Chapter 946: Kicking Things Off
<span style="font-weight:400">After watching the Bloody Hand march past, the street gradually began to return to normal. Dorian was able to quickly find me the enchantments that I needed, and even suggested a few defensive ones. Given how I had been willing to pay such arge fee for the concealment charms, as well as my level, she gave me quite powerful defenses.
<span style="font-weight:400">Most importantly, the use of these charms was rather simple, since they had been designed with the inventory system in mind. As long as the charm was ced in one of the inventory slots, it would remain active, attaching itself to your soul. When I heard that, I was quite impressed. “You said that thisbination is the most popr for inventories?” I asked, able to see the ck film appearing over my inventory.
<span style="font-weight:400">“That’s right.” Dorian responded with a confident nod. “Unless you are either carrying nothing of value, or arge number of valuables, this is the mostmonbination.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Why those distinctions?” I asked, raising my brow curiously.
<span style="font-weight:400">“It’s really quite simple. If you have nothing worth stealing, then there is no need to spend money to hide anything. On the other hand, if your inventory is filled with treasures, then even a random robbery will have a high chance of getting something valuable. For those cases, given the inherent wealth of those that this option applies to, it is moremon to disguise the individual treasures. If people think that you have nothing to steal, they are less likely to try.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Meanwhile, if they see a ck screen, they know that it’s a gamble. Rogues have a naturally high luck, but those who often use these powers to steal have that luck offset by their karma. In that case, they’ll judge how many pages of inventory space you have to approximate your level. If you’re strong enough to scare them, they won’t take that gamble. If not, they will typically try their luck before attempting a quick escape.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I gave a small nod when I heard that. There was never anything like a perfect method to protect ones’ belongings. Even the Sky Citadel had been invaded in the past, so I naturally couldn’t expect this inventory to be perfectly secure. It was nice that there were some level of defenses in ce, at least.
<span style="font-weight:400">After paying for the rest of my defensive charms, I once more moved out and into the streets of Gandor. After the passing of Aurivy’s armed troops, the mood of the festival seemed decidedly less festive than it was before. Thankfully, there were those who were trying to restore the atmosphere,ughing and cheering as they shopped happily along the street.
<span style="font-weight:400">Honestly, there were a few other souvenirs that I was interested in while I was out. The first was a figurine set of all of the Greater Pantheon, as well as the Keeper’s servants. Next was a scale model of the Sky Citadel, which was… honestly pretty urate. The real scary thing I found was the scale model of Olympus, which was already in several street stalls.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">They must have worked hard to grasp the externalyout of Olympus so well in such a short time.</i><span style="font-weight:400"> I was just d that there wasn’t a model of the <i><span style="font-weight:400">interior.</i><span style="font-weight:400"> That would be far harder to obtain, unless I somehow decided to do a grand tour of our new home. Which was not going to happen.
<span style="font-weight:400">With the festive atmosphere returning, I allowed myself to once again immerse in it. Whether it was the ttering bones of silly, dancing skeletons, or the lighthearted music that filled the air. Now was the time to rx.
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<span style="font-weight:400">“Haahh…” A long sigh echoed out in the workshop, a redheaded dwarf looking down at the item on the table before him. “Where in the zes did ye even find somethin’ like this,ss?”
<span style="font-weight:400">The item that he was inspecting was norger than his own hand, with four metallic legs and a thin frame. Its density was no more than a centimeter, its width only three or four, depending on the extent of the damaged areas.
<span style="font-weight:400">Nearby, a human woman with golden hair stood, smiling softly. “I was roaming around on my own when I found this on an asteroid. Do you think you can restore it?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Aye, aye.” Tubrock said with a rumbling chuckle. “I can restore it, alright. Now that I’ve seen the thing with me own eyes, shouldn’t be a problem to fill in the nks. What do you want its function to be for the codin’?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Elisae blinked in response, tilting her head slightly. “Wouldn’t you just be restoring its original function?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Its circuits were wiped, so I can’t do that. But this little guy can scout, manufacture, mine, or even serve as amunication device! If ye get enough of ‘em, they can connect together to formrger structures.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Elisae thought about it for a moment. “In that case, would it be helpful to set this first one to the task of reproduction? Though, would that mean that the ones it create automatically have that task?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Tubrock shook his head, a ck hammer appearing in his hand. “It’ll handle the physicalponents. I’ll be needing to make another one to program them into different types. Otherwise, they’ll be nk tes.” As he said that, he lifted his hammer, bringing it down as if to smash the drone to pieces.
<span style="font-weight:400">Elisae’s eyes widened, but his hammer came down before she could say anything. Rather than destroying the drone, there was a st of golden sparks. His brows were tightly knit, and Elisae could see golden strands of light filling in the gaps of the broken machine.
<span style="font-weight:400">The third upant of the room, ra, watched all of this with a happy smile. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Once this is fixed up, and the various drone types are set, I can ask for a couple to use on my mining. Sienna can do the basic smelting and resource harvesting, and these little guys can do the moreplex crafting.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">As these thoughts shed by, Tubrock’s hammer mmed down again and again, each strike filling in a bit more of the drone’s frame. After roughly one hundred strikes of the pitch ck hammer, Tubrock set it over his shoulder, wiping his brow. “Aye, it’s done.” He said, a golden spark traveling from his finger to the drone. “As long as it’s supplied with enough iron, copper, titanium, and tungsten, it’ll be able to continuously reproduce. I limited its range of activities to just this table, to prevent it from getting out of control.”
<span style="font-weight:400">After saying that, he extended his hand, and fourrge ingots printed themselves on the table in bursts of white light. The body of the drone clicked, standing up on its four legs and quickly running over to the ingots. Tinysers emerged from its ‘mouth’, consuming the various ingots.
<span style="font-weight:400">While the ingots were being consumed, a stream of silver liquid fell from its midsection, running across the table to form three different lines. Each of these three lines began to bubble, rising up into an entirely new drone sitting in standby mode.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Nanomachines!” ra shouted happily, seeing the construction method of the drone. Obviously, it couldn’t produce drones the size of itself with its own body, so it had to make the parts internally, first. She was just happy that those parts took the form of nanomachines, opening up a wide range of different possibilities. “But wait… if they’re made of interconnected nanomachines, why did the one Elisae found not dissolve into silver fluid when it was broken?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“That’s an easy one,ss.” Tubrock said with a shake of his head. “After the initial production period, the nanomachines be inert, unable to move independently. To do so again, they need to receive a special signal with an encryptedmand. Otherwise, they can be sted to bits and won’t dissolve. It’d be mighty inconvenient if an entire section of spaceship hull were to be liquified after a single st, aye?”
<span style="font-weight:400">ra blinked, nodding her head in agreement. “Alright! So, what next? I’ve already picked out a starting point for the new empire, and these little guys can help us with the basic infrastructure in no time!”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Ye’ll need to help us get there, then.” Tubrock said with a nod. “Let’s not be botherin’ the littless about this right now.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Not asking for Aurivy transport?” ra blinked again, before simply nodding. “Sun should be able to move us there, as well. Navigation via star maps should fall under her domain.”
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<span style="font-weight:400">While her Virtual self wasying the groundwork for her machine empire, ra’s real self was weing Sienna back to her mining world. The taciturn elf’s eyes scanned the area, seeing the simple foundation that ra had erected in a wide clearing. “This the base?” She asked curiously, to which ra nodded her head.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Were you able to already make the logistics monsters?” There was an eager tone in her voice as she asked that, seeing Sienna hugging her sickle weasel against her chest.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Mhm. It was easy once I had a temte.” After saying that, Sienna’s shadow erupted out across the ground behind her, covering over a kilometer. Six different types of beasts emerged, one after another. The first was a swarm of small, bat-like creatures without eyes, flying off in all directions. “Scouters. Can scan underground for ore deposits, and recognize different types.”
<span style="font-weight:400">The second was a hulking monstrosity with a massive stomach, looking like a cross between a toad, a bull, and a boulder. “Transporters. Internal storage space in their stomachs, and can spit out anything they eat.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Next came an entire pack of creatures that looked like wolves with sharp ws and thick legs, growling as they sat next to the transporters. “Miners. Powerful legs can dig up ores, and even crystal veins.”
<span style="font-weight:400">The fourth was another massive beast, this one with four powerful legs and an almost cube-like body. When these appeared, they began lumbering forward, nting themselves on the foundation ra had erected. “Smelter. Ingests ores and provides refined materials.”
<span style="font-weight:400">The fifth was a group of chittering ants with saw-like mandibles, each ant standing nearly a meter tall at the shoulder. “Loggers. Can harvest and process wood.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Finally, thest type of monster to appear was a single, slowly-moving… brain? There was a thin, almost transparentyer of flesh covering the brain, and six small legs beneath it. “Commander.” Sienna nodded her head. “Canmunicate and deliver orders to the others, and recognize speech formands.”
<span style="font-weight:400">After she said that, she turned to themander. “Locate iron and wood, smelt ingots and produce even nks. If you find Blood Heart, mark it and set it as secondary priority.” Themander creature let out a soft humm at that, the other monsters all moving out to scatter through the surroundings, with the exception of the smelters who would be a permanent addition to the factory.
<span style="font-weight:400">ra’s eyes widened as she saw the monster split off. The giant ants began sawing at nearby trees, carefully lowering them onto the bodies of other ants before stripping the bark and cutting along the grain. “Okay, Sienna… I admit it, you did great.” Sienna puffed out her chest proudly at the praise.
<span style="font-weight:400">“If you need more, let me know. I can produce as many as needed from shadow.” She said, before thinking and adding on. “If the supply of this isn’t enough, I’ll make teleporting ones to go to your others, and variants for different atmospheres.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No, no, that’s fine!” ra rapidly shook her head. “I won’t need to start mining the others for a long time. Besides, I’d need about eight billion of those wolves to be able to mine this dry before its regr refresh.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Sienna blinked, nodding her head. “Eight billion… I’ll need a few years… and the others to keep up… They have weak reproduction ability, so need to manually create.”
<span style="font-weight:400">ra’s brow twitched, and she leaned forward to flick Sienna’s forehead. “Okay, you did that one on purpose.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Sienna brought one hand up to her forehead, pouting before showing just the tiniest smile. “Maybe.”