Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

Chapter Eighteen

…Baby One More Time

Day 5 3:02 PM

9:22:44 remaining

As he made his way to the training facility, Gus asked Nick for more details about it.

“The training facility offers training in multiple styles of physical attack skills. At level one, it comes with a standard complement of the most basic weapons, and has ten levels of upgradeability. Each level allows the holo-instructors to illustrate more techniques and foe-bots to become more adaptable and work as coordinated units, with ever increasing sentience and battle savvy,” Nick explained.

“That’s exactly what I need. Hopefully, if I can take the basic weapons out of there, it may kill two birds with one stone.” Gus mused, thinking about his weapon troubles in his last battle.

“Since weapons frequently break during training, there is a considerable stock of them in the facility. However, no additional weapons can be made until you unlock the Foundry. This allows raw ore from storage to be fashioned into new weapons. Should you choose to learn virtual smithing skills, you can directly impact the formation of the weapons produced,” Nick explained.

“Virtual smithing? Is that something I unlock or a skill I obtain?”

“It can be both, but unlocking it will allow you to obtain the skill by using the interface provided by the manor. It is a form of influencing the structure of the weapons made on a molecular level. Impurities can be virtually seen and removed, matrices applied to strengthen the core of weapons, dimensional effects made to raise or lower density. There are many uses when the full abilities are leveled and unlocked. Occasionally, you may have an epiphany and create a new blueprint, based on your unique application of skills and powers.

“These provide special bonuses tailored to the creator, and are one reason that crafting is very valuable in terms of leveling faster. Unfortunately, you haven’t created enough items to gain a crafting skill that can be improved and leveled, thus offering XP. Some supers specialize in that; you just have to decide how you want to grow your skills.”

“On the one hand, that’s awesome, but everything being locked is exasperating. It makes no sense! Why make something as amazing as the manor, and then limit how you can use it?” Gus huffed, clenching a fist at his side.

“There are many reasons. First, some facilities require skills that are not obtained until one is trained and adept. Even if unlocked early, they cannot be used by anyone with a lower level that lacks these skills. This forces a certain focus and planning as one grows. It results in a more comprehensive use of each specialization, as well as preventing dabbling in so many potential facilities that none are used to their full potential. Supers and Nth level and evolve much more quickly this way, based on centuries of trial and evaluation.

“Another reason relates to how skills advance in high level supers. One of the trade-offs that happens when a super attains higher levels is that to maintain their powers, the Nth must evolve more and more to maintain homeostasis. If a super decides to retire and relax, he will actually have powers become dormant and lose the ability to utilize them.”

“My grandpa is retired, so you’re saying that he is losing or has lost his super abilities?”

“Definitely. Even if he uses them occasionally, the atrophy penalty for lack of use is significant for hosts. Many choose to gift their abilities to an heir at some point. If a host dies without transferring their Nth, they either seek a suitable host nearby or return to the collective until a new host is determined by the quantum server and integrated.

“This is generally unknown by regs, and is intended to be a motivator for constant improvement. XP is primarily earned through fulfilling quests, crafting, engineering, and battle. The first three are service-based and the latter generally is not. As power increases, many of the human supers shift away from quests and creating new things for the benefit of humankind. The result is a tendency for conflict as a means of providing a way to level when one does not wish to serve. All high-powered supers manage a lair, base, or manor like this one, to complement their powers and push them to higher levels,” Nick said.

Gus contemplated all the time his father had been at work, and the resentment he felt at times that he never seemed to have time for his family. Tempest wasn’t just a high-powered super, but he was in the Purple Faction’s governing leadership—which probably involved a lot of additional requirements, based on what he had just learned, to simply maintain his powers. Maybe that was giving him too much credit though. It still burned him that he valued his power level over his family. The times he was at home somehow weren’t that one-on-one. He did look pretty exhausted a lot of the time, however… Gus shoved the old argument back into a corner of his mind reserved for emotional baggage that he didn’t want to deal with.

He felt amped and agitated, old emotions stirred up from thinking about his father. Maybe knocking some robots around would be a good release.

“Currently, only the training facility is active. The manor has two-thousand remaining power units available for future expansions. One of the things we should plan for is increasing the manors’ power generation abilities,” Nick suggested.

“Put it on the list…” Gus sighed as he stepped purposefully toward the elevator. The trip down the elevator took longer than expected, the training facility being farther underground than many parts of the manor. Stepping into a multi-tiered room, Gus took in the amenities. There appeared to be exercise equipment along the outer top tiers. Padded mats and sparring areas formed another tier. Racks of weapons lined the third tier, along with humanoid robots who stood as still as sentinels over the large arena that formed the bottom central section of the facility.

Reaching the edge of the arena, Nick directed Gus to