Jake followed Jon, still cautious but now more curious. He knew there were others besides himself and Clive that knew the truth. They were just rare, supposedly. It was impossible to keep everyone in the dark. Eventually, something would happen. The death of a player they knew was rare thanks to the safety net but not unheard of. There were other issues that could come up. People would often do things in a game they wouldn't in real life because it wasn't real. One of them was sex. It was supposed to be in a game so completely safe. Not the real thing. He knew for some it was a time to "safely" experiment. The idea had fueled a number of fantasies for him in the past, but he hadn't been brave enough to talk about them.
Pregnancy that was supposed to be avoided because they were in a game. Was actually a possibility. Jake looked at Jon and remembered the Captian slipping up. Saying that the ability to resist the radiation was often genetic. The way the others at that time reacted he thought there was something going on. Seeing a relative of Clive's also here made him think about it again. He wondered if they weren't somehow trying to breed more people able to return to Earth. The "secret" that they could do "adult" things was actually pretty commonly known. Even Jake had heard of it and he basically only hung out with his friends who pointedly never spoke of it. Letting a bunch of hormonal teens know they could safely experiment with sex. Yeah Jake knew all too well how tempting that was.
Jon led him thru the hatch. Bare red lightbulbs in a wire cage gave off a dull light that showed the narrow stairs down. They lead to a small room, with a cloth cot in one corner. Two doors lead off that room. A large window next to one looked down into a room down below. There was a console of controls under that window. Jake leaned over to look at the console and couldn't understand the wild assortment of nobs and buttons. Glancing through the window he blinked. In the room below there was a table, with manacles welded into it. Positioned as if to hold arms, legs, and even the head.
He turned on Jon so fast that the other boy yelped in fright. "Ah, you scared me. Geez man."
"What is that for? I thought you said you made armor?" Jake's hands were again clawed gauntlets.
"Calm down. Calm down. I'll have to start at the beginning so you will understand. Come with me." He moved towards the other door. Jake followed at a slight distance and peeked in. The heat hit his face as hot dry air rushed out. There was a huge box object taking up a large portion of the far wall. Heat radiated from it. There were tables lined with lab equipment of all different types. Huge glass beakers and spiraling glasswork. Things that look like thick clay bowls blackened with soot. He didn't see an anvil or hammers. But there were a number of other strange tools.
The oddest was two human shaped and sized dolls standing side by side. One looked to be made of blue green jello while the other was a dark orange jello. They were featureless but clearly humans, he could even see individual fingers and toes.
"What are those?" Jake asked, slowly stepping into the sweltering room.
"The scaffolding for armor. We don't make armor so much as grow it. I know that doesn't make sense, so let me start explaining from the beginning." Jon moved over to one of the tables and picked up one of the soot covered bowls.
"This is a crucible. We use this to melt down base materials for the armor or some unique weapons, like yours." He sat down the crucible and picked up two blocks of material. One was a glossy silver metal. The other looked like a block of wood to Jake.
"This is the base for tech gear." He raised the shiny metal block. "This is the base for magic gear. Both are easily generated with normal cores." Jon smiled, his eyes got bright and he started speaking a little faster. It was clear he was excited about the topic. "Cores are pretty amazing. They can generate any type of energy or matter you want. A single tiny core can produce matter hundreds or thousands, even millions of times its size depending on grade."
He calmed down some. "Anyways that isn't important. This stuff alone won't make armor or gear. The "Crafting Cores" are unique. They don't produce the same amount of matter or energy as a normal core, in a way they are inferior to normal cores for using as fuel. But they have a unique property that allows them to bond materials in a way that honestly, would take weeks to explain to you. Just take my word for it, they are the key to making equipment." Jon nodded, accepting Jake's silence as his approval.
"Now you are probably asking what I meant by growing gear. Right?" He didn't wait for Jake to answer. "Before asking that, ask yourself how your armor projects a shield over your entire body. Not only that but just above the skin, everywhere. Not a set shape or a sphere around you." Jake had actually never questioned it, but then he had thought it was just a game then.
"Your gear is actually partially integrating with your body. It also links up with the implants in your brain." Jon answered.
"Implants?" Jake touched his own head without thinking about it.
"Oh, they didn't tell you that part?" Jon fidgeted some.
"What part?" Jake asked, his voice came out almost like a growl without meaning too.
"Oh um… Were you in the hospital sometime before you started um playing the game?" Jake nodded remembering being in the hospital right after his mother's death. "That is when they install the implants. The chat function and basic HUD. All of it is through implants directly in your brain. It also configures you normally for one type of equipment or the other. Most bodies can't handle even switching between them." Jake felt a wave of anger at the violation of his body without his knowledge, but it passed quickly. It didn't matter what had happened, not now.
"So you are saying when I equipt this chest piece." He touched his repaired armor. "It… plugs in to me, not just something I wear?"
"That is actually a really good way to put it. Yes, it turns your entire body into part of the armor. Sort of. Anyways, your body becomes the conduit for the energy shielding that protects you. Be it physical or magical." He moved over to the two dolls. "Based on what I have read, the first sets of armor would have been grown on er in er no on is probably right." He had paused while thinking.
"Anyways the armor was grown with the use of the intended user's body. Nowadays we use these scaffolding dummies. The blue one is for magic and the orange one for tech. These have a generic human biosignature keyed to the energy signature of either type of equipment. It allows us to develop armor that anyone that matches the energy signature type can use. It isn't as good as using the actual individual but since people are told this is just a game they don't do that."
His explanation only made half sense to Jake. "What does being a game have to do with it?"
"Ahh, well the process is very um… painful. Also, the armor is integrated with the scaffolding in a way that requires us to destroy the scaffolding to remove it for later use. We can't go around cutting armor out of people's bodies to let them take it off." He quickly added. "There are solutions to that part now. But still, no one does it."
"Ok. I think I sort of get it. You "grow" armor on these dummies somehow. But why can't you just make one that protects against both magic and physical damage?" Jake asked.
"That is the question!" Jon exclaimed. "One with a very complex and very simple answer at the same time. The simple version is that to protect your entire body the armor is actually using your flesh as a conduit for the energy of the shielding. The two types of shielding contradict one another." Jon paused. "Contradict… is that the right word, no, yes, maybe? Anyways."
He shrugged and moved to one of the dummies. "To make a hybrid armor one would need to mix the two materials equally. That is actually not hard. The problem is while growing the armor you have to balance the different energy sources flooding the scaffolding. We have ways to tweak it as it grows to try and stabilize it. In truth though after a while, they do most of it on their own. Finding an equilibrium that can be sustained, that is." Jon was again speaking faster in excitement.
"So then what is the problem?" Jake felt he was leaving something out.
"Ahh well, the problem is the scaffolding." He patted the human sized doll of jelly on its head. "They are set up to only accept one energy type."
Jake blinked a few times, not sure where he was going. "But you. You can accept both energy types."
"If it is that easy then why not make a doll… a scaffolding that can handle both energy types?" Jake asked, there was definitely something they were leaving out.
"Ahh well… They did try that but… the scaffolding tended to well… explode. The conflicting energies tend to vary wildly and well... intensely." Jon finally answered.
"You said they used to use people to grow this armor?" Jake asked.
"Yes." Jon said quickly. "But don't worry the safety net system saves anyone that tries… now. Besides, that is why none of the normal crafters know about this method"
Jake looked around. "Ok, enough of the tech lesson. You said you had armor to show me."
"Well no. I mean Yes. I mean I have a proposition for you. You see since you can handle both types of gear. You could be…" Jon started.
"No. You want to use me in some experiment to try and make hybrid armor?" Jake saw where he was going. "You said the scaffolding, which would be me, would explode." Jake growled and backed up towards the door.
"Yes. No. Maybe. Kinda. Probably not. I mean Definitely not. I tried it once before and the safety system kicked in and warped the girl away. It had the side effect of ending the process too though." Jon was practically speaking over himself as he tried to get the words out before Jake could flee.
"You are insane." Jake said.