Chapter 327 - Interlude: R&D

The Admiral (Fitzwallace)

New Norfolk

Luckily, when the Admiral returned to his base of operations nothing untoward had gone on in his absence. The City continued to function like a well-oiled machine.

A few projects had to be delayed or mothballed due to a lack of manpower, but that was something he had known going into it. Bringing as many men as he did West didn't leave that many free to keep the work going at home.

The losses they suffered were... severe.

Not as bad as some of the Factions he knew, but enough that they would be rebuilding and dealing with the repercussions for a while yet. Some Factions were completely wiped out.

The one good thing about the months he'd spent away was that the researchers continued their work as best they could. They were some of the most valuable people in the City and there was no way he would have taken them to die in the West.

Cars traveled down the roads when they arrived back home.

Actual cars!

The Admiral was glad he hadn't skimped on putting the infrastructure in place beforehand. It would have been silly if they ended up with cars before they had roads.

Cars weren't the only advancement the brainiacs had made while he was gone, but it was by far the most welcome one.

The territory under his protection grew by the day and getting from one end of it to the other was an absolute nightmare. The Quartermaster hounded the researchers nearly daily to get a better way to travel figured out.

Logistics and supply lines were nearly impossible.

Still, it felt nice to have things return to normal, one small change at a time.

The next few years saw those changes exponentially explode.

After Cars, the next logical advancement would be planes, but those hit a rather clawed wall.

The skies were not nearly as safe as they once were.

Bird strikes were already an issue before, and that was before they grew to monstrous sizes and could literally rip a plane in two.

Helicopters were safer, if only because they were more maneuverable and there were openings to attack out of. Gunners to both kill the birds and keep them away from the aircraft were necessary in some areas.

The shores were rife with mutated seagulls and other such beast, leaving flying over them or through them... not the best idea.

Surprisingly, it was the sea that was the most dangerous way of travel. The monsters of the deep that they sometimes ran into were frightening.

Even some of the elite teams the Admiral deployed to keep the ships safe didn't work that well. Hendricks and Pricilla working together still had troubles, and they were two of the strongest team leads after the Orcs.

While that was all well and good, and it felt great to see some of the old returning, the Admiral was on his way to something even better. It was the work of five years and an insane amount of time and resources, but it would all be worth it if it worked.

The reports he was given weekly said that it had already been tested minimally, but he wanted to be there personally to see it go through its first actual stress test.

His steps were measured, but if only just. He couldn't help the excitement bubbling up inside him. It was childish and not something a man of his age or station should show, but he couldn't help it.

If this works... it will change everything.

The sound of his boots echoed off the stone walls and he marched on with his aides and runners behind him. They went wherever he went, and were surprisingly helpful to keep everything running.

His territory and projects long outgrown the work of one man.

He was met by a grinning and giddy scientist bedecked in a white lab coat. It played with his senses as it was entirely mana neutral. The contrast between it and the surrounding ambient mana was stark.

"Sir, if you come this way we have a viewing room set up." The scientist pointed and led.

The room he led to was minimal, but it didn't have to do anything other than give them a window to view the test from. The glass window that dominated most of the eastern wall was some of the thickest he'd ever seen.

The reports claimed that there were safety measures in place in case things went wrong, but the inches-thick glass seemed like overkill. Explosions were quite common in testing now, even if they tried to avoid it.

Rules regarding safe practices in R&D were... adjusted to account for new abilities.

Through the glass, he saw a labyrinth of glowing lines and Runes scribbled everywhere. There were times he thought the scientists were actually mad, and this was one of them.

"Dr. Park is finishing his last checks now. It won't be long until he's ready." The man who had led him here said.

As he said it, the Admiral turned his gaze from the spaghetti mess of lines to the disheveled man going over the room with a careful gaze. Every once in a while, he checked his notes and nodded approvingly.

Dr. Park was one of the single greatest resource sinks that the Admiral fed money to. He and a few others who were working on other important projects took up a hefty amount of the rare resources his Faction pulled in.

Mana crystals, rare metals, enchanting and engraving materials. Just under half of all they gathered from the Dungeons inside his territory were funneled here.

While Dr. Park went over his last checks, the Admiral just watched him work. It was in his best interest not to get his hopes up, but the reports stated that success was promising.

At times, Park would use a Skill or Spell, but he mainly just gave everything a once over.

"I'm ready," the man finally called out through the intercom.

"Proceed," the Admiral gave the okay.

The man didn't need anything more than that as mana flared around his hand. Purple tinted his hands as the mana he was using was great. That glow traveled down the string of Runes lighting up with power as it drew both on the man's mana, and the crystals supplied to it.

We will need to alter it so anyone can activate it, not just those with Spatial affinity.

The mana in the air built, and it reached a truly enormous amount before anything started to happen. The Admiral feared an explosion at first, but neither of the scientists looked concerned.

If the man literally in the room looked placid, then things were fine. Probably.

As the Formation went to work and the mana did whatever it was the stings of Runes described, the Admiral felt it gathering in the center of the room.

It started as a sphere of power smaller than a golf ball and quickly grew.

"Initial power-up successful," Dr. Park described, "Initiating link to secondary coordinates."

Things changed, but not in any way the Admiral could describe. He didn't have the Spatial affinity and could only feel a vague shift in what was happening through the mana.

He'd read what the Formation was doing, but that didn't mean he understood every minute detail. So far, everything had been mostly self-explanatory. The first stage was the powering on stage while the second was connecting to where you wanted to go.

It was the third stage that held the most danger.

"Connection secured, moving on to phase three."

Dr. Park's hand still fed the entire construct mana, but it moved to settle over a pair of buttons. Not mechanical push switches, but the runic equivalent.

One was for initiating the next stage, while the other was the kill switch. The Rune to continue the test flared as it was fed mana and the Formation started to hum.

The humming grew as all the power it had built up started to move.

"Is this safe?" the Admiral called over the growing hum, "It wasn't this loud last time!"

The scientist in the viewing room shrugged, "I'm not sure. We didn't attempt to make the portal as large before. The scale replica didn't take as much mana to work."

I don't like the sound of that.

He didn't fear for his own safety but for those around him. He was the highest level in the room and was one of the few fighters. While the researchers had a decent level, they didn't exactly have the toughness to survive the potential explosion.

Just as he was about to position himself and get ready for the worst, it happened.

A pinprick at the center of the amassing mana glowed brightly and shifted into a ring. Barely a few inches wide, but that wasn't what took his breath away.

It was the face he could see through it, and what he saw wasn't the other side of the room. It was the forest. Where they had set the second anchor point and secured the coordinates to away from any potential area.

"It's working!" Dr. Park yelled. "The punch-through was successful!"

The portal, the size that only a pinky finger would fit through, grew as more and more mana got consumed. From the diameter of an inch to two inches, to a foot.

It grew until it was seven feet tall and wide. Enough for a grown man to step through easily.

Wow, he thought, It really worked.

Reading the reports and seeing it in the flesh were completely different. He'd read what was going to be attempted and couldn't help but feel like the idea was straight out of a sci-fi movie.

The Formation was essentially a giant well of contained energy that was then directed to 'punch a hole through space'. In those exact words.

A light lit up green on the side of the wall in what the Admiral could only assume were monitoring the conditions of the test. Green usually meant good, which eased his growing worry.

The hum was still growing and the power involved wasn't dissipating. For all that was used to punch through and secure the connection, more mana was fed to ensure it stayed that way.

"The connection is secured."

A man in a lab coat appeared on the other side of the portal and held up a thumbs up. The universal sign that all was well. His mouth was moving, but no sound came through.

Even if it had, the hum would have drowned it out.

I was wondering where Dr. Park's assistant was.

With both sides claiming a secure connection, there was only one thing left to do.

"Test subject 1 is ready." Dr. Park then picked up a large rat. It wasn't the most humane thing to do, but they were hardly going to force a human to go first.

With little ceremony, the rat was thrown through the portal. There was a flickering as more mana was consumed, but nothing exploded.

The rat was caught on the other side and was then inspected for anything that happened. The growing smile Dr. Park's assistant had while holding onto a very angry rat was the only confirmation needed.

"Test subject 1 was successful."

Good. Good! This will change so many things. It will have to be tweaked and stress tested–

Before the Admiral could even finish the good thought, Dr. Park hurled himself through the portal.

"What is he doing!" the Admiral yelled.

With no way to stop the man, he could only watch as one of the most important researchers threw himself through a potentially very dangerous portal. His breath hitched as the man crossed through the glowing portal.

Dr. Park stumbled out the other side but quickly righted himself. Sound didn't travel over from the other side, but watching him through his hands up in celebration and start jumping around let his held breath flow out.

I'm going to kill that man.

But not before I congratulate him, first.

Building the first Portal was an accomplishment indeed.