19 - Bang Bang

[Mechanic] Level 1

When machinery acts up, you’re called

+ 1 Physical Strength

Tools I - (Know the right tool for the job)

…

[Mechanic] Level 4

When machinery acts up, you’re called

(Bonus Attribute Points only given at level 1, 10, 20…)

[Handywoman] Level 1

Things always need fixing.

+ 1 Physical Perception

…

[Handywoman] Level 3

Things always need fixing.

(Bonus Attribute Points only given at level 1, 10, 20…)

[Gunsmith] Level 1

Every weapon needs a maker and repairer.

+ 1 Mental Strength

…

[Gunsmith] Level 3

Every weapon needs a maker and repairer.

(Bonus Attribute Points only given at level 1, 10, 20…)

[Digger] Level 1

When holes need to be made, you step up

+ 1 Physical Strength

[Smith] Level 1

Metal needs shaping to be useful

+ 1 Physical Endurance

[Clerk] Level 1

Keeping track of paperwork keeps empires running.

+ 1 Mental Channeling

[Riflewoman] Level 1

Ranged weapons expertise, train constantly

+ 1 Physical Channeling

[Laborer] Level 3

Everyone has to start somewhere.

(Bonus Attribute Points only given at level 1, 10, 20…)

Lock-picking I

Hacking I

Cleaning II

Record Keeping I

Improvised Tools I

Toolmaking I

Grave-digging I

Rifles I

Pistols I

Swords I

Axes I

Evaluation II (More information)

Plunder II (More loot)

Dimensional Inventory II (+8 additional slots)

Laid to Rest

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

+ 1 Soul Channel

+ 1000 EXP

“Now, pull back on the slide and there you go,” Richfield said.

Maya followed the dino-bot’s instructions, sliding the long rod back into the top of the rifle. It clicked into place and she felt the weapon vibrate for a second as mana connections reformed and the weapon readied itself to draw power. She double checked to make sure the safety was still on and that there wasn’t a charge cylinder in the weapon.

“You’re getting the hang of it, boss,” Richfield stated.

Maya looked up and smiled. The big robot didn’t have an expression on his metallic face, but his voice itself was expressive.

“Check me out,” Maya said, setting the rifle on the table.

“High five,” the AI said and Maya slapped the sausage thick fingers of the AI.

Six days had passed since Maya arrived to the Pub. She had taken it over, or as much as she could, and she had made uses of the resources the Pub held. One thing she had discovered in pillaging data from Tommo’s files were the knowledge bases that each AI held.

Tender wasn’t just a bartender, he was also a Brewer, a Trader, Appraiser, and Singer. Those being the abilities he had been programed with and could do at a moderate level. AIs couldn’t gain levels like SIL, but they could retain the knowledge. Low level abilities were easy to get but the higher you grew in an ability, it required mana to improve or make full use of. Therefore many AIs were used for the low and easy tasks as they could not channel mana. The brewing knowledge that Tender had would correlate to a low grade, Tier 1 knowledge base or less than level 20. But higher level alcohols required mana channeling by a skilled Brewer.

The pub didn’t deal in mana infused drinks. Which was a shame, as Maya really wanted to try one when she had found that out. Plaxar’s was more a dive bar than the futuristic space club she had thought.

B.P. Richfield, or the dino-robot bouncer, was in fact a Gunsmith, along with Bouncer, Handyman, Diagnostic Technician, and Bladesmith. It seemed that Tommo had a service where Richfield repaired, maintained, and cleaned weapons that were checked in with him. Since it was a Tier 1 world and many of the [Adventurers] here were lower leveled, Richfield could maintain a lot of the weapons.

It wasn’t a knowledge cube, but Maya still found herself learning a lot from the AI. It was the type of learning she had used all her life, being told how to do something, being shown how to do it, then doing it herself.

She had spent three days with the big AI, learning at his desk. Patience was an AI virtue, but then again they didn’t have much emotional range. Richfield patiently taught her how to strip down all the weapons that were in the holding racks behind him. It had been a simple thing to take all the Claim Chips that had been given to the dead patrons and return them for the weapons. Being the new boss, Richfield didn’t even bat a mechanical eye when she pillaged the racks.

She had gained a level in her Plunder Skill from taking all the weapons. Maya wondered why it hadn’t been [Looter] or [Thief], but all questions were being asked to an un-answering System. Either way, Maya had gained a lot of attribute points and more Abilities and Knowledge. The latter being something new.

She had thought that there would have been a Lock-picking ability, but it turned out that it fell into the Knowledge side of things. But Tender had said that when she leveled some of the related Knowledge and Abilities, it would create synergy and cause an Ability Consolidation.

“Right now you’re in what in the Union they call the Attribute Rush. A lot of kids go through it when they are finally able to access their Stats. A lot of the rich kids get sent out across their home planets to gain Abilities from other people,” Tender had told her as she and the naked AI, now called Annabelle, cleaned up the dance club. It was filthy enough that she gained two levels in Cleaning Knowledge. “There’s a System Title you can gain if you get all your attributes above 25 before you hit level one. Doubles your Foundation. Foundation being extremely important since it determines how many attribute points you gain when you level up.”

“I’m already level 9,” Maya replied.

“That’s a shame. System Titles are highly sought after, because they give the best chance of changing your Solid Stats. Luck, Foundation, and Fortitude. Luck being the one that’s the hardest to change. Followed by Fortitude and then Foundation. Fortitude determines how much mana your body can handle before it burns up. Most species are at about a 4 and you have to be over a 10 to raise in Tiers.”

That talk with Tender had led her into trying to learn more from Richfield, since he had the most skills she was looking for. She planned to eventually apprentice herself under all the AIs in the pub. Annabelle had several abilities, Unarmed Combat, Responder, Server, Dancer, and Thief. The latter already an ability that Maya had gained.

After scanning and loading all the bodies into the dimensional container, Maya had gone out and dug a giant hole. Yet before she could even do that, she had to make tools to dig a hole. The pub carried some tools, but they were more for repairing things around the pub than for digging holes.

It was how she had gained the [Smith] ability and the Knowledge, Improvised Toolmaking, Toolmaking, and eventually Grave-digging. She had found some sheet metal and a created a makeshift anvil. With a hammer, she began pounding the metal to make a shovel and a pick.

Restrictions that she could not lift, prevented the AIs from helping her. Therefore she had been on her own for an entire day, digging out a mass grave big enough to hold the eighteen bodies in the container. She had a strong desire just to bury the whole container, but the sheer value of the item and its usefulness changed her mind.

Maya was still impressed by her improved strength and stamina, working for hours without needing to rest or feeling the usual exhaustion and strained muscles from heavy work. The burial was held about a mile from the pub. There was a nice open flat clearing between three massive trash piles.

The ground was flat and the gray dirt was easy to dig through. She finished in less than a day and held a quick service for the dead. She didn’t know what religion they followed or what they believed in, but she said a few words and quickly buried them. The pragmatic and more gruesome side of her had told her to keep them in the container. They were essentially organic material that could be used when she got Nanaseto back up and running. Eventually the pub would run out of resources and even Tommo’s small kitchenette was out of food. She was back to dipping into her remaining food supplies once again.

She had wrestled with the moral dilemma, but morality won out. She would respect the dead. She had to have some limits. She was still human. She was still herself.

The Laid to Rest System Title seemed to support her decision.

Afterward she had taken another giant mug and locked herself into Tommo’s old quarters and had gotten very, very drunk. She first replaced the old bedding with the nest she had found in the Hangy Trash Pile.

Once she had recovered from her hangover, Maya had gotten to work once more.

The truck was her main concern. It was her only means of traveling distances. As it was she had already burned through half of her fuel, but if she wanted to get back to the Hanganathorie, she would need the truck. There wasn’t much to actually do on the truck except replace her water tank and try and fix the damage the ramming rogue AI had done to the side of the truck.

It was her escape vehicle. Therefore Maya had parked the truck some distance from the pub. If things came to a head, she would fall back to the truck and get the hell out of dodge. She prepared the truck as best as she could for a quick getaway and some items she would need to continue exploring the Hanganathorie when she returned.

Then it was straight to the weapons that Richfield guarded. She cashed in all the Claim Chips she had found and claimed the weapons. There were plenty and Richfield was knowledgeable about every weapon. The rifles fell into the category of hunting rifles. They were not military weapons, even though they were big, bulky, and dangerous looking. The pistols were personal defense weapons, similar to 9 mm’s. And the meelee weapons were for skilled badasses that fought up close and personal.

She had spent the ninth day with Richfield and learned everything about the weapons she had. How to load, how to clean, how to maintain, how to carry, etc. Then, with his help, she had adjusted the weapon grips to fit her small human hands and zeroed in the sights for her puny binocular eyes. Apparently seeing more of the EM spectrum was common among most aliens.

“What’s the best time of the day? Shootin’ shit time,” Maya exclaimed as she finished up her weapons tutorial with Richfield. She had spent six hours going over all the guns and making an inventory of the weapon types and ammunition. She had an arsenal, but was pretty low on ammunition. It seemed most people didn’t want to carry around large amounts of ammo when they were going to get drunk and spend some sexy time in a VR pod.

Richfield had explained that hunting worlds were dangerous places so people were required to carry weapons. You didn’t know when something would burrow up from the ground and spawn a thousand murderous vermin. Such things, it seemed, happened enough to warrant open carry laws.

Therefore she had weapons, but not much ammo. The weapons ran on mana, yes, but it was a different kind of mana. Ammo Makers were a thing, they created charge cylinders with a type of destructive mana. It was the high leveled stuff that Maya still didn’t fully understand. Mana channeling was used in crafting magical items, even allowing for attribute increases on weapons. So far, none of the dive pub patrons had anything magical.

The only truly expensive thing that she had found besides all the credits, was the high grade, Tier 2 dimensional bag off the battle bear. There was a marked difference between a low grade and a high grade, Tier 2 item. Where the container could take up to nearly five minutes to scan and load up a item, the bear’s bag was similar to Maya’s Dimensional Inventory. Quick and easy to use. So it was a simple decision to leave behind the container and carry the bag strapped across her chest, like the bear had done.

Richfield’s expertise also allowed her to hack the gene lock that had been on the pistol she had found in the shady doctor’s office back on the Hanganathorie. It was a revelation on how ignorant she was on weapons when they had discovered that the pistol’s charge cylinder was corrupted. It was a miracle she hadn’t blown herself up when she was handling it. The pistol had been safely disposed of in an empty stretch of gray dirt between trash piles. The explosion was impressive for such a small weapon.

The remaining weapons had been looked over and they all passed Richfield’s inspection. Maya was sadden to see that her dreams of arming herself with old ass weapons found throughout the trash piles wasn’t going to work. Nothing last forever. Richfield had stated that all Tier 1 energy weapons used charge cylinders as their main ammunition type, it was like saying guns used bullets. They came in all various types, sizes, and capacities.

With Richfield’s continued help, Maya sorted the weapons even further, deciding on three rifles and pistols. The weapons were good enough, but not stellar.

Richfield had suggested a variety of different weapons to use, as higher Tiered and leveled rogue AIs would be able to generate energy shields and other defensive capabilities. There were some weapon types that had bonuses against certain types of energy shields.

The rogue AIs were also another limiting factor in her weapon selection. The [Adventurers] had been hunting biological lifeforms on Haltor’s World, their weapons were designed to take down game, not rogue AIs.

Galazaan Type 25 Railgun - mid grade, Tier 1

Komari Flechette Shotgun - low grade, Tier 1

Komari NX45 Laser Rifle - mid grade, Tier 1

Taganari-15 Particle Blaster - mid grade, Tier 1

Shetomi NN4 Bolter - low grade, Tier 1

Mana Pulse Stunner - low grade, Tier 1

Marsani Alloy Sword - low grade, Tier 1

Marsani Alloy Fighting Axe - low grade, Tier 1

Caroz Dagger - mid grade, Tier 1

It was from the Mana Pulse Stunner that Maya gained the [Gunsmith] ability. The weapon had been a small stunning pistol and with Richfield’s help, she had cobbled together a weapon that could hurt a low leveled rogue AI. It had turned out what she thought was an electromagnetic pulse from the rogue AI she had battled in the Hanganathorie was actually a mana pulse. It did the same thing, overwhelming low Tier electronics, but as the System seemed to be dismissive about electricity electronics, it had to be mana based.

Yet another question.

She had then dismantled all the guns, reassembled them, and then did maintenance and repairs upon them all. By the end of the third day, Maya had gained three level in [Gunsmith]. Maya had also increased her knowledge, not Knowledge, about how the modular components worked together. The weapons were the same as the other electronics she had come across, filled with components and specialized pieces. She spent time identifying and remembering the parts and what they did that made the weapons work.

Though it all, Maya had also leveled the [Mechanic] ability she had learned while back at the Hangy. Breaking down and rebuilding simple parts had allowed her to level, although Tender said that [Mechanic] was an easy ability to level; [Technician] and [Engineer] were far harder.

With the remaining weapons, Maya expended all their ammunition and got the [Riflewoman] ability. Although she didn’t get anything for pistols.

***

On the eve of a fortnight in the rainbow sky hellscape, Maya found herself on top of the food truck. She had been stuck inside all day learning from Richfield and had felt the cabin fever begin settling in. Although, she realized, outside wasn’t that much better.

What she would do to just see a blue sky and feel the wind on her skin.

It was a dead quiet, according to her phone, night. The skies shifted slowly and only the creak of slowly failing materials made any noise. The void black cracks that crawled across the sky still filled her with an unexplainable dread.

Thirteen days.

It didn’t feel real, Maya thought. It was nearly two weeks since she arrived and she had seen so many things, nearly died, and was labeled some kind of criminal in the eyes of the System. The latter didn’t bother her much.

It was an odd way of surviving, she thought. She had binged watched many of those reality television survival shows and they had all been folks finding water and trying to make fire. She didn’t need to do any of that, but it still boiled down to the same thing. Finding resources to continue surviving. The tale of human history, Maya mused.

The comfort and near normality of being inside the pub had dulled some of her drive to learn as much as possible as fast as possible. A week and she hadn’t even left the pub, except the second day to dig the grave and make some tools from trash.

She jumped off the top of the truck and strode back towards the pub. It was about a kilometer distance, Maya having parked the truck away from the pub just in case the eventual happened. On the fourth day in the pub she had felt the ground tremble and had looked outside with the cameras, but had seen nothing.

It was possible that the mining barge might have been moving about again. As it ate trash, she wondered if it would deem the pub as trash and consume it. She didn’t know, but that just reinforced her paranoia that the rogue AIs were out there plotting. Even if the mining barge wasn’t a rogue AI.

“Everything’s gonna work out alright,” Maya said as she neared the door to the pub. She stopped and then cursed. Saying things like that only lead to trouble.

As if to reinforce the thought, a long wailing klaxon sound filled the air.