I entered the terminal in my Gandolf disguise. Celeste commed me saying she spotted five different people observing me enter. It made sense. If you were spending 10,000 credits just to enter you would probably be leaving with something valuable. Guy was there in the same setup. I walked up to Guy and he saw through my disguise and called me by name. I asked him how and he said he had True Sight skill at level 49 so he could see through most illusions up to tier 17. The True Sight skill was a dual stat skill for Intellect and Channeling. We ended up talking for a bit and I found out that magic items found in a dungeon were stable and could last hundreds of years without being bonded. If they were bonded they would last indefinitely unless physically destroyed. Magic items made by beings with the enchantment skill were inferior. If they were bonded they would last indefinitely feeding of the Aether of the master. If not bonded they would slowly degrade and disintegrate. The better the skill of the enchanter the longer they would last. Usually anywhere from a single year to a thousand years. It now made sense why I hadn’t found more items on the crews from the crashed ships. They had probably had other items but they had disintegrated. Having talked for a while Guy brought out a fizzy drink for both of us. It tasted like Coke Cola and gave +10% bonus regeneration to all my pools. A bottle cost 5 SYSTEM credits. I purchased 10 bottles. Then we started trading.
I brought out all the copper, silver and gold coins. Then I produced all the junk loot. Taking up six tables. I also had the 50 Gnarled Skunk Glands from the repeatable quest.
Quest Completed: Collect 25 Gnarled Skunk Scent Glands. Reward: 1000 experience x 2, 2500 credits x 2
I cancelled the live specimen quest for a gnarled skunk. And the final tally from everything I wanted to sell, 134,500 credits. I was disappointed. I had dozens of minor items. I asked about the Amethyst Sphere, +5 Teleport Magic, +5 Time Magic, +5 Space Magic. It would add 25,000 credits. I put it back and my bag and scanned through it. Crap nothing of great value. I pulled my backpack out that I had when I arrived. It had two books, the computer and some minor crap. I asked half joking how much. Guy took the books. 5,000 credits each. The computer 200 credits. The pennies, nickel and quarter 25 credits. Everything else was junk to Guy. I kept the coins and computer but got rid of the two books. Everything disappeared. I had 24,000 or so in Aether crystals as well in my bag but needed them for power the SYSTEM pad and our Aether weapons.
So I had 144,500 credits in trade and 49,608 credits on me. I brought up the hover bike I had saved on my pad. A full sized image appeared. It looked like a fighter jet without the wings, nose, thrusters or canopy. I reviewed our changes and was about to purchase it but stopped and asked Guy if he had any suggestions. He stepped up and started making changes quicker. The bike slowly transformed into a sleeker design. The cockpit looked more comfortable as well.
Custom Hover Car
Capacity: 3 persons
Length: 4.9 meters
Width: 2.4 meters
Top Speed: 480 kph
Max Hover Height: 20 meters
Engine: Four Spoke Aether Engine
Basic Operation: 60 Aether/ hour
Tank Size: 20,000 Aether
Carrying Capacity: 450 kg
Cargo: 1.4 meters x 1.6 meters x 1.1 meters
Shield: Basic Vehicle Aether Screen
Weight: 2.2 tons
Cost: 179,500 credits
Notes:
Gold Tier 14 Anti-Theft Security System
Gold Tier 5 Holographic Overlay
Silver Tier 5 Scanning and Mapping Sensors
Concealed Tier 3 Pulse Aether Cannon, mounted forward 27 degree arc, 7 aether per shot
Silver Tier 7 Aether Maneuverability Suite
Silver Tier 5 Aether Communications Unit, 1200 km range
Tier 5 Light Combat Aether Shield, 10 aether per 60 seconds
Concealed Aft Tier 5 Light Repeating Aether Turret, 1 aether per 5 shots
Gold Tier 5 A.I. with Hover Bike Skill of 17
Port Side Storage Compartment-full mechanics tool kit
Starboard Side Storage Compartment-full field emergency medical kit
Guy said it was actually a stripped down hover car and it had a slight diamond shape. The driver sat center forward and a bench seat was directly behind the driver. I was just amazed at how amazing it looked and complimented Guy on his design skills. It looked like a small futuristic sports car to me withour the wheels. I told how amazed I was and he smiled. I bought it leaving me with 14,608 credits. It materialized quickly. The tank was empty of course. The tank was a receptacle in the drivers seat. I dropped 2000 aether crystals in. Sitting in the drivers seat it had that new car smell. It had screen and gauges and I had no idea what any of them did. The A.I. activated and I had it drive me around the lobby. I named the A.I. Carl. I know not too original. The Gold and Silver designation in the notes just effected the appearance and ease of use. The real value was the tier value. The car had a basic screen field for normal debris protection. The light combat shield could deflect a heavy infantry weapons fire. The pulse cannon was really strong and was a vehicle weapon. The aft repeating Aether turret fired 5 shots a second and was useful against unarmored infantry. The security system wouldn’t allow any authorized persons to use it unless they had a hacking skill over level 40 and even then the A.I. could take action prior to a successful attempt. The A.I. Carl had good personality and I made him sound like a British butler. The holographic overlay allowed me to change the appearance of the vehicle. Guy said it could hold three programs. I tried Carl out. I asked the A.I. to generate 3 holo shells for the vehicle. One should make him look like a cheap model, the second should be a fancy limo style appearance for VIP, and the third make him look very dangerous. The holo emitters could only extend .3 meters from the outer skin. He did a great job. The first made him appear more boxy and a dull gray. The second was a sleek shiny black vehicle. The third made it look like a small tank with multiple holographic cannons. I told Carl nice work.
I asked Guy about water recyclers. He found one that could purify 60 gallons an hour and only cost 1 aether crystal per 60 gallons to run. It was also was only 2500 credits and only a 0.3 meter cube. I bought 2, one for the ship and one for the base. I put them in the Carl’s trunk storage. I asked about dungeon teleport stones. They were 500 credits each. I got 10 as I wasn’t sure how big our crew would get. I had 4,608 credits left and the summon companion scroll. I bought myself some ungraded armor. I got the same skin suit Celeste bought and some light human combat armor. It was very similar statistics wise to the orc armor but looked less menacing and I got a dark blue and black color scheme. My vanity cost my 3,500 credits.
I asked Guy about the summon companion scroll. Guy hinted that he knew I had it on me when I entered and that was why his redesign of the vehicle seated 3. I hadn’t even thought of that. Well I had actually not planned to use the scroll. It was a tier 3 scroll and wouldn’t give Celeste much value. I had thought to give it to Cael but I knew he didn’t have the secondary stat personality so he couldn’t summon a companion yet. I talked with Guy about companions for a bit. I could get a humanoid, android or animal. Asking further on Androids they were fixed companions and didn’t level up. You had to buy upgrades at SYSTEM terminals for androids. The benefits were they could be repurchased for credits if they got destroyed. I started working with the interface. I had to submit the scroll to use the interface so I was committed.
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Androids could have any appearance. I cycled through the races again. I was currently on male and switched to female to make the process more enjoyable. Looking at a naked male wasn’t what I considered a good time. The chassis and skin for the humanoid android cost 10 points. The stats for androids were just strength, agility, speed, intellect and charisma. They had base stats of 10. I got 10 stat points per point invested. For skills you could only get skills at level 7, 23, and 43 and 67. Level 7 cost 5 points, level 23 cost 15 points, level 43 cost 30 and level 67 cost 50 points. Combat actions were the same, level 7 cost 1 point multiplied by the tier, level 23 was 3 points multiplied by the tier, level 43 was 6 point multiplied by the tier, level 67 was 10 points multiplied by the tier. Generally it was a simpler process. I skipped on the appearance for now and went to building the android.
I planned to make it a highly specialized. I asked Guy how much a skill cost in credits. The upgrade was 10,000 credits for a level 7 skill, 100,000 for a level 23 skill, 1,000,000 for a level 43 skill and 10,000,000 for a level 67 skill. It was 5,000 credits per stat point upgrade.
Well damn. I looked at the options quickly, and bought a few. Human-like social interactions – 5 points, Basic Self Repairing Nano Bots – 5 points, Aether Power Core Upgrade Tier 2 – 15 points, tier 2 reinforced frame – 15 points. The human like interactions sounded like a good idea and allowed her to have an evolving personality to best suite the master, the basic repair nanos gave the android health regeneration at 25 per minute, the aether core upgrade raised the ceiling on the stats from 100 to 200 and allowed the bonding of two magic items and finally the tier 2 reinforced frame added 5000 health, giving it a total of 6000.
Ok what was going to be the specialty of this android? Pilot, assassin, bodyguard, tank, trader? I dropped 40 points on stats, giving me 400 points to distribute. This gave me this for stats. Any further upgrades could be done with credits.
Primary Stats
Strength
95
Agility
150
Speed
125
Intellect
50
Charisma
30
I decided to give the android one tier 5 combat action at level 23 for 15 points. That would give the android 10 minor upgrades. Guy said the android didnr need the Melee Combat skill to get upgrades at prime levels. I selected the Mirasha Dual Sword Dance after browsing for an hour. From the description it was a style that relied on two short swords, focused on attacks on vitals and dodging incoming attacks. The Mirasha were a sect of cat people that taught the form to outsiders so it wasn’t restricted. Then I decided on getting 6 level 7 skills, 3 level 23 skills, 2 level 43 skills and one level 67 skill. That would use up all but 10 points. After I selected skills I would use the 10 points to select something else from the trait list. I selected long blades in as one of the level 23 skills to help wield the short swords for the combat action. I then selected acrobatics as a level 7 skill because it gave big bonuses to the sword Mirasha sword form. This information was supplied by Guy and I was surprised how helpful he was. I then added Aether Rifle as another level 23 skill. This gave her a melee and ranged combat action. I thought for a second then added marksmanship as a level 7 skill as well. Guy said the android would get boons from skills so the boon from marksmanship should be like a combat action I hoped. Ok I had two level 43 skills and a level 67 skill to assign, what role in the crew should she have? I was leaning toward pilot and then skip trying to recruit Ophelia. Half the reason I wanted Ophelia in the crew was because I was attached to her and I had Celeste filling that void right now. I caved and decided pilot it was. There were general and specific skills. Guy explained the tree, going down the tree from a primary you lost 5 tiers. So if I selected the general skill pilot spaceship at tier 20 then she would have a 15 effective skill in the branch pilot skills; space fighter, shuttle craft, transport, corvette, cruiser, battleship and mothership. However if I selected Pilot: corvette she lost effective skill of 10 going up the tree to the primary skill and then 5 going down a branch, giving her an effective skill of 5 in other piloting skills. The tiers were cumulative though. So if she had tier 20 in pilot space craft and tier 10 in pilot: corvette she would have an effective piloting skill of tier 25 in piloting corvettes. I made the decision to make her tier 67 skill the general piloting skill for spacecraft. I also add Pilot Spacecraft: Corvettes at level 23. This gave her an effective skill in corvette piloting of tier 25. I added spacecraft sensors at level 43, tier 15. I asked Guy for help. He said the skills spaceship weapons for the level 43 skill, it was a general skill. That would give her tier 10 in all related spaceship weapons in the tree, light energy, medium energy, heavy energy, light missiles, medium missiles, heavy missiles, light projectile, medium projectile, and heavy projectile. Some branches further divided like energy had plasma, laser, phasic, grazer and anti-matter. Wow so many skills. I added the general skill at level 43. I asked why didn’t everyone just choose this option, because general skills leveled slower and they would have to get to level 11 before they could apply any skill bonus to the other weapons systems. The companion creation was a bit of cheat shortcutting the leveling up process.
Guy went on to say that Personality trait didn’t usually appear until a person reached 50 in the charisma stat and went up 1 every 50 points. I was extremely lucky to have it. Most people never reached level 50 in charisma so never had the option to get a companion. I listened to Guy talk about companions and there benefits for about an hour. I sent a comm to Celeste saying I had a little while to go before finishing up. She said all was clear outside but the entrance was still being watched. I returned to the android creation.
I had four tier 5 skills left and 10 points. I asked Guy again for suggestions. He said astrography was a good skill. It helped with navigation in space and made piloting in choosing routes. I added the skill and noted to have Celeste get it too. Guy suggested a language suite for 5 points. It had the 10 most common galactic languages. The special trait also allowed the android to learn an addition 13 languages. I added it. Guy suggested the security skill. It helped in countering hacking and setting up security locks. Done. I then added hacking. The skill gave bonuses to each other according to Guy. One skill left and 5 points. Guy had many suggestions; computer systems, demolitions, various repair skills, stealth…. Lots of choices. After about 30 minutes of indecision I selected Spaceship Mechanic. We could always use extra help in doing repairs. With my 5 points remaining a selected human sensory reception. It allowed the android to feel, smell, hear and see like a human. The android would have faux flesh that reacted just like a human and she could even bleed a little if cut. The last thing was to choose her final form. Right now it was a human female. I was free to edit her appearance to whatever I wanted.
An hour later I was done. She was human, 1.7 meters in height. Deep blue eyes with long silver hair. I bought an upgrade for 500 credits that let her change her hair color and length. She had an athletic body, slim with slight feminine curves. Her face was very feminine and she could easily be a top model. She couldn’t reproduce but other than that all the upgrade I had given her made her a fully functioning human to outward appearances.
Name was flashing. I decided on Luna. I looked over her skills before finalizing.
Skill
Level
Tier
Acrobatics
7
5
Marksmanship
7
5
Astrography
7
5
Security
7
5
Hacking
7
5
Spaceship Mechanic
7
5
Long Blades
23
10
Aether Rifle
23
10
Pilot Spacecraft: Corvettes
23
10
Spacecraft Sensors
43
15
Spacecraft Weapons
43
15
Pilot Spacecraft
67
20
Combat Action
Level
Rank
Mirasha Dual Sword Dance
23
5
It was kind of sad because I really wanted to add Ophelia to the crew. I accepted and she materialized from the system. She looked like she was in her late teens as she smiled at me, naked. Damn, clothes. I bought a simple skin suit, boots, a comm device, a pair of quality short swords and a light Aether rifle. I had to dip into my Aether crystal supply to get enough credits. I asked for quests related to the Fiery Wyvern Dungeon before leaving.
Quest (R): Gather 10 Poison Sacks of Marsh Serpent, 1200 experience, 500 credits
Quest: Bring the Tooth of the Feathered Serpent, 2000 experience, +1 skill point, 1 potion
Quest: Kill 20 Corrupted Dwarves, 2500 experience, +3 stat points
I accepted all 3 quests. The (R) meant it was repeatable and the (I) meant the quest rewards were auto distrusted when completed. I didn’t have get the rewards at a terminal.
Leaving the terminal I wished Guy well until next time, my SYSTEM credit balance was 5 credits with 18,620 in Aether crystals.