24 - Rogue Rider

“You are a fool!” Bell announced.

“Whoa, easy there, big fella,” Maya snapped back. “I’m just not into eating people.”

“They’re organics!” he cried. “Do you see anything growing in this world? If it can provide you calories and sustenance, then consume it. Some pseudo-morality about eating formerly sentience beings is nonsense! Are you some tree dwelling West Islander who thinks they’ll be haunted by mana ghosts?”

“Well. Did you eat your fucking companions, pal?” Maya said.

Bell paused a second. “We were on an eight day excursion and packed accordingly with a few extra days worth of supplies in case we got hindered. We were four days into the expedition when we got caught up in the Dimensional Instability.”

“That means you have plenty of food left?”

“No. I’m out of food. I have been for two days, or at least two sleep cycles. Water I can condense from the atmosphere with my water stones, but after that…”

“So, you were planning on eating me if you killed me?” Maya demanded.

“Perhaps,” Bell gave her a rounded tooth grin.

“What happened to your friends?” Maya asked.

“They died.”

“Don’t be that kind of asshole,” Maya replied.

“They are with me. I stored their bodies in my Dimensional Inventory,” he finally replied.

“You’re carrying them around now?” Maya asked, surprised.

“They are organics and potentially food. With the Dimensional Inventory, I was able to… split them into seventeen stacks and as nothing in the Inventory decomposes…” Bell said after a while. “I… I still haven’t gotten the urge to consume them yet.”

“And you’re giving me shit about not feasting on three day dead corpses? Your friends are at least fresher.”

“We were in the Topan Swamps, insects and blood feasters. I would not call them fresh. Especially Bensitno, that horrid woman,” Bell laughed. He laughed long and hard for a moment, a braying sound that was a cross between donkey noises and someone punching a donkey.

“Nothing beats gallows humor,” Maya replied and bent down to pull a pan from the oven. “Chow’s done. Wash your paws, all of them, and grab a plate.”

After releasing Bell, and allowing him to dress in privacy, Maya had decided the arrival of a new humanoid living creature prompted the creation of a meal from the left over food she had. It wasn’t much, there was some meat and potatoes left, along with the last of her corn on the cob. There were spices and she knew her way around a trashed kitchen.

“This food is very bland,” Bell said as he shoved a forkful of meatloaf into his mouth.

“Thanks,” Maya replied tersely.

“No. I mean there’s no mana in it. Mana should be everywhere, especially in the food you cook. It helps in mana recovery,” Bell said.

“My world was just in the process of Integration when I was zapped away by the Dimensional Instabilities,” Maya said.

“It’s weird, but not horrible,” Bell said after a while. “I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long eating… non-mana foods.”

“What do you mean?”

“The consumption of plant and animal processed mana doesn’t only help in mana recovery, but it also supplements your body. It boosts your healing and recovery. Eventually as you raise in Tiers, one wouldn’t have to eat anymore. They’d be able to subsist solely on ambient mana.”

“Sounds horrid. I’d never be able to give up bacon,” Maya replied over a mouthful. “Even if I haven’t had any in over two weeks.”

“At least it’s not poisonous,” Bell continued eating.

“You can tell that?” Maya asked intrigued.

“I’ve got Identify By Taste and Poison Knowledge, both very useful to Alchemists.”

“So you can gain Skills from leveling Abilities, right?”

“Yes. Synergy is the key, though. If you can get all your Abilities working right and then add on top of that, getting the right Ability in the right order, you’re bound to get quality Skills. The Dimensional Inventory is nearly unheard of. That’s a System Skill, it’s awarded directly by the System.”

“Isn’t everything awarded by the System?”

Bell chewed his mouth full of potatoes, looking at her as if she were a child.

“There are laid out pathways that have been tested and proven for thousands of years. These Paths, a person walks and does things the right way, they’ll get set Skills. [Alchemists] always get Poison Knowledge or Mana Channeling as a Skill, they are Occupational Skills, which one will always get if they follow an Occupation Path. There are also a variety of different grades to Skills that one can get, low, mid, and high. Appraise , Identify, and Analyze are in the same Skill category, but different grades. Each allowing the person who has the Skill to learn more from what they see. The System Skill, Evaluation, is far powerful and far more useful than all of those. That’s a skill that only the System can give you.”

“How does Identify By Taste fall into that?” Maya asked, curious.

“It’s the same grade as Identify, but designed for Alchemy. I can tell what properties a plant has by consuming it. The more I consume, the more I can identify what’s in it and from other knowledge I’ve already gathered, I can formulate the best way to incorporate it into a potion.”

“Sounds painful,” Maya said. “Get sick a lot?”

“Iron Stomach,” Bell replied. “I can eat anything.” He shoved the entire corn on the cob into his mouth, chewing all of it. “The [Chefs] in my city were renown for their culinary arts. Their food provided boosts to recovery and healing, along with temporary buffs to Physical stats.”

“Cooking is an Ability, right?” Maya asked.

“Of course.”

“Well, I’ve been cooking since I’ve got here and I haven’t gotten no [Chef] ability. Hell, I pilfered from some bones and I got [Looter of the Dead] easily. But cooking? Nothing.”

“Ah, there are some Abilities that have requirements. Being a [Chef] that can provide attribute boosts requires a lot of different Abilities that have to be Synergized to effectively work. Even a low grade [Cook] requires Abilities like [Butcher], [Harvester], and others. I don’t know much about it,” Bell said. “There are low grade Abilities that most people can gain, which most people try to obtain during their Attribute Rush-“

“Oh, Tender said that was a thing. You guys do it too? Try to gain as many Abilities as possible before level one?”

“Yes, everyone should. There are several Titles that the System awards, Factotum is the most common. It’s a job based Title, giving you a boost to leveling non-combat abilities. Then there are rarer ones that take specialized training and years of study before you can gain them, which you’d have to accomplish before you start leveling. Setting the foundation of your entire leveling and direction you want to go in life will lead to the most success.”

“How about, y’know, a balanced approach to it? Not specializing.”

“I imagine it would be fine for a Tier 1 world that’s been recently Integrated. There aren’t that many dangers, from what I’ve heard, on new Tier 1 worlds. It takes centuries for the mana saturation to really mess with plants and animals.”

“Oof,” Maya groaned. “Earth, my home planet, became a Point of Contact when Integration occurred, which bumped it up to Tier 2.”

“Your people never had mana before?”

“Nope.”

“Then, I’m afraid your world is doomed. Most likely your entire species, also.” Bell said, shoving another piece of meatloaf into his mouth.

“Fuck.”

***

“It’s looking at me,” Bell announced.

“What’s looking at you?” Maya asked, looking up as she stripped machinery from the pub. After the depressing dinner, she hadn’t felt tired, even after the long friggin’ day she had, so she decided to continue salvaging items from the pub.

[Scavenger] Level 1

Trash is trash, but when you’re desperate…

+ 1 Mental Perception

“Your abomination.” Bell replied. He pointed an upper larger arm toward the mana core and where Tender resided.

“You know those eyes are just drawn on, right?” Maya said. Bell glared at her. “Also, he’s using the entire sensor suite of the computer, so he can literally see ‘everything’ in a localized sphere. Also, stop being a child or I’m gonna make you sit in a corner.”

“Your ignorance is outstanding-“

“Thanks,” Maya snapped, standing up. She was in the upside down office and Bell’s large bulk towered over her. She hadn’t realized how big he was, the extra arms added to his width and although his legs were shorter than her’s, his torso was long and heavily muscled. In addition, when not in his slightly hunched form, he stood nearly seven feet tall.

Maya didn’t back down though, she had been through a lot in the last day, maybe it was longer than a day. Maya felt exhausted, but her mind was too wired to sleep and there was a dull ache in her head she attributed to the wrongness of the dimensional bomb hole.

She could ignore it when she was near the truck, but in the pub and so close to the hole, it was like a slowly increasing migraine. With her luck, it would be some kind of radiation that was probably causing her brain to melt, even if Tender said there were no residual after effects from dimensional bombs. The migraine, the long day, her still aching body, and now Bell’s complaining were all contributing to less than diplomatic frame of mind.

“Look, he’s just sitting there trying to live his best life. The guy just lost his body and most of his higher brain functionality, now he’s forced to live in a low grade processor, whereas he had a nice mid grade core.” Maya snapped, stepping forward. Bell seemed surprised by her reaction and took a step backward. “Now why don’t you take your rampant bigotry and shove it up your ass, buddy.”

“Why I-“

“Go clutch your pearls somewhere else, Karen. Tender got here first and he’s been Team Sullivan all the way.”

“It’s only a matter of time before-“

“No. It’s only a matter of time before I shove those baby arms you got up your ass and kick you to the curb. You might think you’re hot shit, being level 30, but this lowly level 10 badass literally sent you running.”

Bell trembled with rage, every one of his four fists clenched. Maya hesitated a second, thinking she had pushed too far with her words, but then she dismissed it. He was an asshole and the longer he continued to be an asshole, then it would make their tiny group a living hell.

Group dynamics was a new challenge; the last two weeks had been her surviving solo. The AIs, once she changed her job title, were receptive and obedient, but that never felt right with Maya. She could intellectually understand they were machines, but a part of her still thought of them as people. Perhaps it was just her own foolishness, but she couldn’t stand by while some dick-brained bigot talked shit about her only surviving friend.

But she knew when she was getting too self-righteous. It had been a problem in her younger days, when she had adhered to Pops’ words. She still heard his words and sayings everyday, but when she had been younger they were gospel.

She had come to realize that although Pops’ words were succinct, they were not the most palatable for other people. She had grown up on them and she had eventually began repeating them to others, which ruffled a lot of feathers.

It had taken a lot of introspective thinking for her to come out of the shadow of Pops. It was why she called her brothers dumb-asses, because they still hung to his words as if they were holy writ.

In the real world, it was a constant thing to keep her mouth in check. But the weeks she had been in this rainbow sky hellscape, she had been letting go of that leash. AIs and trash piles didn’t care what she said.

Maya choked back more scathing words and sighed heavily. She knew this feeling, the words she would continue to utter until she destroyed what peace there was between Bell and her. She had done it before, with Shelly and others whom she had considered friends. It took an effort, but she reigned in her anger and steadied her words.

“Look, Belmoro. I said you can be here with us, but if hateful bigotry is all you’re bringing to the table, then maybe doing your own thing will be for the best. This world is fucked and we’re both on the verge of dying here. So it’s either adapt or get fucked. I’m not getting fucked.”

“I-“

“I’m not done yet. Tender is my friend. He was here when I was on the verge of losing my sanity and he and the others, who are now dead, helped me when I knew nothing. Until the day he goes Skynet and nukes Russia, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s good AI. So, if all this bitching and moaning about Tender is cumulating into a ‘him or me’ kind of thing, I’m going to tell you this now. It’s going to be Tender I choose.”

Bell stared at her, his hands still clenched and his jaw working like it had cud in it. “I see.”

“I don’t think you do see at all. You’ve been told all your life AIs are bad; I get that. But look around you. Nothing lives here except AIs. We need them and their knowledge and their abilities if we’re going to survive long term. I’ve got a line on a doctor AI that can turn organics into food; real damn food, therefore, you don’t have to go cannibal and eat your friends. That’s System Tech and that’s AIs for you.

“Your people might have disdain for technology, but its all we got here. If you don’t come to terms with that, then you’re going to die. It doesn’t matter if you’re keeping yourself ‘pure’ or something, no food, poor weapons, and vast amounts of danger are all gonna do you in.

“I’m not asking you to become some robophilic weirdo, but just use your brain and realize there is a difference between AI and rogue AI. One was programmed by SIL and the other is pretty much wild animals looking for mana.”

Bell continued to chew his cud.

“So what’s your choice, bud? You gonna hang around and help in trying to survive; or you gonna take your high horse and ride on out of here?”

“I shall help,” Bell finally said.

“Cool,” Maya responded. She felt a shudder of relief. Sure the fight wasn’t over, Bell wasn’t going to change his worldview with one argument, but it was progress. Even with her words, she knew she didn’t want him to leave. AIs were cool and all, but a real life person to talk to, she wanted to maintain that. “I’m gonna cobble together something for Tender. A mini body so that he doesn’t just have to be an exposed processor. Wanna help?”

Bell visibly shuddered, but kept his mouth shut. “I shall help,” he repeated.

“Awesome. Maybe we’ll find a whole robot body and make our job easier…” Maya trailed off. “Oh, shit. Now I remember!”

“What?”

“There’s a nice body lying around out there we can use!”

***

“It’s a tricycle,” Maya cried out in delight.

“Yes, I built it myself. As you can see, well crafted. I may be an [Alchemist], but I have learned other crafting abilities also. ”

“Oh my god, you’re a big boy, aren’t you!” Maya continued laughing in joy. She ran up to the machine and looked at it.

Bell might have a distaste for System Tech, but that seemed only to involve mana powered devices. Now simple metal and machines were fine by him, even if they were made using System Tech.

He had not walked in his travels, instead Bell had used what appeared to be a large tricycle with ample storage on its rear two wheels. The front of the tricycle was a massive wheel with a steering bar and pedals mounted at arms height. As his legs were fairly short and his upper arms were massive as heck, Maya could see how the design was suitable for him.

It was an impressive machine. Maya had to admit. The frame was sturdy and it seemed to be able to carry a lot of weight, judging by the stacks of equipment and materials on the cargo area of the tricycle.

“This is awesome. Come on, let’s load up the mana core,” Maya said excitedly, before running back toward the truck.

“Wait, what?” Bell demanded.

***

“Is that our destination?” Bell panted.

Maya jumped off the back of the tricycle and grinned when she saw the rogue AI corpse in the dirt where she had left it. It was a risk going all the way out there for it, but with two armed people to combat whatever lurked in the trash piles, Maya was confident.

“That’s it,” Maya acknowledge and hurried over toward the puck shaped machine.

It had been nearly ten days since she fought and defeated the rogue AI, she had taken the head to see what she could do with it, but that remained in the pile of ‘stuff’ she was eventually going to take back to the Hangy. She wondered if the rogue AI core inside that head was still functional. Maybe Nanaseto could overwrite the old AI and take the core as her own.

They dragged the mana core toward the AI corpse. Tender watched and begin directing Maya on what to do. She carried a lot of cables and the old AI core container from the pub, along with whatever tools she could lay her hands on.

“I’m stating my disapproval of this whole thing,” Bell said from his tricycle. He leaned on the pedals and watched them work warily.

“Noted,” Maya replied. “But you’re missing out on a learning experience here. I mean, don’t you want an awesome bit of knowledge that’ll help you gain more Attributes?”

Bell seemed to hesitate at that. Then his face resumed its sneer and he looked away. “I am an [Alchemist]. A proud trade from a proud family.”

“Right, right,” Maya said distractedly. She began hooking up wires. Tender displayed a rough diagram of what she was supposed to do. It boiled down to reconnecting all the wires that had been torn when she had ripped the head off the rogue AI. There were scores of them and she had to connect each one, using the cutter as a soldering iron.

-I’m connected,- Tender said.

“How’s it look?”

-The Mana core is functional, but it is nearly drained. Internal scans show that much of the mana dissipated when the rogue AI was made non-functional. That might explain the reason it was not scavenged by other AIs.-

“Will the core fuel her back up?” Maya asked.

-Yes. I estimate an hour until full charge.-

“Awesome. How’s the body?”

-Serviceable. This rogue AI was an ambush predator, its core is not that strong, but it can be adjusted. It seems it spent a lot of its time slowly recharging, not very efficient in mana collection. This body will have to be recharged on a weekly basis, more so if heavy use is required.-

Maya hooked up the mana core to the rogue AI body and set the computer down beside Tender’s core. She pulled out more metal pieces and devices and began working on a side project. She didn’t want Tender’s core to be too exposed, so she began forming a small cage to hold the processor and the computer.

The processor was just that, a processor. It didn’t hold the data or knowledge that Tender had been programed with. It allowed him to exist, but he needed memory storage, therefore the computer was the only thing available. There was the tablet, but it wasn’t powerful enough to be used by Tender.

Maya had mixed feelings about letting go of the computer. It was an extremely handy tool. It allowed her access to a lot of information; it helped her in combat and supplemented her Evaluation skill.

But it was the price that needed to be paid for Tender’s resurrection. Pragmatism was good and all, but what’s the point of surviving alone and scared? Companionship was ultimately what would keep her sane and on track. Even Bell, who was turning out to be a major pain, was better than nothing. In addition to the other Knowledge Tender held, it also turned out he knew a lot about how magi-tronics worked and a sort of inherent understanding on how to connect his AI processor back up.

Companionship and knowledge was what would allow them to ultimately survive. Eventually she would get Nanaseto back again and maybe even find the other AIs that were on the Hangy. Then they’d be a big happy, mostly AI, family. Maya grinned.

[Mechanic] Level 5

When machinery acts up, you’re called

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

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

“Nice,” Maya exclaimed.

“What?” Bell asked.

“I leveled up [Mechanic] and the Tools skill,”

“That it?”

“I’m gonna gain [Asskicker] soon,” Maya muttered.

-Ah, there appears to be some internal defenses that the rogue AI programmed within it’s frame.- Tender said. -Weak, but interesting.-

“Ah, probs a rogue AI version of tainted meat,” Maya said. “What a dick AI.”

Maya finished up with her work and sat back and looked at it.

“How’s it look?”

-Functional-

“Oh, stop with all the oodles of compliments,” Maya said looking down at her handiwork.

She had found various robotic parts inside the pub’s Pleasure Room. She didn’t want to know what they did and made sure to wash her hands afterward, but after talking over with Tender, she had figured out how to create an articulating head for Tender’s processor. It wasn’t a true head, but Tender needed to be connected to the new body and the computer had to be close by for him to access it also.

She hooked up more wires and Tender lifted code from the original device to help him move it around. Within an hour they were ready to test it out.

“All juiced up?”

-Yes.-

“Let ‘er rip, bud,”

There was a whirring and a clank as the formerly dead AI wobbly got to its multiple legs. The legs straightened and Tender stood to his full height, towering over Maya. The articulating neck that housed the computer and processor tilted down at her, the drawn on eyes scowling at her.

“It’s alive!” Maya shouted, she made sure to record the event on the computer. As long as she was within five meters, she could access its functionality.

Bell looked up from where he was napping and glared. He shuddered at the sight, but kept his mouth shut.

-It is strange, but welcomed.- Tender flexed his legs and took a step forward. -Thank you, boss.-

“Now, don’t make me all emotional here, Tender,” Maya grinned at the machine.

“You shall regret this,” Bell intoned. “It shall betray us all and be our doom!”

Maya glanced at Tender. “This guy, am I right?” she laughed. “Alright, we’re done here. Let’s pack up and mosey on back to the pub.”

Tender showed his usefulness when he picked up the mana core easily in what Maya had thought were just stabby legs. They appeared to have more articulation than she had expected. She strapped the core down and took a seat on the wide puck back of Tender.

“Giddy up, Rocinante. We got a convoy that needs heading out. Yeehaw!”