Book 2: Chapter 46 (Patreon)

Orrin didn’t know where to look.

Arandir was sitting back in his chair with a jubilant expression on his face. He seemed so pleased with himself that Orrin wanted to laugh. He thought Daniel was an Administrator like him. He was sitting across from Orrin, an actual Administrator… or a budding one… and had reached the wrong conclusion.

Daniel wasn’t laughing, like Orrin thought he might be. Daniel knew Orrin was probably the one who had created the ripples in the System. Orrin had created a Quest somehow the same day they’d arrived. Sure, it was all Daniel’s fault for getting caught by a monster, but Orrin’s powers had activated, granting him a “Save the [Hero]” Quest. Daniel was one of two people who knew of Orrin’s powers, with Tony being the other. Even Tony, who somehow knew what something of Administrators, hadn’t been able to figure it out on his own.

Daniel’s face remained stoic. It was an expression that Orrin had seen before. Usually, his friend only concentrated this hard when they were in the middle of taking a test or if Daniel was writing an essay and trying particularly hard to phrase something just so.

Orrin almost ignored Madi completely when he felt something very wrong from her direction. He turned and blanched.

Madi was glaring at him. Not at Arandir. Not at Daniel. Her eyes were on Orrin with a mix of emotions. Hurt and betrayal seemed prominent. Fear was there as well.

Orrin twitched his head to the side. Later. Not now.

To her credit, Madi schooled her face and turned back to Arandir.

“That’s not possible. I’ve seen Daniel’s status. He is a [Hero]. There is no such thing as an Administrator. I’m half-tempted to pull the entire deal. I think that if we went to Odrana, we could easily get them to pull their army back in exchange for the Quest. You’ve given us nothing of value. While I appreciate the tea, I think we should be on our way.”

Arandir didn’t take his eyes off Daniel.

When Madi stood up, Orrin joined him. Daniel kept his seat.

“D. Let’s go. This guy is just trying to rattle you.” Orrin rested his hand on Daniel’s shoulder. His friend peeked up at him. His hair was getting long and with his stubbly face, he was looking much older than his seventeen years.

“Orrin…”

“The elves can make up any story they want but I think it’s time we went and talked to the other side,” Madi said. “Our only objective is to end the war. Maybe Lord Sanerris will be honest with us.”

“…”

Orrin bent close and whispered to his friend. “Leave it. We should go.”

Daniel shook his head. “If what he says is true, there might not be another chance.”

“Daniel, no.”

“Arandir, can you give me a few minutes with my friends?”

The elf stood up. “Not a problem. I will check with Leanthun. The council should have made a selection by now. Would you like to share the Quest with them today or wait until we finish our talk?”

Daniel shrugged. “Whatever you all want. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“Very well. I will return in a few minutes.” The elven Administrator crossed the room and opened the door. Orrin caught a glimpse of the elevator cart before the doors swung shut again.

“What the fuck are you thinking?” Orrin rounded on Daniel. “You aren’t an… whatever he thinks you are?”

Madi stepped forward and slapped Orrin across the face.

“What was that for?”

“It’s you, isn’t it?”

Madi raised her hand to hit him again but Danial caught her hand. “Friends don’t hit each other like that, Madi.”

“You knew, didn’t you?” The anger and hurt Orrin had seen before splashed across her face. “You both had another secret and you kept it from me, again. What do I have to do to get you to trust me?” She pointed at Orrin. “You just came clean with me about being from his world. You trusted me with that but not this?”

“Madi, you… I…”

“You’re an Administrator. I’m not an idiot. So many things fell into place when that asshole accused Daniel. But he’s not the one who changed Quest rewards or did something weird to the Dungeon core. I bet none of his Quests are even his, are they?”

“Some of them are,” Daniel answered before Orrin could. He groaned and slapped his forehead.

“Madi, please listen to me.”

“No. You listen to me. We are in a foreign country, dealing with one of the oldest political powers in the world, and you two just blindsided me. I’m supposed to be here to help. You said you brought me to help. Was that all a lie?” Madi kept a straight face with only her anger leaking through but Orrin heard the quiver in her voice.

They hadn’t trusted her. To be fair, they had no reason to believe Orrin’s Admin powers were something that would ever come up here. He’d kept this last secret from her mostly because of the way Tony had acted when he’d found out. He was scared his only other friend would look at him differently.

She was looking at him differently now but instead of fear, Orrin was more worried she was going to attack him again.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I could come up with any number of reasons why I didn’t tell you before now but none of them would matter.”

She huffed and glared at Daniel.

“Hey, don’t get mad at me. It wasn’t my secret to share.”

“But it’s your secret to steal?” Orrin cut in. “I know what you’re trying to do.”

It had taken him a while but he figured it out. Daniel was letting Arandir believe he was an Administrator to protect Orrin. He was still the [Hero] and the elves already had one army knocking at their door. Dey had made a claim to this [Hero] and trying to keep him here would result in Lord Catanzano sending forces as well.

Orrin had no such protection. Unless you counted Daniel as his protection.

“I’m not letting you protect me from this,” he muttered.

Madi pushed Orrin hard. He fell back into his chair.

“What was that for?”

“I told you that friends don’t—”

“Shut it, both of you.” Madi whirled on Daniel and got in his face. “You think you are being all noble, letting Arandir think you are the Administrator but you are doing the exact opposite. You’re using me and my father. If the elves try to keep you or turn you over to Odrana, Dey would go to war for the first time ever against the other nations. You would be leveraging our friendship… tried to do it already… to keep Orrin’s secret.”

“And you,” she turned back to Orrin. He scooted back into his chair. “Putting aside how mad I am at you right now, putting aside how you kept everything from me again, I’m going to ask this once and you better give me the truth. Did you know there was an Administrator here? Is that why you wanted to visit the elves?”

“I promise, I had no idea. I just thought if we could finish off this Quest, we could score some easy experience.”

Madi held his eyes, searching. She found whatever she was looking for and flicked him quickly between the eyes. “You’re forgiven but only because you’re going to tell me everything later. Let’s figure out a plan. What’s the downside of letting him know Orrin is the one with powers?”

Besides the fact that we are in the middle of their stronghold with no way out, surrounded by elite warriors who have trained with weapons and magic longer than our parents have been alive, and completely at their mercy? Orrin thought bitterly.

“They won’t try to kidnap a [Hero],” Daniel offered. “Yes, I get that it’s a dick move to leverage Dey and a potential war but I think the old guy is just lonely. He’s like the secret prince of the elves with this cool mysterious power. If he wants to believe he’s in the same league as a [Hero], I say let him.”

I love you, Daniel but you are so pretentious sometimes.

“And if he finds out that we’ve lied to him?” Madi asked, finally sitting back down. Daniel plopped back into his chair as well. “You can’t turn and ask Orrin every time Arandir asks you a question. Do you even know what Orrin can do?”

“Orrin doesn’t know what Orrin can do. That’s the beauty of the plan. He’s as clueless as I am.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Orrin muttered darkly.

Madi pushed some hair behind an ear and rubbed at her forehead. “You two are so frustrating. Orrin, what all can you do? I’ll admit, I have next to no real knowledge of what an Administrator can do. It’s myths and not even the good kind. They’re the bad guys from eons ago that would show up to punish you before eating your soul in the stories. I’m guessing that’s an exaggeration based on you having this power.”

“What does that mean?”

“She’s saying you’re a teddy bear,” Daniel smirked.

Orrin flicked him off.

“Can you two focus?”

Orrin sighed. “I don’t really have any control over what I can do. Sometimes, Quests will appear. Usually in stressful situations like this one…” He trailed off and looked around hopefully.

“Damn. Worth a shot.”

Daniel rolled his eyes. Madi rolled her hand in a ‘continue’ motion.

“I was able to steal constitution points from Samara, Wendeln’s kidnapper person. I traded points of mine to do that. I guess steal isn’t the right word. I just… obliterated them?”

Madi’s jaw dropped. “Permanently?”

“Until she died, but yeah, I think it would have been permanent. The points I spent to activate the skill were gone until I replaced them in the Dungeon. Oh, I can sometimes change Quest results, but you know that. I also absorbed the Dungeon core, which gave me something called Administrator Points. That gave me a new list of powers I can unlock. It’s like ability points but for skills not in the Store. Things like assigning or resetting a class or assigning new Quests. I’m guessing I’d be able to do it at will? I don’t know. I haven’t unlocked anything.”

Madi was frozen.

“Dude, you broke her,” Daniel teased.

She shook herself. “Start again. From the beginning. What’s the first thing you remember that said Administrator? All the way to the things you can unlock.”

Orrin sighed. “Remember how I told you I arrived here with Daniel? Well, the System thought I was an error or something. It like… debugged… that’s a computer term. The things with all the information in them, remember?”

“Orrin, I don’t care about that right now.”

“So, anyways, the System unlocked Administrator Access and let me select my own class. That’s how I got [Utility Warder]. I just kept asking it for what I wanted and bam.”

“Orrin, that’s not how the System works,” Madi argued, running her hands through her hair. She was growing more frazzled the more he talked.

“It is for me.” He shrugged and continued talking. He recalled as much as he could about the circumstances of each Quest, chuckling as he recalled how Madi and her father had basically forced the Stop the War Quest from spawning. By the time he’d pulled up the Administrator powers list and read them aloud, Madi’s eyes were huge.

“… and that’s why I didn’t want to tell you. The last person I told flipped out and begged me not to kill him.”

Madi dropped her eyes to the floor. “You wouldn’t kill me. I know that. But Orrin, this… this is a lot. You’ve just upended everything I’ve ever been taught about the System and how it operates. The stories I have heard about Administrators describe them as powerful people, sure… but not able to rewrite a person so completely. It’s a lot to take in.”

Orrin crossed his arms.

“Don’t pout,” Daniel put his feet on the small table. “We still need to make a plan. I can tell Arandir everything you just said and get him to explain things to me. I’m sure he’ll have good advice, being a centuries-old Admin himself. We can fast-track Orrin getting us more powerful.”

Madi shook her head. “Some of the powers Orrin mentioned don’t sound like anything Arandir talked about. You said [Imbue] costs fifty points? That’s ten times some of the other skills and almost double what [Create Relic] costs. If we got you through two more Dungeons and you took [Create Relic], you could do anything you wanted. If Arandir had that, I’m sure the world would have more of them. I think we have to be careful and that isn’t your forte, Daniel.”

“What does that mean?”

“She’s trying to be polite, D. Don’t make her call you an idiot to your face.”

Madi laughed.

Orrin felt the pressure release from his shoulders. The entire talk, he’d been tense, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Madi was going to be awkward around him. She wasn’t going to be able to joke with him. All the negative thoughts that he’d spent a lifetime cultivating had come crashing back as soon as she found out this newest secret but that one laugh erased it all.

They could still joke and rib each other. She was still a part of the team. She was still his friend.