"What do you mean, unknown? You have been stuck down here in this hell hole for who knows how long, and you don't have a single clue as to where we are?" I asked in disbelief.
The giant ball of silver knots and tubes paused briefly before responding in his customarily monotone voice, "We are underground."
“I've gathered that much! But where underground? Do you have any idea where on earth we are, even generally speaking? Or, where the nearest, not evil civilization is" I asked in exasperation.
"Initial query response: unknown. Secondary Query response: Negative. Unknown designation EARTH, please clarify." Silver answered.
I floated in front of Silver in the now well lit white glow of my core room. Gizmo remained asleep for all intents and purposes, and I could only just make out Red spying on us from behind one of the thicker cables of the room.
"Earth is where I'm from, and where I'm pretty sure Red and Gizmo are from as well." I flinched like I had been struck once I realized the implication of what Silver said. "If this isn't earth, where are we?"
Silver remained silent for a moment as pulses of light raced along its interior. "General answer, the plane of Ankyra. Specific answer, probability current location is beneath the continent of Belmendon is approximately seventy-seven percent."
My fears were warranted; it seemed like this was, in fact, a different world. I had feared that was the case since my whole existential out of body experience, but to hear it said aloud was not pleasant. At least I had a name to go off of now. "What about my last question, the nearest civilization that isn't aligned with the giant bug kidnapper," I asked.
"Nearest sign of civilization is approximately two miles away, if the city near the landmark green pillar is aligned with giant bug abductor, Unknown distance." Silver stated, and my gut fell another inch.
"So, you really have no idea about anything around here, do you?" I asked despondently.
"Probability I have the data of standards you request, thirteen percent." He said, and confirmed my suspicion.
Figured, it couldn't be that easy. Back to the most critical line of questioning. "Do you have any idea how Gizmo, Red, or myself could return to where we are from? If not, do you know how that giant insect kidnapped us?"
"Initial query response: negative. Secondary query response: negative." He deadpanned.
"Okay, enough of that, just say yes or no, please. Either way, what have you been doing here for all that time? Don't you have any clue as to what the giant insect it was doing?" I asked.
"Final directive of the first primary operator was to shut down for maintenance and storage after ... data lost. The second primary operator established connection approximately eighty one cycles before the current time count, total active time since the second primary operator's connection thirteen minutes and twelve seconds. Total successfully completed directives since the secondary primary operator's connection, zero." Silver droned on in one unbroken "breath."
"So you were just shut down for over eighty years with that giant insect? Do you know what it was?" I asked.
"Second primary operator, designation unknown. Former descriptor corrupted. Corrupted descriptor deleted, primary descriptor INSECT added." Silver said, evidently as at a loss to what had abducted all of us as I was.
I gave off the feeling of exasperation, hoping the empathic communication my status box talked about bridged that gap in understanding. I doubted Silver would understand even if it heard the emotion, but a guy could hope. "Let us try something simpler, how did you make a text box appear earlier? The one with the active status bar about energy reserves?"
"I chose to display current reserves according to method recalled at 43% sync data with TOM. I then chose to display data through the Bond primary operator TOM had formed." He stated matter of factly.
"Wait, so you did pick up stuff from me from the incomplete sync?" I asked.
"Yes, thirty-one percent of which consisted of our current communication method ENGLISH." He elaborated.
"Let me guess, English isn't the magically universal language of the land, huh? Figures, I can't catch a break here." I had been hoping against hope, but for all, I knew the mystery book was written in the most well-versed language of the land. "Wait, what about the text boxes? They are in English too?"
"System integration displays automatically display themselves in the most well-understood means of communication per individual." He stated.
"So, everyone else has these things too?" I asked.
"Yes, system integration reached ... data corrupted" He said.
"Uhh, alright, we'll come back to that later. What can you tell me about working through the text boxes? How do I figure stuff out? Is it just like willing stuff to expand and shrink like I have been doing?" I asked.
"System interface allows for dynamic communication and displays of information and data known to each individual or accessed via other integrated means." As Silver elaborated, the room pulsed bright white once, and my vision audibly clicked on. I was looking upward to the ceiling of my cliffside alcove, lit by the faintest glow of green through the darkness.
A brief period of vertigo accompanied the sudden return of a full body's worth of sensations and sight. After it passed, though, I found it more comfortable than previously to focus on everything at once. My normal vision, my interior view, and the unbound sight that settled about a foot out from my golemic body meshed well together. So, as I got up and moved around, checking for any lingering pain or issues, I barely broke my conversation with Silver. "So that was a yes? Do me a favor, in your own words, what do I need to know about the golem body?"
"Currently, the main body is at operational standards, no other significant developments have occurred otherwise." Silver said and fell right into my trap.
"That is not what I asked Silver," I said as I gave off a sense of unwarranted triumph. "When I was looking through the body's status box and my own, there were a lot of things I was unaware of. Things like abilities or conditions would constitute something I need to be aware of. On that note, I'm going to try your way and figure out some of the specifics a bit more. If I come across something I don't know, nothing will show up correctly?"
"Possible, What is designation Status Box?" Silver asked the slightest hint of confusion, tinting his voice.
"You know the text boxes you were throwing around, the big ones with my own or the golem body's name and abilities and stuff," I responded.
"Understood, Status box references Schema, the primary interface for system integration. The previous statement concerning unknown descriptors would be correct." He clarified.
"Schema? That works, I guess. While I look through it, you would be able to fill in any blanks I find, right?" I asked again while letting a little cheer spill out to Silver, who continued to ignore it. It didn't matter, but I was looking forward to Gizmo waking up. He would probably make a better, if simpler, conversationalist.
"Yes." Silver responded with his normal succinctness.
"Nice," I said as I pulled up both schemas, for the first time not under duress. I sat back against the inner wall of my alcove and got comfortable.
Name
Thomas Aldrich, Tom
Existence
Race: Unattuned Essence(VI)
Conditions
- Racial Condition: Ethereal(X)
- Racial Condition: Unbound Sight(V)
Attunements
Null
Expressions
English(Spoken, Written)
Empathic(Will(V))
Morse Code(Partial)
Acuity
3/24 (18+Racial)
Abilities
Golemic Control(III)
General Will(V(II+Racial))
Split Focus(II)
Titles
Stanger(I): A stranger in a strange land, the world finds your presence difficult to define and explain.
Bonds
Bond(V): SILVER(V)
* 6 Active Conditions
Designation
01010011 01110101 01110010 01110110 01100101 01111001 00100000 01010101 01101110 01101001 01110100 00100000 00110111 00110011 00110111 00110100, SILVER
Existence
Artifact(V): Reliquary Golem
Conditions
Artifact Condition: Stone Form(III)
Artifact Condition: Reliquary Golem Controller(IV)
Artifact Condition: Memory Corruption: 47%
Condition: Mending Surface(IV)(stand by)
Condition: Core Generation(V)
Attunements
Earth(V), Fire(II), Ether(II(Null+Bond(Thomas Aldrich))
Expressions
Controller: Yulithi(Spoken,Written)
Controller: English(Spoken(79%), Written(79%))
Acuity
4/10 (Null+Reliquary Golem Controller(IV))
Abilities
Mending Surface(IV)
Core Generation(V)
Scan(III)
Warp(I)
Titles
Null
Bonds
Bond(V-sub): Thomas Aldrich
The blue schemas popped up to display in front of me in the white room, leaving my outer binocular vision unobscured. I felt a lot more comfortable juggling all the excess stimuli that, by all rights, should have been overwhelming. Investigating my schema, I found the likely culprit to my new-found prowess, focusing on the Split Focus(II) ability. I willed the magic box to tell me more.
Ability: Split Focus(II): The ability to consciously direct and control the focus of observation and to handle more stimuli than the natural mind would typically be capable of processing.
A new text box floated briefly to the side of my schema and elaborated on what I already suspected. That was a good sign. My method of investigation seemed to work well enough. I dismissed the small blue box, and went down the list of unknowns that my schema displayed, willing more detail for each one.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Race: Unattuned Essence(VI): A rare being composed of pure will, thought, and minute amounts of pure unattuned energies.
Racial Condition: Ethereal(X): You are currently beyond the scope of the material plane. You are both immune to all mundane effects and influences but are unable to influence the mundane in return.
Racial Condition: Unbound Sight(V): You currently are able to understand and know the realm around you as it truly is, unbound by physical limitations.
Empathic(Will(V)): Empathic communication is the most basic and pure form of communication. It relies on raw emotion and understanding to be expressed.
Ability: Golemic Control(III): The ability to communicate with, control, and direct golemic and animated constructs and creations.
Ability: General Will(V(II+Racial)): The ability to actively manifest your will as reality to a small and inconsequential degree. Primarily used through empathic communication and elemental manipulation.
Stanger(I): A stranger in a strange land, the world finds your presence challenging to define and explain. Abilities that identify, define, or quantify you or aspects of yourself have greater difficulty.
Bond(V): SILVER(V): A rank five soul binding paired with reliquary golem SILVER's rank 5 sub-bond. This bond allows for the control and directing of the bonded artifact.
Well, that was disconcerting, whatever this system was, it didn't recognize me as human. Although I guess my appearance as a speck of blue light and overall experience so far supported the text box's claims of being an unattuned essence and ethereal in nature. Additionally, it made it sound like my bond to SILVER was more permanent than not, which could make going home more difficult. All of this added up to several unforeseen complications that did not bode exceptionally well for me. I still had questions, though. Besides SILVER's schema, which I hadn't delved into yet, the system refused to elaborate on the table's categories or terms it used like attunements, acuity, or what exactly titles or bonds were.
"Hey Silver, what do the schema categories mean? I understand what the Name is, but all the others seem vague at best." I asked.
Silver replied instantly, evidently he had been waiting for a question like this. He was learning rather quickly. As he spoke, white lights rushed through the cables and pipes he was composed of. "The schema is divided into a number of categories that help to define a living individual. The broadest categorization of the schema is the "Existence" category. This category attempts to establish a being's entire nature through existing nomenclature."
He paused after the explanation, seeming to wait for a question. When none was forthcoming, he continued on. As he spoke, the white pulses of light that raced through his form shone in a strobing rhythm as his speech hit a perfect pace. "The "Attunements" category clarifies a being's natural affinities toward the various elemental energies that suffuse the world. The Expressions category dictates which methods of communication or understanding a being can utilize effectively. The only genuinely quantified category is "Acuity," this statistic dictates the level to which a being's mind can draw upon the system's integrated data. A being can draw upon experience and data this way through the abilities listed in their "Abilities" category. The number of abilities a being may utilize or have access to at any given time is directly tied to that being's acuity statis... tis... tis..."
Silver sputtered to a stop, ceasing mid-word. I waited for half a minute before attempting to get his attention. "You alright? You were just in the middle of-" As I spoke, a tube of strobing white light along Silver's circumference deflated with an audible pop. A glittering silvery-white fog drifted outward from Silver's knotted form. The evident cause of the release was a fissure in the deflated tube. I hurriedly dismissed the floating boxes and schemas and rushed to Silver's apparent wound.
"Shit, what happened?" I asked as I inspected the leaking pipe. The pipe was thin, almost like a balloon more than a pipe, and whatever internal pressure that had kept it inflated was now fully vented. The sparkling cloud of silver light quickly dissipated into the environment of the white room, leaving only faint sparkles mere seconds after it was jettisoned. Silver's calm and unperturbed voice broke me from my frenzied worrying.
"Understood, Status box references Schema, the primary interface for system integration. The previous statement concerning unknown descriptors would be correct." He said.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"In reference to your previous statement on the unknown description in schema and "text boxes," I will be able to assist in clarifying any unclear terms or qualifications." He clarified.
I had a sinking feeling in my gut and asked Silver, "What was the last question I asked you?"
"The previous question asked was, "While I look through it, you would be able to fill in any blanks I find, right?"" Silver spoke in his monotonous voice, including through his quote of my question from a few minutes prior.
"Silver, what is your current data corruption?" I asked, a sense of dread present in my voice.
"Current data corruption stands at 53%." He stated.
A notable increase. "What can cause corruption?" I asked, realizing that the golemic sub-mind's devolving mental processes should probably have been higher on my list of questions before the schema details.
"Data corruption can be caused by various stimuli. The most common cause of those is physical or runic integrity trauma. Other causes include degradation due to lack of maintenance, over-processing, and encountering dangerously corrupted data, which can, in extenuating circumstances, lead to cascading data corruption." He said.
Well, shit, something else to add to my plate. "What type of maintenance could help prevent that, and how can we prevent cascading corruption?" I asked.
Silver was silent as its pulsing lights spun. By now, the deflated pipe had melded back into the generally knotted appearance of Silver. As I pensively waited for his response, I was able to pick out several examples of similarly ruined tubing along his exterior. "Regular self-maintenance can be performed automatically but requires access to an earth-based elemental energy source of rank five or greater. Standard maintenance entails physical, and runic repair, degradation prevention, and repair, as well as locating and purging dangerously corrupted data."
So, in other words, no more using my giant dictionary of a roommate to help figure out what I was supposed to do. Why couldn't it have been easy? "And, do you have any idea where we could find a, what was it, an earth elemental energy source?"
Silver remained quiet for some time, and I could have sworn I felt the faint hints of unease play across the bond between us. "Current estimates dictate the nearest viable source is roughly two miles away."
"Huh, that might actually be doable, any idea what direction we should..." I stopped as a thought occurred to me. Dread crept back up to its perch on the edge of my mind. "Does it happen to be in the direction of the giant green pillar?" I wondered with mounting frustration.
"Yes." Silver said.
"Fuck." I huffed out in exasperation, feeling more than a little defeatism with that revelation.
"What' is Fuck?"
"FUCK!" I nearly jumped out of my skin as Gizmo's now shimmery globule of brown light asked its question from right behind me. "When did you get there?" I wondered aloud, my surprise evident as I hadn't even noticed Gizmos repositioning.
"Now," Gizmo answered dutifully. "What is Fuck?" He repeated all too innocently.
"Nothing you need to worry about, buddy," I reassured him. I quickly switched subjects, I asked, "But now that you're awake, how are you feeling?" I was genuinely worried about him. Sure his trials must have been tiring, but I hadn't felt tired since I had arrived. Mabey, it was a unique effect of being trapped for so long, or maybe I could still tire out, just a lot slower, who knew.
"Full! Was tired, but better now!" A small tendril of his form spiked off from behind Gizmo, and it began to wag like the tail he was missing. "It's good to move!"
"Good," I said, and actually felt a little of the cheer Gizmo was unconsciously emanating. "Why don't you explore for a little, maybe say hello to Red over there." I said, gesturing to the barely visible edge of Red's glow as she hid behind a different cable than earlier. "Just be careful with her, she skittish. Either way, I need to finish talking to the big guy here for a sec. After that, we'll figure out a way to get out of the cave, okay." I said, watching as Gizmo left to wander around the core room. I turned back to complete my inquest, this time with a great deal more care. I pulled up Silver's schema.
"Silver," I called out. "In order and one at a time, what are the specific effects of each of the following four abilities, Mending Surface(IV), Core Generation(V), Scan(III), and Warp(I)?"
Silver processed its own thoughts for a moment and spoke. "Mending Surface(IV) allows the golemic body to mend the surface integrity of its outer runes if they become damaged. In that way, the surface integrity of the golemic body is repaired. To a smaller degree, the internal damages are mended as well over a longer period."
He paused and continued on to the next query. "Core Generation(V) is the ability of a golemic body to generate its unique alignment of energies through its pseudo-font. It acts as the primary source of power for the body."
He paused for the same length of time as he had previously. "Scan(III) is the unique ability installed into survey golems to identify materials and targets, record events and data, and absorb data from external sources."
He paused once more. I noticed the pulsing white lights were slower than before his episode and beat at a steadier pace when he wasn't straining himself. A good sign, and possibly a method to tell if my questions were overtaxing him. Silver continued with the last questions. "Warp(I) is the ability to shape materials for use. The primary limitations of this ability are the length of time required, the energy required, and the necessity of a homogenous solid material as the target."
The entire time he was giving his speech, I had waited in nervous worry in case he had another episode. Once he completed and fell silent, I let out an imaginary sigh of relief. "Thank you, now I have one more thing to ask of you," I said as I closed all the schema and text boxes that floated over my inner vision. "I noticed some of my abilities improved since I first saw my schema. I didn't get any notifications or anything, would you be able to monitor any ability changes and send me any developments?"
"Yes, if you grant access to your schema." Silver said.
I pulled open my schema one last time, and I stood my body up from its reclined position in the cliffside alcove. I willed a new connection through the listed bond with Silver, "Does this work?" I asked.
"Yes," Silver stated, as his form's pulsing lights fell to a slower, but steady pulse of lights
I refocused on my binocular vision and found the faint hint of green had blossomed into a full equivalent to an early morning gleam. I still only received the faintest suggestion of it as I was currently halfway down a canyon. With no easy way out.
I leaned over and picked up my oversized book. It was arguably my most prized possession here, especially since it was my only possession. I idly wondered where my pouch of scraps had fallen to. I walked to the alcove edge and carefully leaned out to double-check my surroundings while giving the remains of the rat thing a wide berth. Not much had changed. I was still stuck above massive drop to a crevice in the solid stone ground pressed up against the side of the cavern. And, above me was the same cliff edge I had run off of.
It was time to test out the tools I had at my disposal. I first looked to the squashed rat, whose remains were well past the point of rottenness. Surprisingly no flies or bugs seemed to be flitting around at all, I supposed it was possible they didn't live in the carven somehow. Either way, I focused on the corpse and called up the Scan(III) ability. My binocular vision became tinted gray and was forcibly locked onto the remains of the rat. The gray-tint faded after fifteen seconds or so, and a new text box popped up for me to view.
Toxic Rodent(III): (deceased)_____
Very informative. Is that all the ability could do? I thought to myself. Of course, I didn't have a gauge on how good a rank three ability was, maybe that rank was just the bottom of the barrel.
"Silver, is there anything more the Scan(III) ability can tell me?" I asked in my core room.
"No, this creature had not been recorded before, so no additional data can be displayed. Would you wish to add data based on your experiences?" He asked
"I can do that?" I asked.
"It comes as part of the third rank of the scan function." He responded.
"Alright, I think I can do that," I said absentmindedly, as I focused on the text box for the toxic rodent. I willed my own message to appear in the box and channeled my inner zoologist. Letter by letter, the description of the creature changed.
Toxic Rodent(III): (deceased) A small annoying rat-like beast. They live in colonies within burrows of their own making. They are highly territorial and vicious. They sport fangs and tremendous leaping abilities. They are most likely carnivorous, but possibly omnivorous instead.
That was better. But I didn't feel any change after activating the ability, didn't these things usually require additional power or something? Or maybe I just didn't feel the body's energy reserves dropping.
"Silver, can you show me a display of our current power reserves?" I asked.
"Yes," Came the monotone reply, and it was accompanied by a progress bar that remained at a static eighty one percent.
"Awesome, two things I need. First, please keep that displayed and updated, and Second, how much power did that ability take?"
"Initial request response, yes. Second query response: three percent of total capacity." Silver replied.
"Thank you," I said and moved on to the next test. I held my book out in front of me and activated Scan(III) again. The same gray tint came over my vision, and I was immobilized for the same fifteen second period before a new text box popped up.
Tome of Research: Error, unable to translate title. (Unknown Yulithi dialect).
Well, there goes my hopes it was a spellbook or something as fantastical as that. Still, the research notes were mine to keep. And, as I looked at my energy reserves, I figured it had been a useful test. My energy reserve display sat at a steady seventy-eight percent. It seemed reasonable to assume the Scan(III) ability typically cost three percent of my max capacity. Good to know.
Next on my list of experiments was Warp(I). According to Silver, I could shape homogenous material using this skill. I moved to the side of my alcove and attempted to activate Warp(I) while focusing on the wall. Nothing happened. Confused, I was about to ask Silver about its function when I noticed something with my unbound sight that I couldn't see with my basic binocular vision.
Unbeknownst to me, my three-digit right hand had arranged itself into an equally spaced triangular pattern. To my binocular vision, that was all. But, my unbound sight showed me something different. A small bubble of distortion was suspended by the three points of my fingers and was a little larger than my hand span in diameter. I moved it around and felt it was weightless in my grasp. While it was active, I didn't observe any drop in my energy reserves. I touched it with my other hand and found no resistance or change. It felt like nothing was there.
Odd, I moved to press the bubble into the wall. Once it touched the wall of solid granite, it felt like I was pushing a glass ball into the surface of a dense clay, and it didn't budge at first. But ever so slowly, a divot began to form on the wall of solid granite. My energy reserves fell as the wall warped, roughly a percent every five seconds. By the time I had spent five percent of my maximum capacity, I had formed a divot approximately a finger's thickness deep. I deactivated Warp(I) and regained the use of my right hand. I pulled it back and looked at the smooth curvature of a small divot I had formed into the wall.
I splayed out my hand and held it palm forward less than an inch from the wall over the same divot. I activated Warp(I) again, and my hand slightly readjusted itself into the same equidistant triangular pattern as before. The bubble formed with most of its volume within the wall. My hand felt as if it was stuck fast to a solid object. I pulled it outward, and with constant pressure, my energy reserves dropped by roughly two percent every five seconds. The amount of material I effected seemed to change the cost. The larger shape of the major diameter of the bubble could be seen pulled less than a hair's width outward, a small but visible change.
What interested me about this ability was that despite the slow, arduous change of the granite wall, it took the conscious movement of my hand to warp the material.
I deactivated Warp(I) and moved away from the sidewall. I moved my left hand this time, so it was flat against the rear wall, set it a full arm's length above my head. I activated Warp(I) and willed the bubble to form in my left hand. It worked, and my energy reserves began to drop as the wall slowly deformed under the ability's influence. I lifted my legs. I hung there, my energy draining two percent every five seconds just as before. The wall slowly fell with me. I raised my right hand and tried to activate Warp(I) with my right hand without deactivating the ability of my left. It formed, and I hung from the ceiling by both hands. Using two warps at once was draining my reserves by roughly a percent a second. More drain than I expected, but I could use this.