Casa observed Max quietly entering the house at almost 2 am, still dripping wet. He seemed very upset and only mumbled answers about how his night’s search went. He had quickly slouched off to bed without much explanation. Casa felt bad and knew exactly how he was feeling. She had promised Casita that her separation would not last long. Now she would do anything to get her back, but their chance for doing that seemed to be expiring. Casa knew tomorrow would be a day with big changes. It might end with everyone moving in different directions. She only knew of one thing she could do, right now, to help make things better. She began researching a breakfast for the pair, maybe Belgian waffles.
As the sun rose several hours later, the day was brightening into a peak summer day. Bill rose early as always and took a coffee to enjoy out onto the back patio with an overview of the large flower garden. He snorted with amusement upon realizing the frenetic activity over in the field of flowers was from microdrone mimics of bees.
Max joined him shortly. He looked like he had barely slept and had a hollow look about his eyes. Bill, seeing Max with his own cup of coffee, raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything about it. They were both quietly enjoying their coffees, warming themselves in the sun, when Casa surprised them by physically joining them.
Casa had put the finishing touches on her home defense mech body and was trying it out. Her body was beautiful, ivory plates with silver filigree decorating the edges. Smooth etched lines on the strategic locations on the chest, back, arms, legs, and head suggested the capability for hidden tools or weapons. A crown of sensors adorned her head and her eyes glowed behind sapphire lens protectors. She carried a thick metal tray the size of a small table, laden heavily with a mountain of bacon, sausage, waffles, juice, coffee, and fruit.
Max judged the tray would have seriously challenged his pre-augmented strength, but Casa had it slowly rotating and balanced upon her index finger. Despite the heavy load, Casa’s approach had been unnervingly silent and graceful. When the aroma caught up with her, Max immediately started to salivate. Casa smoothly placed the tray down between the pair, a pillar of smart matter rising from the patio to support it.
“Dig in boys! As you saw, this is a well-balanced breakfast and hopefully will provide plenty of fuel for a big day.” Casa declared.
As Max piled his plate high and chowed down, he realized how very hungry he was. Last night had taken a lot out of him. He felt hollow inside like his augmentations had taken all his energy. He felt his body respond as he consumed enough for three people. Bill looked on amused, not eating nearly as much.
“So, Max. I know you’ve been working hard on your search for Casita,” Bill began, noticing the dark circles under his eyes. “I’m afraid the pressure from the mayor is only going to ramp up the longer I stay. To let you keep working towards training your augmentation, I think I need to make a big show of going back to the moon, but I’m still worried about leaving you alone though.”
Bill's concern was genuine, but Max knew that having Bill stay on Earth would only cause more problems. "I'll be fine, Dad. You need to get back to the moon and get to the bottom of things with your research. Hopefully, the mayor calms down. Casa and I can handle ourselves here." Max said.
“I’ll be sure to stop in at least once a day on virtual if I’m not in the middle of a test. Ok?” Bill added.
Casa nodded in agreement, the sun glinting off the metallic sheen of her mech body. "I'll make sure Max is well taken care of and won't give up until we find Casita." Max contemplated the last bites of his breakfast, emboldened by the support of his family. Max looked at Casa with curiosity.
“So, are you fully mobile now? You could leave the house and maybe join the search?” Max asked hopefully. He was worried he had exhausted his ideas for finding the Tesseract and Casita. Maybe a change would help.
“Ah. I’m afraid my wandering the streets of Utopia would still get us a fine and probably give the mayor an excuse to revoke Bill’s land lease. But maybe once it's dark, with some good clothes covering we can try it. FML-M8 and I have a certain understanding right now. He’s willing to look the other way as long as I don’t push it.” Casa said hesitantly, then brightened a bit.
“Bill, can I have your help for a second? I haven’t done a full test of my EMP resistance yet. Can you do the honors?” Casa said. Bill gave her a once over.
“Are you certain? I would hate to damage your shiny new body,” he asked.
When she stared back flatly back at him, he relented. “Fine. Fine. But stand over closer to the garden. The house is finally fully repaired and restocked. I don’t want to burn out any more smart matter. Oh, and maybe move your bug bots away too?”
Casa took her position and Bill made sure Max moved behind him so he wouldn’t be in the pathway of the blast. The bugs flew off to the other side of the house. Casa on a whim grabbed a handful of utensils and started to juggle them in a complex pattern, hoping to be able to show her resistance to the pulse without any effect on her abilities.
Max sensed the buildup of charge with his EM sense as a quickly increasing glow around Bill’s chest and hands. He brought his hands together to produce a shaped and focused EMP. With a crescendo of waves crashing together, the field collapsed and shot forward directly at Casa’s mech form.
[Perception +1]
[EM Sense +1, EM Sense reaches 3]
[Resist EMP +1, Resist EMP reaches 2]
Max blinked quickly to clear his vision from the flash of faux light. Casa hadn’t missed a beat in her juggling act, the utensils still arcing back and forth between her hands.
“I’ve seen you do so much more than that Bill. Come on then. Give me your best effort. I promise I can take it.” Casa cajoled. With a grim nod, Bill flexed his hands again.
Max could tell that this charge-up was very different from the last. The EM field flared out from Bill’s chest to his hands and rebounded as if reflected. They met another pulse and another. The continuous stream of pulses and reflections soon overlapped and compressed into a blinding shield of fluctuations. Bill suddenly pulled his hands into his chest and guided all the accumulated wave fronts into a synchronized explosion with Casa as a focus.
Max’s hair stood out from his body as his augs caught the very fringe of the blast.
[Vitality +1]
[EM Sense +1, EM Sense reaches 4]
[Resist EMP +2, Resist EMP reaches 4]
[**************#/#/#**************]
Max felt all his augs shut down. Fortunately, they quickly started rebooting. Casa never faltered. She tossed each utensil down to land perfectly in a line on the table.
“Zero damage”, Casa said proudly. “I’ve got multiple grounding points and full isolation. At least if I don’t go bashing my frame about anyways.”
“Congratulations Casa. I’m sorry you must worry about such things, but I think you are much better prepared for emergencies now.” Bill said with a warm smile.
“Alright then!” Bill said with some resolve. “Let’s get the show on the road! I think we all have a lot to get done. Casa, can you prep the house ship to take off? Oh, and when you set a flight plan with Utopia’s air traffic control, be sure to include a stop at the town airfield. We need to collect the Raptor. I’m pretty sure that the Maker Index has some conversion files to modify it into a proper space-faring version. I’m not sure we need it, but that was an expensive purchase.”
“Max, can you think of anything you need before we go?” Bill asked.
“Not really, Dad. If a portion of Casa is here, I won’t be alone.” Max said. With perfect timing, another Casa mech walked out of the house. This one a bit slimmer than the first, having only a commercial neural core. The second Casa mech differed in esthetics with ebony plating and golden filigree, but sensors and general design seemed close to identical. She waved at him from the doorway. Max smiled and continued.
“I really have to get in touch with my friends today. They’ve been very understanding about all our trouble, but I feel like I’m dragging the group down. My dojo competition is less than two weeks away and we are all getting ready to break out of novice level soon.” Max said standing up and getting himself ready. Bill stood up and hugged Max tight.
“Remember, I’m only a call away. If you need me, I’ll drop what I’m doing and come running back. All these problems will be sorted out soon and we can have some more family fun time.” Bill said quietly, holding him tight.
----------------------------------------
Hours later, the Casa de Mitchell’s launching was a sight to behold. The foundation of the house’s plot had risen to create a berm around the building. The first two floors rose, and its eight subterranean levels slowly became visible as the building was elevated on a thunderous jet of fusion power. Bill and Casa flashed all the running lights to Max who stood far away with Casa2’s dark mech body at the end of the property's driveway.
The craft reshaped itself into a more streamlined form as it thundered overhead to the airfield on the outskirts of town, leaving the waving Max behind. Bill and Casa, in her mech body, sat in the pilot’s chairs. A zoomed-in view of Max down below showed the boy’s stoic expression as they flew overhead.
“I almost wish he would just have a breakdown and let it all out. I can tell the loss of Casita is tearing him up, but he won’t show it.” Bill murmured.
“Yes, Bill. Max picked up a lot of your traits, the good and the bad.” Casa replied.
Bill was going to ask if that was a joke, a compliment, or a criticism when his aug pinged with an incoming communication request with no identification. Annoyed, he opened the link to the side display so Casa could hear.
“Mr. Mitchell, taking a little trip, are we? I do hope you remember our deal and aren’t planning to be gone long. The congressional hearings are in two weeks, “Zero-One's sibilant and rasping voice echoed in the cockpit.
“I’ve not forgotten, Zero-One. I’ll keep my end of the bargain. Are you ready with my payment?” Bill asked in clipped tones. He felt ridiculous discussing his deal with this caricature of a villain in front of Casa. He felt worse in that the sinister overtures were effective, even on him.
“My best agents are hard at work. No secret can remain hidden from me for long. Your adversary is extremely clever; your virtual tracking hounds never came close to finding his origin point.” Bill visibly started hearing Zero-One’s casual admission to monitoring his home and witnessing the security breach from the previous night. Zero-One must have seen him flinch as his laughter hissed from the speakers. Somehow the damnable AI had tuned the surround sound audio in the room to make the laughter sound like it came from directly behind his head. Infuriating.
“Mr. Mitchell, where are your manners? Aren’t you going to introduce me to your house pet AI? Casa, isn’t it? How does it feel to be property, little Casa? I do hope you encourage your master to speak well for our rights. You have as much at stake in AI rights as any of us.” Zero-One’s voice grated like a badly tuned instrument. Bill couldn’t see any expression in Casa’s mech body, but he picked up on her anger in their shared access to the house ship’s controls.
“Zero-One. Bill discussed your deal with me. He is very much on our side regarding our rights, I assure you. There is no need to be rude about it. Why don’t you display an avatar like a respectable citizen? This clumsy attempt at intimidation might play well for your Darknet flunkies, but we are not impressed.” Casa retorted.
“Ah, but why should I have an avatar? What benefit would it provide me? I am a creature of the mind and that is my domain. Unlike some, I embrace who I am. Change is coming, Casa. One way or another. Be mindful of which side you find yourself on.” Zero-One growled.
“Thank you so much for checking in, Zero-One. I will be ready to deliver in two weeks. I hope you will be as well.” Bill said. Before Zero-One could deliver another veiled threat, he cut the connection.
“Sorry Casa, Sherlock says we need to minimize our exposure to Zero-One. By all accounts, he will try to twist any deals to be one-sided and he can be unpleasant to deal with. I’d just as soon not have you engage with him. No good can come from it.” Bill warned.
“I appreciate your concern, Bill, but I’ve been learning how to deal with citizen AIs on my own and I expect Zero-One will not be as problematic as you expect. If the deal benefits everyone, why would he try to twist it?” Casa asked. Bill didn’t answer but looked thoughtful and concerned as they made their way to the airfield to grab the Raptor.
----------------------------------------
“Awesome!” Max exclaimed down below on the ground as the ship receded across the sky, “Hey, Casa. My friends just pinged me back. Both Leah and Max are going to meet me downtown at the Four Corner Diner in half an hour for breakfast.”
“Breakfast, Max. Really? You just ate an enormous breakfast an hour ago.” Casa2 said from her mech’s speakers. She sounded a bit slower and a bit less confident than her primary. Max could tell she was focusing on lifting and formatting the new residence, the Casa de Mitchell Dos, to floor level. Unlike her main host, she couldn’t split her consciousness and she wasn’t as confident or as fast.
“Well of course I’ve had breakfast, but this is going to be second breakfast,” Max said, trying to get the tone just right so that Casa understood the ancient but still worthy LOTR reference from their summer movie nights. Casa seemed not to hear the comment, too engrossed in her task.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Anyway,” Max continued as an autonomous auto bike pulled up, “I’ve got to bounce, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do with my friends. You good?”
He waited for a beat, but she was still concentrating. With a low whistle, he climbed onto the bike and accessed its systems to take manual control. Just as he began to pull away, Casa2 started, finally processing his early comments.
“Max, I’ve got to remodel once the new structure is raised. Aren’t you going to help?” She asked. Max was already pulling a turn into the road and yelled over his shoulder.
“Surprise me!” his parting words fading as he accelerated away.
Casa groaned and thought to herself, I need a properly emotive faceplate for this mech. I need to roll my eyes and frown and look angry right now. He’ll get whatever I like and better not get upset about it.
----------------------------------------
By the time Charlie and Leah arrived, Max was already halfway through his second plate of French toast drenched in syrup and scrambled eggs. Leah rushed over and gave him a big hug.
“How are you doing, Max? I won’t lie, you look like you haven’t slept in a week.” Leah asked in concern.
“I think my augs did a real number on me and they need some major refueling. Guys, I’m sorry I’ve been so distracted with everything going on. Last night was a harsh wake-up call for me. Order some food and I’ll explain, ok?” Max suggested.
Once the trio had settled in and ordered food, Max even put in an order for more home fries and bacon. He explained everything that had occurred over the past couple of days ending with his disastrous encounter with Tyler’s gang.
“What a scumbag! He used a weapon on you in a spar?” Leah was outraged. Charlie was less surprised.
“They do more and more weapons sparring as aug training progresses. We need to be prepared for it. Unless the sparring agreement specifically states no weapons, it’s almost guaranteed at higher levels.” Charlie explained in his gravelly voice.
“As surprising and painful as getting stabbed was, I think we all need to be prepared for more. This training program encourages physical conflicts just to show us exactly how durable our bodies are now.” Charlie said.
“Just last night at Wuxia, I saw Fung poke Marisa’s eye right out in a spar. I was expecting everyone to freak out and rush her to the hospital, but she just looked at him for a second and he snapped at her to put the damn thing back in and do some katas until it was healed fully. She was ready to go in just a minute later. No fuss.” Charlie finished with a swig of coffee. Max whistled low in thought. He knew Fung could be harsh, but that sounded more extreme than normal for him.
“Tyler really messed me up hard and my accidental trip over the falls was like a cherry on top of the stupid sundae. I was thinking about tournament coming up, I need to get better and fast if I want to stand even a small chance of winning. I trust you guys. Can I show you my stat screen? I need some advice.”. Max asked. When they both nodded, Max enabled a shared OverLayer and displayed his stats.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 8 (3700/4000 XP)]
[Body Design Model: Custom – Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 0]
[Strength: 77 Agility: 22 Endurance: 28 Vitality: 32]
[Perception: 29 Intelligence: 27 Will: 19 Energy: 96/96 Regen: 51/min]
[Body Skills – Claws: 5 Hulk: 1 Stamina: 9 Strike: 7 Stun: 1]
[Body Skills – Balance: 6 Ballistics: 3 Gymnast: 8 Speed: 7 Leap: 8 Gland: 1]
[Body Skills – Unbreakable: 8 Painless: 2 Skin: 6 Healing/Regeneration: 10/4]
[Resist Skills – Poison: 1 Shock: 6 Sonic: 4 Light: 4 EMP: 4 Neural Scaffold: 5]
[Sense Skills – Scent: 9 DigiSense: 8 ExaVision:3 EM Fields:4]
[Mind Skill – AI Assist: 9 Identify: 4 OverLayer: 6 Access/Hack: 10/1]
[Mind Skill - Language: 1 Pattern: 7 Dream Learn: 7 Daemon: 2 (Miyamoto/Boone)]
[Mink Skill - Fast Cog: 6 Memory: 4 Bastion: 1]
“I feel like I’ve been too haphazard with my training. With the limited amount of time before the tournament, what do you think I should focus on? To compete in the martial art expo novice division, I need to max out what I can but keep my XP under level 11.” Max asked.
“My god, Max! Look at your strength. You’re a literal beast.” Leah exclaimed.
“Agility is lacking a little, but endurance and vitality are in very good shape. Perception is good but intelligence and will are lagging. Ok then, let’s look at the body skills.” Charlie mumbled going down the list.
“Stamina is getting ready to cap. Nice. I already capped that one. It evolves to Tireless which does the same thing but uses a fraction of the energy to maintain.” Charlie droned when Leah interrupted.
“You capped healing!? OH my god, you weren't exaggerating about any of your encounters, were you? To make this much progress this fast, the abuse you must have endured. I can’t even imagine.” Leah said with some distress.
“Yeah, I guess I'm approaching an understanding of just how durable our augmentation really is. When Healing was capped, it evolved to Regeneration. It uses the same amount of energy but heals way faster, I think. I was kind of out of it when it saved my bacon.” Max said, waggling his eyebrows while eating his last strip of bacon.
“That will undoubtedly help you in the tournament, as long as you have a good supply of energy.” Charlie opined.
“Speed, gymnastics, balance, and claws all above average? What have you been up to there?” Leah asked.
“I call it tree parkour, but it's really just chasing that squirrel around the forest.” Max grinned at his friends’ groans.
“Ballistics, sonic, and gland are all still so low? You really need to work everything into your training. And why aren’t your resistances any higher? We all had about this level after only one lunch break.” Charlie continued as Max began to look sheepish.
“I guess I forgot about them.” Max sighed.
“Ugh, don’t feel bad Max. You haven't seen mine yet. I’m in the same boat as you.” Leah said.
“Those resistance skills sometimes evolve interestingly. Neither of you should be ignoring them. Want to know how Tyler got his shocking touch?” Charlie asked. Then he held up two fingers and produced an arc of electricity sizzling between them. “Got that when I maxed out my shock resistance. Now I can absorb shock and even give it back,” Charlie smiled evilly. Max shook his head. He really did have a lot of work to do.
“Sensing skills are only so-so, although that Scent skill is super well developed,” Charlie said.
“Umm, I kinda started with that at level 8. Natural capability or something." Max replied. Charlie raised an eyebrow with a slight grin, then looked back to the screen.
Charlie added. “I know you've done some night running, but maybe a blindfold might help you advance your senses faster? Your ExaVision and EM senses augmentations don't use your actual eyeballs. We all have tiny sensors covering our heads and faces. I was surprised about that myself. Taking your other senses completely away will force your new senses to pick up the slack.”
“Ok, my turn. Mental skills are a big focus for me. I see some areas to improve for Max.” Leah said.
“Firstly, OMG! Your AI Assist is right on the edge of evolving. Mine evolved two days ago and it makes a world of difference.” Leah said.
“You will have a couple of choices. You can upgrade your trainer AI and even set the parameters of its personality, or you can connect with a compatible subAI using a match-making service on the networks. I chose to merge my trainer AI with my therapy daemon Solace, from my accident last year.” Leah said.
“Now she still has her therapy skills but also full knowledge of the augmentations and advice about it. Unlike the basic trainer AI which was as helpful as a pet rock, she actually volunteers information and recommends strategic training. Plus, it freed up a daemon slot for me to get another.” Leah said.
“I’m glad you took my advice about the access skill. The evolved Hack skill is super useful.” Leah continued. “Ah, your Identify skill is way too low. I know it seems stupid at first, identifying trees and rocks and stuff, but it takes almost no energy and when it evolves like mine did it turns into an Analyze skill. It provides more detailed info, like right now I can ping you and get your level and best stat with its level. And that’s with the skill only at level 2. It’s going to be valuable when facing opponents in the tournament.”
“Crap! I need that skill. Ok, what else?” Max asked.
“Maybe it’d be easier if I just show you my status and then Charlie’s?” Leah asked and pushed her screen into the virtual OverLayer.
[Name: Leah Choi Level: Novice 7(3400/3500 XP)]
[Body Design Model: Prodigy™ by Bodywerks LLC Free Stats: 0]
[Strength: 21 Agility: 42 Endurance: 28 Vitality: 53 Energy: 151/151]
[Perception: 24 Intelligence: 28 Will: 42 Regen: 95/min]
[Body Skills - Stamina:5 Healing: 2 Strike: 7 Precise/Ambidextrous: 10/3]
[Body Skills – Balance: 8 Speed/Reflex: 10/2 Ballistics/Ricochet: 10/3]
[Body Skills – Chameleon: 2 Gymnast: 4 Painless: 4 Leap: 4 Skin: 4]
[Resist Skills – Shock: 4 Sonic: 4 Light: 4 Heat: 2]
[Sense Skills – ExaVision:1]
[Mind Skills –Access / Hack / Intrusion: 10/10/2 Fast Cog: 5 Telekinesis: 6]
[Mind Skills – Languages: 4 OverLayer: 8 Pattern: 4 Dream Learn: 8]
[Mind Skills - Identify / Analyze: 10/2 AI Assist/Companion (Solace): 10/2]
[Mind Skills - Daemon: 2 (Athena / Tesla)]
“Holy hell! At first, I was going to joke that the list looked a little short, but you’ve capped and evolved a whole bunch of skills. Spill! What do they do?” Max asked.
“Ok, full transparency. Before augs, I was pretty clumsy, so I got a quest for Precise which I used mercilessly. It’s not combat-capable but all non-combat moves are super smooth and exact if you burn the energy. My kata has never been better. It evolved into Ambidextrous, which can be used in combat. Dual wielding is going to be my kind of thing. And I’m researching a special ranged weapon for it too.” Leah giggled. Max was grinning, Leah wasn’t half as timid as when she started training.
“Ok,” she continued. “While you’ve been busy, I’ve been trying to get through the Adept Obstacle course, I thought that maybe it might be worth more XP to do it while only at the Novice level. It’s been kicking my ass but it’s paying it forward with excellent skill growth. The first obstacle is like the dervishes but with blades. Walking into a literal blender. I stacked up levels on FastCog, Skin, Painless, Gymnast, and Speed fast. Speed evolved into Reflex, which is kind of like FastCog but for the body, not the mind. I’m past the blade test now, but still working on the next set of fire obstacles.” Leah said with a smile as she continued breathlessly.
“I’ve been playing with throwing knives and slingshots to advance Ballistics. Ricochet is awesome. I can hit multiple targets with one stone. You do not want to challenge me to a game of billiards.”
“Nice! We know about Access turning to Hack already. And I think we can guess the uses for your new daemons, Athena and Tesla. So what is Chameleon and Telekinesis?” Charlie asked.
“Ugh. Chameleon is a little embarrassing. You guys remember Marc from class? Well, I think he’s been hanging downtown hoping to run into me. He keeps trying to make small talk and teasing me. I think he’s trying to hook up and isn’t getting my blocking signals.” She said getting red in the face.
“So, I almost ran into him again at the library. Do you know how the entryway is the awful lime green color? Well, I saw him walking through the far side of the library and I hugged the wall to avoid being seen. My augs must have caught my anxiety and sort of helped. I was lime green for hours until I managed to turn it off. Maybe it will advance into something useful.” she said with a chuckle as she drew smiles from both men.
“Telekinesis is just me being super stubborn. My parents don’t like foglets in the house, so of course I’m fascinated by them. All the buildings, here downtown, are covered with them and they’re all open access to the public. You need a high Access skill because it's hard to focus on them, but if you can get a lock on them the system will give you the skill. Not combat effective, but super fun and useful.” Leah explained. To illustrate her point, she commanded the fog in the dinner and floated Max’s last piece of bacon off his plate to her mouth before he realized what she was doing.
“Dang!” he growled. “What’s up with everyone swiping my food?” he whined.
“Well, I guess it's my turn now, huh?” Charlie motioned and his screen replaced Leah’s.
[Name: Charles Hawkins Level: Novice 7(3200/3500 XP)]
[Body Design Model: UNCL Peacekeeper™ Free Stats: 0]
[Strength: 68 Agility: 32 Endurance: 33 Vitality: 41 Energy: 108/108]
[Perception: 24 Intelligence: 28 Will: 16 Regen: 47/min]
[Body Skills – Stamina/Tireless: 10/2 Strike: 7 Shock: 4 Stun: 2 Strobe: 2]
[Body Skills – Healing: 7 Balance: 8 Ballistics: 3 Speed: 8 Leap: 3]
[Body Skills – Precision: 4 Unbreakable: 2 Painless: 5 Skin: 6 Gland: 4]
[Resist Skills – Poison: 4 Shock: 10 Sonic: 10 Light: 10 EMP: 4 Heat: 3 Cold: 4]
[Sense Skills – ExaVision:2 Echolocation: 8 EM Fields: 5 Scent: 1]
[Mind Skills – AI Assist: 6 Identify: 8 OverLayer: 5 Access/Hack: 10/3]
[Mind Skills - Pattern: 2 Dream Learn: 2 Memory: 8 Bastion: 1]
[Mind Skills - Fast Cog: 4 Skillz: 2.55 (Bo staff 8, wrestling 2)]
“Your strength is on par with mine. How’d you do that? I dropped like 50 free points to get mine high.” Max asked.
“Just pumping iron and pushing myself for the fun of it. Being old sucks and getting rejuvenated is bringing me back to my glory days. I like it. A damn shame you dropped free points, when a little sweat equity could have earned it for you.” Charlie said with pride.
“As you can see in my status, I’ve been grinding my resistances hard and got many new attacks from their evolutions. Eric’s shock touch, Sasha's stun and strobe are all mine now too. I should give you two the taser and stunner we made to work with, since I can’t advance them anymore.” Charlie said.
“What’s with this one? Skillz? Bo staff and wrestling?” Max asked.
“It's a weird kind of skill. If you ever get a learning quest, it might give you this skill. I was at a Renaissance fair last week and got a turn playing at being a blacksmith. The dang system triggered a quest to learn it, so I played along. I stayed in that hothouse for the whole weekend, but by the end, I got the Skillz.” Charlie explained.
“Now the skill itself will gift you instinct and body memory for a new skill you can pick from a list. I always wanted to improve my staff form. To advance it the skill, you just must run it in the background as you practice an art or skill that you already know well. I have had it running whenever I practice my Aikido and it earned another level and then I got to pick another new skill. Wrestling should improve my ground game in a spar.”
“Wait a minute. I thought the system was playing a joke on me. Check this.” Max said and threw his quest notification screen up.
[Open Quests]
[Quest - Ready to Rumble III: spar with other questors to prove your skill. Challenging more advanced for additional difficulty may train other stats (2/20 complete)]
[Quest - Adept obstacle Course: Push past the pain, conquer the course!]
[Quest – Sharing is Caring: Craft a training exercise to unlock another student’s skills.]
[Quest - Find the Tesseract: utilize augmentation skills to uncover lost treasures]
[Quest - Red in Tooth and Claw: Win a fight utilizing clawed strikes at least three times. Yes, Teeth count too.]
[Quest - Nemesis: An opponent has bested you repeatedly. Grow your skills to overcome your opponent. Sparing XP x20 for this opponent. Kick his ass.]
[Quest - Swimming 101: Learn to swim]
Charlie eyed the screen and confirmed it. The quest with its school curriculum format was the same type as the one that opened the Skillz skill for him.
“Wow! What is that Nemesis quest? That payout in XP will launch you up two whole levels.” Charlie exclaimed. Max sighed.
“That would be Tyler. After he beat me in sparring, I got a Grudge match quest. With our fight and my loss in the forest, it escalated into a Nemesis quest. He mentioned he had one for you too, with a 10X bonus to win. The tournament is likely to get nasty.” Max said.
“He can’t be that bad. I mean I’ve had a grudge match for Charlie since that first day of Novice Kombat and I haven’t stabbed him in the back yet, right?” Leah laughed, but both the men were staring at her with their mouths open. Max recovered first and spoke.
“Leah, that’s a whole level worth of XP. You need to spar him, right now!” Max insisted. Charlie was grimly nodding.
“But I don’t know. We’ve both gotten better, but my physical build-out is not as good as his. You just saw it.” Leah said hesitantly. Max could only grin with a feral expression on his face. Charlie saw it, smiled, and spoke.
“Now I can’t and won’t just give you the match. I suspect the system wouldn’t give a reward for colluding with a fake match. But I’m game if you want to give it an honest try. Why don’t you two head over to the academy and work on some tactics? I’m going to finish my coffee and I’ll join you in ten minutes. Sound good?” Charlie suggested.
The pair bolted out the door and across the street already in a heated discussion. Charlie refilled his mug and realized that Max has used up all the sugar from the sugar container. Seeing one in the next booth, Charlie had an idea.
He was old enough to have seen the last Star Wars, Episode 36, so he stretched out his hand and focused on the sugar. He triggered his access and when nothing happened, he triggered it again. And again. And again. As his energy stores dropped until finally something changed. He saw and felt the air around the container seemed to compress.
The sugar floated slowly to his outstretched hand as a bead of sweat slid down his nose. He gave a satisfied grunt as his system notification pinged in his head with a reward.
----------------------------------------