Chapter 2: Collecting Information
Venne only had the nearby area to worry about for now.
The first step was to set up guards for her new base. To start, several armed drones were sent out. Venne flinched as they tragically failed to fly even ten meters.
A few hours later, after a series of tests, the drones could only stably fly 30 meters from a source. Far from being good enough as security. Venne resigned herself to using cable for information transfer, deserting drones in favor of turrets.
The town of Jeace rested a few tens of kilometers north. It was the town that this village used to trade at, so Venne took it as her best bet to increase her wealth. She searched through her memories for any secret storages, and found coins worth eighty Totsan Deins. They would serve as funding for her trip. It was enough for most purposes, as it was the amount a farmer would profit in six days..
Venne feared that she would have to walk all the way to Jeace, but vehicles without satellite functions still function correctly.
The main road eventually came into view, and farmland soon after. No sentient creatures had seen her yet, but Venne didn't want to attract any unnecessary eyes. She got off and stored the machines. The fields were a sign that Jeace was within several kilometers. Walking would not be a problem.
The farmers used Hoes and Scythes to harvest their crops, and their homes looked similar to the wooden shacks back in the village. It was a good sign that the overall condition of the planet was similar to the dark ages.
The walls of the city came into view after an hour of walking. The prolonged day night cycle became evident as Venne observed the movement of the sun. That would explain the five meal days and 40 acre farms that were necessary for a family of farmers to live.
The toll was 0.70 Deins, rather steep but it made sense for the uncommon visits for selling. Looking at the town made Venne's eyeballs twitch. The streets were nothing but filthy. They were made of dirt and gravel. The smell wasn't any better. Remembering her objective, she forcibly held back her urge to turn back. Now that she was inside, she began collecting information. The first thing in her memory was the Hetlecan Intelligence Center, a network stretching across the kingdom.
They offered information to anyone as it was a social service. A few paragraphs on the granite displays were taken note of. The town was low on magic. The town was also experiencing a population boom, which is thought to be the cause by the journalists. That would also explain the Venne guessed that too many people were populating the air after reading a headline,"Lord Schore bans civilian use of magic generation through heat." With that in mind, she left for the market.
It was busy as expected of the town. Venne would frequently hear the sales pitches of various vendors. After circling through most of it, she made a list of products and their average prices on a notepad. On her second lap she walked up to a stall that displayed several small cylindrical gems.
Empty Vetherum batteries. They were being sold for as little as 15 Deins. Charged ones on the other hand were reaching prices of a hundred. The ones who were buying were naturally donned in expensive attires or military armor.
"I'll take this for 30 Deins," said Venne, walking up to a vendor.
"The price is 40, it's as low as I can offer," responded the vendor.
"Well, I'm sure you aren't going to have much luck selling them in this climate. 35," offered Venne. She pushed some more,"They're only charged a quarter of the way. Do you think anyone who can afford it would choose this over a fully charged one?" The vendor reluctantly accepted the deal, but a trace of happiness was picked up after the deal was completed. At the same time, some eyes were focused on her, which she didn't noticed but didn't .
Something else caught her attention as well, a barrel of a black liquid she saw on her first lap. Venne confirmed that it was the only likely place selling oil after circling around the market.
"Selling oil, oil for one Dein a glass!" shouted the vendor. The price surprised her, considering the value of a single Dein, but she realized that the only use for oil would be as fuel. One glass was equal to 10 liters, more than enough for a family to light their candles. The price must have dropped considerably after the ban of magic generation through heat.
A rumor was circulating around the town that the Intelligence center had not yet addressed. Apparently the Letryan army that fought a war with Hevelta was planning another invasion Resting in a large mountain range, despite their impressive size, the Letryans had half the population of Hevelta. Although just a rumor, it was certainly worth noting, considering how profitable war can be for those on the sidelines. The rumor found more credibility on the decade's lower crop yields for the region. While it's only a matter of wealth for Hevelta, It's life and death for a crop loss of 10% in Letrya.
With all that in mind, Venne set off for home.
The minute she was out of view, Venne plunged herself into her soul and took a cold shower, while her clothes and the gemstone were being cleaned by machines. The filth in the city was so terrible she still smelled the stench even now. She got into the Cellular Enrichment Chamber to kill any strange unearthly pathogens that could kill her.
Now it was time to research the battery. A scanning tunnelling microscope revealed nothing. From what she heard, the town folk used to light a fire under the battery, which would charge it by a thousandth of a percent using a strong continuously fueled flame.
No wonder it was banned, thought Venne. Apparently some specialized in charging them and built large furnaces which retained more heat. They charged the batteries a hundredth of a percent a day, had limited space, and required more fuel. Even so, they are often made in batches of tens or hundreds, so they can still find profits like a shorter lived wine organization. A single charged battery can go a long way. In the hands of a magician, three can make a projectile that creates an explosion about as powerful as a hand grenade. It doesn't sound like much, but they can go a long way in a siege. A martial artist can use one to launch a hundred fist strikes with the power of a sledge hammer, an ideal soldier for a spec ops group. A good engineer can use it in cooperation with several hundred to create a defensive grid capable of stopping thousands of artillery strikes before running out of magic.
Research was definitely going to take some time, so Venne set up some drones to autonomously scan for minerals.
Venne continued researching for two more days. Now she had a vague theory about the inner workings of magic, but it felt so strange that she wanted to discard it completely. She theorized that an atom with different properties could be attracted to some molecules, and that these atoms were responsible for attracting a kind of magical particle. They could somehow be manipulated by people and animals through their soul. She did remember trying to use exotic matter on Earth, but the control was terrible. Not only that it was weak as well.
Venne set aside theorizing for the time being and looked at energy generation. The gem simply stored energy when a force was applied to it. When the force wasn't large enough, the gem lost a small amount of energy. What bothered her the most was the terrible energy efficiency. If she had lit a campfire and placed ten crystals in it, over 99.99% of the thermal energy would be lost. She guessed a specialized furnace could get it down to 99.98%, but that wasn't much better.
This research wasn't fruitless, however, because she did notice that these magical particles were interfering with the radio waves her drones so desperately needed. Venne made some small changes to the drone factory for it to use 2G instead of 5G. The prospector drones found several spots with concentrations of iron and gold. As a machine meant for interstellar travel, the Ark had plenty of machines meant to mine asteroids, which worked fine for the planet after adjusting them.
Venne started her research once again, this time on magic production. Apparently the Letryans use the kinetic energy of the winds, and in the far west used water mills. They also had terrible efficiency. Electricity did a great job transferring energy. It managed to charge 10% of the vetherum battery in a single day, but did waste several tens of thousands of watt hours.
Six more days passed. The number of people observed on cable surveillance tripled, definitely a result of tensions. Many travelled in groups with the tools of ordinary village folk, but wore suspiciously clean attires. Even their tools looked like they were never used.
Research proceeded smoothly. A whole new spectrum of waves was discovered. They had little effect on normal matter but could be used to send information. The defective drones were quickly swapped out for long-distance gen II drones to capitalize on the pre war atmosphere as much as possible.
The research also brought insight on Venne's experience in town. The reason people were looking at her was because she got scammed. The gemstone barely had any power in it. It was very difficult to tell the difference in the gemstone as it charged from 10% to 50%. Only when it reached 70% did it start to have a distinct glow.
Another day passed with experiments of cold and hot weapons. Lasers were still as strong as ever, a suitable armament for tanks. Bullets worked well enough. They possessed almost the same strength; what used to be able to penetrate through a centimeter of steel would now stop just shy of it.
At noon the next day the chance arose. One and a half kilometers west was a group of 'civilians' hiding in the foliage in anticipation of a small caravan heading towards Jeace. Venne prepared a helicopter and nine self operating drones. She also chose an outfit that best matched the clothes of military officials. When she was done, she started the operation.
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