SSD 5.18 - Highly Disciplined

Sorry this is a bit late. I worked on it last week, but didn't get as much done as I wanted. Vacation wore me out, haha. Also, might have been a little depressed from political things.

Still, here we go with a new chapter. Enjoy!

I’ve seen murderers who were kind to all, and saints that were misanthropes, secretly giving all they had to those in need. The surface is just that. Even so, when people tell you who they are, and what they want, in word or deed, believe them. Then refine your opinion from there.

-P’vom of Tardice

==Caden==

I had been meaning to look in on Exsan. While a number of shards were now messing with manipulating space, as well as planning out what that additional space might be usable for, one of my shards, finished with cataloging some of the various plants and animals, had gone to do exactly that…

And then promptly discovered that Exsan would have gotten along swimmingly with Giger.

I mean, it makes sense, sort of.

If I took a step back, emotionally, and just looked at things from an engineering perspective, then living organisms were just another machine. That attitude had even come up in some of my biology classes, examining systems as parts of vastly intricate machines.

Except, people were more than the sum of their parts.

Literally, with the soul layered over the top.

With the presence of a soul, you could argue that the body was meaningless, sure. One the soul was gone, all that remained was a broken machine, ready to be disposed of. I wasn’t even that far from that view point, myself. The body, what remained, didn’t matter to the dead, it mattered to the living.

And what Exsan had made, had never been part of anything true living. Even now, the pallid flesh only continued to function because it was constantly repaired. The blood was gone, the muscles only twitching in response to electrical impulses.

All of that was true, but it still failed to stop my initial reaction.

Revulsion, mixed with a feeling of the uncanny.

Even if I were to ignore this, there is no possibility that we could ever allow anyone to see it. Better to destroy it and find another way, rather than risk it.

People, upon seeing such, would automatically come to the wrong conclusions.

All of which had lead to me standing awkwardly in a spherical room, staring at the instruments nearly stored in alcoves set into the wall, and the hissing of air occasionally managing to produce small notes of music where it passed through lips pressed obscenely into the mouth pieces of tubes of brass. Even beyond the abominations, the completely spherical room, interspersed with asymmetrical recesses that held failed instruments, even extending upwards where small braces of stone held things tightly so they would not fall, felt alien.

Arguably, this design was more efficient, making maximum use of all the space, but it was not, in any way designed to be traversed or accessed by a person.

Of course, this line of thought was probably more a way to distract me from other thoughts about what the hell the system had just sent me.

‘I don’t believe you will be displeased.’

“Yeah, sure, probably didn’t think I would be displeased by this, either,” I muttered.

‘On reflection, I would have known that, had I bothered to consider such. The social mores of humanity were fairly extensively documented and explored, both by philosophers and various media. Humanity’s discomfort with their own nature as biological systems was well understood, both from religious references to perfected resurrection and extending to countless references both real and fictional, to pursuits of immortality.’

I blinked.

“Right,” I said, after a moment.

Great, two intellectuals with impulse issues… and the power of demigods. Yep, not a recipe for disaster at all.

‘Yes, humanity’s discomfort with their limited fleshy nature is perhaps one of their few reasonable attitudes. Though how that discomfort is amplified when it extends to cybernetics, rather than diminished, is baffling.’

Not sure that is the lesson I would have taken from things, but again, fundamentally different viewpoints.

And… well, he isn’t wrong. People are illogical, but then again…

I looked around, again, focusing less on his methods, and more on what he was actually making with them.

“So… music,” I said. “You said that you like it. Not exactly a logical approach.”

‘Dungeons are not logical creatures, either. Though the others of my kind… They are barely more alive than these instruments. Instincts and a mind grinding away with no purpose, no beauty. They are detestable.’

“Kind of how humans feel about this kind of thing, really,” I said, pointing to some of the hybrid machines. “People won’t react well, if anyone ever finds out. And I’m not sure if it matters if they are inaccessible, or if no one ever manages to get down here, with the way various skills work. Too much a risk to have them.”

‘Acceptable. Should be able to work around the issue now, given our new capabilities.’

New… oh. Guess I should open this damn notification.

You have gained a new skill:

Musician II

,

,

,

Other mundane tradesman skills detected at sufficient level. Plus…

ERROR

.

.

.

Additional, unawarded skill-sets have been demonstrated. Dungeon archetype overridden via automatic error fixing system, adding in additional types: engineering, architecture, woodwork, landscaping.

The skills: Appraise III, Metallurgy II, Calculation II, Artist’s Perception II, and Musician II are removed and combined.

You have gained a new compound skill:

Polymath III

A student of many fields, you have progressed enough to be considered a professional in a number of them. These skills, in addition to now leveling up together, also work together more seamlessly. In addition, knowledge related to these skills is easier to both learn and recall.

Currently Integrated Skill-sets:

Appraisal*, Metalworking, Mathematics, Sculpture, Painting, Music, Woodworking, Architecture, Engineering, Landscaping

*Active

You have gained a new title:

Highly Disciplined III

Polymaths are not that uncommon. Many professions require the mastery of a number of diverse skills. However, you are not just an ordinary polymath. You have ten different disciplines, all sufficiently practiced to be folded together. Now, reap the rewards of your efforts.

+1750 AP (250+500+1000)

+Reward Deferred

My body slumped to the floor, as my mind briefly stuttered like a faulty hard-drive. Vaguely, I felt like I could feel The System’s grubby little fingers poking around in my soul more frenetically than usual.

And then the world snapped back into place, the same, but different than before.

Certainly some of that was due simply to the increased level of my artistic skills, in addition to the sudden gain of a true engineering skill, both of which had highly unfavorable things to say about Exsan’s handling of flesh and machinery, if for different reasons.

Artistically, whether Exsan wanted to amplify the dissonance of the human and artificial, the human against the natural stone, or instead try to unify them together into a more harmonious whole, he was doing it wrong. The angles, the colors, the materials, they wouldn’t manage to properly send any of those messages.

Not that I think any message was intended at all. And... that feels wrong to the skill as well, of course.

Might have to be careful of that part of the skill. God knows I love my artistry, but there are times where pure functionality is the goal. If some artistry can be added without diminishing from that fine, but the purpose does matter most.

And that, of course, was why I was suddenly hyper aware of all the engineering flaws, too.

Flesh was highly elastic, up to certain limits, which made it an ideal medium for producing vibrations. However, no structural replication of the mouth cavity had been added, altering things away from the natural tone a human would be able to produce. In addition…

Gah.

My new skill was easy to get lost in. Small bits of knowledge rose into my head as I considered Exsan’s work as a simple engineering problem.

What I really need is a specialty in materials science, but metallurgy is the closest I have to that. And it is already trying to suggest different alloys to make so I can examine their resonant frequency.

Yep, just going to leave this to Exsan. Combination of musical skills and engineering wants to dive right in, and I have too many projects already.

The metal parts remained, but the fleshy bits started to dissolve away.

“Any idea what you will replace that with?” I asked.

‘Wax wasn’t a terrible idea. Various plant saps are a good starting point as well. Might find some rubber or latex equivalent. Possibly some kind of leather, instead. Nothing from human’s, don’t worry. The normal flaws of many materials can be overlooked with automated repairs, easily enough.’

I nodded vaguely feeling flashes of videos pop into my head.

Think it is drawing from my memory, for all of this. Though it is connecting information that I hadn’t actually integrated into a cohesive whole.

I had always watched a lot of documentaries, as well as countless numbers of small educational videos on internet. That, plus all my education before and during college…

So much, knowledge, everywhere.

Makes me wish I had read one of those books about how to restart civilization from scratch.

I had meant to buy a copy, and keep it in my car with other emergency supplies. Mostly as a joke to myself, but with some lighthearted seriousness in case of an apocalyptic event.

Downloaded a copy to a tablet once, even though I didn’t do more than skim a couple pages.

Still, I had been keenly aware of the irony of placing the book onto a device that would become useless almost immediately after it was actually needed.

Not relevant now.

“So, on a different subject, have you given any thought to what you want to do with your dungeon, Exsan?” I asked.

‘I have… considered it. I think it would be best if we had some kind of unified vision.’

I nodded, absently pulling out a chair as I sat down, connecting it to the stone to stabilize everything.

Made of stone, but I still like sitting down to think. All in my head, but so are the rest of my thought, ha.

“Okay, so something that works for both of us…” I said, humming for a moment in thought. Yep, still sounds strange with this body. Maybe with some moss in the lungs and throat to act as acoustic dampeners? Ugh, getting distracted already… again. Going to need to watch for that. “This new skill is great, but it keeps making my thoughts diverge into tangents. And I already did that quite enough already.” I muttered the last bit.

‘Yes, I have found that thoughts are prone to wander. Killing errant thoughts has proven to be surprisingly challenging, as new ones are born from the corpse like mushrooms.’

You would think that I would stop being surprised by Exsan’s perspective, but no, just keeps happening. Oh well, not like I’ve even really talked with him that much yet.

Rather than commenting on his interesting linguistic choices, I just nodded.

“Yeah, not much to be done other than work to control it. Still, this too, is a distraction. We’ll have… a lot more space to work with than I thought we would.”

‘I am aware of your current experiments. Based on the size of what you have created so far, we should not run out of room for any type of normal dungeon. However, based on your previous creation of large spaces to replicate natural environments, I am uncertain exactly what you intend.’

“Originally, I had a different plan,” I said. “I named the first part of the meadow ‘The Final Refuge.’ I had wanted to… kind of tell a story. A whole civilization that had been lost to some disaster. Adventurer’s would enter and essentially go through things in reverse. Start at where they had retreated to at the end, and then go through their civilization, getting to more and more developed areas, though they would be overrun with monsters, decayed due to time and plants, and so on.”

‘Is the change due to me? I am uncertain how my dungeon would work within this paradigm.’

I pursed my lips for a second, sighing.

“No, not really. This is just the final nail in the coffin, really.” Wasn’t I just mentally giving Exsan crap about morbid metaphors? Eh, well, humans can be a morbid bunch too. “The scenario was a little too close to what I learned about dungeon breaks. I’d rather do something… new. Something fantastical, and awe inspiring, though obviously it will be more and more dangerous. And, now, obviously something that can handle two different approaches to the dungeon methodology.”

‘Do you have something in mind?’

“Too many,” I said, wryly. “We have portals, and can replicate different environments. Could do some kind of fractured world, where dimensions have broken apart and there are sudden splits between environments. Same thing for a temporal disaster. A civilization’s abandoned teleport nexus, with players gradually getting more access as they power things on, traveling to other worlds and facilities to retrieve keys, etc… Essentially lots of fertile ground in various game mechanic tropes, as well. Tempted to make a metroidvania, forcing them to constantly travel back to earlier areas to try and open things or find secrets as they gain more access, but I’d feel bad making them do that for everything. Maybe on a specific labyrinth or level, that would be an option. Otherwise it would kind of clog things up, too, if they constantly had to backtrack into areas that lower level adventurers will be training in.”

“I don’t know, far more ideas that that. We will need to level up, I think. Not all the way to ten, since Zidaun gave some advice about that… but any skills we get may help determine what direction we should go.”

‘All sounds good.’

“Before we do that, however… did you have any particular ideas that you wanted to explore?”

‘Wouldn’t mind making my half more of a maze. You are too kind to them.’

“Oh that was something I wanted to do,” I said, reminded. “Most of what has been built so far, I’ll keep as just a training area for newbies, but it will need to be massively expanded, copied, and so on, just to deal with the numbers. Should be good for us, though, let far more people delve, and for longer times. Then I want to have a proper entrance to both our dungeons be at the end of the training area.”

‘Fine, but only if there is a way to skip it. Some trial, or test, that more experienced adventurers can do, so they don’t just crawl through the easy area.’

I thought for a moment, before I answered.

“It’s a fair request,” I said, sighing. “Part of me wants to force everyone through it just so they see what I have built, but that is probably a bit selfish…”

‘You have greed for… acclaim? Recognition?’

Normally, back when I was completely human, I would have brushed a question like that aside. However, with Exsan, I knew that he was truly trying to understand.

Embarrassing, perhaps, but I should probably explore my own feelings, anyway.

“I suppose…” I said. “Though maybe more for appreciation. I want what I build to be seen and understood as art. For the beauty to be shared. I suppose there is a part of me that wants that acclaim and recognition, too. Still, it is more about…” I struggled for a moment to find the words. “About a part of my humanity, that even as a dungeon I can make something beautiful. That I am dangerous, but the experience is about more than just adventurers grinding for levels and loot, or dying to feed us, and is an actual adventure.”

Sounds like I’m describing the world’s most dangerous theme park.

I paused for a moment, my engineering knowledge whispering into my head.

Okay, so, definitely building some roller coasters at some point.

‘Meaning. You crave meaning.’

“Yeah,” I said, awkwardly. Figures the ascended building is better at parsing feelings than I am. “I think you have identified what I want.”

‘Don’t bother with making a way to bypass, I understand. You have already let them skip it after, that will suffice. I want meaning too. Suffering, triumph, struggle, loss, betrayal, and sacrifice. I want to evoke these, to make those that succumb to me have a story worth knowing.’

‘I will want your help. To build and design things, so that the correct emotions are evoked.”

I did promise to help. And letting me keep everything was a nice gesture.

“Okay. Before we level, though, there was someone who wanted to meet with me,” I said. “Well he would probably be fine with meeting either of us, but I suspect things will go better if it is just me. And I have something in mind to ask for in exchange for the meeting. Hopefully it will help us gauge what were should be aiming for when building, eventually.”

‘Do so, then we will grow and plan.’