Today's Earth date: November 19, 1991

She was a witch. She cursed Horcus, so now we have to deal with that.

-The Journal of Laszlo the Paladin

Page of Power 27 and 28 was in the best condition of any page Wayne found yet, and it had been in the care of a ratman fleshmancer.

Every game was visible on both sides, but more curious than its excellent condition was that two of the games were circled, as if to activate the Christmas List skill.

The two circled games were Populous and Life & Death.

Populous was an old school Peter Molyneux world management sim, and the catalog described it with this blurb:

Ever wondered what it feels like to be a deity? Here's your chance as you control 500 worlds, creating everything from life-giving miracles to the worst natural disasters. A heavy dose of sheer omnipotence!

That did seem to align with a fleshmancer's interests, Wayne had to admit.

Life & Death was a game about surgery:

As a busy surgeon, you will talk with your patient, read charts, order lab work and, ultimately, pick up the scalpel in the operating room. Do you have the nerve to hold a life in your hands?

That also sounded like a game that had abilities beneficial for stitching monster and people parts together.

"To recap," Wayne said, "A ratman sorcerer accessed a part of the dwarven ruins that we didn't know existed. It activated a Diagnostic Cube separate from a pedestal. We don't know how and haven't been able to do that ourselves. It knew how to use tools left by the first dwarves, and it had a Page of Power in its possession."

"Circled like one of yours," Fergus added.

"Yes."

Fergus put both hands on the top of his head. He only did that when he thought exceptionally hard. "Are we saying a ratman had Diary access?"

Wayne shrugged. "It sounds like we are."

"Gods, how do we untangle all of this?"

While it was true that the circled games sounded like they would be helpful for playing god with Frankenstein creations, monsters with system access were definitely not in the records. Wayne didn't need to ask Fergus to confirm. He was certain.

Then again, Wayne wasn't supposed to have system access either, nor was he supposed to be in this world in the first place. The Zeroes definitely weren't, for that matter. They were the first people born in this world to get system abilities.

A glitch brought Wayne here, and a glitch gave him Christmas List. If the system had one bug, it stood to reason there could be more. The more troubling part of this revelation was that the ratman seemed to know more about the system and the first dwarves than the Royal Scholars did.

That old saying about pests and vermin came to mind. For every one you saw, there were hundreds you didn't see. Termites. Cockroaches. Rats.

If they saw one fleshmancer with system access, how many were toiling away in the dark somewhere?

More importantly, how many of them were getting stronger like Wayne and his party were?

"Must be serious for Fergus to be quiet," Hector said.

"The Diary of the Gods gives us the Chosen Heroes," Fergus said. "That's what gives them the power to protect the crystals. Without the Diary, they couldn't face the obstacles they do and survive. It's the critical advantage. It's humanity's greatest weapon against monsters and demons. If the monsters tap into the same power…"

"Shit," Hector said.

"Shit, indeed." Fergus patted Hector on the back. "Shit, indeed."

"We could be wrong," Wayne said. "We're taking a few leaps to get to that conclusion."

Fergus kicked the cube. "I thought a necromancer would be the worst thing I'd see on one of these adventures."

Wayne said his HUD was clear of enemies, but he wanted to investigate the remainder of the nest to be sure, starting with a thorough search of the fleshmancer chamber.

They found a few books and maps in the chest where Fergus found the Page of Power. Even Fergus didn't have a guess as to their language. It definitely wasn't a variation of dwarvish, elvish, or the common tongue. Each character had the look of a scratch, like a small rat dipped its claws in ink and dug at the paper.

Armond asked if ratmen could read and write. As far as the Royal Library knew, they could not, Fergus answered. Yet, the strange tomes and maps with detailed notes suggested otherwise. The language could be an unrecorded infernal tongue that the fleshmancer happened to find, but Fergus said that was unlikely as a few of the notes looked relatively fresh.

Scholars might not know ratmen all that well after all.

The nest took another three hours to explore. Along the way, the party found ratman corpses and ratman parts, but no more living monsters. Eventually, the party emerged in the forest from what was likely the burrow's primary entrance. Night had fallen, making a quick visual assessment of their location in the wilderness impossible. Referencing his HUD map, Wayne saw that this forest eventually wrapped around to the Water Temple.

He posited that the pack they fought after meeting Vanilli originated in this burrow. The distance was substantial, but not unreasonable for hungry ratmen. Connecting the Asplugha dig to the Water Temple encounter was another interesting data point with no immediate application, but it seemed significant.

The party made note of the location and backtracked through the nest. With the nest cleared, Wayne relaxed and opened his system menu as they traveled.

Hero: Wayne the Guy

Level: 12

HP: 213

STR: 30

AGI: 22

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

VIT: 15

LCK: 24

Whoa! That was a big jump in hitpoints and strength. Sorting through his new unlocks, he believed abilities from ESWAT and Phantasy Star II were responsible:

Life Up – Taking this item gives you 2 more colored bars in your trooper's Life Gauge.

Laconia Cape – Available in Aubka for 36,000 mesta.

And he unlocked the sixth and final abilities for Crystalis, Ultima III, and Pirates!, three of his earliest Christmas List games. 100 percenting them felt oddly rewarding, like he was graduating to an entirely new tier of system use. He wasn't really, but the dopamine was pleasant.

From Crystalis he unlocked:

Deo's Pendant – Restores MP automatically while you wear it.

He didn't see any immediate boosts from gaining Deo's Pendant, but he hoped it was similar to Ezra's Mana Well, the necklace he bought from Lord Blackwell to double his mana pool.

From Ultima III:

Mark of Fire – Cross lava squares unharmed.

This was another passive ability, but he wasn't looking forward to testing his ability to walk on lava. That test seemed too… all or nothing.

And from Pirates!:

Gunnery – Aids you during naval battles, making your broadsides more likely to land on-target.

That sounded like a buff for his Fire a Broadside skill, but he already had targeting reticules that were precise. He'd have to run field tests to learn more.

According to the party menu, all of the Zeroes advanced to level 9. When he mentioned that to the party, everyone hurriedly opened their system menus and smiled.

The party was still set to Phantasy Star II, all of their new upgrades were derived from that title.

Fergus unlocked a spell:

Gifoi – Compress the oxygen in the air until it ignites, enflaming the enemy it's directed at. Gifoi also burns through metal.

Armond got a new spell as well:

Shiza – Annihilates an enemy's central nervous system so he can't use his special attacks.

Hector and Margo both unlocked a +4 boost to their vitality stats:

Nei Emel – A treasured gift from the Espers, a super-race of humans, now extinct. The Nei Emel is the strongest of all protective gear.

The Zeroes were all excited, even Hector and Margo. Hector had grumbled previously about getting buffs instead of usable skills, but he seemed happy with a vitality bump. Margo, meanwhile, was always thankful for any upgrade. While the Zeroes discussed their upgrades, Wayne went into the party menu and switched their game from Phantasy Star II to Tunnels & Trolls. They had been on Phantasy Star II for a while now. The party would appreciate the variety, and Wayne was curious to see what Tunnels & Trolls would offer.

The Dum Dum spell he got was useful, but he hadn't used it enough to get a second unlock.

Fergus reminded Wayne that a new level meant two new slots for Christmas List games. Wayne pulled out his newest Page of Power and gave it a closer look.

In addition to Populous and Life & Death, the two games the ratman circled on page 27, there was Chessmaster 2100 and Games People Play. Chessmaster was, well, a chess game, and the other title looked like a collection of games. Gin, cribbage, checkers, and backgammon were listed across the bottom of the cover art.

On the other side of the page was a PC adaptation of Pictionary, an arcade racing game called Stunts, a stockcar racing game called Days of Thunder, and a WWII naval game called Wolfpack.

Wayne handed the page to Fergus and said, "I feel like I should take the same unlocks as the fleshmancer. Might give us some insight into what he was doing."

"I was under the impression 'cars' were commonplace on Earth," Fergus replied, reading the page with his magic Light.

"They are."

"Why are there so many games about driving them if everyone does that already?"

Wayne laughed. "Racing cars of any kind are too expensive for the average person, so very few people get to push their limits in their lives, ever. And those that do… Well, there are a lot of car-related deaths on Earth."

"What an interesting direction for a fantasy."

"Fergus."

"Hmm? Oh, right. I agree with your reasoning. I'd be curious to see what you got as well."

The party stopped for a rest, and Wayne got out his ink. He circled Populous.

He felt the short response of a negative system notification, the one he felt when an action failed. He circled the game again, receiving the same reaction. His system confirmed the game hadn't unlocked, so he tried Life & Death next.

Again, the system rejected the unlock.

Wayne frowned. "I might not be able to unlock a game if someone got to it first."

"What do you mean?" Fergus asked.

"If the ratman had Christmas List like we think, I can't access the same games he did."

"As though the pages have one-time uses?"

Wayne nodded.

"How unfortunate. So we may never know what abilities the rat had."

"I'm afraid so. If I'm right, circling any of the other games will work just fine."

Wayne circled Chessmaster 2100 and Pictionary.

He felt the success notification and confirmed they did indeed appear in his system. He shared as much with Fergus, who seemed equally disappointed in learning of this restriction.

"I much preferred our only competition being nobles with too much income," Fergus said. "It's troubling to think monsters could be taking those unlocks for themselves."

That was troubling for Wayne too.

The catalog described Chessmaster 2100 like this:

The best got better! Chessmaster 2100 offers unlimited game levels, triple the number of features, more and different Classic Games, an expanded opening library and greater in-depth analysis.

And it gave Wayne a new skill:

Castling – Castling is a special move that lets a player move two pieces at once – his King and one Rook.

As for Pictionary:

Now the hilarious, best-selling board game comes to your PC. You'll sketch over 2500 words onto your screen using an easy, built-in drawing program. Can you beat the clock, Rembrandt?

Like his word processing software, Pictionary gave Wayne a single unlock for his HUD:

Let's Draw a Picture – If you're playing with more than one person per team, then the computer will include the drawing game on the gameboard.

When he toggled Draw on under his Display menu, a blank pad appeared on his HUD that only he could see. That same blank pad was also visible to his party, but as a display that hovered over Wayne's head. Drawing with it felt like using an Etch & Sketch, which is to say it felt clunky and awkward.

"Umm… opossum?" Fergus guessed as Wayne drew. He felt the buzz of a failure notification.

"It's a rat."

Fergus squinted. "If you say so."

"This adventure turned into a bit of a bummer," Wayne said, looking back over his unlocks. "Who would have thought a ratman fleshmancer would have bad intentions?"

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