Back in my room, I plopped on the bed and slept through the entire day.

The next morning, I woke up early and was hungry, so I went to the tavern next door to get something to eat. Sometime later, Ned’s party came in, sat at the same table I was sitting at, and ordered breakfast.

"So, Nyx, can you tell us what you did yesterday?”

Ned started the conversation, wondering what I did while dungeon diving.

Oh, right, I was too tired to tell them what I had been doing.

“I continued diving after you left since I was running low on money. Eventually, I stumbled upon the stairway to the boss room, and I wanted to try fighting the boss.”

“You beat the boss, then?”

“Yep”

They weren’t too surprised when I told them I beat the 10th-floor boss since they knew I could handle it myself.

However, when I mention it, I kill it a total of 10 times.”

“10 times!”

They all yelled in surprise at the same time, causing everyone in the tavern to begin looking at our table, wondering about the sudden noise early in the morning.

“Umm… sorry”

Apologizing for the noise, Ned asks if I really did kill the boss a total of 10 times. I said yes and told him it was more fun than fighting the monsters on the 9th floor, with a blank face.

Everyone was astonished by my response, looking at me weirdly like I was a different person.

"Wait, do you enjoy fighting the boss?”

"Yes, I do.”

I answered Mark with my usual blank expression.

“Just to confirm, do you actually like fighting the boss?”

"Again, yes, I find fighting the boss fun, and what's wrong?”

Everyone was again surprised when I repeated my answer.

“Well… We didn’t expect you to be that type of person. How do I put this, we thought you were always more on the reserved side.”

Mark was a bit uncomfortable answering my question.

“So you're saying you thought I’m emotionless, right? I can’t believe you thought of me that way.”

I said it as a joke, but for some reason, they all look guilty.

Wait, did they not think it was a joke? Well, that is disappointing; like in my past life, I’m banning myself from making jokes then. I guess nobody can tell my expressions, so they can’t tell when I'm making a joke or not, like in my past life, when I made a joke about Scott, leading everyone to give him the stink eye for like a couple of months.

“That was a joke, you know.”

“So you’re not mad?”

Oliver asks if I’m not mad, and I tell him no, and I get that a lot, most of it comes from my past life, which I left out.

"Honestly, that's just not fair; I can’t tell what you are thinking.”

I shrug at Oliver, and then Ned asks about the 10th-floor boss I defeated to change the subject.

“So, could you give us any advice for fighting the 10th-floor boss sometime later today?”

“Yes, but why are you asking?”

“I think we’re ready to fight the 10th-floor boss, and I want to prepare and plan for today.”

“I see.”

We talked until our breakfast arrived, and then Ned and everyone else went dungeon diving. For me, I walked to Mila to buy another book after my payday yesterday.

When I got there, the door said that it was closed, so I knocked on the door and said who I was.

“Hey, it’s me, Nyx.”

Immediately, Mila said she was coming and to give her a minute.

Hearing a clutter of books fall, I heard Mila walk to the door and open it.

“Hi there, great to see you today.”

Mila welcomed me inside, and as expected, the store was as messy as ever.

“So, what book do you want?”

Mila asked what kind of book I wanted, and after finishing the last two, I think I’m ready to learn how to make magical tools.

“I want a beginner's book about magical engineering.”

“Magical engineering? Are you a magician or something?”

She asked if I could use magic, but I told her I couldn’t.

Mila was confused by my answer and asked why I was buying books about magic if I couldn’t use it.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“I want to make magical tools, specifically ones similar to artifacts where you don’t need to be a mage to do so.”

“What?”

Hearing my answer, she stumbled on a random book on the floor and fell.

“Gahh!”

Then she fell on a pile of books, causing it to come crashing down on her. After the last of the books finished falling, I asked if she was okay.

She said she was fine as I helped pull her out of the mess of books burying her.

“But making a magical tool that doesn’t require a person to be a mage is next to impossible.”

Hearing that, I wasn’t too deterred, even though Mila definitely knows more about magical engineering than me from the books she has read, because if at least I don’t try with my dream of using magic, then it would be impossible, and a certain magical tool gave me hope that I could make my own.

“I disagree.”

Puzzled, Mile asked what I meant, so I pulled out my adventurer's card and showed it to her.

“This is an adventurer card; you probably heard of it, but the adventurer guild began implementing it.”

She looked at the card as it began glowing with my adventurer information and said something that completely surprised me.

“Yes, I have. I was the one who made it.”

Huh? Hearing what she said, it was my turn to be surprised.

Mila smirks and says.

“I’m guessing you're surprised, right?”

She was right, and I was wondering what she meant by her being the one who made it and that she said it was next to impossible.

“Follow me; I’ll show you.”

She led me upstairs and took out a key to open the door of a certain room.

I wondered what she wanted to show me, and I was surprised to see a workshop of some kind inside the room she opened that had a lot of equipment, benches, and numerous other things.

After letting me be amazed by her workshop, she spoke.

“The reason I say it’s next to impossible is that.”

Holding three fingers.

“One, a lot of the infrastructure for making magical tools requires you to be a mage. Two, you need to make completely new ruins for it to work since none of them exist. And three, let's just say, people in high places do not like commoners suddenly being able to use magical tools.”

Hearing that, I wasn’t too deterred by her reasons because I already expected that much, except for the second reason.

“I know, I already expected I would have to deal with those, but can I ask what you mean by making completely new runes?”

“Before I created the cards, I was part of the mages' guild, and I was doing a job deciphering whatever I could from an ancient book.”

“Ancient book?”

“Have you heard of the book, the Akasha Codex?”

“No, I don’t know a lot about ancient books.”

“Well, it’s a book from the lost magical civilization. By luck, I was working on a part where it explained the process of making an artifact that powers itself. I couldn’t decipher all of it, but I used the parts I did decipher to make new runes out of it.”

“That's pretty amazing.”

I was amazed that she did it because making magical ruins is not something you can easily do, let alone completely new ones.

“Not really.”

She was scratching her cheek like she was a bit embarrassed by the praise.

“I had help from some people in the Mages Guild, and the output doesn’t come close to actual magical artifacts, so I made a card instead of something like a magical weapon.”

I guess my plans for making magical tools that everyone can use are even harder than I thought.

“I see. I at least should try first instead of giving up.”

Hearing that, she was curious about my response.

“You want to make a magical tool that doesn’t require people to be mages; can I ask why since you seem to be so determined?”

“I always want to use magic, but I don’t have any magical powers, so this is the next best thing.”

Mila seemed really interested in my answer and smiled.

“Well, good luck with that, and if you need help, I can lend a hand.”

That is really generous of her.

“Thank you. If it’s okay, can I have a look into the Akasha Codex?”

Mila shook her head and said.

“I’m afraid not; I don’t own it; it’s locked in the vault of the mages' guild.”

Well, that is disappointing. I wanted to see what was inside the book, but granted, I won’t be able to read what any of it says.

“I see. I’ll be off them, and thank you for offering your help.”

“No problem”

Leaving Mila’s bookstore, I went to my room in the inn I was staying at and began reading. When it was late in the afternoon, Ned and everyone else came back.

I greeted them outside my room, but I was mildly surprised to see them.

“What do you think?”

Ned showed off the armor he was wearing; he had a metal chest plate with leather armor underneath and a pair of leather vambraces. It wasn’t just Ned, but everyone in the party had armor.

“How did you afford all of it?”

When he asked what I thought, my first thought was how they could afford all of it because isn’t Acton an expensive place and something like that would cost a couple of silvers at least for each person.

“Simple, a few days ago, I overheard of an adventurer second-hand shop, so we decided to go there.”

“Let me guess, you bought some armor at a discount.”

"Yep, and not just that, there was a refitting shop next door that doesn’t cost too much to refit.”

That shop sounds like an interesting place; I should check it out.

“So, what else have you gotten?”

“We also found ourselves a war hammer.”

Keith, who was holding the war hammer, made me happy that they were using the book I lent them well.

“So when are you having your strategy meeting?”

“After we wash up. Thank you; you’ve been helping us a lot.”

After they had cleaned themselves up, we went to the tavern next door to get some dinner and discuss strategy.

At the table, Ned thanked me again for helping them and proceeded to tell me their plan to fight the 10th-floor boss.

They planned to have Keith use the war hammer to knock down the legs of the Latrodec spider and then do the killing blow at the head. Carl is the one who distracts the Latrodec spider, while Ned and Mark are acting as support, with Oliver acting as backup.

"So, how is it?”

Ned asked me how was their plan.

Remembering my experience fighting the Latrodec spider a total of 10 times, I tried out many different ways to kill it, and I see several things wrong with the plan.

The first one is that Carl should get a rib of his shield because a shield would be useless with how big the Latrodec spider is. The second is that Carl should switch roles with Keith and be the one who uses the war hammer because a war hammer is heavy, so Carl is better suited since he is used to carrying heavy things. Plus, Keith is more suited for the job as a distraction than Carl because the one distracting the Lactrodec spider must be agile enough to get away from its attacks. The third is to have more than one person as support because, from personal experience, I think it is dangerous if just one of them is a decoy, so have Oliver take turns getting the attention of the Latrodec spider.

I told them all that, and then I told them about tips on fighting it that weren’t in the book.

“Ned, you can climb up the broken pillars; don’t worry about getting knocked down because they are indestructible. Mark, use your viles to blind it, and Ned, do the same. Oliver and Keith, try to take out its legs if you can. And finally, you should get used to your new equipment before fighting the Lactrodec spider.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes, Ned, I believe that is all.”

Similar to the time when I critiqued their team, they all thought about it and accepted the critique I suggested.