The AI could have predicted the patterns in combat movements to at least some extent after a bit of learning, but once data had been quantified by the System and extrapolated, there was truly no comparison to the fluidity of his movements.
Isek had tracked and snared the Beast after a while, it grunted and squealed as it was bound.
"..Yay ..you got it.." Martin gave his two cents but his tone suggested that he was less than impressed with it in some regard.
[Status Update]
[Lifeform: Unknown, Behavior: Tame]
"FUCK YOU!" Martin threw a hamburger threw the projection and it landed in the dirt.
The creature fed on it briefly and spit it out.
The AI laughed lightly.
Even the Wild Beasts wouldn't dare eat it after a few bites and Martin was swallowing it over and over.
[Status Updated. Stat Increased: Wisdom (+1)]
[Status Updated. Wisdom (???+1)]
Martin felt like the system was purposefully taunting him and hid his face in a pillow.
Isek stood on top of the beast, it was a little bigger than he was but not nearly large enough to ride practically.
'The proportions were all wrong.' Martin saw Isek eyeballing the creature like a potential mount and held back his opinion.
In the end, Isek still kept the beast by his side.
"Good boy. You're much smarter than a human, yes you are.." Isek put his hand on the beast and scuffed it's fur, which made the creature a little angry but Isek simply applied pressure to the petting and it quickly calmed down.
"Pressure will eventually equal submission by the receiver." Isek's inner fortune cookie printer popped it's two cents into the conversation like a deep knife wound, a gouge as a reminder.
Martin didn't reply but he knew the comment was somewhat directed at him but he didn't know why. Martin was constantly being muted, trash talked and ignored entire. He really couldn't make heads or tails of his reincarnation and in truth, he didn't want to think about it anymore. During his time underground, it had taken weeks to come out of the depression he found himself in.
Grief changes people, Martin certainly changed. His lifestyle might appear the same but in reality, he had nothing and no one else but a screen to yell at and alarms that sounded. There was basically no control over anything and he couldn't even go to the bathroom. Running water wasn't a thing in the Mindspace and that alone eliminated showers from possibilities, not that a shower had appeared.
Isek lifted his hand and got off of the beast then fed it some of the fish he had stored away.
The Beast, which had been running for fear of it's own life for a change, had a change of it's own and followed Isek as closely as possible.
"I'll call your species 6792.1." Isek spoke to himself but it came through the projection.
"That's a terrible name. You'd actually name things by the action code? What's the decimal for? Order of discovery? At least church it up." Martin was mystified by the ignorant naming of the species, how was anyone suppose to understand that gibberish but him. "If you're gonna catalog everything, numbers simply won't do. Attach a Star to the end of the name of things you know aren't official names. Then, find meaningful patterns in the numbers."
[Further Input Required, Reference Unavailable]
"I thought you had my memories." Martin was smart, not much slipped by. He coughed and continued, 6 and 9 can mean a lot of things but 6 7 9? Those are like the trifecta of lucky numbers."
"So you think I should designate creatures by sentiment?" Isek asked openly.
"It would make a lot more sense. For the species, I think.. Lucky Night Beast* would be perfectly fine as a name until you found out what they were really called, someday. And as far as it's actual name? If you wanted to name it, just go with what feels right to you." Martin made hand gestures but he wasn't even sure that Isek could see his movements in the Mindspace.
[Species Designation Database Amended]
[Added: Lucky Night Beast* (AC67928)]
[Pet Acquired: Lucky Night Beast*, Name: Gamble Behavior: Aggressive]
"..why?" Martin found it weird that the system would give a pet acquired update and shrugged it off. He was officially tired of hearing the equivalent to server firsts and wanted to see more of what would happen next.
Gamble settled on the ground and waited for a signal to move. Isek had stopped moving after spotting some fruit trees that had auras. According to the first host's body, a grove like that could have multiple types of grade 2 or higher spiritual fruits and each type would all depend on what was growing.
In a rush to the nearby grove, Isek had forgotten to give Gamble any commands but as the local Predator, the Beast had been all over tracking prey. Soon after the Beast followed Isek's movements and arrived next to him again.
It was a calm night, the air was still and warm, it felt cozy like a warm bed in the Winter.
Martin had no idea what the AI was feeling at the time, he was starting at the fruit trees that were sparkling under the moonlight.
The Beast climbed up one of the trees and began clearing the fruits from a branch, there were perhaps a dozen on each tree and only two were on the branch. Isekther of them looked ripe enough to serve their intended purpose.
Isek stopped Gamble from harvesting further, useless items were not even worth carrying around. He stopped and spread open his eyelids wide.
[Scanning]
[Items Identified]
"Mute regular scanning results, display results on the HUD in list form. Maintain Active Alerts." Isek didn't place priority on quantity, he needed to know what was ripe and edible. The results, if given by the System Alert Updates, would have taken far too long. It was much faster as they scrolled into view.
The fruits in the small grove lit up in the corner of Isek's view, target icons hovered in the HUD and the list was sorted by ripeness. There was no way to know if any of them were poisonous as most of them were unidentified.
Though they were spirit fruit that grew under the moonlight and most of them were grade 2 in quality, a guarantee of their safety or after effects were entirely unknown.
According to the first host's memories, testing could be done to determine whether there is a poisonous effect but some poisons were not actually poisons but toxins that could go undetected. Alchemical scholars were great in their foresight, every book that was every written spoke of the struggle of progress and the risks that came along with experimentation. Truth was in knowledge and it was impossible to escape Ideas, because Ideas are not facts.
Isek had an Idea for the future but in that moment, there were far too many ingredients on the HUD. As he looked around, the target boxes continued to arrive in greater quantity. Some of the fruits had been hidden behind other branches or leaves and only when the System catch them through visual confirmation did tracking begin.
As such, the Quantity of Fruits that were available were enough to catch Isek's attention. If that wasn't enough, Martin had been yelling the entire time to loot quickly. He believed that the grove was bound to be the home a large monster, such a high amount of herbs, no matter the grade, was bound to have it's caretaker.
Gamble sniffed at the air and ran around the perimeter of the grove. He seemed to have caught onto something.
Isek leapt into the branches of the closest tree but when he arrived on the branches, he was met by an unusual form of attack. The branches, which were covered in a shiny residue, was extremely sticky.
The branches were strong, the trees had lived for several hundred years. The soil that held the Tree itself had been displaced regularly like it had grown very quickly.
[Analyzing]
More readouts came across the HUD. When pulling away, Isek saw a graph appear briefly, pulled out a dagger with a stint that ran down the side out of storage and rammed it into the center of one of the sticky patches. Pulling on the handle, the dagger left a small gap in the bark and a dark sap began to roll out.
A bowl appeared, then another. From within the items that had been pilfered at the Warrior Camp, most of the vessels were filled with water now. Isek empties one into the soil bed and filled it with the sap.
It took a while.
Martin was speechless. It seemed like a tedious thing to do but there was little doubt that something had come out of the work, the Sap was very thick and moved like glue.
Once the vessel was full, obtaining more felt like a wasted effort. The Sap could turn out to be a mild alternative to a more readily available material that he ran into in the future.
Additional target boxes appeared all over the grove afterward and when it started to clutter his vision, Isek dismissed the boxes entirely and started digging in the mud.
"What are you doing?" Martin was curious and a bit weirded out by the AI's action.
Isek had done a few things that defied common logic but it looked very much like he was collecting the Mud itself.
When there was a large glob of it, Isek tooled at the glob with his hands.
Martin watched with surprise when he saw Isek working the Mud.
He was making a bowl, it was somewhat deep and thin.
"I don't see a kiln." Martin had very little knowledge about how pottery was made but he had seen a few random videos on the internet from time to time during his former life. The moment he spoke, he slapped his forehead.
The AI had proven time and time again to be more resourceful than he gave it credit. Isek had complete access to everything, including the forum comments as an information source. Fact checkers and know-it-all's that craved attention theorizing and theorycrafting. Martin felt a little ashamed of his prior search history because of the society he was living in but now, even the most minuscule of things he had experienced was at least in some way giving him a chance to survive.
Isek pulled out the straps that had saved his life, they were more than just useful as a weapon. On a large rock, Isek spread some loose grasses and set the bowl upside down on top of it. He put the strap on the backside of the mud and fed it some energy.
The grass beneath slowed the heat and very quickly the bowl was half baked and rapidly drying. It was important not work the heat too much, he only needed something solid enough to contain more samples of the saps.
Spiritual Fruit Trees produced fruit, all that vital energy had to come from somewhere. It coursed through the trunks themselves and fed out among it's branches, veins and super highways for nutrient sources.
Spiritual Fruit, if it followed the same course of manifestation as Fruit from Earth, would require it's tree to feed it all that it needed during it's development. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a fruit but a parasite that fed on trees and a separate entity in of it's own.
Isek had ideas about the sap, the HUD had displayed a heavy aura that leaked and hung around the lifeblood of the trees themselves. Like a machine, Isek worked tirelessly for a few hours and made twenty bowls. He ate one of the two ripened fruits to satiate the body but the effects were like someone using a hammer to squeeze a lemon.
Energy escaped his pores in every direction and what felt like fire dragged across his skin. There was no burning but a burning sensation that covered the body.
[Alert: Unknown Reaction.]
[Scanning]
[Alert: Scanning Failed]
[Initiating Full System Scan]
[Alert: Scanning Failed]
[Recording Unknown Reaction]
[Unknown Reaction due to Consumption of Raw Spirit Fruit]
[Event Time: 00:43:49, Recorded]
[Active Sensory Activity Increasing]
[Active Scanning Enabled]
[Analyzing]
Martin didn't know what was going on and he was in much more of a panic than Isek, he yelled at the System, "Show me a map of the body and the affected areas, monitor the situation and report."
[Access Denied.]
"What kind of bullshit is that?" Martin kicked the sofa and pulled on some threads. Books and toys made up the bulk of his items that came along and when Martin saw the sheer volume of nonsensical things in his purview he was completely appalled. There were not enough words to express his shame.
None of the crap that had been falling was even useful and boxes upon boxes of the stuff came down like an avalanche.
"Can you build me an overlay a HUD, similar to the projection and have it associated with the threads?"
[Authenticating Request, Priority: Irrelevant. Request Granted.]
"Great! When can you start?" Martin was impatient and more than sick of pulling random threads. He had dozens, sometimes hundreds of duplicates of the same items because the threads were indistinguishable.
[Irrelevant Operational Priority, Paused 0% Complete.]
"I guess I'm waiting on your time.." Martin sighed. He couldn't say that if he were in the same position that he wouldn't put the AI's request on the back burner but at the same time, he really felt the burn.
The Fruit's Energy was like a panacea to an unmedicated body, nothing else stood in the way of it's efficacy and the AI was constantly adjusting itself to absorb higher amounts of the energy and prevent it from escaping. Within an hour, pain had set in and the fruit was being fully metabolized.
The Unknown Energy Organ had been swelling at a steady rate. As it's accordion shape suggested, it would expand and contract, purify and distribute along it's own lines.
The crystalline blood vessels, which carried the energy itself started to hum along with Isek's heartbeat.
Calling out in pain, Isek didn't seem worried about predators. Gamble had fully submitted and for whatever reason, the AI and the System had complete trust over the Beast's intentions.
"Oh give me a break! Why does the Dog get more respect!?" Martin felt weird saying it, not only was it not a dog.. why did it matter at all?
The system was silent, no alerts came for a while.
'Fuck..' Martin paced around the room and watched the screen. Isek was struggling with the pain. It was a new sensation and the organ was experiencing rapid growth, changes could be felt as they were happening but to what extent or what was actually occurring, there was no data to compare against.
The original host had been a practitioner and cultivator but he had never gotten far or had money for such medicines. Grade 2, the herb might as well have been classified as Grade 9000, he wouldn't have been privy to that knowledge easily, much less taste the raw spiritual fruits.
"You ate the fruit like it was a piece of candy, you didn't even taste it beforehand." Martin shook his head but really, he was thrilled to see that such tremendous power. It meant that advancement was possible.
"You better be recording this Data, System?" Martin played with some plastic blocks that interconnected, it had taken a while to collect them out of the crap that had fallen but he finally had enough to build lots of things. He had made a cup holder and a console that sat next to his couch, it held a bunch of things he couldn't bare to bury in the walls or floors.
When the System refused to answer, Martin searched the status page and made his own assumptions. He believed that the fruit was a good thing to eat but there was bound to be a drawback.
[Results: 2760 alterations have occurred within the Energy Organ. Status: Unknown, Stable]
[Energy Organ Function has increased by .093]
[Metafunction of Energy Organ has increased by 930%]
[Status Update:]
[Name: Isek, Age:28 (0.5) Weight 134lb, Title – Administrator, Health: (Healthy, Stable) ]
[Race: Humanoid]
[Strength: (9)]
[Energy: (4)]
[Dexterity: (23)]
[Intelligence: (Unknown)]
[Data Storage: (Unknown)]
[Wisdom (???+1)]
[Energy Organ Capacity – (110)]
[Energy Metafunction Activation Rate: (.093%)]
[Luck (0)]
Martin coughed then asked the system, "What the fuck is Energy Metafunction Activation Rate?"
"EMAR is the rate Energy transfer occurs within the Energy Organ. The System cannot identify the energy or find reference to understand it. I too am at a loss." Isek acted toward his instinct but as the dominate intelligence of the body and the one controlling everything, Isek had experienced lots of things and the emotions and understanding of the body's brain chemistry was well beyond what what Martin had read in his past life.
"Jeez. Make me feel bad why don't you." Martin felt a little bad that he hadn't read more things like medical journals but in all honesty, he never had a talent for it.
"Now that that's over with, it's time to get what I came for and then leave this place. The original host's memories show that his homeland is more than two months journey back." Isek jumped from one branch to the next.
Collecting felt rather rewarding, with the advent of a storage ring, carrying such a great weight was essentially trivialized. Dozens of Fruits made their way into the ring, Isek grabbed what was ripe and left the rest. They provided no material value and in the Original Host's memories, it was considered a type of taboo to take an unripened spiritual herb of any kind.