After about 15 minutes of squatting, stretching, moving things around, putting things in and taking things out of the [item box], I finally have what would probably be the equivalent of 20 kilos of pure iron.
[Item box: 36.4/30
1 iron children's table (2.7 kilos)
1 iron and aluminum bookshelf (3.2 kilos)
5 meters of iron wire (1.1 kilos)
2 iron car springs (16 kilos)
2 iron weights (2.5 kilos)
5 iron rods (2 kilos)
1 small conveyor belt (3.7 kilos)
5 liters of gasoline (6.7 kilos)]
That should do it, although it was right on the edge and it's heavier than the item box can hold.
"Hey, Mari, shouldn't you be able to put anything else in once you reach the limit?"
At least that's how it was in 90% of the games.
"I don't know about that. I just have a few extra hours than you did to check everything. But if I had to guess, I think the weight would be whatever you could fit in without having your movements restricted. Probably?"
"But wouldn't the item box have a weight or space limit?"
"I told you, I don't know. If you want, why don't you try putting all the stuff from up here into the [item box] and see what happens. But it's better to do that after our parents are back and safe."
She's right. But this whole item box thing intrigued me. Something else did, too.
"Why so little iron?"
Theoretically, my dad would use his Giant-Dwarf skills along with his [Artisan] skills to fix the car, but cars have much more iron, carbon alloy, aluminum, etc. than anything else. And that's heavy. The springs I put in the item box alone weigh about 8 kilos each. What would 20 kilos of metal be used for in a car repair? Repair some engine parts?
"If you want to know, ask him when you find it. Until then, we'll just do what we can."
Okay, okay, I know.
Okay, so we have the fuel and the iron. All that's missing is the magic bloodstone, but...
"No, I have no idea where to find that or what it is."
Yeah, I figured.
"Well, if we consider what we already know, that magic stones are dropped by defeated monsters, then this must be the same one. The problem is that it probably isn't very common. I even have an idea of what it might be like, since when I defeated the Shadow Wolves leaders, instead of leaving simple magic stones like the others, they left a [Shadow Core Fragment]. I currently have four of these, but I imagine that when I have five, they'll combine and form the Shadow Core itself."
"Okay, okay, I'm following. But that doesn't help us, we need a Blood Magic Core."
"Yes, that's the cucumber.... If you use game logic, the stronger the monster and the more elemental attacks it uses, the higher the chances of it having a magical core of that element, like the shadow wolves. But a blood core, I can't even imagine what that would be like."
While Mari and I tried to think of a way to find this magical core, Snitch kept shaking one of the branches right above us.
"Huh? Wait, is this serious?"
"What's up?"
"Pomo said she knows where we can find a magical blood core."
.....
WHAT!!!!!??????
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
(3rd person POV)
While Nando and Mari discussed what to do and how to proceed, the two targets of their efforts were sitting on the floor of a gas station office near the hardware store they had just left.
"Did you manage to talk to them?"
"Only Mari before the battery died."
"I'll have to fix this when we get back,"
Hector said, leaning back against the wall, which, even sitting on the floor, still reached halfway up it.
"We've barely left here and you're already looking for something to do?"
Néia asked, lying on top of one of her husband's legs.
"I just think thinking about what I still have to do helps me not think about the current situation."
"Um, and what's your excuse for doing this before things get this chaotic?"
The man, over 7 feet tall, couldn't answer that.
"Hahahahah, you-"
*Bang, bang, bang*
*Whooshhhhhhh*
*Quiiiikkkk*
*Kkkrrooooo*
His wife's laughter was soon drowned out by the muffled thuds, grunts, howls, and roars outside.
"Tsk, damn it, and it wasn't long before it was over."
"There's no point complaining, you know that."
"It can't be helped. If those wretches hadn't shown up while we were here, we might have been back home with the kids by now!"
Hector said irritably, looking ahead where they'd stacked all the office furniture to keep out the monsters, and Hector had reinforced it with some components he'd created using one of his [Artisan] skills.
"Aaahhhh!!! If it weren't for those damned people across the street!!!!"
He almost screamed, peering at the building ahead through one of the windows.
Outside, a literal sea of monsters could be seen, but most of them had their backs to where Hector and Néia were. They were actively trying to get into the supermarket that was on the same block as the hardware store they'd just left.
If they concentrated, they could even hear the occasional gunshot and the occasional raised voice coming from the area. It wasn't surprising, considering the disorganized group that had recently arrived was responsible for the current situation.
Hector had practically finished repairing the car; all that was missing was fuel and a little more iron to put the finishing touches on it and transform the EcoSport into a fully analog car. He also needed a large magic core, but neither Hector nor Néia knew where or how to get this component.
All they knew was that the gas station just ahead probably still had some fuel and metal parts from cars being repaired there, if everything hadn't already been looted. Even with a "small" group of monsters surrounding them, they managed to eliminate them easily and reach the gas station without any problems.
The trouble began five minutes after they began searching the gas station. They heard gunshots and screams coming from across the street, and soon a large group of people appeared, being chased by an even larger, mixed group of monsters.
Even though Hector and Néia didn't have much of a grasp on how the monsters operated, they knew that the louder you made, the more monsters were delayed, and that's what happened. The closer the group got to them, the more monsters seemed to appear.
Whole packs of black wolves seemed to sprout from the shadows, zombies and skeletons crashed through the ground or staggered out of the stream with transparent, gelatinous creatures sometimes clinging to them.
From the skies, several larger than normal birds appeared, small and medium-sized hawks, vultures coming to prey on both the undead and the living. Even small groups of falcons, sometimes, swooped down towards the group.
Whether the group saw Hector and Neia in their path or not, they didn't care, but the monsters chasing them certainly saw them. Some stragglers separated from those chasing the group of humans and turned toward the two individuals alone.
Fortunately, most of them were zombies and a few wolves from the remnants, which were easily defeated with Neia's holy light attacks and Hector's hammer blows. Unfortunately, the numbers were far too many for them to handle, not to mention that the more they fell, the more monsters noticed them and took their place.
Unable to use the car due to a lack of components, and with space increasingly limited by the number of monsters appearing, they had no choice but to retreat to the best place they could find: the gas station owner's office on the second floor. It was practically a suspended container, with only a ladder and three windows.
This meant the monsters had only one way in, but they obviously ended up trapped. The best solution, according to Hector, would be to complete the car's repairs and use it as an armored vehicle to drive through the horde. But this plan had obvious problems.
How would they complete the repair if they didn't have all the components?
The only option in this case was to ask for help from the children, hope that they could get there with the components and everyone could get out of that situation together.