Freedom was perhaps too light a word. Liberation? Emancipation? Freedom from the yoke of educational tyranny? None of these did justice to the feelings Cain carried as he ran home. His father wouldn't be home until later which made today even better. Since they had left the big cities behind and moved out to Weiss he had felt much more at home.
The town of Weiss was a small countryside settlement nestled between rolling verdant hills and oak forests. The town had no real outstanding features or attractions aside from Weiss Academy. There were no guilds or syndicates who would set up in such a rural town but the necessities like a trading post and training gym were available. They had been created to provide for students of Weiss Academy who didn't want to travel to another town or city to access these crucial features. Other than students most residents of Weiss were those in retirement, who wished to idle their days away somewhere peaceful.
Cain and his father had rented a small bungalow, with a large shed in the back. When they had been looking for a place to rent the shed space had been the deciding factor since they used the shed to house the weights and the other training gear they needed for their willpower training, while the house itself had only a few undecorated rooms. Cain and his father were always training so the house hadn't changed much from when they had first moved in. It had a bed, internet and food in the fridge; that was all Cain really needed. Money had never been plentiful, so Cain learned to take joy from the small things in life.
Cain let himself in through the door, walking to the fridge to grab some water. The heat was still an issue but at least the AC worked at home. Cain filled his cup with some ice and sat down in the living room to drink up. Ice cold water was one of the few pleasures Cain indulged in.
He cast his eye over the room and noticed a small box on the table, along with a sealed envelope. Inside the box was a small USB drive. The envelope was addressed to Cain. That was odd, as Cain didn't know anyone who still used physical letters. Ripping open the envelope revealed a note.
"Cain, my son, I have to go away for a while. I can't tell you why. You'll have to handle the bills on your own until I get back. It will be hard, but that USB should help you. The Academy Director told me you would get your first tiny world co-ords today, put that USB's contents to good use and you'll have no problems. Stay strong kid. Love Dad"
Cain was expressionless as he read the letter. He read it again to confirm he wasn't getting anything wrong. He then tore the note up and tossed it into the bin.
"Damn unreasonable old man, how the hell am I supposed to pay the bills!" Cain yelled as he realised what his unreliable parent had landed him in. He had yet to even form a Contract, never mind making money!
The monthly bills for the house were 10,000 credits. This included electricity, food, rent and water bills. To pay this on time Cain would need to get serious. After he had calmed down a little Cain realised it was only the 2nd of June so while it would be difficult, he felt he had at least a fighting chance. The fridge was fully stocked and he only needed electricity for his computer. To earn 10,000 credits would require him to sell many Contractees. Since he could only use the school's tiny world he would have to absolutely dominate his classmates and ruthlessly exploit the school's tiny world. Cain was therefore faced with a choice. Dive into his school's tiny world as soon as possible and start trying to earn cash or investigate the USB's content?
"Well let's see what you've left for me old man. You always say that a man has to be independent so it must be a pretty big deal for you to leave something for me and break your own code."
Plugging the USB into his laptop revealed it contained only one text file, labelled "10". Confused Cain opened it. What the file contained stunned Cain to an extreme degree, so much so that his heart began to pound violently. It was a set of co-ordinates for a tiny world, but this set was very different from the one he had received at school. It was only two integers long, the numbers 0 and 1, in that order.
Cain immediately closed the file and disconnected his laptop from the internet. He then rushed around the house in a blind panic closing all the windows, pulling the blinds and locking the doors. This was a poisoned chalice. The highest-ranking worlds were in the hundreds of integers, this was common knowledge and only Apex level Contractors and government agencies had access to them. So, how on Earth had his father given him this?
A two-integer string was unheard of and if it was ever discovered that Cain had access to such a supreme world he would be killed. The hunger of the elites for greater and greater worlds was well documented- they killed and stole from anyone unlucky enough to catch their eye, countless horror stories on Battlenet circulated about people who had been abducted and never seen again just for having a unique Contractee. This was all assuming the co-ordinate was real and not just his dad pulling a downright dangerous prank.
Cain now felt somewhat more secure in his now considerably darker home. He re-opened the document and focused on the co-ordinate in front of him. He felt his thought process becoming sluggish and a mental fog set in as he continued to focus. Before his consciousness receded to allow his brainwaves to synchronise Cain was able to confirm it was valid co-ordinate. To any observer Cain would have appeared to fall into a meditative trance, gazing intently at the co-ordinate. One hour later Cain roused himself, breaking from his fixation in a state of confusion.
"Its common knowledge high ranking tiny worlds take longer to synchronise with so why is this one so eager to accommodate me? Even the pain which we were taught would be intense isn't present" Cain thought for a moment and remembered these co-ordinates had come from his father which reignited his anger, his questions pushed to the back of his mind.
"No problems if I use this- except if anyone realises this world exists I'll likely be interrogated, tortured and killed, yeah no problems at all. Just how did my old man wind up with this death trap anyway? Well can't ask him so I may as well check what this world contains then- maybe it'll have a bunch of dragons I can sell."
Cain left the living room, moving to his bedroom. He had heard being in a place you frequently inhabit was best when performing a dive, people said it helped to ease your tension so you could control your willpower more easily. Flumping onto his bed Cain closed his eyes, lay back and focused on the co-ordinates which had been burned into his brain. He felt himself slowly fading away, as his consciousness travelled to the tiny world.
When Cain opened his eyes, he was hovering above a battlefield. While looking down Cain could see that there were hundreds of discarded weapons, ranging from swords and spears to laser cannons and mechs littering the landscape. In the middle of the rusting weapons stood a tower constructed entirely of black bricks. Cain couldn't tell whether the bricks were blacked from fire or if they were naturally coloured that way. It also didn't help that the tower was surrounded by the weaponry, blocking his vision, He didn't have enough time to look in detail as he began to fall towards the ground.
Despite his high mental power, a child is still a child. This was still Cain's first dive and his control of his willpower was lacking so he couldn't mantain his levitation. He felt zero fear while falling. He was only a mental projection currently and hitting the ground wouldn't even hurt. He also drew on his vast experience of being thrown from great heights. Landing on his feet Cain once more turned his attention to the black tower and the battlefield.
"Strange- despite all the weapons left behind there are no corpses or even any bloodstains, whoever did this was meticulous in their slaughter. They also had no need for all these resources, meaning they were already rich. My intuition tells me this was a Contractor running a test on a new Contractee, but this scale is ridiculous, who would genocide an entire apex tier world as training?"
The battlefield seemed to stretch on for hundreds of miles, Cain spread his perception as far as he could and found this tiny world only contained this tower. No other life could be perceived and there were no signs of any settlements or buildings. It seemed this entire world was one huge ocean of armaments. He hadn't been able to fully scan the whole world but he had ascertained its size. It was roughly as big as Earth's moon, and he had fully scanned only one tenth of it.
Turning his attention back towards the tower Cain discovered his willpower couldn't perceive anything inside the tower. This meant it had been protected by another Contractor from prying eyes. A common tactic which only required a little focus and skill in manipulating one's own willpower. In duels Cain had seen this ability used in Trojan Horse-esque gambits. They mostly failed, strategy was nothing before overwhelming numbers. The only other benefit was that this technique was similar to a heavily encrypted file, if you didn't have the code to crack it then the contentsof the object would remain impercievable.
The only entrance to the tower was a pair of dark brass doors adorned with an engraving of a snake, which Cain elected to approach. Wasn't much else to investigate on this ruined world anyway. Cain was still 100 metres away from the door when it was blasted open from the inside. The force of what Cain could only assume had been a kick, shook the whole tower.
A huge beast of a man walked out. Standing at two metres tall the man's imposing stature paired with his overgrown black hair which hung around his shoulders radiated an aura of intimidation. A face covered in scar tissue with a particularly long and jagged scar running from the top of the man's forehead to the bottom of his lower lip. His amber eyes were narrowed as they scrutinised Cain, his muscles nearly bulging out of his fitted leather armour as he began to approach. The dyed red armour contrasted with his black skin and over his shoulder he had hefted a golden labrys, the main shaft of the axe covered in battle scars. The twin axe heads were immaculate holding no chips in their blades and they were polished to a mirror shine. The man continued his stride towards Cain, his belt jingling as he walked, his uneven gait causing the numerous daggers adorning his waist to knock against each other, the clashing of the blades the only noise in the entire wasteland.
When he reached Cain, the man plunged his labrys into the scorched earth then fell to the ground in a one knee bow, his head lowered in deference. Cain remembered at this point the teachings he had studied on interactions in tiny worlds. The most effective tactic when forming Contracts was to present yourself as a mighty god to the inhabitants and use faith to build your army into a force who were absolutely loyal to you.
Some people advocated for simply appearing as an otherworldly mentor, but no high rankers followed this doctrine making it considerably less popular. The mere fact the man could percieve Cain without him revealing himself meant he was exceptionally powerful.
Before Cain even had the chance to proclaim himself a god, the man opened his mouth.
"Greetings oh exalted progeny of the Lord, this humble one has been instructed by your noble father, the Ruler of All Men, to guide you into the Tower of the Forgotten and explain its purpose." The man spoke in a low gravelly voice, but his tone was filled with respect and a servile inflection.
The man's statement gave Cain pause. He put his mind to work, analysing what information he should ask about first. The child of the Lord business was self-explanatory. His father had seemingly been far more powerful than his stated rank of a newly promoted Emerald Rank, he had concealed his power for some purpose. This was unimportant for now, he would worry about today and let the future handle itself. He'd get a chance to ask his father at some point.
"Please, guide me then loyal servant." Cain tried his best to sound regal and dignified. He wasn't entirely sure the bestial man was convinced by him.
The Tower intrigued Cain. For what reason had his father built such a structure? The man rose from his knelt position now with a smile illuminating his scarred visage. Without a word he turned, plucked his axe from the dirt, slung it over his shoulder and began lumbering back towards the blackened tower with Cain in tow. He let the man take point as it felt appropriate. He had lifted that axe like it was made of paper and seemed to be better informed than him on his father's intentions.
Passing through the brass doors Cain proceeded through a dark hallway until he reached the first room inside the tower. The walls inside were made of stone, a dark grey, rather than the black bricks used on the outside. The room was lit by a floating ball of pure light, which hovered in place near the ceiling. On the other side of the room Cain saw a staircase, which he presumed led to the 1st floor. The ground floor room contained only one thing, a small white snake, which slithered back and forth, ignoring Cain and the warrior.
The snake wasn't even noteworthy to Cain. A brief scan of the creature revealed it had no power or skills worth mentioning. It was as strong as a garden snake from Earth. Not even any elemental control. Just a normal snake.
The man turned to Cain and with a look of absolute solemnity, as though he were delivering the most important news of his life, spoke again "Oh divine heir, most blessed treasure of the Lord, this humble servant beseeches you- form the contract of Lord and servant with the white snake you see before you!"
Cain for the second time today, was forced to a mental stand still. This time it didn't last as long.
Cain turned to the huge man and with equal solemnity yelled "But that snake is so weak, I'm not doing that!"