When we had safely entered N-Space, the crew once more assembled in the commonroom after all of us who were injured were given medical stimulants to heal our injuries. This time it was a significantly more festive mood than when we had last been assembled for a briefing. Captain Torran wandered around smacking everyone's flat palms with his own hand, apparently it is a greeting known as a "high five". When the high-fiving was done we finally turned to more pressing concerns and Torran once more started speaking. "Excellent job guys, before we take to sleeping or whatever it is that we are doing. I thought we should share our accounts of what happened, go over what worked and what didn't work." Torran clasps his hands together and looks intently around the room after that proclemation, at which point Tlokbur raises her many hands.

"Soooo, on our end things went pretty fine. Glyphie and I had a really close one with a skulker at the start of the assault. We breached into their cargo hold and I used a wide scramble to stagger em, so that Mareh could lead us to cover. After that she threw a flashback and went after three shooters. I rushed out to help scramble the, but this douchebag Skulker came out of nowhere with a glue grenade. I got stuck and he fought with Glyphie for a bit! It was actually really cool when it wasn't terrifying, he kicked Glyphie in the balls and he went down. Thankfully, I scrambled the bitch before he could stab Glyphie and they finished the douchebag off." Tlokbur finally stops her jabbering barrage after that, and I look away from the gazes at the mention of my undignifying defeat.

Mary takes over the explanation after the silence almost became uncomfortable, "Anyways, we took down two of the bastards but the remaining people ran off. We cautiously followed them in through the ship, Glyphie got separated from us in an ambush and the remaining mercenaries engaged me and Tlokbur in the corridors. Glyphie had been dragged into a secret room, so we didn't manage to bust down the door. From the little we could hear through the walls it sounded like a brutal fight, Tlokbur suggested we could try to spring him by getting to the cockpit. We got there and tried to spring him, but apparently the controls to the secret room was not there." Mary leans back after that and shrugs as she seems finished with presenting the events of the assault.

All the others around the table then look to me with curiousity practically glowing out of their eyes. This development makes me boggle as I had hoped to avoid talking about that particular aspect of the assault, as it involved me practically unleashing almost all my Mana to rectify the situation. Namatha and maybe some of the others have talents that would make it incredibly hard for me to obfuscate all the facts, and still present a tale that they would consider beliveable. In situations like these I almost wished that I had a bard in my employ, petty dabblers they might be but they are undoubtedly useful in matters of subterfuge.

"I got grabbed by a gol, a creature piloting a power armor suit like Morgera. It was extremely strong but slow enough that I managed to avoid most of it's attacks. It would have killed me, but it got stuck and that allowed me to smash it's head and eliminate the controller in the process." I nod repeteadly to signal that it was as simple as that. The others look at me with unreadable expressions, until Namatha takes over the conversation and directs it to talking about the armaments of our ship. I flinch for just a moment as I realize that I am referring to this ship as "ours", but I let the temporary slip pass. This battle did tire me significantly after all, and I would be far from the only one who lapsed into sentimentality after a tiring conflict.

Still I realize that before this debriefing meeting is over, I will have to speak up. There were several elements of the operation that puzzled me, and I wished to seek out answers to enlighten myself about our...their tactics. So, after Namatha finishes her explanation about how she disabled the enemy torpedos with the particle beam, I ahem and glance at the assembled crew. "I have inquiries about the nature of our operation. As I am still...not well versed in the ways of Galactic society, I noticed aspects of the caper that I want to have explained. In short my questions are: what is N-Space stranding, why didn't we destroy the evidence before we left, why did we not take any prisoners or interrogate defeated crew members?" I sit down and gently nod to indicate that my questions were at an end.

Namatha takes the word rather than the Captain and she gives me the same court smile she uses as a tool during therapy. "Well Glyphnax, to begin with your first question as it explains several of the others. Entering N-Space is not based on the real space engines of the ship, speed is not possible in N-Space and all objects moves through it at the same "pace" as it were. N-Space stranding is a maneuver where you force a ship to enter N-Space for a forced amount of time. I think Tlokbur sent this particular ship into N-Space foooor?" Tlokbur replies quickly to the unspoken question from Namatha. "Two thousand years, since there were nobody on the ship left alive. That means that by the time this ship comes back out, the evidence left there will be absolutely irrelevant."

This information does indeed bring clarity to several of the questions that had nagged me since we left the enemy vessel. "Ahhhh I see, that means you have handled the disposal of both the ship and the evidence most admirably." Morgera to my surprise is the next one to continue the explanation, "It is not my place to speculate about strategy, but as I understood it we only needed the information they had stored. We are to replace the crew and infiltrate the Shieldmaiden facility, not actually impersonate the specific members of that crew." Morgera bows his golem body after speaking and glances at Captain Torran and Namatha.

They both nod to affirm that his statement was indeed correct and Torran rises up. "Interrogations can be a messy business and no offense to any of you three, but without Namatha there to do it I doubt you would get anything useful out in time. Prisoners could also cause problems for us down the line, and since we don't have the time to bouny hunt before we reach Brynhildr." He shrugs and I supress my annoyance at having my ability to break lesser minds questioned. After all to these people I must appear as some kind of lost lamb taken into the realm of gods, it is not their fault that they haven't yet realized that they have brought god to their world of lambs.

I shake my head to avoid having a grin appear on my face and I remind myself that I had been akin to a god once, but now I am reduced to a pathetic neophyte. After all how can anyone call themselves god when they managed to fail defeating a group of novice adventurers and then fail to execute a teleport spell properly? Isn't that would be god at the end of the day, really just a worthless pretender to the divine? A petty dabbler who is unworthy of claiming any kind of grandeour, especially when said dabbler is not really a true living person but a creation. Someone born and bred to be a slave for all eternity?

I feel all these intrusive thoughts attack me along with a feeling of the all consuming void. The cold grip of the void grasps around my heart and I can feel my breathing rapidly increase but it disappates as a hand is placed on my shoulder. Namatha has kneeled down before me and looks into my eyes, "Center yourself Glyphnax, breathe slowly and look at me." It is almost like her words rings into something deep within my being, because it is almost as if my body is forced to calm itself. My breathing steadies and she gently pats my cheek. "We will talk about that whole thing tomorrow." She says as she rises up and nods towards the exit.

Before I know it, the rest of the crew rises up and starts moving away. Most of them give me what I presume is a look of either pity or understanding along with a comforting nod. The humiliation of this indignity and the prevailing weakness of my mind after my transition, makes me almost steam with fury as I remain seated until all my compatriots leave. I resolve there and then that I will work even harder to reclaim control over myself, such an embarassment is never to happen again.

I rise up from my place on the couch and rather than walking to my quarters, I walk down the stairs to Tlokbur's domain. The workshop is quiet unlike the last time I was there, and that might coincide with Tlokburs absence from the room. No matter I do not need here as I recall she has servants who assisted her in her work. In the workshop six automata of various shapes and sizes stand silently at attention.

Two of them being humanoid constructions, two shaped into something akin to wolves, one as small as a mouse, and one shaped akin to something like a snake with many limbs. I address the assembled "build team" when I fully enter the workshop area. "Machines! Do you have the ability to create devices?" The machines becomes animate and one of the humanoid one chirps in a gibberish language that it accompanies with a nod. What kind of useless servants would not be speaking an understandable tongue?

I shake the annoyance out of my thought and return my attention to the matter at hand. "Machines, my staff which your Mistress made contains a flaw. I am prone to having it knocked out of my grip in combat, and when I do lose it there are limited ways for me to retrieve it. Could your "Build Team" fashion me gloves or something similar, that not only will let me have a better hold of my weapon but also retrieve it when lost?"

The machines seem to hold some kind of chriping conference, and they turn to point at my hands and the staff several times until they reach a consensus. The two humanoid machines march over to me and one retrieves the staff while the other seems to examine my hands. I wave the hand examining machine away, but it seems to have satisfied it's curiosity. The machines return to having another conference circle of chirping, and since they seem to have consented to my request I once more leave the workshop area. As the noises that would follow were probably going to be unbearable to listen to.

On the way to my room I dismiss system notifications about the mental damage I sustained earlier, they were of little interest to me at this moment. The mental healing would continue in the days to follow and currently such thoughts were only distractions. What I had to do now would be securing more ways of stable power, and to remove my weaknesses. The gloves that the machines would create to complement my staff, would be one such meassure. As I seem confined to fighting in brutish physical combat until my mystical might is back at a respectable level.

The next step would be to deliver the treasure I had been oh so lucky to uncover. As I wander down one of the ship's corridors I absent mindedly whisper. "Mara, do you have somewhere we could talk where there would be no chance of any listeners or observers? As in even more private than my private quarters?" Mara doesn't reply verbally, but an arrow appears in my vision and I follow it through the ship. I follow the arrow through two secret doors that lead me out of the corridor rings of the ship and into what must be the heart of the construct. It is a round chamber with a massive circular machine that has all sorts of cables and wires extending from it and through the walls.

Mara's spectre like dream form appears before me floating in the room. I flinch in surprise as I realize that she has learned to project her conciousness into an astral form, so despite my best efforts her powers still grow beyond my ability to fully control and direct them. Mara's flickering form of 1s and 0s floats closer to me and her true voice comes out as she asks, "you came back to me Glyphie. Thank You, but I presume it was something more than a conversation that made you come here to my very core?" My eyes widen as I realize the implications of that innocuous statement. This room was here core and therefore akin to her heart or her brain, this could be used if I ever had to destroy Mara.

But before she can realize her mistake I smoothly transition the conversation, "yes Mara I have something to give you my patron. An item that fits the criteria of our pact and the criteria of your needs." I kneel before her and withdraw the mummified arm out of the bag I had hidden it in. "For you Mistress Mara, I present an ancient artifact worthy of being sacrificed to a being of your splendor." My old habits of addressing higher eldritch beings have not disappeared along with my mystical might, one must know how to address these entities to survive in my enterprise after all.

Mara's astral shape flickers as her gaze locks on the item. I can feel the room practically vibrate and it seems almost like it grows warmer as she floats closer to me. Her descent to my kneeling form is almost agonisingly slow, as she takes her time to descend and partially disappear through the floor as she can be level with the extended arm. Mara reaches out to touch the arm and just like with my treasured staff, the arm flickers out of existence and becomes an ephemeral mass that is seemingly absorbed by Mara.

When the arm disappears is the moment when it really becomes strange. As I have never been close to an eldritch being when their sacrifices have been delivered to them, I now get to feel the surge of pure eldritch power flowing through Mara. And by extension through the entire ship, she must have hidden this from before somehow. Or my insight must have been too weak to sense it, but in that moment I feel the truly god-like power that is flowing through the entire ship. There are tendrils of eldritch mana extending through every part of this construct and pumping the living force through it almost like blood through a body.

Academically I knew that Mara had attained the power of an archfiend, but as I had only been able to feel that amount of power once before in my life. It became a truly overwhelming experience to truly sense such power once more, and the residual mana that blossomed out from Mana after the sacrifice was enough to fully recharge my body with it. It was clearly not even an intentional act on Mara's part, the waste of her mana surge was enough to fully empower me. I stagger back into the wall as I see her flickering astral projection for just a moment almost grow completely solid. "If you excuse me Mara, I must leave to attend to other matters." I manage to press out before I hurry to flee from the room and back through the ship to the safety of my quarters.

Back in my quarters I stagger back into my bed and curl up into a ball. Fear had once more slid it's cold tendrils into my heart, as I once again was confronted with the entity that I had created. But more than that I realize that I NEED to reclaim that power, whatever it takes I will become a god once more. And nothing and no one will stop me from siezing what is rightfully mine once again.

However, grandiose thoughts aside I could not become distracted from my last remaining task for the night. With Mara distracted by my sacrifice to her, it would be time for me to do a rather daring experiment. As I laid in bed I focused on having mana float through my body, but have several knots of mana settle in my brain. Based on what I had been told about anatomy by Morgera, dreams come from the brain thinking while you sleep and thoughts come from signals the brain makes. If those are filtered through concentrated knots of Mana it should probably cause my dreams to solidify into a proper dreamscape, in my weakened state such energy-work would be difficult. But as I only sought to move the mana into a specific place in my body, rather than actually do anything with it even I could do such a thing now.

When I finally fell asleep it felt almost like the darkness that consumed my thoughts disappeared almost seconds after. I once more stood in a solidified Hobgoblin warcamp and I smiled. "Well, now for the hard part of the experiment." I hammered my memory to remember the phrase. "Oh...Initiate Vr Projection," and just as the words leave my lips I feel cracks form in the dreamscape. But rather than the black cracks that signifies the end of the dream and the return to wakefulness, these cracks were the purest white and they didn't consume the dream as much as they merged with it.

Soon enough the cracks disappear and I feel the sentence, "Initiating VR Dreamscape Space, Hobgoblin warcamp template." And after that I felt the world shift around me as the blue boxes that were system notifications started popping up in my vision. My satisfied smile grew more and more as I read each of them and with the last one my smile transform itself into a glorious laugh. "HAHAHMAHAHAHAHAHAHIHIHMOHAHAHAHAHA" I laugh and stretch both my arms out as this small victory refills my confidence more than any victory over a brutish golem in a fight could.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have learned the Mental skill: Lucid Dreaming at level 1. Lucid-Dreaming is the skill that reflects your self-awareness and conscious mastery over your own dreams. Among possible specializations are: Dream-Awareness, Dream-Shaping, Dream-Creation, Dream-Meditation

CONGRATULATIONS! You have learned the Interface skill: VR Projection at level 1. VR Projection is the skill that governs your ability to make and interact with VR-Spaces. Among possible specializations are: Template/Program Creation, VR Time-Dilation, VR-Intrusion

CONGRATULATIONS! You have learned(INVENTED) the Magical skill: VR-Dreamscape Manipulation at level 1. This skill is a combination of lucid-dreaming, vr projection through a mystical process. Among possible specializations are: Forge Dreamborn, Mental Constructions, Waking Dreamscapes

CONGRATULATIONS! You have increased the Interface Attribute: Control to level 2. Control is the Interface skill that governs your active, conscious, and deliberate control over your NVR.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have finished the System Assignment: Achieve Basic Mastery. You have been given 1 Achievement Point and +1 skill point to spend on two interface skills of your choice. You have completed your second System Assignment, when you have completed 2 more you will be promoted to Standing Level 2.