Once the two had finished talking about the hydrogen-based explosive attack, they returned to the subject of the energy collection device. Their main problem was that it could not hold too much energy, or else they would explode. To rectify the problem, Kain theorized that he could make an energy construct that would be capable of measuring the energy in an object and stopping the flow before the item shattered. Taking that into account, he and Luna went to work making the next prototype. After another set of hours, they had imbued another rock with the energy constructs needed to collect, store, and manage energy. They repeated the test they had done the first time by putting the rock down in a clearing and hiding behind Luna’s shield. Kain activated the rock and ran behind the shield. A minute passed and they waited some more. After two minutes they cautiously looked out from behind the shield, seeing the rock glowing a radiant blue, seemingly ready to burst. Not ready to take any more chances, Kain threw a normal rock at the radiant rock. Almost immediately upon contact, the radiant rock burst with the same force as their first experiment. Luckily, because they were both behind shields, neither were hurt by the blast. Disheartened, the two returned to the cave to rest and rethink their ideas. [It looks like, when too much energy is condensed into an object, small changes cause it to burst. To fix that issue, we’ll have to make some sort of barrier around the storage container.] Kain sighed and Luna followed suit, [I’m kind of getting hungry, do you mind going out and getting some meat while I prep the pot?]

Luna’s ears perked up as she vigorously nodded her head. [Yep! I need a break from all of this ‘construct’ stuff… Well, I’ll be off!] She yelled, zipping out of the cave. Kain gave a small laugh and began to prepare their dinner by bringing out the pot he had kept in his amulet. He walked outside and a few hundred feet away until he found a small stream, which he used to fill the pot with water. On his way back, he grabbed an armful of branches from the trees and ground. Once back inside of the cave, away from the ever-constant light, filled the small campfire with wood and relit it. About halfway through boiling the water, Luna came back with another glass deer in her shield, missing its head and oozing violet-blue blood. Although it was not as large as the first deer she had brought in, they were satisfied with it nonetheless.

[I think that we should get some sleep; we’ve been doing this for hours now, and it’s a bit draining.] Kain said. He took out his cloak and used it like a makeshift blanket.

Luna jumped into his lap and snuggled herself into the soft fabric. [I’m tired too. Good night, big brother.] She yawned and began to fall into deep sleep almost instantly.

He smiled, [Good night, sis.] He replied, noting how strange it felt to call her his sister. Before long, however, he drifted off into sleep.

*=====*

[What if we use some of the metals we found in the tower?] Luna asked.

[Do you think it could work?] Kain asked.

She looked at the pot boiling with meat from the green ape she had found wandering alone, which was a rare occurrence due to their method of reproduction via mitosis. She had taken it by surprise and lobbed off its head before it even realized she was there. [They’re obviously all different.] She said, [Maybe one of them has some property we need. Besides, there was not that much energy in those rocks when they exploded, so we would need to make a whole bunch of them if we wanted to have enough to make a way to Earth.] She argued. She was sick and tired of making these things only for them to explode after not even two minutes and she wanted to see if one of the metals from the tower would actually last more than a few minutes.

Kain closed his eyes for a moment before opening them up. He had considered using one of the metals he had found, but he wanted to save it for a project he was more certain of; he did not want to waste the limited supply of metal he had, even if he had a large batch of it. [Hmm… Okay, I want to try it once more with these rocks to iron out any real issues with it. If it doesn’t explode again, then we can try it with other metals. How’s that sound?] Luna gave a hesitant nod, which Kain returned. After eating their meal, the two got to work creating another iteration of the rock-based energy storage device. Kain added a thick energy shell to the rock by copying some of the patterns he had found on the green and red crystal. After even more arduous hours, the item was complete and ready for testing. They placed it in the clearing, stepped behind the shield, and watched it. They knew that it would not explode due to energy overload based on the last test, so they watched the rock as it began to glow more and more strongly. It soon looked identical to the rock from the previous test and they threw another rock at it for good measure. The glowing rock did not explode, so the duo inched closer with the shield up. One they had gotten next to it, Kain examined it and immediately became disappointed. The rock had accumulated a pitiful amount of energy, and was only enough for him to refill a bit of the energy Luna had spent creating the rock. Kain stopped the rock by draining it of energy and sighed. [You were right, this isn’t enough energy.] He said, [We would need to make millions of these to get anywhere near what we need to use the dimensional coordinates concept.]

She sported a grin that seemed to say ‘I told you so’ and hopped from her shield to his shoulder. [Now that we’ve figured out the basic framework for the energy constructs, what metal will we use? We can’t use rocks, because they seem to have a very low energy capacity.]

Kain looked over to his shoulder. [Well, we have to confirm that different materials even have different properties. If they don’t, then we’ll need a very large boulder, but if different materials have different energy-based properties, then we could mix and match them for differing effects. That, however, is a ‘what if’ scenario. Let’s just confirm that they actually do have different effects first.] They marched into the cave with the glowing rock that had recharged in the few minutes it had taken for them to walk there. Kain withdrew four boxes from his amulet and placed them on the ground.

Luna scanned the boxes, opening each. The first had the same black metal that was everywhere in the tower, the second had the red-rosy metal, the third had the copper-like metal, and the last had the cobalt-like metal that was separated from each other by rubber-like barriers. [So these are the four metals we found there? What about the cloth or the leather? Those could work as well.] She mentioned. Kain looked at her as she riffled through the boxes, taking out one bar of metal per box with her small arms.

Kain sighed a bit. [If they had these metals, then they could most likely manipulate it using energy like the black metal. Obviously we would need to check that, but we could probably make a forge easily. As for why we aren’t using cloth or leather, it would be very inefficient. If we wad leather or cloth together, then it would be a waste because we could use it for clothes and the like. As well as that, it would be quite weak.]

Luna considered it for a moment, looking at the four bars of metal in front of her, before nodding her head. [That makes sense. Either way, what metal will we use?]

He shrugged. [We have to test them first. We have to see if each one has their own characteristics. Hand me the black one first.] She sent it over to him with a bit of movement energy. [I know that I can change its shape, but can I…? Yes I can.] He detached a small chunk of metal as if he was taking apart a clay ball. The metal bent out of shape, sticking to the small glob as long as possible, and it eventually left a long spike on the end of the bar. [This’ll do. Now, Luna, can you fill it up with energy?]

[Yep! I can do it!] She cheered, hopping over to him with the small metal chunk in his hands. She released a cloud of energy that burrowed into the metal from all sides. Kain watched the energy sink into the metal, seeping into it with every passing second. Luna had gone at the same rate as when she was filling the rocks with energy. After dozens of minutes passed, the metal had become brighter and brighter, glowing blue. Just from feeling it, he could tell that the chunk had much more energy in it than the rock did. After a few hours of Luna carefully imbuing energy into the glob of metal, it had finally started to show signs of instability.

[Okay, Luna, you can stop now. It’s very full.] She opened her eyes, which she had subconsciously closed so she could concentrate, and looked up at the glowing glob of metal. Before she could say anything, Kain remarked, [You were right. These have different properties than the rocks. This may be possible after all.] Giving such direct praise caused her to give a prideful expression. [Yeah, yeah, you were right and I was wrong. Anyway, which one do you want to test next?] He asked.

[Oh! This one!] She picked up a bar of copper-like metal and brought it over, cradling it in her arms. [This one looks less interesting than the other two, so we can save the best for last!] She proudly declared.

He gave a hearty laugh, [Isn’t that an easy way to be disappointed?] He asked.

She gave a pouty stare, saying [No, you’re just a pessimist!]

[Where’d you pick that one up from?]

[Doesn’t matter! Let’s start with this one!] She immediately funneled energy into the bar metal in her arms. Despite that, however, the energy shot back out the other side with a great force. After a few seconds, she noticed and looked up at Kain, [What’s with this!?]

He shrugged his shoulders. [I haven’t a clue.] He said in a funny voice, funny enough to make her giggle. [But that looks like… maybe it conducts energy at a rapid speed. We’ll have to test it. Anyway, on to the next one!] He cheered, almost mirroring her original cheer. She pulled out the block of rosy-red metal and began to charge it as Kain observed. The metal continued to soak up energy, and he barely noticed a change. He looked at it, observing every detail and losing track of time. Eventually the energy stopped funneling into the bar. He looked down and saw Luna stumbling and clutching her head. He reached down and pickled her up, feeding her some water from the pot using some giant shot glasses. She eventually perked back up.

[Ahh… that was good. Anyway, I couldn’t continue, I ran out of energy.] He looked at her, surprised, and examined the block of metal with his energy. He saw that the block was nowhere near completely filled, going wide-eyed at the revelation. [Did it not fill!?] She asked, startled.

Kain gave a grin, [It didn’t. You have no idea how much this can take. I think we found our energy storage metal.]