In front of me stood a probably unneccessarily humongous abomination of a warehouse , I stare up wide-eyed at such a place, steam kept hissing out every once in a while when a pipe snapped open, two gigantic gears stood vertically as a support to the base the warehouse as random flashes and rumbling came from within, the shocking fact was that the mild quakes didn't come from the structure, it remained as stable and immobile as ever but beneath it led clattering stones here and there scatter around the street.

The funny thing was that the pedestrians aren't even bothered by the booms and bangs every so often, when a rain of soot fell most of them already had an umbrella at the ready, you'd clearly see who were the npcs and who were the players

Every inch of me was dusty, every movement I made sent soot falling to the pavement but no amount of shaking around would ever remove all of it

then I was suddenly splashed by a blast of water, I couldn't even react, on the bright side though, I was completely clean but my noob gear was completely soaked

"My apologies my good sir but if you happen to have some business with my master then you should probably follow me inside to get a change of clothes and carry on with your intentions"

the source of the water jet spoke in an frank tone, dressed in a maid outfit and a dull hued gem in hand she reached out to me with another, her emerald eyes showed no emotion but her smile shined with mercy

I couldn't respond with anything else but hold her hand and follow her inside the steam shack, no regret and suspicion ever crossed my mind

she walked with a skip or two, her aquamarine twin-tailed hair bounced and whipped around with each step, the double door bronze were autonomously opened with no other consent, the she tread inside lead no stops

the hallways inside had rows and rows of pedestals with random bits and bobs covered within a glass casing

"These displayed are all failures of my master, though he never bothered to throw them away, he told me each on inspires him to improve"

My mouth kept shut, no words were needed as I curiously glanced at each 'failure', some closely resemble technology from the Real World, I'm surprised her master had gone this far

Another bronze duo-door opened

"Master Darius, our guest has arrived, the one we've been expecting"

the maid announced aloud and bowed gracefully with a dignified look of respect

A rather frail old man lay within the dim room, tinkering with random parts, his hands swiftly picked and placed metal with precision, fingers danced around assembling nuts and bolts, devices and doohickies rhythmically on the product he's slaving away with on the worn-out table

Once he stopped he pressed a button on the orb-like machine, the base of the orb then clicked and widened in the structure of a mini hula-hoop, the space between the circle rippled like water, the man then took a potion near him and positioned it near the machine, the void of the hula-hoop then greedily sucked in the potion resting on the man's palm.

The hula-hoop then clicked and reverted back into its orb form, the frail old man turned and threw the orb to me

"Hey young man! catch!"

"Umm, thanks?"

"That's a pocket dimension storage, you can have that if you want, it's the least I could do since you're helping me out"

The frail old man then patted down his clothes and threw his goggles out the nearest window without a care then made his way towards us

"My name's Darius, you've probably guessed that already since Roger did send you and don't worry about those goggles I threw away, people usually steer clear of any of my windows. Usually."

His enthusiastic voice snapped me out of la-la land, everything here made me cringe in awe

"Oh! Uh, I'm Leoth and what am I supposed to help you with?"

"It's nothing too hard and impossible unlike teaching my daughter, Aria, to actually call me 'father' rather than 'master', she probably doesn't know the difference, It's all 'HER' fault"

"Umm, she's your daughter...." i subtly look over to 'Aria', she responded with a frank smile, her hands kept fiddling with the oversized bow on her chest

Darius coughed loudly, probably because he's old or probably to catch my attention

"Well, cutting the chit-chat and drama and getting to brasstacks here.

I want you to be my apprentice."

"What?"

"You heard me. You're going to be my apprentice ain't nobody's going to change my mind. I'm old and you can probably see that very clearly, I need someone to make use of my specialty and there's only one rule I want you to uphold at all costs.

Never sell weapons to anyone, if you want to create weapons, keep it to yourself, you don't want people mass-producing your creations for warfare, you won't like that feeling, trust me"

The old man in front of me declared it just like that, no consent, no ifs no buts no shit,

I didn't plan on complaining either.

I took out the orb from my pack, jammed my finger on the button, the machine clicked into mini-portal mode, I stuffed all items in my bag (10 pcs. of Bread, Glowing Marble from Roger and my canteen) into the portal and reverted it

"I'm ready master!"

"That's the spirit!"

*Time Skip - 5 Days*

TING!

PANG!

BANG!

The sounds of my hammer hitting a super-heated bronze plate could be heard ringing throughout the dim room, an underground facility filled with vents for air, Darius had taught me

"To actually start tinkering, you must be able to smith your own parts, buying is not acceptable, marketed metals are usually below average quality, therefore with experience you'll be able to provide yourself with a more suitable material for a more durable and flexible invention"

Bronze is usually made with the mix of copper-tin but I scrapped that method and instead I sometimes mix in copper with aluminum, silicon, arsenic and other metals for a harder version of the alloy

I was making a variation of bronze called, bell metal, and coated it with a titanium alloy, I melted the metal into a hollow barrel, its top flat surface was installed with a spring-load, a fire magic crystal I got from Aria was placed in the middle, I then asked her to help me write flame-affinity rune around the barrel-like surface, with multiple chambers that could be reloaded with special made ammo

A long pole was then attached to the 1st part made to be able to channel mana infused from the handle directly to the fire crystal to activate, a trigger is then placed above the handle that fires the inner-hammer and opens the fusion chamber

I wanted a secret weapon just in case Thalia and I arrive in a pinch, I made a polehammer, Just for the occasion since I've gotten quite fond of the hammer these past few days of smithing for parts

And this baby is the final product, by infusing mana from this puppy would ignite the firecrystal and a jet of flames fire off the pole-hammer turning it into a rocket-hammer, trigger then activates the spring-load and opens the fusion chamber, the flames then enter the chamber and burst the special cartridges within hammer causing an explosion for huge damage, the huge durability of bell metal keeps it together and the titanium alloy coating then prevents melting

My first actual independent creation, I call it the: 'Burst Revolver', inspired and made possible because of all the experience and lessons I got from Darius

Now, time for the test-run, the results need to be as expected even a tiny mistake would probably leave me dead, these past days of trial and error were all for this day

I inserted only one shell in one of the chambers and closed it, I readied my 'Burst Revolver' in front of the rock dummies I carved for target practice, about three of them were lined up next to a wall

Remember to aim, the posture of the body and pivot of the foot is important so the hanmer wouldn't take me with it as I swing, flexibility is needed to be able to easily plant my feet and swing in successions, timing is the key to deal as much damage in a single moment, even if I'm too late with the trigger, the bell metal's virbration on impact would probably cause the enemy to stagger, I did all my research from the nearest library and from Roger so I could be able to maximize the potential of my weapon

Aaaaand...

SWING!

the moment I swung I began to feed mana to the handle, the hammer boomed faster as the rocket-like fire jets blasted the hammer toward the rock dummy, once the hammer made contact

"Hey Leoth we nee--"

CLICK~!--- BANG!

the impact of the hammer smashed through each dummy and with a pull of te trigger sent the shrapnel flying, piercing and stuck to a wall right next to the door

It was Darius, only a few inches were left between him and certain death, his cheek suddenly slashed and bled dripping on the rubbled floor, his earlier serious face turned into a look of shock and realization, if he hadn't hesitated from the sound of the explosion and had continued walking into the room would've meant his funeral

He closed and blinked his eyes a few times before he finally pulled himself together

"L-leoth, what was th-that... Nevermind, j-just come with me upstairs and..."

He glared over 'Burst Revolver' for a second

"... Leave your weapon of mass destruction in your facility. Locked. Out of reach of anyone."

and proceeded to return upstairs without glancing back

I could only shrug out my shock-awe from my invention, a huge crater was left from where my hammer exploded, I switched my sights from the crater to the hammer to the crater again and finally decided to gingerly place 'Burst Revolver' on my worktable and run up to follow Darius

"Set Magic Formation"

A red hexagram star circle then flashed beneath me and anchored me to the ground, two stakes drove outward the floor with me between it, chains slithered, wrapped around the two stakes and bound both my arms out stretched, a thorny halo appeared above my head and spun with searing heat

Aria appeared in front of me, slowly walking into the formation, her usual maid outfit was replaced with a skin-tight black suit, her aquamarine hair untied and swayed with her body on every step, she was 'blushing?' but I was more occupied on the chains

Her arms wrapped around my waist and pulled herself closer to me, her breath smelled of jasmine, eyes wistfully closed as her face slowly closed the distance

Her lips met mine, soft, fluff and heart fluttering, my emotions kept doing jumping jacks and backflips, my mind jumped out the window as unknown impulses kicked-in, her hands cupped both my cheeks, her tongue entered intertwined with mine had caught me by surprised, moans got louder as more seconds burn out, what's wrong with me? why're the roles reversed? how'd this happen?

"Contract Complete, Bind Set"

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