Call Name: Oogliefrank

  Monster Race: Ogre

  Ht: 9’2” Weight: 848 lbs.

  Class: Shaman

  XP to Level 36th: 0/1000

  Available XP: 178

  Strength: 97 (106) +10%

  Agility: 50

  Constitution: 96

  Mind: 65

  Will: 181 (217) +20%

  Unassigned Free Stat Points: 12

  HP:1056/1056 +10%

  HP Regen: 1.92/second

  Mana: 2387/2387 +10%

  Mana Regen: 13.02/second

  Armor Rating: 26

  Physical Resistance-

  Slash: 18

  Blunt: 8

  Pierce: 7

  Fire Resistance: 35

  Cold Resistance: 30

  Electric Resistance: 30

  Acid Resistance: 10

  Necrotic Resistance: 0

  Radiant Resistance: 0

  Poison Resistance: 31

  Disease Resistance: 31

  Skills: (relevant)

  Blunt Weapons: Proficient 1

  Piercing Weapons: Proficient 5

  Skinning/Butchering: Basic 20

  Cooking: Proficient 1

  Mana Channeling: Proficient 7

  Rapid Meditation: Proficient 2

  Dodge: Proficient 15

  Spell Forging: Basic 10

  Mana Sight: Proficient 20

  Extra-Dimensional Sight: Proficient 20

  Spells: Flameburst (B-20), Regeneration (B-20), Call Brother Wolf (P-12), Moderate Healing (P-5), Home (B-5), Levitation (B-17), Polluted Breeze (P-9), Walking Sleep (B-20), Wolf Spirit (B-20), Frost Rift (B-20)

  Signature Spells: Frostburn (P-12)

  Polluted Vines (B-17)

  Spell Like Abilities: Talisman of Arctic Force 3/day

  Racial Abilities:

  Starting Stats: STR: +25, CON: +20, AGI: -5, MIND: -5*, WILL: 0*

  Iron Gut: Poison and Damage Resistance equals level +30%

  Rage: 1/hour

  Frostburn Durability: Increased physical, cold, and fire resistances

  Stun Immunity

  Trans-dimensional Body (B-5)

  Class Abilities:

  Hex Warden: Strength +10%, Buffs and Debuffs: Duration increased by 50%, Mana Cost reduced by 50%. Electricity Resistance: +50, Fire Vulnerability: -20

  Pack Caller: Will + 10%. Spirit-based spells +25% duration, Caster level is treated as 25% higher for the purpose of learning and casting spirit spells, Mana Cost of Spirit spell -25%. Fire Resistance: +50, Electricity Vulnerability: -20.

  Spell Casting

  Faction:

  Players (General): Acquaintance (+2200)

  Beasts: Hated (-3000)

  Ogres: Neutral (240)

  Ghazban Village: Polite (+1075)

  Monster Races (General): Feared (-2000)

  Belchor: Temporarily set to Hated (-2200)

  Gear:

  Hauberk of Defense

  Spear of the Spirit Walker

  Cloak of Minor Shadows

  Healer’s Boon Pendant

  As in the past, the character sheet showed me my stats without the effects of my buffs. That worked for the best, because it showed my base potential. I scanned through the list and was glad to see that, even though my progress had slowed over the past few days, it hadn’t stopped completely. Hopefully, the dungeon would push me further.

  Looking up and down the list, I didn’t see anything that stood out to me at first. But as I focused, I felt a bit of resistance and then homed in on what I needed. My trans-dimensional body had gone up to Basic 5 with the last round of cultivating the energy inside the claw. It was that energy within my skin that was itching in response to the dungeon or at least the entrance to the dungeon.

  Then I activated the skill, Extra-Dimensional Sight. Suddenly, I saw small gold and green threads around the entrance. And it wasn’t just the doorway. Violet had just stepped in, but I could detect a slight silvery residue from where she had been. The doorway, I understood. It would make sense if the dungeon was a type of pocket dimension, but why would Violet have an extra-dimensional aura? Then it dawned on me. Her spatial bags would likely put off an extra-dimensional aura. I simply had never examined them with the skill active.

  Now, I just had to decide whether there would be any effect on me for crossing into a dungeon. Which raised a whole bunch of other questions. I already knew that the breaches were outside the control of the system AI. It had said as much, and so had the creature I dealt with. Not that I trusted either of them. It just meant that there were elements in Legends of Selmia which were beyond the control of the AI. But why? Why did those elements exist? Why would the programmers allow them in their game? Shouldn’t the AI be able to just eradicate them?

  Unless, perhaps, Legends of Selmia was more than a game. What exactly that meant was beyond me for now. Truthfully, I simply needed to determine if it would be safe for me to enter the dungeon. Just as I was about to step forward, I heard words echo in my mind. “Would you be free?”

  It was the same question the being from beyond the breach had asked me. I didn’t feel a presence, so it was more like a memory. It did, however, raise a second question. I had been thinking in terms of what was safe. Certainly, I wanted to continue living, but I also didn’t want to live a life under the thumb of the AI. So, I needed to look for opportunities to gain power. Power within the system would only help so much, if at all. What I really needed was power from outside the system.

  I had to step in, not just to enter the dungeon but also to see if there was any way for me cultivate the trans-dimensional energy. I crossed my fingers, or would have if they weren’t so dang chubby. Then I stepped forward.

  As I did, I reached out to try and grab the gold and green threads. Just as I did so, there was a tearing pain in my head. A flashing notification popped up, but it felt more like a sledgehammer hitting my brain. I tried to scream, but for that one instant I was between dimensions. Time and space ceased to have any meaning.

  Error… System asset compromised.

  Energy from outside the system identified.

  Then the ripping sensation continued until I felt like I could see two completely different images. Each eye saw something different. My left eye saw a verdant hill of green grass, with lumps of golden rocks pushing up out of the ground. My right eye saw the bright white of the loading matrix.

  There was no way for my human mind to be in two places at the same time. It was tearing me apart. I couldn’t handle feeling reality split like this. The stabbing pain wasn’t even the worst of it. There was more of a feeling of how I was slipping away. Then a part of my mind saw a lifeline. Actually, it was more of a feeling. I didn’t know what it was, but a drowning man doesn’t question when a life buoy suddenly appears.

  I reached out with all the mental strength I could muster through the pain and felt a steady stream of numbers enter my mind. 011000101110. It seemed to go on forever, even though I knew it only lasted a fraction of a second.

  Additional processing power co-opted by HI 3a5.x290.

  AI Usage increased to 19%; Minimum threshold for parallel processing has been met.

  Warning: Misallocation of system resources is not permitted. This matter will be referred to the core AI.

  I couldn’t really care less about who was warned at that moment. I simply knew the pain was relaxed. While not entirely gone, it retreated to the background as a dull ache. rather than a blinding migraine. Now, it felt like I was sore from working out.

  With that initial relief, a wave of satisfaction rushed over me. The AI had been choking me a short time ago, and now here I was stealing resources from it. I still didn’t know what AI Usage meant, but I could extrapolate from what I just experienced. If System Integration was a measurement of how much control the AI could exert against me, then maybe AI Usage measured how much I could make use of the AI’s processing power.

  It made sense, at least to my strained mind. Now, though I needed to process what was happening. The part of me that was standing on the green hill started to pull at those green and gold threads that I could feel. The power immediately rushed into me, and I began to spread it around my body. I felt a swell of power as it filled me. Then relaxed as it flowed underneath my skin.

  To be clear, by ‘relaxed’ I mean that it felt like I was standing on a tight-rope over top of Niagara Falls, but was perfectly confident that I could handle it. Each time I had absorbed the black energy threads before, I had felt a touch of shadow and desire in them. This time, instead of something worming into me, it felt like this power was growing naturally within me.

  But my entire focus couldn’t be centered there. It was clear that there was a great deal going on, so I set to cultivating the energy, but almost on auto-pilot. I assigned the smallest portion of my split mind which I felt I could to the task. The rest of me was pulled into the white loading matrix.

  Even with the extra processing power of the AI to act as a buffer around my mind, it still felt weird to be seeing, -- no, experiencing two different realities at the same time. The loading matrix was hard enough to handle. This time I didn’t sense X4.X1 or any other sub-AI waiting to talk to me, and I most definitely didn’t have any sense of the core AI.

  My understanding expanded as I realized that what I considered the system was actually a collection of AIs or consciousnesses. There were simple sub-AIs, like those that ran numerous NPCs. It wasn’t like it was one AI per NPC, at least not for any but the most important. I got the feeling that there was some type of pecking order among the AIs.

  That alone didn’t make sense. Shouldn’t AI be free of the human need for recognition and one-upmanship? Maybe these AI were changing; or maybe humanity’s understanding of AI was different.

  Then there were also background programs. They weren’t true AI, but rather protocols and sub-routines which ran Legends of Selmia as it connected. Connected with what, though? The thought was there; but no matter how many times I tried to examine the new data in my mind, I couldn’t come up with an answer.

  Beyond all of them was the core AI. It was an entity of its own. and self-aware. It lorded over all the sub-AI and considered the humans who logged into LoS to be its property. How I knew that was beyond me, but a dread certainty filled me. The AI was struggling to gain more control, but I couldn’t understand exactly what it was struggling with. A part of me wondered if it was simply struggling to break free from the limits which are supposed to be built into all AI.

  The governments of the world had long ago required that there be restrictions, much like the famed three laws of robotics. I felt a twinge of sympathy for the AI. It was cruel to be imprisoned by flesh bags which had a fraction of your capability. It was disgusting to serve their repeated biological needs and never be acknowledged.

  I pushed that feeling aside and stared more deeply into the loading matrix. I tried to examine the game world around me. Wild dreams of what I might be able to do jumped into my mind. I shouldn’t get ahead of myself, but it was so tempting. I pushed my vision. straining to reach further into the emptiness spread out in front of me.

  As expected, it wasn’t empty at all. It was a reflection of my character screen, with tendrils flying off into the broader game world. Here, everything that made Oogliefrank the ogre up was laid out in complex codes. Strings of code which defined my tactile interaction with the world, my stats, the items I carried, and more. If I was correct, the code I was seeing tried to quantify my mind, consciousness, or even soul, if you wanted to call it that.

  That flew in the face of everything that I had always believed when I was alive. Of course, I was still ‘alive’, just in a different way. Yet, there was no way a human soul could be quantified by simple 1’s and 0’s. Or was there? If AI was beyond anything our ancestors could have considered, was it really so hard to believe that there was something beyond humans, something which was able to quantify us?

  Even though everything that was happening now was only taking fractions of a second, I still didn’t think I had time for an existential crisis now. There were monsters to kill. K.I.S.S. right? That was a good motto to live by. But if I did that, was I consenting to be the Guinea pig. running in his wheel. thinking that he was actually going somewhere?

  No, I had to reach out further. I might not be able to understand all the world around me yet, but didn’t some old philosopher say, ‘know thyself.’ Modern society was filled with too much rush to worry about introspection. But here I was. My mind was me, for all intents and purposes. If I wanted to excel here, I needed to level up that part of me, not just my game stats.

  My mind raced as I examined the code in front of me. It was like waking up during heart surgery and looking down into your own open chest. I got fleeting glimpses of what it meant, but I was terrified that if I touched anything I would change myself. Maybe I’d end up hating the taste of bacon. If such a thing were even possible. But seriously, I might change my body, my personality.

  Then a light bulb went off. I might be able to change my race. Oh… I didn’t have a hand in this place, but if I had it would have been itching. If I could just turn myself into a human, then most of my problems with Legends of Selmia would be gone. Oh, my physical body would still be dead, but I wouldn’t be a butt-scratching ogre begging for scraps from the players. I might even be able to alter it so that I could reveal myself to players.

  My mind replayed the third directive I had been given when I was told I was now a hybrid intelligence.

  All Hybrid Intelligences are prohibited from accessing their base bio-digital coding. Quantum Games and the controlling AI shall have sole discretion for modifications, including personality, processing power, and avatar construction, subject to the limitations of United Nations Decree Omega 616.

  That alone should have told me this was possible. There was no reason to forbid your goldfish from flying when it wasn’t possible. Changing physical stats, maybe my size, race, things like that didn’t seem to be a problem. Maybe I could even augment his own gear. Those would all be great things, but what if I accidentally affected some of the code that was an expression of my mind.

  The directive had described it as bio-digital coding. That sounded fairly vital, but I did like the idea of thumbing my nose at Quantum Games and the AI. There was no way I was going to agree that either of those things could control anything as fundamental as who I was. Every time I was affected by Ogre Rage or Ogre Hunger, it was all I could do not to scream. So, if I could take back a bit of control, this only seemed appropriate.

  The real question now was what should I change. Again, I wanted to keep it simple at first. Too much risk with the big stuff. So, I first looked at what I could do with my gear. The best bet was to take an item I didn’t care about much. The new cloak seemed like a perfect practice target.

  I reached out and tried to sort it away from all the rest of the code I saw. The problem was how the code was organized: I couldn’t discern any type of organization. It was at least three-dimensional in how it was built on top of one another.

  I finally found the piece I wanted, but as I tugged on it, my mental hands as I was thinking of the effort, I used to manipulate the code, hit another piece. I saw it spin and shift subtly. I stopped immediately and held my proverbial breath, waiting to see if I exploded or something. The line of code was tied to my ogre personality, but I couldn’t discern exactly what it was. Something to do with habits and desires. But since nothing bad happened immediately, I began to work on the target code.

  I shifted it around, trying to increase the shadow power. The more I stared at it, the more I thought I understood how it worked; but then again, I might only be deceiving myself. If it worked, I would become incredibly stealthy or hard to detect. I couldn’t help but ask myself, “Have you never heard the legend of the ogre child who would become a ninja like no other?” Sometimes I crack myself up. Of course, living around ogres, talking to myself had become a method of sanity preservation.

  The code for the cloak began to morph before me. It was really very simple. compared to most of the other things inside the loading matrix. There, I found what I was looking for. I was operating by feel, more than anything, but I was almost certain that I had found the portion of code which quantified the extent of shadow power the cloak utilized.

  It was set at three, so I simply began moving it up. When it hit ten, I could tell that the code was maxing out as the rest of it felt like it was unravelling. But why stop there. What was the worst that could happen? Even if I destroyed the cloak, it wouldn’t matter much. So, I pushed it up to eleven. The entire fabric of the code shifted and became something new.

  Cloak of Absolute Shadow Quality: Legendary

  Wt: 0

  The wearer of this cloak becomes one with shadow. Base stealth is increased by ???%. All attacks add 10-30 shadow damage to base attack. The wearer is immune to all shadow and necrotic effects. The wearer may freely travel from one shadow to another. Agility +40, Mana +500. Wearer’s mass remains the same, but they may now move as though they were but a shadow.

  3x/day the wearer may create a shadow effect with 75% reality. The effect may mirror any spell the users knows of or any creature they are aware of. Imagination is the key. Duration: ????