Chapter 24 - Kill Ten Hordelings (Part Ten).

Neeka stared at the horde of notifications that had flooded her interface and then hurriedly swiped at the air to remove them all from her vision. She looked at Søren with one eye, desperately wanting to wake him up and ask him about what had just happened, but it had been a long day for him and the others. What done is done. Can only move forward now. She looked deep into the cave entrance and chastised herself for getting distracted. She heard the scrape of talon on stone, moving towards her. Neeka dropped her hand to the ground and picked up a small stone.

She focused her essence on the stone and pushed it from her heart and mind onto the surface as she spoke the logos for Light. Neeka curled her hand and claws around the stone as she did so, preventing the light from waking up the others. Another scrape echoed in the cavern. Neeka crept forward into the Mourning Cave, spear in one hand, stone gripped tightly in the other, letting a tiny bit of light escape. The worn stone path beneath her feet was well known to her. She had traveled this path many times to bring Fuerven into the Mourning Cave. Fuerven that had passed from this life into the next.

Another scrape on stone warned Neeka that there were two in the cavern with her. She spun to her left and hurled the stone to the left, the sudden light illuminating the caverns revealed two of the Hordeling Spawns creeping towards the entrance from a tunnel that led down to the funerary chamber. The clatter of the stone skipping across the floor drew the attention of the two creatures who chased after it. Neeka used the noise of their charge across the stone to mask her own as she took her spear in two hands and thrust it forward, striking the hordeling trailing behind. The crystal blade slid between two sections of the chitin armor and pierced the membrane beneath. Blue blood and white ichor spilled from the wound as Neeka pulled the spear out. She watched the damage notification float upwards. -272 (critical hit, sneak attack) That's new.

Your group has defeated a Hordeling Spawn (Copper II). (6/12)

You have earned 25 TEK.

You have gained 25 reputation with Water Finders.

You have lost 25 reputation with Umber Horde.

You have lost 10 reputation with The Collective.

The hordeling's body deflated as the life fled from it. A notification spawned in Neeka's vision. She hissed and swiped it away quickly as she rolled to the side to keep the dead hordeling between her and the other hordeling now stalking her. It had spun around and launched itself at the spot where Neeka had just been. She spun and sliced sideways with the spear, severing four of the six legs on its left side. The hordeling screeched and floundered around on the stone of the cave, blue blood squirting out the ends of the severed legs for a few moments before sinews and muscles inside the legs cinched off the blood flow reflexively.

Neeka let her momentum carry her away from the flailing hordeling. Its useless legs scraped across the ground, causing it to lurch around to the left in a circle. It swung one talon out towards Neeka, but she had already moved further away and circled around behind the hordeling. She stabbed at the monstrous creature and pierced the chitin shell with the tip of the blade. It did little damage to the hordeling, but it triggered the creature to flail around again and lose its footing. Neeka darted in and sliced through several legs on the right side. With its mobility severely hampered, Neeka was able to strike several more times from the safety of the reach of her spear and finish the creature.

Your group has defeated a Hordeling Spawn (Copper II). (7/12)

You have earned 25 TEK.

You have gained 25 reputation with Water Finders.

You have lost 25 reputation with Umber Horde.

You have lost 10 reputation with The Collective.

Neeka hid in the shadows and waited. Listening and watching. After more than ten minutes of silence, she brought up the notification that she had dismissed.

Congratulations Traveler! You have learned the [Sneak Attack] skill. This skill increases damage dealt by 200% when the target is distracted, unaware, stunned, or otherwise incapacitated.

Neeka could feel the skill instinctively. It had a familiar sense to it, of something similar. Much like her spear training with her father and training logos with her mother. She could recall points in her past when she had felt her attacks move faster, strike harder. When her Words increased in strength and capability. This would explain much about the strength of Travelers. But why me? Why would the Gods do this to me? She focused her thoughts on the new feeling inside her head and the three-part skein of light reappeared in her vision. The scene sped along the lines towards a star glowing blue.

So. This be Sneak Attack, she thought. Neeka concentrated on the star with a symbol of a mask hidden in shadow. A blue box filled with numbers and words appeared. She waved it away and coughed derisively. Too much. Dirt can deal with numbers. Neeka studied the star and felt a slight void within. She pushed her mind into the void and another box appeared.

It requires 2000 TEK and 20 hours to train [Sneak Attack] to Copper II. Would you like to start training Sneak Attack? Y/N

Neeka tapped her claw on the cyan icon that started the training. She felt her essence drain out of her. Her eyes widened and moved to the bright steel colored bar at the top left corner that had been her essence. It drained by a significant amount, the sudden loss overwhelming her momentarily. Essence is TEK. Curious. Neeka settled in to wait for any other hordelings that might venture to the surface. Periodically, she checked the new bar that had appeared in the bottom right corner of her view.

Søren woke as the light of the sun crested over the land to the east and ignited the clouds above with fiery reds, oranges, driving away the blues and purples of dawn. Wisps of white clouds raced across the vista above, thick darker clouds gathering in the northwest. Several blinking notifications appeared in the bottom right corner and distracted him from taking in the view. With a heavy sigh, Søren brought up the notifications and went through them. The first two were hordeling kills. Based on the time stamps, he presumed Neeka had slain them during the night. The others were his paths and the memory package.

Installation of Path of the Artificer (Copper I) is ready. Tap to complete installation. Installation of Memory Transcription Package Alpha-001-13a is ready. Tap to complete installation. Installation of Path of the Shaper (Copper I) is ready. Tap to complete installation.

Welp. Here goes something, Søren thought as he tapped the artificer's path. A flood of information filled his mind. The schematics and blueprints filled out becoming wellsprings of knowledge. Each one a path he could take. Sifting through them, he found a number of useful items, including a way to create a chargepad that would let him recharge the battery pack of his plasma pistol and the dataslates. There were many other components and steps between that and where he was at however. Let's start with something I can use now, he considered.

Sense Crystallized Aether. This aether appears to be the backbone of the technology of the Atlantean empire. Simple plan to start. Sense, Refine, Craft Components, Build Tools, Create Chargepad. That should give me a significant advantage to start. Søren pushed his focus into the crystal shapes icon that branched directly off the Artificer node.

It requires 150 TEK and 1 hour 30 minutes to train [Sense Crystallized Aether] to Copper I. Would you like to start training Sense Crystallized Aether? Y/N

Søren tapped the cyan icon to start the training, feeling the TEK drain away from him. A new progress bar appeared in the corner of his interface. That leaves me with 245 TEK. I hope there's a way to gain more TEK without having to constantly seek out and slaughter hordelings, Søren thought with a sigh. He moved on to the remaining notifications, completing the installation of the shaper's path. As with the artificer's path, the symbols and icons that drifted and spun around the node solidified into shapes and colors. One shone brighter, more solid than the others. Søren focused on that icon and his mind was filled with an innate understanding of Light. He then switched to the Logos skill, brought up the prompt to train it to the next rank, and blanched at the significant cost to rank up the skill.

It requires 12,000 TEK and 120 hours to train [Logos] to Copper II. Would you like to start training Logos? Y/N

No, nope. Not that one, Søren exclaimed mentally in shock. So, 8000 TEK and 80 hours to train normally. Increased to 12,000 and 120 with the added time and cost from the dual path avatar. There's something I'm missing somewhere, some way to increase TEK gains. Some way to increase the amount I can have at one time aside from increasing attributes. Though... maybe it doesn't have to all be paid at once? Søren pushed his will into the skill again and pushed a tiny bit of TEK into the skill. Just five. The prompt changed to show 11,995 TEK remaining. He then tapped the prompt to see if it would let him start the timer.

(06:45) ERROR > You do not have enough TEK committed to Logos to begin training.

Søren then tried pulling the TEK back from the skill and felt the interface resist him. So, once spent, it's gone. Good to know. He pulled his focus away from the Logos skill and tried to focus on some of the other symbols around Logos. The symbols were slippery and fled from his intent. A headache began to build in his mind as he pushed harder against the icons, trying to trap one. When the pain became too great and the icons still too slippery, he retreated from the mental assault. He searched for another skill, Shaping, that looked like it was the base skill for the shaper's path. Probably what I need to grasp the basics of shaping intent into logos. Into new Words.

It requires 450 TEK and 7 hours 30 minutes to train [Shaping] to Copper I. TEK and time requirements are increased by 300% as a result of being on a Legendary Path. Would you like to start training Shaping? Y/N

Something to save up for later. Ah, the basic skills, Søren remembered. He brought up the mission log and searched through his Potential to find the two skills he was missing; Melee Defense and Ranged Defense. These skills were directly attached to a copper colored node that had the symbol for zero in the center. He brought up melee defense first and pushed his will into the skill.

It requires 150 TEK and 1 hour 30 minutes to train [Melee Defense] to Copper I. Would you like to start training Melee Defense? Y/N

Søren added that skill to train, feeling the TEK drain from him. He selected the Ranged Defense skill next and tried to set it to train as well.

You have reached your limit of two items being trained. Would you like to add Ranged Defense to the training queue? Y/N

Sure, why not. Søren tapped the cyan icon on the left, beneath the notification, and saw it added as a line of text above the Melee Defense progress bar. He tried to add another rank of Melee Defense to the queue and got another error message, explaining that he could not train a skill without meeting all requirements to advance to the next rank. He tried a different skill and had a third error message appear in the chat log detailing that you could only have one skill queued at a time. Good enough I suppose. Let's see what this memory package is. Søren tapped the last notification, bracing himself for a blinding headache, and triggered the completion of the installation of the memory package.

And waited... nothing happened. He was not left blind and deaf to the world in pain either.

Nothing happened? Søren brought up the interface and his eyes went wide. There were tooltips everywhere explaining in detail what each aspect of the interface accomplished. Damn. That's useful, but I hope there's more to it. Søren swiped the interface away and looked over to Neeka who was still standing watch at the cave entrance. Søren came to the realization he just knew that her species was based on the Ancient Earth lizard known as the chameleon. As if he had always known it. He couldn't remember not knowing that information.

He tried to recall more information about the Fuerven and recalled that Atlantean scientists had succeeded in splicing in genes responsible for increasing their size and the complexity of their brains and nervous system, enabling the new species to achieve sapience. The Fuerven nervous system, musculature, and bones were also modified for bipedal movement. Søren blinked at the sudden wealth of information that was in his head.

He glanced upwards at the gas giant and knew that it is was called the Devourer, so named for the asteroids and other threats the planet draws into it and devours in its crushing depths. This protects Gaia, the planet-sized moon created by the Empire by smashing asteroids together and using terraforming technologies to refine it into a planet over the course of many centuries. The asteroids were harvested from numerous fields of rock and ice that drifted in space, caught by the gas giant's gravity well.

A tiny glint of light that streamed across the sky and caught Søren's attention, was actually one of many Gateway stations that were created to process travelers from distant worlds who traveled to Gaia via a network of gates scattered throughout the Atlantean empire. These travelers flocked en masse to Chorus Entertainment's massive adventure parks on Gaia, so that they could experience realistic recreations of ancient legends, myths brought to life, historical tales, and pure fictional events without risk of permanent injury or death.

This system was managed by a centralized synthetic intelligence and a powerful quantum network built into the planet itself. Søren fell back against the boulder behind him. A little dazed at the revelations.

So what the hell happened?