The place that Lakshman appeared out of looked like a completely deserted location, with the only things being there were large boulders, destroyed equipment littered everywhere as well as what looked like an abandoned building. He headed towards it with the ghost of his childhood friend floating ahead with a curious look on his face.

“Woah. What is this place?” He asked his friend in wonder as he glanced around it.

“It’s the facility that we used to experiment in creating the Titanium armours and various other things,” explained Lakshman while glancing around it. “It was originally a populated place with a labyrinth nearby, but I had the people moved inward into the capital to leave this place as an experimental ground.”

“Ah. At least, you had the foresight of safeguarding civilians from harm’s way judging from all the scattered stuff lying around,” remarked Stuart wryly.

To that, Lakshman chuckled and said, “Actually, there was one time an explosion almost destroyed this portion of the capital, but I eliminated it using Maga Distrab.”

“So, you learnt your lesson. That’s good,” said Stuart with a smile before asking, “and whom are we meeting?”

“Wolfenstine.”

This took a moment for Stuart to digest and reply with a shocked look on his face.

“W-Wolfenstine?! As in, the man that single handedly created a potion to contain werewolves, help cure several diseases, was instrumental in creating several other potions such as healing potions and that includes the clock system using energy stones.”

“Yes. That man,” replied his friend with a smile, which left Stuart looking thoroughly bewildered. A moment later, he reached the entrance to the building and knocked twice while calling, “Wolfenstine. It’s me, Lakshman. I came to talk.”

There was a moment of pause before the sound of footsteps was heard from inside before the door was flung open. There stood a tall man with white hair spiking upward behind him with sharp features for a face, which looked like that of a werewolf. Unlike the werewolves, who had blue eyes, he had red eyes as the indication of him inheriting the blood of his parents, where his mother was a vampire and his father was a werewolf.

“Lucky! You’re back!” He exclaimed happily, walking outside and engulfing the young man in a large hug. “It’s so good that you’re back in one piece!”

Lakshman laughed and said, “Yeah!” Then they withdrew, and he asked the older man, “How are you?”

“I’m good. Come in,” said Wolfenstine, and they both stepped inside before shutting the door behind.

As the older man in his hybrid form hurried to get a chair for him to sit on, Lakshman glanced around at the workshop. There were piles of metallic materials lying around as well as unfinished products that needed refining and further study. There were even several piles of broken titanium armour that looked like they were picked up from the war.

“I see you’re studying on the means to improve the armour,” he commented as he sat down on the chair provided by Wolfenstine.

“Yes. Well. It needs to be upgraded,” said the hybrid dully. “I can’t believe how useless it proved against that Orb monster’s might. I cannot let this defective product into production until I find a breakthrough.”

“Wolfenstine,” began Lakshman soothingly, “I want you to keep this in mind that we made the strongest material available to man with what resources we had at our disposal. It’s just bad luck that such a monster came and decimated the army. We were just unlucky in this matter.”

Wolfenstine shook his head and replied, “It’s easier for those alive to console each other, but what about those that died? I cannot give excuses in the face of the many that died that day, and that’s why I will not stop in making the strongest metal in all of existence! I will not let down the lives that were lost due to such an excuse!”

Lakshman looked at the determined expression on his friend and wondered, “I see. I too feel guilty that we were unprepared for such a devastating monster’s existence. Perhaps… if we had something ‘classified’ then the warriors would not have lost their lives.”

To that, he heard his past-self say, “While it does feel bad about the lives lost, do make sure to remember what it cost us in order to destroy the technology that could’ve been devastating in the wrong hands! Remember? Our battle against the Atelier Clan.”

Lakshman pondered for a moment before thinking, “It’s the clan that produced some of the most advanced and questionably dangerous items, including things like the Suppression Rings and Power Boosters although their name’s been changed to Amplifier Rods by whoever acquired them somehow.”

“Yes. They are extremely dangerous since we did come across them in the past in recent times.”

His words made Lakshman remember his experience with the Suppression Rings that was used by the Shadow Dragon King to render him nearly powerless as well as his encounter with the assassins possessing Amplification Rods. He could remember vividly the challenge he faced when he could not utilise his powers fully while facing a somewhat tough fight against the assassins with his recently acquired Phoenix Titan powers.

“I agree they should be best left forgotten but… I don’t think we can ignore their existence since they were clearly discovered and used against me. Multiple times, in fact.”

“Yes. That is why we must never reveal what we know about them, including where the Atelier Clan originally was nor where we sunk that part of the land into the sea,” said Asura grimly.

While Lakshman was agreeing to his past-self’s sentiment, he suddenly heard Wolfenstine asking him, “Lucky? What are you thinking so deeply about?”

“Oh,” started Lakshman initially in confusion before remembering the question and replying, “I was just… just thinking of how to improve the metal’s endurance and possibly add various properties to protect our soldiers from most damages.”

“Yes, but that would put a lot of pressure on the metal’s make, shape, size, and weight. Heck, sustaining such a degree of magic effects on it would probably make the shield difficult to use since we need to make it to match its uses,” replied Wolfenstine, thinking deeply about it.

“Yeah. That is true,” sighed Lakshman as they had hit a wall already.

Wolfenstine stroked his beard and said slowly, “It’s not impossible; just would prove difficult to make and sustain. I would just need to do something about it and…”

He began muttering to himself while contemplating deeply about the suggestion that Lakshman made.

“He’s a heavy thinker,” commented Stuart, staring in awe at the man whom he seemed to hold great respect towards.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Lakshman smiled and said, “Well, I didn’t come here to talk about the armour actually.”

This broke Wolfenstine’s chain of thoughts and made him smile awkwardly as he asked, “Sorry about that. So, what did you come here for?”

“I came to let you know that you will need to prepare shifting this warehouse and your stuff away from the capital.”

The hybrid scientist blinked in surprise before asking, “Wait. What? What do you mean by that? Are you saying you’re going to kick me out of the kingdom?”

“Yes,” said his king with a joyful smile.

Wolfenstine blinked twice once more before asking, “Wait! Are you saying you’re going to kick me out literally?!”

“Not literally,” laughed Lakshman. “It’s just that you would need to shift your stuff since I’ll be stepping down as king.”

There was a moment of silence as his words slowly digested within the hybrid man before he exclaimed, “What?! You’ve stepped down as king?! When did this happen without my knowledge?!”

“I didn’t step down. Not yet,” he said with a sigh, “but I plan to soon.”

Wolfenstine stared at him in disbelief before demanding, “When will you step down? No! The more important question is; why are you stepping down?! Is it to do with the bad rumours circulating about you?”

“In a way, yes,” agreed Lakshman, “because I don’t think I want to rule over people that would be easily moved to doubt me after all that I’ve done for them.”

“So, cutting your losses short and leaving for a better place then,” said Wolfenstine, to which the young man nodded in agreement. “I can’t argue with that since I too feel the same, but this is troublesome. How long will you remain as king before the change in power? In fact, who’s going to be the next king? Are you going to elect them, or have you already chosen who your successor is going to be?”

“I’ve… chosen one already. It’s just that she doesn’t have a recognition status yet.”

“If so, how do you plan on elevating her status? Don’t tell me you’re going to cause situations and have her sort it out or something along those lines?”

“I don’t resort to such tactics,” replied Lakshman indignantly. “I’ll simply use the situations I have on hand to my advantage. For starters, I’m going to have her become something akin to a secretary to me or an assistant, and though they doubt me somewhat, my weight as king will surely help establish her name around. Then, I’ll have her appear to provide solutions to situations and let her take all the credit for them all.”

This made Wolfenstine raise an eyebrow before saying, “That’s quite the scheme you got going. Well, is there anything that I can help you with? It’s obvious that’s why you came here to meet as well as drop that sudden bomb shell on me.”

Lakshman laughed and said, “Yes. As a matter of fact, I do need some help from you. I want something like a news system that goes around informing people on a daily basis.”

“News system?” Wolfenstine asked, looking quizzical while thinking about it. “You mean like a reporting system that tells people the goings on?”

“Yes, and in the future, I want the news system to include the goings on around the world,” explained Lakshman his thoughts on what he visioned for his system from what he understood of the news system in the Alzard World.

“I see. So, a news network coverage thing that spans across the world, covering all that is happening everywhere and reporting to people on a daily basis,” summarised Wolfenstine, nodding in understanding. “I think it can be achieved if we have the dedicated batch of people working for us from around the world.”

“That’s fine. We can just talk to some people we know and request them to join this… um… organisation with a promise of a payment since it pretty much will become their job.”

“Okay. That’s that, but how do you want the news to spread? Do you want a reading system or an announcement system? In my opinion, printing articles out and selling them for profit is the easiest since the populace would be very eager to learn of the things going on outside the kingdom.”

The suggestion of using paper made Lakshman wince as it suddenly reminded him of the Alzard World. He had learned from one of the classes he attended at the hero academy that the great increase of paper around the world caused the world populace to chop down all trees without regard for their planet’s health. It was only until the great war that nearly destroyed it all that they realised their mistake and dropped all arms and pursued technological advancement to keep their planet from becoming an inhabitable place and just barely succeeded.

So, he shook his head to Wolfenstine’s suggestion and said, “No, Wolfenstine. I don’t like that.”

“Why?”

“I’ve… seen what things would become if we begin cutting down on mother nature in that other world that I visited soon after falling through that void,” stated Lakshman grimly.

“Wait. Are you saying their world is… a wasteland?”

“Not completely, but mostly yes. The people live in these cities built on technology and modern science and other things that I just don’t know about, but it’s what keeps them alive and cool despite the hot temperatures outside the cities.”

“Wow. That’s bad,” remarked the hybrid man in alarm. “That’s so stupid of them to bring their world to such a drastic degree of devastation. Couldn’t they plant more trees or work towards improving the plantation?”

“It seems that a war had raged for a very long time that caused them to destroy what remained of the plantations that were meant to be used for the improving of their ecosystem. Ultimately, they failed and their world is now like that.”

“Foolish. What did they achieve at the end of it all? The near destruction of their world? That’s quite the feat to feel proud of, those ungrateful bastards,” cursed Wolfenstine coldly. There was a moment of silence before he broke it by saying, “I understand your worries. In that case, we need an alternative. Just a sec.”

He suddenly rose to his feet with those words and hurried away to the innards of the workshop. Lakshman looked at him leave and a few minutes later, watched him return. In his hand, he held a small stone that looked like an Energy Stone judging by the orange colour it emitted.

“We could use this,” he said with a smile, handing it to Lakshman.

“An Energy Stone?” The younger man asked back, looking at the stone and then at the stone he was given. “What do I do with it?” He asked while examining it carefully.

Wolfenstine smiled and said, “Just tap it in the middle and watch.”

Looking and feeling perplexed, he tapped the stone like he was requested. As he did, he noticed that there was a strange emission of magic coming from the stone that was very different to what an Energy Stone would produce.

The moment he pressed the stone in the middle with his finger, blue particles of light began emitting from the stone. He withdrew his finger back in alarm as the blue particles of light quickly came together and solidified to form a rectangular shape that hovered a few centimetres away from the stone.

“What the?!” He exclaimed, staring at the holographic display that came before him.

The display looked solid and strong almost as if it was there, but when he experimentally poked his finger against it, his finger went through the display while the particles made way to give his finger room while not entirely breaking their formation.

“Wow. This is a holographic screen!” He exclaimed, looking up at Wolfenstine with excitement. “How did you make this?! I mean… clearly this is an Energy Stone!”

Wolfenstine beamed at him and began explaining, “You’re right that it’s an Energy Stone, but the process was extremely difficult that’s too much to explain,” and he sighed wearily.

“I can imagine,” said Lakshman in amazement, looking at the hologram and then at the stone.

He pressed the middle of the stone again, and the blue particles of light quickly dissipated and left no trace of it there.

“This is neat!” He commented happily. “We could use this as a way of… uh… storing information and having the user activate it to make the display come on and they can scroll through it to get up on their information.”

The scientist that invented that device laughed and said, “Now you’re thinking productively. By the way, it’s just a prototype that doesn’t do much except turn on and off with just a press. I’ve yet to make it into a productive thing, but the biggest challenge would be to embed information that will appear on the holographic screen.”

“I’m confident if anyone can pull it off, then it would be you!” Lakshman expressed his opinion and trust in the older hybrid. “You’ve made this, so it’s only natural that the next step is to add upon it like we thought.”

The inventor nodded and said, “Yes. You’re right.”

Lakshman smiled and said, “Alright. I’ll leave now since that’s pretty much what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Ah. You don’t want any water?” Wolfenstine asked, suddenly realising that he had not given his guest anything since coming.

“No need. I’ve got to return to the castle and inform my wives about my future plans,” declined Lakshman courteously, “but maybe next time when we aren’t pressed for time.”

The two rose to their feet, and he followed Lakshman to the exit and bid him goodbye. Then he closed the door and looked down at the device he invented that his king returned to him before leaving.

“To think that the device I invented for faster communication in war would instead be used to report information to the users. Haha,” he said and laughed at how his intentions had changed since creating the thing. Then he breathed a sigh and wore a smile of determination on his face as he said, “Alright. There’s no time to waste. Let’s get started,” and he headed to his work bench to begin improving on the device that would soon be known as the Infodeck.