Blake opened his eyes to white walls and a familiar sound of tinkering. He sat up to see the goblin engineer Pliny, fiddling with some device in a corner of his laboratory in the orcish white tower, hammering away, oblivious.
Seul-ki sat up from a couch nearby. Annie sprung up from the floor to leap at Blake and bury her head in his chest.
“Was it very horrible?” she whispered.
Yes, Blake thought, it was.
He knew she meant his final match in the arena—the awful decision to try and break Mason’s mind. The demonic collar that ultimately choked him to death.
He put one hand on her arm to give a reassuring pat, the other to the ‘jewelry’ around his neck. He suddenly couldn’t stand the feel of it against his skin. He pulled trying to break it, then tried uselessly to slip it over his head. He’d try other methods later, but that wasn’t a good sign.
“I’m alright,” he said, obviously not alright. Though he exchanged a polite smile with Seul-ki. He also noticed his profile was flashing like a strobe light with different colors vying for attention.
He flipped it open to see he’d leveled to sixteen. He was supposed to pick a power enhancement, and also rewards for his 3v3 arena victory, and his 2nd place in the overall tournament.
Why he hadn’t received these things in the Neutral Zone he wasn’t sure. But it’s not like the system was in the habit of explaining itself.
He decided he’d get to it in a minute. First, he stood and convinced the girls everything was fine, praising them for their excellent work and saying he needed just a little while alone to choose rewards.
“Everything continues as planned,” he said, kissing the back of Seul-ki’s hand. “I have things to tell you. New possibilities. But I want to understand them first.”
“Of course,” she said, bowing and wandering to her own room. She’d have seen straight through him, but that was fine.
Whatever he told her, it wouldn’t include his conversations with ‘Psion’. Blake trusted her. More or less. At least as much as he trusted anyone.
But he intended to keep his new ‘divine patron’ very close to his chest. And certainly until he understood exactly the ramifications. He said a quick goodbye to a much less shrewd Annie, then closed the door to his own room.
He opened his profile and went to his sheet, eyes narrowing as he watched Duality of Ambition glow.
Of course, he realized. He’d changed his prestige class, which was the source of his ‘duality’ power. Considering how spectacularly it had failed in his duel against Mason, he wasn’t terribly disappointed to see it go. Though it had been fairly useful in the past…
[Prestige power changed: Duality of Ambition ==> Duality of Sentience. With infinite freedom comes paralysis of choice. Will you keep your universe simple? Or will you risk complexity for power? Modification power.]
Cryptic as usual. At least roboGod was consistent—even if its only consistency was being unhelpful. Duality of Ambition had also been a ‘modification’ power, so he assumed this too would trigger as he used something else.
He’d take his other rewards first, he decided, then immediately try both his new duality and his new making power.
He picked his 2nd place reward first. As he did, the world darkened and shifted, and there he was, seemingly back in the Neutral Zone, standing on the stage with two podiums and a smiling system servant.
“Apologies for the minor delay,” it said. “You were…temporarily unavailable.”
Yeah. Snatched by a God, Blake thought. But how curious. Exactly how much ‘power’ did these gods have to disrupt things, or one another? Blake definitely needed to create a kind of spreadsheet of all the rules, and exactly who could break them. And then figure out how to do it himself.
For now, though, he reached for the closest orb sitting on the podium. The system servant blinked in surprise and stepped away, sputtering something about an explanation.
“Do I have a choice?” Blake said. The thing blinked and stared in what he assumed passed for a robotic shrug. “Well, there you go then.”
The orb glowed as he touched it, swirling with blue energy and tingling the skin all over his hand.
[/error. /Sysmod. Unable to find appropriate power for power gem use. Re-calculating.]
Blake saw the error flash and started locking everything about the moment in his partitioned mind. He immediately assumed it had something to do with ‘Psion’ and the disruption to the Neutral Zone’s reward. Had it tried to give him something applicable to his old duality or making power, only to find it obsolete?
It seemed likely. And if that was so, it served as absolute proof that this ‘system’ relied on multiple decision makers, or at least conflicting ‘programs’. They’d disagreed, or at least hadn’t communicated.
A spike of excitement shot through Blake, hard to articulate at first until his conscious mind caught up.
But insight gave way to realization: if the system could make such mistakes—if it could interfere with itself and be forced to change, then Blake could exploit those interferences. All he had to do was find the fault lines, the grey areas, the uncharted waters with no precedent or rules. With the right knowledge, he could, in a word, cheat.
Though it did also occur to him that finding an exploit in a game didn’t always work out very well for the exploiter…
[Receiving reward: Unique Power modification orb: Power modified: Primordial Making. Unique. The Essence of War. Considerably increase the maximum energy level for all combat designs.]
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Blake smiled and waited patiently for the power to work its way through his body with the usual pain and paralysis. He didn’t completely understand the gem, since he had yet to actually use the new power, but the direction seemed clear enough.
It looked like it raised some kind of ‘cap’, which in theory meant it improved the power he was capable of producing in any single ‘combat’ construct. At least that was his theory.
‘Maximum energy level’ was a new concept, but he supposed he would soon see what it meant. First he reached for the 3v3 champion orb. This one didn’t cause any kind of error.
[Unique Power Gem. Chains of Friendship. Not all shackles are a punishment. Always found in two or more sets. Wearers can activate to: transfer power effects, power point of origin, as well as sustain channels.]
Blake had to read this one several times. He assumed this meant Annie and Seul-ki received the same prize. The orb melted and reformed as a silver chain around Blake’s wrist, and he really hoped this one didn’t shrink and start crushing him if he used it too much.
But transfer power effects? And channels? Did this mean he could move a shield to Seul-ki? Or that Annie could let him use her ‘voidsoul’? Or that he could use her to ‘channel’ while he kept on doing other things?
Some of that felt complicated, but he hoped yes. Though of course as a power gem the thing would have limited juice. Still, it definitely sounded like it had potential.
Blake took a deep breath and was about to start Making when he remembered Navi. When he’d changed his prestige class she’d started freaking out.
He searched his profile, suddenly frantic, looking for his innate ‘familiar’ before finding her with a large sigh of relief. He summoned the little orb just ahead, then went wide-eyed as he stared.
“Hello, Master!”
Navi was now a glowing patch of purple color. It twirled and blinked as it spoke, shining enough light to flash off the walls.
So. That was new. But at least it had kept its enthusiasm.
“Uh. Hi, Navi. How are you…feeling?”
“Great! Can I assist you with something, Master?”
“You’ve…changed, Navi. Can you do anything now you couldn’t do before? Do you remember?”
“Of course I do! And…yes. Unfortunately, I can’t do some of the things I could do previously. Like touch things. At least not normally. So…I won’t be able to protect you. Sorry, Master. But I can fly through walls! And I can’t be harmed except with special kinds of magic.”
The ‘protection mode’ Navi had before was quite literally useless, so there wasn’t much loss there. Blake nodded with encouragement, and his new (and improved?) familiar went on.
“Most importantly, Master, on top of identifying for you, I can interfere with magic now! I can help boost your spells, and I can even pull apart the spells of others. Though not if it’s instant. I’m not very fast yet, and I’ll always need some time.”
Blake grinned, liking the sound of that. He also decided he couldn’t wait another second to try out his new abilities. He activated Primordial Making, not surprised as a kind of display took over his vision as before.
Except…where True Making had ‘categories’ and all kinds of specific ‘builds’ for its constructs, this new one seemed…blank. It was more like an elaborate art program filled with toolbars Blake didn’t really understand.
After looking for some of his old ‘models’ or a way to pick a basic template, he eventually just started ‘drawing’ a basic shape. An overlay instantly appeared, wondering if he wanted something dedicated to combat or not. He picked yes. Not that it seemed to change anything.
Two ‘energy’ bars became prominent, one showing total possible, the other blank one showing current allocated. Blake started trying to make something like his old ‘legionnaires’—a humanoid with four limbs.
It was almost…awkward doing it now. Like the thing didn’t understand what he was trying to do and wouldn’t help him in the slightest.
“Tell me what you know about Primordial Making, please,” he muttered to Navi as he kept trying to mould his invisible clay.
“I’ll try, Master. I can tell you first it’s the most complicated power in existence.”
Blake sighed, but also felt a stab of excitement. If a thing was complicated in a game, it was almost certain to have incredible potential. If he could just figure it out…
“How do I create a useful shape for combat?”
Just as he asked he noticed one of his ‘icons’ said ‘legacy’, which he opened and sighed in relief. It had pretty much everything from his old True Making power, including every design he’d ever made. Though they were all in a weird, vaguely reddish color.
He picked a big, psionic defender, smiling as the outline filled his display. But he frowned as he watched the ‘total’ energy bar drop like a stone. It was like his design had somehow damaged the efficiency of the system, though it still had enough to make his defender.
“You see what I did there, Navi? What just happened?”
“You mixed runic magic with primordial magic, Master,” said the floating ball of light. Blake squinted, at least partially understanding. His old Making had been based on symbols and runes, basically like a language, but his new Making seemed more like…art.
His new patron(s) had been pretty clear with its…er, their…distaste for ‘True’ Making. He was glad he could still use it, but obviously he had a great deal of work to do to figure out the new method.
He swiped away the defender and went back to the literal drawing board, this time thinking more about purpose, about function rather than form. He imagined the weapon, first—a kind of flail with a heavy ball on a chain.
The ‘designer’ clearly understood this time, helping him form the idea like a second pair of hands. As he pulled back he saw sphere after sphere, the whole construct becoming a kind of ball with a flail attached.
It looked vaguely insane, but Blake didn’t care. He realized he saw no obvious ‘affinity’ or ‘intelligence’ categories but for the moment he didn’t care about that, either. He didn’t even know how the damn thing would move, but it looked cool and doing whatever he wanted was really just…fun.
By the time he’d clicked the thing into some version of a completed shape, he was maybe halfway up the total allotment of power. But it looked like it would let him summon it now. With a giddy shiver up his spine, he started the channel without a second thought.
Light flared and filled the room. Blake could see he was glowing and projecting something. What looked like symbols danced and melted like they were mocking their own shape, blinking and swirling around the walls. There was also no bar that told him how long the channel would take.
Finally the light stopped, and the spherical ‘weapon’ formed on the floor of Blake’s room like a lifeless alien ship with a chain.
“Well.” Blake winced as he inspected, seeing no obvious sign the thing could really do anything at all. “At least it worked. Maybe I can…”
The orb hummed and floated into the air, its chain lifting with a rattle. Blake blinked and felt the same ‘presence’ he had with former constructs. It was commandable. It understood him.
Without a word, he mentally floated the sphere towards his door and stood well back, activating both his shields to be safe. The sphere spun on a dime, twirling with instant violence as the attached metal ball smashed into his door.
It blasted apart in a spray of shrapnel. Not sure who might be outside, Blake caught everything with Telekinesis as he walked forward. He stepped through the floating chunks of wood as Seul-ki and Annie came running in concern.
“Is…everything alright?” Seul-ki asked, blinking and staring in obvious alarm.
Blake picked a chunk of his door from the air and grinned, letting everything fall to the floor. He floated out his orb and sent it drifting through his lab, bringing Navi closer but mentally commanding her to stop glowing quite so much.
The light dimmed down to nothing, and his spherical construct floated lazily in a loop above them, slowly swinging its chain. It was a terrifying construct, really, clearly durable, and packed a hell of a wallop.
He had no idea if it had an ‘affinity’, though with Primordial Making that might have been a feature and not a bug. But whatever else it could do, it could fly. It had only used half his potential power. And it had only been his first attempt!
“Oh yes,” Blake said, feeling a very genuine smile. “Everything is just fine.”