Chapter 245

Unsupervised Visitations And Creations

I don’t know what goes into people’s minds sometimes.

Honestly, I don’t know if it is the idea that some people are able to mentally separate themselves from the atrocities that are being presented before them. If people are somehow able to rationalize cruelty to children, to people, just because they somehow don’t appear to be real. That there is no quote unquote logical way that these children could actually be reincarnations of people from the real world, making them somehow lesser beings.

That said, just being this close lets me realize a few things.

The scene is straight out of a horror movie. Kids shackled and chained in a dark tunnel. Wires are lined from the dark tunnel that holds them out to speakers that line the walls.

For a second I wonder what exactly is happening.

At least I was wondering what was happening, until I heard off in the distance the cries of those quivering children echoing around the entire mining facility.

“Please help us.” Kids, little children cried out miserably over the speakers.

As they did, the workers, the probable parents of said kids all paused as they heard the sounds, then quickly shot back to life.

This was when the world spoke to me, just as it had done so earlier.

New Questline Identified: Purging the Desecrators (Repeatable): You have come across a scene of absolute destruction. Magical and Mechanical Parasites have set up a dig site stripping the land of magical resources, which have in turn begun to poison the ecosystem. Eliminate the threat to the local area and become a protector of the world. Current status Grand Mages purged (0 / 3), Mage foreman (0 / 6), Mage Leaders (0 / 10), Mechanoid Operators (0 / 25), Mechanoid Apparatuses (0 / 75), excavators (0 / 115), children to rescue (0 / 21). Rewards: Experience, Skills, Badges, variables.

“Shush you,” I say, waving my hand to cut off the stream of information filling my mind.

I understand that this is a trap. That everything up until now has been a test of my morals, my conscience, and my ethos.

There is a part of me that even understands how this quest prompt is a good thing. How I now know the numbers of people. How the operations of this facility have changed. Rather than going entirely for a magical detachment to run everything, the Legrand Empire, or whomever this is has switched to a hybrid design. One that is roughly a fifty-fifty split of mage users and mechanocaloric operators. There is also the fact that destroying the suit alone will not be enough to stop the operators, as there is a three to one ratio of available suits to users. Meaning that if one breaks, or is taken down, they can run to supply depots and get another. I get that, I get all of that.

However, what I can’t get is the seeming violence towards children,

The entire thing makes no sense.

They torture children to keep the parents complacent? To keep them from revolting? I’m assuming there is some form of way that the extra work performed by the parents earns food and water for the children?

It is sickening.

Worse, I can tell by the energy that regressors are a part of both sides.

There is something about the souls of regressors, something that still seems to resist this world. At least that is why I think the subtle scarring is caused by.

New Skill Gained: Soul Understanding has increased to level 1. Soul Understanding is a Personality, Sociability, Perception X 2, and Intelligence based skill.

Seeing the new skill, I realize that my insights are mostly correct. Or at least, I know this is the world’s way of telling me that I am on the correct path.

I also understand that these breaks in the soul, are likely the psyche and soul breaking apart, cracking under internal pressure. Which is good, as it means that deep down these people realize they are committing crimes, even if they are apparently justifying it to themselves.

Regardless though, this is the world we all live and share.

Even if you don’t think of your neighbors as humans, surely you can think of them at least in terms of sentient beings, right? Or have the harsh realities of war warped these people this much? Has being exposed to violence day in and day out, and the threat of violence changed these people on such fundamental levels?

I don’t know.

I honestly, don’t.

All I do know, is that at this very moment, I am here.

No, not just that, but I have been called here.

Out of all the high level people in the world, this world chose me to answer this call.

At first, I have to admit that I thought it was a low blow. Getting children to call out to me in such a way that I would be forced to respond.

Now that I’m here, I’m angry that they didn’t call me sooner.

With that, I go to work.

The first thing I do is take down the magical defenses. There have been slight alterations to these designs, a few extra safeguards, higher degrees of disruptive energy are being released, but nothing I can’t handle. Particularly as I have both evolved my bloodline, making it so my concentration of energy is at a much higher magnitude than my last trip to one of these locations. But there is now also the undisputable fact that my skills are able to climb higher than the changes in difficulty level posed by the warding stone creators.

In fact, now the entire structure are so haphazardly overclocked that if they kept up this current rate of use, they would break their usability and likely set off a chain reaction of explosions that would destroy this entire area.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Pausing.

Realizing that thought, I hesitate as I realize that this is likely what the mine operators planned all along. Dig down, mine up all the available resources, and then what cover up the mine with a blanket of fresh mana and humanoid body parts to start the fertilization process?

That is the best excuse I can come up with to explain what I am seeing, but it makes sense.

Also, with this method, the people manning the site could probably justify their actions easier to themselves. Using arguments like, the kids and parents were going to die anyways, that was their fate once their country lost the war. The fact that they got to survive for a few more months or years, was just a bargain, as their time was done once their side surrendered.

I really hope I am wrong, I really really do.

Logically, I could prove this really easily. I could just start reading the minds of the people who are in charge, find out the truth and make an assessment based on that.

The only problem with that is, first I would give up my element of surprise, which reminds me.

Confidentiality.

There we go, people will know my general location, but might not exactly know what I am doing, hopefully.

Though, then again, using Confidentiality now will hopefully get me that manager I so desperately wanted to talk to.

Poof, poof, poof.

First, I take out the defensive wards that would make magic slightly tougher to cast. This is not because I need magic to be effective, but because I can tell that the world itself hates those waves that are being sent.

Now I am left with the process of cutting off communications.

Or at least that would be my next step, normally, but this time I have a plan.

Finding the communication lines, I see that there are a few more wires than last time. Again, logically they have tampering wires in there that once cut would set off alarms on both sides of the this, both here at the mining facility and at the nearby headquarters. A headquarters that would logically send over my manager to talk to.

I’m not there yet, which is why I instead opt to use my newest ability to gain control over the situation.

Arcane Geomancy.

“Ahh.”

As I use my new power, I feel the world below call out with a contented sigh of relief. This is the same voice that provided my newest quest, one telling me of the challenges that lay before me.

Better still, by using my own powers here, I feel a deeper connection to the land.

In a way, it is hard to tell, but I feel like a part of me is here.

No, that’s not quite right.

Now that I’ve cast Arcane Geomancy in this new location, I can tell that the world itself has accepted this casting. That it could resist my call, if it so chose. The fact that it didn’t resist, and even seems to welcome the presence of my energy is a blessing.

Mentally I note that I will have to look further into this development later on, but for now I have more things to do.

First, I reach out to the communications systems that I have now brought to life.

From our shared mental link, I feel myself asking it, if it will help me free the land and the children.

I change up my priorities, though both will get accomplished.

Blinking.

I can feel the now semi-sentient communications device coming to life, if only partially. It can’t move, not like my books can, nor can it really talk on its own.

But it does promise to do the one thing that I need of it, and that is to keep any alarms from going off until I give it a signal telling it to do so.

With that, I successfully complete stage one of my infiltration process.

Now that this part is over, I use both my Angel’s Sight, and a slightly creepy connection to the earth about locations of certain objects around the mining camp.

While this camp is smaller in terms of people and occupants, it is roughly the same size, geographically. Meaning that while over four hundred fewer people live here, the area covered by everyone is roughly the same. Though it is clear from a glance that most of this extra spacing is controlled and maintained by the use of mechanoid soldiers.

While only eight users of the mechanoid suits are up and operational at this time, that is more than enough to apparently keep the hundred indentured excavators in place.

This is good for me, as it means that by my count, there are currently 63 mechanoid suits that are either in storage, or otherwise being sheltered.

From an espionage perspective, this is the perfect time to identify the storage warehouses where the suits are being housed, disable them, and move on.

That is what the Sapper in me is telling me to do.

However, there is a newer and more curious side of me that realizes a few things. First, the destruction of the suits might be loud, and thus draw unwanted attention ahead of when I would be ready for it. Second, destroying the mechanoid suits in such a way would be such a waste of mechanical resources. Third, and probably the most influential part of me just realized that by using my new power, I was able to gain complete control, or at least partial influence over the communications platform used by the base. Using that same logic, I might be able to gain influence over mechanoid suits that are brought to sentience in a similar way.

I debate for a second, and then realize that possibly being able to turn the enemy mechanoid units against themselves would be the ultimate form of force multiplication.

Golden thread.

The more I contemplate this, the more thick strands of golden thread appear around me, and all but chain me to the different mechanoid suits.

Feeling the attachment, I pause, but then ultimately decide to go with the golden strands.

I realize this is the amount of fate applied to an action, and not necessarily a sign of good or bad things to come, but how much impact the action I take will change the world.

Still, I like the idea of an being able to turn one’s own mechanoid suits against their wearers. The entire idea seems to be karmic justice. Obviously, I’ll be there to Resurrect or stop anything from going too crazy, but this will be a good test of my new capabilities.

Poof.

Just entering the first bunker I feel the stagnant taste of air. At least in the back part of the bunker. There is a seemingly clean, front section of the warehouse, where a few guards and seemingly well maintained machines are present.

For their part, the machines are gigantic, then again, when you are the size of a medium sized Pomeranian standing on their hind legs to look you in the eyes, your version of large changes.

That said, these devices seem to have extra large chest cavity areas, where someone the size of a large orc or a particularly well-endowed barbarian or Beastkin could stand comfortably. The machines are a thing of beauty, allowing for both… wait?

Nope, there is no doubt about it, these are my designs.

Both Mana and Qi circuits are present, with the user apparently able to cycle between either to be used to fuel the working of the mechanoid.

Sucker punch.

Just seeing the design this close, I have to use my third-eye, but it only further confirms my findings.

Someone has been speaking out of turn about my designs and projects.

For a moment, I almost wonder if anyone would have been able to reverse engineer my designs from watching me work.

I’d like to say no, but knowing that I don’t always use every bit of Confidentiality that I can. That and my recent project of creating a QiMO powered airship took weeks to complete, giving anyone ample time to see my processes, though it is clear that they are missing some of the finer details. As I can see many of the issues I worked through early on are prevalent in these models.

Then seeing their location, as being housed in the abandoned section of the warehouse, their placement now seems to make sense.

If I had to guess, the other machines are older Imperial designs that only utilize mana. I can tell from a glance, just based on the residual mana signatures, and the much larger circuits. Yes, the circuits have to be larger as mana and Qi have a cost reduction effect that makes them a far superior power source than either alone.

That said, they are close to replicating my designs.

Too close for my comfort.

The more I seem to mentally uncover, the larger the golden threads that bind me to these mechanoid units seem to grow.

There are duller threads of fate that seem to link me to the mana only mechanoid devices. Which lets me know that I might be able to do something with them as well.

Still, for the first part of this process, I realize that I will likely need to get moving quickly.

Also, I know for a fact that I cannot let these designs stay here. First, they are extremely valuable resources that I can use for my own future designs. And second, I know that by leaving these designs here, people will be using the things I have created for destruction and violence. While I am okay with the former, I cannot stand the latter. Nor could I live with myself knowing that I allowed potential superweapons to be created.

For these reasons, I focus my mind, and begin trying to bring these devices to life.

Arcane Geomancy

Focusing on the threads of golden energy, I realize that there is a slight binding process from myself to these mechanoid devices.

Not only am I linking myself to them by knowledge of the designs currently used. I also feel a link to them, in that I can quickly improve their noted flaws.

Most of the flaws are minor, flow circuits not allowed to fuse together at regulated intervals, resulting in corrosion. A simple correction to the flow rates, makes it so the energy I am providing the machines gets used and spread out evenly.

Very soon, I feel the flow going in a circulating pattern, one that is easily sustainable. Though I make sure to speed up the speed of the circulating energy, to remove and buildup or corrosion. After that, I focus on creating what are larger flow points. In the human body, these would be where the major organs are, but for the mechanoid device, these are where tiny batteries can be placed to build up and store strands of energy to be used on specialized functions. For a human these functions would be breathing, digesting food, or even thinking.

For these machines, this is for the special actions that were designed into the shell. Propulsion bursts from the feet, welding torches for the hands, or even repulsion shields for weaker areas.

Honestly, the design of these devices are amazingly complex, with the noted smaller Qi and Mana cabling allowing for greater storage and output capabilities for the devices.

Honestly, I never thought about creating a mechanoid, but if I did, I would want to start off with some or most of these features.

Granted, these can easily be made into weapons of mass destruction, but they do have a functional utility that also cannot be denied. With this suit, someone like Jhonny could easily build an entire complex from scratch in a matter of hours.

There could also be agricultural benefits from this, everything from digging ditches with ease, to building canals capable of providing life bearing water to parts of the desert.

With these devices, we could do a lot of good.

“And done,” I say after stopping at the final part of these four nearly identical devices. The heart, a perpetual motion machine that so long as no energy escapes could propel these machines on indefinitely comes to life.

Then to my horror, I see the moment the machines come to life, letting me know I have created the perfect killing machines and given them a partial form of sentience.

For at that moment, I was met with not one, but four sets of glowing energy eyes.

Heterochromia Gold and Blue eyes X4.

“Yeah, hopefully no one here is named John Connor.” I say to myself, as I get a slight sense of dread about what is going to happen next.