chapter 23 plotting the liberation (work in progress)

specter castle was really big, so big daniel never even saw all of the first floor much less the other floors above

so when they went up he saw how exaggerated his grandfather was, but something strange happened, in the corridor in one of the many display cases, there was a strange egg the size of a cantaloupe, the reason it was strange was that the nanites, who would usually ignore vincent's collection reacted to it, as they react to the bracer and other technologies

daniel went over and the thing looked exactly like an egg, no doubt about it, Joseph noticed his behavior and asked "what's wrong?"

Daniel said "what does this piece of technology does?, it looks just like an egg"

Joseph used his sense and couldn't find anything wrong, it was just a fossilized egg for him "why do you say it's technology?"

Daniel said "because these things want to enter it" while pointing at his necklace

after hearing that, Joseph became more serious, if it was just Daniel he could have doubted, but the nanites can't be wrong about what's technology "Phoebe come here" he explained the situation, and they contacted Vincent again

Vincent said "it's supposed to be an egg of an extinct bird, I didn't sense anything wrong with it, quarantine it for now and make Daniel search the rest of the items, if the nanites react to something put it in quarantine"

Joseph said "ok, dad" then he asked Daniel "can you help us find more things like this?"

Daniel said "sure, but why are you so serious? it's just a piece of technology"

Joseph said "don't worry about it, just trust me on this" then an idea for a perfect excuse flashed in his head, and he continued "what if it's an unexploded bomb, it's always better to be careful"

Daniel nodded and together they spent the entire morning going over Vincent's displayed collection giving him a chance to explore the rest of the castle, the sheer number of empty rooms made Daniel really confused, even if Sophia was brought back they were just 5, so Daniel thought "what would we need all those bedrooms for?" but he wasn't really curious and never asked

after finishing the exploration Daniel had found 23 unidentified technological objects all made to look like something else

even if 23 seems like a big number, it was in the thousands of objects displayed, so just to be sure after lunch they spent the afternoon going through the stuff stored in the storage crate in the basement, for a grand total of 103 out of almost 15000 objects Vincent collected, not counting what was in the vault

it was the first time Daniel saw that many fun balls, or as Joseph called them, hazardous materials sphere, this also proved they had some experience, what they didn't understand was sealed separately, to avoid any possible danger or cross-contamination till a time in which it was analyzed and identified

after everything was inspected, Joseph brought all the full hazardous materials spheres away and left Daniel alone, who went into the ballroom, that since they got distracted was still occupied

also, Daniel didn't sleep all day since they got distracted so he was tired, but refusing to change his schedule he thought "I can take this stuff and put it in a corner, so dad or mom can just whoosh it away like they usually do"

sadly his body wouldn't allow such a chore, and in the end, he could only go down and keep reading in the deckchair, and as the sun was rising he fell asleep

Daniel ended up skipping breakfast because Phoebe let him sleep, and woke up at lunch ravenous, so he went to the kitchen and ate like a hog

after filling his stomach Daniel asked "where did dad put all that stuff?"

and Phoebe answered "in the hazard room inside the vault, so even if something explodes, no one gets hurt" they were already prepared for this question

Daniel asked "ok, can we go free the ballroom now?"

Phoebe said "of course"

while they were moving the souvenirs, one of them, a painting of a strange scaly dog with horns roared, Daniel was jumpscared by the image suddenly coming to life, but Phoebe laughed it off and said "it's just a spiritual painting, don't worry it doesn't bite"

Daniel asked "can I see it?"

Phoebe passed him the painting, and as he looked at it, he found himself liking it more and more so much that the nanites to please him sent a request, they wanted to take the shape of the scaly dog, Daniel allowed it and in the fun ball a little silver scaly dog was trying to roar for his amusement

Phoebe surprised asked "they can do that too?"

Daniel said "grandma said they can do a lot of things, these things are apparently awesome"

Phoebe said "she did, didn't she" with a smile that wasn't a smile

Daniel was confused and asked "has grandma done something wrong?"

Phoebe said "no, it's ok, now that the room is empty what do you need?"

Daniel said "a lot of things, but I don't know where what I need can be bought"

Phoebe said "there are no manufacturers for noncultivation related stuff, it's all imported from outside the federation, so you can go on teragon technology website, or the sun Onlineshop that sells basically everything maybe they can help" then she remembered something, and turning around said "Vincent asked to make a credit card for you too, but we can read the account balance, so don't exaggerate with the spending" than she gave him a cyan card made of some kind of glass

Daniel asked "I remember grandpa saying that, so this is money?" even if he had studied many things in school, everything was theoretical, he never actually saw a credit card

Phoebe said "yes, we already removed a part of the minor protection, so you can use verified shopping sites"

Daniel said "thanks mom"

while Phoebe was exiting the room, he immediately searched for teragon electronics with his bracer and started looking at the site, sadly none of the things he wanted were there, no chemistry equipment, no soldering equipment, no microscopes, nothing not even lousy ones

he then entered the sun Onlineshop, but the lab equipment he wanted was nowhere to be found, even if there was a massive array of things, and for the first time Daniel was angry, but then he remembered what grandma said, the nanites could be used to construct stuff, so maybe they can make these things too

he looked at the ball, then at the bracelet, and hoping that there were blueprints in one of the books, he opened the tablet and searched for it, and even if not all the ones he wanted, there were indeed some, and also others for stuff he didn't even know what it did

the problem now, was how to get the nanites free, since he already knew that asking was useless, and he didn't have a good excuse, not even a convincing argument, all he could do was wait for a chance

Daniel decided to wait and in the meantime started to read the blueprints, but to his surprise, the blueprints required parts to be assembled, so he went looking for the parts blueprints, and after a long search, he finally had most of the ones he needed to get started

now the problem was that he needed more than 50 different materials and he didn't know where to buy them, luckily even if some of this stuff was useless to cultivators, they were still used to make jewelry like silver and gold, and others could be made from other things by the nanites like carbon and silica

armed with his new shiny credit card, daniel placed orders to 30 different vendors on the website while still spending much less than the cost of his bed, but one thing was sure, he bought in bulk, to make sure he had enough

as he finished ordering the various notification arrived on Phoebe's and Joseph's devices, who seeing this many orders, were about to remove his privileges but seeing the total spent, they relaxed, it was much less than they thought, but in their mind, they were asking "what is this stuff, bauxite? aren't these rocks, and why sand? even gold and silver does he want to make jewelry?"

after finishing the online shopping Daniel walked down and went to study while 'tanning' in the deckchair, he was now reading how to make silica films with thermal oxidation

in the meantime he missed school two times and wasn't sure about the game either, all this gave him a new perspective, and Daniel thought "why fake something I can do in real life"

as the sun began to set, Daniel went inside for dinner, but he was early and went to see Sophia in the library

Daniel said "hi grandma"

Sophia said "hey kiddo, how is it going?"

Daniel said "well, grandpa, mom, and dad gave me a room for the lab and a credit card, and I ordered a lot of things, . . ." he told her about the events of the last 2 days

Sophia laughed and said "you said technology masked as something else, mmh, never heard of it in my time, but I have been here for too many years, I'm out of touch with the latest events"

Daniel was about to tell her that those things had been there for a while, but a voice interrupted the conversation

Phoebe said "Daniel dinner is ready"

Daniel let go, and said "I have to go dinner is ready"

Sophia said "go, I'll see you tomorrow"

after dinner Daniel was undecided, he said he would complete the tutorial but the books were so interesting, why do something in a game when you can do it in real life, but since the nanites were out of reach and he had no materials yet, he decided to at least finish the tutorial

so he went up, cracked the egg, and entered S.L.B

as he logged in, the first thing he did was look towards east, and indeed the army of tree-man was still there since time was frozen if he saved in the safezone

luckily they were unable to crossover in other areas, but Daniel still worried it may be impossible for him too, he went to try, and indeed couldn't, so, to bring the ship to the poisonous area he had to go through the safezone, or at least he hoped, he could

now with the spacesuit, after a bite of snake jerky and a drink of water he was full and ready to go up the volcano, so he put on the tyrant snake raincoat over the fluffy spacesuit and started walking

he had now 5 shots remaining in the mid-power setting, and a knife, so he hoped that the snakes would let him pass like on his way down

he arrived all the way to the bottom of the volcano without problems, and with confidence, he started walking upward

when he could barely see inside the crack something scary happened, the black snake was in there again, Daniel sneaked to where the hole he made before was and asked "why is this thing here again?"

the examiner said "I won't answer questions about the tutorial"

looking at it more attentively, Daniel noticed that this snake was different, its head was shaped a little different, probably the difference between male and female, but he had no idea which it was

but Daniel did know something as he said "so they were two from the start, this means it will go away too sooner or later"