Watch Party
"I still don't get why the younger brother is in charge of the company. Don't you humans have that whole firstborn priority thing?" Peaches asked before eating some more popcorn.
"We do, but c'mon. Not to be mean, but the older brother is kind of a moron. I wouldn't trust him to get groceries, much less take care of a multi-billion dollar company," Hera took a swig of her grape soda.
"Well… that's fair, but it's not like he can learn if no one gives him a chance."
"Yeah, but most humans in the father's position would be more interested in keeping their money than being a good dad."
"But the father is dead. Why does he need money?"
"It's about his legacy, and I don't mean the skill type. People put way too much value into making sure their accomplishments would still exist even after they die. Thinking about their family's mental and emotional health is very rare for rich people. At least that's how I see it. My family was never rich, but even we had some of that crap,"
"I thought that was only in movies," Peaches said.
"I wish it was," Hera sighed, "Ok, my turn now. What are the scouts?"
"You are really not letting this go, are you?"
"Nope. I understand if it's not something you can talk about, but I'm still curious."
"No, no. A bet is a bet. Let me see… how can I explain them…" Peaches thought for a moment, "Scouts are… well, scouts. Each guide is supposed to take care of their own room. Write anomalies down and any places that might end up being dungeons or doorways in the future. We have a kind of sixth sense for those things. The closest thing you can compare to would be feeling mana in the air, but a specific type of mana."
"Ok… but that still doesn't explain the scouts, and can't the system just know all that?"
"It can, but it can't exactly predict the behavior of animals, monsters, and people. I mean, it can, but not perfectly. Hence it created us, wardens of the rooms who could give a more… human understanding of what could happen. The scouts are basically the same, but they focus on individuals and not the room as a whole. So let's say the system needs to figure out something about a specific human. Instead of guides sharing information and compiling everything, a scout will follow that human around and gather all the data. Scouts were also the ones responsible for gathering the information to create the roles. Oh, by the way, if you talk to anyone about the scouts, that will count as a strike for your skill, even if they know about it. Scouts are bigger secrets than us guides," Peaches explained.
"Oh, I always wondered about that. The system feels very mechanical sometimes, and it created the roles with more nuances. People say the system made them after watching us, but that always felt a bit off. And don't worry, I won't talk about them."
"I see where you're coming from, but no, the scouts just watched you, humans. Who decided what the roles would be was the system. The scouts can also find where each connection should lead to and if something from one room will affect another. That was the first job they got, nowadays they have more things to do. Instead of leaving the guides to look for areas to create doorways and new rooms, the scouts do that since they can move between rooms. We just flag the location, and they have to deal with it. It's more practical to have someone capable of taking care of that on their own instead of having debates between guides."
"So… the guides are older than the roles? I thought it created you after," Hera said.
"We've been around for much longer than you think, kid."
"So… what was your job before this? I mean, the tests only came up after the roles, right?"
"Yeah. My job was to explain the first wall to people who tried to break it. I only showed up to people who had a shot of succeeding, so it was a very boring job. After that soft-hearted bonehead broke the wall, he told everyone about what I taught him, and you guys did such a good job of passing the information along that I became useless. So I was out of a job for a while."
"Wait up. You've met Kahn?" Hera gasped.
A gunshot came from the TV, "What the crap! Why did he shoot her?"
"She found out about the diamonds, and he didn't want to share. Now tell me about Kahn," Hera said.
"Oh yeah. He was way too soft. After he found out about me, he started showing up every week to pretend he would break the wall just to talk with me. You kind of remind me of him at that point. You both are way too nice for your own good," Peaches explained without taking his eyes away from the monitor.
Hera felt her cheeks burning up. No one had ever said something that nice to her. It was embarrassing to even consider that she was anywhere near one of the Heroes.
"You can't be serious. I thought they were going to be a couple," Peaches gasped.
"Not every show needs to have a couple. Besides, despite everything he did, I think that she and the CEO would be a better match," Hera replied, but she wasn't paying attention to the show anymore.
"The CEO? She's way too smart for him."
"Not the older brother. The younger one. Yeah, he's a psycho, but they make a cuter couple."
Peaches stared at Hera, "You are just wrong."
"We all have our tastes. Don't judge. Now going back to Kahn, what was he like?" Hera asked.
"What? I don't know. Two arms, two legs, bald head, and annoying. Why is he going to the hospital? He's not gonna kill his mother, is he?"
"But like, his personality. Was he heroic, brave, was he a cat or a dog person?" Hera pressed.
"It's been a long time, kid. I'm going to have to think about it, and I want to pay attention to the show. Ask me later."
"Ok. Can I still ask questions, or should I shut up?" Hera huffed.
"You can ask. Just don't ask about things that happened almost 4 thousand years ago."
"That's fair. What did the system call you for? You said all the guides were there."
"Oh, there was some new information it had to give us. Some changes might come up in the future, and it was giving us an update."
"What kind of changes?"
"I can't say, kid," Peaches replied, "Just know that your world might be different when you come back."
"That's not ominous at all," Hera rolled her eyes.
Peaches chuckled, "It wasn't the intention. Just be ready."
"And why did it have to call all the guides and scouts?"
"Conservation of energy. It takes less effort to give that information all at once in a single place than to split between several rooms. If it sent that to every scout and guide, it would have to do it in waves. So not everyone would know it at once. "
"So… the system was just being lazy?"
Peaches started laughing and almost choked on his drink, "That's the first time I heard someone calling the system lazy."
"Am I wrong?" Hera asked.
"I can't say you are," Peaches chuckled.
They kept watching the show for a few minutes, but Hera wasn't paying attention to it. She had seen the episode before, and the information that Peaches told her was a lot to unpack. The change would be worrisome. If it was something like the wendigos, things could be really badly in other rooms. She could only hope that it wasn't another monster that could grow and appear in any layer. There were also the scouts, creatures whose jobs are to look for issues and problems, but, if they were around, how come no one ever saw them?
"Hey, Peaches."
"Yeah, kid?"
"You said the scouts walk around the rooms, right? How they do that undetected? Shouldn't people stumble on them at some point?"
"They walk around in a phantom version of the rooms. It's like… are you familiar with image editing?" Peaches asked.
"A little bit."
"OK, so imagine that we all are in the top layer. The scouts work in the background layer. They can see everything that is going on in the other layers, but you can't see them."
"So they don't interact with anyone?"
"Not any human. We can talk to them without a problem. Most scouts have eight to ten hours shifts like you humans."
"Just ten hours? Must be nice," Hera chuckled, thinking about the number of times she had to work twelve-hour shifts.
"You had some nasty jobs, kid," Peaches snickered.
"You have no idea," Hera sighed.
They kept watching the show, and when the last episode came around, both stopped talking about different subjects and focused on the series. Unfortunately, the final episode wasn't as exciting as they hoped. The entire plot was resolved by the first twenty minutes, leaving the rest half an hour to show how the minor characters went on with their lives and a small bittersweet moment in the end where the main character said goodbye to his mother, who was terminally ill.
"I mean… it's not bad, but I don't know," Peaches said.
"Yeah, it wasn't that exciting."
"I feel like they could have made the previous episode a bit longer and wrap it up there."
"I agree. Shows like this should make us exhausted but satisfied after the last episode. It's almost like a workout. This one was more like… catching up with an old friend," Peaches explained.
"I agree, but do you even work out?" Hera chuckled, "It's a shame, but the show was still good. I would watch it again."
"Oh, me too, but maybe I will skip the last episode."
"Or at least the last half of it," Hera nodded, "Thanks for watching it with me. It's nice to see that my world is still out there."
"Boothudurn is still part of your world, kid. Don't forget that."
"I know. I just miss my friends, but this place is Silah's hometown, so I'm not gonna complain that much."
"Who's Silah?"
"My… girlfriend? Date? Hookup? I'm not sure what label she wants to use, but she lives in Boothudurn, and we're dating."
"Oh? Tell me more. How did you two meet?"
"I'll tell you, but do you mind telling me some stories about Kahn?"
"Sure. I have a lot of them, nothing actually useful, but I have some stories."
Hera started talking about her new relationship with Peaches. They spent the next hours chatting about her life, Kahn, and Peaches himself. Despite her curiosity, Hera tried to avoid talking about the system or asking about how things worked. She felt like the scout thing was already more information than she could've asked for.
When the timer had only 40 minutes remaining for Hera's 24-hour deadline, Peaches turned to her, "Listen, kid. Can I give you your test rewards? We can wait out the clock, but I still want to leave some time for any questions you might have about the skill or the upgrades."
"Sure, can I just ask you one last question about the scouts?"
"You can ask. I can't say I'll answer."
"Do they ever talk to people? Or they just talk to guides and scouts?"
"If I'm not mistaken, there were a couple of times where they talked to an explorer asking for help with a situation or another. The last time that happened was during the demon hunt, I think, but it had no relation with the fight."
"What kind of help?"
"That I don't know, sorry. Do you mind if I give you the rewards now?" Peaches asked.
"Yeah. Sorry, I just got curious."
"That's ok."
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You have completed the Explorer's quest – Hunter Skill
By completing the bonus room, your relic will receive an upgrade
Rewards:
Explorer's Hunt Skill
Hunter's Catalogue Skill
Relic Upgrade
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Explorer's Hunt
Role Skill
The more you know about a creature, the better equipped you are to hunt that creature.
You receive a 5% increase in effectiveness when doing something related to a creature that is not registered in the [Hunter's Catalogue].
You receive an increase in effectiveness when doing something related to a creature registered in the [Hunter's Catalogue]. The increase is based on your knowledge of the beast. You can check each individual buff on the target's respective page in the [Hunter's Catalogue].
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Hunter's Catalogue
Role Skill
You can access a list containing all the creatures you ever hunted. All information you have about the monster will be saved inside their individual pages. The more information you have about a specific beast, the more effective you will be while hunting it.
The catalogue takes after your knowledge. If you learn something that is false, the information will be added to the skill until the falsehood is discovered. Having false information will not increase the bonus given by the [Hunt] skill.
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Skills affected:
Inspect, Observe
Spells affected:
Pulse, Fear, Poison
Spell Discovered:
Pinpoint Weak spot
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"That is a lot!" Hera gasped.
"That's why I set some time to clear any doubts," Peaches replied.
"Ok. Let me just read all this and see if I'm missing anything."