I went ten months without killing any gnome. Hooray for them. Praise the merciful Matriarch. Ugh. But one good thing happened in these ten months. We got confirmation of my theories about jizz poisoning. Each clan got between ten and twenty new baby girls, healthy as little peaches. I split my time between the nurseries, the small clinic we set up, and my very, very mundane workshop. No leisure time for this lilâ gnome lass here. I had to train all these Proficiencies to burn the Fast-Growth points the System gave me for losing [Spellcaster].
My own adopted baby girl was starting to walk and talk. I named her âGrennianaâ. Was she Lorna? I had no idea. Was she worth the emotional investment? Absolutely. I also needed a name that didnât sound stupid. But gnomes had a really awful prejudice with short names. I originally wanted to name her âLindaâ but Nanny told me a two-syllable name was something the stupid kobolds would do. It was a no-no. So I kicked the can and named myself Tynnarturner. Two gnomes enter one gnome leaves. I only needed to build the metal dome and we would be set when some Aussie bloke visited us with an eight-horse carriage.
I was resting for fifteen minutes and playing with the baby girl when she got big questions.
âAunt Entity?â Grenniana approached. âWhy does nobody come to visit me?â
My rampage had profound ramifications in the gnome society. On top of the evident reforms. One, I killed a lot of gnomes even if most fled. Two, with almost a hundred new baby girls, the number of visitors per woman to each girl in the nursery and the mothers diminished. Which was a good thing, because it gave the mothers a respite to actually nurse their frigginâ children without killing them with dick-poison, for crying out loud.
But as anyone who has a business knows, competition is bad for the business owner. Good for the community overall but terrible when the market was about to become an oligopoly. Just like the big companies facing the climate change debacle back on Earth, most mothers didnât care girls werenât being born alive and the scavenger gnome species was doomed to extinction from fucking too much. They were getting a lot of ching-ching and living the gangsta life.
But differently from Earth, this was an anarcho-capitalist cavemen settlement. They didnât have the strength to challenge me and the gnomes could take their junk anywhere they wanted to peddle a cozy pair of thighs for their other junk. The mothers who birthed girls were happy because they would get the gifts their daughters would receive in the future now that the clans werenât taking the girls from their mothers. Those that spoke for their oligopoly were frowned upon and learned to shut the fuck up and step their game.
If they didnât start birthing some girls themselves, theyâd be left in the dust by the mothers that did. The fact the gnomes didnât understand economics didnât mean they were not subject to its forces.
Back to Grennianaâs question. I didnât let her get visitors. I wanted to get her out of the antimagic zone like Crossbow said, and see if I could use {Fairy Godmother} to bless her. Scavenger gnomes had a hidden allergy to ambient mana. It didnât matter in this desert here because there was no ambient mana here, but once we were out in the open world, it would slowly kill us. The System didnât recognize it as a Trait (capital T) because it was a body function without many game-like implications. It wasnât "damage" like from an attack but probably it affected your HP as the system reflected your condition with numbers. I was sure I could come up with a trait to keep at least Grenniana from suffering from it. I also suspected going outside would awaken Pandora, and then Iâd have some Divinity to play with. A deityâs system privileges were higher than an elevated user like me.
I didnât want her to set roots here but I might need to change my viewpoint. I couldnât impose on her and force her to do my bidding. She was her own gnome.
âDo you want visitors?â
She nodded, âThe other girls seem so happy when they get gifts. I want gifts too!â
âI give you gifts, are those no good?â
âI want more! The other day, Relys Nirnureson gained a big round rusted thing! It was way bigger than the ones you have, aunty!â She stretched her arms way wide. It was probably a shield.
Scavenger gnomes developed ridiculously fast. I might need to start looking into ways to grow food in here because in a decade this place would see a population boom when the girls born today started to give birth to their own.
Or just throw a lot of gnomes out to fight the kobolds and die. It worked for several centuries but there was a huge problem. Even back on Earth, all a population needed to bounce back after a war in one or two generations was to keep the females alive. Whatever few males were left could fertilize them and we got a baby boom. If only the males went out to fight like now, it would crash the sugar daddy market and cause an explosion of idle females. We would have an unemployment crisis and recession. And I had no idea how to do quantitative easing with pussies.
âIâll talk to Nanny, and heâll organize a visitor schedule for you. Iâll also go around and tell the gnomes you should get the best gifts.â
Grenniana jumped and squealed. She went back to play with her dolls, telling them they too would get visitors. A nursery girl had overheard me and stared at me horrified. She knew I had political clout but all I had to tell her was to âgit gud scrubâ. This was an anarcho-capitalist society and lobbying was just another facet of life. Nevertheless, I approached her.
âJust so you know, if anything happens to the little toddler, Iâll be very, very angry,â I whispered. She squeaked. âSo, do me a favor, and keep an eye on her. Let me know if anyone is thinking of doing something to her, and Iâll reward you.â
âEarrings,â she mumbled. âI want fancy earrings made of the yellow metal.â
âYou got it. A guy from the Tinkers will bring the earrings for you. Be good to her and everyone wins.â
Bribes and coercion too were part of life. It was every gnome for themselves. We didnât need another [Hero].
----------------------------------------
Nanny agreed to manage Grennianaâs visitor list and I went to inspect the tunnels leading up to the surface. Youâd think ten months were enough to break through but nope. The staircase going up seemed endless. Worse yet, it was getting clogged with soot. As the hot air going up cooled, the soot deposited on the steps, making the journey treacherous. Lighting was also a problem and the air up there was becoming stale because the torches would burn up all the available oxygen. I didnât need to worry about light sources as I could use {Titan Skin} to sense around me. More oxygen to me. To finish it once and for all, the gnomes were suffering from the infamous âShlemiel the Painterâ dilemma. As they dug further and further up, more of their time was spent carrying debris, loose rocks, and cleaning soot.
After two crews died, they stopped digging claiming it was impossible. It was now up to me to finish the job. I measured the height with my mental map of the tunnels. I was four hundred meters above ground level. How long to break the surface? No idea. My dwarven senses told me a couple hundred meters up and to the side, but I wasnât so sure. It felt like I was digging up a mountain. And I had ditched the {Stone Burrowing} Perk to power the Fate spell between Lorna and me. At the time, my reasoning was that I could do it so easily with magic!
But I was a proficient [Miner]. Digging is what we did. I started singing because it gave me a synergy and also motivated me. On the way, I regretted some choices.
Iâd just ditched {Breathe Rocks} too. I had to take care of the ventilation too, even though I could function with only 4% of the oxygen concentration a normal person needed. And I could hold my breath for 76 minutes after I ran out of ambient oxygen, courtesy of a mermaid Perk. I started digging with a vengeance, not bothering to move the debris falling behind me. The debris would take up more volume than the rock I dug because they wouldnât fit perfectly, so the tunnel would eventually become entirely filled with debris. They would tumble down the stairs until they settled and clogged the tunnel but I didnât care. I would break the surface before I got trapped for good or die in the process.
Either outcome was fine to me.
I knew I was close to breaking surface when I felt the symptoms of mana poisoning and got a System message.
> Adjusting your Status for your current zone. Your species is Tiny. All damage divided by 4. Your HP pool is divided by 4. These restrictions will be lifted in your previous zone.
I didn't even bother to ponder on why the System wouldn't apply size modifiers inside the dead magic zone. I cringed in pain as the damage hit hard and only because of my high pain resistance it was bearable. I might be immune to poisons but this was different. The mana was damaging my tissues, way faster than I could regenerate, and that was with the 99% resistance from {Anti-Magical}. Without it, Iâd have burned out as if I was in my own {Manastorm} at full strength. And the base damage was a percentage of my maximum HP, so Iâd have no luck on that front. Unless I got better regeneration, which was impossible, I was screwed.
I tried calling Nenandil or Pandora but I got no response. Aside from the damage accumulating fast, it was the same as down the cave. I swung the pick until I broke the surface. I kept breaking until I made a gnome-sized hole. A gust of stale air and dust was sucked out of the hole by the low pressure caused by the howling mountain winds.
Gritting my teeth as my whole body slowly simmered in mana, I sucked in the clear air and checked my HP. I had about half an hour before I died of mana exposure.
Stupid gnomes.
----------------------------------------
Before I could do anything outside, like climb further up the mountain and check where I was, I had to gamble with the human Perk shop. I opened the interface and issued my request.
âGive me something to resist mana poisoning.â
> You purchased the Perk, Arcane Magic Resistance I (ultra-rare): Reduce all arcane-based damage suffered and the duration of arcane-related debuffs by 50%.
Not what I wanted. But I got an Ultra-Rare Perk, so I had that going for me. It did slow down the damage. I had eleven species Perks to burn.
âGive me something to allow me to use item box without magic.â
> Request failed. No such thing exists.
Thanks, System. âI want to remove the Perk, {Anti-Magical}.â
> Request failed. It is just a description of your biological makeup.
âI want to change my biological makeup to accept magic.â
> Perk acquisition failed. Finding alternatives. You Purchased the Perk, Environmental Adaptation (very rare): For every hour spent in a hostile environment, you gain an additive and cumulative 4% resistance to the environmentâs ongoing effects. This resistance caps at 80% after 20 hours. Spending 1 hour outside the environment resets the benefit.
âI want to change my biological makeup to accept magic.â
> Perk acquisition failed. Finding alternatives. You Purchased the Perk, Persistent Environmental Adaptation (add-on): Upon return to a hostile environment, you fully adapted to previously, you acquire resistance every 10 minutes instead of every hour.
âI want to change my biological makeup to accept magic.â
> Perk acquisition failed. Finding alternatives. You Purchased the Perk, Enduring Environmental Adaptation (add-on): The time necessary to reset the acquired resistance is 7 days. You can reset it earlier by willing to discard the resistance buff.
Eight Perks left. Maybe if I change the request. âI want to change my biological makeup to enable the use of magic by me.â
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
> Perk acquisition failed. Finding alternatives. You Purchased the Perk, Quickened Environmental Adaptation (add-on): Halve the time interval to acquire environmental resistance.
Damn it. âI want to change my biological makeup to enable the use of magic by me.â
> Perk acquisition failed. Finding alternatives. You Purchased the Perk, Strengthened Environmental Adaptation (add-on): You acquire environmental resistance in increments of 6%, up to a maximum of 90% after fifteen intervals.
Iâd burned through half my Species Perks. Zero Luck sucked. âI want to change my biological makeup to enable the use of magic by me.â
> Perk acquisition failed. Finding alternatives. None found. Re-rolling. Perk acquisition failed. Finding alternatives. None found. Re-rolling. Perk acquisition failed. Finding alternatives. Aborting.
The Perk chain had ended and the System would not give me what I needed. Previously, it wouldâve given me a voucher for the rarity I asked for, but Wyxnos patched it. Damn him. I kept bashing my head against the System, getting another three stacks of {Arcane Magic Resistance} and stabilizing the damage with my HP recovery. Finally, something came up.
----------------------------------------
[Administrator Hotline]
CALL START
Wyxnos: What are you doing? Why are you spamming the System with Perk requests?
Tynnarturner: All we want is life beyondâ¦
Wyxnos: Seriously?
Tynnarturner: The GnomeDome! All the childrenâ¦
Wyxnos: Please stop. Wait, did you say gnome?
Tynnarturner: Yeah, a pretty rad bunch of fanatical worshippers you got here. I loved the savage cavemen's post-apocalyptical fantasy steampunk gothic cavemen anarcho-capitalist setting. Too bad I slaughtered half of them and the rest is slated for extinction anyway because they mutated beyond belief.
Tynnarturner: You think youâre so cool having an entire Proficiency Ability list praising yourself. Why did you abandon your people, Wyxnos?!?
Tynnarturner: Say, can you give me the Perk I need? The alternatives are all dead, I can just keep requesting it until the System gives it to me anyway. I donât know why you mind the spam. Itâs because itâs me, isnât it? You hate me, donât you, Wyxnos! What uncaring god of Gnomes the one who wouldnât listen to a plea from one of his daughters! Oh, woe is me! Iâll climb down the mountain and deliver the news. I talked to the mighty Wyxnos and he didnât deliver us from our plight. Our people dying, our babies poisoned by our own mutations!
Tynnarturner: So what do we do with our lives? We leave only a mark! Will our story shine like a light, or end in the dark? Is it all or nothing?
Tynnarturner: We donât need another [Hero]! (You got me, baby)
Tynnarturner: All we want is a Perk pick! If thereâs a single choice in the list, make it 100%.
Tuisto: What you wish for is impossible. Your current species shouldnât even exist in this world. As the system notified you, {Anti-Magical} is part of your biology. A very preoccupying one.
Wyxnos: I could swear the Scavenger Gnomes were extinct. They shouldnât have survived in theâ¦
Tynnarturner: Please, tell me where am I. What is it exactly that you set up here, Wyxnos? Junk and refuse appearing out of nowhere, devouring sands, antimagic gnomes that still retain System access. Please do tell me what I should NOT break. And why I should refrain from breaking whatever this here is.
Loki: Iâd like to hear the answer to that too.
Tynnarturner: Wyxnos?
Loki: Don't count on him answering you. I wouldn't.
Tynnarturner: Damn Right, Mr. L. Tuisto, is it possible to adapt our species to work with magic?â
Tuisto: It would take a few generations but yes. They would need to adapt to the presence of mana.
Tynnarturner: Wyxnos?
Tuisto: Wyxnos is currently unavailable. Iâm sorry we canât help you. I suggest obtaining the fifth and final rank of arcane resistance. This should allow you to live outside the dead magic zone. Would you like them?
Tynnarturner: Yes, why not. Hit me up, old man.
Tuisto: Itâs done, you bought them using one of your species Perks. If you donât have anything else, weâre ending the call.
Tynnarturner: Okay, stay safe. And Wyxnos, you owe me an explanation.
CALL ENDED.
----------------------------------------
The fifth rank of a magical school resistance gave ninety-seven percent resistance. Nothing new there, but this added resistance tipped the damage below my rather slow HP regeneration. Now I only felt like I had a mild sunburn. I still had five species of Perks and ten Class Perks to pick from. Now that I could endure that, I should stay up here for a few days, to build up that {Adaptive Resistance} so I could re-adapt faster later on.
I half-expected the BroodWhore to descend right now and take advantage that I was a useless mortal now. Seriously, all she had to do to kill me was to hover above me and breathe fire. It would probably take ages to kill me but I could do jack shit against that. Or she could just stomp on me with her fat claw and Iâd be a smudge.
Yet she didnât. From Wyxnosâ reaction, the Gods didnât like the antimagic zone or the anti-magical gnomes.
The species list had several Perks related to surviving in filth and to lower water and food requirements, things I think most gnomes picked. It made sense as to how they survived. I could skip all these basic Perks and go for the juicy stuff. They even had a lesser version of {Eat Magic}. I found some of the Perks I lost to the Fate spell.
* Sand Sense (uncommon): You can sense the direction and distance of creatures and objects obscured by dust, silt, or sand in your line of sight.
* Sand Cover (uncommon): You gain a 25% bonus to stealth if obscured by dust, silt, or sand. Sand Sense doesnât work on you. Requires Sand Sense.
* Sand Eyes (rare): Dust, silt, or sand and silt at normal speeds (but not magical attacks using that) cannot blind you or harm your skin. Your vision is still impaired. Requires Sand Cover.
* Sand Sight (rare): Dust, silt, or sand suspended in fluids does not impair your vision. Requires Sand Sight.
* Breathe Rocks (very rare): You don't need to breathe if there is a mass of rock heavier than your own weight within 1 meter of you.
> {Sand Eyes}, {Sand Sight}, and {Sand Cover} merged into {Titan Skin}.
>
> * Titan Skin (combined): Absolute Damage Reduction 90%. Your integument is always impeccable and can be colored at will. Add 40% to stealth if half or more of your skin is exposed. Damaged integument regrows in the time needed to regenerate 2% of your maximum HP. Add a tenth of your maximum HP to your maximum Energy. Reduce bleeding damage by 90%. You can sense with your skin, granting lightless "vision" 20 meters all around you. You are immune to integument afflictions including damage from fine particulate at normal speeds.
>
> Verifying other Perk combinations⦠done.
>
> * Berserker Rage (combined): During your rage, you gain: +14 to Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Willpower, Magic, Soul, Luck, +50% movement rate, 100% damage to magical barriers or shields. The rage lasts [4*SQRT(Endurance)] minutes, [4*SQRT(Strength)] times per day. Each spell that hits you, or critical hits you deal and/or receive adds a minute to the rage timer. Attempts at mind control fail and burn 5 minutes of rage time unless you are out of time.
I lost the protection against {Sand Sense} but my ordinary stealth was already enough to hide from any low-level observer even in plain sight. But the âsightâ granted by {Titan Skin} doubled and the word ârudimentaryâ dropped. I could see everything in a sphere around me regardless of shadows. Superimposed with my normal sight, I could see more details than before. It was like having a third eye to create depth perception. I should rename myself, Matt Murdock.
Now, the Class feats.
* Tinkerâs Weapons (rare): When you operate an emplacement weapon you created with [Gnomish Machinist], you can either use half your Proficiency as the weapon or add 10% to the actual Weapon Proficiency. You ranked up. All unallocated Exp is divided by 100.
>
> Your species ranked up into Explorer Scavenger Gnome (ultra-rare). Your progression is:
>
> 1 Attribute point at every level.
>
> +1 Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance at every level.
>
> +1 Mind, Willpower every even level.
>
> 21 HP per level.
>
> 1 Perk every even level.
> You ranked up into a Junior Gnomish Engineer (5-fused, Unique, 1st rank). Your progression is:
>
> 1 Bonus Attribute Point per level.
>
> 1 Endurance, Strength per level.
>
> 1 Willpower, Charisma every odd level.
>
> 1 Dexterity, Mind every even level.
>
> 1 Perk every even level.
>
> 22 HP per level.
> You reached Explorer Scavenger Gnome level 12
>
> You gained 12 Attribute points.
>
> You gained 12 Strength, 12 Dexterity, 12 Endurance, 6 Mind, 6 Willpower
>
> You gained 7 rank 1 species Perks.
>
> Ultimate Surpasser granted you 21 Attribute Points
>
> You reached Junior Gnomish Engineer level 12
>
> You gained 12 Attribute points.
>
> You gained 12 Strength, 6 Dexterity, 12 Endurance, 6 Mind, 6 Willpower, 6 Charisma
>
> You gained 6 rank 1 Class Perks.
>
> Ultimate Surpasser granted you 21 Attribute Points
> Level 64
>
> Strength: 64+23 (87) - Dexterity*: 64+37 (101) - Endurance: 64+24 (88)
>
> Mind: 56+36 (92) / 64 - Willpower: 56+43 (99) / 64 - Charisma: 50+34 (84) / 64
>
> HP 202.654 (487 HP/min)
>
> Energy 285.709 (335 E/min)
* Explorerâs Sight (rare): You can see detail at distances greater than 500 meters as if it was ten times closer.
* Threat Sense (uncommon): You can detect threats as if they are twice as closer.
* Landstrider (rare): You learn the Mobility proficiency 20% faster.
* Sand Feet (rare): Moving on fine solid particulate does not make you sink or leave prints.
* Sandstrider: You do not suffer movement rate penalties moving on fine solid particulate.
* Stone Burrowing (rare): You can move through stone at a tenth of your speed, leaving a stable tunnel behind if you so wish. You tunnel twice as fast in dirt.
* Green Thumb (rare): Plants under your care have double growth and yield rates. They are twice as resistant against damage, disease, and parasites.
I had to re-purchase a few Perks I threw away. Gonna need those.
* Siege Engineer II (very rare): Emplacement weapons you built, oversee, or operate gain a 20% accuracy bonus.
* Assembly Line Supervisor (rare): You can coordinate and manage the work of up to twelve low-skilled helpers. Their Proficiencies gain a bonus equal to 20% of your own, up to half your score. The whole team must work on the same project. Helpers learn the Proficiency with a 25% bonus if you are willing to teach them.
* Mechanism Crafting (very rare): You add 20% of your Willpower to your Proficiency when designing or crafting intricate mechanisms.
* Clockwork Crafting (ultra-rare): You can design and build miniaturized machinery, making them two sizes smaller.
* Specialized Tools II (very rare): You can design special tools for specific tasks. These tools grant a +10 Proficiency bonus to anyone using it for the specific task and a 10% extra bonus to you.
I browsed the Perk list and stumbled upon something I couldnât believe. It was too good to pass.
* Journeymanâs Trial (very rare): You can dedicate a long time and effort to craft a contraption, vehicle, or mechanized stationary feature that encompasses your full skills at this stage. If you finish your project, you gain a 10x Exp multiplier from crafting until you reach the Second Rank.
Crafting Exp was crap, but if you gather enough crap, you make a compost heap and you might fertilize a farm. It was all part of the preparations for the long game. The bonus was good only until I reached level 80 but it lowered one of the five major hurdles. I knew instinctively after I bought the Perk that I couldnât cheese the System. My own conscience (And the âBig Brotherâ System monitoring it) was the judge of the trial.
Armed with new information and a bag of fertile dirt, I returned to the gnome caves. It was time to build a vehicle and Mad Max this place.