GalaxSec: A Sci-Fi LitRPG (Skeleton in Space Book 2)

by Andries Louws

  Deciding he might as well upgrade the mana reserve now that he has some time, Douglas brings the mana stone production spell shape to the forefront of his mind. A small voice in the back of his mind tells him that the people with the weapons surrounding Evot and him would not appreciate the sudden appearance of a glowing spell shape. He is thus very careful in painting in the shape with his power, making sure to not waste a single drop of mana in the process. Then something odd happens as he puts the output area of the spell inside his skull. The half decayed mana stones rattling around in his hollow cranium melt into pure mana, joining the creation process of the new and improved stone. Instead of a dirty yellow, the new mana container appears clear as crystal, the blue glow of its stored power lighting up the inside of his head.

  [ Mana Stone Production III lvl 26 ]

  Instead of letting the newly formed stone roll around, he presses it into the back of his forehead bone in a suddenly inspired idea. Checking on the world around him briefly, he finds that nothing much has changed. Instead of the scarred and chipped metal wall they were in front of before, Douglas can now see similarly scarred doors. They just have moved to the side, walking around the rugged metal base, and a trail of footsteps in the windswept dirt confirms this suspicion. A series of oddly shaped shutters are visible in the base, yet remain firmly closed. The rest of the Ancheevi mercenaries talk about a surprisingly large number of moving bogeys. But as they don’t react to it in any significant way, and Evot doesn’t either, Douglas doesn’t bother with it. The figure on the hoverbike with all the antennas and dishes is still busily typing away at his holographic displays, but nothing much is happening. Evot has propped Douglas up against a wall, his jaw hanging open as wide as can go.

  Deciding that things are well in hand, Douglas goes back to creating more mana stones inside his head. He keeps at it for a long while, using his slowly regenerating mana in order to find the best and most optimal way of creating the power storage. He does feel Evot slotting bones into their correct place now and then, but she seems to be having a lot of trouble with slotting his bones in the correct spot. The chatter around him continues, but Douglas is too absorbed in his mana stone creation to really pay any attention.

  Eventually, he finds the section of the spell shape that is responsible for pouring mana inside the stone during its creation. Deciding he might as well try experimenting a bit, he tries to cast the spell while excluding that section. To his amazement, creating the material itself costs very little mana. The small bit of power already inside, he estimates it holds a couple of dozen points, is enough to keep the stone intact. Completely discharging the stuff makes it rather brittle, as the deterioration of the previous load of old stone has attested to. Internally extremely chuffed at this discovery, he quickly and neatly fills in the rest of his skull with the material.

  [ Partial Casting III lvl 17 ]

  [ Mana Stone Production III lvl 30 ]

  [ Mana Stone Production has reached lvl 30; Apprentice Arcanist 8/8 ]

  [ Apprentice Arcanist class; all relevant skills are max lvl. Please evolve class or pick another class ]

  Now even more pleased with himself, Douglas doesn’t even check what he can become. The classes besides Arcanist all gave him useless skills that provided him with useless information. Most of the information he has gotten from the other base classes he has access to provide him with knowledge that is useless at best, and conflicting with other facts at worst. He isn’t keen on repeating the overwhelming flood of nonsense hints, tips, and information that came with his initial mass class acquisition. Douglas just tells the blue boxes to give him what comes after the Apprentice Arcanist class.

  [ Arcanist; Proficient in the creation of moving magical machines, the Arcanist has a firm grasp on the basics. Having mastered magical and physical means to animate, the Arcanist can now use various means to control their creations. Skills; Meditation, Mana Sense, Mana Control, Spell Shaping, Mana Stone Production, Magical Animation, Engraving, Logic, Magical Control, Soul Binding. +6 INT, +6 WIS ]

  [ New skill learned; Magical Control IV lvl 1 ]

  [ New skill learned; Soul Binding IV lvl 1 ]

  As the new skills start feeding trickles of information to the skeleton, he finally manages to confirm one of his earlier suspicions. Upgrading his class sounds great, but the fact that he felt his mana regeneration lower by a significant amount does put a damper on his mood. Each time one of his Associate Arcanist skills reached the level cap, he felt his mana swell. Now that all of those skills can be trained up to level forty, those bonuses disappeared.

  He has spoken with Evot about this for a bit between spars. She told him she was planning on levelling multiple classes before committing herself to any one path. But then again, Douglas does remember something about not being able to pick the scholar class again until his Arcanist class reached tier four? But on the other hand, the blue box explicitly told him he could either upgrade his Scholar class or pick a new one. This implies that he is only allowed to level a single class at once. The multiple classes in Douglas’s status screen that aren’t fully levelled contradict that statement. His good mood lowering further at the many small inconsistencies that the blue boxes seem to have, Douglas decides to forget about that issue for now.

  Because he might be suffering in the short term, in the long term he is bound to come out ahead. The Apprentice Arcanist class gave him three intelligence and three wisdom for each skill fully levelled, for a maximum of twenty-four points of each stat. His new Arcanist job will allow for a full sixty points in each stat, more than doubling the potential bonus.

  And then there are the two new skills. Oh, Douglas does like the two new skills a whole lot indeed. The Magical Control skill is little more than a collection of new patterns, magical circuits, and control systems. But what beautiful concepts they contain. He’ll be able to create an object or an engraving in his own body that will allow him to send commands through the air. No need for mana threads, no need to keep in physical contact. Immediately, Douglas sees an army of bone beasts at his command, each of them obeying his every signal, following his will. Those mountainous bone creatures that are coming closer look a lot less threatening now that Douglas knows he’ll be able to control them remotely.

  Doing a mental double take, Douglas sees that there are indeed massive white mountains approaching them. They are far away still, but the closest ones have breached the ring of ruins, and are now creating even larger dust clouds as they crawl over the dead plains. The people around him are also moving at a quicker pace, a general feeling of panic having set in a while ago.

  Ignoring those mundane things, Douglas goes back to geeking out over his new skills, and most of all the Soul Binding skill! It’s the most complex and convoluted of all his skills so far, and Douglas loves it to bits. He feels an affinity for the information that comes along with it that nearly scares him. He feels his forehead throb, the source of his mana resonating in glee with each new concept of the skill he understands. He feels the beginning of the same process his Mana Stone Creation process went through, that skill having unfolded into an accompanying spell shape. For a brief moment, Douglas’s mind expands in realization. Are skills just fancy spell shapes? Is the system also just a spell shape; a way in which to channel mana?

  Then he realizes that all the skills are made of information, the shape that the information comes in being of lesser importance than the knowledge itself. Douglas’s perception shrinks back down, and an odd form of embarrassment sets in at the fact that he got dragged along such an obvious realization. As the skeleton finds the trance of learning new things well and truly broken, he thinks that he might as well find out what everyone around him is making such a fuss about.

  The first thing he hears is a defeated Evot, her otherwise chipper tone sounding down and defeated. “Sure, no problem. Leave us here to rot.”

  A low and deep sigh follows, interrupted by the annoying sound of a young man that knows he is compl
etely correct and cannot be wrong. “Ma’am, we are oathbound to complete our mission. Our superior has not allowed us to perform a civilian rescue maneuver.”

  Evot glares at the young man with burning eyes.

  “Let’s all calm down here.” The large soldier interjects his bulky form in between the two short people. “Here is what we’ll do. We will retreat for now, as we are not equipped to take on mobilised Histaff, both the scale and number are several factors above what we can handle. We will thus retreat slowly. If a certain civilian were to hold onto a certain hoverbike, there would be nothing we could do about that.”

  Evot looks at the large man with a complex expression on her face. The mouth of the young soldier is flapping open and closed, obviously at a loss for what to say. “Sir, that is extremely out of li-”

  “YOU HAVE YOUR ORDERS, SON! I will write you up for gross misconduct and insubordination if you don’t get on your vehicle within five seconds. As I said, we have no orders to remove stragglers from our vehicles, and it would not be safe to forcefully remove said civilian stowaway.”

  One snappy yet sullen salute later, the young soldier is back on his bike. The big man casts one last look at Evot before also walking towards his vehicle.

  “I’m really sorry, miss. That base is in lockdown mode. As in, every single atom is locked down. It’s some form of stasis field, every single piece of electronics is frozen solid. Nothing is responding because there is nothing that can respond. The fusion core seems to be weakening and will eventually shut down, but that might take a day or ten years.” The tech soldier looks genuinely sorry, from what little of its expression Douglas can read.

  “Sure, leave me alone here with those Histaff Garga-“ Evots stops speaking for half a second before she starts screaming. “WATCH OUT! The long-range Histaff that took down your other squad just started shooting!”

  Douglas looks at where Evot is pointing and indeed sees the many barrels on the closest Histaff Gargantuan twist and pulse as they launch their homing payload. Douglas then decides that if there ever was a situation that could be solved with a generous application of magical spells, this is it. He brings the Crude Mana Shield and Piercing Exploding Shot spell shapes to the forefront of his mind, standing up while beginning the casting process.

  One hand aimed at the huddled group of six bikes, a large blue field shimmers into being just above the vehicles. His other hand starts to glow with a fierce light as he aims the highly destructive spell in his other hand at one of the ravaged doors in the metal building. He belatedly realizes that Evot has managed to reassemble nearly all of him. He only misses a few of his toes. Douglas makes note to show his thanks to the woman later. The image that flashes into his mind of him scratching her head seems fitting. He them remembers that he is holding a highly explosive spell and a protective shield for good reasons, and gets his head back in the game.

  “Leave.” He shoves the thought into his speech centre without care. Not even opening his mouth, the ground around him throws up dust under the effect of his loud shout. Then six white missiles drop from the sky, each one hitting the magical shield right above a hoverbike. “You should leave.”

  Douglas ignores the fact that all the weapons the six mercenaries have at their disposal are suddenly aimed at him, and nods to Evot. “Behind me.”

  The woman, who looks extremely relieved for some reason, huddles behind his lanky frame. “Why though,” she begins. “It’s not like your body can provide me with much protec-”

  Her words are cut off, lost in the roaring sound of the explosion as Douglas sends the Shot spell towards the tattered metal door. A few bits of glowing molten metal drop from the wall, leaving a smooth and seamless surface of shining metal in its wake.

  “Evasive maneuvers! Get a lock on that launcher type Histaff, why didn’t we get advanced war-” The red-suited man’s angry comments are cut off as more projectiles slam into the shield behind him.

  “No idea, sir! These don’t match any template or signature. Not picking up anything here!”

  “Can we evade?” asks the armoured man while his bike starts making a high pitched whine.

  “No, sir. Not with these bike setups.”

  Douglas, who is getting pretty tired of being the only one who gets stuff done around here, aims his empty hand at the far away Gargantuan. Quickly repeating the Shot cast, a bright streak of fire spears its way towards the far away monster. His aim is slightly off, as only a part of the mountainous threat blows up. Casting one last look at the beings on hoverbikes, he leaves the shield in place long enough to catch the remaining Histaff Reworked projectiles. He then turns, stepping over a huddled Evot as a fireball and a spear of ice form in his hands. He presses both against the door and pushes.

  The pressure in the air increases as the hoverbikes speed away, using the gap in fire to get going. The mana inside both spells is being drained at an abnormal pace as Douglas pushes them against the still glowing metal doors, the drain becoming more apparent the harder he pushes them into the unyielding wall. That one guy said something about a failing source of keeping stuff still, right? Then Douglas will just have to force his way through. If something is keeping him from the GalaxSec base after all this time, he will just burn and smash and overpower that.

  “DOUGLAS!” Looking at Evot, who is cowering near his feet, squinting against the fierce winds coming from the collision of his spells and the frozen base, he sees her hands outstretched. He also sees a very wobbly and flickering Crude Mana Shield spell shape around her hands, red splatters of Histaff projectiles smashing into her shield.

  “HOW LONG?”

  “ONLY COUPLE SECONDS!” she shouts in reply.

  Douglas nods, looks at the shield she is projecting and presses harder. The pressure once again rises, now coming from his front and from above, in the form of the Histaff artillery smashing into Evot’s shield. The spells scream in his hands where they collide with the door. The air rushing through his bones is taken in by his Phlogistonate spell, turning into ice and shattering against the motionless door. This water is then taken in by his Dephlogistonate spell, turning it into fire. His spell then sinks loads of thermal energy into the obstacle standing between Douglas and his dream. And Douglas has had it up to here with obstacles. A third spell shape winks into existence, air now rushing towards the earth spike that is forming.

  [ Spell Shaping IV lvl 31 ]

  A wordless scream coming from the skeleton’s mouth fights against the roaring noise coming from above. Evot is sinking lower and lower as she keeps her hands pointed upwards, the shielding spell flickering and wobbling more and more as her feet dig into the sand. Then a bright light appears from the direction of the artillery Gargantuan. The constant stream of fire once again pauses. High above, Douglas sees six small dots. Streaks of fire and beams of light shoot down from the vehicles, the attacks shooting from the mercenaries wreaking havoc on the approaching front of Histaff Gargantuans.

  [ Mana Control IV lvl 31 ]

  Feeling his already partially depleted mana pool shrink further, Douglas senses that he isn’t having much of an effect. Out of sheer desperation, he pours the remainder of his mana into the one other spell that might be useful here. Casting the biggest Mana Hand he's ever made, the ethereal blue digits appear around the skeleton. Massive transparent fingers slowly curl into a fist before reeling back.

  “WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU RETAR-” Evot stops screaming the moment she sees the fist coming towards her. Plastering herself to the ground with all due haste, she whimpers as displaced air blows dust in her face. Slamming the magical fist forwards with all his might, Douglas somehow forgot that he is standing between the fist and the door. Sensing that something is wrong, yet persevering anyway, Douglas puts all his mental might in punching forwards. His entire body falls apart as his bones shatter under the oversized punch. His skull smashes into the door, bounces off, and is punched forwards again. His horn pointed directly at the solid obstacle, Douglas’s head ge
ts stuck between the door and the blue fist as the pressure reaches a crescendo.

  Then the door breaks, half destroyed hinges shattering instantly as the metal barrier crumples into a warped mess.

  Douglas, Evot, his blue fist, a lot of sand and a lot of debris burst into the GalaxSec base. Large volumes of water, stone, and superheated gas return to their original states as the three spells Douglas was casting wink out. The ragged opening is immediately shrouded in a thick mist that blocks all from view.

  High above, six small shapes continue their retreat as they keep up the barrage of suppressive fire. The moving Histaff mountains stop approaching the GalaxSec base at the centre of the ruined city. Instead, they slowly change course, having found a new target in the hoverbikes high above. The ones not hit start wondering in random directions at first, but then one of them is hit by a few stray rounds shot from kilometres above. The stray ones turn as a group, now following the retreating high altitude vehicles.

  “Douglas, what the fuck,” slips out of Evot’s mouth before she can control herself. Slapping both hands to her mouth at breaking her lifelong no-cursing streak, the wounded woman starts slowly trying to find the armored skull in the piles of debris.

  Chapter Eighteen – Archived Anger

  For the first time in her entire life, Evot has a true, undeniable purpose that is not in her own hands. No matter how much she hates this fact, she has come to accept it. She truly can empathise with those kidnap victims that start loving the ones taking them hostage now. Looking at the skull in her hands with a grim expression on her face, she lets her feelings rage on for a bit. A desperate need to have those glowing orbs look at her, observe her, need her, is the constant note in her tumultuous feelings. The ridiculousness of the entire situation washes away the simpering need with pure rage. The rage is then replaced by yet more emotions, none of which she can put into words.