Chapter 32 Drones

"Come on! Why won't you attach properl-oh finally" I hummed to myself as I moved on to the final few parts.

"I just need to...a little bit more there aaannnd...done!" I smiled as it all finally came together.

"That took longer than I had originally expected but oh well, they're done now anyway so there's no point in complaining about it" I said while leaning back in my chair and admiring my work.

"Still though, I think I may have out done myself this time" I chuckled somewhat as I looked at the three futuristic looking drones that were resting on the table in front of me.

The three mechanical drones resembled beetles, they were made from a familiar black metal that was covered in pulsing blue runes that had been painstakingly engraved into the very metal itself. They were quite beautiful in their design and were also about the size of a particularly large watermelon.

They were basically flying batteries to put it simply. I had used the Void Creep that Haruko had given me to create these drones, of course I had drastically altered it to some degree with my Proteus skill. The metal in its pure form slowly devours energy to grow and just like how he said it would, the metal began to rapidly grow and expand when I introduced it to an environment that was filled with a large amount of magicules. 

Thankfully I was not only able to stop it from spreading out of control but using certain skills I was able to alter it into a state that was incredibly useful in my honest opinion. Instead of using what it absorbed to grow wildly it now stores that power within itself and with some prompting from certain enchantments it can release said energy, transfer it to other things and even transform it into various unique forms for different uses.

I had basically created a magical battery that could power and reenergize skills, spells and living things near indefinitely, so long as the metal continues to absorb magicules from various sources be that the environment or from the user. Not only that but the metal could also be used to shape said magical power into entirely unique forms as long as they were guided properly by certain enchantments, in fact it wasn't just magical power but most types of physical and non-physical energies could also be shaped and altered in some way as well.

And thanks to all of this, I could now supply my pocket worlds with a steady stream of magicules by sending out my little drones to absorb power from the environment. I had even used various enhancements already as well as my own skills, which I enhanced onto them, to make sure that they were basically invisible and undetectable. As such it was impossible to find them so long as you weren't standing close to them with some kind of powerful sensory ability. They could also teleport using gates like my own and some defensive capabilities but they were not the best at straight up confrontation.

Of course I had made sure to give them similar safety functions to those that I gave to my training dummies. They were made to not steal the magicules of living things and to not overly harvest from one specific area, I would rather not accidentally kill some random person or piss off someone by depleting an area completely of magicules, not that I thought depleting an area completely was something my drones were actually capable of doing but you can never be too careful.

"I'm still missing a key factor for my plan but that's fine, at least my pocket worlds won't fall apart now" I muttered as I looked at the floating sphere in question that was currently hovering over a pedestal made of the same material as the drones.

(The mana supplier is working properly as well so everything should move along smoothly from here) I thought while glancing down at the pedestal that looked something like an upside down claw from a claw machine.

"I can give them a proper test run later down the road, for now this should be fine"

"Kurobe and Kaijin are probably gonna love this stuff once I show it to them, after all it can be used for a lot of different things and it is actually quite durable as well" I smiled at that, I would make sure to give them some of it later.

"In fact it might be a good idea to upgrade Blue Ash with this...actually I've been neglecting the poor girl for a while now" I did feel a little bad about that, after all she was the first real gift that I had ever received from anyone, and I mean upgrading her wouldn't be all that difficult with my new found skills.

"I'll leave that for later thought but for now...hmmm...what to do?" I mused but came up with nothing.

"I guess I could try and get some sleep" I sighed after a moment.

(Not that I haven't been trying, it's just that my mind refuses to settle down...) That was true but I might as well try again.

"Might as well give it a shot though, I did promise dad after all"

"I'll leave the rest for later" I mumbled as I made my way back up the stairs to my room.

"Let's give it another go then..." And surprisingly I actually succeeded this time around.

It took me a while of trying but I finally ended up drifting off after a few long attempts. Finally, am I right? There was just one very simple and yet rather problematic miss calculation on my part. It wasn't as peaceful as I had hoped it was going to be. One second I was slowly falling into unconsciousness and the next thing I know, well, I was dying.

I don't remember how it had all happened but I was. Blood was pouring down my face, I could feel it, smell it, yet...yet I felt no pain. I was practically just skin and bones yet I felt no hunger. I was dying but I felt no fear. I felt nothing, I wasn't allowed to feel.

I could hear a voice, loud and angry but...also...desperate? I couldn't make out what it was saying, I couldn't understand it at all, no matter how hard I tried to listen to it. It was like trying to hear someone while underwater, I just couldn't.

Everything was so dark, so empty, so cold and yet it only got worse as time passed by but I didn't care though, in fact I felt almost relieved in a strange way. This was until something seemed to change, the slowly quieting thumping of my own heart began to grow louder, more frequent. The light began to return.

The darkness began to get pushed away by the light and for the first time I felt something. I didn't want to go back, I didn't want to, I refused to go back! For the first time in a long time I felt something other than fear and desperation, I felt rage. The embers of my will that I had thought to have been long since stamped out began to burn once more, and as if to answer my cries of defiance something intervened on my behalf.

I felt my body beginning to move on it's own even though it should have been impossible with my weakened frame. I felt the rage boiling up but it wasn't just mine, the embers of my rage were just that, embers, however they seemed to be fueling something much larger, something far more dangerous. I remember screams, curses and...laughter?

And then...then nothing, I woke up. I woke up panting, sweat running down my back and my heart pounding in my ears. I didn't realize it was light out, nor did I realize that there was a worried crowd standing outside my door and I didn't even notice that my room was completely wrecked because of the half a dozen skills that I had used in my sleep.

"What...what the hell just happened?!"

(A/N. Got this finished earlier than expected, yay!)