Thomas disassembled the rifle and laid out the various parts to check them over for any signs that something was off or didn't fit right. He did so by looking for any signs of minute damage using his 'All Seeing Eyes' to zoom in as closely on the items as he could. There were only some minor scratches from metal sliding against metal, nothing too deep or dangerous looking. Once he greased up the moving parts it shouldn't cause any issues. He smiled at the work he'd done so far and started with the next step.

He retrieved the big block of amalgamated mana crystal from his inventory and began breaking large chunks off of it. With the help of Transmutation, he used those chunks to fill in the hollow parts of the rifle's body. The process was smooth and simple but added a lot of mana capacity to the weapon. No matter how he thought about it, a weapon as powerful as this one would be would require a large amount of mana to operate. Having some spare mana charged into the built-in batteries could at least allow for a couple of shots before he had to use his own mana pool. By the time every empty space was filled the once large block of mana crystal had been reduced quite a bit. It probably wouldn't last much longer. Not that it mattered, he could always easily make more.

With the amalgamated mana crystal installed, it was time to start carving enchantments. Before he could begin though, he selected some purified Mithril and began transmuting it into rings. The center of each ring was designed to snuggly fit against specific sections of the barrel. The exteriors of the rings were flat so that they could be easily enchanted. Thomas took his time making sure that each ring would fit snugly against the barrel at its intended spot. Once enchanted these rings would provide the unidirectional magnetic pull that would accelerate the bullet.

After making and measuring each ring along the barrel at evenly spaced intervals, he removed them and set them on the work table. Each ring would be enchanted on its own making it a separate item from the rifle. He had to admit that he had accidentally discovered quite the cheat. Not like other people couldn't, or possibly hadn't, discovered it before him though. With the rings ready, he disassembled the bolt for the rifle and extracted the firing pin. It would need to be enchanted with a weak flame enchantment to ignite the small charge of Firestone Gem Powder that would be in each shell casing. The powder would just get the bullet moving so that the magnetic acceleration could take over.

In a future version he planned to make a different mechanism to get the bullet moving, maybe something using springs? Or maybe there was a way to make the next version semi-automatic or full-automatic with the proper set up? He wasn't entirely sure. Something like this was kind of out of his wheelhouse. That was why he had to copy designs off of the internet to know what to do. He was by no means a real gunsmith. He could do some more research and experimentation in the future. For the time being, he was going to make the rifle more like it's real-world counterpart and just augment it with magic. Once he got the hang of that he could move toward something different.

With all the pieces ready for their enchantments, Thomas mixed up the enchanting mixture before conjuring up an engraving tool. He started with the firing pin as the enchantment for it was the simplest of them all. With just a few lines along the thinner piece of metal, he completed the enchantment. When he channeled some of his mana into the firing pin a small flame, smaller than the flame of a lighter, appeared at the tip. If magic wasn't such a common and readily available resource in the game, he would have contemplated making small items to produce flames similar to the firing pin. He could have sold them as lighters.

The firing pin was set to the side and the first ring for the magnetic acceleration was picked up. He planned for each ring in the series to be more powerful than the previous one to have the bullet gradually accelerate to maximum speed. Of course, in this case, 'gradually' was less than a couple of milliseconds. In other words, it would accelerate in a ridiculously short amount of time. Since he was working with five rings along the barrel, he decided that each ring would represent twenty percent of his maximum Power attribute. It was the best he could think of at the moment. He began to slowly carve around the exterior of the ring with the image of a cylinder in mind. The cylinder would have a unidirectional magnetic pull. The pull would be going from the end of the cylinder in the direction of the ring.

The design of the enchantment was simple. A single thick band of mana crystal was deposited around the entire circumference of the ring. Perpendicular lines, like rays, came out of the ring in the direction that the magnetic pull was oriented. The rays wrapped around one side of the ring to the interior where another thick line went around the inside of the ring. Though the design was simple, carving so much still took him a good half an hour to complete. When it was finished, he held the ring up and examined it thoroughly. Once he was satisfied he decided to test it out.

He retrieved his trusty metal sphere from one of his storage rings. The little ball of metal had been with him for a while now and helped him out a lot when practicing his Magnetic magic. It was completely covered in scratches and a few spots flattened from hard impacts but overall it was still in good shape. He set it on the workbench using one of the flattened spots to keep it from rolling around. With the test object in place, he started to channel mana into the enchanted ring. The enchantment gave off a soft purple glow but there were no other signs of it working. Thomas held it in place and kept channeling his mana into it to feel how much energy it was costing him. Unsurprisingly, it was a fair amount.

Not wanting to waste any more of his mana, he held to ring above the metal ball, far enough away that the magnetic magic couldn't reach it. He slowly lowered the ring down watching very carefully. The instant the invisible magnetic field touched the metal ball it vanished from his sight. Simultaneously there was a loud crack followed by dust and debris falling down from the ceiling. He slowly tilted his head back and looked up at the ceiling. There, directly above where he had held the ring, was a round hole in the ceiling letting some sunlight shine down. There was surprise followed by immediate regret on his face. He threw his hands in the air and immediately shouted out, "Noooooooooooo!" in an overly dramatic fashion.

Once again his melodrama earned him the ire of the little white wolf laying off to the side of the room. She rolled her crystal blue eyes at him before getting comfortable once again. The crack of the metal ball breaking through the ceiling had surprised her, Once she saw there was no danger she relaxed once more and left Thomas to his antics.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Thomas wasn't as upset over the loss of the metal ball as he was acting but it still sucked. He'd been using it as a weapon and for experiments for a while now and had grown somewhat attached to it. With it flying through the ceiling like that it was likely that he would never be able to find it again. There was also the issue of the hole in the ceiling. He was certain he would have to pay for the repairs. It's not that he couldn't afford it, but after spending more than half of his money at the auction, he felt that frivolous spending should be kept to a minimum for a while.

He got over it quickly and set the enchanted ring down on the table. He picked up the next ring and began to enchant it. The first ring had the concept of 'magnetic pull equal to twenty percent of my power' so the second ring was upped to forty percent. The design of the enchantment was the exact same. He repeated the process of enchanting the rings while upping their pull strength by twenty percent each time until the fifth ring reached one-hundred percent. Enchanting all five of the rings took him a total of three hours.

With the rings completed and set to the side, Thomas picked up the barrel of the rifle and began to carve lines into it. He wasn't enchanting the barrel of the rifle. Instead, he was carving mana channels to help guide the mana from the batteries in the body to where the rings would be aligned. Strictly speaking, the mana channels were unnecessary. As long as mana was channeled into the weapon it would reach all of the enchantments. However, he'd found that carving the mana channels made the process easier and more efficient. It should be doubly so now that he was using the purified Alchemist's Oil.

With all of his engraving work completed, he took a break to have a somewhat late lunch with Snowlily. They sat together enjoying the delicious street vendor food and some refreshments. Thomas honestly missed the taste of soda. Drinking water, ale, or mead all the time was getting boring. If he couldn't have soda he would look around to find something else. Perhaps teas or fruit juices. He hadn't really looked before but now he planned to.

After they finished their lunch and Thomas had recovered his mana, he returned to his work. He began to assemble to rifle piece by piece while applying some simple grease where it was needed in the bolt action. He wanted to make sure it would run smoothly without being damaged by excessive wear and tear. As he assembled the rifle he did something he hadn't done since it was taught to him by Hekrin, true Magitech Engineering. He channeled his mana while converting it to the Magnetic element and made sure it covered every last piece during the assembly process. Once the rifle was assembled he started adding the rings to the barrel. After sliding a ring on he used his Transmutation ability to slightly change the barrel. The change would hold the rings in place by lifting up a small section to act as a wall and lock the ring in place. Using his Transmutation while still channeling his Magnetic magic caused him a bit of a headache while draining his mana rapidly. He did this for all five of the rings. Once the final ring was locked into place the rifle was officially completed.

System Notice: Please name your creation.

Thomas stopped and thought for a moment. He wasn't sure what to name the rifle. It was closer to a gauss rifle than a rail gun but wasn't technically either. He clearly wasn't the greatest when it came to naming his creations. After thinking for a bit he finally said, "The Destroyer."

System Notice: You have progressed down the path of your inheritance.

System Notice: You have created an Epic rarity The Destroyer. Quality: Excellent. You have gained 15,620 Magitech Engineering experience. You have gained 31,240 experience.

Weapon Type: The Destroyer Rarity: Epic Quality: Excellent Description: This weapon embodies its name through and through. A single shot is enough to destroy most things. Those who stare down the barrel of this rifle should fear their impending destruction.

+Projectiles fired from this rifle have a Power between 1x and 5x the user's current Power. (280-1400 currently)

+Additional effects based on the fired projectile

-Requires 350 Magic to wield

-Requires 150 Power to wield Soulbound: Thomas Darkrose

Thomas's eyes widened as he read over the description of the rifle. The Destroyer was by far the most powerful weapon he had every created within AoG. Just the fact that it could multiply his Power by five was terrifying. The even scarier part was that it was based on his current Power attribute. Once he increased his Power, the power of the rifle would increase. It had limitless potential! Add in bullets such as armor-piercing or anti-magic tipped and he would be able to do some truly disgusting things with it. There was a problem though. It required at least three-hundred and fifty Magic to wield. Even if he spent all of his current experience he didn't think he would have enough to get his Magic attribute that high.

He let out a long sigh of disappointment. No matter how powerful a weapon was, it was useless if he couldn't wield it. But, that was fine. He would be heading to the dungeon soon and there he could gain the experience needed to ramp up his Magic attribute and use the rifle. There was just one small problem that he could foresee. Just where in the hell was he going to test something this powerful on a living target?! There was no way it would be safe to test-fire it inside of the dungeon! There was a distinct possibility that any shot fired at full power would blast through the dungeon walls. If it did he could hit someone on the other side of the wall and become a murderer. That would be bad. It's not that he had anything against killing other people when necessary. He just preferred to have a reason to kill people instead of doing it on accident.

As he looked over the completed rifle he found another issue with it. The damned thing was too shiny! The whole thing was made out of purified Mithril meaning that it was completely made of bright shining silvery metal. It would reflect light like a mirror and attract all kinds of attention when he pulled it out. It was so shiny he was certain that it would give him away even from hundreds of meters away. He would have to look for a way to paint it to hide the gleam of the Mithril.

Thomas stored the rifle away and let out a sigh. Though he needed to paint the rifle and get his Magic attribute up to three-fifty to use it, it was completed. His next step was to make some ammo for it. Once that was done he would move onto making his new sword. Then, and only then, would he be ready to enter the dungeon and gain enough experience to reach King class in all of his attributes. Just imagining the rifle having a maximum Power of twenty-five hundred brought a smile to his face.