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Edge of apocalypse 66
🕑 Added 2023-06-15 20:24:47 +0000 UTCNobody knew of the existence of the biolab.
“You sure it’s safe?” Albert asked.
“Yep.” The Lair replied through the phone, in a similar way to how it used to communicate with Samantha when it was still the Quadrangle.
“Okay then, just wake me up if you need me. Analysis Mode.”
The biolab was a cramped room, much different than what Albert expected when he crossed the threshold of the reinforced double doors leading into the hidden area. It did not appear on any sensor, had no cameras, and was so hidden from view at the end of a maze of corridors that nobody could ever stumble upon it by mistake.
Good thing Albert could just teleport there. The Quadrangle did not have teleportation wards in place, as the technology was beyond what the BSA was capable of. Only the CARF did, on account of it being an HDF facility.
Inside the lab there was a mess of tubes and hissing machines hanging from the walls and jutting out of steel cased consoles reminiscent of a sci-fi era long gone, all leading to the central item on display. The brain.
In a jar, so to speak.
It was an actual human brain, belonging to the now almost deceased PsyOps, surrounded by a bubbling transparent fluid being moved around by the tubes coming in and out of the clear crystal dome that surrounded it. It didn’t move nor twitch, contrary to what Albert expected. Perhaps wrongfully.
Albert just went to sit on the uncomfortable lab stool that had been placed close to the contraption with the brain, and when he activated Analysis Mode, not even he knew what he expected to happen. He only knew that once the skill activated, he would hyperfocus on whatever task he had set his mind onto before flipping the skill on.
In this case, the task was to figure out how to steal the abilities of the psion and take them for himself. A fitting end, in his opinion. PsyOps deserved this and worse for what he did.
It was only after a few hours that Albert was finally done with the first part of the task. At this point, he had burned through almost half of his reserve of mana crystals – exactly 120 FU worth of them out of his 260 crystals stash in his inventory.
He scanned the brain with Appraisal, Perception, tried to complement his findings with the rudimentary theory of magic he was developing, tried to make sense of what being a psion even meant…
Then an idea came to his mind. He thought about how scientists measure particles by bombarding them with other particles and studying the effects that the collisions have. If only he could do the same thing with magic, and the brain that contained these psionic abilities, then he could gain precious insight.
New Skill: Usurp I
· I: You can steal skills from incapacitated or recently deceased entities. Activating the skill will initiate a destructive scan, leaving nothing behind.
There it was. Finally!
Still under the effect of Analysis Mode, but feeling that the skill was about to end its course, Albert decided that he had no time to waste. He wanted to use Usurp while Analysis Mode was still active, of course, as to maximize the effects it could have.
“Usurp.”
The brain melted into mush.
[UNSTABLE Skills acquired:]
· Psionic Suggestion
· Psionic Telekinesis
· Psionic Mind Read
· Psionic Solid-state Manifestation
[No description for UNSTABLE skills.]
[WARNING: All Psionics skills require racial evolution to be used correctly. Until a Psionic racial trait is acquired, they will be unstable and have unintended side effects.]
New Quest: Racial Evolution – Psionic.
· Find a way to make Perception Level 5 usable.
· Plant the Iperborea Seed to restore the shield around Elvenhome.
· Cross to the other side.
· Return.
· Reward: Race evolved into Psionic Human.
Quest Update: Body.
· Level up your body with magic.
· Absorb 1000 FU of mana into your body.
· Reward: gain better insight when looking at your inner mindscape.
· Reward: Cultivation-Level hybrid System blueprint to develop your own leveling system.
· Reward: Appraisal Update. You will be able to upgrade the skill and estimate the power of an opponent as an equivalent level.
Well, this time the System was being very chatty. Too bad it was not the right time, nor the right place to stop and think about what the Quests meant and how Albert should tackle them. He had an exit plan to execute.
He appeared out of thin air, startling his grandfather who was hiding in a service closet. After the man was done trying to beat his grandson up, first because he thought the interloper was hostile, and then to punish him for making him almost have a heart attack, the two were finally ready to leave.
“How did it go?” Lloyd asked.
Albert gave him a quick summary of what he did and the skills he gained as the two finished the preparations for their escape.
“That’s ominous.” Lloyd said.
“And a possible pain in the ass,” Albert added.
“Okay.” Lloyd said after putting on his bulletproof vest. “We ready? It’s not going to be easy.”
He tapped the vest. It had been improved by Albert’s [Magical Item Creation], making it as strong and sturdy as it could possibly be. Not only could it stop a cannonball (or so they claimed without ever testing that particular theory), it also provided some protection to the areas not directly covered by the vest thanks to a weak shield it projected.
It had enough charge to last until they were out of the Quadrangle.
The two nodded to each other. “Time to shoot our way out.”
Albert teleported. Lloyd kicked the door open and leveled his shotgun at one of the guards standing in the corridor. The lockdown of the facility had ended a while ago, but fortunately all people inside the Quadrangle could be considered hostile compromised HDF agents, and the old man had zero issues killing them.
He hated Sekkers, and whoever decided to aid an enemy. He also didn’t care about being seen or recognized, on account of the fact that his permanence on planet Earth was coming to an end.
Two more shots sent two other guards flying into a wall before alarms started blaring. As the old man ran, he came across the unconscious bodies of more guards and Quadrangle staff. Albert was doing his job, although he was only incapacitating enemies.
A bit soft, the boy.
Several corridors ahead Albert was wreaking havoc inside the facility. Due to the fact that 99% of the personnel had just been shipped here from somewhere else after the PsyOps incident, nobody knew how to neutralize a magical threat. This meant that the Quadrangle, usually a fortress not even a powerful mage could penetrate or escape from, was vulnerable.
And he was exploiting every vulnerability. He still had more than 100FU worth of crystals he could use, and kept dashing and dodging around enemies in Bullet Time, while doing micro teleports to appear right behind enemies when they least expected him to.
The teleports were courtesy of Teleportation level 3, which granted him the ability to perform micro-jumps in a five-meter sphere around him without the need of the map. This meant that as soon as one of the guards saw him come out of a corner, he was already away. Moving at five times normal speed, he just appeared behind them and smacked them so hard in their vital points they crumpled to the ground.
Some of them were even sent flying, but never with fatal falls.
Lloyd followed. Albert made sure to cover both the front and the rear, and only occasionally did his grandpa have to fire his gun against guards spilling over from side rooms and corridors.
This wasn’t to say that the Quadrangle wasn’t putting up a fight. The guards all wore Kevlar armor that was impossible to pierce even with a close-range shotgun shot, probably enchanted. They could move and shoot incredibly fast and they had no problems unloading an entire mag on a teleporting young kid if they had the chance.
Albert kept dancing around and dodging – the Dodge skill carrying its weight when it mattered most. But it was hard to keep it up, and when he used the skill it was impossible for him to retaliate. This forced Albert to forgo the use of the skill the more the fight became intense, for no matter how much he dodged there were always more guards firing at him and the escape vectors of his skill were becoming too narrow.
Albert felt his heart begin to beat harder and harder the closer he got to the exit point. The guards piled up, and the corridors shrunk, and now he was taking stray hit that depleted his shield rapidly even as he tried to weave through the barrage of bullets.
The last stretch seemed impossible. There were too many guards, and it would be totally unthinkable to make it through while protecting his grandpa.
That is, if he tried to keep the fight clean.
“I think it might be time!” Lloyd said.
Albert knew it was true.
“Fuck!” He cursed. He didn’t want to do it.
“Fucking hell!” His grandpa responded in tone. “Just give it to me, I’ll do it.”
That was acceptable. Morally and ethically wrong but not as wrong. Perhaps he was becoming evil, he thought. Whatever.
Albert reached into his Inventory for the one thing they had prepared in case of emergency. It was something his mother gave him as a trump card right before he and his grandpa left for the Quadrangle.
“State of the art.” She said. “Courtesy of Transit Global.”
It was a rocket launcher. He remembered when he tested it in an empty field far from Temalas City. The thing was not a toy, and it dwarfed the destructive capabilities of even his high tier Fireballs.
“Oh yeah!” Lloyd was, on the other hand, very excited. “Gimme.”
He grabbed the heavy weapon with a grunt, went down on a knee with a curse that was very fitting of him, took aim and…
The corridor, the guards, the reinforced door behind them and probably a good chunk of mountain were immediately engulfed in flames. Vaporized. The shockwave was solid air that hit like a truck as it traveled down the corridor, depleting Albert’s shield while he protected his grandpa even though they were around a corner. The smoke followed.
“Gas mask!” Lloyd demanded, and Albert tossed him one.
He made sure not to look at the aftermath of the explosion as they left the Quadrangle the way they entered. There were mangled bodies, splashes of red under the debris and on what was left of the walls. Smoke and flames.
The car was waiting for them under a cloak that made it blend into the surrounding dead grass.
It was over.
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