Connecting to the control unit even as the last pieces are being welded into place is a strange feeling. Strange, because it suddenly felt as if I had a new appendage. Like I had grown another arm or something.

What I’m referring to is the brand spanking new, and slimmed down, Drone Bay! With literal days of waiting, tonnes of resources used, and a problem with a solar panel that took a railgun shell to resolve, the damned thing is finally complete! But um, maybe I should back up a bit.

So it seems that the goblinoids are not the only annoyances on this planet. At least in the local area. There are also giant bugs about. Creepy, twisted, many-legged giant bugs. Ugh. Just thinking about it gives me the shivers.

I’m pretty sure the reflectivity of the solar panel caught its attention, and thus it became a sunbather. An annoying scourge that sat right on the sun-warmed panel and then wouldn’t leave. It completely blocked the thing, which really irked me because of the power needs it was stealing from.

I sent a drone, and the damned bug swatted it away. I sent Arlae, who ended up being chased around for a while before it returned to the solar panel. So I shot it. Which is annoying all in itself.

I had to have the drones move one of my turrets up onto the mountain to get a clear shot. I wasn’t about to go shooting over my head and blasting holes in the mountainside. Which all took more time and power, which I was steadily losing.

One shot and it was over, although that left me with a mess and a very meager amount of EXP for the trouble. Ugh. Maybe I should have made an industrial-sized flyswatter instead. Probably would have been less… gooey.

[User has killed 1 Gi-Fly. User has gained 0.2 EXP.]

And that was it. I’m pretty sure that ‘Gi’ stands for Giant, but I cannot be sure. How the hell the universe names things is completely beyond me anyway.

Other than that interlude that took up a few good hours yesterday, everything else has been ticking right along. I’ve been building, tending my garden, and waiting. And watching, but that’s beside the point.

Arlae on the other hand has gotten herself mixed up in just about everything. She’s been oddly helpful, even with the more… disturbing jobs. I had to make her a long pair of gloves to keep the blood and offal off of her, but she’s been helping cut up the goblinoid corpses and drain their blood, even watering the garden. Had to make a set of pipes and hoses for that though.

At least she likes the bed. Said it reminded her of a beanbag in the way she sinks right into it. It’s good to know that my *cough* -sewing- *cough* is pretty good. But let’s not talk about that right now, okay?

As the boot-up for the Drone Bay finishes just as the last welds are put into place for the front plate, I can feel the automated systems hitting up my memory for access codes. Within moments access is granted and I gain full control, and I cannot help but let out a sigh in relief. It’s good to know that shit works the way it is supposed to.

“Booyah baby, we are in b-i-z-n-e-s-s!” I cannot help it, I’m quite excited. Even though my shouting causes Arlae to jump as if I’d just stepped on her tail, causing me to laugh.

“Sorry, sorry. The damned thing works. Now I have the rights to four more drones.” Not much of an apology, but heh. I’m too excited to care.

Two more rover drones, another excavator drone, and then a little something special I’ve been working on to fill the last slot. All of it is planned out, and at this point desperately needed. Building the Drone Bay has nearly wiped us out in resources.

The excavator drone is actually first on that list just for that reason. Too bad I’ll need to build another two solar panels to power it all though. It’s about time we drag them all together however. The solar panels are modular anyway, they’re just a hassle to move around due to the camouflage skirting I made for them. No matter though.

[The User has added a new sub-system. The Expandable Feat has been invoked, generating refund options.]

Okay, that’s new. But before I could really make sense of it another one pops up. One I really like~

[User may choose one of the available Expandable Feat Refund Options:

50% return on resources used in construction, 50% return on power units used in construction, 10 EXP for building without using the Expandable Feat.]

Damn are those some nice options. Just the return on resources can give me back nearly a ton of metals. The energy option would all but fill up my pu capacity. But it is really the third option that gets my attention. Delicious fucking EXP, straight from the heavens… Yum!

“My Expandable Feat just activated. I can get a refund of energy, power, or 10 EXP points for building the Drone Bay.” I end up telling Arlae after calming down, not making my selection just yet. I wanted her option.

“Ooh, those are some interesting options. The recoup in resources would go a long way, but you can expand your abilities with the EXP. That makes this a difficult choice…” She starts thinking about it as well, and I want to tilt my head just like she is in thought too. I feel like I need to make a Bobble-Head type thing to bounce around when I feel like I should be nodding.

“Exactly. On the other hand the second excavator drone is already on the list, so an increase in resources is just around the bend. Getting those resources now wouldn’t really speed things up. Neither would the power, truth be told. While that’s around 200 pu, all it’ll do is fill up my storage. The EXP is infinitely more useful though.”

It’s a hard choice, so me and Arlae discuss it a bit. Last time I had such a hard choice I ended up playing a game, but this time I really need to put attention to it. Ugh. Decisions, decisions.

[The User has chosen Option 3. The User has gained 10 EXP!]

There, the choice was made. It took some weight off my mind, but at the same time I’m excited. Having EXP to spend will be a big help, regardless of what I spend it on.

[User Profile:

Name: Unknown.

Age: Unknown.

Race: (AAI) Ascended Artificial Intelligence.

Racial Rank: D. (1 more EXP spent for D+.)

EXP Available: 14.4.

External Stats:

Structural Integrity (HP) -7.9/10. (No damage.)

Movement Speed (Spd) - 0.1. (Immobile.)

Internal Stats:

Focus (CPU) - 25/100. (No problem.)

+1 New World Common Knowledge.

Power Units (pu) - 321/500. (No problem.)

+1 Efficiency. (0.75 pu cost.)

Fuel Load - 149/1000. (Low fuel warning.)

+1 Efficiency. (1.1 fuel value.)

Storage Capacity - 350/1000. (No problem.)

Drones (4 of 4) - 1 Hover Scout Drone (M), 1 Excavator Drone, 2 Rover Drones. (No problem.)

+1 Drone Bay (0 of 4). (No problem.)

Feats List:

All-Seeing (limited); Ascended; Expandable; Eternal; Accelerated Thought; Crafting Meister; Learned; Otherworlder.

Abilities List:

Hyperfocus II, Energy Domain I.]

Taking a look at my Profile, I can clearly claim to be somewhat surprised, although in retrospective I shouldn’t have been. I have extra EXP, but then again I haven’t been keeping track of all the monster parts I’ve been eating either. So it comes to be a nice bonus anyway.

Each monster part is giving me less and less EXP though, so I’m not really going to bother with keeping track anyway. At the moment I’m more interested in what I get out of the parts in terms of trace elements than EXP. At least they still have worth, and I don’t have to worry about them rotting. My nano furnace can melt down just about anything.

More than that though the new Drone Bay has opened me up for an additional four drones. Seeing it added to my profile makes me want to grin. Boo-ya baby! Heh heh. If a guy can’t be happy for having new toys to play with, then what can he be happy about, right? RIGHT?!

Okay, enough of that. Now it is time to choose what I want to spend that delicious EXP on. Last time I went for efficiency upgrades and that knowledge, so I’m hoping I have a few more options this time. Plus I’d really like to know what it takes to get a class for myself. And Arlae, I can’t forget about her.

[Structural Integrity: 7.1/10.

EXP Options:

+1 Structural Integrity; Cost 1 EXP.

+1 Reinforcement; Cost 1 EXP.

Focus: 18/100.

+10 Capacity; Cost 2 EXP.

+1 Speed; Cost 2 EXP.

+1 Accelerated Thought Ability Level; Cost 5 EXP.

+1 Parallel Thought Ability Level; Cost 2 EXP.

Power Units: 115/500.

EXP Options:

+10 Capacity; Cost 1 EXP.

+2 (New) Efficiency; Cost 5 EXP.

+1 Secondary Storage; Cost 2 EXP.

Fuel Load: 156/1000.

EXP Options:

+10 Capacity; Cost 1 EXP.

+2 (New) Efficiency; Cost 5 EXP.

+1 Organic Fuels; Cost 5 EXP.

+1 Secondary Storage; Cost 2 EXP.

Storage Capacity: 250/1000.

EXP Options:

+10 Capacity; Cost 1 EXP.

+1 Nano Furnace Efficiency; Cost 2 EXP.

+1 Nano Furnace Nanite Speed; Cost 5 EXP.

+1 Nano Replicator Efficiency; Cost 2 EXP.

+1 Nano Replicator Nanite Speed; Cost 5 EXP.

+1 Secondary Storage; Cost 2 EXP.

Drones: 4/4.

EXP Options:

+1 Drone Bay; Cost 25 EXP.

+1 Recharge Efficiency; Cost 5 EXP.

+1 Energy Domain Ability Level; Cost 5 EXP.

All-Seeing (limited) Feat:

EXP Options:

+1 Efficiency; Cost 5 EXP.

+1 Expanded Array; Cost 10 EXP.

Expandable Feat:

EXP Options:

Drones: 0/4

+1 Drone Bay; Cost 25 EXP.

Learned Feat:

EXP Options:

+2 (New) New World Uncommon Knowledge; Cost 10 EXP.

+1 New World Common Languages; Cost 5 EXP.

+1 New World Common Materials; Cost 5 EXP.

+1 New World Common Monsters; Cost 5 EXP.]

Hummm. Some new stuff and some changes. I have no idea what’s going on with that though. The previous ‘nano-stuff nanite efficiency’ has changed to ‘speed’ instead, which makes more sense from my point of view. But seeing that the options clearly changed is a little disconcerting.

Is this -SYSTEM- trying to learn about me and changing the way it is interacting with me? I can’t really tell if it’s intelligent or not. Maybe it was built with turing code to keep it stable? Hm. Something to think about in any case.

That said, the costs of some of the options have definitely gone up. But I knew they would. Starting upgrades are fairly cheap on EXP, but the later ones are going to be much more expensive. I almost dread the idea of seeing costs in the hundreds of thousands of EXP. Ugh.

That said, making my choices now is just as hard as it was before. I’ve never considered myself a hesitant man before, but these are very meaningful decisions. They’ll definitely affect what I have access to and what options I’ll have later.

A bad decision right now would just about kill me should something unexpected happen. Ugh. So instead I throw the whole list up on my screen and call Arlae over to help go through the choices.

“Okay, so I have 14 EXP points to spend, and these are all the options. Some are obviously quite expensive, and almost all of them would be helpful right now. So, thoughts?” I tell her while she stands in front of me, biting her lower lip while reading.

“From what I can tell we are both completely reliant upon what you can build and how fast you can do so. So my thoughts are to buy both the efficiency and speed upgrades for your nanites. Even a little boost now would go a long way right now.” She finally responds after a moment, and she definitely has a point. I have just enough points to buy all the starting upgrades.

“Although the number of options you have is insane. All of mine are centered around my stats, fears, and abilities. There are no specific parameters or other options to pick from, although we share some of the same options for the Learned Feat, except for the Materials one.”

“Yeah, I was thinking as much. It also reflects my engineering background. I dealt with all sorts of materials and learning both chemistry and some biology while in university. Material sciences is a really big course.” I tell her my thoughts on the subject, and she nods.

“But I think you have a point. I’ll go with that then. You might want to step back.” I tell her, to which she does while grinning. She’s obviously gloating. Ugh.

The lightshow is always somewhat intense, but I don’t get the same empowering feeling she got when spending her EXP. Instead I try to focus my sensors on what is going on inside of me, and given I don’t have a splitting headache for having knowledge stuffed into my memory, it’s much easier to keep track of this time. If a little weird.

Watching the mana stored within me being pulled out and changing shape as it moves into my nano furnace and replicator is quite something. I don’t understand the principles behind it at all. At the same time though those shapes become smaller and more refined in just a few short moments, before they are integrated into each and every one of my nanites.

The rest of the mana is then sent into the nanite control units, causing my body to shudder as physical changes manifest within my circuitry and physical assembly. The stored mana, the actual form of the EXP I spent, is somehow able to change physical matter at a base level. It feels just as funky as it looks, like my guts have bloated before shrinking again, fitting back into their proper places.

Then the process is done, and I can clearly feel the changes that have happened. I don’t even need to pull up my user profile to check the differences. I simply know that the speed of my nano furnace and replicator has increased and the required power and materials have decreased somewhat. It’s a heady feeling, and something I had missed the first time around.

“Wow, that does feel weird. I don’t think I noticed the first time due to the headache. It isn’t the empowering, overwhelming feeling you had, but not too different I think.” I end up saying out loud to Arlae.

“See, told you so. Hah!”

I still go ahead and pull up my profile just to check though. Conveniently ignoring the snide remark coming my way at the same time.

[User Profile:

Name: Unknown.

Age: Unknown.

Race: (AAI) Ascended Artificial Intelligence.

Racial Rank: D+. (16 more EXP spent for C-.)

EXP Available: 0.4.

External Stats:

Structural Integrity (HP) -8.0/10. (No damage.)

Movement Speed (Spd) - 0.1. (Immobile.)

Internal Stats:

Focus (CPU) - 25/100. (No problem.)

+1 New World Common Knowledge.

Power Units (pu) - 321/500. (No problem.)

+1 Efficiency. (0.75 pu cost.)

Fuel Load - 149/1000. (Low fuel warning.)

+1 Efficiency. (1.1 fuel value.)

Storage Capacity - 350/1000. (No problem.)

+1 Nano Furnace Efficiency. (0.90 pu cost, 0.90 material cost.)

+1 Nano Furnace Nanite Speed. (1.1 speed.)

+1 Nano Replicator Efficiency. (0.90 pu cost, 0.90 material cost.)

+1 Nano Replicator Nanite Speed. (1.1 speed.)

Drones (4 of 4) - 1 Hover Scout Drone (M), 1 Excavator Drone, 2 Rover Drones. (No problem.)

+1 Drone Bay (0 of 4). (No problem.)

Feats List:

All-Seeing (limited); Ascended; Expandable; Eternal; Accelerated Thought; Crafting Meister; Learned; Otherworlder.

Abilities List:

Hyperfocus II, Energy Domain I.]

Welp, I be damned. A whole ten percent increase across the board there. The speed bonus by itself can cut minutes or even hours off of building things. It’s the materials cost that really gets me though.

Just how is that going to work? Will it magic up extra materials to fill in the rest of the cost? Building things requires a specific number and arrangement of atoms, often in the millions or more. So many I don’t bother to keep track and simply let my programs do the work. More complex structures require even more. A human body for example has trillions and trillions of atoms in it.

That also begs the question on rather mana can be converted into mass and vice versa. The obvious answer is yes, but the laws behind such things totally escape me. I’ve never been one for physics outside of what I needed for engineering work. Just trying to wrap my head around it leaves me blank and wishing for a soft bed somewhere.

“I got a ten percent reduction in energy and building cost, along with a ten percent increase in building speed out of those upgrades.” I finally tell Arlae, throwing my new profile up on the screen for her to look at. Seeing the flabbergasted look on her face is totally worth it.

“Damn, that’s totally a cheat. How would that work though for the materials?” She asks after a moment, echoing my own thoughts on the subject.

“No clue. I’m not a physicist. But it should work, and will dramatically cut down the time and the cost to building those new drones. So let us get to work!” Since I’m not going to bother to think about it just yet, I might as well put our time to good us.

Regardless of the unanswerable questions, I’m still quite excited. I’m pretty sure that old saying of ‘double the money, double the fun’ counts here, if just not in the way people would expect. Hahahaha.

Too bad all that leaves me with is another waiting period. Damnit.