Chapter 492 - Far Future Ch. 202 – Tell Me About Myself (1/2)
-Mom!-
-Morning, squirt. What you bugging the ExLite at the top of the stack with today?-
-You are so full of yourself. Duh, I made Ten.- As if /messaging me direct in Markspace wasn't proof that she at least was past the Resonance stage.
-Cool! Sorry, I am currently up to my armpits in oozes, and the shoggoths don't like me very much at the moment. Can you Riftcut yet?- Said as colony organisms in assorted colors squirmed, writhed, died, and melted all around me.
Grumblegrumblegrumble. -I just made Rantha/10, you think I had time to spare to put that much time into Meter's higher powers?- I could /hear her rolling her eyes across the galaxy.
-No, actually, but two uses a day is the requirement for using Gloom. You are going to be needing to be using that all that time, so you need to work on it, pronto tonto, Ronnie.-
She caught my tone, and grumbled some more. -This huge monster quest you have me working towards is a total pain in the ass, Mom. Can't you tell me more about it?-
-Nope, I wanted you focused first on making Ten and getting to the atomic cockroach stage. Your long-term Talent is all R&D tech-based, so we have to keep you from getting distracted. I know you want to go swimming into all the tech out there, but it's not time yet.- Pseudopods coming from all directions, flaming into goo and ash and vapor...
Grumblegrumble! -So, okay, I have to get Meter stacked up. He's perfectly cool with that. What all while that's going on?-
-Now that you're a Ten, you need to focus on advancing your Expert Levels up, breaking Ten.-
-Expert?- She mentally /goggled at me. -You want me to prioritize Expert over Melee?-
-My darling, I'm hoping you can burn Expert all the way to Seventeen, and pass me along the way.-
She paused on hearing that. Expert was an NPC Class, and so took half the Karma to improve that a PC Class did. It was definitely not a combat Class. Doing something like that would make her among the least competent in combat of all the Ranthas, especially those that were getting post-Ten.
-Okay, you want to exploit my Talent, Born Researcher, to open up tech trees as fast as possible.- It was a reasonable deduction, as the +4 to Knowledge Skills for researching technology doubled at Ten to +8, which trumped my broad +5 bonus.
-Half right. Also, you are now authorized to begin your Curseline. They'll all have the same Talent you do, so they are going to form the new hard core of our R&D division. They have the same Overquest you do... make damn sure they get to Six, and get to Ten Rantha for the Stats, and Ten Expert, driving Expert as hard and fast as they can.-
Her nose was wrinkling. -Okay, you want us to have the Ranks to know the tech and take over all the design work. I get that. Why can't I do a dive into my prior incarnation?-
-When I tell you, you're going to swear at me for a couple minutes. Then you're going to go think about things for a while, come back, swear at me more, and tell me I should not have allowed you to do the souldive at all. To be perfectly frank... perfectly, utterly frank... you shouldn't do the souldive until you're a Fifteen.-
We couldn't lie to one another. When I said I was serious, I was, and since we all had the same foundation, her judgement on the issue would pretty much be the same as mine.
-Mom, that's sounds goddamn ominous. Do I really want to know who I was?-
-I think it's a case of pressure. We have this damn superquest to tear down the Warp Gods, and you've got probably the second biggest side quest underneath it, fluttering off in weird directions.-
-Second biggest?- Stratospheric Wisdom and Intellect scores digested that. -Daaaaaamn, Mom.- She hesitated. -So, should I wait for Seventeen?-
-That would be ideal,- I /confirmed. I could hear her take a deep breath.
-That's gonna take a damn long time, Mom.-
-HAH! For the smartest woman in the galaxy? I don't think so. You'll beat me to Fifteen, and once you're the one cracking the tech instead of just refining what I've done, your Karma is going to juice like nitro to the brain. Five years to Seventeen, tops.-
-Mithar.- Blinkblink. -That'll make me one of the highest Level people in the whole damn Galaxy, won't it?-
-Yep. And as an NPC, you'll just keep slipping under the eyes of those who style themselves movers and shakers...-
She /laughed despite herself. There was no way a Rantha could not be noticed, with our insane Charisma. -Okay, I'll get things set up, and start feeding Meter down that path. When I can Riftcut twice, I'll meet up with you in person, and you can tell me what this is all about.-
-Confirmed!- I /agreed readily, and our conversation was done.