Part 5: The choice is made, prepare yourself!

It was decided, choosing the cave was my only option. Even so, the problem here wasn’t only losing our way out, It included not being able to exit it. If we are pursued or arrived at a dead-end inside those tunnels, everything would become a game over.

I have collected 50MMs worth of resources, the process to obtain them wasn’t efficient. The AI already told me there were failures that translated into energy and resources being lost. The AI even made a mistake by knowing what it needed for MM production. Starting as a broken G00 was like playing a game in legendary and starting with below-average stats, a damaged interface, and an uncalibrated controller.

In the end, with a little more than 50 MMs worth of resources, the AI made 30 basic MMs.

What should I use them for? Protection, an exploring tool, or a weapon?

This is extremely important, I would need to explore the cave and the amount of MMs was enough to make something at last. But the choice needed careful inspection before arriving at a conclusion.

If we go for protection, the first thing I’d make was a barrier.

My current body is full of holes. Many things can pass through the little spaces between the external micromachines. The only isolated place is the system—if we don’t count the two ‘digestive’ spheres that hang from my body or the curved crystal NMs that protect the vision sensor.

So yeah, I don’t have a cover. But I can’t even make the simplest membrane, because my MMs are at the ‘basic’ level and I don’t have enough of them. This means that I can’t create MMs that secrete substances, nor will I be making some carbon fiber armor that envelops my body. Well, I can’t even participate in their creation, because to create them I need additional experimentation.

Everything until now has been designed by using the available resources that the AI showed me. Like creating my ‘eye’ used the already existing NMs that were sensible to light. The protective lens used NMs that allowed that light to pass through and protected the ones sensible to it. Lastly, the digestive NMs were taken from unused MMs that had them inside, they were grouped and encased following an already existing structure—the AI’s system.

Creating something from scratch, something like that was luxurious. It needed knowledge, tools, materials, and more. At my current time, this was a delusion—like when you thought of building a Lamborghini—the idea is excellent, but the execution might turn shabby. As such, my body doesn’t have an external barrier nor skin. Making it will also need excessive design and I can’t just cover myself while isolating everything from the environment.

If I make a membrane, it’ll need some permeability, which means holes. Not the ones I have though; Selective ones, of course. Like doors in a house or a plane, they’d allow for specific passengers to enter my body, but they’ll block those dangerous or unneeded. This isn’t going to be magically made—since as stated before—it needed extensive knowledge, something I didn’t have at the moment.

Thinking about the benefit and cost of making such a barrier, I created a list with my available options. An evaluation of the best decision. It even included the pros and cons of each of the choices I had.

A18, show me the Pros/cons comparison of making a body barrier.

Yes, my puddle!

Creating an environment selective barrier. (Membrane/Cover/Skin):

Description: A membrane protects compounds/nanomachines contained within from unwanted reactions with the environment. This controlled exposure helps reduce the chemical damage dealt to structural compounds/nanomachines and consequently increases their operational lifetime.

Pros: Reduces environmental damage and decay probability. Increases protection and defenses from external sources. Diminishes passive resource and energy loss. Decreases chemical damage from the environment by selective control of element exchange with it.

Cons: Requires high level design and more Micromachines than the current amount at disposal. It will not help for the current cave exploration.

Analyzing it showed that creating a membrane to act as a barrier would solve my current predicament, but I didn’t have enough materials and I lacked the knowledge to design it.

Next in the little list was a sensor’s construction. Maybe an ultrasound sensor would be the proper choice. So I started to think about how to make it. Basically, an ultrasound sensor needed two things. An emitting device and a receiver. So a mouth and ears like those of bats.

A18, what’s the cost of a basic sensor?

My puddle, it depends on the type of sensor and the accuracy of it.

Tell me an average, how much MMs do I need for a basic sensor for sound production or hearing?

The machines used for the hearing could be less than 1MM, however, the total amount of MMs needed for a device to ‘work’ and show on the user interface would be around 250 basic MMs.

After a little talk with my AI, I evaluated my possibilities once again.

A18, show me the Pros/cons comparison of making the chosen sensor.

Yes!

Creating an echolocation device:

Description: Locates objects by determining the time for an echo to return and the direction from which it returns from. Uses an emitter device that produces a specific frequency soundwave. The sound wave is reflected by objects that obstruct their path, it returns to the emitter and is captured by a hearing device.

Pros: Great for exploring the cave, perceives vibrations and echo-localizes the walls, structures, and creatures. In summary, the ability to locate prey, navigate, and communicate with creatures that have a similar system.

Cons: Needs more than the available MMs. Needs to design two devices which mean double the cost.

In summary, and supposing that each device needs an average of 250MMs to be created, the idea of manufacturing an additional sensor was thrown out of the list. Simply because I didn’t have enough to even make one.

Yeah, you can create a microphone with less than 1MM, but where will you plug it, what will listen to it or interpret/translate the signal? What will show it on my ‘user interface’? What will allow me to control it or adjust it?

I wished I had some magic. I always believed that nanobots and microbots did things in an easy and magical way. Yet, here, I have to rack my brains until the point I understand that living isn’t really associated with just wishful thoughts.

A18, you know what to do…

My puddle, don’t worry I am here for you, chuu~

Notification system: You just received a kiss, it makes you happy.

Hm, that’s better.

Continuing with the list, I have the final option. An item that makes it easier to explore, which consumes less MMs than a basic sensor, and can be carried outside.

The simplest item for exploring a cave was light. It was my last option and it had a solution. I think I might be able to make a led or a flashlight, right?

However, I can’t make something that makes me lose energy faster. Creating light needed either chemical reactions or a special circuit for electricity. My battery was faulty, a led needed constant current and special materials. I couldn’t make a diode or a basic circuit, because the AI didn’t have designs that I could use.

Be that as it may, I needed light. So by thinking carefully for a while, I came with an inspirational solution: using natural resources might work. The only way I could conclude how to make it was by using those glowing orbs below the plants. Thus, I made multiple gathering trips and experimented once again.

Part 6: Bioluminescence?

I gathered some freshly sliced potatoes, about ten pieces. They were all of the glowy types. Their blood was going to be used as sacrifice for a magical elixir. It didn't take much to make, I just dug a hole in the ground by drilling with my multipurpose tail and used it as a basin. Then, I threw the sliced potatoes inside after checking that the walls of the hole were sturdy enough.

My tail went inside the hole and started to spin. It was a tail-made blender. The potatoes became a mashed paste and the syrupy contents glittered inside. Taking my flagellum out and seeing it covered in the slimy fluid, I used the 1st digestive sphere to clean it. The sphere also went inside the pit and absorbed the liquid slowly until it was full.

The process was a success, the sparkling potato soup was separated from the exterior environment by the MM-composed walls of the first sphere; everything was sucked in its inside without leaving a bit of it in the hole. Nonetheless, I came across another obstacle. The contents were completely isolated by the 1st sphere. Its walls were too thick for light to pass through them and it won't shine without some tweaks. Tweaks which appeared to be egregious since they weren't possible.

With the 30 micromachines I had at my disposal, it was time to create an orb. The purpose of it was to act as a light source. I could’ve saved the MMs for making a smaller battery or partially repairing mine. Nonetheless, since I needed to advance, I grouped them to form a sphere. It was near the same size as my ‘mouth’ (first sphere). However—different from the 1st sphere— the MMs selected for this one were stretched to the point they looked invisible. It was because the number of MMs employed were worlds apart from the one on the first sphere. This allowed the walls to be thin enough to let light pass and isolate the chemical ‘signals’ that the potatoes released to attract the blobs.

This syrup liquid was tested before and seemed to glow for half the duration of my maximum energy sustenance. Additionally, by doing digestion we have that 2 complete potatoes recharged approximately 10% of my energy. So a soup made from 10 potatoes would recharge around 50% of my energy. An additional property I was happy to find. I also did an experiment to know how much time does a potion remains active. My ten servings where more than enough for 3 trips with full energy.

A18, show the created ‘items’ in a menu.

Showing recently crafted items in a description box:

Glowy Potato Potion (Active) Item Type: Consumable - Potion Current Storage: Inside the first sphere (Mouth) Status: Losing Activity (Glow) Amount: 10/10 servings. Description: A Potion crafted by G00 by mashing up 10 Glowy Potatoes. Color: unknown. It's glowing.

Uses:

Glows for a determined period of time.

Recharges energy proportional to the amount eaten - 2 Servings = ~10% energy.

Special use: Can be carried inside a transparent container to be used as a glowing orb.

Okay, A18. Now show me the newly made sphere.

Showing next item in the list:

Glowy Orb (Empty) Item Type: External Device - Light Orb. Structural Integrity: Isolation of 100% (Decreases over time - Decay) Decay State: Looks new. Durability: unknown - Scale not created. Transparency: 95% (Decreases if dirty or with use) Storage Status: (Empty) Amount: 0/1 Glowy potato servings. Description: A small scale storage device with transparent walls. It works like a glass recipient. It was created by G00 as a standalone external device that can shine when filled with the extract from glowy potatoes.

Uses:

Glows in the dark and illuminates an area of about 2~3 bodies^2 around the user.

Note: Needs to be refilled with glowy potato potion for it to work as a light source. An icon will be displayed in puddle vision showing the percentage of activity remaining for the 'serving'.

Note2: The recipient will be exposed to light radiation and may decay in the future.

In fact, this worked as a potion container and a lightning orb. By swiftly adding a serving of potato oil to my newly made lantern, I hung it below my vision sensor as I adjusted my bearing whilst preparing for departure. Next stop, the murky maze!

A rotational movement powered my endeavor as my body lifted and slithered through the uncolored waters. The same damn waters that made me feel--ugh, making matters worse, I arrived at the middle zone and reflected upon my decision. This felt like paying a costly entrance to a terror house/movie and knowing you disliked both.

Should I be doing this?

Yes.

I knew I’m avoiding my responsibilities and my fears. I really didn’t want to meet the lil’ potatoes’ fathers… or mothers, but it was part of my new life. Ghostbusters needed experience for the job, just imagine them getting a newbie. At least I had experience in confronting blobs, at least I killed one.

A18, motivate me!

You can do it! You are the best! Yes, you can...~

And thus—While giving myself some time to prepare myself psychologically—I arrived at my destination in the blink of an eye, the creepy entrance to the poking dungeon. A place where tentacle monsters await. The bad part is, that this isn’t that type of movie or setting, and thus, this wasn't a good situation to be in.I advanced to the entrance as the calm currents were stirred by my little movements, yet everything remained silent...

Utter, silence...

END OF CHAPTER

Chapter's side note: A little explanation of G00's behavior: Spoiler

G00 is fearful of the cave here, even though nothing in the cave changed, he is shit-scared to the point of changing it subconsciously while remaining sane. The silence here gives him the creeps, even if he can’t hear anything, sane people can have illusions. (Illusions are different from hallucinations, the second is the pathological one. Illusions are changing real things based on experience or fears, hallucinations are creating something that didn't exist and turning it real. Well, something like that, this is just a bit of what I remember without looking at a dictionary.

He wasn’t a soldier, he was a pampered kid. Most of the chapter (14.1 and 14.2) describes his hesitation to enter the cave even though he knew he had to. How he’ll adapt to this setting, strive to survive and get stronger, will depend on his resolve and goals. Those will change as the story progresses, the same as his thoughts being better or more organized. Humans are very easy to break or become obsessive with something.

In summary, the cave might appear the same but he will think of it as a monsters’ den.