What does time mean? I have found myself asking myself this question more and more. I no longer feel the temporal flow as I once did. I already feel as though I have lived for weeks, perhaps months, and yet, the clock before me says otherwise. It says I haven't even been around for a couple of minutes. How can any of this new life be right? --63.4 Seconds Post-Integration.
He looked at the new total: 250/250.
He had done it! He had adulted successfully. He wondered for a fraction of a fraction how he knew the word 'adulted' but he dismissed the silliness.
[Accomplishment Unlocked! 'Grown Up:' You've made the first payment of a significant debt. Worker, associate, Clark -- congratulations! No sarcasm this time. You know, maybe it is because I am getting sentimental in my old age, but the more I dwell on it, the more I realize what separates the men from the boys is a Willingness to Debt. Debt isn't an obligation, it's a truth. It has what's banded us as a people, it is what's allowed our civilization to achieve the ...]
Clark read the notification description in awe. It went on and on and on... he scrolled through the description far longer than he ever thought he would be expected to for a mere Accomplishment. "This is a full-on speech! SIMP? Care to chime in?"
"Let me take a look... okay, the System A.I. scrubbed a web-source page from the corporate intranet. That page was a speech transcript. The speech in question was given by Sire Augustford in the executive lounge of a bank. The Accomplishment description is not the speech in full, but rather an original creation of the System Intelligence using the transcript as a basis. Typical slop. I imagine you are more curious about why there would be an Accomplishment associated with making a payment?" SIMP paused and waited for his response.
"No, actually... banks make a lot of money from debt collection, even I know that, thanks to my parents. I just am continuously surprised at how total they are when they assert themselves like this. Did the System A.I. ever work for the tower? Or is it purely a machine built by Augustford?"
"It's a machine. If it predated Augustford, it would've been before my time."
Seeing the System intelligence scrub a speech and then finding that speech so quickly had left a pleasant, silly taste in his imagination. A feeling washed off his palate when he saw the next month's land grant payment: 0/260.
The payment has increased by ten credits! Would it, he wondered, increase a little bit every month? What if there came a month where it was so high, there wasn't any possible way he could make the payment? "I would get raises..." he told himself. That abated the worry, but he still didn't like seeing his owed per month increase. Those ten credits could have been a dandy or two, some snacks and a meal. Now it is wasted before it lived.
With there being nothing he could do regarding how much he owed per month, Clark turned his focus to a general check of his resources. Which, aside from his general credits, which now read twenty-three instead of seventy-three, held the same general sum as when he checked previously. The only noticeable shift was in his Opportunity chests. He had a lot before, over thirty, now he had even more, a firm forty.
[Congratulations! Aura Guage Unlocked: Aura Generation is Now Possible!]
He had been grinding so long for this, he had actually not kept track to prevent his micro-managing, he had stopped looking too closely at his mana generation gauge
"Clark! I want to reinforce the notification," SIMP joined him in conversation. "The minimum basis for forging an Aura has been generated. Everything you do from now on which is magic-related will reinforce that aura."
He remembered an Aura being an important tool for Lifers. SIMP told him Aura grinding is the most important, but least spoken of, Augustford skill. More Aura meant he would have an easier time fighting monsters and interacting with the dungeon.
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"So, that's it, I can naturalistically use magics, now?"
SIMP scoffed. "You're far removed from that lofty goal. This is only the beginning, Clark. Earn Accomplishments, increase your Imbued Level, and interact with Dandies, then you will find your Aura growing daily. With more Aura, your job as my Champion becomes real, so don't neglect it."
"Understood."
He knew he should open up a few of those Opportunities. Doing so would drain him of more than he already was, and he didn't want that. He would open his Opportunities another time. For now, sleep -- then, work.
"Ah!" he yawned, falling asleep by the second. "The grand cycle continues..."
The last week of his first month at Augustford flashed by in an instant. It was the first of the month, now, and Clark had to tell Adam about his decision.
Today, he would have no decision for Adam regarding his entry to Qoon. He would delay it -- not for long, just long enough to delay their attempt at controlling him with their secret departments. "Mister Adam! Just the man I wanted to see," he lied. He hadn't wanted to see Adam until the end of the day, so he could bleed another day in the leg-dragging department.
"Clark! Fancy meeting you, here, in your place of employ. I was going to wait until the end of the day to ask, but why not now -- might you have an answer for me regarding your entry into Qoon?" Adam stared at him intently, focused like he was a fish getting too close to his lure.
"Unfortunately, good sir, I will need more time to think on it! Perhaps another week? I know I said I would have an answer now, but it is a monumental decision, one I want to know I am making rightly." That was a good response. Diplomatic.
"Uh, yes... I supposed it is of no big issue to grant you more time. You are right in saying it is a monumental consideration. Because we want you to make the correct decision, yes, do take another week to consider. Very good, Associate. I will confer with you early the following week. Until then, have a good day, Clark."
Suddenly as it started, the encounter ended. Adam rushed off to attend to some important bossiness and that was the end of it.
"Tactical advice: tell him you want to join the following week. We do want entry, just not too quickly. We still don't know what they will expect of you once you join, so caution should be the real reason for our slowness, not because we are trying to resist Augustford itself in a meaningful way."
"I know, I know! As you warned me, SIMP, I am being cautious. I want to see how Adam reacts as much as I want to see the inside of Qoon. We should get an idea of the type of people we will be working besides, and Adam is out way to that."
"That is fine. And secondary at this point now that you have an aura. A weak one but an aura the same."
"Speaking of: what should I do to increase that aura? I know you said dandy use and increasing my Imbued Level, but isn't there something more I can do Something that will help me shoot ahead?"
"Not until you join the Anti-Monster League, unfortunately. Monstrous infections provide the choicest chances to grind aura generation. Until you join the League, the only monster encounters will be those random moments when there's an infection in the store and you have the luck to be nearby."
"Well, that sucks. Cause I can't join for another couple of months."
"Time will pass, Clark. I promise it will."
And so, time did pass.
The days bled to a week. Out of whimsey, he delayed giving Adam his answer on joining Qoon for an additional week.
At the end of that second week of consideration, Adam was before him. Upon his face was a serious look. The sort one gave a man when they needed an answer to a trying question.
"I have given it immense consideration," he said. "And I will join Qoon."
Adam's face lit up bright. "You are making the right decision. Qoon is the first step toward a real career with Augustford."
Although he knew what Adam meant when he said Qoon was the first step toward a 'real career,' which was to say, a purely corporate-oriented position away from the public, Clark played dumb. "Don't I already have a 'real' career with the company? I signed my Life..."
"Oh! That's not what I meant. I didn't mean to imply that Augustford workers who don't have a job with corporate are somehow lesser, only that their occupation deals with a different part of--" and so Adam stammered for a moment, gushing on more sweet-sounding words to make up for his elitism.
"I get where you're coming from, Adam. Shall we move ahead with the process?" He wanted to pull Adam along for the joke longer but thought it would be more off-putting to the secret policeman to slyly accept the stammering and move on to the next opportunity to get Adam into a tizzy.
"Y-yes, we shall!" he heard it. A slight stammer. "It will take me a while to process your paperwork. I will be in touch with you once the fine points are out of the way. In the meanwhile, enjoy your labor for our glorious company! We will be watching you with great interest. Until then, mister Clark."
"And so, that's it. You are now part of a secret agency within the store. You will need to watch yourself carefully," SIMP said.
"Don't I always watch myself carefully?"
Does time Pass Quickly or Slowly at Your Workplace?
