The Elemental Sea

  Reeve

  Reeve’s eyes were closed tightly as he envisioned the System. He gathered blocks of data, Mana, Aether, and Miasma together in various combinations to test their stability, just to blast them apart and try a different one instead. Every attempt and combination took his full concentration and will; even a slight deviation could result in the release of a detonation of energy that would reverberate throughout existence.

  His mental acuity was lessening with each attempt and Reeve knew he only had one more attempt left in him before his stores became exhausted. It had taken him years to build his energy reserves to this point. He watched as the combined energy counter plummeted in the corner of his vision.

  One last attempt.

  One last try to force the disparate energies together and meld them into a single, all-powering source of stability-infusing foundation that the rest of existence could be placed upon. No pressure.

  Utterly focused on the mental world he had built within the Elemental Sea, Reeve hardly noticed he had spread his arms wide then brought his hands together in a soft clap. As the last of his reserves drained away into nothingness, a small, translucent box appeared in front of him:

  The mage pushed even harder, forcing fragments of his very soul into the working. This was to become the stability of this realm. It had to, or everyone he knew, loved, and cared for was dead. Whatever had generated that box was right; this was the only chance he had, so he had to give more.

  Give everything.

  He pushed, going far beyond the limits of his empty energy reserves and pulling directly upon the places within his mindscape that generated the triumvirate of energies he utilized. This act caused fractures within both his mindscape and soul.

  Screaming in pain, Reeve felt as if his entire world was shattering. He could feel himself melting away, atom by atom, even as he continued to try and force additional energy into this monumental task. He could hardly bear the strain any longer. If he pushed further, this, out of all things, would likely kill him.

  So, he did the stupidest thing he could. He pushed harder.

  Grabbing the sources of his Mana, Aether, and Miasma, as well as every Aspect that he had gathered from the gods, he shoved it all into the poor, floundering System. And, predictably, the damn thing exploded.

  Reeve was forcibly hurled out of the Elemental Sea and slammed through a wall as beings and people around him screamed. He tore holes through multiple realities, briefly recognizing the startled face of a Daemonic Lord named Bob, whom he had once known, before finding himself . He struck with enough force to crack a literal sea of energy.

  “Fuck me,” Reeve whispered through his cracked and broken teeth as they repaired themselves. His body always fixed itself, slowly but surely. Shattered bones, burned and frozen skin, even missing pieces slowly grew back. And he felt every agonizing second of it in a way that he had never experienced before. His mind fled from the pain and he lost all coherent ability to track time or events going on around him.

  It felt as if his mind was being torn in a thousand directions. His point of view, his ability to comprehend regions so vast and diverse, even his more mundane senses such as taste and smell were shattered into so many pieces. Reeve’s psyche was shattered. And, just as it was shattered, the System put it back together. Piece by agonizing piece.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Reeve became aware of himself and his surroundings once more. Without warning, he could suddenly feel again. And he could feel things that he had not felt for decades. From the blood pumping through his veins and the air entering his lungs, he was aware of every facet of his newly assembled mind and body.

  A lot had changed, and he wasn’t sure that was a good thing.

  “Let’s… never do that again,” he groaned in pain as the recent events slowly faded from his memory.

  Slowly opening his blood-caked eyelids, Reeve took note of a small screen in front of him. He focused the blurry eyesight of his newly-regrown eyes with immense effort, then popped them wide open in astonishment.

  “Uh, what? Hello?” Reeve asked curiously, poking at the screen. He wasn’t surprised at all when his finger passed right through it. “Yeah, kinda the new norm at this point,” he grumbled in irritation.

  “Yay,” he said sarcastically while twiring his hands in the air. “How exciting, I exist! I really hope this fucking thing works.”

  “No fucking way?” he said tentatively, not wanting to do anything to jeopardize this moment.

  “Holy shit,” he gasped through dry, broken lips. “It fucking worked! I’m… a fuckin’ genius. Fuck you, Thirsk! Tell me something isn’t possible… you’re as bad as Doc. I fucking did it!”

  He moved a finger to open the Stats page, but he didn’t even have to touch it as the mere thought opened it for him.

  “So that’s me… quantified, eh? Boy, it did almost everything except weigh and measure me,” Reeve remarked. He was startled as a sudden screen popped up just below his stats:

  “Did it just… respond to me? My… level is calculating. What the fuck is my level?” the mage wondered aloud. Then he narrowed his eyes. “Did you just call me fat?”

  Reeve was rendered into a state of utter shock, in addition to being mildly irritated. His nanites were the System now. This was definitely not what he had planned. Not even remotely. This could be both very good… or very, very bad.

  “Right. Okay. Good to see you guys, glad you survived whatever the fuck that was,” he said honestly. “Can you tell me what happens next?”

  “Oh. Are you getting–”

  Reeve never finished his sentence as once again his brain was wracked with pain, almost as if it had been removed from his skull and dragged across hot coals. Once again, he found himself in pain so deep and binding that he couldn’t do anything but lock his body and hope he didn’t die. That decision saved him from falling on his face, but it didn’t spare him from blacking out again.

  He woke to the cold feeling of the floor on his back. His face and hands were caked in a sticky tar-like substance that he heavily suspected was blood. Why it was on his hands he could only guess. Probably he had tried to gouge out his own eyes at some point or something. It wouldn’t have surprised him if he had made the attempt. If he wasn’t already insane, that level of pain would have certainly driven him to it.

  Groaning, he acknowledged the icon in the corner of his screen without saying a word. The icon responded. He looked over the screen from a barely cracked eyelid:

  Reeve eyeballed the information for a moment longer before asking the question he really didn’t want to. However, his curiosity compelled him to do so. “What about the level?”

  Expecting more pain, Reeve was caught off guard as his vitality and power surged. Far from being painful, he immediately felt rejuvenated and refreshed. On so many levels. His mind cleared, his madness receded, and he found himself able to think clearly and easily for the first time it what seemed like ages.

  “This is amazing!” he exclaimed, surging to his feet. “Is this what leveling does to you? I feel great!”

  Reeve excitedly opened his screen. Expecting something insane, he was oddly relieved to see a relatively average number. However, his achievements and victories didn’t seem to be reflected in what he was seeing.

  “Why… is it so low?” he wondered aloud.

  As he reviewed the chart, Reeve marveled at the direct simplicity of it. It certainly beat the large clunky screens that he had first put together, although he could directly see some inspiration from those past models mirrored on this one.

  Reeve was quiet at that. Not only had the System responded to his inquiry, it had fully explained a concept that he was only just toeing the edges of understanding in the first place.

  “What is existentialism? Can you quantify it?” he asked with no small amount of curiosity.

  “Fair. Will you talk to everyone like this? Or I am a special case?” the mage wondered.

  Reeve nodded. It made sense. After all, any System was limited by how many resources it could bring to bear. While this System seemed to be more adaptable, not to mention sentient, than any other he had come across outside of Alice, that made it both amazing and dangerous.

  “Alrighty, guys, I’m glad that this has worked so far. I am glad that you are working properly, as new as you are. But we need to set some ground rules,” he declared.

  Reeve chuckled. “Glad to see you’re listening. Thirsk and Alice could learn a few things from you.” He waited for a response but didn’t get one. Shrugging, he continued, “First, you have to maintain. You cannot directly interfere with other beings or Systems unless it’s to ensure the stability of yourself. You must subsume, absorb, and integrate anything that could compete with you. You cannot favor or provide opportunity to one being, or group of beings, over another.”

  Pausing to think about anything else he wanted to add, he realized he had made two major oversights.

  “Second,” Reeve said, seeking to fix one of the issues, “you must ensure that all beings are a part of the System and start on an equal basis.”

  With a much deeper pause, and feeling he was about to begin something extraordinary, he said, “The final rule is that no one but a High Administrator may change these laws. However, in the absence of a High Administrator, or a designated Heir to the High Administrator, you may designate one through a series of challenges, quests, or tasks.”

  A long stretch of silence followed the complicated set of edicts. So long, in fact, that he was going to ask if it had understood him. However, before Reeve could open his mouth, he received a response. It came not in the form of words, but in the form of the Elemental Sea around him beginning to tremble and boil.

  Hissing gouts of energy streamed up and away into only the System knew where. Enormous quantities of pure, unrefined power that made up the base level of every existence there was began to be absorbed into the System. This idea… this concept that reality could be maintained, managed, and outright controlled was within Reeve’s grasp at long last. He could manage it all. He could save them all. Potentially.

  A box ripped into reality, looking like nothing he had seen up to this point:

  Reeve wasn’t too sure about a few of the laws on the list, but who was he to argue with the System? It was already way smarter than he was at this point. You don’t argue with something smarter than yourself. It never ended well. He knew from experience.

  “Right, then. That’s… right. Moving on,” he muttered. “System, what do the Stats mean?”

  Without any preamble, a screen popped into existence before him. It displayed his Stats, laying out what each one was and meant.

  “You don’t beat around the bush, do you,” Reeve mused, impressed that so much information had been boiled down so simply. His attempts at doing something like this had been pages of text, weeks of computation, and had been childish in comparison. This was smooth, easy to understand, and almost elegant in nature.

  Having waited for a response and received none, Reeve cracked his knuckles. “Okay, System... let’s do a deep dive. Show me… show me everything. Starting with this abilities list.”