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Chapter 29 - A Crunchy Night
🕑 Added 2023-09-12 17:16:24 +0000 UTCLogan didn’t run far. He didn’t have to. The goons wouldn’t be able to leave their night watch to search for him. They had orders and they would follow them. Logan had a couple of hours before the camp would even wake up.
He did hide the Numa crystals well though. He found a little cave behind two lush bushes wherein he put the satchel.
“Now then,” He muttered to himself. We need to decide what we want to make.”
Logan sat on the ground and idly plucked a leaf from the bush. It was leathery and fragrant. He had an idea of what he’d craft. Crossbow was his foremost choice.
“Can we make that, Tumor?”
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 50% Completion]
[Assessing material options…]
[Running simulations on Numa applications…]
[...]
[The possibility of building a working crossbow without access to metal or composite materials is low. A functional crossbow can be made from wood and plant fibers, but [Enchanting] the string, the bow and the ammunition to hold the required properties will cost a significant amount of Numa.]
Right… Well that does suck. Wait, I have that new skill thing or whatever. Let’s see if there’s anything useful there.”
Logan brought up his status screen. It had been a while since he had a look.
Logan Specter - [Artificer level 5]
Attributes:
Potency: 10
Efficiency: 11
Durability: 5
Control: 11
Focus: 9
Subclasses:
[Transmutation]: 11
[Enchantment]: 15
Class Skills:
[Empower]: 3
[Funnel]: 5
[Repair]: 1
General Skills:
[Marksmanship]: 7
[Class Passive Skill Choice Available]
Logan selected the option to choose the passive skill and a floating box in his vision prompted up. Within were a selection of passive skills.
[Numa Psychic: Acquire ability to use Numa without touching a Numa-energy source. Range increases with Potency and Focus modifiers.]
[Cavallier: 5% Chance per enchantment to double the Potency modifier of an enchantment]
[Cavallier: 5% Chance per enchantment to double the Efficiency modifier of an enchantment]
[Penny Stretcher: 5% Chance per enchantment to double the Durability modifier of an enchantment]
[Naturally Enchanting: 5% Chance per enchantment to not use Numa]
[Transformative Luck: 5% Chance per transmutation to not use Numa]
[Numa Psychic] seemed really, really awesome. Logan wondered how far the range was and how much it would grow along with his attributes. Unfortunately it wasn’t immediately useful, as were the other options. Right now the biggest concern was scarcity of Numa. Utility-abilities could wait.
Technically all of the other options matched his needs in their own way. Durability was concerned with the actual material when it came to [Transmutation], not that it mattered here. As for [Enchanting], Logan had figured it at least related to enchantments that increased an item's durability. Probably also how many times an enchantment could be used.
Now, one might think Efficiency would do that. But that wasn’t it, and Logan was sure of it. What Efficiency did was simply determine how efficient his use of Numa was. When he had enchanted that door to be shut, he had used almost a whole [E-grade Numa Crystal] on it. Granted, he hadn’t even had a class back then. If he were to do the same enchantment now, he’d be surprised if it took more than 30% of the charge with his increased Potency and Efficiency.
It really came down to the last two options. He’d used [Enchanting] more and was going to, so Logan was leaning towards picking that. He halted himself and consulted Tumor on the subject. The AI ran a ridiculous amount of simulations and all that stuff. Logan figured since this was about percentages and efficiency, the little parasite was perfect for the job.
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 56% Completion]
Uncharacteristically Tumor ended up asking Logan questions on what sorts of items he would plan to craft in the future. Fair question. What if tomorrow circumstances changed, and he would have been better off grabbing the [Transmutation] discount coupon.
He would have to build a bunch of things. Mainly buildings from Simmons’s endless pile of lumber. But they did apparently have both a [Builder] and a [Carpenter], from what Logan had heard. It wasn’t just that everyone needed to keep busy. If something could be done by hand, it should be done by hand, to save Numa.
And so, Logan picked [Naturally Enchanting]
After the minty, fresh feeling passed, Logan focused. He looked at the satchel made from a motley mess of clothes, mainly suit jackets. It bulged with the most awesome treasure. Over twenty blue glowing crystals half the size of a fist.
“Don’t you for a second think I won’t make a crossbow, despite your discouragement, Tumor.”
[This one expected such outcome with a certainty of 99.91%. It is noteworthy that the 0.09% chance consists of situations such as wherein all oxygen in the atmosphere spontaneously combusts.]
Was that… snark? It sure kept forgetting to not include the decimals for something that was supposed to be incredibly smart. Well, wasn’t that interesting. He suddenly liked Tumor a bit more, because that sure as hell wasn’t his father’s design.
Thinking about his father made Logan’s mood go foul, so instead he told Tumor to make a list of items and amounts which he would need to create a hand-crossbow.
*
Logan spent a good half an hour gathering around the necessary materials. He was also just collecting this and that, since he needed to craft for other people than himself as well, and he kept coming up with ideas.
It was still very dark, even if Logan’s night vision was settling in. He almost lost his way once, but found that Tumor was an excellent GPS. Logan had to admit. As much of a tool his father was, this little parasite had its uses.
When Logan finally dropped his last armful of stuff on the ground, he took a good look at his haul. It was mostly sticks. Oh he would need a lot of sticks. The [Transmutation] passive would come in handy exactly now, but Logan was resolved he had made the right choice, regardless.
There were also a few stones that he had found. They fit in his hand and had a nice heft to them, making them ideal for throwing. Logan wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with them, but at the very least he could make stone-tipped crossbow bolts, if naught else came to mind.
Logan also had taken a length of a hanging vine from an old tree with thick black bark. Logan wondered if the gnarled, hard bark could be used for something along the line. He would have taken some, but he didn’t have tools to remove the bark.
All in all, Logan’s haul was large, but not varied. He had a pile of rocks, varying in size, but all fitting well inside a fist. He had sticks of various shapes, lengths and thicknesses. Lots of sticks. You could never have too many sticks.
Then he had picked up some ropes of vine. There was a lot of it hanging from old mossy trees that curved from the stem. And of those trees the jungle had plenty.
He had also brought all sorts of leaves and branches of bushes and tall grass. That was mainly for the string of the crossbow. He would let Tumor decide what were the best materials to use.
Logan finally sat down and brought the satchel of Numa crystals close to the haul of jungle supplies.
“Alright, Tumor,” Logan said and picked up a bundle of sticks. “Let’s craft stuff.”
