“Oh? Then tell me, what is it missing?”
The cold voice suddenly rang in his ears. Gar felt as if a chilly night wind had swept over him. Shivering, he snapped out of his daze and looked down, only to find that Her Grace was already standing right in front of him.
“Your Grace...”
Gar felt his entire body stiffen, his legs shaking uncontrollably. Although the girl before him was a full head shorter than he was, those golden eyes exerted a powerful pressure that could only come from a superior lifeform.
“Don't be nervous. I don't eat people.”
Irene bared her two sharp canine teeth, looking up to squeeze out what she considered a gentle smile.
“Come on, tell me. What are your thoughts?”
“Gulp—”
Swallowing hard, Gar tried to offer a compliment. “This blueprint of yours is the greatest invention I've ever seen. Even in the Dwarven Empire, I've never seen such a precise creation.”
“Mhm~ And then?”
Irene narrowed her eyes. This guy's resume mentioned that Fido had bought him out from the Dwarven Empire on a whim. In a sense, he was a highly educated talent who had studied abroad.
She wondered if he could give her a pleasant surprise.
Gar was already dripping with cold sweat. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the others who had come with him staring at him with pity. He deeply regretted not keeping his mouth shut and letting his thoughts slip out.
If he didn't explain himself well now, he might end up as dragon food.
Under the intense pressure, his mind went completely blank, and his memory was involuntarily dragged back to his days of fighting in the coliseum.
His surroundings no longer felt like a dragon's nest, but rather that bone-strewn coliseum. He could almost smell the thick scent of blood in the air again. The figure before him was no longer a young girl, but a savage magical beast with a ferocious gaze, its body tensed and ready to pounce, kill, and devour him.
It was a nightmare he could never erase from his life.
“Drip—”
A drop of sweat rolled down his forehead, landing on the blueprint in his hands and wetting a large area.
Suddenly, a wave of heat rushed to his head, as if a fire had been lit in his heart. Gar suddenly felt like he could take on ten opponents at once!
Looking forward, he noticed a faint glow of mana flickering on the young girl's fingertips. He instantly realized what had happened. Just as he was about to thank her, he noticed the little dragon girl's slightly impatient gaze. He quickly swallowed his words and pointed at the blueprint. “I think this thing is incomplete. It can't move!”
Irene's expression grew serious.
“This set of blueprints indeed lacks the most crucial power supply. We don't have the blueprints for that part yet. Do you have a solution?”
“I figure... why don't we change this thing to run on mana?!” Gar's tone grew increasingly firm.
“You know how to modify it?”
“I figure it shouldn't be too hard.” Under the influence of the courage-boosting spell, Gar gradually recovered his composure. He patted his chest and said, “When I was a slave in the Dwarven Empire, I often watched them forge. I figure if I try, I can do it too.”
A faint, barely noticeable spark of hope appeared in the little dragon girl's eyes. With a thought, the metal can in the center of the dragon nest was lifted by Mage Hand and floated over, landing heavily beside them with a loud thud.
“Tap, tap!”
Lightly tapping the metal can beside her twice, Irene said, “This is the prototype. See how you can modify it. Materials are not an issue.”
“This thing...”
Under the effect of the spell, Gar gradually shed his inhibitions. He walked in a circle around the metal can, looked at the blueprint again, and shook his head with a look of pity. “No, the materials for this thing are too poor. It can't withstand the flow of mana at all.”
“And another thing.” He gave a light tug on the metal can, and a component snapped right off. “Who made this? The craftsmanship is terrible!”
“Ahem.” Irene coughed dryly, muttering without blushing or her heart skipping a beat, “My useless younger dragon brother made it. The craftsmanship is indeed a bit lacking.”
Gar suddenly turned his head, looking straight at the little dragon girl, and said casually, “Your Grace, I figure it's not hard. You get me some materials, and I'll whip one up for you.”
“Hmm...” Irene hesitated for a moment. She couldn't help but feel that because she had cast a Courage Boost spell on him, the guy had gotten a bit overconfident.
To avoid wasting time and materials, she decided to be cautious. Looking up, she called out to the glowing orb hanging from the ceiling like a light bulb, “Come down, Mia.”
As if booting up, a yawning expression appeared on the glowing orb. It slowly drifted down and stopped in front of Irene, speaking in a very gender-neutral voice, “Your Grace, what are your orders? Mia will do its utmost to serve you.”
Over this period, Irene had figured out what this glowing orb was. It was likely the smart brain of that spaceship—or rather, an artificial intelligence, but a living one.
Although it had amnesia now, it could still be used as a supercomputer. It was capable of both technological calculations and magical simulations. It only needed a regular supply of mana to maintain its biological activities. Lately, the little dragon girl had been using it to calculate tedious spell formulas, and now it was perfect for this task as well.
Irene placed the blueprints in front of the glowing orb and said, “Construct a holographic schematic of this power armor.”
“Ding! Constructing.”
The expression on the glowing orb instantly vanished, replaced by a loading progress bar. Above its head, countless strands of mana intertwined into light, gradually constructing a virtual, 3D holographic schematic of the power armor.
“Alright.” Irene looked at the green-skinned beastkin, Gar. “Tell me your ideas.”
“I... I...”
A nervous expression appeared on Gar's face again; it seemed the spell's effect was wearing off. Seeing this, Irene applied another Courage Boost and threw in a Frenzy spell to extend his state.
The muscular beastkin's eyes instantly turned crimson. Letting out a furious roar with his head thrown back, his muscles tensed, and two plumes of white steam snorted from his nostrils as he bellowed, “I figure I'm doing great right now!!”
With that, he strode over to the holographic projection and pointed at a spot. “I think! This part can be removed! And from here to here, we can use mithril to connect them and build a mana circuit!”
“And here, if we move this pressure-boosting device to this position, we can connect it to the neighboring mithril line... This spot needs to use red copper alloy...”
“And this place should use a magic crystal as the mana core...”
Following his words, the holographic projection began to change. Lines connected one by one, components shifted, and the virtual materials adjusted accordingly.
Beneath the holographic projection, countless streams of data flashed across the surface of the glowing orb, loading the data of various materials to analyze their feasibility.
Rate on N.U.
