As both Mewtwo and I sit before the portable smeltery, the iron within slowly liquefies. The process is slow, yet the burning coals provide enough heat in the end to finish the process. Soon enough, a glowing orange-reddish paste settles within the melter. I get up and checks it, looking at the notches along the glass. The little ingot symbol seems to indicate he has smelted the equivalent of one and a half ingot. The tutorial did not lie. The recipe from the furnace would have only given a single ingot, the melter can purify more of the ore, allowing a higher yield from the same source.
There is also a darker liquid floating above the melted iron. The WAYLA system names it seared stone. It appears to be stone residues from the ore block. That is interesting... Although right now it might be a waste. No... Hold on... As I look through my recipes, I find out something interesting. I can convert stone into seared stone by simply putting it into the melter. This would allow for easier creation of seared brick, the melted seared stone can be either cast into bricks or blocks. Right now I have about half an ingot of seared brick from a single iron ore.
A sound distract me from my observations. A quiet shuffle of feet, one I barely hear. I turn around just in time, right behind me, standing so close I can discern the tiniest of details, is a tall creature made of stone, with a carved crying face on its head. Its stone body barely make a sound as it continues to close on me. It has no arms, only four legs. "Wha-" Before I can go further, a stab of absolute terror flashes through my mind. Aster's memories scream at me. It had been some time since the last echo, and it startles me more than anything.
What it does however, is get Mewtwo's attention. He had gone back to pursuing new paths, and the terror screaming inside my head is enough to make him look toward me. On reflex, he grabs the monster and shoves it away. He does so the exact moment light starts to appear beneath the stony exterior of the creature. The light vanishes as the monster gets farther, and extinguishes once it is far enough.
The monster is labeled as a 'cave creeper'. Wait there are variants? Let's check later, we need to get rid of it. Especially if it goes like the first we met. OH FUCK NO! "We are getting him as far from the smeltery as possible, I DO not want to learn how the liquids will react." It's either a complete loss of an unsalvageable mess, i.e. a loss too.
Mewtwo grabs the weirdly shaped beast once more and I rush it with my sword. I strike, but my sword simply bounces back, leaving only a chip on the monster's stone body. The light return and I quickly step back. After only a couple of steps, the light once more vanishes and the monster struggles against Mewtwo's grip. After some effort, he actually manages to break itself free and makes another beeline for me. Okay... This thing is not too dangerous... keep your distance and it should not be too much of an issue,. However, I am curious now. I keep moving backward, until I pass Mewtwo.
"Don't move, I want to make sure of something."
If this is to see if I will trigger a reaction or not, I can already tell you I won't. I have seen pokemons perch themselves on one of those. The monsters ignore pokemons fully for some reasons. You saw it with the spider.
"Let's confirm it really completely ignores you. Try cutting it as it passes." I keep moving until I am against the farthest wall of our little alcove. The creeper passes by Mewtwo, only acknowledging his presence by going around him. Mewtwo slaps the stone monster as it passes, but is still fully ignored. He follow, slapping harder this time, and still the monster ignores him. After one last slap, the monster collapses. Its body crumbles apart and soon, only a grey dust remains. At first I think it is simply stone dust, but a closer inspection reveals that to not be the case. It is the remains of the cave creeper, and I can loot them. As I do so, I obtain a powder similar to the monster remains. Hold on... What?? I have just obtained gunpowder. I blink. And immediately look to the possible recipes. I can see bullet shaped things... OHOHOHOH. This could be useful. I also see conversions and one recipe that asks for only sand and gunpowder. Multiple actually. Wonder what these will be...
My giddiness has Mewtwo look into what I have discovered and he laugh. Finally, something that will make you equal to me. He mocks. I laugh alongside him. Yep. He may be mocking what I know those items can do, but that still cements it. I can also grow stronger. I just need the materials. And then... and then... Nothing will stop us anymore.
Mewtwo slaps the back of my head. "Ack- What was that for??"
Please do not decide that exterminating our enemies is the only way forward. Your 'guns' as you seem to imagine them might have a hard time penetrating armor, or even just hurting certain pokemons. Mewtwo chides me. I blink, then sigh. He's right. The prospect of firearm seems to have given my imagination quite a dark turn.
Enough about that then. I do not have any of the necessary materials on me right now anyway. What I do have, is a functional portable smeltery filled with liquefied iron. Also a guide to use it... unsurprisingly, the guide is electronic in nature. It was indicated as a tutorial section after all. However, it is easier to navigate than the normal tutorials. It has a large selection of materials as well as their properties. There is also an explanation on how to assemble a full smeltery. It is, all in all, quite comprehensive and extensive.
"Mewtwo, can you stand guard for a few minutes? I need to study this." I ask him as I point a the opened 'Material and you' guide window. Mewtwo looks at the guide and nods. Not a problem, this seems to be quite extensive.
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Mewtwo lets Astra go over his new guide. He also skims a bit through it, curious, but quickly dismisses it. It could be useful for him to learn how to use the smelteries, but not right now. Personally, Mewtwo feels close to unlocking a new path. He can feel his powers slowly attune to the soil and the ground, he can feel his influence spreading through it. He keeps his eyes open even as he concentrates. The sight makes it all harder, yet he still wishes to keep Astra safe. And with the monsters being undetectable with his mind, sight, smell and sound are the only options left.
Suddenly he feels it. He eyes dilate as he realizes what he had been missing. To this point, he had brute-forced the attempts with his own, more innate path. But now he can see that this was the problem all along. With a calm breath, he focuses his mind and tap only into the energies of the ground. At first they barely move, but slowly, his will worms itself within the energies currents. Not as a psychic will, but as the will of the ground. He is the ground, and the ground is his to command. A few meters away, the ground starts to bubble, golden energy slowly seeps through cracks, and suddenly, it explodes. From the epicenter rises plumes of half-molten rock and rays of golden light. He has done it! He can feel the path open fully, and with it an immediate realization
He turns toward Astra with a mischievous smile. The cyborg has not noticed his success, too engrossed into reading his guide. His smile growing wide, Mewtwo acts. At first not much happens, the ground beneath Astra seems to ripple slightly. Astra does not even realize it. The follow-up is simple, Astra sinks to his waist in the ground. With his new path, Mewtwo has just created a small sink hole, bulldozing the ground under him to the sides. If one were to look closely, they would see where some of the walls now bulge with added materials.
Astra at first panic, "Wha- what the?" But then, Mewtwo's laughter gets his attention. The strange electronic chuckles shedding quick light on what has just happened. "HEY!"
Still laughing, Mewtwo approaches Astra and offers him a hand. Astra takes it, his expression now blank. Mewtwo smiles as he pulls Astra out of the hole. Or at least tries to, only remembering too late how heavy Astra really is. His efforts are rewarded by a mocking smile as Astra pulls on Mewtwo's arm as well.
Mewtwo, taken by surprise, fall forward on top of Astra, and then slide straight into the hole face first. His tail impact Astra's head as the large upright cat pokemon flails in his fall. Mewtwo barely has the time to think of floating to stop himself before his face touches the ground. He let out a muffled ouch as his belly scrapes along Astra's mechanical spine. Quite a good thing he fell behind Astra, the front would have been a bit more dangerous. Astra lets out a gasp as Mewtwo's fall slams his stomach into the side of the hole.
For a second, neither of the man or the mon move, too stunned by the situation. Then Astra breaks the silence. "Well... good job, now what?" He asks, pushing Mewtwo's long tail and his own hair out of his face.
Mewtwo rubs his snout, having fallen straight on it. Well, give me a second to level the ground again, and then we should be good. As he declares so, the ground slowly rises, and soon enough, Mewtwo flops down behind Astra, and Astra fumbles backward when Mewtwo's weight removes itself.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
"I see you have mastered a new path?"
Yep. Mewtwo beams at Astra's remark.
Astra looks down upon Mewtwo, still splayed on the ground. A little bruise can be seen forming on his snout, and superficial scratches now adorns his purple stomach and part of his upper torso. "Seriously..." Astra shakes his head as he laughs a bit more.
You have to admit it was an interesting application.
"... Let's... call it that..." Astra eyes narrow, before his smile turns wider. "Good call remembering how heavy I am eh?"
They both laugh together once more. "All right, all right. I need to return to the smeltery, I have found most of what I need to do." Astra declares as he returns to the black stone construct. Mewtwo nods. They both needed that distraction. He can feel Astra's mind more eager to continue now. Not that it had not been earlier, but part of it were getting down quite a strange path. the world may be dangerous, but that does not mean fun is out of the equation. And, as he looks withing himself, he realizes that fun is quite important. For both of them.
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Trio's damn it Mewtwo. A prank? Really? that seemed so unlike him, yet... what do we really know of each other? We have barely known each other for a week at best. I snort, still that was needed. A bit of levity does help with our current situation somehow.
Now if I have really understood the guide, I just need to pour sand into the casting table, then create a part I wish to cast, put it into the sand, remove it and then let the material flow down. The sand cast created will not survive, but I will get the part I imprinted. Once I find it, I can make golden casts to allow for easier casting. Right now I will have to make a lot of sand. Thank god for the hammer.
I put another three iron ore blocks in the melter and let them melt. Meanwhile, I prepare about a dozen sand casting molds. I have a lot of casting to do. They appear as sheets of sand in my inventory. I place the first one on the casting table and then imprint a wood pickaxe head on it. The crescent shape left behind is a bit rough, but should be good enough, if the guide is to be believed. Then again my inventory will smooth the kinks out will it not?
After a minute or so, the iron has melted, I now have enough to cast the pickaxe head. I open the drain and let the molten iron pour into the sand mold. The glowing orange liquid flow languidly until the unseen mechanism of the table automatically cut the flow. The orange slowly cools and soon a silver crescent is left on the table. The sand is... partially melted, and once I grab the iron pickaxe head, most of it comes with it. A quick brush removes it all and I am left with a surprisingly well made pickaxe head.
I waste no time in switching the head from my current pickaxe. To do so I open my tool station tab and put my current pickaxe in the center slot of the tab. If I select no tools to assemble, the tool station tab present itself as six slots. One central one with five arranged in a star pattern around the central one. I then place the new head in one of the five surrounding slots, after a bit of experimenting I find out it does not matter which one and obtain both an iron pickaxe and a stone pickaxe head. *ding* goes the quest completion.
"Mewtwo" I call out as I throw him the two candies XS. He catches them with his psychic powers and gobbles them.
While I cast what remains in the melter into ingots, I assign more points into the reflex upgrade. If the growth is as I expect, the faster I give myself percents everywhere, the faster I will grow at first. The letter from the Trio seemed to confirm that assumption.
Once the melter is empty, I start to dismantle the smeltery and check the new quest. And I am... not surprised at the first, but absolutely surprised at the other two.
ALL THE CASTING MOLDS
If you read the material and you tutorial, you must not be surprised.
Craft a 'gold rod casting mold': 0/1
Craft a 'gold biding casting mold': 0/1
---------------[+]-----------------
Rewards: 80xp; 2 Exp. Candy S
The list goes on and on, at least two dozens of different parts. There are weapon parts, tools parts, armor parts. So many parts... However, this quest was expected. Now the next two? Less so.
Magic time!
Wanna see a magic trick? We only ever saw some of the mortals here use the properties of these flowers.
Acquire any 'Mystical flowers': 0/10
Rewards: 20xp; 3 Exp. Candy XS
Need some space?
The most limiting factor of your adventure (at first). Space. The current solution is crude, but will be efficient for some time. Careful not to loose it though.
Craft a 'wooden backpack chip': 0/1
Rewards: 20xp; 3 Exp. Candy XS
Each quest are absolutely needed at the moment, if only for the experience. However, the magic one seems to be the main path I need to go with to advance further into the quest line. The other two seem to be optional quests. All right, we are going back out... Wait, what do I need to make the wooden backpack chip? Oh. Err... We are not immediately going back out. I need more strings. We are going hunting, and if I find gold along the way, all the better.
I fully dismantle the portable smeltery and realize... I am full. Okay we need to find more strings. "Mewtwo, we are moving out." I declare. "Time to hunt some monsters."
He blinks at me in confusion. But then I see understanding light his eyes, and a feral grin stretchs across his face. Now that will be fun. He clearly enjoys the chance to test his new paths against live targets. I nod and check our food reserves. At the rate we consume them, we should be good for some time still.
We set off once more into the cave, leaving torches behind us, mining some ores I already have within my inventory, and of course, hunting any monsters we find. In a deepslate lined cave, we find and execute two zombies, as we enter a large chamber, we are met by another cave creeper as well as a couple of skeletons. I bait the creeper while Mewtwo dispatches of the skeletons. Then we both team up to kill the creeper. He holds it, I strike it. As much as it would be faster for Mewtwo to kill every single monsters, we both get experience if we work together.
As we continue our exploration, we stumble into more vis crystals. We gather some more, as they might be useful in the long run and Mewtwo is clearly fascinated by them. After maybe an hour or two, or more of exploration, we finally find our main quarry. Within another large chamber, with spaced out columns is a spider. No wait, two... uh... Okay a small swarm... hum...
More than we can chew you think?
"It will be tricky." I get my sword out and plant the torch I had been holding. I will need both my hands to deal with this situation.
The spiders screeches and charge. The tip tap of dozens of feet echo all around the cave as they rush us. I go first, and swat the leading one. I then kick another before it can reach me. A third is stopped by Mewtwo and quickly sent careening into nearby wall. The fourth and fifth I manage to fend with sword and kicks. The sixth I somehow instantaneously kill. My sword caught the monster in the space between its head and thorax, and I instantly decapitate it. The seventh is skewered by Mewtwo, also dying instantly. Then the ones we fended off return.
The first one is once again first. I parry its legs as much as I can. A few leave little gashes in my skin, but nothing major. As it tries to jump on me, I dodge beneath it. My sword finally pierces its chitin, plunging deep into its abdomen. I apply a bit more strength and section it in two. Hot ichor and insect flesh cover me as the spider falls behind me, unmoving. Four more to go. Correction, three more to go. One is slowly cooking in Mewtwo's hands. The fourth and fifth rush me together again, and I am barely able to follow the tangle of fangs and pointy legs trying to skewer me.
Mewtwo finishes the third with an explosion from the ground, reducing the spider into paste and then turns to help me. On of the spider is immediately yanked away from me. With the acquired breathing room, I start fighting more easily against the third spider. I deflect a leg, then smash its head with my left hand, and finally plunge my sword straight through the spider's head. And I fall back, breathing heavy. Mewtwo is also done. Seven spiders, we have defeated them. I check my energy reserves and wince. Yeah... half of it is gone. Coolant has also taken a bit of a beating. Mewtwo is also looking a bit tired now. I get out two sandwich and some berries and passes half to him. He thanks me, and we both scarf our meal down in record time.
"We did it." I sigh contently after finishing my last bite.
That was a bit harder than we expected, but we did do it. He grunts back.
I get up and quickly gather the loot from the spiders. Backpack here I come. The experience the fights netted us has already been invested on my part. I boosted my generator efficiency and coolant once more. The only 1xp priced stat lagging behind now is the repair efficiency.
As I gather the spider drops, a sound echoes around the cave, and I freeze. Bells. I am hearing bells. Astra? Mewtwo notices my sudden stop.
The chanting comes soon after. It is the same. I start to shiver. I cannot talk. I... ASTRA! Mewtwo's thoughs are filled with reassurance as well as worry. It snaps me out of the spiral of horror.
"Mewtwo! A raid is coming." I gasp.
The cave is suddenly bathed in an eerie reddish glow as a portal opens in its center.