Chương 31: Chapter 30 - Ice Maker

Tiffany kicked at a rock, launching it towards the grass by the side of the bricked road they were travelling on. Drake and Alexander walked in front of her while Yumi was beside her. They were on the way to Viscount Magnus's territory on their first quest after everyone reached a minimum of 120 prowess. It was considered high, but not enough to have a chance of attaining a class, according to known awakenings. They needed at least 30 more. Then what was the point of sending them on an investigation mission?

It was Haestus that sent them. Said it was to test their ability to think for themselves, apparently. He even blamed them for not using their 'intellect' in the labyrinth, which almost got them all dead. Asshole. But Tiffany already knew why. The bastard knew she went behind his back to talk to Alizia, even got support from her.

Then all of this was just a punishment, knowing full well the rumours of the increasing beast population coming down from the mountains, whether it be these 'howlers', trolls, goblins, or whatever else was there. They weren't weak enough to die. Still, it would be a difficult fight if they ran into too many at once. Just in case, Alizia gave her a Wind Haste gem and told her to crush it to activate it. If she needed to run, try to at least save one of the other heroes, otherwise, she should save herself instead.

"Didn't realize punishing your own summoned heroes was part of the summoner's job description," Tiffany muttered.

"Tiffany, seriously?" Drake asked.

"Seriously, what?"

"I mean, she's kinda right," Alexander said.

"Shouldn't we be increasing our prowess instead of going to an investigation?"

"So are we just going to ignore the plight of the villagers?" Drake's voice raised to an almost yell.

"Those people had families. What if you had a family that got stuck in the rubble of the mines?"

"But they're not. That's the point," Tiffany said.

"What's the point of slaving away, walking half a day without getting a single point of prowess?"

"We can still kill the stragglers by the dirt path."

"And what's that going to do? 1 single attribute point?"

"It's about the process and journey. Better than what you tried to do back on Earth," Drake said.

"The fuck is that suppose to mean?!" Tiffany shouted.

"Please, stop. If you wanna argue, argue quieter," Yumi said as she looked around.

"Isn't it too quiet?"

"You know what the fuck I'm supposed to mean," Drake spat. Tiffany clenched her fist and walked faster towards Drake, but Yumi pulled at her shoulder while Alexander blocked her way from Drake.

"Tiffany, calm down," Alexander said then turned to Drake.

"And you, how about you shut the fuck up for once."

"I just said what everyone in school already knows."

"He's bringing up the night activities again. I wanna hear him say that again," Tiffany said, being held back by Yumi.

"Tiffany never did those night activities, though," Yumi said.

"And how would you know that?" Drake asked.

"I don't think she would..."

"For someone who never worked a day in their life, that'd definitely be your first thought, right?"

"What else would it be?"

"The McDonalds was just 10 minutes away from my house, what else?"

"Always the the fast food job excuse. Definitely haven't heard that one before." Tiffany quickly ran up to Drake, dodged Alexander's hand, and punched the idiot's face, causing him to drop onto the ground.

"Asshole."

"Ok, Tiffany," Alexander dropped down and helped Drake up.

"You got a hit in. You good?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Tiffany said.

"I believe you, Tiffany," Yumi said.

"Thanks."

"And you?" Alexander turned back to Drake.

"I'll let her get that one in," Drake said.

"You're still helping with the village."

"Like I have a choice anyway," Tiffany said, then noticing the surroundings to be quieter than they should. The wind moved, swaying and rustling the leaves. But other than them, she couldn't hear anything else. There were no other travellers along the dirt path, though it might just be because it was almost night time. The sun could no longer be seen on the horizon.

"Let's move quickly," Drake said, and continued to lead the group. Yumi walked closer to Tiffany while Alexander followed the lead closely behind. For half an hour the group continued on their trek. Alexander had lit up a torch by now. Droplets fell from the sky, signalling the start of the rain. They should've found a traveller by now, but still nothing. Yumi, who was the most danger averse in the group, constantly looked around as her shoulder trembled.

"I think we should go back and report this anomaly," Tiffany said.

"We're already too far, unless you wanna walk throughout the night," Drake said.

"Isn't there a village nearby?" Yumi asked. Tiffany looked up and activated her eagle eye. A couple of hundred metres in front of them was a signpost of directions.

"Directions ahead of us. Let's go." As the group continued their walk, she carefully watched the treeline. Alexander had changed his grip on the torch to his left hand instead, to hold his spear in his right. Yumi also became more alert as she tightly held on to Tiffany's sleeve. The only one that was relaxed was Drake. After arriving at the signage, Tiffany read it out loud.

"4 days to the Viscounty, which is the left path. The town on the right path is called Sleider's Coast. No mention of how long so it should be close."

"We have camping gear so we could probably just walk through the night and get closer to the Viscounty."

"And risk getting jumped by wolves?" Tiffany asked.

"That's on the other side of the mountain on Lyra, not here."

"Do we really wanna risk it?" Yumi asked.

"I don't like the silence. I say we just go to the town and rest there instead," Alexander said.

"Pussy."

"Call it what you want, it's being smart."

"Yumi, what do you think?"

"Let's go to the town," Yumi said.

"You're outnumbered anyways," Tiffany said to Drake.

"Weren't you the one who said this was a waste of time for prowess?" Drake asked.

"It is, and suicide is also not part of my plans."

"The wolves are only like what... 80 to 100 in prowess? We could take them and get some attributes."

"The wolves aren't stupid. They'll kill us when we're sleeping."

"We could take turns being on the lookout."

"And have us all tired and feeling shitty the next day? No."

"Drake, let it go, man. Let's just go to the town and rest up," Alexander said.

"Fine," Drake said, moving to the right path, and the rest followed. Tiffany had to thank Princess Alizia a bit. Without her backing, she wouldn't be able to stand up to Drake like this. If he tried to talk about 'this problem' to Haestus or the King, she could always bring up that Alizia had told them to be more cautious. It would've eased up the pressure on her from the group and the two royal idiots. Surprisingly, Alexander kept up with his promise. By the time they arrived at Sleider's Coast, it was raining.

Something caught Tiffany's eyes, an empty vendor stall by the side of the entrance arches. It didn't have boxes and containers most vendors would use to showcase fruits, meat, or whatever the vendor was selling. Instead, it was just a table with a cloth over it. The front side of the cloth held a sign that said 'Star Cubs - Pop Up Stall'. A single gazebo looking roof covered it from the rain.

"Guys, do you see that?" Tiffany asked. Yumi, Drake, and Alexander peered over to where she was looking at, noticing the same table.

"It's a vendor table. What about it?" Drake asked.

"Sounds familiar, though... isn't that the same one from the path?" Alexander asked.

"So? It's probably a local brand."

"There's no such thing as brands in medieval fantasy, idiot! It has to be Alex's doing," Tiffany said.

"And no one's there. Why didn't she take it back if it was hers?" Drake asked.

"Please, can we just get an inn so we're not outside in the dark?" Yumi pushed Tiffany forward.

"Argue in the inn. I don't care."

"Ok, ok. Sorry, Yumi," Tiffany said. Walking deeper into the town, they immediately saw the largest building in the town. It was a 3 story inn. The lights were on, and people could be seen through the window, drinking and eating. Drake pushed the door open, and Tiffany immediately noticed something weird happening. None of the patrons bothered to look their way after looking at them once. Most were men, some women in leather armour.

It was clearly obvious they were trying to focus on what was in front of them or what they were eating.

"Come on," Drake said, walking to the counter.

"Summoned heroes, what may your request be?" The man forced a smile. Tiffany glared at the man who clearly tried to avoid her gaze.

"How do you know we're summoned heroes?" The man pointed behind him and they all saw the poster behind. It was a rough drawing of what they looked like. Drake had messy hair and carried a sword with polished iron plates and leather armour. Alexander had an earring on both lobes, long hair, and carried a spear with just leather armour. Yumi wore priest robes. Her long black hair with a fringe at the front was the most distinct. Tiffany always had her hair up in a ponytail while also wearing a silver necklace.

"Fair point." Tiffany's eyes narrowed. Why wasn't Alex there though? There were five of them. Rumours did say she was in the bandit mountains 'screaming and laughing' crazily. Drake cleared his throat.

"Can we get a room for the night?"

"Two rooms," Tiffany cut in.

"Yes, summoned heroes. That will be 1 gold," the man behind the counter said. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Are you joking? 1 gold is way too much!"

"Tiffany, it's our first time going to an inn by ourselves. Behave," Drake said.

"That price is ridiculous!"

"And how would you know that?"

"Yumi, what do you think?" Tiffany asked.

"I don't know... but it's just one night anyway?"

"1 gold for all of us seems fair," Alexander said.

"If we don't pay, they could just not let us board." Tiffany turned and glared at the man.

"How much are others paying for the inn?"

"Bow Hero, this is the price for summoned ones. Please don't make this any harder."

"See! There's a price for natives. I knew it!" Tiffany slammed the counter.

"Why can't we have that?"

"Summoned hero, please understand that we peasants don't make that much gold."

"So you'd easily just increase the price for our stay because you can?"

"And isn't that fine?" Drake asked.

"It's not like we need the gold. Better to give them the money and live better as we just pass by."

"That's not the point, is it?" Tiffany said. They were all getting manipulated by the bastard. In fact, this whole pricing inflation was probably that bastard's method of just controlling the amount of money they spent. He's keeping them poor to keep the chain around their ankles locked.

"Then tell us, Tiffany," Drake stared at her. Tiffany looked around. Although no one was looking their way, everyone still had their ears. Alizia told her to watch her mouth when there were people around. Running her mouth about the King would give them reason to subject treason charges on her. Fuck.

"It's just not fair," she finally said.

"And us getting this strong because we're summoned heroes isn't fair either. So it makes sense why we're paying this much," Drake said. Tiffany looked to Alexander and Yumi, but they avoided her eye contact. What Drake just said was probably the only sentence so far that made actual sense coming from him since they entered Nulfrae. It was still stupid, and she could continue arguing... sigh.

"Fine. 1 gold. How much are the meals?"

"There's only one item on the menu today, and it's 25 silver."

"Another 1 gold, huh."

"We'll pay it," Drake said as he pulled out 2 gold and dropped it onto the counter. The man took it immediately and provided them with two keys.

"Thank you, summoned heroes. 3rd floor, first two rooms." Tiffany swiped one of the keys and headed upstairs right away, just behind the counter.

"Tiffany, wait up!" Yumi quickly followed while the two boys stayed behind, probably to grab something to eat. After stepping onto the third floor, she tried inserting the key into the first room, but failed. She tried the next, and it worked. Upon opening the door, she saw two beds side by side with a thin blanket on top. No pillow while also smelling like sweat and bodily fluids that she didn't want to mention. Still, it was better than staying out there in the wild with the wolves.

She walked in and sat on the bed as Yumi came around the corner.

"Are you ok?" she asked as she came in.

"I'm fine. I'm just tired."

"It stinks in here..."

"Yeah, I know." Yumi walked towards the centre of the room. Wind swirled around her before she activated a spell, casting green wisps everywhere.

"What's that?" Tiffany asked, then suddenly smelled the lemon scent.

"It's just purify, a low-tier priestess spell."

"Useful."

"Hehe." Suddenly, the bells tolled. The loud clangs could be heard clearly through the window. Tiffany felt the commotion downstairs immediately, causing her to launch herself up and peer out the window. Yumi ran up beside her, watching. Beyond the inn, a horde of howlers entered the town. If these were normal wolves, they would just be ignored. But these were 'howlers', bear sized wolves with pure black fur. One of the howlers broke down the door of a house just in front of the inn.

The scream of a woman could be heard from inside. The two idiots, Drake and Alexander, ran to the house and subdued the single howler. But more came behind them, pinning them in the house as another howler went inside with them. Just from her vantage point alone, Tiffany saw at least 12 howlers, each one mauling at the doors of houses.

"We gotta save those idiots!" Tiffany bolted through the door.

"Coming!" Yumi said, following her. Jumping down each landing and launching herself to the exit, the first thing Tiffany did was charge up [Wind's Sharp Edge]. She let go of the string, and a gust of green whirlwind followed her arrow, punching through the back of the howler. Drake and Alexander dashed out of the house they were stuck in. Behind them, the woman ran towards the inn while Tiffany provided cover.

"Heal!" Alexander shouted. His arm had a large bite on it from defending the woman. A green light enveloped his bite mark, and the wounds visibly closed, a healing from Yumi.

"Anyone else?!" Yumi shouted. Alexander and Drake stood just in front of the inn. Another howler tried pouncing but was stopped by a slash, causing it to retreat. Looking around, all the inn's patrons had huddled up their bakcs against the walls.

"Why aren't all of you fighting?!" Tiffany shouted.

"We're all around 40 to 70 prowess. We'll die if we fight!" a woman in leather armour shouted. Tiffany turned around immediately and shot another Wind's Sharp Edge. This time, the howler was smart enough to dodge, but just barely as it nicked its front left leg. When it landed on the ground, it limped and stood behind the other howlers. Screams from all around the village could be heard. Metal clanged against claws. Wooden doors of houses caved in. Children screamed.

Weren't howlers supposed to only travel in packs of 6 to 8? Tiffany thought to herself as she launched another arrow. Drake and Alexander did their best to defend. But that was all they could do. Defend. A howler slowly rounded the corner of one of the houses. In its mouth was a single arm, still bleeding with fresh blood. Ragged breaths came to Tiffany. She shot an arrow at the howler that held an arm in its mouth. It dodged, but rattled it enough that it dropped the arm.

[Wind's Sharp Edge] activated and she let go of another arrow to kill the howler. But it only hit its shoulder and caved in its bones.

"Tiffany, shoot the ones in front of us! FUCK!" Drake slashed at the one that just tried to ram through both of them. There were now around 15 bear sized wolves around them, all drooling from the mouth and staring at them like prey. More heals came from Yumi as Alexander and Drake fought to continue holding the front line. Since they were surrounded, each pounce of a howler forced them to step back one by one. The howlers posed no threat to them if they only cared about their safety.

They could live to fight another day instead of dying meaninglessly. She was sorry for the villagers, yet there was nothing they could do. Summoned heroes were important to this world, right?!

"We can live. Let's just run!" Tiffany shouted. It was true.

"Are you crazy?!" Drake shouted.

"Yumi! Run with me!" Tiffany shouted.

"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!" Yumi screamed, tears running down her cheeks.

"Run. We'll cover both of you. Run to the Viscount's region!" Alexander yelled, piercing another howler. As Tiffany grabbed Yumi's arm, lightning and thunder lit up the whole vicinity. Blinded by the light, Tiffany covered her face with her hands, as did the others. Howlers whined as flesh being sliced apart could be heard. Lightning crashed to the earth, shaking the ground. The continuous roar of thunder rolled throughout the area, unstopping until the last whine of what seemed like the last howler.

When the brightness dimmed, Tiffany opened her eyes slowly, seeing a man covered in blue and white lightning. His eyes glowed, and his expression was that of fury as he stared at the dead howlers all over the ground. Looking down, blood pooled and painted the dirt of Sleider's Coast. The man was... familiar. Broad shoulders, blueish purple mithril armour with a single gem embedded on the chest. He walked up to the inn slowly.

"Who are you?!" Drake asked, readying his sword.

"Do not be afraid, dwellers of Sleider's Coast," the man said, moving closer and pushing away Drake's sword.

"Is anyone hurt?"

"I... I think there was someone that died in the houses with the hand on the mouth and the..." Tiffany muttered.

"I've defended the man's family. May he rest in peace," the man held a fist to his chest for a second, then looked around again.

"Who are you?" Tiffany asked as Yumi closed in on her, tightly gripping her arm.

"Do not mind my name, young child. I am but a lowly being in search of redemption for past failures," the man said.

"When She looks down below from the sky, everyone is equal."

"Who are you talking about?" Alexander asked, whispering.

"I would love to talk more about Her grace and benevolence, though unfortunately, I'm 'on the clock'." The man smirked, chuckling.

"First the bird brains and now the whining mutts... interesting."

"Wait!" Tiffany shouted.

"May Her Grace light your path," the man said before lightning coiled around him once again. The brightness peaked once again as his eyes lit up until it was too bright for any of them to look at him directly. Lightning shook the ground once again, followed by a single thunderous roar. The only thing left that could be heard was the rain pattering against the inn's windows.

"Didn't the bandits say the same thing?" Tiffany asked.

"What do you mean...?" Yumi asked.

"Nothing. Just nevermind." The only thing left on her mind was how the hell was she supposed to 'objectively' explain this to Alizia? A man made of lightning came crashing down from the sky and wiped out all the howlers in less than 2 seconds. That was utterly crazy talk that the Princess wouldn't even believe. Nothing was going correctly. All she could do was hope that the princess would actually deem this information worthy of her time. ☕︎ ☼ ☕︎ ☽ ☕︎ There was only one thing on Alex's mind.

Was it really a combustion engine if all it did was emulate combustion by rapidly heating the air on the compression stroke? Was an explosion really an explosion if there was no explosion? These were questions that still boggled her mind even to this day, and none of it mattered as long as it did the job. At the end of the day, they were all semantics. She was still adamant about calling it a mana combustion engine, MCE for short, and no one could convince her otherwise, and Alex meant no one.

"This isn't a combustion engine, not in the chemical sense, anyway," Raven commented.

"Shut up. No one asked for your opinion. Why are you here? You should be sleeping. Go away," Alex said as she smiled widely at the primitive mack truck in front of her.

"Is conjuring up a fireball also combustion? It's literally the same principle working here."

"So you wanna call it 'Mana Heat Conjuring Device'? Pfft, ok, yeah right," Alex waved her hand dismissively, laughing mockingly.

"Alright, if you say so. Still not factually correct." Raven sighed.

"But I own the trademark."

"True. Can't argue with that." Alex floated herself into a seating position. Adamantite lined the walls of the cylinder and the pistons were forged Adamantite as well, rather than cast, because fuck yeah, that's why. Non-moving parts were all made with Yin metal while everything else was Adamantite. It was the perfect engine that could possibly last a century. She imagined if the 2JZ could be made with this kind of material, what kind of monster would it make? Without cheating, of course.

No magic allowed on the drag strip... stupid idiot Witch Ember creating stupid rules. Elador handled the issue with the oil. Surprisingly, the slimes down at the sanitation facility had more uses than she had thought. It was a perfect circular loop as her customers fed the slimes, and the slime population would then be culled to prevent overpopulation. They had other uses that Aurora mentioned, but clearly, most of it went in one ear and out the other. Oh well. The issue now was the tires.

Metal tires were no good when it came to high powered engines. Creating an adamantite belt would be easy, but then the other things were still needed. Carbon black was easy to come by, most likely the oil produced from slimes. Greenie was good enough to provide sulfur for curing. Rubber was the main problem. It should be possible to find somewhere, problem was the 'where'.

"Where's Aurora?" Alex asked.

"She's still on the way up the mountain from Count Mourier's farms."

"Whatever." Alex pulled out the walkie talkie and called for Aurora. After 3 rings, and this time it didn't crackle as she sent out a patch, Aurora picked it up.

"My Lady, Aurora is speaking. How may I be of service? Over."

"Do you know of any plant liquid that gets sticky when heated but hardens when cold and could possibly be used as waterproof lining? Over."

"Yes. There's 2 trees that have this. Closest one are Ertha trees, located in a forest east of Stronghold Hatir or west of the lost Queendom of Stormbringer. Over."

"Stormbringer? Over."

"I believe you may ask Chief Operating Officer Grey about it. He shall know more information. Over."

"About the rubber tree? Over."

"Rubber, my Lady? Over."

"Nothing. I'll ask Grey. Hanging up now, ciao." Alex hung up immediately. Then, she called Grey once again. This time, she had to wait 6 rings before he picked up.

"My Lady, this is Grey speaking. Forgive me for the delay of my response. Over," Grey said.

"It's fine. Is there a forest with funny sticky trees east of Stronghold Hatir or west of the lost Queendom of Stormbringer? Over."

"H-h-h-how do you know that name? Over."

"Huh? What name?" Alex asked, but ignored it and continued.

"I'm talking about the forest. Is there one west of it? Over." Grey paused for 1 second before replying.

"Yes. There is a forest with funny sticky trees. However, the region has been annexed by Dragus. Over."

"Cool. Cool. Hanging up now. Ciao." Alex hung up the line. Well, that wasn't too hard. If she could just get to that area, the mack trucks would be complete. A laugh started to roll up from her core, but before it could, her walkie talkie rang once again. It was Grey.

"Y-ello. Talk to me. Over," Alex said.

"My Lady, I have one more thing to say. One of the ice makers from the interstate rest stop is missing since last week. It would leave the location with only 1 ice maker left. Customers are complaining about the slow service of getting their Arabelum Refreshers. Over." Oh, one of her ice makers was missing. Oh shit, one of her ice makers was missing, causing disruption in her retail location, and customers were complaining!

"Got it. Thanks for the heads-up. Hanging up now. Ciao." Alex hung up the phone as she looked down at Witch Raven, playing Tetris on her phone. Whatever. Time to go. She zoomed out of City Hall, banging the doors open. Someone stole from her a couple of coppers? A rounding error. Someone stole her ice maker? She could make another one. It was literally made of rock. The ice maker was part of the front-line production of serving her refreshers to the customers?! Now it was personal.

She flew up into the air in the middle of the stormy rain. The rain pattered against her invisible telekinetic shield as she zoomed towards the interstate rest stop. One snap of her finger to ping a specific signature, 2 replies came back to her. The first was in the interstate rest stop. The second was further away, to the east, towards the Barony of Lois. Flying forward to the Barony, she snapped her finger again. Two pings came back, but the only one she cared about was coming from a port town.

She closed in on the port town before pinging again. This time, she knew exactly where it was. It was being used by the fishermen to make ice for the fish. Clever, but they stole it. Looking around the terrible gutter system of this place, it was the perfect place to extract fertilizer from. The population was large enough to get what Aurora needed. For now, at least. Should she take it back right away? Hell no. Alex smirked as her eyes caught onto the Baroness's large white villa. The answer was obvious.

Use this as a precedent for a deal advantage.