5 days remaining… Maybe…

Jack was positively giddy. Way too giddy for Frizzy’s liking

So much so that Frizzy, his first apprentice, disciple, and friend, was watching him suspiciously as he summoned a few tons of metal and a large pile of bones from some unnamed beast. Snickering manically as he rubbed his hands together like a villain in a play.

They stood in a large chamber underground past the old sewer system, a space he carved out using his absorption ability. Creating a large cavern large enough to fit a three-story mansion inside. The air was damp and everything was dark with the main source of light coming from the torch she had on hand. The cavern walls were made of compressed clay that had been hardened and cured while taking the form of a large dome. Even the floor was made of a similar hardened clay, making a light scuffing sound while she walked closer to her teacher. Who seemed enjoy acting like some story book villain since he just made himself an actual lair.

I need to stop him before he loses it… again.

“Come get some bitches!” he cackled like a maniac, arms out stretched as he had his head thrown back. “I’ll show you what it is to Fuck around and find out! Muahahahahah!”

Seeing that Jack was losing it yet again, Frizzy walked up behind cackling skeleton then kicked him in the back of the knee. Causing him to fall over where he landed on his back, followed swiftly with a hand chop on the top of his head with Frizzy’s prosthetic hand.

“Ow! Why!” Jack protested while holding the top of his head.

Frizzy stood over him with her arms crossed and an unamused glare on her continence.

“Because you are losing it, haven’t taken a brake yet, and acting like an over-the-top villain from a fable.” Frizzy said, clearly annoyed with his antics. “Time to take some time off.

“Oh, come on. I’m stressed about the upcoming fight, and just letting it out in an unhealthy way.” Jack pouted as best he could. “Let me have my fun.”

“I don’t care.” She shot back, unmoved by Jack’s whining. “You aren’t allowed to do anything involving the battle. Work on the dungeon. Invent something. Make some toys for some of the kids. You can do anything but work on the invasion. When was the last time you watched the adventurers fight in your dungeon?”

“… A while…” Jack said sheepishly while he stood up.

The fact that he was showing shame told Frizzy everything she needed to know. He was over working himself, losing focus, becoming more irrational than normal. If she let him continue as he was, and knowing him, he might actually make something that could kill everyone and everything if left unsupervised. Be it some kind of box with a button, a pendant with an enchantment or some other gods know what device he might make. She could not let that happen. She already had to stop him from making a self-reloading and cranking ballista. In hind sight, it might have been a good idea if he had actually made it to counteract the invading army. But that was before they knew an army was coming to attack them.

“Teacher. You need a day off. Just one day to relax and take your mind off what maybe for a while.” She said with just a hint of more sympathy. “I can handle the day to day for our community. I have the sentinels working on tasks and projects, and I have my students working on making and refining weapons. Work on the dungeon if you have to make something. But you are NOT working on whatever in the hells that thing is until I’m sure there won’t be and explosion.”

Jack stated at her for a moment, speechless from her proclamation.

“You know I’m the dungeon master, right?” Jack asked cautiously.

“Yes, but you also need supervision.” Frizzy said unphased.

“How dare you be right.” Jack grunted in frustration. “Fine… I’ll just make one thing then I’ll go and work on the dungeon. Fair?”

Suspicious, Frizzy eyed her willy teacher with not-so-subtle suspicion. Frizzy had no doubt that Jack was on many levels a maniac. She heard stories of how the Ancients were a bold sort often taking risks and taking on gambles that the more cautious would never consider. Jack was of no exception to those stores, but times like this made her wonder if all ancients were a mad as him or if Jack was just a special case. Then again… she honestly couldn’t say she would be holding herself together so well if she went through what he has.

She was still curious about what that interaction was when Halyndra came into existence. There was some kind of hidden conversation there and while she was curious, she also respected Jack way too much to pry. Whatever it was had left him… changed. He was shaken and far too soft spoken for the remainder of that day. He was getting closer his version of ‘normal’ with each day, but there was still something off about him. She couldn’t what exactly but knew that he would talk when he was ready.

Moving to the pile of metal ingots, Jack held up a hand as he cast that new spell of his. Energies could be felt filling the air. A sense of them being something greater than mere arcana. Like before when he created that giant three horned metal beast from where she watched with everyone else in the crowd. She felt that the spell he used was more than it had been previously before when he used it.

As always it was charged with power that permeated in the air. Filling it with energies that seek guidance and a goal. Eager to take direction like a child asked by their parent to help with a task to show how helpful they were. Now though it was somehow much more.

The power of it was deeper, more profound and complex. It felt more like there as a hidden truth that had yet to show itself. One that had many unspoken implications. It was powerful, it was beautiful, it was dark, it was peaceful and yet it was ominous. It was a power that sought to create and it would not be denied. Be it with raw materials or refined, it did not care. It only sought make something anew from the old. Consuming them to birth something new. Creation and destruction, destruction then creation. Over and over in the frightening yet beautiful pattern.

Frizzy could see herself being lost in this endless cycle. She can even claim that she practiced it though in a much smaller scale and depth than that of her teacher can perform so casually.

It left her envious at times. Not just when he uses magic to create and build, but how he also used his hands to create. She had watched him before, how he molded metal, shaped would, refined them, then gifted them with life through magic and enchantment. Conjoining them all to create that which worked and acted as if all those elements and parts had always been one.

Yes, he had far more practice at the craft than she did. That was something she had accepted because it was the truth.

What frustrated her was that even with all her studying, all her efforts, she still felt that what he made didn’t compare to what he could. Even with her building knowledge and understanding of arcane circles for enchanting, infusion and transmutation. Still, the way he used them were by their foundation the same. Yet somehow the what he made was either better, different, or so profoundly foreign to her she just couldn’t understand how he come up with those alien ideas. Yes, she could understand with one she had time to study those concepts. But she still struggled with how he ever came up with them. she got inklings, concepts, and glimpses into how his mind worked. Yet just when she felt was close to fully comprehending and understanding, he pulled the rug from under her feet. And she was left standing there, questioning, grasping, struggling, trying to comprehend yet it was only after he explained it did she got see just how much the world was poorer with the death of the ancients… and how she hated the people responsible for their murder.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Yes… she hated them. She hated what those monsters did in the past. She hated what had been done to Jack. She hated how ignorant she was and how far behind everyone was because so much wisdom and knowledge was lost. She hated the fact that there was no justice and that community was under threat when they were trying to better themselves.

But what can she do?

Waking herself from her thoughts, Frizzy watched and her insecurities and envy were washed away once she saw Jack latest wonder was complete. It was a well needed reminder for her that she was still learning and that was ok. The ancients were not dead since they still had Jack. Yes, the world was ignorant poorer since the loss of the ancients. But their growing community was learning and discovering together. Each day they were building and improving their home. The young learning and playing, the adults had families that were safe and work to enrich them, and the old were secure to give guidance and share their wisdom. They had hope for a better future, better lives, where life could be rich and wonderful… it was everything she always wanted.

And it was all thanks to Jack.

Her teacher, her mentor, the patron of her people… and her dearest friend.

As she watched the metal skeleton with a burning black pearl with white flames for a heart, lifting a new device that she had yet again never could have dreamed of. Her conviction that she was do everything in her power to help build a better world. To create a world where anyone can come to learn, to grow, and become their best selves, to find a home where they are only limited what they can be by how hard they try. She will help build this world as thanks. To thank Jack by giving him as much of what he had lost back as possible. She will rebuild his lost home and while he was the last of the ancients… the people that will reside there will be his people and him to them.

For that dream, and for that world. She will do all that is necessary to ensure this world came to be.

“Tah Dah!” Jack proclaimed, unaware of his disciple’s ambitions and private musings. Making her smile and grow excite to learn what new wonder he created on a whim. “I was thinking, ‘hey Jack, what can we make that would be as easy to use as a crossbow, but and shoot faster and heavier projectiles’ and this is what I came up with!”

He proudly showed Frizzy the device was a rather strange one at that. Was under three feet in length in total. His had a stock like a crossbow and a trigger similar to one. After that the similarity ended. Where a crossbow bolt should go was four long thin bars of bronze forming and ‘X’ form that made the majority of its length. Connecting them to one another was three or maybe four thick copper wires that spiraled down the length and through the bonze bars. And down the middle where all the bonze bars connected was an iron tube with a hole that was an inch across in diameter while the walls of said tube were maybe half and inch thick. Close to the stock on the top of the device there was a gap where the bolt should go. In the center of the stock was there was a hollowed section where a mana stone sat snuggly inside. From that stone, channels feed of its mana. Those channels leading to the bronze bars where arcane scrips were escribed. The copper wires also carrying the stone’s energies, causing them to light up to show that the bars and coper wire all formed a multi-layered arcane circle.

Everything about the device made Frizzy want snatch it from his hands and study it in depth. The energies she could sniff off it was intoxicating to say the least.

It was a masterpiece.

“What in the name of the powers to be is it?” Frizzy asked as she smelt the raw energies waiting to be put to use.

“This, my best blue friend, is what I came up with to answer the question I asked.” He said as he quickly used his spell to make a slug out of some iron. The slug was an inch in diameter at its thickest point and tapered at both ends. One end was shorter point whiled the other end was long and almost needle like. The entire thing was maybe three inches long and, if she remembered her information on iron, likely half a pound in weight. “In theory, we should be able to put this fat boy into this baby. Then it launches it similar to how a crossbow does. Except it won’t need to be cranked since it uses the mana stone to power it and launch the slug! Might need to wait a few seconds between shots to charge up though. Still faster than a crossbow.”

“In theory?” Frizzy asked, those words bringing her out of her trance. “What do you mean in theory?”

“Weeeeeellll…” Jack replied, growing sheepish now and looking any direction except where Frizzy stood.

“Teacher, what do you mean ‘in theory’? You have made this before, right?” She asked, her excitement quickly turning to concern.

“… No, BUT! Butbutbut! By design and from what I know of arcana and the materials it is using. It should hold together and launch the slug. I just don’t know how powerful it will be.”

“You are not shooting that thing.” Frizzy said flatly.

“But Firzzy!” Jack started to whine.

“You. Are. Not. Shooting. That. Thing.” Frizzy punctuated each word while giving Jack her best death stare. “You are putting it in a vice and firing it with a string. Practice what you breach, Teacher. Safety, first.”

After a couple of minutes setting up a vice on top of a platform. A string connecting to the trigger and a barrier made from stone that was a foot thick and three feet tall. Which Jack knelt behind while Frizzy used a couple of ingot to stand on to peek over the wall. The device was loaded with the slug going thicker end first. The device was aimed at target that was the body of a mountain troll and behind it was a block of granite that was two feet, by two feet, by two feet on top of a pedestal. With both Jack and Frizzy behind the safety barrier with a good thirty feet of distance between the barrier and the device. They double checked twice and Frizzy was kitted out with leather armor that war boiled in resin as well as a helmet. Both were eager to see what the device was actually capable of and debating which would get the pull the string.

“Teacher, before we argue any further about who gets to fire it, I have to ask. What are you going to call this new device?”

“Oh, that’s an easy one! I’m going to name it the Arcane Slug Slinger. Since that is exactly what it is and how it works.” Jack said as if it was just common sense.

Frizzy on the other hand, groaned in frustration, her forehead resting in her palm.

“We are not calling it that.” Frizzy groaned out, irritated by her teacher’s sense of humor.

“Why not?” Jack harumphed. “It’s a perfectly good name. describes what it does, so anyone that hears it they immediately know what someone is talking about.”

“We are not calling it A.S.S.!” Frizzy barked.

“Would you prefer we call it the Direct Impulse Critical kinetic?” Jack asked teasingly.

“We are not calling it D.I.C.K. either!” She yelled in mortification.

“Then A.S.S. it is!” Jack declared all too happily. “By the way, cover your ears. We don’t know if this is going to be loud.”

Not hesitating for a second, Frizzy quickly plugged her ears with her fingers, then covered them with the rest of her hands. Trying to protect her ears as much as possible. If he was worried about how loud it might be, then she was absolutely going to take his advice to protect her ears.

Once she was confident that they were plugged up, Frizzy gave a sharp nod to let Jack know she was ready.

With a pull of the string, a dull click filled the air. The next second a hum grew from the device that swiftly turned to shriek. The copper wire coils glowed and crackled with energy then there was the boom.

The entire chamber erupted with the deep boom as the A.S.S. fired the near half pound slug. In that same instant the troll that had been there a moments before was now mostly a large mess, what remained was legs and everything above the shoulders. Everything in between was now, at best, a pink and red mush. The granite block was blown in half with a large chunk of it now missing. The A.S.S. itself was blown apart with the front part of the mechanism now little better than scrap.

Both Frizzy and Jack could only watch look over the scene of what could be described as a murder most foul. Both rendered speechless as both of them had their jaws hanging open at the sight.

“Teacher…” Frizzy said, still trying to process what she was looking at with a slight ring in her ears.

“Yeah Frizzy…?” Jack asked, much the same state as his disciple.

“I don’t think that should be made for just anyone….” Frizzy said, her mind racing with all manner of thoughts and ideas.

“Yeah… yeah I have to agree with you on this one.” Jack said back, as a hunk of troll meat fell from the ceiling to land on the ground with a wet splat.

“When you get the chance, would like a blueprint of it. I want to see if I can make it work.” Frizzy said as she eyes what remained of the A.S.S. “and I want that too, please.”

“Alright… but only if you agree that it is still named A.S.S. when it’s done.” Jack countered, clearly unwilling to let this one slide.

“Fine.” Frizzy agreed reluctantly when Jack got a distant look about itm

“And the day gets even better! We got our first adventurers that found level two boss area.”