Specialization Selected: Arcane Engineering Congratulations! You have fulfilled all requirements for an evolution of the [Engineer] class. Would you like to evolve [Engineer] into [Machinist]?

“Absolutely,” Jason confirmed.

Class Evolution Initiated. Calculating. Synergies Detected. Applying changes.

With a faint chime in his ear, Jason felt something inside him shift. It was strangely disorienting, but the feeling lasted for only a fleeting moment.

Class Evolution Successful! Some class skills have changed.

Jason quickly brought up his list, looking over the changes. He immediately noticed that Advanced Mathematics, which he’d gotten from Engineer, had been downgraded to Basic Mathematics but kept its rank. He wondered briefly if that was what had caused the disorientation.

As for new class skills, he had three.

The first was a skill called [Contraption]. Jason had to read the description more than once before he understood what it was actually supposed to do, and it was only because of its videogame-like nature that he understood how it should function. Effectively, it was what allowed a just-starting out Machinist to create their first weapon by cobbling together a mishmash of several objects that would function as a distinct whole. Jason guessed it would probably violate physics in some way in the process and be unusable for anyone but him.

He’d played a few games that had skills like that. Jason’s mind was already jumping to a few different ideas in that regard, but he had to meet with the others soon, so he forced himself to focus.

Jason’s second skill got an immediate laugh out of him. It was called [Some Assembly Required], and it was a synergy skill related to [Mending], [Deconstruction], and [Reconstruction]. While the skills it was related to required him to first have a completed creation before they could be applied, [Some Assembly Required] allowed him to take a bag of miscellaneous spare parts and twist chance such that he might have everything he needed to build something, and build it at a magically enhanced speed.

Jason’s third skill was also a synergy skill of some sort, though it appeared to be more of a combination of Artificer and Machinist and his mage-tech achievement, rather than being related to specific skills he’d earned. It was called [Overcharge], and it would allow Jason to force mana into an item in order to throw it into overdrive for a brief period, at the risk of causing catastrophic malfunctions. It appeared to be a fairly open-ended skill as well, applicable to both machines and enchanted objects.

Jason belatedly remembered Kera was still there.

“Sorry, sorry, got distracted,” he apologized.

Kera snorted. “I could tell by all the finger sweeping. I take it you got the class?”

“Indeed I did!” Jason exclaimed, sharing his new skill screens with her.

Kera flipped through them, considering. “Contraption sounds… weird. I don’t think I understand what it does.”

“Basically lets me mash several weapons or items together into something that probably shouldn’t be physically possible,” Jason said. “Stuff like transforming melee weapons, or small spheres that turn into one of several turrets. Or like gluing a gas tank, a lawn mower blade, and a handbrake together to make a flamethrower sword. That sort of thing. Looks like I can only make one for now, though who knows how the system would enforce that.”

“Given you have a second skill that mentions ‘catastrophic failure’,” Kera replied, “I think we can guess.”

Jason conceded the point. “Probably.”

He scratched at his chin, thinking for a moment. “You know, I’ve been thinking for awhile about what to do with the gunpowder once I’d made it, because making complex guns requires so many tools. This second skill though… it gives me some ideas. I need to bring Tersk the final shipment of weapons anyway… maybe I’ll see if he has time for a quick commission… just ask him and his crew to whip up any old thing they can, maybe a few barrels and….”

He trailed off, thinking, until Kera poked him in the side with a clawed finger, causing him to jump.

“You were zoning out again,” she said.

“Sorry,” he said, straightening. “Yeah, I think I’ll haul the shipment down to Tersk.”

“How do you even manage to lift those crates?” Kera asked. “Your strength isn’t even close to Lumi’s.”

“Strength potion, of course,” Jason replied, matching words to action and pulling a vial out of his pocket. “See you in a little bit?”

Kera gave Jason a wave as he hefted a massive crate in both arms and backed his way down he stairs.

“Hey Pelk, is your father in?” Jason called out to the young dwarf as he approached the smithy.

Pelk was sitting at one of the tables that lay on the outskirts of the open-fronted building, chipping away at some sort of stone. Jason couldn’t tell what he was trying to make.

Pelk stood up and greeted Jason. “Ah Jason, welcome. That’d be the last shipment?”

“Yep, all here,” Jason said, setting the crate down on the edge of the table. “This has the last of the shockspears and firebrands, and I’ve included a big batch of storm arrows and heartseeker bolts, too.”

Pelk shook his head. “You’re practically a golem, you know that? How do you find the time?”

“Trade secret, which you well know,” Jason said with a grin.

Pelk rolled his eyes. “Speaking of, how’s your ‘secret’ project coming?”

“Actually that’s why I’m delivering in person,” Jason said. “Got your father’s shipment only an hour ago and already got results. I’m here to ask if he’s be willing to spend an hour or two forging me some small miscellaneous parts. I’d come pick them up in awhile.”

“Depends on what you’re looking for,” Pelk replied.

“An assortment of stuff with no specific measurements, and an extra arm plate or two. Nails, lots of different gears, wire, springs, screws, that sort of thing. Scrap metal plates, solder, a few other things.”

“That’s… an odd request fer sure,” Pelk commented.

“No kidding,” Jason said. “But it’s to a good purpose. In fact, given your father’s interest in the matter, later this evening I could go run a weapons test if you or your father want to come along. I’d need him to do a rush order for me though. I’ll pay extra if he’s willing, of course.”

Pelk grinned. “See, you understand how things go around here. It’s refreshing. Come on, let’s go ask. I’m sure he’ll make time. We’ve just about wrapped up with our side of things, anyway, and are ready to get back to ordinary business.”

Jason was led into the back of the smithy, where once again he covered his ears to block out some of the noise of metal on metal. He gave friendly nods to several of Pelk’s family members in passing, people he’d met briefly on his last extended visit but couldn’t recall the names of.

Tersk was seated at the same table he had been before, but this time he stood when Jason was escorted in, rising to give him a firm handshake.

Jason explained briefly how he’d managed to successfully evolve his class, and the assortment of metal tools, parts, bits and bobs, and outright junk that would be useful for him to have around. For Tersk’s part, he found Jason’s assembly skill to be vastly amusing, and agreed to get his people working immediately in exchange for a hefty sum of gold. Jason commissioned several specific items as well, among them a kind of solid iron tripod with heavy stone weights for feet. If he was going to start working with anything that might explode, he wanted to test it, thoroughly, before strapping anything of the sort to himself. He had a thought that he could mitigate any dangers with the right enchantments, and magical healing was always a thing, but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t carefully test ideas first.

After his errand at Tersk’s smithy, Jason’s meetup with the others of his group went as normal. They’d graduated to the point were they were now actively sparring against one another with live weapons (or spells, or claws). Jason had opted to not bring his mage-tech vambrace just yet, for he wanted to first strengthen the enchantments for barriers and projectiles on it before he deemed it combat-ready.

After the training session and a short lunch, Jason returned to Tersk’s smithy, where he was presented with a crate’s worth of various spare parts, the tripod he’d asked for, and a few specific armor and weapon segments. After arranging to meet Tersk just outside the town walls just before dinnertime, Jason downed another strength potion and hauled his supplies home.

The next two hours Jason spent in a flurry of enchanting and infusing. He upgraded the enchantments on his armor slightly, first [Disassembling] the gauntlet into its component parts and replacing just the segments with the barrier and projection runes before [Reassembling] it and reactivating the enchantment.

Then Jason moved on to what he thought of as an experimental shotgun, though perhaps ‘arm cannon’ was a more accurate term. He first enchanted a slotted, hollow steel tube with enhanced runes for knockback resistance, hoping it would function as a major recoil reducer so he wouldn’t break his shoulder or arm firing the thing. Putting his [Some Assembly Required] skill and his crate of spare parts to use, Jason then reworked the top of the tube to include a small, spring-loaded magazine, which he enchanted like he would any other spatial storage object, in order to hold additional rounds.

Since modern bullets were beyond his means to manufacture, Jason had also chosen to settle on older powder-charge firing mechanisms. He added a separate, relatively simple flintlock system to ignite the gunpowder, though he substituted a tiny sliver of fire shard for the flint, it being a far more consistent means of igniting something.

For the gunpowder pan, Jason attempted something a little more ambitious. Like the magazine, he applied a spacial storage enchantment there, but also applied a triggered delivery enchantment as well, not unlike the one he’d placed on the shower-head to to toggle the flow of water on and off. The runes for the delivery system were not only linked to the gunpowder storage, but also to the magazine slot and a separate enchantment that produced a simple compressed burst of elemental air that would clean out the pan and barrel of any embers or blockage before both releasing a new charge’s worth of powder into the pan and new chamber a new round. This meant Jason would need to spend almost no time at all reloading, and would suffer very little chance of the misfires that plagued early firearms.

As for rounds, Jason took some time deciding on what, exactly, he wanted to use. Eventually, he settled on a kind of improvised, magical shotgun slug, carved from an elemental shard and imbued with enhanced density using alchemy. He had plans to also make use of some of the bloodgems that he had brought back from the Wastes to perhaps add blood-seeking to at least one magazine’s worth of shots, but he held off on that for now. Jason knew that if he was going to be testing the weapon on trees first, he didn’t want to be firing rounds that would try and correct course to hit certain kinds of living targets. For all he knew, he might end up shooting himself if he tried.

Finally, Jason assembled everything together. Thanks to the magazine enchantment being separate from the weapon itself, as a storage device, the enchantments held, and Jason bolted the weapon down onto a plate of metal that could simply be strapped down on top of the forearm armor he already had. Then he grabbed all his gear, including his automatic crossbow and the tripod, and went to meet Tersk.

The test firings went more smoothly than Jason had expected. His enchantments had held up just fine under the force of the gunpowder ignition, and by Tersk’s estimation, the recoil resistance enhancement may have actually increased the velocity at which the round was fired while simultaneously protecting the would-be wearer.

Neither did Jason have any issues with misfires over the course of the tests he performed: as Jason had hoped, both the automated cleaning process and the exchanging of flint for a fire shard seemed to have drastically reduced the chance of malfunctions. Tersk was quite enamored of the air-blast enchantment. While the old dwarf knew that some Machinists used magic as a part of their weapons, he’d never seen it in action, and approved of Jason’s ingenuity in solving a common problem.

As for the ammunition, the large, ice-coated crater that was left in the trunk of a tree at three hundred feet spoke for its effectiveness. The elemental shards he'd formed the slugs from had somehow imparted various elemental effects to the shots, which he hadn’t really expected. Jason had simply chosen them because they were easily manufactured and cutting them down into the proper shapes was relatively simple.

His only complaint, perhaps, was that the size of the powder pan seriously limited the enchantment, and thus the number of shots he would be able to make before needing to stop and refill the storage. Still, the weapon was essentially semi-automatic and required little more effort on his part than to simply stabilize with his other hand, point, and shoot. Not a bad result at all for a 'primitive' firearm, in his estimation.

Jason spent a fair bit of time with Tersk, and Pelk as well, making small adjustments to the weapon and conducting several different tests before Tersk had pronounced the weapon fit for use, even if it was a bit slap-dash in how it had been put together. However, the normally reticent dwarf also offered to forge Jason a series of proper parts for the weapon if he were willing to trade him the prototype. He reasoned that now that Jason had proven that he was, in fact, already quite knowledgeable regarding firearms, he felt better about outright providing him with specifically made parts.

Jason of course knew this was a complete fabrication and Tersk probably wanted to take the gun apart and see if Jason had done anything he didn’t know about, but Jason didn’t especially care about that. He did care about getting more custom-made parts though, so after some bargaining to also allow for future purchases of specialized parts for both armor and weapons, Jason agreed.

Thus it was that Jason ended up returning to Tersk’s business for a second time, and then working his way through dinnertime in order to complete a new model, with attachment points added onto his vambrace.

Jason put down his tools and leaned back in his chair, flexing his right hand. The work he’d been doing was starting to give him a serious cramp, and he wondered if it might not be worth taking a least healing potion for the pain.

He glanced up at the window, realizing it was now fully dark out. Then someone behind him poked him in the side, and he jumped, startled, turning around.

“Boo!” Lumi said. She held up a cloth-wrapped package. “I brought you a sandwich from Arn’s. Figured you’d still be up here working, you seemed pretty into it. Looks like I wasn’t wrong.”

Jason massaged his hand slightly. “Thanks. Definitely time I had a break, but at least everything’s done now.”

“The whole thing?” Lumi asked, eyebrows raised.

“Well I mean, the right arm portion,” Jason clarified. “Shoulder, upper and lower segments, gauntlet, weapon. Probably as good as I’ll be able to make until I gain some more levels.”

“That’s still way faster than I’d expected,” Lumi said. “Shouldn’t it take like, days to make all the parts?”

“Maybe back home,” Jason replied with a one-shouldered shrug, “but here skills make a pretty big difference, and Tersk is pretty high level. And I’ve got assembly and repair skills of my own after all.”

“True. Reconstruction is pretty great to watch in action, I have to say. You made a turret yet?” she asked.

“Not yet, still haven't designed one I like. I need to take a break first, I think.”

Lumi passed Jason the sandwich. “Well here’s your excuse, yeah? Want me to get you something to drink?”

Jason grinned at her. “No need, I’ve got some leftover tea, which I could really go for right now. Mind giving it a warm for me though?”

“Sure.”

Jason pulled out his two remaining flasks of Sereni-tea, offering one to Lumi, who accepted. She cupped a hand around each one, using a cantrip. Steam began rising from the flasks.

Lumi took a seat opposite Jason while he ate, each of them occasionally pausing for a sip of tea, and began giving him a rundown of her own activities of the day. At one point, she mentioned that Sevani had met up with her and Kera, and that apparently Sevani had a real pub-crawler side to her.

“What, seriously?” Jason asked in disbelief.

Lumi laughed at his expression. “Really! She’s actually pretty fun to hang out with.”

“Are we talking a out the same woman? Because the Sevani I met seemed like the constant, severe, no-nonsense type. She even yelled at you for breaking stuff at the training yard.”

“Believe or not, she’s also the type who likes to let her hair down from time to—”

Lumi stopped suddenly as the shrill whine of signal flares going off cut through the conversation like a knife.

Jason hastily pushed his chair away from the table and darted to the window. There were six flares, and all of them were light blue.

“Ok, uh… I don’t know what that means,” Jason said.

“I do, and it isn’t good,” Lumi said. “Gear up. I’ll go get Kera.” She turned and ran downstairs.

Jason took a deep breath, and downed the rest of his tea. It looked like it was going to be a long night, and he wanted to be as relaxed as he could.

Then he began gathering his things. Jason pulled out his heavy coat and double checked the pockets to make sure he had his bombs. He belted on the potion bandolier and the wand holders, and made sure to grab some additional rejuvenation potions, which went into the pockets of his coat. Jason then donned the armor, pectoral plates and all, before sliding his coat on over the armor and tying back one sleeve so as to not interfere with his aim.

Just as he came down the stairs, someone started pounding on the front door.

He opened it, finding Aldin standing before him, breathing heavily.

“Seer alert,” Aldin gasped. “One hour.”

“Breathe, man,” Jason said. “I don’t know what that means.”

Lumi, now wearing her own armor and strapping her sword to her waist, walked up behind Jason. Kera was with her, Echo and Ceri in tow.

“All blues mean the one Seer that Aurion brought with him had a vision,” Lumi said. “The number of flares means ten minute increments til the predicted event. Everyone is to gather on the location in such an event.”

“We have a seer?” Jason asked, turning to Aldin.

“Some woman Aurion brought,” Aldin managed to say after taking a few deep breaths. “I don’t know her. He set her up on the well in the main square, just in case.”

“Why would he…?”

Kera shooed Jason forward, out of the house. “Where do you think the water in the well comes from, dummy?” she asked. “It’s ultimately connected to the river. The same river crazy fish monsters are coming from? Why did you think they capped it?”

Jason advanced out of the doorway. “I… guess I hadn't really thought about it.” Jason stopped and looked around. “Where’s Ravs?”

“Right here,” a voice breathed into his ear. Jason barely suppressed the urge to scream, but succeed on keeping a straight face.

An invisible finger poked him in the side, and Ravs faded into view.

“Damn, he’s pretty good,” Ravs said. “Gets Aldin every time.”

“You should take lessons,” she said to Aldin.

“Enough jawing,” Lumi ordered. “Ravs, do we need to take your teleport or do we walk?”

“Better to save my mana,” she responded. “The teleport is expensive, even at this short distance.”

“Jogging it is, then.”

“Wait, you just said walking,” Aldin protested, still slightly out of breath.

Jason just rolled his eyes and passed him a stamina potion.

Then they were off at a light jog towards the upper district, where the main square, and thus the town well, was located. It was only a matter of minutes before they arrived, and other adventurers were already streaming into the square alongside them. Several mages were throwing up light spells, either casting them onto the surrounding buildings, or simply conjuring ones that latched onto the closest passing adventurer and followed them.

Aurion and two other older adventurers were positioned right in front of the well alongside Captain Denaire. One looked to be a standard warrior type, all armor and bulging muscles. The second was a slim woman in grey robes, with a band of grey cloth wrapped all the way around her head, covering her eyes. Both the warrior and Denaire were giving out orders to a steady stream of individuals.

Aurion spotted Ravs and let out a piercing whistle to claim their attention, waving the group over.

“Ravs, just the person I need,” Aurion said. “How many people can you shift at once, if you were to burn your whole pool?”

“I…What?” Ravs looked a bit taken aback.

Aurion growled impatiently. “Your teleport. How many at once?”

“Depends,” she said after a moment’s hesitation. “Maybe thirty as I am now?”

“What if you released all your beacons but one and it was only a short jump? Say, from here to the north wall? And you left nothing for afterwards? Transport only.”

“Why don’t you tell me what you want, and I’ll tell you what I can manage?” Ravs replied.

“The scouts returned with a report of major activity northwards, the sort that’s always a prelude to a major assault. At the same time, Kaerlin had a vision of a major breakthrough right here at the well.”

“Something big,” Kaerlin emphasized.

Jason eyed the massive, glimmering iron plate, more than a foot thick, which was currently clamped over the top of well in addition to being bolted directly into the ground by huge spikes weighed down by heavy stone. It looked like it must weigh at least as much as a small car.

He’d wondered what the radiant iron had gotten used for. Now he knew.

“Denaire and I discussed it,” Aurion was saying, “and she and I both think they’re planning a two front assault. A general, massed attack straight at the main gate as a distraction, while the real threat attempts to come up from below. We don’t have the manpower to guard two fronts at once at peak effectiveness, but we do potentially have mobility and forewarning.”

“I’m hoping to leave the north gate to the townsfolk and the guard while we take on whatever threat appears here first. Once that’s dealt with, you warp all of us straight outside the gates, where we crush the remainder against our own walls.”

Ravs thought for a minute, frowning. “Maybe… I think yes, if I had some time to prepare I could get everyone. I’ll be useless afterwards though.”

“Pick a spot nearby, but out of the line of fire then,” Aurion ordered. “If you need to commandeer anything, let me—.”

“Just a horse,” Ravs said. “I’ll have to release my beacons all at once and then go personally place a new one, and I don’t want to wear myself out running back and forth across town.”

“You’ll have it,” Aurion said, making a motion to a nearby guardsman, whom Ravs split off and joined up with.

The wizard turned back to Jason and Lumi, who were standing in front. “Sorry to steal your companion there, but needs must. Time to see how well you’ve absorbed your lessons.”

Aurion began his signature back-and-forth pacing. “We’ll be executing a standard full raid formation on the assumption that whatever’s coming might be Boss-tier, even though they rarely ever appear outside a dungeon. Lumiriel, you’ll be with the tank line of course. Kerali, you’ll be with the tank line as well for now, but as you’ve brought your beasts, if there’s any sign of smaller enemy groups I want you to split off and join the skirmishers. Aldin, we expect this one to be pretty touch and go, so you’re on support only; stay with the healers.”

“Jason…” Aurion paused in his pacing. “Honestly, I’m not sure what you do at the moment. Your skills clearly lend you towards support, but your last fight you’d torn though the murkling back ranks with some sort of fire construct, and I’ve also had reports you use some kind of explosive?”

Jason gestured to his new armor and wands. “Mid-range weapon and spell combat for now, sir.”

Aurion eyed the heavily enchanted armor with curiosity but didn’t ask. “Very well, join one of the mage lines then.”

“Dismissed, and good luck.”