Published at 29th of October 2026 1:39 pm

Chapter 7608: The ’Simple’ Acceleration Boot

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The alien data pad may serve as a valuable source of information, but Ves doubted it held anything that could catch his attention. It was merely an item used by a low-level alien overseer of sorts. Such a mundane information container was unlikely to hold high-level secrets.

Nonetheless, the Farseer showed greater interest due to the possibility that it could contain a dictionary of sorts between deathborn language and the common native alien languages of the Red Ocean.

If that was true, research into deathborn artifacts could progress by a huge extent, as deciphering the language of this mysterious race opened up a lot of new options!

Ves felt happy that his daughter had unlocked real value for the researchers, but he also felt eager to move on to more exciting stuff.

The leader of the Moloch Squadron clearly sensed his growing impatience. She gently took back the stone disk and laid it back on the worktable.

The item itself only remained active for a dozen or so seconds before it returned to its previous locked and inert state.

That was to be expected. This made it a bit more inconvenient to access and study all of the information contained within. Andraste would have to cooperate frequently with the collies until the latter managed to develop a more direct workaround against the alien security measures.

The older woman next picked up a boot and invited Andraste to wear it on her left foot.

Though the alien boot looked huge in proportion to the preteen’s miniscule limb, the collies had thoughtfully filled up much of the internal volume with temporary hardening slime.

It still looked ridiculous when over half of Andraste’s leg disappeared inside the opening of the alien item!

"This feels really weird." Andraste helpfully commented. "What is this supposed to do?"

"Walk forward, dear."

The little girl attempted to do so. Naturally, there was no way she could maintain a fluent and natural gait with such a large object strapped to her left leg, but she did her best to move forward.

"Huh?!"

"Meow?!"

Andraste suddenly whipped forward at a much higher speed than normal!

Lucky, who still flew close to her in order to guard against any possible threats, got left behind as his charge found herself at least 10 meters away!

"Interesting." Ves straightened his back as he finally found a deathborn gadget that was worthy of study. "What has happened?"

"The deathborn temple complex had only been recently built, but already covered a large expanse of territory." The Farseer patiently explained. "Much of the main facilities can be accessed through normal transit options such as aircars and underground rails. However, that still does not help with traversing large but confining buildings. In order to increase the efficiency of the native alien guestworkers, the deathborn has provided the more important among them with ’acceleration boots’. It is not difficult to deduce how they work. Each boot is embedded with a small green crystal, which serves as a multifunctional energy reservoir. This crystal can absorb and store small amounts of death energy, which can be used to drive a mechanism that amplifies the forward motion of the wearer of the boot."

The explanation did not contain enough details to satisfy an engineer like Ves. He seriously doubted that this so-called acceleration boot was as simple as she made it sound.

Her theory at least ruled out more esoteric possibilities.

For example, Ves briefly suspected that the boot somehow accelerated the passage of time around Andraste, essentially granting her more time to traverse a set distance!

That would have made the acceleration boot at least a thousand times more valuable!

It was too much to hope that this gadget could manipulate the power of time itself. It was much more reasonable to assume that it provided a simple and straightforward kinetic boost. At most, it might do something interesting with inertia in order to prevent the wearer from losing his posture.

"Whoa! Look at how fast I have become! This thing is so clunky, yet it can make me run so much faster!"

The red-headed girl certainly enjoyed it. She happily raced from one end of the lab chamber to the other end and back again without expending a lot of energy.

That was until her accelerated motion abruptly ceased. The transition happened so suddenly that she almost fell flat on her face!

"Huh?! It stopped?!"

Andrea Vos chuckled. "As I have said, the boot only contains a small green crystal. The energy capacity of this component is not large. Once you have used it up, you can no longer power the acceleration boot."

"Aww. Can you recharge it? I want to run faster again!"

"That is rather problematic. We have yet to devise a safe means of transferring death energy from one deathcrystal to another."

"What an inventive name for those alien green crystals." Ves remarked.

"It fits the pattern." The RC cultivator shrugged her shoulders. "Besides, our team and I have already decided to set aside our conceit and keep it simple. Millions, if not billions of people will work with some form of deathtech in the years to come. We refuse to make their lives more arduous than necessary than label these recovered alien artifacts with convoluted terms."

That was a far more noble sentiment than Ves expected from her kind.

"What are the properties of deathcrystals? You called them multifunctional. Please explain why."

"As far as our research has unveiled, the green crystals are largely uniform in material composition. What distinguishes them from each other is size and shape, though the deathborn may have other ways of differentiation that we have not yet discovered. Whatever the case, it is apparent that smaller deathcrystals are quick and easy to mass produce. The disadvantages are that their energy capacities are low and they are not able to bear too many functions. The larger crystals perform much better in that regard, but they are progressively more difficult to produce. As their volume increases, they become more potent in many aspects, but that also makes them more prone to fracturing."

In short, bigger green crystals were much more powerful, but also much harder to make.

That sounded simple enough.

"What can these bigger deathcrystals actually do?" Ves asked.

"We have already made a number of deductions, but the list is far from complete. They can store energy, data, turned into energy weapon foci, form energy shields, refine and purify death energy and more. However, many of the more advanced functions cannot be done by the crystals alone. They also need to work together with supporting structures that are embedded with alien formation marks."

"I see."

That fell outside of the scope of his immediate interest. Though he was still interested in the green crystals, he had no patience to figure out how to produce them and how to shape them into functional components.

He happily left this chore for the researchers of the Red Collective!

As Ves turned back to Andraste and her comically large boot, a thought came to mind.

"Is it possible to recharge this acceleration boot by feeding it with death energy?"

"Yes. If you are able to do so, you are welcome to try."

Blinky briefly emerged from Ves’ forehead. The Star Cat opened his maw and began to eject a modest quantity of death energy from the Blinkyverse.

The alien artifact eagerly absorbed the spurt of negative energy, leaving nothing behind!

"I’ve regained my speed!" Andraste exclaimed as she went to race back and forth again.

Unfortunately, her little sprinting session ended just 20 or so seconds after it received an injection of compatible energy.

"Too short!"

Ves also frowned. "This acceleration boot is not an energy efficient object."

"It works well in an environment that has already been desecrated by the daily sacrifice of millions of aliens and humans." The Farseer mildly responded. "It may be possible to increase their efficiency by implementing a more refined design, but the deathborn has not bothered to do so. The acceleration boot is relatively crude and low tech by their standards as well as ours."

Though the description cheapened this object, Ves actually valued it highly.

This was because red humanity had yet to figure out a way to produce a similar effect through E-technology!

Granted, humans had only recently gained the opportunity to play around with E energy radiation.

The deathborn had countless more years to discover and refine their extraordinary energy applications!

"Is it possible to figure out the working principles of this acceleration boot and adapt it to our own machines?" Ves asked. "It would be great to develop a cheap and easy means of speeding up all of our mechs and other craft. This can even be a gamechanger!"

Ves did not look down on this deathborn artifact in the slightest. Its cheapness only elevated its strategic potential.

Depending on the difficulty of this research, a small amount of investment could produce a disproportionately high yield!

Unfortunately, Andrea did not have all of the answers.

"I cannot say, sir. We lack the information to make this judgment. Studying the acceleration boot may allow us to develop a revolutionary new means of speeding up your mechs, or it may lead to a dead end where nothing useful can be gained. However, I believe that a partial success is the most likely outcome."

"What constitutes a partial success?"

The Farseer bent down next to Andraste and carefully yanked it off the little girl’s feet. She lifted it up and tapped its scuffed surface.

"As long as we have deduced the means to reproduce simple deathtech products, it is theoretically possible for us to produce imitations of these acceleration boots. That unlocks the option of scaling them up so that they can either be installed onto mechs or fitted around their existing feet."

That sounded like an unwieldy solution.

Yet red humanity may not have a better way to take advantage of this alien technology.

"That still does not address the need for death energy. We cannot easily produce it, you know."

"You are wrong, sir. Death energy is always present on the battlefield. As long as our soldiers kill their enemies, the corpses of the latter will naturally provide the fuel that can activate the acceleration boot. The same applies when humans are slain."

He could see where she was going with this. "You mean, the acceleration boots will start as deadweight, but as the battle progresses and both sides begin to inflict losses on each other, the alien-derived gadgets will gradually come online."

"Exactly. Can you imagine it? The more deaths take place, the greater the quantity of mechs that are able to move faster than before. Depending on the power of the acceleration boots, this mobility advantage can be large enough to create a decisive advantage in the latter phases of a battle. Not only will your machines be able to crush their opponents, but they will also be able to pursue fleeing enemies with greater ease. Speed is precisely what they need to secure a decisive and fruitful victory!"

It could also work the other way around. If friendly human forces were on the losing side, the progressive activation of the acceleration boots could make the remaining intact forces a lot stronger and more difficult to eliminate.

This could easily mean the difference between an orderly withdrawal or a total rout!

Ves gained a much more serious appreciation of deathtech after getting introduced to this simple acceleration boot.

He realized that the recovered artifacts could each serve as potential blueprints to new and amazing design applications!

No matter whether it was possible to replace the need for death energy with more convenient forms of E energy, deathtech had the potential to inspire many wondrous products!

It was no wonder that the Red Three and other major powers were willing to pay a ridiculous amount of money just to get their hands on salvaged alien junk!

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