Done playing with myself, I check my HUD and start heading back for the bunker. When I hear some more rustling. Seriously, fuck my life, does this never end. Walking quietly towards the noise, I come across one of the remaining goblins, yeah, going with a she on this one. She has a broken leg and is crawling away, before she spot’s me and her eyes go wide.
“Ple...ase...no kill.” Well damn, ignoring how this is probably a horrible idea, I pick her up and carry her princess style, trying to avoid the broken leg. Thankfully, she passed out rather quickly. Probably had a hard day of trying to put arrows into my ass. The rest of the trip back to the hatch was uneventful, THANK GOD. Dropping goblinette off with Al, I quickly choke down some lovely nutrient disc’s and light’s out.
Waking up with a boot kick to the wonder weasel and his magical nuts, I groan and roll over. Cassy is glaring at me, while she is holding the goblinette. “What did I do?” I ask holding my hands out to avoid the wrath that is sure to come my way soon.
“What did you do to Gabby?” she accuses me. “What, she tried to kill me with arrows, then met Tom the big ass rock troll. I just brought her back because I felt bad leaving her there to die.” With that out of the way and Cassys’ trademark glare, I turn to Al Wall.
“Al, quick question, I turned a dead troll into dust after touching it, and gained a Trait, what’s up with that?” Thankfully Al’s been much more helpful lately, probably because I’m the boss now. “You absorbed his nanites, you most likely came into contact with an open wound and absorbed them all into yourself. The Trait is most likely the main program of said nanites. Based on the scans of the local flora and fauna, nanites have caused dire mutations to everything.” Al replied.
“Soooo….these nanites, gonna need a rundown on ‘em Al.” I asked. Either I’m super smart, or Al barney styled it, but it wasn’t hard to figure out. These nanites were once globally spread. They integrated into everything. From physical changes to energy requirements. Everything ran on these little guys. Modern day mana. The basic nanite package maintained health, and even had a lovely kill switch that devoured the host, courtesy of our Corporate overlords. The higher Tier package’s had more bells and whistles. You could modify your body and appearance, inject more nanites for more power, even use them to create, basically, magic.
Each nanite is useless by itself, but once you have hundreds, then they take effect. The more you have, the smarter they become, almost an intuitive hive mind setup. They can’t really create anything, but they can shift things around and expend energy as you desire. Al’s example was for a fireball. They expend the energy within themselves to cause friction in a localized area, once they ignite the air in a bubble around themselves, you can throw it or explode it, compressing it into a fire bomb. Nifty that.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Apparently, with my higher package experimental nanites, I’m able to absorb others nanites to boost myself. That and I passively absorb the loose nanites in the air. The more I absorb, the more I’ll need to level my body up. Dreams of One-Punch Man flitted across my mind. Al squashed that though. A body can only hold so many nanites, nowhere near enough for what i was hoping for. Thankfully they can be upgraded, better power storage, quicker response, all sorts of things. Only, we don’t have the gear or the know how to upgrade microscopic little robots.
Trying to upgrade them without proper testing is a big no-no. Case and point, Old Earth was wiped out by some poorly designed nanites that kept mutating the host, only 1 out of 10,000 even survived the initial mutation. They were made by some rich fantasy story nut who wanted his own little fantasy world of goblins, elves, and beastkin. With less than a million people expected to survive said event, Alpha Corporation, decided to bunker down and rise from the ashes. Didn’t quite work out so well for them.
With glazed over eyes, I’m awoken by Cassy saying. “Oh, fearless leader. It’s nice to know what’s going on and all, but what about the injured and in pain goblin here?”
With the help of Al, we got her resting comfortably in a large shiny medical pod. It guides and supplies energy to the patients’ nanites to speed up recovery. Or something, Al like’s big words.
“There Cassy, now can you please stop trying to crush my jewels, I’m kinda attached to them.” I pleaded.
“Sure, Idiot, just stop being stupid. Like not even asking what I’m good at, or taking a weapon before exploring outside, or you know, exploring the base. Instead of just running around like a chicken with your head chopped off.” instructed Cassy.
She does have a hell of a point there. Scratching the back of my head, and staring at the ground bashfully, I nod to her. “Your right. We do need more information, on basically everything. You first Cassy.”
“Before all this, whatever happened, I was in college to become a wildlife biologist. You know, drowning in student debt, living off of ramen. I’d just turned 21, and instead of a nice hangover, I’m probably gonna get killed because of stupid men, like you.”
I can totally feel the love there. Kumbaya and all that. “Then I’m sure you can have a chat with Al, to make sure we get the right tombstone.” Ignoring the burn in hell glare, I turn to Chip.
“Good ol’ Chip, what’s your story?”
“Umm, I grew up on a farm. And, um, I like chickens. They taste good. But, um, stay away from horses, they have a mean kick.” Ding, we found ourselves a grunt. “And, um, my Pa always said to be a gentleman, and to watch your, um, words.” Chip nods his head and sat back down.
Okay, I’ve got feminazi and a brick. World conquest, here we come. Moving on. “Al, please direct our fine friends here to living quarters. I’m sure they would like better accommodations then sleeping on the floor” I ask.
“There is an entire floor of high class residence’s for you to choose from. There very close and easy to access” replied Al.
Damn Al. I’ve slept on the cold metal floor twice, and he can’t bring up we had beds just once.