The System Seas

Drowning was no longer an issue for Marco. Finding a big enough rock to sink himself was. The island he lived on was volcanic, which had the practical effect of keeping the rocks small and crumbly.

“A sack won’t work. I already told you,” Marco yelled as he stomped his shovel deep into the soil beneath him, ignoring the system -ding about the new record for the deepest hole he had ever dug. Above him, Elisa was lying on her back, reading what he was pretty sure was her third book of the day.

“Why not?” she called. “You could combine a bunch of small rocks. It would be more work the first time, but not after. You just add a few here and there to keep up with your growth.”

“I agree, Elisa.” He stomped the shovel down again, feeling the metal head clang off something hard. He prayed it was a boulder. “Except that the system treats packs I carry as ported goods and lowers the weight while I’m holding them.”

“So put more in the sack.”

“I tried that.” Marco went into a bit of a frenzy, tossing dirt out of the hole. “I tried that a lot. The bags rip. I don’t know why.”

Elisa went silent for a second. “Ah, probably because the system’s saving your back but doesn’t apply the same savings to the bags containing that much weight.”

“Huh?”

“Balance.”

Elisa snapped her book shut and tossed it over on her blanket. She was a good friend, all things considered. She wasn’t that into any of the things that Marco was, but she didn’t need to be. She was very good at hanging out just the right amount while he did them, doing her own thing so he didn’t have to feel guilty about ignoring her.

Elisa continued, “The system used language like doesn’t weigh you down, which is why you need more rocks to sink. But it didn’t give you make things inside the bag lighter, which is another thing.”

“Huh. Fancy.”

Marco knew as much about the system as he knew about air. It was around, it behaved in predictable ways, and he needed it. Elisa also knew about as much about the system as she knew about air. She just knew a lot more about air, and everything in general. Marco had always been strong. She had always known things. It was her thing.

I’ll have to ask her why at some point. Today.

The boulder was exactly what Marco needed, more than enough to plummet him to the depths of the ocean for training. He didn’t always need boulders. Once upon a time, he sank just like anyone else, and holding even a few pounds of weight would let him run across the ocean floor shallows near the shore without popping up at all.

But he had maxed out the Buoyant accomplishment first, something that any baby who grew up in and around water would eventually get. It was a safety thing. A sufficiently buoyant child couldn’t drown. They could only be drowned, and even then, it was a hard thing to accomplish.

It was a good problem, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a problem at all.