Quest: Survive on the Doom Moon

Rewards: Bonus XP for relevant abilities

Time Limit: 3 h.

Penalty: Death

Difficulty: B

Flora changed from the narrow clean tubes of the ventilation system to the spacy dirty tunnels of the sewers.

Thankfully her new mech-suit was air- and watertight.

Now, she picked up speed, vaulting over pipes and jumping over drains of excrement.

Only when she arrived at the hangar, she went back to the ventilation shafts for a better view.

Rows of fighter jets lined the walls of the hangar. In between, bigger spacecraft in various shapes parked.

Now and then, pilots operated the jets and flew off, and new planes arrived. Technicians and bots scurried between the vehicles.

Even though Flora could see the open space from her position, none of the humans wore spacesuits or goldfish-bowls.

"My technician's uniform would now be useful," Flora remarked regretfully. She had dumped it because it had tracking chips installed. "On the other hand, it might be suspicious if a technician borrowed a fighter jet to take a spin. Do you think I can pretend to be an energy-master?"

"The natives can read badges as well, Milady."

"Then they see my name! That makes all attempts at pretending to be someone different futile! They probably released a search warrant for me."

"You could switch from nick-name to real name, Milady."

"That still leaves the problem with the class on the badge. I believe there is a way to get a class when you have all of the standard skills of it. What are the standard skills of energy-master?"

"Single target attack: Energy-Choke.

Area of effect attack: Energy-Storm.

Defensive skill: Force-Field.

Movement skill: Energy-Jump.

Signature skill: Plasma-Sword-Dance.

You only need four skills to obtain a class.

But its an advanced class. You need kinetic mage or swordmaster first.

Kinetic Mage:

Single target attack: Kinetic Blast.

Area of effect attack: Kinetic Storm.

Defensive skill: Kinetic Shield.

Movement skill: Kinetic Stride.

Signature Skill: Telekinetics.

Magical Push and Pull might count towards the spells needed for obtaining the class.

Swordmaster:

Single target attack: Power Slash.

Area of effect attack: Sweep.

Defensive skill: Parry Flurry.

Movement skill: Sword Charge."

"Oh, dear. I believe I can correlate some of the skills to mannequin-routines. I've felt Mnoder cast them. Let's give reverse engineering kinetic Blast and Energy-Choke a try. Because she cast them on me, I have a good grasp of the spells. If I can't reconstruct them, then the others are beyond me as well."

Flora went back to the sewers and found an intersection big enough to pull the treasure chest with the mannequin routines from her inventory.

"Aidan, remind me to build a smaller chest for narrow tunnels with a few essentials. Prio C."

After a few tries, Flora found an m-route in which Mnoder cast Kinetic Blast.

The spell felt similar to Magical Push. The difference was that you cast push directly on the subject or object you wanted to push, while Kinetic Blast, propelled the energy from the caster in the direction of the object.

At Flora's first attempt, the energy fizzled out before it hit the target, her sleeping bag. She focussed on concentrating the blast, and the second try was successful.

You gained the skill: Kinetic Blast.

You learned the skill without guidance: + 1 OV to the skill.

"That was too easy," Flora said, dumbfounded. "Next!"

Again, Flora watched the m-route for the spell.

This time, she had problems squeezing her sleeping bag evenly. When she increased the pressure on one side, the bag rolled away because she was too slow to counter-push it on the other side.

"Aidan, is there a spell for squeezing fruits in the household book?"

Aidan taught it to her.

You gained the skill: Magical Squeeze.

Adjusting the spell with the more martial feeling she got from the m-route, Flora succeeded in learning Energy-Choke.

You gained the skill: Energy-Choke.

You learned the skill without guidance: + 1 OV to the skill.

Next, Flora tried Kinetic Storm. There was a routine where Mnoder cast an area effect, but Flora couldn't distinguish if it were Kinetic Storm or Energy Storm. It looked like distortions in the time-space continuum. Flora couldn't wrap her head around it and decided to skip it for now.

The difference between Kinetic Shield and Force Field wasn't evident, as well. At least Mnoderer cast the shield multiple times, so Flora had enough examples to get a grip on the spell.

You gained the skill: Force-Field.

You learned the skill without guidance: + 1 OV to the skill.

Lady Mnoder did some nice stunts with it. She could deflect blaster shots, and when she coated her plasma sword with the spell, she could even parry.

The next spell on the list was Kinetic Stride. The theory behind it was easy, just augment your walk with extra energy.

Flora tried first to push herself telekinetically then to pull herself to a destination. The first approach felt like a bully shoved her from behind. The second was similar to her experience on the Trail of Worlds. It felt like the bully tugged her by the umbilical cord to him.

After a few attempts, she found the right balance.

You gained the skill: Kinetic Stride.

You learned the skill without guidance: + 1 OV to the skill.

You gained the class: Kinetic Mage.

Class: Kinetic Mage

Branch: Magic

Passive: +1 Training efficiency modifier for resistance/affinity psychokinetic

Active: Bonus for psychokinetic Spells

You gained an Achievement: 'I'm my own teacher': You gained a class by teaching yourself at least three of the required spells.

Reward: Trait: 'Fast Learner': +1 Training efficiency modifier

You gained the skill: Kinetic Storm.

You gained the skill: Kinetic Shield.

Flora smiled. She enjoyed figuring out the spells. It was a bit like engineering. First, define the general function, make it work, and then smooth the design out.

Next, she performed another movement skill, the Energy-Jump. Instead of using magic to move horizontally, she moved vertically.

She felt that a spell was working, and her mana sank, but the wrong success message came.

You successfully fused two skills: Kinetic Stride and Power-Jump.

+ 5 LV to both skills

+ 1 LV to psychokinetics

+ 1 LV to power enhancements

After rewatching the m-routes with the Energy-Jump, she noticed that when Mnoderer landed, some kind of discharge happened. Electricity?

A glance at her skill tab confirmed that the other energymaster spells had a lightning component. Force-Field even belonged to three categories: psychokinetic, lightning, and magnetism.

You could look at the spell diagram in this tab, as well. Flora had used this notation to learn from the book '1000 homemaker spells'.

Comparing the pictures of Kinetic Blast, Kinetic Stride, Energy-Choke, and Energy-Field, she identified which shapes belonged to kinetics, lightning, and magnetism.

Next, she compared Kinetic Stride and Power-Jump to determine the movement aspect.

Hypothesises and questions whirled through her mind and the vague shape of a diagram formed.

Concentrating on the geometrical shapes and simultaneously the feeling of the spell, she jumped again.

You gained the skill: Energy-Jump.

You learned the skill without guidance: + 1 OV to the skill.

"What is missing for the energy-master class?"

"Energy-Storm or Plasma-Sword-Dance, Milady."

"I've seen Mnoder use her plasma sword like a boomerang. That felt like a skill, too."

"Yes, Milady. It might be an additional tier-1 skill, but I've seen no record of it. The range of the other spells is short to medium, so the built would profit from a skill with a higher range."

Flora scavenged the floor of the treasure chest for plasma sword parts. First, she sorted them. Then she started to puzzle.

Aidan confirmed that she put six plasma swords into the container. That should be enough parts to build at least one functioning sword. It would be nice if there were six of everything or a number that could be divided by six, but nothing was ever so easy.

It got even harder after she destroyed the most promising set in an explosion. Immediately, Flora wrapped up. The blast wasn't the main problem, but the parts hitting the sheeting of the container had sounded like gunfire.

Out of the dark canal, a shadow rushed towards Flora. All she saw was a long mouth full of teeth.

"A flying denture?"

In her imagination played a movie: out of Emperor Palpatine's mouth fell a set of artificial teeth, landed in the sewers, and mutated.

The thing bit into her thighs. The sturdy tier-1 material made a crunchy noise under the onslaught of the teeth.

She yelped but got a look at the creature. It was colored in a muddy brown and had a long crocodile snout and tail but missed the middle part. Its eyes were dark slits, and greenish fins or wings protruded behind them out of the snakelike body.

Flora's mind was busy inventing names for it, while her body remained frozen.

'Croco-Fly-Fish? Toothy flying Snake? I want alliteration! Flying Froco-Feeth-Fetish-Fish!'

"Milady! Attack!"

"Oh, yes, right!"

Flora smashed her fist in the eyes of the FFFFF.

It let go of her thighs while slamming its tail into Flora's shoulder. That catapulted the head away from her in a backflip like motion.

From a free-runner's perspective, Flora admired the maneuver.

It turned smoothly in the air. With its fins fanned out and mouth wide open, it charged at Flora again.

!

The spell hit, and the FFFFF tumbled through the air. Shorty in front of the wall, it straightened its flight path and turned around for another charge.

!

Now, it hit the wall and slid down into the water.

"Is it dead?"

"Unlikely, Milady."

Flora eyed the dark patch of foul water, her hand raised, ready to cast another blast.

Suddenly, the thing shot from the canal to Flora's right.

Although Flora yelped again, she shot the second Kinetik Blast in its direction.

"Excellent shot, Milady. It should be dead."

Flora glanced above her, where the access door to the corridors was and started running. It was still closed, but Flora was sure that the yelling hadn't helped her to stay inconspicuous.

"Thank you, dear. Lead me to the next hangar in the direction of the superweapon. How long until the attack is going to start? And how far away are the hanger and the shaft of the weapon?"

"36 minutes until the attack, Milady. 6 km to the next hangar. 264 km to the main tunnel of the superweapon."

"Change of plans. We risk staying here. Lead me to an intersection, which is big enough for the container."

Flora assembled the next plasma sword.

'You always worked best under pressure. Concentrate!'

Her hands stayed steady even while making risky connections between the source of gas and the ignition.

She took a deep breath and activated the sword. First, it spluttered, but then a steady, albeit short blade of green flames formed.

Next, Flora revisited the m-route in which Mnoder performed the sword dance. Thankfully, Wing Tsun had trained her memory for martial art forms.

Soon Flora could perform it passably well, but no notification appeared.

Flora took a moment to ponder it and revisited the mannequin-routine.

'Mnoderer uses magic to enhance the form!'

It was very subtle and in the rhythm of her breathing.

After emulating it, Flora still got no message, but she got the next idea.

'Maybe, I need the sword ability? That would conform to the fact that swordmaster is one of the precursors.'

"We need one of the FFFFF, Aidan!"

"Pardon, Milady?"

"The froco-foothy-fish-flying-fnakes ... whatever. The thing we killed a few minutes ago. Or another way to get the sword-combat ability."

"There are two kingators in the waters surrounding us. I believe they get attracted by plasma swords."

"And when would you have told me about them?" Flora snapped.

Her speech was cut short by a shadow that rushed her out of the water. Wildly, she swang her sword on it, and it went cleanly through the kingator. But the beast showed nothing of it and bit into her thighs.

'Do they like limbs the most? Or are thighs especially juicy?'

"When you would have asked, Milady. Should I notify you about near hostile creatures in the future?"

"Yes, please!"

She continued slashing at the kingator, and discolored welts started to appear on its hide.

The tail rose to lash at her shoulder, but now Flora knew the maneuver. She blasted the beast across the intersection.

"Dead?"

"Not likely, Milady."

"How can you judge?"

"I have access to your combat log and see how much damage you dished out. I don't know about its health pool or defenses, so I can only estimate. It should have around 20 health left."

The water-surface broke, and white teeth aimed for her thighs again.

This time, Flora sidestepped and brought her sword down.

"And now?"

Using the plasma sword was frustrating because Flora didn't feel any resistance, just a slight vibration when slicing her enemies. A part of her doubted that the sword had any effect at all.

The beast turned in the air and rushed at her again.

"95 health approximately."

Unconsciously, Flora moved according to the Plasma-Sword-Dance to the right and pivoted to slash the kingator. Her sword sliced through the back of its head.

"78 health approximately."

"Did it heal, or is it the second kingator?"

"Most likely, the second one."

Warily, Flora watched the beast as it turned around again. She didn't dare to move her eyes away to look for the other, but she risked focussing on her health bar for a second. It was more than 4/5 full that alleviated some of the pressure Flora felt.

The Kingator came at her again, and Flora managed to dodge and hit it again.

Do you want to form the ability specialization 'Plasma-Sword-Fighting'?

'Yes!'

You gained the ability specialization: Plasma-Sword-Fighting + 2 levels.

Suddenly, another kingator shot towards Flora.

'Let's try this sword-dance again!'

Mana flowed from her hands into her sword. The flame flared, and the length of the blade nearly doubled.

She whirled towards her left and sliced through it. This time, the smell of burned chicken permeated the air, and the beast hit the ground, toasted.

Flora felt a threat behind her. Smoothly, she completed a full turn and slashed at the second kingator, who had aimed at her unprotected back.

The sword glided through the kingator, and Flora used the momentum to perform a butterfly kick: her arms swang to the ground, her right leg catapulted her in the air, then her left leg kicked nearly horizontally the fish. Then the right leg followed hitting the kingator.

The beast slid across the ground. When the movement stopped, it remained motionless.

You gained the skill: Plasma-Sword-Dance.

You learned the skill without guidance: + 1 OV to the skill.

You gained the class: Energymaster.

Class: Energymaster

Branch: Magic/Warrior

Passive:

+1 Training efficiency modifier for resistance/affinity psychokinetic +1 Training efficiency modifier for resistance/affinity lightning +1 Training efficiency modifier for ability plasma swords

Active:

Bonus for Plasma-Sword-Fighting

You gained the skill: Energy-Storm.

A big grin split Flora's face. Not only did she gain the class, but she performed the butterfly-kick! She worked the last free-running session on this trick. She hadn't anticipated to use it in a fight, but it worked well.

Hurridly, she threw everything, including the corpses of the kingators in the treasure chest, and cleaned her mech-suit with the remains of her badly mangled sleeping bag.

Looking at the bite marks on her thighs, she shook her head with doubt. 'I'm not eager to test the suit in space if it is still air-tight.'

After she put everything in her inventory, she discovered two glowing piles on the floor.

Cautiously, she poked one with her boot. The glowing stopped, and she identified five kingator teeth. The other pile contained four of them.

"Are they safe to collect, Aidan?"

"Yes, Milady. The combat log showed no poison application."

Shrugging, Flora put them in her inventory and climbed up the ladder to the exit.

While changing the badge and her class to energymaster, she muttered: "The world belongs to me, and I'm perfectly at home."

She might not be able to pretend to be an energymaster, but she was such a master in feigning confidence that at some point in the past, it had become real.