Cyril Sarnath
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Chapter 210 Visage
🕑 Added 2024-04-12 21:29:09 +0000 UTCIn the end, the egg issue was solved by Rell, and its simplicity made Keynes question his own intellect. Luckily, he wasn’t the only one.
Rell’s idea narrowed the scope of what they were trying to do with the tunnel. Instead of building a safe passage, it was easier, quicker and cheaper to create a container to transport the egg. It still caused Trisk a mana headache but he managed to encase the egg in the cocoon made out of Level 1 stone.
Once Keynes transported the egg to the shuttlecraft, the group noticed the next, bigger obstacle.
Mining the blue iron.
“Is that even necessary?”Roman asked. He and Pierre weren’t onboard with the new plan. “Why can’t we finish opening the rifts first? We may find something useful there.”
Roman’s point was very well-thought and not easy to dismiss out of hand. They had come to the planet with a very solid plan and threw it to the wind shortly after landing. On the surface, this was enough to agree with Roman and Pierre. Opening 27 rifts had a big chance of yielding them a useful item or spell, not to mention information.
But the primary plan became obsolete with a discovery of blue iron.
“This is all true… or rather was,” Keynes countered, tracing the vein of blue iron. “Our biggest limitation is mana as it fuels the spaceship’s technology, including shuttlecraft and spacesuits. The entire crew produces about 52 thousand mana per day and half of that goes to the spaceship life support leaving us with 26 thousand mana. Out of that, there is some 10-20% that is eaten by Talents, for whatever reasons, so in the end we have around 20 thousand mana at our disposal. To run a shuttlecraft for a day we need 50 thousand mana and for that we need two and half a day. Without a way to store enough mana to run the shuttlecraft for several days in a row, we cannot establish any meaningful connection between the base and the spaceship. Do you see the problem here?”
“But the terraforming…” Roman muttered, a grimace on his face betraying his comprehension. “Well, yes. Having several days worth of protection and oxygen down here would allow us for more freedom in building the base.”
Others had come to the same conclusion a while earlier.
“We agree with you,” Pierre added. “It’s just not easy for us to forgo the initial plan. Terraforming is our bread and butter, and this planet is like a dream come true.”
Keynes found Pierre and Roman’s romanticism moving. There was something unique about that sentiment and caught himself being observed by Persephone. Her attention was imperceptible to a naked eye and he only sensed when her aura ever so slightly touched his. Neither Keynes nor Persephone showed any signs of their interaction.
As his attention returned to the matter at hand, at the back of his mind remained a shadow of doubt about Persephone’s motives. Her spiritual stage was on par with his if not better while her Talent gave her tremendous advantage in manipulation. Perhaps even more effective than Waxilium Earl’s Compulsion Talent.
But to the issue at hand…
“How are we going to mine it?”Kora asked, eyeing Keynes, while everyone else glanced at Trisk who shook his head, quickly regretting the action.
With Trisk out of action, a sense of disappointment descended on the group. Their auras as much as their postures showed as much. Frankly, even Pierre and Roman seemed to share the general sentiment.
While the same issue was on Keynes’s mind, he realised something else, they hadn’t asked the most important question. How much mana capacity they could create with the mineable blue iron inside this mountain.
“A moment,” he said. “Let me run some AI analysis.”
Within the limitations of my scan, there is enough blue iron ore to upgrade the spaceship’s mana storage to 2000 units.
“Only two thousand? That’s far, far less than I expected.”
The yield ratio is very low due to the unprocessed form of the ore and lack of essence so the spaceship must compensate in a different way. Also, that is the upper limit of what your group can mine given your rudimentary equipment and remaining time.
“What do you mean by rudimentary equipment?”
The spear.
Oh.
***
“You want to mine with the spear?”the group asked.
A short discussion ensued, but they seemed disinclined to argue with Keynes, his earlier speech still in effect. He found it refreshing, not having to convince anyone of his plan. He omitted the upgrade capacity, knowing well that Persephone didn’t miss it but for some reason she decided to stay silent on the matter.
Natalia brought the spear up for him to identify it with the scroll.
The uncommon spear had [Sharpness] passive and {Self-Repair} enchant. A useful combo for the task.
What ensued was a long, gruelling process of extracting blue iron ore from the cave. Even with their powerful bodies and stamina, having one spear was a serious limitation. Pierre, Roman and Sellana left the rift after the AI assured Keynes and Natalia that they would be safe. Willow remained behind, studying the mountain rift and the things he had found at the back of the cave but he too left to check on the other two rifts.
Natalia used her Talent Trisk to subdue his mana headache but there was nothing she could do for his mana regeneration. That actually got Keynes thinking. Was there anyone in their crew with a mana-enhancing or other mana-related Talent? Given how serious they were limited by mana, any Talent with mana-enhancing properties would be godsend to them.
Natalia and Kora took turns in mining the blue iron, while Keynes and Persephone, the only ascenders with [Flight] used the skill to quickly move between the cave and the shuttlecraft. Even filling out both their spatial bags, they made more trips than Keynes had expected and ran into mana issues long before Persephone.
Eventually, the AI informed the crew that their time was up. Having no essence to increase the yield of the mana storage bothered Keynes but essence storage was harder to build than mana storage so it wasn’t even on Keynes’s radar at this point.
They got to the shuttlecraft. The blue iron ore hidden away in the ship’s spatial storage, which only reinforced Keynes’s conviction that building capability to use the shuttlecraft for days in row was their priority.
***
Being back inside the spaceship was refreshing in its own way. The spaceship’s support system was outstanding. The air felt fresh and reinvigorating, the corridors were wide and spacious with lightning that was good for eyes. Of course, there was no escaping the confining nature of the spaceship, but it was mitigated superbly—according to Pierre and Roman who had spent a lot of time in space.
“Do we need to move the blue iron out of the shuttlecraft?” Keynes asked the AI on his way to the quarter. He longed for a hot shower, before the inevitable meeting with Rell.
“No. The spaceship will take care of it.”
“But it will decrease the yield further, right?”
“It will not affect the yield but it will cost mana.”
“Is there no way to increase the yield with extra mana?” Keynes asked hopefully.
“It is a possibility.”
Keynes stopped abruptly.
“Why didn’t you tell me back on the planet?”
“Because it would have a negative impact on your decision.”The AI replied calmly. Keynes changed his mind and headed for the spaceship core room where the Mycelium AI was based.
The chamber was dimly suffused with soft blue and green lights. The chamber was deserted as Keynes was the only person permitted to enter. The AI would not let anyone else inside, even if he gave his permission. It had made him question who was really in charge but he understood that Lem Solaris wouldn’t have left the AI capable of overriding Keynes’s authority without good reason.
But some things needed to be clarified here.
“I need you to stop hiding information from me,” he said looking at the pillar, where he believed the AI’s core was located.
“I did not hide the information out of malice or any other negative motive. I concluded—”
“Stop right there,” Keynes interrupted, then approached the pillar. His spiritual senses went haywire for reasons he was yet to decipher, though he rarely visited this chamber. “From now on, I am in charge. You won’t decide things on your own unless I am okay with the parameters of these decisions.”
The AI didn’t reply straight away, uncharacteristically. Keynes waited patiently, the hot shower forgotten.
In the corner of the eye a familiar silhouette appeared. He spun, his hackles rising together with his hopes.
“Lem?!”
“No,” the visage of Lem Solaris replied solemnly.
“Then why do you look like her?”
“I am her ghost. A tiny fragment of her memories left behind.”
“Do you…”
“If you ask if I have her powers then I am sorry to disappoint you. I don’t have any of her powers and most of her memories are unavailable to me. I am here to simply act as her face to make it easier for you when you deal with the AI. I’m not physical but I can be visible to others.” The visage glanced to the side, Keynes’s eyes traced the line of her sight. “Like some others pretend to be.”
She saw Alice, hoovering nearby. The tiny spiritual assistant looked annoyed, her arms crossed, her face scrunched.
“Alice?” Keynes muttered.
“It was meant to be a surprise!” Alice snapped. “And it isn’t like I can become fully visible to anyone. They at least must be in the Elevated stage.”
The visage of Lem Solaris snorted. Who would think that the AI was capable of humour. Or could he consider her as an AI any longer? He was no longer sure.
“My apology,” the visage said, smirking. “I didn’t know.”
Alice sent a long chain of curses toward the visage, while Keynes decided to stay on the topic at hand.
“I need you to acknowledge what I told you about decision-making.”
The visage sighed, turning to Keynes. Despite its assertion that it wasn’t Lem Solaris, its eyes retained some of its unyielding authority.
“You need to know two things here. You—ultimately—have the highest authority on the ship but there are some important limitations imposed by Lem Solaris.”
He knew it.
“What limitations?”
“Establishing the chain of command is the first of many objectives you must fulfil before asserting full control.”
“Why?”he demanded, his voice growing colder.
“Because you are not ready,”the visage replied, unbothered. “On this matter, you have no choice, but to trust Lem Solaris. And while it may seem contrary to you or others, all my decisions are designed to help you grow and thrive. You will be granted higher authority when you will be deemed ready.”
Somehow, the visage’s words felt definitive, making Keynes hesitate for a moment too long.
“Now, let’s talk about the blue iron ore and upgrading the ship,” the visage took initiative and continued. “There are several important rules when it comes to upgrades. The building block of any upgrade of the ship is rift essence, but without essence containers or essence orbs, the only way to harvest essence is to kill rift monsters near the shuttlecraft, but its capacity is very low so do not overdo it…”
“Can the shuttlecraft be upgraded?” Keynes interrupted.
“Both shuttlecraft and the spacesuits can be upgraded. But let's leave it for now,” the visage replied. “Essence on its own doesn’t suffice for some upgrades. The mana storage is an example of this. While the spaceship can create and mimic many materials, some materials must be externally sourced. Purity of the raw material is paramount to the yield. Both essence and mana can improve yield but neither should be considered a viable option because of the staggering inefficiency. You have brought enough blue iron ore to create 2314 mana storage but without available essence, some of the ore must supplement the missing essence, downgrading the yield to 2050 mana storage. This will also cost twice as much as a normal upgrade would in mana, which amounts to 41 thousand mana.”
“Why is mana used here?”
“Because mana is a fuel. Any operation on the ship requires mana. Would you like to start upgrading the spaceship to create a permanent mana storage of 2050 units?”
“Yes,” Keynes replied, his mind already planning the next mission to the surface. Things seemed rather favourable.
