“No! This is the actuator, that is the azimuth inclinator!” Aerion said, pointing to one of the half-dozen levers that controlled the horribly complicated contraption known as the Mobile Siege Launcher. Or that’s what Aerion called it, anyway.

We’d climbed up to where the harpoon guns were located, and to my immense happiness, we’d found them not only operational but mobile as well. They were mounted on wooden wheels and could be moved around—albeit with a tremendous amount of force.

Mobile didn’t mean maneuverable, after all. It was one of the many times a high [Dominion] stat would have come in handy. As things stood, mine was at 8, and Aerion… Well, he was even weaker than me. It wasn’t that we couldn’t move it. It was just a very, very slow affair.

“Are you even listening?”

“Yeah,” I said, doing my best not to sigh. “Say, doesn’t all of this feel weird to you?”

“All of what?”

“The castle. This bizarre pool with these ballistas, just begging to be used for power leveling. I mean, I couldn’t have come up with a better strat if I tried!”

For most people, the stuff in this room would be nothing more than a curiosity. Maybe a good place for blacksmiths to harvest exotic animal parts for crafting, but that was all.

Aerion blinked and gave me a look that made me feel like the alien I was.

“You do realize that I don’t understand most of the phrases you use, yes?”

“That… is actually a great point,” I replied, ignoring the look Aerion gave me. The sort of look that said he had more to say, but couldn’t bring himself to say it. Cosmo’s translator worked wonders, but it seemed even it had limits.

“It’s just weird,” I said. “These dungeons are supposed to be disconnected from the outside world, right?”

“Yes, and?”

“And it’s not like anyone actually lives here. You said this was supposed to be some sort of pastime for the rich lords of this castle, but if they do exist, where are they? And why are they alright with random strangers trespassing on their property? Or goblins, for that matter…”

“I admit I had never given this topic such consideration,” Aerion said with a frown.

“Surely someone has though, right?”

Aerion scratched his head. “They have. I recall reading something that mentioned this once, though it was a long time ago. I can’t seem to recall the details, however.”

“That’s fine,” I replied. “I can look into it later.”

I needed to spend a week or two in a library when I got out of here.

“Yes. Now, as I was saying, the actuator—”

“Say,” I said, cutting him off before he could build up steam. “How’d you get so good at this stuff, anyway?”

Aerion possessed an absurd level of knowledge about the siege launcher—aiming and operating it like a pro.

“Is it not basic preparation to educate one’s self on the tools you’ll encounter within a Trial?” he replied.

“Er, I suppose?” I said. “So you trained for all of this?”

Aerion shrugged. “Not exactly. My country is technologically advanced compared to the rest of the world. I’ve encountered contraptions that function similarly.”

I didn’t know enough to comment about what passed as normal around here, but his country must’ve been quite impressive. I kinda wanted to visit it now.

“Well, you’re obviously good with this stuff,” I said. “I think you oughta stick to handling it.”

Aerion had somehow taken my interest in the device as a cue to launch into teaching mode, trying to get me to learn the ins and outs of the immensely complicated device. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t going well.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to learn. Hell, I’d take every advantage I could get. Especially one as unfairly overpowered as the siege launcher.

It was also incredibly, unnecessarily complicated. This was no mere gun, as I’d soon found out.

The bolts it fired were translucent, jelly-like ballista bolts that looked like they had rays of sunlight dancing around inside. There must’ve been hundreds stored in the crates placed nearby.

At the pull of a lever, the weapon would shoot it off almost silently.

“Fine,” Aerion huffed. “Though I fail to understand how you intend to improve your strength if you can’t use the siege launcher.”

“I don’t see the problem here,” I said. “You configure it. I shoot. I can do at least that much.”

“It’s not that easy. You can’t just—well, you’ll see. If you won’t learn the launcher’s controls, go and activate the creature call.”

“You got it,” I said, jogging over to a nearby panel.

“Ready!” I said.

“Okay! Now!”

With much gusto, I yanked the lever.

At first, nothing happened, but then I heard rumbling, off in the distance. Far outside the castle.

It grew louder, and I realized it wasn’t rumbling at all.

“It’s a whale call,” I muttered.

The call seemed to vibrate through the floor, the air, and even the walls.

“Just how big is—”

I never had a chance to finish that sentence.

Imagine a purple beluga whale. Now imagine that whale with a dozen times as many flippers as it ought to have had, with an array of shark-like teeth. You’d be getting close to the monstrosity that burst through the pool, sending a small tsunami of water smashing against the walls. It sailed a good fifty feet into the air before Aerion yanked no less than three different levers.

The siege launcher’s enormous telescope-like mount began tracking the whale, and when it finally lost momentum and began to plummet back to the water, Aerion fired.

There was a nearly silent whoosh, and the bolt flew through the air, striking the whale in midair.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then there was a deafening sound, and the whale simply… peeled away. At least, that was what it looked like. Its thick blubber parted, revealing its gory innards.

An instant later, a firehose of blood geysered out, painting the white stone red.

“Holy shit…” I said, partly in awe of their destructive power. Partly in disgust at the scene. My stomach’s contents threatened to come up, but deep breathing allowed me to recover.

These weren’t just ballista bolts. They weren’t projectiles at all. They were bombs.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Sonic bombs, in fact.

The now-dead whale fell back into the water, staining that red as well, until the pristine room resembled a madman’s idea of a slaughterhouse.

With a huff, Aerion turned towards me, his hands on his hips. “Do you see now?” he said. “The firing sequence is tied to the tracking mechanism. If you cannot track it, you cannot fire.”

I nodded, hand still shaking from that awe-inspiring impact. “Walk me through this actuator again?”

----------------------------------------

“Actuator!” Aerion called.

I yanked the tall lever to the right, careful to pull it just the right amount to arm the system.

“Azimuth, then inclination!”

I pushed another lever slightly before yanking a third lever all the way.

“Tracking stabilization!”

This one wasn’t a lever, but a toggle switch. I flipped it, fully expecting Aerion to shake his head.

“Good. That will do,” he said. I let out a long breath. After two dozen attempts, I'd finally got the timing right.

I put my hand on the big gun and muttered the magic word.

Initialize [Mobile Siege Launcher]? 1% chance to successfully Initialize [Rare] weapon. Essence Cost: 50.

Error: Insufficient Essence to Initialize. 102/60.

I'd expected something like this. I had neither the fifty points of Essence required to Initialize it nor even a hope of successfully pulling it off. Worse, I had a weird premonition that if I tried, bad things would happen. It was probably just my nerves, though, so I ignored it.

Backing away, my eyes landed on a nearby open crate. A crate that stored dozens of the bolts the launcher fired.

Plan B. I placed my hand on the bolt.

Initialize [Aural Siege Bolt]? 33% chance to successfully Initialize [Uncommon] weapon. Essence Cost: 8.

Eight points? That was as much as my armor. For a throwaway, one-time-use weapon. It was also the first [Uncommon] weapon I’d tried to Initialize, so I supposed it made sense. I was lucky. Eight was exactly how many points I had left.

That spidey sense tingled again, though this time wasn’t nearly as bad.

Initialize.

ERROR: Initialization failed.

I knew it’d failed even before I saw the message. I recoiled, clutching my head. A sudden migraine assaulted me, forcing me to sit down.

“Greg?” Aerion asked, running up to me. “Are you hurt?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing,” I said, waving him away. “Just overdid it a little. I’ll be fine.”

I waited a few minutes for the sensation to subside, all while Aerion hovered nearby, stealing worried glances my way. I had to admit, though it was unwarranted, it was nice being around someone who cared for once.

As far as I could tell, I hadn’t been injured. My overlay showed solid green and soon, the pain dissipated entirely.

The bolt remained as it was. Unchanged.

At least I now knew what that premonition was about. I hadn’t imagined it—it was my Blessing warning me that I was in for a world of pain if my attempt failed.

Hesitantly, I reached out and tried again. Initialize!

ERROR: Initialization already failed. Unable to Initialize.

Well, that figured. If a headache was the only side effect, I could’ve just kept trying until it succeeded. Of course there’d be no such exploit. That’d have been too easy. At least there was no headache this time.

Still, I had hundreds more. I’d eventually get it. I just wished I had some aspirin.

----------------------------------------

I did eventually get it, and it took a full five tries and four headaches. Probability could be a bitch like that. I was no masochist; I was avoiding low probability Initializations from now on unless I absolutely had to.

Aural Siege Bolt [Uncommon]

These bolts are large, nasty, and emit a sonic attack that is utterly devastating. Assuming you can control the complicated contraption that fires it, of course.

Essence Cost: 8

Condition: 5/5

Stats: None

Abilities:

— Detonation (Foundation - 0): Creates a small explosion upon impact.

Nice. As if the thing wasn’t devastating enough already, it was now explodey, too.

No levelup notification, though. It made me wonder about how exactly my Blessing leveled—the same thought I’d had back when I’d first arrived in the dungeon. Combat classes leveled by fighting, but crafting classes tended to level when creating new items. Mine clearly leveled when my Initialized gear did, but did I get any experience upon Initialization?

I loaded the Siege Bolt, got in position, and waited.

This time, a massively oversized lionfish—complete with pointy scales that jutted out like the mane of its namesake—burst out of the water.

Its red and white markings gave it a sort of wild beauty, and for the briefest moment, I found myself enraptured by its sheer presence.

My hands danced across the levers and I prayed I got the timing right.

Then the launcher did its thing, and with a whoosh, my Initialized bolt sailed through the air. When it impacted, the lionfish suddenly resembled less a fish and more a fish that had swallowed and detonated a kiloton bomb.

To say there was nothing left was inaccurate. There were a whole lot of somethings left, but nothing I care to describe. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.

I turned away before I could feel sick.

Congratulations! [Aural Siege Bolt]’s ability [Detonation] has leveled from Foundation - 0 to Foundation - 3.

Aural Siege Bolt [Uncommon] has been destroyed. 8 Essence Reclaimed.

Congratulations! Blessing [Initializer] has leveled up to Foundation - 6. Would you like to reclaim Initialized equipment? Essence Utilization: 60/70

“Is something the matter?” Aerion asked. “That was a good shot.”

“Thanks,” I replied, appreciating his attempt to cheer me up. The System messages, however, did a far better job of that.

All too easy, I thought, trying—and failing—to suppress the stupid grin that was starting to spread across my face.

“Again!” I shouted. With this one hack, I might very well be able to catapult my way past F Rank.

All I knew was that I was going to milk this undersea cow for every drop it was worth.

As I waited out the headache of the next bolt just painfully Initialized, I figured there was something else I could test.

Reclaim items, I thought.

Please select items to reclaim:

Iron Cuirass [Common] (F - 2)

Iron Arming Sword [Common] (F - 4)

Otherworld T-shirt [Common]

Otherworld Jeans [Common]

Wooden Board Shield [Common] (F - 1)

Makeshift Waterskin [Common] x2

Elven Commoner Robe [Common]

Iron Dagger (Aerion) [Common]

Pet Rock (Aerion) [Common] (F - 0)

Aural Siege Bolt (Aerion) [Uncommon] (F - 0)

Pet Rock has been reclaimed!

“Er, Aerion? You know that rock I gave you? Mind if I see it?”

Aerion shrugged and reached into his pockets. For an instant, I thought it’d disappeared, but his hand came out clutching the small, smooth river stone and dropped it in my hand.

“Thanks,” I said, re-initializing it before handing it back.

I’d previously tested reclaiming, back when I first entered the dungeon. This test, however, showed me that I could reclaim items that weren’t on my body.

Did reclaiming have a maximum range? Or could I reclaim stuff from halfway across the world? Either way, that opened up a whole universe of possibilities in my head.

“You’re grinning,” Aerion said. “It’s kinda weird.”

He was right. I had been grinning at him. “Sorry. Just learning things about my Blessing.” I picked up the glorious weapon and handed it to my dungeon buddy. “Aerion? Why don’t you do the honors this time?”

“Will that even help you?” Aerion asked.

“That’s what we’re about to find out,” I said, grinning.

Aerion shrugged and slotted the bolt into the launcher.

The next whale took a full three hours of calling to emerge, making me worry that my plan wasn’t going to pan out as intended. Still, it gave me ample time to space out the failed Initializations, reducing the mental trauma that came with it. Luckily for us, the goblin patrols were far away from here, or else we’d have been in serious trouble.

The whale was a big one similar to the one Aerion had summoned the first time.

Aerion worked the machine, aimed, and fired. The bolt arced through the air and made contact. Dead center.

But not before it fired a kind of sonic blast of its own, and it was all Aerion and I could do to keep ourselves from passing out. Its sonic attack lasted only an instant before the Initialized bolt silenced the whale forever.

The explosion was incomparable to the uninitialized version. Before, there’d been a sonic screech that had torn a chunk out of the creature. Now, it was a real explosion that split the enormous whale into two, launching a pressure wave that hit us in the face.

In its wake were blood, guts, and a couple of sweet sweet System messages.

Congratulations! [Initializer] has leveled up to Foundation - 7. Max Essence has increased from 70 to 80. Essence Utilization: 52/80

Congratulations! [Initializer] has leveled up to Foundation - 8. Max Essence has increased from 80 to 90. Essence Utilization: 52/90

Would you like to reclaim Initialized equipment?