Dusk blanketed the valley. From the cliff's edge, the protagonist watched threads of violet lightning flicker in the clouds like veins in a sleeping beast.
His Life-Sense detected the air itself humming with weak, lazy electrical currents, as if the mist were drinking voltage and letting it seep slowly.
Storm ETA Updated ▸ 26 h 18 m
Peak Discharge: 5,200 QP (Median)
Recommendation: Build High-Gain Lightning Mast
He turned to his sketchpad and began to draw.
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The lightning mast needed to do more than survive. It needed to harness power.
Design plan:
Root: buried beneath Beacon-0, to channel energy into the filter core.
Trunk: hollow bones of a giant Stone-Shell Snail—natural conductors.
Crown: a double-layered crystal head storing 100 QP to generate a pre-strike field.
Chaos Filter: to prevent the mast from exploding on impact.
One problem: the Chaos Filter required a Monster Core (Grade-β). And he had none… yet.
His only option? A mature Steam Newt.
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He tracked vapor trails rising through fractured earth. There it was—a meter-long beast, its body glowing red through cracked, metallic skin.
Vital Heat Capacity: 800 kJ
Possible Core: Proto-Grade-β
Warning: Lethal Thermal Burst on Death
Choice A: Kill and extract. Quick. Wasteful. Choice B: Pulse-extract the core and let it live.
He chose B.
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Moving in silence, he used alternating Pulse Focus at 14 Hz to dull the salamander's nerves. As the steam rhythm slowed, he slipped a thread of energy between two vertebrae and pulled.
Out came a glowing red core—hot, trembling, but whole.
The wound sealed with a wash of cold fog. The salamander fled, limping.
In his hand: Heat-Core (Proto-β).
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Back at Beacon-0.
Timer: 17 h 02 m
He embedded the bones into the rock, fused with motion threads as energetic cement. The Heat-Core settled inside a crystal socket and interfaced with the parasite cocoon, turning remaining chaos into insulating sheaths.
He transferred 100 QP into the crown.
The sky hissed.
Lightning Mast v1.0 ▸ ONLINE
Theoretical Absorption: 3,800–5,500 QP/strike
Structural Integrity: 74%
Recommend: Stress Test
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He linked his Blood Pulse to the mast's core.
With one push, 500 QP surged.
A blaze shot up the bones. One vertebra cracked. Screeching metal echoed.
The mast shook but held.
Safety: 69%.
He added a ring of bone, fused it with 40 QP.
Integrity rose to 72%.
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As he sealed the repair, Beacon-0 stirred.
> "Lightning falls… energy weaves… shadows sever the line."
A vision flickered—an Echo-Wraith leaping into the lightning stream.
If they fed not on the strike's power—but its memory—they could erase its signature, sabotaging future attraction.
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He engraved micro Anchor Glyphs around the Heat-Core, filling them with memories:
Building the beacon.
Sparing the salamander.
His fear of corruption.
These weren't calculations. They were anchors of identity.
Memory-Seal Layer ▸ Initialized
Echo-Wraith Interference Probability: 9%
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The sky cracked more frequently.
Storm ETA: 11 h 48 m
He was nearly drained—130 QP left.
So he stood. Arms wide. Feet rooted. Motion threads open.
He began slow induction, pulling ambient charge through the mist until his core rose to 300 QP.
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A real thunderclap split the silence.
The mast flickered, blade-like against the night.
The beacon whispered:
> "The thread nears… grasp it, or vanish in the blaze."
The sky lit up. A line of fire traced down the clouds.
The system turned blue:
Live-Strike Incoming ▸ 0 h 00 m 13 s …
He closed his eyes. His blood pulsed like war drums.
He was ready to embrace the fire of the sky.
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