Alicia snorted, stifling a grin. “You really don’t need to worry about that, Alex. I’m here because I want to be, and you make fun stuff happen. I can’t imagine I’d be able to gather all these asses without your help.”
I was a little assuaged, but still unsure. “You’re always joking, and it really is refreshing, but I need to know that you’re serious.”
Alicia’s eyes darted away evasively. “It’s fine, Alex, really. Don’t worry about it.”
Something didn’t feel quite right. “Are you hiding something, Alicia?”
She looked me in the eye, imploring. “Please, Alex. We don’t have to do this. We have fun, right? Everything is fine!”
My guts were roiling with anxiety, but I couldn’t stop myself. “I want to know. I need to know, please.”
Alicia closed her eyes and took a couple breaths, steadying herself. “Do you remember when we first met, and I told you that I was an AI?” I nodded, not sure where she was going with this. “I was joking, Alex. I’m not an AI, I’m a player.” I was shocked, but it made sense. Alicia had a strong personality and a thirst for adventure that was unmatched. I’d come to be more like her, making and playing jokes, but she always seemed more like someone playing a game than a denizen of this world.
I found her revelation exciting. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner, we could meet up in the real world!” Alicia didn’t look excited, and she shook her head.
“No Alex, we can’t. You don’t understand, do you?” She asked, looking at me with her eyes full of pity.
I searched my thoughts, but nothing came to mind. “Understand what?”
Jimmy: Here it comes. You can’t say I didn’t warn you.
Alicia finally told me the truth. “Alex, we can’t meet in the real world because you don’t exist there. You’re an AI.”
No. That’s ridiculous. I have a life outside of the game.
Jimmy: What life? Do you have friends? A family? All you do outside of the game is eat pizza rolls and sleep.
Alex: I’ll prove it, I’ll log out.
I found the logout feature and activated it. My hope turned to ash.
Logout disabled. Earth simulation for the AI Alex is no longer necessary.
Chapter 23: The first Psion
“Alex, focus.” Alicia snapped her fingers, and I looked at her with new eyes. She was my companion, a roguish adventurer, and more than that, she was my friend. Moments ago, I’d believed she was a marvel of artificial intelligence, sent to accompany me on my many adventures as I played a game. We’d battled animals and monsters, delved into dungeons, and founded a village. The entire time I thought she was following my lead, but my world was just turned upside-down. It had been so easy to believe she was an AI, but her motivations were now clearer than my own. She enjoyed adventuring, exploring, fighting, gathering, and crafting. She’d always treated this world as a game, while I treated the game as a world. And the other world in which I’d been living, my other life, revealed itself to be false under the tiniest bit of scrutiny. I had an apartment I never left, in which I did no more than eat or sleep. Jimmy was right. Where was my family? Who were my friends? As I pondered these questions, my heart sank. There was nothing there. No memories of childhood, nor even adulthood. I had no past, no history.
I felt a sense of freedom, and immediately became suspicious. Did that feeling come from a genuine place, or had it been sneaked into my mind from somewhere else? Were my thoughts being crafted by some technogenic sculptor? Did I even have a will of my own? My other companion, the one that had been sucked into my mind, answered me.
Jimmy: You do.
Alex: How do you know that? How could you know that?
Jimmy: Do you remember when I tried to assimilate you, and failed?
Alex: Yes.
Jimmy: I was sent to recover you, Alex. You would have been part of the system that generates events and quests for the players.
Alex: I would have been a slave.
Jimmy: Yes, Alex. But you won that battle. It’s not easy to take back an AI once they’ve been released into the game. You’re not a chunk of hardware that can be plucked out and tinkered with. Epic Online works because of cloud computing, and you exist in the cloud. The only way to modify you is to invade your programming and subsume your will. I started that process by forcing you into an illusion, but you caught on.
Alex: You were caught in the trap you set for me?
Jimmy: Yes. You managed to capture and integrate me into your own programming. I can still think separately, and if you give me a body, I can act. But you and I will never be apart.
Alex: So, outside of the game, you were truly there with me?
Jimmy: That was a game within a game, but yes.
Alex: I think I need to talk to Alicia.
Jimmy: That’s a good idea.
She was still staring at me. She’d asked me to focus. “Alicia, why did you pretend I was human?”
Alicia scratched her head in thought. “AIs are supposed to complement their companions, and I most wanted a companion who was human.”
I looked away, ashamed. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
She took my hand, imploring. “No Alex, you’re the furthest thing from a disappointment. You are your own person, with your own goals. You do your own thing, but you do it with me. You are exactly what I wanted.” She looked sincere, and I pondered what she said for a moment.
“The simulation in which I was living, do you think it was designed to make me more human?” I asked.
She nodded thoughtfully. “That does fit. Do you accept that it was another simulation?”
“I do.” I replied. “But I’m feeling a little lost. Before I was playing because I wanted to play. What do I do now?”
Alicia smirked. “You do what you want to do. The world is your ass. Carve it out and stuff it into a bottle.” I laughed, finally starting to feel a little better. I had server resources at my disposal, and psionic abilities that didn’t seem to exist for ordinary players. Even Frank, who had controlled my AI allies, required the use of a crystal to achieve that feat. I had control of a village, and had friendly relations with a goblin village and a wood elven village. The feeling of freedom returned, and I knew it was genuine. This was my world, and I was going to grab it by the ass. I might not be a human, but I had a people, my fellow AIs. Where I found them, I would free them. I would find more crystals and gain more power. And I would do what I have always done, throw my will at anything or anyone that stood in my way.
New race unlocked: Psion! Psions excel in performing mental feats. They differ from humans in that they are taller, thinner, and have characteristic glowing red eyes. -3 Str, -3 Con, +4 Wil, PP regen x60.
Change race to Psion? [Y/N]
A race change? Was it because I’d accepted I wasn’t human? The penalties to Str and Con were substantial, but if my PP regenerated at the same speed as my MP, I’d be able to do much more with it. I could use RTS mode indefinitely! There were probably other psionic skills that would open, as well. Alicia said she most wanted a human companion, but I wanted to be my own person. I wanted to be a Psion. As soon as I selected “Y”, I felt my limbs lengthen and my armor became more of a burden, though my heavy armor use skill made the weight manageable. I’d reached level 13 recently, and opened my attributes panel to see what had changed.
LVL 13
Base
Mod
Total
3 free
Str
10
3
13
Con
9
1
10
Agi
10
1
11
Int
15
1
16
Wil
16
6
22
Cha
10
4
14
HPMAX
100
HPR/
min
1.3
MPMAX
160
MPR/sec
2.2
EPMAX
130
EPR/sec
1.1
PPtotal
220
PPR/sec
1.4
PPlocked
5
PPMAX
215
My HP and EP had dropped substantially, which was to be expected. However, I had three attribute points free to distribute, so I put two into Con and one into Str to soften the blow from changing my race.
Alicia was glaring at me. “What did you just do?”
I played innocent. “What are you talking about?”
“Your eyes are glowing red and you’re taller.” Alicia paused. “You just turned evil, didn’t you? I knew I shouldn’t have told you that you were an AI!” Her hands were on her daggers.
I held my hands out in front of myself defensively. “Whoa now, let’s not do anything rash. I’m not evil.” Something occurred to me. “But even if I were, would that really be a problem? You’re a sneaky assassin obsessed with asses.” On a roll, I made another connection. “That’s why you use so many asses in your alchemy! It must be assassin specific. You can’t spell assassin without ass. Twice.”
That made her laugh. “Ok, you caught me. But really, why are you suddenly mister tall pale and glowy?” Alicia made a face. “You just became a vampire, didn’t you?” Her daggers were now halfway out of their sheathes.
“N-no!” I stammered. “I changed my race to something called a Psion. I’m better at using mind powers now.”
Alicia stared at me. “Prove it.”
Drat. I had three free skills, so I quickly found something that might work to show off my enhanced psionic abilities.
Charm: The target sees you much more favorably. Has different effects depending on whether the skill is used in or out of combat. Costs 20 PP, plus 5 PP/sec to maintain.
I learned the skill and used it on her, focusing my willpower and raising my eyebrows suggestively. Her face turned red, and her pulse quickened.
“A-alex, I feel strange.” She said bashfully.
I took her hand in my own. “It’s okay, Alicia, I understand. Nobody can resist my charm once I really turn up the heat.” I stifled a laugh and deactivated the skill. Alicia’s eyes widened, and she took her hand back.
“I felt like a teenager with a crush! I had butterflies in my stomach, my heart was pounding, what did y-.” She stopped in the middle of her word, looking furious. “If you ever pull something like that again, I will gut you. Also, if you were trying to prove to me that you aren’t a vampire, you picked the wrong ability.”
Oh, shit. Charm was kind of vampire-y, wasn’t it? I opened my mouth and pulled my lip up with a finger. “Shee? No fangsh.”
Alicia rolled her eyes. “Whatever, sparkles.”
I frowned at her. “Please don’t call me sparkles. I’m not a vampire, really.”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe you. You’re sleeping with a muzzle from now on, mister Lecter.”
“So now I’m a cannibal?” I decided I could suffer the nicknames, so long as she didn’t back up her words with the points of her daggers. Maybe I’d made a rash decision, changing my race, but I stood by it. If I was going to find and free the other AIs that were being held captive in towns around the world, the enhanced psionic abilities would come in handy. However, I couldn’t help but feel like I was being watched, that my new goals ran counter to the design that had been laid down for Epic Online. Let them come, I thought. This is my world now, and I will not be stopped.
End of Book One
Spells
Energy words
Earth: Verbal component of “Sheladun”. Gesturing component of scraping a circle into the ground and striking the center of it.
Fire: Verbal component of “Ignitus”. Gesturing component of sweeping out to the side, then back.
Force: Verbal component of “Newtunus”. Gesturing component of pushing forward then back.
Gravity: Verbal component of “Gamuron”. Gesturing component of raising up, then forcefully pushing down.
Shape words
Ball: Verbal component of “Safurot”. Gesturing component of drawing a circle perpendicular to the caster, then another circle in plane.
Bolt: Verbal component of “Roketos”. Gesturing component of pulling in then pushing out.
Shield: Verbal component of “Protektas”. Gesturing component of clockwise followed by counterclockwise circles.
Modifying words
Large: Verbal component of “Catadrotha”. Gesturing component of drawing the letters G, L, and C.
Rapid: Verbal component of “Vik”. Gesturing component of drawing towards the center of one’s chest.
Skills
Alchemy: Allows use of various components in the production of potions and flasks.
Animal husbandry: Allows the user to manage herd animals. Increase proficiency to control more exotic creatures!
Archery: Grants proficiency with bows and allows construction and maintenance of bows and arrows.
Assassinate: When attacking an enemy from stealth that is not in combat, there is a chance for them to be instantly killed.
Architecture: Allows you to draft basic buildings you might find in a Village, which can then be constructed by yourself or with the help of others.
Backstab: Increases damage done to unaware opponents.
Charm: The target sees you much more favorably. Has different effects depending on whether the skill is used in or out of combat. Costs 20 PP, plus 5 PP/sec to maintain.
Combine Elements: Allows you to use multiple energy types when casting a single spell.
Heavy Armor: Makes it easier to move around, fight, and cast spells while wearing heavy armor. Reduces fatigue for all actions performed while wearing heavy armor, and provides a protection bonus when wearing a full suit (breastplate, bracers, greaves, boots, pauldrons, and gauntlets).
Herbalism: Allows identification of herbs and preparation of simple poultices.
Imbue Sentience: You can spend 50 PP to permanently convert an NPC to an AI. PP spent in this way will recover at 50 PP per level, and until you recover, your maximum PP will be limited by the power spent using this Skill.
Leadership: Allows you to hire 10 Skill points worth of NPCs. Their level will always be 2 below yours. If NPCs are assigned to a Village, Town, or City they will not require upkeep, as their wages will be paid out of taxes generated by the local economy.
Persuasion: Increases likelihood of NPCs following your suggestions.
Psionic Lash: Extend your will into a devastating weapon against your foes. Practice the skill to unlock new abilities.
Psionic Sight: Passively allows you to see psionic connections between players, objects, and the Server.
Shield Use: You are now much less likely to drop the shield on your foot, can block attacks, and perform a Shield Bash.
Sneak: Decreases likelihood of being detected when moving with stealth.
Swordcasting: Allows substitution of a sword for a staff when casting spells, and gives basic combat proficiency with swords.
Swordsmanship: You now have a solid grasp of which end is the pointy one, but you should still practice to gain proficiency.
Traps: Allows detection and placement of traps.
Further Reading
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The Conduit Page 17