Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent! - Chapter 499

Chapter 499: The Jewel
Alex turned off his comms when other Military ships started joining in on the conversation and started talking in much more technical detail.

Even with his awakened brain, he couldn’t understand a thing they were saying so he just quit while he was ahead.

Soon however, his comms were forcibly turned on without his permission, before Principal Farnes’ voice came over the feed.

Alex had already instructed the ship’s AI to do such a thing, so he wasn’t surprised.

“While we are here, twiddling our thumbs while waiting for the others to arrive, I may as well make use of this time to explain some key things.”

He cleared his throat before beginning to speak again.

“While many of you here are considered prodigies in the Federation, where we are going is not the Federation. Your superior strength here could be considered average, or even subpar while out there, so don’t get complacent, even if you are in the upper echelon of prodigies, or you may die quite easily and stupidly.”

Mira smiled from the side as she listened in.

“He may sound harsh, but this is good advice. If some of the more arrogant awakened ignore his words, then their deaths can only be blamed on theirselves.”

Alex thought about all the eager, young awakened who must have all been riled up by this wake up call and didn’t choose to speak up.

As prodigies, everyone was ambitious.

Alex sure was, and he was certain Mira felt the same too.

He doubted there was a single genius awakened in the Federation who wouldn’t give up most things in their life for a chance at increasing their power another level.

There were many unapproving voices attempting to voice their rejections over the comm, but they were all muted.

Farnes continued his speech for a little longer but it was no longer of interest to Alex, he had heard it all from him in person already before departing.

After blanking all of that out, he waited a few more minutes before the fleet edged closer and closer to the Jewel, and the huge fortress only grew in size the closer they came.

‘This thing must be the size of Earth…’

Alex’s mind was on the verge of being blown when they entered the Jewel’s orbit.

‘It’s no wonder they couldn’t finish it before getting an upgrade to their technology…’

Yes, it had its own orbit.

It was that huge.

Alex wasn’t exaggerating when he guessed it might be the size of Earth.

In fact, he was actually underestimating.

The Jewel was actually 1.2x the size of Earth.

One might be wondering, ‘Why build such a huge space fortress? Is it not easy enough to just repurpose any of the nearby planets?’

Well, there were many layers to the answer of this question.

For one, there were no nearby planets.

The Star system it occupied consisted of a grand total of zero planets.

The Federation almost classified it as a rogue star, and they would have if it weren’t for the small rocks and moons that were dotted about it.

But that wasn’t the main reason they opted to build, essentially, a ‘planet’ from scratch.

If Alex and the rest of the fleet had approached the Jewel from the other side of it, he would have understood why without having to ask.

But after a few dozen minuted their orbit around it shifted, and he received a front row seat as to why.

‘Is that…’

‘Is that a giant fucking space cannon???’

His mind was effectively blown now that he had seen this.

On the far side of the planet, facing outwards towards the void beyond the galaxy, was a huge ‘hole’ or opening in the Jewel, around the size of the moon.

There could only be one reason for that.

A weapon.

Of astronomical proportions.

“This is humanity’s newest ultimate weapon.”

Suddenly, Farnes’ voice returned over his comms, but this time he was speaking only to Alex’s ship on a private feed rather on than the public channels.

“Originally, it was intended to deliver firepower at King class S tier. One shot from this would have had the same effect as a full power attack from me.” Farnes spoke to Alex and Mira as he recounted the events that led up to the creation of such a technological marvel.

“But, thanks to you Alex, our expectations were exceeded.”

He let the information sink in for Alex and Mira for a few seconds before proceeding.

“Thanks to the ship you provided us, we reverse engineered technologies on board that enabled us to take it another level. Now, this thing can deliver Ancient class S+ rank firepower with every shot.”

A few seconds passed before he added.

“Granted, it does take 1 minute for every shot to charge, and it can’t be shot in rapid succession or else it might incur permanent damage. But regardless of all that, we now have a genuine, real Ancient class power on our side.”

Alex didn’t know what to think.

This was just…

It was just unbelievable.

Mira had the same reaction.

“How m-”

Mira was about to ask a good question about it, but Principal Farnes stopped her.

“This is the only one as of now.”

“It might be obvious, but this thing was fucking expensive to build. To put it into perspective for you two. Around 0.1% of the entire Federation’s yearly budget was spent just on building it. 0.2% if you include research and development.”

As someone who considered himself relatively well off after his feats over the last few years, Alex felt like he was going back to his roots at this moment.

He felt so poor hearing how much this monument to humanity cost.

‘0.2%… of a whole galaxy’s GDP…’

It just failed to click in his mind.

It was madness.

But it was worth it.

Alex didn’t know the extent of Ancient class S+ rank power, but he was certain it would make any parties with ulterior motives to think twice before attacking the Federation again.