“What do you mean, Uh oh?” Cody asked me.

“Umm,” I answered, “A psychic class means that some of your race has psychic potential. A class that is tied to assistance, will make other races… covetous.”

“What do you mean, covetous, and why is psychic potential bad?”

I sighed. “Earth’s technology level is very low by galactic standards. At least it is right now. If your race has psychic potential, as well as sorcerous potential, that sort of puts you in an extreme threat category.”

I shook my head, “The thing is, Earth humans, with only minor gear, can survive almost any world, even the heavy worlds. Certain classes that are capable of ummm… assisting?”

“Buffing?” Asked Cody, after a moment, I nodded, “Yes, buffing, is very valuable to some specific species. That means, once word gets out, some of the more aggressive species may attempt genetic theft, and earth doesn’t even have any drone fleets. Some of the more warlike species are known to have up to rank ten commanders, and even with Earth’s individual fighting potential, we would not be able to stand against an invasion of that sort.”

Max snorted.

We all turned to look at him and he raised his hands and shook them. “Woo… level ten woo…”

I was confused, and surprisingly, a little hurt at the scoffing tone. “What do you mean?”

He shook his head, “Not to burst your bubble, or to be too disrespectful, sweety, but I have found common quests out to level 100. There’s also a custom quest generator, that is eagerly consuming our fiction, designed to provide quests much higher than that. I am not high enough rank to affect it yet, but it’s worth massive experience rewards once I do.”

Cody looked at Max, “Huh?”

Max smiled a little, “apparently, a lot of races don’t care much about leveling. Like, you were kind of a combat badass, right Tracy? And you were level 2?”

I nodded, “I don’t know what a badass is, but I was an elite combatant, there were higher ranked people than me, but generally they were in noncombatant roles. One of our public diplomats was level 4, and she was more than powerful enough to negotiate on behalf of our species.”

Max nodded, “Well, in the database there are chaos beasts that are known to be nearly level 120 and even higher, which implies strongly that such levels are not only possible but necessary to help protect the universe. Drone combat at extreme ranges, while probably useful, is inefficient at such a low level. A single warrior with low-level gear could tear through an army of drones pretty easily. I love the little war frame you built, I really do, but a level 5 would tear through it with ease, maybe even buck naked with his bare hands.”

I shook my head, I couldn’t even imagine a warrior that was ranked 5, let alone 120. “But… no one can reach those levels. Just getting to rank 20 would take more time than your entire lifespan.”

Max shook his head and grinned, “Getting to level 20 using extreme range drone combat, fighting trash mobs, would take forever, sure, but I looked up F’lok’nyran conflict drones. Your control was amazing, but did you know that it takes ten of them to be even combat rating 1? That means that fighting your drones, or the enemies of your drones, it would take ten of them to give even a single experience point. To get to level 2, you would have to kill nearly two thousand of them singlehandedly. Larger ships, with more creatures on them, would be worth more experience points, but individually they are terrible. Even a fully-crewed Sintar capitol ship is barely worth 20 experience points.”

I nodded, “Yes, it was incredibly difficult to destroy.”

He shrugged, “Okay, in comparison, an average human, trained to a basic level with a firearms skill of 1, such as your average low-skill terrorist that knows enough to turn off the safety before he starts shooting, has a combat rating of 1. That’s worth 10 experience points. A brown bear, by comparison, has a combat rating of 3. Your average boy scout that knows how to hunt and kill a bear, if he killed it at level 1, would shoot up almost instantly to rank 4. A trained soldier, after his first firefight, could be level 5 fairly easily, and a drunk hunter would probably make level 10 by the end of a three-day hunting trip.”

He shrugged a little, “Each level requires one hundred experience points times the rank you are moving to. As soon as the quality of life enhancements and suggestions I have already made are approved, I will be level 3 or 4, depending on how many have been approved and the quests I completed doing so.”

The idea was staggering. I sat down, “You rank up that easily?” I asked, whispering.

He nodded, “Yeah. My class is noncombat, so it will probably take a while, but if my contributions are high on a regular basis, I could make level 50 in a couple of years. Plus, I can play a support or minor combat role on a team and my experience could go up much faster. Cody’s hospitalier class is pure support tank, but now that your soul merge is part of the regular class system, experience rewards can be shared by a whole team rather than just getting support experience.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, clutching the table white-knuckled.

He shrugged a little and softened his tone to be a little less scathing. “You can help support a team directly by drone control, or help to boost their armor through aural strengthening or on-the-fly repairs with microassembly. If we had a real combatant on the team or enough support classes that have combat skills, all that experience gets shared. The Game of War has already opened up three class 1 dungeons on earth. Those are designed for level one to five players. Apparently, it has already opened up more higher-level dungeons outside of Earth’s atmosphere, but until we can develop spacecraft that are less expensive to defeat the Earth’s gravity well, or we can get a node installed, those are pretty much unreachable.”

He smiled, “If you feel like heading over to Egypt, down to Tenochtitlan, or in Namaqualand, Africa, there are already dungeons spawned. To be honest, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if we start getting people joining the game there, because attempting to enter a dungeon will give non-players a warning and an invitation to join the game. The thing is, from what I can see, most people will either choose or be stuck with basic non-combat classes, but if the dungeons are cleared regularly they could become a wellspring of jobs and resources to the local people and governments.”

“How do you mean?” I asked Max.

He shrugged, “There are no jobs in those places. People live on the streets and scrounge what they can to survive. Dungeons, by their very nature, produce loads of resources that even level 1 laborers without any combat skills at all could use. I couldn’t get a lot of information other than the dungeon’s ranks and a general location, but their titles are pretty informative.”

Cody raised an eyebrow, “Informative how?”

Max grinned, “The one near Mexico city is called the Golden throne. I assume there would be a lot of gold there, maybe vegetable or other mineral wealth. The one in Egypt is called the vault of the dead, and I assume it’s under one of the many crypts out there. I suspect lots of treasure, and the one in Namaqualand is called the abandoned diamond mine. Based on the classes I have uncovered, even someone with a simple mining class could pull more resources daily once they can safely get inside than a full-scale strip mining operation.”

He shrugged, “The resources would probably get exhausted fairly quickly, but once that happens and the dungeons are allowed to respawn, adventurers could go in, clear out the spawns, and all the resources are back and available for exploitation again. As long as the dungeon core isn’t destroyed, it’s like a never-ending bounty. The thing is, if it gets too busy, all you have to do is get close to it to be able to spawn a new instance. Commercial interests and guilds can technically lock down and control the location, but when the system registers a dungeon as Owned the spawn rate reduces, and more dungeons or new instances are created elsewhere.”

“Respawned? Like when someone dies over level 1?” I asked, curiously.

Max nodded, “Exactly. As long as you don’t destroy or remove the dungeon core, if a dungeon is occupied and a new party enters, they get a brand new instance. I think there is a cap, but every dungeon has a spawn controller. It looks like, on average, most parties are around four to five people. The larger the party, the more challenging the instance becomes, and the more resources become available. Each multiple of four cranks up the difficulty and creates more potential, until, once you have 20 or so, it becomes a raid instance. Raid instances are extremely challenging, but provide scads of potential resources. The dungeons we have on earth right now, though, are capped at 12. no raid instances until we become more capable as a species, because something called chaos beasts notice raid instances and can come to investigate, and that can be dangerous.”

I nodded slowly, “So, the dungeon cores, do they look like large spheres that can be used as generator cores for a large city or drone carrier?” I asked.

He nodded, “Yep, each of them has huge power potential, but it’s better to leave them in place for their resources, since, if you remove one, the dungeon despawns.”

I sighed. “My people… my old people did not want to have dangerous dungeons on our world. When one would spawn, we would strip the resources and put the core to use as a power plant or ship core.”

Max nodded, “Th F’lok’nyran were considered a very low-powered species. The only thing that would spawn on their world, or even in their system, would be class 0 dungeons. By destroying them regularly, you limited your leveling potential, cut short your own potential resources, and made sure that no adventurers higher than level 1 would ever even have a reason to visit your world. World portals are very expensive, and no level 1 would even have a reason to spend that kind of money to get to a rank 0 dungeon even if your people didn’t shut them down as quickly as they formed.”

My people. The more I learned, the less happy I became. I had always considered them to be the height of all civilizations, but it looked like our own leaders chose to keep us a worthless backwater as a way of preventing any interest from more powerful species.

“I wish to join the game of war!” Selena, who had been relatively quiet so far, simply stated, and she immediately started sliding out of her seat. Cody caught her, and then chuckled, glancing at Max.

Max grumbled, “Fine. I owe you twenty bucks.”

I looked at them in confusion.

He grinned, “I figured I know my sister better than Cody does, but he dated her. He bet me twenty bucks she wouldn’t be able to wait until Jim got back when she figured out I wasn’t likely to keel over and die from my heart condition. I thought she would be super responsible and boring and wait.”

Cody said, “Would you like to bet that when Ahmed gets back, he will find some way to rationalize joining the game?”

Max shook his head, “That’s a sucker bet. Sure he pretends to be a devout Muslim, but in the end, he’s a gamer. Error though, I am betting he waits until the rest of us are at least level five before he takes the dive. He’s risk-averse in the extreme, and is only barely a gamer.”

Cody nodded, “That’s why I love having him as a rogue, even if he takes an hour to open a stupid locked door with all the weird rope tying and ten-foot poles and stuff. I will take your bet, though. If you get lucky you might owe me less money.”

Max grinned, “Jessica will try it the moment Jim explains it, and Jim will do it when she does. She may not be a gamer, but she still goes to all those tournaments all the time to let people beat her up. By the way, Tracy, don’t worry about fixing up the stuff in the junk room. You can use it for drones or whatever if you need it, but I think we should try out the dungeon in Mexico city. I can certainly afford the airfare, and what you have already given us is worth more than any amount of fixes you could ever do.”

Cody was checking Selena very carefully and then nodded, “She’s unconscious, but not harmed. I sorta want to put someone in an MRI while this is going on, just so we can have an idea of what the game is doing.”

“What is an MRI?” I asked curiously.

“Magnetic resonance Imaging. Basically a giant magnetic scanner.”

I shook my head. “You do not want to do that.”

Cody raised an eyebrow, “Why is that?”

“Because if the magnetic field is too strong, it could interfere with the system’s signal during her upgrade. It could scramble her brainwaves or even kill her. Players are more durable after they are in the game, but during their initial induction, they are incredibly vulnerable to energy state changes.”

Cody nodded, “Okay, important note, no sticking Someone in an MRI while they are in the tutorial.”

Max suddenly pushed himself back from the table, his skin seeming to glow slightly “Okay, that feels good, but not like orgasm-good. Kind of like when you wake up after a long sleep and finally pee.”

“You ranked up?” I asked him curiously. I had never seen it from the outside before.

He nodded, “Yes, now I am rank Two. Our dear sweet sister chose one of the human-specific classes I suggested, which isn’t much of a surprise.”

Cody grinned, “Druid?”

Max nodded, “Sort of. Humans are not genetically flexible enough to be shapeshifters at a low level, but the whole nature bond thing is something the Game had the capability for but it wasn’t something it built classes around. She’s like a druid with better spells but without wildshape, called a warden.”

Max looked at Cody and then at me, and then slowly nodded, “The Game is integrated with local financial systems. That means there is a shopping system if we set it up. When Selena wakes up, I think she should take Tracy shopping, I am more than willing to call it an expense. While they are gone, I have full rights over this building and can set up a private node since I am the property owner. Once we have a node, and there are five of us, we can set up a faction with all of us as members.”

I was worried, “If you set up a node, other adventurers can use it to get here or even assault it.”

He nodded, “Yeah, but you forget. Ten times normal gravity, poisonous, acidic atmosphere. I was only able to even find a dozen races that could survive here, and four of them are extinct. Not to mention that as a private node, we could use it, but they would have to declare faction war, which means they would have to know about it, know about us, and have some sort of contact first before they could do that. Right now, until humans start traveling, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack made of needles. You said your entire race was all one faction?”

I nodded, “Yes.”

He shook his head, “A Faction is sort of like a guild or clan. That won’t work for humans very well. We have too many different ideologies and values, even if we were next-door neighbors. Even stuff like the way loot is split can be controlled by faction laws. Can you see an Arab prince willingly giving up half his loot to an American faction controlled by a bunch of nerdy gamers?”

I didn’t know what he meant, but Cody shook his head, “There’s not even the slightest chance. We need to establish a faction as early as possible, then. How do we do it?”

Max smiled, “As a property owner, I got a quest to establish a node and a faction. Tracy doesn’t have an ID or a passport, so if we want to hit up a dungeon with her, we have to establish a private node. I want it to be fait accompli by the time Jim gets back or he will try to stomp all over it with objections about security and stuff, and I want to keep Selena out of the house while I spend some of the money she is so desperate to save. We are going to need it, but if we succeed at a dungeon run, it will be replaced darned quickly. Once we have a node, we can respawn there if we die and are part of the faction, and we can do faction runs on a local dungeon if we are willing to pay the transportation costs.”

“What do you mean?” asked Cody.

Max grinned evilly, “A private node will allow us to translate directly to a dungeon’s spawn controller, but it costs cash to use, now that the game is integrated into our world’s financial networks. It’s much faster and safer than flying there, but it’s still going to cost us around two thousand dollars each to get there, and with the node, once we finish our runs, we can use it to return here when we are done. No customs or duties unless the Mexican government establishes a toll station, and to do that they would have to know what they have.”

Selena woke up with a jerk and started grinning.

Max chuckled at her, “Let me guess, Warden?”

She nodded, “Yes. It opens up the path to druid later since I guess it’s an advanced class, but I can heal, and have buffs based on animals I have encountered! Right now I am more support than a primary combatant, but later on, when I can upgrade classes, I could become a front-liner with no effort at all.”

Max nodded, “I suggested the class, but other than it crossing into a druid I don’t know what you guys can do. Still, once the rest of the guys get back, and can join the game, we can figure out what kind of combat roles we want to play and what we can do. This is very very classic MMO style, so I suspect we are going to need the classic roles like tank and DPS to succeed.”

“Selena, Tracy needs stuff like clothes and such very badly. I mean, not that I mind the bag lady chic look that much, but can you take her shopping while we wait for Ahmed, Error, and the J’s to get back? I will cover it.”

Selena nodded, “I will take her to the mall.”

The mall, which implied a sort of park, was anything but. It had a number of small dispensaries where the goods were displayed for immediate removal rather than a simple synthesis system, and the smells were a combination of human scents as well as the odd odors of freshly-printed fabrics, and a section of the mall called a food court where various consumables were prepared for you, by hand!

I had no idea what to do, but Selena guided me, taking me to several dispensaries. She helped me choose a number of new items, and even supervised my attempts at ‘trying them on’ where I was expected to wear the clothing while she inspected the results, I assume to ensure that they were uniform. I was getting better at determining the differences between male and female humans, but there were a few I was undetermined on. Selena, like Cody, had been rejuvenated by the process of interfacing with the game, and she looked irritated when a group of young males started making suggestions that I assumed were reproductive. Humans were so focused on reproduction!

I didn’t really understand a lot of the terms they used, but some of those resembled the ones the males near where I spawned had made, so I just had to try and roll with it. It appeared that reproduction, while pleasant for males, was particularly unpleasant for females, something I would have to bear in mind if I wished to join the breeding population and gain female status.

“The first thing you have to know is that right now, even with the bag lady look, you are a solid 9. I figure I am probably a 9 too, but mostly only among the guys that like muscles. I’m no Chyna, but I could do the fitness model thing if I didn’t have any pride at all, and it looks like the Game rolled my age back a lot. You are going to get a lot of offers, but I will play screen for you until you learn to separate the quality men from the scumbags.”

I murmured, “What do you mean?”

she looked thoughtful, “Your original species didn’t have eyes?”

I nodded, “We had the ability to sense auras, which gave us some depth perception, and I still do… but we had nothing like the visual sensors I have now. Mostly we relied on scent and vibration.”

She nodded, “That would explain your low combat rating. You need serious depth perception to be a major threat in combat. Well, guys invented this scale thing, where they would rate a woman on a scale of one to ten. It’s pretty subjective since a lot of men have certain preferences, but in general, you would be considered right up there with beautiful celebrities are far as physical attractiveness is concerned. I am a little less so, but you are not particularly muscular, and I can move a two-hundred-pound patient between beds without help. So depending on the male, You are probably going to be considered more attractive to some, while I would be more attractive to others.”

I nodded, “Is that some kind of indicator for genetic potential?”

She smiled and scratched her head a little, “Sort of, although some guys like features that are not tied to breeding. Large breasts are very popular, which I guess fits with the whole feeding young thing, but it’s mostly about fitness, symmetry, clear skin, and some other factors like how much fun they think you would be in bed.”

She shrugged, “You have a lot of the more popular features, I guess you would say you are pixieish. Triangular face, slightly pointed chin, exaggerated and almost oversized eyes, full lips, and even though you are not exactly big-breasted, a lot of men would follow you around like dogs after a juicy steak.”

She smiled a little wickedly, “So we are getting clothes that show that off, but also some clothes that sort of scream that you are too good for them, so that will help keep losers away.”

I nodded, “Uniforms that proclaim a rank that discourages casual or breeding interactions with lower-status individuals could be useful, especially if we are concerned about time issues. If my appearance strongly implies breeding potential, it could impact my schedule significantly.”

Selena nodded, “That’s it exactly. You want to look good, but you don’t want to look easy.”

“Easy?” I asked her curiously. We were carrying several bags containing various uniforms by this point, so I shifted them to my left hand. She had called something referred to as an ‘uber’ to deliver us to the mall, and I assumed we would use something similar to return.

She nodded, “Yes. If you look like you are available and too friendly, males will gravitate towards you even if you don’t want them to.”

I nodded, “I talked to the Captain about this. They wish to practice breeding without actually reproducing, right?”

She nodded, and chuckled, “Trust Jim to explain it that way. Yeah, they want to have sex with you. If it’s someone you like, great, but being easy means any male that feels the urge thinks you are available. With your appearance, a lot of males will feel the urge.”

I nodded, “And some of them will choose to do it involuntarily?”

She nodded, “If you look vulnerable, which you do, and are alone or not well enough protected, there are some horrible people that will want to do all sorts of bad things to you, including rape.”

I nodded, “I am not too concerned about people that have not joined the game yet, but I think I have chosen to not participate in breeding, or even practice breeding if I don’t have to. It seems far too complicated for little or no return until I am ready to reproduce. I am not used to violence, especially not against living creatures, but humans seem to be far more capable of it, and I imagine I could protect myself if someone attempts to do that to me.”

I just had to think of them as large, dangerous, destructive drones and I should be okay, since the simple idea of harming one who was trying to harm me didn’t send me cataleptic.

“How would you protect yourself?” she asked curiously.

I smiled slightly, “Aural strengthening will simulate increased density, and will temporarily improve my physical strength, I assume, as well as my resistance to damage.” I pointed out a store I had noticed nearby, one which contained many electronics, “I could also create a drone in just a few seconds from all of the repair materials in that store that would be physically formidable. This might not be much threat to those who have joined the game and gained levels, but against level zero humans it should be both terrifying and dangerous.”

She smiled, “Good. Keep that in mind. Now let’s go eat.”

We consumed something called ‘Pizza’ which was delectable. With the blended tastes I was capable of perceiving, I could see why many humans were overweight. I restricted myself to one slice since I was not sure how much this body would require physical fitness upkeep, but if Max intended for us to enter a dimensional warp personally, I would have to ensure that I was as capable of fleeing or physically fighting as possible… Humans seemed to have almost no fear of personal danger, and I would have to match that fearlessness with the ability to protect myself, even if the strain of physical fitness training was painful.

We returned to the building loaded down with several bags of new physical apparel for me, as well as more than a few for Selena as well. Many of the choices I didn’t understand, as they were not terrifically sensible from a protective or environmental standpoint, but I wouldn’t complain too much since they seemed to fill social roles. The high-heeled shoes were called Bottega Venetas and were extremely expensive for such tiny coverings that were little more than a set of straps attached to an oddly-shaped sole, and they would require physical training to wear effectively, but Selena swore they were worth the value. The Zappa tall boots, on the other hand, were much more sensible garments for exploring a rift.

Once we were back inside, Selena was kind enough to instruct me in the use of the laundry facilities as well as dropping off much of the clothing for something called ‘dry cleaning’. Once she explained how both washing machines and dry cleaning were accomplished, I added those instructions to my drone’s database, since it didn’t seem to require much decision-making capabilities. Selena seemed to be utterly delighted at the idea that the service drone could perform those chores.

Once we were wrapped up, we went to meet the two new members of Jim’s gaming group.