Metem: The Blind Chemist

CHAPTER 16

Kopius had cleared a spot in Oh-jin’s lab and sat atop a shelf. He watched the old man circulate to various cauldrons, measuring and mixing as he went along. After several minutes, Oh-jin poured a blue liquid in a small glass vial. He then mixed the powdered eyebright into the vial, capped it, and finally shook it vigorously. The vial emanated a soft, blue light, giving the impression of sunlight filtering through water. Oh-jin stared at the liquid for a few moments before handing it to Kopius.

A window with gray borders popped into his field of vision upon taking the vial. He closed the blank window and brought the vial close to his face, watching the light particles softly dance inside the elixir.

“What now?” Kopius asked absently, his gaze locked on the vial.

“You drink it, of course,” Oh-jin answered.

“Obviously I drink it,” Kopius replied, glancing at Oh-jin. ”I mean, what does it do?”

“It is going to reveal that which is hidden,” Oh-jin said in a theatrical voice.

“I’ll be able to see my profile?” Kopius asked anxiously.

“I,” Oh-jin corrected, ”will be able to see it.”

“What good does that do me?”

“It will tell us a number of things, including what blood was used for your vessel,” Oh-jin replied. “I will transcribe your information, and then we can figure your best way forward.”

“Ok,” Kopius conceded. ”How does it work?”

“Once you drink the elixir, open your profile window, and then leave the rest to me,” Oh-jin answered with a smile. Kopius hesitated to get started, but he could not understand his hold up. Information was what he needed, and this is what Oh-jin claimed would provide it.

With no logical reason or additional questions, Kopius pulled the cap off the vial and drank. The liquid was warm and bubbly, tickling his throat on the way down. The sensation of millions of tiny bubbles popped throughout his whole body before he let out a deep, guttural burp.

“Excuse me,” Kopius said, removing his hand from blocking his mouth.

“Very good!” Oh-jin chimed, a writing utensil and paper in hand. “Now, open your profile.”

Kopius obliged.

“Oh, my,” Oh-jin whispered and then began to write furiously on the paper. The old man would look up momentarily and then continue his scribbling, sometimes switching his writing instrument for another. This went on for about a minute until Oh-jin stopped and looked over the page.

“You can close it now,” Oh-jin said absently, apparently still focusing on the paper. The old man was nodding to himself as he examined the document. He counted on his fingers, then opened another book and flipped to a particular page before staring some more. Oh-jin would turn to different pages occasionally, compare his notes with whatever he was reading, and then move on.

“Here it is,” Oh-jin finally said, looking at Kopius. “I had memory of your condition before, mostly in young or slow children. Most grown adults cannot read, but children most certainly do not. Having access to your profile at such a young age would be meaningless. Have you ever heard a three-year-old explain something? When they take this elixir, a person with the right skills can briefly see what that profile says.” Kopius obviously wanted to know his stats, but a quick hand gesture from Oh-jin that said ‘I will get to that’ kept him quiet.

“Now, most of the time,” Oh-jin continued, ”we will see their health, stamina, and mana levels, as well as their race, magical inclination, and their first two attributes–normally Strength and Dexterity. Occasionally, it will be Intelligence and Dexterity. Rarely, it is Intelligence and Strength. Attributes go much deeper than this, but these are the core of any sentient being.”

“I feel like you are setting me up for bad news, doc,” Kopius interjected. “What’s in the box?”

“What box?” Oh-jin said in confusion, looking about for a box.

“No, I mean the paper,” Kopius quickly corrected himself. “What did you write down?”

“I wrote down everything I saw,” Oh-jin replied with a hint of irritation. ”Now let me finish explaining so you will understand what you are looking at. Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity: that is what every sentient being starts their life with. Think of a baby when it is first born. They have no control of their extremities, and they cannot move about other than to flail while crying. They do not know words or sounds or even touch. As they learn to roll over and crawl, strength and dexterity come to life. When they start to recognize a familiar face or item, intelligence is born. Do you understand so far?”

“Yeah I get it,” Kopius replied. ”Babies can only eat, sleep, and poo.”

“They do not even know how to poo!” Oh-jin said. ”They just poo. Everywhere!”

“Diapers aren’t a thing here?” Kopius replied, shaking his head. ”I don’t get the ‘come to life’ part. You said everybody starts with the three attributes. Do you have to activate them or something?”

“In a sense, yes,” Oh-jin answered. “Lore has it, many eons ago, the gods that created our part of the universe gathered together to make what we now know as Metem. Among the many things that they created was a base set of Attributes for every living creature. After many iterations and adjustments, they settled on three core, foundational Attributes that any sentient being would need to survive: Strength to protect, Dexterity to move, Intelligence to understand. These are the building blocks to further Attributes. Now, you may not know this, but not everyone develops at the same rate, so the gods placed checks and balances until a being has advanced to level 10. The answer to your question are those checks and balances. Back to the example of the baby; the Universe or the gods, whatever you choose to call it, know that just because the baby can flail its arms about does not mean it has any level of dexterity or strength. Once that flailing baby can, let us say, crawl across a room, the universe brings life to both attributes, allowing for them to be advanced further.”

“You have to prove to the universe that you can do something before it allows you to do it? That doesn't make any sense,” Kopius complained.

“Allow,” Oh-jin emphasized, ”would be the wrong characterization. The Universe feels you are capable of pursuing that Attribute further. Think of it as the Universe's way of saying it believes in you.” Oh-jin said this last part in a bit of a sing-song way, like someone placating a child.

Kopius sat there in thought, equating the information he was getting to his memories of classic RPGs and VRRPGs. To his mind, the similarities were glaring. Magic, monsters, a level system, an attribute tree or foundation or whatever, Kopius mulled it all over internally. He rubbed his face absently, trying to clear the air of confusion around him. If there is a level system, shouldn’t there be some Skill or Attribute points to assign, ones I get to assign? Kopius wondered.

“Can you give me a summary of the checks and balances and how the levels work?” Kopius finally asked.

“Certainly,” Oh-jin said with an extended smile. “Once a child has unlocked an attribute and moved to the next level, they are given one accelerator per core Attribute. If you have Strength and Dexterity unlocked, you would receive two accelerators. These are used to advance your Attributes. For example, moving an individual from a Strength of 5 to a Strength of 6. Until you reach level 10, the Universe applies these accelerators evenly. After level 10, the individual can assign the accelerators where they so choose. You could put all three into one attribute or distribute as you see fit.”

There it is, Kopius thought with a smile. This is a game, this is a game, this is a mother-loving game!

He felt a small amount of relief wash over him. Kopius kept getting swept up in the moment, a problem Cory experienced as well, and lost sight of the bigger picture. Nothing had indicated to him that this was not a game. The story about the soul-sniffing Val-jin was full of holes, the most glaring one being where the body Kopius now occupied came from. Even if there were a well-thought-out explanation, it would not detract from the fact that this world, Metem, functioned just like a game in every noticeable facet thus far.

Feeling more resolute about his situation, his thoughts drifted to the O.B.S.E. capsule that his real body currently occupied. If a day here is like a day on Earth, then I have, what, nineteen days until the alarms go off? Kopius wondered. BUT these games usually have some inception-based time dilation bullshit, so like a day here could be an hour on Earth!

“Blah!” Kopius inadvertently blurted out in frustration. “Sorry,” he said to Oh-jin, who had a worried expression. ”I am just working some things out in my head.”

“Fair enough, my boy, this is a lot to take in. Normally this is taught over the course of several solar cycles,” Oh-jin said in an understanding manner. “For now, you do not have to worry about Attributes. The Universe sees to that until you reach level 10. What you should worry about is working on your Intelligence.”

“What?” Kopius shot back. “I can think… and… stuff!”

“Yes, yes of course,” Oh-jin replied. ”It is plain that you can think and stuff, yet the universe does not share our sentiment. Intelligence is not just acquiring knowledge, it is also about understanding. It is the difference between knowing a bird can fly versus how they can do it. My guess is that you lack understanding. Let us look at what I have written. Maybe it will help.” Oh-jin handed over the piece of paper to Kopius. “I will give you a moment to look it over.”

Kopius took the piece of paper from Oh-jin like it was his pass-or-fail exam in high school. He looked about the page like a man on the hunt for Waldo, darting back from different words and a variety of symbols. When he slowed his eyes down enough to let them focus on one thing, the words on the page adjusted to Common. He wrote it in Jinovian, Kopius thought. Ok, let’s just start at the top.

The top of the page read “Kopius” with a number “2” next to it and then another number next to that, (11). Below his name were three symbols of the same shape and size that looked like a morphed version of home plate, basically a pentagon. Inside each symbol were different colors and letters.

The first home plate symbol was red with ‘STR’ in capital letters. The next symbol, this one blue, had the letters INT. The last symbol, yellow in color, had DEX. Below each set of letters were two numbers, of which the right-most number had brackets to each side. It read:

“STR 1 (13), INT 0 (9), DEX 2 (18)”

Continuing below the symbols he read:

“Human/Jinovian”

Kopius took in a sharp breath and looked at Oj-jin. The old chemist smiled and nodded his head. “Welcome to the family,” he said with his normal glee. Kopius returned to the page, shaking off the full invasion of questions swarming his mind. Once focused again, he continued down his written profile page.

“Magic: Air elemental”

“Skill: Night Vision, Speakeasy, Haste, Bumbly”

“Health: Normal”

“Mana: Normal”

“Stamina: Above Normal”