Omega Point

Not wasting any more time, Jeff left the Store through the exit and returned to the gloomy training area. Darkness shrouded the rides and sideshow stalls, the only light remaining was from the arcade—a faint glow from the Space Invaders and Pac-Man machines casting a feeble illumination over the goblin corpses.

Hurrying over to a shuttered candy stand, he ripped open the shutters and leapt inside. Nothing—just dust and empty candy wrappers. Noticing an automatic soda vending machine in the arcade he stepped inside. The machine seemed to be full of cans of soda and other drinks. Eagerly, Jeff drew back his fist and smashed the glass to gain access. Once again, disappointment. The cans and bottles on display, despite appearing unopened, were all empty. The hotdog stand, the cotton candy booth, and the pretzel cart all yielded the same results—dust, empty wrappers, no food.

Jeff once again tried to ignore his hunger and turned his attention to his progress. He noted that his HP had now risen back up to full as a result of consuming the healing potion. His MP was also creeping back up. Still not at full capacity, but it seemed to be replenishing at a rate of one per minute, so should also be back up to full capacity within another half an hour.

Recalling how distracting the dialog boxes had been in the middle of his battle, Jeff asked Misty how to alter the style of system alerts and notifications.

You can alter the system display to suit your preferences, just picture how you want the information to display in your mind explained Misty, once more in the form of a glowing soap bubble, hovering in front of him.

Manipulating the interface mentally, ‘clicking and dragging’ the various dialogs took a bit of practice, but eventually Jeff had reconfigured the layout to more closely resemble a traditional first person shooter heads-up-display, with MP and HP at the bottom and systems dialogs neatly relegated to the far right corner, their notifications emitting a gentle pulse whenever they updated.

With a bit more experimentation, a small map overlay appeared in the top left corner. Its details displaying not only the geographical layout but, according to Misty, the whereabouts of any enemies or allies.

Finally, he was able to toggle a crosshair on and off in the central field of vision, which he reckoned would be useful when he gained any ranged weapons.

Jeff took a moment to reflect on the events of the day so far. There was a cognitive dissonance nagging at the edges of his consciousness. He felt that he should have been more shaken up, especially after receiving the serious wound that he did. It seemed that the transformation he had undergone when he selected his Class had toughened him up mentally as well as physically. Or he wondered, perhaps he was actually suffering from some form of shock, like PTSD?

Jeff decided not to dwell on irrelevancies such as feelings or philosophical matters—he realized any soul searching or moral agonizing was futile. After all, whether he liked it or not, he was singlehandedly responsible for the fate of the human race—there was no time for an internal dialog. His feelings, his state of mind—these were secondary. There was no place for any introspection or doubt in the face of extinction.

He decided to look through the goblins’ possessions in the hope of finding something useful. Remembering something from the battle, he entered the hall of mirrors and moved over to the still form of the nearest goblin. His eyes scanned the grotesque figure, intent on unearthing anything of potential value. Secured at its waist by a crude length of twine was a crude scabbard, and on the floor, he found the dagger the goblin had attacked him with. Picking it up, he saw that the blade was crafted from something like bone, or perhaps a long tooth.

Setting the strange dagger aside, Jeff rifled through the pockets of the goblin’s faded overalls and found little else of interest, just a glass pipe which had obviously been used to smoke something, as it’s interior was stained with a layer of nasty brown crud.

Jeff looked at the bone knife once again; by concentrating he was able to summon an overlay with more information. Glowing yellow data appeared:

ITEM: [Goblin Bone Dagger]

ITEM TYPE: Weapon

ITEM CLASS: Common, Grade J, +2 Offense (Not Stackable)

REQUIREMENTS: At least one grasping organ

EXPANDABLE: (Not Expandable)

DESCRIPTION: A goblin bone dagger, fashioned from the femur of a cherished family member. Goblins are expected to use these daggers on their first hunt as a rite of passage to goblin adulthood.

Experimenting, Jeff mentally pulled the dagger into his ring inventory. To his amazement it worked, and the dagger faded out of existence in front of his eyes.

“It’s a bag of holding…” Jeff muttered to himself, peering down at the innocuous looking ring on his finger. Once again, he was struck by the similarities between the mechanics of the Tournament and the trappings of RPG games.

Trying again, he attempted to pull his Earth-made pocket knife into his ring. It vanished as well.

ITEM: [Mundane Primitive Knife]

ITEM TYPE: Weapon

ITEM CLASS: Common (No Grade)

EXPANDABLE: (Not Expandable)

DESCRIPTION: Jeff’s trusty pocket knife, gifted to him at the tender age of three by his loving father. (Seriously, who gives a three year old kid a knife for their birthday?)

Staring nostalgically at the folding hunter knife and its System generated description, he was suddenly reminded of his childhood.

At the age of five, his father had relocated the family to a remote log cabin hidden deep in the forested Great Smokey Mountains of North Carolina; real ‘Deliverance’ country.

There then followed what his father called ‘his education’; a grueling few years for Jeff, characterized by off-grid survival skills, hunting, living off the land and rigorous martial arts training, with little contact with the outside world.

All the while, his father’s behavior had grown more and more erratic—drinking heavily, he suffered from increasingly violent mood swings.

Finally his mother could take it no longer, and whisked Jeff and his sister back to the city, away from his father, who remained in their log cabin in North Carolina, becoming increasingly more eccentric as the years passed.

Jeff returned his attention to the present day. The convenience and ease of use of his Storage Ring astounded him. Jeff played around with the function a few more times, making sure that he could get access to the weapons as and when required. He found that he could equip himself with the knife and the new goblin dagger with a simple thought, the weapons appearing straight into the palm of his left or right hand. He reckoned that this ability would come in useful in the heat of a battle or when faced with the unexpected; he would be able to swiftly equip himself without having to fumble around.

Out of curiosity, Jeff pulled out one of the remaining coins from his ring and inspected it physically. Roughly the size of a US silver dollar, one side was stamped with the likeness of a Vogel wearing some sort of crown, the flip side showed two crossed swords in a circlet of stars.

Holding the token up to the light, Jeff noticed that the material wasn't any ordinary metal. The coin shimmered and seemed to change color depending on the angle he held it at, transitioning between silvery hues to gold and then to a deep iridescent blue.

The craftsmanship of the coin was exquisite. The Vogel’s profile had been etched with meticulous detail, every wrinkle and contour of the reptilian being rendered with precision. The crown, ornate with what appeared to be tiny gemstone inlays, hinted at the significance or high status of the particular Vogel embossed on the coin.

Unprompted, Misty declared in a reverent tone:

The Patriarch, Supreme Head of the Vogelian Fatherverse! He who must be obeyed!

Biting his lip, Jeff barely managed to stop himself from making a disparaging comment about the Patriarch’s parentage, aware as he was that his every word and action was under scrutiny.

“Douchenozzle…” he muttered, sotto voce.

Moving on, Jeff continued looting the dead goblins. The next few corpses were disappointing; they had no weapons or much loot of any value.

In the pocket of one of the goblin’s Santa costumes, Jeff discovered some suspicious looking dried meat, wrapped up in a dirty kerchief.

ITEM: [Goblin Bush Meat]

ITEM TYPE: Food

REQUIREMENTS: A mouth

EXPANDABLE: (Not Expandable)

DESCRIPTION: There’s no telling which type of critter this meat originated from. Best not to wonder, eh? All you need to know is, it probably tastes like chicken.

Despite his increasing hunger, Jeff wasn’t ready to test the bush meat just yet.

His next find was a faded monochrome photo of an old female goblin, smoking a corncob pipe on the porch of a dilapidated shack in a forest setting. Finding an old-style paper photograph felt strangely anachronistic to Jeff, and once again he wondered at the need for such detailing for what was merely an NPC. Why would the creators of The Tournament go to such lengths to imbue these characters with depth? Were they trying to create empathy, or was it simply an artistic choice to make the Tournament world more immersive and entertaining for the viewers?

The System didn’t assign any value to the item, but Jeff stored it in his ring anyway, reasoning that storage space seemed unlimited, and there was no knowing what would or would not come in handy at a later date.

He even pulled the corpses of the goblins into his ring.

“Who knows when a dead goblin might come in handy.” He muttered to himself, a strange feeling of disconnect creeping up on him as he wondered how much he could get for them in the Tournament Store.

Picking up the chainsaw he mentally inspected it.

ITEM: [VogelCorp Aether Powered Chainsaw] ITEM TYPE: Weapon/Tool

ITEM CLASS: Common, Grade J, +2 Offense (Not Stackable)

REQUIREMENTS: At least one grasping organ

EXPANDABLE: (Not Expandable)

DESCRIPTION: Originally designed for such mundane tasks as felling trees and trimming branches, now the weapon of choice amongst inbred mutants and families of cannibals. Aether not included.

Studying the machine, he saw it was equipped with a simple throttle control on the handle, and along the side was an analog dial which showed the fuel tank was three quarters full of aether.

“What’s aether, Misty? Jeff asked curiously, running his tongue over his dry lips and sloshing the liquid around in the tank as he spoke.

Aether is a distillate of raw mana, used to power goblin’s infernal combustion engines and war-weapons.

Misty continued, sounding like she was reading from a wikipedia entry.

The actual process by which goblin’s manufacture aether is a closely guarded secret, handed down from tribal elder to first-born. Their aether stills are usually located in the deepest, most inaccessible corners of their lands, far from prying eyes.

Aether is a highly volatile substance, incredibly dangerous when used incorrectly, but can also be consumed as a beverage when mixed correctly.

“So I can drink it?” Jeff interjected eagerly. His mouth was feeling increasingly dry.

While Aether cocktails are popular amongst the elite, and are often served at Hegemon Level dinner parties in the Core, they are only recommended for consumption by Grade E Barons, Satraps & Moguls, or higher.

Disappointed, he pulled the chainsaw into his ring inventory and moved on to the last goblin.

A search of Leetus’s corpse revealed a crude wooden amulet hanging around his neck on a plain silver link chain. Depicting a three headed god of some kind, the [Identify] function revealed the following information:

ITEM: [Periapt of The Erstwhile Tree Gods]

ITEM TYPE: Magical Amulet

ITEM CLASS: Medium, I Grade, +2 Vitality, +2 Endurance. In addition to the vitality and endurance boost, will grant the wearer +10 HP (Stackable)

REQUIREMENTS: None

EXPANDABLE: (Not Expandable)

DESCRIPTION: A protective charm, fashioned out of timber from the last tree standing in the Magical Grove of Auchintern. At the height of their powers, the kindly Lords of Leafbough ruled over their fabled forest world; a peaceful, agrarian society based on love and mutual respect. The arrival of VogelCorp’s automated flat-pack furniture assembly plant, and a short lived enthusiasm amongst the Vogelian middle classes for coffee tables and sideboards crafted from Auchinternian wood spelt the end of their arboreal society.

Pulling the chain over his head, Jeff noted that it did indeed increase his HP pool, as well as enhancing his Vitality and Endurance stats. Jeff took a moment to look over his stats screen.

NAME: Jeff Nostro

RACE: Human

HIT POINTS (HP): 80/80 (+10*)

MANA POINTS (MP): 70/70

Path: Spellsword [Hidden]

Path Rewrite: Awarded if 7 tribulations are completed.

Tribulations passed: 1/7

GRADE: J, Level 18

CLASS: Arcane Duelist 1

SKILLS:

Physical Fitness (Level 1)

Identify (Level 1)

High Pain Threshold (Level 1)

Combat Proficiency (Level 2)

Sub-Skill: [Unarmed Blade] Level 1

First Aid (Level 1)

CLASS SKILLS:

Infinite Sword (Level 1)

Cutting Edge (Level 1)

ATTRIBUTES:

Strength: 8

Speed: 4

Vitality: 14 (+2*)

Endurance: 5 (+2*)

Cognition: 4

Offense: 8

Defense: 5

Total Attribute Points: 48

Unallocated Attribute Points: 0

Jeff noted that the additional Vitality and Endurance Points bestowed by the [Periapt of The Erstwhile Tree Gods] did not make it into the Total Attribute Points (TAP) amount.

Quizzing Misty further on the subject of items and Levels, it transpired that in the System, in the same way that players could level up, so too could items. The materials and level of craftsmanship used to create an item determined how high a class the item could ascend to. At higher levels, with the correct nourishment and care, some items could even attain consciousness and eventually take on beast or sentient form, becoming a Spirit Tool.

The idea that weapons, not just players, could evolve was a novel concept for Jeff.

“Nourishment and care? You mean like watering a plant?” Jeff quizzed curiously.

In a way, yes. But it’s more about symbiotically channeling the right kinds of mana, performing certain rituals, and sometimes even providing the Spirit Tool with a specific type of material sustenance.

Misty went on to explain the hierarchy of objects in the System. Firstly, there were mundane instruments like his pocket knife, simple utilitarian devices that could not evolve in any way. Next there were expandable items which would level up with usage.

Finally, at the top of the pyramid were magical items which had been crafted using runes of power. These items were the most valuable on the marketplace. Misty explained that much like Class assigned Skills, these objects could be imbued with mana by the wielder to power various effects.

To illustrate, Misty projected examples of runes in his display. As the strange, fractal like sigils passed in front of his mind’s eye, Jeff felt a peculiar resonance. Each rune seemed to illustrate some fundamental concept, to which Jeff felt a pull, an indescribable connection. Some of the runes seemed to depict multiple, even contradictory concepts. The rune for water evoked a sensation of wetness, along with images of rivers, waves and the sea, whilst the fire rune simultaneously managed to elicit sensations of both warmth and comfort and extreme heat and burning. As each rune flashed in his vision he was momentarily overcome by the sensations.

Making a mental note to go back to the library and delve into the subject of runes at a later point, Jeff climbed to his feet and asked, “Well Misty, what’s next?”

At this stage you can either work on leveling up your stats in more training environments or move on to Tantalus, a regional Tournament departure point and safe zone.

“What’s in Tantalus?” Jeff asked curiously, visions of comfy couches and platters of delicious food passing through his mind.

Tantalus serves as the local marshalling center for the Tournament in Glogly sector, where you can relax and indulge in the superb fine dining offered at the renowned Crystal Citadel. You’ll have the opportunity to meet and interact with other World Champions before advancing to the first round. Comfortable accommodations and leisure facilities await—stroll through the landscaped pleasure gardens and enjoy the temperate climate of Tantalus while taking full advantage of the free dining at the Crystal Citadel.

Jeff’s stomach grumbled once again at the repeated mention of free food, but remembering the Vogel diplomat’s speech before the Community of Equals, and the part where he talked about “vanquishing all other combatants” he was reluctant to rush into a cosmic waiting room without first improving his stats as much as possible. Who knew how friendly his fellow Contestants would be?

Pulling the last remaining protein bar from a side pocket in his pants, he said to Misty resignedly,

“Let’s continue grinding through the training, shall we?”