A reward never showed up. I waited around for ten minutes, leaving just before the sun dipped below the horizon, but nothing ever came. I didn’t know what that meant, but it turned the sour situation rotten.
The minutes ticked by, and the last flicker of twilight faded from the room. The emotional and physical exhaustion weighed heavy on my eyes, but I still had one more thing I needed to do. I closed my eyes and pictured what I wanted.
So far, I had felt both Basic Shield Proficiency and Basic Blade Proficiency guiding my actions. Earlier in the bathroom, I must have followed Basic Fate Binding without realizing it. That’s what the weird glowing strands must have been. Now more familiar with how skills worked, I should be able to summon the magic again and hopefully see my status.
I raised my hand in the air and listened for the promptings. Every few minutes I opened my eyes to check and, ten minutes later, still had nothing to show for it. I sighed and considered how it worked with my other skills.
Simply holding the knife or shield hadn’t been enough. I only received promptings once I had the knife or shield in hand and I was about to fight something. I needed an appropriate tool and an applicable situation to use it in. I needed a purpose.
Would any purpose do, or does it need to be combat-related?
I should try cooking with the knife in the future and see if promptings appear.
I wasn’t sure what Fate Binding’s purpose was, but it should be something along the lines of connecting to someone. At least, that was what Ami had said.
What would be the correct tool then?
I thought back to what had happened in the bathroom.
Were my hands the tool?
I focused on my outstretched hand and the desire to connect with someone. I felt the cool air on my skin and the slight fatigue in my muscles from gripping the knife. Keeping hold of those sensations, I relaxed my mind, letting my instincts guide me. I’d already done it by accident once. I just needed to do it again.
Nothing happened until a subtle thought suggested I shift how I was feeling. I followed along, and a vague awareness spread from my hand. Prompts trickled into my mind, and I couldn’t help but crack a smile.
I opened my eyes to see hundreds of faintly glowing strands sprouting from my hand, swaying through the air like hair underwater.
I waved my hand back and forth and watched the strands follow. A faint awareness filled the strands, like I had previously been trying to touch something off to the side with my ring finger, and then I suddenly remembered I had a pinky.
Magic?
This is mana?
Relaxing my mind, the strands broke away from my skin and faded away from their ends. I again flexed the new muscle in my mind, and the strands streamed from my hand once more. Excitement chased away my exhaustion.
I’m doing magic!
Real magic!
I can’t wait to show the boys how—
The mana sputtered to a stop. I pinched my eyes closed and tried to banish the thoughts from my mind. I rubbed Aurora’s back with a trembling hand.
Now isn’t the time.
I need to focus.
I wiped my eyes and ran a few experiments with the glowing strands. First, it seemed that nothing could interact with mana. My other hand passed through the strands as if they weren’t there. However, when I produced mana from both hands, the strands would change their gentle flow and sync up. They didn’t bump into each other but somehow still affected each other.
This led to a significant realization. I could control the strands with my will. It wasn’t precise control though. With a thought I could make all the strands point in one direction, but they moved slowly, as if a soft breeze caused the change.
The last thing I learned was how Fate Binding worked—or at least the general strokes. Once I had run out of ideas to test, I focused on the few prompts I was receiving. I didn’t understand the specifics, but my class wanted me to interact with someone else’s mana. It wanted me to somehow weave our mana-strands together. Anything more than that was speculation on my part at this point.
If I had to guess, I was supposed to fate bind with whoever I wanted to protect. I rested a hand on Aurora’s back. I needed to bind with her mana. I wasn’t sure how I would do that while she slept though. I activated the mana, and the strands passed right through her body as expected.
I sighed. It was just another thing I’d have to ask Ami about. I looked over at the empty bed beside me. With shaking hands, I laid Aurora on the bed and grabbed the other pillow. I pulled it in close and inhaled the faint scent of flowery shampoo. I couldn’t bring myself to think of her name. Every time I did, I pictured her lying there on the kitchen floor, and so I didn’t think of her at all.
I pressed the pillow to my face and sobbed, letting the pain I had been desperately holding at bay fill me. The hours passed. At some point, I latched onto Aurora’s breathing and drifted off to sleep.
The endless void surrounded me, dark and empty. I was nothing—without form or feeling. If I could have thought I might have been afraid, but the faint echo of the day’s pain suggested the void was preferable. I didn’t remember where the pain was, but I knew it wasn’t here. This wasn’t relief, but it wasn’t the constant ache of reality.
I sat on the couch once more, staring up at the ceiling. The sounds of pots and pans echoed in from the kitchen. The boys broke into laughter in the background. I pinched my eyes shut.
It’s not real.
It’s not real.
It’s not real.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Again, the overwhelming dread faded deep into my soul, sharpening my thoughts. Only the anxiety that I would, at some point, wake up remained. Ami sat in the recliner across from me, a small smile on her lips.
“Congratulations on completing the Second Trial. As the reward was A.M.I. related, I have been notified and can implement the reward whenever you are ready.”
Relief washed through me for a moment before being swept away by the dream. “Oh, that’s good. I was worried that...” I shook my head, pushing the needless concern from my mind. “Do I come here every night?”
“Only if you want to.”
“Is there a downside if I do?” I watched the edges of the room slowly solidify from the blurry mess they’d started as.
“Not inherently.”
I thought about my status, and it appeared in front of me.
= = =
Name: Daniel Atkins
Class: The Queen’s Champion
Synchronization: 0%
Skills: Basic Shield Proficiency | Basic Blade Proficiency | Basic Fate Binding
Constitution: 0
Intelligence: 0
Dexterity: 0
Strength: 0
Arcana: 0
= = =
It was all there.
“Why can’t I see my status when I’m awake?” I squinted at the zero percent synchronization. “And why is my synchronization still at zero? I definitely did some synchronizing before I fell asleep.”
“Your status is not available while you are awake. The status is managed by me but physically created by you, similar to the house.” She motioned toward the room.
I pulled at my sleeve, revealing red, irritated skin. “What about the numbers on my arm?”
“Since a test run in the 13,619th Planetary Games, attributes have been outwardly displayed, as it has shown to increase contender ambition and inter-contender contention. As for your synchronization, updates are only made in whole number values.”
“Implying what I did in the last few hours wasn’t enough to warrant even one percent synchronization?” I rubbed the back of my neck.
“Correct.”
That wasn’t a good sign. Admittedly, it was only a single fight against a weak enemy and I hadn’t really done anything with my magic yet, but still, it didn’t bode well. If tomorrow I were more proactive and managed to get one percent and then continued at that pace, it would take me over three months to fully synchronize.
It sounded like a long time, but a game show that wiped out the entire planet’s population probably took at least that long. Earth game shows could take that long to air, though I doubted it was a realistic comparison. “How long does the Game usually take?”
“The Game can range from a few days to several hundred years.”
“What? How is that possible?”
“Differences in species, game design, and viewer interest are the three largest factors leading to such variation.”
“What about this game though?”
Ami froze for a few seconds. “The expected timetable for the current Game is a few months to a few years. With potential extensions based on viewer interest.”
“Okay, that’s not so bad.” Even on the shorter end, I would still fully synchronize by the end of the Game, assuming I followed the goal of one percent a day. “Do you know how long it takes for someone to fully synchronize with their class?”
Ami froze for a moment before answering. “Based on the currently limited data, the average contender will fully synchronize with their Tier I class in twenty-one days, four hours, nineteen minutes, and thirty-seven seconds. More data is required for a more accurate estimation.”
A rock sank into my gut. That was way faster than one percent a day. A worm of doubt over selecting a challenging class wiggled into my mind, but that wasn’t the main thing that caught my attention. I leaned forward, elbows on my knees. “What do you mean by Tier I class?”
“A Tier I class is your initial class. It is what you have currently.”
“Implying what? That there’s a Tier II class out there I will get at some point?” I held my palm up and rubbed the capital “I” seared into my skin.
It’s not an ‘I.’
It’s a one.
“Once you have fully synchronized with your current class, you will be given the option to select a second Tier I class that will merge with your first Tier I class to create a Tier II class.”
“Does it stop at Tier II?”
“Potentially.”
“Potentially? What does that mean?”
“Each species has a unique biological limit to the amount of information that they can receive from an A.M.I. Previous testing has shown humans can receive two classes, but no research has explored anything past Tier II.”
I stared at Ami’s calm face and grappled with the implications of merging classes. “Why didn’t you tell me this when I selected my first class?”
“It was not relevant at the time.”
“What do you mean it wasn’t relevant at the time?” I burst to my feet and glared at Ami. “I may have chosen differently if I had known I was going to be merging multiple classes together.” I thrust my palm toward Ami. “What else haven’t you told me?”
“Lots.” Ami looked up at me, her expression calm and neutral. “I have access to the vast majority of the universe’s knowledge, but I am not omniscient. I follow a predetermined protocol, as I cannot predict what information you would find useful. Once you had reached full synchronization, I would have explained the pertinent details of class merging, as that is the time I have been calibrated to share that information unprompted. You have access to most of my knowledge but must request said information.”
Ami’s response stole the wind from my sails. She was just an AI. She wasn’t even really a she. There was probably some reason she sounded and looked the way she did, but I didn’t care enough to figure it out. I took a deep breath.
“Okay. Is there anything else important you can tell me then?”
“I have no basis on which to make the judgment call for what is important to you.”
I paced back and forth in front of the couch. “Ehhh, what can you tell me about the Games then?”
“The Planetary Games is a universe-wide event produced by Xelander Industries. During the Games the natives of a planet, known as contenders, compete for survival via a variety of methods, resulting in a final victor. The Planetary Games is currently on its 91,734th run and being held on a planet locally known as Earth. The event is broadcast to—”
“Alright, alright, enough of that, Wikipedia.” I waved at her to stop. Xelander owning the company that produced the Planetary Games was an interesting piece of information to file away, but that wasn’t what I was really asking. Although now that I thought about my phrasing, maybe it was.
It wasn’t Ami’s fault. I needed to narrow the scope of my questions. I thought back over all the information I knew, trying to remember if something specific was mentioned that I could ask about. I absentmindedly scratched at the hardened piece of couch fabric Brandon had burnt when he was five as I thought. Ten minutes later, I still didn’t have anything.
I can think on it and ask her another day.
I’ve got more important questions to ask first.
“Okay, next. For my Fate Binding skill, how do I bind with Aurora if she is asleep? Is there any way to get around that?”
Ami squinted. “Fate Binding requires two consenting participants and cannot be done while one sleeps.”
“Meaning I can’t fate bind with Aurora unless she’s awake.”
“You would not be able to fate bind with Aurora regardless of whether she was awake.”
My heart rate spiked. “What do you mean by that?”
“Aurora is not a contender and, therefore, was not connected to the A.M.I. like you were. She cannot produce the mana-threads necessary for Fate Binding.”
My stomach dropped. “But that’s...” I wanted to argue, to tell her it wasn’t true, but I didn’t even know what I would say. Deep down, I knew she was right. It made sense. I could call Ami a liar, but at that point I would only be lying to myself.
“Okay then, what about how she eats?” I paused, a lump in my throat. “Or is she just going to wither away?”
“Aurora will remain asleep until she dies.”
“What?” I clenched my fists. “There has to be something...” I took a shaky breath, a sliver of an idea in my mind. “Do you know how long she has?”
“I am not merged with her subconscious, so I can’t get an exact reading.”
“Give me an estimate then!” I spat out, harsher than I meant to.
“She wouldn’t have more than two days before she dies of dehydration.”
Two days.
Can I do that?
Can figure something out?
I have to.
My thoughts bounced around my head searching for a solution. “The reward... Ami, what about the reward from the second challenge? Could I bind with Aurora if I advanced my Fate Binding skill up from basic?”
“No, the same issue would remain.”
“Damn it.” I drummed my fingers against the couch. I ran through every second of the last day over and over again in my mind. The way to save her had to be somewhere within all the futuristic magical bullshit I’d witnessed today.
Futuristic magical bullshit...
“Hey, Ami, you said that mana is used to interact with the world, right? Could you go into more detail about how that works exactly?”
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