255 Manatech 1 (1/2)
”Dax! Wake up!”
About an hour before first light, Dax's meditating was suddenly and rudely interrupted by Ra, the older of the Avoaxian sisters.
”I am awake, I don't sleep, remember?”
Lazily opening his eyes Dax found Ra right in front of his face, her large, bright blue eyes stared right into Dax's with excitement clearly visible. Having known Ra for some time, Dax knew full well that there was only one thing that would make her so happy.
”Ah yeah, that's right… Anyway, come on, you have to see this!”
Half dragging Dax out of his room Ra continued spouting all sorts of complicated formulas and quantum mechanics while talking about concepts way too complicated for Dax to understand. Reaching the lab that Ra and Mu had claimed as their own, Mu who was waiting immediately started a demonstration with the same kind of excited smile on her face that her sister had. In the centre of the laboratory behind several layers of slightly singed safety barriers was a single pedestal with a see through crystal.
”Now commencing test number…. Eh, whatever, it doesn't matter anyway since this is just a formality.”
Activating whatever device they had been working on for some time, Dax felt a large power surge build for a few seconds before the crystal in the middle of the room light up slightly.
”Is that?...”
”It is. Awesome, right?~”
Other than the dim light the crystal was emitting something else seemed to emerge from the crystal, the otherworldly and irrational power of mana.
”... So you guys finished analysing the mana producing relic and made a prototype in only 14 hours?”
”Huh? Did you have such a thing?”
Checking both Ra and Mu's expression Dax clearly saw the surprise visible on both their faces and realized something.
”So you didn't analyse the mana producing relic and made a prototype in only 14 hours, you guys developed a fully working mana generating prototype in only 14 hours…”
In some ways, the two Avoaxian sisters were simply amazing while in others they left much to be desired.
(Do you guys have any idea how much trouble I went tough to recover that thing? I fought a fucking immortal killing machine to a standstill before almost burning out the Jug's offensive drive to throw it into the fucking sun… Well, even if I said that it wouldn't really change anything…)
Left with too much to say about the current situation Dax chose to simply remain silent while rubbing the bridge of his nose in a slightly irritated manner, suppressing his feeling until he eventually calmed down and looked at the positive in the situation.
”So? How does it work?”
”By manipulating subspace virtual particles and forcing them to-”
”Yeah no, give me more a practical explanation. What's the input, what's how's the output with what amount of waste heat generation?”
That's how their dynamic had been for the last 500 years.
”That one there is the 0th generation, so the waste heat is pretty much off the charts. Along with that, it has terrible energy efficiency and isn't really suited for practical use.”
”Which means there's a practical generation already developed, right?”
”Exactly, here is the 5th generation, already ready for practical use. As no technology even comes close to something like this has ever existed we've taken the liberty of naming it 'manatech', just to keep it simple~”
Having seen right through Mu's horseplay with a smile, Mu showed Dax some prototype amour with a black gem integrated as a centrepiece.
”Is it really a good idea to have the weak point of the entire system on display like that?”
”It is a prototype after all. The armour contains both mana generating and a spell formulating device that integrates with that old neural interface standard you're still running, of course as soon as you connect to it it'll give you the rundown of how to use it. Why don't you give it a try?”
”Sure.”
Putting on the prototype armour it seamlessly integrated with Dax's cybernetic implant.
”What about the ICI standard?”
”Ah, that. Yeah, we've made it to flawlessly integrate with all ICI systems without issue using a new type of interface. IMI, or Integrated Management Intelligence, wanna upgrade?”
”Nah, just integrate it as is.”
”Okay… Done, give it a try.”