chapter 32 certificate of completion / entering the vault (work in progress)

a couple of months went by and Daniel's passion for fishing was growing, sadly he was not strong enough and couldn't use spiritual energy, plus Vincent didn't know how to make him a fishing rod and reel, because on verulus they used spiritual energy to stretch a specially made line indefinitely, and had no idea what a rod reel combo was, because of all these reasons, the places were Daniel could go fishing were very limited on a planet as dangerous as Verulus

so the grandfather grandson duo went fishing every couple of days, but always in safe and small places, where the fish were small and the animals around were mostly innocuous

verulus was an ss grade habitable planet, the official highest grade, normal animals went extinct a long time ago, substituted by their spiritual evolutions, so most places on verulus are dangerous even for cultivators, and Vincent couldn't bring Daniel there with his senses dampened by the bracelet

this severely limited their fishing spots options and the lack of a fishing rod and reel set limited them even more, but luckily Vincent was able to convince Daniel, that it was too dangerous and that he would bring him in the future, even if how far in the future was still to establish

so Daniel was working hard not only on the robot, but also on the leggings, that we're continuously evolving, especially since most of the technology he was using for the robots, needed only a little modification to be used in the leggings armor

and today marked the birth of the first multipurpose automated robotic unit, or m.a.r.u v1, it was 2.7 mt high, had no head, and looked like a giant triangle pointing down with arms and legs, it had a slick shadow black paint job, with m.a.r.u v1 painted on the chest, and it could haul, assemble, shoot ballistic projectiles, also charge batteries and had a small fire extinguisher that was added after some accidents in the lab, sadly it wasn't advanced enough to refine materials, and make the small electronics parts, that was still tickles's job

when the family saw maru, the first thing phoebe did was test his fighting abilities, which were next to none it was basically a turret with a sturdy body, but she still labeled it as a second-stage technology

after sighing in relief internally Phoebe said "congratulation Daniel"

Daniel shook his head and said "this is just the beginning, I have to make him stronger to go fishing, I was thinking to make him a blade or something that he could use in close quarters" he really took it badly that he couldn't go fishing for bigger fish because it was dangerous

Phoebe said "if you can it would barely reach low third-stage strength but only if he would also know how to use it"

Daniel said "just basic movements, the joints aren't made for complex movements yet"

Vincent shook his head and said "well improvements are certainly needed, but how do you plan on bringing it with you, it's too big and noisy he will scare the fish" if he had this thing on the lake up mount kelipor, not one fish would bite, and since Daniel couldn't control is sneaky aura, there were no guarantees

Daniel already knew of this problem and said "I wish I could understand the technology behind the tablet/bracelet, to use it on the robots, if I could it would solve this problem immediately"

Sophia patted Daniel's head and said "sorry all the books I have about technology are already on the tablet"

Daniel smiled to Sophia and said "it's ok I'll get there, and in the next few months I should finish school so I will have even more time than before"

"what?" was the general exclamation of all 4 of them, as they had almost forgotten he was going to the virtual academy

Daniel said "yes, I asked, and the professors jellybot said, that if I continue at this pace in 8 to 10 months I should have learned everything they can teach"

Sophia said "how is it possible" she was the most shooked, because she didn't see him at the start, following simultaneous lessons

but Joseph did and asked "daniel how many lessons are you following simultaneously?"

Daniel said "18, but only at ¾ of the maximum speed"

Sophia said "parallel thinking doesn't even begin to describe it, this is another adjustment of the body, caused by the mutation, it may be the first, he wanted to go through school fast and his body changed to allow it, like Maya's internal structure changes based on the needs of her guests"

Phoebe asked "what do you mean?"

Daniel said before Sophia could explain "that if there are more guests there are more quarters if there is more cargo there are more cargo bays, an astral whale can rearrange the living spaces inside itself, and my body should do something similar with lessons, as I grow up, my body becomes capable of doing more, and the number of the simultaneous lesson I can follow increases"

Sophia nodded and said "exactly"

Daniel was already concentrated on something else, and said "well anyway, for now, I will try to make maru stronger and make the movements more fluid so he won't be as noisy"

the reason why the robot was so noisy wasn't the hydraulics, but the weight, that was why he with the similar system installed in the tactical swimming pants Daniel didn't make much noise

because of this Daniel's new research direction for maru v2 was a lightweight material, that was resistant enough to substitute the frame that the robot was built on and another for the armor plates protecting the vulnerable areas

daniel learned something from the pitiful automaton that protected the spacetuna in S.L.B, protect your robot's weak spots, in this case, the memory quartz drive and the batteries in the chest

months started to pass faster, daniel would twice a week trade lab time for fishing time, but he would never lose school time, he was so close he felt the same freeing sensation as when he was almost done with the tutorial

and finally a week before his sixth birthday he finally completed it, the professors jellybot run out of arguments, and one after the other they just froze, till the last one froze and the classroom became silent

a couple of seconds later a 'certificate of completion' appeared in his hands, and was sent to his device, it also appeared in his identity module, as proof that he had a superior education, grades didn't really matter in a cultivator civilization

the kids that completed school had the basics, but they still needed to go seek apprenticeship to gain access to the more advanced knowledge, what the certificate of completion did was give them an edge over the competition

normally it would be an alchemy certificate of completion, or formation building certificate of completion, to show that they had the basics, but for daniel, it was simply a certificate of completion because he took everything, which wasn't rare since most of the population was thousands of years old, but it was the first time someone took it so young or in such a short time

the bear-man even tried to write to Daniel, and invite him to make improvements to the virtual academy, since he was obviously a genius, but all the messages to Daniel were intercepted by his legal guardians, who directly rejected to keep Daniel's anonymity, the bear-man could see his result in school but he couldn't see his personal information

at lunchtime, there was a small party in the family, and Daniel was ready for his long-awaited rewards, but there was a problem

Vincent was laughing and said "about the secret, you were too fast, she will not be back in this galaxy for at least another 4 maybe 5 years, so you will have to wait, but I already put your data and identity in the system from now on you can freely access the family vault"

Daniel was confused and asked "who?"

Vincent kept smiling and replied "that's the secret, you will know when she comes to visit, for now, you will have to be satisfied with the vault"

Daniel wasn't really interested in the secret, all he wanted was the technology so he asked "where is the vault?"

Vincent had a sudden realization and said "right, you've never been up there"

Daniel asked "up?"

Vincent made a gesture to follow him and said "let's go to the roof, I'll accompany and explain the rules while we're at it"

Daniel had more questions but Vincent just gestured for him to follow again, and they walked up to a big terrace in the middle of the castle roof, here was technically outside and there were no display cases, so this is the only part of the castle Daniel had not seen before

in the middle there was a circular mosaic, Vincent brought Daniel on it and after a few flashes both of them disappeared

Daniel looked around, they were now in a square, surrounded by statues, and the sky was in various shades of purple, they clearly weren't in specter castle anymore "this is a teleport, where are we now?"

Vincent shrugged and said "it's a, point a to point b teleport, I have no idea where this dimension is, my great-great-grandfather Anthony specter made this teleport, and since then the specter family brought it with them every time we move, look that's him" he said pointing at a statue of an 80 something years old man in the majestic circular plaza full of statues in between each statue there was a street leading to some strange stone buildings, while at the center below their feet, there was the same mosaic that brought them here and the rest of the pavement was built in white stones

overall it looked like the central plaza of a city bathed in violet sunlight

Daniel had a lot of questions, but the most pressing derived from the purple sun up in the sky that was shining on them, Daniel had a strange feeling because of it, so he asked "the sun is shining, but why can't I hear the song of the sun?"

Vincent said "it's normal, this is a natural dimension, nothing leaks in, nothing leaks out, you can hear it in the castle dimension because it has been made by me, and being man-made it can't be sealed perfectly, and the soul energy seeps in but in here there is no soul energy"

Daniel asked "natural dimension?"

Vincent nodded and explained "yes, this is a maze-type natural dimension of the spatial element, as you might have noticed both me, Joseph and Phoebe have purple eyes, that is because we all have spatial element affinity, your grandmother's eyes are a light blue because she has a cold fire advanced element affinity, normally eye color is based on the elemental affinity with some exception, that's why Andrea has golden eyes for the rare fire plus light affinity, and Obelix has white eyes for his thunder affinity, this isn't just a vault, it's also a crypt, a close-up place, and a training ground were spatial element energy is abundant"

Daniel asked "what about me?"

Vincent patted Daniel's head and said "I have no idea, it's the first time I've seen that shade of cyan eyes, sorry"

Daniel smiled and said "no it's ok, so this is a statue of my great-great-great-grandpa?"

Vincent said "not a statue, that's him, and all the statues around here are different family members that are closing up"