Thariel groaned as she hefted a crate of potions, she let out a breath of relief when the darn thing finally left her tired arms and fell onto the wagon.

Even when she wasn't physically fit, doing something like this in the past wouldn't even phase her, but the physical exercise (torture) she's done these last few nights had left her entire body bruised.

It was incredibly painful to move and even standing took a lot from her, straight up, doing physical activities was very hard for her right now.

She's about to head to Streamwise to deliver the potions she promised Liora and this otherwise simple event was a godsend in Thariel's eyes.

Why? Because she'll finally get a break.

On that note, her delivery is going fine and she's made more than the 20 strength and durability boosts potions she initially planned.

She added another 10 poison resistance potions as an extra because she had the time to brew them yesterday. Thariel hoped that they will help the frontier's army when dealing Ytallotiks.

With a ship visiting the village later today, Liora would have no trouble selling the potions and that meant that the merchant would pay Thariel her due in the same day as her delivery.

Thariel felt happy knowing that she'll come home 300 gold richer.

Besides Liora, she also needed to check on the blacksmith and see if he finished the parts she commissioned from him.

A rifle-shaped rail gun would mean that she wouldn't have space for her spear on her person but who needs a spear when you have a freaking rail gun?!

Anyhow, if she did want to carry a spear around- she doesn't, - then maybe she can ask the blacksmith to make one with a foldable body or something.

Maybe she can even ask him to make multiple, which would allow her to throw her spears without worrying about losing her melee weapon but again, spear throws were simply redundant when faced with alchemical bullets.

But eh, these were all the plans she's only considering for the time being and besides her initial goal- to sell her potions and check the rail gun parts, - she's not actually gonna do any of them when she arrives at Streamwise.

Thariel grabbed the reins of Rarla, the mule huffed, "well, I'm going now," she said to her mother, "see you later,"

"Goodbye, oh, and make sure you buy meat, we're running out of it," replied the redhead as she sent Thariel off, "I wish you the best of luck,"

"Thanks," with one last smile, Thariel turned away and whipped Rarla's reins.

One of the few benefits she got from this entire training thing was the fact that she got to eat a lot of meat during dinner.

Her lunch and breakfast were more balanced though, with the former consisting of nothing but fibrous greens these last few days.

If she were ever an athlete in her past life, Thariel assumed that this kind of thing would be her diet, she wasn't though so she had no clue if this was true or not.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The drive to Streamwise was a bit dull, Thariel had nothing better to do but sit back and relax.

She supposed it was good for her health, be it mental or physical. A break wasn't so bad.

She stared at the road ahead in a carefree way, the lack of walking on her part made everything relaxing, it also made her feel antsy, she was getting used to doing things instead of being idle.

Thariel decided to work on her blueprints.

She's been testing the power output of amethysts for sometime now, she didn't have any devices to calculate voltages sure- maybe she should have bought quartz? Should she buy some? Eh. - but at the same time, she didn't really need to calculate voltages as a whole, just see what works and what doesn't when shooting bullets.

Her tests so far utilized a rudimentary rail she made with prongs and iron rods, it wasn't quite a rail gun, but it was close and with it, she was able to slowly figure out how to make her weapon work.

With her prototype rail gun, well- a test rail gun was a more accurate description for it since it could barely be considered a sling, let alone a proper rifle. It was just a U-shaped metal rod that shot out iron balls-

Anyyyways!

While working on more of her calcs and equations, she managed to get satisfactory results that could be toned down to the shape of a rifle.

The problem is though, her calcs were a bit volatile, the problems came from two things; power output and the weapon's durability.

The only way to solve it without using stronger metals was to reduce the amount of amethysts she'll socket into the weapon, this lowers the power output but then putting more amethysts causes physical strain on the weapon itself and...

She's just repeating herself now, the point is that she either used stronger metals or she greatly reduces the power of the rail gun's shots.

Well, there was a third solution; work with the materials she has now and then make her actual rail gun in the future.

Thariel hoped that her current rail gun was functional enough to be used until she got to the Academy, which was unfortunately pretty unlikely. She'll definitely have to make more after the first prototype breaks.

Besides those glaring flaws, she didn't find any other problem in her blueprint or her math so everything about the rail gun was otherwise fine.

Halfway through, Thariel stopped checking the design of her rail gun and instead began to etch out a blueprint for her spear.

The folded handle was a bit of a pain, as there's no realistic way for regular iron to be tough enough to still be used as a spear after all the modification she's planning to its shape.

Her only option left was to use folded bronze as a material, which isn't expensive but the metal is priced just high enough that Thariel thought it wouldn't be worth it to make multiple spears out of the stuff.

Thariel still made a blueprint anyways and she managed to finish it by the time she reached Streamwise. She didn't plan on using it anytime soon.

Or ever.

The drive to Three Ways market had been brief and when she reached Liora's shop, the merchant was already waiting outside, ready to greet her with a nod.

Liora gestured for her to follow and Thariel drove the cart while being the merchant's tail. They soon reached the back of the shop.

"You work fast," complimented Liora as Thariel hopped off the driver's seat.

The merchant walked towards the wagon and opened one of the crates, she pulled out a strength boost potion and inspected it.

"As promised, this is half of the total amount, with a few extra that had been added," Thariel explained while taking off her hood, "it's 20 strength and durability boost potions as well as 10 poison resistances,"

"Poison resistances hm?" Liora opened the crate with such a label on it and checked, "I see," the merchant nodded after a brief glance at the contents, "why poison resistance?"

"Ytallotiks," Thariel explained simply, "they utilize poison way too much,"

10 poison resistances wasn't a lot when compared to the sheer number of soldiers that can be potentially afflicted by the Ytallotiks's poison in a battlefield but Thariel hoped they would at least be able to save a life or two.

It didn't change the fact that it was simply better for soldiers to wear masks to not inhale the poisonous mist that the squids were so fond of using however, as prevention is always better than cure.

Still, getting poisoned was a real possibility and during that time, her potions would have their use.

"I think that fire resistance were a better choice since Martollians are more of a threat at the moment," suggested Liora.

"Ytallotiks are dangerous," Thariel said seriously.

Liora gave Thariel a strange look, "the squids don't pose much of a threat with their current numbers, I think fire resistance potions would have been better,"

"The Ytallotiks aren't a threat?" Asked an incredulous Thariel.

"Yes?" Liora replied, "sure they're individually powerful, and we don't know where they came from but we're able to take out their cells with technological or spell-based artillery without issue,"

So this was the point in the timeline where the squids still weren't much of a threat, and they're nothing more than an annoyance?

Have they not built the Gap Generator yet?

"Don't the Ytallotiks use portal spells?" Thariel decided to ask instead of wondering about it. If the squids still haven't opened a gateway to their homeworld then there's a genuine possibility for change.

"Not as far as I know, no," says the merchant, "but they do have the potential to do it, as they're powerful spell casters," Liora hummed, "huh, that makes me wonder why they don't utilize portal spells in the first place,"

Because the squids don't understand how space works here- Thariel decided to keep quiet about that.

"Right," Thariel nodded, a change in topic was needed, she had a lot to think about for the time being, "so uhm, I heard that a ship was coming here?"

"It's scheduled to arrive around noon," confirmed Liora, "don't worry, I will be able to sell your potions and give you your cut before the day is over,"

"Mhmm," Thariel smiled, she expected as much, "say, do you sell maps?"

"I do, yes," Liora raised an eyebrow, "why?"

"Nothing important, I also want to buy a few blank scrolls, if that's okay with you?" Thariel added, she didn't want to take initiative but she wouldn't get another opportunity like this ever again.