Chapter 24 -

He finally confirmed his suspicions in the gym, his muscles were way firmer, and he even felt a bit taller, even after a full-body workout he easily bested all his previous marks without really feeling too tired.

inky also appeared way stronger as she kept lifting heavy weights while watching a gym trainer video on a screen on the wall about doing sit ups, she was kinda cheating at having more than 2 'legs' though, he left her exercising and took a quick shower and checked up on the plants, picking the algae pills to harvest and storing them, then he added rock dust to the plants, the garlic, carrots, and potatoes, all plants were growing nicely and he frotted the flowers of the lettuce slowly with others, to pollinate them with no bees around, also threw the duckweed to the compost pile, soon it would be full so he would empty it on buckets and the garden below soon, in fact, he had already flooded the lower garden and added duckweed there too, the dead duckweed would sink to the bottom and accumulate sediments over time, the grass was also growing nicely, with the majority of it being poured to the worm pile as food along with duckweed.

After finishing all his daily tasks and checks he thought about it and this exchange with the octopeople had been really profitable.

He had even come up with another product the tribe would love, it was a big metallic nail to hammer into the ground with a metallic longline cable full of metal fishing hooks, and with small floaters to make the line float with the currents, inciting predators, what was called a 'palangre' in Spanish.

( https://images.app.goo.gl/93YqiU1zQGMxwXNK9 )

"Hey, Rose? can you make me a metal spike, cable, floaters, and metal fishing hooks?"

[yeah, a 'palangre' right?]

"yeah"

[okey, I will make it in the armory's synthesizer]

"Thanks, I will use some and sell the rest to the octopeople, need to make videos first, by the way, are there any shrimp living around here?"

[well, something similar... yes I guess]

"is it too big?"

[no, just the size of a... car, but... it has a blade at the front and just charges, slicing its enemies, not sure you wanna challenge that for now]

(https://images.app.goo.gl/9dhuKQEm627Vd35TA but with pincers too)

"Yeah, you are right, I don't, hmmm maybe I could make a big trap like the ones they use to capture bears alive 🤔"

[well, if we make it modular so you can transport it, and with some cameras and laser sensors you could probably manage them from here without much effort]

"yeah, the perimeter cameras had been great for getting to know the local fauna, like some rock crabs, I thought they were just rocks but I got them on camera the other day, a big rock just opened and started walking, it was really surprising, or some armored enormous sea cucumbers, they reminded me of pangolins"

[well, I can see the trap inside your mind but what do you prefer for the locking mechanisms, mechanical or magnetic?]

"mechanical better, it should be harder to mount, but also much sturdier mechanically"

[okey, I will start printing 20 'palangres' first and then the modular 6x6x3 meters tall modular cage, all in all, should take 6 hours]

"Alright, and the first 'palangre set to try it?"

[around 5 minutes]

"great"

--- 5 minutes later ---

Erik was looking at a finished palangre in the armoury, it was perfect in all senses except one, it was shiny, if a predator bit the cable the entire thing would fail, if it was normal steel, he could heat it and cool it in oil to blacken it, sadly this metal was too heat resistant and he didn't have any nautical paint, he could only hope it worked great.

He used armoured fish as bait, after all, he still hadn't forgotten it used to contain parasites and having much better meat, he didn't really need to eat that.

He quickly made a metal mace, while waiting for Rose to print 3 more and took the sweaty and still exercising Inky with him to go set the palangres outside, he set the 4 around the base at least 5 minutes away, he let Inky hammer the long spikes into the ground as he set the hooks, he also set rotatory cameras next to them, so he could see it if anything got hooked and also to show the tribe once he wanted to sell them, after finishing they went back home.

Back home they just cuddled on the big bathtub watching a movie on a screen on the wall, one of the many luxuries of a house made of nanobots, though one of the sex scenes made Inky hard, and Erik just started stroking and fingering her, so she let him keep watching the movie while she came over and over, leaving the bathtub full of floating eggs Erik just fed them to her while keeping masturbating her.