B2-01 - Tier Me Up, Tier Me Down (V2.0) (Patreon)

Tier 2 Achieved

Your body, mind, and soul have fully adapted to Tier 2.  

-Note: This is a POC Tier 2 upgrade. You’ll still have to fully level to 100+ to use the full benefits of being Tier 2.

“What a crock of shit!” Maya yelled. “System! Where the fuck are you, you bastard!” 

“Boss?” Tender asked. 

Maya fumed. “That memory invading dickwad has added stipulations to my Tier change!” 

“Ah,” Tender replied. The red eyed man watched her from where he was stacking boxes of organics. Maria and her crew had spent a good ten minutes harvesting plants and other biomass from outside of the cage before she had left. 

Maya looked at him expectantly. “More emotion, Tender.” 

“Ahhh.” 

“Better.” She sighed. “This is bull. Why did I agree to it if I still have to level up to use special Tier 2 powers?” 

“Otherwise your body will burn up and you’ll die,” Nanaseto replied. The blue eyed doctor sat in her chair, watching them. She didn’t move, as her real body wasn’t much bigger than her seated form. 

“That’s still… not fair.” 

“You can’t cheat.” Nan replied. “Your body has to adapt, your mind has to adapt, your soul has to adapt. Leveling does that.” 

“Still a crock of shit,” Maya said angrily. 

“You’re still Tier 2 by any metric,” Nan said. “That’ll mean you’ll be able to level these lower levels faster than before. Reaching Tier 2 before level 100 is not unheard of, but once you Tier Up, your entire being is operating at a ‘higher’ level than most SIL. so faster leveling, at lower levels.” 

“Ah, well… I guess that’s not too bad, then.” 

“Indeed.” 

“Well, we’re all done here,” Maya said. She looked about the dimensional cage, it was filled with boxes she had generated from extra System Tech Tier 2 components that made up the cage. It was an extravagant waste, Maya knew, to use what amounted to nano-machines to create boxes to store lawn clippings, but she didn’t have any storage in the cage. 

Maria Valdez and her survivors had left, after a fitful sleep and some emergency rations to fill their bellies. The group of tourists and locals trapped on the island of Ko Sumai in Thailand had left in better spirits than they had arrived. 

The injured in their group, Vale, was back on his feet. Maria had the Settlement Outpost Deed in her possession and was Maya’s Chosen Representative, therefore she would run the community she formed. The others had spent what credits they had and purchased more weapons, clothing, and items that would make surviving a little bit more easier.

Maya didn’t envy them. They were all far from home and in a strange land during the apocalypse. Even Vale and Solada had come from a distant part of Thailand, whereas Nim was the only one born on the island. The island and surrounding seas were all full of monsters. Maya hoped they would succeed. 

“We made 6,250 credits,” Maya said. She did the math in her head. “That means it’ll be only eighty trips to make another five hundred thousand credits to buy another settlement deed. Eighty trips is about… Five hundred and sixty days.” She groaned at that. “We need more money, faster.” 

“We shall have to produce more stuff, boss. Find more avenues with higher rates of return on our product. You are currently selling at a massive loss.” 

“Don’t I know it. But you gotta lose money to make money!”

“No, boss.” 

Maya walked to the counter she had created and waved her hand. The counter fell away, to reveal a complicated looking device of screens and buttons. She pressed a big red button and reality wavered. 

Tender, who stood beside her changed, he was a medium sized man with red eyes, straight white teeth, and wearing a practical maroon and black skin suit. That changed a moment later as the holographic disguise disengaged. Tender’s true form was revealed, a six foot tall robotic creature with half a dozen red glowing eyes. A long torso ended in a sort of box at the base with half a dozen legs holding him up. 

Maya wasn’t a fan of Tender’s form, but he had chosen it and she respected his choice in forms. The rogue AI that was once a bartender, a trader, and now one of her few stalwart companions, could be a tiny goblin and she’d still accept him. 

“The holograms worked pretty good,” Maya said. “Thanks, Nan.” 

“I understand the need for concealment and deceit, but surely your species needs to acknowledge the existence of other species,” Nan said as she released her hologram and became a boxy red robotic body. 

Although Nan had stated she wished to remain on the habitat and monitor Bell’s condition, she also stated that there wasn’t much she could do for Bell. His channels were regrowing and his body was healing, but the mental damage was still there and the VR therapy program was still hit or miss in its effectiveness. Therefore she had joined them, using her holographic interactive system to augment their shapes and forms. 

Maya knew people would get over the fact they were robots, but that didn’t mean they had to be thrown in the deep end. She had already known that most of the people she would be meeting would have been suffering through some real bad shit in the last few days, having non humanoid alien AIs thrown in their faces, was just a bit much; in Maya’s opinion. 

Nan didn’t reside in the robotic body, instead her AI core was sitting in a very exposed box, beside the counter Maya stood before, hooked up to the pub mana core they had dragged into the cage. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. Plus, the doctor didn’t complain. 

“It’s not deceit, Nan. It’s easing them in on the whole thing,” Maya said. “A person is smart, people are stupid.” 

“They will have to get used to other species sooner or later,” Tender said.

“Why’s that?” Maya asked. 

“There’s a moratorium upon entering newly Integrated universes. The wider multiverse is not allowed to enter until one universal standard year has passed, about four hundred universal standard days. Once that year passes, Traders and corporations will begin arriving.” 

“Why would anyone come to newly Integrated worlds?” Maya asked. 

“Profit,” Tender said. 

“Isn’t everyone still scrabbling for survival at that point? I mean, if they can cross universes, crossing space and whatnot is probably far easier. Wouldn’t it be easier to trade locally?” 

“There are resources and material that are very abundant in newly Integrated worlds. The saturation of essence mana and the changing of the foundation of a universe causes some extraordinary resources to be created. Higher Tier civilizations require some of these exotic matter.” 

“Cool. Anything we can get our hands on to make some cheddar?” Maya asked. 

“You have access to a fully operational dimensional gateway that can connect to any part of the multiverse,” Tender said. 

“Right…” Maya frowned. 

“If you cannot figure out a way to exploit your advantages to generate an income, you are not thinking hard enough,” Nan stated. 

“I feel attacked,” Maya muttered. “Alright, show’s over. Let’s get this puppy back in the barn.” 

Dimensional Awareness II

Dimensional Inventory II

[Buyer] Level 1

You buy stuff. 

+ 1 Mental Dexterity

[Seller] Level 2

You sell stuff.

+ 1 Mental Recovery

[Haggler] Level 1

You haggle for stuff.

+ 1 Mental Perception

[Trader] Level 1

- Synergy Achieved

Combination of buying, selling, and negotiation has opened up the Trader - low grade Ability.

+ 2 Mental Strength

“Oh, look at that!” Maya grinned. “I’ve got the Trader Ability.” 

“Excellent,” Tender said. “I was originally programmed with the Trader ability also. If you can rank it to mid grade or gain above level 10, you will gain additional Skills.” 

“Awesome. So Trader’s a decent synergy Ability?” Maya asked. 

“There are multiple abilities that are similar to Trader, but Trader is a combination of buying, selling, and negotiation. Three basic level Abilities that create the low grade Trader Ability.” 

“Just like [Cook], right?” 

“Yes.” 

“How do I level it up? Just sell stuff?” 

“Trader is a combination of all three abilities, so… you have to use all three abilities to increase its levels. The higher you level each corresponding Ability, the more levels you gain in your ‘main’ Ability. 

“Sounds time consuming,” Maya replied. 

“When leveling an Ability, you gain more attribute points and Skills. In the long term, it is far more efficient to stay upon one occupational path than to grab as many Abilities as possible.” 

“Jack of all trades, pal.” 

“Yes, with the limited labor force and the path you have decided to travel upon. A variety of Skills and Abilities would best suit you.” 

“You’re too kind, Tender.” 

“As a verified [Trader], you can now resister a corporation with the System.” 

“Oh? I can be a legit seller of wares now? Are there taxes? Are there System compliance regulations and oversight?” 

“Those are all imposed by the local governing bodies or state entities. You register with the System and your claim will be respected across the multiverse.” 

“Sounds cool. What do I do?” 

“Just ask the System.” 

“System. I wish to form a corporation, with me as the Chief Executive Officer and Tender here as the Chief Operating Officer, Belmoro as the Chief Financial Officer, and Nanaseto as the Secretary. The name shall be the Sullivan Survival Society.” 

Maya Sullivan, Human, do you wish to register the Sullivan Survival Society as a Trade Company? Y/N

CEO - Maya Sullivan

COO - Tender

CFO - Belmoro Domakun

Sec. - Nanaseto

“Trade Company?” Maya asked. 

“It’s a low margin business that buys and sells wares that have been created or salvaged.” 

“Just like what we’re doing, huh?” 

“Yes.” 

“Alright, System. I accept!” 

Registration Fee processed

100,000 universal credits

Thank you for registering with the System - Your Trade Company will be recognized by all Integrated SIL in the multiverse.

“Oh, man!” Maya cried. “One hundred thousand!” 

[Trader] Level 5

“Okay, that’s fine.” 

Economic Foundation

You are the first to register a business with the System. Congrats, may your fortunes rise as you level. 

+ 1 Foundation

+ 2 Mental Strength

+ 1 Business Module Token

+ Integrated Economics 101

“Oh? What’s a Business Module?” 

Tender seemed to perk up at its mention. “Very interesting, boss. It’s a system generated module that will set up the foundation of what you want to establish your business as. Be it crafting, manufacturing, harvesting, or whatever you wish.”

“That’s a big decision,” Maya said, looking at the token that appeared in her hands. She could call forth what she wanted right now and be stuck with it, but she had to think on it. She had to choose correctly. 

Also, she didn’t have the time to fully create the module now. She had less than half an hour left on the dimensional cage clock and unfortunately System generated items could be be created in the dimensional plane. That required essence mana and there was no essence mana to be had in the rainbow sky hellscape. In void space the System could generate whatever was needed, but in the dimensional plane, it was prevented from doing so. 

Maya muttered a curse and shook her head. She would have to wait until she opened up the cage again in six days. 

She did generate the Integrated Economics 101. It was a knowledge cube that she greedily consumed. 

Integrated Economics Knowledge Cube - high grade, Tier 1

24 hours, 35 minutes

“Well, this hasn’t been an entire bust,” Maya said. 

***

“You’re gonna be alright?” Maya asked for the fifth time. 

“I shall be fine,” Nan replied. 

“You’re not going to get lonely? You’re not gonna be scared? You’re not gonna have a rager of a party without me?” 

“I have no emotional requirements nor do I feel fear,” Nan said. “As it will be only Bell and I on the ship, I doubt there will be a ‘rager of a party’.” 

“You say ‘doubt’ but that’s not a denial.” 

“I cannot foresee the future,” Nan replied. 

“Still not a denial!” 

“I shall be going now.” 

“Nan! We’re pals, right? If you’re having a party, you’d invite me, right!” 

“See you in a few days, Maya.” Nan said. 

The doors slowly began to close as Nan ambled out of the cage, carrying her AI core and the pub mana core. Although her mobile medical platform body was small, it was stronger than Maya, who needed Tender to carry the mana core around. 

“She’s totally having a rager without me,” Maya said as the doors thudded shut. 

***

“Don’t worry about her, Tender. Nan will be fine on her own,” Maya said. 

“I am not worried,” Tender replied. 

“The mana cores are nearly drained, only thirty minutes left on the clock. Once they’re dry, the whole core signature thingie will decrease and those big bad rogue AIs who stride the dimensional plane in search of juicy mana will no longer sense it. So she should be safe. Plus Shen already had plenty of shielding around the ship’s core and we buried the other two pretty deep. Nary a mana core signal will escape our well shielded cores. ” 

“I know, boss.” Tender said. 

“So don’t worry.” 

“I’m not.” 

“You don’t have to be stoic all the time, Tender. You can show emotion.” 

“Okay, boss.” 

“Well, now that we dropped the kids off at school, it’s time to head to work.” 

Maya raised her hands dramatically and ‘moved’ the dimensional cage. 

The dimensional cage Maya had taken from the asshole Necro Shen, was an amazing machine made of Tier 2 System Tech. It was comprised of nanobot components that changed themselves to fit any desired need and requirement. 

Currently they were programmed to create a stable ‘cage’ that generated a bubble within Void Space. A place between the dimensional plane that Maya called home and the multiverse at large. Void Space was as it sounded, a space where nothing existed. 

Mana was the only thing tethering the dimensional cage to the dimensional plane she was stuck on. She could create ‘doors’ that lead to the multiverse and ones that lead to the dimensional plane, but not at the same time. Living things could not cross over in either direction. She could enter the cage, but she couldn’t leave to enter the multiverse. Neither could someone from the multiverse enter the cage and then enter the dimensional plane. 

It wasn’t some law of the universe, but an arbitrary rule built into the fabric of the dimensional plane. The jerks, god like beings, or saviors of the multiverse (however you wanted to look at them) had decided that they didn’t want anything living coming into the dimensional plane. But as Maya had learned, if you want to hear god laugh, tell her your plans. 

The Builders hadn’t figured that beings would survive the crossing into the dimensional plane, but the universe likes to play with dice. Every living being had a one in a billion chance to survive the crossing. With those odds, not many living beings had made it across. Those that did, generally quickly died afterward as they were thrust into a hostile world with little food, water, or mana to draw upon.  

Maya had survived. Through luck and with help, she had managed to live long enough to make friends and find help. Long enough that she managed to exit the dimensional plane, meet the System itself, and strike a bargain. 

The deal Maya had struck with the man who called himself the System was simple. She would remain in the dimensional plane, what she called the rainbow sky hellscape, and become a Point of Contact for the System. This meant she would be used by the System to channel essence mana into the dimensional plane, where essence mana did not exist. 

The System then would use that essence mana to enact maintenance upon the dimensional plane, which turned out to be the physical embodiment of the System itself. Maya felt some amusement that the all powerful System’s body was filled with trash and murderous rogue AIs. If a body was a temple, the System needed some serious manscaping. 

That brought Maya to where she now stood. In the center of a fifteen by fifteen foot box that was free floating in Void Space. The laws of physics and whathaveyou did not exist in Void Space, but since she was generating a small bubble of reality; she had control over space and time. 

The cage existed, but the interior could be warped. As Maya stood there, she pushed the walls out to a maximum of nearly a hundred feet. At that point she was beginning to feel a strain upon her, a sort of disassociation that she knew if she kept it up, would cause the bubble to pop and then that would be the end of things. 

She could also slow the march of time itself. For her, time would continue as normal, but for the dimensional plane she was tethered to it would come to a near stop, from her perspective. It was an amazing power that had helped in her victory over Shen, although that ability only lasted as long as their was mana being provided by the mana cores. She could only stay within the cage for twenty hours, even if she stopped time in the dimensional plane where the mana cores were stored. The mana was still being consumed and she was still on the clock. 

She had had Dimensional Awareness VI and some of it remained in her head, but there was none of the additional instinctive knowledge Skills provided. She could feel the strange dimensional space around her and she could control it somewhat, but in reality she was a kid pushing buttons on a dashboard.

“We’ve got a lot to learn, Tender,” Maya said, collapsing the walls back to their fifteen foot original state. 

“Yeah, boss.” 

Maya rubbed her eyes, feeling the sudden onset of exhaustion. She had been up for nearly two days now, the entire eighteen hours she had spent with Maria and her group had been trying to answer questions from the woman. That Maria was a sharp cookie and Maya hoped her the best. She didn’t know half of what the woman wanted answers for, but she seemed to understand that Maya wasn’t a part of the world anymore. She was doing her own thing in another dimension and that was separate from what was occurring on Earth. 

“You think we’ll be able to make a difference?” Maya asked. 

“I sure hope so, boss,” Tender replied. He paused a second. “Most species survive Integration, otherwise why would the System allow it to happen. Your world is a Tier 2, Point of Contact system, it means there’ll be more monsters, more mutations, and more of everything, but that will also mean people will level faster, they’ll grow stronger faster, and hopefully they’ll be able to survive long enough to leave the planet before it becomes inhospitable.” 

Maya frowned at that. Tier 2 Point of Contact worlds and solar systems were known across the multiverse as hellish places. The essence mana funneled through those areas caused far higher than normal mana saturation, which caused mutations and mana renders that brought in monstrous beings from other Tier 2 worlds. Eventually the world would become too dangerous and it would have to be abandoned.

That’s how it normally went, but Maya didn’t want to see her home planet lost to mana mutations. 

“Also most species don’t have a Trader with access to a dimensional cage that can connect to anywhere in the multiverse or dimensional plane.” Tender added, sensing her mood. “Most have to rebuild everything from the ground up.” 

“Yeah. Yay us.” Maya cleared her throat and smiled. 

She opened another door, this one forming within a semi dark room. 

Maya looked out into the mess hall of the ship she had formerly called her home. The Hanganathorie, an exploration ship that had crash landed in the dimensional plane nearly twenty thousand years before. 

It had been infested with a rogue AI that she had to defeat to claim salvage rights upon the ship. In that fight, she had lost an eye and she had nearly died, but with Nan’s help she had been healed, better than normal. 

Now the ship had been abandoned. The necro, Shen, had arrived, kicked Bell and her ass, taken the main mana core, and in doing so, cut up the Hanganathorie. Maya had had plans to come back in the intervening days, but preparing for the trip back to Earth had consumed all her time. 

But the need for components, for material, for more supplies had brought her back. The ship was trashed, but it was a mine for components, which she needed to use to build more stuff. It was also the home of the one thing that would ensure her continued survival, Junior. 

Tender pushed crates out of the door while Maya followed him. She willed the door to close behind her and then the fifteen foot wall that was free standing in the middle of the mess hall vanished.

She could feel a slight tug in her mind, of the cage returning to the ship Nan occupied. It would also return there when it ran out of power, so she was glad of that at least. It didn’t need her to pilot it back home. Although activating the cage required essence mana channeling and she had to be there to do it. 

Maya glanced around the dark mess hall. The only lights that were shining were from a half a dozen soft red lights hanging over a large pool of yellowish algae that produced a somewhat sweet smell. 

“Junior’s looking fine,” Maya said. 

“I do not have a [Farmer] ability,” Tender said. “I cannot tell if it is doing well or not.” 

Maya yawned. “We got a lot of work to do, buddy.” 

“Indeed. Where shall we start?” 

“First, I’m going to sleep. Then I’m going to stare wistfully out of that hole in our ceiling, and then we’re gonna get Bonita that motor she’s been missing.” 

“Sounds like a plan, boss.”

“Alright, let’s do this.” 

/Author's Note

This is a part of the rewriting of the beginning.  I forgot the mention a few things in the original draft that have now made their presence known.