Continuing to walk through the entire place, Finlay and Serko showed Arthur and the others all their works from the very first prototypes to the latest versions they created. Each iteration and each version would be better than the previous one and more polished.
They improved the main wings, the main body, the design, and even the energy consumption. However, they still faced one massive problem. No matter how much they improved the design, they simply didn’t have enough monster cores to make it run properly.
“How many monster cores does it take for these aircrafts to actually fly out of the forest?” Arthur asked the two as he ran his hand across the wood with a thoughtful look.
“… We don’t really know. Our calculations say that… It requires a lot. Potentially hundreds or even thousands of weaker monster cores to fully fuel this craft for long enough to leave the forest.” Finlay replied.
“Thousands?” Arthur frowned. “Where can you even find that many monster cores? This forest is completely empty.”
In his entire journey so far in Divinity Online, Arthur had seen more or less a thousand monsters. This includes the ones that he didn’t kill as if he only counted the ones he slayed, that number is even less than before.
Killing even more monsters than that just to fuel an aircraft was simply impossible especially when he had to reach the capital by a certain time.
‘Shit, this is really bad. We can’t waste time just harvesting monster cores. It will take forever to do that.’ He frowned.
“There are monsters that live in the forest. They have adapted to the environment and can navigate through the forest just like us.” Serko replied.
“Are there any alternatives to this?” Isla approached them from afar. The others had stopped to examine the aircraft curiously so Arthur was talking to the kids on his own.
“There aren’t that many sources of energy that are stable enough to fuel an aircraft. Our best idea is monster cores and they do work to a certain extent. But, they aren’t strong enough to be viable.”
“What about the mana in our bodies? Wouldn’t that be stable enough?” Isla asked curiously. She already figured that monster cores were a good source of energy as they also had mana in them but they didn’t have enough of that due to their nature. However, the same couldn’t be said about the mana in their bodies, simply because it regenerates and they can replenish it with mana potions.
Still, the two kids shook their heads.
“No, that won’t work. We only know how to build the engine around a core as it requires to be wired into different components of the aircraft.”
“But, but, if you let us open your body and link your core straight into the aircraft, that would work possibly!” Finlay looked up with lit eyes as if he had found a good idea.
“…” Arthur and Isla looked at them with an expressionless face.
“No, Finlay, it will be hard to keep the wires intact with all the blood inside her body eating it.”
‘I don’t think that’s the main problem with that idea!’ Arthur almost facepalmed. These two dwarves were clearly geniuses in their craft, but they also were very odd in interesting ways.
“Ok, that idea is scratched then. What other options do we have?” Arthur sighed.
“Not that many. We can only brute force our way through the forest.” Isla suggested. “There has to be a way out. Or…”
“Or?”
“Or we can find what is the cause of this fog and deal with it.” She said.
“…” Arthur pursed his lips. “Easier said than done. We don’t even know how to walk around this place without getting lost.”
Arthur wasn’t completely against the idea. Except that he knew it wouldn’t work with how blind they were in this place. Their senses didn’t even work properly because of the weird effect the fog had on them.
“Then, we can only try the first option.”
“Even that doesn’t sound like a plan…” Arthur murmured.
The duo fell into deep thought. They struggled to come up with other viable options.
“Mm, excuse us but… It’s not that hard to learn how to see in this environment. You can learn that quickly.”
“Hm?”
“We can teach you how if you want.”
“What? Didn’t you learn how to navigate this place with time?”
“Yes, but we didn’t start from scratch,” Finlay replied. “Wait here, I will go get something for you.”
Then, before the two could even speak, one of the dwarves ran away quickly at a surprising speed.
‘I almost forgot that these two have inhumane agility. I wonder if that’s why they were able to build this place that quickly.’ Arthur thought to himself.
“Where did he go?” Isla asked Serko.
“You will know in a second.”
A minute later, Finlay returned carrying in his hands what seemed to be a featureless black box. Approaching them, he opened the box in front of them, revealing what was inside.
“Necklaces?” Arthur raised an eyebrow as he inspected the items.
“Yes, we found several of these necklaces with us when we woke up here. They give us the ability to absorb more light from the world around us which improves visibility by a considerable amount.” Serko explained as he showed that he was wearing the necklace under his shirt.
“Interesting,” Arthur muttered. ‘So, someone had given them these necklaces but assuming the fact that they didn’t mention it, they probably don’t know who it is.’
“We have exactly 5 which seems to fit your numbers. If you want, please use these.”
“…” Arthur slowly picked up one of the necklaces and looked at it from up close. The chain was made out of some unknown metal with a small blue pendant down that looked like some kind of ore expensive ore he would see in the real world.
[Pendant Of The Endless Mist
Rank: C
Description: In the world of the fog, one’s eye could never see. Those cursed by the white fog shall never see the light. Trapped may they be, for all eternity.
Type: Jewelry
Special Ability: Improves visibility by 30% in fog environments. Improves indifferently as long as the user is in that same environment.]
“Oh, this is very intriguing.” He muttered. ‘So this is the reason they can see better. But, that description… It’s giving me the creeps. This is the first time an item description was that explicit about something.’
Usually, the items Arthur finds are very vague and sometimes even incomprehensible when it comes to their description. However, this particular one almost sounded like some kind of threat rather than a description. It didn’t even talk about the pendant itself.
‘What do they mean by ‘trapped may they be, for all eternity’? Does that mean we can’t leave this place no matter what? That shouldn’t be the case.’
As he was contemplating the meaning of that, the others received the pendants too.
“Wear them and you should be able to see better in the fog.”
“Thank you very much,” Isla said. “This is very helpful.”
“Hehe, don’t worry about it, Aunty.”
“Aunty… You can call me Isla.” She frowned slightly as she said.
“Isla…” The two looked a little confused. “Aunty sounds better. Doesn’t it, Serko?”
“It does, Finlay.”
‘These two…’ The girl didn’t know what to say at all.
“Finally, I can goddamn see. This was getting out of hand.” Herculia yelled. “Now we can do something.”
“And what is that something exactly?” Emily asked.
“… Uh, we can… Fight our way out?”
“Against what? We don’t even know what is the reason for this fog.” Danny replied.
“Shit, this didn’t solve anything! How are we supposed to get out of here, man? Are we really stuck?!”
“It seems so,” Emmy replied. “This fog is only getting thicker the deeper we go. We would only get blinded more if we try to travel now.”
“… Wait, Emmy.” At that moment, Arthur lifted his eyes as they lit up. “Can you repeat what you just said right now?”
“This fog is only getting thicker the deeper we go?” She repeated in a confused tone, not understanding what he was trying to get to.
“That’s it!” Arthur smiled. “We need to go deeper into the forest to where the fog is at its thickest state!”
“… And why would want to do that, Arthur? We can barely see here.” Herculia asked.
Isla looked at Arthur as it dawned on her. “He’s right… If we go deeper into the fog to where it’s at its most concentrated form.”
“… We might find the source of this fog.” He replied.
A//N: Don’t forget to give the book some golden tickets for good luck! :3
