Max raced along the forest path, letting the early morning mist clear his mind. Today was the big day. The day of the NNAT, the National Northeastern Augmentation Tournament. It had started poorly for Max. Over breakfast, he had contacted his entire family to remind them to attend virtually, since they were all so far away. Everyone would be there, except his father! He had promised earlier, but at the last minute said he needed to execute his experiment earlier for the Tesseract.
Max had gotten snippy about it, and then his dad had explained why. Casita’s fragment, he was told, apparently had a time limit and it was closing fast. Max had apologized but his regret at the scene and his fear for Casita remained and dogged his steps. Miyamoto had suggested a run in the woods to calm himself, with Boone and Sherlock both agreeing readily. Max suspected Sherlock would try to egg him on towards the Grand Oaks.
He checked his status screen:
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 10 (4900/5000 XP)]
[Body Design Model: Custom – Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 0]
[Strength: 86 Agility: 38 Endurance: 55 Vitality: 56 Energy: 164/182]
[Perception: 37 Intelligence: 42 Will: 39 Regen: 95/min]
[Body Skills – Claws: 8 Strike: 9 Stun: 7 Shock: 3 Poison:1 EMP Blast: 3]
[Body Skills – Balance: 8 Gymnast: 9 Leap: 9 Speed/Reflex: 10/3 Ballistics: 4]
[Body Skills - Stamina/Tireless: 10/4 Healing/Regeneration: 10/7 Oxygen: 4]
[Body Skills – Unbreakable: 8 Skin: 9 Painless: 7 Hulk: 1 Armor: 2 Gland: 5]
[Resist Skills – Shock: 10 Sonic: 9 Light: 9 Heat: 4 Cold: 3]
[Resist Skills - Poison: 10 ANDD: 1 EMP: 10 Neural Scaffold: 6]
[Sense Skills – Scent: 9 ExaVision: 5 EM Fields: 6 Echolocate: 2]
[Mind Skills – AI Assist/Companion(pending): 10/1 Identify/Analyze: 10/6 OverLayer: 8]
[Mind Skills - DigiSense: 9 Access/Hack: 10/6 Bastion: 8 SkillZ: 2]
[Mind Skills - Dream Learn: 9 Language: 3 Memory: 8 Pattern: 9]
[Mind Skills - Fast Cog: 7 Daemon: 4 (Musashi / Boone / Sherlock/Open)]
[SkillZ: 2.0/0.93/0.23 (*Swim, NanoCraft*)(Katana 0.93)/(Kempo 0.23)]
“Trainer, remember our discussion earlier. If any of my skills are about to cap, you need to tell me BEFORE they do. Right?”
“[Affirmative. Training protocol AI will give a one usage advanced notification of any skill cap.]” his Trainer responded in his augs.
Max had a lot of skills getting close to capping, but he didn’t know how close. He wanted every advantage, but he couldn’t have an accidental experience award like his AI Assist evolution right before the tournament. His Leaping, Strike, Gymnast, Scent, Sonic Resist, Light Resist, Pattern, and DreamLearn were all close. He had no idea if he was days of training away from capping or only a couple of uses. The system used a very strange calculus in determining advancements and Max had yet to be able to pin it down.
If he could stop before capping, he would continue to push. He expected the first matches to be a bonanza of skill-capping advancements. As long as it didn’t distract him, it would make him more deadly. He had an hour to kill before Charlie picked him up in the parking area. He would use it wisely.
Max shook his head to clear the notification window and heard a familiar chittering. High above, Flip was screeching at him. With a wolfish grin, Max accessed and activated his latest iteration of his Grappler. He had made a point to wear it over his sweatshirt. Its use as a midrange melee tool was one thing, but this was Max’s secret desire. Maybe today he could finally tag Flip.
“Alright, you little screech monkey. Let’s get some!” Max yelled and shot out his grapple. It latched onto a high branch, and he leaped while triggering the grappler’s auto-winch function. The combined energy flung him high into the trees, directly towards Flip.
“Best run fast, Flip! I’ve got you now!” Max howled as tree limbs flashed past. All the movies, from Indiana Jones to Spider Man, couldn’t approach the feeling of doing it for real. All his negative thoughts evaporated as Max lost himself in the chase.
Flip dashed away, startled at Max’s newfound speed and ability. He ran along the treetops, too scared to chitter, as Max flew close behind.
[Skillz: New Tradable Skill: Brachiation - trade with the Skillz database with this new skill to grow your Skillz level? Y/N]
Max howled again in triumph as he arced through the tops of the trees, playing with Flip.
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Almost an hour later, Flip's luck continued to hold out for him. For most of the chase, Max was playing and teasing. Just as he was deciding to end the fun, his system had warned him off using his Leap skill. It was primed to advance, and Max resisted every urge to use it. Using only his augmented strength and the grappler, his adjusted brachiation almost caught the critter again when the system warned him against using his Gymnast skill.
“You win this round, you dust mop,” Max sighed as he used his grappler to rappel down to the ground, trying hard to avoid anything resembling acrobatics moves.
“[Master Max, were you paying attention to the path the squirrel was using? It seems to be trying to lead you towards the Grand Oaks.”] Sherlock mentioned.
“Not now, Sherlock. We can investigate after the tournament. I prom-” Max chided as his nose tickled him.
“[Hold. That scent! From your earlier memories. The bear!]” Sherlock yelled.
“[Run, Max! Toward the parking lot, we’re still upwind of it!]” Boone hollered.
Max bolted, without any more encouragement. He doubted he could avoid the beast by taking to the trees without capping a skill. He needed to avoid the thing…at all costs. His speed and stamina skills had already capped, without a worry for capping, he ran as fast as his augmentation allowed. A cheetah would lose its spots, going as fast as Max ran. Another familiar odor hit him as he bolted away.
[
“Fuuuuk!” Max said as he clamped his claws over his nose. He ran, breathing only through his mouth as he cursed the entire way to the parking lot.
Charlie was waiting, the sporty CamAero was just settling onto its pads when Max hauled open the door and dove in with his nose still clamped.
“Dak off! Dak off! Der sa Bear! Quidly!” Max pleaded.
Charlie was quick on the uptake, he only recognized one word clearly, but it was enough. He didn’t want that bear anywhere near his new car. The vehicle redlined its vertical thrusters and shot into the sky.
“[That last scent we picked up, that was the fox was it not?]” Sherlock asked. Max confirmed it. Both those beasts’ homes were much further away, deep in the Grand Oaks. Something was happening, and Max knew that Sherlock wouldn’t let him rest until they understood what that was.
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The NNAT was a short ride away via Charlie’s car. The city of Hartford had transformed itself over the last decades to become a mecca for entertainment and meetings. It was a short hop from both New Boston and NYC. Hartford's venues had expanded as both of its neighboring Megacities had become larger and stranger with the continuous advances of technology. Hartford had found its purpose in the modern age, and it leaned in hard to seize it.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The NNAT was a global event with visitors from across the country and beyond. The window for the Novice training stage was small, so even a large event like this only yielded a few thousand participants. The sparring brackets for unarmed and specials would have at least 6 rounds of single elimination before the semifinals and finals. The hall was crowded with strange looking people.
The standards of Utopia were super conservative and hewed as close to natural human as was convenient. The rest of the world played a lot more with fashion and the ability to alter body design. People of every color of the rainbow mixed in the crowd. Max’s dog features seemed tame by comparison to some of the competitors and spectators. Max saw many fantasy character race types, still a popular theme running in media that people loved to emulate. It made Max a little dizzy, but also helped him fit in. In Utopia, everyone was always staring at him. Here, no one even glanced twice in his direction.
Charlie and Max had picked up Leah and arrived at the M-Finity stadium and checked in. As they all were confirmed as peak Novice level, they were given competitor badges. Max removed the wet napkins from his nose, his poor attempt to limit his superior nose from capping the Scent skill. Upon registering for the event, all of them had received a new set of quests.
[New Quest unlocked: Win the Unarmed NNAT Competition, 500 XP + skill unlock]
[New Quest unlocked: Win the Specials NNAT Competition, 500 XP + skill unlock]
The Entry Hall was a mass of swirling chaos. Many different dojos but also multitudes of independents were arriving, checking schedules, and preparing. The trio saw that there were additional prizes for winning the events. The winner of the Unarmed events would get priority access to the Mystery Labyrinth, which sometimes had wait times extending months.
The winner of the Specials got a preproduction release of a new daemon by Miriam Khan, the legendary John Wick. There were other prizes for finalist runner ups, included free months of access to Adept training facilities, a thousand credits for the MakerIndex, and one on one tutorials with several of the NNAT mentors.
“Come on, guys! Let’s find Sensei Kostecki! I’m sure we aren’t the first ones here. He said that he had a new Gi design with the Wuxia emblem on them for us. Leah, you’re welcome to camp with us. Kostecki is cool. He won’t mind. Although, he might try to recruit you.” Charlie said. The martial arts tournaments were not new to him. He led the trio over to the prep camps surrounding the sparring floor.
Kostecki greeted them with enthusiasm, quickly Identifying them and seeing how far they had come. After quick rounds of introduction, the group was given the new Gi template and had changed their smart clothes into the new design. They all stowed their custom crafted devices under the group table for the special events that would come later. Fung had cornered Leah when he learned she was fluent in Korean and was talking with her about the brackets and the other competitors.
Max settled back, his nerves skittish, and took a deep breath while adjusting his gi. His nose filled with all the scents of people, food, nervous energy, sweat, and cleaning chemicals.
[Sense skill: Scent +1, Scent reaches level 10, skill cap award +100 XP + 2 perception]
[Max E. Mitchell level +1, Max advances to Adept Stage, level 11, awarded +10 free stat points, new skill allocation available]
[Adept Stage bonus skills available: (Empathy, Multitasking, Telekinesis, Radar, Stiction), select your bonus skill.]
Max was startled by the advancement but then relaxed. He had his badge. The timing was truthfully quite perfect. Max’s thoughts whirled, imagining the advantages of each of the offered bonus skills. He eliminated Radar first. He had recently got echolocation and was still figuring it out. He cut Telekinesis from the list, both Leah and Charlie had that skill already. If he asked, they would help guide him to getting it. He didn’t know enough to pick.
“[Help: description of Empathy, MultiTasking, Stiction]” Max thought.
[Mind Skill: Empathy - intuit the emotional states of others through micro expression analytics, the perfect lie detector, never be fooled again.]
[Mind Skill: MutliTasking - Split your conscious thought stream to be able to perform two or more independent tasks concurrently.]
[Body Skill: Stiction - utilize a combination of friction, adhesive, and Van de Walls force for the ability to stick to surfaces without grip or penetration. Useful for wrestling and jujitsu applications.]
Max wrestled with which skill to pick. They all looked good and useful, but at the same time, none seemed to offer an edge in the upcoming sparring matches. His daemons debated each, empathy was popular with both Miyamoto and Sherlock to see past deceptions and determine intentions. Boone was pushing for Stiction. He was uncomfortable with Max’s climbing hobby and thought it was needed as extra insurance against falling. Going with the majority, Max picked [Empathy].
He whooped with joy at the gains. Unable to hold himself back, he leaped upwards into a backward flip with a huge grin.
[Body skill: Leap +1, Leap reaches level 10, skill cap award +100 XP + 5 strength]
[Body skill: Gymnast +1, Gymnast reaches level 10, skill cap award +100 XP + 2 Agility]
After Max’s outburst and flip he felt dozens of people turn his way. His hackles rose at everyone’s stares.
[New Mind skill unlocked: Privacy 1, You have been the focus of attention and have been identified by >10 people. Activate Privacy skill for anonymity.]
Max immediately activated the skill as eyes continued to turn his way. It leveled twice before settling down. Sensei Kostecki clapped him on the back.
“That’s the way, Max! As an instructor and organizer, I’m not allowed to bet on any matches. But I’ve got a great feeling about today’s matches. You three are better prepared to spar than most of these others.” The grizzled fighter pronounced. “Take a good look at all your skills that are almost topped and focus on them early. Make sure you win of course, but capping skills can give you the edge. Oh, but don’t spar outside of the rings. The event rules will disqualify you. We organizers learned that the hard way early on. Those first events were absolute chaos.”
The trio of friends huddled up to share notes. Max described both his Adept bonuses and the attention-getting event that gave him the [Privacy] skill. Charlie guessed that once they were on the sparring stage, they would all get the skill. As the group settled back down, Max was able to take some time to look around.
The convention hall was bustling with activity as people were still streaming in. Camps of the various dojos were formed. The live audience had begun to fill up the available seating. Virtual stands floated above the crowd for a perfect view of the rings without the need for physical structures. Some earlier avatars were already floating up there.
Food and merchandise vendors lined the distant walls, selling all manner of fast and portable snacks, sparring gear, event t-shirts, and action figures of past winners and the legendary Samaritans (being the supreme example of augmented champions).
Max snorted and zoomed in on one vendor stand using his [DigiSense] to aid his distance vision. He could see the action figure representing his father, previously nicknamed the Titan, before he retired. He looked cartoonish to Max, all bulked out in armor, nothing like his dad.
[
Max couldn’t wipe the grin off his face. This day was going to be awesome. All their work was paying off. He checked his status sheet and zeroed in on any other skills nearing their caps that he could flex without getting himself in trouble.
[DigiSense] and maybe [Pattern], he thought and focused on the crowds as a swirling mass. He zoomed in and out and tried to sense how the individuals related and the flow of people amongst the dojo camps. He struggled to make sense of the chaos. He triggered his [OverLayer] skill and [Memory] and [Identify] to help organize the deluge of impressions.
Max began to comprehend the flow of traffic to and from the vendors, the various camps, and their uniforms, aided in forming patterns. A focus on the bathrooms pulled at all the camps, augmentation aside, with food and drink and nervousness in play, biological needs came first. Max began to see the referees and staff as sources of attention as runners came and left with instructions.
[Sense skill: DigiSense +1, DigiSense reaches level 10- cap award +100 XP, +2 Intelligence]
[
[OverLayer +1, OverLayer reaches level 9]
[Memory +1, Memory reaches level 9]
Max focused even harder, using his skills to paint the patterns onto his OverLayer making the chaos even easier to parse. A familiar face caught his attention, and he zoomed in. His [Memory] skill helped him.
Dalton! Dalton Munz was that drunk upperclassman who was with Tyler’s group when they ambushed me in the Oaks. Max snarled and shifted his focus looking for the others.
The Epic Martial Arts Dojo uniforms jumped out in his vision and highlighted in his OverLayer. He quickly picked out their Sensei, a huge man with sculpted muscles rippling. Marc and Sasha and finally he found Tyler. The boy had been harder to find as he had spurned the dojo’s black uniform for his sleeveless red gi with the embroidered black dragons on the back. Almost without thinking, Max triggered his Analyze skill.
[Analyze - failure, Privacy skill on target exceeds Analyze skill.]
Tyler looked up from his conversation with Marc and his eyes found Max. He smirked and turned his back on Max to continue his conversation. Max growled and let go of his hold on the collection of skills that were draining his energy fast.
[Mind skill: Pattern +1, Pattern reaches level 10 - cap award +100 XP, Decode Skill Unlocked]
[Mind Skill: Analyze +1, Analyze reaches level 7]
Max blew out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. His nemesis quest blinking in his mind’s eye, he tried to center himself as adrenalin flooded his veins. Miyamoto chided him for his emotional spike of anger and recommended some meditation before his match.
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