Preparing an arsenal.

Negotiations with the alchemist lady went well. I managed to get almost everything I wanted. I just needed to start crafting the weapons needed to stop the bald bastard.

Leonel- Thanks for everything. I'll make good use of these materials.

The alchemist lady was staring at the alien-shaped keychain, specifically at its red eyes. She seemed to be obsessed with it.

Leonel- Girls, we are ready.

Faylinn- Did you get everything you needed?

Leonel- Almost everything. I guess certain things can't be easily acquired in this world.

Astra- What are you planning on doing now?

Leonel- I will try to craft something that might give us an advantage over the bald bastard. But there is a chance it might not work.

Astra- Let us know if there is anything we can help you with.

Faylinn- Yeah! We will do everything in our power to help you!

Leonel- Actually, there is something both of you can do to help. One of the things I will be crafting requires clay pots of a specific shape and size along with a few other details. Astra's ability to control earthly elements, along with Faylinn's fire skills, might be enough to craft exactly what I need.

Faylinn- You can count on me!

Astra- I'll do my best.

Leonel- Ok, let's go to the inn.

We left the alchemist shop and walked to the inn. The girls were constantly looking at our recently acquired items, which were now in their backpacks, as we were walking.

Astra- There are some light armor pieces and some hard leather clothing. I don't think this will be of much use against a massive fire spell.

Leonel- You are right. But in the end, it comes down to how you use those things.

Faylinn- Are you going to be doing some weird otherworldly thing to these armor pieces?

Leonel- Who knows...

While we were talking, we arrived at the inn. We went directly to our room without wasting time.

Leonel- This is gonna take a whole day. First things first: the special clay pots. I will need both of you for this project.

Astra- What do we need to do? What makes these clay pots special?

Faylinn- I've never made any clay pots before. This is gonna be fun.

I proceeded to explain what makes these clay pots unique and how they were going to be of use in combat.

We failed quite a few times, with a few clay pots breaking during the process. Eventually, we managed to get a few that had the exact design I wanted, but small-scale testing was needed to make sure they would work. After several hours, we got it done.

A total of nine apparently functional clay pots were made. Each one was almost spherical. A small amount of gunpowder was placed at the bottom, then the rest was filled with a mixture of extremely fine iron dust and saltpeter. Then, we added a fuse going directly to the gunpowder section.

Next, we began working on the hardest item: a simpler object that was more likely to fail unless it was flawlessly made. It was a mix between an otherworldly weapon and a common local weapon. We started cutting thin copper plates to make fine strings, then used Faylinn's fire magic to weld the tips to turn them into long copper wires. The welding had to be perfect. Faylinn put a lot of effort into it while we were just preparing other things for our journey. It was obvious that Faylinn was not good at precision work, but she was the only one who could do this. Trial and error, over the course of several hours, eventually yielded positive results: Faylinn had finished welding all the copper wires.

Faylinn- I'm finally done... are you finally going to tell us what you are going to use these for?

Astra- Yeah, I'm a bit curious too.

Leonel- Ok, I'll explain. But this is part of a weapon I won't be using myself. It's what you might call a "support weapon." There is a good chance that Astra will end up using it.

I then explained the way these copper wires could be used in conjunction with a few other things we had acquired from the alchemist. The girls were surprised at the kind of stuff one could do with simple objects. It became clear to them that my world was more advanced than theirs.

I also had to explain that certain things would have to be crafted on the spot right before a battle. Although, these were simple things that could be ready in a matter of seconds.

Once they had a general idea of what we were going to use to defeat the bald bastard, we decided that we were ready to rest.

Finally, after a whole day of crafting stuff and barely eating anything, we went to bed. We needed to get some rest before traveling back to the town of Rida. We had to go through Rida if we wanted to get to the capital city. Also, the blacksmith of Rida had probably finished the custom-made item I asked for. We could also try getting some info on the "fire pillar" magic from the owner of the bookstore.

But, of course, bedtime for me was not just about resting. I just knew I was gonna have the same dream again. And I wasn't wrong.