The next morning, Amaya greeted me with the smell of freshly brewed coffee and bacon and eggs. She had forwent the lingerie from last night, instead choosing a tank top, tied off at her waist, as well as a pair of lounge pants. She was also wearing a plain black apron with a black chibi snake with green accents sporting an apron and chef's hat, with the words "Infinite Ouro-berries!" as it dumped a bunch of berries onto some pancakes.
Blinking, I took a deep breath and shoved all the very difficult questions into the back of my mind. It was cute and, frankly, it was good enough for me.
"Morning…" I bit back a yawn. "Does the base stock food as well?" I cocked my head as I cracked the fridge open. And yup, there was a fairly good selection of fruits, vegetables, meats and other ingredients to make… almost anything. There wasn't any highly specific stuff, like there was beef but not Wagyu nor was there anything rare like alligator meat. Pretty much only whatever you could find at a large grocery store.
I wondered for a moment if I had to restock it or if the Forge automatically restocked it for me. I drummed my fingers on the side of the fridge before making a note to conduct the experiment before I went to bed. Shutting it, Amaya had prepared a plate for me as well.
"Thanks." I sat down and started eating. "You know how to cook as well?"
Shrugging, she sat opposite me. "It's not particularly hard." she replied off-handedly.
An awkward silence passed by the two of us. It felt kinda weird to have some small talk after we pretty much fucked on the day we met. Though it didn't seem like Amaya particularly cared. "Say…" I started. "Do you have prior memories before you were summoned by the Forge?" I asked as I took another bite.
"Of course." She replied without really looking up from her plate. "It's a bit disorientating since I know that I'm a creation of the Forge, yet have a full life and memories behind me."
"Can… I ask what… happened?" I narrowed my eyes slightly.
Amaya leaned back as she drummed her fingers on the table. Opening her mouth, she shrugged and brushed over it rather quickly. "Oh you know the type. Genius saviour appears, people pile too much pressure, and the genius wipes the world out. The usual story." She rolled her hand in a circle as if she didn't just say she killed her world.
"I'm sorry." I pressed my hands together. "You said 'wipes the world out'?"
Amaya nodded. "Yup. Tentacle monsters, biovats to ensure stable population growth via IVF procedures, tentacle farms that convert biomatter into a slurry that is pumped directly into the stomach…" My eyes widened more and more as she listed off rather horrifying descriptions of her… inventions.
Evil genius indeed. And not just that. She fought the world. And won. Granted she told me that doing something similar would be near-impossible. Much of her world ran on her technology, which meant that with a snap of her fingers, she activated a bunch of backdoors that turned everyone's tech against them. Which accelerated her world's decline as they were set back to pretty much early industrial age weaponry.
"It would take a few years if you wanted to do something similar." Amaya hummed. "But it would be much easier with perks like Qu-It It since it not only works on your creations but anyone inspired or basing their creations off yours. But I don't think you would want that I suppose?"
"No…?!" I furrowed my eyebrows at her in confusion. "I prefer my world not overrun by tentacle monsters." A thought did pop into my mind however. "Though I suppose we could sell it for a good price. There's bound to be some people into tentacles."
"Including you?" Amaya remarked with a smile.
I was really tempted to grab something to throw at her. "Shut it." I muttered. Strangely, despite the fact that yes she was terrifying and yes she practically conquered her world, I wasn't feeling scared of her. Not in the 'I'm using my Solar memories to calm myself down' sort of way, but in the same way I knew of her loyalty to me. The Forge was preventing me from feeling scared of her in the first place.
An… interesting discovery. I frowned as I quickly ran through my head. The same with the fact that I easily accepted the fact that I didn't particularly care about her kidnapping people. Just that she didn't kidnap innocents so the authorities didn't come down on us. Savant's Understanding pulled that out of my mind and looked over it.
In the moment… I thought it was fine. Savant's Understanding could even point out why I allowed her to do so in the first place. Flipping back before I got her perk, I wouldn't even entertain such an idea in the first place. Looking at both thought processes, there were still both 'mine' but one rationalized away 'kidnapping' people and the other wouldn't.
I took a deep breath. This was interesting. The Forge could already implant memories without any rhyme nor reason. Savant's Understanding proved that much with my Solar memories. However this was definitely a step up from simple memories.
The Celestial Forge came to life, though I was unsure if it was to disrupt my train of thoughts, or if it was actually awakening. The coil of energy launched and missed on the Lewd Magi-Tech Constellation. Of three stars. Two of which were in range!
It was a TWO IN THREE CHANCE!! HOW DID YOU MISS IT?!!?
I took a deep breath. Focus. Focus. The Celestial Forge wasn't alive. It couldn't fuck you over. Though I was starting to doubt that statement.
Right now, the Forge was very much altering the way I thought, making me sort of glaze over the fact that Amaya was A. stupidly dangerous and B. actually evil. However, it wasn't like I could stop it. Although I was aware of it now, it wasn't just a matter of shifting my perspective on it. I physically couldn't make myself perceive Amaya as 'evil' despite the fact that she actually was .
The same thing happened with the Forge. Although I now knew the Celestial Forge was altering my thoughts, I couldn't bring myself to view 'it' as evil or corrupt. Nor could I really think of a way to get rid of its influence. Not in the 'It's so out of my power that I can't' but in the 'I cannot even begin to formulate any plan to do so'. Any attempt slipped off my brain despite the fact that I had an entire perk dedicated to perfect recollection.
And because I didn't view it as a concern, I couldn't even have this remain in my mind as a threat to keep track of. It was simply an 'interest'.
But then again, was it a problem in the first place? If I treated Amaya as evil, wouldn't that be a self-fulfilling prophecy? I treat her badly since she was 'evil', she treats me badly though still forced to follow me due to the Forge's entrenched loyalty, and because of that, I treat her even worse…
I let out a sigh. There wasn't going anywhere. I would only drive myself closer to insanity if I kept spinning around in circles like this. Plus it wasn't like there was any way for me to differentiate what was 'me' and what was 'the Forge' in the first place. Even with Savant's Understanding pulling up all my memories, all of them were still made by 'me'.
"A penny for your thoughts?" Amaya asked as she finished her meal. Blinking, I realised that I had barely started on mine, too consumed by my revelation to do so.
"Nothing. It's not something we can deal with anyway." I shook my head and continued eating.
"Zion?" Amaya asked in confusion.
Shaking my head, I clapped my hands together. "An. Ny. Way. Do you have any plans for the day?" I very awkwardly changed the subject, putting my revelation aside for now. "I would think that staying cooped up in the base wouldn't be very interesting."
Humming, she frowned slightly but didn't push. "I was thinking of continuing work on the neuraljack." Amaya stirred her coffee idly as her eyes stared into the distance. "Unless you have something that would attract my attention?"
I tried to think of something but most of the projects I was working on could be handled by my perks. Most of them actually. "Not really…?" Although I could probably pass it to Amaya to handle, like say the construction of the in-ear communicator. But the kinetic redirector had to be done by me. "Actually… Give me a moment." I grabbed a piece of paper and translated the blueprint over. "Could you handle this for me? All the components have been ordered already. Just collect them from my workshop."
"I thought you wanted to ask Toybox first if I could enter?" Amaya grinned mockingly.
"Well." I set my finished plate aside. "It's better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission, right? And besides, I was mostly worried that you'd be spotted by them while walking in and out of the main entrance hall." I tossed the remote over. "And I believe you will follow my orders to stay out of sight and don't do anything harmful to the others inside?"
Amaya's smile looked wicked. "Absolutely. You can trust me, Master."
If it wasn't for the fact that loyalty was enforced, I would definitely be running as far and as fast as I could in the other direction.
"What about you?" She asked as she tucked the blueprint away. "I believe you have your first shift at the Dockworkers' today?"
"Mhm." I nodded. "I was planning to do some further tinkering in the workshop. The sensor program for parahuman power expression is almost done. Plus, I need to start working on a defensive option for my Erstein costume." I shrugged.
"I thought you were working on Glory Girl's barrier?" Amaya cocked her head.
"Nah." I smiled slightly. "Got something pretty cool." I wrote out the findings that Machine Madness provided once I learnt how Bauble's glass worked. "Kinetic redirection." I grinned slightly as I showed it off.
Amaya hummed as she looked over it. "Huh. Huh…" She bent lower and started muttering to herself. After a few moments, she turned her attention back to me. "Altering the physical composition of items to make vibrations rebound and reflect away, decreasing force dealt to the actual material. Interesting… I think you could make something similar to Accelerator's vector shield with this?"
I narrowed my eyes as I looked it over. "I think so? But the problem is that it's stuck working on exclusively physical contact. So it can never be an inherent aura that forms around a person like Accelerator does. At best, I could do something like redirecting melee attacks back into the attacker or into the ground. Plus not to mention the fact you'd need some sort of filter system to handle what is and isn't a threat." I raised an eyebrow as I stared at Amaya. "Unless, of course, you wanna work on that instead?"
Amaya's eyes drifted away as her brain started running into overdrive. Muttering rapidly, I could vaguely catch the words 'energy transfer', 'matrices', and 'target' as she tried her best at creating a vague replica of Accelerator's greatest defense.
"I'll have to make some prototypes." Amaya murmured. "Give me a moment." She stalked off. Drinking a cup of water, I watched as Amaya returned with a list of components. "I need these components to test it." Not… exorbitantly expensive, though definitely more than both the neuraljack and laser gloves combined.
"There. It should be coming… soon-ish." I tilted my head from side to side. Turning to Amaya, she was staring at my notes and figuring out how to expand it out into a full body redirector. "Just remember that the laser gloves still need to be completed!" I called out to her. She gave me a slight nod in return and waved me aside. Seeing that she was now indisposed, I grabbed the dishes and chucked them into the dishwasher.
Well, given that Amaya had something that caught her attention, it was now back to me to create the in-ear communicator. Hopping back into my workshop, a new box of components was sitting on my desk. Pulling out some of the stuff that I needed, I started work on the communicator rather quickly.
Hammer Jammer worked like a charm, guiding my movements and allowing me to create several at once, though the signature 'Hammer Jammer' style did bleed through slightly. But with something so small, there really wasn't anything to do about it since there wasn't enough space for bells and whistles without compromising its design. And the Forge didn't half-ass things. Mostly anyway.
During the breaks, I also started work on the kinetic redirector. Though I would probably still work on the sensor to get Glory Girl's and Shielder's abilities. It would be incredible if I could have the redirector work with those defensive mechanisms as well, increasing their durability by multiple folds.
Sighing, I picked up the communicator and slipped it into my ear. It was a bit uncomfortable, but it worked about as well as any communicator you could find on the market. High-powered jamming and interference still messed with it, but anything weaker would be bypassed. Not bad for about two hours worth of work.
There were also another two set off to the side that hooked up to the exact same network, allowing the wearers to communicate with each other. Plus a few extra features like switching channels, and a signal booster for emergency situations. Though that last bit would burn out the transmitter in the process.
Humming, I looked over my latest piece of equipment in my defensive arsenal. The kinetic redirector worked exactly like the Shard's ability. However, there was a little more… variety with my creation compared to it. The Shard simulated the force redistribution based on its own knowledge of how such a phenomenon should occur.
However, with Machine Madness, it didn't particularly care that it was supposed to be a simulation of physics. It just cared that it was a supernatural phenomenon that I understood. As such I could play around with the conditions as I wanted.
But first, to test the limits of such a device.
The small little device I had sat on the table with two probes connecting it to a sheet of steel. Once activated, the proof-of-concept kinetic redirector would grant the effects to the sheet, allowing me to test the limits of the device. Well, in theory anyway.
Flicking the switch, a soft beep rang throughout the room as the redirector started up. The first setting was the default one, i.e. simply reflecting and refracting kinetic energy imparted into the object. Raising my hammer, I took a deep breath and swung it as hard as I could downwards.
The impact rattled the table and sent the hammer straight back up. Blinking, I went ahead to check the sheet for any deformities, only to find that nothing had happened. Well, it wasn't unexpected. I doubted if anything I could make would fail, assuming I made them correctly of course. Next was to see how much of this kinetic energy could be withstood by the small device.
Bringing it to a drill, I set the sheet down and started trying to drill into the sheet, driving the drill bit into the face of the metal. However, the only thing that happened was the drill bit, and the metal, jumping and sliding around as the kinetic energy was redirected out of the sheet or even back up into the drill. Without the ability to impart kinetic energy, the drill couldn't start removing material to make the hole.
Same with several other machines. A lathe didn't do much, waterjet broke on the surface, a hydraulic press didn't do anything either. Kinetic energy simply traveled through the material before getting pushed back out. Although for the hydraulic press, the kinetic energy made it shoot out from the press, dislodging its connection to the device and smashing into smithereens against the wall.
I made a request to repair it.
But yea, most things wouldn't be able to break an item with the kinetic redirector active. Or at least, most mundane things wouldn't. Testing it a few more times on other varying pieces of steel, I did slowly manage to figure out what were the limits of the device and the effect it produced.
The first was that the device had an upper limit of kinetic energy that could be redirected at any given time. I stuck it inside a CNC machine with the biggest, heaviest mill bit I could find and spun it up as high as I could. The components in the redirector burnt out and the metal was indeed cut. With a little bit of calculations, pretty much anything short of a train crash or a Brute would burn out this dinky little thing.
And once I got a more robust device running, that limit should increase.
The second was that the material itself had to be able to withstand the energy travelling through it. A normal piece of cloth would tear itself apart despite the kinetic redirector being active. There were ways to mitigate it though such as elongating the time and dragging out the energy moving through the fabric at any given time. However, that could only do so much since altering physical composition of the material wasn't exactly affecting the movement of energy too much. And making the redirector do such a thing placed an unnecessary strain on the internals.
The Celestial Forge awakened yet again. This time, it grasped a fairly low Star on the Biotech Crafting Constellation. Or I guess it was a pair of Stars? Binary Stars? In the Forge? An… interesting set up.
The first Star was–
My thoughts were cut off as a ripple ran through my body, a weird feeling of rapid degeneration and regeneration as every single cell seemed to scream in pain. My mouth opened but no sound came out as I was washed with the feeling of absolute agony. Every pore felt like thousands of whitehot needles were being shoved into it, my eyes couldn't stand the sight of sunlight, but I couldn't move an inch to stop it.
I didn't know how much time passed but when I came to, I had fallen to the ground as my skin and body felt cooler. Sucking in a deep breath, I took a look back at my newly acquired perks.
Grafting was the first one, granting my body access to something called 'Gourmet Cells'. Firstly was an increase in recovery and regeneration rate which was much obliged. Although I wasn't sure what the limit on that was. But something told me that I shouldn't be taking shotgun shells to my brain.
It also gave me an extremely comprehensive boost to all my physical stats. Strength, speed, endurance, stamina, and what have you. This was stacked with the boost provided by True Hero Potential so I was pretty much a peak athlete now. Not enough to be 'superhuman' but I could generally outdo most normal people in any physical category. Not to mention that Gourmet Cells gave me a leaner, fitter, and more muscular body. A small aesthetic boost but combined with the 'Beautiful and Terrible' Mote, I was looking like someone straight out a male model magazine.
Unfortunately, this also meant that my cells had a much higher base energy demand. In fact, I was feeling a little hungry right about now despite having eaten breakfast. Although, I could feel that I could go on for a little longer without eating. In any case, if I couldn't fulfill my new body's energy needs, my new cells were going to cannibalize my body for energy.
I wonder what was the most calorie dense thing I could get in the Bay… It was probably Fugly's, wasn't it?
The second was a little more concerning. The ability to graft human, animal, or even plants to my body to gain their abilities. Humans were the easiest but the latter two required a skilled surgeon to do the grafting.
I… was pretty happy with my own body. Thank you very much. Although having eagle vision or gorilla muscles wouldn't hurt either…
I let out a sigh. No. Let's not experiment on my own body. Yet
The second perk was something called 'Gourmet Cells', which allowed me to receive either three speedy injections to give anyone Gourmet Cells, in exchange for a high likelihood of death, or have a bottle of pills– Who am I kidding? Give me the damn injections.
Although the pills were technically 'safer', this was the Celestial Forge we were talking about. In the five years it took for pills to work, I could have easily collected enough perks to turn the injections non-lethal. There was literally no point in the pills.
The second half of the second perk was a little more interesting though. It allowed me to harvest my own Gourmet Cells (or any source of said Cells for that matter) to turn into more pills or injections. Which was an interesting ability no doubt. With this, I could reasonably become a very fearsome leader of a superhuman army.
Which… Hm. Could be the basis of another identity. Stack a few regeneration items and perks and suddenly I would be an unkillable monster.
Anyway, I wouldn't be touching the injections or its creation any time soon. Mainly because they required trial and error and I wasn't established enough to waste my time on such a thing. Maybe Amaya might be interested? Bah, who am I kidding? The evil genius would jump at the chance to give her tentacle monsters the ability of 'Grafting'.
The final perk was a Mote. 'Inspirational Pull' allowed me to have an instinctive sense of ingredients and their purpose as well as guiding me to similar ingredients. Although it decreased in effectiveness the more ingredients I found. Furthermore, it improved my memory regarding ingredients and their uses.
Not like that last part was any useful. I already had Savant's Understanding giving me a perfect recall for any piece of information I wanted… Of course that was assuming I remembered it in the first place.
Turning my attention back to my problem, I put the new perk out of my mind for now. The easiest way was of course making the threads stronger. Seamstress was a Toybox contact but… I took a look at the price for what I was asking and… well… it wasn't exactly within budget. I had the briefest of ideas to somehow use my newly acquired Gourmet Cells to weave into silk. Before remembering, no I didn't know how to do that in the first place.
Spider silk would be a good stopgap measure in the meantime but Taylor hasn't exactly triggered yet.
I paused for a moment. Or actually… she has, hasn't she?
Hmm… Maybe I should make the call now? I took a look at the time… Nope, I was probably too late. Whoops. I stepped back into my base, dragging my equipment to shove into one of the empty rooms. Checking my phone, I started scrolling through the news and… yup. First headline of the day. 'Girl Found Shoved in Locker Full of Waste'.
Blah blah blah, the girl was found in a locker full of what was described as 'biohazardous waste'... Biologists were brought in to describe what was found as well as the dangers such a thing would inflict upon a normal person. Things like 'high likelihood of infection', 'toxic shock', and 'attempted murder' were thrown around as the news sensationalized and dramatized as much as they possibly could.
I doubt for a moment that it would matter. The PRT would inevitably crack down on it once Sophia Hess's participation came to light. And everything would be swept under the rug.
However… I licked my lips in anticipation. This powder keg could blow up quite easily. After a few days, when the investigation stalled due to 'PRT intervention', I could pose as an anonymous account and post on the PHO board. Pretending to be part of the posse who grew a conscience, namedrop the Trio and not-so-subtly imply that the PRT stepped in to halt the intervention.
I leaned back in my chair as an amused smile danced across my face. Yea… Yea that will do just nicely. The boards would be absolutely rife with speculation. And what was the saying? 'One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.' If the hospital also came out with the information that Taylor was in a coma as well… It was all coming together.
Of course, I doubt it would actually do anything substantial. The PRT ENE would come under fire for sure, and Piggot would no doubt have to come out to make some sort of statement to appease the crowd. Shadow Stalker would likely be 'transferred' to another location due to some sort of PR reason. And life in Brockton Bay chugged along.
Well, consider it my apology to you, Taylor Hebert. I tossed aside the kinetic redirector proof-of-concept. I could run back into the workshop to finish the proper design and implement it into my stuff… But since I was out of the workshop anyway, let's go and train. I needed some time to think about how to fix the clothing issue and A True Hero's Potential wasn't gonna manifest itself anyway.
But first, second breakfast. The drawback of Gourmet Cells was already rearing its ugly head.
When I went into the gym, I found that the number of people taking up boxing had dropped drastically, leaving only two other people still taking the course. Well, two that were also 'beginners'. There were still a few who were a lot more advanced than us still working out. The rest though likely refunded the course. James didn't seem to care though, simply asking us to get ready and warm up.
Shooting a brief glance around, I did see a young-looking girl sitting by the benches who looked bored out of her mind. Catching my look, she cocked her head to the side while I stared at her. I… think she looked familiar? She was really pretty, with black hair that fell a little past her shoulders with a purple streak through her hair. Though she didn't look like she was dressed like she was supposed to be here, with ripped denim shorts, fishnet stockings and a tube top that accentuated her large breasts.
Oh.
That's Aisha.
Brian's sister… and James' daughter.
My immediate second thought was 'That's thirteen?' Huh. I turned my attention to James as he called us to attention. The first ten minutes was him touching on some points that he had talked about in the previous lesson and checking our progress before moving onto the actual lesson. Which was footwork. Entirely footwork actually. In his words, it was better to learn to dodge first before learning how to throw a punch.
After the first hour, I pretty much had a handle on it and was sent off for more physical training. Grabbing the piece of paper from his hands, I went ahead and started familiarizing myself with equipment needed.
As I got to working out how the equipment worked, I spotted Aisha walking up to me with a certain air of smugness around her. Though I wouldn't put it at the same rank as Lisa's smugness. Lisa's smugness was more… solid in a way, backed by her power and knowledge that she was the smartest in the room. Aisha's was more surface level in that sense. There was nothing supporting her smugness except pure confidence.
"Need some help, big guy?" She grinned as I fiddled with the weights.
"I'm good." I coughed lightly as I slid the weights into place and started working on the first rep of the day. And it was light. Incredibly so. The combination of Gourmet Cells and True Hero was making 35 kg leg press feel like an easy warm-up. So I slid on a few heavier weights and started feeling the strain.
I could probably go even higher but I didn't really need to. What–
"I'd never seen you here before." Aisha rudely interrupted my thoughts. However, I hid my annoyance in my breathing as I lowered the plate and continued my reps. "You new here?"
I nodded as I let out a long breath. "Just joined pretty recently. Heard that a professional boxer was here and decided to join." I kept some amount of attention on Aisha so she didn't interrupt my thoughts once more.
Anyway, what I wanted to do was train my control. Right now, I needed to get used to the sudden increase in strength, lest I accidentally shattered something I meant to hold. So I was going to use this opportunity to figure out how to not accidentally throw 20kg weights around like it was nothing. Better now, than while on the street and accidentally punching someone's jaw off.
The other thing I wondered about was how did the boost for True Hero Potential worked? Like if I trained strength, would only the portions I trained become stronger or will my entire body become stronger?
"And he has you on PT instead?" Aisha said as she sat beside me, watching me rest between sets. "Doesn't sound like you got your money's worth."
I shrugged my shoulders as best as I could before starting on my next set. "Well…! Apparently my skills were good enough that there wasn't a need to train…! And it would be better for me to do this…!" I grunted between each rep.
Aisha flitted around me as I became her new distraction. Loremaster helpfully provided that she was similar to Lisa in that she mostly only approached out of curiosity. I also remembered that she has ADHD so the best and fastest way to get rid of her was to be as boring as possible. Not that it was particularly easy.
The girl practically needled me for a reaction. At the very least she had some sense to not mess with me while I was working with heavy weights. "Say, why did you stare at me?" She asked while having the most shit-eating grin on her face. "Could you be a–"
My eyes flickered to the side with the most deadpan stare I could muster while supporting a rather heavy weight on my legs. Aisha cut herself off with a chuckle. "I'm just joking. Don't get your panties in a twist." Rolling my eyes, I continued with my training while only throwing out the occasional bait to keep the girl's attention.
Aisha had one of the strongest Stranger powers in Worm. The ability to wipe information, both from people's mind and digital storage was massive. Coupled with Machine Madness, I could practically wipe people's memories of certain events or people if needed. If I got something that could implant memories as well… that would just make it perfect, wouldn't it?
So getting into her good graces shouldn't be that bad. Once I got into something she was interested in, mainly the cartoon she was watching, and got her ranting, I mostly let her keep going while providing the occasional question to keep her going. It was like listening to a podcast during your workout. Except it was an underage girl, cursing like a sailor at the writers for making two characters get together and disregarding seasons of prior build up.
"It's like they caved into audience demands!" Aisha growled out as she made a motion like wringing a towel. "Like Bella and Stella literally had no major scenes together! They practically didn't talk themselves into a relationship, and cOnViNiEnTLy forgot that Stella had a trauma to work out and Bella already had a good partner! One that she spent a full season with!" Ah. I see that this world apparently had its own version of RWBY too.
The Celestial Forge spun up once again. This time I got another Star on the same rank as Machine Madness and Lab Partner from the Magical Database Constellation. Which seemed a little out of place for something called the Celestial Forge and not the Celestial Grimoire but I wasn't complaining. The Star also emptied out all the energy stored in the Forge, so I guess I wasn't going to get anything for the next two Awakenings.
The perk was called 'Notes of Thoth', a series of notes written by the Egyptian God of Writing, Knowledge, and Magic himself. It contained information about different plains, monsters, spirits, gods, and more, and I could use all of that to craft my own spells. It was stored in a new section of the base, an Egyptian style library with several shelves containing all the notes provided by the perk.
There were also two additional Motes. The first was 'Traditions' which allowed me to speak and understand every form of Egyptian and hieroglyphic. Plus, the appeasement of Egyptian gods as well as a broad understanding of the myths surrounding them. A lot of… mehness here. But I guess if I didn't wanna get smote, I would have to live with it.
The second was Magical Specializations. Similar to Magic Style: Enchantment, this granted me a Specialization in an aspect of Egyptian magic. That wasn't to say I couldn't use any other magic such as the absolute bullshit that was the Divine Words and Duat, but I immediately had several years of training and knowledge of said path downloaded straight into my brain. As for the others, I would have to learn them the old-fashioned way.
However, I only really had one option. Statuary Magic–
"Yoooo…." A hand snapped its fingers in front of me. "Are you even listening?"
I blinked and was pulled out of my musing. Ah right, Aisha was still here. Briefly, I quickly recalled whatever she had ranted about and responded accordingly. "Sorry, I just got a little caught up in my thoughts."
Aisha motioned to the machine. And I had also realised I had stopped in the middle of my reps. Whoops. Clearing my throat awkwardly, I kept going while I probed Aisha a little to get her to chat a bit more.
Hearing footsteps, I craned my neck a little to see James walking over with a towel draped across his neck. Everyone else was busy practicing drills or something else, leaving him with some time to check on me. Stopping just beside me, he shot a glance at Aisha with… something there. A weird mix of disappointment, anger, and resignation, coupled with… some other emotions that I couldn't put a finger on.
"I see you've gotten acquainted with my daughter." He spoke with a tone that didn't say much and reiterated the emotions that Loremaster was picking up. "How is your PT?" He crossed his arms and I kinda felt like I was standing in front of a teacher, asking me if I was having a good day. Terrible. 0/10. Wouldn't recommend it.
"Good. Good." I let myself off the machine. "Umm, upped the weights since they weren't quite heavy enough for me."
James nodded. "Alright. Lesson's over. You can either continue or leave now." Glancing back at Aisha, she had gone strangely quiet. Well, I knew that the two of them weren't exactly on the best of terms. Plus Brian was working with the Undersiders to get custody. So… hm… I didn't know enough to work out what was actually wrong. James wasn't exactly mentioned a whole lot across the story.
"Got it." Flexing my muscles, I was slightly surprised that I wasn't too sore. More of a… general ache throughout my entire body despite the fact that I was really only working out one section of my body. It was probably the effect of Gourmet Cells boosting my regeneration I suppose… Wait, wouldn't that mean I could work out harder and faster? Which accelerated the growth of True Hero Potential?
Man, I love it when the Celestial Forge's perks reinforced each other.