"I an, that's pretty easy, right? People jump into the gate. They fight, they die, and they send back benefit to their worlds." Tulland furrowed his brow. He had never heard anything different than that. "Is that wrong?"
"It's not, but there's more to know. If you step past this point, certain options you once had available to you will disappear. Are you sure you want to know those things? That's all I can tell you before you make the decision. I'm sorry," The Infinite said.
"System?"
It's less of a dilemma than it appears. You were going to reject those options anyway, correct?
"I think so."
Then this is your chance.
"Fine, then. Infinite, I'd like to know."
The Infinite sighed, then waved its hand one more ti. The space around them disappeared, although Tulland noted with appreciation that his bowl of food remained in his hand where it belonged. In the distance, there was a glowing river of sorts hanging in what he assud was the sky. It looked a bit like the drawings he had seen of the lights that hung over the cold poles of his own world.
"This is what untold numbers of souls look like, as they move around the universe. Everyone who has ever lived has seen this river, though very few rember it. They are distributed by need, heading to worlds to fill bodies as they are built by their mothers. For most, that's the only requirent to be sent to one place or another. If nothing disqualifies them, rely being the core of a life is enough."
"Not true of everyone, though?" Tulland asked.
"No. So are disqualified from certain worlds for complex reasons. And so, relevantly, are sent there to fulfill needs. A soul that consistently brings about peace in its lifetis might do the sa in the next. The more a soul has lived a life revolving around battles, the more likely it will be drawn to them in the next life. Souls define themselves more and more with each passing life. To put it taphorically, they dig a rut," The Infinite said.
"So I've always lived lives where I wanted to do things I couldn't?"
"No. You've lived lives of travel and adventure. It's why your island could never hold you. You needed more, at the foundation of your being."
"Why didn't my soul's destiny get out of it, then?"
"Not every soul can force its destiny on the world around it. There are grades of self-determination, in that way. The souls that can do this the most consistently are thought of as great souls. They remove the obstacles in their path until they accomplish their goals."
"How does…" Tulland looked with more respect at the river of souls now. "How does a soul get to be great? It can't just be chance."
"Sotis it is. Sotis it's just enough lives lived in a consistent enough way, in circumstances that allow it. There are great souls like that, spirits that just happen. But so, others, are sorted into the role in a different way. They are processed. Then, like other great souls, they are sent where they are needed."
"The Infinite dungeon." Tulland's voice was flat. "It's an exchange program."
"I haven't thought about it like that, but yes, that's a fine way of putting it. An exchange program. Of course, the other things you know of The Infinite are true. Truer than you think. Most souls who pass our gates are not fully graded as great. They simply don't make it far enough into the process. Their worlds are paid, and they are sent on as normal souls would be, landing wherever they land."
The Infinite waved his hand again, and Tulland found himself in the village in the sa seat as before.
"The great souls who do co from The Infinite help their worlds, of course. But far from the selfless sacrifice they believe themselves to be making, they buy themselves sothing priceless. For the rest of ti, they will find themselves in worlds that need them. That have needs that suit them."
"Is that good? For a battler to spend all his ti battling, for all eternity?"
"Oh, co now. You know that isn't how it is. Even in your world, you had a close friend who had fought and traveled and eventually settled down to a quieter life."
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"My tutor. Fair." Tulland leaned forward. "So what are you asking to do? Give up my power so I can beco a great soul, then die?"
"Oh, Tulland. You don't understand. You were a great soul so ti ago. Crafters find their way in here alone from ti to ti. And as you've already been told, they just die. They rarely beco great souls, but even passing the first floor sends substantial power back to their worlds, more than so warriors who pass the seventh or eighth."
The Infinite ladled himself out a small amount of the soup and tasted it.
"Good, by the way. Hearty. People eat food like this on more worlds than I care to count. But yes, if you were willing to die, this problem would be easy to solve. You'd go sowhere else as a great soul, be reborn, and go on to do great things that mixed agriculture and adventure. But you aren't willing to die, your planet will explode if you don't, and I really can't in good conscience ask you to do anything now that you know the truth. There is, however, one more solution."
Tulland sighed. He doubted it would be great.
"Go ahead."
"You keep everything in your arsenal, including the Chira Sleeve trick. We take away only the potential to improve it in the future by ans of making new plants, although it would scale in a limited way with your skills as they grow stronger. And as repaynt for limiting just the potential of that one thing, I send you sowhere else just as you are."
Tulland did not an to spit a half-chewed chunk of potato straight at The Infinite's forehead. That was still what happened. Luckily, things couldn't hit The Infinite unless it wanted them to.
"How?"
"By creating a very expensive precedent that I pray never gets used again. We both admit the Infinite is no longer a valid test for you. I can't lessen your powers in a way that mitigates that, and can't reward you within this place for the value of that mitigation even if you'd allow it. You won't agree to die, and your planet dies if you don't get a system of so sort with plenty of budget to it in the next few years. That leaves sending you on, directing your reward back, and then pretending none of this ever happened."
"And Necia."
"Excuse ?"
"You also need to send Necia. I'm not abandoning her to die."
"She's not a great soul yet, Tulland."
"I'm not sure how that matters. She's with , okay? If she doesn't go, I stay here and keep her alive until she is, and it makes more problems for her. Just send her on the sa wagon, or however it works."
"It works more like that than you know." The Infinite tapped its spoon on the table a few tis. "Fine. Both of you."
"Really?"
"Yes. Although we'll have to make a bit of a show of it. It won't be pleasant for her to go through, not knowing what's happening. No way around that, though."
"There's still the question of what to do with the System, as well."
"Yes, well, I supposed we'd leave that up to him. System, would you like to do this face to face?"
That's an option?
"It is here." The Infinite smiled. "Can I take that as a yes?"
Certainly.
The Infinite did its magic, and Tulland suddenly felt sothing leave him. There wasn't a yawning gulf where it had been, but he was different now. Just slightly lighter in a way he could tell, as if he had taken off a heavy bracelet or necklace.
In place of that feeling of weight, he watched a form materialize before him. Sohow, Tulland had never really imagined System as anything but an older, black-cloaked man. He had thought of it that way even before it had betrayed him, simply because of the mystery around it. Now, he saw him as he was, and a lot of things suddenly fell into place at once.
"You are fourteen," Tulland said. "Thirteen or fourteen years old."
"Centuries old." There was no mistaking the System's voice. "But yes, in a way, also thirteen or fourteen years old. What did you expect?"
"Don't worry about it." Tulland put his hand on the System's shoulder. The System looked at it like he had no idea how to react to the contact. "I'm glad to et you in the flesh, finally."
The system made an indecipherable expression at Tulland, followed by a timid smile.
"The sa."
"You are both welco. Now let's get down to it." The Infinite held up his hand, a single finger outstretched. "I could take you back into myself and keep you there. You'd have your mories, but they would be watered down with everything that I've experienced. Which, as you might guess, is quite a bit. You would not be unchanged."
"Next finger?" The System looked queasy at the thought. Tulland didn't bla him. If he understood the situation correct, it was as if the System was being told that he'd be eaten by a lion. Then, after that, that the System shouldn't worry about it because he'd live on in the lion's flesh. "I'd like to hear the next option again."
"I wash you. I reprocess you just enough that your planet's ban doesn't recognize you, and send you back. You would be the sa as you were when you woke up there, all those centuries ago. Knowing nothing but yourself and your purpose."
"That isn't much more appealing." The System looked sick. "There are no other options?"
"None that I know of. You need to be sowhere."
Tulland didn't like either option for his friend, but he also didn't want him to be left alone. At the least, with either option, he'd be better than he was before this trip to The Infinite dungeons. Another option seed to be possible, but he supposed it wasn't. Either of the two system-like beings would have thought of it.
"It's just too bad," Tulland said. "If he could co with a little longer, eventually you might put him sowhere else. Another world that needs a System, but that hasn't banned him. I wish we could do that."
"Well, we can't. Right?" The System looked up at The Infinite, who was suddenly thinking very hard. "Right?"
"Actually…" The Infinite turned away from them both and waved his arm, conjuring up several more instances of himself. Tulland and System looked on in confusion for a while as they bickered and fought over the details in a way neither of them understood until they all suddenly stopped at once. The Infinite waved his arm and, suddenly, they were together again. "Actually, that should work just fine."
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