Much has been said about the Ring of Sacrifice in the history of The World, for its light has been seen by any who were stolen away by The System. No matter how great or miserly a species' induction may be, all were offered the choice, and universally, all rejected it. Love and selfless sacrifice were not valued in the wider universe, which tended toward selfishness more often than not.

The Ring of Sacrifice was mocked, slandered, and generally the butt of a joke in The World, at least among the new races. The older inhabitants, those who had lived in the harsh, unforgiving world of The System for generations. . . they were changed people. Sometimes for the worst, but oftentimes for the better. The high fatality reproduction cycles produced by constant monster attacks and an extremely hostile environment tended to select, eugenically and evolutionary, for species that could in theory put the greater good above their own needs. It also selected for those who were willing to be selfish above and beyond anything that would naturally be required to thrive, but we aren't talking about them right now.

The changed races tended to be established in towns and cities, and they'd never seen a world outside of The World. They were natives, and The System cultivated them like a farmer, selecting for qualities he found appealing, and culling what he found unappetizing.

Among the changed races, The Ring of Sacrifice was a topic of longing more than anything else. They wished their ancients had used it, wished that they could enjoy the protection it provided generation after generation, in perpetuity. Pity them, for The System makes the offer only once, and then never again, no matter how much they beg.

Among them, those who understood the value and the power of it, had been a quiet uproar, a wind of whispers and hushed conversations among friends and business partners. 'They exploited the Ring of Sacrifice?' was the question asked, and in their wildest dreams and most extravagant fantasies, they hadn't seriously considered that it could happen. The most common of those fantasies had been 'What if an entire species sacrificed itself save for a single breeding pair', and then everybody would start talking in the way people talked about 'what if I won the lottery'.

But, it had happened. It had happened in such an extreme way that The System had been forced to put a stop to it and make new rules about it. To announce it!

Thoughts and visions of a glorious race of shining heavenly light had raced through their imaginations, another quality The System subtly encouraged the growth of, and they thought that humans must be close to immortal and invincible.

So, when they actually met some humans they were understandably confused. Sure, they seemed luckier than most, but. . . shouldn't they be more?

Most didn't understand, and very few, only the most cunning and wise, were able to figure out the reason without seeing it for themselves.

The reason? Simple.

The children of course. And my God, did they need all the help they could get.

-

Charlie was three years old and through a series of mind-numbingly unlikely events, had already evolved his way back to being a full human. He was, however, still three years old. He looked like the single most muscular three year old who had ever lived, and was decked from head to toe in well fitted plate armor. He held a mean looking club in his hands, which he enjoyed hitting the ground with and making ‘boom’ noises, and was surrounded by nearly thirty animals.

There was a bear, a bunch of cats and dogs, a mountain lion, a small murder of crows and ravens, a pigeon who sat on his shoulder at all times, a couple of cunning rats, and a giraffe against all odds. Almost all of them had taken The Bright Spark as their plus perk. A couple of the crows had taken the Utility Pocket and had subordinated themselves to the more intelligent psychic birds, but crows were supremely intelligent to begin with so it was not as large of a detriment as some would think.

Charlie had, with the help of his enormous penalty free party, just cleared his third dungeon. He had the class of [Druid], which synergized extremely well with his current party of animals.

How did Charlie and his party clear a dungeon you ask? It started with tripping over a rock and ended with a previously dormant volcano taking out the dungeon while Charlie and his party were launched to safety while being protected by a shield generated by a random piece of loot they found in a corner. Like I said mind-numbingly unlikely events.

Another example would be Clara;

Clara was two years old, a [Princess], and surrounded by warrior-priest elephants, one of which she rode practically all the time. She had a lovely tiara of silver and gemstones, a silver scepter, and wore pink tutu dresses exclusively.

Jamie was one year old, and he'd been transported with his mother. The logic went that if a being was physically incapable of the basic actions required for life and depended on another for those actions, like a newborn or a baby in the womb, they were counted as a single individual for the purposes of induction. A pregnant mother's choice of a Plus Perk was carried over to the child, which led to an absolutely hysterical birth in which the child was born holding a cell phone. The System frequently referenced the recorded images for the purpose of inter-office memes.

Jamie and his mother had, through a series of inexplicable events, ended up in an extremely friendly, extremely safe, village of grays. Not the kind that captured Ben, those guys were assholes, but the kind that were extremely tall, gentle, and generally all around peaceful, stand-up dudes? Ladies?

They'd genetically removed gender from their species, so it was pretty much a null point. They reproduced via cloning, like all grays.

Jamie and his mother were living a great life.

There was also a twenty-nine year old who had a party that consisted of an Eternity Snail, a man-dolphin, a man-orca and a renegade Enelim [Summoner]. The destined rivalry between Ben and this group of mysterious strangers could not be any more obvious.

What was I talking about? Oh right, the children, and the amazing and unbelievable twists of fortune and fate that surrounded them.

All of this was overseen by a very nervous instance of The System, who would occasionally chuckle when he imagined how crazy things were going to get in about five years. When all the children weren't 'using up all the bandwidth', so to speak, and the benefits started being applied both more equally, and more situationally, things were going to get really weird.

That same instance of The System had only one job, protect The Ring of Sacrifice, and keep it from being destroyed. He shuddered when he remembered the human he'd been in charge of inducting, how close he'd come to destroying the sacred, holy thing.

“What an absolute monster,” The System whispered to himself, stationed in the deepest and most secure vault of [The Final Fortress], surrounded by his most loyal and trustworthy servants. “After an eternity of showing it. . . I was complacent,” he said, reprimanding himself, “I was so careless.”

There was, you see, a secret to the Ring of Sacrifice, something that until now, nobody had ever bothered to figure out. There was a way to break it and steal the entirety of its power for a single individual.

And a single, evil, evil man had nearly done it. And he walked alone, no animals protecting him, under the light of the Ring of Sacrifice.

Dreaming of the day it would crumble to ash in his hands.