"I'm sorry, you said you unlocked a new Class skill by reaching 10 in the Spirit stat… as a Warrior?" Megan asked Ajax, the last to arrive at the interrogation room, now that Adam had to restart the entire meeting.
"Yes. There is a relationship between the three different stats and the mysterious energy we use as Awakened individuals. Spirit is the quantity, Might is the volatility, and Trick is the control; all regarding energy use." Ajax replied, explaining his insights on the System.
"And your Stats are this massive because you awakened on day 1?" Kave, also present, asked.
"Yes." Ajax replied with a nod.
"Alright… this is good news." Adam said, looking at the Status form that any awakened recruit should fill out per his regulations, "I'm 8 in Spirit, so I must grind the two remaining points and experience that kind of growth."
"Does every stat that reaches 10 awaken different types of abilities, or do they all awaken this 'Line Breaker' ability?" Kave asked.
"From observing those who awakened early, I've noticed there were two different styles among the people I knew as Warriors. Some awakened a type of power that would let them tank a hit from a Gobzkin Brute and even lock them in a fight; others developed a different power that would make their attacks strike with some sort of aura that hits more than one enemy at the same time, but it is not as powerful as it sounds." Ajax replied.
"What about your Line Breaker?" Adam asked.
"I can commit all my energy to one big attack as long as I have enough time to charge." Ajax explained his 'Line-Breaker' ability.
"I see a pattern." Kave immediately grabbed his journal and started scribbling notes, "Warriors with 10 in Might become a front-line Tanker; they can stand their ground against big units. Warriors with 10 in Trick become more versatile in action, like an assist Flanker. Warriors with 10 in Spirit can exert all their force in one big attack, a tactical Striker."
"I like the sound of that." Megan said, looking down as Kave started making more scribbles before looking at Ajax, "What about Thieves?"
"Thieves were rarer, and most of the fighting force at the Airport were Warriors. I only knew one or two, but they didn't have many stats or didn't want to share details with me." Ajax replied apologetically.
"Yes. Warriors are 89% of all the Awakened, Thieves are 10%, and Sorcerers are the privileged 1%." Kave mockingly said, glancing at Adam.
"You are welcome." Adam replied with a smile.
"Sorcerer? Is that what it's called?" Ajax asked.
"You've seen the Golem, right?" Megan asked him.
"Yes… I mean, I was confident against most monsters in one-on-one, but that…" Ajax let out a breath before looking at Adam, "I'm glad you're on our side."
Adam smiled before asking Ajax a question, "As a Warrior Class, what made you aim for the Spirit stat instead of Might? I mean, most would min-max that."
"The artifact I awakened with was mostly the reason." Ajax replied before taking a pouch from his neck, opening it, and pouring its contents onto the table, "That was a bone knife with a rune called the Force rune. It broke at some point, and I think I can no longer get power from it."
"Force rune?" Adam narrowed his eyes.
"That's a new one." Kave commented before asking, "What did it do?"
"The description was vague, but it had the power to manipulate energies. It took me a long time to figure it out, but I could control fire and make it spread faster, sometimes even create fire bolts, but it would drain me too fast."
"That's super useful." Adam narrowed his eyes, "So far, we know the runes of Bending, Stunning, Slaying, Scatter, True-aim, Chameleon, Recovery, and Light. The Force rune would be the ninth rune we encounter, but… it died before we could see it in action."
"Regrettably so." Kave commented, "And looking at the skills, that's all the main skills."
"And three of the seven skills…" Megan looked at the System Status form before nodding with approval, "My dad would have fallen in love with you."
"It's an honor." Ajax replied seriously before turning to Adam and returning to the main subject, "So, does this research tell you exactly how these powers came to be?"
Adam nodded as he explained the Rifts to Ajax, as well as the existence of allied alien races, such as the Alfari, allowing him to continue thinking that the Wartopians were also under that classification. This misunderstanding led Ajax to ask all sorts of questions about other fictional universes colliding with this one, but Adam gave him the bland 'it's unlikely' and refused to elaborate.
"Is there any information the upper brass in the Airport camp uncovered about these powers and the System other than what you've told us?" Adam then asked.
"We called it different names, mostly 'the Force,' and we realized it was some sort of mystical power that reacted to everyone depending on their Class and Stats. For Warriors, it gives us bursts of strength but doesn't make us physically stronger. Skills, on the other hand, don't make us superhuman either, but some people said they had reached their limits in terms of their athletic abilities at some point, but when they awakened, their growth continued, and they felt no stagnation." Ajax answered.
"Like Limit-Breaking?" Megan asked.
"There has to be a limit, I think; so, mostly, I think it is Enhanced Growth." Ajax explained, "The human body has physical limits in its physiology, so unless your body evolves into something superhuman like that Captain from a while ago, you're pretty much still going to hit a wall."
As he said so, he narrowed his eyes, thinking of the superhuman he met, and seemed to be realizing the identity of the action game protagonist that went really viral before the world fell.
"That's why the flesh is weak." Kave commented naturally, "Only those touched with Chrome and Bionics can transcend the mortal form."
Adam, Megan, and even Ajax all cast a glance at Kave, who seemed to be spending too much time with Solana these days. But ultimately, he was right. If a man were to replace parts of his body with Solarium AugmenTechs, such as Fluxfiber Muscle Bundles, Grav-charged Ankles, or even Thread Accelerators for their Kernel Node sub-brains, many of the human body's limitations would be pushed to new heights: from peak-human to enhanced, and to supernatural, as in the example of Captain Creed.
"You're thinking of installing body implants in the future, buddy?" Adam asked Kave in a calm tone.
"I guess." Kave replied with a shrug, "We promised we'd take on all the monsters we can, right? It's only right we become monsters ourselves. Foreblades from my arms, Kernel Nodes to have a computer in my head, a muscle suit like the Wraithwalkers. Dude, the possibilities are endless if we get all the tech."
Adam froze a bit after hearing that, realizing that he may be the one who was leaning towards peace after staying at the base for too long. Kave's sharp focus caused Adam's emotions to stir as his gloved fist tightened, causing the leather to creak.
"Yeah. I guess you're right." Adam nodded, turning to Ajax, "The first step is to use all the help we can get. I realize now that you are not just a soldier, but a high-level Awakened, which will cause us to rely on you more than we thought we would, Mr. Wills."
"It would be a pleasure, sir." Ajax replied with a grin.
With that verbal agreement, the group returned to the Trial Chamber once again, all ready to put Ajax Wills through the series of trials Adam had enhanced over the past month to create an ultimate test for the aspirant warrior of the Solarium.
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
Ajax stood in the cold room in nothing but a pair of underwear. A medic by the name of Patch helped him with the ominous-looking execution machine, fitting it to his size; it seemed to have been made with his body size in mind.
Adam Clay and his two lackeys, Privates Kave and Magpie, proved to be the approachable type, as they were normal people shaped into survivors, not the military type at all, not yet anyway. Unlike Elena Skarn, who felt like military life incarnate, and the goliath of a man who he realized to be the actual Captain Creed from the game that got too popular, these young people held Command positions because they had come across the aliens and been recruited first. Thankfully, they were not inefficient, and their determination was nothing to laugh at.
This gamble that he took coming here was paying off better than he expected. For that, he was soon to be injected with some sort of drug he didn't know, but Adam said he would be going on a trip, one guided by the machine he was now being strapped to.
As things were being prepared, the young trio briefed him on the evaluation he was about to undergo.
"Originally, the Iron Maiden would simply take you in and put you in a simulation where you have to run through a trench battle while being overwhelmed by all sorts of enemies, and if you can survive, you would be given a promotion clearance and a recommendation on which specializations you could fill." Adam said, patting one of the machines before facing Ajax, "After adjusting the program, I've made the combat into waves or levels, but as the System wouldn't really bring out everything a soldier could excel at, I've upgraded it to include different scenarios: offense, defense, strategy, etc. Five of the seven are mandatory; one is for officer promotions, and the last doesn't need to be on the Iron Maiden. I'll let you choose in which order you want these evaluations to proceed."
"Alright." Ajax nodded, watching as Patch prepared a syringe gun filled with a purple liquid and positioned it on a medical trolley, before asking, "What are the options?"
Adam simply handed him a tablet, which was the first electronic device Ajax had interacted with since the day the world fell. A sleek repurposed screen with touch controls, something he never realized he had missed, and yet another thing that made him think this group of people was really in the business of bringing back civilization.
Looking at the screen, however…
——————————
> DEVICE — IRON MAIDEN
> STATUS — OPERATIONAL
> DIRECTIVE — CHOOSE TRAINING COURSE
- FPS
- DPS
- TPS
- PVE
- PVP
- MOBA
- RTS
——————————
… Ajax couldn't help but raise a brow.
"You're the one who designed these, sir?" He asked.
"There's a problem, Mr. Wills?" Adam asked, a hint of an aggressive tone in his voice.
"Nothing so far. A creative naming sense, that's all." Ajax replied.
"Thank you. I always knew I had it in me."
Adam nodded to himself and walked to the main terminal in the Iron Maiden trial hall. Kave and Megan approached Ajax after him.
"He can be a little bit insecure with his creativity quirks." Megan said, hinting that Ajax shouldn't call Adam out on such things.
"The courses are the real deal, though. I suggest going through them in order."
"FPS… not First Person Shooter, right?" Ajax asked.
"No. It's Field Partisan Skirmish." Kave corrected him, barely holding his laughter, "You're behind enemy lines, trying to raid your objective points before the enemy is reinforced."
"Right." Ajax nodded with a smirk, "DPS surely is not Damage Per Second."
"I think it is a Defensive Position Scenario."
"TPS would be… Tactical… I don't know." Ajax tried to guess but failed.
"Tactical Party Support. You operate a drone and give commands to a team that operates according to orders. Very intense, if you ask me. You can bomb and call strikes even, but the troops you support can be questionable sometimes."
"Fine. PVP and PVE shouldn't be that different from what I know, right?" Ajax asked.
"You'd be very mistaken. PVE is Personnel Vehicle Engagement; you have a light combat vehicle and a team: a driver, a gunner, a mechanic, and a medic. You can chase, be chased, or simply fight the horde." Megan explained.
"And PVP stands for Passive Vigilance Protocol. You're patrolling an area where the enemy is trying to sneak past you, assassinate you, etc. You're either the hunter or the hunted." Kave explained the other term.
"MOBA?" Ajax simply pointed without guessing.
"Major Offense Battle Arena." Kave replied again, "It is the same: trenches for lanes, defense turrets, no-man's-land in the middle, filled with broken tanks and mines."
"And RTS?" Ajax asked with an exasperated face.
"Real-Time Strategy." Kave replied with a smirk.
"Why?" Ajax blinked twice, "Creativity has limits?"
But the one answering him was surprisingly Adam, who suddenly appeared in their blind spot:
"Only stupidity has no limits." Adam said with a stern gaze before his shoulders dropped, looking at the training courses he meticulously designed, "Sadly, genius is limited." He then turned to Ajax, "Since I have high expectations of you, no pressure by the way, I will go ahead and design you a special outfit mixed with U.S. Army and Solarium style. A U.S. Flag on the shoulder and a name tag will make it a little flashy for your special unit situation."
"All good with me." Ajax replied.
"My engineer examined your service rifle and said it was in pristine condition. I was thinking of giving you a Blazer-arm, modded to high standards, of course." Adam added, seeing Ajax's face brighten.
"I'll take my old lady and whatever lady you give me. They say a flower on each hand, right?" Ajax joked, and Adam smiled; however, his smile froze when he noticed that Megan wasn't particularly amused by that joke.
"Fine, I'll make the order and leave you with Patch and Kave. Lastly…" Adam pointed to the pile of Ajax's belongings on the side before asking, "That broken bone blade with the Force Rune, can I take it to my lab and do some of my work on it?"
"You think you can fix it?" Ajax asked.
"Runesmithing is a mystery, and those damned aliens are tight-lipped about it, but I am chasing a few leads at the moment." Adam explained.
"Then by all means." Ajax nodded in understanding, "It saved my life more times than I could count, but if it can be used for something good, I'll leave it in your hands, sir."
Adam picked up the pouch of bone fragments and nodded to Ajax in thanks, before walking away with Megan to the building not far from the Base Bastion: their house/lab.
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
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