NOTE:Patreon does not like formatting/different 'alignments' of paragraphs that help make this fiction what it is.
Because of that, I will always be providing a link the google doc for each chapter where you can see it properly formatted. Elsewise, feel free to read the chapter here, if that is your preference.
I am sorry for the limitations of this platform.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j5IS0fQrngtEiYnfDdYOPgSh8Akizfnlrg8rJ5EusBM/edit?usp=sharing
Previous__________ToC__________Next
Alex saw five notifications waiting for him, and sighed. “Well, that’s not as bad as I feared.”
He accepted the first.
Life-Suit of the ImperiumThis advanced coverall is a single piece of magical wonder, and standard issue as a base layer for all troops and ship-crews in the Imperium.
It will keep you clean and dispose of waste. It will regulate your body temperature within a narrow band, reducing the strain on other such magics and increasing the operational range of personnel.
It does not recycle waste or water, nor does it discriminate in its ablutions. As such, putting this garment on with wounds—open or partially healed—is not recommended.
While it is worn, it is tied to the body’s lifeforce, and will heal and self-repair along with any magical healing given to you. Note: This will increase the cost of such healings commensurately.
Apology Tutorial Addendum:This garment will not be exiting the Tutorial with you. At the end of the scenario, this or a more advanced version that you replace it with will be removed from your person, whether you are wearing it at the time or it is in your Inventory.
Keep this in mind.
That… Alex felt himself smile. That is pretty nice. Though, I don’t know that I’ll be willing to go to the bathroom in a suit…
He looked around, then checked his granted memories. Except that such is the only option aboard. He grimaced. Great…
Still, putting it on would continue and expand the distraction.
As such, he stripped down—tucking his clothes into his Inventory—taking a moment to smile at his shoes, enjoying the quiet magics within their make-up.
Embarrassingly, he really hadn’t noticed how ragged his greatcoat had become. I need to see about fixing that.
Still, he put everything away, and soon enough, he was naked and able to pull on the suit.
As soon as he touched it, the suit seemed to liquify, flowing up his fingers and over his skin, covering him neck to toes with a layer that… quite honestly? He couldn’t feel at all.
He remembered just how… tight Ares’ outfit had looked, and glanced down, thanking everything that there was some extra obscuration around more private areas.
Even so, he felt naked.
Another unconscious action had him touching the wall and a portion turned into a mirror, showing him what he looked like.
Yeah… I look like a ken-doll that’s been dipped in dark blue paint. While he was far stronger and leaner than he had been just a month previously, he was still no body-builder nor even hobby athlete, and he felt a bit self-conscious showing off so much of his… physique.
As such, he pulled a new pair of pants out and drew them on. Next came his shirt, and he suddenly realized that this was why he hadn’t seen anyone else wearing their bodysuit.
If they’d put it on, they’d likely done as he had, putting clothes back on, overtop it.
Once he was dressed, the only parts of the suit that were exposed were around his feet and hands.
He glanced at the glovelike covering on his fingers and smiled. They genuinely looked like thin, tough gardening gloves, and when he touched his face and the wall, he was pleased to find no discernable reduction in sensation.
The magics around the garment were incredible. More importantly, though, they weren’t of a higher tier, like those of the ship.
He’d likely lost the magics of the other people’s suits in all the background noise, especially because he wasn’t looking or listening for them, but now? Against his skin?
It was glorious.
It read like a book, dozens—if not hundreds—of various mechanics working together to achieve the results described in the notification.
A few things stood out even among the rest. It seemed that the material used was mana-permeable, and the magics involved leaned on that, acting to facilitate any spell or skill usage through the garment as if it weren’t there. There was also the sensory pass-through, specific toughening around the hands, and magics that would intercept a portion of any incoming, healing magics for use in restoration of the clothing.
That might have been odd, but something about the garment and the magics involved gave him the impression that the suit was alive.
It wasn’t like a person, or even a dog or cat, but it was alive. Like a plant? Yeah. That seems about right.
It was very clearly system made. Elegant.
To his joy, his Speed Reading skill had kicked in even as he skimmed the barest edges of the magic. He’d be able to delve deeper at a later time, and he’d be able to do so with a good amount of speed despite the incredible volume of information. He was even sure that his less-than-advanced Mana Sense was preventing him from seeing all parts of the magical schemata.
He turned his attention down to his feet. I suppose I don’t really need socks anymore.
There was sensory passthrough there as well—just as with the entire suit—along with extra toughness for the wear areas.
He smiled, pulling his shoes back out of his Inventory and putting them on. He only paused for a moment after tying each in place to admire the magic of stability and surefootedness incorporated within the shoe’s other magics.
So precise. If he wanted to make something even as complex as the shoe, it would likely be bigger than this space ship to fit all the lines that he could see.
I’ve got a long way to go.
Everything fit very comfortably, the added layer not making him overwarm or creating issues in the least.
He nodded to himself. One down.
That done, he turned to the next notification.
Apology Tutorial Notice:Your phone, as provided in the previous scenario, has been transformed into and combined with your Imperial communications and command device. The fact that you ended the last scenario with a working model has improved the functionality of the new device provided.
Command and Communication Bracelets of the ImperiumThis advanced blend of magic and technology will allow you to communicate with similar devices in the nearby area. That area is expanded and augmented in the presence of an Imperium ship or other specialized communication-amplifying equipment.
While these are both worn, you will be able to access the communication functions, as well as providing direction to the ship of which you are the lawful Helmsman, so long as you are within communication range.
There are basic self-repair functions within the bracelets, and they are protected with a redirecting force shield to give them added resilience, but they will not be able to act as protective equipment for you.
Keep this in mind.
Alex grunted, picking up the wide bands and snapping them around his forearms. They closed and seemed to almost fuse to the coverall, locking in place above the wrists with sufficient spacing to prevent any interference with the movement of his hands. “Well designed.”
His Mana Sense played over the magics within, now that they were active. On one side, they were incredibly simple—likely the only reason he could seemingly see them in their entirety. The first layer, which gated all other functions, checked to verify that he was not only the proper owner of the items but in control of his faculties.
If the second weren’t true, it looked like the control link to the ship would be blocked, barring certain other conditions.
So, I can’t accidentally pilot the ship in my sleep, even if I leave the cuffs on. So he could leave them on all the time if he wished. Like a prisoner to my job. And now that he thought about it, they did look like the bands of wide manacles, simply missing the chain between them.
Of course, their surface wasn’t a uniform metal as manacles would be, instead having various glyphs, and controls available for his interaction.
He was able to verify all that the notification had said, even getting a little more detail on the redirecting force shields. It seemed that they would protect the cuffs from damage originating from any side—even from within his arm—even if that meant shunting the incoming attack into him.
Less than ideal, but I suppose it’s easier for me to heal than to repair these.
He read through the magics that searched the nearby area for other communication devices and sorted them for potential use later.
This will also have a running record of anyone I’m near? He frowned. Maybe within a limit. I doubt that… hmmm. Oh, there it is.
Any communicator that he didn’t connect to would be ‘forgotten’ a few days after they parted ways.
He could also remove them on his own, but as he looked further, he realized that that area of functionality was essentially like a phone, so he moved on.
In that vein, though, it seemed that all those who had fought alongside him in the last scenario were already noted within the device.
They would seemingly fade if he didn’t flag them to be kept, except for the very few that he’d actually called or texted with his phone. “I guess this is one of the benefits of bringing out a working phone.”
He quickly noted them all as ‘to be saved’, and moved on.
There was, of course, the connections to allow him to use his skills and spells through the ship, if they applied, and analyzing that part caused one of the still-waiting notifications to begin blinking.
He quirked a smile, not quite chastising himself for getting distracted.
After all, he was trying to distract himself.
He felt a tightness growing in his chest at that acknowledgement, and quickly pulled up the notice.
Apology Tutorial Notice:As the Helmsman of your ship in this scenario, you are temporarily granted the following skills:
Enhanced 3D Proprioception [Temp]
4D Spatial Motorskills [Temp]
Stress-Interoception [Temp]
Enhanced 3D Proprioception [Temp]It is one thing to walk about on a world, or even fly above it, but to control a starship, you must consider all dimensions equally.
Improved ability to sense and visualize your environment in three dimensions. Notable improvement to notice the very big and very small objects in your environment. Capacity to sense fine details and compute relative positioning and movement in space is increased significantly. Mental Agility and Power slightly enhanced while assessing or recalling the physical reality around yourself.
4D Spatial Motorskills [Temp]On your world, fighter and stunt pilots were the Aces of the skies, able to do all sorts of three dimensional maneuvers. Many of them would make great helmsmen, but not all, as it requires a different type of thinking.
There is no down in space, and most obstacles are constantly in motion. Thus, survival and skilled piloting both require thinking not only in three dimensions, but four. You must always keep in mind how the hazards will shift over time, not as exceptions, not as enemies, but as a general rule.
After all, all motion is relative. You have begun to grasp this truth.
Improved capacity to plan and adapt navigational plans based on awareness of the environment. Greater computational capacity to manage pitch, roll, and yaw in complex maneuvers. Capacity to recognize and predict movement of other objects is also improved. Mental Agility and Power slightly enhanced while utilizing these skills.
Stress-Interoception [Temp]There are few skills more critical in a pilot or helmsman than understanding the tolerances of that which he guides. After all, the most elegant of maneuvers becomes rather pointless if the ship you are flying breaks apart as you pull them off.
You have a burgeoning sense of the internal integrity of that which you directly guide and direct. With time and practice, you will be able to pinpoint specific points of stress and possibly even work to mitigate such.
Alex read through the descriptions and found himself grinning. Oh, yes. What a glorious decision I have made.
He would have to thank Kaylee profusely for suggesting this to him.
All three skills were obviously tailored for the piloting of a starship in space, but they also seemed like they would mesh perfectly with his Advanced Kinesthetics skill for combat. In fact, he had the feeling that it wouldn’t take that much work to fold them all together into one or two skills.
He had another thought, and his smile grew even wider. The language of power is highly spatially dependent. It sounds like these are macro level skills, but with a little tweaking? They might just be able to offer aid for more micro-level understanding, and that would help me with runework as well.
Alex checked again, and verified that there were no more notifications from the scenario itself, and that just left his first class skill and second class choices.
Which should he do first?
He bit the side of his lip in thought, leaning back into the gloriously comfortable chair.
Obviously, the skill he took for his first class shouldn’t affect what he would be offered for his second class, but it might cause his first class to overlap with his second if he wasn’t careful.
With that in mind, he decided to take a look, and see what he could pick for his second class, what his tutelage had earned him. After all, I was offered an Epic class just for learning her name.
Class Acquisition Requirements Met:You are in a safe locationYou have met the requirements of one or more classes.
Class Qualifications Met:Stubborn Student of the Master - Life Runewright (Legendary)
Stubborn Student of the Master - Life Runewright (Legendary)Urania is her name, and she took the trouble to train you. Moreover, she bound more of her knowledge to you than any student prior even if you have yet to access it.
You have chosen to take her teaching in an… ill-advised direction, at least according to your teacher. Only time will tell if the wisdom of age or the presumption of youth prove correct.Survive and put your training to good use in this class.
You wouldn’t want to disappoint a ???, would you?
Alex’s mind hitched as his teacher’s name came back to him through the notification. At the same time, the redacted information gave him a sense of ominous foreboding yet again.
It actually took a moment for him to notice the name of the class, and that drew forth a sigh. Still, there really wasn’t any hesitation. After all, it was a Legendary class in the discipline he wanted.
He didn’t like how tied it was to Runia, and he would be working to make it his own. It was also true that it would downgrade when it tiered up—if he wasn’t careful and didn’t work at it—but that was likely a hundred levels away, and he would be working at it the whole way.
He would do everything he could to prove his choice correct and confirm its rarity, even at tier up. I just have to figure out how…
Class Benefits:Stubborn Student of the Master - Life Runewright (Legendary)
Stat Gains per LevelPhysical Power +5Physical Agility +20Physical Fortitude +5Mental Power +32Mental Agility +32Mental Fortitude +32Magical Power +20Magical Agility +30Magical Fortitude +20Free Points +3Total Points: 199
Your understanding and efficiency translate through to all you do, requiring 25% less power from you to fuel temporary scripts or spells of any kind.When you seek to modify any runic structure or magical symbol set, the affected script is 50% more stable while you work on it, resulting in a greater chance of success and lower chance of catastrophic failure.Your ill-advised use of Life in the construction of runes will require 30% less of that precious resource.
Urania does not approve of this use of her teachings. Be warned or be prepared to prove her in error.
Alex sat, slack jawed, staring at the details of the offered class. It truly was the stuff of Legends.
His choice was clear. “I accept.”
Power slammed into him, and he jerked back, his vision momentarily going black.