Nanites in a fantasy

“POP”

That was the only sound that disturbed the serene forest that Sam now found himself in. Wait was he still a he? As far as he could tell he didn't have any biological components and usually the leader of a swarm was a queen. Should he go back to using the, the they pronouns as he was technically a lot of things ohh this was gonna make his head hur-.

[Warning processor limit reached please reduce stress load or a force restart will be attempted.] The notification sounded off in his head or was it his core.

[Warning processor limit reached please reduce stress load or a force restart will be attempted.]

OK OK he needed to stop overthinking things apparently. Now how did he look around. Oh, oh ok that was weird he could see sort of it was more like a vast field in front of him where he could see in every direction and a bit underneath him. Wait, that was him wasn't it. Well at first glance his core looks like a giant glowing mountain of orange and green crystal. That his vision self identified as his core meaning the three hundred and sixty degrees view, he was getting was likely generated from all the viewpoints of his nanobots. Which would likely explain why everything looks so huge.

He couldn't see a lot, The grass here was tall blocking his view, and he was fairly well hidden underneath it, small blessings and all he guessed. However, just as he started to wonder about this.

[Warning processor limit reached please reduce stress load or a force restart will be attempted.]

OK that was starting to get really annoying he had to stop and ponder his next step very carefully especially with the hole pondering part. He was surrounded by grass so he was likely on the ground the safest place in that case would likely be under the ground.

[Warning processor limit exceeded. Force restart initiated.]

………

If Sam still had lungs, he'd be gasping right now he had apparently overdone it and had been force restarted. He didn't feel any different, but he did notice the world was far darker? Was it nighttime?

[Warning processor limit reached please reduce stress load or a force restart will be attempted.]

Damn it he needed to hurry he tried to order his nanobots to begin digging down and using whatever material they could to reproduce [warning: tasks currently exceed processing capabilities]

‘Crap wait is there some sort of task manager or some way I can prioritize certain things to free up processing power.’

……

As soon as he had asked the question, he had been knocked out again when he came to it was bright once more but with a different notification.

[Warning processor limit reached please reduce stress load or a force restart will be attempted.]

[Query??? Answer: Unfortunately, the task manager system requires more processing power than is available.]

[Warning: In order to use the query function user interface and personality core had to be taken offline to use/answer query.]

Strangely enough it had answered the wrong question and in return had somehow answered the right question.

[Warning processor limit reached please reduce stress load or a force restart will be attempted.]

He didn't have the time nor the patience to deal with this.

‘OK take me offline however long you need to unless there's an emergency and run whatever system or task manager is required to begin digging and bearing my core. Let's say a foot underground using whatever usable material is available to multiply and produce more nanobots.’

…..

When he came to his mind was a bit clearer and he was in the dark? No, he was underground, probably a foot underground. With a small Ant hill like shaft above him being the only source of light. His field of vision had increased as the nanobots multiplied going from a drop sitting on top of him to being able to fully envelope his core in a thin layer of bluish silver. Along with the clarity of mind and a expanded field of view, he could now bring up the task manager. Though it was just the manager if he tried to push the start button it gave him another warning.

[Warning: processor limit reached desired tasks exceeds current processor limits.]

Sam just sighed and set to work, he ordered the nanobots to move his core a foot down and a foot to the right. While using the mound above as a dumping ground for any loose non usable material. That he could later use to harden and fortify the walls of his tunnel. Upon reaching the new core location they were to secure the core in an inch thick stone bunker then begin fortifying other tunnels to secure both flow of resources and structural stability. A storage room was to be set off to the right with an assembly room connected to it with another tunnel connecting back to the main tunnel on the surface. A fourth of his current nanobot supply would be devoted to replicating and growing. He was to be brought back online if there was an issue they couldn’t handle or if the required processing power was established or once the task was complete.

….

[Warning processor limit reached please reduce stress load or a force restart will be attempted.]

Sam awoke to the same blasted message repeating itself more than fifty times over in his head. Apparently, the swarm had been pushing itself to his cores limits while he was unconscious. Since it hadn't led to a full shutdown of progression the swarm would just continue with a different task until their numbers reached high enough that they could figure out the problem they were dealing with. According to his internal clock which was new. He had been out for close to three weeks. In that time is nanobot swarm had grown from a few ounces too little over two cups. Yeah, he guessed it wasn't a lot, but it would do for now and at the very least he could think without that blasted pop up showing up every two seconds. He took this opportunity to actually stop to examine his nanobots and they honestly weren't much. Instead of the terrifying all matter consuming grey goo from sci-fi they were about what you would expect from what IRL nanobots would look like. The things were limited to say the least while they could work together on massive scales to communicate, think, construct, and so on. But in order to do anything actually impressive he needed gallons of nanobots not a few cups. The fact he had managed to gather enough metal from what was essentially your average garden soil to make that much was downright impressive. Though he’d have to continue to dig down and out to gather more usable material. His mine now extended five feet down eight feet wide. In a circular mine system set up in rings that expanded out and down as it went. They reused most of the material they dug to reinforce the tunnels with a manufactured stone the nanobots created for the walls. It wasn't cement or concrete, it was just a solid slab of printed rock, it was impressive to say the least. Unfortunately, with him awake it had all shut down. The bots that were digging had simply dropped what they were doing and returned to him along with waste removal and construction. leaving tunnels unfinished and new nanobots in various states of incompleteness. Sam sighed he knew what he had to do but he didn't like it.

“Alright continue mining and resource gathering as well as construction of this bunker complex until such time as it can run fully automatically with my personality matrix online or until research becomes available.”

…..

Two days he was only out two more days. The bots had devoted themselves fully to the mining and production of more nanobots to increase the swarms processing power. A shocking five new assembly rooms had sprung up around the supply room along with another two supply rooms. The mine tunnels had increased almost fifteen feet out and eight feet down the most shocking part was they had all but stopped expanding. The bots had found a rusted old chest or maybe a lock box it wasn't very big but it was filled with coins of varying metals. It was currently being broken apart for the needed materials. He had them scan any of the still intact coins as they might need them later. But more importantly if there were coins here that meant they were sentients that made them.

Interestingly enough he found he had a new map feature it wasn't a lot, but it would do him some good.

Thankfully the research function had finally been unlocked and he could pick from a few options. Along with an obvious warning that it would shut him down again. The options he had were limited to say the least, but it was a start.

[Basic circuits: While you understand the basics of wiring electricity and circuit boards from your own nanobots. You lack the knowledge to apply this to anything more than just creating more nanobots. As this is more instinctual than it is conscious thought. Researching basic circuits will expand on this knowledge unlocking the capabilities to build simple machines. Examples: Solar panel copper wire basic circuit, circuit Breakers.]

[batteries: Basic and crude batteries.]

[Advanced mineral printing: a comprehensive survey of usable materials and what they can be broken down and formatted into.]

[Basic improvements: By stress testing a small group of nanobots you can come to understand their limitations and find ways to improve them. Note: This does not guarantee improvement it just generates data that can later be used for more exact research down the line.]

He picked basic circuits and ordered his bots to continue mining, multiplying and to start sending small expeditionary groups to the surface to look around. He didn't know how far his transmission radius was so he needed them to figure that out for him and informed any bot to attempt to retrace its path and return to the source of his signal if it got disconnected. They were to wake him up if anything went wrong or the task was completed. He wasn't out too long, just a few days this time but when he came to, he had three big problems. Apparently, it had rained, and he had lost the sum total of his entire Expeditionary force. This was not that bad. As In all honesty they were replaceable, but they had encountered another large bottleneck power. Apparently, the swarm couldn't grow any larger without more power, so he added an additional task. To have them store any non usable drones created and continue his research and production and he was knocked out again.

When he came to again it had almost been a week, but he had basic circuits researched. It was actually pretty useful he could even build rudimentary computer systems. Though it would be a ridiculously large resource sink for what would have been an extremely complex calculator. Plus, he didn't have enough understanding to actually program a computer yet. Though with basic computers having been added to his research menu. He figured it would help him along that line and at the very least give him more advanced circuits. The problem was while he had the capability of continuing to do more research, he had honestly hit a rather nasty bottleneck. He had already worked his way through a fourth of the coins. And the bots mining operation had yet to provide much resources. His mapping wasn’t doing much either, apparently twenty feet was his maximum broadcasting radius. Meaning while he had about twenty feet ish of map of the surface he could no longer expand in any direction.

As for the large stash of inactive drones it was about to exceed a gallon worth of nanobots stored within the bunker complex.

And after devoting a few days to researching various options to try and increase his research or power production capabilities. The solutions were well, he wasn't really sure what he was expecting when he asked the question and was given the research option but they weren't much.

The first option was to simply stop and sit there and let the research go by. If his nanites were inactive but online he could focus solely on powering more of them. Since they would be using less power and thus would offer him more processing capabilities. It would offer a small boost in research.

The second possibility and the one that was more interesting to him was to begin construction on a power generation facility. He could build basic Dynamos and alternators as well as solar panels from basic circuitry, but he needed a place to set them up though. The surface was covered in a dense undergrowth so he couldn’t see much. So, he figured he was in some sort of field. Though with some shadows from nearby trees. He could cut them down and begin construction but that was risky if there was a lock box here that meant someone put it here. And if he started covering the ground in solar panels something was bound to notice. If the lock box had truly been forgotten about that wasn't nearly as dangerous. But the simple fact that it was here meant it was close enough at some point to intelligent life and intelligent life would be able to notice any form of construction. He then sealed the entrance before he began digging through the side of the bunker where he had hit his core. The wall was cracked open, and the core was moved out and pushed to the surface and the tunnel was collapsed behind him. It wasn't as secure as he'd liked but it would hopefully keep any curious critter from trying to figure out what was in there.

What burst forth on the surface about a good two feet away from where his hidden bunker was located. Was what most people would mistake for a staple of the fantasy genre. Smaller than a basketball the mound of the amorphous bluish silver nanobots pushed forward into the forest beyond to endless growth war and advancement.

But to the rest of the world, it was just another slime emerging from the ground.