Chapter 53: To Build My First Rifle, I Need to Hunt Two Monsters

"When?"

"I don’t know yet."

"Then register it before you leave."

"That I can do."

Pell studied him.

"You don’t seem concerned about having killed a noble."

Raven thought about Cassian.

"He seemed to die the same as anyone else."

Silence.

Valeria lowered her gaze to hide a smile.

Pell put away the report.

"You can go."

Raven started to stand.

"Ashford."

He turned.

"House Orbrecht isn’t a Great House. But they still have money, soldiers, and relatives."

"Thank you."

"That was a warning."

"I treated it as information."

The magistrate stared at him for several seconds.

"That’s probably the most I’m going to get from you."

"Probably."

Raven left.

Valeria caught up with him in the corridor.

"’He seemed to die the same as anyone else.’"

"It was true."

"I’m going to remember that line the next time you meet my father."

Raven stopped.

"Was that a threat?"

"Not yet."

"Excellent."

---

There was no actual reward for the Blackmaw.

Nobody had contracted its death.

Which meant Raven didn’t receive hundreds of crowns simply for returning with an impressive story.

That seemed reasonable.

They did make money from the materials.

Valeria sold some of the lesser Mirehorn parts she didn’t need. Raven sold two damaged Blackmaw teeth, a secondary section of carapace, and tissue FORGE had classified as structurally unsuitable.

He kept everything valuable.

The Mercenary House specialist nearly suffered a medical emergency when Raven rejected an offer of four hundred crowns for one intact plate.

"Do you know what you could buy with that?"

"Yes."

"Then why won’t you sell it?"

"I need it."

"For what?"

Raven looked at the black plate.

"I don’t know yet."

The specialist made an expression normally reserved for disease.

"You need it for something you don’t know."

"Exactly."

"That’s not needing it."

"It is to me."

Valeria intervened.

"Stop trying. He does the same thing with monsters."

The man looked at her.

"What?"

"If he decides a part might be useful someday, he immediately loses all emotional connection to its monetary value."

Raven raised one finger.

"Not all."

"They offered you four hundred crowns."

Raven looked at the plate.

Then at the specialist.

"Five hundred."

The man’s mouth opened.

Valeria burst out laughing.

"I withdraw my statement."

He didn’t sell the plate.

But he considered it.

That counted.

By the time they finished, Raven left the Mercenary House with more money, a reputation he hadn’t asked for, and a new problem.

The problem was FORGE.

He had spent most of the journey back to Greyhaven thinking about the same question.

What should he build first?

A handgun was smaller.

Easier to carry.

Better in confined spaces.

It also required tighter tolerances, a reliable mechanism, and enough energy inside a short barrel to accelerate a projectile to useful velocity.

A rifle needed more material.

More length.

Greater structural strength.

But it provided space.

Space to integrate magical components.

Space to dissipate pressure or mana.

Space for a larger chamber.

And, above all, range.

The Blackmaw had made one thing painfully clear.

Raven needed to stop solving every problem within biting distance.

He made the choice before they reached the library.

A rifle.

Not necessarily an exact reproduction of an Earth rifle.

One built around the rules of Veyr.

---

The Mercenary House library closed at dusk.

Raven convinced them to keep it open.

Not with influence.

With money.

Five crowns to the librarian.

Valeria found out and spent the next twenty minutes reminding him she could’ve gotten access for free.

"It wasn’t free."

"It would’ve been for me."

"Exactly."

"You could’ve asked me to speak with him."

"That creates debt."

"Five crowns also created a debt."

"No. It created a transaction."

Valeria sat across from him.

"One day I’m going to write a treatise on your pathological relationship with favors."

"Tell me when it’s published."

"You’d read it?"

"No."

"Then why do you want me to tell you?"

"So I know when to avoid bookstores."

Valeria gave him a look of exaggerated exhaustion.

Raven opened the first volume.

Asterian Central Bestiary — Mana-Reactive Species, Volume IV.

The search began.

FORGE had already given him requirements.

Not names.

Functions.

Raven wrote them down on a sheet of paper.

Structure capable of containing extreme pressure or mana release.

Conduit resistant to friction, heat, and deformation.

Acceleration source.

Controlled activation source.

Stable energy storage. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

Compatible projectile.

He had reduced an Earth rifle to a collection of problems.

Now Veyr had to provide the answers.

Valeria read over his shoulder.

"That’s quite a lot."

"Yes."

"I thought FORGE made things."

"It does if I give it everything it needs."

"Then it’s an extremely demanding craftsman."

"It’s an assembler with standards."

"That sounds exactly like something an extremely demanding craftsman would say."

Raven opened another book.

Two hours passed.

They found creatures.

Many.

Most were useless.

One species of mountain salamander could generate temperatures high enough to melt iron.

Not useful.

A giant beetle accumulated air pressure inside its abdomen and released it to jump.

Interesting, but too weak.

An Awakened bird could launch feathers through mana acceleration.

Better.

A subterranean crustacean produced plates capable of surviving gas explosions inside volcanic caverns.

Much better.

Raven marked the page.

«Blastback Burrower

Estimated Level: 24–31

Rank: Awakened / Young Elite

Habitat: Kharad Mountain Range, Western Asteria

Primary Trait: "Pressure Chamber"

Internal chambers capable of containing and violently releasing accumulations of gas and mana without organic rupture.»

FORGE reacted.

«"Potential functional source detected."

Pressure containment compatibility: HIGH

Possible application: Weapon chamber reinforcement

Harvest required.»

Raven kept one finger on the page.

"One."

Valeria leaned closer.

"Kharad."

"Far?"

"Very."

Raven looked at the map hanging on the wall.

Greyhaven sat in south-central Asteria.

The Kharad Mountain Range was almost on the western border.

"Good."

"Good?"

"It exists."

"Your definition of good news is strange."

"The alternative was that it didn’t."

Valeria accepted that.

They continued.

The acceleration source was more difficult.

Raven already knew Kinetic Acceleration.

But finding another person with the same Skill and killing them solely for it wasn’t an option he liked.

Not only because of morality.

It was inefficient.

He couldn’t build a development path around finding humans with specific Skills and hoping they happened to be convenient enemies.

He needed a species.

Something reproducible.

They found the first possibility shortly before midnight.

«Stormhorn Courser

Magical herbivore of the Velis Plains

Level: 19–27

Rank: Awakened

Known Trait:

"Kinetic Pulse"

Accumulates mana within structures surrounding the heart and releases it in directional impulses capable of temporarily multiplying bodily speed or projecting small objects during territorial confrontations.»

Raven read it twice.

FORGE reacted.

«"Potential acceleration source detected."

Trait: "Kinetic Pulse"

Functional similarity to host "Kinetic Acceleration": 73%

Potential application:

Directed projectile acceleration

Estimated efficiency: Unknown

Harvest source required: Thoracic Kinetic Node»