Vol. 6 - Captivity - Chapter 29 (Patreon)

Thomas read over the description of the Claymore Mine and nodded to himself. It was more powerful than he expected it to be. The shrapnel and explosion would deal damage equivalent to a Power of 350 within five meters. That range would basically cover the entire width of most of the cave tunnels that he'd seen. The mines also had a nice maximum range of twelve meters, though he expected that anyone beyond seven or maybe eight meters would barely be harmed by the mine unless they went for something like an Agility build. He estimated, based on nothing, that the pirates would have an Endurance of at least 250. After all, he did.

At the very least he doubted anyone that wasn't dedicated to the role of a tank wouldn't have more than 350 Endurance to take on the explosion. Not counting armor of course. His hope was that even if it didn't kill it could wound his pursuers and slow them down for his escape. He only needed to find Snowlily and a hole to fly out of. With enough distractions and damage, he could cripple the pursuit. It's not like the pirates were elite players from a mega guild that participated in massive raids. They didn't seem all that coordinated to him. It could be a trick to make him lower his guard, but he doubted it and wouldn't lower his guard anyway.

He set the mine down and picked up one of the regular steel ingots. He needed to make some wire to use as the tripwire for the mines he planned to make. He considered using string or thread for a brief moment but they would be too visible. With steel wire, he could make it significantly thinner while still having a high tensile strength. Lucky for him the extruder was a thing of the past. A quarter of the ingot was reshaped and broken off to be used to make the wire. Just that small amount of material should make plenty and he could always make more if necessary.

He curled the index finger of his left hand until it met his thumb and made a circle. Within the circle, mana gathered as he activated his Transmutation. With his right hand, he pushed the lump of steel into the circle of his fingers. On one side of his curled fingers was a lump of metal, on the other a thin steel wire suddenly shot out. He was using his own hand as an extruder. The difference in size between the lump of steel and the wire being produced caused the wire to grow rapidly and fly through the air for a long distance before it fell under its own weight and began to naturally coil on the ground. Thomas just smiled as the steel turned into dozens of meters of thin wire. Within a minute the entire quarter of the ingot became a nice pile of thin wire. He collected a couple of meters and snipped it off of the rest.

Now, he just needed to test the claymore on some trolls to see it in action. He refused to use untested weapons, unlike the pirates. Just yanking out the pin wouldn't do though. He looked around the room and didn't see any signs of the Trolls respawning, so he made his way to the hallway that led him into this room and went down it to the previous room. From the entrance, he saw two Trolls standing around looking listless. He'd been hoping for just a single Troll as it would have been easier to deal with. He stayed where he was as he tried to come up with a plan. Setting up the mine would take a moment and the Trolls would charge at him the instant he set foot in the room.

The Trolls were pretty stupid. All brawn and no brains as the saying goes. So, step one was to distract them. He lifted his hand and pointed it like a gun at the wall furthest away from him. His mana gathered and a small stone began to form and hover in front of his fingertip. His go-to was metal usually but, in this case, he wanted to throw a stone so it had the right sound to it. He took careful aim and fired the stone across the room. It didn't have a huge amount of force to it so when it hit the wall it bounced off and clattered along the ground making extra noise. The two Trolls immediately turned and moved toward the sound.

When the Trolls got close to the stone it began to vanish as the mana within it ran out. At the same time, Thomas crouched low to the ground and moved as quietly as he could into the room, just a few meters. As the stone vanished the Trolls began to actually grunt and gargle some strange syllables to each other while gesticulating madly as the disappearing stone.

System Notice: You...

Thomas impatiently dismissed the notice without even glancing at it. He couldn't be distracted right now. He kept an eye on the Trolls as he lined up the mine. Once he had it positioned he pushed down firmly on it. The sharp spikes that made up the legs of the mine barely bit into the hard stone of the dungeon's floor. It was the best he could do. With the mine set, he quickly wrapped one end of the wire through the ring of the pin. Something he realized should have been done before he began this endeavor. Live and learn, it's not like he was an expert at setting modern-day mines inside of fantasy game dungeons.

With the wire tied to the mine, he carefully and quietly moved away from it to draw out the tripwire. Once the line was long enough, he conjured a metal spike and wrapped the wire repeatedly around it. He glanced at the still confused Trolls before loudly and violently driving the metal stake into the ground. The sound instantly alerted the Trolls to his presence. They spun around and roared at the top of their lungs before charging in his direction. He quickly moved toward the exit of the room, directing the Trolls into the path of the mine. It took hardly any time for the first Troll to kick the tripwire and pull the pin from the mine.

Thomas made certain that the spring wasn't all that strong, just strong enough to push the level and drop the charged mana crystal onto the firing pin. If the spring was too strong it would take a lot of force to pull the pin out and it could end up knocking the mine over or not allowing it to go off at all. Thanks to his planning the pin slipped out of with ease and the lever dropped smoothly. Once the mana crystal touched the firing pin there was a powerful explosion that shook the entire room and even caused Thomas to stumble from a dozen meters away. Fire, smoke, and metal flew through the air and ripped into both Trolls.

After regaining his balance, Thomas turned around while retrieving his Spell Cannon. The sight of the Trolls in front of him was... disturbing. The shrapnel cubes had ripped through the Trolls like they were made of paper leaving heavily bleeding wounds. The force of the explosion had even ripped off a few of their limbs leaving them sprawled out on the floor in a puddle of blood. The flames from the explosion countered their regeneration leaving them barely alive. Thomas looked over the broken and bleeding bodies of the Trolls as they struggled to continue towards him in an effort to end his life. He clinically observed the damage done to the monsters before putting them out of their misery with a single shot to each of their heads.

Once their mana crystals were collected, he left the room and returned to his temporary workshop. The mine was definitely a deadly weapon. More of them needed to be created, at least half a dozen. Just seeing what the mines did to the Trolls let him know they were far more dangerous and deadly than even the description could describe. He looked at the Firestone Gem off to the side and swallowed loudly. That stuff was beyond dangerous. Still, he couldn't help the ideas he was having about how to use it to maximum effect. It was probably beyond time to make a new gun to replace the Peace Maker.

He wanted to have both physical and magical projectile weapons. There were always monsters immune to one of the other so it was never a good idea to have a primary weapon of just one type. Add in special metals like the Mana-Touched True Silver and he could make special bullets that were extra effective on certain monsters. The same could be said of the shells for his Spell Cannon. He could make more and have access to multiple elements to use against monsters immune to one element or weak to another. Flexibility would always and forever be the key to victory.

That needed to wait until he had more time though. It was already approaching twenty hours since he entered the dungeon. He needed to use that time as wisely as he could. For that, he focused and began to produce more Claymore Mines. He repeated the process he'd established for the first mine, only he made six of everything to produce them all at once. Six thick backplates, six thin front plates, and so on. He quickly ate through his stockpile or steel and iron. He loved his inventory, but damn if he didn't need to increase its size. Next time he paid for an upgrade he would pay closer attention so he could replicate the process himself and increase his inventory size on his own.

After several hours of work, he looked down at his new collection of claymore mines and smiled broadly. These would provide one hell of a nasty surprise to the people chasing him when he made his escape. Once they were stored away he checked the time. He had just under twenty-four hours left to finish his preparations. He didn't want to spend another week working for the pirates so it had to be done soon. He took a deep breath to relax a little before using Serenity to calm himself and restore his mana to its maximum. He planned to allow a couple of hours for a nap so he wouldn't be exhausted when he left the dungeon.

Once he felt invigorated, he opened his eyes and looked over his remaining materials. He was done with weapons for the time being. Between his flaming greatsword, the new mines, and his Spell Cannon he felt he had enough for any combat he might get into. Though his plan was to avoid confrontation. Right now he needed to focus on utility. The goggles he made to work with his eyes didn't help much so he needed to think of something more useful. He had the echolocation spell so perhaps he could do something with that. He needed to think of a way to use that echolocation to create a map as quickly as possible so he could find Snowlily and escape. The question was, how?

He thought for a while and recalled thinking about trying to make set items. Maybe that could help him out? Item sets were a big deal within games and something a lot of people sought out for their synergy with each other. So, what if he made a set of items to work together? After thinking about it for a bit he grinned broadly. He had an idea and if it worked it would be a huge win. The only problem is he would end up leaving behind materials he didn't want in the hands of the pirates. He wrestled with himself over the idea and finally came to a conclusion. Snowlily was far more important than anything he might leave behind, even if it caused him trouble in the future. With his decision made, he got to work.

He first needed to create the main unit and then the peripheral items that would work in conjunction with it. He pulled out two of the impure Troll mana crystals and quickly purified them before reshaping them into a pair of lenses. He planned to make another set of goggles similar in design to the first pair but with a completely different function. Origin Steel and Sunshine Gold were once again used to make the frames with the gold used as a mana transmission inlay on the steel. Leather strips and Origin Steel were used to make the straps and buckle to keep it strapped to his head. Making the goggles wasn't that big of a deal. The real deal was the enchantment he planned to put on it.

After preparing enough of the enchanting medium using the Amalgamated Mana Crystal, he was ready to begin. He calmed himself as he conjured an engraving tool and dipped it into the mixture. This enchantment would be important but it was only a single piece of the whole. He needed to keep that in mind if he wanted it to become a part of a set and work with the items he planned to match with it. He closed his eyes to perfectly visualize the effect he was going for before opening them and beginning to carve.

Lines of mana crystal were slowly placed within the Sunshine Gold. From the lines, branches formed and moved down the Origin Steel until they came into contact with the mana crystal lenses. He worked slowly, patiently laying down meticulous lines of the enchantment. Slowly the enchantment came into being as he carefully circled around the outer edges of the goggles. When the enchantment came full circle the goggles gave out a subtle glow.

System Notice: Please name your creation.