Luca DR
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Edge of apocalypse 85
🕑 Added 2023-07-13 14:01:06 +0000 UTC85 – Void and Paperclips
Yet another attempt at using Usurp on a dead voidling failed.
“This is getting ridiculous. I can’t believe that all the voidlings I kill are too damaged to use Usurp on.”
It looked like they were, but Albert was not one to give up easily, and as he continued killing monsters, his mind tried to come up with ideas on how to get Usurp to work.
The fireball part of the quest was completed next. Albert wanted to get it over with, because an idea had finally come to mind, and he wanted to test it as soon as possible. As he killed voidling after voidling, he also noticed that his mana growth had hit the point of diminishing returns, and he was not even gaining a single point in either his max mana or in his hourly regeneration even after three or four kills. It was to be expected, but it was a bit sad to see it happen nonetheless.
“No endless grinding, I guess.”
He stopped to eat a quick meal, drink some water from his inventory stash, replenish his mana pool, and then set out once again, taking out his trusted sword. Now, he did not think that in order for Strengthening kills to count, he had to strangle the voidlings barehanded, and indeed he was right.
As soon as he spotted a voidling, his plan was set in motion. It was a very straightforward plan, consisting of him using his superior speed granted by the skill to dash at the monster, hit it in the small window of time when it was confused and didn’t know how to react to the sudden threat, and cut it in half with the sword.
Easy peasy.
It wasn’t enough to kill it, though. Albert knew it very well, from his very first encounter in the caves. As expected, the two halves of the monster immediately began to regenerate, inching closer to each other while small tentacles of void strings reconnected them together.
While the monster was weakened and busy trying to survive, Albert finally used Usurp.
[Usurp failed. Incapacitate the target further.]
Albert smiled. Despite the skill not working, it was a huge victory. As Jack Sparrow said in one of Albert’s favorite movies: Aha! So, we've established my proposal is sound in principle, now we're just haggling over price.
The price was to cut the creature into as many pieces as possible without it dying, and without getting even more traumatized than he already was in the process. Both parts of the plan were harder than expected. It was hard to keep cutting a seemingly vile monster when all it did was wiggle on the ground, screaming and writhing in pain as it was being diced and sliced into ever smaller cubes.
On the other hand, it was also hard to find the sweet spot where the monster was weak enough for the skill to work – and since the skill was only at level one the window was rather small – without it capitulating and returning to its blissful existence in the void.
At least that’s how Albert liked to imagine a voidling’s afterlife.
The only saving grace was that the monster did not bleed much, only a purple and dark ooze stained the ground beneath it.
Eventually the skill succeeded.
[Usurp successful! Increased void and psionic affinity.]
“Oh, nice!” Albert grinned. “This might just be my ticket to unlocking the psionic evolution!”
Was that why the system sent him here?
There were two theories in his mind. The psionic evolution quest was a prime example of how the two theories and interpretations of the system differed from one another. The first theory stated that the system provided everything. If it promised to make Albert into a psionic being once he found a way to leave the place, then it didn’t matter if he usurped the voidlings or not. The system would provide.
The other idea was that the system knew Albert would usurp the voidlings, gaining more and more affinity in the process. It didn’t state it clearly in the quest for unknown reasons, but it was confident that Albert would do it. Thus, Albert was technically free to pursue the quests however he wanted, but he should at least try to understand what the system was nudging him towards.
Then there was a third option. That the system would make it so he gained the affinity, one way or another. If he usurped, then all the better. If he didn’t, then perhaps in order to leave he would be forced to use a device that could only be activated by a psion, and he would be forced to come back and hunt more monsters. Or the system would simply provide, like theory one, but only because it gained the power to do after Albert killed the voidlings.
There was no way to know which was true. But all of them did essentially mean the same thing, on a practical level. Albert had only an illusion of free will, because no matter what he did, the system was either manipulating, or predicting, or outright making stuff happen.
They want to make you feel special. A video Albert watched a long time ago and of which now was reminded of said. It talked about paperclips and the dread of an infinite, empty universe. And that’s what we are, special, right? We’re a pale blue dot, and we make music and art and war and video games, and that stuff’s gotta matter, right? Because why else would we be doing it?
Albert shook his head, taking a deep breath. More existential nightmare fuel, along with what Marc sent him the other day, the Stephen Wolfram’s article saying that the whole universe is a computational machine and that humans are simply agents who think they have free will because they are too limited to see the whole picture.
In order to distract himself from the frankly mind-bending possibility that he was only a cog in a giant, perhaps not even sentient machine, he decided to go hunting.
[Usurp successful! Increased void and psionic affinity.]
[Usurp successful! Increased void and psionic affinity.]
[Usurp successful! Increased void and psionic affinity.]
[Usurp successful! Increased void and psionic affinity.]
[Usurp successful! Gained: Void Armor skill.]
“Huh?” This was unexpected. So, there was a chance of lucky hits!
Wasting no time, Albert decided to read the skill and test it out immediately.
Void Armor 1
· After having learned how Voidlings protect themselves, you can now manifest a thin layer of void-attuned armor at will.
Activating the skill immediately gave Albert a strong sense of vertigo and nausea. Struggling to keep his lunch, he inspected what few patches of skin he could see under the military armor he was wearing, and noticed that they quickly became covered in scales. They were purple, shiny and sleek, slightly translucent and, along their length, there seemed to be actual veins carrying a deep purple fluid that was slightly luminous and very viscous.
A quick test before he had to dismiss the skill proved that the scales were very tough and durable, but less so than a voidling’s armor. They were also positively badass, although he could feel that they also covered his face and head, compressing his hair as if he was wearing a restricting helmet. The armor did not restrict movement, but felt weird, like a living presence touching him everywhere.
Adding the strange sensations to the feeling of vertigo, it was hard for him to keep the armor active for more than a few seconds. And considering that the armor took a few moments to appear, meaning that it could not be activated just slightly before taking a hit, Albert had to concede that the skill wasn’t all that good yet.
However, if he managed to increase his void affinity, then he might be able to diminish the backlash caused by his vulnerability to void, and he could enjoy his (almost) free, and super cool armor.
Albert could not suppress his grin as he went out to scout for even more voidlings to usurp.
