It took longer than Val had initially anticipated to adjust the exosuit. Rather than rush the process, she had forced herself to take a midday break. She would have loved to stretch her legs and walk around a bit, but she and Noir both agreed that it was not a risk worth taking. However, she did take a shower and washed her clothes before taking a quick afternoon nap.

Lunch and dinner were quick affairs, breaking into the safehouse’s store of nonperishable foods. The waterfall outside provided plenty of fresh water and energy, so Val splurged a bit and prepared a meal of rice and beans. She had a feeling she’d be eating plenty of canned and dried foods in the near future, so even boiling the simple fare on the stovetop seemed like a welcome luxury. Rather than setting off tired in the evening, Val spent another glorious night sleeping indoors.

The next morning, she equipped the full exosuit for the first time. She sighed with relief as the final components snapped in place, sealing her off from the outside world. It was like a weighted security blanket, providing her with a security and comfort that she hadn’t realized she had become accustomed to until it had been stripped away from her by Brain and Brawn.

Val closed her eyes and pushed a massive wave of nano from her core outwards, connecting her to the exosuit and powering it on. Even optimized for her, the older model was more power-hungry. The corner of her mouth twitched as she felt a twinge of discomfort in her chest. She’d come to recognize the feeling of her fractured core straining under load, but so far it hadn’t affected her performance. Yet.

Pushing aside those morose thoughts, Val dove deeper into an almost meditative state, performing a scan of her body from head to toe. She focused on each individual trace connecting her to the exosuit, testing whether all of her modifications to the inner layer were working properly. Pleased that everything was in working order, she opened her eyes and looked around the safehouse.

Apparently, keeping your face completely covered was a thing for many of Noir’s previous Users. Perhaps not surprising considering the sorts of missions they had to undertake. While the Council understood the necessity of keeping an anti-User deterrent around, nobody liked someone who could turn against them at any moment.

The end result was that Val’s new helmet was completely visorless. And not visorless in the “has an opening for your face” showy way that was popular with some of the city-bound elites recently. Rather, it was visorless in a secure but slightly menacing way, the front portion of the helmet made of solid nano-infused metal. Instead, the entire inner surface of the helmet was a large screen that projected the view from outside. It took some adjustment, but Val found that she actually liked the design and soon it felt just as natural as not wearing a helmet at all. She’d been on the job for less than a week, and already anonymity felt like a highly valued commodity.

Walking over to the armory, Val was surprised by how easy it was to move in the exosuit. It was bulkier, more power-intensive, and less flexible than any model she had worn before, but somehow it fit her perfectly and moved with almost no noticeable resistance. Taking a sudden experimental step to the side, she marveled at the armor’s instantaneous response.

She was startled when her hip slammed into the workbench. Her step had taken her much further than she expected. She moved her limbs around slowly, paying attention to how the armor interacted with her movement. It’s not just no resistance. The armor is actively enhancing my movement!

Of course. Why are you so surprised? You are the one who asked for 12% body enhancement, after all.

Val stopped flapping her arm, confusion coming over her face.

Well yes, but I’m not running any body enhancement subroutines currently.

Oh, I see. You never had a real runthrough for what it means to be a User. Some of this is my fault since we had one chance to work together during the first mission with the Defects, but I was too focused on monitoring your core. Val, you are running body enhancement now. The whole point of the human-Daemon partnership is that I can facilitate running these subroutines in the background.

Stunned, Val turned her focus inwards and saw that Noir was right. A portion of her nano was constantly circulating through her traces, increasing the efficiency of her muscles and strengthening her ligaments and bones. Following the flow further, she could see where the nano passed through the inner layer into the middle control layer of the exosuit. What had taken conscious effort before now happened instinctively.

Noir, this is amazing!

I’m glad you like the new suit. Now, be warned that this will take some getting used to in combat. Which actually brings me to my next proposal.

Val snapped out of watching the nano flow around her body and suit, focusing on Noir’s words. I’m not sure I like where this is going.

I’d like to point out that I do have a good track record of suggestions. My last proposal was stopping by this safehouse. You like how that turned out, right?

Yes, I guess so. Val begrudgingly admitted that Noir hadn’t led her astray much. Yet.

We both agree that we need to increase our combat ability to stand against our enemies. Which we now know include at least Enhanced beasts and Class A rogue Users.

Val nodded grimly, fists clenching.

Currently, no one knows where we are. Or at least, if they do, they haven’t bothered us yet. But as soon as we show up in Peakpoint, we’ll be back on the radar. We’ll be able to link back up with the Defects, but it took the rogue Users less than a day to target you. I’m sure they’ll do so again.

Does this have a point besides reminding me of the obvious and stressing me out?

My point is that we have an opportunity to practice together now for the first time. I suggest we make our way back to Peakpoint, but maybe don’t rush there blindly. If we run into any beasts we think we can handle, maybe thin them out a bit.

Val reached up to rub her chin, surprising herself when her armored gauntlet bumped into the blank mask of her helmet. She settled for chewing on her lip in thought instead.

I see your point. But still, a brand-new User fighting beasts solo in the wilderness? Even the most sadistic trainers wouldn’t recommend that.

Normally, I would agree. But we just so happen to have a data dump with the current positions and estimated danger levels of a bunch of wildlife in the area. We will likely never have access to data like this again. At least not without going through official, monitored channels.

Val drummed her fingers, considering Noir’s proposal. Like jumping off the waterfall, it all sounded logical. But it was still so far out of her comfort zone, it was difficult to commit herself to the idea.

Plus, is it really more dangerous than facing off with Class A rogue Users, who are probably going to be very angry when we see them again? And I do mean when, not if. You and I both know they won’t just leave us alone.

Val struggled mentally for another moment before giving up with a sigh.

Alright, you’ve made your point. I’m not going to go chasing after every beast on the way back to Peakpoint. But… I’m not going to turn down some free experience if we run into a lone wolf.

Excellent.

Val’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. Is this why you suggested the longer route back to Peakpoint in the first place?

I don’t know what you’re talking about. Getting to a safehouse seemed like a high priority at the time. But this certainly seems like the logical progression now that we are here.

Just so you know, I’m starting to pick up on how you are manipulating me. I don’t particularly appreciate it.

Who was it that said “if everyone is going to use us, let’s do it in the most advantageous way possible”? You can’t argue that I’ve not tried to give us as many advantages as possible.

This is exactly my point. There’s no need to throw my own words at me. We’re in this together, even more so now than before. You don’t need to manipulate me, just tell it to me straight. We’ll figure out the rest later.

There was a pause as Noir retreated from the neural link for a moment. Despite the imposed mental distance, Val could still feel the Daemon analyzing her statement in what she could only describe as a thoughtful silence. They returned to the forefront of her mind without an apology, but Val was convinced they were at least thinking it over given the softer tone they used.

If we’ve decided to do this, then we’ll need to equip ourselves well. I have some suggestions, but let’s see what you like out of the armory.

Happy to break the uncomfortable tension, Val stepped up to the cabinets along the left wall.

Sounds good to me.

Val soon found that it was harder to pick a weapon loadout than she was expecting. Part of the trouble was adjusting to the physical differences – the bulkier armor plating and restricted range of motion. With her previous exosuit, she preferred smaller, precise weapons, but those were slightly more awkward now.

By contrast, the continuous body enhancement, even if only running with a small fraction of her power, made it much easier for her to wield more powerful weapons. Her unfamiliarity with the larger weapons made it harder to tell which ones were a good fit for her evolving combat style. It didn’t help that the safehouse was more intended to be a place for resupply, not completely overhauling one’s kit. The lack of open space or even a training dummy gave Val very little opportunity to fully test things out.

Truth be told, part of Val was still enjoying the novelty of having more options. Noir’s comment about a kid in a toy shop was not entirely a bad fit as Val systematically picked up and played with nearly every weapon in the extensive armory. Tested, played with – same difference. Val grinned as she placed a large two-handed sword back on the rack. Definitely not her style, but it was exhilarating to lift and swing the sword with relative ease. For the first time, she was starting to see the combat benefits of becoming a User. And it felt good. Really good. Just gotta survive long enough to keep enjoying it.

In the end, she settled on a slightly updated but similar loadout to her previous exosuit. The dagger was upgraded to a knife the length of her forearm, still with the nano-enhanced edge capable of cutting through nearly anything. She still carried a pistol, but the new firearm shot larger rounds since she was capable of handling the higher recoil. Noir also helped her add electrified rounds as a new type of modified ammo in addition to the armor-piercing rounds; after all, she had seen firsthand how incapacitating that could be to an unsuspecting target when Kriven had shot her with them during her abduction.

In Noir’s typical paranoia, they suggested destroying Brain’s pistol, the rifle, and her ammo purse on the off-chance those objects could somehow be used to track them. Val did select another rifle to replace the one she had used the day before. Having at least one option for a midrange battle seemed like a good idea, even if she was no expert marksman.

She also loaded up on a variety of single-use supplies: many universal magazines in honor of Kaya, a few grenades and explosive charges in honor of Wallon, and an armor-patching kit in honor of Bri. Val had no idea what Zavis would need or like, so she figured just staying alive and not killing any humans yet was good enough for him.

The last addition to her arsenal had been Noir’s request. Given how perfectly it slotted into the vambraces covering her forearms, Val had no doubt that this weapon had been utilized by some of Noir’s previous Users as well. The two squat cylindrical objects lay tucked against the armor on her forearms now, but a mental command allowed them to slide down into her palms. A quick flick of her wrist caused the weapons to telescope out several feet, reminding her of batons. But while batons were meant for blunt strikes, these weapons came to sinister points like large needles or awls.

Piercing the target’s defenses is the single most effective way for us to bring our nano disruption techniques to bear, Noir had told Val earlier when she had asked about the weapons. So far, you’ve used a combination of slashing with your knife or blunt force with open-palmed hits to impart nano into your opponent’s body. It works, but it’s extremely inefficient.

We don’t need to deal massive damage to bring down a target. We only need to apply a little bit of nano in the right location, and it’s game over – you saw how well it worked with Brawn, right? But this approach hinges on our ability to deliver nano efficiently.

Blunt force requires a massive amount of nano since we don’t get direct access. That’s part of why taking down Brawn nearly burnt out your own traces. Slashing can get us to their nanosystem, but the sliding movement needs either precise timing or excess nano to ensure we disrupt our target. Piercing does the least physical damage but it’s exactly what we need – effective at getting through armor and hitting a particular target with pinpoint accuracy.

You make it sound like piercing damage is the solution, but this still requires me to have the physical strength to get through their armor and the accuracy to place the tip where we need it.

Of course. As you humans are fond of saying, there’s no free lunch. This approach also means you need an almost encyclopedic knowledge of your targets: their exact nanosystem structure, attack patterns, defense mechanisms. Planning and preparation are the largest contributing factors to carrying out a successful… hunt.

Noir had retreated after that, leaving Val to finalize her loadout in silence. Sliding out the needles, Val gripped them tightly in each hand. She extended each needle to its full length, running through some thrusting drills that she had adapted from her swordwork lessons. Ending in a lunge, she stood up straight and looked thoughtfully at the weapons. As usual, Noir’s explanation made sense but it was difficult to see past the lack of physical damage.

Contracting both needles, she held out both hands horizontally and placed them end-to-end. One mental command fused the two cylinders together, nano running along the seam until she was left with a single longer shaft. Another command caused the new weapon to telescope out as well, leaving her with a thin spear nearly six feet long. It looked like a single hard lateral blow would completely destroy the weapon, although Noir had reassured her that it was quite durable.

Val had neglected most staff and polearm training so it was unlikely she’d use this form of the weapon any time soon. Adding a melee weapon with some range to her skill set seemed like a smart idea, though. She collapsed the weapon with a sigh, disconnecting the two needles and slotting them back into her vambraces. Just another thing to work on.

She gave herself a pat-down, running through a mental checklist of her equipment. Satisfied she wasn’t missing anything, she took one last look around the safehouse. Everything was back in place. Hopefully she wouldn’t need this location again, but better safe than sorry.

Any other way out of here besides the underwater lock?

No. Well, there is one but it’ll permanently compromise this safehouse.

Well, we wouldn’t want that.

Val rolled her neck before turning back to the entrance. Crouching down, she tapped the hatch, which lifted to show the empty tunnel on the other side. It was a much tighter fit this time around in the large exosuit, but Val was infinitely happier as she stayed dry and breathing an internal air supply as water flooded the lock.

Another hatch, a few kicks through a rock tunnel, and several strokes below the waterfall saw Val popping back up in the pool. The sun was just peeking out over the mountaintops behind her as the forest started coming to life. Water dripped down off her exosuit as she stepped onto the shore.

Unslinging her rifle, Val glanced at the map in the upper corner of her helmet display. The same route Noir had plotted from the previous day was there, but there were also several groups of icons dotting the path up to the mountain pass. Her fingers drummed anxiously against the grip of her rifle before she steadied her nerves.

Let’s go see what your new exosuit is capable of, shall we?

I guess we shall.

Val strode off into the treeline, intent on getting back to Peakpoint. But maybe just getting a little stronger along the way as well.