Magicraft master a mass.., p.11
MagiCraft Master: A Mass Isekai LitRPG, page 11
“How many bullets do you even have?” Logan asked none of the agents in particular.
“What’s it to you?” one of the goons answered in an unfriendly tone.
“You could just tell me.”
The agent hawked and spat and walked a few paces forward.
Logan scoffed. “You’re going to be better off throwing spears until we can figure out bows.”
“We are well aware of the strange physics at play here,” another agent said. This one was large and dark haired. Jefferson was his name … ? Maybe.
“You guys should wait until we find some crystals, so I can make some enchanted spearheads,” Logan said.
Maybe-Jefferson grunted and the conversation died.
Fine. Starve then, idiots.
Just then, a green panther was foolish enough to jump at them from the bushes and Logan quickly took it down with his scythe-rang. Then Balmer built a fire and they cooked and ate every morsel that the beast had to offer. Sure, they had some berries and cooked fish with them, but they’d rather save them for as long as possible.
After a couple of hours, they arrived where Logan had fended off those three scythe-fiends. It was the safer option. The other ruins had the giant Numa crystal, which would have been a massive boon, but there was also that splitting monster the size of an elephant guarding it. There was no way they would be able to defeat it. Fool it and trap it? Maybe, but it was too risky.
The afternoon sun was burning down hot on them and Logan looked forward to entering the cool ruins. They stood at the doorway overtaken by vegetation by the passage of time. But it was clear that the sharply-cut stone was man-made. Or at least made by someone …
Logan turned to the agents. “You sure you idiots don’t want me crafting spearheads or something for you?”
CHAPTER 20
Ilike it when you give your stick to me,” Kat said as she took the “flashlight” Logan had fashioned from an [Enchanted] piece of wood.
“Really?” Logan asked. Balmer was snickering at that, so Logan shoved him his flash-stick extra forcefully.
The three of them were moving at the helm of their formation. The gatherers had been left outside with two of the agents to find the rest of them a snack. Logan wasn’t sure if he wanted to return outside anytime soon, but at least the agents behind him would hopefully leave in not-too-long.
Not only because they were dumb goons, but because the faster they found some Numa, the better.
Logan had been exceedingly lucky with that room he had been trapped in. They quickly found similar rooms, but the floating crystal constructs were spent.
They checked room after room in the corridors roped with blue light. Logan tried using [Funnel] on them immediately upon arrival, but it didn’t work. Tumor figured they were insulated by some spell.
The agents stormed into each room with experienced precision as Logan stood by each doorway, ready to throw the scythe-rang at anything hostile. They found nothing living or moving, except for one unusual exception. In the fifth room, they all noticed a score of tiny blue beetles, glowing with the distinct hue of Numa, scuttling around the floor. As soon as they entered the room, the insects scattered and vanished into what must have been some hidden crack in the wall.
Nobody commented on the bugs, but they certainly piqued Logan’s interest. To the chagrin of the agents, Logan searched throughout the room, crawling and crouching on the smooth stone floors for a long while, while the agents and Kat made whispered allusions to the possibility that Logan had finally lost it.
These bugs could hold an insane amount of potential if they could be harvested. Why were they here and not in the other rooms?
Logan found his answer eventually: three shards of the faintest glowing blue. Logan picked one up.
[F-grade Numa crystal, 17%]
All three of the crystals had a negligible amount of charge left. But they were a promising start. At least the ruins or the dungeon—whatever you called it—wasn’t completely cleared.
Were the bugs eating these?
“I found some Numa,” Logan told them. His voice echoed far into the distance of the dark corridors.
“Enough?” the dark-haired goon asked.
“Not even close,” Logan muttered.
Not that it’s a waste, but, boy, is it going to take a decent chunk of Numa to even make one proper spear for these goons. I need to [Transmute] it in order to shape a stick, and [Enchant] it with sharpness and durability, at the least. Using [Empower] would be a waste, since they couldn’t charge the sticks later. At least a couple of full-charge [F-grade Numa crystals] are needed.
There were no further bugs to be seen, but the seventh room they stormed contained three more of those floating Numa-constructs—two of them empty, one left with the faintest charge. Logan rushed to inspect it.
[D-grade Numa crystal, 15%]
“Yes!” Logan hissed. “This is enough.”
“That doesn’t look like much,” Kat said as she moved over to Logan.
“It’s a high-grade crystal,” Logan said. “Look.”
“That’s enough?” Balmer asked as he brushed up to him to take a look at the crystal.
Logan scoffed. “For a few sharp sticks?”
Then he turned to the agents standing by the doorway. “I need you big boys to go gather some nice-looking sticks and stones so I can make your toys.”
The dark-haired agent made a face. “Why didn’t you just have us bring the stuff here in the first place?”
Logan brought a hand over his mouth in mock shock. “Oh no! I must have forgotten.”
With the disgruntled agents gone, Logan was left alone with Balmer and Kat. Not exactly his ideal company, but Kat seemed chill enough.
“You guys gonna just sit around and wait?” she asked as she peeked out of the room.
“That is what we agreed on,” Balmer said.
Kat stuck out her tongue. “Boring! Come on. Let’s go find some of those bugs Logan liked. You know, you’re hot, but being interested in bugs is gross, you know?”
“Hey, if it stops you from sexually harassing me, let’s go and find some bugs.”
“It probably won’t,” Kat said. “But you can try.”
“Hey!” Balmer said, in a miffed tone. “We agreed to wait here.”
“It will take them at least half an hour to get back … if they don’t get lost.”
“Every one of us has been highly trained with memorization techniques that—”
“Bored,” Kat said as he walked out of the door, Logan at her heels. “You coming, Straitlace?”
After a few paces, Logan and Kat were joined by a muttering Agent Balmer. Logan smirked to himself. Kat was doing a good job of annoying the young goon. It was important that someone did most of the heavy lifting in that department so that he could focus on paying attention.
Kat and Balmer bickered in clipped tones as they checked two more rooms. They came up empty. They were just about to turn a corner when they suddenly heard a strange sound.
A low, rumbling gurgle echoed through the dark corridors. A faint bubbling noise followed it. It seemed to be coming closer, followed by echoes of clickity scuttling. Logan immediately became more alert and directed his light-stick in the direction of the sound. He made a hand gesture to silence and still his two companions.
The clicking didn’t sound like the scythe-fiends, but there was something ominous about it. While the screeching horrors had been very straightforward and violent, this was something else.
He had an overwhelming sense of great danger. His companions sensed it too. Something had noticed them and it saw them as prey. The scuttling started to come from a different direction. Closer now.
“Back up,” Logan hissed.
Kat and Balmer didn’t hesitate or try to play brave. They all began to take backward steps.
The scuttling and gurgling was growing faster and more urgent. Whatever was coming was almost upon them.
“Run!” Logan yelled.
They all went into a full sprint and dashed inside the room. Whatever hunted them was done playing coy. The gurgling and scuttling was now right behind Logan.
He made it into the room and tried to slam the stone door shut. He wasn’t able to in time. A monstrous head adorned with a sharp, bulky horn squeezed through, the chitinous creature looking around wildly with its black beady eyes. It had a gross hole of a mouth from which toxic green saliva hissed on the stone as it landed.
Logan struck it down with a two-handed swing of his scythe-rang. The chitin cracked and the creature went limp, but it soon started to scramble and gurgle again. By then, another one of these dog-sized insects had squeezed itself into the room over its wounded friend.
Kat screamed fiercely as she smashed into the cockroach-like creature’s side with a kick. A third bug-monster clambered over its comrades and rushed toward Balmer, with its horn ready to impale him.
Balmer rolled to his side and pulled out his sidearm in one swift, smooth motion. The gunshots echoed throughout the room. Logan and Kat gasped in pain and shock, but the bugs hated it too.
Logan yanked his scythe-rang out of one of the wounded insects and made some distance between them. Ignoring its pain, the bug gurgled and charged toward Logan with horn extended. Logan threw the scythe-rang again, but it bounced off the carapace. Then he dodged the charge and tumbled into a corner. The insect-creature charged again.
This time it pinned Logan against the wall. The scythe-rang returned to him, but it bounced off the chitin and clattered two feet away from his reach. Logan tried pushing the creature away with his hands as it tried to bite him. The green acidic saliva fell on Logan’s feet. In panic, he tried to scramble away. Fortunately, his enchanted socks didn’t get burned through.
“Shield!”
A blue translucent umbrella of energy flowered around Logan’s arm. It blasted the creature a few feet away. It landed on its back. Logan immediately surged to pick up his weapon. The monster’s legs were flailing around, trying to find purchase, as it lolled back and forth on its back, gurgling urgently.
Logan gave it no quarter. He struck down with another two-handed swing of his weapon. The tissue was soft on the bug’s underbelly and black blood sprayed everywhere, coating Logan in an oily stench.
Logan paid no heed. He charged toward his comrades to finish off the threat.
CHAPTER 21
The agents found the three of them panting and gasping, slumped against a wall. Balmer, who had acid burns on his arm, was applying a bandage Logan had provided. The agents had come running after hearing Balmer’s gunshots. Kat weakly called to them when she’d heard them running past the room.
“Find any …” Logan said between breaths, “… nice sticks?”
The large, dark-haired agent, who was apparently in charge of the rest, said, “Check the Prin—”
He stopped himself mid-sentence. Logan smirked to himself. Old habits die hard.
After a formal cough, he asked, “Any of you hurt?”
Kat and Logan shook their heads. Balmer was tightening a bandage with his teeth.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” the young agent said between grunts.
Logan tossed the scythe-rang toward the black-haired agent. It slid across the floor and skidded to the man’s feet.
“I need to catch my breath,” Logan said. “Now, remove these bastards’ horns, so we can get something nice to adorn those pretty sticks of yours. Also, I’m going to need … Damn it, we might not have enough Numa. Tumor, will the charge left in the D-crystal be enough?”
Kat cocked an eyebrow.
“Who’s Tumor?” one of the agents asked. Logan made a disgruntled noise.
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix … 30% completion]
[Assessing data …]
[Running variations …]
[Assuming these horns have the same naturally penetrative quality as the other blue-edged natural weapons of some of the fauna that you presume to originate from the large flying monster, limited Numa is needed for [Enchantment]. Also, considering the shape of these materials closely resembling the end product you have in mind, there is a 100% probability of the Numa charge being enough for your designs. There is a 2.7% chance of you being able to give said items all the magical augmentations you had planned.]
“I don’t need the decimals, Tumor,” Logan said as he slowly got up. Now that the adrenaline was waning, aches from the fight were entering his spent muscles.
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix … 31% completion]
[Noted. This one will adjust the communication protocol. Again.]
Logan couldn’t help but grin. Was that snark?
Logan got the agents to lug the bodies of the ugly beetle-like insects to the room with the floating crystal construct. The agents and Kat removed the horns and large parts of the carapace and brought them to one of the stone tables.
Then Logan told them to go away and let him work. As per Kat’s suggestion, they started preparing a meal from the meat. They weren’t exactly bugs, because when they were cut into, they bled. The same sort of black and oily blood all of Levemoth’s spawn seemed to have.
Logan ignored the stench and the squelching sounds and instead rummaged for a stone knife from the bag of tricks that Janice had made for him. He used it to carve the branches that the goons intended to use as spear shafts. He wanted to make them as straight as possible to conserve Numa.
Next up, he picked up one of the horns. It was hard. They also had a heft to them. Logan wasn’t a fan of that. They would make the spears unbalanced and hard to throw.
Maybe that’ll train the goons faster in [Marksmanship] or whatever they have …
Logan wanted to give the horns an [Enchantment] to make them lighter. After having accrued some experience with his new powers, he had realized that his Potency determined how powerful an [Enchantment] could be. But Control determined how accurately he could define said [Enchantment].
Of course, in action, he told the Numa energy the measurements that Tumor defined when possible. Previously, the crystals would lose whatever charge was needed, adjusted for Logan’s Potency, Efficiency, and Control. But since he was now working with limited Numa, he would have to try something different.
Maybe I could give them just a little spritz of lightness. I’ll save that for last.
Shaping the spear shafts and attaching the horns was simple and barely spent any Numa. Logan picked up one of the spears and tried the weight. It wasn’t ideal. The spears were barely usable.
“Tumor,” Logan whispered, “how much lighter does the head need to be for the spears to be decent?”
[Please determine “decent.”]
Logan groaned. “Ugh. Most cost-efficient?”
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix … 32% completion]
[Calculating …]
[Overriding communications protocol …]
[For most cost-efficient solution, the weight of the horn used as spearhead should be 27.81% lighter.]
Logan brought one of the spears to the D-grade construct. It still had 14 percent charge left. Logan estimated a little over 1 percent charge was close to a full [F-grade Numa crystal]. Considering the E-grade chunks Logan had were worth maybe five or six full F-graders, these constructs were massive.
“Make this spearhead 27.81 percent lighter in weight. Do not alter the weight of the shaft. Most importantly, only use a maximum of 1 percent of your charge.”
[Subclass Level Up!]
[Enchantment Level 13]
[Attribute Level Up!]
[Control: 11]
The D-grade construct glowed, and the spearheaded emitted a faint blue hue before quickly fading. The spear suddenly became significantly easy to wield. Logan spun it around in glee and triumph before getting a few curious glances from the others working on the bugs. Logan put the spear down on the table and checked the construct. Thirteen percent charge left.
Perfect.
“Tumor. How much lighter is the spearhead, percentage-wise?”
[22.55%]
“Nice,” Logan said. “That’s enough. Alright, let’s give these other two the same treatment and then you can drone on about the aerodynamics and drag coefficient.”
“Whatcha working on?” Kat came over and peered over Logan’s shoulder.
“Something for you, actually.”
“A gift?” Kat asked and grinned. “Oh, you sure know how to make a girl feel special. Should I not tell Freya?”
“I must have done something heinous in my old life to have been afflicted with you,” Logan muttered as he pressed the piece of chitin against the crystal construct.
Kat rested her chin on Logan. “Man, your shoulder feels cold. That Freya sure must taste like honey for you to—”
“O-kayyyyyy,” Logan said and brushed Kat off of him. “Why don’t you go pester Balmer for a change?”
“He’s too much of a … Balmer.”
Logan chuckled. “Yeah, I get what you mean.”
“So, what is this?” Kat asked, circling around to stand beside Logan.
“I noticed you have a … hands-on fighting style,” Logan said.
“Yeah, I’ve done a bunch of MMA.” Kat said, excitement rising in her voice. “Did you see me land that roundhouse on that ugly bugger?”
Logan didn’t reply. Instead, he took Kat by the wrist and inspected her.
“Hey!” Kat said, but instead of pulling away, she blushed and went silent.
“Got it?” Logan asked.
“What?”
“Good,” Logan said. “Now draw a model for me.”
Kat pulled her wrist away. “Are you alright?”
Logan shushed her. “Let me focus.”
The plating on the front legs of those beetle-fiends had been the perfect size. The material only needed to be curved a bit to form a nice bowl. Logan stuffed the inside of the cup with some bandage cloth as a cushion. Then came the tricky part. Logan intoned an enchantment that made a part of the chitin cup flexible. He was absolutely elated as soon as he saw the blue hue.
