They passed asteroids that were a few meters big to thousands of kilometers.
“We’re heading into an asteroid-rich area, better for the refinery,” the orc said as the shuttle started to move erratically. However, there was no gravity inside the shuttle, only the gravity that their clothes were exerting.
A few people had to close their eyes, unable to look at the screens as they moved around wildly. Others gained a new sense of excitement from the screens’ movement.
Soon they cleared most of the asteroids and they headed toward a large asteroid.
Other shuttles were visible and on their sensors, they were able to identify mining drills that were opening up paths into different asteroids. They were too far away to be seen without zooming in their interfaces.
They finally reached the refinery asteroid, being greeted by more armored doors. There weren’t as many as in the main asteroid base, so they quickly found themselves inside.
The calm of the exterior was at complete odds with the development inside.
There were mining drills and excavators working to expand out in every direction. The whole area had been cleared out, hollowed out and the mined material removed so it looked like a huge windowless warehouse on steroids.
Excavators spread out in every direction. The light of their laser drills illuminated the asteroid walls as they ate through everything in their path.
Massive metal pillars stretched out from the surrounding asteroid and met in the center, where a misshaped construction was being created.
Shuttles moved in close to this central area. Automatons and carts moved to meet them, grabbing the materials stored in the storage containers they were hauling. They were full of parts and refined metals to finish construction of the refinery.
The superstructure was growing at an incredible rate. The metal grew outward and automatons added in struts, braces, and supports, creating a structure of interconnecting lines.
The automatons could build the entire refinery by themselves. However, it could take months. With the aid of the people in the Pandora’s Box Initiative, they could speed this process up dramatically, moving it from a few months to having the first section of the refinery online in just two days. But only if everyone pulled together.
Right now they needed more refineries. They had the raw materials taking up storage room but Pandora’s refineries weren’t fast enough to process all of the materials. They were sending out a trickle of resources to the people on Emerilia but it was nowhere close to meeting up with their demand.
The bottleneck was slowing down their timelines dramatically relying on these different refineries.
“All right, everyone check your Mana barriers and air!” the orc said.
A pressure filled the shuttle as people activated their Mana barriers and checked their air supply in their modified pouches of holding that acted as air tanks. Their Mana barriers covered their faces while their clothes, gloves, and boots sealed to one another. The air tank regulated the air that was contained around their head.
The shuttle settled down in a shuttle bay. Automatons rushed from the sides, opening up the cargo container it was carrying and hauling items out to be taken deeper into the refinery.
Their foreman led them off the shuttle and toward a way point.
“All right, welcome to Asteroid Refinery One. All of you are to assist with laying down supports. I know, not glamorous work, but the faster you get it done, the faster the soul gem construct can grow,” a Beast Kin said, adding them to different work party chats.
New way points and goals appeared on Frank’s quest screen.
The orc foreman accepted the changes and they headed off for an area filled with crates.
Their strength was great and the coding on the crates was the best. Each of the players could easily carry two of the one-meter-long crates, one on each shoulder.
They loaded one another up and headed out.
Frank passed through sections of growing soul gem construct, coming to the skeleton-like section of superstructure that was growing out from the center of the refinery.
All around him, people and automatons lay down the structural supports and braces from the crates he was carrying. It was like an army of ants, each building their own thing but it all coming together in one complex creation.
Frank’s view showed where his braces and supports were supposed to be laid. The crates had no weight unless he activated the magical coding that would stick them to a surface. He felt as if gravity were pushing down on him but in reality there wasn’t any.
He got down on his hands and knees, wrapping his legs around the structural member he was going to work on. Now it seemed as if it was growing upward instead or outward to his perspective.
He shimmied up the strut and opened the crate. He pulled out the structural brace and placed it where a hologram appeared of it. It fused with the metal beam that Frank had his legs wrapped around.
Runic lines ran from the metal beam he was on, through the other beam. When he saw that, a sign that they were properly fused, he moved upward, connecting the other beams. Sometimes they would go upward; sometimes they would go sideways.
He paused after a while to grab a canteen from his pouch of holding, holding it to his lips and squeezing some in. He watched the other people working around him.
Not all of them were simply adding in the superstructure.
Dark mages had their bags of holding open. Metal moved as if it were an intelligent creature, creating a path ahead of them; as they passed the metal, it looked no different from the other structural members. Their speed was a great improvement over the automatons; they could do it quickly but the Dark mages could to it at a walking pace.
Frank’s eyes went wide as he saw one of the dragons shoot forward as if they were flying. Their legs were on two metal beams. All around them, dozens of structural members formed with smooth and exact precision. It made what Frank was doing look like child’s play. In a moment, they had done more than Frank had in an entire hour.
He was left in a state of shock as he looked at all the different methods people were using to create the superstructure. One person ran from beam to beam, tossing down the beams they held. Frank swore that their lips were pursed, as if they were whistling as they showed off their acrobatic display.
Another stood on the top of a beam, shooting for the sky. More beams shot out from the beam underneath them at times, reaching out to connect to other beams nearby or waiting for others to catch up.
Frank had heard of the power of magic—he had seen it in the feeds of Emerilia—but this was his first time seeing it on such a large scale. All of the battleships were mostly made by the different automated machines as well as engineers and those trained in magical coding and Dark magic. He had thought that their estimate of taking just a few days to make the battleships if they had the materials and the power to be a vast understatement. Now, seeing their speed in just making this superstructure, he was stunned.
A look of determination crossed his face. “They’ve worked on their skills, so it’s only fair that I work on mine.” With that, Frank started to climb faster and faster, holding the crates with the structural beams in one hand as he raced forward and using the other hand and his feet to keep going. He’d grab a beam from the crates as he reached the end of the beam he was on, jumping up higher and continuing forward.
As more time went on, he got faster and faster, pushing his body past the limits he had set on himself and aiming to reach the ones of his body.
He was a Level 300; there were hidden depths to his strength. It had taken him seeing others and the incredible things that they could do to push past the ideas of what he thought he was capable of. In just a few hours, he was jumping from section to section, looking more monkey than man as he ambled through the superstructure, connecting beams together.
He looked behind him. The soul gem construct was growing faster and faster, spreading over the beams. He could sense t
he power coming off that soul gem construct through the metal he was working on. Machines and the innards of the refinery were taking shape at a speed that could be seen with Frank’s eyes. An excited grin appeared on his face as he worked harder, pushing to be faster.
He was not as fast as some of the impressive Dark mages who had come out. However, he was among the fastest of the players. He only stopped to eat and drink to return his Stamina before taking off again. It was six hours later before his quest reappeared and told him that he was done for the day.
He looked back at the refinery, faint shock in his eyes as he saw that already one of the main separation areas had been created.
The refinery was growing outward along six different metal pillars that grew out from the asteroid.
The refinery looked like a square. However, at each face, there were openings. Shuttles would go in here, dropping off their storage crates filled with metal and debris along the walls of the tunnel and dumped into massive machines that would separate them out into their different metals. They would go through different refineries outside of the tunnel, being refined down and pushed further toward the outside of the square-looking refinery. This way, the raw materials would be processed out from the center.
They would be pushed through the different onos and teleport pads to the asteroid base to be used, or they could be further processed and combined to create different compound materials or basic shaped items. As the refinery progressed, then more and more shops would be added onto the outside of the refinery. These wouldn’t just temper and refine the metal, but create large-scale items like armor or structural supports that could be used for a vast array of projects.
They could even have factories later on that would combine these different products to be used elsewhere.
Frank felt a sense of pride, knowing that he had been part of this massive project. He smiled and made his way to the way point, getting up and running along the beams. As he went, he threw down beams here and there as he saw them missing in places.
People watched his speed in shock as he passed and entered the refinery. There was an open ono connected to another ono in the asteroid base.
He caught sight of the different ships that were underway, a smile on his face. Knowing that they were about to become a whole lot busier, he checked out the forums and found people posting about the refinery already. As more people were being woken up, they were taking on different quests.
They might be simple quests but it allowed them to come to understand the world they were in, much like simple fetch and carry missions one might find starting out in games.
***
Malsour looked over the refinery. The soul gem construction was still ongoing; a dozen fusion plants had been connected up and were pumping out power continuously. Another thirty Mana wells acted as backups.
The pillars that created the framework for the refinery were similar to trees: the metal spread out, reaching through the asteroid to secure the refinery in place and increase the durability of the asteroid.
The excavators had a lot of work to do before they hollowed out the inside of the asteroid but in the meantime, they would supply raw materials to the refinery.
Malsour looked over the inside of the facility. Catwalks crisscrossed the facility but the area was dominated by massive machinery.
“First load!” Jesal, the dwarven master smith who had trained Dave and the mastermind behind this project called out.
The first cargo container was backed in by the shuttle to a docking station; clamps reached out and grabbed the container. The hatch opened between the cargo container and the intake. Runic lines that created a gravity field activated and pulled materials from the cargo container into the refinery.
The rocks passed through different machines that crushed everything down and then various systems that sorted out the different metals and materials, sending them off to be smelted. They passed through a specially coded smelting area, quickly being refined down.
Jesal and a group of those running the refinery project looked over the different red-hot metals that were coming out after being smelted. “Looks like we’re good to go! Bring in the rest of it!” Jesal yelled.
Doors that had been closed now snapped open along the intake tunnel. Gravity runes pulled in the materials held by the cargo container, being reduced down and then sorted out. Thousands of tons of materials were being dumped in as the basic facilities of the refinery went to work. The more advanced systems to make specialized materials weren’t online yet, needing those materials to be transported to smiths and other specialized refineries and factories.
Malsour smiled at the different groups that were racing to place down the superstructure as the soul gem construct seemed to eat it up, forming the different sections of the refinery while automatons added in essential systems and parts.
Their production speed would have a sharp increase with the supply of materials from the refinery. It would also take pressure off the Ice City refinery, which could focus on refining down the materials hollowed out for the city instead of having its power divided between refining metals and frozen elemental compounds.
Malsour had a satisfied look on his face as some of the tension between his shoulders was able to relax.
***
Dave and Deia walked through the day care that was being run in Ice City.
People smiled and greeted them as they wandered through. Dave and Deia quickly moved to where Koi was being kept. One of the people who looked after the day care smiled as they entered; Koi was bawling her eyes out in her arms.
“I’m guessing you want to see her.” The lady shifted Koi to pass her over. Dave smiled at the look of relief on her face as he pushed Deia forward so she had to take Koi.
Deia reached out her arms with hesitation, as if Koi would turn away from her.
The lady put Koi in Deia’s arms. Koi continued crying, her eyes scrunched up from being closed so tight.
Deia adjusted her grip, no longer acting foreign to Koi as she rested in the crook of Deia’s arm. “Oh, it’s all right, Koi. Mommy’s here. Everything is going to be fine,” Deia said in a soothing tone as she moved Koi back and forth in her arms, looking to comfort her.
After a few minutes, Koi’s cries did start to calm down as Deia’s face bloomed into a massive smile, filled with joy at being able to comfort Koi in some small way. Deia shifted her shirt so that Koi could get underneath. Koi stopped her crying as she started feeding.
Dave leaned against the doorway frame, smiling as he watched Deia quietly talking to Koi, checking to make sure that she was okay and wiping away her tears. Koi looked up at Deia with eyes that looked like pools of water. Instead of the fiery red that hid in the depths of Deia’s eyes, they seemed to be tempered with the gray of Dave’s eyes. Dave moved from the doorway, putting his arm on Deia’s back as he stood over her shoulder and looked at them both.
Deia leaned back into his embrace, none of the tension or fear plaguing her as they both just put the world away for a moment and lived as parents with a new little baby girl.
“You’re the best mother I know and the only woman I want to marry,” Dave whispered, kissing the side of Deia’s head.
She blushed, raising the hand that was curled around Koi, showing off her engagement ring that she played with. “Good,” Deia said, that one word filled with satisfaction as she looked up to Dave.
Dave kissed her. The two of them looked at each other, their thoughts and emotions deep as they both took deep breaths, working to capture that moment forever.
Chapter 12: A Push for the Future
Josh, Dwayne, Kim, Florence, Cassie, and Lucy were all in the main tower of the Stone Raiders Guild in Terra. They had spent a lot of time in this room, coming up with plans and looking over developments. However, now they were all quiet as they looked at the map in front of them.
“All of the people who are near the southern coast of Opheir as well as the southeastern coast of Heval have
been pulled back. We’ve got different groups running scouting missions on the Earth and Dark Lord groups. Mostly we’re using player alt accounts to do it,” Lucy said.
Alt accounts or payable accounts were accounts that someone made to die. They didn’t have high stats but they could do things like courier items from one place to another, go and scout out an area that they would likely die in and take on jobs that would make most people lose levels. These people got paid to sacrifice their avatars in order to gain more information for those contracting them.
In this case, it was scouting out the forces of the Pantheon. Many of them were killed, but they were such low levels that it was nearly useless to those who killed them and in turn, they found out more of the positioning and actions of both the Dark and Earth Lord.
Other interfaces showed the different videos that people had collected on their scouting trips. It showed Earth’s forces moving around in the forest to the south of Opheir. Trees and dirt were bending to their will, extending out into the ocean, creating a raft. However, the size of it was closer to a small island than a raft.
There were also creatures in the ocean that Earth had been able to bring under his command that were helping to move these different plots of land from the shores and attach them to this floating island.
“I’m impressed by the Earth Lord’s rallying abilities,” Josh admitted. “He was able to rope in creatures and people from all kinds of Affinities under his command.”
“They’ve all been hiding their true abilities.” Cassie’s eyebrows pinched together.
“Very true. We still don’t know the realm of their full strength. They have been on Emerilia for close to four and a half centuries. Their strength is high and their abilities are truly unknown. We only need to look at how Fire defeated four citadels and a portal within less than a half hour to see this,” Lucy said.
“Can we confirm that Earth and Dark are working together?” Florence asked.
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