11
Thaslo
Skill advanced: Spear combat
Spear combat: Level 3
Skill advanced: Tissue regeneration
Tissue regeneration: Level 3
Skill unlocked: Heat resistance
Heat resistance: Level 1
Skill unlocked: Explosives
Explosives: Level 1
Skill unlocked: Mana control
Mana control: Level 1
Skill unlocked: Pain tolerance
Pain tolerance: Level 1
Skill unlocked: Bone mending
Bone mending: Level 1
Luke was surprised at the number of messages. He never really understood the messages and skills, they seemed to be connected to the chip in his head but that’s all he knew. The original Luke, Rick, Kevin, and Janet must have known about it though since the videos of them were fed through the strange system. The skills weren't that noticeable but that might just be their level. His highest level skill was in a language that he learned in record time so maybe they were more effective than he realized and were just subtle.
The thoughts of the messages and skills were welcome as they kept his mind off the aching of his body. After the battle AJ enlisted the help of the Tribe to gather Luke up. They took him to a nice room in the Residential sector and there he was being given the royal treatment. After they realized it was Luke who slew the monster, the Tribe treated him like a hero.
The bone setting and wound tending had been mostly taken care of after knocking Luke out with the supplies they found in the medical outpost of Residential. Once he woke up AJ and Jasla had to fight back a crowd of Tribespeople who wanted to either worship him or give them their spears. The spear thing was confusing but the Tribe was an odd bunch at the best of times.
Jasla explained that the Tribe had gone into Genetics to explore and released some creature by accident. The thing wasn’t so big then but each time it found something organic to eat it would assimilate the prey and grow. By the time the Tribe realized there was a problem the problem was the size of three men and none of them could fight it. There had been nine casualties, less than Luke had feared but still too many.
They held an emergency Council meeting and had made Jasla a war leader of some sort and confined the Tribe to the Hydroponics, Residential, and Office sectors. Jasla was tasked with clearing any more threats from the rest of the base and was given full authority over the Tribe to do so.
“Once you heal, will you join the war party and clear the base with us?” Jasla was asking
“If you wait to clear the sectors I need to visit I’ll help. I really need to get out and see what’s going on. More and more strange things are happening and I just don’t know anything.”
Jasla sat back in her chair thinking, “Which sectors do you need to visit?”
AJ was the one who answered, “We need to pick up, but not read, a notebook from Data/Comms as well as check a few things, then we are off to Surface Operations to see what they have there, gear up, and head out into the wild unknown.”
Jasla pulled out her PDA and looked over the map, “I can gather the team and clear Weapons tomorrow, then we can just keep clearing this side of the tracks, depending how long it takes for you to recover you can join us then and we can cross the tracks for your targets, both of your sectors are on the other side.”
Luke nodded, “I have a feeling I will be back up and moving faster than I should be. I think the skills are responsible for my hand fixing itself so quickly so they should help again, and my body is a bit special now so that will help too.”
That remark piqued Jasla's curiosity and Luke and AJ were forced to tell the story of their adventure for upgrades. When Luke explained some of his changes Jasla stared at him intently.
“You can use haloi now?”
Skill maxed: Tribal Language mastery
“haloi?” Luke asked
“Yes magic, that’s what you just said, you can use magic now.”
Luke nodded slowly
Jasla carried on excitedly, “If I go there, could I get magic too?”
Luke looked to AJ
AJ shrugged, “I can go with you when you clear Genetics and we can do the same thing for you as we did with Luke. It takes time though so I will only be able to give you the full load out, the rest of your people will need to figure out how to work the equipment themselves. Oh and we will need to assign a guard for Luke or he will be some sort of god king and breeding stud when we get back.”
Jasla nodded eagerly until the last part where her face darkened.
“Relax it’s a joke, he's joking.” Luke tried to put out the fire
Jasla opened the door a crack and several arms shoved their way inside grasping for anything they could.
“Yeah ok, maybe two guards" Luke ceded
The next few days were spent in boredom for Luke. AJ had set up a movie marathon for him and the Tribe had gotten better at cooking, but being stuck in one room unable to move was mind numbing. It did help that Jasla had enlisted two Councilors to guard him and they worked out a meeting schedule. Luke had several visitors each day, many just wanted to touch him and thank him profusely, some wanted pointers on one thing or another, a few just wanted to meet him and when they discovered he wasn't a demigod or something he was able to make a few friends and watch some movies with them. Jasla had been giving English lessons and the Tribe was eager to learn. The entire base was English, all the writing, videos, computers, games, movies, and books were all English. Once Jasla explained what all of the things were people got excited to learn and open a whole new world of entertainment and information.
Skill advanced: Bone mending
Bone mending: Level 2
After a week Luke convinced the Tribal that acted as his doctor he could begin moving about and exercising. Only two days later Luke was fully mobile and fit again.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Not even two weeks and dozens of broken bones are as good as new, what sort of monster are you?” a Councilor guard asked
“I have some advantages, can someone be sent to tell AJ and Jasla I’m up and ready? I need to gather some gear.”
AJ had thought ahead and made some hunters bring his M spear and cart of loot back with them. Then wisely supervised them to keep their sticky fingers off Luke's stuff. The gear hadn't been fully unpacked with Luke being bedridden so there wasn't much to gather and he was ready well before the war party returned for him.
The group that returned was led by AJ, that’s the only reason a fight didn't break out. AJ flew in and immediately started explaining the situation so the Tribe wouldn’t attack them.
“They look different now but they are all the hunters who left, they are stronger and faster now but they are the same ones who left. Don't panic and remain calm everyone"
The general sentiment was that AJ was being overly dramatic as usual, but then the war party entered the room and everyone went silent.
AJ broke the silence after everyone had a few moments to think, “We thought it would take more time but the hunters all wanted the same simple modifications so it only took a few days to run everyone through.”
The entire group looked mostly human. They all still had their individual hair colors and body types, different facial structures and other such individualities. The mutations were gone though, no extra limbs, no strange growths, they looked like healthy people for the most part. They did however have some characteristics common among the group that were clearly inhuman.
They were all tall, the shortest was every bit of seven feet, they had claws on their off hand and regular human fingers on their dominant hand, they had a telltale shine in their eyes that spoke of low light vision, and they were outfitted for M energy.
The signs for M energy were subtle but Luke knew what to look for having the same things himself. All in all the hunters looked like specialized lethal killing machines. Luke supposed that’s exactly what they were.
A slightly familiar woman stepped forward and spoke to the onlookers, “This is how we were meant to be. The air is poison and corrupts our bodies, twisting them into weak fragile sickly things. We can restore all of you to this, the proper way of our people. The poison no longer corrupts us but instead empowers us. All of us can be healthy and wield magic like we wield the spear"
Jasla punctuated her words by discharging electricity from her fingertips.
The crowd didn’t cheer or clap they exploded into conversation and questions. It took some time to disperse the crowd. Jasla and AJ fielded questions for a time and then called a public meeting of the Council where they quickly decided on a plan for sending people through the reconstruction procedure. The group had trained one of their smartest hunters on how to run the equipment for the same modifications each time, they would be left behind and set to converting people so AJ could stick with the group. It wasn’t until the next morning that the war party set back off again.
Luke finally got a moment to talk with Jasla as they marched to the Data sector.
“You all look really good, scary but good" Luke said
Jasla turned red, it seemed it would be easier to read the modified Tribe's emotions, “Thank you"
“You sure you all want to have the same bodies?” Luke asked
“Yes, we are one people. It was a mistake to separate scavengers and hunters before, we are calling ourselves Thaslo now"
The word meant ‘Survivors' in their language
“I like it, I've just been calling you the Tribe in my head. It didn't matter yet but you have really set up to grow into a proper civilization and won’t be a tribe for long, and there are bound to be other tribes out there so being the Tribe wouldn’t really work.”
Jasla shrugged, “All we know is this place, and ice. You say there is more and I’ve seen the movies and videos and pictures but it will be some time before we can leave here.”
Luke nodded, “So? How does the new body feel?”
Jasla looked at her hand and flexed her fingers, “No, I was speaking truthfully when I said this is how we should be. This isn't a new body, this is the correct body, I was trapped in a broken mockery of my body before, finally it is right.”
Luke nodded again and they walked in companionable silence for a time.
As they moved out of the areas of Robotics that he and AJ had explored Luke brought up a new topic.
“How much have you managed to clear?”
Jasla smirked and answered smugly, “We moved as a group. Each time someone finished restoring their body they would run in and tag out the next person. The restored bodies are much faster and stronger so we made great time. The entire Paradise side of the tracks is clear. On this side we left the sectors you wanted to visit for last, we started in Robotics and worked back the other way clearing Manufacturing, Maintenance, and Shopping.
There wasn't much to clear, Robotics had some angry robots and Shopping had a nest of those ‘ant' creatures. The movies didn't say they were three foot long and could teleport, but we handled them. Otherwise it was just a few little things here and there. The weapons we gathered and magic make fighting so much easier.”
Luke noted that ‘teleport’ was another of the words that previously refused to translate.
“That’s pretty fast, you only have a few more sectors and the whole base is Thaslo territory, also ants are very tiny and bite they don’t teleport, those were some kind of magic mutant ants. I am very glad you dealt with them not me.”
Jasla nodded but something seemed to be bothering her. Luke didn't get to ask as they had reached Data, new territory for all of them and there were at least three objectives in the sector.
Luke spoke up to the group, “You’re all strong now but it wasn’t so long ago you saw how crazy stuff can get so I don’t need to tell you to be careful. We are on the lookout for a notebook, AJ will lead the way to that. No one opens the notebook, no one. After that we search for any information on what the world is like out there, and specifically look for information on a few names, Nomed, Adrian, Janet, Rick, and Kevin. Anything else that looks interesting or important please let me know. Lastly we kill everything that isn’t us. Everyone ready?”
The group of terrifying clawed magical seven foot tall spear wielding murder machines cheered.
Luke made to lead the charge but stepped back out of the way and waved a concerned Jasla on as an untimely message distracted him.
Data reconstruction complete
Corrupt file restored
View restored file?
Yes
Beginning replay of file
An older Janet spoke, “That’s about the gist of it, while we were playing nice so we could get back our toys we were actually helping build Armageddon. Its sort of funny you know, before the end the lead researchers in each country earned themselves names. Not our real names of course but apocalypse names… you know what they called us? Oh yeah they knew about us, after the war started we became the poster children of death. They made us out as heroes and demons. The enemies fell and it was us who were responsible, the world died and it was us who were responsible. Anyway, our names, we made all new forms of death and the world named us the Four Horsemen. Rick made new bigger nastier bombs as well as light and radiation based firearms, they named him War. Kevin made some sort of implant that enhanced soldiers beyond human capacity, they named him Death. I made bio weapons the likes of which turned everyone against us, they made me create plagues… I am Pestilence. Luke became Famine, I suppose mostly by process of elimination, it wasn’t easy to slot a cyber warlord into a biblical apocalypse but one of the things he did was shut down logistics, no food for refugee camps, medical supplies sent to the middle of nowhere and such, I didn't really understand all of it.
In the end it didn’t really matter, every country had their apocalypses, their own named monsters. It didn’t change anything. Once you start something like that nothing stops it. The nukes weren’t far off Who could blame them for launching anyway? We made things on par with nuclear death so they fought back the only ways they could and overnight the world ended”
Janet laughed a bitter angry laugh,
“After the world ended, people survived, some did anyway. Bunkers, people escaping to space, people just lucky enough to be out of the rain of death. Of course radiation killed the rest. It wasn’t pretty, people dying of cancer because their food was irradiated , and they were the ones that were lucky enough to actually get food. Everyone died. Except, as you may have noticed, the ones who didn’t. There aren’t many of us. People who figured out or lucked into surviving with little to no clean water, air, or food. I wont be explaining any of it to you, I don’t care if you live. Though you probably will, all four of us did. For a while anyway. I don’t know the specifics of how. Anyway this whole thing is pissing me off, so I’m done. This will be the end of the recording, hopefully I’m dead and we wont see each other again.”
End of restored file
Further corruption detected in later files
Continue restoring files?
Yes
Luke had to sit down. He had pieced together most of that but to hear that he was partly responsible for the end of the world… They had been four friends playing at science in a garage. How could things have spiraled so far out of control. He couldn't imagine killing anyone before waking up in this nightmare but now he was supposed to believe he had killed EVERYONE. It just didn't make sense.
AJ slapped him, “Wake up meat sack, you can’t make an inspiring speech then sit down and cry. What’s wrong with you?”
Luke wiped his face finding there was moisture there, “Yea sorry, lets go.”
The rest had long since gone into the Data sector leaving Jasla, AJ, and Luke alone. Jasla looked at AJ with a question in her eyes but Luke caught it.
“Really I’m fine. I… can't explain it now but there's nothing wrong, lets go before someone reads that damn notebook.”
Luke was almost out of the Research facility and into the world where answers to every question and more waited. Just a few more stops and he would be out and could figure out what the hell was going on.
First he had to prepare which meant searching the information repository that was the Data sector. It was possible he would find some of the answers he needed here. Janet had run the place after all and hundreds of years of secret research had to be worth some answers.
Luke didn't wait for them and pushed into Data.