37 - Pickman's Challenger

“We do technically over-level the rogue AIs,” Maya said chewing a ration bar. The crew were gathered in the mess hall, a standard day passing since Bell and Maya had returned.

Weariness was etched into their faces, it wasn’t just the fact that they had been busting their asses the last standard day, there was also the addition of mana being slowly leached out of them. The mana purge was still in full swing and Maya hadn’t realized how much mana was used in normal everyday things.

Her body, she understood, was shaped by mana. It made her stronger, smarter, more agile, and, if she still had mana channels, able to warp and shape her internal mana. Even without channeling mana to do everyday things, the body was still absorbing mana to offset the expenditures of their bodies. A ration bar of condensed biomass provided the nutritional needs of the flesh, but ambient mana provided everything else. Even the low ambient mana of the rainbow sky hellscape was more than enough to keep the body in tiptop shape.

It was a shocking realization for Maya that Bell and Yosi channeled mana when they were working, when they built items, or when they solved the problems associated with their rushed schedule. For the two, channeling mana was like breathing; they did it unconsciously and without effort. The results being faster learning, better accuracy, less mistakes, and leveling in the occupational ability.

It was utterly unfair.

As Maya had her mana channels burned out of her when she Seared herself, she had to make do with Knowledge. The knowledge cubes in engineering and maintenance had been downloaded into her head and she used that knowledge to do things. Besides the knowledge appearing in her head, it was how pre-Integration learning worked. Learn it and then do it.

Bell had claimed she was a strange oddity. She was high mid-grade, when she hit level 75 she would be considered high-grade, Tier 1. The oddity of her situation came from being level 62 and with all of her occupational abilities being far less than that. The highest ability she had was [Trader] at level 12 and that was considered a low-grade ability.

In a normal world, or the multiverse-at-large, her situation should have been inverted. It was normal to have a low-grade ability at mid-grade levels and a personal level still in low-grade. Just as she had been under-leveled while destroying higher leveled entities and suffering from low experience gains; she was now over-leveled, with no mana channeling abilities, trying to use low-grade abilities. The results were the same, work harder and gain less experience from it.

“That’s not entirely true,” Bell grumbled as he looked listlessly at his ration bar. “Rogue AIs might not be comparable to SIL when it comes to levels, but they are still strong in their own right.”

“Yeah, but they only give out one third of what a SIL would drop at the same level,” Maya replied. “That means they’re ‘less’ than a SIL, right?”

“Technically, yes,” Bell said.

“I did say ‘technically, we over-level them’.”

“They are lesser than a SIL at the same level, but not by much. When it comes to strength and destructive power, rogue AIs are built for that. If you’re thinking mana abilities and channeling, they are not able to do that. In addition they aren’t very intelligent, as their programing is more organic in its development.

“The same would go for a mana mutation as well. Those monstrosities are shaped by mana and they may not be sentient or sapient, but they are stronger than rogue AIs because they can channel mana.”

“So rogue AIs are bottom rung?” Maya asked.

“If you think of it in the manner of stats,” Bell said, “Then rogue AIs would only have access to the Physical stats. They are strong, tough, and can survive a lot, but they can’t channel mana nor are they very intelligent. That is until they reach Tier 2, that’s when the Mental stats kick in. They gain a terrible amount of intelligence and that makes them a supreme danger in the multiverse-at-large. When they get to Tier 3, then they’re practically SIL as they can now channel mana.

“Mana mutations have access to both the Physical and Soul stats, therefore they are tough and they can channel mana, but they’re more instinctive about it.”

“So there are Tier 2 mana mutations?” Maya asked.

“Of course. They rarely exist, but some are formed naturally and some are formed from gaining levels from defeating foes, just as a SIL would. They too are a danger to the multiverse-at-large, but not as much as rogue AIs because they’re limited by biological function. A Tier 2 mana mutation can’t mass produce an army of Tier 1 monsters, but a Tier 2 rogue AI can mass produce an army of Tier 1 rogue AIs.”

“This is boring. When are we going to fight?” Badblood announced as she crouched on her chair near Yosi.

Maya held back a sigh. The newly healed Tarvana was a handful. She insisted on trying to gain levels by fighting the others, which had turned out as well as Maya expected. A lopsided fight that ended with Badblood injured and rushing off to heal herself in peace. If it hadn’t been for her ability to consume mana stones she would have drained her mana within the day.

“For someone with zero fighting ability and who has been sick their entire life; you are eager to fight,” Yosi said. “Are you suicidal?”

“You are all mid-grade. You out-level even Whiteclaw, the eldest of my people. I must gain as many levels as you to be seen as equal.” Badblood stated.

“You think you can reach level 40, double what Whiteclaw’s levels are?” Maya asked.

“If she can,” Badblood pointed to Yosi. “I can.”

“What does that mean?” Yosi demanded.

Maya groaned as another fight was about to break out between the two. She rapped her knuckles against the table, causing the two to stop and look at her.

“Calm down, kids. We need to focus, not squabble. How are we looking?” Maya asked.

“We are done, all that is required is assembly, which you stated you would be able to do via VR,” Yosi replied.

“Yeah, that’s gonna be fun,” Maya groaned. Although she could access Scotty’s assemblers via the engineering VR set, it still required her to direct the assemblers on what to do.

“We are nearly complete in our preparations,” Bell said. ‘I have stripped our defenses bare, leaving us critically exposed if any rogue AIs come in our direction.”

“Yeah, well, if the ambient mana stays gone, those rogue AIs are gonna be squatting around that mana lake for the time being. They can’t survive that long without ambient mana, even as low as it is.”

“We can’t survive that long without ambient mana too,” Bell stated. “Right now we’re burning through our stored mana. If our goal was to simply wait out this mana purge, we could easily survive off the tesseract for centuries.”

“Big risks, big gains, buddy,” Maya said. “We’re looking at a power source that will totally change everything for us. We’ll have more than enough power to run all the machinery, we’ll be able to connect with the multiverse, we’ll be able to do everything our little hearts can imagine.”

“We’ll be ready and we will succeed,” Yosi said.

“Totally. I’ve been working on the secret sauce and currently there are five additional vats created. Of the nine vats we had already, three were made using Roci’s recipe along with what we had stuffed into the cans,” Maya said. “We’ve run out of our stores of mana stones and ingredients. If Zono were around we could have probably made another ten vats, but that dude is probably lying in a rusting heap somewhere.”

“I feel we should have at least looked for him,” Yosi said.

“Yeah, I’m not that big of an asshole just to abandon the dude, but what can we do for him? Anything that doesn’t have a large amount of black goo coursing through their veins gets drained and drops. He’s probably not dead, just shut off.

“That leaves us with about 1800 liters of black goo.” Maya grinned at that bit of news. “If the calculations are right, we’re gonna need about one hundred and forty liters of liquid mana, it took half a liter to turn a twenty liter can into the crystal and it took another liter to power the crystal up, but it might be able to absorb more power.”

“Time is going to be limited,” Bell said, “Experimentation will have to wait.”

“No shit, Holmes,” Maya said. “Dithering around with that many murderous assholes about is not my plan.”

“If we need only one hundred and forty liters of the liquid mana, why are you building the containment device?” Yosi asked.

“Future reasons,” Maya replied. “It’s not everyday you come across a lake of mana. We’re gonna need all we can lay our grubby hands on.”

“I feel that plan is extremely dangerous,” Bell said.

“Go big or go home, Bell. Big risks, big rewards and all those other cliches about putting your neck on the chopping block to make some cheddar.” Maya leaned back in her chair, yawning. “The math seems right and the containment device has been built before.”

“Yes, but not by you,” Bell said.

“That’s hurtful, buddy. I’m the greatest engineer in a thousand miles.”

“Ironwatcher is better,” Badblood said.

“Oh, BB. I don’t know if I should laugh or cry.”

Badblood looked at her confused.

“Our power usage was more than we expected,” Bell said, looking at a tablet. “We’ll be needing even more power to complete the work that needs doing.”

“You gotta spend money to make money,” Maya said and then paused. “How much?”

“If the projections are correct, we will only have at most three hours of Cage time.”

“Ouch. But that’s fine. If it all goes well, we’ll be only needing an hour or so. Oh, what’s that look for, buddy?” Maya asked as Bell frowned slightly.

“Nothing,” he said.

“Oh, BS, You think this whole thing is gonna go tits up?”

“You said it,” Bell replied.

Maya chuckled. “Luck is on our side, pal. We can do this and we can get away with it and live fat and rich for the rest of our lives. It’s our big score, our white whale, our... I don’t know, we’re gonna turn our lives around after this one last job kinda thing.” Maya paused. “Now that I say it out loud, all of those tropes lead to death, dismemberment, and worst of all, failure.”

***

“Everyone ready? You use the bathroom, lock the doors, turn off your hair straighteners?” Maya asked as she settled down into her ‘command’ seat. Although it wasn’t necessary as there was no feeling of movement in the Cage, she still preferred to be seated when traveling.

Intellectually, Maya understood that the Cage didn’t go anywhere at all. It was still connected to the power source that was the cores, or in this case the tesseract crystal, therefore it would always be connected to the Hangy. The Tier 2 components that made up the Cage created the small bubble of reality in Void Space, where they could interact between the rainbow sky hellscape dimension and the multiverse at large.

The Cage hummed around Maya, with her Dimensional Awareness she sense the void space and the dimensional scar that she had created when using the dimensional bomb. That dimensional wound was what allowed them to leave the RSH, it wasn’t hard to recreate, but Maya didn’t want to go about poking holes it the fabric of the multiverse.

“First stop, Casa de Whiteclaw. Exit to the right,” Maya formed a threshold and a door within the central chamber of the Tarvana warrens.

Darkness greeted them, Maya looked at the view screen and saw that even the small working lights were now winked out of existence. It looked like they too were suffering from the lack of mana. Maya activated the external lights on the wall and the chamber was soon illuminated.

“Well, this is not good,” Maya said, standing up.

In the middle of the chamber were the gleaming bodies of the ants. The same creatures that had attacked them only a few days before. Not only were the ant bodies present, but there were a few of the Tarvana as well, their corpses intermixed with the ants.

A fight had occurred. The rogue AI swarm, it seemed, hadn’t just attacked them; they had also attacked the Tarvana at the same time. With the Tarvana’s low levels and general tactic of staying out of sight, they did not fare well against the low leveled ants.

“What has happened!” Badblood cried, scrambling to gawk at the view screen. “That is Brokenjaw, the fiercest fighter.”

A large Tarvana lay amongst the dead, hacked and slashed by the ants’ blades. Maya took a slow breath and activated her sensors. The strange dirt of the RSH caused some interference, but it wasn’t long before they got back a signal of living beings, two dozen were gathered in a room far within the tunnels.

Before Maya could say anything, Badblood was out the door and running into the darkness. Maya looked to Bell and he nodded; they all walked toward the door and into the warrens.

“I’ll keep an eye on things,” Yosi said, settling down before the control panel.

The smell of death hung in the air as they made their way through the warrens. Badblood lead the way, knowing where the others would be without having to look at the scans they had done. They moved quietly thorough the rock corridors, pausing only as they came across a body or an ant.

From what Maya could tell, the Tarvana had been pushed back, the ants forcing them to fall back into the tunnels and a desperate fight had occurred. A lot of the ant bodies they came across weren’t destroyed; they, like the ants on the surface, had run out of mana. Why the Tarvana had been attacked was easily discovered as they came across an ant that had been carrying away a container full of the mana stones that Whiteclaw’s people mined.

Bell paused to decapitate the ant while Maya scooped up the mana stones. Badblood was franticly looking about, wailing with sorrow when she saw someone she knew.

The Tarvana’s panic room was a well crafted space, a seamless rock wall that slid silently opened. Inside were the two dozen survivors of Whiteclaw’s tribe, along with their stores of food and other items. Ironwatcher staggered out, an axe in her hand, and snarling with rage. She stumbled to a stop as she saw Maya, Bell, and Badblood.

“Merchant,” Ironwatcher said, the axe slipping from her hand. “But the communication array was destroyed. We weren’t able to contact you, how did you arrive?”

“Where is Whiteclaw!” Badblood demanded, grabbing the woman by the shoulders.

“Who are you?” Ironwatcher asked.

“It is I, Badblood.”

Ironwatcher laughed. “Badblood is dead, given to the Merchant to consume.”

“Yeah, we don’t eat people,” Maya replied. “That’s Badblood, she was healed from what was making her sick.”

Ironwatcher blinked and then grinned. “Then help, Whiteclaw, she is injured!”

Badblood shoved Ironwatcher out of her way and stormed into the panic room. Maya stopped and helped Ironwatcher to her feet, the woman swayed and looked at her with dull eyes.

“Are you okay?”

“We have lost much, Merchant. Many are dead and now the mana is gone. We will all die soon, not a glorious death in battle, but as we deplete our mana, we will die slow and painfully.”

“I found the mana stones the ants were taking,” Maya offered the woman the container. Ironwatcher looked at it listlessly.

“Ah, that will help,” she said. “But there are too few of us now, all of our warriors are dead, all of our high leveled people are dead.”

“Then come with us,” Bell said. “We will offer your people protection.”

“I cannot make such a decision,” Ironwatcher said. “Only Whiteclaw can.”

The woman showed them into the room, it was small and lit with a small pile of mana stones. Maya’s black goo lights were blinding to the gathered figures, all small, young, and staring at them with hopeless eyes. In the center of the group was Whiteclaw, wrapped in duracloth and staring at them with sightless eyes.

“She is dead!” wailed Badblood.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Maya said.

“Who commands here!” Badblood demanded.

The gathered people blinked and looked at one another. They didn’t move for a moment and then a burly miner rose to his feet.

“I do!” the man announced. “I am Pickman, foreman of miners. I am strongest and eldest. I command the Pickman tribe now!” he stood tall and hefted a pickaxe. The people around him slunk away, fear in their eyes.

“I know you Pickman. You are a bully, a fool, and greedy!” Badblood announced. She pulled free an axe that had been strapped across her back and leveled it at the figure. “I challenge you for leadership. Blood shall decide who leads!”

“What the fuck?” Maya said.

Without another word, Badblood leaped at Pickman. Their weapons clashed and people scattered, screeching with fear. Pickman was nearly a third bigger than Badblood, the days of eating well and hardwork had put muscles upon his body. He easily parried Badblood’s attack, sending her sprawling as he shoved her with the haft of his pickaxe.

Maya stepped forward, but Bell grabbed her arm. She looked at him. “This is their way,” he said.

“It’s a bullshit method of choosing a leader,” Maya said. “There’s already been enough death.”

Pickman let out a roar as Badblood’s axe sliced along his left leg, causing him to stumble and then collapse to the ground. Badblood hissed and hopped back to her feet, bringing the axe up to make a final strike.

“Stop this bullshit!” Maya shouted. Badblood stopped, her red eyes glaring at her. “Stop right fucking there.”

“You interfere!” Badblood said. “I do this for you. To bring my people to you.”

“You, Pickman. Do you concede? Do you acknowledge that Badblood has won? That she is your tribe leader now?” Maya asked.

Pickman still clutched at his wound, the blood was slowing and as she watched, it began to stitch itself back together again. He glared at Badblood and then at Maya, but he saw the sharp axe blade ready to descend and his own weapon lying out of arm’s reach.

“I conceded,” he said. “I will follow Badblood.”

“This is not how it is done,” Badblood hissed. Her arms were twitching as if she were about to follow through with tradition.

“Kill him and you will not be welcomed back with us,” Maya stated. “I will not condone murder. If this can be resolved without more bloodshed, then that’s the route we’re gonna go. You can’t go about killing SIL.”

Badblood hissed again and the axe lowered. Pickman used that moment to hop back to his feet, his fist pulled back and a look of rage on his face. Badblood stared in surprised but then began to raise her axe.

Maya was between the two in a flash. She grabbed Pickman by the throat and lifted him off the ground. He was big for a Tarvana, but they were all small people compared to her and Bell. She raised him to eye level and shoved him hard against the rocky wall.

“Did you not just fucking hear me?”

Pickman tried struggling, but realized he was completely outclassed by Maya’s strength and levels. He stared at her, a bit of fear returning to his eyes.

Maya dropped him and he collapsed to the ground. Fear still shone in his eyes as he looked at her. Maya shook her head and turned to walk back to where Bell stood, watching them.

There was a loud thunk and a gurgling noise. Maya spun around to see Pickman had been decapitated, his head rolling to the ground and violet blood pumping out from the stump of his neck.

“What the fuck!” Maya screamed.

Badblood stared at her defiantly, her axe buried into the rocky wall.

“What the fuck!” Maya yelled again.

“You think they would follow me after that?” Badblood demanded. “You undermined me, you chose to show your dominance over us all, you might as well have demanded to be the leader of the tribe.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Maya demanded.

Badblood stood tall, staring Maya in the eyes. “I do what must be done to protect my people,” she said.

Maya glared back. “You don’t just go about killing people, damn it,” she snarled.

“The strong command, the strong make the rules, the strong-“

“Oh, shut the fuck up,” Maya snapped. “Enjoy being the big dog around here, asshole. Let’s roll, we’re leaving,” Maya turned and began stomping down the rocky corridor. She noted the eyes watching her, the other Tarvana who had rushed out to find safety, they hadn’t gone far, as the bodies of their dead and the ants forcing them to stay close to the room of safety.

“I know what you are attempting!” Badblood shouted. “I know you cannot do it with only three, that you need more help, more hands!”

“Fuck off,” Maya said.

“We shall help you!” Badblood shouted. “We shall help you collect this liquid mana, for a share.”

“Fuck. Off.” Maya said.

“She’s right,” Bell said. “We need help.”

“Fuck her,” Maya replied.

“Think it through, Maya,” Bell said. “We don’t have much time, we’ve already wasted half an hour here. We need their help if we’re going to do this.”

Maya glared at Bell, but she stopped in her stomping and then turned to Badblood. The woman gave her a sharp toothed grin, her bloodied axe still held in her hand.

“Do you wish to make a deal, Merchant?”