New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 977: Gear For Everyone

Having already driven about ten minutes out of the airport in the right direction to go to the restaurant, their trip only lasted for another forty-five. And once they parked the vans, an issue they hadn\'t considered popped up.

As the group all exited their vehicles, Alex looked at the extensive building that cordoned off the last stretch to the foot of the volcano and frowned.

"How are we supposed to bring our gear up there if we can\'t even drive to the base without needing an escort?" he asked, annoyed.

"Can\'t we just say we are role-players and wear everything up there?" David said, as if it was so simple.

Alex looked at him with a look that clearly said, \'Are you stupid?\'

But it was Jin-Sil that shot his idea down.

"Even if we could pass the armour out as roleplay material, I doubt they would let us carry weapons up there. I know some of you are mages, and don\'t really need a weapon, but that is not the case for everyone here.

"And I doubt they would willingly let us bring weapons up there, especially real ones. As a matter of fact, simply having them in our possession could have us locked away..." she said, remembering some of them wielded swords and guns.

As they wracked their brains for a solution, it was Violette who offered them one.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"I have an idea, but I don\'t know if it will work," she said, a bit shy about talking before the entire group.

And it only got worse when all eleven of them turned to look at her. Her face went beet red as she tried hiding behind her bangs, lowering her head almost to a ninety-degree angle.

Kary chuckled as she lowered herself to Violette\'s eye line.

"Go ahead. Tell us your idea. No one here would dare laugh at it," she said, a warm smile on her lips.

"Right guys?" she then asked, turning to look at the others, a deathly glare in her gaze.

A chill ran down everyone\'s spine as her murderous intent brushed past them.

Seeing as no one was replying, Kary repeated herself, her tone now venomous. "Right, guys?"

Alex was the first one to chime in, "Right!" and it was quickly followed by the others, realizing she was expecting an answer.

This put Violette at ease a little, even though she knew it was a forced reaction from Kary\'s threats.

"I could wrap the gear up in a bubble of water, and with the help of wind magic, I could camouflage it as a cloud above the volcano, at least until we are rid of the escort\'s watchful eyes..." she muttered.

Jonathan was the first to react, his eyes brightening up.

"That\'s a great idea! I can help!" he chirped, unaffected by the groups\' gazes landing on him.

Liu Yan then raised his hand smiling at the group.

"I can help as well. It\'ll lessen the load on everyone\'s mana expenditure if we work together on this."

Alex nodded his head, glad the young man was finally understanding that helping out was the way to gain their trust and respect.

"Alright then. It\'s settled. Let\'s get everything out of the vans and out of their crates to make the gear load smaller, and then we can get to it. It\'s already a bit past noon, and we will be running out of daylight shortly," Alexander said, clapping his hands.

Unpacking was done swiftly, with everyone working together, and they also used this moment to distribute the gear to the ones that were planned from the start.

Contrary to the last hunt they did, the gear this time was a bit more refined, as the crafters under Jack\'s employ had managed to refine their technique. Instead of simple leather armours for everyone, the gear was more varied.

Casters were assigned sets of cloth robes, all of which had been embroidered with a myriad of runes, which David had graciously taught them, making the robes as hard to slash through as kevlar armour, while staying extremely light.

The leather armours, for the heavier-armoured people, were also inscribed with runes, although to a lesser degree, and scribbled inside the armour, making them less apparent. As for their two more heavy-wearing members, Cory, who usually wore chain-mail, and Winston, who wore full plate armour in the game, they were delighted to see their equipment. A full piece of chain-mail had been crafted for Cory, with a piece of linen fabric lining the interior, on which the runes had been embroidered. And, although the chain-mail looked heavy at a glance, Cory was able to lift it with one hand, as it weighed next to nothing.

He became gleeful and was tempted to throw it on right now, just to get used to it. But Alex\'s serious gaze made him think twice as he laid it down in the pile with the rest.

As for Winston, a set of full plate armour had been forged, with engravings on the inside of it to make it as magical as the rest of their equipment. He was the first to notice something on his, which stood out like a sore thumb.

Looking at the other pieces of armour, he also noticed the ones that weren\'t outright made with monster leathers had the same oddity on them, and he frowned.

"Are these runes powered by monster cores? Don\'t the crafters know that we can all use mana?" he asked, pointing to small orbs of varying colours on the armours.

David chirped in before Alex started asking stupid questions.

"It was my idea. I know most of us don\'t have a mana core developed yet, so I asked that they incorporate monster cores into the equipment. It\'ll lessen our mana expenditure, and help us focus on fighting, instead of splitting it to keep our armour active at all times."

Winston could feel a bit of mana in the core, but it felt inadequate in comparison to what he could eke out.

"Will they be enough?"

David chuckled.

"If you look closely at them, you\'ll see they also have etching on them. The cores were modified to recharge off our normal expenditure of mana, in case they run out.

"Plus, the runes on everyone\'s equipment are made to drain the least amount of mana possible, while staying relevant to our hunt. We should be fine," David pointed out.

It barely reassured them, but at least they trusted him enough to believe his words.

For now.