Much like every single quest he had gone on, Frank rented a cart and a mule. It was tempting to purchase one, but Frank wanted to design something himself. Renting would suffice for now.
Thankfully, without Frank having to ask, Hank took the reins and guided the cart to the quest location. With the freedom to work, Frank got to work on crafting what he hoped would be a trump card against the vampires.
The process was a delicate one, so Frank was only able to complete the initial stages of the creation. He had coated a flask in powered gems then embedded a sapphire on one side of the bottle.
Once they made camp he would engrave the enchantments and inject enough mana to jump start the creation. If he understood it right, the sapphire itself would house matter changing properties.
The flask summoned an "endless" amount of water but it couldn't create something out of nothing. Something in the enchantment was creating water and if Frank could study it he could possibly learn how to "summon" metals or other liquids.
[Intelligence is increased by +1]
"It seems my thoughts are on the right track." Frank grinned under his helmet and continued to think of the possibilities. After getting nowhere further, he decided to pick out his next two rewards from leveling up [Arcane Crafting].
There were two new options, a Tablet of Awareness and a Mending enchantment. The tablet was basically a magical enemy radar. It sent out tiny pulses of mana and marked the location of enemies within 200 feet.
Frank wasn't quite sure how it designated things as his "enemies" but he would have to study it more once he created it. The enchantment on the other hand was much simpler to understand. Using ambient mana, the enchantment slowly repaired things it was attached to.
It wouldn't work on organic matter so putting one on himself was out of the question. Since it was just an enchantment, Frank decided to use the rest of his time to try and apply it to Giantslayer.
At first it kept failing because of the previous enchantments but Frank was able to figure out a way to stop them from conflicting. All he had to do was remove the previous enchantment and add both at the same time.
As complex as it may have sounded, it only took Frank four tries to get it working properly. First he tried to layer the enchantments on top of each other but it hadn't worked quite well. He then tried to make both at the same time, but it strained his mind too much and after failing twice he gave up on that method.
Frank then found he was able to take turns putting each part of the enchantment. Which, thankfully, solved his issue. He would have to later experiment with adding three enchantments. If only to try and get a solid method down, but for now his finding would be his default.
Eventually the sun set, and Frank began to set up camp with Hank watching. He showed off his proficiency with [Shape Earth] and constructed another underground base.
"Impressive." Hank nodded, "But you made one mistake. Can you guess what that is?"
Trying to think, Frank said the first thing that came to mind. "Is it that the cart and mule are left outside?"
Hank was satisfied with his answer but wanted more. "Do you have any ideas on how to make this better?"
That had Frank pause. He hadn't really thought about it, and realized if he just left them outside it would look suspicious. There was the possibility of also putting the mule and cart underground, but that also didn't seem like the best bet.
"How does making a fake camp above sound? To distract away from how weird it looks. I could set up camp like you taught me but sleep underground." Frank thought it sounded like a good answer and let out a smile once he saw Hank shrug and nod his head.
"Then get to work." Hank laughed and sat down, leaning against a tree. He was wearing a set of half plate that looked taken care of but very worn. It had a faded emblem of the Stardust Empire; a dragon skull with falling meteors behind.
Thanks to Frank's conversations with Hank, he was able to find out a lot about the empire. It worked more like a democracy with the emperor holding five votes. After the emperor were five council members who each held one vote.
Eight votes were needed for anything to come to pass, so they sort of had a checks and balance system. It was flawed though since the council members were kings who ruled under the emperor.
The current kingdom Frank had found himself in was the Kingdom of Mimore. It was ruled by the king and council member, Louise Mimore IV. From what little Frank learned, his laws were the fairest. He also held the least amount of prejudice against those who were not of noble birth.
Anyone could become royalty if they proved useful enough and serfs were even allowed to rise quickly through the ranks if they had the capability. Frank was almost certain unwritten rules prevented this most of the time, but it was still progressive for this age.
With the dummy camp complete, the duo entered the underground dwelling and rested for the night. Frank had to sleep without his new sleeping bag since it was being used above ground, so he got as comfortable as he could laying in his armor.
Like clockwork, Frank rose as the sun did and slowly left the foxhole. Above he found nothing amiss and started a fire so he could cook breakfast. From his bag, he removed a cast iron pan, mushrooms, peppers, eggs and two small steaks.
The bag of holding didn't suspend time as Frank would have hopped, but they did keep things the same temperature as when he put them in which was good enough for him. Once the pan was smoking, Frank placed the steaks on their fatty side to render it out.
Once the pan had enough beef fat, he removed the steaks and placed everything else in the pan. Almost forgetting one of the most important parts, Frank rummaged around his bag until he found his salt and pepper.
"Flavor town here we come!" Frank exclaimed as he added the steak back to the cast iron. After he got a nice golden sear on both sides, he removed everything and placed them on plates.
He then removed the pan from the heat and added the eggs. With those quickly finishing, he placed an overeasy egg on Hank's plate and scrambled eggs on his plate. Frank turned around to bring the plate to Hank and jumped, almost dropping everything.
"Holy Fuck! Please don't sneak up on me." Frank cried out as he saw Hank chuckle from the tree he was leaning against.
He took his plate from Frank, "Eat quickly. We should strike soon." Frank agreed, so he wolfed down his food. Before he was even halfway done, Hank put down his plate and Frank stopped to look at him.
"What?" Hank asked, a bemused look on his face. "Military teaches you how to eat."
Frank rolled his eyes and continued to finish off his food. Shortly after he finished, he got to work cleaning up and taking down the camp. Not much long thereafter, the father and son duo were back on the road.
From the road, Frank was able to eventually see the "lair" in question. It was a giant stone manor with a large rusted iron fence surrounding the whole property. Outside the building roamed four stone golems.
A twinge of pain shot through Frank as he thought about Exodius and promised himself he would remake him better than ever before. Tangent aside, Frank knew the weakness of golems were their cores.
He wasn't sure if Giantslayer could penetrate solid rock without custom rounds, but he was excited to find out. Besides the sentries, there seemed to be a distinct lack of defenses. The fence was easy to bypass and the golems could be disabled easily if one of his ideas worked.
If it failed, it was no big deal. But if it worked? Then it would change a lot. Frank moved on and kept surveying the area trying to find all the entries and possible exits. Hank parked the cart about half a mile away and was following Frank as he silently circled the perimeter.
The mistake the vampires made was holding up in a stone mansion. The walls would become weapons and invaluable cover that would greatly aid Frank in his fight against the undead. The place was big, able to probably house hundreds of vampires.
He had his work cut out for him, but if he was careful and meticulous, it would be easy. To make sure he was doubly prepared, Frank began to enchant a second bag of holding. He then filled it with dirt and stone.
With his bag of dirt on his hip, and his gun in both hands, Frank began his assault on the vampires. He moved quickly and silently through the forest, almost forgetting Hank as he was as silent as he was.
Hank's weapon of choice was made known, a glaive, the weapon leaning on his shoulder. He winked at Frank and signed for him to continue on. Frank did as he was told and reached the fence.
"It's not your fault I'm an earth bender. But it will be your problem."