Through sheer luck, I managed to meet up with the wielder of nuclear fire responsible for blowing the city up days before I expected too. While I was taking some downtime I decided to try to look for them through my hivemind, and I happened to stumble upon someone who was actively thinking about the person in a very friendly way, like they actually knew them instead of admiring their work from afar. From there one thing led to another and I eventually found the person themself.
They are some kind of offshoot of goblin that seems to be only present on this island, or at least I haven't heard of them being present in any significant numbers elsewhere. They have grey skin instead of green, their bodies are smaller and more compact, but they are also a lot more durable than their cousins. They have big round heads and large eyes, reminiscent of a child. Their brains are also bigger and more complicated than their cousins.
This one in particular is a juvenile boy by the name of Dulcian. And he has memories of a past life, as most wielders of nuclear fire do. I think it is really weird how reincarnators try to hide that fact, like it's not that big of a deal roughly half of all people have memories of some kind, most purely emotional.
He was young when he died in his last life, relatively speaking anyway. Eighteen is pretty old considering his new species only lives to be about thirteen. And that is not even taking into account the fact that years in his previous life seem to be longer than years here. He was also a student, though by his own admission he wasn't very good at it. He talked fondly about skipping school to build small explosives with his friends, basically fireworks, that he would set off on a relatives farm out in the middle of nowhere. He also talked fondly of staring up at the night sky and watching the two moons of his old world as well as countless stars, which is a weird concept. Why would there be tiny lights out past the moon? What purpose would they serve? Why were they put there? And apparently his world orbited a singular sun? which is also really weird.
That is beside the point. Dulcian doesn't know a lot about Nuclear Fire, most of his knowledge comes from a half-remembered lesson at school. But he does understand the basic concept behind it as well as the potential devastation it causes. That plus some minor talent with conjuration and he is able to produce a material I had previously associated with nuclear waste, in hindsight it is pretty obvious that this stuff is the actual power source of nuclear fire.
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We talked for quite a while and he explained to me exactly what was going on, well enough that I think I would be capable of replicating the effects if I needed too. I will not write this information down here as people have read my diary without my consent in the past, I don't want anyone figuring it out on accident. I don't want to replicate it as I would probably kill myself in the process, but Dulcian's sheer lack of mana saved him from that fate. He couldn't produce enough all at once to kill himself with it and understood the risks well enough to stay far away from it when he went to blow it up. And he isn't detonating it directly either, he is conjuring the stuff and using it to power a bomb, like the one he detonated.
Towards the end of our conversation I asked him to come work for me, and told him that I would give him pretty much anything he wanted, assuming it was within my power. I couldn't help but laugh when he smugly asked me to make him immortal, like he expected it to be some kind of impossible request. I couldn't help but notice that he got increasingly smug as I laughed until I told him that I would have made him immortal anyway as I didn't want him dying on me. After he got over his shock I gave him a list of things that I am offering just by default, an ideal facility to work in, access to my hivemind granted by myself, specialized for his particular circumstances, all living expenses paid, and almost any luxury I can offer.
He thought about the offer for a while and said that he would accept, assuming I could fulfill a list of demands that he is currently in the process of writing up. Though I have already integrated him into my hivemind, and in the process evolved him. I focused primarily on his mana pool and his mana generation, as mana is the only really effective method to resist the poison of nuclear material. I also added a mechanism that constantly reinforces his body with Solar Energy in hopes that it will somehow keep him from dying. Last but not least was something simple to give him some rather quick regeneration, thus making him immortal. I ended up using more of my own mana than mana from the world in this project.
I look forward to taking advantage of his knowledge and willingness to risk blowing himself up in exchange for immortality. I'm sorry, I still can't get over that one.
Anyway, Good Night Diary.