TravelingDreamer
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B6—Chapter 16: Ten Thousand Gold Coin and One Cool Gizmo
🕑 Added 2025-04-06 11:37:53 +0000 UTCMahya and Malith were holed up in her workshop for two days, resurfacing only for meals. Even then, they just took plates and disappeared again. Al worked on the potions order, and Rue fought snakes. He had a serious grudge against them. In the past, he tried to avoid them, complaining about “stupid, no-yummy, no-level snakes.” Now, he went looking for them—“To show stupid snakes Rue is dangerous.”
I used the time to create two upgraded versions of the Mana Crystals spell for Mahya and Al. Since I hadn’t had a chance to cast it yet, I didn’t know if the mana cost stayed the same or increased, but held my fingers crossed it didn’t.
In the evening of the second day, Al joined me for dinner, extra pink-faced and missing his eyebrows. He sat down stiffly, carefully lowering himself into the chair as if everything hurt.
“What happened?” I asked, staring at his singed face and the smooth stretch of skin where his eyebrows used to be.
“A minor miscalculation on my part,” he said, reaching for his cup with exaggerated nonchalance, like that might distract me from the smell of burned hair.
“What miscalculation?”
He waved me off with a dramatic flourish, then winced as if the motion pulled something the wrong way.
“Need healing?” I asked, eyeing the raw patch on his neck.
“No, thank you. I drank a potion,” he said, sitting a little straighter.
I shrugged and set the plates on the table.
Mahya spotted Al and did a double take. “Oh, that was the noise?”
“What noise?” I asked.
“The explosion,” Malith said.
I didn’t hear a thing. Thinking back, it made sense—they shared a wall, and I’d been outside working on the spell. I focused a bit more on the core, trying to sense his lab. Everything felt normal, aside from a few scorch marks on his work table and the wall.
In this particular incident, the biggest victim was Al’s dignity. The embarrassment practically radiated from him, his back stiff and his eyes fixed a little too intently on his food.
When we finished eating, Malith wiped his hands, then pulled out three bracelets and set them on the table with a clink. He pointed at one. “This one is for Mahya.” Then he tapped a small identification rune etched into the metal. “John, put a drop of your blood here.”
He motioned to the second rune on the same bracelet and turned to Al. “You put a drop here. Those two are yours.”
He pushed the remaining two bracelets toward us. “Each one needs a drop of blood from the other two to function. I made them to thank you for saving me from that awful moon.”
“What do they do?” I asked, picking one up to examine the fine etchings.
Malith leaned forward slightly, folding his hands. “When you channel a small amount of mana into it—very little, just two or three units—you’ll sense the physical condition of the other two. You’ll also be able to tell what direction they’re in.”
He paused, then added, “It doesn’t work across Gates or from outside a dungeon to someone inside. But if all of you are inside the same dungeon, it works just fine.”
Then he turned to Rue with an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, Rue. I tried to make one for you, too, but the bracelet needs direct skin contact. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t find a rune combination that works through fur.”
“Rue feel John all the time,” Rue said, puffing his chest a little. “Rue can be without bracelet.”
Malith gave him a nod. “That makes sense.”
“Did you succeed?” Al asked Mahya, turning to her with a raised brow.
She let out a sigh and slumped in her seat. “No.”
“What were you trying to do?” I asked.
“Understand how the stupid cultivators created the driving box,” she muttered, rubbing her temples.
“No luck?” I asked.
She and Malith both shook their heads, looking thoroughly defeated. Mahya leaned back, arms crossed, while Malith stared down at the table, lips pressed tight.
“We’ll figure it out,” I said.
Rue nudged my thigh with his nose, eyes wide and hopeful. “John need to figure out fast. Rue need a flying sword.”
I scratched behind his ear, and his tail gave a slow wag. “We will. Eventually. In the meantime, you can fly.”
“Rue want zoom,” he whined, ears drooping for dramatic effect.
I patted his head. “I know, buddy. I know.”
I picked up one bracelet and turned it in my hand. The metal looked strange. Black, but not just regular black. It had a weird effect on my vision. My eyes kept tunneling into it, as if the surface had depth. It was the same metal as the medallions Malith had made for us. I hadn’t noticed it as much with those. Probably because they were smaller, barely two centimeters across, and the shimmering, fading runes on them kept the focus elsewhere.
This was different. With the bracelet, I could really see it, and it was... odd. The black was the blackest I’d ever seen, as if it absorbed both light and attention. My eyes kept drifting, drawn in against my will. It was unsettling, like staring into something that wasn’t meant to be looked at for too long, but I also couldn’t look away.
I flipped the bracelet over and over, trying to study the runes and script etched along the band, but my focus kept slipping, pulled back into that deep, black void. After a few minutes, I gave up and set it down, rubbing my eyes until the feeling passed.
“What is it made of?” I asked.
“Duron,” they answered in unison.
“Which is...?” I prompted, raising an eyebrow.
“The most expensive metal in the cosmos,” Mahya said, as if that explained everything.
“Why?” I asked.
“It’s unique,” she said, sitting forward a bit. “It only appears on high mana and very high mana worlds, and even then, only around strong vents where huge quantities of raw mana leak out of the ground. The metal itself is weird. It actively absorbs mana from its environment, which means if you enchant it, you never have to recharge it. Ever.”
She glanced at the bracelet on the table. “But that’s not even the weirdest part. You can’t work it like regular metal. No heating or hammering. Doesn’t respond to that at all. You have to channel mana into it. A lot of mana. I can’t even use it with my reserve. You mold it with your hands like clay while the mana flows through you and into the metal. But once you stop, that’s it. It locks in place. Even if you try to add more mana later, it won’t budge. It becomes permanent.”
“And it is permanent,” Malith added. “Things made from Duron don’t wear down. It doesn’t age, corrode, or break. Nothing can harm it—not even time.”
“Why does it keep pulling my eyes back to it, as if it doesn’t want to let go?” I asked, my eyes locked again on the bracelet.
“Hold back the mana from reaching your eyes,” Malith said. “That’ll stop the effect.”
It did the trick. The pull vanished, and I blinked a few times before giving my head a quick shake to clear the lingering sense of weirdness.
“How valuable is it?” I asked.
“A Duron coin is worth a hundred Mithril coins,” Al said.
“I have no idea how much Mithril is worth,” I admitted.
“It’s usually a hundred gold to one Mithril and a hundred Mithril to one Duron,” Mahya explained.
I let out a low whistle. One coin worth ten thousand gold? That was one expensive metal.
I looked at Malith. “This is too much.”
“No, it is not,” he said firmly. “You saved my life. This is the least I can do.”
I glanced at Mahya and Al. Al shrugged, completely unbothered. Mahya gave me a what can you do? Kind of gesture with both hands.
I shook my head, then gave a slight nod. “Thank you.”
He nodded back.
After a moment of quiet, Malith spoke. “I wish to leave for Earth tomorrow, but I need higher ground to take off from. Are you moving on as well or staying longer?”
We exchanged glances.
“We can move too,” Mahya said. “What kind of elevation do you need?”
“Something to get me above the trees.”
“Will a flying balloon do?” she asked.
He gave her a puzzled look.
She waved him off. “You’ll see tomorrow.”
I channeled mana, the Map popped into existence, and I pointed at the Gate in the junkyard. “Here’s the Gate to Lumis,” I told Malith, then handed him a hand-drawn sketch of the Gates that connect Lumis to Earth. “These are the three Gates that lead to Earth. This one goes to Alaska, and those two to Canada.”
I passed him a few pages I’d torn from a world atlas—maps of the Americas, Europe, and China. “These are the Earth-side Gates from our list. I didn’t want to cram in too much text, so I just wrote down the numbers that match the list I gave you earlier.”
“Thank you,” he said, then hesitated. His expression shifted, uncomfortable. “I have one more request to make of you.”
“What?” I asked.
“Can you sell me some food? The only supplies I have left are the processed horrors from the moon. I’d rather not eat that if I have any other choice.”
“Yeah, sure,” I said, and popped the Map back open. “This area here”—I pointed to a vast stretch—“covers a few hundred kilometers of fields, orchards, and herds. You can stop along the way to resupply.”
“Does it belong to anybody?”
“Yes and no,” I said, tracing the area on the Map. “Technically, it belongs to the leader of New Sanctuary.” I pointed out the city. “But if you forage far enough from it, it’s not a problem. They still don’t have the means to reach the faraway fields.”
I looked up. “If you stop in New Sanctuary, mention our names. They’re friends—they’ll welcome you.”
“John no sell yummy snakes or crabs,” Rue informed me, dead serious.
Nobody else reacted, so I did my best not to laugh. “Of course not. Those are yours and yours alone.”
We sold Malith some food, ensured he needed nothing else, and all of us turned in for the night.
In the morning, after breakfast, Malith said, “I think I should write detailed information about the moon, but I’m hesitant to cross over alone. Can one of you escort me?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but Mahya shot me a death glare before I could utter a word. I raised my hands in surrender.
“I’ll go with you,” she said.
They were gone for about two hours. I spent most of that time cooking so we would have ready food on the way. When they came back, I closed the house, and we headed toward the clearing.
“You mentioned a glider,” I said to Malith as we reached the clearing. “Can I see it?”
He gave a slight nod and pulled out a strange contraption that immediately caught my attention.
It looked like a coffin with wings.
And not just any wings. Massive, bat-like wings stretched out from either side, layered with thin metallic rods and reinforced joints. The entire structure shimmered faintly with enchantments, its surface carved with runes and flowing lines of magic script, most of them tied to wind magic.
I touched the wings and gave the coffin a light knock. My mana sense told me the wings were metal and some other natural material. The body of the coffin was made from some kind of natural material, too, but for the life of me, I couldn’t identify any of it.
Malith crouched and opened a side panel with a twist of his hand, revealing the interior.
“You lie on your belly inside,” he explained, tapping the padded base with two fingers. “There are two control sticks. This one adjusts elevation, forward and back,” he said, pointing at the first. “This one’s for direction. Left and right.”
I leaned in to take a better look. It was tight in there—definitely not made for anyone broad-shouldered—but surprisingly well-organized, with the controls within reach.
“How do you take off?” I asked.
He stepped back and pointed toward a square panel on the floor of the glider. “If there’s no elevation, I open this and run. Once I catch some wind, the enchantments kick in. But,” he added, glancing at the treetops, “I usually prefer launching from a cliff or high point. Makes it easier to get airborne. The moment I’m off the ground, the flight enchantments take over.”
I crouched beside it and traced a few of the runes with my eyes. Air pressure regulation, wind guidance, and passive stabilization. Then, I spotted an obfuscation matrix etched into the base of the wing. It looked similar to the one we used on the balloon, but this one was much more elaborate. Cleaner, more compact, and probably twice as effective.
“Only the wings are hidden?” I asked.
“No,” Malith said. “The bottom has the same enchantment.”
I nodded, taking it all in. Dozens of enchantments had been layered together, each one carefully interlinked with the others. There were wind vortexes woven into ten separate points under each wing, guiding airflow for lift and stability. Wind shaping runes helped fine-tune direction, while drag control enchantments minimized resistance during descent. A set of glide compensation spells kept the ride steady, adjusting for turbulence or shifts in weight. And just in case something went wrong midair, there was even an emergency lift trigger built in—a last-resort enchantment designed to kick in and give a sudden burst of upward thrust.
All in all, it was one cool gizmo.
Mahya took out the balloon, and I asked the wind to inflate it. Now it was Malith’s turn to walk around it, admiring it out loud with theatrical flair. Honestly, I thought he was just being polite. His gizmo was way cooler, no contest. But when I tuned into his emotions, I paused. He actually meant it. Every enthusiastic word of praise was genuine. That surprised me.
“Can you take off from this?” Al asked, nodding toward the balloon.
“Yes, no problem—once you're high enough,” Malith said.
“How?” Al asked. Mahya and I also looked at him with interest.
“I jump out and retrieve the glider from Storage around me.”
Huh. I hadn’t thought of that. But it made sense. We could already summon potions straight to our mouths, why not something else on us?
That got me thinking. Could I summon my armor directly onto myself?
I focused, picked the armor from Storage, and tried to pull it onto me, but it didn’t go great. The pants fell over one shoulder, and the jacket struck my face before dropping to the ground.
Malith and Mahya burst out laughing.
“It takes some practice,” Malith said between chuckles.
Al, meanwhile, was watching me thoughtfully, arms crossed and a glint in his eye. I looked back at him, and we exchanged a glance and a small nod. Training was definitely in our future.
We drifted higher as the balloon rose steadily on a warm updraft. Malith stood at the edge of the basket, hands gripping the railing, eyes locked on the horizon.
Then he turned.
Without warning, he stepped over to Mahya and pulled her into a quick, solid hug. “You’re brilliant,” he said, voice low but firm. “You'll figure it out.”
Mahya patted his back, eyes narrowed. “You’re still crazy,” she muttered, not quite hiding the smile.
He released her, turned to me, and thrust out a hand. I took it, and he shook it hard. “Thanks, John. For the save and everything else.”
“Try not to splatter,” I said, only half-joking.
Malith grinned. “No promises.”
Then he turned to Al and offered his hand. “Alfonsen.”
Al took it with a nod. “Malith. May your road be full of adventure.”
Malith winked. “We’ll meet again. Save me some interesting stories and cool gadgets.”
He gave the railing one last pat, then stepped up and over in a single motion.
Even though I knew he could summon the glider midair, my heart still stopped for a beat.
Then, there it was.
The glider snapped into existence around him, wings catching the wind with a low shimmer of mana. He leveled out, and the sharp curve of the glider tilted gracefully as he banked.
He circled the balloon twice, a dark streak carving gentle arcs through the sky. As he passed us one last time, the wings dipped side to side in a swift, wordless farewell.
Mahya leaned on the edge of the basket, watching him go. “He’s insane.”
“Yeah,” I said, grinning. “But it looks so damn cool. Kinda jealous, not gonna lie.”
We waved back.
A moment later, he turned south and disappeared into the distance.
I asked the wind for a boost east, toward the next Gate.
Comments
TravelingDreamer
Oops?
Jeffrey Worrall
I think 1 Duron should equal 10,000 gold not 1,000.
TravelingDreamer
LOL
tonright
i hate when i read a chapter of something right when it comes out leaving me with maximum possible wait time to the next one lol
