Chapter 17: Materials Testing
dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 checked his stats. It would take 8192 mana to reach the next level. His mana capacity was growing faster than his production, even with his accelerated consumption of flora. Animals were becoming increasingly elusive despite his spread, as they were now retreating from any area that came under his control, and few predators were coming after the meat he set out as bait. He needed new sources of mana or it was possible he would not have the resources to effectively assault the town when he finally reached it.
The "harpy" was a possible solution to the problem. It was a scaled up version of the local flying animals, with a human-like torso and head. Its wings were far too small to produce enough lift for it to fly, but they appeared to generate a constant amount of passive lift, making the creature more maneuverable than expected. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 had recorded its spawning and not seen any biological mechanism for this lift generation, suggesting it might be similar to the traceless enhancements of the humans. The harpy spawned without additional weaponry and its only means of attack were four sharp talons on each of its legs, superior to the daggers of the goblins, but poor for wielding weapons.
dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 considered it an upgrade to the wolf, because of its flight capabilities, although the wolf would still be useful as a scout for the tracking of chemicals due to its superior sense of smell. The true value of the harpy revealed itself when he instructed it to fly higher, away from his area of control. The scaling cost of operating outside his area of control had a cap for the harpy, only tripling its mana upkeep at the maximum value. The cost was still high, the upkeep equivalent to that of 9 goblins, but the increased ability to scout the local area and to prey on the local wildlife to mitigate its cost still made it a good exchange.
dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 created several cores from suitable knives, to give it ranged weaponry. It could not throw the knives, but it could drop them from height or augment their speed with its own momentum. He temporarily spawned goblins from the knives to test the effect of cores of different items, and found there was a correlation between item quality and the increased agility of the goblins. He despawned the harpy, as its upkeep meant favoring a higher initial cost in exchange for higher quality, and began sorting through his resources for suitable core creation targets.
The hobgoblin was entirely humanoid in contrast. It was a taller version of the goblin, with more human-like capabilities and a less hunched back. Night vision was unaffected, but its hands were more suitable for tool use and less suitable for climbing. It was still shorter than the average human, but the increased height meant that it could use spears and bows. It was not very strong however, meaning its arrows did not achieve high speeds and the weapon itself was inaccurate, as each arrow had a slightly different arc when it flew. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 had underestimated the skills of the human archers, as they had compensated for this inaccuracy. The hobgoblin was an almost direct upgrade on the goblin, but its upkeep was around 2.4 goblins, so he decided on a 1:2 ratio of hobgoblins to goblins. Two goblins per hobgoblin would help overwhelm hostiles with numbers while allowing for sacrificial strategies with the cheaper goblins without greatly lowering combat efficiency afterwards.
dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 returned to item examination, especially to that of the "small disk" he had created, which had cost as much as the creation of a goblin core. Unlike the cores, he could initiate creation of them from any surface. Using it on the cave wall had extracted a rough piece of stone, which floated in the air as it was being carved in elaborate patterns into a thin cylinder. The material changed as it was being carved, becoming slightly translucent. The end result was durable disk made of material similar to that of the cores. It was covered in grooves and indentations, which were clearly meant to be filled with runes. The result was also cheaper to turn into a core, requiring only half the usual cost.
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dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 had an idea, and attempted to recreate the material within the unique item creation system. He found that he could copy it directly, but the result was incomprehensible. Its chemical composition had compounds which had no mapping to known substances or even into the classification system itself, and which were not present in the inputs. It was possible that it was a simple failure of the interface, but he was beginning to doubt that he could map everything on this planet to things he knew. He tried to isolate the compounds, but the cost increased exponentially with any change he attempted to make. A single pure gram of one of the compounds would cost 47433 mana to produce without requiring anything as input beyond mana.
He repeated the same disk creation process on two pieces of wood, one from the log houses and one from the consumed and decayed trees. The carved design was identical in each case, the result only differing in material and cost. The high-quality wooden disk was slightly more expensive, and instead of translucence gained a slight yellow glow. The decayed wood was only a tenth of the cost, and crumbled into dark-red translucent pieces as soon as it hit the ground, without ever being a valid target for core creation. It was clear his draining of the plants was having a deeper effect than simply killing them.
He repeated the process on metal, extracting it from a strangely shaped solid piece of iron in the forge. The disk cost twice as much as the one made of stone, but the resulting material was merely more reflective. The resulting shape was different however, as the disk had a more intricate design. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 had one of the goblins test it, and he was incapable of scratching it.
dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 decided on an unique item. He needed something to pierce armor, especially armor made of these unknown materials, and he needed ranged capabilities. It was possible the humans had not realized it, but the clothes worn by Calder were impenetrable to every weapon he had tested on them. He spent 5 hours testing the attributes of the disks, even spawning a troll to exert greater forces. It took an extreme amount of punishment, but in the end he managed to create a crack in the wooden disk by supporting it on the large lump of metal, and letting the troll hit it with the iron disk at full strength. The exertion was enough to break the thick bones of its arms and tear its muscles. The wooden disk became an invalid target for a core in the process, and he was forced to despawn the troll, as it would be cheaper to simply respawn it instead of waiting for it to heal.
dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 matched the estimated attributes of the materials against all known layered composites containing similar materials, although he had to heavily extrapolate many of their attributes, until he found one that fit his desired purposes. He extruded the material into the chosen shape.
The result was a large and extremely expensive spear that required 762 units of mana to produce and a 4:1:2 mixture of wood, stone and iron of equivalent mass. It was a perfectly smooth cylinder, only textured in some places to provide better grip, with a tip designed for piercing through solid material. It was slightly too heavy for the goblin, meaning he would have to produce higher-quality goblins to wield it, but the intended primary use was not goblins. It was meant to be a javelin thrown by the trolls at suppressed armored targets.
He refrained from producing one for the moment, as making even one would significantly slow the progress until the next upgrade, but he prepared the materials and corresponding troll core for rapid creation.
With the unique item chosen, he had finalized the upgrade, although there were no major changes. Only the new item appeared in his menu, which he had named javelin-cm5n-aXNi-cm9r.
He created a harpy from the remaining metal disk. The core creation process was extremely fast, only carving glowing runes into the already prepared surface, making the metal glow from heat. The resulting harpy was unnaturally agile in the air, almost floating even without moving its wings. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 assigned it to hunt in the surrounding woods until the sun was in the proper position. He would send it south on a scouting mission, with the star at its back to blind anyone looking in its direction, although it would do little against proper sensors.