Author's Note: Sorry this took so long but you will see why.....enjoy!

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  Chapter 52 Upgrade!

  I tried to figure out why I received no new notices, but I eventually gave up and went back to working on my Paper Clips and their low mana cost. A pile was building up, as I drop them to the floor in front of me. Then a thought occurred.

  If I can create a paper clip can I unmake it too?

  I concentrate on the paper clip, it begins to glow, then my mind goes dark, pain assaults my mind.

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  “Scott? Wake up!” I hear the voice in the distance, I feel sick to my stomach, rise up and begin to vomit. Mostly dry heaving now. It is evening from the looks of it, Julie, Cindy and Ki'Diera are staring at me with worried expressions. Doc Snow comes running in with Rick, Alexander and Eddie on his heels.

  “What happened?” Doc Snow demands.

  “I think I did something really stupid” I say weakly and look to see a warped paper clip in my hand.

  It did not go away, but got warped and I got knocked out by it trying to undo it. So probably not possible after all? I sigh, the sickness in my stomach is fading, Doc is checking me out with the Stethoscope and taking my vitals.

  “All seems fine” He says after examining me. “So what did you do to cause this blackout?”

  I look at everyone in the room, then sigh, “Eddie close the door please.” He does as instructed.

  “I have a new ability called Reality Manipulation”, I say to them and then take a paper clip, and copy it for them.

  “Holy shit gunny, did you just make that our of thin air?” Eddie cries out in amazement.

  I nod weakly, Doc Snow and Rick both looking on while the girls are all silent watching with worry.

  “So what made you pass out?” Doc Snow Asks again.

  I scratch my head and reply “I tried to unmake it”

  “Scott why would you even attempt that?” Cindy now says with her voice rising in concern.

  "Well I figured if i could make something from thin air, I thought I could unmake it too, but I guess that is not the case.” I reply weakly.

  “So you can make stuff appear out of thin air with your mind?” Rick says slowly scratching the back of his neck.

  “Well I only tried paper clips and bullets so far, but yeah.” I said to him.

  “That is an ability that goes beyond comprehension Scott.” Rick says looking at me with a serious expression.

  “It is how I made this headband and knocked me out for four days” I say to him,”in truth it almost killed me and may have come close to killing Julie too” I say to him, then look to her with an apologetic look.

  “To me that is almost the power, if i had to describe it, godlike?”Rick says now taking a seat in a chair close by “ the possibilities are endless when you think about it.”

  “Yeah I came to the same conclusion, but I would not go so far as to compare it to godlike.” I say to him

  “How would you describe it gunny, you are creating things with your mind out of thin air” Eddie begins “ hell you might even be able to think up a nuke and set it off somewhere, it is a very scary thought if you ask me”

  “Right now I am having trouble just making bullets, so a nuke is out of the question” I say to Eddie.

  “That may be, but for how long till you are able to think of a nuke Scott?” Doc Snow jumps in.

  I ...I do not know........” I reply hesitantly and uncertain.

  “What I am getting at is that it will be possible for you at some point, hell lets go a step further, what about a black hole? And you said Reality Manipulation, what does that even mean? Can you alter reality, like change events to suit your needs or wants? Can you change time? All kinds of questions come to mind when you said that.” Doc snow says his face taking on a pale complexion “just thinking about it makes my head hurt, it would be endless possibilities. Can you undo everything that has taken place even?”

  Everyone in the room is now silent, the news falls heavily on them. There are a mix of expressions on their faces.

  “I guess we will not know till I level it up and train some more,” I say to him.

  “Playing with godlike powers, and it already knocked you out twice Scott, it is wise to play with it like that?” Doc Snow now leans forward looking me in the eyes, his voice is low and serious.

  “I fully am aware of what it means Doc, trust me I know, but you have to also understand this is probably the key to everything” I say to him.

  He sits back, “well it can not get worse that is for damn sure” then he decides” ok but if you are going to practice with it, it will have to be under supervision, there needs to be someone with you at all times to make sure if you pass out again you get attention right away. This ability scares the hell out of me, I will not lie, but I can also see it's benefits too.”

  “I agree with Doc Scott, at least have someone with you at all times when you train it” Rick says.

  “Alright, after two black outs, I will do that from now on.” I say to everyone, and they all look relieved with that, especially the girls who nod at me, even Ki'Diera who has a gleam in her eyes from learning this new information.

  As it is evening, and dinner time, the girls had come to get me for dinner, finding me unconscious, sent a guard to get Doc Snow. Now that I am fully recovered, we all head to the Cafeteria to have dinner. We are hearing more and more people have realized their professions. It is now happening quickly.

  Some of the soldiers went simple and became super soldiers, a corny name maybe, but the results were amazing. Even just starting out, they had weapons and gear that were advanced, running off of mana rather than bullets. All of their gear was mana dependent and they would need to train to up the skills and levels to fully realize the benefits. They got the idea after watching the warrior demonstration with body and weapon enhancements, also seeing Cindy use fire magics and speaking to the elite guards and seeing their gear.

  As a group they brainstormed till one realized the profession and explained it in details to the results and demonstrated till the others were able to realize it as well. There were of course variations as we had expected, that no two people were alike, unless, like I did with the Elites and assign a profession.

  We ate our dinner now talking about the soldiers results, Ki'Diera with eyes sparkling crawled into my lap again. "Princess can I eat first, please?" I ask of her, pleading.

  “Do not keep me waiting long” she says moving off with a seductive smile, her tail swaying in the air.

  The others notice but no one says anything, as it was already explained earlier. I groaned inwardly as the girls giggled at my predicament. I spoke with the Soldiers later after dinner and looked at some of their stuff inspecting it:

  After the Drow incident they came up with a jacket and helm combo that was really ingenious.

  It was a full helm much like a Motor Cycle Helmet but slimmer and smaller, The face plate opened up or could be removed entirely, but the Visor had a HUD display built in. Able to lock on target, night vision was also possible, and invisibility was seen thru with true sight, after some of the Elite explained their goggles. It had a built in filter for breathing and could switch to oxygen for underwater or unsafe environments, sealing the head in air tight. Hearing was enhanced by built in sensors, which could be adjusted.

  The Jacket, light weight and flexible, covered up and above the neck to prevent any skin exposure when the helm was on. It also extended and had a loop hole to wear on the middle finger while light weight gloves covered the rest.

  They explained that a full suit much like mine before, gave them higher stealth and invisibility as well.

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  I looked at the armor and weapons in amazement, so this is what brainstorming as a group could do and result in.

  As a super soldier they also gained:

  Accuracy Skill +25%

  Endurance +20%

  Strength +20%

  Base attack +33%

  Defense Base +50%

  All Stats +50

  On somethings they had a hard time much like me and had to tone it down before they could envision and grasp it, like the system was assisting and trying to synchronize it. I heard that a lot from people, what they had originally tried to envision, they felt something telling them to adjust until it came to them and offered the profession.

  In the soldiers cases, many of the stat bonuses varied, but overall that was the average. Some had 18% instead of 20% or some had 23% instead of 20%. The highest was Sergeant Cooper, who had 25% in Strength and Endurance while the rest were average at 20%, tho his accuracy was still the same as others.

  I then went back to my room, this time Julie came along walking beside me, not holding onto me “Is something the matter Kitten?” I ask of her.

  “No sweetheart” she replies in thought.

  “I ask, because normally you would link arms with me when we walk, you seem a little distant” I say to her.

  “I ...I did not want you to think I was too clingy and decided to give you some space sweetheart.” she replies with her head bowed down.

  “Kitten! Please be yourself, I really do not mind and love that about you too!” I say to her in surprise.

  Her face lights up and she grabs my right arm “Then lets be off sweetheart!”

  Happy we both head for our room where I can practice in peace.

  We arrive and a two guards are stationed in front of the door as usual. Alexander insists on it. We enter and I head straight for the couch. Julie sits next to me but leans against the armrest and watches me.

  “You know I have not been getting Notices or messages anymore lately and I do not know why”, I say to Julie.

  “Oh, you probably disabled them, try Enable Notices” Julie says casually “Cindy and I do that all the time turning them off and on, they get really annoying when you least want them.”

  Stunned I say “Enable Notices”

  I sigh and shake my head, “yes”

  Most of the notices were Drow or monster kills with XP gains, then 1 for leveling, A few for seven in one shot xp bonus and then there was the notice for Voice of the beast. After going thru them all quickly and carefully I finished, it actually took longer than I thought. Then I read the last one.

  Damage proportional to item? wow thank god I did not try something bigger! And it was restricted? Is there a way to make it unrestricted? I will worry about it later after I level this skill up some more.

  I then went to begin on my Reality Manipulation, but I have something I need to take care of first. I sit back and begin to envision an upgrade to my Advanced Marine profession. I struggle with it for over an hour trying to improve or change things and find the system fighting me. Finally I take a break, “It is no use, I can not improve on my profession for some reason, the system is fighting me on this, I even tried super soldier.”

  Julie who was reading a book, puts it down and looks at me,” maybe you are trying too hard?” She says in thought, “When I decided on healer, it was really easy for me, there were a few things, that I felt I needed to adjust, but that went by quickly and fell into place. Try to relax and let it happen do not try to force it” she says instructing me.

  Taking a deep breath, I start over, I see the Advanced Marine and jack up everything and immediately get a sensation that it is somehow out of sync. Slowly I let all the images adjust, some are adjusting on their own, I am letting the system take control and guide me, I am not fighting it anymore. Slowly the image is becoming clearer. Until I am offered a new option

  “YES” I cry out startling Julie, who looks over at me with wide eyes.

  hmm this is hard, upgrade and lose all levels or or stay the same and add the profession and lose my second profession slot? Well everoyne is starting out fresh, I might as well join them and I select yes for upgrade

  "Status!" I say quickly.

  Nice not bad, sadly level 1 again but will fix that, however my stats did not go down and some even went up, wow look at base attack and defense......they went up?

  Then I open my inventory

  Woah nice!

  After observing and listening to the Soldiers I copied, added and combined the info I had with my own and the results were amazing.

  Seems the armor is very personalized to me. I will have to level to get the full benefits, but so do the Soldiers. HAHA yet another thing to train and level up! But it will be worth it in the long run!

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  Author's Note 2: So there you have it, Scott is learning and moving forward!