November 4th, 627
“It’s about damn ti.”
I smiled at Maxwell after he opened the door with his friendly greeting. His study was still as impressively rich as always.
“Hey old man.”
“You’re calling old? You’re the one who’s taking forever to advance, moving like pond water. Your friends are leaving you behind, so maybe you should stop playing general and study more.”
“Playing general? I’m running a continental private military force that’s single handedly forcing back an entire Scourge front, as well as the industrial company responsible for supplying my forces and the Kingdom’s with catastrophic weapons. I’ve been getting pulled a thousand different ways for the last two years.”
“And I’m hearing a whole lot of excuses.”
I smirked as Maxwell turned to Umara, who was standing there with her white hair tied up in a braid.
“Afternoon, little lady.”
“Good afternoon, Sir Albarain. Thanks in advance for taking care of John.”
“Don’t thank . You’re the one who’s gonna marry him, you poor soul.”
“Eh, it’s not too bad. If I ever get annoyed I just go spend all his money.”
“And so you’ve cracked the secret to a harmonious marriage. Co in and sit. John, you go plant your ass.”
Umara bead with a chuckle while I moved to the tempering chair. The advancent Orb appeared in my hand, as did the large Crystal.
Today, I would take the step to Authority 8. It had taken almost 2 years and would’ve co faster if I hadn’t been so unbelievably busy. Even then, the fact that it took only two years was a testant to my talent. Others could easily take double or triple that ti while dedicated to advancent, and for so, their talent would only barely help them reach my level after a couple decades.
I suddenly thought of Rayla. Previously the most powerful person I knew of after arriving in this world, her talent barely allowed her to slip into Authority 8. Even then, her combat power was lacking for a talented Authority 8. She certainly couldn’t even begin to compare to soone like Umara. I was pretty sure she wasn’t enlightened, and therefore didn’t have the vast foundations soone like Umara was gifted with. That wasn’t to ntion my knowledge and the spells Umara developed with it.
And now, I would be reaching her level on paper. Even thinking back on what I had seen of her power, I had long ago surpassed it.
Authority 8 wouldn’t be the large leap that Authority 7 had been. I wouldn’t be creating a new Spark, but I would multiply the size of my reservoir of Psyka and get the opportunity to restructure so of my Mind Palace.
The most important part was the massive amount of Psyka I’d be bringing in. It was the first preparatory step toward what I’d have to do during my advancent to Authority 10.
Maxwell walked around , slotting in the White Crystals around the chair.
“Are you ready? Let see the formation.”
I silently raised my hand, the formation blooming with perfect recreation. I had already made it thousands of tis before this, cultivating all of them without flaw.
Maxwell took a long look at it before nodding.
“Good. I assu you’re already prepared for the advancent itself and what you’ll be doing with your Mind Palace, so I’ll start the condensation now.”
“Mm.”
I nodded, the Crystals around activating and dumping their Magika into the area around my body.
I felt the familiar pressure on my soul. It was comfortable for a while, like being wrapped in a warm heavy blanket.
It surpassed that soon after. It wasn’t painful, just a little stifling. It was difficult to move my Psyka around without pushing it away from my body.
I took a few deep breaths, my eyes closed as my mind cald.
I had been preparing for this day for months now. I hadn’t gone into work for a week now, everything either put off for another day or simply delegated to soone else. I was busy relaxing myself and scheming. Not just for my advancent, but for what I’d need to do afterward.
I felt my skin tingle as the area reached full saturation. Although the pressure had to be colossal compared to my last advancent, it didn’t feel all that bad. Probably because of the things I’d been through since then.
After feeling suitably prid, I let my Psyka flow.
The advancent formation unfolded in my mind, arrays and clusters manifesting before connecting to each other at thousands of different points.
Like many tis before, it was finished without flaw after about 80 seconds. That’s when I felt my Psyka flow through my brain, the formation bending it in such a manner that it expanded my power in a way never before known.
It triggered sothing in my soul, and once the process started, it couldn’t be stopped.
I suddenly felt myself open, like a void had blood in the center of my chest. The Magika around started flooding in. The vast majority of it was converted to Psyka as it went through my advancent formation. But so remained as Mana and Vigor, tempering my body with its density and elevating my flesh to another level.
Within my Mind Palace, I saw so of the infrastructure shake.
The sheer density of the power entering my body stressed the very foundations. But if it didn’t break, it would temper. The titanium of the walls around my fortress were strengthened and the weapons upon them were empowered. The facilities within my fortress were refined.
I did away with extraneous items, revamped my fabrication plant, tidied up the command center, and reorganized the data center with my Sparks.
Everything was streamlined. Power flowed with greater clarity and volu, exactly what I needed for this advancent.
As that all happened, the vortex of power above and below the Palace grew in intensity and size. Its bulk tripled in size with the initial influx of power, then doubled again over the subsequent several minutes.
After finishing the renovations on the Palace, I saw that its density had tripled on top of that. It was an effective 18 tis increase in sheer power.
With more power ca a far vaster ability to not just empower my summons, but extend my longevity. Just the raw numbers ant that I could fight 18 tis longer in a battle, or dump 18 tis the power into my summons over the sa duration. However, a larger pool ant that I also regenerated that much more over the sa amount of ti. With enough pacing, my overall combat effectiveness went up much more than just 18 tis.
The increase in power by itself was incredible. I could already fight Authority 8s on equal grounds before. Killing Authority 9s had been done as well after taking advantage of the nature of my weapons and the complacency of the Scourge I had faced.
Now, I was finally rising to the upper echelon of this world’s combat hierarchy. On the exponential power distribution curve, I now had the combat ability to face everything but the pinnacle. There was no reason I couldn’t do significant damage to Authority 10s, especially after I reached into my 8th dinsion for new weapons.
I wouldn’t be arrogant enough to think I could challenge all of them, especially those that had reached beyond the Great Barrier. Not all Authority 10s were created equal. It was a major divider for a reason.
But there would be no doubting my power now. Short of that great divide, I would be the lethality king.
Yet this was just the first step of three.
I watched as my body was completely saturated, my mind becoming that much more powerful with the influx of Psyka. Although my thinking speed only increased half as much as the density of my Psyka did, my capacity to handle ntal tasks skyrocketed. I’d probably be able to stay awake for a few weeks straight if I weren’t in battle.
This advancent was rely a prir though. Authority 10 would be the creation of my ‘third Spark’, though not as it had been before. It was supposed to combine my two Sparks into one, solidifying not just two concepts of my mind, but my mind as a whole. This would do more than just give a mimicry of an auxiliary intelligence. I would be gaining, at minimum, a second mind as a whole.
Maxwell’s Call was incredible. He had earned his title as a genius thoroughly. After this advancent, I would be placing myself just below the greatest summoners throughout this world’s history. Then I’d surpass them before even reaching Authority 10, let alone beyond that.
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But the things I’d gain beyond the sheer power would set above them by magnitudes.
This advancent was priming for Authority 10. I would need even more power than this, which was what Authority 9 would give . So while the improvent to my cognitive abilities would be put on the back burner, the amplification to my Psyka pool would be incomprehensible to any other summoner that dared compare themselves to .
I couldn’t imagine what would happen to during that advancent to Authority 10. Hopefully I’d be figuring out how to break down the Great Barrier around that ti, and then doing so. But if Nonnen was any indication, my power needed to be far greater if I wanted to attempt that.
Far greater than what even this amazing advancent was giving .
After what had to be at least two hours, my power finally started settling, so of my consciousness returning to the real world. I felt my body’s strength, a good step more powerful than before. I could feel the Mana in my blood and Vigor in my muscles.
I may not be quite able to go blow for blow with a normal Authority 5 knight, but it was infinitely better than being ordinary.
I smiled and looked down at my hand, gazing at the crest of the 13 stars.
High above my Mind Palace I could see the sa stars, 7 of which were lit. I glanced across the eras of weapons I had gone through up until now.
And my eyes stopped at the 8th star, my 8th dinsion.
With a thought, the barrier into it was shattered, the influx of power overwhelming it. The star lit up and I was greeted with the sight of a new era of warfare.
My smile widened, my heart beating in excitent. I knew ever since I had spoken to Kwon and Song that I may not be limited to my knowledge of how Earth had been when I left. Ti was not linear between our worlds.
Even if it was though, it had been several years since I had co to this world. Technology was already growing at an exponential rate, and weapons technology was at the forefront. It wouldn’t have been surprising to see this kind of tech even under the paradigm of my prior ignorance.
But the sheer refinent of what I was seeing ant that I had jumped another era, as I had every Authority before.
“Heh… Hehehe…”
I started laughing, failing to stifle my joy. Umara tilted her head at , Maxwell frowning.
“What’s got you laughing like a psycho, boy?”
“I’ve told you that the world I ca from has technology you can’t fathom. Now, what if I told you that I’ve just gained access to so of the technology that I couldn’t previously fathom?”
“Well, I refuse to believe that your technology is that much more complex than our magic, so I think that’s just an inability on your part.”
“On so level, you’re right. Pound for pound I think their complexities would punch the sa. It’s just in this world, there are singular people who handle that complexity by themselves. On Earth, you had the collective efforts of hundreds of millions advancing all facets of all subjects and niches. I can’t wait to see what will happen when this world hits the sa threshold and acquires the benefit of both worlds. But for now, I’m the only one that wields both, and when I say you can’t quite fathom what this technology represents, I an it.”
I stood out of my seat, calling upon several summons from my 8th dinsion.
The first was a full body suit. It was open when it manifested behind , my foot stepping into the foot assembly.
It closed around my boot as I stepped back, letting myself lean into its chanical embrace. My other foot was encapsulated and my legs were clamped down on by a tal skeleton.
I could feel hundreds of different parts shift as the suit adjusted to my proportions. When the torso closed around and my arms were locked into their positions, I sensed the rest of the armor deploy.
There were a couple dozen plates that adjusted around my limbs, different polyrs and alloys that gave complete protection while being durable enough to take on more than just a blow or two before demanding replacent.
At first, I felt the suit move of its own accord, completing its adjustnts and deploynts. The armor was thick, heavy, and bulky, all of it hiding exceedingly complex skeletons of conduits, servos, suites of sensors, and redundancies.
I looked down at my hand, which was now covered by a textured glove. Above the knuckles of my fingers were tal appendages that bent with my form. Above my palms were either tal or rubbery textured surfaces that allowed to use the fine motor dexterity of my fingers while also providing protection and utility.
The suit felt like its own entity. I could barely bend my fingers, not just because the suit was restricting while booting, but because it was bearing its own weight for . That weight was the reason modern personal armor wasn’t built like a tank.
This suit was the solution to that problem.
I finally felt the power kick in with an audible click. After a second or two my limbs fell, my muscles finally able to move and manipulate the machine like my own body.
I balled my hand into a fist, no longer feeling resistance, before summoning a helt that went with this suit.
It was a full head cover, similar to the helts I had made for my Iron Legion. There was a visor across the front and a thick but precisely machined tal cover everywhere else.
I lifted it and slid it over my head. A polyr around the neck sealed to a base on the suit, providing full environntal isolation.
Then, the HUD kicked on.
The visor in front of my eyes lit up with a logo resembling the 13 stars of my Crest. I saw it boot with hundreds of lines of logging code before flickering with activity.
Like a video ga, I saw a weapon indicator, a biotric indicator, a small map, a compass, and so identifier tags that hovered over Maxwell and Umara, not yet configured but showing their distance and whatever biotrics it could pick up from them such as heart rate, skin temp, and possible intentions based on their body language.
As that happened, I noticed the spirit of the suit and helt start to infuse mories into my mind.
I could see the training manuals, dated for the year 2049, which ant the tech was so years older than that and the manual was likely being viewed so years after the manual was dated, probably in the 2050s.
The na of the suit was in the title.
The Armored Personnel Powered Exosuit, Model APE-77: Assault Configuration.
The Assault Configuration was dressed for frontal combat. Moderately armored compared to its heavier counterparts but retaining enough mobility to almost entirely eliminate the burden of weight and make a man feel superhuman. It was the flagship of the second generation of exosuit programs and the first mass produced model for the Arican military.
The sa exoskeleton in this suit could be dressed down in other configurations, but looking in my 8th dinsion, I couldn’t see any other options. Not that I was complaining. I’d likely be able to find them later.
The suit had heavy plates of so kind of alloy. The soldiers wearing it only needed to know that it was tal and could take plenty of blows from plenty of bullets. With the armor itself and all its burden being taken on by the exosuit instead of the body, it was possible to implent armor previously unwearable.
Between all the gaps was a polyr seal for full body protection. Around that were a few layers of soft armor topped with so standard camouflage fabric that either covered or accented the armor plates.
Topping all that was another layer of pockets and utility. A holster for a sidearm, a chest rig for holding magazines, pouches for grenades and tools, knife sheaths, and more.
It was definitely bulky. For , who was used to everything being stored in spatial rings and wearing nothing but my slim coat, it would be a lot to adjust to.
Not that I wouldn’t happily make the jump.
Once the exosuit was fully booted, I moved my limbs around. According to so of the logs I saw flash across my eyes, the system tried to run a diagnostic and configuration in order to adapt the suit’s behavior to my own, but was halted.
I could only assu that the spirit of this exosuit had sothing to do with it. These summons were not perfect recreations of the forms they took on. They were the ideal recreation, quite literally the spirit of the technology.
There was a good chance this exosuit would be much better than its identical counterparts on Earth.
For instance, there was no discrepancy in my own actions and those of the suit. It followed my will perfectly and was adjusted to every one of my joints like it had been custom fitted to my body. With a re thought empowered by Psyka, I was able to manipulate the HUD and change the identifier tags for Umara and Maxwell to friendly.
On a whim, I flicked the visor between its different modes, going through its night vision, thermal, and fusion visuals. All of them had augnted reality displays over them, giving improved utility.
After playing around with so of the other functions I finally brought out a new weapon.
It was called the Caseless Munitions Rifle Model 21, or CMR 21. It operated by locking a bullet in front of an ignition chamber where a newly developed explosive liquid was injected in precise amounts. The result was a caseless weapon capable of firing at variable and customizable speeds ranging anywhere from semi-automatic fire to fully automatic fire at over 1200 rpm. The liquid solution was stored in two canisters in the shoulder of the weapon and mixed during injection, while the bullets were stored in conventionally shaped magazines capable of holding several tis more than cased bullet magazines.
The only limitations for the weapon, short of access to the specialized munition resources, were heat and chamber durability.
However, it was just the first example of the new technology I would have access to.
From extre range sniper rifles to smart munitions, explosives, and brand new ways to conduct warfare, the gear presented to in this 8th dinsion was beyond even what I would’ve guessed before advancing.
Each Authority was jumping eras, and with exponential growth, this jump was significant. The exosuit would multiply my strength and, depending on how it responded to empowernt, could give capabilities comparable to knights around the sa Authority. By itself, the exosuit was worth the entire advancent.
Everything else was within expectations, simply a matter of applying smart technology to the finer facets of weaponry. When I left Earth, such technology was not just being theorized, but actively developed and produced. It may not have been getting mass produced for entire militaries due to financial unwillingness, but technology solved that issue in ti.
This era of technology was only between two and three decades beyond the ti that I had left. Every advancent before had jumped about that much ti. I was thrilled to see myself getting such useful tech at this level, thrilled that I wouldn’t be limited to rely what I knew. It only ant that I would be able to survive the dangerous battles I was bound to get into in the future.
But it also left with questions, the sa ones I had asked myself when Kwon and Song told what year they had co to this world.
If the tilines between this world and Earth weren’t linear or parallel, then could I ever hope to step back into a world where my family still lived? Getting back to Earth was a pipe dream, but I figured that if there was a way here, there was a way back.
But finding a way back wouldn’t help if I ca back to an Earth many decades in the future, a future where my family was either aged and elderly, or dead.
I knew anything was possible at this point, but the thought of it still spoiled my mood every ti I thought about it. And unfortunately, it was impossible for to just ignore it.
I sighed and continued checking out the new gear being bestowed upon . I forgot sotis, but my coat wouldn’t last forever, wouldn’t always be able to keep up. That I was getting my hands on high tech armor ant that in the future, I’d be able to supply myself with armor capable of operating at my level, never to beco obsolete.
Granted, I’d probably want to buy myself sothing nice anyway and give myself so more insurance, but the minimum was always nice to have. Not everything could be prepared for, but I’d always have my summons.
I looked at Umara through my visor, smiling.
“I heard that Vetsmon flew in a week or so ago. Call everyone up. I’m itching for a good spar.”
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