by Peter John
“Um.. forgive me. I’ll be with you shortly.” I soothed diplomatically, putting my hands up placatingly. Then I grabbed Raúl close and whispered in desperation, “What’s her name?”
He chuckled maliciously and said, “What stud? you don’t remember?” then taking pity on me as I gave him a hateful glare said, “Garrina.” and just like that, a few more memories crashed back into place.
I now remembered I had gone to her after her very forward advances, my mind filled with lust and longing. The booze and party atmosphere had all played its part. I remember we planned to meet after the banquet in her room and she had given me more drink. I had not resisted. After that, after those first few kisses and the closeness of our bodies, my memory got hazy again. This lovely young creature, a daughter of Groggar, no less the Princess of the Orcs had bedded me, not the other way around. Surely she knew that. There was no way I could commit to someone I barely knew. W.T.F. I thought inwardly. What The FUCK!
Steeling myself, I turned back to the audience and stepped forward to hug her, but it was too late. She had the largest and most mesmerizing eyes. They were brimming with tears; she didn’t move a muscle. The tears increased, but she didn’t move, just looked at me with that hurt and betrayed look and I felt like such a dick. WTF I admonished myself again. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I tried to say something. Anything that could make things right, but her humiliation and sadness could not be stilled.
Eventually, Bab swooped in and giving me the stink-eye put a cloak around her shuddering shoulders. It was then that I noticed that she was wearing a beautiful gown and that her hair had been shaped and neatened. Everyone else that was here had been up all night doing the training exercise with us. She must have gotten up particularly early and rushed to give me this parting gift. I was such a dick.
“Wait, Garrina….” I called. She turned to me, sniffing now, but eyes still swimming in tears.
“Forgive me, I have no family. I have no sense of these types of things. I promise I will come to see you the next time I am in Illuminous, and if the timing is right. I will be able to spend time with you and talk to you more, and I will bring you a gift worthy to balance the scales. Will that be okay?”
Her eyes brightened, and she broke from Bab’s protective hug to immerse herself in my arms. Then, without saying another word, turned and rushed away. The awkward silence as Lord Groggar stared at me left me feeling like a great big turd had stopped by for a chat. He said nothing though and with the rising sun came the sparkling red orb for Raúl and me to hop onto the teleport bus back to the ship.
As soon as we touched it, we dissolved and were summarily teleported back to the Absinthe and the furtherance of the mission.
CHAPTER 27
Level Up
Appearing back in the ship, not dissimilar to a Star Trek portal, we moved off the travel area and made for the rec room. We hadn’t seen the others since parting a few days previously and we wanted to get the news of their respective experiences and give our own. I was still contemplating how I would give them all the relevant additional information I had from Shavestri about the mission and the new objectives we had to undertake. I was also reeling from the fact that I had bedded an Orc.
“Raúl, why didn’t you tell me?” I stated accusatorially.
“Don’t blame me, man. I thought you knew what you were doing. Besides, you better keep that promise. I really wouldn’t want to get on Lord Groggar’s bad side. It would mean ALL the Orcs would hate your guts too. But hey, she’s not bad. She always ignored my advances before. I’ve been nailing her cousin. Now she is one kinky little… well, let’s just say she’s very fine indeed.”
The twinkling in his eye as he thought of the Orc woman he was bedding left me in no doubt that I didn’t want to know more.
Along the way, in the passages, a young man whom I had seen only occasionally in the rec room approached us. He was anything but soldierly, with a narrow wiry frame. Bespectacled and every bit the proverbial nerd, he tentatively caught my attention and asked me to go with him. I frowned and asked him who he was.
“Listen, young man, I am on my way to be debriefed by my C.O. so whatever you want from me, it had better be good. Who are you and what do you want?” It was ironic that I called him a young man, as I looked no older than twenty-five and assuming his age was younger than I, was perhaps overstepping the mark.
“P.p.p…par..Pardon me Colonel” he stammered. I was a.. a.. aaahsked to fetch you to come to the upgrade node. I am A..ahh..Alex SsssSturgeon, SsssSenior programmer a…a…aand i..ii..iiinterface manager.” His stuttering speech went from slow stammers to ultra speedy completion of each statement. I was also suddenly accosted with Grant's voice in my head.
“Go with Alex. You need to be upgraded.” I felt his presence fade after his comment, so I focused on Alex.
“How do you do, Alex? I guess you know who I am, very well, then lead the way.” I turned to Raúl and indicated I would join the team when I was finished with the programmer. I knew I was acting like a typical officer and a total dick. I was still trying to wrap my head around the idea that I had bedded an Orc. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if I could actually remember the encounter.
Alex, not much of a talker, and understandably so with that stutter, lead me through a complex series of passageways, and into what could only be described as a Computer command centre. It had computer consoles and loads of technicians doing tech things with all the complex banks of servers and computers blinking like Christmas trees. I realized I was getting an inside view of the computer behind all the simulations. He lead me past the blinking and humming arrays into a whitewashed room. It had a typical layout as a modern dentist or plastic surgeon’s room, with long robotic arms arrayed around a translucent platform. The platform was the same as what I had in the first room I had been abducted in and had done all the subsequent Sims in, although it had a great deal more instruments. It was a little unnerving. I was remembering the pain I had felt on my first serious body upgrade. I tried to make small talk. Brave soldier that I was, going under the knife is not pleasant, and I detested Dentists.
“I am rather hungry. Could you not have waited until after my meal?” I grumbled. All the magical healing a few hours before must have consumed a lot of my bodily reserves to bring me back from death's door. I knew that I was about to undergo a similar type of transformation, but hopefully not as drastic as the first time when I had reached level 5.
Alex prepared me for the insertion, and I hoped I had gained enough experience to take me past level 25 to warrant all this attention. It would be a shame to prepare me for upgrading when none was really needed.
The insertion as it turned out was relatively painless. I was used to it by now and Alex seemed to know what he was doing, so I left him to it. The rest was done automatically, with the most uncomfortable part being the tube insertions, but before it could begin it prompted me to remove my attire. With a thought, I became naked and lay back on the platform reflecting on everything that had happened. If I was honest with myself, I had not had enough training in dark magic as I would have liked. The new spells I had acquired would definitely help me in my mission, but would they be enough? It was a nagging feeling that things were not right and I felt like a turkey being fed prime corn a month before Thanksgiving. “Eat it all, here have more, it’s really good for you.” that seductive voice would purr. And like a fool I was gobbling it all and accepting seconds.
Once the machinery had done its thing, and I was all plugged in and synced, Alex told me to relax and close my eyes and respond to the prompts. I did as he asked.
At once from the darkened recess of my closed lids, the glowing pillar of leveling appeared before me. I was now for all intents and purposes in the level-up room. The glowing handhold beckoning my mental handshake. I took a deep breath and reached out my hand to grasp the knob.
A tone reverberated throughout the room. Ding, Ding, Ding!
You have leveled u
p!
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
…this continued and at the end of the notifications, I saw I was now at level 37 overall. A considerable step further along in my leveling than I had thought.
You have reached level 37 - Your diligence, your search for truth and your steadfast approach to challenges has improved all your skills across the board. Each skill will increase between 10 to 15 points depending on their use. In addition, you have acquired new skills.
Oratory
Your silken tongue has won over the King of the Orcs. His people love and respect you, naming you the respected title of Tongue Taker and according to you some of their deepest secret dark magic. Your Oratory ability has increased to level 22
Botany
Understanding plants, their life cycles, and their germination periods from various planets enables you to develop green fingers. Plants are integral to almost every world and understanding their properties, and the ecology and goes a long way to increase your survivability while also increasing your Alchemy skill.
Weapon Specialization
Your primary weapon, the Katana has increased in skill to level 44.
Your secondary weapon, the long staff has increased in skill to level 40.
Your tertiary weapon, Knife has increased in skill to level 22.
You now have a fourth weapon slot. Use it wisely.
Death Defier
Having embraced a real death and suffering both a heart stoppage and brain damage, yet you have prevailed to the other side. To return to your body and continue your vigil has added to your resilience and perseverance. Bonus to constitution.
The list went on and on, and I skimmed through it. In all cases, the points had been distributed for me to align with my abilities and the skills I had been using over the last ten days of intensive training. I suspected that the majority of the upgrading had come from the very intensive two days I had had with the Orcs. Besides, I wasn’t here in this fancy machine to worry about basic skills. I was here to increase my core attributes. The prompt continued:
You have passed level 25. Your core attributes can be upgraded. Your next core attribute upgrade is available at level 40. You may distribute an additional 10 points to enhance your core abilities further. You may also select an additional profession class to supplement your main class.
Would you like to do that now?
Y/N?
I wondered why it was offering me an additional profession since I was already a Prodigy and therefore had all the classes open to me. The more I could boost myself, the better so I selected a resounding “YES”
The list of my core attributes appeared before me.
Col. Petros Arkansas (Callsign: Armpit)
Class: PRODIGY
Species: HUMAN
Hit Points (HP): 1700
(Additional 400 hit points will boost your system when HP reaches 0. Due to resilience from certain death)
Mana Points (MP):1900
Attributes:
Strength:
17
Agility:
17
Intelligence:
19
Wisdom:
19
Stamina:
17
Luck:
15
Constitution:
17 (Bonus +4 at 0)
You have 10 points to distribute.
I considered the list and remembered the pains associated with developing each skill. Be that as it may, I had to add to my strength and stamina, and increase my wisdom and intelligence to increase my magical abilities.
I added 2 points to Intelligence and Wisdom, bringing them up to 21 each. I did the same for the other three main skills, adding 2 points to Strength, Agility and Stamina making them 19. Leaving luck at 15 and Constitution at 17.
The added boost from my near death experience was a good insurance policy, and I was grateful for that. It meant I could literally die and be revived by the little nanobots running around in my body. The prompt was asking if the changes should be accepted as final. I selected Y and waited for the pain.
I didn’t have to wait long. With all the selections going through at once, it was as if I was being drawn and quartered. Each limb, each nerve ending and every fiber of my being was suddenly and irrevocably changed to something harder, stronger, more resilient and essentially more rewarding. I screamed like a banshee and when it was all over I was in a world of drowsy relief. I felt my thoughts were more enhanced somehow and despite my bodies obvious pains; I was able to distance myself from them while I approached the next set of prompts.
Congratulations. You have evolved as a Prodigy
Once past the level 25 upgrade, you are well on your way to your next attribute upgrade. Due to the level 25 upgrade, you may choose a refinement class of Prodigy, however, your current leveling will not have any influence on this new class specialization. That begins only from the time of choice.
Selections available are:
Prodigy Prowler
A Prodigy Prowler is only available to Prodigy with Agility level 19 and above. Expanding on the Ranger abilities, a Prowler has enhanced vision, improved reactions and extreme hand-eye coordination.
Prodigy Battler
A Prodigy Battler is only available with Strength level 19 and above. Expanding on the Warrior abilities, a Battler has enhanced superhuman strength and endurance and a higher level martial lore.
Prodigy Magus
A Prodigy Magus is only available with Intelligence level 19 and above. Expanding on the Mage abilities, a Magus has enhanced Spell lore, Quicker and more powerful incantations and the ability to go beyond Tier 2 Magic.
Prodigy Doctor
A Prodigy Doctor is only available with Wisdom and Intelligence Level 19 and above. The Doctor is a learned disciple of the body and its ailments and can additionally self heal
Prodigy Shadow
The Prodigy Shadow is only available with Intelligence and Agility above 19. Expanding on the Assassin abilities, a Shadow has access to Tier 3 magic and excels at infiltration, exfiltration and assassination. Additional skills include a deeper understanding of a multitude of alien morphology and anatomy to aid in their clandestine destruction and circumvention.
Prodigy Overwatch
A Prodigy Overwatch is only available to those with Intelligence and Wisdom over 20. It is a title that brings with it great responsibility. There has been one Prodigy Overwatch to date. As a leader, the Prodigy Overwatch is given unique perspectives for establishing command and control. The enhanced thought processes need to be nurtured and developed once the abilities have been acquired. The Overwatch provides unique psychic abilities such as telepathy and telekinesis that will activate in time. Psychic Magic is a Tier 3 magical ability. Besides Psychic abilities, an Overwatch has access to develop other Tier 3 magic as well as a Tier 4 magic, provided the adequate number of ways have opened.
I knew from my previous talks with Horatio and more recently with Shaman Bab that I only had two “ways” opened, so the Overwatch Prodigy would be useless until I opened more ways, but even so, these abilities seemed useful if I was being groomed as a commander. Even as a regular ground-pounder the ability to extend my thoughts to others in the team would be a great boon. I wondered what other things I could do with Psychic magic and also what avenues Tier 4 magic would lead too. I must admit the power curve on offer seemed too good to refuse. Although the Prodigy Shadow thread looked interesting too. It would definitely give me immediate benefits for the upcoming mission. Did I want to forgo the immediate short-term benefits of a Shadow to instead become an Overwatch? It was a tough call and the Princess’s life may depend on my sneaking assassin skills. I sighed inwardly, there was one more selection, the name wasn’t promising, but I had to see them all before I made a choice.
Prodigy Pioneer
A Prodigy Pioneer is only available to those with ALL core statistics over 17 and a luck modifier above 10.
A Prodigy Pioneer is an undeveloped blank slate. Due to the extremely high level of ALL attributes, this tree is open to all possibilities. The user has already demonstrated capabilities within the top 1% of 1% within a bell curve and can self determine their own development. No longer will a Pioneer need a Leveling machine to develop skills as the nanobot technology inserted will create an AI core to handle such details. The upgrade however is extensive and painful and due to the experimental nature of the AI core, the implementation can lead to hallucinations, headaches, and considerable pain during the period of adjustment. This can be anything from 1 month to 6 months. There are no Prodigy Pioneers to date. Are you willing to be a Pioneer?
