Infinitium

(Day 185) Aprilis 29th, 12th year of the Dragon, Age of Enlightenment

Over the last five days, he’d walked along the road helping people when he could, said “Hello” to the patrols from Venoran, and tried to blend in with the common folk. The Ocean was east of the road and while he wasn’t walking through the forest he walked along a tree line that was no more than a half-mile away from the ocean in most places. Another nice thing about walking this main road was that he hadn’t seen any bandits or monsters. At the end of each day, he’d portal back to the Tower to spend time with Adaline.

The second night he returned to the tower he’d asked, “Adaline, do you have an issue with him upgrading the tower to the 20th Century?”

“What does that mean exactly?” she’d asked.

“Well, that means that I can incorporate some of the technology from my planet into the tower. Stereo systems, intercoms, and television. he will of course leave your room alone and your lair in the vault, but the rest of the tower is going to get an upgrade, what do you say?”

“You had him at Stereo System,” she said with a smile.

While they continued eating he had the nanites flood the entire vault and tower, except for her room and her lair. Then they went to work. Within minutes the inside of the tower looked like a cross between a high-tech hotel and a techno geek’s wet dream. He’d even converted the training room into a dual virtual reality room that they could both game in once he convinced her to try the games. This upgrade included constant portal access to the intergalactic web he was creating back home as well as access to all television channels on Earth. he would still get his news updates from his Thor aspect, but he wanted Adaline to be exposed to the level of technology he was normally used to. Once they were done eating he invited Amanda and Abi to join them to take a tour of their new home and their lifeboat should the shit hit the fan, which was a possibility.

They came over and he’d given them the tour. He’d also deactivate the traps on the second library. He didn’t need someone accidentally getting destroyed as they walked through the doorway. They all sat down in the main room opposite the dining area and watched “The Matrix” on the 100” screen monitor on the wall. With nanites available, they had popcorn, drinks, and the most comfortable chairs that he could think of. He also figured this would be the perfect place for Adaline to be brought up to speed on his universe, technology, and pop culture while he was taking care of the Kingdom of Crimson Blood. While they watched the movie Adam also kept track of the progress his nanites were making as they spread throughout his place of power. They discovered a cave system in the cliffs the tower sat upon as well as some creatures that had come through when the Tower was moved to wherever they were now. Luckily no monsters were found. Adam made sure the rodents were taken over by the nanites then had them all run back to a portal and released them into the foothills below where the tower had once been. He didn’t need rodents or insects in here yet. This was all being handled while the Matrix continued.

As well as taking care of the unwelcome guests he brought with him he noticed that when he’d flooded the tower his nanites would have the ability to exit the barrier surrounding his place of power and then add to it. he tested this slowly by creating a pocket of nanites and then converting the interior to air right up against the outside of the barrier. The barrier adjusted and moved outside of his nanite bubble so that all the nanites and the air were back inside the bubble again. He tried this all over the bubble. The barrier acted like a balloon and expanded. Adam had the nanites work slowly while the radius of his Place of Power increased by a full inch. As the bubble was expanded he added the mountain range back into the area as well as water. As he changed the mass, gravity did not seem to be affected. He set the nanites to continue to try to expand the bubble and add structure to the inside of the Place of Power using his memories as a template. The nanites were to stop if they detected any change in the barrier other than expansion. He didn’t want it to pop. Adam easily had 70 miles in one direction he could expand and a simple…then he had a thought.

Adam created a portal on Primore where his tower used to be from one of his sensor satellite rooms then adjusted its coordinates, so it skyrocketed upward. Once it was about three miles up, he rotated the portal, so it was looking at the ground. Then he put his satellite to work. He created a topographical map of the entire area around his tower out to 100 miles and loaded it into his primary memory, and then had the nanites start creating a mirror image of the surface in his Place of Power as the area slowly expanded the diameter of his Place of Power. Once that was well underway, he set his Thor Aspect to set up a viable ecology for an enclosed area that size. He knew it was sustained by magic, but he wanted it to be self-sustaining just in case. His Thor aspect started creating identical copies of the Place of Power for testing.

Adam left his Thor aspect to deal with the details and turned his attention back to “The Matrix.” The movie ended and Amanda and Abi went back to headquarters on Earth. Once they were gone Adaline and he made their way upstairs for a nightcap, some fun, and a good night’s sleep. He’d feign rest until she fell asleep then meditate and be ready to go in just about three hours. He’d portal back to where he’d stopped walking the night before and prepared for the next day’s encounters. Today as he rose and portaled back to continue his walk, Adaline was still sleeping when he crossed Venoran’s front line of defense and started walking the mile to the Kingdom of Crimson Blood’s checkpoint.

As he walked towards the checkpoint he noticed archers on the walls, a mage, and four guards checking papers. Additionally, there was a building that looked like a barracks. His nanites detected another ten guards inside the building but part of the building went beyond his 500-foot range so there could be more. Two of the guards moved forward and flanked him as another took up position behind him. The guard in front of him looked at a paper and then spoke.

“By decree of the Council, former King Adamantadine, you are charged with Murder and Sedition against the Kingdom of Crimson Blood. You are not to be tried or captured. May your God have mercy on your soul for none here shall!” he said as all four drew weapons and took a step back.

As the guard had been talking to try to keep his attention the mage on the wall was trying to cast a spell unobtrusively. As he finished his spell and the guard finished his degree Adam said, “I really wouldn’t do that if he were you.”

The mage finished his spell and watched him expectantly. Adam felt the spell try to affect him when his ability “Return to Sender” activated. At level 100 there was a 100% chance that any spell that specifically targeted him would return to the caster if his skill level in whatever magic sphere they were casting in was higher. As he had skill level 500 in all primary magic schools it was unlikely that he was lower level than a mage serving the military on the front lines. He was right. He also recognized the spell. The mage had cast “Disintegrate” at him. As the spell reflected he said, “Told ya!” while he simultaneously had his nanites infiltrate and remove all clothing and weapons from the soldiers and archers near him.

The Mage was there one second, gone the next. The clothes he’d been wearing and his items fell to the top of the tower. That disintegrate spell had been nasty. His nanites could find no trace of the mage, none. The guards tried to react instantly only to find themselves naked and weaponless. The Archers also had the same problem as their bows, arrows, and equipment also disappeared. An Archer reached for a bell and rang it before Adam could destroy it. He’d noticed it of course but figured they wouldn’t use it. Good to know he wasn’t always right.

As the bell rang more guards poured out of the barracks and rushed toward him. He commanded the nude soldiers and archers not to move. His nanites also infiltrated everyone coming out of the barracks and froze them as they also removed all their equipment, armor, and weapons, leaving them nude as well. he didn’t bother to check his prompts; these soldiers were no threat to him. The last man to leave the Barracks was dressed in Magical Golden Plate mail and carried a magical Greatsword. he looked around quickly at all of his motionless naked men and women and looked like he was about to charge when he froze in place too. As Adam looked him over he noticed that the soldier had four magical items. Finally, something magical he could conduct tests on.

Adam walked up to the last man out and noted that he was a Captain. Adam hadn’t let his nanites strip him yet. The captain looked at him with hate in his eyes as Adam spoke, “It would seem my dear Captain that you were misinformed about how to deal with me. Either someone wants you dead or truly does not know what they’re up against. Either way, I have a question for you. Is any of the magical equipment on you a personal heirloom or an item that has been handed down to you by your family?”

Confused by this turn of events the Captain answered “No, release me now so that…”

Adam had the nanites cut off the captain’s ability to talk and then had his nanites take control of the captain so that he could strip off the magical items and place them at his feet. Once all of his magical items were off the nanites removed the rest of his clothing and equipment. The captain was just as nude as his fellow soldiers. “You all just hang here for a moment, I need to test something,” Adam said as he picked up the magical items and walked 50 feet away. Adam placed each of the magic items on the ground separated by about a foot on each side from one another. As he set each item down he used Identify on it.

Identify: Success! You have found a +10 Greatsword of Battle. Anyone that strikes with this sword receives 1/10th damage done back as health and stamina allowing them to stay in a battle longer before needing to rest or heal.

Identify: Success! You have found Chestplate of Defense +10. Reduces all damage done to the chest by 10 and increases Armored Defense by 10.

Identify: Success! You have found Braces or Prowess +5. These bracers increase Strength and Dexterity by 5.

Identify: Success! You have found Boots of Armor Negation. These boots reduce penalties due to Armor worn by 50%

Four Items were more than enough to test. Adam stepped back to the group of naked soldiers and moved all of them back to at least 200 feet away from the items before he started. The first thing he had his nanites do was attempt to infiltrate each item. This time his nanites had no issues entering magical items. Once inside the analysis began. Adam downloaded the information noting the differences between items made with magic and those that weren’t. He added the information to a database he was compiling. His goal would be for the nanites to eventually be able to identify the type of magic the items they infiltrated contained.

Next, he had the nanites break down the sword first. Adam half expected the sword to explode but nothing happened. He did this for each of the other three items. Some energy was released but it was quickly absorbed by the surroundings. It seemed that permanent magical items were not that dangerous if his nanites were taking them apart. He had a thought and moved to where the mage’s equipment had dropped. Adam picked up everything and found what he was looking for, a wand. He used Identity.

Identify: Success! You have found a wand of Mage Bolt, 25 of 30 charges. This want fires eight bolts, one from each school of magic that do 1-4 points of damage each. The wand recharges itself at a rate of 1 charge per day.

Everything else the mage dropped went into his storage space as Adam walked over and placed the wand where the other magical items had been broken down and placed it there. Adam walked back over to the group of soldiers and had them back up another 200 feet and hunker down.

Adam sent the nanites into the Wand and was pleasantly surprised when they were able to detect and discern eight different energy signatures as well as a link to a power source that was almost full. Once the signatures were recorded he had his nanites start to break the wand down.

BOOM!

As he had expected, it exploded. What he had not expected was the devastation that followed. Adam had thought that If a wand did a maximum of 36 points of damage multiplied by the number of charges it should do about 900 points of damage. If it followed normal explosion damage drop off that would be 450 at 10-20 feet, 225 at 20-30 feet 112.5 at 30-40 feet, and 65 or less passed that. Instead, 200 feet away from the explosion, he felt the pressure wave as it knocked over all the soldiers behind him. Adam did something he hadn’t tried before and searched through his interface for nanite interactions. Then he categorized them by damage taken and sorted them by magnitude. Adam read the prompt,

Nanite, Identifier 1A4 (Click for Full Identifier), takes 50,000 points of varied magical damage. Nanite Destroyed

50,000 points of damage? Obviously, his math was off. Maybe his Orb of Knowledge would have information about how charged item damage worked if they exploded. Now though he checked on the naked soldiers behind him. Adam had the nanites repair any scratches they might have received and then had them all pick themselves up and move into military formation in front of him.

“Listen up! I am about to allow you to move your right arm and nothing else. Does anyone here have the ability to Analyze their opponents? If you do raise your right hand. Otherwise, do not raise your right hand.”

Adam released their right arms and a woman up front raised her hand tentatively. Adam immobilized everyone else and gave her the ability to speak. “Question for you, do you need to touch me to use this ability?”

“No,” she said obviously terrified.

Adam moved over and stood directly in front of her as he said. “I want you to Analyze me and then I want you to tell everyone here what my classes and levels are. If you do this I will give you and everyone here one of these,” he said as he conjured a white toga and held it in front of her,” for all of you to wear. I might also be generous enough to give each of you a dagger so you can defend yourselves as you make your way south back to Crownport. Do you understand?” he asked.

“Yes, please lower your defenses I can’t Analyze you yet.” She said.

Adam lowered his defenses and she gasped, tears ran down her cheeks, and with a shaking voice she said “Monk Level 5,000, Cleric Level 5,000, Mage Level 5,000, Rogue Level 5,000, and Fighter Level 5,000 Hit Points 85,091.”

Adam released her and handed her the Toga while he had a Toga materialize around each of the other Soldiers. “Very good. Thank you for doing as I asked.” Then he had a thought and smiled which made the woman flinch. “Not to worry my dear, you’re all going to be fine,” Adam said as he began analyzing every one of the soldiers to learn their names and faces he noted that the woman’s name in front of him was Karen. Karen stood where he’d left her looking at her fellow soldiers while wondering what she should do next as he pulled out 32 platinum pieces from his Belt of Infinite Wealth. He so enjoyed sticking it to that little prick of a divine.

“Alright listen up. I am going to place one dagger and one Platinum on the ground for each of you. Then I’m going to float above you and watch as you each take one dagger and one coin and then start walking back towards Crownport. I’ll give you a one-hour head start then I’m going to follow. The platinum coin is a gift from the Goddess Serena. It is to help you recover from this lesson in humility. Know that should you choose to follow her you will be welcomed with open arms.”

Adam floated up into the sky 100 feet above the coins and had daggers form on the ground. Once all 32 were created and permanent he released the soldiers. Only one person was stupid enough to try to take two coins, that was the captain. As he picked up the second coin it dissolved in his hands and his nanites took him over again. The captain reached down and placed the coin he had taken back on top of the others and stepped back through a portal that led to Adam’s Shadow Vault which closed behind the Captain. Adam made him lie down on the floor and then put him to sleep.

Adam was sure he’d have more people in his vault like this before the end of the day. The rest of the soldiers took one dagger and one platinum and started walking South. When they were all on their way he landed and pulled out the Orb of Knowledge. Then he asked, “Are there any Clerical Spells that determine the alignment of the target?” To which he received a Prompt

“From Orb of Knowledge: Detect Alignment is a Cleric Spell of varying levels. You choose the Strength of the spell by praying for it from your God.

Adam created a small shrine to Serena and prayed for Detect Alignment at level 100. One minute later he could cast the spell. Over the next 9 minutes, he prayed for the same spell nine more times. When he was done he absorbed the shrine, opened a portal, and stepped into his Shadow Vault next to the captain. Adam cast detect Alignment and sure enough, the captain was Lawful Evil. What was he going to do with this Lawful Evil piece of shit? Adam opened his map and looked for Adaline’s location. She was in her lair. Adam flew over to the edge of her lair area in the Shadow Vault and amplified his voice with technology as he said, “Knock, Knock!”

Adaline stuck her head out of her cave in dragon form then morphed into her high elf and waved for him to come over. Adam flew to her side and landed lightly.

“Question for you. I think I’m going to be finding a lot of evil commander types. How do I know that they can’t be saved?” he asked as he pointed to the captain lying 9 miles away.

“Honestly, if you know they’re Evil it depends on the type. As you know there are different types of evil. My suggestion would be to put them somewhere that you will not have to deal with them for a while, keep an eye on them, and let their actions speak for themselves.”

“Thank you. I think I know what I’m going to do,” he said as he portaled back to the captain and walked him through to a holding room on Trappist-1e. Adam had him sit there and watch as Adam recorded a new welcome message.

“Welcome to a stopover point. You will be here just long enough to hear this message before you are whisked off to another location. Unlike your home Universe, the Universe you find yourself in does not allow the use of magic or your personal interface. There are only two rules at the location you’re going to. No killing and no raping. That’s it. You will be free to do what you want otherwise. You will also receive any help you need acclimating to these new conditions.”

After Adam was done, Adam stepped through a portal to Desirae’s location with the Captain following him. Quick as ever she’d already thrown two throwing daggers as he stepped through. A heart shot at each of them. Adam caught both easily and sighed, “Really?”

“You shouldn’t sneak up on a girl, even if you can turn her to electrons or whatever your little critters turn people to when you dissolve them,” she said.

“Hilarious I’m sure, anyway the reason I’m here is to first ask you if you want company, you can say no. If you say yes, where do you want them dropped off as I get the feeling you are not the ‘welcome-to-her-home’ type?” Adam asked.

“I don’t mind company, who are they and where are they coming from?”

“These will be the die-hard loyalists from the Kingdom of Crimson Blood that do something stupid while I’m trying not to kill them outright.”

“Sure, put them in that city over there,” she said pointing off to the west, “I think you call it Dallas. There’s plenty of housing. Are you giving them the welcome package?

“A short version yes. They’re all going to need help adjusting to the no magic aspect of living here.”

“Do the same rules apply to them as me?” she asked.

“No, if you kill someone you lose your arms and legs for a year. Not being able to scratch your nose would really suck I’m sure. If any of the people I’m sending here over the next couple of days or weeks attempt to kill or rape someone, I’ll store their pattern and end them, or let you do it as a lesson on what you are not to do while here. I might be able to bring them back at a later date, not sure if it’s true resurrection but I honestly don’t care. The only people coming here will be the really evil people, like you,” Adam said with a smile.

“Understood, last question, once they’re acclimated to this new existence, then what?” She asked.

“I don’t anticipate running into anyone as high a level as you are so making them part of any team you are running if humanity needs you isn’t the best of ideas, you far outclass them. Training them up as teams for diversions or backup, I can see that so yeah feel free to train them if you want. The nanites will have them physically healthy and ready to go in no time,” he said.

Adam used Mage Hands to pass her daggers back to her which caused her to raise an eyebrow at him Spock style.

“Oh that, yeah I have access to my interface and magic here now. When you get back to your house look up information on ‘The Ancient Enemy’ and then adjust your expectations of survival and the training you need accordingly with the understanding that even I don’t have a clue what I’m going to try to do about it. Also, if you have any ideas let me know. If I don’t figure this out in the next two years, your universe is gone and this one might follow soon after.” Adam said and then opened a portal and stepped through to Primore where he’d brought the captain from moments ago. Adam looked around and had the nanites teardown and destroy the checkpoint and barracks as he started his leisurely walk south.

The next day, he was attacked by well over 100 soldiers and mages of the Kingdom of Crimson Blood. His database of magically scanned weapons and equipment had increased greatly, and he was not able to recognize the magical spheres inherent in an item. he still couldn’t tell what an item did, but he could identify if earth, air, fire, water, life, death, light, and/or darkness magic were part of an item’s makeup as his nanites invaded the magic item.

By the time he made it to the north gate of Crownport, the sun was setting, and he could see the 1,132 people that he’d covered in togas making their way toward the small fort at the center of town. At that moment he decided to be a complete smart-ass. Adam conjured two smoke grenades and then ran up into the sky a mile above the city. Activating the smoke grenades, he wrote in big bright blue smoke “Have a good night, I’ll be back in the morning.” Then portaled back to his tower.

From the tower, he opened a spy portal above Crownport and watched the city prepare for the next day. Men women and children were fleeing to the south from the city. Some with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. He opened a small portal next to his foot that emerged a half-mile south of Crownport off to the side of the road. Adam allowed a string of nanites to extend from his foot through the portal and down to the side of the road, well within his 500-foot radius.

Adam had the nanites create food and water for those who were fleeing. He made sure to keep replacing supplies as they were taken. Next to the piles of food and water was a sign with the Symbol of Serena and a note that said, “May Serena’s Blessing lift your heart.” A couple of clerics of various gods were among those fleeing. If they took the food and drink and continued on he left them alone. Those that tried to desecrate the shrine, however, froze put their hands to their sides and dropped through portals that opened beneath them into Trappist-1e for their welcome message and their transfer to Earth V with Desirae and the other 37 idiots that he’d sent there already. Most had been officers that completely bought into the council’s bullshit. Now Desirae was going to whip them into shape for him.

Adam also watched as the military brought those wearing togas together. Those who wanted to fight were led to get new armor and weapons. Those who refused to fight were not so lucky. The men were led out to a field caked with blood. Adam knew what was coming so opened up a huge portal and dropped them all onto the surface of Trappist-1e under one of the transparent bubbles. Some fell hard, others did not. Once they were on Trappist-1e his nanites infiltrated their bodies in moments. Once they were all infiltrated he separated them. The ones that had refused to fight and shown some intelligence he sent to rooms on Trappist-1e to sit through the welcome package. The others went to Desirae. The women were treated differently. Those that refused to fight were being led off to brothels to be whores and breeders. Adam ported them out as well separating them from their captors and gave them rooms on Trappist-1e as well.

Some of those that he’d released that had picked up arms again learned that those who chose not to fight had suddenly disappeared as they were being led away to be executed or turned into sex toys. Some fled. As they came within range of the food cart and stopped to grab food and water he had the nanites take them over and sent them to Desirae.

Once he was sure that all of the soldiers he sent back to Crownport were accounted for he ported into the middle of a park on Trappist-1e in their temporary residence and message everyone to come to their doors. The capacity of the facility was 1,200 and he had 1,101 people here. They’d each heard the welcome message before he ported into the center of the park, and then floated up to the middle of the room. Being able to use Magic and abilities in his home Universe was nice.

Adam had his voice carried to every monitor and speaker in every room, “Hello everyone, I know we all got off to a rocky start today, but I wanted to assure you that I only have your best interest in mind. You are all safe here and in a closed facility in his Universe where the ability to use magic is usually not possible. If you’d all come to your doors please.”

Adam waited as everyone made their way to their doors and looked out. While he was waiting he had nanites create banquet tables of food fit for a king, and kegs of ale and beer. Also, tables, blankets, and chairs in the parks that everyone could use. Once everybody was looking out of their doors he continued, “For the next couple of days you will be staying here as my guests. Hopefully, you will be able to return to your families and Crownport in very short order. As soon as I leave you may mingle freely and talk amongst yourself. There are only two rules you need to worry about. Do not kill or rape anyone. You are all adults and if you want to have some fun, have fun but do not force yourself on anyone. If you try to, you will be stopped and I will turn you over to Desirae, your Assassin Guild Leader, who is most certainly not dead. She will then teach you the error of your ways. So, eat, drink, relax, and rest. Tomorrow a woman named Abi will come to talk with you. Until then, enjoy my hospitality and have a good night.”

Adam portaled back to the tower and monitored the party. It took a little while for everyone to relax. Eventually, hunger won the day, and everyone came out to eat and drink. It was surreal seeing so many soldier-type men and women running around in togas eating and drinking and talking about how scared they’d been. Serena was right, he had to try to think of each and every person he came across as an Individual. He might not believe in all the kowtowing things clerics did for their Gods, but he was beginning to appreciate the guidance Serena was giving him.