UFF: Chapter 45 (Patreon)

Chapter 45

Power, that’s what this world boils down to. Power to rule a kingdom, power over your faction. Or in my case, power to turn on the lights.

It took a moment, with the main control throne disabled, but fortunately, there was enough light that let me know where the auxiliary container was, that I could then begin filling up that vessel. The way there were lights of course, was sort of creepy as the batteries that were of course filled with concentrated void energy were slowly seeping out into the world, giving a malignant greenish black hue that spoke of toxic sludge, and possible turtle mutating liquids.

Fortunately, there was a quick shut off for the line that fed to the main power tube, along with the detaching of the cable. Then finding the energy entry point, which was far similar to those of the Ancient cities I had been to earlier. Almost as if this secondary chair was built first, and then a grander more pompous chair was used to hide the upgrades. From there, it was a quick fix to begin filling the auxiliary fuel tank with energy. Energy that then turned on the lights and began to show the damage that had been done.

“Whoa!” Marie and Octavia both exclaimed in unison as the lights clicked on with a resounding sound. Coming from the real world, the sound was the same click that one might expect to hear from hundreds of lights being turned on at a massive industrial complex. For Marie and Octavia, however, the sound was clearly frightening and a bit awe inspiring as they both instinctively tucked their heads down low into their shoulders, before realizing that they weren’t in fact turtles as they began looking around in amazement at the sight that lay before them.

Looking out, there were piles of discarded and bisected robots. The eight ultra-golems were now down to just five standing, of which, only three seemed to be in any real fighting shape, the rest just hobbled in place, using their long weapons as makeshift crutches, or extra legs to provide balance as they tried to stand.

“Whoa is right, that’s going to be a lot of cleaning,” I replied, just imagining the waste. Fortunately, I could see that there was an answer in sight, for in addition to all the different large mining robots, I did manage to convert a few repair bots, which meant that given enough time, we could bring everything back in order.

***

(Hours Later)

“Okay, so you stabilized the power supply, then found your little chalk board, and from that chalk board you managed to assign the repair cots?” Marie began, trying to apparently chronicle my accomplishments from the time after the battle until now.

“First, it’s a control modulation tablet, not a chalk board,” I begin trying to help Marie at least understand some of the terms I am using while fixing this place. Fortunately, the chalk board, aka the modulation tablet remained relatively safe considering the violent explosions that were happening all around. “Then from the control module, I managed to first target the converted repair bots, directing them to fix each other first.”

“And there are four, no, five of those right, the repair bots?” Octavia asked, going slow on the word bots as it seemed like a completely foreign word to her, which it probably was, as this was a high fantasy world, meaning that machines didn’t necessarily fit into it.

“Yes,” I replied, sending all five to do the first thing possible, namely repair my primary throne, so I could be labeled as the official ruler of the lands. All I needed to do was repair the throne, then sit down in the throne with the tablet, and that should be enough to transfer ownership to me. It sounds weird, but in the game Penelope never officially took control of a conquered kingdom until she was seen sitting on the conquered throne. Thus, regardless of where you were, what side quests you were doing at that time, you always had to take time to lead the army into the capital and sit on the throne. At first, it was easy as you needed to lead your army. But after you advanced enough, and had superior forces with superior training and tactics, you could let the army generals lead on your behalf and not worry about significant losses. Which was why the developers made it a point to have you sit on the throne to officially take control of a conquered kingdom.

There was just one problem that I noticed, after the first initial repair bot assigned, each additional bot only halved the remaining time to repair the throne.

Time Remaining: 1 of 5400 days.

Time Remaining: 2 of 5

200 days.

Time Remaining: 3 of 5

100 days.

Time Remaining: 4 of 5

50 days.

Time Remaining: 5 of 5

25 days.

Those were my numbers. The only real problem was that I didn’t have twenty-five days to wait. I mean technically we were already cutting it close to being late for the new semester at school as it was, meaning that at least one of these repair bots would need to be pulled off of throne repair and sent to Teleportation Pad maintenance. Then seeing that there might still be issues, I also put one to the Friend or Foe Designation, which also served as the natural defense for the facility, meaning that without it, any random stranger could stroll in and steal my throne that I nearly died trying to protect.

That was when I finished my update, knowing that this was the best I could do for the moment, given everything.

Remaining Power: 100%

System Status: Online

Connected Kingdoms: (None Available)

Features Available: (0 of 5 Workers available)

Friend or Foe Designations (1 worker assigned)

Ultra-Golems: 5 of 8

                                             Estimated repair time: ∞

Teleportation Pads (1 worker assigned)

Features currently unavailable:

Mine: Crystal

Mine: Gold

Mine: Psi-Trinium

Miners available: 7

Current Repair Projects:

                                             Primary Control Tower: 100 Days remaining (3 of 5 workers assigned)

I know there is a bit of confusion, as the tablet clearly calls them workers, but they never had a name in the game. Which makes this so much harder to dissect, as I know that is the symbol for workers, but my mind keeps calling them repair bots. Because the worker bots repair everything, but I guess workers also makes sense for their naming, it just feels odd. Knowing that they have always been one way in your mind, only to find out you were mistaken about the naming.

I also know that I have five of eight ultra golems operational, which is amazing. But one worker is currently focused on just repairing the existing five, meaning the remaining three have an indeterminate amount of time until they can be repaired.

As for the seven miners, I can send them off to go and mine the different ores respectively, then set the repair bots, I mean worker bots who finish working on the throne to go to each resource tunnel.  With seven miners available, I have options, so I set two to each type, then a third to Psi-Trinium. This is also a newer resource and one that I hope has a lot of functionality that becomes available as time goes on.

With the commands set, we all watch as the seven miners begin breaking off and going to their respective mining tunnels. They will gather the resources but be unable to process them, until the workers go and fix the rail car workers, assembly lines, and processing stations.

As all of the robots leave, I then begin to inspect the damages to the main throne and am trying to understand exactly what happened.

“So, what exactly happened?” I ask, then look at the wall and see that there is a ball shaped impact at the far wall as well, in some type of cartoonish depiction of an impact.

“Well, you see,” Octavia began trying to explain what happened though it was clear from her body language and posture that she somehow felt guilty for what happened. That’s when Marie cut in and declared.

“It was me, Octavia tried to take protect me, but I got too close and ended up taking what could have been a fatal shot, fortunately my Divine Shell activated in time protecting me, but I didn’t realize it would do so much damage to your throne. I am truly sorry,” Marie began, as it was clear she truly felt remorseful for what happened. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel that this was amazing.

“No, it was my fault, Lady Marie came to heal me, because I was pinned down, and she tried to protect me, both healing me and saving my life in the process,” Octavia tried to talk over Marie, forcing all the blame onto herself. Meanwhile, my mind was already going through calculations.

“Wait, you think I’m angry?” I ask, trying to understand why both seem so nervous suddenly.

“Well aren’t you?” Octavia asked, as Marie stepped closer standing by her side.

“What? No, I’m glad you both survived. Besides I told you both to run if it got dangerous,” I replied then looked down to see that their high impact lacerations caused by two behemoth heads that could have easily killed Octavia had she not been saved. Then seeing the cut marks, I followed them to where they converged, at a spot just in front of the throne, where it was clear the two different currents of energy converged and had a multiplying effect on the amount of damage it could produce. Turning around, from the exact spot of impact, I saw how Marie would have been hit by the two combined streams of force and then projected backwards into the wall. Suddenly the battle up top made so much more sense.

Then looking back, I could see how Octavia’s foresight of going behind the third monster head that saved me, for had she gone to any other head, well she wouldn’t have made it first of all. Secondly, because the head was in place it served as a barrier that would draw the firepower of the other heads.

“Wait, you came over here on your own to draw the attention of the other two behemoth bots?” I ask Octavia, then going to the spot, I saw a faint trail of blood where it was clear that Octavia had clearly been injured.

“Yes, I felt I had to do something,” Octavia again seemed to apologize.

“No, again, you did fantastic. Actually, had you not gone for that exact monster, I might not have made it, as I was already running on empty down below. By you getting the two other heads to take out the third, you did perfectly,” I begin making sure to praise both of them for their heroics. Honestly, they did far better than their models would have in the game. At best, I would have had to manually drag them to run towards the exit. The fact that they were able to take out a head on their own spoke volumes. Then thinking about it, I realized I expected both thrones to be destroyed by the emergence of these behemoths.

“As for the thrones, you all did flawlessly, I mean I assumed both would have been destroyed. It was only because you two worked together, that the one throne even survived,” I admit, my mind going through everything and realizing that if they could get Marie to punch an giant ball sized hole into the throne, then they could have easily taken down both thrones, had they not been distracted by trying to target Octavia, who had taken up a hidden spot behind the third head. Which again, worked out perfectly as that monster was all but dead by the time it dropped.

“So, you forgive us?” Marie asked.

“Forgive you? I would give you both a raise for this, double your salaries,” I declare.

“Wait, we don’t get paid,” Octavia noted.

“Well then triple it, and I will try to fix that going forward, thanks to my new domain as you see before me,” I reply, holding up my hands in what could only be my evil villainous pose. Though, after raising my arms, my tired and exhausted brain finally catches onto something very important that Marie said. At least, my brain is telling me that she said it, “wait, you said you activated your Divine Shell?”

***

(Marie De’Claire)

The words hit Marie as if out of nowhere. One second they were talking about repairing the damage that the throne room suffered. Just looking at everything, it was clear that whatever could have been done was ruined by now. Yet, despite these setbacks their leader seemed excited. Even thankful that Marie and Octavia both survived, even giving them praise for their actions taken.

That was why Marie suddenly felt off kilter by Lady Laurain’s sudden shift to asking about the spell used, the Martyr Activated spell that managed to save Mare’s life. A spell that she didn’t even know she was capable of, until her body reacted on instinct, coating her body with protective shielding that absorbed all damage. Well most damage as it was clear it only lasted until her mana ran out, but before it ran out, it blocked any and all forms of damage she acquired.

“Yes. I’m so—” Marie began, but I cut her off from apologizing again.

“That is fantastic! Amazing!” Lady Laurain cut her off, then Marie could almost see the calculations of the future forming behind her eyes as she seemed to count out the next steps.

“Let’s see, that means your next step will have to be the combat weapon,” As she spoke, her eyes went wide with excitement as she turned to Marie and declared, “you need to choose Divine Hammer!”

“Divine Hammer?” Marie parroted, hearing the words but not understanding their true meaning.

“Yes, your next form is a combat weapon. Divine Shell, obviously a shield that you can cast on yourself or others, it’s great but drains you of all mana afterwards and makes you pretty much useless for the rest of combat. You have to cast it from a safe spot and then pretty much collapse there. Best to do behind a barrier of some kind,” Lady Laurain began, her voice and mannerisms getting excited as she proceeded to speak of the future knowledge with speed and gusto. As she spoke Marie felt her mind open up, as she realized that she might in fact be able to cast the Divine Shell on others, if she practiced it, but having Lady Laurain speak so casually of that effect just made her give a, see I told you so, glance to Lady Octavia. Octavia for her part just nodded as if she too understood what was being further reinforced by that stare. Then before the two could get distracted by realizing that they were following around the true prophet, their prophet continued to speak of futures yet to come.

“But your next step, will be your combat weapon. There will be a lot to choose from, the Divine Halberd, which will allow you to take down waves of monsters, the Divine Sword, which will be good for taking down a singular powerful opponent. But the Divine Hammer, that is the one you want to take,” Lady Laurain spoke and had an almost whimsical lilt to her voice as she spoke of hidden knowledge that seemed beyond Marie. Yet, Marie couldn’t help but feel captivated by the conversation.

“What about the Divine Hammer, makes it worth choosing?” Marie asked, as she imagined trying to carry around and wield a giant hammer, and failing to do so.

“Because, it is the perfect weapon, for it does crushing damage, which is great for fighting skeletons and monsters with shields or thick plating. Also, when you miss, and you will miss a lot with all of these weapons, at least at first,” Lady Laurain spoke, voicing Marie’s one true concern about why she would avoid the hammer at all costs. While she had never trained with a halberd or a sword, she felt both would seem feel fairly straight forward to learn, eventually. “I’m sorry, it’s just that your aim rate is terrible and you are bound to miss all but the basic mobs that don’t move out of the way at first. Especially with the Divine Hammer.”

“No, none taken,” Marie replied, and again knew that Lady Laurain was speaking the truth as if she had seen it, across all futures and was now telling her that this was the best option for her.

“But why a hammer, if all she will do is miss?” Octavia asked, just trying to understand why the rationale being used her.

“Because the Divine Hammer causes an AOE holy stun effect that bypasses friendly forces, and helps us to lock down waves of enemy forces,” Lady Laurain stated. As she spoke, an unmistakable was of dread filled Marie, as she spoke of this as a certainty, meaning that they would have to eventually face down forces of evil.

“I’m sorry, what is AOE?” Octavia again asks, breaking Marie from her momentary concern about having to become a better fighter so that she can stand beside her liege, while she fearlessly battles against waves of evil monsters.

“Oh, that stands for Area of Effect, it means the stun effect will have a radius around her hammer’s impact point and funnel outward like a fan,” Lady Laurain said with a gesture of her hands opening with a widening ‘V’ like pattern.

There was a pause as everyone took in that information, before Lady Laurain who was still seeming to recall images of a vision she had, then noted what was possibly the most embarrassing and simultaneously the most flattering part of her whole revelation.

“That is also the one where Lady Marie’s Divine Avatar will have the ultimate transformation, going with the gold and black sequence. The one where she will have both her Divine Shield and Divine Hammer also in gold and black,” Lady Laurain began speaking, and the way she spoke let everyone know that she had both seen it, and that it was apparently a sight to behold. That is why her next comments seemed to come out of nowhere for the two, “meaning she will have the best contrast, when her uniform also changes to the sexy gold and black bodice that will show off her boob freckles the best.”

“Boob freckles?” Lady Octavia repeated in astonishment, before turning to face Lady Marie as if this was true.

“That is not,” Lady Marie began, but then paused as she clasped her arms over her chest, before asking the real question that she wanted to know at that exact moment, “how-how did you know?”