The first major step in every Samurai's journey is, of course, their first Class II Catalog. This step pushes the Samurai from being a new blood with no direction, to entering their own path to power. My first Class II Catalog was, naturally, Golden Kakernu Biotech.

  And yes, before you ask, this is a race of hulking, golden gods of muscle and power.

  -Vanguard Heracles on an interview with Samulyfe 2054

  I took a moment to process what Laser Lasso said. It was good to know that she had a plan, even if it was a pretty hands off plan. The knowledge that there were double digit antithesis below me was not the greatest, but I now had the ability to deal with it.

  “Synaptic, if I upgrade my War Swarm Catalog to Class II, what are the benefits for my swarms?”

  An easy enough question to ask, and an easy question to answer. While the Class I War Swarm Catalog has a large number of items, weapons, armors, and swarms available, going forward they will be more specialized. Namely a Catalog for Armor, Weapons, Utilities, and then Swarms. Upgrading to a catalog will cost you one token and one thousand five hundred points. For the swarms, upgrading a swarm to Class II will cost one thousand points per swarm. Their material structure will be upgraded to Class II, their internal logics will be further refined. They will be faster, sharper, and more durable. The Assault Swarms main Blades will be replaced from a unique metal alloy to a type of thermal cutter. The Builder and Collection swarms will be faster by an order of magnitude in all their actions, plus they will be capable of more fitness actions. The Scout Swarms will obtain further spectrums to detect. Including the ability to analyze and discern antithesis pheromones. There will be other swarm types available for purchase as well, and new upgrades for every swarm, including more universal upgrades!

  “Great, more point sinks.” I mutter, tilting my head back and placing a hand over my face. “Please purchase the Assault Swarm upgrades to Class II. For all ten of them.”

  Unlocked: Class II War Swarm Nano Clouds

  Points reduced to 12584

  Tokens reduced to 0

  Purchased Class II Assault Swarm Rearmaments 10x

  Points reduced to 2548

  All ten of my black clouds condensed into cubes around me. Their matte black color gains a tinge of red, and the cubes vibrate slightly. Then a bone spike flew in from the other side of the floor and slammed into my right thigh.

  The momentum caused me to fall face first into the floor, the bone spur hitting the floor before my face hit it, causing a wave of new, sharp, digging pain to shoot through my leg.

  The Scout Swarm traced the spur back to what I could only see as a chair four hundred feet away from me. Before another Spear could hit me, I yelled out,"Defense Swarms! Now!”

  Purchased Class II War Swarm Defense Swarm

  Points reduced to 1548

  A cloud of purple swirled around me as another spur was sent flying my way from a different direction from outside the Scout Swarm cloud. Before it hit the purple cloud, a screen of hexagonal Violet light appeared in its path. The spur shattered upon the screen, sending debris flying across the space. Then the screen grew to encompass me in a bubble of purple hexagons. Just in time as even more spurs slammed into the shielding my new swarm created.

  The ripples of light the surprise created upon hitting the shield were beautiful and mesmerizing. At least, I would think so if I wasn't currently dealing with the rippling waves of pain emanating from the one stuck in my leg.

  We must act fast, Victor. The spur is leaking poison into your system.Your new Bionics are slowing the spread, but we have little time to act. Please authorize the purchase of an antithesis melter, Medical nanite injector, a cleansor, and a blood booster.

  “Yes!” I yell through gritted teeth, rolling onto my left side.

  Points reduced to 1523

  Four syringes appeared in a line, each a different color.

  Take the green one and stab it into the bone spur. Then, on my mark, stab the blue one into your thigh just above the entry wound, followed by the white one, then the red one.

  I snap my hand forwards and grip the green syringe and, using my other hand as a guide, inject it into the spike. I look down and see the spur for the first time. It is the same sickly green color that the Sixes bone spears had was currently coated in my blood.

  As the melter did its work, the spike turned quickly into a green slurry on the ground. I grabbed the blue syringe and placed it just above the new hole in my leg, waiting for Synaptic's signal.

  Stolen story; please report.

  As the spur shrunk, it eventually fell out of my leg, clattering onto the floor and into the strange green and red puddle that was growing around me.

  Inject now.

  I felt my stomach tighten as I stabbed myself with the syringe, feeling a stream of heat shoot into my leg. I grabbed the other two and stabbed my leg with those as well. A moment later, I could see dark green puss like liquid be expelled from the rapidly sealing hole. It slid over my armor and I could swear it sizzled once it hit the floor. I rolled onto my back just as the Assault Swarms came back online. I pushed them in the direction that the spurs were emanating from with a single order. Remove everything in those directions.

  Quickly, I saw ten swirling tornados or death fly into the distance and out of the range of my Scout Swarm.

  “Buy more Scouts, enough to cover my control radius.” I say with a raspy voice.

  Purchased Class I War Swarm Scout Swarm 3x

  Purchased Class I Biomonitor Sensors 3x

  Points reduced to 1203

  Three orange clouds rapidly diffused and expanded my sight to the full eight hundred foot radius, and from there I was able to see the carnage my new Class II swarms wrought upon the enemy.

  Deep grooves were cut into the ground marking where they passed, creating a terrifying mandala of destruction. Walls were carved out, various offices and furniture were shredded, and I could see some slight remains of green liquid in the middle of those grooves.

  The spurs stopped flying towards me, I recalled my Assault swarms, which rotated around me about ten feet out, looking like a localized sand storm of deep red. Then I saw a new icon on my augs.

  Shield strength 97%. Power reserves at 92%

  Swarm Capacity 28/50

  “Hey, Synaptic. What the fuck just happened?” I ask quietly, still laying on my back with my left arm resting on my facemask.

  It seems as though you were ambushed by a new variant Model Nine. From what I could see, they replaced their normal arm blades with a type of pressurized launching mechanism. Checking my records, there were a number of plants on Earth that used a similar mechanism to launch their seeds as far as they could.

  “Neat. Why didn't they register to my Scout Swarms before they started opening up on me?”

  That is because the Model Nines are developed to avoid most forms of surveillance once they assume an ambush position. Unless you are actively looking for the slight defects that their disguises can have, or see them shift, they are near impossible for Class I sensors to detect.

  “Fantastic. Just, wonderful. Means something here knows about me,” the venom in my voice is slight but noticeable, “So going forward, I need to demolish everything on the floor, not just the plants I can see. And what's this about power reserves?”

  Class I Swarms don't require much energy compared to what they can convert from their surroundings. Class II Swarms require more power to function, and while active. They will constantly drain their internal power faster than they could generate it. In standby mode, they regain energy much faster. There are three ways to lengthen their operational capacity. The first is through two new universal upgrades, power capacity and power generation. The second is through a new swarm that works in conjunction with Collection types, the Generator Swarms. They will convert biomass, Kinetic energy, or thermal energy into the required power to recharge the swarms. The third is an armor Upgrade that adds additional power banks that can be used to recharge any swarm you are currently connected to!

  “That is very helpful,” I say after a moment of silence. “Last thing for now. I thought I only had seventeen swarms right now, so why does it say twenty eight out of fifty?”

  Class II Swarms count for two for the purposes of connections. They are more than twice as effective, but the bandwidth optimization is limited to this. Class III swarms count for five, and Class IV count for ten on average. Certain swarm units may count for more or less depending on your own experimentation and unit crafting.

  “And I assume to upgrade that capacity I will need to upgrade my augs? No, don't answer, that was rhetorical. How much for a Generator Swarm, and will one be enough for my needs now, or do I need more?”

  Five hundred points per swarm, and a rule of thumb is that one Generator swarm can power fifty units worth for normal, non strenuous activity.

  “Do it.” I spit out. Then I add, “Please and thank you, Synaptic”

  I appreciate the politeness, Victor.

  Purchased Class II War Swarm Generator Swarm

  Points reduced to 702

  The shape of the swarm upon delivery was not a cube, but rather one of those eight sided polyhedron diamonds. Its color was also a swirling mix of light greens with sparks of lightning flowing through it.

  While I connected to it, I had one of my Assault Swarms condense next to me as I sat up. They moved through the bubble with no hindrance, which was nice to know. It, too, was an eight sided polyhedron, and instead of being matte black, it was black with streaks of red swirling through it.

  As my swarms returned to their defensive formations, I observed my new Defence swarm. Currently, they were actively using power to keep up the bubble of hexagons, but I could also tell that the very close shield was not their limit. Deactivating the barrier, the purple swarm condensed onto my Commander armor, adding new detailing of various hexagonal patterns all across the bland silver materials.

  “Is there a user's manual for my swarms?” I ask with a small smirk.

  Indeed, there is!

  My Aug menus move on their own for a bit, directed by Synaptic, before showing me where a sub menu was located labeled “Swarm abilities and commands”. There were dozens of pages of glossary material, and hundreds of pages of technical information and diagrams.

  While glancing through it, I did see what my Assault nanites looked like. They were stocky, beetle-like in form, with four leg-like protrusions that contained their movement engines. They had four scythe arms, two on the front and two behind, with full ranged articulate motion.

  I had to move on, or I would just sit here in an antithesis infested building and read tech specs. I checked out the Defence Swarm glossary, and saw that they had two modes. Single person protection and area denial.

  If they detected an attack through my Scout Swarms, they would project a hardlight shield on my suit to block the attack, or failing detecting it before hand, their robust structure would diffuse the force throughout the swarm and suit, acting to deplete as much energy from the attack before it reached me.

  In area denial mode, they could form the bubble shield or a wall of hardlight that could protect an area of roughly six hundred square feet.

  “Lesson learned. Personal protection has been strengthened. Let's kill some more plants and gain access to that damn server,”