Sam, who has had this notification for a while, didn't have any idea either, "This showed up on everyone's phones a few minutes after the main quest started. And this community thing opens right when that quest is over," Sam pointed out, "But also only on one of their phones. We have a few people that have multiple, like a personal and a work phone, and it only showed up on whatever they were holding at the time, and disappeared on the other."
Ashton thought for a moment, closing his eyes. There was so much about the system that he clearly didn't know yet, "I think... the system presents in unique ways in each world."
"... What's that supposed to mean?"
Ashton finished rolling his cigarette, taking out his lighter, "It sees the way the world already works, all the invisible 'systems' established by us. And then it takes those, and elevates them. Humanity as a species has managed to use technology to elevate themselves and communicate throughout the world. The system might now be trying to add that sort of function itself."
"Huh, so like a... chat in a game."
"Who knows? We'll see tomorrow, but... that really does make me curious about what other ways the world will integrate," Ashton lit his cigarette and quickly took a drag.
Sam looked over at Ashton, just staring at him for a while. The two of them stayed silent, until almost the entire cigarette was gone. Ashton kept glancing to the side, at the message windows that appeared before him.
[[Observer in the Veil] wishes to know more about the source of your knowledge]
[[Observer in the Veil] is curious about what else you may know]
[[Observer in the Veil] has gifted you 50 Coins]
"Dude, could you just bug off? I'm not going to tell you," Ashton sighed, annoyed by the persistence. But at least he could just try to ignore the Observer, at least for now.
"You're... you're okay, right?" Taking advantage of the broken silence, Sam looked across the table. Now that they were talking for a while, things felt... weird. Of course, he knew that he was talking to Ashton, but something was off. During the phone call they had yesterday, he sounded emotional and like he was genuinely just so happy to even hear Sam's voice, but now? Ashton felt distant. It was like he didn't dare show any vulnerability anymore.
"Oh, I'm fine, my wounds will heal pretty fast, as I said," Ashton pointed out, "I'll also drink a bit of the potion before I go to bed. Low-grade potions like this seriously knock you the fuck out."
"That's... not what I meant, I..." Sam sighed, looking over at his bag. He opened it up and pulled out a glass bottle and two small plastic cups. He had grabbed this from his office before coming up, "How about we have something else to drink?"
It was an unopened bottle of whiskey.
With a scoff, Ashton looked over at Sam, "You want to get drunk? Right now?"
"Maybe not drunk. Just... a bit tipsy."
"I still have a ton of stuff I need to get done. There's a boss monster in the botanical gardens that should provide some useful materials."
"And does that have to happen right now? What if you just go for it later on?"
Sam and Ashton locked eyes, "No, no, I really should get to it soon."
Nodding in agreement, Sam opened the bottle, "I guess you're right. In this scenario, you've got so much on your shoulders that you definitely wouldn't be able to have a drink." He poured some whiskey into each of the two cups.
"Yup, I've really got to lock in and just get everything done."
The two each grabbed one of the cups, clinking them together, before each downing the small bit of whiskey in there. Sam refilled both cups, and the two laughed a bit.
"There he is," Sam smiled, but Ashton quickly turned around to see who he was talking about.
"Who?"
"Dude, you. You weren't really acting like yourself."
Ashton looked down at his cup, "... You think so?"
"Yeah, man, of course. You were always a little on the unpredictable side, but right now... you're both weirdly open with your emotions and weirdly closed off," Sam pointed out, "I'm not going to pretend like I know what it was like to go through what you went through, but... Ash, is there anything I can do? Like... you sounded so happy and excited when we talked yesterday, and now you... I don't know."
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Ashton stared into his cup. Sam was probably right. For a moment there, Ashton had thought that he could get back to the life that he had lost, that he could forget about all of the horrific shit that was forced onto him. But then, that was ripped away, and he immediately found himself back in the world he had left, where one wrong move meant death, whether at the hands of the monsters or the Summoner themself.
But... that wasn't quite the world that Ashton was actually in. Of course, things were bad, they were terrible. So many people had already died, and that was on everyone's mind. The amount of corpses that Ashton had seen since he came back were enough to startle a mortician.
There was a single difference, though. Ashton was in control. For the first time in a lifetime, Ashton was holding the reins. And he had to make a choice.
Would he live a broody, miserable life filled with nothing but advancing forward, or... would he actually allow himself to slow down sometimes, and really enjoy moments like this with Sam?
"There's nothing you can do. I'm a different person than I used to be, that's just a fact. But... you're still my best friend, and I'm... I'm so fucking happy to be able to have a drink with you again."
A smile formed on Sam's face. It was a weird sensation. To him, Ashton had suddenly changed literally overnight. He felt so different, but his friend was still in there.
"Likewise, dude."
They started drinking and chatting a bit. Laughing. Crying. Just enjoying each other's company. It was nice.
At the same time, Ashton created a few more batches of potions, deciding to focus on some prep-work for today. Right now, he had exclusively made health potions, because he was still missing a few key ingredients for each of the other utility or combat potions he wanted to make, those needed to wait a little longer. But health potions were already a good start.
Sam raised a brow, watching as Ashton put away most of the materials he had used until now into the Backpacker's bag, instead getting a few others back. It was a plastic bag filled with small gemstones, a bottle of ink, and a stack of papers.
Ashton grabbed the Pen of Insight, starting to draw something onto the pieces of paper. Sam had no idea what it was that he was drawing, though it was pretty interesting to look at.
"Are you summoning something new?" he asked curiously, but Ashton shook his head.
"No, not right now. I've just got a few items I have to make. Especially if I'm going out alone, I need to be able to distract others."
Sam was taken aback, "Alone? You're going out there on your own again?"
"Yeah, I am. I'll take a nap later, and then head out once I've sobered up fully," Ashton said it as if it were obvious. And to him, it was.
"That's far too dangerous."
"... Okay, I think you might not get it yet, so... come out with me, and we'll get you your class tomorrow."
"Right, class. Uh..."
"I'll explain everything later, for now I need to concentrate," Ashton told Sam with a smile. For the first time today, he opened his status window.
[Ashton Garling] [Age - 23] [Coins - 1187 -> 3933]
[Stats]
[Power - 10 -> 11]
[Resilience - 10]
[Speed - 12 -> 13]
[Spirit - 16 -> 17]
[Classes]
-[Summoner - Level 5]
-[Aether Sensitivity - Level 2 -> 3]
-[Channel - Level 3 -> 5]
-[Summoning - Level 2 -> 3]
-[Construct Summoning]
[Pen of Insight - Level 1 -> 2]
-[Elemental Summoning]
[Lesser Salamander - Level 1 -> 3]
[Lesser Undine - Level 1 -> 2]
[Lesser Wisp - Level 3 -> 5]
-[Spirit Summoning]
[Backpacker - Level 2 -> 3]
Ashton clicked on the coins at the top of the window, and a small pop-up appeared. He dragged his finger to the right, and the number on that pop-up continued increasing, until Ashton let go of the window.
About twenty-five small, golden coins dropped down onto his palm.
"Wait- You can take those out?"
"Yeah, of course you can. They'll be the main method of trading pretty soon, but before the actual system-trade function comes in, you'll have to take them out and trade them manually." Ashton placed one of the coins onto the paper, "These things are basically pure mana. It's hard to pull that mana out of them, though, so magic stones are easier to use, but if you know what to do, they're a great receptacle for enchantments."
Ashton tried to grasp the mana in his vessel, and slowly activated the magic circle. Using his own mana as a conduit, just like he had done with the potion, he readjusted the pattern of mana inside of the coin. Grabbing a small portion of this orderly, cleanly stacked mana, he basically shoved it into a tight, tense ball. The process alone took a few seconds for a single one, but to finish this item off, Ashton had to keep going and fill this coin with at least a few dozen balls. The more, the better.
Finally, Ashton opened his eyes. It took around five minutes to finish everything. Especially the last few were pretty difficult to fit in, since he had to make all the balls fit in there tightly.
Sam had been quiet the entire time, just watching Ashton. Though, from his point of view, it was more like Ashton was holding his palm over a small coin. Though, in the meantime, he also took out a couple coins from the system window, trying to put them back in as well. He made sure to call over some of the people standing guard up here to tell them about this function as well, so that this would spread amongst people a bit more.
If it worked like this, then it made sense for coins to turn into the standard currency.
"So, what did you do? Does that make the coin more valuable?" Sam asked curiously, and Ashton quickly shook his head, holding the coin in his hand.
"Oh, no, it's the exact opposite. This is absolutely worthless now."
"Huh? Then why would you..?"
Ashton smiled, and tossed the coin a small distance away. The moment it hit the ground, a loud crackling could be heard, as if firecrackers were going off. The coin started bouncing around, bending and twisting as it did. Sam was startled, and so were the others currently on the rooftop. It took around twenty seconds for the sound to stop.
"It's a lure. A lot of monsters are sound sensitive, and because the coin bounces around, it even alerts monsters that use vibrations in the ground to detect you," Ashton smiled, grabbing the next coin to get started, "Since this uses up the mana in the coin, it disappears afterward, but I think it's worth it."
Sam stared at the pile of coins, "I guess it's useful, but you're really going to use that many? I thought you said it becomes the currency."
"Well, yeah, but it's just one coin. They're not worth that much."
"Yeah, but 25 has to be at least a third of all the coins you have right now. That's at least two monsters' worth."
"... Sam. I have almost four thousand coins right now."
Sam stared at Ashton in slight disbelief, opening his mouth to respond, though only two words could escape him, "... I see."
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