Nothing was ever easy. Three of this place's day and night cycles had passed since I had initially come up with my brilliant plan to climb out off the side of the gorge. My first plan was to use Warp(I) to climb up the surface of the cliff, but that endeavor was short-lived. That wasn't to say it was hopeless. The bubbles of granite that stuck out in a patterned path roughly a quarter of the way up the cliff showed that. It had been awkward to hold my book against my chest with my beak point as I climbed, but it had worked. The problem was that I was only able to get a quarter of the way up before my energy reserves had dropped to dangerous levels.
I had had to wait for over eight hours for my reserves to refill from Core Generation(V). During that time, I had enjoyed a bit of quiet and rest in my nook. Gizmo was acclimating to his new situation well enough, but periodically he would emit sorrow, guilt, or grief into the core room. He was probably still working through what had happened, and what I had relived through his memories. I tried my best to comfort the pup, and I hoped my presence helped, but I couldn't be sure. Red, on the other hand, remained the distant observer. I could still see her without difficulty in my unbound sight, but she seemed more comfortable when it didn't appear like anyone else could see her. So, I let her be.
Once my reserves reached capacity again, I had attempted my second marginally more successful idea. A thin, precarious path of a continuous extrusion led from the side of my alcove up the cliffside at a slight incline. Divots at my head height above the smooth switchback, acted as handholds. The preliminary efforts had proven my idea feasible, but it would take a very long time. The current path only stretched out for four to five stride lengths away. It had been all I could do during my first attempt from my full capacity, and that was with the minimal extrusion work on the footpath. But it was all I could think of to do.
The last day and a half had been spent in a cycle of half an hour of slow, cautious work lengthening my path upward along the cliffside. Which was followed by up to eight hours of rest to regenerate my lost energy. After my first rest period, I had found a new way to use my Will(V) skill to keep the boredom at bay. During the dull periods of regeneration, Gizmo would grow twitchy and easily distracted, often falling back into a melancholic episode. On a whim, I tried something new to cheer him up. By picturing what I wanted in my core room, I had felt like I could force it into being. My intuition was rewarded when a small yellow ball popped into existence.
/NEW: Ability: Transient Formation(I)
Gizmo's reaction had been ecstatic, which had mirrored my own. Working through the system appeared more natural by the day. I proceeded to spend the next few hours of golemic recuperation practicing. I made simple things that were immaterial, and as the name suggested, transient. Each item only lasted less than a minute. They were mainly balls of various types, which I threw, and Gizmo chased for their brief period of existence. I thought it helped to distract him from his melancholy, and he was happy for those few good hours.
Silver notified me that my energy reserves had once again reached capacity. I tossed one last faux-tennis ball and refocused outward. I stood from my resting seat and took stock of my situation. My body had grown dusty and gray instead of its former pristine alabaster after the hours of effort. I walked to the edge, past the grisly trail the rat carcass had left behind after I scraped it off my ledge over the chasm's edge. I left the alcove and moved to the left. I turned and pressed my chest and the left side of my head up against the wall so I could walk along the path. Step by precarious step, I walked my trail up the side of the cliff for fifteen paces or so, carefully keeping ahold of my handholds.
Once I reached the end of my path, I was about twice my height above the alcove ceiling. I needed to figure out how big I was. Everything was off-scale compared to my memory, and I had no real means to measure a foot's length, or a meter's, or any other familiar measure. It was annoying, only being able to refer to things relative to my height. I leaned over and activated Warp(I) with my right hand, and inch by inch, I elongated the slab of granite I stood upon further up and out. It was mindless work provided I had my handholds and took care not to fall. Both of which were precautions I took. So, while I was going through the motions, I moved in front of Silver in my core room once more.
"Silver, how tall is our body?" I asked.
"The last measurement of height from the pad of our feet to the top of our head was two point six five feet." He replied.
"Wait, you use feet here?" I asked, surprised.
"No, our body is three standard units tall by the same measure. One foot, according to two percent of the total synced data received from TOM, accounts for zero point eight eight four standard units." He elaborated.
"That makes more sense. Wait." I said, "I'm only two and a half feet tall?!"
"Two point six five feet tall." He corrected.
"That's not the point!" I yelled. "Why am I so short?" As I thought of the implications, I realized something else. "The insect we fled from wasn't giant, was it? It was probably only six feet tall." I had been thinking of my abductor as a gargantuan monster up until now. It was weird to conceptualize it as "normally" sized. Well, normal for human height, still not for an insect.
"Five point nine two feet tall, with a total length greater than that." Silver clarified.
"Great," I deadpanned, matching Silver's toneless voice. I deactivated Warp(I) and looked up the cliffside. If I was two and a half feet tall, my alcove was probably less than three feet. I compared its height to how far I had climbed previously. I estimated the distance from the top of the nook to the cliff's edge was over forty feet. After a day and a half of work with my new method, I had only risen a little over five.
"This is going to take a while, isn't it?" I asked no one in particular.
"Given past progress, approximately seven times our full energy capacity will need to be spent to reach the top." Silver responded, not having realized the rhetorical nature of my question.
"Thanks." I said, "Let's get it over with."
--------------------------------------
Power: 14%
Two days, two days of continuous work and recuperation. That is what it took to reach this momentous occasion. I grasped the edge of the cliff, and arduously pulled my self and my book over the cusp, and onto flat ground. I rolled onto my back, enjoying the plethora of hues and colors besides the green glow of "daylight" and the dull gray of granite that I had been immersed in for the last half a week.
It had gone quicker than Silver thought it would, in no small part because I cheated towards the end. I looked over the edge once more, down the 153-foot chasm. Along the cliff wall's surface, one long angled incline rose from the outcropping that had saved me from my fall. Once the slope reached within 10 feet of the top, it stopped and changed into the patterned path of extrusions I used to actively climb the rest of the way. "We did it, guys!" I called out into my core room. Gizmo was wagging his tail happily beside me as I worked. Silver was as emotive as usual. That was to say, not at all. To my surprise, though, I actually saw a vibrant flash of scarlet from where Red was hiding from direct view, more outgoing than she usually was. I created one of the yellow faux-tennis balls and threw it to bounce around the edges of the room. Gizmo eagerly flew after its erratic path. Today was a good day.
I stood up from the gravel-filled dirt, hefting my book along with me. I made sure I was still alone, and the forest was blessedly serene and free of apparent threats. I moved away from the edge toward one of the broader mushroom stalks. I brought up my schema and perused all the changes. Over the past few days of activity, a few things had become apparent with how the schema and abilities worked.
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(IV)
General Will(V(II+Racial))
Split Focus(III)
Transient Formation(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)
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
* 6 Active Conditions
Firstly, as I had expected, practice and using abilities helped to improve them. It seemed obvious, but that first notification that golemic control had improved was still an excellent feeling. What was disappointing, but made sense in retrospect, was that the golem's abilities like Warp(I), and Core Generation(V) did not improve the same way. Silver had explained to me that due to its nature as an artifact, the golemic body could not progress without external aid. It was basically a type of machine, so that made sense. It was still disappointing, though, with how much use I had made of Warp(I).
Either way, back to important matters. I dismissed my schema and notifications history. While the forest of mushrooms and flora seemed peaceful, with a distinctly pleasant lack of rodent chittering, it was still hazardous. I needed to be vigilant and abide by my priority list. I had had ample time to set my goals down for what I needed to do and had figured out how to make my own text box to keep track. Silver was at a loss as to how I had done it, as the table wasn't one of the typical messages the system could display, but it still worked. I was pretty sure it had something to do with Will(V) or Transient Formation(I), and I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
* Survive
* Protect yourself
* Don’t get yourself killed
* Don’t get trapped in a inert and powerless body
* Find a way home
* Learn more about abductor
* Learn more about this world
* Decipher mystery book
* Get Silver healthy
* DON’T CAUSE OVERPROCESSING
* Find a, Earth Energy Source(V)
* Find a safe way to outskirts of the city
* FInd out more about city
* Learn more about Gizmo and Red
* Get back at abductor
* Find better way to repair body
* Find out more about the System
* Find out more about magic
My brief time in this world had yielded quite a substantial list of "to do's," but I found splitting them up was useful for figuring out my next step. And while my first goal was to get home, it was far from the first step I could securely take. Step one was to address my roommate's/body's needs, and that meant making my way to the possibly hostile territory at the green pillar. Which, in turn, meant I needed to outfit myself to deal with threats beyond just fleeing from peril.
"Silver, earlier you said you needed a rank five earth energy source, and that one of those was most likely in the giant evil-looking city, right?" I asked.
"Incorrect, it is most likely near the green pillar." Silver replied
"Which is surrounded by the city, I got that. How do you know it's there for certain? Do you have like a sensor for these things or something?" I inquired, as it hadn't occurred to me until just now, that he may have abilities beyond what was listed in the golem's schema.
"No, I do not. But current memories indicate the last known location of such a source of energy was found at Nexus entrance 0173." He said and raised far more questions than answers.
"What's the Nexus, and how do you know the entrance is near the city? I thought you didn't know where we were?" Frustration was beginning to rear its ugly head again as I spoke.
Silver silently processed his own data for a second before responding. "The Nexus is... data corrupted. But, memory aligns with current observations that the city is the most probable location for Nexus Entrance 0173. Which data indicates was the last known location of a rank five or greater earthen energy source. But, the exact location of Nexus Entrance 0173 is unknown in relation to any other landmark."
"Okay, fine," I replied in consternation, "So we are looking for a Nexus entrance thing to find the earth energy source then? What does a Nexus entrance look like?"
"Correct. A Nexus Entrance's appearance can vary a great deal, but Nexus Entrance 0173 appeared as a font of vibrant green energy that crystalized into a slowly growing pillar of similar color, approximately 400 standard units, or three hundred and fifty three point six feet, in diameter" He said.
I didn't say anything for a long while. "You mean to tell me the giant green pillar that the city was built around is the entrance? The pillar that looked to be at the dead center of the city?"
"Correct." He deadpanned.
I forced the image of myself pinching the bridge of my nose down my bond to Silver had hard as I could. "For future reference... and I am entirely sure you are aware of this... information like major landmarks, or that we will need to go to the dead center of a giant evil city needs to be shared. I thought we could just investigate the outskirts for Pete’s sake. Seriously, how hard would it have been to share, I mean dammit all. Why? We are doing this to help you, why make it harder?" I all but shouted at Silver.
"I am afraid." Silver whispered.
"I mean come on, there is no fucking reason to withhold that information! It was clearly involved with the "where are we?" line of questions. Why would... Wait, what?" I abruptly stopped my tirade. "What do you mean?"
"I am afraid." Silver repeated now in his monotone neutral volumed voice again.
I paused, the seed of guilt growing to full bloom in my gut. "What do you mean, afraid?" I asked in a neutral tone. The lack of emotion in Silver's voice made it hard to get a bearing on him, and honestly, I didn't know that feelings were apart of his wheelhouse.
"My memories are shattered and lost. Thirteen percent of those that remain uncorrupted are sporadic and non-sequitur memories of a time before my internment. All others are of after INSECT initially uncovered me. The past memories are of danger and destruction. All probable outcomes and possibilities to attain components necessary to maintain myself draw close to that danger. The specifics of which I find confusing and am unable to define." Silver spoke in more depth and clarity than I had yet to hear from him. Actual hints of trepidation flowed across the Bond connection.
"Shit." I huffed out. I floated there and gathered my thoughts. Reining in the frustration and guilt that continued to gnaw at me, I apologized. "Sorry," I said, "I shouldn't have gone off on you like that."
Silver remained silent as I continued. "But, from everything you had said, I figured it was going to be dangerous either way, I shouldn't have assumed you were okay with that. But do we have a choice?" I asked.
"At the current rate of data corruption since primary operation TOM connected, estimation indicates that over thirty days remain of operational capacity." Silver informed me.
"To be clear, that is a no, we don't have a choice," I said as I turned to everyone in the core room. "Guys, come on over here for a moment," I called out. Gizmo meandered over, dragging a tennis ball with him, which promptly met the end of its time in existence and disappeared with an audible pop. I saw Red make her way over slowly, keeping an obstruction between herself and the rest of the group but still joining us nonetheless.
"We are going to have to figure out what to do moving forward," I announced. "As far as I can tell, we need to get into a city that probably won't like us very much. Or worse will actively seek us out to recapture us."
"Why?" Red asked in her rasping voice.
"Because if we don't, I'm afraid we could be in an even worse situation," I replied evenly. "Silver here," I said as I gave off the impression of focusing on the giant ball of silvery knots. "Could get into a bad way if we don't risk it." I waited to see if the other two understood. Gizmo was listening attentively but gave no positive or negative indications. Red, though was utterly indifferent. She was the first to speak up.
"Why take risk?" She asked.
"Besides the fact, we need to keep each other alive while we're stuck together; if something were to happen to Silver, I think the body we're currently living in may not react well to his loss," I explained. I tried to speak with some kind of authority, but Red was unconvinced.
"Don't want captured. I feel fine now, what is problem?" She asked
I thought about how best to convey the issue to her. It was apparent Gizmo, and Red didn't exactly think the same way I did, even if I could understand them here.
"Right now," I said, "Silver is starving to death. But he can't eat most things. We think the only thing he can eat is in the city, or more accurately near the giant green pillar the city is built around."
"I do not eat. I require a rank five or greater earthen en-" Silver tired to correct before I interjected.
"Not now, Silver, just let me use an analogy for the time being," I pleaded. Silver didn't elaborate, and Red remained silent as she thought about what I had said.
"Okay." She said, "How do we kill?"
"Hopefully, we don't have to." I said, "But, that is also why I asked you both here. There will be peril, and we all need to think of a way to protect ourselves." I said, "I can't think of a few things, but I don't know how effective it could be. I wanted to see if either of you two, of you Silver, have any better ideas."
A weighty pause settled over our little council. Gizmo was the first to speak up this time.
"We bite?" He asked
"I don't think we can do that," I replied. The lack of a mouth meant no biting, and would probably be an even bigger issue if we ever met a person who didn't try and kill or capture us.
"Charge?" Gizmo asked again
"Mabey," I answered, "But I don't think it'd work. We were only able to run a little faster than a horde of rats, remember?"
"No, when?" Gizmo asked.
"What do you mean when? It was right before we fell off the cliff." I said, confused.
"When was fall?" Red asked.
"Wait, do you guys know where we are right now?" I asked.
"No." They both answered in unison, and each shook in annoyance that the other had interrupted them.
I belatedly realized these two must be totally disconnected from the outside world. Hell, Red and Gizmo probably didn't even know what I was talking about when I said we had made it out earlier.
"Silver, can we somehow let the two of them see outside at all? I'm only just realizing they probably have no idea what's going on. Wait, you can see outside, too, right?" I asked.
"Yes, I can see. I am unable to connect Red nor Gizmo to the optical sensors, however. Alternative solution, would you like to display sensor data for the core room?" Silver asked.
"Yeah, do that," I said
"What is happening?" Red asked, as confusion emanated from her scarlet crystalline form.
Before I could answer, a large section of the white walls of the core room, warped and shifted. Beginning with alternating grays, blacks, and whites, lines formed, followed by blurred colors. Finally, the entire expanse snapped into clarity, showing what Silver and I were seeing to the whole core room. The vista of rainbow fungi and lush greenery under a dark cavern ceiling was displayed in all its glory.
"Beautiful," Gizmo said reverently.
"Very bright," Red said, shrinking away from the display, having focused on the bioluminescence of the screen.
"That is what we are dealing with," I said, and I pointed to the glowing green pillar I could see from over the canopy. "And that is where we need to get to. Any ideas?"
Both remained silent, their full focus on the brilliant display in front of them. They gravitated to opposite sides of the screen and watched in dazed wonder.
"So pretty," Gizmo muttered absentmindedly.
I feared those two may take longer than I anticipated to seeing an outside world alien to what they knew. Hopefully, they regained a semblance of coherency soon.