70 Progress

"What is it?" I ask the Chief Fabricator.

I hope its good news, but he might be calling me because of an emergency.

"Our newest recruit was assigned on the Portal Gun project, and he looked over the runes and our prototypes. I can hardly believe it, but his notes and his reasoning are sound. From what we know, his design could be the key to completing this project." Alan declares.

My jaw drops. The Rosewoods were recruited a few hours ago, and they already proved to be more than useful. The Portal Gun project is the key to the survival of the Order, and its completion is a requirement for our future military campaigns.

"Got it, I'll go back to Earth in a few moments. Prepare a secure room where we can talk freely." I say before hanging up and checking on Terrence to see if I don't have to teleport more supplies.

To my relief, I don't have to do anything. So I teleport back to my home. I take a moment to survey the surroundings and realize that I can't really call this place my home anymore. There are fortifications everywhere, and numerous buildings have been built into the impregnable fortress that my property has turned into. And not to mention the busy cultists running around, working hard to keep the Order safe and achieving my grand designs.

I arrive at Alan's workshop, and he nods once he sees me. Phillip flanks him. He's now clad in the standard uniform of the Incandescent Fabricators. There are also a few armed Legionaries.

"Prometheus!" all the cultists, except Phillip, salute in unison.

I nod and turn towards the leader of the Fabricators, "Let's go discuss the subject in a more private area, shall we?" They all nod and head into what l assume is Alan's office. I know that all those precautions might seem excessive considering our heavy defenses, but I'd rather not take any unnecessary risks. It's especially true when something like the Portal Gun is concerned. From the data that I've gathered, the Portal Gun's mode of operation would offer us a significant advantage over the rest of the Hidden World.

Of course, this is assuming that we can finish it.

Alan flips a series of switches and types a few command lines onto the computer on his desk before sitting on his chair, and we sit down at the same time. "Mr. Rosewoods, please explain your theory to Prometheus."

The old man glances at me and rolls his eyes. He looks fed up with the Order's 'enthusiasm' regarding my supposedly divine nature.

I can hardly blame him, but I bet he would have a good laugh if he knew the truth.

Phillip nods and grabs a small remote while a crude three-dimensional model appears out of nowhere. "I looked at the notes of the Order, and at the design of the original Portal Gun." He says before pressing a button on the remote, causing a detailed model of the Portal Gun to appear. "You are all familiar with this. It's the basis for this project." He presses a button, and red circles appear over the purple Magicite crystals embossed into the cylinders of the antique firearm.

"To continue, I'll have to explain my theory about something I call the Improbability Factor." The graying man cough, "I'm sure everyone here is familiar with what we call magic can do, and how extraordinary the feats it can accomplish are. But have you ever thought about why it was able to accomplish such miracles? I did, and I spend a good chunk of my youth trying to understand the core fundamentals of magic."

I lean forward. This presentation is going to be interesting! Maybe understanding the origin of magic will help me understand why my body doesn't contain a drop of mana.

"I won't bore you with the details, but my studies revealed that one thing is consistent with every manner of using magic." Phillip continues, "No matter how esoteric or complex it is. The stronger the spell, the higher the power requirement."

Duh. Even I was able to figure out that much.

"But let me finish before you shout at me for wasting your time!" the new Fabricator makes a wry smile and survey the audience. "There's where the Improbability Factor comes into play. From my observations, I deduced that the cost of magic depends on how much it violates the laws of physics. This can be measured in what I call the Improbability Factor. The higher that factor is, the higher the mana requirement."

I nod; it makes sense when I think about it. But I wonder what it has to do with the Portal Gun? In my eyes, there isn't anything as improbable as teleporting around. But it's a common sight in the Hidden World.

Philip points at the red circles on the model, "My research also allowed me to discover what I think is the key to the Portal Gun project. To put it simply, everything we see in manuals or on the HiddenNet about needing certain reagents and intricate rituals, about needing very complex runes that are impossible to engrave for the majority of the population. All of it is hogwash. It's pure lies and deceptions."

I raise an eyebrow. This is an interesting proposition, but I remain skeptical. There's no way that the entire Hidden World sticks to something as impractical as the runes and rituals if there's a better option.

"Well, what we know as a standard practice is not false. It's more of a misconception about how magic works. Most people think that all those procedures are a requirement for the spell to work properly. But what they are doing is merely reducing the mana requirement to more manageable levels." Phillip taps the model with a single finger. "It's why the Portal Gun works. Despite the incredibly low efficiency of the engravings, the massive power output of the five purple Magicite crystals is higher than the insanely high Improbability Factor of the Portal Gun."

I am speechless. Phillip's theory might not be correct, but it is a solid explanation as to why I was able to achieve interdimensional teleportation by engraving random words onto a mundane piece of steel.

"So what you are saying is that we could write the word 'Explosion' on a piece of paper and, provided that we supply it enough power, we could use it to blow up the planet?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

A big smile creeps onto the old man's face, "Yes! But the power requirement would be so high that you would need something like an entire planet made of Magicite to achieve such a feat."

I see. I never thought that magic could be so normal and simplistic.

"But, assuming that your theory is true, the runes are still worth our time since they help to greatly reduce the Improbability factor, right?" I ask.

"Of course. But in our case, it isn't going to help much. I don't know any runes that can achieve such incredible results as the Portal Gun. We could make a working portable Gun with runes, but it would be bulky and costly. Not to mention that it would have nowhere near the capabilities of the original design. We would be lucky if we could go on the other side of the continent with such a thing." The Fabricator declares.

The version of the Portal Gun he just described would be useless considering that we need interdimensional capabilities.

"But I have a solution to our problem. It might be unorthodox, but it isn't like this group follows established trends." Phillip grins before going back to the first crude model. I observe it in more details. Four massive blue pillars are surrounding a rounded steel cone. From what I can see, long wires are leading to a few server racks and a couple of screens and keyboards.

"This is what Mr. Carter's team and I came up with. We call it the Portal Station! It's a scaled-up version of your Portal Gun, but it has several key differences. First of all, it can only work with coordinates. You can't just aim it and shoot. This is why there are multiple terminals and top of the line server racks to handle all the fine computation, to make the machine able to handle hundreds of thousands of portals at once." Philip explains.

I whistle in admiration. If this can work, then we would be nigh unstoppable when it comes to mobility.

"But the Station isn't the only thing we came up with." Phillip changes the displayed model to what looks like a printed circuit board with a thick black plastic antenna, and a piece of Magicite is embedded in the center of the device. "This is what we call a Portal Transmitter. It's based on the security protocols the Order uses for its phones. We should be able to use it to transmit coordinates to the Portal Station not matter the Transmitter's location."

This is very InTeResTinG. I can already think of a few weapons using such a device. Home delivered cluster bombs, guaranteed less than two minutes delivery!

"But there's more!" This time, something that looks like a flashlight appears. "This is an attachment for the rifle of the Legionaries. It acts as a laser pointer, rangefinder, and it can also act as a Portal Gun." Alan declares with a proud smile, "All the heavy lifting will be done by the Portal Station, so we were able to reduce the size of the device."

I grin, a standard issue Portal Gun is beyond my wildest dreams. Images of my Legion teleporting around while taking out our enemies fill me wItH GlEe.

"Don't get me wrong, all of this sound incredible." I make a wry smile, "But there has to be a catch, right? There's no way that such large pillars of Magicite are freely available."

"You're right," Philip slightly deflates, "The Magicite we need is High-Grade, so it isn't going to be sold on normal channels. Not to mention that we need such a large amount that buying it would cripple our finances and earn us the attention of powerful parties. And from what I understand, we don't have the time to explore a planet that may contain such wonders."

As I thought, there's something that gets in the way. However, the knowing grin of Phillip tells me that he knows more than he lets on.

"Something tells me you have a plan," I say, and the old man nods.

"Of course, my plan will allow us to kill two birds with one stone. We will be able to gain the Magicite needed for the Portal Station, and we'll also weaken our enemies." Mr. Rosewoods declares.

Weaken our enemies? I LiKe tHaT PlAn!

I raise an eyebrow, "I have to remind you that the majority of the Legion is currently away on the Shard campaign, so e won't be able to assign any meaningful amount of personnel to the mission."

Phillip nods, "It won't be a problem. My plan is simple. We just need to rob a certain Family. The four pillars we need are used as a fountain ornament, so we should be able to steal it without too much difficulty."

I refrain from hiding my face in my palms. The Enforcers are so wealthy that the four pillars of High-Grade Magicite are used as fountain ornaments?!

"Then what's your plan? I want to hear every single detail." I declare. As much as I want it, I don't know if the Order is ready to confront a Family directly. I can fight them, but that's because I have the Rewinder. My soldiers are, for the most part, regular people with rifles.

So I'm not too confident about sending my soldiers against mythical creatures who can teleport behind them in a millisecond. And, as if it wasn't enough, our enemies are also able to launch deadly spells that will turn us into ash.

Not to mention that attacking an Enforcer Family will bring us into the limelight, something that I can't afford to happen right now. It will be a different matter once the Portal Station is complete and we relocated our main base of operation in the Shard, but its suicide in our current situation.

*But we need to attack if we want to make the station, so what should I do?*

Phillip, who interprets my silence as the signal to continue, explains his plan. "I know it might sound crazy, but we should burn them all to cinders from a helicopter. First of all, we would bombard their barrier with MH Shells. We need to be swift, so we might need to make a special weapon for that purpose. But from what I saw, the Fabricators shouldn't have a problem with it. They'll be able to make something in less than a day."

So far it seems to be doable. But what worries me is the next part. We don't have enough troops to engage a Family safely, so I'm curious to see how he's going to solve that problem.

He takes a deep breath, "My daughter has the capabilities to launch something akin to a Strategic spell. I don't know what kind of enchantments are on the helicopters, but it shouldn't be too hard to retrofit them with various stealth enchantments if they don't have them. And if it isn't enough, I think that Mr. Carter has a solution for us."

So we're going to bombard a Family with a draconic hybrid? And there's another sentence I never thought I would ever say. But it still sounds cool, and it could help with our propaganda.

Or this plan could backfire and cause the Enforcers to band against us. But I don't have a choice. We need the Magicite.

I then turn towards the Chief Fabricator with a raised eyebrow.

He scratches the back of his head and prompts Phillip to press a button on the remote, causing a basketball sized steel ball covered in holes to appear. "It's nothing much, I came up with the idea during lunchtime and made a quick model. Just in case we ever need it. You see the holes on the ball? There are MH Shells shoved inside, and the detonation mechanism triggers all of them at once. The idea was to create a large mana explosion, and-"

"That's amazing." I interrupt the Fabricator and look at him with a bright smile. There must be close to a hundred Shells in this thing, and the deStRuCtiOn it will cause will bring a sMiLe tO mY FaCe. "So you plan to drop a ton of those on the Enforcers to utterly vaporize them, correct?" Phillip nods, so I continue, "It will allow our troops to be safe, and we would be able to secure certain rare materials... All right, you convinced me."

I turn towards Alan, "Go and print as many of those bombs as we can but don't hog all our production capability. I'll leave it to you to name those weapons."

"It's a great honor, thank you Prometheus!" Alan shouts while saluting.

"As for you," I say while focusing on Phillip, "I want you to go over our helicopters. You will be tasked with designing and manufacturing a modular stealth package for our vehicles. I want four helicopters ready."

The old man nods, "I can do that, but I need some time. If everything goes well, it should be ready in two to three days."

"All right, then it's settled. We'll start the campaign in three days, so everyone gets ready!" I say, and everyone in the room nods and salute before I teleport away. I am tempted to call Terrence to get his opinion on the campaign. But the man is already handling the Shard campaign on his own, so I'll leave him alone.

And the upcoming battle will be a good test of my leadership capabilities. My goal for this mission is to utterly crush the Enforcers, and stop any information about our existence getting out before we are ready to face the inevitable coalition of Enforcers that will follow once the world knows about us.

I take a deep breath and look at the ceiling. Will everything be all right? Phillip's plan is sound, and the Family we are going to wipe out shouldn't be able to do anything against our shielded helicopters.

But a lot of things might go wrong. One wrong move and I could send a lot of people, I included, to their graves. I can always Rewind, but I would like it if I didn't have to. I will not be able to micro-manage every campaign, so it's better if I learn how to minimize casualties now instead of later.

However, something that keeps me motivated is what we'll be able to accomplish once the Portal Station is complete. It won't be an exaggeration in saying that it will redefine warfare.

At least it will redefine warfare for us. The Enforcers should be used to such assaults. And I don't doubt that some of those bastards have countermeasures for my portals.

Something else that worries me a lot is the Shard campaign. Our future hinges on its success, and I pretty much allowed Terrence to act as he sees fit. So I hope that he will not go overboard and act reasonably. It wouldn't be funny if he angered some powerful lumbering beast or old machine.

Fighting ancient evils is beyond taxing for my body and my sanity.

*So let's hope that it doesn't happen again.*

Sometimes I think that letting a devout cultist handle a military campaign without supervision might not be the greatest idea ever, but I'm sure that it will be fine.

I'm just worrying about nothing, right?