“For those who have abilities that are not exactly suitable for combat, such as Inventors, they have a harder time increasing their power – but they don’t have to worry about dying, at least. The easiest way for Inventors and those like them to increase their power is to strive toward a difficult or a currently out-of-reach goal. For me, I used my ability to think of new inventions, solutions to problems that seemingly had no answer, and even collaborated with other Inventors as a team to accomplish a difficult project. The advancement is slow but steady – as long as you’re dedicated to improving. If you attempt to do new things, create original products, or use your power in new and interesting ways (at least for you) then it will improve without fail.
“There are some people who don’t care to improve themselves through variation, however, and they’ll do the same thing over and over without striving toward anything else. Their power efficiency would improve by small increments, until they were able to do that single thing so quickly and perfectly that it looked easy. However, if they tried or were asked to do something difficult, they would use up their power so quickly that they wouldn’t have the smallest hope to accomplish it.”
So, it sounds like the use of their abilities directly affects their “Intelligence” (for a lack of a better word), and they acquire skills that improve with use. I wonder if they have a “Wis—"
“As for increasing your power pool, the more you fully drain it and wait to use it again when you are full, the more it will increase. Intense situations like combat, healing someone mortally wounded, or inventing something will help grow it faster. It’s easy to do at first – since your pool is so small – but the larger it gets, the harder it is to drain it completely and wait until it fills back up. For instance, I had a large enough pool before that I could use my ability constantly for almost a full day before I ran out – but then I had to drink almost 60 times my body weight in water before I was full again.”
Her voice had become a little raspy as she talked, and he realized she hadn’t had anything to eat or drink after being “reborn”. He started in on making her a meal for both of his new friends, when Whisp said, “Speaking of water, I’m so thirsty! Is this water ok to drink?”
Without waiting for a response, the Proctan woman bent over and started gulping up handfuls of his leakage water, until she shot straight up with a wide-eyed expression on her face, “HOLY GODDESS! This whole room is full of Power Potion!”
She had a rapturous expression on her face; however, the thought of what she had just ingested apparently triggered something else, as it soon turned to one full of disdain, “Then there are those who have gobs of money who buy up Power Potions by the dozen, allowing them to drain and refill their pools near-instantly. This gives them access to a larger supply of power, but they end up not having much skill in their abilities. This means that whatever they do takes a lot of power, but their pools are so large that they don’t care.”
Ok, so it does sound like they have a “Wisdom” score which determines how much “mana” they have access to. There is no natural inborn regeneration, just artificial power refills through drinking...my “waste” water.
Milton was starting to get a handle on how the Proctans’ abilities worked now. He just needed to adjust his thinking as if it was a game – and then it made sense. Those who “leveled up” their skills decreased the amount of mana needed to use those skills, meaning that repetitive use was important and imperative. It also appeared as if they improved their skills across the board, their “Intelligence” would also increase, allowing for increased effectiveness in all their skills.
Additionally, if they used their skills in combat or another stressful situation, they increased their efficiency even more. Which made sense – if you swung a sword at a wooden training pillar day after day you might get a little better, but if you attacked a monster or even worked on developing new sword-fighting techniques your sword skill would get much better.
As for their mana pool, their “Wisdom” determined how much mana they had. By repetitively draining and refilling their pool, they slowly increased their “Wisdom”, which increased how much power they had access to. It was almost as if their bodies had to slowly get used to larger and larger amounts of power so as not to overwhelm their systems.
As they ate a meal of cheeseburgers and French fries, which Brint dug into with fervor – followed not long after by the famished “newborn” – Milton also gleaned a little more info on the Cordpower Company itself. This information was accompanied by exclamations of anger and promises of revenge by both the Proctan woman and the uncharacteristically-silent Brint. He hadn’t said a word while she was talking – instead he alternately stared at Whisp in wonder and at Milton with awe.
Milton wasn’t comfortable with Brint looking at him with awe and amazement. While it was somewhat ego-boosting to be held in such esteem, he was worried that it could turn into something worse. The last thing he needed was the man to bow down and worship him as if he was some god, despite thinking those things about himself not too long ago. He didn’t want that kind of responsibility – especially if he couldn’t deliver up to lofty expectations. He put that on the back burner, however, as he learned that he was right about the company that had sent the now-deceased trio after answers.
“So, in your opinion, do you think we are still in danger? Do you think they will send more people after those three?”
Milton had his drones take the thin metal trays and plates he had provided for their meals and “recycled” them in his Molecular Converter. Whisp was again wide-eyed as she watched the process, and he could tell she wanted to ask about it. Fortunately, she was reserved enough to answer his question first; he observed a change in her expression as it appeared as though she activated her ability and thought about it for a moment.
“Definitely. They’ll probably be happy that the source of their competition has disappeared, but they’ll also worry when nobody comes back to tell them what happened. They won’t know for sure that “we” are shut down, only that there are no more black-market Power Potions floating around. From what I’ve heard, they’re not likely to leave us alone only to have us pop up somewhere else later and take business away from them again. I have a feeling they will send even more powerful individuals, even if it will cost them more in the short-term. Companies like them tend to think long-term, meaning that even if we don’t surface again for twenty years they don’t want to take that chance.”
She looked drained after the explanation, which led them back to what started their whole conversation in the first place.
“Your power pool is back to what it was like when you first started? How can you tell?”
She bent over again and drank some water before responding, “Ahhh, that’s very refreshing – aaand I’m full. I think even if I was the same as before…all this…I would’ve filled up completely as well. Anyway, to answer your question, after we gain abilities, every Proctan can somehow “sense” how powerful they themselves are, as well as others. We’re taught that each person falls into a category based upon their strength and power pools.”
Brint was staring at her with a confused expression on his face, “How come I never heard about that?”
“That’s because you never had any obvious ability before, so you couldn’t even sense your own power levels. There was no point in telling you something that you had no way of verifying or recognizing,” she told him, with sympathy in her voice.
“Well, I should probably know now that I have an ability.”
Whisp got close and hugged him in an obvious attempt to comfort him, “Brint, it’s ok. You don’t have to lie for me to like you – it doesn’t matter to me that you don’t have an ability. It won’t change how I feel about you…how I’ve always felt about you.”
Flustered at the physical contact – as well as at her words – Brint spluttered in denial, “Wha-what? I’m not lying. I really do have an ability – I’ve had it since I first en
countered The Milton here. I can communicate and control his creatures and, uh, drones. Although it is a bit difficult, I’ve had a little practice and it seems to be getting easier.”
Whisp pulled away and looked confusingly at him, staring in Brints’ eyes until he began to squirm at the uncomfortable silence. “That’s just not possible – I can’t detect any presence of power in you at all. I would’ve sensed it when you first came back from here and I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. I’m sorry, according to everything I know…you don’t have an ability.”
Chapter 3 – A big but
Even after demonstrating what he could do by ordering around some drones, Whisp was still baffled at the lack of power she detected (or failed to detect) in Brint. She could still determine her own power “ranking”, which meant that her power-sensing capability was still functioning how it should.
“Right now, I’m ranked as a Lesser Novice, or Novice level 1, but I can feel that I’m about to break into the next minor rank anytime. Having this highly-concentrated power available means that I can constantly use my power without worrying about running out anytime soon.”
After prompting from both Milton and Brint, she explained the ranking system to them.
“Officially, there are five major rankings and within those rankings are five minor ones. The major rankings are Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Exalted, and Supreme. The five minor rankings are Lesser, Journeyman, Accomplished, Greater, and Master – but most people tend to think of them as levels 1-5. So, by this scale, I’m all the way at the bottom but it will be easy to rank up at this level. To give you an idea where I was before, I was an Adept level 3 – almost level 4.”
That’s one hell of a death penalty. It appears as though she lost all of her “experience”, but fortunately all her knowledge is still intact. I imagine it will be easier to level-up her ability this time around because she knows the best ways to go about it – that, and she has my “waste water” to help refill her pool.
“Ok, so now that I have a better idea how the rankings work, I can see what you’re talking about. Despite you not being able to feel my power, I can sense it within you. I can’t “sense” it the same way for myself, but I can at least tell how full my pool is,” Brint added, as he looked at his friend.
With a serious and intense look in her eye, Whisp told him, “That’s still weird. I don’t like not knowing why I can’t sense your power. I may have to get you alone sometime until I figure out how to feel you better.”
ALANNA busted out with a hearty laugh, going so far as to exaggeratingly bend over clutching her sides as if they were in pain from too much laughter. The two Proctans looked at her in confusion for a moment before they both blushed shyly like teenagers who had just been caught touching each other inappropriately.
Before this could turn into an even more awkward scene from a teen movie, Milton got the point of this entire conversation back on track. He didn’t have time to watch their burgeoning relationship to develop – they had more important matters to attend to.
Like figuring out how to survive.
“Ok, enough of that – I’ll make you a room later, so you can figure some things out. In the meantime, we need to figure out what to do about this imminent threat. The way I see it, we have three options: hide, attack, or defend.
“I can do my best to camouflage this place from all potential investigative teams, while you two can go back to your people and try to hide from Cordpower. You could hide out in the middle of nowhere and I can provide some protection in the form of some of my Combat Units, but they won’t do much good if you are found by the Company. As for me, it will be difficult to hide my reactor leakage – especially when you get close – because it tends to permeate the very air around here. I would suggest this option only as a last resort.
“We can take the fight to Cordpower – cut the head off the snake, so to speak—”
“Hell yeah! Let’s kill all those fuckers!” Brint exclaimed with barely restrained rage. Apparently, this is still his first choice.
“BUT, and this is a big but here—”
“Are you saying I have a fat ass?” ALANNA interjected with mock anger.
“You’re not helping,” Milton sent directly to his snarky guide.
“—we don’t have the resources available yet to accomplish this yet. From what you both have told me, I assume that if we crossed over into inhabited lands with an army of creatures, the Guardian Guild would mobilize everyone to repel the invasion. Based on how effective my Combat Units were against just these 3, I can’t imagine what it would take to defeat 50 or even 100 of them.”
“That’s true, plus they aren’t our enemy. Cordpower has their own powerful guards working for them, but they wouldn’t hesitate to throw the Guild out front to defend themselves. Perhaps if we were to sneak in somehow…,” Whisp suggested.
“If we ever figure out a way to do that safely, then I’m all for it. As it is though, I can’t see a way to effectively commence an attack on them without risking being a target by everyone in your kingdom.”
Milton could tell that Brint was still gung-ho to attack, but he also saw that he was at least listening to reason. I’ll have to find something to take his mind off directly attacking Cordpower for a while.
“And that brings us to our last option – unless one of you have another idea. We defend this place, my home, until they either give up and cut their losses, or we build up enough resources to take the fight to them. Either way, it will hopefully buy us enough time to figure out what to do when we are more secure.”
They were silent and stared at each other in silent communication as they considered their options. Milton had already decided on his own course of action, but he needed help from his new friends to accomplish it. He didn’t want to force them into helping; instead, he wanted a willing exchange of cooperation between them all.
Brint grunted in reluctant acceptance, “As much as I want to strike back right now, I also realize that we’re not strong enough to do that…yet. However, as soon as we are, promise me that I’ll be at the head of any strike force going after them. Otherwise, I’m all for defending this place.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll play a pivotal role in any attack we instigate. Whisp, what do you think?”
“I agree, we should defend this place. I can’t guarantee that Cordpower,” she spat out the word with disgust, “won’t end up throwing everything they have at us, but by that time we should be at least properly defended. Now, what do we have to work with here?”
New Short-term Goal: Defensive Formation
You have barely fought off three invaders sent by the Cordpower Corporation, only to discover that they will likely send more agents to discover what happened to the prior trio. Defend yourself from the inevitable incursion.
- Remodel your dungeon to allow for separate kill-rooms 0/12
- Install more effective traps inside each room 0/12
- Provide sufficient Combat Units to guard each room 0/12
- Build Defensive Weapons Factory 0/1
Difficulty of Goal: Hard
Timeframe: 3 weeks
Rewards: +5 to Ingenuity/Wisdom, Processing Power/Intelligence, and Processing Speed/Agility
Milton was surprised at how much needed to be done; yet, he realized that his dungeon needed a big overhaul from what he was doing before so that they could all survive. Currently, it was more than adequate killing semi-intelligent creatures, but against a person it failed miserably.
Milton was pleased that his friends were going to help defend his dungeon, and he wasted no time in getting Whisp up-to-date on the status of his traps, the structure of the big long tunnel from the surface to his Core Room, and what resources he had available. She also had lots of intelligent questions regarding his Molecular Converter, the Bioconversion Laboratory, and the Biological Recombinator.
While she was asking these questions, she took a tour of his dungeon with ALANNA and Brint in to
w. Some of his pride was hurt as she broke down how ineffective his traps were and how they were poorly designed. He had thought himself pretty clever designing each trap, especially considering how unknowledgeable he had been at the time about design and engineering. Although he could now see what she was talking about – considering how easily they were taken apart or bypassed by the previous invaders – it still stung a little.
Let’s see how well she does if she’s dropped on a foreign planet with no idea how to do anything.
Indignant feelings aside, he concentrated instead on what Whisp was suggesting in the way of remodeling the dungeon – or, as she called it, Perfect Impenetrable Super-Stronghold or PISS (ALANNA thought this was hilarious, but there was no translation of the slang term so Whisp and Brint were confused at her amusement). No matter what she called it, she had some great suggestions on room placement, new traps that would be effective toward Proctans, and some ideas to prevent anyone from destroying the walls and floor.
While they were touring, his drones finished rebuilding the collapsed hallway outside of his Core Room. When they were done, Milton directed eight of the dozen available to start creating a tunnel past his Core Room; he utilized this expanded area to create new rooms for his facilities, so that they were kept separate from the rest of the new dungeon they were going to build. When the rooms were ready, the drones disassembled and moved them to their new homes.
As a bonus, the area would also provide a place for Brint and Whisp to hang their hats; if they were going to stay inside the dungeon, they were going to need somewhere to sleep.
The Quizard Mountains: A Dungeon Core Epic (Station Cores Book 2) Page 3
