Chương 17: 1.1.17 - Down to the Wire

It was one of the better winters I had experienced since coming to this world. We had enough food, the room was warm, and I had made progress learning magic and taken baby steps towards making a railgun, or more accurately a gauss rifle. I could see the last of the winter snow falling off the trees from the room's window while Wyl was snoring away. It had been quieter since Gal left but it seemed like Wyl was training to take his place. We had not had any new children join us in a while.

While it seemed like the war intensified, news was it was more frequent probing attacks and more frequent attempts at ambushing the scouts. It had not translated to any large scale skirmishes yet so there were more resources used but less fatalities. I still had another year or two before another Royal Inspector came to the orphanage.

I was torn between making progress with my gauss rifle research and experimentation or trying to progress my core so that I had the strength to leave the orphanage if I had to, but ultimately chose the route that worried Marta less. The list that old Garrick gave me was useful. I was able to secure additional reagents, herbs, and funguses that tend to appear during the winter. Apparently the prices tend to be a little higher not due to scarcity, but due to how hard it was to look for them in the snow.

I had a little advantage in that department as it seemed like magical plants had higher bioelectrical signatures. I still had to get within a 15 - 20 foot range to spot them but I could spot them through even a few feet of snow. I had also hunted some boars and the occasional orange beast that wandered closer to the edge of the forest. One was a large bird of prey and the other was some badger looking mammal I could not really identify. Both had been hunting their own prey when they became the hunted.

My hunting efficiency had gone up a lot since upgrading Spark to Lighting Bolt. Having a ranged spell made it a lot easier to take down the targets from afar. That also meant no more jumping from trees for the boars, and adding deer to my prey list as well. All the hunting and foraging for magical plants had allowed me to push my Electro Perception to the max level of Tier 1.

Unfortunately, I had no inspiration nor did the Fundamentals of Spellcraft book provide any examples of how to upgrade a sensory spell to the next tier. I had maxed out my Stage Level as well for my Orange core but the progress towards the next stage had slowed to a crawl without actively hunting Orange cored beasts. I mentally pulled on the Weave to bring up my status window.

Status Core: Lightning Affinity (Perfect) Core Stage: Orange Stage Level: 20 Mana Core Capacity (MCC) Progress to Core Stage up: 2014/2500 Core Mutations: - Lightning Brain Spells: - Electro Perception (Tier 1) - Level 10 - Lightning Bolt (Tier 2) - Level 3 - Lightning Infusion (Tier 1) - Level 3 Soul Mutations: - Adaptive Soul - Nature's Constitution Status Core: Lightning Affinity (Perfect) Core Stage: Orange Stage Level: 20 Mana Core Capacity (MCC) Progress to Core Stage up: 2014/2500 Core Mutations: - Lightning Brain Spells: - Electro Perception (Tier 1) - Level 10 - Lightning Bolt (Tier 2) - Level 3 - Lightning Infusion (Tier 1) - Level 3 Soul Mutations: - Adaptive Soul - Nature's Constitution I looked at that barely 500 exp gap between the current level and the next Core Stage up.

It would have been trivial if my Lightning Bolt went up a level, or if my Lightning Infusion had leveled another two more levels. However, it seemed that if I did not push the spell to the extreme or creatively, it would take a lot of repetition just to level up the spell a single level. Now I know how most people without an innate understanding for their element felt when they progressed at this pace. I was half contemplating risking Marta's wrath to look for the Glimmerwasps again but a promise was a promise.

Also as I expected, the capacity requirement for the next stage was five times the requirement for a single level at Orange. No wonder most commoners stay at Orange or Yellow their whole lives. If they did not have formal training, the simple Tier 1 cantrips at low levels would at most get them through Red and early levels of Orange. I dismissed the status window and got out of bed. I could hear Marta preparing breakfast downstairs with the others.

I had a long day ahead of me as I finally had enough materials to proceed to the next part of the experiments. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I had decided at the start of winter that it was more practical to start with a smaller scale gauss rifle. While some of the physics were different, the challenge with energy density was similar, but on a much smaller scale.

While copper wire was a common commodity a person could buy from the hardware store in the neighborhood block, it was non-existent in this world. Wires of precious metals were still used but only in jewelry. I managed to get old Garrick to procure a wire drawing tool that jewelers used for their craft. The copper rods that I had Branwen craft for me were then pulled manually by myself through the wire drawing tool through holes of various sizes.

I had to hammer the ends of the rods to taper them and make them smaller to fit through the first hole. The rod would get thinner and longer after I pulled it through with pliers. I had to repeat the process for each hole, reducing the diameter and lengthening the rod after each draw, eventually thinning down to the diameter I needed. The downside with this process was that after each draw, the copper gets harder and more brittle.

Normally the artisan would heat it with a blow torch or in this world, jewelers usually had a fire or metal affinity to anneal the copper, making it softer before the next pass. I had to heat up the copper by conducting a current through it using my Lightning Infusion spell. That process itself was time consuming, and between searching for magical herbs and hunting for beasts, it took the entire winter to draw the amount of copper wires I needed to make a solenoid of the size needed for an initial prototype.

The wire drawing had added to the existing calluses on my hands that accumulated from my previous stint of making the water heaters, which made my hands look more like a hard laborer's than an eight year old kid's. I attached the spool of copper wires to the inscribed plate of copper adjusted with Intensity Runes to achieve the required voltage I wanted, and then charged the enchantment with Lightning Infusion to prime it for release.

This was the moment of truth, I placed the iron slugs I had commissioned from Branwen near one end of the coil. I triggered the enchantment which released a quick pulse of electricity through the coils and turned off immediately. Thunk - KRAK! The iron slug flew to the copper coil, bounced against the inside once and flew out the other side before embedding itself into the wooden wall of the tool shed, cracking the wood. Eureka! It worked! If not a little too well.

I walked over to the wall where the iron slug was embedded and had to use quite some strength to pry it out. I hoped no one heard that, while no one really used the tool shed around here, I doubt Marta would appreciate me tearing the place down during my experiments. There was also the danger of someone being hurt if it did fly through the wall and one of the other orphans was on the other side. It was high time I relocate my experiments to a more secure and secluded spot.

I decided to only set out to the Greywoods the next morning as I wanted to maximize the amount of daylight I would get. I had already explored most of the nearby forest throughout the winter when I was hunting and foraging. There weren't any suitable locations that were immediately close by. Ideally, it would be in a secluded spot like a cave or a spot between big rocks if a cave was not possible. I needed an area that was not immediately obvious to store some equipment, in case passing hunters do come across it.

While a more secluded spot might not completely eliminate the risk of someone else looting my equipment, I wanted to minimize the risk as much as I could. I decided to explore deeper into the Greywoods than usual, but hopefully not too deep in as I did not want to run into beasts that were above Orange cored. While I was starting to get familiar with navigating through the forest, I was still not as experienced and I decided I needed to use a landmark so that I would not get lost.

I decided to use the stream that ran through the Greywoods as a landmark to anchor myself, the same one in front of the orphanage that I had shocked myself in years ago. My approach would be to sweep one side of the river, starting from the river bank and going further away from the river until the river was barely out of sight. I would then head back towards the river but at an angle that would bring me deeper into the forest.

I would proceed in this zig zag manner to sweep one side of the river to look for suitable locations. Having the river in view would ensure that I would always have a way to navigate out of the woods and back to the orphanage. Being close to a water source would also enable me to divert some water towards where I worked in case I needed large amounts of water for cooling.

The risk was that there would be a higher likelihood of me running into predators the deeper I went into the forest, as predators typically stayed near water sources that naturally attracted other animals passing by in search of hydration. If I was not able to find any suitable locations today, I would mark the tree by the river and start sweeping the other side of the river the next day before I proceeded deeper into the forest, starting from where I left off on the first day.

The weather was starting to warm as the last of the winter snow gave way to the spring sun. The river levels were already starting to rise from the melting snow, and the forest ground was already visible in some parts. It was honestly the worst time to trek through the forest as the ground was starting to get muddy. There were already visible signs of shoots sprouting from the ground at several places.

I made my way through the forest, taking a lot more time than usual as I avoided the vernal pools that had accumulated from the melting snow. It took more time than I had expected, but I made steady progress as I explored deeper into the forest than I usually would. I elected to skip the zig zag travel path on the outer edges of the forest as I already knew there weren't any suitable spots there.

It took the better part of the morning for me to reach the deeper parts and another few hours before I wandered into unfamiliar territory. Throughout the trek, I did find several potential spots. Nooks between medium sized boulders, some rock shelters at the bottom of small ledges, but I decided to mark them mentally and hold out for a better spot.

I estimated that it would take me a good two hour trek back to the orphanage if I followed straight along the river bank, so I had decided to call it a day after another hour or so. However, it was then that I spotted a cave not too far from the river. At this point, I had not encountered any orange beasts yet which was strange, or it could be natural instinct of beasts to hide if they were approaching the river as that was where most ambushers lay in wait.

I had my Electro Perception running this whole time but pushed it to the maximum range as I made my way to the cave, keeping my fingers crossed that it would be empty. Author Note: This is the work of Josh Shoniix. This work of fiction will only be published on Royal Road and Space Battle for free. If you're reading this on another site or paid through Google Books, this work has been stolen.