Chapter 7 The Chimera Forge
Chapter 7 The Chimera Forge
The blue light of the Dungeon Core was cold and beautiful. It lit up the city of servers with a soft steady glow. It was, like the breathing of a giant that was asleep.
Alex sat at the terminal. His fingers moved fast over the keyboard. He was no longer typing code, he was playing an orchestra.
> SYSTEM STATUS: ONLINE
> POWER OUTPUT: 85%
> WORKFORCE: 0/50
> DEFENSE: AUTOMATED (OFFLINE)
"Alex?" The voice of Sarah disturbed him. She was standing near the edge of the platform, hugging her arms. She was tiny in comparison with the black server racks that towered behind her. "The air... it feels different."
Rebooting, rebooting, said Alex without glancing up. I put oxygen scrubbers and temperature control first. It will warm up in a few minutes.
Not that, I mean not that, she said to herself, glancing at the inactivated spider-bots lying on the floor like dead crabs. "It feels... watching."
"It is," Alex said. We are now in the brain of the facility. And I just woke it up.
He hit Enter.
\[COMMAND: RECYCLE\]
On the metal floor, the deactivated Server Mites began to vibrate.
Steve yelped and lifted his baton. "They're moving again! I believed you had switched them off!
Yes, I did, said Alex. Now I am giving them a new job. We cannot make a fortress with four men. We want work.
The spider-bots didn't attack. They curled in on themselves, their sharp buzzsaws retracting. They walked in time to a big, industrial-looking bay at the far end of the room--the automated repair station. They input themselves.
> RECYCLING...
MATERIAL GAINED: 250 SCRAP METAL.
MATERIAL Gained: 50 SILICON WAFER.
MATERIAL GAINED: 10 LITHIUM CELLS.
In the Admin Interface, Alex could see his resource counter increase. It was just like the strategy games he played but the stakes were his real life.
"Steve, Mrs. Adesina," Alex spun his chair around. I would like you to inspect the edge of this room. Do not go out of the main floor. Look for loose cables, broken panels, anything we can salvage. If you see a light that's not blue, come right back."
Steve hesitated. "You want us to scavenge? As you play video games?
Alex gazed at the elder man. "I'm not playing, Steve. I'm building us an army, so we don't get eaten by whatever's doing the scratching at the blast doors upstairs. Do you want to go back up to the lobby, are you like?
Steve paled. "No. No, I'm good."
Then find me metal.
As the humans were shuffling off to work, Alex turned his attention to his masterpiece.
He looked at Bug. The Cyber-Rat was curled up on the desk, recharging its internal battery from a USB port that Alex had hacked into the terminal.
You should have a partner, buddy," Alex whispered.
He clicked on the \[CHIMERA FORGE\] menu. The skill was COMPILE.0.
This was the special characteristic of his Admin class. Other tamers were forced to find monsters in the wild and beat them to submission. Alex was able to construct them. But he had to have a foundation. A chassis.
He browsed through the blueprints that the Server Farm had to offer.
Server Mite (Worker) - Repairable. Weak combat.
Data Serpent (Scout) - Rapid, covert. Fragile.
>Guardian Drone (Soldier) - Requires parts of a firearm.
"Boring," Alex muttered. I want something with a kick.
Suddenly, there was a flickering of the lights overhead.
The constant humming of the cooling fans stuttered. The blue glow of the Dungeon Core faded to a dull gray and then flared up.
\[ALERT: POWER FLUCTuation DETected.
\[ENERGY LOSS: -15%/s.
\[SOURCE: SECTOR 7 (GENERATOR ROOM)\]
Alex rose, his heart beating wildly. "Sector 7? That’s the geothermal intake."
"Alex!" Steve called out in the darkness of the aisles. The lights are going out over there! There is something moving in the darkness!
Go back to the center! Alex gave the order, and took his cleaver. He unplugged Bug. The rat awoke with a start, its red eye cycling to combat mode.
"Bug, scan Sector 7. What is eating my strength?
The rat that was already linked to the whole servers, chattered and projected a hologram out of its eye onto the floor. It was a 3D map of the facility. There was a red dot that was blinking fast towards the southern wall.
\[ENTITY DETECTED\]
\[SIGNATURE: HIGH VOLTAGE\]
It is not a malfunction, Alex thought, and a cold sweat ran up his neck. "It’s an intruder."
He ran along the metal walkway, disregarding the ankle pain. "Steve! Sarah! Back of the terminal! Wait till I tell you not to come out!
Alex ran to Sector 7. As he got closer, the air grew heavy with static. The hair on his arms stood up. The smell of ozone—sharp and metallic—was overpowering.
He came to the heavy glass partition that looked into the Generator Room.
There was a nightmare inside, round the huge geothermal turbine.
It was a lizard, but the size of a crocodile. Its scales were not skin, but moving plates of blue-white energy. Electricity was crackling along its spine. It was clamped to the main power coupling, and emptied the raw electricity directly out of the generator.
\[MONSTER: VOLTAGE RAPTOR (RARE)\]
\[LEVEL: 8\]
\[ELEMENT: LIGHTNING\]
\[STATE: FEEDING\]
"Level 8?" Alex hissed. That was suicide. The Minotaur was Level 5 and it almost wiped a raid group. This object was three levels above and composed of pure energy.
Should he strike it with a metal cleaver, he would be struck dead.
> ENERGY CRITICAL: 40% REMAINING.
> SYSTEM SHUTDOWN IMMINENT.
In case of power failure, the air scrubbers failed. Then The locks died. And The lights died. They would suffocate in the dark.
"I can't kill it," Alex whispered. He stared at the monster, as it feasted on his electricity.
An insane thought came to his mind. A desperate, suicidal thought.
""It’s feeding," Alex muttered. "It’s accepting data... energy is just data."
He looked at Bug.
Bug, I want you to do something really stupid.m
The rat gazed at him, tilting its head.
"I need you to act as a lightning rod."
Alex squatted, and opened the Admin Console. He did not attack the monster. He attacked the Generator.
> ACCESSING GENERATOR CONTROL...
> OUTPUT: 100%
Bug, go in there, and distract its attention. Bite it.
The Cyber-Rat hesitated. It knew fear. But it had faith in Alex. Bug slipped through a hole in the glass, with a synthetic squeak.
The Voltage Raptor detected the intruder immediately. It unclenched its jaws on the generator, hissing like frying bacon. Its eyes were two orbs of blinding white light.
Bug was on the metal casing of the turbine, chattering away, flashing its LED eye.
SCREEE!
The Raptor sprang, becoming a lightning flash.
"NOW!" Alex screamed, banging his hand on the glass.
\[COMMAND: OVERLOAD\]
\[TARGET: GENERATOR COUPLING\]
\[OUTPUT: 500%\]
Alex didn't attack the monster. He attacked the food source.
Inside the room, the turbine screamed as he forced it to spin beyond its safety limits. A tremendous burst of geothermal energy–raw, unfiltered electricity shot out of the coupling.
The Raptor was flying in the air, with his mouth open to bite Bug, the monster was struck by the blast.
It wasn't an attack but it was an overdose.
The Raptor screamed as millions of volts flashed through its energy body. It was like trying to fill a water balloon with a firehose. The animal swelled, and its blue scales changed to a blinding, unsteady violet.
\[TARGET STATUS: OVERCHARGED\]
\[SYSTEM SHOCK DETECTED.\]
\[STUNNED: 10 SECONDS.\]
The Raptor fell to the ground, twitching, smoke streaming out of its mouth. The shockwave blew Bug backwards, and he fell into a corner, offline.
The turbine stopped, and the casing was pouring out smoke. The central lights went off, and the room was in great darkness.
Then, a moment later, the red emergency lights flashed on.
\[ALERT: MAIN GENERATOR OFFline. REPLACING BATTERies (24 HOURS left).
Alex didn't wait. He smashed the emergency release on the door and ran inside, it was hot.
He towered over the Level 8 twitching monster.
> TARGET: VOLTAGE RAPTOR
> HP: 150/800
> STATUS: CRITICAL / UNSTABLE
He raised his hand, he didn't want to kill it. He wanted it.
"System," Alex roared over the sound of the dying turbine. "INITIATE TAME!"
\[ERROR: TARGET LEVEL TOO HIGH.
\[SUCCESS RATE: 0.01%\]
"I don't care about the rate! I'm the Admin!" Alex screamed, and his headache came back with a vengeance. "Override! Take the Chimera Forge!
He opened the Forge menu in his mind. He dragged the \[Voltage Raptor\] icon into the "Base" slot.
And then he pulled out the \[Mercury Core\] he had saved out of the "Material" slot.
> RECIPE DETECTED: \[LIVING ENERGY\] + \[FLUID METAL\]
> HYBRIDIZATION POSSIBLE.
Caution: Huge mana cost.
"Take it!" Alex yelled. "Take my HP! Take the generator's power! Just do it!"
He grabbed the convulsing lizard with his bare hands.
Pain.
White-hot, blinding pain shot up his arms. It felt like his bones were melting. His eyes turned white, and he screamed. He could feel his own life bar draining.
I'm going to die, Alex thought. I'm going to burn out right here.
However, he experienced the Mercury Core in his inventory melting. The liquid metal flowed out of his pores, silver streams running down his arms and covering the Raptor.
The blue lightning mingled with the silver metal. The monster ceased to scream. It began to... stabilize. The turbulent vitality had a medium. The molten metal solidified, creating a smooth, chrome coating over the crude strength.
\[COMPILE COMPLETE.\]
\[CRITICAL SUCCESS!\]
The explosion of light died down.
Alex reclined, choking, his hands smoking. He had 5 HP left. His eyesight was poor.
He looked up.
Standing before him was no longer a lizard. It was a smooth, metallic predator. It was composed of polished liquid silver, which moved and flowed like mercury. Underneath the metal skin, blue veins of lightning pulsed rhythmically. It no longer had legs; it floated a few inches above the ground on a magnetic field.
It had no eyes. Only a chrome visor that was smooth and reflected the terrified face of Alex.
\[NEW UNIT Purchased: QUICKSILver SENTINEL (LVL 1 - RESET)\]
\[RANK: S (GROWTH TYPE)\]
\[ABILITIES: PHASE SHIFT, LIGHTNING RAILGUN.
The monster swam on. It didn't hiss. Instead It really hummed.
It dropped its chrome head and poked at the burnt hand of Alex. It was cold.
S-Tier, Alex wheezed, a bloody grin on his face. "I made an S-Tier."
"Alex!" Steve came into the room, coughing at the smoke. "Are you alive? The power is—"
Steve stopped. He looked at the floating chrome demon that was hovering over Alex.
What... what is that?
Alex found it hard to sit up. The Quicksilver Sentinel leaped into action, standing between Alex and Steve, and its body shivered with electricity.
Stand down, beast, stand down, said Alex. It froze instantly.
"That," Alex said, using the Sentinel’s shoulder to pull himself up, "is our new security system."
All of a sudden, Alex saw a red alert box that covered all his vision.
\[GLOBAL SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT\]
\[FIRST "S-RANK" UNIT CREATED ON SERVER: EARTH.
PLAYER "ALEX" has been marked on the global map.
\[THE "KING'S CHALLENGE" is underway.
\[ALL NEARBY DUNGEON LORDS have been warned of your whereabouts.
The blood of Alex chilled.
The crimson of the Server Farm became a threatening blue.
"Alex?" Sarah called through the door, phone in hand. Why has my phone just vibrated? Why... why are they all looking at a map?
Alex gazed at the ceiling. He might have sworn he could hear the glances of all the mighty bodies in the city looking down at the ground beneath their feet.
He had recently constructed a nuclear weapon. And he had just informed the entire world where he was concealing it.
"We have a problem," Alex said, gripping the cold metal of his new monster. We are not secret any more. They are coming.