Chapter 17-429: Digging in Deeper (1/2)
Tool and die shops, as well as woodworking shops, all of which were making a hard comeback with computerization and hard mechanization falling by the wayside, started churning on two continents.
The key thing to avoiding Axiom coming in was to make sure that human irregularity was involved in the process. Don’t follow a pure pattern, have some non-matching stuff, but not in any predictable order.
The simple arms could be slightly different lengths from one another, and vary from one Runner to the next. The paired legs had to be identical to run properly, but could also vary in length. The flat board that was the body could naturally be of variable measurement ranges; the only thing that had to remain fairly uniform were the universal joints connecting the limbs.
Naturally enough, they all had to be made by hand, one tool between themselves and the maker, OR be made of Energized Materials to get around that, which was pretty extravagant for something we were going to throw away.
Wind-up, human-powered, or Cog-lathes that were actually magical weren’t that uncommon after so many decades and the recognized need for them, and it was definitely solid, continuous, and fairly simple business to undertake. Hearing that they were going to blow up a lot of very bad people, the makers and even serious hobbyists were eager to get in on making them, and the required parts for the simple Constructs poured in over the following days and weeks.
If mechanization had been allowed, Gearsmith-led retooling could have probably run them all off in just a few days. Ah, the drawbacks of magitech...
Imbuing them all took a bit longer, as Artificers with Craft Construct had to put down the required magical lattices, stirring up the extremely simple elemental spirits to Animate them, and then goldweight had to be Burned to bring them to life.
The Chinese contributed a big chunk of Qi-Infused stuff to the process, since this was all going to be for their benefit. Certain mounds of gold under Heavenbound Hall contributed to the rest, burning through tons of international reserves nobody knew were there for the benefit of everyone.
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I continued on with my Mapping: 190 miles across, 10k miles long, mapping out the oceans, running my Allegiance in the background, Casting spells from atop Sleipner as the patient unicorn blazed trails over the waves just below the speed of sound, and we watched the cold depths of the world scroll by beneath us.
But there were Nines and Tens out there now. Some had Druidic magic, and Commune with Nature. Some of those were haughty and arrogantly smug sorts who didn’t want to share, but those who were part of my Allegiance were all filling in The Map, and starting with the Continents, naturally enough.
Their new maps of the Felldeeps were not as wide or as detailed as mine, nor did they go as deep. They still revealed all but the deepest layers of the Felldeep that now existed beneath the feet of everyone, and knowledge of the caves, caverns, tunnels, underground seas and rivers, plunging chasms, and plain unnaturalness of having life where should be lava was spreading by the day.
Where the Felldeep drew closest to or connected with the surface naturally raised great trepidation. Nobody wanted to be sitting on top of hostile forces who could come out from below... and at the same time, there were definitely people who wanted to go exploring the Great Unknown rather than occupy themselves endlessly butchering undead.
The Great Dungeon Delve of the elite Tens going through the massive underground complex at the Spire in Antarctica was one of the most-watched shows ever, recorded faithfully as some of the most adept people in the world explored a fear-filled world of ancient gods, hungry horrors, deadly traps, ancient magic, elemental beings, and mazes of tunnels all built for unknown purposes leading to who knew where.
Purge Teams from China especially clamored for the right to undertake and post their own expeditions, and analysis of tactics, methods, and enemies was a common topic, since there always seemed to be something new and dangerous someone ran into.
It also highlighted the weaknesses of everyone involved, as fighting monstrous amounts of undead, fighting Cultivators, and fighting random big monsters all required very different things, and pushing your limits often got your teammates killed.
The Blood of the Irish team’s videos received particularly large sets of views, probably because of how The Mick cursed in ten and more languages with great inventiveness and fluidity, and Amaretta complemented him so icily. The pair composed said phrases with glee in their down time, the Irish and Russians both taking their cursing damn seriously. There were people across the world sending in new ones for them to rip off whenever something happened, or to curse out headstrong Irish repeatedly doing rash shit, brawny Blackhamars doing brash deeds, and getting them all in trouble.
Helix had a lot of True Believers, after all.
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On the personal side, my second Ring, Lore, had finished up with Spell Knowledge to V Valence, letting me grab and swap out any one spell up to V that I saw, witnessed, Cast into it, had Written into Einz, or whatever.
Wizardry Infusing was now commencing in Lore. This would double my base number of Prepared Spells by Valence, giving me ever more on-demand versatility, and more raw stored spell power for emergencies, too.
Getting this done for all I-V Valences was a colossal 350k of investment, so literally a year of putting Named Karma into Lore through the guidance of Einz... and I was still burning goldweight every day. I was mostly setting up new Rings for others, and if not, then giving Einz an anchor of magic that could conceivably live on past me.
Clavus would also have an anchor, as Commander Haru’Ara was burning 10k of goldweight a day, opening him up to Legendary Status.
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I groaned into my exceedingly strong and exceedingly comfortable backside headrest. So easy to doze off against.
“Too many things to do?” Legion asked softly over their shoulder, foxtails out and brushing me softly, steel cables and cloudsilk. So comfortable...
They had no problem catching up to me with a few Waterjumps. Pretty much all the work I was putting in most of the time while Riding was mental, although keeping the Pattern Burning goldweights of stuff going on behind me, a personal touch by Sleipner, had a material presence.
Legion was caught in an interesting position. They had tons of Karma they needed to earn to consolidate their positions and refine the Pact Grantors they had Consumed, but all the easy entities they could go fight with were also viable targets for others to go Level on... once they hit post-Ten.