GRIFFIN TUCKER VASILIAS, GREAT HOUSE SCION, REBORN LVL 5

VASILIAS COMPOUND, HELDON

Loris and Griffin filed into the chamber and the big vault door began swinging closed silently behind them. Just before it shut completely, Griffin glanced over his shoulder and saw Xander turn to Jessaline, a look of barely controlled fury in his eye as his anima began to gather menacingly. Before he could see what drama unfolded the vault door closed leaving Griffin and Loris in there alone.

Nervously, Griffin looked around and was struck by a strange thought: the place looked just like the Danger Room from the X-Men comics. The interior was made of tightly fit white panels that stretched for maybe two hundred meters from end to end and a hundred meters wide with a tall ceiling like a gymnasium. There was no furniture; the room was empty and featureless but Griffin still surreptitiously kept his eye out for secret doors or other surprises. He half expected one of the X-Men to appear.

Loris held out her hand and a Systablo appeared there, popping into existence from her Inventory. She made some arcane-looking gestures over the screen, positioning her fingers in strange, awkward-looking positions. A moment later, an illusory three-dimensional menu appeared, floating in front of her. She hooked the Systablo to her belt and got to work.

Loris flew through the menus and as she manipulated various configurations, a palpable feeling of power thrummed in the air, pulsing through Griffin’s anima. It felt like enormous engines were starting as the air became supercharged with tensa and the empty room began to magically transform.

Long stalks of dark green plants like bamboo burst up all around them, enclosing them in a sudden forest. The sweet, aromatic scent of sandalwood wafted through the forest on a hot wind making Griffin suddenly homesick: sandalwood had always been Sarah’s favorite type of incense.

Griffin stared in awe around them. They now stood in a wide clearing with a packed dirt floor with the bamboo forest enclosing them. Griffin glanced up and saw that the ceiling had disappeared, replaced by a clear blue sky. Loris made one final gesture and the holographic menus disappeared from in front of her.

“Griffin, I’ll be tapped into the House Systems monitoring what data they’re gathering,” Kismet said making a circuit of the area and scanning with his On-Board Sensors, updating the mapping function as she did. “I’ve already infiltrated the entire House System; there’s nothing they can hide from us.” Griffin nodded and she flitted to his left shoulder, keeping her constant vigil.

“Come over here, Griffin,” Loris said, and Griffin crossed the clearing to stand in front of the black-scaled draakan. “Good. Now, open up your System Status and share it with me. You’ll need to provide full access so that I can be your Class Trainer.”

Griffin hesitated, “Uh, not that I’m mistrustful or anything.” He cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair. “But…why do I need a Class Trainer?”

“I am not offended, your question was logical,” she remarked. “And a good first question. You need a Class Trainer because of the bonuses I can provide to your Attribute increases and graft synergies during training. Not to mention that I will be instrumental in helping you choose the right Class for you and for the House.”

Griffin nodded and then something occurred to him. “Not to be picky or anything, but what’s so difficult about picking a Class? Are they named poorly? Do you not get to know anything about them before you pick?”

“Everyone’s Stone Gate Quest is different, but your Class will depend on how you train, what System Achievements you attain, and how many of what kinds of monsters you defeat.” She gestured at the ceiling, flicking her eyes upward. “The System watches us always and it determines which Classes to offer you based on your actions. House Vasilias has Gate facilities up to Jade rank, so you will always have access to your path of Ascension.

“As to your other questions… Assuming you survive your Stone Gate Quest, the System will offer you several different Class options based on the factors I mentioned earlier. At the time, you will have neither the time nor the ability to analyze the benefits and drawbacks of each Class. You’ll either have to rely on your instincts,” Loris flicked her tongue out twice in a gesture Griffin suspected was meant to convey extreme skepticism, “or you will rely on the lessons learned from your Class Trainer to pick the Class that will benefit you—and more importantly the House—the most.

“Those who attempt to guide themselves cripple themselves with their arrogance. Without a Class Trainer—or at the very least a Class Guide—you run the risk of dead-ending your Class or getting a Class with abilities that have impossible requirements. Many have died because they chose a Class that seemed powerful, interesting, or like what they thought they wanted only to discover that the promised power was too difficult to attain. That will not happen to you because you have access to me.”

He swallowed and thought about what she said. “Can you explain what a Class actually is?” He asked.

“I can. And perhaps I will. After you share your System Status with me.” Her eyes seemed to bore into him.

He quickly brought up his System Status and accepted the sharing request that Loris sent. A moment later, his status was displayed in front of them both:

Griffin Tucker Vasilias

Race

Human

Rank/Level

Reborn - level 5

House

House Vasilias

Racial Gifts

Great House Seal, Enhanced System Access, Unlimited Inventory, Monster Rendering, DEMI Port, Overcharge

Attributes

Dominion

15 [Ocean] / 20

Speed

14 [Data] /20

Precision

9 [Void] / 20

Growth

14 [Void] /20

Arcana

17 [Mind] /20

Tensa Pool

35.7 ks

Gear

[Inventory collapsed due to space constraints]

Grafts

Adaptive Conjuration [Mind], Sensor Suite [Speed], Dread Consumption [Void], Reality Twine [Void], DEEP Suit [Ocean]

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Loris looked over the Status sheet for a lot longer than Griffin thought it should take to read such a small amount of text. Maybe there’s more for her to read since she’s a Class Trainer, he thought as he waited a little awkwardly.

After an awkward few minutes that had Griffin looking around for a bench or a stool or something, Loris dismissed the Status screen, and her eyes once more settled on Griffin. “You have a very unique set of Primary grafts, Griffin Vasilias. I see some interesting possibilities already. Before we get into that, though, I’d like to see you in action.”

“Uh, okay,” Griffin said, looking around nervously. “What…what do you want me to do?”

“Monster fighting. We’ll start off easy—the Grass Stalker I’m loading in is a low Class 1 but it should provide a challenge.” She flicked her claws again and a lifelike 3-D image of a disturbing, predatory monster appeared.

The monster—Loris had called it a Grass Stalker—was built like a panther, but twice as muscular and covered in mottled green scales with a thick nest of quill-like spikes along its back and at the end of its tail. Fan-like antennae waved in the air above large, cobalt-blue compound eyes set in a mantis-like insectile face with large mandibles. It moved with sinuous grace in the hologram, its head turning to track Griffin in a way that made Griffin feel nervous.

“This is a simulation,” Loris reminded him. “Remember that. The monster and your entire surroundings are maintained with advanced Illusion spells combined with predictive algorithms and several non-sentient AI programs. It will feel real, but it is not. The monster cannot hurt you, though the illusion spells are sophisticated enough to make you believe that you have been hurt. Once the simulation ends, you will recover fully.”

Griffin’s stomach clenched. “Wait, what do you mean I’m going to get hurt? Shouldn’t we start with something maybe a little more basic? Where I don’t get hurt?”

Loris ignored him and continued, “You’re going to find the Grass Stalker before it finds you. Once you find it, you’re going to kill it and I’m going to watch while you do it. I need to assess your abilities and a solo monster hunt is the best way for me to do that.” Griffin blinked. Loris was translucent, though her voice was still clear. “You won’t be able to see me, but I’ll be monitoring you. Good hunting.” When she stopped speaking, she had disappeared completely.

“Shit!” Griffin muttered, craning his neck as he tried to look everywhere at once.

The bamboo forest enclosed him and suddenly the clearing didn’t seem quite as big as it did when he first got there. Another hot breeze filtered through the forest, making the trees sway slowly, rustling their myriad leaves and making a soft shushing sound that Griffin was sure was hiding the monster.

“Griffin, remember your DEEP Suit and remember your new senses!” Kismet reminded him from his shoulder and Griffin almost smacked himself in the forehead.

Of course, he’d forget the DEEP Suit and his Sensor Suite. He concentrated, pouring tensa into summoning the incredible suit. He sunk more than half of his tensa into the summon, using his Overcharge racial ability in his nervousness and it materialized around him faster than thought, in the most aggressive combat configuration he’d seen yet.

The suit’s armor plating had become so thick he could barely move and all of the suit’s weapons were deployed all at once and pointing in every direction. Griffin grimaced and took control of the DEEP Suit’s configuration, slimming it back down to what he was used to. He’d already wasted too much time on this, he knew, but Loris would just have to cut him some slack about it.

Kismet said in his helmet’s speakers, “I did a bit of digging about Grass Stalkers and you should know…more caution than you’ve displayed thus far would be advisable. According to the House Vasilias System Bestiary database, Grass Stalkers are extremely stealthy. They might be resistant to your passive senses—even the extended ones of your Sensor Suite, so keep your wits about you.”

“Great,” Griffin said sarcastically. “I’ll try to grow a few more eyes in the back of my head while I’m at it.”

Data from his Sensor Suite graft was being filtered into the DEEP Suit’s HUD, and he flipped on all of his sensor displays. His HUD washed out and then filled in with the new sensory data from his enhanced senses. SONAR clicks were worse than useless in the constantly shifting bamboo. That went for his telescopic vision as well. With all the plants moving in the wind, he’d probably puke if he tried to see through all that with telescopic vision.

That left only two options. Infrared wasn’t nearly as chaotic as his other senses, but it didn’t tell him much either. The bamboo had largely taken on the temperature of the air around it, but it was a good insulator so instead of being overwhelmed by a lot of conflicting information, he just saw a wall of light blue with patches of black and orange in spots that were a little colder or hotter than others.

His tensa senses revealed a slowly shifting galaxy of tiny, star-like points of light. His HUD showed that the density of tensa in the chamber was higher than outside, hovering around 10 kilosparks per cubic meter. The stars drifted aimlessly, with the Brownian motion of dust in the sunlight, not being blown by the steady breeze that kept the alien bamboo constantly shifting. Staring at the floating tensa made Griffin abruptly remember that his tensa pool was nearly half gone.

He wrestled his anima into his Ten Star Vortex gathering configuration and began funneling tensa into his pool as quickly as he could. He’d need all the power he could get, he was sure of it. With that out of the way, Griffin briefly considered pulling out a stick of dynamite and letting overwhelming firepower be the deciding factor here. After all, the dynamite had been lethal enough for the plasma cybercentipede mothers, right?

Then again, they weren’t outside. Griffin wasn’t exactly sure how this simulation chamber worked, but he wasn’t exactly confident that it wouldn’t damage the chamber itself. Also, he didn’t want to be anywhere near an explosion today. He began to get nervous; the Grass Stalker still hadn’t made an appearance.

“Hey Kismet,” he said quietly, “any clues on what we should be looking for? I feel a little exposed out here in the middle of this clearing.”

Kismet considered the data for a moment, taking it all in and responding, “Inconclusive. But you’re right, we can’t stay here. Pick a direction and go—pay close attention to the flow of the tensa though. Grass Stalkers will use their anima in a stealth configuration, so it should show up as a tensa-dead zone.”

He looked at the floating specks of brilliant light that represented tensa, trying to see if there was any particular dead zone anywhere nearby, but either there wasn’t or he couldn’t tell. Nervously, he jogged over to the edge of the clearing and made his way into the bamboo forest. The resemblance to bamboo was surface-level only. Once he touched them, he discovered they were oddly rubbery which made them feel plastic and fake to him, like he was walking through a movie set. It felt surreal but also terrifying.

It took almost an hour of stalking around the simulation chamber without seeing a single sign of the Grass Stalker until Griffin realized it was stalking him. He couldn’t put his finger quite on how he knew, though it could have something to do with him feeling like he was cringing under the stare of a predatory beast no matter where he moved.

Kismet cut into his frustrated thoughts. “Griffin, I’ve marked an area in your HUD off to your back left that is the likely location of the monster,” she said quietly. “Don’t look! Act naturally.”

Kismet painted the area with a light blue color and Griffin suddenly understood why he’d never been able to catch a glimpse of the thing. It was completely invisible, with the only evidence of it being the way tensa just happened to bump and float out of the way of the area Kismet had marked out. He tried training his other sensors on it, but they were useless.

There was a weird distortion in the infrared and visible spectra which smoothed itself out if you looked right at it. When Kismet had said it was stealthy, he’d been expecting natural camouflage like a tiger or panther or something, but what he was perceiving reminded him more of one of the Predator aliens.

He had to restrain himself from turning and looking any closer than he already was. Kill the monster, he thought, Right. I’m just going to kill the monster. He quickly brought up the menu for the DEEP Suit’s weapons systems.

SELECT WEAPON SYSTEM TYPE

1. Deadly melee

2. Nonlethal melee

3. Deadly ranged (Requires Targeting System)<

4. Nonlethal ranged (Requires Targeting System)

5. Artillery (requires Targeting System)

I think we need to go deadly here, he thought. “Kismet, what’s our option for the deadly ranged weapons on this thing?” he asked just as quietly.

“The DEEP Suit’s main deadly ranged weapon is a pair of shoulder-mounted mass driver turrets.” She replied. “They materialize tensa into solid ammunition and fire it at whatever you aim at. They have auto-tracking capability with your Sensor Suite, but that won’t be as useful here. You’ll have to aim them yourself.”

He kept up his slow but steady walk through the bamboo, feeling the eyes of the monster boring into his back. If he didn’t act soon, it would attack him and he didn’t think he’d have much of a chance against those jaws, even with his DEEP Suit’s armor.

Griffin selected the option for “Deadly Ranged” and little ports on his shoulder plates opened to reveal two small, pen-sized gun barrels. On his HUD, two little subwindows popped up with little labels under them calling one window, the one corresponding to his left shoulder, TAR-1, and the other labeled TAR-2. The targeting system that was supposed to control them was unable to get a lock on the Grass Stalker, just as predicted. He thought about how to gain manual control over them and suddenly he had it. The little guns were touchy and it felt like he was controlling them with dual sticks on a game controller. He even held his hands in that position, even though there was no controller in his hands.

He twirled them around a few times, checking out the calibration of his controls, and frowned. The controls were super sensitive. Kismet’s face suddenly popped up in the corner of his HUD with a little speech bubble that said, “Oops, looks like the defaults are too sensitive for you! Turning down sensitivity…try again!”

He grinned and twirled the controls again, finding them move much more smoothly. “Thanks, Kismet,” he said, his smile growing. “Now let’s hunt down a Grass Stalker!”