by Taj McCoy El
“What are you talking about? You jumped three levels today. I’d say you’re getting the hang of it.”
“But that was only because you were there.” She sniffled as Cloutus passed her a box of tissues.
“Okay, well let’s really party up! You were really cooking out there. You’re a noob—messing up, that’s what happens—but if you give up, you never get better and you won’t make it to your grandkids. What would they say if they found out you had quit on them?”
Tears fell faster from her cheeks.
“So what if you’re a necromancer? Necros gets a bad rap but it’s mostly because they have an awesome skill set. You could use life drain and sap your enemy’s strengths to heal yourself and your friends. Your dolls can be used in dangerous situations where a paladin might die and that could cost us the mission. It’s not what you, are but instead how you use it.”
“But they’re still dead and rotting right before my eyes. It really is a bit much.” She spoke through her snuffly nose.
“Every gift has a price,” said Cloutus, putting his hand on Margaret’s knee. “The price of necromancy is seeing the effects of death, getting used to them so they don’t faze us anymore. When you can walk in death and have no fear, then you have overcome death.”
Whoa… that was deep.
Margaret looked him in the eye, as if searching for some vestige of salvation.
“I will help you if you wish.” He offered her a genuine smile
Margaret wiped her nose. “That would be very nice, I think.”
After a brief pause, Mayah said “And I bet you’ll whoop up on your grandkids and make them proud of you.” She took a sip of tea and sat back in her chair. Plus, you got to meet Cloutus. I'm pretty sure that there’s some chemistry there.
…..
Mayah and Margaret walked out of the crypt through a door that opened directly to the village. They were mostly silent.
“I'm going to go meet up with friends for a bit. You want to come?” Mayah didn’t think the answer was going to be a yes.
“No… I think I'm going to log out for a bit.”
“Do you have a messaging stone?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, well here's mine.” She pulled her stone out of her bag. Margaret did the same. “So now you can find me if you want to. You should really think about partying up. It’ll be good for you.”
“I think that would be good, but let me answer when I come back tomorrow.”
“Sure thing, get some rest, grandma.” Mayah gave her a teasing look, and smiled.
Margaret scooped her up in her arms. “Thank you for saving me.” And with a tear coming to her eye she pressed the logout button and faded from Majesta.
Mayah sniffed quickly, looking at the spot where Margaret had vanished with a bit of jealousy. “Guess I should tell Jensen how my day went.” She went to Maam’s on the way to pick up the supplies she was going to enchant. Maam also gave her a few extra bolts of fabric as a down payment on her commission. She found Jensen folding down the last bit of his booth.
“Hey, Jensen.”
“Hey, Fluff, how did ye do today?”
“You want the short version or the over-a-meal version?”
“I’ll take a meal over a story any day.”
She punched his arm and they began walking to the tavern.
“Made it to level 6.”
“Did ye now? Three levels in a day?”
“Actually two. I was level 4 when I stopped by earlier. I got a nice XP bonus for making the cloak. And I went up in not just levels, but all of my stats and my attack speed have gone up as well.”
“Really? How’s that?”
“Got a new active skill called Whack-A-Vole.”
“What’s a Whack-A-Vole?”
“It’s a play on words. There’s this game on my world that has a bunch of holes on a table about yea big.” She sized out the table with her hands. “And these puppets that look like moles pop out of the holes. The goal is to hit the moles with your mallet and ‘whack’ as many of them as you can in a small window of time. The faster you are, the better chance you have at the game.”
“Whack-A-Vole.... I’ve never heard of such a thing.” He stroked his mustache. “I’ve heard of a lot of different abilities, but that one is definitely new’ta me. I mean everyone has heard of the whack, but not the Whack-A-Vole. I surely wasn’t expecting ye ter surprise me again so quickly. But I should've guessed ye'd be full of surprises.”
Mayah smiled, that’s because I am full of surprises. “So, what is the whack ability?”
“It’s a skill that lets ye hit someone in the head with an open hand causing sharp pain and confusion. Used repeatedly, it can have some horrifying effects. Mostly brawlers have it, or maybe rogues or assassins. The scariest person to ever have wielded that skill though, was me dear Ma. I’ve been whacked since then, but never quite like that.”
“So, the whack is fairly common?”
“More than I’d like to admit.” He rubbed the back of his head in painful remembrance.
They ordered their virtual fare and waited for the barmaid to deliver it. Mayah began to tell the tale of the day and Jensen looked on, enthusiastically laughing at Margaret’s plight and surprised at the crypt keeper’s benevolence.
“Never thought of a nec as someone I could relate to. They’re not usually given to sunshine and cheery attitudes.”
“He was super nice though. He helped Mags try to understand the power of being a necromancer.” She left out the bits about Margaret dying.
“Well, that's a good thing. The gifts a paladin gets when they’re reborn aren’t as good as the first set. Plus, the Majestans will lose all memories of ye in your former life. We can only see reality as it is, not as it was.”
Well that was good information to know.
“What are yer plans fer tomorrow?”
“I think I'm going to get my second magic skill and level up my crafting.”
“What about teaming up with Grax?”
“Nah, I'll let him level up a bit first. I don’t want him to think I got a head start on our bet. But I’ve made a bow for him already.” She winked slyly.
“Ye sure are confident, aren’t ye?”
“Yes, yes I am. I would do anything to put a bow on a cute kitty.”
…..
3.4 Things Go Boom
The swatches were still on her desk waiting for her when she walked in. She sat at the terminal and expanded her desktop, and created two virtual bins next to it. Being waist high, they were big enough to hide her if she squatted inside. They could only exist in her room because they were part of her desktop and not Majesta. She dumped all of the bobbins, needles and other various sewing implements into one of the large boxes. Some of the items rolled out along the floor as the bin was overfilled. She kicked off her slippers and settled in, equipping her enchanter’s gear. It’s probably going to be a long night.
After about an hour of flawless enchantment, she decided to do something different. Placing two bobbins in her hand, she tried to enchant them both at once. She couldn’t get the system to accept both items. Hmmm…. that would've made this go a lot faster. As she removed the second bobbin from her right hand both ID tags popped up. She quickly tried to enchant both items. The resulting flare left her partially blind for a moment and she could still see spots for minutes afterwards. After her blindness lessened she saw a notification had popped up.
Enchantment failed
Items too similar to exchange properties
The bobbins crumbled like chalk in her hands. Well, that sucks, but on the bright side it seems I can imbue items with another one’s properties now. Let’s try this… she grabbed the thread and a needle. Let’s see what happens.
She began the dual enchantment. It felt like she was directing the flow of one item into the other. At the current moment, the thread was giving its essence to the needle. She allowed it to happen and found the completeness o
f it. Everything clicked into place.
Created new item
Name: Needle of thread
Grade:B
Material:Iron and Cotton
This needle needs no thread. The thread is contained in the needle and activates as you sew.
Thread 250/250yds
Bonus for creating new item +50XP
The needle looked the same, except that there was an inch-long tail of thread emerging from the eye. She pulled on it. Thread began to pull from the eye like a magician's endless handkerchief.
So, no need for external thread, huh? That is amazing. Maam’s gonna love this. Besides, you can still use the needle normally after it runs out. I'm gonna have BANK!!!!!
Twenty ‘Needles of Thread’ lined the edge of her desktop and she decided to experiment again. She took a needle and thread and began the enchantment. This time, instead of letting the essence of the thread go into the needle, she turned the flow from the needle into the thread. It was harder than she expected it would be. The essence of the needle was stiff and unyielding like a piece of stupid metal. She had to pull at it with all of her mana, which was dropping at a prodigious rate. She triggered half of her stamina and added it to her mana pool. It was just barely enough to get the energies to flow into the thread. She triggered another 40% of her stamina and received an instant headache, but held onto the flow wrapping it into the thread. With her mana almost gone, she felt the enchantment click into place.
Ding!!!
Created New Item
Name: Thread of Iron
Grade: B
Material: Cotton and Iron
While soft and supple, this thread has the tensile strength of iron. Increases durability of items sewn with this thread.
Durability 120/120
Bonus for creating new item +50XP
DING!!!
Level Up!!!
Princess Cuddle Fluff
Level 7
357XP till next level
Ding!!!
Enchantment Level 4
Infuse an object with your mana creating a new item by altering its base structures. Properties and qualities of enchanted objects will vary with amount of mana used and quality of object. At higher levels, you will be able to use mana from external sources. The amount of mana will be dependent on the enchanter’s level and the level of enchantment placed upon objects. Objects created with mana from external sources may retain some of the traits of the external source.
Cost 100 mana
97% Chance that failed enchantment will destroy any objects involved.
2% Chance that the enchanted object will retain two or more of the external object’s properties.
Yes!!!! Now I'm getting the hang of this. It seems like the stronger an object is in its physical properties, the more it will act to take on the properties of the weaker object. If I want to reverse that trend, it takes an amazing amount of mana. And this new level of enchantment I definitely want to try that out. Let's see if I can do that again.
While she waited for her mana and stamina to fully regenerate, she picked up a roll of fabric and cut a yard square. She decided on using the groak skins for the experiment. Holding the two in her hands, she began the enchantment. The groak skin wanted to absorb the fabric, but she had anticipated this. She had to wrangle with the essence of the skin—wanting to imbue the properties of the amphibious creature into the fabric. It was way worse than the needle. It seemed to be alive, and twisted in her mental grasp. It was slippery, like the groak itself. She dumped 90% of her stamina into her mana pool using all the mental strength she had to clamp down on the wriggling energy. She forced it into and onto the cloth and felt it lay there, but the click didn’t come.
What am I doing wrong?
She looked it over in a split second. There’s the problem.
The fabric wasn’t entirely covered by the groak skin mana. She tried to push the essence as far as it would go. but the fabric was too large. The enchantment went out of control with a surge of power and a loud bang. It threw her backwards out of her chair. She lay there, rump over teakettle, with her knees by her shoulders on the floor.
She rolled to the side taking a deep breath of the smoke that engulfed the room and coughed. That’s when she noticed her hands were burning. Wait, not her hands but her gloves. The fingertips were on fire. She pulled them off and proceeded to do the newest dance craze on top of them to put them out. When she was satisfied the fire was out, she picked them up, noticing they were mostly fingerless now.
She opened the window leaning out to gulp in the fresh air. “Looks like I'm done enchanting for the night. Guess I have to get a new pair of gloves tomorrow. Ahhhh, well it’s been a good day. I guess all that's left is to message mom and get some sleep.” She swept the charred remnants of fabric and groak from her desktop and chair onto the floor. She pushed it into a pile by the side of the desk with her foot.
Mayah.Butler@CrysWeb 4:44 - Hey mom, I'm just getting ready for bed. Letting you know I'm all right. Hope you’re getting some sleep. It's too early for you to be up. I love you and know you're there for me. Let me know if anything changes.
Mayah
…..
Josh Bannon stood at the terminal hub in the Gamma farm looking at the activity monitors. He couldn't understand why there was so much red. This thing was eating the code and turning it against them. Every one or zero that it touched disappeared and was reborn as a piece of the virus. Thank god it was growing linearly instead of exponentially. So far it hasn't done anything else besides trap a little girl in a video game—though that was definitely a cause for great concern. It had contaminated 2% of his IMC network. No mean feat considering he ran the largest quantum computing network on Earth. His face wrinkled into a frustrated snarl, his teeth baring as his fingers flew over the keyboards. His mask finally calmed and settled into a look of deep frustration. No one knew what would happen to her if all the data turned red.
Each AI had 27 yottaflops of power continually processing the scenery and personalities of Majesta along with the player’s inputs and the interactions between the two. That meant that each AI could perform close to 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 1024 Floating-point Operations Per Second (FLOPS). The PlayStation 4 from over 20 years ago could only perform at 1.84 Teraflops or 1.8412 FLOPS. To put that into perspective, you would need about 543,478,260,869 PlayStations to equal the computing power of each AI. And he had thousands of them.
He had contained the spread of infection to any other farm. Thank god for that. His team finished the patch in two hours. Over the course of the next four hours he had every pod download the patch and update their system. Those who weren’t online would find the update waiting for them before entering Majesta. Making sure that process was well and underway, he got to work on removing public access from certain sections of his network. Attactus couldn't afford to let this thing get loose upon the world. He would burn the AIs to the ground before that happened. His server farms were some of the most advanced computing engineering in the world. If this code got loose—who knows what it might do? Too many systems were tied into his network.
He imagined his life’s work, snatching everyone in an Attactus rig and locking them into their pod. And if it grew, with all of the power it would have at its disposal, it could conquer the world. His mind turned to fiery crashes as private Travwings plowed into neighborhoods from the sky. Missiles would be launched and the world would burn. No, he wouldn't dare to risk contaminating the CrysWeb with this thing. But if he had to make the choice between Mayah and the world, he knew which one it would be. And being forced to make that choice, that made him angry.
After shutting off all access points, he repurposed the remaining AIs to break this random, repeating, ever-growing loop. He called in the rest of Gamma farm, Tau, Nu, and Omicron farms as well. There were exactly 1888 Individual Mind Cores working on this. 2000 if you counted the infected cores.
The 112 IMC Gamma units, units G233-G345, we
re where the initial site of the corruption began. It was where the virus—if you could call it that—still lived. It moved from one AI to the next, escaping any workaround or containment that his team threw at it. It was a leviathan that only ate bytes of data at a time but it was eating constantly and very, very quickly.
“Delilah?” he said to his head research partner. They had known each other since college, and he trusted no one more than her. The current situation which had her hiding from government spooks because of their research was proof of that.
“Yes, Josh?” Her large Afro puff ponytail swished when she turned to him, her glasses flashing in the lamplight.
“Anything changed in your sector?”
“Not yet. We’re trying to implement containment on the personality matrices so we can migrate them, but they’re stopgap attempts at best. It doesn’t seem interested in them yet, but if it gets there, it might gain the same level of sentience that the NPCs have, but with more access to data and computing power.” She looked back down at her own terminal, the lights from her screen reflecting in her glasses.
“That would be a nightmare; I can’t even fathom the damage it could cause if it became a semi-sentient virus.”
“You’re telling me,” she exhaled a weary sigh. “We also happened to track down where the signal was headed. After bouncing off of 12,376 different servers in multiple nations, and damn near every communications satellite—twice!—it’s dead-ended at the abandoned gas refinery near the center of Philadelphia.”
“Sounds like it’s a good place to go look for clues. Did you make those calls and set up surveillance, Nano drones, and personnel?”
