Sighing Randidly turned back to the materials Time to try making a Porpoise I suppose
Chapter 539
When Randidly presented his Porpoise to the man who handled all purchases on the drone plant Henrik Doc the man sighed in an extremely exaggerated manner It seemed that everything the man did was exaggerated from the way he dressed to the way he coifed his hair
This is your first attempt I suspect The man drawled walking over to the Porpoise and flicking it There was a clear ringing one that Randidly was somewhat proud of It was made of a weaker derivative of Erickson Steel after all Henrik seemed to care less He opened up the side panel to reveal the hand scanner
With the Porpoise the basic function was to put what you wanted inside of it put your hand on the scanner then focus on the image of how to get from the PorpoiseÆs current position to the location you wanted it to go Focusing on the image was extremely important because otherwise the thing would run into a wall
After scanning his hand the PorpoiseÆs wheels engaged and the thing rolled forward to the end of the room Then it came back driving up to Randidly and running a circle around him five times before heading back over to Henrik
RandidlyÆs eyebrows rose That was a strong image instruction The more that Randidly worked with the drone blueprints the more he realized that he had underestimated the knowledge that went into these creations A lot of people must have worked very hard to perfect them or one AI had spent quite a lot of time and data refining them Any improvements Randidly thought to make often had unintended consequences
This Porpoise for instance was his third attempt and came out quite a bit heavier than the normal Porpoises But Randidly had been attempting to up the armor and the battery life of the things by increasing the integrity of the materials It was almost a zero sum game because the increased weight made it spend more battery moving But Randidly believed that there was some small improvement which made him pleased with himself
Then Henrik walked over to the Porpoise and kicked it on its side Instantly the pressure plates on the side engaged pressing outward to lift it back to its wheels But the motors of the thing began to whine dangerously as the plates pressed farther and farther outward Eyes widening Randidly did some calculations in his head The increased weight likely meant at least three times as much power was spent righting itself after an accident
Which turned his improvements into a net loss of power
Well itÆs unsatisfactory but we are currently very lax in our standards Henrik gave Randidly a look that made it clear that Henrik believed Randidly being allowed to work here at all was a relaxation of standards Here is 50 for your efforts We will take the drone and find a task that suits its unique circumstances
50 was almost exactly what it cost to make so it was a wash Still Randidly was starting to think that he didnÆt even deserve that It was frustrating to have failed again
But at the same time something had been ignited in his chest For the first time in a long time Randidly had wanted something and tried for it and failed It made him want to succeed all the more
So Randidly took another day going back and reading more thoroughly through the books in the library of the office getting a better understanding of what he was doing Then he used the computer to spend 100 on other recommended reading that was available for purchase specifically in regards to gritty details about the strength of different materials
Staring intently Randidly memorized every corner of the blueprints he had He had considered purchasing more for reference but each seemed to cost at least 1000 and those were the cheap models There were improved combat drones although not many that were almost 90 000 But if Randidly could make 100 a drone in the future that level of production might not be that far away
It was during this time reading a random detail of the function of the drones that something clicked into place in RandidlyÆs mind Instantly his eyes glowed emerald Where they had been parts before with an understandable role now they were a whole A beautiful moving whole composed of dozens of individual parts
It was almost like a work of art Because part of the power of the drone was its technological compression All that work and intellect was bent and twisted and slipped together until it had been warped into a form the belied its impressive functions
During the next hour reviewing the three different blueprints Randidly gained 12 Levels in SpriggitÆs Tinkering In addition another notification popped up
Congratulations Would you like to learn the Skill Engineering Savvy « Lvl 1 Y/N
Randidly selected yes
He had thought a lot in the past few days whether it was really worth it to spend a Skill slot on a drone making Skill when he might need them in the future Two small things and one big thing made clicking yes easy First it was a general Skill and he might find other applications of its use Second it was often worth it to save things up for lean times but Randidly suspected momentum and PP now was more valuable than learning some Skill at some future date and Randidly still had several more Skill slots
Finally Randidly loved it The feeling of metal the strange tinkering workshop where he now found himself the creation of something autonomous from himself it was like a strange more organic form of the Soul Seed And Randidly was a bit shocked to find himself thinking that this was a more organic process but it wasnÆt about the outcome that was organic It was just that when he created a drone he could lose himself in the wonder of the work and felt accomplished when he was done
When he made a Soul Seed Randidly wasnÆt sure how but it felt hollow Like it was more the SystemÆs work than his own But he supposed that humans made other humans in a similar way for centuries Was it truly just his young male instincts panicking at the first sign of children Whereas the drones were a more innocuous offspring
Shaking his head with amusement Randidly rose and dusted off his most recent attempt at the Porpoise It was a sturdier thing than Randidly had done in the past Seeing how his changes affected the weight didnÆt dissuade Randidly that he was doing something worth doing it just gave him a better idea of what the consequences of such changes would be
Although Randidly maintained the weight in the frame he had slimmed down the metal components on the insides to keep the weight reasonable The runic boards inside were thin now but they still had a decent amount of integrity The wheels were slightly larger and positioned farther forward and back to give the Porpoise a more stable base
Feeling confident Randidly took the Porpoise to Henrik
Henrik hit the thing with two Fireballs and the thing fizzled to a stop Randidly blinked the thinner internal circuits had melted very quickly under the barrage of heat More than that though this was the first time Randidly had seen someone use a powerful magic spell since coming into Zone 1
In his chest more and more sparks of frustration were coming together
Then Henrik kicked the Porpoise over Or at least he tried to The thingsÆ spread wheels kept its balance through the first two kicks Henrik blinked Without a word he handed Randidly 75 and took the thing away
Shaking his head ruefully Randidly returned to his workshop and considered the modifications he had made And as he did so he burst out laughing
The problem is that IÆm trying to adjust the materials while using the same runes as everyone else That wonÆt work TheyÆve been pushed to their limits I might make some small improvements but Randidly grinned at the ceiling Those sparks inside of him had become a conflagration and he could feel the intensity driving him forward DoesnÆt that just mean I simply need to invent a new runic language to do what I want
Before he let himself get carried around for another week Randidly returned to his base in the forest checking in on things there The flowers that he had empowered had bloomed perhaps a little TOO largely They were the size of dinner plates and a sweet scent wafted from them for about a mile Luckily the trees covered most of it but