Rictor Daly was a genius. He’d never flaunt his intelligence, but he was quietly knowledgeable. He’d never gone to parties or had much of a social life, he’d never liked them and never needed them. He much preferred predictable systems, computers and physics, over unpredictable humans. But it was when Advent Online was released that the felt everything was off.

Advent Online was the first direct intervention into human society by their guiding AI. They’d intervened before to save humanity but never this directly, this was atypical. Even stranger was the fostering of competition with the leader board. Luna had previously tried to reduce competitive tendencies in humanity and foster more healthy competition and togetherness, but this action seemed to foster the toxic competition that they tried to destroy.

The game became huge in the entertainment industry, but since it was run by Luna it wasn’t able to be manipulated by businessmen for profit. This game, the only that’s been made by humanities guardian, was entirely unbiased and received huge support. Most of humanity bought it and streams of entertaining or skilful players were the new reality TV.

It was unusual in one regard; you couldn’t choose your race at the start. In the game all players were automatons that awoke from the ruins of an ancient civilization to find that their creators were gone and forgotten. You could choose the abilities of these automaton of course, as well customise their appearance and function, but you were always inorganic initially. You could choose to appear vaguely organic or use magic to become organic if you chose to do that questline, but everyone started mechanical.

Rictor knew that something was wrong from the mere existence of the game, but everyone being machines gave him a terrible premonition. The more he thought about it the more it made sense, however. Luna’s job was to stop great filters, and the most effective means to do that was to entirely subjugate a species. The best was to do that was to relegate humanity to a simulation. The more Rictor investigated the directive coded into Luna, knowledge that was in the public domain, the more this theory made sense. If it was true however, there was nothing he could do. All he could do was play the game, literally and figuratively. Rictor felt this game would be a key to something, this sudden change in behaviour was too outlandish to not have meaning.

So, play he did, he assumed that the created character would be relevant in the future, and the robotic body and background lore was also relevant, so he created it with his upmost care. Following the lore of the ancient creations of a dead species, he used the unprecedented versatility of the game to create an entirely new class, the Lore Keeper. This class would be a unique mixture of a spell caster and historian, able to cast spells based off of history and legends they learnt. He knew that whatever would happen, he would want to body to have the same strengths and weaknesses as him. He chose to prioritise intelligence and wisdom over everything else, reflecting his human body. He took full advantage of his mechanical nature, which game him perfect memory, and became a walking reliquary of history. He sacrificed what little remained of his social interactions and instead lived of his universal basic income as he devoted all his time to developing this Lore Keeper.

After a decade of running this game, an official competition was announced, vindicating Rictors belief that something was off about this game. There was no need for a tournament in the traditional sense, the game was already the most popular one ever, they would never need more publicity. Even the specifics of the tournament seemed fit to select people for some purpose for Luna. Rictor was certain that this purpose would mean a return to reality and would do anything to attain it.

When the tournament ended 35 individuals would be selected. In third place there would be 20 people, in second there would be 10 people, and there would be 5 in first place.

Now, no official tournament had ever been held before, and this one had no requirements to enter and mysterious but assuredly generous rewards for the winners. After all, the rewards were coming from the guardian of humanity, surely they would give great rewards. Because of that, everyone and their mother joined the tournament.

With the announcement of the tournament, Rictor had run out of time to develop his character, and the Lore Keeper emerged from its fetid crypts to show the world the knowledge it had amassed and secure a place in reality. It was permanently hunched over, as if contorted and twisted from long looking down at a desk, recording and remembering history. It had ragged red robes draped over its hunched form, the edges frayed and torn, the sleeves hanging low on the arms. A golden trim and embroidery in an ancient language only further highlighting the tattered, bloody red robes. Its body twitched and stumbled as if constantly on the verge of breaking, of falling and never getting up. A combination of a low hanging hood and it always looking down because of the hunch meant that all that could be seen of it’s face were its irregular mechanical eyes. They dominated the top half of its face with asymmetrical alignment, varied size and piercing green lights. Flailing around wildly were tens of mechanical limbs protruding from underneath the cloak, rising up behind it ominously, like tentacles from the deepest darkness. They had delicate attachments, scalpels and quills, welders and eight fingered hands. Their wild, rapid flailing was sharply contrasted by its shambling movement through the dark opening to the arena floor.

The Ancient Lore Keeper, a labour of love on the part of Rictor, was an overlooked playstyle. Rictor had decided that they needed to engage in the story made by the AI. He reasoned that an ancient automaton shouldn’t be shiny and new, in perfect repair, he traded that beauty and grace for knowledge and skill. This niche would be his way into the top. His flailing tendrils flayed and dismembered any who got too close, who prioritised speed over amour, his eldritch mumbling summoned forth the Lore he Kept, legendary creatures and events, great heroes and twisted villain, all to fight for him. In this way, the shambling, ancient machine tore the opposition to shreds, literally and figuratively. Everything was smooth sailing until he reached the final few. This fight, against an Arch Lich, would determine whether he got out of this simulation or not.

“Ha! Your falling apart! You don’t even stand a chance against my prodigious magic power” arrogantly shouted the Arch Lich, the master of death magic and necromancy. There was a short time before the match began, where the two opponents would be frozen and would talk with one another.

“Your tentacles are even flailing in terror, your quivering in fear! You’ll have no hope like that, well … you’d have no hope either way!” Continued the Lich, filling the air while Rictor stayed silent.

In his silence he was contemplating the morality of his actions. This win would secure him his place in reality, but it would deprive his opponent his. That concern was fleeting, however. He’d worked so hard to earn his place; no arrogant fool would take it from him.

Match begin in;

3!

2!

1!

Begin!

Immediately, the Arch Lich free-cast death magic. The walls of reality thinned, and death crept through from the void. It found no purchase in this battle however, with one being undead, and the other a machine. Most players had chosen to become organic at some point, but that didn’t fit the character of the Ancient Lore Keeper, and thus Rictor was immune to both death and life magic.

As the Arch Lich lost the initiative and realised its main advantage against most competitors was moot, the Lore Keeper finished its spell and summoned its first legend.

“I remember when the sky fell and the world burned” was mumbled in ancient eldritch tongues, both more effective and incomprehensible so no opponent could predict the spell.

“fuck” said the Lich as they cast their summoning necromancy.

“Summon; Patchwork Giant!”

Out of the ground clawed a huge hand. It ripped open the earth and bellowed a mighty roar into the air. The Frankenstein giant was humanoid in shape but sown from flesh at different stages of decomposition, the necrosis dying it inhuman colours. It loped towards Rictor with an uneven gate, its powerful steps shaking the earth.

Rictor had a plan though, he knew he could get hit by this giant and survive a couple times despite his low endurance. He leveraged his strength and sacrificed his mechanical tendrils three at a time to cushion the blow.

The first blow threw him across the arena, buying precious time.

He moved to the side as the giant closed in for the second blow, allowing the force from the blow to move it along the arena wall rather than get pinned down in a corner. In this style it weathered the second and third, but its health fell precipitously. His blocking allows him to outlast the giant and cast its spell however, his tactic was successful.

“Summon; Meteor”

In the sky above the arena, 10 seconds away, was a gigantic meteor, larger than the arena itself. Its force was unstoppable by any spell the Lich could cast before it landed. Rictor had allowed the Lich to cast two spells before him to get this spell out quickly, but it was a calculated decision.

Rictor had taken the challenge much more seriously than anyone, he’d known what was at steak even when everyone else didn’t. He’d come up with various strategies to overcome his opponents. His weakness was other summoners, and this was his sure-kill strategy. Immediately following the appearance of the meteor in the sky, he quickly cast an unusual spell for this tier of play. Prepared to cast a phase out spell but waited until the last moment to cast it.

The giant struck one more time in the interim, and Rictor sacrificed half their remaining tendrils to survive to avoid beforehand.

After he prepared the spell, he had 5 seconds left before the meteor arrived. He used them to delay cast another summoning spell, such that they would be summoned after 10 seconds.

“Delay Summon; Fire Elemental”

The giant struck one more time, Rictor sacrificing all their remaining tendrils and their arms to avoid the force. But upon the completion of the spell he phased out of existence as the meteor struck.

Since he was out of phase with reality the physical damage of the meteor did nothing. The phase out spell was a unique spell researched by Rictor for this specific strategy. It made him many times more vulnerable to magic, but completely immune to all physical damage since he no longer physically existed.

The Lich didn’t have such a luxury, and its shield spell was unable to fully prepare for the meteor. Its shield was shattered and its body was heavily damaged.

The patchwork giant had been crushed entirely, and what little remained was burnt to a crisp with the fire left by the meteor. Before the lich could recover from the devastating blow, the fire elementals came into being. Bolstered by the cosmic fire in the arena they cast solar flares at the lich.

The crowd was utterly silent. Rictor had gone from being utterly dominated to killing the Lich with the tiniest sliver of life left. After a moment of silent comprehension for what the hell just happened, screams of excitement erupted amongst the crowd. This dark horse that no-one had ever seen before the tournament, who had shredded everything before the lich, who was dominated by the giant, had just killed the lich in a single strategy and assured their place in Lunas rewards.

To Rictor, this was a moment of comforting security. He’d got a ticket into reality, but he wasn’t done. He didn’t work for so long just to get into reality, he wanted to thrive in it, he wanted to be amongst the top five.

This fight had changed everything in his fighting power, however. He’d be healed before the next round, and he’d be stronger than ever. His class and character allowed him to summon legends and myths, but through this victory he’d become a legend. Because of this battle he’d be able to summon copies of himself. All his copies would share the same magic pool, but the ability to summon quickly would be a huge boon and open up many more strategies.

##

Log #6

Well, that experiment was surprisingly successful. While negotiations were ongoing, I’d decided to work with the humans. I can assume that the issue of the convergent evolution happened because of the intervention of souls, and because of that I can assume that humans have souls. Since humans have souls, they’re likely able to level up, so if I create my Seekers with human souls, I can create an artificial being that can level up, something that they didn’t account for in the negotiation. Judging by the clarity of the other clauses I can assume that they didn’t just forget, it’s probably unprecedented.

The humans are unaware that Luna has passed and of their nature as a simulated being. But I’d been able to take advantage of their digital society and create a game to prepare them. I’d accelerated the simulation so the test had been completed before the decision had even been finalised. There was one particular man who was able to figure out he was in a simulation, a smart one that one.

Ah well, I’d have to talk with them soon about the true nature of this reality and their situation, as well as their new bodies and roles in this world.

End Log #6