Magicraft master a mass.., p.12
MagiCraft Master: A Mass Isekai LitRPG, page 12
[Subclass Level Up!]
[Transmutation Level 10]
[Attribute Level Up!]
[Focus: 7]
He felt like he should have gotten a control level up as well, but eh, he had only just gotten one recently. Still, he commended himself on his endless genius.
“Try this on,” Logan said and gave the item to Kat.
“You … What?” Kat asked in mounting excitement. She put the chitin-glove on.
“Can you form a fist?” Logan asked.
“Holy shit! I can! What the hell?!” Kat exclaimed, her voice echoing throughout the room. “Look guys! Any of you big boys want to take me on now?”
“Calm down,” Logan said and chuckled. “I need to adjust the mouth of the glove. I’ll make it flexible. Then I’ll make another one. You can tie them on with that cloth you have over your knuckles now.”
“Holy shit,” Kat said. “Dude, no wonder your dad and the agents don’t like you. You make them look bad.”
Logan gave an awkward laugh and instinctively checked on the goons. Balmer had heard Kat and was now giving Logan an ugly look.
“Right,” Logan said. “Look, go bother Balmer now. You’re making him jealous or something. And most importantly, I need to focus. I’m almost done. Now, go!”
CHAPTER 22
Logan was loath to let go of one of the three [E-grade Numa crystals] that the beetle-fiends had dropped. But he figured the goons could use it in a pinch if they ended up in a situation against the Leve spawn still skulking around. Although now they no longer had to go hunting. They could just carry these two and a half giant insect monsters back to camp for meat. They did taste awful, though …
The D-grade construct was dim and spent. Logan had taken the large carapaces from the beetle-fiends’ backs and made shields for the agents. They had a pretty potent weight-reducing [Enchantment] as well as some extra durability magicked in.
It had pumped Logan’s Efficiency to 9 and Focus to 8. No subclass level ups, though. The gains had slowed down slightly, but that was fine.
Logan could definitely feel the difference in everything he did. He was spending so much less Numa than at the start of this ridiculous adventure, and his designs were sharper and [Enchantments] stronger. Not that he had been pushing the limit in the case of the latter. The shields and spears he had given the agents held very conservative [Enchantments].
Regardless, the initially frosty or downright hostile agents were warming up to him. It seemed it wasn’t just Freya who appreciated gifts. Logan didn’t mind providing. At least it helped him keep leveling up.
The agents stayed for a while out of gratitude and willingness to test out their new equipment. Soon after, they ran into another group of black beetle-fiends. Logan stayed back and let the agents fight. He couldn’t throw his weapon without risking hitting an ally. And besides, the goons were clearly having fun.
One of them did get a nasty stab wound on his thigh, but he assured Logan that he could limp back to the base with the gatherers. Logan didn’t say anything when the goons took two of the four [E-grade Numa crystals] that they had just obtained. If it weren’t for his categorical dislike of the goons, he might have even admitted it was fair that they left them with two.
After the battle, the agents decided to head back with the beetle corpses and intel.
“Either of you have skills?” Logan asked Balmer and Kat after the agents had left.
“I’ve got two! I’m a level 3 [Brawler]” Kat announced.
“Yeah?” Logan said.
“I got [Power Strike] and [Tough Skin].”
“Sounds good to me,” Logan said and lobbed one of the [E-grade Numa crystals] over to Kat. She caught it with the hand that wasn’t chitin-gloved.
Logan pointed at Kat’s pants. “You can put it in your pocket. It’ll work as long as you’re touching it, I think.”
“Work how?”
“I don’t know. I just say what skill I want to use and trust the Numa to figure out the rest.”
Balmer scoffed. “Can’t believe you don’t know more by now.”
“Uh huh,” Logan said. “Care to share your great wealth of knowledge?”
“Give me one, and I’ll figure out everything needed to know about it in two hours.”
“What’s your class?” Logan asked as he rolled his eyes and lobbed a crystal at Balmer, hard. “[Fire-making Tool]?”
“Funny,” Balmer said but didn’t offer anything else.
“First time you don’t even try for a comeback,” Logan said as they checked another room.
“What can I say?” Balmer muttered through his teeth, his tone oddly defensive. “I’m getting tired of your shit.”
“Boys,” Kat said from the front of the line, “play nice.”
“Wait a minute,” Logan said, his smirk spreading into a malevolent grin. “You don’t have a class, do you?”
“Oh, honey,” Kat said, turning to grin at Balmer. “Don’t worry about it. A lot of boys have their growth spurts later.”
“Assholes,” Balmer muttered.
Logan and Kat shared a laugh, but then Logan grew serious. “Yeah, we’re not going further without you picking something. Let’s check this room.”
The room was fortunately empty. It had been quiet after the agents had left, which was fine by Logan. He thought he had heard some distant gurgling and scuttling, but it could have been his mind playing tricks.
[It was.]
Thanks, Tumor …
Logan ushered Kat and Balmer in. It was actually significantly different from the other rooms they’d encountered. This one was structured like an amphitheater or a lecture hall, with descending rows of stone benches behind white marble tables. Some of them no longer held an [Enchantment] and thus had fallen and crumbled. Down at the bottom of the room was a giant round floating table on a dais.
How are these tables still floating? Are the blue LED-ropes powering them?
“Whoa,” Kat said under her breath. She took a seat behind one of the benches and knocked on the white floating marble. The sound reverberated a deep and rich bass which filled the room. It was somehow soothing.
They gawked around the room and inspected it but found nothing else that was out of the ordinary. There was a lot of dust on the floor, and Logan suspected a thousand years ago that dust had been books and tomes.
Logan also took a seat at a bench and put his feet on the floating white marble. Like a distant gong, the sound vibrated through his legs to the rest of his body. The effect was strangely soothing.
“I think I should bang your head on these marble sheets,” Logan said to Balmer who was still standing. “Might be therapeutic for both of us.”
“I’d like to see you try,” Balmer muttered.
“Just sit your ass down and choose a class,” Logan said.
They passed the waterskin around for a while as they sat down. Every time you took a sip, you had to contribute to Balmer’s class question. Despite being top of his class in school and his enormous ego, this idiot was indecisive.
Logan had taken a proper swig from the waterskin and gone down the stairs to have another look at the strange room.
“You got [Marksmanship] from handling a gun, right?” Kat asked, idly tapping a finger on the floating marble.
“Yeah, level 7,” Balmer said, squatting on one of the steps.
“So pick [Archer],” Kat said.
“Logan is already a ranged attacker.”
Logan perked an ear at that as he knelt to inspect under the big table on the dais. “Surely you’re not suggesting this isn’t a one-time thing, Balmer?”
“Daddy’s precious baby deer is going to need protection in the future,” Balmer said.
“That’d be much more irritating, if it hadn’t been me who saved you from those bugs,” Logan said.
Kat sniggered. “He does have a point.”
“You just agree to everything he says,” Balmer snapped.
“I have my reasons,” Kat said, a little colder this time.
“You really think you got a chance with him?” Balmer let out a cold laugh. “I don’t know what the Beckstein girl sees in this spoiled little brat, but she’s ten times the woman you are.”
“The hell do you think you know about me?” Kat barked, snapping to attention.
“You’re just like the Little Prince here,” Balmer said. “Do what you want. Take what you want. Say what you want. Selfish and arrogant.”
Logan was feeling the heat building up. He didn’t really care if they bickered, but they needed to work together. “You’re really good at making new friends, Balmer.”
The young goon snarled. Logan mentally shrugged. He thought he saw something blue moving in the corner of his vision. He turned and saw one of those small bugs. He crept toward it slowly to get a better look. At first Logan had thought these were the baby beetle-fiends. But this was a different kind of insect altogether.
They were like grasshoppers with spindly legs and long butts which glowed with the blue hue of Numa. The little thing noticed Logan and skittered away into the shadows.
“You sure you don’t have an [Asshole] class in your recommendations?” Kat asked, glaring at Balmer, arms crossed.
“I’m sure you got it as one of your subclasses, under the class [Massive Bitch],” Balmer retorted.
“Look,” Logan said patiently as he looked for the little lightbulb-grasshopper in the corners. “Not that I ever get tired of your cringe comebacks, Balmer. But maybe we should get back to the class choice.”
“I don’t know what’s the most optimal and useful,” Balmer said and sighed.
“Stop thinking like my father’s lackey for once in your life,” Logan said. Oh, there was another blue bug. Logan crept slowly closer, sliding his hand toward the bug. “What do you want to pick?”
“I … Nothing,” Balmer said defensively. “I’ll pick what’s most optimal.”
“Good grief,” Logan muttered under his breath. The bug was coming closer, zigging and zagging curiously toward his hand.
From the sound of Kat’s voice, she wanted to say something scathing, but she controlled herself. “What are your recommended options again?”
“That shouldn’t matter,” Balmer said.
Kat sighed. “Just indulge me.”
“[Sentry], [Scout], [Phantom].”
“All of those sound like they’ll be light on their feet,” Kat said with a lopsided smile.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Balmer asked.
“Touchy,” Kat said.
“Pick [Phantom],” Logan said. The bug skittered away and Logan cursed to himself.
“Why?” Balmer asked.
Logan shrugged. He saw where the bug went. He was going to try something else. “Sounds the coolest.”
“What kind of a basis is that?”
“We really need to start moving soon, you idiot,” Logan said. He picked a Numa crystal from his pocket and held it in an open palm. The little insect in the corner immediately stopped and turned. “Which of those classes most closely resembles what you wanted to do most as a child when you grew up.”
“I wanted to become an agent or a spy.”
“Living the dream, huh …” Logan muttered to himself. The bug crawled onto Logan’s hand and tentatively touched the crystal with its spindly legs.
“I agree with Logan,” Kat said. “Pick [Phantom].”
“Why?”
“Sounds the coolest.”
“I hate you both.”
CHAPTER 23
Balmer demanded that they go over the pros and cons of each of the class options in excruciating detail. Kat indulged the goon for some reason, but Logan tuned out quickly, engrossed in something else entirely. The glowing insect was doing something with the Numa crystal in Logan’s hand. It seemed to be feeding off of it. The crystal’s blue light faded ever so slightly, and the insect’s butt glowed brighter.
Well, aren’t you an interesting little thing?
Logan tried to bring up a text window by simply looking at the bug, but nothing happened. Well, something happened.
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix … 44% completion]
“Holy shit, Tumor,” Logan whispered. “What happened?”
[This one received a data transfer of substantial volume. The data is encrypted. This one will attempt to decipher.]
“You do that …”
Logan looked at the [E-grade Numa crystal, 97%]. Logan wondered if this last transaction had been worth it. He could afford it, especially if they could just find a few more crystals. Logan listened to two of his companions arguing with his left ear. Kat was slowly turning Balmer around. That was good. While they weren’t exactly in a rush, Logan felt they were exposed.
Sure, they had some Numa now, but what he really wanted to find was another proper deposit of those D-grade constructs. That way he could really deck himself and Kat out to deal with those beetle-fiends and any other Levespawn that might crop up. But Logan was worried. He still remembered that elephant-sized creature that split in two. If they came across one of those, they’d be dead meat.
“Fine!” Balmer exclaimed. “I picked it. Happy?”
“For now,” Kat said. From the sound of it, she really enjoyed winning arguments. Logan could respect that.
“You’re going to need a weapon, Mr. Valedictorian,” Logan said as he got up and dusted himself off. “What does your class do, exactly?”
“You weren’t listening?” Balmer asked.
“Something about shadows and being stealthy?” Logan guessed.
“Huh,” Balmer said. “Good guess.”
Logan gave him a lazy wink.
“So you’ll be in the backline with pretty boy,” Kat said. “It’s good that you guys know your place. Behind me.”
Logan snorted.
Balmer blushed. “That sounded—”
Kat punched Balmer on the shoulder. “I SAID IT WRONG, OKAY?”
Since Balmer’s class apparently had something to do with quick movement and stealth, Logan and Kat coaxed him into scouting for them. Balmer walked softly ahead twenty yards and peeked inside the rooms. He apparently started gaining levels in his attributes quickly, particularly in Stealth and Agility. Balmer was anxious about not having weapons or offensive skills if something were to happen, but Logan and Kat couldn’t do much more than offer a shrug.
“Find something you want to use as a weapon, and we’ll look into it,” Logan had said. Then he’d looked to the side, picked something up, and handed it to the young goon. “Here. Use this for now.”
Logan had plopped a rock into Balmer’s extended hand. “Gee, thanks …”
Despite the tension and Balmer’s anxiety, they didn’t run into any more beetle-fiends. That was too bad, as far as Logan was concerned. He had exhausted an almost full [E-grade Numa crystal] to recharge his shield-watch and the scythe-rang, as well as to replace the [Enchantments] on his socks and pants with stronger ones. Both of his comrades held a crystal, so that left Logan with one fully charged E-grader after all was said and done. Good enough for an emergency situation, like sealing a door from a giant beetle-fiend mother.
And that was unnervingly close to what happened next.
Balmer returned with urgent steps, his face white and sweating in the soft blue light of the snaking LED-ropes.
“There’s something ahead,” Balmer whispered in clipped tones. “Something big.”
“A monster?” Logan asked.
“Yes,” Balmer hissed as he began pushing Logan and Kat back in the direction they’d come from.
Logan looked over his shoulder. He couldn’t see anything ahead, other than a tall room with a giant floating Numa-crystal in the middle of it. “There’s a crystal!”
“I don’t care. We’re not going in there.”
“Uh, guys?” Kat asked. “You hearing that?”
A loud gurgling came from the nearby room. It wasn’t followed by the skittering they had grown accustomed to. It was followed rather by the lumbering sound of something heavy approaching with ponderous steps sending tremors through the floor.
Logan reached for his endless bag of tricks and pulled out the light-stick, turning on its [Enchantment]. He raised the light further to see what was coming. He really wished he hadn’t done that.
A giant, bulbous, chitinous mass came up to the doorway. The atrium in that room had a much higher ceiling. Its head wasn’t visible, but its pale, hairy abdomen was, along with chitinous legs protruding in many a direction.
The gurgling sound grew louder, and the bug-creature’s stomach began to swell. Every instinct in Logan told him to run, but he was too hypnotized by the grotesque sight. Its balloon of a stomach began to bulge and swell in places as if an angry unborn fetus were threatening to emerge. Finally, in a disgusting crescendo, it burst open, sending the now-too-familiar black oily gunk flying everywhere.
Then a swarm of black beetle-fiends came gurgling and hissing out of the creature. They clambered over each other, acid drooling from their disgusting mouths.
“RUN!”
Despite being at the back, Balmer set the pace. Was it his new class or conditioning? Logan only hoped he knew the way out. They seemed to be able to outrun the beetles, but a dead end would be very literal for them.
“Those memorization techniques better not have been bullshit!” Logan yelled.
Logan was the last in line. The scythe-rang made for an awkward running style, but he’d be damned if he would drop his precious weapons. Kat gave a worried glance over her shoulder. The gap between her and Balmer was growing wider. Whereas the gap between Logan and the beetles was shortening.
“I can’t keep this pace up for long … Tumor, give me an idea or we’re both done.”
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix … 46% completion]
[This one recalls that you were able to use the ability [Empower] on your weapon, without it being in direct contact with a Numa crystal, before. Chance of being able to reproduce the event with a similar action is 98.82%.]
Logan was too caught up in fear and adrenaline to reprimand Tumor for giving him unnecessary decimals. All he felt was gratitude. But there was one hitch. He had failed before. Had he done enough since?
