Once the emergency workers had looked him over, they stashed Jake in a small holding area with chairs and a tented canopy. Half a dozen other people sat quietly, most with bruises and cuts showing on faces and arms. The only teenager had an air splint on her right leg. The other five looked to be in their 30s or 40s, like Jake. As he glanced around, he could feel the small pocket of energy in his brain. If he focussed, he could see numerous lines of color flickering around everything.
Multiple streaks of different greens and blues mixed with white in the air, while near the ground, browns and tans blended in. None of the colors blocked his normal vision; it was just that almost everything had an extra depth to it now -- a brighter color showing through the regular look of grass and trees. People had different colors going on, mostly reds and purples with yellow highlights. The teen girl showed a brighter red than the rest of the older adults, and the emergency workers who came through occasionally didn’t carry the small black clouds that all the injured people had.
Blue screens and magic lines floating around felt like the start of too many of Jake’s favorite novels. If he hadn’t actually seen the old man get better, or felt his own brain suddenly clear up, he would think that he was heavily concussed or delusional, but everything around him felt preternaturally clear. The disappearing woman and her turquoise dominoes made him wonder, though. Jake felt his anxiety trying to grab hold, so he dropped his enhanced vision of everyone and closed his eyes. He tried to concentrate on the power in his brain, meditating like his psychologist had told him to. As he tensed and relaxed the muscles of his body, a rainbow of colors ran through his mind, finally settling on a deep blue that was nearly black. After a half hour, he finally felt calm enough to examine the power inside his head. It was as if he could feel it with his fingertips - a soft, slightly pulsing ball. If he wanted to, he could make it stretch from his head into any part of his body, but it seemed to like his lower abdomen the most. Once he had done that a dozen times, a message popped up -- just like his brain was a web browser.
SYSTEM INITIALIZATION SUCCESSFUL … SYSTEM LIBRARIES UPLOAD INCOMPLETE … MISSING COMPONENTS ISOLATED … LIBRARY DATA 18% … LOCAL MANA SYSTEM AVAILABLE … LOCAL MANA SYSTEM DETERMINED NOT NATIVE … LABYRINTH ACCESS UNAVAILABLE … HOST SYSTEM NOT NATIVE … UPDATING HOST SYSTEM
Jake didn’t like the looks of that last line, but he couldn’t feel any pain. A mental poke at the screen made it blink three times, then the text disappeared. The empty box sat there, and Jake found that he couldn’t open his eyes or make the box go away. This shit better be worth it, he thought. After what felt like hours of staring at nothing, the screen started scrolling text.
HOST SYSTEM UPDATE SUCCESSFUL … LABYRINTH ACCESS UNAVAILABLE … HOST POTENTIAL EVALUATED … HOST ACCESS PORTS UNLOCKED … HOST EVALUATION COMPLETED … MULTIPLE JOB CLASSES AVAILABLE … HOST CLASS UPGRADE AVAILABLE … UPDATING HOST CLASS ...
WELCOME NATIVE SOPHONT JACOB LEVI NATHANSON … POTENTIAL ENERGY USAGE CLASSES AVAILABLE … FIRST POWER PORT FILLED DUE TO EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS ... PSI POWER USAGE GRANTED, HEALING TOUCH GRANTED, PSIONIC POWER CLASSES AVAILABLE ... PLEASE CHOOSE APPROPRIATE SKILLS BY SPEAKING
“Well, it would help to know what are my choices, y’know? Oh, and what the hell is going on here?”
SYSTEM CALCULATING … MAJOR HOST-IDENTIFIED CLASSES INCLUDE:
1. TELEPATH -- POWERS ARE TIED TO IQ, PROCESSING SPEED, AND EQ -- RELATIVELY WEAK COMBAT CLASS, STRONG SOCIAL INTERACTION CLASS, RELATIVELY MODERATE SOCIAL CONTROL CLASS
2. MIND HAUNTER -- POWERS ARE TIED TO IQ, EQ, AND AFFECT -- WEAK COMBAT CLASS, WEAK SOCIAL INTERACTION CLASS, STRONG SOCIAL CONTROL CLASS
3. PSIONIC MARTIAL ARTIST -- POWERS ARE TIED TO IQ, PROCESSING SPEED, AGILITY -- MEDIUM COMBAT CLASS, RELATIVELY WEAK SOCIAL INTERACTION CLASS, WEAK SOCIAL CONTROL CLASS
4. MIND WARRIOR -- POWERS ARE TIED TO IQ, PROCESSING SPEED, AND ENDURANCE -- STRONG COMBAT CLASS, RELATIVELY WEAK SOCIAL CONTROL CLASS, MINOR CRAFTING CLASS
“Yeah, but I didn’t even know there was a system. How can those be stuff that I identified?”
HOST KNOWLEDGE OF CLASSES, MAGIC, MYTHOLOGY, HEALING, COMBAT, CRAFTING, AND GAMING COMBINED TO APPROXIMATE AVAILABLE CLASSES IN ORDER TO INSTANTIATE HOST CONCEPTION OF CLASS CONSTRUCTS
“But why do I have to have a class? I mean, I haven’t had one all my life until now. Not that it doesn’t sound cool, but what exactly is going on?”
HOST SYSTEM HAS CONTACTED LABYRINTH SYSTEM … LABYRINTH SYSTEM WILL INCREASINGLY INTERFERE IN HOST SYSTEM AND HOST SYSTEM’S LOCAL PLANE … CLASSES ALLOW PERCEPTION AND USAGE OF PLANAR ENERGIES IN ORDER TO PREVENT DAMAGE TO HOST SYSTEM INTEGRITY BY EXTERIOR SYSTEM ENERGIES
“Okay, so that sounds bad. What kind of damage are we talking about?”
HOST SYSTEM TERMINATION POTENTIAL WITHOUT CLASS EXCEEDS 80%
HOST SYSTEM OPERATING SYSTEM DESTRUCTION POTENTIAL WITHOUT CLASS EXCEEDS 95%
HOST SYSTEM OPERATING SYSTEM DECOUPLING FROM HOST SYSTEM ORGANISM POTENTIAL WITHOUT CLASS EXCEEDS 99%
“So, dead, coma or paralyzed. I think I need a class, System. Is there one that does good armor, crafting, and maybe some of the social interaction? And ranged combat, ’cause I don’t want to be up close to anything that’s gonna hurt like that explosion did. And no mind-control stuff. That shit’s just wrong.”
CALCULATING … SYSTEM LIBRARY INCOMPLETE … SUGGESTED CLASS BASED ON CURRENT HOST SYSTEM AND REQUIREMENTS LISTED BY SOPHONT JACOB LEVI NATHANSON IS PSIONIC ARTISAN
“Just call me Jake, okay? And give me the details on Psionic Artisan class, please.”
SYSTEM UPDATED, SOPHONT JACOB LEVI NATHANSON NOW CLASSIFIED AS SYSTEM OBJECT ‘JAKE’ … PSIONIC ARTISAN CLASS ASSIMILATES INTRA-CLASS ‘JAKE’ KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS WITH WOOD, CONSTRUCTION, ELECTRICITY, ELECTRONICS, FIREARMS -- CURRENTLY RATED AT LOW PROFICIENCY … CLASS ASSIMILATES MINOR INTRA-CLASS ‘JAKE’ KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS WITH METALS, CHEMISTRY, PHARMACEUTICALS, LEATHER, STONE -- CURRENTLY RATED AT MINOR PROFICIENCY … CLASS ASSIMILATES EXTRA-CLASS ‘JAKE’ KNOWLEDGE OF BIOLOGY, NATURE, PHYSICS AS STEP 1 UPGRADES TO MINOR PROFICIENCIES, STEP 2 UPGRADES TO LOW PROFICIENCIES
“Okay then -- it plays to some of my strengths, and a bunch of the minor stuff I know. What about the social-interaction stuff? I get anxious, and I could use a lotta help there.”
PSIONIC ARTISAN CLASS GRANTS USAGE OF MINOR PSIONIC POWERS INCLUDING ‘EMPATHY’, ‘RESOLVE’, ‘VOICE CONTROL’, ‘PSIONIC PERCEPTION’
“That sounds like stuff I need. Accept that class, please.”
CONGRATULATIONS ‘JAKE’ ... PRIMARY POWER CLASS SET TO ‘PSIONIC ARTISAN’
Jake felt a shift in the ball of energy in his head, as it seemed to grow -- almost twice as big as it had been. He also suddenly knew how to channel that energy into a power suit of armor. He wondered how close he could get to Iron Man. This would be fun.
SECOND POWER PORT UNALLOCATED … PLEASE CHOOSE POWER TYPE FOR SECOND POWER PORT
“List me the choices, System.”
CALCULATING … MAJOR HOST-IDENTIFIED POWERS INCLUDE:
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
1. MANA -- POWER THAT ACCOMPLISHES NEAR INSTANTANEOUS SUBSTITUTION OF INTRA-PLANAR EXTRA-SYSTEM POWER INTO PHYSICAL AND/OR METAPHYSICAL EFFECTS VIA COMPLEX CONSTRUCTS IN INTERACTION WITH HOST SYSTEM AND EXTERNAL OBJECTS OR REPRESENTATIONS -- ACTIVE SYSTEM REQUIRES ‘JAKE’ ACTIVATION
2. KARMA -- POWER THAT ACCOMPLISHES SLOW REACTION PHYSICAL AND/OR METAPHYSICAL EFFECTS VIA MICROPERCENTAGE ADJUSTMENTS OF LOCAL PLANAR CONSTANTS IN INTERACTION OF HOST SYSTEM AND EXTERNAL SOPHONTS IN PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL EXCHANGES WITHOUT MENTAL CONSTRUCTS OR EFFORTS -- PASSIVE SYSTEM ALWAYS ON
3. OCCULT -- POWER THAT ACCOMPLISHES NEAR INSTANTANEOUS SUBSTITUTION OF EXTRA-PLANAR EXTRA-SYSTEM POWER INTO PHYSICAL AND/OR METAPHYSICAL EFFECTS VIA MENTAL CONSTRUCTS IN INTERACTION WITH HOST SYSTEM, EXTERNAL OBJECTS OR REPRESENTATIONS, AND EXTRA-PLANAR SYSTEMS OR SOPHONTS -- ACTIVE SYSTEM REQUIRES ‘JAKE’ ACTIVATION
4. QI / CHI / KI -- POWER THAT ACCOMPLISHES NEAR INSTANTANEOUS SUBSTITUTION OF INTRA-PLANAR EXTRA-SYSTEM POWER INTO INTERNAL ‘JAKE’ PHYSICAL AND/OR METAPHYSICAL EFFECTS VIA REINFORCED INTERNAL PHYSICAL PATHWAYS -- PASSIVE SYSTEM ALWAYS ON
“Yeah, so I still don’t want to fight up close to anything unless I have to. I really don’t want to fight at all. My job is to help people get better, not hurt them. So no to the ki, and karma seems too vague. Not sure that I like the extra-planar idea -- nobody ever wins making a deal with the outer horrors. And I really, really want to do magic. Give me mana, System.”
SECOND POWER PORT FILLED, MANA USAGE GRANTED … MANA POWER CLASSES AVAILABLE ... PLEASE CHOOSE CLASS FROM HOST-IDENTIFIED, ‘JAKE’ REQUIREMENTS LIST BY SPEAKING
1. WIZARD -- POWERS ARE TIED TO IQ, PROCESSING SPEED, LEARNING -- USES COMPLEX MENTAL CONSTRUCTS, SYMBOLIC OBJECTS, AND SPECIFIC MATERIALS TO MANIPULATE MANA IN ORDER TO GENERATE SPECIFIC, NON-VARIABLE PHYSICAL OR METAPHYSICAL EFFECTS … COMPLEX RECURSIVE SYSTEM REQUIRES ‘JAKE’ MANIPULATION AND ACTIVATION -- STRONG RANGED COMBAT CLASS, MODERATE SOCIAL CONTROL CLASS, ACCESSORY CRAFTING CLASS
2. SHAMAN -- POWERS ARE TIED TO IQ, EQ, LEARNING -- USES COMPLEX PHYSICAL SYMBOLISM CONSTRUCTS, SYMBOLIC OBJECTS, SPECIFIC MATERIALS AND INTERACTION WITH INTRA-PLANAR MANA-OBJECTS IN ORDER TO GENERATE SPECIFIC VARIABLE PHYSICAL OR METAPHYSICAL EFFECTS … MODERATE RECURSIVE SYSTEM REQUIRES ‘JAKE’ MANIPULATION AND ACTIVATION -- STRONG RANGED COMBAT CLASS, MODERATE SOCIAL INTERACTION CLASS, MODERATE SOCIAL CONTROL CLASS, WEAK CRAFTING CLASS
3. SORCERER -- POWERS ARE TIED TO EQ, AFFECT, ENDURANCE -- USES MENTAL CONSTRUCTS, SYMBOLIC OBJECTS, SPECIFIC MATERIALS IN CONJUNCTION WITH SPECIFIC BIOGENETIC-CODE INHERITANCE TO MANIPULATE MANA IN ORDER TO GENERATE SPECIFIC, NON-VARIABLE PHYSICAL OR METAPHYSICAL EFFECTS … MODERATE RECURSIVE SYSTEM REQUIRES ‘JAKE’ ACTIVATION -- STRONG RANGED COMBAT CLASS, WEAK SOCIAL INTERACTION CLASS, MODERATE SOCIAL CONTROL CLASS, MINOR ACCESSORY CRAFTING CLASS
4. MANA ARTISAN -- POWERS ARE TIED TO IQ, LEARNING, PERCEPTION -- USES MENTAL CONSTRUCTS, COMPLEX PHYSICAL SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS, COMPLEX SYMBOLIC OBJECTS, SPECIFIC MATERIALS TO MANIPULATE MANA IN ORDER TO GENERATE SPECIFIC, NON-VARIABLE PHYSICAL OR METAPHYSICAL EFFECTS … RELATIVELY STRONG RECURSIVE SYSTEM REQUIRES ‘JAKE’ ACTIVATION -- STRONG RANGED COMBAT CLASS, WEAK SOCIAL CONTROL CLASS, STRONG CRAFTING CLASS
5. BIOMAGUS -- POWERS ARE TIED TO LEARNING, ENDURANCE, IMMUNE SYSTEM -- USES SIMPLE MENTAL CONSTRUCTS, SPECIFIC MATERIALS IN CONJUNCTION WITH INTERNAL BIOGENETIC MANIPULATION IN ORDER TO HARNESS MANA TO GENERATE VARIABLE PHYSICAL OR LIMITED METAPHYSICAL EFFECTS … MODERATE RECURSIVE SYSTEM REQUIRES SOME ‘JAKE’ ACTIVATION -- MODERATE COMBAT CLASS, MODERATE SOCIAL INTERACTION CLASS, STRONG SOCIAL CONTROL CLASS, MINOR ACCESSORY CRAFTING CLASS
“Okay, System, that’s a lot to take in. Give me a few minutes here to think,” Jake said. “What I really want is medicine related. Magic, but the kind that I can use to make people get better, or to make meds for them so they get better -- not that Biomagus -- that sounds creepy as all get out. Then, umm, well, making stuff, because that’s what I do anyway. Something like a combination of the wizard and the mana artisan. But I still don’t want any social control stuff. I don’t want to be controlled, either, though, so I need some protection from that. Anything deep in the library that you can find that makes that combination?”
CALCULATING … SYSTEM LIBRARY INCOMPLETE … SUGGESTED CLASS BASED ON CURRENT HOST SYSTEM AND UPDATED REQUIREMENTS IS ‘SAGE’ ...
‘SAGE’ ASSIMILATES CURRENT ‘JAKE’ CLASS ‘SCHOLAR’ AND ‘JAKE’ SUBCLASSES ‘RESEARCHER’, ‘WRITER’, ‘TEACHER’, ‘NURSE’, ‘HOBBYIST’ … CLASS ALLOWS POTENTIAL FOR MULTIPLE TYPES OF POWER CLASSES AS WELL AS CRAFTING -- POWERS ARE TIED TO IQ, LEARNING, EQ -- USES COMPLEX MENTAL AND/OR PHYSICAL CONSTRUCTS, SYMBOLIC PHYSICAL CONSTRUCTS, SYMBOLIC OBJECTS, AND SPECIFIC MATERIALS TO MANIPULATE MANA IN ORDER TO GENERATE SPECIFIC, VARIABLE PHYSICAL OR METAPHYSICAL EFFECTS -- MODERATE RANGED COMBAT CLASS, MINOR SOCIAL INTERACTION CLASS, MINOR SOCIAL CONTROL CLASS, RELATIVELY STRONG CRAFTING CLASS
“I’ll take that one. That get us done so I can go back to the real world now?”
INTERNAL MENTAL TIME RUNS AT 10:1 WITH EXTERNAL PLANAR TIME … ‘JAKE’ HAS SPENT 25 EXTERNAL MINUTES APPEARING TO BE SLEEPING … ‘JAKE’ STILL NEEDS TO CHOOSE 15 SPECIFIC BASIC MENTAL CONSTRUCTS AS PART OF ‘SAGE’ CLASS ABILITIES … ABILITIES LIST INCLUDES HUNDREDS OF BASIC CONSTRUCTS OUT OF INCOMPLETE LIST OF ??? TOTAL
“You’ve had recommendations for everything else - what do you got?”
RECOMMENDATIONS BASED ON ‘JAKE’ PRIORITIES INCLUDE BASIC CONSTRUCTS FOR SIX ACTIVATION OBJECTS: ‘CALL’, ‘INCREASE’, ‘REPAIR’, ‘SENSE’, ‘SPREAD’, ‘THROW’ AND NINE DEFINITION OBJECTS: ‘BLOOD’, ‘BODY’, ‘BONE’, ‘ELECTRICITY’, ‘FIRE’, ‘ICE’, ‘LIGHT’, ‘METAL’, ‘WOOD’
“That list at least gives me a starting place, I guess. Hundreds of possibilities. Hmmm. Is ‘create’ a possibility?”
AFFIRMATIVE
“Remove ‘call’ and put ‘create’ on the list. And take off ‘electricity’ and ‘fire’ and put ‘spark’ in the second group. That gives me one more. Well, first though, replace ‘spread’ with ‘shape’. Then put ‘liquid’ on the list. I really want ‘purify’, but it will be too limited in use for right now, I’m guessing. Ohh, last thing - switch ‘wood’ for ‘plant’. So my list looks like this: create, increase, repair, sense, shape, throw / blood, body, bone, ice, light, liquid, metal, plant, spark.”
BASED ON PREVIOUS CHOICES, ‘CREATE’ CAN ALSO REPLACE ‘INCREASE’ WHICH WILL ALLOW ‘JAKE’ TO GAIN ‘PURIFY’ CONSTRUCT
“Well, so we get purify blood, body, liquid or metal like that. If I combine the first two with the healing touch, that should be able to help a lot of people. Purify metal will get me gold or silver or whatever. Purify liquid should be useful somehow, but I’m not sure for what. Maybe if I’m making medicines? Still, if I get another activator, what would work better? Or can I get a modifier construct, System? Like, ummm, ‘bullet’ or ‘spike’ or ‘wall’ or ‘shield’?”
EACH OF THOSE BASIC CONSTRUCTS IS POSSIBLE, BUT USE OF MORE THAN TWO CONSTRUCTS PER ACTIVATION CAN GREATLY INCREASE THE TIME OF ACTIVATION OR THE RISK OF MISCONTROL OF ENERGIES WITH POTENTIAL HARM TO ‘JAKE’
“No giant shields or walls that pop up to save me instantly, huh. Well crap. But I could do slow casting with ‘wall’ -- that might be handy -- ‘create wood wall’ -- especially if I use some wood I already have as part of the ritual construction -- I could get some nice walnut or mahogany or ebony without having to pay an arm and a leg. Or a wall made out of gold. That’s the ticket.”
Jake thought a second, then decided that maybe that wouldn’t be such a great idea. Somebody would want to know where he got that much pure gold or silver. Still. Really tempting. “Hey, System, this class is supposed to work with crafting, too. Could I do something like ‘compound’ and ‘medication’ or ‘create medication’?”
‘JAKE’ MIGHT USE SUCH CONSTRUCTS, BUT LACK OF SPECIFICITY WOULD LIMIT POTENTIAL ‘MEDICATION’ CREATED. SUCH CONSTRUCTIONS ARE HIGHER-LEVEL IN NATURE … ONE POTENTIAL AVENUE WOULD BE TO INCORPORATE MATERIALS THAT CARRY SPECIFIC CONSTRUCTS WITHIN THE INHERENT PHYSICAL OR METAPHYSICAL NATURE OF THE MATERIAL AS A PART OF THE MEDICATION ... THAT SPECIFIC PRACTICE CAN BEST BE CALLED ‘ALCHEMY’ WITHIN ‘JAKE’ FRAME OF REFERENCE
“So I gotta level up or practice a bunch, and I need to find out what constructs things carry. I’m gonna need to identify stuff -- crap, I almost forgot the most basic overpowered game skill. Guess that goes on the list ahead of the wall or bullet. And I can dump ‘sense’ for ‘scan’. So, new list: create, identify, repair, scan, shape, throw / blood, body, bone, ice, light, liquid, metal, plant, spark. Almost there, I think.”
Jake thought about combinations and decided that ‘light’ could come off the list for now. “Flashlights are a thing, right? So instead, I can put in ‘item’ -- that lets me identify objects like in most games. Will that let me know about the constructs attached to the item, System?”
ITEMS DO NOT ALWAYS CARRY CONSTRUCTS, BUT RATHER THE BASE MATERIAL OF AN ITEM MAY BE THE CARRIER, WITH THAT CONSTRUCT LOST IN THE FABRICATION AS IT CONTROLS THE DIRECTION OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE ITEM
“Dammit, how about ‘material’ then? That gives me identify material, create material, repair material, scan material, shape material, throw material. Okay, I’m gonna get rid of the ‘ice’ and put ‘item’ in. Get rid of ‘light’ and put ‘material’ in. That’s my final list, otherwise I'll be sitting here changing it forever.”
BASIC CONSTRUCTS FOR ‘CREATE’, ‘IDENTIFY’, ‘REPAIR’, ‘SCAN’, ‘SHAPE’, ‘THROW’, ‘BLOOD’, ‘BODY’, ‘BONE’, ‘ITEM’, ‘MATERIAL’, ‘LIQUID’, ‘METAL’, ‘PLANT’, ‘SPARK’ WILL BE TRANSFERRED TO ‘JAKE’ OPERATING SYSTEM STORAGE … UPLOADING
The screens washed away, and this time, acid tore through Jake’s head, burning deeper as he tried to scream at the sudden agony. His healing wouldn’t trigger, and the shrill electricity coursing inside his brain stole his voice, his concentration, and eventually, his consciousness.