Jack woke up and stretched, once again sending his thanks to whatever deity was responsible for comfortable mattresses. He went about his morning routine and noticed the bag full of highly addictive and poisonous mushrooms sitting on his couch. Probably should get that to Rummi, he thought as he grabbed the bag and stepped outside into the metallic hallway.
He decided he needed to find Rummi and get rid of the bag and get some food before the day kicked off. He had a feeling it would be busy. He headed off towards the cafeteria hoping that he would run into someone on the way he could ask after Rummi with. He saw no one.
As he entered the cafeteria section of the vessel as luck would have it he saw Rummi sitting down at a table by herself staring over a tablet. He looked between her and the food counter as his stomach grumbled but decided he should offload the goods first.
“Heeeeyyyy Rummi. Got some stuff for you,” Jack said as he approached the table and unslung the bag from his shoulder.
The lady's long ponytail swung slightly as she turned her scaled face to glance at him briefly; with a shake of her head, she then looked back down at her tablet.
“Sorry, Jack, I am quite busy at the moment trying to prepare for a potentially very expensive and long expedition, one we barely have the resources to approach let alone maintain,” she said, the second half under her breath slightly. She shook her head once more and looked at him and the bag again.
“My apologies; please excuse me, that was rude. Is this from the rift you just left? What did you manage to find?”
Jack opened his bag and pulled out the four airtight pouches that contained his mushroom haul. Each bag seemed to have a built-in vacuum sealer. Once he had carefully placed the mushrooms inside the pouch he sealed them and pulled a tab. The pouches had shrunk in size significantly allowing him to fit more than expected in his small bag.
“Wraithcap… hmm a decent haul, Rigor toadstool as well. No Corpse-cloud puffball?” Rummi asked as she inspected each of the pouches with a trust for the packaging that Jack did not have.
“Ahh nah, I will be honest, the thought of touching those things scared me away from even trying. This is all I could manage. We saw some dark quartz but Monty said realistically we were not going to be able to get it out of the rift with just the two of us,” Jack said apologetically.
Rummi squinted her eyes at Jack slightly.
“Lord Montarg often forgets that we have bills to pay and how expensive it can be to run a vessel of this size. Any dark quartz you would have returned would have been worth 100 times these. Not to downplay this, I thank you for retrieving even this much, Jack. The bounty for this rift should cover our expenses and then some.” She ran her finger across each bag, seeming like she was tallying up items.
“Okay, that would come to 175 credits for the Toadstool and 200 for the Wraithcaps. Your cut would be 10%. I can transfer you 37.5 credits now if you would like?” Rummi asked.
Jack was a little confused, obviously there had to be some universal currency and they had mentioned credits before. He had a lot of questions.
“Umm sure, I am sorry I don’t have like a bank account or anything set up yet… so maybe just hold onto it for me?” Jack said.
“I am going to assume that was an attempt at humour? Did Master Turrel not teach you about economics yet? You should know this before you are set free on the universe,” she said with a slightly disapproving look in her eyes.
“Master? Damn Master Turrel. Umm no he didn’t get around to that. I thought you knew but I have only been here like … three weeks? Could you give me a quick rundown?”
The look she gave him was strange, he wasn't sure if her scales threw off his senses or if she was both relieved and upset at his revelation.
“I am not one for teaching, talk with Master Turrel for more. I will say that agreements or bonds are special to the Origin, those at the centre have learned to use that to help manage the universe. Credits are managed and overseen by the Origin. No transfer of purchase can be made with them in bad faith or without both parties' open, uncoerced consent. Severe repercussions come to anyone who tries to do otherwise,” Rummi said. For all her talk of not wanting to teach, there was a certain excitement Jack could sense from her as she continued obviously passionate about the subject.
“It is not the only currency used in the universe but it is universal, any inducted lifeform is able to earn or use credits. The closer to the centre you go the more heavily integrated credits are in day-to-day life. There is money to be made in trading with newer inducted planets because of this. Now I think for the sake of this knowledge and demonstration a fair price would be 2.5 credits. Would you agree to that, Jack?” Rummi asked, a knowing smile playing on her face.
“I have no idea Rummi, but sure I trust you wouldn’t be out to cheat me. A poor ill-informed and clueless new inductee.” Jack had an idea of what she was attempting to do, or maybe he was overthinking the situation but hopefully that threw a bit of a spanner in the works for her. Instead of a frown she smiled.
“Good, good. There may be hope for you yet. Either you are brighter than you seem or you are very lucky. That transfer would no longer be allowed; however, if you had simply agreed then the Origin would have allowed it. The caveat for “bad faith” is only relevant to protect people in situations where someone is knowingly taking advantage of someone else.”
“As we hopefully just demonstrated there is nuance here. If I operate on the assumption that you know how this works and are informed enough to accept a deal I offer, there is no problem. By confirming or vocalising that you are new and do not understand, I am no longer able to maintain that assumption and the deal would be in bad faith. Remember this lesson as much as whatever Master Turrel teaches you, people adapt and merchants will still find a way to believe they are offering you a good deal while robbing you blind,” Rummi said.
“Now I am busy, I thank you for the requested items and for assisting Lord Montarg in closing D-1-SRD-9456. The bounty will help restock the vessel nicely.” Rummi's eyes focused sharply on him.
“I have no idea how you managed that with the supplies you took into the rift but Lord Montarg has assured me answers in the future in exchange for my silence now. Now I will transfer you your 37.5 credits for the materials, please confirm you accept.” She said. Jack felt a slight tingle in the back of his mind.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Before he acknowledged it, he decided to try something out.
“Thank you Rummi, I graciously accept. However, I would like to revise the figure to 35 credits. I do believe if you could give me a better idea of what the value of a credit is, it would be well worth the 2.5 credits.” Jack winked.
Shaking her head she sighed and nodded.
“Trouble. Fine. In the centre regions a generally accepted wage for a normal civilian is approximately 10 credits per day. For someone like yourself at Tier 1 working as part of the crew, you would be looking at the same while you were on vessel. Days spent in an active rift would be at about 25 credits per day instead. Is that sufficient?” Rummi asked, looking down at her tablet now.
Jack felt the itch change slightly; he nodded to Rummi and then acknowledged the sensation; as he did information pulsed in his mind.
STATUS
—--------------------------------
Name: Jack Davies
Race: Human
Age: 33
Origin: Earth
Modification Level: Tier 3
Shards Consumed: 9
Shards Required: 15
Credits : 35
“Oh, that's neat. Oh, also, what is the going day rate for a crew member at Tier 3 or is it the same?” Jack asked as he skimmed his updated status.
Rummi looked sharply at him in a motion that caused her hair to swing behind her slightly.
“Tier 3? Just a hypothetical I assume? That would be something that would need to be discussed with Lord Montarg. Probably the same but with added benefits otherwise if further modification was a goal.”
Rummi made a face as she glanced between the tablet and Jack, then she shooed him away.
“Go now. As much as I want to investigate further, I have no time now,” Rummi said.
Jack smiled to himself as he took the hint and walked off to get food. He would go find Turrel as soon as he finished eating.
No sooner had he finished his first bite of food than Lord Montarg himself walked through the doors and gazed in his direction. He took one step towards Jack before he realised who else he had seen and decided it would be better to gingerly step towards Rummi first. The Squamari woman had not lost eye contact with Monty since he entered.
Understanding his eating time was now limited he attacked his meal with a renewed vigour, finishing while Monty was still being held captive by business.
Deciding who he wanted to stay on the good side of, Jack sighed and accepted that Rummi may never like him. He stood and approached the table aiming to interrupt to save Monty.
“Ahhh Jack, great timing. I have heard from Lord Montarg that you are going to assist us somehow in alleviating the financial burden of this express expedition. Given our recent economics discussion I am doubly intrigued now,” Rummi said, tapping a stylus on her chin. She gave a disapproving tilt of her head as she looked at Monty and then shook it.
“One of the huge class backup crystals should offset the expenditure, we still need to report in to an official to claim the bounty. All this will do is push the ball down the road a little. We need income Lord Montarg, not just to offset costs. People need to be paid.” Rummi waved both of them away as she turned back to her tablet and began tapping away again.
Monty took the opportunity and rose, leaving quickly and quietly with Jack in tow. As the two men silently exited the cafeteria and continued down the hallways Monty turned to Jack.
“Sorry. It is a lot of work running and maintaining a vessel of this size. Rummi takes care of all the details so I can punch things. Sometimes I need to do the responsible thing, so that I can justify punching things that cost a lot of money.” Monty shrugged his shoulders.
“Now that means I do need to rely on you a little bit now, Jack. I feel bad as we talked about saving you from a fate of doing exactly this but… I would really appreciate it if you could help me charge a few of our larger power sources… again?” Monty asked.
Jack pursed his lips as he delayed his response. He would help of course, it literally cost him nothing other than his own time. Time which honestly he could use to sort his thoughts out and slow down the rush of events in his life.
“Okay, but you are going to have to answer a few questions about where we are going and why the rush? Also, are you going to teach me to charge these crystals myself or is there a reason why not?” Jack asked.
Monty snorted. “Jack, we have been trying to teach you. For some reason you still can’t wrap your head around the [Imbue] skill. That's all we use to store mana in the crystals, get to training once we are done and you can feel free to do this yourself,” Monty winked at him.
“But yes of course. I briefly mentioned the rules the centre has about newly inducted galaxies correct?”
Jack nodded, he remembered Monty mentioning it slightly when they first visited the vessel.
“Ok well, there are two phases to this exclusionary period that happens. The first is when the ‘Overseer’ arrives and ensures that the inhabitants are able to adapt without a massive power imbalance destroying the planet. Depending on the lifespan of the inhabitants this period can vary but is generally one or two centuries,” Monty mentioned as they turned right down another hallway.
“During that phase no outside intervention is allowed at all, whether assistance for rifts or trading, etc. The second phase maintains the ‘Overseer’ but the borders open up a little so to speak. The choice of engaging with the wider universe is left to the planet's leadership to decide. Visitors are allowed if approved by the Overseer and meetings with the leadership are possible.” Monty shook his head.
“This is all stupid politics, Jack. I hate it, I’ll keep it as simple as I can. Greed and hubris is what happened. This planet is a dry world. They have two suns and water has always been an issue. Lo and behold, a rift formed within their universe that just happened to have the ice frequency as its primary.”
“For years they have maintained an operation around the rift and were extracting mana, storing it in crystals and returning it to their planet. Normal and expected. The issue is that the rift evolved to Tier 2 about 20 years ago. This meant the danger increased, they believed they could continue their operation indefinitely. Their world had prospered, water no longer being an issue their population had grown and they were thriving.”
Monty stopped and looked at Jack for a second very seriously.
“The issue here is that the rift broke. Now this is important Jack. A rift can either ‘Evolve’ or ‘Break’; what the trigger is we do not know. But only one of these things can happen.” Monty shook his head, and Jack thought he might have heard his teeth grind.
“So when the rift broke, it should have been Tier 2, something that would still be dangerous but manageable at the level this planet is at. But when it broke and new readings were taken, the rift was categorised as a Tier 3.” Monty let out a sigh as they continued to approach the core room, Jack could hear the hum of the engines getting louder as they walked.
“Jack, the difference between a Tier 2 rift and a Tier 3 is massive. A Tier 2, it is similar to what we experienced, that rift was in the process of evolving I suspect. What makes them more dangerous is that riftspawn have abilities more often.”
“At Tier 3, all riftspawn will have at least one ability. There will be a strong chance of evolved varieties of those creatures as well. And the Rift Guardian will be in a completely different league, I would be wary of facing it alone without studying and understanding it in more detail,” Monty said as they approached the first set of doors.
“Damn, that sounds bad,” Jack mumbled, trying to make it all make sense. The rift was likely in the middle of space. Even scared as they might be, the riftspawn would not be much threat floating in space, right?
Monty looked at Jack, noticing the blank expression on his face and he paused for a moment.
“Ok Jack, imagine for a second if a small mini portal opened up in the middle of one of your cities. Then out of it jumped ten of those evolved riftspawn. That is what we are talking about here, Jack.” Monty said with a grave face.
