Roland was sitting with a cup of tea in his hand. It looked like he was in a small dim-lit room. He was taking a sip of some kind of black tea that was still giving out steam.
There was only one small table, one chair, and a small single-person bed squeezed inside of here. This made the young man recall some of the old dorm rooms that he used to stay in back in another life. That time he used to hate it now it might have been something that he looked back to fondly. It was a simpler time, no monsters or evil cults were lurking in the darkness to get him back in those days.
On the small table lay a box, a music box to be exact. It wasn’t exactly in working order any more as the springs and screws that kept it in place were laid out on the table. This was the very same item that he had bought at the auction house.
He was now examining it after getting a place to stay for the night. The inns in the city were still jam packet but the adventurers still evaded the ones that cost a bit more. They would rather spend the night in the stables while spending the rest on food and alcohol. Then the following day they could spend the rest on health potions for the next expedition into the dungeon.
This cycle continued till the adventurer in question either made enough money to rent themselves a room or they perished while trying. Not many adventurers could afford a home like Roland did, gathering up a hundred small gold coins would be something that would take years. Maybe if someone were lucky to find themselves a magic blade to pawn off, they could speed up the process.
”This is a bit unexpected, I guess the answer was right under my nose…”
Roland picked up a part of the music box that had runic patterns on it. Lucky for him this item was of that variety and not a regular enchanted one. The weapons and armor that were auctioned off were mostly regular enchanted ones instead. He wasn’t sure but maybe the drops in the dungeon were of that type of magic equipment.
What he was holding was just a plate of metal made from deep iron. The runic structure was condensed on it which made it look smaller than whatever he could make. This item was certainly made by someone that was more skillful than he was. That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t be able to recreate it, with his debugging skill this would prove rather easy. The only problem would be improving on the design with his own knowledge.
Roland expected to find some kind of special device or an item responsible for this music box working. This he did but instead of one, it was a combination. The small plate that had the runic components in them also had a socket. This socket contained a marble-like item, an item that he was familiar with.
‘A slime core, huh?’
This slime core was the magical mineral that was apparently able to store mana inside of it. There was a specialized runic structure around this socket that kept the slime core inside of it. He had examined it before dismantling the music box. What he saw was a siphoning effect that funneled the mana from the surrounding area into this slime core.
This core worked as some kind of generator or battery. It was constantly discharging the mana it had stored back into the runic structure. Thus the music box was able to function, the button on the side that activated it just moved some parts and connected some runic traces.
There was also one mana stone present to purify the mana from the surroundings. It was directly connected to the slime core, probably allowing it to work more efficiently by being in closer proximity to the ‘battery’.
From how it looked the runic components only needed a little jolt of magic at the start before they would work on their own. Besides the slime core, there was deep iron involved. He could clearly tell that the runic components were not deteriorating that fast.
The small rune design and its simplicity gave the item longevity, even when constantly turned on it was working just fine. It looked that if the magic rune didn’t pass a certain threshold of mana usage, the runic components that it was composed of wouldn’t break down.
At least not when made from this deep iron. If this was some kind of other metal with a special mana gathering attribute was unknown. He would need to test it out on other metals to see if there was a difference.
“Well, this clears up a couple of things. The person that made this was probably an experienced runesmith, you don’t see many runes at the high grade.”
This rune was of the ‘high’ grade which was something rare. Most of the items out on the market were of the intermediate grade, while high and above were hard to find. This was also why the wares that he made sold quite well. Probably the craftsmen weren’t willing to give away the knowledge of their designs to just anyone.
Thus most runesmiths ended up with average knowledge and made average grade runes. Improving on the design was a lot harder without a lot of trial and error. This would be a time-consuming process, it could also be costly if something went wrong. Badly connected rune components could be volatile, even explode.
Roland was just happy that he could skip that process with his debugging skill. If he didn’t have it he would probably be still stuck scribing low-level runes. Maybe he would have to go work for some kind of runesmith that was willing to share their knowledge with him.
With this skill, he had attained a degree of freedom but this also caused him to have some holes in his basic knowledge. Was this battery structure something hard to make? It didn’t look out of the ordinary. He was a classical case of someone that started running without having learned to walk properly first.
Roland had placed the piece of metal to the side and got ready to go to bed. With this, he had something to look forward to. He had also ordered a basic forge to be made at his home, the building company luckily was able to do that. They would place it in the log cabin for now while his secret workshop remained underground.
There he was planning to build his own furnace, one that was composed of runes. Through this he could only do after completing his runic generator design. Now after looking over this toy it was finally a possibility. First, he would need to get his house back, he would also need copper wire and magnets.
This was something he would need to create an electric generator, this was a device that converts mechanical energy into electrical power. How this worked was common knowledge from his old world and it wouldn’t be that hard to produce with his current skills. The hard part would be to harness this electrical current to then produce mana.
He also needed it to produce more mana than there was introduced into the runic structure. Without that the generator idea would fall flat. The first prototype would probably be quite crude but he needed to test if this thing even had the merit to be improved later on.
He had copper and magnets in his workshop already. He had gotten a few strong ones for his refrigerator design; they sealed the doors quite nicely. While thinking about the next few days he went to sleep. Before anything could be done he needed his house to be in working order.
The following day Roland woke up early, he visited some shops to try and buy anything that could help him with the future mana generator design. One of the problems would be placing wires along his house to deliver the mana to all of his appliances.
The ethereal pathways had a very limited range, so he would need to actually attach them to his generator. The people of this world did make wires for fences so he would be able to just buy that. Those wires were thicker than electrical wires but that would just make it easier to inscribe the runic traces on them.
They would also deteriorate quite slowly with only runic pathways on them, without runic components that had a spell structure the metals didn’t suffer that much damage. He could also place more than just one pathway for the mana to travel through the cable. This was all still only theoretical as he still needed to make the devices capable of using these cables. Those would mostly be power tools like a drill or a belt grinder.
This would have to wait till he got his hands on some better crafting utensils. For now, Roland used his time to check the shops for anything useful. The rest of his time was spent down in the dungeon, leveling up to level 75 was still very much on his agenda. It wouldn’t hurt to have a tier 2 class sooner rather than later.
So he did, this time venturing to the levels below. What he found were more skeletons that were on fire along with more slimes. He was sure to hunt the latter ones more as the slime cores could be used for his generator. Roland wasn’t sure how many of them he could use but he could hold on selling them until he figured out that part.
Those two weren’t the only monsters that he found down there. He was facing another common creature that he had faced before, it was a giant rat. This was a variation of the old foe that was dark crimson in coloring.
Crimson Giant Rat [ L 14 ] |
The only difference between this one and the ones he saw back in the city of Carwen. These ones were of higher level and also somewhat fire-resistant. For him that was over level 70 this thing wasn’t much of a problem. With a couple of stabs from his arming sword, the monster fell. It was quickly replaced by another one, these large rodents rarely wandered around alone.
‘This is good practice…’
Roland used this chance to train himself when fighting multiple opponents. The trick was not to get yourself surrounded. This was easier in these corridors as he just needed to move back while not letting any of the monster rats pass him on the side. If he wasn’t careful he might find himself up against a wall. That was still better than being surrounded, at least he wouldn’t need to watch his back.
You have gained 7 experience points |
You have gained 8 experience points |
You have gained 6 experience points |
He made quick work of the large rats that were about the size of a middle-sized dog. They were kind of a waste of time as the experience he was gaining didn’t even go over 10. None of these critters had any mana stones in them either and rat teeth or claws didn’t sell for all that much.
‘I need to get to the lower levels, I won’t get much experience unless I face off against lower leveled tier 2 monsters…’
This was a fact that he already knew. Ever since attaining his third tier 1 class leveling up had gotten hard. Even after battling tier 2 monsters and all of those bandits he wasn’t rewarded with that much. Using his time to craft high tier runic equipment would bring him better results. He was also running low on the crafting schematic exploit that let him get to this point so fast.
Roland pulled out the labyrinth map and started examining it. He was now on the starting section of the third floor. The monster attacks were more frequent here and the corridors were also wider. This allowed the monsters more area to maneuver, there was also a chance of them sneaking up behind a person from one of the side corridors that were passed.
While taking a moment to eat something he looked for the fastest way to the level below. He wanted to take it slowly but these monsters weren’t proving very lucrative. Any of the monster body parts he could sell weren’t worth more than the simplest magic scroll he could make.
Farming them for money wouldn’t be something worthwhile and the experience was also bad. This was still the safest way of leveling up his warrior type skills so he was bearing with it. After eating he ventured forth to do more battling but now if there wasn’t a mana stone or a creature core he would just leave everything behind.
This labyrinth apparently ran ten levels deep, each level increased the monster level by about 5. On the tenth and final level, you would face creatures close to level 50. Some monsters at the second tier could be seen there which meant that most adventurers below the silver rank wouldn’t be seen wandering there alone. At most a full party of steel adventurers could hope to survive down there.
He continued on his way going down to the lower levels. The further down he went the less adventurer he saw. This meant that there would be more loot to find but also more monsters to go through. At the higher levels, a person didn’t run into that many monsters as all the other adventurer parties were taking them out.
At the fourth level, he battled another new monster, it looked like an iguana and could actually produce something akin to a fire breath. This was also the first time that he actually needed to activate his magic shield to defend himself against this flame breath.
Baby Salamander [ L 21 ] |
It was quite large for something considered a baby. While the rats were the size of a middle-sized dog this one would be akin to a larger breed. It was close in specs to a full-grown wolf and it had some sharp teeth to go with it.
Roland blocked the fire attack with his shield. The activated magic was enough to not make him feel any heat, the flame resistance rune was working just fine. The moment the monster ran out of breath was the time for him to strike. This time around he used his mana thrust rune to skewer the red lizard looking monster. The Salamander wasn’t able to react in time, taking one hit from the torrent of mana was enough to slay this creature.
You have gained 18 experience points |
The monster’s head exploded into many tiny chunks which bloodied the wall behind it. He could feel that this one had a mana stone hidden in its abdomen. He needed to stick his hands into its guts to pull it out. It wasn’t the best feeling but after having slain many monsters he was used to this sort of job.
He looked at the defeated monster while wondering if there was really nothing worthwhile for him to take from it. At times like these was when he recalled that having party members had its upsides. He wouldn’t need to go through dead monster carcasses at least. Before he could decide on his next move another one of those salamanders appeared. Probably attracted by the stench of blood.
‘Training my shield proficiencies is quite easy in this sort of place…’
He looked to the monster that was ready to breathe out some fire. His shield started glowing in a blue hue that had a slight red tint to it. The moment the fire attack connected with its magical surface it started getting dispersed.
Roland noticed that defeating this type of monster was quite easy if you managed to resist its breathing attack. It remained stationary afterward, probably the usage of mana left its body unable to evade any attacks coming for it in that time frame. If other monsters like this had the same weak point would be something that he needed to find out later.
You have gained 17 experience points |
“GUOHHH…”
After this Baby Salamander bit the dust another one appeared. It looked like he was attracting unwanted attention. He preferred to take the sneaky approach while biding his time but this would also be a good opportunity for gathering experience.
Roland smirked a little bit and used the handle of his sword on his shield. A loud sound was produced to get the monster's attention on it. This one instead of delivering a fire attack decided to charge towards him. Its mouth opened up wide as it tried chomping down on one of his legs.
But the only thing that monster got to chomp down was cold hard steel as Roland delivered a shield bash to its head. With his blacksmith levels of strength, it was enough to momentarily stop it in its tracks.
You have gained 15 experience points |
With a little poke to the eye socket, the monster was down for the count just like the other ones. The spot he was in was slowly getting crowded by the salamander monster corpses. As it looked this wasn’t all as he heard the shuffling of lizard claws from the distance coming his way.
“I guess the fun starts from this level on.”
Roland looked over his gear that was still in working condition, there was enough juice left in the runes for him to stay here for a couple of more hours. Maybe now he could get those skills up at a more moderate pace.
I'm excited to see how the research kn mana batteries goes. I wonder if Roland will make a multimeter type device for getting specific values on things like mana resistance and mana output? Doesn't seem like something he can eyeball for sure, and would certainly be cool to see him use the famous Earth technique of having an endless variety of tools for making tools.
Thanks for the chapter!
And then we can start to move towards the world of Knights & Magic and maybe towards an Iron Man sooner than later. And I mean before his dad finds him and yeets him towards the army, possibly confiscating everything he owns and "contribute" to the nation instead.
That would earn him the ranks of Shou Tucker and Bondrewd of shittiest dads.
@NotaNuffian
At the rate we going it’s probably gonna be a few hundred more chapters.
@NotaNuffian nah he needs to turn him first into a monster before unlocking that title
Quick qn, what is the difference between a mana stone and a slime core? I recalled that the author did talked about a mana stone not just being a battery, but also something like a processing unit? Is this what the mana stone is for in this case as a mana purifier instead of being a battery like the slime core?
TFTC.
Think it's my fault for tossing out mana/monster core name, then changing it to mana stone. I guess some creatures have monster cores instead of mana stones in them would be the easiest answer. Mana stones just aid in purifying mana while the slime core was discovered to have battery like properties.
@Kuropon what's the difference between them and the monsters that have them? Is it just an arbitrary difference?
@Monobear Well monster cores exist in monsters like slimes and golems, mostly the non fleshy ones to work instead of the brain. More or less some monsters need monster cores to function, the mana stones are mostly there to help them use magic spells and skills.
He’s a baby slaughterer, the horror
The hard part would be to harness this electrical current to then produce mana.
I'm curious where you go with this. It would be easy to say you just have a rune\core accept lightning attributes and then store it as mana in the slime core. But if you head down this route then I have to remind you that the biggest loss in energy is due to conversion. And to go from a steam engine to mana you are doing 3 energy conversions.
Thermal energy -> Mechanical Energy -> Electrical Energy -> Mana
But if you are going to say there is some rune/core that can absorb lightning energy and just output mana then I'm going to call foul. Because if such a thing existed for a rare magic such as lightning magic then there absolutely should be one for the popular fire magic. And in that case it would be much more efficient to just convert thermal energy directly to mana.
Lightning can be directed, it would be very difficult to produce flames and then send those flames directly into a core but lightning will easily go into the core. Thermal energy itself though is not fire, it is just hot.
I still find it a hasty move for Roland to move into a Class 2 job so fast, especially after this chapter for three reasons:
1 °) Roland's enemies are individuals in class 3 jobs were able to fight others also in class 3 in addition to the soldiers in the cities in addition to the volunteers who appeared to prevent them and still managed to escape, even if Roland advances to a class job 2 what could he do against enemies of this level? In addition to setting traps and hoping they fell into them, he could only run away again.
2 °) As we saw the dungeon that would be the main source of XP for Roland only has 10 floors with monsters with maximum levels (revealed so far) of 50, that is, after Roland advances to a class 2 job it will be much more complicated to advance further which would be detrimental both to the future of it as O to fight guys that cult.
3°) As he has little time (what the MC thinks) he should concentrate on owning the jobs that could unlock other rarer jobs in the future (the ones that provide more skills, the ones that have more XP sources) must have a reason for most people in the novel they can't get past class 2 jobs, for me, haste and lack of skills may be a reason for that, before moving on, everyone must pass a test that for lack of these details that people fail ( my opinion).
English is not my native language, I apologize translation errors.
For now he's just training his combat skills in hopes to get a hybrid class so he may defend himself better. Once he hits lvl 75 and has his skills maxed he is planning to look at his options first before deciding.
With how the system works getting a 4th class 1 job is not nessesarly a good idea (he'll still get less xp). Additionally he has unique rune classes so he doesn't have info about jobs that would give him better ones. He can at best make guesses based on simmliar jobs.
He's aware that he won't stand a chance aganist class 3's that's why he ran away instead of going with the gnome. He was afraid of being collateral in a class 3 fight.
His goal is to become as strong as possible as fast as he can manage. He's ignoring the chance of the cult sending class 3's after him because in that case he's f*cked anyway, he already did what he could by running away. For now he want's to get to class 2 to decrease the amount of people that are a threat to him, after all the world is full of strong people.
Also while going a bit slower and training ones skills might increase the chances to pass the class test, going slower also means being weaker for longer. And Roland learned the hard way that the weak easily get killed. And don't forget he's plannig to max the skills he thinks are relevant unless he hits max level and they are a long way off. After all being stuck at max lvl will slow his growth.
Ya true, but say for argument (2) it a new dungeon believed be made by islands main dungeon, so it is possible that it will expand eventually, or it is a foreshadowing that it may bit be his last place, but as more of prototype home for his first ine he will probably learn how to make a working mana forge and home first before escaping from his family ones he thinks made his watch dog to kill him, or it the cult, maybe even a new reason to leave it can be one just said or some combos of it.
Too hasty? Some people apparently get a Tier 2 job at level 25, while most of them seem to get it at level 50. Waiting until 75 to get it just seems not hasty enough to me, especially since it is harder to level up at higher levels and it probably would be even harder to level up at higher tiers too.
Roland had placed the piece of metal to the side and got ready to go to bed. With this, he had something to look forward to. He had also ordered a basic forge to be made at his home, the building company luckily was able to do that. They would place it in the log cabin for now while his secret workshop remained underground.
I truly do not understand why the secrecy about the basement level why not late the construction company renovate everything including the basement level.
also they are builder class so they would know about the basement level regardless.
Tftc
I've noticed that there is a lot of redundancy, lexical doubling, and imprecision... things that would be caught by a good editor. Some examples...
Roland was sitting with a cup of tea in his hand. It looked like he was in a small dim-lit room. He was taking a sip of some kind of black tea that was still giving out steam
It looked like he was in a small dim room, or he actually was? Why 2 separate sentences about him holding the tea? How about something like this?
"Roland sat in the near darkness, a cup of black tea in his hands. As he took a sip, the steam wafted up around his face and rose towards the ceiling of the small room."
That time he used to hate it now it might have been something that he looked back to fondly
Is this a maybe? Maybe he looks on it fondly and maybe not? Or is he actually looking at it fondly?
Be nice if he interacted with some people. Maybe another scout so he won’t die like a boob in some booby-trap.
He complained before about the lack of entertainment, how when waiting for something he would just stand in a room and there was no music playing or TV he could mindlessly watch. MASS PRODUCE THOSE MUSIC BOXES O:
Having something to do while waiting at a business or something only makes the customer happier, businesses would jump for those. He can't make the runes that small right now but a larger device should probably be fine, he just needs to find what kind of slime drops those cores... maybe the Adventurer Guild can identify it.