Jack and I weren’t spending all of our time just hunting and training. There was also downtime. Plenty of downtime. We’d procured and carried with us, a fair amount of random crap from the Marrow Clan estate that could be used to kill time and merrily distract ourselves.

There was even an old handheld gaming device. A piece of relatively simple, old-world, tech that had been collecting dust on a shelf, but my [Tale of the Craftsman] helped me fix up and make usable. Finally, besides goofing off, we also spent our free time exploring. The Bellgrave Jungle was a massive place, and we were pretty certain it was filled with all sorts of natural treasures and old-world marvels. We just hadn’t found that many yet.

“That” changed today. We managed to find this part of the jungle that was sort of underground, but not really. It was basically this crevasse in the ground that still had trees growing in it, but was still low enough to roughly count as being underground. The crevasse lead into a cave system. Some of it was exposed to the open air like the crevasse, some of it covered by soil and stone. It was a nifty place, and there were a bunch of these bats, and cave-lizards with no eyes, there. It was in this area that Jack and I found that there was a vein of spirit-metal there.

My data-sampling said it was some variant of frost-antimony, which was actually “really” useful for Jack because of its high yin content. There were also a few cultivation techniques in her archive that she could use in tandem with the frost-antimony to cultivate her physique. Spirit-metal, like spirit-crystals, could be used to cultivate, but their value in making weapons, armor, and artifacts stopped most people from using them as such. The keyword being "most" people. Even I ended up using some because each gram of the spirit-metal that I fed to my Idle-Clicker system was the equivalent of a higher, low-level, beast.

There was a fairly large vein of the frost-antimony buried down in that crevasse. That meant enough spirit-metal that it could have led to the birth of a multi-generational boomtown, if this vein weren’t so damned far away from any sort of civilization. We didn’t need to actually “mine” any of it, the [Tale of the Empty Archivist’s Heir] and the [Tale of the Craftsman] worked together to grant me and my Idle-Clicker system some very potent, resource retrieval abilities.

Jack and I ended up going back and forth to the crevasse that entire month. We probably could have pulled the entire vein out in one go if I was stronger, but since my current strength was what it was, that meant we needed repeat trips. Jack and I were determined to thoroughly deplete the resource before we moved on. Unsurprisingly, we ended up succeeding in our endeavor to plunder our shattered world’s bounty.

Then later on that last evening of plundering the crevasse, I had an idea. My [Tale of the Craftsman] was constantly filling my head with schematics and designs. Now after the night’s studying, I’d just received a piece of crafting, and construction, knowledge that could maybe help the situation of our neighbors at the survivor camp. After a little further thought, and a little more study, my idea grew a fair amount more sturdy. I now knew for sure that I could make this plan of mine work.

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The next morning, Jack and I headed out to the survivor camp. We came bearing gifts as we always did, because back in the 17th Pearl showing up at someone’s place without bringing a little something was generally not done unless they were very close friends, or an enemy that you’d already fallen out with. Also, we figured coming with something nice in hand would keep us from wearing out our welcome too soon.

Ms. Alina was always the one who spotted us first. She had sharp eyes that one, and most likely an even sharper mind.

“Ah, good morning, little ones, “ said Alina.

“Good morning, Ms. Alina. We brought you a couple of hypno-mallards,” said Jack.

“Mhm, that’s quite lovely thank you,” said Alina. Gesturing to an area where we could deposit the three, large, birds, because each hypno-mallard was roughly the weight and size of an adolescent human.

“So, Jill had an idea that might help you guys, the other day,” said Jack. Helping me with the lead-in because I'm not really that good with that sort of stuff.

“Oh? Well, between you and me we’re kind of at our wits’ end here, so if you have an idea we’d love to hear it,” said Alina.

Jack then looked at me and after a moment to calm myself because I’m really that used to getting too much attention, I started speaking. Wishing that there weren’t all these other folk around, also listening in, because Alina always seemed to be in the midst of various things whenever we met her in the survivor camp.

“Er...Well, so I know you guys are having trouble hailing help...The beacon on the escape pod isn’t working...Radioing for help isn’t working…” I said.

Alina frowned a bit.

“Yes, that ‘is’ how the current situation seems to be going,” said Alina. Sighing tiredly.

“Well, I figure that the problem is that wherever we’ve fallen, is so far from...well, basically everything...That you need a signal booster. Something that’ll help you bridge the gap,” I said.

“An interesting assessment and probably a correct one...Would it be safe to imagine you have a suggestion that might help us with this?” said Alina.

“Uh, yeah…I’ve got two plans, but I figure things will work out best if we do both,” I said. Nodding.

“Okay? And what are these plans exactly?” said Sigi. Seeming to appear from bloody know-where and making me realize how nervous I was.

“The first is simple...and more easily done...If you guys can set up a clearing, I can help you build a radio-tower that’ll boost the signals that you guys are putting out, and catching, a fair amount...You’ll get maybe an extra 80 to 100 miles range depending on the weather,” I said.

“Huh...That’s not bad,” said Alina. Tapping her chin.

“And the second plan?” said Sigi.

“Well, I can create a sort of satellite…” I said.

“Satellite? Like the moons?” said Sigi.

“Er, no...But also yes. They’re an old-world construct that the ancients would send up and out into the void...They would orbit the ancient world while transmitting signals to one another, and to antennas on the ground,” said Alina. Apparently having heard about what I was talking about before.

“Oh...And how exactly would that work?” said Sigi.

“The communication or the…” I said.

“I meant us getting the satellite up into the air and out into the void?” said Sigi.

“Oh, Jill and I can figure that out...We’re probably still a few years away from flying us all out of here, but just sort of chucking something up into the air is something we can do...Especially when it doesn’t need to go all that far,” said Jack.

“Mhm...Okay. Well, like I said, we’re all fresh out of ideas here, so if you think you can make it work, then just tell us what we need to do?” said Alina.

“Er, thanks for your vote of confidence, heheh,” I said. Feeling more eyes on me and laughing to mask my discomfort.

“One last thing, why didn’t you bring this idea up before?” said a voice at the back of the gathering crowd.

“Erm, well I didn’t know how to do it before….and I didn’t have the materials,” I said. Barely managing to avoid letting my flustered state make me say more than I should.

“Materials?” said Alina.

“Uh, yeah...We’ve been hunting and foraging and such and we’ve found all sorts of junk...The other day we found a little bit of spirit-metal in some rocks that is just enough for Jill here to make the circuitry, and more fiddly components, for both the radio-tower, and the satellite,” said Jack. Not quite lying, not quite telling the truth, but definitely coming in clutch right when I needed her.