Nathan

Year 2850 | Month 4 | Day 22

“Is it…” Claire asks after I leave the caverns.

“No, it’s not dead yet,” I tell her with a light shake of my head. “But the magician it had captured is dead, so if my flames don’t kill it then it’ll starve.” I shrug. “So either way, it’ll be dead soon enough.”

Claire lets out a sigh of relief as I add, “Keep to the normal rules until I’ve confirmed its death. No entering the tunnel leading deeper into the caverns for anyone in the base. And even after it’s dead, you can only expand until the spiral room. After that is the lab.”

The magician nods her head and turns around to relay the news to everyone. Meanwhile I just look around at the thousands of people who are now living in the caverns.

It’s certainly grown over the past months.

And it’s only going to continue growing as well.

I blink in surprise when everything around me suddenly fills with a black and green fog before I find myself flying through the air towards the Dark Forest.

Guess the skeleton wants to see me.

Probably to check out my new death flames.

I just let the skeleton carry me through the air with his magic until I pass into the Dark Forest and then all the way through it to his giant undead treant. Then he unceremoniously drops me mid-air, to which I catch myself by grabbing a branch and performing a flip with it to land on my feet on the ground.

Rude.

I walk into the tree with a scowl on my face to find the skeleton walking down the stairs as he says, “Nathan! Show me the death fla-”

He cuts off as I send a wave of death flames straight at him, making him just stand there and take it without showing a single scratch on his body. Actually, I swear his bones look healthier now than before.

Oh. Right.

Death magician whose body runs on death mana.

My death flames probably just fed him.

“Thank you, son,” he says with a nod, making my eye twitch at his calling me son. Then he turns back around and leaves, saying, “That’s all I wanted to see.”

I grit my teeth before shouting, “If you’re going to drag me out here for nothing more than that then at least give me something in-” I cut off with a grunt as I feel something slamming into my gut, making me look down to find a folder. Then when I look up again, the skeleton is already long gone.

Seriously?

Didn’t even bother saying anything.

Then again, I’ve come to expect that at least a little bit by now. He is a magician through and through after all.

Experiments come first before all other matters. A common law amongst magicians.

I stand up again while wiping down the dead sticks that got stuck on my armor before raising the folder to my face and opening it. And I almost immediately feel my irritation draining away, replaced by glee.

Finally! Blueprints for new weapons and armor!

The specific weapons include a pistol, sniper rifle, sword, and an assault rifle. All stuff I had asked about before but couldn’t get anything out of him for.

All brand new models straight from the Republic of Arcania.

And the same goes for the armor. Brand new armor blueprints straight from the Republic.

With this we should have an advantage in technology over the Barons, even if they have the advantage in magic.

Although…

I turn to look back up towards the hallway that the skeleton had left into. The one going towards his lab.

…why would he give me all of this just for using one attack on him? Are my death flames even more revolutionary than I thought?

I know no one has ever merged elements before, but to give me the blueprints to four different weapons and an entire set of armor for technology leagues above the Kingdom of the Fallen just for using one spell on him… it feels a bit much.

How much could he even see from that one unexpected attack anyways?

I dwell on that thought for a while, wondering how long it’ll take for me to reach his level in terms of experimenting and spell crafting. Then I eventually sigh and turn around to leave the treant.

Benjamin is going to be very happy about these blueprints. He’s been bugging me for a while now to get updated weaponry and armor for the enforcers at the caverns.

Out of all of the subordinates I’ve gathered, he and Claire are probably the only ones who have absolutely no fear of me anymore. At this point Benjamin treats me like a regular superior officer, but a friendly one. Even though he’s decades older than me and is military to the core.

I do find his and Claire’s arguments amusing though, since they often have differing opinions on the layout of the caverns.

He wants a more militarily defended layout, she wants a more practical and efficient one.

Although…

I frown down at the blueprints as I walk through the Dark Forest.

It’s too bad the armor won’t really do anything for me. Considering how often I go through armor.

Best not to waste the armor on me when I’m not expecting it to remain in one piece.

The weapons will be really nice though. And the blueprints for the sniper rifle include magical bullets for the rifle as well, which will make things a lot easier on me in combat.

I don’t have to save bullets anymore.

It might even make dealing with those Barons easier if I can just assassinate them.

I might have to take some lessons on how to do that efficiently with the skeleton though, considering that I don’t exactly have any experience with assassination. Especially against Class B magicians.

There’s a strong chance that they’ll have spells set up to deal with that sort of thing after all.

I sigh at that as I continue walking through the Dark Forest back to the base.

Wish he would’ve just sent me back to the caverns himself…