Inflame (The Completionist Chronicles Book 6) Dakota Krout (sci fi books to read TXT) 📖

a few hundred feet out—hopefully into the ranks of the Elves. In fact, that is partly why they are towers, not just defensive encampments, or things that we can move from place to place easily. Gotta be able to dump the danger. Hopefully on someone else.”

Joe stared at Havoc long enough that the Dwarf started reaching for something in his pocket as a nervous tic. The Reductionist didn't really notice, simply struggling to find the words to ask the question that was forming in a non-disparaging way. “Why… in the absolute abyss would you use Cores… right… you can’t convert them to batteries. Okay. I think I found a solution to this problem.”

He immediately sprang into action, pulling out a ritual that the Dwarf had never seen before. Joe, far too used to working alone, started muttering to himself as if he were using a voice-to-text program. “I could create the ritual directly, using aspects. I'm still going to need to find something that can withstand the energy conversion. Maybe I should forge it myself as well? I wonder what that would look like… will the aspects just directly convert into matter as I am making something? It did in the tutorial… let's see. Havoc, here.”

Joe pushed over his notes, “What sort of metal do I need to use in order to resist a meltdown with this kind of power requirement?”

If there was one thing that Havoc understood, it was material compositions. He swept a practiced eye over the equations and data summaries while his right hand left his pocket. “From what I am seeing, you could use regular iron with a core of silver, but that would only last so long as you did not want to use it fairly consistently. High Steel would be a better choice, but…”

Havoc chuckled at a thought before saying it aloud, “if you aren't making it yourself, and you are going to requisition it, I would highly recommend Ghost Silver with a High Steel core instead. You would be able to throw a Core in there up to the Artifact rank and keep it going pretty much permanently. What am I looking at?”

“It’s a Ritual of Enchanting, mana-battery specific. I forget the proper name for it off the top of my head,” Joe absentmindedly answered the Dwarf. “It allows me to directly enchant Cores and turn them into mana batteries. You know, so that I don't blow myself up when I am making a defensive building?”

“Hey. If we could do it, we would do it. I could make this, sans the ritual part, but it would take a ton of my time for each individual Core. Is it worth it? Can I really make a difference with just a few?” Havoc shrugged at the diagram carefully, clearly understanding almost all parts of it, but still disregarding it. “Clever workarounds are what we do best. We’ve also got metal to spare, one of the benefits of mining like we do. You want me to requisition enough metal for you to make this? Does it need to be shaped like this, able to move… hey, when this expands, is it a gyroscope?”

“It is.” Joe was completely unsurprised that the Dwarf understood the intention of the metal frame. “It has to be able to enchant a Core from all sides. Also, yes, if you can get someone else to make that, I'll be able to focus on just completing my rituals. If we can delegate this, it would save me a lot of time. Actually… the metals you mentioned? I think I would need a higher blacksmithing level before I could even heat them properly.”

“It'll take a week or two, but I'll get it done.” Havoc lazily glanced to the side as an alarm sounded. His eyes sharpened as he recognized what the klaxon call was shrieking about. “Well, human… looks like you will get a chance to show off your fancy magical device. We just lost a fort. I’ll make them hold off on the counterattack and claim the assault in your name. That means that the success is yours, but the failure would be as well. We don’t have to worry about that, though, do we?”

“I… t-this is only a prototype! I’ve done no testing! If we just charge in-” Joe stuttered as Havoc started tapping at something only he could see. He gave Joe a thumbs-up and shut him down with a simple sentence.

“It’s done; you have twelve hours to get this ritual up and running.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

The Legion was on the move, and a frantic Joe was jogging along with them and trying to triple-check his diagrams at the same time. Not a single person gave his muttering a second thought; hundreds of Dwarves were marching in time, their heavily armored boots striking stone at a grating frequency. Wherever they went, they created an instant trail. Fields and underbrush were trampled into packed earth; green landscapes churned into mud.

Walking alongside the Legion were huge automatons that released huge bursts of steam with every few steps they took, likely thanks to the ‘liquid cooling’ Havoc had told Joe about. They were powerful and agile attackers and defenders, and seemed to have their own form of built-in intelligence. Based on their appearance and functions, Joe had a sneaking suspicion that they were based off the juggernauts and defenders of various places of power. For the first time, he started to understand how the Dwarves were able to fight back against the Elves, even though they did not have direct magical support. “Havoc, quick question for you. Why haven’t I seen any places dedicated to deities? These look a lot like Juggernauts.”

Joe was clearly referencing the metal behemoths, but even so, Havoc made him sweat a little bit before deciding to answer. “Suppose it doesn't hurt to let you know; I’m gonna be shouting about this when we get there, anyway. You have a brain in your head, so you’d figure this all out from