Cat With a Raygun

Joe discussed the issue with Tess and she theorized that the mana cavern might be the best place to put the egg to incubate. Dragon lairs are already known to produce the high levels of manachlorians needed to produce mana crystals, so it would be like the dragon is home. After two days Tess said that it appeared that the egg was thriving in the manachlorian-rich environment, but asked Joe to surround it with ice a few times a day, which was easy with Joe's improved Cold Snap spell.

The rest of the time Joe kept casting Speed Plant Growth on the pastures where the animals were grazing. Grass grew faster than the other crops Ferrite had planned for animal feed in the future, so it was easy enough to practice the spell on.

Meanwhile everyone else was settling in well. Melanie was practicing her Smithing in Gargan's old smithy and finally took the Smith profession. Malcolm was building Tess a shop where she could make and sell her clothes. Tess helped Joe learn more about the animals they were taking care of so he could compare the results he got from his Animal Status spell with what the animals themselves were saying. Eleanor was experimenting trying to create alchemical fertilizer to assist the growth of the plants. Kerras and Gymmie were helping to watch the animals.

With the two minors helping out with the animals, Joe was able to take time away periodically to get to work on a recent idea he had to help with the animals' food supply. He constructed a new bridge over the river south of the old one, but instead of building it for transport, he made it so that it could support a structure on top of it. He then went and made large glass panes, erected a wooden support frame for the panes, and made a greenhouse over the river. He sealed the panes with the same insulation material he had used in his raygun, but this time without the addition of the mana powder. His Carpentry went up to 7, his Glassblowing went up to 5, and his Chemistry went up to 4 by this one project alone.

Thessal Leaves were a ground cover crop similar to alfalfa that was well praised by ranchers as a food source for ruminants. By using Boost Spell with the Speed Plant Growth, which was now level 2, he was able to get a crop of Thessal Leaves to grow to maturity in just a week. When their roots are left they regrow faster than from seed, so he was able to get a supply larger than their current needs before winter arrived, and with his greenhouse the leaves could keep growing despite the lowering temperatures. Joe also got to practice Preservation by storing the Thessal Leaves.

Even with all that on his plate, Joe still found time to design and test out some heater designs to keep the barns warmed during the winter. He was able to incorporate circuitry to mimic a minor form of Stoke Fire, with a few adjustable settings, to create heaters that kept a reasonable temperature without creating too much smoke, so they would only need small chimneys. He had to choose between more fuel efficient and more magic efficient. In the end he chose more magic efficient so no one would need to run through the mines down to the mana cavern to recharge removable batteries.

The beauty of an item that utilized fire is that fire produces its own manachlorian energy, the excess of which can be stored and used by the item itself. He had Teril give him some iron and magisteel ingots to make everything. The heaters would also be fueled by charcoal, but he was able to easily create a large supply for the winter by increasing his Logging skill to 7 and taking almost exclusively charcoal from the Harvest spells.

Working on the Arcane Heaters also got his Schematic Drafting to level 4 and his Illusory Rending spell to level 2. Afterwards he could start working on the new furnaces Teril wanted. He spent two weeks designing, building prototypes, and testing them out, but ultimately they wouldn't work. Since they needed to reach temperatures hotter than their materials he tried to use magisteel circuitry based on the Elemental Shield spell, but it was way too much of a manachlorian hog, even with the fires in the furnace it couldn't keep up with the costs. Even creating failure prototypes still gave him Work experience, however, so he was able to get to level 3 in Arcane Gadgeteer, again putting his two extra points in Intelligence. He also gained two more levels in Schematic Drafting, one in Smithing, and another spell level in Illusory Rendering.

What he needed was something a lot more manachlorian efficient. Elemental Shield protected against all elemental effects when he only needed to protect from heat/fire. He had the recipe for cold resistance, which certainly looked like it had the desired efficiency, but he had no idea how to alter it to affect fire instead. He could imbue metallic objects at random until he got the enchantment he wanted, but that seemed wasteful and would get in Melanie's way.

Joe remembered from that book he bought months back in his first trip through Mankerin that there was a creature called a fire toad that lived about three thousand kilometers south of here. There was a good chance something made from their skin would have a fire resistance enchantment.

Like Joe had discussed with Ferric when he first returned to town, he could travel during the day and return to town in the evening. He told everyone he was going to make the trip and then set off. He started running to travel a little faster. In the evenings he would return and ice down the dragon egg and repeat that in the morning before he returned to where he left. He could use his CGS map to better target far distances when he cast Backtrack.

- - - - -

It took just over a month before Joe got to the area where the fire toads lived. Winter had settled in to Rust's Edge, but was just barely beginning down south where the fire toads lived. After taking down a dragon Joe was pretty sure the fire toads would be easy. He was wrong.

The frost dragon was manageable because it was a single monster. The fire toads were everywhere and ganged up against him. He could hear them in behind boulders and coming out from small hollows in the ground. They were calling him an intruder that needed to be burned. There was so much fire that it very quickly overwhelmed his Elemental Shield, but didn't stop. The toads would expand their throats like you see in cartoon frogs, then belch out a ball of fire. After the first volley of flaming belches Joe teleported back a few hundred meters out of their territory to regenerate as well as create a better plan of attack. His raygun was out. There were too many and they were too fast for it to be effective with its cooldown. Cold Snap didn't work either as the fire inside of them protected them from the cold.

Joe reviewed all the training he had done since he started this journey.

Spells:

Lightning Jolt 11

Healing Touch 9

Deflection Field 10

Cold Snap 12

Levitation 12

Backtrack 13

Hidden Blade 2

Karmic Bond 6

Stoke Fire 7

Speed Boost 6

Elemental Shield 8

Boost Strength 3

Blind 4

Paralyze 4

Shadow Cloak 4

Root Trap 3

Animal Status 4

Torchlight 4

Trip 3

Speed Plant Growth 4

Move Water 2

Skills:

Mana Channeling 19

Endurance 15

Stamina Growth 17

Stealth 11

Defense 13

Focus 18

Pain Tolerance 10

Meditation 17

Regeneration 7

Running 10

Animal Husbandry 5

Reviewing the new levels of everything he had improved on this journey, or back in Rust's Edge in the evenings, he was sure there should be some solution. He had counted at least ten of the fire toads, but it sounded like there were more waiting to join the fray if he broke through the ranks. His new Lightning Jolt can arc to other enemies, but that's of little use when they're belching fire at you preventing you from touching them in the first place.

Lightning Jolt (Level 10). This spell allows the caster to channel electrical energy into a target via touch, potentially damaging the target. The maximum amount of energy that can be channeled with this spell is determined by the caster's Intelligence score, multiplied by the spell's level. Multiple instances of this spell can be cast simultaneously at one or more targets based on what the caster is touching.

A diminished effect can arc to other chosen enemies within 2 meters of a primary target. Each casting can affect up to two additional targets via the arcing lightning.

Mana Cost: 6 per casting.

Deflection Field (Level 10). This spell has two different versions.

In the first version this spell acts like armor for the caster. The myth that manachlorian flow is blocked by restrictive clothing likely originated from the kind of protection this spell provides. Casters simply have no need for additional armor while this spell is active. At its current level the spell will last for 10 minutes. This spell can also be cast on a second target for an additional cost of mana.

In the second version the caster can ward an area against intrusion. Sufficient force can breach the field, but so long as it remains it will restore itself from ambient manachlorian energy. Designated creatures can pass through the perimeter without effect. A breach in the field will alert the caster in their mind, waking them if asleep. The maximum area that can be warded is the spell level multiplied by the caster's Intelligence in cubic meters. At its current level the spell will last for 10 hours.

WARNING: The two versions are not compatible. The personal field will immediately end if passing through the ward and cannot be cast on individuals who are inside a warded area.

Mana cost: 10 mana per casting of the personal version, or 100 mana per casting of the ward.

Joe remembered his old Spell Knives. Of course they would be useless here, but he could go back to Rust's Edge and try to make some updated ones, even add the Lightning Enhancement enchantment to the new ones. Those would be quite powerful and perfect for the sheer number of targets exceeding what he can attack with his raygun.

Joe used Boost Spell and was about to cast Backtrack when he heard the fire toads complaining about an intruder again. Next he heard a somewhat familiar male voice speak in the Trade language, “Stop, get back!”

Realizing he had no time to go back and make new throwing knives, Joe prepared to re-enter the fray.