Jack missed his shack and all his old tools. He had built up a good collection of useful equipment and gadgets but left most of it behind when he came to the academy. He had spent many nights toiling away with his hands. He was extremely sad and was wandering the halls looking for something to do when he walked by a room that had a very familiar smell. It was a metallic smell that reminded him of Carcas. looking into the room, he gasped. Wall to wall was full of systems, machinery, and all sorts of advanced tools he had never seen before. Is this heaven? looking around he didn’t see anyone, so he tentatively took a step inside. The room equipment was dazzling. Very slowly he walked around the space, admiring each machine.

“Hand me the ¼ inch non-conductive socket wrench with the extended security hex bit.” The voice caught him by surprise, and he realized there was someone underneath the giant machine he had been admiring. After a moment of surprise and trying to catch his breath, Jack looked around expectantly. He soon saw a tool bag and walked over. The person who was under the machinery had stuck their hand out from underneath and was wiggling and waving it back and forth expectantly. The hand and arm were both covered in grease. Looking into the bag; the tools looked well-worn but extremely high quality and were kept in great shape. After a moment he found the socket wrench. Then he attached the bit requested and handed them the ratchet.

“Took you long enough, now I need a pair of curved jaw-locking pliers with an extended jaw, and hurry up!” Before he knew what he was doing, he was running back over to the tool pouch for what the person had requested. He still had no idea who it was under the machine. The pliers were easy enough to find and he quickly handed them over.

“Good.” That was all he got back from the voice. After a few moments, a short woman slid out from under the machine. She was covered head to toe in grease and her hair was an absolute mess. “Now who are you? And why are you in my shop” she peered closely at him. she had big magnifying goggles on that made her eyes look huge. Her voice had a southern drawl to it, and she seemed to overemphasize some vowels.

Her appearance had taken him by surprise, and he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “Uh, I miss designing and creating.” He was immediately embarrassed to admit such a bizarre feeling. But to his surprise what he said seemed to satisfy her.

“Well, why didn’t ya say so? What’s your name boy?”

“Jack. Uh, Jack Warwick.”

“Wariwick eh? hmm never heard the name before.” She had obviously misheard him, but he didn’t bother to fix her. “Now, what do you want to create today?” The question was sudden, but Jack already knew exactly what he wanted to make.

“I want to make something that will give me an advantage with my element.”

“And what element is that?” She said intrigued.

“Electricity,” he said, watching for the expected downtrodden reaction. But again, she just kept surprising him.

“Well fantastic. That sounds like an interesting challenge. Compared to other elements which are more straight forward; electricity has many unique traits. Do you have a design in mind?” Jack pulled out some drawings he had in his pocket, after a moment he found the one he was looking for and tried to flatten it out before handing it over. He started to get excited as she looked it over. “Hmm yes. Ok. Interesting. But why did you….. oh I see. This is a very interesting idea. You have a knack for design boy. I like the way you think. Unfortunately making such a weapon probably won’t be cheap. How do you plan to pay for the parts.”

The excitement in Jack’s mind suddenly dropped. Of course. Money, how did I forget? He started to beat himself up when she spoke.

“We have some scrap materials lying around. But technically that’s school property…. She trailed off with a wicked grin. What they don’t know won’t hurt em. But your gonna have to pay me back for the supplies. You seemed to know your way around tools, and you obviously have a knack for design.” She said waving the paper. “I’m gonna keep this. I want to see a more refined version of this schematic in my hands by morning.”

After that, they spent the afternoon maintaining a bunch of advanced machines that Jack had never seen before. The lady’s name was Belle Posie. She was happy to let Jack touch and work on all the machines. She was the Artificer teacher and also one of the academy’s lead maintenance personnel. After working with Jack, she offered him a part-time apprenticeship which he happily accepted. He had no idea what it would entail but he was in heaven and would have accepted anything.

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“This room here is the general artificer shop. It can be used by students in their free time.” She pointed to the large machine she was working on. “This here is a 9-axis gyroscopic thermo milling machine. Let’s go grab a chunk of aluminum and ill give you a quick demonstration of what this bad boy can do.” The machine was incredible, it could quickly process and remove large amounts of aluminum in shapes and positions Jack couldn’t believe.

The next machine was an Alternating Current Carbide tipped band saw. The saw blade was in a style Jack had never seen before. The blade was a large thin strip that ran around the machine. The thin blade allowed it to bend as it cut creating smooth curved cuts if needed.

The shop floor was a simple cement tile, but there were small cleanup drones that would scurry around picking up loose metal shavings. She took Jack into a side room that was completely overflowing with hand tools. The tools were all shapes and sizes and he only recognized a few. Each tool had its own perfectly designed place and a white outline to show where it belonged.

“Beautiful,” was all Jack said as he gazed at the superbly kept tools.

Ms. Belle took him around and showed him some more abstract machines. “That’s an articulated crypto analyzer. We’re probably gonna need this one to make some of your ideas. That over there is a cold fusion welder. We are definitely gonna need it to work on your project.” She just kept pointing and naming off machines. Jack had already forgotten the name of the first machine, but he happily nodded his head. The next morning before class Jack met her at the maintenance office and gave her the improved schematics she had demanded. She laughed when he handed it to her.

He had spent all night on it. Pyke had kept him company and was a happy companion to have. His design was straightforward, he was going to build a suit of armor with intricate copper wiring that would allow him to have more control over his element. That wasn’t the entire design though. Next was adding devices to that armor that he would then power and use to fight with. It was a weird design that had never really been done before. There were duelists who had cybernetic attachments and enhancements, but generally, they had augmented their bodies due to losing that particular limb. His idea still wasn’t especially creative because others had used powered weapons in duels, similar to the giant gun Gant had used in the fateful alley. But with his electricity, Jack was able to power the devices himself and that gave him incredible control and not to mention endurance.

The real creative part was the weapons he intended to power with his suit. One was an idea he had while back in Carcas. He had seen them using this dangerous-looking saw to cut down big trees on the outskirts of town. He had thought that saw design could cut through anything. Now that he was at the academy and had incredible machines and knowledgeable people maybe he could create such an insane weapon.

His design for the armor was simple. He wanted to keep the material thin while maximizing the ability for the electricity to flow. The designs were similar to basic plate armor. He didn’t like wearing a full suit though. It was very heavy even thinned. He designed a partial suit, to begin with. It was a simple breastplate that only covered the front of his chest and back with a nice large plate, the side under his arms was leather. His shoulders had small pauldrons that had a couple of tiny pieces hanging down to protect his upper arms. His legs were the same style. His thighs had a sheet that wrapped around the front. The back of his pants had no metal so he could easily sit down.

Once he had a simple armor design in mind, he was able to start planning the wiring. He kept it simple, he had multiple braided coils banded through the entire suit in an intricate pattern that ensured everywhere was covered.

“Well golly, I was just kidding, but that’s some damn fine work. While you’re here lemme give you something.” She went behind her desk and rummaged through it. Her office was very messy, and she had to brush some stuff to the side so she could open a drawer. After a few more moments of scrounging, she pulled out a small box. “I had an old set laying around I thought you could use them.” She tossed him the small box. He slowly opened it with reverence. In the box was a set of goggles similar to what she had been wearing. "Those there are basic mechanical analysis goggles. That button on the side allows them to send out a pulse of mana. When the mana bounces back the goggles are able to analyze the distance and then they can display an advanced in-depth view of mechanical machines right in front of you. Any good maintenance worker has a pair. I wanted to thank you for your hard work maintaining the shop and I noticed you didn’t have any so…”

“Wow thank you so much!" Jack pulled the goggles out and looked at them. After adjusting them quickly he pulled them over his head and fit them snuggly over his eyes. They had a musty smell to them. They obviously hadn’t been touched in years. “How do I power them?”

“Just pump a little neutral mana into them and watch.”

Jack did as instructed. Suddenly the view changed into a darker view of the room. But now Jack could see through the walls. He looked around, marveling at the number of pipes and wires flowing through the ceiling and floor. After a moment of thought, he looked toward Ms. Posie to see what she would look like. She just looked normal.

“Organic material reacts differently and the goggles can’t work on anyone or thing with its own mana. Jack went back to looking around the room. After a couple of minutes, he got a little motion sick and took them off. “Hahaha yea, they can take some time to get used to.”

Jack thanked her profusely and headed off to class.