Chapter 218 - The Seeker (Patreon)

Rasrakin of Moordstone

The long ride rumbled to a stop, the transfer box halting its upward momentum with a lurching shudder. Rasrakin’s companion stumbled a step, then dipped his shoulders in apology. Unlike his clumsy companion, Rasrakin remained unaffected by the sudden jolt, having used his Manabody the entire trip, the contraption unable to move his considerable density. The transfer box had served its purpose well as he had no idea where they were after such a lengthy journey trapped in the sealed container. Luckily, he had plenty to deliberate regarding his newly acquired, and unusual, mission.

The sound of his companion's voice was a deep baritone, pleasant after the deafening thunder of the transfer box, “Master Seeker, are you ready to meet her?”

Rasrakin responded with a confident popping of his lips, “Can two ever truly be prepared to meet their destiny?”

“Well spoken, Master Seeker. Or should I call you Captain?” His guide’s lips quivered with amusement as he reached for the release lever. The door behind him slid open and a powerful gust of wind blasted into the cramped compartment. Rasrakin knew they were climbing for a long time, but he wasn’t prepared to be several kilometers above the ground. Much more surprising was the unorthodox airship that hovered a short distance away.

The sight of her took his breath away and Rasrakin found himself responding in a barely audible whisper, “Captain, we like the sound of that.”

His guide swept into a bow with one arm raised toward the brand new vessel, “Allow us to introduce the newest and most advanced creation of the founders, the Esirpretne.”

The fading sunslight reflected beautifully off her sleek, pristine braizeboard hull. Harmonic reactors unlike anything Rasrakin had ever seen jutted from the sides at the rear of the long vessel. Instead of the typical armored formations, they looked like two delicate fins sticking from her lower hull that gently curved upwards into the hull above.

In fact, almost the entire ship was completely out of the ordinary. The typical designs of the Found Navy were boxy, armored behemoths capable of taking and dishing out incredible punishment. The only recognizable features were the seeker cores that extended from the very top and bottom of the ship on two massive fins. They were used to amplify the acclamation that earned him his place in the Hall of Seekers, but their placement so far from the hull was odd.

He hadn’t known what to expect when receiving orders directly from the council, but this wasn’t it. They told him to take an experimental ship, on her maiden voyage no less, to discover the cause of the disturbance in the Rehelch Wastelands but they never said the ship would be such a massive deviation from the norm. He had no idea how to pilot such a thing, and she was far more massive than any ship he had been in before.

Seeing his mix of nervous confusion and awe, his guide eagerly jumped into an explanation, “The curved fins are actually cutting edge formations that power her twelve harmonic reactors.”

“Twelve?! That's impossible!” Rasrakin exclaimed, “How did they overcome the intrinsic harmonic dissonance between the reactors?”

His guide smiled, rubbing his knuckles together to display their shared excitement, “No wonder they chose you, Captain. To answer your question: by radically redesigning the entire hull to form what we call a dual harmonic mount. Six reactors run the entire length of the vessel on the port, the other six are starboard. The keel is a solid sheet of remainium that splits her cleanly in two, acting as a buffer to the harmonics of each mount. Theoretically, the reflected harmonics should be capable of doubling the respective outputs of all twelve reactors… If the formineers can figure out how to properly refract the dissonance into additional propelling force, that is.”

Rasrakin’s neck twitched with conflicting emotions. On one hand, he was thoroughly impressed at the groundbreaking design of the formations. On the other, the word his guide used was not one he was comfortable with on such a vital mission. Rasrakin’s voice held just a touch of the deadly intent lurking in his chest, “Theoretically, you say? Exactly what kind of speed could she achieve if the formineers are successful?”

His guide froze, his entire body becoming utterly still, other than his jaw unhinging to hurriedly answer the question, “Currently, no more than tier seven. If this field test is successful, tier nine point nine.”

Rasrakin’s anger was swept away with the raging winds that still buffeted them. The fastest airship in the entire navy could achieve tier seven for only limited bursts and it was a fifth the Esirpretne's size. His hand landed on the guide’s shoulder and squeezed it amicably, “We are impressed. Beyond impressed. To the point we wonder how two as insignificant as ourselves could be allowed to captain such a vessel.”

The man responded with a sweaty smile, knowing full well the vengeance a seeker was capable of unleashing, “Well, politics aren't our specialty so we can only provide conjecture. However, we will abstain as we prefer our manapool securely nestled inside our chest.”

Rasrakin frowned, disappointed with himself for terrifying the man so thoroughly. His voice turned noticeably more polite, “We suppose we will understand when the time is right. Please, Master Builder, continue the tour.”

Looking significantly more at ease, the builder bowed again, “As you desire, Captain. Due to the powering formations relocation to the outer sides of the vessel, her armament had to be redesigned as well. To be honest, it was the revolutionary spinal mount weapon that prompted the rest of the designs, not the other way around. Personally, we find the harmonics much more fascinating and tend to crack on about them, apologies if we allowed ourselves to stray.”

Rasrakin blinked away the man’s concern, far more interested in what he had inferred with his statement about the new weapon, “No offense was taken. You said armament? As in singular?”

“Correct. The remainium keel serves a dual purpose, both harnessing and refracting the harmonic dissonance of the reactors. We covered the refracting, the harnessing is its true purpose; designed to power the Esirpretne’s single, spinal mounted discannon. Of course, if the discannon is in use, the reactors’ mobility output will be reduced to a minimum.”

Rasrakin reiterated the unfamiliar words slowly, perfecting their pronunciation, “Spinal mounted? Discannon?”

The builder made an excited pop with his lips, “It’s all theoretical of course, but it should be capable of ranges exceeding one hundred kilometers. We'll be sure to deliver documentation on its exact specifications before we depart.”

“What?! How can any weapon be expected to hit anything at such a range? And what exactly do you mean when we depart? Seekers hunt alone.” Rasrakin’s statement was delivered with finality, though lacked the dangerous undertones that had scared the man so thoroughly before.

“We would venture your reassignment as captain has something to do with it. The Esirpretne can comfortably house a crew of seventy-five, though only thirty-one have been assigned for this mission. As for the discannon’s range, that brings us to the Esirpretne’s final innovation,” The builder took a deep breath and spoke in an enthusiastic rush, “Utilizing the remaining space typically assigned to the armaments, she houses triple seeker cores, giving her an effective scanning range of nearly three hundred kilometers. She might not be able to accurately hit without some luck, but she'll have several chances to fire before her superior speed needs to be brought about to relocate. At least, that’s how we designed her.”

Several pieces of the puzzling situation slid into place for Rasrakin. He voiced just enough of his speculations to see if the builder had come to a similar conclusion, “This ship was never intended to join the navy. If this… mission is successful, she’ll be the catalyst that revolutionizes the seekers. Seventy-five crew you say, does that mean she has a rectifier compartment?”

The builder nodded along, agreeing with Rasrakin’s judgment of the situation, “Fully stocked with twelve sub-vessels and a full-service hanger.”

“Most impressive, most impressive indeed.”

Jiran of Madra

Jiran was completely swept away in a heady buzz. It had been so long since he gained a huge boost in skill levels that he nearly lost himself in the excitement. His Remalonian Constitution attempted to steal his newfound cheer and he instantly squashed its attempt, not at all interested in returning to a neutral mood when he felt so good. It wasn’t only the levels that had him so worked up, it was the fuzzy, distorted specks of purple dust that had appeared in the air around him that truly had his heart racing.

Gaze of Pediamus failed to reveal any details about the dust but Jiran didn’t need it to tell him what they were. He already knew, since he could feel every time one of the flecks of density drifted against his skin and was automatically absorbed.

That didn’t stop him from wanting to know what his newly upgraded skill would reveal though. Having learned long ago that the secret to achieving success when facing unexpected setbacks was more power, he pushed Gaze of Pediamus to full blast. He pumped additional mana into his eyes, flooding them in an attempt to clearly observe, and hopefully fully identify density for the first time. The split vision from his prisoner was a minor distraction, yet still new and unfamiliar enough that he dropped it entirely to fully focus.

I’m so close! Just a little more!

Jiran ignored the intrinsic fear of pushing such a huge quantity of condensed energy into such small spaces. He felt the sclera and attached muscles shredding and two matching trickles of blood run down his cheeks. As though a pane of tinted glass shattered, everything within his sight shifted to reveal a whole new world of colors and movement. The specks of density crystalized and his eyes flared with light, washing the nearby sands in green radiance.

“Argh!” Pain spiked through his skull and he returned his mana to a more normal distribution, having barely succeeded. Mana Confluence healed the damage and upon seeing the message in his interface, he wasn’t sure whether to be frustrated or not.

[Ambient Density: (Stage 1) Error - Insufficient authority detected]

Gaze of Pediamus: + 3

Stage one? Damn, can’t access the description yet. But I can see density! That’s not supposed to be possible! Mayalyn’s Great-grandfather researched the stuff for decades and was never able to get a clear image of it. This skill is so hard-boiled!

Based on the amount of mana I had to use, my eyes should be able to handle the strain by the time my attributes are maxed for this tier. That won’t solve the authority issue though. I know each arena increases my authority. Other than that, I have no idea how to get more. I bet Daughter would have some clues for me. It’s been way too long since I’ve talked to her anyway, and she can check on everyone for me.

That leads me right around to needing more mana though. I’ve really got to find some beasts. Hmm, now that I can somewhat see the ambient density…

Jiran spread out a dozen threads of mana. Each one whipped through the air in seemingly random patterns as they quickly connected with and absorbed every speck of density within his range. Unfortunately, even though he reabsorbed over ninety-nine percent of the mana used to create the threads, the amount of condensed mana he gained after converting the density wasn’t enough to offset the cost of gathering it.

Oh! I can reduce the Concentration of my mana so each thread is a fraction the cost! It won’t be enough to get me home quickly, but every bit counts.

He gazed longingly at the endless dunes but held himself back. As much as he wanted to begin combing the desert for density, there were several other things that required his immediate attention. He clicked his tongue and turned toward the Meersvant’s strange vehicle. With carriages, wagons, and the vehicles from Earth for comparison, he found the four blocks with a single saddle stretched between them to be incredibly strange looking.

Guess they prefer function over form. He flew almost as fast as I can without oneness or gas. That’s pretty impressive for a regular tier four. If the empire wasn’t so obsessed with conserving mana, I bet we would have something similar.

Each of the blocks was a separate formation and Mana Omnis revealed how energy was constantly flowing in and out of each of them through the connectors attached to the saddle. The formations were crude and had been constructed by someone lower tier than the temple’s stones, since he could easily see through them. Knowing there were no traps, he easily pushed a thread of mana through the membrane protecting one of the blocky formations.

Inside, Jiran discovered that the entire structure was similar to the crystals. Any mana that flowed in, was split, refracted, and shaped. Then it was released as a distortion that pushed against the framework, creating a propelling force.

The way the mana moves between them… Are they working together to amplify the distortion somehow? It seems so wasteful, but it is faster than running. And out in this heat, just about anything is better than running.

A stirring at the edge of his aura caused Jiran’s smile to return. While it was fun and enlightening to pick apart the strange technology of the Meersvants, he was far more interested in interrogating the one who had finally woken up.