Today in magic class they were experimenting with enchantments. All the students were wearing special safety equipment. They were wearing face shields, gloves, and a safety pin to protect them. The reason they needed this equipment was that while experimenting there were constant surprising occurrences. One girl was attempting some weird combination of a few different elemental stones and a weird enchantment. When suddenly the entire classroom was full of rainbow-colored smoke. The smoke smelt horrible, and the class had to be evacuated. Next, a boy across the room was building something with a basic hammer when all of a sudden he struck his contraption and the hammer exploded. The boy had to be sent to the medical wing. The students had been given a kit and a book and told to try some different examples in the book. Multiple instructors were walking around helping and encouraging students. Taking a look through the book most of the guides were fairly boring, but one grabbed his attention.

The guide showed how to make a simple magic computer. You could even connect the creation to a cyber pad. Jack hadn’t been using the pad on his wrist much. He just used it for basic information. He had simple information stored like his schedule and some maps. The potential for the device was unimaginable. After asking Ms. Posie about it she showed some of the advanced capabilities the pads can do. She was able to check the mana level of her devices. She was able to power and manipulate all sorts of machines right through the pad. It was incredible. You could easily connect the analysis goggles to the device and store photos and data. The book explained that the cyber pads communicated through ambient mana throughout the area. Areas with low ambient mana can sometimes cause issues with communication between devices. To communicate with

Opening up the interface, he was surprised to find the cyber pad on his wrist had already connected to a machine. That shouldn’t be possible. The device was completely barebone when he had gotten it. All the information he could find was the name of the device he had connected to. Henry. It showed the connection had only lasted for a few seconds. That’s really weird. After thoroughly searching through he wasn’t able to find any more data on the machine. Whatever. Looking back at the guide showed exactly what he needed to connect to another device. Fortunately, he had all the required components for what he wanted to do. The first device he wanted to connect to was the rifle he had purchased. The dive was very complex and featured an advanced internal mechanism that had many settings. Up until now, he had been using the rifle in stock mode. Now he could really mess with the software and get the most out of what he needs. This is gonna be fun.

His rifle was folded up in his bag. He carried it around in its compact mode. He always found it weird to carry his weapons with him, but the academy highly encouraged it. Apparently in the military, it was a requirement for every soldier. He folded it open and placed it on his desk. Pressing a small button on the side turned on the weapon’s digital display.

Arkon Rifle System Active

-Quick Menu

-Presets

-Ammo

-Settings

He picked Settings.

To access settings, please connect to a certified cyber pad.

Jack smiled, up until now he hadn’t been able to figure out how to connect it. Reading the manual showed it was so much simpler than he could have ever imagined. I’m an idiot. He tapped his cyber pad to the rifle and held it there for a moment while he focused a small amount of mana through the devices.

Please wait… Connecting….Connecting…..Connected…

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Yes!

His cyber pad had connected and was now displaying all sorts of information and available settings. The model had over 100 settings he could tweak. Tapping on one of the options gave him information about the setting.

-Cycle Rate

The speed at which the self-loading function will cycle. (Fire, Eject, Load, Cock)

-Gas Compression

The amount of gas withheld inside the barrel to push the old shell out.

-Recoil Dampening

This value will affect multiple settings reducing overall power but giving the user more control of sustained firing.

Oh, baby, I could look at this stuff all day. He scrolled through, reading more of the options.

-Blow-Forward

Allows the entire barrel mechanism to slide forward when a shell is fired, reducing recoil, but reducing firing speed.

-Blow-Back

Locks the breach in place and the barrel will recoil as part of the firing cycle. Increase recoil and increase the firing speed.

-Pre-load

Readies the net shell, this allows for increased firing speed but has a potential for jams.

Jack couldn’t believe the settings available to him. He knew the model was top of the line when he purchased it, but these options are incredible. Next, he connected to his goggles. I wonder what settings these have. They are an older model that he got for free from Ms. Posie. But he was sure there would still be some settings. And he was right. The goggles had some interesting settings.

-Depth of penetration

Configures how far the goggles send mana. Further penetration will make the display blurrier and less accurate.

-Color Configuration

Configure how different elements and machines display on the HUD.

-Right Lens Adjust

Adjust focal depth and field of view for the right eye.

-Left Lens Adjust

Adjust focal depth and field of view for the left eye.

-Magnification Expansion *missing*

Huh, I guess I can upgrade it with expansions. That’s awesome.

For the remaining of class, he messed with the settings of his devices. By the end, his brain was buzzing with ideas. The possibilities were endless. He had been wanting to use his cyber pad but was having issues. Now with this new useful information, he was really making progress. Walking through the academy he couldn’t help but keep testing his new knowledge by attempting to connect his cyber pad to different machines and seeing what he could access. Most machines had security systems that required a password to access deeper. But some systems were surprisingly unlocked. A small cleaning robot that was scuttling by Jack was able to see all its internal routines and where it was going next. It was scheduled to clean the cafeteria next. I love technology. He finally got back to his room. It took way longer than it should have because he kept taking detours to experiment. Now he was attempting to connect with Pyke.

Please wait… Connecting….Connecting…..Connected…Now displaying Pyke’s Interface.

That’s weird. When the cyber pad connected to the rat his interface displayed its name. Pyke. How does it already know your name? Remembering back he had given the rat the name a few days after acquiring him. Pyke always tilted his head when he spoke, but now he was really starting to wonder how much he understood. I think it understands English. He looked down at the rat nervously.

“Uh hello. Um, Pyke.” The rat just looked at him tilting its head back and forth. He seemed to be listening to his voice, but it was unclear whether he truly understood the words. “Let’s take a look at your settings shall we.”

The interface was completely different when it connected to Pyke. Compared to the other machines he had connected to earlier in the day Pyke barely had any information available. And a lot of the information seemed inaccurate or just complete gibberish. This is really weird. Even the internal clock is wrong. The date showed an extremely old number, and the time was off by hours. He updated all the information. Pyke’s interface was a mess and Jack eventually gave up after that. For the rest of the evening Jack worked on his homework.