Vol. 6 - Captivity - Chapter 36 (Patreon)

Since he still had all of his materials out, Thomas decided to try making another ring. Honestly, he wanted to slap himself for not thinking of something like a 'Ring of Invisibility' sooner. It was such a common trope in fantasy games and novels that it should have been one of the first things he thought of instead of the armor and pants he'd made. How gave a damned how good his Stealth skill was if he was just plain invisible? Though there were obvious flaws to invisibility, it was still a powerful tool to have at one's disposal.

It took minimal effort for him to make another gold inlaid ring that matched the one he'd just given to Lexiana. Seeing him produce something so swiftly and easily was still baffling to the two women. It should be known that even as a princess, Selena only had limited access to rare quality items. If Thomas continued to progress and ended up making Epic, or even Legendary items, he would become one of the most powerful individuals in the world! Were there no ends to the power immortals could obtain?

Oblivious to the shock he was bringing to the two women, Thomas continued his work by purifying another Troll crystal and grinding it into powder. Every time he performed this action it brought a pang of pain to Selena's heart. Such a pure mana crystal being used for something as simple as enchanting? It was unthinkable! Seeing that he could make them out of thin air was the only thing that kept her from yelling at him for being so wasteful of resources.

Once the enchanting medium was created, he wasted no time in summoning an engraving tool and beginning the enchantment process. The intent was plain and simple 'invisibility'. The wearer of the ring should be capable of turning invisible and visible at will. He ran into zero issues carving the enchantment and within just a few minutes he'd wrapped the engraving completely around the ring and connected the ends of the enchantment together. The ring emitted a bright flash of light shocking both women one again. Could Thomas churn out Rare items any time he wanted? What the hell?

Things went differently from there though. The ring being gripped between his fingers rapidly disintegrated into dust that was blown away by the wind.

System Notice: You have failed in the creation of your item.

Thomas froze. Failed? He had failed to create the item? He had never failed at creating anything within AoG before! Even if what he made was a piece of crap that barely worked, like his welder, it still never failed before! Even worse the system didn't bother to even give him an explanation! The absolute worst was that it had even destroyed the materials he had been using! What if it hadn't been a little ring? He couldn't imagine what the losses would be if he'd been making something like a set of armor. The least the system could do for destroying his materials was to give a detailed explanation for why.

In a fit of frustration and anger, Thomas punched the deck of the ship with his full might. The whole ship seemed to jolt as his fist easily plowed through the thick planks of wood. The two women and one Garou leaped in surprise at his sudden outburst. Snowlily looked at Thomas with concern while Selena and Lexiana simply looked surprised. Once Selena regained control of herself she immediately yelled, "Stop smashing my ship!"

Thomas at least had the presence of mind to look abashed at what he'd done. He gave Selena and apologetic smile as he used his Transmutation to quickly patch over the hole. The wood grain no longer matched but the hole was completely repaired and solid in just a few moments. Selena arched an eyebrow but said nothing else about the damage to her ship. Instead, she asked, "What was that all about?"

Thomas sighed and actually felt a bit embarrassed as she explained, "I've never failed to make something before so I was a little upset at the wasted materials."

It was true. He'd failed hundreds, if not thousands, of times over his gaming career. Failure was not something that bothered him in the least. Wasting precious materials though? That really pissed him off! He didn't care about the Origin Steel or the mana crystal. Those were easy enough to replace in near-unlimited amounts. It was the Sunshine Gold he cared about. He had very little of that material and every bit of it was precious. Losing even the small amount needed for the ring was a large blow and irked him to no end.

On the other side, both Selena and Lexiana looked surprised. Lexiana asked the question on both of their minds, "You've never failed to make anything before?"

Thomas glanced between both women and noticed the look of curiosity on their faces. He nodded, "That's right."

Lexiana may be just a rather average adventurer that made her living running dungeons while exploring the world but even she knew that was a big deal. Every person in a professional field had failed to make a magical item. It was common and something expected. No one was perfect. To hear that Thomas had never failed to make anything up to this point was pretty inconceivable to any of the locals within AoG. Other players wouldn't have found it all that surprising.

The two women continued to look shocked while Thomas got busy putting everything away. If he had to guess, there were a couple of reasons that he might have failed in his attempt to make the ring. The first was simply that his rank in Magitech Engineering was too low. His second guess was that the materials he used were unsuited to the purpose he had in mind. Materials for crafting were pretty flexible but if you pushed them to do something they simply couldn't then they would fail. It could even be a combination of both things or something completely different. For all he knew, making a Ring of Invisibility was simply impossible and would never succeed no matter what. This is why the lack of information in the system notice was so goddamned annoying to him.

He decided to just let it go. The romance of a 'Ring of Invisibility' would have to remain just a distant dream for the time being. Since he was still low on materials and didn't have a forge or crucible to check the black ore, he decided to simply relax. There was still no sign of pursuit by the pirates so there wasn't really anything for him to do for now. He was free and reunited with Snowlily. Life was looking much better now.

When night finally fell, Selena dropped anchor off the shore of the peninsula. They would arrive at their destination tomorrow afternoon at the latest. Until then it was night time, everyone was tired and hungry. They all went below deck where Thomas proceeded to cook a meal for everyone. He hadn't cooked for himself in quite a while. Thanks to his inventory freezing time the Orc chops he'd gotten months ago now were still perfectly fresh and sizzled nicely when placed on a frying pan.

He insisted on cooking dinner for everyone for a couple of reasons. First, even though he had his own escape plans they would have proved entirely pointless if Selena and Lexiana hadn't arrived with Snowlily. He never would have found her in the caves simply because she wasn't there, to begin with. Second, he wanted to level up his Cooking skill swiftly. Cooking in games could provide all sorts of benefits. Aside from the food tasting great it could also give various temporary buffs. At least, that's how it was in almost every game before AoG and he expected AoG to behave in a similar manner. A Cooking skill below twenty was obviously not going to provide much of anything though.

Along with the Orc chops, he cooked some fresh vegetables, which earned a pitiful whine from Snowlily. Hearing it he turned to look at her. She glanced away before giving a somewhat pleading look to Lexiana of all people. Thomas froze for a moment before he realized the situation. His gaze turned to Lexiana as he frowned, "Please tell me you haven't been spoiling Snowlily."

Lexian scoffed and even looked a little offended at the question, though not for the 'normal' reasons, "Of course! It's only natural to give a Garou anything it desires!"

Immediately after she spoke, Snowlily turned to look at Thomas and puffed out her chest while looking proud. Almost like she was trying to say, 'See! This is how a princess like me should be treated!'. Thomas groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. Just what he needed, someone spoiling Snowlily more than he already did! He lowered his hand from his face and gave Snowlily a deadpan look, "Double vegetables for you tonight and every meal for the next week!"

Snowlily's prideful look immediately deflated. Her whole body seemed to wilt as her once majestically held up head dropped down to stare at her paws. Her ears flopped down and her tail drooped. She should have known better but eating nothing but meat for weeks and being pampered by Lexiana had spoiled her a bit too much. Lexiana looked like she was about to throw a fit until Thomas glared at her, "One word from you and all you get will be vegetables!"

Lexiana froze in place. She couldn't cook, at all. If she tried all she would end up with would be charcoal and burnt pans. She'd even burned water once. Not simply evaporated it all and burned the pan, she had literally set water on fire once when trying to cook. She had been surviving on rations for weeks now because none of the people on the small ship could cook. Smelling the succulent scent of the cooking meat was enough to flood her mouth with saliva. If she didn't get any and had to watch everyone else eat it, she would go mad! So, she swallowed her pride and kept her mouth firmly shut.

Seeing the antics between the three made Selena giggle a little while she sat off to the side firmly out of the line of fire. Like Lexiana she couldn't cook. She'd always had a well-trained expert making her meals at home and the academy had great cooks too. Like Lexiana and Snowlily she had lived off of simple rations while on the ship and was eagerly looking forward to any freshly cooked meal. She was not going to ruin that by opening her mouth at this moment!

Thomas looked between all three of them for a few moments longer while the Orc chops sizzled behind him. When he saw no one was going to say anything, he nodded and went back to properly cooking the meal. He made sure there were plenty of vegetables not just for Snowlily but for Lexiana too. He had the feeling she wouldn't appreciate his 'kindness'. Once everything was cooked properly, he set it out on the plates Selena provided and set a plate in front of each person. The slabs of meat on Snowlily's and Lexiana's plates were dwarfed by the small mountain of vegetables. Thomas gave both of them a serious look as he said, "I expect you to eat everything I've cooked for you or I won't be cooking for you again."

As Lexiana and her people were supposedly descendants of the Garou he was not surprised and was rather happy to see her frown as she stared at the pile of non-meat on her plate. He could practically see the conflict behind Lexiana's eyes as she stared at the mixed vegetables. She was tempted to ignore his threat and only eat the meat and a few vegetables. They were less than half a day away from the port so she could get plenty of good food while in the city. She knew the problem would come after that though when they were traveling. She didn't know how long they would travel between cities. Would she be able to store enough food? What if she ran out? She really didn't want to resort to eating rations again. They were dry and horrible. She sighed as she gave in and became determined to eat every last thing on her plate, starting with the juicy still sizzling meat!

Once dinner was over and the plates were washed, by Lexiana after a fierce game of Rock-Paper-Scissors between her and Selena, everyone went to bed. The ship was small compared to the galleon sized ships the pirates used, but it still had a small cargo hold, full kitchen, and a half dozen bedrooms. The night passed peacefully as, according to Selena, it was very dangerous to sail at night even in 'safe' waters. Even the pirates wouldn't be stupid enough to break that general rule.

After everyone ate a nice hot breakfast cooked by Thomas, they resumed their sailing. As predicted the ship arrived at the port city of Snubanes just before noon arrived. Thomas smiled and stroked Snowlily's head as he looked over the city. It took a lot longer than expected to get here but they had finally officially arrived at a new continent and would soon begin their journey to meet Hekrin's master. There was much to do and another long leg of the journey left, but it was something worth looking forward to!