Ghira watched the Elephant Faunus follow Sienna towards the nearest shop that sold Scrolls, Professor Ozpin staying behind, probably to talk about the Dust Crystal compressors.
He held up a hand before Ozpin could say anything and turn to Roxie. "Well?"
Roxie's grin was electric. "This is not only a device that we can build, but one that can be built fairly cheaply. Does not even require the more esoteric materials to set up."
She pointed at a blue, near transparent gem. "Furthermore, we missed a couple of important points during the discussions."
He watched with interest as she held up samples. "Notice that regardless of Dust type, they are forming into standardized Crystals? The more rare or bizarre types of Dust tend to form very strange and unstable Crystal shapes, like spirals or with fragile points."
Roxie pulled out several glowing gems. "Not his stuff. All of it is even more stable and regular than the most common Dust Crystals in nature, Fire Dust. We are going to need several teams of researchers to be assigned to this, and a lot of new hardware redeveloped."
Ghira nodded. "But overall it should be far cheaper than what we use now?" Seeing a nod, he gestured a few assistants over and began assigning personnel.
Professor Ozpin was watching with curiosity as some powdered Dust was being crystallized... then processed back into powder. "What are you testing with the Electric Dust over there?"
Roxie glanced. "Ah, that was thanks to one of my girls making a comment. After crystal fragments get ground down into powder, further refinement and filtering is not really possible without setting off esoteric effects or changing the Dust's nature. Dump the powder into one of Adam's refined Crystals, grind that back to Grade 0, and we get some of the most pure quality results with really amazing consistency. Ammo production will love it."
Professor Ozpin sighed. "I'm not getting any of these machines to take home, am I?"
Ghira laughed loudly even as his wife handed him some forms. "No, but we don't forget our friends. I assure you our prices will be far lower than the rest of the market, even better if you can help us acquire Grade 0 Dust in the future for us to get around the general racism in pricing we run into. Especially if you can get samples of any Grade 0 our stocks don't already possess, I want Adam to see them and possibly generate more if his quip about type conversion is an actual possibility."
Ozpin was about to accept when a frustrated growl echoed in the room. "Headmaster!"
A very perturbed Glynda Goodwitch stalked into the room, some of his squad leaders following the angry woman, her riding crop slapping her palm. "When I agreed to assist with organizing the recovery procedures, that did NOT imply that I should be abandoned without notification as you wander away!"
Ozpin carefully sipped from his mug. Drat.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The place Sienna led Adam to, 'When Hunter`s can`t, Faun-Doo!', was a combination restaurant and electronics store. Hunters would come in, leave their equipment to be modified/repaired/maintained, then order from the various dip related dishes ranging from oil to cheese to chocolate.
So cows should exist somewhere. Or very kinky cow Faunus? Better not ask.
Their electronics selection was (obviously) limited, but Adam found a section with the standard Scroll options easily enough. Sienna covered the bill, saying that her Boss would insist on it and then pouting when he tried to object. Damn those orange eyes, they could be pretty adorably insistent.
Now however, he had a top of the line model and a bottom of the barrel designed Scroll, both to be dismantled and explored. After he finished the group meal.
It was an Fondue dish in a less official sense, technically a Fondue Bourguignonne where meat slices were being dipped into hot broth for cooking rather than treats into cheese, but yeah. Good stuff.
He looked up when another sat at his table. Ah, Ghira's wife Kali. She glanced from his trunk moving sliced beef to his mouth to the partially disassembled electronics his many limbs were poking. "Huh."
Kali leaned in a bit, her cat ears perked. "So I assume you had a chance to look over a Scroll at this point?" Noticing the partially hidden second device, she blinked. "I mean, Scrolls... I suppose."
Adam nodded, swallowing quickly. Shouldn't talk while eating. "Found some interesting implications in Remnant design choices."
Seeing Sienna was also interested, and feeling that he had some time anyway since Simmy was building away at his tower, he held up some parts. "Right, so basic stuff I figured out."
He held open the casing. "Most of the hand held device is junk. Impact absorption gel, armor plating, it has nothing to do with the actual components needed to work. Scrolls in general seem designed to be damaged, soaked, electrocuted, shocked, dropped, and probably eaten."
Sienna's face grew dark. "Yeah, from what I know it is so Hunter or Civilian remains can be identified if their towns are destroyed by Grimm. Supposedly can survive digestion."
Adam shrugged. "Well, the hardware has almost no moving parts and from what I can tell use Dust tainted materials that interact with the owner's Aura. Technically some of the Dust included in the wiring, emitters, and so forth get used up over time... but most of it uses the owner's Aura as a power supply, builds some up like a capacitor inside the armored shell, and uses the tainted materials to simulate actual Dust usage. Should last for decades if one is lucky."
He moved the other device forward. "The expensive Scroll model actually allows direct Grade 0 Dust to be added to make everything longer lasting and more powerful, but that made it harder to adapt for my needs. The final design was better in many ways, but over simplified and lacked interesting tricks since it could ignore Dust consumption by making you refill it."
Adam shook his head. "The big one is the holographic display, which uses fractions of Hard-Light Dust embedded in the emitters, with some wiring acting as securing frames for the edges of the screen when expanded that harden under Electric Dust charge. To keep the Dust from being wasted, all kinds of small tricks and modifications to the materials were built in... it is the most complicated part of this device."
He frowned a bit, moving the scroll to the side. "The communication hardware is sub-par by far in comparison." He took another bite. Mmm, this broth was good. Not chicken based though. Well, not the species of chicken HE knew.
Kali blinked. "I'll be honest, I didn't do well in my tech based courses. Focused more on combat and such. Why does that make the cheap version more interesting for you though?"
Adam grinned. "I can more easily replace the materials with alternatives I have, including the power source. Sienna was telling me that her girl group has quite a few mover and shakers in the local economy, and a few would be interested in a Scroll with more features without sacrificing durability or increasing Dust consumption."
He swallowed some sort of pork related meat. Probably pork, though it had a bit of a beef undertone. Note to self, look up the Cuisine world here. If for no other reason to prevent Boro and Robo from kicking his butt later. "I may design something later, but Scroll development won't be my focus. More interesting to me is your software design philosophy."
Sienna and Kali blinked as Adam continued. "Your software is developed just like your hardware, with the expectation that the user will be out in the wild and have difficulty communicating. It is rugged and redundant."
He gestured toward the devices. "Data is compressed heavily and digitally signed, then broken into packets that go through a cryptographic hash. So is the file as a whole. Then all the pieces search for the nearest devices and duplicates are sent in alternate directions for redundancy and... all kinds of neat stuff."
Adam grinned as he reached for some more beef-pork. Better than straight beef so far. "If many people are trying to get the same file, nearby devices can act as additional sources to reduce overall traffic and server loads. The protocol is designed to expect whole nodes of the network to vanish or pop up without warning, and the more people in one area with Scrolls the better the network as a whole can act."
Dang this is good stuff. He swallowed and waved a hand. "Scrolls, as you know, can act as a point to point radio, a phone, a temporary server, and so forth. Most importantly, if I build some interesting new hardware all of these devices can connect to them without any additional actions or updates needed."
Kali pulled her Scroll and was ready to take notes. "I assume you have devices you wish to set up in the city?"
Adam nodded, a bone limb twisting another part of the Scroll open. More defensive redundancy parts, nothing new. "Not going to bother redesigning the Scrolls as I said, seems like a lot of work without improving things much. No, after we eat I want to go see your local 'Cross Continental Transmit System' setup. An extra one or two can be constructed without the system having a problem."
From what he could gather, the Towers were mostly limited in number due to costs and time requirements. For people NOT capable of the stuff Adam pulls by accident, the individual components seemed to be very costly to create, requiring specific stages of dust impregnation, sealing layers, special fuel supplements and more. Not that he had full schematics yet, it was only polite to ask first.
Back to the point, with this design the people acted as part of the needed hardware. Their Scrolls were using the massive CCT Systems as hubs that had enough power to connect to outside sources. Locally? The network was one big mesh. A growing, warping mesh of devices.
Side note. Security? Nearly none. The possibility of catastrophic hardware failure was almost guaranteed, the hardware or even PEOPLE who had encryption keys could be lost at any moment, and the risk of important data loss was too damn high to risk secured networks or so forth.
Instead, they had developed amazing software to ensure accountability even with how strange the network looked when mapped out. It was near 'Big Brother' levels of observation, and if the entire planet wasn't constantly at war someone would have abused this exposed system by now. They probably already had at some point, and discovered the dire consequences.
Getting restricted data? Easy. But you best justify why you got it if you didn't want a Hunter to show up with a blade to your throat.
It was amazing the setup had worked this far, as one theoretical person who didn't care about Humanity and Faunus continuous existence could cause massive damage to the system.
Adam blinked, realizing that he had been passing Betty skewers of meat for the last half hour or so, his constant tinkering distracting him. "Betty, are you sure you don't want to sit next to me? It would make eating easier."
The woman just squeezed his neck with her thighs and continued enjoying her snack.
Oh well. They were very soft thighs after all.
Ignoring the distraction, he focused back on Kali. "So after the meal, can we head to the relay tower next?"
Kali shook her head. "Wouldn't help you. Ours was damaged heavily via Nevermore attack. Theoretically."
Sienna snorted, a dark look crossing her orange eyes. "Sure. And those traitor soldiers from Mistral just happened to pull away for 'safety' reasons when it was attacked. And I saw some structural damage that looked more like a blade and less like a Grimm feather."
Kali sighed. "Regardless, there isn't much point in viewing it right now." She pulled her own scroll out, tapping a bit while Adam passed Betty another pork skewer. Giving anything Beef related to a Cow Faunus seemed uncouth.
She nodded. "Right. Here are the schematics for the most advanced form of CCT System researchers have verified as buildable. This is an ongoing global project most of the kingdoms spend some Lien on every year, even if the current schematics being used in the field are over a dozen designs behind."
Seeing his confusion she sighed. "The really advanced stuff requires not only extremely expensive components and beyond difficult building methods, but the size and Dust Crystals needed are... an issue. It would require almost all unrelated traffic to be stopped during shipping, it would require those types of Dusts to be confiscated for years to build up a supply."
She shrugged. "It is why these designs are just theoretical. The most advanced CCTS was made in Vale two years ago, and it was only a version 13 schematic. They are still trying to pay the costs down. This version however is at release 32." She tilted her Scroll towards Adam, since his hands were busy.
Adam looked with curiosity, and then decided to disable 'Research' and turn on 'Technomancy' to get a better look.
The song of striking metal and singing electricity filled the void, and the world faded away.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Simmy sighed as she redesigned Adam's tower again. Faith modified materials in this Realm meant that the process of building something can change how the finished project affects the world.
Each constructed tower increased new things to test and try, and each time she Gathered the building up to Construct again these ideas would spawn more children.
At this point, she had expanded the vending machines on the first floor. The ability to spend money (Lien here) to get Adam's refined Dust was likely going to be the main focus, and the machines here accepted impure Dust as payment or at least to grant a discount. It didn't need Adam's direct work to keep running, and some drones were assigned to ensure all the equipment would be maintained.
Now the vending machines contents covered more varied products.
One that delivered bags of highly refined and efficient varieties of plant seeds, albeit the species provided only covered the local foods grown on this planet. Simmy had spent far too much time ensuring that the modifications she made actually existed somewhere, none of this was magically or technologically enhanced yet. The grain may grow better than expected and faster than believed, but it was theoretically possible with selective crossbreeding. It wasn't cheating. Mostly.
She had to move the vegetation machine so there would be room for the Ammo one next to the Dust vending machine. It could directly produce Ammo of the caliber desired when Dust was supplied, though it required Adam's brand of quality. She thought that was clever.
Just to avoid some headaches, she ensured the machine that would produce each of the individual parts listed in Adam's Glyph guides, the ones for Adam's Dust Crystal compressors, and so forth would need approval from Ghira or his people. The people of Remnant could make it on their own, but Simmy's products came from a customized Matter Furnace and had a level of quality unreachable by most mortals.
Honestly, the trickiest part wasn't setting up these basic devices but determining price points to not kill the economy or wrest control of materials from the local government. Calculating how much of a discount to give to Ghira's government in general was equally annoying.
She was in the middle of redesigning the modular farm framework (Each attempt reduced part costs by 0.34% and increased productivity by 0.88%) when Adam decided to do something stupid. Again.
In a world with an actual soul, in a room full of people empowered by their souls, he turned on a power with no soul component to examine a machine designed to work with the soul.
She sighed. Freedom sometimes meant not stopping someone from punching themselves. At least she now had the schematics for those interesting CCT Systems.
Simmy floated to the side as the drones evaporated Adam's tower again, now rebuilding the walls using new patterns and materials. Why build a CCTS on top of the building when the outer shell itself could communicate instead?
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The earth was asleep, the sky was in pain.
Life grew with passion, death slept and hungered.
Mental defenses kept things within the realm of understanding as black and green circuitry began to pulse and expand from a small room in a small city.
Souls. In the air, the soil, the food, the people, the metal.
Faith. Enriching it all. The rules slid on a scale of madness and hope.
And covering this ocean of souls, abscesses and absences parasitically gnawed. Decayed. Spread.
The World did not desire these Grimm. It pulsed with purpose at the small thing spreading from Adam's body.
Aura was not the same thing as only being an expressed soul. It was generated by the soul, true. It was also a field of faith, of spirituality and life.
To gain Aura's effects, one required hard determination and willpower while embedded in a Realm like this one, like Remnant, where faith and Aura and souls were exposed and ever dancing.
With intense training, one awakened can unlock the Aura of another. It was risky, it was hard, it was dangerous as others could smell your delicious location. As corruption hunted you.
With intense circumstances, apparently something similar can occur as well.
In Kuo Kuana, in a small restaurant with fearful and concerned Humans and Faunus, in a state near unconsciousness yet hyper-focused...
A green electronic eye opened.
White peanuts appeared and vanished, black ropes wove and reinforced, and green pulsing lines began to adapt, to connect.
A fragile socket in a fishbowl soul, one that should have continued to grow and stabilized over time in this Realm, lacking the energy that Squishy had stolen to reinforce his other damaged abilities, shivered.
Cracked.
Squishy looked at her hard work... and sighed. Power Manipulation was still too broken to make more soul sockets like it should have. Not for now. Not for a while.
Hopefully, if a new power was different from Soul, Magic, or Physics, it would be strong enough to cross this hurdle. The next stable value would be a soft 5 or a hard 7 sockets, but expanding past 3 had been near impossible so far. Not if she wanted to keep Adam safe.
Squishy watched the confused green eye pulse again, circuitry infecting the nearby area as it explored and expanded in ways impossible to 'Technomancy'. As it began to twist. To slow.
Finally, the black fabric of cybernetic circuitry began to fold. To twist and bend and slowly wrap around the black ball of 'Binding', to wrap around the fishbowl soul.
The Green Eye covered the opening of the Fishbowl, the circuitry compressed until the green lines became invisible due to density.
With a sigh, Squishy floated to the opening and touched the warm gaze that looked softly at her. All that work on the new power socket, wasted.
From the lost voices, from soft whispers in the dark, the Soul of Remnant sang an old song.
"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I recognize your soul, and by my purpose protect thee."
The snap of the socket caused the green eye to begin to burn blue.
And deep under his Crystal Castle, a spark blinked blue as well.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Kali yanked Sienna and Betty back as she and the others lept away from Adam's body.
The Faunus didn't shift an inch, body of stone, his eyes blind and his limbs frozen.
Behind him, above him, somewhere hidden, they could feel something ancient. Uncaring. Alien. Foreign. Shear size alone made them feel weak, small, fragile.
Near reflexive instincts caused rage to flash, retaliation, defiance.
Kali bared her teeth. She was strong! Her child must be protected! Threat! Threat! She dared not move closer.
Sienna was spinning her blade whip, cautious. It wouldn't matter. Nothing would matter. But she would stand to her death without submission, for some things were worth fighting a hopeless fight.
Betty felt... a connection. Someone else who was broken like her, who lost family like her, who lost everything like her... and who built a new world worth living in.
Above the corpse of Adam light began to twist... To hum...
Silence.
Everything relaxed.
The sun was brighter, even if it was setting. The air was crisp.
Small noises had resumed, and the shadows were dim.
Behind Adam, some sort of three eyed being floated, blue Glyphs floating in patterns as the creature watched everyone. Thousands of limbs were reaching out to unseen locations. It flickered.
The skin sheering callousness was gone.
The robotic, soulless gaze had softened. To recognize existence.
Then Adam collapsed onto the ground, his body softly glowing with blue Aura and all the strange feelings and sounds vanished entirely.
Kali threw her scroll away. "Fuck That. Fuck all of that."
Sienna (And the rest of the quite disturbed customers) quickly moved away from the haunted device. "The shit did those eggheads make!? And why would we EVER build something like that!?"
Kali flicked a wrist, and one of her guards near instantly smashed the Scroll with her mallet. "Yeah, fuck that. No." She could get an untainted replacement, no way was that thing going to stay on her person. Or near her daughter.
They heard a noise and turned towards Adam... whom Betty was sitting on. She noticed their looks and waved it off. "He's fine now. Sleeping too." His trunk absently played with her hand as she giggled.
...It would be a while before anyone else was willing to get close to Adam or the cow Faunus who decided to sleep on his chest. Better to let him sleep that off.
