Chapter 36 - The Base of The Mountain.

"...Ahhaaaaa-", Josh yawned out and wiped his eyes. 'I'm tired, but I still need to power this.', Josh thought as he made the fire bigger. "Hey Josh, the cart is accelerating too much. Aren't you using too much Mana?", France asked, his voice clearly heard from the wall.
"My passive skill is active right now. Meaning I lose only 5 Mana per second with this.", Josh replied.
Josh's passive skill, [Vaporized Atmosphere], as it was originally called — now referred to as [Boiling Temperature], had the same effect, and it was a skill that was used Mana, to reduce the Mana by 50% Consumption of Fire.
However, it had the logical downside of making water spells cost more.
Josh's passive skill had activated as a result of France's earlier move called [Midnight Phoenix's Growl].
'I would have run out of Mana whilst fighting them if France didn't do that.' Josh knew that he survived only because of France's desperation.

[30 minutes later, 8:40 P.M, Lothaedan.]

Josh's rate of blinking increased, and his head bobbed as a result of exhaustion every once in a while as he controlled the flames. Though, it was understandable; it had been a while since he rested. "Josh, are you tired? If you are then just add tons of wood and refill the boiler's water.", France said through the wall, predicting his friend's increasing fatigue.
"Are you a psychic?", Josh genuinely asked as he heeded his friends's suggestion.
He opened the fire box and put plenty of fuel in it. He stayed quite far to avoid being burnt, but he had been close enough to see that the sticks earlier had turned to charcoal. 'I should replace my fuel to coal, wait no... If I do that the Renewable Electricity Association might come after me.' He made a bad joke in his mind. That might have been for the better too — the joke only in his mind. If France heard that joke he would have likely looked at Josh blankly
After filling up the fire box with wood he immediately closed it, and he stood up and opened the boiler. Steam came out, but it was far enough from Joshua that it wasn't a thing to worry about too much.

________________________________________

Level:86
(70,230/260,850)

Name: Josh
Health: (1550/1550)
Race: Elf Stamina: (1550/1550) Title: None
Mana: (46,400/50,750) Def:775

Stat points gained when leveling up: 10
Stats increased when leveling up: 1

INT: 815 + (200) END: 155
AGI: 145
STR: 145
Extra Stat Points: 50
________________________________________
[You have distributed 35 of your stat points to INT. Your Base Intellect is now 850, True Intellect 1015. (You can now learn 2 more forms of Elemental Magic.)]
[You have distributed 5 of your stat points to AGI. Your Agility is now 150, you have gained extra skill. (Quick Footed)]
[You have distributed 5 of your stat points to STR. Your Strength is now 150, you have gained extra skill. (Pumped)]
[You have distributed 5 of your stat points to END. Your Endurance is now 160.]
Josh payed no attention to the HUD's announcements and cleared his mind. He had focused on powering the cart, they were ambushed and fought soldiers of "Dagfinn". Not even willpower would prevent him from sleeping.
Speaking of fatigue, every single time Josh lit up his hands he needed to pay attention to how much energy he gave to make the flame ignite, and to constantly hold a steady stream of focus just to keep the flames alight, this too could have been a factor for his drowsiness.

[Approximately 9 Hours later,6:20 A.M, Lothaedan]

"-need to go to my family's estate. There we can just safely wait it out until they stop hunting me down.", Josh woke up and stretched his arms and back, seemingly uninterested with what Schein spouts.
"Why is that Dagfinn hunting you down in the first place?", France tried to pry Schein's previous actions.
"...Because he finds my family's- No. My political power threatening to his rule on the kingdom's capital, that and he hates the fact that I have connection with the king.", Schein answered France's prying questions easily.
"That aside, what does this have to do with me and Josh?", he asked once more.
"He's quite wise, he's expanded the kingdom in a way where there are only two entrances in the entire kingdom. Meaning that the cart will be inspected and they'll see me with you both, thinking you're my bodyguards, they'll target you too.", Schein answered using threatening words.
"If you're cold hearted enough you can just... dispose of the witnesses.", he said in a cold tone, Schein seemed... angry today, clearly the kid they met coincidentally two days ago had layers to his personality.
"Can I even kill all of them? If there are only two entrances, there would be a ton of them don't you think?"
"You'll be surprised at how little guards there are, it seems that even a wise person as Dagfinn can make security makes like those.", he laughed as he answered more of France's questions.
France sighed as he was forced to accept Schein's admittedly blood thirsty plan. He looked towards the wall that separated Josh's room with a face full of regret. The only reason both he and Joshua came to Stadshamn was to meet Drommul.
Schein shook in laughter as he steered the cart with expertise and said, "Josh, can you increase the speed of the cart? It's at this point of the path where it we would start to go to an upwards slope.",
The conversation between Schein and France had ended and Josh who was showering with a cloud on his head had replied, "Give me a moment..."
He held his hand close to his face and it a golden light started to emanate from his hand, as he held the awkward position, every single droplet of water on his hair and face collected into a ball that rested on his glowing hand.
He put away the ball of water on his palms and held it out towards the window on the back of the room, throwing it away. "I'm going to refill the engine now.", Josh said to Schein, "...", he was met with silence but that didn't matter.
'How much mana do I have?', He asked himself, not long after a blue screen appeared.
[Mana: 49,950/50,750], 'That's more than enough.', Josh squatted down and opened the hatch for the firebox, it was a rectangular sheet of metal with hinges that were welded, it had small circular holes on each of the corners to allow some air to enter the firebox.
He had been quite relaxed after he woke up, perhaps a bit too relaxed as his face was quite close to the fire, as when he opened the hatch, a surge of heat had immediately escaped and he reflexively pulled back. 'That's close...', he grinned in relief and sighed as he took some sticks from his inventory, he put the sticks in the firebox and about a second the wood was in it had turned burned fiercely.
He chuckled to himself as he closed the hatch and stood up, he went to the other side of the boiler to refill it with water. He held his face close to the hatch as he opened it, his reckless behaviour is punished when hot pressurized steam had covered his face, first the stinging started with the nose, and then the eyes, even his ears were hit as he violently closed the boiler's hatch.
"Ahhh!", he groaned out in pain as he fell to the floor. It wasn't too painful because of Lothaedan's design, however his face felt as if it was stung with sharp burning pain on his face. It was painful enough to force him to drop him to the fall after all.
"Josh are you okay?", France asked out of worry when he heard his groan.
"I think I burned my face, I'll just drink a healing potion.", Josh opened his HUD and looked over his inventory, he chuckled as he scrolled through the dozens of sticks in his inventory yet found no healing potion, his heart rate began to increase.
"I'm out of potions... give me one France."
-Rrriiiingg!
"give m- ment-", his heard ringing around him as France's voice sound muffled.
A normal burn and a steam burn had differences, a normal burn spread from the heat source however for steam burns it was different, steam entered the upper layer of the skin causing damage to the inner skin layer, his elf ears were likely being cooked from the inside without Josh noticing, the reduction to the feeling of pain could incite a false sense security on the minds of players.
Josh had blinked and he saw France dive through the window, "You know we have a door for this room."
"Shut up, let me check your face...", France said, approaching Josh. He squatted down and poked Josh's burned cheek, "Does this hurt?", Josh twitched and frowned, "Yes, now stop acting like a doctor and give me a healing potion."
France tried to sound calm when he looked at Josh's face, the right side of his face was filled with burns, his cheek looked the worst however France checked on Josh's closed eye. "Can you open your right eye?", France asked as he gave Josh a glass filled with red liquid. "i-It's already opened.", Josh drank the potion before replying with nervousness on his voice.
"I'll open it myself.", France carefully lifted Josh's eyelid until he could fully see the iris. The sclera horribly bloodshot and the iris looked to be almost gray, "Close your left eye."
"I can't see.", Josh calmly said. "I already know what to do for emergencies France, just help me rinse my eye.", he lied down and summoned a small rain cloud using rainfall, it wasn't too high for the water pouring to gain momentum and damage this eye.

[30 minutes later, 7:30 A.M, Base of the Norian Mountain Range, Lothaedan.]

It was at this point that the boiler's water supply had ran out and the cart had stopped, Josh had stopped pouring water on his eye and exited the vehicle. "Do you still feel stinging?", France asked as he sat on a branch of a tree.
"No, not anymore. However, thanks to my stupidity I can't see with my right eye.", he complained to himself. It was his own mistake that injured him after all. Josh sighed and laid down on the tree, he had a relaxed expression as he gazed upon the scenery.
"The view is great here isn't it?", France asked in amazement, they were far from the forests, yet the grasslands covered the scenery green, if they looked to the right they would see the sheer scale of the mountain, and if they looked to farther to the left they would see a field of flowers.
"I should take her here.", a thought came to his mind, he was blinded just half an hour ago however he didn't seem to mind it too much. "You have girlfriend?", France overheard his words and asked in amusement.
"No, just a great friend of mine.", Josh didn't lie.
"Anyways, have you seen Schein?"
"He went over to the field of flowers on the left, you couldn't see him?.", France answered the question. "My right eye literally isn't functioning.", he replied slightly agitated. He wasn't angry at France, nor himself, however he felt that he should feel some annoyance with France's words, as much as his social skill has improved, he still is quite awkward.
He entered the cart again, refilling the boiler until it was full. He checked the firebox too, he carefully opened the hatch and saw the charcoal's embers were still brightly alit. 'Crap!', he doused the charcoals with fire and sighed in relief. If it weren't for the fact the boiler was full, the water could have rapidly boiled and the cart would've started early.
He heard foot steps slowly get louder as his back was turned, "You can just light some of them, it takes 10 minutes at least to move the cart you know? Especially considering the fact that we'll be scaling up this mountain.", France suggested.
[8:00 A.M, Lothaedan]
The water in the boiler was still far from boiling, however that could change in 2 minutes. Schein had just come back from the flower field with a handful of flowers in the clay pot filled with water.
"France, go to the front room and help Schein navigate, I'll be busy stoking the flames.", a random laugh came out from France and simply gave a thumbs up in affirmation. Josh held sticks in his arms and lit them on fire, he put just a bit inside and left the cart to get clay.
"[Manipulate Earth]", he cleared away some dirt on the ground and continued doing so until he could find clay, he found some dirt with a brighter colour than the ground and raised it a bit. 'Now how do I carry this? France might think I'm insane for getting dirt so I'd rather not... Oh right, I gained a skill last night.'
"[Pumped]", his forearms rapidly expanded as he felt a burst of strength inside him. He picked up the clay easily, Josh's strength inside the game was considered low, however if anyone actually had the strength of a Josh irl, he would easily be stronger than the average, for super athletes.
He entered inside and put the clay down, he also took some sticks and put them in the fire. The cart had started to move, and Josh was gonna be making clay containers.
First he crushed the clay into a fine powder, and then poured water, mixing it until they could be formed into other shapes, Josh flattened the wet clay into a rectangle and then added some more water on the edges, where he put walls and poked holes into them.
He couldn't make charcoal on the floor of the cart, that would lead to their precious vehicle burning down. And so the charcoal making thingy was being mould by his now muddied hands, he lit his hands on fire and made a makeshift kiln with the extra clay, using himself as the fire source.

[2 Hours Later, 10:30 A.M, Norian Mountains.]

Thankfully, the incline wasn't much, if the incline was steeper then the steam car would be useless. Josh was stoking the flames whilst France drove the cart with Schein's help, at the speed they're moving, they might reach the entrance in just two more hours.
"Josh, can you put away the flames and refill the water? We'll be taking a break at a place where the terrain is flatter.", France made quick orders.
"Oh uhhh- Give me a minute.", Josh followed France's words carefully and made sure that the accident wouldn't happen again.
They turn the cart right and Josh takes out a clay cuboid from his makeshift kiln and exits the cart. "I made this.", he said to the two boys sitting on rocks.
"What's that?", Schein asks.
"A charcoal burner. I can use these to control the Firebox's temperature better.", Josh explained. Before Schein could ask once more France interrupted and answered the unsaid question, "Before you ask Schein, it allows the sticks you've picked up to be turned into charcoal immediately to control the flames.", Josh nods and their weird conversation shifts into just friends chatting.
About 15 minutes pass and France remembers what they talked about earlier in the morning. He looked to be quite gloomy and Josh noticed his sudden change in expression, "You okay?", France looks at him and replies, "It's nothing, once we're at the entrance of the Kingdom put more sticks inside the firebox and make the cart accelerate."
"Why?"
"We need to get faster than the guards.", he gave a simple explanation.
"I get that, but I meant why are you saying this now?", Josh grinned whilst elaborating his question.
Seeing Josh's shit eating grin, Schein had started to laugh. "Josh means that we were having a friendly chat, and you immediately ordered him to do something.", France had noticed his mistake and his face paled, it was like if you and your friends were talking about games and you randomly talked about someone who was killed.
"Anyway, I still need to light up the firebox, enjoy your chat.", he said as he waved his hands backwards."
'He seems to be uncaring of the fact that he can't see with his right eye.', France wondered to himself as he saw Josh walk towards the car without much care in the world. "At least he's enjoying himself.", France blurted out with a blank expression.
"You know you can just disguise yourself if you don't wish to murder the guards right?", France asked with a confused look on his face.
"You did not say anything about disguising myself back when we talked earlier.", he remembered their conversation earlier.
"I wasn't calm... I'll go back now, remember to put out the fire.", France agreed with Schein's words, especially since Schein's expression had subtle differences a few hours ago compared to now.
France was left to talk to himself, he breathed out a sigh of relief and remembered both he and Josh have been in the game for about 10 hours IRL.
[It's been a while since we logged out of the game...], he sent a message to Josh.
[I would've completely forgot I am in Lothaedan if you hadn't reminded me.], Josh replied to him.
[Quit the game and then eat, drink, pee, poo, etc. Then come back as soon as you can.], France reminded him.
["Joshua Estraville" has logged out.]
[Logging out...], even if they didn't need to consume or excrete stuff, they would have still needed to log out. It was because of the fact that Lothaedan restricts anyone from playing the game more than 14 hours in a single session. They also couldn't just cheat the system by closing the game and then immediately return to the game, as the Capsule needs to fully turn off before a playing session can be reset.