Thirty-Nine
Kon pulled the headset off his head, setting it down as he leaned back and let out an explosive sigh. Sweat dripped down his forehead and soaked the back of his shirt as Kon looked over to Bob who was staring at a series of readouts. The big man rubbed his hands together as his mouth stretched out into a wide smile, periwinkle blue eyes shining as he looked over toward Kon.
“That is very interesting,” Bob said as his wide fingers clacked on the old school keyboard, the physical keys loud in the silence of the room.
“Is it feasible? Ignacio said it’s possible,” Kon said as he walked over to grab a canteen of water, sloshing it around before drinking it down in several heavy quaffs. The intensity of the holo-training was more intense than anything he’d done so far, but it was required to learn how to use full armor without field testing.
“Possible? Yes. Probable? Maybe. I am a damn good armorer if I say so myself. But Ignacio is a genius when it comes to the theoretical work. Sometimes theory and reality have a hard time interacting though. I see no reason why this won’t work, but actually building it is much tougher. Once we reclaim my workshop it’ll be much easier. I can’t build something this complex with only the tools on hand.”
“Are calibrations almost done? For the inner suit?” Kon asked, eager to have the armor wrapped around his body. Especially as they grew closer to the Oasis and what promised to be brutal fighting. Their planning sessions had all been built around heavy losses as they fought through the tightly packed corridors toward key points on the world-ship. Even with Alice’s healing, Kon knew he’d need every edge he could get, which meant Bob needed to deliver on his promise of an inner suit.
“Yes. On the computer. I’ll finish the updates to the armor, upload it back into the simulator and we’ll have you training as much as possible before arrival,” Bob promised.
“What about weapons?” Kon asked. Benny had a decent armory for a small crew, but for the task they were up for it looked rather pitiful.
“I have a few things cooking. Your suit is a weapon afterall, but I have a couple toys. Not treasure-alloy weapons, but still good stuff. Heavy rifle rounds with burst ammunition that will peel anything below a D-grade into paste. Auto-launcher attached to your suit’s targeting system. Twenty round magazine of different forty millimeter grenades. Anything you want, I can get you. Treasure alloy weapons that are runes, I can get you a few. Need something with range when you fight the renegade Knights, at least until you have the rig installed.” Bob had grown animated as he spoke of the weapons, joviality returning to him as he spoke of death dealing weapons.
“Range? Like a bow?” Kon asked.
“For you? No. Alexandra would be better, it’ll be easy to make a weapon like that for someone who is already skilled in using mage craft. Creating bolts of treasure alloy that can be crafted on will be a challenge and expensive, but I think it can be done.” Bob had been quickly distracted by the prospect of a new theoretical weapon.
“So, what am I getting?” Kon asked, breaking the older man away from his thoughts.
“Long spear with a collapsible shaft, runes from lengthening, sharpening, and conductivity,” Bob answered.
“Conductivity for what?”
“Whatever you want,” Bob said with a big laugh, belly shaking as he shook his head.
Stolen novel; please report.
“I’ll be excited to see it,” Kon assured the armorer as he got up and left the room, headed toward his quarters so he could shower and get fresh clothes. The Puca was more lively than he was used to. The cadets and now Alexandros and Bob had brought a sense of life to it that had previously been lacking. Every night there was talking around the table, early planning sessions, holo trainings, or weapons cleaning and prep. There was always something to do and Alice and Benny were sure to keep them all moving constantly.
Kon passed them all as he got to his room, closing the door as he sank to his bunk. The holo training wasn’t physically exhausting, but it took a mental toll on him as he tried to remember everything he needed to. Laying on the bed helped relax him, staring at the unvarnished ceiling and letting his mind wander over everything that had happened over the last year.
“It’s hard to understand how much has changed. How much I have changed.” The thought ran circles in his mind as he slowly relaxed on his bed, staring at the ceiling. It was at times like this that he missed Diur’s simple presence. His martial sister's ability to fill the space with her very being without needing words was missed as he willed the time away.
Kon reached over and grabbed his holopad as he sat up, turning it on and looking over the runes they had found together. Many of them had been translated for him by Benny, but there were a few that still hadn’t been figured out. They had been supposed to use the supercomputers in the Oasis to do it, but the rebellion had ensured that hadn’t happened.
Letting his eyes unfocus, the runes floated in front of him as he read them over. So many of them were fairly basic, heat, light, sound, all them basic complementary pieces to the language that the runes made up. Kon only allowed himself a few minutes with them before turning on the record function, checked his door was locked tight and then sat down and started to record.
“Hey, Diur. It’s been a while since we’ve talked and I missed you. You have a way of making even the boring moments feel not boring. None of these others can spar for shit, not like we can. Even the dragon cadets, they’re not used to the brutality of our sessions. The healing we receive. They hesitate when they should strike or pull their blows before they land.” Kon trailed off as his own voice filled his room. He had never thought he was one to need to talk, but he found himself spilling everything.
“I messed up with Alice. I said something to her and I didn’t mean for it to weigh on her, but it did. She’s been more serious, a layer of worry on her and I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t think it can be fixed honestly. We’re going into this shitshow of a fight and there’s going to be deaths. Everyone knows it, the Lion is dug in too deep and the fighting will be too tight. I look over the ship and I can’t help but think who’s going to be here. I know it’s bullshit to be saying this to you. You're on a damn planet being besieged afterall. It’d be easier if you were here is all,” Kon trailed off for a moment, feeling a bit better now that he’d spoken the words outloud.
“I want you to meet them. The cadets and Bob and Alexandros. You’d like Loras, he’s a quiet guy, but serious about his work and devoted to it. Spends time constantly thinking about his formulas, which I think is similar to you and the techniques you’d meditate on,” Kon continued on talking about the others. How Marie was so serious and how Alexandra followed behind Benny like a lost lamb. Mathis’s quiet diligence and Ahmed and Mustafa’s laughing inside jokes with each other. Beto’s unbending pride and Bob’s joy of working with methods while mage lord Alexandros smiled as he taught.
All of that and more he poured out to the holopad. For more than an hour he spoke to the holopad, explaining all that was going on and what they were planning on doing. Kon couldn’t send the message of course, there were too many ways for it to be intercepted, but when he finished talking he felt better as he turned the holo off.
He stored it away on its charger as he stretched and fell into the meditative trance that Diur had taught him. Breathing in controlled rhythms as he focused on his body, the way it felt and how the air moved through his lungs and spread down to every limb of his body.
Deep into the trance he fell until he could feel the strength in his bones. How Condense had merged with his cultivation base to become something different, something more. Kon felt it out like running a tongue over a missing tooth, discovering the difference in who he was now.
His notes on body cultivation were sparse but he had managed to build up a decent working theory on how he could push forward. The Alchemist and a body cultivation specialist would be needed to check on his work, but he was certain he was moving in the right direction.