THREE
Stepping out into the vastly empty field was a comforting feeling for Adam. He could see a tree line a few hundred yards off and down to a valley. There was a singular mountain jutting out of the endless forest with a very large plateau. Turning from left to right, he noticed he was not in a singular pod, but what looked like interconnected pods, several dozen in each direction. He jogged out a few yards and turned.
“I’m not the only one here.” He counted 17 open doors and ran to the furthest open one. He went door to door, quickly going in and discovering almost the exact same pods as his own, including the stout metal tables. He found two of the Iron Coins he had consumed while searching and pocketed them.
It wasn’t until door number thirteen that he found one that inhabited. Unfortunately, the occupant appeared, at first glance, to be a corpse. A young man had used one of the daggers that was provided to him and slit his own wrists. Adam was certified in CPR and first aid so he rushed over to check for a pulse. There was none. “Lord forgive him,” he whispered as he closed his eyes. After a long few minutes he had made his mind up.
Adam dragged the lifeless man into the adjoining room and stripped him as delicately as he could. Then he used the dagger to cut the pant legs off, leaving a small section to cover his modesty. “I’m sorry but I'm going to need this more than you.” Adam took the leather laces off one of the boots and quickly fashioned a bindle sack out of the pant legs, placing a dagger, the tunic, the shoes and the three blue-grey coins in it. He cinched it all together and made a loop to carry it. The other dagger he wedged in a fold of the inside of the shield. "I’ll need to make a sheath for it later."
Before he left, he tried something new. The feeling was very strange, but he knew it would work. “Scan.” A grid of lines flashed in his vision and text generated in his sight.
Scanning complete:
Common Human Male.
Name: Norbert Randolph.
Status: Deceased.
Would you like to loot Norbert Randolph?
“Loot? How on earth does that work?”
Looting explanation:
Creatures, for an all-encompassing terminology, that have natural magic or magically infused DNA are able to be condensed into items, both natural or magical. The more powerful the concentration of magic, the higher the quality or quantity of items produced. The creature will be dissolved and the magic remaining will form into what is colloquially referred to as “loot”. Would you like to loot Norbert Randolph?
“Oh… So that means… Oh…” His face fell. Adam contemplated for a moment, the thought of turning a corpse into an item. “Well you are just an empty vessel now. It's up to Jesus to sort you out now. Lord, forgive me if this isn’t right. According to these crazy aliens, I’m probably going to die here and I’ll need all the help I can get. Yes. Loot the body.”
The corpse poofed and became a haze of mist, swirling for a few seconds and pulled itself together and solidified into a small, round orb, the size of a golf ball. It had an internal swirling darkness that seemed almost like you would be touching smoke.
You have looted: Ether Core of Hiding.
Adam bent down to place the strange, dark orb into his makeshift bag when a shout made his head snap up. It was distant but definitely a woman's shout. He shoved the core and the remaining piece of cloth he cut for the man into the bag and slung it over his shoulder. He bounded out of the pod swiftly and scanned the area for the source of the sound. When he found movement near one of the pods he started to sprint straight away.
His legs pumped as if specifically designed for running long distances. The ease and finesse he felt while moving over the rocky terrain was nothing he had experienced in the past. His joy, however, was short-lived. A woman was running away from the tree line and, once she saw Adam coming her way, she adjusted and headed straight for him. “HELP!” she screamed, looking winded as he closed the gap.
“DOWN!” Adam hollered, dropping his pack as he felt the flow of power from his core to his hammer. A message flashed at the bottom of his vision.
One with the Hammer - Control - Cost: Very low mana - Duration: Channeled - Cooldown: None - Cast time: None - Target: Hammer - Effect: Allows control over hammers belonging to the user.
Iron: Controls a hammer within a 50 yard radius.
He felt the connection to the hammer as if he had a remote control, guiding it straight at the woman. She almost noticed it too late and had to throw herself to the side and fell head over heels to avoid it. Adam, with his feet planted and his hand still stretched forward, pushed his hammer right into the snout of a very large grey wolf. The impact caused a nasty crunch to sound out and the wolf followed suit of his prey, falling end over end.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Adam willed the hammer back to his outstretched hand and caught it with a soft touch, the impact bringing his arm back like a shot put. “Ma’am, are you okay?” Adam asked, closing the distance on the wolf. It was even larger than he thought, its great chest heaving up and down as it tried to hold on to life.
“I’m fine, no thanks to you,” She spat as she dusted herself off. She was a mildly attractive Asian woman of a small stature. Her short cropped hair was disheveled and her face had some cuts from the tumble. “I’ve been abducted. Again. There isn’t any place to go. Like, oh my God.”
Adam’s reverie of the massive animal before him was broken at this sudden rudeness. “Um… Excuse you. I know we were kidnapped and all that fun stuff, but what is your deal? I literally saved your life, unless you forgot the whole running and shouting for help thing.” The wolf’s rapid breathing suddenly stopped and it wheezed the rest out, lying still. “Scan.”
Scanning complete:
Iron Dire Wolf Pup.
Status: Deceased.
Would you like to loot Dire Wolf Pup?
“Scan what? Like, what are you talking about?” The rude woman asked. Her valley-girl accent became more pronounced the longer she talked.
He walked over, retrieving his pack and approached the wolf. He gave a mental “yes” and the wolf began to poof into smoke and solidify just like the man did.
You have looted: Dire Wolf Pelt.
“Huh. This is going to get difficult and clunky. Hive, do I have a storage ability? Is that even how I talk to you? How do you talk to your heads-up display?” Adam asked. The woman, now thoroughly put out, just stared at Adam, mouth agape in bewilderment.
Help:
Addressing your concerns one at a time.
First, if you would like to interact with me, you may do as you just did. I respond to Hive.
Second, all members participating in the ACE program have a standard issued personal storage space.
“Hive, can you activate more things on my HUD? Can I get a taskbar at the top so I can better see what all you have to offer? Also, add a bar with my health, mana and stamina to the left of the taskbar.” A bar was placed at the top of his vision. When he looked up directly at it, it came to the forefront of his vision and expanded one at a time. His health, mana and stamina were represented in three vertical bars just to the side of the taskbar as requested.
Info - Abilities - Storage - Map - Social - Help
“Okay. Now we’re cooking with peanut oil. Uh… Hive, open storage.” Adam said into the air and a grid opened in his UI. He picked up the pelt and willed it into his storage space. He found it was possible to open his storage space mentally. Adam was so focused on what he was doing, he forgot about his rescued charge. When she screamed at the seemingly magical disappearing hide, Adam screamed in response. “What is wrong with you lady?”
“Me? What? How? Huh?” Her eyes became unfocused. She became overwhelmed with the flight from the wolf, panicked at being kidnapped, this lunatic talking to himself, and the icing on the cake was seeing a wolf turn into smoke, then to a pile of fur, then disappear. She crumpled into a pile, passed out.
“You know Hive, that was really strange. Some people don’t deal with this change very well.
As a connected artificial intelligence to all participants in the ACE program, I can agree with your observation. 72 percent of participants are typically deceased within 24 hours of initiation of their Hive Protocol. There is another 9 percent who don’t initiate the Hive Protocol at all.
“You know, there is a lot to unpack there. What happens to the people who don’t initiate?”
Their fate is certain. All who don’t use the Iron Coin will become biologically unstable and their body will attempt to reject and purge the changes. This always ends in the death of the individual.
“I wonder if this lady took her coin? I guess I can’t really ask her. I need to find my friend and make sure he is okay. I’m fairly sure he would have used his coin, but better not to waste time.” Adam placed the rest of the items in his inventory and tried to rouse the fainted lady. She was out cold. He sighed. “Scan.”
Scanning complete:
Common Human Female.
Name: Angela Origami.
Status: Unconscious.
“This thing has to be broken. Origami? But who am I to judge? Anyways, what am I supposed to do with you? Hey, you think…” Adam trailed off when he realized Damien wasn’t with him. An idea struck him, “Hive, can you track any active ACE members? I’m looking for my friend, Damien Lee.”
Request complete.
Generating location of ACE member: Lee, Damien.
Location found. Would you like me to place a marker on your map?
“Yes please. Oh, and can you generate a compass under the taskbar? Make it go the length of the bar and allow waypoints and pins to be tracked through the compass.” To his surprise, it was generated just as he asked. “Open map.” The map opened and a translucent digital map appeared, separated into grid sections like a proper paper map with a key to the side. Adam realized after scanning it quickly it was less than helpful. With the exception of the pod housing, his map was greyed out.
“Old-fashioned discovery. Okay. Close map and let's find my buddy.” He went to run off and realized Angela was still laying on the ground. “Oh for the love of…” He stooped down and threw her over his shoulder and laid her down in the nearest open pod. He gathered a few more tables and used them as barricades since there was no door. “That should keep you safe. Good luck lady.”
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