The New Arrival's Guide to Common Things

by Jorbon Delivas

There is one final requirement to become an enforcer. The being in question must relinquish all claim to leadership and governance. An enforcer may never be in a permanent or semi-permanent position of authority over any organization.

This requirement was added three epics ago, when the enforcer-faction 'Law-Omega' was formed and caused extraordinary damage to the infrastructure of the entire world's society - plunging the entire Origin universe into a war which lasted until the very end of the twenty seventh epic. An epic which lasted nine thousand and forty two hundred years.

Katha

Tunnels, Tunnels and Caverns, Dreary Planet

"Hmmm, hmm, hmmmmm, hey hey – gooodbyeeeee", the elfen woman was in quite a good mood, as demonstrated by her belted song. She'd finally figured out where her pink fairy friend had gone! Down into the tunnels! It was SO obvious in hindsight.

"Why are you so stupid, me?" Katha snickered at the air-head elf's expense.

Oh well! Now that she knew, nothing could stop her! One of her bare toes found a hole, causing her green eyes to widen. "Ooooh! She probably used a hole like this! Hold on Pink Piper! I'm cooooming!" She giggled with the last words as her body transformed into a streak of wind and flowed downward.

She missed being wind. She didn't ever spend much time like this, why? Ooooh cuz then I can't feel anyone touch me, and I really like that. The realization caused the swirling ever-moving air her body was made up of to halt within the confines of one of the tunnels. Then a really important realization struck her! No one can touch me if I'm all alone, either! Oh! If I find a lake I bet Piper will let me touch her! I think she didn't like how dusty I was before. Yep, yep.

So decided, the elfess continued on her way, searching the tunnels as a singular gust of wind which navigated as it would. Backtracking, forward tracking, going upward, downward, there wasn't a direction she didn't search. The thought of stopping to rest or come up with a plan never even occurred to Katha, she was having way too much fun. This was the best game of hide and seek ever!

Grey and brown walls interspersed with random other colors, mostly dull yellows or silvers. Grey and brown ceilings. And the floor? Grey and brown. "Seriously. Why couldn't we have gone to some really beautiful coastal place swarming with ocean monsters or something? The scenery leaves so much to be desired." Willow spoke her complaint somewhat quietly, but Slyth replied from her right anyway. "Most beautiful worlds are colonized, the monsters hunted to extinction. The few so-called 'premium' hunting worlds are incredibly difficult to get invited to. Most of them are owned by some organization or another and they're used as reward destinations for their best members." Frella, who was walking to Willow's left, just nodded in agreement. "Okay, but… Surely Madrick could have gotten us into one of those places?" "Maybe. Though, I've been thinking about it and I suspect his contacts are pretty nonexistent. I think he just has a lot of wealth and is able to leverage his previous position well." Willow snickered, "That sounds like him. You hear that, you weirdo? We're on to you being a rich hobo!" She raised her voice only slightly at the last, still aware being too loud wasn't a great idea. While they had turned from the hunted to the hunters, there was no reason to give themselves away too easily. Looking concerned, Frella asked, "You're talking like he can hear you?" "Oh, yeah, he definitely can. He's probably skulking around in some shadow around here somewhere." "So will he intervene if the monster army turns out to be too much for us?" The elf clarified, a sense of relief obvious on her face. Willow shook her head, "More likely, he'll decide that 'almost' dying isn't challenging enough and he'll teleport a dragon into the room at the end of a grueling battle or something equally ridiculous." "I don't know much about him." Slyth offered, "But what I've gleaned suggests he's not extremely concerned with our safety." "And… This is the founder of the organization we've joined?" Frella asked, her voice suddenly filled with trepidation. Willow shrugged, "Proposed organization. He hasn't founded anything yet. I don't think he's even sure what our 'purpose' is yet. And I'm not sure why you sound so concerned, it's not like whoever was in charge of your previous guild cared about any of your safety either, right?" "That's not true! The Gatherer's Guild had a ton of safety regulations and even mandatory leave for mental recovery after large jobs!" Slyth asked in a knowing tone, "And the guild took losses from those benefits, right? They didn't get any kick-back from any other systems as a result?" "I… Don't know?" "They do. In particular, the UICI requires certain standards to be followed or the organization can lose its official status. The gods added those rules at some point after the original organization system was introduced to the UICI itself." Willow glanced over, impressed, "How'd you learn about that?" "You never researched organizations, why they're so keen to recruit, and why they don't resort to literal slavery?" He raised an elegant eyebrow at her. Shrugging, Willow turned back to Frella, "Annnyway, we won't let Madrick be a jerk to you. I'll beat him up if he tries." "You… Can do that?" Wide hazel orbs stared at her incredulously. Willow shrugged, "Maybe? I'd try." "In range. Quiet." Koll's small raspy voice demanded bluntly. Falling silent, Willow quickly took stock of herself and reviewed their plans while she had time. In range just meant the enemy scouts were likely to notice them soon and they wanted to avoid that for as long as possible. Koll had said more today than she'd heard from him in the last however long - a week? maybe more? - since she'd met the gremlin. They really should have been using his scouting capabilities before, along with Jonah's. A mistake Naomi had also realized and rectified once she'd gotten a bit of sleep. She had Jonah cast his newest spell, 'aid', on Koll who had been tasked with tracking the leader of the monsters, the human guy who had run away. They hadn't even asked Piper to help, much to the fairy's annoyance, keeping her in reserve since their enemy had some way of detecting her spying. Thinking back to the previous fight still caused a thrill to run through Willow. It'd been incredible. Rather than becoming more boring or less fulfilling, she found combat to be more and more engaging the stronger she grew. There'd been a niggling worry that her starting ability was so over powered that she'd just take everything on without trouble. Thankfully, her trump card was honestly no less powerful than any other impressive being out there. It was a really strange kind of relief to realize her advantages weren't as overwhelming as she'd thought at the start. The other bit of introspection she'd been bouncing around was her absolute willingness to kill. Not just monsters, either. Out of the heat of combat, Willow realized how willing she'd been to kill the enemy leader guy. She knew nothing about him, had no idea what his reason for attacking was, and yet she hadn't even really given it a second thought when Naomi had given him as her target during their planning the day before. The oddest part was she still didn't feel any twinge of uncertainty around punching the idiot's heart out. He'd attacked her first, after all. More importantly, though, he'd come back. The knowledge that death wasn't final had caused her mindset to shift without her even realizing it. Rather than seeing murder, of any kind, as at the very least regrettable if not abhorrent, she'd subconsciously started to think of it as… Normal? Nah, not exactly normal. More akin to breaking someone's arm. There are still consequences, possibly permanent ones, but not… Final. Part of her worried something was wrong, that her empathy was slipping away. On the other hand, the fury she felt thinking that, should they let him, that guy would kill any of her friends without a thought suggested otherwise. Maybe her empathy was just becoming less broad? Or maybe I've always been like this. It's not like I've ever been in a position where I've needed to try and kill someone… Or something, for that matter. It was so much easier for me than Jonah and Naomi. They both hesitated to kill, even monsters… They were both upset by the blood and death the first time they killed pop-hoppers. Not me, though. I just felt exhilarated. Victorious. It's still like that, kind of… Jonah doesn't like getting his hands dirty still, though he will if he needs to. Naomi's emotions are all set to 0 so she's not a great gauge… She glanced at Slyth and sent him a private message through Jonah's party channel, "What do you feel when you kill things?" "What, like how gross the blood splatter is when I cut through a monster?" "Sure… Or if you cut through, like, a sentient being…" His eyes slid in her direction for a moment, "I'm not sure. I've never killed a being." They walked in silence both physical and party-channel for a while before he continued. "I don't know how I'd feel, maybe guilty at having forced them to reset their path… Probably relieved they didn't kill me, since them wishing me or y - the party - harm is the only reason I can see for me to do that." The silence stretched again as Willow considered. She didn't tell him about the time with the weird spider-lady where she'd almost gone that far because she'd tried to mess with her mind. She'd been angry, yes, out of sorts and worried about her friends. Yet - she could have done it. She'd considered it, while the manipulative spider was frozen in her ability. Back on Earth, no matter how angry she'd gotten, she'd never considered something like that. "Is it still as bad to kill, now that everyone comes back, as it was in the tutorial?" She finally asked. The party steps echoed softly, though everyone did their best to step quietly. Some where better than others. Noticing her own steps were too loud, Willow sent a imperative command to her shoes to not land loudly. It wasn't perfect, but a bit better. "I don't know. On one hand, as you said, they'll just come back. On the other… What if it took them years and years to get where they are? Isn't destroying everything a being has worked for, dedicated themselves to, even worse in some ways? They don't die, but they're losing huge pieces of themselves. The idea of losing my insight after it took so long to get one…" He looked toward Willow again, catching her eye, before continuing, "Is it as horrible as it sounds, losing everything and restarting? Jonah told the story of your fight with a giant monster that ended with your death." She shrugged, "It sucked to lose my skill and have to recreate it, and my body losing all of the strength from invested potentia… I don't lose anything in my soul when I respawn though." His steps faltered for a moment, before he continued, "Really? Is that…" This time it was his voice which hesitated, "…is that something you could teach me?" "Sorry, Slyth, I would if I could… I'd show you all how. It's an achievement I got from my time in the tutorial." She lifted the corner of her lip slightly in an apologetic half-smile and he nodded, turning to watch where he was going again. "Hmm… So you can't empathize fully. Maybe it'd be better to ask then, is it still wrong to maim someone? From what I gather, the tutorial you and the others came from was one of the 'civilized' tutorials. Mine was right in the center between chaos and civilization, I think. We had rules and social norms, but no centralized organizations or governments for the most part. Even still, cutting someone's arm off was generally considered immoral and sometimes even warranted an honor duel or exile from a family." He shrugged, "Maybe it's similar to death now. Since you didn't lose your soul progress you won't realize, but for most it's almost exactly like losing a limb or something similar. You can choose to retread the same path, but you'll never fully remember what you had before. It has to be recovered, relearned." Willow's brows grew together in a tight, contemplative, line. "But Madrick seems to have his whole path figured out…" she complained. "I can't speak for him, obviously. But I can say from what I've read about paths, and in particular resetting them, you can give your future respawned self some advantages but you're creating a 'new version of the same basic path. Not reforming the exact one you were walking on before. Every path is unique, even if it's the 'same' one from a naming and basic concepts perspective. The exact circumstances which any being is in when they gain an insight, and the things they go through to form concepts, it's all lost when they die. They have the memories, but they're distant and don't contain the meaning of anything anymore. At least, that's how I've understood things." He smiled a bit with a slight shrug. Willow nodded, finding herself a little disturbed. If she looked at it like that, was she becoming too callous? "What about monsters?" She asked, deciding she'd think more about this later when she could take advantage of her library to examine her thoughts thoroughly. He shrugged, "What about them?" "Is there anything wrong with killing them?" "As far as anyone knows, they aren't actually 'real' beings in the sense that they don't even have a soul." Another scrunched expression graced Willow's face, "I thought saying stuff like that is like… 'being-ist' or something? Isn't the whole reason we say 'being' instead of 'person' because lacking something like a soul doesn't necessarily make someone lesser?" "Hmmm, maybe. I suppose undead and some other sentients don't technically have souls… But they return, respawn. So maybe it's more accurate to say monsters are just living things which don't respawn and therefore considered lesser?" "That includes children that beings who do respawn have?" She challenged. "I… Don't know. I'll look into it next time I have the opportunity to do some research." Willow nodded, "I'll come with you!" That seemed to startle him as he looked over, blinking uncomprehendingly. "What? I can't help you research stuff?" she opened her mouth and eyes wide in exaggerated consternation. Smiling, her shook his head. "I just didn't expect you to volunteer. You realize that will likely include tracking down various public information stations and parsing through books, packets, and whatever else they have?" "Yeah?" She looked genuinely confused now. "So?" "It just doesn't seem like your favorite way to pass time. Am I wrong?" "I like reading!" She protested. "It's fun! Besides, I can read and do push-ups or something." Slyth just chuckled, golden eyes sparkling, "It's a date, then." Willow's eyes widened, the fiend! He'd planned this from the start! He'd tricked her! "Sure, a date." Play it cool, Willow. No big deal. Just your first date since high school.

Nearly an hour later, Koll finally sent another message to the party. "They're alerted and prepping. You're about twenty minutes away at your current pace."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Naomi - or is this an operation now? Probably. Prism, then - immediately began asking questions and brainstorming plans. She asked Frella in particular whether she had any input as she formulated the 'how to destroy our enemies' blueprint.

Willow herself had very quickly realized that she herself was quite, quite bad at strategizing. Fighting tactically, at least by herself, she was decent… Not good, but okay. Thinking beyond her own positioning, targeting, and defense though? Yeah, she'd probably lose a game of chess to a baby. At least if that baby was like any of her party.

"I could pop in and tie their shoe laces together!" Iris suggested eagerly.

I might beat Piper at chess, at least. Willow thought ruefully. Assuming she didn't just cheat somehow.

To Iris' great regret, her suggestion was discussed briefly then discarded. The chances the enemy would immediately notice her were simply way too high. Prism suggested Iris work on invisibility or stealth capabilities, then they could use that in the future. Phoenix immediately got a private voice connection with Iris, the pink menace begging Phoenix to give her invisibility during their next imbuing session. Phoenix said she'd try, but didn't promise anything. She hadn't really given her any magical powers directly before, after all. Maybe her new meta-armor could be counted, but only barely.

Before too long, everyone was ready and understood their role. Unfortunately, Phoenix was positioned as rear guard. Specifically because Prism suspected the enemy would try and pincer them. Herself and Loivl would be the spikes the enemy cavalry would run themselves upon. (Iris' cackling declaration, not Prism's).

Phoenix hadn't fought beside Loivl much, but was excited to actually get to see what the huge minotauress did with that massive greataxe of hers. Her path was about stability and being immovable. Perfect for this kind of thing!

Knowing their roles, everyone shuffled around. Taking up the rear with Loivl, Willow grinned at her, "Ready to smash some monsters?"

"I am!" She replied in her always-soothing voice. "I have only seen you fighting in parts between my own battles and those around me. I am quite excited to see you in action."

"The feeling is mutual! I haven't really seen larger weapons used effectively before. Well…" She hesitated, "I had someone demonstrate proper long-sword usage once and it was way more flowing than I expected. Do you dance around a lot too?"

Loivl's soft laugh reminded Phoenix of smooth stones rolling across each other. Deepish but clinking and oddly pleasant. "Not at all. I tend to be largely stationary. If you would be so kind as to do the dancing, I am happy to act as a central pillar which you can fall back to when you need rest. That is my usual role in the party. Poli controls the battlefield to ensure we don't get surrounded, I am an immovable tower with reach and damage, Kash heals and buffs - while shielding if needed - Frella flits in and out to harry our enemies, Kosh is our ranged support and highest damage output, and Koll secretly whittles the enemies number without them even noticing."

"Classic RPG party." Phoenix agreed happily, then remembered. "Isn't Kosh new, though?"

"He is. We used to party with an orc named Hoardren, but he died in our last expedition together and hasn't managed to advance back to a point where he can rejoin us. I am not certain if he wants to anyway, he and Poli never got along much."

"Positions. Contact in five minutes." Prism's voice cut through whatever side conversations were going on through side channels. I have to remember to tell System how cool his party thing is. Even if he had no other abilities, just this would be invaluable.

Phoenix and Loivl both readied themselves, turning to glance at their rear as they walked. They quickly fell into a rotation. Phoenix checked, then looked where she was going while Loivl checked, then she turned to maintain her footing and so on.

Five minutes later, the battle was joined. Turning around, Phoenix found herself incredibly anxious. She couldn't tell what was going on and she wasn't supposed to try and see. Her job was to be ready to spot and counter threats from behind. It was, without exaggeration, the hardest fight she'd ever been in. Her nerves were strained within the first minute.

Listening to the few party-wide communications, she was able to get a rough idea of what was going on. Which was why she started wondering about the lack of gemacer. They'd been a constant, if minority, troop in each of their encounters for the last - What, twenty plus? - skirmishes.

As if the very thought had jinxed them, the little tunnel bowl-like entrance to the cavern they were assaulting shuddered. The plan had been to stay here, taunting the enemy into striking at them in the more confined space where the numeric advantage couldn't be leveraged.

"SHIT" Phoenix heard System's frantic yelp before the ceiling collapsed. They were too spread out for Poli's shields to cover everyone and unlike the minor cave-ins caused before, Phoenix could see the falling stone was a true tunnel collapse rather than just some detritus and stones being pulled down.

She activated her moment of focus in its rawest form while extending it to cover her entire party, giving herself time. Then, she used her most recent trick, forming a tube of purpose mana to infuse intent into each of her other mana types. She excluded everything except heavy falling objects from its affect, then swapped mana streams and adjusted the range to only cover her group and herself, without extending far past in either direction. Her ability cut out for less than a blink, yet that was still enough for a large piece of rock to land beside her foot, horrifyingly close.

"I can hold this for less than ten minutes." Phoenix reported calmly.

As if they'd known both that she'd be the linchpin and that she'd be positioned at the back, dozens of assids emerged from little side-tunnels which hadn't existed moments before and shambled their creepy-butts toward Poenix and Loivl. Behind them, the tunnel became absolutely congested with the most durable monsters they'd faught. Movlies, the armored mole-like creatures, hocheth with and without assids riding on them, and even the frog-like shield-conjuring woislls and dinosaurish omryxers.

Glancing as Loivl, Phoenix grinned, "Looks like Prism was right about the ambush!"

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