back to the lab Daniel started working on activating the sand with the new information, putting aside M.A.R.U v3, and the new evolution of the tactical swimming leggings, the floating and swimming safety armor v3, or F.A.S.S.A v3
another 2 completely new, side projects were further postponed, Daniel thought about them a while ago, but couldn't pursue because of the lack of knowledge and materials, so they took life from the anchor sand discovery
the first side project was Scout, it was supposed to be a small spherical drone, that could capture audio and video at 360% and scan the surroundings with a complex set of scanners and sensors of which he already has the blueprint, he just needs to make a blueprint of the drone and put them in it, Daniel wanted to make it to be able to prevent threats brought by the dangerous wildlife while fishing
and the second was project cloud, Daniel said long ago that he wanted to make a vehicle, to cruise in the clouds, like Vincent's flying boat, but this project was just a low priority one, after all, he had only the propulsion system of that vehicle Phoebe gave him, and even if he could use it, the anchor sand wasn't probably enough for something that big
after a couple of weeks, he finally managed to activate it, but still couldn't give it a shape or keep it in the activated state, unlike the mesh in the belt once he deactivated the electromagnetic field generator it would crumble and turn back into sand
Daniel found himself at a dead end again, without the anchor sand, all his projects were stalling even before they properly started, especially since he became stubborn about it
looking for something to do to distract himself, Daniel ended up looking back at the bracelet personal device for a full day, before going back to the crystal hard drive one more time
Daniel had accumulated a lot more knowledge about hacking, since the last time he worked on the crystal hard drive, and this time he finally managed to look at what the data inside was about, and it turned out to be a massive starchart, for an unknown region of space, if he found a way to connect it, to the public one he got in school, he would have a map that contained 18 galaxies or more, depending on how distant the 2 different regions where
sadly Daniel had no idea how the crystal hard drive was made, so this didn't end his usefulness, especially since the crystal was much faster and had bigger storage than the quartz drive he was currently using, so it was still on a shelf in the lab next to the bracelet and the naricu sphere
after that, Daniel was stuck again and found himself looking at the 8 objects Vincent had given him, 5 of them were starship chunks, one could see it with bare eyes, the other 3 were more complete, one was some sort of rifle, another was a right glove, and there was a strange pentagonal thing that looked like a white badge
Daniel didn't want to choose, so he took the badge since it was the closest, Tickles went in, and Daniel was suddenly happy again, he put it on himself and with a weak flash Daniel's body completely disappeared
a couple of seconds later he reappeared again, the badge was an active camouflage, a personal cloaking device, it not only hid him, but it also muffled the sound of his breath, heartbeats, and even steps, he completely disappeared, this was even more advanced than anything else he had ever seen, even of the bracelet device since he couldn't understand anything about it, there were no chances that Daniel could take it apart like the belt, or the lance and not break it for now
but luckily it used any power, daniel could easily recharge its internal batteries, and it could become a part of F.A.S.S.A v3, to hide from the dangerous animals, or the scout, to make sure it went undetected to smart fishes like the rice carp, sadly something like a vehicle was too big for this badge to work on it
after the badge, he tried the anchor sand again for a couple of days but was out of luck, this time other work didn't nudge anything he simply missed some crucial piece of information, so he decided to ask the family to visit a floating island personally, after preparing the first scout by repurposing the mesh from the belt
making a drone with various scanners and sensors wasn't that difficult since he already had the blueprint for the important part, so a week later Daniel asked during dinner "I need to visit a floating island to figure out what I'm missing, can someone take me there?"
Phoebe said "it's not a problem there is one 10 minutes from here, if it doesn't take long we can go after dinner, floating islands are more beautiful after the sun goes down"
Daniel said "thanks" while smiling happily, as he ate fried chicken and his second favorite food french fries
after dinner, Daniel, Phoebe, and Joseph went outside, and with another small boat this time Joseph's, they went to a floating island
as they arrived, daniel threw a sphere, which was the size of a basketball in the sky and it started flying in a loop around the island while scanning it
Phoebe asked "what is that?"
and Daniel answered "that's a scout, I made it to keep an eye on wildlife while fishing, but for now I'm using its scanners and sensors to find out what I'm missing"
as usual Phoebe and Joseph were shocked, he created something that could be easily used for war just for fishing purposes, he would probably build a warship to fish out off, if he knew what kind of monsters were in verulus sea's
after half an hour, Tickles made the scout fly back, but Daniel didn't have to sit and wait for the result, in fact, through Tickles it was like he was scanning the island himself, and he was shocked at that precise moment
they had it all wrong, what they called anchor sand was just one of the ingredients that made the island defy gravity, a strange orange metal was also present throughout the island, probably the mesh looked like anchor sand because that was the outside layer, with both of them and the activation method he made, Daniel was sure that it would be possible to create more mesh
Daniel was already celebrating in his head, while phoebe drove the boat back
as soon as they arrived, Daniel wanted to get to work, but he needed the mineral before, so he asked in the family and found out it was an uncommon mineral, but easy to find, it is a secondary ingredient used to make flying things like swords, spears, boats faster
in the family vault, inside the refining area, there were heaps of that stuff, left by one of the ancestors who dabbled in refining, the mineral was called racing bronze, since it was used mostly by people who participated in racing competitions
and after a couple of weeks, F.A.S.S.A v3 was complete, but as he was wearing it he felt it lacked something, after all, with life support, a helmet, and maybe a little shielding it would become a spacesuit like the one in the game, and as he was there, he could make it cool, after all, Joseph said that skins are representative of status
Daniel got to work again, making a life support was fairly easy for him, he had dozens of different examples and blueprints to use for inspiration, but the shielding, that was a different beast, he had the schematic of a low grade starship shield, and the inertial shield of the smuggler vehicle, but those weren't compatible with each other as they had two different uses, still he kept working on it, because not only the spacesuit, but maru v3, and probably even the scout could be fitted with it
his 7 birthday was a few months away, and he had worked on the shielding for the last 3 months without a break, and all he could do, was create a small inertial shield, who will have to be enough for fluffy space F.A.S.S.A v4
it had a gun gray base color, with cyan glowing fur on wrists, ankles, and the belt, and white glowy lines that went everywhere on the suit, the helmet had a smile emote on it, that could be changed easily, and it could fly in the air, swim in the water and could be used in space too if necessary, it had life support, and the inertial shielding, that made sure flying objects won't have a bullet effect on it while flying, and if necessary, could even be called by remote since Tickles was the controls
he also managed to make the maru v3, this one was even bigger so he could fit inside with the armor and could fly sadly it just became mid-third stage because of the lack of firepower
the scout became v2 after a slot for the badge was added, together with the same inertial shield as the armor, and a slightly better propulsion system, also the same as the armor, and when it wasn't in function, it connected like a backpack to fluffy space F.A.S.S.A v4 back, to give a third battery to the already durable, 2 battery system in the spacesuit
with more things installed, one battery wasn't enough anymore, and in the spacesuit, 2 batteries were installed
Daniel was happy with the progress, a little piece of the puzzle had enhanced all his creations to a new level, inebriated by this feeling, he started working on the other dumpster diamonds as he called the good things he was studying, sadly, if it ended up in Vincent's Vault collection, it apparently wasn't something simple contrarily to the junk in the public collection
Tickles for the first time couldn't even enter a piece of technology, the glove whatever it was couldn't be invaded, every time he tried he was forced to desist by some force
all Tickles could send back was a row of question marks, so Daniel found a good place next to the bracelet, crystal, and sphere, and left it there to study in the future
then Daniel took the rifle, and that, turned out to be some kind of shockwave weapon, not only did he shoot the heavy M.A.R.U v3 into a wall, but the recoil made Daniel fly himself into the opposite one, luckily he was still wearing the fluffy F.A.S.S.A v4
the rifle was advanced, but not that much, it just looked cool and powerful but it was at most high third grade in power, in a month of work, Daniel tore it apart and discovered all its secrets, which weren't that impressive, just a semi-rigid energy shield shot out at high velocity, it basically shot out walls that lasted the few seconds they traveled, it would be a nice addition to maru's weapons, but in the future version
for now, Daniel had a more interesting project, he wanted to use the lance compression and deployment technology, on the fluffy spacesuit v4, like having it in a belt if possible, and with a command, it would deploy, and cover the body
but it was much more complicated than he originally fought, batteries and some other components, couldn't be folded, so all it was left, was what covered arms and legs, but the chest was still mostly there, in all its heaviness
that's when the antigravity came in handy, and he created a low consume program that kept it light, he also added a small high performance, solar panel, on the shoulders, similar to the ones on the lab roof, to keep it charged in the backpack form
a month later, Daniel turned 7, the birthday went without a hitch again, but the family and Andrea were on high alert, at any time Daniel could breakthrough to blue soul level, but he was ignoring it as usual, and kept working on his projects
after another month, the fluffy F.A.S.S.A could take an almost backpack shape, but it still had the solar panel, and 9 spheres hanging in the back, one a little smaller than a basketball, and 8 a little bigger than a tennis ball, these were the scout v3, one central unit and 8 supports working together, giving the suit a total of 4 normal batteries and 8 tinier batteries
but most important of all, when the spacesuit was folded in the almost backpack shape, it had a deckchair mode, so he could sleep in the sun during fishing trips, when he finally got to do one