Book 2, Chapter 5 (Patreon)

Waking up Suddenly. 

The mattress underneath was the type that was soft, that you sunk right into it. Usually, they resulted in a restless night, but there was none of that. Opening his eyes to see a strange bed, it was ornamental, heavy with old wood.

The mother of all headaches that he had expected was not present. Well, that would save him from begging help from Susie. Instead of pain, he felt like he had had ten hours of sleep and had treated his body like a temple for the past week. There were no aches, no pain, lots of energy, and his mind was crystal clear.

Not the bed, he knew instinctively. It was what he had been drinking. The fancy little flask! Extra points for the good stuff.

What time is it?

7:11 am

The last he had remembered was falling backwards on his seat and everyone peering at him. That had been late. Almost certainly early morning. Graham had been chuffed at doing an all nighter.

“It is still two hours to dawn.”

“Close enough,” Graham had re-buttered, “My last all nighter was my brother's wedding. Almost as good as this party. Aunty Jill, she was a character, anyway she,” Adrian had tuned out at that point. The roar of the listeners for a few minutes meant that the story at the least had had a great punchline.

Shake of the head. Maybe the day would not end up wasted, but four or fewer hours only. To feel this refreshed was amazing. It almost felt like he should drink the alcohol before bed each night.

The image was of a young dude, getting a cheque with big numbers written on it. Fancy cars, Rolex watches, hanger ons and expensive parties. Then the image blurred forward to show the still young man lining up to get government unemployment help.

The point of the image was crystal clear to him. Cost, money, everything always came down to it. Thoughts of indulging in unnecessarily alcohol were pushed from his mind, there were better uses for the energy that he could acquire.

The Bird was dead. Wagga Wagga would be safe. The only known wrinkle was the Lucu. Sally had indicated it was a problem, but one easily handled.

Just after midnight Susie and he had celebrated successfully creating their master plan. Details were hazy, the miracle drink still stayed true to that part of its purpose. It was something like focusing on achieving his intelligence buff after dark and then going hunting for salamanders during the day had been the gist of it. Though it had felt more profound at the time.

Lick his lips. Maybe something important was skipping his mind? That is right they had discussed his upgrade options at length.

Frowning.

Everyone last night had had a different opinion. Some had pushed healing heavily, others the shadow fighters, while the raid leaders had all pushed for the buff skill. There was no clarity. With a sigh, he put off the decision further.

The grand plan was nothing more than hot air. Yet it was what he would follow. Hardly ideal, but the Lucu changed everything. Fighting during the day and reading at night did not mesh well with his shadow skill set. The Lucu had ruined that shadow step was great, but the creature was too fast to risk being out when it was active. Till Sally dealt with it night was for bunkering up. He snorted. Jules had even made him give a pinky swear on that last one.

Rolling out of bed. Feet sinking into the soft carpet, so luxurious. There was some elegant stationary on the desk, a big ornamental C on a notepad. Further down in tiny writing, Campbell Boutique Hotel, it was all coming back. Centrally located, next door to the roasted quail, and the safest spot to dump him.

Dump was not fair. They had given him the best they could. The room he was standing in was larger than his open space living room and kitchen area at home. The sort of the place even with his inflated salary he would never have stayed at. Not that money mattered now. It was all about practicalities. The place was naturally fortified against the Lucu, strong bluestone walls, small windows and overall solid all the way through. All the strong magic users were going to be staying here till the threat was eliminated.

No complaints from him. This was so much better than forcing them all into a cellar somewhere and given Sally’s practical streak, that had probably been considered. Smiling, he walked out of the massive room and headed downstairs. The remains of last night’s buffet with a couple of fresh additions were on display out. It was probably not as good as what was available in the Roasted Quail across the street, but it was better than decent. The selection of non-perishables goods was topped up. Multiple cereal options, fresh bread, and even some pastries, but it was too early for the hot specialised food. There were empty spaces everywhere, yet at least two groups from last night were still going and a couple of tables were filled with early risers who had worked the night or were scheduled in for today.

The food was still warm. If he thought about it, those who had done an all nighter had probably eaten breakfast before bed and it left only the extreme hardcore. The foods available did not matter in pride of place on the central buffet table was a massive plate filled with Bird leftovers.

With a cup of coffee and filled with vindictive thoughts, he set about eating Bird.

You won’t eat me, I will eat you.

It felt good to be munching on the thing that had almost eaten him. Outside, people were moving sluggishly with a surprising lack of weapons on display. The hotel dining room unlike upstairs had large windows giving a view of the mall in the center of town. With a bit of imagination, it was like he was back in the good old days before the Armageddon had hit.

Four hours of sleep and no hangover totally changed his plans. The day went from being a write off to a relaxing morning followed by some hunting in the afternoon. Digging into the bag of holding, he pulled out the books Sam had traded to him the previous day and laid them out on the table. It was an interesting collection. A couple were like grade seven textbooks, another was massive with an ornamental cover, another was little more than a pamphlet.

• Interface and Traders; A Theoretical History
• Common Class Overview
• Magic Flavours and Application
• Strength through Communal Buffs
• Meditation techniques
• The Wonderful World of Art
• Optimal Utilisation of Cores
• Alpha Flora the Good, the Bad, and the Terrifying
• Alchemical Recipes

It was an interesting list. The first six he needed to read and understand as part of his intelligence pathway, while the last three were books that would give him direct benefits and increase his skills. The gathering and alchemical books would hopefully push him well into the advanced rankings and with luck to all the way to an expert ranking. On a whim he picked ‘The Wonderful World of Art’.

The book reminded him of a science textbook. It was thick, chunky, as wide as the dinner plate in front of him with thin pages. When he opened it, it greeted him with dense text. Flipping further revealing pages covered with glossy pictures which shocked him. There was a picture of a cave that was filled with bubble-like sculptures, thousands and potentially millions of them clustered everywhere. There were pictures showing the cave from a distance where the sculptures formed the impression of geometric shapes and then further pictures with higher magnification. The geometrical shapes first resolved into fluid images in which he recognised hominoids, wolves and bears. Then other pictures zoomed in further and the Bear comprised individual sculptures which were individual bubbles with swirling colours through them. Each and every sculptor was like a master work from a glass blowing expert. The breath of the artwork was amazing.

Flipping to another page. A series of pictures showed octopus-like animals swinging through the trees and standing above gigantic bear-like animals as if they were trophy kills. They were statues made of hard stone or metal and hand painted.

The next page showed detailed pictures of flowers that jumped out into 3D images when you looked more closely at the book. Checking the contents thoughtfully it stated that artwork from over one hundred different species were covered. Each chapter helpfully labeled Sapient Species followed by a long number. Every number was completely different and told him nothing useful.

While he wanted to explore the book to uncover the beauty it felt inefficient. This book was given to him to understand in order to get stronger. It was not a coffee table book to entertain him. Time to utilise the hard won cramming techniques from University. Skimming through the book as fast as possible once to form an impression. Then and only then would he read it in more detail with his quick reading helping to know where to concentrate.

From his lightening read his favourite art were sculptures made within waves crashing against the shore. The waves would form and they would break over a carefully constructed stone work to create prancing animals. The animals would exist for just moments before gravity would break the wave apart. As the seas got heavier the formations forming the waves would change and one horse would become many. Reluctantly he put the book down knowing that he could get lost in its depths.

With the exception of the meditation techniques all of the core books appealed to him and he felt everything apart from the Art one could rapidly provide him with useful knowledge.

What were the Pro’s and Cons of the different books. History of interface and traders would probably help him understand his interactions with Sam and his own interface more. Class overview would help him guide those around him and potentially help if he ever got into a fight with another human. The chances of that were hopefully low so he could leave that one for a while. Magical Flavours would help develop his magic as would the Strength through communal buffs. It might even help him decide whether to chose that development pathway or not. In the end it came down to importance against curiouristy. Magical Flavours was likely to give the best immediate returns while History of Traders and Interfaces was the most appealing. Curiosity won out.

The book was one of the year seven textbooks. It was plain and not particularly detailed. Interface and Traders; A Theoretical History. If he was lucky it would help him to understand the system that have been put in place

Introduction

The aid that is provided consisting of integrated interfaces and wandering traders together represents a mechanism to infuse both knowledge and useful items into a world just after an alpha physics event has occurred.

Both have limits placed on their capacity to provide information to the native sapient species. These limits have been determined and optimised over billions of years and 100 of millions difference Alpha physics events

Optimisation has been tailored to maximize the following for the native sapient species with the first being optimal and the last being least desirable.

1. Civilised Society Continuance
2. Civilised Strangled Society Continuance
3. Individual Higher Function Survival
4. Regressed Survival
5. Extinction

It is important to understand what each of these factors means. Civilised Society Continuance refers to the social structures that existed pre Alpha events continuing post Alpha events. For example, if pre Alpha individuals had freedom of religious choice, movement and partner, then these fundamental choices would be maintained post Alpha physical event

Civilised Strangled Society Continuance refers to the continuation of a structured society with changes to available individual choice. For example, it may lose Freedom of Religious choice or Freedom of Mating Partner in the new society.

Individual Higher Function Survival refers to a society breakdown. This is where there is no civilised society left and the native sapient species has been reduced to small family tribal units who struggle to survive. Finally Regressed Survival refers to instances where the genetic makeup of the sapient species is mostly maintained but higher reasoning functions are lost and they have become little more than smart animals and potentially lost the sapient tag.

The Lucu. The text confirmed it. Sapient species were occasionally reduced to non-sapient status, and he was sure that was the case for the Lucu. Maybe someday he would confirm for sure, but for now the Lucu was a victim in his head.

Success of trialled strategies are established after the new Alpha physics planet has fully stabilised, at which point portals can be created to and from the planet to assess how well the sentient species survived the transition.

Adrian stopped reading again to think about what was being said for a moment. The aliens were valuing survival of initial culture, then some culture and then species, and trying to avoid extinction. At a high level, the approach seemed reasonable. And then, if they survived, the aliens could visit. Would that cause further upheaval?

He started the next chapter.

Alpha physics events

There are three types of alpha physics events, the differences between events allows a continual assessment of the effectiveness of our strategies in preserving sentient species.

Fortunately, the most common Alpha physics, ‘ALPHA PRIMARY CATALYST’ event is one where all the aids that have been set up successfully transfered into the new world of alpha physics.

Information withheld as per challenger strategy 51234

The next seven pages were almost identical.

Information withheld as per challenger strategy 51234

Information withheld as per challenger strategy 51234

Information withheld as per challenger strategy 18234

Information withheld as per challenger strategy 51234

The chapter confused him. For a moment he drew upon the brain dump that the interface had given him when he had boosted intelligence.

In a dusty theater hall with a human lecturer presenting behind a quaint wooden podium. The seats were like an old style movie theater. Cushioned rows were the bottom would fold up when not in use. On the tattered carpentered stage above him the lecturer, an old weedy guy with a grey moustache droned on. It had just started, but it felt like it had been going for hours already. The dry, precise way he spoke seemed tailored to push everyone listening to sleep. In fact, the man was so bad at his job that Adrian was the only one listening despite the hundreds of seats.

The fact it was usually humans doing the teaching had never twinged as unusual till now. Yet in this contrived space that fact was driven home. The man delivering the speech did not exist; he was advanced CGI or the Alpha Physics equivalent. Computer graphics tailored to impart specific information to him.

“Higher intelligence is not learning lots and having facts available to pluck out at a cocktail party to wow an audience. That is just increased storage. Being able to memorise interest tidbits is meaningless when it comes to intelligence. No, what is important is the ability to make connections between disparate facts and form opinions that are as good as facts.”

The memory faded like pathway knowledge often did, becoming wisps of recollection that would never again solidify into a discrete moment.

Intelligence was drawing inferences, understanding concepts. Some part of him had been hoping the pathway was just about reading the books and memorising them. Time-consuming but easy. But that was not how the bloody thing was going to end up working. His job was not to read, it was to understand.

Flicking back to the start of the chapter and stared at the title ‘Alpha Physics Events.’ Running a finger across the words, thinking. What is the point? Why mention so little? There were clearly different grades of events. Maybe different particles, creating different conversion paths and different outcomes.

The fact it was even in the book told him that the different flavours of events mattered. Three of them, normal then… everything was blanked out. It could be anything.

What specifically was special about the blanked out information? Knowing the types of events changed outcomes. How could that possibly work? Imagining for a moment that the book told him that humanity's future was doomed. Would that change things for him? Absolutely, getting home would be more important than ever. Would he have challenged the Bird to buy only ten years of peaceful existence? No, he needed every iota of courage to start that battle. That had included the knowledge that he had been saving kids and their kids, gambling his life to provide them a future. If they did not have a future then his choice would have been different.

Was that why it was excluded? Were these other events catastrophic that they would destroy all hope or did it go the other way. The normal event was painful while the other versions were not.  Was the knowledge that some races got an easy path to existence sufficient to make people give up when they got the hard road?

It was like a rocket being lit on his backside. He needed to know. Why was the information blanked out? Was there the potential for something terrible or had the terrible already occurred. What was challenger strategy 51234? Who thought of it? Why did they test it?

What was next? Flicking open the chapter check. Balancing experience gains.  That sounded fun.