The Rifleman - Bk1 - Ch.18 (Patreon)

Chapter 18

Orientation

The pamphlet itself was painfully cheerful. It seemed designed to be as irritating as possible, but he imagined they were more likely going for optimism. A drawing of a happily grinning trio decorated the front cover. A woman in a lather apron and holding a blacksmith’s hammer was standing beside a proud-looking warrior with a massive grin, while on his other side, a person of indeterminate sex wove circles of magic lights. 

The drawing style wasn’t bad, but the frequent reprinting seemed to have dulled whatever they used, leaving everything slightly smeared and blurry. 

Inside the cover, he found a page filled with the cheerful ‘Welcome!’ printed in different colors, sizes, and languages. It was all very reminiscent of the jolly little booklets governments printed to tell you how great it was that you wanted to pay your taxes correctly. 

Next came his first glance at a map of this strange world, his first time actually seeing the whole thing. Up until now, he had simply assumed a sphere, but now that he saw the reality, he had no idea why he would assume the place was logical.

It was a massive Hexagon, divided into hundreds of thousands or more smaller hexagons. It had a very cheerful ‘You are here’ arrow pointing at a place he no longer was, and very few bits of terrain were actually filled in. Other than the Unnamed City, there were only two other places marked at all. 

A massive cathedral crossed with a Roman city covered a significant area. Although it was marked with the words ‘Pantheon of the Endless,’ Wesley noted it as Todd central instead before looking at the other. A large black hole in the ground was marked as the ‘Burrow.’ That was it. No other information was available. 

Wesley moved on, getting a basic definition of Classes and Tiers before it gave an overview of Skills, Spells, and Abilities. No helpful information was actually contained, but he hoped there would be more on later pages. The most interesting part for him as he read through the booklet was the center pages, which opened to show an example of the complete Tier system.

The first five tiers were pretty simple, giving stats flat multipliers and access to a choice of skills. 

Tier five was also the place where people could first get a Totem, apparently giving him a significant head start on other totem holders. Even then, it was marked as inadvisable before Tier ten at least.

Tiers six through twelve gave the option to take a second class, but it would start at Tier four and always be at most two tiers lower than your main class. It would also significantly slow down the leveling speed. 

Despite the drawback of slower leveling, all NPCs are heartily encouraged to take the option of a second class at whatever Tier it reveals itself due to the increased benefits you can offer to the Player Factions and, indirectly, the Pantheon of the Endless.

It is even possible that outstanding NPCs may cross the divide and serve a member of the Pantheon themselves in some small way.

Wow. Brown nosing the bosses much?

Wesley moved on, seeing a breakdown of many things he had already learned, such as a Language Primer, as well as a few he hadn’t. Despite the Tier system diagram not showing anything past Tier twelve, Wesley noted references to things crafted or sold by people as high as Tier fifteen or even twenty. 

In short, it seemed like they just didn’t include anything past Tier twelve. The leveling system did not seem to mention a max level, but then again… this was meant for new people.

By far, the most interesting thing Wesley found in the pamphlet was a short note about Zones. It was apparent they expected any NPC to remain in a city or village, but they still included a little on the ‘change of state’ as the villagers had called it. 

The pamphlet called it Control.

Zones not yet taken or owned by a Player Faction or a powerful independent will undergo a change of Control every five to seven days. At this point, the zone will shift, and everything inside it will be randomly assigned to one of the themes chosen to represent one of the Sixteen members of the Pantheon of the Endless.

The only two exceptions to this are:

Zone invasion:

A zone may be designated by a Player or Independent faction for invasion.

At this point, Control will remain until after it has been conquered or seven days have passed. 

NOTE: All NPC travel in and out of a designated zone is blocked.

Sundering:

Any zone not controlled or invaded within fourteen Control shifts will be marked for Sundering.

A zone that is sundered is open for attack by all factions, but the system will open portals to allow Monsters, Champions, and other NPCs to enter and have a chance to win a section of the Zone for themselves.

NOTE: NPCs wishing to Control a zone must have the Claim Spell, Compatible class or profession, and sufficient Influence accrued.

Wesley looked at the tattoo on his left hand and sighed. It seemed he counted as eligible to control a zone, but he really didn’t fancy it. A safe place would definitely be nice, but at his Tier, anyone could come and take it from him. In the future he might think about it, but Wesley was doubtful if it would be for him. A natural leader, he was not. 

From then on, the book consisted of lists of area types and a description of the members of the Pantheon to which they belonged. He skipped over most of it, just scanning it briefly. The whole matter of who owned what was a little above his level at the moment. It was all dangerous, so who really cared which Todd was responsible for which horror?

The last two pages were slightly useful. One had a list of example professions, and the other recommended gear to take when traveling or delving.

The professions were mostly what he would expect, Blacksmith, Tailor, Alchemist, and more. One in particular that surprised him was the Augmenter. It talked about adding augments to people, mentioned cybernetics, and then moved on to shamanic infusions. All in all, it helped to explain the high-tech pair he had seen in the Unnamed city, but it made him wonder why people bothered with other options. 

He suspected it was down to rarity and cost, just like anything else. 

As for the list of supplies to take while traveling around, he had all but three of them.

Water Stone:

Summon water for as long as charges remain

Storage Box:

Spacially expanded storage that fits right in your pack!

Guide Stone:

An enchanted item that displays the remaining time until the change of zone control and the direction of the nearest zone border.   

Wes mentally added a tent to the list, as his tarp really didn’t count, even if it had worked a few times. 

Wesley moved on to opening his Welcome Pack. Inside, he was delighted to find a Guide Stone, which he added to a pouch on his belt. Next, he found a rough notebook and a pencil, a small knife, and a pouch with two gold coins in it. 

He tried turning the small leather pouch upside down, but nothing else fell out. That seemed to be it as far as orientation went, but he supposed you got more if you were actually there to ask questions and such.

In the end, he didn’t learn much that was actually useful. Most of the things in the little pamphlet were things he had already learned the hard way. Still, it was something to think about. He could at least look up information on any new environments, which might help him stay alive a little longer. 

The biggest takeaway from the pamphlet for Wesley was that Malia had been very, very right. The entire thing was phrased with service to the Pantheon as the end goal for all the NPCs to aspire to. It was creepy as hell when you considered that a good portion of the people here must have been drafted, just like him.

The people doing the drafting must be the Pantheon themselves, or as they were frequently referred to, the players.

The tone of reverence was bad enough, but the cheerful mentions of service and sacrifice left Wesley with a seriously cult-like vibe.

With his curiosity about the pamphlet and welcome pack satisfied, Wesley lay back, shifted into wisp form, and cast Improved Flare, focusing on trying to shift the energy completely into his hands. It was slow going, improvements coming slowly, but he had a few hours to kill.

The incident with his arm had made Wesley consider exactly how much of his Were-wisp was currently going to waste. Practicing with the full Healing Flare was out of the question as it would hurt Pris, but there was no reason not to try it with his other spell. His attempts to heal his arm had been successful, which meant that shifting and focusing the energy must be possible.

His current theory was that focusing as much as possible into his hands would increase the power of his hits, maybe even making it possible to use on the living as well as the dead.

He could remember the faint feeling of the energy gathering in his arms and focused on trying to get the same thing to happen again. The light energy currently coating his form was warm; he tried to force that same energy to gather in his hands but got nowhere fast. Thinking back to his arm, he tried pulling at the energy instead. 

The glow moved just a little. 

After two solid hours of practice, he had managed to condense the energy down into just his arms, but then got stuck. It would definitely be an improvement, but it was still wasting energy. His mind was getting tired and fuzzy, so he released the forms and dozed for the last couple of hours before they had to go onto the next floor, which would hopefully include an exit portal.