Roswald didn’t mind my words. He probably believed that I wouldn’t go too far if something happened. I probably wouldn’t, unless someone pointed their weapons at me. To fools like that, it was better to make an example out of them.

  In any case, I let Glacien guard the wagon while I moved around with Alissandra in my arms. She was covered in a blanket, so her identity would remain hidden. She seemed to be in a good mood while holding my index finger… I had planned to be cautious with her to not make her too attached to me, but I really couldn’t let her feel bad.

  ‘I guess finding someone for her is a waste of time… only someone in a similar position would be able to look after her properly. This shitty world is filled with biased people, too. People can’t leave normal lives in places beyond their homeland unless they have the power to defend themselves.’

  In any case, I stopped thinking about that when I found the first few shops with items being sold that were different from the ones I knew of.

  ‘Not bad… I can certainly use these for my forging process and make things even faster.’

  I had the basic elemental magic classes, so maybe sooner or later, I would learn these skills, but it would take a while before that can happen since I rarely use the skills aside from Fire Wall. Regardless, it was unusual for me to find this kind of enchanted item with offensive effects, since they consumed a lot of mana instead of offering support with basic parameters or passive effects.

  “How much for these? Do you accept an apprentice rank magic bag?”

  “Of course not. These items are the best of the best. You won’t find these kinds of Enchantments anywhere else as well.”

  “How about two magic bags?”

  It was weird that I was using them as currency, but those items were things that everything wanted. Besides, I have the feeling that I finally would be able to make the adept rarity rank ones using the leather of the Frost Wyvern.

  The old man who was the owner of the shop tried to ask for three magic bags, but I knew that it would be the same as being ripped off, so I insisted with only two. While I didn’t have to since I could make them left and right, it was better to be cautious. I had some free ones, but all the others were completely filled with materials… I had to make more of them as well.

  In any case, I didn’t want to trade the mana cores since they were essentially one of my sources of energy, but I couldn’t help but consider when I reached the next shop and found some more pretty useful items.

  Their quality was pretty good, and the stock was high… it was weird, given that the nation was fighting off the harpies. Electric attacks would be more useful, and those items were hard to find.

  For some reason, those items made me think that perhaps I should make an engine that uses actual fuel instead of mana cores. It should take some time, but it wouldn’t be improbable to make things like batteries or even solar panels, although they would be useless in this environment.

  ‘I can get them inside labyrinths, but there might come a time where I won’t be able to get them… when that time comes, I need to be ready. Using my own mana would be a good idea too. I should start experimenting with that as well.’

  Instead of buying anything else, I decided to check all the shops in the town before deciding what I should buy. That truly helped since I was able to see a shop with a half dwarf powering up a furnace for a while with his own mana… he just had to fully charge a rune on the furnace and that made it work at its full power for one hour.

  I was starting to get invested in alchemy, so I didn’t have time to get involved with runes as well, but the idea was alone for me. I could start my own journey with that simple step.

  “Sorry for the delay. Convincing some people of my plans took a lot longer than I had expected. They didn’t think that it would be a good idea to send help for me, but… what are you doing?”

  “Just some experiments.”

  We returned to the wagon a while ago and I soon began to work on transferring my mana to another body. With my arrows, as long as I caused damage, I could take the mana from the target, and that was why I was hurting my feet with some shots. This wouldn’t be easy, but it would be a useful breakthrough on the same level as my amulets. It wouldn’t be easy, but it was necessary.

  “Aren’t your friends sending support on your mission? How can the leader of a shady organization like yours convince anyone to join an alliance?”

  “When you talk like that, you make me sound like I am a criminal or something. I have some documents with me that can help and I know some of the people of Felyndor, remember? If we manage to start this alliance with them, we will get the orcs, goblins and ogres by proxy and the other nations will find value in joining as well.”

  Roswald was undoubtedly thinking that his mission would bear fruit, that his plans for an alliance would come to fruition and lead to greater changes. He believed in the potential of his approach, and perhaps he was right to a degree. The possibilities were certainly there, and the alliances could be beneficial in the long run.

  But in my experience, putting too much faith in a single option was never a good idea. Relying solely on one path or one set of circumstances left you vulnerable to unexpected setbacks or failures. Things rarely went according to plan, and if you weren’t prepared with contingencies, you could easily find yourself with no backup and nowhere to turn. Whether it was a political alliance that fell apart at the last moment or an unreliable resource, trusting everything to one option always left a door open for disappointment.

  “All right, Glacien. You can head south as much as you deem necessary and then head west. The new engines are already installed, so come inside if it starts to snow too much or if you find enemies approaching, all right?’

  “Awoo!”

  Glacien had stopped growing, but she certainly had gotten stronger. The class that she obtained granted her a strength and endurance multiplier, so pulling the wagon and fighting at close range wasn’t a problem for her. Soon enough, she would be able to solo even the third section of some labyrinths. Speaking of which, Beast’s Fury should be reaching level ten soon. I also used to improve her running speed, after all.

  Once the wagon began to move and Roswald began to rest inside and in the corner, I began to work on my next creation. The magic bags would have to wait… I had bought some special lenses in the town, so I began to mess with some ore that I had already processed.

  It didn’t take long before I had a simple microscope. I had forgotten to draw the blueprint, but it worked well given that I visualized the final product with quite the perfection.

  I checked some samples of the stamina liquid and soon was able to see the particles of it. I was hoping to see some microorganisms, but I only found particles that kept spinning and glowing. There was also a certain purity in the liquid.

  ‘I guess the particles act like that because they are full of energy… it is pretty uniform, even though they are a combination of two types of poison.’

  I decided to write down a bit more after analyzing the liquid, but soon I went to check what I really wanted to study. The mana cores…