We were all in the command centre, looking at the constantly updating local area map. It was overlaid over the map we had from the Adventurers Guild and others we had collected. We used those to confirm how accurate FH’s scouting skill is.
“I cannot believe you can do this now,” Sam said in disbelief, as we all were, about how much information we now had of what’s going on all around us.
He was so right, because this skill didn’t just allow her to scout inside the solar system. No, it allowed her to do so in a way none of us expected to work. She also tested some other stellar objects, but those didn’t work at such distances. I guess it’s something about stars that helps with her new skill.
Connected scouting even allows FH to target nearby stars. While it takes time—lots of it—eventually it will scout a straight path to that star, allowing her to know everything that’s in between.
“It’s because of Lunaris. That device not only makes it possible for me to use this skill, but it somehow enhances its effects to a greater degree than normal.”
FH’s explanation made sense, as that device is literally modelled after the sensory organ space monsters have. It was made to work with it.
“What does this mean?” Lola’s words made me focus on the map.
“It means that we have an easier way of finding space portals. We will not have to contend with others who are also looking for space portals, at least not to that degree.”
The current way organizations use to find space portals is using huge detectors that covered a large area, but those only detected stronger space portals, as weaker ones blended into the background too well in this red zone. The distance they cover simply makes them too weak to detect everything.
The second way was what the adventurers called fishing. It’s basically moving close to the speed you need to enter FTL, or sometimes faster, and simply boosting your mana detection field as far out as possible.
You can extend the bubble quite a lot by lowering its accuracy, as a space portal is pretty easy to detect. With some skills and stronger mana detection devices, you can get that detection bubble to be quite large, enough to actually matter in space.
We now had something that was 1000 times better than that. Most of the space portals we would find, most likely would be broken ones where the majority of space monsters had left. If some monster stays behind, that portal doesn’t close and, over time, will continue to produce more and more space monsters.
“Is it time for hunting?” Bob asked.
“Yes, but first we’ll finish making our new shield generators. That should help with our survivability quite a lot.” I looked towards Lola, who understood what I wanted to know.
“Two months, captain. In that time, I can complete all the required shield generators. But captain, don’t you want to make them even more complex so they would develop spirits?”
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“No, we’ll keep them as they are. They will be controlled by AIs. While spirits are good at some things, they are a bit too instinctual and would mess up the synergy the rest of the ship has. FH, you continue scouting.”
We now had our timeline. Everyone dispersed while I went to check on Lunaris. It seemed incredibly content to continue to do what it had been doing. While observing it, I realised something incredibly important that changed everything.
FH was the one who helped all the other ship AIs use mana. It made sense because those AIs didn’t have souls. This device did have something that was as good, which meant that it instinctually knew how to work mana in a way that would help it function.
When I thought about adding an AI core to this device, the answer that screamed in my head was quite obvious: it would never work. You can’t have both. But this might be enough.
Going back to my workshop, it was time to finish the rifle I was working on. The basic structure had been printed out. One change I made was to add a mana battery to one of its kinda empty spot. I didn’t do much with it, only connecting it to the structure of the rifle.
Let’s see if my hunch will pay off. Fully focusing on this build, it took me nearly a day to finish it. When I added the last parts, nothing happened for a moment. It was fascinating to watch the centre of this weapon, which was not physically there, condense into a black-looking core that then lit up like a coal.
“Hello there,” I said to it. This spirit seemed more basic than the mana detection devices, but this weapon was also a lot smaller. I was pretty sure the size of the thing mattered a lot.
It seemed eager to do its job. Also, for some reason, it wanted a blue paint job. Only then would it be truly satisfied. Okay, that’s strange, but it wasn’t a hard demand to meet. It ended up with a pretty basic blue and black paint job. The rifle hummed after I finished, seemingly very satisfied.
With it in my hands, I made my way to the shooting range, as Sam was currently there with his squad.
“Sam, get them to reinforce the target as much as possible.” He looked towards me, noticing the rifle. He somehow managed to contain his excitement.
As I made my way to him, I handed the weapon over. Going through all the functions with him took a bit, but by the time we were finished, the target at the other end of the range was now five times thicker than normal.
Sam took his time. The first bolt he fired was on the low setting, but it still did as much damage as my previous prototype.
“You have outdone yourself, Captain. And this rifle… it seems so—it's hard to describe—but it's like it wants to be used.”
“You’ll probably be able to understand its needs and dislikes better if you bond with it, but I will be able to give you basic instructions on how to care for it and the spirit inside.”
“I am guessing proper maintenance will be important?”
I gave him a firm nod as an answer, but now came the moment of truth. “Let one of your squad members try it out.”
“Why? They can’t guide mana as I can, so they shouldn’t be able to fire it, right?”
“Theoretically, you’re right, but let’s see if my hunch is correct.”
Now intrigued, he called one of his squad members over and handed him the weapon. He took it with absolute confidence. They had all been trained to a stupidly high degree by Sam. Their cores were simple enough that their movements looked unnatural—too precise, something normal humans would never be able to do, and enhanced individuals would only do if it was necessary.
He pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. The spirit inside seemed confused for a moment.
“Do it again,” I said, and he pulled the trigger again. This time the bolt flew to its target, hitting dead centre.
The silence was thick. A moment later, almost everyone in my bond network focused on this location, wanting to know what had just happened.
It took a bit for everything to calm down, and I had to explain myself multiple times. Because I added a mana battery, the spirit now had a pool of mana to draw from, and since it was the weapon itself, it could change that raw mana into exactly what was needed for it to fire.
It was easy to see everyone calculating in their minds, as this changed everything. Of course, there were limits, as Sam quickly found. One mana battery was only good for about 300 low-power bolts. It would then need quite a while to recharge naturally.
“We should be able to fix that with portable mana batteries,” Bob almost immediately said after the test finished, already calculating the logistics needed for all of this to function.
Sam switched the strength of the bolt to regular. That burned through three of the targets before the fourth one stopped it. As expected, it was a bit too dangerous to properly test this out inside the ship.
“Let’s perhaps stop the experimentation here,” I said while Sam was still admiring the damage this weapon did.
“Captain, requesting that we stop off on some asteroid or something after we leave this system.”
“We’ll see what we can do.”
Our combat strength just jumped up tremendously if I were willing to make more weapons that held spirits. With them, we could arm our forces with stronger weapons that they would normally not be able to use. We had finally fixed the problem of our combat forces not being able to use mana.