“So you will be the best version of yourself, have the best possible combination of D.N.A. You will live for a few hundred years. You will become taller and umm...larger.”
I glanced over my shoulder at her and said, “I really wish I could tell if your blushing...”
Jax said, “Speaking of that, I have to go meet Jane real quick, care if I grab her and meet you guys back at the shop?” I waved him off, “Go for it man. Get back here quick so we can hit you both with this Genome treatment.” He took off running.
“So you're telling me all Galatics get this?”
She nodded “Oh yes, your human white blood cells will be replacing and attacking so hard that you will never suffer a cold or disease ever again.”
I said, “Hmm, I will have to make it mandatory that all citizens get this as soon as possible.” We stepped out of the elevator where we got on and I picked up the bag I had stowed at the bottom of the sled.
Onida took one look at it and stopped. She said, “Bowen, where did you get that bag?”
I said, “Oh, I guess you haven't heard the story. Check this out.” I sent the video to her and stopped while she watched it.
She sagged down a bit and got a horrified look on her face and that was quickly replaced by anger. “Fucking humans! No honor at all!” She looked over at me, “I'm sorry, I meant scum like those two.”
I put a hand on her shoulder and said, “It's okay, most humans are scum, just ask my people what humans did to them.”
Onida's face softened “Yes, that was in bad taste of me, I am already slipping from being around you. You have so many hormones and pheromones floating about and so much emotion emanating from you that I am transforming emotionally. I am having trouble keeping a lid on things, as you say, it's confusing. This bond doesn't help either!”
I said, “Did you know him well?”
She said, “Yes... we were what you call cousins in a very big, very screwed up family. He was a true friend to me… That is a discussion for another night.”
I said, “So the bag? What's the deal?”
She said, “The Truinnar who are mineral scouts need to constantly take samples to analyze to determine if an area is worth to invest in. They are alone in the field more than not. They all keep their samples, no matter what they are. Being alone and scouting means that you run across many things that you should not see... I have heard stories of dead dragons and hoards of treasure... I will say this much, I will not look inside it because that was his personal sample bag and I am sure it has many things in there he should not have had. I will never know whats there so that I can never report on him. His family could be damaged from its contents. Better to sell it all and be done with it. It is surely worth millions.”
“Millions?!” I asked.
She nodded “Oh definitely. Many millions. We have been to many planets. Those bags are considered spoils of war for metallurgists. They all carry them, it's no secret. They need somewhere to put their findings after all. That is a few decades of collecting, I am sure.”
I said, “That’s a lot of speculating. Hey, what about his ship?
She looked over at him, thinking “Hmm, yes about the ship.”
I said, “Yeah, they said that they stealthed it and locked it up.”
She said, “We must get to that ship as soon as we have time, It could prove to be invaluable once the planet starts to settle. It could cause some minor problems taking it, but it will be worth it”
As we got to the shop kiosk Onida stopped us. “Here's the plan, you are going to need a lot of basic knowledge on the System, skills, a bunch of tech, etc. We will let Tor search and gather all of the required pertinent material. I do not want you to be alone with a salesman the first time that you have been here. By design, they will try to fleece and cheat you out of every credit. Let me do the talking when it comes to haggling. They know me and know better than trying to cheat me.”
She looked behind me and said, “Tor, what do you consider the most important need for our Chief?”
Without hesitation, the spirit said, “His eyes. You are aware of his class skills yes? His eyes will become his most important tools as he grows into power. If his ability to possess ever becomes known, that will be the first target his enemies will go after. We need to protect them.”
Onida nodded “Good point. He will need a very good neural link as well then, I am thinking tier 3. We will have enough money to buy anything we need, so don't go cheap on anything. I want him to have some serious armor as well, but nothing that will scare off people. We will have to pay big for it, but I want to have his armor customized to look like regular clothing.”
My head went back and forth as I watched the two of them discussing me as if I wasn't there in front of them. “Hold on a sec, new eyes? A neural link? Am I going to have to go into some kind of surgery? I don't like this.”
Ignoring me Onida went on. “Don't overload him with skills, make sure we get some out of class healing and defensive skills, maybe some speed and stealth tech. With his All-Weapon we will be able to take advantage of passives, He won't be using a ton of mana.”
“Speaking of mana, don't forget to get him something on mana manipulation. Let's look into his Chief’s skills as well, he will need all the knowledge we can get him on leadership and speaking to people as well as leading large groups in battle. Diplomacy also, a perfect skill for him.”
“Brownbear, while your eyes and neural link, are being taken care of, I want you to look through the skill list and think hard of anything that might become of use to you in the future.”
I nodded. “I'm dying to see if all of this hype can be worth it, let's go already.”
The hype, as it turned out, was worth it…
We walked into a high tech version of an adult candy store. My personal shopper was waiting for me as I phased into the store, and I almost started laughing. She was an over-sexualized version of what the System thought a Native Indian would look like. Almost insultingly so. She was dressed how a North American Indian might look like in the 1700s if she was a porn star. Skintight buckskin leathers and Playboy model features.
She smiled seductively at me as I entered and then saw who was tailing behind me.
She looked over at Onida, clearly not expecting her and said, “Lady... er, Miss Onida, We were not expecting you here today.”
I looked at her and said, “This outfit is just insulting. Playing to racial stereotypes much?”
She sputtered and said, “But this is the current...” She looked at Onida who just shook her head grinning. The clerk stopped and said, “I see.” She nodded and tossed her hair, one hand reached up in the air and spun around and her body shimmered and changed into a sleek, high tech bodysuit that almost made matters worse. “Is this better Chief?” She said with a knowing grin.
“Enough of this play,” Onida said. “Down to business. He needs Genome Therapy right away, then a tier III neural link and finally some new eyes with all the bells and whistles. The spirit here will be selecting skills and knowledge-based information packages. I will want to see armor with passive enchantments and then have it converted to look like normal clothing benefiting a Chief of the Native Peoples. By the way, what do we call you?”
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The woman looked at all of us and bowed her head quickly and said, “My name is Mali thank you for asking Miss Onida. Before we get started do you have items to sell?”
I handed her the bag, “You can start with this.”
She looked down and then took it. After she had glanced inside of it she looked up at us with a tiny bit of shock on her face and said, “I will need to refer this to someone else, one moment please.” She disappeared and a few seconds later a grim looking alien who resembled a Dwarf blinked into the room holding the bag.
He looks at us and bowed. “Chief...Lady” Can you please tell me where you got this bag?”
Onida looked him up and down dismissively. “Do you know who I am?”
He nodded. “I do my Lady.”
She said, “Then all I need to say is that this bag was my Cousin's and I'm expecting that you know what that means.”
The man's head drooped. “I am afraid that I do… I haven’t heard from him in a while and I am very sorry to hear you say this. He was a very good trading partner as well as a good friend. I am sorry for your loss. This, of course, will be held in all confidentiality.”
She nodded and said, “Thank you.”
He held the bag out and looked at her. “I am sure that you have not looked inside the contents of this bag, may I send the inventory to your spirit for verification?”
She nodded and we heard Tor whistle and say, “Wow, even Painite and Taaffeite, where was this guy at? There is some raw carbon too, tons of raw materials… this is worth...”
Onida held up a hand and stopped him, “Let's not worry the Chief with details right now Tor, it will only distract him.”
Our first Assistant came back and said, “Chief if you might transfer your inventory now and we will take a look through that as well?”
I nodded at Tor and the woman went still for a moment looking at the contents. She looked up and said, “This is all standard, for the most part, however, you have a large stack of very rare Phasing Leopard skins. I would be remiss if I did not tell you that they are used as a base to make very good stealth armors. I would suggest you have a set your personal clothing made of these with self-repair features. I would then have the rest transferred over to your people to be used in the future for achieving breakthroughs for crafting classes.”
Onida looked over. “Yes thank you, that would be fine.”
The woman said, “Chief if you have a seat we will begin with your Genome flush and treatment and then get onto your link and eyes.”
I nodded, “Sounds good, but I want my eyes to look the same color with maybe a little bit of dazzle to them.”
The woman took note and said, “Very well, let's begin. You won't feel much pain, but there will be some discomfort...”
I started thinking about my own leveling that was going to have to happen soon and I liked the time I had spent with the elemental warriors. I was going to need my own personal war party.”
I looked up and interrupted Onida from whatever she was doing. “Do you plan on staying with me as I hunt and level up?
She frowned and said, “Of course idiot, I have much more experience than you, I cannot allow you to kill yourself. I am tied to you and Yepa now you know.”
I smiled and said, “Good. I was thinking that I want a personal war party. I have Jax and my friend Smitty who I can trust, and maybe this girl we call Plain Jane who Jax is with.”
I looked at Tor. “Hey, Tor, can you use the System and find out what classes those three are and make a package up for each of them with armor and weapons and skills?” Tor never looked up from his browsing and just nodded.
I started looking through mundane skills and was shocked at the breath and width of the skills I found. I grabbed a bunch of stuff that I thought might be handy down the line like seaplane aviation, boat handling, cruise ship, and ocean liner handling... Oh ya and also some basic stuff on spaceships, just in case.
“Onida, can you flash me the make and model of your cousin’s space craft please?”
I was perusing weapons when I found high tech and expensive long bows and threw a couple into my pile. My eyes were being done now, and even though they were being replaced, I could still see the shop's goods.
I grabbed one of the glamping packages the warriors had had and that made me think of the Appaloosa's. I looked to see if they could be bought, and of course, they could and... “Wow, Tor, you remember those horses? Do you have any idea how much those things cost? No matter how badly I want one of those I can't justify this cost!”
Tor laughed out loud at me. “I looked over at him “What?”
He shook his head and said, “You must be getting daft, have you forgotten about what was told to you about checking the stables?”
My eyes got big. “No. You're kidding? You don't think....?”
Tor said, “I don't see what else that could mean. Better grab a skill for that.”
I looked over at Onida, “We need to get to the stables pronto, I think I'm gonna have a heart attack if what I think is over there.”
I started looking for any skills related to the horses and grabbed them. I looked up at Mali. “This little pile is what I have for now, can you... Umm, how do I get this stuff? Does it come in book form or?”
Mali smiled. “It will be uploaded and transferred via your neural link, are you ready for this first batch?”
Onida looked over, “Take it slow with him Mali, nice and slow. Don't overload him for the first time.” She nodded.
I could almost physically feel the information being poured into my head like a glass filling with liquid. For me, it was not pleasant. My eyes started shifting through different spectrum's and I yelled out, “What's going on with my eyes!”
Mali said, “That is the software calibrating, just hold on a second, it will be over in soon.”
I said, “What can I do with these eyes now?”
Tor snorted, “Almost anything, you now have enhanced vision with telescopic abilities and heat-seeking abilities. You can see different spectrums, like infrared, and ultraviolet. You will pick up on stealthed and invisible monsters quite easily, nothing will be sneaking up on you. You have night vision too, but the best thing is the mana shields over your eyes. This will make them all but impervious. Unless you sit still and let someone beam plasma into them of course. Your face would melt first though, so I don't know if that means anything.”
I looked over at him. “Thanks for that mental picture.”
I glanced at Mali, “Hey, make sure that my wife Samantha has access to my account if she needs anything in here.”
She nodded and nonchalantly said, “There is one more thing I noticed, you have a personal data device in your inventory that seems to have quite a lot of packaged Earth-based entertainment programs on it. They are retrievable through the system.”
I thought about that for a second. “Ah, you mean the TV shows on that little hard drive?”
She nodded. Onida looked over interested. “WAIT!, Stop talking for a minute. Brownbear, you have original Earth entertainment on you? What are these TV shows you mentioned?”
I explained it to her and she got a big smile on her face. “Very tricky Mali, I think I will personally review these shows and get back to you.” She winked at me like I knew what was going on.
Onida said, “Has any Earth based entertainment gotten out yet?”
Mali shook her head and looked disappointed. “You should move fast and you might be the first my Lady.”
I glanced back at Onida. She held up a hand and said, “We will speak on this soon.” She looked at Mali, “Don't worry, I can assure you that we will be back very, very soon with those, but you might want to start reaching out on behalf of the War Chief, instead of yourself. I will be reviewing them and deciding on a release order.”
She added, “I want a transfer and viewing device sent to me also.”
I sat back as all of the skills Tor had picked for me were slowly downloading into my head and I found information for all of the skills I was picking up. I was going to need to sit back for a few hours tonight and review all of this to understand it.
Mali perked up and said, “Chief Brownbear, a request has come in from a Micheal Jackson and a Plain Jane to join your instance of the shop, will you allow it?”
I nodded at her. “About time, yes, show them in please.”
Jax and Jane walked in a second later. We called Jane “Plain Jane” sarcastically because she was anything but plain. If Kate Beckinsale had a long lost sister, Jane was it.
She looked at me and said, “I hear you are going by strictly Blackbear now eh? And you’re also a War Chief?”
I laughed. “That's what the system gave me, what class did you take?”
She had an angry look on her face and said, “I didn't get to pick, it was forced on me! There was only one option available that didn't entail using my tits and ass! They offered me Model, and Spokeswoman, and Liaison classes, screw that! I got so angry and threw such a fit that a new option became available. I had to take the Valkyrie class for goodness sake!”
“Do you know what becoming a Valkyrie entailed? No one warned me! I had to die to become it! I died... It hurt! A LOT!”
I said, “Oh wow, sorry to hear that. Can you fly?”
She shook her head, “I think I might have to become advanced or master to get that, I am not sure.”
I looked over at Mali. “Get her all the info on the Valkyrie class please.”
Mali looked at me. “That will require a neural implant as well as the Genome treatment you already ordered, do you authorize that?”
I sat up “Umm, can I afford it?” Mali coughed into her and turned her head. “Oh, excuse me... Yes Chief, I think you might be able to swing that for these two and a few more.”
I smiled, “Nice, then let's do that and give them the packages that Tor had made up for them as well.”
Jax was looking a bit sheepish and I knew something was up. “Spill it, Jax what is going on?”
His face reddened as he said, “Well, I didn't want to have to talk about this in front of everybody, but it's my class.”
I said, “Oh hell, I just realized that we hadn't spoken about it yet. What did they offer you?”
He said, “Brownbear, you know I love you like a brother right? If you laugh when I tell you this, it is over. They offered me a one rare class, I had to take it. I mean rare is great right?”
I said “Wow! That is great, what is the problem then?”
He scowled. “Because it is a singing class! I got the impression that it was because of my name!”
I froze myself to my seat and looked him in the eyes. I knew my friend had a real, true hangup because of his name. Anytime someone wanted to start trouble with him for his whole life they started by calling him a child molester, or a chimp fucker, etc. etc.”
It was so ridiculous that it bothered him so much that it was funny. I was not going to laugh at him though. I said, “Okay, that's cool, so you are some kind of bard then?”
He said, “More like a Dirge, I use skills, and I don't sing as much as I chant. I can fight for sure, but my real skills lie in providing cover for groups of people.”
I got up and grabbed him in a manly kind of bro hug. “Look, Jax I know I have said this a million times, but you have got to lose this silly anger over the name thing. It makes no sense. Everyone who knows you loves you to death man, no matter your name.”
I pushed him into my chair. “Now hurry up and get a computer jammed into your head, we need to make a trip to the stables...”
I went over to Mali and said, “One last thing, there are supposedly a group of mermen on this planet that “rescue” children from new dungeon worlds, have you heard of them?”
She nodded “Oh yes, they are well known and do great work. The Order of Mercy. They are an order of Knights that are atoning for past atrocities perpetrated on a planet in the past.”
I said, “I need any information on them you have, they have my son.”
She shook her head and said, “Oh my, I see. I can tell you this Chief, you are not going to be able to get your son back until he is done training with them I am afraid.”
I said, “Why not?”
She replied, “Because by now your son has gills and is breathing water. That's what they do. They will return your child to you if you force them to, but he will suffocate on the surface I am afraid...”