My Life as an Awoken

The one that managed to survive was different. He was composed.

His composure allowed him to live. He was able to calmly weave in and out of the rain of bullets.

As his comrades fell one by one he probably realized that the assault failed. He started retreating amidst bullets and flying clumps of dirt.

His swift retreat allowed him to survive. He managed to flee the area. Out of all of the attackers he was the sole survivor.

...

Once the dust settled we made a count of our losses. We lost over half of our bodyguards, they were all strong and had practiced Ascended body training techniques. They were given the best of the best, yet in front of the sheer power of a heavy machine gun, they were nothing.

They were a pointless death and a loss of resources that shouldn’t have happened. To get new bodyguards and train them up will take time. Time we really don’t have.

I had the remaining bodyguards clean up the bodies. Well, they were really just scattered limbs and chunks of bodies. A whole corpse didn’t exist on this battlefield.

We couldn’t tell which parts belonged to whom, so we made a friendly pile and an enemy pile.

Afterwards we burned them. Then we got a shovel and scooped some ashes into a box. That box would be delivered back to their families.

All of our bodyguards have life insurance, so their families will be well taken care of. For whatever that is worth.

We lost 4 towers, and expended a lot of material in bullets. They were the first things we had to replace.

Disassembling the towers and rebuilding them only took 2 days. The main constraint was the other clean up work that had to be done first.

We didn’t want the discarded body parts to become some kind of monster, like a zombie amalgamation. That would be a pain to take out.

We still have a risk of ghosts but any energy ability user can take them out.

Speaking of ability users, we really should be hiring them to be our bodyguards. But, the stronger they are, the less control I feel.

Perhaps I’m just being paranoid.

Anyway, back to energy training techniques. Even though we have a single recorded technique it isn’t really enough. We need a substantial amount more, but we only have one camera.

After scanning the camera again and again, I couldn’t see what was different. What made it able to see energy? The camera was just a normal camera. The only real difference was the storage chip and the physical connection port.

The rest was what you would expect from a high-end camera.

Then I questioned if it would be possible to see energy with our eyes. That’s when it hit me. Eyes have lenses.

The lens must be what is special.

I carefully removed the lens and held it up to my eye.

Looking through the lens I saw the world of energy. Swirls and blobs of different colors floated around. The colors were mostly brown, gray, and black.

I took the lens to a machine to see what it was made of. After an in-depth study I found that the lens consisted of high silica glass and fine quartz crystal dust.

But, that doesn’t explain why it can see energy. We actually use this glass ourselves.

Glass made from melting pure silica or quartz crystals is called fused quartz or quartz glass. It contains almost pure silicon dioxide in a non-crystalline, glassy state.

The key characteristics are, it has a purity level of 99.9% or higher silicon dioxide. Unlike natural quartz, it has an amorphous (non-crystalline) structure. It resists extreme heat and melts around 1,650°C to 1,750°C. It has a very low thermal expansion coefficient, meaning it does not crack when heated or cooled quickly. It transmits ultraviolet and infrared light much better than regular glass.

The common uses are for Scientific Equipment. They are used for lab crucibles, tubes, and optical windows. In semiconductors they are used during computer chip manufacturing. They are also used for lenses and telescope mirrors that require precise UV transmission.

But even if it transmits light much better, it’s not like we don’t have tons of lenses already made out of the stuff.

Let’s try to look at it with a mirror.

Looking through the lens at itself, the lens actually glows. It was glowing a faint white.

Huh, so the lens has energy in it. I wonder how they managed to do that? Or is it something that happened naturally?

What are the conditions for this to happen? Do both substances need to be combined? Or is the energy contained in either the silica or quartz crystal? The only real difference between the two is the form, crystalline or amorphous.

The best way would be to gather a bunch of quartz crystals and look at them through the lens. I could also just use the lens on our own camera that is attached to a drone. Then I could just fly it around and look at the results.

Xia has recently opened quartz mines to reduce reliance on foreign trade and focus on self-sufficiency.

The main new mine is located in the Tibetan region. They found a quartz deposit with purity over 99.995%. This is bound to be a highly important mine for the future of semiconductors and solar power production.

But in Hong Kong there is a massive import and export business for quartz which is favorable for my current needs.

While they won’t have a massive amount of raw ore, they will most likely have a large show room for their best quartz.

The question was how to view them? I definitely couldn’t leave the safety of the bunker right now. But I also couldn’t have them bring all of the crystal specimens here.

The most ideal thing to do is have the bodyguards bring a camera with the energy lens. Then they could just take pictures and or video call us through it.

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