'I should be clean enough by now…' Cain slowly unfurls his body from the fetus position. His feet penetrate the bottom of the water ellipsoid, landing on a soft towel. His legs were exposed to the air; the water droplets racing down them, desperately escaping his upper body that was still inside the pod.
'Did Dresil put this towel here? That's good, now I don't have to worry about the dirty floors.' Cain does a 180, positioning his chest towards where Dresil was sitting. The towel was laid out like a red carpet, directing Cain towards her.
He steps forward, his upper body struggling to emerge from the confines of the warm water. With another step, his upper body breaks free, causing the water to ripple slightly. Dresil walks over to Cain and covers his head with a towel, thoroughly drying his somewhat long hair.
---Dms: Cain and Dresil--- (6ms)
Cain: You know you don't have to do this right?
Dresil: I know, but if I leave it to you, you'll just ruin this beautiful hair since you won't dry it thoroughly.
Cain: ...can't deny that.
Dresil: Your clothes are on the edge of the bed.
Cain: Thanks, can you reformat the blankets and sheets so they're close to what I'm used to?
Dresil: Of course, Master.
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Once Dresil was done drying Cain's hair, she leaves the towel on his head and merges with the blankets and sheets on the bed. Cain slowly opens his eyes, revealing the candlelit room. The assassins were still perched on the ground, facing the bed.
He grabs the towel on his head, balancing the second towel that Dresil apparently placed around his neck. She did it so smoothly that he didn't feel anything amiss. Through his mana zone, the towels looked like one unless he focused on that area.
'Guess I really need to get used to the Mana Zone soon.' Cain pulls the towel over his face, drying it thoroughly. He holds it in his hands, moving them up and down slightly. A few seconds later, he tosses the drenched towel on the bed. It sunk into the blankets as if it were being consumed.
Cain uses the second towel to dry his body while walking over to the side of the bed. He tosses the now drenched towel on the bed once he arrives. Within a few minutes, he gets dressed in the pjs laid out for him. Tomorrow's clothes were in the cabinet next to the bed. Rather, it was just a pair of jeans that looked like leather pants.
---Dms: Cain and Dresil--- (8ms)
Cain: Do I leave the pj pants on and put the jeans over them tomorrow or just swap them?
Dresil: Up to you, Master. You could even go out in your pjs.
Dresil: I only made jeans since I knew you liked them.
Cain: What about cleaning these clothes?
Dresil: I'll take care of it whenever you bathe.
Cain: ...Damn you're the best.
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Cain sits on the edge of the bed, peering at the assassins in front of him. 'Hmm… I'll need some way of observing them so I can study any subtle changes that aren't apparent in the weekly brain models… A quadcopter should work, but first I need to take care of the mana supply.' He shifts his gaze towards the water ellipsoid hovering in the corner.
---Dms: Cain and Bob--- (22ms)
Cain: Change of plans, let's work on the mana storage now.
Cain: This is annoying… Will there be a time when I can create, access, or manipulate dimensions? Even if it's just limited to the ones you made for me… :sigh:
Bob: Once your soul is healed, you can start on that journey.
Cain: ...that sounds like another troublesome topic. Let's discuss what you meant in detail tomorrow.
Bob: Understood. I've created a dimension for the mana storage. You just need to put the mana in there and sustain it using a magic circle.
Cain: So the magic circle's task is to just idle? Lucky boi…
Cain: Will beings around the entrance/exit of the portal be able to detect the mana inside?
Bob: Yes, but how much they detect depends on their sensitivity to mana.
Cain: :sigh: Guess I'll need to disguise it as natural mana to prevent anyone from freaking out.
Cain: Open up the portal to the storage, also is there a way for me to visually see what's going on in there?
Bob: ...not without putting your head inside the dimension.
Cain: Heck.
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A portal appears in between Cain and the assassins. He thoroughly inspects it, attempting to put one hand in on each side. They both disappear and appear inside the dimension as if they were right next to each other.
'Heck… This is going to hurt my head…' He takes both hands out and lays them to rest on his lap. Cain closes his eyes and focuses on the mana around the water ellipsoid. Bob relinquishes control over the mana net at this point, allowing Cain to freely manipulate it. Six magic circles appear around the ellipsoid; putting it inside a cube of magic circles.
Cain configures each magic circle to turn every atom within the cube into mana. Upon completion, the water inside the mana net slowly disappears; converted into mana. Bob opens up a portal to the mana storage dimension and directs the newly created mana inside.
Cain configures his transmutation speed to roughly 1.2 million mana per second and starts converting the natural mana inside the storage dimension at the same rate. His face contorts in pain as a searing headache ripples throughout his skull.
Roughly 10 minutes passed before everything within the cube of magic circles was converted to mana and then converted to Cain's mana inside the dimension. He dissolves the magic circles and disperses the mana net, allowing it to merge with his mana zone. A few drafts of air flow into the corner, replacing the vacuum that was created.
'Heck… That really messed up my sense of space, not to mention the headache it caused.' Cain flops backwards onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. He attempts to feel the mana stored within the dimension through the portal that laid in front of the assassins.
'I can manipulate it freely as if it was in front of me, it just goes in the wrong direction sometimes… Guess this is another thing I need to get used to.' He closes his eyes and focuses on creating a magic circle within the storage dimension. The mana was already disguised when he was creating it, however this was done in front of the portals.
Cain uses 2 million mana to establish the outer rings of a massive magic circle, another 2 million was used for the smaller rings. He kept using 2 million at a time, slowly setting up the foundation of the magic circle based on the Mana Zone's circle. Once everything was completed, he treated each part as a separate magic circle merging into a bigger magic circle.
This drastically reduced the burden on Cain since he wasn't manipulating all of that mana at once, but rather his link to each of the parts. It also helped that none of the parts needed to move at all.
After the merge of all the parts, the hundreds of millions of mana flowed in veins, mimicking the Aether veins he sees everyday. Since this magic circle was just a replica of the mana zone, Cain quickly cut off the link that sent information to him and slowly reformatted the magic circle so it would only keep his mana disguised and flowing.
Cain directs roughly 2 million mana out of the portal and lets it hover over his lap. He attempts to escape the confines of comfort, just barely being able to sit up properly. The mana in his lap slowly takes shape into a FPV quadcopter. It took roughly 25 minutes for the quadcopter to be completed. The completed drone falls onto Cain's lap, yet he remains staring in the empty air it used to reside in.
---Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex--- (1053ms)
Rex: Woah, you just made a drone right? Maybe we could use those as our eyes and ears instead of looking through your memories.
Rex: Like a live stream!
Cain: ...Why did you not bring this up when we were discussing everything?
Rex: …I just thought of it right now. I was hoping you'd forget about it until something was figured out.
Cain: :sigh:
Cain: We can use them for livestreaming my surroundings. However, you must notify me when you are watching, and you cannot disturb me when I sleep.
Bob: Understood.
Rex: Ok.
Rex: Why isn't Dresil saying anything?
Cain: She basically lives with me, nothing to do there.
Dresil: The Master is right. I don't even need the drones to see what's going on. :bleh:
Dresil: I'll still notify the Master when I'm watching though.
Bob: How are you going to display it?
Cain: It'll probably just be a tab in the group chat. I'll need to figure out how to interface with the camera and the flight controller using mana though.
Rex: I understand the camera, but why the flight controller?
Cain: I don't want to use a bulky remote for starters. Also need to add autopilot; I just did the basics since I don't remember all of the coding for it.
Cain: Bob, help me out here. I want to make it like the communication tags on Veronica's party so we can control the drone from anywhere.
Bob: Understood.
Cain: Once we're done with this, I'll alter Victor's memories and release him. While I do that, I'll need you to update every tag created so I can access them wherever I am.
Cain: Same goes for the tagging section of the Mana Zone. New tags should have this function.
Bob: Understood.
--------------------------
Cain lifts the drone in the air and establishes a magic circle underneath it to keep it floating there. A few more are created on the camera, the flight controller, and the frame. A screen made of mana appears to the right of the quadcopter, flickering and buzzing frantically. Cain creates a magic circle behind it to stabilize its functions and syncs it to the camera.
He then averts his focus to the other two magic circles. At this moment, Bob alters the camera and screen so the connection will be stable no matter how far the drone travels. Cain treats the magic circle inscribed on the frame as the radio transmitter and programs it accordingly. He spends a few minutes on this task, in which each of the four motors rev up and down repeatedly in response to the tests.
While he works on adjusting the flight controller, another magic circle appears above it. This one was programmed to store all of the autopilot functions. Cain spends a few more minutes on finalizing the flight controller's code and testing the autopilot functions. The drone lifts off slowly, the magic circle underneath dimming slightly. It hovers to different areas of the room and returns back to its landing circle; along with the circle's glow.
---Dms: Cain and Bob--- (4ms)
Bob: What do you want the transmitter portal for the receiver of the quadcopter attached to?
Cain: Oh… I forgot about that. I was just using mana directly to send commands to the receiver. Give me a sec and I'll create a transmitter magic circle on my right forearm.
Bob: Understood.
--------------------------
A magic circle appears on Cain's right forearm, right below the sleeve. After some tweaks and modifications, Cain refocuses on to the quadcopter. Six magic circles appear and cover the quadcopter in a cube formation. Each one is programmed to conceal the drone visually and sonically. During this time, Bob adds the necessary features to the transmitter.
Cain activates the concealment magic circles and flies the drone around the room using the transmitter magic circle. He observes the screen on his right for any connection issues. Cain continues to fly the drone aroom, occasionally having it do a flip. A slight smile appears on his face; his eyes overflowing with delight.
'You'll be Little Birdy, Mk. 1.' Cain thinks while flying the drone back to the landing magic circle. Once the drone lands, Cain disperses the battery into mana and creates a new one. 'This is inefficient but it'll have to do until I learn how to convert mana into electricity…' His small sigh bounces off the concealment circles; rustling the hairs on his arms. 'Oh… That's a problem… Meh, I'll fix it later.'
---Dms: Cain and Bob--- (3ms)
Cain: Can you do the modifications to the tags and mana zone while I work with the assassin's memories?
Bob: Affirmative.
Cain: Thanks.
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---Dms: Cain and Dresil--- (15ms)
Cain: Dresil, can you heal any brain damage once I'm done with this?
Dresil: Of course, Master. Would there still be a need to observe the long term effects though?
Cain: Yep. There's no guarantee that we can heal it completely, since the brain is very complex.
Cain: Not to mention, the affected memories could cause some suspicion and they'd try to figure out what they've forgotten.
Cain: If I want to perfect my technique so that suspicion will never arise and no attempts to regain the affected memories are made, I'll need to observe them.
Dresil: ...Ok.
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Cain attempts to lift the drone off the landing pad; however his fingers latch onto the concealment magic circles instead. 'Yep… This is going to be a problem later. Looks like I accidentally made them physical… meh, I'm too tired to fix it now.' With a small sigh, he sets the drone down to his left, dispersing the landing circle.