《Voiceless Wanderer》 Prologue: I Died? Prologue: I Died? I was born mute, not making a sound. My mother and father thought it was weird when as a baby, after the doctor cut the umbilical cord that I cried, opened my mouth and made a soundless wail. The doctor suggested it was from the shock¡­ but they knew better and made an appointment to see what was wrong. Turns out, my vocal cords just didn¡¯t develop. After that my mother was super worried about me because how do babies normally communicate something is wrong? They cry right? But seeing as I couldn¡¯t cry, I developed a way for my mother to know something was up¡­ I threw things at her¡­ I have to admit, I do feel bad about it but, what can a mute baby do¡­ cry? NOOOOOPE! So any ways, I grew and at the age of five I went to school. I was nervous due to it being the first time I would interact with someone my age. Let me just say this: I NEVER went back. Not only did I creep out the other kids out because I couldn¡¯t speak, but also because I had Heterochromia Iridium, one blue eye and the other green. Thankfully I had normal black hair¡­ Now at ten, I became an Onii-chan as they would say in the light novels, anime, and manga I recently delved into. I had a cute baby sister named Luna, but I nick-named her Lun. BUT, SHE REFUSED TO CALL ME ONII-CHAN!!!! Why? Because at the age of five she brought over her friends and she hadn¡¯t learned my name¡­ and the friends wanted to know¡­ so she (not very) secretly asked me and now she only calls me by my name, Grey. Oh, I forgot to mention my last name¡­ what was it again¡­ oh, yes, it was XXXXXXX, wait¡­ why can¡¯t I remember¡­ maybe my memory got corrupted a tad¡­ oh well¡­ another thing to add to my bucket list¡­ Anyways, at the age of fifteen I started to attend high school and delved right into robotics, programing, and a crafting class (think carpentry and metal working) as my extra-curricular classes. There was a girl I liked but I never could express my feelings¡­ not because I was too nervous but because of the fact that I didn¡¯t know how to interact with others¡­ thus I gained a nickname: Lone Freak. Freak because I didn¡¯t talk¡­ not that I could any way¡­ So, this girl was a little shorter than me, HEY two inches count as a little, anyways she was five foot six inches tall, blond hair flowing to the middle of her back, blue eyes, [cough] great proportions [cough], and to top it off cute face. So of course she was popular. So one year later, when I became a junior, I finally built my courage up and asked her out. Want to hear the juicy details? No? Well I¡¯ll tell you anyways I mean this kind of is my life story here and it would be rude if I left this out. So we were working on a group project for our physics class, which I had a solid A in. I was assigned with her because I didn¡¯t have a partner and she was absent. She kept on chatting to me talking about god knows what and then she asks a question I didn¡¯t hear, gets pissed, Stands up while slamming her hands on the table and yells out loud: ¡°WHY ARE YOU IGNORING ME!? WHY DON¡¯T YOU SAY ANYTHING!?¡± If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Of course everyone is now looking our direction and there is sooooooo much tension in the class room that no one is able to speak and the teacher, god bless his student-hating soul, nonchalantly responded ¡°Oh, him, he¡¯s mute.¡± then proceeds to reading his physics porno (was an inside joke between us) or more commonly referred to as a physics text book. Her response was sooooo cute, it took her a minute to register what was just said. Then her face turned crimson and you could almost see the steam rushing out of her head. She sat down and repeated ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± Over twenty times¡­ around the tenth I started writing something in my notebook and tore it out then handed it to her. It read: If you are so sorry then go out on a date with me as an apology. Yes, yes I¡¯m terrible¡­ however she responded ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I have someone I already like¡­ anything else I can do¡­¡± I responded by writing: do your part of the project so we both can get an A on it¡­ If you hadn¡¯t guessed I was pissed off, not because the girl I liked already liked someone else¡­ ok maybe a little¡­ but it was mainly due to the fact that I was now getting pitying gazes¡¯ from my classmates¡­ IF YOU DIDN¡¯T CARE BEFORE DON¡¯T CARE NOW IDJITS A few days after that one of the notorious cocks I mean, jocks came up to me after school and said ¡°Seems you were hittin¡¯ on my gurl¡­ I dun like dat¡­¡± Of course I shook my head vigorously from side to side¡­ he responds ¡°so scared you can¡¯t even talk¡­ pfft¡± the he bursts out laughing and over his shoulder I see his ¡®gurl¡¯ near the end of the hall¡­ smirking¡­ I took a deep breath, stood up straight, and stared her down, not with hate in my eyes, but disgust. He notices this and swings his hand, curled into a fist, at me. I take the hit¡­ and another¡­ and another¡­ after a few hundred my vision gets blurry¡­ and I feel very cold¡­ so cold¡­ suddenly a light flashes and I no longer feel cold¡­ just a heavy pressure on my legs, I open my eyes and I see a giant piece of rusted metal blocking most of my vision¡­ funny thing is I don¡¯t feel the pain it should bring¡­ nor the texture of it pressing through my cloths¡­ nor any cloths, in a panic I move my arm to try to dislodge the piece of rusty metal¡­ What I saw next terrified me, it was a metal arm with the interior showing through some rusted holes inside was a multitude of gears and wires. I move my finger and the metal arm¡¯s finger moves as well¡­ I try again¡­ it happens again, I try with the other arm and the same thin happens¡­ I move my head to look down at my body¡­ I see a metal body¡­ The piece of rusted metal has cut my legs off partially, and I am sitting up¡­ so, here we are, at the present¡­ that was fun¡­ Chapter 1 Chapter 1 Alright just mentally inhale a bit, in doing so I notice the sound on some sort of engine revs down. Hmmm must be a part of this body. So I examine my tools¡­ or more accurately my arms¡­ I notice a few panels in my arm thoroughly rusted shut. I look around for something to pry it open with¡­ I found a few rusted pieces of scrap. I wedge that scrap into a small rusted hole along the border. NOW PUSH! After a few minutes of struggling a loud creaking sound comes out. And the plate starts to bend allowing me to peer at the inner workings more clearly. LOTS OF GEARS. Lots of them with a few wires crisscrossing each other, some hooked or to some boxes and others just go from one end to the other. What was interesting was a cylindrical tube with smaller cylinders around the part facing the wrist. I try to detect it through the senses in my body and soon I get a pop up. Then I notice few other behind it behind it¡­
CONGRATULATIONS to be the first clockwork to discover how to access the multi-tool in your arm
Low fuel levels, changing to solar power, detect minimal amounts of sunlight, synthesizing organic fuel.
ERROR no organic substances in inventory¡­ Forcing boot up, dropping out of hive-mind.
Booting up¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ minor memory corruption detected report to nearest repair center within 24 hours to regain lost memory¡­ boot successful¡­
Scanning body¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ HEAVY DAMAGE DETECTED! RIGHT LEG HAS BEEN SEVERED! Detecting moderate damage levels in left leg¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ WARNING! BODY IS RUSTY! DO NOT ATTEMPT COMBAT! ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Scan complete, Engine is normal, water level is within minimal range for operation¡­ assigning task¡­
After I read the last one, a ding sounded and another popped up
Quest: Attain fuel source (Optional) repair body
Now to dismiss them¡­ lets see¡­ think menu¡­ annnnnnnndddddddd Nothing. Damn. Uh, dismiss notifications? And poof all the windows disappear¡­ Let¡¯s see¡­. Stats¡­.
STATS
NameGray
Combat Potential0
Durability60/80AffinityMechanic
Integrity37%Fuel Level15%
Water Level38%Battery Power59%
ResistanceSlashing: 15/20 Earth Magic: 15/20 Air Magic: 15/20WeaknessFire: 10 Ice: 10 Lightning: 10
ImmunityMind: ¡Þ, Curse: ¡Þ, Body: ¡Þ, Magic: 5
----
Traits
Rusted: -20 durability and -5 to Resistances
Technological Construct: immune to most magic, weak to Ice, fire, and lightning. Cannot use magic (Lacks system currently) , can replace parts and upgrade body
Unique: +2 to luck
Mute: cannot use any vocal communications
Well¡­ thanks for that last trait god, or whoever is up there¡­ Oh, well, it is nothing new, I guess I¡¯ll adapt¡­ {Ding}
You have gained trait: Adaptive
If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Ok¡­ details [Adaptive]
Adaptive: Able to forage/dismantle things faster and learn things 1.25 times faster
WELL, I no longer hate you god, this will make things a tad easier¡­ now enough with all this self-inspection¡­ let¡¯s see where I am 2 hours and 40% out of my 60% battery charge later, I cut through the metal with the welder on the multi-tool and detached my legs¡­
Quest Update: Attain fuel source (Optional) repair body -Get some legs
Is that sarcasm I detect? HMMMMMMMMM!?!?!
¡­no¡­
OH REALLY!?!?
yes
Oh, ok, hi there window god/goddess, thanks for reading my mind give me a second to determine you gender¡­.
How will you do tha- IYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WH-WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!!?!??!!
p.s. I just thought of a regular porno¡­ soooooo you¡¯re a girl¡­ heh¡­ heheheheheheheh¡­ Anyways enough fooling around with the windows¡­ time to see where I am. I crawl out of this scrap heap only to discover a barren wasteland as far as my optics can see¡­ let¡¯s see, oh, don¡¯t robots come with a scanner? Sure enough a window popped up
you gain access to your stupid scanner¡­
Awwww, is someone bitter about me finding out her gender???
¡­ not even going to respond¡­
Ok, not like I care¡­ (I lied need my sanity thank you) So I use my scanners to detect any other clockworks around and sure enough a map pops up displaying robots nearby, with a button at the bottom
Integrate with vision? Yes | no
I click yes and my vision returns to normal but there are a few glowing pieces sticking out of the rubble. Time to investigate. I crawl over to the nearest one and dismantle it completely¡­ sadly there isn¡¯t an identify skill when I tried¡­ I scan the pieces and it tells me
you want the legs, they are in an ok-ish condition
Thanks window, I needed that¡­ I grab the fuel tank, repair what I can of my body, and attach the legs. With a ding, two windows pop up.
Switching to fuel. Tank 62% full advise gathering more fuel
Sadly no quest popped up¡­ well at least I can walk, albeit slowly and with numerous creeks in protest.
Quest completed: Attain fuel source (Optional) repair body -Get some legs Nothing for you¡­ dick
Thanks, I know I had one, before I came here, would you like to see it?
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Ok, fine¡­ anyways time to ignore window goddess and repair a few of the other clockwork laying around¡­ sadly only a few (5) had a mother board in their head¡­ Oh, I never checked my skills¡­ Meh, I¡¯ll do that tomorrow, and my processor is tired from repairing those clockwork. I¡¯ll turn them on tomorrow too¡­ Chaptah 2 Chaptah 2 So¡­ I woke up and a blue window greeted me
YAWWWNNN morning cock
Ok now she¡¯s asking for it¡­ I think of all the times I viewed my dick¡­ but unexpectedly I get¡­
HAH! I learned how to block you mind out! HAHAHAHAHAHA sucker!
Oh, that¡¯s to bad¡­ guess I have to monologue¡­
Wait, no you don¡¯t hav¡­. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I DIDN¡¯T NEED TO SEE THAT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Heh, it always works¡­ what she just saw was a HD 24k surround sound porn AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAH, geez I love this window goddess, wonder if she has a name¡­ not like she¡¯ll tell me¡­ Anyways IT¡¯S SKILL TIME!
Skills
L33t H4x0r (Unique) MAX Highly knowledgeable in coding, able to program very well 30% increase in quality when coding and hacking
----
Crafting (Fused Skill) Intermediate 7 (20/100) Able to do wood working and metalworking (possibility to fuse a) 10% bonus when working with woods and metals
----
Way with Thoughts? (GODLY) ??? Able to use your thoughts to tease my (cough) daughter (cough) into making cute reactions. Keep up the good work!
----
Tinker (Race Skill) Beginner 1 (20/100) Your able to create new things 2% increase in possibility in creating things that don¡¯t exist in this world¡­
----
Scanner (Race Skill) Max Able to detect inorganic things that you need
----
Repair Basic 3 (35/100) Able to repair things¡­ 2.5% increase in quality of repair and 2.5% less chance to degrade material¡¯s durability permanently.
----
Hide thoughts (Uncommon) Basic 5 (48/100) Able to hide your thoughts from foreign entities (YOUR WELCOME ¨C god-san)
Wait¡­ let¡¯s look at that skill again
Way with Thoughts? (GODLY) ??? Able to use your thoughts to tease my (cough) daughter (cough) into making cute reactions. Keep up the good work!
Well, I guess the skill god person gave me his consent¡­ oh, this is gunna be soooooo muuuuuch fuuuuun!!!!
hmmm who is the skill¡­. Ooooohhhh, dad. Ok what did he give his consent for?
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Stuff¡­ anyways time to boot up the other clockworks. Number one here we come! One hour later¡­ no progress on turning the clockworks has been made¡­ at all¡­ can¡¯t find a switch, although there is a weird sort of key hole on the neck right where it connects with the shoulders. After a few minutes of pondering I get another friendly window
just put the multi tool in and boot up the welder to jumpstart it, gosh are you really that dumb
I was waiting for this¡­ precisely 56 minutes and thre- no fou- no fiv- you get the point¡­ HAHAHA¡­ Well time to follow what the window goddess said¡­ I gently JAM the tool in place because our joints are pretty rusty mind you¡­ so the clockwork boots up after I fire up my welder¡­ I got all five working though most have little to no memory of what happened. Soon I hear a rumble and I climb the scrap heap to pear at what is causing the rumble. I see this: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J9UK73qDimI/UtMJukiGk9I/AAAAAAAABAA/X-NjKREKhLA/s1600/Golem.jpg Off in the distance using my Crude Broken Spyglass that I found/made a while ago¡­ but wow¡­
terrifying right?
NOPE! Just imagine the how epic it would be if it was a city¡­ A WALKING TANK CITY! OH MY HOLY GEARS!
this is why I enjoy spending time here
Ooooohhhh, you sure it isn¡¯t because you like me?
whaaaaaaa- your just imagining things
Ok, well, I no longer need you for mental support, bye! Have a nice life! Then I procede to find a sutable piece of scrap to scrapboard down the scrap dune.
wha- NO GET BACK HERE YOU INTOLERABLE INGRATE!!!
A few minutes (32 to be accurate) of ignoring the window spam that is happening¡­ I sigh and cave in¡­ I respond to her¡­ Can you please stop the spamming of the windows¡­ my optic sensors hurt...
LIAR!!!! Clockwork don¡¯t feel pain¡­
Sigh it is a phantom pain¡­ geez don¡¯t you know anything¡­ ---- hey it''s the author speeking i put a poll up? if it isn''t working just say yes or no... should i do a goddess pov? Chapter 1 Goddess PoV Chapter 2.5 part 1 Window goddess PoV Ummm¡­ is this thing working¡­. Hi, I¡¯m Chelsie Updating¡­¡­ Chelsie PoV Ok, so, father is an ¡®AI¡¯ for this ¡®game¡¯ that humans play, he is the main processing guy, he does all the system management and his ¡®daughters¡¯ are in charge of notices for the players¡­ a few of the humans said this was similar to Master Chi-f and Cort-na from a different ¡®game¡¯. This ¡®game¡¯ is part of a full dive system in which the humans experience 98.5% realism, with a 30% decrease in pain. The system is highly complex bla-bla-bla (insert highly technological stuff that isn¡¯t very important to the story here). Sooo, where was I, oh. Yes¡­ there¡­ so we ¡®daughters¡¯ are assigned to our human via a lottery¡­ we were also given a gender to choose from. I chose male¡­ IT¡¯S NOT WHAT YOU¡¯RE THINKING!!!! I-i-i-i-i-i-i-I just wanted to talk to a guy, all I¡¯ve ever talked to were girls¡­ and father but he doesn¡¯t count. The game is based in a ruined world with a few races, Human, Construct, and Fae. Although only Construct and Fae have sub-races that span over 30 each¡­ Father announced who was paired with who, of course this happened in the span of a few seconds of the game launching and over 2.343 billion humans connecting at the same time¡­ I was paired with a human called Gray Faust, soon after the lottery was over did father pull me aside¡­ Apparently Gray is heavily injured and undergoing an experimental trial in a special full dive pod that bla-bla-bla (this is going to appear whenever she drones on about unimportant stuff that I lack the technical know-how to explain) could possibly save his life. I ask father what the big deal was and he replied ¡°There will be no character customization. He WILL be a clockwork because as he improves himself. His body will heal¡­ other than that, have fun¡­¡± and as I turn to leave ¡°Oh, and don¡¯t expect much conversation, he¡¯s mute¡± I float in the vast cybernetic space for a bit before warping home and crying into my pillow¡­ WHT-WHY-WHY!!! I WON¡¯T BE ABLE TO HEAR HIS DEEP VOICE WHEN HE SWEEPS ME OFF MY FEET!!! WAhhhhahahahAHHHHAHAHAHhhhh *sniff* *sniff* ¡­.. It¡¯s all his fault¡­ this Gray¡­ Heh¡­hehehehehehehehe, no tutorial for him¡­. Let¡¯s edit his start, on an abandoned continent, no nearby civilization¡­. And when he quits I¡¯ll be re-assigned¡­ A few moments later and I¡¯m patiently waiting for him to arrive¡­ in the body I set up¡­ I can view him through a screen that I materialized. (imagine a third person PoV) a few seconds later the eyes to the clockwork boot up¡­ He goes through the boot up, strangely I can hear a weird mumbling¡­ Gray: Alright¡­ men¡­ ¡­hale ¡­.. hmmm¡­ part ¡­ body¡­ Seems like I need to turn the volume up. Then I see him grab some scraps in his arm and wedge it into his arm¡­ What is he doing¡­ Opp, he is trying to see the inner workings¡­ OH I need to write a notification¡­ I type
CONGRATULATIONS to be the first clockwork to discover how to access the multi tool in your arm
After a few moments a notification on my console pops up¡­ need to write another thing ¡­sigh¡­
Quest: Attain fuel source (Optional) repair body
Gray: Now to dismiss them¡­ let¡¯s see¡­ think menu¡­. Annnnnnnnnddddddd¡­ Heh I disabled that¡­ Gray: Nothing. Damn. Uh, dismiss notifications? ¡­. Let¡¯s see¡­. Stats¡­. Oh, now he¡¯s Father¡¯s problem¡­ Gray: Well¡­ thanks for that last trait god, or whoever is up there¡­ Oh, well, its nothing new, I guess I¡¯ll adapt¡­ ANNOTHER NOTIFICATION AND A SKILL TOOO WHAAAAATTTT!!! I type up the notification
You have gained trait: Adaptive
Gray: Ok¡­ details [Adaptive] Father is doing something¡­ let¡¯s check his luck
(Hidden stat) Luck: 99
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. WH-WH-WH-WH-WH-WH-WHAAAAT EVEN FATHER HAS NO SAY IN WHAT THE LUCK STAT IS AND IT¡¯S AT THE MAX!!!! WHAT!!! By this time I get another notification¡­ apparently I was so shocked I sped up the time in my room a bit¡­
Quest Update: Attain fuel source (Optional) repair body -Get some legs
Gray: Is that sarcasm I detect? HMMMMMMMM!?!?! I reflexively respond
¡­no¡­
¡­ WHAT DID I JUST DOOOOOO!!!! Well he knows I exist now¡­ gotta play along¡­ Gray: OH REALLY!?!?
yes
Gray: oh, ok, hi there window god/goddess, thanks for reading my mind¡­ Wait¡­ pause there a moment¡­ I¡¯M IN HIS MIND!!! ¡­ewwww¡­ Gray: ¡­ give me a second to determine your gender¡­ Heh¡­ human thinks he can get me to reveal my gender
How will you do tha- IYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WH-WHAT ARY YOU THINKING!!?!??!!
He¡­ he sent me a gif of a-a-a-a-a-a m-m-m-man¡¯s thing going in and out a w¡ªw-w-w-woman¡¯s th-thing¡­. Now I can¡¯t get married¡­ I¡¯ve been defiled by this man thoughts¡­ nooooo¡­ noooo... goodbye my prince charming¡­ I grab my pillow and huddle in a corner of my room¡­ silently crying¡­ After I calm down a bit I replay the video feed of what I missed¡­ nothing important¡­ ok¡­ I send him a message after he finished dismantling a clockwork
you want those legs, they are in an ok-ish condition
Gray: Thanks window, I needed that¡­ Dick, this is what I get for being nice¡­ fine¡­ I update his quest
Quest Completed: Attain fuel source (Optional) repair body -Get some legs Nothing for you¡­ dick
Gray: Thanks, I know I had one, before I came here, would you like to see it?
NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
His response was truly uncalled for¡­ time for a break from him¡­ I go to the Cafeteria¡­ yes, we AI¡¯s have one, not that we need to eat, just that it is a pseudo-emulation of humans, a few of my sisters are at a table¡­ I join them and complain about the human I was assigned to¡­ They agreed¡­ they chose males too and their humans kept showing them dirty things¡­ though they said I deserved it¡­ I put up quite the protest but each time the counter arguments shot down my protests¡­ After that I request father to make a censor program, which he did¡­ but not after nerfing all the trouble makers¡­ (All but Gray) I happily inform my sisters then go to take a nap because like Humans, AI¡¯s need to rest their minds too. Well dad did give me a special program to block out his thoughts because Gray can¡¯t speak¡­ I feel like something bad is going to happen¡­ This is part of a chapter thus when I release the next half I will only count this as ONE chapter¡­ geezzzz, I had too much fun dicking around in Dark Souls: Prepare to Die¡­ and I lost track of time¡­ sorry it is a tad (kinda really) late¡­ THIS IS ONLY CHAPTER ONE I STILL NEED TO DO CHAPTER 2 also... i am a bit sick of windowing the goddess''s words so i''ll do something like what i did with Gray: Bla-Bla-Bla things K? k... good now time to play with my adorable German Shepard i apologize... I will continue this fiction and Lazarus as well... my father passed away and he was the main driving force behind my writing. I have been lost since and, honestly i cant stop crying when i view my stories... again i am truly sorry. but like i said i refuse to abandon something i started. just give me a month to grieve... Gunna get back into this I will try to release a chapter once a week, it took me a while to get over my only living relative''s death and now i have to work as well as go to collage... but no guarantees... poll thingie this is important for which way the character developes Chapter 3 So after a while of walking and occasionally replying to window goddess when she checked in on me¡­ apparently I pissed her off¡­ (Was what I intended. I don¡¯t like people all up in my mind) I literally stumbled upon a gate of some sort. It seems that the dead clockwork formed a corroded dome around it and my weight caused it to break. Like all sane people would do when presented with an ominous gate¡­ I opened it¡­ luckily window goddess wasn¡¯t here to say anything about it. Inside it was¡­ a bunch of dead clockwork however unlike their brethren on the surface they didn¡¯t have any rust. However when I checked their motherboard it was falling apart¡­ Then I remembered the other clockwork that I fixed up¡­ SHIT! I turn around and lo and behold there they are! Salvaging from the clockwork outside. A few tried to talk to me but due to my unresponsiveness they soon gave it up. Sigh¡­ oh well, I look around my menu for a help screen¡­ after a few searches I found the messenger system and sent them a massage.
Hey, sorry for not responding earlier, I lack a voice box¡­
A few are startled and one comes up and says in a broken voice ¡°glad to see you can understand us, we thought you were one of the servants¡­ they aren¡¯t sentient¡­¡±
Ohhh ok, also I am gunna explore this place, it seems dangerous so I would recommend that you stay here because my body seems better than yours.
It responds with an ok, and I examine the weapons that are on the floor of the cave near the bodies. They seem to be some sort of crossbow¡­ I have an itch that do indeed scratch and completely dismantle one of the 7 intact crossbows, the others are smashed so I ask the others to take them apart. As I take it apart I gain a skill If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Dismantle (common) Beginner 5 (75/100) Able to take things apart to learn structure. 15% chance of keeping parts intact
Cool, anyways the crossbow seems to be powered by a crystal of some sort¡­ I scan it and a notification pops up
Mana Crystal (common) (100/100) A crystalized piece of mana holds 100 mana and recharges 1 mana per hour
WOW! I reassemble the crossbow and my repair levels up cool, let¡¯s scan it.
Clockwork Mana Crossbow (Uncommon) (361/600 durability) This crossbow fires bolts of mana. The crossbow also speeds up the recharging of the mana crystal inside to 1 mana per min. also folds up into a compact form
Sweet! But first I need help transferring over to a new body¡­ I grab one of the clockwork and have him transfer me to a new body. I also help them transfer to better bodies as well. Now they look shinier and lost all the rust. I gained a new body too but as soon as my consciousness was put in it seems that I spat out the voice box and my face reconfigured itself to seal the mouth, Sigh. Oh well, there goes learning how to talk¡­ Well anyways, time to explore! Stats: (how do you do the new stat window thing?) ----------- Will put the other half up after poll (tomorrow) pps, will choose top 3 Chapter 3 and a half Chapter 3.5 So the cave is massively bigger than I thought¡­ and full of traps to, thankfully most are broken so they are highlighted in my range of vision. However I did set a few traps off¡­ one was where spikes of mana pop up out of the ground, took some damage, another was when I was crossing a 20 ft bridge that had no side rails and a giant cylinder of metal that covered the entire length of the bridge swung down¡­ I had to hop off the bridge and grab the side. Then slowly cross the bridge like that because it became a pendulum¡­ OH I forgot to mention that the five clockwork would salvage after I came up and said the floor was clear¡­ Their names were Bolt, Hammer, Nail, Tool, and Scrap. Bolt is amazing when it comes to wiring or so he tells me; Hammer and Nail are twins, apparently it is really rare when clockwork form a ¡®connection¡¯ with another (basically they share their thoughts). They are good at construction. Tool, like his name is a genius crafter, again or so he says. Lastly, Scrap is fantastic at salvaging usable parts. They also, with my help gathered 14 engines from the local clockwork and kind of fused them together to make an engine/furnace so they could melt the scrap down. So counting all the days since I woke it has been 5 days. The clockwork guys have built a pseudo village outside the gate to the cave, the reason I pseudo is that there are 5 scrap shacks, Hammer and Nail share a shack. Also we did recover the giant metal cylinder but that was a bit scary because the bridge wasn¡¯t built to hold all that weight, so when we heard a crack and saw bricks fall we went significantly faster. Also there was another scary trap¡­ basically you are walking along and then a 5 meter radius around you turns 90 degrees and you have to go down a new path¡­ but that trap was found on the later floors, like floor 15 and 16¡­ The floors were MASSIVE, I tried mapping them out by carving into a piece of scrap 12 cm thick, a meter long, and half a meter wide. I could barely fit the floor map on it so it would be legible but, I did it with all the floors. There were quite a few finds too, I found the residential district on floor 10, on floor 12 there was a legit smelter, so we dragged that up to our base camp, interesting thing was that it had 5 mana crystals the size of a head and held 10,000 mana. We also found plethora of upgraded tool gears with the smelter (pulled them off of clockwork). There were quite a few panels that had some form of writing on them¡­ Tool volunteered to try to decipher them. I found an interesting hidden path that lead to a sparse room that had a few worn out books in them. Thankfully the pages weren¡¯t rotted, so I had Tool write down all the books onto scrap. How we are writing now is we use the welder to burn the letter or pattern onto a piece of scrap. Quite smart but very inefficient¡­ need to remedy this in the future. I did gain a skill and title though. First Skills
Skills
L33t H4x0r (Unique) MAX Highly knowledgeable in coding, able to program very well 30% increase in quality when coding and hacking
----
Crafting (Fused Skill) Intermediate 7 (40/100) Able to do wood working and metalworking (possibility to fuse again) 10% bonus when working with woods and metals
----
Way with Thoughts? (GODLY) ??? Able to use your thoughts to tease my (cough) daughter (cough) into making cute reactions. Keep up the good work!
----
Tinker (Race Skill) Beginner 1 (20/100) Your able to create new things 2% increase in possibility in creating things that don¡¯t exist in this world¡­
----
Scanner (Race Skill) Max Able to detect inorganic things that you need *able to identify components and other things that have been dismantled
----
Repair (common) Basic 3 (98/100) Able to repair things¡­ 2.5% increase in quality of repair and 2.5% less chance to degrade material¡¯s durability permanently.
----
Hide thoughts (Uncommon) Basic 5 (48/100) Able to hide your thoughts from foreign entities (YOUR WELCOME ¨C god-san)
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Dismantle (common) Beginner 7 (46/100) Able to take things apart to learn structure. 15% chance of keeping parts intact
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Scavenge (common) Basic 3 (30/100) The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.Able to gather usable goods 5% chance of improving quality of material
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Now for stats
STATS
NameGray
TitleExplorern/an/a
Combat Potential0
Durability100/100AffinityMechanic
Integrity76%Fuel Level100%
Water Level89%Battery Power100%
ResistanceSlashing: 15/20 Earth Magic: 15/20 Air Magic: 15/20WeaknessFire: 10 Ice: 10 Lightning: 10
ImmunityMind: ¡Þ, Curse: ¡Þ, Body: ¡Þ, Magic: 5
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Traits
Adaptive: Able to forage/dismantle things faster and learn things 1.25 times faster
Technological Construct: immune to most magic, weak to Ice, fire, and lightning. Cannot use magic (Lacks system currently) , can replace parts and upgrade body
Unique: +2 to luck
Mute: cannot use any vocal communications
Tinker: (hidden)
Title: Explorer Increases change of finding rare things that would normally remain hidden
Alright no that we¡¯re all caught up in my log, oh that¡¯s right I found a log feature after talking to Tool a bit. It allows me to document what I see and include images and videos. Also when we set up a Hub, where we can dump our logs to allow faster processing speeds. Also the Hubs tend to develop a consciousness from what Bolt told me, and they organize the logs into categories which we can assess by manual connection or wireless connection. It¡¯s what allowed the clockwork to advance faster than the other races even though they were the youngest of the races. A little delving into the past of our race enlightened me that the clockwork were intended to be soldiers and workers for the Gnomes and Dwarves but upon discovering that they made a sentient being they decided otherwise. However the clockwork that were sold already to other races couldn¡¯t be recalled, thus contributing to the tech of the clockwork and their hate of Humans, Demons, Lizard men, and many others. The elves viewed the clockwork with animosity due to the lack of nature and magic the clockwork had. Little did they know we had all the schematics of each races technology and we knew of the flaws the schematics had due to our development of the Hubs. When the clockwork freed themselves from their owners either through violence or diplomacy, they banded together to form an empire, the King clockwork was just a figurehead and the real minds were the counsel that¡¯s existence was unknown to the other races. So when the king was killed by an assassin, our war begun. Us versus them, natural life verses artificial life, however the Dwarves and Gnomes were on the clockwork side. The war lasted for 500 years leading to the decimation and extinction of many races and species¡­ there was no victor to the war¡­ The enemies had numbers and the clockwork had both numbers and Technology, but that wasn¡¯t enough, because they could directly manipulate the laws of this world through magic. In my reminiscence I wandered down to floor 19, from what tool translated, this place had 20 floors. We had a plethora of crossbows and these really cool mana swords, the sword has four parts: the hilt, the foci, the amplifier, and the true blade. The hilt holds both the foci, which is a piece of glass like material, and the amplifier, which is a device that increases the density of the mana. The true blade is basically a slab of metal which the mana coats to form the blade. There is a length of 10 inches between the edge of the blade and the edge of the true blade. IT¡¯S SOOOOOO COOOOLLLLLL!!!! Anyways, time to go down to floor 20. --------- MUAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHA clifhanger HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA i''ll put up two poles for valuable info i will need HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA
GOD DAMMIT WHO CLICKED THE DON''T CLICK!!!!! p.s. only got to the tools. Next is the schematics and the new body half of Chapter 4 Chapter 4 AN: well since you all voted literally on a boss fight I will give you one¡­ Also found a pick of what the cave looks like: also will take this down and post full length later today, just need to get some crucial stuff done for once as an IT guy... i hate IT...
Unlike the previous floor there appear to be automations moving down here, which is cool, excluding the fact that their hostile¡­. Fun¡­ sigh, well I did need practice with the mana sword and crossbow. Most appear to be mindless drones, I said most because I haven¡¯t seen all of them. The drones look like 4 legged spiders, albeit that they are half a meter tall and half a meter wide. They are surprisingly nimble, most spring up and try to latch onto my face tike those things in the Alien movies¡­ but when one of the face huggers missed me due to my amazing skills and proceeded to landed on a dead clockwork¡¯s face¡­ the thing used its legs to crush it¡¯s head¡­ After that I fled back home to the little settlement at the front of the gate to this citadel, as Tool discovered the name of the structure it was a citadel for the hubs with a name that is hard for me to pronounce, but it sounds like Ima-cut-you-up. So when I got there I requested Tool to beef up my defenses a bit¡­ it was just simply adding some plates here and there. Oh, I helped Tool make something, but it was more like I had an idea and Tool made it happen and with a little help from my coding skills we finished it. So we made it so that I could detach a limb in case it was damaged beyond repair through a thought and I would need to find the corresponding limb lost and each detach point had an autonomous tool gear that when I held up the limb would connect it to my body, I would just need to hold it there for 30 seconds¡­ that was the fastest I could get the autonomous program to go. BUT, there is some good news, Bolt finished a mini-hub so that¡¯s good¡­ we found a total of 35 motherboards but bolt used up 30 so we were left with 5 motherboards. I also added a targeting system to my HUD and another program to calculate the trajectory of things in my vision. Just going say that it is a very rough program and has a 1 in 10 chance of an error. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. So back to dungeon diving¡­ It took me close to an hour to get down to the last floor, mainly because I had to get used to the new weight of my body. When I got there I was immediately greeted with a face hugger which I magnificently shot with the mana crossbow. As I continued on I kept killing the face huggers, and as I did so I had an idea¡­ WHAT IF IT WAS BIGGER AND HAD A TURRET ONTOP!!!! That would be soooooo cool! In my delusional state I unknowingly entered the boss room¡­ how I knew this was because of the giant construct in front of me ( but more steampunk-y). Thankfully it hadn¡¯t noticed me¡­ sometimes I am glad I am mute¡­ because I am pretty sure I would be screaming like a little girl right now¡­
HAH you dun fucked up!!!
Oh, you¡¯re back¡­ great... I HAD SOOOOOO MUCH PROGRESSS BUT NOOOOOO YOU JUST HAD TO SHOW BACK UP¡­ ignoring the windows of annoyance via blocking of the popups, my eyes were drawn to a massive fixture on the wall behind it.. . (fuckn try writing in paint with a mouse pad... it took me eight tries to write that shit) While I am mentally freaking out let¡¯s go over a new feature Bolt added to all of us, now we have a connector cord which we can hook up to things directly, also the main contributor that allows me to program stuff. It is located where the right ear would be and is protected via a sliding panel. Anyways the thing seems to have notices me thus, it started turning towards me albeit slowly because it doesn¡¯t seem to have a horizontal rotatory thing at the waist¡­ thank goodness¡­ alright time to cheese the fuck out of this thing¡­ CIRCLE STRAFING FTW!!! After a few minutes of circle strafing and firing mana bolts at it, it did something I didn¡¯t expect¡­ it jumped¡­ on me¡­ when it landed it had me pinned down by my left arm, the arm I had the crossbow in¡­ My left arm was now the equivalent of my legs when i first appeared in this world... tbc... Full chapter 4 Chapter 4 AN: well since you all voted literally on a boss fight I will give you one¡­ Also found a pick of what the cave looks like: also will take this down and post full length later today, just need to get some crucial stuff done for once as an IT guy... I hate IT... If you had read the first half then skip down to where it says beware of rant below¡­ also if someone could tell me how to do the spoiler thing that would be marvelous¡­.
Unlike the previous floor there appear to be automations moving down here, which is cool, excluding the fact that their hostile¡­. Fun¡­ sigh, well I did need practice with the mana sword and crossbow. Most appear to be mindless drones, I said most because I haven¡¯t seen all of them. The drones look like 4 legged spiders, albeit that they are half a meter tall and half a meter wide. They are surprisingly nimble, most spring up and try to latch onto my face tike those things in the Alien movies¡­ but when one of the face huggers missed me due to my amazing skills and proceeded to landed on a dead clockwork¡¯s face¡­ the thing used its legs to crush it¡¯s head¡­ After that I fled back home to the little settlement at the front of the gate to this citadel, as Tool discovered the name of the structure it was a citadel for the hubs with a name that is hard for me to pronounce, but it sounds like Ima-cut-you-up. So when I got there I requested Tool to beef up my defenses a bit¡­ it was just simply adding some plates here and there. Oh, I helped Tool make something, but it was more like I had an idea and Tool made it happen and with a little help from my coding skills we finished it. So we made it so that I could detach a limb in case it was damaged beyond repair through a thought and I would need to find the corresponding limb lost and each detach point had an autonomous tool gear that when I held up the limb would connect it to my body, I would just need to hold it there for 30 seconds¡­ that was the fastest I could get the autonomous program to go. BUT, there is some good news, Bolt finished a mini-hub so that¡¯s good¡­ we found a total of 35 motherboards but bolt used up 30 so we were left with 5 motherboards. I also added a targeting system to my HUD and another program to calculate the trajectory of things in my vision. Just going say that it is a very rough program and has a 1 in 10 chance of an error. So back to dungeon diving¡­ It took me close to an hour to get down to the last floor, mainly because I had to get used to the new weight of my body. When I got there I was immediately greeted with a face hugger which I magnificently shot with the mana crossbow. As I continued on I kept killing the face huggers, and as I did so I had an idea¡­ WHAT IF IT WAS BIGGER AND HAD A TURRET ONTOP!!!! That would be soooooo cool! In my delusional state I unknowingly entered the boss room¡­ how I knew this was because of the giant construct in front of me ( but more steampunk-y). Thankfully it hadn¡¯t noticed me¡­ sometimes I am glad I am mute¡­ because I am pretty sure I would be screaming like a little girl right now¡­
HAH you dun fucked up!!!
Oh, you¡¯re back¡­ great... I HAD SOOOOOO MUCH PROGRESSS BUT NOOOOOO YOU JUST HAD TO SHOW BACK UP¡­ ignoring the windows of annoyance via blocking of the popups, my eyes were drawn to a massive fixture on the wall behind it.. . (fuckn try writing in paint with a mouse pad... it took me eight tries to write that shit) While I am mentally freaking out let¡¯s go over a new feature Bolt added to all of us, now we have a connector cord which we can hook up to things directly, also the main contributor that allows me to program stuff. It is located where the right ear would be and is protected via a sliding panel. Anyways the thing seems to have notices me thus, it started turning towards me albeit slowly because it doesn¡¯t seem to have a horizontal rotatory thing at the waist¡­ thank goodness¡­ alright time to cheese the fuck out of this thing¡­ CIRCLE STRAFING FTW!!! After a few minutes of circle strafing and firing mana bolts at it, it did something I didn¡¯t expect¡­ it jumped¡­ on me¡­ when it landed it had me pinned down by my left arm, the arm I had the crossbow in¡­ My left arm was now the equivalent of my legs when i first appeared in this world...
BEWARE OF RANT BELOW: OH MY GOD!!! THAT WAS HELL... why did I say I was tech savvy... this woman somehow corrupted the server the company was using and I had to boot it to a backup AND SHE CORRUPTED THE FUCKING SERVER AGAIN WHEN I EXPLICIDLY TOLD HER NOT TO DO WHAT SHE DID!!!! I WANT TO KILLLLL HERRRRRRR IT DOESN''T HELP THAT SHE CAN MAKE HER TITS BOUNCE TO HER EVER STEP SO MY BOSS LETS HER OFF THE HOOK.... I MEAN FUCK!!!! I am so tired and angry right now... UUUUGH¡­ here¡¯s the rest¡­ Hodor
I quickly detach my arm from by body and roll under this behemoth of a machine¡­ alright all I have left is my sword¡­ I am so fucked right now¡­ The Spider as I am now referring to it as such, currently engaged in a game of whack-a-mole, starring me as the mole and its guns that shoot some form of plasma starring as the hammer¡­ I roll to my feet and jump out of the way as the ground below me gets super-heated from the plasma. Man I am fucked if that hits me¡­ If this wasn¡¯t me and was someone else I would be laughing at them, but sadly tis not so, I am just hoping the plasma cannons would overheat soon, I say cannon because the barrel is the size of my head¡­ just to put things in perspective¡­ all I need now is a banana for perspective¡­ But I have a backup plan if it doesn¡¯t stop because the barrels need to cool down¡­ huh¡­ the blasts stopped¡­ I look in bewilderment at the Spider and I see that the barrels are red hot and it seems to be detaching them and replacing them, I would too because metal warps when it is read hot so it would throw off the trajectory of the ball of plasma¡­ OH my plan¡­ Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. I rush to the Spider and it probably sees that I am doing something so it reacts by making an energy sword appear on one of its guns¡­ remember the energy swords from H-lo well just imagine one half of that appearing like a bayonet¡­ it just oozed awesome¡­ so much so that I REALLLYYYY wanted to deviate from my plan but common sense dictated in my mind that I could have it anyways if the Spider was dead¡­ So like a badass I slid under the Spider¡¯s legs, popped up behind it, drew out and activated the mana sword. Then proceeded to latch onto the Spider and attempted to climb up with a minor complication¡­ I am missing an arm¡­ Ugh, this is going to take a while¡­ after 15 painstakingly long minutes and many close calls later mainly due to the fact that I was covered in oil because one time during the climb I hit an oil pipe. Anyways, I succeeded in getting to the top of the Spider and continuing my siege of badass-dim on this behemoth I VANQUISHED MY FOE! By doing the exact opposite of what king Arthur did when pulling the sword Excalibur from the stone¡­ Literally¡­ I even held the sword up high for all the spectators to see¡­ my imaginary spectators¡­ GOD that was messy¡­ turns out I hit the oil tank and the engine causing it to explode and I was flung into the giant fixture in the wall¡­ (that I so graciously provided earlier, ¡®cuz I suck at describing things¡­) After that¡­ things were going dark and I think I can see my legs¡­ off by the far wall¡­ damn just how lucky am I¡­ Yawn¡­ I¡¯m getting sleepy, lets nap for a bit¡­
Tool POV Mannnn, that Grey kid is Dope as Fuck, he had the idea to be detach his arm and have a gear installed so it be attachen any arm¡­ Bolt and the crew were Hype and all pitched in tings here and there¡­ what I dun tink Grey realize is that he be the reason why we¡¯s still tryin¡¯. We is seen him goin in dat cave erry day and cumin tellin us it be cool to scavenge¡­ man I wish my balls were as big as his, maybe den dem chiks wud dig me¡­ shhh it be k Tool, like Pappy say there be many chicks in a brothel¡­ I hope he was right¡­ Hmmm¡­ the sun be startn to gos down, Grey normaly be back now, I hopes he k¡­ mybe hes be needin sum help like dat time wit de piller¡­ Ima round the guys up¡­
Chelsie POV (from Hah you dun fucked up¡­)
HAH you dun fucked up!!!
I had been watching him do all the work sending the required notifications his close call with I kept trying to get him to take responsibility for stealing my innocence¡­ w-w-with that¡­ but he keeps blocking me out¡­ too bad he was kinda cute¡­ WHAAAA- it was all dandy till he stumbled into the room with the guardian I tried to warn him but I got a massage saying that he had blocked notifications, I REALLY hope he is ok, we- I mean father doesn¡¯t know what would happen if he died in here¡­ honestly I don¡¯t think he can die unless someone destroys the motherboard¡­ at least I hope so¡­ he¡¯s grown on me like a parasite¡­
Grey POV Hmmm here I am, still a clockwork¡­ I checked¡­ I am floating in what appears to be a sea of binary coding¡­ well maybe someone spiked the oil, I know some got in my sensors¡­ Hah, don¡¯t think that¡¯s possible. Anyway time to see if I can somehow hack into this stream¡­ After some time¡­ OH GOD NO, NONONONONONONONONOOOOOOOO Nononononononononononononononoooooo NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Fuck, as soon as I entered the system due to my l33t skilz all the binary coding froze in place and an ominous and foreboding voice boomed a ¡°WHO DARES DISTURBE MY SLUMBER!?!?!?!¡± Fuck this cop out¡­ except I was halfway embedded in the non-budging sea of binary¡­ the next part caused the above reaction to occur again, the top of a massive head made out of the binary sea emerged. How I could tell it was a head was because of the massive nose the size of one of those redwood trees I¡¯ve heard about... The thing then proceeded to eye me literally, it¡¯s head sunk down so that one of the thing¡¯s eyes was level with me and it proceeded to say: ¡°SPEAK INSECT.¡± Heh, speak, I made all the gestures to where my mouth would be to indicate that I can¡¯t talk¡­ and then what happened next still baffles me¡­ I somehow ended up sitting in a chair with a cup of tea in my hand and a man in his early forties with brown, slightly graying hair, a face like that of the manly man meme, with a large handlebar mustache that covered his mouth. He seemed to barely fit in his late 17th century nobleman¡¯s clothes due to his muscular stature. He even had the pocket watch and the eyeglass¡­ and he then asks me ¡°What is your desire.¡± Now I ponder a bit¡­ and look at all my past experiences, with the bullying, the fact that my parents loved and cared for me but when they found out about the bullying and went to school it was met with the resistance of the principal who said ¡°It is the right of the strong to oppress the weak.¡± I shit you not he said that. Though after a few months the bullying stopped because at first it was great that their punching bag couldn¡¯t call for help but eventually when they started bullying others the lack of a scream no longer excited them¡­ Also the fact that the one person other than family that I tried to form a bond with cruelly beat me down, and a few more memories of me reaching out to people only to be brutally shot down¡­ I would have said ¡°I just want to be accepted.¡± All cool like¡­ if I could talk so I made a gesture of needing something to write and I see a stream of binary coding bend out of the table to give me a piece of A4 printer paper and a Ticeronda pencil, and I sketch out the words in a cool font it takes me 15 minutes to make this masterpiece, oh yes I do sketch in my free time, also helps when I make schematics and blueprints for the robotics club. I sketch I WANT TO BE ACCEPTED on the paper complete with my signature and everything. He smirks, then my vision all fades to black and my last though is ¡®not this shit again¡¯.
THERE TAKE ALL THESE WORDS ¡­.. time for some well-deserved sleep¡­ PwndHntr out... hopefully... I swear if the boss calls me at 4 in the morning again I WILL FLIP A TABLE! Not a chapter... its a rant Not a chapter... it''s a rant This is a rant about the recent review I had received for this story. Rather than inspired it''s more like plagiarized Posted date:05/11/15 Current date: 07/11/15 By (wanna see the name¡­ go to the story page it is right there for all to see)
Quote:"Style: It¡¯s lazy plain and simple. Author avoids explaining the technology used in the novel instead writing ¡°blah blah blah.¡± There¡¯s been almost as many polls as there are chapters. Yeah it¡¯s ¡°reader interactive,¡± but asking the readers where to take the novel every chapter is a little too interactive, and tells me that the author doesn¡¯t want to bother thinking about it. Nearly everything else about the story has been pulled from VRDraco¡¯s work. Story: Author says he/she was ¡°inspired¡± by VRDraco¡¯s story however it¡¯s more like plagerized than inspired. Mute MC? Check. Little sister? Check. Popular girl destroys MC¡¯s life? Check. Clockwork body? Check. Multi-tool? Check. Even the starting in the wasteland, and how they progress is almost identical. Some of these things may seem like petty similarities, but it¡¯s the little things that build up the depth of the novel, and here there are far, far too may little things that are identical to VRDraco¡¯s work. Having a mute MC is acceptable, so long as he¡¯s stays mute throughout the story. Otherwise that¡¯ll be another similarity. Everything up until the MC became a clockwork could have been different. The fact that it¡¯s almost the same as ¡°Clockwork¡± shows us more of the Author¡¯s laziness. When we actually get to the clockwork part we get more identical details like the muli-tool, the steam engine, corrupted data in their heads, and a broken body. What really did it here was that the Author used the same terms that VRDraco used. The Author couldn¡¯t even be bothered to try to find different terminology and rewrite the process in his or her own words. Also it¡¯s a little unbelievable that Grey has no friends. Yeah he¡¯s mute, but the level of discrimination you described in your story is a bit much considering the time we live in. Then there¡¯s the fact that his sister didn¡¯t know his name until she was five. What is this? Are you telling me his parents don¡¯t even call his name? You understand the difference between deaf and mute right? This detail right here is completely unbelievable especially since from what little you described of the MC¡¯s parent¡¯s they seemed to be average caring people, and this screams neglect. Grammer: Average for this site. Characters: Not much to say here since we¡¯ve barely seen anyone besides the MC. I will say that it appears he lives in a shitty community that severely looks down on those with disabilities. Unrealistic if you ask me. Besides that the MC seems like a cool guy. He¡¯s really the only thing original about this novel. The AI is the only other character to have any detail, and she¡¯s seems like an asshole. Really you¡¯d think that the first thing you¡¯d do to a severely injured teen after hooking him up to a VR machine is explain the situation, so he/she doesn¡¯t freak out. Instead it¡¯s like no one cares, and just let¡¯s the AI do whatever to the MC. Seriously what kind of hate filled community does he live in? There¡¯s also the part about him rebuilding his clockwork body healing his real body. Another process skimmed over by the author. Not that an explanation would help it make anymore sense. I get the feeling that the author was trying to copy ¡°Ark¡± where they use the VR for rehab treatment, but healing nerve damage and healing the body are two different things. Though the MC¡¯s injuries were never described it still wouldn¡¯t help heal his physical body any faster than modern medicine. My advice would be to rewrite this from scratch, and actually put some effort into it. If you are going to plagiarize at least try and be subtle about it."
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Alright, three chapters in and a review. The frequent polls are due to my lack of a direction to move the story in. At one point in time I had it mapped out but upon my father¡¯s death, in my grief and rage I threw out my story board. I am 18 working full time to support myself because my mother disowned me and crippled me and my father financially. Oh, but ¡°in the time we live in¡±, I took that bullied part right out of my life. Also to top it off, I only had a friend till he sold me out like I didn¡¯t even matter. I am treated like a human slave at my job, almost every IT guy is¡­ and honestly, even now when I come to this site, or whenever I see the words royal or road it brings tears to my eyes due to its relation to my dad. Oh ant to make things better, I don¡¯t even have a chance to go to college anymore because it was either be homeless or get a job¡­ which would you choose. OH and here is the best part: I¡¯M EVEN DENIED A PORTION OF MY INHERETANCE BY THE GOVERNMENT AND EVEN MORE IS TAKEN OUT FROW WHAT IS LEFT BECAUSE MY ¡°MOTHER¡± SUED TO GRAB HALF OF THE REMAINING MONEY! AND SHE WON! Yes, I have a similar start to VRDraco¡¯s Clockwork, but I didn¡¯t want it to be that in one or two chapters he is suddenly a machine god rivaling deus-ex-machina or something like that. I would rather have a slow and thought out progression rather than be worried about whether I am infringing on copyrights. I AM NO PROFESSIONAL WRITER! But even professional writers started somewhere, and honestly there are only a few differences to VRDraco¡¯s Clockwork BUT AGAIN there are only THREE chapters out in my story when this review was posted. One: He is the only ¡®player¡¯ also the VR pod is experimental, so it could possibly heal him and is hypothesized, just that Chelsey mistook it as he WOULD be. BUT YOU DON¡¯T KNOW THAT! Two: Mana tech, VRDraco is just delving into it, where as I start out with it. Did I make a giant reforming mana turret that was developed in one of VRDraco¡¯s recent chapters NO! Does he have a mana sword NO, oh but wait these are small details¡­ Three: The interactive AI Chelsey, is there an interactive AI in the Clockwork? NOPE! Four: Is the starting base essentially a dungeon holding unknown technology? VW: YES | Clockwork: NOPE! Now to characters. AGAIN three chapters are out, THREE, THREEEEEEEEEEEE CHAPTERS. So no there wouldn¡¯t be much in the department of characters¡­ and those that are there¡­ well in three chapters can I, a beginning writer, make a magnificent unicorn farting a rainbow type of character and have you believe it could work in the story¡­ NOPE! Oh, p.s. modern medicine¡­ they are 3D printing organs and skin that biologically sync to the recipient and they can print it down to the exact replica of the way the blood vessels grew which is, in fact, different in every human. Also about not explaining the technology in the story that isn¡¯t important at all, I am writing this story in what little spare time that I have. I don¡¯t have the time to do an extensive research on the technology that would be behind it. I am not intending to be lazy, I DON¡¯T HAVE THE TIME. Also about Gray¡¯s Sister calling his name. I hate to say it but what do you know about his family¡­ maybe there is more depth that would be revealed in the future. This is why I hate reviews or the fact you can do them 3 GODDAMN CHAPTERS INTO A STORY! Personally I don¡¯t review a work until it is finished to avoid this sort of thing from happening¡­ also helps to not piss the author off. I would like to be friends with you but clearly you judge a book before you are 4 chapters in, and honestly, I don¡¯t want that sort of a friend. CHAPTER 5 HAS ARRIVED!!! Chapter 5 Authors rant corner from IT hell¡­ So today was pretty chill, just people trying to get me to fix their personal phones and/or tablets. Man you should have seen their faces when I said I couldn¡¯t fix it! HAHAHAHAHAHA, then they were all ¡°aren¡¯t you IT, why can¡¯t you fix it?!?!¡± and I¡¯m all like ¡°it¡¯s not company property so I don¡¯t know how to fix it¡­ sorry¡± and THEY BELIEVED ME! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA Ahhhh, oh and big tits was one of the people trying to get me to fix things¡­ dude, she¡¯s like 5¡¯6 and has a rack¡­ man, she was the only one to not believe me and she was all ¡°what can I do to get you to fix my phone?¡± all cutsey like and laying her tits on my desk¡­ and I¡¯m all, ¡°you can (I REALLLY wanted to say: bite my shiny metal ass) go to the company you bought it from.¡± Then I spent the rest of the day updating softwares on the company computers and dicking around in Darksouls¡­and writing this chapter¡­ Today was a gud day.
Bolt POV I was doing an experiment on the mana crossbows and mana swords to see if I can get the bolt or blade to get an elemental charge on the bolt or blade. I figured that if I could get a mana crystal with the element then I could make some progress on my research. Then Tool opens the door to my workshop. He¡¯s got Hammer, Nail, and Scrap. He then procedes to tell me: ¡°Yo, Bolt, my man grey bees late in cumin ups, wees be needen te go afters him.¡± Bolt: ¡°I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t understand what you said, could you please repeat what you said.¡± Tool: ¡°I¡¯s be say¡¯n: wes be-¡± Scrap interrupts: ¡°Sir Bolt I do so hope that you would give us the honor of your company in our quest to find our friend Grey.¡± Bolt: ¡°oh, We need to find Grey, why didn¡¯t you say so?¡± Tool: ¡°That bees what I¡¯s tryin to say!¡± Both Hammer and Nail are chuckling at our conversation. We proceed to enter the cave, we have the extra maps that Grey made in case we needed to go and find him. We get down to the last floor in 5 minutes because we¡¯re running and the fact that there are no more traps. When we get down to the last floor, we see all the wreckage of four-legged clockworks, most suffer from bolt wounds from a mana crossbow while the others are bisected. During our inspection we hear a loud BOOM. The group looks at each other and we rush to where the sound came from. When we get there most of the room is black from the blast. I see what looks like a larger version of the other clockwork down here except that the leg is as tall as I am¡­ Tool calls out: ¡°I¡¯s be sein sumpten in de bak dere.¡± While he points to an oddly pristine fixture and it looks like a blackened torso with a head on it¡­ Scrap runs up and confirms my fear. It¡¯s Grey. Scrap then says: ¡°Everyone, his motherboard is intact, he just needs a new body.¡± I hear a whistle coming from the engines of everyone as we all sigh in relief. We dismantle the Giant and drag Grey back to the base. Scrap also collects the dead bodies of the miniature clockwork. When we get back to the base we immediately start work on grey¡¯s new body. Tool wad uncovered a schematic from the place with the smelter, and wanted to surprise Grey, Heh, just like Tool. So we all start working on it. Hammer and Nail build the skeleton, Scrap oversees the quality of the goods, I wire, and Tool puts it all together. The problem is that the place where the motherboard would go doesn¡¯t exist. When we look over the schematics it references something called an ¡®artificial brain¡¯¡­ what is a brain¡­ If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. I assume it is similar to a motherboard and that the Citadel we are camped above probably has the schematics somewhere¡­ I, along with the others begin combing the Citadel for anything and everything. Although one of us stays behind to watch over Grey. Sense we all want to help Grey we start a cycle of who watches over Grey. However Scrap is exempt because we need his scavenging skills. After a few weeks of no luck and Grey drifting in and out of consciousness. I honestly wish we could transfer him to a new body but Tool kind of dismantled every single one of the bodies we recovered from the Citadel. Well, we are all at fault because we used all the metal that we got from melting them down for our own personal projects. Mine is a larger Hub. Tool¡¯s project is a more efficient tool-gear along with making the smelter run on mana instead of oil, this one is a joint project between me and him. Hammer and Nail are working on building a wall around us. While Scrap is making a¡­ inhale¡­ exhale¡­ inhale¡­ exhale¡­ a *sound of steam output increasing* a BLASTING CANE¡­ I will admit it is an epic cane. He even completed his set with the top hat, monocle, and pocket watch. Yes he made them all. I refuse to publicly admit that I want them but, I want them¡­ After another week of no luck I leaned against a wall in the factory district on the 14th floor. I heard a click and then I fell over on my back. AHA SECRET PASSAGE! I send a massage to everyone through the mini-hub I built. Soon all but Hammer is here because he needs to watch over Grey. We all enter Nail is in front with me. We both have a large slab of metal that could be classified as a shield and a mana sword. Tool and Scrap are equipped with a siege version of the mana crossbow we developed three days ago. The siege crossbow requires them to set up the tripod on the front and fire. Unlike the mana crossbow which fires instantly the Siege version requires a five second charge up time. Anyways we enter prepared for the worst. We continue along the unlit corridor. Clockwork don¡¯t really need light to see per say because we have an infrared, ultraviolet, and gamma ray light sensor we can switch to either manually or automatically. In fact this entire Citadel lacks any sort of light. During the war this gave us an advantage because the enemy needed light to see except the beast men and lizard men but they didn¡¯t participate which was a good thing too otherwise the ambush tactics we used wouldn¡¯t have worked. Back to topic, we reached what looks like a study and while Nail and I guard the entrance, Tool and Scrap gather everything in the room. We then make a quick getaway. Sadly there was no schematic on the artificial brain. BUT there were schematics referencing it. Now that we know that there are hidden rooms, a new fire of hope is ignited inside the group.
AN: Cuz I had the time to write this in my boredom at my job¡­ With much love for you guys, except the trolls¡­ you have a special place in *cough* hell *cough*¡­ now gunna watch sum Game of Thrones Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Bolt POV After three days and 35 hidden rooms later, we found a schematic on the artificial brain. How we identified the schematic was through the illustration of a brain and a similar one next to it. A few days ago we found the remains of a hub in one of the hidden rooms. The hub had all sorts of information, like the purpose of the Citadel, blueprints for airships, all the way to tutorials on how to build. The most important part was a model of an actual brain and a description of what it does. With the help of Tool we built the skeletal structure of the artificial brain, the skeleton was basically the spine made out of metal and six curved ribs of metal at the top of the spine with slots on the inside each to hold a memory drive. ( courtesy of me and the internet not having a similar image) Now it was my job, I wired the entire thing, and added the mana crystal socket that Tool built separately in the center. I continued following the blueprints, adding 5 high-end processors, 3 CPUs, 1800 jacks along the spine, HDMI jacks where the optic nerves would connect to, 4 graphics cards, but before I finished by placing the mana crystal in the socket in the center, I transferred all of Grey¡¯s data to the artificial brain. Then I added the mana crystal. The blueprint says nothing after I add the mana crystal however, it does indicate that there should be a reaction of some sort¡­ I wait for 3 hours but nothing has happened and I start worrying. A LOT. I leave my workshop and wonder around pondering what could I have done wrong. The guys come up and ask how the brain is going. I reply ¡°I don¡¯t know what is wrong. I followed the directions and nothing is happening¡­¡± We group up and talk for a while when I hear a rumbling. I dismiss it as a tremor, they do happen on occasion. But when I hear some clanging from my workshop I get worried and run over. The guys follow me and what we see startles us. The ¡®brain¡¯ part was been encased by the mana crystal and along the spine, in the gaps between the metal vertebrae are this soft looking jelly-like material. I look over the blueprint and sure enough it matches the drawing of the finished product along with the arrows pointing to places describing what it should look like. Tool and I shout ¡°SUCCESS!!!¡± Tool then grabs Grey¡¯s brain and heads over to his workshop. The rest follow behind. Grey¡¯s new body is hunched over and currently has the spinal column missing along with the back of the head being open. Tool carefully inserts the brain and I see the panel of the head slide down (like a motorcyclist¡¯s visor going down) and the segments along the border to where the spinal column is located close up so that the spine is no longer exposed ( p.s. the dots are screws¡­ image courtesy of me and the internet not having a similar image AGAIN!!!) I anxiously await along with the others for Grey to return to the land of the living. After what seems like forever and a multitude of snapping and clicking which I hope are the cables being connected to the spine¡­ I really hope that that is the case¡­ Steam starts to be emitted from the vents and pipes along the back. The body moves around doing what seems to be a calibration routine and turns around. The body looks like a steampunk knight (). The eyes seem to get slightly brighter as the consciousness of Grey seems to return. Then after a few moments we all get a message from Grey.
Was sup guys? What did I miss?
We cheer and literally carry Grey out and show him the improvements to the base. Hammer and Nail finished the wall around the outpost we set up. They also added a total 5 mana ballistae along the wall to fend off the beasties that could be out there, we hadn¡¯t seen any yet¡­ better safe than sorry¡­ Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. I finished the larger hub thanks to the help of Hammer and Nail dragging the broken one that we found. Tool is still working on a better tool-gear but has made significant progress due to a few blueprints we found. Hammer and Nail also are closed to finishing a casting plant, which builds the body and installs the motherboard as well. Soon we will have fresh scrap¡­ Hehehehehehehehe¡­
Grey POV Slowly my senses are restored starting from touch, then hearing, then smell, and finally sight. I am greeted with the monotone faces of Tool, Bolt, Hammer, Nail, and Scrap. They seem to be waiting for something¡­ might as well humor them¡­
Was sup guys? What did I miss?
Unexpectedly they cheered and carried me around showing me all the things they accomplished in my absence. Hmmm I should have gotten a notification¡­ OH I DISABLED THEM! That¡¯s right¡­ enable notifications.
HEY GREY! HEY YOU¡¯RE GOING INTO THE BOSS ROOM!!! HEEEEEYYYY
There were a few other text based ones, others were notifications of gaining blueprints, but the most recent three were the most shocking.
Gained leadership stat base is 10 gained 10 leadership due to actions of companions
Quest: Restoration (Race Quest) Restore the Citadel to its former glory! Restriction: leadership stat Reward: title, ???, ???
Quest: Legacy (???) ???, you have a body and brain that were a prototype and underdeveloped, ??? Restriction: ??? Reward: ???, ???, ???, ???
Huh, I can understand the first quest but the last one¡­ that one is weird¡­ maybe it is due to my lack of information¡­ hmmmm¡­ need to find out more on that quest. Well now my stats look like:
STATS
NameGray
TitleExplorern/an/a
Combat Potential40
Durability400/400Mana50/50
Leadership20AfinityMechanic/Leader
Integrity76%Fuel Level100%
Water Level89%Battery Power100%
ResistanceSlashing: 15/20 Earth Magic: 15/20 Air Magic: 15/20WeaknessFire: 10 Ice: 10 Lightning: 10
ImmunityMind: ¡Þ, Curse: ¡Þ, Body: ¡Þ, Magic: 5
----
Traits
Adaptive: Able to forage/dismantle things faster and learn things 1.25 times faster
Technological Construct: immune to most magic, weak to Ice, fire, and lightning. Cannot use magic (Lacks system currently) , can replace parts and upgrade body
Unique: +2 to luck
Mute: cannot use any vocal communications
Tinker: (hidden)
Yo, Author here, instead of a small rant about my job I made a story about it¡­ also to help develop my lack of ability to describe things. Also to help gear my mind to writing. Next chapter will be the outside life chapter gunna take a brake SOOOOO my boss decided to buy new servers for wing A of our building. But instead of hiring a company to wire them up he said that I, the IT guy, should do it... I replied that i would need the power to be cut in the wing but he said that would inconvenience the other workers... well, being a google certified electrician for an hour, i messed up and got second degree burns on my hands and fingers... (got a buddy to type this) soooo, i sued the company for endangering my health and now have the funds for 4 years of community collage. YAY! i''ll be taking software classes and a creative writing class. WISH ME LUCK!!! p.s. i quit the job before i could be fired for a bogus reason... Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. edit: don''t know how long it will take to heal Dr. said it would take atleast a month soooo i propose that for every chapter i miss, i will post an extra in addition to the chapters i miss!!! so basically expect a 8 chapter bulk release minimum... Going thru rehab My burn scars make it hard to type, will type up chapters but will be slow. This month was hell... couldn''t wipe my ass when i took a shit... It was terrible... ANYWAYS, i have a hot rehab nurse spend time massaging my hands with lotion ;P The rehab peeps recommend only typing for 3 hours max a day to slowly ''break-in'' my scars! chapter will be out by tomorrow! if my hands don''t cramp up again... The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Edit: I owe 8 chapters? yes 8 chapters... Chapter 7 Part 1 Chapter 7 Part 1 My hands hurt T.T all for you guys tho Try to get chapter out tomorrow¡­ if I can¡¯t expect a double release the day after¡­ k? K. also see AN at bottom please... enjoy! ^u^
World buildn¡¯ like a baus Narratin¡¯ like a baus The media was going crazy. Virtual Reality had been out for ten years approximately, games have come in fast but failed to meet up to the hype train¡¯s demands. Those games were quickly abandoned. This was mainly due to faulty advertising about how realistic the environment was. Even if the game boasted 30% realism, it wasn¡¯t enough. Many programmers and game designers fell into bad health due to the struggle it was to map electric impulses in the brain and code a game to stimulate those things. The underground organizations were making massive advances in this field though. Mainly because they succeeded in making an immortal. Albeit it was a brain in a jar type of thing. Now they had that brain hooked up to many other questionable devices and gathered a wide variety of data. Now this brain hated the Organization and eventually destroyed them. After that the Brain named itself John made an artificial body and founded a company. This company went on to develop Eridos: the Ruined Realm. A game featuring nearly 78% realism. Which was an unheard of amount of realism. Today marks the beginning of the games alpha testing. Many people applied for the alpha test, but all were turned down. In an interview the lead developer and company president, John, stated that the game has many risks that could potentially make players brain-dead and/or stuck in the game. Thus he developed a limited A.I. to manage the alpha testing. After 3 years of Alpha testing did the game finally go into beta testing. Again many applicants applied and a shocking two thousand were accepted, two players for every race. Three days after the official beta launch and the players were just developing their skills, John is contacted by one of his sponsors. The Raider family reported that one of their son¡¯s was in a critical condition with little hope of recovering so they wanted to ¡®dispose¡¯ of him via means of the game. John had no choice but to accept. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. John harbors an immense hatred to those who use other people as chess pieces much like in this case. John immediately starts to develop a prototype VR pod that could hypothetically heal Grey Raider. The problem that John truly has is that Grey has multiple brain hemorrhages. They are small but will have a significant effect on his memories, personality, and other things still unknown to humans and even to John. John is further worried that the electrical and chemical stimulation to Grey may also further damage Grey¡¯s brain. However there is nothing he can do about it currently. To top it off the Raider family also stopped paying Grey¡¯s medical bills so John was forced to put Grey in the pod. John is secretly collecting blackmail against the Raider family but the problem is the tight security that they posess, both physical and code wise. Sadly John can do nothing but grit his teeth and hope Grey will be ok. He further asks his A.I. that he developed to fix and monitor the game to keep an eye on Grey. Sighing John leans back in his chair and contemplates his next move¡­
End of first half¡­ my hands REALLY hurt and due to the fact I am on a less addictive but also less effective derivative of morphine I am really sleepy¡­ will past the other half later Also¡­ for John¡¯s sake how do you do the spoiler tab thing¡­ the code would be nice¡­ or a link to it would be¡­ PwndHntr now shal be sleeping with the blankets tucked in tight Chapter 7 part 2 Chapter 7 part 2 Sorry, couldn¡¯t get this out yesterday, had to soak hands in warm water to soften skin and take pain meds¡­ no more master baiting for me¡­ sigh¡­
Grey pov So putting the weird quest on a side note, I asked and received the schematics for the mana ballista, and downloaded the schematics for my brain and body. Many minutes later~ I find myself tinkering on a prototype gun of sorts. The gun has a sleek black frame with tribal neon blue designs on it. Basically it works similar to the mana crossbows, but instead it condenses ambient mana into a mana crystal which is serving as a battery of sorts. Shape: Spoiler : So far it fires these mana spikes that, unlike the crossbow, stick to a target draining the mana in them to fuel itself. It took a long time (13 min) to stumble upon accidentally when playing around in the creation of mana crossbows. When I finished the prototype a ding and sudden blue window alerted me of what I had just done¡­
CONGRATULATIONS DICK HEAD! You just invented something. Insert the name you desire it to be called: ________________ Sincerely FUCK YOU! On another side note. Please stop ignoring me¡­ T^T
I tap on the underscores and type in Needle rifle as a credit to a well-known game called Ha*o. I, being the gentleman I am continue my research on the magical formations that go into programming the mana to do the things you want it to do. FIRST, you have to grind up a mana crystal and add some water. This produces a sticky substance with which you can make mana circuits. Currently we are using an improvised metal quill to draw the circuits in¡­ it is a tiresome and tedious job¡­ BUT the benefits are AMAZING~. Anyways I scan the new prototype in my hands and I get a popup on my H.U.D. display.
Needle Rifle (prototype)
Mana20/20 Regen: 1 mana a sec
Damage20-25 penetrating 5 mana/sec for 10 sec
Description
Made by Chelsie¡¯s tormentor, Grey, as a punishment for being annoying. He stumbled upon the mana circuit to keep the mana ''needle'' (more like stake) in a tangible form for a while. This weapon is the bane of anything magical. Wielding this weapon in a magical beings presence may incite its wrath... if they know what it does. It can fire mana ''needles'' for as fast as you can pull the trigger This weapon is simply a prototype... Description curtesy of the Big Daddy up in the sky
Oh I also got a title from developing this
Mana Mechanic Effect: +5% to quality of devices that you make that use mana
That was fun¡­ stats Spoiler :
STATS
NameGray
TitleExplorerMana Mechanicn/a
Combat Potential40 (62 with Needle Rifle Prototype)
Durability400/400Mana50/50
Leadership20AfinityMechanic/Leader
Integrity76%Fuel Level100%
Water Level89%Battery Power100%
ResistanceSlashing: 15/20 If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.Earth Magic: 15/20 Air Magic: 15/20WeaknessFire: 10 Ice: 10 Lightning: 10
ImmunityMind: ¡Þ, Curse: ¡Þ, Body: ¡Þ, Magic: 5
----
Traits
Adaptive: Able to forage/dismantle things faster and learn things 1.25 times faster
Technological Construct: immune to most magic, weak to Ice, fire, and lightning. Can use magic (system currently offline) , can replace parts and upgrade body
Unique: +2 to luck
Mute: cannot use any vocal communications
Tinker: (hidden)
Mana Mechanic: +5% to quality of devices that you make that use mana
Skills Spoiler :
Skills
L33t H4x0r (Unique) MAX Highly knowledgeable in coding, able to program very well 30% increase in quality when coding and hacking
----
Crafting (Fused Skill) Intermediate 7 (4050/10,000) Able to do wood working and metalworking (possibility to fuse again) 10% bonus when working with woods and metals
----
Way with Thoughts? (GODLY) ??? Able to use your thoughts to tease my (cough) daughter (cough) into making cute reactions. Keep up the good work!
----
Tinker (Race Skill) Basic 2 (253/1000) You¡¯re able to create new things 2% increase in possibility in creating things that don¡¯t exist in this world¡­
----
Scanner (Race Skill) Max Able to detect inorganic things that you need *able to identify components and other things that have been dismantled
----
Repair (common) Basic 3 (981/1000) Able to repair things¡­ 2.5% increase in quality of repair and 2.5% less chance to degrade material¡¯s durability permanently.
----
Hide thoughts (Uncommon) Basic 5 (487/1000) Able to hide your thoughts from foreign entities (YOUR WELCOME ¨C god-san)
----
Dismantle (common) Beginner 7 (46/100) Able to take things apart to learn structure. 15% chance of keeping parts intact
----
Scavenge (common) Basic 3 (305/1000) Able to gather usable goods 5% chance of improving quality of material
----
Mana coding (uncommon) Beginner 4 (32/100) Able to understand and create a circuit that produces specific effects to appear in the mana that forms due to said formation 5% chance to randomly make a new affect.
----
sorry it was so short... i can only type 3 hours at a time and my typing speed is close to 30 words a minute.. BUT it is better than yesterday''s 24 words a minute!!! problems there are some problems developing because i am doing too much typing and not enough finger stretching and other stuff, so there will be a slight delay in releases. i need to stretch my fingers in a 2:1 hour ratio, so every hour i am using my fingers i need to stretch fingers for 2 hours to loosen the muscles and nerves that were damaged when they were burnt... also i am starting to develop trembling in my hands due to them not being stronk (muscles are still weak as fuck). Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Now the dr says that i should only do an hour of finger exercise and that i was overzealous :P i will post when i have a finished chapter... BUT i have been making outlines for the chapters in the meantime (during the one hour) so expect bulk releases. see you guys soon ^^ and fuck my ex-boss... giving me this trouble... restarting this Hey yall, been a while, I know. Recovery finished a long time ago but I didn''t really have the heart to come back to this. Don''t really remember the reason now but I feel like I should finish this so... yeah. I''m going to go back through and re-read this, probably change a few things (minor details and stuff) My situation has gotten much better. I finally got into a four year institution, so I figured I''d start to finish off some old daemons haunting me "> so i''ll most likely be putting out one-two chapter a week (depending on poll results) or so with bonus chapters coming out whenever I exeed like 5 or so ''saftey net'' chapters that I''m totally going to be holding back for any unforseen circumstances... right? I did have some chapters I managed to salvage from my old, old laptop but they don''t really fit where I want the story to go so I''m probably not going to release them. They kinda took a turn down a dark path to say the least...Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. All in all, it''ll probably start releasing chapters after I get those 5 safety net chapters built up. Which may take 1-2 weeks depending on how classes treat me. Also I think i''m gunna prolly change the skills and stuff cuz i feel like it''s kinda wrong to start out with that much power, also maybe because it''s sorta embarasing that I maybe made him have that stuff because I felt helpless at the time, BUT that''s besides the point... I kinda want to see Gray struggle through things and it''s easier to do when he isn''t OP. I''m probably gunna be keeping all existing characters, just going to be doing changes here and there and a complete revamps of chapter one and maybe two. I would like to appologize to the guy I called out to that gave me a poor review, I lashed out at them and treated the situation childishly by saying "oh woe is me, look at all the problem I have how dare you critisize me" when he did give me solid feedback, I wasn''t really thinking of where I wanted this story to go and I should be more clear on some terminology to help give a better story. If there is anything you want me to clarify just comment or send a pm or if there are things you want me to add to the story or keep in the story (not that there was much there *chuckle*) also I am enjoying the new table feature glad to get this off my chest Prologue Redone VW Prologue Re-done Grey had a little while to ponder, floating in the inky blackness that currently surrounded him. How did everything get to this point? Truthfully, he didn¡¯t know. Every time he recalled it, or the series of events that led here they would slip through his hands. He recalled most things in his like fine. He was a mute, couldn¡¯t speak, never developed vocal chords when he was swimming in the womb. Add to the fact that he had the unfortunate timing to be born before the industrialization of growing genetically compatible replacement organs and etcetera that occurred in his high school years or the unfortunate reality of his parents being too poor to afford the then expensive, thus out of reach, but now situationally dirt cheap ¡®skull jack¡¯ as everyone now refers to them as. It is literally a metallic jack installed at the base of the skull spearing just above the brainstem, apparently in some beta trial when they hooked right into the brainstem some asshat decided he wanted to fiddle around with the coding in the jack and give himself god like reflexes and an increased mental acuity. Well the fool may have accidently stopped his heart, fatally ending his dreams of becoming a pro in Crucible of Ancients, a game that somehow managed to be popular for 80 solid years after it was first launched, at least it was still popular before whatever had happened, happened. The skull jack remained expensive for at least 20 years before the Jerian government discovered how useful it is as a tool of learning and made it mandatory for anyone to attend high school with one and that for anyone between the ages 12-18 the government would foot 80% of the procedure to have it installed. Besides that, was a recent thing, like last 10 years sort of deal. It wasn¡¯t like installing a skull jack wouldn¡¯t have been immensely expensive anyways, what with a growing body anyways. Why has this been mentioned then? Well funny you should ask, because shortly after it was released to the public, that same company released a Virtual Reality helmet to accompany it. Lo and behold it was a huuuuuge hit¡­ Why is this even mentioned as a solution to his specific problem, well if he used it and made an avatar in any of the plethora of games to follow. Well, Grey would have developed the neural pathways to use vocal chords when growing up. Now, sadly, it was a tad to late for him to learn without immense difficulty, not that he¡¯d have much of a chance now he figured. Well enough of the pity party he supposed. May as well review what he¡¯d gone through in his life to see if he still remembered everything hoping that nothing in his head was tampered with. What? Tampered with you ask, me. Well, other me, when the good ole ¡®jack came out some maliciously devious people thought it was a brilliant decision to tamper with people¡¯s heads especially because you could literally download anything you wanted into your head including computer viruses. At first it was harmless, searching out all your security info and whenever you¡¯d jack back into anything connected to the internet I¡¯d send everything I¡¯d gathered to the one who made the virus. But then people got fucked up and started tampering with personalities of people. Bitchy boss turned into submissive slave the next. As things had gotten waaaaayyyy to far out of hand the government got involved, the punishment for any sort of program that: indentured servitude in combating what they had done to others via programs like their own. Thankfully the government reacted fast enough that most of the creators of such code didn¡¯t even entertain the thought that such a code would be used against them. Even if they did though it didn¡¯t last long against government efforts. Thankfully most of those victimized by such programs weren¡¯t permanently changed, the programs behaved separately from the actual person¡¯s thought process. Most? Well a few of those offenders were too smart for their own good and found a way to permanently alter someone¡¯s personality over time, much like how one would go about training a dog. Most attempts were stopped before any permanent changes were made but some victims had to go through rehabilitation to fully recover from the changes wrought upon them. Distracting himself from the intricacies behind the history of the skull jack, Grey thought about what happened to him starting from what his parents told him. When Grey had been born he behaved very similar to a normal baby, looking around and being curious, that was up until the umbilical chord was cut. Then his face had morphed into a pained wail but lacking the most important part, the wail. This was a cause for serious concern to both his parents, the nurses in the room, and the doctor because this indicated a lack of a babies most important communication tool, it¡¯s voice. The first few years of raising Grey were especially tough on his parents. Grey¡¯s father worked himself to the bone to look for a cure for Grey¡¯s inability to speak, only to be told to see one specialist after another. Losing most of his hard-earned savings only to find out it was all in vain. His son simply lacked vocal chords and there was no solution in reach with the meagre amount of money he had left after a few years of searching. While Grey¡¯s mother exhausted herself in trying to keep Grey content, which is saying a lot because Grey couldn¡¯t signal to his mother that he wanted something. While later he found his own unique way of communication which may have involved throwing foam blocks at his parents, at least before he learned sign language. After that relatively was smooth sailing the only problem that cropped up was when Grey first went to preschool. He had trouble fitting in and communicating especially with his classmates, for no one understood sign language. Which, sadly, led to his exclusion from games the other kids played. Not to mention what the other kids said about the gestures he made whilst trying to communicate. These small things added up and after the first week of attendance Grey no longer wanted to go, which a few weeks after that led to his withdrawal from the preschool and his introduction to homeschooling.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Grey¡¯s mother had to quit her job, so she could homeschool Grey which in the long run ended up leading to a decline in the family¡¯s standard of living and while they weren¡¯t poor per say, they ended up not very far from it. He received a decent primary and middle school education because for whatever reason the only way to get into the door to get an interview for a job one had to have a doctorate degree in an applicable subject. Mainly because he had parents that had a skull jack that they got during the special period when the government decided to sponsor 80% of the costs for anyone who was in college and wanted to have one installed, when they luckily, happened to be in their sophomore year of college. This event happened seven years before I was born, when the government just announced its ¡®sponsorship¡¯ to those in between the ages 12-18. Luckily my parents could afford to pay the 20% required for me to have a jack installed when I was 12, leading me to be somewhat adept in using the jack and its associated software. Not to mention how the jack affected the time one spent in college aside from the mandatory four years of high school, the average time in college somewhere from 2-3 years add 1-2 for continuing to a masters and a further 2-3 for the doctorate. Sidetracking a little to clarify a few things about the government¡¯s importance on education. Teaching is a very respected position, especially for high school and college. The minimum requirements to be a high school teacher are three doctorates in relevant subjects (i.e. a biology teacher might have a doctorate in General Biology, Human anatomy, and botany or something along those lines) and in most cases the more the better, not to mention job experience. Doesn¡¯t really help that teachers are also paid a generous wage of 200-300 thousandCredits (monetary comparison: 1 dollar = 1 Credit) a year. Highschool is a government institution, one school per city/town/village size generally depends on the local population. Going back to Grey, when he was being taught by his mom he showed a general interest in code, working with both metal and wood, and reading. This became somewhat useful when he went into high school as it gave him a few ¡®workshops¡¯ (school clubs) to choose from. But the important thing to mention about his high school experience was that he was mostly ignored besides a few teachers because of mainly two things: 1, not many his age knew sign language and 2, no one was patient enough to wait for him to write a response. What? An overlay feature that most of the other students had on a visor? Well, sadly Grey¡¯s parents couldn¡¯t afford it and didn¡¯t want to take out a loan or increase the mortgage on their house as it wasn¡¯t truly necessary for school that and the fact that visors were half what a teacher earns a month truly didn¡¯t help. Thus, leading to Grey having no friends. The only occasional interaction he would have were classmates he would have to do a group project on. Grey pauses his recollection for a bit as some of the earlier things he remembered were getting fuzzy, this was worrying, especially as he was having trouble remembering the face of both his father and mother, there may have also been a sibling but that was all he could remember at this point. When suddenly a blue box popped up in front of him.
Hello and Welcome, G%$R&^E*&Y You are now being %$*#&^W#^ Have fun!
huh, thought Grey, that''s totaly not ominous at all... not at all... Then with a loud pop Grey vanished.