Last Command of the Witheld Arc 1: Rebirth

Sarah Avery Vasilias, Great House Scion, Reborn Lvl 1

Tutorial Realm

Sarah went upstairs to the room Gammon had directed her to and found that it was a small bedroom with a full-size bed and a little bedside table. There was a desk in the corner and a window. Other than that, the room was empty. There was a neatly folded pile of clothes on the bed with a pair of slippers resting nearby. When she examined them, purple-outlined text boxes popped up, showing her these items had some unusual properties. There had also been several packages containing various underclothes that didn’t get text boxes when she examined them.

Training Tunic

Description

Tunic made of a poly-cotton blend with magical wicking and self-repair properties.

Rarity

Common

Effect

Skills obtained 5% faster while worn. Keeps you dry from sweat and blood. Resists stains. Self-cleaning.

Sturdy Pants

Description

Sturdy pants made of a magical linen. Contains magical wicking and self-repair properties.

Rarity

Common

Effect

5% increased stamina. Resists stains. Self-cleaning.

Grippy Slippers

Description

Comfortable slippers that are ideal for training. Magically treated grip resists slipping on slick surfaces.

Rarity

Common

Effect

Sturdy footing on slick surfaces. Resist slippery condition.

They had looked to be way too big when she’d initially set them out, but when she put the outfit on, she found that it fit perfectly. She saw herself in a mirror and decided that the outfit wasn’t entirely unlike one of those Chinese-style kung fu ensembles. The tunic was dark blue and form-fitting without being tight. The sleeves were long but loose. The pants were sturdy and black, as were the slippers. Everything was entirely unadorned and plain. It felt good to finally be back in clothes.

She found Gammon downstairs on the front porch. He was sipping on a green bottle, staring out over the windy red plains. He looked up when she came to the doorway. “You are looking much improved. Go, grab a bottle from the cooler, and come sit with me. I’ll outline what your Tutorial will be for you.”

Sarah nodded and went into the little kitchen. It was crowded with strange pots and pans, implements that she was unfamiliar with, and smells that were strange to her. The cooler was empty save for eight unlabeled green bottles gathered on the top shelf. She grabbed one and opened it—surprisingly it had a twist cap—and took an experimental sip.

It was sweet, whatever it was. Like juice. But there was some kind of fermentation to it that gave it a bit of a funky aftertaste. It was extremely refreshing, tasting like honeydew melon or cantaloupe juice with a little bite. She took the bottle out onto the front porch and sat down, toasting Gammon with her bottle as she did. “This is good,” she said, “what is it?”

“An old favorite of mine. Something called tasp—slightly alcoholic, but not too strong. Good for this discussion.” He took a long sip and looked over at her, playing with the bottle a bit before he finally continued. “As I said, my name is Gammon and I’m an instructor of sorts. I’ve been assigned by the System to provide you with the highest-quality personal education in racial gift, graft, and anima training that is available to Reborn. It’s not everyone who has the chance to engage in this level of training, only those Reborn who have Enhanced System Access and a Great House Seal—the perks of political rank. But first, some baselines.

“This is Nolm, a world of ancient and incredibly varied history. However, we can simplify our history for you into two main chunks: before the Witheld and after.” He held his hands apart like he was weighing two points, “Before the Witheld, the people of Nolm were held prisoner by the terrible monsters that ruled the planet. The people lived in holes and caves, in small bands that scuttled from place to place. Then the Witheld arrived—we don’t know from where—and they gave people the gift of Rebirth through etherhearts. Rebirth gave us the gift of anima and enabled them to expand their tensa pool far beyond what people can usually hold. This allowed them to graft the incredible powers and abilities of the monsters into their bodies and use those powers against the monsters.”

“You said that all with a very straight face,” Sarah said. “But to me, it all sounded like religious bullshit with a fantasy twist. I mean, it seems far more likely to me that this is some kind of crazy VR video game.” She took a sip of the tasp and smacked her lips. “But I gotta say, this is a unique flavor.”

“You think this is a…simulation?” Gammon asked. He considered it and shrugged, “You’re not wrong. This,” he gestured at the house, the plains, the strip mall, the impossible floating island, “is all a simulation. A training simulation here, a more advanced version up there.” He pointed at the skyland. “But it’s all in preparation for your role as a Reborn in Nolm.”

Sarah looked doubtfully at the impossible landscape. This all sounded like an isekai anime or a role-playing game. But it all felt so real! She could at least find out more, so she asked, “And what role is that?”

“As a protector and guardian against monsters here,” Gammon pointed at the ground, “so that you can attain the highest ranks of power and join the Ascended on Hesthar, the third moon of Nolm,” he pointed up to the sky where a big, cloud-covered blue moon appeared on command, “where you hold back the terrible, undying monsters of the Void. With great power—”

“Comes great responsibility?” Sarah cut in. She smiled innocently at Gammon, who frowned in consideration.

“There is that, certainly, but no,” he said, “I was going to say, with great power comes immortality. That’s the tradeoff. You can become powerful enough to remake the world and live forever so long as you fight monsters.”

“Forever.”

Gammon shrugged, “Not everyone lives forever. But Amethyst-rank Reborn are living on the third moon, Hesthar, who knew the Witheld personally, so they’re at least… sixty-five million years old.”

Sarah took another sip of the tasp, enjoying the crisp sweet taste. “I can’t say that I’m not excited about the thought of learning…magic? Meditation? I don’t even know what you’re offering to teach, but whatever it is, it’s got to be better than getting eaten by that weird bird on top of a cliff.” Sarah took another sip and set the bottle down. “I’m not a Great House whatever. Like I said, I’m Sarah Avery. I’m damn good with a floor routine and my ratio in any decent first-person shooter is frankly superhuman…But I don’t think that uniquely qualifies me for any kind of training. More to the point, I have no money. I can’t pay for this.”

Gammon chuckled and shrugged. “Your payment has already been made, Ms. Avery. I’ve never heard of your House, but that’s not particularly surprising. In the Empire, the Great Houses are fairly… dynamic. They can shift and change over the years quite a bit and I am quite isolated here. The etherheart you were granted in your ritual of Rebirth was created with a Great House Seal. It has manifested as one of your racial gifts, granting you irrevocable status as a Scion of a Great House of the Eternal Empire. Not even the Emperor could take it away from you—though he could kill you with barely a thought.”

“See, you say that like I should know what those are,” Sarah said. “And will I have to worry about an evil emperor who can kill me with a thought? Because that sounds pretty fucking terrible if you ask me.”

Gammon thought for a minute before he said, “I would say that you should not worry over much about the Emperor. You are one person and though Great House Scions are rare, the Emperor prefers to let his Houses settle internal politics amongst themselves. I don’t keep track of modern Imperial politics and I care very little about their history. My sole focus here will always be aimed to advance your personal growth.”

Sarah looked out over the redgrass fields, trying to imagine the kind of world Gammon was sketching out for her. It sounded pretty brutal and pretty nerve-wracking to navigate. She sighed and took another long drink from the green bottle in her hand. It was so surreal sitting here on this porch with this short, muscle-bound man, drinking and taking in the surreal landscape while discussing her magical combat training.

“The Great House Seal is a particular spellform that only an Amethyst-rank Reborn can create,” Gammon continued. “They are incredibly complex and require an amount of tensa that is frankly impossible for those of lesser rank, but in the end, the Great House Seal is more about identification than anything else. In the Empire, the Great House Seal unlocks many political and economic doors, though outside the Empire, its effects are much less marked.

“Now, bring up your personal status page and tell me what it says for your racial gifts.”

“No problem.” Sarah sat there and stared at Gammon. They waited for several seconds. Gammon cleared his throat impatiently.

“Well?” He said irritably.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sarah snapped. “I don’t know how to do that. The status thing.”

“Well then, let’s have this be your first lesson,” Gammon said. He drained off the last of the tasp in his bottle and set it down on the table. “I know you’ve seen the text boxes because you’re here.” Sarah nodded. “So, you know when you acknowledge the text boxes with that kind of mental command? Give the mental command personal status and you should see your status as tracked by the System.”

“What’s this System thing you keep talking about?” Sarah asked. She didn’t do what he’d told her to quite yet, not really wanting to see more floating text boxes. “Is it the thing that keeps flashing those annoying text boxes up?”

Gammon laughed, nodding. “It is! The System was the parting gift of the Witheld. It facilitates the Reborn, granting Quests, Classes, Achievements, and power. It also is a prime source of information, for those with the access.”

Sarah cocked a skeptical eyebrow at him, then shrugged and thought, Personal status. She directed the thought inward, the same way she’d had to direct it at the text boxes earlier. She was almost shocked when another screen popped up in front of her, just like the previous text boxes.

Sarah Avery Vasilias

Race

Human

Rank

Reborn

House

House Vasilias

Racial Gifts

Great House Seal, Enhanced System Access, Unlimited Inventory, Willful, Never Unarmed, Fast Healing

Attributes

Dominion

3 [Dimension] / 20

Speed

?? / 20

Precision

?? / 20

Growth

?? / 20

Arcana

?? / 20

Tensa Pool

1.3 ks

Gear

Training Tunic, Sturdy Pants, Grippy Slippers

Grafts

The Edge That Cuts Anything [Dimension]

“You should be able to share your view with me if you allow the request,” Gammon said.

“Request?”

Another text box popped up.

Allow Teacher Gammon access to your personal status page?

YES / NO

Once again, she chose “YES” and felt a strange fuzzing in her head. She saw Gammon tilt his head as he read through the short bit of text.

“Not that I’m not grateful or anything… but why are you doing this? I mean, you say that I’ve already paid, but what do you get out of this?”

“These racial gifts are a bit… unusual. Where did you say you were from?” He murmured. “My payment? Well, that’s simple. My time here is a part of my Jade Gate Quest. It’s not an uncommon quest for a Swordmaster, especially at the cusp of Jade rank.”

“So, I what, learn from you and you accomplish some kind of quest?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes. There’s slightly more to it than that, but it’ll become clear as we go on.”

Sarah thought for a moment, then said, “How long is this whole thing going to last? I mean, is time frozen or something? What’s going to happen when we’re done?”

Gammon nodded and stood up, stretching languidly. Sarah saw that his muscles seemed to have muscles. “Time for you is drastically slowed in what you might think of as ‘reality’. We’re sequestered within a pocket dimension, grown like a blister on the surface of reality.

“One thing I would ask you to remember: the Tutorial is over when you decide it’s over, to a maximum of ten years. Although your Attributes will not advance as quickly for you as if you’d taken ten years in reality due to those limitations I told you about, it would be foolish not to take advantage of such an incredible boon. After all, the Tutorial Realm is a rich place whose lessons are not something to be ignored. Also, I am quite a good teacher by now. It would benefit you to stay here and learn more.”

Sarah considered that for a while, when something occurred to her, “You say that like most people don’t stay and learn. Is the Attribute advancement and Achievement deferral thing really such a turn-off? Why is that?”

“The Tutorial Realm is only available to those who have Enhanced System access. That almost always means Great House membership. Any Great House scions who are Reborn are usually already so highly trained that they do not require a tutorial and would not welcome ten years of what they would call ‘stagnation’. To most Imperial Reborn, if their numbers aren’t going up, then progress is not being made.” He shook his head derisively but didn’t criticize beyond that. “Or they have specific goals in mind that they feel would not be served by learning about their grafts or racial gifts the way the System would designate.

“The kinds of Reborn I teach are those who believe that power deferred is still power earned. They also know that knowledge is its own kind of power.”