(This chapter is an exposition dump.
Go to the next chapter when I post it.)
A while had passed and the family started and finished eating their meal. Josh was drinking water from a metal cylinder as he slowly walked up the stairs to his room.
He put the water container on his desk and he sat on his bed. 'It's been a while since I've actually slept', he thought to himself as Josh remembered the soft and comfortable bed.
He lied down the bed and looked towards the ceiling, 'What am I doing? It's just like the time before I got the capsule, empty.'
Josh had played Lothaedan every free time he had. This included the time where he would normally sleep, while he would be physically be recharged whenever he left the capsule, his mind felt more and more restless.
It wouldn't be a stretch to say Josh was quite burnt out, sleep would remedy that, but he didn't feel "tired" right now.
Rather, he stood up and recollected his memories. He walked around his room in circles as no memory more than 5 years ago came up.
'They've always said I got into a huge accident that caused memory loss, but there aren't scars on any part of my body.', Josh thought, he was thinking of asking more about that but something bugged him.
(Pwaap!)
A startling sound came out of Josh's phone, he sighed and checked what it was.
[Are you playing yet? If you don't answer in 5 minutes I'll assume that you are.
-France ]
Josh replied with,
[I don't think I'll play anymore today.]
[Why?]
[Haven't slept in 5 days.]
[Ohh... Login as soon as you can tomorrow then.]
[Yeah...]
Josh yawned as he put away his phone, 'I need to sleep.', and he walked to his parents room.
"Hey dad, do you have any sleeping pills?", Josh asked
"No can do, I haven't bought the child friendly ones yet."
"Goodbye.", he said coldly and went back to his room.
"Do you think our son is starting to remember?", a woman in a blue shirt asked. Josh's mother, Nora.
"Even if he does, we need to suffer for our incompetence." Josh's father, Rue said with a regretful face.
*****
As Josh began sleep, France worked on the Steam Cart. He had just collected the materials at the blacksmith.
'This would take a while.', France said as he imagined the size of the steam engine. Even if France properly did it, he will not be able to test if it will work or not without Josh's magecraft.
He sighed as he pulled out hammer and started putting the base of the parts. He put the locations for the pistons on the bases, it looked to be two cylinders attached to each other. He then connected short crude metal pipes to another piston, which now connects to the coupling rods.
It was done, however the cart can't function without Josh, so tomorrow would be its testing day.
*****
Over the span of chapters I've tried to make France as powerful as players can get at this moment in time. He isn't without flaws however, at the moment I haven't showed his primary weakness. His untold weakness aside, he is still far more powerful than Josh in combat.
I'll give an example. In this scenario they both spar, .
Two men stand in front of each other, they were only sparring yet both seemed to have a problem. France's face housed an estatic yet scary grin and Josh's expression held indifference.
'When should I att-', France was interrupted while thinking, Josh fired off a water bullet just past France's head as a "warning".
Mages in Lothaedan are considered as better archers for their ability to attack from long distances, and Josh was someone who had options on most battlefields.
France dashed towards him and took out [Drommul's Dagger], to where he yelled out, "Mad Dash!".
[Mad Dash] is a skill that was generally used by spearmen and swordsmen at the start of battles, it was because of the fact that the skill made the user quickly stab anyone in a straight line.
(Fwiing!)In a moment, France dashed about 10 meters in less than a second and stabbed through Josh's hand.
'There, I hit him! Wait, why is he gripping on my blade?', France panicked to himself as Josh laughed maniacally, "Explode."
Josh's hand held a gigantic ball of fire and in a moment it shrunk and released, rapidly expanding until some of France's skin scorched through.
(Boom!) A bright flash appeared and blinded the both for a second. When France''s vision came back, he saw the skin of his fingers blown off and clearly oozing with blood.
His right hand was clearly damaged and it twitched and shook from pain. France's expression didn't show it, however he was angry.
"Star Shaped Cut.", he sighed out. He performed a move that attacked from multiple angles in just a moment.
France performed the move so fast that the reflection of his sword, and his afterimage appeared from the everywhere. An afterimage from the left, one from the right, another showing straight above Josh plunging.
(Kik! Kak! Kik!), the sound finally travelled through Josh's ear, and his vision went black.
[You have died...]