Acrion- Cascade

by Scott Seier

  She was still standing there. Only not. A haughty grin shown on her face, and her eyes shined an unsettling deep orange color. When she opened her mouth to speak, it was the foreign voice that came out. The voice of the controlling AI of Acrion...

  "So now I have a little bit of a pickle here, don't I? An NPC offered a player the key to metaphorical godhood, but the player turned it down. Then, the same player asks for something that doesn't even exist, instead. The rules say I need to let you take the seed if you want it, then again, I don't want that to happen. So, the logical answer is to grant you that which you want, but does not exist..."

  He was talking as if I wasn't even on the same continent as him. I was about to make a sarcastic comment about rude AIs but was distracted when I noticed that something weird was happening to me. I was shaking... tremors ran down my arms and a cold sweat broke out down the back of my neck and back. What the hell is this now? A pit formed in my gut and it felt like an army of butterflies had just been set loose inside me. A wave of nausea sent me to my knees. Why was I... scared? This was fear... I looked up at the possessed Saoirse and the feelings only increased. He was still chatting with himself. He didn't even noticed that I collapsed. No help there.

  I tried to focus, calm myself and regain control of my body, but it was a losing battle. It was like a wave of emotion had just hit me. Like a dam had just burst... I was drowning in it, but what the hell was causing it!? My need to know slowly began overpowering my need to empty the contents of my stomach on the floor. It was just lucky that I had nothing in my stomach at the moment. I began running through the weird disjointed emotions. It was like the feelings were carrying their own memories with them. Like a scent that you just knew was linked to something in your past, but you just can't put your finger on it. right when I felt like I was going to be able to overcome the crushing force of it all... it was gone.

  AI-Saoirse was paying attention to me again, his strange eyes visibly focusing on me. My mind was just... clear now. The echoes of trauma still rang like a bell inside me, but suddenly I just wanted to forget about the embarrassing moment instead of figure out why it had happened at all. The look on his/her face was bordering on intrigued. I staggered to my feet. "What...the...hell." I panted. The AI waved it off. "That, shouldn't have happened at all. You must have an abnormally high neural capacitance, my presence threw off your mind's balance. Interesting, only a very specific group of individuals have been affected by my influence in a similar way, but you show none of the other signs. Very curious. Anyway, I've come to a decision. I can set your race to Herald. I'll even add in an entire tier system just for you, but if we do this, all the secrets of the race that you may uncover will be classified as forbidden. That means no training Heraldic techniques to the highest bidder. As long as I don't catch wind of that, then we should be good." He smiled and extended a hand as if to shake. Vigil was completely silent, and all I had was my gut to go off of. Now that it wasn't filled with insane insects it was pretty firmly directing me to take the deal. Herald equals freedom. What more can I ask for. I grabbed his hand and shook it once.

  I expected a big flash of light or something, but there was nothing. Just a satisfied look on the AI's face and a nod of approval. "That all works out then. Seeing as humans are a permanent part of my world now, I might think about actually allowing them to become divine, someday. Maybe you'll be my test case. Prove that it can work out and maybe I'll give you a little something as a reward down the road. Maybe a ten or twenty years from now? It's all so exciting. Goodbye now." The cocky grin that had been firmly planted on Saoirse's face was suddenly gone, and in its place, I was left with a very confused Herald.

  It looked like she was just about to ask me something when her face slackened again and her eyes flared orange once more. "Also, I nearly forgot!" the AI's grin spreading over Saoirse's face once again. "Player, I have a small nugget of advice for you, nothing you need to heed, but I recommend that you take it to heart. Push forward, progress and better yourself. You may feel as if you have no power over your destiny, but there is nothing further from the truth. Take your future into your own hands."

  With that the smile faded again and Saoirse's eyes changed back to her normal green.

  I ignored her questioning look and the AI's last words. They were to be dealt with at a later time... I dove into my character sheet, excited to see what interesting bonuses being a Herald would grant me.

  Lyst

  Herald

  Level 17

  Summoner (Veil)

  Attributes available: 21

  112

  Strength-str

  Increases damage done with weapons and abilities that scale off of strength.

  Increases the amount of weight that you can carry before becoming encumbered.

  10

  Agility-agi

  Increases damage done with weapons and abilities that scale off of agility

  Increases your maximum movement speed and attack speed

  10

  Intelligence-int

  Increases damage done with weapons and abilities that scale off of intellect

  Increases your mana pool

  Allows the learning of spells (magical Abilities)

  10

  Spirit

  Increases the rate at which you regenerate health and mana

  Certain skills and abilities scale off of Spirit

  27+(2)

  Constitution-con

  Increases your health pool and resistance to status effects.

  10

  Stamina-stam

  Increases your stamina pool

  Increases the regeneration of STAM

  Increases how much physical activity you can do before exhaustion

  14

  Focus

  Increases your chance for a critical effect to occur

  Increases the precision of attacks and actions

  15

  Charisma

  Increases your persuasiveness and the rate in which NPCs (non player Characters) gain reputation and attitude.

  15

  None... That works too I guess...

  Confused, I was about to ask Saoirse what was up, but she beat me to the punch. "You..." she was looking at my chest with an unfocused gaze. "You have the core of a Herald now..." she said, confused, but also with a hint of wonder. A ghost of a smile becoming more and more real the longer she looked at me.

  "Yeah, about that." I said. Not wanting to break her out of her happy stupor, but very worried that I just used my chance to become a god and instead chose to get something that couldn't even help me. "Am I supposed to feel any different? Or is there a magic word, or spell to activate a heralds power?" Saoirse shook her head, her thick red hair rippling and shining even though there was no real bright light sources nearby. She refocused her sight and met my nervous gaze with an expression of bemusement.

  "The power of a Herald is not something that is intrinsic. It is built, cultivated." She nearly laughed at the crestfallen look on my face. Vigil was still staying uncharacteristically quiet, but I knew I was going to get about a million "I told you so"s out of him in the coming days. "It is a power that is weak in the beginning, but it is not a power that is without its uses." Saoirse said. She raised her hand and, after an instant of concentration, moved her fist at such a rate of speed that I saw it in two places at once, my eyes proving themselves wholly insufficient.

  The stone wall of the chamber twenty feet away burst as if a mining explosive had been detonated. A moment after the detonation Saoirse snapped her fingers and the shards of rocks were frozen completely in mid air. It was like an explosion in ultra slow motion. I could even see a perfect indentation of the Herald's fist two feet inside the wall. She had punched the wall and somehow skipped the outer layer and then frozen time to enjoy the aftermath. I did remember her saying something about having power over time and space, but the raw application of it threw me for a loop.

  Saoirse was watching me with
a satisfied smile on her face. "As a Herald you will be expected to grow stronger. We have had very few additions to our race in the last centuries and laziness is not a good enough reason to deny my family its newest member." I was almost insulted, but also couldn't help but remember the AI's words. Push forward. Take your future into your own hands. I nodded. "How do I get stronger as a Herald?" My tone was now more fixed. Maybe this wasn't the literal god mode that had been initially offered, but I'd be damned before I let something this unique slip through my fingers. The path less followed.

  Quest Alert!

  New Quest Added

  A Herald who never heralds

  Progress through the tiers of the Heraldic race

  The stronger you become the more this quest will adapt to continue to reward your progress

  Part 1: Reach Tier 5 as a Herald

  Reward: further training by Saoirse and the gifting of a Heraldic Weapon

  "As a Herald you are now tied to a realm of your own." She raised a hand at the smile that involuntarily spread across my face. "Don't get too excited about that, your realm is the size of the eye of a needle and devoid of any energy." The smile melted, as instructed.

  "Your job as a new Herald is to find a way to grow your realm into a space that you yourself could fit within." She extended a finger and poked the air. A ripple propagated from the point of contact and with a wave she opened a window into a huge cathedral sized room. It was of similar scope to the structure we were currently occupying, but its architecture was taken to the next level. Sculptures, carvings, furniture, artifacts, tapestries. Saoirse's realm was her own personal castle! Filled to the brim with treasures that she had collected throughout the ages. I gazed in wonder at the sight until she waved again and the window snapped shut.

  "Once your own realm is the size of...lets say, a broom closet? Where you could comfortably stand, or maybe sit for long periods of time, then you will begin to tap into the true powers of our race." I was very confused as to how sitting in an imaginary broom closet would give me powers over time and space and luckily Saoirse noticed the complete lack of comprehension.

  She sighed. "Look, once you can fold yourself into your own realm you can move it with you inside, or escape into it to avoid danger. You can use your realm to move through nearly any environment, even between other realms. This system is how we Heralds are able to do what we can do. Other than that, the complexity of your realm will dictate the amount of finite control you can exert over the world at large. With nothing but a dark empty room you would be hard pressed to freeze a mouse in space, let alone time, let alone a real threat of any kind.

  Adding complexity is simple, it only takes the time and effort to will it into existence or go and find it in the world and bring it back. Putting a magical tome in your broom closet would double your power, easily. But you would still fall short of being even slightly effective against a foe. This is something that must be cultivated over years to become fully viable for combat like the techniques I just exhibited. Simply put, your realm is a reflection of your heraldic power."

  It took thirty minutes, even with Saoirse's help, to find my realm. It was even smaller than the eye of a sewing needle. It was more like a point that was barely the width of a hair. It took another thirty minutes for the lady Herald to explain and demonstrate how to take mana and infuse it into a realm. As I finally succeeded with that lesson, moving a single point of mana from my internal reservoir into my little pocket dimension, a blinding explosion rang out and ripped the inside of my realm to shreds. My focus had been fully transported to within the completely dark mini-space, so the abrupt cataclysm jarred me as viscerally as if someone had set off a grenade in front of my face. My consciousness was ripped from my realm and I was on my knees, sweating and heaving, before I knew what was happening.

  "What.. The hell was that!?" I gasped. Worried that I had just destroyed my realm completely. Without waiting for an answer, I shoved my mind back into the tiny place, happy to see that after finding it the first time I had very little trouble locating it again. The space was like the inside of a hollow sphere, but now instead of being pitch black, I could see tendrils of uncontrolled power slowly looping around each other in what I could best determine to be the center of the realm. With the light the slow moving bolts of energy were casting I could see the fragments of the sphere that had been sheared off by the explosion were slowly returning to their normal state. It looked like a many layered cloth barrier with the first several layers having been ripped apart. I reached out and tried to soothe the aggravated boundaries of my realm. To my surprise and delight it responded to my healing intentions and the process was sped up many times over. I didn't withdraw my consciousness until I couldn't find a single damaged point in the entire perimeter of the realm. I had no idea how long it had taken, but weariness weighed on me as I came back to myself.

  "...ulate the amount of mana that is added into it." I shook my head. "Sorry, what?" I mumbled. Saoirse huffed out a breath. "I said that the first lesson of transfusing mana into your realm is to teach you that you need to take the usual three years to expand the space into a large enough area to hold even a single point of mana. And even then it is supremely important to regulate the amount of mana that is added into it." I nodded. Lesson learned, but the hell with three years. If a point of mana did that much damage to my inner space and the players were throwing around spells that took tens, or hundreds of mana to cast, then that really put into perspective how weak my Heraldic power really was and how quickly I needed to find a different way of progressing it.

  "Once you are able to maintain a single drop of mana within your realm then you will be classified as a tier 2 Herald. After that, you can use mana, instead of slowly forcing the realm to expand through will power alone. The process with accelerate from that point forward. Once you reach tier 5, which is when you can shroud yourself within the realm, then I can teach you about traveling properly. Until then..." Saoirse looked into the air with a longing expression. She returned her gaze to me and took a step back.

  "I believe that I have fulfilled the terms of our bargain, at least for the time being?" I nodded without hesitation. She really had, she didn't have to stay and show me what the hell was up with realms and all that stuff, but she had anyway. From my point of view she had exceeded all expectations.

  With a brilliant smile she cracked her neck and loosened her shoulders. "Fantastic. In that case I will take my leave. Good luck escaping this place, I recommend..." she casually waved her hand and an entire section of wall exploded, revealing a passage that had apparently been heavily concealed. "That way." She finished, as if the display of might was nothing worth gawking over. Not that I was gawking...

  I waved, not really sure where the two of us stood on the scales of friendship, but pretty sure that I was happier to have met her than never have had the chance. Then I remembered that she was a program and felt foolish.

  Saoirse waved back and then motioned for me to close my eyes. I didn't get the message soon enough though because when she erupted into a brilliant pillar of light and then folded space around herself until she was completely gone, I was left utterly blind. "Well then..." I muttered. Serves you right.

  Escape?

  The chancellor walked with purpose through the grand hall, away from the Leaders ceremonial chamber. He measured each stride to make sure he was emitting the maximum amount of authority with each step. The Leader had been...displeased with the prisoners escape, but once he found out that the whelp had been cornered within the great seal he had relaxed some. He'd casually ordered the chancellor to go and take care of the problem personally and that's exactly what the chancellor was intending to do, even though it was a duty far below his own station.

  As he turned off the grand hall and entered into the smaller tunnels that spread throughout the complex he was nearly bowled over by a group of six priests. Their arms full of scrolls piled above their heads.

  As
one of the priests nearly struck the chancellor, swerving out of the way and continuing on his way without even looking to see who he nearly ran over, one of the scrolls fell from his stack. The priest didn't seem to notice, disappearing around a bend. The chancellor was more shocked than angry. He had never been so ignored before. He stooped and retrieved the fallen scroll. Unfolding it, he saw that it was a powerful sealing spell...

  Not a minute later, another group of priests came sprinting from the direction of the archives, all of them carrying additional armfuls of precious scrolls. They moved past the chancellor without a second look, but as the last one passed a clawed hand shot out and snatched the rushing priest by the neck. "Unhand me at once!" the priest called out, but fell into utter silence when he saw who had plucked him from his duties. "What...is the meaning of this..." the chancellor said indicating the scroll he still held. Arachkidar's skin color was usually lightly tanned in color , but the chancellor noted that the priest's face grew paler by several shades at the question.

  "My lord. We are. I mean. The seal..." the chancellor shook the smaller specimen like a rag-doll. "You will tell me why you, your brothers, and your sisters are looting the sealing scrolls from our reserves. You will tell me now." His voice dripped with uncontrolled mana and some of that authority he tried so hard to project normally.