Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

Gus became silent, pursing his lips as he thought about the implications. He reached the end of the path and took the spear he had left there. He immediately felt better as he left the jungle and climbed the small incline to the manor. His mind wouldn’t let him rest too much, however. If zombies are real, what else is real? Gus stopped walking, recalling something.

“You didn’t really answer how powers work,” Gus realized, wondering if Nick was sidestepping the question.

“I was getting to that. Take flying for instance, have you wondered how a super propels themselves through the air? There are no emissions coming from the supers’ feet. They do not alter gravity with subatomic particles—your past employer being an exception. So how do they move? All the powers function on science, but many concepts are millennia away from being understood and manipulated by humans unassisted by Nth.”

“I hadn’t really thought about it, I guess,” Gus admitted, beginning to walk again.

“One fundamental property that most powers of different classes use involves dimensional manipulation. The effects that many powers exhibit, especially those with a strength, agility, or constitution basis, are facilitated with matter that regs do not even know exists, for the most part.”

Gus squinted his eyes, listening intently despite Nick speaking only in his mind. He felt he was about to hear a long-kept secret.

“This may be hard to grasp, but imagine that any volume of space is filled with hanging sheets of fine nets within. The nets are made of a different type of matter than the human mind can perceive. Just as the human eye only sees a small slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, matter also varies in different fundamental ways along a spectrum. This is why you have not discovered a unified theory to explain everything—you try to explain the entirety of reality using only what you can measure. Most theories fall apart when dealing with very small or very large objects, where the limits of perception are reached.

“These nets comprise the entire universe, and fill its volume like fluid fills a container. In the case of a flyer, they have developed the ability to secure themselves to this matter, which we call ether, and propel themselves through it, as a swimmer moves through water. The ability is largely controlled by the subconscious and mastered by trial and error. They often use a focus, like pointing their arms forward as they swim through the air.”

“That is making my brain hurt,” Gus said while squinting, struggling to understand. “Give me some time to process this and we’ll talk about it more.” Gus had that feeling like when he was trying to learn math; his brain just seized up and it was hard to force it to absorb anything more. Maybe points in intelligence would help?

“As you wish.”

Gus continued to ponder what he had learned as he entered the manor and walked in silence to his room. His mind wandered to his guitar. Through his life, Gus had been able to relieve his stress through music. Gus longed to have his guitar that was lost on board Graviton’s station. It was nothing fancy, but it was something he doubted he could craft. He was about to ask about that, but Nick beat Gus to it.

“Sorry, there are no musical instruments in the manor.”

Gus frowned, but realized it was probably for the best not to get distracted. He remembered the isolation of Graviton’s station, which offered a different type of down time due to the radio silence. The crowded nature of henchmen accommodations had forced Gus to wear wireless headphones while playing guitar. He was pretty good, but not everyone was a music aficionado. If he ever made it back to civilization, he’d get a really nice one. He’d probably be able to play much better now that he had Nth assistance. He smiled as he imagined his fingers flitting across the fretboard with huge agility stats.

“Gus, I have an alert of which you should be aware…” Nick reported urgently.

“What’s up?”

“A number of changes have occurred in the power grid that supplies the manor after you took possession. The manor followed some automated protocols and reallocated available energy stores to make the control center functional. This diverted perimeter defenses all around the island, and other barriers that appear to have maintained the magma in stasis, keeping the volcano dormant. The considerable energy required to maintain the bio-stasis field is interfering with energy distribution. Without these barriers, the magma is now expanding unchecked, and an eruption event is expected if this is not managed. Schematics dictate that this flow was to be diverted to various geothermal energy collectors that would power the manor, and convert enough thermal energy to cool the magma, preventing it from flowing up and out the volcano. The location of the obstruction lies in the same direction as the estimated point of origin of the zombies, so one may assume there is a correlation.”

“Are you flipping kidding me?”

“Of course not.”

Gus rolled his eyes, sighing. He closed his eyes and tried to take a calming breath. He wasn’t strong enough to manage a frontal attack on a bunch of zombies, so what now?

“For hell’s sake, can I get a break once in a while?” Gus spat, exasperated.

“Do the controls allow us to do anything here?” Gus finally asked when he regained his composure.

“Magma flows may be directed as they approach the underground structures designed to handle the flow, but it must first arrive into this network. The blockage is happening before the magma can enter the channels under control by the manor.”

“I’ll have to deal with these Dark Nth eventually. I was hoping I could level up a bit before having to hit them head on, or kiting them so I can deal with them in smaller numbers. Not going to have that luxury now.” Gus tried to come up with how many levels would allow him to hold his own without being totally out of