Chapter 18: Chapter 17: The City of Sterling II

Chapter 17: The City of Sterling II

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[MERDASA - Northern Road]

“System Mechanics?” asked Cain.

“Indeed,” said Baal. “I believe you should see it in your status window.”

Cain thought back to it.

[SYSTEMS ACTIVATED:]

-CONTROL SCHEME-

“System Mechanics...”

“Indeed. Deeply strange, eldritch and specific abilities that go even further beyond the ordinary,” answered Baal. “It seems to me that this Control Scheme, your ability to move in a perfected manner regardless of your experience, is yours.”

He continued.

“Let me give you an example.”

They were sitting around a campfire, listening to stories. Cain imagined what Baal would look like in forty years - he could see a wizened, dignified old orc reading tales to his grandchildren.

”One of the most famous Players is known to almost every child on this continent through folklore. Of course, except for the fact that he was a Player. His name, passed down through legend, is Jim Smith.”

Cain felt as if he had been walking down a beautiful forest trail, smelling the roses, and had been hit by an eighteen-wheeler that had materialized out of nowhere.

“The Legendary Jim Smith!” said Muse, excitedly. There were stars in her eyes. “Oh, dad used to read me stories about him! From how he boxed the lava hydra to how he challenged the 3rd Divinity to a duel for the life of his love! He was a Player?”

The Legendary Jim Smith.

Cain rubbed his temples.

“The stories have distorted some facts surrounding him,” said Baal. “But we have certain better records. Of course, the information is all incredibly old, so some of it has to be taken with a grain of salt.”

Muse put her arms on her knees, and her face in her hands. Her ruby eyes were sparkling, excited to hear the true story of one of her childhood fables.

“Jim Smith, who appeared one day with eyes of night, had something called a ‘Fighting Game’ System. His System gave him the ability to trap a foe with him in a pocket dimension, and equalize their strength and durability. Whether he dragged a monster or a child into his dimension, they would do the same damage with a single punch as each other.”

“Once in his dimension, he and his opponent would engage in a first to two battle. Upon knockout, the next round would begin. But the strange thing was that as a new round would start, both sides would be completely healed and good as new. That was, until one lost two bouts. The loser would be smashed to pieces and the winner completely healed, and they would return to regular reality.”

“He took advantage of this ability by training his reflexes and speed, and the apex of his legend was when he dragged an ancient dragon into his dimension. The dragon, blessed with overwhelming muscles, weight, and impenetrable scales, had never needed to rely on anything more than that. Jim Smith completely eviscerated the beast, and when they had returned to reality, he was hailed as a hero.”

“‘Jim Smith Slays the Kingdom-Eater’,” Muse recited the name of the tale. “How chivalrous! My second favourite next to ‘Jim Smith Boxes the Demon King’.”

Demon King? There were Demon Kings in this world? Cain’s head swam.

“Incidentally,” said Baal. “That second one appears to be apocryphal. There are no legitimate records of it.”

Muse’s face fell.

They needed to get off this topic fast, thought Cain. His entire perception of this world was going completely sideways.

“There are other tales; one of somebody with a ‘Taming’ System, who could control beasts and raise them, giving them the ability to transform into larger, more dangerous creatures. Another of somebody with a ‘Pause’ System, capable of stopping time for an entire town. Even somebody who had something called a ‘Respawn’ System, who came back to life in the same location every time they died,” said Baal.

After a brief thought, he added a quick afternote.

“The last one became a bandit, and they got rid of him by covering said location in lava. It’s said he burned to death constantly until his final death of old age.”

Cain shuddered. That one turned out to be a curse rather than a blessing, then.

These Systems... They were all game mechanics. Cain’s brain exploded at the possibilities. What did this mean? Were there Players out there who could save and load? Turn matter into blocks and carry them around?

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[ERMIRE PROVINCE - On the Road]

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The next few days passed in relative peace. They passed through Merdasa smoothly and quickly. The city was the first real urban center that Cain had seen since his awakening, so he was a little disappointed that he couldn’t see more of it.

But Muse had cheered him up. Merdasa? Merdasa was nothing compared to the Silver Seat, capital of Goethia. They would be there in only a few days anyway, so why spoil your dinner with an early meal?

Cain and Muse continued to bug Webby for games while they were travelling, and they had managed to even win one of them. Webby continued to crush them thoroughly afterward though, so it was really more of a lucky punch than anything.

In the evenings, Cain and Ronove sparred. The man was far above his level, but he had managed to make the man at least block a few of his blows by choosing when to engage Control Scheme and when to go at it manually. Experimenting with different weapons yielded benefits as well - there were quite a few varieties of wooden training ones in the wagon.

He tried dual swords, polearms, clubs, and more. None of them proved to be a problem for Control Scheme. In fact, having gone through the trouble of trying them all gave Cain something of an idea.

His next sparring session turned out to be his most successful bout. Taking inspiration from his experiments, he pre-seeded the battlefield with weapons. He would swing at Ronove with one weapon, then drop it and pick up another. Sometimes pick up a sword, then switch to a sword and shield, then drop the shield for an axe, and drop both for a wooden claymore, then toss the claymore, and follow it up with a spear lunge.

The constant barrage of unpredictable yet masterfully executed forms made Ronove back off for the first time, until the man finally found a method to the madness and took advantage of an opening to deprive Cain of his armaments.

That’s when Cain realized that he didn’t need weapons.

He had nailed Ronove with a few jabs into a low kick into an uppercut. The manservant was made of sterner stuff than he looked, tanking the blows before attempting to swing back. The attacks to his body had slowed his movement, however, and Cain managed to grab onto his arm and throw him over his shoulder, slamming him into the ground.

That had been his only victory.

Ronove, as though chastising himself for losing, redoubled his efforts. If he hadn’t been a Player, Cain suspected he would’ve been a walking bruise by the end of the trip.

The more he experimented, the more nuances he found with his System Mechanic. Just how far could this ability go?

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[THE SILVER SEAT - Main Entrance]

“You know, Cain,” grinned Muse slyly when they had started their ascent. “I’m kind of jealous. Your first view of the capital is going to be from the Ermire entrance.”

“What do you mean?”

“She means that,” Baal said. “Your first view of the Silver Seat will be from above.”

The moment they crested the large hill - almost a mountain - that represented the only road from Ermire Province into the Silver Seat, Cain’s jaw opened and stayed open.

When he had heard of cities in this world, he wasn’t sure what they would really look like. Sure, it was a fantasy world, but he was expecting something like Corbin Village, except larger and containing more people. From the brief view he had seen of Merdasa, he supposed that his expectations were on the mark.

Well, he was dead wrong.

In front of him was a proper city. A massive metropolis that didn’t lose out to any of the cities in the old world. New York, Delhi, Tokyo, Shanghai.

Buildings were laid out in different styles as far as the eye could see - they spanned the horizon from where the wagon was watching from. On the streets, as small as ants, people moved to and fro, lost in the hustle and bustle of city life. Carriages and horse-drawn omnibuses roamed the streets.

A river bisected the city - or possibly, the city had been built around it - dividing the Silver Seat into two distinct halves. In the distance, he could see the water run out to sea, and a fleet of sails bobbing up and down on the waves. From smaller fishing boats to large galleons, there was no size nor variety missing.

Six massive statues of men dressed in armour also stood upright, three on each side of the river. Cain called to mind the image of the Statue of Liberty - they seemed to be around the same size, if not slightly larger. He felt faint, trying to comprehend the scale.

And then, his eyes moved even higher upward.

Cain’s breath caught in his chest as he beheld the most otherworldly thing he had seen in this world so far. More than McDougal’s magic, more than the blue lizards in the mountains, even more than that feeling he had beholding Muse in the moonlight for the first time.

Floating islands.

They looked small from where he was staring, but judging by the size of the shadows they cast on the ground, they must’ve been kilometers across. Some smaller, some larger, hundreds of them floated over the city below. He could see bridges connecting them, and what looked to be elevators and gondolas connecting sky to earth.

At the center of the floating masses was the largest island of all, and on top of it was a silver palace. It was too far away for him to make out the details, but behind it he could see a titanic sword that pierced the island and sank all the way into the middle of the river, as if locking it into place.

The sight was almost too much for his eyes. No matter where he looked, there were hundreds of things for him to focus on.

Cain truly, openly gaped.

“Welcome to the Silver Seat!” laughed Muse, taking delight in his bewilderment. “Capital of the kingdom of Greater Goethia. The most beautiful city in the entire world!”

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