Path of the Slayer B3 26. Juniors & Capacitors

The juniors came first, especially their armor.

However, I wasn’t going to lean heavily on artificing that just yet. Not until I saw who remained after the Embassy of Defilement.

With that in mind, I still wanted my juniors leaps and bounds above most Pathwalkers. To achieve that, I centered one special artificer piece that each armor would have – a power core.

Or in Modern Earth terms, a capacitor.

Pathwalkers were functionally walking batteries and spirited chargers already. Every power core I would make would serve as a capacitor that would add even more to our energy capacity.

One complication was the Rank 3 emeralds from the Ancient Emerald Temple Dungeon. They were too weak to serve on their own. But without them, Path Energy became exponentially harder to store reliably.

All that ancient green obsession really meant something, which made it unfortunate I didn’t have a powerful version of those emeralds. Thankfully, Magic Engineer Versatility and Golden Hound Fortune had come to my rescue during my research phase, so I already had a way to overcome the issue.

First, I worked on creating a powerful alloy made from different Rank 5 metals – tin, iron, chromium, and even the overly expensive mithril. I watched each ore melt down in buckets held in different sections of my Rank 5 forge.

Then, I used my tongs to tip each individual bucket into a central bucket to fuse as one solution.

Because of their combined density and the high heat, trying to stir the solution physically wouldn’t be advisable. But once more, Rank 5 equipment bought from a young noble wonderland proved exceptionally well designed.

The bucket holding the mixed solution came with a separate tablet. With that in my grasp, I inputted a runic sequence and remotely triggered the enchantments on the bucket. That led to the solution being stirred without risk of oxidization.

It was strange that, with all these advances in magic, artificing wasn’t as popular. But maybe it was because of the expense or the advanced knowledge needed to make artificing work that it was seen as impractical.

I also imagined Pathwalker society was missing a few components that the System or the Primordials must’ve wiped away and suppressed (with a lowercase S) over the changing of the Cycles. There were certain phrases, paragraphs, and whole pages in the old library books I’d examined that were missing or blanked out.

I’d asked Merlin and Thumper about those missing passages, but they had no answers. They couldn’t source anything heavy on technology from their knowledge of Modern Earth Realms. They knew of the internet and certain engineering functions, but they didn’t know the fine details.

It seemed anything that dealt with advanced science or even unique cases of physics was the most impaired.

In a way, that made me compare the High Gods and Primordials to the God who reigned over my old world. They must’ve ensured certain magical technologies and sciences weren’t so widespread or made to be easily useful.

Maybe such advanced magical sciences would place heavy imbalances on the tiers of power across the Realm Verse System.

Granted, I was probably one of the few who were pushing this angle of power with artificing. It wasn’t easy to achieve otherwise without my unique circumstances and advantages.

If it weren’t for me being the Slayer, I wouldn’t have acquired samples from the Slayer Sanctum, which pushed my research and weapon development to an extreme degree. I couldn’t wait to go visit the Slay Sanctum again.

On a side note, I could only hope the weak power armor I auctioned off to the Dragon Supremacy wouldn’t come around and bite me in the ass. But that was a problem for future me to face along with courting Melody Eclipse without her eating me alive.

Once the mixture finished, I dropped my musings and used one large pair of tongs to heft the heavy central bucket. It was nearly as large as me and weighed many times more. If I were to drop it on a semi-truck, it would crush it easily. It would probably crush several semi trucks easily.

Fortunately, my growth made my body and powers more than capable of handling the weight. With little effort, I walked over about thirty feet and began pouring the solution into dozens of Rank 5 mold-shifter cases.

The extras would serve me well for practice or for other experimental uses.

Once the molder-shifter cases were all filled, I left them to cool and moved on to the fun part. I melted down the Rank 3 emeralds on the lowest setting in their own bucket. In other sections of the forge, I had buckets melting Rank 5 diamond and Rank 5 gold ores. The diamond bucket came with a seal and pressure enchantment, too.

While those melted, I turned over to a unique part of the forge that was sectioned off for alchemy.

I’d already set the Rank 5 components to melt down within separate cauldrons on top of a single enchanted slab that connected them all. Each enclosed cauldron had tubes that connected to different tanks for different purposes. At the center of the cauldrons, there was one central storage unit.

With alchemy, I went more hands off. In fact, this single manufacturing station was a unique piece of magical technology made for passable alchemists on the go.

Syleth had bought it before it went on auction, and I was glad she went the extra step (or extra slither) there. I would never be the better of a true alchemist, but I’d gladly automate the processes to get what I needed.

As of now, I had a highly non-conductive Rank 5 plastic mixture that should be formed in the central storage unit. That was going to serve as my ‘dielectric,’ a much needed part to making a capacitor work.

After I checked the see-through strip on the side of the tank, I found the brown slurry climbing its way up closer to the top. It was about waist high, too, so there would be more dielectric than I needed, but I could certainly repurpose the leftover insulator somehow.

Going back to the melting forge, I grabbed the tongs, unsealed the diamond bucket, and it tipped the melted diamond liquid into the emerald bucket. I did the same with the gold component.

With this, I activated my elemental magic and some other powers. Electromagnetism served me well as I stirred the solution before stretching it out into a sheet that was paper thin and as long as my hand.

The thin and looping band was glossy gold-green and highly conductive material. As I spun loop after loop in the air above me, my electromagnetism ran through the bands with greater ease than I’d ever seen.

This was one case where my powers helped more than harmed, so I took full advantage as I held the entire bucket’s worth above me. 

Next, I looked into the molds after they cooled down enough. With a quick tap on the side, the sand particles slid away, leaving me with a core that came out the size of my fist and was oval shaped.

With this in hand, I used a Rank 5 vibrating knife to cut through the merged points and pull apart the core until it was two equal concave halves.

I took each part to different stations for grinding, hammering, and making slight adjustments while they were still warm. Then, I dunked them in a quenching tank before taking out one of the most expensive items on my list – a Rank 5 enchanting stylus, Legendary Quality.

It was worth a whopping twenty-five billion credits and far more powerful than what was needed for most crafters at my Level. Yet, I had it on the purchasing list anyway because it ensured none of my runic inscriptions would come out faulty unless it was user error.

Or maybe it was because I could afford it. I could even afford Rank 6 materials if I wanted, but there would be no point.

Rank 6 wouldn’t be as malleable to my needs, and the higher the Ranks, the more resistant the items could end up being when shaped for function over form. Also, I was under a time crunch.

The white-and-silver pen-shaped stylus moved like a dream as I inscribed enchantments with my left hand. After I finished, the interior and the exterior of both halves had glowing Aether-blue scripts and circles written finely over their surfaces, and they held easily enough.

Satisfied, I went over to the alchemy station, checked the solution’s height in the central storage unit, and confirmed it was practically full.

With a tap of my boot and a pulse of Path Energy, I hit the kill switch and deactivated the station. After a few seconds of waiting, I disconnected the central tank and yanked it up away from all the connecting tubes, the holes on the side already sealed.

I walked in the opposite direction of the molds holding the core, unscrewed the top of the storage unit, and poured into the one square pan that was fifty feet wide and fifty feet long. I used electromagnetism carefully on the tank itself to disperse the insulator solution over the pan. Once I had enough, I sealed the tank and placed it to the side.

Then, I manually used an extended roller to spread the insulator carefully until it was a thin, light brown sheet. After it cooled and solidified, I got down on one hand and knee and manually inscribed simple but potent enchantments every foot square. Then, I used a box-shaped blade to cut them out into square sections I would cut further later. 

From there, the cooling metal bands I left in the air came down next.

Using a pair of shearing scissors, I cut the conductive bands into sections and inscribed runes on them with my stylus. This part required more intense focus. The conductive bands were the core part of the capacitors, after all, so I had to really dial in there.

After that, I cut the same dimensions out of the insulator plastic. I wrapped a pair of metal sheets with four insulator sheets, keeping the metal pair apart and covered outwardly. Then, I used two metal strips that would serve as my positive and negative terminals.

No enchantments needed there; I’d already done the pre-work by inscribing on the metal sheets that the terminals would connect to.

Next up, I used more strips of enchanted insulator to line the interior of the power core before packing everything inside. I enclosed the two halves of the power core like fusing together a heart. Then I grabbed a welding wand and sealed the open edges until it was fully enclosed.

I waited for a beat with the finished power core in my hand. Something magical brushed over the crafted item and touched me.

“System, that’s you?” I asked.

She replied with a notification in my face. [Yes, my Slayer. Your creation has my approval.]

“Do items crafted in your multiverse must always have your approval?” I asked.

I wasn’t expecting her to respond, but she did, spoiling me. [If they fall under certain parameters, then yes. If outside of my parameters, then the unimproved item is like a ticking time bomb. Perhaps useful in the short term. But not for long. As powerful and stellar magic can be, magic can also be horrifying and a bane if not treated carefully. And this can go doubly so for any magical item that exceeds too far above your power.]

Her words made me hungry for more. I got greedy and asked something that kept troubling me.

“Why are certain physics sections blanked out or outright mutilated in the library books? Other than the basics, there’s a consistent part that falls under certain types of energy that keeps getting lost. What is it you’re hiding there?”

Of course, she didn’t respond.

Shaking my head, I let go of the matter and smiled down at my first fully functional and advanced Rank 5 power core. Of course, I would have to conduct extensive tests to ensure it was safe. The way the System had described certain magical items acting as ticking time bombs had me nervous.

So far, I had faced no major malfunctions once a design left the trial stages. But what if artificing had an increased likelihood of failing the higher the Ranks and Levels one went? It was more mechanical compared to pure enchanted items, after all, more prone to realistic failures, too.

After I created a dozen cores. I set aside the leftover materials, had Sabretooth fill me up, checked on V, and then went into the pit in front of the fortress. Once I reached the bottom floor, I blew myself up on purpose by drinking Path Elixirs and overloading the power cores.

The blasts were deadly for most who weren’t me.

Hours later, I added a few more enchanted failsafe measures to the power cores themselves. Then I moved on to making the individual armor suits and weapons for each of my juniors.

That part was simple when I put aside actual artificing. It took some added leatherwork and a bit of quilting, too, to inlay each armor’s interior. I even repurposed more of the insulator as an extra layer of enchanted protection.

The armor-crafting went by in a breeze even without electromagnetism. The weapons remained simple even if highly enchanted to respond well to each junior’s unique magic.

The most heart-thumping part was when I fixed the power cores to a unique change that most armors wouldn’t have – back plates.

It wouldn’t make sense to insert the power cores into the chest plates of all things. That was asking an enemy to target the biggest weak point in front of them.

The back plates moved on hinges near the pauldrons. Each torso ensemble could be donned and removed easily enough once the juniors learned how the auto-strapping enchantments worked.

After I assembled the simple power armor suits and weapons on mannequins propped in a line in front of me, an odd sense of self-doubt struck me.

Had I done enough for my juniors?

The last thing I wanted was to think I’d done so, and it turned out I’d done the bare minimum compared to other elders. I didn’t want to compare myself to how the Dragon Supremacy treated their juniors. They were exceptions, not the rule.

I was certain other societies of Pathwalkers had genius programs and structures that propped up their juniors. How would my process stack up?

Then after shaking my head, I realized my preference for being a perfectionist was getting in the way. If I hadn’t done enough, then I would make better equipment once I saw who stayed after the Embassy of Defilement.

Next up, new wands for Merlin.

After that, new knives and an upgraded nodachi for Thumper.

Then I would go last for five specific items:

A pair of small-arms guns that would merge the capabilities of the Penetrator, the Tri Slugger, and the Double Arm Cannons with more advanced gun technology.

New bombs.

A new and improved railcannon.

A new and improved greatsword.

And an improved version of my bonded armor.

As for Hellion and Sabretooth, I planned to conduct their upgrades during a time when I wasn’t under a huge time crunch. Bonded Treasures required more care when upgrading, especially at the higher Levels and Qualities. 

I had to work on my bonded armor because it was in an emergency state of disrepair. Hellion and Sabretooth were not damaged, and they were plenty powerful already.

Still, I made an internal promise that the next time I crafted, I would ensure the two got the best treatment. For now, I stuck to my plan and worked speedily under the time crunch.