The integration into System must have taken more time than it seemed. Our party was all that remained of those that had been included in the transit to Ijal. The surrounding area the Spatial mage had delivered us to, appeared to have been prepared for us ahead of time.

“How long did integration take?” I wondered aloud.

“We arrived about ten minutes ago,” Thutmose answered confirming my suspicion.

“The three of you had been encased in a golden bubble as System adapted you to the local paradigm. It was interesting watching from my perspective. I could see actual changes being made to your bodies as you adapted.”

“Integration is the same as Ascension?” Bob asked.

“It is. The same will happen for anyone that arrives on the planet that hasn’t Ascended yet. Until you claim the Dungeon core and the System between Talahm and Ijal are fully synced, the process will be the same anyone that arrives not yet Ascended and bound to a System paradigm.

“Ascension allows System to upgrade personal settings and establish a wetware connection that cannot be broken,” Thutmose explained. I wondered if grandfather was aware of this. If this was the moment that I Ascended, didn’t that mean that I was locked into this iteration of System protocols?

“Each of you should have Ascended during integration. Do you have full System access?” He asked.

Calling up my Status menu, I was not surprised to find I did have full System functionality.

[Name: Rye de Teigh y Cyronax]

[Race: Hybrid Cu-sith/Volar-fey/Unseelie]

[Class: Shadow Druid]

[Level: 1]

[Exp 0/50]

[Attributes]

[HP: 43] [MP: 23] [Sta: 40]

[Strength: 18] [Agility: 25]

[Constitution: 20] [Dexterity: 20]

[Intellect: 12] [Will: 11]

[Skills]

[Dagger: Beginner]

[Athlete: Beginner]

[Shadow Blend: Beginner]

[Shadow Passage: Beginner]

[Language: Talahm - Expert]

[Language: Universal Common - Advanced]

[Spells]

[Shadow Blade 0/25]

[Death’s Breath 0/25]

[Portal: Summerlands]

[Portal: Bind Point]

[Pets]

[Cu-sith: Beag (Level 1 0/5)]

[Quests]

[Gain a level - Every large undertaking begins with that first step. Reach Level 1. Rewards- Binding Stone.]

Skills, Spells, Quests, Character Equipment Slots. Everything I had expected to receive was available.

The menu did have new tabs that were new, functionality, and a few new abilities that would help with party cohesion. I now had the ability to select members and form a party, add friends, message between people added to my friend's list, and a mini-map.

A map that was occluded by the fog of war but allowed me to see where people in my party were located, as well as points of interest. Playing with the settings for the map, I found functions that allowed me to set waypoints, track enemies, and share the areas I had explored with other people.

The major discovery I made while examining my new System abilities was the quest that would reward me with a [Bind Stone]. By clicking on the name, I found a bind stone would allow me to establish a safe spot to return too via a portal.

Most of the changes were along the line of convenience or social functionality. They were changes I thought might be beneficial to the Sidhe and hoped they would remain when System evolution was complete. The party features would certainly make Dungeon delving easier, even things like friend’s lists and chat functions would come in handy.

M-AI devices only worked on planets that had established tower and ley-line connections. They were useless in Dungeons and those that delved often lost friends, leaving a dungeon uncertain if the missing person was still alive or not. Party chat would allow communication in those areas where M-AI was restricted.

“Sieph, Bob? Do you have a class now?” I smiled every time I had to call Bob’s name. It was a fine name but was too unassuming for the horror that the Slaugh were known for. His real name was something unpronounceable, with sound frequencies specific to the species. When he introduced himself, I heard something like Bobwoeiurjfksjaiur*&kjfkwsk. Nothing but garbled vowels and consonants with a few hisses and trills. He had mentioned that non-Slaugh were comfortable with other species shortening their names and that he was not averse to being referred to as Bob.

I think it was my Grandfather’s reaction to the name when he first met Bob that made me smile. The memory of Grandfather enjoying morning tea when we first gathered for a meet and greet over breakfast. When Bob introduced himself, Grandfather in the middle of drinking his tea, spit the contents over the breakfast table.

It was the funniest thing I’d ever seen him do. King Teigh Mac de Beleros y Cyronax was dignified, fierce, understanding, and fearsome, but that morning he was embarrassed, blushing, and wiping furiously at the table and his face in order to clean up the liquid he had spit everywhere.

He never did explain why he thought Bob’s name was so funny, but witnessing his embarrassment and amusement was one of those precious memories you know you will take out and relive even a lifetime from now.

“I selected Technomancer as my Class,” Sieph said, “it seemed the closest to my goals, and aligned well with my abilities as a Knocker.”

“I selected Night Terror,” Bob replied, “I didn’t notice any major difference between that Class and my natural abilities as a Night-flyer.”

“Did you notice the friend’s menu, mini-map, and party features?” I asked. I considered adding them to my friend's list and conducting this conversation via messages, not entirely sure how much we should trust Thutmose, but trust had to begin somewhere, and I decided to treat him as trustworthy until he proved me wrong.

“Yes,” Sieph answered as a system message popped up informed me that Sieph had sent a friend request. I accepted her request and responded with a quick message suggesting any sensitive information be shared with private messages.

Bob was added to the list with no problem, but Thutmose was not as straight-forward. We had to be very specific about who he was for System to recognize him. It wasn’t until I tried to friend Thutmose, Scion of Pharaoh, Chosen of Osiris, that he received the prompt and was added.

“Do you have a friend’s list now?” I asked him, wondering how his System mechanics would interpret this change.

“No. The messages are generating quests, things like ‘Ryu has messaged you; do you wish to respond?’” He answered. They are saved to my quest log until I decide to respond or delete them.

“Each response costs one percent of my mana pool,” He explained further.

Bob had taken to the air while we had been exploring the new System functions. Night-flyers seemed to have an instinctive imperative to follow flight paths that made exploring efficient, and dangers noticeable. His route was updating the fog of war for all of us, another feature of the party function. Realtime updates to our mini maps, including those markers I’d toggled in settings being displayed. The more he roamed the more the features of the world around us became apparent.

The Spatial mage really had dropped us in a convenient location. There was a spring near, the area we were in was clear and would allow us to see anything approaching in time to respond, and the woods to the east would allow us to hunt using terrain to our advantage. The Sidhe were creatures of nature, and our love for forest and field would hopefully allow us able to adapt to our environment effortlessly.

Bob’s reconnaissance of the world around us offered no noticeable sign that there was anything dangerous in the area. His actions, the ability to soar and embrace the wind, was as fluid and graceful as they had been on Talahm.

For Sieph and I, the difference in gravity had us stumbling about, as we moved in starts and stops trying to adapt. I wondered if the difference in gravity was why my physical stats were so much higher than my mental attributes. I was well-educated, memorizing, and understanding the concepts of strategy, rune-craft, math, and history easily.

My ability to understand complex concepts and speculate on the deeper meaning behind those concepts made some of the more esoteric studies I was required to take interesting and lively. Tutors that would engage in debate were valued, while few.

I didn’t know what the average for a level 1 person on the planet should be, so I’d dismissed the discrepancy as something to consider at a later date. But I was beginning to think, my physical attributes had been modified to take into account our baseline vitality from living on a higher gravity world.

It would make sense.