The tent is uncomfortable. I’ll have to meet the Geller guy tomorrow evening, so I don’t think that I’ll spend tomorrow very actively. As long as I have no vehicle, I want to at least have the best servant I can make. Having an observer who is willing to answer questions about local methods of making constructs and is ready to contribute a few pieces also helps.
I call him Dalek#4 - Updated Heavy 2, reusing the armored body. The crucial modifications we finish first are in his arms. We stay with a four armed design, being constrained by the sockets in the armoured body, but we upgrade them with my draining spell, so that the assault rifles we put into the upper arms, this time combined with bladed weapons integraded into the arms like with a Swiss
knife and already prepared for exchange with blades made by a proper artificer.
RC: I have read about the type of ability you are demonstrating now.
P: Are people who have it so secretive about their constructs or are such powers so rare?
RC: They are rare, at least in Greenstone. Though their users may also be secretive. Even constructs as such are rare in Greenstone.
P: Are they expensive?
RC: Compared to what they can do, no they are not. But labour is cheap and you do not need to risk putting your capital into a construct that may not be needed anymore.
P: Because you cannot fire a construct?
RC: Exactly.
He hands me a crystal.
P: So this is able to support a diagramm causing an effect powered by quintessence?
RC: Yes. You only need to understand that the internal structure of the crystal needs to reflect the ritual circle you wish to use externally.
We work until midnight.
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Jan Chotek is using a stick to walk. He didn’t expect to wake up at all. This was a pleasant surprise. Walking under two moons certainly fulfills any expectations of visiting exotic places he may have ever had. Apparently all but one of them has made the transfer. His aura control is good enough to keep the satisfaction and surprise out of his aura, when talking to his former hosts. Other relevations are harder to keep to himself.
JC: Gods are real?
KN: Yes, the evidence is clear.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
PN: You seem distressed.
JC: I am a product of my environment, too.
PN: But your environment included knowing that souls are real among other things.
JC: We had a policy of not talking about that. Some aspects of this knowledge would have made cooperating with the government at that time practically impossible.
KN: You cooperated with the government?
JC: As far as they knew, no we didn’t. But we didn’t fight them either.
PN: Why, if that question does not go too deep?
JC: Why we didn’t fight? We wouldn’t have been able to do so and stay secret and we were not ready to face the consequences of Russian communists discovering a hidden group of aristocrats with superhuman powers.
PN: That is … almost practical.
JC: The grid had to be kept running.
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My new servant will be able of true, if slow, flight for a short time. I am also leaving room to fit in a few more crystals. The lower arms pack the true bang. Well, one of them. The left arm holds a grenade launcher for chemical rounds, combined with a blade. The right arm features a hyperkinetic cannon. It is a one shot weapon, but it is a shot that will count.
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She might know her name. She does not remember it. She does not want to remember it. Remembering has become a deliberate decision. She feels a grudge at that realization.
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I get a visitor.
JC: First, thank you.
P: You are welcome. You didn’t expect to come out again.
A slight nod.
JC: How did we get here, by the way?
P: There was a receiving station. And before you ask, it was damaged by our arrival.That reminds me, we have a priestess of Knowledge here, who gives away language skill books. Can you use skill books?
He answers in a hurried manner.
JC: Yes. She told me that I better recuperate for a few days more. Well, actually she presented me with a sign with that information written on it. In my native language. I feel … transparent.
P: You are.
JC: Well, at least you are facing the facts.
P: When facing overwhelming evidence …
JC: … the experiment must take precedence over the theory.
We both chuckle.
P: We read similar books.
JC: True, but I am afraid you have made a few experiences few would like to make. Did you have any indications that the receptor was intended for us?
P: Well, the room I come out in nearly suffocated me. True, they did have masks I understood to be meant to be allow people to get to the surface of the lake. In hindsight they may have had a second purpose. But none of them fit me.
JC: It is possible that somebody doing your job was expected, but not specifically you.
P: While that is true, wouldn’t you then make sure that these hypothetical people woud survive? I made it only because of the quintessence I was carrying around with me.
JC: That is true. What did you find when you searched the room.
P: Well, I did not precisely search it. I was kind of preoccupied with not suffocating and getting out of there.