40 - Literally Dying Over Here (Patreon)

“Ow.” 

“It seems you have seared yourself,” the man who called himself the System said. 

Maya grunted in response. They were back in her old home.

“So what now?” Maya asked. 

“Well, you die.” 

“Will Bell be okay?”

“You’ve informed the AIs of what he endured. The mana cores will run out of mana soon and shut down, which will force the cage to return to the dimensional scar. It will return the AIs along with it, but I don’t know if they’ll survive any encounters against Shen’s remaining forces or the other rogue AI that have been drawn by the use of huge amounts of mana.” 

“Well, I’m not keen on dying, so I guess it’s time to POC me.” 

“You’ve seared yourself. Such a thing is considered very problematic,” the man said. “It’s not just the lost of levels and experience, it’s the gripping of raw essence mana. Even the essence mana that Tier 4 channel is filtered by me.” 

Maya groaned. “I got Shen for you, pal. That golden ticket, now that I think of it, is bullshit. Let’s renegotiate the murder of a System Tech Necro and say a bottle of sealant is the price.” 

“I can’t just do that,” the man said. 

“You control everything.” 

“That’s not how it’s done. I can’t just go about handing people what they want. It is… unfair.” 

Maya laughed. “Oh, my god!”

“Fine,” the man said. “But I’ll have to warn you, you’ll need to increase you traits and get them all above one hundred to even channel essence mana in a controlled manner.” 

“One hundred? Jesus.” 

“It is already very rare for anyone to have access to essence mana at such low Tiers and levels, those that do obtain them at those levels kill themselves within weeks.” 

“Alright, I need to train.” She paused and thought. “So all those poor slobs who didn’t take you up on your offer and managed to get out of here with the ability to channel essence mana died?” 

“Everyone dies, eventually. But yes, those that escaped without obtaining at least Tier 2 died rather quickly.” 

“How does this work then? I could feel the essence mana far easier in the void space than in the dimensional plane. Also, why did I get double the experience and credits from the kills?” 

“The dimensional plane, as I said before, lacks essence mana. Therefore what you were feeling was only a trickle of the real power.  Becoming a Point of Contact will allow me access to the plane and thereby connect you to the essence mana of the multiverse. So, you’ll need to really work at gaining those levels. As for the experience points and credits, well, those are added by me. As I can’t access essence mana in the plane, you were only gaining experience that could be harvest off the internal mana of the creatures you dispatched. Coins I create, not the monsters.” 

Maya sighed. “Can you bump up the drops when you POC me?” 

“No.You’re too… small? Tiny? Insignificant? Either way, I can’t really channel that much essence mana through you without killing you. I’ll only be using you as a conduit to enact maintenance. Nothing else.” 

“Fine. Let’s do this. I’m literally dying over here.” 

“Maya Sullivan, do you accept my offer to be a Point of Contact?”

‘Yeah. Totally.” 

“You will be a Point of Contact for the dimensional plane for five hundred years. At Tier 2, that will be about a quarter of your life span. As time will be different in that plane, only about forty two years will pass on your home planet. Are you okay with this?” 

“Hell, no. But it’s better than burning up into nothing.” Maya said. 

The System smiled. “I can make you Tier 2, but I can’t undo what the searing did to your levels and experience.”

“Aw, shit. You mean I lost everything?” 

“You have been reset to level 0. All experience gains will be gone.” 

“What about Skills and Abilities?” 

“You will retain those, but they will be reset to level one or rank one. You will also keep the titles you have gained.” 

“What about Enemy of the State, can I get rid of that?” 

“No. That was a SIL Addition, you will have to resolve it on your own.” 

“Why do I keep those and lose levels?” Maya wondered. 

“Levels and experience are essence mana changing you. They are, as they say, big ticket items. Skills and Abilities are just, add-ons that really don’t consume that much essence mana. You will lose all the attribute points you gained from leveling, but not those awarded from Titles, Skills, or Abilities. Those I can restore.” 

“Yay for being a low leveled schmuck.” 

“Are you ready?” 

“Hit me.” Maya sighed. 

There was light and comforting warmth. 

***

“We’ve got incoming, boss,” Tender’s voice woke Maya up. She opened her eyes to see Nan standing over her, thin probing hands retracting into her shell. 

“We back?” 

“We have returned to the dimensional plane,” Nanaseto replied. 

“What’s the situation?” Maya sat up and felt woozy. They weren’t in the cage anymore. Instead they were in the chapel, the debris and corpses had all been dumped out around them. She stretched, feeling all the weariness pain and injuries she had suffered were gone. She looked down at her left hand and frowned. 

“Damn.” The System hadn’t been kind enough to regrow that for her. 

“What do you think, Nan?” 

We can do it in the Hanganathorie, but it will take about forty hours to regrow.” 

“Boss, I’m detecting a dozen of what you call stormtroopers approaching. They are armed and dangerous.” 

Maya shook her head and took a deep breath. 

“I’ve got this,” she said and walked forward. 

The first stormtrooper entered the room, behind them trailed a dozen more black armored figures. They carried an assortment of weapons and looked ready for a fight. 

“Shen’s dead.” Maya stated. There was no shocked murmuring, only a slight tilt of the head by the lead stormtrooper. Maya pointed at the charred corpse lying around the seven other stormtroopers. Shen’s twisted face was still stuck in an expression of pain and shock. “I did it. I killed Shen and now I’m in charge.” 

The troopers heard that and they raised their weapons at her. Maya felt a wave of fear, but stood her ground. “I’m not Shen. I know what he did to you. How he trapped you within your dying bodies. How he seared you and how he warped who you were. I know he had contingencies; to prevent you from killing yourself or one another.” 

The baker’s dozen of troopers glanced at one another. 

“Shen is dead. I offer you the same.” Maya stood her ground as the troopers looked at her. “I offer you the release of death. I offer to kill you.” 

Her mouth was a desert as she took another breath. “Submit to me. Give me your service and,” Maya steadied herself, “I will release you all from your torture. I will give you peace.” 

The troopers looked at one another and one by one they offered up their weapons. 

***

[Executioner] level 5

When the Judgement is laid down, someone has to enact it. 

+ 1 Soul Strength

[Necroslayer] Level 5

The Necros are a scourge of the Multiverse and you have defeated over a dozen high leveled Necros. 

+ 1 Luck

+ 1 to All Recovery Attributes

[Pirate] level 2

Through blood, force, and will you have taken a ship that belonged to another and through the right of conquest have claimed it as your own. 

+ 1 Physical Dexterity

[Necro Lord] Level 1

The Necro scourge of the Multiverse have given you their obedience. 

+ 1 Fortitude

Point of Contact

+ 1 To Tier

+ 5 Luck

+ 5 Foundation

+ 5 Fortitude

Tiered Up

You have gained a Tier level. Congrats. 

+ 1 Level

+ Tiers and You 101  

Death Strider

Blood drips from your weapon as you have slayed more than a dozen mid grade, Tier 1 leveled entities back to back.

+ 13 Attribute points

+ 65,000 EXP

Titan Slayer

Defeating an entity fifty times your level (rounded up to nearest level) 

+ 5 points to all Physical Attributes.  

+ 5 points to all Mental Attributes.

+ 5 points to all Soul Attributes.

+ 100,000 EXP

Heartless

They have submitted, they have surrendered, and yet you continue to feed your weapon their blood. Only the heartless do not know when to stop. 

+ 1 to All Strength Attributes

+ 1 Iron Heart Token

Laid to Rest II

Public health, morality, religion, whatever the reason, you saw to the dead and laid them to rest when you didn’t have to.

+ 2 Soul Channel

+ 10,000 EXP

The Release of Death I

Sometimes death is what is required. There are those who are freed when their life ends. 

+ 1 Death Token

+ 1 Mourner’s Hymn

“At least you had them kill the rogue AIs around here first,” Nanaseto remarked. The red box ambled toward her. “Necros. One can hardly believe they exist. Such things were stories from where I came from.” 

Maya watched the AI and brushed tears from her cheeks. She had kept up her end of the bargain. Shen’s victims had received their release and she sat within the habitat staring at the rainbow skies. The poor souls hadn’t raised a hand in defense when she had destroyed them. One by one, they had waited for the sword she had looted to end their lives, to end their suffering. It was heartbreaking. 

“With the cores down and recharging, I don’t think we’ll see any rogue AIs any time soon.” 

“We’ll need to find a way to shield them.” Maya brushed the last of her tears away and cleared her throat. “I think the trash pile the Hangy was under prevented them from homing in on it, well the higher leveled AIs, anyway.” 

“Tender is already checking on the inventory left behind by Shen. A hundred years of traveling and exploration has left him with a rather large amount of material.” Nan’s blue robotic eye tilted toward her.

“We’ll need to do something about that. Also the weapons the troopers were carrying. All of them were mid Tier and Shen didn’t skim on arming and armoring them.” Maya said. 

“Indeed. It is a wealth of material,” Nan replied. 

They looked at one another and knew they were dancing around the main topic.

“Bell is ready to be seen.” 

Maya nodded and stood up. She followed the red robot out of the room and through a series of corridors. Maya had thought the habitat was made entirely of Tier 2 system tech, but after the remaining troopers cracked open the locks and allowed her full access to the habitat, Maya discovered it was the same components she had been using. Only the cage and what filled Shen’s victims had been Tier 2. 

That made the high grade components very valuable. Already she had discovered that even as they were almost magical in their ability to create what she wanted; high grade, Tier 2 components didn’t last as long as Tier 1 components. It would be years, not centuries, before they wore out and had to be replaced. 

Therefore the hard decision was made to harvest the bodies of Shen’s victims and Shen himself. They had valuable Tier 2 tech in their bodies and she needed them. The dead were dead and they needed nothing. All that was left was rotting meat and system tech. She had harden her heart and commenced with the processing of the bodies.

The two entered the habitat’s medical room. It was a large spacious area that fortunately didn’t follow the Victorian decor that Shen had preferred. The room was spare and clean, providing a comforting sterile feeling Maya always associated with hospitals. 

Bell was unconscious. The big four armed man lay upon a wide bed, a silver dome of translucent glass covered him from head to toe. His chest move and his muscles twitched ever so slightly, but since they had found him, he had not wakened. 

Maya had thought they arrived too late or that Shen had hurt him further out of spite, but Nan had looked him over. The medical room had a spot for her core and Maya had spent some precious minutes installing the core into the habitat. Nan’s diagnosis was that he was in a coma. 

The metal spikes that she had seen in him weren’t torture devices, they were a crude method of fast healing mana channels. It was barbaric, according to Nan, and caused a lot of mental suffering. Combined with the near searing and other mind fuckery Shen had caused, Nan had stated it was best to keep him in a therapeutic coma for the time being. 

Maya was already coming up with plans to set up the VR system for Bell. Nan had made a comment that some patients responded to it well enough, that a therapy program could be created in the VR gear. 

“I’m sorry for what he did to you,” Maya said. “He won’t hurt you or anyone else again.” 

She wiped her eyes. 

A thumping filled the room as Tender’s large body entered. He still had his short, thick legs and wasn’t as mobile as he could be. 

“You alright, boss?” he asked. 

Maya looked up at him and smiled. Nan’s robot body stepped forward and looked at the screens on Bell’s chamber. It was an advanced healing pod, according to Nan, that would heal him of all his wounds, in time. 

“We’ve been through a lot of shit, guys.” Maya said, setting her hand upon Bell’s chamber. “We’ve suffered through a lot. We faced enemies that over powered us. We stood side by side in battle. Bell and I aren’t the same species, and the two of you aren’t the same kind of AIs. All of us are different, but all of us have stuck together through trying times. You have given me your trust, you have placed your lives in my hand and I thank you all wholeheartedly.”

“That’s our job, boss.” Tender said. 

“I’m not your boss. This is a horrible place and I’ve decided to stay here for the next five hundred years. I don’t think I can survive that long without help. If we work together and help one another, I think we can be more than just disparate entities, SIL or AIs. I think we can be family. When you need to survive, you need family.”

Maya set a hand on Tender’s shell and Nan’s box. 

“Together. We’ll survive this.” 

***

“So what now?” Tender asked. 

Maya glanced at Tender and his newly minted body. Instead of the puck shaped spider that he had inherited, he wore a newly manufactured frame that Maya thought of as a centaur. Six legs moved a boxy base that gave rise to a torso with two arms and a smooth reflective mask. Tender’s body was covered in the refurbished armor of the troopers, enough remained that even Maya had a pair she could get into if needed. 

The new body was a design that Tender had been working on during his down time. It was practical and kind of ugly, but he liked the versatility that it offered him. She was happy to help him build it, it kept her mind occupied.  

They stood in what Maya was calling the observatory, the long tower that Shen had formed when he wanted to show Maya the battles raging around the trash piles and the ship. It was a manipulation of the Tier 2 tech, more for show than any real purpose, but Maya liked the expanded view. 

There were no more rogue AIs, they had all been killed and three days of work had gone into burying the mana cores. They were still accessible for them to use, but a liberal amount of trash had been moved into the hole.

Maya was already enjoying the wonders of Teir 2 system tech. The nanomachine swarms could move items, reshape themselves into machinery at will. Shen’s unlocked files gave her all the abilities she needed to control the nano-machines, allowing her to make the swarms do her bidding. 

Most of that bidding had been to bury the mana cores and move the habitat that held Bell into the ship. Shen’s ship proved to be mostly a shell, the habitat fitted itself into the hollow space of the ship, providing all the comforts of home. Maya was impressed by the ability, for it allowed the ship to become a sort of cargo vessel, as it’s engines and mana core weren’t disconnected when the habitat moved out. That had given her some ideas. 

The ship was an issue on its own. Although she had commandeered the vessel and earn the [Pirate] ability as a result, she didn’t have full control of it, like the Hanganathorie. Shen’s tortured troopers had only access to the habitat and they had unlocked that, but most of the ship’s systems were out of her reach. She couldn’t access the bridge and she couldn’t access the main engineering rooms. 

The ship could fly and she wanted to be airborne, but currently there was no one to do the flying for her. Starship piloting was an ability that was gained after a lot of study and training; Maya didn’t even know where to begin with that. Therefore she was determined to return to the Hangy and extract those hidden AI cores that were still onboard. 

“We need to get back to the Hangy, check on Junior and bring more supplies back. I want to find those AI cores and see what we can do with them.” 

“Afterwards?” 

Maya stared up at the rainbow sky, her mind wandering. “It’s pretty crazy when you think about it, Tender. I mean, time here is flowing far faster than it is on Earth and maybe the rest of the multiverse. Twelve hours here is only one hour there. Weird right?”

“I suppose so, boss. But it doesn’t seem all that different from the time dilation experienced in the VR gear.” 

“But this is real life.” 

With his new shoulders, Tender shrugged. “I’m a computer construct, boss. The VR system was pretty real for me, just like right now is real for me.” 

Maya looked at Tender. “Really? I never… hmmm… well, have you ever given thought to a fully virtual simulated life?” she asked. 

“No. Although VR may seem real, it is not. I can differentiate that much. My action in VR have no consequences, but in reality… I can have an impact, as you have said before.” 

Maya grinned. “You’ve saved my life plenty of times, bud. I can’t ever repay you for that.”  

“As for what’s next? The data readings I’ve been perusing says the cores will have enough mana to punch a hole in the dimensional fabric every six days. Three days have already passed us by, but we’ll have three days to prepare for our next visit. Crazy to think only twelve hours or so will have passed back on Earth.” 

“What do you hope to accomplish?” Tender asked. 

Maya summoned a credit coin and flipped the disc in her hand. 

“I have an idea.”