Cat With a Raygun

Joe woke up to find Ferric shaking him. Rather than in his bed, Joe was on the floor of the mana cavern with the bright glow of the mana crystals around.

“Joe, are you okay?”

“I think the pain caused me to pass out,” Joe said as he sat up. He looked down at his right leg and saw a furless mass of flesh of the end of it. “Looks like I got half of my foot back, at least.”

Joe checked his notifications. “Ouch, no wonder I passed out. I gained 5 levels in Pain Tolerance in 5 minutes.”

“5 minutes? That means you passed out hours ago. Why didn't you wake up sooner?”

“Probably because I've been pushing myself a lot for this and my body finally caught up to that.” Joe Levitated himself to a standing position and said, “Let me take you home, then I need to get to my home and clear out my pantry. I'm starving, probably from regrowing half my foot.”

Joe did as he said he would and went to sleep again when he was finished stuffing himself, but this time he slept in his bed.

Joe wouldn't be going to the Trenos library today, but he did still start his day working on his crops. Afterwards Joe went back home and sat on his bed, ready to see how much it would hurt this time. He specifically chose not to do it in the cavern this time as he hoped that less power meant it would be slower and not hurt as much.

It only took about an hour to finish regrowing his foot, which he thought was pretty good. Normally his Regeneration skill restores hit points much faster, but since it was doing more than just refilling the manachlorian energy that represents his life force, it took longer. He gained another level in both Regeneration and Meditation and 2 more levels in Pain Tolerance.

Joe ate again, then sat down and started designing a new weapon, this time for Kleo. She wanted to be able to attack things from up in the air. Well, before he designed her flight mechanism, he wanted to design her weapon first, because multiple copies of it could be good for the town.

He decided to make it like a rifle. The outside of the barrel would be covered with Launch patterns, but he would cover that with extra parts to make the rifle easier to hold and aim. He also attached a scope with a Telescopic Sight pattern etched on the inside. For the ammo he would do just simple balls of metal similar to the ammunition for an old flintlock pistol, but slightly smaller. At the speeds he intended to get the Launch to work, he wouldn't need much mass to have a devastating effect on the target.

Of course, Kleo didn't even have a class yet, meaning she wouldn't be able to power the sniper rifle at all yet, and wouldn't be able to use it much until after a lot of skill training. Joe had long mulled over the idea of a battery for his arcane devices, so he finally decided to implement that for this design. The rifle could be powered by either the user directly injecting manachlorian energy, or from a manachlorian power pack.

The power pack was harder to design than Joe anticipated. He didn't have any skills, spells, or even abilities related to storing manachlorian energy. The closest thing he had worked with was the mana glass he used for his new spell knives, so Joe worked out a design that was an empowered copper shell over a magisteel and mana glass matrix. Joe gained another level in Schematic Drafting from his efforts.

The Sniper Launcher really gave his Miniaturization ability a work out, so much so that after he finished making a second one it ranked up to 4. And that was really providential, as it made making the insides of the power packs much easier. He gained another level of Smithing and Glassblowing for 2 Sniper Launchers and 6 power packs. He also gained a level in Arcane Gadgeteer, with his unassigned points going into Agility rather than Intelligence this time. Joe had more than made up for his lacking Toughness, now his Agility was the lowest attribute.

Rather than just take the power packs down to the mana cavern to charge instantly, Joe decided to present them to the townspeople. They could contribute their stamina and/or mana to charge them to provide more opportunity to train their own Stamina Growth or Mana Channeling skills.

- - - - -

Joe had sent Kerras and Melanie together to hunt down several oculasauruses as he wanted to make updated SACTs that could connect to more than one device, plus monster cerebral fluid was the key ingredient Eleanor needed in her Intelligence Elixirs. Meanwhile Joe himself went to see Davis for some crafting advice as well as to sell him another ingot of magisteel.

“Joe! So good to see you again,” Davis said after he finally finished his current project. Joe had been watching him work for about 2 hours ceaselessly. “You weren't waiting long, were you? I get so focused in my work.”

“Yes, but that's okay, I learn new techniques from watching you.”

Davis laughed at that, “Oh, am I going to have to charge you for my time?”

“I sure hope not,” Joe lowered his voice before continuing, “I brought one of those special orders you've asked about.”

“Joe, that's great news! My buyers have been asking to no end for more of that level of end product. Unfortunately I'm swamped with orders right now and can't take the time to get to the bank to withdraw the funds for you.”

Joe thought for a moment before responding. “That's okay, Davis. At this point I have no reason to believe that you'd stiff me on payment. I'll provide the goods today so long as you can provide the return payment within a week. Plus I want to pick your brain about something while you work.”

“Joe, I don't know if I feel comfortable with such an imbalance in the scales,” Davis objected.

“You will pay me back for it, won't you?”

“Of course I would.”

“Then I'm good with this arrangement.” Joe took out a small leather pouch and tossed it to Davis.

Davis caught it. “What's this?”

“Your product is inside,” Joe responded.”

Davis shook the pouch up and down, “You're kidding. This doesn't weigh enough.”

“Just humor me and reach in there.”

Davis did as Joe instructed and his doubtful expression quickly changed to one of confusion. Davis pulled the ingot of magisteel halfway out of the pouch. “I've never seen this magic before, Joe. You're just full of surprises, as usual.”

Joe simply nodded. “The inside of that is large enough to contain the entire payment in either gold or platinum. I can make more of those for you, in different sizes and materials, too.”

“I'll think about that,” Davis said. “Now, what is it you wanted to ask me about? I don't know what I can teach you if you're capable of making things like that and my hammer.”

“What do you know about making bows for people with high strength?”

- - - - -

It turned out that the people of Teko had developed compound bows similar to modern styles Joe had seen on the internet and it hunting stores back on Earth. Davis had a set of scrolls showing the design of the bow and Joe spent some time copying it over while Davis worked. Joe thanked Davis for his time and went back to check on his two apprentices. They had killed six oculasauruses, which was plenty. Joe took them and the corpses back to Rust's Edge where he got to work on Harvesting them.

That evening Joe worked on tweaking the design of the compound bow. He also designed a new slingshot for Lester using the same concepts. Rather than make them himself, though, he shared the designs with Melanie so she could do it. Joe wanted to keep training.

Joe had a lot of spells that needed advancement. He could take a shortcut and level them up in the mana cavern, but he wanted to wait for those. He focused on three spells that were about to get a boost from their level and leveled up Stoke Fire, Channel Fire, and Speed Boost.

Set Fire (Level 10). This spell allows the caster to funnel oxygen into a fire to increase its heat at a stable level. The temperature maximum is the caster's Toughness multiplied by the spell level.

Only half of the fuel is consumed by the fire while under the effects of this spell. At the current level the new temperature can be maintained for six hours.

For double the stamina cost a fire can be started using available fuel and will immediately raise to the chosen temperature within the spell's limits.

Stamina cost: 25 stamina to stoke an existing fire or 50 stamina to start one

Channel Fire (Level 5). The spell allows the caster to add fire damage to his weapon attacks. The extra damage is equal to the caster's Intelligence multiplied by the spell's level. At the current level the spell adds fire damage to all attacks made within fifty seconds.

The spell has a chance to ignite the target of the attack(s). Cumulative attacks on the same target increase the chance of ignition.

Mana cost: 5 mana per casting.

Speed Boost (Level 10). This spell allows the caster to sextuple his movement speed for a short time. The spell lasts for a number of seconds equal to the caster's Toughness multiplied by the spell's level. The caster's jumping distance also sextuples while this spell is active. The caster is not harmed from landing from a boosted jump.

Stamina Cost: 10 Stamina per casting

It turned out Joe wasn't the only one training. Tess gained a level in Weaver and learned a new spell she taught Joe, which he felt would be pretty useful in several of his crafting disciplines.

Take Measurements (Level 1). This spell allows the caster to measure any willing living creature to size them up for clothing. The measurements are recorded in the caster's Guidebook, found under this spell's description.

Stamina cost: 25 stamina per casting