I watch as the boar begins to run at him at full speed, its massive tusks aimed straight for my chest. I take a battle stance—one that, for some reason, already exists within me. It feels as though I've used it for centuries.
As the boar enters my range, I step aside, dodging its tusks, and drive my fist into its head. The impact shatters its skull instantly, killing it instantly. The boar is hurled away, its lifeless body skidding across the ground, blood pooling where its head struck the earth.
I look down at my fist and clench it.
This isn't my full strength. In a matter of a few seconds, I immediately know how much force I need to use to kill the boar without destroying its head. At full power, I could have punched straight through the boar with my bare hand. With proper wargear, I could do far more.
As expected of the Custodes. They are monsters wearing human shapes.
I wonder how strong the Primarchs were at their peak. If Custodes are the pinnacle of human creation, then the Primarchs are what Gods can only create.
I shake my head and decide to discard that for later. I glance at the ring on my index finger. It's made of an unfamiliar metal, with thin blue lines glowing faintly across its surface. This is the [Base Builder 9000], the object of power that will help me destroy whatever it is ROB wants me to destroy. With a flick of my finger, a holographic interface springs to life.
The display shows every blueprint stored within the ring, along with the materials required to construct them. Unfortunately, the ring can't produce anything beyond what a modern 2025-era Earth could manufacture.
Don't get me wrong—it's impressive. But compared to the memories of a Custodian from the 31st Millennium… yeah. It's lacking in many areas.
Still, it includes blueprints for a basic house. It also contains designs for a small solar farm. I look up at the sky and nod.
I can build one before the sun sets.
Scanning the area, I notice an abundance of materials suitable for harvesting. The abandoned buildings, nearby trees, and even the sand itself can be broken down and repurposed by the ring. For now, I need to create a base, and then I can go from there.
I search for a suitable location. I don't know why the wildlife here grows so large, but the boar wasn't a threat. Still, I can't assume there aren't more dangerous creatures nearby. Even as a Custodes, recklessness is foolish. That is why I need a perfect place so the fauna don't get curious about my base and decide to attack it. It needs to be rather hidden, easy to fortify, and a good foundation for my future project.
I leap upward, grab onto the ruins beside me, and climb higher. I arrive at the highest point and, from above, I survey the area and quickly find a promising spot—a flat stretch of land with solid ground, perfect for a future basement. Not only that, it is hidden underneath the massive root of a tree. It is not as easy to fortify, but it is easy enough to satisfy my need.
That'll do.
I return to the boar's corpse and hoist it over my shoulder. I will not eat the boar for now, but I can smoke it so it lasts longer.
==|Line Break|==
I hum softly as I stand before my new house.
It's a single-story house, though slightly modified. The door is larger—actually, everything is. The dimensions have been adjusted to accommodate my Custodes frame.
I gathered the materials by letting the ring dismantling the surrounding ruins, and reconstructing them into a brand-new building. The ring truly is something else. It can store all harvested materials within a pocket dimension. It basically stores all the objects I want to store and accesses them immediately when I need them.
It essentially serves as an inventory system in an RPG.
That pocket dimension measures 20 meters long, 15 meters wide, and 10 meters high. The description claims it can't store buildings, but that's misleading. What it actually means is that it can't store large structures—such as office buildings or anything taller than fifteen meters.
The house is also fully outfitted for solar energy integration. All that's left is to install the solar farm and let the sun handle the rest.
Speaking of the sun…
It isn't moving.
If Earth stopped rotating, the sun would still drift—slowly, but it would be noticeable because of my new body. But it is not moving even after thirty minutes of me carefully observing the sun. That can only mean one thing.
This world is tidally locked.
Great for solar power. However, it leaves me confused. What is happening? Also, how can this place not turn into an endless desert?
If that is happening, how can there be a lot of giant trees? I glance left and spot a massive one rising from the ground. It reaches almost a hundred meters tall, and the trunk of the tree is almost ten meters wide.
Is it because of the strange energy in the air?
Custodes aren't built to manipulate psychic phenomena, but I can still sense it. Whatever this energy is, it isn't Warp-based—thankfully.
Still, I don't know whether it's benign or dangerous. The Warp itself isn't inherently evil, but the Four have twisted it beyond balance; the bad outweighs the good. Whether this energy shares the same risks remains to be seen.
I set the question aside.
There are more immediate concerns.
While my body is incredibly efficient, I still need sustenance—just far less often. To function long-term, I'll need a way to gather water from the atmosphere and produce nutrient-dense food.
Like a Space Marine, my body requires a much higher nutrient intake to maintain peak condition. Not daily—but I need them every once in a while.
To solve that, I activate [Inspired Inventor].
I take a deep breath and close my eyes. Ten glowing spheres appear within my mental space—each one a charge, brimming with power. All of them are eager for me to use.
I pull three of them forward and focus.
Knowledge floods my mind—designs, formulas, processes. I've chosen the {Sustenance} specialization. It grants me everything I need to maintain my body: nutrient blocks tailored specifically for Custodes' physiology, and the machinery to produce them from the materials I have around me. The machine only needs flora and fauna in the local area to create the nutrient block I need.
The boar corpse suddenly becomes far more useful.
Next, I invest five charges into {Energy Production}.
The influx is heavier this time. I grit my teeth as the information pours in, lasting nearly eighty seconds before finally subsiding. If I were a normal human, I would be writhing in pain on the ground. When it ends, I exhale slowly.
With this, I can design a far more efficient solar farm—and even alternative energy generators. But those require rare materials I don't yet have.
Which means I need one final specialization.
I channel my last two charges into {Energy–Matter Conversion}.
The pain is lighter than before, but the knowledge is no less complex. This specialization allows me to construct a fabricator—one capable of producing small-scale matter directly from energy.
The limitation is obvious.
It needs power. A lot of them to make the fabricator work. Not only that, it can only create a small thing. It cannot make anything big or dense in its current state.
So my priority is clear. The solar farm comes first. Creating the fabricator comes next, so that I can upgrade the solar farm.
I straighten up and nod to myself.
"Let's do this."
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