The rest of the meeting was relatively simple, we discussed selling and buying to simply just trading the resources for Titanite. My best option was to sell what I had for their currency, called 'bits', and then buy the Titanite with that. There was a problem however, bits were physical currency, and I'd have to store them somewhere.
I've never had to make a vault before, but without inventory access there was a need for a secure place to store my valuables. It was simple enough, just a thick box of blocks with a thick door, inlaid with repair bubbles and some extra batteries. I could keep all my money in there for now.
There was another problem, bits were small, they were very hard to handle, especially with only one inserter. It wasn't very easy to count them either. However collectors made it very easy, with their specific size and weight restrictions, we figured out that each collector could hold 128 bits in one space. That made it a lot easier.
The last thing discussed was how I was actually going to distribute the resources I gathered, and considering I'm not a pony, I would probably have to have a 'middle-man' of sorts to sell for me. Thankfully due to the Princesses' orders, I wouldn't have to pay anyone to do that for me.
With everything set up, I was able to finally start gathering. To start, I had built a new tech, this one was outfitted with larger wheels, a wall of drills up front, and a massive storage basin in the back. Since I didn't have enough Luxite to outfit the tech with collectors, I simply had one just deposit all of it's resources into the basin. As long as everything was solid, it should work.
The tech was massive, easily rising up to the same height of the trees, it took a lot of blocks to build, so I wanted to defend it nicely. I equipped it with any extra gun I had, and made sure to fill it with repair bubbles. Just in case.
There was really only one resource I could harvest with this thing right now, and that was Fibrewood. I was still a little worried about being attacked, but I was sure that nothing would want to mess with this monster of a tech. It was a good thing I assembled it up in the clearing too, as it would have never fit up the ramp in the first place
Starting up the drills, I began driving into the forest. Trees fell all around, their resources quickly being picked up and deposited into the basin. A multitude of small animals such as birds and rodents began fleeing as more trees fell around. The tech continued on into the forest, decimating all in it's path.
It had only been a few minutes when the basin filled up, so I headed back. One glaring problem presented itself to me when I made it back, I really didn't have a way to process the materials effectively. I only had the one Refinery, and while it worked fast enough, I couldn't expand or even automate the process without using a bunch of Luxite.
First I needed something to receive all the materials in my basin, that costed Luxite. Then I needed something to filter out the Fibrewood from the Rubber Jelly, that costed Luxite. Then I needed something to drop the Rubber bricks and Fibrewood into their 'storage containers' or just piles on the ground, that costed Luxite. Lastly, I need some way to actually transport the materials to each location, surprise surprise, that costed Luxite.
Thankfully, some had grown by now, so I could at least filter off the Rubber, refine it, then drop it. I didn't have enough to filter off the Fibrewood, so I just hooked up the furnace generators right to it, in an attempt to burn off the extra. It would work, for now, I definitely needed more Luxite if I was going to build a proper factory.
I emptied the basin by the receiver, and returned to harvest more trees. This time, those wooden creatures appeared, and I was glad I had equipped the tech with guns, I quickly dispatched them, collecting their Fibrewood and Rubber jelly.
This continued for the rest of the day. I'd harvest trees until my basin was full, then return and unload it. I had situated my Refinery to drop off all the Rubber bricks into the ravine, and a sizable pile was now formed at the bottom. The extra Fibrewood had helped power the base too, but Furnace generators burned slowly, so there was still a lot of Fibrewood in a huge jumble at the top of the ravine.
The base's batteries were full, so there was not point in just burning more Fibrewood, so I just pushed it all together into a large pile. I couldn't tell exactly how much there was, but it was probably enough enough to buy some Titanite. There was more than enough Rubber however, I could probably buy two or three ingots with that.
Of course, I wasn't just going to sell all of it, I still needed some to fabricate blocks. Right now, my priority was tracks, they would allow me to rescue my plane from the frozen wastes.
While I wanted to fabricate some GSO tracks, as they had better durability, I was still lacking in Luxite. So I was forced to go with Venture track, it would certainly be faster, but it wont be able to carry as much or take much damage. I was lucky to have harvested so much Fibrewood, as it was the main material for tracks. They also took a lot of Oleite, something I would have to go gather, and that would take time.
I evolved a sort of schedule, over the next few weeks, I would start some days harvesting the forest, unload onto the Refinery, then fly over to collect Oleite or Rodite. Then I would come back and sell some Rubber. By the end of it, I had amassed quite the collection of Bits. About halfway to my goal
But everything didn't go too smoothly, after harvesting about a fifth of the forest, multiple 'raids' would happen at my base, where several of the wooden creatures would attempt to breach my defenses and destroy my factory. I still didn't have a guard A.I. so I had to fend them off each time by myself.
They started learning my schedule as well, making sure to focus their attacks when I flew off to go gather resources. I had taken to making my schedule completely random to counteract this, some days flying early in the morning, or not at all.
Selling things wasn't as easy either, I was in a very localized economy, which meant my market was easily swayed by supply and demand. Once I had flooded it with Rubber, I wasn't able to sell anymore for a good price, forcing me to switch to selling a different resource.
It wasn't all bad though, I had finished the new plane, it was ready to go gather Celestite and recover the frozen one. With a larger body, more engines, tracks instead of wheels, and insulated electronics and batteries, it was ready to brave the coldest of weathers.
I couldn't just leave for a week however, the raids were becoming more and more frequent, and if I left for too long, I wouldn't come back to anything. I had to stop the raids somehow, luckily I knew someone who knew the forest well.
Travelling to Zecora's house was a lot faster now, considering a large swath of forest had been cleared. There was still quite a bit of forest in the way though, and I think Zecora preferred it that way. Her house being a tree and all. I should probably leave a piece of forest left, even if it was hard to navigate.
She only had one thing to say,
"The wolves will defend their home, to stop them the forest you will have to comb. Though you will have to do it alone, for your actions I do not condone."
She pointed in the vague direction of the wolves' origin.
It made sense, destroying their origin to stop the raids, and now I knew the general location for it. I headed back, making sure to gear up as much as possible, this might be a tough fight. I equipped my one shield bubble, and loaded the tech with guns, including the flame thrower.
I headed off, intending to end the raids once and for all.
I could tell I was getting close, after about an hour of searching, I was attacked by the wolves, which couldn't even get close enough to touch the shield bubble. I made sure to move in the direction they came from. The attacks became more frequent and frantic, with wolves just charging out of the bushes towards my tech in an attempt to stop it.
I eventually made it to a small clearing, inside it was a decaying tree. It glowed green and it's bark was turned black by decay, not fire. Dripping from the tree was the green fluid that also came from the wolves. Speaking of wolves, they were everywhere.
They formed a semicircle around the tree to protect it, there were also much larger wolves, some even larger than my tech. That wouldn't be a problem however, they were all made of wood.
I torched the whole place, the wooden wolves caught surprisingly well, and it all went up in flames as wolves frantically ran around on fire. The larger wolves were a bit more resistant, but that didn't stop them from being torn apart by the multitude of guns I had brought with.
The decaying tree appeared to screech in agony as flames rose along the outside, it's pitch black bark turning a bit lighter as all the material burned into ash and charcoal. The mysterious green fluid dried up along the tree, leaving brownish-green streaks dotting the now burned husk. It was dead for sure.
All at once, the remaining wolves shuddered and whimpered, then one by one they broke apart in the flames.
It was a wonder that none of the other trees caught fire, the decay must have produced something extremely flammable, or the other trees were rather wet. I didn't really know, or care, I was just glad that I had stopped the raids.
Now I could finally leave for a longer period of time, perfect for me to actually go get some Celestite and recover the other plane. I still needed a lot of money for Titanite, but I may have found another solution that could help with that. I needed Celestite to actually test it out however.
To Be Continued...