Thomas looked over the notices and sighed heavily. He was really disappointed with the results, especially since he knew he could easily do better if he just had more time to work on it and make the pieces with more care and attention. After some very simple math, he could easily tell that without the 'Inventor' title giving him bonus experience he would have only gotten 104 experience for creating the welding torch. It really was the worst thing he had made, even the experience he would have gotten for it showed that.

Thomas set the welding torch down before going to the storefront to let Hekrin know he was done. He had very little time left so he couldn't even take a moment to test the welding torch before showing it to Hekrin. He was confident it would work, even if it didn't work very well. Provided nothing was inherently wrong with it. Thomas opened the door and spoke to Hekrin, "It's done, Master."

Hekrin looked at Thomas and Thomas could tell he was still rather pissed at him. Hopefully, the welding torch would help fix that. On the bright side, he hadn't lost any of his reputation with Hekrin... yet. He was relatively certain one of the punishments for failing the quest would be the complete loss of his reputation with Hekrin. He thought this because it felt in-line with Hekrin's personality.

Hekrin hopped off his stool and followed Thomas into the back room. Hekrin looked at the spread out tools and hunks of iron laying all around the room. He frowned at the mess but said nothing as he looked at Thomas. Thomas walked over to the table and picked up the welding torch, "This is what I made, Master."

Thomas was determined to try and butter up Hekrin by constantly referring to him as 'Master'. It wasn't working in the least. Hekrin eyed the ugly looking hunk of wood with a small piece of metal stuck on it, "What is that piece of trash supposed to be?"

Despite agreeing with Hekrin's assessment of the welding torch, Thomas still couldn't keep himself from flinching when Hekrin referred to it as trash. Thomas took a deep breath before explaining, "It's a crude recreation of a tool from my world. If I had more time to make the tool properly it would look and perform better. For now, I hope it will show some worth as a prototype, Master. It is called a 'Welding Torch'. Its purpose is to weld two pieces of metal together, much like using a forge to forge weld metal together."

Thomas set the welding torch down and fetched two of the leftover hunks of the iron ingot. He used a file to clean the edges and made sure there was nothing on them that could ruin an attempt to weld them together. He really felt the need to make something like an angle grinder or belt sander for something like this. Once he was sure the surfaces were clean enough to weld he set the two pieces next to each other before picking up the welding torch and one of the small sections of iron wire he'd created.

He fit the iron wire into the small hole he'd drilled into the contact tip of the welding torch and took a deep breath, "Watch closely, Master. I'll now weld these two pieces of iron together."

Hekrin huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. Thomas felt incredibly nervous, his heart was hammering away in his chest and felt like it might burst. The system had registered it as a completed device, but that didn't necessarily mean that Thomas had gotten everything right when making it. For all he knew nothing would happen or it might even explode. He took a few calming breaths before he started to channel his mana through his arm and hand into the welding torch. He felt his mana draining incredibly fast. He wouldn't be able to run the welding torch for more than a few minutes before being completely drained of mana.

Nothing happened until Thomas touched the iron wire to the iron ingot pieces. It was at that moment that Thomas realized he'd forgotten something incredibly important in his nervousness. The instant the iron wire touched the iron ingot pieces there was a blindingly bright flash of light and a shower of sparks. When welding one should always wear thick leather gloves and wear a face shield with extremely dark eye protection. The light blinded Thomas for a brief moment before his vision went extremely dark and protected his sight from the blinding light. Thomas felt even more of his mana draining as his 'All Seeing Eyes' activated to protect his sight from the blindingly bright light.

With his vision protected by his 'All Seeing Eyes', Thomas quickly used up the small piece of wire before setting the welding torch down. He felt extremely drained of mana, almost to the point of being completely drained and passing out. The darkened vision from his 'All Seeing Eyes' drained far more mana that using the magnification option and combined with the extremely draining welding torch he was almost empty.

Thomas looked at the still cooling weld on the two pieces of iron ingot. It was extremely poorly done and spotty, but it looked like it would hold as long as there wasn't too much pressure applied to it. Hekrin, meanwhile, was still rubbing his flash blinded eyes and grumbling, "What in the bloody hell was that?!"

Thomas turned to look at Hekrin and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Master. In my nervousness, I forgot that would happen. I was so rushed to make this that I wasn't entirely sure if it would work or not and completely forgot about it being so bright."

Thomas didn't even bother mentioning the small burns that dotted his hand, they didn't matter in the least at the moment. All that mattered was showing Hekrin the weld was complete. Thomas looked back at the ingot and sighed, it had worked, not very well but it worked! Hekrin stopped rubbing his eyes and looked at what Thomas had done. Thomas gingerly touched the far ends of the ingot, furthest away from the weld, and showed it to Hekrin, "The welding torch melts the wire and bonds it with the pieces of metal to fuse them together into one piece."

Thomas offered the welded ingot to Hekrin, it had, surprisingly, already cooled enough to be handled without causing any harm. Hekrin accepted the ingot and looked it over. After studying it for a moment, Hekrin began to apply pressure to try and bend or break the weld on the ingot. Watching Hekrin, Thomas became nervous and said, "I didn't manage to do a great weld on it, with proper eye protection and some time I could do a better weld."

Hekrin just grunted and continued to try and bend the ingot. Unknown to Thomas, Hekrin was using very little of his strength at first but was slowly increasing it as he continued to try to break the weld. As Thomas watched Hekrin, the weld began to slowly bend before Hekrin finally managed to completely snap the weld and break the ingot into two pieces once more. Thomas flinched when the weld snapped and began to panic a little inside. Thomas may have already unlocked the Magitech Engineering skill, but he was certain that there was more to it than he currently knew and expected that if he failed the quest he would have a very hard time learning any secrets to it from this point forward.

Hekrin remained silent as he examined the two pieces of iron in his hands for a solid minute, dragging out Thomas's suffering. Finally, Hekrin looked up at Thomas, "So, you said if you had your eye protection and more time you could have done a better job and made this more solid?"

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Thomas nodded his head up and down rapidly, "That's right, Master."

Hekrin glanced at the pieces of iron once more before he smiled broadly, "Impressive kid! You really did make something I've never seen before! Well done!"

System Notice: Quest Complete! Your lack of respect towards Hekrin by not showing up yesterday has infuriated him. He has demanded that you impress him with the item you have claimed to be planning to make.

Rewards: Maximum Reputation with Hekrin, Hekrin's Inheritance

Failure: ???

Time Limit: 10 Hours

Seeing the completed quest notice, Thomas let out a deep breath and visibly relaxed. Then he noticed the rewards for completing the quest and stopped breathing again. Inheritance? Hadn't he seen something about that before? Hadn't there been a game-wide notice when the first one had been found? Thomas was extremely curious, but he had no idea what an inheritance really was or what it entailed so it may not be that great of a thing. However, maximum reputation with Hekrin was priceless.

Hekrin grinned broadly at Thomas, "Alright kid. Go get some sleep and come back early tomorrow. I'll give you a lesson on the core of Magitech. Once you learn it you will be a fully fledged Magitechnician."

Thomas nodded mechanically at Hekrin's suggestion. He was honestly mentally and physically drained. The stress of having to make the welding torch so fast with the risk of failure potentially being horrible combined with his drained mana made him feel exhausted. Thomas bid goodnight to Hekrin and made his way to The Swans Nest where he absentmindedly ate dinner before retiring to his room for the night and passing out the moment his head hit his pillow.

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The following morning, Thomas wolfed down his breakfast and quickly made his way to Hekrin's place. He was really curious about his lesson and what Hekrin's Inheritance might be. Upon arriving at the store he was greeted by a smiling Hekrin. It was honestly a little offputting. Hekrin waved Thomas over and lead him into the workroom. Hekrin looked at Thomas and asked him, "What is Magitech Engineering?"

Thomas thought for a moment before giving a bland answer, "It's the combination of magic and technology."

Hekrin nodded, "So tell me kid. What magic have you put into the items you've made so far?"

Thomas hadn't really made much yet so he answered with, "I've put enchantments on everything I've made."

Hekrin huffed, "That's nothing! Anyone can put an enchantment on anything. That's not magic." Hekrin held up his right hand and a small ball of fire immediately appeared and hovered over his hand, "This is magic. Enchanting uses mana, sure, but it's not really magic. It just enhances what is already there and makes it do something new or better. Magic, real magic, is using mana outside of your body to create something." Hekrin lifts his hand, and by that action the fireball hovering over it, "Like this."

Thomas nodded and listened to Hekrin as he continued, "Real Magitech Engineering is the fusion of this...", He lifted his hand to emphasize the fireball once more, "And this..." He pulled out a grenade that looked similar to the one Thomas made previously, "When you add fire magic to a basic grenade it brings it to a completely new level of destruction and damage. To combine the two requires fusing your mana and it's intent into the item you're crafting. It's similar to enchanting, but different at the same time since you're infusing the intention of a specific spell into the item. The technology enhances the magic and the magic enhances the technology until the two merge to create something even stronger. THAT is Magitech Engineering."

Thomas swallowed as he let the information sink in. His first thought was that he needed to increase his Magic attribute a lot, his second thought was that he needed to learn magic as soon as possible. He decided to visit one of the magic trainers in the city and learn a few spells. As if reading his mind Hekrin said, "You don't currently know any magic spells do you?"

Thoms shook his head, no point in not being honest with Hekrin. Hekrin nodded, "I expected as much. To become a worthwhile Magitech Engineer you need a good understanding of magic."

Hekrin extinguished the fireball in his hand and walked over to one of the work tables where a small envelope and a small box sat. Hekrin picked up both items and walked back over to Thomas. Hekrin held out the small envelope, "This is a letter of introduction to the Reykhoten Magic Academy in the capital. Their new semester starts in one week and with this letter you should be able to join. However, the one thousand gold entry fee is on you. If you can get the money and attend you will learn far more about magic there than you ever could from any of the so-called wizards in this city."

Thomas gratefully accepted the letter of introduction and carefully stored it inside of his storage ring so he wouldn't lose it. Hekrin held the small wooden box in both of his hands and sighed, "This, this is something I worked on for a long time but couldn't ever manage to get to work as I wanted. It worked fine against weaker enemies, but against anything with decent Endurance, it was completely useless. Maybe... maybe you will be able to make it work even better." Hekrin looked over at the welding torch still sitting on the work table, "You made such an amazing tool that I think, just maybe, you can make my dream come true and complete my life's work."

Hekrin held the box out to Thomas with both of his hands like it was his most precious possession, maybe it was. Thomas carefully accepted the box from Hekrin as Hekrin said, "This is my legacy and you are now inheriting it."

System Notice: You have received Hekrin Graveljaw's inheritance. Inheritance quest unlocked. You have gained the title 'Inheritor'.

Inheritor: All actions related to your inheritance receive double experience.

System Notice: New Quest, Repeatable Quest! Hekrin Graveljaw has entrusted his life's work to you. You must take his idea and improve upon it. Every time you improve upon his inheritance you will receive experience based on the degree to which you improve it.

Rewards: ???

Thomas looked over the notifications before he focused on the box in his hands. Thomas supported the box with his left hand while using his right to flip up the latch and open the box to reveal its contents. As he opened the lid Hekrin spoke, "This is the Magitech Tube. A weapon I designed."

Thomas looked at the contents of the box, at first he didn't recognize it. All he saw was a tube strapped onto a crossbow handle. However, after looking at it for a moment his eyes slowly began to widen in surprise. It was a fucking GUN! A crude and poorly designed gun, but a gun none the less! What the hell was a gun doing in a fantasy game?! Thomas looked up from the gun to stare at Hekrin. Misunderstanding Thomas's look Hekrin explained, "The Magitech Tube uses compressed air to launch small projectiles at high speeds, far faster than a bow or crossbow is capable of, using comparable materials. As you hold it, it will absorb a small amount of your mana to compress air into the back of the tube. The trigger is enchanted so that when you channel mana into it and pull it, it will cause the compressed air to release all at once and launch the projectile."

Air gun or not it was still a goddamn gun! Thomas gaped as he looked at Hekrin. Still misunderstanding Thomas's expression, Hekrin continued, "Unfortunately, as I said before, once the target you're trying to shoot has a high enough Endurance attribute it becomes completely ineffective. I've tried enhancing it in several ways but its power only increased by marginal amounts, or fell off into uselessness." Hekrin turned serious, "So I am giving this to you in the hopes that you can make it into the weapon it was meant to be. Don't let me down, Thomas."