Private ✪ Stokbon We'll Workshop That

[Luna Avalbane]

Ah well, it seemed that the Faerin woman wasn't quite as familiar with smithing as Luna had thought, which was a shame, but she also just felt bad for trying to give the woman a task that she didn't know how to complete, so this time the blame lay with Luna. "Ah, well I can work the furnace and smithy at least a little bit, so I can take over with that, if you want to help draw a diagram!"

She put everything down and wandered over to Mystia to take the scraps that she'd given to the Faerin and allow her to go and start the diagram. A click of her fingers and she used her Pyromancy to spark and heat the coals, driving the flames as hot and high as she could, before she began to pump the bellows to continue to fan the flames. In a pot, made of some scorched, heat resistant metal, she placed the scraps of metal, then placed the pot over the flames. An aura of fire shrouded Luna, allowing her to reach in with her bare hands without being burned.

"Feel free to dismantle the rest of the existing prototype, so you can see the inner workings and stuff for the diagram. It's quite simple though. There's a big piston attached to the forearm that increases punching power and there's a syringe system in the wrist that delivers a healing solution."

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

And just like that, the task and items she was given disappeared in Luna's hands. It made Mystia feel a little bad since she claimed she would help but now showcased that maybe her help would not be quite all that valuable. Still, there were some things she could do. As the beastfolk moved over to start the melting process, the fae would look around the workshop to see if there were any papers and writing utensils left.

Surprisingly, she found none of such. However, she did find a foldable blackboard and some chalk! Back to elementary school days, it was then. Setting everything up, she prepared the blackboard and everything that would be needed against one of the workshop walls, positioned so that the light from the windows would illuminate the dark surface nicely.

"Ah, dismantling the whole thing might not be necessary!"

Not elaborating further yet, she would take the prototype and use her other hand to move the silver hair out of the way of her eye. Unlike the one that was always exposed, the other seemed a bit paler, but the pupil was also completely different. Almost like a targeting reticle, it moved about, expanding and contracting as the girl looked at the item. Nodding to herself, she then took the chalk and started drawing a surprisingly detailed diagram of the machine, including its inner parts.

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Hearing that dismantling her prototype might not be necessary, Luna glanced over at Mystia, taking her eyes off of the furnace for a second, before her sharp, beastkin eyes caught sight of the eye that Mystia had been keeping covered by her hair. It had some kind of reticle in it, expanding and contracting as Mystia looked over the gauntlet, before she turned to start drawing a diagram of the machine that was incredibly accurate, at least, according to Luna's memory of the thing's design.

"Wow! It's like one of those eye powers that are super popular in anime and stuff! That's so badass!" Luna grinned, clapping her hands, before she turned back to the furnace and the scrap metal she'd been heating and melting, watching as it slowly began to be reduced to molten slag, bubbling and hissing away as it began to sink in a liquid pool of itself.

"Is that from your masteries? Or is it a racial thing? When I loaded in, all of my racial ability slots were already filled in!" She called out over the roar of the furnace, stepping away from it whilst the scrap melted to gather some molds, shaped like ingots, for her to pour the scrap metal into once it had melted, along with a grate, to catch the impurities that hadn't melted at the same temperatures as the iron.

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

Since Luna managed to notice what Mystia was doing, the fae figured that she might as well explain things away, putting the chalk away for a little bit. The beastfolk girl already had a pretty good guess as to what was going on, so that was a nice start to the explanation, too.

"Ahaha, it really is pretty cool~! As far as masteries go, there was one I was looking at that could probably upgrade this thing even more. But right now, it just comes from a racial trait I selected. It seems that faerin have the ability to give up some of their senses for the ability to perceive magic with them instead. It made one of my eyes blind, but now I can see magic with it. And since magitech items are powered with magic, I can see the flow inside of them."

Observing the way magic flowed through the item, she could tell how it was constructed on the inside. Quite the useful ability, given what her focus was. And she even got a good deal of not going completely blind in the process!

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

"Oh wow! So you gave up the sight in your eye for the ability to see magic with it? That's so cool! Totally like something out of an anime or something!" Her tail flicked in excitement whilst her ears twitched. If her were a dog beastkin, her tail would certainly be wagging right now, but instead she settled for hopping up and down in place as she was taken by the excitement and just how cool everything that Mystia had just said was.

She hummed, picking up the crucible that contained the melted scrap metal, before pouring it out into the ingot molds, her body still surrounded by that flaming aura that was protecting her from the heat. Small chunks of glowing hot metal were caught by the filtering grate that she had placed over the molds, ensuring that only the melted iron was poured into them to be cast.

"So what does the world look like through that eye, then? Like, what does magic look like, to you? Can you tell the different types of magic by how they look?"

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

"Hehe, well, we are in a game with a fantasy setting, so it's no surprise that such a comparison could be made. Though it took a bit to get used to having my sense of depth impeded~"

Her body managed to adapt quickly to the change, so at least there was that. Still, she'd probably not recommend that anyone goes hog-wild with such traits; else playing the game could become a true nightmare of having completely different senses compared to the real life. As for how she could perceive magic now, it was a bit hard to explain, but she still did her best.

"Mmm, I guess the best way to describe it would be that I can see them as colors flowing through the world? Your stardust energy is very glittery, like a stream of water that perfectly reflects the night sky up above. Yup, a stream of stars!"

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Ah right. Luna hadn't even thought about the fact that it would impede the woman's depth perception, though it did sound like the benefits were worth the downsides. It would be quite hard to hide anything from that eye, since most things in this world happened to use magic in some capacity, aside from those people that rose using their martial prowess alone. And many of them chose to enhance their bodies using magic, or allow allies to apply enhancements to them too.

"It's still a really cool ability, though. I happen to have all of the Beastlord Blessings. I'm not sure what they do, since they say that they boost my stats. If I didn't have all of them, apparently they'd be able to send me into a berserker rage?"

If that was the case, she'd definitely dodged a bullet. Still, she settled in to listen to Mystia's explanation of what her magic looked like, sighing at the romantic description of her stardust energy. Seeing magic as colors flowing through the world sounded amazing!

"So what does my Pyromancy look like?" She allowed a small flame to manifest above her palm, showing it to Mystia.

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

Racial traits did seem like a lovely way to flavor one's character in this game. But aside from that, they did appear to allow for quite a bit of a power-up. Especially when Luna started describing the ones she took. The name alone suggested savagery and brutality, which was rather far away from what Mystia assumed Luna would be like. It almost made the girl shudder to think of what a 'beastlord' would actually be like, especially in a fight, if those blessings increased her stats.

"I-I see. That does sound quite… beastly, haha~"

Well, she sure it was fine. After all, the other girl did say that there were no apparent downsides due to her having all of the blessings gathered together. As for her flames, the fae scratched her cheek as she flashed a slightly awkward smile.

"Magical flame still looks pretty flame-like. A lot of red, orange, and yellow. Sorry if that's disappointing~"

Though if Luna were to infuse the flame with another mastery, then that color would undoubtedly change as well.

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

It did definitely sound quite beastly. She wasn't entirely sure what it was doing for her, she didn't feel like her body was THAT much stronger than the bodies of other beastfolk, of which she'd met exactly zero so far, so she really had no way of knowing. Her only acquaintances so far had been humans, elves and faerin, so she was starting to wonder if beastfolk were really even all that popular of a choice, considering how few of them she'd run into or even seen hanging around.

She would've though there'd be more cute catgirls or something...

The description of her flames was a little disappointing, she had to be honest, but well, Luna figured that whatever the girl saw obviously had to at least resemble the actual thing enough for her to tell what it was. Otherwise she'd just be seeing random colors without a way to identify them.

Still, it gave the tigress an idea, humming as she began to feed the stardust energies from her Astramancy into the flame, which began to glitter and sparkle in her hand as the light it emitted began to shift between various colors.

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

Just like she thought, when Luna started feeding magic originating from her other masteries into the flame, its color, and shape, as perceived by her eye changed as well. Now it resembled what she saw inside of the gauntlet, but with a very clear orange tint and flicker - a clear way to still tell that pyromancy was heavily involved with the flaming creation.

"Aha~! When you do something like that, it becomes much more interesting, just like the lines of stars of your Astramancy. It makes me wonder what kinds of wonderful colors and shapes I will be able to see in the future as I observe others and their cool abilities~!"

Given how the mastery system worked, it almost seemed like there was an unlimited amount of possible outcomes that she could see. Although one could possibly argue that watching how the spell itself looks might be more interesting than just seeing the color of the mana that formed it. Thankfully Mystia could still see that as well with her working eye.

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Just as she'd thought! By introducing some of her Astramancy to the flame, by adding some of the power of her inner star, she'd managed to make it look different to Mystia. "Damn! That's a really useful ability! If you get good at recognizing the different signs, you'll always be able to tell what kinds of magic are present in a spell or attack! That could be incredibly useful for defending against different kinds of offensive magic! You might make an excellent anti-mage, with that kind of ability."

She dispelled the flame that she'd conjured, cutting off both the pyromancy and the astramancy, both powers being squashed back inside of herself as she turned back to the task at hand, grinning down as the melted scrap metal had cooled and formed into ingots using the casts that she'd poured it into.

"I don't have any other types of magic though. Not unless you can see my martial arts Chi with that eye?" It wasn't technically magic, but it did allow her Martial Arts to reach superhuman levels. "And I doubt my Aura would look like anything other than me being surrounded by either Astramancy or Pyromancy. Or Chi, if you can even see that."

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

It certainly seemed like an option, specializing around such a trait. But Mystia already had different ideas for herself. Not to mention, she liked using her unique eye to study the new tech of this world much more than using it in combat.

"I'd rather not be anti-anything, if at all possible. This might sound a bit silly, considering what kind of game we're in right now, but I don't like fighting all that much. Maybe that's why I felt so motivated to make a mechanical buddy who would do that for me."

She was already seeing how all of her masteries could come together in a way that helped with supporting others rather than dealing direct damage. Of course, her mech could still throw hands. Or, with Mystia's newest addition, unleash some ranged weaponry. Still, she hoped she wouldn't have to utilize those too often. Protecting and supporting others just seemed much more worthwhile.

Or perhaps that was just her teacher instinct showing again, wanting to protect all the presumed kids that were playing the game and constantly getting into danger. She would be the responsible one and protect them at all costs.

"As for this chi you're talking about… if it's not actual magic, then probably not. The trait is called 'magic receptacle' after all."

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Ah, so Mystia was that kind of person? A non-combatant, or perhaps a pacifist? It was an interesting choice for somebody like that to play a game that they knew was dangerous and could hurt or kill people, but Luna could understand the thought process of wanting to only support people, rather than actively hurting or killing things.

"I understand. Supports are a rare and appreciated breed, anyway. I know I always appreciate it whenever somebody is willing to patch my own wounds up, or protect me from incoming harm. And it would explain why your mech is capable of fighting for you."

Though she did hope that Mystia was at least capable of defending herself. She'd have faith that the Faerin woman could, for now, and allow the conversation to return to the talk of magic and chi and what Mystia would be able to see with her eye. The woman made a lot of sense.

"Maybe you wouldn't be able to see Chi, then. I could conjure up a small amount of it, see if you can see it?" Her eyes closed, she focused on pushing her Chi outwards in an aura. It would be visible to the naked eye, a shroud of white energy billowing off of her. "Can you see it with your special eye?"

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

Supports being at least somewhat more valuable than other roles in MMO games was something that Mystia was aware of. Though such knowledge did not really influence her decision-making when it came down to choosing her masteries and playstyle.

"Haha, I can only hope so. It would suck if I saw less of the game just because I wasn't enthusiastic about punching the bad dudes~! Although I suppose fighting monsters might be an exception?"

She'd probably not mind blasting it into oblivion if it was a monstrous bug or something of that kind. Granted, she'd still be more worried about keeping anyone with her safe over fighting, but that was a side point by now.

When Luna went ahead and tried conjuring some of her chi, as she called it, Mystia once again uncovered her eye and tried to gaze at it. Alas, it seemed that if the mastery were not based on magic, it would not come up for her when looking through her 'magic receptacle'.

"Nope, nothing at all. All I can see is a vague shape of a person thanks to the magic inside of your body, but that's it."

Well, that was all she could see as long as her normal eye was closed. When she opened it up, she would not have any trouble figuring out that Luna was the individual standing in front of her.

"I guess it's a little unfortunate, but it works for what I chose it for~!"

 

[Luna Avalbane]

"I don't think you have to worry about seeing less of the game. From the sounds of things, any time people ever want to discover more, it's going to be all hands on deck, so to speak." Luna was honestly a little upset that she'd missed this whole debacle with Red Fever. Maybe she'd have been able to help out and keep some people safe if she'd have been there? Hopefully nobody she knew had been put in any serious danger, or worse, killed, and she hadn't been there to help them.

She let her chi dissipate when it became clear that Mystia could only really see the magic in her body and not the chi she had conjured up, only slightly disappointed that the girl's special eye wasn't able to see it.

"I guess that makes sense. It might be to balance it, so that it can't just detect anything and be better than normal sight." If it could just see everything, then there was no need to have regular vision. Luna smiled, before returning to the cooling metal ingots.

"So what improvements are you planning to make to your robot buddy? Laser beams? Blades? Maybe some explosives or something?"

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

It definitely seemed like Luna had a point when talking about large-scale events that revolved around exploration. Or possibly even anything else. As far as the Red Fever event went, there was an absurd amount of players. But that was probably just to be expected from an MMO. The only issue was that in non-VR games, it was much easier to accept that amount of people. When they actually crowded all around Mystia, it was very different.

"You're right. Well, I'm not really worried. I'm sure I will see plenty of the game as time goes by~!"

As far as her eye went, it might have just been a thematic choice. As far as she understood, Fae were very magic-oriented as a race. It would make sense that such a race would have traits focused on magic specifically.

"Mm, don't forget that it made me blind in one eye to get that ability. I think that is balanced enough~"

If it made both of her eyes blind, or at least partially blind, it would not necessarily be very good to just see everything as flows of magic and chi. She wanted to at least know what the person she was talking to looked like!

"As for my buddy here, hm… I haven't decided on anything specific yet. I suppose more weapons would make the most sense, but I'd like to also implement more things that would help others!"

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

"I'm sure you will, yeah! There'll be plenty of opportunity to explore and see more things, so long as you're at least a little careful with how you act and what you do." She wasn't going to lie and say that things came without risk, she'd died herself after all, but she was pretty sure that Mystia at least didn't need to be told that. Not if this whole Red Fever thing she was learning about had been as bad as people had been making it out to be in their stories and tales of it.

"It's still a good ability, though. It might save your life, or the life of somebody else, one day." She smiled. She did wish she had that kind of ability, though perhaps her own abilities would be potent in their own way, once she'd actually practiced with them somewhat. It was a shame that her old build had been basically gutted and torn to shreds with the loss of Arcanamancy's raw power.

Hearing Mystia's plans, though, she grinned, walking over to the Faerin. "So what kind of things are you thinking of, then? How do you help people at the moment? What do you have aside from Magitech?"

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

It was undoubtedly true that the use of one's ability often mattered more than how innately powerful the ability itself was. So while Mystia's eye had some obvious limitations, she could possibly find some creative ways to indeed save someone's life down the line. She could already see it coming in handy when exploring a dungeon littered with magic-based traps and avoiding them all as a result. Or perhaps fate would have it so that she would never find herself in such an ideal scenario, who knows.

"If I could ever actually save someone's life… that would make me happy. Not quite as happy as being in a world where no one would need their life to be saved, but still happy."

The fae almost felt melancholic when she said that. But it was probably for the best to step away from such dreadful topics for the time being. They were supposed to be celebrating their new workshop, not discussing the life and death happening in this game!

"Aside from my magitech? Not much at the moment… ranged weapons and crush weapons. They were supposed to facilitate the mech and its ability to fight, but I'm not sure if I should even keep those masteries."

There were obviously many different ways she could structure her build with many different possible combinations, but she was just unsure. Perhaps she'd make her decision after some adventuring.

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

That made sense and Luna definitely felt the same as Mystia did, at least when it came to how they would feel about saving a life and how happy they would be if they no longer needed to save any lives. Though, for Luna, there were some people whose lives were already too far to be saved. The friends she'd had who were now stuck in this game, with nowhere to go. Those were some of the people that she'd come back into this game for, aside from the fact that this world meant a lot to Lucia.

It meant a lot to Luna too, of course.

Moving on to the topic of what Mystia had aside from Magitech, Luna hummed. Two very offensive options. "Well, they both seem like they'd operate well with the mech once you install them! It's just a manner of getting a ranged weapon for it! We could make something like a hammer or mace for the mech now, if you want?"

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

"Hammer and a mace, mm? I suppose those could work… oh, maybe also some manner of mechanism that would quickly extend its fists? Like… a rocket punch!"

She girl smiled widely as she tried to make the gestures of throwing a few quick jabs at the air in front of her. Coming up with various ideas was always fun, but a person could quickly get stuck when they were alone. But once a company joined? Everything flowed much better!

"I should also upgrade the synthetic muscles to allow for a greater power output. And as far as ranged weapons go, I guess a laser gun would be the obvious. Mm, I wonder if magitech can produce a laser beam by itself… hehe, it sounds like the old arcanamancy would have been perfect for that kind of thing."

Turning around, the girl actually glanced at the powered-down mech. It was a bit surprising how attached she got to the thing, since it was usually not a good practice. Inventions could break down at any moment, and if an inventor got too attached to something old, they would have trouble coming up with something new. Yet, here she was… maybe it was because it could talk back to her?

@Luna Avalbane