David once again found himself cut off from his senses. This time there was less disorientation, perhaps because he knew what to expect. He prepared himself for a wait in that floating nothingness.

  Then he was again in a sterile, generated space with the strange Alien form of the Herald, all limbs and wings neatly folded as it floated in the air. It was hard to tell without a frame of reference, but this seemed to have happened much faster than last time.

  After a moment the image moved and he got a sense of animation and connection that characterized all of his interactions with the being rather than the automated recordings from the tutorial.

  David Murphy, you appear to have progressed again.

  The voice was clear, and somehow calmer than the last time David had spoken with the creature less than a day earlier.

  “Herald, you appear to be less stressed than when I last spoke to you.”

  Fewer of your population are active and requiring my attention at this time. The area experiencing peak activity at present is your Pacific Ocean. Time is still limited and resources are finite.

  You triggered the condition I left in your Obelisk to initiate contact by selecting a quest reward beyond local resources to provide.

  First, let me congratulate you on progressing the quest to save your people. Records indicate that over a thousand locals are now awake, actively using systems and that you are one of the humans assigned credit for the majority of this.

  “Yes, I have questions for you regarding the system and available options. Can you answer them for me?”

  I am required to provide support to properly administer your reward, questions which are out of scope for this are beyond the scope of this discussion. Now, if you have any relevant questions I can answer them.

  David thought he was starting to understand the strange Alien creature and its odd outlook and this felt like it hinting at something.

  “Thank you, Herald. I would like to ask about access to information I am entitled to, specifically with regards to this reward as the lack of active patronage makes it essential that I have the correct search terms for the local knowledge in the Obelisk to understand my reward and optimal skill development.”

  Your question is… Legitimate.

  After a moment of thought, the Herald continued.

  Several foundational skills are available for each resource type simply through practice or basic rewards. Each skill leads to an initial class selection as well as the opportunity to unlock further skills. Initial class selection will be based on the most advanced skills unlocked. Up to three skills owned may be used. Only the highest level skills possessed can be applied to class selection. In the event of a tie the system user may select which to apply from among the tied skills.

  This relates to a half-step class evolution in two ways. First, a half-step skill evolution removes the level cap of ten from up to three skills, allowing them to progress prior to tier evolution. This can lock in class selection as once skills exceed the cap they will ALWAYS be considered in full class formation.

  Second, These evolved skills connection to the user’s system and thus their control over them will be improved as though they were selected as class skills. This change is permanent and will remain even if entirely different skills are selected as class skills upon tier evolution.

  As this is advice a Patron would normally provide I will add the standard caveat that while offering a large effectiveness boost early advancing skills beyond your tier cap is restricted by default because available resources are tier scaled and it is possible to advance a skill to the point where insufficient energy exists within the users system to activate it.

  Does this answer your question?

  David smiled, he was getting somewhere with this. Now to try another.

  “Yes, I have an additional question regarding scaling. In order to understand it would be helpful to compare the forces involved to familiar pre-system weapons. Using the most effective skills available through the obelisk can you provide as a frame of reference what it would take for a human to resist pistol, rifle and shotgun fire.”

  David was quite proud of having come up with that one and waited for the Herald to respond.

  Evaluating, this request is not simple. Insufficient reference material exists. Some sources are contradictory. Available records indicate that direct hits to vital organs are immediately fatal for all three weapons. Indirect hits were survivable even without system resources with many accounts indicating that a ‘flesh wound’ is a small matter, barely an inconvinience.

  The Herald paused, then spoke again, sounding somehow more tentative as though unsure it had understood correctly.

  However, the relevance of this scaling information is acknowledged. All weapons use projectiles to rupture tissue suggesting that the most relevant defenses are Health-Toughness based abilities or Magic based active defenses.

  As such, within your tier no skill is going to grant an absolute defense against high powered precise strikes to vital locations or large numbers of less precise strikes to overwhelm defense.

  As such Shield or Armor skills offer the best magical protection likely to mitigate a single shot at low level, at peak tier to completely block a shot or mitigate multiple shots.

  Premier Toughness based skills such as Iron Skin will greatly mitigate damage even at low levels and could protect internal organs from multiple shots at peak tier. Basic Toughness skills such as Reinforce could help at higher levels if dense bony tissue is targeted.

  Any of these skills elevated past the tier cap of ten will result in complete protection until resource depletion, though toughness-based skills can be bypassed if no protective tissue bocks the path of the attack to a critical weakness.

  Does this answer your question?

  David smiled and nodded. Getting the names of four skills that could help to resist gunfire should suffice.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  I assume silence indicates that there are no further questions or clarification required. To complete your reward I will need to analyze you again to compare to earlier baselines. Follow up inquiries may also be required.

  Is this acceptable?

  David nodded again then spoke. “Yes, with the same caveats as last time. I require that you share all information about my abilities with me and provide relevant context information to fully support your assessment.”

  Very well, do not resist.

  Again the third eye began to open and light poured out. Again the focused beam scanned David. This time the scan was much slower than before and both the light and the sound the beam emitted changed as the Herald slowly scanned him from head to foot. David wasn’t sure if it was the evolution of his own abilities or the Herald employing different scanning techniques that resulted in the change.

  The Herald provided the answer when it finished its scan.

  This scan is more detailed than the prior ones I have conducted. This is possible due to upgrades instigated at this Obelisk since our last conversation.

  “So the upgrade quest rewards have a significant effect on your ability to operate in the area?”

  That is a partially accurate statement. Upgrades have been conducted on over one hundred Obelisks in the last day. Due to the needs at this location the upgrade path was customized by the local administrator, me.

  I have devoted the resources saved due to three local zones collapsing to this Obelisk and approximately seventy percent of them have been devoted to expanding the capability of this Obelisk to support an individual with a novel bloodline.

  I, to clarify I mean the local System, stands to gain a great deal from understanding this bloodline.

  David smiled, that felt like a slip of the tongue. With this strange entity he was unsure if that was the case or if it was a continuation of the bizarre game they played, never seeming to come at things directly.

  In this instance the more detailed scan indicates that initial projections for the value of skills selected for testing were inaccurate.

  Your bloodline shows exceptional capacity for speech and sound mediated transmission of magic. This has worked at exceptional levels for Halt. Based on more detailed Scans efficiency is anticipated to be low for Shout as major effects are based on sound wave propagation through physical media rather than conceptual speech and authority, which is what Halt uses.

  Further, synergy with convert is higher than expected with the skill naturally improving the resource to spirit interface but ALSO providing significant attribute to spirit reinforcement clearly detectable with Willpower and Channel.

  Magical senses are anticipated to better harmonize Spirit sensory inputs with host normal inputs but without full skill unlocking data is inconclusive.

  David couldn’t help but interrupt. “Hang on a second. Are you saying that the skills selected were an experiment. That you were testing my bloodline by adding know things to my system rather than acting on some specific actionable data that indicated synergy.”

  A fair assessment. You bargained for multiple skills, this has given extra data for comparison, so yes the experiment has been successful.

  David felt a hot surge of outrage. This alien was literally running tests on him. They might be rather less unpleasant, at least so far, than the probes of science fiction but still he wasn’t a damn guinea pig.

  “You. Owe. Me.”

  David could feel the weight and power flowing into his words. There was a brief flare and rainbow colored light washed through the room with his words.

  Fascinating use of power and a strange perspective. I do however acknowledge that a debt is owed according to local standards. Please refrain from further infusing your willpower into your speech in this space, it could have destabilizing effects.

  “As long as you settle the debt and let me make the decisions about taking risks for information.”

  While David grumbled, he could empathize with the Herald’s desire to learn more about a new situation. The being then began to ask questions about the practical application of his skills and whether any effects had been noticed with his use of spirits. While it tried to maintain a calm steady cadence David found it easy to hear the eagerness and interest as he described the ways he was applying his new powers.

  Based on the current limited data available I would recommend that your evolution focus on Halt, Convert and Mana Sight.

  David smelled an opportunity here. Thinking quickly, he spoke.

  “You said that data was incomplete. Would unlocking the other two skills benefit the analysis or would it be better to have a baseline of additional skills to compare to?”

  The Herald was almost giddy in its eagerness as it responded.

  Both would provide excellent additional data. Given your earlier interest I recommend unlocking at least one Stamina-based and one Health-based skill and further that you should spend some time utilizing all the unlocked skills with your spirits. I would also like to arrange an additional session with you to review your progress and discuss specific applications of your skills…

  Before the Herald could continue David spoke, trying to infuse just a little of the regret and sorrow he really felt at not being able to play with the system. He felt it bleed into his speech altering it though not to the extent his earlier outrage had.

  “Sadly, while I would love to spend time exploring and further optimizing my reward then showing you how it functions my life is in danger both from the Nath and from hostile humans with guns. This could be the last time we speak, unless… You mentioned a debt. Can you discharge that in a way that helps me?”

  David almost slumped with relief as he stopped the effort of altering his speech in a controlled manner as the Herald froze. Then slowly spoke, clearly choosing its words very carefully.

  Well played David. I have acknowledged a debt, and as you suspect a being of my power can do a great deal to help you. What do you want?

  David relaxed, it wasn’t a no. He had followed the scraps of evidence correctly.

  “I need power, to survive gunfire and to handle Nath and mutants. You have access to a vast array of system resources, skills, rewards and the like. Give me access to more of them or better yet to other tools. Don’t you have magic items and stuff?”

  I promised clarity on risks, let me explain those risks to you now. There are several that limit how I can help you.

  First, the mana the system characterizes as experience is different to the mana already imprinted by a being. I cannot simply lend you experience. The energy I send will come in the form of one of the resources I use. The only way I can give you experience is to redirect that which the Obelisk has access to.

  There will be a consequence of that. Currently the Obelisk is drawing generated experience from all linked active systems, and slowing passive mana gain in order to feed pure mana, as experience to the humans in range who have not initiated. Statistically speaking diverting some to you will result in the deaths of a number of comatose humans commensurate with the gain.

  Second, I am a long way away from you. My body is in orbit of your world and while I have vastly more resources available than you it is very inefficient for me to influence those parts of your local system I can power. The consequence of a significant investment in you will be my inability to intervene elsewhere on your world in an emergency until I regenerate the expended resources.

  Thirdly, the good news. I can in fact use my resources to fund the basic provision of information to you. In essence while I cannot unlock your skills, I can provide them to your system.

  Finally, there is a quantity of mana that CAN be used as experience banked for your reward within the Obelisk.

  Oh, and as for magic items. These are extremely common, but the cost of physically linking me to the Obelisks and sending me and Them here is inconceivably high to you at present.

  Sending magical objects simple enough for native use wasn’t even considered. Sending blueprints that will allow native craftsmen to start making them has always been the solution.

  So you see. I am being fair to you and allowing you to see the risks. Given the threats you describe and the results to date at your Obelisk as well as your prominent involvement I would be prepared to authorize the death of a significant number of humans to boost you.

  Would you like me to proceed with unlocking your skills and imparting additional ones?

  David froze. He felt a sickening knot form in his stomach as he was sharply reminded of just how alien the Herald really was. That wasn’t he realized the reason that he was struggling with his churning gut. He literally had the option of killing people for personal benefit.

  He could justify it too. And unless the Herald talked nobody would ever know. His traitorous mind followed that path to its logical conclusion.

  With a word he could kill dozens of people for personal power.