You’re A Natural

Kan'na spun a magic circle at the tip of her finger while Givale and Mira trailed behind her with questioning expressions. They remained at the battlefield of the Undead, more specifically across the more ruined part from Torch's mutually assured destruction fiasco. Walking about casually Kan'na continued to perform various balancing tricks with the magic circle.

It suddenly flashed a color and Kan'na paused. Throwing it into the air she watched it hover before moving towards a specific direction. Several seconds passed as it searched about before it halted and descended. 

Approaching the spot it descended towards Kan'na sifted the dirt around before she spotted what she was searching for. Picking it up she inspected it carefully, "I suppose that's an interesting way to do it."

Givale was the first to ask, "What exactly are you doing?"

"Finding a certain someone. You guys should know him, Torch?"

"The robot guy? He helped us train!", Givale nodded seriously.

"Mhm, Akiol is taking a bit to respond to my request to meet up with him. So I figured I'd search him out myself."

"So what does that have to do with the thing you picked up?"

Kan'na casually tossed it about, "This thing I believe is the mana generator he uses to power himself and the mechanical soldiers of his. I figured with the thousands that got destroyed there should be at least one still somewhat intact."

"You want to repair it?"

"No, it's useless to me. Rather I want the mana signature inside."

Tossing it into the air Kan'na formed several magic circles to surround it. They occasionally shot a tiny ball of mana into the reactor, thoroughly testing it. Watching this process a bit Kan'na nodded at her success. Now focusing her attention to the two little ones she said, "Right. What do you two want to do?"

"I'm hungry!", Givale didn't hesitate.

Mira agreed with this, "Me too."

Kan'na clasped her hands together, "Food is easy. Let's get moving."

Magic circles formed at the bottom of their feet and the three teleported away from the battlefield. Arriving at the Kingdom Kan'na ushered them to the nearest restaurant and allowed them to pick their choice of dishes. As they began to gorge on the meal she rubbed her hands, "Okay, now time for the real goods."

The random loot box! The fight against the Undead King gave all participating players a quest, the reward being this random loot box!

Although loot boxes had a varied reputation, Kan'na was confident the reward pool for a Fourth Stage boss wasn't going to be disappointing. Granted it shouldn't be a Fourth Stage level reward since they only bought time. . . no matter!

Accepting the reward Kan'na caught a falling loot box. It was ordained in gold and various jewels making it very eye catching. Immediately various players walking by stole glances towards such a box. Kan'na lowered the box and frowned. She could sense the shuffling around her grow in intensity. There was seriously a few thief players entering stealth to steal this?

Casually making a defensive magic circle around her she then moved to open the box. Slowly lifting the lid she was greeted with a bright golden glow and the faint sound of humming. The light faded and inside was. . .

Kan'na frowned, "What?"

Grabbing the object she tossed the box aside, it tumbled in the air before turning into white strands. The object seemed incredibly fragile to the touch, like a masterpiece of fine tuned engineering. 

It was made of three loops, ordained with mana crystals, in the center was a perfect sphere made of a silver metal. These loops spun at different rotations acting like a sort of gyroscope until Kan'na laid it into her palm. The three loops then moved to lay flat as well, making it look more like a pendant.

The magic circle pulsed and a thief player tumbled head over heels back. She tossed a glance towards this player and huffed, "Scram out of here before I call the guards."

The thief didn't even retort before scrambling away. Immediately Kan'na could tell a few thief players began to hesitate upon seeing this scene. Pleased with her defenses she returned to studying her object. Tapping her lip she decided to let the strange object drop. Allowing it to fall a few inches before hovering in the air, the loops spinning about.

Kan'na watched this and rose an eyebrow. Attempting to identify the object returned only question marks, which was very disappointing considering she found it out of a loot box. Placing two fingers at an eye she formed a scissor cutting motion with these fingers, a magic circle forming each time they 'opened'.

Using the magic circles to get a closer look at the object Kan'na found it to be very carefully engraved with various runes. This immediately made her heart swell with happiness. Magic runes she could work with!

Recording all visible runes she took a moment to organize them and decode its purpose. She got lost in this study of hers that she failed to notice the rapidly piling plates. Nor the rising bill she'd have to pay.

Instead she noticed a few interesting features of her item. It followed the traditional rule of circular shapes when it came to runes. The metal loops, or rather she decided to call them rings, worked similarly the circular edge of a magic circle. They provided a set of instructions to the mana as it traveled to the center sphere, where the next ring would provide additional instructions. 

Simple in practice, and Kan'na was more than familiar with this kind of design. Once she understood this process it was even simpler to decode. Organizing the runes by each loop she studied their overall structure before coming to a conclusion.

This was a compass! 

Or at least it should be. It's designed to point towards a specific set of coordinates, but the physical form of the compass wasn't designed to point anywhere. Additionally the coordinates weren't found in the runes she discovered.

She had reason to believe that the coordinates were locked within the center sphere, ingrained inside of it preventing her from easily accessing them. Finding them wouldn't be too hard, she was only worried about potential safeguards. She didn't wish to destroy it. . .

Creating a series of magic circles she placed the compass within and it began to hover on its own. These magic circles were designed to scan the innards of the center silver sphere. This gentle manner shouldn't trigger any failsafe within and still allow her to find the coordinates.

Adding it with the mana generating core from Torch's scraps she then dusted off her hands. Returning her focus to the two little ones she was startled to see just how many plates were now stacked onto the table, empty.

'Right, dragon and hydra respectively. Seriously, isn't it Jarvis who's supposed to find legendary creatures like these?', Kan'na chided to herself.

When the final plate clattered onto the stack Kan'na could hear relieved sighs coming from the other side. Paying for the food she shook her head, "Perhaps I should lend some money to Akiol if he pays this much a day."

Givale was startled, "I can eat less!"

"He has enough money don't worry, it's a joke. You've got quite some time until you can empty his pockets."

"Yielya said the same thing. . ."

While laughing at this Kan'na grabbed the mana generating core and extracted the information her magic circles collected. Pinching a small wisp of mana she tugged it free and inspected it, "Bingo! Givale I need your assistance."

"Of course!", Givale was more than willing.

Handing her the wisp of mana Kan'na instructed, "I need you to create a portal with the other end being this signature."

Givale grabbed the wisp of mana and frowned, "I can do that?"

"In theory. I can't make accurate teleportation spells without a set of coordinates. To do that would require some serious space manipulation, which you happen to be the only expert I know in."

"I've never tried making a portal to somewhere I can't see normally."

"I can test if the other side is safe for us to enter. For now just try?"

"Okay. . ."

Grabbing the wisp of mana Givale focused and space rippled in front of her. Focusing on the mana she tried to send the end of the portal through to this specific mana. Kan'na watched the portal ripple a bit before raising a hand. Covering an eye of Givale she formed a magic circle. Suddenly Givale could see the specific mana signature, focusing on that the portal solidified and stopped rippling.

Kan'na grinned, "Oh perfect, you're a natural."

Without hesitation Kan'na went to step through the portal before Givale caught and stopped her. An incredulous look form on Givale's face, "I thought you were going to check if it's safe?"

"Yeah. That's what I'm doing.", Kan'na answered simply before freeing herself from Givale's grasp.

Stepping through she looked about, nodded, and reached a hand back through the portal to give a thumbs up. Givale and Mira looked about nervously while going through the portal. They were then greeted by the sight of Torch.

He was frozen in shock upon seeing them waltz inside with no difficulty, and only snapped out of his daze when he dropped the box he was holding.