As he turned the corner around a cylindrical tower, he saw another section of broken rampart. Thick vines had grown around the blocks in this area and Gus had to pull on certain vines and untie them from knot-like growths to free the blocks before he could set to repositioning them in the wall.
Instead of rectangular blocks, these pieces were hexagonal and took much longer to manipulate and get in a correct orientation. Instead of putting them up on the wall, Gus climbed onto a tree thick with vines and used the vantage point to flip and turn the blocks until he finally managed to get them to fit together.
An advantage to this approach was that as two blocks connected in a correct way, a purple light would flash and the pieces would connect. As before, it became much easier once a couple of pieces were in place, and after much trial and error, Gus had the entire section back in place.
There were four more broken walls, each with increasingly difficult challenges. There were smaller sections which increased the time it took to figure out how to place everything. Tougher knots encircled pieces and some were partially buried in the ground. Then there were extra pieces that did not belong in the wall that increased the time it took to single out what belonged and what did not.
Finally, when he had the last piece in place there was a tension in the air, then a popping sensation. Gus rattled his jaw left and right and he could hear again. A rasping noise could be heard in the distance like stone sliding across stone, peppered with the tinkling rattle of chains.
Gus jogged back to the front of the castle and saw that the portcullis was raised, and torches had sprung to life along the corridor leading inside. He walked an unnaturally long time before finally seeing daylight glowing at the end of the corridor. There was no way the walls could be that thick, but it was probably due to some way the cube functioned. Gus wondered if this was a simulation, another dimension, or what he was actually experiencing as he came closer to the end of the tunnel. Loose dirt and an arena could be seen ahead as if he was entering a coliseum.
The realization made him tense up and he slowed down and warily exited the tunnel. No one attacked, but a large blue window opened up in the center of the large arena. A pleasant female voice cooed, “Welcome back, Dr. Flak.”
Gus read the screen.
Directory (Amethyst)
- Sapphire: Hybrid Research (Mammalian)
- Ruby: Transdimensional Effects
- Citrine: Hybrid Research (Insectoid)
- Emerald: Augments and Enhancements/Blueprints
- Diamond: Mandrite Crystal Research
As he gazed at the different options, a portal would open under the display and the dominant color would populate the inside of the portal. The edges looked like a liquid form of neon that appeared to flow around the borders of the portal. Gus sensed that it would not be a good idea to touch it, but his curiosity did make him wonder what would happen if something did graze the edge.
Gus recognized the circuit board walls visible in the augments and enhancements selection, as well as the jungle tinged with orange. He was about to step through when he smelled a pungent smell. At first, he thought it was coming from the portal, but as he deselected any of the choices from the directory, the smell persisted, becoming more pronounced. Something was burning. He could see no smoke but began to cough. It became so persistent that he exited the cube.
When reality had snapped back into place, he was shocked at what he saw. Through the milky opaque walls of the tent, he saw flames on every side.
They were somehow in the middle of a huge fire.
Chapter Eighteen
Die in a Fire
Gus began to panic as the air became more difficult to breathe. Somehow, BoJack lay there still sleeping, mouth agape. Gus shook him violently and he blinked to life.
“Whass goin’ on?” he asked dreamily.
“We’re on fire! It’s all around us!” He spun back and forth, looking at the orange and yellows flickering just outside.
BoJack yawned, unmoved by the news. He tapped Gus on the shoulder. “Calm down. It’ll be okay. I’m interested to see what you think we should do though. How would you handle this? What are the challenges, and what should be done?”
“Can we do this later?” Gus asked impatiently.
“No, this is perfect.”
“How are you so calm?!”
BoJack scrubbed his face with a hand as he stood and fixed Gus with a stern look. “I’m calm because I know myself and what I’m about. You want experience. This is how you get experience. I could have you show me your abilities and what would be the best to do in this situation to quickly resolve everything. But you have to train yourself to think. I know with the few abilities you have, it may be difficult to think out of the box, but you have to get used to stretching yourself. If you want XP, you’re not going to get it staying in your comfort zones. The greatest gains lie just outside of what’s familiar, tried, and tested.”
“But the fire…” The words died on his lips as he saw BoJack stand there unflappable, arms serenely folded, awaiting Gus’ assessment. “Okay. It doesn’t seem hot in here, even though the flames look right outside. And it’s fairly smoky, but nothing like it should be in the center of a forest fire, so why is that?”
BoJack nodded encouragingly and Gus continued.
“So is the ether acting kind of like a heat sink, somehow? That’s why it isn’t hotter?”
“Good job. Unlike other materials, ether has never been infused to failure. It has a yet undetermined upper limit for energy absorption. That’s why we usually use it as a container for different types of energy, because there are at least five phases that we know of as more energy is pumped into ether itself.”
Gus looked nervously as the oranges became brighter, crinkling his nose at the permeating smoke. “Should we…?”
“I guess the term ‘infusion’ is a misnomer, because we are not really putting the energy into the ether itself, but inside of a shaped compartment of ether,” BoJack continued, as if he didn’t sense Gus’ distress. “And no… we shouldn’t. Don’t let yourself get into the habit of relying on your powers instead of your brain, Gus. Think it through as if the fire weren’t there. Compartmentalize.”
Gus coughed on the smoke as he took a deep breath to relax. He mentioned containers, is that some sort of hint?
“You remember how easily you broke my basket weave earlier? Why didn’t it just resist your efforts to tear it? If ether absorbs energy, wouldn’t it resist your efforts to stretch it?”
“Because ether has no will. It can be manipulated by some people and even though you created it, I also can manipulate ether and was able to affect it. If I had tried to light a fire or use a laser to cut through it, that would be a different matter. Does that make sense?”
“Ehh, sort of,” Gus said, wobbling his hand palm down.
“I don’t understand it all either. Just that our Nth allow us to interact with this stuff we call ether based on our intentions with enough consistency to produce reliable effects. Depending on how well it is crafted, it has extreme durability. Look at our tent. I’m sure your perception stat is above ten?”
“Of course.”
“Good, then you have some form of an Identify skill. I’m not sure what yours is called—they’re all over the map name-wise—but it lets you get information from the environment, translating Nth passive scans into data you can use.”
That must be Wreckognize for me, Gus thought.
“Have you used that skill for any type of problem solving?”
Gus squinted one eye. “Like how?”
“Scan the environment. Everything. And really look. What are your problems right now that you need to solve? Hold that need in your mind as you scan and look for what catches your attention.”
Gus activated Wreckognize and slowly looked at the inside of the tent. He expected to see a leak by the entrance of the tent, but his scan showed the sides were sealed. He looked closer at the flaps that made
the doors. If they’re sealed, why is it getting smoky?
Gus just stared at the doors, trying to understand what was happening and, like a small focusing of a camera lens, he intuitively knew a tiny bit more about the walls of the tent. The effect was strange, because they weren’t blurry to start out with, but the resolution was more vivid. Maybe a better description would be he upgraded to a televid with more resolution.
Whatever had happened, he could see that the tent had some properties of a permeable membrane. It was letting oxygen in and carbon dioxide out. As the oxygen concentration was used up, it tipped the balance, allowing a slight bit of contamination to pass through in an attempt to increase the amount of oxygen inside the tent.
“Huh,” Gus murmured with the realization.
“I know that look. What have you got?”
“I just saw how the tent lets oxygen in and carbon dioxide out. And I think I know why it’s smelling like smoke in here.”
“It also lets out methane too, mate. Didn’t know if you were a gassy sleeper or not, but definitely something to think about in close quarters.” He winked at Gus. “Keep going.”
“So, if we wanted to get more oxygen in here, maybe we could extend a periscope up above the flames to access some clean air?”
“Where do you think all this hot, smoky air is going?”
Gus frowned. “Yeah, probably straight up.”
“Don’t get discouraged. This is exactly the process you need to get used to doing on the regular. Then get quick at making these kinds of assessments and acting. If this were a real crisis, I would grab the reins but, as it is, we’re safe and you get a good field exam out of the bargain.”
“I guess I could make one laterally, but I don’t know which direction the fire is coming from.” Gus looked over at BoJack expecting some form of hint, but all he received was a raised eyebrow.
“Okay. Maybe that’s the wrong problem to be solving. Besides air, I need to do something about the flames. If ether is such a good heat sink, maybe I can use it to absorb or contain some of the energy.”
Gus thought he could use his Energy Absorption ability and just drain the energy from the fire, but didn’t know if he would learn anything from that. Plus it was probably best to keep the full range of his abilities as close to the vest as possible.
Turning to BoJack, he asked, “How do you infuse something?”
“It depends on the type of energy. You have to think of what’s happening at a molecular level and make it easier for the energy to go where you want it than where it already is.”
Gus bit the inside of his cheek. He had always taken wood or paper burning as something simple to understand. But knowing something would burn was a far cry from knowing what was happening to it as it burned or why it burned when other things didn’t. He scrambled to think of what he had learned back when he was in school. Wasn’t it something to do with energy being released as bonds break? He honestly didn’t really know.
“Why do you not just check?” Nick asked, somehow infusing a disappointed sigh into the words.
“Check? How?” Gus asked, but Nick had gone silent again. An idea popped into his mind that he almost immediately dismissed but then thought better of it. Worth a shot, I guess.
Gus knelt on one knee by the door flaps and placed his hand where the flaps and the floor of the tent met. Initially, he thought they were on bare ground, but with Wreckognize engaged he noticed there was a floor, it was just transparent in relation to the opaque walls. He hadn’t even noticed they weren’t tracking dirt around inside the tent until he made the realization.
He closed his eyes and focused on extending an ether construct to the outside, connecting it to the inside of the tent. He extended it outward, finding it difficult not to use MP to force the shaping. He could sense the container growing at a measured rate, a perfect two-by-two inch plank extending outward. Meeting some resistance, Gus turned his focus for Wreckognize onto his construct.
After a slightly nauseating disorientation, Gus had another point of view. He could see a strange panoramic view of everything around the construct he had made, giving the world a strange fish-eye effect. It was blindingly bright at first, but reflexively he lowered the intensity to a manageable level. Flames danced around the construct, with areas near the corners becoming blurry, the sharp edge not giving a good resolution of things in the 3 o’clock and 10 o’clock positions.
Focusing on the construct, Gus shifted the construct from a square to an oval shape, resembling a snake. This took away the blurry areas and he perceived that the end of his construct had struck against a tree trunk, halting its progress. Altering the trajectory of the construct he began to curve around.
The flood of movement and visual information gave him an instant case of what he could describe best as ‘car sickness.’ Sizzling drops of sap and burning debris fell amid the flames, landing in front and onto Gus’ construct. Only by dialing down the visual input to a bare minimum could he have enough information to bypass the tree and continue out in a fairly obstacle free path.
After pushing the construct about fifty feet away, he began to notice a strain on his ability to keep it intact. Breathing deeply, he kept visual input to a minimum and turned his focus to his surroundings, imagining himself as if he were the construct. As he stayed there, he became more attuned to the little snake-like tube of ether. Melding with it.
He could feel the energy from burning pine needles and sap around him, quickly dispersing as it touched his skin. His attention turned to the energy touching him. Everything grew as his attention focused on a smaller and smaller area. A pine needle became as large as an aircraft carrier and he could see a combination of gasses released then being consumed as the needle burned.
Scale magnified over and over and particles sped away like bullets and hit his skin of ether. Bullets which grew to the size of beach balls then beyond. As the huge particles hit the ether, they came to an abrupt stop that reminded Gus of a pool ball hitting another and stopping as the force was transferred.
In comparison, the ether particles were tiny as sand, shifting slightly with the impact but quickly returning to their original configuration after a brief flutter. Gus watched in fascination as the incoming projectiles suddenly stopped after hitting the ether, reminiscent of a spaceship dropping out of hyperspace from some of his favorite movies.
How do I use this, though…?
The thought echoed in his mind as he pulled away from the construct, becoming a little light-headed as he retreated to a normal perspective. After things settled, he had an idea that might kill two birds with one stone. He didn’t know the exact design, but he pushed the intention of what he wanted down the length of the construct. A pump that would convert the kinetic energy of the heated particles to pump oxygen into the ether snake he had made.
With satisfaction, he felt the microscopic pumps form like gooseflesh all along the length of the construct. As the pumps began to do their work, they robbed the fire of an oxidant and the fire guttered and died in a swath around the ether. Gus pushed out in different directions, this time using the energy of heat to fuel the creation and snake after snake unfurled like New Year’s Eve party favors.
With the insurgence of clean air, the smoky smell dissipated and the light playing immediately outside the tent dimmed more and more. Gus kept pushing, and while the areas near their tent became inert, the flames continued to sustain and allow the ether constructs to extend further and further away from the tent.
An indeterminate time later, Gus found that he could reach no more. Using Wreckognize again he saw that around his network of ether constructs remained blackened char and ash. He let his constructs drop and blinked back to himself. At some point he had fallen back on his butt, his hands in front of him, palms up.
A slow clap sounded over his shoulder and Gus turned to see BoJack beaming at him. He wiped at a tickle on his chin and saw that a thin trickle of drool had slipped out somewhere along the line. He h
urriedly wiped it away before BoJack could see.
“I did not expect that…”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“Oh no, mate. I thought you’d give it a go and then I’d have to show you something to mimic. You were quite in the zone there for a bit. How are you feeling?”
“Better now, kind of like I just took a good nap, actually. I feel oddly comfortable and relaxed. Is that typical?”
“Hmm, not that I know of mate, but that’s choice. Good on you for figuring that out. I knew you could do it. I’d check your logs. Probably some good news there, if my guess is right.”
Some of the accumulated strain from not sleeping had significantly dissipated somehow through crafting and focus with the ether constructs. He basked in the feeling for a moment akin to a mental massage. When he opened his logs, he found BoJack was not wrong.
Chapter Nineteen
You Don’t Know Jack
You have leveled up the skill: Ether Crafting to level 2!
100 XP awarded.
200 FP awarded.
You have leveled up the skill: Ether Crafting to level 3!
150 XP awarded.
300 FP awarded.
You have leveled up the skill: Ether Crafting to level 4!
200 XP awarded.
400 FP awarded.
3,710 XP to level 21.
“Is that it?” Gus mumbled aloud. “I thought there would be more levels or XP.” Gus thought he saw BoJack wince a bit, but it could have been his eyes playing tricks on him. It was dark again in the confines of the tent without the open flames raging.
“What did you level up to?” BoJack asked.
“Only four in Ether Crafting.”
BoJack grabbed Gus by the shoulders, turning him to look directly at him. “That’s actually amazingly good. I can see we need to work on perspective with you. It’s just strange that you have no frame of reference so you can’t tell what is a great gain versus normal progress versus a plateau. Listen to this, Gus: don’t let yourself get discouraged. At level five, you may be able to unlock a healing sub-skill of Ether Crafting and can start cross-leveling, which gives you double the XP for the same effort.” He let go of Gus and sat back on his cot, leaning back and crossing his legs.
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