Origin Seeker

When Dream was presented with all of his resources, Sophia began listing them off.

[6000 tons of steel, 1800 tons of silver, and 1200 tons of other miscellaneous materials like copper, tungsten, graphite, and others. Guess how much of the silver and steel is grade 8.]

"Hmm, 10%?"

[Try 30%. The bots never stopped their enhancements and have continuously been blowing things up.]

"I guess that explains why this station is filled with mana fog."

Dream looked around the storage, noticing the dense fog that was ever-present. 

[It gathered up over time as the robots kept pulling more and more mana. But here's the best part. We've got loads of grade 9 material. The only reason why it's not higher is because the robots could never explode metal of such strength.]

"How much grade 9?"

[400 tons for steel and 150 tons for silver.]

"Haha, we're rich!"

[I guess that's one way to look at it.]

Dream smiled even wider as he looked upon the super valuable resources. He walked over to a pallet and picked up an ingot of steel.

"How were we able to get so much?"

[Well, two months is quite a while for robots that work nonstop. The miners are still down there drilling at their peak efficiency. And when one site is dug up, they move on to another. We even have a backlog of sites that have been discovered but not mined yet since there's only so many teams.]

"Very nice. Well, knowing that I can make whatever the hell I want, let's get started with going over our strategies."

Dream brought out a chair and sat down, squishing the ingot in his hand like a stress ball.

[There are two main parts to this mission, and only in the worst case will Riddick actually have to act. The first part of this mission will be your infiltration. Not only do you need to be able to reach the girls and Selene, but you need to get them out as well while remaining totally undetected. For this we will need to develop suits for everyone involved that specialize in stealth.]

"Seems simple enough. In what situation would Riddick step in?"

[If you get detected at any point in time by someone you can't kill. If it's a class 3, then we'll most likely be safe as you would be able to kill them quickly. But anyone stronger will be bad news. Riddick would have to step in and distract the enemy while you have the girls escape. We would then need to get him out of the battle and escape as well.]

"Will I even be able to interfere in a battle like that?"

[You will. With the right weapons at least. You don't need to kill, only escape. And the weapons we will develop are for the worst case, and hopefully they won't have to be used.]

"Is this while considering crossfire?"

[No.]

"I think we should. We need to develop anti-personnel weapons, not area destruction weapons. For this I actually have some ideas."

[Railguns?]

"Yes. But large scale and mana based. We have the element of surprise and time to plan. There's nothing stopping me from installing a railgun platform outside the city."

[That works.]

"Good. Now, we should focus on these stealth suits. What were you thinking?"

[Suits similar to Aegis. Though we wouldn't make the particles as small. And since they need to be powerful, we'll need to make another batch of liquid mana for all the suits. One for each person, equaling 4. They'll be equipped with their own intelligence as well just in case.]

"How long would 4 take to make?"

[We could have them done by today.]

"Nice. Now, what grade metal should we use?"

[For this, we should use our highest grade and best enchanting techniques. We'll be trying to hide under the nose of several class 4's, so we can't be cheap with our stealth.]

"So grade 9?"

[We can make some grade 10 rather easily, maybe even 11 if we push it.]

"Then that'll be our first order of business. Bring it over."

When he said that, several hundred pounds of ingots raised themselves and flew over, landing in front of Dream.

Without words, Aegis went over and began to assist in the reform and mana infusion. Dream soon had several massive spheres of metal in front of him and they were quickly filled with huge amounts of mana.

*BOOM*

Several low thuds were heard and depleted metal began to dump out of the spheres. While the flux slowly absorbed, Dream moved on to some more prepared spheres and did the same thing.

This went on for several hours, but despite the huge amount of mana being moved and constant work, Dream never felt any huge pressure. In fact, the small workout felt a bit good. 

After a few more explosions, Dream took a look at the several spheres of grade 10 steel. He tilted his head.

"Have I really gotten that much more powerful?"

[You have. I mean, you literally breathe mana fog. Your body and soul naturally condense that mana.]

"I guess. By the way, were you sensing the same thing I was when the explosions occurred? That was flux, right?"

As Dream had been blowing up the sphere cores to enhance materials, he could sense the fluctuations of a certain energy within. It was an energy he had never been able to see before and the new variable, despite being faint, was very noticeable.

[Yes, that is flux. And since we're doing this, we should try and experiment with it. If you can sense it, chances are that you can control it too. That would make strengthening materials many times easier.]

"It would. Let's continue then."

Dream moved his mana into more materials of varying grades. After exploding some more cores, he focused on the moving energy that wasn't mana. And while it moved, he tried extending his influence to it.

"Oh! It moved!"

When Dream pulled on the energy while it wasn't attached to the metal, he was actually able to get some small movement. Although he wasn't able to get much more than that, the fact that he was able to exert any kind of force was amazing.

<[Arcana] has leveled up!>

"Oo. A level up too. Only one though. This skill is going to be a pain to level huh."

[One level at a time. At least we know that more possibilities have been laid out. Just keep exercising that new muscle.]

As she said that, Dream exploded more spheres. As the flux was ejected, he extended his influence and tugged on it in tiny bits. He felt like he was working out by lifting 5-pound dumbbells.

They quickly went past the grade 10 mark and approached grade 11, but the amount of mana and control necessary to continue on was absurd. He would suck over the mana of almost the entire facility in order to try and keep exploding the metal. So eventually he just stopped.

"How much do we have?"

Dream spoke as he looked at the spheres of metal in front of him. This is what he had enhanced before stopping due to the difficulty.

[9 tons of grade 10.8 steel and 3 tons of the same for silver.]

"Nice. That'll be enough. Now before we make their suits, how about we upgrade Ae- Oh my."

As Dream spoke, the almost grade 11 steel flew over and began to dissipate into particles. But as he broke down the metal, he noticed how different his control was over it.

[So your scale of control has gotten smaller. Let's see...Before it was 250 nanometers. Now it's around 50. Shrunk by 5 times.]

"Very nice. But only the particles for my suit will get that small. Not the others. You said you wanted to keep the suit particles visible?"

[Yes. It'll make the stealth more effective.]

"Doesn't that mean we would want to do it for my suit too?"

[No. Because they don't have your skill, their suits can't work in tangent with the skill like Aegis does with you. Making the particles bigger gives them better independent ability.]

"Gotcha. Let's keep going then."

Nodding to her, Dream continued to break down the new material for Aegis. This didn't take long and in several minutes, he was preparing the globe network to remove the liquid mana and enchant the new particles with it. This also happened quickly and once finished, Aegis began the transfer.

"Moving....Transfer complete."

Once Aegis spoke, the old particles lost their luster while the new particles flowed with mana. Overall, Aegis received nearly double the power he had as a result of a more powerful enchanter and smaller particles.

"Huuhh...Sweet. Aegis upgraded. Now we can move onto the girls' armor."

When he said that, the already disassembled steel particles next to him lifted themselves and moved inside the globe network. And since the particles were bigger, a bit bigger than a micrometer, they were much quicker to enchant. 

When all the particles were enchanted, Dream began the process of making liquid mana. Since he had plenty of materials to sacrifice for flux and his soul was much more capable of condensing mana, he created the liquid mana by the bucket and filled the particles to the brim, enhancing the enchantments by several times.

"Done. Now, divide."

When he spoke, the huge cluster of enchanted particles split into four groups. The next moment, Sophia began installing the prebuilt intelligences into the different suits. This went quickly with their skill level and soon, all the clusters were finished.

Dream sat there as the 4 clusters reshaped themselves into humanoids. Unlike Aegis though, they weren't invisible. They were actually purple.

"Why are they purple?"

[Because the particle size is above the purple light wavelength but below red.]

"Right. Hello, new suits."

"""Hello."""

They all responded to his greeting. They sounded different from Aegis. Instead of his rough, manly voice, they all had woman's voices, except for one which would be assigned to Riddick.

[They've been programmed and enchanted accordingly. Like the drone you dropped to them to deliver the bracelets, these will be able to independently seek their targets and latch to them, forming however they need to.]

"But won't someone see them as they move to them?"

[They can still turn into a gas, rendering themselves mostly invisible. Only when they're in solid and liquid form would they be visible."

"Oh. K."

[In fact, we can send these suits to them right now.]

"Now? Why?"

[In order for their disappearance to seem as 'natural' as possible, I was thinking we could have them start to gradually disappearing from everyone's senses. The suits can slowly raise the masking of their presence. It won't be abrupt so no one will notice and then on the day they need to disappear, their masked presence will already have reached its highest point. It'll at least give us a bit more time as Raoul tries to understand what's going on.]

"Hm. Smart. These suits can get there fine?"

[Prefectly.]

"Then go ahead."

Dream waved to three of the humanoids that were designated for the girls. They stood up and made their way out of the factory, reentering orbit and flying themselves to the United Empire.

Dream watched them the whole way, especially when they arrived above the city. There, they turned into gases and spread themselves out thin while pressing themselves against the ground. 

While following surfaces, they slowly made their way across the grass, into the city, across buildings, all the way to the locations of the three girls.

Currently, the girls were inside their villa. It was morning on their side of the world and they had only woken up an hour ago. And since they were awake, Dream made contact with their bracelets.

"Ahem. Luna. Iris."

"Dream?!"

"Dream!"

Two excited voices came over the connection and their images appeared in front of him. He also appeared in front of them.

"How's it going, you two?"

"I hate it here. I want to leave."

Iris immediately spoke up in anger. Luna also nodded in agreement. Dream just smiled.

"Well, I have a reason for calling. In fact, let's call your mother as well."

Dream rang the third bracelet, the one that was on Selene. The call went through in a couple of moments.

"Luna? Iris? And, who are you?"

A beautiful woman suddenly appeared in their visions. She looked at the girls and then Dream, confused.

"Selene, right?"

"That's right. And you must be Dream."

"Correct."

"So you're the one who stole my girls' hearts huh?"

Selene looked Dream over as if taking in every detail. Though Dream didn't wait around for her.

"I would love to have a proper meet and greet with you, but there's a reason I've called. Right now there are three suits that I've recently constructed currently within the vicinity of you three. I need you three to get somewhere accessible. Maybe go to a door and open it so they can slip in."

"Suits? Wait, are you currently here?"

"No. My suits have transported themselves over there. You'll understand when you receive them."

"...I heard you were a bit unique."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"We can all do that. Just open the doors?" (Luna)

"Yes. They only need a small crack."

"Alright. Mom?"

"...Ok."

The three women got up and went over to the doors to their buildings. They opened their doors only a little and waited.

"And....Alright. You can close them."

"...?"

All of them were confused but listened. They closed the doors and looked around, not seeing any suits. But after a few moments, they could sense mana movement near them. 

They all spun around to the mana movement and saw a purple liquid forming into the shape of a humanoid. Two humanoids appeared in front of Luna and Iris while one appeared in front of Selene.

"Guys, these are your new suits."

"""Hello, my lady."""

In unison, the suits spoke to their new owners while bowing. 

"Suits? How are these suits? What even are they?"

Selene went over and poked hers, immediately feeling the cold hard metal. She was surprised.

"Iron? How can Iron do this?"

"If you want to understand more, put your right hand on their body. Forewarning, they're going to form over you."

"Ok."

The first to do so was Luna. She went over and put her hand on the suit's shoulder. The next moment, the humanoid began to liquefy and flow over her body, enveloping it completely.

"Wha? What happened? What did that do?"

Selene was a little panicked as she saw her daughter eaten by the metal.

"Mom, it's alright. It's a suit, like he said. It's even talking to me."

"Let me try."

Iris was curious and also touched her humanoid. It did the same thing and enveloped her.

"Oo. This is cool. I can move around perfectly."

Iris began moving around like an acrobat, jumping every which way. They all watched her for a bit before Luna had an idea.

*Poof*

Luna transformed, becoming a fox. And even after going into fox form, the suit moved with her and enveloped her fox body as well.

"Neat!"

Iris did the same, transforming into a fox and jumping around more. Luna also did her own little movements, feeling things out.

"Hmm..."

Selene looked at her suit for a bit before doing the same. And just like the others, the suit enveloped her, fitting perfectly.

"...Amazing."

She got even more curious and began messing around, just like the girls. Dream soon saw three foxes jumping around their rooms.

"Ahem. I'm glad you like them, but I have a bit more to say."

"Oh, sorry."

Embarrassed, they all stopped and looked at Dream.

"These suits have tons of functions, but there are two that are most important. The first is stealth. And the other is flight. When activated, you can use these functions and nobody will know you're there."

"Stealth?"

"Why would you...? No, you can't be."

The girls were confused, but Selene quickly connected the dots.

"You're trying to help us escape."