hunting trip 1
Seeing the value raising by twenty directly, Alex nodded.
"Seems the units' value rose accordingly, 100 units for I rank, 200 units for H rank ones. If I'm right, then each rank-up would mean an increase of 100 in value. Those should be better for you all than using the I rank ones, which means that I will need to hunt for them actively."
Alex words didn't please the girls, but they know they don't have a choice. The more they stay cut from the world, the further the situation would slip from their hands.
"I think we shouldn't take more than a rank worth of increase at a time." Said Shizuka, having studied the phenomenon through Alex words. Together, they established that Alex body flushed the poison of I rank Mana Crystal in few minutes. However, tests show that it still lingers and needs a whole day to be effectively flushed out.
From this, she hypothesised that it wouldn't be good for him to absorb more than a tenth of his VIT stats, which mean around 100 units of poison max. Following the rank of the Crystal he absorbs, Alex shouldn't use them for less than 3 to 5 days. After the poison flushed, he would also need to let his body recuperate before starting again. For this, she counted two times more than is necessary to flush it out. It wouldn't be prudent to absorb Mana Crystal more than a tenth of their VIT limit every two weeks from her observation.
"I have a friend who kept weapons in her house, along with a military vehicle; perhaps it could be useful?" Proposed Shizuka, not wanting Alex to come too personal with the undead. Other than his bow, the girls know he doesn't have weapons, which wouldn't bring untold destruction.
Even if Alex wanted to harvest all humans' constructions, it would be best to minimise the questions such destruction would bring, more so when the world should be put in a magic sleep.
"Plus, we will need to know to which extent conventional weapons fare against them." Added Saya, making Alex nod.
"Alright, let do this," Alex said before bringing them out of the library to the new underground level in the house.
~~~
Needlessly say, the girls were shocked to discover the new security centre in the house. The floor made them thought of some office, with row after row of cubicles. Inside them, they could see the automaton sit on a chair with a console on the armrests inside them. It wasn't visible from there, but what appears to be a translucent crystal for them was the drone's camera screen.
Above the cubicles, enchanted signboards give the region the drones were exploring. A cubicles' row lines two of the four walls, and the rest of the space had two rows between corridors. One of the two remaining walls was littered with caisson, like in the towers, to store the inactive automatons.
The last wall was an interactive screen spanning the entire surface. Approaching the wall displaying the world map, Alex interacted with Japan, enlarging the selected country. The map vanishes as more and more detail appears on the country's enlarged map, until displaying a large map of Tokonosu.
The girls quickly made the school, the Takagi estate for Saya, and her house for Shizuka.
"Here!" Pointed Shizuka on showing Alex the emplacement.
Enlarging the image again, Alex double-tap on the house, making a series of numbers and runes appear.
"What are those numbers, and how did you do all this?" Inquired Saya, marvelling at the display of technology.
Until then, she had only witness Alex making medical devices and 3D printers, but this piece of enchantment was something completely different.
"Not unlike what satellite does. I'm constantly releasing drones to scoot the outside world. All of them an equipped with a fisheyes camera capturing what is happening outside; the rest it just image treatments they took. The mainframe goes through thousands of image to construct a detailed map of what the drones took. For now, I don't have the numbers of drones to cover the globe, but I made sure they map the entire Tokonosu and its surrounding before sending them to the mains cities around the world.
Once I have time, I will build satellites and send them in space; this will replace the drones and give us better coverage." Shrugged Alex, not seeing the dumbfounded faces of the girls at the ease he had said this.
They know better than to call him on this, but it still shocks them to see the ease he had to adapt human technology for magical ones and produce absurd types of machinery. They all know that, given few years, Alex could easily replace any of the most advanced techs of humanity with a magical one and go beyond in less than that. With the apocalypse, Humanity will lose its monopoly on the planet and be sent decades back, if not centuries, while Alex would thrive on their demise and create an empire greater than the one humanity built on thousand years of theological advancement.
Any humans Alex deems worthy of sheltering would see their life's assured and smoothly evade the apocalyptic conflict spreading on the planet.
"Alright!" Said Alex excitedly in clasping his hands, bringing their attention back to him. "I will take Shizuka with me; it would allow her to take some clothes while I gather the weapons and vehicles. You two can do as you like. I will leave some H rank Mana Crystals for you two if you want to rank up some of your stats.
Once we are back, I will be occupied mainly by studying the vehicle and craft us something to roam the city for our hunt."
Instruction given, Alex left Saya and Rei with a box containing ten H rank Mana Crystal before he caught Shizuka off guard and apparate them out of the house.
~~~
"Meep!" Shizuka frighten cries made Alex chuckles, making the blonde blush in embarrassment, and swap his shoulder. "Moo, Alex, your meanie!"
"Sorry, sorry!" Said Alex half-heartedly, still chuckling at her cute reaction. Seeing her pout, he smiled and swept her in his arms, kissing her fully on the lips. Caught off-guard a second time, Shizuka eyes widen before she melts in his embrace, wrapping her arms around his neck and legs around his torso.
The make-out turned more intense, and both momently forget their initial objectives. Only the lack of a comfortable surface to lies on and continue broke them apart.
Looking at Shizuka dazed eyes and flushed complexion, Alex couldn't help but kiss her a second time before lowering her back on the ground.
Unlocking the door with a simple spell, he holds the door open for her to enter." Go gather your stuff; I will rejoin you shortly."
Shizuka nodded but lowered her head, flushing deeper at the light slap she receives on her ass, courtesy of Alex.
Shaking his head and smile wryly at her meek behaviour at his slightest gesture of dominance over her, Alex looked at the military vehicle on the side of the house. Alex whistled at the sight of the Humvee M1025 on the small parking lot of the residence.
-This should do nicely, for durability, at least. It could be a better choice to see if you can't make your hand on a better car, a sport one maybe, and see if you can't boost the motor's power, another comfy car could be good too. For now, you don't have to transport troop, and comfort should be a point to prioritise if you want to use it on long distance.- Commented CS, thinking that a mix of the three could be the best they should aim.
'Agreed. The use of magic would allow us much more leniency than actual tech could. As for the motor, all I need is to study several types. Since the source powering it wouldn't be an issue, all that is need is efficantcy. Enchantments could be made to lighten the overall weight, without endangering the integrity of the vehicle.'
~~~
As the two debate on the best way to build their future car, Alex shrunk and stored the large vehicle in his space and enter the house. Using his memories, he enters Rika room and stores the locker altogether. Remembering a car dealer of a luxury mark and another sports car, Alex popped to those stores and swept the places clean, pocketing a dozen different vehicles in both.
Shizuka didn't even realise he was momently gone, and both rapidly packed all her clothes before returning to the compound.
While Shizuka happily put her clothes away in their shared walk-in closet, Alex looked around for the girls. Seeing Rei and Saya in the fitness room, Alex left them alone for now; after briefly warning them, he would pass the following hours in his workshop and work on their car.
~~~
Entering his workshop, Alex took out all the cars, returning them to their original size in the 1,000 square expanded room.
"Ok, let's see what we have here." Alex returned to his bench and its shelves. Opening a small box and overturns it, a mountain of mithril nuggets rained on a charmed opening on the bench. Without his intervention, 2kg ingots started to exit another slot at the front, transfigurate by the enchantments.
In the past days, Alex collected thousands of those nuggets from the high way gate'.
'A shame I wasn't aware that the amount of mithril they give would raise with their rank." Alex sighed at the loss of potential metal.
-Your greedy cat! I rank undead already give 100g nuggets, 110g for the H rank one. With just the first batch of those at the school, that was already 55.9kg of mithril! That without speaking about the thousands of undeads constantly attracted to the gate, giving you a constant amount!- Shouted CS back at Alex shameless claim.
As CS said, the enchantments on the bench were rapidly producing ingots per dozen.
"I know, but still, building this car won't be cheap. Not only I will need a lot of mithril, but gold too. Remember that I need ten kilos of gold for every kilo of true gold. Even if it's diluted in the alloy, the main part of the car won't be cheap."
Hearing Alex words mollified CS as he thought of them.- Fair enough, but you shouldn't need most of it. The only point I see you need it would be for the motor. As it would need the best magical propriety, a foregone conclusion; for the rest, I think raw mithril and magic steel should be enough.-
"Yes, that should be for the best; other than the motor, magical circuits would need to be made of the alloy, but that should be all. Alright, let get started!"
~~~
Rather than immediatly launch himself in the production straight away, both passed some hours to craft a particular drone. Contrary to the previous one, the drone was much more complex but should answer their immediate need. This specific drone had the form of the SHEILD helicarrier, if only on a smaller scale.
Crafting another automaton and its control room on the spot, Alex sends the next drone to its task, securing a large amount of gold present in the Australian surface ground. Thanks to the drone's previous task, Alex didn't even need to lost time, sending it there through a timed Portkey, recalling it every night to process the harvested gold.
His problem took care of; Alex turned to the dozens of cars he accumulates today and slowly started to deconstruct them, rapidly gathering their complete data.