The next day Chuck headed to the guild. He took along Raz and Maz and they walked there as usual. It was a bit of a hike, but he thought it was good exercise and the bear siblings didn’t seem to mind. He had stopped wearing his hood since it seemed like the people had gotten used to seeing him. He got stares occasionally but nobody bothered him. Chuck still felt that he was being followed from time to time, but had never seen anyone and no one had tried to stop him. At this point, he chocked it up to the governor or one of the officials keeping tabs on him. Chuck rather enjoyed walking through the city. It didn’t smell bad, like he would expect from a medieval city and the streets were kept clean. He thought it might have something to do with the citizen’s heightened sense of smell. Also, contrary to the way the guard captain made it sound, there didn’t seem to be a lot of crime in the city. Chuck did notice poor people begging on street corners in places, but he supposed that was to be expected. Another surprising fact was that there was no slavery. It seemed it had been outlawed long ago.

They reached the alchemy guild uneventfully and were taken to the guild master. Nox was already there and they both smiled when he arrived. “Good morning. You will be happy to know we have completed one of the projects you gave us.” Alz said, getting straight to business. “Really, so soon. Which project?” Chuck asked excitedly. He guessed the projects would take years to figure out, if ever. To have one finished in a few short weeks was unbelievable. Nox handed him a metal container with symbols all over it. It was a little smaller than a 5 gallon bucket and had a built in funnel, also made out of metal. Chuck thought it might be made of copper or something similar. “This is?” He asked, picking up the container. “That is the gasoline as you call it. The container is similar to the water skin you acquired earlier. It will absorb magical energy from the surroundings and produce the gasoline.” Alz explained, gesturing to the container.

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Chuck’s jaw dropped to the floor and he became speechless. It was essentially an unlimited amount of gas. His head was spinning. The possibilities seemed endless, just think if they had this back on Earth. “So wait, can you duplicate any type of liquid?” Chuck finally managed to squeeze out. “We can duplicate most liquids, yes. As long as we have a sample to analyze. Unfortunately the process doesn’t work very well with fermented drinks. The product always tastes bad, but we are still experimenting.” Nox said confidently. Chuck opened the lid and it indeed smelled like gasoline. Theoretically, this meant that they could produce antifreeze, engine oil, transmission oil, and the other fluids his vehicle used. The most crucial for now would be engine oil as his old truck burned oil, and he had to add more from time to time. He would also need to change the oil eventually. This would hopefully keep his pickup running. “Magic can do anything.” He thought, not for the first time.

”That is amazing! If that is the case, I want you to try and duplicate oil next. I’ll give you a sample right away.” Chuck said grinning like an idiot. Luckily he had a partial jug of oil in his tool box since he had to add oil so often. That reminded him, he really needed to get to work on a proper garage for his pickup. With this, he should be able to drive to the capital. He still wasn’t quite sure how far away it was, but he was told several days by carriage anyway. Hopefully that would make him seem more impressive to any shape shifters. Chuck was painfully aware how weak he was compared to nearly everyone else. He couldn’t even perform magic. Chuck felt he really needed his technology and knowledge from another world to give him a boost. If he could work with the guild to make some things from his own world, and make enough money that he wasn’t counting on the governor every month, then he would look even better. At least he would feel better anyway. He had to remember to think positively. It was tough being the only human around.