Chapter 148: Five Pieces Still Weren’t Enough[2]

Raven discovered that obtaining five of the six systems had been the easy part approximately twelve minutes after returning to Kharad.

That didn’t mean it had been easy.

They had stopped a mining company from causing part of the settlement to collapse, disarmed explosives inside a colony of Blastback Burrowers, survived the awakening of more than thirty creatures, and dragged an Elite Matriarch out of its tunnels before killing it without destroying the exact organ he needed.

But at least every one of those problems had followed a structure Raven understood.

Find the enemy.

Understand it.

Create an advantage.

Kill it.

FORGE was less considerate.

He sat in a room at the inn with the five completed physical components of the Prototype Rifle carefully arranged across a table far too small for the job.

Valeria leaned against the wall beside the window, a thin bandage still wrapped around one forearm. Roland had decided this was an excellent opportunity to handle literally anything else in Kharad that didn’t involve exposed monster organs on a dining table.

Raven couldn’t blame him.

In front of him rested the Arc Needle Queen’s High-Density Impulse Spark, the Crystalline Reservoir harvested from the Deepwell Toad, the Black Mithril from Dunvar, the Stormhorn Pulse Core, and—occupying most of the remaining space—a preserved section of the Matriarch’s Pressure Chamber.

Five completed systems.

FORGE had confirmed the fifth immediately after the extraction.

[Recoil Regulation System: COMPLETE.]

[PROJECT: PROTOTYPE RIFLE.]

[Core Systems: 5/6.]

[Activation System: COMPLETE.]

[Stable Mana Storage: COMPLETE.]

[Structural Barrel: COMPLETE.]

[Projectile Acceleration: COMPLETE.]

[Recoil Regulation: COMPLETE.]

[Projectile Stabilization: INCOMPLETE.]

That last line was the problem.

Raven had known Projectile Stabilization was still unresolved.

What he hadn’t known was whether FORGE would demand another biological source once the Pressure Chamber had been integrated.

He focused on the final system.

Another window appeared.

[Projectile Stabilization.]

[Required Function: Maintain projectile orientation and trajectory under extreme acceleration.]

[Current functional data: PARTIAL.]

[Compatible existing sources detected.]

[Stormhorn Pulse Core: Directional force data available.]

[Black Mithril: Precision structural adaptation available.]

[Additional biological source: NOT REQUIRED.]

[Engineering solution possible.]

Raven read the last two lines again.

That was better.

It still wasn’t good.

He had spent weeks finding creatures whose anatomy already performed the functions he needed.

The sixth system wasn’t waiting inside another monster.

He had to build it.

So Raven did the logical thing.

He selected Assembly.

The response appeared immediately.

[Assembly Phase: AVAILABLE.]

[Projectile Stabilization: INCOMPLETE.]

[Current Component Adaptation: INCOMPLETE.]

[Current Assembly Stability: 38%.]

[Estimated Successful First-Cycle Operation: 38%.]

[Warning: Catastrophic Structural Failure Possible.]

Raven stared at the percentage.

Then read it again.

It didn’t improve.

"No."

Valeria looked up.

"What?"

"Thirty-eight percent."

"Of what?"

"The probability that the assembly works correctly."

She took a moment to answer.

"That sounds low."

Raven closed the interface.

"That sounds like an explosion."

She looked over the components.

"We just acquired the Pressure Chamber."

"Yes."

"And that gave you the fifth system."

"Yes."

"So what exactly does the sixth one do?"

"Stops the projectile from becoming useless after I accelerate it."

Valeria stared at him.

"That seems important."

"It is."

"Then why didn’t you collect whatever does that before we nearly had our lungs crushed?"

"Because FORGE doesn’t need another component."

That got her attention.

Raven picked up the Stormhorn Pulse Core.

"It already has most of the information it needs. The Courser had to control the direction of Kinetic Pulse every time it discharged. The same structures responsible for acceleration also corrected the vector."

Valeria looked at the Core.

"Then why isn’t that enough?"

"Because the Stormhorn was correcting force inside its own body. I’m trying to accelerate a separate object through a barrel without letting it tumble, yaw, tear itself apart, or leave in a direction I didn’t intend."

"So you have to invent the missing part."

Raven looked at the five components.

"Yes."

Valeria smiled slightly.

"That sounds significantly worse than finding another monster."

"It might be."

"At least you’re aware."

Raven set the Pulse Core down and picked up the Black Mithril.

The sixth system wasn’t the only problem.

"The Impulse Spark starts the cycle. The Reservoir supplies mana. The Pulse Core accelerates the projectile. The Pressure Chamber absorbs and redirects the resulting force. The Black Mithril holds the weapon together."

"That sounds reasonably complete."

"Until you remember the Black Mithril interferes with biological mana."

Valeria looked at the metal.

"So the material you need to stop the weapon from exploding also prevents the organs from working."

"Yes."

"That sounds like a design flaw."

"Thank you."

"That’s what I’m here for."

Raven set the metal down.

That was only the first problem.

The Pulse Core had evolved inside a creature built around continuous motion. It wasn’t designed to release its force into a projectile traveling through a rigid barrel.

The Deepwell Reservoir could store enormous amounts of mana, but dumping too much into the system at once would saturate the Impulse Spark.

The Pressure Chamber could withstand forces far beyond anything Raven wanted to experience personally, but its natural structure relied on an entire network of valves and membranes that FORGE now had to reduce into something small enough to fit inside a weapon.

And Projectile Stabilization had to somehow connect all of it.

Raven focused on the Pulse Core again.

[Directional Force Alignment: AVAILABLE.]

[Vector Correction Data: AVAILABLE.]

[Asymmetric Load Compensation: PARTIAL.]

Then the Black Mithril.

[Precision Internal Channeling: POSSIBLE.]

[Structural Guidance Architecture: POSSIBLE.]

FORGE could see a solution.

That was not the same as Raven knowing how to build it.

He leaned both forearms against the table.

"I need a workshop."

Valeria glanced around the room.

"I’m glad you finally noticed."

"This table is enough to inspect components."

"The Pressure Chamber is touching my breakfast."

Raven looked at the plate she had left too close to it.

"Your breakfast is touching the Pressure Chamber."

"The distinction doesn’t improve anything."

"Move it."

Valeria picked up the plate.

"We definitely need a workshop."

Finding one was easy.

Convincing someone to rent it to him after vaguely explaining what he intended to do was harder.

Most of Kharad’s blacksmiths were already occupied repairing supports, tools, and equipment damaged during the disaster. The streets had stopped trembling as frequently after the colony withdrew into deeper chambers, but much of the northern sector remained closed.

Eventually, Maelor found someone willing.

The workshop belonged to a blacksmith named Hadrik Venn, a man with a short beard, arms covered in old burns, and patience that lasted approximately thirty seconds after meeting Raven.

"No."

Raven looked at the building behind him.

"I haven’t told you what I need yet."

"Maelor said you want to rent my workshop to build a weapon out of monster organs."

Raven looked at the guide.

Maelor shrugged.

"I summarized."

Raven turned back to the blacksmith.

"Then you already know what I need."

"And the answer is still no."

Valeria, standing behind Raven, looked far too entertained.

"Any particular reason?"

Hadrik pointed toward Kharad.

"Part of the town exploded yesterday."

"That wasn’t me."

"That isn’t the defense you think it is."

Maelor laughed.

Raven changed approach.

"I don’t need your main forge. I need a stable workbench, metalworking tools, clamps, room to work, and enough distance from residential buildings that a failed pressure cycle doesn’t injure anyone."

Hadrik stared at him.

"A failed pressure cycle."

"I’m trying to be precise."

"Maelor said you’re the man who entered the colony."

"Yes."

"He also said you killed the Matriarch."

"With help."

Valeria raised an eyebrow slightly at that.

Hadrik probably recognized her as nobility—or at least as someone capable of making his day considerably worse.

"What exactly are you building?"

Raven considered explaining.

He decided it wouldn’t help.

"A projectile weapon."

"Crossbow."

"No."

"Mechanical bow."

"No."

"Alchemical launcher."

"No."

Hadrik folded his arms.

"Then you don’t know what you’re building."

Raven answered with more patience than he would have had several weeks ago.

"I know exactly what I’m trying to build. The problem is that your language doesn’t have a word for it that won’t start a much longer conversation."

The blacksmith studied him.

Valeria smiled.

"He talks more lately."

Raven glanced at her.

"Don’t help."

"I wasn’t trying to."

Hadrik pointed toward a stone building behind the main forge.

"Old molding workshop. We use it for unstable materials. If you blow something up, you lose the deposit."

"Reasonable."

"If you destroy the building, you pay for the building."

"Also reasonable."

"If you die inside, your companions remove the body."

Valeria answered before Raven could.

"That depends on how much of him is left."

Raven looked at her.

"I appreciate the support."

"Always."

Hadrik seemed to decide he no longer wanted to understand any of this.

He handed them a key.