Chapter 18: System Rewards

For a moment, Scarlet considered going through her Action Log. What level was that bat? Had she made any improvements? The urge to see if she’d made progress warred with her desire to collect whatever treasures these monsters had gained her.

Then Maus pressed his little paws into her face, and her stomach roiled.

“Maus,” she groaned, scooping the docile little guy into one hand and grabbing her sanitizer with the other. She placed the mouse on her thigh with a firm warning to not touch her skin again until she’d given him another scrub – a command he took with all the sullenness of an abandoned puppy – before she applied the sanitizer to her hands and, less liberally, to her jaw.

Yeah, yard first. She’d loot, clean then see if there was anything about this quest she could get started.

Scooping Maus up in one hand she gave him a firm look, communicating multiple times that he would lose shoulder riding privileges if he didn’t behave. It took him longer to agree than it had to explain the battle plan to him, but eventually he relented, climbing onto her shoulder, and facing his tiny, blood-splattered back to her.

She pushed herself back to her feet, ignoring the lingering ache in her body as her eyes scanned the battlefield the once pristine yard had become. It was a mess of gore, debris, and disturbed ground.

Scarlet took it all in, then let out a quiet breath, wondering if landscapers and cleaners might receive related Skills, and if services would be more or less expensive as a result.

“On the one hand, apocalypse,” she muttered, “on the other hand… apocalypse.” She shrugged, wiped the blood off the blade, and sheathed her cane.

The property was quiet in a way that was not entirely natural. Mana added a layer to the world that changed the way she felt it at a fundamental level. Now that she had a chance to breathe, to reflect, she was able to genuinely appreciate this new sense she had gained. Mana Sense resonated with her in a way she could not describe. It wasn’t just a new awareness, it also amplified something she’d felt was always there, but she was only now beginning to explore. Like realising an instrumental song she loved, had lyrics she’d never heard, in a language she didn’t yet understand, but recognized.

She’d get there. In time, for now she began walking towards where the roidcoons had fallen. They weren’t far, considering all the engagements had happened just outside of the bunker entrance.

The bodies were where she had left them, sprawled across the ground in various states of dismemberment, the aftermath of the earlier encounter still visible in the disturbed earth and broken undergrowth around them. Scarlet slowed as she approached, her gaze moving over the scene as she stepped closer.

“Do I just…” She queried the Guide.

[System rewards may be generated after significant battles, accomplishments or objectives are completed. To check if you have been awarded a System Reward, focus on the concept within your Interface.]

Wait, what?

She stopped moving. She had questions.

[Neither time nor proximity are a factor in claiming System rewards. They do not expire unless explicitly otherwise indicated, and they cannot be involuntarily taken or transferred until they have been claimed.]

She had to clarify because what she was reading simply could not be true. Or maybe she was misunderstanding something?

“Did I receive one or more rewards for killing the murderous trash-bandits?”

[Yes]

“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath as she stared vacantly at the macabre tableau before her. “Did I need to be anywhere near these bodies in order to claim my reward?”

[No]

The Guide didn’t even hesitate.

“You mean I could have collected this ‘loot’ inside?” she put finger quotes around the word, spitting it out like a particularly vile expletive. “From the safety of my bunker?” No shadow bat ambush, no need to risk her life?

[Yes]

She squeezed her eyes shut and counted to five before reopening them.

“Explain.”

[System rewards are awarded by the System. Any additional materials, including, but not limited to, parts of beasts, plants and natural treasures, must be collected by the individual.]

Ah, she supposed it was interpreting ‘loot’ as more than just what the System awarded someone after they accomplished whatever it was the System deemed impressive enough to give out a reward for.

That actually made a lot of sense. Considering just how durable some of those roidcoons were, she could see how, as mana density increased, and the world continued to change along with it, harvested materials would become increasingly necessary. Not just for the exceptional quality, but for its unique properties as well. Materials like shadow bat leather. She could see, that even in death, the creature maintained some of that supernatural stealthiness. Like shadows that shifted and tried to mess with her perception.

Okay, she was a little less incensed, but her emotional capacity was absolutely shot. She just stood there in the yard, mouse on one shoulder, cane in one hand and thought about System rewards.

[You have received System Rewards]

[View Contents]
[Retrieve Contents]

Scarlet paused, perhaps it was a safety mechanism?

The Guide offered no response.

“Fair enough,” she murmured.

[View Contents]

The response was immediate.

[You have been Rewarded:

• SC1000 (System Credits)
• Initiate Storage Bag
• Skill book: Inspect – Tier 2
• Knowledge Tome: Initiate Guide to Butchering, Harvesting, and Scavenging]

That was, a lot? Scarlet was working with depressingly little information to compare this to.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

She could have been doing this from her chaise she lamented numbly as she went through the list in detail.

As she’d done with her Status, when she’d first received it, she started at the top.

System Credits? A new form of currency?

[System Credits (SC): The only form of currency usable in System facilitated transactions. Credits come in five denominations:

• ISC — Inferior System Credits
• LSC — Lesser System Credits
• SC — Standard System Credits (System Credits)
• GSC — Greater System Credits
• SSC — Superior System Credits]

She nodded once. So, the system had its own currency. Not surprising, though the implications were numerous, and for someone like Scarlet who was used to trading goods and services in non-standard currency, exciting.

It didn’t seem like the System barred anyone from using other forms of currency – her recent domain name purchases were proof of that – just that this was the ‘System’ version of a currency standard.

Was it a fiat system or did each credit hold actual value, like gold. She queried the Guide.

The Guide did not respond.