The morning workout with Dev felt easier than it had any right to be. When the block came to an end, Cass waited for the third summary judgment to drop on his head. That isn’t what happened.

  “Cray! Miller! Tutoring tonight!”

  Cass and Pellin shared a look of surprise that he’d dodged his sentence, then both jogged their separate ways to get ready for the standard class schedule. Meeting up in the cafeteria, Orla gave him a devilish grin. “Why do you seem like you’re bouncing with energy today?”

  “I don’t know,” Cass said between bouts of inhaling his food. “I’m also extra hungry again. It’s weird. You know, I couldn’t sleep last night?”

  “Really?” Pellin replied, daintily placing a forkful in his mouth, “I knocked out like a log. My mom had to wake me up this morning with a kick. I know she loves me, but it felt unnecessarily cruel.”

  Orla looked over at him, “What’s your mom do, Pell?”

  He rolled his eyes. “If you asked her, she’d say it was the most important Calling in Liora.” That caused Cass to finally look away from his food. When Pellin realized both were looking at him and he wasn’t going to get away with not telling them, he said, “She’s an Architect.”

  Orla smirked, “Worth the wait.”

  System Mechanics finally began to talk about Titles. As Kara had said before, it turned out you could get them in numerous ways. Helping with a job that’s outside of your Calling. Fighting. Even having kids nets you a title. Though they all had different benefits. A brief history of titles hit their desk screens, and Cass couldn’t help but note there were only so many listed.

  “You’re wondering why more titles aren’t there?” Archivist Marell asked when she noted Cass’s disgruntled expression. “Most people keep the titles they earn pretty close to the chest. Sometimes it’s because the System forces them to. Others, it’s because they’re selfish. The Enterprises keep many of their discoveries hidden.” She sniffed, “Members only.”

  “But why? If titles can help humanity win the war, why hold back?”

  She shrugged, “Greed, stupidity. Recruitment even. You name it. There are as many reasons as leaves in a forest.”

  She walked away with a grim expression as Cass considered that. Sliding his finger down the list, he internalized as many as he could for future planning, adding them to his notes. That’s when he stumbled on an obvious one.

  Calling Title: Every individual's Calling has a unique title.

  When Archivist Marell passed by again, he asked about it.

  “You haven’t finished the Foundational Training yet. You may already have several titles and just can’t see them. Don’t worry, young buck. They’ll come soon enough.”

  Not pleased with having to wait three weeks, he moved on to his next class. Institutional Overview came after, where several minutes of hearing the Capital’s history passed by with Cass just about falling asleep.

  It’s not that it wasn’t interesting, only that Officer Vex seemed to make every story about himself. The Capital sprang up first in the ruins of Chicago. I’ve been to it, you know. They were so impressed with me… Yada Yada Yada. As the Sovereign designed things like our Foundational Training Program, order came from the chaos. Let me tell you about a chaotic time I managed with the Valiants a few weeks ago. There we were, deep in the forest…blah, blah, blah.

  Finally, his first block with Kara came, but when he got to the Annex, it was empty. Spending a moment to check his bag and make sure anything he might need was in there, Kara walked in a moment later, three people behind her.

  “QuestWright Vale, I’d like to introduce you to a few people.” Gesturing at a big man built like a block of wood, she said, “This is Johnny, who received his Calling only a few weeks ago.” She nodded at a thin whip of a woman next, “Caliope, still stuck in her second level.” Kara ended on someone familiar, “And this is Adya Korring, who you know from our morning classes.”

  Cass shook each of their hands, introducing himself, then looked at Kara,” Why are they here?”

  “Because they’re all low-level, and I thought running a few Messenger quests would be helpful for their growth. Each of them comes with a unique movement ability granted by their Calling, and they’re well aware of the danger.” Pulling her folder out, she removed three sealed envelopes. “Each of these is to one of Liora’s satellite locations. I know you’re restricted to one mile on the System Map, but if you know the Questor or the Party meant to receive the quest, you can bypass that restriction.”

  Cass smiled to himself. I figured that one all on my own.

  He took each letter, then Kara walked him through the process of creating three Messenger Quests. Once it was done, he drafted each and felt a small bit of pride in that the quests didn’t sound terrible for once. Kara looked them over before handing them out, each person gaining a golden glow for a brief moment.

  [QUEST ID: CV-0001-M-LIA HAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY JOHNNY FIGURE]

  [QUEST ID: CV-0002-M-LIA HAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY CALIOPE DIMITRIOU]

  [QUEST ID: CV-0003-M-LIA HAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY ADYA KORRING]

  As they left, Cass got a notification.

  [System Notice]

  You’ve gained .5xp for Gary Trenner’s Quest Completion.

  Your System Reputation has increased by 1.

  Details can be found in the Quest Ledger.

  He’d just finished reading it when the large Baker himself walked over. Seeing Kara, his face took on a cast well known to cause trouble for them both. Wiping his hands on the sides of his pants, he reached out, “Hello, I don’t believe we’ve met. Gary Trenner, and you are?”

  Kara looked him up and down before taking his hand, “Kara Tullis. So you’re Gary.” Her eye traced him before firing over to Cass, “I’m guessing you have him completing a quest each day?”

  He didn’t know why, but he felt a little defensive as he responded, “Yes, I am. It helps him, gets me a little experience, and it’ll help with my weekly quota.”

  Gary’s meaty hand slapped him on the back, “Damn right it helps. Jim enjoys the food from the Golden Crust so much that he’s been telling others about it. He calls our sweets, life-enders, haha. I think I’m approaching a new title.”

  She gave a slight nod, turning back to her folder. “I see. Cass, be sure you save at least one quest per day for the Guild. Once you level up, we’ll have to increase it.” Without another word, the folder snapped shut, and she walked away.

  Gary leaned towards him, “She’s intense.”

  “Very,” Cass muttered, looking back at the System map. “How do you know you’re approaching a new title?”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He couldn’t see him, but he was sure Gary shrugged, “It’s just a feeling, nothing definitive…Intense.” The way he said that last word was in a different tone of voice. Patting Cass’s back again, he said, “Anyways, I gotta run back to the shop. I’m delivering these on my breaks, and they’ll notice if I’m gone too long. Have a great day, Cass.” Moving around the corner, he was gone too, leaving him alone with the map.

  Pulling up the ledger, he checked the results from Gary’s last quest turn-in.

  [Quest Ledger Entry: CV-0001-D-LIA]

  Assigned Questor: Gary Trenner

  Quest Objective: Garry Trenner delivered one sweet to Gatekeeper Jim

  Status: Completed

  Questor XP Awarded: +5 XP

  QuestWright XP Awarded: +0.5 XP

  System Reputation: +1

  Notes: Repeated completion acknowledged. Routine Quest development is likely. 2/10.

  It takes ten repeated quests with the same ID to make one turn into a routine. That’s doable for Gary, and maybe for Holt too. But I need to find more people.

  After considering his upcoming meeting with Rina, Cass spent the remainder of the time walking over to the Quest boards and looking over what was currently available for Tier 1s. A few people pulled them down, but many of the Quests remained. Some of them had dust coating the holding pin, making him wonder just how long they’d gone without completion. He stepped closer to the Civic board and, without touching, looked over one at random.

  [Tier 1 Construction Quest]

  Faded zone markers have accrued around the Liora public dump.

  Gather your required materials from the Quest Registry desk, then complete the task to the best of your abilities.

  This Quest will autocomplete upon verified success.

  Reward for completion: 7xp

  Gerald Hollis

  Liora Guildhall

  Guildmaster

  Cass could see why people wouldn’t want to do it. While seven experience was a lot to him right now, to someone who was trying to level up quickly, it was a drop in the bucket for a day’s worth of work. But he still took a mental note from the Guildmaster’s quest. Putting the experience gained directly into the drafted Quest would probably increase people’s trust in taking it on.

  Time moved by, and before he knew it, Cass was Meeting Kara at the beginning of the Entrance hall again. Just as a new notification hit his screen.

  [System Notice]

  You’ve gained .5xp for Holt Rinn’s Quest Completion.

  Your System Reputation has increased by 1.

  Details can be found in the Quest Ledger.

  Bonus reputation granted for completing three Quests in the same category:

  5 System Reputation

  Achievement progress:

  6/10

  “Damn.”

  “Damn what?” Kara said, approaching him from behind. He turned to face her, unable to keep the disappointment off his face. “What’s wrong?”

  Cass sighed, then told her everything. The System Map, his deal with Gary and Holt, the Achievements, and unlocking his first node. She gave him a crooked grin when he finished.

  “Did you think it would just keep doubling or multiplying or whatever?” She laughed, shaking her head. “Nothing’s free with the System. Achievements are a structure; once you figure out how it’s built, you can break it down, sure. But you need to understand and work for it first.”

  While she was still giggling every so often, Cass followed her out of the Guild on an unerring path north. After they’d reached halfway, she called back, “It’s pretty impressive that you reached Level 2 already. My documents say it normally takes a few weeks. Not too shabby, Cassio Vale.”

  They moved past Tolliver’s Intake and wound up standing just outside the North gate, often called the Packline because of the frequent sight of animals dragging wagons in and out of the area. A man on a rickety cart with three penned-in goats waved them down. His horse was skinny, and he looked like dirt had a shotgun wedding with disease, but Kara smiled all the same and waved back. “Hey, Shamus.”

  When they got closer, the gap-toothed man gave them an unsightly smile, “Hey there, Kara. This ‘im?”

  “Yep, this is Cassio, goes by Cass. Cass, this is my friend Shamus. He’s going to take you toward the Red Tower, where Johnny just went for one of your Messenger quests. It’s pretty far from any action, so I thought it’d be a good first trip for you outside of Liora.” Squaring up on him, Kara shook a finger in his face, “You listen to Shamus. I don’t expect any issues, but he’s been in more tussles than you can imagine.”

  The man spit over the side of the cart through one of his gaps. “Tha I have. Howdy, there, Cassio.” Patting a seat, which caused a cloud of dust to rise, he gestured beside him, “Grab a sit and let's go. I’ll explain how tha route works and what we’re expected to see.”

  Not one to be prissy, Cass planted himself down, and with two clicks and a moving of the reins, the wagon moved and the goats bleated as Kara turned and walked away. Shamus immediately opened up into what sounded like a long speech.

  “I don’t get much of a chance to speak to people, as I’m on this route day in and day out. But I know the road to tha Red Tower betta’ than just about anyone living. The road was first built in the second year after the Reshaping, when the people came in droves to the safety Liora offered. It wasn’t the easiest time for folks. I, myself, was already a young man when it all came down.”

  They moved out of the gates and down a packed dirt road with small striated cracks in it. The whole time, Shamus talked, elucidating on the value of the new world compared to the old.

  “I don’t miss the Digital Age, much prefer this one, whatever it’s called. Do you know what my old job used to be?”

  Cass, who was busy watching rabbits diving around the area, shook his head, “No, sir.”

  “I was a truck driver, down in the Sip. What you’d call Mississippi. My wife and I traveled up here to escape the chaos of the South. We had plenty of guns, just ran out of bullets.” He clicked at the horse when it tried to slow down. “Sorry about old Bella there, she’s getting along in years now. Had her since she was a baby.”

  Together, they traveled for about twenty minutes of Shamus talking and Cass giving terse replies before they started to roll over an uneven, rocky area. On a thin and pokey tree nearby, a flock of birds lifted up, their dark wings soaring overhead as Cass tried to take it all in.

  Shamus was still talking about what life was like in the old world when a crack rang out, and the wagon began to list to the side. It took more than a minute to calm down the spooked horse.

  “Stay here, lemme have a look.” Hopping off, the old man checked the wagon, making soothing sounds at the riled-up goats. A loud curse came back to Cass’s ears before he popped up on Cass’s side, no hint of a smile now.

  “Tha wheel’s snapped. Looks like a full bust. I know tha there’s a barn up yonder, not far away. Stay here and watch the animals for a minute, I’ll be back in a hurry. Don’t go nowhere, we don’t have so many goats that we can lose a few to wandering.”

  Cass jumped down from the wagon, his bag shifting with the movement. “I will, sir, don’t you worry.”

  Shamus gave him a look of approval, “Such respect. Yah parents must be proud. I’ll be back in a jiffy.” He stepped off, walking down the empty road. Cass watched him as he took a sudden turn, climbing a slight grassy knoll in a different direction, then he was gone.

  Never having had the opportunity to interact with animals, Cass took this opportunity to pet the goats, who immediately latched onto his robes with their flat teeth. Gentle as he could, he pried his clothing out of their mouth, tapping the hard mound of bone on top of their skull until they fully released him. Luckily, his Guild robe sustained no damage, simply dampness.

  “I’m sure it wouldn’t taste very-”

  A screech split the air.

  Cass froze, one of his hands still on the goat’s horned crown. Another cry came, sharper this time…closer. Then a third, somewhere just over his shoulder. The sound wasn’t natural. It was like a dagger dragged across stone, with a layering of something wet and hungry beneath it.

  Bella and the goats wanted nothing to do with it. As his eyes moved, one goat tried to take a bite out of his hand, so he snatched it back and dropped to a knee behind the cart. His heartbeat was loud in his ears as he tried to stay calm.

  Think, Cass, think. He said he’d be right back. Most people don’t say that unless it’s only a few minutes. Another shriek sent a tingling down his spine from how close it sounded. Or twenty.

  He took a breath, shutting his eyes for a single second. Moving in tight, sharp angles so his back was never fully exposed, Cass slung his bag around and dumped its contents onto the dirt road. Vellums and foodstuffs spilled out, as did the knife and canteen. He grabbed the ever-sharp blade just as the bushes rustled.

  Then, something stepped out.

  All he saw were eyes and teeth.