G.E.S.S.: Genetically Engineered Super Soldier

by Frank Pisauro

  Skill points available: 8

  *Learned skills:

  Light armor: 1

  Medium armor: 1

  Skill levels are as follows and grant a perk when each new rank is achieved (no perk for unranked): 0-10 unranked, 10-24 novice, 25-49 journeyman, 50-74 adept, 74-99 expert, 100-149 master, 150-200 grandmaster.

  *Learned skills progress on their own and can be learned and taught by anyone. Skill points earned through leveling cannot be used to increase learned skills. Learned skills are still limited by an individual’s class restrictions. e.g.: cooking (skill).

  ●Manipulate gravity (skill): Can increase or decrease gravity by five percent in a three-foot radius centered on the target when channeled. Increases or decreases gravity on individual by five percent when targeted. Gains five percent and a one-foot radius per skill level. Duration one minute per skill level. Individual or self, line of sight. Instant cast. No cool down. Can be channeled. Uses one spell slot every five seconds channeled.

  ●Dense star (skill): creates a mini star with a gravitational pull towards it. Density and size are related to skill level. Will decrease the speed of individuals in affected area. Once speed is below zero, sun pulls target toward it, doing crushing damage that increases exponentially the closer the individual is to the center. Depends on mass of creature. Area of effect, line of sight. Duration twenty seconds per skill level. Can be terminated early. Recharge of skill: thirty seconds.

  ●Manipulate air particles (skill) Haste/Slow: Can increase or decrease speed of target by five percent. Two percent change per skill level. Dependent on mass. Targeted, line of sight, touch. Lasts one minute per skill level. Five second casting time. No recharge, but not usable in a vacuum.

  ●Ion control (skill): Can manipulate the charged particles in the environment to cause damaging effects. Targeted, touch, discharged through weapon (may cause weapon damage due to durability loss). Damage output dependent on skill level and charisma score. Can be channeled (no target needed when channeled). Instant casting. Recharge dependent on environmental conditions with a minimum of one second to a maximum of ten seconds. Channeled spell uses a spell slot at the rate of one slot every ten seconds.

  That was better. I already felt more confident about my situation. While nowhere near the power I used to have, the skill set I had was still impressive.

  Dense star is basically an artificial gravity source that compacts matter. Causing crushing type damage the closer said matter gets to its center. Glowing black in color with waves of purple light pulsing spherically out from its center to the end of its area of effect. It looks rather intimidating, and at higher levels, I could theoretically create my own orbit for a spacecraft. Theoretically, because I never tested that out. The alliance was about forty years behind Earth technology at the time I died and they didn’t have any spacecraft when I joined in the war effort. Technology I never shared, thank you very much, thinking as I continued to review my skills. With magic, their technology went in different directions than Earth, focusing more on genetic engineering then space travel.

  Manipulate Gravity, at this level, is only really useful for a feather fall effect. Feather fall being a spell that reduces gravity so falling off a cliff won’t kill you. True, at high levels it could make everything around nothing more than a smear on the ground. That is due to it being a gravity well that had a rather large radius when channeled. For now, though, I could at least jump high, and land softly. You’d be surprised how handy that is in the wilderness.

  Manipulate air particles—or Haste/Slow as the system also called it—increased my speed or slowed down my opponent’s. It was without doubt my most trusted spell. In most cases, speed in battle is the difference between life and death. At higher levels, I could always keep this spell on, be three times faster than I was now, and... oh yeah… that’s right, also fly! Too bad that is going to take a while. Flying is truly one of life’s great thrills. Although, knowing what I do now compared to five years ago, it might be sooner than I think. Mixing haste with gravity manipulation should do the trick.

  Ion control is my bread and butter spell. If something needed to die fast and at range, this spell was the be all and end all. At this low level, I could only throw a small arc of electricity causing a modest amount of electrical/heat type damage, still enough to kill a low-level mob, but that was just the beginning. At higher levels, chain lightning, with ropes of electricity as thick as my arm, could kill many high-level opponents at the same time. But that was nothing compared to plasma! Plasma was the single most powerful force I had come across. Sure, nuclear was more devastating over a large area, but nothing stopped a plasma stream. It cut through the toughest alloys like butter. Molten rock was formed with a touch of the stream, the plasma able to burn through it as if it didn’t exist, going yards deep in an instant. I once burned a two-mile-deep hole in the earth with a ten-second stream at full power, just so the geneticists could gauge my power. Suckers! That was only three-quarters power, and nowhere near as long as I could channel it, I mused, a goofy grin on my face. Needless to say, plasma did it for me—it just did!

  It is of note to say that the geneticists at the laboratory I was “born” in didn’t understand how I could pick my two types of magic. They were under the impression that no magic of such a type existed, at least for primitive societies such as mine, not in the way they were described. I let them think what they wanted, while keeping my head down to avoid being deactivated. The truth was I loved technology and had dabbled in it all my previous life. To me, ions and gravity wells were just a part of life, but for most in the alliance, or the dweller for that matter, those were lofty concepts that lacked the scientific precursors for most to even begin to understand.

  Magic on this rock, or in this realm was brought there by the system thousands of years ago. I may not have cared about the system’s origins, or any of the bullshit that was associated with it, but that didn’t mean I was ignorant of the findings the geneticists’ researchers discovered.

  It turned out that an ancient alien society—the elves claimed it was the fey—reached a singularity in the form of nanobots somewhere out in the cosmos. Those same nanobots, once they reached sentience, decided to establish the system as we knew it. It was a way to spread themselves throughout the Universe, or universes, depending on who you asked. The nanobots were now everywhere. Every cell, every rock, every oxygen molecule had nanobots in them. Their collective consciousness, which was well beyond the intelligence of every known race, controlled the system and its messages.

  Experience, XP, or exp—the list of nicknames goes on, so call it what you will—is nothing more than the nanobots of the deceased individual transferring to the victor. Quest exp were “wild” nanobots transferred to the quester, wild being the term for nanobots that had yet to attach themselves on to a host. These wild nanobots were something like newborns, so giving quests out and having them completed was a priority for them. There were a bunch of details on how that all worked, but as a being new to this world, and not really interested in the exact workings of the system, I didn’t truly understand how most of the processes worked on a fundamental level.

  Magic was an individual’s ability to use the nanobots that had integrated with them to create a desired effect. This may sound simple, but was quite the opposite, as the low number of magic users can attest. First, you had to find your mindscape. This is done through meditation, which if your imagination was limited, or you lacked patience was impossible. Once in your mindscape, you had to meditate inside it, reaching out to your integrated nanobots, as meditating in one’s mind was the only way to make contact. Then, once contact was established—which was extremely difficult to achieve due to them being an utterly alien intelligence—you could start to coax them into action. Getting a feel for the ever-present nanobots, whose minds conveyed thoughts as more of a sense—like the smell of the color red, or the taste of space vacuum—and the time needed to understand how to translate that in
to a stream of plasma was anything but easy.

  An individual’s integrated nanobots sorted themselves out into swarms, or what the system referred to as spell slots. Once a nanobot swarm used its energy to produce the desired effect, they fell into a dormant state causing the spell user fatigue. At higher levels, with more swarms under your control, and having them evolve—or level up in system terms—reduced that fatigue, even as bigger, more advanced effects are produced.

  As a Gess, my class was chosen by the system at my creation. Normal sentients could pick their class at thirteen. The system would provide them with a list of choices based on what they knew, what they did, and what they were good at. It also took into account what you wanted, combining even your subconscious thoughts into the list of possible classes. For Gess, the system decided for us, based on all those factors. The geneticists thought it was because we had fully grown bodies, but didn’t know for certain.

  In providing me with a class, the system had given me the knowledge needed to do all the necessary steps to cast the spells given to me. Though I still had to take the time to learn how to actually cast them. Thanks again, System, for those thirteen years.

  Focusing back on the task at hand—namely survival—I thought, once free, I will need to find food, water, and shelter. If I plan on surviving long after I am free of this tomb. Relaxing my mind and body, I took a seat in my favorite, mental, chair, and used the rest of my time in my mindscape to sleep.

  Chapter Five

  Again, I awoke to darkness, but this time I could open my eyes. Woohoo, I mentally cheered, as I realized that fact. Thanks to my dwarven genes, I had the Darkvision ability. So, seeing in complete darkness was not a new experience for me, even if this time it was a pleasant one. Well, except that there really wasn’t much to see.

  All around me was stone, granite to be exact from the looks of it, there were no cut marks, or worked sections. Just stone.

  The air pocket I was in smelled of rotten corpse and old, musty ass. Both smells coming from yours truly, as I was the only thing around. The inside of my mouth tasted as if every vomiting episode I’d ever had got together, moved inside my mouth, and died there of old age. It was rank. I found myself hoping it was the musty smell of decayed clothes and not my breath I was smelling, or else I was in for a long day. The stone beneath me was smooth to the touch, with no evidence of water making its way into the space.

  The pocket was created by two ginormous granite slabs resting together at a point that was directly over my head. Both slabs had fallen from above me when the mountain collapsed, I assume it collapsed anyway, I conjectured. Creating a ten-yard long, twenty-five-yard wide, hundred-yard tall, triangular pocket. The fortunate way both slabs fell was the only reason my body was not a smeared stain on the ground beneath me. My legs were still crushed underneath the chunk of granite that had fallen in the now ancient battle.

  Dust billowed into the stale air, a result of millennia passing my body by, age turning both my weapon and armor to dust. As I moved around to get a better look at my surroundings, the dust made me sneeze and cough. Great, naked, unarmed, and injured, what a way to wake up. Oh and lets not forget about my breath while I am at it. Luckily, after distributing my stat points my body was already healing.

  Healing under the system was a little weird, and different from most games I had played in my original life. There were no hit points in the system, a critical hit in the system was, for the most part, instant death. Instead of hit points that determined your health in the form of a numerical representation, the system’s nanobots would instantly set to healing the wounds an individual received with what the system called a ‘healing factor’.

  Sure, the system would inform you that you had taken damage by way of notifications—what type of damage, where the damage was taken, and what conditions you suffered—and by displaying debuffs on one’s HUD or heads-up display. Those notifications were without numerical value, and the debuff pictures were mostly just there to let you know if you were bleeding or had a broken bone. I had turned off those notifications long ago due to the stress of battle. Now however, I could see the ‘Broken Leg × 35’ debuff on my HUD.

  The debuff was represented on my HUD by a little picture of a pair of legs that were in two pieces with a jagged line separating them. This picture had a multiplication sign next to it, and the number 35 beside it. The whole thing was located in the bottom right corner of my vision. So, my legs are broken into thirty-five different pieces, thank the stars my pain resistance is so high, I thought. My Gess genetic makeup included a race of humans I had never heard of. Yet, this race provided me with great mental abilities, and most importantly, pain resistance.

  Divinur (A human mixed race. No other information is known):

  2 wis 1 cha

  ●Mental fortitude: Concentration increase (skill + 5), and pain resistance (through use of mental block. Works on mental pain as well) 85%.

  ● Basic telepathy: Can mentally speak to other Gess. No language barrier (can be understood and understands any language). Can be used on pets and familiars to deepen their bond.

  Eighty-five percent pain reduction is the only reason I was able to move without screaming in agony, but the pain was still there and was starting to reach unmanageable levels. Deciding to pull up my healing factor on my HUD, I went over how long it would take to heal my legs

  Healing factor: 2in^3 × con bonus (3) = 6in^3 per min.

  Current approximate recovery time: 14.4hr. Doubles while resting.

  Not good. I need a way to increase that, or at least be able to move while healing. Healing magic and potions were still out there. Or anyway, they were. Doesn’t matter, I don’t have any so that’s out. The more evolved your nanobots became the better your healing factor. This trend ended after level five due to ‘Balance issues’ according to the system, but the healing factor was also affected by your con bonus. As long as your con bonus increased, your healing factor became stronger. Damn, already used my stat points. There’s nothing here to earn exp from. So, I guess I’m going to have to try to and crawl my way out from under here.

  With one last look around, I stopped moping and got to work. Using a spell slot, I lowered the gravity on the rock with Manipulate Gravity. I tried to lift the rock off me, but it was no use, the damn thing wouldn’t budge. Looking above the rear right corner of the rock, I used a second spell slot to cast Dense Star, further lightening the load. Hopefully, it will give my left-handed ass more leverage, I thought. Struggling to lift the multi-ton chunk of granite from across my legs, I screamed in pain. I yelled at the general shittyness of the situation I was in. Still, I pushed with all my might.

  The addition of my star did the trick. After overcoming the initial resistance, the multi-ton rock was thrown back a few feet. It landed with a deafening boom, then slowly rolled toward the star before the spell blinked out of existence.

  Looking down at my legs, I immediately passed out. “Dear God… that was gruesome,” I said to myself as I flopped down in my chair. Pulling up the spell recovery ability I was about to use, I calculated how long it would take to recover my spell slots.

  Spell recovery: Can restore spell slots at a rate one every five minutes of meditation. Does not count toward necessary meditation rest cycle.

  I thought about whether I should spend any more time meditating than was required to refresh my nano swarms and decided to risk it. True, I had no idea how long it would take to get out of there, or where I could find the basics for survival, but I didn’t really have a choice, seeing as I had no legs.

  Luckily, having the time cut in half while resting was a feature of the healing factor. So, once my six-hour rest was over, most of the work repairing my legs should be done. I mentally flipped on my spell recovery, laid back in my chair, and slept.

  ...Rho. I awakened with my name ringing in my ears. I was still in pain but easily ignored it. I sat up. Freaky, I thought, watching as my toes knit themselves together, patches of ski
n coming into being right in front of my eyes. Hehe, I chuckled, remembering the first time I saw it and how it somehow reminded me of old sci-fi movies I would watch. The Gess body I had been given was six-feet tall. Taller than my old body, though not by much. This body had longer legs than my last one, which made running much easier. It was all around proportional and symmetrical to its height, making agile movements far simpler. Toned muscles everywhere, but not cut, I’m a warrior not a gym rat, still, my physical body was in great shape.

  I could change my outer appearance to match my environment, whether that be in a population center, or a wild jungle. I was able to alter myself thanks to my shapeshifter genes.

  Shapeshift: Can alter body at will. Cannot grow new appendages, however, can regrow existing appendages. Ability to change shape grows with skill points, but this does not grant the ability to change shape into another creature. e.g.: elven features are doable, but becoming a dragon is not.

  Got to give it to those geneticists, they knew what they were doing. At high levels, I could use this ability to impersonate any bipedal race there was. I could harden my skin, grow scales, or talons. Even regrow a limb in an emergency, by using stored fat and muscle tissue. At this level though, I could only change the pigmentation of my body to a minor degree. Useful for camouflage, not much else. The Gess’ natural skin and eye color was a dull metal grey, our hair a dull honey brown.

  With the regrowing of my body finally losing its wonder, I stood up, a groan escaping my lips as my newly healed legs got their first use. Naked as the day I left the vat, I walked around my tomb. Uneven, and in places jagged, granite was everywhere. It created different sized obstacles, impeding my progress in the triangular room. Everything was a dull greyish green thanks to darkvision. After a few circuits around the room, I didn’t find any tunnels leading out. I didn’t know enough about cave-ins to find any weak spots to dig through, so I started looking higher up toward the ceiling. My elven heritage enhanced my senses to a good degree. So, looking for anything like a ledge, or gap in the rock, even a hundred yards up in total darkness was no issue.