Chapter 12-|
Chapter 12
Headmaster Ozpin leaned back in his chair, sipping from his mug slowly as the argument continued. General Ironwood had shown up with furious curiosity flavored with interested fury... he had been in a bit of a state.
All that cleared up quickly when Ozpin began showing off some of the new 'goods' available from Menagerie, specifically here in Kuo Kuana. As head of the Atlas military, he instantly saw how beneficial weapons and equipment could be if the Dust supplied was of standardized, highly purified quality.
Half of the technological base globally was dedicated to handling unusual spikes and dips in quality and power regulation. Almost no part of the tool or device being used could be relied upon, and all kinds of software and hardware was created to ensure turning on the lights wouldn't suddenly blow up your house one day. The need for constant adjustment was partly why everyone just made their own weapons in the end, a standardized product was just that more inferior. Guns that worked great in one region could barely work with Dust in another sometimes, making a single schematic hard to work with.
Headmaster Ironwood frowned. "I assume that my people will handle manufacturing and your people will work through distributing, Ozpin?"
Ozpin chuckled. "Initially that was my thought, but aside from negotiating the licensing rights to those 'Crystal Conversion Machines' which they seem unlikely to part with, you should look into the new line of Dust-less machinery."
He led James to a table loaded with documentation, passing a folder for review. "Ghira and I had a bit of a chat, and you have some of the top researchers on the planet. Converting Dust into various types or forms is amazing but simple... THIS is where your people will shine."
James began paging through the papers... rapid at first, then slowing down dramatically. "Power generators that can take any input as fuel... anti-gravity units... No Dust requirements!? What is this!?"
Ozpin chuckled, keeping an eye on Ghira and the most recent arrival, Vacuo's Shade Academy Headmaster, Theodore. The area under his purview included the largest natural Dust deposits known to society, and unlike many places Faunus whom were able to survive the harsh nature of the wild were more than welcome there... so negotiations were going well for Menagerie.
He wondered how many Grade 0 Dust samples Theodore had brought with him... he certainly came with enough ships. "That my friend is just some of the schematics provided to us by the 'Giant Hero', Adam. It took a bit of talk, but Ghira's people will outsource research and advancement of these schematics to your people in return for reasonable demands."
Seeing the glare continue, Ozpin chuckled again. "Any advancements or breakthroughs must be shared, any product using these designs or derivatives thereof being released external to Atlas, Vale, or Vacuo must undergo a joint approval process to prevent anti-Faunus organizations from abusing it. And so forth."
James blanked out slightly. "What the HELL did Mistral do to piss everyone off this much!?"
Professor Ozpin winced, and sent a private note to his friend's Scroll.
James grew more serious the more he read. "Those... bastards. Was it sanctioned?"
The silence was telling.
General Ironwood seemed to darken. "Well... well. It may be time for Atlas to also review a few other deals and understandings when it comes to our neighbors to the east."
He strode towards the rest of the group. "After all, the world of finance is going to change anyway... why not a few more minor modifications."
Ozpin sighed... but couldn't refute his friend. Headmaster Leonardo Lionheart had crossed a line no one had expected him to cross. Political or extreme faction pressure or not, resisting the advancement of the Grimm always came first.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Kali gently wiggled Blake back and forth, the slightly confused baby babbling happily as she tried to keep track of the world as she squirmed on her back.
Her baby was best baby.
The Hunter came up silently, waiting until Kali finished securing her daughter in the bright blue blanket. She nodded. "Report."
He nodded. "Target has enabled full access to the underground farms, which are already being planted as we speak. Over 80% of pasture animals have been relocated so far, the rest should be done in the next day or so. Personnel are undergoing training to occupy the management facilities down there. The Vending Machine Floor is operating as expected, and many orders are underway. However, Some issues have arisen with the most recent schematics provided."
At her raised eyebrow, he continued. "Most of the new devices are simple enough to make with our own resources and equipment, but certain components are almost black boxes in nature and require sub-molecular rearrangement to create or even properly examine. Almost zero faults or defects are allowed, any found lead to instant failure. The marked components on the list are modular, and are sold in the Target's Vending Machine floor at very low prices."
Kali chuckled. "Theoretically, if those parts were incorrectly crafted but did not fail safely, what is the worst case scenario?"
He nodded. "Fairly large explosion. That said, there is a lower quality version of the advanced parts being offered for sale by the Target, and Ghira was convinced by Ozpin to send it with General Ironwood to see if his people can improve our manufacturing processes in general while trying to reproduce the designs."
Kali booped Blake's nose, the infant's cute cat ears wiggling as she tried to laugh but forgot to make noise. "And his current location?"
The Hunter glanced at his Scroll. "The Target and Ms. Betty are exploring the sea side. And he seems to be rebuilding and reinforcing the seashore as they progress. Some sort of strange porous rock formation, stronger than anything documented. We have people looking at it."
She sighed. "I'm going to lose a guild leader at this point. At least she seems happy about the situation." Blake blinked... then gave a tiny sneeze.
Kali squealed. "My baby is best baby!"
Time for emergency cuddles!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Qrow Branwen blinked, drink still in hand.
The rest of Team STRQ was stuck here in Beacon Academy, here in Vale while the other teams had flown with speed to save any survivors of what was likely to be called the 'Menagerie Massacre'. Until it wasn't.
His sister Raven and Summer Rose had been furious when told they couldn't come, although Taiyang Xiao Long had been far more understanding of the situation for some reason... not that it mattered now.
He glanced at his drink, and cautiously took another sip.
Another lightning blast evaporated a distant Ursa, the bear Grimm screaming as the flesh floated into black smog.
Huh.
Point was, his team had been kept behind and their anger had quickly turned into confusion as their Scrolls had connected into something called the 'Skyword Networking System', letting them receive updates about how one dude ('King Muscles', 'Giant Hero', 'Sexy McSexy Pants', and so forth) had shown up and just... kicked Grimm ass.
The videos were everyone on the network, felt like something from a movie really. The ones from 'Winged_One' were the best though, very professional.
Which was fine.
He took another slow sip.
More lightning, this time a Beowolf he watched in the distance nearly turned inside out from the impact. The pack nearby were killed in the process.
Said 'hero' had also summoned a naked flying lady, so his popularity had jumped world wide just from that. Her image was all over the network, somehow just shy of exposing the best parts... if he didn't know better, he would accuse the angel of teasing the whole dang planet at this point. Supposedly he had also summoned two massive monsters to fight Grimm while he was busy on some sort of a date? It was still unconfirmed.
Glaring at the many distant Grimm, he took three quick swigs.
Three lightning blasts.
He felt a portal open behind him. Well, not really, but he heard the sounds change and smelled the shift as another place connected. "Brother, the others want you to return to camp."
Qrow shook his head. "Can't. Saving the world."
Another swig.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam blinked. "I was unaware there was a village this close to the city."
Betty was brushing his blue hair with her fingers. "The ones closest all evacuated to Kuo Kuana of course, this one is a half way point to the Docks."
She pointed. "We get trade and even some fishing done with specialty ships, this village takes that product and repackages shipments for land distribution or harvests seafood into preservable units."
Her eyes checked as they walked. "Thank goodness the damage is minimal."
Adam hummed. "Simmy: send a drone to fix the area and the villages closest to the city. No need for these people to come back after that traumatic experience to a blown up home."
He watched as construction drones fell from the sky and got to work. "Would Ghira care a lot if we just set up some of those protection Glyph wards around these?"
Betty shrugged. "Not sure, but his wife would be grateful. If you want I can try and convince our friends following along to keep it quiet? No one should notice until the residents return." Probably.
With a plan in place, the couple continued to walk along the shore, admiring the weather as robotic drones restructured the town they slowly passed. Seriously, some of these roads were in terrible condition. Simmy, fix the worst of it, would you?
He grinned at the tune she sent him. Yeah, she could handle this.
The sea still had black smears swirling through it.
He hummed. "Hey, does it take longer for Grimm to evaporate from the sea than on land?"
Betty nodded. "It can, it is a bit annoying but doesn't seem to hurt the fish or plant life, just makes it harder to see underwater. And we all appreciate less sea monsters."
Adam nodded. "Levy, have Simmy set up some purification traps in the ocean for you and shove all the black stuff into them. Makes the ocean smell weird with this much Grimm liquid everywhere."
Betty blinked. There had been no noise or special reaction to his words... but the black streaks in the ocean seemed to suddenly be in a hurry, vanishing into the distance before her eyes.
He nodded. "Send any trash you find to Simmy for conversion too. I don't think they have as much as we do at home, but no reason not to check." Who knew how many sunk flying ships and so forth had been crashed into the sea over the years. "Anything mostly intact should be directed where Simmy wants it, no reason to crush it all before we check for useful stuff."
Adam blinked... crap. "Betty, you heard nothing."
She glanced at the surrounding Hunters, some already typing messages. "I mean... sure?"
He nodded. Problem solved. "Anyway, I want to go see the Docks. I bet I can make some neat stuff, I had a bit of practice in my home town. Made a swimming area, some deeper water channels for larger ships to come in, it was fun if a bit tedious at times. More paperwork than I expected too." He seemed to brighten up. "But technically it won't be my fault! My powers are all locked up, I would just be... uh. Directing ongoing maintenance. Through Simmy's drones. Yeah, let's go with that."
Betty made some hand gestures... yeah, several people already knew about the town they were passing. And according to the Hunter squad captain, the Drones had started to repair roads throughout the region, and Adam was already being credited. "I... I feel I must point out that you may get attention if you do so. We could just check it out anyway, but people may notice." Heck, some of the guards were LIVE STREAMING this. On the angel's orders no less.
Adam laughed. "Nah, no one cares about a shipyard, I'm sure we can get away with at least a little improvement."
Betty started to speak up when she noticed a blue slip of paper in her hand. 'Shh, it will be a surprise!'... huh?
Memories of massive monsters, supposed brothers to that 'cute innocent Angel' that was currently asking her to stay quiet. The danger she could get in if she went against something of that magnitude.
Well... Adam came first. "Hey, Adam, Simmy asked me to..."
Adam, mostly distracted, waved it off. "If she says to do something, best to listen to her. She always has a plan of some sort, so it will be fine."
She glanced at the note... that now said 'No really, it will be fine!'. Uh huh. Sure.
Betty looked down at her ride. "Adam, are you sure about that?"
He bounced along the road. "Oh she likes to mess with me, but I trust her."
She sighed, the note now saying 'I`ll send you a copy of his reaction!'... Great.
Well, he probably knew best. "Take the right hand path up ahead for a while and the Docks will be hard to miss."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Simmy danced in the sky, directing drones to modify some structures in the ocean to slightly redirect currents, on mountains to modify the airflow. The Grimm misunderstood things in convenient ways, and various people (Criminals, racists, and assholes in general) were accidentally posting evidence of crimes and then donating hidden funds to charity. Boring things really.
More importantly, look at her man!
Her husband was best husband!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
With casual ease, Adam swiped a hand, the earth parting with 'Manipulation' to give him some working room now that they were here at the Docks.
...Any time now.
With a blush, Adam coughed. Right, powers were currently being borrowed by the terrible trio. "Uh... First, I think making some basic designs first would be senseable."
She saw nothing, right? He glanced at Betty who seemed... more than a bit amused. Crud. "What natural defenses does this town have?"
The place was interesting. The Docks (Actual town name) was in an almost closed bay connected to the sea, with cover and walls everywhere even as you got closer to the actual sea structures themselves. Some sort of metal and rock monstrosity, obviously built in sections over many years.
Betty was kind enough to move on. "The bay entrance is normally armed with Hunters stationed in turrets, there are emergency barriers that can be mechanically lifted to block the area off, and there are underground emergency tunnels to escape from air attacks. The tunnels run through the docks and if needed we can continue to unload the ships during attacks."
Adam hummed. "Hmm. Maybe we could go big then."
He gestured towards the structures. "Any of these homes?"
She shook her head. "No, Grimm seem to ignore empty facilities most of the time so people live back in the processing town we passed and visit here for unloading and loading days only. Show up, kill any Grimm nearby, get the job done, go back home."
Reasonable enough. "Benny, we are rebuilding from scratch. Solidify the stone foundation, flatten it all, and get rid of the loading platforms, boardwalk, and docks for now."
He ignored the others and glanced into the water. "Levy, dig out the bay floor a few levels, open the bay channel entrance by double, then generally smooth out all surfaces near this area that are near water. Fill in ravines, grind down peaks, make it easier to work with. And get rid of the loose debris and pebbles and whatnot."
Adam watched the shifting landscape, 'Conversion' pulling a lot of work honestly. "Simmy, I want a barrier around this area, with some Grimm traps in the ocean farther out. Leave a gap in the middle so ships can enter safely while the Grimm fall for the bait. Get some drones making some light houses at the entrance, I assume fog and weather issues are still an issue."
He sighed. "Honestly, I feel so useless having to outsource my actions like this." His Aura coated limbs that were fortunately already formed into Construction emitters rotated, rapidly building a pedestal and a model of the local area. Another sweep smoothed the floor and vanished the random stones and so such.
Adam motioned the other hunters forward, before glancing at Betty. "So I think we can have four major loading and unloading piers for commercial use, with the outside rim of the Bay for private operations. That would have eight docking edges for at least one ship per side at a time."
The model was modified by his limbs. "The loading facilities will be entirely enclosed and have emergency barriers inside that can seal off sections of the tunnels from Grimm or water. Your ships dock, and any loading and unloading can be done entirely from the tunnels in the pier itself."
He frowned. "Simmy, can you update this thing with some storage facilities and refinement tools to match or better the stuff we cleared out?"
A drone fell like a silent brink from the heavens, covered the pedestal in lights, then Gathered a cavity in the base and embedded itself, Constructing a covering to protect itself. Good.
Adam pointed at the now constantly updating map. "Four temporary storage facilities, one long term storage structure that is heavily reinforced, and a larger processing area for later loading and unloading for transport when leaving the town or returning for more work."
He glanced over to where Simmy's drones were already forming the foundational layers of the new design. "Power will be supplied by Simmy's roads, since she has been installing Power Couplings under the things for the last few hours... but it would be best to have a few Conversion Generators underground as an emergency backup." Crud, he would have to tell Ghira at some point later. Can't leave random unknown power plants around.
The loud snap of something being reformed made him wince back into focus. "Well, that is a good starting point I guess, but what do you think would be a good long term idea or two for us to include guys?"
The ground rumbled, the sea bubbled, and strange noises crackled.
"Guys?"
The Hunters and Huntresses were a bit dazed. And staring at various things.
...Well that wasn't helpful.
Adam used a limb to pull the short cow woman off his shoulders. "Betty, do you need some sort of pasture here to hold your livestock before being shipped?"
Her eyes were still watching the world being reformed by magic, conversion, and flying laser droids. "Huwah?"
Right, probably would need a pasture. Best build it underground again, with the feed generating machines Simmy enhanced. "Good talk. You guys just... hold down the fort. I'll be right back."
Betty gestured at the ocean. "WhaWha!?"
He pet her head. "That's right, Wha Wha indeed. Be right back."
Adam walked towards the main holding facility. It would be slower to use his own work limbs to do this but at least he wouldn't feel so useless.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Gene walked into the living room, seeing her grand daughter watching some action movie on her Scroll. "Susan, you shouldn't spend so much time online. Go out and train a bit, enjoy the sunshine!"
Her little one looked up. "Gran... come look at this."
She blinked, but carefully sat on the couch. Age waits for no one, which was funny considering how much waiting SHE had to do now these days. "Is this one of your action shows? You know I have trouble keeping up with them. Ends up with explosions most of the time anyways."
Susan widened her Scroll. "That is Adam. He summons monsters and builds stuff. Right now he is making a fishing town or something at the ocean."
Huh. "Odd choice for a plot. Most of the time it is about some valiant hunter duo finding love and battle while defending someplace or other."
Her little one (I don't CARE how old you are dear, you will always be my little one) blushed. "Gran, that was ONE time! And no one filmed us!" She coughed. "Anyway, Adam fought off an army of Grimm and that woman on his shoulders is like an orphan who became a Guild Leader and all kinds of stuff. I'm still trying to catch up honestly."
They both blinked when the video shrank. To show a news room.
Oh. That was a live feed.
The two watched in wonder as a single person reshaped the world because he was unhappy about how other people prepared cattle for ocean transportation.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam paused in his work when Simmy connected him to some of the new information from her network.
Someone had found the 'Weapon Design' Wiki interesting enough to make a 'Structure Development' one. And as he watched, schematics for all kinds of tools and workstations were being shared, argued over, improved, made worse, and all sorts of neat things. And a lot of useless ones, like the egg inspection facility... for animals that don't lay eggs. Which, fair enough, if a cow laid an egg HE would want to inspect it too.
The one's Simmy had shared though involved not just loading machines, unloading machines, sorting machines, and so forth... but sorting and seafood processing facilities. And packaging ones, both for food and non food products.
He glanced at the still being constructed pasture. Well, it was a bit boring to work on this anyway... the designs were pretty solid so he was stuck walking around to get his tools in range while they automatically built junk.
Screw it, better to go back to the larger storage facility and make some processing rooms.
Time passed. And anyone trying to point out that Adam had to move a few things were a liar. Because of COURSE the loading machines should be in the Piers... and more in the storage facilities... And maybe the various harvesting tools needed a few more modifications for people with only two arms and...
Well, Simmy helped a lot in general and Betty helped a lot in pointing out how silly some of his design choices were for non-Elephant Faunus multi-limbed people.
After she caught up.
Betty had been distracted for a while, and before she had recovered some sort of call center had sprung up near the constantly updated pedestal map and she had been roped into helping. But eventually she found Adam randomly building crap in the larger storage area, and was able to point out that in several cases he had forgotten how important the order of operations could be when unloading or loading something. And how important windows were. And doors.
Buildings needed doors.
Good thing the materials used were stupid strong, despite being thin the walls would resist a heck of a lot and the ceilings were so high it made people woozy to look up at it. Should keep the flying Grimm out of the way though, and the thin materials meant more room for the future workers inside. That they were easier to lift and move around was beside the point. He fixed it all eventually anyway.
To be honest, Adam had been so distracted by the random things he was doing that he entirely missed the first two arriving vehicles bringing in Faunus from the city. If he hadn't found them in his way as he moved rooms/machines/sections of the new town... well, he noticed them eventually. That was the important part.
Sienna however had shown up a bit furious. And glaring at Betty. "I can't BELIEVE you got all this snuggle time with Captain Muscles."
On the other hand, Betty's expression shone with purity and innocence. "I called Dibs."
...It went downhill from there.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Susan pointed at the chart as the onscreen argument continued. "So Sienna Khan gathered a lesbian harem to conquer Adam's massive body, but had too many work responsibilities to properly make her case for love and sexy times. Betty had pushed hard for a relationship position early and often, accidentally becoming more powerful politically and financially in the process."
She made some marks. "Adam HASN'T seduced Ghira's wife, Kali." More marks. "Or Chieftain Ghira." More marks. "However, these twelve women whom were supposed to be body guards seem to be more body inspectors, and I don't know where on the chart they go. Or if Adam even noticed them yet."
An arrow pointed towards three images. "The sexy undressed Angel is his summons, but was also called his secretary and wife. She has directly met Betty AND Sienna, but had no issue with either one or their flirtations. Her brothers are massive monsters currently destroying the area's Grimm population, so if she wanted to end the issue both Betty and Sienna would be smushed."
Gene sighed. "And why the multiple arms?"
She frowned. "The network doesn't think it is a sexual situation, just extra tools on a very advanced suit under-frame. Maybe a secondary weapons platform he uses for construction." Susan pointed to the board. "The network is going a bit crazy, but the thirty five women claiming to be from past relationships were unable to provide proof, same with the ex-boyfriends. The best information we got so far was from 'Winged_One', who keeps making some amazing videos and finding some interesting rumors."
Gene blinked. "Like what?"
Susan leaned forward. "Supposedly Adam is dating a woman who is a twin... with herself!"
...What?
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Simmy was busy. Levy and Benny were having fun, but not really entertaining to talk to. Squishy was... well, she would get back to him later.
No, the real issue is having to wait. Home needed time to consume the two Entities, HERE needed time to bestow Simmy with all their knowledge, and Betty had to go talk to some people about some business or other, guild related he was sure. So... he had to spend some time NOT doing anything.
It was surprisingly hard.
Adam had retreated to the workshop warehouse, now that there were so many people in the way. He had wanted to get some sort of giant actuator arm, a robotic limb that could just lift ships out of the sea for hull maintenance... but Betty felt it would gather a lot of attention. And after some consideration, he had to agree with her.
So he took over one of the many workshops he built in the new 'Dock Town' and was trying to get something done that... well, it was a bit tedious but it was best to just grit one's teeth and get it done with.
Tech integration.
Simmy was still gathering more and more valuable information, but he had enough to get to work. While the faith enhanced materials were awesome, and the Dust infused stuff created interesting options... the real issue was the design philosophy.
Star Wars tech was about precision, automation, and standardization. Trillions of cultures trying to trade and interact.
RWBY tech was about fault tolerance, individualized design, and variability. Only the surviving few attempting to live.
With a sigh, Adam began going over each of his various designs. Some would give up reliability and precision to gain far more flexibility and error handling (Both software and hardware issues, this stuff was useful). Stuff like his initial build up equipment was in this category. Other schematics would have no change, the necessary output too reliant on other parts to accept change easily. Gather and Construction beam emitters for one.
The last bit to consider was full on tool replacement. Because some things RWBY did, RWBY did VERY well.
Fuel analysis in this Realm was needed everywhere, with Dust being so unreliable, with fuel being so flimsy. The sensors for determining structural integrity and wear and tear were amazing, more powerful and smaller than anything he had seen so far. Heck, sensors in general here were BETTER than the ones from a space traveling society! That was unusual all on its own.
Even after replacing the components reliant on Dust to operate, the sensors were still heads and shoulders above the competition. They were so good that Simmy had started having Drones upgrade each other even as Adam began attempting to improve the sensors themselves. And the improvements were minimal, they were just that well implemented.
Mecha-shifting was very interesting as well. Used not only in weaponry, but in some machinery and vehicles, even some buildings took advantage of the stuff.
As mentioned before, it didn't really go outside of the third dimension, just pushed really hard against reality in small areas. That said, the designs used clever joint designs and sliding shafts such that when transformed into other modes, the weapons would have components sync together and partially disassemble themselves.
Basically, when going from a gun to a sword the parts would slightly fall apart and then interlock with their new neighbors, creating a structural integrity and stability unexpected from anything that needed to change form. The faith metals helped as well, as currents of energy made the embedded Dust modify the physical form: Some parts bent more than possible, or became more sturdy (but only when firing or given energy), springs failed more slowly... it was fascinating.
With a pause... Adam pulled out his weapon from the initial Grimm fight.
The 'staff', or 'stick', or 'I wanna hit something with it' thing he had basically slapped together and stuffed with power.
It was... a mess.
Basically, the staff/mallet/wand thing was only a spell framework supported by a faith matrix. It was the raw energy he kept stuffing into the thing that allowed it to create the illusion of being made of physical materials, and it was the faith imbued within that kept it from randomly exploding.
Mostly. That did explain why his assaults kept spewing magic everywhere when the Grimm were struck.
Aside from the danger of using this thing in a future world with low magic or faith, which was substantial, the spells were badly designed as they were. Able to handle high energy loads safely, these same energies were NOT being handled efficiently. At all.
So yeah, it was strong enough for Adam to swing without tearing itself apart and stable enough to not explode a city block when touching the air, but it wasted his power like a screen door installed in a boat bottom.
His limbs carefully rotated the thing.
The stick, first of all. It was almost unrelated to the massive stone of magic attached to the end. It just gathered all kinds of energy, forced it into a tornado pattern, passed the energy back through the center of the rod and stuffed it into the rock.
That same rock accepted power and swirled like water into a drain... except the drain was in the center. So it was a spherical swirl that forced power into a single point... and that was it.
Any impact would disturb the power stability, causing the explosions.
And uh... Adam wasn't sure exactly where the energy from the Magic rock went. It could be sent to his soul, lost to the Abyss, or (worse case) be building up for an explosion. A big one.
So yeah, crappy design.
Glyphs, fueled by his Aura and forced to stay stable, began to materialize in metal like shapes in the air. Stability, Reinforcement, and Momentum Conversion began to carefully duplicate themselves and be slightly bent, the blue metal designs being nudged into a rod form.
The bottom tip would have a small set of Glyphs, focused on energy attraction and conversion. The power would run through the center as expected, but would also feed energy to the Glyphs composing the external shaft of the weapon. You know, so you could hold the damn thing.
A very thin Transportation Glyph string would exist on the outside of the rod, spiraling down to connect both ends. Theoretically, this would allow energy to loop between ends to prevent any power leakage and to encourage stability even if no additional power was available in the system. An emergency feedback loop, one Adam carefully designed to be regulated and modified based on the other Glyph's energy use. Should be fine.
The magic stone design on the other hand was a loss. No idea what it was trying to do, but it was a waste to use that energy in such a weak way. Just tossing the power at the target would be more powerful and less wasteful than forcing it into a ball and having someone mess up the energy flow to 'attack'.
So the center of the new orb was now an energy gathering array, one that would take any excess fuel and compress it into a solidified form for removal. No more 'It goes somewhere and I hope it is safe' for Adam, he could just collect the raw magic stones it generated and relax a little.
Then he included a complicated analysis array, one with a mental communication Glyph setup next to a Glyph modification matrix. They were formed around the power supply/magic stone generator, and would be the 'surface' of the rock. For now.
So... if this worked, this new 'magic stone' would feel what actions he was trying to cause, look through the supplied library of Glyphs (By connecting to his Soul Library through the communication Glyphs), and use the energy from storage to etch Aura empowered Glyphs near the surface of the rock. They could be used to enhance actions without getting in the way.
The more duplicate Glyphs needed, the larger and more stable the etched 'enhancers' would become... the less used, the smaller they would become until they vanished.
Theoretically this would allow his new wand/staff/mallet to modify itself to eventually match his personal attack/use style while still allowing him to use new spells or whatever if desired without a casting penalty. Maybe.
Adam wiped his forehead with his trunk, grinning at the black Glyph rod and the blue Glyph stone, carefully feeding his Aura into the base of it. The energy filled in the air gaps of the weapon, even as the patterns themselves grew in clarity and definition. Ever so slowly, the symbols began pulsing with power. After only a few seconds, the pattern stabilized, a steady glow of black light from the shaft and blue light from the stone implying all steps were completed, 'Soul Wand' active.
Ha, he rocked!
Right, something basic. Make a basic light source.
A gesture with the wand, and a soft green light glowed in the lab.
He barely had time to blink before the stone was covered in hundreds of thousands of Glyphs and everything exploded.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Betty and the rest fell into attack formations as a massive form was thrown into the bay, an explosion ripped through the town, and the new 'Workshop Facility' Adam had made spewed smoke from a new hole in the wall.
A trunk rose from the water. "I'm OK!"
Confetti and streamers fell from the sky, along with a loose banner that said 'Congratulations for making (some) progress!'... and landed on Adam's water treading form, covering him with rapidly soaking cloth.
The mound of material shifted. "Still OK! And I can fix it!"
With a sigh, Betty waved the other Hunters away from the facility. Adam would fix it soon enough, and who knows what the Faunus had been working on. She looked back at her scroll. "Sorry Boss, Adam was just stopping by. He is off on some other project again."
Ghira grumbled. "Better not be making me more work. We finally got the rough draft of the agreement together and I don't want to spend another day in the office."
She blinked. "Anything you can share?"
Ghira nodded. "Vale and Headmaster Ozpin will be the customer service department of our new venture, while Shade and Headmaster Theodore will be our major Dust supplier... and likely our largest Dust consumer afterwords. Atlas and Headmaster Ironwood will handle Research and Development, and our groups will be using their larger facilities and automation lines to lower costs where possible for any new product."
Betty glanced at the soaked Elephant Faunus slurshing his way from the sea. "And Adam?"
Ghira sighed. "His blue angel assistant made it pretty clear that he is a traveler. He goes places and does things and she makes sure his interests are taken care of. He would not do well if forced into any political or financial position or forced to shoulder such responsibilities. James has experience with some geniuses like that, says it is best to just watch them make miracles and record what goes on."
She frowned. It had felt likely, but if Adam didn't build any further attachments than... well. He would move on. And to be honest, it was not really a surprise to her... he had a more touristy attitude than a guy trying to build a home.
The question was if he was interested in bringing her along.
She firmed her stance and got back to work. If he was willing to let her follow, she would need to have her people taken care of, a replacement or four in the wings, and anything personal packed. Something inside told her that his travels went far farther than anywhere she knew.
An adventure like that was more than a little appealing... especially with Adam as company.
Best get to it then.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Right, the wand needed restrictions on that damn rock. Add the top THREE Glyphs only per casting. Not the top ALL OF THEM.
Secondly, Aura created Glyphs etched into magic and faith while orbiting a power stone: They can collide. That was... unexpected.
During testing, low power Glyphs could just... pass through each other. Like images or holograms. During experimentation, they became so solid that they could interact... and the weapon design didn't account for that, forcing two physical spells shapes to press into AND THROUGH each other.
Thus boom.
And there had been hundreds of thousands of Glyphs being created at the same time.
Thus big boom.
It took a bit of thought, but eventually Adam came up with something.
New Glyphs would be created in non-overlapping spherical shells, chosen based on which shell had which rotation and free space. AFTER casting, when the spell shells were relatively stable, they would slowly sort themselves.
Duplicates would fuse and create single larger forms, orientations would eventually line up allowing two spinning 'Shells' to merge.
Finally, the largest and most used Glyphs would sink into the innermost shell that had room while the smaller ones would orbit outwards, making said room.
The resulting rotating metal shapes were a bit mesmerizing to watch, but thankfully NOT explosive to experience!
Probably.
That said, the next twelve tests were done from behind some armored barriers. Just in case.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Her limbs held Adam's soul. Her eye watched the outside.
Within the fishbowl, her avatar reformed. A large squishy body, eight tiny limbs. No longer winged, no hats, and she only had a single eye now...
But she was stable. More so than long ago.
Her limbs felt raw, her thoughts were slow... but recovery should be swift.
Squishy bobbed along inside Adam's soul even as S̴̢̐q̷̻̣̀͗u̵̳̯̓͊ị̵̝̂̕ṣ̶̦̋̚h̷̗̚ỷ̸̦ watched the Abyss outside.
They would keep Adam safe.
Another explosion hurled his body through the recently repaired wall and back into the sea. "I'm STILL OK!"
...Mostly safe.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The staff/wand/mallet stopped exploding after learning a few key facts.
First, the layers between 'Shells' needed to be pushed further apart. By millimeters, sure, but more distance was required or large Glyphs would rub against each other.
Second, when Adam attempted to add 'mecha-shift' technology to the thing... there were rules. Sure, the spaces didn't intrude into other dimensions, but they DID bulge... and after a few explosions, he figured out that they needed to bulge in the same 'direction'.
Multiple dimensional bulges in one direction would sort of reinforce each other, increasing stability and how much material can be squished away. If one of them was at an odd 'angle' though, it would collapse all of them.
The angle was a fourth dimensional thing, so it was no wonder that Remnant had issues with complicated space expansion tricks. Releasing a sensor to detect the situation and a theory for why some weapons could be tripled in space compression and others couldn't made the network swarm with interest.
Simmy was watching the world test stuff after that, so Adam could focus on his (mostly explosive) testing some more.
The third and most annoying issue: Faith doped materials by default would just absorb or change based on atmospheric faith energies.
Adam had to spend literal hours making new patterns of Dust impregnating patterns, ones that could only accept energy through very restrictive patterns, because his natural Aura could overload the existing stuff at unexpected times.
Thus, more explosions.
Honestly, it might be due to the Planet's Aura. Anything too unstable reacted to the stuff and then 'Boom', another launch into the bay. Maybe he could set up something close to the limit, some sort of grenade scenario?
Anyway, space expansion and material compression. Two separate effects, both used during mechanical transformation by weapons. Passive expansion was done through Dust patterns set into the metals, compression needed Dust patterns that accepted energy.
So storing blades, accessories, and so forth? No upkeep cost. It acted like a bag of holding or undetectable expansion charm, even if it ignored outside forces like gravity or explosions. Mostly.
Converting material into a new shape, compressing parts out of the way? If it ran out of Dust, if the embedded Dust wore out, or if the energy was disrupted it would snap back to the base form.
Many weapons relied on the user's Aura as an emergency energy source, so as long as the Hunter survived their weapon would be there by their side. That said, a badly designed weapon would suck the Aura reserves at critical moments, assuming one could survive a fight long enough for that to be an issue.
Point was, Adam felt confidant enough to consider his wand completed. It now had an expanded space with a double sided hammer heads that would be supported by the stone, so it could transform from a walking stick into a massive war hammer. One that could release magical energy and effects through the rotating floating metallic Glyphs that swirled around the stone. Without blowing Adam up. Probably.
Next, some upgrades to his spinal bone robotic limbs!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The Hunters flinched as Adam was thrown into the ocean again.
They were mostly used to it now though, and got back to work. There were a massive number of new workers that had to learn how to run the recently created facilities and handle the animals that would eventually be raised here for shipment.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Right, the limbs were covered with Aura, and using his limbs to modify his limbs had been... an energetic response.
Absently his trunk wrung out some liquid from his shirt, his mind distracted by the thoughts of alternative options. Extending arms? Easy enough, although he had to partially drop Aura coverage from one single limb while the others worked.
...Huh. Could one selectively drop Aura coverage?
Metal on, metal off. Aura on... slowly? No, it sort of spread everywhere first. Then added layers, which compressed together, since compression and refinement seemed to be the 'flavor' of his Aura in general.
In fact, even 'Off' there was a weak, soap bubble like layer that seemed to swirl along his skin.
So how the heck was he supposed to modify his limbs if the three Endbringers were holding his powers?
Well...
With a frown and a wince, Adam snapped off one of his upper left robotic bone limbs. Harder to do than he expected, even after disabling his Aura to lower the thing's resilience.
It didn't hurt exactly... but he WAS able to feel it missing. The sensors and stuff had been wired into his system, after all.
No, the crap part was forcing the break to not auto-repair. It was a low level stinging.
Adam focused his other limbs on doing the changes, the supports gaining layers so it could extend, the joint a bit more flexibility, and five tool heads that could swap between each other without needing a full redesign of the limb.
Theoretically Adam could put twelve parts on the end, probably, but the stability went up a lot if he held back and he had OTHER limbs to modify anyway. Anything attached to his body should be as stable as possible.
A few minutes later and after several tests, he used his other limbs to carefully connect the broken stump to the detached arm... and they healed together rapidly now that Aura could connect the two.
With a subconscious sigh, he began flexing and testing his modified limb, feeling the new degrees of freedom and rapidly swapping between two emitters, a grappling/manipulation unit, a good sensor, and the high energy laser. Cause lasers rocked.
It was with far LESS enthusiasm that he turned off Aura again and reached for the next arm.
This... was going to be a slow and annoying process.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Betty knocked on the door to Adam's lab, snacks on a tray.
She really felt lucky that years of work helped her avoid daily tasks. She had set up the various industries under herself to work mostly autonomously, albeit because she preferred to have more personal time.
Hearing another loud crackle, she looked up at his work bench... in time to see his massive arm rip one of those thin assisting limbs out by the root.
That... that looked painful.
By the time she saw him reach back and reattach the damn thing, she realized she had been staring in horror for several minutes now. Seriously, this won't be the strangest thing, suck it up girl!
She nodded to herself. "Adam, I brought some sandwiches and some cake, do you have time for a break?"
The massive man twisted, his trunk holding another limb recently torn from his own spine. "Has it been that long? Bring em over here Betty, I want to finish this upgrade process while I still have motivation. I am worried if I took a break it would be hard to keep going."
She cautiously approached... thankfully the bone limbs didn't spurt blood when torn free. "Upgrades?"
One of the far left limbs swung closer, before the claw on the end shifted into some sort of glowing tool, then into a speaker like shape... Adam absently pointed with his trunk, both arms busy repositioning the next detached limb.
The arm continued to mutate. Adam grinned. "Basic changes, but now my tools can reach farther from my back and each one has more than one form and settings. More usefulness with less reconstruction needed if I change jobs or whatever."
Betty watched the limb go through a sort of dance routine, end bits configuring through various forms and the arms stretching an compressing. "It... is very impressive."
Adam sighed. "It is all bare bones stuff, really. The important part is I can use these tools to get things done if my Summons are busy doing stuff. Normally I just reform each one with my powers directly, so this is a bit of a step down."
Looking away from the limbs modifying torn limbs showcase, Betty cleared her throat. "After... whatever this is, do you have any plans for later? We've spent a week or so in this new town as it is."
Adam blinked. "Huh. Time flies when you are exploding." He hummed, looking back at his work. "I was contacted by Squishy and she says my Semblance is available for use now, so I guess I want to go somewhere and practice it."
Betty paused. "..Any hints on what it is, exactly?"
He chuckled. "It is an extension of my Aura, which is now entwined with my Grid of Confinement, I am pretty sure that influenced Squishy's choice of self modification so..."
Seeing her confusion, he sighed. "Let's just say my Semblance helps me capture creatures or foes, to use as new summoning options or to transport things/people into my soul. No point in being able to summon if you have only three choices... ever."
She blinked. That sounded handy. Betty had seen something similar, a Semblance that allowed a guy to store tiny stuff inside his Aura like a secret pocket, but this sounded more useful... or at least, more flexible.
Betty shrugged. "Sounds neat... want to go try it out?"
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam blinked, the sunlight bright after all that time stuck indoors. A flex had his robotic limbs fold back into themselves, a thin backpack of bones melding mostly into his outfit.
Right. "Simmy? We need a bus. Send us to the largest, most powerful Grimm you've detected so far. Kill any other Grimm nearby though, I just want to try out my Semblance."
The bus had already landed, ready for passengers, as Adam led the way. "I'm curious how far we will have to go for this, but if you guys get bored..."
He looked at the thirty or so Hunters and Huntresses that had gotten on board following Betty. What a strange group. "Well, the consoles on the outer edges control some energy based weaponry. Unlimited ammo, so feel free to fire at stuff as we travel."
Yep, that seemed to keep everyone happy. Betty however seemed concerned. "Adam, Grimm grow larger the older they get, the longer they live the more abilities they gain... Maybe you should just get something like a Goliath? You handled them easily enough, no reason to look for something more dangerous."
Adam chuckled. "Simmy, will it be a threat to us?"
He read the blue slip of paper... and frowned. "Right, get the bus close enough then have them pull back the rest." Seeing Betty's VERY unhappy look he sighed. "I won't even be inconvenienced, but you guys would uh... well. It would be a bad time."
He glanced at the slip. "Yeah, this thing doesn't have fire or lightning or whatever, it specializes in Gravity attacks only. Not quite black holes, but... yeah, I better try this without anyone nearby."
This led to a bit of an argument.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam nodded, cutting Betty and two of the guards off. "Right, we are almost too close to my new friend at this point, and I don't want this ship getting closer."
Betty's exasperation was clear, but she knew that her abilities weren't strong enough to solo fight a Goliath, much less something so strong that it could bash such creatures around.
She looked out the window, the guns on the side still randomly sniping flying Grimm. "Is it close?"
Adam opened the side door, wind whipping past as he stared downwards. "A bit, yeah."
Without another word he lept into space, falling rapidly towards the ridged mountain surface without a care.
Even as the armed air-bus began to pull away, Betty strained her eyes to see the cave or valley hiding the foe. Surely these Grimm minions were no threat, it had to be something bigger.
As Adam smacked into the ground...
The mountain opened, exposing a single eye.
The bus fell silent as the air began to rumble.
Apparently, something had started to draw breath.
The world... seemed to move.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam watched the exposed wet surface vanish into the distance.
At this range, the eye was too large and too close to really observe. Without satellite imagery, he wouldn't even known which direction the main body was!
The surface under his feet, below the crater he made, was stone. This beast had been asleep for so long it was basically part of the landmass now, ever so slowly spawning more Grimm from the residue that seeped to the surface.
This... this was the sole reason over half of Menagerie was desert. Because in the past, this... dragon? It looked like one. This beast just... consumed most of the continent. At least, that was Simmy's best guess.
Even as he felt Simmy continue to shift wind and water currents to help this land flourish again one day, he felt so... small.
If this beast had an eyelash, it would make trees look tiny. Skyscrapers like ants.
Even the massive crater from Adam's landing wasn't really enough. This beast, this Ancient Grimm, probably didn't even feel the actual impact from his fall.
No, it was reacting to the sense of danger. Of the unknown.
Adam glared at the ground, still covering so many layers of dirt before one reached the Grimm far below that was even now slowly awakening. His Aura flashed into blue metal over his skin... then grew layer by layer. Ridge after ridge of solidified faith... that would crumple through compression back to a single ever darkening material over his being. Slowly, a blue eye made of circuitry began to open on his forehead.
It too, was focused forward.
"Squishy, I hope you are ready..."
Grid of Confinement.
And night fell over the land.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
H̲u̝s̞̳̲̤h̲̗͉ ̢͔̯l̷͓̯̹̥̲̥̬i̧t̳̟̹̣̀tl̝͉̟̞̣ẹ̥̞̮͈̭̲ ̺̩̤̖̪̖ͅb̫̼͚͍a̗̲͕̫̯̤ͅbỵ͎͖͟.̫͕̩̭.̠̟ͅ.̸͇̤̹̖̗̲ͅ
D̛̰͎̱̕on̷̝̭̱͇'̗͎̜̤̫t̸̨̫̱̟̹̤͙͔̳̀ ̣̯̪̕ s͕̤͇̣̱̫ḁ̷̲̗͍̩͡͞y̯̹̣̠̣̫̹̮͞͠ ̷̼̯͖͝ ḁ͈͇͈̦̘̣̠ ̢̪̖̰́͢w̴̨̱̦̘͚̭̺ͅớ͕͎̖͜ͅr̸̡̖̦͞d̶̝̠.̘̹.̸̡̡̖̤̦̜̮.̢̞͟
S̸̖̳͇̙͇̼̤͚̯̲͕̜͍͉͙͜͢q̵̡͈͎̜͕̯͖̠̬̪͙̪͡ú̴̹̙̦̹͡is̢h̛̹̝̺̳̝̯̰̖͔͍̟̟͝ͅy̷̵̵̗͈̖̝̼̖͓̱̝͔̞̟͚̖͕͙ͅͅ'̷̴̛̗̲̣̮̳̝̳̟͟͝s̵̢̖̬̙̬͉̗̹̲̻̗̖̱̳̠̥͉̰̺̻ ̵̷̮̠̩̦̣̩̥̖̝̤̮͙͘ ģ̶̘̜͉͔̭̠͉̬̯͞ó̢̹̗̦̻͙̗̺̺͎̦̱̲́͘i̷̘̥͚͎͓͕̠͎̯̻͚͓̳̮̩͖̣̕͠ń̶̗̝͖͢͝g̨͔̩̲̙͙̙̱̰̜̝̬̗̀͘͜͡ ̶̫͇̰͚̖̣̙͔̮̠̳͚̪͇̠͜͡t̸̢̨̳͍̫̤̭̻̰̤̬͚̮͎̀͢ͅó̵̧̫̳͍͍̥̝̻̭͇͇̩͚͘ ̴͇͖̝͚͈͈̬͇͍̠̠̼̝͉͡͠ bu̟̙̺̬̪̝̜̕͟ỵ̶̨̯̗̺̹̠̣ ͈͍̭̞̫̱̥̖̱̺̟̝̀̕ ý̸͈͇͈̳̮̩͍̙o̵̡̢͈͙̹̗̹̩̹ư̖̯̙̥̲͖̤͍͔̯͘͞ͅ ̶̛͏̙̖̺̭͍̳̦̟͍̲̙̻̜̳ a̢̛̫̝̪̙̺̩̼̞̤̫͍̭͈͔̰͎̹̜͞ ̰͕͍̕͘ ḿ̷̡͖̣̮͈͇͙͚̼͕̼̫͚͈͢ͅǫ͚̦͈͍͇̘͎͕̫̞̭͕̯͙͝c̘͓̲̳̤͈̫͎̟̲͖͞͠͡k̸̸̼̠̪̟̮̪̜̦͇͈͈̲̼̤͙͚̬͔̕͝i͏̧̭̘͓̱̻͙̞͈̖̀͜n̸̡̹͖̫̠̩̠̺͇͓̫͓g̛҉̶͓̬͚̦̙͓̙̝͙̪͚̕ ̡̭̺͇̀̀b̶̨̛͍̳̩͇͓̫̯͉͈̙i͝͝͏͘͏̞̼̘̤̠͇̩̻͈ŕ̲͔̥̬̩̝͜͟d̷̨̲̼̗̝͕̗̥̞́.̷̢͈̱̖͚̹̖̮̼̙͚̳̦̞̯͉̞͇̰́͡.҉̘̘̳̗̙̪͇̼̤̀ͅ.̸̠͚̰̪̤̭͕̺̬̦͇̭̤̟̬̞̤̘͉
...
...
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
[[Another Helpful Translation!]]
Hush, little baby...
Don't say a word...
...
...
...
S̸͍̺͚͕͍̟̜͖̯͚̠̙̖̰̩̬͚̠͂ͯ͆̅͐̓̏̈̔̆́̚̚͝h̷̡̛̪͙͚͈̳̭̑ͤͤ̽͂͒̐ͥ͗̏͊̔̾͒ͯ͊͑̚͢e̵̢̧̡ͮ̆ͨ͊͌ͮͥ͒ͥ̈ͭͮ͂ͪ̓-͖͕̳̠̣͖͖̄ͨ̐ͯͪͬ̚̕͟S̵̹͖̪͎̲̠̃͂ͨͤ̍̄ͤ̒̎͛͋̂͘l̷̢̠̝͍̣̯̒͊͆̐ͫͩê͌̇̊͆̎ͥ͛̆̆ͨe̴̸̵̮̺̠͚͈͙̪̦͙͚̩͍̞͙̤̯͉̪̅ͪ̅͋̕ͅp̴̂̃̓̐̉̔ͨ͒̊̔͗ͧͫs̵̸̼̹̱̘̭̠͍͗ͯ̉̈̊͝͝-̢͔̣̭͍̩̞͔̜͉̹̤̹͉͙̟ͭ̂̋͂ͫ̆͑͋͆̒͛̀̚̕S̲͔̗͚̩̣̘̱̠̫̃ͪͤͪ̂̈̌̇̈̎̿͆ͦ͌̀̚̚̚̕h̷̩͎̱̪̥̭͖̜͈̜͎͉͙̜̺̻͍͓̗ͭͭ̽̈́̐ͮ̀͠a̸̸̴̺̺̮ͥ͗͐̑ͯͧ̕ͅt̗͖͍̯͛̅ͩ̄̇͂̿ͯͩͥ̾ͦͩ̋̒ͫ͢͢͢t̢̞͇̘̞̯̭̝̥̯̍̆͒͌̚̕͡ę̷̛͚͔̭̥̜̱̬ͧͥ̃͆̂͒̿̿̋̋͋̀ͩ̽̋̄ͮ̐́̀r̛ͩ̇ͩ͆͆̀͊̍ͤͩ̔͋̅e̓ͧ̿ͩͦ̑ͧ̇͐̽ͭͤ̆͏̶̡͎͇̭̙̩̹̙d̒͊ͥ̒̋̽̒̎ͫ̎ͥ̅ͪ̈́ͮ̀ͨͫ͏̹͉̺̦̘̜̥̮̖̪̀͟'s going to buy you a mocking bird...
...
...
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Tentacles reached from the sky. Too many to count.
Twisted limbs pulled from the ground. An unheard of amount.
A Grimm size unseen... was soon no longer found.
And deep in that darkness...
Two blue eyes glowed true...
For Confinement of Self can be confinement of you.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The flying sky vehicle was dead silent. The few Hunters who had been recording forgot to end their video capture, though several men and women had dropped their Scrolls somewhere between reality opening up and the limbs of a corrupted octopus reaching forth.
Betty watched the raw power displayed, breathing a bit quickly.
She TOTALLY called dibs.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
So, personal thoughts.
First of all, Adam was correct: He could capture the massive Grimm with little to no effort.
What he did NOT expect was the cool down time. It would take a few weeks before Squishy was done 'reprogramming' the beast. And for the power to stabilize.
The 'Grid of Confinement' was oozing black smoke... and sucking it back in. The black lines of the grid pulsed with Adam's Aura even as it adjusted.
Oh there was no risk of escape or danger, the massive dragon beast was captured just as firmly as the Endbringers. No, the changes were more subtle.
Each of the cells were slowly changing to allow Adam access to the energies said prisoners emitted. Simmy's cell was slowly offering a psychic energy, Levy's power oozed like a liquid, and Benny's power was a source of 'change'.
The new Grimm? A source of corruption and gravity.
Could be useful.
His powers aside, there were some other significant issues that the recent capture had caused.
Adam looked up at the sky.
So... so far up.
Like Simmy suggested, having companions would have been near lethal levels of dangerous... but honestly he assumed it was due to the Grimm struggling to escape capture. Or having some last minute suicide attack or something. Maybe an army of minions or acidic blood or who knew what.
No, any companions would have died falling with Adam into the massive hole left behind by the captured Dragon.
How deep WAS he!?
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Ghira gripped his Scroll so tightly the structure creaked. "I'm sorry, what?"
Betty's holographic face winced. "The entire mountain range, it was a single Grimm."
Deep. Breath. Slow. Calm.
Ghira nodded. "Right, and you say 'was', so I assume Adam handled it somehow?"
She glanced out the window. "He summoned something with lots of limbs and the Grimm sort of collapsed into itself."
Ghira groaned. Of course he did. "Well, at least this won't cause me more diplomatic bull crap."
The silence was concerning.
He glared at Betty. "Right?"
She looked away and sighed. "The Grimm not only took up lots of space, but he seemed to emit dark energy. For thousands of years."
Her Scroll turned, video showing an unending ravine of unheard of size... all edges glittering with MASSIVE Dust crystals, of all colors.
Ghira was too stunned to notice the Headmasters had snuck up behind him... and that they had also seen the massive new Dust deposit in Menagerie territory.
A hand fell onto his shoulder. "Ghira my friend, we over at Shade have many years of experience extracting Dust without setting off complex crystal structures like this one." Professor Theodore smirked. "I'm sure Ozpin has a form or two, we can knock out some contracts in no time."
The Headmasters and lawyers ignored Ghira's gnashing teeth, already starting up the glorious art of the deal. Again.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam quickly found out that the closer he got to the surface, the more Dust crystals were in the way. Dangerous combinations of it too, hitting one slightly wrong would detonate a massive amount of the area. Not that it would bother him at all, but it could put others at risk.
So he had to give up on escaping without assistance and have Simmy send him a Drone to fly out with.
...That had been twelve minutes ago. Even with flight, the path to get out without setting off an explosion was slow and squiggly.
So Adam was wasting time meandering on Skyword Networking, seeing what was new.
It only took a few minutes before he watched with dropped jaw some of the thousands of fan made videos. Of himself.
Simmy had made an entire subsection of the video streaming service for high quality footage of Adam. And highlights. And for fans to download clips of the stream for their OWN video projects.
Crap.
...Had Ghira seen this already? Probably not. Right? He was busy doing political junk, so it was probably fine for now.
Adam shifted to the left, a razor sharp shard of glowing black Dust moving past. It couldn't cut his skin, but it COULD fracture and set off a small 'Everything splody' which would be awkward.
So yeah, he was going to go full ignorance mode and scrub his brain. Ignoring that whole section of the internet, he moved on to the highlights from the 'researching' web services, the interactive Wiki that was being carefully recorded by Simmy as the whole planet shared ideas, plans, issues, and more. True, eighty percent of it was garbage, but a small chunk of the provided concepts and advancements were pure gold really.
For example: Pistols were most popular. Long range, but sacrificing volume of fire for overall stopping power. Why NOT use a pistol? If you needed more bullets, you are using the wrong gun anyway.
Anyway, the new design that was gaining in the popularity polls was a pistol that abused a newly found flaw in 'Mecha-shifting' thanks to the sensors that Adam had shared online, allowing others to see 'Dimensional Bulges' as they were being called. The flaw was found thanks to someone saying 'Instead of fixing my exploding weapon problem, can I make it worse?'
The answer was a resounding 'Yes!', an explosive, dangerous 'Yes.'
The pistol would have four barrels, all stored within the user space of one gun. When fired, four bullets would escape from four barrels... and interact poorly with each other.
It consumed four bullets per shot, but the explosion was closer to a much higher caliber weapon while the strange interactions from the collapsed colliding bullets forced them to stay roughly in direct lines of fire rather than following Gravity to arc downwards. It was nearly as accurate as laser weaponry thanks to this one quirk!
The video's showing off the prototypes were fairly clear: One shot from the new gun would fire a linear round that exploded along the entire path to the target. MISSING the Grimm would theoretically cause more damage than hitting, as it could kill dozens of targets just by passing by on the way to delivery! The concept of 'Sniper Pistols' was lighting imaginations on fire all over the place now.
Of course, after one shot the test guns exploded, the other ammo vanished somewhere, and sometimes strange issues would occur during testing. The strangest example was when the bullets somehow synced up instead of explosively clashing... there was a new hole through the target, the back plate, the hill, and several rocks. No clue where the bullet itself ended up. They were still eagerly trying to duplicate that result.
More than four barrels? Gun was likely to blow up instantly. So far, anyway, the whole idea was being tested by people on all four continents right now.
Less than four? Barely any change in shot effect, maybe a bit more impact than three or less bullets individually, but none of the explosions that had been so interesting. There was some interest from the machine gun groups, the idea of tripling a weapon's fire rate was not something to ignore after all, but it was less amazing than magical explosion sniper bullets.
Oh, and using any elemental shots was... explosively dangerous with this four barrel design. All testing of that was put on hold after eight people almost died. WHILE behind reinforced barriers. Over thirty feet away.
The crater was epic! But testing from Simmy showed that standard Dust was too irregular to give standard results, not unless they used Adam's refined product. So advancements on that front would come much later.
Adam blinked. Oh dear... someone was trying to use the 'Overlapping Launch' trick with rockets. BIG rockets. And live streaming the tests.
He glared at the slowly moving Drone. He needed popcorn for this, darn it!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Simmy hummed away as she had more drones exploring 'Menagerie Mines' as they were rapidly being called. Each Dust Crystal cluster scanned, indexed, and marked on the map application online. Even now, there were users online tallying cost estimations as she progressed, showing how many Lien this treasure mine was worth.
Some of this stuff was impossible to make without constant exposure to the corrupt Grimm energies, so there was some really rare materials that were carefully marked and scanned by Simmy as progress continued. Literally priceless, they had to be left out of the running total... but that same total had reached stupid levels hours ago.
One crystal seemed to generate a VERY sticky acid when empowered, which she was trying to modify to only dissolve clothing. For reasons.
How 'fortunate' that Adam's contract (written by her, of course!) would give him a percentage of any found new materials. It should keep his projects running here for years even if he had to head off on another adventure.
She absently used Gather beams to expose hidden explosive clusters, here and there using Construction beams to reinforce certain layers or separate incompatible sections.
It just wouldn't do for future workers to get killed collecting her husband's riches, right? Probably right.
The most dangerous materials at the bottom of the new canyon were even now being covered by seawater, the redirected oceanic currents keeping those dangerous materials from being exposed to air any longer than needed.
The rest could theoretically be harvested, but that stuff deep down?
That was fragile, dangerous stuff. Esoteric materials with strange effects too.
She made sure to get good scans of them for later.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam grinned. "FINALLY!" He quickly turned off the Scroll on his bone limb and directed the Drone towards the floating bus, which had also seemed to notice him. Playing solitaire on his Scroll could only entertain him for so long, and he was DONE with this place. And dark caverns, no matter how sparkly.
He hopped into the side hatch of the ship, Betty launching herself into a hug around his left leg. "Whoever is flying this bucket of bolts, let's get out of here! I've been stuck down there for hours!"
Betty looked up from her death grip. "We have to leave an away party then. Ghira wants a forward base and future mining supply camp set up since we are in the area."
Crud, that meant he knew about his recent pet collection. Maybe... maybe the online video stream as well? Either way, he was trying to get Adam to fix the mess himself, which sounded really tedious.
Yeah, no. "Simmy, figure out what Ghira wants built here, upgrade the designs a bit, and send some Drones to whip it up." There.
He grinned. "Now let's head back to 'The Docks', I need a nap and some snacks after that mess."
Adam walked to an unoccupied section of the bus, Betty gripping his leg so she could ride along. Seriously, that experience wasn't tiring, but it felt SO STRANGE. Eating (Capturing) that Grimm had left him breathing out black smoke for several minutes, an odd taste of cave water and smog left in his mouth.
Seriously, he wanted a hot dog or something. And a nap.
As he settled into the chair, he checked his Scroll to verify the Drones deployment. A defensible position, some food production, connected to the power grid, it would need employee housing, some facilities to refuel ships and to store harvested Dust. Adam absently added a few extra things, odds and ends. And a few turrets. Should keep Ghira from complaining too much. Probably. Hopefully.
How long was it going to take for this bus to head back to town? With a sigh, he forced himself to stand again and head to the cockpit.
It took time, but eventually he convinced the pilot to head back to The Docks. Not sure why she was so jumpy though.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam blinked. "Wow. Lots of people showed up here."
Betty chuckled. "Still showing up, and now more people will have to be sent to your new Dust Mine. Might be the start of a new village there too." She pointed to the edge of town. "The new residential areas you included have really increased the number of people that can safely stay in the area, especially considering the defenses you included."
He frowned. "Well, there should still be an open room or two. And food. Heck, maybe more food with all these people showing up." Blue lines pulsed into visibility on his skin before fading away. "And I could really use a nap at this point." Should Grimm taste spicy? Do ALL Grimm taste spicy? Mental note, test that later.
Betty felt the pure power from the man brush against her Aura. Nice. "The cafeteria you set up is already running, should we head over there?"
Adam chuckled as he felt the woman leap onto his shoulders again. "Why not? Lead on!"
They ignored the other Hunters and Huntresses, still careful to stay out of sight and out of the way as they watched Adam walk off. Not everyone could handle the extreme or bizarre as well as others.
More importantly, he was pretty sure he smelled waffles. Or at least some sort of maple syrup equivalent. And after falling into a hole full of explosive treasures, he really could use some waffles.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Narwhal blinked, her mental half having received a virtual call from an impossible number.
Literally, the number was a series of letters.
Recognizing Simmy's humor, she chuckled and answered, Cyber Narwhal having had nothing but paperwork so far. A break was more than welcome.
Her smile was huge! "ADAM!"
...Uh. "Why do you have a trunk?"
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam sighed, Betty and Narwhal now on conference call having a strange conversation. Considering how outgoing and brazen Betty was normally, seeing Narwhal turn her into a stuttering blushing mess was sort of adorable.
Still, the connection was up and running so he wasn't needed here.
Sitting in a meditative pose, Adam mentally focused inward.
The Grid of Confinement was slowly pulsing. But stable.
On the edges were a series of colored lines, each connected to one of the various prisons and slowly oozing different flavors of power.
Actual flavors. Corruption tasted spicy, for example. Gravity was a heavy chocolate mix, like a too dense cake.
Squishy's cute octopus form was bouncing around, only the finest line of power connecting her avatar to the massive blue eye in the sky and the black tentacles holding his soul. She seemed fine.
He walked out of the lab and headed to the shore. The Docks were busy even with no ships in sight, as Faunus ran to and fro checking things out, moving equipment, and so forth. Simmy's drones had done good work though, everything was pretty much ready to go once a few ships arrived to be loaded/unloaded.
Finding a spot to sit over the sea without being in the way took a few tries, but eventually he was able to relax and watch the waves. The water was clearing up thanks to Levy and Simmy's purification circles, but the crisp salt air was relaxing right now.
A limb bent forward, showing the Scroll attachment and opening up more videos about experimental weapons and dust tricks. The entire video category gave the Frat Boys/Sorority Girls 'Dumb Idea' vibe to them, where a group of friends were daring each other to do more and more stupid crap.
Entertaining to watch though.
The trending video right now was a group trying to make the largest sword possible that was both structurally sound and doped with enough gravity dust to still be usable in conflict.
Thankfully they were independently wealthy, as each attempt was stupid expensive. They didn't even have Adam's recycling machines to try more than once per supply run. The most recent attempt somehow caused the blade to implode vertically, possibly sending blade fragments up into orbit.
It had caused a lot of interest online, as there was NOT enough Dust to cause the effect directly. Several videos showed that concentrated Gravity Dust could make that amount of metal float... but fly?
So yeah, it was being investigated. Although some groups were just idiots with some junk in a garage, many others had professional labs and equipment. So progress was still being made.
Another interesting new application on the 'Skyword Networking' System was 'Drone Exploration', where users could pay Lien to rent control of a Drone from Simmy and explore places through remote control. Even now, a small army of Drones were exploring the new Dust Canyon left by that Dragon Grimm Adam captured. The massive beast was being refereed to as 'Mister G' online, and seeing such a large monster 'handled' had given a surprisingly large boost to moral online.
Point was, hundreds of thousands of people were renting Drone time from Adam, giving him a vast, growing bank account to work with.
Which was... odd. At first he was going to invest his new funds into charity work, when he stumbled into an oddity.
Remnant had NO orphanages. Nada. Zilch.
Children were such a precious resource that there was literally a 100% adoption rate. Child abuse was punished more harshly than attempted murder, and even past terror attacks avoided including the children.
It seemed... statistically unlikely. But Remnant was 100% pro-kids, pro-adoption, and pro-any-family-possible. Gay couples? Go for it. Harem? Why not? As long as they were consenting, nearly anything went. Life was too short otherwise.
In the end, he had donated the massive increase in funding towards supporting new farms and renovating low income area defenses. At least kids would benefit from safer areas to live and cheaper food.
Seriously, anything Adam needed he could make at this point. Money was just wasted sitting in his account if he didn't use it somewhere.
Speaking of money, Adam added a feature to the Drones where people could claim territory (for a fee, part of which went to the land owner), use the 'Gather' beam to harvest (For a percentage of whatever was collected), and use the 'Construction' beam to deliver the product to their location (No fee on this part). Basically turning the wealthy and the bored into Adam's personal work force.
He blinked at the sudden surge in interest. Oh, right, Simmy was still broadcasting his actions. Talk about free publicity.
Well, if they were going to be going nuts anyway...
It took only a few seconds to put up the 'Virtual Interface Connectors' devices and some Dust Testing Labs, longer for him to set up an 'About' page to explain how people could use the virtual environments to test stuff easier and for much less money.
He was barely half way through before Simmy started getting an ocean of order requests, drones delivering Construction beams of connection devices and material globally to keep up with demand.
Before he could get into trouble, he made the devices a bit expensive and free for anyone living in Kuo Kuana. And said it was all Ghira's idea. And to ask him for details.
Adam carefully ignored the new messages from Ghira himself. They probably weren't important. And Betty was too busy being teased by Narwhal to answer her scroll.
So technically he wasn't in trouble yet.
He took over a Drone using the new app and began exploring the nearby ocean bed. If the view count was any indication, the internet found it interesting too.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Ghira snarled. "I do NOT control Skyword Networking, so that is NOT MY PROBLEM."
The lawyer tried to reach for some documents.
Ghira's spear slashed the whole damn pile. "Not. My. Problem."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Simmy set up more online streams like Adam's popular channel. One for 'Levy' as he swam along the ocean, popping Grimm like party balloons. One for 'Benny', though as he spent most of his time underground she ended up having an outline generated to 'show' viewers his body as he randomly exploded monsters.
And more boring video streams. A dozen or so for each major city, with at least one being created per town. It would be useful for emergencies, or just knowing what the weather was like. She added an option for businesses to 'buy' their own video feed, several theaters jumping at the chance to take their work online for free, especially at such a high quality professional level.
Her own feed was carefully angled to only show the 'good stuff' when Adam was watching, all other poor users would basically be seen 'almost enough'. Mmm, the frustration of so many men (And women) tasted like pure bliss.
The more she investigated things though, the more interesting this got. She had initially considered wiping all Grimm off the planet, but from what she could tell the beasts had accidentally enhanced the Aura of the planet by many folds. Getting rid of them all could damage the planet itself if she wasn't careful.
In much the same way a human would develop a fever, Dust was formed from the planet's Aura as a self-defense mechanism.
Still, no reason for the Grimm to have so many numbers or be so large or powerful.
A slight build up... and anther spear of dense energy incinerated a massive Grimm, this one a serpent underwater that was several miles long. She would have to destroy the next five heads it formed before it would finally run out of energy to recover though.
What a lovely day for a light hunt.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam carefully held his right arm back, wand held by the stone and shaft pointing towards the water.
Wait.
The tip of the wand was sharp, a dull layer of Aura enhancing the material. It wouldn't stay once thrown, but it would allow the weapon to handle the intense forces he was about to subject it to.
Wait.
Adjusting his vision was easier, as his Aura covering his eyes could be modified. By the very nature, the layers of Aura had to allow visible light to pass through... so he could add filters or data layers to those thin shells.
It was how he was tracking the fish.
His eyes flickered as he watched one of the larger meals swim closer to the surface, about to dash in to eat some smaller aquatic life form.
NOW!
His arm snapped forward, hand releasing the speeding wand as it stabbed through the water, nearly piercing all the way through the fish victim.
Before the death throes had even started, the wand lifted the entire catch into the air and began floating back to his hand.
Hmm. Less blood than expected.
His bone tools reached the fish before it touched his hand, scales and fins removed, innards pulled out, and two large fish fillets were stacked on his palm even as the wand returned to his soul.
...Had it always been able to do that? Just... enter his soul?
He hadn't even washed it. Would his soul smell fishy now?
Whatever, he had something to cook with.
A Constructor crafted bowl was given some seasonings to dredge the fish in, another with batter, and the third was already starting to boil with oil. It wasn't up to Robo or Boro's standards, but fried fish wasn't the most complicated of dishes.
Adam frowned. He needed sauce. Simmy?
Over fifty pounds of Tartar sauce splashed over his body.
...Close enough.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Betty gasped, her new friend Narwhal already laughing over her shoulder from the Scroll as they watched Adam get covered in white goo. "Is... is he alright?"
Narwhal snorted. "Considering how often he does that to us, he better be."
The cow Faunus's blush was epic. "Shush you. So inappropriate."
Her eyebrows waggled. "Oh I don't know, Simmy's notes here say you have a few thoughts and dreams of your own, 'Size Queen'."
Betty eeped! "That... shut up! I just like a man who has certain... proportions. It's not my fault that my smaller size attracts a certain type of male attention."
The Guild leader looked on in sympathy. "I know what you mean. I have a very outgoing personality, and I am willing to try a lot of things... but I still want respect from those in a relationship with me. My lifestyle and costume encouraged a lot of shallow one night stands, but finding a guy like Adam was a rare thing. Even if he seems to have a thing for girls with horns."
Betty blinked. "Aren't you a Faunus? I thought Narwhal was a code word thing."
Narwhal chuckled, for a moment looking like a tall nude goddess. "The horn is part of my power, like my Semblance if that helps you understand it. Nightmare Moon however is an actual Unicorn and CD is a digital life form."
She paused. "That sounds like... quite the group."
Narwhal smirked, pulling up an image.
A purple haired seducer was posed next to an innocent digital wet dream, Narwhal and... a twin sister? Sitting at front, with a non-Faunus that looked surprisingly similar to Adam resting in front.
The woman's finger pointed at the purple haired beauty. "This is Nightmare Moon, a literal Goddess of Dreams whom followed Adam from her world for a new life. That same world turned some dreams into my digital twin and this lovely lady."
The pointer moved to the cybernetic beauty. "Cyber Dragon, or CD for short, has the body of a temptress and the heart of an angel. She is the emotional support of our group, and we all love her dearly. My twin on the other hand decided to merge with me directly, so I can be we when we wish."
Betty gulped, mouth dry. "And... the guy in front is Adam?"
Her smirk was devious. "Yeah, he changes bodies and forms at will. Any kink you desire, any shape you wish, simplicity for him to provide." Her eyebrows rose. "Any size as well."
Was it hot in here? It felt hot in here. "A...Anything I should bring over if I make the trip?"
Dimensional travel? Fine. Unknown world? No problem. To join this sex heaven, there was no doubt in her mind about her decisions.
Narwhal's eyes glittered as they slowly examined every inch of the well formed cow Faunus. "Hmm... do you have a saddle?"
She laughed at Betty's needy whimper. Adam had good taste.