Testing the teleport pad was as easy as stepping onto the platform, focusing on my destination the same way I would if I were casting the base spell, and speaking the trigger word, which was "outbound." With the usual flare and sensations, I was sent across the country to a random alleyway in Texas. If the alleyway just so happened to be across from an amazing Taco shop, from which I grabbed an early lunch for Olivia and I, that was just a coincidence.
After I teleported back with a spell crystal and finished my lunch, I stepped onto the platform again, this time whistling for a group of golems. I had them snag a bunch of large rocks from the woods, since I had a limited number of golems around the forest compound.
Once there was enough stuff sitting on the magic-suffused stone platform to test its limits, I called out "outbound" again, and this time we were deposited in the middle of the desert, at the base of the hill where I had made the first orichalcum ingots. The pad handles the extra weight of the stones and golems easily, and I abandoned the stones there, taking the golem back with another spell crystal.
I bounced around a few more times across the country, testing the pad's energy flow, storage, and energy dissipation. When I was sure everything was perfect, I finally declared the project complete.
I then spent the rest of the day, into the next, coming up with a few basic outlines for a few more ideas. There was nothing really concrete, because I was hoping that I would get another level of Alchemy to use with them, but enough to hopefully speed up the process when I was ready to finalize them.
When the PRT called me back to the project headquarters, I was greeted by a base that was slightly more active than before. Not only were there five hundred more soldiers around, but more soldiers meant more staff to support them, from nurses and doctors to monitor their health to cafeteria staff to keep them fed. Thankfully, the once-dormant Army base had been built for a significantly larger group, meaning there was plenty of room.
Seeing the five hundred new volunteers was more than a bit intimidating, knowing just how many things I needed to make for each of them. I was tempted to change my plans and invest my next group of charges into the fourth level of magical mass production, but that was too many points for something that I wasn't even sure would help. Magical mass production was a subject that worked differently from other magic subjects, shifting my understanding of other subjects rather than itself. For all I knew, I was already doing the most efficient method of creating magical objects, and wasting four points to figure that out wasn't worth it.
As before, the first step in the process was to reinforce their bodies. This was done in groups of ten, meaning I would have to complete the enhancement procedure fifty times. Beyond the time it took to run the process, it also took a not-insignificant amount of materials, which I had to get myself. By the time I was done two days later, I had actually worked completely through an entire ship from the boat graveyard. It had been on the smaller side, but it was still an incredible amount of metal to go through.
When the project was done, I took the remainder of the day off to unwind. Olivia and I ended up spending the second half of the day on a beach along the Gulf of Mexico, untouched by anyone else and unreachable by land. It was a relaxing day for sure, even if I generally preferred ponds and lakes to beaches.
Olivia certainly enjoyed herself, which more than made up for the difference. Seeing her unwind properly was fun, and both of us were reluctant to head home, even when it started to get dark.
Unfortunately, it was right back into the grind. Luckily, most of what I was making were items I could make en masse, creating upwards of twenty items in large batches, and though many of them needed to be enchanted at some point, a process that had to be done one at a time, my latest level in enchanting made that even faster. I could complete simple enchantment in about a minute, and more complex forms in several minutes. It cost me a chunk of silver each time, so material gathering was a serious time sink, but with alchemy conversions working pretty well at this point, that was going faster than before as well.
By the time we were approaching the end of the first week of the cycle, all of the new five hundred soldiers had been given the same gear that the original fifty had. Four days after, three days into the second week, all five hundred and fifty soldiers had bracers that increased their reflexes and dexterity, face masks that filtered their air perfectly and provided them with breathable air even if they were underwater, as well as a belt that they could use to launch themselves in basically any direction.
With a combination of the stabilizing boots and the dexterity-buffing bracers, the soldiers almost immediately adapted to the belts, affectionately called the catapult belts. With some training, they were using them to bounce around a complex urban training base made from a handful of the unused buildings in the back of the base. As I watched them launch up the side of a building, run along the roof, and then catapult themselves off the side to a different roof, I couldn't help but be reminded of how pilots from the Titanfall universe moved around.
When I finished the latest batch of equipment, it was decided that the soldiers were ready for their first test of effectiveness. With my permission, the PRT started looking for an appropriate S-class threat to go after, while I started working on finally arming the soldiers with annihilation rifles. I had put it off simply because I was not looking forward to making each one, but it was time, especially since they would need them for their live fire test.
The rifles, made entirely by my hand, had a few aspects I could speed up, making them faster to build from the ground up than my rifle had been. All of the rituals could be done in large chunks, and by making everything else in batches, I could speed up the crafting.
Still, it was a time-consuming process, and despite my best efforts, I could not arm the entire battalion before the test was decided.
I also managed to improve the design noticeably, mostly because of the new materials, enchantment skills, and the ability to infuse metal and gems. I also managed to work in all of the safety features I had planned.
First, none of the insanely dangerous weapons could be fired at me. Not only would they refuse to work, but if the soldier shooting at me kept trying, it would completely knock them out. Second, I tied the rifles to a series of large stones, boulders really, carved with runes that glowed and pulsed. These were my unspoken aces, as I told the PRT the stones were the power system for the rifle, while in reality, each rifle was a self-contained unit.
What the stones actually were was an anchor point. None of the rifles could function outside of their range, which was large enough to cover a large city. This would keep them from disappearing into the hands of rich investors, criminals, or anyone else who might be tempted, as they were basically expensive sticks outside the stone's range. On top of that, I could quickly and cleanly disable the rifles in large groups by pulling out the magic of the stones, as well as release them from their range limit by pulling a different chunk of magic, also inside the stone. It was a final failsafe, just in case the powers that be decided I was too dangerous to keep around, once I finished making them a huge army.
I couldn't decide if I was being paranoid about that or not.
In total, I had managed to make just over a hundred rifles when I was called to the base, where the Special Project Leader met Crow and I for a briefing. When I revealed the unfinished status, I was surprised to learn they didn't want to wait for me to finish all five hundred and fifty weapons before heading out for the test. At least until they explained just how overkill my weapons were for anything but the hardest, toughest brutes, and that normal firearms would do just fine for most targets.
"After a lot of deliberation, it was decided that we would go after the S-Class threat in Gallup, New Mexico," Kinsey explained after we sat down in his office. "Some people wanted to push for Nilbog, as clearing out Ellisburg would be a much larger PR win, but I cut that out pretty quick."
"What is in Gallup, New Mexico?" I asked, leaning back in my chair. "And why do you think Ellisburg is the wrong fit?"
"Ellisburg is a tenuous situation," Kinsey admitted with a subdeud wince, Olivia scoffing beside me at his understatement. "This is not public knowledge, but our thinkers are marginally sure that the only reason Nilbog hasn't pushed out and taken more people or territory is that he doesn't want to. In all likelihood, if he wanted to, he could. Instead, he is content to lord over his disturbing creations, sheltered by our quarantine walls. I will not be the one to send him into a rage by attacking him without the guarantee that we can kill him. I'm hoping that later, when we have even more troops and they are fully armed, we can take him down. As a test of course."
"Of course. And that sounds like a good choice," I agreed. "I'm sure with a thousand or more fully armed soldiers, we could make quick work of him."
"It's very possible," he agreed with a nod. "As for Gallup, it was abandoned when a local villain underwent a second trigger. Previously, the villain Skinwalker could change shape at will, shifting into two dozen different forms built for different types of combat. They each had a different power, which alone would have made him dangerous.
"That is a lot of firepower," I said, considering the concept. "He must have been hard to pin down."
"He could be, but luckily, there were a few limitations," he responded, steepling his hands as he leaned on his desk. "The powers of the form were B-tier at best, and it took time for him to transform. Meaning once the local heroes knew the trick for each one, they could work on countering him."
"Until he second triggered," I said, filing away the fact that that was even possible.
"Correct. His power shifted, and suddenly he was capable of projecting and controlling those forms," Kinsey said with a nod. "Worse, his projections work together exceedingly well, and he seems perfectly capable of controlling all at once."
"Damn… he must have overwhelmed the local heroes pretty quickly," Crow said with a frown.
"Both them and the local villains. Many joined his side, as their only other option was death," he explained with a frown. "The situation spiralled out of control quickly, and we were forced to quarantine the city after he tore apart the local police force for attempting to resist him.
"I assume the reason Gallup is a better choice is because of the limitation on just how much damage they could do?" I asked, Kinsey, nodding in confirmation.
"While Skinwalker would be a menace if he ran to other cities," he expanded further. "Nilbog is a potential apocalyptic event if he decides to seek vengeance."
"Well… Then it sounds like this is as good a place as any," I said with a nod. "When will we move?"
"We have cargo planes scheduled to land within the hour," he responded, before looking at me with a stern gaze. "And while you are invited to go…"
"We will not be participating," I said, raising my hands, knowing exactly what he was worried about. "While I won't always be sitting back and letting others fight my battles, I recognize that, at the moment, I am the keystone to this plan."
The PRT project leader sagged slightly with relief, clearly expecting me to put up a fight. Seeing as he was likely used to dealing with conflict-driven parahumans, dealing with me, someone who had no hidden push to fight, must have been a relief.
In all honesty, I wasn't exactly happy to sideline myself, but I had accepted the concept after staying back from fighting the Simurgh. It was for a good reason, one I really couldn't disagree with. But it still cut at me, sending people off to face dangerous situations and not joining them to support them however I could.
Just as Kinsey had said, three planes landed at the airfield, which had been carefully repaired. While the troops were being loaded up, as well as the "power" stones for the annihilation rifles. I frowned and looked to Kinsey, who was overseeing the process.
"Did you guys just assume I would come up with a way to get these guys to Endbringer fights?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Cause these planes clearly won't work."
"Can you do that?" He asked, giving me a surprised look. "I was under the impression that making the crystals you use to teleport quickly was not something you could do in proper numbers."
"It's not, which is why I recently created plans for a teleport pad that can do outbound teleports without them," I responded. "What was your guys' plan?"
"We are already looking into teleporters to hire," He responded. "Strider has already agreed to triple his usual pay, which is why we are flying for this test. We are also negotiating with several other teleporters."
"Don't bother," I said, shaking my head. "I'll get you a list of ingredients, and we can set up a few pads here. Same rules as the equipment will apply, of course."
He nodded, and twenty minutes later, we were climbing into the back of the military cargo planes. The moment my foot stepped onto the metal ramp into the hold, I could feel a quest activate. Apparently, the system was taking this test seriously, as the quest was focused on clearing the quarantine zone.
I couldn't help but wince, as just an hour or so earlier, I agreed not to directly participate in the assault. With any luck, I would still get at least partial credit for helping arm and equip the team responsible, but it was looking unlikely that I would receive three.
After recovering from the slight stumble I made when my quests kicked in, Olivia and I made our way up the ramp, claiming a pair of seats at the front of the plane, guided by Kinsey. The entire space was stuffed with seats, with maybe two hundred soldiers sitting down and strapping in. I followed their lead and hooked in a seat belt, pulling it tight as Olivia did the same beside me, both of us settling in.
It was going to be a long flight, but we would arrive two days before my cycle was over, which was hopefully enough for me to earn a few quest charges before the cycle ended.