Chapter 419: The Big Quivers

Next on the list were the various types of Demonic grenades. These were already fierce and volatile weapons, and as they began to evolve, they grew even scarier. For a moment, John felt a surge of restlessness.

The air in the basement became thick, and he genuinely feared that a single glitch would cause the entire batch to detonate right in his face.

He didn’t take any chances. He activated his absolute defensive ability while he waited for each group of grenades to finalise their evolution.

The final result was nothing short of apocalyptic! One of the grenades had transformed into something that reminded him of the deadly cluster bombs from Earth, designed to saturate a battlefield with hundreds of lethal sub-munitions.

Another was even more terrifying; its blast radius was so vast that it could theoretically cover an entire city in a singular, fierce explosion. It reminded him of the tactical nukes back home.

"I can’t let the girls sniff about these," he muttered to himself. The sheer destructive potential was too high to be common knowledge. However, his thoughts immediately drifted to Cissel, and he felt a familiar, heavy sigh escape his chest. "At least one girl is still behaving normally... and Elena won’t say no to having a few of these in her inventory for emergencies."

John carefully placed the different evolved versions of the grenades onto the platforms before turning toward the final items on his menu: the Draconic Ballistae and Net towers.

"If they changed to be dependent on Mana Gemstones instead of physical arrows and nets, it would be a real game-changer," John mused, looking at the two distinct tower types.

He recalled what Goven had told him previously about the nightmare of mass-producing the ammunition for these weapons. According to Goven, the ores required to forge the ballistae arrows and the high-tensile nets were the same grade, and they were only found in the deep reaches of the New World. With the Demon fleet currently blockading their zone, there was zero chance of going out to locate and secure new ore mines.

To make matters worse, John’s personal zone was overflowing with Mana Gemstones but was incredibly poor in mineral ores; he could count his active mines on a single hand. Goven had explained that this was the standard for high-grade zones: an abundance of energy but a scarcity of raw materials. To others, it was a blessing; to a man trying to run a self-sufficient war machine, it was a logistical headache.

John held high hopes that the evolution process would rewrite the fundamental fuel requirement of these towers, forcing them to operate on pure mana. But when the light subsided, the end result was quite disappointing.

"Neither of the two worked over the gemstones..."

He inspected the updated towers. They had certainly grown deadlier; the number of ballistae launchers and net cannons at the top of each structure had tripled, and their range was now staggering. Yet, this didn’t solve the core issue. If anything, his problem had just tripled in scale; he now had more barrels that required ammunition he couldn’t easily find.

"I recall that evolving the sensors ended up turning them into a factory that produced more sensors..." John muttered, refusing to let the disappointment sink in. He remembered the ground and aerial sensors he had evolved previously, which had gained the ability to birth smaller units.

Clinging to this sliver of hope, he tried to evolve a batch of the ballistae arrows themselves. To his frustration, he ended up with nothing but a much sharper, much heavier, and much deadlier version of the same arrow. It still required ore to create.

"Screw this! I’m going to evolve the quivers then!"

He refused to give in. He pulled out the massive quivers used to feed the towers, containers that held hundreds of heavy bolts, and initiated the 10-unit batch evolution. He expected another failure, but then the system chime rang with a different tone, and a notification appeared in his Shell window.

[ Big Quiver: Advanced Grade – Capable of generating Ballistae Quiver Arrows (100 arrows per cycle). Requirement: Must be powered by Mana Gemstones!]

John stared at the enhanced quiver in his hand. The initially massive, bulky container had shrunk down to the size of his forearm, its surface now etched with intricate glowing runes. It had become exactly the solution he had been praying for: a mana-to-matter converter for his ammunition.

He didn’t hesitate. He took a single green Mana Gemstone and placed it near the quiver. The moment the stone entered a ten-meter radius, it dissolved into a liquid emerald mist. The quiver drank the energy, glowing with a brilliant green light that expanded to cover a huge area before receding. When the light vanished, the floor was covered in tens of thousands of ready-to-use quivers.

"Dammit! I’m so damn good!"

John laughed hysterically, holding the small quiver like it was a holy relic. "If this is the solution for the arrows, then I expect the same results with these nets."

He shifted his focus to the large metallic nets, hopeful for a repeat of his success. However, he was destined to be disappointed once more. After several attempts at evolving the nets and their canisters, the factory’s feature failed to manifest.

"It seems evolving the items themselves won’t always yield the factory feature... and, unfortunately for me, there isn’t a quiver equivalent for the nets like there is for the arrows."

Even with that minor setback, he looked at his overall gains with immense satisfaction. He had evolved every piece of equipment that had previously been stalled, and he had solved one of the most pressing logistical nightmares facing his ballistae towers.

John took a final tour of the basement to ensure he had placed everything correctly. Every weapon, every wall, and every specialised tool that could be of use to him, his friends, or his future holdings in the new world was now laid out across the grand circular structure.

It had taken him roughly five hours to complete the layout, and seeing the sheer variety of world-ending weaponry gathered in one place gave him a profound sense of achievement.

"Now, let’s see what this Machine Factory is really capable of."

He took out several mountains of metal scraps. Finally, he pulled out the Machine Fragment core and authorised the merge with bated breath.

___________________

"Listen... John already got over you! You saw how he acted before that girl. And you already broke up with him. So why don’t the two of us get along together?"

Ricky stood in front of Cissel, right in front of her dorm’s half-opened door, while she blocked the entry with her body. If anything, she looked completely speechless at how daring and utterly stupid Ricky was being right now.

Ever since John had sent everyone away to manage the department tests, Ricky hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Cissel. His mind had tried to tell him that it was far too soon to make a move, that the wounds of the breakup were still fresh and bleeding. Yet, his heart pressed over taking the first step immediately, drowning out his common sense.

He reasoned his actions by how John had just acted in front of Natalie, performing as if he were entirely open to befriending a new, stunning girl, even if it was happening right in front of Cissel’s eyes. What had truly ignited Ricky’s courage and completely dimmed his hesitation, however, was how nonchalant Cissel had behaved through the entire ordeal. She hadn’t flinched, hadn’t argued, and hadn’t thrown a tantrum.

Because of that cold mask, Ricky thought he actually had a chance, so he moved fast to seize the opening. He never once thought that he was simply digging his own grave with his own hands.

Cissel took a long, heavy moment to fully process the absurd words she had just heard. Then, she slowly stepped forward, her eyes flashing with a dangerous, glaring intensity that instantly told Ricky something was horribly wrong.

"You... You think that, by being the reason I got hurt in the first place, the reason I broke up with John, you have a chance? Screw off!"

Cissel didn’t even give him a fraction of a second to say anything extra. She instantly slammed the heavy door right in his face with a resounding crash.

Ricky stood rooted to the spot, motionless, totally taken aback by the venom that had just been thrown in his face. The hallway fell into a ringing silence. He truly didn’t know how the situation had ended up this way. He had genuinely thought she would give him some room to talk, to explain himself, but she was far more stubborn than he had ever anticipated.

"I’ll make you regret it," he whispered savagely into the empty hallway. He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, feeling far more insulted than remorseful about his brazen betrayal of his friend. "I swear I’ll make you regret it."

Behind the thick wood of the door, Cissel clearly heard his parting threat, but she didn’t give any heed to it whatsoever. She knew him much better than he knew himself. She knew this was just a temporary fit of rage, an ugly bruise to his oversized ego, and that once the anger cooled down, he would inevitably try his luck with her again.