Chapter XVIII

On the way to the class Alex opened up the knowledge skills tab of her status screen and paused a moment in shock. This ended up being the largest individual gain yet for any of the skills, but it also threw off her assumption of how the mastery levels and knowledge levels of the skills worked.

[Knowledge Skills]

[Language: Theron] Basic Level 3 (level up)

[Survival: Basic]

[Electrical Engineering] Beginner

[Quantum Mechanics] Beginner

[Mathematics] Basic Level 3 (level up)

[Computer Science] Basic Level 6 (level up)

[Computer Engineering] Basic Level 2 (Level up)

[Structural Engineering] Beginner

[Astrophysics] Beginner Level 1

[Aeronautics] Beginner Level 1

Initially her thoughts were that for every five levels of a knowledge skill it would go up a mastery level. But the current level of the computer science knowledge skill threw that theory right out the window with it sitting at level six of basic levels. Though with what happened with the comp-engineering, mathematics and the Theron language, it was clear that to get to basic mastery, it took five levels.

This new information made her question just how things worked. However she wasn't going to get any answers to this line of questioning until she reached the point of increasing the mastery of the knowledge. The class itself held no new information for Alex, so much so that her levels did not change for the knowledge skill. So after completing the class she packed up and started to head home. She did notice that the professor was making as if to try and speak with her again, but she acted like she didn't notice and left the classroom.

After arriving home she teleported back to the ship and went to the bridge and began to study the computer schematics and information. This time the hours put into the research of the computer systems bears considerable fruit. Not only did she gain a few more levels in understanding of computer science. But she also began to slowly understand how the computer system operated. However she did hit a wall that she knew she could not cross just yet, as it came to the hardware of the computer systems being so far advanced in its productions. She needed to focus some more on the engineering aspects of the computer, and delve into the realm of quantum mechanics.

She also understood that her worlds understanding of quantum mechanics was sorely lacking, not to mention that with what she understood of the computer at present, was likely very wrong, or primitive in its knowledge. This caused her a bit of grief as she felt that going to the physics classes now would be a waste of time. But they did offer a boost to learning and studying, so it wouldn't be all that big a waste. Thankfully the physics lecture was the next day, So in preparation She opened up the engineering documents for some of the ships propulsion systems and began to transcribe those, as well as information on orbital mechanics.

The next day she teleported back to the house and got ready for the lectures, Arriving to the class on time and sat through the whole lecture, It was the only class scheduled for the day, During the lecture she was rewarded with a notification of her having acquired the physics knowledge skill. Unexpected but welcome non the less. After the class ended she had an idea she wanted to test out so she approached the professor.

"Professor, thankyou for the class. But I was a little lost on some of the topic, I was hoping I could ask some questions if you had the time to get some clarifications?" Alex decided to see if she could get any more information from the professor, If so maybe it would be like the previous day when she got a major boost to the comp-sci skill, and opened up a wealth of knowledge and understandings when researching the computer systems.

"Of course, I have some spare time. What was your question Miss...Voss was it? How can I help you?" The professor asks.

"Yes, I well the question I had came to your brief mention about causal loops and its applications with quantum computing. You mentioned the issues and theories surrounding it but I didn't quite comprehend what it was that you were talking about." Alex asked politely

"Ah, well I was going to go into that topic much later in the semester, as It does require more information and a more solid foundation, My mentioning of it was simply to bring to the forefront as one of the many paradoxes that we face in physics." The professor states this and then goes off on a tangent talking about physics and causal loops, Alex just stood there with a pleasant smile on her face as she listened to the professor ramble on. Periodically asking probing questions here and there, and the professor would respond then would explain and then draw out equations and formulas about what he was talking about on the blackboard.

Alex knew that she was taking up a lot more time than the professor initially intended, but she wasn't going to stop him. as she was constantly seeing notices of skill level ups over the course of the four hours the professor got lost in the discussion. Then the bell rang jolting the professor out of his ramblings, and he looked at the clock with a shocked expression. "Oh... I'm sorry I seem to have kept you here longer than you expected. Sorry, But I hope this answered your question"

Alex smiled and nods at the professor "Absolutely, And I apologize for having to have you explain all that you did, it certainly answered my question and more." She offered politely and left the room to head home, with a bit of a quicker step, as she wanted to see just how far she could get with this new knowledge and the suspected boost. And she had two days to do research before her next classes. She was quite excited, because she did not expect the boons that she would get just from the impromptu private lecture from the physics professor, His knowledge really was helpful, and he had a strong foundation in many other topics to explain as well as he did. And Alex assumed that this is why she saw so many gains from such a short time.

'Skills'

[Knowledge Skills]

[Language: Theron] Basic Level 6 (level up)

[Survival: Basic]

[Electrical Engineering] Beginner

[Quantum Mechanics] Basic Level 3 (level up)

[Mathematics] Basic Level 6 (level up)

[Computer Science] Basic Level 9 (level up)

[Computer Engineering] Basic Level 2

[Structural Engineering] Beginner

[Astrophysics] Beginner Level 5 (level up)

[Aeronautics] Beginner Level 1

[Physics] Basic Level 2 (new)

[Active Skills]

[Shifter] Level 2 (level up)

She even noticed that her shifter skill leveled up, likely because of how much she had been using it of late. Her excitement for the next two days was palpable, The moment she got home she immediately transported to the ship and ran to the bridge. After pulling up the information she was looking at the previous day she dove into her research.

After an hour or two into studying the documents and device schematics she leaned back and checked her progress. The computer science and engineering skills both had leveled up during her feverous research period. The comp-sci skill now at an intermediate level. So it seems that once it goes over 10 levels in the basic skill it will go into an intermediate level. She now felt that she had a very basic fundamental understanding of the computer technology on the ship. But she also knew that she could not hope to reproduce it at this time. It was going to take more studying and researching.

She then turned all her focus onto the communications device, a spare one was found in the bridge, so she used that, after pulling up the schematics and copying them she went off to the meeting room and used the, she dubbed as a replicator, because that sounded better than a food printer, and according to AI Lex, it could do more than just print out food, but just about anything the shipboard computer had stored on its databanks. So she had it replicate the specific tools that the schematics and information instructed here were necessary.

Shockingly or not, most of the tools happened to be the same similar tools any computer repair place would have. such as soldering equipment, magnifying lenses, static discharge equipment, and various solutions. I guess even with advanced technologies, the simple things still provided some of the best results. So she got to work following the schematics and disassembled the comm device.

Even with following the schematics, because much of the circuitry was unfamiliar to her, and the power unit was of a totally different make than anything her civilization could come up with. She decided to look up the materials that were used to make the power unit, and amazingly it was no exotic materials at all, nor any radioactive materials. It derived its power apparently off of the concept of the energy decay of singularities. Not that the device itself had any kind of singularity in it, but the physics behind it were so out of this world that she started having ideas relating to its uses and theories herself. A testament to her ever increasing understanding and knowledge about these fields started to coalesce into her understanding of the devices she was working on.

She lost herself in studying the communications device until the wee hours of the night, Having taken apart and put it back together at least three times, each time getting a little more proficient in it. better understanding the concepts behind the workings of the device. She still couldn't hope to make the power unit herself, but she could now on her own with the proper tools, she could make everything else of the device.

With this now, she decided to write up her take on the whole thing, taking the schematics of the device. and the device that she had been working on and packed it up, then went off to the sleeping cabin to get some rest.