If I wanted to do more of my exploring solo, I needed to up my game. With that in mind, I spent the rest of the day at the range training with my new pistol. As I had expected, I could get a hundred shots from it before I ran out of energy.

With my energy regeneration sitting at around two and a half hours to go from empty to full, I would have no trouble sustaining that as long as I didn’t go for more powerful shots. When I empowered my attacks with the new gun, I could get twenty shots before running dry.

Of course, a little of that was estimated, as I didn’t dare go below ten percent of my reserves after I collapsed during the fight at the core. Still, I was pretty sure they were accurate enough to plan around.

With each shot being twice as powerful as with my normal gun, I should be able to handle small groups or individual powerful enemies without too much trouble on my own. When this was combined with no longer having to pay for ammunition, I could save a lot of credits.

With my training complete, I finished paying Adam and Linnea before heading to a room at the guild. Before I logged off, I spent a bit of time poking around the guild database.

So far, I had been so focused on rushing toward my objectives that I hadn’t spent a lot of time investigating how explorers usually made money. While there seemed to only be a few others active in this region, I could still get a look at what they were doing.

What I found was that there were a ton of little resource reports showing up. From small patches of useful herbs to minor mineral deposits and even tracking information on herds of animals.

None of these looked to be very valuable, however, the sheer quantity that had been reported to the guild was sure to add up. It made me wonder how much I had been missing during my recent trips when I had simply rushed toward my objective.

I had been so focused on how much the trip was costing me that I hadn’t been searching my surroundings for valuable information like this. It had led to me achieving a lot in a short time, however, I was beginning to suspect that I had also left a lot of money on the table.

I hadn’t really thought that small quantities of resources would be valuable like that, however, I hadn’t considered how VTOL travel was fast and relatively cheap. Gatherers or miners could be dropped out in the countryside in a matter of hours, allowing them to take advantage of these finds.

As long as they had a bodyguard for a few hours or days, they could exploit the area and move on after making a profit. That also explained why the mercenary guild charged by the hour, I was beginning to suspect that a lot of their jobs lasted less than a day.

I guess that’s what I get for rushing into things, I thought with a sigh before perking up. While I had probably missed a lot on my earlier trips, in the end, I got what I wanted from them.

Now I was set up with decent gear and a solid power to use that should allow me to do a lot more solo. Without the need to pay others for every moment, a lot of the pressure to go quickly would be lifted, allowing me to focus on actually exploring the areas I moved through.

That was probably why I didn’t see a lot of expeditions that just shot off into unexplored territory like I had, instead it looked a lot more like people moved back and forth as they traveled exploring strips several miles long.

It would be a lot slower to move around, however, it would increase my ability to locate valuables I could report back to the guild. Not to mention that it would likely increase the number of fights I had each day, bringing an increase in both XP and in valuable monster cores.

I briefly considered moving back and exploring the gaps I had left as I moved, however a quick check of the map showed that someone had already begun to do so in the last few weeks. While I could probably jump into doing that as well, I still wanted to gradually make my way toward the next facility.

Instead, I decided to start from the base of the mountain we had last traveled up, which was the furthest point north that I could get Brian to drop me off at. Then I would change my travel strategy to do sweeps of the terrain at least five miles long as I went forward.

It would slow my trip, however, if I paid attention I should be able to make a lot more money as I went. If I gathered a hefty chunk of savings before getting near the third facility, then I should have enough to hire help for the toughest part at the end.

That would probably make the facility run itself barely profitable, however, money wasn’t my primary goal for those places. As long as I could make money elsewhere, I would be happy to make those runs about just upgrading my ability and making the duchess happy.

With my course set, I left my room to find that a small package had been placed outside my door while I slept. It had a congratulatory note signed by the duchess describing how pleased she was to hear about a second matching ritual chamber.

I quickly grabbed the package and slipped back into the room before opening it with bated breath. As I hoped, it contained a second enhancement elixir, possibly the best reward she could have given me.

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With a broad grin, I downed the elixir and waited out the effects before pulling up my character sheet to see where I stood.

Jared Hope

Class: Psion

Level: 7

XP: 1520/2800

Statistics:

Brawn: 6

Toughness: 28

Agility: 6

Perception: 6

Mind: 19

Will: 20

Free points: 0

Skills:

Archeology level 2

Translation level 2

Pistols level 3

Psi Sense Level 3

Light Blades Level 1

Item Attunement Level 3

Packmaster Level 1

Skin Hardening level 1

Traits:

General:

Database of Alien Languages

Psionic Abilities:

Item Attunement (Journeyman)

Skin Hardening (Initiate)

Status:

Uninjured

Full Energy Well

Looking good, I thought with a grin as I began making my way to the monorail station. Though I think it might be time to focus more on Will after I barely beat that AI. Besides which, now that I’m using the Psi pistol, I’m pretty sure boosting Will increases the damage of my shots.

After the two enhancement elixirs, I was looking a little more well-rounded, which would be useful now that I was planning on going out without backup. While I still didn’t particularly feel like spending my extra points on other stats, I’d certainly take free points in them.

It made me wonder a little how effective the cybernetics were that normal people apparently used. They had to be pretty good for this to be the alternative, even if the enhancement elixirs were scarce.

Luckily, I planned to keep making the duchess happy by finding the remaining two facilities. I hoped that would lead to two more elixirs, bringing me up to 12 points in all my other stats as well as boosting my main stats even higher.

I traveled over to Brian’s landing pad, where I had organized a trip out to the base of the second mountain. While I was sure there were other VTOL pilots I could use, Brian had shown himself to be reliable and usually available.

It was the first time I had flown alone with the man in quite some time, so I sat up the front and chatted with him as we flew. He opened up a bit about his past as we talked, revealing that he originally wanted to fly spaceships before dropping out of the navy because of the lack of positions available.

While he had done all the training, Altheias only had a tiny fleet with less than twenty capital ships in it and only a few hundred fighters. Even with the planet’s current push to build the fleet up to help deal with the pirates, there were far more trained personnel than there were ships.

While I suppose this would serve them well if the fleet took a lot of casualties, it didn’t help Brian with his dream. Instead, he had transferred to the army and flew troop deployments for nearly a decade before going private.

It was an interesting insight into the information I had seen on the planet when I first selected it. Altheias was a planet with a much stronger army than its fleet, making them hard to invade but essentially trapping them on the planet against any force with more ships.

“I hope the fleet buildup goes well then,” I said as we were coming into land. “It sounds like we’re going to keep being in trouble otherwise.”

“Aye,” Brian responded with a nod. “It’s not the first time we’ve had trouble, though it’s the worst by far. We need at least triple the firepower if we’re going to compete, and five times would be preferable."

"It’s just hard to manage that with all our resource shipments cut off, we're having to be fully self-sufficient for the first time in our history. Still,” he shrugged with a hopeful smile. “Maybe it will all work out and I can finally fly a cruiser.”

I nodded in response, wishing him luck as we slid into a landing. It really went to show how important finding alternative sources of resources was. I hoped that the iron deposits I had found helped even a little, though I was sure they were only small compared to the demands of building a fleet.

Next time I was up in the mountains, I would have to find more. Not only would this help with the war effort, but I was sure it would also prove to be a profitable endeavor. Luckily, I was mostly over my claustrophobia by now, giving me more free rein to explore the depths.

I thanked Brian with a wave before leaving the VTOL and watching it fly back toward the city. Pulling up the map on my watch, I began following the route I had laid out ahead of time.

As I had planned, it zig-zagged me across the countryside, going five miles in one direction before moving forward and going five miles back. It was a drastically slower method of travel, however, I had resolved to at least try it for a couple of weeks.

If it increased my income as much as I hoped it would be worth it, if not, I could try something else. With a hopeful smile, I set out, focusing my attention on the scanner as I went.

So far, I had always kept it out at the maximum range, looking for the large red dots showing enemies as far out as possible. This time I zoomed in by half, which showed much more detailed scans of my immediate surroundings.

It dropped my range down to about half a mile, however, I saw minor points of interest being highlighted. With a broad grin, I wandered toward the first one.

It turned out to be a small grouping of flowers that the database registered as being used in medicine production. With medicine shipments being shut down, these were marked as a top priority to find in the wild until Altheias could begin local cultivation next spring.

There were only about thirty of them, however, I reported the location, anyway. I wasn’t an economist, so I didn’t know the feasibility of harvesting just these, however, I imagined it would be a pretty quick job.

Either way, my best bet was to just report the find and let someone else figure it out. Some finds were sure to be rejected while others would go through. My job was just to find as much as possible to swing the odds in my favor.

I briefly considered harvesting them myself, however, I lacked both the knowledge and the tools to do so properly. I doubted you could just rip out some flowers and then sell them weeks later.

Still, it was a promising find and a quick one, too. With a pleased smile, I moved on to the next spot, keeping a wary out for danger as I went. The downside of this closer-range scanning I was doing was it halved my warning time for approaching Beast’s.

I would have to stay on my toes to make sure I could respond to any attacks.