Jack was having issues with the simulation. For one, it was impossible to navigate in the massive desert, as either the navigational programs were malfunctioning, or the simulation had issues deciding on where the north was supposed to be. Then there was no map of the area, and the 'Shop' kindly offered him to purchase the mapping function for credits. The microtransactions were obscenely invasive in this simulation, but at least he could gain the currency ingame instead of paying for it with his own money. Even then, he had to admit that the simulation was surprisingly good, in terms of graphics and physics, it might have been even next gen simulation, the sand was borderline real, save for the coloration.

Opening his inventory was already rather easy, he just had to think about it and he would get an item from there in his hands or placed on the ground, at the same time, he could put anything inside the inventory as long as he touched it. Now his Mjolnir was safely stashed inside the inventory, along with all the ammo he had, as well as the nutrition pills, revolver and knife. He could even store his armor inside of it, but there was no reason to put his only means of defending his fleshy bits away.

Sighing, Jack wished for a random encounter to happen soon. He was bored out of his mind for spending more than a day in the desert. He had no games installed in his armor, no movies, tv series, cartoons or music either. Of course it wasn't all that bad during deployment when he had to be on alert at all times, but when it was a desert simulation, he wished there were some ways to pass time during the walks. Or have an auto walk function. If he had more of those 'credits' he could actually buy a method of transportation, some sort of an offroad vehicle, but even if he did buy one, he would still have to buy fuel cells for it. But with the sun being in the skies for the last 28 hours, he had a hunch that having solar powered vehicle would prove beneficial. He had to recharge his power core at some point.

Sighing, Jack looked through the entries for solar recharge stations, preferably the one that utilized the new Q-type solar panels. It was actually rather popular in the aerospace division of Black Hand, the Wolves actually were the most carefree bunch of all the chapters, always staying on the moon base, now that he thought about it.

Opening the shop, Jack started looking through the possible entries. There were a number of generators which would utilize fuel, plutonium slurry, everyday batteries, wind turbines, solar panels and even one that used blood of all things. Jack heard about the development of bioreactor, but he expected it to use plant matter and corpses, not blood. He could try to purchase wind based charging station, but it was common knowledge that using solar panels in the desert was more cost efficient.

“K̷̭̼̓͊Í̶͇͆̈́Ĺ̵̞̙̲͔̖͘Ḻ̴̛͔͍̖̈́̽ͅ” Jack stopped scrolling through the shop as he heard an ominous voice in his head. He quickly shrugged it off however, as it was only a simulation and it might have been a randomly issued quest by the 'system'. Sighing, he moved on to the higher ground to see if there was something to kill, when he heard a roar coming from somewhere on the right.

Going to the leftmost elevated position, Jack noticed that the position from where the roar came from was obstructed by a somewhat large sandhill, which would force Jack to relocate to another position in order to safely assess the situation. He missed his drones, but he was the only one at fault for losing all of them during the Utopia incident. Now that he remembered it, Jack wondered why weren't the replenished in the simulation? And why did he get the Mjolnir, as it wasn't the weapon he used during deployments, preferring the Gustav mk4 over the Mjolnir mk2.

“K̷̭̼̓͊Í̶͇͆̈́Ĺ̵̞̙̲͔̖͘Ḻ̴̛͔͍̖̈́̽ͅ” he heard the voice once more, and shrugged. He learned to ignore the disembodied voices early in his teens, as it seemed to be the side effect of the experimental drugs of the Dusk program.

“Shut it quest.” Jack said as he climbed the bigger hill, overlooking the skirmish between demons. However, this time, it was one of the Masterminds from the video, the giant brain-like monster and another, unknown demons. New demons had dominantly purple skin, that turned black at their claws, and were extremely fast, cutting the Mastermind from all directions, while occasionally attacking eachother, most likely by mistake, but with demons Jack wasn't so sure.

Zooming in closer, Jack noticed that the skirmish was taking place almost at two kilometer mark. Zooming in even closer, Jack observed the fight in greater detail, and looked somewhat astonished. The demons were teleporting around the Mastermind, which attmepted to fight them back by using some invisible projectiles, and a number of odd energy spheres, which detonated in mid air, disabling the purple demons, or outright killing them.

“K̷̭̼̓͊Í̶͇͆̈́Ĺ̵̞̙̲͔̖͘Ḻ̴̛͔͍̖̈́̽ͅ” Jack heard a raspy voice inside his head once more and scowled. He wasn't going to interfere, not until the Mastermind and Jumpers, as he labeled the purple demons, which tensed up before each teleportation sequence.

Sighing, Jack deployed his shoulder mounted grenade launcher, and loaded one phosphorous shell inside. He wanted to keep the corpses relatively intact, so he could convert some of the biological material to credits. He also needed to use his energy more sparingly, as he was already at 25% charge, and losing his armor might prove to be fatal in the short, or long run.

“K̷̭̼̓͊Í̶͇͆̈́Ĺ̵̞̙̲͔̖͘Ḻ̴̛͔͍̖̈́̽ͅ” Jack sighed. It seemed that the disembodied voice was really keen on having the demons dead, but Jack wasn't going to do it just yet. There was no reason to actually engage the enemies at the moment, but he would need to come closer so he could kill the remaining enemies. Unfortunately, his grenade launcher had an effective range of 900 meters, meaning he would have to come closer to the skirmish.

“K̸̨̥̼̟̆̓̓I̵̬͑̈Ĺ̷̜̭̖̝̮L̴̹͎̲͕̠̃̓͛̓ ̶̡̮͈̏̈́͜T̸̗̣͚͚͋̊͠Ḩ̵̩̱̄̕E̸̘̾͒͌M̴̟͑̓̚͘” Jack sighed once again. He was getting annoyed by the voice, and wanted for the Jumpers to finally finish the big brained demon, so he could burn them. He thought about it for a second, and prepared to use Mjolnir as well, in case phosphorous grenades would prove to be ineffective against demons. They were supposed to be highly resistant to fire.

Sighing as he approached the 900 meter mark, Jack shot the grenade in a high ark, retreating a few steps as the grenade left the barrel with a soft *Thud*. It would take a few seconds for it to travel to the designated location, as he saw the Jumpers finally gaining an upper hand against the Mastermind.

When the grenade finally was at the peak, Jack prepared the Mjolnir and took aim at the center of the demons, but the moment the grenade made contact with them, all demons in range started screeching, as the white fire engulfed all of them. To say Jack was surprised would be an understatement, as with the zooming function, Jack vitnessed how the demon flesh bubbled and melted, with roars and shrieks filled in agony, which brought smile to his face.

By the time the screams stopped, eighty seconds had passed, and Jack was slowly moving towards the enemy position, with the now dead Mastermind and even more dead Jumpers. The sight was messy, with the ground covered in burnt skin and chemicals, the blackened bodies of Jumpers and brownish body of Mastermind littering the sand, and a smell of rotten flesh passing through the filters, making Jack nauseous.

“Smells like zed infestation.” Jack said as he moved to the bodies and converted them to credits.

Demon (Jumper) converted

SC gained

599

Jack emitted a whistle, as the first demon corpse provided him with almost six hundred credits, with many more to come, though some corpses seemed to be dismembered during the demonic skirmish. Still, they seemed like nothing comparing to the Mastermind.

Demon (Mastermind) converted

SC gained

32'455

Which made Jack question why would it cost so much. True, the Jumpers weren't as powerful as one might have them expected to be, having claws as their only weapons, but even then, the organ that allowed them to teleport would have to be more expensive than whatever Mastermind used. Then again, they were easily dispatched by the said Mastermind.

Jack sighed, as he converted the remaining Jumpers, bringing his total credits to 69'342, for converting 42 demons, leaving two more to be cut up for the organ that were responsible for their teleportation abilities. If Jack could find out what was responsible for their abilities, he could try and experiment with them, gaining an ability to teleport short distances at will, or at least after some preparations.

Nodding, Jack opened the shop and continued browsing through the item list. Fortunately, as he already explored everything, he had enough credits for a small scale Q-type solar panels, with enough money leftover to buy the mapping ability. Jack hesitated for a few seconds before pressing confirm on the purchases.

Quantum-Solar pack

15'000 SC

Portable solar panels made of rimtech alloy and darkstone, utilizing poorly understood material to generate electricity through photovoltaic effect.

Maximum output: 12 KW/H

Mana conductivity: low

Auto-Map

500 SC

Allows for mapping the surface for all your basic needs. Also includes an ability to set up beacons for easier navigation.

Total cost: 15'500 SC

After purchasing the items, Jack equipped the Q-S pack on his power armor and plugged in the cord into it, afterwards deploying the item, which created a sort of umbrella above his head, made out of matte black plates. He didn't see if the pack provided any effect so far, but considering that his power core had a bit over 3MWh, and the energy efficiency of his armor, it seemed like he would still have to abstain from using energy weapons, until his energy reserves increased to at least 60%. Though if anything, he would gain one free round for his rifle, but to top off his armor reserves would require 188 hours at the maximum output, or almost eight days, and that is if he were to shut off armor and stay in one place.

Sighing, Jack contemplated on what he should do next, and started looking through available weapons. He couldn't use his revolver with the power armor, as it wasn't designed for use with exoskeleton systems, which required him to acquire new weapons from the shop. He dreaded to look at the weapons which might cost even more than the backpack he purchased just now. But when he looked if there were any RX series weapons, he was pleasantly surprised at their relatively adequate price. However, ammunition had higher cost comparing to the weapons themselves.

“And I don't really have a choice, do I?” Jack asked no one in particular as he selected RX-309 with it's respective ammo.

RX-309

18'000 SC

Heavy Marksmanship Rifle with integrated RX-309 suppressor and scope, designed to be used by EXO troopers. Compatible with RXGP magazines only.

12x54 HVP ammo pack *15

350 SC *15

Pack of 40 12x54mm caseless rounds with depleted uranium tips and improved gunpowder formula, designed for maximum penetration and range.

RXGP-80 *5

120 SC *5

Box magazine holding 80 of 12x54mm rounds. Designated for use in RX series firearms.

Total cost: 23'850 SC

Jack sighed as he pressed confirm. The three purchases lowered his funds to 29'992 credits. It was annoying to say the least, but at the same time, he now had a way to kill demons without jeopardizing his energy reserves. If he was being honest however, he was glad it only cost this much, but he was curious if he would be able to kill every demon he encountered.

Sighing, Jack decided to finally invest his ten points into agility and perception.“24 points, huh?” Jack asked in surprise. “I had ten before... siphon.” Jack remembered the entry of the Soul Sihpon and opened it once again.

Soul Siphon

Consume part of the lingering soul energy, converting it to UP. Doesn't work against constructs.

“I can get more points by killing demons? Need to test it out, I guess.” Jack said as he looked over his attributes and shrugged. “4 to agility, 8 to dexterity, 1 to perception, 7 to luck, and... 4 to willpower?” Jack asked confirming the changes. “I wonder what other things do, but I am a ranger and I need dexterity and perception.” Jack said confirming the point assignment.

Name:

Jack

Delgado

Race:

Homunculus

Class:

None

Titles:

Inquisitor

UP: 0

SC: 29'992

ST: 0

Level:

0/10

HP:

1'087/1'087

MP:

975/975

Traits

Stubborn, Tough, Esper

Abilities

Grimoire, Soul Siphon, Conversion, Inventory, Auto-Map

Bloodlines

Primary: Human; Secondary: None; Tertiary: None;

Strength

23

Constitution

24

Vitality

26

Agility

30

Dexterity

30

Perception

30

Focus

31

Willpower

60

Attunement

11

Charisma

12

Psyche

14

Luck

80

Fire

Water

Earth

Air

Light

Darkness

Life

Death

15

10

10

10

5

25

5

15

Summoning

Time

Void

Space

Soul

0

0

0

0

5

Jack nodded in satisfaction as he noticed his stats increasing slightly. There was also a small icon in his field of vision, with a book symbol on it, which he decided to open.

Unclaimed spells are available

Jack's brain stopped for a second, before his mouth spread in a massive grin, as he expanded the window, only for it to turn into frown.

Select spells from the list.

Darkness: 1

Shadow Garb

Cover oneself in magical darkness, amplifying agility and dexterity while the spell is active. Effectiveness changes depending on the light levels.

Dark Tendril

The shadowy appendage appears at the designated shaded area and attacks your target. Can exist in light, but will be disbanded at a faster rate.

He only had two options, and both looked to be terrible in current conditions. But if he were to choose one over the other, he would have to choose a tendril, it seemed to have more uses in the current situation.

Spells Acquired

Darkness spell:

Dark Tendril

The shadowy appendage appears at the designated shaded area and attacks your target. Can exist in light, but will be disbanded at a faster rate.

“So... dark tendril?” Jack asked as the small circle appeared in his field of vision for a split second, and his own shadow became somewhat alive, to which he just shrugged. At least this simulation had usable magic spells and it was good in his opinion. He would have preferred to cast fireballs instead of black tentacles, but he didn't want to spend any more credits than necessary. Or points. Though he had to admit, he wanted to go on a spending spree.