Lair
Page 8
“During the long time spans as we travel to a new planet, new Nth are made to replenish those that are lost for the next seeding cycle. The Nth who have nothing to contribute, in terms of abilities and genetic information, gather substrates and materials for building new generations.”
“So what keeps you from overriding your programming, and going all Replicator-crazy on us?” Gus asked cautiously, fishing out another egg to eat.
“For one, unlike your Stargate SG-1 Replicators, our goal is not to increase our numbers beyond a functional capacity. We do have a drive to absorb new innovations and technology, but this is not integrated into ourselves or our design. Without a host, we cannot evolve, so it serves us no purpose to try to usurp them.
“As mentioned before, the different colonies of Nth throughout the universe utilize two unique quantum processors. One that allows us to share information, especially that which would aid our hosts, and another separate one that provides the information for us to function and instruct new Nth as they are created. Our core programming is dictated by this second quantum processor that is structured to be unidirectional.
“It is what dictates how much XP is given for specific actions, and transmits skills that we can implement to give our hosts special abilities. Attempts have been made to cheat this system and change our programming, and the results are, to put it lightly, negative,” Nick hedged, obviously uncomfortable with the topic.
It was the first time that Gus could remember that something appeared to bother the Nth. He wasn’t sure if he had offended Nick with his comparison to homicidal all-devouring robots or what happened when an Nth was ‘hacked.’ He decided to change the subject a bit.
“When I was out trying to finish my quests, I noticed you seemed oddly silent. Was something going on with you?”
“When a quest is generated by the quantum server, the XP earned is drastically reduced by a factor relating to the assistance given by the quest giver. There is little to no growth when one is guided through every step of the process. If the host successfully completes the tasks, occasionally a reward of information is downloaded and integrated into the host’s Nth instantaneously.
“One of our core directives is to allow life-forms to progress along their own path, not the one we determine to be ‘most efficient,’ as that is rarely the same as ‘most effective.’ If a host seeks a particular form of information, we often can provide it, but we typically do not intervene unless something is vital to life or death. Typically, we will wait to be asked before we offer assistance during quests to avoid these types of XP penalties.
“You did well enough without my assistance. The penalties increase if there is a consistent over-reliance on the Nth assisting their host, so it is best to try to work things out if you can,” Nick recommended.
“To be fair, without the Nth augmentations, I wouldn’t have been able to know where to begin.” Gus reviewed his actions on the quests and was impressed with himself. The feeling of control in his life was doing wonders for his self-image and motivation. Ideas were coming more readily to him about what to do next to improve his shelter and how he could explore the island.
“I do want to thank you though, Nick. I can’t remember the last time I felt this good. To let me do that quest like you did makes me feel trusted. At home, I was always waiting for the hammer to drop after everything and the flaws in my performance explained to me in minute detail. I should probably feel nervous that the training wheels I thought were there are not, but it’s nice to know that, succeed or fail, I am running my own destiny.” Gus drank from one of the coconuts and used Razorback to pry the meat away from the shell as he thought of his situation.
Gus knew one of his bad habits was a lack of follow-through, and a tendency to blame others for his failures. When someone else was dictating how things are to be done, then in his mind, it was really their failure, not his own… he was only following orders. Hopefully, as things progressed, he could become a little better in this regard. There wasn’t really anyone else on the island to blame, even if he wanted, so it was going to be a crash course in accountability.
“The assistance that Nth offer is, at its core, merely a magnification of what is already there. Currently your society has created an illusion that supers are better than regs, which is untrue. The same thing was happening before the Nth arrived, just with different sources of power: money, fame, and prestige for example. Value and worth are subjective concepts, and it is one thing that humankind will need to address if they wish to progress past a rudimentary level of society.
“Definitely before introduction to other extraterrestrial life, as it is a very exploitable weakness. It is unfortunate that Earth had not managed these issues before the seeding process began, because it has magnified the problems and issues with those aspects of behavior that divide mankind.
“It is said, ‘With great power comes great responsibility,’ but there is always responsibility, regardless of whether there is great power or not. All beings must choose who they want to become. Ideally only those who have reached this appreciation would be seeded; unfortunately, the process is more genetic-based than merit-based.”
“Wait. What did you just say?” Gus asked, nearly doing a double take. Nick repeated what he had just said and Gus tried to keep his mouth shut. His grandpa had often said the same thing, almost verbatim. He opened his mouth to respond, but closed it.
In a way, it made sense. His grandfather was a super and he would have Nth teaching him the same things, but it was surreal to hear it again in such a fashion.
Gus mused at what Nick had said. His physical body would not have survived the crash without the Nth, but what if he had just landed on the island, alive but in the same circumstances? Would he have fared as well? Part of him felt that he did have what it took to survive, just that it might take a little longer to figure things out. The wind blew and he got goosebumps from the chill.
“I’m going to need more than just these shorts.”
Chapter Nine
Dressed for Success
Day 2 3:14 PM
12:21:38 remaining
I need to make a couple preparations first, if I’m going to be travelling much farther inland. The shorts are ok, but a little thin; it would be nice to have a little more protection from the sun and the plants, Gus thought.
He grabbed one of the fronds from the pile and began weaving again. He formed his typical shelter pattern and began to play around with connecting the open sides and was able to make a reasonable skirt out of the leaves. He tried it on and it had a decent fit, but it would not stay in place around his hips and had to be held up. A double chime sounded.
You have crafted a unique item: Angus’ kilt.
Offers increased protection for the lower half of your body.
Skill obtained: Basket Weaving
You remember that merit badge you got because it only had two requirements? Who knew it would turn out to be useful, amirite? +50% durability to all woven items, chance of items being water resistant.
100 XP awarded
190 XP to level 3
Gus wondered why he hadn’t gained the skill when he was making his shelter, but perhaps being assisted prevented him from gaining a skill from the task. He’d have to keep that in mind; skills and abilities could be game changers, and he wanted every ability he could get, especially if it would level throughout his whole life.
He didn’t feel confident in trying to make a shirt, so Gus fashioned a cape that would at least protect his shoulders from sunburn. They were already starting to feel a little tender from getting too much sun. Gus returned to his skirt pattern for weaving and made a basic cape. He then folded a smaller square shape, and bent the open fronds to overlap and tucked them under the weaves on the other side so he had a bowl-shaped hat. Even in the shade, the heat and near hundred percent humidity made him thirsty, and he drained his coconut glasses of the water they held as he worked.
Two chimes sounded:
You have crafted a unique item: Cape of the crusader.
+10% chance of not getting a sunburn on your shoulders. Improved night vision; +1 perception from sundown to sunrise.
You have crafted a unique item: Dome of the Noob.
+10% chance of not getting a sunburn on your head. Hey, what’d you expect? It’s for noobs!
You have increased your Basket Weaving skill to Level 2.
More techniques and blueprints unlocked, experiment to discover and claim their bonuses!
50 XP awarded
140 XP to level 3
I’m on a roll, Gus thought, and got back to crafting. Razorback turned the remainder of the shell of the suit into thin strips that Gus plaited into small lengths of cord. He first considered trying to cut out the remaining covering of the suit away from the framework and then refashioning these into pants and a shirt, but did not have any means of sewing everything together. He had used a fair amount of the suit to make the ties and waistband for his shorts so he could only make a half-shirt at best. He decided having lots of strands he could use as fasteners would be a better use of the suit’s outer material.
Looking inside the remains of the suit, underneath where the plate had been removed, Gus could see various empty cylinders, vials and electronics. He rooted around to see if anything could be of immediate use and noted the insides of the back section came out in a block. Setting this aside, he saw there were releases in the suit that, when depressed, allowed the back receptacle to detach from the main framework of the suit, leaving Gus with what now amounted to a box with a window cut out of a little over a half of one of the sides. It appeared to be made of some flexible plexiglass-type material, and seemed to be waterproof. In no time, two loops of cord with foam putty shoulder pads made it into a decent backpack.
He weaved one cord in and out through Angus’ kilt with a length long enough to fit around his waist and allow a sufficient amount left to tie into a slipknot. He heard a chime but ignored the display for now, deciding to focus on the tasks at hand.
Since the sharp, flat ends of the bamboo sandal laces were already rubbing the soft skin between his big toe and second toe raw, he decided to swap it out for some made out of fabric from the suit. He took two more sets of strips and fashioned them into a Y shape and tied them to his soles. So much better! I would have had a blister after a while with that stiff bamboo.
Another chime sounded:
You have upgraded a unique item: Sandals of the Wayfarer.
Provides protection for the feet: +5 armor.
Item is now Sandals of the Wayfarer +1
You have upgraded a unique item: Improved Angus’ kilt.
+1 Luck (o’ the Irish!)
“Aren’t kilts Scottish?!” Gus asked aloud.
Another line flashed underneath the description.
Ya want the stat boost or no, ya cheeky bastard?
Gus shrugged and decided to go with it. Donning everything, he finally was dressed. He probably looked ridiculous, but it was nice to have regained some semblance of dignity from being fully clothed. At least, as much dignity as woven palm fronds could offer.
A fanfare sounded and Gus felt the intense joy of leveling.
Quest Complete: Better Cover Up
750 XP awarded
LEVEL UP! You are now level 3.
You have (5) attribute points to assign.
890 XP to level 4
After the brief euphoria faded, Gus eagerly opened his stat sheet to see what he should upgrade. What would be the best to help him survive? From his previous Wreck-ord bonus to perception while on his recent quest, his thoughts on what were the best investments had changed. He put four points into perception and one into strength. Satisfied with what he saw, he finalized the changes and reviewed his stats.
Gus Vannett
Level 3
Agility: 8/?
Constitution: 7/?
Charisma: 8/?
Strength: 8/?
Perception: 14/?
Intelligence: 11/?
Luck: 7 (6+1)/?
HP: 120
MP: 120
Stamina: 120
“Nick, can you remove those question marks by my stats? Unless I do something that explains why they’re there, they’re kind of annoying me.”
“Done.”
“Now that my perception is boosted, how do I get things that I need to light up in my display? I would like food sources and crafting ingredients to be highlighted. Do I need a quest for those to activate, or just focus my brain?”
“Just intention is needed. After you contact the item in question, it will cease to be highlighted, however.”
“What if it’s something like berries, will the others stop being highlighted as soon as I pick one?”
“No, only items you touch will be affected. Unharvested resources will be highlighted until you gather them. Leveling in certain skills will make certain items easier to recognize and you will gain more insight on their varied properties.”
“Ok, I’m feeling the need to explore a bit more. Maybe I’ll find what’s so special about this island that warrants protection with a death shield.
Prepping for his trek, he grabbed a few coconuts and husked them. He bored a hole with Razorback in three of the coconuts. He would fill these with water from the stream and use some foam putty to seal them into makeshift canteens.
He gathered his coco-canteens and threw in the coconuts he had already opened for food. Next, he wound up some unbraided strips, and tucked them into the split coconuts, to cradle the eggs. He tucked the remaining cooked eggs into the hollows of the coconuts on top of his ties and to finish, his foam sleeping mat went over these and kept them from rattling around.
Everything sorted, he set forth. He looked at his watch and it was just a little after noon. He planned on travelling until 5:30 PM, then heading back to make it to the shelter by nightfall. Looking upward to gauge where the sun was in the sky, he saw an occasional shimmer from the bio-stasis field, far overhead. A question popped into his mind as he began walking to the stream; from there he would work farther inland.
“Nick, how big is the bio-stasis field around the island?”
“I have been going over the logs and attempted to extrapolate what some of the findings may mean in terms of its size. Based on how long it took you to float through the field indicates that it is over a mile wide. It is unique, because anyone attempting to traverse it from the outside would be killed. Their brain and all electrical signals to their body would cease. The field also has EMP properties, so vehicles would stop functioning as they entered the field as well. No one would be able to penetrate the field and resuscitate themselves on the other side. In addition to this, there is a resonance field that will interact with any organism with evolved Nth. You were extremely lucky that your passive Wreck-less skill did not hit level two during the time you traversed the field.”
“What would’ve happened?”
“The Nth would have begun to resonate in unison, and the closer one reaches towards the inner edge of the field, the energy increases exponentially. Are you familiar with the term lingchi or ‘death by a thousand cuts?’ The super would be shredded from the inside out in all tissues with Nth integration.”
“Something seems off. What are the odds of all those things happening so I could make it to the island?”
“By chance alone, they are infinitesimal. This whole situation seems like it is being guided, somehow. I see no other rational explanation based on the probabilities. I cannot see any other combination of events that would allow someone to reach this island unscathed. This leads to two other conclusions. The field has been raised from the inside, presumably by someone who is still here. The second is that some form of technology is maintaining this field, and it has been using immense amounts of power to maintain a field this size for such a substantial amount of time.”
“That doesn’t sound ominous at all…”
“What this
means to you is that if you wish to leave, you will have to turn this field off—which would require interacting with complex machinery to which we may not have access. The other is that we have no information on the temperament of any other sentients on the island.”
Gus stumbled a bit at the news, quickly catching himself. What good would it do to have powers and no one knew about them? That wouldn’t do. He had to find a way off the island, somehow. He liked his alone time, but something this good couldn’t be tucked away. A smile crept onto his face as he imagined the look on his father’s and brother’s faces when he met them again, this time with fully decked out powers. His imagination went wild envisioning all different types of abilities, and how they would dazzle his family and friends.
Chapter Ten
Re: Your Brains
Day 2 4:17 PM
12:20:35 remaining
As he progressed inland, Gus began to wonder just how large the island was. He quickly filled his coco-canteens at the river and followed it upstream so he would have an easy guide to get back to his camp.
His progress was steady until his higher perception alerted him that the usual sounds of animals and birds had ceased. He stopped his motion as well, to see if he could hear some predator or indication why things had settled, memories of the nighttime death-screech making his heart beat faster.
There was a slight rustle in the foliage thirty feet off to his right. Gus crouched and slid the backpack off his back and retrieved Razorback. The rustle came again, a little closer. Gus strained his hearing, his attention focused and breath held, as if the sound of an exhale would give away his position.