“Ma’am. I have discovered what appears to be a Threat Creature, a monster, in this desert.”
“…Hm? Threat Creature?”
“Yes, Ma’am. From now on, large creatures that could pose a threat to us, such as ＜Rain Croin＞ or Worms, will be referred to as Threat Creatures.”
“Haa… Well, I guess it’s easy to understand. Who came up with the name, by the way?”
“Akane did.”
“I see.”
A newly discovered monster was displayed on the spatial projection screen she was looking at.
It was a lizard running across the sand. There was nothing around it to use as a size reference, so it was impossible to tell how long it was.
“Hmm. Ah, it’s 1.3 meters long. It’s certainly big, but…”
She was about to continue that it wasn’t really a monster, but the words never came.
Suddenly, the sand next to the running lizard erupted, and an arm like a crab’s claw shot out, seizing the lizard’s torso.
The telephoto footage was silent, but she could have sworn she heard a snapping sound.
The claw, which had clamped down on the torso of the lizard, which was over 1 meter long, easily snapped it in half.
The size of the claw was a good 70 cm. The lizard was certainly large, but this claw was also enormous.
And its owner must be correspondingly large.
“Whoa, it came out!”
Perhaps because it had successfully hunted the lizard, it emerged from the sand.
Because the footage was taken at dawn, the colors weren’t very vivid. However, the patrol aircraft’s camera captured a clear image of the whole thing.
Its length was supplemented in the video. From the claw on its forearm to the tip of its needle-tipped tail, it was a full 7 meters long. Its height was 50 cm. It was a giant Scorpion.
“Huge!”
“Yes, Ma’am. Compared to the Multi-legged Tank, it looks about half the size. The Multi-legged Tank has a larger body.”
“…Um, the Multi-legged Tank is about… 10 meters long?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
＜Ringo＞, sensing her thoughts, paused the video and displayed wireframes of the Scorpion and the Multi-legged Tank Type 1 side by side.
The difference in length was 7m and 10m, but the Scorpion’s arms and tail were bent, making it look even shorter. Also, the Scorpion was quite low to the ground, so it certainly had about half the presence of the Multi-legged Tank Type 1.
“Hmm… but it’s still 7 meters long…”
＜Ringo＞ thoughtfully displayed an Eve (Ma’am) type Doll Machine (Communicator) between the Scorpion and the Multi-legged Tank Type 1. Naturally, the Doll Machine (Communicator) was only about 150 cm tall, so the difference was obvious.
“Yeah, it’s huge! Why are monsters always so big!”
“I apologize, we are currently researching this. However, the phenomenon of enhanced body tissue structure seems to be a common characteristic of all monsters, so it is assumed that the problem of their own weight during enlargement can be ignored to some extent.”
When living things get bigger, the biggest problem is gravity. To support a huge body, sturdy bones and powerful, or a lot of, muscles are needed.
But of course, bones and muscles also increase in weight at the same time.
And to support those muscles, a corresponding amount of nutrition must be taken in.
If the body is heavy, it will affect athletic performance, so predatory behavior will be restricted, and the skeleton, muscle strength, and predatory behavior will start a vicious cycle of reinforcing each other to support it.
Therefore, under normal physical constraints, the enlargement of living things stops occurring after a certain line.
“Under the separate law of magic, physical constraints are relaxed to some extent. The same amount of muscle can exert more powerful force. Bones and skin become stronger, and weight can be ignored. Alternatively, biological composition can be ignored and metals or ceramics can be used as body tissue.”
“Well… yeah… There must be some kind of limitations, but that ＜Rain Croin＞ and those Worms have incomprehensible ecologies…”
Commander (Eve) sighed, recalling the previous battle.
“So, we’re calling this Scorpion a Threat Creature, right?”
“Yes, Ma’am. As a supplement, we are analyzing the body tissue through spectral analysis. The basic structure is chitin, but metal reactions such as iron, titanium, and aluminum have also been confirmed.
Also, we calculated the load on each joint from its athletic performance, but it clearly exceeds the expected strength. From this, we inferred that some kind of magical enhancement has been applied.”
The mixture of biological and metallic tissues, as well as the athletic performance of muscle strength that is clearly insufficient when calculated from the volume inside the shell. At least, ＜Ringo＞ was able to confirm several phenomena that seemed to contradict the laws of physics from the knowledge it possessed, so it judged that this Scorpion was a monster and an object to be wary of for ＜The Tree＞.
“Haa. If those things came swarming in, it would certainly be a pain.”
＜Ringo＞ thought that it might be a so-called “flag,” but wisely didn’t say it. These things are no good if you say them out loud.
Now, about the oil field itself.
As a result of the survey, it was found that the amount of natural flow was not very large.
It was spread over a wide area like a lake, but that was because the amount lost through evaporation was small compared to water, and the light components of the parts already exposed on the ground had been lost, so the quality was not very good.
It was useful as asphalt, so it would be collected for that purpose. It could be used as road paving material, so various places would be changed to asphalt pavement in the future.
However, the lake formed by this naturally flowing oil was scattered over a fairly wide area, and the amount was considerable. Therefore, it was assumed that a considerable amount of oil was buried underground.
We want to drill oil wells for mining and extract raw oil that has not been altered by exposure to the air. Therefore, we are creating a 3D map of the underground by combining acoustic and radio wave exploration.
“For the time being, we will collect the oil exposed on the ground. We have started installing bucket equipment for pumping.”
“Okay. Olive will be in charge of this area. Well, I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.”
Because the viscosity was quite high, they would stick a bucket in and scoop it up. A pump would be more efficient, but they decided against it because they would need to prepare a dedicated one.
Olive was currently in charge of assembling the equipment.
“In addition, we have found several locations where we can collect a certain amount of oil at this time, so we have started preparing to install boring equipment. We have a prospect of securing a certain amount of oil, so we have also started installing pipelines.”
The installation distance of the pipeline will be approximately 80 km.
The oil field spreads over an area of more than 100 km north, south, east and west, so the total length will be considerable, but that is the distance between the Oil Port and the oil field.
It was a favorable condition for ＜The Tree＞, which wanted to save resources.
“It is estimated that it will take about 5 days to drill the oil wells and start operating the pumping equipment. From there, we will start transportation by Multi-Wheeled Articulated Transporter. The pipeline will start operating in 2 weeks, 14 days. After that, we will increase the number of Multi-Wheeled Articulated Transporters or add more pipelines while watching the amount of mining.”
“Hmm. It’s good that things are going smoothly. …Ignoring the amount of decrease in stockpiled resources…”
Here, ＜The Tree＞ was mass-producing working machines and equipment materials while consuming a large amount of resources.
While consuming the stockpiled resources it had at the time of the transfer and the resources mined at Fortress Two like water, it was producing a large amount of machinery and materials.
By transporting them to the Oil Port, various facilities were being built at a speed like a fast-forwarded video.
“The next thing is to find out where the source of this oil field is. Is there a way to explore it?”
“Yes, Ma’am. We will insert explosives into the borehole, generate artificial earthquakes, and analyze the surrounding geological information from the seismic waves. By detonating at multiple locations and depths while shifting the timing, we can collect a lot of information in one exploration.”
“I see. Ichigo and the others can’t control that, can they?”
“No, Ma’am. I will only formulate the plan and execute it myself. It would be difficult to build a calculation model without preparing a dedicated AI. It’s about using the right person for the right job. We will prepare a basic model for such dedicated AI with specialized functions in the future, but I will support you for the time being.”
“That’s right. It’s good that ＜Ringo＞ can control everything right now, but if we start activities on a cosmic scale, we’ll have no choice but to leave the terminals to the local AI. I’ll continue to rely on you in the future.”
“Yes, Ma’am. Leave it to me.”