SWNOVELXO Chapter 1571 Point of Power
--- Kamiko ---
Entering the warehouse wasn't hard, the group just walked up to the door and tried to open it, sadly the hole thing was rusted shut but that meant a bit of force and the whole thing fell backwards… and kept falling because it turned out inside of the warehouse was a big hole in the floor to a basement level.
It was a ways down with a bunch of dirt and debris around a central room that had been made of much better materials.
"Are we going down there?" asked Kamiko.
Meg glanced at the compass that was still spinning in her hands before answering, "I don't see why not,"
Enjoy more content from empire
So the group stepped in and instantly a bunch of turrets dropped from the ceiling to extremely mixed success. A couple of them opened only half way before getting stuck, another large bunch opened… all the way, the turrets completely leaving their housing and crashing into the floor below and breaking apart on impact.
One single turret managed to open properly and wind up to fire… and then the muzzle fell off.
"What… are those things?" asked Bower. "Are they some sort of gun like Hunter uses?"
"That's correct," sated Hunter. "These are known as automated turrets and were clearly designed to protect this facility from intruders. It makes me wonder what they had here that required protecting. It is clearly from before society got remade and it has lasted quite well considering the passage of time. Though I imagine the mist bubble helps keep things stable.
This will likely be good practice for more dangerous exploration,"
"You think it will get harder?" asked Kamiko.
"I would imagine so. This place has lasted a long time so it was probably built to last. These areas don't seem to quite meat that standard and while I could be wrong, and we've arrived around the time this whole place is beginning to fall apart I find that unlikely. Especially when you can see that room down in the whole that seems mostly intact,"
With that Hunter jumped down into the hole, her scales more than tough enough to ensure that the junk broke instead of her. As Bower saw this though he took a step back and sat down, "I think I'll just rest my old bones up here. If you lot want to go adventuring feel free but these old knees aren't built for those kinds of falls,"
Meg just shrugged at him and jumped in after Hunter. Kamiko glanced at Bower for a few moments and considered sticking by the old man but after a moment of thought realised that she'd rather be separated from Bower then Hunter and Meg. Sure Bower could take care of himself… but could he take care of himself and her if shit hit the fan? Because Meg and Hunter could.
So down into the hole she went. Kamiko did wince as the stuff broke under her and she sunk into the mountain of trash and dirt up to her knees. It wasn't comfortable at all with all the bits and pieces digging into her skin. Kamiko pulled her legs out of the trash and quickly looked herself over for wounds just in case but nothing managed to get through.
"Didn't think you'd be brave enough to follow," commented Meg.
Kamiko held her tongue, not really sure what to say to that… for a few moments. "I decided it was safer with you and Hunter,"
Meg nodded, "Smart, most people wouldn't realise that. Even if I'd be willing to leave you to die or be horrifically maimed Lil Sis isn't and she's quite tough… and I'm not willing to leave her to fight on her own so I'd end up helping. I applaud your smarts, now let's see what's here,"
Hunter levelled a glare at Meg as she marched forward and brought out some demonic fire. She started to burn away some trash near what looked to be a door. It was a bit hard to tell covered in debris as it was, but the top of it was just barely visible. "Ah, such an intense gaze from my Lil Sis. So glad I can enjoy it while working,"
Hunter huffed and looked away but Meg just kept smiling as she burnt away the trash. Eventually the door was revealed and she pushed it open. The wall creaked and groaned under her the force until Hunter dashed over and put a hand on Meg's arm. "What? I can break the door down easy and the walls are strong enough to survive,"
"Yes but there is a keypad on the door and I know your ability lets you see the password. We may wish to lock whatever is inside back up so it is best you unlock the door instead of destroying it," stated Hunter.
"Um… how does that work?" asked Kamiko.
Hunter glanced at Meg looking for permission to explain. Meg just gave a 'go ahead' gesture as she punched in the password. "It seems I have permission to discuss this. The simple answer is that Meg gets a list of weakness a thing has as well as a general sense of how best to utilise those weaknesses and perhaps some other details she's never mentioned.
One of the weaknesses of a lock, especially electronic ones, is knowing the correct password... in theory. In practice know say… '1111' opens the door is a weakness of the lock."
"That… seems a bit weird," said Kamiko.
Hunter shrugged as the door unlocked and Meg pushed it open with much less groaning. "It is possible Meg had to train herself up to that point, and it seems to me that it is not so different to all of the social weaknesses she is able to see in people. She knows what to say to make people break. So in this case she knows what buttons to press to 'break open' the lock."
"Still seems strange to me," said Kamiko as the trio made their way inside the room. Kamiko was taken aback by just out advanced it all looked compared to the rest of the world. Shiny metal walls and floors, big boxy computer terminals everywhere and in the centre of the room was a glowing orb in a glass container that was all completely free of rust and the whole room seemed to hum slightly.
"Well shit," grumbled Meg.
"What's the issue?" asked Kamiko.
"Well seeing this right here? It pretty much confirms that this place is artificial and it's powered by something. This is clearly a sub generator… and I would put good money on the piece of time drake that flew here ending up right in the middle of the central power source," grumbled Meg.
"And that's… bad?" asked Kamiko.
"Horrifically bad, because it means we need to get it OUT of there really quickly because the drake is gonna be trying to suck in as much energy as it can from a literal magic generator and I don't know if we can get it out without breaking it… and I don't know if we can break it without blowing everything, including us, up," said Meg.
"That… does seem bad. Can't you… I dunno use your weakness powers to get around it?" asked Kamiko.
"I can definitely try… but it just might not be possible. If I knew more about how these things work I might be able to work out the best way to destroy them… and I do get a sense of degrees with my powers but not the outcomes. I can usually figure it out but… there's so much power even in this side one. Even if I was to take the path that deals the least amount of damage?
It's still a massive bomb and the main reactor will be bigger… and it'll probably take down the mists," explained Meg.
"Why only probably? This is powering the mists right?" asked Kamiko.
"What are they teaching you at those normal schools? It should be obvious no? The mists are powered by a magic generator, hence they are magic. They may now be a self-sustaining magical phenomenon without the need for additional power. Which… makes me wonder where all the power here is going?
Because even if the mist needs some of that power it's certainly not going to need as much as it once did after thousands of years," grumbled Meg.
"I can think of two obvious answers. The first being the creation of more robots…" stated Hunter trailing off.
"And the second?" asked Meg knowing it was what Hunter wanted.
"Containment," stated Hunter.
"Oh…" stated Meg. "Oh that's not good at all. I mean, maybe not the worst thing ever? But certainly not good. I think I'm going to need to take a real good look around… maybe this entire place. If I see some weaknesses in a seal of some kind?
This might just be really fucking bad. The empire that built this place was strong and they had stronger demons on call. If they had to seal something instead of taking it out themselves…"
"Indeed. A problem," agreed Hunter.