//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10: Departure 
// Story: Factory of the Magical Variety 
// by Conglomerate 
//------------------------------//

Building a radio tower wasn't too hard, I could even hide it in one the spires on the ruins. The only real challenge was getting up high enough to build it, but repeated jumps with rocket boosters worked just fine. Soon enough it was complete, only rising a little bit out of the spire.

With the glider rebuilt, now with a collector and speakers on it, there was just one last thing I needed to do before I departed. Fabricating two radios, I attached them to my glider and headed out to Zecora's house.

It was a little hard to navigate the forest in the glider, I should've just left it at the base, but I was already at Zecora's house. A knock on the door with the inserter alerted her of my presence. I spoke up when she stepped out.

"I. AM. DEPARTING. SOON. TAKE. THIS. YOU. CAN. USE. IT. TO. CONTACT. ME. IF. THERE. IS. AN. EMERGENCY." Came out of the speakers. I passed over the second radio.

"Thank you," was all she said, putting the radio on her back, "I hope you do return soon, you are quite the boon."

"IT. SHOULDN'T. TAKE. LONG. TO. RETURN." I said, before turning to leave again.

Zecora nodded, then entered her house again, closing the door. With that out of the way, I began the treacherous process of navigating the forest with wings again.

Having finally made it to the ravine, I could easily scale the gap with my wings and boosters. Now all that was left was to ascend the spire, something that took a bit of time. My tech could barely fit into the stairwell.

With everything cleared for takeoff, I looked to spot the nearest mountain. There were actually two nearby, one looked desolate, while the other appeared to have a large city built into the side. It was a pretty easy choice on which mountain to go to, mainly because civilization meant that nearby resources were already taken, and I had no idea how they would react to me. To mount desolate it is then.

This time nothing interrupted my takeoff, no radar icons, no radio calls. I guess it was all clear.

Firing the boosters once more, I initiated takeoff, this time with a bit more height. I realigned the boosters once again and fired them, gaining some more altitude and speed.

Now gliding over the trees, with no danger of clipping a branch, I began the flight over to the mountain. Of course I'd have to land somewhere, I wasn't that high up, but it was the speed of travel that made it worth it.

I still had a bit of height by the time I reached the edge of the forest, now over some plains, I couldn't see that much of interest. I would have to land soon though, a large hill seemed like a good spot. Banking over to it, I landed relatively gently on the hill, waited for my boosters to recharge, then took off once more.

I had to land several times over the journey, the only notable things I saw were another pair of train tracks, and a far off town. No mineral seams or large crystals poking out of the ground. Either it was picked clean, or most of the mineral deposits were underground. A worrying thought.

After about an hour of gliding, I made it to the base of the mountain. Here comes the best part though, I didn't even need to scale the mountain! I could just boost up there with the boosters, ah the wonders of being flight capable.

At the summit of the mountain, I was disappointed to not find any obvious outcroppings of crystal. I did find something interesting though, the mouth to a large cave was on the on the side with a small plateau extending out.

Driving up to the cave, it was wide enough for me to enter without "folding" my wings. Quickly checking my surroundings to make sure there wasn't anything dangerous, I entered the cave. The immediate inside wasn't anything to look at, but further in was what really got my attention. A massive pile of gems, jewels, Auruite, and many other trinkets lay in the center of the cave. I didn't have that much of a use for Auruite, besides some electronic equipment, but there were so many different kinds of gems. Maybe some of them could be what I'm looking for.

A quick inspection yielded no Ignite or Celestite, that made sense, those gems were some of the rarest resources anywhere. But there was some yellow gems, and some even emitted light. Those were obvious tells for Luxite, I had finally found some, but there wasn't too much either, it must be pretty rare then.

Only having one collector didn't help, I was only able to gather five chunks of Luxite, enough for some things, but not everything. I'd have to make the journey back here later with more collectors, provided I could fit them on the glider.

Looking around the rest of the cave, there wasn't anything else of interest, I did recognize some Erudite in the pile, but I already knew where to get some. I did notice a large amount of Auruite coins however, and while they weren't valuable to me, they could definitely be worth something in this world.

I then realized something, was I stealing right now? While normally I would steal, especially against other techs. There weren't any other prospectors on this world. So either this was abandoned, evident by the lack of signs of life, or this was someone else's stuff. I thought about it for a while, there weren't any signs of living arrangements, there wasn't anything stopping me from entering the cave, and there were no warning signs I recognized.

I decided I really needed this Luxite, and that I'd repay the original owner if they existed. I exited the cave with the Luxite. Looking at my radar, I could see what direction I'd need to travel to make it back to base. The best part though, was that this mountain was pretty high up, so I could actually glide most of the way back.

Preparing to launch, I made sure the Luxite was secure in my collector, it should hold while flying, Collectors had pretty good grip. It was turning night however, and the glow of the Luxite was very visible, I wondered if I should actually fly at night. Being more visible and all, but being back at base sooner meant the sooner I could actually upgrade some stuff with this Luxite.

I fired the boosters, launching my glider up into the air once more. The sunset behind me as I glided back towards the base.

I was able to stay in the air much longer this time, able to make most of the journey due to my original height and some great updrafts I found. I still had to land before I made it all the way back though, and I didn't want a repeat of last time when taking off from the forest floor. I drove the rest of the way when I made it to the edge of the forest.

In hindsight, carrying a small beacon through some possibly dangerous territory at night probably wasn't the best idea. I soon found my tech being chased by those wooden creatures again. I had folded my wings when I entered the forest earlier though, so I wasn't terribly handicapped. The wooden creatures were about the same speed as my tech though, especially with only three wheels.

I certainly didn't have the firepower to take them on, though I did take out one or two with my sporadic firing. All I could do was attempt to outrun them back to base, where I could safely switch back to my more combat ready tech. It was then I drove across one of my many "pathways" through the forest, with tire tracks and broken foliage, it allowed me to maintain a constant speed as well, making it harder for the creatures to follow.

I made it to the small clearing, and quickly drove down the ramp. The creatures stopped however, apparently they learned that the other tech dwelled around here. At least I didn't have to fight them, killing anything else besides other techs always made me feel bad. I had to do what I had to do though, my survival was pretty important to me.

Making it back inside, I switched to my original tech, transferred over the Luxite. I didn't have much, so I had to carefully go over what to make with it. First things first was the Advanced Dongle, with it I was able to fabricate more complex components, and with complex components, I could upgrade a couple of my things.

Next up was a fuel tank, which would allow me to glide longer, possibly even maintain flight. That was up for debate though. With only one chunk of Luxite left, I decided to make a COIL laser, while it did less damage than the machine guns, it was an energy weapon, able to damage more types of materials than just bullets. 

I realized I had to be careful not to lose anymore guns, I only had the one on the glider, the three on my main tech, and the brand new laser I just made. I couldn't make anymore right now because I didn't have enough Titanite, but I could make some with more Luxite, and not just lasers either.

When I go get more Luxite, things would get explosive...

To Be Continued...