Chapter Forty-Three – Cosmic Exchange – Part Three

Data shows women hit snooze more than men.

- Former WSA Researcher Chambers -

Light breaks the darkness of the place I find myself standing in. My body is cloaked in some kind of ethereal glow, like when I used Respec on Death. What about my real body? Is time still stopped? Torchlight flickers in a long hallway made of shifting smoke. I hear echoes, like buzzing energy crackling. I find myself walking towards something in the distance. At least I can walk here, a welcome change.

White marble floors and walls are the first things that I see when I reach it. There are braziers lit with strange color-shifting fire, each one spread equally around the massive circular room. The tunnel which I came from disappears suddenly. A series of purple popups appear in my vision.

[ Custom RoD Notice: Multiple anomaly sources detected. ]

[ Combine with Cosmic Exchange? ]

[ Yes / No ]

What does that mean? I was picturing something else when I… oh shit there's a timer. Three seconds left… I click the yes.

[ Divine Item Detected ]

[ Abyss Room Unlocked… Error… Success ]

Why was there an error? More pop-ups, how many rooms are there going to be?

[ Chaos Emporium Detected ]

[ Opening Custom Room… Success ]

A series of doorways appear in the white marble walls, each one uniquely designed with some kind of special flare. The first that catches my eye is the one nearest to me. Above it on a carved label, Abyss.

There is no handle on the door, not that I can see at least. Its design is deep and shifting tones of black. I can hear the faint sounds of whispers coming from it. Creepy.

I want to say hard pass… but I really need to learn more about it. It's not the most pressing item on my agenda though, if time is in fact stopped still, then I can take my time and move through each room as needed. No sense in rushing through. Either way, there is also no telling if I have to pay to enter the exchange again. Who knows, the price might even increase with each time.

Focus.

Looking around I read the label for each of the three doorways, the names are carved upon a curved slab of marble above each door. The braziers seem to have picked colors for each doorway now. One on either side of the door. The center doorway, labeled the Cosmic Exchange has three colors mixing together, red, gold, and purple. Interesting. Looking over at Abyss it's just black flames, which tracks. It actually looks kind of cool against the contrast of the white tile. Fucks sake, focus. A deep breath later and I'm looking at the Chaos Emporium. If I have time, I'll check it out.

I approach the Cosmic Exchange door, there's a handle, like a glowing orb, and the patterns on the surface shift and turn, like it's a sun. Which makes sense, looking at the door, it looks like it was hewn from starlight. Patterns of solar systems shift and merge seamlessly becoming galaxies, and then it shifts back slowly, again and again, like a screensaver or something.

Placing my hand on the door handle, it's warm. The door recedes in a strange yet brilliant way when I turn the handle. Like creation itself is rolling back into the recesses of the wall. There's another hallway, lined with floating torches. The walls are mist-like, solid yet not. Stars, countless, in a similar fashion to the door they all spin.

At the end of the hall is a small circular room. A strange semi-enthusiastic yet somehow monotone voice plays in my mind.

Welcome to the Cosmic Exchange, your titles have been assessed and added. Two titles have been found which may be used at your current level of access. Deviant and Champion of Ulana. Also detecting that this is your first time within the exchange. Would you like a tutorial on how to use the Cosmic Exchange?

"Holy shit," I breathe, "Yes," there's a pause, so I add, "Please."

Would you like the full tutorial or an abridged version?

"Full, please."

About time something came with a tutorial.

The Cosmic Exchange was founded after the Quorum of the Nine and the Holy Six finished a heavy debate ending in a near collapse of reality. Interestingly, the prospectus for the Cosmic Exchange which was the groundwork for the current model was proposed by the Sarlenac Pantheon more than three hundred millennia ago, in an attempt to streamline the Champion and Deviant process.

"Wait, wait, Quorum of the nine?" I say, ethereal brow furrowed, "Something about the Holy Six? And the Sarlenac? Can you slow down? I feel like you just lore dumped an entire fucking book in a sentence."

Continuing on the history of the Cosmic Exchange. It was not fully integrated into the standard formula until reality almost broke yet again. You know, there is a saying about such things which originated from Korvak 7. It's really very interesting. Almost as interesting as the world X-Theta 447… I am detecting hostility from you.

This voice… it's a bit of a meanderer.

"No hostility, please continue…" I pause, "But, if possible, could we just get on with it and I'll listen to the full unabridged version later?"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Certainly, I can strip all the interesting, worthwhile information to ensure that a primitive meatsack would enjoy it.

Meatsack? What the fuck… Did I piss it off? Can it even get pissed?

Ah, perhaps I should also dumb it down for you as well. The few neurons that are firing in your calcium-laden skull appear to be doing so sluggishly.

Yeah… I think I pissed it off.

Have echo, spend echo. End of tutorial. Goodbye.

"Seriously?"

Silence, and then I see three pedestals rise up from the ground made of starlight. Each pedestal is made of silver. A small fire burns at the center of each one. The one to my left is a red fire, the one in the center is a purple fire, and the one on the right is a golden fire.

Okay, going to guess here, but I remember the echo currency all had different colors. So purple is neutral, red is Cursed and gold is probably Sacred. Stepping closer to the purple one, I see an indicator pop up.

[ 0 Neutral Echoes ]

Okay, I think I was right. Which means it cost one hundred neutral echoes to enter the Cosmic Exchange. Which took me three quests? Yeah, three quests to earn enough. Hopefully it's a one-time membership fee.

Next, I move over to the gold fire. A series of popups in gold text show up.

[ 550 Sacred Echoes ]

[ Spend Echoes? ]

[ Yes / No ]

I was right, which makes red flame… Red's. I click the yes.

[ Tier One Exchange Unlocked ]

[ Displaying Possible Rewards ]

Wait, possible rewards? Like there's a chance I might not get them? The list appears.

[ Respec on Death Token… 0.001% chance ]

[ Respec Reroll Stat Token… 0.001% chance ]

[ Reusable Stat Anchor… 0.001% chance ]

[ Legendary Skill Tome… 0.001% chance ]

[ Legendary Item… 0.001% chance ]

[ Epic Skill Tome… 1% chance ]

[ Epic Item… 1% chance ]

[ Rare Item… 10% chance ]

[ Uncommon Item… 20% chance ]

[ Common Item… 30% chance ]

[ Neutral Echoes… 37.995% chance ]

I blink at it, then blink again. It's some kind of gambling loot table. Letting out a sigh, I click the next screen.

[ Roll for Rewards? ]

[ Yes / No ]

I hit the yes, but only after making sure there was no other way.

[ Rolling… Success ]

[ Issuing Rewards… Success ]

[ Remaining Balance… 50 Sacred Echoes ]

Okay, fifty left, does that mean it cost one hundred each? Or was it five hundred for one roll? Letting out another sigh, I really wish I wouldn't have pissed off the voice. Whatever, live and learn. I open the notification boxes.

[ Rare Item… Featherfall Boots ]

[ Uncommon Item… Sleeping Bag ]

[ Common Item… Steel Longsword ]

[ Common Item… Iron Spiked Knuckles ]

[ Neutral Echoes… 100 ]

Oh shit, one hundred neutral echoes. Which I guess means that each roll cost one hundred Sacred Echoes. That's actually pretty good, right? Maybe I can see what it has for sale too. Featherfall boots, I think I know what that is. Pretty sure it negates some fall damage. How much at rare class though, I'm not sure. I really wish I had a skill that could parse the lack of details on everything. There's a really rare support class that can view hard facts on items, but I've never met anyone with it.

Looking at the Longsword and the Knuckles, I guess I'll feed those to Abyss. The sleeping bag though, I'm curious about that. I've only heard of a sleep mat that someone found, not in my Company, but another one in my Brigade. Apparently, it gave them a well-rested bonus if they slept six or more hours on it. That might be worth keeping. Maybe it has a constitution bonus.

Moving back toward the Neutral Echo stand, I see the balance has been updated.

[ 100 Neutral Echoes ]

[ Tier One Rewards Unlocked ]

[ Displaying Possible Rewards ]

Nice.

[ Permanent Stat Increase… 1% chance ]

[ Experience… 50% chance ]

[ Nothing… 49% chance ]

Wow, what the fuck? Forty-nine percent chance to get jackshit? That doesn't seem fair. How much experience? Why can't I just buy things directly? Is it because I've only unlocked tier one? How do I unlock higher? Should I roll? What if I need to come back here? What if the price is higher next time? Better to wait, just in case.

Moving to the red fire pedestal, I see a series of red popups.

[ 400 Cursed Echoes ]

[ Tier One Rewards Unlocked ]

[ Displaying Possible Rewards ]

The list of rewards pops up, it's literally identical to the Sacred Echoes gambler's anonymous chart.

[ Roll for Rewards? ]

[ Yes / No ]

I hit the yes. Hopefully I get something useful. Though I'm not holding my breath, everything that has to do with Red usually screws me in some way. It's actually surprising that neither of them have chimed in yet.

[ Rolling… Success ]

[ Issuing Rewards… Success ]

[ Remaining Balance… 0 Cursed Echoes ]

So, I don't think there is a way for me to decide how much of the Echoes I use, I think it just does them automatically. Which means that maybe I shouldn't do it again, at least until I get to the next tier. Probably a better loot table, or maybe I can buy items directly. That would be nice.

[ Epic Item… Necklace of Siphoning ]

[ Neutral Echoes… 300 ]

Another three hundred echoes, nice, I'll bank those, just in case. Siphoning Necklace? Sounds like some kind of life-steal thing. Which in theory is really cool, but in practice, stealing less than a percent of life from a target is pretty obsolete most of the time. Especially with Clerics and Paladins. I did once hear of a legendary item that could life-steal though, apparently, it was four percent on kill. How much of that was bullshit though, I'm not sure. The life-steal didn't seem to help the previous owner much, seeing as the item was up for sale when I heard about it. It sold for an undisclosed amount at a private auction. Most things we hear have a healthy dose of bullshit and exaggeration sprinkled on them.

Still, that's pretty impressive that I rolled an epic, especially considering it was from Red's lottery. Not really excited though, any second now, Red's going to say something about how it's unfair that I rolled such a cool item, then give me another box of tissues.

A minute passes, then two.

Nothing. Just silence.

Red's not going to take it? Weird…

Guess I should check out the other rooms.

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