Mask of Humanity

Nicolai watched his Seed eat its way into the centre of knife-rat’s Seed and then club-thug’s (putting his head close, he could hear it chewing), until it had eaten whatever important parts it was after then it began to shimmer brighter than the two it had consumed, lying limply on his palm in a state of postprandial exhaustion.

Looking at it and considering it, his mind slipped and he found himself curled up, full and warm and happy, sated.

Nicolai reeled and snapped and he was back in his body, staring down at it still, a little dizzy. That hadn’t felt like a hallucination. He believed he had somehow merged with it, drifted into it. The Tutorial Guide had said he needed to bond with the Seed, so he presumed that this event had something to do with that. A good sign?

He popped it back into his mouth to curl under his tongue, feeling it perhaps a tiny bit bigger than before, and took stock of what he now owned.

One knife, which had been bloody but he’d cleaned it on the rat’s hair.

A metal baton, encrusted with brain and blood and shards of bone that he’d struggled to clean off.

Ragged, stinking cloth which he wrapped himself in and fashioned a belt with, using it to attach the knife to his hip.

Then the more interesting items, which he found in the empty sarcophagus where the rat had indicated. Their rewards. Looking them over he was reminded of what the rat had said, that he would have one waiting for him. Nicolai tapped his Mark and the golden hologrammatic screen burst out of the back of his hand. He saw it had gained a new section, and that he had some notifications.

User Interface 376 | User #53,217

> Map

> Cultivation

> Challenges

You completed a challenge: Survive the Trial.

Claim Reward?

You completed a challenge: Kill another Player.

Claim Reward?

Kill another Player? The rat hadn’t mentioned that, but Nicolai couldn’t be upset. Two rewards. He grinned. However, Nicolai opted not to claim just yet, instead looking over the rest of his loot.

There were a couple of little rectangular pieces of thin metal that reminded him of bank notes, in a way. Each one had the number two-hundred carved onto it, alongside some abstract patterns.

Two pouches contained little egg-shaped crystal-stone things, pale, shimmering when the light touched them. Four in each pouch, so eight in total. The pouches were of more immediate use than the crystals, having handy drawstrings, and he squeezed all the crystals into one pouch so he could then place the metal rectangles into the other.

There was a radio, reminiscent of the old bulky things from the twenty-first century.

Finally, a water bottle made from blue-ish clay, with some twine wrapped around it that became a long strap he could hang from a shoulder. He shook it and found it empty, but popped the lid and tilted it over his dry mouth anyway. A few measly drops trickled onto his tongue, but to his surprise a sensation of moisture spread through his mouth and he felt a deal of satisfaction as he swallowed, as though he’d drank a few solid mouthfuls rather than a few little drops.

That was everything. Now that he’d been reminded of his Mark, he also recalled one of its other functions, one he’d yet to use.

Nicolai tapped the water bottle with his right hand and thought examine. The gold of his Mark surged forwards, extending through his fingers until they touched the water bottle, then returning. Light vented from the Mark and a new display popped up over his hand.

Blue Water Bottle

A friend to any exploring Cultivator, this bottle gradually restores its stock of water which is unusually hydrating, and aids wound healing when poured over the damaged area.

Nicolai quirked an eyebrow, seeing the bottle was more valuable and useful than he’d imagined. He also realised that he’d been missing out by not utilising the examine function, which promised to be even more useful. Full of curiosity, he began examining everything he could think of, turning to the radio.

Radio

A mysterious self-powering radio capable of communicating with other Radios within a two mile radius.

So, it was for communicating with others humans who also had a radio. Nicolai would prefer not to broadcast his existence, so he put it aside. He opened one of the pouches and touched one of the crystals.

Oma Crystal

These crystals are formed from crystallized Oma. They can be used by a Cultivator to refill their Nodes during battle or Cultivation, to directly infuse their body, for refining or fusing Symbiotes, and are also used as a form of currency by the majority of cultivating societies and races.

A lot of words he was unfamiliar with, there. The numerous mentions of cultivation, which the water bottle also referenced, suggested it was important. Was a cultivator just a person? The language seemed to imply so. But it also referred to cultivation as an act, and tied Nodes, whatever those were, to it. Cultivating societies and races… that suggested a whole world or universe of beings Nicolai had never heard of, which considering his presence in a magical new world, didn’t really surprise him.

What was clearest to him was that the Oma crystals were currency, and therefore valuable and worth keeping. That confused him a little as he’d thought the rectangular metal pieces were currency, so he examined them next.

Points Tag (200)

This tag can be used at any Trade Link, redeemable for 200 points.

Nicolai frowned. So they were currency, too? But only at a Trade Link. He didn’t know what that would look like, but he was pretty sure there wasn’t one in the crypt with him.

Nicolai examined the knife and the metal baton next.

Curved knife

Of ancient design, this mundane knife may not be particularly impressive in spiritual terms, but it has remained sharp and free from rust over many years, a testament to its maker.

Metal bar

A bar of solid, slightly rusted steel. Good for hitting things.

That was all information he’d concluded by himself, but he enjoyed the descriptions regardless. Nicolai gently took the Seed out of his mouth and tapped it with a finger that turned gold.

Soul Seed

The Seed of an undefined Soul. Soul Seeds were the creation of a long-dead race which lacked a natural ability to Cultivate. By implanting a Soul Seed into themselves, they were able to gain a footing in the Spiritual Realm.

Seeds consume soul energy and Oma to grow, and the user must bond with the Seed in order to eventually allow it to merge with them, gaining a Soul and becoming a Cultivator.

This is your Soul Seed. More information is available in the Cultivation tab of your UI.

I… don’t have a soul? This will give me a soul? Nicolai hadn’t expected to receive the answer to one of the longest running human debates of all time from the description of his Seed, and it shook him, calling into question everything he knew and the very foundation of his world in a way that nothing else so far had. The shadows writhed and he knew he needed to keep himself busy. Murdering the rat so viciously hadn’t been good for his mental state. He should have tried harder to resist the urges. Doing his best to ignore his unease, he immediately opened up his Mark to the main menu and flicked to Cultivation.

User Interface 376 | User #53,217

- Cultivation

>Seed Detected…

>Please wait, calibrating…

>Calibration complete.

The hologram briefly disappeared back into his hand, then emerged again with a new layout

User Interface 376 | User #53,217

- Cultivation

> Seed Progress

Soul: 12%

Oma: 0%

Warning: Seed is imbalanced.

Reason: Soul and Oma differ by significant margin.

Nicolai frowned at the warning, then closed the interface, looking at his Seed. It seemed fine to him, but he didn’t know anything. The interface said it needed Oma, so he took out one of the Oma crystals and put it beside the Seed on his palm.

The little worm perked up from its sleepy state, crept towards the crystal, which was larger than it was, and grew a mouth that started sucking on it. Nicolai watched, bemused, as the crystal slowly shrunk and the Seed’s mouth grew until the Seed was nothing but that mouth, entirely wrapping the crystal.

Within a short time the crystal was gone and the Seed returned to normal, no larger. He checked the interface, but Oma had only increased by one percent, and his Seed was still out of balance.

Nicolai had to feed it five more until it came into balance, and realised that the interface didn’t show accurate numbers, only whole numbers. It seemed one Oma crystal gave about one-point-five percent.

User Interface | Player #53,217

- Cultivation

> Seed Progress

Soul: 12%

Oma: 9%

So I’ll need… it needs to eat roughly sixty more crystals to reach one-hundred percent. Also, soul and Oma need to remain somewhere between three-to-five percent of one another, to maintain balance.

He had twelve percent in Soul, and his Seed had devoured three other Seeds, suggesting that they were worth four each. But, he knew that the rat and the thug had been here killing people and having their Seeds eat the others for a little while. On top of that, presumably each person who arrived had killed someone in the final part of the Trial, as he had, and consumed their victims Seed.

There were ten sarcophagus, one had been his, two had presumably been theirs, so that left seven victims for the pair, meaning one’s Seed had eaten four, the other three, at maximum, and each of those Seeds they had possibly eaten a Seed themselves. That combined with their own Seeds gave a total Seed value of eighteen, nineteen if you included Carl’s.

But he was at twelve percent. How much was a single Seed that had not eaten another Seed, such as Carl’s, worth? When you consumed a Seed that had consumed other Seeds, did you get the full value of those consumed Seeds, or only a fraction? If he’d actually checked the Cultivation tab after first feeding Carl’s Seed to his own, he would know the answer. But he hadn’t, so he didn’t. Another mistake.

But Nicolai didn’t mind, instead he found the sudden maths problem oddly calming. The shadows were now still and quiet. Based on the values, he determined that one Seed from someone freshly arrived was worth roughly one-point-seven percent soul energy. Assuming he was correct that the two men had fed seven other Seeds to their own. He wasn’t certain if that would be the case, as it wouldn’t surprise him if some had lost their Seeds in the Trials.

The numbers were all quite vague and uncertain, guesses more than anything. But if his optimistic guess was right, he would need to kill or rob about fifty people and feed their Seeds to his own to reach one-hundred percent. However, his maths was uncertain enough that it wouldn't surprise him if the number was significantly higher. Even if only fifty, that seemed a pretty big figure considering that every human had been given a Seed, and thus every human would want to feed it all the way until it became their Soul. None of them knew what that really meant, but he couldn’t imagine someone being given a magical little worm, told that they didn’t have a soul but if they fed the worm they would be able to gain one, and not wanting to do so.

Except for the killing people aspect, I suppose.

This did make him wonder whether he could have ran around in the Trials and grabbed the Seeds from all the dead. This was another reason it was quite a mistake that he hadn’t thought to Examine his Seed at the earliest opportunity.

Though, there was the issue of balance. His Seed had seemed fine with twelve-percent in soul, zero in Oma, at least in the short-term. But what if he’d fed it enough Seeds to bring it up to twenty, or fifty, or a hundred in soul? Would the imbalance have caused it to die? How long could it remain imbalanced without damage? Could dead Seeds from others be stored indefinitely, or did they go bad? He had no answers to any of these questions. Either way, no point dwelling on it. In due time, he'd learn more.

Nicolai placed his Seed back in his mouth then moved towards the stairs again. He’d checked it earlier, but earlier was some time ago and something or someone could have turned up. Soon he was glancing along the rough stone corridor outside the crypt. One side was consumed by darkness. The other led to an open lit area and continued past another stairway, this one wider and made from cut stone instead of roughly hewn rock.

He remained there at the exit of his crypt, listening for some time. He heard dripping water and little else, so he retreated back into the crypt to do the last thing on his list.

User Interface 376 | User #53,217

> Map

> Cultivation

> Challenges

You completed the challenge: Survive the Trial.

Claim Reward?

You completed a challenge: Kill another Player.

Claim Reward?

Yes, thought Nicolai, claim.

The first notification, Survive the Trial, pulsed in his interface then it all snapped back into his Mark and he heard a rustling sound. The ground was shifting before him. Stepping back he watched, a little wary, as a statue rose.

It was a skeleton wrought from stone, and not a human skeleton. Squatter and wider, though still bipedal, with the wrong number of ribs and digits. The largest difference was that it had a second pair of arms emerging from below the first pair.

However, apart from these differences, it was not that dissimilar to a human skeleton, with the skull largely identical except broader.

Each of its arms was extended, and in each skeletal hand rested a different object. His rewards, for completing the trial. Nicolai pressed closer, looking over the rewards on offer, a tingle of excitement moving through him.