Chapter 119: Version 0

Kyle furrowed his brows as he listened to the old Nest informant in the council building. “Repeat what you just said, clearly.”

“The war has begun. Count Leon is on the move, having already crossed the border three hours ago. His forces are poised to attack Ocra in a day, and, subsequently Tenar. The other two Counts have joined him as well, attacking from the other borders.”

Faster than expected. Kyle checked the date on a nearby calendar. It has not been two months since he first got the order to build the weapons factory for Baron Cain, and only two and a half weeks since he arrived in Versia.

“Are you sure?”

“The information is spreading through the Nest network. The Versian military had already been mobilising at Ocra as well, so all available Nest hitmen are being redirected there at this moment to stem the main assault.”

“Okay. Keep me updated on the progress.” Kyle dismissed the old Nest informant, pondering to himself as he was left alone in the room, his new office arranged by Diya.

Ever since he had reached Versia, he felt like he had been tossed about in a whirlpool of events. He had tried to make the best of it as far as he could, but the announcement of the war occurring ahead of time truly threw a wrench into his plans.

I had hoped I have a few more weeks to build up a stronger power base or even overthrow Mornero, but it looks like my hand is forced. He unfurled a map of Versia, noting down the location and strategic objectives that both sides would be angling for.

Kyle was extremely clear on what Count Leon was trying to achieve – a blitz attack on the capital of Versia before they could even react. The speed of mobilisation by Count Leon has been remarkable, planned months in advance in conjunction with the other count’s forces, all of whom joined in hopes of sharing a slice of the pie.

Ending the war between Versian and Yual too early was not a good thing for Kyle: the whole point of him entering Versia was to profit. With a surprise war and a fast capitulation, Kyle would have no chance to make money selling weapons. A prolonged conflict would be the best for him, so he had to do everything in his power to ensure no two sides had the advantage.

As of now, the Versian military was on the clear backfoot, outnumbered in Ocra despite having known about the military exercise in advance. Count Leon would still have to put in some effort to root out the entrenched defenders of the town, which may take more than a week.Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

It’s a race against time. If I can bog down Count Leon’s forces and supply line as much as possible, I can weaken the offensive and drag it out into a protracted war.

Kyle returned to the underground tunnel base, where Hayden was still working on utilising the old furnace to build a new one from scrap metal for the makeshift factory that was to be set up in Desham. Hayden was preparing to transfer all of the equipment over to make use of the new area allocated for them, thanks to Kyle’s effort at subverting Desham.

Hayden was initially pessimistic about Kyle’s attempts to gain a foothold in Desham, but it was clear after the revolution that Kyle was no ordinary person. In fact, she began to feel as though he was a capable leader, albeit morally lacking. Although I was no different during the revolution...

She worked with Feldon, joining up with the workers in Desham to set up the new factory, though they were still missing deposits to exploit.

The mineral ants and their paired village members were still hunting for ore deposits all over the nearby area, Kyle using their natural instincts to try and lock onto veins. Instead, he had only found deposits of clay, granite and small pockets of iron ore and copper, hardly enough to sustain the operation that he needed.

Certain metal pieces were remade from scratch, combining again to form the second prototype. Kyle was satisfied this time with the fit, but he still had to etch the arctech engravings onto it. With an old rugged arcia etcher left behind by the former revolutionaries, he slowly carved away at the steel with tenacity and patience, working long hours to finish one arcia engraving to the best of his ability.

He soon realised that there was not enough space for implementing the expanded arctech engraving that he wanted to implement on the vambrace. He had already gained some insight from his previous title of Arcia Engraver that he wanted to employ, but there was a limit to how big a vambrace could get.

Unless... Kyle considered the possibility of splitting up the engraving into multiple layers instead. He had originally always been working along the idea of a single engraving per layer, but this was a clear new direction. Similar to chip stacking. This may be feasible.

Instead of making a brand new vambrace, Kyle tested the idea first on a few pieces of scrap metal. He drew out the entire improved point defence engraving on paper before isolating and recognising key sections and modules that were present in the engraving.

Five components in the engraving – I can stack them in a three-two configuration and have the arcia energy route through a few through-holes or a direct connection via metallic stubs. He got to work and performed a quick test on two plates of scrap metal.

However, the arcia engraving failed to start up, making Kyle confused as to why it did not work. If I assume arcia energy is like electricity, then a single power line should be enough. Yet it was unable to power up the engraving...

Kyle examined the engraving carefully again, this time carving out the whole engraving on a larger piece of metal and documenting its start-up procedure. He soon noticed that all five components lighted up at the same time without delay rather than in sequence. Does this mean that I have to power all of them at the same time?

Working on that hypothesis, he quickly redesigned the engravings, creating the same two layers but having their entry point of the arcia engraving all linked together. Placing the two layers on his hand, Kyle focused as he channelled the arcia energy in at the same time, accounting for the difference in distance to achieve the same timing.

As expected, the engraving worked as expected, activating with a low hum and glow. Perfect.

With the new method of layering engravings in place, Kyle made a much more ambitious change to the blueprint of the armour, redesigning the engravings to their larger form but separated into multiple layers.

Hayden dropped in from time to time over the next two days, watching the armour suit come into being as Kyle meticulously crafted each and every piece, testing each engraving’s strength and durability before continuing. The slovesa cores were all melted with the steel, the Sturore merging to form a much stronger alloy, nearly unbreakable by conventional steel.

The addition of the Sturore gave the armour a dark blue colour, the unpolished, raw surface full of grainy imperfections. Hayden inspected the engravings, shocked at the scale of some of the engravings. “We don’t have enough arcia fuel for this armour – the consumption would be off the charts! Even with the regenerators, we would not be able to sustain this.”

She could instinctively tell that if there were not enough arcia fuel to carry, the person would be unable to activate the armour, instead being completely locked inside. She herself could barely lift the armour with both hands, making her wonder just how strong Kyle was.

The regenerators in the base were useful for keeping the furnace and basic equipment running but were not enough to sustain Kyle’s armour. However, Kyle already had designed for that. Even he did not believe that his Arcian physique would be enough to sustain the entire armour.

He designed a slot for an arcia crystal on the back of the armour. Slotting in the Advanced Arcia Crystal into it and covering it with thick layers of armour, Kyle’s Version 0 exosuit was completed after three days of work, the entire armour a deep shade of navy blue on a polished surface. Kyle activated the armour, taking the first step as the weight of the armour cracked the ground slightly. He threw a few punches, the air rippling from the sheer mass displacement as he tested the mobility and range of the armour.

With the weight, the armour was far from being mobile, clearly restricting Kyle’s speed. But what it lost in reflexes, it made it up for defence and power, supported by the Advanced Arcia Crystals, whose yellow arcia energy surged under the layers of armour.

“Next up, the weapons.”