Chapter 5.2 - Learning 2

"Logout!", I scream in my head.

As soon as possible I sit up on my couch in reality and take off the headset. I reach over to check my right arm, I believe I can still feel the burning pain from whatever hit me. Intellectually I know that there's no way for the damage I took in the game to harm me in reality, that doesn't prevent me from thinking it had though. My arm is perfectly fine, just like it should be. But I can almost feel the pain I received still.

Confirming everything is fine I take a deep breath and climb off of my couch to head to my bathroom and splash cold water on my face. "Fuck that hurt."

I don't know how long my character will be unconscious so I go about doing the real life things that need to be done such as food, shower, bathroom usage, all that wonderful stuff that makes you feel alive and annoyed at the same time. After a couple of hours getting myself into better condition after that experience. I sit back down on the couch and put the headset back on.

"Log in."

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You are no longer Unconscious.

Before I can even open my eyes I can feel the dull throbbing pain still radiating from my arm where I was shot. It's nowhere near as bad as when I was first shot, but it still hurts a bit. Taking a deep breath I open my eyes and see a flood of notifications from what happened after I passed out from the pain. The summation of which is:

Skill Gained Pain Resistance 1/100 (+0 Toughness)

Pain Resistance +7

Toughness +1

Skill Gained Fire Resistance 1/100 (+0 Toughness)

Fire Resistance +4

Toughness +1

Party Experience Gained: 42,000

Personal Experience Gained: 31,500 (21,000+50%)

Level up!

Level up!

Automatically updating Health Point and Mana Point Totals...

Health Points: +14!

Mana Points: +350!

You have 2 Attribute Points to spend.

You may select 1 new Rank 1 Spell.

You may select 1 new Rank 2 Spell.

You may select 2 new Rank 3 Spells.

You gain Spell Capacitor!

You gain Counter Tech!

Title Gained Merciless You don't just clear dungeons and ships, you leave none alive. +10% of accumulated experience when you defeat all enemies in a dungeon or on an enemy ship.

[Pain Resistance] and [Fire Resistance] huh? Guess that made some sense considering the pain I suffered through. The [Merciless] title seemed a bit much though... Then again I had obliterated every living thing on two pirate ships and in the dungeon I cleared with Jerilda, so maybe I had earned it.

Before I even get out of my bed, yes it's my bed I recognize the ceiling, I decide it's time to take care of everything I've gained. Before I get pulled into my next adventure or forget about it again, I still had a [Magic Hack] to select from level five after all. Let's start with that. I pull up my list of available magic hacks, I ignore the ones I've already looked over in favor of looking at new ones that have unlocked.

There are quite a few interesting one, like [Charging Jolt] which allows me to recharge any batteries by expending mana. There are even a few that let me modify the parameters of spells like damage they deal, their range, or even their radius. I admit all of those are tempting but I had yet to cast a real offensive spell, in fact, most of my spells were utility spells so far. The two that caught my interest the most are [Spell Grenade], which lets me turn a spell into a grenade and toss it to have the spell effect everyone in range, and [Fabricate Arms], which allows me to make any weapon or armor out of pure mana for a short while. In the end, I choose...

Fabricate Arms: You can expend mana to temporarily construct a technological weapon or armor out of raw magic. You can create one suit of armor or weapon with an Item Level equal to or lower than your level by expending mana equal to 10 times the Item Level. The item appears in your hands, on your body, or nearby at your discretion.

The weapon or armor persists for a number of minutes equal to your level. At the end of this duration, the item disappears. You are proficient with all weapons and armor you create using this ability. You cannot create magic items, items made from special materials, or weapons that are expended with use such as grenades or missiles with this Magic Hack.

If you make a new suit of armor or weapon with this ability then any previously existing item will cease to exist.

With my old level up duties taken care of, it was time to do my new ones. First I drop both of my [Attribute Points] into [Reason] to bring it up to thirty-three. Even though my MP regeneration had gone up significantly with the huge boost to my mana pool, it would still cost me twenty-nine point one mana each time I wanted to cast a rank 3 spell. Not to mention the mana expended if I wanted to bulk cast spells like [Chameleon Cloak], [Spider Climb], or [Overcharge Weapon]. The more often I could use [Overcharge Weapon] in combat the better.

Up next I had four new spells to select. For my rank 1 spell, I decided to pick up [Atmo Sphere]. No, I didn't spell that wrong, it really is [Atmo Sphere]. It was a simple spell that would encase one or more targets inside of a bubble of tolerable atmosphere. I figured it would be a good tool to have on hand in case of a hull or spacesuit breach. For my rank 2 spell, I went with [Repair]. It was a straightforward spell that would allow me to use my mana to repair HP damage to objects. I'm not sure if I could use it on the ship or not, but it would come in handy for repairing damaged weapons and armor in the field.

Up next was the hardest part, choosing from a completely new spell list for my rank 3 spells.

Rank 3 Spells (29.1 MP)

* Arcane Sight - Magic becomes visible to you.

* Arcing Surge - Deal 10-60 Lightning damage in a 120-foot line.

* Displacement - Make your entire body blur, reducing the accuracy of enemies.

* Explosive Blast - Deal 10-60 Fire damage in a 20-foot radius.

* Handy Junkbot - Create a temporary robot made of junk to perform computers, engineering or piloting tasks.

* Haste - One creature per level moves at increased speeds.

* Healing Junkbot - Create a temporary robot out of junk to perform medical tasks and drag unconscious party members to safety.

* Instant Virus - Instantly create a computer virus that can affect technological constructs and computer systems.

* Irradiate - Flood an area with deadly radiation.

* Resistant Armor - Improve Kinetic or Energy damage reduction from armor by 5.

* Slow - One creature per level moves at slower speeds.

Call it what you want but [Arcing Surge] was clearly the classic Lightning Bolt spell and [Explosive Blast] was the classic Fireball spell. Which I had absolutely no problem with. However, there were quite a few good spells to select at this level making my decision rather hard. I could go offensive and grab either [Arcing Surge] and [Explosive Blast] with a utility spell. The problem is, neither of those spells would be safe to use inside of anything but the larger spaceships or rooms, unless I was outside of course.

After reading over the spells once more I make my decisions, [Explosive Blast] and [Haste]. While I couldn't use [Explosive Blast] in every situation, it would be extremely effective in the situations I could use it in. As for [Haste], moving faster, reacting faster, thinking faster and shooting faster was just all gravy. Now I needed to look at my two newest abilities and see what they would give me. First up, [Spell Capacitor].

Spell Capacitor Your Mana Capacitor is now upgraded to a Spell Capacitor, it retains all previous functions and gains a new function.

You may cast a single spell you know into the Spell Capacitor to have it affect you continuously for twenty-four hours. You must know a spell to store it in your Spell Capacitor. The spell must be a spell that can only target you and must be no higher than rank two. When you cast the spell you must make any decisions required by the spell, but the duration of the spell becomes twenty-four hours. If the spell is dispelled, dismissed, or otherwise interrupted before the duration expires you may spend five minutes focusing on the Spell Capacitor to re-initialize the spell for the remaining duration.

Wow. Just... wow. That was going to be amazing as hell. It sucked that I couldn't use [Haste] with it, but that still left me with [Flight], [Atmo Sphere], [Chameleon Cloak], [Holographic Mirror], and [Spider Climb]. All of which could last me for a full twenty-four hours. Grinning excitedly I lift my right arm to cast the [Flight Spell] into my new [Spell Capacitor].

Or at least I tried to. I stared in abject horror at what was left of my right arm. Which was basically nothing from the middle of my upper arm and down. There was nothing but white bandages stained red with my blood. I stare in silent horror for a time at the stub of what's left of my arm before I begin to scream at the top of my lungs. Hearts pounding away in my stomach I continue to scream over and over while I clutch at the stub of my missing arm.

Nania and Jerilda come crashing into my room at the sounds of my screams and try to calm me down. I can't hear anything they're saying as I panic and freak out. My fucking arm was gone! All I had left was a misshapen stub! Nania grabs something from my nightstand and stabs me in the neck with it. As whatever she's pumped into me makes its way through my bloodstream my body is forced to calm down. I collapse back on the bed and look up at the two women. I lick my suddenly dry lips and try to speak, but only end up coughing.

Jerilda steps away for a bit then returns with a small metal cup filled with water and holds it carefully while I greedily drink the cool contents. When I finish drinking I speak in a hoarse voice, "What... happened?"

Nania and Jerilda share a look with each other before focusing on me once again. Nania is the one to speak, "What do you remember?"

Thinking back is a little difficult with the drugs pumping through my veins but I remember, "We boarded the pirate ship, I hacked their fire suppression system and suffocated them. Just as I finished Jerilda shouted about pirates. After that, there was only pain and unconsciousness."

Nania nods and fills in the rest, "You were hit with a heavy plasma bolt. The bolt blew your arm clean off and the pain and blood loss knocked out you. There were three pirates, after they attacked you Jerilda used her Bulwark ability to provide cover for us. While she tended to you I took down the pirates. After that, we brought you and your arm back to the ship. We don't have a proper medical bay, or doctor, so the best we could do was bandage your arm and give you some painkillers. We stored your arm in the fridge to preserve it and attempted to jump to a nearby system to get you medical help. We couldn't do anything though because you locked down all of the ship's systems. We've been stuck here for nearly a day docked with a ship full of dead pirates. At this point, there's probably no chance your arm can be reattached."

I take a deep breath and once more look at what's left of my right arm. The pain was little more than a throb thanks to the drugs. I lower my arm and look at Nania, "How did they get out of the lockdown?"

Nania shrugs her shoulders, "After we made sure you were stable I went to investigate but all I found was an open bulkhead. They hadn't cut or blown through it, it was just open. Maybe it had a fault and just didn't close?"

I sigh and think about it. Maybe Celeste would know what happened, "My computer, do you have it?"

She nods and walks out of my sight to fetch it. Jerilda looks down at me, "How are you feeling, Master?"

She actually looks concerned, it's a good look on her so maybe me losing my arm was worth it. Yeah right! I give her a weak smile, "I'll be alright. I'm sure I can get a new arm when we get to Valencia."

She nods and speaks in a cheerful voice, "Yup! You can have a new one grown and surgically attached, or even get a cybernetic limb!"

You know, a cybernetic arm didn't sound so bad, as long as I could modify it myself and make it do crazy things. Nania returns and holds out my [Personal Computer] to me. One section of it is scorched and partially melted, but a glance at its stats show it's not completely broken. I carefully examine the broken section, fortunately, it's the area where the wireless communications for the computer are located and not the data storage. If the data had been destroyed Celeste, and the passwords for the ship, would be gone. I set the computer down, "Take me to the Tech Workshop. I need to fix this thing so Celeste can unlock the ship and we can go to Valencia."

I grip the edge of my blanket and throw it to the side so I can get out of bed. It's only at this point that I realize I am completely naked. Nania and Jerilda both blush as I flash them. Nania's cheeks turn a light red while Jerilda's gray cheeks turn a few shades darker. Both women spin around to face away from me. I have no idea what their problem is, for me to be naked it means at least one of them had to have undressed me. Besides, it's just nudity, it's not that big of a deal. I look at their backs and sigh, "You know, one of you is going to have to help me out of the bed and get dressed."

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Nania immediately turns to look at Jerilda, "You do it!"

Jerilda's antennae stand up straight as she faces Nania, "Why do I have to do it?!"

Nania puts on a look of superiority, "Because you're his slave and I am the second in command on this ship so I completely outrank you!"

I can't help but grin as they bicker. But I quickly wipe the grin off of my face and take on a serious look. Or at least a mock-serious one, "Jerilda."

Jerilda jumps when I say her name and makes a good show of looking in the complete opposite direction of where I am currently sitting, completely naked, "Jerilda, help me out of bed."

Jerilda lets out a groan while Nania laughs and makes a quick exit of my room to leave just Jerilda and me. Jerilda turns around but does her absolute best to look anywhere but directly at me. She moves closer and holds her arms out to me. I reposition myself on the bed and awkwardly scoot to the edge by hopping and pushing with my left arm. With my legs finally over the edge I hold my good arm out to Jerilda, "You're going to have to help me stand."

Okay, the truth? I'm pretty sure I could have stood up on my own. It's not like my bed was high off the ground, my feet could easily rest on the ground and I didn't even need to use my arms to stand. However, I did feel off balance, after all my right side was now several pounds lighter than my left. So I dutifully hold my arm out for Jerilda to use to help me stand up.

Blushing furiously Jerilda takes my left arm and carefully uses her much higher [Might] to carefully lift me to my feet. As soon as I am standing she turns around to look away from me once more. This next part was going to be fucking hilarious. I walk over to one of the places where clothing is stored and pull out one of the drawers to fetch an article of clothing. I walk back over to Jerilda and hold it out for her, "Help me with these."

Without looking at me she holds out her hand, so I place the piece of cloth in her hand. Taking a deep breath she unfolds the cloth and yelps then turns even darker as she blushes even more. It's a nice pair of boxers. She stammers incoherently as she looks at the clothing that I need her to help me put on. While she's befuddled I grin and say, "The sooner we get those on me, the sooner I'm not completely naked anymore."

Jerilda takes a deep breath, probably to calm her nerves and build up some courage. Slowly she turns around to face me, this time her eyes are focused completely on my face to help her avoid looking anywhere else. I can't help but give her a goofy grin, the look she gives me in return lets me know she is not a happy camper. She spreads the boxers open so it will be easy for me to step into them, then gets down on her knees in front of me while holding the boxers out. Her head is tilted down as far as it can go so she doesn't have to look at me. Chuckling at her antics I step one leg, then the other, into the boxers, "The way you're acting, it's like you've never seen a naked man before."

Jerilda's antennae twitch frantically, "O-of course I've seen a naked man before!"

That stutter wasn't very convincing Jerilda! I have to admit, this whole thing is hitting my sadist button pretty hard. I just wanted to spend even more time teasing her. "Jerilda, time to lift the boxers up. Don't worry after they're on I'll no longer be naked. Sorry for being your first."

I didn't know if I actually was the first naked man she'd seen but judging from the way her antennae were spasming I think I hit the nail on the head. It made me wonder how old Jerilda was in reality for this to be her first time encountering nudity in a VRMMO. With jerky movements, Jerilda slowly stands back up and pulls the boxers up until I am covered. Of course the entire time she does her absolute best to look anywhere but at me.

Now that I am dressed in a fresh set of boxers Jerilda seems to be calming down some. Too bad, she was a lot of fun to tease. The rest of my getting dressed was uneventful. I got on a pair of jeans and boots, though Jerilda insisted I should wear a shirt a few sizes too large to keep from aggravating my wounded arm. I agreed. With my dressing finished we exit my cabin and head to the Tech Workroom, Jerilda carrying my personal computer for me.

I have Jerilda set the [Personal Computer] on the workbench and pull up the schematic I used to create it. Using the schematic I initiate the repair process. It's pretty much just like making an item, except the areas highlighted green that I need to touch are contained only in the damaged area of the item. It takes three hundred and sixty-five of the MCU's but the [Personal Computer] is restored to perfect condition.

Skill Gained Computer Repair 1/100 (+0 Smarts)

Computer Repair +1

If you're wondering why I didn't use a spell to repair the computer, it's simple. I forgot I could until I was nearly done with the repairs. With the repairs completed one of the holographic emitters in the Tech Workshop light up and Celeste appears before us, "Captain! I was so worried! Are you alright?"

She really does look concerned for me. She notices my missing arm and her look becomes even more concerned, "Captain, you've been damaged!"

I lift the stub of my right arm and wave it at her, "Only a little. We'll get it repaired as soon as we get to Valencia. For the time being, I need you to remove all the locks on our computers so we can have access to the ship's systems again."

Celeste nods, "It's done captain, full functionality has been restored to the ship."

"Let Nania know. Do you still have access to the pirate ship Celeste?"

She nods again, "Yes Captain, as soon as my communications were restored I reconnected with the ship."

I nod, "Good, I need to know why the bulkhead that allowed the pirates to come an attack me was open. Run a diagnostic on it and let me know if there are any faults in the doors systems."

Celeste is quiet for a moment before she speaks up again, "There is no fault in the door, Captain."

I frown, "Then why was it open?"

She looks like she doesn't actually want to answer me, but she dutifully does, "It was your fault, Captain."

"My fault?"

Celeste nods, "I'm afraid so captain. During your hacking attempt of the fire suppression system, you made a mistake remember?"

I do, vaguely, remember making a single mistake, but nothing had happened I thought. Celeste continues, "When you made that mistake it re-initiated the safety protocols for that bulkhead. When the gas began to pour in, the bulkhead automatically opened and allowed the pirates inside to leave."

Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck! It was my damned fault that they got out and blew my goddam arm off. Because of a single mistake I made I got seriously injured. I couldn't help but be pissed off at myself, but at the same time, this is a serious lesson that I learned. Despite hacking being a powerful tool in my belt, it was not all-powerful. I need to be more careful and not rely purely on hacking to save the day.

"Close the pirate ships hatch as well as our own, then have the pirate ship disengage so we can move freely. Also, lock down the pirate ship's systems with a single code and give it to Nania."

Celeste does as I have asked while I walk over to a comm panel. At first I tried to push the button with my dominant right hand, but obviously, that didn't work. While using my left to push the button I call Nania, "Nania, Celeste should have given you to codes to the pirate ship's systems. I want you to contact the guild and let them know the ship is here. Make sure they know that anything of interest on the ship is ours. If they want to keep or sell the ship I want half of its value in credits transferred into my account."

I glance over at Celeste, "Give Nania my bank account info."

Nania replies over the comms, "Sure thing captain, but the guild pays seventy-five percent of a captured ships value."

"Even better then. Once all that is done take us into the corridor and get us to Valencia. I want a new fucking arm."

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Ah, the corridor. I fucking hate the corridor. Something about it was just unnerving on a primal level. We've been in the corridor for a day now and we still have another day and a half. I'm in constant pain and bored. It's a weird combination. Right now Nania and I are on the bridge of the ship, I thought to ask for piloting lessons but right now I'm not in the mood to do much of anything. The silence is annoying though so I decided to pester Nania, "Hey Nania, do you know how the Arcane Corridor Core works?"

She turns around in her seat and looks at me, "I don't know the exact science, but I know a little bit."

I gesture for her to continue so she does, "Are you familiar with the concept of mana gathering over time in places to crystallize and become crystals or stones that have magical power?"

I nod, it was a staple in games with fantasy elements. Mana would seep into a place over time and slowly grow to become a crystal or stone that could then be used in crafting, spells, and other things. Nania continues, "Well here mana can slowly coalesce over time to become a crystal. If that crystal is left alone to condense and gather even more mana it becomes a stone. Mana stones are powerful sources of magic, but obviously, they're nowhere near powerful enough for them to power a starship at faster than light speeds. Instead, scientists discovered that if you artificially compressed mana into a mana stone it would grow more and more powerful until it reached a third state. A mana singularity."

I interrupt her, "What, like a black hole?"

She nods, "Pretty much. Only it didn't affect anything but mana. You could stand next to it without it having an effect on you... well aside from the massive amounts of magical power it puts out or having your mana completely drained out of you. Once a mana stone becomes a mana singularity it begins to gather ambient mana all on its own. Each FTL core has a mana singularity inside of it. When we are in normal space the singularity pulls in ambient mana, but there is no mana in the corridor so the core ends up expelling power without gaining any back. Until we return to normal space."

I think about that for a moment, "So it's kind of like a really complicated magical battery? While in the corridor we drain it, but as soon as we leave it begins to recharge?"

She nods, "Exactly. So ships have a limit to how far they can travel before they need to exit the corridor to allow the mana singularity to regain some of it's lost power. It's possible to travel past that limit, but that would drain the singularity until it became a mana stone once more."

"So we have to be careful with how much time we spend in the corridor and how much time we spend in normal space?"

Nania nods, "It's about a one to one ratio between time spent in normal space to time that can be spent in the corridor. This ship has plenty of power in reserve before that becomes anything close to an issue. The person originally using this ship left the guild so it's just been sitting in the dock for about a month charging."

"Are mana singularities used for anything else? Like weapons?", I ask.

Nania nods, "Some of the capital ships have massive beam weapons that have their own mana singularity cores. They tend to drain the cores to critical levels and require days or weeks to get back to a full usable charge again. Someone even once made bombs out of the singularities. However, anywhere one of those bombs was set off it was a disaster. Not only for the beings living in the area but afterward too. Once a mana singularity explodes in that fashion it creates a mana dead zone. In a mana dead zone, you can't recharge a mana singularity and your mana regen becomes zero."

I feel the blood drain a little from my face, "What about if an ACC melts down?"

I had to ask because of the ship I deliberately detonated. Granted it was in space so if it did create a dead zone it wouldn't be very harmful and easy to get through. Nania shakes her head, "No, it has something to do with how the bombs were detonated, but a meltdown just causes a normal explosion."

I let out a sigh and relax in my seat, thank god. If I had accidentally created a mana dead zone that would have sucked. I sit in silence and think over everything that Nania had told me. It was pretty interesting stuff.

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The next day and a half of game time were boring as hell, I spent a large chunk of it out in the real world taking care of things. But when the time to leave the corridor approached I made sure to be logged in and sitting on the bridge of my ship. Nania and Jerilda were on the bridge with me, though Jerilda had trouble even looking at me without blushing.

Over the last two and a half days I had made sure to properly change my clothing once a day and to take a proper shower. Naturally, I had Jerilda help me with these things, after all with only my left arm how was I going to properly scrub my back? She had tried to adamantly refuse to help me shower, but I just put on a bit of 'woe is me' and she folded. The sight of her blushing furiously had only further fueled my belief that she was most definitely young, a virgin, and had no idea how to handle herself in such situations.

Now, I'm not a fucking pervert who is into kids. To even log into StarPath you had to be at least eighteen years old and there was absolutely no way to get around the age verifications for VRMMO games with age restrictions. My guess is she's newly turned eighteen and this is her first time playing a game like this. I don't know anything about her real life, but for her to be like she is it must have been a pretty sheltered life.

Nania turns around, "We're exiting the corridor, Captain."

As soon as she finishes speaking the absolute blackness of the corridor is replaced with the blackness and stars of normal space. I let out a sigh of satisfaction at the sight of the stars once more visible outside of the ships viewports. I turn to look at Nania, "Take us to the VC-5A Orbital. We've got an appointment and we're extremely late for it."

Nania nods, "Aye aye, Captain."

She turns back around and expertly pilots the ship to the orbital and docks us on it. With her at the helm flying through space is a lot less stressful. After I got my new arm I was going to have to take the time to get more piloting lessons from her until she felt I could handle the ship properly.

We leave the ship shortly after docking. Nania is wearing her usual stealth suit type armor with her large revolver looking gun on her hip. Jerilda is wearing the armor that looks like a weird mix of Kevlar and full plate mail with a [Laser Pistol] on her hip. I know for a fact that both of them are carrying an array of deadly weapons in their [Utility Belts]. As for me, I'm stuck in civilian clothing with my [Merciful Holy Mana Pistol] strapped to my left thigh. Turns out it's a bit of a pain in the ass to wear armor when you're missing limbs. Still, we weren't expecting any trouble and if there was trouble Nania and Jerilda would be protecting me while we retreated. I was in no condition to fight.

Once we disembark the ship I have Celeste access the local open network and get a map of the orbital. She displays it as a hologram above my left arm. It's like a gigantic tin can, including the hollow center. The walls of the station are miles thick and in the open center is almost nothing but greenery. The trees and plants made a huge park that provided the oxygen for the station. It was thousands of square miles and well maintained since it was the lifeline of everyone on the orbital.

Following the directions from Celeste, we head to one of the gyro lifts that traversed the station in every direction. It takes us almost half an hour on the lift before we finally make it to the professor's laboratory. Stepping off of the lift we push the doorbell and wait. After a few minutes, we press it again and again until the professor finally storms over and throws the door open, "What the hell do you... Oh, it's you. What the hell took you so long?"

Still the same attitude as before. I'm starting to think it has nothing to do with me forgetting his name. In response to his question I lift my right arm and wave the stub around, which causes the empty sleeve of my jacket to wave in the air. "Sorry professor, we ran into some pirates and they didn't want to just do their duty and die without fighting back."

He looks at my arm and then looks at me, at least a small part of his perpetual anger seems to fade, "Fine, fine. At least you got here." He holds out his hand and makes a motion, "Give it to me."

I sigh and operate my [Utility Belt] to retrieve the little black cube and hand it to him. His eyes practically sparkle as he looks at the little thing. Now, don't get me wrong. I didn't trust this guy as far as I could throw him, but we had enough weapons, explosives, and grit to blow up his entire lab and take my prize back from him if necessary. He, wisely, gestures for us to follow him into his lab.