Adrenaline Junkie [Book 2 Complete]

God, Bralmir, Archie prayed silently, brows drawn together in hard concentration. My four-thousand-dollar PC and every console I've ever owned – please lend me your divine strength and bless this ignorant smith's work.

In one hand, he held the top half of a small, cube-shaped drone. Cold metal warmed quickly against his palm. No larger than his fist, the device was compact, its surface almost entirely covered in runes and runic scripts.

Four recessed fan housings were mounted on the outer edges of the top of the drone, each connected to the central mana core top shelling. The etched runes present yet disconnected: Stabilization. Atmospheric Resistance. Greater Protection. Enhanced Speed. Repulsion. And several other scripts and runes he couldn't make heads or tails out of.

I've got a flying gecko on my ass telling me to hurry up with creating a teleporter so we can do missions together.

In his other hand was the drone's bottom half. Dozens of mana pathways spiderwebbed across the interior shell, all leading from the central mana core socket to a network of controller connectors, mana core regulators, and unfamiliar runes that probably had something to do with a camera.

A camera he very intentionally did not build this time, not after the last incident had him cursing and headbutting his Obsidiansteel Anvil hard enough to make him see the stars in the afternoon.

Please don't explode in my face again. Not for the third time, he pleaded mentally, his jaw tight, lips pressed in a hard line as he manipulated his mana string forward, dragging with it a volatile creation that had cost him a couple of eyebrows and half an arm.

A makeshift "mana core" created by merging his last remaining Lava Wraith Elementalcore and three Salamander Beastcores using Spirit Link.

Flame Core – Unstable (Uncommon):
A volatile, activated merged core formed from the fusion of one E-Grade Lava Wraith Elementalcore and three E-Grade Salamander Beastcores. Each retained fragments of their soul-records upon death, now fused into a singular, volatile entity. Imbued with the feelings of excitement and pride from an E-Grade human, Archie Gracefield. The core holds residual records of the Lava Wraith, the Salamanders, and Archie himself. Can be used for various forging and medium applications.

Honestly, this was the best he could think of to act as a power core. After all, all engines either ran off combustion or electricity, and he had yet to see a creature or elemental that naturally used electricity, so flame and fire were his best bet.

The Flame Core hovered just above its socket, spinning slowly. It pulsated with soft orange and red light, its glow oddly rhythmic, similar to how he assumed a heart would pulse.

Archie sucked in a breath.

The moment the Flame Core slid into its socket, the bottom half of the drone shivered. Runes flared to life along the inner shell, surging with light. He didn't hesitate; he moved fast.

With a practiced twist and push, he brought the top half down and-

Snap!

And for a split second that felt like an eon, silence filled the air.

Then a soft thrum filled the air. The drone flickered to life, stable, quiet, and now pulsing faintly with a glowing reddish-orange color.

Runic Surveyor (Inferior):
A volatile mana-powered flying-type drone crafted by Archie Gracefield, an E-Grade Novice Forgesmith. Made from reinforced steel and etched with various runes and simple runic scripts that mainly propel, stabilize, protect, guide, and connect the Runic Surveyor. Must be recharged periodically after use with Unattuned mana along with its Runic Controller. Status: Excellent. Requirements: Lv 95+ & Humanoid Race.

Yeah, Inferior sounds about right, Archie nodded in agreement. After all, he was blatantly copying basic runic scripts and runes from the Runic Surveyor he bought in the System Bazaar, and adding in a couple of runes and scripts that he knew to try and improve it.

At the very least, the fact that it was holding up for more than three seconds now without exploding in my face is something I consider as a success, especially with the other attempts, he thought with a wry grin tugging at his lips.

Placing the drone carefully atop his workshop table, Archie checked his notifications that popped up in the corner of his vision.

*Your Profession has reached Lv 95 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*
*Your Profession has reached Lv 96 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*

*Your Race has reached Lv 99 – Points allocated, +3 Free Points*
*Your Profession has reached Lv 97 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*

Flawless Evolution
Objective: Reach max level in Race, Class, and Profession before evolving 2/3
Class Requirement: Kill a formidable opponent
Profession Requirement:
Reward: Flawless D-Grade Evolution title.

Only a couple more levels, Archie thought to himself, his heart pumping a tad faster. And then I go find where Henry, Maria, and my niece are.

Using his 30 Free Points, he allocated 15 into Wisdom and 15 into Willpower, bringing them both, after bonuses, to 650 and 457, respectively.

He let out a soft exhale, shoulders sinking as he pulled out his creaky, Sigil Ridden Chair and dropped into it. The drone's gentle hum at the desk in front of him felt like soothing ambience.

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Archie closed his eyes.

A moment passed.

Then another.

He wasn't trying to meditate. Not now, he'd meditate an hour before he'd set out and meet up with the C-Grade Scout he'd managed to contract with in the guild. He just needed a damn break.

His mind and body were running on borrowed fumes – not just regular fumes – he knew he was reaching his mental limit. He'd been awake for over a month straight, sustained only by Vials of Fatigue Relief, a crap load of Endurance, and sheer pig-headed determination.

The number of times his Stamina almost bottomed out over the past month has already brought his Potion of Endurance collection from 14 to 3. His brain, his poor, overclocked brain, felt as though it had been pushed beyond every boundary known to mankind.

Even writing his thesis didn't take this much of a toll on his brain. Hell, compared to how he currently felt, the sleepless week of him writing his thesis sounded blissful.

When I find Seeth' Four; I'm gonna make them suffer just as much as I have before I wring their neck, Archie declared before sighing. I should ask where I could learn some counter curses, just in case I get screwed over like this again.

A single White Gold Coin to get cured is just pure bullshit, he complained, opening his eyes to stare at the small drone in front of him beside the much larger drone he purchased from the System Bazar.

How's an E-Grade supposed to earn that much money, he groaned, when every quest that pays more than three gold involves me walking into places with early to late D-Grades that would involve me rolling the dice?

He rubbed at his face, wincing. And the forging commissions at the guild? 'Must be Peak D-Grade at a minimum.' Which makes sense, sure – most of the members are C-Grades, with a few D-Grades hanging around – but still, it's a pain.

It is what it is, Archie sighed, grabbing his Runic Controller. Complaining about how unfair life is does jack all. Life throws you sucker punches – you just gotta learn how to bob and weave.

He flipped the controller over and activated Thornscourge Expansion, summoning a thin vine atop his right index finger that grew a thin thorn no longer than a needle.

Carefully, he inserted it into a maintenance port near the back and pressed the small red button for three seconds. The controller gave a soft hum in response, which in turn, he deactivated Thornscourge Expansion.

On the left side of the controller, he entered a series of button presses – connecting it to the drone using the hexadecimal password copied from the System Bazaar's Runic Surveyor model… with a minor tweak. He had simply added a 1 to the password, changing a binary value of 179848477 to 179848478, which was a simple change from AB8451D to AB8451E in hexadecimal.

Once it had successfully paired with his drone, a soft chime emitted from the controller before the drone's runes and runic scripts fully flared to life.

Nudging the directional controls upward, the drone steadily lifted off the desk and then zipped toward the forest with a soft woosh – following the direction his thumb was pointing.

It bobbed slightly in the air, but that was to be expected considering its small size and the speeds it was zipping around at.

Archie ran it through a quick figure-eight pattern around the nearby trees, weaving deftly between their trunks. The control was tight, the rune sequences clean. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he sent it into a low pass, looping around a large, moss-covered boulder that was home to a scuttling mix of fingernail-sized roly-polies and the occasional roach beneath it.

Flicking his thumb upward on the vertical rune input, the drone shot straight up into the air with a faint hum, then dipped into a tight roll, pulled a smooth split-s, and began orbiting around Archie's head in a wide, slow loop. The stabilizer runic scripts flared briefly with each correction, light pulsing a soft reddish-orange.

Oh yeah, Archie grinned. This shit is so cool.

Despite the dark circles under his eyes and the ever-present weight behind them, there was no hiding the sheer joy he felt in that moment; his inner tech-geek, buried under layers of exhaustion, was practically doing somersaults. He guided the drone in wide, playful loops, weaving between trees, diving through hanging vines, and even threading a tight spiral around his forge's chimney just for the hell of it.

Then the drone floated a little higher, just enough to brush past the upper branches, and Archie's eyes caught a shape, perched on one of the gnarled limbs above.

A squirrel.

The same smug, shit eating grin wearing, scarred little menace that had been treating the ten-meter radius around his workshop like its personal bathroom and using his head as a target dummy for his acorn flinging skill.

You little shit, Archie brow twitched in annoyance as his eyes narrowed. Was me throwing a boulder at you not enough for you to piss off?

In answer, the squirrel stood up on two legs, no less, and fixed him with what could only be described as disdain, tilting its chin upwards and looked down at him, ignoring the drone completely.

Archie's eyebrow twitched. With a wicked grin, he maneuvered the drone to hover just a few feet from the squirrel's branch, spinning it slowly, dramatically – almost tauntingly.

Then the drone became a blur of movement as it zipped around the squirrel.

It darted in tight circles, weaving through the branches like a hyperactive, sugar-infused wasp. Leaves violently rustling with each pass it made around it. The squirrel's tail fluffed up to full combat puff, but it didn't move – just swiveled its head with increasing irritation, trying to track the drone's flight pattern.

Oh, don't act like this is unfair, Archie muttered with a smirk as he saw it narrow its eyes and send a glare his way, tilting the controller slightly to loop the drone into a spiraling corkscrew. You've lugged enough acorns at my head to where if I collected them, I could have built an entire forest with them, you smug little pinecone.

The squirrel finally reacted by reaching into its pouch-like furry satchel attached to its front abdomen and pulling out a particularly large-looking acorn, and leaped off the tree backwards, its tiny arms transforming into mechanical ones.

Archie had just enough time to think, Is that acorn lacquered? Before-

Thunk!

A direct hit.

The acorn slammed into the side of the drone with pinpoint accuracy. The glowing runes and runic scripts began to flicker as a faint metallic whine vibrated through the air.

The drone stuttered, jerked once in mid-air, and then began to spin.

No no no nonono-!

BOOM!

A blossom of red-orange fire erupted midair, hurling leaves and branches in all directions. The shockwave sent a wave of pressure washing over the clearing, snapping a half-rotten tree trunk clean through. It felt like a falling tower.

Right on top of the squirrel.

There was a sharp crack, a puff of dirt – and then utter silence.

*[Pouch Squirrel Lv 12] has been slain – XP has been given.*

Archie stared up at the rising smoke, eyes wide, thumb still frozen mid-joystick. …You have got to be kidding me.

He blinked slowly, processing everything. The crater. The broken tree. The fact that he just lost another drone. The squirrel.

I put three layers of Greater Protection runes on it, he groaned. It should have been able to tank a punch from me… And it got taken out by a level 12 squirrel…

He sighed, rubbed his face, and slumped back on the bench, eyes rolling to the sky. Nah, fuck this shit, I'm done forging for now – its time for me to complete a requirement.