"Kitty!" shouted Phoenix and passed through an empty place I was just a moment ago.
"But Darling, that was just an accident, I already said I am sorry." I giggled while teleporting all over the room.
After night lessons, my Space Time Magic was now at level six, and with it, I could use teleportation just like Phoenix. Sadly, save for Enchantment Magic, I couldn't learn his other magic, just like he couldn't learn my phantom skills.
Without wizard class, I was unable to summon his grimoire, and all his knowledge about magic was how he activates it through that book. In the case of phantom skills, Phoenix simply couldn't make them work. I don't know what we are missing, but it seems that for now, it's impossible to learn class-specific skills.
Still, with the memories I obtained from him, I had an inspiration and managed to create 'lightning armor'. It was a skill that channels a strong current of electricity through your own body .. it was a skill also harmful to the user, and not long after I obtained it, I acquired lightning resistance as well.
"...being sorry won't save you. You need to be punished!" with a fake anger Phoenix still tried to catch me.
"Fine, fine. Pfff. I submit. W .. what will be my p.. punishment?" I asked after I let him capture me. It was difficult to speak as I could hardly contain my laughter.
I failed to mention that when I learned 'lightning armor', Phoenix was nearby, sleeping. Just imagine how it feels being awakened by a strong current of electricity.
"You will pay with your body!" said Phoenix with an evil smile, and started to strip me of my clothes, sadly his perfect villain image was ruined by his afro hairstyle... With his long hair, it looked hilarious. Like I said, a strong current of electricity...
"If this is a punishment, I think I like being naughty." I said and while trying my best to not hinder what he was doing, brushed his hair to get them into a normal state. Small sparks of electricity could still be seen on his body here and there.
"Is that so? Hmm .. " started to think Phoenix, then suddenly a grin appeared on his face "Turn around."
From behind? I .. I guess we could try that as well...
"But just once. You still need to alter your bones, and as a leader, you can't be late again." I said while walking to the bed, a bit eager to try something new... I mean... to receive my punishment.
*
When we entered the Guild, Tia left her seat to greet us. Darson with his slaves was missing, but the rest were already here.
"I knew it! Leader. Don't you fear of getting her pregnant?" shouted Tia after sniffing us a bit. "...or this is your plan all along?"
"You don't need to worry about that. She has many secrets." smiled Phoenix and after sitting at the table put me on his lap.
I was already impatiently waiting for him to do that, sitting somewhere else just didn't feel right.
"Don't be jealous, Tia. If he doesn't make a move, you should make it yourself." I smiled and looked at Elmor.
"I .. I have no idea what you are t.. talking about." shuttered Tia and sat in her seat while avoiding eye contact with the minotaur, who was looking at her with a grin.
When Phoenix started to caress my ears. I couldn't stop myself from purring in delight and melted in his embrace. Now, this is a life!
"So what's our plan for today?" asked Jack while looking at us weirdly.
"After Darson .. nevermind, he is already here." said Phoenix while looking at the entrance. Darson with his slaves just entered through the door and started heading in our direction.
"We will visit our workshop. After some experiments, for anyone interested, we will make guns similar to this." said Phoenix and summoned Hano type gun in his hand.
At first, I had no intention to share firearms with anyone save for Phoenix, but I changed my mind when they became our teammates. During a pillow talk last night we came to this decision together. With Champions already in this world, it's only a matter of time before similar weapons start appearing anyway.
"Wow. really?" shouted Tia with excitement.
"For a price." I quickly added.
"Boo! I thought we were friends!" said Tia while playing a hurt person. "Don't you swim in gold already? What do you even need it for? Oh, I know! You must be planning to build a castle."
"I think most of it goes for the food." offered his opinion Jack.
A Castle? That's an interesting idea. Well, maybe not necessarily a castle, but a nice place we can call a home sounds very tempting. With teleportation, we could get there anytime we want. Sure, the Inn isn't bad, and I grew to like it, I have many pleasant memories tied to that place... But we can't live there forever...
"Wait! Really?" Tia widened her eyes when noticed my thoughtful expression.
"Maybe." I smiled in reply.
"Ha!. You would need at least few thousands of gold, and that's the easiest part. It's nearly impossible without good connections, and even then, it might take years before you get permission." said Darson who was now close, and was looking for a place to sit.
Good morning." waved her hand Miriel.
"Greetings." slightly bowed her brother Turion, Jax and Derea just nodded their head.
*
The puddle of melted metal started moving on its own as if alive, it separated into countless drops of metal and each started taking a shape of cartridges for bullets. I decided to make traditional bullets of my old world, well, almost... The blackpowder will be replaced with a special crystal that can store an enchantment of explosion. They are a bit unstable and can't hold the enchantment for long, but this is hardly a problem when they are frozen in time...
That's because now we have spatial magazines! With our Enchantment Magic at level eight, my dream of having guns with unlimited ammo isn't a dream anymore. Well, technically they can't hold more than few cubic meters, but that's more than enough to unleash a hell on our enemies without the need to reload a gun even once.
All this trouble with old design of bullets is because not all of our members have a large amount of mana. The crystal holding enchantment (replacement of blackpowder) has enough mana to detonate and all you need is an almost nonexistent amount of mana to trigger the process. With the help of metal manipulation, what I once considered a waste of time, could be done just in a moment.
Just a bit more and I will have enough strength to manipulate metal like never before. Without even melting it down, I could make it act like a liquid. Of course, that would require a lot more mana, but it will be possible to make weapons without a forge, with my bare hands so to speak.
With a part of my consciousness still working on cartridges, I started to channel mana into another piece of metal. It's time to make guns.
Arcana Blacksmithing reached level 2.
Arcana Blacksmithing reached level 3.
Metal Manipulation reached level 4.
Heat Resistance reached level 4.
Heat Absorption reached level 2.
Enchantment Magic reached level 9.
*
"What Is this?" asked Tia curiously while looking over my shoulder.
Now that I had metal manipulation and wasn't the only arcana blacksmith, it didn't take long before we armed everyone in our group.
"Experiment." I answered while looking at a miniature white ball the size of a fingernail, my newest pet project.
With lightning, enchantment magic and metal manipulation at my disposal, I just had to try it. This is the first CPU in the making!
I had no illusions of finishing it today. Even with my enhanced mind, though acceleration and the ability to control metals at molecular level, it was an impossible task. We are talking about millions of transistors arranged in a specific order, and all within that tiny ball!
Still, one has to start somewhere...
I concentrated again, and by using metal manipulation, started guiding a web of 'threads' within the ball, invisible to the eye. I had to use a lot of force, so the 'threads' of metal could drill even a micron. The reason for this was a material the ball was made from. It was a special bone made with the synthesis, and had almost the same composition as my new bones.
It has a nice shock absorption, is sturdy. and has almost zero electrical conductivity. Just like books said, lightning magic is useless against formida. Sadly, the lightning resistance of my body is still far from matching my bones.
Thought Acceleration reached level 3.
Metal Manipulation reached level 5.
I wiped away the sweat from my forehead and looked at Phoenix. Keeping my attention on thousands of threads with metal manipulation was mentally very exhausting, and for all my effort, CPU was only one quarter done.
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I was wrong. If I fully committed to its creation, I think I could finish before the end of the day. But that would be boring, it's not like I am in a dire need for it.
Phoenix was almost done with the last arm-guard. He placed his hand on the still glowing metal hovering in the air and with a steam raising from the contact, the metal quickly regained its usual color.
Even with my heat resistance, at first I was wary to cool off things like this, I used heat absorption (which I learned from Phoenix) only through phantom claws. Fascinating, just as expected from one with name Phoenix, he isn't afraid of fire in the slightest.
It didn't take long for Phoenix to become arcana blacksmith. Even with all the knowledge of poisons and whatnot, I wasn't alchemist at the start. It was the same with blacksmithing for Phoenix and Enchantment Magic for me. We had to 'prove' our knowledge to the system so to speak.
Those arm-guards were personalized bags of holding, and their main purpose was to allow our friends quickly summon and store their weapons at the moments notice. After all, they don't have Space Time Magic like us.
"Done." said Phoenix and tossed the arm-guard to me.
After making many of them, he was now capable to enchant them while they were still in the making.
I summoned unfinished CPU inside my dimension and caught tossed arm-guard mid-air. After I coated it with leather from the inner side, it was finished. Just like the rest, the arm-guard had an engraved picture of red paw, and It was a symbol of our party.
"To the dungeon?" I asked after giving the arm-guard to Elmor.
"Hey! Some of us don't have a single level in accuracy. We need to train how to use them." objected Jack.
"Pff! How hard is to direct red dot at your enemies." mocked Darson.
He was playing with few ST 2 in his hands by aiming guns at various places. By the way, 'ST 2' stands for 'Silver Thunder' second generation.
With our enchantment magic at new heights, I upgraded this model. First of all, it has a spatial magazine, banking over three thousand bullets.
Secondly, we completely removed the explosion enchantment. With special enchantment in barrels creating a distortion in the space, the bullet is 'warped' at the speed slightly faster than before .. and almost without sound.
"A short practice of target shooting in the fields should suffice. It's very easy to raise accuracy with those weapons, and obtained skill will further aid the aim." started speaking Phoenix. "Later we can stroll from the second floor all the way to the fourth, with different enemies you will get used to weapons even more. If we are lucky, we might even find formida again."
"That's unlikely. Our Master was trying to get his hands on that summon for a long time. Sometimes we wouldn't see one for weeks." joined conversation Turion.
*
"Hahahahaha!" laughed Darson like a madman while killing monsters left and right.
It was an odd sight to see arachne with a gun in each hand. He was the only one with so many ST 2 type weapons, and had eight of them in his possession. Two on his real body, two on arachne and four more temporary in the hands of his slaves, waiting for the moment when he obtains a summon of formida - one for each hand.
<< STATUS >> Name: Darson Akane Gorval'dur Health: 1755/1769 Level: 29 Mana: 245/390 Race: Arachne Stamina: 2007/2024 Gender: Male Strength: 233 Age: 1 Agility: 185 Class: Summoner Endurance: 214 Subclass: None Mind Power: 78 State: Healthy, Slaves (Turion, Miriel, Derea, Jax) Unallocated attribute points 0
<< SKILLS >> ACTIVE Seal (Special) LVL 2 Mana Manipulation LVL 4 Transfer (Special) LVL 2 Scent Manipulation LVL 3 Poison Spit LVL 2 Poison Synthesis LVL 5 Sprint LVL 4 Thread Weaving LVL 4 Optical Camouflage LVL 5 PASSIVE Poison Resistance LVL MAX Nightvision LVL 2 Cold Resistance LVL 1 Enhanced Hearing LVL 2 Stealth LVL 7 Enhanced Sight LVL 2 Quick Cast LVL 2 Enhanced Smell LVl 2 Accuracy LVL 6 Enhanced Health LVL 2 Acrobatics LVL 4 Enhanced Stamina LVL 3 Handguns Mastery LVL 2 Enhanced Toughness LVL 2 Mana Perception LVL 6
<< MAGIC >> Summoning (Special) LVL 3
It was very different from the status of his real body.
<< STATUS >> Name: Darson Akane Gorval'dur Health: 606/606 Level: 29 Mana: 1016/1016 Race: Elf Stamina: 347/347 Gender: Male Strength: 101 Age: 38 Agility: 44 Class: Summoner Endurance: 101 Subclass: Alchemist Mind Power: 127 State: Healthy, Slaves (Turion, Miriel, Derea, Jax) Unallocated attribute points 0
<< SKILLS >> ACTIVE Seal (Special) LVL 2 Mana Manipulation LVL 4 Transfer (Special) LVL 2 Meditation LVL 7 PASSIVE Eternal LVL 1 Mana Perception LVL 6 Cold Resistance LVL 1 Nightvision LVL 2 Poison Resistance LVL 3 Enhanced Hearing LVL 2 Alchemy LVL 4 Enhanced Sight LVL 2 Quick Cast LVL 2 Enhanced Health LVL 1 Accuracy LVL 6 Enhanced Mana Pool LVL 2 Handguns Mastery LVL 2
<< MAGIC >> Summoning (Special) LVL 3
Some skills of his real body were transfered to the summon, and I read that at higher levels, if the body is capable to hold that skill, opposite is possible as well.
Level Up.
You have reached level 21.
"We should leave some monsters for others too. Don't you think it's a time to head to another floor?" I asked while looking at a sea of corpses behind us. This is what happens when an enthusiastic group, armed to the teeth, enters a dungeon to test their new toys.
A swarm of used bullets was slowly floating to me.
As I made them myself, they were marked with my mana and it was possible to move them with metal manipulation. There was no need to waste them, as I could remake them into new bullets.
"I don't think so." said Phoenix while pointing at his glowing guild badge.
This was a signal for us from the Captain of the Guards. The assault on the base of assassins was ready...