NOVEL NEXT Chapter 19: Warehouses & Revelations
As I stare at Glimmer my system begins to send me messages related to some of the perks I possess. I am asked a number of different questions all of which relate to things like magical specialties, what careers and crafts I would like to specialize in, and even what martial arts I’d like to learn to the level of a young master.
While I begin to answer those questions I feel myself growing further still. The questions are manifestations of perks and a necessary component before the perks can actually manifest fully. Each question I answer causes me to gain new skills, to learn new spells, or in some cases to even gain wholly new memories related to the skills in question.
The sheer number of questions was a bit intimidating, but I allowed myself a few minutes to relax and answer the questions. If anyone has earned a break it is me, after all, I just spent the last eleven hours completing a rather brutal death game. I can afford to sit down and relax.
Clever utilization of my three separate streams of consciousness allows me to triple how many questions I can sort and work through at a time. This has the effect of allowing me to turn what would otherwise be almost an hour’s worth of work in a few minutes since I can combine my extensive processing speed with my three-pronged conscious.
My three prongs of consciousness are also free to do things like activate “Observe” or use my other, silent powers freely. They are very powerful, and freely examine my surroundings even while my head physically gazes at a wall across from me.
Beside me rests the corpse of Glimmer, a fellow tribute of mine who met her end at my hand, or rather my mind. She looks surprisingly peaceful in death, and I allow my gaze to fall on her body. As I do I begin to speak to Ghriza.
“So… why should I heal her?” I curiously ask the eldritch entity. After all this girl was trying to kill me. To be fair it wasn’t really her fault that we were forced to compete against each other, but she’s not Cashmere who I actually kind of like, or even Dewda who is one of the people I know is here… Waiting for me. And Dewda is not the only person, though she is the only one I actually know for sure, who is here. Sometimes my lack of meta-knowledge really stings.
“Don’t you want to heal her?” Ghriza asks, looking at me curiously. I chuckle and shake my head.
“If I healed her wouldn’t that make her have to accompany me on adventures? If someone had been forced to try and kill you would you want them accompanying you?” I ask, looking at the fallen warrior. I had no hatred for her, but at the same time, I didn’t want one of the only people accompanying me through the Omniverse to be someone whose past interactions with me had been focused on tricking people and then killing me, beside me as I explored all of reality. But Ghriza’s answer really surprises me.
“Actually… No. You can heal her and then store her in one of these pods. She’ll remain in stasis, unconscious until you ever decide to make her a follower or a companion.” Ghriza tells me, using two terms that have unique meanings in a jumper context.
A “follower” is someone who follows me across jumps but doesn’t get things like perks or budgets on which to purchase items, powers, and stuff like that. They are also bound to obey me. A “companion” is someone who is like a follower but given powers and privileges beyond that, such as a budget during jumps when they are “imported”, or allowed to come into the world, and also their free-will.
“So wait… If I heal her, I can just get the experience that comes with using that power you gave me, and not have to take her with me to my next jump?” I ask, causing Ghriza to smirk and nod at me.
I close my eyes without hesitation and allow an aura to flare to life around me. My aura is one of darkness, which makes it starkly differ from the aura I was radiating before. I can feel the chill of my aura even through shut eyes. This change is odd, but I figure almost immediately that it is due to my nature as a multifaceted creature of undeath.
As I unleash my aura it takes on the traits of the potent powerup given to me by my success in the Hunger Games. At will I can unleash an aura that heals my allies, or one that weakens my foes, and I am choosing the one that heals my allies. I can feel lifeforce beginning to grow deep within Glimmer, though not nearly enough for her to return to life. At the very same time I use telekinesis to pick up her corpse and haul it to one of the pods.
When I am done I turn to Ghriza and begin to speak some more to her, even as I feel my experience growing. Since Glimmer is a specific target of mine I can heal her even while she is in the pod, and she’ll remain unconscious when she does come back to life.
“So… What’s next?” I ask, as I peer at her. As she has spoken to me one of my streams of consciousness has used the information she has given me to piece together a lot of different information.
The most important information I have arrived at on my own is that I can heal the fallen tributes at any time. Their corpses are not decaying, almost certainly due to the timeless nature of the warehouse, which is an important facet to understanding this place that I learned about weeks ago while I was inside of it.
I also realize that this is handy because with this I can steadily farm the tributes until I have gained all of their skills. Sadly I am already beyond several of them in every way, but having the option is nice. Especially since I actually can grab the skill books my fallen foes create and give them to other people, which would allow them to rapidly grow in skill and power.
“Well… What’s next is that you see your home. Your warehouse, or rather your personal reality, is your truest home.” Ghriza informs me, confidently. She then places a hand on my shoulder, and we are teleported out of the strange laboratory.
One instant we are in the darkened lab, and the next we are standing in the middle of what I immediately recognize are the empty streets of the Capitol. My eyes widen in shock as my senses swiftly begin to pick up a staggering lack of sensory stimuli in every direction around me, as if this entire space was in a state of stasis.
“Welcome to Panem.” Ghriza tells me, teasingly. As I look around me, my mini-map adjusts within seconds to the strangeness of my surroundings and allows me to learn that for a radius of a few miles in every direction this place is devoid of lifeforms.
“Wait a minute… What is this?” I ask Ghriza, who chuckles and with a subtle flick of her fingers she causes a menu to appear in front of me. I glance at it and am surprised when it says “The Hunger Games Jump”. It is… a jumpdoc for Panem!
I begin to read through it, and chuckle as I see that I possess every perk. In many cases they flare to life within me as I read their descriptions for the first time. At the very same time my mind is filled with meta-knowledge concerning the mundane fate of Panem, Katniss Everdeen, and Peeta Mellark.
“A rebellion huh? Hmm… Not bad Everdeen.” I mutter, causing Ghriza to sigh annoyedly at me. At the same time I skim through the document and only stop when I reach the “Items” section. It is a long list of items divided up by one’s origins, with the origins affiliated with the items providing a 50% cut to the costs. And unsurprisingly, every single item is marked as belonging to me already.
I allow myself a second to explore the items available to me and fully stop when I realize how it is that my warehouse is so specific and vast. There is an item here named “Personal District” and it has been taken 13 times. Once for each district and one more time for the Capitol, though I note that this means that I do not have a fiat-backed copy of District 13. It, and “The District Specialty” are both taken every time they can be, causing me to come to a conclusion almost immediately.
“So this… It’s just a creepy-ass, empty-ass, copy of Panem.” I say. It’s not a question, just a statement. Ghriza nods at my remarks, and I sigh, as I take in the enormity of this monstrous “Warehouse”. It is, very literally, the size of a country. And that’s not the end of the document either.
The last section is marked “Companions”, and each of the options here is also greyed out, the greying out of each option meaning that they had been taken as well. There are only three options here, but each is unique. The first one is “Public Lover” which obviously refers to Glimmer, the second one is “Collaborators”; mysterious and influential allies who could help me change the world but who I had never met during these last few weeks, and the third one is “The Full Team”; my escort, stylist, and mentor all of whom I had met.
“So I have allies?” I ask, as I look up at Ghriza. She nods at me and begins to speak.
“Your next setting is already ready for you to jump into. It is a world known as Nirn that exists in a setting known as ‘The Elder Scrolls’, though in universe it is actually referred to as ‘The Aurbus’. It is where I hail from.” The otherworldly woman casually reveals.
“You can choose to import your companions as full companions at the start of a jump or you can choose to go it alone. Oftentimes many jumpers prefer to import companions as a method to gain every perk available from a jump but I find that system stupid so I have created a custom method of awarding perks.” Ghriza explains, and I sit still and wait for her to continue to expand on the mechanics of power-acquisition.
“I won’t limit you to 1000 choice points. That system is restrictive and the whole point of you undergoing a jumpchain, from my perspective, is because it’s fun to watch you. You don’t have to worry about things like drawbacks to acquire more power. Instead, you have to earn your perks. Which you will do by performing feats, completing quests, and growing in power” She explains, before a number of menus with titles from the settings I’m vaguely aware of appear before me.
“I’ve gone ahead and made you very powerful from the get-go so that you have freedom because you have a number of unique and debilitating restrictions that affect you weirdly. First of all, you don’t have meta-knowledge to help you.” She tells me, beginning to lecture me.
“Without meta-knowledge you are at a truly intense disadvantage compared to many other jumpers who knew about the jumps they’d be going to because they were in universal hubs where information from other universes slowly seeped into their own. Panem is not one of those. You have never heard of any of the other universes you’ll be going to.” Ghriza say, softly. There is a look of sadness in her eyes as she tells me that, but it doesn’t matter to me. I don’t view this as a sort of drawback, though I can understand, in theory, why she might.
“Second of all, without meta-knowledge you don’t have the ability to accurately theorize about your limits. You don’t know what a vampire from the universe of ‘Rosario + Vampire’ could do, because you have no clue what ‘Rosario + Vampire’ even is. And in some cases this is much worse than the example I gave. Aurbis is filled with spirits of various levels of power, including gods, and you don’t even know what a god, or a spirit, is.” She tells me. This example… This example helps her get her point across.
My other consciousnesses begin to zip through the jumpdocs before me. Unsurprisingly every perk was marked as selected, but now that I had context I could understand that that didn’t mean immediately unlocked and available for use, just that at some point it WOULD become unlocked and available for use.
Only a few of the jumps are really handy, but they all have some utility. And I can appreciate the names of some of the jumps as well. Ones like “Generic First Jump” make me smile internally, while others like “Generic Virgin Jump” are actively funny to read through.
I feel myself becoming perfect in my potential, and I feel my soul expanding so that I have the sort of adaptive body needed to master an unlimited number of powers.
“I refuse to limit you, but at the same time this is the only time your hand is going to be held. I won’t keep you from accessing powers, but if you want to access them now that you have what you need to not only survive, but thrive, you’re gonna need to reach out and grab it for yourself.” Ghriza tells me, causing me to smirk.
“Things like items and companions are all available to you if you can find them and earn them. In the case of Nirn, or rather Skyrim which is where you’re specifically heading, there’s a lot available to find if you can seize it for yourself. That said, allow me to do you one favor. Because you were fun to watch. And when you’re fun to watch I like to be nice.” Ghriza tells me before tapping my head and unlocking the perks that I had access to that were locked away in me, with the sole exception being the perks belonging to the Essential Body Mod. I feel my soul begin to burn with power, but more importantly, with potential.
"I won't give you the full body-mod. Sorry, but that one is too much even for you. If you want to unlock the maximally enhanced body-mod you're gonna need to complete quests and objectives to unlock the perks. It's too powerful to just GIVE you. It works even when you're in gauntlets." She tells me, without explaining what a gauntlet is. I can tell it's a jumper term, but I can't tell anything else beyond that even with my slowly growing amount of out-of-context and jumper knowledge.
"I'll intersperse items from the jumps that were 'frontloaded'," Ghriza begins. "Front-loading" is a jumper term that refers to jumps that were "Installed" in me without going to their setting. Basically all of the jumps that affect my soul, aside from "Personal Reality Supplement", "Essential Body Mod", the "Generic First" jumps, and "The Hunger Games" jumps. "Into you throughout Skyrim. You'll have to find them and claim them on your own." She tells me, smiling even as she causes my system to update and contain my very first quest.
"Find your legacy" is the rather silly and dramatic title of the quest. It has a number of objectives, and I know that if I want to achieve my full potential I need to complete it. It's kind of nice to have SOME direction to go in once I land in this new world.
Ghriza stomps once on the floor at her feet and the various menus before me are all erased. They are replaced with a singular menu; one that says “The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim (Stupid_Dog’s Version)”. I already have all of the perks from this one, but I know now that it marks my next destination.
“Well Cossus… I have a question for you. Do you want any of your companions to be imported into this jump with you?” Ghriza asks me, before looking at me curiously. I think about her question for a second before shaking my head. I want to enter this new world unfettered and unbound by my old chains, though I will in all likelihood awaken my companions once I have settled into life in this new world.
“I see. It’s kind of nice that you’re willing to explore this new world by yourself. Well in that case select your race, and when you’re ready to be dropped into your new world, and home for the next ten years, click on the ‘Randomizer’ button in the ‘Location’ section of the menu.” Ghriza tells me.
I study the document and peer at the section entitled “Race”. It provides information on a number of races and species and as I study it I see that I can select one race or species, or two races or species, which I know is because of my nature as a werewolf. If I select two races or species I become a perfect hybrid of both races, containing the strengths of both of the peoples of my in-universe species or races.
I am quiet for a moment as I study the information I am just now learning. It takes me a second before I eventually select two different species and races, becoming a hybrid of mer and man. I select “Orsimer” and “Nord”, and I feel my form shifting as I lose a few inches of height, and gain several pounds of muscle.
My skin turns a shade of grey that is close to a light shade of green, and I feel tusks grow in my mouth. My face isn’t radically shifted, but I feel it become a touch harsher and meaner looking which makes me smile internally.
“Orc and Nord? Hmm… I am glad you have attractiveness perks.” Ghriza says before giggling. As soon as she comments on that I go to the part of the menu entitled “Locations” and I hit the “Randomizer” button. Ghriza waves at me, and everything goes black.
The strange champion of the even stranger daughter of Aurbis vanishes as soon as he hits the button that determines his next destination. He is now fully uncapped and free to do as he wishes while possessing the power and potential of champions.
Ghriza watches as the randomizer determines his fate. When his destination is selected she smiles at the thing and utters a soft remark.
“Dawnstar huh? It’s right between Solitude and Winterhold so… It could be worse.” She says, as the young man materializes inside of the not yet nightmare-haunted little town, seated at a table inside of Windpeak Inn.
And now his journey begins.
