As I walk up to the roof, I check the [Quest] notification that’s waiting for me while I explore all the changes to my body and my new skills.
[You have completed a secondary quest]
Stop the enemy agents and retrieve the Research Core
Reward
Contents of the lab
Message from [Quest] giver
Good job, Ray. Those Kryntari would have become a real problem if they got away with that core and the research materials. I will call upon you again when I am in need of your services. And a bit of advice for a job well done: get that core wiped before you decide to tinker with it.
Huh, I got to say, that went way better than I thought it would. It was quick and clean, and there was barely any resistance. I can only hope the rest will go as smoothly. And what does it mean to get the core wiped? I’ll have to try to find someone who knows once we get back to civilization. Maybe Rayke knows. This seems like it’s in his wheelhouse.
Once on the roof, Daniel gets a fire going in the pit and then looks over to me. “Do you want to go first, or should I?”
“You go first. I still don’t really know what the passive and trait I took do.” I respond and get a nod back in return.
“I had three options to choose from. [Steel Legionnaire], [Master Metal Manipulator], and [Iron Mine Foreman]. I ended up choosing [Iron Mine Foreman].” Daniel says, getting shocked reactions from both Corvax and me. “I know, I know, it seems weird, but it’s the only one that had both of the things I was looking for.”
“So, what did you get from it?” Corvax asks.
“The first thing I got is an active skill called [Infusion], which should let me create mana-conductive metal if the class description is to be believed. The second thing it granted me is the [Earth] affinity.”
“You got an entire affinity?” I ask.
“I did.” Daniel says with a smug grin. “And it’s far better than the [Stone] affinity I was hoping for. I should be able to branch out quite nicely now.”
A new affinity is huge. I didn’t even get an option for that in my class selection. [Infusion] also seems like a great skill, and my mind is swimming with potential ways for it to be used. What if he just used it to [Infuse] more mana into himself or something like that? Not that I can complain much, though. I’m pretty sure my class has the best benefits out of all three of us.
“So then, Ray, what did you get?” Daniel asks me after he finishes flexing his new [Earth] affinity.
“[Self-Made Space Mage] is the class option I went with. It was easily the best out of the five options I got.” I say nonchalantly, like me getting more options than him is only natural.
“You got five choices! What were they?” Daniel asks incredulously.
“[Champion of Peros], [Mana Warrior], [Portal Specialist], [Arcane Enchanter], and [Self-Made Space Mage]. [Self-Made Space Mage] is a unique class created specifically for me according to the description. It let me choose an active skill, a passive skill, and a trait from a list.” I decide to leave out the fact that it said I am one of Earth's top initiates.
Daniel’s face drops, and he looks over to Corvax. “Was yours like that, Corvax?”
The four-armed giant just shakes his head slowly, responding with, “Nope. I got four choices, though.”
“Well then, Mr. [Self-Made Space Mage], tell us what exactly your special class gave you.” Daniel says teasingly.
“The active skill is called [Concentration], and it’s mostly just an upgraded [Condense] with a more versatile use case. The passive skill is called [Mana Stabilization Field], and I have no idea what it does yet. I have yet to turn it on. The trait, however, is easily the most powerful addition. [Mana-Body Synchronization] affects every part of my body, allowing me to move mana around faster and tolerate higher amounts of mana before I start to feel the strain. I think my mana capacity doubled just from taking it. I’ll need to wait until I’m at my limit to really know how much it changed, but I already feel more powerful.”
We continue to talk while the meat cooks, and it becomes pretty clear that we all received what we needed from our class selections. I find myself getting a little jealous at Corvax’s new trait, which just increases his mana regeneration while in contact with sunlight, after he tells us that it works as long as he has some sunlight energy stored within himself. After some testing we estimate that it increases his mana regeneration by about half, which is ridiculous.
Soon the conversation moves to the newly acquired [Inspect] andstats. [Inspect] almost feels like a skill to use, hopefully meaning that we can get better with it over time. Using it on Corvax and Daniel reveals some basic information about them.
[Level 26 Sunlight Barbarian]
[Level 25 Iron Mine Foreman]
Next we all compare stats. We’re able to extrapolate some pretty interesting information about the [System] from what little we have. It seems like for the last twenty-five levels we have been getting one point in each of the six stats. None of us have any single stat lower than twenty-five, and a few of our mana stats are at exactly twenty-five, supporting this theory. All of Daniel and Corvax’s mana stats are at exactly twenty-five, actually, as, unlike me, they have had no way other than leveling up to increase them.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
My mana stats are by far the highest out of the three of us, mostly because of my [Beast Mana-Heart] hugely boosting my regeneration and from my new trait, which did in fact double my mana capacity. I really need to thank Peros for that. It’s pretty much a way to get free stats into mana regeneration. Each of us now gets three free stat points per level to allocate as we see fit, so at least that seems standard across classes.
We continue eating, mostly in silence, as we all fiddle around and test out our new abilities. I spend the rest of dinner moving mana around my body, giddy at how much easier it now feels and how much more mana I’ll be able to store.
I also activate [Mana Stabilization Field] for the first time, feeling it snap on around me as soon as I do. Much like [Mana Sense], [Mana Stabilization Field] piggybacks off of my spatial perception field, reaching everywhere that my spatial perception extends to. The effect is subtle but definitely noticeable as all of the ambient mana in the area ‘calms’ down a little bit. I find that the mana inside my body flows smoother and responds to me just a little bit faster. Pushing some mana outside my body, I create a sphere and find it much more sturdy than before, dissipating much slower after a brief period of self-stabilization. A few levels in this should make it significantly easier to create stable portals in more turbulent conditions, like when the bear was disrupting them with mana.
Overall, each of us is very happy with the classes we chose and the abilities we received. After dinner we all go down to the basement to look through the loot we got from the lab. Daniel starts by taking out the tables he stored in one of the bags of holding and reassembling them. He pushes all four of them up against the walls, taking up a large part of the available space.
“I’m turning the basement into a workshop.” He says, to which Corvax and I both agree. Having somewhere proper to work will be nice.
We empty the bags of holding one by one and organize the loot on our brand-new tables. One table gets materials such as spools of both mana-conductive and normal metal wires and unenchanted mana stones, as well as any other nonorganic materials we found, like some sheets of cloth and paper. We end up with quite a bit of mana-conductive metal and mana stones, more than enough for a few projects. The mana stone from the bear gets added here too. Disappointingly, it was only slightly bigger than the ones from the Ant Sentinels.
The next table gets all of the hides, scales, claws, and bones that we took, which actually happened to be quite a bit. Using [Inspect] on the different hides and scales lets us separate them based on the animal they come from.
[Glow Deer Hide]
[Forest Drake Scale]
[Fire Grull Claw]
[Wilt Spreader Hide]
***
All of the scales come from a creature called a Forest Drake, and it’s either a really big and colorful beast, or we have scales from several of them. We also add the bear’s pelt and bones to this table, although I think Corvax has a plan for the pelt. By the time we move on to the next bag, this table is piled high with harvested monster parts.
The next bag of holding is the one Daniel packed, and it holds most of the complete and half-finished magic items. I’m hoping that with [Inspect] we can figure out what most of this stuff does.
I keep my [Mana Stabilization Field] running as we check all of these out, just in case. This is also when I find out that [Mana Stabilization Field] doesn’t seem to affect Corvax and Daniel’s mana like it does mine and the ambient mana. It seemingly has no effect at all for them, which is probably a good thing. I wouldn't want someone I’m facing to get a bonus from it as well.
The first item I pick up looks similar to a handheld temperature reader, the kind that uses a laser and has a digital readout, but this one is made out of metal and has no obvious screen, only a crystal on the back. I use [Inspect] on it before I run any mana through it.
[Handheld Body Scanner]—An item allowing the user to view the internals of an organic being via a projection.
Huh, interesting. The description makes it seem like some kind of magical x-ray. I push my mana into it and find that it’s still in good condition. I see all of the different components, but I don’t really know what they do, so I just fill up the mana storage on it a little bit and turn it on. Nothing happens at first, so I place it over my chest, thinking it needs an organic being to scan.
I feel mana trying to enter my chest from the device and block it. It barely has the strength to fight back, so I lessen my defenses and let the mana inside, carefully watching it just in case. After a few seconds of the mana swirling around my chest, it all gets sucked back into the device, and the crystal starts showing a three-dimensional projection of my chest cavity in surprising detail.
“Woah, that’s pretty cool.” I say as I look at the near-perfect projection of the inside of my chest. “It’s like a handheld x-ray machine.”
We go through all of the completed items first and separate them into a few piles. Most of them are seemingly medical tools, like the [Handheld Body Scanner], and get put into their own pile of working but not that useful for us. Most of the medical equipment is weirdly specific, probably relating to the research they were doing, like the [Skill Scanner], which tells a person's best skill, but they have to be dead for it to function.
The next set of items is very interesting, and I think that they were the product of that research lab. There are three of them, and they all look like identical metal cubes about six inches to a side, with a plethora of mana stones embedded in them.
[Gravitic Generation Array]—A strong gravity skill harvested and fit into a skill core for easy use.
[Flame Generation Array]—A strong flame skill harvested and fit into a skill core for easy use.
[Terror Generation Array]—A strong terror skill harvested and fit into a skill core for easy use.
I refrain from testing these in the tower, especially the [Terror Generation Array]. Scanning them with mana, they are a mix of nonbiological and biological material. After quickly skimming through a few of the research crystals, I find out that it’s actually the hearts of people inside of these Generation Arrays. They used a unique process, which is why they needed a bunch of specialized medical tools. It seems that they had a way to engrave one of a person's skills onto their own heart, and then they would harvest that and make it into a magic item, gaining a lesser version of that skill that anyone could use.
It’s pretty gruesome, and from the cages that were in the room, I don’t think they used volunteers. It also looks like the bodies of those they harvested skills from would be raised as undead and often implanted with the very skill that was taken out of them. Apparently that makes for a better undead for some reason. The research crystals only briefly talk about that. I guess this is about what I should have expected from a research lab in a city that was run by a lich.
The rest of the items get piled on the last table, and they mostly consist of half-finished skill cores waiting for a heart or broken medical equipment good for scrap.
I was hoping for some cool weapons and armor or something, but I should have expected this. It was a research lab, not some vault or armory. I guess I’ll just have to make some cool weapons and stuff. Daniel was telling me he had some ideas for armor he needed my help with. Maybe I should finally make something to protect me a little. Eh, probably not. The best defense is just getting the fuck out of the way after all.
After we finish organizing all of our loot, we all decide to split up for personal time and get back to grinding out levels in the morning.