Book 2: Chapter 50 (Patreon)

Arandir didn’t seem surprised to find them back in his apartments. To Madi’s delight, he also had no problem answering more questions about demons.

The reason being… he knew very little.

“I am not trying to be obtuse,” he apologized. “We have some drops among the mountains where we leave a list of purchases. If we pay, the items arrive within a month. At one time, during my grandfather’s rule as Elder of Administration, some elves would travel to their lands. That is where my information comes from. However, there was an incident over three thousand years ago. Our king visited and did not return. He was young and did not have an heir, so the council took over and as their first act, they forbade further travel of elves through the Pass.”

He also had little reluctance in telling them more about his Administrator powers. He had already told them he could Reset stats or a class. That was the extent of his powers.

“My grandfather could also move stats around but I can only do a full Reset.”

“How do you get Administrator Points?” Madi asked their last question. Everything else had hit a knowledge roadblock.

“I do not. Since my great-grandfather’s time, I know of no Administrator Points being found or earned. It might be that the [Hero] altered the System to no longer allow them. My grandfather spoke of how his father had tried to find a way to earn more until his death. He spent every moment giving out Quests and altering classes. It was all in vain.”

Orrin wanted to ask if Arandir had ever defeated a dungeon but asking that was too blunt. The elf was intelligent and would put the breadcrumbs together. He couldn’t figure out why he had earned his Administrator Points from a dungeon when the Administrators of the past had earned theirs through deeds and actions.

“Something had to have changed, then,” Daniel said slowly. “After the Calamity, did anything else about the System change?”

Arandir stood and moved to a small desk on the far side of the living room. A bookshelf with only a dozen books was placed against the side of it and he knelt to run a finger over the spines of his books.

“My grandfather took detailed notes of all his father would tell him. My great-grandfather did not take the time to write down everything, always thinking he had more time. A curse that most of us fall for. Here it is.”

He took a dark green book with faded lettering on the front. Orrin could just make out the word Journal but nothing else. Arandir flipped through the book.

“If I remember correctly, the System did not change much, if at all. Then again, this is still the first few hundred years after the founding of Asmea. Most of our people were trying to tend to the few trees we could get to grow. We had the Matriarch seed but we still had to protect her from the dungeons cropping up. It was years before we figured out how to destroy them and keep them from spawning near her. Of course, our King immediately sent out the information to the other races. They were plaguing everyone. Once we had the Matriarch sprouted, we spent time—”

“Wait, dungeons weren’t a thing before the Calamity?” Orrin cut off the rambling.

Arandir held a finger on a page and glanced up. “No, dungeons are part of the Calamity. Broken parts of the world left to punish us.”

He continued reading and Orrin’s mind raced. From everything he had read, the System wasn’t omniscient or omnipotent. This wasn’t a world of gods but something more like a really complicated computing system. If the [Hero] had wanted to punish the Administrators of the past by taking away their power, he could have just killed them. Instead, he had somehow prevented their abilities from being reborn into the world. At least until he came along…

Orrin doubted the System would allow for wholesale deletion of the powers it gave to one select person of each race to further the perfection of the System. Because from everything he’d heard, that was what an Administrator was supposed to be. Someone who worked hard to make sure everyone could make the most of the System for themselves. If the [Hero] wanted to stop Administrators, he wouldn’t have been able to destroy the power but he could misplace it. He had already done something similar by putting all the demon-racist people together and sealing them away from the world. What if he did the same with the Admin powers, sealing them away underground? Whether he thought the powers would stay dormant or knew something like dungeons would appear was irrelevant. Orrin felt it in his gut that he was right. He had already proven that he could gain Administrator Points by absorbing the dungeon core.

“Madi, can I talk to you?” He took her elbow and walked her to the elevator. They had left the doors open for the slight breeze. The room got stuffy quickly without an open window or two.

“I’m not riding that thing down if that—”

“No, just needed some privacy,” Orrin whispered and told her his theory.

Madi scratched behind her ear. “That… makes sense actually.” Her hand fell to her side and she clenched her fist. “If the [Hero] did that, he’s responsible for every death from outbreaks for five thousand years.”

Orrin didn’t respond. Dungeon outbreaks were a sore topic for Madi. She wanted to destroy all the dungeons and had since she was a small child and her mother died during an outbreak.

“Arandir, how do you keep dungeons from spawning near the Matriarch tree?” Daniel asked, keeping the elf’s attention on him while Orrin and Madi talked.

“The same way every major city does. We have mages who search for dungeon seeds. The small bit of chaotic magic that creates a core. If we can spike that with any sort of magic, the seed is destroyed and no dungeon core can be born. It is a noble profession and one that every elf works for a time,” Arandir explained and then held up his hand. “Here is what I was looking for. My grandfather wrote that according to his father, the last true Administrator, the System before the Calamity was a rolling ocean. It was wild, strong, and unbridled. He complained that after they arrived in Asmea, the System was rigid, timid, and constricted. Before, he could feel the System work through him to help find a person’s best class or skill but after the Calamity, each individual was a struggle.”

He looked up from his book. “I wanted to make sure the wording was correct. Does that help, Daniel?”

Orrin had already forgotten Daniel’s original question but he tuned them both out. The last Administrator had complained the System felt constrained. He nodded at Madi. She punched him in the shoulder.

“Ow, what was that for?”

“You just worked out something that nobody else did for five thousand years.” Madi was grinning like she was crazy. “Do you know what this means? We have double the incentive to –”

“To do what?” Arandir had moved close to them in near-perfect silence. “What have you discovered?”

Orrin glared at Madi. He couldn’t think of a way to lie his way out of this. “I think I should run it by Daniel. He might be able to –”

Arandir held up a finger and Orrin felt himself float in the air toward the elf. His grandfatherly visage disappeared and the powerful de facto leader of the elves took on the grand air of state. “I have been very forthcoming, I believe. We made a deal to work together, did we not?”

Orrin could feel Arandir’s power invading his body. The elf’s magic was holding his limbs still. He couldn’t even move his jaw. Underneath everything, he felt something else. A feeling that tickled his memory.

“Arandir… put him down,” Daniel demanded. He had Gertrude drawn. “Please.”

The elf blinked twice and dropped his finger, setting Orrin down gently. “I apologize, Orrin. I forgot that you are not… I should not have done that.”

The elf sighed and slumped into the chair Daniel had just vacated. “Being in charge and responsible for so many lives draws my temper thin at times. Please accept my apology. I have not slept in three days. It is not an excuse but I am also excited beyond measure. Of course, you should speak with the [Hero].”

Daniel put his sword back on his back and gestured for Orrin to get behind him. Madi followed as well.

“What the hell was that?” Daniel hissed. “I just almost attacked him. What were you guys talking about?”

Madi glanced at Arandir and put her hand on Daniel’s ear. She whispered quickly and quietly the outline of Orrin’s theory.

Daniel smirked. “You know what’s funny?”

Orrin hadn’t taken his eyes off the elder elf. “What?”

“I was thinking it was weird that dungeons didn’t appear until the [Hero] ended the world. Great minds think alike, huh?”

Orrin rolled his eyes again. “You reached the first step while I was at the top of the stairs.”

“I’d have gotten there, too.”

“Boys… this isn’t the time. What should we do?” Madi nodded toward Arandir.

Daniel crossed his hands over his chest. He frowned as he thought. Orrin could almost hear the hamster wheel start spinning. A hamster wheel that needed oil… a lot of oil.

“He attacked Orrin. You guys want to leave? We did what we came here for and I’m not –”

“D, he just made me float to him. He didn’t actually attack me.”

Daniel blinked in surprise. “You want to trust him? He might have some more nuggets of info, O, but we can figure it out for ourselves. We already gave them the Quest. We don’t owe the elves anything.”

Orrin shook his head. “We don’t owe them but remember how he threw that other elf? He could have done that with me but just tried to be a little intimidating. I never felt danger from him. That’s not why I want to tell him, though. Whatever spell he used to pick me up was powerful. He had complete control of my body.”

“Like a [Mind Mage]?” Daniel reached over his shoulder and touched Gertrude’s handle. “Fuck. I hate this world sometimes.”

“No, not like that.” Orrin gently touched Daniel’s hand and brought it away from his weapon. “The spell isn’t what matters. When he touched me with his magic, I could feel… him, I guess. I know why I feel so weird around him. He’s an Administrator but he’s not. Whenever I’ve triggered an Admin power before, I could feel this power rushing through me. I thought it was my own power but after all this talk about Administrators being like an autocorrect for the System, I realized it was the System itself. I don’t actually have any usable Admin powers yet. Arandir does but they are weak. It’s like he has a regular class skill instead of an Admin skill.”

“What are you saying? He told us he’s not a true Administrator.”

Orrin nodded at Madi. “He did but I still thought he had the ability to gain more points. He can’t. It’s like… he looks like a tree and moves like a tree but he’s actually a wooden pole.”

Daniel glared at him. “I hate riddles, O. Say it straight.”

“Arandir can’t use Administrator Points. I don’t know what happened, but when his magic touched me, I felt it. He’s forever limited to what he has.”

Orrin felt bad for the man. Sure, he didn’t have any purchased Administrator powers yet but he had the Points to get them whenever he wanted. He had figured out where the power behind the Points came from and knew how to get more. In one afternoon, they had solved a problem plaguing this elven family for five millennia.

Now, we just have to make sure he doesn’t kill us.