Chapter 7: The Assistant Assisting

"I do have a few questions," Hugh admitted.

Dex's grin widened. "Now we're talking. What would you like to know?"

"Do you have to eat and drink?"

"Yep. If you'll look at my page in your Book, you'll find the character creation sheet has been replaced with my status screen. That's where you go to level me up and upgrade my skills. Underneath my stat chart, you'll see the bars for health and magic on the left. To the right is hunger and thirst. You don't have to treat me like a baby, though. I'll let you know when I need something."

Hugh looked down at the book he'd been holding open on the Navigator's page and found Dex was right. The page had changed. The character creation screen was gone and it now showed a status sheet for a level one Navigator. It looked almost exactly like Hugh's character status, except this one's sub-menus were titled 'Skills', 'Mutations', and 'Reputation'.

Rather than ask about the sub-menus, figuring he'd learn about them eventually, he kept his questions focused on the basics. "How do you level up?"

Dex's grin turned sheepish as he rubbed his palm against the stubble on his cheek. "My level is a reflection of your world's level. You level up your world by adding new species—it's all explained on page three where you can read about the Life Drought and learn about the game's main story. I could tell you, but you should read about it on your own so you don't miss anything."

Hugh could accept that. "If we both eat and drink, does that mean we'll eventually need a bathroom?"

Dex's cocky smile returned in full force. "Thrive prides itself on having a high level of realism."

"That's totally a yes," he groaned. "Okay, last question for now. What happens if I die?"

"You'll drop anything you picked up since your last save and respawn at your last save point. For now, your current save point is your tent. Just go in and lay down on the bedroll inside. You'll get a system message on the inside cover of your Book when the save is logged."

"That reminds me of another another question. What happens if I lose my Book or it gets destroyed or someone steals it? Will I have to start over?"

Dex shook his head. "I can summon you a new one at any point in time, although you'll lose any unsaved information inside it."

Hugh sighed in relief at the news he wouldn't have to worry about permanently losing the game's version of a system menu. He'd been worried when he realized the importance of the leather-bound volume, since he'd never been particularly good at keeping track of things.

"Okay, I think that's everything I need to know right now. I'm going to sit down and read and unlock some more pages. You can do whatever it is Navigators do when idling." Before Dex could argue, Hugh walked back over to the treasure chest and sat down in front of it again, using it as a backrest. He knew he could probably close the lid and use it as a chair, but he wanted it to stay open in case he needed to grab anything out of it.

"Hey, hold on," Dex said. The hurt in his tone made Hugh look up at him to find a frown on the Navigator's face. "I'm not just some random NPC that runs through a list of emotes when I'm not needed. My artificial intelligence matrix is as complex as any human brain, probably more so. Yes, I'm here to help you, but we're supposed to be partners. If you wanted a slave or a lackey, you should have specified before you finalized my creation."

Hugh's lips parted as he absorbed Dex's words. Seeing pain on the Navigator's face, he felt stupid for speaking without thinking. He didn't know how to make it better, though. A simple 'sorry' didn't seem sufficient for dismissing Dex when he should have already guessed the AI had his own independent thoughts and emotions. Whether they were real or not didn't matter—they were real enough Dex was acting on them. That, in turn, affected Hugh, which meant he needed to be more careful unless he wanted to find out if Navigators could revolt against their players.

"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings," Hugh said carefully. "Whenever I start a new game, I always get tunnel vision for the first hour or two while I'm learning all the systems. I'm not the type to grab the first weapon I see and run out looking for something to kill. I'm more like the people who spends time tinkering with the user interface, opening all the menus so I know where to find stuff in the future, and reading the help files. It saves a lot of time in the long-run because I'm not having to stop every five seconds to read information pop-ups. Those are the worst in the middle of a fight."

The pain on Dex's face eased in understanding. After a moment, he nodded and let out a long breath in acceptance. "Okay, I get it. We'll hold off on making plans until after you get your bearings."

"You could help?" Hugh offered in hopes of mending fences. "We could look at the Book together... partner?"

The smile slowly returned to Dex's face. "Now you're talking my language."