The system station terminal was a simple building and when I walked in there was a very attractive women there. She had dark black hair and smiled with a bright smile, “How can I help you player?” she asked.
“I want to turn in a quest.” I put the pelt on the table from my storage space and a screen behind the women showed the text for the quest with a confirm icon blinking.
“Is this the quest you wish to turn in for these rewards,” she turned indicating the screen. I nodded and she smiled as she took the pelt. Almost immediately a screen came up on my device.
QUEST COMPLETED - ADULT NIGHTSTALKER PELT, 1000 EXPERIENCE , 2500 GC –initiated by Player Ji’Nass Mool-
1000 Experience Added, Level 5 Achieved
2500 GC added to your account
“Thank you!” I exclaimed. “Umm what is your name?” I wasn’t sure if I was hitting on her or just curious.
“My designation is Terminal Host Z11.” She replied with a bright smile. Huh just a bot like Dmitry said.
“Well I am going to call you Zelda. It is much prettier and fitting for a beauty like you.” What? That was not something I usual said. A playful nudging was at my mind. It had to be the mental link with the cubs. Their playfulness was coming through the link.
“Thank you. My new designation is now Zelda. Have a great day!”
I turned before I could make a bigger fool of myself. I returned to Dmitry’s warehouse. He was playing with the cats on the counter. “Ah comrade, level 5 excellent!” I tried to evaluate Dmitry but all I got was his name, Dmitry Laveski. He seemed to notice what I was trying and a huge grin spread across his face. “Ah you tried to read me? I am much too high a level to be read by your skill. In case you wanted to know I am level 71.” My jaw dropped. He had made 70 levels in just a day. “No comrade I was level 71 when I got here. I am human and born on Earth you see. So I qualify as a local player I am not restricted to the level 1 limit. My family was hired by the Opherans to run a bunch of outposts and help defend them. It is good money and we get a small percentage of the revenue. I have a two year contract and after that I can renew it.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Also I washed the bag you were carrying around your cats in. It smelled funny.”
"So I can return to my Earth?" I asked. If Dmitry was abducted then there had to be a way back.
Dmitry sighed, "Yes you can go back. Psionics work well in that existence but you would need to carry your aether with you as you can not accumulate it there. The transition portals are costly and dangerous though. You should level up first, maybe level 150 or so before seeking to return. Do your research before the attempt!"
His words got me thinking but I put it off for now. "Thank you Dmitry. Can you purchase the stuff I laid out and suggest what I should buy?” I asked.
“Ahh, yes. I will give you 19,309 GC for this. Don’t haggle. It is more then I should but I like you." I assumed he was doing me a favor because of the cats and not so much for me. "As for what you should buy…well you are a pilot. Are you going to be piloting a ground, atmo or space vehicle?” I shrugged. “Hmm you can make decent money shuttling passengers up to the station. It will be low risk and a good life. A small used shuttle is around 300,000 credits. But you should get your pilot shuttle skill to at least 7 and your engineering shuttle to at least 7 as well if you are going solo.” Hmm, I still had my 10 pilot skill points leveling. But it didn’t seem prudent to invest until I had the shuttle. “Or you could contract out to pilot one of the corporations shuttles. Once again you will need at least pilot 7 in shuttles and you would get maybe 10 experience per run and 100 or so credits. Some corps will also house you for free on the system station.”
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It was a lot to think about and it was generous of Dmitry to lay out option for me. “No, I think I will explore the ground more. This new world is quite interesting. I had a very boring life before this and even though it is dangerous this is the first time I have really felt alive. What do you suggest I get to explore the area?”
“Well in terms of survival I would suggest a meal fabricator, sensor suite for your comp, I would upgrade your dimensional pocket, a skinsuit for the elements, an exploration tent for comfort and the Systems Flora and Fauna guide book for this planet.” We started with the meal fabricator. It was just under one meter square and was designed to be installed into a dimensional space. The device was a mixture of technology and aethertech. It was quite old but Dmitry assured me it was functional and came with a 20 year warranty. It was not too expensive, only 3000 credits but the real cost came from buying the recipe programs. I purchased a bacon cheeseburger recipe at the cost of 548 credits. Using it I didn’t think the product looked like a true bacon burger but surprisingly it tasted close enough. I also purchased a nutria-milk program for the cubs, the same one Dmitry gave them earlier that they seemed to like for free, a gift from Dmitry. It was called Nutria-Milk B67. I also got them protein paste C12, which they should be able to eat in about 3 weeks. This cost me 78 credits. To fill the machine cost me another 500 credits but it would yield food for me and the cats for about fourteen days. The math told me I was paying about 5 credits a meal. The device had a condenser as well that basically dispensed unlimited cold water. There were thousands of other options for recipes but that should be enough for now on my tight budget. Dmitry said the programs would be updated by the system as my planet was progressively integrated so my cheeseburger should improve in a newer version.
The sensor suite I purchased gave me a friendly/foe out to 50 meters at a cost of 6600 credits. This was a passive scan that would alert me to dangers even if I was not focused on it. It also gave a threat class for each red dot. Neutral showed as yellow and green was friendly. You could customize it to change the colors however you want. I set the red dots to be brighter the greater the danger.
The dimensional pocket was half full with the meal fab. Each additional cubic meter cost about 2000 credits up to 5 cubic meters. After 5 cubic meters I would need to get the device upgraded. I added 2 cubic meters for 1940 credits each. Skinsuits were just as they sounded. They came in a number of varieties but I selected a basic comfort and impact resistant one. It kept body temp steady and closed knitting on intense impacts. I couldn’t afford any more frills. The suit was designed to have a quick pull over hood as well and I could survive in a vacuum for about 5 minutes until the suit ran out of power in converting oxygen. It was basically full body underwear. I would need a pilot suit or some infantry combat suit when I could afford it.
The tent was a box almost a meter square. It was stored in my DS. When activated it expanded to a 3 by 3 meter square tent with a 2.5 meter ceiling. The exterior had environmental camouflage. The interior had two beds and a controlled environment. The tent had a backup oxygen supply of 48 hours for two people and power to keep internal temp comfortable in the vacuum for about a week. Pretty nifty tech for only 2500 GC. The flora and fauna book cost another 500 credits. I also purchased a dozen nanite vials for another 1200 GC.
I bought a personal shield belt for 1500 credits and twenty batteries for it that also fit my light plasma rifle. I got two smaller belts for the cats that went on as collars. Unfortunately they cost the same 1500 credits each. They seemed to appreciate them and pranced around like I had just given them a new gold necklace. It was perhaps the first time I had smiled in a long time.
745 GC remaining from my traded in goods. Adding it to the 2500 GC from the quest and the 1722 GC in coins from the goblins I had 4967 GC. Good enough and I was feeling extremely mentally exhausted. Dmitry told me the lodge next door would get me a private room but I should keep the cats on the down low until they had grown some more. I thanked him for his time and promised to come back and to talk and use his services. I still had bunches of questions but needed to unwind. Waving to Dmitry I put the cats in an upgraded carrying pack. I mentally told them to be still until we got to the room and they listened.
The Orphean who was running the lodge charged me 20 GC for a room and 10 GC for two dinners. I paid from my device. I went to the room. It was actually pretty nice. The bed was about twice the size of a king. I lay down on the bed after filling a large bowl for the cats with the nutria-milk. After eating they started playing hid-n-sneak with each other. I opened the interface and went to skills. I purchased tier 1 psionic defense for 50 experience. As soon as I did both cats leapt onto me and play attacked me. Guess they were upset. But they eventually curled up in my arm pits and went to sleep. I needed to name these little beasts. I thought for a long time and decided on Cassie and Callie. The little girls started to purr in approval even though they were sleeping.