Floating Progress and Hungry Negotiations
"Lua," said Liora as she approached happily, wrapping her arms around one of Lua's legs and looking up at her with a radiant smile.
Lua smiled faintly and gently patted her head.
"Looks like you ve been doing really well while I was asleep," she murmured in a calm voice.
"Yes! Aunt Linda and Sally help me a lot. And I asked Miss SIA tons of questions," Liora explained, visibly proud. "Oh! And Uncle Peter is now in charge of gathering materials. He didn t want to charge anything because he said he was just helping, but I asked Miss SIA if we could at least pay the market price. In the end, Mr. Peter agreed… though only at a lower rate," she added, puffing out her chest.
"That"s good," said Lua with a soft smile. "I won"t be able to enter the forest for a while."
"Then you can come see how Sally and I make stuff! We learned a fun recipe!" Liora exclaimed excitedly.
"Oh yeah? What is it?" Lua asked, intrigued.
But before she could get an answer, Liora suddenly dashed toward the store at full speed. A few passing players greeted her with warm smiles, and she waved back energetically before continuing on her way.
That earned another small smile from Lua.
Liora returned shortly after, coming out of the shop, which now had a small workshop area in the corner for her and Sally. In her arms she carried a kind of wooden board reinforced with metal corners, engraved runes, and several embedded cores. It measured roughly one meter by one meter, making the sight of little Liora carrying it with both arms quite amusing.
Each corner glowed faintly with a wind core, clearly taken from low-level flying creatures.
"Look," said Liora as she placed the board on the ground. The structure slowly lifted off, rising about 30 centimeters into the air. Then Liora dropped onto it, lying on her stomach, and used her hands to push off the ground, gliding forward as if floating on air.
Curious, Lua crouched and gently pushed the board. It slid forward several meters with surprising ease, while Liora giggled, still clinging to it.
🛠️ Floating Plate
Type: Transport Object
Size: 1 m × 1 m
Load Capacity: 100 kg (per unit)
Linking: Up to 10 plates connected
Description:
A one-square-meter metallic plate designed to transport heavy objects without wheels or physical effort. It remains suspended using a minor levitation core powered by ambient mana.
Each unit can carry up to 100 kg on its own. However, when linked using Union Connectors (crafted separately), up to ten plates can form a larger, sturdier structure, combining their total load capacity (up to 1,000 kg).
Additional Notes:
Controlled through physical pushes or a magical interface if a control module is installed.
Can levitate up to 30 cm from the ground.
Will not function if weight exceeds the limit.
Ideal for transporters, engineers, or gatherers needing to move bulky or heavy resources with ease.
Lua read the information with interest and nodded slightly.
"Hey, hey! That looks interesting!" came a male voice approaching. When Lua and Liora turned around, they saw Joe walking toward them with visible excitement. Behind him followed the rest of his teamthe same group heading to the ant mine expedition. All of them looked at the floating plate with clear curiosity.
"Hi, Uncle Joe!" said Liora, raising a hand as she hopped off the plate.
"Hello, little one. Mind if I try it out?" Joe asked with a grin.
"Sure," Liora replied casually.
Joe sat on the plate… but the moment his body made contact, the edges flashed red for a secondthen the board dropped to the ground with a dull thud.
"Eh?" Joe looked behind him in confusion.
"Sir, it says it supports up to 100 kilograms," commented a white skeleton youth in a neutral tonewho, for some reason, wore glasses.
"I Don t weigh that much!" Joe protested, frowning. "Last time I checked, I was around 90 kilos!"
"That was probably in the real world. Here, you're at least two meters tall. I estimate your base weight is around 150 kilograms… not counting your armor or gear," the skeleton explained with flawless logic. Dean, standing nearby, simply nodded in agreement, looking at Joe like he was an idiot.
"Tsk…" Joe got up with annoyance. As soon as he stood, the plate began to float again like nothing had happened. Liora covered her mouth to stifle a giggle.
"Still, sir, I believe this could be extremely useful for hauling drops. We constantly have to return because our inventories get full, wasting valuable time. If we place chests on top and organize items properly, this would help a lot. We could even use it to bring materials Mr. Silver needs. Logs and ores get really heavy once our spatial pouches are full," the skeleton continued, almost like an accountant.
"I see… how many do you have, little one?" Joe asked, already seeing the strategic value.
"Ten. We finished them today," Liora said proudly.
"Perfect. I"ll buy them all. Do you have the connectors too?"
"Yes," she replied. "Aunt Linda prepared them as part of a set from the beginning. It was… what"s the word…"
"Marketing," said Linda, appearing suddenly behind Joe. He flinched and stepped back like he feared married women.
"Hello, ma"am," said Joe, forcing some polite manners.
"Hello. One demon beast core for the full set," Linda answered with a calm but professional smile.
"Isn"t that a bit expensive?" Joe asked, frowning. A core was practically worth a new territory or an extra player.
"You know the store"s policy. If you want discounts, bring your own materials. These use wind hawk coresprobably only Dean could hunt them. They Don t give much EXP, and they"re hard to find. My husband spent nearly the whole week gathering what we needed," Linda explained calmly.
"Alright, alright… I get it," Joe sighed. Then he looked at the skeleton, who nodded firmly. Clearly, he was the brain of the group.
"I"ll take them all. But… it says it can have a controller. haven t you made that yet? What does it do?" Joe asked with renewed interest.
"Sally is working on it. It"s a recipe that requires her level to match Liora"s. Maybe one or two more days. We already have the materials. According to the information we gathered, it allows precise directional control of the plate while it"s being pushed," Linda explained.
"But that"s useless… unless it had something to push it automatically," Joe murmured to himself, as if answering his own doubts. Then, his expression changed as he realized that one small detail could make the plate far more valuable than he had initially thought. And judging by Linda"s calm smile… she knew that too. That"s probably why she had sent her husband to hunt those wind eagles.
"Alright. I"ll take it. Let me know when the controller is ready… and if you can make something that pushes it on its own, even better," said Joe, scratching his chin.
"Of course," Linda replied smoothly. She was now, without a doubt, a full-fledged merchant.
It was a good sign. Liora was watching them attentively, but by the look on her face, it was clear she didn t understand even half of what they were discussing. Despite her natural smarts, she still lacked experience. She had much to learn.
Lua watched the exchange for a moment, then turned around calmly and began walking with Liora back toward the workshop.
Just as they arrived, one of the side doors opened and Loli floated out quickly upon spotting Lua. She seemed to be handling her new evolution much better.
"Hi, Lua! Perfect timing! I just leveled up Cooking, and I have the dishes from this week that I couldn t give you before," said Loli with a radiant smile. She looked genuinely happy to see Lua awake after so long.
Lua looked at her with quiet interest. So did Liora. After all, Loli"s cooking was delicious… and every single day, without fail, the little one would stop by Lua"s house to leave something for Liora, even though Lua never woke up.
"Aah, Lua! Just in time. I wanted to talk to you about some land purchases," said Sig, stepping out of another workshop and brushing her hands clean.
"Mm… let"s head to the house," said Lua, though it was clear her real interest lay in the food.
The three of them walked at a relaxed pace toward Lua"s home.
As soon as they stepped inside, Loli began setting the table with enthusiasm, placing dish after dish until she had Lua"s full attention. The sparkle in Lua"s eyes said more than words ever could.
"So… I gathered some cores and I"d like to buy Lua?" Sig started, realizing no one was paying her any attention.
"I m listening," Lua replied as she picked up a dish and calmly began eating, savoring every bite.
"Uhm… would you rather wait until you re done eating?" Sig asked, glancing at Liora, who was also happily digging into her food.
"No. Just say it," Lua replied without looking up, wanting to get through the business quickly so she could return to her meal.
"Alright. I"ve got ten cores, and I want to buy ten plots of landall the ones surrounding the central plaza," Sig said with composure.
"Okay," said Lua. She mentally instructed SIA to prepare the corresponding deeds, which appeared floating in front of her just a few seconds later.
Lua took them and handed them to Sig, who was slightly surprised by how smoothly the transaction went. She gave Lua the cores in return, though part of her had expected a slight price increaseespecially considering it was the central area. Or perhaps a restriction on monopolizing it. But it seemed Lua… didn t care at all.
"By the way… you ve gathered quite a few," Lua commented suddenly, lifting her gaze from the plate to look at Sig.
"Yeah, well… Uncle Joe"s whole team is helping. Apparently, they got pretty close to the ant queen and managed to mine some mana stone veins. Also, the gear you gave them is pretty OP," Sig explained with a half-smile.
"You still haven t cleared out the ants?" Lua asked, raising an eyebrow with mild annoyance.
"Well… it"s really hard. Literally, the day after they clear a zone, the ants regenerate at such a ridiculous rate that it"s like starting over every day," said Sig, trying to defend the team. After all, Lua had given them a week to clean the place… and they still hadn"t finished.
That comment reminded Lua of the bag the humans had broughtthe one she had taken at the start. Her gaze swept across the room quickly.
She remembered tossing it in a corner before heading to her room.
And sure enough… it was still there.