Chapter 12: Young Gearheads
-Penny, 4D
The school room was quiet. Penny's class was taking a social studies test. Thinking this was annoyingly easy, the sixteen-year-old moved through the questions quickly.
18. Q: If a conflict mediator is not present in an area, what must be done?
A: No one may enter the area unless they have specific government permission to enter a mediator-free zone.
19. Q: At what age is a citizen allowed to access hobby sites without supervision?
A: 20
20. Q: At what age is a citizen allowed to have an independent non-training profile in an immersion game?
A: 20
21. Q: At what maximum age can a person start training for a lifetime career?
A: 17
The teacher pressed a buzzer. "This is not an open book test, Richard."
Penny chuckled and tapped a box on the tablet to signify that she was done. As the test transferred to the teacher's desk, she got out of her desk and stretched. The wall in front of her was made up of a single screen. On the other walls were shelves of school supplies, books, and tools. In the room itself, there was only one school desk. It had a tablet for writing as well as a compartment for anything she might be using in a lesson. On the large screen, there was an image of a meadow in the center, a default image for testing periods. A picture of her teacher was on the top center part of the screen, while pictures of her classmates were in a ring around the edge.
Noting others getting done with the test, Penny dropped back into her seat and tapped that she wanted to send a note. She picked her friend Kelsey and used the stylus to write, 'That test was soooo easy. Boring!'
The screen showed Kelsey's miniature pic looking at the note, then frowning. She sent a note back, 'For you maybe (sniffle). I don't know if I got six and eighteen right. I mean, why would there be an area without a conflict mediator?'
'I dunno, but the law book says if there isn't a mediator, most people can't go there. So there must be areas without a mediator. I wonder if I could get into those places.'
'Why would you? You might get into a fight.'
'I'd go there just to go there.' She thought, then added, 'Ugh, I wish school was like the one my ES character goes to. She had a really challenging test yesterday, about runology and science and stuff.'
'I do not want it to be like the one my ES character goes too! It's just horrible.'
Penny continued chatting with those who were done with the test until it was over. "Okay, that's the end of class for today," the teacher said. "Your next test is mathematics, so be sure to study."
"Yes m'am," she said, along with most of her classmates. The class connection then broke off, leaving the room dark for a moment. The lights kicked on, softly so it didn't hurt the eyes.
Now that it was done, she left and went to the living room. "Mom, I'm done with class now."
"Oh, good timing," Nancy said putting down her reading tablet. "Your father is already in the Eternal Sphere; we could be meeting up again shortly."
Penny grinned. "Right! Cause Bowman gets back from Cross. Are you gonna log in now?"
"I was just waiting on you. Let's go."
As her father was already immersed and unable to notice them come in, Penny dropped into the chair she always used and brought the screen forward. She had a dependent account, so her menu looked slightly different than others.
Planet-Expel
Character- Precis Nuemann
Style- game training character
Quest status- None
Training Guardians
(1) Bowman Jeane (Jeb), business sim/life sim/adventure
(2) Nineh Jeane (Nancy), life sim/business sim
Guardian (1) is logged in. Play as Precis?
Of course.
-Precis, Linga, Nuemann home
The room was packed with pieces of metal, mysterious gadgets, and strange machines. In the midst of that mess, a teenaged girl was sitting on the floor to work on one. She brushed some of her orange hair out of her eyes, leaving another grease mark across her forehead. But that didn't matter now. If this worked like she wanted, it was worth any mess.
Okay, that was done. That just left testing the device. She picked up a smaller device that was hooked up to the other with a gray cord. The small device had several buttons and was shaped in such a way that it was easy to operate with both hands. By her design, this was a controller for the machine she had just finished. Well, finished this stage of. She pressed one of the buttons, then shifted one of the control sticks.
On the other end of the wire, there was a metal box that served as the base for a robotic hand. As she shifted the control stick, the hand's joints flexed and moved. She smiled a bit, but that movement was just the basics. She pressed another button, followed by a second. The hand clenched into a fist, then punched the metal shelves nearby. After a loud clang, the shelves trembled. But not by a lot.
She'd made it work, though. She scrambled up and ran into the other room. "Dad, Dad, Dad! I made it work! I got my punching hand to punch!"
The long faced man at the table looked up from a device he was working on. "Oh, Precis? You're still working on that thing?"
"And I got it to work! Want to come see? It's not very strong yet, but now that I've got it working, I can see how it could work better so I can beef it up and…"
"Shouldn't you be out with your fellow teenagers and such? That's what most girls do, hang out with other girls." His mind obviously wasn't entirely on the conversation, as he was tapping a tool on the table.
Precis fumed. "But Dad! I got it to work; don't you want to see?"
"I'm concerned about your future…"
"Yeah right!" She stormed back into the garage. "Why've you got to be such a stubborn geezer, old man?"
A small spherical machine crept out from a cat door in the side of the garage. It was painted blue, but it had a simple face with glowing yellow eyes and a line that functioned as a speaker. "Bo?"
"Hi Bobot," Precis said, without much enthusiasm. "I got my hand machine to punch, but he wouldn't come see it. He's asking why I'm not hanging out with the other girls in town. But that's not my fault. They all think I'm a freak." She sniffed before she caught it, so rubbed her nose. "Oh, but I'm not gonna be a crybaby about it."
Bobot walked over to the hand machine and poked it. "Bo?"
"Yeah, it works now. Watch." She picked up the controller and made it punch the shelving unit again. "Not very strong, but I think I've got the motion right."
Whistling, the round robot backed up, then opened up a slot to shoot confetti. "Bo bo!"
Precis smiled. "Thanks Bobot. At least you appreciate my work. Well you just watch. Eventually I'm gonna make something so impressive that the old man and everybody will be all jealous. Let's go try it out at other things."
Grabbing a backpack off the shelf, she placed the box inside. It took up much of the room in there, but there were many other pockets for small supplies. In those pockets, there were a few snack bags, a pair of binoculars, a small field herb guide, and a compass. It would make a good adventuring pack, whenever she got around to adventuring. She put that backpack on; it was kind of heavy.
"I guess I have to build up my strength for this," she said, then left the house.
Around the side, there were mismatched piles of crates that she normally climbed on top of. Today, she operated the hand to extend up and grab hold of the edge of the roof. Then she retracted the hand in such a way that it pulled her up. The backpack's straps dug into her underarms, which was uncomfortable. Maybe she should design a harness before doing this too frequently. She had the hand drop her onto the tallest stack of crates, from which she could climb onto the roof easily.
The Nuemann house was one of the taller buildings in Linga, so Precis had a good view over everything. Around her home was an assortment of pharmacies, houses, and artist studios. A wooded area ringed much of the town, but not nearly thick enough to be called a forest. Up north, there was a small river which connected to a lake, which in turn led into the mountains; this river had supported Linga for the entirety of the town's history. Past the river, there was the tallest and largest building around, the Linga University. Near it was the smaller school building which the children of Linga attended.
Precis took a few university classes alongside her normal schooling, though. It was the end of spring term, but she hadn't yet signed up for a summer course. This year, she was thinking of taking some time to explore the countryside and fully test her machines. Machines were good, but she had to know that they would work in any setting. Those machines helped people the best.
Being up here helped her think clearly, she always felt. That, and her old man couldn't follow her up here. He kept trying to encourage her to do normal things a girl her age did. But then, she was sixteen. At sixteen, most girls around here were preparing to get married and raise a family. She didn't feel ready for that. Besides, the guys around Linga were intimidated by a smart girl. That's what she told herself often.
Bobot paced around the rooftop with her. The little machine hadn't been built by either Precis or her father. However, she had done some repair work on him, after studying his design along with other machines near where they found him. Bobot seemed to have a mind of his own, but he most often followed Precis around like a strange metallic puppy. She liked that about him and let him tag along wherever she was going. Plus, he didn't have all the messes or needs of a real puppy.
He whistled and pointed to the entrance of town. Precis paused in her thinking to look over. "Huh? Do you see something? Hang on." She grabbed her binoculars and zoomed in on the road leading up to Linga.
Coming towards town, there was a cart drawn by one brown horse. There was just one man on the cart, a brown-haired man with a green shirt. Grinning, Precis put her binoculars up.
"He's back! Come on, Bobot, let's go!"
After getting a squeal for a reply, Precis ran off her roof and jumped over to a neighbor's roof, then over onto the roof of the skills guild. There, she clambered onto the entryway gate of Linga and trotted across that. The wooden sign was only a few inches wide, but she had run across it many times without falling. From there, she could jump down onto the inn's patio.
Precis kept going, jumping out from the patio onto a tree branch. Then it was hopping around carefully from one branch to another, crossing trees that grew closely together. After eight or so trees, a white building appeared. It was another pharmacy, but it was the best one in town. She scrambled onto the patio here, then ran around the living quarters, down the stairs, around the corner, and into the building. There was no one at first glance. "NINEH!"
There were rows of shelves, holding a great many compounds, potions, medicines, alchemy supplies, and dried herbs. It was a bright and clean building; in back, there were examination rooms if necessary to help the patient. From behind the shelves, a woman in a long dress came out. "I'm here, Precis," she said calmly. "What is it?"
Skipping forward, she grinned. "Bowman's back! I saw him coming down the road. Come on, we can go meet him at the gate!"
The door came open again as Bobot finally caught up. He squeaked.
Nineh smiled. "Oh good. But dear, you've been working hard, haven't you." She touched the girl's forehead. "You're all coated in grease."
"I am not," Precis insisted, but she didn't speak quite as harshly here. "Well, maybe just a bit."
"Well you ought to clean off that bit first. Go on, use our backroom, then we'll go out to meet with him."
"Okay, if I have to." She went into the washroom to clean up her hands and forehead. She wasn't sure why, but she could deal with Nineh's nagging more than her father's. Maybe because the Jeanes always showed interest in whatever she was talking about
-Bowman, outside Linga
He whistled as the cart approached his hometown. Traveling was great, but he always loved the feeling he got when he was coming home again. Admittingly, his wife would prefer him to stay at home, but his skills were often needed in other places.
As the town gate appeared, he saw two people waiting for him. Bowman smiled. It was getting harder to return unexpectedly. He waved to them as he signaled the horse to slow to a stop. "Good afternoon Nineh, Precis."
"Good afternoon, Bowman," the girl called excitedly, hopping up on her toes. She was wearing a backpack today. Maybe she really was going to try her hand at adventuring next. If so, she'd probably try to get taken along on his next trip.
"Welcome back, honey," Nineh said. She got up on the driver's bench beside him and gave him a kiss. "How'd your trip go?"
He put his arm around her shoulders. "It's wonderful to see you again. This one was a success, I'm happy to say. The girl made a blessedly quick recovery. Some power other than my knowledge had a hand in it, I'm sure."
"That's great." She nudged him. "I think Precis has something she's wanted to ask you."
"Is that so?" He looked down to the teenager, who had come next to the cart, but hadn't climbed on yet. "What's on your mind?"
"I'm working on this awesome machine," Precis said. She grabbed some strange gray controller and pressed a few buttons. A mechanical metal hand popped out of her backpack and waved. "Cool, huh? I studied those biology book diagrams to make it."
He leaned over and grasped the hand in his. "Looks quite accurate. Nice work."
She grinned. "Thanks. But see, I thought I could use it as a punching device to fight off monsters; it's got a longer reach than people do. It's not that strong yet, though. So I thought, may I buy one of your old glove weapons, Bowman? I want to study it and see if I can adapt it to this hand. It won't fit me, I know, but I think I can adapt one to this machine. I'll pay a fair price for it."
To check, he compared his hand against the mechanical one. "It could fit. But you should be careful with it. I don't want to hear that you punched yourself in the head with this." He smiled at her.
Precis laughed. "I won't! That would hurt."
"I do have an extra pair here that I picked up on this trip. Hang on." He passed the reins to Nineh, then hopped in the cart to dig through one of his bags. Amongst many of his tools, there was a pair of brown battle gloves. "This should fit your purpose. I'll let them go at 800 fol."
"I've got that." She reached into the backpack and, after some shuffling, came up with the exact amount. "There you go."
"All right, then here are the gloves." He handed them off.
"Okay. Thanks so much! I'll make good use of them. Bye, I'll talk to you later!" She then rushed off for her house, most likely to work on her device.
Bowman got back onto the bench as Nineh started the horse back to their home. "Nice to know she's thinking about more than just boys, unlike the other girls her age."
"I don't think she considers the boys at all," Nineh said. "I hope she still finds that someone special, though."
"She certainly seems happy enough."
"Mmmhmm." She then patted his shoulder. "Oh, and honey? I've got some news for you. You'll want to be staying home for a while now."
"I will?" He made an expression of mock horror. "Am I in trouble? I'll swear that I've been true and loyal this whole time, even on pain of being burned."
She laughed. "I don't doubt you. Not yet anyhow."
"Not yet? Hoo boy, I've got to be careful." He smiled and gripped her arm. "So what is it?"
"It's a secret," she told him quietly. Then she smiled and poked his shoulder. "I'll let you know later."
Bowman grinned. "You tease. But I still love you, honey."
"I love you too, sugar."
-Opera, Mountain Palace
For the past few days, Opera, Ashton, Claude, and Rena had been exploring the Mountain Palace. Considering this was an underdeveloped planet, this place was a sturdy fort. Its location inside a mountain might even protect it against more advanced weapons technology. The country wasn't in a war now, though, so this place was pretty much abandoned to the monsters. In this guarded setting, they thrived as well.
Opera was managing well. Her pulse rifle normally depended on hydrogen plasma bolts; its ammo energy could be pulled from the air or water given a few minutes without use. With various program disks, those bolts could be modified into other kinds of energy, like electrical or symbological. And when a weapon used the energy of symbology, then its user could make it do darn near anything, provided the right runes were in the program.
Being on this planet, she had limited much of its abilities. Its current programming did not fire bolts. Instead, it wrapped the barrel of the gun in an invisible plasma field. She had to be careful handling it this way, as it could burn her skin horribly if she touched the wrong part when the trigger was held. Combining that plasma burn with the blunt force of a club, the pulse rifle made a fairly decent melee weapon.
Her fellow travelers were doing well too. Claude must have taken the Basic Combats Arts in his Pangalactic military training, as the young man from a technologically advanced civilization was quite talented with his low technology long sword. And Rena, she was skilled at symbology, called heraldry on this planet. Not only did she have apparently non-existent (for this planet) healing spells, she was handy with light and gravity spells as well. Then there was Ashton.
Watching him, Opera could tell that he was an experienced and highly skilled swordsman. Handling two blades and heraldry at the same time must have taken considerable training. Almost as much as Claude would have, even though Ashton was a few years younger than him. However, Ashton seemed to be having great difficulty the past few days. The dragons were supposedly insubstantial; that was the explanation he gave for how they could not affect his clothing. They still managed to mess with his sense of balance. And, it seemed that the possession had changed Ashton's native elements.
Like just now, Ashton had attempted this fast moving move that involved holding one blade at the shoulder, while the other was at his knee, then slashing at the enemy. His start had been quite graceful. But he utterly failed to call on the move's crest. This caused him to trip and fall on his own blades. Rena was using her healing spells to keep him from bleeding to death.
"I'm sorry," Ashton said, checking on his cut shoulder. "I haven't made a mistake like that since I was a kid."
"Your magic has really changed, I suppose," Rena said. "What were you trying to do?"
He sighed. "Lightning Strike. It was one of my best, but… looks like I'm locked out of most of my skills now. I'll have to figure out what I can do with these elements." He looked at the backs of his hands. They had odd tattoos on them. On this world, that seemed to be the way to gain magic.
"You still have that nice teleporting move," Claude pointed out. "That's really coming in handy around here, so we can surround the monsters instead of being surrounded."
"There is that. It doesn't seem as powerful as before. I don't have access to any of the reference books, though. Trial and error learning is going to be rough."
"Why don't you ask Gyoro and Ururun how to use their powers?" Rena pointed out.
"Keeheehee," the red one, Gyoro, snickered.
Ashton gave it a hostile look. "They're not being that helpful. And I don't need an internal snarky commentary going on for every conversation."
"So why don't you try using an exorcism on them?" Opera asked. She had been wondering why he didn't seem interested in that. If she had been possessed by dragons, she would want to be rid of them.
"Well…" he hesitated, then glared at Gyoro again. "A little while back, I was with another group of travelers trying to heal a little girl from the white death. We were having trouble finding the right healing herbs. I ended up meeting the phoenix of Lasguss Mountains and making a deal with him to save her. But in order to do that, I ended up possessed with these dragons. So now I'm stuck with these two for a year. If I try an exorcism before that year is up, well… it won't end well."
"I'd imagine so," Rena said. "The Lasguss phoenix toys with people. I've heard it never does anything benevolent unless it can trouble people more than it helps."
Ashton nodded. "I know that now. Still… I think it'll be worth it. The girl made a miraculous recovery."
"That's good. You should be okay for fighting now. Just try to stick to the basic moves so you don't get like this again."
"Sure thing, Rena."
After traveling down yet another tunnel, they found something interesting. There was a passageway that seemed to have been blocked at one time. However, there was now a mass of rubble that stood right before a staircase. Opera picked up one of the pieces of stone, noticing something odd about it. There was a glaze on one part, scorches on another. It was as if it had been hit with a high heat blast. Although she wasn't learned about this world's symbology, it looked suspiciously like advanced weaponry. She showed it to Claude, who noticed the same.
"I think fire symbology is pretty common here," he said quietly. "But this looks too refined."
"It's hard to tell without equipment," Opera replied, turning the chunk of rock over in her hands. "But I know he carries a small arms demolition gun in case of sealed ruins. This damage is quite familiar to me." She tossed the rock back onto the pile of rubble. "But this is from some time ago. It only suggests that he may have been here before, not that he's here now."
A call came from down the stairs. "Hey, are you two coming?" Rena called.
"Right, sorry," Opera called back. They went down the stairs. "Anything interesting?"
"The doors are different," Ashton said, pointing to one. It was made up of metal plates riveted together. For a moment, she was impressed. But then he went on, "Magic crafted doors, made so tough that even the strongest of magic can't break them. Easily, anyhow. This may be the housing quarters for the royal family."
"Ah." Opera winked at the others. "So we may not want to take just anything that we find here."
Rena laughed. "Right, we shouldn't."
This area of the palace was quieter than above, save for the crackling magic torches. The halls also had suits of armor periodically placed along the walls. Perhaps that kept the monsters from roaming down here. They found more evidence that it was the housing quarters as Ashton suspected. There were rooms off the halls with untouched furnishings. One room had old flags of Cross along the walls and a large table with many chairs around it. Another had a great many beds along with protection magic. It was all inactive for now, so they could freely come in and explore.
And down another flight of steps, they found a study. It sent mixed messages. Along with a bookshelf half full of books and a desk with globe, map, and pencils, there was also an iron maiden and an ominous looking device hanging over the bed. There was also a fairly new document in there. It had a number of sprawling notes on it, documenting various ruins around Expel. One was underlined: Hoffman Ruins.
"This looks like Ernest's handwriting," Opera said, picking the paper up. "He made some notes about this Hoffman Ruins."
"Isn't that a very dangerous place?" Rena asked.
"What's dangerous about it?" Claude asked her.
"It was a mine at one point, as it has a high concentration of Energy Stone material. But that was in ancient times, before they knew how to control its power. That civilization got wiped out, then another build a temple over the entrance of the mine. It's been used as a mine again, I think."
"It was a big issue between Lacour and Eluria many years ago," Ashton said. "When people discovered how to properly refine Energy Stone, both countries fought over Hoffman Isle, which lies between them. But when Lacour and Cross became allies, it was decided to leave it as neutral territory. The town that had been there was disbanded. But it was still an issue that could have led to war if one or the other tried to stake a claim to the mine. Even so, it would be a hard place to get permission to enter."
"So he might be in Lacour trying to get that permission," Opera mused.
"We're heading there anyhow, so why don't you stick with us?" Rena said. "That is, after the royal wedding."
"Yes, that."
Bowman and Precis are mutually exclusive characters, so they don't get many chances to interact in-game. But it seems reasonable that they would know each other, at least as acquaintances. Nineh, well there's not much character to her other than being Bowman's wife. Although, given that he has some PAs about checking out women and giving romantic advice, she has to be someone special to keep him in check, lol.
If you follow the quests for Ashton and Opera, and definitely if you're after Ernest, you'll end up exploring the optional dungeon Mountain Palace. But even if it is optional, it's a good idea to go in there. A few of the treasures could come in handy and the experience is good at the time you get access to it. There's two bosses, but you only have to face one. Ashton's exorcism quest will have you facing a succubus-like creature, while Opera's search for Ernest will have you fight a pair of large beasts. But, well, I didn't have much of a reason to use either boss fight...
