“Making an ant poison?” Tuilë tilted her head.

“Yup, there is this problem that I want to solve…” I told her about the mutant ant nest located at the mine.

“To think there’s such a place below the mine. Usually, we oughta tell this to the Divine Mushroom Cult members; they’ll dispatch their force to eradicate the ant nest.”

“They would do that?” Stunned, I couldn’t help but widen my eyes, staring at her in disbelief. It was a few days ago that I had a certain incident with them, so my impression of them had never been good.

“Of course. Their appearance and modus operandi may be sketchy, but they are the real deal.”

“I see…” I held my chin. “No, let’s not tell them.”

“I knew you would say that. Yes, I got one place in mind where you can get such things, and I’ll show you the place tomorrow. Yawn… Although I still want to continue, I’m sleepy.” Tuilë rubbed one of her eyes, her posture slightly wobbling.

Currently, it was almost midnight. Being able to work for such a long time nonstop was an incredible feat; it showed how much passion she had for her profession.

It was worth noting that she had finished with the main engines of the airship, and they were placed neatly outside and covered with a thick sheet like the steam kite before because they were taking too much space here. Luckily, there was no rain inside the cave and the weather was dry and occasionally a bit damp at most.

Right now, she was working to make the main reactor, where she was hemorrhaging source crystals left and right to gather the necessary materials.

“You should rest, then.”

“Mm…” She gave me a perfunctory nod, and we returned to her house.

***

“Look, Maxim, that’s the place.” Tuilë pointed toward a larger-than-normal shop in the market.

After doing our usual morning routine like having breakfast and stuff, she brought me here to the bustling market. Since it was morning, the place was crowded beyond what it was at normal hours.

“Y’see, the owner’s a well-known material vendor, so he got so many kinds of stuff as his ware. You name it, he has it. At least, he has never failed me to provide anything so far.”

I was reassured to hear Tuilë’s guarantee; if this plan were to work out, it would net me with tons of source crystals in a swoop.

“So neat. Wish that what you said holds true.”

Without further ado, we entered the stall and were greeted by a bipedal lizard in merchant attire. At the end of his elongated head were four horns, and on his face was a pair of thin eye lines that made me think that he had his eyes closed all the time. How sophisticated.

“If it isn’t Miss Tuilë, what bring you here today?” He approached Tuilë as soon as he saw her; she must’ve known him well.

“Hello! Merchant Gekko!” She waved at him. “Has the materials I asked you before been prepared yet?”

“Of course, of course.”

The merchant guided us into his shop and showed a pile of miscellaneous items and materials: aluminum alloys, steel plates, all sorts of fabrics, and many other things I wasn’t sure about. I couldn’t figure out where he gathered this all. I mean, was it possible to make such advanced material in this little town that had a mixed of technology level?

There were lots of things I wasn’t yet aware of about this place.

“Want me to have my assistants to bring them to your place, or…?”

He shook his hands together like a typical shrewd merchant, despite his appearance that spoke otherwise. I reckoned that the people here did have one or two unique personalities, and I bet there would be additional fee for transporting goods.

“No need. I can bring it myself.” She flexed her muscles, and even though she wasn’t buffed like a bodybuilder, she was in perfect shape.

Not the least bit disappointed, the merchant inquired, “Alright. It’s that all, Miss Tuilë?”

“Oh yeah, Maxim here is trying to get a few goodies. Can you help him, hmm?” She nudged me.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Certainly. Mr. Maxim, what can I help you with?”

“Well…” I scratched my nape and presented a piece of paper to him. “Can you provide the things listed on here?”

Earlier today, Lunaria had listed the required ingredients needed to make the ant poison. I was aiming to make a solid ant insecticide as opposed to a liquid counterpart. On top of that, considering that we were dealing with an entire colony, the amount we needed would be substantial — it wouldn’t be an exaggeration that a ton or two would barely be enough.

“Some of the things… I’ve never heard of them before. However, I’ve heard of things that have similar attributes.” The merchant scratched his head, looking a bit troubled — it appeared that it was rare to hear about things that he didn’t know about.

“If they can be substituted, that’s fine. So, can you prepare a whole ton of them? Also, is it possible to have them mixed with this composition?”

I handed him another piece of paper containing the way to make the poison. I didn’t care about spreading such knowledge since it wouldn’t cause an uproar or any adverse effect later down the line. Maybe.

He accepted the paper, looked at the content, and agreed, “Indeed. There should be no problem. It should be ready by tomorrow at the latest.”

“Sounds good to me. How much will it cost, though?”

“For the price, well, since you’re Miss Tuilë’s friend, there’s no need to be concerned about that now. I’ll inform you tomorrow when the time is nigh; you can rest assured, as it won’t exceed your budget.”

Ooh! He’s one clever merchant alright. By not telling the price at face value, he could increase the price as he saw fit, although it was fine to give him the benefit of the doubt given Tuilë’s recommendation.

“That works for me.”

Tuilë said that the market value for all the things I needed wouldn’t exceed ten source crystals; it was within my budget and even if it exceeded that, it would be worth it. Once this whole endeavor was finished, getting hundreds or even thousands of source crystals would no longer be a dream.

“You done there? Come, come, help me carry this stuff back to the workshop.” Tuilë motioned for me to help her carry this pile of stuff.

We brought not Alfredo with us into the market, so as not to attract any attention. Oh well, guess this is her “true intention” of bringing me here…

Carrying this pile, even when I only carried like 40 percent of everything, was sure to give me backache. If I hadn’t become an enhancer… the pain would have been much worse.

***

After helping Tuilë move all the materials, finally, I was back once again inside the damp mine.

Moving the pile all at once proved too difficult, so we made two back and forth — this also minimized the back pain that I initially expected to come.

“Phew. I can’t last another such hard labor…” I complained while rubbing my back. “Lunaria, flashlight, please?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Lunaria turned on the drone’s flashlight as it peeked from the gap of my backpack,

Stepping into the descending and turning tunnel, the thick mist inside had thinned out quite a bit. It appeared that the cause of the mist wasn’t come from the water alone but influenced by the draugr commander as well.

Anyway, this worked to my benefit, as the increase in visibility made it easier to spot the remaining crimson draugrs roaming about.

Then again, I lacked something that packs even more punch than bullets. Bullets like the ones I used for my semi-automatic rifle worked better at penetrating things rather than slamming things into oblivion, and there were limited amounts of them remaining. After all, I had doubts that the ant poison would work against Second-Order mutant ants and higher.

Therefore, I tried to come up with some kind of magic that could do what I envisioned while hunting the crimson draugrs. There was just one caveat: It couldn’t exceed Aleph-tier spell, lest it became useless because I was a Tier-1 enhancer.

“Hmm… to create the desired effect of bludgeoning something with enough force while keeping a high speed… I can get the high speed with Anemo, but…” There won’t be enough kinetic energy to go about without mass…

There was this spell that fit the bill — {Stone Impact} — but it took too much source energy for creating the stone to be launched at high velocity with what was left. At most, it could only reach fifty meters per second…

Luna-1 flew out from my backpack as Lunaria commented, “Maxim, let me give you a few words of advice: You’re too focused on the aspect of magic that you lack imagination to think out of the box.”

“Have you figured out something? Tell me.”

I wondered why Lunaria was keeping it to herself considering there was no point in doing that, although it was understandable that she would know more than I did. It was like watching a movie where the audience could think out of the box and find solutions to problems that the characters in movie were facing.

Still, using things outside… was it even possible? It would, I suppose.

I looked around the area and discovered that the area around the water source — a water pond at the edge of the cave — was littered with pebbles ranging in size from as small as a pea to the size of a soft ball. Pebbles… stones…

Eyebrows raised; I realized something — the answer was already there in plain sight.

“Are we finally on the same page?”

“Mhm. Why haven’t I thought about this earlier. If I can make a pebble fly at a high speed…”

Without any dilly-dally, I grabbed several smaller pebbles on the ground and then cast an Anemo spell, creating a barrel-like current that dispersed the thin mist around. Next, I tossed one of the pebbles inside the wind barrel. After the pebble was rotating inside the wind barrel at rapid speed…

“With this… I might just be able to do it. {Air Pistol}!”

The pebble was ejected from the wind barrel at an incredible velocity and struck the cave wall, penetrating deep into it and left a spider-web crack. The result was something worth celebrating, and yet not even a shred of excitement within me.

A bullet coming out of a pistol could easily reach four hundred meters per second, while {Air Pistol} that I created was a far cry with only around one hundred meters per second. It was amazing, yes, but I could do better.

The next few hours I spent perfecting {Air Pistol} on the remains of the crimson draugrs I could find. While I couldn’t exceed four hundred meters per second in terms of velocity, it was good enough to kill First-Order crimson draugrs with one shot, meaning it could serve as a substitute for my rifle in a pinch.

As a cherry on top, I figured out a way to use this spell without the need to toss the pebble manually into the wind barrel.

Perfect. It couldn’t be better.