“It looks like we are getting closer to the border.”

  “Hm…”

  “There aren’t many floating islands around, and the ones in the area are pretty small.”

  “Hm…”

  “Sorry, but I need to fart here. I don’t think that it will smell good.”

  “Do that, and I will kick you out.”

  “I guess you are listening, but you don’t care that much.”

  “I trust Glacien’s report more than yours.”

  Roswald checked through the entrance of the wagon and then saw Glacien still pulling the vehicle like nothing was wrong. In the distance, he could see the mountains that were in the Empire territory already, so we should be pretty close to Ironcliff.

  I could tell that he was a bit curious if I would feel nostalgic about getting close to that place, but there was no reason for it. I spent two years there, but I only crafted bows day and night, nothing else.

  At the same time, I was too immersed in research. Thanks to my Microscope, I could see the structure of the mana cores. It made me recall my first few chemistry lessons at school. The particles of mana were clustered together like chains, and thanks to that connection and their density, they could assume a physical form.

  ‘I guess I need to break this structure down to a molecular level, but the energy will probably dissipate if I do only that…’

  I tried to recall my knowledge from my previous life to see if there was any idea that could give me some insight here, but nothing came to mind. Maybe I was too focused on making the mana cores take the liquid form… I still could do plenty with it, but that would decrease a bunch of limitations.

  The mana cores take physical shape in the bodies of some monsters for unknown reasons. Some people believe that it is because some monsters used too much magic, or have a bit more talent for magic given that some of them are born with it, but people don’t have them. The only creatures that have them and also have sapience are guardians that managed to escape the dungeons or labyrinths for one reason or the other.

  ‘Amulets and magic implements suck the mana from them, while keeping them stable until the very end. I guess it is because of their nature to fuel the process of magic, no matter the conditions that they are used…’

  I considered eating the smaller ones, but I knew that I shouldn’t eat something so important that once had been the core of the power of a monster. In the end, I didn’t have any real inspiration.

  “Awooo!”

  “... It looks like she noticed something.”

  Roswald went to check the outside and Glacien slowed down. Before long she stopped somewhere and then when I went to check things, I found a bunch of footsteps on the snow that were heading north.

  “It must belong to soldiers of the empire…”

  I nodded. The marks on the snow were deep, and it seemed that a group of fifty or soldiers marched through here. It seemed that the empire could be up to no good in this area and take advantage of the battle between the harpies and the half humans.

  “Any ideas of what they might want here?”

  “With these numbers? No idea. Most of their efforts should be on the conflict with elves and dwarves. They don’t need to worry about their coast anymore, so the only direction that they should be wary of is the East, but there are many mountains there and it has been a while since they faced problems from that direction.”

  I stopped to hold my chin. I had to avoid contacting any big shot that belonged to them since they might have learned of their future using the clairvoyant… using that on some people in order to find me was their best option. I could think that this was perhaps why they sent this group north.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “We need to leave immediately. They will eventually find our traces since it isn’t snowing that much today. We don’t know when this group will return, either.”

  “Right. It isn’t like not a single person in our land didn’t think that this could happen, after all.”

  We got back on the wagon and began to move again… now that I thought about it, dealing with the empire will get a lot harder since I couldn’t just get rid of the ones that try to get in my way. The best option would be to get rid of the clairvoyant, but that person would know when I would attack them… even if they couldn’t see anything about me in the future, they should be able to see things about themselves, like dangerous situations and the best way to avoid them. Such a pain in the ass…

  In the end, we had to rely on Glacien a bit more until night fell to move. After that, the temperature dropped, and I decided to use the new engines and test them while Glacien rested. It didn’t take more than one hour to adjust everything and then get moving… slowly but surely, I increased the speed of the vehicle, until we climbed a snow hill and then almost floated in the air for a couple of seconds after reaching its summit.

  “Wahhhh! Wahhhh!”

  The sudden fall and impact woke Alissandra up and it seemed that it scared her more than a bit since it took a while to calm her down… the engines were a lot more powerful than I had expected.

  “I guess if I add some wings, I can cover some distances while gliding in the air. Flying would be useful, but it should consume a lot of energy… perhaps flying like an airplane might be too difficult, but adding some helix above can help with that and that would split the work instead of relying on a single powerful engine “

  I wondered what the heck was wrong with me thinking of choppers in a fantasy world… but it was another thing to aim for, since few people would be able to reach us while flying.

  “We are getting close to the harpies’ territory. Shouldn’t we wait a bit until night comes? It will be harder for them to find traces of the wagon.”

  “We will continue. We will be fine with this much speed. I have some work to do, so drive for me.”

  “I am not sure if I can drive this weird vehicle. well… I heard that some vampires have weird vehicles, but I didn’t expect something like this.”

  “What kind of vehicle?”

  “The type that can fly… although that is mainly rumors. Since their magic is so obscure and ancestral, that wouldn’t surprise me.”

  I frowned at the thought. Vampires using vehicles? It felt just weird. Whenever I imagined their movement, it was always something primal, running like wolves with creepy grace or flying like bats under the cover of darkness. The idea of them riding around in machines just didn’t fit the image of the predatory elegance I associated with them.

  Still, considering how strange the world could be, I couldn’t completely dismiss the possibility. If they truly did have such vehicles, it only made sense they’d keep it secret. Anything that added to their mystique and fearsome reputation would be a weapon in itself. Besides, aside from some dumb ones, with age, wisdom would come.

  Regardless, the wagon could easily move at one hundred miles per hour with the four engines at full power, so it seemed that the trip wouldn’t last that long. The only problem would be the quick consumption of mana cores… they were being used at least two per minute.

  ‘Well, it is fine. Time is a much more important resource, after all.’

  There were so many things that I wanted to learn, but it seemed that they would take too long to accomplish, so I decided to focus on something more simple that would bring results fast. Which was to extract the essence of the items I bought earlier and then transform them into tools that would help my crafting process.

  The wand with the Flamethrower effect let me create a blowtorch. I didn’t have any ideas how to use the other effects for crafting yet, but they would come in handy for combat. The only downside was the fact that they were effects that I couldn’t get experience for skills.

  “That seems dangerous…”

  Roswald saw me using the blowtorch, but I couldn’t lose my focus… using the full power of it, I could craft five amulets at the same time by stacking five plates above each other. If I increased my magic and Fire Affinity, that would increase even more… I sighed in relief when I checked that the amulets worked. I could mass produce them and sell them now. Not like I had any use for money.

  Still, with the blowtorch, I could do fine details even better than before, so it was time to decrease the size of the amulets for the Chrono Surge skill.

  ‘If I keep increasing my Dexterity, perhaps I can make fine details down to a molecular level like the structures in the mana cores… perhaps I can even stack their effects if they become that much smaller than well.’

  While those ideas filled my mind, another thought struck me: the chain formation within mana cores. What would happen if I broke that structure?

  The concept was interesting, to say the least. Mana cores were composed of particles clustered into intricate chains, a formation that granted them their stability and physicality. If I could disrupt that formation, it might reveal entirely new properties, or make the mana to dissipate entirely.

  It was hard to imagine any practical use for such a process, though. To truly explore the potential, I’d need to break those chains thousands, perhaps millions, of times. The sheer scale of effort made it seem impractical, but I couldn’t dismiss it outright without testing the result at least once.

  With that, I resolved to try, even if the immediate utility wasn’t clear. Sometimes, the pursuit of knowledge alone was reason enough.

  ‘This sure is taking a lot of my time, but since it is so interesting, I can’t help but get interested in it… Eureka.’