Might as Well - Chapter 392 (Patreon)

Sam and Liz spent a good chunk of time there in the laboratory, putting together equipment that would help him with his next mission. The entire thing consisted of him just standing inside a ring of defensive equipment (in case something exploded), testing different configurations of the small device Liz had created.

Meanwhile, the frazzled Liz was in the middle of a frantic episode. Her hair was standing every which way, and the drones were flying around her in a chaotic mess, somehow conveying their own frustration without hitting each other.

She was frustrated because the first devices he had tested broke down under the pressure of his mana regeneration. Technically, they were capable of handling that amount of mana, but practically, they burned out, as Liz had never had the chance to test them under that amount of load.

So then she had to rush around and put together a new one, with more durable materials, and a bit bulkier (promising to slim it down at the end), before handing it over to him for testing.

Sam had to incinerate it with void magic as the accumulated mana burst into flames, threatening to explode.

After cursing for half a minute, Liz returned to her worktable and, with the excited help of her crystal drones, began a new construction.

They went through several devices, each of them destroyed in different manners. After the second almost exploded, the third started leaking long before it was half full, as apparently its mana was “extremely potent.”

“I’m sorry, Liz. I already have a girlfriend,” he said, while trying to keep a straight face.

Liz looked back at him oddly before it filtered into her mind what she had just said. She flushed red and began sputtering. “You know what I meant! Ugh! Jerk!”

“Hahaha!” he burst into laughter as Liz threw the next prototype at his hand.

He swiftly caught it and affixed it to his wrist. “What does this one do?”

Still blushing slightly, Liz began to explain. “I upped the robustness of the crystal matrix and made sure that the load balancing could handle your…” Here she sighed a little. “…potent mana.”

“Humanity thanks your effort…” he replied with the biggest grin.

“Just fucking use it, you idiot…”

Saluting smartly, he focused on the device and began channeling mana into it.

This one didn’t burst into flames, nor did it start leaking. However, it soon began to emit a very disconcerting light. It took Sam a few seconds to realize where he had seen that exact shade of blue.

Wrenching the prototype off his wrist, he threw it into the air and hurled a condensed ball of void at it. Before the two of them saw the void fully consume the magi-tech device, it emitted an even brighter flash.

“Not that one either…” Liz muttered before returning to her desk, scattered with parts and crystal shards. The drones were constantly shifting around, either bringing in new parts or taking away old, discarded ones.

It took a few more prototypes, and even more technological and magical mishaps, before Liz managed to find a good enough configuration that could handle Sam’s mana, both in its potency and its volume, while also keeping the same mana inside the device without leaking, thus defeating the entire purpose of this exercise.

But they managed it.

Sam stood in the middle of the small arena set aside for explosions and whatnot, and watched as his new bracer, containing three crystalline devices facing each other in a triangle, each capable of holding at least one million units of mana, sat securely on his wrist.

It also had a few more features.

For example, it had a small feature that was a mix of runic magic and magi-technology that allowed Sam to vent the mana accumulated inside if he so needed. There were also, of course, the emergency eject button and the very necessary and poignantly named BIG BOOM button.

Just in case.

Liz let out a sigh. “I thought we would never manage it,” she said while wiping away digital sweat from her forehead, an adorable drone holding a bottle of water and a small towel out to her. “I knew you were a freak, but not this much…”

Inspecting the small device, Sam couldn’t help but smile.

This was something that never existed in the other timeline.

Oh, there were attempts at arcano-technology, as they had called it, but it was all very individual. Everybody did their own thing, and mass manufacturing wasn’t even a pipedream. It was exhilarating to watch the timeline shift further and further…

“It’s a good prototype, but we need to add a few things,” he said after a brief pause.

Liz’s eyes twitched, but she forced a smile onto her face. “W-what would that be?”

“We need smaller crystals to act as a bridge between the big ones, to handle the load distribution and the occasional or accidental leak or overfill.”

Liz looked back at him, then down at the device Sam was slowly unwinding from his forearm, and she slammed her head down on the desk.

“God. Damn. It.”

Every word was punctuated with a slam.

She raised her head, and one small drone, painted white and bearing a red cross, flew over and attached a small Band-Aid to her forehead before zooming away. “Why didn’t I think about it?”

“You were probably focused on keeping it from exploding…” Sam replied, handing over the device.

Liz just growled and fell on it, pulling it apart with sheer magic instead of tools in her haste and frustration.

Maybe ten minutes later, the three large crystals each had three smaller crystals between them in a line, adding their small capacity to help with load distribution and handling any edge cases. Plus, in a pinch, they could act as extra storage.

She handed it back. “Alright, with these changes, you have one full hour of completely mana-blank stealth and an extra fifteen minutes if you need it in an emergency.”

“Excellent!” Sam exclaimed. “This is going to be super useful!”

Liz smiled. “I hope so.” Then she giggled a little. “I watched the uncut video from Roserun. Are you planning anything like that?”

Sam shrugged. “I have no idea. First we need to see what is there.”

Liz nodded sagely. “Alright, then I’ll simply wait for the blockbuster… Have you ever thought about hiring someone to do music and voiceover for it?”

“Thank you,” he replied dryly, while completely ignoring the second question and making sure the device fit on his hand snugly and comfortably.

[Tri-Magazine Mana Absorption and Storage Device (v21.43): A magi-tech device built from intricately grown crystalline structures and enhanced with runes and metallurgy to be capable of absorbing, storing, and expelling mana. It contains three main crystals, each capable of absorbing 1 000 000 units of mana, and nine secondary crystals capable of absorbing 100 000 units of mana. This volume allows, with current settings, continuous operation for 1 hour and an extra 15 minutes.Options: Absorb Mana, Expel Mana, Emergency Eject, BIG BOOM]

Sam read the description that had expanded as Liz kept adding things, and couldn’t help but smile. This was going to revolutionise stealth mechanics in the game.

For a brief moment, he wondered what the game system and the AI directing it were thinking about it, but then he shrugged. If the system didn’t want him to use it, then it wouldn’t have allowed its creation.

A vicious grin spread on his face. “This is excellent work, Liz. Thank you.”

Liz proudly pushed her chest forward as the drones spun around her in celebration. “As always, I’m the best,” she declared with her hands on her hips.

Then she saw the smile on his face.

“Oh no… what now?”

“We still need to work on the expendable ones,” he reminded her.

It was Liz’s turn to smile. “Here,” she said while pushing forward a small box.

Looking inside, Sam saw several hexagonal, coin-sized crystalline devices, each surrounded by a metal setting. “While you were testing, I put them together. They didn’t need to be as robust as the thing on your hand, so it was much easier.”

Sam pulled the box closer and picked one up. It looked and felt like any coin. It even seemingly weighed as much as one.

[Mana-Chip (v1.42): A small chip resembling a metal currency coin, crafted out of a crystalline material and set within a metal frame. Capable of absorbing 1 000 units of mana, and when activated, continuously emits the absorbed mana.]

Looking into the box, Sam saw a pile of these coins. He looked up at the still-grinning Liz and gave her a thumbs up.

“No further questions, oh mistress of crystal!”

Instead of smiling, Liz’s face froze in surprise as she looked at something Sam couldn’t see. It was obviously a system screen.

“What the hell?” she muttered, then she looked up at him with equal parts horror and awe. “How the hell did you do that?”

“Do what?” Sam asked confusedly.

“Give me a title!” she almost shrieked as she pushed the notification toward him, making it visible.

[Congratulations! You have, once again, created artifacts that had never been seen! You gain extra experience points for your related skills!]

[Congratulations! You were dubbed as the Mistress of Crystal by a being with potent power!]

[Mistress of Crystal: You are the undisputed mistress of all that is crystalline. Any structure that you have a hand in crafting is much more robust, while crystalline beings are much more deferential toward you. You gain the crafting recipe for the Crystal Tiara of the Empress.]

[Crystal Tiara of the Empress: It’s a shiny tiara. Everybody wants one, and now you have one too. Rejoice.]

Sam shrugged. “I mean… you are the mistress of the crystal. To my knowledge, you’re the only one with this specific skill…”

He remembered handing over the information about the Tablet of Creation to her on a whim in exchange for favors, then later giving her the artifact Isabella had given him, only for it to result in something he could have never imagined.

Lucy always claimed that he was a mastermind who could out-think anyone, but he honestly was going off remembered information and vibes. Those two things felt good together, and he put them together… and now, voilà! He had handheld nukes.

Life was weird sometimes.

Liz eyed him weirdly for a moment before letting out a sigh. “Fine… I mean, this is not even that weird compared to the usual weird stuff you do.”

Sam nodded awkwardly.

He was just trying to play the game… it wasn’t his fault if people found his actions odd.

Then Liz began to shoo him toward the door. “Now go. I need to figure out how to manufacture it for everybody else. Tim is going to love this…”

Sam bowed and left the workshop. As the door closed behind him, he could already hear drones buzzing and Liz pulling out more and more material, the crystalline material distinct, a chinking sound echoing around the large workshop.

“See you later, Q!”

“What?” came the confused call just as the door finished closing.

With his new equipment snugly on his wrist and his other hand filled with a bunch of Mana-Chips continuously absorbing his mana, he returned to the surface via the complicated security features before sending out a quick message.

Tim met him in one of the many meeting rooms around Ferabor. This one was a bit more hidden, known only to the upper echelons, but it was still counted as highly secure.

Tim appeared out of the shadows, shadowy spider legs pushing him out, while eight dark red, almost black eyes stared at Sam.

Sam said nothing, just took out a small bag from his inventory, held his palm over it, and let the Mana-Chips fall into it.

“Take these. They have my mana,” he said, handing over the bag. “Have someone dress up as me and use these to walk around randomly in the kingdom.”

Tim picked up one of the chips and read the description before letting it fall back into the bag, then closed it and put it away.

“You got it, boss,” he said simply. “Anything else?”

Sam smiled. “Check with Liz. She is going to have something super awesome for you.”

Tim nodded, said his goodbyes, and stepped back into the shadows.

That’s why Sam liked Tim. He was quick on the uptake and didn’t like unnecessary talk.

Finished with all that, now he needed to resupply, have one last meeting with Lucy, and then he was off to see what he could find in those hidden valleys the Blood Army had set up.

Looking out the window, watching the bustling crowds on the street, he imagined they wouldn’t be this calm and carefree if they knew there was a gigantic ritual aimed directly at them.

Then he shrugged. ‘That’s why I’m here…’

Shaking his head, he headed for the door. There would be time for heavy thoughts later. For now, he had a job to do.

A/N: Hehe... BIG BOOM. Hehe.