I would like to apologise for deleting the previous chapter; I made a stupid mistake.
The chapter wasn't supposed to be posted. I skipped the correct one. So you'll get two chapters today, I hope you still enjoy them.
Kudos to ACON for noticing this.
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Gerhard sat in the centre of his hideout in the instant dungeon, surrounded by the mechanical trophies of his recent exploration. His mind worked at its maximum capacity, filtering out all other problems outside and focusing entirely on a single, most likely heretical goal: he was going to attempt to build a high-end computer from the literal scrap of an Underhive.
He had taken out and cleared his workbench, the scarred metal surface serving as his foundation. He was looking to create a tool to interface with his currently most prized possession to research and understand the ancient 'machine spirits'. The Mechanicus would definitely call what he was attempting tech heresy and hunt him down, but what did he care?
Before him lay the "Management Team" of the Genestealer Cult—or what was left of them.
-
Nexos – Lv.38
|HP: 2600/2600
|MP: 1600
|A type of 3rd-generation Genestealer Hybrid that is a consummate strategist, typically appearing at the same time as a Primus to act as its aid. By analysing and interpreting every subtle ebb and flow of battle, they can identify vulnerable positions for their kin to exploit, pinpointing potential flanking routes and subterranean passages ideal for arranging sudden ambushes.
-
Clamavus – Lv.35
|HP: 2400/2400
|MP: 1200
|A vox-master and signal manipulator. Disrupts enemy coordination and enhances allied communication.
-
"Well, here goes," Gerhard muttered. "Time to commit tech heresy."
He started with the most basic necessity: a path for the electricity to follow. He took the high-purity copper coils from the Magus's Force Staff, which he had only borrowed.
[Material Analysis]
Using the skill, he found out that it wasn't standard industrial copper. It was warp-sensitive, designed to channel psychic energy. That didn't mean that it wasn't still capable of conducting electricity.
Using [Smithing], Gerhard heated a Lasgun barrel he had cut off until it glowed. He used it as a crude drawing die, lashing the copper through the aperture and pulling it through. Again and again, he thinned the metal until he had a spool of wire about as thin as a human hair.
The next steps were possible thanks to his newest skills [Chemistry Mastery] and [Biology Mastery]
Chemistry Mastery (Passive/Active) Lv. 1
| EXP: 0.00%
| The study and manipulation of substances, reactions and compounds.
| Developed through experimentation, synthesis and material interaction.
Effects:
| +10% success rate when creating chemical compounds
| Identify chemical composition of materials
| Basic creation of:
| - Explosives
| - Fuels
| - Toxins
| - Solutes
| +5% efficiency in material conversion processes
-
Biology Mastery (Passive/Active) Lv. 1
| EXP: 0.00%
| The study and understanding of living organisms, their structure, function and evolution.
| Developed through observation, dissection, experimentation and interaction with biological matter.
Effects:
| Identify biological structures and weak points
| +10% efficiency when harvesting biological materials
| +5% damage against identified weak points
| Basic analysis of diseases, toxins and mutations
| Slight increase in effectiveness of healing and recovery methods
-
He melted the rubberised grips of a Shock Maul in a ceramic crucible, mixing them with a stabilising resin he had extracted from the Primus's toxic glands, which he had identified.
The resulting polymer was flexible, heat-resistant, and non-conductive, making it perfect for isolation. He coated his wires, creating 24-pin bundles and high-speed data ribbons that looked more like silver veins than cables. But hey, the system called it that, so it had to be true.
[INT has risen by 1]
The CPU was the greatest challenge. Gerhard used material analysis to find a silicon-rich focusing lens from a Long Las sniper rifle. Using [Dismantle], he sliced the glass into a wafer roughly three millimetres thick. This took a long time, as he kept breaking them and didn't achieve the desired result.
He then filled a Needle Pistol with a precisely diluted acid, thanks to [Chemistry Mastery], a mix of Poxwalker bile and industrial solvent, and sprayed a microscopic mist onto the wafer to "dope" the silicon.
Then came the lithography.
Gerhard cast a Spinning Mana Arrow, but he didn't fire it. Instead, he used his growing mastery over his Mana Control to keep the arrow's tip in one spot and had it speed up the rotation. For dozens of gruelling hours, he leaned over the wafer, keeping his hands steady, etching billions of nanoscopic logic gates directly into the silicon. Every time his focus wavered, he forced himself back into the rhythm.
[INT has risen by 1]
And he was rewarded for this excruciating dedication.
Precision Work (Passive) Lv. 1
| EXP: 0.00%
| A skill developed through prolonged, high-focus manipulation of fine structures.
| Allows the user to perform delicate and highly accurate operations with minimal error.
Effects:
| +15% accuracy when performing fine manipulation tasks
| -10% error rate in crafting and assembly
| +10% quality of items requiring precision
| Slight increase in stability and precision when working over long durations
-
Extreme Focus (Passive) Lv. 1
| EXP: 0.00%
| Developed through maintaining intense concentration over extended periods of time.
Effects:
| -15% mental fatigue during prolonged tasks
| +10% concentration stability
| Reduces performance loss during long-duration work
-
[New Title gained]
|Title: The Grinder
| Earned through relentless repetition, endurance and refusal to stop despite extreme duration, strain or pain. You do not rely on talent. You bloody grind your way to victory.
Effects:
| +100% faster EXP gain
| +100% skill gains and level ups
| +100% MP regeneration
| +100% HP regeneration
| +30 INT when in use
| +30 WIS when in use
-
[A new skill has been created through a particular title]
[The skill, 'Iron Will' has been created]
Iron Will (Passive) Lv. 1
| EXP: 0.00%
| You will never stop, you will never give up. You would rather die than give in. There is no obstacle you can't climb. This skill activates as soon as either HP or MP drops below 50%.
Effects:
| +50% HP regeneration (only when HP drops below 50%)
| +50% MP regeneration (only when HP drops below 50%)
| +10 VIT (Permanent)
-
"Oh, yeah, it's all coming together."
Those were probably the most impressive rewards Gerhard had achieved so far. Not much could come close to this. The Instant dungeons did, but that was just gross, and Gerhard couldn't tell just how much he deserved it.
When he was finally done, he had a processor die that hummed with a faint, blue mana-induced haze. He mounted it onto a plasteel substrate using gold pins he had scavenged from ceremonial medals, then melted and shaped them as needed.
He took a slab of non-conductive phenolic resin, insulation stripped from a Hab-block's cooling unit, and began the "Mapping."
Using what he called a Las-scalpel, he carved a miniature delta of rivers into the resin. He poured molten copper into these channels, creating the traces. He repurposed a damaged Vox-caster's logic array to act as the Chipset, the "Traffic Cop" that would manage the flow of data between the high-speed CPU and the slower storage.
For the RAM, he cracked open the "memory beads" found in the very few remains of the Magus's robes. These were psychic-receptive storage units. Using [Mechanical Assembly], he stripped their biological shells and soldered the crystal cores into a linear array. They would store bits and move them at near-instantaneous speeds, responding to the motherboard's electrical pulses like a living nervous system.
The PSU was housed in a recycled Heavy Stubber ammo box. Gerhard was nothing if not creative. Inside, he built a transformer using coils from some vehicle's interior lighting system. He used [Charge] to calibrate the energy, stepping the Hive's erratic, 220V "dirty" power down to stable 12V and 5V rails.
For cooling, he forged a massive copper heat-sink and attached it to the CPU with a thermal paste made of powdered silver and synth-oil. The Fans were the final touch: small motors taken from dead and nearly destroyed Servo-skulls, fitted with blades hand-carved from the Sanctus's light-weight carapace. When they spun up, they moved air and emitted a low whine.
The monitor was a masterpiece of desperation, born from the lack of anything he could use for it. Gerhard took a flat pane of reinforced glass and coated the back with a thin layer of "Silver." He built a scanning laser from a Lasgun's pointer that "drew" images onto the silvered surface from behind, a makeshift, high-resolution vector display that glowed with an eerie, emerald light.
[WIS has risen by 1]
The keyboard was a clattering beast: 104 keys, each a spent Autogun casing, melted and remodelled, then mounted over a copper leaf spring. Every keystroke produced a sharp, metallic clack of brass on brass. It was honestly hilarious to hear the oh-so-familiar sound.
The Mouse was a trackball taken from a targeting console, encased in a polished Tyranid chitin shell that had taken him another set of hours, and it fit Gerhard's hand perfectly.
.
After several gruelling weeks spanning over a month, Gerhard was finally finished. He had created what should theoretically be a computer made from the 'best' materials he had at hand.
Gerhard slowly reached out and flipped the heavy, rusted toggle on the PSU. He was more nervous about whether he would get to the POST screen than he had been fighting the Xenos.
[INT has risen by 1]
The fans came to life, pulling heat away from the hand-etched silicon. The emerald monitor flickered, then stabilised. Gerhard sat before the keyboard, with wide eyes like a 5-year-old getting a big present. His fingers were hovering over the brass casings. He didn't have a driver. He didn't have an OS.
He began to type in raw binary, just doing stuff. He tapped the copper leads together to send manual electrical pulses into the CPU, bypassing the keyboard-controller entirely.
01001000 01001111 01010011 01010100 (HOST)
The screen blinked. A cursor appeared.
[A miracle of logic has been performed in a world of superstition.]
[A skill has been created through a special action]
[Through constructing logical systems and digital structures,
'Programming' has been created.]
Programming (Active/Passive) Lv. 1
| EXP: 0.00%
| The ability to design, understand and create logical systems, algorithms and digital structures.
| Developed through constructing computational logic and manipulating structured information.
Effects:
| Understand and create basic algorithms and logic systems
| +10% efficiency when designing complex systems (software or hardware)
| Enables interaction with programmable devices and machine logic
| Slight increase in INT growth through logical problem-solving
-
[A sub-skill has been created.]
[Through manipulation of binary logic, 'Binary Manipulation' has been created.]
|Binary Manipulation (Passive) Lv. 1
| EXP: 0.00%
| The ability to understand and manipulate binary-level logic and data structures.
Effects:
| +15% efficiency when working with low-level systems
| Enables direct manipulation of binary code and signals
| Improves optimisation of computational processes
-
[A sub-skill has been created.]
[Through interaction with physical systems, 'Hardware Interface' has been created.]
Hardware Interface (Active/Passive) Lv. 1
| EXP: 0.00%
| The ability to connect, communicate and control physical hardware systems.
Effects:
| Enables communication with electronic devices through technical means
| +10% efficiency when integrating hardware components
| Improves compatibility between systems
| Slight increase in success rate when modifying devices
-
[A sub-skill has been created.]
[Through translating logic into executable structures, 'Compiler Construction' has been created.]
Compiler Construction (Active) Lv. 1
| EXP: 0.00%
| The ability to translate high-level logic into executable machine instructions.
Effects:
| Enables creation of custom programming languages
| +20% efficiency when converting logic into executable systems
| Reduces errors when implementing complex systems
| Improves the execution efficiency of created programs
-
Gerhard leaned back, the green glow of the monitor reflecting in his tired eyes. He looked at the jagged, purple-and-steel tower he had built. It was an abomination, a bio-mechanical hybrid that shouldn't exist, not in the past nor his grimdark future.
"Atrocious aesthetics," Gerhard said sarcastically. "But let's see how the Mechanicus feels about a real programmer in the neighbourhood."
He began to type, the hard, unnatural clack-clack-clack of the brass keys echoing through the hideout. And yet, Gerhard was more than happy. He was going to recreate Excel, and when he did... oh, my stars... it was going to be glorious.