Origin Seeker

Chapter 57: Launch

Three days passed and Sophia had finished enchanting Dream's armor.

Turns out, Sophia had much more in mind for the armor than he expected. For one, everything was reinforced, giving the titanium more defensive strength as well as the weaker graphene that hadn't been replaced. The second thing she did was enhance mobility. This was the unexpected part. But it was also the fun part.

Currently, Dream was in the living area, showing the girls the new ability of his suit. Both of who had surprised looks on their faces.

"...Why are you on the ceiling? Or, I should ask how are you on the ceiling?"

Iris asked, dumbfounded by what she was seeing. Dream had his suit activated and was currently laying on the ceiling, looking down at the girls.

"It's my new suit ability! Though I could technically do it without the suit, but it would be much more complicated that way. With this, I'm spiderman now!"

Dream stood up as he said that like it was nothing. Seeing that, Iris became even more speechless

"...Right." (Iris)

"So you learned enchanting? And enchanted your suit?" (Luna)

"Yes! Though it took three whole days of enchanting,."

"Wasn't enchanting supposed to be hard?" (Luna)

"Don't know. Sophia was able to learn it in a day."

"Oh, nice."

Luna just left it at that. Given the things he had done over the past several weeks and the vast knowledge she knew he had access to, she wasn't really shocked. Even she frequently looked through the 'Wikipedia' that held knowledge from his world. Sophia had gotten her hooked on it and she learned more than she ever had before. But this gave her perspective on how massive Dream's knowledge was as a person who had grown up with it. She no longer thought the things he did were surprising, just shopping it down to 'Well it's him so...'

How did the suit work? Well, Sophia was able to integrate the Solid-state magic with his suit. This made it so that any solids within the vicinity of the suit could be easily controlled. One such use was to attach himself to surfaces. He could also actively modify surfaces like floors to accommodate his movement. 

One of the problems he had begun encountering was that as he ran or fought, the friction of the floor wasn't able to support his sudden and powerful movement. This would cause slipping and he would have to adjust his weight and direction of applied force. Overall, it severely limited his mobility and he would never be able to move faster if he couldn't solve that problem.

But now, it was solved. He could modify the surface of the ground or even his suit to do as he needed. He could add grip, or he could create footholds like sprinter blocks. Gone were the days of slipping and sliding across the ground.

The best part about it though was that he got more than just the enchantment. When the suit had finally finished enchanting...

<You have earned the Active Skill: [Imbue]!>

<[Imbue] is level 84>

<You have earned the Passive Skill: [Scribe]!>

<[Scribe] is level 65>

<[Sophia] has leveled up!>

Dream got two skills and Sophia leveled up to level 27. He was pleasantly surprised when he got the unexpected notifications, and then Sophia tried to work her magic.

[Commencing skill emulation...]

"..."

Dream patiently waited for more notifications, but even after over 10 minutes of waiting, he never got anything. 

[Emulation failed...]

He could feel Sophia getting frustrated when she said that.  Now that he thought about it, this was basically the first time she had failed at something like this.

'Hey now, let's not beat ourselves up. Skills aren't supposed to be easy to make, remember?'

[I know, but still...]

Dream comforted her. Either way, he got two skills related to enchanting, which was more than he expected.

He also didn't stop at just enchanting the suit and decided to make some other items using his new skills.

First, Dream made a weapon for Luna. Though it was a bit special. The weapon was a sword hilt, and it was enchanted with Luna's water manipulation skill. It was designed so that when she infused her mana into it, she could easily and very quickly form an ice sword. It would also increase the strength of the blade by reinforcing the ice when it was made. Overall, it was much better than her regular ice sword. He also got more levels out of it, pushing [Imbue] to level 91 and [Scribe] to level 73.

He also didn't forget Iris. Though it was a bit more difficult to make a weapon for her. Her body was the weapon, and anything he made could get in her way. So for now, unfortunately, he couldn't do anything.

.............

On the 5th day, two days after the enchanting, Dream had finally decided to carry out his big project that he had been working on for a while.

Well, it was more like the 5th night. Dream had gathered Riddick, the girls, and Graff and brought them outside the Mountain.

He got them in a car and got on the roads, heading several miles away to a spot that was determined to be the best by Sophia. He had found this spot using his drones as they had been searching the surrounding couple dozen miles.

After half an hour of driving, they had finally arrived at the spot. Everyone piled out and Graff was first to speak.

"It's just a plain? What would you need to come to this place for?" (Graff)

Everyone looked around them and saw nothing but flat grasslands for miles. This area was away from the rocky mountains and The Mountain, which is exactly what Dream needed. He vaguely explained,

"This place will be used for a launch. To set everything up, I'll need your guys' help. Mainly in the form of a mana supply." (Dream)

"Are you going to be summoning something?" (Luna)

"Kind of. The reason why I'm only doing this now is because for the past month or so, I've been slowly accumulating the parts for the device I'm going to bring out. The device will be rather massive, and it has hundreds of components, so it wasn't something that could be brought out at once. But now, I've finally gotten everything I need. Everyone come hither, let's get started."

Everyone moved towards Dream. They all put their hands on his back and were prompted by Sophia asking for mana. They all agreed and Dream began his project.

After gaining control of everyone's mana, Sophia summoned out the foundation. Soon, a massive metal platform appeared in front of everyone. Not stopping there, she began bringing out everything else for the project. The first of which was the most important piece, the rocket.

A skyscraping metal tower appeared and carefully placed itself on the foundation. With loud clunks and bangs, all the connections between the platform and the rocket were quickly made without any hands touching them. 

Sophia needed to use huge amounts of mana in order to guide the rocket and components with [Solid-State Magic]. Everyone could also feel the huge amount of mana being spent. Though compared to the size of the mana pool, which was 95% Graff ad Riddick, this much didn't scratch the surface, so nobody minded.

After the rocket was placed, it began getting filled with all its internals. This included the whole reason for the launch, which was the satellites.

Ever since he had begun using devices in this world, Dream had wanted to attempt to carry out a rocket launch. It was one of the many things he worked on while shut inside his shed back in the forest. He wanted to see if he could put some satellites in orbit around the planet and get things like GPS and ground imaging. That way, he could get an overall view of the planet. But the mana required to carry out such a project was unbelievable, more than Riddick could ever supply in a short amount of time. So, he needed to slowly buy the components one by one over a long period of time. 

And through exploiting his level ups and Sophia constantly using the regeneration technique over a month and a half, he was finally able to gather all the essentials. And today was the best time to do things.

For nearly 15 minutes, Sophia filled the rocket with the satellites, the fuel, everything. This rocket was a special one as well.

Standing nearly 200 meters tall was a fat rocket with 4 boosters on it. This rocket used the latest graphene structure technology which made and structural components extremely light and strong. This freed up tons of space, allowing for more to be put inside of it, as well as it to be constructed much bigger than normal rockets. Specifically, it could fit over 300 satellites and much more fuel.

For this launch, Sophia had decided on an assortment of satellites. These satellites could be used for many things such as GPS and data transfer. In total, there were 40 GPS/communication satellites, 170 reconnaissance satellites for ground observation and map making, 40 satellites for weather and climate monitoring, and even 40 astronomical satellites for outer space observation. There was also one more secret satellite that took up many times more space than the others whose function was also much different. But that would be discussed another day.

Compared to the number of satellites in Earth's orbit, a few hundred was nothing. But given enough time and the right placement, all the data they need will be gathered and each one could carry out their purpose. Which is all Dream needed.

Everyone stood there in awe at the rocket. It's size stunned them. Graff obviously wanted details.

"What is this, Dream?" (Graff)

"It's a rocket. Through the combustion of fuel, it will fly into the sky and out into space." (Dream)

"Something this big can fly?"

"You'll be able to see it in a bit. I'm almost done with the preparations. Soon, it'll launch by itself."

Everyone looked on in expectation. Not long after, he got word from Sophia.

[Preparations are complete. We can launch anytime.]

"Good. Alright, everyone. Back in the car."

Dream cut off everyone's mana supply and brought them away from the rocket in the car.

They didn't drive far. Soon everyone got out and looked at the rocket which was a couple hundred meters away. Dream also brought out several screens. Each one gave different views of the rocket from the cameras inside and outside.

"Alright. Let's get this party started."

[Confirmed. 30 seconds to launch.]

Sophia's voice came from the screen as she began the countdown.

[30, 29, 28,... 15, 14, 13, 12...]

Everyone watched the screens with fervor. They didn't know what to expect. That massive thing flying into the sky? It seemed impossible!

[5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. Ignition.]

*RRRRRUMBLE*

*BOOM*

The boosters ignited and the rocket quickly blast off. Shockwaves and huge smoke clouds were released from the powerful thrusters.

In a matter of seconds, the rocket had already begun gaining altitude. The billowing flames under the metal tube lit up the night and could be seen from far away. Nobody had difficulty following it with their eyes. 

As the rocket began rising, everyone alternated between looking at the bright flames and looking at the screen. Though when everyone saw the camera who's perspective was looking down from the rocket, they were astonished.

They could see the ground getting smaller and smaller by the second. Numbers were also displayed showing the altitude and speed. 

2 minutes after launch. They began to see the outline of the planet from the rocket. It was already so high that the blue atmosphere was in full view. The rays of the sun on the other side of the planet could be seen over the horizon. It was a truly beautiful sight.

"Amazing. So that's our world..." (Graff)

"Indeed."

It was such an inspiring sight to be able to see the world that they were on and recognize how big it was. It also showed them how amazingly small they were. It seemed unreal, but the super tall rocket was very real, and they had no choice but to believe it.

At the 4-minute mark, the main boosters cut off. The secondary boosters then came on and kept pushing the rocket further into orbit.

After this, it would be a while before anything else happened. The screens in front of them cut off and went black, snapping everyone back to reality.

"What happened?" (Graff)

"Nothing. The rocket is going to take a bit longer before carrying out what I need it to. Until then, we should get moving. I doubt other people weren't alerted to this launch." (Dream)

"He's right. We don't want to be here when this place gets investigated." (Riddick)

"I didn't think of that. What about the platform over there?" (Graff)

"I'll have to go and recollect it. You guys stay here."

Dream got in the car and drove to the site. When he got there, he could see the scorched ground and dead grass all around the platform.

He drove by and collected the platform, heading back right after. Sophia chimed in during this.

[The first set of satellite deployments are beginning. Over the next 4 hours, everything will be deployed. Though it will take approximately 3 days for them to reach their designated orbits.]

'Nice. We can carry out the second part of this project tomorrow. Then, it's only a matter of time.'

Dream got back and took everyone back to the Mountain. They head straight to the house and went to bed, the amazing launch still on their minds.

.................

The next night, Dream head back out by himself. The second part of the project wasn't as grand as the rocket, but it was still kind of important.

In front of him, there were 20 launchers. These launchers each had a small plane on them. 

Dream was about to launch these planes into the sky. The special thing about these planes was that they were electric, and they had solar panels on their roof. This meant that they could fly theoretically forever as long as they didn't spend several days in darkness.

The planes were also equipped with the highest grade reconnaissance cameras. The kind you put on spy planes. He wasn't trying to spy on anyone, but instead image the planet on a more accurate level. His other goal with this was that if he needed an unknown area imaged ahead of time, he could send a plane already in the sky to recon the area. Although the satellites he launched had an ungodly resolution of about 7 centimeters, they still wouldn't be able to collect as accurate data as a plane circling an area for a long time. 

Now, was he only going to launch 20 planes? Nope. He was planning on launching thousands and sending them in all directions. He was just going to reload the launchers after every batch.

Since it was going to take a while to launch that many planes, Dream didn't waste any time. The first batch was rocketed into the sky by a disposable engine meant to give it speed. After that, 20 more planes appeared and placed themselves onto the launchers, repeating the process.

It wasn't until almost 2 hours later that he had launched the 20,000th plane. 

One thing to note about these planes was that they were all loaded with explosives. If they ever got attacked by a bird or they ran out of power, or they simply malfunctioned and crashed, he would be able to remotely blow them to smithereens. Obviously he wouldn't blow up one that landed among people, but if it were over the ocean or in a forest he could. It was more of a just in case type of thing. You never knew when it could come in handy.

After he was done, he went home while thinking about his next steps. He was technically done with his list. He had plenty of materials for any future uses, he learned enchanting, and he just finished his project. 

"I guess it won't be much longer before we head to the Spire."