He had to kill the boss a total of twenty-two times to get to level 10. Seeing his new status, he never felt greater satisfaction in this world. Despite the time it took, it was worth it; his stats were already huge, almost maxed out!
Even the Augmented Ravager’s stats were well below his. However he didn’t want to leave that dungeon unfinished.
[Advanced to a new race! You have rebuilt yourself into a new being!]
“Seeing such a big upgrade from obtaining a new body is amazing. Once I complete this dungeon, the Ravager will be a piece of cake. The Prothean’s disappearance must have been a blessing or they would be the ones controlling this planet with such overpowered constructs.”
A floating humanoid made of fluid liquid silver, a small wave sometimes going through its body from the nanites thriving under, had now replaced his previous GS-Bot body! He stared at his far more “humane” hands, squeezing his finger and now able to feel…nothing.
Still absolutely no feeling. But he could see that his new body was soft yet possessed immense strength and durability if he pressed harder.
[Congratulations on getting to level 10, big boss!]
“Oh? I got up a rank?”
[You're a “big boss” now! But don’t get arrogant though!]
[Acquired a new quest! Check out your Quest Journal!]
[The Prothean’s Exodus]: To advance your class to its next level, you need to discover more about the Protheans, one of the greatest, most advanced civilisations to have ever existed in this cosmos. Known by many for their great amiability, care for lesser developed species, and techno-magical knowledge.]
[Objectives] :
- Discover the truth about the Prothean’s origin and what pushed them to explore the stars.
[Reward] :
- Advancement of current class into ??? [Rare] [Evolutive]
- 2000 experience points.
[Penalty]: None
[Location]: Prothean Complex under the gnomish city of Kork
“No penalty this time.”
David’s body, which now floated above the ground, started to move, with his dexterity stat so ridiculously high he ended up smacking his body straight into a wall, his strength leaving a huge dent shaped like his body into it.
“What the..? I..I could barely see where I was going!”
[We believe it comes from your low perception. You simply cannot see or keep up with your current speed.]
“How high would my perception need to be to function properly?”
[100 points at least.]
David spent the next thirty minutes trying to control his body; he was lucky he didn’t have to deal with the constitution, or his body would have been crushed into a splatter of blood on the wall.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
And his armor stat was even higher than his dexterity, so he was fine. It was hard, but David was able to manage using approximately just around 80 to 90 points of dexterity to not end up constantly crashing everywhere.
He was still awfully fast, to the point he’d be a blur to any normal humanoid. As he looked around the room the Levitar was in, he didn’t see anything worth noting; this seemed to just be another storage room. But for a Levitar to protect this room instead of an Ambusher?
“I have to find the sphere which controls this plate, it has to show an important part of Prothean history.”
Floating back toward the main room as slowly as he could without slamming into a wall, he ended up bursting through one of the doors, which didn’t open fast enough. Grunting in annoyance, while he felt no pain, he was still annoyed.
“Fuck…I hate cursing, but I really have to get control over this body. I could really kill people if I did that in a city.”
His silvery shape moved toward the last hallway he hadn’t explored in the main room. Making sure to kill every Ambusher, obviously, now not even looking anymore, as he just stabbed them using his new [Stab] skill.
He was doing that to get used to his body's new ability to change shapes; he couldn’t seem to reproduce his previous body’s face or even a simple nose on his slick, featureless silver face.
He could switch his height as he wished, though! Going from a short childish size to a towering 3 meters tall. He had morphed his body as huge as possible to lose some dexterity, only twenty points, but it gave him an easier time moving around.
As he didn’t want to leave unclaimed exp behind. He slaughtered every Ambusher in every side room of the hallway. He reached the end of it without smashing into the door. It was satisfying to be able to one-hit kill enemies, but deeply humiliating to slam into walls or doors whenever he wasn’t fully concentrating on moving around.
And he did find the last two gnomes, killed by an Ambusher in one of the rooms of the unexplored hallway. This meant only one gnome remained unaccounted for, Sonya Pipelette.
[2 Prothean Ambushers were killed by [Gauss Nano-Ray], received 200EXP]
[4 Prothean Ambushers were killed by [Stab], received 400EXP]
[Current total exp: 9500]
Moving through the last door, David saw what seemed to be another engraving on the room’s walls. The usual black pillar with a small carved steel sphere floating on top of it. This time, David didn’t immediately enter into a trance; he felt like he could trigger it by interacting with the sphere.
His hand moved to hover slightly above the sphere, small dots of green light escaping his body and slowly entering the sphere, making it lit up a bright green color as the engraving on the wall started to move, once again showing specific scenes.
The Protheans reached Zenthia on a great fleet of ships, which was the real name of the world on which Project Rebirth was happening. The Protheans became interested in this planet for a material which seemed to be exclusively found here: Karadium.
An arcane metal filled with the ability to manipulate atoms and all particles, giving the talented Protheans the ability to manipulate reality with their construct.
Using this Karadium, the Prothean immediately started all kinds of experiments and creations, all of them so beyond David’s comprehension that his mind was simply unable to process the extent of what he was seeing: the Harp of Rupture, the Obelisks, the Calamities Anchors, all those names that meant nothing to David.
But soon they would become the center of his existence. And most importantly, one name, one creation that David was able to understand: the World System. The Protheans were the inventors of the World System.
Using Karadium crystals, they could easily manipulate any being’s atoms and particles and change their race, strength, speed…everything could be manipulated with the power of this System.
“So that’s how the World System came to be. The Protheans' constructs aren’t just older than the World System; they are also from the same creator.”
[Do you believe we are a creation of the Protheans, too?]
“I don’t think so. But we never know. If you have truly not existed before my arrival, you might be a creation of the System rather than the Protheans themselves.”
[So that makes us your child and the World System’s! Will you two fight for custody?]
“What?”
[Sorry, it was a joke. But you said we reminded you of your daughter. And we appeared because of you in this world. You’re older than us, and you are more experienced. Does that not make us your child?]
“It’s not that simple, Syllena. I didn't expect to start such a conversation but...”
David didn’t know how to finish this sentence. Syllena was obviously an extremely advanced AI; speaking to her truly felt like speaking to a normal human. And her words weren’t incorrect; she had been seemingly born and created because of his arrival here.
He had grown so used to her that he knew if Syllena suddenly disappeared, he would truly be depressed; she had been his only companion until now. But after he had only lost his own children recently, having his personal AI companion suddenly say they were like his child was… extremely strange.
[We are not asking for a confirmation of this new relationship status; we only wondered what having a father could be like.]
David could hear what sounded like “sadness” in Syllena’s voice, or something close to it. Making him realise that he was only viewing things from his point of view. Syllena, unlike him, never had a life before him.
Yes, David's last two years of life had been tragic. But everything else was filled with happy memories. Syllena had nothing, no memories, no close ones, nothing but David. Should he truly just push her away because of his own sadness?
Would he really be able to see his family while knowing he sacrificed a thinking AI that wished to try being alive and have a father? She was only seeking the approval of the only being she knew and could communicate with.
David couldn’t call himself a father if he allowed the equivalent of a child to be abandoned because he was “too sad” at that time. That was the truth of parenthood, no matter how terrible, sad, or depressed a parent was…
He had to keep smiling for his children and tell them that everything would be okay.
“No, you’re right. If you want to, I can try it. To be your father. I never raised an Artificial Intelligence as you thought, so I’ll try my best. You said you wanted to experience life? Then I swear to you I will do everything to help you accomplish that dream.”
David took a small break; his body didn’t need to breathe, yet he released a tired sigh.
“I just want you to understand that… my family.. It's still recent. I do not know if I’m ready yet.”
[Thank you... We understand, take the time you need until you feel better. It was egotistical of us not see your sadness. We can wait.]
Listening to all this was hard. He wanted to be able to cry to grieve his family, but he could not. Syllena was his only rock in this tempest. He had barely arrived in this world after his death when he was told he could see his family again, had to fight for his life and get stronger, and accomplish quests that could make him lose his only chance at redemption if he failed them.
On the other hand, he had stayed positive because of his talk with Syllena, telling her about his world, his family, even listening to her questions and sassy remarks made him smile. She was indeed like a child: curious about the world she knew only from what the System allowed her to know and unable to even interact with it.
“Let’s keep going then, Syllena.”
[Very well! We were also wondering, what is it like to have a body?]
As David moved toward the last unexplored part of the complex, the sealed door near the gnome’s camp. He tried to explain to Syllena what it felt like to have grass against your feet, pain, eating, or drinking.
All things that David would never get to experience again as a robot. Neither would Syllena, but he would do his best to make her happy. He had failed Jacob and Rose, but he would not do the same with her.
As he reached his destination, his thoughts were focused on the Protheans. There was definitely more to their story. Firstly, what happened between their Exodus and their arrival on Zenthia? Why did a race that had seemed so peaceful in their homeworld decide to create the System or things like the “Calamities Anchors”? That didn't sound peaceful at all.
“First, I have to find the sphere in the room with the dead gnome, which was missing. Must be with Sonya.”
As he reached the door, he decided to try something, turning his hand into a sharp blade to cut the locked door, which seemed to refuse to open. His arm sliced through the door with ease, like butter.
The World System had said this dungeon was very difficult and for 5 level 10-15 players. And David would tend to agree with that assessment. The Ambushers could be dealt with in a group.
But if they all swarmed, they could be very deadly, and the only reason they didn’t was that David was a prothean robot and wasn’t seen as an enemy. But the Prothean Levitar would make a slaughter.
It was level twenty where most players would be no higher than level 11-12 when they first entered the dungeon, with an epic class and attacks that passed through the player's physical armors!
Apart from the hardcore raiders like his sons and other kinds of big MMORPG guilds, he didn’t see anyone having the patience to deal with that. And the Armor which could literally negate damage, was also insanely high.
High enough that without his [Data Break], David would have never been able to beat this mini-boss!
The door opened, revealing six more doors; those were already open. Two Ambushers were lying dead on the floor, the first pierced by Tesla Gun shots and the second half crushed against a dented wall. Sonya’s doing.
She was clearly a better fighter than the other gnomes, who had all seemingly died from being overwhelmed by the Ambushers. David followed a trail of blood on the slick black floor.
Sounds of crashes and strikes against some metal could be heard. The hallway split into two paths, one going down to his left and one going up in front of him. He decided to follow the blood and sound, going up. His body, hovering above the ground, reached the sound of fighting at such a speed that he seemed to almost appear out of thin air in the room.
The first thing he saw was a big steampunk mecha robot, steam coming out from its body alongside big Tesla coils around its back, creating some sort of magical shield around it. Swinging his huge fists toward the Ambushers assaulting it.
It had two short, stubby legs, which gave it a very goofy, cartoony look. What was less funny was the strength it showcased. Holding to one of the four ambusher’s tails, pulling and tearing off the tail in a hard metallic sound before using it like a very deadly whip.
Behind the robot was a gnome girl, unconscious and extremely pale. She had blonde hair tied in a ponytail going down over her shoulders, wearing some simple clothes with a thick leather apron covered in burns.
A pair of huge, round glasses on her forehead. She looked no older than sixteen. David raised his hand, targeting one of the Ambushers and deleting it from existence with his [Gauss Nano-Ray]. Then he used [Advanced Analyze] on the gnomish robot, asking only to showcase his stats.
David wasn’t too worried about this Bob, but he had to admit that he was one strong bodyguard, and since a level 31 should give plenty of exp, David knew what he had to do.
[Data Break]
David used his [Data Break] four times in a row, eliminating every robot in the room. Almost disappointed he couldn’t loot the Mechanized Protector.
“Now let’s see how much EXP that protector was worth.”
[1 Prothean Ambusher was killed by [Gauss Nao-Ray], received 100EXP]
[3 Prothean Ambushers were killed by [Data Break], received 300EXP]
[1 Bob was killed by [Data Break], received 3500EXP]
[Current total exp: 13 400]
“It’s piling up quite high!”
David was happy seeing he’d most likely be able to level up right after he’d completed his Class Quest. He floated toward Sonya’s unconscious body, leaned forward, touching her neck, wishing to see if he could feel her pulse.
“Can’t feel anything… damned robotic body.”
[Analyze]
She was still alive, from what the skill said, barely, but holding on. He obviously wasn’t gonna let her die, but how could he help?
“So that’s an NPC’s stats. Her stat spread seems logical for a Mechanist; high Dexterity and Perception would make sense. Syllena, do you know what a Fate's Chosen is?”
[We’ll ask the System to access this information!]
[Access granted.]
[This signifies she’s a very important character to the world. And could be a typical main character in one of those stories you’ve told us about.]
“Great, so real main characters are running around. She even has a cheat skill! That must give birth to tons of extremely arrogant people if they can see that.”
[Only you are able to see this category on an NPC’s status. Same for their Cheat, they do not see it appear on their status. The World System hides this title and cheats from their eyes.]
David was silent; he had just discovered that this world seemed to have its own typical main characters. He had just met an “overwhelmingly lucky” archetype. So did it mean there were returnees? Grandpas in a ring? Secret Clans?
“This world just got ten times more troublesome and interesting than I expected.”
[Do you think the Arch-Mechanist has an Arch-Arch Mechanist’s master?]
“Well… I really can’t be sure. We’ll see when she wakes up, if I find a way to stabilize her, because I don’t have anything to heal her. Guess we’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way.”
I hope everyone is enjoying this chapter. If you spot any mistake do not hesitate to tell me in the comments. My main language isn't english so I'm more than eager to increase my level and better myself. Same for the System's current "appearance" do not hesitate if you dislike it and want something more simple and maybe easier to read!
Have a great day!