Chapter 9

The next morning I woke up early; I couldn't sleep well because I kept having a nightmare about grub. Somehow in that nightmare the grub came to life and kept on growing until I couldn't escape anymore then I got eaten when it opened its big nasty smelly mouth and that's when I woke up. I tried to go back to sleep but that failed so I went to the training room early instead. Just to get my mind off of things. I went through the system to look for the manual and when I found a button that said 'manual' I pressed it and a drawer appeared from under the screen within which was a very very thick book. I couldn't pick it up with my feeble arms so I changed myself back to a Tamarin with my transformer gauntlet. Having grown in stature and strength picking up the manual was still a very tough task but I completed it none-the-less. I then brought the manual to the kitchen so I could have my breakfast as I was reading it.

For breakfast I had some oatmeal, turns out the manual talks about every single race that has ever existed so only a relatively small part of it is specifically about the Tamarin and the training that a Tamarin must undergo. Nothing about the Tamarin as a people or their culture though. I guess that information can only be found in the Database. I was wondering why but after I imagined how big the manual would've been if all of that had also been included I just smiled and shrugged at the absurdity of that thought.

What I already knew was that the Tamarin, Druid and the Klaver tribes were originally one race. Druid are small lizard-men that can run fast, jump high and are very agile. The Tamarin are a little bigger than the average humans, they look just like the Druid but are twice their size and they tend to live in cities within and under the forest. The Klaver are just very odd. They live in giant colonies under the ground creating giant mounds on the surface from the dirt that they dig up. They have very tough hides, they're strong and have very high endurance which allows them to dig up dirt from amazing depths and bringing it up all the way to the surface for hours on end without taking a break. Things they all have in common is that they are all allied to one another, they can all stealth and they all dislike humans because a lot of the jungle has been burnt during the endless war leaving them less and less room to live in. Now they form a joint front to defend the jungle that they have. The Druid dislike Joren and the Klaver dislike Jin due to their proximity to them and past conflicts.

What was found in the manual was much more specific information. I learned that the people of the forest (Tamarin, Klaver and Druid) all secreted a certain substance from their scales which when turned into mana allowed them to bend light around themselves thus becoming invisible for the eye. Then I also learned about the minimal requirements for each of their abilities.

Some Druid races strung tiny ropes from their hips to their hands and in between and would then secrete the invisibility substance along the ropes. Then by a special chemical reaction by turning the substance into mana it connected itself to the ropes thus forming wings with which the Druid with their light weight bodies could fly around. Some Tamarin had previously attempted to copy this technique but the Tamarin are too big and heavy to achieve a similar result. The first and last attempt ended with a fatality. The Tamarin also tried to copy the Klaver by digging cities underground but because the Tamarin aren't as strong they could only dig up to a certain depth before it became too long of a walk to effectively expand their cities so instead they built upwards through the base of a tree to live in the tree. To protect their city they use invisible blades, the pores in the hands of the Tamarin are bigger than those of the other races allowing the Tamarin to hide their daggers or weapons for a short time by covering it with the invisibility substance and continuously applying mana-conversion to it. There sure was a lot of things that were plainly unknown to me. Not just the Tamarin but all races had their own special abilities that go far beyond what any human can do. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to be hooked up to the database. Just being able to access the information on all these different races and how they use mana could greatly increase my knowledge. With that knowledge I could maybe make new machines. Like an invisibility machine perhaps. If only I could figure out how to make that substance.

As I was deep in thought I hadn't noticed that Mys Tara had already arrived. I didn't even hear the elevator open its doors.

'What are you having for breakfast?' she asked.

'oatmeal' I answered as I woke up from my deep thoughts.

'I see that you're reading the manual as I told you. Quite a lot to take in isn't it.'

'It sure is, the more I come to know the less I seem to know.' I said while making an overly serious and contemplative facial expression.

'They grow up so fast. I have to continually remind myself that you're still a kid and not blame you for the irresponsible things you say and do. But I'm glad to have met you.' It was silent for a while as she looked at me with a meaningful smile. I have no idea what the meaning was though.

'Well though the timing was awful I am glad to have met you too. I think its safe to say that you and Boren are my first two friends.'

'What! Your first? But you're so funny!' she answered all surprised.

'Yeah I used to not really care but now that I seem to have lost those that I did care for I have started to care more for those around me when they're around me instead of after they're gone.'

'What is up with you today, you say all this stuff that only adults should say and think about. Where did your childhood go?'

'I was a child for but a while. Last time I was a child was when I went with my father to a science fare in Jin. It fascinated me what science and technology could do. I was all enthusiastic about it and worked long and hard to make various machines and contraptions. Not that many of the actually worked. But at one moment in time. I am not sure when exactly, I just started taking things very seriously. I didn't really do science for fun anymore. I stopped being a kid a long time ago.'

I was staring at a random spot in the emptiness of space reminiscing about my childish enthusiasm for science only to later find out that science can also take lives and that taking lives is the current focus of all scientific leaders. Very discomforting, sad and it completely demotivated me for a long time. This was shortly after I had made the mana shields I think.

'Well since I am your friend now, I guess I'll be there if you need someone to talk to. After you finish your breakfast we'll have to go downstairs to check how far Boren is with his work. Maybe he's got it working already. Or that's what I'm hoping for anyways.'

So after I finished my oatmeal and put away the manual we went down the cave to where Boren was. He had built a strange contraption in the middle of the cave with what seemed to be parts of what used to be the mana turrets.

'Is that what I think it is' asked Mys Tara as she beheld the metal orb like contraption.

'I hope so.' Boren answered. 'Its not finished yet but I hope I can give a small demonstration around lunchtime.'

'What am I looking at?' I asked wondering what they were thinking and talking about.

'You're looking at the beginnings of a transformer.' Mys Tara said; then turning to Boren: 'Do you have everything you need? Are there any parts that you need me to get for you?'

'In fact, my processor is getting clunked up because of the long day so I need to run a cleaner and rest for a bit. While I do that you can get the missing parts. I knew you'd come so I made a list.' Boren answered.

'I thought you could show how it worked around lunchtime yet you are still missing parts; how does that work?' I wondered out loud.

'Well I know that Mys Tara will be able to bring me the necessary parts before lunch time and after running the cleaner it should be much easier to finish things.

'What is a cleaner?' I asked

'Its a program on my mainframe that cleans up the clutter that builds up from my thought processes. Its something I need to do daily but if its a day where I think more than other days I need to do it more often. This day has been especially long and I have had to think a lot. Especially with deciphering the plans for the transformer. Due to that my thought processing speed is almost halved.' Boren explained as he looked for a nice place to lay down.

'Well see you both in a bit, I'll be taking a rest now.'

'Sure, I'll wake you up when I got the parts.' Mys Tara said right before Borens red eyes turned off. Then they turned back on but they weren't red anymore. Instead they were replaced by green flickering lights.

'What is that?' I asked Mys Tara.

'Oh that just means that he's offline, his mind is now active in the database instead of his metal body. This way he stays awake while his physical mind is being refreshed.' She then turned and headed to the cave-exit again. I obediently followed. 'I guess I'll just be training and reading then. What should I train first?'

'You should train speed first, This way you can build your leg muscles first which is a good basis for future training. So just keep doing that marathon thing and switch it up from time to time with the sprint one. I'll see you before lunch, I got things to do and find. Good luck on your training' she said as she walked off at a high pace to the elevator and up to where ever she was off to. I of course went back to the training room and selected the running training. I trained diligently and gained 12 agility and 6 endurance this includes the 5 points I previously got from running I also gained 3 more levels.

I am now level 5 also somehow my wisdom went up by 40 which could explain my witty remarks and deep thought process this morning. My stats as of now are:

hp 750

strength 10

endurance 16

agility 22

accuracy 10

intelligence 110

wisdom 50

Intelligence also rose due to me reading the manual this morning I guess. The hp or health points also seem to go up by 50 every time you gain a level. Seems I learned a lot about how these stats work. But as long as I don't gain any actual abilities I won't be of much use yet.

But it was almost lunch time so I turned off the training and went to get something to drink, running sure does make one thirsty.