World Keeper

Chapter 938: A New Type Of Automation

The hardest part of her automation project, naturally, was getting started. If Clara were playing the survival game that Dana had created ages ago, she would have needed to start from creating the most basic tools, and then using those to gradually improve her technology level. Thankfully, that wasn’t really required in this case as she made her way to the private world where their old factories were.

The benefit of doing this in the real world is rather simple, and that is that she can use materials that she already has available in order to get the basic framework started. Once she got to the old factory, she immediately ran to the maintenance warehouse. “I can’t take all the buildings, but I can at least grab a few drones to help me get started.” She muttered to herself, looking through what was available.

Naturally, after decades of disuse, the drones in the warehouse weren’t in peak condition, but she had the materials needed to repair them easily enough.  From the warehouse, she was able to obtain five survey drones and six portable smelteries. Not the best haul, but I can make it work!

Once she had what she needed to get started, she left this private world and went back to Deckan’s universe. The fact that the dimensium levels in this universe were so high would make it easier for Clara’s own planets to adjust. “First thing’s first, though…” She muttered, before closing her eyes and focusing on her connection with the familiar.

We can’t have you destroying the factories and mines every time you shrink. She communicated, receiving a soft whine of response back from the star. Due to its nature, the celestial body familiar seemed to have a rather low intelligence. Or, maybe that had something to do with Clara instead. Either way, she focused on creating a spell that would automatically trigger whenever the familiar changed size, altering the scale of anything linked to it to match.

After finishing that spell, she moved out into the vast expanse of space, finding an open region where her familiar wouldn’t draw any unwanted attention. Only then did she allow it to expand to its full size. Seeing the star swelling up in front of her, Clara was once again battered with the super-intense heat.

If not for her status as an energy body, she would be directly evaporated by such close proximity to the sun. Thankfully, she was able to turn around and examine the three planets that had come with her familiar’s evolutions. The first two were rather close, too close at least to produce plant life, with their surface temperature seeming to average around five hundred degrees. With it being so hot, there was naturally no water to be found.

I’ll just use those two as resource farms when my first planet can’t keep up. She muttered inwardly, turning to the third planet. It seemed to be positioned perfectly within the habitable zone, judging by the vast oceans and greenery. New base, acquired!

Clara rushed forward with a wide grin, turning into a black line that shot through space. In only a few seconds, she had arrived on the surface of the planet, looking around. “Okay, first order of business when starting a new resource management game. Identify a starting location. For that… fly, my pretties!” She cackled, holding her hands up and releasing the five survey drones from her inventory.

The silver robots flew into the air, dense cones of light shooting out below them as they began to fly in different directions. “The Keeper said that he seeded these worlds with suitable resources, but these are respawning resources. I can’t assume that the quantity would be as high as a normal world. Unless he was just feeling really generous. Though… the boss is typically pretty generous when someone asks a favor, so…”

Clara activated her terminal, which had been linked to the drones, and watched as the map was gradually filled in. “There’s a surface vein of copper five hundred meters to the south. Iron to the north, eight hundred meters and then thirty meters down. Coal… I can’t expect coal. I’ll need a logger to cut down trees for charcoal so that I can make steel.”

As she thought about that, Clara realized a rather critical error. “I couldn’t find any mining drones!” She gasped, gripping the sides of her head. “Am I going to have to dig it out by hand? No, that would take too long. I could just buy a mining robot? But I promised that I’d be self-sufficient… ah!”

Sienna! Clara mentally called through her World’s Shadow. When in doubt, delegate and outsource!

Hmm? Sienna’s reply was soft, moments before Clara’s shadow shifted and rose, the other familiar of Dana appearing.

“Oh, good, you’re free!” Clara exclaimed, jumping forward to hug the girl that was essentially her twin.

“Not free.” Sienna corrected, allowing herself to be hugged. “What’s wrong?”

Clara blinked, but spoke even while continuing to hold onto the taciturn elf. “Well, I’m setting up this really big factory operation. I’ve got pretty much everything I need… other than manual labor. Do you have any monsters that can handle mining or logging? I’ll do the construction work myself until I can get a robot for it!”

Sienna narrowed her eyes slightly, looking around. While Clara’s primary job was patrolling the void, Sienna’s was to train the monster army within Dana’s shadow world. Logistics workers were naturally included in her army. “What are you making?”

“Uhm… everything!” Clara chuckled at Sienna’s question. “The mineral nodes here respawn, so I want to use this as my primary research facility. I already arranged everything with the Keeper.”

Sienna’s eyes sharpened a bit when she heard that. “The Keeper agreed… okay.” She nodded, thinking for a moment. “How many?”

Clara pursed her lips in thought. “That depends on their efficiency. I currently have portable smelteries able to process one thousand kilograms of raw minerals every hour. My first job will be a home base with my first assembly line working towards better smelteries, and then I can make my own miners.”

Sienna shook her head at Clara’s plan. “Leave mining to me.” She said firmly, catching Clara by surprise.

“You want to be permanently in charge of my mining operations?” When she asked that, Sienna nodded her head quickly.

“That’s right. Good training for monsters. What is the respawn duration?”

Clara had to think about that. “He said that it was the same as the others, so it should respawn every week. I’m still running a mineral survey, though.” When Clara said that, Sienna narrowed her eyes at her. “...You want me to let you handle the surveys, as well?”

Sienna nodded her head once again. “Good training. Do trees respawn? Have druids, if not.”

Clara blinked, before shaking her head. “No, I didn’t ask for plant life to respawn, only the minerals and crystals. This planet has all of the basic minerals, as well as Mage Heart and Blood Heart.”

Sienna’s eyes briefly widened, nodding her head quickly. “Good training. Have you found your home site?”

“Not yet.” Clara shook her head before pausing, blinking. “Hey… you remember the Aurans?”

When she asked that, she saw Sienna’s eyes going wide, practically sparkling in anticipation. Clara gave a knowing grin. “Want to use the Fallen Goddess of Darkness powers to create bio-engineered shadow monster smelteries?”

Again, a sharp nod met her question. Clara simply let out a light laugh. “Alright, you make those. I’ll let you be in charge of mining, logging, smelting, and transportation. I’ll handle the production lines. For your new shadow monsters, make them only run on ki for sustenance. We can make a Blood Heart node our first mining project.”

Sienna thought about it for a moment, before nodding her head. With a biological template to base a shadow monster on, it wouldn’t be too hard to create a monster with a similar ability. While the Aurans weren’t directly smelters, they were able to break down minerals that they ate, and perform a type of alchemy to change them into another form. This newly created form was pure enough that it could be used to smelt minerals, as long as the input and outputs were the same, removing the impurities.

In fact, scientists had started working together with Aurans for years, trying to create an alchemical furnace that could replicate their effects in a machine. Unfortunately, the process had yet to be completed, as certain mysterious traits from their own biology had yet to be solved. Thankfully, Sienna didn’t need to perfectly understand those traits. All she had to do was copy and paste.

“Anything else?” Sienna asked, clearly eager to get back to the shadows so that she could make this new creature.

Clara thought about it for a few moments. “I can handle planetary defense myself. After all, this entire solar system is my familiar. From what I can tell, there’s not any natural animal life, so there shouldn’t be any local threats. Speaking of, have you gotten your familiar yet?”

Sienna paused, shaking her head. “Not yet. Haven’t decided.”

Clara let out a long sigh. “Yeah, I suppose it’s a bit harder for you. The best in your case would be a familiar capable of relaying commands to a large group, but that’s basically what Dana set you up for. If I know her, and she’s basically me, you were given a bunch of spells related to army commands and monster development. Maybe you should go for a pure combat familiar, something that can serve as your bodyguard? And preferably cute.”

Sienna hesitated for a moment. “Why cute?”

“Just imagine!” Clara chuckled. “You’re holding this cute little thing in your arms, and then an enemy shows up. Suddenly, your familiar jumps out, smacking the enemy to death before jumping back in your arms.”

Sienna blinked, slowly nodding at that idea. “Cute and powerful…” She seemed to be briefly lost in thought, before her eyes focused. The ground around her shattered and shifted, forming a large diagram. Above, clouds seemed to gather, the wind picking up.

Clara’s eyes went wide, jumping back as she saw Sienna immediately taking action. “Okay, you go fast!” As she said that, a black portal appeared in front of Sienna, silver mist slowly pouring out.

“I call upon you, who rests beyond the veil.” Sienna’s soft voice spoke, echoing as the wind began to spiral overhead. “The gentle breeze, the destructive storm. I call upon you, who resonates with my breath. May our path be as one, may the skies speak out names. You who knows the strength of my resolve, heed this summon and arrive like a gale.”

Sienna held one hand out towards the portal as she chanted, seeming to guide the wind into it. As she finished, a burst of air pressure pushed away the clouds, clearing the sky and forcing Clara to slide back. Her feet dug a long trench in the ground before she could stabilize herself, looking up at Sienna.

The portal to the Underworld had vanished by this point. Now, in Sienna’s arms, was a small, white weasel. Its tail was curved sharp, like a fluffy blade, and it nuzzled its head against her neck. Sienna’s entire body seemed to relax as she held her new familiar, causing Clara to chuckle.

“A sickle weasel? I suppose that would count as cute and dangerous at the same time.” Clara nodded her head, resisting the urge to run over and pet the little creature. With how gently Sienna was holding it, she knew her ‘twin’ wouldn’t want the new familiar to be startled. “What are you going to name it?”

Sienna blinked at that, furrowing her brows. She thought back to the stories that Aurivy had told them, before nodding her head. “Kama. His name is Kama.”

Clara rolled her eyes at the name, but Sienna was clearly satisfied. “Alright. You go get to work on supplying the monsters for the factory. I’ll find a location for the home base.”