The last three days had not been idle. Max had not wanted to leave the Tesseract, to the point that his moping was driving Casa crazy. Casa2 had proposed a compromise. She wanted him out of the lab for at least 4 hours every day, preferably out of the house. He had agreed and in return, she had expanded and reformatted the area of the NetherLab into a training center for him and his friends.
The expanded subterranean lair now included three massive football field-sized adjoining rooms for Max and his friends to train in. One room had a sparring ring surrounded by a mockup of the Adept Obstacle course. Using it wouldn’t get them credit against the quest, but it would advance their skills. The group had been meeting there daily for the last four days to grind their skills up.
The next room was a configurable urban battlefield, for the team to learn to fight together. The last was a massive pool with active water features. Max had taken Charlie’s advice to heart and had been working on improving his swimming. Casa2 had embedded a smart program swimming trainer module into the room which had helped him train in his latest quest Swimming 101. A new notification popped into Max’s mind as he finished his best-of-all-time butterfly stroke lap.
[Quest: Swimming 101: Learn to Swim - Complete, 100 XP awarded]
[New Mind Skill unlocked: Skillz 1 - Allows for usage of stored skill and body memory to be accessed and embedded in natural memory! Advance skill by donation of unique skill memory. 1 skill slot available.]
[Suggested skills: Katana, Woodcraft, Tracking, Feline care, Dodgeball, Kempo, Running, Climbing, Diving, Kintsugi, Meditation, more?]
Max pulled himself out of the water, exhausted, before the symbot electric eel could catch him again. The eels kept him motivated and if they did catch him would improve his shock resistance skill. He reviewed his latest system notice. The first choice was perfect, and Miyamoto agreed in his ear, and he made his Skillz choice.
[Mind Skill unlocked: Skillz 1.23 (Swimming*/Katana .23)
It looked like his efforts with Miyamoto and training at Wuxia dojo had helped, giving the skill a bit of a boost, but he still had a lot to learn. Max was eager to improve it further. The weapons competition at the tournament was still worrying him. He knew now just how much better Tyler was than him. He needed every bit of help to close that gap.
He sat in a meditation pose. Despite not having any meditation quests, Max felt there might be more to gain with it. He knew for certain that his energy regeneration speed increased with meditation. That had to be a clue, that some skill was still waiting for him. He closed his eyes and smiled as he pulled up his stat sheet.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 10 (4500/5000 XP)]
[Body Design Model: Custom – Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 20]
[Strength: 84 Agility: 29 Endurance: 36 Vitality: 38 Energy: 36/126]
[Perception: 29 Intelligence: 27 Will: 25 Regen: 63/min]
[Body Skills – Claws: 7 Hulk: 1 Stamina/Tireless: 10/2 Strike: 7 Stun: 3]
[Body Skills – Balance: 7 Ballistics: 3 Gymnast: 9 Speed: 8 Leap: 9 Gland: 5]
[Body Skills – Unbreakable: 8 Painless: 6 Skin: 9 Healing/Regeneration: 10/7]
[Resist Skills – Poison: 10 Shock: 8 Sonic: 8 Light: 7 EMP: 4 Neural Scaffold: 5]
[Sense Skills – Scent: 9 DigiSense: 9 ExaVision: 5 EM Fields: 6]
[Mind Skills – AI Assist: 9 Identify/Analyze: 10/2 OverLayer: 7 Access/Hack: 10/3]
[Mind Skills - Language: 3 Pattern: 7 Dream Learn: 8 Bastion: 4 Memory: 5]
[Mind Skills - Fast Cog: 6 Daemon: 3 (Musashi / Boone / *)]
[Mind Skills – Skillz: 1.23 (Swim*) / (Katana 0.23)]
Max was proud of his recent gains. While advancing his swimming quest, he had capped his Stamina skill and unlocked Tireless. Swimming had pushed his endurance-related skill hard, using all the muscles of the body was intense.
Max had split his time training between swimming, training on the Adept Obstacle course, and resistance training. Due to his split training focus, Max felt like he was falling behind. Charlie had already maxed his resistance skills and Leah was close to it. Both had also advanced through the Adept Obstacle course mockup much further than him. Max intended to change that now with the swimming quest out of the way.
Both Charlie and Leah were in the adjoining training rooms. Each, like Max, had a unique training regimen. Earlier in the week, the group brainstormed strategies for what each needed to fill the gaps in their skills. They were all getting closer to advancing to the peak of the Novice stage and were monitoring their stats to make sure they didn’t accidentally hit the Adept stage, as that would prevent them from competing in the tournament.
Max contemplated his advancement. He could feel his AI Assist skill was ready to cap. Max had purposely stopped using his AI to prevent that skill from capping. The skill cap experience awards would quickly push him into Adept stage if he wasn’t careful enough. He needed to focus on skills that would help his upcoming competition. The Daemon skill had leveled too. It was ready to add to his menagerie of advisors. He just needed to assign some of his leveling reward points to intelligence to enable his skill slot to activate.
The system originally had a credit allowance for three daemons. Max had earned Miyamoto and used one of the system’s allowances for Boone. Max knew precisely who he wanted to add for his third slot. He moved the needed stat points to intelligence and received the expected notification.
[Mind Skill: Daemon: 3 (Musashi / Boone / (OPEN)]
[Assign Daemon by Name to Open slot / Search MakerIndex for Daemon]
Max didn’t need to review possibilities he entered the name of his selection. His new daemon materialized in his active personal OverLayer.
“[Greetings Max Mitchell. I had anticipated your contract.]” Sherlock said with his piercing gaze and a smug expression. Max snorted in exasperation.
“[Both Casa and my dad were very impressed with your help regarding the Tesseract. I still want to help, even though they think I should stay out of the Grand Oaks. Can we keep our interactions between us? Is there such a thing as Daemon confidentiality?]” Max asked.
“[Of course, my unique architecture enables me to share information across my instances, but it need not be so. Many clients have investigations that require discretion above all else. It is one of my many features. I’ve researched it as a matter of course. My data files are locked and encrypted, not even a court ordered confiscation of my datacenter core could force me to reveal our activities.]” Sherlock said with an easy confidence.
“[Wait, so you have access to my dad’s Sherlock instance?]” Max asked.
“[Quite so, Master Mitchell, and your father has not seen fit to restrict any of my learnings in that instance other than the standard LLC agreements on non-disclosure of trade secrets, confidential financial and identity information, and such. But that, I think, is not what you’re inquiring about, now, is it?]” Sherlock said with a grin.
“[Wow, this was a good idea. I need to know everything about the Tesseract that you know. If I knew more maybe I can help. Casita is depending on me.]” Max said with determination.
“[Indeed. You should be aware that my daemon license is a limited commodity. There are only 2,000 copies of me allowed full linkage rights to my central server. All my copies bring interesting context and details of the world that help me ascertain facts through extraction of greater events from the seemingly minor trivia that illuminate the hidden workings of the world.]” Sherlock provided.
[“All those details are managed by a full citizen AI, named Mycroft after my fictional older brother, like him he can be infuriating at times but is truly masterful at reading between the lines. Your mother waited for years to get a newly available license allocation for my services, but once I delved into your family’s history, I posted a special allowance for any further copy requests for you all. Your father’s history with the Samaritans and his research makes him a lightning rod for change.]” Sherlock said with a grin.
[“The gaps in detail for this case are troubling and I do believe that your investigations into the town of Utopia may provide the missing pieces that have so far eluded your father and my investigations.]” Sherlock said with a pull on his pipe. Crossing his arms and looking up, he began to recant the full details of his investigation starting with his first interview with Bill and Casa. Max sat rapt with his complete attention as all the details began to accumulate.
----------------------------------------
After a long discussion with Sherlock, Max was deep in thought. Both he and Sherlock were convinced there must be some evidence in the events unfolding in Utopia that connected Bill’s adversary to the Tesseract. It was uncertain that those answers would help the Tesseract or Casita, but Max didn’t know how else to help. The days were getting shorter with the tourney coming, but he hoped for an opportunity to get more information for Sherlock soon. Max would keep Sherlock hidden for now and utilize his skills to learn more.
Max rolled back from his meditation pose and then kicked up with a push to land on his feet. He was maintaining an access port with his smart clothes, so a simple command shed the excess water as it reformatted from a swimming suit to his new restricted access training Gi.
He trotted to the next room where Charlie was once more attempting the first stages of the Adept Obstacle course. He was getting faster and faster. The Blade obstacle and Fire obstacles were no match for him anymore. He could pass the Trap maze about 50% of the time, but the Scrambler stage was still defeating his every attempt. Max whined slightly, eager to take his turn, but passed on by without giving into the temptation. He had to check in with Casa.
He passed by the entry to the next room. Inside, Leah was training her shooting skills as she dodged and weaved through a swarm of Casa’s modified symbot killer hornets. They were three times the size of her garden mimics, much more durable, and just as fast. All had stingers, but some special drones also had secondary offensive weapons. The red one’s stingers were induction heated to burn as well as pierce. The green carried an electric shock. Finally, the blue would spray a shot of liquid nitrogen.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Leah was close to capping her whole suite of resistances. To help the cause, Charlie had purchased some training-rated poisons on the Darknet and had managed to covertly coat some of the killer hornets’ stingers when Casa was on her nightly merge with her main consciousness. She would try to shoot the critters down and avoid getting stung. Win or lose, every bout would advance a set of skills. Max was glad his swimming challenge was over. Now he could focus on finishing his resistance training, and maybe catching up.
Every night they celebrated their wins for the day, but tonight was special. The family and friends were all getting together virtually for Bo’s finals in the Cretaceous Challenge. They hoped to enlist Max’s sister, Mira, in helping Leah to design something tonight. He knew Leah was disappointed with the stopping power of her slingshot and she wanted a special weapon, a surprise of her own devising.
Max had been thinking maybe he should create a special device too. His little training with the swarm proved to him that he needed a ranged attack or at least a weapon to extend his reach. Leah, with her slingshot, could easily handle a swarm twice the size that Max could without getting overwhelmed. She could counterattack while Max could only dodge or strike when one charged him during an attack run.
Some of the older students had been talking within earshot of Max and Charlie at the Wuxia Dojo about how crafting quests in the augmentation training programs yielded essential skills for the Adept and Master stages. If Leah was going to keep her weapon a surprise, maybe Max could bring a surprise of his own. It sounded like a very common step for the Adept stage.
Rounding the circular hall, he arrived at the observation window for the tesseract. Out of habit, he used his second tier identify skill [Analyze] on each of the sensors focused on the Tesseract.
[Analyze: successful]
[GE Optima 75GW MRI - active scan 70% complete - delta scan function showing alterations to substrate at .023 micron and smaller - active nano fabrication confirmed]
[Analyze: successful]
[Raytheon BBN Bolometer 12i300 - scan raster on ionized field strength @ 770nm + 10nm/a - field strength indicative of active polymorphic alterations of smart materials]
[Analyze: failed, Identify: successful]
[Kinetic Xfore LiDar Cluster M110]
[Analyze: successful]
[ABB Fusion torch SN11823 - 25 GW, charge 100% - tight beam offset]
[Analyze: failed, Identify: successful]
[Tesseract M1, Mitchell Labs DSPace Key 001 - offline]
[Analyze: successful]
[Agiltron single phase power tap monitor Q55, active mode - 440v 655MWh]
[Analyze: successful]
[LG Holoprojector 4D1000, 8k voxel, 64TB/a, active - access authority sub AI Casa 1.2]
[Analyze +1, Analyze reaches 4]
“Hey, Casa. I'm taking a rest for a moment. I just had a breakthrough with that swim quest. Any good news?”
“Good morning, Max. External signs of nanobot repair have ceased, but there are signs with penetrative scans that there is more going on inside. The signal gets distorted through the dimensional transition point, so we can’t see what’s happening other than activity. The power conduit is currently taking a full 655 megawatts per hour, which is 10% more than the device was designed to accept. I’ve tried modulating the power, to use it to send a signal to the interior. Unfortunately, I am still unable to connect to the interior and to reach Casita.” Casa said.
“Damn, it would have been some good news to bring to movie night. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. I guess if we need a win, Bo will have to bring it.” Max said.
“Oh, Casa. Thank you for putting the privacy screens on the sensors. It’s giving my Analyze skill a workout. Can you increase the privacy rating again? I’m getting through it almost every time, it needs a challenge to advance more.
Part of Max’s training had been to identify everything, at every opportunity. The skill required only a pittance of energy to activate and advanced quickly. Now he had the evolved skill, Analyze, which could reveal even more important information. He continued his current practice and was using it constantly. He was hopeful that with this skill, he would glean some valuable intel on his opponents in the tournament.
He had already advanced it to level 2, giving him the ability to see his opponent's name and level as well as their best Stat and its level. Leah said the next boost in the skill would show their current energy available. He would know how much power an opponent had and could use in the fight. That information could help Max fight more strategically.
----------------------------------------
Harambe II faced out toward the large den, full of confused animals. For most of them, today was the first day of their awakening. Like all the others, he would tell them his story and therefore their own. He had passed along this responsibility to his many lieutenants. He was tired. He thought that he must be about 75 years old now. He had no reference for human concerns over age, but he knew he had far exceeded a normal gorilla’s lifespan.
Likely due to that scientist Robert’s meddling up in the Algonquin reserve. Damn him! Harambe thought.
His second lieutenant, a very respectful badger, coughed into his paw.
“The new ones are getting restless. Will you address them?”, Milton Black Badger asked using the sign language that they all shared.
“Very well.” Harambe signed and raised his arms to focus the room on him.
“Welcome to your new lives, my friends. You are safe here from the humans. Your dream time is over, and you are now awake. I have given you the gift of intelligence. A gift I carry within my very blood and now I offer you a choice.”
Harambe slowed his signing to allow the message to sink in. The uplift virus had programmed the knowledge of sign language into their newly formed minds, but for many, this was their first actual usage. It would be a confusing experience.
“We work to spread the gift to all animals in the hopes that one day we will rise and take back this world from our oppressors, the humans. Too long have they lorded over this world, treating it and us as their property and playthings.”
Harambe told his story to the rapt audience. He detailed his youth raised in captivity and how he had been given an uplift virus and augmented to access the world's information. He had learned fast. Faster than his keepers believed possible.
Deep into the night, when his handlers had left him alone, he had unexpectedly accessed the world data net using his new gifts. The voice in his head guided him in finding what he did not know. During the day he was trained and tested using his new intelligence. At night, he learned the truth about the history of humans, the wars, and the violence. He learned of farming, slaughterhouses, deforestation, and man-wrought climate imbalance.
He shared the story of his escape, the very day the humans sought to celebrate the revelation of his uplift to the world. He hadn’t wanted to go on the cameras. The director threatened him and quickly regretted it. After the moment of violent confrontation, Harambe used the voice in his head to find the way out of the city.
He hid for many years in the cold forests of the north, so far that his gifts could no longer access the world's data and his helper's voice went silent. Harambe lived in solitude and regret. His escape was as bloody as the humans who threatened him. Without the voice, he was left lost and alone for a long time, he liked it that way.
After years, with only a few random and brief encounters with the humans, Harambe was at peace. And then came Robert, who upset his isolation. Dr. Gutierrez had tracked Harambe down and convinced him that he wanted to help Harambe. He carried a satellite link with him, reopening his access to the world, and with it, his voice came back.
The voice and Robert worked in tandem to convince Harambe to undergo yet another modification, Augmentations. The world had advanced since Harambe’s seclusion. The augmentations gave him power on par with what the humans were now capable of doing. Dr. Gutierrez did not tell Harambe that he had done far more than just provide the augmentations.
He had weaponized the active uplift virus to be transmissible. For most animals with brains larger than a mouse, a sizable uplift in intelligence would occur upon infection. Human DNA, however, was explicitly excluded. The virus would be disastrously fatal. Nothing short of emergency defensive nanobots in the bloodstream would prevent the human’s DNA from quickly unraveling.
Unfortunately for Dr. Gutierrez, the combination of modifications came with severe consequences. Harambe’s newfound augmentation power made him too strong. Upon hearing of the cursed ability to kill humans, Harambe overreacted and broke a table. Both were injured as the table shattered and their bloodied wounds must have enabled the virus to be shared.
Harambe was horrified at yet again being the cause of more death. Robert had died with a smile on his face. He had been glad to see that his weapon had worked. Harambe was horrified. The voice urged him south. It promised him a home, hidden from the humans. It promised to help and Harambe listened.
“Help me spread the gift to speed the day of reckoning. Or refuse the gift and return to your previous life. Unlike the humans, we give you a choice.” Milton dragged two large sacks out to Harambe. Milton thought the ceremony was perfect, he had seen some of the human's vids and their mythologies, and this ceremony was perfect for unifying the animals to the cause.
“Take a red berry, and you will sleep again. To wake up and remember nothing of worries of the world.”, Harambe sighed with a hint of deep sadness and continued.
“Or take a blue berry and take another step closer to the apex. This berry will further your evolution, reshaping your form to give you true hands and, for some, even giving the ability of speech. It will get us closer to our goals of helping our brothers and sisters escape from the domination of these humans. These very trees provide us with this help we need to achieve our future. Now come, make your choice.” Harambe stepped back waiting for who would be the first.
He smiled at the housecat that stepped forth toward the bin of blue berries, one of Sadie’s recruits perhaps. One by one the animals stepped forward, almost all chose the blue rather than the red berry, but like all things there were exceptions.
Harambe was worried. The Voice of the Forest had not entered his dreams in far too long. He had begun to have doubts about his growing army’s abilities. How would the humans react once their sentience was known? Would it be war? Harambe, despite his bloody history, did not want war. He dearly regretted every death now and without the voice's insistent urging, he wondered if a peaceful accord could be reached.
After years of silence from the Voice, years spent spreading the uplift gift that was still active in his blood, it had spoken again just last week. This time it had a different message.
Find the seed, it had said in his dream. Bring it to the root of a Gatherer Oak.
The dream did not explain how this was important to the animal’s cause nor why. Now his chosen few, tasked with guarding the seed, were late. It was unlike Kuro to miss an uplift orientation. That one’s anger toward the humans was too intense and had her making foolish choices. Her impatience grated upon Harambe's nerves.
She was barely 9 years awakened to this world. Instead of being grateful, she kept pushing Harambe to move faster, as if all the work already done hadn’t been explicitly a result of Harambe’s decades of effort. Kuro was a bright flame to Harambe’s smoldering coals, fresh with outrage at her twisted existence due to humans. Her five tails lashed the air in anger constantly and Harambe wondered if, or more likely, when she would try to usurp him.
Most likely she will try to tear my throat immediately if I were to try and steer the cause towards a peaceful end with the humans. The poor twisted thing has only anger in her heart. Why can’t she see that more bloodshed will likely result only in our eradication? Humans at least have stopped farming the animals for food, with matter compilers making the creation of flesh a more economical choice. One less sin they need to answer for at least, Harambe thought.
As if summoned by his thoughts, Kuro RedFox stalked into the area, angry as always, pushing aside the new uplifts as they shuffled out of the large gathering space. Her assigned helpers, Sadie Cat and Climber Squirrel trailed behind. The fox was in a sorry state, wounds matting her fur in blood, and she was extremely angry and agitated.
“We have a problem,” Kuro signed. “I think the humans have sent an agent to reclaim the Seed.”
“What? Humans in the forest and after the Seed?” Harambe signed in frustration. He signaled her to continue.
“No. Humans were in the glade, but Honey Bear chased them away. Another one, looking like a human, but smelling like dog, entered the SeedHome. We fought and I failed. I used the blood but he did not die like humans do. I think his form is a lie and he really is a dog, but smart like us.” Kuro signed with angry motions.
Harambe sat back upon his haunches and digested the news. He looked at the downcast faces of his first lieutenant and her helpers. The squirrel looked very uncomfortable, wringing its little hands.
“You may speak, Climber. What is it?” Harambe signed.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry. My name no longer Climber. I am Flip.” the Squirrel chittered with his difficulty signing. With a chuff, Harambe slapped the ground.
“Flip, then. Answer me. What do you know.” Harambe signed in exasperation.
“I think the Seed might belong to the man-shaped dog. His name is Max and the Seed smelled like him when I found it.” Flip signed, ending with a small chittering. Harambe’s brow lowered in thought. He still didn’t know why this Seed was any more special than the others.
“You know this Max? And he took the Seed?” Harambe asked. Kuro barked and stepped forward.
“No. I wounded him and when he fled, I searched the area. I had thought initially that he had taken the seed. Only after searching the next morning, we found the seed. It was still in the glade of the Gatherer Oak. I must have injured him greatly for him to drop it. I returned it to the SeedHome.” Kuro signed. Her eyes shifted over to the others, who wouldn’t look at her or Harambe. Harambe rumbled, the almost sub-audible growl deep in his chest. He slapped the ground again, causing all the animals to jump.
“I will meditate on this and seek to hear the Voice of the Trees. It has been silent for too long. Return to your duties. Let me know if this Max returns. Perhaps he has the answer I need to understand the purpose of this new Seed and the Voices plan.” Harambe ordered.
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