New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 774 Gearing Up

Laying on a plush foam bed were a nice set of daggers, the blades a creamy white. It was evident at first sight that these were made of bone.

"Mr. Magnus was gracious enough to explain that the monsters that came into our world were a great resource and that we shouldn't shy away from using it. It took a bit of learning to use this special material, but our engineers were able to get results."

Pulling out the daggers, which were evidently made from large canines, Jack handed them to his wife, who grabbed them before twirling them around with an expert hand, checking their balance and weight.

"Hmm. These will do," she claimed, grabbing the sheaths Jack was handing her and stowing the blades.

Closing the crate, he then pointed to each crate, telling their new proprietors which one was theirs.

Clark pulled out a set of bone brass knuckles, which seemed to be made with actual rat paws, the claws on it polished and sharpened.

Juan pulled out an enormous axe, whose shaft was made of titanium but tied to an axe blade made of bone, seemingly from an enormous ilium bone. It had been sharpened expertly, and Juan could tell this was a good axe.

Jonathan received a pair of gauntlets that had two shining orbs on them. At first, he wondered what they might be, but Alex looked at them in awe.

"The rats dropped monster cores?! Those are chock full of mana! Lucky bastard!"

Jonathan's ability to sense mana was still very rudimentary on this side, so he had missed that detail. But with Alex telling them what they were, he smiled.

These were similar to his weapons in New Eden. He could fight at ease with these.

Cory pulled a mace from his crate, made with a larger paw than the ones on Clark's knuckles, and had a monster core embedded between the claws. The heft of the weapon alone was enough to tell him this could cause severe damage.

Jack pulled a long rifle from a crate, and David frowned at him.

"I thought I had told you that normal weapons wouldn't damage these beasts…" he said, his forehead creased.

"Oh, but this is all but a regular weapon, Mr. Magnus," Jack replied.

He pulled the stock off the rifle, and David saw a small monster core inside it. Then, he also noticed some etching along the body and barrel of the rifle and understood what Jack meant.

But it still wouldn't suffice.

"That can charge mana into the bullets, but only barely. This'll tickle them, at best," David said, grimacing.

"Ah, but that's where these come in, young man," Jack said with a grin.

He lifted the foam bed, which the rifle had been resting on, and revealed a dozen magazines filled to the brim with bullets.

"This rifle wasn't modified inside, meaning it still fires bullets like a regular rifle. But the bullets get a small mana charge from the etching and the monster core. But the bullets themselves are where the true magic happens.

"You see, my class in New Eden, Prowler, also uses guns. And I have learned that there is more to firing those in New Eden than just the weapon. The bullets also play a significant role. So I studied them in the game. And came up with a solution to our problem.

"These bullets were specially engineered with monster parts so that the mana contained in the corpse stays inside. This way, the bullets are just as dangerous to people as they are to beasts."

David's eyebrow cocked up as he lay his eyes back on the bullets. He could feel a faint trace of mana inside them, but it was so tiny.

He doubted they could even hurt the rats they were made from.

Until he noticed etching on them as well.

He was no etching master, but he could tell it matched the one on the gun, and his mind lit up.

'An activation sequence! The mana is locked inside until they get fired! How ingenious,' he thought, getting excited.

"I guess we'll see on the battlefield," he said, faking indifference.

David reeled as he turned away, looking at the other, still-

unopened crates.

'This is not something I told him to do… They are using techniques that shouldn't be used yet. Just how much am I changing the timeline…'

Everyone was inspecting each other's new gear when Jack clapped his hands together again.

"The gifting isn't over. Gather 'round."

Their attention snapped back to him, smiles rising. Everything they received could significantly raise their chances of survival.

And who would say no to free stuff, right?

Once everyone was before him once more, Jack pulled forward another crate, this one bigger.

"We didn't just use the bones and cores. Since Mr. Magnus told us that every part can be used, we used as much as possible. Therefore, we could sew together some light armour made from the pelts of the rats.

"Rest easy; they were washed clean and fixed. There won't be any funny smell or unfortunate holes and tears in them.

"We made them to the sizes we knew, and for the ones we didn't know, we made various sizes, to be sure. Plenty of armours are available, so please pick out the ones with your names on them or one that fits if you can't find one tagged to your name."

The group huddled up around the crate, pulling out the leather armours one after another and putting them on.

It was an awkward experience for those who had never donned leather armour, but a few of them went around helping the others, as they were experienced.

Alex was one of them, as he had learned how to don his armour without the equip function in New Eden, simply for the fun of immersion. The other was David, surprisingly.

But his experience came from elsewhere.

Once everyone was geared up, they all looked like a small tribe of old getting ready to hunt a mammoth or something. It was almost comical.

"Alright, then! Seems like we're ready. Let's get going," Jack called out, heading for the door.

'Let the hunt begin,' Alex thought, grinning nervously.