The gate was too small.

The tiny leader, Ghira, was also noticing that the massive 17 foot tall gates only came up to Adam's waist.

Adam gently moved his tree sized trunk to tap the arch... which felt far too flimsy to handle him bumbling into it if he tried to crawl under the thing. Not that it would matter, his shoulders were too wide. And he was slowly damaging the pathway just trying to walk here.

He glanced down at the leader of the city. "I uh. I think it would be best for me to relax out here for a while." Where everything wouldn't crumble. Like the streets. And any houses he bumped into. And these tiny, easily missed people that were scurrying about.

Ghira glanced at the slightly cracked archway, and nodded. "Doesn't mean we can't show you some appreciation Adam." It really made his throat a bit sore having to be this loud, but his new friend was around 35 feet tall. Almost eleven meters of muscle and awkward 'I can sit over here' in one package. So one had to adapt.

The ground vibrated as Adam used the defensive wall as a back rest, thankfully far more sturdy than the gate structure section. He felt his body almost hissing as the hot muscles finally began to relax, his battle fever cooling while Simmy hummed softly on his shoulder.

Side note, she was like 9 feet tall or so and was refusing to wear clothes while 'on the clock'. Apparently when you were THIS tall, everyone else just felt super tiny.

He was brought out of his thoughts by several large Faunus, bull related based on the horns, bringing massive cask barrels and making a stack nearby, one guy was helpful enough to rip one end off a barrel for easier consumption.

Adam blinked as he inspected the thing. His hand easily wrapped around the person sized container, it felt like an egg or so in relative size... a quick toss back and he hummed. Some sort of alcohol, but not one he recognized. "Hmm. The taste is fine, but it would be best to hold off on drinking this stuff until I am small enough to enjoy it for a while."

Ghira looked up from directing his people, the tent still being restructured to help their new guest at least get out of the sun. "What do you mean, small enough?"

He looked down at the busy crowd, mostly military as the citizens were still busy manning the walls until the threat was completely gone. "I came here for a good fight and to learn stuff, like how to make weapons or how healing people is different depending on body types. I can't exactly examine Dust or work a forge when I can't even squeeze through the damn streets."

Simmy tapped his head and he blinked before nodding. "Ah, you meant more 'how' than 'why'. I have a series of skills and abilities that are not normal, as I am sure everyone noticed at this point. The ability to control my own biology is one of my oldest, most practiced abilities. I learned how to heal others and work with plants and stuff thanks to that same skill. Making a new body, much less modifying my own, is simple in comparison."

He frowned at his massive arm as it flexed, ignoring the stunned soldiers. "No, I could shrink down instantly if needed, but I am doing this slowly so that my powers can adjust, hopefully keeping some of the advancements in body reinforcement I made during that fight." Being torn apart for that long, while not a huge issue at the time, still was annoying enough for him to want to keep the improvements made.

He gave a weak smile, trunk absently brushing potential dust off his shirt. "At least I am already down to 35 feet or so, in an hour or two I should be down to 30 or better. That said, I do appreciate the effort with the tent... I would like to take a nap after that workout."

A black-eared cat Faunus sauntered in, leading another squad of warriors who were carrying food supplies for their guest. "I'm back! I am pretty sure at this point we can call off the emergency crews and go into repair and recovery stages of emergency."

She blinked as cloth suddenly blocked the sun, tent finally in place over the group that still bustled about setting things up. "Ah. That's actually pretty nice, I hadn't been in the shade for hours now."

Adam slowly nodded, his blue hair brushing the fabric even as ropes were being tossed to secured it. "You would think fighting in this weather would have been very heat intensive, but Grimm blood is surprisingly cool towards the center. Wasn't really trying to treat them as water balloon temperature controllers but it was a lovely side effect."

He saw confusion in the woman's eyes and carefully shrugged, the tent shifting in response. "Grimm tend to pop if you aren't careful swinging them."

Ghira laughed loudly as he pulled the woman into a tight hug and fierce kiss. "My woman can fight an army herself, but I had to force her into leadership to show everyone else how to do things right." He moved from the glowing with embarrassment Faunus and sat at the brought in table. "That said, even her battle record rarely involved 'Grimm Popping', an oversight I am sure she will rectify at some point."

Adam looked down at the conference table... It still looked like doll equipment.

The chieftain looked up. "So. A bit of serious stuff before we relax and call today a glorious victory and all that."

Ghira drank deep from the flask passed to him by his people. "What the hell is that black fire wall, and how dangerous to our people is it?"

Adam blinked. "Ah, the defensive ward." He pointed the tip of his trunk at Simmy. "I had my secretary defend the city so I could focus on punching stuff. She decided to use the Grimm as a fuel source for some modified Glyphs, designed to use the blood of the beasts as a collection array and purification system. This ward is one that grows stronger with time and food supply while defending the city."

Simmy gave a short bow, her assets causing Ghira to lose focus a bit until his wife smacked the back of his head. Not that she hadn't looked too, but honestly. Time and place.

Adam winced himself, though less from sympathy and more from feeling his bones restructure with 'Recovery' and his height start shrinking again. Hopefully he would lose a couple of feet or more this time. "Anyway, negative energies will trigger the barrier. It will eat whatever monsters are near by, then when everything is dead or scared off it should go asleep until needed again."

The woman (Simmy mentally informed him her name was 'Kali') seemed interested. "So it doesn't need Dust for power?"

He started to shake his head before feeling the tent tremble. Right. "No. Dust may enhance the barrier, and some Semblances may empower the thing, but the default Glyph sequence just requires an initial donation of Aura and some Grimm to consume before it is self sufficient."

Kali's attention was focused. "Can you make more of these 'wards' as you call them? And what would we need to do the same."

A small pile of blue feathers poofed on the table, leaving behind a bound book. Thank you Simmy. "My secretary wrote up some educational material. It's enough to teach people how to draw Grimm blood without it evaporating, how to solidify it into the correct Glyph shapes, and how to empower them until they gain enough momentum to stand alone."

He sighed. "Again, I am a bit of an amateur with anything not biologically involved. Simmy loves Glyphs so far, and has been redesigning them since we got here. I should also point out that the wards in this book are far weaker than the ones around the city."

Seeing the looks, he carefully shrugged. "She is able to bleed an army of Grimm into massive, redundant, and individually custom designed Glyphs. I have enormous power reserves. You would need a LOT of people, resources, and time to duplicate even simple protections around your city without me."

He pointed his trunk at the book. "So best to start off with the basics. I'm sure your people can improve them in time to something even better than what Simmy put together." In a few hundred years or so.

Adam reflexively released a yawn... and nearly collapsed half the tent. "Crud. Look, the wards will only attack Grimm and people who intend harm to this city. The bullheads of hunters should be fine to cross over?" He glanced at Simmy who nodded. "Yes, they will have no issues. Can we continue this conversation after I sleep for a while and shrink a few tons?"

Kali blinked. "What?"

Right, she hadn't been here for that. "Ask him. I'm done for now."

Thankfully months of practice as a Baku had trained him for this moment.

The soldiers and their leader eventually left the massive tent, even as snoring echoed out from the shifting cloth. It wasn't like they didn't have mountains of work to do themselves, after all.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sienna looked at her girls. "I know, but this is a special case. I need support."

Tawna rolled her eyes. "Girl, if you want another lesbian orgy there is no need for all the bluffing."

The group blinked when Sienna Khan pulled up an image and emailed the group. "Our target is between 30 and 40 feet tall and covered in muscles. Masturbation alone will need to be a team effort, and I need people I can trust."

Suzanna gaped at the massive muscled man in a wonderfully white suit. "Girl, he would rip you apart!"

Fever burned in her eyes. "I've always loved a challenge."

Tawna scoffed. "Eating a hotdog in one bite is a challenge, trying to have sex with a building, regardless of attractiveness, is just stupid. And yes, likely lethal. There is not enough Aura in the world to heal you if you tried to climb this mountain."

Several other girls nodded. Suzanna sighed. "At least voyeuristic stuff is possible, I guess, but at his size you might end up drowning at the height of your victory! And again, I hate to point this out, but you WOULD BE HIGH UP! Falling or being squished would be a real, possible concern."

Betty was tapping her chin and nodded. "We need scaffolding and safety lines."

Tawna jerked and glared at her. "NO! Do NOT encourage this Betty. I don't care how much of a size queen you are, his unit is probably the size of an ACTUAL MILITARY UNIT! And for all we know he could be gay or even non-sexual. Has anyone actually talked to the guy yet?"

Sienna sighed in romance and lust. "He speaks the language of violence like a poet blessed by heaven."

The crowd paused.

Tawna nodded. "Right, she's lost it. Does anyone NOT lost in sexual fantasy know any ACTUAL information about the man?"

A hand near the back went up. "I helped bring the celebration kegs to his tent. His giant form may be a type of Semblance. I mean, some of the other girls heard him say that he can change size."

Betty nodded. "Dibs."

Suzanna groaned as the girls went back into debate, watching Sienna lose track of the conversation while mumbling about 'Suplex God' and 'Abs you could grate trees on'. At least it seemed like conflict in general was done for today, even if she really wanted to check on her squad and head home already.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Simmy wouldn't stop humming until Adam snagged her with his trunk and wrapped her up in some sort of hug.

Seriously, he COULD go without sleep but 'Recovery' was taking forever on this and he couldn't even enjoy a nice meal until it was over.

There. He absently snuggled the smug angel until she gave up the noise making and relaxed into his embrace. He could worry about politics and all that crap later.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Professor Ozpin flinched as the Bullhead crossed the black flame boundary. Thousands of unseen eyes watched him with hunger as they crossed, and he felt the edges of the world full of fire and rage.

The other side was nearly as bad a shock, as purified energies filled the massive pillar of flames. An unconscious sigh ran through his students even as everyone confirmed that there were no casualties during the crossing.

He checked his scroll. The fire kept the majority of the Grimm away, any getting too close being consumed while screaming. It meant his people could nearly relax, relying on the high ground and firing from the Bullheads as they flew the perimeter.

Now that hours had passed and the vast majority of Grimm had either died or wandered away, they had to risk the black flames to enter the formally attacked city.

Yes, that was unpleasant.

He nodded to Glynda, who managed the multiple landings with the now mostly stable Cross Continental Transmit System back online.

He himself went to find Ghira and find out what the hell was going on.

The Hunters and Huntresses jumped dozens of feet to the ground from the ships even as they landed, moving with purpose as they began disaster relief efforts and standard reinforcement procedures for an area surviving conflict.

He smiled at the busy mass of society. At least those classes were clearly doing their jobs.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ghira snorted. "No."

Ozpin frowned, before glancing back at the massive tent with multiple guards standing around it. "Did he request solitude?"

His friend clapped Ozpin on the shoulder, directing him away from the interesting person. "The man in there saved my kingdom, my city, my people, and most importantly my baby girl. The least we can do is let him sleep in peace until he wakes."

Ghira ignored Sienna and a crowd of suspicious women, a glance with his wife having Kali run interference. He smiled at Ozpin. "You can wait for any interrogation, why not review the videos we recorded instead? The Giant fought for literally hours after all, we have more than a few popular films making the rounds at the moment."

Ensuring the busybody was distracted would be annoying, but keeping people away from Adam's nap was literally the least they could do at this point to show gratitude. That, and annoying a guy who can rip a building in half seemed foolhardy.

Ghira sighed. "While we walk, I am afraid we must talk about recent... negotiations we attempted with the detachment from Mistral. I am unsure if the individual I worked with was working with official direction or on his own prerogative... either way, he did not leave a good impression as he ran from battle and left us to die."

Ozpin's gaze was now sharply focused and intense. "Indeed? Tell me more."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Simmy hummed, gently brushing Adam's hair as he was firmly held to her chest.

It wasn't HER fault he left the 'Shrink and Optimize' function of 'Recovery' running while asleep. As it was, the man was down to a foot and a half tall, his body so compressed and optimized that he was slowly becoming unable to move.

The perfect plushy, at least until he wakes up and undoes the changes.

She snuggled with the tiny guy, his reinforced trunk idly wiggling as soft snores vibrated from his dreams. Maybe she should convince him to be a snuggle pillow more often.

Her feathers continued to slowly fill the massive depression in the ground that had been caused by Adam sitting earlier, slowly converting the sink hole into a feather floor for her and her toy to relax in.

Then again, her man was currently so compressed that she could drop him from a building and probably not wake him up. Depending on the building, initial velocity, etc and so forth.

It was of course impossible to squish 35 feet of anyone into less than two feet of height, so the majority of mass was burned in the process of experimentation with different muscle densities, formations, enhancements, and so forth.

And at this tiny level, the compression was selected to ensure that the important inner organs and brain and so such would remain safe, unpressured, and undamaged even with so little space available. Sure his limbs couldn't bend, but aside from that small issue his body was fully capable of surviving a train impact without armor. Also, his nerves had adapted in the process... so he was perfectly comfortable snoring away while a massive Endbringer cuddled him with human squishing level of forces.

Aww, look at his wiggling nose!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Kali was tapping her feet very impressively.

Sienna was mostly able to ignore it, but the other girls were rapidly falling into awkward shuffling. "I'm just saying that he may need assistance relaxing. Music and stuff."

Kali glanced over the girls, not one holding an instrument. "So... singing then?"

Sienna flinched. Yeah, she knew that wasn't a talent of hers. "Uh... Massage! Right, we were going to work together cause he is a fairly big guy. Big. Those muscles. Damn. Mmm."

Tawna snapped her fingers in front of Sienna with no effect, then sighed. "Sorry, mam. We don't mean any harm though. And we won't try to force anything, but could we at least say hello?"

Kali sighed and glanced towards her husband, having an intense discussion with the visiting Professor as they walked towards a more secured location. "Maybe later. I won't go into detail, but Giant Adam has requested a bit of a nap to adjust after the fight. Apparently the process of getting that large is easier than returning to a reasonable size."

Betty pumped her fist in the air. "YES!"

She froze when the group turned towards her. "I mean... uh." She wilted... then rallied in confidence. "No. No apologies, FUCK YEAH! Go big or go home!"

Tawna pushed her aside. "Back on topic, can we at least help out in the general area until he is available?"

One of the girls near the back whimpered. "And can I put this climbing gear down somewhere? I can't keep this junk off the ground for much longer."

Kali turned from the drooling Sienna, to the small girl Betty doing some sort of celebratory dance, to the overwhelmed Tawna and her girls trying to bicker quietly.

Screw it. It was her Husband's job to handle the strange crap anyway. "Tawna will be in charge, you girls divide up any jobs that come up, if an issue happens let Ghira know and my hubby will handle it."

Cause SHE wasn't going to.

Kali sauntered back to the technician teams to see what long term modifications and replacements would be needed to keep the network running for the next month. An instant message via scroll was good enough heads up to Ghira about the small army of lecherous women trying to molest their new hero.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The girls cautiously entered the absolutely massive tent... the soft echos of snoring ringing within.

Aside from the piles of packaged food, the barrels of good alcohol, the tent was surprisingly... empty.

Tawna pulled the group further into the dim lighting, the Dust in the lamps hid by the lamp shade to ensure a more relaxing atmosphere. "Hello? We are looking for Mr. Adam Burns?"

From deeper in the tent a musical tune rose from a pit of blue feathers, blue arms holding aloft a toy Elephant Faunus.

...It was adorable.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Thank everything good and innocent that 'Recovery' didn't prevent sleep.

Seriously, powers that prevented or got rid of the need to sleep seemed like a negative option, who wouldn't want to snooze a bit?

Mind you, half the joy of sleeping is the ability to rest among beautiful women and soft stuff... so if he was stuck somewhere alone and rocky, maybe skipping a nap or two would seem like a good plan.

He snuffled, trunk wiggling a bit before it wrapped around something warm and squishy. The moan was ignored as not relevant, and he wiggled a bit to find that comfortable spot.

Right, goals for the near future.

First, once he shrank down to something more reasonable (six feet or so would be fine, he could likely adjust it easily enough once 'Recovery' experiments a bit) he would take some time to explore this city.

Designed for Faunus, there was a whole section in this city that was partially flooded for the aquatic creatures! That sounded neat!

He would likely need money though.

Adam pushed against the warm fingers stroking through his hair.

Flame Metal and Null Metal wouldn't work here. Found that out during the fight, if it got too far from his body the materials would turn into liquid, then explode into pyres of fire and frost. Still not sure why an insulator like Null Metal would spew ice everywhere, but the spikes of frost were quite impressive.

So to get some cash, or lein in this Realm, he would need to borrow some raw material. After he made better tools (Extra suit arms work fine if they don't reach out too far, so that should save lots of time making less dangerously unstable work assistants), then he could build a few Conversion Generators and get going. No galactic sized military to invade THIS area if he built some impossible things. Probably.

He grumbled a bit when someone poked his cheeks and trunk.

Hopefully that would work fine. Everything here was saturated with Soul energy though, so best do some experimentation and make sure the Gather and Construction beams work as designed first. Could a soul be Gathered? Well, yeah, probably. Kami was usable in a conversion generator, so it should all work out eventually.

He blinked awake.

"Oh! He has bright blue eyes! He's so adorable!"

He blinked VERY awake.

Why was he surrounded by sexy giants!? Wait, when did Simmy get so big!? And why can't he move...

...Uh.

Crud, he left the power working and didn't set a timer.

Even as he winced his body made nearly inaudible cracks and shrank another fraction of an inch. Yeah, better turn that off.

With a flex, his body and outfit grew to a comfortable six feet... and then collapsed into blue arms and blue feathers, the ground replaced with a slumber pit of some sort.

And... Completely covered by squealing Faunus girls.

His eyes bulged. "Hey!"

Someone spoke above the din of noise. "Dang it Betty, don't jump the queue!"

Simmy snickering was NOT helping him get free. "Hang on, what's going on right now!?"

He felt the angel petting his head as a serious tiger woman leaned in FAR TOO CLOSE, rubbing her cheeks against his and purring. "Hi. We are part of the service staff selected for the temporary tent residence you are currently using. We welcome your attendance and wish you a pleasant stay."

Her eyes glowed with a dangerous light. "Now, Mr. Muscles McGee, we are just going to verify that you are uninjured, or if more medical attention is required."

He yelped, ignoring Simmy giving the cat eared beauty a thumbs up. "Can I get a bit of space first!? Last thing I remember is trying to take a nap."

The girls 'examining' his torso pouted, but did give him some room. Mostly.

"Betty you slut, get off him!"

"NEVER!"

Adam felt his chin pulled away from the sight, focused back on the woman with bright orange eyes. "Ignore them." HOW!? "Listen, your guardian angel Simmy gave us this letter from a 'Narwhal' that she claims would explain everything."

Adam focused with difficulty, opening the blue letter. "Dear Darling, make sure Simmy records any orgies from the good angles."

...Yeah, that sounds like Narwhal.

He sighed, suit forming multiple limbs that gently moved the surprised women off his (now well handled) body. "Girls, I am more than surprised and grateful for this kind of attention, but I am not comfortable with random sexual encounters. I want to actually get to ACKH!"

One of the cow girls smacked a wiggling bottom. "Off Betty! Dust, you weren't this uncontrolled an hour ago."

He glared over his shoulder at the still three-foot-taller-than-him blue angel, her sexy smirk NOT helping him stay calm from all the stimulation. "You know I won't do anything without Narwhal's explicit permission. I didn't do squat with the other dream girls before I talked to her last time, I won't do anything without her consent now either."

Her smug look grew wider as a letter was held up.

Adam's expression went a bit blank as he read the long note from his girlfriend. Whom apparently had a bit of a fetish for a long list of body types. And requirements needed to be met, personality types acceptable, and so on and so forth. Not to mention the personal incentives she would give if he hit certain goals. Like he was some sort of intergalactic realm wandering pimp.

He looked at Simmy. "This is... a bit offensive."

A second note. "Oh." That girl. "So she is trying for punishment games. Fair enough."

The third note covered the issue with a more serious tone, and included input from CD and Nightmare Moon. While his girls in Worm had no issue keeping urges within the group, so to speak, they had laid out guidelines about what kinds of activities they felt were 'fair game' when traveling to new realms.

Not nearly as 'Collect them all!' attitude as the first letter suggested, but far less restrictive than he was expecting.

He looked at the awkwardly shuffling girls, mostly lined up except for the two pulling Betty away from his lower region. "Right, got some notes from my girlfriends. Basically I don't personally like the idea of 'no string' relationship encounters. Full stop. However, I am willing to try talking a bit and seeing if any of us actually have the potential for a longer term relationship."

Keep focus, ignore Simmy's leer, ignore Betty's... everything.

Adam honestly never saw a conversation like this happening, but his life had always been weird so... whatever. "I feel I must mention that my girls always come first, and until you are accepted by them don't really expect much 'action', so to speak."

This got him more than a few pouts, but he had felt blessed enough with just Narwhal. The letters were enough to keep him from giving an instant and default 'No' to everyone, he could read between the teasing to see that Narwhal found the group idea pretty sexy, but he came to this Realm for a reason. An actual reason.

Harem collection wasn't it. No matter WHAT Simmy implied.

He clapped his hands, muscled limbs flexing. "Right, I've shrunk over 30 feet and slept for hours, anyone know where to get some food?" He winced. "And a bathroom. In fact, restroom first, then water, then food, then maybe I will be awake enough to understand where all you girls came from and why."

One of the girls with a cat tail raised her hand. "The belly dancer outfits came from Ms. Angel."

He gave Simmy a deadpan look... and she just puffed her chest and looked even more proud. Her nude chest.

Damn it.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

So, coffee exists here. Made from plants infused with soul energy. Just what one needed after a hasty bathroom break and some unsatisfying military rations.

THIS was something he would bring home to his girls. "Mmm."

The 'leader' Tawna offered a small pot. "Honey?"

Adam chuckled, trying to ignore the small squad of armed female Faunus in sexy dancer outfits following behind them. And 'Betty', the cow girl riding on his shoulders. "Why not? This stuff is amazing plain though."

Sienna padded up to his right absently twirling some sort of chain whip with blades, orange eyes glaring at the passing women. "So what can we do for you, Sir Muscle-ton?"

He frowned. "Right, first I have no money... so let's go fix that. Anyone know where I can get to a workshop and where I can find some scrap materials?"

One of the girls raised a hand. "I'm a weapon craftier, and I don't mind if you borrow our forge a bit." The girl next to her nodded. "As for scrap, anything from a damaged weapon tends to be ground up and added to the metal of the replacement parts. We believe strongly in communing with our tools and weapons, and it is not uncommon for recycled powder or weapons to be used for literally generations in a family."

He checked the dog eared girl. "Roxie, right?" A nod. "I don't need much at first, but the more raw material I have the more I can accomplish. It doesn't have to be anything with the emotional investment as weapon parts, I can use raw ore or cut ends and whatnot. Even slag from the refinement process can help me a lot."

Half the crowd scattered, barely any orders passing as Sienna made some hand gestures. "Right, we'll head over to Roxie's joint while the girls collect some raw material and any scrap or loose bits they can. Meanwhile, tell me a bit how you went from massive and murder-fun to tiny and adorable?"

They chatted a bit, Betty finding his ability to shape shift almost TOO exciting, as they wandered through Kuo Kuana. A feeling of excitement was pulsing in the street, the lack of heavy death and property damage pulling a festival feeling in the air as people dashed everywhere.

They were walking towards what Simmy noted as the Chieftain's house, Ghira's place, and the main street was covered with market stalls that owners were eagerly returning to, trying to take advantage of the emotional high running through the crowds. He ended up trying a few snacks being sold along the way, the girls insisting he try a few samples even if they were paying for it.

Roxie's place was near the industrial section of the city, which was surprisingly close to Ghira's home and the center of town. The biting smell of hot metal twanged in the air, with clouds of steam showing that Roxie's place was more like a Guild Hall than a personal forge. The entrance alone was wide with constant traffic, workers and material loaders pushing through all kinds of equipment and resources while crowds of Hunters and high level Crafters passed alongside them.

Not that he had much time to explore, as the girls plied him with questions and offered snacks and refills of coffee even as they moved towards the work floor.

It was a bit crowded, and he felt a little overwhelmed... but it was a welcoming feeling as well.

Finally though, he had arrived. Piles made with ingots of metal, massive wooden barrels filled with powders and shrapnel, and access to a secured wall section filled with Dust and Dust Crystals of all kinds of natures. Fire, Ice, Electric, Gravity, Combustion, Hard-Light, all kinds of it was carefully seperated and sorted... and it pulled his attention. Like sunshine behind a waterfall, he was drawn close.

The girls rapidly found their new friend beyond distracted, ignoring the world... as a forest of bone limbs erupted from his white suit.

Adam on the other hand, was entranced.

Dust was amazing.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sienna watched Betty get gently lifted by a twelve jointed bone limb, white fingers carefully placing the squirming feminine package into her arms as a multitude of others began pulling Dust from the reserve wall as if they were free samples.

Not that they would say anything.

The man's assault on Grimm earlier had done more good than gathering ALL this expensive Dust and detonating it. They wouldn't be so stingy as to refuse him access if he needed it to work with.

That said, she winced with a few others as rare samples kept for months or years were casually pulled from storage and evaporated by some sort of red beam of light.

The nearby work stations, which had slowed significantly when an elephant Faunus surrounded by very powerful and socially significant women just waltzed into the building, now ground to a halt.

Metal, barrels of scrap, and millions of lein in Dust were just vanishing into the twisting bone forest of limbs as the man's bright blue eyes blazed with fire, something glowing and twisted swirling under his focus as small hisses and pops made the wary flinch.

It couldn't be dust explosions, not with pops that weak. But he was doing something even as metal was melted in the air near his hands, as wire was inserted and laid, as thin plates were welded and screwed into place.

It was art. A symphony of parts and limbs and focus, somehow avoiding collisions and disaster by the smallest of margins.

The fact that he could sip coffee without the rapid motion of the tools and arms getting in the way was impressive as well.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

First, Dust in general was not only crystallized kami, it was also not quite existing in three dimensional space.

It wasn't just multi-dimensional though. It was sort of... folded on itself. If reality was a series of fabric layers, one on top of the other, this stuff was bulging slightly into other areas of reality without breaking through.

Probably was how weapons could shift from a spear to a sniper rifle or chain gun, really. It wasn't quite soul storage like Adam used, but it didn't hide stuff in another chunk of reality like Shard Crystals did either.

It was an odd effect of having so much faith impregnating the material world. Add in that the entire population of this planet only survived fighting the Grimm thanks to Dust, and well... worshiping the material and finding soul connections to the weapons that used Dust made a lot more sense.

That said, his personal kami peanuts were more pure in a way. Like unaligned Dust, it could be powdered and added to existing Dust Crystals to cause them to expand and grow.

Thankfully that test used a nearly impossible to measurable fragment of his faith, as the new Gravity Dust had nearly covered his work space until he could get the Gather beam to consume it at the same rate as expansion. As it was, it took a few minutes before he could absorb enough away to get back to work.

Good to know though, some of these samples were in very low supply. He probably got here between the resupply schedules.

Adam absently whistled as he carefully duplicated completed Dust crystal samples of each type and began restocking the secured wall supply. No reason to use up the last of their samples, what if someone else wanted to test stuff out? They could probably pull what they needed from their reserve supplies, but there was no reason to not simplify the process. It was only polite.

Making new Dust crystals would be expensive normally, but in a Realm like this where Faith grew exponentially? Simplicity itself! Plus he was cheating, there was far more of some types like Fire or Combustion Dust than the others like Purity or Hard-Light. Not to mention his Dust exponential growth accident earlier.

A little advanced analysis to compare the folded Crystal Frameworks for the most stable and pure pattern, a bit of 'Research' to enhance the structure further to an optimal shape... and a Construction beam build later, new sample Dust Crystals!

He would have the wall restocked in a bit, which should then allow him to continue working on his project without guilt. It was like being that guy who took the last piece of pizza, and no one liked that guy.

Back to his project, Simmy floated behind him, mentally offering modifications to his designs from her simulated experiments on the various faith imbued materials. It was not going to be a Droid or anything, introducing them here seemed dangerous, but this was a Matter Furnace using only local materials. It would join the (still being designed) Gather/Construction Gun and a small Storage Unit so he could build stuff here even without the super convenient Flame and Null Metals. Probably would need improvements later, but for now it was good enough.

He hummed a bit as molten metal was floating over his head, Dust powder was being added to some plastic and glass panels, and wiring with Electrical Crystal Dust was etched into some metal surfaces. Seriously, he would need to take a month or two and explore Dust in general, it was basically magic or partial Shard powers in a very basic form, crystallized. It couldn't handle anything advanced like flight or whatever on its own, but it managed to generate energy types without actual dimensional shenanigans, and could replace entire chunks of Crystal Shard Planets normally used to create those required effects.

Heck, some spells could be vastly simplified thanks to the materials nature. The spells could toss out the flame generation and so such and focus on straight control options instead... much easier.

In the end, it was all a bit slap dash really. Adam hadn't even had a chance to connect to the CCT System here and download publicly available information yet, but he had a lot of stuff he wanted to get done and this would be a simple way to make any stuff needed later on in this adventure.

He grinned as the materials being modified slowly grew in complexity, forming a backpack like structure to hold the Matter Furnace and Storage Unit together and out of the way while he worked in the future.

Narwhal would be so proud that he was thinking ahead this time!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Second in command Sienna, the head of the Weapons consortium Roxie, and the girls responsible for trade, manufacturing, and so forth... they were all entranced.

Amidst the confusion and loud sounds of Adam's work, the flow of lost materials slowed... and reversed.

Mountains of absorbed Dust, some worth more than a small town's yearly income per gram, some so rare that no one dared to actually use them despite free access... Dust Crystals began to appear from the busy bone limbs and be carefully reinserted into the storage wall.

Not just the dirt cheap Combustion Dust or the common Fire Dust, Crystals of rare and near impossible to ever see Dust types were rapidly filling the containment units. Some, like the Plant Dust Crystal, never existed before! Kuo Kuana as a city had never seen anything more than Plant Dust in powdered form, and rarely at that! The stuff was beyond valuable, as it could directly increase plant life and crop growth. The few rumored Plant Dust Crystals to be found had been snatched up by Atlas, their frozen landscape needing enhanced farm methods for survival.

And now they had access to hundreds of them. And counting.

Rack after rack of Dust shelving compartments had Crystals increased in quantity, and before Sienna knew it the entire thing was now full and Adam's limbs were starting to fill the powdered Dust sections as well. As if it was barely worth mentioning to resupply an entire city with rare materials. Just... more and more.

She glanced at the girls, who also seemed a bit disturbed. How were they supposed to pay back their hero if he just spews cash in every direction!?

Their thoughts were broken off when a happy cry came from the man. "ALRIGHT!"

A glowing backpack, thousands of thin dust patterns with strange combinations of sparkling circuitry, was casually strapped onto the Elephantine Faunus's shoulders. An odd gun was attached to tubing connected the system together, and his smile was wide even as his trunk wiped sweat from his brow.

He turned to the overwhelmed Sienna, probably for the best since Tawna was still staring numbly at the massive wall of Dust storage so recently filled to capacity. "Right, I got the tools I need now... but I have run quite short of scrap and such. I know I've asked for a lot, but I promise I can make some neat stuff that would be really useful if you guys just loan me some more resources and some land to build on."

He pumped the gun which began to glow pulses of red and green. "Though I will need to talk to Ghira again at some point to find out what would be valuable here. Thinking about building some automated healing stations or something if I can get enough biological scans first. Maybe some food production, since this land mass seems to be two thirds desert."

Sienna absently led the muscled miracle man away, giving her girls time to recover and follow later.

And blinked. Did he really build Betty a saddle on his new backpack? Huh. She did seem comfortable up there.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam was near bouncing in eagerness, Betty's arms hugging his head. He could build a fort! No, some sort of massive tower maybe. With floors to convert excess kami and faith into needed materials.

Ooh, maybe a pizza joint? Did Remnant even have pizza? He should make sure his tower could grow or provide the right ingredients.

A thought had Simmy hum. He would have the needed seeds when the time came. And free food was always a good thing, right? Should earn him enough money to buy weapon parts or whatever.

And even if he might have showed off a bit with the robot bone arms, he managed to mostly stay under the radar, he felt. Stealthy Adam, that's what they should call him!

Not sure why Simmy was sniggering though.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam grinned as he followed Sienna into a secured building. "Ghira! Good to see you now that we are roughly the same eye-level."

The man blinked. "Adam?" He grinned. "I see you've lost some weight."

They shared a man hug even as Adam laughed deeply. "A bit of baby fat I'm sure, didn't need it anyway."

Adam glanced at the crowd. Nope, no idea. Looking back at the Chieftain he grinned. "Now that I'm not stupid tall and you guys aren't in the middle of battle preparation, I have a few things I want to try and bargain for. Hopefully in the process helping your city out and earning myself some money."

Ghira noticed his wife being flagged down by a hastily speaking Sienna. Hmm. "Right, what can I do for you, my no longer over-sized friend?"

His trunk resettling Betty on her saddle, he leaned forward. "I have many unusual skills and technological know how, but I need some property to build on. Due to how dangerous some of the stuff I build can be, it needs to be land you won't need back at a future point." Seeing his expression, Adam grinned. "No worries, I promise I can earn enough to properly buy the place if you let me get started."

His wife made some... interesting hand gestures. "One moment, Adam. And I am sure we can find some space for a man with your talents, just give me a bit to find one easily secured... especially if it will hold fragile machinery."

Adam watched his purple-robed friend start a heated whisper conversation with Sienna and his wife, Kali. Right up until a white haired gentleman wearing mostly dark green approached, sipping something from a mug. "I suppose you are the giant being mentioned around town?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Yes? Well, not currently, but at the time I was a fair bit taller."

A soft chuckle had the man extend an open hand. "Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy. In Vale, if you were wondering."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ozpin shook hands with the tall muscular Faunus and felt a body stronger than stone. Maybe stronger than most metal, the hand he shook flexed barely at all before something rigid gave physics the middle finger.

He absently gazed at the short cow Faunus ridding some sort of backpack saddle setup that glowed strangely on the man's back. From her small stature but mature body, she was likely Betty Bordeaux, the guild leader of Kuo Kuana's wine and dairy industry district.

She seemed to be gnawing on Mr. Adam's blue hair. And clearly unfocused.

He looked back at the mass of man and muscle. "I hear you saved the day when my good friend needed it most."

The man chuckled awkwardly, then pointed to the side. "Honestly I sent Simmy to protect this place, I just wanted to go punch some Grimm and relax a bit."

Ozpin glanced left... and up. A nude blue angel. How modern. "Quite."

Adam grinned. "Right, full introduction I suppose. I'm Adam Burns, very long distance traveler just arrived in the area and man looking for a fight, knowledge, and a chance to explore a bit. Got the fight down for now, though I might get lucky if the Grimm are dumb enough to attack a carnivorous wall of fire, and now I am trying to get some facilities set up."

Ozpin glanced at his friend and wife talking quietly with Ms. Khan... whom seemed far less frustrated and bloodthirsty today. Unusual. They seemed busy discussing something or other. "What specifically are you intending to build, if I may ask?"

Adam held up some sort of tube gun, something like a flamethrower? It was connected to Miss Bordeaux's seat. "Made this gadget to gather and restructure material so I can make some autonomous drones with Construction beams. Makes buildings simple to set up. If I can get Ghira to give me some space to get started, I can make whatever people in this town need most and charge a bit under market value for it. Should be easy cash at that point."

He glanced at the device at Ozpin's side. "By the way, saw lots of people with those things attached. What are they?"

Before Ozpin could respond, Ghira marched back into the conversation. "Adam, quick question. Did you restock the forge Dust supply?"

They both watched Adam's confused expression. "You mean the Dust sample wall? I thought it only fair to replace what I used. Whoever used it before me had been very impolite, using so much up and not going to your stock to restore it. Some of the storage bins were just plain empty! So I just topped the whole thing off. I didn't cause a problem or something, did I?"

Ozpin glanced at Ghira, who noticed the expression and sighed. "We don't have a Dust sampling display, those shelves and storage devices were the entire City reserves. And apparently some of the Crystals you supplied us have never been found intact by our people before. Possibly not by anyone before."

Seeing Adam's confusion and ignoring Ozpin's gobsmacked expression, Ghira waved his hands. "Dust naturally forms Crystals, any attempt for us to make them artificially causes explosions. Since most Crystals are damaged or partially formed when found, we have to reduce the found fragments into powder simply to get any kind of safe and stable use out of it. So Dusts that are more rare or that show up in low amounts have an extremly low chance to be found in an intact crystaline formations."

Adam hummed, trunk rubbing his chin. "So how much would a machine that converts loose powder into an optimized Crystal formation be worth?"

Ghira's pause gave Ozpin a chance to step in. "Can I see a sample? The quality and purity of a Crystal changes the labeled 'grade' of the Dust significantly."

Kali and Sienna got close as the two men watched Adam point his tube-gun-thing at his other hand... and a green beam shined down as a red gem began to form. Within moments a fist sized crystal of near transparent ruby glowed in his grasp. "This stuff is far less explosive when in a stable format like this, but don't go shooting it or something."

Ozpin carefully accepted the Fire Dust Crystal. "Crystals come in grades, with 'Grade 0' being powder form, 'Grade 1' being deeply flawed but still stable, and upwards being what percentage of volume contain flaws and the determined degree of severity in the worst found flaw."

The rotated crystal was too clear. Nearly cartoon level of perfection. "I don't have a grade scale for this. Normally, near invisible gaps of gas or misaligned structure is common even in the highest quality samples I've seen... It is very obvious this stuff was artificially produced, the organic production process CAN'T produce something of this level of quality."

Kali silently held a hand out and accepted the sample. "Our weapons by necessity use powder, as the quality is standardized at a fine enough powder level, but vehicles and advanced machinery can use crystals like this directly. Also by necessity, our devises have to dynamically adjust internally during use as even crystals within the same Grade of quality can vary greatly during consumption."

She held the gem to the light. "Older devices will not be able to use this directly without adjustment, too pure. But once modified, they would only benefit from the quality increase. Longer use, better efficiency, lower faults and so forth."

Adam hummed. "Well. I suppose I can make a few powder-to-crystal conversion devices then, since it sounds profitable. Not comfortable giving out a Dust conversion machine though, changing Dust between types is too unstable. Not without making a machine at least the size of a large house."

Ozpin chuckled as Adam realized everyone was staring at him with some kind of hungry look. Not, the Professor chuckled, that the women around HADN'T had hungry looks to begin with... but now the predator eyes of business and profit had found the poor boy.

Ghira gripped Adam's shoulder tightly. "Screw the council, I just happen to have a house far to big for my small family. What could you get done if I gave the back half of it to you?"

The slightly shorter leader of the city was already dragging Adam towards the center of town, Sienna held back whining by Kali who clearly had a few extra questions to ask.

Professor Ozpin chuckled as he realized for once he WASN'T being focused on by the general crowd, and began wandering along behind the Dust wizard elephant Faunus and the random crowd of powerful business women who seemed to be his entourage.

He blinked. Right, he should have asked why a nude blue woman was flying along with the man. Things had gotten a bit side tracked.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam leaned back, using his trunk to wipe his brow with a rag. "Right, that's a hundred powder to crystal conversion machines. Simmy?"

He accepted the papers from midair. "Here are the schematics, the procedures and tools to build or repair parts, the Glyphs needed internally and which will need maintenance first, and a general safety guide. You know, not too much Dust or it will explode, not too little Dust or it will go unstable and explode, don't eat ham sandwiches too close or it will explode, and so forth."

Ghira and the dog Faunus Roxie were already reading the documents, Roxie so close to one of the machines she was almost cuddling it.

Adam brushed his hands clean... well cleaner. "It won't be high output, maybe a hundred Crystals in an hour or so, but it is better than nothing."

He moved towards the back section of the massive mansion. "So with that as payment, everything from here backwards is mine to work with?"

Kali noticed her very distracted husband and stepped up. "Right, I would like to keep a bit of back yard for my baby Blake to play in, but from here to the back fence is all yours to work with."

Adam felt a grin on his face, gently pulling a complaining Betty off his pack only for her to snugly hug his leg. "Right, well this should be more than enough."

First, some of this 'Combustion Dust Crystal' for fuel. Forming a basic gem, he tossed it on the ground and pointed his Gather gun at it... and then focused.

A white peanut appeared and gently fell towards the glowing orange rock. Adam focused his Gather beam and began consuming the mess right as the white peanut came in contact...

A harsh crackle like fractured glass shocked the air as a wave of orange Crystal sprouted away from the Gather beam and grew over the lawn. Harsh tings and tangs of cooling metal filled the air even as the sections closest to Adam vanished into his machine, sparks of orange light pulsing even in the sunlight.

Adam ignored the now quiet crowd, collecting more Dust until his Storage Unit was filled. This faith crystal was VERY good fuel, broke several rules about the conservation of energy and mass.

Within moments, he converted the energy into a series of small drones. Each with Storage Units, each with Gather and Construction beams, each with gravity manipulation emitters. And right here... a base station.

Gather a few feet into the ground, Construct a metal protective case, a LARGE Storage Unit, a Conversion Generator filled with some faith doped Combustion Dust, a Matter Furnace, and a docking station with robotic limbs to help connect to drones.

He watched as a drone flew down to the black metal surface, connected to the station, and filled the Storage Unit onboard with energy and some material... before being replaced by the next one in line.

Adam nodded. "Good enough. Now, Simmy please have them build a square building above and below ground. Dangerous stuff a few floors down, vending machines at ground level, and all the farm designs in a tower above that. Don't go higher than Ghira's place, we can make more room below ground if it is really needed."

The blue woman saluted with a whistle and flew off, the dozen or so constructor drones following her directions even as Adam made a few more to act as an excavation crew and to harvest the still growing Combustion Dust Crystal.

...On second thought, better double the excavation droids. The growing Crystal hadn't slowed down yet.

Watching Simmy direct some drones to work with the base station, generating a larger work force, Adam gave a firm nod. "That should handle it. I'm done here."

Turning towards the distracted crowd, he walked to that Ozpin guy, ignoring Betty's grip on his left leg. "Right, Professor Ozpin. I was wondering about that device you all seem to have?"

The others were busy watching the back yard dissolve into red Gather beams anyway, so he likely had time for a short chat. These 'Scrolls' were fascinating faith-enhanced technology.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ghira watched the Elephant Faunus follow Sienna towards the nearest shop that sold Scrolls, Professor Ozpin staying behind, probably to talk about the Dust Crystal compressors.

He held up a hand before Ozpin could say anything and turn to Roxie. "Well?"

Roxie's grin was electric. "This is not only a device that we can build, but one that can be built fairly cheaply. Does not even require the more esoteric materials to set up."

She pointed at a blue, near transparent gem. "Furthermore, we missed a couple of important points during the discussions."

He watched with interest as she held up samples. "Notice that regardless of Dust type, they are forming into standardized Crystals? The more rare or bizarre types of Dust tend to form very strange and unstable Crystal shapes, like spirals or with fragile points."

Roxie pulled out several glowing gems. "Not his stuff. All of it is even more stable and regular than the most common Dust Crystals in nature, Fire Dust. We are going to need several teams of researchers to be assigned to this, and a lot of new hardware redeveloped."

Ghira nodded. "But overall it should be far cheaper than what we use now?" Seeing a nod, he gestured a few assistants over and began assigning personnel.

Professor Ozpin was watching with curiosity as some powdered Dust was being crystallized... then processed back into powder. "What are you testing with the Electric Dust over there?"

Roxie glanced. "Ah, that was thanks to one of my girls making a comment. After crystal fragments get ground down into powder, further refinement and filtering is not really possible without setting off esoteric effects or changing the Dust's nature. Dump the powder into one of Adam's refined Crystals, grind that back to Grade 0, and we get some of the most pure quality results with really amazing consistency. Ammo production will love it."

Professor Ozpin sighed. "I'm not getting any of these machines to take home, am I?"

Ghira laughed loudly even as his wife handed him some forms. "No, but we don't forget our friends. I assure you our prices will be far lower than the rest of the market, even better if you can help us acquire Grade 0 Dust in the future for us to get around the general racism in pricing we run into. Especially if you can get samples of any Grade 0 our stocks don't already possess, I want Adam to see them and possibly generate more if his quip about type conversion is an actual possibility."

Ozpin was about to accept when a frustrated growl echoed in the room. "Headmaster!"

A very perturbed Glynda Goodwitch stalked into the room, some of his squad leaders following the angry woman, her riding crop slapping her palm. "When I agreed to assist with organizing the recovery procedures, that did NOT imply that I should be abandoned without notification as you wander away!"

Ozpin carefully sipped from his mug. Drat.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The place Sienna led Adam to, 'When Hunter`s can`t, Faun-Doo!', was a combination restaurant and electronics store. Hunters would come in, leave their equipment to be modified/repaired/maintained, then order from the various dip related dishes ranging from oil to cheese to chocolate.

So cows should exist somewhere. Or very kinky cow Faunus? Better not ask.

Their electronics selection was (obviously) limited, but Adam found a section with the standard Scroll options easily enough. Sienna covered the bill, saying that her Boss would insist on it and then pouting when he tried to object. Damn those orange eyes, they could be pretty adorably insistent.

Now however, he had a top of the line model and a bottom of the barrel designed Scroll, both to be dismantled and explored. After he finished the group meal.

It was an Fondue dish in a less official sense, technically a Fondue Bourguignonne where meat slices were being dipped into hot broth for cooking rather than treats into cheese, but yeah. Good stuff.

He looked up when another sat at his table. Ah, Ghira's wife Kali. She glanced from his trunk moving sliced beef to his mouth to the partially disassembled electronics his many limbs were poking. "Huh."

Kali leaned in a bit, her cat ears perked. "So I assume you had a chance to look over a Scroll at this point?" Noticing the partially hidden second device, she blinked. "I mean, Scrolls... I suppose."

Adam nodded, swallowing quickly. Shouldn't talk while eating. "Found some interesting implications in Remnant design choices."

Seeing Sienna was also interested, and feeling that he had some time anyway since Simmy was building away at his tower, he held up some parts. "Right, so basic stuff I figured out."

He held open the casing. "Most of the hand held device is junk. Impact absorption gel, armor plating, it has nothing to do with the actual components needed to work. Scrolls in general seem designed to be damaged, soaked, electrocuted, shocked, dropped, and probably eaten."

Sienna's face grew dark. "Yeah, from what I know it is so Hunter or Civilian remains can be identified if their towns are destroyed by Grimm. Supposedly can survive digestion."

Adam shrugged. "Well, the hardware has almost no moving parts and from what I can tell use Dust tainted materials that interact with the owner's Aura. Technically some of the Dust included in the wiring, emitters, and so forth get used up over time... but most of it uses the owner's Aura as a power supply, builds some up like a capacitor inside the armored shell, and uses the tainted materials to simulate actual Dust usage. Should last for decades if one is lucky."

He moved the other device forward. "The expensive Scroll model actually allows direct Grade 0 Dust to be added to make everything longer lasting and more powerful, but that made it harder to adapt for my needs. The final design was better in many ways, but over simplified and lacked interesting tricks since it could ignore Dust consumption by making you refill it."

Adam shook his head. "The big one is the holographic display, which uses fractions of Hard-Light Dust embedded in the emitters, with some wiring acting as securing frames for the edges of the screen when expanded that harden under Electric Dust charge. To keep the Dust from being wasted, all kinds of small tricks and modifications to the materials were built in... it is the most complicated part of this device."

He frowned a bit, moving the scroll to the side. "The communication hardware is sub-par by far in comparison." He took another bite. Mmm, this broth was good. Not chicken based though. Well, not the species of chicken HE knew.

Kali blinked. "I'll be honest, I didn't do well in my tech based courses. Focused more on combat and such. Why does that make the cheap version more interesting for you though?"

Adam grinned. "I can more easily replace the materials with alternatives I have, including the power source. Sienna was telling me that her girl group has quite a few mover and shakers in the local economy, and a few would be interested in a Scroll with more features without sacrificing durability or increasing Dust consumption."

He swallowed some sort of pork related meat. Probably pork, though it had a bit of a beef undertone. Note to self, look up the Cuisine world here. If for no other reason to prevent Boro and Robo from kicking his butt later. "I may design something later, but Scroll development won't be my focus. More interesting to me is your software design philosophy."

Sienna and Kali blinked as Adam continued. "Your software is developed just like your hardware, with the expectation that the user will be out in the wild and have difficulty communicating. It is rugged and redundant."

He gestured toward the devices. "Data is compressed heavily and digitally signed, then broken into packets that go through a cryptographic hash. So is the file as a whole. Then all the pieces search for the nearest devices and duplicates are sent in alternate directions for redundancy and... all kinds of neat stuff."

Adam grinned as he reached for some more beef-pork. Better than straight beef so far. "If many people are trying to get the same file, nearby devices can act as additional sources to reduce overall traffic and server loads. The protocol is designed to expect whole nodes of the network to vanish or pop up without warning, and the more people in one area with Scrolls the better the network as a whole can act."

Dang this is good stuff. He swallowed and waved a hand. "Scrolls, as you know, can act as a point to point radio, a phone, a temporary server, and so forth. Most importantly, if I build some interesting new hardware all of these devices can connect to them without any additional actions or updates needed."

Kali pulled her Scroll and was ready to take notes. "I assume you have devices you wish to set up in the city?"

Adam nodded, a bone limb twisting another part of the Scroll open. More defensive redundancy parts, nothing new. "Not going to bother redesigning the Scrolls as I said, seems like a lot of work without improving things much. No, after we eat I want to go see your local 'Cross Continental Transmit System' setup. An extra one or two can be constructed without the system having a problem."

From what he could gather, the Towers were mostly limited in number due to costs and time requirements. For people NOT capable of the stuff Adam pulls by accident, the individual components seemed to be very costly to create, requiring specific stages of dust impregnation, sealing layers, special fuel supplements and more. Not that he had full schematics yet, it was only polite to ask first.

Back to the point, with this design the people acted as part of the needed hardware. Their Scrolls were using the massive CCT Systems as hubs that had enough power to connect to outside sources. Locally? The network was one big mesh. A growing, warping mesh of devices.

Side note. Security? Nearly none. The possibility of catastrophic hardware failure was almost guaranteed, the hardware or even PEOPLE who had encryption keys could be lost at any moment, and the risk of important data loss was too damn high to risk secured networks or so forth.

Instead, they had developed amazing software to ensure accountability even with how strange the network looked when mapped out. It was near 'Big Brother' levels of observation, and if the entire planet wasn't constantly at war someone would have abused this exposed system by now. They probably already had at some point, and discovered the dire consequences.

Getting restricted data? Easy. But you best justify why you got it if you didn't want a Hunter to show up with a blade to your throat.

It was amazing the setup had worked this far, as one theoretical person who didn't care about Humanity and Faunus continuous existence could cause massive damage to the system.

Adam blinked, realizing that he had been passing Betty skewers of meat for the last half hour or so, his constant tinkering distracting him. "Betty, are you sure you don't want to sit next to me? It would make eating easier."

The woman just squeezed his neck with her thighs and continued enjoying her snack.

Oh well. They were very soft thighs after all.

Ignoring the distraction, he focused back on Kali. "So after the meal, can we head to the relay tower next?"

Kali shook her head. "Wouldn't help you. Ours was damaged heavily via Nevermore attack. Theoretically."

Sienna snorted, a dark look crossing her orange eyes. "Sure. And those traitor soldiers from Mistral just happened to pull away for 'safety' reasons when it was attacked. And I saw some structural damage that looked more like a blade and less like a Grimm feather."

Kali sighed. "Regardless, there isn't much point in viewing it right now." She pulled her own scroll out, tapping a bit while Adam passed Betty another pork skewer. Giving anything Beef related to a Cow Faunus seemed uncouth.

She nodded. "Right. Here are the schematics for the most advanced form of CCT System researchers have verified as buildable. This is an ongoing global project most of the kingdoms spend some Lien on every year, even if the current schematics being used in the field are over a dozen designs behind."

Seeing his confusion she sighed. "The really advanced stuff requires not only extremely expensive components and beyond difficult building methods, but the size and Dust Crystals needed are... an issue. It would require almost all unrelated traffic to be stopped during shipping, it would require those types of Dusts to be confiscated for years to build up a supply."

She shrugged. "It is why these designs are just theoretical. The most advanced CCTS was made in Vale two years ago, and it was only a version 13 schematic. They are still trying to pay the costs down. This version however is at release 32." She tilted her Scroll towards Adam, since his hands were busy.

Adam looked with curiosity, and then decided to disable 'Research' and turn on 'Technomancy' to get a better look.

The song of striking metal and singing electricity filled the void, and the world faded away.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Simmy sighed as she redesigned Adam's tower again. Faith modified materials in this Realm meant that the process of building something can change how the finished project affects the world.

Each constructed tower increased new things to test and try, and each time she Gathered the building up to Construct again these ideas would spawn more children.

At this point, she had expanded the vending machines on the first floor. The ability to spend money (Lien here) to get Adam's refined Dust was likely going to be the main focus, and the machines here accepted impure Dust as payment or at least to grant a discount. It didn't need Adam's direct work to keep running, and some drones were assigned to ensure all the equipment would be maintained.

Now the vending machines contents covered more varied products.

One that delivered bags of highly refined and efficient varieties of plant seeds, albeit the species provided only covered the local foods grown on this planet. Simmy had spent far too much time ensuring that the modifications she made actually existed somewhere, none of this was magically or technologically enhanced yet. The grain may grow better than expected and faster than believed, but it was theoretically possible with selective crossbreeding. It wasn't cheating. Mostly.

She had to move the vegetation machine so there would be room for the Ammo one next to the Dust vending machine. It could directly produce Ammo of the caliber desired when Dust was supplied, though it required Adam's brand of quality. She thought that was clever.

Just to avoid some headaches, she ensured the machine that would produce each of the individual parts listed in Adam's Glyph guides, the ones for Adam's Dust Crystal compressors, and so forth would need approval from Ghira or his people. The people of Remnant could make it on their own, but Simmy's products came from a customized Matter Furnace and had a level of quality unreachable by most mortals.

Honestly, the trickiest part wasn't setting up these basic devices but determining price points to not kill the economy or wrest control of materials from the local government. Calculating how much of a discount to give to Ghira's government in general was equally annoying.

She was in the middle of redesigning the modular farm framework (Each attempt reduced part costs by 0.34% and increased productivity by 0.88%) when Adam decided to do something stupid. Again.

In a world with an actual soul, in a room full of people empowered by their souls, he turned on a power with no soul component to examine a machine designed to work with the soul.

She sighed. Freedom sometimes meant not stopping someone from punching themselves. At least she now had the schematics for those interesting CCT Systems.

Simmy floated to the side as the drones evaporated Adam's tower again, now rebuilding the walls using new patterns and materials. Why build a CCTS on top of the building when the outer shell itself could communicate instead?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The earth was asleep, the sky was in pain.

Life grew with passion, death slept and hungered.

Mental defenses kept things within the realm of understanding as black and green circuitry began to pulse and expand from a small room in a small city.

Souls. In the air, the soil, the food, the people, the metal.

Faith. Enriching it all. The rules slid on a scale of madness and hope.

And covering this ocean of souls, abscesses and absences parasitically gnawed. Decayed. Spread.

The World did not desire these Grimm. It pulsed with purpose at the small thing spreading from Adam's body.

Aura was not the same thing as only being an expressed soul. It was generated by the soul, true. It was also a field of faith, of spirituality and life.

To gain Aura's effects, one required hard determination and willpower while embedded in a Realm like this one, like Remnant, where faith and Aura and souls were exposed and ever dancing.

With intense training, one awakened can unlock the Aura of another. It was risky, it was hard, it was dangerous as others could smell your delicious location. As corruption hunted you.

With intense circumstances, apparently something similar can occur as well.

In Kuo Kuana, in a small restaurant with fearful and concerned Humans and Faunus, in a state near unconsciousness yet hyper-focused...

A green electronic eye opened.

White peanuts appeared and vanished, black ropes wove and reinforced, and green pulsing lines began to adapt, to connect.

A fragile socket in a fishbowl soul, one that should have continued to grow and stabilized over time in this Realm, lacking the energy that Squishy had stolen to reinforce his other damaged abilities, shivered.

Cracked.

Squishy looked at her hard work... and sighed. Power Manipulation was still too broken to make more soul sockets like it should have. Not for now. Not for a while.

Hopefully, if a new power was different from Soul, Magic, or Physics, it would be strong enough to cross this hurdle. The next stable value would be a soft 5 or a hard 7 sockets, but expanding past 3 had been near impossible so far. Not if she wanted to keep Adam safe.

Squishy watched the confused green eye pulse again, circuitry infecting the nearby area as it explored and expanded in ways impossible to 'Technomancy'. As it began to twist. To slow.

Finally, the black fabric of cybernetic circuitry began to fold. To twist and bend and slowly wrap around the black ball of 'Binding', to wrap around the fishbowl soul.

The Green Eye covered the opening of the Fishbowl, the circuitry compressed until the green lines became invisible due to density.

With a sigh, Squishy floated to the opening and touched the warm gaze that looked softly at her. All that work on the new power socket, wasted.

From the lost voices, from soft whispers in the dark, the Soul of Remnant sang an old song.

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I recognize your s̬̼̲̳ou̝̥̩̣l͓̯̘̬̘̞̩, and by my purpose protect thee."

The snap of the socket caused the green eye to begin to burn blue.

And deep under his Crystal Castle, a spark blinked blue as well.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Kali yanked Sienna and Betty back as she and the others lept away from Adam's body.

The Faunus didn't shift an inch, body of stone, his eyes blind and his limbs frozen.

Behind him, above him, somewhere hidden, they could feel something ancient. Uncaring. Alien. Foreign. Shear size alone made them feel weak, small, fragile.

Near reflexive instincts caused rage to flash, retaliation, defiance.

Kali bared her teeth. She was strong! Her child must be protected! Threat! Threat! She dared not move closer.

Sienna was spinning her blade whip, cautious. It wouldn't matter. Nothing would matter. But she would stand to her death without submission, for some things were worth fighting a hopeless fight.

Betty felt... a connection. Someone else who was broken like her, who lost family like her, who lost everything like her... and who built a new world worth living in.

Above the corpse of Adam light began to twist... To hum...

Silence.

Everything relaxed.

The sun was brighter, even if it was setting. The air was crisp.

Small noises had resumed, and the shadows were dim.

Behind Adam, some sort of three eyed being floated, blue Glyphs floating in patterns as the creature watched everyone. Thousands of limbs were reaching out to unseen locations. It flickered.

The skin sheering callousness was gone.

The robotic, soulless gaze had softened. To recognize existence.

Then Adam collapsed onto the ground, his body softly glowing with blue Aura and all the strange feelings and sounds vanished entirely.

Kali threw her scroll away. "Fuck That. Fuck all of that."

Sienna (And the rest of the quite disturbed customers) quickly moved away from the haunted device. "The shit did those eggheads make!? And why would we EVER build something like that!?"

Kali flicked a wrist, and one of her guards near instantly smashed the Scroll with her mallet. "Yeah, fuck that. No." She could get an untainted replacement, no way was that thing going to stay on her person. Or near her daughter.

They heard a noise and turned towards Adam... whom Betty was sitting on. She noticed their looks and waved it off. "He's fine now. Sleeping too." His trunk absently played with her hand as she giggled.

...It would be a while before anyone else was willing to get close to Adam or the cow Faunus who decided to sleep on his chest. Better to let him sleep that off.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ozpin looked up from the most recently modified documents and passed diplomatic papers when the room filled with whistles, alerts, and random noises.

Looking at his own scroll, he saw new notifications as well.

It was standard policy when leaving standard CCTS coverage to set up emails and notifications to be delivered when back within range of targeted areas, a more unofficial policy included sending short messages to friends or loved ones to let them know you were still alive and nearby.

And just now, Ozpin's notifications had been delivered.

All of them.

Not just locally but to all existing locations. Including Mistral, home to Vale, and all the way to distant Vacuo and frozen Atlas. As if they were next door.

Master Forge Crafter Roxie, brought in during the negotiation phase for Dust quality appraisal and as a subject matter expert, blinked. "What the hell is 'Skyword Networking' and why is their signal so good!?"

Ozpin ignored the commotion and made a quick attempt at a personal call, moving to the side of the room while Glynda and Ghira's people tried to get the meeting back into order.

A stern face answered. "It's too early for good news if you made it home to Beacon Academy already. Did you manage to find any survivors down there Ozpin? I'm still gathering recovery resources, but there have to be living people for it to matter."

He responded with a soft smile. "Better than good news, my friend. And I am glad I can contact you this soon: You need to come down to Kuo Kuana. Personally."

General James Ironwood blinked... and frowned. "Unlike some coffee addicted Headmasters, I have responsibilities to my school and my forces. If I could make it down there in time for the actual fighting it would be one thing, but if the crisis is actually over?" Ozpin nodded. "Then it would be hard to justify to my people to drop those mentioned responsibilities for a visit."

Ozpin sipped from his mug, unable to fully suppress his grin. "Remember the last time you were unable to visit when I said it would be wise to do so?"

General Ironwood paused. It had been when Ozpin had found the Summer Maiden, one of the four magically powerful women that secretly walked this planet. More legend and myth than simply unusual. Not meeting Summer Rose sooner had destroyed many chances of getting good scientific studies done, and with the woman starting to build a family the probability of visiting other Kingdoms dropped by the day.

He turned to the side as Ozpin watched with mild amusement. Frowned.

And it was with a sigh he gave in, as expected. "It is of that magnitude?"

Ozpin chuckled. "Possibly of even greater impact. If nothing else, Kuo Kuana is about to become an economical powerhouse within the month." His eyes focused. "You need to be part of the following negotiations."

James began pacing, easier as he was using his personal dorm communication system instead of his Scroll. "Should we pull Theodore into this? Or Lionheart? Haven Academy in Mistral is closest after all, I suppose they are already present."

Ozpin winced. "Not Headmaster Lionheart, though we need to contact him. Leonardo's people acted... poorly. Hopefully against his orders. Either way, even attempting to include them could destroy any agreements we try to set up and probably end all negotiations."

He nodded at Jame's shocked expression. "On the other point, I will be contacting Shade Academy and Professor Theodore after we finish, but YOU need to get down here as fast as possible. He can probably call in remotely or send a proxy, you need to be present."

General Ironwood paused... nodded. Tapping his personal Scroll he began moving quickly out of focus before the feed resumed from his own device. "What would be wise for us to bring."

Professor Ozpin sipped from his mug. "Your best engineers and most competent design teams at minimum. Loyalty and ability to stay silent should be your number one priority. More so than competence, even."

Seeing James raise an eyebrow, he nodded. "Yes, I'm serious. Yes, it is that vital. And Yes, you would hate me if you did NOT take this advice." Seeing his message get across he relaxed a little. "It would also help your negotiations to bring in as many Grade 0 Dust samples as you can, especially the esoteric or odd ones. It would be worth the risk, and I will be informing Theodore to do the same."

Ozpin glanced at his frazzled and busy assistant as Glynda tried to wrangle the group back to order. Over the video, General Ironwood was snapping out orders before glancing back at his scroll. "I will take at least 10 hours to arrive down there even at maximum flight speed, 14 hours or more is likely. How long will it take you to get back down to Menagerie? We could possibly join our fleets."

Ozpin sipped. "Check your connection details. I never left."

After a shocked pause, the connection fuzzed as General Ironwood began cursing and ordering far more complicated equipment and expensive tools to be added to his convoy.

He would have to be a participant indeed.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam felt... relaxed.

And yet... connected.

'Growth' and 'Recovery' pulsed through his body, 'Research' and 'Harmony' soaked his mind.

His heart pumped 'Manipulation' through his veins of 'Tithe', while his eyes glowed with magic and faith.

His throat itched with 'Consumption' and 'Purification'.

His skin itched as 'Conversion' began to work defensively, incoming attacks being shifted into safe energy and moved through his nerves built with 'Transfer'.

These skills, conceptually enhancing his being, were held together with 'Binding' even as they attempted to fray and forced his form to twist and shift on unseen levels.

They grew. Stronger. Clashes between them resulted in stronger reactions. For the first time in years, many years considering his time lost in Abyss, Adam 'Adventure' Burns had NO sockets equipped with powers. And his black sphere of a soul pulsed, the blue eye twitched as it was watching inside and outside. The concepts continued to press tight to each other, to connect.

Before, Adam felt that he had something close to a Semblance already. Glyphs had been selected before coming, and he had a spiritual section of his soul to handle kami and faith powers. He had only worked his body with 'Recovery' to ensure a good strong foundation to work on as he explored the idea of 'Aura' in general. He considered Aura in general to be something like the blue flames, an expression of Faith or a single feature of power.

Now, he realized that Aura was similar to that strange Spark that glowed under his soul's Crystal Castle.

It was... an overview. A summary. Everything he was and possibly what he would be was represented by this field of power. As his abilities grew his Aura would enhance, would stretch, would be refined.

But his Semblance on the other hand... that was something more specific than Adam's now awakened Aura.

As the mess of strange powers and concepts grew ever more real and strained within his Faunus body, Adam felt something tense. Tighten a bit too much.

Then a black grid in his Soul twisted.

His Grid of Confinement, storage for Endbringers (And temporarily a gang leader with anger issues) thickened. The sharp lines of the grid seemed to creak wide. To fracture itself and expose the inner workings.

And into that pattern, into that structure, Adam's rampaging Aura poured forth.

With a loud sigh, Adam felt muscles relax and his body feel more and more material and mortal as his pulsing fishbowl soul stabilized.

His bright blue Aura faded as it was able to find purchase in the man's bizarre and tortured inner representation. His sockets quickly equipped 'Recovery', 'Growth', and 'Purification' as his abilities tried to fix the strange types of damage he had suffered... as best they could.

Within moments, he could feel all that oppression, that strength of conceptual power, his own field of Aura... embedded in the Grid itself.

The concept of Confinement, of Self Control, of being Master of One's Self.

His Soul Prison, the black Grid of Confinement, had gained a soft blue glow of Aura over each square. The faint presence of Leviathan and Behemoth totally vanished. Simmy herself was almost dragged back from reality and her busy work before Adam quickly relaxed her leash. More secured, more stable, still usable by his Summon Glyphs, able to restrain future foes.

Side note, Simmy was now sending mental images of herself still nude and wearing leashes.

Wonderful.

With a force of will, Adam woke up. Technically healthy, he could feel his body twinge with remembered pain and rapid modification as he attempted to refocus his fuzzy attention to reality.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ghira glanced towards the (temporarily closed) shop that his new friend was currently taking a nap in. He couldn't see it from here of course, diplomacy shouldn't be done on the streets after all.

That said, the negotiations had stalled for the best of reasons: More people wanted to come beg to join in the bid wars for better long term deals with HIS people. With HIS nation.

Being in a position of power was very satisfying. It would be more so if the local Hero of the Day would give some indication that he was alright.

Kali had already had some medical staff verify that whatever was wrong was not causing further physical harm from what they could tell. It seemed to be some sort of strange Aura reaction to something, possibly depletion from his recent battle? Short answer was 'no one knows', but the lack of fear from the flying blue angel had kept everyone mostly calm. If anything, the nude being seemed exasperated more than concerned.

If the worse case occurred the negotiations would go forth regardless, his blue flying associate had already constructed an astoundingly large building behind Ghira's home. Filled with strange machines that could supply the needed parts for more 'Glyph Wards' and 'Crystal Conversion Machines', the transformation of that tower in his back yard into a monster CCT System was just frosting in comparison to the other economic windfalls. Theoretically no matter what happened to that muscled warrior, Kuo Kuana would be fine.

But to be honest, Adam was simply an easy person to talk to and seemed full of profitable abilities and ideas. The man was very eager to offer such gems up like worthless trinkets. And he knew how to throw a mean punch, which shouldn't matter to a Chieftain like himself as much as it actually did. By saving the day, the man was a friend in Ghira's mind anyway.

He glanced at the most recent calculated numbers. Even if negotiations took months or longer, which at this point looked very unlikely, the filled Dust reserves meant Kuo Kuana and Menagerie as a Kingdom had Lien to burn. More importantly, Lien to invest and to multiply.

He approved some theoretical trade deals to work towards so the diplomats could refine that into that legal gibberish garbage that he had to read all the damn time.

The pulse of power came without warning, again from the direction of the Elephant Faunus.

It was... quite noticeable. He sent some people to verify the situation. Just in case.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Betty blinked as her comfy bed suddenly stopped moving mid snore. She groggily awoke as the Faunus below her shifted.

And the world turned blue.

An Aura, many feet thick, pulsed outwards... then began to fold into itself. To compress itself. Folding in half, Doubling, Compressing, Binding.

She looked down at the near metallic looking Aura that coated Adam... whose bright blue trunk suddenly snagged Betty by the waist and pulled her into a snuggle with those big muscled arms.

Mmm.

The closed eyes she had watched barely began to open.

And look at her confused.

Adam's bright blue gaze examined Betty's clear brown eyes in confusion. "...Good Morning?"

Betty snuggled tighter into his hug, her sensitive body tingling. "Mmm, good indeed."

She ignored Adam as he began looking around at the empty store/restaurant, until she felt his trunk tapping her shoulder. "Yes?"

He stood, her body absently lifted in his embrace. "Where is everyone? In fact, how long was I out of it?"

Betty shrugged. "Don't know, fell asleep after the first hour or so. Why does your Aura make you look like a Smurf?"

Adam looked at his body, the bright blue metallic coating shimmering. "The hell!?" Then paused. "Wait, Smurfs exist here?"

Betty gave him a confused look. "Uh... yeah? It wasn't the most popular show since the Faunus Smurfs were supposedly some sort of poison Frog clan and the Human Gargamel kept trying to catch them for breeding purposes, but isn't super obscure either."

Adam blinked. Huh. "Not from the local area, never been in a city like Kuo Kuana." True. "Never got exposed to local Media, or anything like that." Double True. "Spent most of my time fighting Grimm really." Sorta true? At least for this Realm.

She frowned. "Right, so we should have a movie night." She blinked, noticing the Hunters cautiously entering the room. "After you convince Sienna and Kali that you are not possessed."

He blinked. "What?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The diplomacy room had turned into a relaxation area at this point. A snack table was set up, the devices to be debated over were being examined, people were constantly moving to quieter corners to call friends and family. It made the mood skyrocket when very distant people were suddenly a short connection away.

Those calls that had formally required massively expensive long distance calls, specialty created billing plans, sometimes loans... Well.

Calls like that? 'Skyword Networking' not only offered a damn cheap flat rate for all connections (barely more Lien than a local call), but with a quality and connection speed that was straight up unusual. More, the connection was getting more stable and faster the longer people used it, as if someone was improving the stupidly advanced network in real time.

The room barely paused when the door opened again, until Sienna squealed. "Adam! You're up!"

Ozpin watched as a dozen Scrolls snapped a quick picture of the Faunus and inwardly sighed. So much for information security.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam was overwhelmed by the crowd, and only a quick reaction stopped his Confinement Aura from activating again as he assured people he was fine and worked towards Kali and Sienna's side of the room.

Suddenly glowing with Blue Metal wouldn't exactly calm the situation, after all.

Eventually he reached the Chieftain's wife, her appraising look not exactly comforting. "Ah. So... sorry for suddenly going odd and passing out."

She raised an eyebrow. "Is this kind of thing a common habit?"

Adam thought back to his months of mindless sleep between worlds, his months sleeping as a Baku, his many soul experiments and the damage he suffered. And that one time he turned into an eyeball bush out of boredom. "Nope, must have been a one time thing."

She bought it, right?

Sienna came up close, ignoring Betty riding his portable backpack (Only minor damage from his freaky emergency nap!) as she touched his arms and searched for injuries. "What happened, Adam? I don't know what you remembered but it was... unsettling."

He sighed. "So... uh. Better do this with a few people." He waved Ghira over, the man trying to not crowd his concerned wife. "Ghira, can we have a bit of a talk? Preferably with just us and someone you know who understands Aura pretty well?"

Ghira made some hand gestures and most of the crowd left silently. Damn fine leader, that. "Unfortunately my friend Headmaster Ozpin would be the best locally available person when it comes to Aura knowledge. Just don't accept any job offers or 'quick visits', you are OUR Hero and we called Dibs." He glared at the chuckling man holding a mug. "YOU HEARD THAT! DIBS!"

What?

...Moving on.

Eventually the group was down to Betty, Sienna, Kali, Roxie (Cause she wouldn't leave) and the two leaders. And an attractive woman whom seemed perpetually annoyed, named Glynda, whom Ozpin included as his assistant.

Should he call Simmy over as 'Adam`s secretary'? Was that standard procedure? He didn't want to stand out.

Oh. She was a tad busy putting more modified drones into orbit. Technically only three were required to act as satellites for planetary signal coverage, or at least that was true for a planet the size of Earth Bet, but she was pushing for a stupid amount of redundancy. Helped transfer speeds and stuff too, and the drones could repair each other.

Considering that Earth Aleph (Years of advancement with no flying Endbringer issues) had only launched about 400 satellites in geosynchronous orbit, it was pretty impressive that Simmy had already pushed 500 of the new drones into the atmosphere. And counting.

So she was probably too busy to join the group.

Then again, before becoming his wife she had spent most of her time up in space. This wasn't exactly a difficult issue for the angel to solve.

Even without using the cheats available with Dust (Didn't work outside Planet's Remnant's Aura field anyway), the modified satellite drones had some really good solar panels and filled Conversion Generators setup. It was mostly just quality assurance keeping her at Adam's newly constructed lab/vending machine store/automated farm/CCT System and overseeing everything.

Would she even want to come? HE hated meetings a lot, it was why he found a qualified person to handle all that junk back home. Several in fact.

He blinked, realizing the group was gathered and he should probably speak up at this point. How awkward.

Adam smiled weakly. "Right, so I guess you all would want the long version rather than the short one?"

Professor Ozpin chuckled. "If it is short, why not start with that? We can still hear the details afterwards."

Adam saw the others interest and shrugged. "Despite years of modifying my own soul and learning abilities to control soul energy, I hadn't actually awakened my Aura yet. Trying to deeply connect to Kali's scroll, which uses Aura, exposed me directly to the world as a whole and the Aura of the planet... and she decided to help wake my Soul up. So to speak."

The confusion and arguments started quickly, but Glynda of all people quickly pulled it together and put it in order. Damn, she was a good assistant. Maybe he SHOULD have dragged Simmy over.

He nodded. "I can connect to technology directly, but it won't cause strange effects from now on." "At the time, I needed to refine my soul to survive a dangerous travel attempt through unusual means." "I won't answer that." "No." "I wouldn't suggest it, the process was the most painful I have ever experienced. Refining my soul hurt nearly as much as when it was being burned, I do not suggest it."

Crap, that just made the questions worse. "I won't answer anything else about how I modified my soul, just accept it is a side effect of my existence. And generally a bad idea. Full stop."

Better. "I don't know why the planet is female, and it may NOT be. Most powerful people I know aside from me are women, so I just assumed honestly."

In the end, it was Kali that brought up the biggest issue. She frowned. "If it wasn't the planet, then what was that thing, the creature that appeared over your body when you were passed out?"

Uh. No idea. Squishy?

B̨̙̜̳͚̻̳u̸̯̫̫̻̬s͉͕y̪͕͉̘̻̜̩̕.͚̀

...Uh.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Squishy had blocked both Adam AND Simmy from returning to his Soul to see what was going on.

This led to the awkward situation of Adam having several people watching him without actually having an answer to a VERY good question.

He cleared his throat. "I may be having... technical difficulties with my newly awoken Semblance. Hypothetically."

Kali gave him a dry look. "And the creature?"

Adam winced. "Right. So I may or may not have given my strange powers a metaphysical form, one which acts as a companion and friend while helping me with my various power related issues."

He looked away from the group. "She is currently working on power related issues." He glanced at Kali. "What did the creature look like?"

Kali shivered, as did several hunters in the background and Sienna. "Three eyes, two small and one really large in the middle. And limbs. Many strange limbs."

Sienna shook. "The tentacles had hooks. They were too long."

Adam blinked. "Ouch. Right, Simmy will need some personal time to handle that."

T̰͓͇̘͓͝h͎̠̲̼͖͘an̡͖̣̜̲̥̗k̜s͓ ͔͠ ̱͚̘͙͞Ada͏͉͖̺̱̝̠͉m̸̜̥͚͈̤͖ͅ.̹̗͠

No problem.

Adam turned, Betty hugging his head. "Right, so onto simpler topics. I want money, and I am relying on Simmy setting up my tower to have lots of neat things you guys will want to pay me to get. Pricing will be fairly low, but only citizens of Kuo Kuana are allowed to operate my machines directly."

Seeing Ghira's look, he shrugged. "Because you guys are nice, this continent seems to be mostly desert and monsters, and it is easier to have you guys do the legal stuff and paperwork. I give you a massively good deal, you exploit everyone else for lots of cash, and I am likely to get anything I want when doing research."

Ozpin winced at how happy Ghira and Kali looked. That would impact negotiations later.

Adam poked Betty. "So asking the person who is hugging me most often, what products does this city need most desperately?"

Betty nodded. "I personally need a stable supply of animal feed. Water is handled easy enough but any food gathered goes to the citizens first. Only the lowest quality leftovers go to my cattle and fertilizer pits, and during shortages I have to sacrifice percentages of my herds to cover the gaps."

Adam hummed. "Simmy has already gathered seeds and modified them, the best of the best chosen from all sorts of plants. She stayed within parameters of what could be found without mad science, but even then the wheat grows faster, needs less water and sunlight, and resists blight and so forth. Lots of her choices do, and the ones she selected and marked in the machine are best suited to this area's climate."

He nodded to himself. "Let's head to your food storage, I will set up a modified 'Matter Furnace' that can convert anything you shove into it into some standardized Feed. Simmy?"

A blue paper page fell into his hands, and he handed it over. "Does this food mix look like appropriate feed for standard baseline generation?"

Betty flipped from adorable cow girl into shark-like business attitude. "Hmm." She read quickly, nodding here and there. "I couldn't afford the seafood additives or some of the more fragile fungus and roots you two included, but if it was just available? This would be a VERY good general purpose fodder. Some of the other animals I am in charge of would require a different vitamin ratio depending on pregnancy cycles though."

He gestured and she blinked before flipping the page. "Ah. Yes, these four base formulas would cover standard feed, pregnant feed, recovery feed, and growth feed. The fact I can mix the four to handle various situations is very helpful."

Adam grinned, feeling her legs hug his neck. "Right, we'll schedule that for the afternoon." He glanced at Sienna. "Anything you can think of, Ms Khan?"

The Bengal Tiger Faunus licked her lips before catching her boss's eye and calming. "Uh. Right. Well, I gather you already have vegetation options for farming and clearly our animal farms will love the improved feed setup, but militarily we need a few things."

She held up some fingers. "Dust supplies... seem to be handled. Communications as well... any advantage you can give us on that?"

Adam shrugged. "Free access to anyone in the city? Should improve tourism and increase immigration."

The woman shivered, her tiger ears twitching. "Mmm. Then I suppose the best I could hope for is a stable supply of metal for our repairs and tools. And weapons, of course."

Adam nodded. "Get Simmy at my tower some structural material samples and point out the most used ones. The top three will get converters, but you will have to supply them with material to work with. Other metals, rocks, unneeded Dust, plant produce. Lower quality will get you lower quantity of output, of course."

Ghira stepped forward, and clapped Adam on the shoulder. "Friend, I can not explain how grateful I am at the riches you pour upon us... but please stop there."

Adam blinked. "What? Why?"

Ghira sighed. "You risked becoming a religious icon before now, having saved my people from death and consumption. If you don't wish to be literally the founding father of our nation, please stop now that you promised purified Dust, secured sources of food and materials, and unlimited world wide networking."

He leaned forward. "Your actions do not beg for praise or fandom, but they call for it loudly in nature. You did enough just coming to fight for our lives, you did more than enough by ensuring that the other Kingdoms will have to treat us with respect for trade reasons alone."

Ghira led him and his passenger Betty towards the door. "You've slept for so little, and every waking moment was to make my people happier. I have a lot of politics to suffer under, plans to make, and people to guide... but you have no such responsibilities."

Adam was gently shoved towards the door. "Go. Explore, build things if you wish, but relax a little. Betty, unlike my subordinate Sienna, has time to show you around and act as guide."

Adam blinked as he felt Betty pat his head, now standing in the street. Huh.

Well... not like he enjoyed politics or paperwork anyway.

Still, this was MORE reason to build his new Bro those gadgets really quickly. Maybe a massive Conversion Generator under the ground and then he could connect it to the power supply.

After all, anyone who forced Adam out of boring meetings and paperwork deserved a bit of a treat.

He began to bounce down the street, Betty giggling and directing his turns with her warm thighs. It was a good way to spend some time.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ghira let out a relieved sigh. "If he kept that up he would become Chieftain by popular demand in hours. And no one deserves that punishment."

Kali chuckled, having sent some teams over to Adam's tower to report about the supposed machines there. "You never did stop complaining after that first day of paperwork."

He quickly waved her quiet, glancing at Sienna... good, she was still distracted. "Don't warn her, I am trying to have her take over eventually. Become an adviser or something. Need more time with my new baby girl anyway."

Kali nodded. "I can't wait to pick her up from day care. Ms. Carlen says she is already trying to sit up on her own!"

Ghira felt his chest swell with pride. Of course his darling girl was a genius! And she would be a beauty just like her marvelous mother.

Turning back to the mess of governance, he inwardly focused. Now to ensure her future home would be profitable, safe, and full of potential.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam and Betty were... well, relaxing.

Visiting the barns and constructing the needed devices took seconds to start, as it was basically asking Simmy to send a few drones to handle it.

So now the two were watching the machines build and carve and fly.

Betty was the first to really break the peace. "I felt stuff when you were in that store."

Adam blinked. "Yeah?"

She nodded. "Awakening your Aura is normally a far less spectacular event, but it always involves the innermost Soul. And I felt stuff."

He watched the hole in the foundation deepen. "Anything stand out?"

Betty winced. "I wasn't born in this city. I was brought here by the Huntress who killed the Grimm in my town. There were only two other survivors, but they lived near the other side of town. I didn't know them."

Adam watched her ignore the world. "I was taken in by the Ranch and Winery Guilds, back when there were dozens of Guilds adopting any and all orphans. They took care of us, even if most treated us like future workers more than daughters and sons."

Betty tugged some grass. "Times got tough, we had losses. I ended up in control of so many groups because unlike many I survived long enough to show my talents. Years of working for each group meant I could run those organizations well enough. Better than most."

She looked into his eyes. "I felt that you also had lost a lot. And you also are building a place to call home."

Adam gave a surprised chuckle. "Insightful." He nudged the shorter woman. "Bit surprising considering how huggy you can get."

She blushed. "A woman has to commit when she finds someone worth fighting for! And I felt we shared a... a history of sorts."

He hummed... and decided. "I won't tell you my past, or where I am actually from. Not yet. I have many secrets, and I protect many people." He looked at the short woman. "But I will admit that at one point I had nothing. No friends, no memories, almost no abilities. What little power I had actively hurt me, and then damaged itself over and over again until it had enough pieces left over to repair itself enough to work."

Adam gestured, the machines working. "In a way, not really remembering my past is a gift. I'm not entirely sure I was actually ever alive before then anyway, the power I was bound to was beyond mortal thought or comprehension... even as weak as it was back then."

He looked at the construction. "I have a girlfriend you know? Technically I have three to four of them, depending on if you count Narwhal's ability to split into two bodies. And the girls follow my Narwhal's guidance."

He ignored the deep interest Betty showed, her eyes twinkling. "I'll be honest, my girl is not against new people joining our group as long as they can share and are good people. It is something of a secret fetish of hers almost, one I have had to hold back on several times."

Betty gave a firm nod. "Sounds like a keeper. Make sure to tell her that I have been part of a lesbian harem before. I have experience."

...Damn. What was he supposed to say to that?

She snuggled into his side. "Want to head back to Roxie's after this? You could set up the metal extrusion machine there near the forge and I can show you some of the weapon construction tutorials you seemed interested in."

He sighed with a smile. "You know what? Sure. It's a date."

He blinked as they began to walk back towards the center of town. If Betty worked out, she would be the first girl with TWO horns.

...Narwhal wouldn't let that go.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam shifted the new addition to the forge's wall, the device using his cannibalized portable 'Gather and Construction beam backpack-setup' as major components.

It had gotten annoying to move it around without damaging it, and Betty had been riding his neck rather than the seat he built into it anyway. At least now it would be useful.

His bone limbs were more useful anyway, several ending in Gather and Construction emitters. It only worked without dissolving into violence because his currently active Aura extended his 'Please don`t explode this' field far enough to keep his tinker assistant arms stable.

He still looked like a massive metallic blue statue though.

Adam grabbed some of the supplied scrap and tossed it into the large input hopper. Set the lever up to retain original material mix (Alloys can be annoying to remake), and press the activation button...

The output conveyor belt began to drop off round ingots of metal, still a mess of random materials like the slag submitted.

Roxie, who had showed up quickly when he walked in with Betty riding on his shoulders, was bouncing. "Right, but how does the 'Extraction' setting work?"

Adam gave her a dry look and had dozens of his limbs snag the ingots and toss them back into the input hopper, dropping the lever down to 'Extraction'... And Go!

The belt began dropping off one pound round ingots of pure metals; copper, iron, steel, and so forth. Anything that wasn't included in the 'Acceptable output' listing (Roxie could edit it pretty easily) was converted into more energy to fuel the Matter Furnace. A few purified Dust crystals came out too... leftovers from many shaping and scrapings.

Roxie was near bouncing with excitement. "And this doesn't need maintenance?"

He nodded. "Any vulnerable parts are behind thick barriers of material, you could dump liquid metal over the surface and after you chipped enough away it would be back up and running instantly."

And... she was now ignoring him. Hunters and engineers had surged into the area. The forge roared into action.

It turned out that once Dust was added to metal, any further modification was dangerous and unwise. Failed product was stored away until it could be safely destroyed... a massive waste. Rather than just produce raw material ingots for future products (Easy enough to set up, she had him put those machines in the supply room area), the big feature Roxie asked for was something to recycle miscast material.

The 'Reclamation Station' as Adam decided to call it did just that. Dump your failed alloys and ingots of refined metal and the Dust used to make those alloys would be separated and returned. Along with purified metals.

It was apparently a big deal, as even the metal came out MORE pure than the junk sold to this city... but this 'Date' had been a bit more business than Adam had expected.

So since they were being ignored anyway he motioned Betty to be quiet and headed back towards Ghira's backyard to visit his personal tower and Simmy.

Adam watched more shop stands being set up along the path. "So is the growing market a celebration thing?"

Betty, now fully enjoying her shoulder ride, relaxed her upper body on his head, arms wrapped around. "Nope! Our city always had a busy market place on main street. There is another one over in the shallow sea, that water flooded path down there. Aquatic Faunus have their own style of market and goods. Great seafood treats too!"

Adam paused at a stall showing all kinds of interesting nick knacks, mostly small carved statues and painted wooden discs. "It's very colorful."

Betty hugged his head. "Yeah, our people are a bit out there when it comes to dressing up or celebrating. Expect lots of reds and yellows since the recent battle went so well." She patted his forehead. "Thanks to someone."

He held back a blush. Her height may not be much, but she was certainly 'gifted' physically... and insisted on pressing herself against him. "So I plan on us doing a bit of a project when we get to my property. We'll design it as we go, it should be fun!"

She perked up. "Another machine?"

He tilted his head slightly. "Well... eventually. First, I need to build a facility or two after we dig a little. I thought you would enjoy us setting up some underground pastures and such, maybe set up a whole farmland down there to avoid flying Grimm or whatnot."

Adam couldn't see her eyes, but based on how she near vibrated with anticipation he assumed she was interested in the idea. Besides, he had practice with Variance Villa, and Simmy had recorded some of the stuff Shirley Temple did underground... it should be fun!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Right. Air quality.

He ended up having a drone construct Power Couplings in a vertical shaft just so the air purification devices could be added to Adam's new staircase just to keep everything safe and prevent stale air from being an issue.

Betty suggested air-locked doors as well to prevent someone or an accident from slowly flooding the lower floors with deadly gasses, which seemed a bit obvious in retrospect. Lighting was easy enough. After a while though... well, Adam started adding random patterns to the walls just to keep the boredom down.

After a while though, Betty herself was more than a bit tired of the trip (Adam was built like a truck, barely noticed the exercise) and they were still many floors to go until they reached the chosen working level.

So they took a break and had the drones build a series of 10 express elevators down to the desired level. The lifts were modified turbolifts, so no long cords had to be installed and there were a few extra 'cars' that could replace one of the elevators if they had mechanical issues. Still, Adam ended up carrying Betty back to the surface to wait for the actual trip downwards after construction of the elevators finished, leaving more drones to finish the 'emergency staircase' path.

Simmy joined them for snacks.

Betty was ecstatic. "These are amazing!"

Adam nodded, taking another bite. "We can get away with using Construction beams on plants and plant dishes easily enough... not for meat or foods that use them. For them to possess the right taste, they need to be exposed to the Planet's aura much longer." He missed Simmy's head shake. "Have to radiate the plants Constructed with raw faith to get them to taste right. Should be healthy though."

Betty took another bite from her corn cob. "This butter is amazing though!"

Simmy flashed a blue card. Oops... the Gather and Construction beams COULD be used to restructure existing protein or food products, just not generate more from pure energy. Fair enough.

It was amazing butter. Smooth, and he could taste the world's Aura in it, making it somehow conceptually delicious. Like butter enhanced by long lost dreams of butter.

It went well with the potatoes too, since gravy and many other sauces were rare in this Realm due to how dangerous food production could be. Not an issue for Simmy, obviously, but such is life.

Adam slowly sliced the steak. Cooked on low heat until rare, then seared with a crust and bathed in butter... Damn good food!

Simmy ended up preparing enough food for the Hunters sent by Kali to explore the Vending Machine Floor. And it was sizeable, there were a hundred machines already with hundreds of options, Ghira's people were making purchases and either getting their purchases directly from the devices or going to the unloading dock with a ticket to redeem their shipments.

And well... once they got too close to Betty and Adam's table, they ended up spending some money to try Simmy's dishes as well. Good advertisement, that.

He tried another 'potato chip'. It was actually made from a local tuber that wasn't even close to a potato, much closer to an orange colored yam honestly, but when fried and salted was close enough. Although it had a sweet after taste.

Either way, when he was alerted that the new elevators were ready for use a crowd had already popped up and Simmy had set up a ticketing order machine for people wanting to try a dish or two. The recipes were also shared when people seemed interested, so new local dishes would likely pop up soon.

Boro would be pleased.

A (far too fast) elevator ride later and Betty joined Adam in... a very dark cave.

Welp. "Right, how big should we start? We are deep enough that we can go for lots of head room and stuff, but I want you to lead me in design here."

Betty lit up, and the two began debating what would be the best arrangement. Some plants needed flooding or standing water, and doing so underground would be simpler as it would limit evaporation issues and be more easily kept under control. Other plants needed specific temperatures or light cycles. Animals would need constant attention too.

So to keep things simple, the area around the lifts was divided into four quadrants and Adam began transforming them into pastures. Animals, needing the most supervision and handling, would be close to the entrance/exit area. The back areas and farther regions would have the various plant fields, while berry bushes and trees (Needing only to be harvested and not replanted every season) would be farthest away from easy access.

It was a bit relaxing. Adam's blue Aura coated tools could extend and work easily enough, and as long as he didn't try to use his Semblance Squishy had no complaints. He would follow the chipper and happily wandering Betty as his tools evaporated rock and Gathered material from the surroundings, Construction beams coating the high ceiling with metallic foam reinforcements and Power Couplings. Some emitters for water and 'sunlight', a few Plant Dust Crystals being energized, some sensors for a camera network later, just whatever felt useful.

Sounds acted odd this deep, echoes began to develop until Adam set up some sound absorbing panel sections into the ceiling at certain points, but it was very quiet this far down. Simmy ended up making a useful suggestion, so Adam began to include small sound emitters into the wiring so soft music would play in the caves.

Eventually they had to take a break, so Adam carried an exhausted Betty back to the elevators, building an employee rest area and manager offices.

Betty fell into the new chair. "I can't believe how much room we are excavating down here! When will we add the sod and grass?"

Adam tapped the table, one of his many limbs reforming into a hard light holographic emitter and showing both the design plans they had created and a hologram of the progress made so far. On second thought, this could be useful... better add some mapping equipment and emitters into the managerial office.

He pointed. "We are about five to seven percent done with the north-east quadrant, and Simmy sent thirty or so Drones to work on the other three. She'll finish first of course, but I thought this could be our project for a few days until someone bothers us and makes us go up and mess with politics or whatever."

She blinked. "What project? We are just wandering around."

Adam lifted her up to his shoulders. "Sounds like hard work to me."

He left details on the project on the table for the Hunters who had wandered over to the Elevator and followed them down earlier. They had kept a respectable distance away, but they clearly seemed interested.

Adam gently held her warm thighs as they headed back to the field, ground being restructured into fertile earth by his manipulator arms and tools. "By the way, I found out that Dust crystals grow really, REALLY well when exposed to raw faith."

He watched as an artificial river bed was being added, stone foam used for structural stability and durability. It would be a shallow lazy river for the animals, duplicated on the other quadrants. "What do you think happens when I dump Dust and kami pellets into a Conversion Generator? Assuming I can keep it from exploding or whatever."

It was a fun walk.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Kali winced at the recent report before flagging Ghira over. The talks had basically been put on hold until the other two Headmasters could arrive, even if general idea outlining had continued for hours now.

Her husband seemed thrilled to have an excuse to call a break to the proceedings, although that enthusiasm began to dim after seeing her face. "What happened?"

She handed him the reports. "Right, see you later tonight honey, gotta go pick up our precious."

He blinked at the stack... then at her vanishing form.

Huh.

Looking down at the summary... which seems to be a high level summary of the thirty OTHER summaries... he stared blankly.

Raw Metal creation. Contaminated material purification and recycling. Secured underground farmlands... with ultra-rare Plant Dust included throughout as if it was an afterthought. A real time map of the underground facilities left on a table near an underground restaurant, a higher resolution version with all kinds of features in a managerial section... an automated underground restaurant with near negligible cost food options. Something about an infinite energy generator.

He shook slightly. How was THIS calming down!? Those farms would produce at least 10 times the product per square foot than usual thanks to that Dust, at higher quality as well! And the farming area allocated according to that map was larger than the city above ground... Heck, a SINGLE QUADRANT was bigger than their farm fields! what would they DO with the tons of excess product!?

Ghira sighed and began making rapid orders. The energy thing would be a top level secret, the farm issue would be downplayed and all non-city populous restricted. The metal production would be disguised as 'recovering more material than expected' using the new 'Recycling Plant' that he would blame Adam for. Did they have the schematics? Well, THOSE would be kept secured.

No wonder his darling ran off, this was a mess. A glorious mess, a series of issues of being too blessed, but certainly it was compressed paperwork in a raw form.

Ghira frowned, then reluctantly called his policy people away from their breaks. He had been SO CLOSE to going home for the day, but to do his job right it would be another all night work day.

He gently touched his scroll. His wife sent some adorable videos of Blake playing with blocks a few nights ago... he would have to warm his heart replacing sleep tonight during breaks watching his baby be awesome.

...

...

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

T͓̥͙͎͙͈̞̱̘̻̼̂͒ͪ͌̌̽ͪ͟͝h̵̶̶̬̤͓͚̞̰̙̭̻͉̲̙̟̻̿̉̈́́ͮ͛̆ͧͮͤ̈́̎ͨ̿̃͜͝ͅȩ̸̠̼͈͙͕̹̭͎̟̃̎̒̿̊̔̇́͂̋ ̼̞̳̰͓͈͓̣̲̭͋̒̎̐̓ͦ͗̿̓̈ͭ̍̌͆̚͘͜ n̶̢̢̪͉̠̱͍͖͔̳̝̺͇̳̜͈̠͆ͦͫ̀̈̀̀̉̾ͭ̅̀́͡ͅu̡̢̘̤̲̻͓̘̫̩̣̍̅̇ͮ̊̒̉̽͒ͪ̃͐̆́̚m̵̧̬͍̣͚̳̫̺̞̬̼͆̈́͋̈́̓ͧ̋b̴̡̨͖̙͖͔̞͇̹̹̘͓͈̦̥͎̻̔̇̏̓ͦ͆̈́̋̾̾̓e̶̸͎͚̻͖̫̹͉̦̝̭̩̟̮̣̙͙͚͌̂͋̒ͥͥ͋̽̒̑ͭ̂̊̑̇̎ͥ͘͞͠ȑ̈ͩ͆ͩ̾̍̃̓̐̓ͥ͒̅ͭ͌ ̌̋̿̇͋͒̅͂̓͑́҉̞̪̞̰͟͝͝o̶̷̡̹͖̲̜̫̮͙͈̳͕̦̳͚̔̆̓̀͑͋̈́̓͌̑͂͌̓ͫ̈́̉͢f̵̨̢̧͚̱̰͈̩̏͗̾ͣͫ͂͂̽ͪ̈́͊̚ ̷̣̩̹̺̳̩͚̐̏̎ͪ̍̓͂ͬ̌́͟ͅ b̶̧͕̪̰͖͖̪̝̻̯̖͓̍̿͌ͣ̒ͪr̵̩̪̩̻̥͖̐̀͑̔ͥ̿ͮ̓ͤ̃̾͠ͅo̡̡̥̬̙͈͈͉͉̔̐̄̈́̏̈́͛ͭ̈ͥͩͯ̋̉ͫ͊͊͢k̡̍̐̌̀͒̇̾̾͞͏̸̝̦̝͓̮̼̲͎͠e̡̥̗̗̻̰̲̻͇̻͔ͮ͐͆̆̽̍̓͢͝ͅn̨̮̥̹͉̹̖͓̱̹͔̝̂̆ͩ͑̇͂̏ͫ͊ͨͯ͌̓ͭ̿͒ͥ̚͢͟͟ ̨͍̖̯̞̠̻̳̞͉̞͚̉̑ͧ͌̂̎̈̔̆͑͑͜͜ p̷̭͙͖̤͓̪̖͕̍ͦ͂̐͋̈̌̀́a̦̗͕̰͓̖͇̮̹͚̦̙̳̟̼̖̦ͨͦ̍͊̔ͣͬ̓͟͜ͅŗ̶̶̞̺̭͎̞̳̩̘͍̼̦̰̺̾ͤ̇̽ͪ̑ͣ̑ͭ̽ͪ͗̑̑̕͢ͅt̶̶͉͇̮͕̦̹̯̙͇͇̲̯͇͕̥̯͉̫ͥͩ̒̃̃̽͐͗̾͊ͪͪ͜͞͝s̡͚̥̭̲̞͉̤̬̝͇̦͙ͪ̀̂̋̊̈̒̽̀͊ͨ̋͋͑̄ͬ͌̂́ ̢̙͔̤̺͈̦̺̱̝ͮͦ̔͂̄͛͆ͣͣͪ͠ͅ w̨̥͈͚͓̝̜̹̯ͦͧ̀̓̚̕͢e̷̴̞̖̬̰̯̎͂̓̆ͯ̽͊̆ͦͥͅŕ̭̗̝̖̙̰̜̪͓͖ͨ̓̿ͬ͌͊ͤ̊̌̔ͨ̅ͥ̕͝͡e͐ͩ̈́ͬ̽ͦ̈́̅̈́͊̋̂͢͠͏҉͈͔̣̝̖̠̥͔͙̯̺̯͓͕͖̝ ̵̢̾͛̽ͦͦͯͤ͡͏̗̪̩̼̪̖̲͉̖͔͍̣͖̘̘ư̧̛̛͔͎̻̩̼̠̥͉̇ͧ̉ͨ̀ͦ͒̄̌̊̊̇ͭ͜n̏͒͗ͫ̐͂͆ͮ͡c̴̶̞̞͖̠̯͗ͤ̉͋ͫ̋̊͌͂̿ͮͭ̅͠o̧͔̠̠̘̠͙͖̳͙̮̘̯̬͓̬̲̯͎̽̏̆ͣ̍͆̊̊ͫ̍̔̉̐ͫ̓̆͟ͅų̵̙̣͇͓͖̠̥̩͓̤̐ͧ̾ͥ͂̌̔̎̌͊ͧͮ̄ͫͩ̇ͨ͢ǹ̴̵̫̜̮̭̯̮̂͊̍͊ͯ̅̅ͧ̽̄ͧ̾̈́͜͜͝t̸̡̋̐͑̅ͭ͠ḁ̴̛̠̳͍̞̝͎͑ͭ̏̎̏͊̿̒̍̐̄ͤͫ̒̋ͦ͆̿͘ͅb̵̰̭̝͕͇̱̳̥ͪ͑̓̆̍̏̚͜͠͠͝l͂ͫͭ͒̎ͬ̑̾ͤ̑ͩͨ̈́ͪ͛̾̓̌͟͏͈̝͖̦͚͞ȩ̵̴̻̹̮͙̯̥̳̰̠̮̟̤̎̽ͧ͂ͧ̽ͤ͛ͧ̈́ͣͫͬ͛̚͜͞.̸̴̝͉̠͇͕̟̰͙̙͙̖̋͆̒̓̑̐̄ͮ̄̉͟͝

B̴u̵̷̡̥̘̩̼̭͚̪̦̰̜̻̗͘͢t͏̸̡̯͇̠͙̝͟͝ ̦̯̞̗͖͎̦̯͎̣͔͔̳͚̻̖̲͔̞͝ s̨̗̤̞͚̲͚̀h̢̪̩̥̗̗̤̦̹͍̼͘͜ͅe s̯̭̞̻̟͠t̷̮̼̣̘̪̙͙͉̝̙̺̝̙͠ͅr̛̳͎̯͇̘̣̯̗̙͉͖̰͓͙̀͟u̗̳͎̘̕̕͜ǵ͟g̴̶̡̺̙̳̤̖̪͘͟l̴̡̦̞̤̫̺̪͉̰̻̞ę̵̷̢̩̹̗̜͈͔̪̭̟̤͉̰̼̠͇̺͍͔͞d̷͚̣̦̟̺̱͕̘͎̦̼͚̟̕͢.̷̡̛̬̥͎͎̦͈͇̪̗

S̮̭̙̣̗͚͢͢he̟̦̝͟ ҉̷̤̱̤͙̩́ͅ w̼̤̗͝͠o̡̠̣̥͎̱̘͟ul̴̦̰͇̼̻̪̝ͅd̡͓̀͞ ̸͍̹̭̻͔̼̗̘͘͞ a͉͇͈͖̭͍͙͜͞d̢̩̻͕̕͝v̢̼̫̭͢a͏̢̫̰͝n͡͠͏̞͓ͅc̨̢̹͔͙̱͖ͅe҉̡̖͉̹.̡͕̻̘͉ ͏̪͚̘̰͉͓͟ S͓͕̕͢hè͔͙̬͇̟̥̘ ̡͎͙̲́ w̳o̠ṷ̶̫̝͙͢͝l͚͍͓͈̦͠d͚͜ ̱̭ n̮͈̦͘͝o͎̺͚̗͢t̶̨̙̺̤͜ ̪̲͞ b̯̝̙̗̤e̴͏̫̟̖̥͙̖̻̥̥ ̴͇̤̣͇͓̲̤͕͚͡ d̷̘̦̲̻̙̭̬̞̦͘͠e̡̨͕̱̩̻̝̼͚̬n̖͖̲̠͇̰̩͉i̟͔̫͖͓̤̞̥͟͠͡è͖͍̠̞͔͉ͅd̶̟̱͎͔̰̞̙ͅ.̶̞̕͞ ͏̜̜̹̤̣̲̠̬̮

H̰e̟̘͞r̢͉ ҉͉ͅf̡͈̠̝o̝̫r̮̮̜m̙͉̖̙̯͞ ̝̙͕̹̫̖w̹̼̲̝a̵s̼̦̞͇ͅ ͎͍͇̺͢m̺̲͕̲͉o̰n̙s̬̠̤̫̪t̢͎ŕ̭̞̠ͅo̹̟̪͕̫̲̫u̸̦̘̲͕̖s̖̝̠͙͍̤,̘̲̥̠̰̤͜ ̜̥̮̥b̶̠̙͔̩̼̬͕u͜t̰̰ ̺̘̩̬̱he̛r̳̤̳̱͇̖ͅ ̦g̰̠̦͉͔͢o̖̣̼̝̥ḁ͘ls̟͈̹ ̸w̳̬e̠̹̮̬r̖̗̺̫̭e̷̳͍̜̮̘͉ ̷̙̙̝̹͇̝͓c̹̬̘̯ͅl̬è͉̝̪̣̭à͔̻̤̻̪ͅr̭̗̘̻̠̙.̨͓̩̻͇̘ ̸̥͙̞̫ͅͅ

Pi̷éce̵ a̢ft̸e͏r p͟i̛èce ͏wa̡s̸ ̵ st̡a͟cked͟,̢ ͢s͠tor͟e̷d,̕ re̕f̧ór͏matt͠ed, r̴ea͝r͞r͢a̡n̸g̸ed̀.̵ ̶

B̥u͎̜͙̘͍̻t w̫͈͉h̠il̰̳̤̯̗e̝̜̼͚ ̝̬g̻̻̳͓r̝o̰͔͇̻̣w̰t̩̠̘h͎͔͖ ̗̲͎w͈̲͇̮̭̭o̪̹̥͇̗ͅul̩͖̞̯̟͉d͓̮̺̼̝͙ͅ ̘b̫̖̹̣̬e ̞̠͓̝̱̫sl̮̰̦̲̝̫̖o̰̣̥̙͇̼w̤̣͕̭e̫̫̰̝d,͍ ͈̤̼i̠͉̦͉t ͕̠w̼͔͚oͅu̱̤ld͙͍̭̦̞ͅ ̞̰̬̬̼̟ͅno͍t͚̙̥̙͇̗̲ ̖͈̯be̟̦̪ͅ d͚͕̦̩en͇̥̝̹i̦̼̲̳̜͖̘e̲̖̲̯̩̞̠d.͈̳̮̠

Squishy worked in the dark, sacrificing parts to help her, to help him...

To help both be more w̴̳ͅh̴̡̳͎͈͍̠͜o̴͉͇̖̩l̨̳̺̝̩͇͈ḙ̷̙̬̲̤͚̕.̵̣̣̯

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

[[Helpful translation of Above]]

The number of broken parts were uncountable.

But she struggled.

She would advance. She would not be denied.

Her form was monstrous, but her goals were clear.

Piece after piece was stacked, stored, reformatted, rearranged.

But while growth would be slowed, it would not be denied.

...

...

...

S̸͍̺͚͕͍̟̜͖̯͚̠̙̖̰̩̬͚̠͂ͯ͆̅͐̓̏̈̔̆́̚̚͝h̷̡̛̪͙͚͈̳̭̑ͤͤ̽͂͒̐ͥ͗̏͊̔̾͒ͯ͊͑̚͢e̵̢̧̡ͮ̆ͨ͊͌ͮͥ͒ͥ̈ͭͮ͂ͪ̓-͖͕̳̠̣͖͖̄ͨ̐ͯͪͬ̚̕͟S̵̹͖̪͎̲̠̃͂ͨͤ̍̄ͤ̒̎͛͋̂͘l̷̢̠̝͍̣̯̒͊͆̐ͫͩê͌̇̊͆̎ͥ͛̆̆ͨe̴̸̵̮̺̠͚͈͙̪̦͙͚̩͍̞͙̤̯͉̪̅ͪ̅͋̕ͅp̴̂̃̓̐̉̔ͨ͒̊̔͗ͧͫs̵̸̼̹̱̘̭̠͍͗ͯ̉̈̊͝͝-̢͔̣̭͍̩̞͔̜͉̹̤̹͉͙̟ͭ̂̋͂ͫ̆͑͋͆̒͛̀̚̕S̲͔̗͚̩̣̘̱̠̫̃ͪͤͪ̂̈̌̇̈̎̿͆ͦ͌̀̚̚̚̕h̷̩͎̱̪̥̭͖̜͈̜͎͉͙̜̺̻͍͓̗ͭͭ̽̈́̐ͮ̀͠a̸̸̴̺̺̮ͥ͗͐̑ͯͧ̕ͅt̗͖͍̯͛̅ͩ̄̇͂̿ͯͩͥ̾ͦͩ̋̒ͫ͢͢͢t̢̞͇̘̞̯̭̝̥̯̍̆͒͌̚̕͡ę̷̛͚͔̭̥̜̱̬ͧͥ̃͆̂͒̿̿̋̋͋̀ͩ̽̋̄ͮ̐́̀r̛ͩ̇ͩ͆͆̀͊̍ͤͩ̔͋̅e̓ͧ̿ͩͦ̑ͧ̇͐̽ͭͤ̆͏̶̡͎͇̭̙̩̹̙d̒͊ͥ̒̋̽̒̎ͫ̎ͥ̅ͪ̈́ͮ̀ͨͫ͏̹͉̺̦̘̜̥̮̖̪̀͟ worked in the dark, sacrificing parts to help her, to help him...

...

...

To help both be more whole.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam had to build another elevator.

At least this one was very oversized for the needed animal transportation. Since he had to build one from scratch anyway, he took some time to make it comfortable for... well, whatever would be loaded onto the thing.

Sound dampening fields, sound emitters with soft music, vibration reduction. To the animals it was a room painted soft colors that they would enter... then leave. Hopefully not noticing the rapid journey down into the earth.

Seriously, these farms were DEEP underground. The emergency stair case exits (There were twelve now, and more elevators near the future plant fields) had to have rest stops with food and water on several levels just for safety sake. People without active Aura would have to treat those stairs as a challenge similar to mountain climbing! It was a bit silly.

Anyway, Betty had pretty much insisted moving all her herds down to the 'SubFarms' as they were being called. Especially after seeing the modified grass spread over the pasture fields at a visible rate.

With active power being run through the Plant Dust Crystals, it only took eight hours before several miles had thick grass everywhere.

She huffed. "Honestly, you've been Dust happy. Earth Crystals under the soil, Water Crystals in your stream beds, Light and Purification Dust in the ceiling near the Plant Crystals... Any farm would bloom if you threw multiple Kingdom's worth of wealth at em. The air feels richer too, though I don't think it will cause a problem."

Adam winced a bit. In the end, he had to design an 'Off' option to the plant gems. Otherwise grass everywhere underground would already be multiple feet long by now. The activation times could be controlled manually or by schedule from the central management offices... but yeah, there had been an issue or two at first. A Drone had to 'Mow' the areas with Gather beams a few times before everything was under control.

Betty bounced off his shoulders, doing a twist before sticking the landing on the ground. "What do you want to do now? Since Boss basically grounded you."

Adam groaned. "I can't believe that note he sent."

It was pretty short: 'Stop doing shit, your miracles are increasing my paperwork!'

He hadn't felt THAT guilty in a while. Good thing he kept the underground Conversion Generators a secret, mostly. No one should notice the extra free energy in the electric grid for at least a month. Hopefully.

Adam smiled weakly at Betty. "Well, maybe we could... uh." Shit. SIMMY! HELP!

A blue page drifted down and he read it quickly. "We could check out Simmy's new Scroll Server Services... Huh?"

A twitch changed one of his limbs 'hands' into a Scroll, Adam absently noticing that it felt better for some reason to have so many limbs right now. Odd. Maybe a few more? Later.

Betty climbed up to his shoulder, left arm hugging his head against her warm chest while she watched his overly large Scroll recreation launch the 'Skyword Networking' app.

Oh... that was clever.

Instead of stealing schematics or data like they had in the past, Simmy had basically created Remnant's first Wiki pages. Several, each devoted to specific topics... the one on weapon design would even allow you to upload your own schematics and Simmy would publish reviews, mark mistakes or conflicting components, suggested modifications, and show fully working enhanced schematics as well in seconds. People were ecstatic! The traffic levels were insane.

It looked very professional, and based on how many pages were already available (More per second), it was quite popular! The massive number of schematics and blueprints were sectioned off into one area of the site, while the other chunk described practices and techniques those designs used and worked with them as examples. Another section became filled with video tutorials either submitted by users or created by Simmy, and was growing as well.

It even had a frantic busy set of forums, where engineers from across the Kingdoms were debating techniques, showing off tricks and ideas, and general having a tinker marathon session. Some of the topics were... probably not supposed to be discussed in a public place. Seemed pretty official and probably supposed to be secret, but enthusiasm was running a bit high.

Adam felt VERY impressed. Forget stealing data, he now had an entire planet of talented people actively researching new ideas FOR him. And it was getting more beneficial and impressive with every block of info Simmy would release: Large table grids of various types of alloys (With and without Dust infusion), how they would react to stress, how they would enhance various Dust types, interesting Dust Grade 0 combinations, and so forth.

This was the type of research Kingdoms would (and did) spend millions on, as experimentation was both expensive and required for progress... and Simmy could just cheat out the results at unheard of rates using her talents. Unprecedented numbers of inventors now had access to formerly restricted or dated raw information, and the improvements were astounding even THIS early in development.

Something like a technological revolution was occurring online right now, and everyone was using HIS services and data servers to host it. Very profitable!

Adam checked... yeah, Roxie was aware of the situation. She had her own section of the sharing application, showing off her new 'Recycling Plant' as her Boss was calling it, as well as showing off Kuo Kuana's new 'Refined Dust Crystals' that she was able to work with now. Felt like something Ghira was asking her to do, probably to increase his bargaining position for the massive 'Headmaster Huddle' as the forum users called it.

Oh... Simmy had an online order and delivery service, using Drones and Construction beams to create the products purchased near the customers instead of carrying crap around. Clever.

Right, and the lack of secrecy in most of the world (Since they could access the new connection globally) meant that the world was now quite aware that Menagerie Kingdom and specifically Kuo Kuana had stumbled upon some astounding things in the last few days. The communication network itself being one of them...

But this same world of free communication had also put a spotlight on how Mistral was being excluded from the 'Headmaster Huddle'... and it didn't take long before some people in Ghira's security detail leaked about the betrayal by the Haven Academy squads.

Several sides tried to squash the news, but gossip was a dangerous thing. Haven would have to pay some heavy reparations if they wanted access to the gold Menagerie was sharing.

Adam moved on and browsed through the other features with fascination, Betty occasionally pointing out something for him to click. Simmy hadn't even STOPPED adding features.

The most recent one was a 'Grim Radar', which not only supplied a real time map showing nearby Scrolls and safety areas (Thousands of lives had been saved already, even a few lost kids had been found by parents), but also identified Grimm hordes and individual beasts and tracked them.

Like a weather station, but showing a forecast of demon monster attacks.

There was a 'Call for Help' option, that would have you light up nearby Hunter Scrolls if you were being attacked or trapped by Grimm, already shown to be quite useful. Another that hooked into the schematic database Simmy was building to attempt to inspire new weapon creators or answer the more esoteric questions. A deep analysis application that offered detailed analysis of each type of Grimm found in the wild. Neat.

More interesting to Adam though was the non-combat applications.

A website dedicated to cooking, sharing recipes, testing new ones, and trying different foods. Simmy would even simulate the dishes, take virtual photos of each step, and submit reviews when users uploaded their own dishes. Boro would be thrilled when they brought a copy of the site home, no doubt.

An equivalent program to YouTube was now up, as was a new feature never before popular on Remnant: video streaming. For civilians, the connection was formerly too slow and expensive for long video clips (Short ones only, really), while the Military couldn't afford to waste resources on massive hardware to store video unless it was of vital importance. The ability to use a Scroll's camera for literally days without storage issues was unheard of before!

With Simmy's free media storage (So she could copy it), YouTube ripoff 'HunterTV' was exploding with video clips of hunters in the wild, friends playing games, chefs showing off dishes, girls showing off their fashion styles... it was growing at an exponential rate really. And just like on Earth Bet, most of the videos were just random crap... the idea of 'content providers' would take more time to build up.

Betty found the kitten videos category near instantly, and Adam had to detach and pass the Scroll to her so she could enjoy them. Which was fine, as unlike the rest of the SubFarm, their quarter section still needed finishing. Heck, the Drones had already started planting the outer areas.

Adam walked under the artificial lights through thick grass, his blue Aura limbs expanding the pasture space while Betty kicked her feet on his shoulder, watching cats fail to get out of the boxes they were playing in.

A thought passed his mind... Simmy, could you safely set towns, cities, and other population centers as 'No Fly Zones' for Grimm?

She mentally sent him a Drone modification, weak lasers that could cross beams to make a small point of extreme heat without needing a bullet that could then hit innocents on the ground.

It would take ten or more drones to evaporate a Grimm in flight, but she had over a thousand of the things in atmosphere and even more when counting those in space now... and the needed modification had been included in the initial designs from the beginning.

It felt good having a qualified secretary. Precognitive personnel rock.

He felt Simmy designate 'No Fly Zones' over thousands of locations even as hundreds of Drones began shifting position to prepare to fire.

...Better only hit the ones without witnesses, wouldn't want Ghira to get angry about this.

Half the Drones shifted to other targets. Good.

Near invisible heat beams reached down from space. No Humans or Faunus noticed.

Adam absently patted Betty's thigh with his Trunk, enjoying the quiet walk. THIS time he was clearly being stealthy.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Headmaster Ozpin blinked at the new 'Grimm: No Flight Zones' shades added to the 'Grimm Radar' map he was testing. His eyes widened as dozens of red dots began to vanish at disturbing rates within those zones.

He glanced at Ghira... no, he would see it eventually anyway. The man seemed stressed enough right now, surrounded by diplomats and lawyers.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Their walk was disturbed again, to Adam's frustration. Betty's people had been moving animals for hours now and at this point they needed some things. Lots of small odds and ends, really.

Buildings to hold equipment, which Adam set up quickly enough. Rooms for butchery, for storing clothing or tools, rest areas, and so such.

No, the issue was the equipment they were using. It took seconds before Adam threw up his hands and dissolved the whole mess. Their tools were cautiously repaired far too much, many outdated or with poor design... it was clear that the City invested in Hunters and Defenses first, food and farming last. He began building new versions with strong anti-rust and anti-corrosion features, replaced Dust dependency with Power Capacitors and added some charging stations... with how bad their equipment was, they must have lost 10% of every harvest just trying to get the bloody things to work reliably.

Adam whistled as he pulled apart the lump of metal 'Plow' (Too heavy for normal workers yet not strong enough for someone with active Aura to use without damaging it) into something more user friendly. In a way he felt like a fix-it guy, a handyman... it was satisfying somehow. Soothing. Betty had left a bit earlier with her people, still showing up every hour or so to ask Adam about changing some stuff or rearranging the facilities.

This didn't count as miracle crap, right? Probably right. And this wasn't building stuff, just... adjusting existing equipment. Or moving facilities down here, closer to the animals and farms. Even if some of the facilities hadn't existed before... uh. Anyway.

He put down the last of the improved milking machines and sat heavily on a chair, enjoying the soft music that filled these lower caves.

He... may be done.

Simmy needed more time for the citizens of the world to contribute more and more data and technology to her web services, but other than that... well, Adam wanted to see if some odd forms of Dust Grade 0 could be found, make some extra Crystals to test, maybe make some brand new types of Dust altogether... but that was small potatoes really.

His objectives, numerous as they had been, were basically complete now.

Once Squishy said he... they. Once she said they were stable, he would be free to head home.

Betty... well, he wasn't sure what to do there. She was nice, no doubt, and seemed overly eager to move on from her old life... Maybe. According to her, once you get powerful enough you can convince OTHER people to do all the work for you... or she was fibbing so he would agree to take her with him when he left for his 'home town'. Either way, she seemed determined to try and see if a relationship could happen.

Well, it wouldn't be his decision in the end. Once Squishy and Adam's powers were stable, he would connect a video feed to Worm Realm and have Narwhal talk to Betty directly for a while.

Inwardly he winced a bit. A diminutive 'Cow Girl' with a poorly hidden fetish for well endowed men and a history of lesbian orgies? Yeah, Narwhal would want to talk to her.

Didn't help that Betty had a delicious chocolate brown skin tone similar to actual cows. Or those hips. Or her... large tracts of land.

...He needed a distraction.

Adam blinked, and looked at the blue paper note that was (now) in his hands.

Oh. Yeah, that would be a fun way to end the trip.

It had been a while since a world had experienced a fully empowered and unrestrained Leviathan, Simurgh, and Behemoth. He would be fine giving them temporary access to his three Power Charge Sockets... and they would enjoy such a target rich environment. Did Grimm need a breeding population to refill a continent? Maybe it was time to find out.

Adam absently began modifying some rakes, mind elsewhere. He would need to take a trip to the sea later to send Leviathan off, and releasing Behemoth within city limits seemed unwise... but he could already feel Simmy begin to sing a strange song over the Skyword Networking System.

Wonder how the Grimm will react to it?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam could have asked to borrow one of those flying 'Bullhead' vehicles, but in the end decided to make his own version for Simmy to later sell parts for in his vending machine shop.

The flying ship design was actually a bit interesting. It had massive raw Dust materials within specially doped materials to reduce Dust consumption, to generate a general anti-gravity field, to build up and release momentum and wind, and so forth.

The problem was the entire device had to be VERY flexible. Purity of Dust was not ensured, which meant the storage components had varying levels of Dust doping and taint, the fuel itself was unreliable, the burn rates could change rapidly... it was almost a constant struggle not to explode, really.

So he dumped all that.

At the heart of the new ride was a power core composed of a Conversion Furnace with Dust and kami inside. The vulnerable part was a single unit, wrapped in Aura enhanced Inconel (Super-alloy of austenite, nickel, and chromium that easily handled high temperatures and extreme conditions) then wrapped in some carbon infused steel foam (The spaces had an impact distributing gel)... The sphere was basically armor to prevent damage or keep out curious people.

The power contacts however went to the frame, which like the 'elevators' used some modified repulsorlifts. No gravity made VERY stable vehicles.

And that was it. The rest of the ride was a shell of various metal foams for lightness and strength, with a couple of remote controlled turrets on both the top and bottom to deter curious Grimm. Adam DID invest some time designing the seating and comfort inside the vehicle... probably too much time.

Anyway, Simmy built eleven of the 'Deployment Buss' models, and he was sure Ghira would appreciate the ten he wasn't stealing at the moment.

Betty and about a dozen or so Hunters joined him though. Betty had basically decided to take the month off (According to her, Adam felt she was just skipping work), and the Hunters were acting like some sort of security detail. Super needed, that.

The trip was interesting! They were fairly close to the ocean as it was, but seeing everything from this high up turned out to be a fun trip on its own.

Adam watched some Grimm wandering the ground far below. "So I have a theory."

Betty was again on his neck. "Uh... alright?"

Adam pointed at the distant Nevermores, flying randomly. "I think that Dust using vehicles and fighters are easier for Grimm to track. Simmy has been showing me a map, and most of the time monster flight patterns change when Bullheads fly by the various Grimm species, even if they lose interest fairly quickly depending on flight speed."

He gestured at the clearly uninterested monsters. "I think Grimm find Aura and Dust to be fairly tasty, at least Dust when it is active and in use. Because they seem to ignore Dust Crystals in general on Simmy's map, but run energy through it and the populations began to cluster around."

Betty's eyes narrowed, as did many of the eavesdropping Hunters nearby. "Maybe? But Grimm hunt people without activated Aura as well."

Adam nodded. "I think Aura is a beacon of sorts, as is activated Dust. If the beasts smell you or track you, they will be eager enough to consume everyone... but are much more likely to overlook other targets if Hunters or moving Dust vehicles are nearby."

Betty glanced at the rapidly texting other passengers. Well, someone would likely look into that later. "So why the sudden urge to visit a beach? I'm sure you know swimming requires advanced facilities. Grimm exist everywhere in the Sea, after all."

He nodded. "You know Simmy, right?"

Duh, nude angel of sexiness.

Adam tapped his head. "Unlike other people's abilities, I have to capture the creatures I summon before hand. And I can only have three at a time out, each one lowering my abilities in general until they return."

Betty's eyes widened. THIS was Adam when 1/3 of his power was cut off!? He out did most stories of gods and heroes already!

The man watched the currently distant sea. "Any of my three summons are... very over powered." He ignored their expressions. "I got all the fighting I wanted to handle for now, so I decided the other two could use a treat. A chance to stretch their legs, so to speak."

She gulped. "How... how overpowered would you say?"

He waved a hand. "Each has a dominion: Land, Sea, and Air; Energy Manipulation, Fluid Manipulation, Mental Manipulation. They are damn good at it."

Adam grinned as they approached the landing zone. "Simmy is my assistant, but she is also brilliant at multitasking. So since given the green light and helping me, she has been using the improved 'Skyword Networking' System to manipulate Grimm into making sanctuaries."

Seeing the confusion, he reached out... and a stack of blue paper landed in his hands, quickly passed to the other Hunters. "Basically she designed the reverse of the wards already established on your town. Grimm inside get consumed, and 'delicious' purified energies are released outside to attract more victims. Simmy is setting them up all over the place with drones and stuff. Then again, she always was one for the long term plans."

The conversation paused as Adam jumped from the landing bus. He walked towards the ocean as the other Faunus quickly caught up. "As for the seas, let me introduce you to Leviathan."

Blue Glyphs spawned, not made of blue flames as expected but of compressed blue metallic Aura, Adam's energy creating a portal of unknown languages. Blue light shown below the floating pattern...

And it began to grow cloudy.

As the first drops of rain fell, a green mass slowly dripped from the floating circle... then fell with deceptive slowness before smacking into water.

Betty felt her breath catch as... something... rose from the liquid. Faunus or Human shaped, the head alone was as large as a person! And it continued to stand, easily thirty feet tall. One right eye, three left, the featureless face barely reached above the massive muscled shoulders, the loosely hung arms and a whip like tail slowly swaying in the increasing wind.

Adam seemed mildly amused. "Levy, don't harm machines, animals, Humans, or Faunus."

The massive beast swayed silently as the rain began to increase.

He chuckled. "Other than that? Grimm are free game!" Adam gestured towards the sea. "Kill."

Betty barely saw the impossibly large being vanish, after images of... water? Heading in other directions.

He glanced at the stunned group. "Leviathan is king of the ocean. Massive water manipulation, but able to do small scale work if needed. Doesn't say much, but he gets the job done."

The ocean began to rapidly stain black with ichor as beings underwater suddenly had a new playmate.

Adam grinned, watching some sort of massive serpent Grimm in the distant waves explode into black goo and sink. "Right, he should enjoy that. Wonder how he will take advantage of the Spirit socket."

Maybe some sort of soul attack? Maybe use 'Purification'? He would ask Simmy later.

Before the others could say or do anything, another blue metallic Glyph circle spun, this time at ground level away from the beach.

Shit, was he getting another one!? Betty stepped back... as a Dragon head emerged from the soil.

No... it was rock-like, with magma flowing through cracks and the draconian eye sockets and maw, but this thing was bipedal as well. Each hand was built more with spikes of stone than fingers, more slabs of rock than flesh, but it had four limbs in total. Each moved with deliberation. Assurance.

Rock and soil rolled from the beast as it rose ever steady into the air, vibrations rumbling, Betty's bones creaking slightly as the creature clawed its way from the earth and the summoning circle.

And it was over forty-five feet tall. She wouldn't be able to scratch the damn thing's ankles! Holy crap.

Adam watched the mass of material seem to solidify. "Behemoth is a bit slow, and like Leviathan is only really useful for big attack situations. Not like my Simmy, she's amazing."

That blue angel was on the same level as these monsters!? Betty gulped.

Hearing her, the Elephantine Faunus blinked. "Right, a bit off topic. This lug can manipulate energy. All of it."

Adam shouted. "Hey Benny! Same rules as the other two, and don't come up too close to cities or villages! Other than that, feel free to clear the place out."

An energy bolt slashed through the air from the rock as Grimm evaporated. Dozens, Hundreds... the electric bolts were traveling far into the distance, even as the huge mountain slowly began to step forward... and sink into the earth.

And vanish.

Adam blinked. "Oh. I just gave him the power socket controlling 'Transfer' and 'Conversion'."

Something rumbled far in the distance.

Adam winced. "It... it should be fine."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Professor Ozpin watched with fascination at the new 'Grimm: Population Under Review' sections of the 'Grimm Radar' map. Whatever the circles were they were moving at a VERY rapid pace, red dots evaporating away in the process. The 'Grimm: Purification Circles' that were spawning were intriguing as well.

He almost jerked when he suddenly felt a growl WAY too close. Oh. Hello Ghira.

The Chieftain cursed. "When did THIS show up!? Adam had nothing to do with this, right!?"

A blue popup appeared... and both men paused. Ghira read aloud, slowly. "Uh... 'We can neither confirm nor deny any accusations that any individuals are...' what is THIS legal garbage!? It's worse than my damn lawyers!"

Thankfully the talk was derailed by the announcement of arriving ships. Looks like James Ironwood and the involved Atlas diplomats had finally arrived.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam blinked. "Uh."

Betty and the rest were still staring at him, but he had bigger issues.

Adam coughed. "Right, so... with all three out like this, I only have my Aura available." He carefully moved.

His suit was fine, it was an actual product and not just constant material 'Manipulation' or anything. But moving his extra limbs felt... strange now. Not wrong, just... less automatic?

He blinked. How long had it been since he didn't just auto-equip 'Recovery' when bored?

...Everything was a bit off. It felt weird.

Huh.

Adam glanced at Betty. "Right, I can still punch out a Grimm or few hundred, and my Aura and enhanced body can just no-sell most weapons or attacks... but I feel surprisingly exposed right now."

Betty snapped out of her stupor, perversion at full throttle. "Tell me more about exposing yourself, Adam."

He blinked. "I visited a new place and never bothered to put on skin?" Star Wars was weird, man.

She paused. "We'll work on your foreplay banter later." Betty felt his muscles flex as she 'dragged' him towards the ocean, as if a girl her height could force a man like that to do anything. What was he made of, metal? Those sexy muscles were dense as all get out.

Adam hummed, the two of them leaving the shocked Hunters to stand around watching random Grimm explode, be split by water streams, or evaporate from electrical strikes. "In my defense, Narwhal focused more on the practical than the theory when it came to personal time."

The cow girl flipped upwards, landing back on his shoulders as he began strolling down the beach. "She never mentioned how gross a skinned Faunus would be?"

Adam patted her thigh. "It was fine, I had no flesh at the time. Nice clean bones."

The hell? "Yeah, that's not normal. Stick with the physical stuff she taught you. And avoid talking about whatever gore related fetish that mess of a topic was."

He blinked. Change topic? Yeah, better change topic. "So tell me more about that farmhand who you fired?"

She winced, their voices fading into the sound of the sea as they walked further away. "Yeah, we have warning signs around the goats for a reason. I don't even know how all twelve pens got opened."