Thinking through the updated knowledge he gained about the Skill, Jordan was honestly fascinated more than anything. The thing the System had noted about the TP cost made more sense as well as he looked as his current resources.

Tech Points: 21/21(26)

The first thing to note was the fact that even when reducing it by 20%, some very quick math showed that the System was still rounding the new total. Had it not done so, it would currently be at 20.8 instead.

Now, here was the part that was interesting about the Scaling. Stepping outside, where there would obviously be more space for this next part, Jordan focused on using the Skill. One by one, he created a set of new drones. Something which the casting time remained the same as before for each use, as a note. Until soon, a total of five drones were now in a semi-circle in front of him.

Tech Points: 0/0(26)

Jordan was officially out of TP. Just to test, he tried to use Overcharge on a random drone, and felt the Skill’s inability to be used due to the lack of resources. Yet, despite being drained to zero, all the currently summoned drones remained online.

So, five drones, where each one cost one-fifth of his total TP. From the information provided so far, Jordan believed that when his Stats increased to make it six drones, the cost would go down to one-sixth of his TP per drone. And had he somehow gained the evolution back when the Stats wouldn’t have provided any extra, then just the single drone would have cost all his TP.

In addition, he could tell that the general buffs to the land drone were already in effect. The moderate increase in speed had basically canceled out the moderate decrease from the size evolution, bringing its max speed back up to the original of 50 miles per hour.

Along that same vein, the slight decrease in max range was now more than compensated for, bringing it up to a net positive limit of 28 miles. And while the new number made sense after considering the previously lower amount, the lack of rounding up to 30 still miffed him a bit.

Now, there was just one part that wasn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world. It was just more… interesting. As of right now, Jordan didn’t want to take the risk of always being emptied of his resources. So just to play it safe, and to see how this bit he already knew about would practically look like, he tried to desummon one of the drones.

Nothing.

Lightly nodding to himself, it matched the intuitive knowledge he’d already received. But just to try something else out anyway, he then ordered one of the drones to desummon itself.

Again, nothing.

Okay then. Now let’s do the way this is actually going to work from here on out. Less like flipping a switch on and off, and more like pulling the plug and then needing to wait for the battery to die.

Rather than directly desummon it, Jordan just took a second to focus on cutting off the TP supply. Then looking down at his watch, which had fortunately survived his crash into a tree, Jordan kept careful track of the time.

Even after cutting off the TP, the drone remained active as he gave the other drones a command. One that would at least keep them all productive, rather than stand around as their sibling perished. Now on the hunt for anything that wasn’t Human or Crab, they sped off to try to shoot anything that lived before the wildfire spread to get them first.

Ten minutes.

That’s how long it took for the drone to be desummoned now. Yet rather than simply a timer before it instantly vanished, it was more like a drawn-out process. In the time he had spent waiting, Jordan had made the drone drive around while also occasionally shooting at night. Around the five-minute mark was when he noticed a steady decline in the capabilities of the drone. It began to move around slower, fire at a lower rate, and with blasts that seemed a bit more sluggish.

This decline only accelerated with each passing second, until before all ten minutes had even fully passed, the drone had already become little more than just the world’s biggest paperweight. If Jordan had to put a marker on it, he would personally say that it was just around eight and a half minutes that the drone became functionally useless. It was still able to move and shoot at that point, yes, but only to such a degree that it could honestly be considered rather sad.

Anyway, once the full ten minutes had passed, that’s when the drone fully disappeared like usual, and the TP spent was added back to his total pool. Though with a detail that would be very important to keep in mind for for the future.

Tech Points: 0.6/5(26)

The current amount was just what he’d already regenerated over the last few seconds. But it meant that the TP was still spent, and would need to be regenerated first before he could spend it on any Skills again. Not that it made too big of a difference, since ten minutes would be too long for getting back during a fight, even if he began the process as soon as an enemy attacked. But still, something to remember.

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Now feeling a bit more sleepy, there were just two more things left to do before he called it for the night. As the other drones were left to follow their command, he went back inside. Since they were still laid out, Jordan picked up a random gem from his remaining spread, and consumed it. Then, when the resulting System prompt appeared, he tried to select another evolution.

Insufficient essence for this option!

Current Advancement Crystal essence: 0/25

Right, so not getting that any time soon, hopefully. Though… who knows. Assuming the Crabs also showed up here in groups, then there has to be more than just that one. And even if the others from its specific group are already dead, then it’s already been proven that they’re being dropped in the same places as us. So it doesn’t seem like the System is just putting each Species within its own starting zone of the planet, or anything, Jordan thought to himself.

It was only feeling weird that out of every kind of sapient alien to make first contact with, British Crabs would be the ones to meet. If such a thing had been a bet, Jordan would have certainly gone with something else and lost his money. In any case, for the time being, he allocated that point of absorbed essence toward the ten needed for gaining a new Skill. As nice as the thought of quickly getting Summon Land Drone’s Grade to E4 and even E5 as the apparent cap was, that would take way too much killing at this rate.

I’ll just have to wait and see what Level will be the one to get me there naturally. It should be a thing, from what the System said yesterday about it. Just a question of if I’ll have to wait until Level 10, since reaching Level 5 clearly didn’t get anything new for me. Anyway, I’ll probably save taking one of the drones apart for the morning. Better to let them run around now and farm some Experience before that fire kills everything around. But speaking of things that are around…

After returning the other gems to his pocket space, Jordan began to climb up the ladder. There was just one final thing to check on while it was still night. Something which might actually determine if he went to-

Experience Earned!

+24 EXP

Huh, one of the drones already found something. Well that was definitely pleasing to see, considering that they’d only been sent out for a bit over ten minutes. Especially after the previous patrols should have already cleared out anything unwise enough to live anywhere near his Kingdom while remaining detectable by the land drone.

But as Jordan then opened the roof access, he knew that before he slept, he needed to see if-

Experience Earned!

+24 EXP

Okay, again that was cool. But after dismissing the new screen-

Experience Earned!

+24 EXP

Now standing on the roof, Jordan gave it a second to see if it wanted to interrupt his train of thought again. After a few seconds, it seemed to have calmed down. As nice as these screens were in getting his immediate attention for important stuff, when a bunch appeared in a row across his vision, they could get rather-

Experience Earned!

+39 EXP

“Okay, that time was on damn purpose and we both know it, System. Could you do me a favor and just… like, minimize EXP notifications for a while? And also just condense those screens as a stack in the bottom left corner of my vision until I want to see them? Can you do that for me?” Jordan requested.

Thankfully, the System was at least respectful of his will in this matter. In an instant, all the prior screens still in front of him were minimized and banished to the corner of his eye. It was even nice to make them look defocused until he intentionally looked at the newly made stack, making it even less intrusive. As a side note, Jordan went ahead and checked to see where that currently brought him in terms of his overall Experience progress.

EXP: 351/3600

Just under a tenth of the way there now, so that was good. If the above murder rate continued at even half its current speed throughout the night, then he did look forward to seeing where it’d put him by dawn. It was only a bit over an hour into the night, after all, so there was still plenty of time left until the sun came up. Speaking of which, now that he wasn’t getting interrupted, it was finally time to address the matter of something that was only seen during the prior night.

Looking out past the clearing, it didn’t take Jordan long to find it again. Just like yesterday, the purple sphere was out there, sitting still in the darkness. He still had no idea what it was, but the fact that it was in the same spot as yesterday was definitely something to note.

Hmm, so assuming this is the start of a pattern, then it might just reappear ever night. But… if it’s an actual, physical thing, then what happens when the wildfire gets here? Jordan asked himself. He looked over toward the direction of the blaze.

The orange glow was definitely bigger and brighter than before, to clearly indicate its spread. It thankfully did seem to be growing slower than he would have expected, as evident by the fact that it hadn’t reached here yet. In fact… it seemed to have mostly grown longways rather than actually seem that much closer. Like it was certainly big enough that he had to sweep his gaze across the horizon to see it all.

Well, that’s not normal. Not freaking normal at all. Fire doesn’t just spread in one direction like that; it should be going everywhere that it can like crazy. I know for a fact that the whole layer of leaves on the ground basically covers the entire forest, so it should be spreading across that alone in every direction. Even if the trees themselves turn out to be not very flammable, all the dry kindling begging to catch fire should be the perfect recipe for a fucking monster of a blaze, right?

It was almost like, rather than anything else, the fire was traveling in a line that was largely parallel to his Kingdom. But again, while Jordan didn’t exactly have a certification in wildfire expertise, common sense told him that this was entirely unnatural.

Jordan was back in a state of having too many questions, and not nearly enough answers. After assessing his current condition, he made a decision. While he was a bit tired and fairly sore from today, especially around his noggin, it wasn’t enough to compromise him. It especially wasn’t as bad as the exhausted state he’d been in before finally falling asleep yesterday.

Glancing back over toward the mysterious purple ball, he made an executive decision. Jordan sent out the order for his four active drones to return to just outside the building. Knowing that it shouldn’t take them long to drive straight back here, he already made his way back to the ladder to begin climbing down.

Rather than continue to push it off for later, he was going to leave now and find out just what the Hell was up with this purple sphere.