chapter 201

Only a few days into our journey, I was done with setting everything up. The workshop was running as hot as I could run it without overtaxing the heat management system. Hopefully, FH can help with that, as she gets more used to using her skills, the more we can ramp things up even further.

There was plenty of arguing with Bob on what to prioritize, which I did enjoy after the constant tension of being on that space station. Everything felt safe now inside the bubble that was our entire world. Forward Horizon truly felt like home, like home back on Earth never did.

Currently, I am in my meditation room. It was small, but all the walls and ceilings were covered with mana-collecting spikes. For now, that is enough, but I have been inspired by some of the technology I saw on display on the Four-Leaf Station.

If we get the right materials, similar to how we dissipate heat, we could run those throughout the ship and channel more mana here. While fighting is an excellent way of ranking up, I mustn’t forget that simply absorbing mana also works surprisingly well.

Most wouldn’t be able to handle the slow progress, especially those who have a really low life expectancy. My nano machines and the fact that I am half bio-cybernetic seem to mean that my lifespan is greatly increased.

It has been a weird journey to get here—to living in a spaceship, travelling through a side dimension, absorbing skills, and making myself stronger by fighting or simply taking in mana. Not only that, but for the first time, I have a crew that feels more like a family than anything else.

The constant communication at the back of my head that goes through my bond network, while at times can be overwhelming, is one of the most comforting things I’ve ever felt.

There is still a long way to go to truly feel free. There are simply too many dangerous things in the universe, but I’m closer than I’ve ever been before. No way I’m going to stop. To hopefully help with that are the three skill stones in front of me.

Presence through Creation. Vision through Creation. Connection to Creation. Three skills that seem to fit my mechanist affinity incredibly well. In fact, the way I’m reacting to the call isn’t recognition of compatibility like with most stones, but more of a need—a craving from my very soul.

It was more muted back then in the auction, probably because of how they were amplifying the range a stone can call to you, which I still had no idea how they did.

It was time to start.

Vision through Creation was the first skill stone I grabbed hold of. At the same time I started to absorb it, I applied pressure, making the skill stone crumble in my hand.

My mind sank into meditation as the skill moved into my core and then started carving out its space. It was a pretty large skill, going by the pattern it was leaving. If I were a rank lower, I don’t think I could have absorbed it.

Because of the complexity, it took a couple of hours for me to feel like the skill had settled down so I could finally use it. Closing my eyes, I now felt a new part of me. A new thing I could connect to. This could have been disorientating if I wasn’t so used to feeling new things being added.

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It was easy enough to access this new part of me, and as soon as I did that, I had to pull out as I almost puked. It was so overwhelming to suddenly feel like having a billion eyes that were trying to give you information all at the same time.

Refocusing myself, this time I didn’t connect so fully, but instead, before diving in, I felt around it, seeing what this part of me was made out of and what it could do.

Inside, it felt like an ocean of stars, all connected to me. Before, when I went in, I connected to everything at once. Now, instead, I pulled one of those stars closer to the surface until it was touching it, and then a new vision was added.

Currently, I was not only visually seeing but sensing everything the repair drone 85-P1 was currently sensing. I had built into them quite a lot of different ways of seeing the world; concurrently, it was examining wiring for damage.

It did not notice my intrusion like it would have when I would have connected through my bond connection. Although it seems that being bonded helped with the stability of this connection.

Testing range was currently not possible, but everything inside a Forward Horizon was easily reachable. I did have a sense that this range was quite long. On a hunch, I made my armour nano machines appear and take the form of my standard combat gear.

Currently, it had eye holes so I could see through them, but I made them disappear, going into full protection mode. Now there were no holes anywhere, making it airtight so that I could even function in a vacuum without any problems.

That did limit my mobility somewhat, but nano machines were truly wonderful. Moving my arms meant that they would now constantly shift themselves, connecting and disconnecting in a way to keep everything airtight.

Some of my sensors couldn’t get through, so I added sensor clusters to the armour to help with that, but there was always an inherent lag, and in a fight, that was troublesome.

Now, connecting through my new skill, there was no lag. Instead, I was getting a perfect vision to see what was outside my armour. A couple of changes that took a bit to figure out made it so that the outside of my armour now had cameras as well.

This skill seemed to help process sensory data as well, as I could view from multiple angles through the armour without having any problems. Already, only this skill gave me a tremendous combat boost and most likely a utility boost for spying and scouting.

Time for the next one, I guess.

Next, I went with Connection to Creation. The process was quite similar, taking nearly two hours for me to finally absorb the skill fully. This skill once again added a new part to me, but something that felt basically the same as my bonds.

The only difference was that this was more one-sided, but this did not mean that this skill was useless; in fact, the opposite. While before I had a messy connection with my bonds, not only did this skill seem to strengthen that connection, it added a whole new line, so to say, increasing the bandwidth of my connections tremendously.

What I also felt it did was extend that range, but I could not test it out. Of course, we could drop out of FTL, but we were still in the red zone, and who knows what dangers could be waiting. I knew the chances were really low, but I could wait—it didn’t matter that much.

Now for the last skill: presence through creation. At first, I thought it would be yet another skill like the last, increasing the bandwidth even more, but it wasn’t—at least not entirely. This one felt like what the two other skills were, but different.

The way I connected was different. It wasn’t range like with the other two; it was more like something I’ve created, and that was important, as there were fewer stars than with the other two skills. It seems that this one was more picky about the creation part.

It felt more like the quantum net than connecting through wires like the other two skills did. It was also more taxing, and there was less bandwidth. I also think the amount of creation and their strength played a greater role in how strong the connection was, and while I’m pretty sure distance did matter, I was also pretty sure that no matter how far I got from one of my creations, I could still at least feel if it was alive or not.

“Captain, are you coming to the poker night?” I heard FH speak to me, which broke me out of my current train of thought.

Wasn’t that supposed to start a few days from now? Then I looked at the current time, and it was a couple of days later. That last skill had me so absorbed I didn’t even notice time passing. It appeared that I had been eating and drinking from my inventory without even noticing I was doing that.

This skill—it seemed so easy to fall into it and just observe what my creations were doing and how I was connected to them. But that wasn’t all. That last skill was truly special, as it seemed to synergise with my truth in a deep way. The other two skills seemed to do that as well, but to a lesser degree.

I think it’s because my truth draws strength from my creations that are around me, and this skill makes it so that each of my creations is forever connected to me.

“Yes, I’m heading that way now,” I answered back, as I really needed a break. My mind was quite exhausted, as these skills were truly making me push myself. After I rank up to C rank, using them should become a lot easier. The possibilities of these skills did make me quite excited.

There was one question that remained, and that’s why these skills appeared in that auction. While they seemed to suit me quite well, I don’t believe that was why they were auctioned off. Not sure why, but something tells me they simply wanted to get rid of those skills. I still didn’t want someone else to have them.

I really hope that isn’t true, because otherwise, there is someone definitely trying to find me, if that’s the case.