Chapter 203: Up to Speed
Up to Speed
"Sir." Osho nodded.
"Osho." William returned the nod, a look of mutual respect passing between them.
"I assume your friends are spending time with their families?" He asked, a slight smile on his face, and Osho nodded.
"That’s right."
"Hm. Okay, I suppose there’s no issue with me bringing you up to speed on certain matters." William said as he sat on one of the chairs, and the others sat in their respective seats.
As soon as they did, though, Osho looked at Mrs Jane’s partner strangely and asked.
"Uh, not to be rude, but should he be...?" He trailed off, but his meaning was clear.
"It’s fine. He’s trustworthy." Mrs Jane answered calmly, and seeing as no one else disagreed, Osho decided not to chase the matter.
The way the guy smiled when his trustworthiness was confirmed was quite disarming, though.
"Alright. Is there anything you want to know first?" William asked, and Osho was silent for a moment before asking.
"How’s the conquest on the south and the ants?" Hearing this, William’s smile grew, like he’d been wanting Osho to ask that specific question.
"Ah, I’m glad you asked." He chuckled and tapped his watch, and a hologram appeared, showing off a 3D rendition of the citadel before zooming in on the south side.
"Since you left, we’ve managed to explore and claim over a few dozen miles worth of territory from the ants. What’s more, we successfully eliminated several of their elite forces and pushed them back quite a bit." Hearing this, Osho nodded slowly.
He expected nothing less. After all, due to his help, the overall power of the Citadel’s forces had grown significantly, and that was just for the weaker troops, there were still the elites who were a step above everyone else.
"That’s not even the best part." Major Thompson chimed in with a grin.
"Our conjecture about that direction containing rare materials was correct. In fact, it wasn’t just correct, we severely underestimated just how valuable the resources there were." Osho’s attention was immediately piqued.
If they said something was that valuable, then it must indeed be that valuable.
"Well? What is it?" He asked, unable to hide his curiosity.
The two older men glanced at Lady Haggai, who just held out her hands and retrieved something from her spatial storage.
A strange purple and silver rock appeared in her hand, and Osho immediately focused on it as he proved it with his Mana sense.
’Hm. Space Affinity, Stellar Affinity... hm? Is that?’ He frowned as he sensed another Affinity which surprised him, as it was one he didn’t find a lot.
Seeing his surprise, Haggai explained calmly.
"The source of this rock is actually a meteor that crashed and was buried deep in the ground for who knows how long. It is rich in the Space, Stellar, and... Gravity Affinity." Her words confirmed his suspicions, but it was the first part of her sentence that caught his attention.
"A meteor?!" He exclaimed, and she nodded.
His shock wasn’t surprising, though. As stated before, after Mana descended and changed the world, the sky had essentially become its own different world. What’s more, it acted as a sort of barrier, making it extremely difficult for things to leave or enter the planet via the atmosphere.
As such, the fact that a meteor managed to get through and crash into the planet was genuinely baffling.
She seemed to read his mind and continued.
"As you suspect, due to the difficulties of going through the planet’s atmosphere, the chances of anything entering to crash into the planet are extremely small. So either the crash happened when the atmosphere was still fairly fragile, or the meteor itself was extremely durable and carried an absurd amount of energy, enough to bypass the atmosphere." She handed Osho the meteor fragment.
"So... which is it?" He asked carefully, and she stared at him for a few seconds before shrugging.
"The a bit of both."
"And why is that?"
There was a brief silence, then she shrugged again.
"Most likely because, first of all, there’s no way no one would have missed such a large meteor unless it was relatively early, most likely when Mana just descended, as humans were too busy battling beasts, and most of our main infrastructure like satellites had been destroyed. As such, no one was able to notice its arrival.
And in regards to its durability, well..." She paused for a second, then continued. "Preliminary investigations showed that the thing is at least 40 miles across."
"..."
Osho stared at her for a few seconds, then he looked around, and he saw that the others all looked calm, showing that they knew this already. Then he looked back at Lady Haggai before asking in a strained voice.
"... I’m sorry... did you say 40 miles?" Lady Haggai simply nodded.
"... Wasn’t the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs only 6-9 miles across?" He asked again.
"Well, yes, but the context is far more different than before," She explained. "Compared to then, the planet is significantly more durable. Be it the ground, air, and everything else. Moreover. Even if the sky wasn’t as durable as it is now, it was still far more durable than the pre-mana atmosphere. As such, the speed of the meteor was most likely reduced significantly. Factors like these can easily explain why such a thing occurred with minimal repercussions on the planet." When she finished, Osho went from shocked to contemplative.
She... had a point.
Compared to back then. In fact, even if one just looked at the planet a few months after Mana descended, it was far more durable than before Mana appeared. So is it really so shocking that it managed to survive something that would have eviscerated all life on the planet prior to Mana showing up?
With a sigh, he looked at William again.
"So, what else?" He asked, and William smiled again.
"Well, unfortunately, a lot of the meteor is still within the territory of the ants, but that’s quickly changing. Moreover, after taking samples of the meteor, we were quickly able to find out ways it could be used. One of which includes..." He pulled up another hologram, and Osho focused on it before his eyes widened.
"Creating space craft." William finished, and Osho stared at the hologram of what looked like a satellite for a few seconds, then an incredulous laugh left him.
"So... we’ve been sitting on top such a rare resource for years and never noticed?" He asked with shock, and what he got in response were nods.
The significance of space craft... was huge.
For reasons previously outlined already, launching spacecraft into space was extremely difficult. Not that it wasn’t possible, but the funds required to do so along with the materials needed discouraged most from trying.
As such, most Citadels either connected to the advanced but somewhat small satellite system developed by the high-level Cutadels, or created satellites that only went very high into the atmosphere without being able to cross it.
Whether it was communication, geographical mapping, and so on, satellites were devices of immense use to humanity, and if the materials which made up the asteroid allowed for such, then it was no wonder William was so keen on defeating the ants.
It was only after a while that Osho finally regained his composure and exhaled as he leaned into his seat.
"That’s already a lot, honestly." He sighed.
"If it makes you feel better, that was probably the most significant new we had. The rest pale a bit in comparison. Well, except for one other thing." Timothy chuckled at Osho’s reaction.
"Fair... but what else has happened?" He decided to ask after regaining his bearings, and there was silence for a few seconds before Mrs Jane spoke.
"Well, for starters, something... odd, has been happening." Osho blinked at this. He thought it might be something bad, but what he saw on everyone’s faces was tentative excitement.
"... What is it?" He asked carefully.
"Well, you see." Mrs Jane began.
"After you left, we distributed the evolved eggs as planned, and we mlre or less just let things play out the way we wanted. However, after a while, we started to notice something... odd." This made Osho frown, but he didn’t interrupt.
"We noticed that, besides the eggs you evolved, all of a sudden, people were hatching beasts of decent talent. It started small at first. The number of Apprentice rank potential beasts appearing increased, and we thought it was simply a case of luck. But as time passed, the number only increased. Moreover, the rate at which eggs with even higher potential started appearing started to rise, too. And so far, this rate hasn’t stopped since." Mrs Jane hesitated before saying.
"We aren’t too sure why other than a guess which involves you... but it would appear that, for some reason, the average level of all hatched beasts within this Citadel is rising rapidly, and we aren’t too sure why."