38 Vol 1. pt. 38 Patch 7.0: Pirates and Scholars (2/2)
”For sport, or gathering?” Thelmes asks.
”Uhh, both? Maybe?” Fenrir answers.
It gets put down on the tablet as ”Interest: Fishing [S/G].”
He then goes through the same questions for Cassiel. She answers ”general” for her main interest.
Rock gets a unique set of questions. ”What is its name?” Thelmes asks.
”Her name is Rock,” Fenrir answers.
”Splendid! A very fitting name, if I do say so myself. How did you acquire her?”
”Uhh, she was just a pet rock at first that was really useful for some basic crafting and fighting when I first started playing and didn't have anything yet, and then when Ca— when somebody almost killed me, the rock turned into Rock and defended me.”
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”Hmm. Sounds to me like she's is a tier zero artificial companion then.”
”What's that mean?”
”Being an artificial companion means that, through one way or another, you formed a deep bond with an inanimate object which then magically brought it to life and gave it a form you would subconsciously desire the most. You said she was just a pet rock before, so given that she now has the shape of a dog, I am assuming you have or had a pet dog in reality? Either that or you have always wanted a pet dog.”
”Yeah. Had one.”
Cassiel and Serra look over at Fenrir when they hear his somber tone. Rock even leans up to lick his face, cheering him up instantly.
”Being tier zero simply means that she is currently in her weakest form. She will grow larger and stronger over time, and when she does, she will reach higher tiers of strength and skill. Her appearance may also change over time. I have one client who first came to me with a sword that got turned into a parrot, and over time, the parrot evolved into a harpy! Needless to say, she had very, very sharp claws.”
”I'm fine with Rock staying a cute pup forever,” Fenrir says, petting Rock's head.
”Splendid. Now then, may you please lean over the desk so that I can reach your foreheads?”
”Uhh, sure,” Fenrir says and is the first to lean over the table.
Thelmes places one hand on his forehead while keeping the other on the tablet. ”Hmm, hmm… I see, I see… negative thirteen! That isn't very good, but it isn't enough to get you kicked out of the city,” Thelmes says as a ”-13” pops up on Fenrir's tablet next to where it says ”Standing.”
”What's that mean?” Fenrir asks.
”Your 'Standing' is how ethical you are. We measure your conscious for this. Deeds such as stealing, killing, engaging in traumatic content with other players, and so on will decrease your Standing while doing good deeds will increase it.”
Fenrir looks over at Cassiel and sees her trying not to laugh at him.
By Fenrir's logic, he totally deserves to get positive points for killing all those pricks. Though, he did steal their ship and burn down their village as well. They probably weren't all bad, maybe.
Oh well.
Thelmes measures Cassiel's Standing next.
”Ooh, negative twenty-three… you better be careful. Two more and you won't be allowed back until it improves,” Thelmes says.
”Wha… haah? Negative twenty-three? You're kidding me, right? There's no way that I'm that low! I used to have eighty!” Cassiel complains.
”Have you been reset? If you were, like everything else, it gets reset to zero. Either that, and you have made some bad choices since then, or you have certainly fallen from grace!”
”Tch,” Cassiel grinds her teeth, wanting to strangle the cat-goblin-thing in front of her.
Fenrir senses her desire to abuse the cat-goblin and calls her out on it. ”This is why you're negative twenty-three.”
Cassiel glares at him with the intent to kill. ”You're lucky I don't want it to go down anymore.”
Serra giggles as she watches them.
”Are you interested in learning yours? I won't be putting it on a card, but I can still tell you what you are at,” Thelmes offers to Serra.
Fenrir and Cassiel are both looking at her with curious eyes. She can't exactly say no when they're looking at her like this.
”Sure,” she says.
Thelmes eyes go wide when he reads her.
”It's… a good thing this isn't being placed on a card. Just what did you – never mind, I don't want to know. It's better for us both if you don't tell me.”
Serra tilts her head. ”What is it?”
”Negative thirty-one.”
Cassiel looks just as surprised as Thelmes is.
”I guess basically blowing up an entire village does that,” Fenrir says.
”Please don't tell me anything else regarding her score.”
Serra looks worried. However, when she sees Fenrir looking at her with a proud smile, her worried frown turns into a satisfied smile.
”Good job,” Fenrir says with a thumbs-up.