Assault, page 22
2.32/second (+.62)
Abilities:
Class Abilities:
Mask of the Inquisitor, Cloak of the Inquisitor, Staff of the Inquisitor, Concealing Smoke, {Redacted}, {Redacted}
Special Abilities:
Enhanced Regeneration
Species Bonus:
Mana Lifeline, Mana Manipulator, Emergency Regeneration, Mana Rage, Mana Feeding
Density Bonus:
Affinity Aficionado, Condensed Liquid Steel Skin, Mana Reinforcement
Skills:
Active Skills:
Inspect: 11
Inventory: <10>
*Living Inventory: 13
Mana Sight: 7
Passive Skills:
Air Mana Manipulation: <10>
Animal Husbandry: 0
Armorsmithing: 5
Botany: 3
Boxing: 4
Butchering: 3
Cartography: 2
Climbing: 6
Clothworking: 3
Cooking: 0
Crossbows: 0
Cycle Driving: 1
Darkness Mana Manipulation: <10>
Death Mana Manipulation: <10>
*Absorptive Death Mana Manipulation: 8
Diving: 2
Dodging: <10>
Earth Mana Manipulation: <10>
Elemental Absorption: 6
Fire Mana Manipulation: <10>
*Plasma Mana Manipulation: <10>
*Projectile Fire Mana Manipulation: <10>
First Aid: 0
Herbology: 2
Ice Mana Manipulation: 10
Jiu Jitsu: 4
Karate: 4
Leatherworking: 2
Life Mana Manipulation: <10>
Light Mana Manipulation: 5
Lightning Mana Manipulation: <10>
*Electromagnetic Mana Manipulation: 8
Magma Mana Manipulation: <10>
Mana Compression: <10>
Mana Forming: 0
Mana Infusion: 3
Mana Manipulation: <10>
Mana Projectile Weapons (Small): 5
Mana Projectile Weapons (Medium): 2
Mana Projectile Weapons (Large): 0
Mana Splitting: 8
Metal Mana Manipulation: 3
Metalworking: 5
Mining: 6
Nature Mana Manipulation: <10>
Piloting (Small Craft): 0
Poison Mana Manipulation: 1
Projectile Mana Weapons Maintenance: 3
Sewing: <10>
Set Crafting: 2
Skinning: 4
Small Blades: 4
Sprinting: 3
Staff Combat: 9
Swimming: 4
Taekwondo: 3
Tailoring: 8
Water Mana Manipulation: <10>
Wing Chun: 3
Runes:
Fire Rune, Air Rune, Water Rune, Earth Rune, Nature Run, Lightning Rune, Ice Rune, Magma Rune, Life Rune, Death Rune, Light Rune, Darkness Rune, Metal Rune, Poison Rune
Resistances:
Basic Elemental:
1.4
Adv. Elemental:
1.9
Pain:
5.9 (+0.4)
Illusion
3.1 (+1.1)
{Redacted}
3.0 (+1.0)
Poison
4.1 (+4.1)
Achievements:
Brave, Bold, and Boneheaded (3, Hidden)
Beast Basher (3, Hidden)
Nuking Knockout (5, Hidden)
Mighty Mana Mastery (Hidden)
Rowdy Runic (Hidden)
Affinity Absorbed (Hidden)
Masterful Mana Manipulator (Hidden)
Clever Creator (Hidden)
Loony Loner (Hidden)
Striking it Special (2, Hidden)
Dog Destroyer (1, Hidden)
[Thanks, Jo. I think you’re right. Go ahead and assign Tailoring and Armorsmith as secondary professions. I’m going to hold off on primary for now.]
Confirmed. At 778 ppm density, the request will take 19,839 minutes, or 13.78 days . . .
You are all caught up. Now rest and I’ll wake you when it’s time to go to your meeting at 09:00 . . .
I hold Aria tightly and close my eyes, trying hard not to remember the faces of those people in the cages. Or worse, putting the faces of those I love in their place.
Chapter 43
When I open the door to room eight, I am surprised to see the cryspad display already on but not showing anything by black and a woman in one of the seats. She wears a mask and hood.
“Well, my cover is blown. Hey, Shield.” Not that I believe for a second she didn’t already have my identity.
“Sword. I love your hair. Can we talk about things to do with it?” Shield’s voice is modulated as always.
“Please! All I do now is a ponytail and—”
The screen comes on, and the admiral appears. “Shut the fuck up, you two.”
We both stand and salute. “Oh, sit the fuck down. Sword, worry about your fucking astounding good looks later.”
Shield nods. “You are totally gorgeous.”
“Thank you, Shield.”
“Will you stop? Sword, fucking report.” The admiral really sounds exasperated.
[Jo, please be ready to send a video of the events that hides any hint of my class. And inform me when the MagiTech case is dismissed. When we’re out, ask Omamba if we can counter-sue.]
“Yes, Admiral. You are aware of MagiTech’s Injunction against my company in regard to the lands?”
Shield responds. “Yes. We also saw the judge being a pain in your ass. You sent us an update but pretend you didn’t.”
I nod.
“Understood. I awoke from my level up to find out about the injunction and immediately took a flyer to get there. I was kidnapped or something and decided to see where they took me. I am sending a recording of that now.” I tap the crystal. “It was a pretty uneventful kidnapping, all things considered. I almost ended it early because it was so boring. But my willpower withstood the test, and I waited to get there until unkidnapping myself. I have already sent you all the material I have on the location where I was taken.”
“Amateurs,” Shield pipes in.
I nod to her. “Agreed, which in and of itself is telling. They were one hundred percent on the neutralizing gas working. Anyway, I then flew back to the mining town. Here is a recording of that.” I tap the crystal. This one I do not narrate because there is no reason. Even Shield and Honor are laughing at some points. At the end, I say, “I sent Junior and his men on their way and went home.”
The admiral asks, “Do you believe the little shit will follow through on his threats? This is for either of you.”
I look at Shield. She shrugs and says, “I actually do not believe so. His record is one of being a blowhard and much more soft than the portrayal he shows. He is weak and cowardly according to all the information I have.”
I nod. “Good to know. I’d hate to have to terminate him. Well, actually I wouldn’t, but whatever.” The admiral snorts. “Anyway, that evening I visited the judge and confirmed my suspicions he was a victim and not a participant. MagiTech had kidnapped his daughter. Here is a recording of our conversation.” I tap the crystal.
The admiral asks, “You feel he was being totally honest?”
“I am absolutely convinced of it, Admiral.” He nods and I continue. “I had very few leads, so I listened to my instincts and went to one the warehouses our slaver thug friend went to. It turns out there was an illusion on the inside that my illusion resistance had just reached high enough to slightly pierce. I suspect that that is the reason I kept returning to the place; my resistance was being set off. It is also likely why I had a negative feeling of the women who ended up stabbing me a few weeks ago.”
Both of them nod.
Clearing my throat, I say delicately, “Well, Admiral. While I would like to show you a recording of the entire events inside, I am only permitted to show you an edited version. Please do not ask why and please do not order me to show you more.”
Shield sits back in her chair and looks at the admiral and then back at me. For the umpteenth time, I wish I could see past her red mask. The admiral is quiet for a few seconds before he says, “That is a lot to take on your word, Sword.”
I nod. “I agree, Admiral, it is. But I ask for your trust in this matter. This has to do with my Singularity Class.”
“Fuck!” He slams his fist on the table. Shield leans forward like she wants to jump across the table and ask questions.
I tap the crystal, and an edited version comes up. It offers the gist but hides my body when wearing the cloak, changes my voice, and eliminates my sentencing at the end. All the rest is there.
“As you can see, in the end I had to eliminate MagiTech’s reactionary forces and move the civilian victims to the Whyatt hotel. They were healed in a makeshift infirmary. The total number saved stands at ninety-seven, last I heard.”
The admiral says, “Well, we are fucking blown now. Those shit fuckers know we are after them. There is no point in Tabard playing nice anymore.”
Shield says, “I found our leak. It was one of my new personnel that made it through the investigation process just recently to assist with the new heightened load. This individual knows little and can offer close to nothing.”
The admiral is yelling about that. “How the fuck did that shit make it through vetting?”
Shield’s response is totally neutral when she says, “I’m looking into that.”
The admiral’s next question is directed at me. “Sword, how does this affect your plans? I’m sure you don’t believe that was the majority of slavery operation. What is your next move?”
“No, I don’t and I have few valuable leads until the materials that I sent from the ring are sifted through. Shield will tell me what I need to know, I have no doubt. And I believe the final thug is valueless now. My next move is the same as it was before with two additions. I will be continuing to investigate the earthcare company’s customers, growing my business, building my HQ, learning the spearstaff, building my team, and most importantly, increasing my saturation and leveling up repeatedly.”
The admiral asks, “What about the target location of the kidnapping?”
Shield answers for me. “They know that location has been compromised and would have already sanitized it. There is no rush going there.”
Shield then asks me, “What are the two exceptions? And you say repeatedly like you have the ability to level up a number of times.”
I clear my throat again. “Yes, well . . . to the first question, this one is a bit of a shit storm. Do you recall I reported a map with two coordinates of unknown purpose?” They both nod. “I went to the one in the east and discovered a dungeon.”
“Shitballs, Sword! Fucking fucker shitting fucker . . .” Oh boy, there he goes.
Shield attempts to save us from the seminar on swearing. “Are you sure, Sword? And if so, what is your next step?”
“I intend to explore it and determine its value. If the potential return is sufficient, I will buy the land, build a village or town, and ask the Hunters Guild to place a facility there. They feel they owe me a favor or are friends or some such. Moreover, the logical conclusion is the second location on the map is also a dungeon but is likely underwater, so I will be taking that on when I have fully prepared. I will likely take the same steps if that is of value, but I may not. I’m waiting to see it.”
Shield doesn’t let me escape though. “I see. That is a clever way of managing a volatile situation. I would expect Tabard to come up with something like that. And your comment about leveling?”
I nod and say, “I have enough mana essence built up to reach level eleven.”
The admiral shares with us another swearing exposition and ends with, “What the fuck are you waiting for?”
I look at Shield and then at the admiral, taken aback. “I admit I am surprised to hear you ask that, Admiral.”
“What? Why?” he asks.
“Shield?” She shrugs, saying she doesn’t know either.
“Oh. This isn’t good. I need to give you both a primer. I apologize to both of you. I have been using the term ‘saturation’ and assumed you understood what I meant.”
The admiral responds. “Shield told me something about nanos having saturation, but neither of us considered it very important.”
My only response is, “Well shit.” Then I ask a question I fear the answer to. “Do you even know what a level up really is?”
The admiral says, “Sure. Everyone knows that Specials get enough essence and they get more stats and skills.”
I sigh. “Admiral. Shield. That is so much of an understatement I’m struggling with where to start.” I think for a minute and say, “You are aware that nanomachines change as the Special changes, yes?” They nod. “I think you also know that when a Special levels, the nanomachines conduct a complete analysis of the user. Right?”
I hope none of my annoyance is coming through in my voice. They nod again. Everyone knows this; the alerts say so. “What it sounds like is that you do not know what the nanomachines actually do with that information. That evaluation results in the nanomachines doing a complete recompilation of themselves. An evolution. They grow and become smarter, faster, denser, more able to respond. And most importantly, as they do this, they change the host based on what they have learned. So tell me Admiral, Shield. What would happen if they learned almost nothing and what would happen if they learned a great deal?”
They stare at me dumbfounded.
“How much they have experienced and learned is called saturation.” Then I give them my dissertation on saturation, and I end with, “Level is nothing more than a representation of mana essence gathered and the number of evolutions they have gone through. I am stronger than any Special under the level of fifteen and many under twenty. I am level three. Why? Because of my density, sure. But also because I max saturation every time I level. Each level up, I become three to five times stronger, not the twenty to thirty percent unsaturated Specials do.
“And that is not all. Overwhelming amounts of saturation can result in titanic changes. I am about to share something that, were it to get out, would likely cause a leviathan-level event. Are you prepared for me to share it?”
Shield says, “Now I have to know.”
The admiral follows up with, “Proceed, Sword.”
“Admiral, I just completed a four week leveling process because of my saturation. That sounds outrageous, I know. However, listen to the outcome. My magica attribute went up nearly nineteen points. I’m level three, Admiral. ”
The admiral is screaming now. “Shield! How in the shit-faced fuckhells did we not know this?”
I don’t let her answer by continuing immediately. “But that is not the most extraordinary thing, Admiral. During my first evolution, I was flooded with mana essence because my saturation and density were too high. My nanos could not process all the knowledge so they restarted my nanomachine system multiple times over a period of two and half months. And the result of that flood of essence and evolution is what I am about to share.”
I take a breath and say, “Admiral. Shield. I am immortal.” They do not react at all. No movement at all. “I no longer age. I no longer eat or drink or excrete anything. I feed off mana, which is a pristine source of energy. I can die from physical harm, sure. But I will never get old, and I will look as I do for eternity if nothing changes.”
There is silence for a full minute when Shield finally answers the admiral’s question before I shocked them both. “Admiral, I don’t think more than a handful of people on the planet know about the benefits of full saturation. Maybe fewer than half a dozen.”
“All our Special operatives need a reeducation. Fuck!” He screams that last word again. “Sword! You are to conduct a fucking training so Shield can create a new fucking plan for growing our fucking Specials!”
Shield and I both say, “Yes, Admiral.”
“FUCK!” He really bellows that one. “Do you know how much we’ve fucking wasted on poor intel? Shield, fucking fix this. Right the fuck now!”
I wince. I mouth to her, “Sorry.”
She says again, “Yes, Admiral.”
“Get out of my fucking face, both of you! Noctis Venandi.” He then shuts off the comm before we can repeat back.
Chapter 44
“I’m sorry, Shield.”
She sighs, which sounds odd with a modulated voice. “This isn’t your fault, it’s mine. I should know better than to ignore anything you say. I cannot believe I missed this. He’s completely right, I fucked this up, and I need to fix. So teach me how to teach them.”
I spend the next hour telling her everything I’ve learned about saturation and the proper ways to get it and level.
When we’re done, she looks up from the notes she’s been taking and asks. “Are you really ageless? Like the elves?”
I nod. “It seems so. Although elves do age. You should know I don’t expect everyone who fully saturates to gain that. I’m . . . different. My density is simply too much for the nanos to deal with at such a low evolution level.”
She shakes her head and sighs. “I understand. How does the entire human population have this so wrong?”
“The answer to that question doesn’t matter right now, although I think we will eventually want to solve for it. What matters is, do we spread it globally? That is obviously above my pay grade, but I recommend a yes. Our species needs to be better at everything. Can you imagine where we would be if we knew this a century ago? Or even just fifty years? And let me add another crack in your crystal. What if some Specials know this but are hiding it from NanoNet and aren’t sharing? And even bigger, what if NanoNet knows but the hive intelligence isn’t sharing?”
