A Sage, an intellectual rank one can never truly grasp, at least not in a conceptual sense.
After all, who among us is truly a Sage?
It is romantic to imagine sages, people with insight so deep that it cannot be measured by normal standards, thus making them conceptually impossible to evaluate or reach.
But to be declared a Sage by the system was mostly due to what Adam had achieved, and to be granted such power was to be given reign over a greater expanse of the human brain.
In modern terms, the Sage Skill was a plugin installed in Adam's brain, and whatever query he asked, it scoured the greatest depths of his mind and came up with answers, connected dots, and unraveled solutions he wouldn't have discovered on his own.
It was like an AI Assistant lodged into his head, but unlike an AI operating via a semiconductor processing unit, Adam's processing unit was quite organic; it had no off-switch other than lead from a barrel, even when sleeping.
The mind's main purpose is to think, and once you discover something that can elevate your thinking ability, learn how to access it, harness it, and let your imagination run wild, you just can't press the off-switch, even if you could find one.
And thus Adam stayed up all night, practicing his new understanding of magic, exploring his deeper thoughts, and experimenting with the endless things he wanted to try. The result…
≪ Your [Senses] have improved! (I → II) ≫
≪ Your [Sanity] has improved! (II → III) ≫
≪ Your [Psyche] has improved! (III → IV) ≫
≪ You have gained 1 EXP! ≫
≪ You are now attuned to the [Gobzkin Shaman's Club]! ≫
For one night without a wink of sleep, Adam made days' worth of progress in his efforts to maximize his enlightenment, but it was never-ending, as if he had opened the floodgates to genius.
But he had to numb his brain somehow in order to make the Sage stop, to push it as far as he could; this was an act of rebellion against his own head. As he looked back at how much magic he had performed, he only saw Elena's face, looking at him with pure shock.
As she recovered, she walked to Adam, a hand on his shoulder, and spoke to him so only he could hear:
"Commander, I proudly name you an honorary member of the Trench Dogs, and promote you to Trench Excavator."
Touched by her admiration, Adam smirked:
"I'd say I am touched, but I have done my share. The rest is up to you."
Looking around the base, an earthen barrier was raised from the ground that Adam had manipulated with the Bending Rune.
He wasn't sure how to describe it, but after attuning to the Shaman's Club, his ability to command the rune was almost instantaneous. It was as if he would need weeks of practice just to learn how to manipulate the Runes without attunement, but right now, he was quite frankly Terraforming.
Last night, he focused his mental energy on the Club's Bending Rune and started with air molecules. After getting better at blowing gusts by expanding his senses, he started to focus on water by making it stir in containers, twirling into water tentacles, and then tried lifting entire bubbles from the tub.
Finally, Earth was the hardest, but he watched that old cartoon called "Power Benders", and the elemental bending aspect with choreography was a genius touch, but it was mostly about him stomping the ground like a fool, and acting like he had an invisible hand that was moving earth for him. It ended up with him digging a 100-meter-long trench in a curved line at the borders of his base.
His body stamina seemed to have run out compared to his mental stamina, which improved by another league with his Sanity and Psyche leveling up. For that, Adam decided to put magic aside for now and do a light activity that would drain his mental power to its maximum: Miniature Building.
Until Biscuits and Patch finished their work upstairs in the command center on the Code Diving Cocktail, which should be finished in a few hours, Adam picked up the bag where he kept the miniature parts that were ravaged by the Gobzkins at Mallwart and turned on the magnifier lamp on his workbench.
He also got his brushes, glue, paints, and all the blades and drills he would need for a perfect job.
After spreading the miniature pieces, his chest tightened a bit when he couldn't complete a single Star Paladin miniature, despite gathering three batches for three different paladins, but since there were many types of Paladins with varying power armor designs, it was very hard to import from one batch to another. A Raptor's armor is designed for flight, a Slayer's is made for speed and non-stop killing, and a Warden's is made for defense.
Even more tragic, all the things Mallwart would sell were starter kits, mainly composed of Men-at-Arms. Even more heartbreaking, he found the hull of a Battlemaster tank, famed as the backbone of the Bellarium, but there was only a turret from a Bombstar artillery tank, and wide rails from a Carapace troop-transporter.
What was funny was that Adam had used all these parts in one build once, a behemoth known as the Overlord supertank with more than 24 weapon systems from different types of weaponry, but building that would require going down a four-day rabbit hole and the endless destruction of other tank miniatures.
[A/n: Battlemaster = Leman Russ. Bombstar = Scorpion. Carapace = Chimera. Overlord = Baneblade. A mix of Dawn of War and Generals ZH tanks.]
Adam still wondered if he was to summon a tank or walker mech, would it come with its crew? That part of the rules made him want to assemble some vehicle and try out the summoning, but alas, there were not enough parts to form one vehicle.
Fucking Gobzkins! Adam cursed at the green creatures that wrecked the hobby section in Mallwart and decided to settle with normal soldiers for the time being. Lucky for him, he had plenty of parts. For his Puppeteer Rune's conditions to take effect regarding Puppet Quality, he had to make sure he had the most lore-accurate parts put together.
For that, he started categorizing everything. Legs, Torsos, Arms, and Heads all had to be piled into specific piles. Then, tools, medkits, weapons, and specialized gear were also distributed in piles, each for its specialized troop type.
Auxiliaries were the most common ground troop type, good builders and decent fighters, but not much in terms of advanced specialties. With a rough count, Adam could make seven to nine auxiliaries from all the shapes he could put together, but that would be a waste for the time being.
He needed specialists in order to maximize production and conserve food. After all, the Wartopian troops needed upkeep as well.
Marines, Medics, Mechanics, Fanatics, Grunts, Comm Operators, Terminators, Justiciars, Lawmen, and Warrior Monks.
All of these would be a great addition to the current roster, but a Mechanic like Elena would be the most useful of the bunch, and so Adam started assembling.
This was his craft, his hobby, and the thing that would take 110% of his focus if he was to immerse himself completely. If this didn't make the Sage skill shut up, nothing else would.
After putting in the basics, he started adding the accessories. There was an engineer kit in the tools pile, and paired with some shoulder armor here, a specialized blazer there, a belt with various tools, coat parts, and some small details to bring the build to life.
After what seemed like an hour of gluing, cutting, adding details, mixing colors, putting a base, and then painting, Adam finally started to yawn, his head quieter than it once was, and the Sage finally toned it down.
Such a noisy skill! Adam was pleased with his work and put the engineer miniature on a base to dry, double-checking the quality of the build with his magnifier lamp.
The work of a master! We would have done better with a thinner brush on these parts, but painting with a knife's edge can still be tolerated if followed by a soft brush. Good job, us… me! He thought to himself, but he then realized it was the Sage skill, speaking for his Artifice skill.
It was quieter, more tame, and definitely not causing him a headache. Adam smiled, stretched his arms, stood from his chair, bent his back backward to crack it as much as he could, and proceeded to another build.
He had a new Mechanic, but he couldn't summon it by himself. He needed Elena by his side, just in case. And his second build worried him more, anyway. He was going for a Fanatic, this time.
But what was a Fanatic?
Fanatics are known to be the worst, if not the best, type of troopers in the Solarium. Masters of Bio-weapons and Scorch-guns, they are the arsonists you want on your side and dread to be against them.
Their iconic gas masks, e-tools, and the fact that they always go into battle with more grenades than spare blazer cells would easily speak for their type of warfare. Part of the reason why Fanatics mostly operate in squads of their own rather than mingling with the rest of the Men-at-Arms.
While not ideal for most commanders to have Fanatics in their ranks rather than disciplined soldiers, there was one aspect of warfare that made Fanatics some of the best in Wartopia: their melee warfare skill.
Fanatics were Fanatics for a reason: while everyone retreated, they chanted the holy name and charged even in the face of certain doom, to lodge their e-tools in the heads of the enemy.
An e-tool, mostly known as an Entrenching Tool, is a Fanatic's second-favorite toy after fire. It has four known modes: the spade, the pick, the hoe, and the axe.
The reason why Adam wanted to have a Fanatic, aside from their expertise in digging trenches, was for the sake of his friend, Kave.
Adam learned from Megan that the Classes of the System have some hidden penalties to skills and fighting styles that belong to other classes. If one were to fight in Melee as a Thief against a Warrior, their Might stat and Melee Weapon skill wouldn't be as effective as a Warrior's, thus everyone needed to stick to their fighting style.
It was most likely the reason why Adam generally sucked at Firearms skill and struggled to raise it. For that, he needed to avoid having Kave stagnate in his skills and to find him a skilled melee instructor.
After painting the last spots on the Fanatic's mini, Adam let it dry on the workbench and went for a midday nap.
A few hours later, he was woken up by Biscuits with the report that the Code Diving Cocktail was finally ready. He pushed himself off his mattress and sent Patch to call for Buzz and Elena.
Finally, the Iron Maiden trial is getting the green light.
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