The Quizard Mountains: A Dungeon Core Epic (Station Cores Book 2)

by Jonathan Brooks

  There was one other thing about his powers he had never told anyone except Rosewyn – he could touch someone and heal their wounds the same way he healed himself. Instead of using his own flesh, it would instead use the flesh of the wounded person. She never found out what exactly happened, but he had discovered that ability shortly after he hit puberty – with disastrous results. It was because of whatever happened that he never demonstrated that part of his powers.

  She looked at her husband and his face said it all. They would see what they had to offer, but if they took the job they would complete it the way they wanted. They weren’t into killing people except in self-defense, so if it came to that they would see if there was another way. Now, if for some reason it was a bunch of intelligent rat creatures heading up the manufacturing of this mysterious power potion…well, then they wouldn’t hesitate to hunt them down and destroy them all.

  Chapter 1 – Not-so-humble home

  “Hey Milton, can you at least make her some fucking clothes?”

  Whoops! Haven’t had to worry about that before. Milton Frederick quickly accessed his Molecular Converter and looked at what he could make.[1] He had seen before that he was able to make cloth – and had even created a sheet for one of his traps – but he never had the need to create actual clothing before. The list of available materials was extensive, with pages and pages of different types natural, semisynthetic, synthetic, and technologically advanced fabrics that he had never even heard of.

  Most of the synthetic and technologically advanced fabrics cost more organic material to make, ranging anywhere from three times as much to a thousand. Some of them also required different resources including Basic Metals and even Biological Mass. The most “advanced” fabrics required things he didn’t even have access to, despite having a higher Ingenuity/Wisdom statistic which would help in the substitution of missing materials.

  He didn’t need anything fancy at the moment – he just needed the naked woman he had just “resurrected” clothed so that she could be modestly covered and warm. Picking out a Basic Cotton Shirt and Basic Denim Pants, he ended up using 465 units of his Organic Material, putting him to just under 60,000 available units. Not too bad for a whole outf—mentally slapping his forehead, he churned out a pair of Basic Cotton Underwear, Basic Cotton Socks, Basic Leather Shoes with Rubber Soles, and a tight-fitting Acrylic Sports Bra just in case she needed it. The Acrylic Sports Bra was an expensive impulse creation – since he wasn’t even sure if the women on this planet even used any type of support – but after taking an unintentional peek at her not inconsiderable “assets”, he figured it couldn’t hurt.

  All told, he ended up using almost 3,000 units of Organic Material but considering how much he had in reserve he was okay with the purchases. He had a drone deliver the finished clothing to the Bioconversion Laboratory, where ALANNA was currently trying to calm down the near-hysterical Proctan woman. Brint was no help, because seconds after he had learned that Whisp was alive, he fell to the ground in a humorous dead faint. Milton couldn’t help thinking that it was the first time he’d ever personally seen someone faint from shock before.

  He turned his attention elsewhere while ALANNA helped Whisp with her clothes, giving them at least a modicum of privacy. He knew ALANNA could tell if she was being spied upon, so he didn’t have an urge to invite her ire upon himself.

  “Holy shit, Milton. You did fucking good – you even got a pretty accurate read on her size, too. Were you checking her out?” ALANNA commented with a small smile on her face. Fortunately for Milton, she said that in English, which prevented him from having to explain himself to the confused former dead girl. Instead, he checked out his new uncontrollable “Combat Unit”.

  He didn’t have access to a lot of different colors of cloth yet, because the majority of his Organic Material came from chopped up trees. Fortunately, they came in various shades of blues and purples, which contrasted nicely with her light, lavender-colored skin. Her top was a dark purple color, so dark that it was practically black – especially in the relatively low light levels present in the tunnels. Her pants looked remarkably like a nice pair of blue jeans, sans metal rivets and zipper. Instead, it had loops in which she could feed a belt through if she needed it. She didn’t look like she needed one because they were amazingly form-fitting.

  Not that he was “checking her out” or anything, he was just pleased that he had guessed her size accurately. Sure, he could see what Brint was attracted to – despite the obvious species differences – but the fact that he was now a Station Core blunted any type of attraction or arousal he may have otherwise experienced. I wonder if it would be any different if she were human?

  Milton stopped himself from thinking anymore along those lines, since there wasn’t anything he could do about it right now. He instead concentrated on what ALANNA was telling Brint’s friend.

  “Well, now that you’re fully clothed, let me formally introduce myself. I am an Artificial Logistic Autonomous Nano-formed Neurological Assistant, otherwise known as ALANNA. Your benefactor and I would like to welcome you to our humble home, where your friend Brint has somehow managed to worm his way into our little circle of trust here. Ah, speak of the devil,” she remarked as Brint woke up with a start and looked around in surprise.

  “Whisp! You’re alive!” he exclaimed with great joy, before a flush crept up his face, darkening his skin as he took in his friend’s form-fitting outfit. Milton imagined that he was remembering what she looked like before he passed out.

  “Wake the fuck up sleepyhead, we need to go see Milton, so we can figure out what we’re going to do about this mess you’ve got us into,” ALANNA told her as she walked out of the doorway followed as usual by the frivolous antics of her pet “dog”, Fluffy. The miniature purple animal used his six legs to jump high into the air, landing in front of the determined AI, before running back behind her and doing it again.

  Milton thought for a second that he should give the two friends some privacy, before he completely squashed that idea. I’m the owner of this place – I can watch whatever I want to. Besides, I have a feeling this is going to be better than watching a movie.

  “What have you gotten us into here, Brint? And who is this Milton? Wait – more important question: how am I alive?” the smaller woman demanded, curiosity and confusion written all over her face.

  Brint just spluttered at her questions, apparently still too overwhelmed for his brain to figure out how to talk. I guess it’s more like a teen movie – not what I was hoping for. When he couldn’t respond intelligently, she walked up to him, wrapped her arms around him, and whispered, “Thanks,” before giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

  If he couldn’t speak before, now he looked as if all coherent thought had left his head as she walked out of the room. He followed her progress as she made it through the tunnels, watching as she stopped and looked at one of his broken traps on the way to his Core Room. He could see as her eyes flicked all over the destroyed parts of his slicing blade trap, the intelligence in her expression evident as she mentally put it all together.

  When she finally moved on, she followed the tunnel down to where he had to make an emergency pass-through in the walls due to the 40-foot-long collapsed floor he had activated just a few short hours ago. His drones were hard at work repairing the damage, but it would still be another couple of hours until they were done – even if they did work faster than they ever had before. His increased Combat Experience – and consequently his added statistic points – were a huge lift in their efficiency.[2]

  The path led past the body of the deceased Elemental Caster where she again stopped. However, instead of a curious look, her face transformed into one full of unbridled wrath. She ran toward the corpse and started kicking it over and over, screaming obscenities as she kicked him dangerously close to the ledge of the collapsed section. Milton was about to interrupt her rage-infused – and completely understandable – assault on Mirve’s body, but she calmed d
own after a minute of frantic thrashing. Spitting upon his battered and lifeless carcass, she turned her back on him and joined ALANNA who was waiting for her without comment further down the tunnel.

  Milton watched as Brint finally started to function again, and he ran as fast as he could after his friend, catching up to ALANNA and Whisp as they entered The Core Room. He saw them pass through the entrance, ALANNA walking on top of the water while Whisp waded through without a care as she caught sight of Milton in all his majesty.

  Contrary to what he was expecting – awe or even fear at his unusual appearance – she looked like a kid in a candy store. Or more like how I used to react when I saw a new powerful gaming setup, with high-tech specs that I hadn’t even known existed before. While flattered and a little glad that she wasn’t afraid or awed, her greedy appearance sent little warning signals through his mind. He needed to be careful she didn’t try to rip him apart to see how he worked.

  “Now that you’re here, let me introduce your benefactor, Milton. Say hi, Milton,” ALANNA said, with a nicer attitude than he had ever seen before.

  “Hello, Whisp. Welcome to our not-so-humble home.”

  He had used one of his sensor orbs to relay his speech to the girl, after trying unsuccessfully to communicate with her mind. While he knew that it was unlikely that it would work, he wanted to make sure she didn’t have the same kind of ability Brint had to jack into his communication network. With that possibility no longer a concern, he relaxed and was able to fully contemplate what he had just done.

  I literally just brought her back to life! How awesome is that? This ability is super powerful – I feel like a God now! Bow before the might of Milt—.

  His interior monologue of superiority and figurative “happy dancing” was cut short as ALANNA picked up on his thoughts – which he forgot to direct toward himself.

  “Whoa there, dumbfuck! Don’t forget that it was Collective technology which allowed you to clone her. Which is our whole purpose, by the way – to get the fuck off this planet and find out what happened to them,” she commented. Fortunately, she sent it to his mind instead of saying anything out loud – but it still took the wind out of his sails.

  That’s right – I need to stay focused and work on getting off this planet. Even though I don’t really care what happened to The Collective. This time he made sure to keep what he was thinking inside his Core.

  He realized Whisp was excitedly talking to him while he was congratulating himself, “—what are you? What are you made of? Where did you come from? Why are you underground and how did you get down here? What’s inside that hatch? Why is the room filled with water and why does it feel like it’s charged with power? How am I alive? What was that big machine I fell out of? What is this garment holding my breasts and what is this stretchy material? How does—” the barrage of questions continued, but Milton tuned it out as he tried to respond and was promptly ignored as more inquiries were spouted forth.

  She’s like a five-year-old who just asks questions without caring about the answers. He knew bringing her back from the dead would be a bit of a risk – the more people who knew he existed, the bigger possibility he would be exposed to the world at large. However, he didn’t think he’d have to answer so many questions. He was about to ask ALANNA and even Brint for help when she stopped, looking confused and introspective at the same time. He quickly rewound the footage from his sensor orbs to figure out the last thing she said.

  “—can I touch it? And why are my power levels so low? It almost feels like it did when I was younger, right after puberty. I remember asking so many questions at the time, using my ability to help me comprehend the answers. But now it’s like everything has been reset…”

  He was tempted to rewind it again a little further to figure out what she wanted to touch, but then what she was asking snapped his focus back on her.

  “What were you saying about your power levels?”

  It took her a moment to respond, as if she was mentally checking herself over before concluding, “It’s almost as if my ability was reset back to when I first obtained it. All the work I’ve done strengthening it over the last decade is gone,” she informed him matter-of-factly, but with a forlorn expression on her face.

  I guess that’s one of the unfortunate side effects of being reborn.

  Chapter 2 – “Magic”

  Now that she had gotten her spastic question-bombardment out of the way, Whisp was a much more pleasant addition to the team. He exchanged questions with her over the next couple of hours, learning more about Proctan society, the Guardian Guild, and about the current economic marketplace. She had a lot more thorough information compared to Brint, which wasn’t surprising when he learned that she used to be a teacher for their village – as well as an Inventor.

  However, the most important knowledge he acquired was related to “magic” and the abilities that each person was born with. Milton had seen first-hand how Elemental Casters were able to manipulate the elements, how Physical Augmenters could “augment” parts of their bodies to become stronger or faster, and how healers could use their power to repair wounds/injuries that would normally be life-threatening. But what he didn’t know was how they learned to do those things – and how they determined the level of power they realistically had.

  “We aren’t born knowing how to use our abilities – other than as an instinctual need – especially since they don’t even emerge until after puberty. Most of the time it is trial-and-error by using different methods to bring our abilities to the surface that have been developed over the last century. For instance, at least for me, they told me to try to solve an extremely hard logic puzzle while threatening to beat me if I failed. They really would, too – despite the fact that they healed you afterward, each beating HURT. I had failed over a dozen tests before that, so I knew first-hand how ruthless the instructors could be. The desire to avoid another beating encouraged my ability to increase my intelligence to manifest, allowing me to solve the puzzle.”

  “They beat you? That seems a little extreme – seeing that you’d only just hit puberty at the time.”

  “It was necessary – only the threat of pain or injury has been proven to manifest our abilities. Poor Brint over here got the worst of it,” she said, as she looked in his direction with sympathy on her face. For his part, Brint blushed as he felt her attention directed toward him, but he said nothing in response to her previous words, “he had to endure hundreds of tests, all failing without a result. He was eventually determined to have no ability, which made it really hard on him.”

  Brint cleared his throat at that, before proudly stating, “Fortunately for me, they were wrong. I do have an ability – just not one that would’ve been able to be tested for. I can communicate with and even control The Milton’s creatures.”

  “I always knew you were special,” she said matter-of-factly, which caused the blush to deepen even further on his face.

  “After you learned about your ability, how did you learn how to use it? And, once you learn how to use it, how do you make it stronger?”

  “When one of the more common abilities are discovered, such as Elemental Casters, Nature Manipulators, Physical Augmenters, Healers, or Inventors, an experienced practitioner is paired up with the new ability-user. Training can take anywhere from a day to months, depending on how quickly the person is able to understand how to fully control their abilities. This control is important, as inexperience can lead to injury or even death – for the new ability-user and others. Fortunately, my training took less than a day because it was relatively self-explanatory once I had used it more than once.

  “To those who have the less-common, unusual abilities, they are encouraged to safely practice and discover their potential on their own time. There are exceptions to this, of course, especially if their ability is dangerous to others. I once heard about a woman who burped up highly-corrosive acid every time she drank water. She was forced to live by herself in the wilds –
which sounds dangerous, but by keeping a canteen of water on her body at all times she was able to protect herself pretty well from the beasts inhabiting the nearby forests.

  “As far as strengthening our abilities, there are also Inventors that specialize in teaching power concepts that are largely universal. Each person is taught that they have a limited power pool with which to utilize their ability, which is slowly regenerated as they drink water. To someone who has a small power pool, it may only take two to three cups of water to top it off. To another person who has a much larger pool – such as the one I had before I was brought back to life – it could take gallons and gallons of water to fully fill it back up.”

  Ok, so it sounds like my leakage water provides a small amount of “mana”, allowing them to fill up their “mana” pool. The bigger the “mana” pool, the more water it takes, Milton theorized, as he listened to her explain some more.

  “As you practice using your ability, every time you use your power, you have the chance to improve your overall efficiency and strength. This – of course – doesn’t happen consistently, but practice and experimentation has proven that there are certain conditions that can increase your chances to improve. The easiest of these conditions are stressful situations, such as combat, which is more likely to improve your skill at handling your power as well as your efficiency. If you are forced to defend yourself from attackers in a life-and-death scenario, your body and mind instinctually hone your power into a more effective tool, doing whatever it can to keep you alive. This, in turn, enhances your ability to handle your power more effectively in the future.”

  Sounds like combat experience – most likely, the harder the opponent is compared to your “level”, the more you’ll improve.