Adam sat on the bed, focused, and withdrew into his Mindspace. The “Hal” ability had said he needed to utilize the ability from his Mindspace which would make use of this ability almost impossible while in combat unless he could split his conscious again, something to think about later. As he moved his focus into his Mindspace only one change was evident. Normally when he first entered his Mindspace it would be an open blank expanse that he could populate with his imagination. He’d focus on an image of a study that would pop into existence around him. Then he’d get comfortable and review his memories as books or videos. This time there was an open expanse and floating in the center of it was a translucent fractal that was transforming between three-dimensional geographic shapes.

The fractal floated there changing forms. To make sure it didn’t have any other effects on his Mindspace, Adam changed his surroundings to his comfortable study with a fireplace and two recliners. He liked the aesthetic of having another chair in the room even if no one else was in his mind. Yeah, he missed Abi.

He turned to the Fractal and asked, “Are you Hal?” just to be sure it was a representation of the ability. This was going to suck if it wasn’t.

“Yes, I am Hal,” the fractal said in a robot-like emotionless voice.

“What information may I ask about?”

“You may ask about anything. If I have information available I will reveal it. If I do not I will inform you that I do not. Please begin any inquiries with ‘Hal’,” Hal said.

“Hal, can you provide a comparison of Attribute levels between Low through Legendary as compared to my previous existence inside a holographic Universe.”

“Yes,” Hal said.

Okay, this interface wasn’t going to give anything away for free, so he’d have to be very specific in his questioning. Unfortunately for Hal, or whoever created this ability with the intent to obfuscate answers, Adam was very knowledgeable about how to dig out specific information inside a logic trap, “Hal, please list comparable levels for attribute levels for Low, Medium, High, Elite, Epic, Mythic and Legendary attributes as compared to attributes prior to entering this Universe.”

Hal morphed into a screen as a chart popped up;

Attribute Level Range

Low 1 - 18

Medium 19 - 100

High 101 - 1,000

Elite 1,001 - 10,000

Epic 10,001 - 50,000

Mythic 50,001 - 100,000

Legendary 100,001 - 200,000.

“Hal, does Cultivator Class in any way prohibit attribute increase?” Adam asked.

“Yes,” Hal said.

“Hal, what level equivalent is a Legendary Step 4 attribute?”

“Legendary 209,715,200,001 419,430,400,000”

“Hal, what is the highest Step that can be achieved for attributes?” Adam asked.

“The answer that best fits this question is infinite.”

Adam thought for a minute. Nice way for whatever was providing these answers to circumvent answering so he changed tactics and asked, “Hal, what is the highest Step attribute currently held by any being, living or undead?”

“Step 7”

“Hal, how do I attain Step 7?”

“That information is not known,” Hal said.

So, there were things Hal was not allowed to answer. Adam paused for a minute as he thought about what he needed. What did he need to know the most? The abstract combat system would be nice. He seemed to be far more powerful when he had been with Step 1 Legendary attributes. He needed to be able to quantify what having Step 4 Attributes meant. Hal wasn’t very talkative, but it seemed if he asked questions that had numerical values Hal responded well enough. He thought about how to ask for the information he wanted concerning combat then said, “Hal, quantify the abstract combat system detailing the number of attacks, damage, and defense values for all Step 1 Attributes.”

The screen Hal display populated with the following information.

Level, #Attacks (#A), Effective Damage (EDA), Effective Defense (EDF)

Level #A EDA EDF

Low 3 3 10

Medium 6 6 18

High 9 9 27

Elite 12 12 36

Epic 15 15 45

Mythic 18 18 54

Legendary 21 21 63

Adam looked at the chart and realized immediately that it was following a rule of 3. To clarify part of the information he saw in the chart he said, “Hal, define Number of Attacks.”

“Number of Attacks is the maximum number of physical attacks that can be taken based on skill and attribute during any single Combat Round or second. This is not an average. Agility is used to determine the maximum number of physical attacks while skill levels determine the actual number of physical attacks that can be taken,” Hal said.

That was interesting. So, when he first started he could make up to 21 attacks if his skill and ability matched. He thought back to the battle. When he’d started fighting the Army he had felt kind of sluggish but as his skill improved he’d become faster and faster. He asked, “Hal, what is the maximum number of physical attacks that I may take with an Agility at Legendary Step 4 as well as my EDA and DEF

Level #A EDA EDF

Legendary(4) 84 84,000 252,000

Adam looked at the numbers then his mind went into overdrive. If there was one thing he was good at it was seeing patterns and extrapolating. If there were seven levels in each Step and he was at level 7 of step 4 that would be 28 levels. 28 multiplied by 3 was 84. That worked. Base attacks and base damage were identical for Step 1 levels and the defense was a multiple of 3 except at Low-Level Defense, which was 10. That was probably so creatures had a better chance of surviving. What that Step 1 chart basically meant was that it usually took 3 hits of an equivalent level to beat the same level of defense.

Legendary Step 4 was 84 multiplied by 1,000. This probably meant that Legendary Step 3 was probably 63 multiplied by 100 and Legendary Step 2 was 42 multiplied by 10. Though thinking about this as numbers meant nothing. This was an abstract system. It would take 4 Low-level attacks to bust through Low-level defense. Going by the chart one Elite-level attack would break through a Low-level defense.

Adam populated the chart into his head and realized that one attack from him would be able to take down a Legendary Step 3, but it would still take 3 attacks from him to get through Low-Level Step 4 defenses. That also meant that his base Defense was so high that it would take 84,000 low-level Step 1 attacks to break through his defense. How did that work with critical damage and larger creatures? Did it increase the damage by a level or Step? Probably a combination of both. Next time he ran into the Ogre or Giant he’d pay more attention.

He brought his focus back and thought about the Steps. Each Step was definitely a little more than a logarithmic increase though it followed that pattern. If Steps 5, 6, and 7 followed the same pattern even he would need to do 32 attacks against a Step 5 Low-Level defense. It was a good thing that “How to Achieve Step 5 and higher” information wasn’t readily available. Steps 1 through 4 seemed achievable. Step 5 and higher would be insanely high-powered though it looked like as long as you were within the same step you had a chance. Also, he knew that not everyone would be like him and keep all of their attributes at the same level. Some creatures might be insanely strong and have no ability to take damage while others would be the exact opposite.

Adam sat down in his chair and went over all the information he had, which seemed lacking. One problem he was having was knowing which questions to ask specifically. Hal, when possible, only gave concise answers and didn’t explain anything, though he would give definitions. That gave him a couple of questions he could ask.

“Hal, What planet am I currently on?” Adam asked.

“Nostrom”

“Hal, how many magical quintessence types are there?”

“Unknown,” Hal answered.

“Hal, Define current Cosmological makeup”

“Infinite”

“Hal, clarify the last answer.”

“Current cosmological makeup of dimensional boundaries is infinite,” Hal said.

Adam thought about his ability “Dual State” and then asked, “Hal, Define Astral Plane.”

“The Astral Plane is a dimensional plane that does not consist of physical constructs. Travel into, through, and out of the Astra Plane is possible with specific magical abilities and technological devices. Only energetic entities are native to the Astral Plane.”

Adam locked in on the word technological, “Hal, define current technological limits.”

“None.”

That tidbit of knowledge was really interesting. Adam had a thought, “Hal, are there Technological Quintessence Abilities?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Now that was good to know. Maybe there was a way to utilize technology without requiring nanites to do so, though nanites would be really nice. Of course, if there were magical abilities that could control technology and technological constructs that didn’t have souls or abilities, the magical abilities would probably win every time.

“Hal, what is the best quintessence to create an ability to control or create technology?

“A Technological Quintessence”

Ask an easy question, and get an easy answer. Instead, he thought about his Chaos Quintessence and then asked, “Hal, Can Chaos Quintessence create Technological abilities.”

“Yes”

“Hal, is there any quintessence ability a Chaos Quintessence cannot create?” Adam asked.

“No,” Hal said.

So, he could create any ability with Chaos Quintessence. That was a game-changer. Adam checked his Shadow Vault and noted that he only had 48 Quintessence left. He could make 6 Legendary abilities or a couple of legendary abilities and a few lower-powered quintessence abilities. It depended on what he needed. That reminded him. The System Matrix A.I. he needed to find it, “Hal, Define Void in the following context, Item with dimensional space have been lost to the void.”

“Void Dimensions are dimensions adjacent to the current universe that you are currently occupying.”

Well shit, he’d lost all the stuff in his inventory when he’d been in The Plant. Maybe Hal could help with that.

“Hal, review my recent locations. What location was I in before I entered this Universe?” Adam asked.

“You were in an Adjacent Universe to the one you are currently in controlled by the Pelza Empire.”

Each question Adam asked created new questions, “Hal, what is the difference between an adjacent dimension and an adjacent universe?

“A Universe may have many adjacent dimensions that “directly” connect to that universe. Some dimensions are infinite, and others are quite small. Adjacent Universes do not directly connect to other Universes and instead bridges form through the Astral plane creating a connection. The Astral Plane sits between them. Adjacent Universes may create points of contact that allow physical matter to travel between the two Universes at those bridges. Also, adjacent Universes are not static, connection points can close, and Universes can move away from each other.”

“Hal, how many Universes are there?” Adam asked.

“Unknown,” Hal said.

Adam brought a three-dimensional image of the Multiverse as he knew it into existence utilizing the bubble representation and replaced chaos with the Astral Plane as the glue that allowed the bubbles to bob around before he asked, “Hal, the three-dimensional image I’ve created, is this a close approximation to the current make up of the local Universe and all adjacent one?”

“No,”

“Hal, utilizing my representation as a starting point please alter the current configuration into a representation of this Universe and the adjacent ones.”

Hal modified the image by animating the image so that the bubbles were replaced by fractals that were continuously rippling and moving. As they came close to other fractals tendrils would form and reach toward the adjacent fractal. When two tendrils touched, a bridge would form and stabilize that area of the fractal. Some touched for a bit, while other tendrils brushed each other and disconnected. As Adam watched the image flattened so that the Universes were represented by extremely flat fractals that were undulating as they moved back and forth squeezing closer and closer together and reducing the overall size of Astral Space.

The image Adam was looking at now looked like the layers of a composite and Astral Space was the glue between layers where every fractal representing a Universe was another layer. If the Universes were layered like a composite what structure, if any, was being created?

Adam had a lot to think about and only 48 more Quintessence to utilize. He needed to learn more but first, he needed to learn about this new world before he’d be able to take full advantage of Hal and his apparent ability to guide his ability creation. Adam stood and said, “Thank you, Hal, I must attend to other matters.”

Hal didn’t say anything as Adam withdrew from his Mindspace and found himself sitting on the bed in the Elder Visitor’s Residence. Adam opened his Shadow vault and systematically spent the next couple of minutes absorbing and converting his last 48 Quintessence into Chaos Quintessence. He left them orbiting his core.

Adam switched his focus to his core as he started to think about what ability he needed to get next. He had mostly support abilities and needed to get at least one ranged attack. Also, he needed to figure out if magic items were created with abilities or if there was another form of magic in use, like runic magic or something. He could worry about that later. Right now, he needed to improve his current ability set. He could integrate all of his quintessence right now and he’d still have room for more abilities if he was maximizing every ability he opened.

Adam focused his thoughts on acquiring a chaos-based ranged ability and integrated one of the motes of chaos.

You have chosen to integrate a mote of Chaos. Ability. The ability “Variable Quintessence” has been activated. New Ability sought: Category: Attack. Energy Type: Chaos. Ranged: Yes. Goal: Damage Target. Is this information correct? Yes or No?

Adam chose “Yes”

Congratulations you have integrated the Chaos Quintessence ability “Chaos Bolt.” This ability has a Low mana cost regardless of ability rank. Damage: Low. Energy Type Chaos. Special: This attack has a range of 100 feet per ability rank and ignores all magical shields that are not made up of “Order” based magic. This ability may be utilized once per combat round per ability rank.

That was definitely an interesting attack spell. Short range, but useful, and only stopped by a specific type of magical shield. Though, it did look like armor would be useful against it. Adam integrated six more motes of chaos into Chaos Bolt raising it to a Legendary ability rank.

Next, he wanted something that would allow him to interact with technology in his general area like he was able to with nanites. He could probably recreate nanites here but if he could get the same kind of control with an ability, without needing nanites, that would be much better, especially in areas that did have nanites.

Adam focused his thoughts on acquiring an ability that would allow him to interact with, hack and control all technologies at range.

You have chosen to integrate a mote of Chaos. The ability “Variable Quintessence” has been activated. Category: Support, Energy Type: Chaos, Ranged: Area of Effect. Goal: Detect, Subvert, and Control Technology at range. Is this information correct Yes or No?

Adam chose “Yes”

Congratulations you have activated the Chaos Quintessence ability “Technomancy.” This ability has a Low mana cost per 1 minute regardless of ability rank. Damage: N/A. Energy Type Chaos. Special: This ability allows you to connect to and control technological devices within 100 feet per ability rank. Technological devices without firewall protection can automatically be scanned and information can automatically be uploaded and downloaded to you, either into your mind or another technological device you are holding. NOTE: Perfect Memory is synergistic with this Ability.

The ability to interact with technology at a programming level is completely dependent on your skill with computers. Though this ability forgoes the need to know the specific computer language something is coded in as this ability automatically presents all information in a way that you can understand. Programming happens at the speed of thought. A number of devices can be controlled simultaneously equal to your Willpower Attribute rank.

When this ability is active you will automatically detect technological devices that come within your range. This automatic detection does not require an action. Firewalls equal to or less in rank than this ability automatically fail. Firewalls that have a rank greater than this ability but less rank than your Perception Attribute can still be hacked using the standard rank comparison to determine how many rounds it will take to do so.

Adam would have to try the ability out to see how well he could control devices during combat. He could see himself as some sort of Rigger from the game Shadowrun. Someone that could control vehicles and drones with a thought. That would be awesome. Next, Adam integrated six more motes of chaos into Technomancy raising it to a Legendary ability rank. This left him with 36 chaos motes orbiting his core. One more ability he needed was the ability to identify someone and see what level they were. Also, this would be the last ability he would activate for now. he needed to get a better lay of the land and a little bit more information about how everything worked. After he tried to get an analyze ability that would leave him with 27 motes orbiting his core.

Adam focused his thoughts yet again, this time on being able to analyze a target’s Class, attributes, and abilities.

You have chosen to integrate a mote of Chaos. The ability “Variable Quintessence” has been activated. Category: Support, Energy Type: Chaos, Range: Sight. Goal: Analyze the target’s class, attributes, and abilities. Is this information correct? Yes or No?

Adam chose “Yes.”

The mote that he’d tried to integrate to get this new ability flashed brightly, changed color too quickly to follow then disappeared into his core. a new message popped up.

Ability Variable Quintessence has failed.

Congratulations you have integrated the Air Quintessence ability “Flight”. You may fly at a Low Mana cost per combat round. Movement is equal to normal ground speed during combat. This ability can also be utilized to travel outside of combat. At a cost of High this ability allows you to travel at ability ranks times the speed of sound inside an atmosphere and warp speed outside of an atmosphere. Maximum Warp Speed equals the 5th exponent of ability level. For instance. Warp 1 would be the speed of light. Warp 2 would be 32 times the speed of light.

This power protects the user from friction-related damage through an atmosphere or the vacuum of space. It does not provide the user with a way to survive the environment, sudden impacts, or asphyxiation.

This power does not work while submerged in a liquid.

Well, that sucked, but the flight would come in handy. In fact, this ability looked a lot like an ability of the same name from a superhero tabletop game he’d played. Only 17 pages of actual rules but one of the most realistic sets of rules he’d ever seen. Of course, his definition of realistic had altered slightly over the years.

Adam could try again but he really needed to get a move on. He had a feeling that he was wasting time. He had no idea why he had this feeling but he did. He needed to explore this world and find a way back to the Pelza Empire. At least he’d learned who the assholes were that were strip-mining other Universes.

Adam stood, used the washroom to clean up a bit then left the room and walked down the stairs.

As he passed the desk at the bottom of the stairs the female elf that had led him upstairs asked, “Are you going to be returning today?”

“Perhaps, I’m going to go for a walk, maybe to the closest human city?” Adam asked leadingly.

“The closest human city is perhaps 6 days travel south and east a bit,” she said.

“If I’m not back by morning, please feel free to clean and prepare the room for someone else,” Adam said.

“Very good Sir. On behalf of everyone that works here, we would like to thank you for what you did a month ago.”

“There is no need, but I thank you for your kind words,” Adam said as he stepped outside and looked to the east before he started walking toward the edge of Tree Haven. Again, he was amazed at the skill that was displayed in the creation of this city. From above it would be very hard to detect. Everything blended seamlessly into the natural surroundings. If everyone hid inside it would just appear as another stretch of forest with a well-worn path here and there.

As Adam made it to the edge of town he saw some soldiers stationed here and there. They all nodded at him as he stepped out into the forest and started jogging. He wasn’t too worried about any forest creatures that might pop up. Besides he was only going to be on the ground for a little while.

Adam increased his speed to about 60 miles per hour and ran at that speed for 15 minutes. He needed to find a desert so he could open up and test his top speed and his adaptability again. The Flight power said it handled the friction in the atmosphere. He wanted to see if his Adaptability and Regeneration could handle running at high speeds. He just wasn’t going to try that in the forest. The Elves seemed to be a good Ally to have, no point in pissing them off by breaking the sound barrier.

While he’d been running he’d had no issue dodging trees, finding trails, or making his way through the forest. He’d even run under some spiders and through a web trap they’d put across the road. The webs had given away like tissue paper against his strength. The webs had been almost invisible but Adam had figured out what to look for and dodged three more web traps in that area. It looked like whatever spiders were in that area hunted humans.

As Adam reached the 15-minute mark of running he jumped into the air easily clearing the trees and activating flight as he continued south. He kept his speed about the same and increased his altitude to about a mile up so he could look around.

Off in the distance to the northeast, Adam saw large birds and leather-winged creatures. They could be small dragons, but he bet they were either a dinosaur variant or wyverns. At least that’s what he’d think of them as. He changed course and dropped back down into the forest to land in one of the trees about halfway from the top. He made sure he was secure then switched his focus to his core and focused on an ability that would make him undetectable to all visible, sonic, technological, and magical means.

You have chosen to integrate a mote of Chaos. The ability “Variable Quintessence” has been activated. Category: Support, Energy Type: Chaos, Range: Self. Goal: Undetectable to all forms of visual, sonic, technological, and magical detection. Is this information correct? Yes or No?

Adam chose “Yes”

Congratulations you have integrated the Chaos Quintessence ability “Obscure”. At a Medium Mana Cost per Minute, so long as you do not attack or move faster than a slow walk you become and remain invisible to normal light. At Medium rank, you become invisible to Infrared and Ultrasonic sight. At High rank, you no longer register to sonic senses and all sounds you make are muffled. At Elite rank, technological radar will not detect you. At Epic rank, Detection abilities of a lower rank than this ability will not detect you. At Mythic rank, you may move normally and remain invisible. At Legendary rank, you may perform attacks and remain invisible.

Note: if “Obscure” is broken by attacking it cannot be reused until the current use expires. (A minute is 60 combat rounds.)

That was exactly what he needed. He quickly integrated six more chaos motes into the ability, increasing it to legendary rank. Adam withdrew his focus from his core, looked around quickly, and then activated Obscure. Now that he was effectively invisible he rose back into the air and continued southeast at about 60 miles per hour.

Travel through a forest by day was usually measured at 15 – 25 miles per day. For the Elves, Adam figured it was probably closer to the high end of that range. Which meant that the human city was about 150 miles from Tree Haven. At 60 miles an hour, he’d be there in two and a half hours. He could get there quicker but he was taking his time and making sure to notice landmarks so he could return to Tree Haven. He didn’t have a teleport ability yet after all, though that was definitely on his list of desired abilities.

Adam flew for the next hour until he witnessed something strange. Just as he was reaching the edge of the forest a blond woman teleported almost 500 feet directly in front of him hugging a man whom she abruptly let go of. Adam watched the man fall and could have intercepted and saved him but just as he reached the tree tops his body turned to metal and a moment later there was a loud

THUD!

Adam floated down and over to the edge of the forest to hover just above the tree tops about 500 feet off the ground. He looked down at the man below him and then noticed the blond woman who’d dropped the man below him standing on the road facing two other human males down the road toward the city he could see in the distance behind them. Adam heard one man ask, “Where’s Phil”. He watched the man below him as he started to dig himself out of the ground while he listened to the conversation down the road. His perception was incredibly good from this distance, it was kind of amazing. Adam continued to listen to the conversation until he heard her ask about the Mother Tree and if they’d seen a human come out of the forest. At that moment he knew she was looking for him. It would seem that his Luck skill either rolled big or rolled really low.

Adam decided to go with the flow and floated down to land in the forest about 50 feet away from the man that was still trying to dig himself out of the ground. Adam turned off Obscure and walked out from behind a tree to see the man struggling to get out of the ground.

“Do you need some help?” Adam asked.

The man named Phil looked around, saw the brown robe, and said, “If you would please, I need to get back to my friends and I seem to have fallen in a hole.”

“You’re lucky more of you isn’t buried,” Adam said. “I saw you fall from the sky.”

“Yeah,“ The man said sheepishly as he reached out for Adam’s hand while he braced himself. Once he had some leverage Phill pulled his leg out of the ground. Phil tried to take a step toward the road and stumbled. “I shouldn’t be able to break any bones but I think I twisted my ankle trying to get free,” Phil said.

“That’s fine, are those you’re friends down the road?” Adam asked.

“Two of them are, I don’t know who the blonde is though,” Phil said.

“I saw her drop you, what’ did you do to upset her?” Adam asked.

“She teleported into the middle of us, we were just going to have a little fun..” he started to say.

Adam gave him the ‘Do I look that stupid’ look then said, “So you tried to rob her, I’m not judging. I’m just wondering why she didn’t kill you because she obviously could have. Do you know what I think? I think I need to talk to her. Let me help you back to your friends so I can talk to her, Adam said.

“If that’s what you want to do,” the man said skeptically, looking over Adam again. “I don’t think you’ll fare much better.”

If I intended to fight, perhaps. I just want to talk,” Adam said as he offered his arm and shoulder, which Phil leaned on. They made their way out of the forest and down the road toward the blonde woman and the two other men. Adam watched the woman carefully and recognized the look of recognition in her eyes when she looked in his direction. So, she knew who he was and was out here looking for him. The game was well and truly afoot now, he thought as he continued to help Phil down the road.

He looked into the woman’s eyes and then smiled as he said, “I think you dropped something.”