Kellin stretched out his arms and legs as he lifted his body from the nap, standing up to move toward the kitchen for a cup of water and feeling refreshed. A quick check of their [Status] made his eyes widen in shock, showing him the changed [Stat] values and an almost complete recovery of only his resources, with the really important ones not even slightly improved by the Repair Bay.

[Body Status(Separate):

Condition: Normal

Integrity: 80/100

Health: 67/80

Energy: 63/110

Stamina: 105/110

Mana: 36/56

Psionic Energy: 24/50]

[Stats:

Strength: 8, 10

Dexterity: 12, 7

Armor: 0, 3

Constitution: 8, 0

Density: 0, 10

Endurance: 11, 0*

Battery: 0*, 10

Cardio: 7, NA

Efficiency: 0, 5

Intelligence: 8.5, 16

Wisdom: 8.5, 3

Perception: 5, 0

Sensors: 0, 7.5

Willpower: 20, N/A

Tech: 5]

"Hey, Gyps... what's going on?" he asked, staring at the bay. "Did you forget to set it to Repair? Or is the bay not working?"

Two lower beeps sounded off before Gypsy responded.

"Bay restores [Energy] and [Integrity] at a rate of 100 per hour, typically," came the response. "Due to...mutually poor decisions, [Resource] allocation to sacrifice makes Repair Bay ineffectual until [Resources] are restored naturally."

Kellin's eyes widened further as he screamed inside his mind, wishing he'd slapped himself in the face back when they'd chosen to do that. He had completely forgotten about the stipulation that their [Resources] had to regenerate naturally and passively. Or, perhaps it had not been seen as a problem since his [Health] and [Stamina] did regenerate, so he wasn't thinking at all about it.

Now, though...

"[Integrity] doesn't have... a regeneration rate," he pointed out.

"[Repair] function of [Evolution] ability designated as [Passive]," she responded, fanning some of the flames in his mind. "It should work."

"Have you tried it yet?"

"Negative. [Energy] too low to justify expenditure. Repair Bay restored to 63 and stopped."

Kellin nodded, a bit relieved. It would seem that of the 50 [Energy] they'd sacrificed and the additional 20 or so they'd used scouting around, all of it had regenerated in the bay with an additional 3 being added in over the three hours since they'd done it, which meant that the sacrificial portion of their [Ability] would count any regeneration toward the finished recovery of their [Resource] pools. What this meant, to him at least, was that even if they were to move around and never actually let their [Energy] hit 110, they'd still regain full use of it in 50 hours with their 1 per hour regen rate.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Still... that's crippling," he said, sitting back down on the bed and shaking his head.

He noticed he'd forgotten to grab his cup of water.

"At least it seems like it counts any regeneration toward the cap. Can you try using [Repair] while in there and tell me what the speed is?" he asked after another few moments, praying the [Ability] would function without trouble.

Two beeps sounded off as Kellin went and got his water, turning to look at her and catching view of the rifle being created out of the corner of his eye. Looking down, it was starting to finally take form, no longer just a long rectangle made out of purple whisps but actually having a barrel and grip. The sides of the initial rectangular block had been shaved inward too, giving it an overall look of a finished exterior mold.

"It works. Standard is 5 [Integrity] per hour," Gypsy eventually spoke up, getting his attention once again. "That puts expenditure of 25 [Energy] per hour."

Kellin sighed in relief, reading through the [Ability] description before replying.

"Excellent. Then, let's-"

"Set speed at multiplier of 4. Regeneration rate increased to 20 per hour. [Energy] supplemented by Repair Bay," Gypsy cut in, getting a nod from him.

"I'm surprised you didn't try this before when I was napping," he replied.

She enhanced it on her own now, likely before he'd even thought to suggest it after seeing again that they could increase the speed they [Repaired] for more [Energy]. It was strange she'd waited.

"... AI unsure of Captain Finnel's plans; was running movement simulations instead. Against utilizing any [Energy] in the event that we left immediately upon your waking."

'Ah,' he thought. 'My fault, then.'

"Yeah, sorry. I should try to be a bit more vocal. Especially if I'm going to be napping," he replied with a light nod of his head in her direction. "If you would have suggested-"

"All AI suggestions have been refuted," she cut in, stinging him a bit with her precisely pronounced, sharp wording.

"Yeah..." he trailed off, sighing. "I'm sorry. It's a bit hard to... fully listen to your suggestions when I think I'm right. Before, it was as easy as simply coming up with a plan and asking for input. Now that you are actively coming up with some, it... I guess i could be a little better with that," he said, scratching at the side of his face a bit.

Gypsy didn't respond so Kellin moved toward the desk. He grabbed the chair and wheeled it in front of the crafting gun, intent on seeing how he could help with the process to speed it up a bit.

"AI not against Captain Finnel overturning decisions. The Captain holds more experience. Efficiency must be maintained, however," Gypsy finally responded as his hands reached out for the gun.

Kellin paused, nodding a bit. It sounded like she had more to say but left it at that. He wasn't sure whether or not him pointing out her being upset over his trumping of decisions would... upset her when she realized that it was a facet of her individuality that caused her to voice her opinions. She seemed dead set, for now at least, on advocating that she was still an AI. So, if he pointed out that her suggestions and the ability to have them refuted, and being upset about it, were a part of that, he was worried that she'd stop opening up and giving them.

Luckily, it seemed she either hadn't come to that conclusion or was being a bit ignorant to it intentionally. Either way, he was grateful as his hands rested on the structure of the gun before him.

Immediately, he felt a connection to the construct form through his hands. The purple energy connected to his own [Psionic Energy] resource pool and he felt that if he wanted to, he could draw on more of it to help speed up this [Build], or simply work with what he had. Choosing the latter, he was thankful at how intuitive the process was, similar to when he'd made the bullets. As if it knew what it was doing and he merely needed to guide the energies into place.

"Gyps, let me know when your [Integrity] is at 90. We'll head out and try to do a little more scouting," he said absently. "Maybe even see if we can't find a sunny spot you can regain [Energy] faster.

Two beeps sounded out and Kellin focused back on the work before him.