Upheaval Read online

  Chapter 3

  Four targets appear in front of me and the goal is obvious. Shoot the targets. I take aim, charge up my beam to level four and fire at the first one. The target explodes like they did when I was practicing. I charge and fire, charge and fire charge and fire. The other three targets explode when my built-in energy weapon hits them. Energy beam might not have been my first choice, but it is proving to be pretty cool.

  Four more targets appear, but this time they start to move around bouncing off an invisible wall. Being a science teacher, I know that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection, so I am able to visual where they will bounce. And honestly, they are still moving pretty slow. It is only a little more challenging, I am able to hit the targets without a problem.

  Four more targets appear and they start to move faster than the ones before them. This challenge is starting to take it up a notch. I handle them with ease. Four targets, four shots. This simple pattern of increasing the speed continues for three more waves until the targets start to spawn at different distances. Some are close and some are far.

  The powers governing this challenge must not have thought the different distances is enough of a challenge, because on the very next wave there is another change, the targets begin to rotate. The targets must be paper thin, because twice every revolution they appear to vanish. The targets are bouncing around so fast that I lose track of some of them. I have to focus on one target at a time, tracking it even when it vanishes. I have to wait for my moment. This proves to be more difficult than I like and I actually miss once. When I miss a large glowing X appears in my interface, Family Feud style. In Family Feud the team has three chances before it switches to the other team and I am hoping it is the same here. If I only have two more chances, I do not want to waste them. I have to wait for my moment.

  As I progress further and further into the challenge, I have to take more and more time to line up my shots. The targets are rotating so fast, that I need to anticipate where the target will be moving and fire my beam when it vanishes from its rotation. The while firing while the target has vanished strategy costs me another strike to figure out. The targets continue to spawn and rotate and now they start to change in color, they were all green before, but now some are green and some are blue. I hit a new blue target and it doesn't break with my level four beam. I look at the target and there is a slight mark where my laser hit it. These new targets must be tougher. Thankfully this does not cost me my last strike. Apparently, strikes only count if I miss. I charge up to a level five beam and fire and the new blue targets break. Three more rounds in, and red targets start to appear, without even testing a level five beam, I charge up and deliver a level six and it breaks in one hit. I am not infallible and I lose track of a target, and I do not judge the bounce correctly. I finally earn my third strike. Just as I thought three strikes and you are out. All the targets disappear and I receive a notification.

  Congratulations, you have finished Energy Beam Challenge. You have scored 103 targets; this places you in the 86th percentile of all participants. You may retake this challenge again at any Mana Point Stadium.

  You have earned the achievement "Top 25." You have been awarded 50 honor points.

  You have earned the achievement "Top 50." You have been awarded 50 honor points.

  You have earned the achievement "Top 75." You have been awarded 50 honor points.

  You have earned the achievement "Top 85." You have been awarded 75 honor points.

  After the hectic experience of the last few waves of targets, the calm is disconcerting. A wooden chest appears about ten feet in front of me. I am familiar enough with RPGs to recognize a loot chest when I see one. I am always trying to get the best loot in games, loot is the best way to progress. Excited at what I could be getting for my challenge, I rush over and open the chest, it is unlocked. I lift the lid and there are a pile of blue coins and a white potion. I pick up the coins and the white potion.

  You have obtained 50 blue sigils. Use these to upgrade your abilities. Try upgrading your abilities now.

  You have obtained an experience potion II. You can use these potions to boost your experience. Try drinking the potion now.

  Despite the strangeness of the notifications, they have not led me wrong yet. I decide to drink the potion. I break the wax seal and drink down the mouthful of liquid in one gulp. It tastes like milk.

  You have gained 1,000 experience.

  You have leveled up. You are now level 2. You have gained 1 ability point. You have unlocked Arrays. Enter the gates, battle across the galaxy, fight, win, conquer.

  Gaining a level so early is fantastic and I am very excited. I can gain a real advantage in the games by being level two. I bring up my interface and a blue overlay appears in front of me. There are three glowing icons in the upper left-hand side of my vision, a plus symbol, an arrow pointing up and a symbol that was two circles connected by lines to a central circle. These symbols must be telling me that I have actions that I can take. I mentally click the plus symbol and another screen pops up.

  You have one ability point to spend. Based on your personality, genetic disposition, and quantum entanglement with your planet, you have the following choices of abilities.

  Hardy (Passive): Shrug off previously damaging attacks.

  Boost (Passive): Increase the amount of experience you receive.

  Wall (Active): Create a wall between you and your foes.

  Telekinesis (Active): Manipulate objects with your mind.

  Energy Burst (Active): Create a ball of exploding energy.

  Armor (Active): Create Mana based spectral armor.

  I find it strange that none of the choices are the same from the first list. There must be some reason why I am getting a brand new list, my guess would be the quantum entanglement. I doubt my personality or genetic disposition has changed drastically in the last hour or so.

  I never thought of myself as a coward, but the fact that these duels were to the death really bothers me. I want, no need, a way to increase my survivability. Therefore, I discount all the abilities that won't increase my survivability and that leaves three; Wall, Armor, of Hardy. Wall and Armor were both active abilities. This means that they will have time limits, so they could end in the middle of a fight. In addition, being active abilities means that I will have to know an attack is coming for these abilities to be of any good. Hardy, on the other hand, is a passive ability, when I played games in the past I would always take the passive abilities for things like defense. I could focus all my effort micromanaging my offensive abilities and not be exposed. Passive abilities will not end in the middle of a life and death fight. Plus, if I am surprise attacked, I will still have the benefits. I decide to go with Hardy. In my mind, the attacks you don't see coming that can do the most damage. Now, I have a little less to fear from those surprise attacks.

  You have selected Hardy. Now let's look at it in more detail.

  Hardy (Passive): Your skin, ligaments, tendons and muscles+ temper and are more resilient. In addition 0 units of force of every impact is redirected into your personal aether.

  I just finish understanding the Hardy notification, when I am hit with a wave of pain so intense words escape me. My body must be adapting, changing to accommodate my new ability. My skin, ligaments, tendons, and muscles were tempering all at once and this makes the pain I felt with Energy Beam a pin prick since it was focused in my arms and hands. Every bit under my skin is on fire. My vision fogs over and then goes black and I finally pass out from the pain.

  I awake sometime later. I do not know how long I have been unconscious, but it couldn't have been too long. There is still muted pain throughout my body. It is like I over-exercised yesterday and all my muscles are refusing to cooperate. I look around everything is blurry. However, I can make out a large shape in front of me, it seems to be moving in a pattern. I focus hard and my foggy vision finally starts to clear up. I slowly make out a wooden training dummy standing a few yards ahead of me. The movement I saw before is the dummy swinging its arms in a swooping motion. Just looking at it for a few seconds and it is easy to see the arm movements are predictable.

  Hardy is always active. Test out your new resilience.

  It takes me longer than I care to admit to myself to figure out what they want. They want me to take hits on purpose. This is sadistic. I am still in pain and they want me to suffer more. My mind flashes back to the pain of the Energy Beam. Then it dawns on me, the more I used the ability the less it hurt. Hardy could be similar, the more I am hit the less I will hurt. That is just the counter-intuitive thinking that I was hoping is true as I walk up to the dummy. I a step away, take a deep breath and I am about to commit to walking in the dummy when I get another notification.

  Hardy is always active. Test out your new resilience. It has been twenty minutes and you have not tested your ability. Escalating.

  To my surprise a new dummy spawns right behind me and smacks me on the back. Pain racks my back and I jump, startled by the hit. Being right in front of two different dummies a jump from one puts me squarely in the path of the other. I am pummeled in my face by the dummy in front of me. I am now in the middle of two dummies swinging their arms. It is some sort of sadistic sandwich and I am the meat. I’ll be ground beef, if these dummies have anything to say about it. Their swinging arms are relentless. I spin around trying to block an attack from the dummy behind me. I am too slow and it blind-sides so hard I am knocked to my knees. The only bonus to this pummeling is that the pain from the strikes continues to decrease. The dummy smacks me in the stomach and it hurts, but not as much as before. Eventually, the pain of the hits turns into merely a dull ache and I am able to stand up while being pummeled. Hardy is awesome, I am like some so
rt of super hero. this feeling makes me cocky and I spin my arm around performing a high block and I there is a crack. The dummy's arm breaks off and the dummy disintegrates.

  Congratulations, you have withstood the onslaught. Would you like to compete in the challenge course?

  Feeling cocky, I start the challenge and I the familiar countdown reappears floating in the air. 3... 2... 1. A dummy appears in front of me and starts swinging. This dummy doesn’t have the same predictable swings of the dummies before. The dummy is hitting me all over my body and at this point the impacts barely sting. I try to dodge the attacks by stepping back to let it swing at nothing and the dummy floats forward at exactly the same pace as I move back. I turn to run away and the dummy rotates around me faster than I can turn and continues to hit me. Frustrated at my inability to escape I strike back at the dummy trying to break his arm off like I did to the other dummy. I manage to land a solid hit in and I snap the dummy's arm off.

  The dummy doesn't even skip a beat. It hits me with its unbroken arm and I see the arm I broke regrows. The dummy was made of wood and growing looks like a tree branch growing on time lapse. During all of this attempted evasion, the dummy's strike get faster, and harder. A dull ache is starting to blossom all over my body. I am starting to stumble from the hits, but the dummy keeps pace with my stumbling, causing me to fall down onto my ass. Then even when I am down, the relentless beating continues. I strike back in frustration but I am not able to make a dent in the furious beating. I stick my arm out and fire my energy beam. My energy beam passes right through the dummy and instead of destroying my target my outstretched hand gets smacked and there is a loud snapping sound. Pain shoots through my arm and the dummy is unharmed. From the pain, I assume my arm is broken. I can't seem to make any headway. I can’t stand up as every time I try the relentless arms pulverize me and keep my down. The hits are going from a dull ache to something more painful. I try to curl up into a ball to block the arms, but it is like the dummy knows what I am doing and focuses on my head. A lucky strike catches me across the face. I hear a crushing sound and my face feels sunken in. The pain makes me reel backwards and I drop my guard. The dummy capitalizes and strikes my in the face three times in rapid succession. My vision goes white in pain and I black out.

  Congratulations, you have finished Hardy Challenge. You have scored 39 seconds; this places you in the 23rd percentile of all participants. You may retake this challenge again at any Mana Point Stadium.

  I wake up to a notification and pain. My arm still hurts and my face is sunken in. I only last 39 seconds? I am disappointed that I didn’t even make it out of the bottom quartile. Especially after my great showing with my Energy Beam. I try to stand up by putting my arm on the floor and pushing up. Pain shoots through my arm and I remember the loud snapping sound. For some reason I thought I was more resilient than to have broken bones. I pull up Hardy's description and reread it. Bones are not mentioned at all, how am I going to take powerful hits if my bones still break? That is an obvious flaw in my ability. I am resilient against slashing and piercing weapons, but not against bludgeoning. I am reminded role-playing games that I played before the world changed. I need to up my resistances. I remain sitting on the ground and pull up my interface.

  While in my interface, I click on the icon with three dots and two lines. My vision goes black and I see two icons appear, one that is a hand shooting a beam and the other was a person with lines coming off of him. These icons must be Energy Beam and Hardy. Above the two icons are distinct patterns of circles connected by lines.

  Welcome to Arrays. Your array has been generated based on your genome. You may use the arrays to slot abilities to combine the essence of each ability granting them bonuses. Now that you have two abilities you can try to combine them to see how they modify each other. Once an ability is slotted it cannot be unslotted without an Array unlock scroll, which can be obtained in the Honor Exchange. You can upgrade the links in array with orange tokens, improving the connection between the abilities. Unslotting an ability does not impact the strength of the linkage.

  I look at my array. It is a spiderweb of nodes and connections. There appear to be at least one hundred nodes spiraling around me, glowing softly. Closest to me are three nodes, glowing bright yellow instead of the muted white. These yellow nodes are the nodes that are closest to me as I spin around. These must be starting points for branches. Two of the yellow nodes have only a single connection, and one of them has two connections. I try to look ahead in the arrays to see where it might be best to place my abilities. One of the single connection connects to a node that has three additional branches. The other single node creates a spiral going off into the distance. And the double node seems to be part of a diamond, with two nodes connected to tow other nodes that are connected to each other. I decide to use the double connection and I place Energy Beam closest to my body and Hardy in one of the diagonals. Energy Beam now had one open slot and Hardy had two. As soon as I slot Hardy I get a notification.

  Modification Unlocked. Energy Beam and Hardy have successfully combined. Review the modifications now.

  Hardy (Passive): Your skin, ligaments, tendons and muscles+ temper and are more resilient. In addition 0 units of force and 1 unit of electromagnetic energy of every impact is redirected into your personal aether.

  Energy Beam (Active): Create a beam of electromagnetic energy+ from your hands. Energy beam contains 10 units of power for up to 2 seconds. Siphon 1 unit from your personal aether to add 0.5 units of power to your energy beam. Cooldown 10 seconds.

  These ability modifications are nice. Redirecting additional energy will be every useful if I run across someone else that uses Energy Beam, or the Energy Burst, that I saw earlier. After spending a little more time processing the Energy Beam modification, it seems that I can use the energy from my aether to supercharge my Energy Beam. A very nice way to dish out additional damage. I could even super charge my personal aether by firing a level one energy beam at myself. I wonder how long I can hold charge in my personal aether. Without anything else to do in the Array screen I exit and see one last icon in the upper left hand of my vision, an arrow pointing up. I click on the arrow and receive a notification.

  You have earned sigils to upgrade an ability. sigils are earned in a Gate World by battling for your life and in can be obtained in reward chests. Every ability has three traits, blue, red, and green. Upgrading an ability will improve each trait and unlock new possibilities for the skill. Each sigil earned will be of a specific color and can be used to upgrade the corresponding trait in the ability. Let's try it now, upgrade an ability with your sigils.