章 26: 025 Explosive Help
James dragged Mercury for a few minutes before she snapped back into reality.
"Hey!" she exclaimed. "Haven't you taken enough advantage of me already?"
James was still looking forward but let go of her hand. [I guess I got a head of myself.]
"Sorry, but you were wasting time. We need to find the nearest elite or violent monster so we can set up my trap idea."
Mercury pulled her hand away and struck a ' I'm not moving till you tell me what is going on' pose.
"Fine, I will ruin the surprise. I learned how to create a rune that causes explosions, right?"
"Yeah, what of it?" she questioned.
"Most [Rune Masters] think that runes can only be drawn on specific materials. However, if you are good enough you can draw them on basically anything!"
Mercury stood in thought for a moment. "Soo, you're telling me you want to draw a little rune in hopes of blowing what up exactly? One or two people?"
James laughed and rubbed her head, "Not exactly, thanks to the mana crystal we should be able to create a massive one. Big enough to cause some serious damage to the whole platoon!"
Mercury brushed his hand away and grabbed his collar, "And what if this fails?"
James, without hesitation, said with a smile, "Then we kill them the old fashioned way."
Mercury smiled in turn, "I guess it is a win-win then. Before we continue, tell me the whole plan. How do you know they will be heading in the right direction?"
James kneeled down and started drawing a small diagram in the dirt. "They will most likely stay in the lower leveled regions just for safety. Only when they clear the strong monsters in these areas will they move on."
He paused for a second or two then continued, "We came from this direction here, since the water snake and the wolf corpse was left alone that means they were not coming from this direction."
He finished up his drawing while he continued to explain, "That means they came from roughly this direction and should continue heading in this direction here."
He looked up and saw that Mercury was also looking at the map he drew. She was kneeling down just like he was. Her body was slightly bent forward exposing a small amount of cleavage. He blushed and managed to pull his eyes away from the attractive scene. He did not want to get caught looking at her like that again.
"Okay, so say that we actually find a powerful monster, how are you sure they will also find it?" asked Mercury, seemingly oblivious that James had stolen a peek down her shirt
James was relieved that he was not caught. "Simple, we fight it and make as much noise as possible. Won't they be drawn into the fight like we were to theirs?"
Mercury nodded her head unconsciously since what she heard was sensible. "Okay, where do we set the trap though? I can't imagine that you want to attempt to draw a rune in the presence of an elite or a violent."
"We will set the trap at a different location nearby. Earlier you said that Scarlet would make the guild chase you down. We can simply kite them into the trap."
Mercury looked up at James and peered into his eyes. She gave him a big smile then tackled him.
She was now laying on top of him again, "You came up with a good plan so I will follow it. As a reward I will forgive you for a few moments ago." James was about to speak up but she used a finger to cut him off.
She leaned in and whispered into James's ear, "I know you took a peek at me earlier."
* Thump thump *
James's heart started to beat faster and louder.
Not missing a beat, Mercury continued to tease him. She arched her back so she was in a seductive position on top of James. She placed her one of her hands on James's thigh and slowly moved it upward. She brushed over his abdomen, chest, neck and finally came to a stop with her hand resting on his cheek.
Her face was still resting nearly cheek to cheek since her mouth was still at his ear, with a sultry voice she dealt the final blow. "If you keep being such a good partner I don't mind rewarding you like that more often." Before she got up and off of James she blew on his ear which made his heart race even harder and his cheeks filled with blood (in other words he was blushing so hard his cheeks were nearly red in color).
Mercury, pleased with the results she got, started skipping in the direction that James pointed out earlier, "Come on now! We have a trap to set!"
James was a mess, he got up but stumped around due to his nerviness and frantic state Mercury put him in. All she did was giggle watching him struggle to calm down and get control back.
They found what they were looking for closer than they thought they would.
.
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Giant Wasp (Elite)
...
Hp: 5500/5500
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"This should work, right?" questioned Mercury.
James nodded his head in agreement. "Now all we need to do is find some where to place the trap. I should be able to practice the rune a few times to make sure it will work as I expect it will."
"Huh!? Practice? You mean you do not even know if you can pull this off?!" Mercury was a little annoyed and concerned.
"Relax, it is actually not that complicated of a rune. Let's find somewhere we can set the trap up."
They did not have to search long. They found that there was a ravine in the cliff very close to where the Giant Wasp was.
"This is perfect!" James was excited. "We can draw the rune mid-way into the ravine so that they are funneled into the blast area!"
"We lucked out this time, if we get lucky again the whole ravine will collapse on anyone who survives the explosion. Your idea is coming together very well!"
James went off to the side and took out some basic rune crafting materials and started to practice making the explosive rune.
He first started with ink and paper. He made sure that the lines had the same width and were uniform throughout. He practiced that for ten minutes before he felt comfortable with the rune's design. Next he pulled out a rune slate and painted on the rune's design. He did not stop until he was happy with his work.
He did not want to make any mistakes. Their time was short so he had to limit the mistakes.
After he finished painting the rune he took on his hammer and chisel and started etching the design into the slate. He put so much focus into his work he totally forgot that Mercury was right next to him.
She was watching him work the whole time. She was awestruck at his dedication and focus. [What strong dedication and focus. Not many people can truly take something seriously like he is.] They were both unaware that she had a small blush on her face.
"Done!" said James calmly. "Time to test it out!"
He set the rune on a boulder nearby and focused his mana to activate the rune from afar. Mercury was watching full of expectations.
* Boom *
The rune exploded, it took a fairly large chunk of rock off of the boulder.
Mercury was jumping up and down with excitement. "Wow! That was strong with such a little rune! How big can you draw one?!"
She stopped jumping immediately when she saw a frown on James's face. "What? What's wrong? You look unhappy, didn't it work as expected?"
James shook his head in disappointment. "No, that was a failure. Any rune that fails explodes like that." He started mumbling under his break and went off to look at his notes.
"That was a failure?! What is it going to be like as a success? Even if it fails it will still cause a lot of damage, why not just do it as is?" she questioned.
Mercury was shocked at the look she received from James. He had looked up and had anger and pride in his eyes. "I refuse anything but the best in my work. I will not half-ass anything I do."
"I'm sorry…" Mercury said in a mosquito voice. She walked quietly to the side a few steps away and waited patiently for him to finish.
Five minutes later James stood back up and walked back to the same boulder. He placed the new rune down and backed off.
When he was a good distance away he started to activate the rune.
* Rumble *
* Boom! *
A rather loud explosion rang out; the bounder no longer existed. Mercury was speechless.
"I'm sorry I snapped at you." James apologized. "I take my work very seriously, especially since my class also revolves around runes."
Seeing that James was genuine about his apology Mercury forgave him. "It's not a problem. I see why you were so adamant about doing it correctly. The difference was night and day."
"Are you sure you can make a large enough rune?" she was worried.
"I can lay out the design pretty easily once I consume the mana crystal. The rest is on you though."
"Huh?" she was stumped.
"How much control and precision do you have with your axe?" James inquired.
"Perfect, why?"
"Well, you will be the one to etch the rune into the ground while I keep the design layed out." he replied.
Without letting her respond he walked off into the distance and started to climb some rubble. He made it to a outcrop in the ravine.
"Okay get ready, keep the lines as uniform as possible. Follow my guidelines and it should work perfectly!"
He took out the mana crystal and activated his [Magical Conduit] ability. The crystal started floating in front of him and a beautiful magic circle appeared over both James and the crystal.
Mercury just dumbly watched what was going on. She was absorbed in the beauty of the transfer of mana. Along with the magic circle there were wisps and ribbons of mana floating between the crystal and James. The longer the process when the more dull the crystal got, until it was no longer shining and the magic circle disappeared.
During the entire transferring process James was getting notifications.
* Ding *
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Player has reached the mana limit, mana battery activated!
Overcharged player mana by xxx
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.
After the transfer he mana reached 3500/850.
.
He started waving his mana filled hand in the air. Strands of mana started creating lines in the air in front of him.
More and more lines appeared and the rune pattern grew significantly. Once the rune pattern was finished he lowered the rune's guideline to the floor of the canyon.
"Okay Mercury, it's on you now! I will keep the pattern in place until you are finished. Keep focused! I know you can do it!" James yelled.
She was nervous. What if she made a mistake? She would have let James down; she knew he was passionate about his work. She felt a heavy burden wash over her.
She took a deep breath, "The lines just have to be uniform right?" she yelled.
"Yes! Both in width and depth!" James saw she was nervous. "Just take it slow, I know you can do this." he said in a reassuring voice.
She took a minute to calm her racing heart down. She felt warm hearing the trust in James's voice.
She started to use her axe to etch the rune's lines into the ground. She was going slowly and was so focused she started to sweat.
It took her a whole 40 minutes to finish drawing the rune. Once he was done she slumped onto a nearby rock to rest.
"Good job, I knew you could do it." praised James.
He walked towards the rune with his chisel and hammer out.
Mercury was worried when she saw what he was doing. "Did I mess up? I'm sorry!"
"No, you did everything correct. I need to do a few more things so that this etching can truly become a rune. The difference between a non-rune master and a rune master is that only rune masters can create ley lines that mana travels through. I need to do some toughing up so that I can feed mana into it.
He finished up quickly. "Okay! Scarlet and her guild should be either finishing up the kill or about to move on from a break after they killed that Giant Bear. We should return to the Giant Wasp and start our battle. We need to draw in our prey." James said with a devilish grin.
The duo covered their tracks at the canyon and went over to the Giant Wasp. They prepared to start their attack; they would need to be as noisy as possible.
James was looking forward to what would come in the near future. He wanted to test not only the explosive rune but also his modified [Fireball] skill.
.
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Name: Improved Fireball
Level: 1
Grade: Rare
Skill Information:
[Active]: Fires a small fireball at a target, upon impact causes an explosion
Damage: 15
Explosion Damage: 10
Explosion Radius: 2 meters
Cost: 20 mana
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