Logan woke up shivering. He let out a weak cough and groaned in pain.
“T-tumor…” he croaked, bereft of his voice. “What’s going on?”
[Your condition is not critical. I identified the components of the venom and orchestrated your immune system to combat the threat. No organs were damaged by the tetrodotoxin. It a toxin common in cephalopods even on Earth. It is a neurotoxin, its main function being paralysis of the neural network. While I was able to prevent it from spreading to your vital organs, your leg is… damaged.]
“How… How damaged?” Logan said between coughs. He still clearly had a fever from the immune system response Tumor had facilitated.
[I do not know. I was prevented from collecting data due to your unconsciousness. Can you move your leg?]
It was very quickly evident that he could not. Great. Just great. On top of the pain, he now had a limp. Logan tried rolling his ankle and flexing his thigh muscles, but nothing happened. He could move his hip, so at least that was something.
[It is safe to say that for now you have lost function of your left leg.]
“Thank you Captain Obvious…”
[I find your ability to respond with humor in this situation quite remarkable.]
Logan was about to say something remarkable, but he was interrupted by a scuffling sound from behind him. Something was sifting through the sand and moving rocks behind the rubble. Logan’s blood pressure spiked.
[The cephalopod is still hunting you. It has been clawing its way through the rubble for four hours and fourteen minutes now.]
Logan dragged himself away from the rubble, further into the room. Even the most menial movement was painful and exhausting right now.
Will it get in?
[Eventually, most likely. I would say there is an 85.55% chance it will clear the rubble within the next few days, assuming it will not be distracted from its task and that it will require sleep. It is our luck that it primarily hunts by ambushing and overwhelming with its toxin, instead of strength. Having only been struck with one of its tentacles, you were subjected to an amount of venom I could manage.]
With aching shoulders and shaking arms, Logan lifted himself from the dusty stone floor. With some struggle, he managed to rest himself against a wall. He looked at the room he was in.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
It was a room carved into a natural cavern. There were no blue leylines of some Numa network crafted here. There were some tables and indeterminate piles of equipment covered in a crust of dried up dust, gathered upon everything from eons of time. The floor was covered with such a thick layer of dust, that it was clear Logan had been coughing from that, rather than the effects of a venom or his body’s countermeasures.
It was a large room, and on the other side of it was a cave opening with tracks leading up to a block against which an old and wide mining cart lay. Next to the mining cart was a massive mineral formation. Beneath cracks and openings of an azure glow gave the room light. Softly it pulsed and illuminated the shadows of tables and the mining cart within the room. An idle bat flitted somewhere around the ceiling, but it did not startle Logan from his reverie.
“Tumor!” He whispered, suddenly forgetting his fatigue. “Do you think this is what I think it is?”
*
It took a while for Logan to drag his limp leg and weakened body to the crystal formation on the other side of the room. Eventually he managed to prop himself to half lay against the massive mineral formation. The earth around the crystal was soft and Logan could dig out more of the familiar blue Numa shine. The earth smelled healthy and strong, as if enriched by the Numa crystal’s presence. This was not the darker hue of Numa corrupted by the Levemoth. Nor was it a construct made by the First Folk. This was what they used to make their constructs!
“Tumor!” Logan whispered reverently. “This is a natural Numa deposit.”
[Indeed, I have come to the same conclusion. There was clearly a mining operation at work here. From the look of it, this room has been untouched for several centuries. It is unlikely the Dorves have been this deep.]
Logan was still groggy, but an excitement was flowing through his mind. This could be pure Numa! It was only constructs and the Levemoth’s own Numa that were tainted. If this Numa was usable and safe like the fruits and wells of the Faelves, this could change many a thing.
Logan inspected the potently glowing and pulsing blue crystal. He was hoping for a text to pop up. It did.
[S-Grade Natural Numa Crystal, 100%]
[Exquisite.]
“You said it, Tumor…” Logan said, staring at the floating notification in disbelief. “How much energy do you think is there?”
[It is impossible to determine, because you have mostly encountered F-grade and E-grade variants of Numa crystals. You have accessed D-grade constructs made by the First Folk. These are exactly 500% as efficient as an E-grade crystal. This would suggest linear growth, but there is not enough data.We do not know whether the energy containment between gradients grows linearly or exponentially. Right now with your Potency coefficient, E-grade crystals are 455% as efficient as F-grade crystals.]
“So in english, one E-grader is worth four and a half F-grades?”
[Four point fiftyfive. Not four point five zero.]
If the AI could huff, it most certainly would have. Logan let out a weak laugh.
“We should try wordplay sometimes,” Logan said. “How do you like ‘pedantics’?”
[The combination of the words pedantic and antics? Ha-ha, very clever Logan. You also managed to make this game proposal an insult to my person and my preferences. Ha-ha.]
“Damn, you really managed to squeeze all the fun out of it.”
[Does that mean I won?]
“Heh, sure.”
[I think I like winning.]
“Don’t we all,” Logan said and clawed through the soft, dry earth to uncover the Numa crystal further. “Do you think using stuff we make with this crystal will attract the Levemoth?”
[Impossible to determine with the data at hand. However, escaping this predicament, especially if your left leg is permanently damaged, will likely not succeed without using this crystal.]
“Yeah,” Logan said, and wiped some of the dry earth from his face. “It’s just a question of whether we get to keep the stuff we make.”
[What do you propose should be made?]
Logan grinned. Despite the clawing and groaning coming from twenty feet away, and his limp leg, excitement was welling inside of him.
“Now, that is a good question…”