Chapter 6
Frisk took a short break to enjoy a cup of coffee.
Leaning back in his chair, he took in his messy surroundings, overwhelmed by his workload. Including the unfinished gun in front of him, there were twenty-three other projects that Frisk needed to finish by the end of the day.
‘Project’ was putting it nicely.
The reality was they were weapons of war, created, designed, and developed by Frisk. Thinking back to Yara’s long list of requests, Frisk sighed and lamented over his genius. Being the most accomplished meant all the work went to him. The worst of it all was the blasted time acceleration array he created, as it only served as a justification for Yara to make him work longer. Why, oh why, did he have to mention it was ten times faster?
By now, Frisk’s array crafting skill had reached level 975, making him one of the most knowledgeable array artisans in the Grandsky Realm. As a result, nobody from the Innate Nation came close to his skill level, so the important task of overhauling the military’s weapons came to him.
While sipping his coffee, Frisk looked down at the V9 Mana Bolt Gattling Gun on his workbench. Before the Grandsky Realm opened, it was, without a doubt, a masterpiece. Now, though, Frisk found countless flaws. It was like looking back at the artwork you created when you first started learning how to draw. There was no comparison.
Sighing, Frisk downed his drink and got back to work. He dismantled the V9 Mana Bolt Gattling Gun, then redrew the arrays inscribed on its components before putting it back together. Hoisting it up, Frisk inspected his work and nodded in satisfaction. Whether it was mana efficiency, power output, heat reduction, or compression, the gun's stats had evolved to a new level.
With Frisk’s current skills, remodeling a weapon wasn't too difficult. The hard part was mass production. Even if Frisk spent day and night, he couldn’t manufacture enough weapons to meet the military’s demands. Thankfully, his peers weren’t inept. So long as Frisk wrote clear instructions, they could copy his arrays regardless of whether they understood its intricacies.
Frisk stretched and was just about to start working on another weapon when a message from Keith arrived on his magic tablet. Upon reading its contents, Frisk first thought a young man like Keith couldn’t possibly discover anything worthy of his attention, but when he remembered Keith was the one who first unlocked Mana Manipulation, he replaced his prejudice with anticipation.
He didn’t need to wait too long, as Keith was true to his word when he capitalized, ‘on my way over.’ In less than ten minutes, Keith arrived in the time-accelerated Pocket Dimension, his excitement on full display.
After stepping through the doorway, the state of the Pocket Dimension caught him off-guard. He’d never seen it so disorganized. Stacks of boxes, raw materials, and military equipment covered the floor. Some piled so high he couldn’t even see over them.
“Frisk? Where are you?” Keith shouted, inwardly thinking Frisk needed to hire some assistants. Looking around, Keith saw a hand wave out to him from behind a small mountain of boxes. He rushed over, avoiding any obstacle with a hop and a leap. Passing around a corner, he saw Frisk slouching in his chair with the appearance of someone who hadn’t slept for days.
“Wow! You look terrible,” Keith remarked with a grin.
Frisk rubbed his eyes. “You try working for two weeks straight without rest and see what happens.”
“Two weeks?” Keith glanced at Frisk’s workbench and gasped when he spotted the couple dozen empty cups. “Dang, you didn’t even push yourself this hard when creating the Mana Body. Don’t tell me you’re working on something amazing?”
“No, nothing on the level of a Mana Body,” Frisk waved his hand dismissively. “Forget it. I’m exhausted just thinking about it. Tell me what you discovered instead.”
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“Okay,” Keith’s face lit up. “Hm, how should I explain?”
Considering for a moment, Keith raised a hand, closed his eyes, and began concentrating. Under Frisk’s watchful gaze, motes of mana rose from Keith’s palm to form the initial structure of the Entangling Roots skill array. As it slowly came into shape, Frisk’s expression went from thoughtful to increasingly stern. By the end, the array had fully occupied his attention.
When Keith opened his eyes, he saw Frisk’s face a few inches from the floating skill array, mesmerized. Occasionally, he’d change position to get a better angle, completely absorbed in dissecting the skill array’s secrets. It wasn’t until a full ten minutes passed that Frisk collapsed into his chair and let out a long sigh.
Shaking his head, he looked Keith in the eye and exclaimed, “Out of everything I guessed, I didn’t expect you to confirm the existence of a skill array. That array came from one of the dots in your chest, right?”
“Yep.” Keith wasn’t surprised by Firsk’s sharp deduction. If Frisk couldn’t do that, he wouldn’t be Frisk.
Sighing, Frisk rested his elbows on his chair’s armrests and clasped his hands. “This changes a lot, you know.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” Keith chuckled. “The spiral design you taught me is mediocre compared to this 3D design.”
“M-mediocre, uh, I suppose,” Frisk reluctantly agreed, surprised that he’d become emotionally attached to a technique. Taking a breath, Frisk forcibly stifled his emotions and asked, “Can you tell in which ways it’s better?”
Keith raised the skill array to his eyes. “If one thing stands out, it's how the center starts simple and then grows increasingly complex as it expands outward.”
Frisk nodded in approval. “It reminds me of axioms in philosophy. Start with a fundamental concept and then build off it.”
“Or a tree growing from a seed,” Keith added.
“It touches upon many principles,” Frisk rubbed his chin with a thoughtful look. “Perhaps that’s why it works so well.”
Keith copied Frisk’s gesture and expression, saying, “I can’t recognize a few runes. What does this one mean?”
Frisk took a moment to think before answering with some uncertainty. “This skill array is for Entangling Roots. When casting the skill, you have an image in your mind of where you want the roots to sprout from. That rune turns your intent into a mathematical equation – location, distance, angle, etc.”
Keith quickly discerned that Frisk was in a good mood and was more than willing to answer his questions with in-depth explanations, so he didn’t hesitate to follow up with more. As such, the two soon found themselves engaged in a long discussion, with one teaching and one learning. Frisk’s systematic knowledge cleared up many of Keith’s doubts, and it was only after several hours that Frisk looked at the time and decided to end the learning session.
Frisk looked at Keith while in deep thought. A moment later, he started, “There’s a lot of runes in the Entangling Roots skill array that I’ve never seen before, and it’ll take me time to deduce their meaning.”
When Frisk paused, Keith asked, “What do you need me to do?”
“Well,” Frisk furrowed his brow. “How about I take you as my student?”
Joy overcame Keith. “Really?”
“Calm down. Let me explain,” Frisk grimaced. “Although it's embarrassing to admit, I appear to have ridiculously low talent in manipulating mana. To this day, I have yet to sense those motes you spoke of.”
Keith was visibly bewildered. “Even with external help like the tea and array I used?”
Frisk’s expression soured. “Yes…”
“Oh,” Keith practically felt Frisk’s disappointment. “Sorry to hear that.”
Frisk shook his head. “It’s fine. I’m already talented enough. Any more, and it wouldn’t be fair to anyone else.”
Keith didn’t know what to say to that, so he kept his mouth shut as Frisk continued, “No matter what I do, everything involves mana. It’s inescapable. And since it’ll be some time before I acquire the Mana Manipulation skill, I need someone to assist me in my experiments. You seem like a good candidate, and you’re lucky to boot. Essentially, I want you to be my Mana Manipulation skill. You’ll put my theories to the test.”
Keith voiced his confusion, “That sounds like a job.”
Frisk smiled. “In exchange, I’ll impart my knowledge to you whenever I’m in a good mood.”
Keith’s laughed bitterly at Frisk’s flippant attitude, yet when he really thought about it, this was a chance many would kill for. There was no reason to decline.
“Okay,” Keith was delighted. “Do you have an employment contract?”
Frisk waved his hand dismissively. “That’s too troublesome. First, why don’t you make me some coffee and clean up the place?”
In the face of Frisk’s abrupt bait and switch, Keith forced a smile and pressed, “I really think we should get a contract.”
Frisk laughed at Keith’s expression. “I’m kidding. You think I care about the state of this place?”
“And the contract?” Keith repeated.
Frisk’s eyebrows twitched. “If you get me a coffee, I’ll draft a contract.”
“Deal!” Keith answered without hesitation. From working with Frisk on the Mana Body project, he knew Frisk was unreliable when it came to interpersonal relationships. Best to have the government enforce Frisk’s promises to teach Keith. Otherwise, who knew when the man would follow through?