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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Klokinator on 2024-10-01 15:51:10+00:00.
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…
(Part 001)
Inside Chrona, Jason Hiro alternates between watching the Maiuran War unfold via the Spynet Sphere, and traveling into his warehouse to take care of several important side projects. Even if the battle on Maiura concludes in just one realspace day, that’s still 250 Chrona-days Jason can spend productively working on multiple projects to enhance his strength, as well as the abilities of his fellow humans.
For him, twenty days have already passed since the Kolvaxians first appeared. Jason sometimes thinks about the recent conversation he had with Hope. He scowls every time his subconscious mind brings it up.
“What an idiot. What a colossal moron. When did Hope become so stupid?” Jason wonders out loud, as he manipulates an artifact-knife in his hand, looking at it absentmindedly.
At this moment, Jason stands inside his warehouse. Thanks to the hard work of Rebecca, all his past and present artificing projects have been stored and organized on various shelves and inside mundane and magical containers, their details easily accessible via the central warehouse control system.
This particular dagger represents a random side experiment he decided to embark on just today; a simple design aimed at maximizing one highly specific attribute to the highest extent possible.
A dagger that strikes as many times at once as possible for the sake of stacking up the hits to deal a critical deathblow!
Jason stands before a training dummy, one imbued with exceptionally powerful regeneration magic, and a body made out of the hardest Wordsmithium he’s ever produced. Intended to be a testing dummy for battling the Kolvaxians, this puppet is even more durable and regenerative than even the Kolvaxians themselves. Jason takes its design seriously, not skimping on the materials used to make it, as he worries the Kolvaxians may even strengthen over time.
Whenever he designs a new weapon, Jason goes to every possible length to ensure it will be effective against humanity’s most frightening foe.
Abruptly, Jason stabs at the dummy’s head, and the magic inside the knife activates, causing his arm to phase through time and space.
Stab-stab-stab-stab…
When his knife’s stab lands, seven phantom images of his arm also land at the exact moment, causing a huge hole to explode in the dummy’s head!
Quickly, Jason retracts his hand, watching as the dummy rapidly regenerates the Wordsmithium used to hold it together.
“Solid piercing capability, but I can’t get the duplication threshold above seven. I guess that’s the limit. What do you think, Rebecca?”
Jason turns to look at his loyal assistant, the Cybernite who has been crucial in helping him evolve his abilities. Rebecca watches the process silently, nodding her head when she hears Jason’s query.
“Seven is fine. What’s important is that the strike is highly focused. The armor-penetrative abilities are maximized, while the explosive power is minimized.”
“But this knife can only deal with one Kolvaxian at a time.” Jason points out. “And it requires 170 Energons to produce.”
“170 Energons for an artifact of this quality isn’t bad.” Rebecca says. “Currently, we’re able to capture 1,152 Energons across the Milky Way every Chrona-day. That means we could produce nearly seven knives each cycle.”
“Yes, but only if we reduce the Wordsmithium volume to near-zero.” Jason objects. “We need all the Wordsmithium we can get.”
“The Quantum Knife is itself made of Class V Wordsmithium.” Rebecca argues. “Compared to a thousand or so tons of Class I Wordsmithium, we’re not making a loss.”
Over the last several years, Rebecca and Jason have worked together to formalize a new system of energy mathematics. By harnessing the power of more than a hundred stars in remote locations hidden across the Milky Way, far from the Plague or Volgrim’s influence, Jason has been able to secretly siphon the full energy of entire stars and convert it to mana for his own use.
The conversation ratio is truly terrible. 99% of the mundane energy is lost during the conversion, but the resulting mana gained is just as pure as the mana Jason’s body innately produces, yet far, far more voluminous.
In fact, the amount of energy vastly exceeds what even Excalibur is capable of outputting! If Hope were to learn this fact, his ears would likely explode from rage…
After so many years, Jason has developed many different ‘types’ of Wordsmithium, possessing countless unique properties. Compared to the original highly durable but rather ‘bland’ Class I Wordsmithium he made years ago, the newest evolutions are multiple epochs superior.
One Energon gained from the Milky Way’s stars roughly equates to a single ton of Class I Wordsmithium, while Class II requires 2.5 Energons, Class III requires 10 Energons, Class IV requires 50 Energons, and Class V requires 500…
Of course, these numbers are only estimates. Due to mystical reasons Jason and Rebecca have yet to fully unravel, sometimes they are able to produce more or less Wordsmithium than the incoming Energons imply, leaving them to scratch their heads. But by now, they’ve mostly figured out the averages.
“Seven knives made of Class V Wordsmithium are not that impressive.” Jason also retorts. “Forget a single ton of Class V Wordsmithium, those knives don’t amount to a fraction of a ton! Most of the mana is spent imbuing them with the Enchantments!”
“Spent, but not wasted.” Rebecca says, waving her finger chidingly. “As long as you continue to locate stars in hidden locations, the Energon production will ramp up over time. But actually, I do have a better idea for the knives.”
“You do? I’m all ears.” Jason says, fiddling with the knife’s edge.
“I say we retry the enchanting process. This time, aim for the bottom end of six strikes. As long as the knife can reliably stab six times, that will be more than good enough for our needs, and it will lower the Energon cost to manufacture them considerably. Furthermore, we haven’t added an elemental enchantment. Since the Kolvaxians are weak to fire, let’s try mixing that in. Six strikes that plunge flames, or plasma, or even raw explosive energy into their bodies should allow for potential one-hit kills.”
Jason chews his bottom lip. “Wasn’t the entire point to get as many stabs in as possible? Doesn’t dropping the threshold to six impalements fly in the face of your original design idea?”
Rebecca shrugs. “This is the scientific way, Jason. I extrapolated based on past data and suggested this development trajectory. It hasn’t gone according to those projections, so we’ll alter the plan and try again. Remember, the true goal is to develop weapons efficient enough for ordinary soldiers to fight back the Kolvaxian hordes. And if we develop weapons of that quality, they should also prove effective against many Cosmic threats.”
Jason sobers up, remembering his primary goal. “Right. Good point. Okay, we’ll take a break for a few hours then. When I come back, I’ll retry with the new design principle. If we’re lucky, maybe I can lower the Energon cost below 125… that would be big.”
He sets the knife on his machining table beside half a dozen previous prototypes. Then, he stretches and pops his back, but he doesn’t leave the warehouse.
“Something else?” Rebecca asks.
“It’s Hope.” Jason mutters. “I keep thinking about what he said to me. Why is he so insistent on me staying away from Maiura? He’s putting lives at risk.”
“You don’t have to do as he says.” Rebecca points out. “So what if he gets mad that you’re helping? This is no time for a small-minded man causing thousands or even millions to die.”
“That’s a logical way to put it.” Jason says, raising an eyebrow. “But things are never that simple. Hope isn’t an idiot. He’s actually really smart. Hell, not that many years ago I even felt he was way smarter than me. It’s important humanity doesn’t become divided during this crisis. If him and I start butting heads, it could lead to a catastrophe.”
Rebecca crosses her arms. She looks at Jason meaningfully.
“Is that why you’re staying here, working on these projects? You’re afraid of pissing Hope off?”
“No, I’m not afraid of him.” Jason snorts. “But this is about the bigger picture. If I enrage him, or cross some unseen invisible line, I might set him off. What if he lashes out?”
Rebecca falls silent.
Several seconds pass as she looks at Jason, her eyes betraying no emotion.
“If things have degraded that far, Jason, then…”
She pauses.
"…perhaps you sho…
Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ftrf6h/the_cryopod_to_hell_589_energon/
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