A New World, an immersive game experience

"Go see if the Chosen can help, forming the barrel is going to take time anyway," Solvi said. Nodding, Eldrian headed to find Elizabeth. Of course, he had also added her to the tracker/favorite function of his new map. Making it quite an easy task. 

"I thought you were working on the cannons," Elizabeth commented as Eldrian suddenly showed up next to her. She was currently running between the different cannons to make sure no one screwed up installing them.

There wasn't must installation required, just placing them correctly and anchoring them to the walls. But it was too important a task for her to feel comfortable with anyone else overseeing it, other than Nikki, her second in command.

"There's a lul and I wanted to talk to you about something else we need to start right away," Eldrian replied. "The city is running out of food-"

Elizabeth stopped in her tracks and turned to Eldrian in shock. "You're kidding, right?"

"I'm not. It seems they were trying to keep it under wraps to not cause panic. It would also have lower morale even more."

"That makes sense, with how things were going before your arrival, news of food being in short supply would have likely broken the city." She paused and realized why Eldrian came to her. 

"You're not connected to the system formally... I'll get Nikki on this right away."

"Thanks, also try to reach out to other players. Especially those who are trying to be merchants. If possible, we want to also buy iron and other raw materials in bulk. But we can't let them know how desperate we are."

Elizabeth nodded, knowing the players, they would try to get the largest profit. However, if it seemed like there was only slight interest. Then they would accept smaller margins.

Considering that their funds were sure to be limited, it was important to ensure as small a margin as possible. 

With that done Eldrian returned to work on the cannon. By the time night arrived, they had somehow managed to get the form of a barrel done. By the end, magic had sure come in very handy. 

'If I can just control ether more completely, this would have been a piece of cake.' Eldrian thought, during these past hours he had constantly used ether to slowly form the inside. Unfortunately, his control was still rudimentary. He could exert a force, but not much else and he couldn't really maintain it for long. 

When he was out of mana, Solvi would come in with her hammer again. 

There were natural spells that could help form items, but since they were working on normal steel, it would more than likely just crack and break as the mana entered it. Since those spells were designed to work through the metal, not as an outside influence which was how Eldrian was using ether.

"I can't believe it would have been quicker with magic metals," Solvi grumbled once they were done, the barrel shined in the light of the furnace. It looked amazing, especially to Eldrian who had just spent an entire day turning normal ingots into this masterpiece. 

"But we don't have many magic metals to spare." Eldrian countered, "Besides, this is good practice."

Hearing this, Solvi turned to Eldrian. "What do you mean?" That look of Eldrian's scared her. 

"What do I mean?" Eldrian teased, "I mean I still have the Magic Crystal Dust, as well as the voidstone."

"You're crazy!"

"It'll be our trump card." Eldrian countered with a grin. "So, let's experiment on these and see what works best." 

'Ask her if she knows the rune rixi. It is an explosion-type rune. But instead of just exploding, it actually seems to make use of exhausting the mana used. I think it is derived from the aura of wrath.'

'Seems? Think?'

'The book isn't clear on any of that. Just that the explosion is a hundred times more powerful. And from what we know it related to how an aura works.'

'If it is more powerful then it will just explode the cannon itself.' Eldrian countered. 

'Which is why we add it to the cannonball.' Two countered back and Eldrian's mind went blank for a moment. 

'You're a genius!'

'Why thank you.' Two replied as if this was a formal event. 

"Right," Eldrian suddenly continued after a moment of silence where he had talked with Two, "We should remember to also make our own cannonballs."

"Yeah," Solvi replied, her tone making it clear that that was a given.

"Solvi, do you know the rune rixi?"

"Rixi? Why would you ask about that rune?" She asked, it was normally the rune used in destructive weapons as a last-ditch trump card. In fact, it was the very rune that Evale had used to kill the revenant she had fought. 

"I've been thinking," Eldrian said and Solvi started to get a headache. Knowing Eldrian -like everyone else- she knew something implausible yet possible was going to follow.

"If we can give the cannonballs a delayed activation. Either through an array or upon contact, then we can have it explode with devastating effectiveness. Especially if we add the voidstone and Magic Crystal Dust to give it as much mana as possible."

Solvi just sighed, she didn't even have the words to reply to this. However, after thinking about it for a few seconds she realized that with Eldrian here it might actually be possible to make it work. 

The problem would be being able to connect to the cannonball, which would be inside the cannon, which was what you were actually working/connecting with. However, Eldrian might be able to form a temporary connection with a magic item such as this. 

Most of the time temporary connections weren't possible, and it becomes less plausible the stronger the effects of the item. But if it was possible, it could lead to amazing things being created.

'Umm, Eldrian.'

'Not now,' Eldrian replied as he waited for Solvi's answer. 

'Yes now. Why does the voidstone feel strangely connected to us?'

'The hell are you on about?' Diving into his inventory Eldrian froze as he immediately felt a connection with the voidstone. 'The hell is this?'

'That was my question. This is new right?'

'Very... Just stay away from it for now.'

'Did you think I was going to risk going near it?'

'Well, no.' Eldrian admitted. He doubted Two would be more reckless than him, but he still had to say it.

"The voidstone will likely be going over the top." Solvi replied when she finally thought things through. 

"Why's that?" Eldrian asked while sighing in relief.

"Because it was what caused me workshop to almost collapse last time. Even I don't know what abilities it added to your spear. I don't want to send an explosion-enhanced cannonball with that kind of unknown so close to our city."

"It will for sure destroy the enemy, but it might be far stronger than we expect and damage us just as much."

Eldrian nodded, that was a fair point. And after feeling this strange connection with the voidstone he didn't want to particularly touch it. And taking it out would require just that. 

AN: A big thank you to everyone who continues to read and support the story on WN.