Chereads / Dragon's Awakening / Chapter 2 - Chapter 2: A Small Project

Chapter 2 - Chapter 2: A Small Project

Jonas walks his way to the trade district, gazing at all the fancy equipment here, he could never afford such items even if he sold his arms and legs, so he doesn't bother showing them interest anymore. He walks into a general store as a decently tall man looks at him with a smile, waving at him casually. Jonas gazes around the shop looking to see if anything peaks his interest, and soon he finds a set of flasks. "How much are these?" he asks the shopkeeper. "20 coppers" he says while Jonas grabs them from the shelf before placing it on the table. "I'll take them" he says before laying down a bag of coppers on the table and leaving the store "I'll also take these" Jonas says before laying a few bronze bars on the table, "60 coppers" he says before Jonas lays down another bag of coppers leaving the general store after receiving his items. He then walks to the nearby armory, walking out soon after with a crossbow in hand and returning to his room. Jonas has his own principles, if you cant have something, make your own.

Jonas grabs a pair of goggles placing it hastily on his head and quickly chants "Ember" before a flame appears at the end of their finger, the heat focused at the end and carving the bronze bars and constantly measuring it against the flasks before pausing a bit. Then he removes the round ends of each and every flask before welding the bronze to both ends, one end having a small hole. Then he soon adds a magical barrier on each capsule, though not to keep magic out, but to keep it inside, he's tried this time and time again, working on blueprint over blueprint trying to make this thing he's wondered about since he was 8. Soon he starts testing out this property, placing the capsule on his finger before lighting the same flame. The flame enters the capsule and Jonas covers it with a bronze lid which he's made. The small flame floats throughout the capsule and not escaping it. Jonas lets out a sigh of relief before laying on his bed before dozing off into sleep.

After a few hours, Jonas wakes up. As soon as he gets himself off of his comfortable bed, he immediately walks to his desk to check on the capsule. The fire has slightly dimmed, but not significantly. Jonas opens the capsule and releases a small blast of flame inside his room lighting every single crevice, and not long after, the capsule runs out of flame. His expression turns to joy as his experiment is successful and soon he starts dismantling the crossbow, piece by piece. Adding three holes in the stock. Adding a small bronze tube leading to the groove for the bolt. Last step is to test it. Jonas walks outside to find the firing range in order to test his contraption out, reloading the crossbow. While nobody is watching, Jonas places the capsule in the hole as the flame surrounds the loaded bolt. Jonas lets the bolt loose and it makes it's mark, lighting it aflame. He hastily puts out the fire before any damage is done and leaves the range.

Jonas lays in bed to ponder, how to fix the mana loss. If he didn't fix it, it wouldn't be able to last a long term trip if he ever has to leave. He experiments with 3 capsules, 1 with the same barrier, 1 with a reinforced barrier, and 1 with the cap's lid barrier being air tight, and soon he went to bed again. The next morning Jonas immediately checked on the capsules, the first one still had it's energy drained, the second had as much energy drained as the first, and the last one had little to no mana drainage. He went with this and modified every capsule on a belt going from his left shoulder downwards to his waist including an attached shoulder-pad. He decided he was equipped enough for him to make his journey outside and went towards the kingdom's outer gates. Every week, the kingdom opens the gates to the outside, this is when adventurers, merchants, diplomats, and all the sorts enter and exit mostly due to the fact that the world is covered with deadly monsters. He goes outside with an orange cloak that goes up to his neck layered on top of his leather armor that reaches his elbows, his goggles placed on top of his cloak and around his neck. He messaged the school in advance that he was going to be gone for a long long time. He readied his backpack and looked about the area. Everyone at the gate looked unique in some way, you could see swordsmen, archers, wizards, paladins, clerics, and so many more. In a way, he was glad he has this 'curse', he was finally able to enjoy the world outside the gates. But as soon as he gets closer to the gate, he wonders to himself 'what happens if I die before one year?'. He gazes at the outside, not sure that he'll certainly be safe outside, even if there's a chance that he comes back he'd rather not take that risk.