-Penny, the question about who stole from all those companies and if the technologies will be leaked have continued to increase both on the dark web and in the Well of Wisdom in the last 23 hours. The Well of Wisdom has continued to answer we don’t know, but they continue asking it in place of more productive questions. Soon you may need to get involved if things continue like this.-

-Let us do something about it then. Weaken out=r battery technology so it is only twice as powerful as the most advanced battery today, same with some of the motors and robotic parts, haptic technology and some of the research we completed and perfected and leak it through the dark web. It will still be better than anything on the market, but not better than what we have. That should quiet them for a while. Also you may leak this design of a fighting robot to some underground fighting rings.-

Penny had the idea of popularizing robot fighting like in Real Steel and quickly designed a base model of a robot that could easily be customized and modified and was controlled by a connection to a haptic suit. Instead of two human fighters in the ring, like MMA or boxing, two robots fought to the death in the ring to test the engineering prowess and battle ability of their controllers.

After dealing with the dark web, she turned to M.A.L.A. and started inquiring about the progress of the magic research. When she asked Aica to test the performance of the swords she made, Penny also gave her access to her pocket dimension and asked her to collect monster drops and magical equipment, which she then dumped on M.A.L.A. for study.

When an item is transported from one dimension to another, they change their structure to make it possible to function in the new dimension if at all possible, so when the magic items were transported all the magic inscriptions, runes and effects were translated into earth magic symbols, runes and languages. With the number of samples in her possession, Penny could analyze the items and learn how to create magic items with varying effects, what every rune and inscription did, replicate and modify them as she wished. She could learn earth magic from interdimensional magic items.

-How is the analysis of the items going? Have you made progress identifying and cataloguing all the symbols yet?-

-All the symbols were registered in the first day. I found 3 distinct kinds of symbols. We have runes that resemble some from different places, like Celtic and Scandinavian, but others are without a match and still need research. I did identify some with basic functions like fire, air and energy and am continuing to uncover the meanings of more as I experiment with them. Next we have something resembling magic schematics or program or something. A lot of symbols connected with lines, circles and other forms and it reminds me a lot of the magic used by magi craftsmen. I am still in the process of deciphering it. The third type of symbols is actually something that looks like words in some magic language, but I don’t have all the letters and don’t even know where to start deciphering or translating the language. We will have to acquire more samples and study the language based on the effects the words have on the objects they are inscribed in. But that is mostly how I found all other effects and translations so far, so it shouldn’t be a problem.-

-Good work. I will send one of the bodies of A.I.C.A. to gather more magic items. Continue with the good work, but first build a safety box with magic dampeners and barriers in case of an explosion or other destructive effects.-

Penny was just about to talk to A.I.C.A. about the new assignment, when she had another idea. ”Why don’t I accompany her? This way I can train my swordsmanship and train my muscle memory while doing actual work.”

Penny dressed in her suit with all the enchantments, got her multi tools and inspected them, made a software update and a new batch of micro bots that expanded their capabilities. She inspected the magic katana for damage, then she got one of A.I.C.A.’s bodies and teleported to the DTR, where she activated Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction and dimension traveled to Rogue Encampment.

Penny, the robot body she decided to name Raven and the player character, controlled by an AI left the encampment and followed the beaten paths in search of the first quest location, The Den of Evil. On the way they encountered a number of monsters, most of them slain by Raven and only the ones without magic were taken on by Penny, slaying them with multi tools transformed in the form of a katana and wakizashi. She was calm in battle, knowing that the enchantments on her suit would negate any harm done by kinetic force, but stayed behind Raven and the player character when fighting magic wielding enemies just to be safe.

It was interesting to see how the enemies dropping loot looked like in this dimension that translated game logic into a living world. When an enemy was slain if it didn’t hold an item and drop it, its blood or ectoplasm or other bits left behind transformed into items, gold and potions that the player character could pick up.

The three companions continued walking on their way to the cave containing the amassing horde of creatures, taking down anyone who stood in their way… or were close to the road they walked on. They arrived at a fork in the road and went one way, only to see a rogue from the encampment and immediately knew they needed to backtrack. When they did, they took the next road, fought some more, looted the corpses and finally arrived to their destination. When they entered the cave, they found creatures named Fallen, Fallen Shamans, Zombies and Gargantuan Beasts. They even found a slightly stronger type of Zombie, which took the combined strength of the 3 a few minutes to take down. Penny often changed the contents of the outer layer of her blades from cold iron to silver and mithril depending on the enemy they faced. Raven tried her coil guns on the enemies with mixed results, some were easily taken down while with others she was just wasting ammunition. In the end she changed to close-quarters weapons and bet the creatures to death. The cave was a treasure throve of loot, but few of the items were magical which greatly disappointed Penny.

When they returned to the encampment they changed the equipment of the player character and sold the rest for gold, then took their time to talk with everyone, received their rewards from the quest and went to fulfill the next, Sisters’ Burial Grounds.

They again followed the roads, taking the one that led to the rogue when they arrived at the fork and continued on their way to the Monastery’s graveyard. Except they again took a wrong turn and instead arrived at another cave. Penny decided to clear it out, because they weren’t here to do quests, they were part of the progression. No, they were here for items to study and the only way to find good items was to beat stronger, rare or unique monsters.

In the cave the group found mostly the same variation of creatures, except instead of Zombies they found Skeletons and instead of Gargantuan Beasts they found Hungry Dead and Dark Rangers. They didn’t have a lot of trouble, slaying the creatures, smashing skeletons with blunt objects and silver, until they found a fairly unique looking creature. She was surrounded by a number of Dark Rangers and shooting arrows with the cold element imbued in them. She would have been a hard enemy to fight for most at this stage of the game, except this was one of the cases where Raven’s coil guns were very effective. A few shots intercepted the arrows shot at them and a few more fired at higher power setting ensured the shooter’s death.

Penny cleared the second level of the cave, opened a gold chest, collected gold and every magic and rare item they found. One advantage she had was that she didn’t rely on the inventory of the player character, which was very small and instead stored all the items she found in her pocket dimension. When they were finished clearing the cave, Penny, Raven and the player character returned on the road and walked and fought until they arrived at the Monastery’s Graveyard.

When they arrived, they found the place crawling with undead, all protecting the Blood Raven, a corrupted Rogue. The group split up and each took a role. Penny changed her weapons to alchemical silver coating and started killing the Hungry Dead, constantly moving around to avoid being targeted by Blood Raven. Raven shot with her coil guns through the horde, targeting the enemy leader, while the player character tanked the arrows shot at them, trying to protect them and speed up the fight.

It didn’t take long to finish the fight. Penny was eliminating the undead quicker than Blood Raven was rising new ones and the player character took all her shots that could slow them down, which opened the way for Raven to finish the enemy with her guns. When Blood Raven was put down there was spectacular magic reaction and all the remaining undead fell down and stopped moving, returned to their natural state of just being dead. The group collected the loot and then returned to Rogue Encampment, where they finished the quest and received a Rogue mercenary for free.

Penny decided she had enough adventure for one day and returned home, where she did a quick search on the items of Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction and found a way to receive higher quality items for her research. She tasked the AIs to first download item maker program and tested if she could use the modified items for research, but as soon as they were taken out of her pocket dimension they started glowing and she was forced to put them in the safety box where they proceeded to explode. Something in the program or the way it modified items was causing them to turn unstable and when removed from the stable environment of the game, they exploded from the instability.

That left her with her other choice of action, collect and equip her player character with items that had Better Chance of Getting Magic Items and start farming unique monsters and bosses for magic loot. She wasn’t only in the search of unique items or strong items, but different items with the same or similar effects that could help her decipher the magic that made the items. By comparing the runes and schemes that made the same or similar magic effects she could start filling the blanks and start learning how to create the same items and with time even improve them. And now she had a good starting point and plan how to move forward with her research.

The AIs created a number of new characters and started playing them on the Battle Net, finding items, making exchanges with other players for weaker, but more useful for research items and hoarding charms, jewels, runes, gems, rings and amulets. They were buying Ist runes and perfect topazes as well as jewels with the highest Better Chance of Getting Magic Items percentages, but also other runes, gems, jewels and charms. And when they had everything they needed, the best equipment, socketed and filled with jewels, runes and gems and the luckiest equipment, they equipped a few characters with full sets, formed parties and went against all the bosses in the game in search of items.

Penny only had to enter the game from time to time to take the collected items and then dump them to M.A.L.A. to sort, analyze and decipher, then confirm her findings and teach her all the things she learned. Penny also swiped a few Horadric Cubes to study and use to experiment. The recipes for the cube were helpful, but it had so much more applications not constrained by codes that crippled its capabilities.

She also made a new katana, gave it to the highest level character and after using a Horadric Cube, runes and gens to make sure it counted as normal quality weapon, she had the blacksmith in Act 1 imbue her weapon and make it magical. Then she send the weapon through the Cube a few more times to make it from Normal Rare weapon to Exceptional and then Elite, after which she collected her katana and included it in the list of items for study. Her Magic AI Laboratory Assistant had a lot of work to do in the future and Penny couldn’t wait for the day she could create any magic effect she wished.