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Chapter 633: The Right Tool for the Right Job

The development of technology on such a scale was never a quick matter. Not only did they have to create the plans, they had to make sure that their plans were truly feasible. It was far too easy to draw up a plan for a fantastical device, only to realize in the middle of the construction phase that it did not work as intended. This was the case for novices and masters alike, and also the biggest drawback to developing devices on such a large scale.

Aside from the demons, who could be said to have been given the easiest task, the other races all began using their orbital shipyards in order to produce mining vessels. Everyone was aware that the construction of a fleet such as this would require a massive amount of raw minerals, far more than they could reasonably exchange for on the Boundless Caravan.

Even James, who was hard at work within one of the many bases that had recently come under his jurisdiction, felt that the materials that they had to work with were quite low. However, he had his own ways of dealing with this problem, especially now that he was given access to already-established void bases.

Four months after being allowed to use the bases as he pleased, he had long-since grasped the inner workings of their technology. Many of the components involved in the machinery were unique to the world that they had come from, but James was capable of creating replacements based on his own understanding and with the help of the established devices.

By now, his research team had already created a working formula in order to automate the fusion of a perfect soul. They were currently at the stage of refining their design and creating a prototype device based on their work. For this, they did not need his constant overwatch, and only contacted him when some troubles arose.

This left James to handle his own projects. Firstly, the optimization of the various bases. While he had learned how the various machines in the bases worked, there was still a problem that he could not solve. None of the items in the base were capable of expanding the base’s actual size.

In other words, the bases had been created through the skills of the craftsman, rather than through the effects of some device. James believed that this was one of the unique skills belonging to the world that had invaded, but it made his job rather hard. In order to meet the Keeper’s request, he needed a way to handle large-scale construction within these bases.

Without the ability to expand the exterior of the base, this severely limited his options. After all, the largest room he could utilize was not even big enough to house a single engine for a galactic warship, let alone the main body of it.

“Have you tried directly expanding the interior space, or constructing a portal connecting to a remote, orbital assembly?” A voice came from behind James, as if it were only natural. He shrugged it off at first, shaking his head.

“Spatial expansion on that scale would require a massive amount of energy. I’d need to have one of the scepters from Tsubaki, and I don’t think the Keeper wants those used unless it’s absolutely-” His words froze, suddenly realizing that he should have been the only one present in the base.

However, the voice had been so familiar, how could he not react naturally? Turning around, he saw a woman standing behind him, sporting a small grin. A short kitsune woman with a deep tan, nine tails fluttering behind her. She wore what appeared to be greasy, oil-stained overalls, one strap busted from wear and tear, and a pair of thick goggles on her forehead.

“How do you like the new look?” Chel asked, glancing over herself. “I knew you were busy, so I went ahead and waited until I was fully grown. But… the sun on Spica is really intense, so I ended up a bit darker than I planned.”

James felt a warm smile tugging at his lips, examining every detail of Chel. There were only a few things different between this appearance of hers and the one that she used when she was his companion. The most glaring one was obviously her status as a nine-tailed kitsune, but he knew that was something that she picked to please him. Aside from that… as she said, her skin was not quite so tanned originally.

“Did Aurivy bring you over?” He asked, setting down the components he had been working with and walking over towards her. Before he could even get halfway, she broke into a sprint and lunged at him, arms wrapping around his neck and allowing her body to simply hang along his frame.

“Yup. Thought it’d be a nice surprise.” She told him with a small grin. “So… surprise?”

James chuckled at that, bringing his arms up to hold her. “How much of what I’m working on do you know?”

“James, do you really think I haven’t been watching you from the Administration Room the entire time I wasn’t by your side?” She shook her head, leaning against him. “I know all about the projects you were given, and how hard you’re working on them. Really… they can only expect so much when they don’t even have the tools you need.”

“Yeah, I’m working on that part. There’s a void-fold assembly here, so I’m trying to recreate some of our old tools.” As he said that, he gestured to the worktable where he had been standing moments ago, and the short, cylindrical device that was half-assembled on it.

Chelsea had a rather… complicated look on her face as she saw the device. “Yeah, Aurivy told me about that. Did you know I had to insist to her that it did not work through sound-waves? She seemed so excited about it.”

James raised a curious brow when he heard that. “How would sound be able to manipulate the internal components of a machine and the flow of information better than controlled mana and ki waves?”

“Apparently, it’s some cultural thing from an old world.” Chel shrugged her shoulders, finally loosening her arms from around James’s neck so that she could drop to the ground. “Speaking of which, if you have the time, you should add in a natural energy compressor as well. The old models had a really hard time working on natural materials like wood, right?”

James thought about it for a moment, before nodding his head in agreement. It wasn’t really that common to have to use an energy-wave omnitool on natural components, but it also wasn’t unheard of. “I’ll create a second model for that, after I finish this one.”

“And how’s the other project going?” Chel asked with a smile, moving over to help assemble the omnitool while she spoke. “The card one?”

The former Keeper let out a low groan, shaking his head. “I’ve tried running tests on natural cards, synthetic cards, and dimensium cards. Even if I use the fourth tier as a base, they don’t have the power capacity necessary to house one of those orbs. After they grow to a certain extent, the card shatters.”

Chel grimaced a bit when she heard that. “Yeah, I… saw one of your tests. Thanks for making sure to conduct them off-world… or we might not have a world left.”

With a sigh, James nodded his head, leaning against the table. “My next thought was to use the cards as simple relays for the energy, rather than proper storage by relying on their natural dimensional properties. That worked, for a time, until the energy output got too high. Thankfully, those cards didn’t hold the orbs themselves, so the damage they caused was pretty light.”

Chel thought it over, nodding as her hands deftly worked with the device before her. “And we definitely can’t ask that he install individual gems in all the main systems. Just one blowing up would destroy the entire ship, so we can’t increase its weak points like that.”

“Agreed.” James said as he pulled up a pair of chairs, one for each of them. “I think that the fourth tier of cards has the potential to work, if I’m being honest. But not with the ones that have been discovered. There are missing components that I need before I can make a card powerful enough to hold one of those orbs.”

Chel frowned when she heard that, letting the final piece click into place. Then, with the press of a button, the various internal components seemed to arrange themselves. The outer shell closed to reveal a metal tube with a currently black lens, the entire construction about five inches long.

“And because of how Deckan’s magic system works, you can only get those missing cards by luck after finding monsters of the fourth tier. I don’t suppose the solar sprites dropped any cards?”

James gave a bitter smile when he heard her question. “Cards are partially created from the soul of the dead creature. When Tsubaki killed them, she was using a powerful soul gem’s detonation. Even if they left behind a body, there wouldn’t have been anything left of the soul to pull the card from.”

If those sprites had dropped cards, with their numbers, James would have had billions to work with. As long as there was even the slightest possibility that they could produce the cards he needed, it would have almost been guaranteed that he would get it. Instead, because of the nature of both the creatures themselves and the means used to kill them, there was nothing to salvage. Well, except the great many levels that Tsubaki seemed to receive from killing them.

Chel nodded her head in understanding, passing the omnitool to James. “Need me to configure the neural interface for you, or do you still remember how to set it up?” James simply rolled his eyes with a light laugh, taking the tool and holding it in his hand for a moment. Then, he aimed it at a large machine in the corner of the room and pressed the button on the tool’s surface.

The lens of the omnitool lit up with a yellow light, releasing a faint hum that caused the machine to activate. Then, it switched to a blue one, and the machine rumbled as its programming was slightly altered. “The feedback could use some work, the information seemed a bit fuzzy. And were they always this loud?”

“Well, it’s just a prototype, right?” Chel grinned, knowing that the creation of this tool marked a significant advancement in James’s research progress. “You’ve got the parts to improve on your next set. Should we try to miniaturize it a bit more to add in the third compressor, or do you want to make it a little more bulky?”

James gave a noncommittal shrug to her question, as it did not really matter to him either way. Granted, it would be considerably more difficult to condense the parts in the device any further than they were already, so making it a touch larger would definitely be the easier path. “Either way works. Did you stop by the research lab on your way over?”

“I did! They’re really working hard.” Chel said with an energetic laugh, leaning back in her seat. “Especially those twins. You’d think someone lit a fire under their tails with how hard they were trying to get this machine built.”

“I suppose that means I should expedite my third project.” James admitted with a chuckle, earning a confused look from Chel.

“Didn’t the Keeper only assign you the two goals?”

“He did, but I’ve had another one myself for a while now. I need to make sure it’s finished by the time those two get their soul’s perfected.” When Chel heard that, her eyes went wide, seemingly alarmed.

“The perfection chambers aren’t built to handle a soul as strong as one that has reached perfection, are they?”

James shook his head, letting out a faint sigh. “I’ve run the numbers, and there’s at least a sixty-percent chance of failure if we use our current design. I can fix it, I just need the right parts. Thankfully, now that I have this, things will go a lot more smoothly on that front.” He stroked his thumb along the length of the omnitool as he said that.