WilburWoods
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Chapter 7 - Upgrades!
🕑 Added 2023-08-21 15:50:56 +0000 UTCLogan washed his bloody hands in the spring well and wiped them on his pants. He walked back to the green cat and pondered.The corpse had hides and meat. Logan had actually eaten tiger meat, like any self-respecting son of a billionaire in search of novelty, and knew it was more sinewy and probably even less tasty than a fireman’s ass. Not that Logan had ever had that particular delicacy.
But to procure the aforementioned resources, one needed a knife and some measure of skill. Despite a myriad of experiences, Logan had never dressed a carcass, much less bare-handed. Even if he managed to extract chunks of meat from the beast, he’d still need a fire.
Raw meat was better than starving to death, and Logan believed he could possibly make a fire with Numa-crystals, if he was inclined to spend them on that.
To spend your Numa-crystals or not to spend? Well that’s no question at all.
Hell yes, Logan would spend them. If this reality was structured around these skills and levels like a video game — and it certainly seemed like it was — then Logan’s foremost priority was to pump those numbers up as fast as possible.
He crouched and placed his remaining crystals on the ground. On the ground in a neat row of glowing gems were a dozen F-grade crystals. After going over them one by one, he concluded they were all at full power, except for the one which was at 70% charge.
“Hey brain tumor, what’s the best way to use these?”
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 9% Completion]
[Considering you now have offensive power to deal with the most dangerous threats you have encountered, it would be prudent to focus on avoiding physical damage and ensuring survival.]
That didn’t sound as exciting as crafting all sorts of zany Numa-weapons, but the AI had a point. Logan tucked two crystals into his left pants pocket. One fully charged, and the dim one he had used to attach the javelin head.
Okay, these are for survival, like making fire.
That left Logan with ten Numa-crystals that could be used for more interesting applications. Another Javelin was the obvious idea. He only had two dead cats left in the one he had. The first javelin Logan had thrown at the cat laid on the ground, mostly undamaged, except for the tip, which was slightly blunted.
Logan tapped a finger on his chin, considering defensive options, like a shield. Shields were cumbersome. A fancy word for slow. While Logan’s [Common Sense] wasn’t level 100, now it tingled insistently. Against agile green cats, slow got you killed.
“Hey Tumor,” Logan asked. “What do you think of the phrase ‘sometimes the best defense is a good offense’?”
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 9% Completion]
[Oversimplification of reality. The best defense is assessing and listing all the possible ways one might get attacked, estimating the probability of all those possible outcomes and preparing accordingly.]
“You’d be fun at parties,” Logan muttered. “Even father’s sycophantic cronies have more personality.”
Logan went back to looking at the crystals. Okay a shield was heavy. But what about a magic shield? Was that a thing? Worth a try. Because a heavy-ass traditional shield wasn’t an option.
Wait a minute.
Slow would get him killed. By that notion, speed would keep him alive, right? What about Boots of Swiftness? Could he make a speed or agility enchantment? Logan looked down at his feet. By virtue of having been yanked out of a hospital bed, he wasn’t wearing boots, or any kinds of shoes for that matter. But he did have socks on.
Socks of Swiftness? Okay. What about the shield?
That was obvious. Logan glanced at his wrist. He was still wearing his smart watch. A grin was spreading on his face. A wristwatch magic-shield? It didn’t get much cooler than that.
Excited by his ideas, Logan got up and climbed back up the rock, just in case another green cat was prowling in the bushes. Then he took his smartwatch and his socks off and placed the crystals next to them.
The socks weren’t… In exactly stellar shape. In their previous life, they had been nice socks. Sturdy, flexible, breathable, white. Now they were a soggy, green and gray mess. They were still whole, which was a bonus, but Logan wouldn’t bet tremendous money on the survival of these socks into the near future.
Besides, if I stack too many crystals into the speed enchantment, I’m just going to trip over myself, right? Better to use just a single crystal on the ‘Soggers of Swiftness’ and use the rest on the cool watch-shield.
“Okay, let’s get this party started. Shazam. Give my socks a speed enchant. Make the wearer of these socks have a magical speed enhancement, so they can run faster.”
[Enchantment level requirement not met]
“Huh. I guess speed enchants are pretty powerful. Okay, so I need to earn my way up there. Not a problem.”
When thinking through alternate possibilities to determine the fate of his soggy socks, Logan found himself grinning. Despite the rough situation he was in, he was having fun. His ridiculous father wasn’t breathing down his neck and he was working towards something meaningful. Leveling up his class was something entirely his and that made it more valuable than anything Logan had ever had, if you didn’t count for Freya.
“Let’s go with something simple and practical,” Logan said. “Wingardium Leviosa. Make these socks super durable. Make them withstand strain and wear.”
[Sub-class Level Up!]
[Enchantment level 2]
[Attribute Level Up!]
[Durability: 2]
The blue Numa-crystal Logan sandwiched between his socks pulsed a warm surge of energy before going dim. The socks didn’t look or feel any different, but Logan had gotten level up notifications and the crystal was dim. That made the case as good as sure, the enchantment had worked.
Grinning to himself, Logan decided he wanted to give the socks some more oomph. He was accustomed to nice things after all, and soggy socks weren’t on Logan’s list of nice things. He sandwiched another crystal between the ‘Soggy Socks of Sturdiness’.
“Hocus Pocus. Make these socks water-resistant. Make them reject all liquids coming from outside. But let sweat pass through the fabric, so it doesn't start squishing inside my socks, because that would be gross.”
[Sub-class Level Up!]
[Enchantment level 3]
[Attribute Level Up!]
[Control: 3]
[Control: 4]
Logan twisted his socks together and gave them a squeeze. A few drops of gray water trailed down his hands. Pleased with his cool new socks, Logan put them on, sporting a mighty grin. Then he picked up the smart watch.
Okay this is going to be trickier. I need the watch to project a magic shield into thin air whenever I’m attacked. Is that even possible? At my level? Maybe just a small, weak shield? Those are the parameters, right? How powerful and how wide the shield is?
“Hey Tumor,” Logan asked. “What should I consider when trying to make this magic shield?”
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 11% Completion]
[First thing to consider is the power output. This one has a working model of a simulated accuracy rate of 63% that can estimate the Numa-crystal charge required to generate enough counter-force to nullify an attack of varying strength. Secondly, the radius of the projection field and the duration of the shield need to be considered. Given your reaction times, pulses of 0.5 seconds of shield projection would be ideal. Correction…]
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 12% Completion]
[Pulses of 0.80 seconds, to decrease variance caused by fatigue or distraction. These short pulses will increase the efficiency of the Numa-crystal usage. A diameter of projection shield would be ideally 65,80 centimeters given your stature, or approximately two feet.]
“Okay, so short pulses of two feet in diameter. Then it’s just a question of how much power should be used. Oh, that’s a whole other thing. Hey Tumor. If that javelin made the cat’s head explode, and we assume my skull is as thick, how much energy should the shield be able to absorb to make lethal force just annoying?”
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 13% Completion]
[Thïs one does not have an accurate model yet, because the effects of the spell [Empower] are still indeterminate. But if the javelin used 25% of its charge for the explosion, and taking in a margin of error for safety, 66% of an F-grade Numa-crystal’s charge should be sufficient.]
“And what if I used my skill on the shield projector?”
[Indeterminate.]
“Short and sweet. Fine. We’ll try it out first without the [Empower]. And then I’ll enchant it if I’m not dead by then, so you get your damn data.”
[This one would be pleased by such an outcome.]
“Right… Well that’s all the variables I can think of. I think it’s also enough to keep me alive. But how the hell will I be manage to activate this thing? Man, there’s so many variables. This is going to suck my Numa-crystals dry…”
Logan thought for a while on how to formulate his… incantation. He figured he really should stop being vague, and making the spell accurate, so he wouldn’t get haphazard results. Until now he had been kind of half-assing his requests. Once he got down what he wanted to say, he pooled all the crystals in a tight pile on the face of the watch.
“Make the watch project a magical force-shield that activates on the keyword ‘Shield’. Make each activation last for 0.8 seconds. Make the forcefield completely round and the diameter of the field two feet. Make the shield pulse strong enough to absorb an attack equivalent to 66% of an F-grade Numa-crystal’s charge.”
Logan pressed his hands on the watch. The pile of crystal shards upon the watch came aglow and the blue light shone through between his fingers. Then the refreshing, minty sensation surged through Logan’s head, coursing down his spine, now stronger than before.
[Sub-class Level Up!]
[Enchantment level 4]
[Enchantment level 5]
[Attribute Level Up!]
[Control: 5]
[Control: 6]
[Focus: 2]
[Potency: 3]
[Class Level Up!]
[Artificer Level 2]
[Artificer Level 3]
[Class Skill Acquired: Funnel]
“Damn, that feels good,” Logan said. “Now let’s look at this watch.”
The watch didn’t look any different at a first glance. But the longer Logan looked at it, the clearer it became that there was a soft, almost imperceptible blue, glowing hue around the watch. The item was definitely enchanted. Not only did the watch glow with the blue hue, but the dim Numa-crystals were a testament of success.
This item had been expensive; only three [F-grade Numa-Crystals] remained with charge. That put Logan at four whole crystals and one with a charge of 70%. He put them in his pocket.
As Logan strapped the shield-watch back on his wrist, a great rumbling sound in the sky startled him. Logan had never heard anything like it before. a clarion call that echoed throughout the sky, into all four corners of the world. It lilted up and down, turning into thin whines and low rumbles. One moment it sounded like the wail of a whale-call, deep and sorrowful. One moment it was violent like a gust of wind, an angry howl of a demon screeching through the air.
Logan looked up at the sky. What he saw terrified him.
