After respawning I was like a kid seeing his dog after a long trip. My shotgun manifested with me and as I had assumed there was no ammo, which is unfortunate. I suppose I could use it as a fancy club for now until I can make some shells or, if I am lucky, buy an attribute that allows me to manifest with some. This particular model was built off a very old Russian design, the TOZ-106 if I remember right. My model, the 12G-BT, or 12 gauge Breaching Tool, was initially developed only for breaching doors as the name would imply. That is to say, It wasn’t meant for combat in the traditional sense. That being the case it was designed as a utility device more than a weapon. Thankfully after the trench warfare kicked off its barrel was rifled and got a barrel extension that was threaded onto, well, the barrel taking it from eleven inches to eighteen greatly improving the accuracy, and the under-folding stock was brought back as an armory modification. Instead of a sling the whole shotgun slides cleanly into the synthetic leather scabbard on my hip, with the stock folded of course.

The thing is generally seen as archaic by anyone who isn’t using it, being bolt action and only having a 3 +1 capacity but a 12 gauge slug puts holes in soft targets in ways a 6.2mm rifle bullet just can’t. Hmm, I wonder if I can make the shotgun shells caseless the way a 6.2 is. That's an experiment for another time I think as I revert into my ethereal form and enter my mindspace, then back into my avatar, drawing my shotgun I remove the bolt, placing it on the workbench, and grab a piece of brass from the shelf and form it into a cylinder then adjust the size until it slides in and out of the chamber with a machine-milled fit, perfect. I then create the rim for the ejector to grab and place the bolt back into the action to see if I can get it to eject. It takes a fair bit of trial and error but I do eventually get the size as close to perfect as I am able and it finally works as advertised. Now with the hard part out of the way I close the bolt and pull the trigger, that ever so satisfying click rings out and I eject the brass blank, now with a pin mark perfectly in the center. From the other side, I begin to hollow it out but stop and grab a piece of copper from the shelf as well and form fit it to the inside of the barrel, the perfect diameter of a 12 gauge slug. I then cut a portion to about an inch long and taper the front into a rounded point, and carve a shallow bowl into the bottom. Placing the new slug against the brass shell blank I can see I was making the hollow portion of the shell too big so I fill it back in. While holding the slug centered on the blank face I carve a circle around it and then place the slug back onto the workbench.

I hollow out the shell just a hair smaller in diameter compared to the slug so there is a good seal after the round is seated. Once the inside is done I flip the shell over and cut out a hole around the pin mark for a primer slot. taking the small cutout; I hollow it out as well, making the flat part a little less than a millimeter thick, and round the edges off. I then slot the primer back into the shell with the hollow end facing inward. With the shell and slug now complete I place them both on the shelf separately and then take a copy of both seating them together and placing the finished round next to the separate shell and slug. Or at least mostly finished round, I still have to find a good substitute for gunpowder or actually make gunpowder. Sitting at seventy mana I decide to manifest a few Motes of Ignis, with Ignis-II the price for making them has dropped down to ten mana per mote instead of thirty.

Now thirty mana down and three motes sitting on the worktable I manifest some charcoal, and form a mortar and pestle out of smooth agate I grind the charcoal into a very fine powder and empty it onto the workbench then consume all the fine particulate stuck to my processing tools leaving the mortar and pestle clean. Next, I take a single Mote of Ignis and extremely carefully, and slowly, attempt to grind it into a powder. with every turn of the pestle, the mote sends out a small spark but the whole mass does not ignite thankfully, and after about twenty slow minutes of grinding all three of my motes I dump it into a pile next to my charcoal and clean the tools the same way. Looking at my shelf both the charcoal and Ignis powder have appeared since I consumed them and they both are contained in small antwing vials I had made while waiting for the respawn timer to pass. I take the Ignis and charcoal powder and gently mix them with a stick until they are the color of a dark rusty red and I use Discern on the pile

Alchemical Fuel Mixture, Common, Average Quality.

This is a common fuel used in alchemical laboratories and magical forges, the length of burn and energy produced is defined by the amount of either part of the mixture being increased or reduced in comparison to the other. Charcoal or coal powder provides length, Powder of Ignis provides energy. This mixture can be ignited using friction, impact, or an external source of energy.

I then turn to the ignis powder on my shelf and use discern on it as well

Powder of Ignis, Rare, High Quality.

This is the powdered form of a Mote of Ignis, it is extremely volatile and is used as a base ingredient in most alchemical fuel mixtures. Each grain of powdered ignis can be used as a “seed” to grow many more Motes of Ignis, albeit the lab grown crystals will be of one quality level lower than the original. As long as the “root” of the crystals is not removed the crystals can continue to be grown and harvested providing they receive mana to grow. These synthetic crystals are the main source of Ignis crystals in most marketplaces around the globe. This powder can be ignited using friction and impact.

I think I just found what I will be using for my primer so I take the vial of Powder of Ignis and the empty shotgun shell then pop the primer back out. The hard part will be getting it to stick to the inside, I pour enough to fill the primer halfway way then using an iron dowel the same diameter as the inside of the primer I compress the powder to make it uniform. Thankfully it decided not to explode but now I have to figure out how to keep it in place long enough to let me strike it. Paper would be very useful right now, hmm, paper. I take a piece of my yew wood and plane off a piece wafer thin then take the sheet of hair thickness wood and press it over the primer, its sharp edges acting like a cookie cutter it slices a circle perfectly the size of the inside of the primer. I get rid of the rest and then fuse the edges into the primer’s wall after also pressing it flush to the surface of the packed primer powder. To test it I take the little thing between my fingers and turn it over, nothing moves or dumps out. Satisfied, I pop the primer back into the empty shell and replace the previous one with the empty primer then grab a copy and slot it into the chamber of my shotgun, closing the bolt. I face it away from my work area into the empty void behind me and pull the trigger; To my great elation, there is a loud pop and a lazy trail of gray smoke rising from my barrel. I rack the bolt to eject my test shell to find the primer indented dead center and the brass is warm to the touch even though it was such a small amount of powder for the primer. I can’t help but grin as I put my gun back in its scabbard and throw away the spent shell.

Turning back to my workbench I take the vial of Ignis powder and dump more onto the alchemical fuel pile. The stream never seems to stop as the vial refills itself at the same pace as I pour it out and I can feel it eating my mana ravenously. Checking, I'm down to 18 of 100 as I stop pouring. I then carefully mix them together making a brighter red rust colored pile of dust. If the energy and how quickly it burns is in relation to the ratios of charcoal and powder of Ignis, then I need more Ignis and less charcoal. I consume the pile and it shows up in another vial next to the other two. Taking it I fill the primed shotgun shell halfway and then press a slug into it, making a completed shotgun round. Not wanting to accidentally kill myself I put my gun in the vice and close it tight onto the frame, then loop a string around the trigger and lead it about fifty feet away. Coming back to the workbench I load the finished shell with the safety on and close the bolt. About five feet in front of the muzzle I form a rock pillar with an oak board and proceed to remove the safety and follow the string to its end, forming a rock wall in front of me and then pull the string. There is a bang and I can smell the smoke as I walk back to the test. It's not like the smell of gunpowder unfortunately but I’m sure I'll grow to love it just the same. I look at my shotgun and it looks fine so I rack the bolt ejecting the shell and It clatters against the ground with a satisfying ping. Then I look at the target but there is no hole, not even powder burn from being that close to the barrel. I pick it up and remove the bolt again, then peer through what should have been an empty barrel, instead there was no light to be seen through it.

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“It fucking squibbed.” I say aloud to nobody but myself, and I begin making an iron ram-rod to remove the stuck bullet but then an idea hits me, I turn back into my ethereal form and my shotgun disappears with me, dropping the copper slug to the ground with a small thud. I’m down to eight mana so I won't be able to add more ignis powder to the mix I already have, in the end I resign myself to waiting for it to recharge. It is going to take the rest of the afternoon and the whole night in my ethereal form again. I can resume my gunsmithing in the morning I suppose.

The hours tick by, one by one, and I have become sick of chess for the time being so I head out into the dungeon. The ants mining have already passed my natural barrier as they bee-line for the mountain and I can feel my borders spreading with every clump of rock they pull from the walls, normally they would pile the refuse outside into a steep mound that grows taller as the colony gets deeper but I have been absorbing it passively as it hits the floor, vastly speeding up their digging since they don't have to carry it out and it is acting as a small but steady income of mana since I am not the one excavating the material. I head over to the fungal garden and check on their progress as well. About twenty ants are working in here now and the column is finished, they are making more bridges between the skeletons of what will be large hanging baskets filled with mulch and fungi, some of the workers have also begun making more substrate and filling the large baskets before they have been completely woven. I leave the room and head over to my sanctum and become my avatar, grabbing the flashlight from my tool rack. I remove its hood and walk to my new favorite cooking area since I was rather hungry and the excitement of getting my shotgun back has worn off.

I light the pit with a metal rod that I had infused with a mote of Ignis. It has a nice leather bound wooden handle so I don't burn myself and Discern says it's a simple infused iron club, but for me, it's a fire starter. When I force mana into it it heats up and glows red hot so I just stick the hot end into a pile of tinder and it lights. I stack my tinder and light it with my fire stick but there are no ashes in this pit so I have to burn some wood down to coals for a couple hours to make a nice bed of ash to reflect the heat for me, and by the time it's ready I feel like its close to 10-ish P.M. I open the meat chest and select a nice slab of venison, there should be more than enough for the test to still work regarding if food spoils. I also put the kettle on to begin boiling and the little wire mesh ball inside I fill with Mana Root tea, the only other drink I have that isn’t water, and wait for it to boil as I unwrap my venison and put it on the grill. The room is flooded with the sound of sizzling and the very fragrant smell of cooking meat as I prepare a plate and some cutlery for myself, and Cardinal walks into the room. I wasn’t paying attention and she startles me by tapping on the side of the knee with her mandibles. I think she enjoys scaring me because she never announces her presence like Onyx and purposely walks quietly unlike the workers. She has also begun to enjoy the smell of my cooking I think, usually coming to just chill in my sanctum with me whenever I prepare food for myself, as long as she isn’t busy.

She never asks for any but I usually cut off a quarter or so for her to eat and she never turns it down. We stand there and talk for a bit until the kettle begins to steam over. I couldn’t figure out how to get it to whistle but I'm fine with just watching it to make sure it doesn’t burn. I pour myself a mug and flip my deer steak one more time before deciding it was done and I plate it before cutting Cardinal her piece as Onyx comes in through the tunnel, We all chat as I eat, it almost reminds me of having a family, or maybe living alone with a pair of very talkative dogs. I'm about halfway through my meal when I feel a sharp sensation in the base of my skull, not painful, just very uncomfortable. and I can tell Cardinal and Onyx could feel it too. Shortly after I feel a bunch of small feet enter my domain, a lot of them, but too small to be human or human analogous. I have my two royals head back to the nursery area as we all feel another one of those sharp feelings in our heads, but this time I could feel the body of one of my ants slump to the ground dead. We were under attack.

I evaporate into my floating consciousness and head outside to get a good look, and to my surprise there is a group of twelve ants standing on two legs over my dead ant, they all have spears and shields or small bows with a quiver and arrows and frankly, they look almost exactly how I imagined bipedal ants would, I consume my ant as one of them begins dragging it off into the forest, causing it to topple over as all its force was sent forwards with nothing dragging behind him, getting some surprised chitters from all of them. Another one of my ants that was hiding in the tree above drops on the downed ant, wrenching its head off and I tell it to run so it scampers off into the forest, barely being missed by a few arrows. The rest of the ants watch in what I would assume was horror as their companion's corpse and gear turns to dust and vanishes in front of them. I use discern on one of them while they reform into a tight circle with shields outside and bows in the middle.

Female Evolved Dire Ant scout, uncommon. (sterile)

This is a Dire Ant who belongs to a colony or hive that has undergone its metamorphosis into a higher form of being from just a simple animal. Driven by emotion and intelligence rather than just base instincts, it can formulate language, communities, and if need be, tactics to give it an edge over its surroundings. This specific ant is a scout, often sent outside its colonies' borders to gather information and to find young colonies to subjugate before heading back to distribute its gathered intel. If a nascent colony is found it will lead a raiding party to where it was discovered and assist in its subjugation.

This subspecies is less venomous than its relatives but it has a much higher bite force than most other ants.

“Well, shit.” I think in my outer thoughts as I watch them creep closer to the dungeon's entrance as if they could sense where it is. Well, they are probably following the pheromone trails of my ants, so in a way I guess they can sense where it is. I enter my crafting space as I recheck my mana, 48 of 100, good enough. I craft five more shells as fast as I can after adding more Powder of Ignis to my propellant mix dropping my mana by twenty six points. Hoping it's enough, I load a magazine and swap it for the one in my shotgun, putting the other two in the spare ammo loops in my carrier. A little mist pops up and it says "added to gear" as I leave the mindspace. I reform my avatar and I can feel the ants slowly making their way down the bowl still huddled in their shield circle.

I begin creating a long wooden shaft, making sure it is longer than the spears of the invading ants, and add a square edged iron tip with a sharpened point to it then manifest Garmm’s shield, albeit I removed the paint and it has fresh boards of oak instead of yew. I place my wrist through the leather lanyard on my side of the shield, grabbing its handle, and take the new spear as I head down the tunnel out of my sanctum and contact my whole colony to let them know what's happening, after notifying them there is an immediate note of agitation in the air I can feel and make my way towards the hallway.

I can sense the invaders outside in my courtyard both peering down the ant tunnel and my stairwell to decide which to go down as both have the ant's pheromone trails, they opt for the stairwell as I get into position in the storage room with a clear line of sight to the door. I lean my spear up against the wall and pull out my shotgun to check my gear one last time, the two spare shells are not present on my ammo carrier, I check my magazine and I only have one shell. That's a problem. Is there a hard limit to the amount of ammunition I can carry? Cursing and shaking my head at the wasted mana and missing shells, I rack the bolt slow and quiet then crouch so the shield covers most of my body. As an afterthought carve a notch into the top right corner of the shield where I brace my gun, Just in time to watch the first ant with a second close behind it reaching through the door to try and fiddle with my deadbolt.