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I HAD LONG BEEN PLANNING to drop by the ancient artifact trader’s shop, but circumstances or urgent business were always getting in the way. But here the Meleyephatian had come to my hotel room to show me his wares on a three-dimensional holographic screen he unfolded. I could see the ancient items from all sides, turn them around, zoom in and out and even read their game data. There were so many intriguing items it was hard to know where to look first.
Stone disks covered in Relict writing. I understood the language perfectly well, but this was all technical mumbo-jumbo: unfamiliar abbreviations, system names I’d never heard of, numbers for levels and streams, the professions and names of those responsible for transmitting data to the Pyramid. By all appearances, I was looking at an ancient digital memory drive containing invaluable information. These stones could potentially raise the shroud of mystery from the mysterious Relict race and answer many questions for me and all contemporary beings. But how to extract information from stone disks? There were no devices in the modern world that could read them...
Mineralogy skill increased to level fifty-eight!
That pop-up message amused me. Beyond the fact that the drives were made of polished dark-gray and black stone (I didn’t even know their composition, my university knowledge was worthless here), I couldn’t tell a thing. Nevertheless, the difficult-to-level Mineralogy skill got a boost, which was very nice. But I left the collection of stone disks behind and kept scrolling.
Relict nuclear batteries. Oh! Just what I need! My very last one just so happened to be in my Listener Energy Suit now. The Annihilator, fortunately, after Kirsan’s modifications no longer required such rare artifacts to power it, but I still needed them for the armor suit. And they were used for the forcefield, all the electronic “guts,” and to send messages to the Pyramid. One message from the mysterious starship of the Relict hierarch was already ready to send to the Pyramid. The only thing holding me back was that sending it had a high probability of burning through the only battery I had left, as happened before the attack on the pirate treasure vault. So I bought all of the Trader’s nuclear batteries – four of them at a thousand crypto a piece. An indulgence, of course, but now I didn’t have to worry about my unique armor losing functionality when I needed it most.
Okay, let’s scan through the catalogue a little more. A perfectly preserved Relict skull that even had bits of desiccated flesh left on it. Hmm... How familiar! I zoomed in to take a closer look at the elongated mass of bone with huge eye sockets. Taking my attention the wrong way, the Trader lit up:
“A true star of my collection. A completely intact skull of one of the mysterious Relicts! Only four such skulls are known to exist. The others are all held by museums and science laboratories and, just so you know, those are in much worse condition. You are the head of a faction named ‘Relict,’ so I say you simply must own one. I’ll give you everything for about a million crypto!”
I didn’t answer and turned to Uline Tar.
“Yes, this is the skull I took from the Relict outpost, and which was stolen from me by pirates from the Pride of the Bushy Shadow!”
The Trader reacted instantly and chirred out that he would remove the item from his catalogue until its rightful ownership could be established. He said he valued his reputation above all and would never deal in stolen goods out of fear to lose clients, many of whom were VERY big-time players. After that, I started thinking Ayzzz might return the ancient skull to Uline Tar, but no such luck. The Meleyephatian trader preferred to quash the topic and flipped to other sections of the catalogue. I came under the firm impression that Ayzzz 117 was still intending to sell the stolen skull, just to other less scrupulous buyers.
I got back to looking. A Small Control Bracelet, severely damaged. A perfect copy of the one I had in the slot on the right sleeve of my Listener Energy Armor, just missing a couple pieces. I wondered if I could put it on my left arm. I would have gotten it and tried to fix it, for the +15% bonus to my suit’s forcefield capacity if nothing else. But the game system told me the corresponding armor slot was already filled. Okay, so it was a right-arm bracelet. The trader’s catalogue had nothing for the left. Let’s look further.
Fragments of ancient vehicles which could no longer be identified. All kinds of antique garbage. More garbage. A few items were dimly familiar. Seemingly I had seen them at the Relict outpost. Hm... And what do we have here? A flat dark box with circular edges. Based on its extremely particular input jack, this box was meant to be placed in the rear slot of a Listener Energy Armor Suit in place of an air tank. If I remembered correctly, Basha Tushihh had picked this item up at the Relict outpost, but I couldn’t read the hunk of metal’s information before. I could now though:
Tachyon bender (accessory for Devourer armor).
Creates a 16-inch-wide time-delay cocoon around the player for a duration of 1.3 seconds (level-2 modifications such as this require permission from the Relict hierarchs to install).
Required class: Inquirer, Listener, Punisher, or Devourer.
Statistic requirements: Character level 125, Intelligence 33, Perception 33.
Skill requirements: Medium Armor 125, Electronics 125, Eagle Eye 125, Danger Sense 125.
Attention! Your character lacks the Perception required to use this object.
Attention! Your character’s level is insufficient in the following skills: Medium Armor, Eagle Eye, Electronics, Danger Sense.
Attention! Your character’s level is not high enough to use this object.
Attention! This object is for the Relict race and cannot be used by Humans.
I didn’t have much of an idea what a sixteen-inch-wide time delay cocoon was, but it sounded both promising and fantastical. Meanwhile, despite the large number of warnings about why I couldn’t use it, it would be well within my grasp soon enough. Sure, I’d have to level my skills and character and remove the racial restriction with the help of a good Mechanic, but then we’d be all set! And this item was seemingly made especially for me – the only Listener in the game that bends reality. By the looks of things, I had a new goal!
However the Trader had noticed my interest and was already rubbing his four hands together in anticipation of massive profit. I’d have to work on my acting ability. I flipped further through the catalogue, looking over the wreckage and other trash. Then in a bored tone, I asked the Trader where the actually interesting Relict items were, such as Annihilators, Energy Suits and other artifacts of that level. Did he really only have trash and stuff the Geckho and I had recently removed from the Relict outpost? Where were the items from other earlier finds? At the end of the day, where were items from the collection of the Meleyephatian Queen Tishhh-Ukhshhh, ruler of the Rowonti-Tor system? After all, nowhere near all the Queen’s artifacts had been stolen and hidden by the Morphian. There must have still been many ancient items around.
“I see, human, that you have a sophisticated understanding of ancient goods,” hissed Ayzzz 117.
“I wouldn’t say that. I’ve just been lucky enough to chat with a couple Morphians.” Seeing the Meleyephatian looking tense, as if ready to jump me, I hurried to add: “I know the old story of your races’ irreconcilable conflict. And I have to admit that I am not exactly thrilled by the Morphians’ habits either. But nevertheless, I have heard the story of Queen Tishhh-Ukhshhh being replaced and her relics being hidden let’s say firsthand – from the false queen herself.”
While Ayzzz 117 digested the information, I scrolled the holographic screen back, returned to the Tachyon Bender and asked its price.
Successful Fame check.
Successful Authority check.
“Ah just take it as a gift from me,” the Trader surprised me with unexpected generosity. “That item is only of interest to Devourers. It’s useless to anyone else.”
So there’s the use of grinding Fame and Authority!!! To secure good relations with a potential buyer, the Trader decided to give me an item he considered worthless free of charge! I thanked the Trader, and it cost me massive effort to keep calm and not reveal my excitement. Seemingly, he only had the Intelligence to read the item’s name, not characteristics. I suspected that if Ayzzz were able to read the properties of the Tachyon Bender and knew that Listeners could also use them, the price would have taken off into the stratosphere.
The automatic system promised to deliver the item within a quarter ummi. Excellent! In an elevated mood, I got back to flipping through the catalogue. A large collection of Precursor bracelets made of dark bronze, a few of which I couldn’t read the properties of even with my 38 Intelligence. And the ones I could recognize often left me baffled:
Bracelet of Palenteus (right, from the Ruler of Paala set).
+25 Consul Recognition. Initiates compatibility check in response.
Statistic requirements: Character level 75, Perception 25, Agility 25.
Skill requirements: Cartography 125, Rhetoric 125.
Attention! Your character’s Agility is not high enough to use this object.
Attention! Your character lacks the Rhetoric skill.
Attention! Your character’s Cartography skill is insufficient.
Based on the extreme skill and statistic requirement, this must have been a very valuable and important item. But what did it do? What was this “compatibility check” it was referring to? What were consuls? And what was Paala?
I even summoned a flying table and used the built-in computer to run a search in the Kasti-Utsh III database. But the Miyelonian guides didn’t have anything about a Palenteus or Paala. Neither did the Geckho Uline Tar, who dug through her race’s databases on my request.
Or this other strange item of the same category:
Bracelet of Reflection (indestructible).
+2.3 seconds Informicon delay. Chance of reflecting an Appeal +17%. Energy Barrier reduced by 4%.
Skill requirements: Medicine 125, Surgery 100, Field Surgery 80.
Attention! Your character lacks the skills Medicine, Surgery and Field Surgery.
By the looks of things, this artifact was made for healers specialized in combat medicine. But still, for Christ’s sake, what did this bracelet actually do???
There were plenty of Precursor bracelets. However, although I familiarized myself with the Trader’s entire collection, I didn’t find anything else I could use. Even worse was that fully a third of the items remained unidentified. The Trader himself didn’t even know the properties of these artifacts. But the ancient “magic” rings, pendants and earrings were another matter entirely. That was all simple – they boosted a player’s characteristics and skills just the same as modern ones. A few were being sold without their original gemstones – just empty settings. But others were still in “working” condition. For example a +3 Strength ring. Many combat classes would want this artifact!
“Six hundred thousand Geckho crystals,” the Trader coolly named his price. Without a word, I flipped further through the catalogue. Strength was not Gnat’s main characteristic and, for that kind of money, I could find something better. Or I could just save the money. I might need it very soon to buy a new starship.
But in the end I told Team Gnat about the rare item via radio. Of course, chances were slim that any of my people could find that kind of money...
“I’ll take it!” came an exclamation from my ward Tini. “I actually need to bring my Strength up – then I can wear nicer armor, and use Big Abi’s blades without penalties.”
“I wouldn’t say no either,” came Eduard Boyko the Space Commando, “if someone can loan me fourteen thousand crystals until our next big score.”
I tried to pick my jaw up off the floor. Where did my kitten get that kind of money? Just a month ago, he was poor as a church mouse! Eduard surprised me as well, to be honest. I mean, I knew the Space Commando had money. I was reminded of how he very recently offered to gift his exoskeleton armor suit to Gerd Tamara, intending to buy himself a better one. Furthermore, the Space Commando, as the hero of the assault on the pirate vault on Medu-Ro IV had been given a larger share of the take. But almost six hundred thousand crystals... I shook my head skeptically and turned to my business partner Uline Tar for an explanation.
“His share of the gold he carried out of the treasure vault. I helped Eduarrr sell it myself. Plus three days ago, Eduarrr sold me his share in the Tolili-Ukh X. So it all adds up,” my business partner explained. And a few seconds later, noticeably quieter, she added: “A very smart move on his part, as we learned today.”
So, I could understand everything with Eduard Boyko. And Tini the little thief was also getting money regularly. Both his salary as a crew member and from his Miyelonian caretakers. Plus the nimble, bushy-tailed kid was constantly snatching up anything left out in the open... Okay, it was alright for a player to have professional secrets, especially one with such a difficult class. I decided not to interrogate Tini about where he got the money.
After a brief debate over the ancient +3 Strength ring, it went to the Space Commando (Tini loaned him the rest of the money). Uline Tar helped set up the trade and the fancy platinum ring with a huge ruby disappeared from the Meleyephatian Trader’s catalogue. I then turned to the next sections of the ancient artifact collection.
The race with the most items represented was the Mechanoids. There were even complete and restored Mechanoid armor suits. Judging on how they looked, they were intended for gigantic flat millipedes approximately 15 feet in length. But at that, a significant portion of the mechanoid artifacts were damaged or had only come down to our age in the form of debris. That made it all the more surprising to discover surviving equipment in a repairable state – a few uncanny rings of identical metal triangles levitating around an invisible axis and a black basketball-sized sphere with an inactive screen to go with the slowly spinning hovering device. Must have been a targeting system.
Mechanoid spatial cutter (accessory for heavy-cruiser-class starships and above).
Allows an area of 550x550x550 to be permanently cut out of game space.
Effective range: 3460 miles.
Rate of fire: 1 pulse / 28.7 minutes.
Mass: 4120 lbs.
Statistic requirements: Perception 22, Agility 22.
Skill requirements: Heavy weaponry 140, Resonance Weapons 50 or Gravity Weapons 70, Electronics 50.
Minimum level and class combinations: Level-80 Gunner, level-80 Heavy Robot Operator, level-100 Shocktroop, level-120 Gunfighter.
Attention! Your character’s Agility is not high enough to use this object.
Attention! Your character lacks the following skills: Heavy Weaponry, Resonance Weapons, Gravity Weapons.
Attention! The Listener Class is not allowed to use Heavy Weaponry.
Now there’s an item!!! You could destroy a whole starship once every half hour with this baby. Or a fortress. Or wipe out a whole settlement along with its residents. And I didn’t even know where they would respawn if their res point got “cut out” of the game world. The Spatial Cutter, not in mechanism of action, but effectiveness of application – one shot and done – reminded me of my Annihilator. It was just a bit heavier, more fearsome and far-ranging in its possible applications.
It reminded me of a weapon from the novels The Star Kings and Return to the Stars by the great American fiction writer Edmond Hamilton, which contained a similar weapon: “The Disruptor,” a force that annihilated not matter but space. A forbidden and semi-mythical doomsday weapon only permitted when mankind truly risked total annihilation or enslavement. How was that different from my case? Earth was under threat of invasion from space and enslavement! Take the most dangerous invading starships out of the picture and maybe our shield could hold out until help arrived. Yes, the Spatial Cutter did does require some very particular skills, but I was sure we’d be able to find a player who could operate it on our planet! And if we couldn’t, there was still time to make one from scratch and grind him up to the proper levels! Although... I was putting the cart before the horse. First of all, I needed to know where I could find “subatomic energy sources.” I couldn’t find anything about them in the guide.
“I can see, Leng Gnat, that you have an interest in that artifact,” the Meleyephatian trader’s chirring voice tore me from my deep contemplation. “Perhaps the honorable Leng can tell me just what that obscure part of my artifact collection actually is?”
After a second’s delay, I realized with relief that the Trader didn’t have the Intelligence to read the information about the Spatial Cutter. In fact, Ayzzz 117 was not a high-profile player at all. And even though he was absolutely laden with Intelligence rings (and Meleyephatians can wear a whole eight bonus-conferring items), his Intelligence was nowhere near my sky-high 38. And to my eye, there was no benefit to telling this member of the Meleyephatian Horde about the imba item in his stock.
“This is a Mechanoid geological drill, as far as I can tell from the description. As a Free Captain engaged in the search for valuable metals on asteroids, it really did catch my eye. And I might have bought it. But I just can’t understand why it is has to be attached to a ship or how it could ever work without being attached to the power system. Here it says it ‘requires subatomic energy source.’ You ever heard of anything like that?”
Mental Fortitude skill increased to level one hundred one!
Danger Sense skill increased to level seventy-one!
The Trader didn’t believe me and decided to extract the information directly from my brain! My good humor blew away like the wind. How dare he attack a high-profile player like that?! The Annihilator instantly appeared in my hand, and I touched the tip of its barrel to the head of the huge yellow spider.
“Stop rummaging through my brains this instant! And get out of my sight before I shoot you!”
But the Trader’s reaction to the weapon and threat was not at all what I was expecting. The Meleyephatian spread his arms wide to show that he wasn’t planning to go anywhere, then deafeningly chirred out in offense:
“You must be mistaken, Leng Gnat! I have done nothing untoward!”
But... regardless, I could still feel thoughts trying to pierce through my mental defenses like a flaming scourge, lashing into my mind.
“If I were in your place, human, I’d put my weapon away! I have come on assignment from the Prelates of Tailax. I am your liaison with the Meleyephatian Horde as a whole and Tailax in particular. And I have some important information for you: an answer to a question. But I don’t like it when people try to trick me. So before I tell you anything, I need to check...”
Astrolinguistics skill increased to level ninety-three!
Mental Fortitude skill increased to level one hundred two!
Mental Fortitude skill increased to level one hundred three!
I don’t know what Ayzzz 117 was able to read from my mind (if anything) but, based on the three Mental Fortitude jumps in such a short time, the Meleyephatian Trader was constantly repeating his desperate attempts to psionically break down my mental defenses. It felt like someone was ramming a smoldering stick into my eye and trying to break through the back of the socket. But physical pain wasn’t going to make me give in. Pain could be tolerated. But at any second, the Meleyephatian might read that I told Geckho Diplomat Kosta Dykhsh about the Meleyephatians attempting to recruit me! I absolutely could not allow that!
Fire!!!
The Trader’s front right appendage vanished in a bright flash. All that remained of his chitin arm was a footlong stump off the carapace.
Rifles skill increased to level fifty-nine!
You have reached level ninety-one!
You have received three skill points (total points accumulated: seven).
Yes it was an alarming situation, but I still took note of my weapon-skill boosts and level-up. For a flash, I even had an insidious thought that the spider-like Trader had another seven arms, and this could be a good opportunity to grind my skills. However, after my one shot, the Meleyephatian immediately surrendered. I stopped feeling the fiery stick boring into my head.
The Trader jumped up and twitched fitfully in pain, his jointed arms jerking at random. Then he hissed out in dismay:
“What have you done, human?! My cover is blown! It will be very hard to get another ring like that one!”
What was he talking about? But then I noticed that the Meleyephatian Trader’s description had undergone a striking change. In fact, he was no longer a Trader at all:
Leng Sooweesssh Eleven. Meleyephatian. Nest of the Horde Frontrunners. Level-207 Spy.
Level two hundred and seven! And he’s a Leng!!! I made a big mistake starting a conflict with him! Still, before I could even get scared, I heard a vile sound somewhere between a whistle and near ultrasonic peep. It made my teeth clench until they cracked... and the lemon-yellow spider collapsed on the floor in a lifeless heap. I turned in surprise. Uline Tar was standing with her eyes wide in horror, all the while squeezing an unusual weapon in her furry paws: a short squat tube that grew wider at the end, which was also lined with metal rings.
Successful Intelligence check.
Ah, I see. An Infantry Resonator, a Geckho close combat weapon that destroys the nerve cells and internal organs. I had seen one like it in the trade catalogue when I was looking for a weapon to buy for the Human-3 Faction’s army. But I didn’t buy any then, because resonators are entirely ineffective from farther away than three or four steps, which made using them in modern warfare a technical impossibility. Beyond that, it was not a very discerning weapon, cutting a wide and indiscriminate swath of destruction. Some weapon skills (perhaps Sharpshooter or Pistols) could choke that down, but Uline had once confessed to me that her character had no weapon skills at all, which meant the Geckho lady could do little more than point it in a general direction and shoot.
“I set the Resonator to kill Meleyephatians only,” the Geckho woman answered, as if reading my thoughts.
I nodded in silence, not clarifying that the forcefield on my Listener Energy Armor had drooped by fifteen percent. If not for that, I would at the very least have been severely disabled and paralyzed by the shot. And yet Uline said something else with a mixture of delight and fear:
“Gnat, I just went up eight levels at once! Who even was that Meleyephatian? And why did he attack you? Woah look – he’s a Spy!!! We have to tell the administrators of the Miyelonian station that we unmasked an enemy agent!”
I myself didn’t fully understand why the peaceable looking Trader suddenly decided to attack me mentally. Maybe what I said about the Relict artifact was too far removed from what he could see with his lower Intelligence and was trying to find the truth. Although... I was no longer confident that the level-two-hundred-seven prominent Spy had lower Intelligence than me. In any case, I quickly searched his valuable corpse while it was still there to loot. A few plastic belts, a blindfold, a bunch of junk I could barely understand and...
Captain’s key (main) to Tolili-Ukh X frigate.
I believe in fate. As I believe that coincidences are never truly random. Just after I lost my space frigate, when was busting my brains over where to get a new ship, this idiot drops a glowing blue crystal as loot which would allow me to take a frigate exactly like the one I had before. It would have been hard to imagine a clearer hint from on high about what to do next. And who cares that it was sure to have consequences and the Meleyephatian agent wouldn’t like what I was doing. It was his fault for attacking me first!
Not hesitating for a second, I activated my radio and called my crew for an emergency council.
