Amprage had bitten down on the fabric bag that was filled with the items Pepper had acquired from Jay. The familiar happily trotting in front of the pair and Pepper couldn’t help but giggle as he imagined Amprage as a mule donkey rather than a dog. Zeklor had been pestering Pepper ever since they walked away from Jay’s booth.
“Dude, seriously! I don’t have a bunch of money, but I really need to pay you back for the runes. I mean, even if they are broken, you shouldn’t have to pay for all of them.”
Pepper extended his hand yet, once again. He used a little more emphasis this time as he was starting to get tired of telling his new friend to not worry about it. “Zeklor, it’s all good man. I mean, I gave my roommate Squints this super rare trading card, I helped Marcus with some training to help him be better prepared to compete here at regionals. And now, I’m gonna hook you up with some awesome runes that will hopefully help you rise above the rest in your cohort.”
“But Pepper! This is too much”
Pepper formed a confident smile on his face and sarcastically replied. “Is it though? I guess I chalk it up to, like a good bay neighbor… Pepper is there!” he ended the jingle with a cheesy smile and a pointed handguns towards Zeklor.
“Well, if you’re not going to let me pay for the parts, how can I pay you back?”
He finally rolled his eyes and sighed. He lifted his right hand up and rested it on Zeklor’s shoulder as they walked side by side. “Pass it on.”
“Pass what on?”
“The favor.” Pepper took another deep breath as he removed his hand. “One day, you’ll be somewhere, doing something. You’ll see someone in need, or maybe someone who just needs a hand. I hope you’ll remember this moment, and you can pay back my favor, by helping that person out.”
Zeklor just shook his head for a few seconds, but finally replied. “I still don’t like it. But, I don’t really have a choice, do I?”
“Nope!” Pepper said with a smile.
They finally arrived at their bay’s and Pepper told him to find him in the morning. Zeklor thanked him once again and decided to go get some simulator training in. He certainly wanted to take Pepper’s thoughts and immediately begin to correct the items he had pointed out.
He immediately started to place the rune cards out on the work bench. His priority was to help Zeklor out, so he set the two cards he bought for himself off to the side. He decided to work on the rune card that needed the most repair work done.
He placed the Ronin Bladed Lightning rune in front of him. The circuit wafer was a golden honey yellow coloration. The copper traces of the card made their color appear more like the honey color they laid on top of.
A quick search on his holodex and Pepper noticed that the original specifications Ronin had manufactured the rune at. A 4 hex Power Disbursement rating, or PDR. The Flash Energy Cache or FEC was set to 4,000 spark cycles. That part surprised him the most, as he felt an electric weaponized rune should have a higher degree of energy stored and ready to pump into the RPU when it was activated. Finally, the Ronin RPU was rated at 6.1 quantum FLOPS.
There was this itch of confidence that ran throughout Pepper, for he had no doubt he could make this rune card far better than what it was originally designed to be. But with everything on the card destroyed with the exception of the rune itself, he knew he would have to start all over on a new circuit board wafer. He hated that part, because the coloration Ronin had originally used was so unique and merely, cool to look at.
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Pepper grabbed his soldering iron and started to undo the rune chamber. He was grateful for the countless hours of soldering at Rhino’s store, because the task was done in what felt like no time. He the sifted the spare parts around and found a new circuit board that would for as a replacement. Thankfully the rune mount lined up perfectly and he resoldered the runes connectors.
He then found a slightly larger Cross Fire Dispersion Channel than what Ronin had used and installed that. There was a Dark Dwarf RPU chip that had an 8.225 quantum FLOP rating. The hardest and final piece to the circuit boards jigsaw puzzle was the Flash Energy Cache. His heart sank at first when he realized the upgrade wasn’t going to fit, due to the RPU being large in size than he had considered. The tight space wasn’t going to allow for the upgrade.
That was, until Pepper had the idea of flipping the FEC around and soldering it to the back side of the card. It seemed crazy to him at first, but the more he looked at it, the more it actually seemed possible. Screw it! Go big or go home baby! He mentally cheered.
He went about with flipping the FEC mount bracket and finally got it lined up. For the first time in a long time, he started to feel his nerves take over. There was a slight tremble in his fingers, but finally the pins fell into place and he didn’t hesitate any longer and went for it.
Pepper grabbed a Rune Power Relay Analyzer, Power Core RPL Tester and an SRT Meter. He went step by step in ensuring he would get the most accurate readings. By the time the process was over, he was left with a giant smile on his face.
Rune: Modified – Ronin Bladed Lightning
PDR: 6.5 Hex
FEC: 6,750 Spark Cycles
RPU: 8.225 Quantum FLOPS.
He then focused on the Centaur Arcaic Light. The rune only had a 2 hex PDR, its FEC topped out at 5,000 spark cycles, and the RPU had a rating of 5.5 quantum FLOPS. The more Pepper thought about it, the more he knew that the only thing that really needed to be upgraded was the flash energy cache. The higher he could get the energy stored in the rapid release state, the brighter and greater the runes effect would be.
The search for the component didn’t take him long. His eyes locked onto the overly excessive size of the FEC he wanted to use almost instantly when he scanned over the spare parts. He quickly got the new part swapped out, all while his smile was still plastered on his face.
Rune: Modified – Centaur Arcaic Light
PDR: 2 Hex
FEC: 18,000 Spark Cycles
RPU: 5.5 Quantum FLOPS.
18,000 Spark Cycles. Ha! This thing is going to blind everyone.
Pepper then focused on his Paladin Energy Beam. The attack was one that reminded him of an old Japanese anime. Or old video games that his dad had grown up playing. The classic arcade fighters that had playable characters who could launch a solid beam of energy towards the opponent.
These runes were more commonly seen in higher tier matches, but that was what Pepper felt would make it another game changer for those he was competing against. His biggest concern was in regards to the energy beam getting powered up as quickly as possible.
Though the rune could be extremely powerful, he wasn’t going up against a 50 ft golem.
He then pulled out the manufacturer specifications on the rune and looked them over. His thoughts leading him to consider which route to take.
Rune: Paladin Energy Beam
PDR: 5 Hex
FEC: 5,000 Spark Cycles
RPU: 5.5 Quantum FLOPS.
Pepper then decided that the PDR and the RPU settings would be fine. But upgrading the flash energy cache would give him the speed he desired. His final modification of the afternoon left him with a result of 8,500 Spark Cycles.
He found his stats page for Nightmare Mala and quickly updated the information. The last thing he did was reach up and type a quick message to BJ. He asked him to please come give him another safety inspection before his next match and fired it off.
