“Alright Pele. Take a dive and see what you can bring up.” I requested the Soul of the Mantle. 

Pele had been living on HomeBase for a bit over 2 weeks now and during that time, she has gotten a decent handle on herself. I would say what she can do, but it is more complicated than that, as is everything with the Soul species. 

Alice had been a big help in getting Pele used to her magic. Pele is mainly Fire attributed, but she does also carry the Earth attribute. That made Alice, someone who has both Earth and Fire Magic, the perfect teacher for her. And Pele likes Alice so it worked even better.

As for what I was doing with her now. Well, Pele is immune to heat and fire. Like completely immune. Okay, maybe there is a level where it would harm her, but we’d be looking at nuclear bomb temperatures and at that point the shockwave would kill her, not the heat.

Though admittedly I’m not even sure if a Soul can die in the traditional sense. In theory it can survive without a body, but I really don’t feel like testing that out.

So with Pele being immune to nearly any level of heat and fire, and her being able to control earth, there was a really good role for her to fill in HomeBase. That of being my Refinery and Foundry assistant.

The Refinery part was where she was more useful. Pele can just swim in the molten ore, picking up all the earth and impurities from it with relative ease. I used to do this with Storage, using it to pick up the molten ore and then separate the metal from everything else. But with Pele it is much easier and can be done without me and Storage.

The Foundry part Pele isn’t as good at. It uses pure metal and Pele can’t control it. She in theory can learn Metal Magic, she does have the required attributes, but she just isn’t there yet. But I’m sure she will eventually learn how to use Metal Magic.

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Also, since I mentioned the Foundry, I guess I’ll mention that I’ve finalized the designs on the helicopters that will soon go into production.

I decided to produce at least a few after I got Mecha Phantom Beast Tetherwolf and Coltwing. Because while my airships are great, they do lack some of the features the actual B.E.S. ships have.

Spoiler

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Like the teleporter that brings you to the ground. Because of that, the airships can only really land at dedicated locations. And that is where a helicopter comes in. A well designed helicopter can land anywhere where there is a large enough clearing with relatively level ground. Something like that can be made in a couple of hours by like three mages.

And a helicopter is much cheaper to produce, thus much cheaper for me to lease out, thus much more available to nobles. They don’t have to be a duke or a marquess to be able to afford the lease on one. Even an earl should be able to afford one.

And with a helicopter, they could easily visit towns under their rule for inspections, and since they will be overbuilt like my airships, the trips will be extremely safe. Well, I can’t make the choppers as safe as the airships, but I can still make them at least A-rank monster proof. 

Meanwhile the actual airships have defenses to stand up to an attack from an SS-rank. No they can’t take on one, but they can get you away from one and keep you safe from one. At least for a bit. There are limits to what I can put into them without them being even more expensive than they already are.

The helicopters rely on a slightly different defense. Diversion with the use of Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens. I mean, I did use them as the base, so why not use their Token tech?

The Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens are interesting, as they are basically illusions with no mass. So they can’t be used for attacking, but they are great for diversions and fooling monsters. Add to that some missile launchers, auto cannons and a defensive barrier, and you have a decently well defended helicopter.

The choppers aren’t large, because I didn’t want them to be, so they only carry the pilots and up to sixteen passengers. Though when furnished it is more like the pilots, five VIPs and six guards. The seating can be altered though, so you can get more of either type of seat.

And like always, the first advertisement about them has already gone up in the Factory. I know, I’m poisoning my mental realm with ads. But they are my own ads for stuff I’m trying to sell. I don’t sell ad space. At least I’ve not done so yet, and I highly doubt I’ll start any time soon. International companies aren’t common and HomeBase is available in many places.

But yeah. There are designs for helicopters and I’ve begun making all the molds and stuff for the body pieces. I’ll probably produce one or two of them, just to have them, because again, compared to an airship, the choppers really aren’t that much work to make.

Now that that chopper info drop is done with, back to Pele’s training. And for the other parts of it, I should let Alice take over.

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[ALICE POV]

After Brian dropped Pele, Agunan and I off at the Dragon coast and teleported back home, Pele and I climbed on the fire dragon and he flew us to his lair, which was inside a volcano.

As we were passing by, I checked on Cailie’s sister. Her prison was inside Agunan’s volcano, though not in the part of it that held his lair. 

Amilie looked like she wanted to die, just laying at the bottom of her cage with her eyes vacant. Her skin was dry and flaking off her body. Her hair had fallen from her head, or maybe she had ripped it out. She just all around looked miserable. I almost felt bad for her but then I just thought about all the things she did and didn’t feel as bad after that.

I’ll still mention her condition to Brian and Cailie. I don’t think they want to show her mercy, but maybe they’d be willing to move her cage out of the volcano. If it isn’t so hot, maybe her skin will stop flaking and will heal. Doubt her hair will grow back without either major healing sessions or an evolution.

“... Alice.” Pele said meekly. She had just recently learned how to speak and was still a bit hesitant to do so. “Why was the fish lady in the cage?”

“Because she did something extremely evil and has to be punished.” I answered, but that caused Pele to flinch away from me. 

I was a bit worried she would fall off Agunan so I supported her with Telekinesis. I might not be as skilled with it as Brian but I can still easily lift a person as long as they don’t resist.

“What is wrong?” I asked Pele.

“... I also did bad things.” She said quietly. “Will I also be caged?”

“Pele.” I said as I brought her closer to me before enveloping her in a hug. “You didn’t mean to hurt anyone.” I told her. “You were just trying to learn about the world. You did your best. And yes you accidentally hurt some people, but that doesn’t make you evil.”

“But I k- killed them. So many of them.” She responded as small tiers of magma began flowing out of her eyes. As they fell, they hardened into small pieces of obsidian like stone.

“Yes, but by accident. You are immune to heat so you assumed others would be as well.” 

“S-still.”

“Pele.” I said again. “What you did is nothing comparable to what the fish lady did.” I told her, using the derogatory term for mer-folk like she did. We will teach her to be better with time. “Like you, she also killed people. But unlike you, she did it on purpose and after killing people, she desecrated their corpses. She is evil. You just didn’t know better.”

I kept reassuring Pele until Agunan landed and I carried her off of the dragon.

“So, do you want to go for a swim?” I asked, pointing at the pool of magma we landed next to. 

“I … yes, please.” Pele answered.

I casted a few spells on myself. One to see under the magma and another to dull my sense of touch as swimming in magma is not that pleasant. The pressure is quite intense when you dive in. 

And no I won’t burn or suffer any damage from the heat thanks to my equipment.

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After our swim, and Pele growing massive thanks to all the readily available magma, we moved onto training. And luckily, there are plenty of dragons around for us to practice with.

So Pele had play fights with them while I told her what kind of attacks to use. Brian compared it to something he called Pokemon when I told him about it later.

Those play fights really helped Pele learn how to move when massive, though she was using too much force most of the time. I understand it is difficult to limit, but she has to learn how to limit her power quickly so she no longer burns people just by being near them.

Luckily dragons are tough and I have healing spells. Both cards and with my unique skill. 

As far as her strength goes, while she has a large amount of magma forming her body, Pele is really strong. She went against adult true dragons and she could fight them to a draw. She still lost to dragons Agunan’s age, except fire dragons as she is basically immune to their attacks. Sure attributes other than their main work, but most dragons are focused on a single attribute.

On the other hand, water and ice dragons really counter Pele. Both cool her down quickly forcing her to lose parts of her body. And while she doesn’t feel pain, at least as far as we have been able to tell, it isn’t something Pele enjoys. 

After the fights, Pele took another long swim in Agunan’s volcano before coming back to the surface in her lamia form. It is the one she uses the most as Brian made her a tail cover.

It was made from fire dragon scales from some of the young fire dragons living on the coast and it does two things. 

First, it helps Pele keep her warmth. That way she doesn’t cool down as quickly while moving around.

Second, it protects the ground from the heat of her lower body, so she doesn’t leave burn marks everywhere she slithers to.

Pele also had other clothing made of the same material, like her shirt and gloves. Again they really are more to protect the other people, but they are still nice for Pele. 

I flew us out of Agunan’s volcano, leaving the dragon there to sleep on his treasures. He had a few days off so he had come here to sleep. 

After arriving at Janina’s cave, we greeted her true body before I called Brian so he could take us back to HomeBase. Yes I could teleport us there myself, but that is an emergency device, so it is better to use Brian.

He was here in no time at all and just as quickly we had returned to HomeBase.