Pimp my ride

You have entered the Blackspire Barrier.
Time has been slowed down by 25% relative to the Real World.
Master’s Eye active, Magic Abilities accessible.

Looking at the monstrous building, John just had to ask one thing, “Just how many people work here? This place is huge!” and while he wasn’t sure about it, he doubted that as many people as that building could hold were actually working there. It would be insane if that were actually the case.

“Here in Springfield? About a hundred people. We value space and a lot of commodities though, which is why they built such a gigantic building. You might’ve also noticed the time dilation here, that’s just the standard. If you go into the offices of the higher-ups and the specific departments, then it will get a lot slower. I’ll answer any other questions later; for now let’s get going,” Hannah said as she held open the door for both Aloy and John to enter.

Entering the building, they both saw a scenery that could’ve been taken out of a sci-fi novel. The main room was illuminated through the actually translucent walls, reflecting off of the polished, black floor and lighting the whole room up. The interior was simplified, elegant but not overly fancy. Multiple groups of couches and coffee tables filled the room, one or two occupied by people talking over documents. On the other side of the room which they had just entered were multiple elevators, or at least doors that looked like they led to elevators, waiting to take people to the floors they wanted to be.

Hannah quickly strode through the lobby, nodding here and there to various people, “If a client wants to talk to us about something he wants in person, we’ll do so here. Each table is enchanted with various spells to hide the identity of the clients and to secure their privacy from unauthorized people.” And indeed, as they walked past one such group, John didn’t hear a word of the things they were saying.

“You’ll be a field worker; you won’t actually make the deals that you’ll work on. Not yet, at least. We’ll give you the information about your clients, you’ll meet them and perform your transaction. We’ll handle the pricing and the acquisition for now until you’re more experienced,” the goth said as they reached the elevators. A brown haired man with glasses in camouflage pants and a coat already waited for them in one of the cabins. “Ah, Rex, perfect timing as ever. John, this is Rex Black, he is part of our Analysis team; he’ll be the one responsible for the check up on your friend.”

Rex stuck out a hand, which John shook. The older man quickly said, “Nice to meet you, I’ll be looking forward to working with you. Hannah already informed me about your powers, and I have to say that I am highly intrigued. I would like to do some experiments with your powers at some point if you’d be willing. It won’t be to your detriment.” The man had an inquisitive and curious aura around him, but he quickly seemed like a decent guy.

John thought about it for a second. He just thought about how little he knew about his own powers, and it would be nice to have someone else give him some input on how certain things were and how they ‘usually’ were. And since the two of them would be working together, he was sure that he had the right to a certain professionalism about his powers. “Nice to meet you as well, Rex. Sounds good, I’d love to have some more eyes on my power, as long as the data will be handled accordingly.”

Rex chuckled at that, “Of course, I would only insult my profession if I wouldn’t handle that kind of information accordingly. You have my word.” John took this as a good moment to sneak a Observe in there:

Rex Black
Lv. 12 Fateweaver
RP: +15 (He’s really jealous about what he heard about your ability, but you seem like a decent guy.)

The senior Fateweaver then turned to Aloy, “So I’ll be taking care of you, and I’ll be in charge of the check-ups. Nothing intrusive, nothing demeaning, just some scans and a minor fitness test. Are you okay with that? By the way, what’s your name?” John could see a certain amusement in Rex’ eyes, like he already knew the answer…

“I’m Aloy, and sure, I’m fine with those tests as long as you answer some of my questions I couldn’t ask John yet,” was her quick reply.

Rex just said, “Deal!” and then left the elevator together with her. John was kind of surprised how smoothly the elevator went, no shaking, no sudden stops, it barely even felt as if they were moving. The only real indication was the changing numbers and the slight pull from below.

As they stepped out of the elevator, he just said to the redhead, “If anything’s up, you can contact me.” To which the redhead just looked at him confusedly. *’We can talk telepathically thanks to one of my abilities. Just concentrate on what you’re feeling right now and you should be able to communicate with me.”

Aloy nodded her head just as the doors of the elevator closed behind her. Hannah then pushed a button on the pad next to the door, making the elevator go down. “So, do all Fateweavers get their own vehicle?” asked John, interested in the typical procedure.

“The ones who primarily work outside of our walls, yes. We like to offer our employees certain benefits when they join us. And let’s be honest, you have probably looked at the prices in the Abyss Auction, a typical vehicle is not that expensive in comparison to the prices there. The enchantments that have been put on your bike will be multiple times more expensive than what the bike itself is worth. The people that work inside these walls get other benefits, like specific work devices and tools. It’s for the best of everyone if we invest some into our team, don’t you agree?”

John nodded, “Oh, totally. I can see why you’d do something like that. It can only be in the interest of the Fateweavers that I can get around when I’m supposed to drive to the clients. Just out of curiosity, is my situation here special in any kind of way?” He was pretty sure that it wasn’t that usual for people to start working here at the age of 18, especially when they only had their powers for less than a week.

After some thinking, Hannah nodded, “You are in so far a special case in that we specifically need to start advertising your abilities around the area now. As we’ve said yesterday, it is pretty much unheard of for creatures inside artificial Barriers to leave behind anything. In naturally occurring Barriers, it can happen, but it’s still pretty rare. So we advertise you as a ‘one-of-a-kind’ deal where clients can hire us, or more specifically you, to get them materials. We don’t guarantee that they’ll actually get what they want. You might also get some other jobs if they come around, but at first we won’t throw around too many different jobs for you. Since we updated our services yesterday, we have already gotten a lot of requests, so you will surely not run out of work.”

He liked the sound of that. Being appreciated, or rather wanted, for his powers sounded nice, especially when he wouldn’t have to worry about getting **** or anything. They arrived at the floor Hannah had chosen at that moment, the display showing John a big ‘-2’, indicating that they were beneath the ground.

As the door opened, John was sure that he was in heaven for every person interested in engineering. The elevators overlooked a big hall, filled with various workstations that he couldn’t even identify most of the time. Some of them looked like things he had seen at the workshop in his school or maybe in some game, but there were also a lot of things John had no idea about their function. He could see multiple anvils and furnaces, a construct that looked a lot like the Mana Well that was residing in his Nexus, machines that looked like the Replicator he had built this morning. There were a lot of people working down here, and a lot of people that certainly weren’t human, namely a lot of dwarves.

Confused, John looked at the Umbramancer at his side, who already seemed to expect his question with a smile, “Nope, you’re not dreaming, those are some real dwarves. We have some stray members of different races in our ranks, more dwarves than any others. We don’t really have connections to the world of the dwarves, but they seem to have some problems there since so many are fleeing and the dwarves here don’t want to go back as it seems.”

This struck John as odd… Why would the dwarves not want to go back to their Kingdom? Was it really that **** what happened there? And why did that story sound familiar?

They descended a staircase into the big hall, giving John the ability to see the work of these people more up close as they walked through the various workstations, following signs leading them to the ‘garage’. The men and women here were completely focused on their work, seemingly pouring every last spark of their power and creativity into the objects before them. As he watched the various workers follow their profession, an idea came to John, “Are these workstations open for anyone?”

Hannah seemed mildly surprised by his question, “Not entirely. You need to pass a test to certify that you’re actually capable of handling these machines so you won’t ruin them, but in theory anyone can apply. Why, you have a hand in crafting as well?”

He simply shrugged at that question, “Maybe, my powers are bullshit enough to grant me that, aren’t they?” to which Hannah simply laughed. They then arrived in the garage, which was filled with a range of cars going from relatively cheap looking to extremely expensive. In one spot of the garage stood a brand-new, matte black motorcycle.

His new bike.

John immediately sprinted towards it as he saw it, inspecting it up close, taking every detail in. “Nice choice, looks like it could be really fun to ride. On that note, do you even know how to ride?” to which John shook his head. That was a thing that he pretty much hoped would be remedied by his abilities which had dealt with things like this up until now. “Thought so, good thing I told the guys that you likely would need some initial help with that. Now, the bike is enhanced with various enchantments, both standard and some custom ones I decided to put in there because of the relatively cheap price. The bike is warded against theft and vandalism, it’s improved to basically drive and balance itself, it has a pocket space with gear and helmet for two underneath the seat and some other stuff you will probably need, it’s enchanted to be less conspicuous and to not appear on speed traps, it’s more durable than any other bike, and it runs on Mana. All in all, it’s pretty much beyond anything you could buy in the Abyss Auction. Tap your Master’s Eye against the tank to sync the bike with your Mana and to tie the bike to you.”

As soon as she said that, John already had his crystal in hand and softly put it against the gas tank, illuminating the crystal with a soft blue shortly. Not only that, but on the side of the bike swiftly glowed up the same insignia that always glowed up when he used Bond.

Bond, Lv.6: You can now return one bonded object to you once per day from anywhere.

Mana too low, automatic point of Edge used.

New Barrier Types unlocked for Create Barrier!

Damn, he had totally forgotten to check his Mana...

“So, that’s the yungin’ who ordered that bike? He looks like a stiff breeze would blow him over!”

“Now, Grimbart, don’t be like that, he is just a young man, above average in his physique for humans.”

He heard two new voices behind him; one was a dark and raspy one while the other was higher, metallic and certainly not natural. As he turned around, he saw a grizzled dwarf with a thick, dark beard looking up to him and a two meter large mech built like a gundam looking down at him. While he was looking at them, they seemingly continued their conversation as if nothing had happened. Only a clearing of Hannah’s throat brought the two of them out of their growing bickering. “John, these are Grimbart and Lance, they are part of our mechanics crew here.”

Lance was the first to extend a hand to John. The giant robot was encased in blue and white armor plates and was built like he was directly out of an anime. “Nice to meet you, John, I am Lance, short for Lancelot. I hope for us to get along.”

Still a bit dumbfounded by the giant mech in front of him, he simply took the hand of the robot and shook it, “Nice to meet you too... “

The dwarf didn’t seem to be quite as enthusiastic to shake John’s hand, “Grimbart’s the name, kid, don’t touch my stuff and don’t wreck your bike and you might get in my good books. I’ll notice if a rookie has meddled with the bike, so don’t you dare think about that!”

That underhanded threat brought John back from his daze, “Uh, yeah sure. So, one question: are you fully robotic, Lance? You seem far too advanced for anything that’s on this world.”

Lance nodded his head, “Fully AI and fully mechanized. I come from a Kingdom where everything is robotic. The technology back there is more advanced due to its inhabitants being fully synthetic.”

Another one that just left his Kingdom for some reason. With a tilted head, John asked, “Why did you leave? And how does that work? How can that Kingdom just be fully mechanized? Someone had to build it, right?”

“Wanderlust, exile, various altercations with authorities, a mixture of everything like most of the others. And no, there’s no organic life there. Well, not anymore. But we weren’t built, we just were… there. No one knew how or why, but the fact could not be denied. No organic life on that world had the capacity to create something like our Mothercore.”

Well, that was at least a explanation John could work with… “Well, it’ll be nice working with you two, maybe you can show me some things I can pick up so that I learn to work on the machine myself.”

Grimbart raised an eyebrow at that, “Well, well, a field rookie that actually wants to get his hands dirty with some oil and grime, maybe you’re not as bad as you look. Tell you what, survive the first couple of weeks and then we’ll see about what we can teach you. How does that sound?”

John wasn’t sure if the dwarf was actually joking, but he accepted it with a smile nonetheless, “Sure, I’ll remember that promise.”

The two mechanics then bid them goodbye and turned their attention to a lifted car on the other side of the garage. John looked at the Shadowmancer next to him with a doubtful look, “Does it happen often that new guys bite the dust in the first couple of weeks?”

She just dismissively waved her hand, “Nah, only people who lie on their resume and are in over their head. But you didn’t seem to lie up until now, so I’m positive that you’ll survive. Now, you want to take your bike out of here?”

He raised a hand at that, “In a second, I have to try something first.” He then took a seat on the bike, making sure it wouldn’t fall over. The thing was really heavy, and he had to put in some effort to keep it from toppling over. As he was sitting on the bike, he waited for a pop-up to come up, but nothing happened.

Alright, let’s do this the old way!

Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the feeling of the rushing wind he felt when he had been driving with Brun the other day, imagining himself to be the pilot, or whatever you would call the driver of a motorbike, speeding down the highway, bobbing and weaving through the traffic at high speeds. The scene in his mind changed, and he was now riding alongside the Valkyries through a piece of wasteland, making a giant cloud of dirt behind them as they drove into a sunset.

And then he heard that familiar PING:

New Skill: Driving, Lv.1, Passive
The Ability to commandeer vehicles. The higher your skill level, the more vehicles you will be able to drive and the better you will drive them.
With current skill level you can ride:
-Motorcycles (Beginner)

Instantly, he knew how to turn on the bike and how to ride it with moderate skill without falling over, and knowing the speed with which his passives normally leveled once frequently used, he was sure that he would properly get the hang of it pretty soon.

Revving up the machine beneath him, he quickly took a look around himself to find the way out.

With a snap of Hannah’s fingers, they both were standing in the underground garage of the actual Sullivan tower, evident by the changed cars and the shifted layout.

“Go on, take a trip around the block. Rex should be done in about… an hour or so, get a feeling for your new ride. Should you break anything, you can come back and the boys will fix it. I’ll notify the garage guard to let you in.”

Using the remaining Reentering time to put on one of the provided helmets and check the rest of the inventory the shadowmancer had talked about (about a dozen ‘cheap’ Mana potions and various other tools he might need when dealing with magical stuff), he nodded thankfully and slowly rode the lane up to the exit of the garage.