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The wire took some time to find between all the crap that filled the entire floor. They weren’t in need of it given that there was not much use of electronics at the moment, and I got everything. In essence I now had enough copper wire to cover the Zombinator twice. Not all of it was useful, at least not immediately being too soft, but even so I had enough for everything I needed to make and something more.
And I had a few ideas already.
I gathered everything I could in my inventory and walked back stopping briefly to see Adam working in the infirmary. The image inside was not something I wanted to see again and I went down all the floors to the ground floor where the Zombinator and every other car was parked.
I looked around quickly. It was a good idea to have cars for everyone to escape if necessary. For what we’ve seen the life of this people had not been a walk in the park, and the assurance that they had a way out if necessary was good. It said something about this people that nobody was trying to stole one and run.
The Zombinator was cold like everything else in the mall. The temperature had only gone up a little when the sun came only to drop low again a moment later. My hands were shaking. It wasn’t the ideal conditions to work, but there were no more options. I started the laptop, brought the book on magical circuits, cleaned one of the tables, and started to work.
First things first, I consulted the book. Given that I spent months trying to decipher the whole process from the spear I kind of understood what I was doing. Nonetheless given that it was my first time doing it and that I was freezing I started with the basics. The book did describe and drawn some of the most basics circuits like creating heat.
It wasn’t a very difficult work, but it required some measure of patience and finesse for the details. I took the wire and started to shape it creating a wide circular frame for the work, which was always the beginning of all circuits. That collected the fire mana from the ambient. The next part was to build the channels that carried that mana from one part to another, several lines entwined along the frame some were straight, and others sharp with edges like a thunder. A small triangle at a side, and to finish it the rune of heat.
Runes were the only thing that actually made anything, everything else just moved mana. They looked like Kanji. Not quite, but almost. It would have been difficult to write, and it was much more difficult to shape with the wire, but after a few minutes fighting with my tools I finished the damn thing. I put everything together making sure I hadn’t fucked in the process, and added the last details.
The only problem was that there were not many details in the book about what happened if the circuit was wrong. It basically said in many words: Don’t. I wasn’t sure I wanted to find what that meant, but…
“No time like the present…” I muttered.
The last part of the circuit needed something that absorbed mana, which thanks to all the wolves we had killed I had plenty. I added a sliver of horn inside the triangle and the circuit closed…
Burning my hand in the process.
“Crap!” I said dropping the thing without thinking, and jumping out of the way.
“Look out!”
Someone chose that time to push me out of the way and pinned me to the ground with his body. I groaned, pain and fear making it impossible to understand for a moment. Then I recognized the military uniform, and blinked in confusion.
“What the hell are you-?” I started to yell.
I didn’t finish because as soon as I started to talk there was a shockwave. The air pushed against us like a hammer, hot and dry making the walls of the Zombinator creak like if they were breaking. A blue flame appeared in the air over the circle just to vanish a second later.
The table started to hiss loudly and an acrid smell filled the Zombinator. I didn’t bother to explain moving the soldier out of the way. The table was burning under the circuit, so hot that it was glowing slightly red already. The instinct built over the years working with machines kicked in fast removing the piece of horn. Soon the circuit was cooling down nicely. Fortunately after a brief inspection nothing seemed to be broken or out of place.
It had worked, it almost killed me from the intensity, but it had worked. The Zombinator was warm and the smell of burn plastic was overwhelming, but it had worked. It also solved one of the holes in the book. I made a quick annotation to remember: Don’t fuck circuits. Now there was just one small problem that could be easily solved.
“Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?” I asked turning to look at the soldier.
The soldier blinked. “I’ve helped you bring the copper. I… You asked me for help and I’ve been here all the time?”
“You were here when I was working?” I asked.
“Huh… Yes?” He said looking at me directly. “Are you okay? We can go back to the infirmary if-”
“No,” I said before he could finish. “I’m fine. Fine. I just didn’t notice you were there.”
He shocked his head. “I mean for your hands.”
I looked down at my hands, they were burnt and bleeding from several points. My stomach turned by the sight, but only that. There was no pain. I could feel my hands, but there was no pain. It was one of the effects from Adam’s magic, slowly the damage started to heal regenerating the cuts and burns on the skin until they were as good as new.
I sighed in relief.
“What was that?” asked the soldier staring.
“Adam’s paranoia,” I said turning to my work. “He likes to make sure we are always covered which usually is annoying but… I suppose he has a point.” I turned to him. “Don’t say that to him, please.”
“Was that the magic sergeant Cooper was talking about?” he asked.
“Yes, it lasts for a while.”
He nodded. The soldier was young, nothing more than a boy. To be completely honest I was not much older myself, but he looked underage to be in the military. That was what the apocalypse did to people.
I went back to the circuit. “Identify.”
Magic heater (Incomplete)
An straightforward magical circle that produces heat. It lacks an end component.
Mana tension – High(Danger).
Mana fluidity – Fast.
Heat produced – Dangerous.
Imperfect circle: Diameter 7.7321114 in - 19.63956296 cm.
Weight: ...
I read it slowly. Some of the information was useless to me and as soon as I thought that it disappeared. The reaction had been too fast to see it properly. I looked back at the circle trying to see what the mistake was.
“Aw shit. The easiest part and I forgot,” I said.
A single connection in the circuit that regulates the velocity at which the mana can move was wrong. It only needed a touch to enlarge it until the identification window changed and all the danger labels disappeared. I moved the piece of horn back into the circle and it went on. Not burning me, but instead producing a pleasant amount of heat.
Enchanting. Profession ability. The ability to create magical wonders. Enchanters were highly regarded in other times for their abilities. The art of enchanting is one slow, in need of creativity and work.
The soldier moved on top of the circle waving his hand over it and feeling the heat. He looked at me with some sort of wonder in his eyes.
“It’s working!” he said. “It’s just copper, how… How does it work?”
“Magical bullshit and the crushed hopes of everyone that saw the ending of The Sopranos,” answered Adam entering the Zombinator “At least that’s what I think.”
Adam walked inside slowly maneuvering between table and pieces of wire. He seemed tired and slow.
“Adam? Are you finished?” I asked looking at a watch.
“I’ve been two hours up there Sam. There are still a few people that aren’t completely fine, but I’m too tired to use magic. And you?” he asked.
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“I finished the first which is the worst given that I wasn’t entirely sure of what I was doing. Now I just have to copy the parts and assemble them.”
“Nice. Do you need any help?” he asked dropping on a bed.
“Not really. As long as no one jumps on me again…” I said looking at the soldier. “This part is easy so… Adam?”
Moving closer I checked Adam was already sleeping. It only took a moment for him between touching the bed and being lost in his dreams. It seemed to be one of the after-effects of using too much magic that we had already seen for a while.
I sighed.
The soldier stared walking closer to Adam. “Is he okay?”
“No. He is completely crazy, but there is nothing we can do about it.”
Pulling the finished circuit to a place where it could warm the Zombinator better I went back to work. Making a dozen runes of heat in a row was incredibly easy and it only took a few minutes. The frames were even easier. After checking the book I noticed it wasn’t necessary for the frame to be circular. The civilization that had built these things seemed to have an odd fixation with circles, but the shape of the frame didn’t matter.
Square frames were easier to manipulate later so I went with that finishing them faster. The soldier was giving me weird looks during the whole thing, as well as passing his hands over the already functioning heater.
“So… How are things around here?” I asked.
The soldier stopped in place. “What?”
“Well we just joined here, and I would like to know more about your group,” I said. “Plus, giving I’m spending my time making sure you don’t freeze to death. I thought it would be nice.”
Turning my hand I started to assemble one of the circuits. The process was easier this time.
“There’s not much to tell really,” said the soldier.
I glanced at him stopping my work for a second. He wasn’t looking at me, but at everything else. There was a story there he did not want to tell me.
I shrugged and finished the circuit. One by one I continued to work in silence easily checking with Identify. I added the last touches repairing all the easy mistakes I had done in the process and turned them on with a piece of horn. This time none of them exploded or overheated, they just gave a faint glow and started to work heating the air around.
The soldier was waiting behind me, and I passed them on.
“Make sure they are put in places where they can work best if you can,” I said.
He nodded and I moved out, then stopped over the door and looked at me. “Thank you.”
I sighed and he went out.
Going back to my annotations I began working in the important stuff. When I began I had drawn all the circuit in Knight’s spear. I remembered perfectly the entire shape. I was sure to be able to copy it without too much trouble, but I didn’t want a spear exactly.
The book had most of the information I needed didn’t understood all of it yet. Going from one thing to another I noticed there were a few holes. Patterns that were probably more advanced and didn’t appear in that book. There were other patterns, little things that appeared in the book but were used in ways I didn’t get.
And then there was something odd. With a start I glanced back at the magic heater, and read in the book. Something wasn’t right. I noticed before but forgot given I was still working. When I finished the heater there had been a flame and a shockwave, which wasn’t something that should have happened. The rune only produced heat, not flame. Much less a shockwave.
The book didn’t appear to have more information in the matter. No explanation of why, and everything it did said made the whole occurrence either bizarre or impossible.
“Unless…” I muttered.
I opened the laptop and starting looking in some of the physics books. I couldn’t work with the heavier stuff, but much of the knowledge Adam preserved was fairly simple. A few moments going from the magic book to the computer left me with an answer.
I started working quickly in another heater adding a few little details in the middle. I walked out with a watch and left the device on the ground turning it on before moving back as far as I could. It was even colder now, but that was better for what I was trying. Nothing happened for a few minutes and I checked the time. It was already past the time I set.
I sighed moving to the device.
The air burst into bright blue flames over the device. It was fast barely lasting a blink, and as soon as it appeared dissolved. The air shocked suddenly turning in a wall that blasted over everything. Even being cautiously far away I was pushed against the Zombinator before I could even notice what was happening.
“AW” I grunted hitting the wall hard.
I coughed, the damage I received was barely enough to make the seed remnants heal me.
“SAM! What the hell?” Adam opened the door with a bang. “Oh shit. Are you okay?”
I nodded and laughed hard. “I’m fine.”
“I was trying to sleep there. What was that?” he asked helping me get up.
“I discovered an error in the matrix,” I answered walking to the circuit.
Prototype heat explosive (Broken)
A manipulated magical heater. The device is too broken to tell how it works.
Mana tension – High(Danger).
Mana fluidity – Fast.
Heat produced – Dangerous.
The device was badly broken, there was no sign of some of the pieces, and the small horn part used to finish had pulverized completely. The explosion had caused more damaged cracking the floor around it.
“So were you trying to kill me or just left me deaf?” asked Adam.
“I admit I wasn’t expecting it to be so powerful.”
“And? How does that work?”
“It’s complicated,” I said taking the rests of the device on my hands. “It’s a byproduct of how the heater works. It somehow magically changes the temperature of everything around it directly. I don’t know exactly how it works, but since the air is so cold the sudden change makes it burst into flames and…”
“Explode?” he asked blinking rapidly.
“Yes…” I said.
“Marry me.”
I looked at him smiling. “No thanks. Now, if the cold continues until the attack…”
Adam’s expression changed suddenly looking into the horizon for a moment.
“It will,” he nodded.
“You have to tell me how that works someday, but… I can make a few of this, change them a bit so that they only activate when we want, and mine the ground around the mall for when the bandits come.”
Adam laughed. “I leave you alone five minutes and you make a magical explosive. Actually this bring back memories, remember that time with the corgi?”
“I was trying to forget about that,” I said shivering.
It was at that moment when people started to pour from the stairs, armed and packed into groups walking slowly. The young soldier and Amelia leading the troops. They stopped looking at the broken ground.
“Do I want to know?” she asked exchanging a look with Adam.
“It was an accident,” he said smiling. “We were testing a weapon and the explosion was a bit more powerful than what we were expecting.”
“No enemies?” asked the soldier looking around nervously.
“No, nothing of the sort. Just an accident,” I said.
Amelia sighed. “And all of you are okay?”
We nodded.
“Good. Now,” she walked closer to Adam. “What were you thinking when you made an explosion inside the mall?! The whole damn place shocked, and everyone is scared shitless!”
“You are right, sorry,” he winced. “I don’t even know what I was doing. Heh. Sometimes I don’t think. Sam would have thought that testing something dangerous inside the building was perhaps not a good idea, but not me. Right Sam?”
I gulped. “Right…”
Amelia looked back at me. “At least someone has a brain here. Make sure your friend doesn’t kill himself. Or us.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said slowly.
“Okay! Everyone can go back now. It was just an accident,” announced the soldier.
Amelia shoed everyone going out of the room. The people started to disappear with the exception of some kids that stared wide eyed at the damage in the ground. Adam put his hand on my shoulder.
“So… do you need supervision or…?” he smirked.
“It was a stupid mistake. I didn’t think-”
“I know, but I really need to sleep now. I think if I don’t I’m going to explode and although I’m sure that would be good research material for you…” he said. “I hope I don’t have to wake up again with a bang… Even though I’m really proud of you for that bang.”
I smiled. “Fine.”
In silence Adam went to sleep and I went back to the book. One mystery solved, and one new device made. Now I had something a bit bigger that I wanted to try.
The most simplest application of the rune of fire was the one drawn in the spear. It was just a flare of fire appearing around the head of the weapon and moving forward. Basically the fire wasn’t actually a fire, not a physical at least one which is nothing more than a chemical reaction, it was literally made of mana and didn’t consume oxygen. It did burn things, but that was just about it. The book recorded that along with more elegant uses of the rune.
With a few changes to the rune it was possible to make the fire take other shapes, like an arrow. I started working with the crossbow drawing a frame along the entire weapon. The shape didn’t make it easier, and at the end it looked more like an improvised Mad max weapon than anything else.
Like the explosive the crossbow needed something to condense the mana for a moment before releasing it, and that part was easy. The trigger not so much. The book had hundreds of different triggers to make a device stop or start, from buttons to voice commands or different frequencies of mana… Whatever that was. The trick was the trigger of the crossbow to the trigger of the circuit which took hours and ended looking like a silly ball of copper below the actual trigger.
The rune of fire was almost easy compared to that. I wanted it to make something special so I had to modify it carefully making a swirl with one of the tails of the letter, and some of the lines straight and smaller. I added it to the crossbow body and assembled everything with care. It took hours and by the end of it was tired of pouring every ounce of me on it.
Would you like to name your creation?
A window appeared by surprise even though it hadn’t before. I thought about a name. I wasn’t very good at naming, but I went with the first thing I got.
“Salamander.”
Congratulations. You have created a rare weapon. The system recognizes your efforts and awards you 2500EXP.
You have leveled up.
Salamander. Magical weapon. The first of its class the Salamander is a magical crossbow capable of making arrows of fire rain over its enemies. It was created by the novice enchanter Sam. Creates 1 arrow every 4 seconds. Can carry enough mana to preserve up to 5 arrows at the same time
I took it on my hands carefully aiming at a wall, checking the weight and the circuit. Adam whistled loudly behind me scaring the shit out of me.
“Wow. That is amazing,” he said. “Should we try it outside before it explodes and we die?”
“It works fine!” I protested. “Most of it’s just a copy of the spear, and I checked already to make sure everything is connected where it should.”
“Good, we are still trying it outside,” he opened the door pointing at me to follow.
I followed him outside when a soldier let us. It was snowing heavily outside, trees and buildings on the horizon were white and it was difficult to move when every step we sank into the snow.
A streetlight appeared not far away and I aimed the crossbow. I pulled the trigger and observed as red fire floated over the crossbow quickly taking the shape of a big arrow and easily launched towards the target.
And flew completely off the mark from where I was aiming.
“Good shot,” said Adam.
“Shut up. The aim is off,” I said adjusting it slightly.
The rune was sideways just a little. I tried again, this time a metallic sound announced the hit and we walked closer. In the middle of the streetlight there was a hole the size of a finger, blackened, and just at the other side the metal was black and just slightly broken.
“I definitely want one of those,” said Adam smiling.