Thomas had been right. Today was boring as hell. There were constant caravans going between Snubanes, where they were, and Breidset, where they were going. It took zero effort for the three of them to pick up a quest to guard a caravan and begin traveling. It was still a few hours before noon and they'd already been on the road for an hour. Thomas sighed and lay back to relax. It was probably raising a flag but he hoped something happened. Until they arrived at Breidset he had nothing to do.

Selena and Lexiana stuck close to Thomas but didn't try to crowd him. Lexiana knew she had to behave or things might not go so great when they visited her home. Selena had other thoughts on her mind and worried about how Thomas was reacting to her confession the previous night. Though, thinking back about it, he didn't really seem to be all that surprised. He had been so... nonchalant about the whole thing that she wondered if her noble rank even mattered to him at all. It was definitely a new situation for her as people usually tried to get close to her once they knew who she was.

Life as a princess... sucked. She could never trust anyone that knew who she really was. If she hid her status to meet people she always had to worry about what would happen when they learned who she was. They always learned who she was. Most would just pretend that they didn't care but she would catch the glimpses when they thought she wasn't looking. Then slowly they would ask for small favors until it built to bigger favors or favorable treatment. The worst were people that tried to abuse their friendship with her by using her status for their own gain.

Thomas seemed to defy all of that. He didn't even glance at her, he practically ignored her existence. The whole night she'd been worried about his reaction. She almost felt let down that nothing had changed. He didn't even seem curious about how a Princess knew Unholy magic. In fact, since they'd met again he'd just treated her pretty much the same way as he had in the academy. Though it was pretty obvious he was slightly irked by the tracking enchantment on his ring. Who wouldn't be?

On his side, Thomas really didn't care about Selena's race or noble status. He would have status equal to or greater than kings once his crafting really got rolling. Wealth, status, and the power it brought would all eventually be his. Why worry about a single princess in a single kingdom? Hell, given that Reykhoten seemed to be a meritocracy it was likely that a player would eventually end up as the king of the country without having to go to war. Speaking of players taking over a kingdom, he hoped that someone would take over Solvikia before too much longer. Racism had no place in a civilized society.

The party of four passed hours in companionable silence. There wasn't much to talk about. Other groups of adventurers and guards spent the time chatting with each other about mundane things. It looked like no one was paying attention but that was far from the truth. All the scouts in the groups were keeping their eyes and ears open while Thomas himself was using his Mana Field ability to send out waves of mana looking for 'pings' that would indicate living creatures.

He did other things to pass the hours as well. He trickled mana into his Inventory Magic, juggled a beaten up solid metal ball with his Magnetic Magic, and used Serenity to recover his mana when it got low. Just because he couldn't craft didn't mean he couldn't exercise other abilities. Selena watched what he was doing curiously and felt the rate he recovered mana at was truly ridiculous. Thanks to her 'Mana Sense' ability she knew he had less total mana than her but did that matter when he could recover it almost twice as fast as she could?

As she watched the metal ball floating around in his hand and couldn't figure out what he was doing, she grew curious until she had to walk over and ask, "How are you doing that? There's no wind emanating from your hand and I don't see anything else making it move."

Thomas glanced at Selena and smiled, "I'm using magnetism to make it move."

She tilted her head to the side curiously as she asked, "Magnetism?"

"Yeah. Like what happens when you put a piece of iron near a magnet."

She looked confused as she asked, "What's a magnet?"

He let the ball drop into his hand as he thought for a moment then asked, "Are you familiar with Lodestones?"

Selena nodded excitedly, "Yes! Those curious rocks that stick to metal things?"

Thomas snapped his fingers in a 'you got it' manner and smiled, "That's exactly right. The force that attracts the lodestone to the metal is called 'magnetism'. I'm using that force to move the metal ball around as I command."

Selena looked enlightened then asked, "How do you know about that?"

He just shrugged his shoulders and smiled, "It's common knowledge in my original world. There we use magnetism in all sorts of applications. Vehicles, science, toys, all kinds of things contain magnets, or lodestones if you prefer. We even perfected making extremely powerful artificial magnets that could lift up to tens of thousands of kilograms of weight."

Selena looked shocked at the revelation, "Are these magnets really so useful? I've only seen lodestones used as a gimmick for entertainment."

Thomas laughed and nodded, "In my world, it was the same for a long time. Until we learned the benefits and uses of magnets. In my world we used science, the study of nature, to advance our technology to extreme levels." He looked around at the sparse woods they were traveling through with a train of wagons, "If I had to guess I would say my original world was at least a thousand years more advanced than this one." He looked back at Selena, "Then again we didn't have magic so we used technology to replace it and make our lives more convenient. Hell, even our greatest technology in food preservation can't compare to a simple bit of Inventory magic."

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Selena seemed shocked at the information that Thomas gave her. He was careful about what he said as he didn't want to break any of the rules of the game. Nothing in the rules said he couldn't talk about his original world. The two of them passed some time in silence while Selena digested the influx of information that Thomas gave her. While she did that, he went back to juggling with the metal ball and waited patiently. He was sure she would have more questions. He was right.

"So... if in your world you replaced magic with technology, does that mean you could create more advanced things in my world?", she finally asked.

Thomas smiled mischievously, "I already have. Though I've been combining magic and technology to make even more powerful items. Some very deadly ones as well."

He flipped his hand and caused the Peace Maker hanging on his hip to float into the air, "This is one such item." He looked at Lexiana and caught her staring at the Peace Maker with a bit of fear, "Our friend Lexiana can attest to the prowess of this weapon."

Selena moved closer to it and looked it over before asking, "What is it?"

Thomas let the gun float near her so she could look it over as much as she wanted. It wasn't like she could still it or figure out how it worked just from looking at it, "It's a modified weapon from my world. The closest thing you have to it would likely be a crossbow. It shoots a projectile at the target with the objective of killing them. It's very effective at its job in my world. Though in this world people can creatures can be significantly stronger than in my world so it's effect is limited. At this point, I don't think it could even hurt me anymore. Not that I plan to test it out."

Selena glanced at the nervous-looking Lexiana, "You've seen this weapon in action?"

Lexiana nodded and glanced nervously at Thomas while he holstered the weapon back on his hip, "I did, once. I've always prided myself on my speed but that thing... No matter how I think about it I could never dodge a shot from it. It was also strong enough to dig a small hole into a dungeon wall."

Selena looked surprised at that information and looked at the weapon hanging on Thomas's hip. She thought for a bit before asking, "Is it possible for you to make one of those for me?"

Lexiana perked up at the question. Thomas glanced at her and smiled. Something about a woman being interested in guns was pretty hot. Unfortunately, he shook his head, "Afraid not. For some reason anytime I make a weapon like this it is automatically Soulbound to me. I can't give or sell them to anyone else."

Catching onto a small portion of his statement, Selena can't help asking, "You've made others?"

To answer her, Thomas pulled his Spell Cannon out of his inventory and left it to hover in the air while he held it in place with his Magnetic Magic, "This is similar but also very different. The first one fires a solid projectile that causes trauma when it hits the target. This one is more versatile and can fire projectiles and spells of various elements."

It might seem odd to explain his unique weapons to the two of them but they would see them in action anyway. It was better to explain them beforehand than to surprise and confuse them in the middle of combat. It's not like they even had the first idea of how to replicate the two weapons or even the principles behind how they worked. They definitely couldn't steal them. So, he felt it was better to give them a rundown of his toys since they had the time now.

Selena looked seriously at the Spell Cannon before turning her focus to Thomas, "You're a very dangerous man. You know that right?"

Thomas quickly snatched the Spell Cannon out of the air before bursting into uproarious laughter. Selena looked confused at him but if she knew about the presents he'd left behind for the pirates of his future plans, she would know just how dangerous he was. He had plans to make a huge arsenal of weapons and constantly upgrade them as he found more materials to work with. Honestly, he was already trying to think of a way to create a 'Holy Hand Cannon' of some kind using the materials from the cave.

The two women looked at Thomas and both felt shivers run down their spines. Both couldn't help but wonder if Thomas was sane. He was sane, the things he wanted to build weren't. Selena sat in uncomfortable silence for a few moments before she decided to speak again, "So what are our plans when we arrive in Breidset?"

Thomas wiped a tear from his eye and looked at Selena while still smiling, "I don't know what your plans are but mine are pretty simple. I'm going to find a smithy I can rent for a few days to make some new gear and weapons. Once I have them then 'we' will all head into the dungeon and dive as deep as we can to earn a lot of experience." He looked away from her and stared absently into the sky, "I don't know about you two but I plan to make myself and Snowlily significantly stronger. I won't be taken advantage of again. That reminds me..." He turned to look back at Selena, "When we get a chance I would like to speak with you." He glanced at Lexiana and then back to Selena, "Alone."

Selena could see the serious look that Thomas was giving her and nodded her head as a reply. Whatever he wanted to talk about seemed serious so she would give it serious attention. Seeing her agreement, he looked away and continued to stare off into the sky. Seeing the clear sky with only the occasional cloud really made him want to open his wings and fly through the air. Before he could do that he had to take some precautions. He thought of the contract he signed with Rock and felt like one of those would be a good idea. Selena knew his secret but before he was willing to reveal it to Lexiana he wanted some guarantees to protect himself.

Once again the group slipped into silence. Thomas practiced his various magics and continued to slowly expand his inventory. Selena read a book from her inventory. Lexiana paid attention to their surroundings. Even though her ears were still hidden by the Ring of Disguise he'd given her, he could practically see her ears standing up and swiveling around. It was just a delusion on his part of course. As long as no one touched her head they wouldn't be able to tell that she had ears there.

As the caravan continued on its course, he glanced to his left and smiled subtly. His Mana Field had just given him a bit of good news. He silently waited to see how long it would take others to notice. It wasn't much of a surprise to him when he saw Lexiana looking in the same direction. Her senses were higher than his or any of the humans in the caravan. It was nearly two minutes later before the first human scout noticed anything. The scout raised her voice, "Halt! We have some incoming!"