Chapter 15: Flipping Through Pages

Moving on to page sixteen of his Book, Hugh skimmed over the 'Neutral Equip' menu.

As far as he could tell, it existed primarily for miscellaneous equipment he might need for daily living or hobbies. By equipping them, he could summon them at will without needing to retrieve his inventory wand. There was no diagram, only a grid of nine boxes ready to be filled. The blueprint list showed he had several items available, including a fishing pole, a ukulele, a hypospray, and a roll of toilet paper.

"Really?" Hugh asked with a snort of disbelief. "How many people complained to get toilet paper added?"

Dex threw his head back and laughed. "You should be happy. The original beta-testers had to make do with cleaning off in streams or ignoring the smell." Hugh's expression must have been properly horrified, because Dex laughed even harder.

He shook his head to dislodge the mental images now haunting his brain and distracted himself by making more progress on the Book—after he equipped the toilet paper. When it didn't immediately appear, Dex explained Tech Equips were always visible, Magic Spell Equips stayed invisible, and Neutral Equips were only visible when summoned.

Moving on, pages sixteen through eighteen of his Book all covered the same topic—Bounties. Even better, all three pages were mostly blank. The first one, entitled 'Bounty Board (PVE)', gave him the option to post a bounty, update bounties, search bounties, or claim a bounty. Hugh pressed update and nothing happened. The bulk of the menu screen remained blank.

"This is basically your quest log," Dex explained. "There's three types. PVE, PVP, and Resource. Player versus environment bounties are world-based quests. You haven't met any NPCs yet, so you won't see those until you do. Player versus player bounties require a special license you can only get at the Bounty Headquarters in Nexus. The last one, resource bounties, can be set by any player, but you'll have to go to the Bounty Office to drop off items and claim the reward. Again, you won't see those until you reach Nexus."

Hugh huffed at the fact Bounties got three entire pages while everything else only got one. He didn't care if it was something important like his quest log. Why hadn't it been condensed like everything else in the Book with all its various sub-menus?

"Are the rewards different?" Hugh asked, thinking it was the only possible explanation.

"In a way," he confirmed. "PVE Bounties reward with gear or resources like average quests. PVP bounties are pure Zettabits, transferred from player to player with the Bounty Office acting as an intermediary. Resource Bounties can pay out with either Zettabits, alternate resources, or gear. You can bank resources over time at the Bounty Office, then pick a reward later when you find a quota you can fill."

"Ahh," Hugh said in sudden understanding. Resource Bounties was Thrive's version of a consumable marketplace, intended to keep raw resources from cluttering up auction houses meant for crafted products and rare items. If he was right then—yep, page nineteen was entitled 'Auctions'. Like the Bounty pages, it was also blank and would likely remain so until he reached Nexus.

The next page was listed as 'Teleport' in the Table of Contents. When he pressed it, the Book turned to a page inked black with the image of a padlock on it.

"You need the Genesis Spear to unlock teleportation," Dex explained. "Once the page is open, you'll be able to set and use teleportation markers to allow you to move from one place to another quickly."

Since he couldn't do anything, he went to the next page labeled 'Team Status'. Again, there wasn't much he could do. The following page, 'Guild Status' mirrored the Teleport page in the fact it remained padlocked. At least this time, it told him what he was missing. It required a trip to the Guild Headquarters in Nexus, five fellow co-founders, and a collective stat rating of three hundred attribute points.

Hugh flipped back to his character status and saw he had a mere twenty three points on his star chart.

"Everyone starts with twenty," Dex said when he realized what Hugh was looking at. He threw his arm around Hugh's shoulders in an attempt to console him, but all he really did was give Hugh a major distraction. It was obvious Dex had been sweating. The musky smell of pure man wafted over Hugh, making it hard to think of anything other than the strong arm embracing him.

"The system allocates the starting points by analyzing your profile information," Dex explained in blithe ignorance. "Adding more isn't a matter of filling an experience bar. Each stat has a different requirement to level it up. You've gained three points in Intellect from all the time you've spent studying your Book. If you spent an hour walking or doing something physical, you'd build strength. Healthy living reflects your constitution, spiritual reflection affects empathy, crafting can upgrade your dexterity if you do it yourself, and your stamina is decided by your overall activity level."

"So take baths, meditate, find a hobby, and exercise regularly?" Hugh asked, struggling to pretend everything was normal. "Is this a public health infomercial or a game?"

Dex rolled his eyes and shook his head, refusing to respond to Hugh's snark. When he didn't remove his arm, Hugh distracted himself by going back to the Table of Contents to find the last three pages of the first section were now unlocked.

'Page 23... Notes' not only gave him a stylus so he could write on the page, but it had a sub-menu allowing him to take his Book apart and rebind it. Using it, he was able to reorder the Table of Contents so all the Status pages were grouped together.

'Page 24... System Log' was exactly what it seemed. It showed a running list of his actions and the effect they had. When he scrolled up, he found timestamped entries for all the pages he'd unlocked and the stat points he'd received. A system note broke up the monotony with bold letters informing him his body had officially been remanded by the World Council and he was due to arrive in safe-zone storage within the hour. When he checked, the same message was etched on the Book's inside cover, neatly arranged over his golden hand print.

The news was a little disconcerting, but Hugh shrugged it off and moved on.