The agents found the three of them panting and gasping, slumped against a wall. Balmer who had acid burns on his arm, was applying a bandage Logan had provided.
All of the goons had come running full speed after hearing Balmer’s gunshots. Kat had given them a weak shout when they had run past the room.
“Find any…” Logan said between breaths. “Nice sticks?”
The dark haired large agent, who was apparently in charge of the rest said. “Check the Princ—”
He stopped himself mid sentence. Logan smirked to himself. Old habits die hard.
After a formal cough he asked. “Any of you hurt?”
Kat and Logan shook their heads. Balmer was tightening a bandage with his teeth.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” The young agent said between grunts.
Logan tossed the scythe-rang towards the black haired agent. It slipped across the floor and skidded at the man’s feet.
“I need to catch my breath,” Logan said. “Remove the horns from these bastards, so we get something nice to adorn those pretty sticks of yours. Also, I’m going to need… Damn it, we might not have enough Numa. Tumor, will the charge left in the D-crystal be enough?”
Kat cocked an eyebrow.
“Who’s Tumor?” One of the agents asked. Logan made a disgruntled noise.
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 30% Completion]
[Assessing data…]
[Running variations…]
[Assuming these horns have the same naturally penetrative quality as the other blue-edged natural weapons of some of the fauna, that you presume to originate from the large flying monster, limited Numa is needed for [Enchantment]. Also considering the shape of these materials closely resembling the end product you have in mind, there is a 100% probability of the Numa charge being enough for your designs. There is a 2.7% chance of you being able to give said items all the magical augmentations you had planned.
“I don’t need the decimals, Tumor,” Logan said half-aloud as he slowly got up. Now that the adrenaline was waning, ache from the fight was entering his spent muscles.
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 31% Completion]
[Noted. This one will adjust the communication protocol. Again.]
Logan couldn’t help but to grin. Was that snark?
Logan got the agents to lug the bodies of the ugly beetle-like insects to the room with the floating crystal construct. The agents and Kat removed the horns and large parts of the carapace of those creatures and brought them to one of the stone tables Logan was occupying.
Then Logan told them to go away and let him work. As per Kat’s suggestion they started preparing a meal from the meat of one of the bugs. Which basically just meant cutting chunks of raw bug meat from the corpses. They weren’t exactly bugs, because when they were cut into, they bled. The same sort of black and oily blood all of the spawn from Levemoth had.
Logan ignored the stench and the squelching sounds and instead rummaged for a stone knife from his bag of many tricks, which Janice had made for him. With the knife he fashioned the branches that the goons intended to use as spear shafts. He wanted to make them as straight as possible to conserve Numa.
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Next up he picked up the horns of the beetle-creatures. They were hard. You could just tell from the feel of them. They also had a heft to them. Logan wasn’t a fan of that. They would make the spears unbalanced and hard to throw.
Maybe it will train the goons faster in [Marksmanship] or whatever they have…
Logan wanted to give the horns an [Enchantment] to make them lighter. After having accrued some experience with his new powers, he had realized that his Potency determined how powerful an enchantment could be. But Control determined how accurately he could define said enchantment.
Of course, in action he told the Numa energy the measurements Tumor defined when possible. Previously the crystals would lose whatever charge was needed, probably adjusted for Logan’s Potency, Efficiency and Control. But since he was now working with limited Numa, he would have to try something different.
Maybe I could give them just a little spritz of lightness. I’ll save that for last.
Shaping the spear shafts and attaching the horns was simple, and barely spent any Numa. Logan picked up one of the spears and tried the weight. It wasn’t ideal. The spears were barely usable.
“Tumor,” Logan whispered. “How much lighter does the head need to be for the spears to be decent?”
[Please determine ‘decent’.]
Logan groaned. “Ugh. Most cost-efficient?”
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 32% Completion]
[Calculating…]
[Overriding communications protocol…]
[For most cost-efficient solution, the weight of the horn used as spearhead should be 27.81% lighter.]
Logan brought one of the spears to the D-grade construct. It still had 14% charge left. Logan estimated a little over one percent charge was close to a full [F-grade Numa Crystal]. Considering the E-grade chunks Logan had were worth maybe five or six full F-graders, these constructs were massive.
“Make this spearhead 27.81% lighter in weight. Do not alter the weight of the shaft. Most importantly, only use a maximum of one percent of your charge.”
[Sub-class Level Up!]
[Enchantment level 13]
[Attribute Level Up!]
[Control: 11]
The D-grade construct glowed and a faint blue hue appeared on the spearhead before it faded. The spear was suddenly significantly wieldier. Logan spun it around in glee and triumph before getting a few curious glances from the others working on the bugs. Logan put the spear on the table and checked the construct. 13% charge left.
Perfect.
“Tumor. How much lighter is the spearhead, percentage-wise?”
[22.55%]
“Nice,” Logan said. “That’s enough. Alright, let’s give these other two the same treatment and then you can drone on about the aerodynamics and drag coefficient.”
*
“What’cha working on?” Kat came over and peeked over Logan’s shoulder.
“Something for you, actually.”
“A gift,” Kat said and grinned. “Oh, you sure know how to make a girl feel special. Should I not tell, Freya?”
“I must have done something heinous in my old life to be afflicted with you,” Logan muttered as he pressed the piece of chitin against the crystal construct.
Kat rested her chin on Logan. “Man, your shoulder feels cold. That Freya sure must taste like honey for you to—”
“O-kayyyyyy,” Logan said and brushed Kat off him. “Why don’t you go pester Balmer for a change?”
“He’s too much of a… Balmer.”
Logan chuckled. “Yeah. I get what you mean.”
“So what is this?” Kat asked and circled around to stand next to Logan.
“I noticed you have a… hands on fighting style,” Logan said.
“Yeah, I’ve done MMA a bunch!” Kat said, excitement rising in her voice. “Did you see me land that roundhouse on that ugly bugger?”
Logan didn’t reply. Instead he took Kat by the wrist and inspected her.
“Hey!” Kat said, but instead of pulling away, she blushed and went silent.
“Got it?” Logan asked.
“What?”
“Good,” Logan said. “Now draw a model for me.”
Kat pulled her wrist away. “Are you alright?”
Logan shushed her. “Let me focus.”
The plating on the front legs of those beetle-fiends had been the perfect size. It only needed some curving of the material to form a nice bowl-like structure.
These creatures would make for easy plates and bowls.
The inside of the cup Logan stuffed with some bandage cloth as a cushion. Then came the tricky part. Logan intoned a request that made a part of the chitin cup flexible. Logan was absolutely elated to notice the blue hue.
[Sub-class Level Up!]
[Transmutation level 10]
[Attribute Level Up!]
[Focus: 7]
He felt like he should have gotten a Control level up, but eh, he had just gotten one. Still, he commended himself on his endless genius.
“Try this on,” Logan said and gave the item to Kat.
“You… What?” Kat asked in mounting excitement. She put the chitin-glove on.
“Can you form a fist?” Logan asked.
“Holy shit! I can! What the hell!” Kat exclaimed, making her voice echo in the room. “Look guys! Any of you big boys want to take me on now?”
“Calm down,” Logan said and chuckled. “I need to adjust the mouth of the glove. I’ll make it flexible. Then I’ll make another one. You can tie them on with that cloth you have over your knuckles now.”
“Holy shit,” Kat said. “Dude, no wonder your dad and the agents don’t like you. You make them look bad.”
Logan gave an awkward laugh and instinctively checked on the goons. Balmer had heard Kat’s loud voice and gave Logan an ugly look.
“Right,” Logan said. “Look, go bother Balmer now. You’re making him jealous or something. And most importantly, I need to focus. I’m almost done. No. Go!”