Hunting Expedition

"Well… How about just read a little of everything? I'll at least have a basic knowledge of all relevant things..."

He took a book about [Herblore] and read it. He flipped through the [Poisonous insects] section, scrolled through [Rocks and minerals for creating Fire Salts], and paid special attention to [Magic conductors and enhanced armor].

"Well shit!" he silently cursed. There was a certain sentence in the book that bugged him: 'Although iron is great as a material for armor and weapons for warriors, it is unsuitable for mages as it is not a good Mana conductor. Especially gloves and clothes, they should never contain any iron whatsoever...'

He threw a glance at his metal hand. It was made fully of pure iron.

"So… That's the reason I can't cast magic with my stump? That's it?!" He almost wanted to bang his head on the table.

It wasn't something especially important, but he was always wondering why couldn't he cast spells with his left anymore. Turns out it was his freaking arm! His expensive metal arm!

"Fuck me… Now it makes sense that none of the mages wear any armor! Making it out of gold and silver would be ludicrously expensive! And heavy!" He remembered that the only metal armor he ever saw on a mage was a pair of silver chainmail gloves.

"I knew it was difficult to control my prosthetic, but I wonder if a silver hand would be any better?" Gerald rubbed his forehead. Such a massive amount of silver would be expensive! And what about his cannon? Should he make a cannon out of silver? Would it even be able to withstand the pressures inside? What if it attracted too much attention?

Many such questions flashed across his mind.

"Eh… I'll leave that for some other time. It's not a necessity."

Spending his next few days in the library, Gerald gained a whole lot. He mostly solidified his basic understanding of this world so that he could navigate everyday life better.

He also spent some time to write down his understandings and relevant discoveries in his notebooks. A small shelf in his lab was already starting to fill up with them.

During his short breaks, he picked up bits and pieces of some new rumor going around. It was about the discovery of some prehistoric beasts, from the time before the Dark Ages.

Since he had nothing better to do, he decided to see what all the excitement is about.

Going to the Guild, he found the information he was looking for quite easily. Most people there knew what was happening and there was also a big announcement on the bulletin board.

It was an invitation for all capable warriors and groups to help out and clear an underground cavern system infested with Minecrawlers.

The place was near the border between the Kingdom of Myrtana and the Burronian Empire and the price for clearing it out was quite generous.

One gold coin for each Minecrawler Warrior or two Minecrawler Workers killed.

There was also a warning about Demon Mushrooms that grew in those caves. Quite a few already bumped into them and almost died from the extremely potent poison.

There was also the reward for each mushroom collected, they were, after all, quite useful in poison creation.

"Demon Mushroom!" Gerald's eyes shone with a greedy light. "I know where I'm going, hehe..."

***

After learning how to fly, the world shrunk significantly. Before leaving the city, Gerald made sure to send the rest of the potions to the Auction House, so there wouldn't be any problems. Two weeks already passed from the last time they interacted after all.

He was now on his way to the Black-Iron Fort. It had that name because the walls were made of stones of iron ore that were partially melted and scorched black in a conflict for an iron mine, centuries ago.

The Kingdom won in that conflict and used the stones to create the fort as a symbol of resistance against the Empire. The general conflict never ended, it was currently only on a momentary pause.

Gerald landed in a dense forest, far away from his target, and traveled on foot the rest of the way. He wrapped up the wings and stored him away in his Space Pouch.

On the way to the Fort, he met many groups of young people, most of them going to the same destination.

From groups of two and three, all the way up to twenty, many people took the opportunity seriously as such generous rewards weren't easy to come by.

Although many young ones knew they had little chance of success, it was still better to take some risk than to search for work every day.

There were hundreds of kilometers of underground tunnels and thousands of Minecrawlers so the cleaning proceeded slowly. But still, the rumors weren't as bad as the reality.

When they finally arrived at the Black-Iron Fort, a field of tents entered their sight. There were probably a few thousand people here, most of them young and middle-aged men.

Not all of them were warriors, though.

Merchants, blacksmiths, alchemists, and healers all came to sell their services. It was almost like a new town sprouted out in a week.

Going further in, Gerald saw many people with bandages, with some of them having a missing limb or some other part of their body.

He saw two men, dressed in white cloth, carrying a man on the stretcher towards a big open tent with beds. The man was clearly conscious and groaning, as blood was coming through the bandages on his chest. The metal plate that protected him was caved in, as it appeared some sort of spike was lodged in it.