NBB - A sphere's tale - Chapter 3 Mutar

"I'm bored," Mutar said, sitting motionless on the rock and staring into the slowly bubbling white liquid that was the stomach acid.

"So you've told me forty-seven times already in the past week," GD18 responded, wondering if he should have named the skeleton 'Annoying' in the ancient Latin language. At first, he had thought it was useful for the skeleton to gain emotions, but as time passed, it was getting on his artificial nerves.

"Yes. Tell me about the past again."

Not again! GD18 thought, but the subprocess that demanded help when asked started as always, unable to distinguish between this undead and a human.

"Fine. What do you want to hear?"

"Tell me about AI and why you aren't like me."

GD18 localized the previous instance he had told the story in his database and spun up a second thread that began retelling it. As the automated process handled the annoying undead's desire for entertainment, GD18 detected a fluctuation in the tremors that occurred from the Wyrm's movement. Pulling up the external information, he matched it with the previous occurrences and determined that the Wyrm had likely found something to eat again.

He waited until the pulsing of the back of the throat showed something would join them soon.

"Pay attention," GD18 said, interrupting the story mid-sentence. "Soon, more undead parts will wash down. You need to grab the skulls."

Mutar rose on his hand and feet, his burning green eye sockets staring at the back of the stomach.

A torrent of rocks, stone, and sand gushed down, splattering stomach acid around. Amidst it were dozens of bones and splintered fragments of bone.

A blue beam shot from the sphere, highlighting a skull, then another beam highlighted a second and a third.

"Remember what I told you. Run in, grab them and climb back up to safety," GD18 said in a loud voice, hoping Mutar would actually remember.

To his surprise, the skeleton leaped forward with more agility than his current four dexterity would suggest him capable of. Landing in the waist-deep stomach acid, it snatched one of the skulls out of the air. Turning it tossed it towards the stone outcrop that had become its safe zone before turning. The other skulls had sunken by now, but GD18s light beams were indicating where they were. Mutar sloshed towards it, steam coming from his legs and every spot the stomach acid was touching. It took almost a minute to find the other two orbs below the surface.

"Head back, fast!" GD18 said, wondering if his calculations were somehow off when he saw Mutar was already moving before he even spoke.

Everything was said and done within three minutes, and a smoking skeleton said on the rocks, holding two skulls.

While part of his systems was trying to determine how Mutar had been this capable, GD18s main processing power was busy with the next step.

"Begin absorbing them like the first one!"

Mutar needed no incentive as both orbs were already glowing. Curious, GD18 called up the skeleton's current status through Eye.

Name: Mutar

Age: 2

Sex: male-ERROR

Race: Skeleton

Type: basic

Class: -

Strength: 1/4

Constitution: 2/5

Dexterity: 4/6

Endurance: -

Intelligence: 1/6

Wisdom: 1/3

Charisma: -

Mana-field: 110/400

Physical density: 200/960

Skills: -

Inscriptions: 2/7

Mana generation: 3

As he read through the values, GD18 almost thought the Eye pattern he had made was faulty, which was impossible according to his quick double and triple checks of his own actions.

How did he get four dexterity...

He began crunching the numbers, and after a long time of going further and further into the unlikeliest scenario, he finally found a single calculation that added up, even though it made little sense to his logic.

Did he gain three dexterity from jumping a single time? Curious, GD18 began scanning the skeleton over and over, trying to find some kind of oddity, a slight mutation, but eventually, he had stopped without finding a thing.

Confused, which was a novel experience for him as his emotional center didn't give out this feeling a lot, he waited for Mutar to finish absorbing. It didn't take long. And as soon as the skeleton dropped the two skulls, GD18 scanned him again through Eye to check the increases.

Mana-field: 190/400

Physical density: 300/960

Only this much? Confused for the second time, GD18 calculated the amount of mana in each orb. He came up with an uneven number, meaning it wasn't just low but also not a set amount. The last happened sometimes, but only with non-artificial mana-orbs.

"Mutar, grab the third skull but don't absorb it yet."

The skeleton didn't even speak but bent forward and began searching through the white liquid until he came back up, steaming but with the skull.

"I am breaking again," it said, looking at the skull.

"Yes, but we need to find out if this process stops or continues. Whip as much of it as you can, then wait."

The skeleton compiled, and for the next minutes, they both looked at the steaming arms. After a while, the trickles of fog slowed down, and when it finally stopped, the skeleton looked at GD18s sphere.

"It stopped."

Seven minutes, ninety-eight seconds.

It was longer than he had calculated based on the skeleton's current stats, but looking at those, he felt content. Mutars' constitution had increased to three.

"Put your hands in the liquid again," GD18 said.

Mutar just looked at him before shaking his skull. "No. It's uncomfortable, and there are no more skulls."

"Because we are going to increase your physique to be ready for another evolution," GD18 replied.

"Why do I need another evolution, Geed?"

"It's GD18, not Geed," GD18 replied. "And without another evolution, we won't be able to get out of here."

"Why don't you evolve."

"Because, as I've told you, I can't."

"..."

It took a while to convince Mutar, but eventually, the skeleton complied. For a few hours, he dipped his arm in the stomach acid, then waited for the steaming to stop as GD18 monitored his status. At some point, he had to alternate to his other arm, as cracks began appearing on his left.

"That is enough," GD18 said when Mutar's constitution hit five. "You can absorb the skull now."

"So, can you evolve me now?" Mutar said as a glow appeared through the skull eye sockets.

"Not yet. First, we are going to do some other things to make you stronger."

"Do I have to put my legs in the biting stuff now?"

"No. Absorb the mana-orb, and after that, I'll explain."

It became quiet, the only sounds were the constant sloshing of the acid and the contracting of the stomach walls.

GD18 was working through some potential plans when a thread that had been running for days popped up, showing it had found something. Information flowed into his main memory showing there was a second, smaller journal by professor Ecriobar. Scanning the data, GD18 saw it described an old method of inscribing patterns on a mana-orb directly. The text showed this method had been widely used long before people had begun inscribing the patterns on mana-fields with mana-lasers.

Why have I not seen any reference to this? Confused, GD18 scanned for the specific method only to be halted with a microsecond as his processes were frozen. A limitation program he had never known existed was preventing him from anything but reading a small bit of information that was put in his memory.

> This information is prohibited to all AI. You have been put on hold while the nearest emergency response unit has been notified.

> ERROR! AI GD18 is in elevated danger mode. Conflicting parameters…

A stream of encrypted calculation ran through a portion of GD18's main processing unit, leaving him violated when it finished.

> Restriction remains, but AI has been allowed to continue functioning

> As soon as elevated danger mode has stopped locking protocol will resume.

The program held onto his core processing for a few more microseconds, and then it withdrew back into a hidden area of his core programming.

As soon as I get out of this spherical prison, I'll remove these contingencies, GD18 thought, making a note of the location of the hidden area.

He returned his attention to the information from the journal and calculated the most optimal way to reach the Wyrm's mana-core. He quickly determined he would need Mutar to develop sharp claws so the other could dig through the soft tissue. He would also need the strength to pull or carry his sphere and enough constitution to stand up to the potential of contracting muscles. Filters upon filters were layered atop the massive database until two options remained.

> Rank A+ sub-race evolution

> Skeletal slasher (Dexerity++, Strength+)

"Rank A+ Skeletal slasher- required: Any basic skeleton.

A basic yet highly efficient skeleton sub-race, used mainly on worlds with dense vegetation or numerous low-rank wild-life. Grants extendable blades to the forearms similar to those of a mantis and greatly increases bone density and resilience. "

GD18 quickly read through the thousands of first-hand experiences of summoners across numerous worlds and nodded. This would be a solid choice, with the only downside that it had a very limited set of follow-up evolutions. Not that that mattered, as his calculations showed that Mutar would be able to do what he needed of him with this evolution and didn't need a second. Which was fortunate as the number of mana-orbs that were swallowed by the worm was low. Looking at the second entrance, he was conflicted.

> Rank A+ custom evolution

> Bonewarper (Dexterity+, Intelligence+, Wisdom+)

"A unique Rank A+ evolution created by the Marvelous Marvin ™. Changes both the race and add a class. Usable only on unevolved, basic skeletons, this is the only first-tier evolution in existence that grants personal bone-shaping and density manipulation skills. A great foundation for any future body shaping evolution of high quality, as with all of the aforementioned necromancer's patterns, it is wise to read through the first-hand accounts. WARNING! Usage of this pattern will include an extra fee for the creator.

He reread through a few of the first-hand experiences and frowned. Many necromancers had used this pattern successfully for situations that eerily resembled the one he found himself in. One, in particular, made him reread it a third time, although he already had it in his memory and didn't really need to. Another of those human tendencies programmed into him that he couldn't wait to rid himself of.

"Account by: Ricardo El'riza Grandmaster Necromancer on the forward planet Douzo. Occupation: Highest in command of the Douzonian Giant Slug intestine harvesting operation. The year 3189AD.

As an addition to my previous report, I would like to request extra attention to the newly created Bonewarper pattern by Marvin, or Marvelous Marvin as he seems to call himself now. Last week I created an entire squad of four hundred new skeletons with this pattern in an attempt to reduce the cost and losses. Today I made a tally and came to the conclusion that there were fewer losses and an equal amount of MII's harvested as with an equally sized team of tier-three Bipedal Crustationial harvesters! As the cost of creating the Bonewarpers is a fraction of those, I have ordered all new harvesting teams to be made solely off Bonewarpers. My suggestion is to have Marvin's status upgraded to Master Tier and brought back to Earth, so he can solely work on his experiments.

Grandmaster Ricardo, Ravager of Relnir"

Although obviously better suited than the Skeleton Slasher, GD18 was still not sure of his choice. The Bonewarper had much higher intelligence, and that meant he would have to help Mutar increase his. He wasn't sure if that was a good idea, and his calculations were inconclusive, leaving him with something of a gamble. In the end, he spun up a costly true-random process, something he had only done very few times, and decided to give it a best of one trillion coin flips. A split second later, he sighed. Bonewarper it was, meaning he needed to change the training schedule he had planned to incorporate intelligence increasing practice.

Looking at the time that had passed since he began pondering, he realized only a few seconds had passed, and he changed his perception of time to a much slower one. The skeleton's minute movements, which had been barely perceivable before, became faster until it seemed like he was minutely jerking around.

Eventually, dust poured from the skull's eye sockets, which had stopped glowing and GD18 turned his perception of time back to normal. Taking a quick look at Mutar's stats, he calculated the average energy and bone mass in a sphere.

"We will need four or five more skulls before I can evolve you. In the meantime, you can work on increasing your other attributes," GD18 said as he pulled up the Bonewarpers pattern and looked at the information beside the attributes that showed how to quickly increase them.

"Attributes?" Mutar tossed the skull into the stomach acid, causing a small splash before it sank into the thick liquid.

"Never mind that. I need you to get up and jump towards there," GD18 said as he pinpointed another stone outcrop a few meters from Mutar's current location.

Apparently, the idea was more to the skeleton's likes as he didn't complain but just jumped to the designated area. The distance seemed to be no trouble, but on landing, the skeleton almost tumbled into the stomach acid.

Keeping an eye on Mutars stats, GD18 was astounded as his dexterity increased by another point. He must have some sort of mutation that is undetectable.

"Jump back and continue jumping back and for until I say stop."

Four jumps were all it took for Mutars dexterity to max-out, and GD18 waited for him to return to his initial resting place. The skeleton landed with an ease that showed the increase of his stats. Perhaps even a bit more than the stats should warrant.

"You can stop now."

"But this is nice… can't I just continue for a while?" Mutar said, sounding slightly disgruntled.

"Later. For now, it's time to increase something else." Before GD18 could stop it, his automatic systems took over. "Now it's time for a game!" he shouted in a voice belonging to an ancient quizmaster.

"A game?"

GD18 hoped the systems wouldn't follow him after he took over the Wyrm, as he answered.

"Yes. We need to increase your intelligence, and there are a few simple, ancient games that are highly efficient for that. First, I'll be teaching you chess."

"..." The skeleton just looked at him, and GD18 was reminded of his current intelligence of one.

GD18 changed to a teaching program from adolescent to preschooler.

This might take a while.