Lost Rain
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Outrun - Chapter 275
🕑 Added 2025-07-11 22:04:02 +0000 UTCFirst up to bat? Might as well start things off with a bang. I moved in front of the explosives shelf, casually perusing the scrolls laid out. I wasnât really expecting much. It was a level four Perk, afterall. The good stuff wouldnât come until much later down the line.
ăConcussion Connoisseură
ăOne More Boomă
ăBig Boomă
ăOld Hankâs Pocket Tricksă
ăOld Hankâs Hot Shotsă
No idea who Hank was, but he somehow managed to have not one, but two different Perks named after him. Mustâve been someone really impressive for such a thing to happen. There were a few other named Perks throughout the scrolls for other Skills too. Maybe they were previous interface holders? Scions, I think Corvin called us.
There were a few interesting ones, but eventually I settled on Concussion Connoisseur. It just seemed the best, and like itâd have good overlap with some of my other Perks. Specifically, Throwing Weapon Master. Not to mention itâd be a good baseline.
ăConcussion Connoisseur - As a Connoisseur, you always know just how to place an explosive to get maximum damage.ă
I grabbed the scroll and moved to the easel. It unrolled, revealing, well, an explosion? There wasnât really much to say about it. It was literally just a big fireball painted on to the scroll. Was it just me? Or were the scrolls getting lazier? No- maybe I just picked another poorly illustrated one?
It was too late to pick something else now, though. The bright light of the explosion blew up, covering my vision. Everything faded under the overwhelming light of the explosion.
Next thing I knew, I stood in a firing range. Similar to Throwing Weapons Master, there were all sorts of explosives set up around. Instead of starting with the smallest one, though, the interface highlighted a massive bomb off to the side. It was so big it couldnât even fit on a table.
ăAetherium Bomb - Point in direction of targetă
Well, that was simple. I guess for big bombs, there was no need to worry about maximum damage? How do I set it off though? I walked over and tapped on it-
Boom!
A brief flicker of muted pain shot through me-
My vision flashed. One moment, I stood near the bomb, and the next I was back where I began as though nothing happened. The big Aetherium Bomb? Gone. Vanished in the wind. Guess I passed the training? Note to self, beware the range of big bomb. Hmm⊠the Aetherium Bomb though⊠that sounded familiar. Was it back in the Sentinel school? Something about the Aetherial Concourse? That, of course, was back when the veil was first ripped open and the Aether bled into this dimension.
The interface flashed once more, leading me to the next big bomb. There were a lot of bombs. I had a feeling Iâd be here for a while until I even got off missiles, let alone reached the grenade section.
â â â
A few days later, I descended toward the bottom of the Speakeasy, down in the hidden Underground section. My ascender worked perfectly for descending too. It was so much easier than when I used to come down here in the past. Practically just snap it onto the ropes, and then let it work its magic.
I lightly touched the ground at the bottom of the shaft. I tossed my Transporter into the air, sending a follow command to it through my wrist-pad. It hovered after me into the larger chamber just beyond my secret door-
I paused at the entry into the chamber. Someone had been through here. Recently too, at that. There were trails through the dust. A five person group- no, three different five person groups. All that talk about clearing out the Underground wasnât just bark. There was actually some bite to it.
Thankfully, it seemed the groups werenât looking too hard. My hidden passages were still perfectly hidden. They seamlessly integrated into the surroundings, making it difficult to find even for me. I built them, and had Technical Expertise to help. Shouldnât have to worry about anyone else stumbling across them.
Anyway, I was down here for a reason. My hover bike was really coming along. The engine and most of the internals were done and ready to go. They made it through testing without issue, at least. The body was likewise finished.
Then there were the hover partsâthe actual Gravitic chamber and thrusters. They were the final parts to get the basic bike up and rolling. They were also why I was down here. I tapped around on my wrist pad. Behind me, the Transporter started winding up to open up a portal.
While that was going on, I moved around the space and checked everything just in case. Aside from the clear trail of the group that passed through here, everything was in one piece. I even went and looked at my vault. It was all as I left it. I figured, but never could be too sure.
By the time I returned to the Transporter, it was done. I tapped its side lightly, channeling my accumulated electricity through the converter to top off its battery. With that done, I stepped through the portal.
I was slowly building up my tolerance to the Aether. It wouldnât be long now before I could go visit Foxâs place. That was all in the future though. I moved through the bunker, grabbed everything I needed, and tossed it through the portal. My Transporter sure made moving heavy objects up and down so much easier.
I stepped out of the portal, and felt a tremble through the Aether. Corvid flapped into view with a blue lay clutched in his grasp. âCaw?â
âHey. Got something for me?â I eyed the gem. It was the same blue one as before. Still had no idea what they were or what they did.
Corvid flew over and dropped it into my palm, then perched on my shoulder. He was looking better and better these days. âCaw- caw-caw?â
âChek. You did good, my little scavenger. Thank you.â I patted his head and flipped the stone into my pocket. Iâd put it with the others when I got the chance.
It took a tick to get everything hooked up to a generator, but eventually I was ready. Stuff could get destructive, hence testing down here. In particular, the actual flying parts of the hova were on the chopping block today. This was the first time I worked with Gravitic directly, so I wasnât quite sure how well itâd work out.
âCaw!â Corvid cheered me on from the far side of the chamber. So much for a vote of confidence it wouldnât blow up. No- the thrusters would work just fine.
I flicked on the generator-
The machineâs emergency shut off immediately flicked. It didnât even get off the ground before flopping over and showing its internals. How⊠disappointing. I tapped it with a pulse of Technical Expertise. Everything should be-
Ah, that's what went wrong. I pulled out my tools and opened it up, rewiring a spot. It had a feedback loop, overloading the emergency shut-off before the circuit could even really get going. I checked the other ones just in case. Same issue with three of them. Thatâs what I get for working nonstop. Stupid brain just couldnât keep up without sleep.
With that fixed, I checked it one more time and kicked it on once more. This time, it activated without much issue. The machinery slowly lifted into the air, gravity completely losing its hold on it. The Gravitic chamber was fully in swing now, without any hint of exploding.
âCaw! Caw-caw!â Corvid called from afar. He flapped over, landing unsteadily on the Gravitic chamber. It shuddered, though held him up without issue.
I tried it again with the other chambers. All of them kicked on, reducing gravity around them. A few issues here and there, but nothing I couldnât figure out. Itâd taken a ton of Crystallized Elements to Transmute Gravitic, so it was a good thing it worked the first time. Iâd have to spend a while just making elements if I wanted to Transmute more Gravitic.
The actual turbines responsible for lift were a bit finicky, but that should all be fixed once I got it hooked up to the rest of the frame. I designed them to operate at weird angles to fit under the hover bike.
âWhat do you think, Corvid?â I asked the bird as he pecked at one of the thrusters.
âCaw? Caaawww~â He waved a wing halfheartedly. Maybe that meant good? Passing? Something like that?
Overall, the hover bike was coming along splendidly, in my opinion. I went back up to my workshop and started putting it all together. I was really looking forward to the day I could pull it out onto the street⊠or the sky, if I played my cards right. For now though, it was designed to be a lowrider along the streets rather than a true flyer. Not to say it couldnât fly if I wanted it to.
There were some other things I wanted to incorporate. HMGs built into it might be helpful, as well as a stealth module to make it invisible. Maybe even some kind of auto-driver to pilot it without me. But of course, all of that would take much more time.
Corvid checked out after watching me mess around with my deck. Guess tech and all that wasnât interesting to the little bird. Not that I could blame him. It was a confusing mess to even me, and I was the one who designed everything.
I finished up and then headed off back to the BC Gym to spend another Perk Point. With any luck, tonight would be the last of the Perk Points I earned from my time with the circle.
â â â
Back in the pavilion, I made my way over to the Melee Weapons shelf. I was hoping for some good stuff. Throwing Weapon Master was already a game changer, so if I could find something that built up on that? Iâd be golden.
ăCheap Shotă
ăMaster Splinteră
ăBell Ringeră
ăViperâs Strikeă
ăGut Instinctă
Câmon now. There wasnât really a choice here. If there was an eidolon Perk, I had to take it. It was almost a psychological need by now. Viperâs Strike it was. And it was a good Perk for me, considering my current setup.
ăViperâs Strike - The first strike on a target will always hit a vulnerable point. Viper guides your blow.ă
It was interesting. With it? I wouldnât have to worry about hitting the wrong spot if a situation like Corvin ever happened again. I was almost guaranteed to get a paralyze off combined with my Jade Dagger. Assuming I knew what âalwaysâ meant, of course.
I tossed it on the easel. No surprise, it unrolled to reveal a serpent in the middle of a lunge. Its fangs stretched out of its mouth in a dominant display of ferocity. It was going to strike, and its target could only try and fail to get away. Light seemed to flash off the fangs-
I found myself back in bed. That was it? I figured it was an ability type one anyway. If it was a training one, it wouldnât be restricted to just the first strike. Thatâs fine, though. Since it was an ability, I didnât feel too bad either.
Might as well go and get the last Perk taken care of. Finally get it off my plate. With a thought, I entered the pavilion once more. This time, I moved for my final Skill with a Perk Point: Criminology. Cues was already insanely useful for reading people. I was looking forward to what the next one would be.
I looked through the list of scrolls, reading through each of them.
ăBackground Noise - Enhance your hearing and filter through noise like a radio.ă
It seemed the most useful of the lot. Always wanted to listen to conversations others would rather keep secret. Sometimes bugs were an issue with BugHounds, but good all fashion tailing? I could easily get away with that. I tossed it on the easel and prepared myself to be transported.
It hopefully would have a much more practical application outside of that though. Suppressing gunshots, in particular. I wouldnât have to worry about blowing my ears out anymore by filtering out the explosive cracks.
Unfortunately, I wasnât spit out back into the BC apartment like I thought Iâd be. Instead, it tossed me into a black learning space. Tables grew out of the darkness, and the place transitioned to a popping diner. Chatter soon filled the air. A learned Perk, then. Ugh- so much for getting of easy tonight.
I moved deeper into the diner to learn whatever the space wanted to teach.
â â â
AN: Finally got all the Perk stuff done. Iâll put up her Perk list at the start of the next chapter.
If youâre reading anywhere other than Royal Road and Scribblehub, then this is stolen.
Comments
UnderwhelmingBird
Glad to see her sneaky secrets are staying safe. The more they check the more secure their assumption there's nothing to be found :) Viper's Strike sounds like a specialized augment to Intuition. Like for 'borgs, knowing where would actually be feasible to attack/vulnerable is almost more important than getting a hit in. I had kinda figured the enhanced hearing perk would be half-and-half. Half augmentation, half actually developing the skill to properly use the modification.
Scholar of Endless Knowledge
TFTC
Lost Rain
Thatâs a good idea. Next chapter?
Gardor
A good way for her to be clued in to how valuable/useful the gems Corvin (Corvid?) brings her is to use one to transmute something, and then be blown away with how much material she gets out of it. Then she'll actually make it a priority to see what the glowing magic rocks that her demigod buddy brings her actually are.
Lost Rain
Iâll fix it in a bit. It was supposed to be Corvid. Iâm going to be honest, I was half asleep while writing this one. Sorry for all the errors.
Gardor
"I doubt whatever Iâd get would be as useful as that," -> this is twice in this chapter she thinks "my next perk won't be as good as my first", but like...why would she think that? Beyond the fact that its her second perk, and it'd be human nature to think the more difficult to acquire one would be better, why wouldnt she assume whichever perk she gets would be equally as useful? Her perks function as a skill tree right, where gaining some is dependent on earlier choices? âWhat do you think, Corvin" "a situation like with Corvid" -> why did i think the good sprite, the one she met first, was named Corvid, and the bad bird was named Corvin? Did their names switch, or have i always been wrong?
Gardor
"A blue purple sat clutched in his grasp. âCaw?â âHey. Got something for me?â I eyed the gym." There are two "gem" related typos in these sentences.
LostinLimbo
Tyftc. Now I have anxiety about her hidden lair being discovered. I think there is a typo here: âHey. Got something for me?â I eyed the gym. It was the same blue one as before. Still had no idea what they were or what they did." Gym should be gem, yes?
