Published at 12th of January 2022 12:13 pm

Chapter 730: Once More Unto the Brink

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Aboard the Traveler, the next three days were spent creating containment chambers for the two relics that it had become their mission to recover. The first one was fine, and simply needed a polycarbonate casing at least two centimeters thick on all sides. This was enough to ensure that the object would not accidentally leak its energy to any of the three passengers.

However, steps needed to be taken before the second relic was brought aboard. These steps would prevent the energies of the two items from interacting with one another, causing unforeseen issues. For this, Chel had to quickly design a containment chamber by scanning the energy readings of the Mimicry relic and comparing them to what was observed from the Possession relic.

That is why this chamber could not be created before the retrieval of the second item, as both readings were needed in order to understand which parts of the energy signal were common between them, and how others varied. Once that was done, Chel got to work with Thea and Nora to construct a dampening field capable of suppressing the energies of the relics.

If not for the contributions of the Greater Pantheon, supplying them with manufactured components and materials, it was unlikely that they would have been able to complete the field within their three day deadline. Thankfully, between their help and Traveler’s cooperation, they were able to complete the project mere hours before their arrival at their next destination.

This time, the system that they appeared in looked wholly normal. There were over a dozen planets orbiting a single, yellow star that was not unlike the sun of Deckan itself. Of the planets, there were two which had large patches of green, suggesting the presence of plant life.

Once they dropped out of the Travel domain, Chel gave a nod towards the forward screen. “You know what to do, Traveler. Same procedure as last time.”

“Understood, Chelsea.” Traveler responded, soon going silent in order to carry out the wide-area scans. Images began appearing on the screens, showing different views of each of the planets.

“I am not detecting any unusual weather patterns. All significant storms correlate to natural weather conditions, with temperatures and tidal patterns following a logical course.” Traveler reported, though its voice seemed a bit more tired than before. Clearly, it had done a detailed scan in order to prevent any accidents like their earlier target.

“Alright, then. What about monster activity?” Chel asked, reclining in her seat. She had already established her willingness to destroy entire planets to find the object of her search, though there appeared to be two planets within this system carrying at least some form of life. It would be a bit trickier if the relic was on either of those two planets.

“I’m checking that now. Minimal monster presence within outer space. However, they appear to be congregated around the sixth planet from the star, the second planet in this system capable of supporting life.” As Traveler reported that, one of the images on the screen grew, showing one of the two green planets.

Surrounding that planet were numerous red dots, seeming to roam around the planet’s atmosphere. They weren’t entering it, but rather simply hovering, as if searching. “Is it masking its presence, or have there just not been many to detect it yet?” Chel asked in a concerned tone, before speaking up.

“Give me an ecological breakdown of this planet. If it has life, I want to know how advanced it is, and if there are any anomalous regions that could be caused by a mysterious power.” This was the tricky thing about hunting relics like this, you couldn’t always use the same method every time. Each one held its own special power, the raw manifestation of a domain.

“Understood. Performing a focused ecological scan.” Traveler responded, the ship itself turning to move towards the indicated planet. “I am not detecting any signs of civilization. The highest form of life appears to be a six-legged reptile. As some of them detected my scan, they quickly activated a form of cloaking mechanism that rendered them invisible to my sight.”

Chel’s eyes gleamed when she heard that. “Good!” She nodded, knowing how to take the operation from here. “Traveler, form a net of mana across the planet, maintaining it twenty meters from the planet’s surface. The lines of the net should be no more than one hundred kilometers apart. Once you’ve done that, project a second map of this planet on the main screen, using the net you are creating as the foundation.”

Traveler appeared momentarily confused, but nonetheless followed the instructions. Soon, a map appeared in a second window on the screen. This one looked as if someone were drawing latitude and longitude lines, but they had gone a bit crazy with spacing them too close together. Chel studied the image, finding that there were not any unusual gaps in the lines.

“Tighten the net. Ten meters from the surface, fifty kilometer spread. Rotate the net opposite to the planet’s natural rotation.” Chel called out, watching as the lines became even more compact.

As she stared at the net, she saw one line appear to vanish, immediately focusing on that location. “Pause the map, and overlay it with the topographical map of the planet.”

Once again, Traveler followed her instructions to the letter. When Chel saw the location that she had noted was within one of the world’s oceans, she was… less than thrilled. Nora seemed to follow her train of thought, gulping slightly. “What are the odds that it has removed an entire island from the map?”

“There’s one way to check.” She sighed. “Traveler, give me a control terminal. I’m going to feed you coordinates.” After she said that, a pedestal appeared in front of her, displaying the same map that was on the main screen. Navigating to the proper location, she drew a square over the affected area.

“Run one last scan. This time, I need a solid block of mana that touches the surface of the ocean, and rises to a height of thirty meters. I want you to only display the area within this region that you are not able to get a reading back from.”

The net around the planet vanished, and a new display appeared. What was shown was the top of a dome, one that seemed to poke out over the ocean and just barely reached fifteen meters high. However, Chel let out a frustrated sigh as she saw the shape.

“It’s definitely underwater. Traveler… use this shape as a reference, assume it fits as the top of the sphere, and find me the center.” Chel watched as the dome expanded, appearing to form a full sphere. Once the sphere was formed, the center was highlighted and marked on the map.

“The center of this sphere would appear to be three kilometers beneath the ocean’s surface, upon what can be assumed to be the ocean floor for this region.” Traveler reported, once again overlaying this area over the full map of the planet.

“Three kilometers…” Chel muttered to herself. “That depth is easily something a ‘Perfect Self’ can withstand.” She looked at the twins, offering a small nod before looking at the ceiling once again. “I don’t suppose that you have any diving equipment?”

“Unfortunately, I do not. I am a vessel for traveling deep space, not deep oceans, and therefore only possess aquatic gear that one would find useful within my onboard pool. If you wish to have a bathing suit tailored to you, that is within my area of expertise. However, a diving suit of such quality is beyond me.”

Chel let out a low sigh at Traveler’s report. “Alright. Guess we’re doing this oldschool.” She looked at the girls. “Through one method or another, this relic is blocking out the mana response in this area. It’s unknown if it will work with other types of energy or not, so I will perform a quick test when we descend. If the test is successful, we will retrieve the artifact and return. If not… we will abandon this one here to make our way back to Deckan.”

The girls were naturally surprised to hear Chel propose the idea of abandoning one of these relics. “What sort of test?” Thea asked worriedly.

“I’m going to extend my hand into the affected field. If my hand dissolves, that means that the effect is one that is capable of erasing all energy that enters its domain. In that situation, we would not be able to retrieve it, nor could we afford to bring it aboard the Traveler without specialized safeguards.”

“If my hand does not dissolve, we can assume that it is simply blocking either mana or the communication with mana. Either way, we will have to improvise how we communicate. At a depth of three kilometers, the area will be pitch black, minus any light we create ourselves. Thus, sign language simply isn’t an option.”

Nora smiled brightly. “We could use various colors of light to send simple messages.”

Chel smiled, pleased with that idea. “That’s good. Let’s use white to mean that everything is normal. Yellow means suspicious activity. Red means danger. Blue means that you have found something to report to the others. And finally, green means that you have found the relic, and we are free to extract.”

Looking up, Chel spoke to Traveler again. “Can you make us waterproof flashlights with those colors? It shouldn’t be difficult, as there are many cases in which one would appreciate multicolored lighting aboard an entertainment vessel.”

There was a moment of hesitation from Traveler. “I believe that I can provide this. However, they will have an operating time of only five hours after they have left my body. Given that I cannot penetrate this area with my mana, I would be incapable of wirelessly charging them over this distance.”

Chel nodded, as if that was entirely expected. “In that case, add in one more color. After three hours, all flashlights will begin flashing pink, signalling that we need to quickly surface and return to recharge.”

“Do you think that we won’t find it after three hours?” Nora asked curiously, to which Chel gave a bitter smile.

“Certain energy types travel at different speeds through liquids and gasses, and can have their flows disrupted by the tide. Although Traveler provided this map as a basis to go off of, there is still a possible five hundred meter discrepancy. That’s a five hundred meter radius that we will need to scour on the ocean’s floor in total darkness.”

“I can create a vision-type energy that will let you see in the dark, but there is still the ocean floor itself to consider. The item we’re looking for might be buried under a layer of mud, preventing us from spotting it at a glance. If we go over the entire territory without finding anything, we’ll need to carefully dig.”

“I say carefully because digging too firmly will cause the muddy sand to rise in our faces, preventing us from seeing anything at all. While I can give you darkvision, I cannot easily give you the ability to see through that type of clouded water. Especially not in a situation where mana has been cut off.”

Chel let out a resigned sigh after saying all of that. “Not just three hours, I wouldn’t be surprised if it took us a week just to find this one relic, depending on how deep it is.”

Nora nodded her head at that, understanding the gravity of the situation now. After the last relic, she had believed that this would be a simple extraction job. The last thing that she thought she’d be doing was wading through the ocean floor to try and find a crystal of unknown size and shape. Her ears drooped, her tails falling limp. “Well… let’s get this over with, I guess. I’m going to need the mother of all showers when we get back, though.”

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