Chapter 2: Ch.0002 – The Fungal Life for Me

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Lvl. 1 Fungal Imp 

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What came next was a frenzied flurry of motion and reaction. No sooner had Jimmy laid his eyes onto the creature did it lunge towards him, a bestial snarl on its grey lips. He twisted away with ease. It crashed onto the grass behind him and clumsily attempted to rise again. A kick to its ribs with all the strength that he could muster put a quick end to that. 

He thought that he heard something crack as the diminutive thing flew towards a tree and the air resounded with a thud as it slammed against the bark and slid back to the earth. The imp groaned, hurt but alive still. 

Jimmy was on it before it could so much as twitch, his legs like hammer-blows upon the defenseless monster. 

It curled into a ball; its arms wrapped around its face in a feeble attempt at shielding itself. It did it very little good. The imp grunted and screeched with every blow, its voice a high-pitched shriek that grew quieter until, with a final wet groan, it fell silent. 

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You have earned 2 SC 

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He read the screen and then stared at the corpse wrought with his own hands. 

It was a small thing, he realized once the rush of battle gave way to quiet. About the size of a small child, with hairless, ashen white skin dotted with pockmarks and bulbous mushroom-like warts, a nose too large for its head and red bestial eyes. Twisting root-like tendrils covered parts of its body like a parasite. 

He had never killed anything larger than an insect before and after having done so, found no particular joy in the experience. 

He didn’t feel distressed either. More so than anything, he felt that it had been a tedious experience. He stared at the splotches of sickly green blood that stained his pants with mild irritation. He would need to find a way to have it cleaned, somehow. 

He turned then, intent on surveying his surroundings, when his ears caught the frantic crunch of grass all too close behind him. Jimmy leapt away without bothering to turn and a mere second later, three shadows flew through the space that he had occupied. He fell to a tumble and quickly righted himself. 

There, on the grass, laid three more of the imps, all level one. They snarled at him, incensed by the failure of their ambush. He stared at them unbothered by their intimidation. 

The imps were small and weak but fighting three at once was two too many for his comfort. Battling them in close quarters was likely to prove a bloody affair for all involved. 

Fortunately, he had another option. 

He rose then, his bearing imperious as he loomed over the small things and raised his hands. They flinched, unsure of what he would do. He could see their bestial intelligence shifting behind those beady eyes as instinctual calculations were made and done. 

Would they flee? Would they fight? 

He waited to see. One of the creatures glanced at the cooling corpse of their kin and then back again at him. It shifted away ever so slightly. The movement earned a harsh, guttural bark from its kin who cowed it back into line. The three would fight then, it seemed. 

He sighed. 

He had only done this once, with the words of the being guiding him. It had felt strange then, but also invigorating like nothing else. It felt the same still as he mustered his mana into being, shaped it with will and intent, and allowed The System to do the rest. 

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Spell: Lightning Bolt I (Tinkerer Variant) 

Active: Slings a bolt of lightning at a target, dealing Electric damage. 

Deals lesser damage against organic beings and greater damage against constructs, machine devices and mechanical beings. May paralyze or stun the target. 

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A spark of electricity danced across his fingers, a warning of what was to come, before a thin crackling beam shot from his fingertips towards the nearest imp. The creature made a feeble attempt to dodge. 

Its reaction time was applaudable but still altogether too slow to avoid his spell. The lightning struck it squarely on its chest with enough force to send it reeling back onto the grass. 

The other two yelped and jumped away as their kin fell, its body made spastic with the volatile energy that coursed through it. Jimmy allowed his Lightning Bolt to sear the creature for a few seconds before the mana drain became noticeable. He cut it then and waited. The imp continued to twitch where it laid, and then grew still. 

The air remained silent. There was no screen declaring how much SC he had earned from the kill, which meant that... 

The imp shakily rose to its feet. He raised an eyebrow in surprise. 

The thing had survived? 

Its two companions seemed as shocked as he was. Their gazes snapped between him and their wounded kin for a few moments before they slowly returned to its side. Jimmy had lowered his arm but was prepared to strike again should they make another attempt on his life. 

Fortunately, his display of magical ability seemed to have done enough to dissuade them and the creatures hastily retreated into the underbrush, their battered kin carried away between the two. 

He quietly watched them leave and only when he was certain that they had gone did he turn away and survey the landscape for any other threats. 

He saw no other imps, but a critter or two caught his attention as they scurried through the thick underbrush. Tall but thin trees of an ashen-white wood rose towards the sky like grasping fingers of bone, their crimson leaves rustling with the passing breeze. A carpet of grass coated the ground for as far as the eye could see and all-manner of strange and colorful flora decorated the scenery, each more alien than the last. 

It certainly looked nothing like the roof that he knew, but The System said otherwise. He recalled the screen that had flashed before his eyes before the imp attack stole away his attention. 

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Alert 

You have entered Fungal Lair: Parsnip Views Complex 

 Floor: Roof 

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The screen made bare the reality of the situation. He truly was still on the roof. It had been changed, and he likely had its transformation into a ‘Fungal Lair’ to thank for that. The being had mentioned lairs during their discussion, if only briefly. They served the same role as dungeons from the games of his youth had, it had said. 

Vast spaces confined from the greater whole of the world, home to their own unique ecosystems, resources and an abundant mass of monsters, which meant that he was likely to be attacked soon enough. 

Jimmy knew what he needed to do next. 

He moved first, unwilling to remain where the imps could find him again. The forest was thick and provided ample opportunities for him to hide. It also served to create dozens of points from which he could be ambushed by something as small and vicious as an imp. 

Jimmy tried to not let his caution slow him down too much as he slunk through the trees, his ears keen as he searched the ambient forest cacophony for any threats. 

It took him a few minutes of exploration, but eventually, he found a small patch of open space far enough away that could serve his needs. He hid himself in the shadowed nook of a tree and focused himself. With an effort of will, he called on a skill to manifest. A flutter of sensation traveled through his being as it took its toll and summoned forth his first unit; an amalgamation of metal and parts that rapidly assembled itself as if guided by unseen hands. 

The Chameleon Recon Drone took five minutes to finish and that was five minutes that he spent warily searching the surrounding forest for signs of attack. He felt when it was done and again when a link was forged between them surer than any other bound by love or family or contract. For this was a bond guaranteed by The System: one between maker and the made. 

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Chameleon Recon Drone (I) 

35 SC – 35 Essence - 5 minutes 

Basic scout unit. Small and quick. Has an ability that renders them invisible for a short duration. 

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The construct whirled to life as it became aware and then turned to face him. It was the size of a large dog and bore a vaguely steam-punk design, its outer shell the color of brass and its single, yellow large lens-like eye focused unblinkingly onto him. It hovered a few inches off the ground and said nothing, but he’d not expected anything else. His units were, save for a few, all devoid of true will and thought. 

They would act according to their roles and his commands and no more. 

He quickly gave it another once-over before he nodded to himself. 

“Do you speak?” 

“This unit can.” it answered. 

“Where do you come from?” 

“This unit was created by The System to serve the maker.” 

“How long ago were you created?” 

“Four seconds. Five seconds. Six sec-” 

“That’s enough.” he said as he gave it another look. The fact that The System could and had created something as responsive and complex – in its own way – as the drone in a matter of mere minutes struck him as fascinating, but he supposed that it should come as no surprise considering the scale at which it operated. The being had said as much, hadn’t it? 

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The System spanned across the breadth of the galaxy, influencing all that it touched. What was an act of creation such as this compared to what it must achieve daily across the stars? 

“Travel for an hour in that direction and then return quickly.” he commanded of it as soon as he’d composed his thoughts. “Take note of everything of interest that you see along the way. Avoid combat and flee if anything tries to attack.” 

“Acknowledged.” warbled the construct before it slunk away into the underbrush at a calm pace. Jimmy watched it go and then eyed the spot that it had been where a second drone was already in the making. He had queued up an additional three of the drones and after the last was done and sent scurrying away, he returned to his hidden nook to await their return. 

With a drone sent towards each cardinal direction, he figured that he would at least be able to puzzle out a rough understanding of the forest’s geography from their reports. 

Until they returned, he took his time to further study and watch the critters and flora of the alien landscape from his hiding spot. Some of them, he found, looked no different to what he knew of, like squirrels and certain birds. But others looked so entirely foreign that he might as well have been on another planet. 

Most were, fortunately, skittish and had no desire to attack something as large as him. A few were not and it took a few crackling bolts of lightning to see them off. 

Still, they were a rarity and he remained unharmed until the first drone returned, well and whole for which he was grateful. The four he had made had already gouged a hole in his SC balance, and he needed no reason to see that hole dug deeper just yet. 

“I have not found a clearing.” it said in its clunky robotic tone. “A group of imps was seen, six strong. I avoided them as commanded by the maker. Other unidentified creatures were also seen. I avoided them as commanded by the maker. Lumber is aplenty...” 

It droned on for another minute as it continued to list everything of interest that it had seen before it fell silent. Jimmy processed the valuable information and then waited. The second and third drones made themselves known not too long after the first and he assumed that the fourth would arrive not too long after but even after a half hour had passed, he still saw neither sight nor sound of the fourth. 

After the forty-fifth minute, he was forced to assume that it had been destroyed or obstructed. The idea rankled him. It was said to have a competent stealth ability, and so he had hoped that all of his units would have been able to return safely. The fact that it hadn’t could only mean that something powerful laid to the north. 

Something he had no desire to encounter just yet. 

Jimmy took everything he had learnt from his surviving drones, cemented a plan of action and set off into the forest. The drones surrounded him in a triangular formation, their sensory arrays alert for any signs of danger. 

A few groups of imps were picked up on as they went, which were easily avoided, as well as newer classes of monsters that he had yet to encounter. The journey proved long but safe with his drones leading the way until finally, he arrived at a clearing near the edge of the forest. 

The trees were thinner here, and the underbrush not as suffocating. Bright sunlight streamed down from the blue skies above and a grassy plain littered with large rocky outcroppings, each like an enormous dagger of stone tearing free of the earth. 

But most important of all was the large mound of dull blue crystal that he spied a short distance away. 

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Medium Essence Deposit (I) 

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Jimmy rarely felt the need to smile, and he felt no different then. But as he eyed the shimmering resource deposit, he came very close to it. It was unguarded which was a small blessing because he hadn’t the SC nor the spell-power to try and take on a large force. 

A quick search of the surrounding area found no threats and so Jimmy set to work with the speed of a man that knew that danger abounded with every wasted moment. 

He set down a terminus to claim the area as his own, and as it was his first one, it was both free and erected itself far quicker than the norm. The structure came to life in mere seconds and when all was said and done, proved both smaller and less fanciful than he had expected of it. It was only barely larger than a large shed and boasted of all manner of strange and unknowable bits and jutting parts. 

It was also wholly contained, with no apparent means of exit or entry. 

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You have founded a Settlement 

Name your Settlement 

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You have founded a Nation 

Name your Nation 

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Neither screen came as a surprise, and he was already well prepared with his names. 

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You have named your Settlement 

The (Village) of Space Port is founded 

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You have named your Nation 

The Nation of Space is founded 

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Jimmy didn’t smile, but the name was enough to crack a chip in even his emotionless mien. And his therapist had said that he had no sense of humour. 

That done, he turned to the terminus. 

Interacting with it summoned forth a small tooltip. 

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Terminus (I) 

400 SC – 400 essence - 5 hours – Limit: 3 

3 unit slots 

The heart of every Circuitarchy settlement, from the smallest village to the grandest of cities. The Terminus (I) produces the workhorse units of Circuitarchy civilization, starting with the Worker Automata (I) or a given replacement. 

--- Units --- 

Worker Automata (I) – Sub-Processor Automata (I) – Processor Automata (I) 

--- Upgrades --- 

- Pioneers (I) - 275 RP - 2 days. 

Improves the rate of unit production. 

- Garrison (I) - 400 RP - 5 days 

Allows for unit garrisoning within the Terminus (I). 

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Worker Automata (I) 

35 SC – 35 Essence - 5 minutes 

General all-purpose worker unit. Produces structures and gathers resources. Not as effective at either task compared to a specialist. Cannot attack or defend. 

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Sub-Processor Automata (I) 

200 SC – 200 Essence – 10 minutes 

Command unit. Can command groups up to 10 unit. Increases their task effectiveness. 

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Processor Automata (I) 

350 SC – 350 Essence - 30 minutes 

Command unit. Can command groups up to 50 units or 10 Sub-Processor Automata. Greatly increases their task effectiveness. 

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