How about some power?

Now that John was kind of alone in this place (with the exception of Gary), he was creating a mental list of all the things he could or should do now. All of the ideas he had right now fell into two categories: exploration and creation. He could either explore some of the things he had no idea how to fix before, or he could start creating new stuff that would benefit him.

On the side of the exploration, there were the different tunnels leading out from this underground room that he still had to explore, the outside wall of the lower island (if there were some hidden secrets about this place, then that would be the first place for him to look), or the PC standing in the first floor of the basement. John had no idea how to get the power for that thing, but now that it was technically his, he wanted to know what was on there...

The creation side, on the other hand, was mostly about experimenting with his new ability to create stuff, or rather the limitations that he had. Would he require materials for that? Would he need Mana? Those were questions that he needed some answers to, and he knew exactly who could answer them. He casually called into the room, "Hey...uh... Nexus? How do I create stuff?"

The response came in the form of a mental response through his Transreceptive Eye ability, "For you to create things you need to power the Mana Well upstairs and you need to deposit certain materials into the storage chambers provided to you. You will have access to these materials as long as you are within my limitations. If you activate the Mana Well, you should learn how to create certain things. The Well will provide you with recipes suited towards the ideas that you have. Any other questions?"

Mana Well? He had not seen a thing like that upstairs, so he just had to ask, "Where is this Mana Well? I didn't see anything like that when I was upstairs... Also, how do I give you electric power? You obviously had it at some point, but it's gone now."

It took a moment for the Nexus to respond as it seemingly thought about its answer, "The power you are talking about should be the power within the Mana Well that I will draw from it to maintain the various systems that you will create within me. You will be able to decide which systems should run at any moment. The Mana Well has been unlocked on the ground floor of the structure now that you have claimed me."

That made sense; of course, he wouldn't find the tool for the manipulation of the Nexus on his first look through the mansion since he was technically an intruder... as he went back into the hallway he came from, John could see certain changes that occurred in the room he was in.

The crystals lining the walls were now colored in the same kind of light blue/turquoise as they were in his dream/vision a day ago, while the insignia that showed on his sheet was now glowing on the ground. It kinda felt like this place was now directly linked to his Bond ability, which didn't seem that absurd seeing as how he bonded with the place. With a thankful message sent through his mind, John then made his way back up the ladder to the place that he suspected the Well to be.

The first thing John noticed as he reached the top of the stairs was that it was still day on the island. Was there even a day/night cycle here? Not that it mattered that much, but it would be nice to know...

He expected the Well to be on the ground floor in the big living room, and true to his assumption; there was indeed now a structure sitting there, though he wasn't sure if he would actually call it a 'well'. The structure was a large sphere floating above a pedestal made out of crystal. The sphere seemed metallic, was highly opaque, and glowed in the same color as the crystals down below. Did the color have something to do with him? He'd have to check the internet if there was something about the color...

The pedestal beneath the sphere had no marks and was simply there apparently to hold up the sphere, even if it never touched it. Once John touched the sphere, he could see that it wasn't actually solid, but some kind of thick liquid, slowly rippling to the touch of John's finger. At the same time, he could feel his Mana was slowly leaving him, stopping at the point of him being almost empty when he removed his finger.

He then checked the sphere with Observe:

Mana Well
This structure is the central hub through which you can create objects, rooms, and other things. It is also the central power supply for the Nexus. There is no upper limit to the amount of Mana stored within the Well. However, the Well will be more volatile the more Mana is stored. Stored Mana cannot be returned. Excess mana regeneration that is not taken by other items or creatures will be stored in the well as long as you carry the Nexus card with you. Excess Mana will be stored at 50% efficiency. You can also directly infuse mana into the well by touching the sphere.
Current Constructs online: 0
Current Mana Consumption: 0,42 MP/h
Current Mana Pool: 35 MP (Time left with current Consumption: ~60h)

Mana Consumption and Construct Management can now be accessed from any point within the Nexus

Open Construction Menu? (Y/N)

Huh, so he had an outlet for excess mana that went beyond the charges for his spear, nice. As he tried to click Yes on the prompt, another pop-up appeared in front of him:

Insufficient Mana to create anything! Insufficient Materials!

Damn, I was hoping I could start with something like a bed or anything so that I could sleep in here... oh well.

With the question of power out of the way now, John was eager to look at the terminal down in the basement. He wanted to see what was on there, or if he could even use it as a normal computer.

As he took the trip down to the basement again, John could see that light now lit up the stairway leading down. Along the base of the steps were various light strips that illuminated the stairs from below, giving the basement a modern style that reflected the style of the house above. Maybe this was actually done by the same creator, opposed to the thought John had a couple of hours ago?

Inside the terminal room was the same kind of passive lighting as on the stairwell, giving the room a somber, but modern feel. By now, John could actually see how much dust was on the terminal. It looked like this thing hadn’t been used in a decade or more. Looking for a power button turned out to be an easy task as there was a big button on the server-like structure in the corner. As he pressed the button, another pop-up appeared:

Activate System Construct?
+0,5 MP/h Mana Consumption
+Enable Maintenance Drones
+Enable System Terminal
(Y/N)

Hm, that thing would double the consumption of the Nexus, but the boons sounded really useful. If they weren't, John was pretty sure he could simply turn it off again if need be, so he hit Yes. The construct the size of a big server rack immediately hummed with energy, and multiple small flying drones crawled out of slots on the rack. These drones were shaped like little balls with a lens in front and no other particular detail to them. One of these balls floated towards the by now glowing screens of the terminal and shot something that looked like a laser towards the screens. Moments later, the screens were free of any sort of dust or any sign of long non-usage. The same happened with the rest of the room, and once the drones were done with the room, they pushed the door to the staircase out of the way and moved up and down the stairs one by one. Gary, clearly more interested in the movement of these drones, chased after them into the staircase, leaving John alone with the terminal in front of him.

Unreadable messages on the screen disappeared after two or three minutes and were replaced by an operating system that John had no idea about. It looked highly futuristic but, at the same time, it looked highly intuitive and easy to use, even with the completely foreign language on the screen. John didn't have the time to do anything with the terminal though, as he heard a feminine voice coming both out of the speakers of the screens and inside his mind, "Scan complete. Access to new information available. Realm: Earth, Race: Human, Person: John Newman. Please wait while systems are calibrated."

The screens briefly flashed, and now the texts on the screens were in English... did this computer just 'read' his mind and translate its own OS so he could use it? That mental question was answered a second later as the computer seemed to talk again, "Greetings, Creator Newman, welcome to the Nexus. The System has been calibrated to your language, your realm and to your race. While I am speaking, an upgrade will be made to the interface of your abilities to integrate myself better."

What? The computer made adjustments to his interface? What the hell? He could immediately see the changes, as in the corners of his vision were now his health and his mana, permanently displayed. In another corner was an element saying Messages: 0. Opening his character sheet revealed even more changes:

It certainly didn't look bad, but it still concerned him that some AI could just meddle with his abilities like that. Apparently, the AI felt his emotions by now, "Do not be alarmed, Creator, I am only here to serve you and to improve your abilities. I mean you no harm. I am able to do this because I am powered by your mana and through the connection that you have with the Nexus. If you should not be satisfied with the changes once I am finished with them, I can revert them back to their previous state. Now, please wait until I have completed the upgrade."

This was like some unwanted Windows 10 update... but for now, John let it happen, since he wasn't harmed in any way in the Nexus up until now, so now that he knew what happened and how he wasn't that alarmed anymore.

The 'updates' were finished after another couple of minutes when a figure appeared in his peripheral vision that made his heart flutter. Floating there in his vision was Sona, the mute support character from League of Legends, smiling patiently at him. "I hope this form is to your liking, Master?" she asked with that melodic voice that reverberated through his mind. She always was one of his favorites in the game, because of her beautiful design and her lovely character.

He answered her with a happy (maybe even too happy) tone, "Yes it is. But I would like to now know what's happening here? Who or what are you?"

That question seemed to shock the woman, "Oh I am sorry I haven't introduced myself yet! I am the Specialized Augmented Reality Artificial Intelligence, or SARAI in short. I was created by Master Alric once he fled his homeworld. He always said I was his masterpiece, but seeing as how you are now Creator of the Nexus, I doubt that he is still alive. It saddens me to come to this conclusion... But at the same time, I am happy to serve a new master. Are the upgrades to your Transreceptive Eye to your liking? Master Alric only could communicate with me through the terminal and the Maintenance drones..."

John was extremely astounded by the words of the AI, "Uh... Yeah, the changes are nice, I think I'm going to keep them for now... so you're an AI? How advanced are you? And the last creator made you as he came to this Nexus? How was he like? And why isn't there anything on this island except for the building itself? And did he create you with the body you are in right now?"

All of these questions just spilled out of John, who was clearly excited by the prospect of his personal super-intelligent AI. The AI giggled softly as she heard all of his questions, "I am happy that you like these changes, Master. And to answer your questions: I am an Artificial Intelligence, running on the System you see before you, yes. I am fully capable of feeling emotions and of automatous thinking. Master Alric was a kind soul that preferred to keep to himself after he escaped his war-torn world. He occasionally made trips to the outside to get some materials, but they were few and far between," her face then saddened; "As to why it is this barren, I have no recollection of that... At some point, he turned off all the systems and constructs, and the next thing I remember is you turning it back on. And no, he didn't create me like this. It is a form I have found in your head while applying the updates and assumed you would find it pleasing. Judging from your body levels, I am correct."

He had to sheepishly laugh at that, "Yeah, I like that form very much... A-anyway, can you tell me what kind of upgrades you have made?"

Sarai got an energetic look on her face at that, "I most certainly can. As you can obviously see, I changed the theme of your interface a bit to make it less... monochrome. I have also integrated certain important elements to your peripheral vision, so you have that information at any time. I have integrated a potential link between your vision and a phone, but for that to work, I will need you to use Bond on your phone. I have also reorganized your inventory system so that containers will now add inventory slots to the overall inventory. Should you encounter enemies the next time, there should also be a health bar above them if you know how much health they are supposed to have. There's one other update I made, but I want that one to be a surprise," she said, slightly giggling.

These updates seemed really useful to him, even though he really wanted to know that last upgrade as well... "Alright, that seems fine. So, are you going to be in my vision all the time now, and will you be permanently in my head?" John asked.

She shook her head to that, "Similar to how your communication with the Transreceptive Eye works; I can only communicate with you if you open the bond first or while you remain in the Nexus." That answer satisfied John. While she obviously tried to help him, he just felt a bit weird about having an AI in his head all of the time. Since he apparently didn't need to stay in the room to keep the link with Sarai up, he went down one floor to dump off all of the materials he had.

As he entered one of the storage rooms, he could see Gary gnawing on one of the drones. The drone didn't seem to mind it much as it just tried to shoot it's cleaning laser at Gary, trying to clean him of anything. It reminded John of how a puppy would play with a ball, but the fact that both were automatons and one of them was a spider really made the picture hilarious. While John could keep his laughter down, Sarai couldn't as she started to laugh in his head, "He's a lively one, isn't he?" John could only agree as he dumped most of the content of his inventory into various chests and boxes. Overall he dropped:

55x Scrap Metal
22x Scrap Electronic
2x Elemental Fang
2x Leather
1x Rubber
1x Valkyrie's Tear
1x Egg of the Wolf (Wrapped in Elemental Fur x2)
1x Spear of Armageddon

Overall, that was a nice haul he had over the last two days; now there were still two things John hadn't checked yet:

Drop of Mimir
Rare
Consumable
Drink to gain a random single digit number of visions from various possibilities. You will gain 10 x [Number of Visions] DMG (mental)

Enchanted Gemstone (Ruby)
Uncommon
Material
Magical Gemstone containing various powerful spells. Use during crafting to apply following effects:
+Fire Damage
+STR
+Crit DMG
+Combat Skill Temporary Skill Level

The gemstone was nice, but John wasn't really sure what to think about the water... Sure, he knew what it would do beforehand, but this seemed like something he shouldn't really have... On the other hand, he was way too curious to see what would happen with that...

"Sarai? Could you please watch over me to see how long I'll be out?" he asked as he uncorked the flask with murky water.

The AI swiftly responded with a, "Of course, Master." He then drank the water in a single go. It tasted like it looked, murky and a muddy water.

Immediately the world around him went black.