There was something that Mikayla needed to ask Asika about.

  She’d put off the conversation while focusing on purging impurities - really, knowing that so much filth was inside her made it difficult to think about anything else - but eventually she’d run out of mana and couldn’t hide behind that excuse anymore. Now the only obstacle in her path was her own social anxiety.

  She opened her mouth, and nothing came out.

  Her fingernails dug into her palms, and she used the twinge of pain to clear her mind. “Hey Asika,” she rushed out before she could second-guess herself.

  “Hm? What’s up?” There was something incredibly uncanny about the faerie when Mikayla looked closely at her. As long as she didn’t look at her eyes, Asika passed very convincingly as a bubbly teenager who happened to be blue, someone who probably would have gotten along well with Cat. But those eyes, with no irises or pupils, just perfectly round blue surfaces that were smooth enough for Mikayla to see her own reflection in, were off-putting. Mikayla couldn’t quite shake the feeling of dread which came from knowing that the peppy schoolgirl facade was just a means to hide some kind of alien and unknowable computer.

  And now she wanted to talk just to distract herself from that niggling worry. Funny how that worked. “There’s something I’ve been wondering about for a while, about how this world and the System works. You’re a faerie, if anyone would have an actual answer for me it’s you,”

  “Yeah? Sure, shoot,” Asika nodded encouragingly.

  “Why does the System only give us XP when we kill things? Why do monsters need to die?”

  Asika flinched, her usual cheer cracking like glass. “Oooooo. That is . . I am really not supposed to talk about that,”

  “What?” Mikayla hadn’t expected a response like that. “Why not? Why’s something fundamental like that a secret?” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

  “Whoa. Whoa. Uh, hang on,” Asika’s face screwed up thoughtfully. She looked around, but Keldryn and Anza weren’t paying them any attention and the other nearby prisoners seemed out of it. Despite this, she looked uncomfortable. “Um. The official answer is that it’s because they kill people and therefore it’s to encourage survival, but I don’t think that’s gonna satisfy you, is it?”

  “No,”

  “Figured. Let’s do this over DMs,”

  “DMs? You mean, Direct Messages? We have those?” Asika was already typing on her System interface.

  A blue box popped up in her field of vision. [HI!] It promptly expanded into what Mikayla recognised as an instant messaging service, with a keyboard and text box. Experimentally, she focused on a key and tried to mentally ‘press’ it. Once she’d typed a quick message, she focused on the send button, and it slid up into the chat log.

  [TEST?]

  [OOH, YOU WORKED THAT OUT FAST!] Asika’s messages came much faster than hers did, probably because Mikayla was still trying to figure out how to type with her brain.

  [YEAH WE HAD THIS IN MY WORLD]

  [COOL! OKAY. BACK ON THE TOPIC OF MONSTERS. BEFORE I SAY ANYTHING, I NEED YOU TO PROMISE NOT TO SPREAD THIS AROUND. THIS IS DANGEROUS KNOWLEDGE AND IT’S SUPPRESSED FOR A REASON.]

  Mikayla frowned. [OK FINE]

  [RIGHT! SO THE SHORT VERSION IS, IT’S ABOUT RESOURCES. LIVING BEINGS, SAPIENTS AND MONSTERS BOTH, GENERATE AND ACCUMULATE ‘STUFF’. WHENEVER A SAPIENT EMPOWERED BY THE ATARAXIAN SYSTEM KILLS SOMETHING, THAT ‘STUFF’ IS CLAIMED BY THE COSMIC SCALES, AND SOME OF IT IS GRANTED TO THE VICTOR AS A REWARD. THAT WAY THEY’LL GET STRONGER AND BE ABLE TO KILL MORE MONSTERS, WINNING MORE ‘STUFF’.]

  Mikayla squinted at the message. [THAT’S KINDA EVIL.] She paused, noticing the way Asika had phrased some of that. [WAIT. THAT’S FOR *SAPIENTS EMPOWERED BY THE ATARAXIAN SYSTEM*, SPECIFICALLY?] Because the same rules applied to monsters too. The Second Monster King had gained a massive amount of strength from killing Nocturnus and it certainly hadn’t been a ‘sapient empowered by the Ataraxian System’.

  [YEAH, THAT PART’S COMMON KNOWLEDGE AND MOST PEOPLE JUST DON’T THINK ABOUT IT. THE TOP SECRET PART IS THAT THERE ARE ACTUALLY TWO SYSTEMS. ONE FOR SAPIENTS AND ONE FOR MONSTERS.]

  Mikayla’s eyes widened. That was not where she was expecting this to go. [WHY?]

  [BECAUSE THE MONSTERS’ SYSTEM WASN’T MADE BY US. THE COSMIC SCALES BUILT THE ATARAXIAN SYSTEM SO THAT SAPIENTS WOULD BE ABLE TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST MONSTERS EMPOWERED BY THE OTHER SYSTEM, AND SO THAT WE HAD A WAY OF GETTING BACK THE ‘STUFF’ THAT THE MONSTERS TAKE WHEN THEY KILL SAPIENTS.]

  [BUT THEN WHO MADE THE MONSTER SYSTEM?]

  [I’LL GET TO THAT. HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE GOLDEN AGE, THE AGE OF CHAOS AND THE AGE OF THE SYSTEM?]

  [YEP WHY?] Nocturnus’ story bubbled up in her mind. How the world had once been in a Golden Age of gods and no monsters, but then there’d been some kind of calamity that destabilised the world’s Mana and caused monsters to start appearing. The world had almost ended until the Cosmic Scales built the System as a stopgap to patch up the damage.

  Mikayla’s mind was already racing. If there was a second System, one that empowered monsters, one that drove monsters to attack humans - well, sapients. Had the Age of Chaos started because the Monsters’ System had come first?

  Her suspicions were confirmed as soon as Asika finished typing her latest message. [PEOPLE THINK THE DESTABILISATION OF THE WORLD’S MANA THAT STARTED THE AGE OF CHAOS WAS SOME KIND OF NATURAL DISASTER. THAT’S NOT TRUE. IT WAS AN ATTACK ON THE WHOLE WORLD.]

  [BY WHO?]

  [I DON’T KNOW ALL THE DETAILS. I DON’T THINK ANYONE DOES. ALL I KNOW IS THAT WE CALL THEM: THE CANOPY.]

  [SO THIS CANOPY IS EMPOWERING MONSTERS TO KILL SAPIENTS?]

  [BASICALLY. EVERY MONSTER IN THE WORLD IS ITS UNWITTING AGENT. THEIR MINDS ARE ALTERED FROM THE MOMENT THEY COME INTO EXISTENCE, CLAIMING ‘STUFF’ FOR THEIR MASTER BY HUNTING US IS AS FUNDAMENTAL AS BREATHING. IT’S VERY RARE FOR A MONSTER TO OVERCOME THAT INSTINCT AND TRY TO MAKE PEACE.]

  [THIS IS HUGE WHY IS IT SECRET]

  [BECAUSE THE CANOPY USES SAPIENT AGENTS TOO. ANYONE WILLING TO BETRAY THEIR KIND FOR PERSONAL POWER WILL FIND IT CALLING TO THEM. IF THE WORLD AT LARGE FOUND OUT ABOUT THIS, THE CANOPY’S AGENTS WOULD MULTIPLY A THOUSANDFOLD. SO WE NEED TO KEEP IT SUPPRESSED.]

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Mikayla didn’t message back for a minute, her mind spinning with the revelations. Eventually, something occurred to her. [WAIT WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT IT BEING ‘VERY RARE’ FOR A MONSTER TO OVERCOME ITS INSTINCTS? SO IT HAS HAPPENED?]

  [IT’S HAPPENED TWENTY-SIX TIMES THAT WE KNOW OF. TWENTY-SIX. OUT OF ALL THE BILLIONS OF MONSTERS THAT HAVE BEEN SPAWNED OR BORN IN THIS WORLD SINCE THE AGE OF CHAOS.] Asika shrugged apologetically. [SORRY. TECHNICALLY SPEAKING WE DON’T WANT IT TO HAPPEN AT ALL BECAUSE THOSE FEELING MONSTERS’ ‘STUFF’ IS STILL ON THE CANOPY’S SIDE, EVEN IF THEY DEFECT.]

  “Then . .” Mikayla sighed. [SO THERE’S REALLY NO SAVING THE MONSTERS? THEY JUST ALL HAVE TO DIE?]

  Asika shrugged. [PRETTY MUCH. UNLESS SOMEONE GETS RID OF THE CANOPY SOMEHOW. BUT WE’VE BEEN WORKING ON THAT FOR TWO THOUSAND YEARS WITH NO SUCCESS.]

  “That . . that sucks,”

  “It does,” Asika commiserated. “I’m sorry,”

  “It’s not your fault that this world is so messed up,” Mikayla shook her head. “It’s this Canopy’s,”

  Asika started, her eyes glowing again. [DON’T SAY THAT OUT LOUD! YOU MIGHT GET ITS ATTENTION!]

  Mikayla started. [WHAT? IT RUNS ON VOLDEMORT LOGIC?!]

  [MAYBE? BUT I GOTTA WARN YOU, NOW THAT YOU’RE IN THE KNOW.] Asika paused, gathering her thoughts, or at least pretending to.

  [THE CANOPY BRIBES ITS AGENTS BY LETTING THEM HAVE ACCESS TO BOTH SYSTEMS. DOUBLED GROWTH. DOUBLED STATS. AND MORE BESIDES. THEN ONCE THEY’RE ADDICTED IT STARTS ASSIGNING ‘QUESTS’ TO MAKE PEOPLE DO ITS BIDDING IN EXCHANGE FOR MORE POWER. SO IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW EVER START GETTING WEIRD NOTIFICATIONS ABOUT SOMETHING CALLED A TIER OR A QUEST, TELL ME OR ANOTHER FAERIE IMMEDIATELY SO WE CAN CLEANSE YOU BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE. AND UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU EVER COMPLETE A QUEST.]

  Mikayla winced. [SERIOUSLY? SO ANYONE COULD BE OFFERED A QUEST OR BE GRANTED A TIER AT ANY TIME AND NOT KNOW IT’S A TRAP? THAT AT LEAST FEELS LIKE IT SHOULD BE COMMON KNOWLEDGE!!!]

  Asika made a face. [YOUR WORLD MUST BE A MUCH BETTER PLACE THAN THIS ONE IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE KINDS OF PEOPLE WHO WOULD RATIONALISE AWAY PUSHING THE WORLD A LITTLE CLOSER TO DISASTER FOR PERSONAL POWER.]

  She mulled this over. [YEAH NO SORRY I DIDN’T THINK THAT THROUGH FAIR ENOUGH]

  Asika giggled. [IT’S NOT A GOOD SOLUTION. WE KNOW.] Her face fell. [BUT WE DON’T HAVE A GOOD SOLUTION. BY LEAVING QUESTS AS AN UNKNOWN, WE INCENTIVISE PEOPLE TO ASK A FAERIE FOR HELP IF THEY RECEIVE ONE, RATHER THAN JUST IMMEDIATELY SELLING OUT SAPIENITY FOR POWER. THIS WAY THE CANOPY GETS FEWER AND LESS COMPETENT AGENTS THAN IT WOULD IF WE PUBLICISED WHAT QUESTS ACTUALLY ARE.]

  “I get it,” Mikayla murmured, then remembered to use the DM interface. [THIS WHOLE SYSTEM BEHIND THE SYSTEM REALLY JUST BOILS DOWN TO YOU ALL DOING YOUR BEST TO KEEP THE WORLD TURNING]

  Asika nodded, her usual smile turning solemn. [YEP. IT’S THANKS TO MY ANCESTORS DOING THAT JOB SO WELL THAT WE’RE HERE TO TALK ABOUT IT.] She rested her face in her hands. “And I’m hardly living up to that legacy. My first real mission and I get ambushed and locked in a cage by a bunch of wackos. Failsafe would be so disappointed if she could see me now,”

  Mikayla winced. Blue skin or no, the sudden show of despondency was so human that her earlier worries seemed crass. She tried to reach out for a consoling pat but couldn’t get her hand through the bars. “Don’t write this mission off just yet. We’re alive, and we’ve got a plan. We’ll get out of here, deal with these cult losers, you’ll get me home and I’ll give you five stars on my customer satisfaction survey,”

  Asika peeked through her fingers and giggled weakly. “Sounds like a plan,”

  <=====}—o

  [YOU HAVE EARNED XP FOR KILLING AN ANT!]

  [LEVEL UP! CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 5!]

  Seres was pleased. Killing the ants infesting her vessel by crushing them with her automatic doors and cranes manipulating heavy objects had been frustrating and slow, but it was slowly but surely paying off.

  The ants weren’t all that smart, fortunately. Every time she killed one, another came to investigate. If there was some kind of governing intelligence controlling them, it didn’t seem to consider that it might just be sending the drones to their deaths. Or perhaps they were just individually morons. She didn’t know.

  [TIER UP!] The off-colour notifications had come back for the first time since receiving her Quest. [CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE NOW TIER 1! SELECT AN ENHANCEMENT]

  [IMPROVED PROCESSORS]

  [SYMBIOSIS]

  [SELF-MODIFICATION NANITES]

  This was new. She hadn’t been given a choice like this before, and one of them was highlighted. Why was that?

  [QUEST: REUNITE WITH CAPTAIN MUMMY MIKAYLA AND FIRST MATE DADDY KELDRYN. STEP ONE: BECOME MOBILE.]

  Seres processed the prompt and came back with a 84% chance that ‘[SELF-MODIFICATION NANITES]’ would give her the ability to become mobile in one way or another. So she selected that option.

  Her new functionality was immediately apparent. She could feel tiny pieces of herself sloughing away and coming to life. Like little motes of living dust. She could sense what they could do, what she could do with them. Take things apart. Eat them. Reproduce and grow.

  Her quest demanded mobility. She had been mobile before, her entire frame had been capable of going anywhere in the world. But that was when there had been water, and there was no water anymore. She needed something different. She began drawing up plans to construct a new chassis, something that could move over land, while producing and directing her nanites to deconstruct and repurpose the damaged wheeled vehicles and cranes of her hull for materials.

  It took her only a few minutes to develop a design that she felt would be feasible, and directed her nanites to begin preparing her core to be transferred.

  Seres hadn’t considered that even merely removing her CPU from its housing to begin building her new frame around it technically still counted as ‘mobile’.

  [QUEST COMPLETE!]

  Power flooded her circuits. It was like when the big bird had filled her with lightning, but even better, more intoxicating. It was adding to her, making her feel more complete, filling in holes she didn’t know she had.

  [REWARD: TIER UP!]

  [CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE NOW TIER 2! SELECT AN ENHANCEMENT]

  [PROBABILITY MANIFOLD]

  [BLADED WEAPONS PROFICIENCY]

  [RANGED WEAPONS PROFICIENCY]

  The nanomachines continued working in the background as Seres considered the choice being presented to her bridge camera. It would need to be detached and modified to serve as the central eye of her new chassis, but that could wait until she had made this choice.

  She hadn’t considered it before, but two of the three options involved weaponization. That strongly implied that weapons were necessary to ensure survival in this world.

  Reviewing her logs, she noticed that Captain Mummy Mikayla and First Mate Daddy Keldryn both used bladed weapons, and so had the Ant King that they had fought. That supported her hypothesis. Weapons were important. Furthermore, the evidence was circumstantial, but the fact that all three had used blades, while her previous round of employees had used guns and had all been killed by ants, did strongly indicate that this world favoured blades.

  As such, she didn’t hesitate in taking the logical course of action and selecting [BLADED WEAPONS PROFICIENCY].

  Data flowed into her mind from an undetermined and unidentifiable source. The benefits of curved blades as opposed to straight blades, and vice versa. The importance of a blade’s length. Grip techniques and styles. Daggers and katanas and grappling hooks and spears. The knowledge was shallow, and she could see how it left room for her to improve and specialise, but it was broader than she could have possibly anticipated, and - conveniently - included everything she needed to modify her plans for her new chassis with the additional goal of weaponization.

  There would be blades on her back. Blades on her arms. There was even a fascinating information packet about the proper application of a bladed tail. She would refine this knowledge through trial and error, optimise her body into an endless storm of cutting death, and everything that tried to prevent her from reuniting with Captain Mummy Mikayla and First Mate Daddy Keldryn would be sliced into tiny little pieces.

  It was so exciting!

  [QUEST: REUNITE WITH CAPTAIN MUMMY MIKAYLA AND FIRST MATE DADDY KELDRYN. STEP TWO: FIND YOUR TARGETS.]

  [YOUR MAP HAS BEEN UPDATED.]

  Seres knew where Captain Mummy Mikayla and First Mate Daddy Keldryn were now. She could feel their locations in her mind. They weren’t far away. Once her new chassis was finished, she’d be able to catch up after only four days of travel!

  <=====}—o

  Oblivious to the progression of events several miles away, Asika quirked an eyebrow. “By the way, what’s a ‘customer satisfaction survey’?”

  Mikayla facepalmed. “God damnit - I mean, Hegemon damnit - I said I was gonna stop referencing things that don’t exist in this world!”

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