We patiently waited for Ember's clones to finish shopping. It wasn't that far from the city, so if we estimate the time needed to procure all the items on the list, it would take about 3 hours at most.
Well, other than food and camping goods, the only other things that they were to buy were ores and nothing else. It should be faster, depending on the proximity of individual shops to each other.
Igni settled down after Ember passed her a steaming mug of soup. Although traces of worry could still be seen in her expression, the tiny hope budding inside her was slowly getting brighter.
"Oh, they're here."
After waiting for some time, the shopping group returned. I immediately received the two storage rings and checked them. It was almost full of goods; other than the advanced potion that cost a million and was out of stock, everything was accounted for properly.
I immediately retrieved the automatic bullet maker from one of the storage rings and placed it on top of the small table. I also took a lump of copper ore and dropped it over the intake chute.
After I played a little with the buttons, setting them to the rifle's bullets that were similar to 7.62mm NATO rounds, the machine started vibrating as it worked.
After just a few seconds, it completed one empty casing, letting it fall on top of the table. I quickly picked it up and compared it with one of the training bullets. They were completely identical in shape, so this should be fine.
"Igni, I want you to place fire and wind energy inside this."
I passed the completed casing to her, who was tilting her head in wonder.
"I just need to do that? I'll try..."
Although she seemed a bit unconfident, she still concentrated on her task. I was observing her closely, making sure that nothing would go wrong.
The fire and wind energy around her started gathering near her fingers. I watched as they entered the shell and were compressed inside; however, it seems like there was some leaking energy here and there. The casing material couldn't completely prevent the energy from flowing out.
"... By this rate, it would be useless after a day or two..."
I calculated based on the volume that was leaking out.
"Okay, Igni, do this to about 100 more bullets. After that, we'll rest until midnight before heading out."
I quickly commanded. I told Fang and Ember to rest first, as I still need to create more bullet casings. Ember only left two clones as guards before entering a tent with Fang.
Igni and I continued working in silence. After I made the 100 casings that Igni needs to fill with energy, I started experimenting with combining ores to attain a similar energy retention rate with the training bullets. Honestly, with only three types of ores with similar properties to choose from, I hit a dead end right away.
"... You're deeply trusted by your companions, huh...?"
Igni suddenly muttered as she continued her task. She had already finished half of the casing and was taking a short break.
"Of course. I trust them too. They're my prided tamed beasts."
I replied with a wide smile.
"Hmmm... Is that so."
After that, we stayed silent until Igni finished her quota. Since it's a waste to make too many bullets, as they can't be stored for long, I stopped my experimentation too and went inside a different tent. My tent was in the middle, right beside Ember and Fang's tent, while Igni stayed in one a bit further from us.
I laid down and tried to take a short nap. However, when I opened my eyes, Fang and Ember were already trying to wake me up, telling me it was almost time to set out.
"Master, we should start packing up. It's almost midnight."
"It's already midnight?"
To my surprised question, Fang nodded her head.
"You were sleeping for about four hours. We tried waking you up a bit earlier but failed."
She shrugged her shoulders as she explained. It seems like I was more tired than I thought. Maybe it was due to us having almost no sleep last night?
When I got out of the tent, Igni was already standing in the middle of the camp with her arms crossed. She looked impatient, but she kept her mouth shut. It was she who was asking for help, so she thought it would be rude to be angry at someone who was offering her their help.
Packing up didn't take as much time as setting up camp. I just stored everything inside the storage ring, and we were done before even a minute passed. After confirming that we didn't forget anything, I faced Igni.
"Lead the way. Let's save your family!"
---
Their village wasn't that far away. On foot, it took us a little over five hours of trekking and avoiding strong monsters roaming around before we reached a cliff overlooking their village about 2-3 kilometers away.
"This place is good. Ember, the slime-suit mode, please. Fang will handle the concealment and noise reduction. Igni... Just stay put inside the concealment barrier for now."
As I gave orders, the three quickly moved. Ember took out six clones and made them stick all over my body. Soon, they morphed into a perfected slime suit. The material of the suit was changed into something metallic, with cushion-like support inside.
As Ember was doing that, Fang was setting up her presence erasing veil that was slowly becoming her forte. The activation time was getting shorter, and her range was getting wider. On top of that, she shrouded the gun with her Dark Energy to act as a noise suppressor.
I, on the other hand, affixed the flash suppressor after tweaking the gun modes a little. It's a function that was restored by the dwarves, and it was honestly a big help in situations like this where we need to stay under the radar.
When I peered into the scope, I was surprised by what I saw.
"You live in the mouth of a Volcano?!"
I was shocked. Although it was small, it was a genuine volcano. The lava had hardened into rock and it seemed like it had been dormant for a long time. Besides the poisonous gases that were released by it, I doubt normal people could live there given its high temperature.
I slowly scanned around and found the rest of the dragons gathered in the middle of the small village. About a dozen of them were humanoid, but most of them were still in their dragon forms, probably at 3rd level or below.
Around them, hooded figures were walking leisurely. Even without looking at their faces, I immediately knew that they were the Demon Tamers. A quick count gave me a total of 30 of them gathered around the dragons. A bit further, there's a large group of them forming a circle of about 50–70 tamers around a large stake with someone hanging on it.
"...!"
I saw one of the Demon Tamers forcefully feeding the humanoid dragon hanging on the stake with large bits of Essence Crystals. I almost pulled the trigger out of anger but decided to first complete my surveillance. The one that was hanging seemed weakened, but it shouldn't be too late for her yet.
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