Chapter 3: Ch.0003 – An Explosive Event

Jimmy immediately queued up the creation of four worker automata. The constructs set him back a hundred SC - an unavoidable cost, he knew –and twenty minutes which he and two drones, with one left behind to serve as a sentry for his budding base - spent ranging further into the pock-marked plains to map out the alien land that he would call home. 

His recon drones did the task they were made for with as much zeal as could be expected, but their results spoke for themselves, nonetheless. The original chameleon that he had first sent this way led him to within seeing distance of a small imp tribe that it had found during its initial discovery of this place. 

A small wall only barely taller than him made of sloppily arranged rocks bounded together with roots surrounded an assortment of ramshackle dwellings and structures. Jimmy climbed a small rock outcropping to get a better view of the village’s interior, and there he found a throng of the creatures ambling about in the depths of their tasks. 

There were perhaps a few dozen of them: likely less than fifty, and none seemed any larger or more threatening than the others that he had already fought off. That soothed him a bit. 

Even with their numbers, so long as he had a few more units under his command, they would be less than a threat. 

It had informed him of the tribe before they had set off, and it was the chief reason why he had been hesitant to choose the plains as a place to settle. In the end, the presence of the essence deposit, its proximity to lumber and the ample open ground which he could use to expand as he pleased finally won him over, but the imp tribe was an issue that he knew would need to be dealt with sooner rather than later. 

Their closeness to his base – barely forty minutes away – ensured that discovery was a simple matter of when and Jimmy was not keen on the idea of hoping for the best until the worst made itself known. 

He tasked one of the two drones to watch the tribe with orders to warn him if they set off in his direction before he returned to base and his waiting workers. They resembled his recon drones in many ways, with their brass shell and single circular eye, though they were larger and blockier than their smoother cousins. 

He immediately tasked the automata to the duty of mining essence – a process that he found involved little in the way of actual mining, and more of standing in a circle around it with their eyes aglow. Wisps of bluish light fluttered from the deposit towards his constructs, and one of them would occasionally peel off from the crystal and return to the terminus with their gains so he assumed that something was likely happening, though he still checked his secondary sheet to confirm. 

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The Enlightened Tinkerer, Master of The Circuitarchy 

Era: I  

Population: 0 - Units: 7/50 

Controlled Sectors: 0 – Controlled Settlements: 1 

--- Resources --- 

312 SC – 1 Essence 

--- Nation Skills --- 

Divine Weight I 

--- Leader Skills --- 

Your Faith, My Might I 

--- Unit Production Skills 1/3 --- 

Slink Recon Drone (I) 

--- Structures Tab --- 

Common Structures: Terminus (I), Pylon (I), Population Node (I), … 

Military Structures: Assault Assembler (I), Cover Wall (I), ... 

Industry Structures: Resource Extractor (I), Manufactorium (I), ... 

Religious Structures: Piety Terminal (I), Network Pylon (I) 

Culture Structures: Bitrecessor (I), Bitron Pylon (I), ... 

Economic Structures: Trade Hub (I), Exploratorium (I), ... 

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The production rate of the workers was abysmal, but perhaps that was his impatience speaking. The screen had warned him as much and he had no reason to gnash his teeth at what he should have already expected. 

Still, the slow uptick gnawed on him. 

Jimmy was tempted then and there to splurge his SC on a resource extractor to ensure a faster rate of return, and it took an effort of will to convince himself otherwise. A resource extractor would prove valuable, and it was a necessity that he was bound to eventually see built, but not yet. 

There were more important things needed in the immediate. 

Security was paramount. 

Even without the imp tribes, he was in a very hostile dungeon, and he had been lucky enough to go thus far without a serious attack. His luck wouldn’t hold out forever though, he knew. 

He needed military units first and foremost. 

Jimmy spared the time, agonizingly slow as it might have been, for his units to gather up to a hundred essence and then immediately subsidized the remaining seventy-five essence cost required to construct the assault assembler with SC and placed down the structure a short distance from the terminus. 

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Assault Assembler (I) 

175 SC – 175 essence - 3 hours 

3 unit slots 

The Assault Assembler (I) trains the massed backbone of your armies. 

--- Units --- 

Mongoose Assault Drone (I) – Eagle Assault Drone (I) – Mastodon Guard Drone (I) 

--- Upgrades --- 

- Conscription (I) - 210 RP - 2 days. 

Improves the rate of unit production. 

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Mongoose Assault Drone (I) 

45 SC – 45 Essence - 7 minutes 

Basic massed infantry unit. Stable, reliable, competent. Has an ability that empowers them for a short duration when fighting in large formations. 

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Eagle Assault Drone (I) 

50 SC – 50 Essence - 8 minutes 

Basic massed ranged unit. Low rate of fire but medium damage output. Has an ability that boosts the rate of fire for a short duration. 

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Mastodon Guard Drone (I) 

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40 SC – 40 Essence - 8 minutes 

Basic defensive unit. Has formidable defensive prowess and a weak ranged ability. Has an ability that stuns foes in a small radius around them. 

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He tore away two workers to work on the building. It wasn’t a necessity. Much like the terminus had, the assembler could erect itself without any aid, but workers actively engaged with it would greatly reduce the time demanded. 

With that process ongoing in the background, he splurged another hundred SC on another four workers, leaving him with only eighty-seven SC left to his name. He tasked five of them to the assembler, maxing out the worker limit on any construction task, and the remaining were sent to the deposit. 

The five automata did their strange work upon the growing building, plucking and moving pieces of matter even as they materialized to the tune of a blueprint that only they could see. An hour later, the assembler was done, and Jimmy wasted no time in spending the essence required to build his first retinue of true military units. 

The wolverine assault drone was not a powerful construct, or so he had been told, but it was stable, competent and could achieve a variety of tasks which made it perfect for his needs. He immediately spent his essence on the creation of six wolverines and quietly awaited their arrival whilst planning his next moves. 

They only required seven minutes each to be made, and thus he thought himself freed of the greater weight of his security concerns with their coming. 

Of course, life was never that easy. It was his chameleon drone that warned him of the coming attack. Six creatures were headed his way, not from the imp tribe, but from the forest’s edge. Their speed was described as slow and unhurried. It was likely that they hadn’t sensed him yet. Perhaps they were a roaming pack of beasts, or worse, following along the trail that he had left behind him as he’d crossed the forest. 

Either way, they would emerge into the plains soon enough and though the monolithic stone outcroppings would serve to hide him and his workers, the terminus and assembler, with its size, would not be missed. Jimmy did the only thing he could do then. 

He prepared for battle. 

A spell was cast. 

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Spell: Create: Contraption Grenade I 

Creates a randomized contraption grenade to aid the Tinkerer. Contraption effect is randomized. The Contraption Grenade lasts for an hour after creation before dematerializing. 

• It explodes, unleashing a viscous goo that restricts and entraps everything within its radius. 
• It explodes, unleashing a fiery blaze that burns and scorches everything within its radius. 
• It explodes, unleashing a wave of water that washes away everything within its radius. 
• It explodes, unleashing a frostbitten wind that freezes everything within its radius. 
• It explodes and doesn’t do much, but children find it amusing. 
• It explodes and is just really, really loud. 
• It explodes and smells really, really vile. 
• It explodes and is just really, really bright. 

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A toll of mana was taken, and his creation instantly came into being upon his waiting palms. Though called a grenade, the shape of it reminded him more of a football, albeit one cast in leather and metal and with a pin at its head. A red strip of colour wrapped around its neck just below the pin and he wondered whether the colour indicated its use. He tested its weight in its hand and found it comfortable. He thought that it could pitch them well. 

He cast the spell thrice again until four of them rested in his hand, waiting to be thrown. They were largely similar save for the colour around their necks. Of the four, two bore red stripes, one yellow and another pink. 

Red, he presumed meant that it was the one that burnt, yellow was possibly either the goo or the smelly one, and pink could be flashy. It could also be anything else. Only testing would prove his assumptions right or wrong. 

Fortunately, an entire group of test subjects continued to make their way towards him. Jimmy glanced at the assembler and saw that four minutes remained until the first assault drone was ready. It sounded like no time at all, but he knew that four minutes could all but be an eternity amid battle. 

Jimmy directed all his workers to hide behind a pillar a short distance away whilst he moved his two recon drones to stealth behind rocks to his either side with orders to ambush the beasts upon his command. 

They weren’t made for their offensive prowess, but unlike the worker automata, his recon drones did have some weak fighting ability and he needed every advantage he could wrangle. 

With every preparation made, he could only wait for the inevitable to happen. 

He considered making a few more grenades, just in case, but their mana toll was sizable, and he wanted something to spare for his Lightning Bolt if the need arose. 

A few seconds later, the figure of the first beast faded into view from in between the wall of trees. It was a strange, fungoid-thing, its body even more pock-marked with growths than the imps had been. A carpet of what could have either been fur or leaves of a reddish hue covered its backs, and it's strange, narrow face ended in a snout that betrayed long needle-like teeth. 

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Lvl. 2 Undergrowth Creeper 

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The creature had an odd lumbering stride to it as it approached and then froze. It had finally seen his terminus and assembler and loosed a screech that he heard despite the distance. Its kin ambled up behind it then, their collective attentions focused upon his base with a feral intensity. Jimmy had kept out of their sight so far and waited to see what they would do. 

The creepers waited a moment, their chittering speech alive in the air as they seemingly spoke amongst themselves. Were they sentient, he wondered, that they could communicate with language, or was it just a bestial approximation of language that he saw? 

Did it matter, he wondered. Diplomacy was his preferred means of progress, but he couldn’t take the risk that these things would ignore any goodwill that he showed them, and that was disregarding whether they were truly sentient or not. 

Worst case scenario, they could flee only to return in even greater numbers. 

He could not afford the risk for so little gain. His choice was made. 

Jimmy clasped a finger over the pin of a grenade and readied himself. 

The seconds ticked by at a ponderously slow pace as they inched closer and closer until with a final step, they entered his optimal range. He pulled the pin and hurled the yellow-striped grenade as accurately as he could. 

Jimmy was no athlete, but his work required some level of labour and he had kept himself in good shape as a result. That well-maintained physique gave his throw the strength and accuracy to send the grenade sailing across the air in a perfect arc to land mere inches away from the beasts. They flinched and shifted as the projectile landed. A flurry of sharpened roots grew out of their bodies and snaked at blinding speeds towards the contraption. 

The grenade exploded. 

A bright light engulfed the clearing. The creatures shrieked as they were blinded and even Jimmy had to turn away to shield himself. When he turned back the creatures were staggered and dazed, but not as much as he had hoped. He unleashed another grenade then – the red one. 

Luck guided it closer to the creepers than the last and it bounced off one of the things. It swiped blindly at air, and then screamed as a wave of fire washed over it. 

‘That’s more like it.’ he thought. 

The monsters farthest from the explosion were spared the worst of it, but they still thrashed about wildly as flames licked at their skin and left burnt streaks across their ashen skin, and they were perhaps the luckier ones. The creepers that had been beneath the eye of the blast were all but dead already, their corpses still even as the fire continued to ravage their remains. 

Four of their number still lived though, even if they were wounded. 

He unleashed his last two grenades then. 

One was another fire grenade and it finished off three of the surviving creatures with the intensity of its blast whilst the fourth lit up the air with meaningless sparkles and lights. Pink was the useless one, then. 

Of the six creepers, one remained standing still, though battered and burnt. It snarled and clawed weakly at the air. Its eyes had been burnt away from the fire, and perhaps the light had done its work there as well. Caught as it was in the depths of its pain and confusion, it didn’t even notice as Jimmy strode up towards it and finished it off with a well-placed Lightning Bolt. 

The corpse collapsed. Jimmy surveyed the scene of carnage. Flames licked at the grass though the fire was dying even as he watched, and the air was filled with a foul stench like rotting garbage. He held his nose, a frown on his lips. 

That had been... easier than he had expected. His grenades were far more lethally effective than he’d initially presumed, though their mana toll and randomized nature stole from their overall usability. 

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You have earned 8 SC 

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You have earned a level 

1 >> 3 

+2 PERC + 2 DEX 

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The SC total was lower than he had hoped, but most of their number had been mere level ones, so he had expected as much. The gain of two levels was far more pertinent, as was the attribute gain. The being had explained that he would gain two attributes per level, and the gain would represent the attributes that he had most exercised in the level prior. 

Seeing as how he had spent most of his time warily seeking signs of danger as he waited for his structures and units to finish, the perception gain came as no surprise, nor did the dexterity gain if he considered his grenade throws. 

There were other means that he could use to gain attribute points, and he would likely need to put some attempt towards that end soon. But for the moment, he was satisfied with his gains and turned about just in time to see his first assault drone step forth into being. 

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