Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Drew had made it back home, showered and crawled into bed. He wanted to try and get some more sleep before the start of activities in the morning, and he still wasn't sure how much rest his new body required to function fully. Everyone had been fast asleep by the time he made it home, so it wasn't like he could talk about his experiences out in the forest. He hadn't felt extremely drained as he had prior to taking the nap earlier, but it was probably a good idea to be safe while he got used to his new body's needs.

He'd woken up naturally a little bit after 7:00am, confirming that he truly didn't need the same amount of time to recuperate as he had prior to The System. As he crawled into bed shortly after 2:30am, he felt pretty confident that he'd only need about five or six hours of sleep at most per night. That was a far cry from the eight to ten hours he'd needed previously when he was exhausted. He checked his phone while laying in bed for a little while. It was pretty strange to think that having access to the whole world at his fingertips would be going away soon.

Nothing big was happening on facebook, and the news had the same boring dribble it normally did. This politician said this or that, that famous celebrity was arrested, the James Webb telescope found more early galaxies of the universe. Okay, that last part wasn't boring, but it just felt irrelevant given the circumstances. With nothing to do, and most people still likely sleeping, he started to make a list of supplies he needed to purchase today.

A wood smoker, an absolutely crap ton of salt, and a large amount of seeds for various fruits and vegetables to grow. Hmmmm...he also needed some books. Without tv or power, books would definitely be the most popular form of entertainment again. On top of that, he felt that it was prudent to pick up survival guides and books on the local ecology for medical purposes. Sure, there was a healing class coming up, but no one truly knew what they'd be able to treat. Plus there was the issue of mana, any healers would likely run out quickly, especially at early levels. Thus it was a good idea to pick up medical supplies and additional bandages as well.

Paper products were also high on his agenda for the day, especially toilet paper. Finally he thought it was a good idea to stop by a few gun stores and maybe outdoor stores for firearms, ammo, reloading equipment to make more ammo, and maybe some archery stuff. If he had time, he'd also like to start collecting more construction supplies. Nails, wood, concrete, manual tools...OH! New clothes were also dearly needed. He enjoyed wearing the joggers and sweats, but they were still a bit too small for him.

His list done, Drew threw on some clothes, and made his way to the kitchen to make some coffee. Spock was missing from the couch he'd been sleeping on, and with his newly enhanced perception, some stirrings of noise and voices could be heard coming from the guest bedroom. Mark and Miranda must be waking up. He poured himself a cup of coffee, added a liberal amount of cream, and a bit of sugar, and made his way to the back porch to see the sun crest over the horizon.

He found Spock sitting on the porch couch staring out to the great expanse before them, well, the expanse that could be seen past the fence.

"Hey Spock, did you sleep well?" Drew asked.

"Indeed, I feel well rested, I've been awake for a couple of hours now."

"Oh cool, I woke up a bit ago myself. I made some coffee if you'd like some."

"Coffee? Is that the beverage you're enjoying?"

"Yeah, I guess you've never had any before. I'll go get you a cup. Would you like it bitter or sweet?" Drew inquired.

"I believe I would enjoy it sweet."

Drew made a cup for Spock the same way he made it for himself. He walked back outside and sat next to him on the couch and handed him the cup.

"It should be cool enough to drink since I put cream in it."

Spock took a sip and paused, his eyes opening wide. He sat like that for several seconds before gulping down the entire cup, much to Drew's amusement.

"Pretty good stuff huh?

"I find it to be quite pleasurable."

The two men sat in silence as they just peered out into nature. The sun had risen, it was cool outside, but not uncomfortable. Birds could be heard chirping lightly in the background and slowly the warmth of the sun began to reach down from the heavens to envelop everything below.

"It's beautiful Drew Wright." Spock said softly with awe clear in his voice.

"It is, isn't it?"

"Indeed, is that not what I just said?"

Drew sighed internally. Spock still had a long way to go, but it was nice to see him enjoying the simple pleasures in life.

"Yes, you did say that. How about we go feed the chickens?"

"I think I would enjoy that."

The guys made it to the coop and Drew grabbed a large scoop of feed from the container it was secured within.

"Alright man, so this is super easy. You take this scoop of feed and spread it out in the coop or run. The chickens will come peck at it and eat some. That's all there is to it."

Spock grabbed the scoop from him and stepped into the run. Drew walked over to watch him, he figured it would give Spock a chance to socialize with the animals since he seemed to enjoy them previously. Was he treating Spock a bit like a child? Yeah, but to be fair, he didn't have many life experiences, and Drew felt that it was important for him to grow. He couldn't replace twenty or thirty years of life for the man, but he could do some simple things like this.

The fowl noticed the two men immediately, all of their heads perking up at the same time. The rooster crowed, and the hens began to... walk single file towards them? The rooster fell in behind them at the end of the line. Spock spread the feed around, taking a fair amount of time. It almost looked like he was trying to make perfectly straight and equal sized lines of the crumble. Meanwhile the birds lined up individually along the lines... what the hell was going on with these damn chickens? The way they moved, the way they lined up, it all seemed so...synchronized. It was almost similar to the way a swim team would move to perform together, or...like soldiers in the military would move on parade.

If Drew didn't know any better, he'd swear they were moving like marines. Highly disciplined and coordinated. It was like a full squad of chicken marines with the rooster acting as a sergeant. But that was the thing, they were chickens. They were meant to lay eggs and look pretty. Plus he would have remembered if he'd ever given them crayons and glue instead of chicken feed to eat.

Spock finished the lines of crumble and stepped away. The rooster crowed, and all 12 hens and the rooster raised their left wings, crossed their right across their breasts and bowed. As the prior day, Spock bowed in turn. Then they proceeded to chow down. Okay, seriously what the hell was going on? The System wasn't supposed to be here yet!

"Hey, uh...Spock, The System wouldn't happen to change it's mind and arrive early would it?"

"No. It wouldn't do that, it takes time for everything to be set up. Why do you ask?"

"Well, remember yesterday when Amber and I said this wasn't normal behavior... what just happened is definitely not anywhere close to regular behavior. They're domesticated sure, but the way they moved, the way they were so organized, the bowing... none of that is normal. Is The System fucking around with my chickens?"

"I'm not certain, as I said before, animals will grow in intelligence, but if this is a drastic change then I'm unsure of what would be causing it Drew Wright."

"Great. Well if The System Guide doesn't know, then I guess no one does. Speaking of System stuff, I have some questions that I need help with, but for the moment, let's head back to the house and see if anyone else is awake."

The guys walked back to the house to find the kitchen busy. Amber was grilling bacon, sausage, hash browns and eggs, while Mark and Miranda sat at the dining room table drinking coffee. Spock and Drew joined the couple at the table to chat for a little bit. When his wife had finished cooking and joined them at the table, Drew shared the chicken's behavior as well as the events from the night prior.

"So in essence you're saying you brought another animal home?" Amber asked.

"Uhhh...well it's not really alive per se, so I don't think that really counts."

"But you said it was a pet didn't you?" She glared at her husband.

"Well yeah, like a summoned one, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't eat anything... right Spock??" Drew was begging his friend to help him out of the doghouse.

"No, undead don't need anything like food to survive. You paid its summoning cost in mana, so there's no upkeep either."

"See!!!! Even Spock said it's fine." Drew pleaded.

"Although, all summoned pets gain experience if they kill the target. So while it's not necessary for their continued existence, if you want them to level up and thrive, then they should probably go out and kill beasts and monsters." Spock said.

"And where the hell are we going to keep your new pet, dearest husband of mine? I can't believe you left it out in the woods."

"But...It's undead...I didn't want it scaring folks if they accidently saw it, or spooking the cows in the pastures nearby."

"Then why not bring it inside?" Amber asked.

"It. Is. Un. Dead. It's not fluffy, it isn't fun, it's a pile of murder bones and teeth Boo Bear. Plus It's supposed to protect us!"

"We'll talk about this later." she said grimly.

"Fuuuuuccckkkk." he said under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing Boo..."

"Anyways... Miranda and I were talking, and we decided to take you up on your offer of letting us stay here. We want to head back to the city today and try to get some of our stuff from the apartment. Photos and clothes, that sort of stuff. But we're going to head back this way tomorrow, first thing in the morning. We called our families but it didn't go so well." Mark said to break up the awkwardness.

"They didn't believe you huh? But that's good to hear about ya'll coming back. We need to get everyone their classes soon so you can start leveling up. I've been getting titles, and they're a huge deal." Drew said.

"Well... a couple of our family members wanted us to go check in at a hospital, and a few recommended therapy... so no, it didn't go well at all." Mark replied.

"You did the best you could man, this is crazy shit, ya'll wouldn't have believed me either over the phone. I don't remember where your families all live, but I'm guessing seeing them in person would be difficult, especially without proof. You could use the tokens now, but if you look or sound different... not to mention if you don't go as a caster or that healer class, there really isn't anything to prove your words. I doubt a starting warrior would be strong or fast enough to make them believe you... unless you went out leveling non-stop...but even then..."

"Yeah... it feels pretty bad, but there's nothing we can really do." Mark said.

"Hey Spock, previously you said the average stats were between four and six or something... If they had stats of fifteen or twenty would that seem like magic?" Drew asked.

"In that attribute range, I believe most people would be considered to be at, or slightly above the absolute peak of humanity on Earth. Wikipedia says you have a competition called 'The Olympics". I believe people in that stat range would be able to compete and likely place well."

"Alright, so there is a chance, but ya'll would have to be pretty focused on either your mental or physical stats. My highest stat is wisdom and it's sitting at twenty, but I don't believe that's easily measurable, so you'd need something like agility or strength if you weren't a caster or healer." Drew said to the couple.

"I think it would be a good idea to use the tokens you're providing tomorrow when we get back. I want to help my family if I can, and if the titles make that much of a difference... maybe we can convince our families before it's too late." Miranda spoke up.

"That's a good idea, let's plan for that then. If that's cool with you man?" Mark asked Drew.

"Yeah that's fine, I'll help ya if I can. Amber, are you planning on staying here with mom today to continue organizing and waiting for people to show up to begin work?"

"I was planning on it, if that's okay." she replied to Drew.

"Cool, I'll take Spock with me and we'll head out then."

After the table was cleared, Mark and Miranda left to head back to the city, while Amber started to clean up the kitchen. Meanwhile Drew and Spock hopped into the truck to head out and get the many things on Drew's list accomplished.

The trip to town was relatively uneventful for the dynamic duo of Drew and Spock, although they'd learned something very important on their journey. Spock liked classic rock. Drew normally kept the radio on relatively low, but between yesterday and today, Spock had learned how to use the radio to surf channels and mess with the volume. The result? The music was blaring, the speakers were starting to rattle, and the bass was blowing through their chests as...

"I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day" they sang.

Turned out, a trip to a couple of music stores was added to the list as Drew was thoroughly convinced of the importance of keeping modern music alive throughout the apocalypse. A quick google search told him that the first vinyl record player was invented in 1895, which just barely made the cut off. With two record players secured, and eight hundred dollars in vinyls, the guys began to make their way to the gun stores.

"Soooo something kinda weird happened last night that I didn't want to talk about in front of the others until I had a chance to speak with you man." Drew said.

"I would imagine you would find most of last night's events strange from my understanding of Earth thus far."

"You're...not wrong. But what I'm talking about, well, I received a strange title and it's description has been bothering me..."

"I'm not familiar with many titles as The System is extremely vast. The information I was given for my duties was mostly related to The Descent and some basic knowledge of your world... I suppose it's my world too now."

"It's definitely your world too. Anyways, the title was Curiosity of the Divine. It said I'd drawn the attention of some goddess and was marked by her. Also something about records or being recorded. Any ideas on that stuff?"

"Oh, I see." Spock replied.

"Wait, I don't like the way you said that. Not at all. Do you mind telling me what that all means?"

"Records are fairly simple to understand, they're exactly what they sound like. To put it simply, everything contains records. If it's made up of matter, records are contained within. For living creatures, it's every decision they've made, every action they've taken, it's a snapshot of their lives. For the multiverse itself, it's more complex. Are you familiar with the concept of Akashic records?"

"Akashic records...it sounds vaguely familiar, like something I learned about in school, but I can't put my finger on it at the moment."

"It's basically a compendium of all universal events, actions, intent, thoughts, and even emotions from the smallest piece of dust, to the largest and most intelligent of beings. If it happened in the past or is happening in the present, there are records for it."

"Creepy. Okay, I get the picture, go on."

"Earth would call them the Akashic records, but in the multiverse they're just called records. This is important to understand, records translate, and I don't mean communication. What I mean is, Earth has the concept of Akashic records, because records actually exist, and even though Earth hasn't been integrated yet, that sort of knowledge bleeds through."

"Okayyyyy... Soooo..."

Drew's mind was working at a speed it had never possessed before, processing through every bit of information given to him, taking it apart, analyzing it, considering other variables, all at a speed that was beyond anything he'd experienced before.

"Soooo... is that why, when I chose my race, there were options for dwarves, elves, giant metal golems, and half vampires? Because those things existed either on Earth, or outside of it and the... records on the multiverse bled through?"

"Exactly. Except none of it had existed on Earth in reality, just in fiction and mythologies. As you said, the records bled through and influenced people and things." Spock said.

"Okay, I think I get that, so back to my original questions...a goddess and records for the title?"

"As I've said, every decision, action, intent, and emotion impacts your records. Each of those carry weight to them, however some things, like that title are considered major achievements, and thus carry far more weight than, for example, if you turned your head left, or right in order to sneeze. Because of the increased weight certain things have, more paths will be open to you."

"And paths mean what exactly?" Drew asked.

"When you're given options to choose new skills, or when your class, race or profession evolves... when things like those happen, you'll be effected, and you may have higher quality, or rarer skills and classes to choose from. Or, you may simply have a greater number of options."

"Ohhhhhhhhh... well that's good news I think? So what about the whole gods and goddesses thing, I'm guessing they're real since The System mentioned them."

"Indeed. They're very much real. Although, I've never interacted with one, and my knowledge of them is extremely limited. I know just enough to know how limited my knowledge is." Spock chuckled.

"Right, right, but the whole thing about a mark and them watching me or whatever?"

"A mark is much like a bookmark on your web browsers. It allows them to more easily find and track you, so they can watch whatever you are up to. From my understanding, marks are not uncommon in the multiverse, but they aren't exactly ordinary either. You're far from the only one that the divine beings are watching." Spock informed him.

"Interesting, but why watch me? I'm as ordinary as they come. Hell, I've been a farmer for the last few years of my life."

"I am uncertain. The motivations of divine beings are beyond me. It might be a possibility that it was due to your combat and level ups prior to integration."

"So what, a goddess of war is watching me because I killed some coyotes? That doesn't seem likely right?"

"Did the notification inform you that she was a goddess of war? There are many, many divine beings in the multiverse, all of varying concepts, themes, and strength. I doubt I would know the specific goddess that marked you." Spock said.

"Ehhh... no it didn't say she was a goddess of war, I just assumed that because you said it could be from the combat."

"What exactly did the notification say? Pull it up and focus on it."

[Curiosity of the Divine]
Congratulations! You have drawn the attention of one or more Divine beings. Many throughout the history of the multiverse have attempted to be noticed by Divine beings in one form or another, yet here you are. You've done something that many people spend their entire lives trying to accomplish. Such a deed will surely impact your Records and open more paths in the future. Grants: You have been Marked by Raynalyr, The Baleful Lady. Her gaze is upon you.

"It says that I've been marked by...Oh I'm totally going to fuck this name up, if you're listening Mrs. Goddess ma'am please don't take offense, it says I've been marked by Raynalyr, The Baleful Lady. Her gaze is upon me?"

Only the radio and the passing wind outside the truck could be heard. Drew slowed the truck and flipped on the blinker to get into the left hand turn lane at the traffic light. The truck came to a crawl at the light while he waited for it to give him the green arrow. They were only five minutes from the closest gun store, and he was pretty excited to go blow a bunch of money on toys....errrr useful and totally practical self-defense equipment. But the silence was bugging him as it had been close to thirty seconds since he'd finished speaking.

He turned his head to Spock in the passenger seat, who sat upright and straight as a board while looking out the windshield. He was looking a bit pale, maybe he didn't get enough to eat at breakfast, orrrrrr... maybe his body was enjoying the rumbling and pressure that came with the territory of drinking coffee. Drew supposed he'd have to ask where the bathroom was at the gun store for his buddy.

"I'm guessing you haven't heard of her. It's cool man, it's no big deal. Although it is a bit creepy that she can flip to the Drew channel whenever she wants to watch. It's not like there's anything interesting going on, she'd be better off watching actual tv instead."

"I have... heard of... her, yes." Spock spoke strangely.

"No shit? So she's a goddess of war after all huh?"

The green arrow came and Drew turned onto the new road heading directly to the store.

"She is not a goddess."

"No? Then why am I marked by some rando chick? Amber is not going to be happy to hear about that. I'm going to have to figure out a way to tell her so she doesn't chop my head off."

"The Baleful Lady is a primordial. Primordials are far, far more powerful than a regular god. They are the first gods, the first to rise up to that level of strength at the very start of the multiverse. They've been alive for a very, very long time, and there are very few of them."

"Oh? Well I suppose that's better than the whole 'rando chick' thing. Still, what does an omnipotent and ancient divine primordial of war want with me? She should check out special forces or the navy seals."

"Her concept isn't war. The Baleful Lady is the Primordial of Death."

"Oh. That doesn't sound good at all does it Spock?"

"No, it does not Drew Wright."