CH.319 To the Capital
<span style="font-weight:400">Our trip towards the capital of course started from Burch city, as we picked up Mariina and her crew from there. From my group, Lua, Alice and Ria were here, while the rest stayed on HomeBase. I was moving towards the capital as well, just so it would be closer to where I likely will be. And speaking of HomeBase moving. Because of its size, there was no way I could move HomeBase too quickly, so its flight speed was very low, only around 100 km/h. Well, I guess that isn’t that slow, butpared to the Mach 0.82 to Mach 0.90 speeds the B.E.S. monsters travel at, or the mach 20 speeds both Gradius and Victory Viper have, going only 100 km/h is extremely slow. I mean, it is literally likeparing a car to a ne or a rocket.
<span style="font-weight:400">As for why HomeBase can’t travel faster than that. Well, as I said, it was because of the size. HomeBase disces a lot of air as it moves, so it causes some turbulent air. And if it moves quickly, that turbulent air could turn into a tornado or something like that. Some of the barriers did reduce it a bit, but even they couldn’t prevent itpletely, so until new spells are developed that can prevent the turbulence, HomeBase has to move at a reasonable speed.
<span style="font-weight:400">But HomeBase doesn’t matter at this moment, B.E.S. Big Core MK-3 does, as it will be the one we ride today.
Spoiler
[copse]
<span style="font-weight:400">Now I know what you might be asking. ‘Where did you get Big Core MK-3?’ Well, it is quite simple really. It is called Boss Rush and Compulsory Evacuation Device.
Spoiler
<table style="border-copse:copse;width:80.3213%;height:26px">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width:50%"></td>
<td style="width:50%"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
[copse]
<span style="font-weight:400">Boss Rush summons random B.E.S. monsters after one of them is destroyed and sent to the GY. That can include monsters I don’t have ess to yet. Then when I get something I don’t have, I just use Compulse to return it to my Collection so I’ll be able to put a sleeve and toploader on the card. And with that, new B.E.S. monsters. It is basically the exact same process as what I did with Vampire''s Domain.
Spoiler
[copse]
<span style="font-weight:400">From ying with Boss Rush, I was able to get three new B.E.S. monsters. There is of course Big Core MK-3, but I also got Big Core MK-2 and ster Cannon Core. I’m not sure if that is all of the B.E.S. monsters that have been released, but I haven’t gotten any other new ones yet, so it might be. Too bad I can’t fully automate the Boss Rush loop, like I did with Vampire’s Domain. Either Laura or I have to oversee it. I’ll try to keep Boss Rush going to see if I can get something new when I have time, but I’m not even sure there are more B.E.S. monsters, so if there are, it might take a while to get them.
Spoiler
<table style="border-copse:copse;width:80.3213%;height:26px">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width:50%"></td>
<td style="width:50%"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
[copse]
<hr>
<span style="font-weight:400">After meeting up with Mariina’s group in the city, getting outside the city in our golem carriages, packing all of them into my Storage, I summoned Big Core MK-3 and we were off towards the capital.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... another new ship.” Mariina said. “How many of these do you have?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Currently seven.” I answered honestly, as it wasn’t really a secret. “I mean seven different looking ones, by the way. The actual number is… well, we don’t have to talk about it.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Considering all the spare copies I have, I have over fifty B.E.S. monsters. But seven unique ones. But still, if I summoned ten and Alice and Lua both summoned five, we could easily get out an entire invasion force of B.E.S. ships. Or at least it might look like that. If I was a bit more chaotic, I might just do it for shits and giggles, but I’m a bit too much of awful neutral for that. … Well I’m also chaotic at times, but not that chaotic. Dragons just bring out my chaotic side.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Any chance of sparing one for me?” Mariina asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I could, but you couldn’t use it anyway without the Card Summoner skill. Also, no mapping. I’m still working on that. So flying one without having the System Support can get quite… Well, you can get lost easily.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“But didn’t Miss Alice have one?” Mariina’s female attendant asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“She does… oh, I guess that is a secret, right?” Mariina almost let something slip, but was able to keep it in.
<span style="font-weight:400">Does she know Alice has the System Support? Did Alice tell her? Well, it isn’t my ce to question it. Alice is allowed to tell who she wants and what she wants. It isn’t my ce to ask her to keep it a secret. And if she ever has to publicly show her status, that would reveal that little fact.
<span style="font-weight:400">“But what you are saying is that if I get that Card Summoner skill, you would be willing to give me an airship?” Mariina asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“If you help me solve the mapping problem, I’ll give you five.” I offered. “But that might take making satellites or some other way to urately check the position of the ship.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Satellite?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... a device that can be used for a lot of things, including locating things.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Are they difficult to make?” Mariina asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well dah. If they were simple, I’d have made some already. Well truthfully making one isn’t the problem. I could probably do that part in an afternoon. But setting them up. That is the real challenge.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I don’t think I get it.” Mariina said. “If it is not difficult to make, but is difficult to set up, then how is the set-up difficult?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well, satellites have to be up in orbit.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Orbit?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... haah. How do I exin that part? … basically, they have to be floating in the sky. Like really high up in the sky. And the ‘easy’ way to keep them there is to have them move. At very high speeds.” I exined in a way that actually exined nothing. “Sure I could also use magic to levitate them, but that would open up another can of worms that I’m not willing to touch just yet. I just need a simpler way of doing things.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... I see. So these … satellites… They are some sort of locator devices.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Basically yes.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Can they locate anything, or only specific things?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Depending on the satellite, both. But in this case, they only need to locate specific things.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Then if that is the case, why would you put them in the sky? Can’t you just have them on the ground?” Mariina asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Nope. Radio signals don’t work like that. Any ground between the emitter and the receiver could block the signal.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... I’m starting to feel quite stupid, but what are these ‘radio signals’? Wouldn’t it use mana signals? And ground doesn’t block those.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... eh?”
<span style="font-weight:400">This time, it was my time to realize I’m freaking stupid. Of course. Why would I use earth technology when I can use local technology? Why use radio waves when I can use magic? All I need is a few ‘radio towers’ that emit some sort of a magic signal that can be picked up, then decoded for the distance and direction. Then multiply that by something like 10 and we have a locator thingy. By having multiple signals like that, aputer can then calcte the location on a map, as long as the map knows where the signal towers are.
<span style="font-weight:400">And if I set one up on HomeBase, HomeBase can act as an additional spot, in case one or multiple of the towers go down for any reason. And if I set the towers up at ces where I nt mana flowers, I’ll have easy ess torge amounts of mana.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Mariina. You really are the sage here. Thanks. I think I can do this now.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... thanks? But did I really say something that smart? I thought it was quite obvious what I said.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... sure it might be, but when you get set in your tracks, it can be difficult to change your way.” I admitted. “... thought now I have other things to figure out, like where to built these antennas.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Do you need them?” Alice asked. “Mariina just said you don’t need direct line of sight, so why build something like that?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... because I assumed it was necessary.” I admitted.
<span style="font-weight:400">“You really need to tell me where these assumptions areing from.” Mariina demanded.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... Not sure if that is a good idea. But I could tell you about other things. You do have a lot of good ideas, so it would be useful.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Oh? Offering me a job, are you? I’m ttered, but I have to turn it down. I already have one, and I don’t think I want to let it go.” Mariina said.
<span style="font-weight:400">“A job? Well, I guess I could, but I do feel like your pay is too much for me.” And that isn’t in the money way. I think everyone knows at this point that I have almost excessive amounts of money. The problem is that Mariina would likely need way too much information. “But I wouldn’t mind hiring you as a contractor from time to time. As long as the Sage’s tower epts that.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I think I can talk them into letting that be. Maybe I can even have my Sage job be dealing with you.” Mariina said.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... that sounds ominous.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It wouldn’t be the first time a Sage is made to look after a System Support holder.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Makes it sound like you would be my babysitter.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“More like a … personal assistant.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“So an adult’s babysitter.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Don’t be like that. And what about maids? Aren’t they basically the same?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... yeah. I guess.” I gave in. “Though I see maids more as people who take care of the house, whereas a personal assistant looks after the person, so… Nah. Let’s just leave it at that. If you can get a position like that, I’ll wee you.”
<hr>
<span style="font-weight:400">Getting towards the Royal capital, I slowed our ship down and began searching for a good ce tond. Not the ship, but just where we would beam ourselves.
<span style="font-weight:400">The capital was quiterge, but not that muchrger than ces like Burch city or even Oroco city. And it definitely could notpare to the Hero’s country. I still love that ce. Just the mathematical perfection with which everything isid out. It just works for me.
<span style="font-weight:400">I wanted to do a good flyover of the capital, just so Laura could get a general map of the city, but because I’m not sure if there is some sort of a barrier protecting the city, I decided not to. Sure it will take a bit longer to map the city from the ground, but that will also get us things like store names, street names, etc. And if we want to have it done in a hurry, Alice can use her Unique-racial skill to turn herself invisible, then use Mana Flight to fly around the city, while Kekri maps the ce out.
<span style="font-weight:400">But mapping the cityester. First we need to get into the city, and for that, we need tond. After I found a decent spot away from any prying eyes, I beamed us to the ground.
<span style="font-weight:400">Then I took out our carriages, so we could go to the city in a carriage.
<hr>
<span style="font-weight:400">From where wended, it took well over an hour to get to the city walls. I probably could havended closer, but we could spare that amount of time. I already cut our travel time from multiple days down to just a few hours.
<span style="font-weight:400">The roads around the capital were quite fantastic. They weren’t likeid tile or anything that good, but the dirt had been tightly packed with magic, making it a very solid road, with almost no bumps.
<span style="font-weight:400">There were also knights riding horses on the roads, keeping guard. The capital was the only ce where I had this far seen something like that, so that was definitely different. And also part of the reason we had tond so far away. They never stopped our carriages, possibly because they noticed the Sage’s tower emblem on Mariina’s golem carriages.
<span style="font-weight:400">Eventually, we got to the outer wall of the city, and lined up in the VIP entrance. Before us, there was just one set of carriages, apparently belonging to some tradingpany. Normally, nobles would be prioritized over tradingpanies that pay for the VIP treatment, but as they were already mid inspection, we had to wait just a bit before it was our turn to get in. But still, the lines for themoner entrance were quite long, so this is a lot better.
<span style="font-weight:400">Our inspection was nothing much. Mariina was the one who exined where we came from, and then the knights checked out our ID cards. As well as the stable dhampir papers of Ria and Lua. They even checked Ria’s ve contract. The capital definitely seems far more precise with this kind of stuff, as no one else has ever asked to see Ria’s ve contract.
<span style="font-weight:400">But still, by the end, we got through and we were in the capital. We made it.
<span style="font-weight:400">Now. Let’s hope the capital isn’t too bad of a ce.
<span style="font-weight:400">