Respite and Recon

John stopped before he reached the loot, eyes drifting from it to his mana bar in his HUD.

‘I’m just under half,’ he thought as he examined the display. ‘It’ll take Aeolia and Vivian a minute or so to get up here, and going over the loot without them here’s rather rude, so…’

He closed his eyes and attuned himself to the ambient mana and drew it in with Bask. Unlike the gentle warmth the woad Barrier had filled him with, this mana felt more stale, like air in a long-sealed room. Still, he allowed the mana to flow into him, topping off his reserve.

“Guess you’re getting a jump on doing a recharge,” Aeolia’s voice cut through John’s meditation and he opened his eyes to see the winged woman land in front of him, a shrunken Vivian clinging to the strap of Aeolia’s dress. The redhead looked as frazzled as John imagined he had when Aeolia first flew him.

“It seemed a bit rude to start going over the loot by myself,” John said, seeing his mana bar had ticked up by around a tenth, just around half. “You okay, Vivian?”

She shakily nodded. “Being shrunk is one thing, but I don’t think I’m going to be a fan of flying. Um, no offence, Aeolia.”

“None taken,” Aeolia responded, offering a hand to her passenger. Vivian carefully stepped into the hand and Aeolia gently lowered her to the floor. A second later, Vivian returned to her full height and she critically eyed herself.

“Everything in the right place?” Aeolia asked, her tone jovial.

Vivian hummed and nodded. “Oh yes. Just thinking about how your magic works. Actually, if you don’t mind later, I’d like to analyse it.”

“Buy me dinner first,” Aeolia responded with a light laugh before turning to John, missing the flush that colored Vivian’s face. “Ready to go over our spoils?”

“Always ready to get goodies,” John answered and the trio brought their attention to the loot. At the top of the pile were three small stacks of money, and a quick touch of them added eight hundred dollars to John’s inventory.

“Huh,” John softly exclaimed. “Guess that means each bot gave some rewards. Looks like I got two instances of the common two hundred dollar and one of the uncommon four hundred dollar drop.”

“I suppose that explains the number of gears,” Vivian commented, pointing at the items in question.

There were five gears, each around the size of a watch’s face, and made of different metals. Steel, iron, and copper were present in varying amounts, all soldered together with a silvery metal. The only thing different about the gears over their former owners’ exteriors was that they were made of pristine metals.

John picked one up, running his fingers over the smooth, mismatched metals.

“Any clue what zilhavrum is?” John asked his companions. When both shook their heads, he smirked. “Well, that might mean we’ve got something worth a good chunk of change.”

“Possibly,” Vivian said, picking up a gear of her own to closely inspect the silvery metal. “I’ll check if the Auction has anything like it for sale.”

She tapped her choker and summoned her phone, quicking tapping the screen.

“Your phone works in here?” John exclaimed as he leaned over to see Vivian entering the term ‘zilhavrum’ into the Auction’s search bar.

“Yes,” Vivian answered, sounding a little confused by his question. “Oh, right. Forgot you’re new to all this. Aeolia, you didn’t let John know about barrier extensions for phones?”

The winged woman looked away from the pair a bit sheepishly. “I didn’t think about it, okay? I never needed a phone in a barrier since we moved as a group.”

“It’s not a big deal,” John said, hoping to assuage any bad feelings building in Aeolia, before turning back to Vivian. “How much would one of these extensions cost?”

“Just a few hundred,” Vivian said as she returned to searching the Auction. “Nothing’s coming up with that name. Maybe it’s known by a different name.”

“Well, maybe the Attribute will clue us into what it does,” John suggested and clicked it.

Enhanced Structure: These materials are 20% more durable and magically resistant.

“So zilhavrum, at least, makes things stronger by being in contact,” John summed up his understanding of the Attribute. “That help bring anything up?”

Vivian shook her head. “Not really. There are a lot of raw materials that claim something similar, but it’ll take some time to sort through all of them.”

“Then we can go searching later,” Aeolia added. “Let’s get through the rest of this stuff and figure out our next move.”

“Yeah, probably shouldn’t spend too long just sitting here,” John agreed, stowing the gears and reaching to pick up a new item, one of the two small red gems. It was roughly the size of a large marble and as smooth as one, glowing with a warm faint light.

“Nice,” John exclaimed, rolling the warm orb between his fingers. “Now I can see what fire mana can do to my skills. And that Evocation looks like it’ll be an attack.”

Not keen to waste any more time, John pulled up the Attribute and Evocation information.

Mana Conversion(Fire): Convert 1.5 units of mana into 1 unit of fire mana. This material degrades one percent per 35 units of mana generated.

Elemental Echo: This material naturally generates effects reflective of its origin. In this case, it radiates heat.

“That second Attribute is hot garbage,” Aeolia commented as she read over John’s shoulder. “The rest are good. You’re going to try to use Fire mana with your goggles, aren’t you?”

“Fuck yeah, I am,” John answered excitedly. “Hell, if everything here is machines, fire attacks might be super effective on them. The Evocation might work too, but if they’re armored like the drones were, it might not be able to penetrate.”

“More options are better than no options,” Aeolia sagely said.

Vivian nodded in agreement. “A pity we only got two. I assume you’ll want to keep one to use, so that gives us only one spare to experiment with or try to sell.”

“Once we get a handle on what this Barrier throws at, us we can figure out a good farming method,” John said, adding the Fire Crystals to his Inventory. One item remained, a black box around the size of a zippo lighter, lines of copper running up and down the surface.

“Okay, this looks promising,” John said, eyeing the display. “The goggles had four Attributes and they turned out to be awesome. Vivian, you had a generator in your kitchen. This sound like it?”

“Somewhat,” the redhead replied. “That uses crystals filled with mana and converts it to electricity. There’s nothing here that indicates such a conversion. I suppose the drones had something in them to convert the mana into electricity.”

John hummed at her assessment. “Makes sense. Let’s see if any of these Attributes are worth the hype. Mana Storage here is just a better version of the one on my ring but the others...”

Mana Stasis: Mana stored in this device is prevented from decaying.

Arcane Lock: This item can be attached to magic rich materials like a magnet.

Mechanized Preference: 20% reduced mana costs if used to power machines or golems.

“Well, the first one will be good for long term storage,” John said. “I think this Attribute was on the Mana Retaining Crystal, but I never went over it, so good to know. The last one’s pretty useless for us and Arcane Lock looks weirdly useful.”

He pressed the battery to his arm. The copper lines glowed for a second, and when John let go, the battery clung to him.

“Frees up my hands,” John mentioned. “And I don’t have to worry about it falling off when it runs dry.”

He focused on letting his mana flow into the device, his mana bar dip slightly before he pulled the mana back into himself.

“The mana transfer is smooth and that little bit didn’t even take out one point of durability,” he reported. “We can charge this up before going to bed and have a reserve of one hundred points to work with. That can work, right? All of us chipping in to charge this?”

“It should,” Vivian answered, eyeing the device. “Most things like this possess a function to make the mana something anyone or thing can use. There still is the limit to how much any of us can hold. Mana burn is not something I want to experience.”

“‘Mana burn’,” John echoed. “I’m almost afraid to ask.”

“It’s just as it sounds,” Aeolia cut in. “Trying to draw in too much mana will overload you. Best case scenario, you lose a bit of what you can normally hold for a time. Worst, you blow up.”

“Let’s not do that,” John said as his face paled.

“Thankfully it’s not something that can just happen,” Vivian added in, soothing some of John’s nerves. “There’s a certain point where our bodies just don't want to hold any more mana. Pushing past that is where the risk lies.”

“Still going to be careful,” John reaffirmed. “Just got to go over the Evocation and we can start figuring out what to do next.”

Aeolia whistled. “I’m not wrong in thinking that’s kind of busted, right?”

“No, you’re not,” John answered, quickly running the numbers. “The circle would be about four meters across at the moment and it’ll boost our mana regen at least fourteen times for two minutes.”

“You'll have to keep your Intelligence high,” Vivian noted. “Once your skill levels up, the boost will drop if you don’t.”

“I always need more mana, so raising Intelligence is always on the table,” John said with a smile. “Plus, even if the rate of the boost gets worse, the duration will increase, so we’ll get the same amount of regen just slightly slower if my Evocation level goes up before I get an Intelligence boost.”

John closed out all the displays and stowed the battery. “Okay, loot’s all sorted. How do we want to proceed?”

“No way we’re going in without getting a better idea of what we’re facing,” Aeolia said. “Really don’t feel like getting blown up again. How do you guys feel doing aerial recon with me?”

“Sounds better than just walking in,” John answered. “And I can use the goggles to get a close look without us needing to get in melee range.”

Vivian turned a bit green at the thought. “I think I’ll go back to our base. The long way, and set up better defences.”

“Don’t go too over the top,” John cautioned. “We might not be able to lure whatever else is out there back. We might have to fight them on even ground.”

“We can see if there’s a good spot to set up near the tower,” Aeolia added. “Those arrays of yours are way too useful to just be traps.”

“I won’t go crazy,” Vivian muttered, a slight smile tugging on her lips. “And if we have to get up close and personal, I can think of a few things that might be useful.”

“Great,” John said as Aeolia began to shrink him. Once small, she lifted him to her shoulder, “Hopefully we’ll be back quick.”

Aeolia flew out of the window and John held tight as she gained altitude before flying towards the central building. John pulled his goggles over his eyes as they neared it. At first, the building looked like the rest of the ruined city: shattered windows, crumbling bricks, creeping foliage. However, when John activated the Arcane Reveal to see if any magics were present, the image began to fluctuate, shimmering like a mirage and growing transparent enough to make out a far more complete looking structure.

“That building’s under an illusion of some kind,” John informed Aeolia as she flew around it. “It looks way more intact and I think there’s some kind of zilhavrum structures attached to the side. It’s hard to make out but they kind of look like they’re keeping the building together.”

“Think you can cut through it with Observe?” she asked.

“Just getting a basic readout saying it's a ruined building,” he reported. “Guess I can’t see through illusions with Observe, at least at its current level.”

“You want to try and dispel it?”

“Hex might make it disappear,” John mused, “but it would only be temporary and might trigger whatever’s inside to attack.”

“So what,” Aeolia asked, “we just have to go in the front door?”

John frowned as he tried to think of an answer. “Maybe Vivian can do something with an array? If she can’t, we booby trap the entrance and I’ll Hex the illusion. See if that forces something out.”

Aeolia nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

She made one final pass around the building before flying back towards their base. She banked suddenly, nearly causing John to fall. Before he could ask what was happening, Aeolia flipped to face the disguised building and swung her glaive, a gust of green wind intercepting a silvery projectile, preventing it from hitting them.

“Looks like we’re not going to get the chance to just go away,” Aeolia spat as a figure emerged from the building. It was humanoid, armored in the same fashion as the drones. Unlike its predecessors, the various pieces of metal were soldered together with zilhavrum. Light blue energy flowed out from its chest and through its limbs as it lifted its right arm.

The string of a zilhavrum crossbow affixed to the limb was pulled back by an unseen **** and a bolt manifested on the rail. John threw an Observe at it as Aeolia began to take evasive action.

The new enemy moved its arm as it tracked Aeolia’s movements, then fired its shot. The silver bolt cut through the air and Aeolia harshly twisted to avoid being hit. She countered with a quick swing of her glaive, sending a slice of wind at the robot.

It evaded her attack with surprising agility and dashed away from the building, its mounted bow already reloaded. Aeolia kept her evasive flight, throwing another wind blade at the mobile machine. Her attack hit the metal arbalist’s chest, leaving a small cut.

10 DMG

John reported the number to Aoelia as she pulled away, taking advantage of the slight disruption to the robot’s attack pattern.

“Damn,” she lightly cursed, “it’s pretty tough.”

“It’s got zilhavrum holding its armor together,” John pointed out. “Let’s assume it at least has the same twenty percent enhancement the gears have. Plus the woad knight had more armor than the scout yesterday, so I think it’s safe to say that higher level enemies will be more spongy.”

“Spongy?” Aeolia repeated, an eyebrow quirked.

“It means it takes a lot to kill it,” John clarified. “Higher armor level and more hit points. More of a pain too.”

“Think we should head back?”

John weighed the retreat option, eyes fixed on their current enemy. Unlike the woads, it didn’t seem tied to its location and was steadily following after them, its crossbow ready to fire.

“This guy looks like it's going to keep following us.” John surmised. “It's possible its job is to stop us from getting in that tower. Let’s see if it follows us halfway. If it does, I think we should take the chance to fight. It doesn’t look like it can fight both of us at once. Drop me off while I’m still small and fire off some attacks to keep its attention. I’ll try to sneak up on it and BAM!”

Aeolia nodded and continued away from the robot, flying in a serpentine pattern to avoid being an easy target. She twisted her head back to see the machine steadily following them, its weapon still trained on her.

“Looks like it's programmed to pursue,” she muttered. “Guess we’re doing your plan. Be ready to jump when we close in. Once you're off me, you should grow back to full size in a minute. Hang on tight. We’re going up first.”

Aeolia sharply ascended before looping back towards the drone. As the distance narrowed, she hefted her glaive and fired off a strong tempest. The green wind hit the crumbling road right before the drone, sending a spray of dust and debris at the mechanical marksman. While the cloud obscured the robot’s line of sight, Aeolia dropped towards the ground, flying only centimeters above the cracked payment.

“Go,” she urged and John took the plunge, falling to the ground in a roll.

-4 HP

‘Of course that would hurt me,’ he lamented as he picked himself up. He looked up to see Aeolia flying back towards the tower, the drone in pursuit, arm still raised as it fired after her. John broke into a sprint, pushing himself to keep up with them.

From her vantage point, Aeolia must have seen him trailing after them and slowed her flight, firing off a wide wind blade. The drone pulled back from the sweeping attack, lining up for its retaliation. John summoned the greatwood sword and lifted it as he regrew to his full height.