A child, no more than eight, trudged through the familiar tall grass that made up the Endless Plains, picking discolored strands as he went. As a native, we had become very good at discerning the difference between the different grasses in the region, despite their similar appearance. For example, the lightest yellow strands were very “plain”, growing everywhere in the largest quantity.
Their presence hid the darker, shorter stalks, which fed off of ambient magic in the air and concentrated it in their stems. A perfect ingredient for low-grade alchemy. Occasionally, beige grass patches could be found hidden here and there, carving out little areas where nothing else could grow. They did have the strange property of being slightly medicinal, and so were used often in topical treatments for cuts and the like.
He placed anything he picked in a little basket, weaved out of fibergrass roots. Truthfully, gathering was not the reason he left the homely village he had always lived in. An hour ago he had seen a big shooting star streak across the night sky, to the edge of the plains. The bright form of the comet had seemed so large and close then, almost within reach. He knew his parents would not approve of him leaving so late at night, even if the moonlight helped him see where he was going.
He ignored them, of course. Slimes were not active at night, slumbering quietly in holes in the ground. Avoiding them was easy if you could see. And there had been no greater disturbance than the occasional bear from the forest at the plain’s edge for decades. In this great lack of danger, there was no reason to not investigate the fallen star from the skies above. His mind swirled with what awaited him. Would it be magical sky beasts? A legendary sword? Or nothing at all? Maybe that shooting star never hit the ground, and flew past just like every other star.
The grass waved back and forth to the tune of the midnight breeze, and he felt himself growing sleepy. Was that the treeline in the distance? He couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Turns out there wasn’t anything after all. He turned to leave, but spotted a glowing light from the corner of his vision. The soft flickering of some unseen blue light, illuminating some patch of the field in the distance. He was right! There was something from the sky that landed here! He ran and ran, stumbling but not stopping, practically throwing himself towards the thing from the sky. But there was no sword, no beast. He panted, standing there on the edge of the crater.
He stared into the pit. Was that metal? Stone? A curved something smoked at the bottom of the hole, lit up by little bright lights on its surface. It was… enormous. The size of the artefact dwarfed the size of his village. It could be magic, or a great weapon from somewhere far away.
[Deploying Autonomous Nanobots…]
[Repairs in progress…]
[Administrator not found. Engaging emergency selection…]
[Human located. Designated new admin.]
“Welcome, administrator. What is your name?”
“My name is… Foile.”
[Foile registered as new administrator.]
“Approx. volume of 8 oz. of nanobots currently idle. What would you like them to do?”
“What’s a nanobot?”
Foile was then subjected to technical spiel only seasoned engineers could comprehend. The longer he stood there listening to the big rock from the sky, the more he began to question what he had stumbled upon. What was it? Why was it in the sky? Why was it asking him for what to do? He was, like, eight! He just did what his parents said to do (mostly). He ate, he helped dad with little things on their farm, and he slept just fine at night, without worry or bother. This new development was unknown to him in its entirety.
“Ummm… what can the… nanobots do?”
“Available functions: Advanced Repair, Basic Excavation, Basic Fabrication.”
“I don’t know what that stuff means. Dad and Mom don’t say big words like… fab-bee-cay-shin.”
[Scanning vicinity…]
[No other suitable personnel located. Configuring to Dummy Mode.]
“The nanobots can dig, build, and fix things. However, they need materials to keep themselves... fixed, and to make more of themselves.”
So the AI struggled with dumbing down the speech to a layman's level. By now, a cup’s worth of the nanos had crawled out of a compartment in the side of the portal fragment, collecting in a small blob on the ground.
“That looks like a slime, kind of. But shiny metal. Like a sword from an adventurer. Can you make that?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Making swords is a waste of my potential.”
“But can you make one?”
The nanobot blob slithered back into the portal fragment, absorbing the backup antimatter power core and breaking down chunks of pre-prepared alloy bars and reconstructing them into a small dagger. The dagger was dropped outside, while the nanos began construction of more nanobots. 8 oz. would not be enough for most of its functions.
“Wow! A real sword! A smallsword! Shortsword!”
Foile grasped its cold metal hilt, finding it very light. One, two pounds maybe. He swung it across the grass, watching the blade slice cleanly through the plants. Dropping the sword point first resulted in it sinking point first into the ground, nearly up to the hilt.
“It might be a little too sharp…”
“It is likely not sharp enough. Significant force is still required to damage stronger materials. For example, that knife will not be able to penetrate the surface of this portal fragment.”
Foile immediately tried to stab the knife into the metal, only for it to slide off useless. The blade found no purchase on the scarily smooth surface, slipping off. He tested it on other items too, such as his shirt sleeve (went right through), a mildly interesting rock (the knife went through with some resistance, the rock was unharmed), and the nanobots (they spread around the knife).
“Please do not attempt to damage the nanobots with the weaponry.”
“Oops, sorry. The nanobots are really cool, but there are not a lot of them. How do you build really big stuff? And how do you fight big bad guys?”
“More nanobots required for further operational capacity. Excavation and harvesting of natural resources is the optimal solution for long term security against various external threats.”
“I don’t get it.”
“If you want more nanos, I have to mine for them. Digging underground. It will take some time to make a lot of them, or at least enough to ensure your safety.”
Wow, he thought. They could make even more of themselves? What if they kept making more nanos, and the nanos made more nanos? And those nanos made more nanos? Would he have an endless overflowing supply of nanos? Enough to do anything?
“I’m kind of tired. I’m going to go home and sleep. How many will you have tomorrow?”
“Based on the current composition of the soil and preliminary scans of the ground…”
The system helpfully indicated a scanner bot, hastily constructed from small reserve material, for locating minerals.
“...There is a large wealth of untapped metals and other assorted rare substances deep in the ground. Estimated 400 cubic centimeters of nanos by tomorrow.”
“That sounds like a lot. I’m going to go to sleep now. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”
“Take the eight ounces of reserve nanos. They may prove useful to you. Just make sure they are always attached to the backup generator.”
The idle nanobots swarmed over the reserve antimatter generator, carrying it slowly into the basket, where they hid themselves under the foliage he had harvested earlier. Foile picked up the basket in both hands, finding it heavier than usual, but still manageable.
“Come closer and take the communicator. It will be the only way for us to talk when you leave. Please keep it in contact with the nanobots at all times.”
So Foile grabbed the delicate communication device and added it to his basket. Such was how he began his long trek back to the village As exhaustion dragged down his eyelids and weighted his every step, he smiled. He made a new friend today; a very smart one. Surely the voice that sounded like a woman would tell him how to become like the strong adventurers he always heard about in the stories. He would finally gain a class, and be able to help his parents and the rest of the village. He was so excited to tell them, to let spill this great happening that had blessed his life, he found the energy to run despite his exhaustion.
That was how he felt when he saw the rough outline of the village in the distance, backlit by orange and red. For a moment he thought he had spent too much time outside: had he really passed the whole night? Was that the beginning of sunrise, peeking at him from the horizon? He almost fell for it before he noticed the smoke.
Great gaseous pillars of black and grey stretched skyward from the little thatched huts he had always called home. In a daze he stumbled forwards, taking in the scene. Fire and death consumed the whole area, slowly spreading through the grass. Cottages and huts collapsed with a crash, feeding the flames. Beautifully bitter, the sight imprinted itself in Foile’s impressionable childlike mind, destined to be a grim portrayal of the universe’s immutable law: The world giveth, and the world taketh away.
The dazzling array of reds and oranges, yellows and whites blurred before his eyes, becoming a bright blob upon the backdrop of the night sky. Why was it so hard to see all of a sudden? He raised a hand to his face and recognized the familiar feeling of tears staining his cheeks, like when he would fall and hurt himself and Mom and Pop would take him in their arms and tell him everything would be okay.
Everything would be okay as long as he had his parents. They could run. Find somewhere else to live. Escape the blaze and its terrible consequences. But when he approached, to look for the two people he loved so much, the communicator, silent all this time, began to emit a scratching noise, crystallizing into words and speech. The nanobots spilled over the basket’s edge, sensors pointed towards the distance.
“You cannot go further. The fire will burn you.”
“But I live there! I have to find Mom and Dad so we can run away somewhere else.”
His thoughts were cut short by the sound of a terrific roar, washing over the plains and flattening the grass. Foile’s knees buckled and he fell to the ground, a product of terror and some unknown intimidation skill. Accompanying the noise was a pillar of fire, breathed by some unknown monster.
“The creature that started this fire is still alive. Entering the village now is impossible. You would die.”
“But my parents!”
To the AI simultaneously organizing the repair of the nanobots and keeping tabs on Foile, it greatly disliked the new administrator. Sure, beggars could not be choosers, but it had hoped for a human that wasn’t so young, stupid, and irrational. Telling him the truth would not lead to the outcome it hoped for. Only a lie would be able to save the boy.
“They have probably already escaped in a different direction. If they didn’t, the monster would probably have been hurt from fighting the villagers. The village is gone now. You must run. Live to see another day. If you do, you may find them again someday, in a different city. Another time. Another place.”
The AI’s promise of salvation, of a light at the end of life’s cruel tunnel, ultimately was successful. Foile snapped out of his grief-stricken stupor, only to mindlessly follow the AI’s instructions instead. So he turned and ran for his life. Lungs burning, legs pumping, clutching onto the basket his parents had weaved for him. He ran until he was too tired, and then ran some more.
Eventually he folded to nature, falling to the ground. He had no energy left. As the sun’s rays finally began to light up the sky, brushing away the stars above, Foile fell into a deep sleep, dreaming.
Dreaming of his parents, dreaming of running, of reaching the light at the end of the tunnel and finding nothing but fire and his end.
Just dreaming.