The vessel was a box, for lack of a better description. Its plain, unadorned sides were accented by several circles along each side, the front, and the back. Walking around it, Ray could see a hatch that would open up to allow people to board from the side, and a larger hatch on the back that would fold down to let them load cargo. Those features, along with the half dozen bulbous turrets on each side, gave it a somewhat insectoid look. Overall, it was both impressive and completely unassuming. He still wasn’t sure how it was going to fly, and he said as much.
“I’m glad you asked that question,” Derrick said with a manic gleam in his eyes, “You see, each thruster nozzle, that’s those odd circles you noted, gather ambient energy and converts it to stored power. It then uses this power as needed to navigate where you want to go. As for the flying bit, the entirety of the hull is one massive generator that absorbs, converts, and stores energy. When it stores this energy the hull basically polarizes, providing buoyancy. At least, that’s how it was described to me by the others. This bit of engineering was beyond me, but the structural bits I can explain in detail. All I know for sure is that it works.”
Ray nodded, “I mean, some of that went over my head but I get the gist of it. Why the full shell though? It looks more like a spaceship than an airship.”
His friend nodded in agreement, “In a word? Protection. We couldn’t really figure out a way to provide full protection from aerial attacks that didn’t open up some vulnerability. At least for a model this small. So we opted for turrets on each side that can be manned. The turrets fire bolts currently, but we have some enterprising engineers who are working on some much more fun weapons to be installed. We just, uh, lack the materials and NEX to really move forward.”
“We should have quite a bit of NEX left, what happened?” Ray asked, frowning. “Where did it all go? We literally just discussed having enough money and that we were in a decent financial state.”
Derrick shrugged, “Materials are expensive. Materials for this thing are more so, particularly when the hull needs to be able to shrug off any attacks. But the airship is also missing a few of those batteries you can make. I need at least two, preferably three, that can hold two hundred Power each. That’s what’s going to power the whole thing.”
“That’s a lot of investment for a prototype,” Ray said hesitantly. If they were short on NEX then selling those Power Cubes would give them more than enough money to move forward, at least for now.
“Yeah it is, but we can always take them out and move them into the next, more advanced version,” Derrick explained. “I already plan on recycling this one when we get to work on the second version, but for now it should meet your needs to get over the hordes that have us closed in.”
He reached into a pocket and took out a notepad. Passing it to Ray, who opened it curiously, Derrick elaborated, “Here is a full list of what we need. That includes building materials, rare materials, metals, and of course everything from the store and their associated prices.”
Ray whistled as he looked through the list, flipping the pages several times before looking up at his grinning friend. “This is a lot of stuff, Derrick. Like, a ton. More than a ton. Are you sure we can get all this from the Dungeon territory?”
“Some, but not all. A few key items are only available in the shop. If we want to build more airships, ones that are larger, faster, or carry more and better weapons, we are going to need those resources,” he said happily, like there was no problem. “I imagine that if you focus a few days on just making Power Cubes that Argyle will pay us way more than enough to build at least two more ships and make the improvements on the Citadel that we want and need.”
Ray sighed. It seemed that he would have to delegate the first airship trip. Focusing on making the cubes would be a priority. Derrick saw his face and laughed a bit. “Come on man, perk up. That ship isn’t going anywhere without a few cubes of its own. We have time, and you can definitely be in on the first flight. I won’t be. Fuck that. My feet belong on solid ground. But I am sure that Rivea will love a flying buddy.”
Nodding, Ray walked over to a large pile of scrap steel that was in a pile. Watching him curiously, no one present was sure what he was up to until he pointed at the pile and used {MODIFY II}. Power flowed out of Ray, enveloping the materials as a blue screen appeared in front of him. Deciding that he had had enough of the archaic restrictions placed on him, however, Ray grabbed the screen that was in front of him.
“Listen to me,” he said quietly as the blue screen bucked and shook in his grip, “I don’t have time for your shit. We have a lot to do if we want to stay alive, and a lot more to do if you want anyone fucking living on this world to be able to utilize you properly.” The shard slowed its tantrum, almost as if it were listening to him.
“In the next couple months and years, I am going to have to repeatedly do the impossible. Repeatedly,” he emphasized. “I need you on my side. I need you to fucking help me do the impossible, and it needs to be done in front of everyone. Otherwise, what’s the point? So let’s start now. I need five Power Cubes. Five. I can’t spend days doing this, so I need you to help me.”
The screen shook, then vanished. Ray’s eyes went wide as his heart began to beat faster. So fast he thought he was having a heart attack. Falling to the ground, he clutched his chest as he screamed. His body overheated as steam and black goo began to pour out of his skin.
Derrick and Rivea moved forward quickly but were blocked by Nyx. “No. Watch,” she said simply, prompting them to stop, eyes wide in fear of what may be happening to their friend and leader.
Ray continued to scream until he was hoarse in the throat. Then he collapsed onto his face, quiet and unmoving.
Swallowing nervously Derrick asked, “Is he alive? Is he okay? Shit Nyx you should have let us help him! What if he’s dead or dying?”
“He ascended to the next stage of being within this System that controls us all,” Josephine said, watching in awe. “This is not death.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Agreed. He has, finally, broken through to the next stage. I don’t know how it should look, but this seems about right. A violent ascendancy for a violent System,” she chuffed.
Derrick looked at the dog in confusion, “Next stage? What next stage” There-“ Ray sat up, eyes wide as the engineer screamed like a little girl.
“Holy shit that was a rush,” he said quietly, spitting phlegm, blood, and black goop to one side of him. He sniffed and grimaced, “Fuck I smell bad.”
“Ray, before you do anything open your stats. It is important to do this,” Nyx said, getting a nod from the man. Ray didn’t have any reason not to listen, so he did as he was asked.
RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN
{RACE}
HUMAN
{CLASS}
SYSTEM LORD
{CLASS GRADE}
UNIQUE
{STAGE}
2
{LEVEL}
0
{STRENGTH}
10
HUMAN BASE: 5
{AGILITY}
10
HUMAN BASE: 5
{POWER}
300
HUMAN BASE: 0
{WISDOM}
20
HUMAN BASE: 8
{LUCK}
10
HUMAN BASE: 2
{ABILITIES}
CLAIM II
CLAIM HEX
OATH OF FEALTY
SOUL COMPANION
MODIFY II
SYSTEM VARIABLE
“What in the hell is a {SYSTEM VARIABLE}?” he wondered aloud. The moment he spoke the words the ability description appeared. Needless to say, it shocked him to his core.
SYSTEM STATEMENT
CREATE INSTRUCTIONS THAT PERFORM AN ACTION WITHIN THE SYSTEM
THIS IS THE FIRST STEP TO PERFORMING A FUNCTION.
WARNING
A STATEMENT MAY BE REJECTED.
“Well, that’s not foreboding in any way. I haven’t seen a warning attached to an ability yet,” Ray muttered. “I wonder what a rejection looks like? Hopefully, it doesn’t outright kill me. That would… really suck.” Looking over at Nyx and Josephine he explained the ability and what it said, warning and all.
As they mulled it over, Derrick was the first to speak. “I think you should just use it. See what happens. I’m not a programmer, but I am pretty sure that a statement is some kind of instruction that is meant to perform an action,” he reasoned. “If that holds true, then I think you may be able to instruct the System to do things.”
“I mean, that makes sense to me. Ok, trial run,” Ray agreed. He activated {SYSTEM STATEMENT} and received a blank blue box in front of him. “Ok Derrick, the show is yours. I have a blank System box here. No idea what to do with it.”
“Well, try thinking about something small. Give it an instruction to do something. Anything,” his friend reasoned. “I have no idea what kind of input it takes, but based on your other abilities I am nearly positive it operates off of intent.”
Ray focused on the box, thinking intently about the blade that he had just melted in his most recent fight. Immediately the screen filled with line after line of text laid out in complicated strings of code. There were hundreds, then thousands of symbols that he didn’t even recognize, much less know what purpose they had. After several minutes the box stopped filling. It then stretched sideways and vanished, dropping the bladed weapon onto the ground in front of him.
“That was… interesting,” Ray said, feeling a bit tired. He checked his Power and saw that it hadn’t cost him anything to use. But he certainly didn’t feel this tired after using his other abilities. That implied some kind of cost, not to mention he had no idea what a rejection would be like.
“Hey Derrick, I’m going to try and make a cube like this. If I can’t, I still have three hundred Power to use. Should be more than enough to make at least two decent ones for the airship,” Ray said waving everyone back as he pulled scrap steel out of his inventory to work with.
Derrick nodded, “Yeah that should be fine. A couple of one-fifties should… did you say three fucking hundred?” he said, gaping at the man that was no longer paying attention to him. Josephine and the others stared at him in shock, but Ray was past caring about watching the others. He was focused solely on the cube in front of him.
With a deep breath, he activated his newest ability for the second time.
Derrick had been right. Intent apparently played a huge role as a much larger empty System screen appeared in front of him. This time, however, there was no text that was filling. Cautiously Ray reached out and touched the floating screen, his eyes going wide when he left marks behind on it where he had touched it.
“Am I… supposed to draw what I want it to look like?” he mused. It was his ability, so he supposed he could use it any way he wanted to. Drawing a four-sided cube he frowned, this wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted something far more… efficient looking. With exterior hookups to power whatever was needed. The cube immediately began to change on the screen in front of him. He imagined a six-sided die, with connection ports on all but one of them. That would give him as much leeway to use it and a base for a bottom that wouldn’t be obstructed by a port.
Once that was done he had to consider how much power to have the item hold. A slider appeared under the 3D hexagon, it started at zero and went up infinitely. Out of curiosity, Ray moved it all the way to one side where it stopped at ten thousand. Ok, maybe not infinite but still insanely high.
Playing with the slider, he noticed that when he got the container above fifty Power a small tab appeared next to the slider. Curious, he opened it and got a long list of Power, material, and rare item requirements for creating each cube. The higher the capacity, the more intense the requirements to make it. It seemed that steel itself topped out at a capacity of one hundred and fifty before changing to a material called Infused Steel. That took it up to three hundred before it changed again to Albanium. Ray had no idea what the hell Albanium was, but it sounded hard to get.
Thinking it over, the slider changed to max out at one hundred and fifty Power. He took note of the amount of steel he needed and took out enough for five cubes. Eying the Power requirements, he saw that the current Power Cube configuration would cost him twenty-five Power each to make. At one hundred and twenty-five in total, that was nearly ten times more efficient than using Power alone.
Swallowing nervously, he mentally ordered the ability to create the five cubes. The screen went blank, then expanded before dividing into five separate screens. Each one began filling with identical scripts and symbols. For several long minutes Ray watched in utter fascination as his ability completed his instructions. Then, suddenly and without warning, the screens vanished.
Nothing happened for a moment before a final screen appeared before him.
COMPUTATION COMPLETE
ACTIVATE ABILITY?
Y/N
Ray hit yes and the pile of steel next to him erupted into molten metal. With a yelp, he scrambled backward, even as he felt a huge chunk of Power depart his reserves. With little to no fanfare, and no additional screens, five identical hexagonal cubes rose slowly from the pool of superheated metal. As they rose, the bright white and red pool of liquid metal grew smaller, until it vanished altogether leaving the product of his ability sitting on the floor.
Taking a deep breath, Ray stood up and only then realized that he had been on the ground. Somehow during the process, he had gotten knocked on his ass. Turning to Derrick, he gave the gaping and stunned engineer a thumbs up. If he could continue this pace, he would make more than enough NEX, and provide more than enough Power Cubes, to run their operations here and beyond.
This was the advantage that he had been looking for. The breakthrough that he, and everyone relying on him, had needed. Sure, it felt like he had run some kind of ultramarathon, but the results spoke for themselves. With this they could Power everything they needed and more. Now he just had to find a way to power them that didn’t involve draining himself daily, but it sounded like Derrick already had a solution for that in the form of that generator of his.
He grinned at everyone. This may just be the ace in the hole that would save them all.