Chapter 8

What has been labeled in the status screen as affinity is not magic. Magic implies something unknowable, something unable to be understood. The actions we can perform with affinity are in fact processes entirely done by technology so advanced we cannot replicate it today. If you can understand the process and the programing language, you can make and save a ‘spell.’ Some of our strongest spells are derived from research papers that were discovered in an old laboratory from before the fall.

They had technology which the system has since banned. 3D printers, engines, gunpowder, guns, bullets, turbines, missiles, high precision machining, airplanes, helicopters, energy or ion projection beams, standard microchip manufacturing methods, and a host of other technologies which limit our development. We know how gunpowder works, we’ve even talked to people who have fired guns before, but when we try and make gunpowder work, nothing happens. Same with engines, and turbines. They all work the same way, and yet we can get none of them to work. We have old cars from before the fall, that should work upon restoration but don’t. Strangely enough, the few electric cars we have been able to find will fire up when we charge them.

There are certain technologies that shouldn’t work that do. Like electric cars. There is no reason an internal combustion engine shouldn’t work, while an electric motor does. Some of the AIs we have discovered are still functional, if barely. Solar panels still produce electricity that can be used by something like a coffee maker or electric boiler. But few of those items can be repaired by any method available to the current populace short of rebuilding it with lower tech materials. I don’t think the intention is to throw us into a medieval world. I think the intention is to force bloody conflict while still allowing the Domains to live in the luxury the 21st century allowed.

We will need to determine what level of technology is sustainable and quickly get to that level with whatever manufacturing capability we currently have before it degrades further. With the technology limits and system benefits being designed, so an individual craftsman is optimal instead of mass production or an automated manufacturing cell and the technology limits, we are looking at the early 1700s or late 1600s as our target.

That doesn’t mean we won’t know the science, but it does mean that the common folks don’t need to know the science. I propose we suppress scientific knowledge past what we can currently use and that we let everyone continue thinking it is magic. We need to do whatever we can to keep access to antibiotics and other critical drugs that can be produced with a mortar and pestle.

We know of an item described by Theta-Sigma that could circumvent many of the lockouts. It was called a nanoforge. These required crafting nanobots to function. Before his confirmation, it was theorized that crafting nanobots were the key to getting around the lockouts. Most folks ended up cultivating near the nanoforge to try and duplicate the effects and rendered them inert. If anyone reading this finds a functional nanoforge, please subdue if possible, kill if not, anyone attempting to cultivate near the nanoforge and report it immediately to the Department of Science and Technology.

Joseph Ryan Banks – 119 AD

A report provided to the newest King of Chicago upon ascension to the throne in 551 AD

“What are antibiotics?”

Response from the newest King of Chicago to the previous report.

“Antibiotics are a myth.”

Update provided by the Department of Magic, formerly the Department of Science and Technology.

The goblins have six floors which they nominally control, but they are probably bunched up in one of three places. The twelfth floor is two giant water holding tanks. One of them is empty, so it might make a nice place to set up. The eleventh floor is filled with batteries. They haven’t touched them, so they probably aren’t past the security door on this floor, but still, they control the stairway. Based on this, it’s likely the security door is still in place. If it is, I have programmed the storage room keycard to get you past it. Once you opened this security door, flip the switch to the left of the door to disable network isolation and allow me into the eleventh-floor computer systems. I will likely be able to activate any working video or audio equipment on the eleventh floor once network isolation is disabled.

Floors nine and ten are the nanoforge. There are small storage areas out front on both floor nine, but there is not a significant amount of space on either floor. The control room is on the tenth floor with a lift to the storage areas above. I’m going to guess floors seven and eight are completely empty of the military items that were supposed to be there. They used to house the weapons, jets, and armor which we were supposed to use if the reserve were activated. With the prohibitions in place, they were likely destroyed by the system nanobots. These are the two floors where it is most likely for the goblins to congregate.

“So, we could have everybody fight me pretty much immediately?” sighed Lucas.

Yes.

“Here’s the plan then. I’d like you to initiate the doors on every level of the stairwell to close. Once you’ve done that, I’d like to have you open the door to the seventh floor. From there I will clear it one floor at a time, maybe two floors if the doors are stuck and not moving. Can you do that Rose?”

Should be doable. Do you want me to initiate a diagnostic on the doors now? That should tell me if they are fully functional. The downside is that the doors will move a little bit to check their ability to move. This means we are giving the Goblins a warning that something is about to happen.

“That’s a tough one,” said Lucas. “What happens if we don’t check the doors?

They will either work or they won’t work. Same as if I had tested them. The difference is whether you know they don’t work before you start or not.

“I guess it isn’t worth checking. If we check the doors, it will stir up the Goblins before I get there, and you can’t really get me that information when I am in the stairwell, but it doesn’t really change anything since I have to kill all the goblins anyway. Can you partially open a door? Could you open a door just far enough that I could spray the area on the other side with Flames?” pondered Lucas.

Yes and no. I can tell a door to open, and then tell a door to close before it fully opens, we did that earlier with the door to the seventh floor. I cannot tell a door to open some fraction of the way. It’s either open, opening, closing or closed. What I can do is flip back and forth between opening and closing. The door will still move a little bit between the signals I send, but it will keep the door relatively fixed.

If the goblins get the idea to jam something into the door while it is opening, I won’t be able to close it again until that is removed. If they keep enough pressure on it, they could slowly push the door back while my commands toggle back and forth. Since I cannot see the doors, I won’t have any idea of what is going on. I will have to continuously cycle between the open and closing command once you get out of my area of control until you tell me otherwise.

The goblins have not managed to get into the nanoforge area or its control room, so I still have connections in there, but that is the only place I can see or communicate on the lower levels. I can go ahead and queue up the comlink for creation and then you just need to feed it materials when you get to the nanoforge. I will get started on a scanner design for you to make after that, so we can scan the repair bots and get some more made. Your card to get into the storage room will get you into the nanoforge control room as well.

I hope, after you have control of the nanoforge, you can trust me enough to explain your tenth domain to me. It may become critical when we are talking about the use of the nanoforge if it impacts your crafting domain.

“I... Yes. After we take out the goblins and we are safe, I think you will deserve to know everything; including who you are working with.”

What do you mean ‘who I am working with?’ I am working with you, Lucas Eckles, formerly of the Global Reserves. I have no one else to work with. In case you haven’t noticed, I am kind of trapped in here. It’s literally you or nobody. Don’t think ‘knowing who you are’ is going to scare me off. I cannot leave, and I die in 300 days if I scare YOU off.

“You’re right. But… I will tell you after we take out the goblins.”

Deal. Get rid of those monsters and then we talk.

“I’m on it.”

Oh. One more thing before you go, says Rose tenderly, Be careful down there.