They gathered all the equipment and prepared to send Atlas outside to install the wendigo detection system on the antenna of the tower. There was a hatch near the ceiling that would open and drop a set of stairs as if it was an entrance to an attic. Outside, there were also some handles and places for people to use clamps and rope to avoid falling down if they were working outside of the watchtower.
Then again, it had been a while since those handles were used. This room got more interest from the alliance, as the profits from it were stacking up. So people started calling for the harpies or anyone who could fly to fix anything on the outside of the watchtower. And right now, Billie was doing just that as she was flying outside to make sure that Atlas didn't drop anything and didn't fall. Not wanting to leave the party alone, Hera also asked Nimbus to do the same.
But the fact of the matter was that both of them were there just as a precaution. Atlas was not just able to change metal that was around his body but simulate anything as long as it didn't have any particularly strong enchantments. In this case, he essentially turned the ceiling of the watchtower into an escalator that took him to the base of the antenna without him having to move a muscle. Then the floor started to raise like an elevator until he reached the location where they had agreed to install the wendigo detection system. Or at least this final piece of it. It was basically a miniature lighthouse with the lens that would be spinning around and checking if there was any wendigo, or more specifically any devour mana in the area. Pure devour mana.
"You know, we did try to make something that didn't need to be spinning. It would make a lot of the issues we had to deal with much simpler. The problem was that we couldn't make a curved lens that could identify the elemental affinity," Helena explained to Hera, who quickly nodded.
"Yeah, I remember when we were working on that. We only were able to make something in the shape of a monocle or a scope, right? Maybe a pair of glasses. You never managed to figure out how to change the shape of the lens."
"I mean, I can change the shape of the glass and make it work, but then it lowers the durability and increases the likelihood of mistakes. If we are talking about a very specific type of mana and only if a creature has 100% of that mana, then I can't make it work with a curved lens," Helena continued.
Hearing that explanation Hera just nodded. It fit very much with the experiments they were doing when she started helping the mage with crafting all the way back in Brinefront. That was even before the mage even could use mana again.
Hera glanced at Atlas, who was still working above, but soon she turned back to her friend, "Lena, I have to ask. Are you okay with this?"
The mage nodded with a half smile, unable to hide completely her feelings. "I'm okay," she said and stopped talking about this topic, focusing back on what Atlas was doing.
There was no need for words for Hera to understand what was going on. Once upon a time, Helena lost her ability to use magic altogether through a wendigo that infected her with a very powerful, very nasty type of parasite. A parasite that ate at her mana and attached itself in such a way that it was almost impossible to get rid of it without killing her.
It was only when Hera, Bonnie, and Ogryn were able to create a spell that burned the very magic inside Helena that they were able to destroy the parasite. But even then, that process was far from being pleasant.
Not that there were no benefits that came from it. After all, the MAZE was always fair, even when it gave such horrible experiences to them. As a result of the burning of mana, not only were some of them able to level up, but Helena and everybody who participated in that purge gained a very powerful skill that increased the power of their spells. And now, the mage was creating a device that could allow people to hunt down and kill every single wendigo all over the MAZE. It was a very powerful type of revenge, and Hera was sure that there was some catharsis in being able to become the very destroyer of the very thing that caused her so much pain.
Atlas, on the outside of the watchtower, used his legacy to merge the metal frame, which was almost like a cage of the device, with the antenna itself, allowing it to fit inside it seamlessly. Almost as if it was created from the very beginning as a single unit. Only the most well-versed crafters and those who created this very place would be able to notice the spots where his legacy was responsible for connecting the metal. And even then, they would still be impressed by how well the work was done.
He then opened part of the cage from above without breaking the glass and placed the actual device inside it. Then, He connected everything through a few wires that he passed inside of the antenna, which, as a matter of fact, was not supposed to be hollow. He shifted the entire structure of the frame so the cable could pass from underneath.
They had the option of doing this wirelessly, and as a matter of fact, there was a part of the device that allowed information to be sent that way. But the physical connection would be more stable and less prone to disruption due to a rampage or any sort of strange environment. After all, with a cable, they could protect the information that was being sent to the instruments below, while doing that wirelessly wouldn't allow for the same type of protection.
Billie had to point out a couple of areas where Atlas placed the device in a non-optimal way, and after about 10 minutes, she was satisfied with the results. Only then was the human allowed to come down, and everybody gathered around a large screen so they could test the detection for the first time.
Hera was interested in this project, of course. After all, finding out where wendigos were in the room was extremely helpful for everyone. But she wasn't as invested as the rest of the group. They were all looking at this screen as if they were children waiting for Santa to appear in the mall. But Hera was just there, hoping things worked out.
The moment the screen flashed to life, they watched as the program booted up. Because of course this wasn't just a piece of glass or something of the sort. It was a proper computer program that could help analyze everything. Apparently, while Helena herself was not a good programmer, Sidine, the elf, was, and he was the ones responsible for creating this part of the device. Atlas also seemed to have helped some of it as he assisted, reminding the group of a couple of initial configurations that were required for this device to run properly.
It was a bit too technical for Hera, but from what she could gather, they were setting up the correct type of mana to track, as the device itself didn't need to be only targeting devour mana.
"Tell me, you mentioned that you needed a specific type of lens? That was possibly the reason why it was so hard to make it work with more than one affinity, correct? Why can you use it on other types of mana?" Hera asked.
"And that's still true. To make this work with a wendigo, we needed to make a specific lens dedicated solely to that. But since we had some budget, I also created another type of lens that is a bit more generic. It can look for all types of mana, but it has the most famous ones: fire, water, ice, light, dark, healing, stuff like that. I don't know when it's going to be useful, but it's there. And this particular version we are connecting is set up so that the type of mana that every monster in the area has is recognized. Which means that if there's ever an unrecognized mana signature, it's probably a person or a variation of a monster. It sounds small, but it's something we theoretically couldn't do before we were already working on that," Helena explained.
"That's okay. That makes sense. And is the screen going to be spinning around all the time?" Hera asked as the device came to life while Helena was explaining everything. The entire group was looking at the mage to hear what she was saying, even though they had heard about it over and over again.
"Pretty much it's going to be behaving like a lighthouse, always spinning around, and if needed you can also look up. But it's set up so that it only glances up once every 10 spins, which should be once every 10 minutes," Helena replied.
Hera turned to the screen. "Okay, and when you find something, is it going to have like a red dot blinking, kind of like a target?"
The mage nodded and turned back to her. "Yes, why?"
"When it first booted up, there was just a corner of the screen that had a red dot. Since it started moving right away, it's gone now," Hera replied.
"What?" all the members of the team gasped and turned to the screen once more. Helena took control of the rotation and spun the lens the opposite way, going back to where it was when it first booted up. Just like Hera said, there was a mana signature being recognized by the device. And considering they were only tracking devour mana, it could only mean one thing.
A wendigo.
Hera sighed, feeling a bit frustrated. Of course, it was going to be a wendigo. She couldn't have a bit of luck and let it be something else.
"Do we know where exactly it is, or can we only track its general direction?" Hera turned to Helena, already getting ready to move.
"We can know its rough location on the computer. There's a map of the area up here." Just on the outer edge of one of the farmlands, in an area known as the Blackwood Forest where mahogany trees grew, was a large circle indicating that the signal came from that direction. " We are accurate to a radius of 500 meters. So when you get there, you're on your own. But we can keep track of any changes and let you know if it's moving."
Hera nodded again. "Okay. I'm going then. I don't want to leave something like that moving around for a second longer than I have to."
"Can I come with you?" Atlas asked and Hera looked the human down for a moment.
He was wearing black pants and a jacket that felt very military. It's not the type of thing that you would get in an army, but the type of clothes that people who really enjoyed the aesthetic got. For some reason, that caused a few alarms to ring in her mind. Then again, it could be just her general paranoia after the war.
"Do you trust him?" Hera turned to Helena.
The mage recognized the look of suspicion in Hera's eyes and nodded. "I do. But if I'm being honest, he should tell you what he was doing during the war. I don't think it's fair to you to not know that if you're going to have him go with you."
Hearing that, Hera just turned to the man and waited for an explanation.
Atlas looked to the floor, embarrassed about being put on the spot. "I was part of the Soldiers of Strength project. I was one of the people who was supposed to be enchanted, as they were saying. But I didn't go through with the procedure."
Hera's expression hardened. "If you had, you would have died. I don't pretend to understand why you did what you did, but I'm not trusting you to have my back."
"Wait!" the man protested. "I realized I was doing something wrong and tried to leave, but then they captured me and then I had to escape so I wouldn't be forcibly converted. I even helped a few people who were kidnapped to run away too," Atlas said, but then shook his head. "No, I mean they helped me too, but it was a mutually beneficial thing. I know it sucks and I know they were awful people, but I got through mind control."
"So you were mind controlled?" Hera pressed.
The man sighed, "No. I at first believed in what they were saying. I understand that was wrong, and I'm trying to do whatever I can to apologize for participating in that."
Hera glanced at Helena with a confused expression, wondering why her friend was vouching for someone who participated in that kind of thing. But the mage just smiled. "Some people deserve a second chance. You know that better than most."