Ball of Nothing

Chapter 467 Fixing the Crafter“s Sui

Thomas and Dorgon sat cross-legged in the artisan’s workshop trying to figure out why nothing they did work. Zero was meeting Fae King Vivian and neither men were expecting for the doctor to drop by.

"Hello! I came to check on the progress," Zero chirped happily. "Am I disturbing?"

The doctor tried to contact Sylvia earlier once he returned to his room after lunch. Fae King Vivian taught him briefly how to use the soul stone and it worked with Axel but not the Silver Witch who was busy beyond belief. Hence, after a few tries, Zero decided to leave a voice mail for Sylvia instead as a form of courtesy, hoping that maybe the Great Sylph would check it. It wasn’t polite to spam call someone who didn’t respond the first so Zero decided to practice some proper manners for now. That said, he was determined to get an answer before he visited the U.N.U.

Visiting Dorgon was an excuse. He simply wanted to forget that Sylvia wasn’t responding to him so that he wouldn’t give in to the urge of spam calling her using his newly acquired soul stone. There weren’t any mana pools around for Zero to siphon from or ways to recover his very painfully dry mana reserves. Hence, the best thing to do was to fix that Crafter’s Suit asap and set off to Magnus Hilda.

According to the mail pigeon and Schaf, Mitchnew arranged a party to escort Jermine to Lycantopia next week. The girl sent word ahead and now, it wasn’t just her family that wanted to join New Moon Village. Almost everyone in her hometown wanted out and Zero left the decision to Monoman whom he hasn’t seen since his return from Derby Desert. Truen was probably taking care of that for him.

Thomas looked frightened at Zero’s appearance and Zero was confused. Why was the gnome so nervous? Dorgon looked at Zero and then to Thomas and raised a brow. Was there something Zero wasn’t telling him? The gnome was alright when they were working together and didn’t seem to mind that he was an S-class adventurer as well as a dwarven hero. In fact, they got along really well. Why did Thomas suddenly become so meek in front of Zero?

"What did you do to the poor gnome?" Dorgon sighed and Zero shrugged. He might have forgiven the gnomes for the nova cannon incident but it really wasn’t easy for him to forget about it. Thomas appeared to know it too and Zero couldn’t tell the gnome not to worry about it because he was still sore about losing his mana.

"Nothing," he lied. "How’s the repair work coming along? Will we be able to leave for Magnus Hilda soon?"

Dorgon looked at the huge hunk of metal and shook his head. "Not at all. Thomas and I have been on this for a few days now. While most of the problems have been repaired and parts are replaced, it wouldn’t power up and we don’t know why."

Hearing the news, Zero’s face fell. If not even the best gnome technician alive knew what was wrong, did that mean they would be stuck here for another month or year? Unacceptable.

"What’s going on?" Zero asked and helped himself to the ladder to peer inside the engine of the Crafter’s Suit. He might not be well-versed in mechanical engineering but some basics after hanging out with the lab members. He still had his white lab coat on to prove his identity even if he didn’t attend lab meetings as often.

"We’re not sure," Thomas squeaked uncharacteristically. "The coal has been put in and I’ve repaired the broken wiring. It should work but for some reason, nothing happens even when the fuel is ignited."

The coal compartment was chucked to the brim and Zero took a look at how the internal furnace was struggling to keep the fire alive. He might not be a designer and the Crafting Suit seemed to be very advanced but if Zero’s memory served him right, this was something that ran on ’electricity’ that Steve Jobs explained before.

Mana devices are powered by mana and other advanced inventions like this were usually powered by a lesser form of energy called electricity that can be created using any sort of mana transfer creating an action. The science part was confusing but Zero understood that it was the breaking of something in the air that causes electricity. The easiest way was to utilise the constant movement of something natural to produce it., For example, the waterwheel behind his shifu’s hut was a good machine to generate electricity.

"Could you explain to me how this Crafter’s Suit is supposed to work once it is powered up? Does it use fire or heat to move?"

More than happy that he was finally of some use, Thomas didn’t hold back anything he knew. He wanted to redeem himself after what he did to the chosen one and even opened up the metal golem to show Zero exactly where the energy was supposed to go.

Zero followed Thomas’ explanation with his eyes and hummed thoughtfully. "You say that it uses heat and steam to power the golem. However, don’t you think Dorgon might suffer a heat stroke in this metal container even if it worked? That’s assuming he doesn’t cook alive in the first place."

Thomas blinked and looked back to the schematic. According to the inventor of the Crafter’s Suit, there was an insulating layer in the cockpit to prevent heat from travelling up. However, the cockpit was now burning and the gnome finally understood what went wrong.

"Cooling!" he yelled. "There’s a design flaw, the Crafter’s Suit overheated and the mechanical parts couldn’t work because they expanded too much. Dear me, using this was dangerous! It’s a good thing it broke down before lives were taken."

As Thomas went back to the drawing board, Dorgon gave Zero a questioning look. Zero was also lost. He simply made a comment based on his curious observations and already, Thomas seemed to have found the crux of the problem.

"I guess we’ll leave him to work the details out?" Zero eyed the gnome who was lost in his own world, cancelling out certain diagrams and scribbling notes furiously. Ever since the destruction of everything in the gnomes’ hideout, they had to start all over again for documenting anything they needed. He felt slightly bad for them because it was hard work but also not completely sorry because this was payback for what they did to him.

"It would really help if not everything was completely destroyed... who knows how much faster this could have been if they still had their research and notes with them," Zero thought to himself.

Indeed, if Thomas still had his schematic files and research notes, he could have easily referred to the formula instead of trying to draft a testing procedure to find the correct weightage all over again. However, what was done couldn’t be undone and Zero now wondered if revenge was truly worth it even in the name of justice.

Seeing that Thomas no longer needed him around, Dorgon left the gnome on his own and ushered Zero to a private room upstairs. Zero didn’t say anything. He had a feeling Dorogon wouldn’t let him go without an interrogation but he was prepared. He wouldn’t tell Dorgon everything but he couldn’t not tell the guild master anything either. It was a tough balance to find and Zero wished Truen was here to help him out. He didn’t realise how reliant he was on others until he was truly alone and Zero vowed to never take anyone for granted again in the future.

"Here ya go," Dorgon pushed a mug of something over to Zero’s direction after they sat down. Zero accepted the drink but didn’t take a sip. It smelled foul and Zero promised Truen never to touch alcohol.

Dorgon took a heavy swig and belched in satisfaction. He chose a strong ale for the occasion because he had a feeling he wouldn’t be able to handle a serious conversation with Zero when he was sober. Finding gnomes was already a huge feat and he should be thankful as the guild master. However, after hearing a few concerning things from Thomas who looked scared shitless when he saw Zero, Dorgon started to suspect there was more than met the eye.

How did Zero find the gnomes who were living in seclusion and waiting for death in the first place? Why would all the remaining gnomes decide to relocate together and accept becoming part of Zero’s village? How did Zero convince the stubborn gnomes who hated to have any attachments to the conflicts of races to join a faction? Endow ill wasn’t a neutral faction. In fact, it was a faction that everyone wanted to recruit and monopolise for themselves because of the resources it had.

There were so many questions that Dogon took a few minutes to sort all his thoughts out. When he was ready, he started with the easier questions.

"How did you manage to convince all six gnomes to join Half Moon Village?"

Zero was expecting a heavier topic and was slightly surprised that Dorgon asked such a simple question. Maybe he was going easy on the start so Zero decided to answer him honestly. "Through blackmail and bribes."

Whatever answer the guild master was expecting, it certainly wasn’t this.

"B-blackmail and bribes?" he couldn’t believe it but Zero looked so serious.

"Let’s just say that they fired at me first and I retaliated in kind but not as much as they’d caused me to suffer. Then, I extended them an olive branch to call it a truce and recruited them into the village with the promise of meeting their kin. Oh, we also dabble in technology and alchemy with some of the best experts they could ask for. It’s a no-brainer situation for them, I didn’t even make them sign any magic contract. Just so you know, I’m unable to use magic right now."

Instead of resolving the doubts in his mind, Dorgon only had more questions. He couldn’t even begin to point out how ridiculous it sounded because he knew Zero wasn’t an ordinary person. Truen claimed that his younger brother/sister had always been more powerful of them but Dorgon never understood it until now.

"What happened to your magic? Do you need to see a doctor?"

Zero shook his head. "It’s nothing a doctor can heal, I’m a doctor myself. I just ran out of mana. Like completely so I cannot even summon Bob at will or talk to Truen without a pigeon. I was looking for mana pools but Rocket Mountain isn’t a good place for such things."

Dorgon scoffed. "You don’t say? Rocket Mountain is a mining heaven and not a mana oasis. Endow Hill is the place you want to be in to recuperate."

Zero sulked. "I was there, remember? For a long while which delayed my trip here. Unfortunately, I’m still not able to recover my mana even though I barely managed to recover my body. The reason why I’m a child now is because I don’t have enough mana to transform. Whatever Truen said about soul swapping is a lie. I just don’t think anyone would treat me seriously if they saw how I really was physically."

The guild master couldn’ help but be amused. The powerful doctor had a weakness and he couldn’t imagine a height complex being one of them. "I can understand now. I won’t ask any more about the gnomes seeing as they’re not going to be loyal to anyone else outside of Half Moon Village. However, I still want to know about how you lost the sand walkers."

Zero sighed and vaguely chalked it up to the gnomes’ fault before moving onto a new topic.

"I need information about three individuals but I’m not sure if you know them."

"Who are they?" Dorgon asked, curious. As an S-class adventurer, his fame allowed him to meet many people.

Zero told Dorgon about his meeting with the Fae King. It wasn’t a complete lie that Vivian sent him on an errand to collect several items but Dorgon didn’t need to know that these items were for him and not the Fae King.

The dwarf was amused. "Yet another S-class quest, I see. Yes, I know some of them. I don’t know the Spriggan called Alex because dwarves and elves aren’t really on good terms to talk about such things but that would now explain why they were able to continuously thwart our ambushes and plans during the war. Sylvia is an odd one for sure but I’ve met her a few times because she comes to Rocket Mountain from time to time to request certain odd equipment and trinkets. She’s a very serious researcher and a powerful mage. Queen Leah is someone I don’t recommend you to meet but I don’t think you have a choice seeing as it is a personal quest from King Vivian. She’s a psychopath with a tantrum. On a good day, she would send you pretty treasures from sunken ships at the bottom of Indra Seagloo. On a bad day, she would sink your fleet and you wouldn’t even know what you’ve done to offend her. Some say it was the failure of finding herself a good husband that made her go crazy."

Zero blinked twice. "Queen Leah isn’t married?"

"Oh no! She is, was, whatever. The thing is, this crazy water sprite has been married and divorced or widowed so many times that none of us bothered remembering. There’s just something about her that makes anyone go insane after a while. There are rumours saying that she chooses them from the sacrifices she receives every year but there are also rumours that she deliberately sinks the ship of people she liked. Nobody knows what kind of husband she is looking for because her preferences are wide and every husband is different. You could be of a different species, a different gender, a different profession or ugly as heck but once she sets her eye on you, it’s game over."

Finding this information fascinating, Zero probed for more and stayed till past dinner until his stomach protested. The Crafter’s Suit might not be fixed but with so many stories, Zero decided that it was no loss. He could visit Axel and Dorgon to kill time and left the workshop for the day. He had a task for Zenobia.