The Scroll of Beginning was spread open on the table before them. They all looked at Ice but the teen looked as perplexed as them.
"I don't get these markings at all. You can all see that it is different, right?" she appealed to them.
"They look the same to me," Vince said.
"Then you read it," she said tartly.
John examined the scroll. The markings were indeed similar to the ones they saw on the doors in the Gate of Transformation. He did not understand why Ice refused to translate it for them.
"These are similar, yes, but only the symbols. The language is different," she admitted.
"We could ask Lemmeng if he knows about it. He is the one who sent us on the quest," Ora suggested.
"Vince, take Ash and go look for him," John asked.
"No. I rather he didn't ask me to go looking for someone who likes to hide," Ash protested.
"I have a suggestion," Ice hesitantly raised her hand.
"Let's hear it," encouraged John.
"Maybe the menu will have a clue or maybe we can ask Rai? She said in a small voice.
"Good idea," exclaimed Ora.
She patted Ice's shoulders which the latter answered with a shy smile.
"The menu has a new feature," Vince announced as he opened his menu.
"There is now an option to save. Let me try...there is a Save Game and a Save Story. What do I, oh...I can't click on Save Story," exclaimed Vince.
"Maybe we will find out about that later. Why don't you try Save Game for now?" Ora suggested.
"There is also a neat little feature called Bookmark. Let's see...it lets you warp to the location of a walker/chronicler you have met and established a link with. Right now, it lists Tarayon and Lemmeng. So they are walkers...cool," Ash said out loud.
Ice was quietly looking at her list but hers is a little different from Ash. It listed: Tarayon, Lemmeng, Abagat and Buridek. She thought it best to share this information with everyone but she saw John's look and decided to ask him first later before doing that.
"Rai?" Ora summoned the sprite.
"Yes, my dear?" A voice like a tiny bell answered and the Rai sprite was now hovering in front of them.
"Can we ask you about the scroll as well as some other things we discovered?" Ora asked without preamble.
"Sure. You can ask. It costs you nothing. I will answer what I can," Rai merrily answered.
"Why couldn't Ice read it?" Ora looked at Ice directly when she asked this.
"She could," Rai also looked at Ice who sported a slightly betrayed expression. "She just didn't know the language," Rai quickly corrected and made a peace sign.
"Do you know?" John asked bluntly.
"Of course I know the symbols and I know what they mean. I just couldn't tell you."
"Why?"
"I already told you that discovery lies on you. If I told you everything, that negates the benefit of the discovery. Alright, I can tell you this much. Everything in this gameworld is dictated by numbers, points and modifier concepts. Your reward for completing something comes back as either money or points. What do you think will happen to a gamer who lacks either or both?"
She placed her hands on her hips and looked at them very much like a teacher scolding her students.
"They won't get stronger," Vince answered.
"Exactly. If you didn't get stronger, the game could trap you here forever. So every point counts. If something is locked, either you didn't have the key or you did not meet the level requirements. It is that simple."
Rai projected a replica of their menu on the air. It was large enough to be seen by everyone.
Beside it were more menus; much more complicated ones but looked similar to each other.
"These are the evolution of your menus. As you get stronger, it will have more on it. It becomes more complicated. Needless to say, it will also give you more options so i suggest you get creative with them when you get the chance to fiddle with anything. Right now, be patient."
With that, she vanished without warning.
They looked at each other and formed a consensus without speaking. They really did have to get stronger.
That was the thing that Rai repeated over and over again but they did not realize it's deeper meaning before.
Getting stronger was not an option. It is the only way. When they all arrived at that conclusion, the scroll glowed brighter and the symbols rearranged themselves.
Ice began reading it aloud.
'Real beginnings begin with thought. Without direction, there is no conceivable universe. The power to bring order to everything must come from coherence. Such is the force that springs forth from recognition.'
A tiny chime sounded and they all looked at the menu that floated in front of their eyes.
"Individual Reward!
"Level up! One Level!
"100 points!
"Party rewards!
"Reward! 10,000 P!
"Reward! Mark of Beginning!
"Reward! God Portal 2 open!"
They exchanged delighted glances. The rewards for their first real quest filled them with a sense of accomplishment.
"We should discuss what to do with these rewards and what they imply," John reminded them.
"These are my points! I will decide what to do with them!" Vince said defensively.
"Of course, I did not say that it's not your decision. I just thought that we should think about what is beneficial for the team. It will not be helpful in the long run if we made a party of fighters without thinking of other possible scenarios where other skill sets are needed." John explained patiently.
Vince flushed guiltily for that was precisely what he had in mind. He wanted so much to become a fighter as good as Ash but John had a point.
"We should also consider other party members. There will be situations where supports and healers will encounter enemies by themselves. It will not be wise to stack up on magic points or mana regen without considering this. They will be defenseless."
The others were looking at John with undisguised approval while some were skeptical.
"For someone who didn't even know how to access the menu earlier, you seem to know your way around RPGs, old guy," Vince pointed out.
"I may not know a lot about tech stuff but i have played a bunch of old school RPGs. Besides, I observe people. I know more about warfare than you give me credit for. These are just common sense," John felt his cheeks redden at Vince's remarks.
Ora was again looking at John oddly.
"It's okay John. You are making valid points and it would be unwise to focus on the wrong things here. Do go on," she shot Vince a warning look.
John cleared his throat.
"So I suggest that those who already excel at certain things should continue strengthening those aspects but those that are just starting, imagine future scenarios where each of our actions shall have to synergize."
"What if I want to be a solo player and don't have to think of all that boring stuff?" Vince challenged.
"Good point. It is also one of the possible scenarios that I spoke of. The real question is, are you that confident in your abilities? Do you have the answers to the unknown?" John countered.
"I have played enough games to know that I can learn in time," Vince argued.
"In time? Do not be arrogant to say that you know what that means. We may or may not have enough time to learn anything before real disaster confronts us. If no one noticed it yet, the circumstances bringing us here are not game-like. When I saw Ora the first time, her clothes were filled with blood spatters and you have all but given up on life...or that may just be the common look of teenagers these days." John was clearly exasperated but he was reigning in the urge to shout at the stubborn teen.
"I think what John was suggesting is that we act as a team for the meantime and pool our resources until we can find out more about our circumstances. Strength in numbers and all that," Ora tried to calm the two locking horns.
"He could have said it that way," Vince deliberately turned his back on John and addressed Ora.
"I was saying it THAT way. You were just too stubborn to listen," John clenched his teeth.
"You weren't and you know it. You were acting leader without considering that some of us have ideas of our own," Vince said.
"You are both acting like children. Both of you have a point but I have to agree with John, inept as he was. There is nothing to be gained by acting macho," Ash managed to offend the two and deflate their ego at the same time. No one said anything but both threw dark looks in her direction.
"Vince, put your points in strength and durability. Also put some in stamina. For now we need a tank and it is still early that if you want to follow a different path later, you can," Ash said in a tone that did not encourage argument.
"I was going to do that in the first place," Vince grumbled.
"Why did you have to argue then? Do all men need to act so tough even if they were going to agree in the end?" Ash stared hard at the two men who pretended that they didn't hear her.
"I think Ora already knows that she had to focus on being the magical damage dealer and Ice have to bolster her defense and agility."
"Let's do it that way, then," said Ora and that ended the argument.
Vince opened his menu and found that he can now indeed raise his stats. He put 50 points in defense, 30 on stamina and kept 20 points in reserve.
They waited for the effects to take place or if there was an indication that it took effect at all. The seconds were painfully long.
Except for the intermittent chirping of birds in the background, there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary.
When nothing happened, Ora summoned Rai again.
"I suggest you need to save first, in case something bad happened. We would have at least a 10 minute window to reverse it."
"Something bad? What do you mean?" Alarm was clearly in Vince's voice.
"How should I know? All I'm saying is that you need to exercise caution. This is not something anyone has ever experienced before," Rai said.
"A game is a game. How different would this be? Why the fussiness?" Vince was unimpressed.
"If you think carefully, you might notice that you are in a game but your mind is linked to it in ways you have not yet imagined. And you don't need me to tell you that the mind is powerful enough to affect your physical conditions should extreme changes be made to it or if it is subjected to a powerful trauma," Rai warned.
"You mean we can die here?" Vince was ashen faced.
Rai did not answer and that made them all lean forward in anticipation.
"I did not say that. All I said was that, be careful when confronting the unknown," she said lamely. "I suggest you go to a walker and Story Save before you change anything," she urged.
They all warped to Lemmeng who appeared to be waiting for them in front of the same garbage dump where they met him earlier.
Their menu subtly changed. Story Save is now accessible. They all clicked it and a white, smoky substance emanated from their body and Lemmeng caught it in his hands.
"Now, are you ready Wetpants?" Rai asked.
"My name is Vince."
"Oh, I just heard Ash call you that. Okay then, Vince. I will now authorize the stat change. As soon as she said that, Vince fell on his knees and was clearly under great stress. He was breathing hard and beads of sweat rolled from his forehead.
"Are you okay? Ora asked him and he nodded after a while.
John sat near Lemmeng and was again massaging his chest. He looked pale but no one noticed it except Ice.
"What was that?" Vince asked Rai.
"Your DNA underwent a radical change. Of course it would hurt a lot. It was like your growth of a few years happened in mere seconds. Imagine what it did to your bones and flesh not to mention your mind."
"DNA? I thought the change only happens to our minds?" Vince panted.
"When you went through the Gate of Transformation and entered a contract, your mind became another doorway. It now channels mystical forces that cause real changes to your body. What the mind allows will always happen to your body. The changes you wanted will have to take place somewhere. It won't happen in empty spaces. So in the very real sense, your body did change according to the stats you manipulated," she explained lengthily.
"If I knew, I would have upgraded sparingly," Vince winced.
"Slow or fast, small or big, you would need to do it. Better to experience it now that you can still afford to do it in more manageable amounts than to feel it all at once when you will be hard pressed to upgrade. The bigger the change, the more painful it is.
"Now, who is next?" she asked the others.
The next few minutes were painful to say the least. After all that, they all looked at John who was silent and visibly shaken.
"It's okay pops, it's not that painful if that is what you are concerned about," Vince smirked.
"I think I need to lie down," John weakly said to no one in particular. He stood up and headed to a nearby bench.
Ora and Ice exchanged a look of concern and went after John.
They did not notice a group of hooded individuals who discreetly went after them.
Lemmeng noticed but was duty-bound not to say anything and recorded the events as they unfolded.