The Stubborn Light of a Dying Flame

“A time limit!” Phira exclaimed angrily as she paced back and forth across Rayna’s room.

Rayna had gone to bed soon after the Tinkerer disappeared, too tired from the trial and the excitement afterwards to check her other rewards. Now she was only half-listening to the fuming Phira as she tried to work out the functions of her rune-enhanced clothing.

Unfortunately, Phira couldn’t give her a clue about what the runes did. Though the Tinkerer had been the one to make the clothing, she said it was ridiculous to expect her to remember after more than three millennia as a simulacrum. So Rayna was stuck using the try-it-on-and-see approach to figuring out their functions.

The only one she had managed to figure out so far was size adjustment. She had eyed the large clothes skeptically when she first pulled them out of her Inventory. The plain brown tunic looked like it was too large even for Phira. But when Rayna pulled it over her head, it shrunk down to fit her four-foot-eight frame. She even found that if she focused, she could adjust the length to her preference.

The pants were a darker shade of brown and adjusted themselves to Rayna just as the shirt had. She had to fix them so they sat a little higher on her stomach, but overall, they were surprisingly comfortable. Especially since the auto-sizing eliminated the need for a belt.

“These would make a killing back on Earth!” Rayna said, fixing her shoes to fit her feet.

“I thought humans were supposed to have high Endurance,” Phira said, stopping to frown at Rayna. “Actually, it doesn’t matter. Show me the message again. Maybe we’re missing something.”

Rayna pulled the notification up for the fifth time this conversation, not even bothering to glance at it; she had it memorized at this point.

Time limit exceeded. Phira has been returned to her simulacrum stone.

The amount of time that Phira can appear daily is determined by the owner’s Intelligence stat (each point of Intelligence will increase the limit by 1 minute). The limit resets at sunrise.

Current limit: 50 minutes

Time remaining today: 27m 35s

Rayna would need almost fifteen hundred Intelligence to keep Phira out perpetually. She didn’t see herself getting there any time soon. For now, the Tinkerer was limited to less than an hour a day.

Rayna took a second to empty her Mana into her amulet, bringing the current charge up to a little over ten thousand. She had hoped it would charge overnight, but it seemed she had to actively feed it Mana; it wouldn’t do so automatically.

Even with that limitation, it was already proving its worth. The amulet had healed several scrapes and bruises that Rayna had acquired just moving around her room. She hadn’t been paying attention to the precise numbers, but it had healed almost 100 HP so far, split between more than a dozen occasions. If Rayna had needed to use Basic Heal, it would have cost her 120 MP and she would have wasted most of the healing anyway.

“At least you should gain some Intelligence when you start leveling up,” Phira said, apparently deciding to look on the bright side. “What are you, Healer or Mage? With a starting Intelligence of fifty, I hope you picked Mage. There aren’t many low level monsters that can take a hit powered by that high Intelligence; even from a basic Fireball spell.”

“I’m a Warrior,” Rayna said absently, pulling the Rune Enhanced Travel Cloak over her shoulders. The hood shrank to fit her head, and the hem shortened itself until it was sitting nearly a foot above the ground. Rayna made it a bit longer, making sure that it would cover her legs completely without dragging on the floor.

“What did I do to deserve such punishment? Did I not guard that System-forsaken maze for three thousand years?”

Rayna’s brows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“You!” she said. “I’ve ended up in the possession of the one person on Ember who has no idea what she’s doing.” Phira resumed her pacing. “Warrior is quite possibly the worst Class you could have picked, especially with your Endurance so low. The Healer and Mage Classes gain the same stats up until Level 25, boosting both your Wisdom and Intelligence during that time. You’re missing out on fifty points of each.”

“I was hoping Warrior would have better defense,” Rayna said, feeling the need to defend her decision. “In most RPGs Warriors are tanky. It seemed like a better choice at the time.”

“Are you incapable of speaking in a manner that the System can translate? I don’t know what an RPG is, nor the meaning of the word ‘tanky’, but the Endurance gains are equal for all three Initial Classes; same with Vitality. You have essentially traded Wisdom and Intelligence for Strength and Dexterity.”

“That’s fine,” Rayna said. “My Strength could use some boosting, and my Dexterity saved me in that maze more times than I can count.”

“But if your stats are too even by the time you make it to Level 25 it might affect your Class choices!” Phira said. “You will need to use your free points to boost the stats that you wish to specialize in. You get one per level so if you split those between Wisdom and Intelligence, you should be able to match what most people would have at that point.”

“I’m putting them all into Endurance,” Rayna said. “This amulet is great, but I hate how much I’m using it. I’d much rather just avoid taking damage in the first place.”

Phira threw her hands up in the air. “I’m going back into my stone. I want to save what little time I have left for something more interesting than trying on clothes. Call me out if anything exciting happens.”

“How do I—” Rayna began, but Phira was already gone. She shook her head, returning to her item testing. She was beginning to get really tired of not being able to finish her sentences.

* * *

The System Administrator rubbed his face with his hands. The obsidian walls of his tower were undermining his inner peace almost as much as the incessant arguing of his duplicates.

Eldar thought bringing out his copies would help him talk through the problem at hand, but it only seemed to make things worse as he constantly had to break up fights between the warring personalities.

“We have to do something!” Eldar #4 said. “We broke the most important rule; no unwilling initiates.”

“They were all willing,” Eldar #2 argued. “Excited, even. Their inability to comprehend basic language is not our fault. Everything was explained in detail, and they still chose to come. The one girl even came without the preview.”

“She shouldn’t be here at all,” Eldar #3 said. “That was an egregious waste of Essence. She doesn’t even know the basic principles of the System.”

Eldar #3 rubbed his temples. Even though neither Eldar nor his duplicates could get headaches, the mental strain was a similar discomfort.

“They thought it was fake,” Eldar #4 told #2, ignoring #3’s statement entirely. “That hardly counts as understanding the consequences of their actions.”

“This is just one in a long line of monumental errors,” Eldar #5 said with his usual morose attitude. “Why don’t we accept the inevitable and just let the whole thing burn? I’m tired of the never-ending cycle of failure and rebirth. Just let me sleep.”

“No one needs your input,” Eldar #2 snapped. “Why are you even here? You haven’t cared about Ember in a few millennia.”

Eldar #5 yawned and laid his head down on the table.

“What if we just send them home?” Eldar #4 suggested. “We could try again in a century or two. Or we could even try on Earth now that they know what they’re signing up for. We always get some willing initiates. We might even get more, considering how obsessed with games they seem to be.”

“Are you insane?” Eldar #3 hissed. “The Essence required to bring that many people was astronomical! Not to mention the last minute addition of that girl used enough Essence to run the tutorial for a week! Trying to send them home will send us into another Dark Age.”

“We’re already heading for a Dark Age!” Eldar #4 said. “We can’t stop it. But we can send these people home before they get caught up in our problems.”

“We can’t,” Eldar said, rejoining the conversation.

Eldar #4 frowned. “Why not?”

“Because of the Essence,” Eldar #3 insisted.

“Because they volunteered,” Eldar #2 said at the same time.

“Because,” Eldar said, closing his eyes. “They turned off the beacon.”

The table fell silent as even Eldar #5 stared at Eldar in shock.

“Why would they do that?” Eldar #3 asked incredulously. “No worlds have turned off the beacons within a century of their initiation, let alone turning it off within a week. Did they listen to anything we told them?”

“Of course they didn’t,” Eldar #4 said. “We kidnapped ten million of their people. They might even be afraid that we’ll take more.”

“Afraid we’ll take more?” Eldar #2 scoffed. “That’s like saying they’re afraid that gold will fall on their laps. Earth is the most backward world we have ever had the misfortune to stumble upon.”

“Gold can crush a man as easily as stone,” Eldar #4 said. “They have every right to be angry, both the people we took and those we took them from.” He turned back to Eldar. “But if we can’t return the humans to Earth, then it’s our job to make sure they survive this ordeal.”

“They’re not making that job any easier,” Eldar #5 commented with dark amusement. “Twenty thousand in the first day? And some of them died after we lowered the difficulty of the trial. I thought humans were supposed to be highly adaptable. What was all that stuff about healing from most non-fatal wounds? One woman even died to a Robi!”

“They didn’t prepare,” Eldar #2 said dismissively. “We announced the Preview three years before it even began, in accordance with the safety tests that the humans insisted upon. Normally, a species would use this time to train and grow stronger, but the humans didn’t even try. They just went in with the skills they already had. It’s a wonder they made it so far in the first place with their glaring inadequacies.”

“When I think of all that Essence, gone to waste!” Eldar #3 lamented.

“People have died!” Eldar #4 snapped. “Would you show some empathy for a change? The world doesn’t revolve around our Essence requirements.”

“A lot more people will die if we don’t fix the Essence problem soon,” Eldar #3 countered. “I’d sacrifice the humans in a second if I thought it would prevent the coming darkness.”

“Enough!” Eldar slammed his hand down on the table, startling the others into silence. “We are not killing the humans, nor are we leaving them to fend for themselves. We’re here to discuss solutions, not argue blame. Can none of you come up with anything useful to say?”

The table fell silent once more, answering Eldar’s question.

He growled in frustration. “I don’t understand it. They did so well in the Preview. They were fearless in every venture. They hunted some monsters to near extinction! Why is it so different now that it’s not a game? They already know many of the monsters on Ember and they have all used these weapons before. If they would just—” An idea struck Eldar like a physical blow. “That’s it! We just need to turn it back into a game!”

“Come again?” Eldar #2 asked, looking at Eldar like he had lost his mind.

“The practice rooms,” Eldar said. “We can use them for the tutorial; simulate everything so the trial takers don’t get hurt when they fail. We award Experience based on what they would have received if the monsters were real. That will help them grow in a safe environment, so by the time they get out of the tutorial, they will be able to face whatever challenges cross their paths.”

“And where do you propose we get the Essence for all of this?” Eldar #3 asked. “Ten million people, growing with no energy returns? It will take more Essence than bringing them here in the first place!”

“Then we give them two options,” Eldar #2 said, warming up to the idea. “They fight the real monsters and grow naturally, or they fight the fake ones for ten percent of the Essence. They get more battle experience, and we use less energy training them. Everyone wins.”

“We also need to remove the random elements of the trial,” Eldar #4 said. “They need to know exactly what they’re challenging. We can let them choose, even. That will minimize casualties and save energy transporting people out when they meet a monster they can’t defeat.”

“It still won’t be enough!” Eldar #3 said. “We’ll be using more Essence than we gain.”

“If that’s the cost of fixing our mistake, then so be it,” Eldar said. “We will prepare the adjusted tutorial over the next week, making sure there are no flaws in the trials. The rest will be up to the humans.”

* * *

That night, all residents of Ember outside of the tutorial received the same message.

As some of you are likely aware, a new set of initiates were brought to Ember in the last week. Complications with their integration have led to a need for an adjusted tutorial. The System will be going into low-energy mode for the next month.

The following features will be unavailable until the humans have been fully integrated:

— Quest Issuance and Completion

— Title Issuance

— Class Ascension

— Experience rewards for special feats related to one’s Class

During this time, Experience can still be gained through the hunting of monsters. Once the tutorial period is complete, the System functions will return to normal.

We would like to thank the residents of Ember for your understanding and hope that you will join us in welcoming the newest addition to our world.

For some, the notification was met with anger and disbelief. For others, it brought frustration over stunted growth. But even the hardest of warriors felt a sliver of fear at the announcement. They had hoped this newest batch of Chosen might be able to help them; to prevent the calamity that grew closer with each passing day, but if there were problems already, with the tutorial having started not even a week prior, then this newest addition to Ember may be even more incompetent than the last.

Ember didn’t need another useless species leeching off of the System’s generosity like parasites, bringing about the end of the world with their selfishness and cowardice.

The System could integrate these newcomers, as was its right. But they would find no welcome from the people of Ember.