"Love to watch them, not a fan when they are up close," Tom said to Harold as the man appeared to watch him for signs of unease or tells he was unhappy with the conversation.

"Excellent! Then you should love these." Harold said moving to a long work bench that sat next to the desk he was working at.

The table had something on it that was covered with a large cloth. The angles and peaks and valleys that appeared beneath it gave no clues as to what the item could be. With one deft motion, Harold pulled the sheet back from the items on the table to reveal what appeared to be a set of four surface-to-air missiles.

"Are those real?!" Tom gasped in surprise as he took an involuntary step back.

"Of course they are. How are we supposed to fight off Space Pirates that will be coming from outer space without something that can take down a flying craft?" Harold asked seeming annoyed at the question.

"Are they safe?" Tom asked still worried about having explosives in their guild basement.

"They're fine. Something would have to do some serious damage to them to make them go off." Harold dismissed his concerns.

"How do you plan to get the missiles to the ships?" Derek asked, having not stepped back in surprise and now moving forward to inspect the weapons.

"I'm working on that still. I'm planning on trying to take some of Herbert's research on using mana for energy to try to make these babies fly with magic. That would probably open all kinds of doors for us as far as guidance and other capabilities." Harold spoke excitedly about his new pet project.

"And where exactly did you get these?" Tom asked, the concern still evident in his voice.

"Oh, some old warehouse. It's not really important. The thing to focus on is we have a way to begin to work on a plan for countermeasures." Harold said, again dismissively.

"And how are you making sure that these missiles can get through magical defenses? These were just designed to impact aircraft with a metal hull, not magic shields." Derek pointed out.

"That is what I was just working on. We want to give it some kind of magical piercing or nullification possibility. If we can create something like a magic EMP that knocks out the shields, then it would strike the ship directly." Harold explained.

"And if it's powered by magic as well, then it would shut itself off wouldn't it?" Derek asked.

"That is the current issue we are running into. Using our current technology we protect against an EMP with a Faraday cage, so there must be something that is the magical equivalent we can place around our equipment. We just have to figure out what that is. Bohdan has been working with us on finding a solution for that as well." Harold told the two, looking at his desk as he spoke.

"Do you have anything else?" Derek asked.

"Isn't deadly missiles that could go off enough?" Tom asked nervously eyeing the large missiles on the table.

"We have to be ready. No telling if it's one ship coming or thousands. We need more backup." Derek replied, moving to follow Harold as he walked away from the table.

"A few other concepts but nothing concrete yet. I'm designing a laser cannon that can fire on flying ships as well. It just needs a power source big enough to keep the laser going long enough to do damage without overheating the system." Harold explained as he put a hand on his chin thinking about the problem again.

"So you got the laser part to work?" Derek asked.

"Yes. That was the easy part. But it melts the housing and the connections if it's run for too long. If we turn down the power, it won't do enough damage." Harold sighed as he continued. "It's been an issue we haven't been able to overcome. Hoping that something will be available that is stronger than the metals we have been dealing with."

"We have gotten weapons that claim to be made of mithril from vending machines. I bet it sells the metal as well for crafting. Then you'd just need Roland's help to make something with it." Derek offered as a suggestion.

"Really? That would be amazing! A new kind of metal to work with." Harold thought about the possibilities and began to drift away from the conversation.

"What about defensive measures?" Derek asked.

"Hmm? What? Oh, yes. We are also working on a shield that can be powered by the mana generator that will cover the building in case of an attack. That has been coming along well, actually. We are close to finishing the proof of concept on that. Then we just need to scale it up." Harold explained.

"You all have been busy!" Tom said in shock at all the progress they are making.

"The profession path has a lot of information that it makes available, and the rewards are usually geared around more knowledge. So every time we create something we get more insight into other things we can do. It moves much faster than I thought it would. But that might be because of the background we have being engineers before the apocalypse." Harold explained.

"So your previous knowledge transferred to the System as well?" Derek asked.

"When I got to choose a profession I was given a manual that I could absorb. There was so much knowledge in it that it was a little overwhelming at first. But about half of it I already knew from my study and work previously. Then when I complete a quest for the profession I get the option of more books to learn about more specialized skills for engineering." Harold began pacing as he spoke about this process.

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"You get quests for professions?" Tom asked suddenly intrigued by the idea.

"Yes. It is an alternate way to level up as well as increase your profession. They usually apply to the projects you choose to work on. You can have up to ten active quests at once for a profession. So it allows us to work on multiple projects at the same time." Harold continued. "I have learned so much about some of these topics that I had a passion for previously. It has been a mesh of old technology and what the System calls Magi-Tech."

"The combination of magic and technology?" Derek guessed.

"Yes. Think about people in the dark ages. If you had shown them a cell phone it would have been called witchcraft. Even here, magic is just another form of science that can't currently be explained because we are not used to this new form of energy. But if we can harness it and learn how it works, then the applications are nearly endless." Harold said, getting more and more excited as he talked about the possibilities.

"And you have learned about some of these energies already?" Tom asked.

"Sure. Lots. Mana is the name of the energy. Its not visible to the naked eye unless processed, but it is made up of all forms of magic in the same way light is made up of all the color spectrums. This energy can be passed through what the System calls a Mana Diffuser Mesh, or MDM to separate it into its standard components. Life, Death, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Light, and Dark." Harold explained.

He walked over to another table near his desk as well and pulled another sheet off of a much smaller table. Underneath was a clear box that looked to be made of clear acrylic similar to a vacuum chamber. At one end though was a metallic mesh attached.

"When we push mana into the MDM, it separates like this," Harold said, flipping a switch on a device pointed at the mesh screen.

A beam of white energy shot from the machine and into the mesh filter where it split into eight different colors that bounced around in the chamber.

"But if all mana is made up of all types of magic, then how am I able to cast a spell of a specific spell school?" Tom asked.

"I had the same question. It appears that your body works as a sort of natural MDM filter. Standard mana enters your body and is processed into its individual forms. The ancient Chinese had a system for this and called it chi. Your body has a processing point for each type of energy inside of it. Your lower core or groin area is where fire mana is processed, the hands are water, the feet are earth, the lungs are air, the heart is life, the intestines are death, the brain is light, and the stomach is dark." Harold explained pointing to the different parts of his own body as he did.

"That doesn't sound like the Chinese Chi teachings I remember reading about," Derek said skeptically.

"It's not exactly the same. They didn't have all the information. But it's at least a familiar point of comparison. Each of these parts of the body holds a core where the energy of that type is stored. Then when you cast a spell of a particular branch of magic, it draws from that core. The more those cores are exercised, the easier it becomes to cast that type of magic." Harold continued.

"So we need to meditate like they do in the chi systems?" Derek asked.

"No, that isn't the way it works here. The System's level process is how that works. You can level up your abilities with the spells which also levels your ability to use the type of mana. But the control you have over the mana can be improved by focusing on the flow of mana from these cores to allow you to be more precise as well as allow you to create new spells through its manipulation." Harold was beaming at the opportunity to share some of this knowledge with Tom and Derek.

"And you learned all of this from books the System gave you?" Tom asked.

"That and working with Bohdan, Herbert, and Bob. That old man is a wealth of knowledge." Harold commented. "It's definitely a collaborative learning effort where we all share information on what we know from our classes or professions."

"We have our own little scientific community. I can't wait to find more people interested in this to allow us to advance even faster." Derek said now smiling at the findings as well. "This basic information has actually given me some ideas for my own magic."

"And we are just in the beginning stages of understanding. There is so much more to understand that it makes me excited for the future! I get out of bed now with excitement to get to the lab to work on new projects!" Harold said excitedly as he thought about the prospects for the future.

"Since you have been down here working, I think we have some things you might appreciate," Tom said beginning to pull out the Mad Scientists lab equipment from his inventory.

Harold's eyes went wide as he saw all the items Tom was pulling out. Derek began to do the same and the items were set carefully on the floor.

"Where did you get these?! Did you raid a lab or something?" Harold asked as he picked up some of the beakers to inspect them.

"A dungeon actually," Tom said as he continued to empty the items. "A scientist who was experimenting with making new genetically modified monsters was there and we took all his stuff."

"This will help on some of the projects for sure. Thanks for bringing it back. We've been trying to make do with what we can find or build so far. This will go a long way." Harold said examining more of the equipment.

"I'll send the others down to give you what they took as well. We had to work pretty fast to avoid the monsters so we split up the theft." Tom chuckled as he thought about their mad scramble to take the equipment.

"I appreciate that. I can always use new equipment. This is like Christmas for a kid!" Harold continued marveling at the equipment.

"If you need anything else, just let us know. We will see what we can do to keep you supplied. Its the least we can do for you all working on our protection as well." Tom said to Harold who was crouched on the floor looking over a machine Tom had placed down.

"Hmm? Oh, yes, that would be great. I'll let you know what I might need when I get through all of this." Harold said looking back down at the equipment.

"Let's leave him to his toys," Derek said smiling at how excited Harold was.

Walking away, Derek and Tom left the basement and went back upstairs. Tom bid Derek a good night as both decided to turn in. It had been a long day that had felt like more than one because of the time dilation in the first dungeon. He needed to rest, and his bed called out to him.

After reaching his room, Tom went to the shower that had been in the office that was designated as his quarters and washed up before falling into bed. His eyes were so heavy he barely was able to tell Jerky goodnight before drifting off into a peaceful sleep.