Alex was starting to feel like a vagabond. He had just spent the entire day wandering the city and now, he was right back to wandering. It was starting to get dark and Alex still didn’t have a place to stay. He had gone back to his apartment only to find that someone else had been living there almost as long as he had been gone.

At least they found good renters. That family seemed really nice.

He had found a newspaper stand and had confirmed what Sarah said—he had been gone for two years, not one. It felt strange. He knew that he had lost time, but for that lost time to be instantly doubled somehow was disheartening to say the least.

Did I spend a year getting extensive surgeries on alien planet as part of my awakening? That would be even scarier than what I’ve already been through. I thought it was instantaneous.

Alex imagined aliens experimenting on him while he lay unconscious. It horrified him thinking of them injecting him with radioactive looking liquids, or cutting into his skin, or implanting stuff into his brain. He shuddered.

With those terrifying thoughts filling his mind, he anxiously looked for something to distract himself. He remembered the notifications that had appeared when he arrived on the planet and promptly pulled them up.

There were a couple that were focused on business items. They included a reminder not to harm Coalition property in the future, telling him he had fulfilled his tour, and other odds and ends. There were a few however that really seemed to catch his attention. The first and most glaring was this one.

You are in hostile territory. This planet is under enemy control. Reinforcements are not readily available to you at your current location. Please retreat to the nearest Starbound Coalition controlled planet.

Nearest planet-not in current solar system. Teleportation required.

That was…concerning. Did Alex know what that meant or even how to combat that? No. Did it change his immediate goals? Well, yes and no. He would definitely need to figure out what that was all about. He was in danger and he didn’t know who was pointing the gun at him.

He did know that he still needed to reconnect with Sarah and her family as well as his friends from the tutorial so at least that much hadn’t changed. He just knew what he would need to focus on immediately after he did that. He had no idea what his first steps needed to be to even figure that out.

He looked at another notification.

You have completed your punishment tour and are no longer considered delinquent in the eyes of the Starbound Coalition.

Normally, upon completion of duties during punishment tour, Awakened forfeit all rewards they would have otherwise gained upon completion of a tour of duty. However, you have received the following rewards-

Previous rank-Private- +10 all stats, +10% all stats

New rank-Private First Class- +12.5 all stats, +12.5% all stats

Previous rank-Private First Class- +12.5 all stats, +12.5% all stats

New rank-Specialist- +15 all stats, +15% all stats

Item upgrade-upgrade item in current possession.

Well that was unexpected. I wonder why they decided to reward me? Did Krizzik reach out on my behalf?

There was no way to know for sure. He suspected the Saxan had to have some involvement in the whole thing. Otherwise, why would they even bother with rewarding him. He wouldn’t if he were in their shoes. Why would you pay someone when you didn’t need to?

He was definitely surprised to see that he had gained not one, but two ranks. He felt that was likely due to both the difficulty and duration of his tour. He imagined that some missions might grant him a rank and others might not grant him any. The Forge placed heavy emphasis on growth and challenge, so it made sense.

He wasn’t going to complain about his new rank though. The +15 in all stats was great, but it was the percentage that would grant him even more growth overall. If every title came with a boost like this, he was going to be unstoppable. He just needed to remain in the good graces of the Coalition. If they ran themselves at all similar to how Earth’s military did, he would need to be careful. Where there were promotions, there were bound to be demotions as well. He just hoped that he wouldn’t ever need to worry about that.

Alex had received another boon however. It was another item upgrade. He had used the last one on his armor immediately, but this time, he wasn’t sure what would give him the most benefit. Not only did he have his armor, but he also had the wishes he grabbed from the Sandstorm Djinn. On top of that he had one more item he hadn’t been able to focus much on.

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Sand Drake’s Fang- A fang taken from the Great One of Saxar IV. Those who partake in the power of the Great One have increased resistance to heat based attacks and the ability to absorb solar energy.

He had taken this from the fallen Sand Drake. He hadn’t been able to absorb it yet as he had been fairly pressed for time. The last time he had assimilated an item like this into his armor, it had taken hours to fully digest. If he had to put money on it, Alex assumed the fang would take even longer.

Now that he had an item upgrade, he was unsure the best way to use it. He wondered if he could even use something like this on wishes. He had tried to identify them before, but was met with nothing. It hadn’t even been empty, it had simply not shown anything at all. That led him to believe that it somehow existed outside of the scope of the Forge. He was worried that if he tried to use the upgrade on them, it would fail and he would lose the chance to upgrade something else.

If he had a few of them, maybe he would feel ok experimenting. So far, he had only received two and both times he had put in considerable work and had been placed in extremely precarious situations to gain them. He wasn’t about to throw it away in hopes he’d strike gold. No, it was better to play it safe.

Alex knew that the upgrade worked on his armor, because he had already used one of them on it before. So that was a safe bet. It would probably grant him a similar effect as it had before, which would be great. But, since he was trying to get the most out of it, he wondered if he would get more benefits from upgrading the fang and then absorbing that into his armor. Or, should he absorb the fang and upgrade the armor after that?

It was like in math. Sometimes, the order you did things drastically changed the result. Would he get less if he did it in the wrong order? How would he know if he had achieved the optimal outcome? These were important questions, and yet, they were questions he couldn’t answer.

With the sun dipping behind the city skyline, Alex decided he would need to make a decision. In the morning, he would try to find with some of his friends from the tutorial and he wanted to have his upgrade in place before then. Not because he was expecting any trouble. It was more because he was impatient. He had always been one to open his presents early and this was the same thing.

So, unwilling to waste anymore time, Alex decided he would first absorb the fang and then he would upgrade his suit. It just felt like that would give him the biggest power up. This would probably enhance whatever effects he gained from the Eonsteel and the fang, thus making it greater than the sum of its parts. Even though the wishes rested on his chest, he knew they wouldn’t be affected as they were essentially ornamentation until they were used.

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The sounds of chirping birds and the early sounds of the city woke Alex up. He hadn’t slept for long as his body didn’t need nearly as much rest as it did before.

He hadn’t slept spent the night in the park nestled in a grove. He would never have done that before his enhancements, the possibility of getting robbed would be way too high. Now, he felt invincible. Even more than when he was on Saxar IV. There weren’t many people who could actually hurt him. None, if you didn’t include the superheroes and villains. Weapons of mass destruction would probably have an effect on him, but it wasn’t like everybody had access to that kind of stuff.

Hillcrest had crime, but it wasn’t like it was incredibly dangerous place to live. At least before he had been abducted it had felt relatively safe. He didn’t know how things had changed with the introduction of so many powerful being so quickly. If David and his posse from the tutorial had been any indication, not everyone would be heroic. There would be a lot of selfish, egotistical people looking to capitalize on their newfound strength.

He hoped that his extended absence gave enough time for the power dynamic to balance out. He had grown strong, but he didn’t know how he compared to the people that had been here for the majority of that time. And how strong were the heroes that had already existed?

If struggle between hero and villain had already largely taken place, he would have time to find himself in this new world. He could take his time.

He examined his suit of armor. It had finished its upgrade sometime during the night. He hadn’t even noticed it, but he was ecstatic. It looked sick. The fang that was nearly as long as his forearm, had remained intact. It nestled itself in the middle of his chest creating a crescent shape on his chest. The two remaining wishes rested on either side of the bright white tooth.

He had formed his Eonsteel to make spearhead like shapes along his body in varying patterns. He made some that rested along his collarbone looking almost like a necklace for a king. Other spearheads wrapped around his legs and arms with larger ones wrapping around his torso and chest. They looked like they would constrict his movement, but since he had complete control over the metal, it wouldn’t. He also thought it would be cool to have some spikes jut out of his head, almost like he was Darth Maul. When he fought, he would redistribute the metal where he needed, but he felt like it would be good to start creating a baseline for his image. He had to be recognizable after all.

Do I look too much like a villain though? Does it really matter if I look cool?

He identified his armor. He was interested to see what improvements it had made.

Symbiotic Biomechanical Armor (Rare)

Armor that fuses with the host at a genetic level. Composed of organic matter. Upon binding, armor attaches to host’s neural pathways enabling cohesive movement between host and armor. Due to its biomechanical nature, science is melded with body, fluidly. Enhances innate abilities of host through the armor. Armor is considered the users own flesh. When damaged, armor can self repair using host’s vitality. Armor can be retracted into a storage ring that must remain on host at all times. Removal of ring results in a loss of symbiosis. Loss of symbiosis will result in the destruction of armor. To improve symbiosis further, armor can be given compatible organic material.

Highly upgradable.

+50 Durability

+10% All stats

+45% Absorption of Energy

+10% Strength and Durability

Able to absorb solar energy

+10% P.E. Storage capacity