Matuscarantos

  The next morning I felt different. My head was clear. My thoughts weren't overly troubled with the near tragedy of yesterday.

  Another new development I don't know if it was the brush with Mana Addiction or the increase of my Mana Threshold that contributed the most to my new found sense of mana itself.

  The st two Mana Sources I was likely to find for a while, still rested on the desk of the town's leader. Now I could sense them from here, even without invoking my Sense Mana Sources ability. Whether this was a good thing or not, I didn't know.

  I felt the pulsing swirl of mana, I could smell it and taste its tang on the air. Yet, I wasn't driven by my instincts towards them. If anything the smell was ever so slightly repugnant. Like old soured oil, or maybe more like burnt tar.

  Forcing myself to the desk, I picked up the next to st crystal and used Absorb Mana Source. I focused my mind on understanding the process. I felt the filters form. Maybe I could emute those on my own. There were three further steps to the purification. I felt where the waste was occurring in these steps. However, at this point, I could do nothing to stop it, but I sensed the moment it happened.

  These crystals the Goblins used were potent, even with the waste this Source was more than full enough to raise my mana threshold again. The snapping crackling noise that accompanied the change was even louder this time.

  I could now hold 500 mana, and generated 5 mana per minute. That seemed like good progress.

  [ You have gained the Ability, Render ]

  For 25 mana, Render would reduce a complex machine into it basic parts. Or it would reduce a part into its component materials. It was only limited by the size of the machine or part. Anything, 1 meter cubed or less was subjectable to this ability.

  [ Further Note from a former CTS user: Will work on some organics. Seemed random, but there has to be an underying principle. ]

  Nothing about ownership. Meaning Render could be used as a compliment to Sabotage. Maybe it would even make mining easier. Breaking down scrap for metal would become a lot more efficient.

  I put the other crystal in my pocket. Maybe I'd try it tomorrow. Probably not.

  After cleaning myself up a bit, with my scrape stick. I went down stairs, "Good morning, Pal."

  "A pleasant greetings to you, Master." The droid seemed cheerful, and as I stepped out of the house I could see why. Several beasts had tried their luck in town st night. Pal had quickly dispatched them. A Scyk and a couple a Sand Bats, and there was another of those unidentified reptiles. I wonder what they'd been hunting? Hopefully not me.

  I wasted no time in cleaning and cooking that unknown reptile up. The meat on this one was just as tasty as the first. It was only after I finished eating and was banking my cook fire to dry out the rest of the meat, that I realized I should have tried Render out.

  I tried it on the Scyk, no go. I tried it on the Sand Bats, it worked on one and not the other. Odd. The one that had been Rendered had its skin, organs, meat, cws, fangs and bones all id out in their own neat piles. The blood, was turned into dust. At least I think that what happened. I couldn't be sure with out testing.

  Red wheeled over, and beeped an enthusiastic hello. It always brightened my day to see the cheerful Astromech Droid.

  "How are you doing Red?"

  Beep, boop, whur, beep. "I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

  I addressed both droids, "Today we are mostly going to keep filling the ore hopper on the smelter. And seeing what we get as a result. Red your job is keeping your sensors peeled, so nothing sneaks up on us. Pal you'll be helping me, with the hopper and loading the finished metal ingots into the trailer."

  Checking the smelter revealed six different types of metals from the overnight filling. Two I knew, Bronzium and Desh. Pretty basic metals found everywhere in the gaxy. The other four, I simply had no clue. They didn't test properly. Scan Machine, did actually return names though it still didn't tell me their properties.

  Mostly there was Adamantite and Electrum. There was also a small amount of Truesilver, and a tiny coin sized amount of the 8th Metal.

  I had no idea what those were, but I was going to find out. I certainly got the sense that none of them belonged here, much like the mana sources. Was there a connection there, probably.

  Pal and I loaded the hopper with more ore, then loaded the trailer with the finished ingots. My back started aching after a few buckets worth transferred but I was no stranger to aching muscles, and carried on.

  I spend a little time trying to py with the new metals, testing their strength, hardness, and mana reactivity.

  Adamantite was dense, about as hard as Durasteel, and mostly non-reactive to mana. IT would be good to try alloying with some other metals to see if we could get a reasonable weight armor out of it.

  Electrum was comparatively soft, much less dense than Adamantite, and reacted violently with my mana. It sparked and sputtered, melting slightly as my mana touched it. Might be good for an explosive? Maybe if I powder it, and... that could wait for when I could build a safer testing space.

  Truesilver was light but hard. It glowed when exposed the mana, but otherwise did nothing I could detect. It might be good as a general use pting. Maybe it could act as a conductor? Might be good for circuits?

  The 8th metal was tricky. It seemed to change even as I tested it. The only consistent effect was that it magnified any mana I put into it by three. Hmm, maybe I could turn it into an amplifier for my abilities. Anything to feel a little safer.

  I'll let my subconscious percote on this new information for a while.

  Meanwhile, it was time to check on the Smelter. It was only about half way through with the previous load, we topped it off and moved the ingots to the trailer. No 8th metal this time, but all the rest had been produced. Perhaps its presence was just a lucky fluke.

  I tried using render on the various ores. Which worked perhaps too well. It was hard to determine the metallic dust from the dross. I shrugged and kept doing it for a while. It wasn't hard to throw the dust into the hopper.

  Pal, Red and I took a long walk around the edge of town, mostly to kill time. But also to see if we could spot the old mines from here. Even Red's sensor's turned up nothing.

  I think with one more batch, I should have enough to try selling, back at Rekarsh. We could always come back for more ter, there was still plenty of ore to process.

  After the st of the ingots were loaded. We locked the building we'd been using back up and headed back to the Homestead. We arrived just in time to watch the suns set in safety.

  The Power Hauler had done it's job well, and the big droid was currently waiting in standby mode to conserve power. The tunnels to the generators on the western side were cleared out. I could probably get the rest of them running again once I had time.

  Before I called it a night, I put aside about half our haul for our own use. I wanted to be able to test out a few ideas. Then I spend a couple of hours working on and upgrading the Laser Drill and Sonic hammer. Then I integrated them into the Power Hauler's rge grippers. With a few calibrations it should be able to act as a mining droid.

  Hmm, I should maybe outfit it with a cart for extra hauling. Maybe when we get back from Rekarsh.

  Another night, more dreams about running. This time from myself.

  Matuscarantos