Chapter 16 - Make my Escape
Devouring Grasp [5 MP/sec]
You gain knowledge of material: Limestone [50/50]
Affinity upgraded: Limestone: Grade E
Detect radius is now 17 ft.
I stood and brushed the rock dust off of my lap, taking the opportunity to stretch my muscles and shake off the mana crash I’d been courting using my Devouring Grasp like that. Limestone didn’t ‘burn’ like some material did, so my Engine buff had a tendency to fall off without me realizing it.
I had a pool of 75 MP to work with now, so even if I was without Engine for a little while, I could work for some time. Eventually, however, the well would run dry, and I had to rely on my core to keep me going. Shaping, specifically the saturation part, was a mana hungry process, especially when you didn’t have an affinity for the material in the first place.
A theory was slowly percolating in my mind about previous Animators and how they went about things. If I had to speculate, my Animator brethren had to have at least one affinity to work with upon Integration. They would come to the tutorial facility, meet their trainer, grab some metal and grind to level one, all while Nali held their hand and let them know how things worked.
Even for people with a higher Mind stat and pool of MP, the process of getting to level one would have to take weeks or maybe months unless having an affinity for the material came into play to help them work more efficiently. Either that or Nali had some way to boost newbies’ MP, but that didn’t strike me as likely. My Engine core said it was unique, and Nali had made it sound like MP took a while to regenerate. She hadn’t offered any alternatives or remedies to that limitation.
Whatever the case, once the new Animator hit level one, they’d be transported back through the Insertion point to their home universe, which was the step of the process I was, hopefully, on now and had been ever since I leveled for the first time.
My tutorial hadn’t gone according to that plan, though.
‘Return to Insertion Point’ at least sounded like a final step, so that's what I would have to do to get home... Eventually.
The problem was that I was locked in a prison cell under millions of tons of rock, and my insertion point was now the epicenter of evil to hear the goblins tell it, the exact center of black one territory.
I rolled my neck, mentally ‘feeling’ around in my spatial storage for parts, checking each to make sure they were ready for assembly.
My ever present peanut gallery didn’t like that. They spit and slashed at the Mendau bars and reached out, desperate to extract more of my blood. I couldn’t actually see them, but I knew that’s what they were doing. They never stopped doing it.
I need mana anyway.
I deactivated Detect Limestone and replaced it with the Goblin variant.
There they were, brightly lit, piled up on top of each other in the door of my cell, eyes wide open as always, mouths wide open as always. The dried blood and viscera on the floor had dimmed in my Goblin vision over the past day or so, which was an interesting point of data on the function of the skill. Why didn’t the blood retain its “goblin-ness,” and did its dimming in my senses indicate there were multiple levels of goblin? Either way, if the universe was going to give me a way to ignore how rotten my cell had become with goblin viscera, I wasn’t going to say no.
Long, spindly hands, tipped with curved talons stretched out for me as their owners pressed in to get even a millimeter more of reach.
I picked one of them at random.
“Hey, buddy. High five,” I said. It was a terrible joke, one I’d told many times now, but, if I was being honest with myself, I missed real voices and language. It was hard to tell how long I’d been stuck in here with my new neighbors, but their savage natures and seemingly endless attention spans, all bent toward killing me, were grating on my sanity.
Stepping forward, just out of reach of the rending claws, I casually stuck my hand out to let it be grabbed.
Devouring Grasp [5 MP/sec]
Status Gained: Engine: [+2 MP/sec for 5 min]
Scourge-Touched Goblin takes 20 damage.
Scourge-Touched Goblin is bleeding.
A panicked screech carried above the usual din, a pair of the goblin eyes widening in pain, and the now handless goblin attempted to flee against the mob of bodies still pressed in behind it.
Feeling my mana tick up out of the single digits again, I sighed, flopping down on the opposite wall where I switched back to Detect Iron.
I wished it wasn’t necessary. The thing about iron is that it’s in everyone’s blood, making it useful for sensing living things. In fact, it was the only way I could see my own body down here in the dark. Without the use of my real sight, the ability made us all look generally the same if differently proportioned. The problem lay in the fact that my cell was covered in blood. My enemies’, my own… just everyone’s.
I need to get out of here.
I’d laid my plans and stretched my resources to cover what I could. The underriver was my only option, and that meant I was facing a number of problems, some more daunting than others.
Problem one: I loved oxygen. I loved it so much, I didn’t think I could live without it.
This item was at the top of the list for obvious reasons. I enjoyed oxygen, and I didn’t see a reason to leave it behind.
At first I’d thought about making some kind of extendable spike contraption that could drill into the limestone and get me a pocket of air to breathe. That is, before I realized that limestone, while it did contain oxygen, didn’t necessarily contain 02. What’s more, if the water was all the way up to the ceiling of the tunnel like I thought it was, it would probably just rush into whatever cavity I could produce.
I’d gone through several iterations of ideas, Shaping and rearranging my various materials into different solutions, even going so far as to consider electrocuting myself in an attempt at electrolysis. Where I would get the electricity, I didn’t know, but during that doomed brainstorming session, it occurred to me that I might have the solution (or at least a solution) staring me in the face or wherever my spatial storage really was.
What I needed was a balloon. More precisely, I needed a reservoir of air.
That’s where most of my aluminum went. Essentially, I Shaped the aluminum into a giant metal bladder, filling up as much of my cell as possible, even allowing it to droop down into the hole and nearly touch the water. I kept the paper thin skin of the construct rigid through the magic of Shape and let the air just do what it did, filling in the entire space. Then I sealed the balloon with the air inside. From there it was about shrinking my new oxygen tank, slowly moving molecules around, thickening the walls and decreasing the surface area until I was left with a pressurized aluminum canister about the size of my fist with a plugged straw protruding from the end.
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Then I repeated the process until I was nearly out of aluminum, and I had four of my little diving tanks.
Problem two: It was dark down here.
This one I didn’t have a clever answer for. Sure, my Detect abilities were good, but they were too specialized. Detect Limestone would have me able to see the cave walls but nothing else, Detect Iron would only give me a view of myself and whatever creatures with blood like mine there might be down there, and the rest were far less useful in this situation anyway.
The only way I had to produce consistent light underwater was Volatility, so I’d pretty much be using a live grenade as a glow lamp while I took my swim.
Hurray.
Problem three: Danger.
I needed a weapon, one I could use even in the tight confines of any tunnel I might find, and this was the problem I intended to solve today.
From my storage, I summoned the pieces. A long iron tube with a rudimentary self repair function as well as a fat nub on one end.
Next was the ‘chamber’ which was pretty much a tube inside a tube, the larger of which could slide back and let me put things inside the breach I’d made. I’d plugged the back of the larger one with a half inch of solid iron, only leaving space for a pebble sized cube that would fit into a groove on the back wall.
Said cube was the tricky part. The whole design relied on it to get off the ground.
Breathing in deep, I brought out my tiny bit of aluminum I’d saved for this, placing it on top of the iron tubes.
Shape [4 MP/sec]
I formed my aluminum into the cubical shape to match the groove.
Automate [15 MP/sec]
My MP pool drained, practically bottoming me out instantaneously. My mana left me in a tide, flooding into the metal and, with it, my instructions and whatever power it would need to carry out these instructions. The mix of Shaping, Imbuing, and Volatility had my mana churning inside of me like blades of a blender. It hurt, not in a physical sense, but in a way that scoured my brain and my soul. I gave everything I had to the cube.
When you are struck, release a tiny fraction of your stored mana. Then stop. Repeat.
My will and, by extension, my Spirit attribute did a lot of the heavy lifting here. Fortunately, my Spirit had nearly tripled since my Integration. My mana floated outside my body and filled the cell now, not visible in the conventional sense but I could certainly feel it and vaguely feel things inside of it. It even extended beyond, outside the confines of the cell, even through the walls. The strength of my Spirit gave the command sufficient sophistication and complexity, which I very much needed if I didn’t want my new weapon to explode in my hand.
Next, I bored a hole in the back of the chamber tube and made room for my firing pin, just a little needle with a padded handle I’d be using for the prototype. This was the thing that did the ‘striking.’
Then, I added the finishing touches like a catch to keep my bolt chamber closed, rifling on the inside of the barrel, and a handle wrapped in leather strips that I could easily hold.
Finally, I summoned one of my iron worms, a chunkier, more efficient model. I dove into it with Shape and checked on the integrity of its segments and scales. Rigid, sleek, and smooth until it was told not to be, it was the perfect ammunition.
I wasn’t about to just give iron away to the black ones, though.
A trip back to the handshake wall later, I was back at full MP and ready to automate my ammo.
Trigger [10 MP/sec]
Trigger was an odd thing. It gave me the ability to give an object two ‘states’ that could be switched between if fed enough mana. Conceivably, I could make a sword that turned into a hammer or a spear that grew barbs. Whoever was using said weapon would provide the MP required to make the transformation back and forth, which made using them costly but ultimately awesome.
However, I had something different in mind for the little bullet worms. Their trigger would sprout their legs, activate their segmented ribs, and sharpen their heads. Then they would execute the command I was about to give them.
Automate [15 MP/sec]
If you strike something, feed mana into the Trigger. Return to me.
I was breathing hard and sweating by this point. Using that much mana in a short amount of time wrung my body and mind out. The System seemed to agree.
Conduit is now level 2
Conduit: Your body grows more able to conduct mana freely and direct its flow. +10% resistance to mana overflow. +10% speed of mana flow when using abilities.
Placing the parts together on the floor, I shaped the barrel and the chamber together, joining their materials, interlocking the molecules where the two met, while still allowing the outer part of the chamber to be opened.
I *was* these individual parts. They were a part of me. I made them a single object, designed for my purpose. It all came together slowly, as I double checked every tiny molecule with Shape before pulling my consciousness out.
You have created: Rudimentary Rifle
You have been awarded 450 experience points. [150 base, +300 Doing your Part bonus]
Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I released the catch on the chamber and slid it open with a quiet hiss. The metal parts fit together so precisely, only the thinnest layer of air separated the two. Nothing rattled. Nothing clicked. I knew this thing like I knew myself… probably better. In my defense, I had a lot going on lately, and I didn’t know exactly how it affected me. Who truly knew themselves anyway?
I slipped the newly programmed ammunition inside the chamber and closed the tube. It fit perfectly, because of course it did.
Taking a deep breath, I took the rifle up in my metal hand and held it out far far away from my face as I took aim, not quite trusting the construct not to just explode when I triggered it.
Using my thumb, I reached up to the chamber and gave the firing pin a light tap. I flinched but nothing happened.
I narrowed my eyes at it, slapping my thumb against it once, twice, harder and harder. Nothing.
I sighed.
Once more with feeling, then I’d go back to the drawing board. I transferred the rifle to my other hand and slapped the firing pin full force with my metal fist.
*POW*
There was a flash of light, the real stuff that burned my cave dweller's eyes, and there was a sense of overpressurization I felt in my head. My ears rang, and my balance felt off, like the world was spinning.
I flopped down so I wouldn’t fall down and tried to get my bearings.
Diving into the rifle with Shape, everything seemed to be in place. The propellant cube was there, a little warm but otherwise ok. The barrel’s rifling was intact. No holes or cracks in the material.
The worm… uh ammunition… was gone though.
I blinked rapidly. Floating purple tracers swam in my vision, and tinny, scratching, screeching sounds tickled my ringing ears. The System was going to work repairing me, though. Soon, I was able to hear and balance again. My sense returned to me as well.
I cast about with Detect Iron, looking for my spent ammunition, but finding only dried blood and…
There.
From below the writing mass of scourge-touched, a tiny, undulating shape slithered its way into my cell. Half of the little legs were bent beyond use, and the tip of the construct was slightly duller than I’d designed it, but the little thing was functional if sluggish because it had been forced to use just its scales to move after the legs were damaged.
Of course. It had to squirm its way through a wall of goblins to get back to me.
The scourge-touched didn’t seem interested in the construct at least. They only had eyes for me. Now that I could hear them again, they were going full howler monkey, practically shaking the stone with their racket.
“Nice job little guy,” I said proudly to my ammunition as I let it finish its programming. It squirmed forward until it touched the tip of my foot and went dead, now just a semi-conical piece of iron again.
I checked my log.
Scourge-Touched Goblin takes 14 damage. (Piercing)
Scourge-Touched Goblin is bleeding.
Scourge-Touched Goblin takes 17 damage. (Piercing)
Scourge-Touched Goblin is bleeding.
You have been awarded 2 experience points. [10 base (-2 level, +2 nemesis, -8 non-combat class)]
So the projectile had enough force to penetrate two bodies before it stopped and made its way back to me, and I had to assume it penetrated all the way through the second one. If my worm had ‘come alive’ inside of a goblin, I imagine I would have gotten some more interesting messages.
Nodding to myself and allowing a new whirlwind of thoughts to churn in my head, I got back to work.
Tomorrow would come soon, and I needed to be ready.