Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

to the bathroom mirror and tried to see if there were any physical changes. Increasing his agility didn’t seem to alter his physical appearance, but he felt better about himself overall. He was pushing himself past his old limits more than any time before, and was satisfied that his life was turning a corner. He did one last check of his stats before heading to the control room.

Gus Vannett

Level 8

Agility: 15

Constitution: 14 (13+1)

Charisma: 8

Strength: 12

Perception: 16

Intelligence: 15

Luck: 7

HP: 260

MP: 220

Stamina: 260

He settled into one of the chairs in the control room. Finding the Foundry in the facility management console, he unlocked it and the associated sub-facility Defense. Clearing his logs, he saw that through all the level ups yesterday, he had accrued another 1400 worth of FP. That brought him up to 5500 FP. Score!

Gus did a little dance in his chair, reminiscent of one of his favorite online podcasts. The upgrades took a healthy bite out of that total, leaving him at only 1500 FP. Another shock was that he was only 200 XP from hitting level nine. After a brief pause, the dancing resumed with more fervor.

Apparently, the Foundry took up an entire level of the manor. After a longer than usual elevator ride, the doors opened to large banks of machinery, all powering up and coming to life. There was a small control room that stood overlooking processors, and vats beginning to issue steam from their depths.

Keying on the control panel, he was able to see a display showing the current capacities of the Foundry and an empty work queue. Gus accessed the available items that could be fabricated in the Foundry. While a number of items were grayed out and inaccessible, there was still an overwhelming amount that the Foundry could create. So much so that it took a while to move from page to page, seeing many similar items with barely perceptible differences.

Gus found an options tab and set restrictions to look at armor first, suitable for level eight use. He had to further narrow the scope to specific armor types, surprised to see some armor utilizing things he had only seen when playing D&D. He found chain and plate armor, in various materials: metal, plastisteel, array glass, composite, hybrid, etc.

Various colors could be chosen, except specific Faction colors. Still, the available options vastly multiplied the amount of items to be sorted. Soon he had chosen what basically amounted to greaves, vambraces and a cuirass to add to his suit, choosing a basic gray that seemed to match the overall shade of his suit.

Once he had chosen the pieces to be fabricated, there were multiple options of material and surface texture. Gus chose a lightweight material that had a layered core and could resist puncture—just what he needed to avoid sharp claws. Gus found he could also have an external texture similar to coarse sandpaper. Maybe that could blunt a sharp talon that tried to scratch him, making it less deadly. With the items queued up, he was directed to be scanned for his measurements.

The system directed him to a scanning circle, much like the one in the training arena, to get his measurements to design the armor. Halfway through the scan, an alarm went off and the process stopped. Rushing to the monitor, Gus wondered what new complication had arisen. Sensing a ‘fetch quest’ in his future, Gus read through the alarm. The news, however, was shocking.

2.4 lbs of Kroutonium detected. Do you wish to incorporate this into armor fabrication?

“Wait, what?” Looking at the scan, he saw a representation of himself, rotating like an avatar in a video game. On his avatar, Razorback was highlighted in the scan sitting in the scabbard at his side. Pulling Razorback out he stared at the crude blade that he had made by hand, with a little help from his skills.

Did I waste any of this making it into a blade? Gus thought about the tiny triangle he had removed to make the blade tip. I need to go back and get that… Gus’ thoughts sprang into overdrive. If Razorback really was made out of Kroutonium, it should level along with him, based on his levels. Activating Wreck-ognize, he noticed that the stats indeed had improved. Also that there were some new notices:

Item properties:

Razorback (14-36 damage)

Damage type: piercing/slashing

Improved chance to learn one-handed weapon skills

Improved chance to critical attack 20%

“Nick! How come you didn’t tell me about this?”

“The material is so rare, I didn’t analyze it. Would it have changed anything you have done so far?”

Gus pursed his lips and looked skyward, trying to recall if it would have made any difference. He finally shrugged and conceded that the answer was probably no. He was just glad that he knew now. Without the Foundry, it didn’t make a difference one way or another.

Gus liked the idea of maybe changing Razorback back into a spear, only professionally-crafted this time. He was becoming more and more skilled using polearms, and he needed to keep the Mantids and zombies at bay. He doubted he had enough to make anything in the armor department, but maybe as a liner of some sort.

Would that improve the whole, stat wise? Maybe. Rather than risk it, he focused on the sure thing. Having a weapon that would grow along with him at such a low level had a much higher potential for major growth in the long run.

He set the Foundry to process the ‘vanilla’ armor and he turned his attention to weapon possibilities. All the pieces would be ready in six hours. Gus could see conveyors moving and the hum of machinery coming to life down below the control room. He turned back to the console, bringing up the weapons tab, multiple questions and possibilities coming to his mind.

“Nick, what happens if I use this Kroutonium in the Foundry to make a new weapon. Does it lose the bonuses?”

“The material returns to its base form, but the Foundry will gain the schematics to reproduce the