For several minutes, Zayd just sat on a pile of broken mechs in the blasted space where the system seemed to reside. As much as he’d acted calm and unphased toward Sioban and Haelith, the truth was that his entire body hurt and his mind felt increasingly fuzzy and clouded as he continued fighting. For several minutes after the system finished whatever it was doing when it ‘activated’, Zayd paid no attention to it. Instead, he closed his eyes and tried to clear the fog from his mind. Finally, after several minutes, he took a deep breath and looked at the menu.
[ACTIVATION MISSION COMPLETE. BONUS MISSION COMPLETE. ACTIVATION MISSION REWARD OF 100 ENTROPIC ENERGY HAS BEEN MULTIPLIED BY THE NUMBER OF MECHS DEFEATED IN THE BONUS MISSION. +500 ENTROPIC ENERGY]
[YOU MAY NOW ACCESS ADDITIONAL SYSTEM FEATURES.
[STATUS]
[SKILLS]
[#### ###### #######]
[PERSONAL COMBAT]
[MECH COMBAT]
[STARSHIP COMBAT- LOCKED]
[SHOP]
[MISSIONS]
[ENTROPIC ENERGY: 500]
“That’s one hell of a bonus,” Zayd said, looking at the hefty amount of Entropic energy he had received for the destruction of the additional mechs. “The question is, what can I spend it on? Status.”
NAME: ZAYD
[SPECIES]
BASE HUMAN: 98.89%
FAE: 1.1%
LUMINARY: 0.01%
[ATTRIBUTES]
STRENGTH: 6 - COST TO INCREASE: 70
ENDURANCE: 6 - COST TO INCREASE: 70
AGILITY: 5 - COST TO INCREASE: 60
SPEED: 4 - COST TO INCREASE: 50
INTELLIGENCE: 5 - COST TO INCREASE: 60
WILLPOWER: 6 - COST TO INCREASE: 70
EMPATHY: 3 - COST TO INCREASE: 40
BEAUTY: 4 - COST TO INCREASE: 50
DARK ENERGY CAPACITY: 100 - CAN NOT BE DIRECTLY INCREASED
DARK ENERGY SENSITIVITY: 3 - COST TO INCREASE: 400
DARK ENERGY AUTHORITY: 2 - COST TO INCREASE: 300
DARK ENERGY EMPOWERMENT: 2 - COST TO INCREASE: 300
GENETIC OPTIMIZATION: [AVAILABLE]
“What the hell! I get that increasing attributes requires progressively more energy but what’s with these numbers to increase anything related to Dark Energy?” Zayd exclaimed. Not only was increasing any of his Energy attributes prohibitively expensive, but he couldn’t even do anything about his Dark Energy Capacity, the thing that limited him more than anything else!
“Is there any way to increase my Dark Energy Capacity?” he asked.
[GENETIC OPTIMIZATION MAY RESULT IN AN INCREASE IN DARK ENERGY CAPACITY. SOME ITEMS IN THE SHOP AND SOME MISSION REWARDS MAY ALSO INCREASE DARK ENERGY CAPACITY TEMPORARILY OR PERMANENTLY]
So at least it wasn’t hopeless. Still, given the exorbitant costs of increasing any other aspect of Dark Energy, Zayd expected that the prices charged in the shop for a permanent increase would be extraordinary.
“Let’s see what’s in Skills,” he said, feeling that it was best to work down the list from top to bottom before making any decisions. Since time effectively paused while he was interacting with the system, he might as well take his time to come up with a real plan before spending any of his limited Entropic energy.
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[SKILLS]
[LANGUAGE - GALACTIC STANDARD: INTERMEDIATE] - COST TO INCREASE: 100
[LANGUAGE - FAE: NOVICE] - COST TO INCREASE: 50
[MINING: NOVICE] - COST TO INCREASE: 50
[DEMOLITIONS: NOVICE] - COST TO INCREASE: 50
The list actually went on for several more entries, but Zayd quickly realized that while many of these skills were useful, they represented foundational learning that might or might not translate to any real benefits if he improved them. His primary and secondary school education seemed to count for ‘Novice’ in everything from physics to mathematics but nothing looked immediately useful beyond accelerating his progress with Fae language skills. If ‘Intermediate’ corresponded to a native speaker’s level of proficiency then it would likely be all the jump he needed.
Slightly more interesting was the lengthy list of skills that he could acquire for a relatively low price.
[GENETICS] - COST TO ACQUIRE: 25
[HISTORY - STELLAR IMPERIUM] - COST TO ACQUIRE: 25
[RELIGION - TEMPLE OF EVOLUTIONARY ASCENSION] - COST TO ACQUIRE: 25
These were all things that could facilitate his assimilation into both Fae society and the greater landscape of the Stellar Imperium and he mentally marked them for future investment. Right now, however, he needed something to increase his actual combat power.
[PERSONAL COMBAT]
[HEAVY MELEE WEAPONS: INTERMEDIATE]
[FAE ENERGY WEAPONS: NOVICE]
[FAE POWERED ARMOR: NOVICE]
[AERIAL COMBAT: NOVICE]
[COMBAT EXPLOSIVES: NOVICE]
As before, the cost to acquire new skills in this section was twenty-five entropic energy, with the same progression of cost to increase skills further. Seeing the wealth of things he could acquire as well as the places that he could make quick improvement, Zayd began tagging several areas of opportunity for a quick boost. He also noticed things that he lacked that would be well worth adding in some capacity.
[MARKSMANSHIP]
[DRONE OPERATION]
[SHIELD USE]
[LIGHT MELEE WEAPONS]
As much as Zayd loved the traditions he’d grown up with to maximize the potential of heavy weapons, he took far too much damage while approaching enemy mechs or even when he had to deal with Saeyd and his three-barrelled carbine in the training exercise. He was starting to envy Caedril and considered changing his primary fighting style until he saw the next section below basic combat skills.
[SPECIAL PERSONAL COMBAT ABILITIES: 0/2]
[DARK HARVEST I] - COST TO ACQUIRE: 250
HARVEST ENTROPIC ENERGY OR DARK ENERGY EACH TIME YOU DESTROY AN ENEMY MECH. MINIMUM HARVEST - 10 ENTROPIC ENERGY OR 50 DARK ENERGY. MORE ENERGY MAY BE HARVESTED FROM THE DESTRUCTION OF MORE EXCEPTIONAL MECHS.
Zayd’s eyes widened in shock, first at the exorbitant cost and then at the princely benefits! It was all he could do to resist the urge to select the skill immediately. Not only would this provide for long-term growth by harvesting Entropic Energy, but it would also allow him to replenish his Dark Energy at an incredible rate during combat! Just the destruction of two mechs would completely restore his reserves, allowing him to harvest the remainder as Entropic Energy to fuel his growth!
Before he selected the ability, however, he had to see what else was available. If the first skill on the list was so amazing, he couldn’t imagine what else he would find!
[DARK BARRIER I] - COST TO ACQUIRE: 150
SURROUND YOURSELF WITH AN ENERGY SHIELD THAT ABSORBS DAMAGE FROM INCOMING ATTACKS. COST TO ACTIVATE - 50 DARK ENERGY. DAMAGE SUSTAINED BY THE BARRIER WILL DEPLETE YOUR DARK ENERGY UNTIL THE BARRIER IS DEACTIVATED OR YOU EXHAUST YOUR DARK ENERGY
Hacks! This was a pure hack! If he combined this with Dark Harvest, wouldn’t he become an unstoppable tank as long as he could keep destroying anything in his path?
[DARK AVATAR I] - COST TO ACQUIRE: 200
SURROUND YOURSELF WITH A MECH-SIZED ENERGY MANIFESTATION CAPABLE OF DIRECTLY COMBATTING MECHS. MAXIMUM SIZE FOR DARK AVATAR 1: 10 METERS. COST TO ACTIVATE: 50 DARK ENERGY. DURATION: 1 MINUTE PER 50 DARK ENERGY SPENT.
Zayd had to fight to keep himself from trembling as he read the description. He wouldn’t grow to the size of a mech to fight mechs personally but this was very close to the same thing!
[DARK WEAPON AUGMENTATION I] - COST TO ACQUIRE 50
AUGMENT YOUR ATTACKS WITH A DARK ENERGY AUGMENTATION THAT ADDS ADDITIONAL EFFECTS TO THE ATTACK.
CORROSIVE ATTACK - CORRODE THE DEFENSES AND STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY OF YOUR TARGET. COST - 1 DARK ENERGY PER ATTACK. COST TO UNLOCK: 50 ENTROPIC ENERGY
DISRUPTIVE ATTACK - SCRAMBLE ELECTRONICS OR COMPUTING SYSTEMS IN THE TARGET IMPACTED BY YOUR ATTACK. COST - 1 DARK ENERGY PER ATTACK. COST TO UNLOCK: 50 ENTROPIC ENERGY
ARMOR PIERCING ATTACK…
The list under Dark Weapon Augmentation continued on for a total of ten abilities. Zayd had initially been excited at such an affordable special ability, but realizing that he would have to unlock each of its sub-attributes individually before it was useful tempered his enthusiasm. Still, it wasn’t a bad choice given the vast amount of flexibility it offered him compared to conjuring a mech-sized avatar or summoning an energy shield.
There were a number of abilities after Dark Weapon Augmentation but when he realized that the bottomless pit that the skill represented was just a taste of the monstrous expense associated with the abilities further down the list, he quickly set them aside for some time in the future when he’d managed to harvest considerably more Entropic energy.
Now that he’d gotten a good idea of what he could do with his limited budget of Entropic Energy, he had some decisions to make.