Metalweaver's Odyssey: A Mobster's Full Metal Alchemical Isekai

1-10. Chaos Element.

Chapter 10 : Chaos Element

Adam's POV

After the whole fiasco with the bone horse trying to turn me into a chew toy, and the mage girl, Dona, hugging me like I was the world's most fragile treasure, plus Nove dropping hints about my supposed jealous fiancé and that I shouldn't be in much contact with other females. I decided to join the rest of the group. We gathered around, and they generously shared their food with me. The twins wrapped up their CSI investigation on the pulverized bone horse, the guy who got knocked out was still snoozing under the watchful eye of the necromancer-lookin' dude, and there was Dona, perched on a massive rock next to me and the leader of this merry band whose name remained a mystery.

As I sat there, munching on that juicy chicken leg, I couldn't help but feel a sense of liberation wash over me. No longer was I shackled to some organization, forced into tasks I despised. This was a fresh start, a chance to carve out my own path in this strange new world... Also, that chicken leg? It was like a gift from the heavens. After surviving on a diet of worms and bat meat, sinking my teeth into something so savory and delicious was like winning the lottery.

Dona and the group leader seemed curious about my story, and I could sense their interest since I overheard them talking about me before. So, I decided to keep it vague, introducing myself as Adam and spinning a tale about amnesia (totally not true, but it's a good cover story). I then talked about how I fell and that someone was trying to kill me.

I told them about surviving with a cracked skull, battling bugs like some insect gladiator, and proudly flaunting my measly Metal Weaving Mastery. The whole time, they were nodding along, treating it like some epic tale of survival.

But then, when I talked about making Core nodes, their faces turned from impressed to confused. I could almost see the question marks floating above their heads. Like, come on, guys, it's not that wild.

And then Mr. Necromancer in his fancy getup decided to burst my bubble. "Please, stop exaggerating. Just say you had some spare in your inventory," he deadpanned. Dude hadn't said a word until then, and here he was, being a flippen hater. "Making any kind of Core node is insanely hard and requires many materials and calculations in the case of a failure. You, who can't even metal weave properly, wouldn't know a thing about alchemy."

Ouch, Mr. Necro, way to kill my vibe.

"Kastor. No need to berate a child," the leader intervened, his tone serious.

Kastor, the thin dude just huffed in response. "The child shouldn't say stupid things."

As they began their verbal jousting match, I couldn't help but lean back and subtly cover my mouth, to hide my mouth movement before whispering to myself, "Nove, explain."

I watched the Leader and Kastor argue all the while the twins and Dona started talking to eachother about something as if the argument was a common occurance, Regardless, Nove started talking in my head "He's got a point. For your average human, crafting a Core node is extremely hard. It takes complex formulas, machinery, alchemy circles, and calculations just to have a success rate at an 80% success rate. Without all of that, your success rate drop below 40%."

My eyes narrowed, Nove had been creating core nodes left and right like it was nothing. It seemed like Nove noticed what I was thinking about and responded "Most humans get distracted easily, can't calculate numbers fast enough. But I'm a Sentient core. No distractions, no errors. That's why I've got a near 100% success rate in all things alchemy."

Oh my god... I think I get it now on why Alper went all in on Alchemy and nothing else.

Anyways, as they all stared at me, a brilliant idea sparked in my mind. "Well, I can whip up some core nodes for you. Don't believe me? I'll prove it right now. You guys provide the materials, and in return, I get to keep the shiny new core node I make."