Max groaned as his augmentation triggered a wake-up alarm. Now I get the joke as to why humans hate Mondays, Max thought. He had wanted to sleep in after the late night struggling with the cat bath and repairing the amphora.
He took a deep breath and thought for a bit, sinking back into his simulation cloud bed. Thank you for foglets! Max thought. They were the most perfect form of matter for sleeping. Now that he had slept in a cloud bed, per Casa’s suggestion, he didn’t think he could ever go back to a normal bed.
“Right! Focus. It’s Monday and the class starts in an hour. Notifications please.” Max said.
[Quest: Kintsugi and the Thrice Broken Amphora 1/3, 100 XP awarded]
[Intelligence +1, Perception +1]
[Max Level +1, Max advanced to Novice 4, +10 free stats]
[Quest: Kintsugi and the Thrice Broken Amphora 2/3; damaged beauty only increases]
Max both liked and disliked his new quest. Repairing the amphora had been challenging yet fun. The result was truly beautiful and was, in his opinion, more profound than the original. Yet the quest wasn’t done. He expected he would need to break the amphora again and repair it again twice more before the quest would be complete. He didn’t feel good about intentionally wrecking the pot. He had succeeded in repairing it this time and even improving it, but what if he failed when trying again? Elsa might not mind, but he would.
Max jumped out of his cloud bed and shrugged into his smart suit. He exited his room to the smell of food downstairs and jogged down as his status screen came up.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 4 (1550/2000 XP)]
[Body Design Model: Custom– Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 30]
[Strength: 9 Agility: 13 Endurance: 12 Vitality: 13]
[Perception: 11 Intelligence: 6 Will: 6 Energy: 37 Regen: 19/min]
[Body Skill - Stamina: 5 Leaping: 4 Healing: 7 Strike: 7 Unbreakable: 2]
[Body Skill – Speed: 4 Gymnast: 2 Balance: 3 Claws: 1 Ballistics: 2]
[Resist Skills – Poison: 1 Shock: 4 Sonic: 4 Light: 4 EMP:1]
[Sense Skills – Scent: 9 DigiSense: 3]
[Mind Skill – AI Assist: 4 Access: 4 Identify: 2 Dream Learning: 2]
Max has made some good progress over the weekend. He had some extra stats from Wuxia workouts. The weekend’s events: Closing the scavenger hunt, his encounter with the bear, and the pushing-hands exercise, had unlocked several new skills. Identify, Claws, Poison resistance, Balance, and EMP resistance. He was growing his physical abilities quickly and today he hoped to get some mental skills and advance his lagging mental stats.
Quickly breakfast was finished, and Max checked himself in the mirror. He was ready to go.
“See you later Casa. The Academy Course today is Paths of Awareness and Learning.” Max said.
“Good luck today. Study hard and have fun. Don’t forget about that cat. There are still no responses to my social media queries and posts.” Casa said.
Max waved goodbye, “Thanks Casa, will do.”
He jogged out the door and out onto the street towards the waiting autopod through the wet morning drizzle. On the way to the car, Max saw a pair of men walking down the road. One of them was smoking, the aroma filled Max’s nose. Ugh, so gross Max thought, as he jumped into the car. The men had looked familiar, but concern over his mane getting wet quickly drove them from his thoughts.
When he arrived at the Academy, he was greeted by Tatemono as he made his way to the classroom. He was eager to begin this new adventure today. Leah and Charlie were already there and waved him over. Sasha and Marc sat nearby but Tyler was notably missing.
A tall thin man with middle eastern features was set up at the front of the class ready to begin the day’s lessons. He looked like the quintessential young teacher with his smart clothes configured into light colored slacks and an Oxford shirt with sleeves rolled up and a tan vest.
“Good morning class, my name is Professor Qasim. This morning I will be helping you to start exploring your sensing capabilities. Many previous augmentation training classes have had some difficulty in opening both their perception and mental skills. Today’s class is designed using challenging situations to coax your skills out and trigger any quests associated with these skills. Once you get past the first challenges, we have found students can easily continue to progress. First, we will start with perception.”
The professor used the room’s holoprojectors to start with a discussion of the primary human senses. He coaxed the class into exploring some senses humans did not have that existed in the animal world. He ranged from an owl’s better night vision, a bat’s echolocation, a bloodhound’s superior smelling, snakes with heat sensitivity, eels with electro sense, pigeons sensing magnetic fields, and more. He hinted that all these abilities and more had been achieved using augmentations and they merely needed to be unlocked.
With a clap of his hands, Qasim stood up and asked the class to do the same.
“Enough background, now we will try some practical activities to see if we can force some skill evolutions. Is everyone ready?”
The class looked unsure, but everyone signaled readiness. With a smile and another clap, the professor initiated the exercise. Max felt a pulse from the direction of the professor. The classroom tables and chairs dissolved into the floor. The windows and doors disappeared while the floor reformed into discrete 1-foot square platforms with ankle-breaking gaps spacing between.
“So,” Professor Qasim began,” we have a challenge and a goal. The task will be to use your senses to get out of the room.” A series of poles dropped from the ceiling and began spinning in place with padded arms extending. The whirling dervish automatons began circling the students. “And now we have enhanced the scenario to make the task, hm, shall we say, more imperative.”
“The augmentation designers seem to have a bit of a sense of humor. Skills require an intense need to activate, but until they do activate any given challenge can be difficult to impossible to achieve. Before I leave you all to your task, let me take away your current crutches so they don’t distract you.”
Max felt a twist in his head and his vision began to dim and the sound of the whirling machines began to fade, the last sound Max heard was the professor saying.
``And do try to hurry, class. These automatons will only increase in speed, and I’ve heard that sometimes the padding falls off after too many hits. Those non-padded arms are a bit sharp and painful.” Then, Max saw and heard no more.
[New Quest unlocked: Dark Dervish Dungeon: Escape the dervishes without sight or hearing]
He focused on his breath and his heartbeat and the feel of his body from his head to his toes. He explored the darkness and felt for an exit. Straining for any hint of light. Then he felt a low hum near his feet but could not see it. He followed the vibration as he ventured further out from the center of the room. Something slapped him in the shoulder hard enough to knock him sideways onto his hands and knees. Max began to panic.
He focused on his breathing and embraced the feeling, and it slowly gave way to determination. Eyes wide he strained to see anything, feel anything. He took a step forward, his ankle dropped into a gap between tiles. He dropped again to his knees. Max felt something approaching from his right and rolled to the left.
He felt the heat and heard the vibrations of the spinning automaton. His body felt numb and useless. He clenched his eyes shut and willed his body to work. Focusing hard in the direction of the vibrations, he opened his useless eyes again. He thought he briefly saw its outline. Straining he began to resolve some outlines from the spinning dervishes and the tiles. He began to see as his classmates blazed like bonfires in his new vision.
The automatons had an additional glow that the students didn’t have, except for one blaze who held a stick that glowed with a similar blue aura as the spinners. I bet that’s Charlie, Max thought.
As Max took in the room, he could see that Charlie was moving with a purpose and avoiding the dervishes. He must have unlocked something to move like that, Max mused. Taking in the scene, Max saw a similar aura, a small square, along the outlines of the wall.
Max moved; the tile platform outlines were now clear to him. He deftly avoided his flailing classmates and the machines as he crossed the room to the wall. He touched the glowing square and a hot outline appeared next to it. He stepped through and felt a hand on his shoulder, Charlie was right behind him. As they walked in the hall, his status chimed.
[Quest Dark Dervish Dungeon – Complete, 100 XP awarded]
[
[[
[Intelligence +1, Perception +1]
The door closed behind them, and their vision and hearing returned, Qasim stood off from the wall he had been leaning against across the halfway and strode over to them. He shook both of their hands and asked,
“If you don’t mind, will you tell me what skill you unlocked? You can whisper it to me if you want. I know some aspects of this training are competitive and keeping skill secrecy is a tactical advantage.”
“No worries or secrets between us, sir”, Charlie answered. “I learned an echolocation skill.”
“I received both thermal vision and EM field sensing”, Max answered.
“Congratulations. A fine extraction for only a half an hour time investment. You two did well, much faster than usual. The rest of the morning is reserved for this activity, if you want to grab lunch, the class will resume in the afternoon with Mrs. Matthews. Now remember what it took to unlock those skills, a similar experience although with perhaps a different focus will be needed to unlock more. “
Professor Qasim gave a slight nod and walked back over to where he had stood before to continue to monitor the exercise. He whistled a tune and tapped his foot as he monitored the remaining students as they struggled to avoid the mechanical spinners and find a way out.
“Brunch or wait for Leah?”, Charlie asked.
“It’s so nice outside, let’s leave her a text to meet at the sidewalk cafe around the corner. I need some sun, that feeling of complete isolation freaked me out a bit.” Max admitted.
----------------------------------------
Charlie and Max strolled down Main Street. A plethora of small businesses lined the road. Artists, Cafes, handcrafted goods and purveyors of design and fabrication side by side, a toy shop, the HQ for Utopia police services, several churches, and finally a library that served as a meeting ground and MakerSpace as well. As the two sought diversions waiting for Leah, Max stopped and raised his nose into the air as he smelled a familiar scent. Charlie looked at him with curiosity.
“I guess I may have forgotten to mention a sense to Qasim. When I got my uplift and a custom humanoid body, my father was insistent that some of my special capabilities as a dog were preserved. My sensitive nose helped me on my last quest, and I think it’s about to help again. If you don’t mind, follow me for a minute.” Max said. Charlie agreed.
The two moved around the corner, off Main Street, and down a side street to the library. Max stopped for a second, sniffing the air before he went in.
Max approached the librarian’s desk, there was a very old woman in glasses behind it with a name tag saying “Karen”. Littered around the desk and on the wall were photocopied papers showing a familiar cat.
Max picked up a flier. “Lost Himalayan Cat, answers to the name Sadie. Reward if found. Please call Utopia Library and ask for Karen”. The lost cat’s owner stood right in front of him. All he had to do is get the two together and the quest would be complete.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Charlie had a distracted look, after a second his eyes refocused and he looked at Max.
“Leah just got out and is ready to meet up. Did you find something? “, Charlie asked.
“I’ve got a quick errand to run. Do you think you can meet Leah and get a table? I’ll be super quick, maybe 10 minutes if I hurry.” Max replied.
“Can do,” Charlie said. “If you run late, I’ll order your favorite carnivore platter.”
“Thanks, buddy,” Max said as he took off. He pinged an autopod and called Casa to make sure the terror cat named Sadie was ready for pickup.
It only took 15 minutes for Max to get Sadie and drop her off with Karen. His quest was complete, and he had gotten multiple points for his perception stat and one for his DigiSense skill. It had pushed his level to Novice 4 and now he had a total of 40 free stat points. He was grateful to Charlie for the extra time and then walked around the corner to the cafe to meet his friends. As he entered the cafe his stomach growled and the scent of the carnivore platter made him smile, looks like Charlie got it right.
Max laughed and hugged his friends as he took a seat at the table.
“Hey gang, I just reunited a lost cat with her owner. I even got a reward”, Max said, pulling out a shiny new card. “A full membership to the library with download rights for technical models and free access to their MakerSpace labs. And I advanced to Novice 4!”
“I suspect that might come in handy when we start getting more mental quests.” Charlie said, then turning to Leah. “Say, I waited to ask until Max got here, so how did you get out of the dark room? If you want to share, of course? I got echolocation and Max has both thermal vision and an EM field sense.”
Leah looked embarrassed for a moment then said.
“I think they may need to change their security a bit because of me.” She said sheepishly. “I didn’t get any sense skills at all. I had topped out my access skill and I had unlocked a hacking skill last night. I was able to bypass the wireless control locks on the room monitor, the whirling dervishes, and the door. I played the game, but not the way they intended. I was able to view the room with its internal monitors. I adjusted the dervishes to avoid me. Finally, I forced it to open the door for my escape. Poor Qasim. He didn’t know whether to criticize or congratulate me, he was so flustered.”
“That’s awesome! You can always try again for sense skills later. Now I know about that hacking skill, I need to work out my access skill harder. That hacking ability sounds super useful. I can’t wait to see what I can do with it.” Max exclaimed. The group toasted their success and ordered dessert.
----------------------------------------
The group returned to the academy for the afternoon session. A stunning woman was waiting for them at the front of the class. Everyone in Utopia seemed to be either very old or stunningly beautiful. It was a good indication of where they drew their personal limits by what level of body modifications, they would allow themselves. Everyone quickly took their places. Max noticed that Marc was a bit worse off since the morning session, showing a black eye and split lip.
“Good afternoon class. I’m Mrs. Matthews and I’m here to help you to activate your mental skills and advance your mind attributes. Now, I’m not allowed to get into specifics regarding the skills available as the program owner believes that the process of discovery enhances the training. But I want you to be sure that you have the potential for skills that can help you think clearer, faster, and more accurately. You will be able to juggle multiple advanced concepts, visualize and quantify the hidden variables that surround us every day, and much more.”
“You will be able to incorporate knowledge quicker and with direct and immediate utility. Ultimately, some of these skills will aid you in truly integrating and using the technology that pervades our world to its full extent. Your mind will become your palace with many tools to use to enable all your physical skills to be even more effective.”
As Mrs. Matthews continued her introduction, the room began to shift and change. The room slowly faded and was replaced with an open amphitheater. Max wasn’t sure but the architecture looked old, perhaps Roman or Greek? He felt a slight breeze and smelled the ocean.
“I have a subversive way to ensure you get at least one skill. I’m sure the program designers might frown upon it, but I want to be sure you all get this foundational skill first. Per the training guidelines, I won’t name it; but this exercise has never failed to trigger its activation. I’m using the room to project an enhanced hologram of a center of learning, one of the famous Greek outdoor forums. Many of their most famous philosophers would debate and discuss their theories here. It was a public display of learning, rhetoric, and debate. I wish we still did it today.”
The visualization had become powerfully intense, the buildings were extremely bright, and the sounds and smells, even humidity were convincing to the class. It was so real that it could have been in Greece in midsummer for real if they didn’t know better. Two older men in colorful togas were orating before some assembled men. Max couldn’t understand, but he assumed they were speaking in Ancient Greek. He felt a pressure behind his eyes, his augments were reacting to the stimulus. The scene was beginning to pixelate, and the sound seemed to get choppy.
As the teacher continued to discuss skills and capabilities, the room’s visuals and audio continued to degrade until suddenly it snapped back into focus and the sound was clear again.
[
After another five minutes of the scene, Mrs. Matthews froze the feed.
“Excellent, I have successfully engaged all of your systems. Your augments struggled a bit as I was intentionally degrading the room’s projection which was tied to my Overlayer projection. Your augs predictably had a hissy fit and they compensated by activating your mixed reality overlay skill to clear your perception of the data layer when the room’s system “failed”.”
Max raised a hand, and the teacher gave him a nod.
“I got the notice about the Overlayer, but I thought I already had something similar. Earlier I had configured a heads-up display to show the functions of my old phone.” Max asked.
Mrs. Matthews smiled, “Indeed, that is the normal precursor to opening the larger skill set. I have found that most get it. I have also found that most don’t realize just how much more it is capable of, hence my subversive tactics.”
“This skill can paint the world with many of the skill visualizations you are learning to unlock and even do full Virtual Reality or VR games and movies without those VR goggles you have been using. You can toss those into the recycler now, you won’t need them.”
“Now that all your skills are active, you can use them to enhance or augment your perception. Let me share a quest with you to start your journey exploring your new mental skills. Pick a door that you find interesting and enter.”
A series of doors appeared around the projected amphitheater where the Greek men began to disperse. Each door looked Greek in style and had a label on the top of their frames. Max and the rest of the class circled the room to read the plaques above the virtual doors.
[Memory Palace]
[Poker Champion] [Rain Man]
[Immersive Idioma] [Schrödinger's Cat]
[The Sands of the Hourglass]
Ok, Max thought to himself, these quest titles are probably hints about the available skills. Before I pick anything, I should try to understand the hint first.
“Poker Champion” sounds appealing, but what is it? Card counting, applied statistics, or something else? “Memory palace” seems obvious, the quest designer should have called it Total Recall.
Ok, back on track. “Rain Man” I get, thanks again to family movie night, somehow unlocking skills associated with Asperger’s, an intuitive understanding of math maybe?
“Immersive Idioma”….. ugh. Maybe a VR thing. Not sure. “Schrödinger's Cat”, maybe higher-level math and probability? No thanks, done with anything cat related for the moment. And finally, “Sands of the Hourglass”, timekeeping? Sounds a bit more mysterious though.
As Max was thinking the other students had made their selections and walked through some of the doors. To Max’s horror, the doors disappeared as the students entered. Sasha had entered Poker Champion, Charlie had picked the Memory Palace, Marc went to Rain Man, and Leah disappeared into Immersive Idioma. Only two doorways remained: Schrödinger's Cat and Sands of the Hourglass. With a sigh, Max picked the Hourglass and walked in hoping his slow start wasn’t an omen.
[New Quest: Sands of the Hourglass - True understanding of time increases your cognition.]
He found himself in a dimly lit circular room with a large sand-filled hourglass perched atop a pedestal in the center of the room. A small man with Asian features sat in front of the glass on a prayer mat, focused intently on the glass. Judging by his breathing tempo, Max guessed he was meditating with his eyes open.
There were several other prayer mats around the hourglass. Taking the hint, Max sat like the monk in front of the glass. With his eyes open, he began to meditate. As he sunk into his breathing, Max was unexpectedly interrupted. The monk was now looking at him.
"Hey, how you doin', kid? It's great to see ya. Alright, now we're gonna meditate, so find yourself a comfortable spot, cross your legs, and sit up straight. Close your eyes, and take a deep breath in, hold it, and exhale. Nice and easy, let all that stress and tension just flow outta ya.” The monk said with a thick Brooklyn accent as he eye-balled Max in a very un-monk like manner. Max stifled a laugh and quickly followed the instructions correcting his posture.
“Now, we're gonna focus on the sand droppin' through an hourglass. You see it? Focus hard on it? Good, now let's slow it down. See the grains of sand movin' at a crawl, almost like it's suspended in time. Take it slow, let yourself sink into that moment.”
“Feel that peacefulness surround you. Every breath you take, you're slowing down that sand, making it move at your own pace. Keep breathin' in and out, let yourself feel the stillness, and the calm. That's it, you're doin' great.”
“Hold that feeling of peace with ya, and carry it with ya wherever ya go. Keep practicin’. Perfect is the journey, not the destination. Namaste."
Max focused on the sands and slowed his breathing. After long grueling minutes of focus, Max couldn’t convince himself the sand was slowed even for a second. Time passed and the very big hourglass continued to pour its sand from the top to bottom. Max focused intently to try and will the sand to slow. As the last grains slipped from the top of the hourglass, he heard a sigh from beside him. The monk was looking at him with a sour expression.
“Having’ doubts huh, tough guy. Some always gotta take the hard road. Very well. Stand up and let’s take this next door.”
Max stood up and followed the monk into the next room. The room was similarly very sparse, but this room was much longer. Max followed the monk but was surprised as his feet sunk into the floor, which hardened and trapped his feet to the ankles. The monk continued down the long room and reached a rack that had been hidden in the shadows.
“Um, sir. My feet appear to be stuck.” Max told the monk, raising his voice.
“All is well, doubter. Never fear, for we are here to help you.”, the monk pulled an ancient longbow from the rack and picked through a quiver to select an arrow with wicked barbs and black fletching. Max’s breathing raced as the monk set his stance and began to draw back the arrow.
"Hey, hey, relax, kid. Let me tell ya somethin', you're rushin' around like a chicken with its head cut off. You're movin' so fast, you're not even payin' attention to what's happenin' around ya. You're missin' the beauty of life, kid.”
“So, here's what we're gonna do. Take a deep breath, and let it out nice and easy. Good, now do it again. And this time, I want you to focus on your breath. Feel the air as it moves in and out of your lungs. Take it slow. Let yourself be present in this moment.”
“You see, kid, time is relative. It's not absolute. It’s subjective. When you slow down, it feels like you have all the time in the world. So, take a deep breath, and let yourself be present in this moment. That's it, you're doin' great. And remember, this will only hurt if you…fail…to…catch…the...arrow.”
With a pronounced and slow thrumming sound the monk released the black arrow. Max focused as the arrow streaked toward his heart. He saw every detail of the barbed head, the black lacquer paint on the shaft, the slight defect in the black feather fletching on the third flute of the arrow. His breath slowed and the arrow slowed with it. His hand rose, achingly slow but the arrow moved slower still. His hand closed on the shaft, just behind the barb and he grasped it tight.
Max’s breath exploded as he lost the moment and saw that he still held the arrow. It was less than an inch away from piercing his chest, right where his heart was located.
"Hey, kid, that was some amazing meditation you did just then. You stopped that arrow right in its tracks! I knew you had it in you. You just have to believe in yourself and focus your mind. Namaste, kid. Namaste."
The monk faded away followed by rack, the arrow, the hourglass and both rooms. Max found himself back in the classroom with Marc, Leah, and Mrs. Matthews.
[Quest: Sands of the Hourglass complete, 100 XP awarded.]
[
“Nicely done, Max”, Mrs. Matthews said. “The doorways don’t always grant a skill, usually they trigger a quest for further work needed to attain a skill. You should be proud that you have acquired it so quickly.”
Max smiled. He was glad he had picked the hourglass. The arrow catch test was scary, but he could see how this skill could change everything. He nodded to Marc and was surprised at a neutral nod back. He glanced at Leah who seemed a bit concerned.
“How did you do?”
Leah looked ready to burst into tears.
“Bàoqiàn Max, wǒ tīng bùdǒng nǐ shuō shénme. Zhège rènwù yāoqiú wǒ yòng zhōngwén shuōhuà, ér wǒ suǒ tīngdào de yīqiè yě dōu shì zhōngwén. Zhídào wǒ néng liúlì de jiǎng zhè zhǒng yǔyán, rènwù cái huì tíngzhǐ.” Leah said.
Max’s jaw dropped, maybe the arrow catch test wasn’t so bad after all. He looked at Mrs. Matthews with a questioning expression.
“It looks like she has engaged in one of the more unique mental quests. While she is certainly able to drop it at any time, the quest picks up pace the longer she holds the language immersion block. With the skill helping, she will be able to gain full fluency in a matter of weeks instead of months. While we all have basic translation built into our augs, true fluency enables better communication. Some studies show profound differences in the pace or quality of many activities when the language used is changed. I have run this quest for 5 different languages and found each one valuable in different ways. Language is a wonderful thing; any given language can help or hinder certain mental tasks. Indeed, I try to change my thinking to a different language when I get stuck on problems. It can help with mental blocks.”
“Nice. I’ll have to keep that one in mind. Haha. Get it? I need to keep that one in my mind.” Max smiled, waiting for the laugh.
Mrs. Matthews had a sour look and even Leah seemed to get it with her language block on and groaned.
“No appreciation for my humor. Dad would have loved that one.” Max mumbled.
One by one, the rest of the students came out of their exercises. Charlie revealed to Max and Leah that he had gained a quest to enable perfect memory, he still had a lot of work, but he knew it was already helping him. While they were talking, the trio figured out that they could use their aug translators to display text on the bottom of their vision using their basic HUD overlay to be able to understand Leah. It was cumbersome, but they could still communicate without Leah abandoning her quest. Marc was very quiet and seemed to get distracted easily, scanning the room and focusing on random features. Sasha was observing everyone in the room with a thoughtful expression. Max hesitated to ask, but it was clear they were processing the room with new skills.
Coach Thompson and Professor Qasim joined Mrs. Matthews at the front of the class. Mrs. Matthews addresses the class.
“You have all achieved at least one quest or skill in each of the primary pathways of skill development. You should have sufficient familiarity with the system to continue your advancement without formal classes. If you do get stuck or stall out your progress, please contact the academy. Tatemono Rei will make an appointment with the relevant instructor. We have more activities to give you if you need them.” Mrs. Matthews said, stepping back. Qasim stepped up.
“There is a fourth path that requires a solid foundation in the other paths first. Many previous classes have encountered difficulty in starting the final path. Dominion. We will have another class in about 2 months to assess you and review the Path of Dominion.”
“Finally,” Coach Thompson started, “some of your advancement quests may require the academy facilities. Feel free to use the workout areas, but if you have a specific trial you need, contact me and I will help set it up.”
“We will notify your augs of the date for the next class. Also, Tatemono will have a quest and resource board if you find your progress slowing and need direction. Good work and good luck with your future quests. We do want you to enjoy the summer but make it a focus to continue working on your skills, the more you advance the easier the Dominion class will be for you. You won’t be able to get to Master without a couple of key Dominion skills. Class dismissed.”