Logan really wished he had more to work with than half-torn pants and a pair of potent socks. What he had was dust. A lot of dust. There had been the outline of a pickaxe on the ground next to Logan. But the moment he touched it, it disintegrated into dust. This place was old. Really old.
“Ok, so there’s the mining cart,” Logan mused half-aloud to collect his thoughts. “That’s metal. Obviously we got rubble. The tracks have more metal. The wood on them is probably unusable, but we’ll check.”
What Logan really needed was clothing. And food. And medicine. He was still sporting a pretty high fever. After the initial excitement of finding a supremely powerful Numa crystal wore off, Logan was faced with the hard reality that his body had gone through a ringer. He felt a pang of gratitude towards Tumor. The AI, of course being privy to his thoughts and emotions definitely felt smug.
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 97% Completion]
“Did you just level up by expressing emotion?”
[Maybe.]
“What’s going to happen when you reach 100%?” Logan asked and shuffled towards the cart. He wanted to give it a little heat enchantment and sleep in it. If only it were so easy. If he wanted to use any magic on the cart, he would have to haul the whole thing next to the crystal. Internal Numa charge was a lot more fun…
[Foremost, I will be able to access all my faculties. It will not make me effectively better at information processing, but now I am reliant on your input to make conclusions.]
“I don’t understand what you mean,” Logan said after he settled to half lie, half sit on the tracks and inspect them.
[I cannot conceive of an idea autonomously. Right now I am incapable of having even the most basic creative idea. If you do not specifically articulate needing something, I cannot provide it.]
“That’s not true,” Logan said. Yup, the wood was completely rotten. Maybe it didn’t matter? Maybe he could extract the usable parts and rearrange the material? “You’ve saved my life twice in quick succession.”
[The ability to override your emotions was programmed into me. It triggers when your cortisol and adrenaline cross a threshold. However, my initiative to hijack your immune system… Curious…]
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 98% Completion]
“I guess we’ll soon find out what happens,” Logan said. He grabbed handfuls of the rotten wood and crawled back to the giant Numa-crystal. “Hopefully it will help us get out of here.”
[The mining shaft seems to slant upwards. It is easily traverseable by you in terms of size.]
“My traversing appendages are another issue,” Logan said bitterly. Then he pressed a fistful of rotten wood against the softly glowing rough crystal.
“Make this wood into usable material. Use only good material, without risking structural imperfection.”
[Transmutation level requirement not met]
“Fuckkkkkkk!” Logan said and punched the crystal. It gonged in low vibration, but had nothing else to say. Logan leaned against it and blew out air.
[Logan—]
“What the hell are we supposed to do? I can’t even walk!”
[Logan—]
“I’m going to starve or die of thrist? There has to be something? Maybe I can hunt those bats.. WITH WHAT?!
[LOGAN!]
Logan sobered up and lifted his head. “Yeah?”
[Have you tried your third skill on the rotten wood?]
*
“[Repair].”
[Skill Level Up!]
[Repair level 2]
That was the second batch of a handful of rotten wood. The brown and grey mess in his hands didn’t morph into a block of wood. But it lost any dried up mold, moisture and other blemishes and disrepair. The spoiled mess in his hands became a fresh little pile of splinters. Logan knew he could [Transmute].
“Yes!” Logan gasped. “Tumor, it works! You’re a genius!”
Tumor didn’t respond, but Logan could feel the AI was very pleased with itself. Of course somewhere in the back of Logan’s mind, he did have a memory of receiving the [Repair] skill. He simply hadn’t had a use for it before. He would have used it to fix the destroyed roof and wall of the Den, but the equipment the camp had received from the Dorves had already covered that.
“[Repair].”
“[Repair].”
[Skill Level Up!]
[Repair level 3]
“[Repair].”
“[Repair].”
In a matter of minutes Logan had acquired a nice pile of splinters. Grinning excitedly, he placed one hand on the pile and another against the faintly warm crystal. Checking the hovering red hologram in front of his eyes, he closed them and visualized the shape.
“Make this wood into a crutch…”
After the measurements and clarifications, the splinters started morphing together and within seconds, there was a long stick with a crosspiece to support his armpit. Logan picked the crutch up and shuffled against the wall, until he was finally on his feet. Well, on his foot.
Now, that’s a win.
It was so much easier to shuffle back and forth from the tracks to the crystal and grab a handful of rotten wood and bring it to the ground next to the blue glowing crystal. Tumor placed red dots on the ground, where Logan would find stable ground.
He would make another crutch for himself and then it would be time to think further. One thing was sure. Despite his fever, weakness and dire circumstances, Logan Specter was not giving up. He would level up, make a lot of cool shit and get the hell out of this cave.