The three attacking RDI Units… 02, 04, and 07… ceased their silent hover over the fallen mages.
With a slight, barely perceptible internal shift, a new, thin slit opened along the underside of each drone's four-ring spindle. From this opening, a bundle of ultra-fine, molecular-scale filaments… woven from a high-tensile, near-invisible polymer… ejected. In a perfectly synchronized maneuver, the six filaments from the three drones converged, forming a rapid, triangular capture net.
The net settled instantly over the three ghoul corpses. The polymer was inert but incredibly strong, and the drones lifted the three bodies with silent, effortless grace, their GT Field Generators negating the weight entirely. The corpses were rapidly transported back toward the tunnel Trosso had created, moving swiftly and silently through the air.
"Transfer complete. Corpses secured at the cave entrance, Master Trosso," the synthetic voice of the intelligence, announced from within the cave.
Trosso immediately turned to the sealed entrance. With a flick of his wrist and a surge of focused yellow energy, the sand collapsed inward once more, revealing the three ghoul bodies wrapped tightly in the near-invisible netting.
He stepped out, his lizard-like feet padding softly on the dark soil. His immediate priority was resource recovery. He quickly approached the first corpse and with a sharp, practiced movement of his claw, tore the tattered, dark robe away from the creature's waist, revealing a small, intricately carved leather pouch hanging from a brittle belt.
Trosso knew these pouches were enchanted... storage for mages. He didn't hesitate, ripping the pouch free and securing it to his own belt. He repeated the process for the other two mages, his gaze darting nervously across the horizon even as he worked. The silence was oppressive; he expected the appearance of other dark mages at any moment.
Finally, he collected the three staff lying scattered on the ground. Each was crafted from dark, polished bone and wood, capped with few dull, green magic crystals.
After burying the corpses deeply using his talent, he immediately returned to the cave.
"Let me see what kind of spoils these mages possess." He muttered and opened the first pouch, spilling its contents onto the ground; while the three drones that had returned immediately flew away focusing their URS Arrays on the surveillance around.
The heap was meager: a handful of rune stones... small, rough-cut rocks etched with simple magical symbols... a few hundred yellow magic crystals and green crystals, and a few small leather-bound spell scroll. Trosso quickly collected the crystals and rune stones, adding them to his growing personal stash, and rolled up the spell scroll, tucking it into his personal storage pouch.
…
While Trosso was busy sorting the recovered loot, across the unfathomable cosmic distance, in the silence of Universe 888888888,
Inside the Southern Exoshell 4.0, Keon's bio exoshell stood still. His consciousness, now fully re-anchored in this shell, focused and processed the items Trosso had traded for the RDI Units.
He immediately dismissed the magic crystals. The six blue, seventy green, and five hundred twenty-five yellow crystals were a temporary boost, but not a critical asset.
Keon's current extraction rate, courtesy of his quartz irrigation unit, was already generating blue, green, and yellow crystals in a continuous stream, drawing ether particles from the magic plants Trosso had supplied previously. He calculated his current yield: ten blue, one hundred green, and a thousand yellow crystals per hour.
He noted, however, that the magic plants were exhibiting a slow, yet noticeable, degradation in their ether-release capacity. He attributed this decline to the fundamental environmental difference... his UHS1 world lacked the natural Ether Network cycle necessary to replenish the plants' magical vitality. The plants, after reaching their operational limit, would cease to be a source of magic energy supply.
'It will take a lot of time and unimaginable resources to transform UHS1 into a magic source planet. Anyway, for my current consumption, the seeds provided by Trosso are enough. These plants won't be depleted in a year or two. I will find a solution till then.'
Keon shook his skeletal head slightly, dismissing the immediate concern. The problem was a long-term logistical issue, and any solution... such as creating an artificial, sustainable Ether Network... required a vast amount of time and dedicated research.
His gaze settled on the next set of items: the crude, cured meat and animal skins. Using the micro- and nano-scopic zooming capabilities of his optical lenses, he observed the biological structure of the materials.
Instantly, his Material Recognition talent overlaid a description onto his consciousness:
[Material Recognition: Magic Species Meat & Skin.]
[These biological structures possess complex, intricate internal magic networks. The skin, specifically, contains a dense, defensive network that grants it inherent durability superior to unenhanced terrestrial organisms.]
Keon's optical lenses brightened with interest. He observed the microscopic, river-like flow of the internal magic networks within the meat and the skin. Both displayed distinct, highly complex patterns... a web of magical energy, visible as faint yellow particles, still trapped within the cellular structure, though rapidly dissipating.
He immediately realized the potential. The intricate magic network embedded in these magic beasts was countless times more complex than the rudimentary network he had derived and integrated into his own machine and shells. He could analyze, imitate, and integrate this complex network into his own creation, vastly upgrading its compatibility with magic energy.
With a silent, instantaneous command, Keon ordered his Neural Network to begin copying and deriving the complete network blueprint based on his real-time, microscopic observation of the meat and skin samples. The data flooded into his core, a colossal mathematical problem of pattern recognition and replication.
Finally, he glanced at the four books lying on the desk. He picked them up, his synthetic fingers handling them with impossible precision.
He skimmed through these books and selected the first book. The cover was adorned with a strange, angular script belonging to Trosso's civilization, but to Keon, it was now instantly comprehensible. It was an encyclopedia of the native language. Trosso, unknowingly, had provided the key to his entire civilization, as the book contained annotations and comparisons written by Trosso in his own previous life's language, allowing Keon to easily decipher the foreign script.
With the first book deciphered, the content of the other three became immediately clear. Two were Basic Spell Books, detailing the fundamental incantations and energy manipulation principles of Tier 1 and Tier 2 earth magic. The fourth was a Basic Rune Understanding text, outlining the core geometric structures used to channel magical energy in their civilization.
Keon registered the information with a flash of cold, clinical surprise in his core. 'Trosso has unknowingly sent the most precious treasure of his civilization,' he thought.
'Basic knowledge books for the research of the magic path, delivered directly at my doorstep. Probably, these books were bought by him for his own research on magic, now in this desperate situation, he didn't care about preciousness. It was a good idea to help him at this moment.'
He allotted a fraction of his colossal processing power to the sudden acquisition. Trillions of parallel computations began to decode the complexities of the Tier 1 and Tier 2 spells and the foundational rune structures, creating an immediate, comprehensive knowledge base for future magic path research. The process of assimilation was silent, internal, and took less than a millisecond.
His Bio Exoshell hand then moved, pushing the books aside, his attention settling on the final item: the magic lamp. It was a dark, simple artifact, looking utilitarian rather than ornamental.
Instantly, his optical lenses focused, and the familiar overlay of the Material Recognition talent appeared within his consciousness:
[Material Recognition: Magic Lamp. The object contains a basic, self-sustaining magic rune structure. Its function is to convert stored crystalline magic energy into a continuous light source (flame). Material Composition: Magisteel (A ferrous alloy with trace amounts of silver and a stable infusion of Ether particles, granting it inherent conductivity for low-level magic networks).]
...