Chapter 09-01

Alex awoke to his phone ringing. It startled him for a moment because he hadn’t gotten a phone call since coming back into the My supers world so he clenched his chest for a moment. He wasn’t wearing his mask, or any of his super suit so he had to break the warm cocoon of the hotel bed and blankets so that he could hunt down the phone.

“Hello.” He said in a sleepy tone holding the phone to his ear without bothering to check the caller information.

“Good afternoon, Um did I wake you?” A man’s voice said. The curtains in the hotel room did such a good job of keeping the light out that he had no idea that they had slept through the morning and into the afternoon. Alex glanced over to see Obsidian laying with one arm and one leg hanging not only outside of the blanket but also dangling off the side of her bed.

“Who is this?” Alex asked. He thought he recognized the voice, but he couldn’t be a hundred percent sure.

“Sir, this is Calson. I am calling because I need some guidance for factory operations.” Calson said. He sounded like he was a little irritated that Alex was just now waking up.

“Oh, Cal, sorry my brain is not quite up yet, but I’m getting there. What you got going on man?” Alex said pulling himself out of bed. He stretched while holding the phone to his face with his shoulder before walking over to the window.

“We’ve managed after these first few days to put a little over two hundred and forty thousand thread into the factory’s bank account.” Calson said with pride.

“Alright!” Alex said with a little bit of excitement. He hadn’t really been keeping up with the factory’s account like he should assuming that if there was a problem Calson would let him know.

“Yes well, I was doing a little research and I believe that if we made a few upgrades then we can increase our profitability significantly.” He said.

“Ok, shoot.” Alex said.

“There is an upgrade that we can buy for one hundred thousand thread call Minimalize Over Head III. This module will reduce our daily operation cost from seventy percent to sixty three percent. Which when considering yesterday’s numbers would have accounted for nearly fifty thousand dollars.” Calson explained.

“Sound like a good plan to me.” Alex said nodding, though he knew that no one could see him.

“In addition, I would like to spend one hundred and twenty thousand thread to change half the factory over from electronic components to advanced electronic components. There is a high demand for AECs, and we can corner the market if we act fast. No AECs are produced on this continent and there is talk that all trade will be cut off or at least heavily taxed. We could offer an affordable solution for all the people here at home.” Calson explained.

Alex thought for a moment on this one. It was one thing just to upgrade to increase efficiency, but to actually change what they were making in part of the factory was another ballgame altogether. What if he was wrong and the factory started to fail? He was putting some serious cash into his account. On the other hand, what if he was right and they double or tripled their income? In the end, he had given Calson the job because he had the experience and he didn’t know the system at all.

“If you think it’s a good move then execute.” Alex said finally.

“I do think that it is a very potentially profitable move. Thank you for your time sir.” Calson said confidently.

“Anytime. Thanks for keeping the cogs turning.” Alex said and they both disconnected their lines.

With business done, and some anticipation about the renewed numbers rumbling around in the back of his head, Alex decided to again use the morning for some character development. He truly appreciated the quantifiable systems of point allocation and numbers as opposed to the abstract way that the world he had come from did things.

Having made level fourteen he had fifteen power points and twenty stat points that were itching to find a home. The first thing that he did was bring his original three powers up to rank seven. It took four points, but it was well worth the stat boosts that he’d gotten from each.

The next thing that Alex wanted was that sweet first skill from telekinesis. He spent three power points so that he would get the rank four skill.

-New Skill has been Unlocked!

-Psychic Push

-At the cost of 50 Energy emit a powerful Psychic wave.

To the say the least Alex felt underwhelmed by the power but felt that it would come in handy at some point. All this expenditure left him with eight more power points that he could spend. He went ahead and spent two more in each of his abilities. He’d considered for a moment saving them again for another new power but chose more power now.

His three starting powers received new skills with this infusion of points.

-New Skill has been Unlocked!

-Shattering Kick

-At a cost of 125 energy Deliver a devastating kick that will shake your enemy to their core.

~~~

-New Skill has been Unlocked!

-Higher and Faster

-Your flight ability now allows you to fly 100% higher and 50% faster at base levels. This is a passive skill.

~~~

-New Skill has been Unlocked!

-Bone Armor

-Your bones are now 30% more resistant to breaks. This is a passive skill.

There was no way that Alex could turn up his nose up to those advancements. He wasn’t exactly sure how many times he had broken a bone, ribs most often, but he was glad that the number of times would be reduced. Having allocated the power points that left him with twenty stat points and one feat of power that he could choose.

Like he had done before Alex looked at his lowest stats. Fate, Perception, and Wisdom were all at twenty and everything else except for maybe charisma was much higher. Charisma was sitting at only twenty-three. He decided for an even approach to increasing those stats in need. He spent five in Perception, Fate and Wisdom, bringing them up to twenty-five. He then put two in Charisma to make it twenty-five as well. He went ahead and spent the last three in Intelligence bringing it up to twenty-nine passive and thirty-five active.

Feats of power were hard to choose for Alex. He always wanted more than he could have, but when he was thinking about this feat there were two things that crossed his mind. Feats could do many things for a person in the world. He could still take the Energy Regen I feat that he had looked at that would give him a twenty five percent boost to his energy regeneration. Something else caught his eye.

-Feat of Power (Blink)

-At the cost of 150 Energy Teleport to within a ten-foot radios of origin point.

A teleportation skill that let him vanish from one point and reappear at another as long as it was within ten feet of where he left. Alex loved the idea of that. It could give him a leg up in a fight. After the fight with Colvontra and his girlfriend Alex was ready from an advantage. He took blink.

Alex closed all of the window and accepted all of the changes. For a moment after this he almost couldn’t breathe. The room grew sharper. He could feel the armor growing on his bones. The bones in the structure of his face moved ever so slightly. His skin became clear and more radiant.

He finally had to sit down.

After his head stopped spinning and the world righted itself Alex was full of energy and he was ready to tackle the next mission, The Crash Site.

“Function did you get that path set up last night?” Alex asked stretching.

“I did. You can drive the SUV to a small town called Creek’s Edge. From there you will need to walk.” Function explained.

“Fun, nature hike.” Alex said sarcastically rolling his eyes.

Alex turned his attention to Obsidian. He had to think of a fun way to wake her up and he wasn’t exactly sure how she had spent her power and stat points, so the retribution could be severe.

He walked silently over to the side of her bed. She wasn’t having it though. Before Alex could even come up with a plan, she twisted herself around and wrapped her legs around Alex’s neck. She pulled them in tightly and in his surprise, he was pulled down to the ground.

Trying with all his might he couldn’t break free of her leg’s grip even using his super-strength didn’t help. He noticed the purple glow on her skin.

“Uncle, uncle!” He said gasping for air.

“Say you’re my bitch!” Obsidian said with a sharp squeeze of her thighs.

“I’m your bitch!” He choked out the best he could.

She let him go and he sucked in a deep breath of air. Coughing and choking he stumbled back and leaned against the wall.

“What the hell?” He asked through a scratchy voice.

“I got a skill. Locking joints. When I activate my power, I can choose for my joints to lock and become almost completely immobile.” She said with a smile of pride on her face.

“Noted.” Alex said as his regeneration finally cleared up his crushed larynx.

“You’re just jealous.” Obsidian gloated.

“Let’s go, we’ve got a six-hour car ride to the walk to the crash site.” Alex said straightening up.