Jake had wanted to get transmuting nearly right away after he regenerated his resources but found that the bow looked a bit… sluggish? It was no longer glowing, and the gems also looked completely inert. He came to realize he would need to give the poor bow a break before he began changing stuff. So he put it in his spatial storage and found that it could luckily still restore its mana within there.

He considered what to do, and with his proximity to the Fort, he decided to check there first to see if Arnold was done tinkering with his Nanoblade.

The trip there was swift as he used One Step Mile to cross the plains. Of course, it wasn’t as fast as when he went to save the hawks, but it was still a nice casual speed faster than the fastest fighter jet of old Earth.

Once more, the Fort had expanded. He saw that more buildings had popped up in the brief time he was not there, but the biggest change had happened at the central Fort. The courtyard was no longer used as a big smithy but was instead nearly devoid of anything besides a few larger ongoing construction projects.

Jake frowned, wondering what they were up to, but reckoned he could just ask Arnold. He did see that all the blacksmiths who used to work there had gotten their own little district. Well, they would have had to move eventually anyway due to limited space.

He flew directly down and landed in the courtyard, inspecting the construction more closely. It looked like the beginnings of some kind of assembly line. Was Arnold planning on mass-producing stuff? That would be kind of insane.

Entering the citadel building itself, he already spotted Arnold in his lab. The man was hunched over a table as he looked through some kind of microscope onto a thin piece of some material that looked like glass. Jake entered the room without the man even noticing and snuck up behind him. He wondered why all the drones flying above didn’t react despite clearly noticing him.

Jake leaned over Arnold’s shoulder and looked down at the piece of glass. He focused and saw that many microscopic patterns were etched into it, almost looking like veins. Maybe ley-lines? All the lines were straight and very angular, looking very sci-fi. It was some insanely precise work, and each was so small even he had issues seeing it.

“That’s some advanced stuff. Is that shard from the golem?” Jake finally asked after looking for a while.

A part of him had hoped for Arnold to get surprised, but the man just casually answered. “Yes, this particular piece is from beneath the third layer of the metal, functioning almost like a circuit board.”

Well, he is no fun, Jake joked with himself but still answered. “Yeah, those vein-like things are damn small. As I said, very advanced. But I came to ask if-“

Arnold interrupted him as the man jerked back, looked at Jake with bloodshot eyes. “What veins!? Can you see them!?”

“Well, yeah?” Jake answered.

“How?” the man asked, looking genuinely confused.

“Because perception is the best stat. Duh,” Jake answered again, totally serious.

“I am aware of its importance, and I already possess over 1700 in it, I cannot see how that could be the-“

“Casual,” Jake answered, waving him off. “Who doesn’t have at least five of the big ones already?” ´Well, he was nearly at 6000 perception himself, actually, but no need to brag, right?

Jake only had 1190, and he even got quite a few points from his class. This meant Arnold had actually put points in perception or at least had perception-based gear, and his class and/or

[Human – lvl 117]

after looking a bit confused. “I have been working on a microscope to allow me to view them better, but they simply don’t work as they should. The amplification distorts the patterns and interferes with the interpretation, and I need to

bit but soon nodded. “Sure, but can you let me get

Arnold said, stepping

the microscope, and… holy shit, it sucked. Like, sure, it amplified things a bit, but compared to him just squinting a

like

anymore. I can make some tools that help a bit, but in many cases looking with your bare eyes provide the clearest image…” Arnold answered with resignation before quickly trying to get

focused. His presence blanketed the laboratory, making Arnold take a step back, but the man didn’t show any other reaction than that. The reason Jake did this was that honestly… it

to properly copy what he had seen. He even sent out a string to pick up the shard as he held it

construction of mana strings. Jake felt that his mana was being scanned but naturally didn’t fight. He had nothing to lose

city came and offered him a big new lab and stuff like that. Besides, if he did, Jake would just have to travel a bit further to get his stuff and make sure to get his due. Arnold

to properly record it all. By that time, Jake

the Nanoblade done?” he

It has

it proper mana conductivity and make the blade more powerful in every way. I attempted to attune it to your unique form of mana,

looked nearly exactly the same as before, except the blade now had a silver sheen to it. The handle also looked like it had a do-over, and overall, the entire blade looked damn sleek. Jake Identified it and was

making it both incredibly durable and sharp, coated with a thin layer of unattuned Aluabsorbant. The blade itself can cut most materials effortlessly but has little to no effectiveness against

110+ in any

Jake said before asking. “Have you managed to

still trying to figure out exactly what kind of metal composite the exterior is made of and have begun preliminary examinations of the eyes of the golem and some of the more easily accessible components,” Arnold answered. In

me or something

interest to you, but I have extracted

nice talking to you again.

back in his lab, not reacting for a few seconds. The madman eventually just shrugged and returned to tinkering with

just outside the Fort, used One Step Mile to cross the plains until he reached the forest, which he just flew over back

still under construction. Hank was really going all-out and working on making it closer to an entire underground complex. Several large rooms had been added, and he really made use of the fact that he could build in nearly unlimited

it would even be ready for the Treasure Hunt, but it wasn’t like he was actually in a rush. For now, he still focused on elixirs which he didn’t need a secure lab to make, so he went back

only while waiting for the bow to recharge before the

the sun. Or maybe he was just imagining it. But, honestly, it could just be the Pylon making it so that it got recharged faster, and

perception-increasing elixirs, all of which he consumed right there and then, getting another

was that the bow was ready. He chugged down a mana potion as he got to work. A plan had already formed in his mind during all his

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