Previous Chapter —Index— Next Chapter
Many Worlds Chapter 61
Jules considered his current problem. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a problem at all. He already had a perfectly good solution. However, he didn’t like it as much. Jules had gotten used to having giant, gamelike arrows pointing him places. Now, he had a computer that fulfilled that role perfectly well. It worked quite admirably, and even had terrain details included and a suggested path. However, Jules didn’t want that. He didn’t want to have to rely on technology- though ironically he was aware that no matter what he did here or on Earth, he was still relying on technology.
As for “his” arrow, it still worked. Jules could have it point to various things, such as where his friends were. However, it would not point to any of the structures. Since this arrow had been able to point to things that he didn’t know where they were at all, such as his friends, he presumed it was currently routing through Herbert. A decent amount of his data abilities seemed to work that way, as well as everyone’s accelerated learning. It made sense, because an AI could process all kinds of information into useful forms more easily.
Now, it could also be said that the accelerated learning was because of the nanobots, but that wasn’t quite correct. Those only enhanced the body (including the brain) of the “player”. While enhancements to mental attributes might increase learning speed, that was more applicable on Earth. On Fesmoilia, however, Jules had learned the language in a matter of days, understanding even many words he hadn’t heard before. That wasn’t something that could happen with just “normally” increased learning abilities.
That brought Jules to his telekinetic abilities. The initial learning had been rapidly accelerated. However, Jules was confident that now he had actually reached a point where he would be able to use those abilities, without the accelerated learning or enhanced abilities from the nanobots. However, once he returned to his “normal” state, he would be significantly less powerful. Still, he would at least be able to float around small objects. The possibility would be there. Jules wasn’t sure about his “Information” class. Was that something wholly provided by the system? In Jules case, he thought it might be. Were all secondary classes like that? That was where he was unsure.
This finally brought him back around to his guidance arrow, which he didn’t need, but wanted. He wanted it to point to the structure they were going to, even though it wasn’t necessary. The question was… could he make that happen? Herbert consciously or unconsciously refused to associate with the structures. Jules didn’t bring it up, because it made him unhappy. He wasn’t sure if his attempts to put a routing arrow were being consciously processed, but he hoped not. That wasn’t a nice thing to do to Herbert, even if Jules didn’t know the reason why he suddenly didn’t want to discuss a topic, and it was one of the only things that he was apparently capable of discussing that he chose not to.
Jules concentrated. There was more to concentrating on something than just thinking of the end goal, or your start. You had to think about the process, though not necessarily consciously. For example, if he thought 2+2, he would get 4, without bothering to think about the fact that he was actually adding them, and why it was so. However, if he wanted to throw something with telekinesis, he had to think about where the object was, where he wanted to go, and how quickly he wanted to attempt to move it there. Along with what direction it would really take to move it to the destination. That was actually the closest thing he could think of to the arrow, though the arrow didn’t much care about the route except for perhaps the direction and distance, and not whether there was a traversable path.
Jules continued to concentrate. He had considered that this might be a waste of time… but for one thing he was sitting around waiting for people to finish logging on, and for another thing he wanted to try anyway. He wanted the arrow to point from him to the structure. He thought about where he was. He thought about the image he had seen. He thought about the terrain maps he now held in his hand, on the computer. Then, an arrow appeared. He knew it was pointing to the right place. Jules celebrated in his mind, but not too much visibly. Then, he turned off the hand computer… and the arrow went away.
He pondered to himself. Apparently he had managed to route that ability through the computer. That might be helpful in certain cases, but he hadn’t been going for that. However… it did show that he could do what he wanted. Now the question was whether his brain could process the necessary information. He hoped it could. If it couldn’t, he was fairly certain that he would just get a terrible headache and stop. Either that or… well, Jules wasn’t sure, but it wouldn’t be good. Jules concentrated again, this time using his memory of the terrain map. Nothing happened immediately… but Jules felt like he was figuring it out. Then… the arrow reappeared. He was certain it was pointing to the correct place. He could do this on his own… though perhaps currently only with the enhanced mental capabilities from the nanobots. However, he could do it. He liked that. Jules spent the day as they travelled wondering and trying to figure out what else he could do. The results were… mostly, he had nothing relevant to do out in the wilderness, unless he wanted detailed counts on the leaves around him.
—–
“Hey, Jules, I’ve got a quest for you.” Jules heard Herbert’s voice shortly after he exited the game that day.
“Okay, so why not just show me a quest window?”
“Well. You see, there’s a bit of explaining that needs to be done. It’s not exactly a quest, but it’s not exactly not, yeah? I can’t pay you. I can’t even guarantee any other sort of reward.”
“Wouldn’t that make it more of… a request?”
“But you haven’t even done it the first time!” Then there was a bit of laughter. “I suppose It would be a request, though. I want you to go do something.”
“For no reward?”
“…Yes?” Herbert made a few thinking noises, for Jules’ sake. “Well, I might as well explain. I think you’ll be interested. It’s not… dangerous, or anything.”
“Very well, I’ll at least hear it.”
“Okay, here are the details…”
Meet Herbert, the socializing AI!