Saria had brought some food and drinks with her, hoping to share a nice breakfast with Sofia, so now she was eating some crescent-shaped pastries on Sofia’s bed. “So this one’s part of your class? With all the flashing lights and all, right? She’s good, she only lost once I think. Probably got more tokens than I do.”
“Shaily did not strike me as the very combative type, honestly. That will make my job easier. What about En? She’s about this tall, covered in orange fur, three tails. She fights with totems.”
“Ah! Yes. I didn’t pay too much attention to this one but I’ve definitely seen her fighting some rounds too.”
“Was everyone so eager to lose their tokens? I’m shocked so many even agreed to fight you after you knocked a few out.”
Saria stored her pastry and sat up on the bed. She faked a slow, maniacal laughter.
“Oh, oh, oh. My sweet, naive little sister. Do you think I’d show the full extent of my power so fast? Noooo, first you do your best to look weak, then you play with them a little, let a few of the weaker hits land, and finally win ‘by luck’ after a few minutes of ‘struggle’. The hardest part was faking being tired.”
Sofia looked at her sister like she was a crazy person. “So much effort for a handful of tokens? You do know they are only worth one gold each, right? I’m pretty sure the later events will award them in much larger quantities. Did you level up your Shenanigans at least?”
“It did level up once, yeah. I know these few tokens likely aren’t a big deal, but progress is progress. And speaking of, I reviewed the rules and found an interesting loophole.”
“Honestly the rules were quite vague, so that’s not too surprising. You can bet they will keep adding on new ones as they please just like they changed this tower into a safe zone. What’s your loophole then?”
Saria adjusted her position on the bed. “You may not seek or use outside help of any kind. Outside help. You know who’s not outside? Teachers.”
Sofia narrowed her eyes. “That’s a very ambiguous thing to risk your tokens on. But if you have to try bending the rules like this, it is better to do it now while you don’t have many tokens that could disappear for cheating… What do you expect me to do?”
“Not much, even like this, we still have to abide by the no trading and such rules. Just keep an eye out for teachers who could be good targets to steal from. I think if anyone’s going to get one of the pouches, it will have to be a well-planned out long con. We’ve all seen what happens to those who attack with lousy strategies.”
“Right.” Sofia untied her pouch from her waist, looking at the small bones inside. “Should I really make a dice set out of them? Or maybe a necklace? I just want them to stop targeting me, I can already tell this is going to get exhausting fast otherwise.”
“I still can’t believe you stole these guys’ hands.”
“They deserved it for putting my students in danger.”
“Don’t you know people under level 100 are protected by the school’s barrier?”
“And for pissing me off,” Sofia added, pretending to examine one of the phalanges she had picked up from the bunch.
“So you didn’t know. Did you at least read the Academy rules?”
“I did! That wasn’t anywhere in there. And, they really did piss me off.”
Saria giggled. “Well, they’re sure not to piss you off again… And for the hands, I have an idea.”
Sofia and Saria admired the creation coming straight ouf of Saria’s mind. She had suggested that Sofia’s decoration for her entrance be a wall of bone, with the stolen hands slotted inside around the door. This by itself was a bit lacking, there were only six hands for now, but what really sold the artistic piece were the hundreds of empty hand-shaped slots in the wall.
“Anyone who sees this and who’s heard of what you did to these guys will have to think twice about trying anything,” Saria commented, happy with her chef d’oeuvre.
“Once for each hand,” Sofia deadpanned.
Saria snorted, then walked a few steps back, looking at the stairwell going down the numerous floors of the tower. “I have to wonder whether a lot of students will even see it, though.”
“You know, I have a feeling that once word gets out about this and this morning’s events, quite a few people will come check out my door.”
“Just what I needed to catapult my artistic career.”
The sisters were back inside Sofia’s room, actually playing a game with brand-new bone dice, made from Sofia’s wings. Although now she could use the entire armor to refill her stock, she had taken to the habit of cutting off her wings, so she usually did that whenever she had some free time.
Pareth threw the dice.
“Triple six again! No way! He’s cheating I tell you!” Saria stood up from the table, accusing the mute skeleton.
“You also got triple sixes twice in a row! I don’t even know how you’re both doing that. I’m the one who’s supposed to control bones here…”
Saria visibly gave up playing, instead going back to observe the small bone statues Sofia had already made of a few people. She stopped before one of the display cases which was filled with random miniatures of Sofia’s stuff. There was a small bone crown, staff, and Bookie, among other things, Saria picked up some kind of flat bone ring.
“What’s this one supposed to be?”
“Uh? Oh, that’s Dopple.”
“Oh? Oh… Not the most impressive thing to make a sculpture of.”
“I also realized that after making it, but I still threw it into the pile, it looks better the more things there are, like your gold pile. Ah! It was Dopple who screamed during the ceremony, right? What was that all about?”
“I forgot to tell you!” Saria exclaimed, her brow furrowing as she felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her for not mentioning this earlier. “That was a whole thing… It was hard to get it to talk, but as it turns out, it shared the same owner as the sword at one point! It explicitly said it was not one of the admins, but wouldn’t explain anything more. I think it knows perfectly well who the system admins were.”
“We barely talked about that but do you not have any idea who they were either?”
“I don’t,” Saria whispered as she sat back down at the table, “Zephir doesn’t know either, he tried to ask around but everyone in the know seems to be avoiding the subject. I think it’s a subject almost as taboo as our new name.”
Sofia took a second to recall all the information she had. Three admins, all gone. According to Zerrei they disappeared sometime in the first few hundred years of the system, long before she was born. The artifacts from the ranking tower’s 99th floor were all discovered or made by them, but on both mine and Saria’s the names are |REDACTED|.
“The lich I met did mention them when Alith asked about it. He said he was the one to provide the jewels for my crown. Which I’m surprised isn’t getting censored, by the way, and when Alith asked if he was an admin himself, he answered ‘Lords, no; I’d rather die’.”
Saria didn’t answer for a while, the silence of the room only broken by the sound of her nails rhythmically tapping on the table. Finally she stopped and opened her mouth.
“I think I figured out a few things. A few very worrying things..”
“Go on, I have a few ideas myself.”
“Right. First of all, the identity of the Admins. It’s pretty obvious that one of them was a human Hero,” Saria started.
“And one of them was a Dragon,” Sofia completed.
“That only makes sense as to why the system references so many things from the human heroes’ world, just like my class. And it also explains why the system would have a special section for Dragons, when it doesn’t have one for other strong entities like the Kleptras.”
“Kleptra?” Sofia asked. I think Erredis mentioned a Kleptra’s nest at some point?
“I’ll explain later. Just know they’re as strong as the Dragons and just as smart.”
“Noted. That leaves the third admin unaccounted for.”
“My guess is, it was probably a God,” Saria blurted out, as if scared that she would get censored.
“That would explain why they set up the whole thing with Saints and Oracles on one side while leaving the Recessed completely unaccounted for.”
“Right? But if the Dragon argument was a bit inconclusive, this one is just a wild guess…”
“Best we have now,” Sofia said with a shrug.
“I have one more thread to follow, this lich you mentioned must know a lot about the Deep. Or he wouldn’t be swearing on their name.”
“This I can confirm, he alluded to us having a lot to talk about on the subject when it came up again later in the discussion, but he had places to go and I haven’t seen him since.”
“And he knows the admins too. For a lich to say they would ‘rather die‘, is quite something, considering only those most afraid of death would go to such lengths to avoid it, even back before the system. Zephir knows a lot about pre-system magic, and becoming a lich really didn’t sound like an easy option,” Saria explained.
“But then what, the admins suffered a fate worse than death? Wait… I have learned at one point that the system was investigating the Deep, sacrificing numerous scribes in the process…”
“You’re thinking what I’m thinking, Sofia?”
“There’s no way… Erredis avoided the subject too, when I asked… No one ever speaks about them in any detail and their names are always missing… Could they really-”
“Have been erased?” Saria finished, her voice changing to one that was decidedly not hers halfway through the sentence.
Saria had brought some food and drinks with her, hoping to share a nice breakfast with Sofia, so now she was eating some crescent-shaped pastries on Sofia’s bed. “So this one’s part of your class? With all the flashing lights and all, right? She’s good, she only lost once I think. Probably got more tokens than I do.”
“Shaily did not strike me as the very combative type, honestly. That will make my job easier. What about En? She’s about this tall, covered in orange fur, three tails. She fights with totems.”
“Ah! Yes. I didn’t pay too much attention to this one but I’ve definitely seen her fighting some rounds too.”
“Was everyone so eager to lose their tokens? I’m shocked so many even agreed to fight you after you knocked a few out.”
Saria stored her pastry and sat up on the bed. She faked a slow, maniacal laughter.
“Oh, oh, oh. My sweet, naive little sister. Do you think I’d show the full extent of my power so fast? Noooo, first you do your best to look weak, then you play with them a little, let a few of the weaker hits land, and finally win ‘by luck’ after a few minutes of ‘struggle’. The hardest part was faking being tired.”
Sofia looked at her sister like she was a crazy person. “So much effort for a handful of tokens? You do know they are only worth one gold each, right? I’m pretty sure the later events will award them in much larger quantities. Did you level up your Shenanigans at least?”
“It did level up once, yeah. I know these few tokens likely aren’t a big deal, but progress is progress. And speaking of, I reviewed the rules and found an interesting loophole.”
“Honestly the rules were quite vague, so that’s not too surprising. You can bet they will keep adding on new ones as they please just like they changed this tower into a safe zone. What’s your loophole then?”
Saria adjusted her position on the bed. “You may not seek or use outside help of any kind. Outside help. You know who’s not outside? Teachers.”
Sofia narrowed her eyes. “That’s a very ambiguous thing to risk your tokens on. But if you have to try bending the rules like this, it is better to do it now while you don’t have many tokens that could disappear for cheating… What do you expect me to do?”
“Not much, even like this, we still have to abide by the no trading and such rules. Just keep an eye out for teachers who could be good targets to steal from. I think if anyone’s going to get one of the pouches, it will have to be a well-planned out long con. We’ve all seen what happens to those who attack with lousy strategies.”
“Right.” Sofia untied her pouch from her waist, looking at the small bones inside. “Should I really make a dice set out of them? Or maybe a necklace? I just want them to stop targeting me, I can already tell this is going to get exhausting fast otherwise.”
“I still can’t believe you stole these guys’ hands.”
“They deserved it for putting my students in danger.”
“Don’t you know people under level 100 are protected by the school’s barrier?”
“And for pissing me off,” Sofia added, pretending to examine one of the phalanges she had picked up from the bunch.
“So you didn’t know. Did you at least read the Academy rules?”
“I did! That wasn’t anywhere in there. And, they really did piss me off.”
Saria giggled. “Well, they’re sure not to piss you off again… And for the hands, I have an idea.”
Sofia and Saria admired the creation coming straight ouf of Saria’s mind. She had suggested that Sofia’s decoration for her entrance be a wall of bone, with the stolen hands slotted inside around the door. This by itself was a bit lacking, there were only six hands for now, but what really sold the artistic piece were the hundreds of empty hand-shaped slots in the wall.
“Anyone who sees this and who’s heard of what you did to these guys will have to think twice about trying anything,” Saria commented, happy with her chef d’oeuvre.
“Once for each hand,” Sofia deadpanned.
Saria snorted, then walked a few steps back, looking at the stairwell going down the numerous floors of the tower. “I have to wonder whether a lot of students will even see it, though.”
“You know, I have a feeling that once word gets out about this and this morning’s events, quite a few people will come check out my door.”
“Just what I needed to catapult my artistic career.”
The sisters were back inside Sofia’s room, actually playing a game with brand-new bone dice, made from Sofia’s wings. Although now she could use the entire armor to refill her stock, she had taken to the habit of cutting off her wings, so she usually did that whenever she had some free time.
Pareth threw the dice.
“Triple six again! No way! He’s cheating I tell you!” Saria stood up from the table, accusing the mute skeleton.
“You also got triple sixes twice in a row! I don’t even know how you’re both doing that. I’m the one who’s supposed to control bones here…”
Saria visibly gave up playing, instead going back to observe the small bone statues Sofia had already made of a few people. She stopped before one of the display cases which was filled with random miniatures of Sofia’s stuff. There was a small bone crown, staff, and Bookie, among other things, Saria picked up some kind of flat bone ring.
“What’s this one supposed to be?”
“Uh? Oh, that’s Dopple.”
“Oh? Oh… Not the most impressive thing to make a sculpture of.”
“I also realized that after making it, but I still threw it into the pile, it looks better the more things there are, like your gold pile. Ah! It was Dopple who screamed during the ceremony, right? What was that all about?”
“I forgot to tell you!” Saria exclaimed, her brow furrowing as she felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her for not mentioning this earlier. “That was a whole thing… It was hard to get it to talk, but as it turns out, it shared the same owner as the sword at one point! It explicitly said it was not one of the admins, but wouldn’t explain anything more. I think it knows perfectly well who the system admins were.”
“We barely talked about that but do you not have any idea who they were either?”
“I don’t,” Saria whispered as she sat back down at the table, “Zephir doesn’t know either, he tried to ask around but everyone in the know seems to be avoiding the subject. I think it’s a subject almost as taboo as our new name.”
Sofia took a second to recall all the information she had. Three admins, all gone. According to Zerrei they disappeared sometime in the first few hundred years of the system, long before she was born. The artifacts from the ranking tower’s 99th floor were all discovered or made by them, but on both mine and Saria’s the names are |REDACTED|.
“The lich I met did mention them when Alith asked about it. He said he was the one to provide the jewels for my crown. Which I’m surprised isn’t getting censored, by the way, and when Alith asked if he was an admin himself, he answered ‘Lords, no; I’d rather die’.”
Saria didn’t answer for a while, the silence of the room only broken by the sound of her nails rhythmically tapping on the table. Finally she stopped and opened her mouth.
“I think I figured out a few things. A few very worrying things..”
“Go on, I have a few ideas myself.”
“Right. First of all, the identity of the Admins. It’s pretty obvious that one of them was a human Hero,” Saria started.
“And one of them was a Dragon,” Sofia completed.
“That only makes sense as to why the system references so many things from the human heroes’ world, just like my class. And it also explains why the system would have a special section for Dragons, when it doesn’t have one for other strong entities like the Kleptras.”
“Kleptra?” Sofia asked. I think Erredis mentioned a Kleptra’s nest at some point?
“I’ll explain later. Just know they’re as strong as the Dragons and just as smart.”
“Noted. That leaves the third admin unaccounted for.”
“My guess is, it was probably a God,” Saria blurted out, as if scared that she would get censored.
“That would explain why they set up the whole thing with Saints and Oracles on one side while leaving the Recessed completely unaccounted for.”
“Right? But if the Dragon argument was a bit inconclusive, this one is just a wild guess…”
“Best we have now,” Sofia said with a shrug.
“I have one more thread to follow, this lich you mentioned must know a lot about the Deep. Or he wouldn’t be swearing on their name.”
“This I can confirm, he alluded to us having a lot to talk about on the subject when it came up again later in the discussion, but he had places to go and I haven’t seen him since.”
“And he knows the admins too. For a lich to say they would ‘rather die‘, is quite something, considering only those most afraid of death would go to such lengths to avoid it, even back before the system. Zephir knows a lot about pre-system magic, and becoming a lich really didn’t sound like an easy option,” Saria explained.
“But then what, the admins suffered a fate worse than death? Wait… I have learned at one point that the system was investigating the Deep, sacrificing numerous scribes in the process…”
“You’re thinking what I’m thinking, Sofia?”
“There’s no way… Erredis avoided the subject too, when I asked… No one ever speaks about them in any detail and their names are always missing… Could they really-”
“Have been erased?” Saria finished, her voice changing to one that was decidedly not hers halfway through the sentence.
