System Architect

I steadied my mind and focused my intent at the system. What I really wanted to do was—

The action you are attempting requires unlocking a feature.

Feature: Search

Unlock Personal Use: 100 Exp

Unlock For Universal Use: 100,000 Exp

I added it to the list of known features. It’d be useful to have at some point, but now was not the right time. If having the system assist me in finding features was out of the window, I’d have to randomly guess and hope I hit on things. In addition to the many random things I stumbled on, there were a few that caught my eye as options either for the near future or much farther down the line.

Feature: Combat Experience

Unlock Personal Use: 1,000 Exp

Unlock For Universal Use: 1,000,000 Exp

Feature: Crafting Experience

Unlock Personal Use: 1,000 Exp

Unlock For Universal Use: 1,000,000 Exp

Feature: Exploration Experience

Unlock Personal Use: 1,000 Exp

Unlock For Universal Use: 1,000,000 Exp

Feature: Harvesting Experience

Unlock Personal Use: 1,000 Exp

Unlock For Universal Use: 1,000,000 Exp

Feature: Daily Bonus Experience

Unlock Personal Use: 100 Exp

Unlock For Universal Use: N/A

Feature: Special Skills

Prerequisites: Skills III

Unlock Personal Use: 1,000 Exp

Unlock For Universal Use: 1,000,000 Exp

Skills was rather expensive—I wouldn’t be touching it anytime soon—but it was good to know that there were ways of increasing the amount of experience gained even if it was under the ambiguously named ‘Special Skills’. I had the 100 experience to spend on something.

I think getting a better experience source takes precedence over getting System Help right away, as much as I do want it. It’ll just put me too far behind.

I put the paper away and pulled out a book from the bookshelf to read until either Dad called me down to dinner or I read enough to hit the next milestone.

“Mil—Eddy!” Dad called sometime later. “Dinner!”

I put in a bookmark and placed the book on the night table to finish another time. I exited my room and walked down the stairs. Dad was waiting for me by the table in the hallway with two table settings laid out. In the middle of the table was dinner—a shepherds pie from the smell of it.

“Where’s Mom?” I asked as I sat on my chair.

“Well, your mother and I haven’t been getting along lately,” he said, “so she’s staying with her uncle while she finds her own place.”

“Ah,” I nodded. “So that’s where I am in the timeline. Makes sense.” I spooned some of the shepherds pie onto my plate.

“Oh, Dad, don’t do anything stupid, please. I know all about your less-than-stellar criminal past. The last thing either of us need is for you to go slashing Mom’s tires or breaking into her car. I know you can but you really shouldn’t. Let her go and move on. It’s for the best for everyone. I know you don’t want to, but talk to someone. It’ll help.”

He stared at me, a range of emotions playing across his face.

“I—,” he began, tears forming.

“I get it,” I said. “I really do. I’ve had my heart broken a couple of times. It hurts. Doesn’t mean you’re weak—quite the opposite. Being in tune with yourself is what makes you strong.”

Dad let the tears flow for a while before wiping them and taking a deep breath.

“Sorry you had to see me like this,” he said.

“It’s fine. Like I said, coming to terms with yourself and how you feel lets you be the strong man you want to be. Nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“Thanks, kid.”

“Let’s eat, shall—“

I jumped when the notification chime sounded in the middle of me speaking.

Milestone: Say 1,000 words

Exp Gained: 8

“What happened?” Dad asked.

“Something we’ll need to talk about at some point,” I answered. “I don’t have enough information to answer the questions I know you’ll have.”

“Is it bad?”

“It only concerns the end of the world, but it’s nothing that’s happening any time soon.”

“The end of the world?”

“Yeah. The apocalypse.”

“How—what is—why—?”

“Like I said, I don’t know enough yet so we’ll have to table it for a few weeks or a month or something like that.”

“Can I help?” he asked with a concerned look.

“Maybe. Eventually. Now, though, you don’t really have the frame of reference to begin to understand it.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Have you read any fantasy lately?” I chuckled.

“Don’t care for it.”

“Well, there you go. It’d be much easier if you had.”

“So I should read some of it?”

“It’d help give you the basis for understanding what I’ll need to tell you, so… yes?” I nodded.

“What would you recommend?”

“Most of what comes to mind won’t be published for years,” I shrugged. “I’d ask the librarian next time you’re in the library for something beginner friendly and easy to read that has fantasy monsters and dungeons and stuff in it.”

“That sounds…”

“I know. It’s nuts, but it’s what you’ll need to read up on if you’re going to be able to help me. You’ll have questions that I’ll hopefully be able to answer by the time you’ve read a couple of those books.”

“Alright,” he said. His face betrayed his attempt at hiding his disdain for the genre.

I decided against commenting on it and steered the conversation to happier things. We chatted and ate until we were both full. I helped him clean up before heading upstairs to get ready for bed.

Dad was the kind of parent who expected me to be in bed and ready to sleep before he could go to sleep himself—and he liked to sleep early. It was not a fun quirk and it had given rise to many fights. For now, though, it was fine by me. I wasn’t planning on sleeping, but I was going to read and decide on which experience source to unlock.

Once I was safely in my bedroom, I pulled out the sheet with my tables on it and edited the milestones to show the last unknown as being related to talking. Then I read over my options.

The Daily Bonus Experience option was interesting. Firstly, it was the only feature I’d seen with ‘N/A’ anywhere on it. I took that to mean that I was unable to choose the option of making it universal—whatever that meant. I knew it would be a steady source of experience income. The issue was that I didn’t know how much it would be every day. It could be just 1 experience, which would more than pay for itself over time, but I wanted something better than that if I could get it.

The Quests feature felt slightly riskier. I didn’t know how the quests would work. It might be limited to one at a time or have a daily limit of how many I could choose. The rewards could also be terrible or be things that weren’t experience. On the other hand, the quests could give better rewards than the daily bonus would—as long as I could complete them. That was yet another risk of taking the Quests feature.

No matter what, I was getting both of them eventually. Whether I got the other one before or after the System Help function entirely depended on the specifics—something I was only able to guess at. Both options were pretty even in my mind. What ultimately tipped my hand in favor of Quests was that I had no idea when the daily experience would pop. Worse, I knew it would come with a corresponding notification. The last thing I needed was yet another distraction to wake me up in the middle of the night or scare the shit out of me randomly during the day.

Feature Unlocked: Quests I

Current Exp: 18

I immediately pulled up the quest window. I saw that there were five options to choose from. I couldn’t see any obvious restriction on the number of quests, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t one. All of the quests had a time limit on them that looked to end at midnight—if my guess of the current time was correct. Most of them involved physical activities of some kind, but there was one I could do.

I mentally selected it and I heard a confirmation chime that was slightly different than the notification chime. The other quests remained where they were. I could still select them, but I saw no reason to as I wasn’t going to be able to complete them. I opened the page that displayed my current quests—thanks, System, for not making that one cost extra—and read the quest again before I got started.

Active Quests (1):

Daily Reading

Read 1,000 words: 10/1000

Success: 10 Exp

Failure: N/A

Expires: 5 hours 29 minutes 10 seconds

I propped myself up with a couple pillows against the wall and opened the book I’d been reading earlier. I dove into the words like a thirsty traveler when finding an oasis. The story carried me through a string of vividly imagined locations. Some of the simplicity of the story—one meant for children—grated on my more mature mind, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. A chime halfway through one of the chapters notified me that the quest had been completed.

Quest Daily Reading Completed!

Gained 10 Exp

I dismissed the notification and quickly checked the quests screen. The four quests from earlier were there, but the reading quest had not been replaced with anything. I closed the screen and went back to reading.

“Eddy?” Dad’s voice called out, snapping my attention away from the book.

“Hmm?”

“It’s getting late, so maybe pack it up soon, ok?”

“Yeah, thanks,” I said.

I put the bookmark in the book where I’d been reading and stood up. I gave my father a hug and sat back down in my bed. I checked the time using the quests screen. It was just about 7:30.

“I’ll finish up this chapter then turn in for the night, if that’s alright with you.”

“Sure,” he said. “See you tomorrow. Good night.”

“Good night.”

He closed the door behind him while I got back to reading. Ten minutes later, I put the book down and slid under the covers. I cracked the window a bit and smiled. It was a perfect night for sleeping in the cool spring air. I pulled my blanket up tight to my chin and closed my eyes.