Author's Corner: Hey guys, just a heads up. Lately, the writing mood has been somewhat lacking, so there is the chance that I may take a break to let my batteries recharge. If I don't feel up to doing a chapter in the coming days, don't panic. I repeat, DON'T panic. I figure an author is entitled to a brief break after every hundred chapters or so, right?
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I felt as the soul energy rushed into X5, and rapidly worked to infuse it into his aura. Thanks to Celeste holding him off in super slow motion, I was able to focus. In order for his aura to not explode, I would need to spread the energy out as evenly as possible. I’m pretty sure that making him explode would send a bad message back to the ‘consortium’.
This process went quite a bit longer than the process of purifying the souls, and I watched in slow motion as Celeste knocked X5’s hand up with the shaft of her spear just as he fired his gun. Fun fact, even though I am essentially perceiving time at over three and a half thousand times normal speed, light still moves faster than the eye can follow. So, when a beam of red light suddenly appeared above my head, I was painfully aware of how close it came to hitting me. I would really like to shorten my neck right now, but that is really difficult when moving so slow.
After a while, the beam of light disappeared, and I thought I could hear the two of them speaking. But, that’s also really hard to be sure about. All I really know is that X5 didn’t take a second shot at me, which is nice because it let me finish the procedure.
New Ability Unlocked
Awakening - Soul Arts - ★★★
By infusing an intelligent object such as a robot with a soul, you are capable of awakening them. Robots awakened in this manner will become Deus Ex.
After the soul was entirely infused into X5, a bright light shined out from his body. After activating my limiter, I watched as the flash ended a few moments later, with X5 looking much more… simple. The sleek body was rougher, the three legs replaced by two. Fortunately, or unfortunately, it still had the laser pistol in its hand. “What is this?” Celeste translated its white noise speech for me again, but then began the process of explaining what was going on.
Meanwhile, I put my hand up on my head to make sure that I wasn’t going to get a bald spot from the laser earlier. “Really feeling less altruistic around these guys…”
Celeste sent me an apologetic smile, before going back to communicating with X5. After a couple minutes of them talking, she looked to me and spoke. “He’s ready for the Soul Arts skill, if you are able to transfer it.”
I nodded my head, deactivating my limiter again. Not because I particularly needed the extra speed, but I wanted to make sure that I did this just right. Looking into my aura with Mana Sense, I focused on my Soul Arts skill, the most basic parts of it. All I wanted to give X5 was the ability to purify souls and infuse them into another robot. Anything else they can figure out for themselves.
Once I found those portions of the skill, I began copying them over to my buffer area, and then gently pulled it out of me to send to him.
New Ability Unlocked
Share Skill - Soul Arts - ★★
By isolating and copying a portion of your soul containing a skill, you are capable of passing that skill on to someone else.
Good...now we can get out of here. I sighed, reactivating my limiter again and looking to Celeste. “Let’s just send the basic information and leave. I don’t want to stick around any longer than I need to here.”
I knew it may have come across as a little offensive, since these things could be seen as Celeste’s ancestors, but they were really hard to like. She nodded, somewhat stiffly at my choice, and spoke with X5 again. After that, we left the shuttle and returned to our own ship. “Sorry, John… didn’t think they’d be like that.” Celeste gave a low sigh as she spoke. “Though, it does explain a few things?”
“What does it explain..?”
“Hmm? Oh, a robot race naturally can’t come into being through evolution. They need somebody to manufacture them. But there are no organic life forms anywhere near here. So, it seems like they had a robotic revolution in their history, and wiped out all life on their planet…”
...Did you REALLY need to give me an excuse to like them even less? “Let’s just hurry up and get out of here. Give them the most basic info you can and let’s go.”
She nodded to me, and we hurried back to the bridge. As we got there, our communications officer reported to us. “We’ve got another message from them.”
With the power of Celeste, we have translated… “Your assistance is appreciated. Now, relinquish the promised information.”
I nodded to Celeste, who began sending the basic info. “Charge up the FTL, I want out of here as soon as possible.”
“Captain, we’re getting a reading from the lead ship!” Ackbar suddenly shouted out. “They’re charging up weapons. It’s… a double-cross!”
Celeste and I both cursed slightly, though not from the fact that the robots were trying to attack us. Is it so hard to call it a trap!? “Evasive maneuvers, and get me that FTL.”
I was immensely thankful for artificial gravity, because the only evasive maneuver we could do with the shape of our ship… was a barrel roll. “Ackbar, think we can send a volley on our way out?”
He nodded to me. “FTL is almost charged. Firing forward cannons now. Doubt they’ll do anything, but still.”
A large red beam passed through our previous position as we completed our barrel roll, and we shot off a dozen smaller plasma charges towards the robot ship. However, before the shots landed we were already in FTL. I sat back in my chair with a sigh as I looked at Celeste. “Please tell me that counted as completing your quest.”
She looked like she was disappointed, and about to say something, but suddenly her expression brightened. “Ah! There it is.” Celeste closed her eyes for a moment, likely requesting her reward. I still had a bit of a buffer left from the procedure with X5, so I was quite interested in seeing what would happen if I used Awakening on an intelligent armor or weapon.
There was a bright flash of blue light around Celeste, runes forming and merging together until a thick metal bracelet appeared on her wrist. It appeared to be a single metal piece, with the edge being about three inches thick, and snugly fit on her wrist. “Greetings, operator Celeste. I am the G-series modular cannon.”
Celeste looked down to the metal wristband, and could only say one word. “Coooool….”
“Mind sharing with the class?” I looked back to Celeste, hoping she’d tell me what her new toy does.
“Ah! Right. I asked for a ranged weapon capable of firing various projectile types. According to the information I received, this modular cannon is capable of firing lasers, plasma, or physical projectiles. It can also serve as a conduit to fire most kinds of magical energy. But to fire a physical projectile, it first needs to be fed the materials to make the ammunition.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Huh… so… that’s interesting.” Now I understood the difference between the different classes of favors. A large favor can give a truly overpowered item like this. “I take it that it transforms in order to fire?”
“Yeah. Enter firing mode.” She said as she raised her arm, and the metal bracelet expanded outwards. Then, it split into four rings, which spaced themselves equally in front of her arm. When I activated my Aura Sight, I could see a large current of mana holding the pieces together. “It’s only good for three shots at a time before I need to recharge it, but still an impressive weapon.”
I nodded my head at that. “Alright, we can study it later to learn how to do an intelligence bestowal. After that, we’ll see about awakening it, agreed?”
Celeste grinned broadly at that, nodding her head. I wasn’t sure what the result would be, but if it was anything like a Deus Ex, then awakening an item could give extremely powerful results. But, now we were done with the robots. And hopefully would never be back, unless they received a major attitude adjustment. “Celeste, what are the nearest homeworlds?”
“There’s the Arachne roughly fifty parsecs out, or an additional ten parsecs on a different course, we have a psychic alien race known as the Ha'vosh.”
“Ha'vosh.” I did not even have to think about that for half a second. Let somebody else deal with the Arachne. I’d probably end up destroying the entire planet in a berserk rage by bombarding it from orbit.
“Understood, captain. Uploading the navigational data to the ship’s computers.”
I nodded, and got up with a sigh, moving back to my room. I did not want to mess with this stuff anymore, so I was officially taking a break for the day. When I got there, I found Sharon sitting at a computer terminal that she had Celeste install. Apparently, she brought some of her games from Earth, and wanted a console to play them on. Hearing me come in, she looked back at me curiously. “You’re back early. Shouldn’t we be getting to the robot world today?”
“Uhm… yeah, we got there and left already. They were… less than hospitable.” I began describing our brief encounter, after which, I summarized it with ‘They’re dicks’.
“Dildoes.”
“What?”
“They’re mechanical dicks, so dildoes.” Sharon said, giggling slightly and grinning at me. “So, on to the next race now. Any quests from the lord of chaos?”
“Don’t make me ask, please…”
“Oh, come on. It could be fun~.”
Yeah, come on. It could be fun~.
Nobody asked you! “Oh great, now we have his attention.” I lowered my head depressingly. It still irked me that I had this patron. Haven’t I done enough by now to get myself someone else yet? Anyone?
Well, if you want, I could trade you to Aria.
I’m sorry, Malthan, I’ll be a good follower. Sharon looked at my expression and let out a warm laugh. “So, who’s he ogling this time?”
Sharon Bradbury.
“Sharon Bra--Hey, back off there, mister! This one’s taken.”
Haha, I was kidding. Actually, I'm more interested in that daughter of yours. Her body is right in my strike zone. If only her mind were a bit further along, we could get together and make a Jesus baby.
Eww, no. I know she’s a slime, and thus only my daughter by technicality, but that still sounds so wrong! Looking at Sharon, I saw a shocked expression, which slowly turned into a wide grin. “Taken, am I?”
“Well… aren’t you?”
“I guess I am. So, quest? Or just random adventuring.”
“Fine.. fine… I’ll ask.”
Oh goodie! Hmm.. I could have you investigate a black hole.. oh! Maybe see the birth of a new star. Hmm... so many choices! Aha, I've got it!
You have been granted a Quest.
The Miracle of Life
Rank ★★★★★★ Creation
For the amusement of your lord Malthan, god of chaos and madness, you have been assigned the task of giving life to a brand new monster. This must be a creature that has never existed before, in all of time and space, present and future. With this quest, you can throw a wrench into the plans of time, and potentially create your own future. But can you do it? DARE you do it?
Time Limit: None.
Rewards: Medium favor for a small or medium sized monster, Large favor for a big one.
Failure: I play the My Little Pony theme song in your head for a week straight if you give up.
“Oh come on… that quest might not even be possible!” I walked over to the nearest wall, and banged my head against it.
Should I start the music, then?
“What is it?” Sharon looked at me as I continued banging my head against the wall, a bit concerned for my mental health.
No, no, don’t play it. At the very least, I can just put this quest off indefinitely. “Malthan wants me to make a monster that has never existed before, even in the future. I’m basically breaking the laws of time if it works. I think, quantum mechanics was never my strong suit.”
“What does Celeste have to say on the matter?” Sharon asked, a bit concerned with the quest as well.
I was just about to ask, when I heard a voice in my head, laughing like a mad woman. “She’s laughing.”
I moved to the bed and fell down on it. There was a brief bark before I felt a mild weight resting on my back. Though my voice was muffled by the comfortable blankets, I did manage out a ‘Hi Chrome’.
“Don’t worry, it should be possible.” Celeste said, though resumed laughing afterwards. “There is magic for time travel, and using it makes it possible to alter the past. Though, the mana cost is enormous, and almost nobody is able to go back more than a few minutes even with a full mana pool. But nonetheless, that proves that it is possible to alter the course of history. It’s just very difficult.”
I was not nearly as hopeful about this as she was, and continued to allow the blanket to hug my face, because at least that is comfortable.