A bang resonated throughout the small cave that Kain and Luna were taking shelter in, echoing across the bare rock walls. Stony shrapnel rained in the cave, but the two were now used to being rained on by shrapnel so they effortlessly blocked it. Kain sighed and sat down once they were safe and Luna sat next to him. [This is so frustrating. I haven’t been able to figure out what’s wrong here; this is the fifth rock I’ve blown to bits and I have no clue where the limit is to how much energy these things can take.] He grumbled, sighing, [Luna, are you okay? That last one had a bit more power than the others.]

Luna looked at him with tired eyes, [I’m fine, just a little bit of fur, nothing else. But either way, I’m tired. You’ve been doing this for a while now, so it’s honestly getting a bit boring just watching you mess with the rock.] She relied in a weary voice.

[Sorry about that.] He said, [I’m just trying to figure it out, though the energy saturation issue is my greatest obstacle right now. I’m going to relax for a bit, so if you want to do anything, I’ll join you.]

Luna nodded and contemplated her options. [Oh! Those glass deer! I was wondering about those things! Did I ask you?] He shook his head, [Okay, so those glass deer were able to create both ice and glass shards at the same time. Do you know how it works?]

Kain thought about it for a bit and soon nodded confidently, [First, were the glass shards red hot?] She nodded, [Then they probably took the heat out from the water and used it to melt the sand into glass. It wouldn’t be very good glass, but glass nonetheless. If they held the heat with them as they cooled the glass, then they could probably use a bunch more tricks like making the glass faster or throwing a heatwave at you. Maybe they could even cause a fire.] He explained.

[So what they do is they take the heat out of the water, which makes ice. They then use the heat to melt sand into glass and reform it into projectiles. Is that right?] He nodded at her summarization, [But the ice is cold, how did it have heat?] He was about to explain to her the basics of thermodynamics, the things he had picked up from highschool, when she cut him off, [Unless heat is sort of variable that determines what something is, then… Wait, that’s exactly what it is, isn’t it!?] she cried out.

He chuckled at her bewildered expression, explaining how it worked, [Yeah, heat is what determines a thing’s state of being, or state of matter.] He spent a few minutes explaining the states of matter and how they were affected by heat.

Once he had finished, Luna was wide-eyed and began to ramble about her ideas. [So the only thing that you know of that expands when frozen is water, right? In that case, I could freeze the bloodstream of an enemy and make them bleed out because of it!] she yelled out in revelation.

[That… would certainly be an effective way of killing something, but it is quite brutal. Just thinking about it is giving me chills…] He said, shuddering. Such a technique would be a surefire way of killing someone as long as they can’t use healing energy, but it would come with a bit of a flaw. [But if you do that, you would basically freeze their heart before they could even bleed out. Either way, don’t do it to your hunting game; it’ll be a pain to cook.]

Her ears dropped for a second before they shot up once more. She quickly asked, [As long as we aren’t going to eat it, then it’s fine?] She looked genuinely excited to enact whatever tests she had concocted, and it made Kain concerned about what she wanted to do.

He sighed, [Yes, that’s fine, but don’t destroy the area without good reason. But if you really are going to come up with some idea about how to make an enemy bleed to death, then you can just take the heat made by a fire and use it to boil their blood.] He suddenly shuddered. [That’s even more brutal than freezing it now that I think about it. Please don’t do that to the animals out there; cooking it would be even harder if you did. That, and it would be pretty cruel to the animals.]

She gave a small huff, [Fine, I won’t do those things… But I can do them to a tree, right?] She looked at him with a piercing gaze, one which gave him no option to refuse.

He gave another, longer sigh, [Yes, you can do it to trees. Just don’t go crazy and draw the green apes over. We have enough to worry about when it comes to making a ruckus, what with all of the loud cracks I’m making when trying to make one of the shields. If I even want to think about testing it, then the energy density problem is going to be the most pressing. Hmm…] He hummed while trying to think of a solution, but Luna interrupted with a question.

[Why do you have to do them one at a time? If you can both inject energy into the rock while also using it, you can eliminate the overloading issue entirely.] She said, sporting a proud expression.

Kain gave a start and thought about what she said. By supplementing the energy needed for energy constructs while also creating the same constructs he could make sure that the energy is always available to use. The only problems he could see were that he would have to manually control the energy’s infusion, which meant that he had to be precise, and that he would have to make sure that the new energy does not interfere with the constructs already made. Both of the problems with the method took attention away from the actual creation of the constructs, which could lead to mistakes. Thinking about it, he asked, [Couldn’t you infuse energy while I am making the constructs? That way, I can focus entirely on making the thing and it would be much quicker.]

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Luna’s prideful grin turned to a sullen frown quickly, [I… can’t really sense that sort of stuff, so I won’t be able to help.].

[Well, all I need you to do is inject energy. You can just do that, and I’ll tell you when to put more or less into the rock. How’s that?] He asked. He was not only hoping that she could help him make the prototype shield generator, but he also hoped that, through simple experiences, she could learn how to sense energy constructs in objects.

She hemmed and hawed for a while before finally agreeing, [I’ll do it. But other than that, I think that you’re starting off with a goal too far out of reach. Maybe you should first try to make the energy collector and work from there.] She suggested.

[That’s… a pretty good idea… Maybe the problem was that I was trying to make something too complicated for my second real construct. Hmm… yeah, I think that trying to make an energy collection and storage device would be a good idea.] He immediately got to work making the device using a rock they had found. Before even an hour into the project, he asked for Luna’s help in restoring the energy in the rock. [Slowly… slower… a bit faster… too fast, too fast!] Luna almost immediately shattered the rock, causing more stony shrapnel to rain in the cave again.

[Sorry…]

[It’s alright. At least I put the pot away, huh? Anyway, let’s start again.] He began to make the construct once more. The rock needed more energy at around the same time as the first prototype, and Luna figured out a steady pace that didn’t break the rock, albeit filling it with energy a bit slow for both of their tastes. After another two hours of careful energy, they had completed the first prototype of their energy gathering device.

[We did it!?]

[Maybe. It may look like a rock, but it’s actually our first step into creating energy based devices. If this works, then we may be able to make something that can help us get to Earth. For now though we will have to settle for this.] He placed the modified rock on the ground, outside of the cave and slowly activated it. They retreated behind Luna’s shield and watched. The device gathered energy at a slow rate and stored it. After less than a minute, however, the rock shattered with a resonant crack that echoed across the forest and spilled off of the island. Shards of stone flew in every direction, imbedding themselves in trees, dirt, and other stone. Many shards fell on the shield, but none of them gave it more than a scratch. They had quickly ducked into cover once the stone had shattered, so neither was hurt. Once the shrapnel rain ended, they looked out from behind the shield and saw the devastation the rock had caused. [That… one was definitely a failure, huh?] Kain said. He earned himself a smack on the back of the head, courtesy of Luna. [Well, we’ve been working on this for a few hours, so I think we should take a break and brainstorm what we did wrong. Agreed?]

[Agreed. I need a break after all of that work.] Luna replied.

He chuckled, [What work? You just poured energy into the rock while I shaped it.] He teased with a grin.

She looked at him with a glare, [It took a lot of effort to keep the energy flow consistent, you know. I had to keep myself concentrated the whole time!] She yelled angrily.

He backed off a bit, [Sorry, sorry, I was just teasing you. I’m sure it took a lot of focus to keep the flow that consistent.] He sat down next to the extinguished campfire and threw some sticks in from his amulet, setting them alight with a snap of his fingers. [I was teasing you, sorry about that.]

She sighed and hopped off from her shield and into his lap, finding a comfortable position, [Hmm… I know, it’s just that I’m a bit frustrated and I took out my anger on you.]

He looked down with a curious gaze, [What’s making you frustrated?] He asked, [Is it that you can’t make something like that?]

She meekly nodded, [That’s one part of it, but I’m also kinda sad that our first project got blown to bits. I kind of wanted to keep it as a keepsake.]

[Yeah, me too.] He sighed, [I wanted to keep it as a keepsake as well. But, despite our wishes, we can only move forwards, and that starts with taking a break and rethinking our design. Well, my design.]

She took a deep breath and gave what could only be interpreted as a soft smile, [Well in the meantime, I think that you should help me with making new attacks. We did what you wanted to do, so I want to get something out of it as well!] She laughed with a beaming smile.

Kain matched her laugh and began to brainstorm any ideas for attacks that he could develop with her. At first, nothing came to mind, but he soon had an idea that would fit well with her need for an explosive attack, [Have I told you about what air is made up of?] She excitedly shook her head, [Well, air is made up of various gasses. One of the smaller parts of it is a gas called hydrogen. It’s actually the smallest thing in the atmosphere on an atomic scale, so it’s easy to differentiate. This gas is extremely flammable and explosive. By condensing hydrogen you can make a very loud and strong explosion if you set it alight. The only problem with it is the scarcity of it in the atmosphere, or at least that is what I believe is the case. The interesting thing about it though, is that the two things you need to make an explosive, hydrogen and oxygen, are what makes up water.] By now Luna’s eyes burned with anticipation. [Not only is water something that holds hydrogen and oxygen, it’s also what the two form into after an explosion. So if you reform it after the explosion, you have no need to carry much water around with you at all.] Thinking about it some more, he had another thought, [Now that I think about it, you were having problems using weapons with anti-gravity because the movement concept was too slow, right?] She nodded her head, [Good, then I have something to make after those first two projects are finished.]