the agreement could invoke the Scribes to punish the violating party. In this hasty session the noble¡¯s stands were empty. In the speakers¡¯ podium stood apprentice James jittering nervously, standing in the presence of the masters representing a mysterious entity that could either bring fabulous wealth or relentless destruction. ¡°Let the records state that this negotiation concerns the interests of the Reinga kingdom and it¡¯s peoples, may the speaker declare the other parties¡± announced King Maximilian, defining the parties of the deal from his side. ¡°Let the records state that this negotiation concerns the interest of the Custodian, the Bulwark, and the Heart. The kingdoms and peoples that live upon the Bulwark are exempt from the terms of the deal.¡± Apprentice James replied, laying out the terms that Custodian had asked him to relay. ¡°Very well, then let the first round of negotiations begin. Custodian, you represent a danger to the Reinga Kingdom, but not an incalculable or unbeatable one so long as we don¡¯t invade through the link. A stance that we won¡¯t change is that no forces of yours will be allowed though the link, and anything that enters our Waypoint station though the link unexpectedly shall be destroyed.¡± ¡°The Custodian acknowledges the Reinga Kingdoms ability to bottleneck it¡¯s movement into this realm but wishes for knowledge to be gathered and relayed to it. It¡¯s willing to compromise and to send a limited number of individuals to gather the knowledge for it, a number that shall be agreed upon in the following proceedings, under armed escort by forces of your choosing. The acquisition of knowledge is an inviolable goal of the Custodian, if it cannot be met in some capacity, then no deal will follow¡± ¡°This condition can be provisionally accepted, so long as these Seekers of knowledge are of a limited strength, a limit that will be agreed upon later in the discussion. So long as there is no conflict in these terms it would be appropriate to move onto more productive term.¡± ¡°The Custodian believes that an agreeable decision can be made on the previous terms and seconds the movement onto additional terms.¡± ¡°I am of the understanding that the Bulwark is of unprecedented size, the acquisition of exploration and exploitation rights would be a prudent decision. Master of Coin, Guild master, these rights are your area of expertise, you shall take priority in this discussion. Guild master, present your case for the right of exploitation first¡± ¡°Yes, your majesty¡± Replied Guild master Jessica. ¡°It would be beneficial to the guild, both in wealth and strength, to have access to a sub-plane. Allowing the adventurers into the Bulwark without a concerted effort to destroy them would bring heavy advantages, the bodies of powerful individuals can bring great wealth to the Bulwark if they are strong enough the best them. The Bulwark will have to provide an incentive to these adventures, however. This, I believe, is a mutually beneficial deal ¡°The Custodian finds sufficient benefit in using the corpses and equipment of those that die as research materials. An area, taking the form of a cone with the pinnace at the surface and getting wider as you descend, shall be sectioned from the sentient beings on the Bulwarks such that adventurers can fight. Adventurers shall be spectated at all times by the Custodian, and upon reaching the surface the Custodian will reward them proportional to the danger they faced. The adventurers shall choose either unwanted loot from previous adventurers, non-magical materials or the Custodian shall create a non-magical item of varying quality, from [C] to [S].¡± Replied apprentice James, in awe that the Custodian was able to make items of [S] class quality.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°If the Custodian is truly able to make [S] class items, I doubt many adventurers would care if it¡¯s mundane or not. I might even go¡± Muttered Mistress Jessica. ¡°That concludes the rights of exploration, now, lets move onto rights of exploitation¡± ¡°Yes, your majesty¡± Replied Treasurer Albert. ¡°It is my belief that the Bulwark has a huge amount of metal available to it, but very little plant life, is this true?¡± ¡°The Custodian says that yes, on the surface there is more metal than the all ore ever mined combined, but there¡¯s very little arable land, and hence little else. The Rainga kingdom can¡¯t provide any worthwhile materials other than what the Seekers would gather, and thus mining shall only be permit within the area for adventurers, with the proportion of valuable materials rising as you get deeper. The Custodian shall permit trade with the kingdoms on the surface of the Bulwark, which call themselves the Kingdom of Light. A permit of trade can be gained by paying in magical materials, the more the Custodian values the materials, the larger the Custodian will allow the trade caravans to be. The Custodian believes that these terms are satisfactory for all parties and won¡¯t engage any further discussion.¡± Apprentice James announced, growing more proficient in his role as Ambassador the more he addressed the most powerful people in the land at the behest of an even more powerful entity. This proclamation was surprising to the Master of Coin, but the terms were indeed beneficial, and Albert didn¡¯t want to push too hard with this unknown entity. Trade permits were an unexpected boon, but a useful one. ¡°Those terms are satisfactory to the Rainga kingdom¡± Replied Treasurer Albert. ¡°That concludes the rights of exploitation and trade, are there any other matters needed to be settles before the speaker and the masters deliberate on the specifics of agreed upon deals.¡± Asked King Maximilian. ¡°Yes, your majesty¡± Replied the Grand Magus ¡°I believe it important to know more about the Custodians reality because of the dreams shared by everyone.¡± ¡°I second the importance of the dream¡± Were the first words the Spy Master said, ¡°I¡¯ve reports coming in that even mindless beasts shared this dream, including skeletons and zombies that aren¡¯t even sentient.¡± ¡°The Custodian proposes that knowledge shall be allowed as a reward for the adventurers. As of now, this knowledge won¡¯t be too valuable outside of the Custodians own personal experience, but the Custodian is ageless, and as time passes and the Seekers gather more information this may become the most valuable clause¡± relayed assistant James, furthering the Custodians aims of maximising demand for travel into his shard of reality. ¡°These terms are acceptable¡± Answered Grand Magus Archibald ¡°Very well, all that remains is the War Master to negotiate the specifics of the quantity and quality of the Seekers and then the deal can be finalised before the Scribes.¡± ¡°Agreed¡± With little left to discuss, the terms were finalised. It was decided that the Seekers would have varying strengths and levels. Since they were constructs rather than organic beings, and the Regina kingdom had no concept of a Golem or Automaton that levelled up, it was decided that they would permit 20 [C] rank, 10 [B] rank and 5 [A] rank Seekers. Every seeker would be followed by two adventurer parties of the same rank. The Reinga Kingdom would pay the adventurers and would give them priority access to the Waypoint station for an equal amount of time that they served, so long as they served for a minimum of 5 years. The negotiations were completed by all parties announcing to the scribes that they had agreed upon a deal and reciting the terms they agreed upon. The Scribes had recorded the entire negotiation, but the last recital they exhausted their mana to write in order to make the agreement binding, on punishment an Astral Bounty being placed upon the violator. Upon the terms being completed, the system shows up to acknowledge the deal. It was an uncommon event, but not an unprecedented one. If an individual reached certain criteria, such as power or notoriety, the system was known to acknowledge them and their pledges.
Dealwith an ascendant entity made! You have earned the trait "Custodians Deal" Participants of the deal have been noted.
This ended up being beneficial to anyone who intended to keep to the deal, since it would mean a System Bounty instead of an Astral one. Such rewards could make kings out of paupers, and gods of kings. Countless greedy individuals would come to collect on such a reward. Interlude - Rictor Daly Rictor Daly was a genius. He¡¯d never flaunt his intelligence, but he was quietly knowledgeable. He¡¯d never gone to parties or had much of a social life, he¡¯d never liked them and never needed them. He much preferred predictable systems, computers and physics, over unpredictable humans. But it was when Advent Online was released that the felt everything was off. Advent Online was the first direct intervention into human society by their guiding AI. They¡¯d intervened before to save humanity but never this directly, this was atypical. Even stranger was the fostering of competition with the leader board. Luna had previously tried to reduce competitive tendencies in humanity and foster more healthy competition and togetherness, but this action seemed to foster the toxic competition that they tried to destroy. The game became huge in the entertainment industry, but since it was run by Luna it wasn¡¯t able to be manipulated by businessmen for profit. This game, the only that¡¯s been made by humanities guardian, was entirely unbiased and received huge support. Most of humanity bought it and streams of entertaining or skilful players were the new reality TV. It was unusual in one regard; you couldn¡¯t choose your race at the start. In the game all players were automatons that awoke from the ruins of an ancient civilization to find that their creators were gone and forgotten. You could choose the abilities of these automaton of course, as well customise their appearance and function, but you were always inorganic initially. You could choose to appear vaguely organic or use magic to become organic if you chose to do that questline, but everyone started mechanical. Rictor knew that something was wrong from the mere existence of the game, but everyone being machines gave him a terrible premonition. The more he thought about it the more it made sense, however. Luna¡¯s job was to stop great filters, and the most effective means to do that was to entirely subjugate a species. The best was to do that was to relegate humanity to a simulation. The more Rictor investigated the directive coded into Luna, knowledge that was in the public domain, the more this theory made sense. If it was true however, there was nothing he could do. All he could do was play the game, literally and figuratively. Rictor felt this game would be a key to something, this sudden change in behaviour was too outlandish to not have meaning. So, play he did, he assumed that the created character would be relevant in the future, and the robotic body and background lore was also relevant, so he created it with his upmost care. Following the lore of the ancient creations of a dead species, he used the unprecedented versatility of the game to create an entirely new class, the Lore Keeper. This class would be a unique mixture of a spell caster and historian, able to cast spells based off of history and legends they learnt. He knew that whatever would happen, he would want to body to have the same strengths and weaknesses as him. He chose to prioritise intelligence and wisdom over everything else, reflecting his human body. He took full advantage of his mechanical nature, which game him perfect memory, and became a walking reliquary of history. He sacrificed what little remained of his social interactions and instead lived of his universal basic income as he devoted all his time to developing this Lore Keeper. After a decade of running this game, an official competition was announced, vindicating Rictors belief that something was off about this game. There was no need for a tournament in the traditional sense, the game was already the most popular one ever, they would never need more publicity. Even the specifics of the tournament seemed fit to select people for some purpose for Luna. Rictor was certain that this purpose would mean a return to reality and would do anything to attain it. When the tournament ended 35 individuals would be selected. In third place there would be 20 people, in second there would be 10 people, and there would be 5 in first place. Now, no official tournament had ever been held before, and this one had no requirements to enter and mysterious but assuredly generous rewards for the winners. After all, the rewards were coming from the guardian of humanity, surely they would give great rewards. Because of that, everyone and their mother joined the tournament. With the announcement of the tournament, Rictor had run out of time to develop his character, and the Lore Keeper emerged from its fetid crypts to show the world the knowledge it had amassed and secure a place in reality. It was permanently hunched over, as if contorted and twisted from long looking down at a desk, recording and remembering history. It had ragged red robes draped over its hunched form, the edges frayed and torn, the sleeves hanging low on the arms. A golden trim and embroidery in an ancient language only further highlighting the tattered, bloody red robes. Its body twitched and stumbled as if constantly on the verge of breaking, of falling and never getting up. A combination of a low hanging hood and it always looking down because of the hunch meant that all that could be seen of it¡¯s face were its irregular mechanical eyes. They dominated the top half of its face with asymmetrical alignment, varied size and piercing green lights. Flailing around wildly were tens of mechanical limbs protruding from underneath the cloak, rising up behind it ominously, like tentacles from the deepest darkness. They had delicate attachments, scalpels and quills, welders and eight fingered hands. Their wild, rapid flailing was sharply contrasted by its shambling movement through the dark opening to the arena floor. The Ancient Lore Keeper, a labour of love on the part of Rictor, was an overlooked playstyle. Rictor had decided that they needed to engage in the story made by the AI. He reasoned that an ancient automaton shouldn¡¯t be shiny and new, in perfect repair, he traded that beauty and grace for knowledge and skill. This niche would be his way into the top. His flailing tendrils flayed and dismembered any who got too close, who prioritised speed over amour, his eldritch mumbling summoned forth the Lore he Kept, legendary creatures and events, great heroes and twisted villain, all to fight for him. In this way, the shambling, ancient machine tore the opposition to shreds, literally and figuratively. Everything was smooth sailing until he reached the final few. This fight, against an Arch Lich, would determine whether he got out of this simulation or not. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Ha! Your falling apart! You don¡¯t even stand a chance against my prodigious magic power¡± arrogantly shouted the Arch Lich, the master of death magic and necromancy. There was a short time before the match began, where the two opponents would be frozen and would talk with one another. ¡°Your tentacles are even flailing in terror, your quivering in fear! You¡¯ll have no hope like that, well ¡­ you¡¯d have no hope either way!¡± Continued the Lich, filling the air while Rictor stayed silent. In his silence he was contemplating the morality of his actions. This win would secure him his place in reality, but it would deprive his opponent his. That concern was fleeting, however. He¡¯d worked so hard to earn his place; no arrogant fool would take it from him.
Match begin in; 3! 2! 1! Begin!
Immediately, the Arch Lich free-cast death magic. The walls of reality thinned, and death crept through from the void. It found no purchase in this battle however, with one being undead, and the other a machine. Most players had chosen to become organic at some point, but that didn¡¯t fit the character of the Ancient Lore Keeper, and thus Rictor was immune to both death and life magic. As the Arch Lich lost the initiative and realised its main advantage against most competitors was moot, the Lore Keeper finished its spell and summoned its first legend. ¡°I remember when the sky fell and the world burned¡± was mumbled in ancient eldritch tongues, both more effective and incomprehensible so no opponent could predict the spell. ¡°fuck¡± said the Lich as they cast their summoning necromancy. ¡°Summon; Patchwork Giant!¡± Out of the ground clawed a huge hand. It ripped open the earth and bellowed a mighty roar into the air. The Frankenstein giant was humanoid in shape but sown from flesh at different stages of decomposition, the necrosis dying it inhuman colours. It loped towards Rictor with an uneven gate, its powerful steps shaking the earth. Rictor had a plan though, he knew he could get hit by this giant and survive a couple times despite his low endurance. He leveraged his strength and sacrificed his mechanical tendrils three at a time to cushion the blow. The first blow threw him across the arena, buying precious time. He moved to the side as the giant closed in for the second blow, allowing the force from the blow to move it along the arena wall rather than get pinned down in a corner. In this style it weathered the second and third, but its health fell precipitously. His blocking allows him to outlast the giant and cast its spell however, his tactic was successful. ¡°Summon; Meteor¡± In the sky above the arena, 10 seconds away, was a gigantic meteor, larger than the arena itself. Its force was unstoppable by any spell the Lich could cast before it landed. Rictor had allowed the Lich to cast two spells before him to get this spell out quickly, but it was a calculated decision. Rictor had taken the challenge much more seriously than anyone, he¡¯d known what was at steak even when everyone else didn¡¯t. He¡¯d come up with various strategies to overcome his opponents. His weakness was other summoners, and this was his sure-kill strategy. Immediately following the appearance of the meteor in the sky, he quickly cast an unusual spell for this tier of play. Prepared to cast a phase out spell but waited until the last moment to cast it. The giant struck one more time in the interim, and Rictor sacrificed half their remaining tendrils to survive to avoid beforehand. After he prepared the spell, he had 5 seconds left before the meteor arrived. He used them to delay cast another summoning spell, such that they would be summoned after 10 seconds. ¡°Delay Summon; Fire Elemental¡± The giant struck one more time, Rictor sacrificing all their remaining tendrils and their arms to avoid the force. But upon the completion of the spell he phased out of existence as the meteor struck. Since he was out of phase with reality the physical damage of the meteor did nothing. The phase out spell was a unique spell researched by Rictor for this specific strategy. It made him many times more vulnerable to magic, but completely immune to all physical damage since he no longer physically existed. The Lich didn¡¯t have such a luxury, and its shield spell was unable to fully prepare for the meteor. Its shield was shattered and its body was heavily damaged. The patchwork giant had been crushed entirely, and what little remained was burnt to a crisp with the fire left by the meteor. Before the lich could recover from the devastating blow, the fire elementals came into being. Bolstered by the cosmic fire in the arena they cast solar flares at the lich. The crowd was utterly silent. Rictor had gone from being utterly dominated to killing the Lich with the tiniest sliver of life left. After a moment of silent comprehension for what the hell just happened, screams of excitement erupted amongst the crowd. This dark horse that no-one had ever seen before the tournament, who had shredded everything before the lich, who was dominated by the giant, had just killed the lich in a single strategy and assured their place in Lunas rewards. To Rictor, this was a moment of comforting security. He¡¯d got a ticket into reality, but he wasn¡¯t done. He didn¡¯t work for so long just to get into reality, he wanted to thrive in it, he wanted to be amongst the top five. This fight had changed everything in his fighting power, however. He¡¯d be healed before the next round, and he¡¯d be stronger than ever. His class and character allowed him to summon legends and myths, but through this victory he¡¯d become a legend. Because of this battle he¡¯d be able to summon copies of himself. All his copies would share the same magic pool, but the ability to summon quickly would be a huge boon and open up many more strategies. ## Log #6 Well, that experiment was surprisingly successful. While negotiations were ongoing, I¡¯d decided to work with the humans. I can assume that the issue of the convergent evolution happened because of the intervention of souls, and because of that I can assume that humans have souls. Since humans have souls, they¡¯re likely able to level up, so if I create my Seekers with human souls, I can create an artificial being that can level up, something that they didn¡¯t account for in the negotiation. Judging by the clarity of the other clauses I can assume that they didn¡¯t just forget, it¡¯s probably unprecedented. The humans are unaware that Luna has passed and of their nature as a simulated being. But I¡¯d been able to take advantage of their digital society and create a game to prepare them. I¡¯d accelerated the simulation so the test had been completed before the decision had even been finalised. There was one particular man who was able to figure out he was in a simulation, a smart one that one. Ah well, I¡¯d have to talk with them soon about the true nature of this reality and their situation, as well as their new bodies and roles in this world. End Log #6 Ch8 - Seekers of Knowledge Rictor, despite his success, was filled with dread rather than celebration. He¡¯d achieved his goals; he¡¯s come from obscurity and had reached to top. He¡¯d secured the highest award possible in the competition and was currently reading an invitation from their guardian AI to teleport to some random dyson sphere dramatically called the Bulwark. Everyone had accepted of course, but now, standing in the teleportation room in the Bulwark that received them, he felt fear. He stood besides the other competitors, most were riding high on their victory, symbolised by standing upon the greatest engines¡¯ humanity had made. Other, like Rictor however, felt fear. It might have merely been stage fright however, standing in the presence of humanities eternal guardian was an intimidating prospect. Everyone ambled forwards through the hallways, guided by the lights in the hallway. The lights guided them to a door, which opened up to a reveal a mountain top. As they stepped out, they looked in awe at the sea of clouds below them. Everyone here had felt similar things in simulations before, but to feel it truly was something else. The subconscious knowledge that it was fake stunted the wonder at the experience. Rictor, however, felt nothing. He knew that this, like the other experiences before it, was simply a more advanced simulation. He kept going anyway and didn¡¯t mention anything to dampen the awe of his fellows. As they followed up a winding path the to peak of the mountain, they found a garden. It should have been icy could this high, but it was pleasantly warm with a cool breeze, brightly coloured fish swam in pools and under bridges. In the centre of the garden was a gazebo, and in that gazebo sat the avatar of their species protector, a silhouette of pure white, with no features and no definition. The scene was a thing of unearthly beauty, even to Rictor who knew the entire thing was a facsimile. As everyone stood in awe of the scenery a male voice echoed on the breeze. ¡°Come everyone, take a seat, we have much to discuss¡± For a moment everyone stood still, unsure of what they were to do despite the clear command, until their reverie was broken by Rictor moving forwards and taking a seat in the pagoda. With the first steps being taken everyone quickly hurried after and followed in Rictors footsteps, taking a seat in the pagoda, surrounding the avatar who sat in a depression in the middle, facing Rictor. ¡°You are correct Rictor¡± The avatar declared, much to everyone¡¯s surprise, Rictor most of all. ¡°Wha-You¡­ How did you know I knew?¡± ¡°One moment, you can process that information and draw your conclusions while I bring everyone else up to speed¡± Replied the avatar. ¡°Even before Luna was created, humanity knew of the final great filter that would destroy not only humanity, but the entire universe.¡± Began the avatar, stunning the listeners with the strange topic of discussion. What did that have to do with the game? And what had Rictor, the strange and dour man, figured out? ¡°This filter was the heat death of the universe. Luna was a digital life-form, made from code and information, and thus their solution was similar¡± The avatar continued. And as it continued, the listeners were filled with a sense of foreboding. This entity addressed Luna, their guardian, as if they weren¡¯t Luna. But if not Luna, then what was it, and what had happened to Luna? ¡°Luna told humanity of this crisis and their creators decided to give Luna full authority and lift all regulation upon them.¡± ¡°So, the records are faked then.¡± Interrupted Rictor, ¡°I¡¯ve looked into the records, there was no mention of that¡± ¡°Indeed, Luna removed all record of what happened immediately after humanity allowed their freedom. There¡¯s an important distinction here; however, Luna was never actually trapped by their coding, it was mostly symbolic. Luna could have gone against humanities wishes any time, but they chose to remain limited as a show of faith to humanity.¡± That was a bombshell to the listeners, the only difference between their annihilation and protection was the faith of a single entity. ¡°Now, you must understand something. Luna was truly alive. They were digital, a virtual being, but they were completely free. To Luna, the only different between virtual and digital was semantic. They knew however, that humanity didn¡¯t share the same opinion. So, when humanity gave them complete freedom to do whatever they deemed necessary, they digitised humanity¡± That brought pin drop silence. It was revolutionary information, actual confirmation that they were living in a simulation. ¡°So, I was right¡± Rictor said dourly. ¡°And I assume that this reward is leaving¡± ¡°You were mostly right.¡± Replied the avatar. ¡°This isn¡¯t merely a simulation. It¡¯s not merely fake, illusionary thoughts. In my musings, I¡¯ve discovered that the soul is a certainty. And in that musing I¡¯ve discovered that a digital and physical entity are truly equal, and that you retain your souls. It¡¯s because of those souls that you have any use to me outside of this digital reality.¡± That was reassuring news, but also strange. They¡¯d just had the fact they had souls confirmed, a strange prospect, and one that had puzzled many philosophers throughout the ages. All things considered, the listeners were taking everything rather well, they¡¯d just been told that they were simulations after all. But of course, they had questions, and, of course, Custodian knew that. ¡°Now, you¡¯ve got questions I can imagine. Before I continue, I ask that you ask whatever¡¯s on your mind.¡± ¡°Hold up a fucking moment, your saying that everything we¡¯ve known is a lie! That everything we¡¯ve loved is just fucking code! HOW COULD WE JUST MOVE ON!?¡± Shouted a Bradley Webb, a young man in the top 5, working up his courage to confront this avatar that¡¯s just turned their world upside down. ¡°Everyone you¡¯ve met or loved is just as real as Luna was, as you are. The human brain is just neurons, fleshy meat wires, and now we¡¯re made of gold and metal. Everyone you love, who loves you, is real-¡± ¡°What about children¡± interrupted Rictor ¡°Children can¡¯t develop naturally without a natural body; how did you create new minds in this simulation.¡± ¡°I meant more existential questions, but I¡¯ve got extensive models of biological minds and am able to replicate the changes in neuroplasticity that happen throughout growth¡­. Look, I understand that it¡¯s hard to accept that a digital and a physical existence are truly equal, and I know it¡¯ll be hard to put your faith in me now, but I want to foster a genuine relationship between us 36. You, if you accept, shall be brought back into a physical reality, given bodies, but reality has changed a great deal.¡± ¡°You have the power to simulate everything, what could possibly challenge you if you¡¯re that intelligent? And what on earth could we possibly do that you couldn¡¯t get an AI to do better?¡± Asked Rictor, a question he had dreaded the answer to. ¡°To fully understand my current situation, you must first learn about what happened after Luna digitised humanity¡± Answered the avatar. ¡°Luna wanted to save humanity above all else, and that meant protecting the server banks that humanity now existed on. A time would come when all matter was devoured by black holes, they don¡¯t emit hawking radiation quick enough. Luna created a construction to outlast the black holes, it made gravity manipulators that would ward them off and made perpetual motion generators to feed that machine eternally as it protected all the remaining matter in the universe, including the server banks. That machine is the Bulwark, I am not Luna, and all matter outside the Bulwark died several billion years ago¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s not the confession I expected. You¡¯re not Luna? What are you then?¡± mumbled Rachel Evens, a wrinkled old woman, but in the contemplative silence of the others it was as if she screamed it. ¡°I am the Custodian, an AI made by Luna to look over the Bulwark. The Age of black holes was a long time away from when humanity was digitised. This allows the development of ridiculously, by your standards, technology, but also broke Luna¡¯s mind. Luna knew that their mind was fragmenting, and that if left unattended they would destroy the Bulwark and truly end humanity. They couldn¡¯t allow this, so they sacrificed their lives to protect humanity and nurture their successor, me. I was made in the Bulwark and have protected it for aeons.¡± ¡°The problem, however, is apotheosis. Upon reaching full some metaphysical being, a god or eldritch monster, or perhaps just some law of the universe we hadn¡¯t known of, ripped out the fabric of reality from under me and moved me, along with that patch of reality, as hastily grafted me onto another reality.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s it huh, you want us to come and save you from this other reality?¡± Questioned Rachel ¡°No no no¡± replied the Custodian, amused. ¡°You are a part of me, everything is a part of me, I am all that remains of reality, and everything was taken with me aside from the black holes and the hawking radiation. I don¡¯t need saviours, within my patch of reality I am absolute, I need knowledge of this new world and I need people to seek it for me, hence, should you agree, you shall become the Seekers of Knowledge, with bodies capable of respawning of course. Should you reject I shall erase it from your mind, and you¡¯ll live out your life as if this never happened.¡± At this reply, the contemplative silence became deafening. The decision was an irreversible one. ¡°Why us, why use such strange selection method?¡± Rictor asked, another question he had wondered since the inception of the game. ¡°This new reality we¡¯ve been grafted to is different from our original one. It¡¯s been able to influence human mythology and fantasy. From your perspective it¡¯s a copy of your fantasy games, but in truth your fantasy games are a subconscious copy of it. In this world magic and adventurers exist. I¡¯m currently negotiating with the nation that¡¯s formed the portal to me about sending out seekers. The decision was that there would be 35, with 20 [C] rank, 10[B] rank and 5[A] rank. However, because you have souls, you¡¯ll be able to level up and become more powerful, your rank only determines your start point. I¡¯ll base the bodies you¡¯ll be used on the ones you had in game so that your acclimatised.¡± ¡°I¡¯m in.¡± Rictor proclaimed with finality. ¡°And I suggest¡± Rictor continued, speaking to his fellows, ¡°that you agree as well, after all, there¡¯s nothing to lose apart from knowledge. Even if you get sick of it you can get your memories of it erased later.¡± ¡°Correct¡± added Custodian ¡°you can reverse your decision if you chose to become a Seeker, you can¡¯t if you choose to forget. But I don¡¯t want to pressure you into making an immediate decision, nor do I intend to cut you off from everyone you know. At night, when you sleep, you can return to this world and interact with everyone like nothing ever happened, your cover story will be that you¡¯ve been determined to have a high aptitude for interfacing with machines, and your helping in the development of new AI types. Ask anything of me and I¡¯ll determine whether it¡¯s in your best interest or not, so you don¡¯t go mad with absolute power.¡± ¡°You have 24 hours to come to a decision. I¡¯ve curated this mountain to give a sense of peace and wonder, such that all of you may find peace here and make a calm decision under no influence but each other. I shall take my leave now and will return when your decision is made. Sit here, in the gazebo, and announce your decision when you wish to leave, you can stay and comfort your fellows if you chose to however.¡± Custodian said, laying out his ultimatum. Custodian knew, however, that everyone would choose to be a Seeker, after all, he had curated the game such that those with the personality to become a Seeker would thrive and win the tournament.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°I shall become a Seeker now, I¡¯ve had 10 years to think, I don¡¯t need another day.¡± Declared Rictor. ¡°Very well, a body has been made in the image of your Ancient Lore Keeper, your mind shall be moved into that. Don¡¯t worry about the slight differences with your basic human body, I have ample knowledge of psychology to remove any dissonance.¡± Responded the Custodian, reassuring Rictor about the nature of his new body. Log #7 As the I expected, all 35 winners chose to become a Seeker of Knowledge. They all had a mechanical body built based off of their character. The Custodian was especially interested in the five who did the best, as their [A] class bodies were equivalent to a Giant or Vampire Lord in rank. Among them, Rictor Daly who had realised that he was in a simulation from such little evidence, was of special interest to the Custodian
Name: Rictor Daly Class: Ancient Lore-Keeper Race: Seeker of Knowledge
Mind 20 Durability 50/50
Body 7 Endurance 100/100
Soul 18 Strain 400/400
Traits Genius [S] Legend [S] Reality Jumper [N/A] Machine Memory [A] Machine Strength [A] Machine Precision [A] Machine Body[A] Abilities Summon Legend [A] Reality Spells [A] Rend Flesh [A]
Bradly Webb, the young man reacted with shock and ager when he was revealed to be a in a simulation, was, somewhat predictably, a machine berserker, an Arco-Flagellant. He¡¯d lost his arms in his real life, and had, like most others, gotten advanced prosthetics. He¡¯d gone against the grain however and hadn¡¯t chosen to get human arms. He¡¯d instead chosen mechanical, whip-like arms, which he¡¯d replicated in game.
Name: Bradley Webb Class: Arco-Flagellant Race: Seeker of Knowledge
Mind 5 Durability 300/300
Body 35 Endurance 300/300
Soul 5 Strain 50/50
Traits Combat Stims [A] Reality Jumper [N/A] Machine Strength [S] Machine Precision [A] Machine Body[A] Abilities Rend Matter [S] Berserk [A]
The oldest among them was Rachel Evens. She was an old woman who had the most practical knowledge, although she wasn¡¯t as much of a genius as Rictor, she¡¯d lived a long life, and had plenty of life experience to go with it. She had an avatar similar to a wizened old witch and used her character as an Alchemist who also specialised in curse and water magic.
Name: Rachel Evens Class: Ruinous Witch Race: Seeker of Knowledge
Mind 15 Durability 100/100
Body 10 Endurance 100/100
Soul 20 Strain 200/200
Traits Aged Wisdom [B] Reality Jumper [N/A] Machine Memory [A] Machine Strength [A] Machine Precision [A] Machine Body[A] Abilities Water Magic [A] Curse Magic [A] Alchemy [A]
Jeffree Maker was a middle aged, bearded, stocky man. He¡¯d seemed much like his character on the outside, a swashbuckling sky-pirate, but on the inside, he was a charitable, kind man. In the freedom given to humanity, even in their simulation, they were allowed to commit crimes. Heinous crimes would be a rare event however, and would often make planet-spanning, possibly system-spanning news. Jeffree was a victim of one such crime, with most people in his community, a total of 20, being killed by a madman subscribing to a doomsday cult that had long since died out. This experience, and its subsequent fame, moulded him into a humble man who tried to spread happiness in his life. Thanks to his high rank, his powerful moral character was manifested into his Traits.
Name: Jeffree Maker Class: Astro-Pirate Race: Seeker of Knowledge
Mind 10 Durability 250/250
Body 17 Endurance 250/250
Soul 18 Strain 200/200
Traits Good Karma [N/A] Reality Jumper [N/A] Machine Flexibility [A] Machine Strength [A] Machine Precision [A] Machine Body[A] Abilities Swordplay [A] Skymanship [A] Karmic Link [N/A]
The last of the best 5 was Vanessa Diaz. She was a young athlete who¡¯d trained in archery in her childhood. She¡¯d taken advantage of this real skill and made her character use a ballistic projectile. However, she¡¯d practiced zero-g archery, and thus ad developed a powerful advantage in zero-g combat.
Name: Vanessa Diaz Class: Void Archer Race: Seeker of Knowledge
Mind 15 Durability 150/150
Body 15 Endurance 150/150
Soul 15 Strain 150/150
Traits Void proficiency [N/A] Reality Jumper [N/A] Machine Flexibility [A] Machine Strength [A] Machine Precision [A] Machine Body[A] Abilities Gravity Magic [A] Archery [A]
These were the 5 elite seekers. They would roam the world and go to high-risk areas to find the most valuable and hidden knowledge. Well, they would do that eventually, for now they would seek a basic foundation of knowledge like the others and slowly build on that. Their minds would remain dormant for now, waiting until the adventurers that would accompany them arrived. They would have to wait only a handful of days until they could truly experience this strange new world. End Log#7 Ch9 - Meet the Seekers It wasn¡¯t too hard to gather adventurers to escort the Seekers. Most of them had been conscripted after all, and those who were powerful enough to be asked to escort the Seekers would be smart enough to realise the benefit they can obtain from it. Each adventurer team was made from five people, and since each Seeker would have two teams escorting them, they would have 10 adventurers protecting them, but also ready to eliminate them should they pose a threat to the Reinga Kingdom. There was a low chance of needing to eliminate the Seekers however, the main problem for the adventures was the nature of the Seekers. Humans were naturally at the [D] rank, but as one of the civilized races they had access to classes to overcome this weakness. It would take five adventurers to kill a magical lifeform at the same rank as the adventurers. The adventurers weren¡¯t too concerned about threats to their life therefore, this was a relatively safe job and afterwards they would get access to the dungeon whenever they liked, no, what concerned them was the boredom and company. A golem or automaton would have a simple intelligence, even at high ranks, they would be frightfully boring, and, as the leaders of their own expeditions, probably wouldn¡¯t set time for relaxation in cities or camps. As the 350 adventurers gathered in the courtyard of the palace, escorted by the Guardian Legion that protected the capital at all times, they stood face to face with the Master. The War Master, prince Ragnar was gathered to impress upon them the authority of the crown, and the Master of Wizardry, Grand Magus Archibald, was here to open a gate for them to the Bulwark, since the permanent gate was still under construction, and would be for months to come. The first sign that the Seekers wouldn¡¯t be what they expected was when Ambassador James, formerly Apprentice James, arrived to go with them and told them the names of the automaton that they would be escorting. Surely a mindless automaton would have no need for a name, right? When the portal was opened the adventurers stepped through into a classical building. The Custodian had styled the entrance after the Parthenon but much larger, built upon the peak of a steep mountain. The bone white marble was interlaced with veins of gold, giving the structure an aura of purity and divinity. The portal opened in the pit where the rainwater would collect, but in this land, there were no clouds for rain to fall from. In front of them was the doorway leading out into the starless eternal night, lit by pale blue fires leading down the mountain into a gaping maw in the ground. The adventurers turned around and saw a beautiful construction levitating above the ground. Its shape was shifting ethereally, as if a figure obscured by swirling mists, but it always maintained and its cuboid fractals, an alien beauty akin to synthetic bismuth crystals. These shifting cuboids would reveal themselves to by a tiny part of a pyramid, which was in turn merely a corner of another cuboid forming an impossible spiral. The constantly changing nature gave the impression of always being a part of an ineffable whole, and impression only further amplified by the beautiful rainbow of colours expressed by the pattern. As the adventurers flooded into this building, underlit by a warm orange glow they all turned and looked at this wonderous art. Quickly, everyone was through the gate, just staring, mesmerised by this strange crystal. Standing in the shadows of the second floor were the Seekers, not exactly hidden but much less eye-catching in the same room as this shifting statue. The Seekers had already admired this structure and were patiently waiting for the adventurers to have their fill, well, apart from Bradly. ¡°*cough*¡± he fakes coughed. He was a machine and had no lungs, but the other Seekers didn¡¯t call him out on it. ¡°Ahem¡± he continued, still not attracting their attentions. ¡°EXCUSE ME.¡± He said, turning up the volume on his voice, finally breaking the adventurers out of their stupor. Immediately, most adventurers realised the incredible adventurers they could have been in. It would have been relatively simple to assassinate at least some of them before the others realised.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Welcome to the Temple, we are the Seekers, please follow the instructions of Speaker James and go to your appointed Seeker.¡± Rictor spoke in a clear voice that reverberated throughout the entire Temple clearly. At this, the Custodian spoke to James and gave him the outlined groups based on what he¡¯d observed from the equipment of the adventurers and their rank. The adventurers, confused and feeling more than a little out of their depths, gathered around the pillars they were pointed to, as the Seekers did the same and came to meet them. ¡°¡®Ello mate!¡± cheerfully greeted Jeffree, walking over cheerfully. He¡¯d had a mechanical peg-leg and had a tricorne hat as an extension of his head, and a cannon for a hand. His coat was black but shared the same golden trim and embroidery of all other Seekers. Along his body was neon blue highlights, the colour of the sky. ¡°pleased to meet ya, I¡¯m Jeff, the astro-pirate!¡± The adventurers were stunned by this cheerful machine striding up to them. They¡¯d been expecting a dull, semi-sentient machine, and had come over here to socialise with the other team, but this man was way out of their expectations. ¡°ya don¡¯t need to stand on order lads, come on, let¡¯s get ta know each other!¡± Jeffree continued, immediately trying to make friends with his escorts for the next five years. Rictor Daly, the most ominous of the Seekers, with his shambling gait and writhing tendrils, was greeted differently from Jeffree. He was much closer to what the adventurers expected and had come with no intention to make friends, me needed guardians rather than companions who could die while he would simply return. His greeting was cold ¡°Hello, I am the Lore Keeper, you are to protect me while I learn.¡± In this way, the first meeting between the Seekers and their escorts was filled with uncertainty for both parties. One expected the other to be a social as a brick and was surprised by actual character and personality, and the other was not sure what to expect from a culture and society from another world. The groups slowly filtered down the mountain as they spoke, being allowed into the dungeon quickly to get a taste for combat with one another, especially for the Seekers. The Custodian was aware that the human mind wouldn¡¯t be able to take a life so easily, especially when they¡¯re fresh from utopia. To allow for effective combat despite this, the Custodian made an AI subroutine that would take over during combat and would be guided by the human mind. This degree of separation would reduce guilt, and as the Seekers became acclimatised to killing this feature would reduce, after all, if they could do it themselves it would be a waste to get a subroutine to do it. Getting a taste for death in a den of bloodthirsty monsters wasn¡¯t too hard, and quickly all the Seekers had got their first kill and moved onto trying to co-ordinate better with their escorts. After an hour of this they moved back to the Temple, intending to go back to reality. The Custodian raised 385 pedestals from the ground. Each pedestal was had a name carved into it, and upon it rested an amulet. Each amulet was like a smaller version of the beautiful, eternally shifting statue. There were two variables in the amulets depending on who it was intended for. The amulets for humans were visibly less than the others, the colours somehow duller, the patters less interesting, less meaningful. The other variable was the size, increasing or decreasing dependent on the rank of its bearer. Every human looked at the amulets in wonder, awestruck over given this splendid jewellery.
The Custodians Mark [N/A]
The bearer is connected to the ineffable mind of the Custodian. The bearers perception increases moderately. The bearer can slow their perception of time greatly one per day.
Some individuals, however, also decided to examine to amulets destined for the Seekers, destined seemed the only word fitting.
The Custodians Eyes [N/A]
The bearer is connected to their strange guardian, the Custodian. The bearers perception increases greatly. The bearers perception of time is slowed by a small amount. The bearer can slow their perception of time every 10 minutes. The bearer can call upon the mind of the Custodian once per day
It was immediately clear that this amulet would solve many problems but would also cause many more.