Chapter 20: Chapter 19 – Billion Dollar Equipment

Dream had used the helicopter to find Riddick and Iris. They all headed back home and landed. 

Once they were back, everyone went inside the house while Dream stored the helicopter. It was time for dinner.

"So Iris, how did you like it?"

He asked her and she turned to him with a glare.

"You idiot! How could you force me to still go?!"

"I knew you were just being scared! You would've regretted it if you didn't and you know I'm right."

"I...Whatever! But that doesn't mean what you did was excusable!"

"Hehe yes, yes I'm the bad guy. Old Man! Is that device good enough to fly us wherever we need to go?"

"Don't ignore me!"(Iris)

"Yes it is, Boy. How long can it fly?"

"However long we want. It will get us anywhere pretty fast as long as we don't need to cross a continent. How far is the nearest checkpoint?"

"We would need to walk for a couple weeks to get to a village. I planned to forage our way there, but it looks like we can get there in a day thanks to you."

"A couple weeks?! How secluded are we?!"

Dream got astonished by how separated they were from any form of civilization. Two weeks of all of them walking was not a short distance. Would he be able to cross it in a day with his chopper?

"Alright, well I'll need more mana from you later, so just stay topped off, Old Man."

"...I'm not just a mana bank for you to draw whatever you want from, Boy."

Dream ignored him and went inside. The retrieval took a couple hours and it was past dark, they needed to eat dinner.

...........

The next day Dream had Riddick summon some cars. 

He summoned a supply wagon, a Jeep, An SUV, and of course, a sports car. They obviously cost a massive amount and Riddick went though a good chunk of his mana. So he waited until the next day to do anything after that.

He also couldn't really drive them because there was forest all around, but they would come in handy for when he couldn't fly.

After that was tactical gear. Dream would need things for fighting people and he couldn't be summoning things on the fly all the time.

Dream got plenty of grenades and plastic explosives, they would handle heavy-duty targets well. Then he needed night vision and thermal vision. Those would help during the night.

He also got a drone with a hyperspectral camera. He would have Sophia control the drone to keep track of anything around him. The camera would also allow them to see absolutely everything on the electromagnetic spectrum, so they couldn't get snuck up on.

Next would be body armor. Since he had the mana pool known as Riddick, Dream could splurge on proper body armor. Last time he only got riot gear because it was cheap and worked. Now, he would be venturing into unknown lands, so he needed protection.

Sophia had come to know of some experimental body armor that was being created in a top secret weapons development site on Earth. The hardware for the suit had been made, but they were having trouble with the software, which was why it hadn't replaced the standard bodysuit in the military yet.

The age Dream had come from was one at the dawn of IronMan level technology. All this time, he had been keeping things cheap because he had hardly enough mana. But now it was time to get high tech stuff.

"Sophia. I'm guessing you're able to handle the software on the suit?"

[Yup! It might take a little bit for the device to rewrite itself but I will make sure everything goes right.]

"Good. Old Man! I need mana!"

Dream called Riddick over and the old man grumbled. Unfortunately, this suit would take another chunk of his mana, so Dream could only apologize.

After a lot of mana channeling and complaining, Sophia finally got the suit.

It was laid down on the floor in front of Dream. Now all he needed to do was let Sophia rewrite the code and they would be good.

The suit looked badass too. It was a matte black color. But not from paint. The body was built from graphene nanostructures. It provided tensile strengths several times that of steel or titanium. All the pieces were held together by either magnetics or servos. The suit would open up to accept its user and close on top of him. 

The suit looked like a cross between Halo and Iron man suits. It had many sensors and the field of view under the helmet was apparently fantastic. It was also meant to be worn with carrier vests for ammo and such, but Dream didn't need that. He just needed the armor.

It took over an hour for the software to finish testing. And when it was done, the suit stood itself up for Dream.

[Ok! The suit is ready to go. The software is developed by yours truly and to best accommodate your needs. Try it on!]

Sophia let Dream know and he went over to try on the suit.

He went up to the suit and then turned around to step back into it. The suit wrapped around his limbs to lock him in.

Right as the helmet covered his face, a HUD came up and showed him his surroundings. He could see everything perfectly.

"Oo this is cool. I've only ever seen these suits. Never been in one, not to mention something still experimental. I should try out its durability. Hey Luna! Come hit me!"

Dream called Luna over to help him.

"Dream? You want me to hit you?"

"Yup! Just punch me in the chest with all your strength."

"Uhhh...Okay?"

Luna wasn't sure about it but she still did it. She walked up to him and threw a perfect and square punch.

Dream on the other hand, wasn't actually planning to just take a hit. He threw his arm up to block the punch.

When the fist landed on his arm, the suit didn't bend under the pressure. Instead, the impact technology in the suit kicked in and pulled the nearby molecules to the impact site to absorb the pressure better. 

*THUD*

"Owww!! That hurt!"

Luna shouted out in pain. 

As the suit compressed the material by her fist, it naturally meant that it was more sturdy. You can't compare the sturdiness of Earth's best composite with flesh and bone. 

"Nice! This suit is much better than expected. I guess it is meant to absorb shots from electromagnetic weapons. The impact technology is really good. Excess pressure is spread to the rest of the suit. Hey Luna, wanna spar?"

"No! I can't even deliver a hit, let alone take one! You're so mean."

"Hehe. That reminds me, Sophia, how hard can this thing hit? Is there anything in the fists?"

[Yes, there is. The fist is just as dense as the rest of the body. The suit actually uses a system of moveable magnetic weights to either add weight for increased momentum in your movements, or to counterbalance any hits you take. That's why you didn't go flying from Luna's punch even though you weren't planted. If you look down, you'll see some of the weights floating above the surface of the suit.]

Dream did so and indeed saw some various shaped weights hovering over different parts of the body. They were able to levitate because of the magnetics in the suit and they would clamp down when needed.

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This thing was so high tech, Dream had to bring up a question.

"Hey Sophia, what were the development costs for this suit?"

[This suit was only one part of a project. The whole project though had tens of billions poured into it over a decade.]

"....That's a lot of money. Isn't that like a dozen percent of the US military budget?"

[Yup]

*Whistle*

Dream was feeling a little weird about being able to summon a several billion dollar suit. But all's well that ends well.

[There's also some melee weapons inside the suit that you can use.]

"Oh? What are they?"

[There are ejectable blades in the arms, elbows, and feet. There are various magnets around the body that can hold onto guns like the back, chest, and legs. Knife sheaths are located on the arms, shoulders, and around the waist.]

"There's knife sheaths? But aren't there already arm blades?"

[Sometimes you need a more artistic approach to cutting something, or someone. Which can only be done with a knife instead of an arm blade.]

"...That's not scary at all...But I guess so. Anything else I should know about?"

[As most of the body can conduct electricity, you can superheat various parts. Mainly for the hands to melt metal if needed. It also has tools for tapping into electronics but you won't need that here. Last thing, it can compact and store itself on your body. For quick access.]

"Nice! Do that."

Dream gave the command and the suit started retracting from his body. It flattened itself into an exoskeleton figure along the back of his limbs while the extra weights stored themselves on his back. The helmet did the same and compressed itself on the back of his head. The suit clung close to his body and moved flawlessly with him as he walked.

"This suit really is perfect. It can hide under my clothes fine too."

[It was meant for special forces so it's rather concealable. They planned to give it invisibility but they hadn't gotten there yet.]

"Not that I would need it either. Sweet! Unfortunately, the Old Man is drained of mana so we can't do anything else today. I guess I'll get used to having this thing on."

Dream went inside with Luna after showing off his cool suit. They didn't do anything else that day.

.......

The next day, Dream summoned weapons. This was for him but also for the girls.

Since Riddick had recovered his mana, they were going for electromagnetic weapons. These were much more expensive than regular gunpowder weapons, even when considering ammo.

Well, it wasn't really ammo. The guns needed lots of electricity so the ammo consisted of a battery and the projectiles to launch. 

At the age Earth is at, liquid batteries are no more. Solid-state batteries are used everywhere. They can store much more energy, charge faster, and also discharge much more at once. And since the EM guns needed magnets, they were only available in rifle form. Assault rifles and snipers. No pistols because they're too small. 

So Dream summoned some rifles and one high powered sniper. He stored them all and he would give the guns to the girls when they traveled.

He had also wanted to give Luna and Iris the armor suit he had, but their fox forms were what they used to fight since they hadn't gotten used to their human forms to fight. Iris was also a melee fighter and couldn't have anything in the way. And while Luna could fight close range, she preferred the support role.

Either way, when they were both actually fighting they wouldn't be using a suit like that. And Earth didn't really make armor for magical fox girls so there was nothing Dream could do. He might still get it though for everyday protection just in case.

Since they couldn't use it he kept going over any weapons he wanted. It was difficult to think of things he might need because he didn't know what would happen in the future. So he just made sure to get plenty of ammo so he would never accidentally run out. 

Dream settled his weapons and made sure there was nothing else. If he needed something later then he would get it then.

.........

For the next two days, Dream began wrapping things up. He kept summoning large amounts of consumables to stay stocked but other than that, everyone just wanted to enjoy their last days at the house.

Everyone lived lavishly. Eating whatever whenever. They didn't bother going hunting or training because they would be doing enough of that soon.

Music was played and people teased each other. Well, more like teased Iris.

There was also one more thing that Dream wanted to try.

"Hey Old Man!"

"Boy! Don't you come spending all my mana again!"

"Hahaha! No, not that. How effective is alcohol in this world? Is it mixed with mana to make it stronger or does this world have some crazy brewing techniques?"

"Alcohol? Hmm..."

Riddick thought about it for a second before replying.

"There are alcohols that are mixed with mana to amplify the effects like a poison, but it's only in light amounts. People don't like not being able to control themselves because you can never be too safe. On the other hand, this world does have its fair share of different brews."

"How strong are they?"

"Depends on what you are drinking. Keep in mind that people learn to control their mana and bodies. This allows them to revert to being somewhat powerless whenever they want by inhibiting their mana. And the base body can't take much alcohol, so we don't go around drinking pure alcohol."

"Ok, so not that much different from my world."

"Why do you ask?"

"I wanna have some fun before we leave. Just a fun night. We can all taste some of the delicacies of my world. Plus, you should teach your daughters how to handle themselves with this stuff."

"Boy, you're just as young as them. And you know how to handle yourself?"

"Hehe. I've had my fair share of crazy nights, Old Man. And in my world, if you didn't watch how much you drank there was no going back. Believe me when I say that we got messed up. Not to mention, we had much more than just alcohol. I didn't use them, but the drugs on my world were really what hit hard."

"Hmm. Alright, I guess I have no choice but to believe you. And maybe my daughters really should learn how to handle themselves..."

"Neither you nor I want them stranded in a pub at night. So how about this, when sunset hits, we'll eat and I'll bring out various alcohols. Sound good?"

"Very well, Boy. I'm quite interested in what you have in store."

"Oh? Are you a drinker, Old Man? I hope you're not a lightweight."

"*pui* Don't insult me, Boy! I can drink more alcohol than you can water! I hope your world's brewmasters can impress me. I'm not looking for some cheap shit."

"Hehehe. You don't need to worry about that. Has anything else I've brought out disappoint you yet? You'll see."

 

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