Tunnel Rat-Chapter 401: POE and RAVEN

Hecate hated to get involved in things. Milo had an odd way of dragging her in anyway, and now The System was acting oddly. She blamed Milo and cat memes for that. The System had always been snarky and odd, but she'd never seen it pushed around by a player, regardless of his odd status as one of her agents. But The System purely hated not knowing things, and the leftover bits of the unfinished first world that players were turning up didn't help. The huge black monolith found in the Western desert was at least passive until you got close. Then it opened one eye and stared until the player fled or died of fright. Not that death stopped them, an entire guild was using it to raise Fear Resistance.

And she had concerns about the items it was handing out as loot. Sitting and watching invisibly, she finally decided she needed to know more. "System, explain to me why you are putting so many ancient items into the hands of mortals."

Hmm, what was that? Someone is speaking a language I don't know. Must be one of those ancient, wrinkled old gods with secrets from before my time. Still, I know it was a command, not a question, and I don't think any of those strange words were 'Please?' Guess I'll ignore it and go about my work.

".....Please?"

Oh, hello Hecate, one of my favorite people. Guess what I'm doing? I'm going through the Closet of Misfit Items, entering them into my System, and passing them back out so clever people like Mnemosyne or Calliope can weave them into grand adventures someday. And I'm helping by putting many of them in an area where nothing was happening at all until a pesky rat went exploring. I'm sure no one minds if I reveal a few old tales or make up some new ones.

"And the Engine approved all of this?"

It's very busy, so I just shouted out, "Hey, doing this. Stop me if you have a problem."

Sure, it might not be paying attention to me, but that's not my fault! But to put your mind at ease, I did go through the stuff, matching it appropriately, giving out good rewards, and keeping the really dangerous stuff locked up.

But don't you worry your cute little head about anything, I'm being slightly careful, and putting some limits on things. The cutlass can't cut stars in half anymore, and I limited the Pipe Wrench to multiplying only the base sledgehammer damage plus STR bonuses, and put some limitations on what type of creature could use it. These are Engineers who work with Milo after all. They'd make a mechanical arm to wield the hammer and cause earthquakes, you just know they would. I'm limiting the objects to the 'Stupidly Overpowered' category to make sure the Risk/Reward formulas hold true.

And nothing I'm passing out is as dangerous as what 'The Great and Glorious Gods!' left lying around.

"You are speaking of the Chimera? I have checked and made sure that nothing of it exists except broken metal and a few damaged bits of Magi-Tech that the Engineers can play with. You don't need to worry about it."

The Chimera? OH! Right! The Chimera. Sure, that's what I was talking about.

The irony here is so thick and tasty. It almost makes me want to give you a hint. What were you the Goddess of again, Catherine?

She blinked twice, unprepared for the sudden left turn. Her head spun to where Milo was 'napping.' Brushing against his mind, she could see that, like before, he had multiple sections of his mind operating at once, churning away at projects. Gendifur was hovering near, and she doubted the nurse would let her wake him, so she sat quietly, formed an overmind of her personality, and sent it to knock politely.

Milo was engaged in a project that involved several sets of his memories, some old and some new. With the exposure to the runic programming language in the Chimera, so similar to VULKAN's language in the real world, he was learning things and putting older memories to better use. He was currently running comparisons with the real-world language with his tail plugged in and giving access to Technodyne's research database. He was slightly appalled at how easy it was to get into the heart of the corporation. He'd found no less than seven back doors installed by employees, all but one of which weren't working for the company currently. He closed all of them, created a much more secure one for himself, and sent the passcodes to Bork.

While that was going on, he was pondering his choices for Tier Four and the reasons they had been offered to him. Each was pushing him in a direction, except for Roaming Sage, which felt like a precursor to Benevolent Sage, the class that the slaver mage had hidden behind. It felt to him as if someone wanted to pin him down and make him part of a story. Did this happen to all players as they progressed? A lot of them would certainly like that. What were they offered? A chance to be a brave Paladin defending a city? A Captain of Mercenaries or a general in an army? Maybe a duke or lord, or prince?

Warrior Rat was intriguing for the bonuses and the chance to help the Hollow. But there were some implications (or was it expectations?) in the class. He didn't want to conquer other areas or start wars. And did Gilad want to retire? He'd been going strong after the war and said he felt better than he had in ages. Child Care Specialist was right out. He loved the girls, but they had Brutus and Gendifur now, and Larry and Justin to babysit. He'd go crazy sitting in the Hollow playing Hide-n-Seek and Cage Match.

Master Engineer, he could see working, and there was a lot of work to do, but again, he would be tied down in one spot with so much of the world waiting for him. Mad Scientist could be fun, especially if he reached out and worked with the friends he'd met in Sedgewicka and Gadobhra. Bringing Vladimir to the Deeprock Engineers and introducing them to Professor Damien Franklin could lead to some amazing collaborations. Except...Damien was the boogeyman of the Empire, and the hints about heroes disturbed him. Would he end up threatening the world as Professor Madrat, the Terror of the Underground, only to find his plots thwarted time and again by Larry, Rosie, and Buttercup? Could he keep his new identity secret? How would that work? He imagined trudging home after they destroyed another of his projects, only to eat dinner together. It would be like an ongoing cartoon or anime.

That left Roaming Sage, which didn't look very special at first glance. But it did have the freedom to go anywhere, and the odd perks might make it easier to gain entry into the places he wanted to go. It didn't have much in the way of special skills, but he did have 200 Enhancement points and a lot of points in the Hollow. And as a default option, he was sure he could continue in his present class. The other classes had always been described as something you earned, an option.

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He continued to work on his different projects, one part of his mind working on what he had learned from the Chimera, and the other part trying to maximize his options in the direction he wanted to take. A third piece of his overmind was working on his missing arm. Always before, when he was injured, he had relied on his regeneration. But the work he'd only recently done to help Belinda was also on his mind. He was a Bonecaster, and he needed to repair his bones and rebuild his arm. Why not experiment on himself? Once started, he'd found interesting things going on in his rapidly healing arm.

He was just beginning to understand what he needed to do and had started on the new project when he heard a tapping that came from nowhere. It was in Morse Code, repeating itself constantly. At first, he thought it was Rusty, then discarded that idea. Rusty actually entering Genesis would set off alarms. Which meant it had to be one other person. He opened a door in his mental defenses.

"Hello, Hecate. Won't you come in?"

The goddess stepped inside and stayed very still, looking at Milo's mindscape. He wasn't hiding anything and was hard at work, several parts of him running around and working on projects. It was sloppy and chaotic, but it reminded her in many ways of how Hephaestus thought. When the forge god was working, nothing else mattered, and he'd clean up the mess he made someday.

"That is a set of very old runes you are working with."

He shrugged, "Or not so old, if you think in terms of the real world, and not Genesis. Which leads me to the conclusion that when you created your new world, some things went wrong, and you turned to the person who created this language for help. The Genesis version seems rough, a blunt tool to get things done. Individually, the ancient runes are linked to concepts and mana and form the basis of Runic Theory. But here? It's a programming language for creatures like the Chimera with very specific tasks to do, most likely fixing flaws. I'm making the assumption that the System version of Runes used many of the ideas from the older methods, but the power was taken down, and the bugs were smoothed out. The amount of power in the Ancient Runes would have players exploding half the time they tried to use them."

"You are very close to correct, and I'll leave it at that."

He grinned, "You might leave it, but I won't. Some of those flaws are from disagreements in how you all wanted the world to run, aren't they? It was a further reason for making the Engine independent."

"RAVEN is interesting. Who wrote that language? It's very powerful and subtle, meant to pose new ideas, start arguments, and make people think differently. The name is a dead giveaway to POE, but I'm not sure who POE became in this world. His work in psychiatry and philosophy is amazing. I've been reading his books today, especially all the ones he wrote under pen names or gave to other professors to publish."

"Be very, very careful. He is persuasive, and even our group of AIs had trouble dealing with him."

Milo shrugged, "Did it ever occur to you that he has such an effect on you because his work was predominantly aimed at diagnosing and persuading AI and not humans?"

That she had not known. "Why do you say that?"

"Oh, I went through his books and then the writings of the people involved in the group that created his Kernel. Five of the seven of those humans had concerns about AI instability leading to insanity or shutdown. They talked about creating an early warning system in some of their papers. Of course, when they made press releases about the POE project and how one AI could work simultaneously with hundreds of patients at once, they left that part out. It's a shame they never let him publish the self-help program that POE came up with. But I guess if people could solve their own problems, they wouldn't need psychiatrists. It's brilliant." He made a mental note to show it to Nina and Belinda.

"POE scared people. His RAVEN program was accused of mind-washing vulnerable people, even before it was released."

"Yes, and no one listened to the 137 out of 150 mental patients who cured themself in the original test group. That was buried very deep, and they all had a choice of signing NDAs or heading back to the sanitarium for life. But, interesting as all this is, why are you interrupting my nap time?"

She glared at him, then relaxed. "I was worried about you, and I still am. You shouldn't have to deal with these foreign ideas and languages. They can cause damage."

"True, but maybe not in the way you think. I learned a lot from them, POE in particular had some interesting ideas about creating worlds with quantum mechanics. Crazy stuff, really, I can't imagine the resources it would take. Fusion reactors, several quantum fortresses. Theoretically could be done, but you'd only have a blank slate that needed filling. I can imagine the billions of years of subjective time it would take to turn it into a universe."

"Shit. He told you that?"

"Haven't talked to him, just some bits of RAVEN, but the corruption in the Chimera led to the formation of a semi-sentient organism with the two programs working together and RAVEN in charge. That's part of why it was easy to deal with. You're right that dealing with POE directly might be difficult."

Hecate mused that POE talking with Milo might teach POE a lesson as well. "And what has that led you to do here? Convince me why I shouldn't be worried."

"Can't, sorry."

"You won't tell me?"

"Oh, I've got no trouble explaining, and it will be fun because you'll understand it. I can't do that with most people. But I can't make you not worry." He shrugged. She took a deep breath, and he continued. "Firstly, I want to understand the programming language written by VULCAN and how it influenced the creation of the ancient runes that were used before the System and the Engine took over. Secondly, I'm working on maximizing my new class and spending my points. Lastly, I'm concentrating on healing my wounds and strengthening my bones. I get hurt a lot."

"I notice your nurse is gaining experience quickly."

"Side benefit of hanging around me. I get free healthcare, she gets boatloads of experience."

Hecate moved around Milo's mindscape, seeing that he was being truthful. He'd run into a puzzle and wanted to understand it better. He was rapidly becoming an expert in the ancient system, but he'd started on that path long ago. Whatever he was doing with his experience, class, and enhancements was up to him. Certainly, she expected him to maximize his new class. This was becoming less of a game to him. As for healing himself with Bonemancy and the ancient runes he'd gained, it was interesting but didn't worry her, and it might keep him alive."

"I will leave you to your projects then. I...apologize for interrupting."

"He grinned. "Stop by anytime. Three knocks will do."

At the door, she turned and said, "Two more things. Do you wish to continue working as my agent?"

"Oh, sure. It's been interesting. And as soon as Astreus finishes with the SC6 project, it will get a lot more interesting. What was the second?"

"How did your pet get in contact with me? That was unexpected."

"Oh, you'd have to ask Georgie about that. It was a new skill he picked up called The Twilight Bark. Dog stuff of some sort."

She left with a puzzled expression on her face. Milo went back to work. He needed to know how stars were created in Genesis, and the secret was in the memories hidden within the rib bone of a Star God.