The ride to Zecora's house was silent, except for the whirring of my wheels and the brushing of the foliage against my tech. Zecora sat in the tech's basin, probably lost in thought, I couldn't really tell facial expressions just yet. It was only when I arrived at the house that she spoke up.
"I must thank you for the save, I was sure I'd meet and early grave." She paused, before continuing, "I would like to know more about you, like how of you there are two?"
I thought about what I should reveal, I was certain that Zecora wouldn't use any of my vulnerabilities against me. That didn't stop the information from getting to those who would though, I had no idea how many people Zecora was in contact with. Though from what little I did know about her, not much. Thinking of how to word it in a way she might understand, I answered.
"THIS. 'BODY'. YOU. COULD. SAY. IS. ENTIRELY. REPLACABLE." I paused to replicate the end of a sentence, "I. CAN. BUILD. MORE. THAN. ONE. TO. USE."
"Very interesting, I assume this technique you won't be sharing?" She asked
"CORRECT." I answered.
Not really wanting to pick up Zecora again, I opened the side of the basin by moving a block. Carefully making her way down, making sure to not put weight on her injured leg, Zecora got off my tech.
"It seems that I am out of commission, would you help me on my missions?" She asked.
I thought about that, should I help her more? It would cost me time, but not necessarily resources. There was also the added bonus of Zecora's increased debt to me, and having an ally was always a plus.
"I. WILL. HELP. WHERE. I. CAN." I answered,
"Then you can do what I can't, can you go and collect plants?" She asked,
That was a problem, sure I my manipulation field could hold up blocks and resources, I guess people too. But it wasn't very fine tuned, I couldn't really pick herbs or leaves without uprooting the whole plant. That would be okay in the short term, but continued damage to the plants would make them unavailable long term.
"I'LL. SEE. WHAT. I. CAN. DO." I paused again, "ARE. YOU. OKAY. HERE. ON. YOUR. OWN." I sort of asked.
"I will be fine, now go collect what's on this list of mine," she said, passing over a small piece of parchment, several images of leaves and roots on it.
I couldn't read the language, but the images were fairly descriptive. The problem now was figuring out how to properly collect it, maybe there was something I could fabricate.
Zecora limped back into her house, so I drove back to base to see what I could do. At the base, one thing did stick out a bit, something called an "inserter", an interesting block that used mechanical movement to interact with resources. Mechanical movement wasn't too common with techs, as a majority of it is filled by manipulation fields. Some companies like Geocorp do use mechanical movement, mainly to move their drills in a sweeping path.
Said inserter was only made of Plumbite, using both gears and plates. After fabricating it, I attached the base of it to my tech. It's "arm" was nicely folded up into the size of a standard block, but after experimenting with it, I could reach out about two blocks away. It's claw was large enough to pick up an standard ingot or something smaller. It's movement was a bit jerky, but there was enough control to move it about 160° vertically, and a full 360° radially.
I attached it to the front of my tech, giving it full range of movement. This should allow me to interact with finer materials, specifically the plants Zecora tasked me to find. I should find some way to upgrade it though, those jerky movements didn't help much, and it was rather slow. Better than nothing at least.
Venturing out of the base, I slowly made my way through the forest, keeping a look out for any of the plants on the list. In only a short amount of time I had picked up a majority of the herbs on the list, the only thing left was what looked like the roots of some kind of plant. Something that I couldn't find easily.
After another hour of searching, I still couldn't find any of the roots. I'd have to go back without them, hopefully Zecora won't need them too soon. Thankfully I had gathered everything else, I had a single unit of each plant in my collectors, probably more than enough for what Zecora needed. With that I started heading back.
To say she was surprised with my haul was an understatement, I guess she forgot just how much I tend to collect for myself. She was incredibly thankful, though a little disappointed at not having the roots. Thankfully they weren't essential, and the large amount of everything else I had gathered should last her for a long time.
With that concluded, I had other work to do. The glider tech crashing reminded me of an issue, I had to craft each replacement block I'd lost. Normally I got a majority of my blocks off of other techs, since there aren't any around, I'd have to make my own.
I still had a decent supply of Plumbite, and a near limitless supply of Fibrewood, so common blocks weren't an issue. But more expensive blocks were, the wings weren't that expensive, but the cabin was. I only had a limited supply of Erudite, and while I knew where more was, I couldn't access it without difficulty.
I still had two chunks of Erudite left, and my most recent "death" reminded me that if I "died" here, it would probably be permanent. With that thought in mind, I quickly fabricated two more cabins, just in case. I could always get more Erudite later, but my cabins could get destroyed at any time.
I still needed to explore more, I still needed Titanite, and I still needed Luxite. Eventually I'd even need Ignite and Celestite too, launching something into space without those was nearly impossible. I'd definitely have to ask Zecora if she knew where to get any of these materials.
Maybe I would ask, she wasn't going anywhere far anytime soon, and without those materials I'm a bit stuck too. There was one problem though, while our language might be the same, our words for certain things probably weren't. I hadn't heard what Zecora called Rodite, Carbite, or Oleite, but it certainly didn't sound like something she would say. There was only one way to find out though.
Grabbing some Rodite, Oleite, Carbite, and the ingot of Titanite in my collectors, I headed back to Zecora's home in search of answers. The path I took was starting to look a little worn, there were obvious tire tracks in the ground now, and countless broken vegetation along the path showed its repeated usage. Hopefully nothing unsavory found me soon, I could probably fight off one of those larger creatures from earlier, but I had no idea what else might be here.
It didn't take long to reach Zecora's house, and with a knock on the door from my inserter, Zecora came out. She had splinted her leg since the last time I saw her, she removed all the bands around it and I could see a yellow mixture coving most of it as well. She looked up at my tech and smiled.
"What is it my friend, do you need more errands?" She joked,
"NO. ZECORA. I. HAVE. SOME. QUESTIONS." I said.
"I hope I have some answers, now what is the matter?" She asked.
"I'M. LOOKING. FOR. SPECIFIC. MATERIALS. I. ALSO. WANT. TO. KNOW. THEIR. NAMES." I said, pulling the resources out to set on the ground. "I. CALL. THIS. ONE. RODITE. THIS. ONE. OLEITE. THIS. ONE. CARBITE. AND. THIS. ONE. TITANITE. I. AM. LOOKING. FOR. MORE. TITANITE. AS. WELL. AS. SOMETHING. CALLED. LUXITE."
Zecora looked at the selection of resources, before speaking up.
"I see, then let me tell you, the common names for these here are Acid Stone, Red Oil, Blast Coal, and Cobalt. At least that's what I know them as."
Those names were rather fitting, at least I knew what to ask for when looking for Titanite. There was still more to ask though.
"THANK. YOU. BUT. DO. YOU. KNOW. WHERE. I. CAN. FIND. COBALT." I asked,
"Unfortunately not, Cobalt is rather rare, I wouldn't know where to find it." Zecora answered.
That was a little disappointing, but there was still one last thing to find out.
"I. ALSO. WANT. TO. ASK. ABOUT. ONE. MORE. RESOURCE. A. YELLOW. COLORED. CRYSTAL. THAT. EMITS. LIGHT. I. CALL. IT. LUXITE. WOULD. YOU. KNOW. WHERE. TO. FIND. IT." I asked.
"Luxite? That sounds like Sunstone, but you wouldn't find any here. However you can find it on high mountains, if you can climb that high." Zecora answered.
"THANK. YOU. I. WILL. BE. LEAVING. SOON. TO. GO. GATHER. SOME." I said, picking up the resources.
"Before you go, there are some things you should know. Most ponies are scared of me, there's no saying what they would think of thee. If you are traveling by way of fly, just know there are pegasi, so try to keep out an eye."
Pegasi? I guess that makes some sense, both Zecora and the black creature looked equine in nature. While I didn't get a good look at the black creature, I did see a horn, so maybe unicorns existed too? An interesting thought, I wonder how their social Hierarchy functioned?
"GOODBYE. FOR. NOW. I'LL. LET. YOU. KNOW. WHEN. I. LEAVE." I concluded, turning to drive back I still had work to do.
"Goodbye as well," Zecora said, retreating back into her house.
Now that I knew the location of what might be Luxite, I had to prepare to go get some. Of course there weren't any mountains visible from the forest floor, but I was certain I could spot some from the ruin's vantage point. I still had to rebuild the glider though, and I had a new piece of infrastructure to build too, a radio tower. I'd need to know where my base was at all times if I'm going to be traveling far.
With that, I set out to head back to base.
To Be Continued...