My ears were immediately hit by the sound of welding the moment I arrived at Tuilë’s workshop. Brilliant sparks flew about from where the welder came into contact with the plate as Tuilë concentrated on making a massive construct that appeared to be the ship’s main generator with a welder helmet on.
I didn’t want to disturb her, however, and sat on an empty seat nearby. Sometimes, watching how things were “happening” from the sideline could become a fun time to kill time — a habit that I picked up early in this world.
In spite of her large hands, she exerted many times more dexterity than your typical craftsman. I bet that through her talent and hard work, she would become a renowned inventor in no time at all even without her Vocation. Truly a genius among geniuses.
But then, the weld suddenly stopped, and Tuilë removed her helmet, saying, “You’re here! It just so happens that I’m in need of source crystals to purchase materials. Making this thing already cost me everything, ya see…”
“How much do you need?” I asked with confidence.
With twenty-three source crystals in my pocket, I felt like an upstart seeking a way to spend their money.
“Ho? So confident, are you? Fine then, lemme tell you: Seven thousand First-Order source crystals, and that’s not even including other little things that will be added along the way, so a rough estimate of ten thousand should be expected.”
WHAT THE FUCK?!
I knew that it’d cost a lot, but hearing it straight from her mouth made me speechless and dumbstruck…
Really. Ten thousand First-Order source crystals were about a million dollars… At my current rate, I could only procure more or less twelve source crystals per day, maybe a bit more as time progressed. However, calculating the days needed to obtain all that gave me a result of almost three years. Gah! Am I just fighting an uphill battle?
She continued, “Please beware that this is only the most conservative estimate. If you try to procure the necessary materials yourself, then it can be three to four times as expensive.”
“Stop. Stop! I get it! It’s my fault to act cocky, alright!” After a pause to collect myself, I implored her, “Please do me a favor this once and think of something…”
“Pfft! Hahaha! I know that of course! But relax! Some people in the market owe me a favor; one thousand source crystals should be doable as the initial cost, considering that we’re salvaging from the old ship as well.”
Now that it had become a goal that I’d initially assumed, it became something more manageable. After all, a journey of a thousand source crystals began with one, and I had to start somewhere.
“Speaking of which, you said that a Second-Order source crystal is worth like ten times more than a First Order’s, but what about Third Order or higher?”
“Well, a Third-Order source crystal worth one hundred times that of a Second-Order one instead of ten. Simply put, this is because other than it’s more condensed in terms of source energy, it obviously has a higher volume like what you saw with the one inside Alfredo. As for Fourth Order or higher… Uh, it never appeared in the market. Like, it’s more than likely to cause an uproar instead.”
That’s true… Even killing a Third-Order mutated monster took all that we got, I thought.
“Wait! Then, as long as we…” I glanced at Alfredo, who was now sitting in the corner of the workshop. It was mindlessly staring at the wall—
“No! Don’t you dare have any design on my Alfredo!” She spread her arms wide to block my view and glared at me with an intense, cold stare as if she was betrayed or something.
“Uh… I won’t do that…” I swore while making an honest face.
I mean, even if I wanted to and managed to steal the source crystal from Tuilë’s hand, she was the one who built the airship. Thus, it would be beyond stupid to do that.
“I’ll keep your word on that. Oh yeah, one more thing: I may need your help tomorrow in fetching the steam kite. It’s time for you to keep your end of the deal.”
“Sure thing. It’s good to have a change of pace once in a while.” Two days of going into the mine had made me a bit fed up; I could also use this chance to train my source power.
If I could tackle my way into becoming a source evoker, perhaps gathering more source crystals per day would become much less of a hassle. In return, dishing the total amount of days needed to gather all the source crystals.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Enough chit-chat.” Lunaria’s voice suddenly appeared from Luna-1 which had regained a bit of its power. “First up, charge this drone, will you.”
“Okie, Miss Lunaria.” Tuilë took Luna-1 to the charging case and connected the cable to it.
Actually, Luna-1 didn’t require a cable to charge since it could do wireless charging, though this was the best there was in Tuilë’s workshop. Normally, the drone would operate fine for weeks or even months without charging, depending on the energy usage, but emitting electricity as a weapon consumed too much energy.
In any case, with nothing else to do, I spent the rest of the day perfecting the mechanical golem while memorizing the runic inscriptions. Tuilë asked me to do this for the preparation for tomorrow. One could only wonder what was going on inside her head.
Once that was done, I grabbed eight source crystals with me to enhance my source power even further. This was exactly what I’d been doing since two days ago with the one that almost ran out until it crumbled to dust. As for the rest, they were given to Tuilë so she could purchase the needed materials.
Damn. I’m broke again…
***
I was standing here on top of a hill beyond the tunnel connecting to town just before dawn. At this time, the sparkling sky was shining and there was a refreshing breath in the air that blew toward me. The smell of wet grass permeated the air; it must have rained last night.
“Hey, Maxxy. What are you staring at?”
“It’s nothing. But gazing at the wide sky always makes me feel how insignificant we are in this world. Isn’t that right, Lunaria?”
“Well, I can’t not agree on that one,” supported Lunaria as Luna-1 peeked from the gap in my backpack.
I remembered the days of being stuck atop the skyscraper. Void of anything to accompany me for a long period of time except for Lunaria, I seek something more. The beautiful night sky littered with stars was the first one that supported me.
The sight of the stars made me think of running along with them. It became a flicker of hope for me to keep living for there was something more out there.
“Mhm! I see what you mean. That’s exactly why I made the steam kite — to reach for the sky.” Tuilë’s eyes gleamed upon seeing the stars, her hands reaching for the starry sky.
Since we had to make this a one-day journey of going back and forth, we had to start as early as possible. So, we didn’t linger to stargaze any longer and proceeded to make our way to the crash site.
“Wait, Maxxy. Hop on.”
Tuilë’s voice sounded as Alfredo walked toward me with Tuilë on its shoulder. Each step it took was a heavy thump that lightly shook the ground.
Alfredo was about four meters tall, clearly able to carry the entire steam kite, and was likewise able to carry us there for the whole journey. With this, we didn’t have to worry about getting exhausted and having to rest on the way there, which would increase our travel time.
The view from the mechanical golem’s shoulder was great. Like a giant roaming through the earth, it was as if anything else was puny and insignificant — I couldn’t help but wonder what the view of an even larger giant would be.
“I’ve got to give to you; the idea of riding Alfredo is a no-brainer.”
“Right? Right?” Tuilë made a toothy grin, her long hair bounced merrily.
This was exactly the thing that she had asked me yesterday: to perfect the movements of the mechanical golem so it wouldn’t be a bumpy ride all the way there. It took all I knew as well as Tuilë’s tinkering to produce the best result that it was now.
As there was nothing much to do, the three of us had small talk along the way. Busy as we were, there wasn’t much chance to relax while chatting. And thinking about giants reminded me of Tuilë’s homeland (her people lived on a giant creature’s back), so I asked her to tell stories without touching sensitive topics to pass the time.
Hours later, when the sun had risen, we finally reached the forest where we crash-landed four days ago. Since I used a parachute to escape the falling aircraft, I didn’t know the exact location of the crash, but it wasn’t a problem for Lunaria.
“According to the records at the time, the steam kite should be three kilometers to two o’clock,” Lunaria reported.
“Thanks, Lunaria.” Tuilë then held her chin. “Going through this thick forest on Alfredo's shoulders would pose a problem… More to us like hitting sharp twigs and crashing into thick branches, so we can only proceed on foot.”
“My thoughts exactly.” I nodded in agreement.
And thus, the golem gently dropped us, and we trekked the forest, making our way through the undergrowth until there was a small clearing to take a rest. We encountered some dangerous animals along the way such as six-legged wolves, oversized dragonflies, and many others, but none of them were monsters, much less mutated monsters.
I wondered what the difference between normal and mutated monsters was. Tuilë said previously in one of her stories that her homeland would come across monsters — the normal kinds — and would hunt them for food and materials. For one, instead of source crystals, monsters had monster cores inside their bodies. Perhaps source crystals originated from mutated monster cores.
A topic for another time to explore.
Any kind of monster in Aquarine would have mutated at this point… I didn’t know what this place originally was; it was impossible to determine whether the giant mushroom had existed before the red fog covered this place, or it sprung up sometime after it did.
“—xy… Hey! Maxim! You hear me?”
“Snap out of your thought. We’re about to go deeper into the forest.”
Both Tuilë and Lunaria frantically teamed up to break my train of thought, with Tuilë even waving her hand in front of my face to gain my attention.
“Oh, sorry. Something came to mind. Say, how much further in is the thing?”
“Not much further.” Lunaria answered, “I can tell that it’s about five hundred meters ahead with a margin of error of one hundred meters.”
“Hm, it’s not that far ahead then.”
“C’mon, step up! The last one must pay for dinner at Morana’s Eatery.” She raced ahead of me before I was able to react.
“Hey, I don’t like ea—! I mean, wait up!”
With the pace that Tuilë set, it wasn’t long before I could see pieces of an aircraft. They were scorched and entangled in the black vines that were creeping on the burnt trees around. Fragments of the wreckage littered the area, making a long, sparse trail; the one thing that made it easy to trace.