Given familiarity those from a techno-world believe they already have with the UICI, new arrivals often believe they have landed in a reincarnation story wherein they are some form of “chosen one” and will learn a cheat skill and proceed to change the entire multiverse. Part of this belief assumes that milestones are a one-way journey. After all, what satisfaction will a player gain from a video game if their hard-won progress may be lost? What drama’s author would remove capabilities from their heroes due to something as simple as stagnation or doubt?

  

  Naomi

  Concourse, Passenger Hold, Wesnmen’s Coallition Trading Barge

  

  Rushing through the long metal hallway connecting the passenger hold to the central part of the space vessel, Prism reviewed the brief skirmish with the orcs. She suspected that System had been understating when he said the battle would have been bad without his simulations. He didn’t say how many he’d run, but if it was enough to give him a migraine she knew it hadn’t been a small number. She’d helped him test it a couple dozen times over the course of a day and he hadn’t had more than a slight headache.

  There were several issues. First, her lack of actual combat experience. If System’s trick hadn’t managed to distract the first orc, she’d never have managed to take him down. She glanced at her still-bloody fingers, the shockingly uniform floor and walls sliding across her peripheral vision as she followed Chavan. Brown-green squirmed within her soul momentarily. She rubbed them again on the pants of the replacement jumpsuit, which looked only slightly different from the one she’d originally arrived in and had been stuck in for the last month or so. Ignoring the metal clanking their utility boots made on the ship’s floor, she continued her analysis of the fight.

  System saved me with his trick spell with the first orc. Then he directed Chaven and I in a way that lead to us working together to kill the second. Meanwhile, he was able to kill the last two on his own. The only positive note I can give myself for that combat is that I’ve now field tested the shielding potential of my mana.

  Still not knowing any actual spells or abilities, Prism felt as though she was using her mana as a baseball bat where System and Phoenix used theirs like precision tools. The problem was she didn’t have Willow’s seemingly endless talent, nor the assistance from a game-like system that System did. All she had was the oddly empty mana which, so far as she’d found, appeared to be endless.

  Seeing Chaven slowing, she slid to a stop beside him. Another airlock door stood before them. This time Prism took command, sending through the party chat, System, I’m bait. You’re on the left, Chaven’s on the right. Stay beside the frame so they can’t see you immediately.

  Lifting the too-large blaster which she’d been balancing on her shoulder up, it started to fall as its heft was too much for her to balance. Reluctantly, she channeled some of the xp from the previous fight with the orcs toward her body. At first, she’d been unable to send any toward her physical form, but she’d since adapted. It had been a matter of strengthening her mental image of her soul nexus. Even now, it was unpleasant to acknowledge the curled husk of a woman’s form which floated in the very center of the nothingness. The representation of her physical body was emaciated to the point of looking skeletal, knobby arms wrapped around scrawny knees in the fetal position.

  Watching some of the stardust which which had slowly been flowing toward her distant stars, Prism watched a tendril swirl around the body before pressing into it. The pathetic image of skin and bones expanded slightly, becoming skin, slight muscle, and bone. The gun’s barely controlled fall toward the floor slowed but the muzzle wobbled even as she pulled the stock hard against her shoulder and balanced the barrel with her left hand.

  Feeling the weight of the gun was still too much, she sent another stream into her muscles, bolstering her strength and resilience further. That’s enough. She stopped as soon as she felt the gun steady. She believed she’d be able to fire the weapon without it throwing her or shattering her shoulder.

  A red rimmed turquoise eye had been staring at her throughout the entire process. Seeing her stable and ready, Chaven bobbed his head and moved into the position she’d indicated. Taking his time, he positioned himself carefully against the wall where anyone on the opposite side of the opening airlock wouldn’t immediately notice. He lifted his own orc gun effortlessly, resting it atop his outstretched left wing facing at an angle with the muzzle facing to the left of System who was crouched low in the opposite corner. Once ready, Chaven bumped the shoulder area of his wing to the panel.

  A hiss sounded out as the airlock slid open. The previous eerie silence which had been broken only by their footsteps was shattered before it had even opened all the way. Screams, shouts, explosions. Sound reverberated around them in a deafening cacophony. Seeing the pained expression on System’s face and the way Chaven’s eyes narrowed, she was certain they found the clamor as unpleasant as she did. Sending her mana out, she formed the cloud in to a thin mist which covered a large area around them. The cloud formed with her intention to fill with loud noise.

  Immediately, the overwhelming sound quieted to a reasonable level. Sound still pierced through the cloud, but only the ones which weren’t deafening. The distinction was what saved them from an ambush, as both System and Chaven had started to break from their positions, likely acting on some instinct to learn what it was all coming from. Hearing the sound of large boots slamming against the metal flooring, Prism sent a simple, “hold!” through the party channel.

  They froze before revealing themselves, allowing the three orcs to rush in. It seemed they intended to surround Prism, likely hoping to intimidate her into submitting into their tender care. She opened fire.

  Six encounters later, Prism was exhausted. Her mana had fed so much chaotic noise into her soul nexus that it seemed to hum, the air itself turned into a constant sonic vibration. Thankfully, they’d met up with a group from the original crew. Six goblins led by an older goblin with orange skin splotched with bright yellow patches. Prism couldn’t remember her name, but she’d immediately acquiesced when Chaven demanded they escort him to the ship’s captain.

  The look System sent her way would have been enough to get his exasperation across, but he followed it with a private message through his party ability. “You’d think that, maybe, he’d re-prioritize to helping save the ship for now.” She hadn’t known he could send private messages.

  Blinking away the fuzzy darkness trying to encroach on the edges of her vision, she followed the group of little goblins through the latest blast doors. The last several hallways and rooms they’d passed through hadn’t had airlock doors: the kind with multiple hissing and twisting, layers. Instead, they were several inches of some kind of magical metal which was entirely un-scarred, despite Prism having seen them take multiple blasts of red blaster bolts. Bolts which flashed through air, objects, creatures, and armor just as easily. The weapons were absolutely terrifying.

  “Naomi. Naomi… Prism!” Her attention snapped back to reality, eyes raising from where they’d been fixated on the ridiculously powerful gun she was now carrying around like it weighed nothing. The thing was probably comparable to a rocket launcher, but without the collateral. The world was shaking. System said something else, but she wasn’t able to process it. He waved and seemed to argue with the orange goblin. She wondered if she should shoot it.

  Why am I so tired? System has done just as much, more, probably… It was baffling. Until she heard two soft thunks and the vibration within her soul stopped increasing. In a sudden moment of clarity, she pulled her mana back. Nothing changed, except a strain she hadn’t even noticed was lifted.

  “Better?” System asked, moving close to look into her eyes with concern. “You look like you’re in pain.”

  Am I? She shook her head, “I just feel tired. Worn out.”

  “Thanks for keeping our ears from exploding, but you can call it quits for now.” A smile flashed across his face, “There should be ear protection of some kind in here. Right Jaxa?” The last was directed toward the leading goblin.

  The leader of the goblins scowled, “Yes, yes. You could have just let us all put sonic dampeners on and then have her release her spell. Then we wouldn’t be stuck in here for the next half hour.” Her voice was dripping acid and anger, which probably meant she was a bit annoyed knowing goblins.

  “Half an hour?” Prism asked System through the party chat.

  Unexpectedly, Chaven answered, “This is an equipment locker, but it’s also a panic room on a ship following goblin standards, yes. This means the ship section will be sealed for at least thirty minutes, or maybe, maybe, as many of three weeks. To open it early, a ranking officer has to provide authorization, yes. In our case, Jaxa is of sufficient rank!”

  “That seems like a very bad design. We’re stuck here now, while more orcs can get in position to ambush us?”

  “Yes, yes but no. The design isn’t without merit. The orcs probably have a time table to get in and get out with everything they can, can. They’re a normal pirating force from what I’ve seen, yes.” The avron didn’t sound overly concerned. His tone was mostly relaxed, though she noticed his speech was a bit less simplistic than normal.

  Neither she nor System interrupted, but both turned to stare at Chaven, silently requesting him to continue. He obliged, though as he did Prism noticed Jaxa and a few of the other goblins giving her and System strange looks. “When, when a goblin ship is captured all non-warriors go, go to panic rooms. When there are no warriors left the ship will seal, yes. Once sealed the ship will vent all atmosphere and very dangerous, dangerous, self-defense spells will activate, yes. Beings outside a panic room generally do no survive a goblin ship in lock-down, no.”

  “Oh.” System said, then continued slowly, “Then should we just wait here until that happens before finishing our job?”

  The sharp snap of Chaven’s neck as he twisted to stare balefully at him was answer enough. To drive it home he asked in a calm tone, “Do you ask if we should do less than our best, best, effort?”

  “Uhhh… No.” He answered lamely. “Good, good! Then equip, equip!”

  Taking the bird’s advice, Prism turned and looked around the room. As the name equipment locker implied, it was entirely filled with rows of floor to ceiling locked shelving. Now that she’d stopped pulling new noise into her soul, she noticed it wasn’t really dissipating so much as just compressing and evening out within the boundary of her nexus. The entire space felt like someone had turned an old-fashioned TV onto the static channel, then turned the volume up as far as it’d go.

  “Can you open these so we can get something?” She heard System ask. Answered by a flurry of curses and vitriol which, boiled down, translated to, “No.”

  Walking around the room, Naomi examined the lockers to see if there were any open. There was one, beside an inset floor to ceiling mirror, but it was empty.

  Prism placed her pointer finger near the edge of one of the lockers and sent a small tendril of her mana-cloud between the seam. This time she released some of what was within, similar to what she’d done when fighting that first orc. The entire locker groaned and twisted, the room filled with not only the sound of twisting pained metal, but also the unstructured screech of loud noise.

  Glancing toward the majority of the group, all huddled in the middle of the room still, she saw them giving her various angry looks. Shrugging, she tried again and again. Each locker took less damage, protested less. Each time she changed the sound a bit more as she released it. She wasn’t even entirely sure how she was changing it, other than knowing that it wasn’t so dissimilar to changing the way she was breathing or the way her tongue moved as she spoke. After the fifth twisted locker, Prism saw an angry Jaxa stomping toward her, fury on her face.

  Prism knew that Jaxa would likely demand that she stop breaking stuff she didn’t own. A request she could hardly argue. She tried once more before she could get there and the locker door opened with a soft click. Maroon bubbles flickered around in the humming air of her soul just as Jaxa arrived and began to angrily berate her.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Although Prism did her best to pay attention to the goblin’s furious lecture, it was difficult. As Jaxa screamed and ranted, most of what she said was entirely unnecessary. Five minutes of screaming was easily summarized to, “Stop breaking our stuff! It’s expensive!” System had made his way over during the tirade. Looking a bit concerned but unsure what to do, he’d just stood there a couple steps away from the pair of berater and beratee.

  Once the goblin leader stopped to catch her breath, Naomi spoke carefully, “I apologize, but I thought the reason we came here was to get equipment. We can’t do that if it’s all locked away.”

  Looking exasperated, Jaxa began screaming again. Condensed, she said, “We came to get sonic dampeners, idiot! They’re all in that unlocked bin over there with other cheap utility items!”

  “Oh, sorry. I did go through all that work, though, would you mind if I just….” She turned to look toward the final locker door, which hung just slightly ajar. The angry fire snapped out as the goblin broke into hysterical laughter. Seeing she wasn’t going to stop anytime soon, Prism took it as agreement and opened the door to see what she’d earned.

  Within was what seemed like a bundle of white cloth. Pulling it out, Prism was impressed with how soft and light it was, especially considering how thick the fabric seemed to be. It was sturdy material, but cut and stitched so elegantly as to look delicate.

  Shaking the dress out, Naomi found herself absolutely enchanted. It reminded her most of some of the Victorian dresses she’d seen in games and movies. The creamy white dress had loose flowing sleeves, was cut to give the illusion of layers upon layers, and the light material trimming the sleeves and hem seemed almost to float as she moved the garment around.

  Not giving anyone a chance to object, she quickly began removing her jumpsuit so she could put on her new beautiful white dress. Realizing she needed two hands, she tossed it to Jonah with a, “Hold this for a moment.”

  Jaxa laughed even harder as Jonah started sputtering and protesting, something about going behind lockers. Then his voice choked off with a gasp, “Prism, you found a…” He stopped, switching to the party channel instead.

  “This is a soul bound item.” He finished, excitement clear. “If it wasn’t a dress I’d definitely bind it. Soul bound stuff is always incredible.”

  “True, true. Take care, care though. If the goblins know what it is, they’ll probably protest. Yes, yes!” Chaven’s cheerful voice cut in. Apparently Jonah - System, we’re still on an operation. Until we’re off the ship at least. No one besides Chaven even know our real names. - hadn’t done the private voice thing again.

  Finished removing the bulky jumpsuit, Naomi stepped forward to snatch the dress from Jonah and threw it over her head, letting it fall over her and slipping her hands into the sleeves. It was soft and luxurious, comfortable. Though, it clearly didn’t magically form to her to create an illusion of womanly charm. The comfort was enough, though. Not to mention how clean it smelled, like a field of flowers.

  Before she even finished pushing her arms through the sleeves, scrunching them up ever so slightly so her hands could poke through their ends, she felt something odd. A kind of gentle, innocent, prodding which felt like it came from outside the vast emptiness that was her soul nexus, she curiously invited it in. The entire dress shimmered brilliantly for a moment.

  Looking down at the sight, Naomi’s lips turned up slightly in delight as her entire inner world turned violet and blue. As the shimmering ended, she saw a bead of the darkest black which seemed to seep from her heart like ink. The blotch rapidly expanding, like dye striking water, in tendrils. Then the tendrils themselves grew. In the blink of an eye, her gorgeous white dress had become midnight black.

  Turning and walking mechanically toward the mirror she’d passed, Naomi’s empty eyes stared at herself. The black dress hung from her lanky form. A strand of the dark material had become a choker which held the garment up, as it was too loose for her figure. Similar bands had tightened themselves around her forearms, allowing the flowing sleeves to flap and sway, without falling past her hands.

  Teal and crimson colored her buzzing soul like a sunrise.

  As she stared at her reflection, a ding rung out in her head and she saw the blue glass-like exclamation point in the corner of her vision indicating a UICI alert. Focusing on it, a message popped up.

  

  *Hi Naomi! You won’t believe it, but I’m alive! Crazy, right? Well, hopefully someone told you that I’d be coming back already. Apparently it’s super common for people to just keel over then pop back into a respawn room. Anyway, the city on this planet is crazy! You won’t believe it. You said you lived in Chicago right? Yeah, like Chicago would probably be considered a hamlet or something here. Some of these buildings are the size of New York City by themselves, I swear!

  Also, I met Luzzi officially. She’s the one who originally hoodwinked you into signing a bunch of your after-life’s start away. Well, one of her illusions was responsible? I don’t know exactly how her ability, or is it a spell, works?

  Urgh, I’m exhausted so I’m rambling. I’ve also never been great at emails and stuff. I’m more of a texter, you know? Anyway! I miss ya already and can’t wait to meet back up to take on more giants and fae story tellers or whatever’s coming next! I have no idea if you’re staying on that planet, I actually don’t even remember its name whoops. If you are, could you try to send a message back so I know I should come get you and Jonah (Kent)?

  Love ya girl, keep your head up and remember to tease Jonah lots! (He’ll get full of himself otherwise). See you soon!

  P.S. We’re sparing next time we meet, you’d better get ready! }:-) *

  The sunrise gave way to a comforting wind of blue and gold.

  

  Willow

  The Entrepreneurial Adventure’s Emporium, Farcem City, Motrendi

  

  “Do I have to try it on?” Willow did not whine to Luzzi.

  Ravavka snickered, “Don’t think I’ve ever heard a human woman complain about shopping. Especially for free.”

  Casually sending a side-kick at the pest, Willow wasn’t surprised when he effortlessly dodged.

  “I’m afraid you must.” Replied Luzzi, rubbing the side of her face.

  Groaning, she picked up the massive pile of gear they’d gathered. She liked shopping. Shopping was fun. She did not like trying things on in stores. It’d always been annoying. There was no rationale behind it, no reason. It wasn’t like Willow had a problem against trying stuff on in general.

  She’d had a lot of fun nights with Vash and Whitney as a teenager trying stuff from the later’s ridiculously comprehensive closet. One of her spring cleaning rituals was to go through all of the clothes she owned, tried it on, decided if she wanted to keep it or toss it, and move on. She enjoyed all that.

  Slouching into the changing stall that a tall, insect thin, four-eared man directed her to, Willow resigned herself to her fate. Pulling off the standard issue jumpsuit, which was apparently a kind of gift from the gods, she tossed it into a pile on the little knee-high bench provided. Quickly, she tried on one outfit after another.

  In the end, she picked two casual outfits which pretty much mirrored what she’d wear on chill days on Earth. White tank top with soft denim shorts for one, and a graphic T and leggings for the second. The T was great, it had a caricature of a paavaras staring out and a caption. The paavaras on the shift was away more skrungly than Luzzi and she thought it might be a male. Regardless, the caption “Even I can see you’re full of it.” had immediately made her giggle. Not so much because it was funny by itself, but because Luzzi would never know what it said! It was the perfect crime.

  Having quickly finished what she suspected would be the worst part of the day, Willow exited wearing the graphic T and leggings, If the so-called ‘gods’ were so gracious and gifting, they’d give everyone leggings when they respawn, not those rough jumpsuits!

  As she exited, her UICI pinged her with a prompt, asking her if she wanted to purchase the clothes she was holding and wearing. She agreed and just like that, Madrick was out 4 R1-SS, whatever that was. I should have bought more. She opined, but the thought of trying more stuff on convinced her not to bother going back for seconds. Maybe they have next day shipping with fit guarantee somewhere? Surely the UICI has a website or something like that.

  Ravavka snorted and rolled all of his eyes as she exited. Luzzi just asked if she’d found some more fitting clothes. She agreed and happily followed the pair off, assuming they’d go get dinner and then maybe spar or something to get ready for the upcoming rift!

  A day later, Willow once more found she’d been betrayed by those who she thought might one day be her friends. Well, Luzzi, Ravvy probably won’t be. She’d stayed with Luzzi again, then went with her to work. After, her and Ravavka brought her to try on more clothes. Okay, not clothes. Armor. Actually, armor was way less annoying to try on. She didn’t have to take anything off and it was to keep her safe. That last part was a really good motivator to not settle as easily as she did for day-to-day wear.

  She went through almost a dozen sets of armor before settling on a set of light armor which emphasized movement and flexibility. It looked like it was made of a white leather, formed into a kind of breastplate with a flaring skirt to protect her waist and thighs. Along with the breastplate she picked up a cute pair of shoes which were essentially what she imagined sneakers would look like if they grew up into a boots.

  Following that, they went to an enchanter. Unfortunately, the only enchantments which Madrick’s wallet would let her get were basic ones. They added repair and self cleaning enchantments, standard for pretty much any gear apparently. They offered to put the same on her day clothes, but once again Madrick’s stingy bank account refused. How does it even know?! Is the UICI secretly a super advanced AI?

  On the third day, Willow thought Luzzi might be trying to admit she’d fallen in love. Why else would she have brought her to such a wonderful place?! Weapons. Weapons everywhere. Ravavka hadn’t come this time, apparently having other stuff to do.

  Instead, Luzzi had brought her to a building full of portals. They’d gone through one of them and come out on the literal other side of the planet. At least, Willow thought they were on the other side given the change in position of the tiny barely-relevant sun in the sky. From there, they’d walked for a couple hours while chatting.

  When they finally arrived, Willow thought she’d died again and this time the promise of heaven had been fulfilled! The place was magical in every sense. The entire massive plaza was dedicated to weaponry. There were booths with the standard medieval fair: swords, bows, daggers, and so on. Booths with advanced weapons like blasters, laser swords, electric whips, drones, etc.

  Then there was the weird stuff. There was a shop which sold combat knowledge. Capsules which would apparently impart dozens of years worth of information, insight seeds, talismans from every possible path.

  The best part though, the absolute best part, was all the fights. There were competitions everywhere. Everyone wanted to test the weapons, and those who didn’t wanted a show! What better way to make everyone happy than have sanctioned duels? They were all performed on platforms that had the intermix of sharp and squiggly lines that she’d begun to associate with enchantments. Apparently, it was nearly impossible to kill someone while both participants were on the platform. Better, the platform kept everyone in the contest inside until a victor was declared.

  It took less than ten minutes for Willow to find her first fight. When she and Luzzi went home late that night, she realized she’d forgotten to actually pick a weapon for herself!

  Bouncing in place, Willow stared across the contest platform. She’d been coming here instead of going to work with Luzzi for the last four days now. The excuse she’d given was that she needed to get as much practice before the rift as she could. The real reason? It was so much fun!

  No fear of dying and no need to hold back. Not only that, she got a decent amount of experience from every fight! Even if she lost, she still got some xp to allocate. Enough that she was nearly done recreating her back into it skill. She’d started by reinforcing her mind and body again, they were maybe a third as strong now as they’d been before she died. The skill was what she really wanted before the rift, though.

  The two humans and wolf kin rushed her. They were each sporting test weapons from the ‘Inspiring Instruments’ shop. They were shoddy, at best. Her own weapons, simple gloves made of a strong but flexible material which responded exceptionally well to her instruction mana, were much better. She’d even gotten them for free.

  Dodging around a clumsy stab from the wolf kin’s spear, she snapped a quick jab out. The spear shaft shattered. She really loved breaking people’s weapons when they got in the ring with her, it was satisfying in a way that beating people bloody wasn’t. Ehh… Who am I kidding, that’s fun too.

  With a quick hop, she leapt over the two slashes the humans sent at her from each side. They had no idea how to use their weapons. Landing on top of the flats of their blades, she punched each in the nose. They were light taps. They only broke their noses and sent them flying, dropping their weapons in the process.

  Resisting the urge to scoff at how bad this particular match had been, Willow instead punched her right hand into her left palm and bowed to her defeated opponents. Some fights were better than others, though she hadn’t used her moment of focus at all. No one she’d gone up against would have any defense against it, so it’d be boring.

  The platform landed and the defeated trio left, berating the owner of ‘Inspiring Instruments’ for his shoddy work. The elf shot her a venomous look, to which Willow replied with a bright smile, a wink, and a come hither finger crook. He paled and rushed back inside his overpriced shop.

  I hope Luzzi and Ravavka have better luck finding us a fourth than I’m having. She’d spared with both and felt they would bring significant value to her expedition, regardless of what kind of enemies they came across. The rift Madrick had gotten them a pass to was a semi random exploration. The one non-random aspect was there was always an intelligent and organized enemy working against the delvers. What form they took varied greatly. From a demon lord to a pack of canny sentient wolves, it could be literally anything as long as it fell under the two descriptors of “intelligent” and “organized.”

  Despite feeling a bit guilty about spending so much time having fun in the challenge rings, Willow actually did have a lot of good reasons to be here. Besides getting a small amount of additional combat experience, she also: got paid, got some awesome free weapons, was exposed to more spells and abilities, learned quite a bit, and had the opportunity to scout talent.

  Unfortunately, she hadn’t found any real talent yet and at this point had mostly given up on that part. Ah well, she’d just keep this up until it was time to go portal hopping. Luzzi had been kind enough to coordinate all of their travel plans. She had been a bit vague on what she’d told her faction overseer to get some time off, but that wasn’t really any of Willow’s business anyway.

  Stretching, Willow was surprised when her UICI dinged and she saw the little shelf icon indicating an alert. Opening it, she saw a brief message from Naomi.

  

  *Thank you for your message, it was timely. I’m interested to meet Luzzi, I’d like to explain my distaste for her tactics.

  Jonah and I are on our way to join you. We had a bit of a hiccup on the way and will be a bit late. The enforcer says you’re on Motrendi, so that’s where we’re headed. He said you’re somewhere in the MotrePrime sector.

  TTYL!!

  Willow sent a quick reply explaining that she’d be leaving for a brief stint, courteous of Madrick, but that she’d be back here within a month-ish. At least, that was the timeline she expected given what they’d learned while researching the rift called sheerna.

  A large man bulging with muscle approached just as she finished sending the message. He brandished the massive battle ax he was carrying as if he planned to chop her like a tree and sneered. She grinned and waved to the ref, showing she was ready to start.