Chapter 330 - Systemic Revelations

This was an interesting opportunity. There wasn’t much Reivyn could glean from a history lesson that would directly impact his combat capabilities, but there was no reason to turn down the information just because of that. Further understanding of the world around him was always a good thing, in the end.

“You said the ‘hamans’ brought the System?” Reivyn asked. “What does that mean?”

“It means what it means,” the Dragonling replied. “The System didn’t exist before the arrival of the hamans.”

“Arrival? Hamans aren’t native to the Realm?”

“As far as I know, hamans aren’t native to any of the Realms. We don’t know where they came from, and from what little friendly communication we’ve had with hamans, they couldn’t articulate it. They say they just came from ‘beyond.’”

“Ok~ay, and they brought the System with them?”

“No,” the Dragonling shook its head. “They created the System here. Hamans were manaless beings, but they had their own kind of magic. They called it technology. They used it to wrest control of everything, imposing their will on the Realm. Hamans are insatiable when it comes to controlling everything around them.

“They could accomplish almost everything we did with Mana through their own brand of magic. We didn’t particularly fear it, though, as their weapons weren’t able to hurt us until they figured out how to infuse Mana into them. Even then, the higher beings such as us Dragonlings and the Masters, could shrug off most of the puny amounts of Mana they could muster against us.

“They did have some terrifying weapons that could destroy basically everything, even without Mana, but they refused to use them except for the most dire of circumstances for some reason.” The Dragonling shook its head briefly. “Anyway, I’m getting off topic. It comes down to hamans used their own magic to usurp ours for themselves.”

“I’m getting confused,” Reivyn said, shaking his head. “We clearly can use Mana. It’s a staple of everyday life for most people.”

“You misunderstand. Of course you can use Mana. You have the System. It does all the heavy lifting for you and your kind.

“Consider your Class. If the System didn’t assign your Class and Class Skills, literally shaping the conduits of Mana within you, would you be able to do it yourself? And I see what you’re thinking. I mean from the basic first step, not with your mastery of Mana as it is with the System.”

Reivyn pondered the question for a moment.

So basically before my Tier 1 Class. Would I, prior to reaching Tier 1, be able to alter my own being and build my own Class? Without external help, because everyone would be in the same boat.

Tier 1 is a bland Class that only really assigns Stats on Level Up. So if we get rid of the Class and Levels, would I have been able to harness Mana to assign myself those Stat increases as my inherent Mana level increased? I don’t know the first thing about using Mana to permanently shape my body. I assume it could be done with enough experimentation…

“I think I see where you’re going with this,” Reivyn said. “Hamans arrived at a world filled with Mana, a resource they couldn’t use because they didn’t have the understanding, and so they used what they did have to tap into it.”

“Native creatures assimilate and utilize Mana on an instinctive basis, down to their very bones. There’s no need for us to figure it out. Not only could your kind not use it, but until they acclimated to Mana, it was poison to them. Areas of higher concentration would melt the flesh off their bones in minutes, if not seconds.

“Before the System, there were no Regions. The Mana in the Realm was fluid. It was like dunes in a desert, with the wind occasionally changing the landscape. The System put Mana concentrations into neat little boxes. Always working towards more control. If they couldn’t control something, they feared it, and if they feared it, they altered or destroyed it.”

“And they couldn’t control the Dragons, so they destroyed them…”

“Highly unlikely,” the Dragonling scoffed. “Just because there are no Masters in the Realm today does not mean they were ‘destroyed.’ They probably just left. It makes more sense.”

“After planting a contingency seed,” Reivyn gestured to himself.

The Dragonling chuckled.

“It seems my other shade shared some secrets with you, too. Not surprising. Of course the Masters would have contingencies. They wanted to control everything around them, too. They were just born with the ability to do so, while you hamans have to struggle to seize that ability.”

“So how did the hamans build the System? How did they get it to permeate throughout the entire Realm, and if I’m not mistaken, all Realms?”

“I don’t know any of the ‘hows,’” the Dragonling replied. “I only know the results, and even the ‘whys’ are conjectures based on the results. And you’re incorrect that the System exists in every Realm. It only exists in the Realms the hamans built them in, but once you’re tied to a System, it can reach you anywhere, so it would seem like the System exists in any Realm you travel to.”

“Are you part of the System?”

“Of course. As a Shade, how could I not be? But I know what you’re really asking: Are all of the native creatures that existed before the System part of it? The answer is yes.

“The advent of the System changed reality itself. Of course if the fundamental reality we exist in changes, we change with it; however, we do not have all the same things that you do.

“Have you noticed that monsters, as you call them, and beasts don’t have Classes? It’s not because they can’t have Classes, but because their very nature is their Class. They don’t need the System to help shape them through Stats. Most monsters don’t have Skills, either. The sapient ones, like us Dragonlings, can learn them, though.

“My Skills exist outside of the System, but your haman progenitors were clever. They created a way for the System to recognize that and incorporate it into itself. Therefore, we sapient creatures can, and do, utilize the System to improve ourselves. We just don’t need it nearly as much as you do.

“Now I’m out of time. I gave you this reprieve because of your accomplishment, but you’ve already accomplished it, so don’t expect any of my other Shades to extend the same offer. Unless you accomplish something great, again.”

“My accomplishment?”

“Check your Status once you leave. You’ll understand.

“I bid thee farewell.”

The Dragonling sat on its impromptu throne and melted into the ambient Mana of the Dungeon, disappearing without a trace. It felt strange for the encounter to end like that, but there was nothing Reivyn could do about it. The creature had used up all of its “essence” and couldn’t maintain itself any longer.

There seems to be a secret, there, Reivyn thought as the others came up next to him. Would it be possible to bypass Dungeons by siphoning the essence away from the Shades? How does that work? I’ve never run into a Shade that couldn’t maintain itself through the duration of its cycle, no matter how much energy it expended, though I’ve also never run into a self-aware Shade. That leads me to believe this Dragonling Shade is deliberately burning its essence.

If I had to guess, based on how the System has worked for me up until now, I would bet there is a way to siphon the essence, but it would self repair the ability to do so as it flies in the face of the purpose of the Dungeons.

But that thought leads to: what is the purpose of a Dungeon? The Dragonling mentioned the ‘hamans,’ as he calls us, built the System, so there should be a human purpose behind the Dungeons. I’m just going to go with face value, here, and that’s to test and reward the delvers. Until I learn something else, I’m going to go with that explanation.

Reivyn was satisfied with his thought process and turned his attention to his friends and family around him.

“Interesting stuff, huh?” Teilon quipped. Reivyn rolled his eyes.

“Of course it is,” he replied. “Would you have ever guessed people created the System?”

Teilon scratched the back of his head.

“I mean, I could have guessed it, but, you know, with no real evidence to support it.” Reivyn gave Teilon a deadpan look. “What? That answers your question, fair and square!”

“I suppose,” Reivyn lightly punched his friend in the shoulder.

“It makes a lot of the functions of the System make a lot more sense to me,” Refix said. “Why else would there be a floating network of ethereal screens, created from the Veridical Mana of the Realm, all connected to each other, who’s main purpose was to track Stats, Skills, and Classes? Couldn’t all that power behind it be used to do something far more grand?”

“I mean, according to the Dragonling, the System also reshapes reality itself,” Ameliyn pointed out, a slight teasing lilt to her voice as she poked her husband in the side. “It created the different Regions we all take for granted. I’m sure that requires quite a bit of power.”

“Yeah, yeah, semantics,” Refix waved her off with a smile. “It seems the main purpose is still to regulate humanity and other living creatures of the Realm.”

“Seems like it,” Reivyn shrugged. “It was truly fascinating to learn a bit about our true history, but that still leaves a lot of questions to be answered: How long ago was this, exactly? Where did humans come from before? How did they get here? Why was their ‘technology-magic,’ as the Dragonling referred to it, lost? Wouldn’t it make more sense to incorporate that into the System your building? It doesn’t seem like there are a whole lot of limitations with that amount of power, unless it was built into the System on purpose, but why would they do that?”

“It looks like you’ll have to continue to grow to impress the Dragonling if you want more answers,” Refix said. “Then again, it did tell us it didn’t have all the answers. We might never know the answers to some of our questions.”

“I think that’s perfectly fine,” Kefira chimed in, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear as she sidled up next to Reivyn. “It means we have something to investigate, and investigating can lead to completely unrelated discoveries.”

“I didn’t know you were into research,” Reivyn said, giving Kefira an appraising look. “Well, I knew you liked to research your Affinities and such, but I meant in the abstract way.”

“Of course,” Kefira replied. “Seeking the knowledge is just as fun for me as finding it, and I’ve just been on the precipice of really breaking through with my Space Affinity lately, so of course that’s what I’m going to focus on.”

“Eh, makes sense,” Reivyn gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Anyway, it’s about time we left the Dungeon.”

“What, you don’t like hanging out in caves?” Teilon smirked. “It seems like we’ve spent most of our lives in one cave or another.”

Reivyn cocked his head at his friend.

“Hmm, can’t really argue with that.” Teilon slapped Reivyn on the back as the two laughed.

The Party made their way out of the Dungeon, and as soon as Reivyn stepped through the portal, his System Notification blinked at him. He focused his attention on it to bring up the message.

[New Skill Unlocked!]
[Skills Tier 2: Strategy (40) and Tactics (52) and Tier 3: Battlefield Awareness (57) have merged together and Synergized with Tier 1: Dancing (41) and Rhythm (38)]
[Tier 5:]
[Rhythm of War (24)]

[Skills Leveled Up!]
[Tier 1:]
[Athleticism (80 ->88)]
[Dancing (41 ->44)]
[Observation (68 ->70)]
[Rhythm (38 ->49)]

[Tier 2:]
[Acrobatics (36 ->40)]
[Ambidexterity (33 ->41)]

[Tier 3:]
[Blind Fighting (53 ->54)]
[Night Vision (65 ->66)]
[Sense Threat (35 ->39)]

[Tier 4:]
[Spatial Awareness (78 ->82)]

[Tier 5:]
[Protection Prodigy (75 -> 85)]

[Tier 6:]
[Regeneration (26 ->27)]

[Tier 6.5:]
[Perfect Domain (19 ->20)]

Nice! Those are some decent gains, Reivyn thought. Getting a whole 10 points at once in Protection Prodigy is pretty good. I gained a lot of Skill Levels in a few different Skills. The Dragonling is truly the perfect sparring partner. I don’t know how it does it, but it perfectly blends the feeling of fighting for your life with knowing that you’re not actually in any danger, as long as you don’t monumentally screw up. The System seems to agree with it still being a life-or-death fight, too.

Rhythm of War must be the accomplishment the Dragonling was talking about. It’s either the merging of Skills that was impressive, or the fact that I unlocked another Tier 5 Skill. It doesn’t really matter which is which, honestly, and I don’t foresee myself doing something similar any time soon with the Dragonling. Maybe achieving Transcendence with Protection Prodigy will count as an accomplishment in its eyes.

Probably two more sessions will see me at Level 100 with the Skill, but I don’t even know what direction I want to aim for with Transcendence. We’ll have to wait and see once we get there. I don’t know how much longer we’ll be stationed at this fortress, though, and I promised to take a squad of soldiers along to see if I could help them last longer against the Dragonling to improve their Skills. I’ll take them next time, and I’ll act as the vanguard like now. We’ll see what happens after that.

I’ll need to select the squad of soldiers I’m going to take, too, and we’ll need to practice together so we can refine our group tactics together. I’ll take Yerrik with me and ask him for recommendations. I’m sure the general has a short list he wants me to consider.

“I take it you figured out what the Dragonling was talking about?” Refix prodded.

“Oh,” Reivyn came out of his rumination as his father patted him on the shoulder. He looked to his father with a sheepish expression. “Yeah. I unlocked a new Tier 5 Skill: Rhythm of War.”

The rest of the Party stared at him in silence for several seconds. Refix finally threw his hands up in the air.

“I can’t with this kid,” he said, shaking his head and walking off on his own. Ameliyn smiled at Reivyn, gave him a quick hug, and quickly followed her husband.

“Reivyn, bro, there’s like, something wrong with you or something,” Teilon said with a completely serious expression. “You just soak up these Skills like a desert in the rain. There’s got to be a limit to how much you can stuff in your soul.”

Reivyns first instinct was to brush his friend off, assuming it was a joke, but his serious expression gave him pause. Instead he seriously thought about what Teilon was saying.

“Huh, I’ve never really thought about it before,” Reivyn admitted. “I’ve always been like this, and if there is a limit, I don’t seem to be reaching it any time soon. We do know that soul strength has a direct effect on Skill Leveling, but does it also affect how many Skills one can have? It makes sense to me…”

“Yeah, I would just be careful. I don’t know if getting rid of a general Skill is possible, so if you do reach a hard limit, what are you going to do if it prevents you from getting a Skill you really want or need? What if the number of Skills hampers the Level of all Skills you can achieve?”

“Those are good points, but I don’t really know how not to do what I’m doing.”

“Well, maybe figure some of those things out before you go and deliberately aim to unlock more Skills.”

“That’s sensible,” Reivyn nodded his head. He cocked his head at his friend with a smile on his face. “Imagine that, Teilon is the one giving me such good advice.”

“Hah! I always give good advice,” Teilon smirked. “You just don’t usually recognize my genius.”