Leon was sitting behind the counter together with Lyle and the two were reading from the guide Leon had gotten previously.
"So they're weak to this?"
Leon held a small vial of red liquid between his index finger and thumb and watched as it splashed around inside when he shook the bottle.
"Yes, but it takes some special plants to make, so we can't produce much..."
"So that's the root of the issue?"
"Yes! If we had more Luxum it would be easy! But sadly it's too expensive..."
Lyle's eyes seemed to gleam when he spoke of the plant, but that quickly stopped when he mentioned the price.
"Why so?"
Leon was mostly making idle chatter while he thought of a solution.
Weakness: Sharp Projectiles, Luxum Extract.
It did have more than one weakness, and the other weakness seemed much easier to exploit. There was a problem though, it seemed only the underside of the creature's belly was actually weak to sharp projectiles.
"Because Luxum is amazing! You can make all sorts of things with it, potions, healing remedies, light that lasts forever, magic energy..."
Lyle seemed very passionate about the subject.
"Bombs?"
"...Yes! Even that! It's such an amazing flower... But it only grows deep down in caverns on this island... It's dangerous to go down there, so that's why it's so expensive."
"I see."
Leon wasn't planning on offering himself to go down there, no way. He wouldn't have a chance against whatever was down there. Heck, he couldn't even beat a rabbit.
"Well, do you have an idea?"
"I think so, but I'll need to go to the store, I'll be back later."
"Alright."
Leon left the store and walked back down towards the fountain, he previously seen a general goods store so that's where he was headed. He could only assume general goods were different in a fantasy world.
After a bit of walking he entered the store, it was a surprisingly large store with multiple aisles filled with shelves. And, like he thought there was a lot of items here. Everything from metal scrap to golden swords lined the shelves.
He walked around for a bit, he did sort of have an idea, but it would be a lie to say he had anything concrete. He had two ideas, either he would make a sort of trap that fired something into the creature's stomachs, or he would need to somehow paralyze them.
He did find a few items that could help him with this, a dart launcher, which was like a short small pipe which fired darts. A pressure pad, which was a small plate that shot out a surge of magic energy when stepped on, and then he also found a low-grade paralysis potion.
But according to the cashier, the poison would be too weak to paralyzed even a single Battlebeetle.
So in the end he bought a few pressure pads, some basic mana wire, a bunch of darts and a few dart launchers. All this only cost him 1025 gold. He then went back to Lyle.
He told Lyle he needed a table to use and was the shown into the back room.
He then started working. He didn't think this would be particularly difficult, but it was. Whenever he connected to cable between the pressure pad and dirt launcher, it always instantly launched the dart rather than waiting for him to tap the pressure pad.
At first he didn't understand why that was, but then something appeared in the top right corner.
Would you like a basic rundown on magic engineering?
Yes/No
"Yes."
And then a small text window with a few images appeared in front of him.
Magic was in the beginning a completely natural element which only some humans could harness in the form of casting spells, but as the years went by it slowly became more and more accessible to the public and people began to mine mana crystals. But what you are doing now is creating a magic link between two objects that shouldn't have one, it is naturally difficult due to it's nature of going against nature.
But that doesn't make it impossible, remember that the dark arts also defy nature, and they work just fine.
Then, the first thing you need is to make sure you have a mana loop. If mana is transported into an object that shouldn't have any and then left there it will only cause problems, so make sure the magic gets back to its source.
The second thing that is necessary is that there is enough magic. Some mana is often lost in the process when you first begin the journey of a magic engineer, but to ensure that this doesn't destroy your project make sure there is enough mana.
And third, always regulate the magic flow. Never let magic flow however it wants, or you will soon see corruption and all sorts of nasty things begin to spread.
Alright, he had the basics down, so now he would just need to apply them. He started by using two wires, one going back to the pressure pad and another going in to the dart launcher. Then he pushed down on the pressure pad with his finger, the first wire quickly lit up in a blue color, signifying that magic was passing through it, and so did the return wire.
"That wasn't very difficult."
But it had only been a small project after all. He continued to do the same with the other seven dart launchers and loaded a few more darts into their small magazines.
"Now I place these, and wait."
He took a lantern and went downstairs together with Lyle, as the other boy pushed the Battlebeetles back, Leon quickly placed the traps and then went upstairs.
"Will this really work?"
Lyle asked as he sat down at the counter.
"I don't know."
Leon replied.
"Anyway, is there anywhere here I can train my skills?"
Leon asked, this was something he had been wondering about for a while. While his level had risen, his skills hadn't.
"In town you mean? There is, it's the training field. You have to go up a mountain and then it's there at the top, it's rarely used due to this. But you'll notice it quickly if you just look to the mountains."
"Right, well that's where I'm headed next. I'll come back here in a bit."
Lyle nodded and Leon left.
It was indeed easy to see the large marble walls peaking out from on top of the mountains, and of course it was extremely high up, because why not. Luckily there seemed to be a staircase, so he decided to climb it, how bad could it be?
---
"...Oh... God... Finally..."
He kept gasping for air between every word, but whenever he took a breath he could feel the cold air entering his lungs and it made him cough as he felt like his throat was being ripped open.
"Too... Realistic."
Maybe it would have been easier if he increased his stats before, but it was too late now.
Special Criteria Fullfilled: Scale Mount Cait with starting stats.
Effect: Hidden
"Ah."
He noticed the popup, but couldn't focus very well. He felt like he was about to collapse, and every muscle in his body was aching. He was barely standing up, and sweat was dripping from his forehead.
And then, he blacked out.
You have fainted, please wait 1 hour before logging in again.
Suddenly he felt his normal energy come back as the helmet deactivated and he came back to the real world.
"Well that was quite the experience."
He spoke to himself as he laid the helmet down next to him. He had been lying on a mattress on the floor of the small wooden room that was his. The room contained very few things, two empty bookshelves, one table with a computer on it, his mattress, a few family pictures on the table and now also the VR-Helmet.
Paul stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, thinking about the events of the day. The game was definitely eventful, though he felt slightly cheated for the island spawn thing. But nevertheless he would get through this and achieve his goal.
It might be time for him to do something now, maybe grab a bite to eat. He felt awfully hungry. He had also realized the clock was 19:00 which meant he had been playing for three hours.
He went ahead and made himself some cup noodles, they weren't particularly expensive so he could afford them. He looked around at the slightly torn walls of the kitchen and sighed inwardly, he had a lot of work ahead of him.
His phone started ringing next to him as he was eating and he picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Paul! How are you doing? We haven't talked for so long."
The voice on the other side was that of an old lady, his grandmother. She was the one taking care of him and his siblings.
"We talked yesterday."
"Too long, too long."
The woman stopped for a few seconds before continuing.
"Ah, yes. How is the studying going?"
"It's fine. It's the weekend right now so..."
"Never forget to study!"
The woman reprimanded him.
"Yes ma'am."
"How do you like the gift I gave you? Evelyn and Marcus said you would like it."
"It's great, it's very interesting. "
"That's good, well I have to go, love you."
"Yes grandma, see you."
Right, he couldn't forget his original goal. He was going to get items in Dreamland and get money by selling them online. There were many people who had made enough money to buy mansions and even luxurious sports cars through these means.
"Alright, I need to get back to the game soon."
He stood up, but quickly realized only twenty minutes had passed and sat back down as he picked up a paper.
"Guess I'll wait..."