[Really!? How much was it filled?] Luna asked in astonishment. She had put all of her energy into the bar of metal, but it had not even been filled yet; it was dizzying for her to think about.
[If I were to guess… not even five percent of this small bar has been filled.] Kain answered, a design quickly forming in his head. [But either way, with this we have a material that can handle the immense amount of energy needed for the dimensional coordinate concept. All we need to do now is to build it, and I have a design in mind.]
Her face showed an expression akin to raising an eyebrow, [Will it work?] She asked in a suspicious tone. She believed that her suspicion was not unfounded as that would be the first time he used any of the metal, so she was making sure he was confident before using some of the metal he had been worried about earlier.
He gave a small scoff. [I’m sure that I can do it. But, for now, let’s look at the last metal.] He said, pulling the bar of cobalt-blue metal over to him. He examined it and decided to funnel his own energy into it, letting Luna take a much deserved break. Funneling energy into the block gave no different reaction compared to normal rocks that could be found in the cave. After filling it for a few minutes, the bar glowed, signaling that it had reached its limits for energy storage. Seeing that, he sighed. [It looks like there is nothing unique about it. It’s as good as rocks are when storing energy, and it’s quite malleable.] He wove energy through the bar like he had done with the black metal and found that it was even easier to manipulate than the black metal was. [At least it’s easy to make stuff with.] He said, frowning.
[Can I look at it?] She asked, as she had moved a bit away at that point.
[Sure, here you go.] He held the bar out and let Luna grab it with her movement energy, making it float over to her. Before it moved even half a foot, the bar shone with green light, blinding both Kain and Luna. Once the light settled down, the bar of metal had adopted a pattern of green stripes, similar to the stripes in the red pillar, with the backdrop of the cobalt-blue metal. Stunned, she let the bar fall to the ground, clanging on the rocky floor when it reached it. Kain tentatively grabbed the block of metal and held it up to his eyes. He almost glared at it, searching the surface for any clues. The search resulted in nothing substantial, apart from the hypothesis that the metal was undergoing a similar hypothesis as the red pillar, but looking into the metal’s energy revealed something that shocked him: unlike all other materials around him, which had a ‘neutral’ energy, the cobalt-blue metal bar’s ‘base energy’ was the Luna’s movement energy. Gaping, Kain said, [What… would they have used this for?]
Luna snapped out of her trance, leaping onto her shield and flew over to Kain’s shoulder, looking at the cobalt-blue metal. [What is it? What is it?] She quickly stammered out. [What’s going on with it?] She asked excitedly.
Kain examined it over once more and put it down, giving a contented sigh. [It copied your concept. It took your energy and copied it, making more movement energy as it is given more energy.] He said. [So this is how they made so many constructs.]
Luna tilted her head, [How did you come to that conclusion?] She asked. She wanted to figure it out on her own, but energy constructs were not her area of expertise, so she needed it to be explained to her.
Kain quickly explained, without giving any teasing remarks about her inability to understand the thought process. [The only problem I could have thought of when trying to make a hypothetical energy construct assembly line was that, while moving energy can be done easily by a construct and can even be imbued onto an object with a bit of creativity, to make the construct, you need a bunch of energy of a few basic concepts. It would be possible to make them with energy users as ‘parts’ in the assembly line, but that could cause friction if one person’s idea of a concept clashes with another person’s.] He quickly said. Now that he knew how they could have replicated so many spider-droid parts for all of the ‘kits,’ as well as how they had so many boxes with energy constructs in them.
Luna tilted her head at an even deeper angle, becoming even more confused. [I barely understood any of that.] She complained, [Can’t you make it more simple for me to understand? I have no clue as to what an ‘assembly line’ is.] Kain gave a short sigh and explained to her what an assembly line was, also getting off topic multiple times due to her curious questioning. She asked about not only the assembly lines, but also the ideas about factories, cities, employment, and she even convinced him to talk a little bit about his knowledge of macro-economics.
After an hour of discussions about various topics that had little to do with the cobalt-blue metal, Kain finally sighed. [You know, most people would find more than half of this stuff boring. I’m amazed that you would want to learn about it so much.] He muttered. [Where did you even get that inquisitive spirit from anyway? I would have assumed that an animal turned sentient being would have less curiosity about this stuff.] His teasing remark earned him another smack on the head from Luna.
[Don’t be rude! I may have been an animal, but that’s exactly why I am so curious. There was so much that I never questioned because I wasn’t smart enough to question it in my life. But now I can ask those questions, so don’t give me snark for only trying to learn a bit more.] She turned, pouting.
He gave a small chuckle and patted her head. He internally thought that he had been doing that a lot, patting her head to calm her down, but ‘If it calms her down and she likes it, then who am I to judge. Maybe it’s just a rabbit thing.’ He finished patting her head and put the piece of green-striped metal in his amulet. He then grabbed four bars of the rose-red metal, two bars of the black metal, and two bars of the copper metal, putting them all on the ground in front of him. [Aright, now that we’ve finished that little tangent, I’m going to start building the actual device. You’ll have to help me when I make constructs for each individual part. Now, let’s go.] Luna nodded, shedding her pout and waiting for her turn seriously. The first step, Kain noted, was to mold the metals into the physical forms he needed them to be. He took the four rose-red blocks of metal and wove his energy into them. The metal consumed a bit of the energy he had woven, but he could eventually manipulate it like he would do for the other metals, though it was much more difficult. He molded the four bars of metal into one large ball that had a hole the size of a baseball coming in at an angle that would allow whatever was in there to be parallel to the ground were the ball to be placed in the right configuration. Next, he simply made a bar of copper circular with the size of a baseball. It was nowhere near as difficult to make as the rose-red ball, but the constant acceleration made it so he felt the energy rebounding off of his hands. He then slid the bar of copper-like metal into the whole he had made in the rose-red ball. They fit perfectly and he modified the copper-like metal rod to grow its base so that it was jammed in the hole. Finally, he manipulated the copper-like metal and the rose-red metal so that there was as much area of each touching the other as possible. Now that he had effectively made both pieces one large piece, he finally started making energy constructs.
He first made an energy tracking and sensing construct in the red ball, which would, hopefully, make sure that the ball would never surpass the limits of its energy. It had taken a while to complete due to the size of the item, but he finished it after a few hours of work. Luckily, he did not need Luna’s help due to the freedom he had in imbuing energy into the ball without any risk of an explosion so she had free time to practice new ways to use wind. Once the ball was complete, he moved on to the copper-like rod that extended from the ball. He attempted to move some of the energy in the rod, but it was expelled with the slightest touch. He tried a few more times, but the results were the same. [If that’s what happens, then how is there even energy in that in the first place?] Luna asked.
Instead of responding, he felt a light bulb shine in his head. ‘How did it get in there? It was absorbed from the atmosphere, right? But if that were the case, then how did it stay in there, as it would just be sent through to the other side before it could stay. What if I need to press down on all sides to make it work, so that any energy is simply stopped from leaving. This may mean that I’m stuck putting constructs on the outside layer, but that won’t change what I plan to do.’ He gave an excited smile at his revelation. [I know how. Just try to make a cloud of energy around the rod for now. Well, after I change it to something more suited for what I have in mind.] He grabbed the rod and made the outer end in a similar fashion to the inner end; he made the end have as much surface area as possible, but while also not making it fragile. The end result was that there was a weave of copper-like metal wires all woven into a fine pattern that would allow for them to touch as much air as possible. [This may not be the most efficient method, but it’s definitely up there and it’s worlds better than what it was. Anyway, Luna, time for you to shine. Ready?]
[Yep!] She covered the copper-like material in an energy cloud, barely touching the surface but still blocking the energy from being jettisoned from the metal like it had been previously. Kain carefully manipulated the energy in the metal and made lines similar to what he found inside of the green-red gem.
‘I am really taking influence from that thing, huh? Well, I wouldn’t do it if it weren’t efficient. Either way, these’ll move the energy from the air, down the copper metal, and into the red storage ball. I should probably come up with names for these, huh? That’s for later. But once I put a few active collectors on here from the rocks, I’ll… be… done!’ He thought as he had finished the copper-like metal section of the device. The final aspect was very simple: he made a shell out of the black metal that perfectly covered the ball and it’s protrusion. Apart from that the shell had an opening at the top that allowed them to access the energy at any time, and the shell had a tripod stand that let the ball stand up on its own without rolling. He also made enough space around the copper-like rod to allow it to absorb energy from the air, as well as breathing holes in the shell around the area to give it more protection and let it run at peak efficiency. He made energy shell constructs around the shell with Luna’s help to double reinforce it and connected all of the systems together. He fed the energy from the collection system into both the shell and the storage, as well as feeding the shell with the storage system’s energy. The whole set-up made the energy shell nearly impregnable by making redundant power systems. [And done! How’s it look?] Kain asked. The whole device was a couple of feet tall with the stand. It was a black ball with a tripod on the bottom and a protrusion from near the bottom of the ball.
Luna stared at it for a moment. [It looks like a black ball with a p****.] She said in a deadpan expression.
[…] Kain was stunned into silence.
