Julian calmly watched as the three buildings, the Fabrication Building, the Armament Building, and the Schematics Building finished their repairs and went online. This large project drained almost everything that Avina had gathered for the past few days such as the ferronium ores, oxydium ores, luthum ores, and the strengthened steel alloys.
He could even see a drastic increase of energy unit consumption, amounting to almost 75,000 energy units at once with the Schematics Complex at the top, running at 50,000 EU.
Julian reviewed some information and understood that ferronium ores were a general term for minerals that exhibit a close characteristic to iron deposits. Oxydium ores were greenish-blue ores used for construction purposes.
The Armament Building had a drastic requirement for luthum ores which were used in producing personal, cyber, and mecha suits. Aside from that, they were widely used in ammunition as well, especially ballistic-type ammunition such as bullets and rockets.
Combining these three ores would make up the strengthened steel alloy, a far more durable, tensile, and flexible compared to regular steel.
The Schematics Complex was divided into two buildings.
One the middle was a very large construction yard occupying an area of at least 500 square meters. Cranes and various mechanical 'arms' could be seen at the edges and an empty space at the center.
The other building was a helix-shaped black building with seven floors to boast.
Julian couldn't understand how it worked and neither did he put the effort to look more into it.
He opened the Schematics tab on his VNI and saw three highlighted menus that Intellus had purposefully done.
Resource production buildings provided him with the ability to automate the gathering of mineral resources, divided into Tiers I, II, III, and IV. He needed to establish network relay towers near them, however, in order for the materials to be delivered directly into the Cargo Building through the E-CONN.
"The structure of the building will automatically adapt based on the environment? That's quite convenient...", Julian was worried that he would have to manually design things based on the various complicated terrains.
There were also specialized resource gatherers for specific types of minerals, or resources like liquids or gases. All he needed to construct them were mostly ferronium, oxydium, luthum, and strengthened steel.
"This is a lot of things to remember... Intellus, help me organize the information here. Assist Avina in deploying these structures. I'll be your everyday cleaner. Just tell me where to go and I'll drive the beasts away."
"Orders received. I shall upload the data into the successor's VNI once I am finished with my analysis."
"Good. Consider energy usage, storage, and other things. I am not very good about this, so I'll give the burden to you.", Julian spoke honestly. He was just an ex-captain of a military company, not some professional-level city and building planner.
"Intellus is very honored by your designation, successor."
Julian nodded his head, "How about the other menus..."
He browsed everything that the Schematics building could offer, including defensive buildings like traps and turrets, and assembly factories that could automate the process of building mecha suits and even cyber suits. After all that window shopping, Julian found himself lost and lacking resources, thus...
To be safe first, he asked Avina what the true purpose of the zoning barrier was. Knowing how the Federation operated, another company might be sent to recon the planet around. If he caused too much a commotion, it might attract unwanted attention, especially from the Elite Terran Party.
"Successor, the zoning barrier is a multi-purpose defensive structure that shields everything within its operational area from unwanted objects, including Stages 2 and 3 evolutionary creatures, through quick and lethal extermination. It also generates a digital illusion that seamlessly blends the surroundings and the Base Complex Facility."
Julian hummed while walking back and forth, "What about the signals? Does the zoning barrier mask it as well?"
"That is included, successor."
"Good, that's good. Avina, we'll set out this afternoon, see what the zoning barrier's 5-kilometer radius can offer. I'll restock my ammunition first."
He walked in the other direction while Avina bowed, "Avina shall prepare."
"Okay, give me the menu of the Armament Building." Julian requested. According to Intellus's description, he could use the Armament Building to produce hand-held weapons, offensive or defensive modules for his mecha suits, and ammunition.
Not only that, but without the armament building, he wouldn't be able to build defensive turrets for security, nor rearm and resupply them with the highly needed ammunition.
He browsed the menu and found that he could fabricate machine gun ammunition for his MD-101's MG. It would cost him 30 units of luthum ore, 15 units of ferronium ore, and another ten units for red sulfur, a highly combustible mineral.
"When did Avina extracted red sulfur?"
The way they were going, Avina kept notifying him of ferronium this, oxydium that, luthum there and whatnots. Avina had never once mentioned finding some red sulfur source. Julian scrolled past that item and looked into the small rocket ammunition.
"50 red sulfur and a lot more ferronium and luthum ores?"
If not for the limited amount of red sulfur, he would not hesitate to fabricate both these ammunitions now.
"What's this override part here?", Julian was curious. Overriding fabrication requirements provided him the convenience of ignoring material requirements at the cost of higher energy consumption and longer fabrication time.
The override option required Julian to have obtained a sample of the material before. It was not an option for the prefabrication of buildings, however.
He smiled and thought that this was a blessing in disguise. He lacked anything but energy and time. Thanks to Avina, he could ignore the red sulfur component.
"Override the material requirements and use some more energy to fabricate these ammunitions. Give me 200 MG ammo units and 50 small rocket ammo units."
...
Four hours later and the G-sequence star of Planet Origin could be seen setting from the west. However, Julian's day seemed to be not over yet as he glanced at the pursuing four-legged and serpentine beasts directly behind them.
Their howls echoed within the narrow cracks underneath the canyons; two kilometers north-northeast of the Base Complex Facility.
"You told me that there aren't any beasts! What is going on?!" Julian shouted on the radio and aimed a small rocket at the enemy. The small rocket propelled into the air and blasted them into smithereens. Soon, however, more beasts tore through the smoke and relentlessly gave chase.
"Successor, Avina does not wish to disrespect, but we have been gathering resources around the northern area for so long! The beasts may have long anticipated us and waited in advance!", Avina hurriedly explained while running beside Julian.
"Then you should have thought of that earlier!", Julian was so speechless about this damn AI that he almost slipped while running in haste. The MD-101's machine gun was in the process of cooling down after continuously firing for a minute. If not for that, Julian would not be in this situation.
The four-legged creature that looked like a lion but with far more endurance leaped along the cliff walls and pounced on Julian. The machine gun that was stationary turned up and fired a small burst of ammo, quickly bringing down the stubborn beast.
Seeing that most of their pursuers had come out, Julian stopped running, 'The machine gun should have cooled down enough...' and turned around. "Do it, now!"
< BIAAS reinitiated. Targets acquired. >
BRRRTTT!!!
The machine gun fired continuously upon wave and wave of beasts on the narrow canyon path. Their bodies stocked up like books on a shelf stored vertically.
Not a minute passed, and everything quietened down. Smoke slowly drifted out of each barrel of the heated machine gun.
The eerie quietness irked Julian's sensations. "It's too quiet all of a sudden. Something-! Watch out!"
Julian dodged to the sides and Avina followed. A long stretch of obelisk-like rocks smashed onto the position they were both in just a second ago. Dust rose, slightly covering their visions. He immediately propelled out of there and landed on top of the canyon. There, he saw a huge rock formation moving on its own.
It stood 10 meters tall with a wide 'torso' shaped like an inverted pyramid, coupled with long jagged rocks acting as its arms, and 1-meter-tall rock columns with uneven shape acting as its legs.
"A rock golem..." Julian slowly muttered. He had always thought of them as magical. The way the natural earth would gather around as if driven by magnetic fields and move around like a sentient being marveled him like a naive child.
He glanced at the remaining forty-seven small rocket ammo units in his subspace storage and remembered the earth buster warhead that punched through the mountain wall several meters deep earlier. "Will it work?"
Both of them had already travelled this far and Avina explicitly stated that there was a huge cache of ores around the area which quickly held a special place in Julian's mind. Could he really just leave empty handed while wasting a lot of time and resources?
"Shall Avina grind the rock golem?"
The EC-101 stepped forward while shaking its right forearm. On it appeared to be a half-meter drilling machine with complicated machinery installed. The still sharp and bright metallic component shone in Julian's eyes as he wondered if that was the EC-101's basic ore miner module.
'That looks like something that can drill into the rock golem...' But Julian disagreed, "Don't. It's hard to say if that would even work. If it does, then good, but if not, I would lose a valuable ally and the EC-101 mecha suit at the same time."
Julian talked rubbish about losing Avina. He knew that constructs like them always had some backups. But he had to liven up the atmosphere, yeah?
They didn't know much about this rock golem's characteristics, except that irrespective of their origins, they always had a core somewhere around their body mostly found around the torso.
The best way to deal with them was firing a highly concentrated energy weapon or blasting it with powerful explosives. The amount of force they wrought was enough to expose the rock golem's core or even destroy it.
He remembered that some cores would float around dynamically, making it hard for anyone to pinpoint their correct location, while others presented their core like a prized treasure and boasted an almost impenetrable defense, making it impossible to destroy the core on usual grounds.
The rock golem slowly stood up and approached these ants who disturbed their sleep. Every step would tremble the earth and expose nearby cave ins. Julian even wondered how heavy this guy was. It pulled back one of its arms and sent a thrust on their position.
The rock crumbled four meters under their feet. Julian snickered at how lousy and inaccurate this rock golem was. "This one's a shy type and can't seem to burst the ground with spikes. He's far weaker if you ask me. Arm the small rocket with the earth buster warhead!"
He raised his left arm and shot out the first small rocket straight into the rock golem's torso. The latter ignored it, thinking that a weapon that small would not harm it in any way.
A deafening explosion boomed out, blasting right through its thick torso with the mark of a conical hole in the rear. Its torso cracked from the impact, extending outward, revealing something underneath. It lost its sentience and stumbled backward before falling. Another deafening explosion echoed throughout the entire canyon and caused a small magnitude earthquake.
"The larger you are, the easier you fall.", Julian chuckled, praising the stupidity of the rock golem. "Avina, go see what it's made of."
Avina climbed down to gather the rock golem's remains. "Successor, Avina detects several precious minerals stored in the rock golem's torso. Thankfully, the explosion only severed a small part of it. Retrieving the remains now..."
Julian's eyes widened and he almost had a heart attack. "AVINAAAA!!!!!"
"Detecting high stressful conditions on the successor. Shall Avina administer a dopamine shot?!"
Julian: "..."