Chapter 55: Now I Have to Cross Asteria.

Raven looked at the list.

It was a lot.

That was fine.

He wasn’t going to produce a rifle out of nothing.

He would have to earn it.

Valeria read through the notes.

"When you explained this yesterday, I thought you wanted to make a simple artifact."

"So did I."

"Now you need to cross half the kingdom to build a tube that throws metal."

Raven looked at her.

"You said it was a revolutionary tube."

"It was, before I discovered it costs more than a house."

"Several houses."

"That doesn’t help."

Raven placed both hands on the table.

Looked at the large map of Asteria.

Now it had marks.

Greyhaven.

Blackthorn.

Sablewood to the southeast.

Mirevale to the east.

Dunvar and its foundries to the northeast.

The Velis Plains to the north.

The Kharad Mountain Range to the west.

It wasn’t a route.

It was a collection of scattered problems.

Valeria stood and approached the map.

"If you do this badly, you’ll cross the kingdom twice."

"Then I need a better route."

She pointed.

"Sablewood first. It’s relatively close, and the Arc Needle Wasp shouldn’t give you too much trouble. From there, you can take the eastern road toward Mirevale and get the reservoir. Then head north toward Dunvar."

"Black Mithril."

"Yes. From Dunvar, you can cross toward Velis."

"Stormhorn Courser."

"Then Kharad."

Raven followed the route.

A massive curve around Asteria.

"That’s still almost the entire kingdom."

"I didn’t say it would be short."

"How long?"

Valeria calculated.

"If all you did was travel and everything was waiting beside the road for you, maybe six or seven weeks."

Raven looked at her.

"But."

"But Black Mithril requires permits or a lot of money. Stormhorns migrate. Blastback Burrowers live beneath mountains and usually appear in colonies. Mirevale has a seasonal parasitic disease. Sablewood contains enough venomous creatures that merchants pay double for escorts."

Raven stared at her.

"You were saving all of that for later."

"I didn’t want to ruin the moment."

"Very considerate."

Valeria smiled.

Raven looked back at the map.

Six weeks would become more.

Probably months.

Contracts.

Money.

Information.

Hunts.

Secondary materials.

Opportunities.

Problems.

FORGE had turned a weapon into an expedition.

That could have annoyed him.

Instead, Raven felt something close to anticipation.

Every component would improve his understanding of the world.

Every creature might offer other Traits.

Every city would provide information.

Every region could hide something that wasn’t recorded in Greyhaven’s books.

The route toward the rifle was also a route toward becoming stronger.

That changed things.

Valeria remained beside the map.

"You could still start with something simpler."

Raven shook his head.

"No."

"An upgraded crossbow."

"No."

"A bow with Kinetic Pulse."

"No."

"A spear capable of—"

Raven looked at her.

"I already used an iron bar to kill an Elite. I don’t want to improve the iron bar."

Valeria laughed.

"You have something personal against primitive weapons."

"I have something personal against standing twelve inches from the teeth."

"That’s more reasonable."

Raven pointed at the design.

"I want range. Penetration. A trajectory fast enough that a mage doesn’t have time to finish a defense after hearing the attack."

Valeria’s smile faded slightly.

"Good mages can detect mana before impact."

"Then I want enough speed that detecting it doesn’t mean reacting to it."

She studied him.

"You’re designing this with people in mind."

Raven didn’t answer immediately.

Monsters.

People.

Bloodlines.

Barriers.

Armor.

A weapon didn’t distinguish between them.

"I’m designing it with targets in mind."

Valeria nodded slowly.

She didn’t look horrified.

That was information about her too.

"What are you calling it?"

Raven looked at the paper.

"Rifle."

"No. That’s the type."

"It doesn’t need a name."

Valeria stared at him as if he’d just said something offensive.

"Of course it needs a name."

"It’s a tool."

"Good weapons have names."

"Good weapons work."

"You can do both."

"That sounds like unnecessary work."

Valeria crossed her arms.

"If you’re literally creating a weapon that doesn’t exist in this world, you cannot call it ’Rifle One.’"

Raven looked at the sheet.

PROTOTYPE 01.

He turned it slightly to hide the words.

Valeria saw them.

"Were you going to call it Prototype One?"

"Temporarily."

"That’s horrible."

"It’s accurate."

"Horribly accurate."

Raven put the paper away.

"We’ll discuss names when it exists."

Valeria smiled.

"’We’ll.’"

Raven closed his eyes.

"Don’t start."

"Third time."

"I’m going to start charging you for each one."

"I have money."

"That makes the threat less useful."

They left the library after midnight.

Greyhaven was much quieter.

Taverns were still open, but the markets had closed. Magical lamps filled the main streets with yellow light, and several soldiers patrolled the intersections.

Raven carried the rolled map beneath one arm.

Valeria walked beside him.

"When do you want to leave?"

Raven looked at her.

"First I need to settle Greyhaven."

"Orbrecht."

"Yes. Also sell materials, buy supplies, and get better information on Sablewood."

"Two days."

"Three."

"Why three?"

"Predatory Regeneration."

Valeria looked at his injuries.

"I thought you were better."

"I am. I want to be fully functional before starting another hunt."

She nodded.

"Sensible."

Raven looked at her.

"Stop saying that."

"What?"

"Sensible."

"Why?"

"I’m starting to suspect I’m doing something wrong."

Valeria smiled.

"I can insult you if that makes you more comfortable."

"That feels more normal."

They walked several yards.

Then she asked:

"Do you really intend to cross Asteria for that weapon?"

Raven looked at the map.

"Yes."

"It could take months."

"Probably."

"The cost might exceed what you’d earn using it for years as a mercenary."

"I’m not building it to improve my income."

"Then why?"

Raven thought about the Blackmaw.

The opening between the plates.

One and a half seconds.

The need to stand beneath an Elite to reach its weak point.

He thought about future enemies.

Champion.

Calamity.

Things for which an iron bar would stop being funny.

"Because there’s a difference between being able to kill something and being able to kill it before it reaches you."

Valeria watched him.

Raven continued.

"In this world, almost all power seems concentrated in the person. Levels. Bloodlines. Skills. Blessings. If you want a stronger attack, you make the user stronger."

"Generally."

"I want to separate those two things."

Valeria went quiet.

"A mediocre person with a good tool can do something they don’t have the natural talent to accomplish."

"That already exists. Artifacts. Scrolls. Alchemy."

"Yes. But this will be different."

"Why?"

Raven looked at Greyhaven’s lights.

"Because my world spent a very long time perfecting one fairly simple idea."

"Which one?"

"If a person can’t throw something fast enough on their own, you build a machine that can."

Valeria took a second.

"Your world sounds healthy."

"It wasn’t."

"That much I’d already figured out."

They reached the intersection separating Raven’s inn from the district where Valeria was staying.

She stopped.

"Three days, then."

Raven stopped too.

"What happens in three days?"

"We leave."

"I leave."

Valeria smiled.

"Naturally."

"I don’t remember inviting you."

"I don’t need an invitation to travel through my own kingdom."

"That sounds like a geographical problem again."

"Exactly."

Raven looked at her for several seconds.

He could argue.

It wouldn’t change anything.

Valeria knew the materials, nobility, routes, magic, Houses, and much of Asteria better than he did.

She was useful.

Too useful.

Raven hated that the word kept solving problems.

"Three days."

Valeria’s smile widened.

"Good night, Raven."

"Good night."

She started walking away.

"Valeria."

She turned.

Raven raised the map.

"Tomorrow I need information on Black Mithril permits."

The satisfaction appeared immediately.

"Of course."

"Information. Not favors."

"You ruined the moment."

"That was the intention."

She continued walking.

Raven went the other way.

Back in his room, he spread the map across the table again.

He’d already memorized much of it.

But he needed to see it.

He placed the rifle design beside the map.

Then wrote each component beside its destination.

Sablewood.

Mirevale.

Dunvar.

Velis.

Kharad.

Five points.

Probably more would appear.

The system analyzed the design again.

"PROJECT REGISTERED"

Temporary designation: Prototype Rifle

Completion: 0.8%

Required core components identified: 5

Additional compatible materials may improve final result.

Current construction status: IMPOSSIBLE

Raven stared at the percentage.

"Zero point eight."

After unlocking an Authority, killing an Elite, and spending hours researching, he’d advanced less than one percent.

Strangely, that made him smile.

No free power.

No closing his eyes and imagining a perfect weapon.

If he wanted to bring Earth technology into Veyr, he would have to rebuild its logic from the materials available in this world.

Hunt.

Learn.

Experiment.

Fail.

Improve.

That seemed fair.

Raven ran one finger along the route.

Greyhaven was only a point near the bottom of the map.

His first destination lay southeast.

The last was nearly on the opposite side of the kingdom.

Between them were cities he didn’t know, Houses whose names still meant nothing to him, creatures he’d never seen, and enough miles that someone would probably try to kill him several times.

Good.

He needed the Experience anyway.

He looked at the rifle drawing.

On Earth, the concept was ordinary.

Soldiers carried them.

Police carried them.

Civilians could buy versions of them depending on the country.

They had existed for centuries.

Here...

Valeria had needed a powerful Bloodline and decades of training to launch projectiles capable of piercing a monster.

Raven wanted to build something that could do part of that simply because someone activated the correct mechanism.

A weapon without a Blessing.

Without a Bloodline.

Without exceptional magical talent.

An object.

The world still didn’t understand why that could be dangerous.

Raven didn’t know exactly what he would end up building either.

Maybe the first prototype would explode.

Maybe Kinetic Pulse wouldn’t produce enough velocity.

Maybe Black Mithril couldn’t withstand the mechanism.

Maybe FORGE would reject the combination after months of work.

But he’d already received the only answer he needed.

"Theoretical construction possible."

Raven looked at the map.

Then at the route that practically crossed all of Asteria.

A small smile appeared.

"It’s going to be a long trip."

And for the first time since arriving in Veyr, Raven wasn’t traveling because he needed to escape from something.

He was traveling because he knew exactly what he wanted to find.