Published at 20th of September 2024 7:18 am

Chapter 161: Observations

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As the hovercraft sailed through the air, Kyle tied up the leader tightly, before heading over to the unconscious Mari and checking her breathing. Still alive, but better to heal her once more.

The moment Kyle’s hands touched Mari’s shoulder to activate the Necklace of Healing, the Necklace activated itself without warning, the green arcia energy already surging away from his control towards her body.

Interesting… Kyle recalled something of a similar effect when he was fighting against the elder of the Goddess Nona cult, but back then he was the one doing the absorption. Perhaps it is the concept of osmosis.

Whatever theory Kyle had in mind, it would have to wait till they got back to the Culdao Peaks. “Sir, returning home?” Adrian asked as he controlled the hovercraft in the pilot’s seat, his neck craning back to peer into the cargo hold.

“No, continue the trial observations.”

The two of them had originally been flying around near the border of Kregol to test the new setup of the lightcapturer, which was simply just a dozen lightcapturers combined together to form a sort of array.

It was a prototype attempt by Kyle to create something similar to the sensors of the Galactic Era. By finetuning each of the lightcapturer to only have a limited view but higher focus, he could then stich all the separate images together to form a larger cohesive aerial observation film with high resolution.

The film could then be even further improved with multiple flybys that will superimpose the images, though Kyle doubted the hovercraft could achieve such continuous precision. A slight shift in the trajectory will cause the superimposed image to look terrible, so he was not counting on that.

For now, the lightcapturer array worked just fine, but he has yet to improve the hovercraft altitude to three kilometers. That would take a few more days.

“Are we just going to let the Ardent Cretins take over the mine?”

“Let’s observe a bit more of what’s happening in Kregol first before attempting anything.”

Kyle knew the key to winning Raktor was to slowly carve and chip away at the supply lines of each of the major gangs, starting with the Ardent Cretins. With the Baron nearly in his pocket, he now just needed to slowly wage an economic war against them, both aboveground and underground.

Economic disruptions are a surefire way to stop a larger enemy. The more mouths they have to feed, the more reliant they are on the supply chain. It was pointless to have so many men, but zero supplies to fight with.

As the Seven Snakes did not have enough forces to meet in a head-on battle, the plan has shifted from mere defense of territories to small-scale precise strikes, targeting every logistics that the Ardent Cretins needed to survive.

However, the cross-county nature of the logistics made it even harder to do so due to a lack of knowledge on the players in Kregol, and how the Count who had a vested interest in the collapse of Raktor would react to Kyle’s actions.

Thus, this trial observation run was the first of many aimed at collecting enough information before acting blatantly. While Kregol was not as economically significant compared to the behemoth that is Raktor, they still served as a great agricultural and mining sector, though slightly more impoverished and technologically backwards.

The hovercraft continued onwards, tracing the border of Kregol with Raktor as far as its range allowed. Maybe I will need to create a new variant of the hovercraft for better range. Kyle’s to-do list was only getting longer.

Add onto that the sudden lucky appearance of Mari during their trial observation run when they were tracing the movements of the Ardent Cretins, Kyle could already tell he was not going to sleep for a good while to come.

“Boss, running low.”

“Alright, head back and we’ll process the lightcapturer results together.”

The flight back was nearly an hour long, covering about a hundred and fifty kilometers. The top speed of the hovercraft was not exactly the best, only on par with extremely old planes in Ancient Earth, but considering its vertical take-off capabilities, Kyle was satisfied for now.

He had plenty of time to think over the implications of everything he has seen now. The appearance of Mari now gave him a chance to have further insights into the nature of the planet. Following my previous deduction of the planet being one big transcendent experiment, Mari must be either a planted or natural result.

Kyle had seen with his own eyes how Mari was able to conjure a pure bolt of arcia energy out of her own hands. If she had a miniaturized fission reactor in her heart along with a cybernetic arm armed with a plasma cannon, he might have believe it. However, to Kyle, that entire incident was pure magic, similar to how the elder was able to kill a few of his ADCON soldiers with such bolts.

He originally assumed the elder must have had a system of sorts, or an tattoo engraving that he was unable to see. But in the case of Mari, it was extremely clear that she had no training nor engraving whatsoever, nor was there any evidence of a similar system existing in her body. I might have to have Orisa examine her in one of the evolution pods.

He knew that the system remodeled the flesh within the body to create an engraving flow that mimic a proper arcia engraving, creating the illusion of an inborn skill that can then be casted.

But for Mari, the arcia bolt came naturally to her, being a eruption of emotions and arcia energy. Kyle had already learnt that mages were extremely rare, with barely a hundred on the continent. Naturally, with such a prize already in his possession, he was not about to let go of it easily.

Suddenly, Mari’s body began twitching, her breathing slowly becoming more labored. Kyle quickly tried to heal her, but could feel not just the Necklace’s own ambient arcia energy being drained, but even his own internal arcia energy was being depleted at a rapid rate. Shit, what’s going on?

“Sir, the hovercraft is starting to lose power! We won’t make it back!”

“Turn off the stealth engraving!” Kyle urged, aiming to conserve as much power as possible. “Go full throttle!”

The hovercraft streaked across the forest of the Culdao Peaks, roaring loudly as its engines were pushed to the limits.

As soon as they got back to Culdao Peaks, Kyle handed the captured leader off to Sasha and the others for interrogation, while he rushed Mari into the Oracle Chambers, where the A.I avatar of Orisa was already waiting for him.

“Any free pods?”

Orisa flashed a ceiling light to indicate a pod in another room, where it was originally occupied by her own body. Kyle quickly placed Mari inside gently and attached a breathing mask to her face, before the pod filled up with liquid, keeping her in stasis. The pod monitor began to show her vitals, though her heartrate and brain activity was completely irregular.

“Orisa, I want a full deep analysis of her body.”

[That would require both blood and flesh samples, as well as electromagnetic scanning.]

“Not a problem.” Before Kyle could relax, the pod monitor flickered wildly, while the lights flickers randomly, unable to control the sudden drop in voltage.

[Warning: Unknown power drain detected.] Orisa spoke through the A.I speakers, her voice garbled as well.

Not just arcia energy? Kyle quickly ordered for Orisa to cart in as many arcite ore as they had on hand, he himself bringing in close to half a ton’s worth of arcite ore.

Finally, Mari’s vitals began to stabilize as the arcia energy bypassed the glass of the pod, seeping into Mari’s body in tendrils that Kyle could only see thanks to his Arcian physique. He checked the cameras in the Oracle chambers, noticing that none of them could see the arcia energy tendrils, even in different spectrums.

That’s a major flaw. Kyle realized that it would be a major benefit if he had a device that could remotely observe arcia flows in the air. He had a suspicion that arcia energy was flowing all around him – he just could not see most of it unless it was in clear concentration like it was with Mari.

Long spindly metal needles poked Mari slightly across her skin, drawing a bit of surface blood as well skin samples to examine.

[Preliminary results are in: body age noted to be sixteen years old. Heritage unknown, but genes indicate ancestry that are able to manipulate arcia energy directly. Metabolism is also directly dependent on the abundance of arcia energy – any lack thereof will cause rapid destabilization of cells and organs.]

Kyle recalled the warning he had received from the Arcian race evolution, where he would not be able to survive without arcia energy as well, though Mari’s assessment sounded far more extreme. He did not view as such a big problem, thanks to his invention of the mechanical and radiation arcia regenerators. Even when on a spaceship, we can simply convert solar radiation into arcia energy and permeate the air. That was a problem for later.

“Keep observing her. The moment she wakes up, call me. Do not let her out of the pod until I arrive. Collect as much data as possible.”

The crisis was averted, but Kyle could hardly relax yet. There was still a city to win, so he headed over to Adrian where the lightthrower film was already processed. As enhanced as his body was, he could not see with ultra-high resolution at distances of over one kilometer for now, unless he went cybernetic.

Keith was also here as well, tracing supply routes from the observation. “This is much better that the single lightcapturer, I can even see the individual wagons as more than just a square now!”

Reese and Gordon also admired their new handywork, working to point out hotspots of economic activity, tallying with official company registers to figure out who’s what.

Kyle estimated the resolution to be about 10 cm per pixel, which was more than enough to see a person, but not his face exactly. Maybe an array of 144 lightcapturers?

Over the next three hours of investigative work, the result was hardly surprising. “Every company operating near the border is involved in illegal trading with the Ardent Cretins, save for a few that are allied with the Ravens in Kregol City itself.” Adrian concluded.

“On top of the companies, it’s clear that there are a lot of thug gangs that are operating illegally in mines and forests to extract resources without regulation. We will need to do a few more flybys to determine their relationship with the Count, Ravens or Ardent Cretins.”

As the lightcapturer array was only a specific point in time, Kyle would require continuous observation over a day or even a week to determine movement and events. “Not a problem, we can piece the information together over time.” He began to give out orders to the various subordinates that were already here.

“Adrian, have your men do more flybys and have informants enter Kregol City. We need to find out how the Count is involved in the major gangs, as well as the Ravens. See if they are a target for a potential alliance.”

Adrian nodded, understanding the hidden implications behind Kyle’s word. “Got it, will return with a report on finances and manpower strength as well as inclination.”

Kyle turned to Keith. “Has the Baron replied yet?”

“He’s agreeable to the deal, but he wants us to knock the Ardent Cretins a notch first before he is completely onboard.”

A proof of competency. Kyle was slightly irked at the Baron’s lack of trust, but this was something important to fostering an alliance. Kyle needed the Baron in order to gain a legitimate figurehead to take over the city, as well as stave off a potential revenge plot by Count Leon.

“Reese and Gordon, I need you two to get to work on improving the hovercraft for a higher altitude as soon as possible. I’ll work with you closely.” Kyle knew they had no contribution during the design and manufacture of the hovercraft, so a bit more effort would be necessary in bringing them up to speed on the concept.

“Sasha will handle the interrogation of the leader to figure out what the Ardent Cre-“

Before Kyle could finish, a low rumbling boom could be heard, reminiscent of a mortar explosion off in the distance. Adrian’s arctech radio immediately burst into life, the forest scouts on the other end talking rapidly.

[Sir, they are attacking with a larger force than ever!]

“The Ardent Cretins? Impossible, I just got a report from Raktor that they are still in the city fighting the enforcers.”

[Not them, sir! The Violet Demons!]

M.G.Driver

Sneak Peek for something I've been working on

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