20
Patch Notes And More Shopping
Dr. Pepah collected Luke when the upgrades were ready. He was taken back to a room where they shaved his head and cleaned him with some pungent chemicals and hot water. When he was clean to the doctors satisfaction they laid him on his side and secured him to the table which was wheeled into a room with several robotic arms hanging from the ceiling.
“Awake or asleep?” Dr. Haus asked
“Holy shit, asleep please I don’t want my head split open while I’m awake what the hell?”
The doctor shrugged and Luke felt a pinch before the world rapidly faded away.
Upgrade installed
Patch installed
Active model: ERROR
Active version: ERROR
Patch notes:
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@#RTG#$TR
ERROR
ERROR
@#RE$GGG4rd
When Luke awoke his head was pounding.
“AHH you’re already awake, very curious.” Dr. Haus boomed, or maybe that was just the headache, “lie still a moment longer, I must finish checking you over.”
Luke groaned, he wasn't going to be doing much moving for a while anyway.
“The picking and choosing of upgrades to the implants is not a new idea.” Dr. Pepah thundered from somewhere out of sight, “unfortunately it is also not possible to cherry pick most of the upgrades without breaking the implants entirely. We haven’t had the opportunity to work with an unrestricted implant like yours before, but orders from the king were clear. No damaging the implant yet.
So, we had to be careful and only install a few small changes. The magic stats are now linked to magic, you will have access to the magic menus and any magic you do will be enhanced by the magic stats, you have the same restriction to one element as everyone else though. You also now have the map function, a world map has been pre loaded and any area you visit will be updated to match what you see, if you ever connect to a network it can automatically download updates from there as well. Lastly we added a short range signal receiver that can be toggled on and off, it connects directly to the robot and allows for functionality of the familiar system.”
Dr. Suze took over from there, walking into view and showing Luke a pair of sunglasses, “These glasses have been special made to cover for the lack of network connectivity. They function just like a more modern implant, and for all the network can tell these ARE you. Any messages meant for you will go to the glasses and be displayed in a readout, the pings the network send that you aren't supposed to know about are also sent to this. Certain people can read stat sheets, these glasses will mask your unreadable implant with a false one of your own design.”
The doctor put the glasses on and suddenly looked just like Luke, “They also have a disguise and voice changer built in. You can change these just like the stat sheet that people will see when scanning you."
They removed the glasses and placed them on the table next to Luke's bed. Luke was positioned to examine them without moving and did so. They looked like regular glasses, the technology crammed in there had to be incredible, and incredibly expensive.
As they poked and prodded Luke his headache quickly faded. His recovery speed was amazing, according to AJ who watched the proceedings from a chair, Luke had been out of surgery for less than an hour when he woke up, and now his incisions were already gone. That didn't even address the fact that the surgery had to be moved to another room when the robot arms failed to cut into his skin. Luke was quickly and quietly becoming something that scared even himself.
Then Luke remembered Kevin had been growing like this for hundreds of years and the small confidence Luke had built crumbled. This was one hell of a task.
The doctors demanded Luke stay the night for observation in spite of his miraculous healing speed. That lasted only until Hampton heard about it and showed up to drag Luke and AJ away. The doctors were much less insistent when the king's triggerman was there.
Before long the pair were airborne again and leaving the city. Luke flew back into the relative safety of the grasslands before setting down and exploring the new menus.
Magic menu
Please select an element
Available elements:
Fire
Water
Wind
Earth
Light
Shadow
Void
Entropy
Space
Time
Gravity
Mind
The list continued on and on. Luke discussed with AJ pros and cons for some of the more interesting options, possible builds, and synergies with his current spells. In the end they decided that, while some of the more impressive options were enticing as hell, the magic shop they had visited had far more stock for the less complex elements. The final choice was wind, as bland as it was, wind would combine well with both of Luke's current spells. Telekinesis and flame jet would both benefit from any amount of control over air.
Not to mention wind was a clear frontrunner for flight type spells which were on the shortlist of things Luke wanted. When he selected the element a basic wind manipulation spell unlocked. Testing revealed that wind manipulation was exactly as it sounded and Luke now had another way to move things about with magic. With some focus Luke was now actually able to lift himself while using telekinesis with one hand and wind manipulation with the other. He wouldn't be flying off into the sunset but even that goal was within sight.
Next was the familiar bond the doctors had mentioned. Luke flipped the mental switch and the short range signal to AJ connected. When the signal connected Luke checked his skill list, he hadn't received a message saying the skill was unlocked but in his skill list there was a level one familiar bond. The only thing they could do with the skill was share information like a message system. Perhaps when it leveled it would be more impressive but for the time being Luke turned the signal off for safety.
Luke donned the high tech glasses and spent some time fiddling with the menus that appeared in his vision. The glasses allowed him to connect to a global network under a false identity. Some searching on the network shed light on just how incredible his stat gains had been. Most people received fifty points or so their first year with an implant, the second year averaged about thirty, then fifteen, and then most years gave less than ten points. People who had their implants for a decade or more would often go an entire year without any points. Luke had the stats of someone who had been adventuring for four or more years.
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They spent some time building a false identity for Luke to work with when tagging along with the Hero's party.
Name: Larry
Race: Human
Class: Warrior
Stats:
Strength: 20
Constitution: 80
Endurance: 25
Dexterity: 14
Intelligence: 25
Wisdom: 10
Free points: 0
Magic: Wind
Skills: minimized
Larry the warrior should be impressive enough that he wouldn’t be turned away from the Hero's party, but not impressive enough that people looked too deep into it. Luke also changed his appearance with the glasses. He would look mostly the same, but a bit shorter, and stockier, more hair and muscle. Just enough change that Kevin shouldn't recognize him.
Now more familiar with the menus and the disguise, Larry and AJ took back to the air and started to the meeting place in Salmagundi. The flight was done mostly in the dark, as they flew through the night. Holly had asked them to hurry, but they were likely ahead of schedule. Even so Larry wanted to arrive as soon as possible to explore some options as far as new spells went. He would have to rely on only wind magic while around Kevin after all.
Some armor and possibly a shield would be welcome as well, so there was still plenty to do before actually meeting his old friend.
The flight lasted several hours, Luke and AJ both began to look forward to traveling on foot for a while. Flying was great and all but it seemed like they had been doing nothing but flying from one place to another with very short breaks between. Somehow Luke even began to wish for another orc dungeon type situation, at least then they had something to do besides stare at the ground as it whipped by.
Their path crossed several dungeons each with a different monster type, so they at least had a chance to observe some of the enemies they would be fighting soon. Many of the monsters were unidentifiable, but some were recognizable fantasy creatures, everything from slimes to minotaur wandered around the red flags. As they crossed into the tropical climate they lost sight of the ground. The red flags extended above the rainforest canopy so adventurers could find the dungeons from the air, but their entertainment from watching the monsters was lost.
Finally they began to spot signs of life. The border town of Nexton had farms and small villages around it, it seemed the town of Salmagundi also had small settlements surrounding it. Tree houses and regular buildings in cleared sections of the forest became more and more common as they approached, then they could see the town itself. Salmagundi was built into the trees, some buildings rested atop the canopy, most notably the air docks had a flashing light on the tallest limbs. Some buildings were carved into the still living trees like giant squirrel and bird nests, others hung suspended from massive limbs or off cables strung between trees. Still more buildings leaned against the massive trunks at their base.
The town was unlike anything Luke or AJ had seen. The air docks were packed but Holly had sent word ahead and AJ had a reservation. At this point Luke was not using his name anymore. As common as the name was, and as long as it had been since Kevin and Luke had spoken, it was still needlessly dangerous to use the name. Larry would have to wait and apply for the Hero's party just like anyone else.
They still had some time though and they both intended to use it. First they found an inn, their money fountain Holly wasn't around so they had to settle for cheap accommodations at the base of one of the larger trees. They only planned on resting there and training while most of the shops were closed at night, so they couldn't justify spending big. Once they had settled they had to decide how to spend their limited funds.
“I think a visit to the magic shops would be good, I need to see what sort of new spells I can cast.” Luke suggested
“You aren't a spell caster, you’re a tank, you need armor" AJ replied
It was true, Luke was going to be the frontline in whatever group he found himself in for the foreseeable future. Getting armor was important… but magic…
With some effort, AJ convinced Luke to at least look over the options for armor first.
The armor shops were split into several distinct categories. It seemed odd at first but once they visited a few different shops the reasoning became clear. There was armor for people who wanted armor to protect them, these were some of the most expensive shops and they catered to people without implants or those who had very little endurance. Then there was armor for those who wanted their armor to enhance their other abilities, these were made mostly for spell casters and the like who didn't plan on taking a hit and instead wanted to boost their own capability. Luke found himself drawn to the shops that catered to higher endurance builds.
Adventurers with high endurance took hits more often, and as such they needed armor that wouldn't tear apart at the first sign of damage. Armor that was built specifically to be resilient wasn't quite right either. If no expense was spared and the armor took all the damage of any hit then there was no value in endurance. The best solution for high endurance builds seemed to be armor that allowed the adventurer to take the hit, the armor only mitigating and deflecting blows. Durability was the keyword, followed by deflection, and finally constitution enhancing properties. Unfortunately so much work and research had been spent on high endurance armor that the price of high end gear was astronomical.
After pricing some armor Luke and AJ moved on to the magic shops. Wind magic was known as a base element. Base elements had much, much larger libraries to choose from. The magic shops in Salmagundi had some sort of strange overarching organization that even AJ couldn't decipher with his CPUs. The task of finding usable and affordable spells would likely have been impossible without the network connection that the new glasses afforded.
With the network Luke was able to sort available stock in all the magic shops by element, requirements, costs, rarity, power, and any number of other categories. What they discovered was that Luke could afford only a handful of wind spells, and of the ones he could afford only two were usable with his current stats. Tailwind was a spell that would create a breeze at Luke's back pushing him forward as well as blowing into the face of whatever he was fighting. Gust was fairly self explanatory , creating a gust of wind in a target direction based on the stats of the caster.
None of the spells currently usable inspired much excitement, but looking ahead had Luke more than ready to focus on magic stats even just to enable some of the more impressive spells. Higher end wind spells for sale in the town's shops were expensive but included things like tornado, flight, suffocation, vacuum, and cutting winds. After checking up on his stats Luke decided he would have to return after the business with Kevin and the Demon Lord, surely he would have the stats by then, if not the money.
After window shopping the day away they decided to rest and work on combining Luke's new wind manipulation spell with the other spells which had been boosted now that his stats properly influenced his magic. It was like relearning his abilities from the beginning and several times Luke lost control and sent coins and other objects into walls at high speed.
A hidden benefit of choosing lodgings based on lowest pricing was that none of the neighbor's complained despite the noise. In fact Luke and AJ weren't even the loudest around, that honor went to the harpy couple a few doors down. Whatever they were doing involved a lot of screeching.
The next day Luke and AJ set out with a plan. They couldn’t afford high end armor that would suit Luke's stats, nor would he get much use out of any spells they could afford. Instead they agreed to buy the best shield that he could wield with one hand and use with his stats. The shields had similar restrictions as armor, but the shields offered much more flexibility within the different categories.
Luke didn't have much strength and planned on leaning into the magic stats for a while so the shield should reflect that choice as well. They weren't in a hurry so spent most of the day trying out different options. In the end the choice they went with was only barely considered a shield.
The shield was actually a bracer that projected a magical shield when it detected incoming attacks. It drew from Luke's reserve which was now a two part pool, one part was based on his stats and held mana in circulation through his body, the second part was stored in the batteries next to his heart. The extra mana pool outside of his stats meant Luke could use a shield that would normally be beyond him until he had more Intellect.
They tested the shield before making the purchase and found that the ‘attacks’ were intent based. Basically the shield did what Luke intended for it to do, but ONLY what he intended, so it could completely absorb an attack for a large portion of his mana, or deflect it for a smaller amount. Additionally it worked like a shield, for now at least, rather than some full coverage barrier, Luke had to raise his arm as if he held a buckler or some other small shield to activate the effect, and attacks Luke was unaware of would land just fine.
More comprehensive shields and barriers were available but for their budget, this was the best option and allowed for growth based on skill, Skills, and magic stats. They ended up spending almost all of their coin on the shield but Luke was happy with it. Outside of town there was plenty of room to practice and they made full use of it in the following days. They worked on simple reflexes and muscle memory, muscle training, and testing the limits of the spells and gear.
At this point almost all of Luke’s equipment had been replaced and all of his spells had been significantly boosted, but none of it had been battle tested. Training and practice would help but there was no substitute for experience. With that in mind the two of them searched the network through Luke's glasses and found where some adventurers were looking for sparring partners.
It seemed they were not the only ones in town who wanted to stretch their muscles but didn't want to leave for fear of missing the Hero's party. Sadly being late to the game and completely unknown made it impossible to line up any opponent. With some disappointment they resigned themselves to practicing alone. Fortunately the town maintained several public dueling circles and they managed to watch several fights.