“Damn Nash. I want me one of these.” Call out one of the MRI researchers, not sure what project he was assigned to but I don’t care all that much with something so interesting to play with.

I look up at the covered sun by clouds as I push mana through my jetpack. Just a prototype I made during at night. Blackwood still hasn’t started work for today, but development were smooth all things considered.

Steam shoots out of metal exhausts at head height lifting me up. I drift to the side as I try to activate hover mode, but a second later before I can change my mind, I’m crashing.

So the autopilot is a no go for now, even while using a back mounted thruster which is inherently more stable than arm and leg mounted rockets. I take a few intelligent seeds and link with them. Each only has one or two simple tasks as I coordinate everyone’s efforts.

A few runes here and there and I’m ready for the next test in no time. I jump a meter in the air before turning on the main thrusters.

Steam shoots out and anyone close by not protected by a mana shield would have been scalded, but I made sure even the curious mage was well clear of me.

I try again and again, with small modifications even as the absence of the system’s help is glaring. A hard task even if the seeds are taking care of most of the mental effort. I slowly gain second after second of flight time until I cross a critical point and then the homes in the village become smaller and smaller until I can see the whole village.

I look upward and blast off. The wind picks up and the accumulating dark clouds on the first day of the month. A formerly pristine blue sky marked by the light blocking water vapor though I will have to climb a lot higher before that becomes a problem.

But climb I do, gaining hundreds of meters in bare seconds. A kilometer, two five, ten. I pass the clouds at high speed as the droplets of water nearly cut my skin and everything below turns into a fog. The fake sun in the sky and the distortion of the barrier become ever more apparent. I slow more and more as something in my gut warns me of me danger.

I breathe in. Thinner air, but nothing I can’t hold out, at least if I don’t physically exert myself. I speed back and forth without changing my altitude too much extending my perception field fully out, but it doesn't warn me of anything. So I keep climbing.

I pull an improvised barometer from my inventory.

Very low pressures. Only a fifth normal pressure. Definitely not an environment to make physical exertion, even with my stats I would be panting in no time, but I keep climbing slowly until I realize what is the problem.

Another barrier.

Or maybe the same barrier just bent into a flattened dome.

I skim along the ceiling about 12 kilometers high.

As I speed up, I soon reach the speed limit. Just over 200 kilometers an hour, and I break the record. There is no reaction from the system as I keep accelerating, with a lot less air to slow me than on the surface. No limitations on the propulsion runes I just keep speeding up.

400, 500, 550 kilometers an hour.

Without a lot of time before the Automaton show’s up, I head back for the improvements that I want to make to my flying suit and to pay my dues.

And that is when it strikes me. This… would be perfect to explore the HLZ. Even my previous Ideas on how to find the other goblin villages pale in comparison. If I can simply fly too high and too fast for anyone to stop me…

Not even a thousand HLZ beasts should be able to affect this form of flight.

I will still need to be careful, but while fighting them is still not an option, and even a quick landing sounds too risky, at least escaping with the help of my Qi powered magic should still be possible.

Landing back in the village, I stumble nearly falling and knocking a house over, before I get my bearings. I mentally file away what I learned about my new toy. Great way to bypass a lot of the limitations compared to the current flying vehicles, but… not very precise. They are not cars or even bicycles, the balance required to fly with it is closer to a unicycle. I shudder to think of how complicated would hands and feet mounted thrusters be.

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While landing and taking off are slightly dangerous times, as long as I keep a distance from the ground and nobody knocks me out, my movements don’t need to be that precise. Perhaps the attack in the village is not the best time to test this new contraption, not if I can’t seamlessly integrate it into my fighting style. Especially given the unwieldy nature of the current setup of thrusters. And the heavyweight needed to transfer the push from the steam to my body and my equipment.

Still, with a few small improvements, I could probably make something hybrid just to add a bit of mobility even if I don’t intend to go full on flight mode.

A few minutes later the Automaton arrives so I head to the podium in the middle of the square and stand to his side, but there is something different about him.

“No jokes for me?”

He looks to the side while mechanically moving and taking everyone’s coin.

“Jokes are for the people who care if their race survives.”

I look at him deep in his eyes, and I let the intensity of my gaze speak on my behalf. Something I usually avoid, but a moment later I sense the conflict within him and even a bit of mirth at the sheer absurdity of the situation. He knows he is misrepresenting the situation ever so slightly.

Other’s take notice of his words, halting midstride as the line locks in place.

“I can’t say that I know as much as you, but I can tell when I’m not being told the entire truth, even in the worse case scenario, we would lose a piece of the village. Assuming the system got lazy.”

I see the involuntary changes in the surface of his skin as I push my perception field out. I can nearly see the insides of his body, but he is space incarnate and that would be too headache inducing. But even with just the surface with its limitations, I can tell I found the crack in the rock. Now is time to drive a little dynamite in, to finish the job.

“So, as well intentioned as your advice was, it is… in the end… a lie. A carefully orchestrated omission. A slight misrepresentation of facts to make myself conform to your way of thinking.”

He looks at the line as it moves.

“I helped you…”

“And for that, I’m eternally grateful…” I say gently, even as I interrupted him.

“Let me finish.” He says a little exasperated. “I helped you, for I understand your plight, I’m no friend of the council. Now, even if I start acting against you, mind that’s not my plan. But even if I do… it is already too late. I have gifted you more than you know. I don’t want to see thousands of newly integrated worlds burn in a foolish attempt to defy those that cannot be defied. I don’t want you seeking an easy path to power, in a trade that will be harmful in the long run. But you keep breaking the rules. Prepare for your own planet, for I can tell you now… while in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter if you keep a single planet outside the grasp of the council, if you help dozens or hundreds of other planets… the wave of destruction in your wake, the damage… Like I said, you have no idea. So yeah, perhaps we misrepresented the time frame and manner of your planet’s fall, but the danger is there nonetheless.

“This is no longer a fun side project for me to watch, you have started to play with forces you don’t understand. A toddler, poking at a missile silo, pressing the big red buttons, over and over, cutting and shorting the wires under the panels. He is as liable to kill a million people in a neighboring country as killing himself.”

I let it all sink in, though as I look out there aren’t hundreds of shocked people, but just a line calmly making their way as a subtle dampening to the air vibrations keeps our words in the cone of silence.

“And whose fault is that?” I mutter.

“Don’t point the finger, for it doesn’t matter. Your actions, not your intentions are the source of danger.”

“My actions are to learn, to grow, to protect and shelter. If it is folly to keep doing that… I guess I’m the biggest fool in the galaxy for I will not stop for anyone or anything. I cannot stop, not after everything, no more than a stone can stop its drop through the air by willing it.”

I can see the frustration, the desire to knock some sense in my nogging. But he returns his gaze to the line of people. Larger than ever with nearly three thousand people taking residence in the village, each paying the exorbitant 16 silver price for them to be allowed one more month. Half the instance is liable to be bowing out, with a few fools trying to take as much coin back as they could, but most accepted my words about them losing everything when they came back to Earth.

“In the end, the only thing I can say to you: I respect you and I hope you respect my decision. I will keep using my new resources, I will find all the cracks the system left behind and I will make my umbrella as large as possible to shelter everyone I can against the rain. I will not leave even the smallest of beings out if I have any choice, and I will make it so that there will always be a choice.”

“You already have that. My respect I mean. You may be a curious toddler, but I get glimpses of something more. I just hoped I could convince you not to be the death of trillions of beings as you learn.”

“So give me concrete details instead of vague hints.”

“Vague hints are all the system will allow me. Even what I already said may land me in hot water with the council… well their lower level bureaucrats at least.”

He finishes up and teleports away back to the void.

Even the mechanical look at his manipulation of space teaches me a little bit more, but his words don’t leave my head as I continue preparations for the attacks on the village.

Trillions of lives…

Other planets…

My own resources.

And what he gave me… only his wooden cube puzzle comes to mind.

He may be wrong about a lot of his conclusions, parting from a set of erroneous assumptions, but that doesn’t mean he is wrong about everything.

I need to tread carefully, very carefully.

If I blow myself up… that is just myself paying the price, trillions of lives is an entirely different matter…

My neck cracks and the weight of the world is back on my shoulders.

It won’t be easy, it assumes I pass all the thousands of hurdles before I grow to that point, but he knows the geopolitical situation outside, and if he says that…

How much havoc would my actions cause?