《The World Inside a Dream》


 Chapter 1

    "Whew, long day. Time to sleep," Lucius Devon said to himself and jumped into bed. When he shut his desk lamp off, the room darkened and matched the starry night sky outside. Lucius stared at the ceiling above him as his eyelids grew heavy, forcing them shut.


    Sleep overtook him, sending him into a deep slumber.


    Slowly, his vision cleared and he seemed to wake up. Instead of a white ceiling above him, there was a brilliant blue sky.


    Where am I? Lucius thought. Is this a dream? After sitting up, he smoothly nodded.


    Yeah, this must be a dream. This is a really clear dream though, and, Lucius touched a patch of grass that he was laying in. His hand came back damp from dew. He was wearing the same clothes he wore during the day, even his shoes.


    My movements aren''t sluggish at all. Lucius stood up and looked at his surroundings. He seemed to be in a forest, with trees surrounding him in every direction. A bird chirped as he flew past Lucius, the sound flowing into his ears as clear as if he was using a pair of headphones.


    This is no ordinary dream, Lucius thought in amazement. This is cool. Let''s look around to see what exist in this dream before I have to wake up.


    He didn''t think much of the situation. Dreams were dreams, right?


    Lucius walked, his feet rustling the grass beneath his feet. Once in a while, he would stop and touch a tree. Everything felt and seemed real as if he was actually in this world.


    Then a thought crossed his mind that threw him off balance.


    What if I really am in a new world, or at least somewhere else on Earth? Lucius wondered. He pondered it for a bit, then shook it off. Nah, that''s impossible. There''s no such thing as magic. The only explanation for this is dreams.


    Indeed, Lucius never believed in a god or magic. He relied on science to back things up. He believed that if there was no evidence to prove it, it didn''t exist.


    His entire outlook of reality crumbled when he saw the flower.


    Lucius walked through the trees that seemed to be growing thicker and thicker the farther he went in. Soon, he was straining to see, often pausing to let his eyes refocus to the gloom so he won''t crash into a tree.


    There was a light that shown through the trees, so Lucius headed for it. He was getting sick of the dense layer of trees and wanted to get out of it as soon as possible.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    He weaved his way through the trees and ran for the clearing. It grew larger and larger, and when Lucius entered it, he was blinded by the light. He shut his eyes and waited for them to recover from the shock.


    When he opened them, they widened even further.


    In front of him was a flower that was Lucius could not recognize, which surprised him.


    Lucius loved plants and even at a young age, he successfully grew them faster and better than what most people could do. At his current age, which was seventeen, he grew a full garden that housed anything from vegetables to rare medicine herbs. The mysterious flower in front of him made him curious in every way possible.


    Lucius walked up to it and studied it. It was mainly orange with tinges of black. The stem was almost 2 inches wide and the leaves that grew from it were bigger than Lucius''s hand put together.


    Lucius raised his hand and gently touched the leaves of it. It had a rubbery, almost plastic feeling and felt smooth with no distinct bumps or ridges.


    When Lucius tried to remove his hand, he found it was stuck. Perplexed, Lucius tried to remove it again with no luck. It didn''t feel off in any way, but his hand was just stuck there.


    When he thought the situation couldn''t get any weirder, the flower began to glow red and shrink.


    Well, not shrink. The entire flower seemed like it was stretching and liquefying into Lucius''s finger. A warm sensation rushed through his finger and spread into the rest of his body.


    Amazed, Lucius watched the flower get absorbed into his body. As the last of the flower disappeared, Lucius started to become drowsy and dozed off, laying in the grass.


    A harsh, metallic sound broke out and jolted Lucius awake. He realized it was his alarm clock.


    Grunting, Lucius dragged his body out of his bed and pulled his clothes on. Simple jeans and a blue short-sleeve, his favorite color, was what he decided to wear today. Nothing flashy and very comfy.


    The feeling of warmth was still in his body and started to make Lucius confused.


    The dream ended, so why do I still have this feeling? Lucius wondered. He thought about the dream the entire walk to school.


    It bothered him more than he liked.


    Lucius entered the school and went to his seat, just like every other day and time. Just the boring grind.


    He spun a pencil in his left hand and read a book using his right. It amazed other people how Lucius could multitask without difficulty, but it was just normal to him. He never tried to be cocky, but it amazed him how other people couldn''t multitask. It just seemed so normal to him, just like riding a bike or typing on a keyboard.


    Class started and Lucius attempted to focus, but like always, his mind wandered somewhere else. This time, it wandered to the dream.


    The dream was so clear. It seemed like Lucius was really there experiencing it all, breathing in the air and feeling the grass beneath his shoes. Lucius thought it would be nice to come back to that world again.


    Soon, his mind wandered so far that he couldn''t register what he was seeing or hearing. His thinking was overriding all of his other senses.


    Then, he found something in his mind. He wasn''t even sure how he knew it was there, just a feeling in his conscious. He "pulled it up" and gasped out loud.


    In his mind, he was back. He was standing in the world of his dream.

 Chapter 2

    Lucius immediately got a headache.


    Through his eyes, he could see the classroom he was in. In his mind, however, he could also see himself in the world that he dreamed of.


    He attempted to move in the other world, but couldn''t grasp how. His leg shot up and smacked the chair in front of him, startling the person who sat in front of him.


    "Sorry," Lucius said sheepishly and returned to his book.


    After many failed attempts, Lucius finally figured out how to move. If you focused on one of the worlds, you became more in it. For example, if he concentrated on the other world, he was able to move just like how he did normally without moving in the real world. If focused on the real world, he could do the same.


    No matter how much he didn''t want to believe it, the alternate world couldn''t be explained by science. He tried searching it up, spent countless time trying to think of a reason, but nothing reasonable could clarify what happened.


    Eventually, Lucius gave in. The only way to describe it was magic, the thing that Lucius had previously refused to believe existed.


    Lucius (in the other world) started to walk around. There was still a lot of things he wanted to see since it was a different world. New world, new plants, and wildlife, Lucius thought.


    With his extraordinary ability to multitask, Lucius was able to divide his attention to both worlds at the same time. Still, it wasn''t easy. Often, Lucius found himself walking into a tree since his attention was on the real world. Or, he would drop the book he was reading since his attention was on the other world.


    Eventually, he got the hang of it and was able to simultaneously perform different basic actions in both worlds at the same time.


    The first bell rang, marking the start of class. Lucius attempted to let the other world leave his mind to focus on school, but he had no such luck. No matter what he did, the world stayed in his mind. Eventually, he gave up and accepted the fact that it wouldn''t go away.


    When he put all of his focus on the school work in front of him, the other world faded into the depths of his mind and didn''t bother him as much. He couldn''t control his body, but he was dimly aware of sounds, sight, and his general senses in basic detail. If he saw a bird fly by, he could see the bird, but he wouldn''t be able to describe the bird in detail.


    "What''s wrong, Lucius? You seem more distracted today," Kron, Lucius''s friend, asked and walked up to him. He smacked Lucius on the back of his head, propelling it forward and smacking into the book.


    "Hey," Lucius meekly complained. "Why do you always do that?"


    Kron grinned. "It''s funny seeing your reaction."


    Lucius sighed and set down his book and pencil.


    Kron had multiple personalities. Sometimes, he would be just chill, the cool guy to hang out with. Two seconds later, he would be making paper airplanes and throwing them at you. Then he would be mister nice guy and help you with everything. He gave Lucius stronger headaches than the other world.


    Lucius turned his attention to the classwork in front of him. After a little bit of work, Lucius turned his attention to the other world.


    Lucius trudged up a hill and looked at the forest from above. For the first time, Lucius got a good look at the world around him. Trees stretched as far as the eye could see in three directions, and there was a massive ocean in walking distance. Light reflected off the water, creating a sea of glare that hurt Lucius''s eyes. He turned away.


    I''m pretty sick of all these trees. Going to water might be a new experience, Lucius thought and headed for it.


    One thing that Lucius noticed was the lack of humans. He found no sign of human civilization anywhere, and he began to question if there were other people.


    What if I was the one that created this world? It came up in a dream, and maybe that created it. If that''s the case, I might be the only one in this world, Lucius thought, growing both excited and sad at the same time. This is pretty lonely. I''m hoping I''m wrong.


    Lucius arrived at the water as soon as the bell rang. Dividing his focus, he steered his real body to his second class while his other body peered into the water.


    The water was clear and shallow near the land. The bottom was lined with normal looking rocks that were shaped into smooth ovals by the unforgiving water. As an urban person, seeing this water was astonishing to Lucius.


    He dipped his hand into the water. A shiver of pleasure went through his entire body as he felt the cool water wash through his skin.


    If I want to live in this world, I need some form of shelter, Lucius thought. He stood up and looked around.


    Trees were the most abundant building resource, but Lucius had no way to cut it down with just his hands. Rocks were another option, but they were heavy and when Lucius tried to lift one out of the water, it didn''t budge. It was stuck between the other rocks and was heavier than what Lucius could lift.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    Soon, Lucius gave up on shelter and just laid down on the grass. Shelter was for later when he could devote all of his attention to this world. He let the other world fade into the background of his mind and returned to school work.


    Lucius was halfway through his work at school when a voice startled him.


    "Helloooo. Are you dead?"


    Lucius flinched and looked around. He was still in his class, and no one seemed disturbed. Lucius focused on the alternate world as a blur passed over his face.


    "What--" Lucius started and sat up.


    "Oh, you''re not dead!" a girl said.


    She seemed about the same age as Lucius, with long hair and kneeled about the same height as Lucius when he sat up. Her hair was a tan color, and...


    She had small red wings on her back!


    Lucius rustled slightly. I''m not the only one in this world! He was still startled though.


    "Uh, who are you?" Lucius asked.


    She didn''t hesitate. "I''m Luna Bell, part of the dragon race. Though I have this human form," she said and seemed a bit angry about that. Then she became peppy again.


    "Whats yours?" She asked and rose to her feet. Lucius got up similarly, head buzzing with questions.


    Dragon race? That''s cool. It explains the wings, but what is she doing here? Aren''t dragons supposed to be important or something?


    "I''m Lucius. Uh, I''m a human, I guess," Lucius said. He really didn''t know how to interact with something that isn''t human.


    Luna seemed puzzled. "What are you doing out here, so deep in the woods?"


    Lucius laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "I''m not sure about that myself."


    Luna seemed to take that as a good answer, even though it was pretty vague. "Well, no one comes out here that often. They all stay around the borders of this forest, where all the towns and cities are nearby."


    Lucius got excited. There is civilization! I guess I''m not the one who made this world.


    Lucius cleared his throat. "So, what are you doing here?"


    "I''ve been here for years. I''m an orphan."


    "So you''ve been living out here alone?"


    Luna''s eyes seemed to fall for a second, then they recovered. "Yeah, but it''s fine. I do get to meet a few people once in a while."


    There was an awkward silence that followed. He could see Luna''s eyes scan his body and an unidentifiable look of displeasement crossed her face.


    "You don''t have a weapon? This is a dangerous forest," she said. Lucius nervously chuckled again, but he couldn''t formulate an answer. He remained silent and stared out at the ocean.


    "Well, if you don''t have one, I can give you one," Luna said. She rummaged through the bag at her side and pulled out a blue knife the size of his palm. The edge was clearly sharp, and when Lucius touched the edge, he could feel how thin and sharp it was.


    "Really? I can have this?" Lucius asked, marveled.


    "Sure, I don''t need it anyway. I have a bunch myself, and they are basically unbreakable" Luna said. She also handed Lucius a leather sheath, which he took and strapped it to his belt.


    "Thanks," Lucius said. Then, a gust of cold wind blasted Lucius, chilling him to the bone. He visibly shivered.


    "Hey, where do you stay? It''s cold out here," Luna asked. She seemed concerned.


    "Uh, I don''t have a place to stay right now. I''m planning to build something here, maybe a house or something," Lucius said. He could accomplish the task now since he had a knife, even if it would take a while.


    After a moment, Luna perked up again.


    "I can help. I have good building skills," Luna said.


    Well, it''s not about that, I need strength, Lucius thought.


    A sound of something cracking was heard, then Lucius''s mouth dropped,


    Luna ripped a tree out of the ground and hefted it back to Lucius. She dropped it, sending plumes of dust in the air.


    Lucius was at a lost for words. He just stared at Luna.


    "What?" She asked. "Dragons are known for their strength, ya''know."


    Lucius nodded. Then, he gathered himself and got to work, cutting nicks into the wood.


    He had something of a log cabin in mind, but he had no idea how to get wood in all of the spots. There was no guarantee that it would be weather-resistant either.


    Lucius was grateful for Luna. She was the one that could get trees out of the ground, and without her, the task would be obviously impossible. She lifted logs into place, flew around and sealed holes and gaps with mud, and generally did all the heavy work.


    She was so fast that in about seven hours, the structure of the cabin was complete. Lucius was already out of class and at home, just sitting at his desk. If anyone walked in, it would look like he was doing homework, but he was really immersed in the other world.


    Lucius and Luna walked around the structure, admiring their work. Luna didn''t seem tired at all, just a little puzzled.


    "This is an odd shape. Why did you choose to build it like this?" she asked.


    Lucius felt like she should know-- he trusted her. A lot, maybe too much.


    "Well, I guess I''m not exactly from this world," Lucius said.


    "Whoa! Are you serious?" she asked.


    "Yeah."


    "That explains the house," she said. They walked inside, sliding the door open.


    Since Lucius had no way to build hinges, he settled on something more primitive. He cut a wide gap through the middle of the wood, and the door was to be pushed into that to open it or close. It wasn''t exactly the smoothest mechanism, but it sure did its job.


    The interior was empty at the moment, but it was a lot warmer than the outside. No wind could come through, making it quite cozy.


    Lucius brought in lots of the grass that grew outside because unlike normal grass, this grass seemed to be soft and fluffy when it dried. Perfect for bedding or making cushions.


    Luna left to go back to where she lived, which was apparently quite close. It was reassuring to have a dragon with super strength nearby.


    Even though it was late for Lucius in the real world, the sun didn''t seem to come down at all. But still, Lucius was tired so he went to his bed and lied down in the real world.


    A small smile stayed on his mouth as he drifted to sleep.

 Chapter 3

    Lucius opened his eyes, and he found himself in the other world.


    What? I thought I was asleep! he thought. He attempted to focus into the real world, but it wasn''t there. It was just like when he first came to this world.


    Then he eventually figured it out. When he goes to sleep, his dreams gets replaced with this world.


    There seemed to be plenty of sunlight left, so Lucius left the house and stared at the dirt. He scooped some in his hand and felt it. It was perfect soil for planting.


    Making a garden here would be cool. There are so many awesome plants here, Lucius thought. But first, I need to get some things in this house.


    Lucius dragged a broken log over and started to carve from it. He made a simple table leg from it, then made three identical legs. After carving a flat, square surface, he packed strong tree sap on the legs and stuck them to the square, forming a crude table.


    Satisfied with his work, he dragged the table back in and set it down.


    He spent the next few hours making simple furniture and tools, like a hammer, a few sharp nails, a hoe for gardening, and a ruler.


    His house was looking more and more like a home. He even did some amateur weaving to make a grass carpet the size of a beach towel. It was soft to his feet and didn''t cut or scratch it.


    He also built a fire pit in the center of his house to provide light when it became night. Even though the days were longer than normal, there was still a day and night cycle. Lucius could see that the sun was getting lower.


    All of this took hours of work, but when Lucius was done, he felt accomplished. He hasn''t done something so physically exhausting with high rewards in a long time. He also learned new skills, and his crafting ability was much better than it normally was.


    Then he set out to look into the forest. He carried his knife in one of his hands and walked through. It didn''t seem much different than the forests on Earth, but there were strange flowers, insects, and, more importantly, animals.


    Several times, Lucius encountered strange animals. They didn''t seem hostile and seemed more afraid of Lucius than he was afraid of them.


    He found birds that seemed to reflect sunlight off them and cat-like creatures roaming the forest. Lucius soon relaxed and started to enjoy looking at the new animals and finding new plants. His boring life would now be occupied with a new world full of new things.


    Along the way, Lucius gathered things to take back to his home. He brought back some seeds, strange crystals in many different colors, and other things. He felt like he was treasure hunting, exploring for loot.


    Eventually, he trudged back to his home and opened the door. He found Luna sitting on a chair and examining his craftwork.


    "Hey," Lucius said and set down his findings on the table. He wasn''t sure if they were valuable or not, but they were cool to him. There weren''t things like it in the real world.


    "Hello," Luna greeted. She seemed surprised at the woodwork that Lucius did.


    "Did you do all of this yourself?" she asked. Lucius nodded.


    "Yeah. I''m still not very good at it, but I''m better than I thought," Lucius said. He walked over to the fire pit to light it, but then realized he had no way to light it.


    "Aw man. I forgot I didn''t have anything to make fire," Lucius said. Luna looked up at the table and grabbed one of the crystals. It had a pulsing red light inside of it.


    "This crystal is a Fire Crystal. If you break it on something--" Luna said and dropped the crystal on the wood in the pit and with a snap! it instantly caught fire. Flames crackled and warmed the entire interior of the house up. "--it will catch fire."


    "Oh! That''s cool!" Lucius exclaimed and stared at the rest of the crystals he found. There was a white one, another Fire Crystal, and a green one. What do the rest of these do? He wondered. He repeated the question out loud for Luna to hear.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    "The green one is a Wind Crystal. It''s this wind blast thing," she explained. "When you crack it, the wind will gust out of it from the crack. If it completely shatters, the wind is going to go in every direction." She pointed to the white crystal. "This one is a Light Crystal. When you crack it, it won''t break. Actually, it''s hard to break without tools. It releases a light that could last about, uh, maybe fifteen minutes?" she said. Lucius nodded.


    He sat by the fire and stared at it. It was finally turning night and the temperature was dropping. Having a fire was good for Lucius. He didn''t know if he could get sick in both worlds at once, but he didn''t want to find out.


    "Hey Luna?"


    "Yes?"


    "What is the cycle for day and nights in this world?" Lucius asked. He''s been curious about this ever since he came to this world.


    Luna came and kneeled by the fire. She folded her wings against her back as firelight flickered across her face.


    "Well, days are about eighteen hours and nights are..." she counted on her fingers. "Six hours? Yeah, six hours."


    When Lucius did the math, it added up to twenty-four hours.


    I guess the hours-in-a-day is the same as Earth, but the sunrise-sunset times are different, Lucius thought. He could feel his body get tired. He did a lot in one day, far more than what he normally did.


    "Well, I''m going to sleep," Lucius said and got up. He walked to his sleeping area and lied down.


    "Good night," Luna said.


    "''Night," Lucius said and shut his eyes.


    He fell into a dreamless sleep.


    <hr>


    Lucius then awoke to a loud harsh sound which he then realized it was his alarm clock. He swiped it off the table, the reluctantly got out of the comfort of his bed.


    As he was brushing his teeth, he thought of something.


    Maybe when I fall asleep in the real world, I go into the other world. Then, when I fall asleep there, I actually go to sleep. Man, that means I barely got any sleep last night, Lucius thought. He felt like a dead rabbit.


    Nonetheless, he grabbed his breakfast and walked to school.


    He focused on the other world while he was walking. Lucius got out of bed and opened the door. It was sunrise, the sun was flashing its brilliant colors into they sky and washed over everything. The sign of a new day was just as mesmerizing and stunning in both worlds.


    After watching the sunrise for a few moments, he went back inside and put his knife to his belt. He was also going to bring along some crystals, but he realized he didn''t have anywhere to put it. That''s when he saw the pack.


    A backpack that looked like the one he used for school lay on the ground. It definitely was not there they day before.


    Not sure if this is convenient or a coincidence. Or both, Lucius thought. He walked over and picked it up. There was definitely something in it.


    Lucius unzipped it and looked inside. Inside was some textbooks, a few pencils, and a mess of papers.


    In other words, this was Lucius''s exact backpack. When he pulled out one of the textbooks, it even had the water stain from when Lucius accidentally spilled a glass of water on it.


    After seeing this, Lucius grew excited. Quickly, he focused on the real world and dropped his backpack to the ground. He opened the top and dropped his bagel in it. Then, he returned to the alternate world and opened the backpack.


    The bagel was in it, just the way it was when Lucius dropped it in.


    He then grew more and more thrilled. This time, he put his dagger in the back and attempted to get a copy of it in the real world.


    Sadly, it didn''t work.


    From this, Lucius concluded that,


    1) He could make copies of items from the real world, but not the other way around.


    2) The backpack was his link for both worlds, even if it just made copies.


    3) Once the copy was made, he could do whatever he wanted to one backpack without messing the other one up.


    4) For WHATEVER reason, it seemed to work for simple items, like food. If he tried to make a copy of a gun, it wouldn''t show up in his backpack.


    Lucius popped the bagel in his mouth and emptied the backpack, setting the supplies on a shelf he made. Then he headed outside and stared at the ground.


    He envisioned a garden here that contained a bunch of plants from both worlds. Since he could transport seeds from the real world, Lucius could introduce new plants to this world. But he didn''t do it just yet since he didn''t know what the effect would be either on the plant or on the soil.


    Lucius went back inside and got the seeds he found and the hoe. He felt silly digging in the ground like a farmer, but since he didn''t have pots, this way was simpler for organization and planting.


    Soon, he finished the tilling and planting. After quickly making a bucket (literally just got some wood and carved it into a bowl shape), he watered the plants.


    I sure hope that growing plants here isn''t as different as Earth. It would be a disaster if it wasn''t, Lucius thought as he hoped for the best.


    He felt like he had a purpose. To make an everlasting garden with a ton of plants from both worlds.

 Chapter 4

    Lucius shouldered his backpack and walked into the forest. In his pack, he carried a small shovel and some crystals he found the other day. He brought his knife-- he never left the safety of his home without it.


    He went into the forest to find seeds and new materials, but he also wanted to learn about this world.


    According to Luna, this world was called Zenos. Ever since Lucius came to this world, he basically had no knowledge of it. He acquired some from Luna but it was still meager compared to what he wanted to know.


    Lucius trudged through the forest and looked at the plants that were growing. Occasionally, he would use his shovel and dig the plant out of the ground, but since he didn''t have a good way to bring them back with him, he only dug a few up.


    The whole time, he was cautious at everything. Even if it was a small bird or insect, Lucius would be wary of them. For the time being, his mindset was everything could kill you if you aren''t careful.


    Eventually, he began to relax and enjoy himself, but it was too early to do that.


    Lucius heard a roar in the distance. He flinched a little bit but didn''t get too worried about it. It sounded like it was a long way off. He continued to look at the wildlife.


    After walking for a few more minutes, the sound of grass and bushes rustling was clearly heard behind him.


    His neck tingled as he slowly turned around. There was a beast the size of a leopard facing him. It had fangs the size of a tube of toothpaste, had horns like a buffalo and had claws that gleamed with sharpness. Its fur was red and it glared at Lucius with hostility.


    Whoa, whats up with you? Lucius thought and slowly started to back away. He put his hand on the handle of his knife and continued his snail-paced decent. Still, he was sure he was in trouble.


    If it decided to attack, Lucius had a knife. But he had no combat experience. He''s never got in a fight at school and lead a pretty peaceful life. Even if he managed to get the chance to kill it, he wasn''t sure he could land the finishing blow. If he ran, it was sure to catch up.


    So Lucius continued to inch backward and continue the standoff. He didn''t want to make a sudden move to trigger an attack. There was not much he could do, and he hated it.


    Lucius soon bumped into a surface behind him. It was a large boulder and would take a while to get around at the pace the Lucius was going. He broke out in cold sweat as panic overtook him.


    What do I do what do I do what do I do...? Lucius desperately tried to think of a way to get out of the situation. He considered making a break for it since he was a decent distance from the beast. It hasn''t moved an inch since it came through the bushes; it was just observing Lucius like he was a science project.


    Lucius waited. He could feel his heart pound uncontrollably with a ba-dum, ba-dum that seemed to be getting faster and faster.


    For a moment, nothing moved. Lucius stayed as still as the rock behind him and hoped the beast would eventually lose interest in him. Instead, it did the complete opposite.


    With a savage roar, it lunged at Lucius with blinding speed. Lucius was barely able to react, but he managed to yank his knife out of the sheath and roll out of the way. When he looked at the rock he was standing at, it was cracked where the beast put his massive paw.


    What happens if I die here? Do I do in the real world to...? No, I don''t want to find out, Lucius thought and sprinted to the side, into the area where the beast entered from.


    The beast roared and gave chased, rapidly closing the distance between them. Lucius quickly thought of a plan.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    He ran to a tree that had a thick trunk and hid behind it. The sound of the beast was close, and the instant Lucius saw a millimeter of fur, he raised his knife and brought it down.


    It cut through the hide easily, but the beast was by no means done. It bellowed in anger and with a single swipe of his claw, it blew Lucius away. The knife was still clutched in his hand.


    Lucius in both worlds gasped in pain. His shirt was ripped open in three different spots that ran from his shoulder to the bottom corner of his shirt. Under each rip was a bloody mark that didn''t seem deep, but it hurt like crazy. Adrenaline rushed through Lucius and numbed the pain, and Lucius was able to get to his feet and run away once again.


    He needed a better plan if he either wanted to kill the beast or escape. He couldn''t win from just sheer strength, so he had to relied on something else: his brain.


    Lucius scooped up a rock in his frenzied retreat and swiveled his body. He hurled the rock and the sound of the beast roaring was heard. He did that repeatedly until it seemed the beast was going slower than normal.


    Perfect, Lucius thought and skidded around, feet sliding on the ground until he faced the beast. Then he did the unexpected. He lunged at the beast head on.


    The beast leapt toward him also, but the instant before they collided, Lucius dropped to a slide. He slid on the ground with his knife outstretched. He rammed the knife into the bottom of the beast and cut the length of the beast''s stomach. Blood spurted everywhere, instantly triggering Lucius''s gag reflex. He struggled to suppress it but eventually was able to.


    He looked back at the beast. It lay on the ground unmoving with blood seeping out of his stomach. Lucius ran to a bush and vomited.


    It was the first time Lucius ever killed a live animal, and he wasn''t proud of it. After wiping the vomit off his mouth, he walked back to the animal.


    It would be a waste to leave the animal here, so after Lucius gathered himself, he grunted and (to his surprise) lifted the carcass over his shoulder. It felt like his shoulder was going to break, but he held himself and shuffled back to his home.


    It was a long walk-- almost and hour, so Lucius had to continuously alternate shoulders, sometimes just dragging the carcass on the ground.


    When he arrived at his destination, he dropped the beast to the ground like a hot cake and instantly felt relief in his body. His arms felt like they weighed a feather, but his legs still felt like hot lead. The adrenaline wore off, sending pain through his body. Still, he was exhausted, so he sat on a chair he set outside and leaned back, soaking in the air. He closed his eyes and didn''t plan it, but he napped.


    <hr>


    His focus came back to the real world. While he was in the other world, he was able to steer his body to his class and brainlessly complete the classwork, but he didn''t focus or try too hard on it.


    However, Lucius didn''t really care too much. This world seemed a little boring compared to Zenos. It just seemed, basic.


    If only other people could see this, Lucius thought. He walked to the school cafeteria and sat down, not bothering to get his lunch.


    He touched the area where he was scratched by the beast. There was no pain, but it was still there. It was like a phantom pain, to have pain for an injury that didn''t really exist. It did hurt, but not as much as the initial pain and since his injured body was asleep, which seemed to dull the pain.


    Lucius was lost in thought when he heard a scream, a yell, and a loud crashing sound that was audible throughout the entire cafeteria. Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at the commotion.


    A fight was about to break out between a burly senior and what seemed to be his girlfriend, or at the moment, his ex.


    (AN: If you don''t know what an ex, or ex-girlfriend, is, it is this. When you break up with someone, they become your ex.)


    "Why are you breaking up with me?!" the senior yelled and raised a fist.


    That''s pretty obvious, Lucius thought.


    The girl flinched but didn''t move away. "It''s because I didn''t want to be with you in the first place!" She yelled, which seemed to be the wrong thing to say. The guy seemed to get more and more mad.


    Lucius sighed. This is going to end in a bad way, Lucius predicted. He continued to watch the fight happen.


    And suddenly, there was a clear sound of a smack. Lucius''s eyes widened as the girl fell to the floor, hand clutching the side of her face. The guy had his hand still outstretched, glaring at the girl. He then proceeded to walk over in a slow, cocky stride.


    Why is no one helping her? It''s clear that she''s getting abused to some extent, yet no one is making a move, Lucius thought, surprised.


    The guy raised his hand again.


    "You never should''ve left me," he said in a deadly whisper. The girl braced herself or the hit.


    It never came.


    Instead, there was a crash as someone tripped the guy. He fell to the ground and looked at the attacker.


    It was Lucius.

 Chapter 5

    Lucius wondered what the heck he was doing.


    First, he somehow mustered up the courage to trip someone that seemed double his size. Now, he was glaring at him as if he could actually do something.


    His courage was still holding up, but something else wanted to squeeze its way in: fear.


    "Who the hell are you?!" the person on the floor yelled up at Lucius. However, Lucius didn''t pay much attention to him. He was more interested in why no one was coming to help.


    He looked around to the spectators, including the teachers and staff. It looked like they wanted to intervene, but they didn''t. Definitely not the way teachers were supposed to act.


    With all the people staring at Lucius, he felt awkward, exposed. He wanted to crawl away and hide where no one could find him, but he didn''t.


    Well, I already got this far, Lucius thought and sighed a bit. Might as well finish what I''m doing.


    "You''re going to beat up your girlfriend just because she broke up with you?" Lucius spat, putting on a look of distaste. The guy got to his feet and got real close to Lucius. He could feel his hot breath on the top of his head and malicious gaze pouring out from his eyes. It took everything in his body not to flinch and move away from the mountain standing in front of him.


    "You have a problem with that, kid? It''s none of yo damn business," he said, shoving Lucius back. He really didn''t want to, but he got back to his previous spot.


    He really, really wanted to figure out what he was doing.


    The girl behind the guy seemed a bit confused, but there was gratitude written all over her face.


    What on Earth am I doing??? Lucius mentally yelled. He couldn''t keep up this facade for long, but adrenaline started to rush through him.


    Suddenly, a massive object was hurled at Lucius. He tried to move back as fast as he could, but it still slammed in his face.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    His head snapped back and Lucius was thrown backward. He somehow managed to stay on his feet, but his head was dizzy and there was a persistent ringing from his ears.


    With a start, he realized that the object that was thrown at him wasn''t an object; it was a fist. The guy threw a punch and Lucius had absolutely no time to do anything.


    Yup, I am one stupid idiot for thinking that I could do something against this monster-of-a-man, Lucius groaned and tried to focus. It didn''t work, and the ringing in his ears only seemed to be getting louder.


    "So how did ya like that, punk?" The guy said and grinned. He seemed to forget about the breakup and focused on Lucius. He wasn''t sure if that was a good thing or not. "You wanna keep fighting? Or are you too scared, a baby," he mocked.


    Well, to heck with it, Lucius thought and shook his body awake.


    "Come on, I''m just getting started," Lucius said. If I can kill a beast that is several times stronger than this fool, I''m sure I can win.


    The guy grinned again and took his time to walk to where Lucius was thrown.


    The panicked part of Lucius was still looking around and confused. Why hasn''t anyone helped me? The teachers all have a horrified expression, but they aren''t moving to help!


    Then the answer came to him. It''s because they''re scared, Lucius thought, mildly surprised at the answer.


    Lucius waited no more time. He ran at his opponent and feigned a punch to his head, but rolled past him and jabbed at his back.


    It pleasantly hit his back, making him lurch forward. However, Lucius''s mini-victory was short-lived. His foe turned around and growled at Lucius.


    "You think that hurt?" He yelled, enraged and launched a flurry of attacks.Lucius managed to dive out of the way.


    The battle raged on like that for a long time. Lucius focused on doing a quick jab or punch then jumping away. Lucius saw people starting to stir and murmur as if it was fair that a bear was fighting a mouse. Some seemed like they wanted to jump in, but it was futile.


    One time, someone jumped in but was instantly pushed back into the mob from a punch from the opponent''s punch.


    Lucius slowly seemed to be getting the upper hand. The opponent''s movements seemed to be getting a millisecond slower, and Lucius was still alive.


    Lucius was feeling good. He hasn''t taken a single blow since and his opponent was getting tired. He could win this!


    Then he made a wrong move. He rolled behind the guy and lunged to make his boldest move -- a direct punch to the back of his head. Lucius''s fist was an inch away when the guy whipped around and raised his fist.


    A hulking object entered his field of vision, a moment of intense pain, then a bright light flashed and turned ink black.


    And then all was still.

 Chapter 6

    Lucius awoke in the other world, lying in his bed. There was a pleasant fire crackling in the fire pit, making the air warm and cozy. A puzzled look crossed his face.


    Didn''t I go to sleep outside? On a chair? Lucius thought, confused. He had no recollection of laying down on his bed or even lighting a fire. He sat up and looked at his chest.


    He was still wearing the ripped shirt, but his upper body was wrapped in a cast that basically covered his entire upper body.


    Lucius got to his feet and attempted to slowly stretch. The cuts were definitely still there and threatened to break open again, but they held. He hobbled outside and squinted as the sun blinded him.


    Once the glare receded from his eyes, he walked over to his garden. Even though he planted them the day before, they already started to sprout. On Earth, it would take two to three weeks, but hey, this isn''t Earth.


    Lucius watered his plants and looked at everything he''s built (with the help of Luna, of course). The house wasn''t big but it was enough to accommodate Lucius and his needs. Now, he wanted to modernize it up. Maybe try to find a way to put lights and things like that.


    "Oh, hello Lucius!"


    Lucius saw Luna coming out of the forest carrying a bundle of plants in her arms. He waved and flashed a smile at her.


    "You have some pretty nasty injuries there, Lucius. I''m surprised that you could get up today," she said.


    "Wait- were you the one that put me inside and healed my injuries?" Lucius asked.


    "Yup," she proudly said and sat on a stool. She started to mash the herbs together with her hands, quickly turning them to a mash with her strength. Then, she put them in a small bottle and added water to them, making a green liquid.


    She handed it to Lucius. "Here, drink this," she said.


    "Uh..." Lucius stared at the concoction. It seemed disgusting and the smell was enough to make Lucius gag.


    "It''s just medicine; drink up," Luna said and pressed the bottle against his mouth and tilted the whole thing up.


    "Mmphh--"


    Lucius nearly vomited. It tasted like someone mashed the most bitter things in the world into one bottle and diluted it with a few drops of water. He forced himself to swallow it, but his mouth clearly didn''t like it.


    Luna stepped back, the look of satisfaction on her face. "There. That should stop any infections that want to come through your wounds."


    Lucius washed out his mouth with water and tried to get rid of the nasty taste in his mouth.


    "Bleh. That was absolutely disgusting," Lucius commented. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and stood up.


    "So," Luna started. She put her hands on her hips. "How did you manage to kill an Eloon*?"


    (*Eloon is the beast that Lucius fought)


    Oh yeah, I forgot I have the body of that, Lucius remembered. He walked to where he dropped the body and found it was neatly dissected into three piles: the fur, the meat, and the guts.


    He turned back to Luna.


    "Did you do this?" He asked.


    "Yeah, but are you going to answer my question?"


    "Sorry. So I went into the forest to look around and I was attacked by this guy-" Lucius points to the cut-up animal, "- and I killed it."


    "That doesn''t explain how you killed it," Luna said with a very curious look on her face.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    So Lucius told Luna how he did it, making sure to include every detail. She listened with great interest and when Lucius finished, she gave him a mini applause.


    "Congrats," she said. "That was your first battle right?"


    "Yeah," Lucius said. He could move without difficulty again and his wounds felt like they were numbed. The medicine seemed to do more than just keep away infections.


    Mentally exhausted, he sat down and heaved a sigh. After some thinking, Lucius said, "I think I need a better weapon. The knife is really useful, but it doesn''t have much reach."


    Luna thought for a little bit, then said, "Hm... I do have a large assortment of weapons at my house. Why don''t you come over and see what suits you?"


    "Sure," Lucius said. Why not?


    They both headed out and soon, they arrived at a cave that had a visible light inside. There were a bed and a table on the ground, a firepit in the middle, and a big pile of things Lucius couldn''t identify at first. Then, he realized that each and every one of the things was weapons.


    "W-whoa, that''s a lot of things. Every one of them is a weapon?" Lucius asked for confirmation.


    "Yup!" Luna said. "I''ve been living here for a little bit, so I have a pretty big collection. You can take anything you want since I don''t use them that often."


    So Lucius walked over and started to carefully dig through the pile. The first thing he pulled out was a dagger similar to the one he used, but when he pulled it out of the sheath, the blade was red hot. He jammed it back into the sheath and gingerly put it aside.


    After almost ten minutes, he found something that he liked.


    It was a long, sharp blade in a blue and red sheath. When he pulled it out, he was stunned.


    It was a katana, but it was by no means normal. The top half of the blade was ice blue, and when he touched it, the moisture on his hand froze. He yanked his finger away, and the sound of ice breaking was heard. When he touched the bottom half, Lucius yelped and pulled his finger away. It was smoking, and the outer skin layer was burned off.


    Putting his finger in his mouth, he gazed at the sword in amazement.


    Then he noticed two small, white buttons on the hilt. He cautiously leaned away and slowly pressed one of them.


    A loud pop sounded and the top half of the blade dropped off. There was a small string-like thing connecting the blades together, and when he touched it, it made a paper-thin cut where he touched it. When he swung it, the rope stretched and whipped the top half of the blade out. The rope acted as elastic, and the blade came back flying at Lucius. It flew past his head so fast, it trimmed Lucius''s hair.


    He pressed the button again, and the top half of the blade came back to the bottom and snapped back together.


    Even more cautious, he leaned back as far as he could go and pressed the other button.


    His mouth dropped. The colors of the blades slowly switched places, so the hot part of the blade was on top and the cold part was on the bottom. He confirmed this by touching only one of the parts.


    When he pressed the button again, the blade turned grey and looked like a normal blade. It returned to room temperature and there was no signs of heat of cold.


    After some thinking, he decided. Lucius liked the weapon, so he walked back to Luna, who was currently eating stew.


    "You found a weapon?" She asked through a stuffed mouth.


    "Yup," Lucius said and showed Luna the sword.


    "Oh, okay. You can have it," she said and continued to shove food in her mouth.


    "Just like that?"


    "Jusb lite tat," she mumbled.


    "Thanks," Lucius said and put the katana back into the sheath. Since he couldn''t put it anywhere else on his body, he just dropped the shoulder strap over his head and let it rest against his back.


    "Well, I''m heading back," Lucius said. "Thanks for the weapon!"


    "No problem," Luna said and waved.


    Lucius walked back to his house and pulled the katana out. He pressed one of the buttons so the blade turned normal.


    If I hit something on accident, it can break, not turn into a block of ice or burn down, Lucius thought and proceeded to learn how to use it.


    He started with the simple things, stabs, slashes, things like that. His body was quite out of shape, but ever since he came to this world, he grew more and more fit in both worlds. Still, his sword arm became quite tired, forcing him to switch hands. Before he knew it, he was able to swing a sword with the same strength in both hands.


    Lucius practiced on a tree and by the end of his self-training, he managed to break one down. He already took off his torn shirt, leaving him standing in bandages. He glared distastefully at his shirt.


    Soon, I need to figure out how to make some clothes. I could just bring clothes from the real world, but that''s boring. I want to try to learn how to make some clothes but now is not the time. I''ll bring some clothes tomorrow.


    "No no no no no!" said a male voice.


    Lucius jumped back and looked for the source.


    A man with a massive sword on his back entered the clearing.


    No-- it wasn''t a man. It was a beast-man. From appearance, it looked like a wolf: sharp face, silver hair, ears, and tail.


    He walked over and yanked the sword out of Lucius''s hand with such force, Lucius''s hand felt raw.

 Chapter 7

    The beast-man that approached Lucius was not hostile at all; in fact, he was helpful. He was teaching Lucius how to use the blade.


    "This is how you swing a sword," he said and demonstrated. He swung the blade with light speed and demolished a tree with a single slash. Then he lifted the sword up to the light and inspected it.


    "Hm... good sharpness, good durability, good sword," he mumbled to himself.


    "Uh..." Lucius tapped him on the shoulder. "Who are you?"


    He seemed shocked for a second, then he apologized.


    "Oh, forgive my rudeness," he said. "I am Balos Wolfblood, a wandering swordsman. I just saw you doing swordplay, so I felt the urge to teach you."


    Hm... this guy seems cool, Lucius thought.


    Balos taught the basics of swordplay to Lucius and he caught on fast. Soon, his body was drenched in sweat and his arms felt like they weighed a million pounds.


    As they were taking a break, Lucius wondered something.


    Why hasn''t my conscious in the other world awakened yet? He questioned. Then he remembered what happened. Oh yeah, I got knocked out from that guy. Man, that sucks, Lucius thought.


    Then Balos gave Lucius a progress report.


    "Your physical structure isn''t strong, but that will improve over time. Your dominate hand has already adapted to your blade, which is faster than what normal people can do. Hmm... what else..." Balos tapped his sword against his chin like it was no big deal.


    Lucius cleared his throat.


    "Can you demonstrate your own sword skill?" Lucius asked. Balos flashed a grin.


    "Sure," He said and stood up. He lifted his massive sword up with one hand like it weighed nothing. He brought it down on a tree, and with an earsplitting crack! the tree blew apart and flew ten feet away.


    "Whoa..." Lucius said in amazement. Balos then did a whirlwind of slashes so fast, Lucius was only able to see the after-images of the blade. When Balos stopped and returned back to Lucius, there wasn''t a hint of fatigue on his face.


    "You''re amazing!" Lucius exclaimed. "Are there really people that are stronger than you?"


    Balos nodded. "There are people that can take me down in one hit. To many, I''m just a fly."


    Lucius shuddered at the thought of that.


    Then, there was a rustling. Balos and Lucius looked in the direction and Lucius saw Luna emerge from the forest.


    Balos seemed shocked for a moment, then recovered and stood up. He yanked his sword up and pointed it at Luna.


    "You are of the dragon race. What are you doing here?" he demanded.


    "''Scuse me?" Luna asked, confused. "Lucius, who is this man?"


    Lucius got up, despite his screaming limbs, and stood between Luna and Balos.


    "Whoa whoa, there is a misunderstanding," he said.


    "No, you don''t understand. She''s an evil person, a schemer. Do you not know of the hate between the trickery of the dragon race?" Balos locked his eyes with Luna and took up a stance.


    "Hey whoa whoa whoa, hold it," Lucius said, trying to make his voice as firm as possible, which wasn''t easy when you''re between two powerhouses that could demolish Lucius in a second.


    "What are you doing?" they both simultaneously said.


    "Balos, Luna isn''t a bad person. She''s the reason why I''m alive right now and she helps me with everything. Luna, this is Balo. He''s been teaching me how to use the sword you gave me," Lucius reasoned. Both sides seemed to grow a little less hostile.


    Still, the air felt like the molecules were ripping apart into its individual protons, neutrons, and electrons. It was so tense that it seemed like the wind didn''t want to go near.


    Then, Balos sighed and lowered his sword. "I admit that I didn''t think that Luna would be a bad person. A dragon in human form has to be different."Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    Lucius exhaled in relief. He wasn''t sure if he could prevent the two from fighting.


    Luna beamed and walked over. She shook hands with Balos and exchanged pleasantries. Lucius flopped back down to his chair and gazed out at the endless ocean.


    He took out his katana and detached the top part. He swung it into the water and when it returned, he managed to not kill himself. He then practiced returning the blade after he launching it.


    He got the technique down. Lucius would launch it out, maybe swing it a few times, then as its returning, he would press the button to attach the top part of the blade back to the hilt. No matter where the blade was, as soon as he pressed the button, it would come flying back to him and cleanly reattach to the sword.


    This is some first class engineering, Lucius thought. He examined the blade. I got my hands on a really overpowered weapon.


    Then, there was a loud sound of a sword clashing against something. Lucius jerked his head and saw Balos pressing his sword against Luna, who was gripping the sword with her bare hands and forcing Balos back.


    "Hey hey! Stop fighting," Lucius yelled, running over while waving his arms. They stopped and faced Lucius.


    "Kid, don''t worry," Balos said. "This is just a mock fight."


    "Yeah, we aren''t fighting for real," Luna said.


    "Oh," Lucius said. He walked inside since he wasn''t interested into being turned into pulp. He saw the carcass of the Eloon and got an idea. He threw a fire crystal into the fire pit, dropped a few pieces of wood in, then quickly made a wooden skewer. He threaded the meat on it and held it over the fire.


    I wonder what food tastes like in this world, Lucius thought with his mouth watering. He still hasn''t awoken yet in the other world, so he couldn''t get food. He was starting to get hungry too.


    He patiently waited for the meat to blacken on the outside. Lucius knew how to cook pretty well since his mother worked full time and his sister was too young.


    Once the meat was cooked, he blew on it and waited for it to cool. Meanwhile, he made a small suspended cooking split and cooked another large piece of meat.


    Lucius gingerly touched the piece of meat, blew on it, then took a bite.


    The flavor spread in his mouth extremely fast. It had no need for salt or pepper; it seemed to be seasoned already. It had a firm yet soft taste and never grew tough in his mouth. Lucius closed his eyes and indulged in the flavor.


    This is delicious! Lucius thought and continued to eat.


    Just as he finished, there was a loud crack! in the wood wall behind him. He leapt away and yanked his sword out of his belt.


    Then, another crack! sounded, louder than the previous one, and the wall exploded in a hailstorm of splinters as Balos flew through and crashed to the floor, right next to the fire.


    Lucius was miraculously not hit with any chips of wood, but he was left stunned.


    "What--"


    Luna stepped through. She looked at the hole and simply said, "Oops."


    Balos got up and dusted himself off. "Well, I guess that''s the end of our fight," he said and put his sword back on his back. He generally didn''t look harmed. Lucius wondered how much vitality this guy had.


    "That is one big hole you guys put in my house," Lucius said. He still wasn''t sure if he should be surprised, mad, or confused. Maybe all three.


    "Don''t worry! I will quickly patch it up," Balos said and started to walk toward the forest. As he watched Balos break a tree, a thought crossed Lucius''s mind.


    "Balos!" Lucius said and jogged out to him.


    "Hm?"


    "Why don''t you live here?" Lucius suggested. Balos dropped the log he was carrying.


    "What?" He asked, unsure.


    "Yeah! You said you were wandering, right? So come and stay here!" Lucius reasoned, suddenly enthusiastic.


    Balos thought for a moment, then said, "I would be happy to, but where would I stay?" He gestured around him, where the only building in sight was the house.


    Lucius had a simple answer.


    "It''s simple! We could just build you one!"


    Balos shook his head. "It would take far too long and too much time to build a house. I think it''s better off that I--" He couldn''t finish his sentence. Luna and Lucius both sprang into action, cutting down trees and building.


    This time, Lucius was able to help the cutting. He would work at a tree until it collapsed, then dragging it over. Still, he was no match for Luna. She would just rip a tree out of the ground in a second, whereas it took Lucius several long minutes to take a single tree down.


    They build an extension to the house, making it longer from the side. Then, they build a room that was about the same size as Lucius''s and while Luna laid down the foundations, Lucius brought wood over and carved it, making the furniture even better than his own. He used heat from his katana to flame harden the wood, then used the ice side to make the sap connecting the legs to the table much stronger. When he finished, they looked like legit furniture.


    It took them about five hours to complete it, faster than ever. Balos was shocked.


    "Welcome home," Lucius said while wiping the sweat off his forehead.


    "Amazing... I''ve never seen something like this build so fast!" Balos exclaimed.


    Lucius smiled and walked back to his side of the house. He connected the hallway to his room by using the same door mechanism he used for his front entry and did the same for Balos''s room


    "Well, you convinced me," Balos said. "I will live here from now on."


    As they were walking around. Lucius saw another room that he didn''t build.


    "Uh..." he slid open the door and saw Luna in it.


    "Did you build this?" Lucius asked. Luna nodded.


    "Yup."


    "Who is it for?" Lucius asked.


    Luna grinned. "Me, of course. I can''t let you have all the fun."


    "Hm? Okay," Lucius said, not really registering what Luna said. As he shut the door, he paused for a moment.


    "Wait whattttttttttttt!?"

 Chapter 8

    Lucius awoke in a soft bed, confused at the beginning. Then he realized this must be the real world since he didn''t make a real bed yet. Also, he still was awake in the other world. He was just relaxing in the water and never went to sleep.


    Grunting, Lucius sat up and stretched his arms. They felt weak, and his tongue felt like a piece of beef jerky. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light.


    Then he noticed the girl next to him. She didn''t seem to notice that Lucius was awake; her head was buried in a book. Lucius recognized her as the person that he attempted to defend.


    Oh yeah, about that, Lucius starting to think. He still felt really stupid. What was I even thinking at the time?!


    Lucius cleared his throat, startling her. She saw Lucius awake and smiled.


    "Hi," she said.


    "Hello," Lucius said as casually as he could. He draped his legs over the side of the bed.


    "How long was I out?" Lucius asked.


    "You were out for a really long time. Almost a full day, but you somehow didn''t have any head injuries besides a bruise. No one knows how."


    Lucius nodded, but he could hardly contain his excitement. It''s because I drank the medicine in the other world! It works for this world too! That''s amazing!


    "Oh, I''m Ilane (spelled ilane). You are...?"


    "I''m Lucius," Lucius said.


    "I''m surprised someone like you was able to stand against that guy for even a second," Ilana said. "He''s a muscle junky."


    Lucius was surprised at himself too. He was able to hold his ground for a little bit, but regardless, he still got knocked out. The fight with the Eloon made him overconfident; he needed to make sure that didn''t happen again.


    "I''m more surprised at how nobody came to help you. Not even the teachers. Weird, huh?" Lucius said.


    "Yup."


    Lucius hopped out of his bed and walked out. His body felt fine aside from his head. Ilane curiously followed him out, wondering where he was going.


    Even though he was pretty hungry, he headed straight for the library. He yanked open the big wooden doors and stepped inside.


    Hm... I wonder what happens if I put books in my backpack? Lucius thought. Maybe that''s too complicated. I''ll have to experiment with that later.


    Lucius shuffled around the library until he found the shelves labeled as "Architecture and Plumbing." He grabbed a few books at random and walked to the counter the check them out.


    As they were walking out, Ilane nudged Lucius. "Didn''t know that you were into this kind of stuff."A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Lucius grumbled. "I''m not." He staggered under the weight of the books in his backpack. They were all thick and heavy, and Lucius wasn''t exactly the strongest person.


    "So why did you grab those books? You didn''t even look at them before you took them off the shelves."


    "I have my reasons," Lucius said. They separated and Lucius walked into his class. He dropped his backpack next to his desk and leaned back in his chair. He shifted his attention to the other world.


    He hopped out of the water and walked back inside his house, where he quickly lit his fire pit. He sat on a chair next to it and dried his body.


    Meanwhile, he lifted his backpack and grinned at the increase of weight. Apparently, books weren''t considered complex. He groaned as he half dragged and half carried the pack to his sitting area; he was surprised the bag didn''t rip.


    Lucius unzipped it and pulled out three large books. The first one was called "Intro to Architecture," the second was, "Intro to plumbing," and the last one was, "How to: Electricity."


    He planned to build some form of a toilet and running water. He didn''t know how they worked in this world, or if they even existed, but he wanted to figure out how to make one. It would be a huge improvement to the house. Also, he wanted to learn how to properly build things.


    After he was dried off, he put his pants on and wrapped more white bandages around his body. He grew used to them and he didn''t want to use his shirt since it was ripped.


    Then he opened his architecture book and started to study it. Almost immediately, he slammed it shut and set it aside.


    Lucius loved books, but he could not stand non-fiction for a single second, especially when he had to study at school at the same time. He figured that if he did it at school, the teacher wouldn''t mind. He flopped down on his bed and closed his eyes. His house was quiet since both Balos and Luna were out gathering random things and exploring.


    His focus returned to the real world and pulled out the same textbook, opened it, and studied it closely.


    Then he got smacked in the back of his head, pushing it forward and bopping it against the table.


    "Wassup Lucius," Kron grinned. "How''s that face of yours after you got knocked out?"


    "Man, shut up," Lucius said and pushed Kron.


    "Taking on that monster alone, what were you thinking?" Kron said.


    "You know," Lucius said. "I don''t know myself."


    "Idiot."


    Lucius thought for a moment. "Did you see how no one came to help? Even when that monster pushed Ilane down, no one came forward."


    "Yeah, that was weird. By the way, who''s Ilane?"


    Lucius facepalmed. "The girl I saved. Man, you dense."


    Kron looked confused. "How did you know that? Was she at the infirmary with you or something?"


    "Actually, yes."


    Kron nodded with approval. "I see you, getting all of the--"


    "Shut up," Lucius said, but he was laughing. Kron was too. Then the first bell rang and Kron went and sat in his seat, giving Lucius a wink and shooting him with a finger gun.


    <hr>


    After spending basically the whole day studying the notebooks, he finally got some basic ideas on what to make next.


    Luna and Balos brought back loads of things. Luna brought everything from her home, which was mainly weapons that were carefully stashed in her room. Balos brought back animals, crystals, and more plants and herbs that Lucius has never seen on his explorations.


    For his first idea, Lucius thought he would make a storage room. With more people in the house, they needed more places to put their things.


    Lucius got his katana and started to saw out a portion of wood in the hallway, alternating between hot and cold to get through the wood faster. Then, he started to build a room.


    It was smaller than normal rooms and wasn''t very bright, but it was pretty easy to make.


    While he was putting the finishing touches, there was a massive crashing sound that jarred into Lucius''s ears. He gripped his katana and looked around.


    Balos came barreling through the doors.


    "Lucius! Come quickly! Someone is attacking!"

 Chapter 9

    Lucius burst out the door alongside Balos. They both had weapons in their hands, but Lucius still didn¡¯t have a top on. If he was cut, there would be no stopping it.


    They sprinted into the forest, where there was a cacophony of yelling, screaming, crashes, and the sound of metal hitting things. Lucius knew the situation wouldn''t be pleasant.


    They arrived at the source. It was pandemonium- there were people everywhere either attempting to run away or attack. Luna was already there, pushing the waves of people back, but even with her strength, she was getting pushed back. From what Lucius could see, there were people trying to get away from a scary looking mob with weapons of all kinds. Luna was pushing back the scary mob while letting the other people go.


    Lucius felt a strange mixture of both fear and excitement. This was his first real battle; at this point, bloodshed was inevitable. It was kill or be killed.


    Balos didn''t hesitate. He jumped into the fray and heaved his sword, cleaving the enemies in two. He seemed strangely eager to get into the battle, and upon closer inspection, the people that were running seemed to be of the same race as him. The other people were humans and by the look of the armor, they weren''t unarmed.


    Lucius paused for a moment, then pressed both buttons on his blade simultaneously it became hot and cold and the top of the blade, which was heated, popped off.


    He didn''t jump in directly into the battle like Balos; he stayed near the side and back, using the elastically of the blade to pick off the people from a distance.


    For some reason, he didn''t feel much when he was killing. He never thought he was detached, but the fight with the Eloon seemed to numb everything.


    The sharpness of the blade was unparalleled. It sheered through other weapons with ease and stabbed through their armor like it wasn''t even there.


    Lucius manipulated the trajectory of the blade to slice and stab things and when the blade returned, he somehow managed not to cut his hand off.


    The battle was going fine until there was a sound of rustling behind him. There was a sound of a twig breaking and Lucius turned to see a human that had a sword in hand.


    "What? A human that''s working with these savages?" he asked, confused. Apparently, he was going to attack from behind, only to discover that Lucius was there.


    The man grinned. "Here kid. How about we make a deal. You move over and I let you live. If you don''t..." He toyed with his blade.


    Lucius called back his blade and let it dangle to the side. "Come on, cornhusker," he said and started to spin the blade around into a deadly vortex.


    "Alright kid, you get what you want." The man seemed a bit scared of Lucius''s strange blade but didn''t think much of it.


    The man jumped at Lucius, but before he could land a hit, Lucius swung his sword at the man like a fishing rod. The sword slashed the man''s cheek, but it was only a shallow cut. However, the fiery sword incinerated part of the man''s mustache. It sailed past him and impaled itself in a tree. Small flames started to spread throughout the tree.


    The enemy grinned and launched himself to Lucius and raised his sword. He brought the sword down, and Lucius was able to catch it on the sword he was holding. His movements were limited since the other end of the blade was lodged in a thick tree and didn''t want to budge.


    Lucius was hard pressed to defend and he could barely do it. The person he was fighting was a soldier that clearly got proper training- Lucius only could rely on what Balos taught him and his own instincts to survive.


    The soldier planted his foot into Lucius''s chest and kicked him, knocking the wind out of him and pushing him to the ground. He lay there, unmoving as his chest heaved to try to get the lost air. The soldier smiled a wicked smile and put his sword on Lucius''s head.


    "Bye bud," he said and raised the sword.


    In one desperate attempt at life, Lucius did some breakdancing and raised his legs and smashed the soldier in his stomach, knocking him to the ground. He landed on his bottom and looked at Lucius, shocked. Lucius used this opportunity to put everything he had into one move- a 360.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    The sword was ripped out of the tree and spun like Lucius. The rope of the blade adjusted and when Lucius completed the circle, he let out a cry.


    "Arggg!" Lucius swung the sword with all his might.


    The extended blade of the sword cut through the man''s head in two, instantly decapitating him.


    Lucius stood there, shocked. He wasn''t sure of what he did, but it was cool. But when he looked behind him, he saw the gored corpse of the soldier. When he looked at Balos and Luna, they were finishing up, and around their feet was a mountain of corpses that was littered all over the place.


    He ran to the bush and vomited everything out of his stomach. It was a horrible sight, and Lucius knew he was guilty.


    Luna patted his back. "First time killing someone of your own race?"


    Lucius wiped his mouth with a leaf and threw it to the ground. "Yeah," he said and pressed both buttons on his sword. The blade returned to it''s normal state and had no temperature madness.


    "Did any escape?" he asked Luna and Balos. They nodded. "I don''t think they really expected us to be here. We let the ones who ran away go," Luna said. She gazed around at the destruction. "I hate to see all of this. Staining this forest is the last thing I want to do."


    "I guess we couldn''t help it. They were going to wipe out over fifty people if we didn''t intervene. Speaking of that, we should probably check up with the wolf tribe," Balos said and gestured into a cave, where the wolf-people lay hidden.


    As they approached the cave, Lucius walked up next to Balos. "Don''t the wolf-people have some way to fight?" In his world, the wolves were vicious when it came to fights.


    Balos nodded. "I''m not sure what happened. Normally, a tribe of fifty wolf-men should be able to push that wave back. But for some reason, they ran around like a chicken with its head cut off," Balos said in distaste. "Whos knows what caused that madness."


    They entered the cave and waited as their eyes adjusted to the dim light. They walked deeper and deeper until it was nearly impossible to see. Balos didn''t seem to have a problem.


    "Hey Lucius?" Luna said through the darkness.


    "Hm?"


    "Try charging up your weapon. It might give us light."


    Lucius fumbled for the sword on his back and pressed on of the buttons. The sword slowly started to glow with a red and blue light that dimly illuminated the cave.


    Luna and Lucius grinned. Apparently, the sword could do a lot more than just cut things in two.


    Soon, the trio arrived at an opening in the cave. There was the entire pack of wolf-people, all huddled and scared. The light from Lucius''s sword seemed to reflect off their eyes and make them glow.


    They all looked from Luna to Lucius, but when they settled their eyes on Balos, there was an uproar.


    "Balos! Is that really you?" Basically, everyone screamed at Balos. It was all increased ten-fold as the sound echoed in the cave, scaring every living organism. Including Lucius.


    Balos quickly handled the uproar. "Yes, it is me. But can you guys quiet down? I need the details. What, happened?" He emphasized his last words.


    One wolf stepped up. "We were attacked by humans. It was a massacre. They killed everyone that they could get their hands on," he wept.


    "Tell me. How did this happen?"


    The wolf-man gathered himself. Sniffling, he said, "They threw a bunch of light crystals with small explosives on them right into the middle of town, where the most people were. When they all blew up, we were all blinded. Then, there was the sound of many people screaming and the sound of running from every direction," he closed his eyes. He paused, then continued. "There were three hundred people living in that town. And only about fifty people survived."


    A long silence followed. Lucius was taken back. They killed over two-hundred people! What are they even thinking?!


    Then Balos walked up to Lucius. "Can the house contain over fifty people?"


    Lucius shook his head. "No, but... are you planning to find a way to house them?"


    Balos nodded solemnly. "That is the only way they can survive at this point." Then he scratched his chin. "How fast can you build... forty houses?"


    Lucius thought for a moment. "Hm... well... how strong are wolf-people? Are they as strong as you?"


    "Wolf-people are strong- we are one of the strongest races to live. If, let''s say, forty people helped, we could build a house in about twenty minutes."


    "What happens if we divide the work up? Maybe half of the group could go gather wood along with Luna, and you and I could be in charge of building and planning. How long would you think it would take?"


    Balos paused, thinking. Then he finally said, "We could do it in about five hours or so."


    Lucius grinned. "Alright, let''s do it." Balos also grinned and prepared to tell the rest of the tribe the good news. But before he did that, Lucius stopped him.


    "Do you have control over them?" Lucius asked, unsure. Balos nodded and Lucius released a breath.


    "I rightfully should be their leader, but I left. They should treat me like a leader still."


    Lucius smiled. "Let''s get going!"

 Chapter 10

    It took them seven hours to complete their task.


    The first thing they did was bring everyone back to the house, where they handed out food and helped bandage people up. They separated the elderly, the children, and the wounded from the group and put the people who could work in one group. There were about forty-five people which were divided into two groups.


    Luna lead one of the groups away, which had about twenty people in it. Together, they cut trees down and flattened out a massive stretch of land-- almost a whole mile.


    (AN: If you don''t use miles, just think of them as a kilometer. It should work the same, but it might just be a tad smaller. Actually, don''t put too much thought into it. The less the better.)


    Feeding a massive amount of people by just hunting and gathering seemed impossible. So Lucius had an idea to create a farmland that would grow all types of vegetables. Then he realized his idea was pointless.


    Wolves don''t eat vegetables. He confirmed this with Balos, and so he realized that he just created a massive amount of land for no apparent reason.


    Stupid diet restrictions.


    Oh well. He figured that it could be useful for other things in the future.


    In the meantime, Lucius and Balos got to work building the houses along with the rest of the wolf tribe. The weaker ones helped by gathering mud in buckets that Lucius quickly made, and the stronger ones took the wood that Luna got to assemble. Lucius and Balos cut the places in the logs and the houses blew up faster than both of them predicted.


    Once the first house was complete, the people who couldn''t work were able to go in and rest. Some of the people went out and brought back loads of the grass so the wounded people could rest.


    The wolf-people worked restlessly. They had admirable determination only stopped to rest once they were about to collapse.


    Soon, a village of beast men and a single human was created.


    Balos, Luna, and Lucius sat around a small table.


    "So the village is complete. Right now it''s peaceful since they just came from a horrible state. But as they begin to recuperate, there''s going to be fighting. We need a leader, someone to make the rules," Luna said. Balos and Luna looked at each other as if they had some sort of secret.


    Lucius shrugged. "It should be Balos. He is the wolf tribes rightful leader."


    Balos and Luna had a sly smile.


    "No, we already nominated who is going to be the leader," Balos said.


    "Who?" Lucius said, confused. Was it going to be Luna?


    "We have decided to make..." Balos started, "you the leader."


    "...What?" Lucius wasn''t sure he heard him right.


    "Yes, you are going to be the leader, Lucius," Luna said. "You are the reason why we are all together. Without you, there would be no building or village here, there would be no Balos, and I would be still lonely in that cave. Even if you didn''t intend to, you are the reason that brought us all together."


    Lucius was shocked. He was sure he was the last candidate to rule a town. He was still super inexperienced, but if Balos and Luna believed that he could do it, he had to try his best.


    "Alright. I, Lucius Devon, accept the title of the leader of this village!"


    Luna and Balos burst out laughing. Lucius looked at them, confused.


    "What?" He asked.


    It took them a while before they could talk again.


    "Heh, that''s the best thing I''ve heard in a while," Luna said and wiped a tear from her face. "You don''t have to sound so formal. The way you looked while you said that--" she burst into laughter again.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    "Whatever," Lucius tried to change the topic. "I think we need to come up with a name for this place. It''s a pain to just call it ''this place'' or whatever."


    Once Luna calmed down, they all started to think of a name.


    "Hm... how about Dragons Nest?" Luna suggested. It was clear where she got that name.


    "Nah, too tacky," Lucius said.


    Balos didn''t seem to have an input. Lucius started to combine things that made sense. The water, the way it shined...


    "I got it," Lucius said proudly. "From now on, This town will be called Baylight, the city of shining water."


    Luna and Balos thought about it for a moment.


    "I like that. It has a nice ring to it," Balos admitted.


    "Alright, I''m for it too," Luna said.


    There was a silence that followed. They were all thinking about what they accomplished in a day.


    It was Lucius who broke the silence. "Oh, Balos... do you know why the village was attacked?"


    He shook his head. "I don''t know for sure. I can only assume it was for loot and materials."


    "Oh, and how far was the village from here?"


    "From what remember, almost three miles away. It''s in this forest, too."


    Whoa, this forest is massive! But still, they were chased for three miles. Well, it explains the toughness of Balos and everyone here, Lucius thought. What exactly pushed them away so far?


    Lucius stood up. "I probably address the villagers. They have to accept me as their leader, so could you guys come with me?"


    They both nodded.


    "But before we go, I need something to record things on. Um, do you guys have some sort of ink?"


    Luna shook her head, but Balos left the room and returned with a small canister of ink, a small brush, and a monster pelt. Lucius took it from him and together, they headed outside to the middle of the village.


    People were bustling around, gathering things to live with and talking with neighbors. There were even some people that were setting up shops and selling things that they found in the forest.


    The wolf race recuperated extremely fast. They didn''t seem to be traumatized that much-- only sad for their loss. But they were able to keep moving forward. It was admirable; you don''t see this much in normal humans.


    Balos deeply inhaled and released a massive wolf howl that made everyone pause and looks in their direction. Both Luna and Lucius flinched at the sound.


    As if they were in a trance, the wolf-people hustled toward them and got to their knees. There was a hush that covered the village, and Lucius started to grow a little uncomfortable. He was so used to the noise of building and the chatter that the quiet was a little frightening.


    Lucius and Luna both shot a confused look at Balos. He leaned toward them and whispered, "It''s a ruler''s call." Luna and Lucius both nodded, but they could see an expression on Balos'' face. Was that embarrassment?


    Regardless, Lucius stepped forward. He normally didn''t address crowds, but this time it was necessary.


    "Hello, people of Baylight. I am your new chief, Lucius..." Lucius thought for a moment and decided to fake his last name. "Lucius Avalan."


    Murmuring broke out and Lucius could hear almost angry comments. He knew what they were talking about.


    They all expected to be lead by Balos, their rightful leader. He wanted to say something to change their mind, to convince them that he could lead. But nothing could come to his mind.


    Balos saved him. "Comrades, it was me that suggested that Lucius would be the leader. Without him, it would be impossible to save you all and he was the one who gave you the housing here. I will still be here, but you must follow the rules of the leader."


    There were murmuring again, but there were some positive comments. Lucius heard one of them.


    "If Balos recommended him, that must be good. I will follow him," Lucius heard. He tried not to smile, tried to remain serious.


    "I have some guidelines I want to set to ensure there is no fighting. If you do not follow these, you may be asked to leave," Lucius said. His air of command was growing stronger by the second. He felt more in control of the situation, even if he was a bit nervous.


    "One, you may not dump trash wherever you want. There isn''t a place to put them yet, but sometime today or tomorrow, I will make them. Two, you may not engage in fights with other people. If you have a grudge you want to settle, you may talk to Balos and he will decide on a dual."


    The list grew longer, and at the last one, Lucius paused his speech and whispered to Balos and Luna.


    "How do bathrooms work in this world?" He asked as fast as he could. Balos looked confused.


    "You don''t know?"


    "I''ll explain later. Just tell me."


    In great speed, Balos said, "For humans, Toilets, bowl-shaped containers that push waste away. As for the wolf-tribe, I will handle that."


    After all of the rules were discussed, Lucius had the people line up. This is where the ink came in.


    "I need to record your names, so when you come up, please tell me your name."


    One by one, the wolf-people stepped up and told their names. They had names that were suitable for wolf people, the names that you would expect a wolf-person to have.


    It took a long time, but after a little bit, they finally finished. Lucius and Luna marched back to the house while Balos stayed behind to talk to the other people of his tribe.


    They both dropped on chairs.


    "Whew. Today was an exhausting day," Luna said.


    "No kidding. And tomorrow I have to do a bunch of woodcraft," Lucius groaned and leaned back. "Tomorrow is going to be such a pain."

 Chapter 11

    "If you want to defend this town, you must learn how to fight," Balos said. "There is a chance that the people that we let go will return with more people and more firepower." He was holding a standard katana like the one Lucius used. "I will teach you an advanced stance, but it is hard, harder than anything you will do. There is no time to teach you the simple things. Do you wish to proceed?"


    Without hesitation, Lucius said,"I do." It was the same day the village was built. Even through their sore muscles, Balos decided to teach Lucius how to fight.


    "This stance is called Quickdraw. You can slice something extremely fast without anyone seeing."


    Balos walked to a tree and rested his hand on the hilt of his katana. He paused, then there was a massive crack! and the tree blew off and crashed into several other trees. Balos didn''t seem to move an inch.


    "That is Quickdraw," Balos said.


    Whoa, amazing! That... could I ever attain that? Lucius thought in both amazement and disbelief.


    "Let''s start with the basics," Balos said. "First, stop keeping your katana on your back. Terrible form. It is not a greatsword."


    Lucius (embarrassed) took the katana off his back and tied it to his waist. The extra weighed seemed to make his body lean to one side, but he forced himself to straighten out.


    "Now take the katana out of its sheath," Balos said. Every second, Lucius started to get more and more excited. I''m going to learn an overpowered sword technique! I wonder if I can use it in the real world... Lucius thought to invest into a real katana in the future.


    "Now put the katana back into the sheath without looking at it," Balos said.


    Lucius shrugged. Okay, this is easy enough, Lucius said. He was sorely mistaken.


    He poked his hand. Over and over again. The katana would refuse to go into the sheath. It was as if there was a magnetic field that repelled the sword away from the sheath''s hole. Lucius''s hand was poked and prodded over and over again until it felt like there was a porcupine sticking needles into his hand.


    Finally, he got it. He sighed in relief and stretched his hand out.


    "Now do it one hundred more times," Balos said and walked away.


    Lucius didn''t register what he said, and when Balos walked away, Lucius muttered, "Hold up... what?!?"


    One hundred more times?! My hand is going to be minced meat by the end of that! Lucius explained in his head.


    Nonetheless, Lucius slowly pulled his katana out from his sheath and raised it, then, very slowly, inched the katana toward the sheath.


    His hand was poked hundreds of times. Some of the pokes were small and didn''t even break the skin, but most of them drew blood. Soon, there were hundreds of small blood drops coming off of his hand, but he got better and better at it.


    At the end of the hundred, Lucius could pull the sword out of his sheath at a normal speed and put it back in at a normal speed. He walked back to the house and looked for Balos.


    He found him in the water. "I have done one hundred," Lucius said.


    "Demonstrate," Balos ordered.


    Lucius pulled the katana out of his sheath and put it in without much difficulty.


    "Good, you are learning fast," Balos said. "This will help with speed."


    "Now what do I do?" Lucius asked.


    Balos closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "One hundred push-ups, one hundred curl-ups, and run around the outskirts of the town five times."


    "...are you trying to kill me?" Lucius asked with a joking tone, but he really wasn''t.


    Does he really expect me to do this? I''m just a human! Lucius thought. However, he started to get to do the push-ups.


    It was a weird feeling. Lucius''s core and arms hurt, but his body in the real world was perfectly fine. He would never get over that double feeling.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    His real-world body went to sleep already, so Lucius soon had full control over his other world body.


    It took Lucius about thirty minutes to finish the push-ups. He was dripping sweat like a waterfall and his limbs felt like lead.


    He tried to go into the water, but Balos stopped him.


    "There will be no rest until you finish your task," Balos said.


    What kind of a monster is this guy?!!? Lucius wanted to yell out in frustration.


    Before he did one hundred sit-ups, Lucius got his katana out and put it back in. He didn''t seem to be losing it, and after doing the push-ups, his arms felt lighter. He could do it much faster than earlier without wrecking his hand.


    Speaking of that, Lucius went inside and wrapped his left hand in the white bandages. He had no idea where Luna got them from.


    Then, Lucius returned to the sit-up grind. He sharply inhaled with every crunch as his body burned from exhaustion.


    This time, it took Lucius forty-five minutes to finish. His core and abs were stripped of any energy they had, and Lucius lay on the grass, gasping for air.


    He''s never pushed himself so hard. The hardest thing Lucius has done previously was run a mile. And he has to do five times that amount, plus the push-ups and curl-ups.


    Lucius trotted outside and took a deep breath. The sun was starting to set, sending waves of cool air in the direction of the water. It was no mistake to build a town there.


    Then Lucius broke into a jog. He watched the village he created begin to settle down and sleep. The streets started to quiet down as the wolf-people started to get cozy inside their houses.


    As soon as Lucius finished his run, he dove into the cool water and closed his eyes. He never appreciated the water so much.


    <hr>


    In Voxis Kingdom...


    "Huff, huff, huff," a soldier in dulled armor clutched his bleeding arm and ran through the streets of the kingdom. He shoved people aside and sprinted into through the gates of the kingdom.


    I need to tell the Warden about this! he thought and redoubled his efforts. He raced through the long corridors and skidded to a stop outside of a door. He kicked it open and briskly walked up to another door, which was plated in gold and Blackmetal, a rare and durable metal. He raised the door knocker and knocked three times, then entered quietly.


    There was a man in a red robe that was seated upon a throne similar to the door. He had a menacing aura, but he was not the king. He was the leader of the five generals of the kingdom, the Warden. At his side was a black and gold sword that seemed to gleam with blood-thirst.


    "Warden! I have a report!" the man said and sank to a knee. His armor rang against the ground.


    "Speak," the seated Warden said in a deep voice. The dim lighting made it impossible to see his face, much less his impression. Everything about him seemed to plant fear in the soldier''s body.


    "We successfully drove the beastmen out of the village like you asked. However, there was a group of surviving wolf-people fleeing, so Third General sent a group of us to pursue them," the soldier stammered as he spoke.


    "I''m assuming there was a difficulty?" the Warden rumbled.


    "Y-yes sir," the soldier trembled. "We gave chase to them for three miles. Even with our armor, we were able to keep up with their superior speed because of the potion that you gave--"


    "What happened?" the Warden interrupted.


    "Uh..." the soldier squeaked. "We were attacked by three people. From what I could see, there was a dragon-kin, a wolf-man, and a human."


    "And you lost?!" the Warden yelled and got to his feet.


    "Uh... yes sir..." the soldier meekly said.


    "How many of you were sent to pursue them?"


    "There were about seventy of us," the soldier said. Then he winced. Oh boy, I shouldn''t have said that.


    "And you lost to three people!" the Warden yelled, enraged. He smashed his fist into a column, cracking it. Dust rained upon the shoulder. "Is that the pride of you soldier dogs?! You dare lose to three people?!"


    "N-no, sir. They surprise attacked us and pinned us against a massive boulder. The wolf-man was more than skilled in wielding his greatsword, and the dragon-kin was able to take us down in seconds. The human... well, I don''t know. He didn''t seem to be in the fight. But they were monsters!"


    The warden seemed to pause his rampage. "Hm... a human siding with beastmen... are you sure that was a human?"


    "Yes, sir. He had no appearance of a beastman."


    "Do you know what he looked like? Would you recognize him if we showed him to you?" The Warden said.


    The soldier shook his head. "No, sir. I didn''t have a chance to look at him directly."


    The warden sat back down in his throne. The soldier quietly sighed with relief as he wasn''t killed.


    "Send me the Third General. I will have a word with him," the warden quietly said.


    "Yes, sir," the soldier said and ran out of the room as fast as possible.


    Soon, the Third General walked through into the room. His massive armor and weapon seemed to radiate fear almost matching the Wardens.


    "Tell me what happened," the warden demanded.


    The Third General gave a more detailed report of what the surviving soldiers told him. A dragon-girl, a wolf-man, and a human defended the surviving fifty members of the wolf-town. They were easily able to overcome the force of soldiers that were sent in pursuit.


    After the report, the Warden said, "Two days from today, dispatch a team of scouts to where the wolf-people were last found."


    "Yes sir," the Third General said and started to walk out.


    "Oh, General?" the warden called out.


    He turned.


    "Fail me again, and you won''t see the daylight again," the Warden said. He seemed to emit blackness.


    The Third General turned around and walked out.

 Chapter 12

    Lucius awoke in the real world. His body couldn''t register anything for a little bit.


    He tried to access the alternate world, but it wasn''t there. He guessed that he was still asleep in that world.


    When he moved his body, he gasped in pain. Lucius''s entire body was sore almost to the point where he couldn''t move. He slowly sat up.


    I''m getting so confused. How does this system work? If I get injured in the other world, I don''t get injured here, but if I get super sore in the other world, I get sore here too? Lucius thought. This is weird.


    Very reluctantly, he got out of his bed and walked into the bathroom. He cranked the water on and relaxed in the hot water. Slowly, his aching muscles relaxed until he could properly move them again. Still, they hurt.


    Lucius was grateful for the weekends. He wouldn''t be able to go to school in this condition.


    After his heat-bath. Lucius brushed his teeth and walked into the kitchen. The electronic stove read 6:30. His little sister wouldn''t be up until at least seven o''clock.


    He grabbed a large pot out of a cabinet and filled it with water. He set it on the stove and set the heat to high. He dumped in some meat and a dash of salt. He grabbed some vegetables from the fridge and cut them up. He dumped them in the pot.


    Simple stew.


    As he waited for it to cook, he thought about what he had to do today.


    I need to make a big pot today. I might need to cook for the entire village today. Then I probably will spend another five hours or so making things for the households... ah, this is going to be a pain.


    Lucius opened his laptop and went on the internet and searched up "Tamahagane* Katana."


    *(AN: Tamahagane is what real katanas are made out of. For more information, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_swordsmithing</a>)


    He ordered one- a real one. It was pricey, but it might be worth it.


    Lucius soon turned the stove off and put the stew in two bowls. He added some white rice to both bowls. He set one on a tray and sat down. He ate his stew.


    After he finished his meal, he forced himself to wake up in the other world. Lucius couldn''t really explain how he did it- it was just a feeling.


    He laid down on his couch and turned his attention to the other world.


    <hr>


    Lucius sat up and stretched. The water bath affected his muscles in this world too.


    He walked outside to where Luna was.


    "Mornin''," Lucius said.


    "Good morning. You slept like a rock. Did Balos work you that hard?" Luna grinned.


    "No kidding. Speaking of him, do you know where he went?"


    "He went with a bunch of other people into the forest. I think it was a hunting party," Luna said.


    "How long have they been gone?" Lucius asked.


    "About ten minutes," Luna said.


    "Well, I guess I should get to work too," Lucius said. He dunked his head in water to rouse himself, then dragged a log over. The clearing of the forest gave Baylight Village a massive stockpile of wood.


    He brought out his katana and cut it in two. Then, he hollowed them out, forming two gutter-like pieces of wood. He repeated this with more pieces of wood until he had at about ten of them.


    Lucius went into the forest and gathered a bucketful of super-sticky tree sap. He found that the tree sap could hold things together like super-glue and didn''t seem to decay under the rain. Perfect to hold things together.


    He stuck the heated part of his blade into the bucket and walked back to his house. The hot sword made it impossible for the sap to harden.


    Then, he brought some more wood out and lit it ablaze. Lucius suspended the bucket of sap above the fire and walked back to the cut-wood.


    He pieced two pieces of wood together and slathered sap in between the pieces until it was sealed. Then he hardened the sap using his sword, connecting the wood.


    Satisfied, he did it with the rest of the wood until he had a shell-like structure. He then carved more wood into a bowl-shape and sapped it to the bottom of the shell.


    In about one and a half hours, he made an improvised large pot!


    Then he thought of a complication.


    There is no way I can suspend something like this. If this is filled with things, it would be waaay to heavy to suspend. But if don''t suspend it, it''s going to burn, Lucius thought. His mind drifted into the real world. I need some metal. I won''t be able to make a big metal pot like this, but I can at least line the bottom of the pot. That way, it won''t burn.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    Lucius jogged over to Luna. "Where can I find some strong heat resistant metal?" He asked.


    Luna thought for a moment. "You can melt down some of the weapons I have. A mix of all of those different metals should be enough to be resistant to a flame."


    "But if they are resistant, how would I melt them?" Lucius asked. He thought about this but found no way around it. Fortunately, Luna had a solution.


    "How many fire crystals do you have?" Luna asked.


    "About fifteen," Lucius said.


    Luna nodded. "Ten should suffice. Just make a pit and dump the weapons in there. Then drop ten fire crystals in there. Ten fire crystals are enough to melt almost any metal."


    "Thanks," Lucius said trotted back into the house. He took out ten fire crystals brought them outside. There, he saw Luna ripping the ground out.


    "You''re helping?" Lucius asked.


    "Well, yeah," Luna said. "There''s nothing to do right now, plus I''m hungry. I can''t eat unless you finish the pot quicker."


    Lucius laughed a bit. They dug out a deep hole and dumped the ordinary weapons in the pit: the swords, knives, scrap metal, the things that weren''t special. Then, they threw in a few pieces of wood and dropped in the fire crystals.


    In an instant, there was a massive bonfire. It quickly melted the weapons into a silvery liquid.


    Then Lucius thought of a problem.


    "How are we going to get the molten metal out?" Lucius asked. He didn''t have the equipment or the skills to get the metal out of the pit.


    "Easy," Luna said. She bent down and scooped up the molten metal in her hands like it was nothing.


    "What are you doing?!" Lucius rushed over, but Luna stopped him.


    "I''m fine," Luna said.


    "What about your hands?" Lucius asked in a panic.


    "I''m a dragon. I''m resistant to flames."


    "But this is no ordinary flame! You said it could melt any metal!"


    "Do I look like metal to you?" Luna said. Lucius grinned and packed dirt into the large bowl that he made for the bottom of the pot. Luna then poured the metal into the bowl. She repeated it with the rest of the molten metal, then molded the metal to fit the shape of the bowl.


    Then, Lucius stuck the metal bowl to the bottom of the pot with sap. He then filled it with water and patched up the areas where the water came out.


    Then, he stepped back and examined his work. It seemed to hold the weight of the water and didn''t break open. Lucius grinned.


    As if on cue, Balos and the other hunters came back. There were about fifteen of them, all bearing fresh kills. Some had herbs and a few leafy greens with them.


    "Welcome back!" Lucius grinned and waved. Balos and a few of them waved back. Balos looked at the big pot that Lucius made.


    "I''m assuming you want me to keep the meat here?" Balos asked.


    "Yeah, and can you bring the people that can cook from the village?" Lucius said. He wasn''t sure if he could cook for fifty people alone. Even though he could cook, he was still an amature. Balos dropped the meat down and the hunting group disbanded.


    Lucius refilled the pot with water and dropped it into the pit that had the metal in it. He dropped a few more logs into the small fire.


    Soon, a group of five wolf-people came up and looked at Lucius nervously. There were two men and three women, all carrying tools like knives, wooden spatulas, and stir-sticks.


    "Hello," Lucius said and put on a smile, trying to make himself look as friendly as possible.


    "Hi," one said, but the rest didn''t say a word.


    "Relax guys, I''m not here to punish you. I have a quite easy task for you," Lucius said, keeping his voice calm. "Since you all know how to cook, I want you to cook for the village today."


    They nodded and got to work. They walked over to the dead animals and quietly got to work. Lucius joined them.


    "Mind if I join?" Lucius said. They shook their heads.


    Lucius sighed. They are still scared of me. I need to find some way to relax the mood...


    "So I''m not very good at cooking but I want to learn. Can you guys teach me how?" Lucius said with an innocent smile.


    At this, they began to relax.


    "Sure, no problem," one of them said. She walked over and shook Lucius''s hand. "Call me Flare."


    "Hi, Flare. You probably already know me," Lucius said and grinned. "Oh, and by the way, whatever what you do, you won''t get kicked out of the village or get killed. As long as you are teaching me in one way or another, anything you do is fine," Lucius added. They all seemed pleased with this and got to work.


    Even though they seemed a bit tense at the beginning, they began to relax. Soon, they seemed comfortable around Lucius as if he was one of their own. When he made a mistake, he was scolded in all directions, when he asked for help, it was given. Even though he had authority, nothing the wolf-people would do could endanger their stay.


    They taught Lucius cooking techniques that no one in the real world could even dream of. Cutting techniques, stirring techniques, all sorts of things. Soon, Lucius was cooking up to a storm.


    They finished the cooking. As the chefs started going back to the town to call everyone, Lucius personally thanked all of them. He was grateful. He could do a lot more in the cooking field now. And he could even apply the skills in the real world.


    Lucius then went to the garden he made. In the past few days, he didn''t have much time to tend it. He would quickly water the plants, then head off to other work. But now, he had some free time.


    His plants were almost a foot high now. There were all sorts of plants-- some grew berries, some had massive flowers, but there was one flower that caught Lucius''s attention.


    It was tiny, the smallest plant of the bunch. It was about two inches tall, but it was proportional. Like someone grew the plant and shrunk it down. The stem was practically invisible, a thin line hidden among leaves.


    It was the flower that Lucius first encountered. The flower that flowed into him, that changed his life forever.


    Quickly, he turned around and despite his aching limbs, he ran.


    Wheres Luna? Lucius thought. His curiosity was about to blow his head in two pieces unless he was given information.


    Lucius found Luna but before she had any questions, he grabbed her by the hand and returned the garden.


    He pointed at the flower. "What is this flower called and what does it do?" Lucius asked.


    Luna looked at it. "It looks like it could be a Sear plant. Why are you so anxious?" Luna asked.


    "What does it do?" Lucius asked again.


    "Well, I''m not sure exactly what it does, but there are legends about it. One of them says that it can link people from different worlds into this world, but it has never been done before."

 Chapter 13

    The next day, they came.


    Lucius was busy carving things out of wood when movement in the forest caught his eyes. It wasn''t the movement of an animal-- it was from something more intelligent. It was quieter, but it didn''t stop Lucius from getting cautious. He ducked behind his house and peeked around. They emerged from the forest.


    It was a group of five. They were dressed in black clothes and didn''t seem heavily armed, but it was obvious where they came from. They had the same crest as the knights that attacked the wolf-people.


    Lucius quietly ran to find Balos. He found him and Luna crouched on top of the house, peering at the people.


    "They are from Voxis Kingdom!" Balos hissed. He gripped the sword on his back without making a single noise. It seemed impossible that someone his size could be so stealthy, but he managed it.


    "Is Voxis Kingdom the people that attacked the wolf-people?" Lucius asked for confirmation. Balos nodded.


    "They seem to be a scouting party. Usually, kingdoms send them out before a war or battle happens. That is not good," Balos said, discomfort in his voice. Luna looked equally troubled.


    "We need to stop them before they finish. I don''t want to kill them, but that is the only way," Luna said.


    "But if they don''t return to Voxis Kingdom, won''t someone get suspicious?" Lucius asked.


    "Yes, they would. But it is the only way we can get the upper hand in a war," Balos said.


    Lucius became as troubled as Balos.


    "Now is the time to act," Luna said. They crept off the roof and sprinted to intercept them.


    "Lucius, get the one in the back. Remember all of the techniques I taught you, and remember to stay calm. Don''t panic. Luna and I will take care of the rest," Balos ordered. They broke off as Lucius sprinted through a different route.


    Almost immediately, there was the sound of yelling. Lucius guessed that Balos and Luna surprised them.


    Lucius broke into the clearing where the fighting was taking place. He didn''t bother looking at Balos or Luna-- he knew that they would be fine. Instead, he caught the attention of the scout in the back.


    "Hey kid, do you want to die?" he asked, but he didn''t seem that intimidating. In fact, he seemed a bit in panic.


    Lucius didn''t answer his question. Instead, he did a small couch and rested his right hand on the hilt of his sword and his left on the sheath.


    The scout yanked his sword from his back and lunged, but Lucius struck first.


    He was still much slower than Balos, but he could still attack with ferocious speed. He pulled the katana out of his belt and did three rapid slashes. The scout was only able to block one of the slashes while the other two cut him. However, he was wearing armor and the slashes were weak in strength.


    They exchanged blows, but compared to Lucius, the scout was much slower. He was able to block the strikes quickly and retaliate. After each set of attacks, he always returned his sword to his sheath. Balos told him it was to reset the stance, making each set of blows faster and stronger.


    They were at a standstill. Lucius couldn''t slash hard enough to cut the scouts armor since he was focused on speed, and the scout was too slow to hit Lucius. After about a minute of exchanging blows, Lucius decided to change things up a bit.


    He did things that weren''t included in the things in Quickdraw. He began to flow from stance to stance, adding things that he normally wouldn''t do. Once, he saw Balos and Luna out of the corner of his eye, watching him. They seemed to already finish their fights.


    Lucius rolled on the ground and slashed in a wide arc, making the scout jump back. Then, he got to his feet and jumped at the scout and feinted a slash. The scout raised his blade to block, but at the same moment, Lucius rolled to the side and slammed his fist into the scout''s stomach as hard as he could.


    He fell to the ground and shrank into a ball, where he trembled.


    "Keep him alive?" Lucius asked hopefully. He really didn''t want to kill anyone, especially if they were helpless. Killing them in battle is one thing, but this was different.


    Thankfully, Balos nodded. "Don''t kill him. I need to, talk to him."The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Lucius shuddered at the thought of this. "O-okay, do what you want with him. I''m going back," Lucius said and went back to the house and sat down.


    He wasn''t sure if he was supposed to happy, sad, scared, or proud. Sure, he did some pretty amazing things when he was fighting the scout, but it just felt wrong. Being more of a pacifist seemed to be more appealing to him, but he knew that he had to fight at some times. To protect, to explore, to...avenge.


    The word popped into his mind with no real intention, but it seemed to make his whole body shake. Avenge what?


    Eventually, Lucius figured that thinking too much would kill him. Instead, he went into the forest and brought random things back.


    He wanted to create the necessities, like rope, string, and more useful tools. Lucius has been pretty primitive at this point, so he wanted to make more advanced things to improve his life.


    The first thing that came to mind was a cell phone, but there was no way that Lucius would be able to do that. He wasn''t even sure that it was possible to make something like that from the things in this world. So he started on something simple-- electricity.


    When he asked Luna about lights and stuff that would normally be powered by electricity, she told him that things like that were powered by magic. Things imbued with magic seemed to function like electricity without the hassle of cords and such. But according to Luna, it could get uncontrollable. Sometimes, a defect magic-item could explode upon use with enough power to demolish Lucius''s house. Electricity was much better to handle.


    Lucius wanted to make a windmill. Easy to build and a clean source of power. However, Lucius couldn''t really figure out how to build one since he had no way to make a dynamo. He had to play around with more things to see if he could replicate the effect.


    So in the real world, he hopped onto his laptop and searched up how a dynamo worked. He needed copper wire and magnets, two things that might now exist in the other world. So he scrapped the idea of a windmill and took to his own experiments.


    Back in the other world, Lucius looked through the shelves of his house. He found several different types of crystals.


    There were two crystals that Lucius found that might help him. One of them was called Mana Crystal. It absorbed another crystal and when it is spun, it creates the same effect as the absorbed crystal. The faster it''s spun, the stronger the effect.


    He combined it with a Lightning Crystal, which promptly got absorbed. It just looked like the two crystals came together and became one.


    Lucius used the Mana Crystal so he could control the output of electricity. If he used a pure Lightning Crystal, it would roast Lucius along with his house. Not worth doing for something that might not even work.


    Then, he suspended the jewel on something that resembled a cooking split, but instead of meat, Lucius used sap to glue the jewel to the split. When he rotated the jewel slowly, nothing happened, but the faster he spun it, he started to see small tendrils of electricity come out. Perfect.


    Then he needed something conductive. He couldn''t just use the electricity as it was to power anything.


    So Lucius got some metal and shared long strips off with his katana. With the heated edge of the sword, he could shear many, many things.


    After he cut three long stripes, he braided them together to form some sort of cord, acting as a wire. He tried connecting it to the Mana Crystal, but he couldn''t find a way to concentrate the electricity to the cord.


    That''s where the second crystal came in.


    It was the rarest crystal that Lucius found. He only had three of them, while he had an abundance of the others. He made sure to triple check he was doing things correctly-- he didn''t feel like wasting one.


    It was called the It was called an AE Crystal, which stands for Absorb and Expel. One-half of the perfectly shaped crystal was colorless white, while the other was pitch black.


    The crystals effects were odd in many ways. One-- it was oddly specific. Luna told Lucius that the crystal would pull liquids and magic in from the black side like a magnet and expel whatever it absorbed back the white side in a thin stream. Lucius had many doubts, but he hoped that it would work with electricity too. If it didn''t, well, Lucius would be back in square one.


    Lucius glued the AE Crystal to a stick, stuck it in the ground so it was a hair away from the Mana Crystal, then watched.


    The result almost burned his house down. When he slowly spun the Mana Crystal, nothing happened. The current was definitely going into the AE Crystal, but nothing was coming out the other end. He even stuck his tongue out where the power should''ve come out. Nothing, not even the slightest of tingles.


    Frustrated, Lucius gave the crank his hardest and prepared to quit at the same time. The Mana Crystal discharged a bunch of tendrils of power, which were sucked into the AE Crystal.


    Then it all came out. A massive bolt of thunder streaked out of the AE Crystal and lit one of the walls of Lucius''s house on fire, instantly charring it and lighting it ablaze. Thankfully, it seemed to be discharged in all in one shot.


    Lucius grabbed his bucket and ran for water. He was able to quickly put the fire out, but it scared the daylights out of him. After the initial shock faded away, Lucius pumped his fist. It had worked!


    Then he tested it even further. He put the metal wire where the electricity came out and put a very old and dry woodchip on the other end. When he spun the Mana Crystal, the current flowed into the wire and lit the wood on fire.


    Pleased, Lucius sat back.


    This could not only be used as a generator, but also as a weapon. That firepower! I might need to put some research into this... Lucius excitedly thought. I could make something like a taser, but I want something that could do some real firepower...


    Lucius pondered the idea a little bit, then went inside and got some fur and ink.


    He had work to do.

 Chapter 14

    Lucius''s days were once again filled to the brim. His excitement was like a candle frozen in time, never wavering or going out.


    But even though his determination was true, there were still a bunch of priorities. Mainly, Balos and Luna lead them because they realized that Lucius was resolved. They didn''t get in his way, leaving him to his research and engineering.


    Lucius''s mind was stretched and tested to its limits as he researched and experimented with many different types of materials. So many in fact, that eventually, he had to go out and expand the storage room, organize it, and label them with the ink.


    Balos and Luna had more ideas for the town and constructed a bunch of public facilities, like shops, a blacksmith, a hospital, and even a school for the children. The currency they used was standard-- everyone in the world used this currency, which was called Orbs.


    The brighter shade of the orb, the higher it was worth. Black orbs were worth the less, while white orbs were worth the most.


    The only problem with using the standard currency was that Baylight had a very limited amount. Balos and the wolf-people had some, ranging to about 1.5 thousand orbs.


    Because of this, the villagers refused to take any form of payment and reserved the money for trading in the future. They resorted to trading for shops and such. When he heard about this, Lucius was extremely grateful for this and swore himself that he would dedicate to making this village good.


    "I finished it! I finished it!" Lucius shouted and ran to where Balos and Luna were. They were fishing and they were startled at the sudden loud intruder.


    Lucius really wanted to yell Eureka! over and over again, but he was nowhere near Archimedes in terms of intellect and he wasn''t greek.


    "What did you do?" Luna said and set down her makeshift fishing rod down. At their side was a massive pile of blue fish.


    Lucius had to fully extend his arm to pull the weapon from his back. It didn''t seem like much to Balos and Luna, so they were obviously confused.


    "You spent a week locked up in your room making a long metal tube?" Balos asked quizzically, raising his eyebrow.


    A metal tube? Do they not know about...


    "Do you know what a gun is?" Lucius asked, grinning from ear to ear. But to his dismay, they simultaneously shook their heads.


    "What about a bow? A bow and arrow?" Lucius asked. This time, they nodded.


    "Well, I have created a much, much better version of it," Lucius said. "In my world, this is called a gun. This model is called a sniper, a long distance weapon," Lucius said proudly.


    "Why can''t you just use a bow and arrow?" Balos asked, still unconvinced.


    "Watch this," Lucius said and fitted something to the top of the sniper with a metal container. It was a modified magazine.


    Lucius looked at the lake and scanned for a large fish that he could hit. He saw something move and immediately took aim over the top of the long weapon. He had no way to build a scope yet.


    Then, he pressed the trigger and he could feel the crystal inside instantly spin super fast, and within a split second, there was an ear-splitting explosion as a bullet roared out of the chamber and dove into the lake. Following the bullet was a massive gale that ripped apart the water, sending it flying everywhere.


    There was a loud screech that broke through the water, and then it was silent. The fish floated up to the surface.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    Balos and Luna were both stunned. They had never seen something so powerful as this.


    Lucius hefted the gun over his shoulder and grinned.


    "Cool, eh?"


    The past few days, Lucius experimented with lots of metals and crystals until he created what he wanted. When he pulled the trigger, it would spin the Mana Crystal inside, which was infused with a Thunder Crystal, really fast. It discharged a full blast. Right next to it was an AE Crystal, absorbing all of the lightning that was flowing out of the crystal and sent it blasting into something else.


    It was a special powder called a Rebound Powder. It acted and looked like gunpowder, but when it gets ignited, it doesn''t disappear. It gets just a little bit weaker each time though, but it takes over one hundred ignitions to noticeable weaken it.


    For the magazine, Lucius stuffed crystals in it. When the Rebound Powder ignited, the crystal was propelled out of the barrel of the gun at over 2000 mph (or 3218.688 kph). The crystal shattered as it flew, turning the bullet into a weapon of mass destruction. Since Lucius had no way to let the bullets flow into the gun, he let the power of gravity to push the crystals into the chamber.


    Since most crystals were relatively the same size, he made several other magazines that included other crystals, including the Fire Crystal, Thunder Crystal, and an Acceleration Crystal, a crystal that would release a blast of pure energy (not electricity) that would travel very fast.


    "With that weapon, you could destroy a kingdom, no problem," Luna said, still in awe. "Is that a weapon of your world?"


    Lucius slightly nodded. "Not exactly, but sure. Only permitted people can use them, though."


    After a slight pause, Lucius said, "Well, I''m going down to the town to look around the town. See ya!" Lucius waved and walked away.


    <hr>


    The scouts burst through the door of Voxis Kingdom and sprinted down the hallway. They were battered, bruised, and cut, but there was nothing life threatening. This was caused from the mission they had to investigate the town.


    The scout that Balos took hostage was quickly returned after he told the intention of Voxis Kingdom.


    They ran to the Third General, who was busy ripping apart target dummies with his massive sword. With every swing of his blade came the sound of a tree being ripped in two.


    "Did everything go as planned?" he rumbled as he broke apart the dummy with his fist.


    "Uh..." the scouts looked at each other. None of them wanted to speak, but one of the braver ones stepped up. "No sir."


    Third General sat down. "I expected that much. Tell me what happened."


    The scouts told their stories one by one. They said that they were ambushed by the people that defended the wolf-tribe and were almost instantly annihilated. They could tell, one of the scouts said, that they were careful not to break bones or do a life-threatening blow.


    "They didn''t kill anyone?" The Third General asked. They all shook their head.


    "Interesting...." The Third General rubbed his chin. "If we intend to overrun them, I will use that against them."


    "Sir, they did kill almost forty people when the soldiers got intercepted," the scouts pointed out.


    The Third General went silent for a little bit, then he said, "So there was a town there?"


    "Yes, sir."


    "How come we haven''t seen it?"


    "We don''t know, sir. The only possibility is that it was created recently."


    The Third General became quiet again, then he ordered, "Send me Fourth General. I will hand this operation over to him."


    The scouts rushed off. Soon, Second General came in. He had shining white armor and a staff that gleamed with power. Unlike The Warden and Third General, he was remarkably smaller.


    "You called for me?" The Fourth General asked.


    "I am handing the operations to you," Third General said and rose up. "You will find a way to gain control of the town, resorting to any measures. I am giving you six months to do so. If you don''t finish by then, I will take it by force and make sure you get demoted."


    "You do not order me around!" Fourth General yelled.


    "But I do," Third General said in a quiet voice. "You forget that I can break you in one cleave of my sword, and The Warden would not care if I did."


    At that moment, there was the sound of an earsplitting crack! that came from The Fourth Generals staff. A massive bolt of magic flew at the Third General and it seemed like it was going to rip him apart. But he just stood there, and at the last moment, he cleaved his sword up and split the bolt in two. It flew past him and dissipated.


    Third General maliciously laughed and lunged toward Fourth General, but at that moment, First General dropped out of the sky and landed between them, glaring at Third General with his weapon out. It was a double-edged war-axe that was made out of refined gold.


    They did not speak, but soon, Third General left the room.

 Chapter 15

    "Show me what you did against the scout," Balos said. He hefted his sword up as Lucius nodded and went into the Quickdraw stance.


    It has been almost five days since Lucius made the gun, waiting for an attack. They crammed as much training time into each day possible, forcing Lucius to advance rapidly.


    Balos stepped toward Lucius and swung his sword up, forcing Lucius to jump back. The instant his feet touched the ground, he dashed forward and did a quick stab, which was easily stopped by Balos. Then, he followed up with a roll and ended up behind Balos, who made no further attempt to move.


    Without hesitation, Lucius unleashed a flurry of blows that he didn''t know he had in him. It was something that he would see on T.V. or in a movie, but nonetheless, he did it. It was rapid slashes and quick stabs, but Balos blocked them all with ease.


    Then, Balos took his own sword and unleashed swings faster than what Lucius could do. Knowing the difference between strength, Lucius sidestepped and jumped back.


    "Your movements are getting faster," Balos said without a hint of fatigue on his face. Lucius was taking deep, ragged breaths. "But you aren''t showing me what you did!" Balos said and lunged again.


    This time, Lucius tried to get out of his comfort zone like what he did with the scout. This time, while he was busy avoiding the swings of Balos, he invented his own killer technique.


    Balos swung at Luciuss head and he dropped down. He took that moment to swing upward at Balos'' chest, which he blocked.


    At that moment, Lucius rolled right beside Balos legs and forced his entire body to lunge up. His feet were misplaced, however, but he still got into the air. He held his sword above him and jumped into the air in a spiral that was aimed directly at Balos back.*


    *(AN: look at this for how I imagined it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_cMHXyygUI</a>)


    Balos easily stepped to the side and avoided it, but it still surprised him.


    "Good. That was a very unexpected move. Use that more often in a fight.," Balos said and returned the sword to his back, which meant that they finished practice.


    "What about the rest of today? There''s still lots of time," Lucius asked, confused. Balos shook his head.


    "I taught you everything you need to know, and I cannot teach you any further. You must seek out other sword masters to teach you, but at your level, you could already take on the lot of them," Balos said. Lucius couldn''t tell if he was happy or sad.


    They both sat down on a stump and looked at the town below them. It just looked like a normal town, but it was too small. Lucius wasn''t even sure why he called it a town. There was barely fifty people. Maybe it was the idea that it could become a town, but Lucius shook his head and stood up.


    "We need to reinforce the village," Lucius and Balos said at the exact same time. It seemed like they were thinking at the same time. Balos looked at Lucius. "Do you have an idea?"


    "Yeah. We need some sort of wall around the town and we need to arm or at least teach the wolf-people how to fight," Lucius said. "It''ll be bad if the Voxis Kingdom decided to storm into this place with more than one hundred soldiers."


    "I agree-- we need the walls. How we are going to build that, I have no idea, but arming the wolf-people aren''t needed. They all can fight-- it''s their instinct. They have sharp claws too. If the Voxis Kingdom decided to come down now, they would not go back unscathed," Balos said with surprising venom.


    "Uh... right," Lucius said, clearly concerned with the tone that Balos was using. Changing the subject, he said, "I''ll go see what to do about the walls."


    Balos seemed to calm down a little bit. Lucius brought Balos down to the town, where he did his calling. The wolf-people stopped what they were doing and hustled over to them.


    After they went silent, Lucius said in a loud voice, "I have news from Voxis Kingdom." At this, many of the wolf-people bared their teeth in remembrance of the attack on the town. Pausing for a moment, Lucius then continued.


    "They are planning to attack this town at any time," Lucius said. "Right now, Baylight is not defended as well as I want it. If they decided to attack, I don''t want to think what could happen. Most likely a repeat of the past," Lucius said. Some people growled on reflex. He thought he heard someone cry softly, but he started speaking again.


    "We need to build a wall around the town. This is for the safety of your children and your parents, and if we do this, we will be one step closer to defending the town. If there is an attack, I will do as much as I can to defend this town."Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    The wolf-people were dead silent.


    "So I ask for your help. I will start the construction of the wall later today, and I will not be able to do it alone."


    The wolf-people looked at each other, some with a horrified expression. Lucius knew why.


    "However, I am not going to force you to do this. I am not here to enslave you, whip you, or starve you until you die. This work is completely optional and, I repeat, you do not have to do this. This is voluntary work."


    "If you are willing to help, step forward now," Balos said beside him. No one moved; they all looked afraid like if they decided to move, they would be killed. Lucius soon was afraid that his speech would be pointless.


    But his fears were washed away. As if all of the wolf-people controlled, almost all of them moved forward at the exact same time. Lucius grinned, pleased that he wasn''t going to be embarresed.


    "Good. I expect you all later today," Lucius said and walked away.


    Once they were out of earshot, Lucius said, "Yes! We did it!"


    But instead of the happy look that Lucius was expecting, all he got was the shaking of his head.


    "Not yet."


    Puzzled, Lucius said, "What do you mean?"


    "We managed to convince the lot of them, but now we have to act. If what you did was an empty promise, then we are in for some big trouble."


    Lucius paused for a moment, then said, "Touche."


    They both went inside the house and split into their respective rooms. Lucius glanced at his gun for a moment, which was leaned against a wall.


    I need to figure out how to make lights, one way or another. Torches are too dangerous for indoor use, and sunlight is very unreliable, Lucius grimly thought about the task ahead of him. I need to do research more often. This work ethic is going to kill me one day.


    Lucius grabbed the sniper off the wall and put it on his back. The sheer weight of all of its components was enough to almost make Lucius stagger. He then grabbed his katana and put that on his belt. He felt like he weighed another fifty pounds, but then again, he was never the strongest.


    Then, he dropped a leather T-shirt over his head. Balos revealed his skills and quickly made Lucius a shirt from the leftover Eloon leather, which was strong, flexible, and warm. He also made a mask for Lucius, since he figured out that Lucius would be a target and would best remain hidden under a mask. Lucius stuffed the mask in his pocket.


    He then set out, where he saw wolf-people already starting to drag logs over. Luna and Balos were there, directing them.


    The stronger wolf-people were dragging logs and setting them upright, while the weaker ones were collecting sap from trees. One of the wolves showed Lucius that if he mixed mud with the sap, it would become cement hard. Lucius quickly put that into work.


    Lucius was amazed on how fast beast-men worked. Ever since he got to Zenos*, he''s been surrounded by beast-men. And they have demonstrated things that no human could do, like build a whole town in seven hours.


    *(AN: In case you forgot, Zenos is the name of the world that Lucius was sent to)


    If you could imagine, the wall went up quickly. Within two hours, the foundation and part of the wall were built. In five hours, the wall structure was done and most of the wolf-men were packing the mud-sap mixture.


    The next two hours was time for Lucius to get his elbows dirty. He lit a fire and put his already hot sword into it, making it even hotter. It became white hot, and that''s when Lucius deemed it suitable for the task.


    He walked to one part of the town that he would make the "front." He plunged the burning sword into the wood and tried to cut into it. Instead of cutting, the wood burst into flames. The mud-sap stopped the fire, but it was still enough to make Lucius into a nervous wreck.


    He needed to cut the wall into an entrance, and he was thinking of something like a gate. He already built the mechanisms while the beast-men were building the wall and only needed to install it.


    He couldn''t think of a way to break into the wall until he remembered his sniper. He took it off his back, fully aware of the wolf-people watching the gun with a puzzled expression. He gestured away at the wolf-people.


    "Stand back. This is going to be loud," Lucius said. The wolf-people scooted over to the side, well out of the range of the estimated blast range.


    Lucius switched cartilage for his gun and put the one that had the Blast Crystals in them. He raised the gun and aimed it at the bottom of the wall.


    He pressed the trigger, heard the small hum of the Mana Crystal, then there was a thunderous noise. Lucius''s gun flew up as the crystal blasted out of the gun and collided with the wall. It exploded upon impact and dust plumed into the air. Lucius squinted his eyes in an attempt to look through the dust, but he gave up and waited until it faded.


    The base of the wall was ripped open. It was jagged and blackened, but Lucius prepared for that. He grabbed his sword and quickly broke off the uneven pieces. Some wolf-people joined in the effort and quickly, the hole looked cleaner. Lucius then started hollowing out the ground under the archway alongside the beast-men, who seemed very interested in what Lucius was doing.


    After the narrow and deep strip of dirt was removed out of the ground, Lucius lowered in a long, thick slab of wood into it. It was the perfect height, as the top of the wood was perfectly level with the ground. Lucius then connected a thick and very strong rope to two of the ends and connected it to two elevated cylinders of wood on top of the wall.


    It was a medieval mechanism that worked fairly well. It was a crank that lifted the wood up to block the entry, and when the crank was released, the wood would fall back into the spot into the ground and open up the gate.


    Pleased, Lucius gave thanks to the wolf people and went to sleep, exhausted.

 Name Log/Name Change Notice

    Hello there, reader. This "chapter" is just a refresher on every name so far in the story, plus there will be a name change for the main character.


    Tek Devon ---> Lucius Devon-- The main character of the book, kinda hard to forget about him.Human


    Luna Dragonkin-- The first companion to Lucius. Built his house and all.DragonStolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Balos Wolfblood-- The sword master to Lucius, second companion.Wolf


    Voxis Kingdom-- The main kingdom of the area.


    The Warden-- Leader of the five Generals of Voxis Kingdom, ultra powerful.Human


    Eloon-- Monster of the forest that Lucius fought. Powerful.Beast


    Kron-- Lucius'' friend in the real world.


    Ilane-- Lucius saved her from getting beat up from her ex.


    Zenos-- Name of the world.


    Comment if I forget any of it.

 Chapter 16

    "What''s the matter, Lucius? You always seemed distracted for the past month or so," Kron said as he dropped into the chair next to him.


    Lucius yawned and leaned back. "Busy busy. My sister is going to middle school soon, and I have to get her supplies and such." It wasn''t the reason, but it was partially true. However, Kron didn''t seem convinced.


    "But you''re at school. Are you distracted twenty-four-seven? C''mon, spit it out," Kron pressed.


    Lucius had the urge to tell him, but he knew that he would never believe him. Plus, Lucius wasn''t really the person that would share what he was thinking all the time.


    "Well..." Lucius tried to think of a convincing lie, but nothing came into mind.


    However, Ilane stepped into the room, saving Lucius.


    She waved at him. "Hello. How are you?"


    "I''m fine," Lucius said.


    "So you seem pretty distracted these days," Ilane said, which made Kron grin.


    Oh, give me a break. Her too? Lucius groaned.


    "I''m very busy, taking care of my sister," Lucius used the same excuse as he did with Kron. "My sister is entering middle school, and I''m her legal Guardian. So I have to fill out all of her paperwork and ugh. It''s a lot of work."


    "Uh huh," Ilane said, but just like Kron, she didn''t sound convinced. But thankfully, she didn''t press the matter.


    "So what have you been doing these days Lucius, besides paperwork?" Kron asked, still with that idiotic grin on his face.


    "Oh, you know," Lucius shrugged. "The usual homework, cooking, et cetera. Nothing unusual is happening these days, besides the paperwork."


    "Ah," Kron said, but just like last time, he didn''t seem convinced.


    Lucius checked his watch.


    "Oh, the bus is coming in ten minutes! I got to go! See ya!" Lucius sprang out of his chair and waved as he left the school.


    Once he was gone, Kron leaned toward Ilane.


    "You know he''s lying right?"


    Ilane nodded. "Yeah, but he definitely doesn''t want to tell us."


    "That is literally just baiting us to find us," grumbled Kron.


    <hr>


    (AN: Most of this section, Lucius uses the internet for a lot of things)


    "I need somewhere bigger and more spacious to work with things," Lucius said to Luna.


    So theyspent the next hour getting logs and making a large workshop. It took them roughly two hours, but the finished result was far better than what Lucius expected.


    Then, Lucius spent the next hour building things. He built a table the size of a dining table, many chairs and shelves, and created metal tools that functioned far better than his wooden ones.He also built a vent that leads outside that was right next to a tub of very densely packed metal into a tub, which would serve as his melting area.


    After that, he brought in loads of crystals and his weapons to start his engineering.


    His first priority was making lights for the houses. The most basic electrical thing.


    First, he did the usual. He let a Mana Crystal absorb a Thunder Crystal, then propped it up right next to an AE Crystal. He created a metal wire


    Then he spun it, creating the current. Nothing out of ordinary.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    Then, (back in the real world), he hopped on his computer and searched up How does a light bulb work?


    According to the internet, a light bulb is powered by electricity (duh). The electricity flows into a filament of tungsten, which heats it up. Tungsten has a very high melting point (6192¡ãFahrenheit, 3422¡ãCelsius), which is why it can get to the temperatures that produce the bright light.


    So to produce the same effect as a light bulb, he needed to find a metal that could handle extreme temperatures when it was heated, and by extreme, he needs extreme.


    Lucius brought in a bunch of metals, but he couldn''t find any that would stand even 2000¡ã Celsius (3632¡ã Fahrenheit; I''m going to use both interchangeably a lot, but I''ll try to put the other one too). Everything would just melt into a metal goop.


    After countless attempts, Lucius, who was very frustrated, walked out of the lab and went up to Luna.


    "Do you know any metals around here that could stand extremely high temperatures? Like, over 2000 degrees (Celsius)?" Lucius asked.


    "No, but I might know someone who might know," she replied and dragged Lucius off. They headed into the village and walked along the streets until they arrived at the blacksmith.


    The instant Lucius opened the door, he was blasted back with an intense wave of heat. Luna, on the other hand, had no problem and continued to pull Lucius through the door.


    They walked up to one of the wolf-smiths who was examining a metal sword very closely.


    "Hello, Talis," Luna said. The smith set down his sword and smiled.


    "Why hello there, Miss Luna! I see that you''ve brought the chief down. So, what can I do for you two?" Talis asked. He didn''t seem afraid of Lucius, unlike the other people.


    "My friend here has a question," Luna said. She gestured toward Lucius as if queueing him to speak.


    "I was wondering... do you have a metal that can withstand very high temperature?" Lucius asked.


    Talis rubbed his chin. "Well... I do have some, but I wanted to do something with it. However, I willgive it to you on one condition," Talis said. "You have to make sure that you keep my family and everyone here safe."


    Lucius grinned. "I promise. I will do everything in my power to do so. Also, if what I''m doing works, your family will get something in return."


    Talis returned the grin. "Well, I''m looking forward to it!"


    He went into the back and returned back with a long piece of metal. When he handed it to Lucius, he staggered under the weight. Talis laughed.


    "Yup, that¡¯s it. It''s real heavy, ain''t it?" Talis said.


    "Where did you find this?" Lucius asked.


    The metal was very shiny and heavy, but it just looked like the normal metal back in the real world.


    "Oh, I found it in Templar Mountains up north," Talis said."It''s called Brightmetal, but I frankly have no idea why it''s called that."


    Lucius filed the information and said, "Thanks."


    They walked off and entered the lab.


    "What are you doing here?" Luna asked.She walked around the thing crystals that Lucius set up.


    "Just watch. This might work, but I''m not exactly sure what the end results will be. Hopefully, it doesn''t kill me," Lucius said and grabbed his sword.


    "Uh, Luna?" Lucius asked. "Can you smush this into something real thin?"


    "Sure," she said and grabbed the Brightmetal from him. In her hands, she firmly gripped it and, very slowly, crushed it in her hands. It slowly elongated and became something like a very large pizza dough.


    She handed it back to him. "Thanks," Lucius said.


    Then, he took his sword out of the sheath and sheared off a very thin piece of metal that was about three inches long. And with a picture of a tungsten filament in front of him (in the real world), he shaved off two more and twisted them together into some sort of twisted licorice.


    Then, he propped it up connected to the metal wire and spun the Mana Crystal.


    And to his surprise, it worked! The current flowed through the wire and heated the metal filament very fast, and in an instant, he was bathed in a bright light.


    "It worked!" He yelled. Luna was looking into the light with surprise.


    "Wow,she said. "Is this something from your world?"


    "Yup," Lucius said, still very proud of himself. "It''s called electricity, and it can do a lot of things. That''s how most of my world is powered."


    "Is it reliable? Does it explode?"


    "Nope; in fact, it''s way safer than magic essence. The only risk that might happen is getting burned or shocked, and the only problem with that is you need to touch this," Lucius said and pointed to the wire.


    Then, Lucius went out with a bucket and gathered up a bucketful of sand from the water-side. Then, he went back and tossed a bunch of Fire Crystals in the metal tub which quickly erupted into a large flame. Suspending a metal pit in the heart of the fire, he dropped the sand in and waited.


    Soon, the sand melted into a bubbling liquid that was red hot. Luna grasped the pot and lifted it up and poured it over a sand mold of a light bulb.


    Lucius made a crude frame of a light bulb with wood and packed it with sand. When Luna poured the liquid glass, it instantly vaporized the wood and filled were the wood once was.


    In the center of the mold was the Brightmetal filament that was suspended by more Brightmetal to ensure it would be in the mold and it wouldn''t melt.


    After waiting for over an hour, Lucius returned to the workshop and dusted off the bulb.


    Even though it was crude and uneven, it still resembled a light bulb, so Lucius called it a win. He poured water into the bottom of itand removed all of the sand in the inside of the bulb. Soon, the only thing left was a light bulb with a Brightsteel filament suspended inside.


    Then, Lucius connected the copper wire to the Brightsteel and spun the Mana Crystal, making the whole workshop light up.


    Smiling, Lucius left the lab and dropped into his bed, feeling sleep overtake him.

 Chapter 17

    The next day was full of work for Lucius. He cut up more of the Brightmetal into more strips and created a bunch more of the light bulbs. He installed a generator (the Mana Crystal and the AE Crystal) inside his room and strung up lights in his room, but that''s when he found an error in his ideas.


    To power the lights, he needed to constantly spin the Mana Crystal. But unless he was willing to just sit there and spin the crystal just to power lights that would inevitably turn off once he stopped, he needed to find a way to keep the crystal spinning.


    Lucius thought of his gun. The Mana Crystal inside was powered by a spiral bevel gear*, and when Lucius pulled the trigger back, it would spin the crystal inside. He couldn''t use that because, again, he was there to pull the trigger.


    *(AN: this is the Spiral Bevel Gear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_bevel_gear</a>)


    Then, he thought of a genius idea.


    I need magnets, Lucius thought and quickly drew up a plan.


    He would attach magnets with a positive charge to the Mana Crystal and attach a negative magnet to something near the Mana Crystal. They would push away from each other, and since the negative magnet is immobilized and the magnets on the Mana Crystal wasn''t, the Mana Crystal would be forced to spin. If the entire Mana Crystal was covered with positive magnets, it would be forced to spin continuously.


    This plan yet revealed another flaw¡ªhe didn''t have magnets. Lucius was pretty sure that he couldn''t just magically create some magnets with what he had, and so far, nothing he encountered was magnetic.


    So he did the usual¡ªhe went out and talked to Balos and Luna.


    "Do you guys know of something that is magnetic?" Lucius asked. They both nodded.


    "Yes, but it doesn''t exist within the grasp of anyone in the village or exists in this forest. The closest way to obtain something magnetic is from Trupe City, which is directly east of here," Balos said.


    "Is this for another of your crazy inventions?" Luna asked with a grin. Lucius nodded.


    "So how long would it take to get from the city and back?" Lucius asked.


    "On foot, it would take a few days if you could travel more than ten miles (about sixteen kilometers). With some form of transportation, it could take a day or so. But it would be filled with lots of monster attacking you and many other things that will slow you down." Balos said.


    This set Lucius'' plans back even further. He was still expecting an attack, and in a week, Baylight could be completely overrun and burned to the ground. He wasn''t willing to take that risk, but he really needed to get his hands on magnets. It was the only way he could think of to spin the Mana Crystal continuously.


    Crestfallen, Lucius said, "Man. I really needed those magnets."


    Then, once again, his brain starting to work furiously.


    He said if I had a form of transportation, it would be faster. But we don''t have any transportation. I might just need to get there and back as soon as possible, Lucius thought.


    "If I leave for a week or so, do you think this village will be safe?" Lucius asked anxiously.


    "We will probably be fine unless Voxis Kingdom comes in with their best men and generals. But we are well defended, but if you do leave, make sure you return quick," Balos said.


    "Well, I guess I''ll start right now. The faster I get back, the better," Lucius said and ran back to his room. He strapped his sword to his belt and dropped his gun over his back, grabbed his money, and set off.


    He had no need for food or other supplies since it would be all taken care of in the real world.


    <hr>


    Just like what Balos predicted, it took Lucius about three days to get to Trupe City. After his training with Balos, the beasts that Lucius encountered were simple to beat; he also quickly got past an Eloon without much difficulty.


    "State your purpose," one of the guards at the gate said.


    "Uh... I am here to trade," Lucius said.


    "Do you have weapons on you?" The other guard asked.


    "Yes I do," Lucius said, then started to panic. What if they took them?


    "Very well; you may pass, but if you cause any problems, we will not hesitate to, neutralize you," the first guard said and the gate opened up silently.


    So that''s how the function of magic works, Lucius marveled as he stepped into the city.


    Lucius navigated his way through the city until he heard the jingle of street vendors.


    "Freshly cooked fish for only twenty-five Orbs! Get them while they''re hot!"


    "Very sharp swords for five-hundred Orbs!"


    The vendors continued to yell out products and prices. Lucius'' mouth watered as he gazed at the rows of baked goods and cooked meats, but he was here for only one purpose: to figure out where magnets were sold.


    Soon, his feet was sore and he couldn''t find out where the magnets were. So he gave up his solo adventure and walked up to someone who was in a group of three.


    "''Scuse me," Lucius said as he tapped the person on the shoulder. She turned.


    "Do you know where I can find magnets?" Lucius asked.


    She nodded and said, "They are in the south side of the Market Square. I can lead you there if you want."


    "That''ll be great; thanks," Lucius said.


    The group lead Lucius through the Market Square.


    "So, what''s your name?" She asked.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "Lucius..." Lucius said. He didn''t bother giving his last name out.


    "Last name?"


    Well ain''t that marvelous, Lucius thought. What was the last name that I gave the villagers? Um... Oh, it was Avalan!


    "Avalan," Lucius said.


    "I''m Setsu," Setsu said. "Please to meet you."


    "Uh, sure," Lucius said. The group snickered.


    "Oh, Setsu is being overly friendly again," Lucius heard one of them whisper behind him.


    Ignoring them, Lucius moved quickly and forced the rest of the group to move faster to their destination.


    They arrived at a shop that was called, "BITS AND ARTIFACTS." They went in.


    The shop was dimly lit and smelled like old, dry wood. Lining the walls were strange crystals, ores, and things in jars that Lucius didn''t want to unscrew. He walked up to the counter while the rest of the group stayed behind and looked around the shop.


    "Do you sell magnets?" Lucius asked.


    "Yes I do; they are over there," the shop owner said and pointed to one of the shelves that were lined with black things of all shapes. Lucius thanked the owner and walked to it.


    He picked one up and bounced it in his palm. He envisioned the crystal and it''s size, trying to figure out a good size for the magnets.


    Finally, he settled on a bunch of small magnets that were attracted to each other. They didn''t cost much, so Lucius grabbed a bunch and put it in a bag. But even the bunch that he put in the bag only cost about two hundred Orbs, so Lucius called it a steal.


    As he was approaching the counter, the shopkeeper looked at the back of the gun sticking up behind Lucius.


    "That is no ordinary weapon. Is that an artifact?"


    "What''s an artifact?" Lucius asked, confused.


    The shopkeeper told Lucius that an artifact was an object of massive power, which essentially what his gun was.


    "Sorry, but I am in no position to answer," Lucius said.


    He quickly paid and left the store, followed by Setsu.


    "Where are you going? I mean, where do you live?" Setsu asked while she noticed him going toward the exit. "That''s the south side; there is no town or anything on that side."


    "Sorry, but I have no time to answer. I need to leave as soon as possible," Lucius said.


    "Is that thing on your back an artifact?"


    "I cannot answer that."


    Instantly, he regretted saying that. There was a strange look in the eyes in the rest of the group''s eyes as they eyed the gun.


    "An artifact is worth a lot of money. Do you want us to take it off your hands?" One of them said.


    Instantly, Lucius turned around and sprinted through the gate, pursued by the rest of the group. Only Setsu seemed worried.


    The guards let him through the gate and he went into the forest, pulling his katana out of his sheath along the way.


    As soon as he was out of the sight of the guards, he turned around and faced his pursuers.


    I can''t lead them to Baylight! I need to face this alone... These greedy bastards!


    "Why do you want this?!" Lucius said as he glared at them.


    "Didn''t you hear us? It will be enough to make us rich!" One of them yelled back. He could see the figure of Setsu rush toward them, but it would be too long to defuse greed.


    One of them attempted to take off from him, but Lucius unhinged the sword top and let it rush toward the person who tried to attack him. He backed off quickly.


    I need to leave now!Lucius thought. He gripped the gun on his back and yanked it out, quickly changing the chamber to the one that had the Wind Crystals.


    I hope this works!Lucius pleaded and jumped in the air. He pulled the trigger while he was in mid-air and there was the sound of a gun being fired.


    Instantly, a gale rushed out of the barrel of the gun and pushed Lucius into the air, propelling him up and out. The group under him was scattered as the wind hit them, scattered them in all sorts of directions. Setsu, who wasn''t hit, looked at Lucius with shock.


    I would thank you, but...


    The group got to their feet and looked at Lucius, who was currently soaring right over the trees.


    "Is that even an artifact?!" One of them said, still shocked.


    "I dunno. I didn''t feel a magic pulse from that, but there was no way that it was from a crystal. Evenfor artifacts, you should be able to feel a pulse from that."


    Setsu finally caught up to the group.


    "What on Zenos were you guys thinking?!" She yelled. She also looked up to where Lucius was flying away from, also with a curious look on her face.


    "C''mon, you know that you wanted that artifact," one of them said. "It could''ve paid your mother''s medical bills."


    The greedy look slowly entered her eyes, but it faded away quickly. "But that wasn''t the way to get it!"


    "Well, we can''t get it anymore," the others said.


    "Yeah, speaking of that, where did he go? There''s nothing that way unless he lives in the forest, and the next civilization that way is over fifty miles (or 80.5 kilometers) away," another said.


    Setsu looked at where she last saw Lucius fly away. He disappeared from her view.


    <hr>


    As soon as Lucius lost his momentum, he knew that he was in trouble.


    The wind mercilessly whipped his face as he soared through the air over the trees. But soon, he started to descend until he could reach out and feel the tops of the trees.


    Sticking his hand out, he took hold of a branch to try and break his flight. But the branch he took instantly ripped off the tree and made Lucius lurch.


    He did it again, and this time, he managed to hang on the branch and fall to the ground. Flat on his back.


    Groaning, Lucius could feel his hand bleeding and filled with splinters from the tree. He just wanted to lie there and sleep, but he knew he had to get back to Baylight.


    He carefully picked out the splinters out of his hand and covered his hand with leaves to protect the open wound. Then, Lucius rushed off to Baylight.


    <hr>


    He stumbled over the hill and in front of Lucius sat Baylight. Nothing seemed amiss.


    Exhaling with relief, Lucius went inside his workshop and dropped his bag of magnets on the table. Then he went out and walked inside his the main house.


    He grabbed the roll of white bandages and sat down. He winced off as he peeled off the makeshift bandage, the leaf, then wrapped his hand up.


    After the bandaging his cuts, Lucius walked out and sought Luna and Balos.


    He found them quickly. Lucius waved.


    "Yo," he said.


    "You''re back!" Luna exclaimed.


    "Yup. Anything go wrong here?"


    "No, not at all. But you remember when you were going to plant a field, but you didn''t do it?" Luna asked.


    "Yeah...?"


    "Well, the wolf-people went ahead and planted things in the field. Apparently, they do eat some kinds of vegetables."


    "Should''ve asked me first," Balos said.


    "Whatever. Did you get the magnets?" Luna asked.


    "Yup. It wasn''t too hard," Lucius said. He didn''t mention the people that attempted to take the gun from him.


    "Well, get on with it! I want to see what you are making!" Luna exclaimed. Grinning, Lucius rushed away and to the workshop.


    He created a mixture of mud and sap and slathered some to the bottom of a magnet. He stuck it to the Mana Crystal and held it there for a minute. He did that until most of the crystal was covered.


    Then, he made a tripod and stuck a bunch of the opposite magnets to it, and when he put it near (and held the tripod very, veryfirmly), the Mana Crystal started to turn!


    The electricity came out and powered on the lights in the workshop. Smiling even bigger, Lucius stuck the tripod in the ground near the Mana Crystal, and it continued to spin.


    He quickly created another one and put it in his house, and it worked the same way.


    For the turn-off mechanism, Lucius made it so he could swivel the tripod away from the generator without moving the base, which broke the magnetic repelling force. And when he did that, the lights turned off.


    Then, Lucius spent the next two hours created another generator and a tripod and brought them down to one of the houses.


    He knocked on the door, and Talis answered it.


    "Hello there, Lucius. Ah, I see you''ve brought something..." Talis looked at the light bulbs, wire, generator, and the tripod crammed in Lucius'' hand.


    "Wait and see. You won''t be disappointed," Lucius said. Talis let him in and Lucius dropped the generator and tripod on the ground.


    Then, he wired in the light bulbs around in the house and connected all of it to a wire near the generator. Then, he set the tripod up.


    With a faint hum, the Mana Crystal started to spin and the house was soon filled with lights.


    "Whoa..." Talis and his family looked up at the lights in wonder. "Is this what you used the Brightmetal for?"


    "Yup! This is my returning favor," Lucius said.


    "This is too much though. Will the rest of the houses get this?" Talis asked.


    "Yeah, but you get it first. This wouldn''t have been possible without you, anyway," Lucius said. "Well, I have to go. Best wishes!" Lucius said.


    "And you too," Talis said.

 Chapter 18

    In Poris Kingdom...


    "We have new information, Your Majesty."


    "Speak," said a commanding voice that was female.


    "There has been sighting of a new town near Sorus Bay," said a scout.


    "And how did we not notice it further? Didn''t we travel that route many times to trade with Trupe City?"


    "Yes Ma''am, but this one appears to just be built. We don''t have any information about the residents or the leader, but they seem to be stationed there."


    Queen Peluna thought for a moment.


    How could a town just, appear,without anyone noticing?


    "I want you to dispatch a team of scouts disguised as merchants. Take stock of their residents, leader, and magic. Do not aggravate them, for they could be an ally for us," Peluna ordered.


    The scout saluted. "Yes Ma''am, we will dispatch them right away."


    <hr>


    Lucius wiped the sweat off his forehead as he finished wiring in the last light bulb to the generator.


    He successfully added electricity to every household and instructed the villagers on how to use it. They were pleased to know that it was a lot safer than magic lights and wouldn''t explode in their face.


    "Now that all of the lights are in, what else are you going to make?" Asked Luna, who was watching Lucius wire lights in Balos'' and Luna''s room.


    "I don''t know. I''m thinking about making basic supplies, like maybe a stove. But since there''s an attack that might come, I''m probably going to make defense mechanisms."


    Lucius had a turret in mind when he said this. He had no idea how he was going to go about making it, but it would be a great defense tool when it came to fighting.


    After Lucius finished the wiring, he went back in his workshop.


    He needed to make a weapon or something that was more, explosive. His current gun was strong, but he had to face a whole army, it would be much too slow.


    He could make something like a gun, maybe it would be semi-automatic--


    What was that? Lucius thought. He grabbed his gun and his sword and rushed outside.


    There was a small group of carts being dragged along by horses trotting through the forest. They slowed as Lucius blocked the road.


    "Hello; what are you here for?" Lucius said. He rested his hand on his katana but didn''t make a move to pull it out.


    "We are merchants looking to see if you could buy things from us, and maybe you could sell things to us," the lead person said.


    Merchants? Maybe I can get some money this way...


    "Very well; you may come in. But if you do anything funny, you will be forced out."


    Lucius went back inside the gate and told some wolf-people to spread the news and stay inside. The merchants slowly trotted in.


    Lucius could tell that the merchants were shocked at what they saw. They slowed down and just looked at everything, taking in the view.


    The beast-men were hiding inside their houses, but Lucius could see a few villagers looking through cracks through the doors.


    "Where is everyone?" One of the merchants asked.


    "They do not want to see you," Lucius said, trying to keep his voice calm and slightly intimidating. "Some people are not as forgiving as me."


    "Ah."


    They walked up a hill where they were greeted by Balos and Luna. The merchants released a cry and took out weapons.


    Luna both grinned, but Balos didn''t seem too pleased to see them.


    "Relax," Lucius said. "They are residents of Baylight."


    "Residents?" Luna said, looking hurt. "We are more than residents."


    "Ok ok, leaders of Baylight, along with me."


    "Ah, sorry," the merchants said and put away their weapons. "We just aren''t so friendly with beast-men right now."


    "Like we are with humans," Balos said and bared his sharp teeth. The merchants blanched and put their hands on their weapons.


    "Chill Balos. Why don''t you go and relax? You have done a lot these few days," Lucius said, but his eyes said, Stay where you can still see and hear.


    Page Break


    Apparently, Balos understood and walked away. Later, Lucius thought he heard a scuffling of footsteps on top of one of the houses.


    "So, if some of your leaders are beast-men, does that mean the residents of,Baylight,are also beast-men?" One of the merchants asked Lucius.


    "Yup, but they are under my rule. They won''t attack you unless I tell them to, but just because I''m also a human doesn''t mean I''ll side with you."


    Lucius couldn''t believe how he was sounding like a leader. Normally, he would be quite meek, but after seeing people get killed and learning about the realities of life, he has seemed to harden into something different.


    "A-anyway," the lead merchant started. "What do you have to sell?"


    Immediately, Luna and Lucius looked at each other with a suspicious look on both of their faces.


    Wouldn''t they ask us to buy their products, not to buy from us?


    Pushing the thought aside, he faced the merchants.


    "We do not have any specific products, but..." Lucius was about to talk about his engineering in weaponry, but he thought better of it.


    One of the merchants seemed to be writing something down, but Lucius paid him no attention.


    "Well, if that''s the case, we will be leaving. Before we leave, can we have your name?"


    "Lucius Avalan, ruler of Baylight," Lucius said.


    The merchant wrote something down again, then they all turned around.


    "Good-bye, Lucius. Hope we meet again."


    <hr>


    There was a bright blue flash in the middle of the room. The "merchants" stepped out of it. The carts and horses shrank until it became a coin, where the scouts took them and pocketed them.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "We have returned, Your Majesty," the lead one said.


    "Good job. Now, what is there to offer us?" Queen Peluna asked.


    The scout that was writing things down stepped forward. "The ruler of the town, which is called Baylight, is named Lucius Avalan. He carries a katana and an interestingobject on his back that is unknown to us," said the scout.


    "Also," continued the scout. "They do not seem to have any products that would be "rare", but Lucius was clearly hiding something. We think it has to do something with the object on his back, but we don¡¯t know for sure."


    Another scout stepped forward. "Also, the ruler has two helpers. One is from the wolf race and the other is a dragon-kin, two races that normally wouldn''t be together. The dragon-kin is in her human form, revealing great strength and power. The wolf-man is clearly a fighter and seemed slightly hostile to us.


    Queen Peluna thought for a moment.


    A human, a dragon, and a wolf-man in on village? This is very interesting.


    "What about its residents?"


    "Lucius told us that the residents are wolf-people, but we haven''t confirmed this with our own eyes. Would you like us to go back?"


    "No," said Peluna firmly. "We will return tomorrow, but this time, I will be accompanying you."


    Everyone in the room gasped. Then, voices filled the room.


    "Your Majesty! You cannot leave!"


    "Yes, I can. I am queen here, am I not?" Said the queen in a challengingvoice.


    The person who objected slumped back, as with everyone.


    "Prepare a royal carriage and bring twenty soldiers with us with five spell-casters. I will give further orders before we depart.


    <hr>


    Lucius stood on top of the wall and looked at the forest beyond. There was a strange feeling in his gut after the merchants left, and Lucius was growing tenser by the second.


    Suddenly, there was a he heard someone rush up behind him.


    "Lucius!" He heard a wolf-man call his name out.


    By the way, he told the wolf-people to call him by his name and not in any other way. It made the wolf-people comfortable around him and lessenedhis air of superiority.


    "What is it?" Lucius asked.


    "The hunting group came back and told us that there was a group of humans that were attacking a group of Royal Slimes!"


    Again? Is another race being attacked by humans? What...


    "Where were they sighted?!" Lucius hastily climbed down the wall.


    "They were rushing toward this location! None of them seem dead yet, and I think that they will make it here if we wait. Do you want us to fight back?"


    Lucius thought as fast as he could and came up to a conclusion.


    "No. Let them come here and we''ll hit the humans as hard as we can. Are wolf-people capable of creating an ambush?" Lucius asked.


    The person nodded. "Do you want us to set one up?"


    "Yes, but don¡¯t attack unless I really need it. Do not risk your life. I will try to take care of the situation alone, but again, if I need help, attack. But in the meantime, just wait."


    "Yes, Sir!" The wolf-person said and ran off.


    Soon, Lucius heard the gate open and the trotting of the wolf-people running into the forest. When Lucius climbed up the wall, there was none in sight.


    Balos climbed up to him.


    "Are you planning to fight? From here?" He asked while raising his eyebrow.


    "Yeah. I have a question," Lucius asked. "What are Royal Slimes?"


    "Royal Slimes? They are a race of slimes. Normally, slimes are just balls of, well, slime, and they just eat. But Royal Slimes have human-like intelligence and can shape-shift at will."


    "Are they immune to anything?"


    "Yes, they are immune to anything that contains water. If it has even a little water, it will go right through them in any form."


    This is the time I have to use it then. I don''t know if I can shoot the humans without killing the slimes,Lucius said. He brought the gun over his shoulder and changed the magazine to a very special one.


    It had three crystals in it that were more than rare. They were <Hurricane Crystals>, crystals that would, when broken, summon a massive hurricane of wind and water that would whip the air. It was massively destructive, but since slimes were immune to anything that had water, Lucius was sure that they would be fine from a hit.


    Lucius really didn''t want to use the <Hurricane Crystals> since it was super rare, but he found that he needed it if he wanted to save lives.He never used one before, so he was nervous.


    Suddenly, he heard the sound of a waterfall. Confused, Lucius looked around and gasped.


    The Royal Slimes were pouring out of the forest and rushing toward Baylight. Lucius dropped to his knee and took aim at the forest behind them.


    <hr>


    Queen Peluna heard the sound of a waterfall in the distance.


    "No one told me that there was a waterfall near Sorus Bay. What is making that noise?!" Peluna asked. "Move forward quick."


    The horses put on a burst of speed and they arrived in a large clearing where the trees were cut down. The sight in front made the horses stop without an order.


    There was about fifty Royal Slimes rushing toward a town that was encased in walls that were twenty feet high.


    But before she had any time to ask any questions, there was a group of about one hundred men, all armed with various weapons, that came rushing out of the forest and pursued the Royal Slimes.


    Right when Queen Petuna thought the humans were going to overtake the slimes, there was an ear-splitting crack!and suddenly, there was a massive hurricane. But it wasn''t traveling upright like a normal hurricane should''ve¡ªit was directed right at the humans, something even magic couldn''t do.


    There was no magic pulse! That was definitely magic, but why couldn''t I feel it?Queen Petuna thought as she watching it happen.


    She looked at the source of the hurricane. On top of the walls of Baylight was a small figure, that was definitelyhuman, holding a long, oddly shaped metal tubepointed at the humans.


    Queen Petuna faced one of the scouts that came earlier.


    "Was that on his back when you entered the village?" She asked. The scout nodded, still awestruck.


    "I had no idea..." He started, then the use of words seemed to fail him.


    The humans have blown away, spinning like a starfish in the air. Some screamed, but most were knocked out as they flew. The Royal Slimes were completely unaffected.


    In an instant, the battle stopped. There were wolf-people coming out of the forest and started dragging people into the gates of the village, where more wolf-people started to tie up the men.


    "Let''s go meet Lucius," said Queen Petuna.


    <hr>


    (AN: BTW sorry for all of the POV changes. Bear with me)


    Lucius was pleased with himself. The <Hurricane Crystals> didn''t fail him. He only needed one to completely wipe out the humans.


    He was still watching the forest on top of the wall, just in case there were more humans.


    But coming out of the forest was a gold-plated carriage along with people.


    Alarmed, Lucius climbed down and rushed out the gate. The wolf-people were too busy to notice him.


    He stood in the way of the carriage as it rolled to a stop fifteen yards (or about fourteen meters) in front of him.


    Hey... some of those people look familiar...


    With a start, Lucius realized that some of the people around the carriage were the merchants that came.


    "What are you doing here?!" Lucius yelled. Then, someone stepped out of the carriage.


    She was obviously someone of high ranking. Her robes were dirtless and had gold thread woven through it. And since she wore a crown on her head, Lucius guessed that she was a queen of some sort.


    However, Lucius didn''t feel like being respectful at the moment. He was more concerned about why the merchants were with a queen.


    "First off," said the queen. "I have to apologize for some of my actions."


    Lucius paused. Uh... wut...?


    "I am Queen Peluna, queen of Poris Kingdom. The merchants that I sent were not merchants. They were scouts, aiming to find out what you have," the Queen said.


    Well, that was expected. I didn''t think that they were actually merchants in the first place.


    "But they came back, saying that you didn''t have anything special."


    "However," Queen Peluna continued. "They did report something about your metal staff."


    What metal staff? Are they talking about... my gun?


    "We did not know your capabilities until today, where I saw you wipe out the group of people. And even though this may seem very greedy, will you show us how you created this?"


    No way.


    "Of course, there will be compensation..." She said more things, but Lucius ignored her. He waved for Luna and Balos to come over.


    "Take the people to the prison. Don''t talk to them."


    "Aight," Luna said.


    "Now," Lucius rubbed his hands together as he faced Queen Peluna.


    "I will notreveal anything about my "metal wand" of any sort. There is no compensation that could reveal my secrets at all," Lucius said firmly. "And please hurry up. I must make more preparations for a battle later."


    Queen Peluna did not show a reaction for Lucius'' will to not show the gun, but when he mentioned the war, she looked a little surprised.


    "Against whom?"


    "Voxis Kingdom," Lucius said. He stuck his katana in the ground and leaned on it.


    "Then how about this. You don''t have to show us your magic, but do you wish to form an alliance? We are also enemies with Voxis Kingdom, and with your help, we might be able to overthrow them."


    An alliance? That would definitely help, but what if that''s just a fluke to get my things... Well, I''ll have to risk it.


    "Alright. I am willing to make an alliance."


    "Good," Queen Peluna said. She extended her palm and a fire burst alive in her palm. Once it died down, there was a scroll.


    "Sign here with your blood. It will complete the blood contract."


    Nifty,Lucius thought as he pricked his finger with his sword. Then, he dropped a drop of blood on the paper, which burned up again.


    Then Queen Peluna extended her palm.


    "Welcome to Poris Kingdom, Lucius Avalon."

 Chapter 19

    "Please, let us stay here!"


    The leader of the Royal Slimes, Blisos pleaded. He was relatively big, and his form kept changing.


    "I will let you stay here, on a few conditions," Lucius said. Immediately, Blisos perked up.


    "What are your conditions?" He asked.


    Lucius went over to a shelf and brought over an animal skin, which contained all of the rules and laws that Lucius established. He handed it to Blisos, who read it over.


    "And if we abide by these rules, we can stay?" He asked.


    "Yup," Lucius answered.


    "Great! But one problem..."


    "What is it?"


    "Where will we stay?"


    "Well," Lucius started. "That won''t be too hard. Now, answer this: do you have an ill relationship with the wolf-race?"


    Blisos shook his head. "We haven''t interacted much, but most of the time, we just ignored each other."


    Lucius nodded. "Do Royal Slimes have any special traits?"


    Blisos looked surprised. "You haven''t heard?"


    This time is was Lucius'' time to shake his head. "Sorry, but can you explain?"


    "Ah, no problem," Blisos said. "Us Royal Slimes can shapeshift. We can disguise ourselves as our, less intelligentcousins, the normal slimes, and we can become basically fluid. We can get to the bottom of any body of water..."


    He stopped once he saw the look on Lucius'' face.


    "You can get to the bottom of Sorus Bay?" Lucius asked eagerly.


    "Yeah... why?"


    "Well," Lucius started. "Baylight is a relatively new town. We were built to house a tribe of wolf-men, but it ended up becoming a permanent home for them. But we can''t do many interactions with other towns because we don¡¯t have much money."


    "And...?"


    "I''m assuming that at the bottom of the bay, there are very valuable things down there, especially fish. We can use that to improve the town in many other ways. So, will you help us?" Lucius asked.


    "Of course. You''re the town chief, don''t you make the decisions?"


    Lucius smiled. "I do not consider myself as a leader of this town. It is more of the leaders of the races that come here that are the leaders. I am only a human. Balos is the leader of the wolf-people, and heis the one that has full control over the Wolfpack. They will follow me but will go against me if Balos commands it. Youare the leader of the Royal Slimes, and they will follow your word. I have no absolute control over anyone in this village. So, I ask again, will you help..."


    Lucius paused as he saw Blisos. There were tears in his eyes as he listened to Lucius.


    "Uh..."


    "I have never met such a selfless leader like you! I will follow every order you give me! I, Blisos, will reside in Baylight Village and will help you in any way I can!"


    What the hell.


    "Yeah yeah. Anyway, we will take care of housing soon," Lucius said and got up, grabbing his gun and his sword. "Tell the rest of the Royal Slimes."


    Blisos thanked Lucius one last time and headed off to the rest of the Royal Slimes.


    Lucius sighed and walked out.


    Time for more back-breaking work...


    Balos howled. The wolf-people assembled.


    "As you may know," Lucius said. "We have successfully defended against the humans that were attacking the Royal Slimes and they are safe."


    A small cheer went up.


    "However," Lucius said once they quieted down. "They were in the same situation as you guys once you came here. Wounded, hungry, exhausted, and traumatized. So, we must do the same to them as I did to you. We will build houses for them, right now."


    Immediately, the wolf-people broke off and collected wood, mud, sap, and started building. Since they have already learned how to build and were fully recovered, the whole process took only four hours to build the houses.


    They used the area that Lucius cut down earlierto create the houses. Part of the wall was broken down and extended to enclose the addition to the village. Lucius wired in lights, instructed the Royal Slimes how to use them, and created a ton of furniture.


    But while they were busy, Lucius didn''t realize that the Royal Slimes were also busy. They were diving to the bottom of Sorus Bay and bringing things up. There were lots and lots of fish, but there was also a few old coins, crystals, and metals.


    Lucius stretched his arms back and looked down at the village. It was twice the size now, and the walls were reinforced with the help of the Royal Slimes. Even though they used the same mud-sap mixture, the wall was higher, harder, and stronger than before.


    Then, Lucius walked back to his workshop. Now, since he had successfully harnessed electricity, he could create a lot more things.


    First, he needed something that could melt metals and keep them melted. He was started to run out of Fire Crystals since he burned through them like cotton.


    (AN: See that pun there? Clever, eh?)


    So, he thought of an idea and quickly put it to work.


    First, he created a massive length of Brightmetalwire. He braided them and then lined the inside of his metal tub with it.


    It was simple, and when he turned on the generator, it produced enough heat to melt metal and keep it melted. That way, it would be very convenient to use the metal when it came to projects.


    After his simple creation, Lucius went out to his garden.


    Like before, he hasn''t gotten much time to tend to his flowers. He brought his katana and trimmed the dying leaves, giving space to the sprouting ones.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Also, his plants were becoming fully grown. Some had no apparent purpose to Lucius, but some had berries and fruits that Lucius did not dare to eat.


    There were no invasive species to kill of his plants, and even though he was busy, he made sure to keep his plants well watered. The fruits of his work were shown.


    (AN: Another pun. Very clever on my part.)


    Then, Lucius walked out dropped in his bed.


    <hr>


    The next day was the weekend. Lucius groaned as he slammed his fist into his alarm clock, and, unintentionally, smashed it into bits.


    "Ow," Lucius said as he groggily sat up. His hand was red but otherwise unharmed. His alarm clock, however, had a less kind fate.


    I need to go pick up a new one today.


    Rousing himself, Lucius stepped on the cold floor as he made his way to the bathroom. As he walked by his little sister''s room, he panicked for a split second. There was no noise coming from her room.


    Didn''t Mom take Tenia to Florida? For a wedding or something?Lucius remembered.


    Tenia was Lucius'' little sister. She was a small fifth grader that kept her hair in two pigtails, and the glasses on her face made her look like a normal Asian child.


    The reason why they didn''t interact much at all was because they had different family opinions. When Lucius'' mom and dad divorced, Tenia wanted to go with her dad, whereas her dad didn''t want the hassle of kids. Lucius was fine with it¡ªhe didn''t like his dad much anyway. But when it was clear that Tenia didn''t want to go with their mom, Lucius had to practically drag Tenia away from their dad.


    He still cared for her, but they rarely talked.


    Well, I get the whole house to myself this weekend!Lucius said with glee. He stepped into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror.


    Is... that me...?Lucius wondered, amazed at what he saw.


    His once scrawny biceps were now thick and packed with muscle. His body was stripped of all fat and was now extremely lean from all of the hard, dirty work he had to do in the other world.


    Amazed at his transformation, Lucius brushed his teeth and went back to his room.


    His katana rested on his table, untouched. Lucius picked it off his stand and took out the sword out of its sheath.


    His hand wrapped around it like it did in the other world. It was a little lighter, but when Lucius swung it, it whipped through the air very fast.


    Then, he went through his forms. He went into Quick Draw stance and slashed at the air many times.


    I guess my training is applicable here too,Lucius thought. Now I want a rematch with that muscle junky!Lucius remembered the time when he got knocked out when he was defending Ilane.


    Well, no need to rush things. It''ll happen on its own, I hope.


    After exhausting himself, Lucius put on a T-shirt and cooked breakfast.


    He found himself instinctively quickly cutting vegetables without cutting himself, using the perfect amount of seasoning, and identifying the bad parts of meats and vegetables with such speed that it surprised him. Cooking every day with the wolf-people taught him a lot.


    I got all of these skills from Zenos! That''s amazing...


    Lucius handled his knife with such skill that it was comparable to top-level chefs, but Lucius stayed modest. He didn''t go on social media and just gloat, even though he felt like it.


    "Riiiiing! Riiiiiiing!" His phone rang. Lucius swallowed his food and walked over.


    "Hello?" Lucius said.


    "HI LUCIUS!" Came a very, very loud voice from the other end, whom Lucius recognized it was Kron.


    "Jesus. Don''t scream like that. You nearly gave me a heart attack," Lucius said. He heard Kron laugh on the other end.


    "Whatever. Anyway, are you free today?"


    "Yeah... why?"


    "Can we come over?"


    "Who is ''we''?"


    "Me and Ilane."


    "Oh, yeah. I think it''ll be fine if you come. I''ll be the only one home for the weekend anyway," Lucius said.


    "Great! We''ll be there in half-an-hour."


    Oh boy. Time for my house to get destroyed, Lucius thought grimly. He cleaned up the best he could and waited for their arrival.


    Just as Kron predicted, they arrived in thirtyminutes.


    "Ding dong!" Rang Lucius'' doorbell. He got up from his couch and opened the door.


    "Yo," he said as he saw Kron and Ilane.


    "Ah, I haven''t been here in such a long time," Kron said as he looked around. "Nothing has really changed though."


    "I like it. It''s cozy," Ilane said. They took off their shoes while Lucius closed the door behind him.


    "Now, what did you guys come here for?" Lucius asked, looked at the time on the oven. It was 8:00 AM.


    "I don¡¯t know. Just to hang out, I guess," Kron said. He walked into Lucius'' room.


    "Hey, is that a real katana?" Kron asked and rushed over.


    "I''ve always wanted one. Where did you get one?" He asked eagerly.


    "E-Bay," Lucius asked.


    (AN: If there is a problem with using a real companies name, just message me or leave a comment. I''ll take it down quick.)


    "Oh," Kron said, looking a little deflated. "I thought it would be more climatic."


    "What did you expect? Me going to Japan and killing a samurai and taking their katanas?" Lucius snorted.


    "Actually, you aren''t wrong," Kron said and pulled the sword out of its sheath.


    "Careful¡ªit''s sharp," Lucius pointed out.


    (AN: Another one. I''m on a roll)


    "Thank you, Captain Obvious," Kron said. "When I was a little kid, I used to take some kendo."


    "Bet you haven''t handled something this real," Lucius said.


    "True, but I have some experience."


    Not that much though, Lucius thought.


    "Why do you even have this?" Kron asked, raising an eyebrow.


    "I don''t know. My mom ordered it earlier, and it came at six in the morning. It''s just been here for today. I have no idea why my mom wants it though," Lucius lied.


    "Mhmm."


    "Anyway, you guys want food?" Lucius asked.


    "Sure. I haven''t had breakfast yet," Kron said.


    "Same for me too," Ilane said. They walked to the kitchen.


    "So, what have you guys been doing these days?" Lucius asked while frying eggs.


    "Nothing new. My brother is constantly gloating about being the head of the class. It made my mom too proud, and now, she expects me to be head too," Kron snorted.


    "You know you aren''t going to be that," Ilane said.


    "Yeah, well, no need to remind me," Kron said.


    Lucius set the bowls of the fried egg in front of them.


    "When did you learn to cook so well?" Kron through a mouthful of egg. "This is better than my grandmothers, and she cooks eggs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner."


    Lucius shrugged. "My mom has been teaching me. Plus, I have to cook for my sister every day."


    "This is delicious!" Ilane exclaimed. "It is perfectly fluffy, and it doesn''t leave a bad taste in my mouth."


    What are you people? Food critics?


    Lucius poured himself a glass of water from the fridge.


    "Yeah yeah. Whatever. It''s just food. If you aren''t going to eat it, I will."


    This shut up the others for a little bit as they savored his food.


    "So, how long are you guys staying?" Lucius asked.


    "Oh, we just came and you''re trying to kick us out?" Ilane put on a fake pout face.


    "We might stay for five hours or something. That''s what I told my mom, anyway," Kron said, grinning.


    Five hours?!


    After pinching his nose, Lucius said, "You guys are crazy."


    "That''s also what my mom says."


    "I wonder why?"


    They spent the next few hours playing vid games, board games, and watching T.V. non-stop in Lucius'' room. It was a while into their fun until he heard the sound of a dooropen in another room.


    Immediately, Lucius shut off the TV.


    "What are you---" Kron started.


    "Shhhhh!" Lucius interrupted. He pressed his ear to the door, which was shut.


    He didn''t hear anything, but his neck was tingling with anxiety.


    "Did you guys hear anything?" Lucius whispered. They shook their head.


    Lucius returned to the door.


    Maybe I''m overthinking this. Maybe time in Zenos made me a lot more paranoid than I wanted--


    Then he heard voices outside in the living room.


    "Are you sure there''s no one here? I thought I heard something," he heard a gruff voice say.


    "Nah. I saw them leave the house. And I''m sure there''s no one else left here, because, well, why would they?"


    Robbers!Lucius exclaimed in his head.


    He turned around to see Kron silently taking the katana out of its sheath.


    "What are you doing?"Lucius asked.


    "If they come in here, I can beat them. I know what I''m doing!" Kron said, looking determined and scared at the same time.


    Lucius noticed the fear in his eyes. Not many people have been in a life and death situation, and Kron clearly hasn''t been in one like this before.


    "Give me the sword," Lucius said.


    "No! I know what to do!"


    "No, you don''t. Give me the damn sword!" Lucius whisper-screamed. Kron saw something in his eyes that wasn''t there before and he hasn''t seen ever in Lucius: threat.


    Almost scared to the point of fainting, Kron handed the katana to Lucius with a shaky hand. Lucius nodded and grabbed the sheath, returning the sword to it.


    "What are you doing?!"


    "Watch and learn, Mr. Kendo,"Lucius said stood by the door, putting the sheath at his waist. He bent his knees and leaned forward. It was the Quick-Draw stance.


    "Hey look, this room is closed. Let''s go in," a voice said directly outside their door. Lucius didn''t even flinch as he stared at the door, determination in his eyes.

 Chapter 20

    The door opened just a crack, and the room burst into hell.


    Lucius raised his foot and smashed it into the door, bursting it open and sending the person that was standing behind it flying into the wall, cracking it and knocking him unconscious.


    The other robber recovered and ran at Lucius with an ax, but Lucius could tell the wood was old. Pieces were chipping off just from the movement of someone running.


    Lucius jumped into action. He sidestepped the ax that came at him and slammed the hilt of the katana into the man''s stomach, but it didn''t do as much damage as Lucius'' wanted.


    The robber raised the ax again, but Lucius acted first. In a blink of an eye, he yanked the katana out of his sheath and brought it on the ax''s handle, which broke in two. Swiftly, the sword went right back into the sword.


    Then, Lucius repeatedly slammed his fist and the hilt of his sword into the man''s stomach, and he couldn''t endure the relentless pounding. Soon, his eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed on the floor.


    Taking ragged breaths, Lucius straightened up and looked around.


    "I think the threat is gone now," he called out.


    Kron and Ilane peeked around the door and came out, cautiously looking at the unconscious bodies.


    "That''s amazing!" Kron burst. "How on earth did you do that?"


    Lucius shrugged and didn''t respond. He walked over to the phone and dialed "911."


    "Yes, I would like to report a robbery," he said.


    After finishing the call, he got a rope out of the closet and tied up the robbers.


    "So that''s why you always seemed busy!" Kron exclaimed. "You were learning how to do Kendo! And that explains why you are getting pretty buff."


    "It''s not Kendo, and I''ve been doing other things than just using the sword."


    "Pish posh, you can''t convince me. I now know your secret!"


    Now what are you, a detective?


    "Whatever."


    Soon, the police arrived and knocked on the door. Lucius opened it and faced three policemen.


    "There has been a break in here?" One of them asked.


    "Yes, sir," Lucius said. They stepped in and observed the tied up robbers.


    "Did you do this, kid?"


    "Yes, sir."


    "And these people are the ones that broke into your house?"


    "Yes, sir."


    "And why didn''t you call us the instant you heard them enter your house instead of trying to handle the situation yourself?"


    "My friends and I were trapped in the room, and there wasn''t an accessible phone nearby," Lucius said and pointed to an object fell next to the unconsciousrobber. It was Lucius'' phone.


    "My parents don¡¯t want me to have a phone, so... yeah. I don''t have one," Kron said. His hands dug around in his pockets and came up empty.


    "My phone is out of battery. I brought my charger to my friend''s house to charge it," Ilane said. She pulled out charger and a phone, and when she held the power button on the phone, it didn''t turn on.


    Wow, okay. That worked, I guess, Lucius thought. What a coincidence.


    "Alright," the officer said and scribbled more things on a clipboard.


    The other officers walked over to the burglars and started to put them in handcuffs. They practically dragged them out the door and threw them into the back seat of the police car.


    "Now, what did you use to knock the burglars unconscious? It looked to be blunt," the officer asked again.


    Lucius showed him the katana. "I only took it out of its sheath to break the ax one of the robbers had. Other than that, I just hit them with the hilt of it."


    The other officers came back in. One of them looked impressed.


    "You beat two armed robbers with a toy sword? Impressive," he said.


    "It is not a toy sword," Lucius calmly said, but at that, he got a little annoyed.


    "Oh? Is it a genuine katana?" He said.


    "Yes, sir."


    He handed it back to Lucius. "Here, kid. Now, remember¡ªdon''t go out and wave that sharp thing around. In here, it is fine, but you will get arrested in public. Understand me?"


    "Yes, sir."


    "Now, how did the burglars get in? Did you leave the door unlocked?"


    "No sir. I remember locking it after these two came in," Lucius gesturned to Kron and Ilane.


    The officer looked to one of the other police officers. "Check the door for a sign of a pick or a break."


    He walked over and inspected the lock.


    "There is a sign of a lock picker, sir."


    "Alright." The officer wrote some more things down.


    "We''re done here. Let''s go back. Kid, stay out of trouble."


    "Yes, sir."


    The officers filed out and the police car drove off, kicking up dust.


    "I''ll call that a win, I guess," Kron said.


    "I''m not so sure," Lucius said, looking at the hole in the wall and the broken ax. "My mom is going to freak out."


    "We''ll try to explain to her. She''ll understand, I guess," Ilane said.


    "Maybe..." Lucius grabbed a broom and swept up the remains of the ax into the garbage. "I think it''s best if we leave for today. The less time we stay here, the better. I reckon more police are going to come, so if we are out of their way, we should get out."


    "Good idea. Let''s go to the market place," Kron said.


    They left the house, making sure to firmly lock the door and shut the blinds on the windows, and jumped on a bus. They arrived at the Market Square, a massive outdoor mall that contained over a hundred stores.


    "Ah, it has been a while since I''ve been here," Lucius said while looking around. "It''s grown so much!"


    "Yeah. Let''s go get something to eat!" Kron said.


    "Didn''t you guys just eat?"


    "That was hours ago, Lucius. I have lava for stomach acid. You should know that," Kron grinned while opening a door to a noodle place. When the smell hit them, their stomachs rumbled.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    "Hypocrite," Kron said and sat down. "You have your debit card, right Lucius?"


    "Yeah," Lucius patted his wallet. "I''m pretty sure I have it, but you better not go overload. I don¡¯t have an infinite supply of money, hope you know that."


    "Nah. You''re treating us since you scared the shit out of me today."


    "...fine," Lucius sighed.


    "Great!" Kron said. He raised his hand, and a waiter came by.


    "Gimme a #2, a #7, #9, #18, and a large mango bubble tea," Kron said cheerily.


    "I''ll just have the noodles of the house today, please," Ilane said.


    "I''ll have a large strawberry fruit tea with tapioca pearls," Lucius sighed.


    "Alright, will that be all?" The waiter asked.


    "Can I also get a--" Kron started, but Lucius cut him off.


    "No, that will be fine," Lucius politely said. The waiter marched off.


    "Fatass," Lucius told Kron.


    Kron just grinned.


    Soon, the food came and the fragrance of five different dishes wafted into the air. Lucius, however, was content with his fruit tea.


    Hmm... this strawberry is pretty good. It would bring in a lot of money if I grew... Lucius didn''t need to finish the thought. I doubt that strawberries exist in Zenos, but how am I going to get strawberries there?


    Then he remembered the backpack.


    I still need to test out to see if I can transport seeds. If I could, I bet that it will be a good product to sell, Lucius thought.


    "Before we leave, we need to stop by a garden shop. I need to buy some seeds," Lucius said.


    "What for?" Kron asked.


    Lucius facepalmed. "Yeah, I''m going to buy seeds to eat right out of the bag."


    "Really?"


    "No! Use your brain, Kron."


    "Oh," Kron nodded. "Going to plant a garden."


    Ilane and Lucius gave him a mini applause. "Congratulations, Kron."


    "Whatever."


    Kron wolfed down his entire meal, only stopping to get a drink of water to clear his throat. Ilane ate much slower and humane. Both Ilane and Lucius often stopped to eye Kron, but he was too busy to realize.


    After what seemed like forever, Kron finished and leaned back.


    "Whew. That was excellent," he finally said while patting his stomach, which had noticeably grown.


    "Finally," Lucius said. He got up and quickly paid, ordering another fruit tea while he was at it.


    Sipping his tea, the trio left the restaurant and headed to a plant nursery.


    Lucius breathed in the smell of freshly turned dirt, and he felt refreshed. He headed to the seed department and picked out many different types of seeds. Not just strawberries; Lucius picked out blueberries, raspberries blackberries, elderberries, and watermelon. He paid and stuffed his pockets with the packets of seeds.


    Kron checked the time on the big clocks in the center of the square. It read 2:00 PM.


    "I think I need to go. Any longer and my mom is going to blow up on me," he said.


    "Same. I have violin lessons soon," Ilane said.


    "Are you going on the same bus?" Lucius asked.


    "Nope. My house is nearby. It''s like athirty-minute walk from here," Kron said.


    "I''m going on a different bus," Ilane said.


    "Well, I guess, see ya!" Lucius said and walked off.


    A little pleased with the silence, Lucius hopped onto the bus and got home.


    He stepped through the door and felt good. Nothing changed since he left.


    Lucius found his backpack and dropped in the seed packets. Then, he forced himself to wake up in the other world.


    <hr>


    He grabbed the seed packets from his backpack. Instead of the normal packaging, the packs were stripped of the outer coating of the packs. Now, they were just paper pouches with seeds inside.


    Then, Lucius went outside to find a suitable location to grow his plants. He didn''t want anyone to steal them, so he wanted somewhere obscure.


    The problem was, there was nowhere obscure enough to hide his plants. The forest was risky because people could stumble upon them on accident, or the beasts lurking in the forest could eat his plants.


    So if he couldn''t do it on the ground, he thought of two options: somewhere high, like another floor to his house, or underground.


    Then he eliminated one. Somewhere up high was just the same as putting it on the ground, but it would be harder to get. But Lucius wanted somewhere where it couldn''t be seen at all. So Lucius felt like he needed to do it underground.


    Then, of course, there was another problem. Plants need oxygen, water, sunlight, and nutrients and minerals.


    He could remove minerals from the list, no problem. The dirt was sure to provide enough or more of what a plant needs. Oxygen was easy too. He just needed to make sure that the place underground had some sort of airflow.


    The last things on his list were water and sunlight. He didn''t want to water a bunch of plants every day, as that would be a waste of time. Sunlight would be the hardest since it was underground. Artificial lights would work, but it wouldn''t yield the same results. Lucius didn''t have the technology to create the perfect light that would work for plants*.


    *(AN: For more info, look here:http://earthsky.org/human-world/artificial-light-plant-growth</a>)


    So, Lucius took the next few hours thinking of solutions.


    He could run a water-flow down and automatically water the plants from Sorus Bay. The problem with that was that he couldn''t effectively control the water-flow. If he just dug a hole in the ground that leads to Sorus Bay, the rushing water would erode the sides and eventually drown the plants.


    Pipes were another option for Lucius, but again, he needed to be extra careful. Even though the pipe was more controlled, it was still unreliable.


    Then Lucius remembered that it was not the real world; there were way more things to work with that would potentially help him.


    Too bad there''s no such thing as a Water Crystal. If it did exist, it would solve this problem easily,Lucius thought.


    A tiny dam popped into Lucius'' mind. It seemed like a good idea¡ªdams controlled water effectively and he could control the output of water.


    Normally, making a mini dam wouldn''t be a good idea in the real world, but then again, this wasn''t the real world. He had more access to things he wouldn''t have access to on Earth.


    So Lucius went in his workshop and drew up a plan.


    It would be quite small. Two by two feet would suffice; Lucius didn''t have the skill to create many things that were bigger than that, and it would be a waste. A dam that big would be able to water the garden, and if Lucius made more than one, he could create a much larger underground garden.


    Then, Lucius ran into another problem.


    He had a bunch of metal that he could use, but he didn''t know how he was going to go around making the dam. Making the light bulb was easy, but this was a whole new problem.


    First, Lucius created a veryrough wood carving of what he wanted. This took a while, but he managed to do it.


    It was essentially a block of wood with a hollow inside with a mesh netonone side and a raisable gate on the other. Water would flow into the wood and anything big would get filtered out from the mesh. It would flow into the hollow block of wood and encounter the next side.


    It used the same concept Lucius used for the gate: the wood would slide down and when it the rope was drawn up, it would pull the gate up and block the water flow. He could anchor the rope and it should hold, blocking the water flow.


    Lucius coulduse wood, but it would wear down and break over time. Metal was the best option, and now that Lucius created a wood model, he could use that to create the metal product.


    He did the same thing that he did for the light bulb. He packed a ton of sand inside and outside the wood dam and poured the liquid metal on the pile.


    Fire burst up as the liquid metal vaporized the metal and took its place. The wet sand did its job perfectly as it stayed in the shape of the wood and didn''t move at all.


    Lucius waited for at least half an hour to let the metal harden, then he plunged the entire thing in Sorus Bay to speed up the cooling. The sand dropped off and the only thing left was a dam structure.


    Pleased, Lucius added the mesh net that he got from the Royal Slimes and created some rope.


    He finished the rest of the structure in another hour.


    Then, Lucius had one more thing on his list: the digging.


    Oh god,Lucius groaned from just thinking about the digging. This is going to kill my back three times over.


    Then, again, he remembered that it was a fantasy world where he had a lot more access to more things.


    He fetched Luna and went inside the enclosed garden.


    "Can you dig a big room underneath this?" Lucius asked.


    "Sure. It won''t take that long," Luna replied.


    With every swipe of her arms, a massive portion of the dirt was gouged out. When the dirt started to accumulate, Lucius had to get down and bring the dirt out.


    Just like what Luna predicted, it only took thirty minutes to finish. Lucius spent the next thirty minutes using the sap-mud mixture to cover up the sides to prevent it from caving in.


    Then, there was the sunlight. Lucius couldn''t think of any way to get light to travel down, so he figured he would take the hit. He would use the artificial lights to grow the plants and hope for the best.


    Lucius then brought his metal dam out and stuck it in the wall that faced Sorus Bay, using the sap-mud mixture to stick it in. He also brought wood in and overlapped the dam and stuck them in the ground, keeping them firmly in.


    Then came another hard part: digging into Sorus Bay. But Lucius thought of an idea that helped.


    He got a Mana Crystal and let it absorb a Wind Crystal. Then, he attached it to the wood so it could spin, then stuck his last AE Crystal to the wood.


    When he spun the Mana Crystal, it would release the wind. Then, it would be absorbed by the AE Crystal and jetted out of the other end. He used this to basically create a wind drill.


    Then, for the last time, he ran into a problem.


    (AN: I''m really getting sick of typing, "he ran into a problem." Ugh.)


    He had no way to dig. On one end, there was Sorus Bay. And the other end had the dam that Lucius just stuck on, and it would be more than a pain to take it off.


    Another problem! Oh my god. How many of these am I going to do today?! Lucius wanted to scream out.


    So Lucius had to remove the dam from the wall and dig toward Sorus Bay. The drill worked better than what Lucius'' expected, but it still took a while. And then, while Lucius dug the last inch of dirt, water started to come through. Lucius had to crawl back his fastest to get back before the water broke through.


    Then, Lucius had to quickly reattach the dam on, but he managed to do it. He raised the gate up a bit, so the water slowly trickled through and leaked onto the floor.


    Finally,Lucius thought. Now, for the fun part.


    He got the seeds and planted the strawberries. He wanted to test first.


    And after he finished, he instantly went back to sleep.

 Chapter 21

    Lucius started to create a new weapon.


    The concept of a gun seemed reasonable to him. His first gun was fine, but it was too slow and bulky. The structure itself weighed almost five pounds, and it was huge. When he went to Trupe City, almost everyone noticed the gun on his back.


    Something smaller came to mind. A handgun. After pondering the idea a little but,Lucius went to work and created one.


    First, Lucius gathered up his supplies. Liquid Brightmetal for the structure, Rebound Powder for the explosion, a Spiral Bevel Gear, and crystals.


    Then he realized he didn''t have an AE Crystal. He used it for the wind drill, but he didn''t need the drill anymore. He yanked the AE Crystal off it and put it to work.


    He let a Mana Crystal absorb a Thunder Crystal. Then, he carved a small wood block out and cast metal on it, creating a metal block. He stuck the Mana Crystal and the AE Crystal on it, then attached the Spiral Bevel Gear.


    Lucius packed in Rebound Powder right next to AE Crystal and slowly spun the Mana Crystal. It ignited the powder and, satisfied, Lucius set that aside.


    Then, he carved out the shape of a wooden handgun. It was, like the other creations, it was crude and misshapen, so Lucius spent the next ten minutes smoothing it down and slowly, it took the shape of the gun he had in mind.


    Then, he packed sand inside it and around it and cast the metal. The wood was quickly replaced by the Brightmetal and Lucius dunked the gun in the water. The sand disappeared and when Lucius took the gun out of the water, it gleamed in the light.


    Lucius then slid the metal block into the gun and it finished. Lucius created a small trigger, just a button that would spin the gear which would shoot the gun.


    Then came the hard part. Lucius wanted to use crystals as bullets, but it was far too large for the chamber. So he had to create actual bullets, ones that were designed to penetrate armor and flesh.


    So Lucius created small, round, metal bullets. It was from Brightmetal, the hardest metal that Lucius had. He created metal pellets and stuck it into a chamber. He would''ve done the same thing for his gun, where he utilized gravity to let the bullets drop into the chamber, but this time, he wanted it to be as practical as a real gun.


    So this time, Lucius created a new function. He cast a thin wire of Brightmetal and created a spring, then put it at the bottom of the magazine. The spring was tight and constantly pushed the bullets up, so when Lucius would fire the gun, it would automatically push another bullet in the chamber.


    After Lucius finished making the magazine, he had to think of one more mechanism.


    The trigger on the gun wasn''t like triggers on earth. It would get pushed in and stay pushing in. On his sniper, Lucius added a little dowel to the trigger so he could manually pull the trigger out. But that gun was meant for damage, not speed. The handgun that Lucius wanted was for speed. So having to manually pull the trigger out each time he fired wasn''t a good option.


    Lucius thought about using a spring, but it would interfere with the gear inside. No matter where he put it, as long as it was near the trigger, it would tangle with the gear and snap the spring.


    So Lucius had to create something where the trigger could pop out automatically, or at least if he had to do it manually, it would be quick.


    There was something that Lucius thought of: the safety. Not that he would actually make one, but it would suit his hand if he modified it to become a reload thing.


    Lucius created something like a thumb safety and attached it to the back of the gun. There was a rope attaching it to the gear, so when it was pushed down and back by Lucius'' thumb, it would reset the gear and push the trigger out.


    Even though it wasn''t fast, it sure was a lot better than having to pull the trigger out every time. Instead of taking almost three seconds to pull the trigger out, using the thumb system took only about half a second.


    After he finished it, Lucius went out and tried it out.


    He took aim at a tree and pulled the trigger. There was the sound of gunshots, then the tree trunk exploded into a fountain of splinters.


    It worked! Lucius grinned. Ah, this is the fruits of five hours of work.


    Then, Lucius tried out the thumb mechanism. He fired once, pushed down the thumb hammer, and fired again. It was in rapid succession and there was hardly any downtime.


    Perfect. Now all I need is another, Lucius thought.


    He had no more salvageable AE Crystals. Also, his cache of Rebound powder wasn''t enough for another. His tub Brightmetal diminished into basically nothing; the only thing that Lucius could make was a spring.


    I think I need to get some more, Lucius thought. The Brightmetal is super valuable for basically everything, and the AE Crystals are also needed.


    Marching out of his workshop, Lucius went up to Balos and Luna. "I might need to go back to Trupe City."


    "Magnets?" Luna asked.


    "No. I need Rebound Powder, Brightmetal, and crystals."


    "Alright. Make sure you don¡¯t kill yourself," Luna asked. She seemed a little skeptical about Lucius leaving Baylight alone ever since Lucius had the encounter with the people that attacked him.


    "It''s fine. I have a new and better weapon," Lucius said and showed Luna the gun. She still didn''t look convinced.


    "Well, I''m going now. Bye!" Lucius said and waved off. He got money from his room and headed into the forest.


    After the alliance with Poris Kingdom, Baylight was given a loan of ten thousand Orbs. Lucius was sure that the fruits he planted were going to quickly pay them.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    <hr>


    Ah, I''m here, Lucius thought.


    Wearily, Lucius stumbled up and approached the guards.


    "You again?" One of them asked.


    "Yup. It''s me," Lucius said.


    "Trading?"


    "Yup."


    "Weapons?"


    "Obviously."


    "Alright. Same deal as last time. Don''t make trouble, or we will have to, remove you from Trupe City. Okay?"


    "Yes, sir."


    The gate silently slid open and Lucius stepped inside. Once again, he headed to the Market Square.


    It was busy as always, with people bustling around and purchasing things from the many stores. Lucius went over to one that had a massive sign that read, "CRACKLIN'' CRYSTALS!"


    God, what an awful name, Lucius thought as he stepped inside.


    The walls were lined with crystals of every size and had so many different effects. It was impossible for Lucius to count the different crystals.


    Lucius walked up to the counter.


    "Hello there, young man. What can I do for you today?" The store clerk asked with a strange accent.


    "Do you sell AE Crystals here?"


    "Of course. This is a crystal store, my friend," he said.


    "Where are they located?"


    "Over in the corner. Not many people come in and buy AE Crystals, even though they have a good use. Most people don''t find a use for them though."


    "Ah. Thanks," Lucius said and walked to the corner. The dust around and on the crystals made it clear that nobody grabbed the crystals in a while.


    Lucius picked about twenty AE Crystals and dropped it into bags. He figured that would suffice for whatever he planned to build in the next month or so.


    Then, he browsed the rest of the crystals. There were many crystals that Lucius wouldn''t even dreamof. There were <Hurricane Crystals> (that were expensive), Fire Crystals, Thunder Crystals, and interestingly enough, <<Antimatter Crystals>>.


    Lucius took one up to the counter. "What do these do?"


    The clerk looked at the crystal. "It has a... violent effect. I''m not sure why we sell it though."


    "But what does it do?"


    "Well..."


    "Going to answer?"


    The clerk sighed. "I suppose. When it comes in contact with solid matter, it completely deconstructs it. It is the most dangerous crystal in the world, but no one can utilize it. You can''t put it on a sword because the sword would dissolve in explosions. Wands are the same. And there doesn''t seem to be a use for it."


    "If it dissolves every piece of solid matter it touches, then how is it harvested?"


    "It''s created in the Void."


    "What''s that?"


    The clerk looked a little surprised. "You don''t know?"


    Lucius shook his head. "Sorry. I don''t really know much about this world."


    "Ah. If that''s the case, I will explain," the clerk started. "The Void is a place that no one really understands. It''s underground, almost one hundred miles (160.93 kilometers) under where we are now. Instead of the normal crystals that get produced when magic is used, it is created everytime a life form dies. It could be anything¡ªanimals, people, bugs, literally anything. The Void isn''t created like the Surface. The <<Antimatter Crystals>> can''t dissolve the surface down there for some reason. The entire Void is lined with the crystals, which makes it practically impossible to venture down there."


    "Oh." Lucius said. "Do you know what else is down there?"


    "There have been some reports from adventures of seeing glowing red eyes in the darkness, but none of it has been confirmed," the clerk said.


    Spooky. That''s also pretty clich¨¦, but oh well.


    Lucius carefully returned the case back to where it was and backed away.


    Then he paid. "Thanks. Do you know where I can get Brightmetal?"


    "Yeah. It is in ''SMITHING AND METALS'' over there," the clerk pointed out the window.


    "Thanks," Lucius said and exited the store.


    He then entered "SMITHING AND METALS" and expected to get roasted. But the interior of the store was about room temperature, nothing like the smithy in Baylight.


    There didn''t seem to be anyone in the store at the moment, and the front desk seemed empty. Lucius quietly walked around and looked at the metals, looking for Brightmetal.


    He found some and bagged three 1x1 feet slabs of it, then dropped it on the counter.


    Then he patiently waited for someone to come.


    After waiting for about five minutes, someone came through the door.


    "Sorry!" She squeaked and rushed behind the counter.


    "It''s fine," Lucius said.


    "Ah, thanks," she said and started to tally things up. "There were sightings of a Grade B rank beast near the outskirts. I went out and talked to some adventurers. People are beginning to band together to take it down, but like I said, it is a Grade B beast. They''re going to have a hard time taking it down."


    Monsters were divided into ranks. Grade A monsters were top beasts that were virtually unkillable alone, while Grade E monsters were the weakest. There was only one person that could handle a Grade A monster alone in the whole world. The Eloon was only Grade D.


    "Do you think it''ll damage the city?" Lucius asked while he handed money to the clerk.


    "Nah. I''m sure that the others will take care of it. Trupe City has plenty of strong people."


    Hm... should I go? Lucius pondered. I reckon that there''ll be a lot of good loot if I go, plus I''m itching to try my new gun...


    "Do you know where the beast is?"


    She nodded. "Yeah. It is east of here. I bet that there''ll be a stream of adventurers going that way, so just follow them. Are you thinking of fighting it?"


    "Yup."


    "Well, don''t die."


    Lucius grabbed his bag, then set it down. "Can you hold this for me?"


    "Sure," she said and took the bag. Lucius also handed her the AE Crystals, which she put in the backroom.


    "I''ll be back for them!" Lucius said and left the store.


    Now, time to find the beast, Lucius said. He walked to the east gate.


    "Are you going to fight the beast?" One of the guards asked.


    "Yes, sir."


    "Hm... a little young, but if you insist on going, go that way," the other guard said and pointed Lucius in the direction. There were a few people heading that way.


    "Okay. Thank you!" Lucius said and jogged down.


    I hope Voxis Kingdom doesn''t attack soon. I''m sure that Luna and Balos can take care of it though, plus we have Poris Kingdom too.


    A little worried, Lucius pushed the thought to the side and continued to run.


    "Oh, it''s a katana user! That''s pretty rare!" Lucius heard. He turned around to face the person who spoke.


    It was a group of three people. They were much older than Lucius. One of them had a claymore on his back, another had a bow, and the other had a staff.


    The man with the claymore was stocky with not much fat. His arms were massive and it seemed like the massive sword on his back wasn''t even there. Metal armor plated his body, which should''ve slowed him down at least a bit, but he moved fluidly and had no trouble keeping up with the rest of the group. Black hair ran downhis head and stopped at his eyebrows. He seemed about in his late twenties.


    The archer was young. He just seemed a bit older than Lucius. His upper body was visibly stronger than his lower half. His hair was a light brown and spiked up.


    The mage was the smallest of them all. She didn''t seem strong, but there was a vibe around hermade you believe that she was intelligent. Her hair was a dark blue and ran down straight down to her shoulders.


    "He''s so young too!" The one with the staff said.


    "Hey kid, are you good in combat?" The person with the sword said.


    "Well, I''m decent," Lucius said, which made him slightly aware of the gun in his pocket, concealed but in an easy spot to quickly take it out.


    "Want to party with us?" The archer asked.


    Why not. It''s not like it''s a blood contract or anything.


    "Sure," Lucius said.


    "Great!" The mage exclaimed.


    "I''m Tres," the man with the claymore said. "This is Rai and Olive," Tres said. They all shook hands.


    "I''m Lucius."


    "Nice to meet you," Rai said. "Where are you from?"


    "Um... sorry, I can''t tell you," Lucius said. They seemed to want to know, but they didn''t press it.


    "We''re local to Trupe City," Tres said.


    "That''s nice."


    There was an awkward silence as the group walked in silence.


    Then, there was a savage roar in the distance.


    The group looked at each other.


    "Let''s go," Lucius said.

 Chapter 22

    Another roar shook the forest. Leaves dropped off trees as Lucius, Tres, Olive, and Rai ran toward the beast.


    They weren''t near it but they could already see it. Massive, black scales broke through the tops of the trees that glinted in the light.


    The sound of swords hitting against metal was heard, which confused Lucius.


    Are the scales of that thing metal?


    Then, they broke into a clearing.


    There was madness all around them. The beast was massive; it looked like something straight out of Godzilla. It was over thirty feet tall and ten feet wide. There were black scales lining the beast¡ªeach scale was almost the size of Lucius'' palm. They seemed indestructible; swords weren''t denting it, arrows harmlessly bounced off, and, interestingly enough, the scales seemed to absorb the spells that were directed toward it. Most of the mages gave up and were more focused on healing than attacking.


    Lucius drew his katana and pressed a button. The sword began to glow blue and red.


    "Let''s go," he said and plunged into the battle.


    He ran at full speed toward the beast, not stopped for other people. The beast slowly grew in Lucius'' vision.


    Then, when he was close enough, he jabbed his sword into the hide of the monster. It seemed to be the only weapon in the area that even dented the scales, but it wasn''t enough to fully break through the scale. Even with the help of the heated edge, the scales didn''t budge.


    Lucius rapidly slashed at the area that he dented, slowly making the dent wider and deeper.


    At that time, the beast started to realize that there was someone that was actually doing damage to its scales. With another savage roar, it raised its leg and blew Lucius back.


    Before he hit the ground, there his body was bathed in a green light that soothed the pain and healed his wound. Swiftly recovering back to his feet, Lucius looked around. Olive was holding out her staff, healing everyone in the area.


    Nodding to her, Lucius jumped into battle once again.


    This time, he pressed the other button on his sword. The top popped off and Lucius'' swung it at the beast. The chain flew up and hit the beast with so much speed and force that Lucius could see that the scale was cracked.


    The beast turned again and attempted to hit Lucius again, but he jumped out of the way.


    Out of the corner of his eye, Lucius could see how the others were doing. Tres was hammering away at the leg of the beast with his massive claymore, but he didn''t seem to be doing anything. Rai was shooting arrows as fast as he could, trying to hit the eye, but the eyes were too high up for arrows.


    Lucius used the chain technique and attempted to hit the same scale he cracked, but the beast shifted and it hit a harder scale.


    "We can''t break through the scales!" Lucius heard someone say.


    "It is hopeless!"


    "But someone made a crack in one of the scales! Focus your attacks on that scale!"


    With another renewed cry, the adventurers surged forward and lashed out at the scale that Lucius created. But even the cracked scale was enough to hold back everyone.


    "I got it! I got it! I got--"


    A massive, piercing screech filled the air, but it was not from an injury. The beast opened its massive mouth up and there was the sound of thunder. The open mouth of the beast started to glow, and there was a massive bang! as something flew out of the mouth.


    Everyone in the area was blasted back. Lucius slammed his back on a rock, but he was still able to get up.


    The rest weren''t so lucky. Most people were knocked out or screaming in pain. Tres, Olive, and Rai were knocked out in a heap.


    The only person left that could fight was Lucius. He wasn''t close enough to the beast when it attacked, so he wasn''t as injured.


    The beast roared again as its massive eye stared directly at Lucius.


    "It''s just me and you," Lucius said. His hand crept toward his gun in his pocket.


    If my gun can''t penetrate its armor, then it''s over for me. Either I escape, or I die, Lucius grimly thought. But I can''t just let the rest of these people die, especially if I have a chance now.


    His hand went into his pocket and closed around the gun. He slid the katana into the sheath and looked at the monster.


    "Come," he said. Adrenaline filled his body, numbing all the injuries that Lucius had and gave him newfound strength.


    The beast roared and raised its leg, but Lucius acted first. He yanked the gun out of his pocket and...


    Bang! Bang! Bang! The gun rang out as Lucius fired three shots in succession. One of the scales blew apart as the bullets collided, but it only seemed to annoy the beast. It shifted, obscuring the broken scale.


    Lucius kept firing the gun, and soon, the smell of blood invaded the air. The beast screeched as the bullets broke the scales and ripped the skin apart.


    Come on... just die! Lucius thought.


    Soon, the weakened beast fell over. Blood oozed out of its body, giving Lucius the urge to vomit.


    Lucius aimed his last shot at the middle of the beast. He pressed the trigger.


    Bang!


    And it was over.


    Lucius dropped onto the grass and stared up at the sky. An eerie quiet settled over the clearing.


    Eventually, Lucius got up and looked at the beast. The blood stopped coming out of it, but the grass was stained extremely red.


    Now, how am I going to get this back? Lucius wondered. The scales are amazing, but I just can''t chop them off and drag them back.


    Suddenly, there were two massive explosions behind him. Lucius turned around and raised his gun.


    "Who''s there?!" He yelled.


    Two figures appeared.


    It was Luna and Balos.


    "What are you guys doing here?" Lucius asked, lowering his gun.


    "We heard the beast all the way from Baylight," Luna explained.


    "Uh... how far are we from that?"


    "Not far. About ten miles or so," Balos said.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Ten miles!


    "So... is it dead?" Luna asked as she approached the beast.


    "I''m pretty sure. Can you guys bring it back? It''s way too heavy for me," Lucius asked.


    Luna heaved up the entire thing alone with her hands.


    "Sure. It''s not that heavy anyway," she said.


    "Are you coming with us?" Balos asked.


    "Not yet," Lucius said. "I need to get some things from a shop."


    "Alright. Here, take this," Balos said and handed Lucius a blue gem. "It¡¯s a Transportation Gem. It''ll send you to Baylight directly. Just break it at your feet."


    "Alright. Is this what the Queen of Poris Kingdom uses to get to Baylight?"


    Balos nodded. "Yes. That''s how she was able to get to us so fast."


    "Balos!" Luna said. She was floating up in the air, holding the beast up. "You comin'' or nah?"


    "Stay safe," Balos said and with one leap, he got up in the air and seemed to find footholds in the thin air.


    Lucius waved as they left, then he looked at the adventurers. They were all still unconscious.


    I need to get someone to get them back to Trupe City, Lucius thought. He stretched his arms and jogged back to Trupe City.


    "How did it go?" The guard asked Lucius.


    "Badly," Lucius shook his head. "The beast is dead, but it managed to knock out all of the adventurers before it died. You should send for someone to get them back."


    "Well said. I''ll do that soon," the guard said. The gate opened up and Lucius went into "SMITHING AND METALS."


    "You''re back!" A voice sounded out.


    "Yup, I am," Lucius said. The store clerk brought out the items Lucius asked her to keep.


    "Did you manage to bring it down?" She asked.


    "Yeah, but it wasn''t fun or easy. It managed to knock out everyone but me before it died."


    "That¡¯s rough."


    "Mhmm. Well, I need to go. See ya!" Lucius said and left the store.


    I need to leave before they discover that the entire beast is gone, Lucius thought. He quickly made his way out of the gates, and as soon as he was out of sight, he threw the Transportation Gem at his feet.


    His body was engulfed in a blue light, and Lucius couldn''t breathe or move at all. His body felt like he was about to pop, but then, his vision cleared up.


    He was standing back in the middle of Baylight. In front of him lay the Grade B beast; there were a lot of Royal Slimes and wolf-men alike crowding around the beast, gawking at it.


    "Stand aside," Lucius heard the thunderous voice of Balos. Reluctantly, the group parted.


    Lucius walked up to the beast alongside Balos and Luna.


    "The scales are extremely hard and won''t break," Lucius said. "Since there is going to be an attack soon, I was thinking about lining the walls with them to double-up on strength."


    "That¡¯s a good idea," Balos said. "This beast has so many scales that lining the walls wouldn''t take even half of what we have to work with."


    "Well, I''m leaving that to you guys right now. I need to do more building in my workshop," Lucius said and walked to his workshop.


    He dropped the Brightmetal in the metal tub and cranked the generator on. He also threw in a Fire Crystal to speed up the melting process.


    Once the Brightmetal was melted, Lucius finished his second gun. He created a ton more bullets and loaded it up in magazines, then created holsters for the two guns. He kept the magazines on his belt.


    Now, the only complication for my sniper and the handguns is that they don¡¯t have scopes. I have to eyeball the shooting most of the time. That¡¯s fine for the small guns, but the snipers are supposed to be accurate, Lucius thought.


    Back in the real world, he hopped on his computer and looked at "DIY magnifying glass."


    Most of the searches required water; actually, Lucius couldn''t find a magnifying glass that didn''t use water.


    Even though he had water, it was super impracticable. It didn''t magnify as much as Lucius wanted, and it was uneven and tended to move.


    So water was out of the question. But after a little more research, Lucius found that he could use the concept of water.


    Water magnifies objects because the shape of a transparent dome actually bends light rays. It pulls it closer to your eye and therefore creates the magnified image.


    Lucius had clear things: glass. He figured that he could use glass and magnify things the same way water did.


    (AN: I''m not sure about the science about this part. Feel free to correct me.)


    So he created a small dome out of wood about two times the size as a contact lens. Then, he gathered sand and melted it.


    He cast the molten glass and created a glass dome. When he looked through it, it made things a little larger.


    But it wasn''t enough. Again, with the power of the internet, he found that stacking magnifying glasses can increase the magnification. So Lucius created three more domes of glass and stacked them.


    The result was a working magnifying glass. Lucius could see things that were almost one hundred feet away. Lucius used sap to attach it to the top of his sniper.


    Even though it wouldn''t provide the accuracy and precision a real scope would have, it was a lot better than trying to eyeball something. Lucius put it on the sniper.


    After putting his creation aside, Lucius stepped back out.


    The Grade B monster changed. Scales have been carefully removed off, revealing the dark skin underneath. The black scales have been stacked up in ten piles; all of the piles were taller than Lucius.


    "How goes the work?" Lucius asked Luna, who was currently taking two of the stacks of scales outside of the walls.


    "Good. The wolf-people and the Royal Slimes are working together quite nicely," she said. When they arrived outside of the walls, Lucius saw Balos leading a team of people along the walls, covering them with scales.


    "We did some testing with the scales earlier," Luna said. "It''s a wonder how you managed to even crack these things. I can crack them no problem, but for you..." Luna shook her head in amazement. "The power of that gun is amazing!"


    "Well, it does travel at almost two-thousand feet a second," Lucius said. "The sword itself was able to do some damage."


    "Well, is there anything I can do to help?" Lucius said, but Luna shook her head.


    "Not really. Most of the work is too hard for just a human," Luna explained. "The scales will rip your hand open if you''re not careful, and if you fall off the wall, you might die."


    "Oh. Okay," Lucius said. He walked away and went to his underground garden.


    The dampness of the soil indicated that his dam contraction worked. But that wasn''t the thing that surprised Lucius.


    His strawberry plants were already huge and blooming after one day. Instead of the normal small, unfertilized strawberries, these strawberries were massive. Some of the biggest were about the size of an apple, while the smallest were about the size of the big strawberries on Earth.


    Amazing! Only after a few days, the plants are completely grown! How different is the soil here compared to the one on Earth? Lucius wondered. I want to do some tests, but I don¡¯t have the equipment. Maybe I could make something for later?


    Lucius filed the information away and picked the strawberries. He created a thin, wood box with a loose lid and filled it, then created a few more and also filled those with strawberries.


    Hm... I want to store these, but I can''t. I need to make something like a fridge...


    Lucius popped a strawberry in his mouth. It was sweet and refreshing, and the tinge of tartness made it the perfect fruit.


    Refreshed, Lucius brought the containers out and went into the village, where the work was just finishing up. The meat of the Grade B beast was being cut up and salted to preserve them, and the scales were being carried away and stored in the storage rooms that was made.


    Lucius went over to where Balos and Luna were.


    "Hey, guys!" Lucius said. "Try this out," he said and handed both Luna and Balos a strawberry. The looked at it quizzically.


    "What''s this?" Balos said.


    "It''s a fruit. Try it," Lucius urged. They took a bite of the strawberries and Lucius could instantly see the surpriseand ecstasy on their face.


    "Amazing!" Luna said. "I''ve never had something like this before! What is it?"


    "I would also like to know," Balos said. He looked like he wanted to break his formal demeanor, but he nonetheless held it on.


    "It''s called a strawberry," Lucius explained. "It is something from my world and I just got it to grow here."


    Luna frowned. "How did you get it?"


    "Remember the backpack that showed up?" Lucius asked. Luna nodded. "It''s my link to the other world. I don''t just exist in this world."


    Both Luna and Balos looked confused. "What?" They both said simultaneously.


    "I exist in both worlds at the same time," Lucius said.


    "How?!" Balos asked. His demeanor seemed to crumble. Lucius laughed a little bit at his sudden outburst, then continued.


    "Do you know what a Sear Plant* is?" Lucius asked.


    (AN: If you don''t remember what a Sear Plant is, it is the plant that got absorbed into Lucius and linked him to Zenos.)


    Balos nodded. Lucius continued, "When I first came to this world, it was in a dream. I found a Sear Plant, and when I touched it, it went into my body. And when I woke up, I still could feel the flower in my body, and soon, I figured out that I could access this world even though my body was still in the other world."


    Luna frowned again. "But isn''t that hard to do? Like, do you have to perform actions in both worlds at the same time?"


    Lucius nodded. "Yeah, but I can multitask really well. So it isn''t hard, especially if I dedicate more of my attention to this world."


    "Now, back to the strawberries," Lucius said. "The day after Luna and I built the house, I woke up to find the backpack in my room. I have no idea why or how it got there, but I found that it was my physical link to the other world. I used that to bring the strawberries here."


    "Amazing..." Balos said. His demeanor seemed to recover. "What do you plan on doing with these?"


    Lucius grinned. "For one, I''m going to give every wolf-family a bunch of these, and, I''m going to sell this to Poris Kingdom. Not just this; I have more fruits."


    Balos nodded. "That''s a great idea. At the moment, we have nothing special to trade besides your strange technology, but we all know you aren''t selling those. With those fruits, you could turn this town into a kingdom fairly quickly."


    "I''m not planning to turn this town into something big, but yeah. It''ll help a lot," Lucius said. "Well, now that I learned that this was a success, I''m going to start planting the other plants."


    "Good luck, and make sure you share them with us!" Luna said, still relishing the strawberries.

 Chapter 23

    Balos, Luna, and Lucius crouched behind a bush, eyeing the five strangers. They were clad in armor and faded emblems that Lucius couldn''t see. However, Balos seemed to identify it.


    "What are soldiers from Voxis Kingdom doing here?!" Balos hissed. When Lucius squinted his eyes, the emblem resembled the one on the scouts.


    "Maybe they are scouting?" Luna predicted, but there was something off.


    The soldiers were clearly worn out. Exhaustion dripped off their face as they stumbled into the town clearing. They had no weapons and their armor was cracked and rusted from travel. There was a desperate look on their face.


    "They don''t look like they''re scouting or attacking. They have no weapons and their equipment quality is poor," Lucius said. "Maybe they aren''t hostile."


    "I can''t be too sure of that," Balos said.


    "You can never be sure of anything. Let me try and see what they want. If they get hostile, you guys come out and attack them. But don''t try to attack them unless I get attacked," Lucius said. Balos clearly didn''t like it, but he nodded.


    Lucius put one of his hands on his katana and sprinted into the clearing.


    "Halt!" He shouted, startling the soldiers so much that one of the visibly weaker soldiers fell down. "What are you here for?!"


    "D-don¡¯t kill us," one of the soldiers trembled. "We aren''t hostile!"


    "What are you doing here?!" Lucius repeated, keeping his distance. He wasn''t sure if it was just a trap.


    "We escaped the kingdom to come here!" Another soldier said. This made Lucius surprised and relax his grip on his sword.


    "What?"


    "W-we ran away from the army to come here," the soldier explained. "We hated how we were treated and they are going to attack this town soon! Please, take us in!"


    Lucius paused. What if they are telling the truth? I guess I''m going to take the risk, but I''ll have to be careful.


    "Alright," Lucius said. "I''ll let you in, but if you make any form of trouble, the people in here wouldn''t hesitate to kill you. Do you understand?"


    "Yes, we do."


    "Alright. Stay here until I come and get you," Lucius said and walked to where Balos and Luna were.


    "Lucius, we can''t just let them in!" Luna said.


    "Maybe. They are weakened to a state where if we don''t take them in, they''ll die. Plus I want to hear their story. Who know; they might really be telling the truth."


    "...fine, but if they cause trouble, I''ll throw them out. Literally," Luna said.


    "Yeah. That''s what I said to them anyway," Lucius said and returned to the clearing.


    "Come with me," Lucius said to the soldiers. Silently, they obeyed and followed Lucius.


    Instead of going through the main entrance, Lucius went through a small, back entrance about the size of a normal doorway. It leads straight to Lucius'' house. They stepped inside and looked around at the interior.


    "Sit down and make yourself comfortable," Lucius said and gestured to the chairs. Immediately, the soldiers collapsed into the chairs with relief.


    "Now, tell me your story," Lucius said. He stayed standing and rested his hand on his katana. Also, Balos and Luna were standing right outside the room where they could hear and also assist if Lucius needed it.


    "Well," started one of the stronger soldiers. "Ever since we were in the army, we were treated poorly. Worked almost day and night without stop, giving us no time to go home to our families. My similarly overworked parents contracted the Black Decay and the Generals wouldn''t let me go home to treat them. Within half a year, they''ll be dead!"


    The soldier started sobbing a little bit. Another soldier reached over and patted him on the back.


    "For the rest of us, it''s the same thing," another soldier spoke. "Overworked and a little underpaid and almost zero time to go back to our family. But when we heard that in a week, they''ll be attacking this town, that was the end of it. We..." He trailed off as he saw the expression on Lucius'' face.


    "What did you say?" Lucius asked, urgency in his voice.


    "Um... we were overworked and underpaid?"


    "No no. After that."


    "That Voxis Kingdom is going to attack this town?"


    "Yes. Can you elaborate on that?"


    "A little. They didn''t give us the full details, but there are a few things us low-rank soldiers know," the soldier shrugged a little bit. "They said that they''ll attack this town in a month. But we got that information before we left, so there''s only a week left. There going to attack here with about a thousand troops led by the Fourth General."


    "A thousand?!" Lucius leaked. "A thousand?!!?!?!"


    "Y-yeah. Everyone thinks that they are going overboard, but they seem to want to ensure that this town will get wiped out."


    Lucius went silent, thinking about the details.


    Can we really defend against a thousand soldiers? We might need assistance from Poris Kingdom, but we have no way to contact them. I need to develop a defense mechanism very soon.


    "Do you know why Voxis Kingdom wants to attack us?" Lucius asked. The soldiers shook their heads.


    "Only speculation. The most reasonable rumor is that when you guys supposedly killed the soldiers that were attacking those beast men, the kingdom automatically put you as a ''threat'' and wants to get rid of you."


    Lucius sighed.


    "Now, to you guys. Why did you decide to come here?"


    "Well, we didn''t exactly hate beast men," the other soldier said. "Unlike most of the humans, we don''t mind co-existing with them, and when we heard that a town of them was going to be attacked for a not-viable reason, we decided that we didn''t want to side with the kingdom and instead help this town."


    "Hm..." Lucius thought.


    Are they trustworthy?


    "I could let you stay here, but..." Lucius shook his head, not knowing how to continue.


    "You don''t trust us, right?" One of the soldiers grimly asked.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    "Exactly. I just don''t know," Lucius said.


    "How about this?" One of the soldiers started. "We could tell you how the army is going to attack when they come here, and after that, you can do whatever you want with us. But please let us stay here! Please!" The soldiers begged.


    Lucius sighed. Then, the door opened next to Lucius and Luna and Balos stepped through.


    "That''ll be just fine," Luna said and looked at the soldiers. Their eyes brightened up as they heard her.


    "Thank you so much!" The soldiers said repeatedly. Lucius waited for them to quiet down before he started talking again.


    "However, just because I''m letting you stay here doesn''t mean that you''ll be able to do whatever you want. Let me get this straight. While you are here, do not leave and go into the village. The beast-men do not know that you''re here and will attack you. I will announce it later. You are still free to go into the forest out of the back entrance but make sure you stay out of sight of anyone else."


    "Alright," they said.


    "Anyway, do you have clothes under your armor?" Lucius asked. It would be quite troublesome for Lucius if there were five people in armor with the Voxis Kingdom crest walking around.


    "Yes, we do, but it is probably disgusting at this point."


    "It''s fine. We''ll have someone create clothes for you," Luna asked. Balos hasn''t spoken yet and was just eyeing the soldiers. They seemed a little nervous in his presence.


    "We''ll get your clothes by the end of today. Beastmen are quick at weaving," Lucius said. "In the meantime, I''ll get something for you to eat. Just stay here."


    "Okay."


    Lucius, Luna, and Balos filed out and went outside.


    "Are you sure about this, Lucius?" Balos asked.


    "Yes, I''m sure," Lucius firmly said. "If they are really telling the truth about the situation, they could really be a help to us. Plus, we aren''t going to tell them anything about our technology or supplies. If they are spies, they aren''t going to get much information out of us. After the battle happens, then I''ll see if they''re helpful or not."


    "That seems... reasonable," Balos admitted. Luna slapped his arm.


    "It''s fine. Even if they are spies, we can kill them in an instant. And I''m pretty sure that they are fully aware of that," she said.


    "True."


    "I''m going to get them some food and see if I can salvage the clothes," Lucius said. Luna nodded and said, "I''ll come with you."


    "I''ll keep watch of them," Balos said, an edge in his voice. Lucius and Luna sighed.


    "Balos, not all humans are bad," Luna said.


    "I know that, but they are still humans. They won''t hesitate to pillage, steal, or..." He seemed to remember that Lucius was there.


    "Yes yes, I know what human behavior is," Lucius said. "It doesn''t matter. Just keep an eye on them, but don''t provoke them."


    "Alright."


    The group separated. Balos went back inside the house while Luna and Lucius went down into the village. The smell of the afternoon meal wafted out of the houses as many people started to cook. Lucius went up to a local bakery that was set up.


    "Hello!" Lucius said and waved at the owner. She smiled and waved back as Lucius approached.


    The last few incidents made the beast-men comfortable with Lucius. They didn''t seem as edgy or nervous around Lucius as when Lucius first housed them. Now, they treated him like their own.


    "Hello, Lucius," the Baker said. Her name was Melissa.


    "Can I get three loaves of bread?" Lucius asked.


    "Make that four," Luna said. Melissa smiled and disappeared into the back.


    She returned with four loaves of freshly baked, brown bread. She handed it to Lucius.


    "Here you go," Melissa said. Lucius grinned and brought about a small container and put it on the counter.


    "This is my payment. I''m sure that you''ll like it," Lucius said. Melissa opened up the container, which was full of strawberries.


    "What are these?" She asked.


    "Try them," Lucius said. Melissa took a bite out of one.


    "Delicious!" She exclaimed. She continued to eat the strawberries. "What are these?"


    "They are called strawberries. I''m growing them now," Lucius said. "Well, I''m going back. Bye!"


    "Bye!"


    Lucius walked away while carrying the loaves the bread. Luna took one from his arms and started to munch on it.


    "Now for something substantial," Lucius said. He went to a butcher and bought a large piece of meat, paying with strawberries. The Butcher was delighted when he tried them. He also went to a clothing store and picked out some clothes for the soldiers.


    Then, Lucius quickly whipped up a pot of stew and brought it into the house.


    "Here is your food. Enjoy," Lucius said. The soldiers got up and started putting the stew in bowls and ripping off the bread. Then they devoured the food like a pack of wild dogs.


    "Uh, when you''re done, just leave the pot outside," Lucius said. Since their mouths were full of food, they just nodded with bulging cheeks.


    Lucius stepped outside. Luna and Balos followed him.


    "I really hope that we''ll be able to fend off against the army," Lucius said. "We need to contact Poris Kingdom as soon as possible."


    Balos nodded. "I''ve already made preparations." He handed Lucius a small vial of a greenpowder. "Fill a basin of water and pour the powder in. Then, dip your hand in and say ''Queen of Poris Kingdom.'' It should make a connection between you two."


    "Alright," Lucius said. "Thanks."


    Lucius then went inside his workshop and went to his cooling bucket that was meant for him to dunk the heated metal in. He uncorked the vial and poured the powder into the bucket. It didn''t dissolve and just stayed suspended in the water.


    Then, he put his right hand in it and took a deep breath.


    "Queen of Poris Kingdom," Lucius said. Immediately, the powder swirled under his hand and turned the water into a murky green. It continued to form a whirlpool until the color cleared up and revealed the face of the Queen.


    "Hello there," Lucius said.


    "Ah, hello," Queen Peluna said. "What can I do for you, Lucius?"


    "Well, I just received news that we are going to be attacked by Voxis Kingdom a week from now. They are bringing a thousand troops. I was wondering if you could spare some soldiers to help us."


    Queen Peluna rubbed her chin. "I''m not sure that we can."


    Lucius was shocked. "What?!"


    "Yes, we can''t afford to give you help. It''ll take way too many of our resources to bring more than a hundred soldiers to help you."


    "I''m sure you''ll be fine," the Queen continued. "You have your strange technology after all."


    "Can''t you use the Transportation Gems?"


    "We do have a limited supply. Those are a little rare."


    "Can you at least give us a strong mage or something?" Lucius asked. He was struggling to contain the roar that wanted to come out of his mouth.


    "We can do that. I''ll have one on the day of the battle," the Queen said. "Best wishes!"


    The basin cleared up and made it seem like the powder was never there. Lucius slammed his palm into the edge of the basin, making the water crash against each other.


    Only a mage for reinforcements! What is this?!


    Lucius stormed out of the workshop and headed to where Balos and Luna were.


    "So, how''d it go?" Luna asked.


    "Horribly," Lucius growled. "Apparently, it would be a waste of resources to bring more than a hundred soldiers to help us."


    "Why don''t they use Transportation Gems?" Balos asked. He seemed just as angry as Lucius.


    "Apparently,they have a limited supply and they are ''rare,''" Lucius said.


    "Absolutely bull shit," Balos said. "They have enough to bring the entire kingdom here. Using a hundred of them is like a tiny little dent in a building. Not noticeable at all."


    "Do you have more of that powder?" Lucius growled. "I need to talk to her, again."


    Balos looked like he wanted to give more to Lucius, but he shook his head. "The Queen has already made up her mind. She is refusing to give us the soldiers, so talking to her more is pointless."


    "I guess that we''ll have to rely on our own power," Luna said. "I''m sure that we have enough strength to deal with them."


    "I sure hope so," Lucius said. "I need to make something where I or someone can shoot at the army on top of the walls. We need to thin out the army as much as possible before they hit the walls."


    "How ''bout something like your handgun but on the walls?" Luna proposed. Lucius thought about that for a moment.


    I have no way to make it automatic, but what if I use it in a different way?


    "I have an idea," Lucius said. Luna and Balos followed him into his workshop.


    Lucius grabbed his sniper and looked at it.


    "What if I create something like this, but with stronger, more destructive crystals?" Lucius asked. "What strong crystals do we have?"


    Balos and Luna thought for a moment.


    "''Course, we have the simple crystals. Fire, Electric, Blast. But we also have a few more <Hurricane Crystals>, and, the Royal Slimes found this at the bottom of Sorus Bay, we have a single <<<Nuke Crystal>>>," Luna said.


    "What does itdo?" Lucius asked, but he already had a general idea just from the name.


    "It''s like a super-charged Blast Crystal. It causes a massive explosion."


    "Hm..." Lucius thought. That''ll be good against a thousand.


    "What else?"


    "We have a single <Acid Crystal>," Balos said. "It dissolves every non-organic piece of matter it touches, which is good against armor, swords, things like that. It won''t harm the soldiers though."


    "That''s fine. We can use that," Lucius said and got to work.


    Along with the help of Balos and Luna, Lucius created a turret the size of a table. It used crystals as the ammunition. It used the same concept as the guns and Lucius created a bigger crank to bring the trigger out. He mounted it to the wall and gave it a test. It worked flawlessly.


    Then, Balos and Luna worked on the forest part. They cleared out the path that was between Voxis Kingdom so that the army was going to be forced to walk through there. It would help the fire of the <<Nuke Crystal>> and the <Acid Crystal>.


    Then, Lucius just refilled all of his guns and fixed them in any way possible.


    It was going to be a bloody battle.

 Chapter 24

    A week later, the day of the battle arrived. Lucius felt aspreparedas he wanted to be.


    Most of the forest was blocked off. In the week, the entire village rolled boulders around the forest to enclose the village, and the only entrance is from a tree-free area that would concentrate the mass of soldiers.


    Lucius refilled and did maintenance on all of his guns. He put every useful crystal he had into cartridges and put them on top of the wall for quick use. He patched his armor and shirts and, even though he knew it would be pointless, wrapped his upper body in the white bandages.


    Then, with the help of Luna, Lucius created the medicine concoction that healed him after he fought the Eloon. He created a bunch of glass vials and filled them with medicine and put it on top of the wall. He also brought some bread up there.


    The beast-men were ready for combat. The wolf-people donned leather armor, but their hide already was hard. They had no need for weapons as they had long claws already and very good battle instincts. The Royal Slimes didn''t require any armor since they had their ability to shape shift and had very good synergy.


    His turret was loaded with crystals. To start off, he loaded up Blast Crystals as they were the most practical. Next to it were cartilages with an <Acid Crystal>, a <<Nuke Crystal>>, and the <Hurricane Crystals>. He had the other crystals ready to load up too. Also, unlike his gun, he packed a ton more Rebound Powder inside for a bigger explosion which would make the crystal fly faster and hit harder. And, he elongated the chamber and where the crystal would be. This would make it so the crystal wouldn''t break when the Rebound Powder triggered. It would only fly out, and when it hit something at high velocity, that''s when it would break.


    There was a nervous tension in the air as the entire town of Baylight waited. Lucius paced the walls while Luna flew above the walls and scouted, but no one showed up.


    Lucius brought the runawaysoldiers out and stationed them on top of the wall, next to where Lucius would be.


    Then, there was a blue flash that Lucius was expecting. A woman stepped out of the portal and looked at Lucius. She wore long, blue robes that had the crest of Poris Kingdom on it and carried a staff with a green gem on top.


    "Are you Lucius?" She called. Lucius nodded and climbed down from his spot on the wall.


    He approached her and shook her hand. "Name?"


    "Tethla," she said. Lucius nodded again.


    "Come with me to the top of the wall. That''s where you''ll be fighting," Lucius said. They went on top of the wall.


    "Can you fight from here?" Lucius asked. Tethla nodded.


    "I think so," Tethla said.


    "Great," Lucius said. The soldiers didn''t really talk much; they seemed to be just as nervous as Lucius.


    They waited. They weren''t sure how long they waited, but they were always on the edge.


    It was about midday when Luna came back in a frenzied retreat.


    "They are coming!" She yelled. Everyone jumped and prepared to fight.


    "Remember, do not charge out and attack until they attempt to attack the walls!" Lucius yelled. A wave of nods indicated that he got his message across.


    "Now, the instant you see them, just start casting spells," Lucius said to Tethla.


    There was the sound of a massive battle cry over the forest. Lucius went to the turret and took aim at the opening in the rocks, the only way the soldiers could get in unless they decided to move the boulders.


    Then there were the soldiers. They surged forward on horses in a tsunami wave. Immediately, Lucius started his attack.


    He fired the Blast Crystals as fast as he could. Already, the soldiers were flying off their horses or got blown to bits.


    "Just keep thinning out the cavalry," one of the soldiers said next to Lucius. "That''s the strong point of the army."


    "Okay," Lucius responded. He quickly switched cartridge to the <Acid Crystal> and fired it off.


    When it came in contact with the army, it cracked and released a fog in the air that immediately started to dissolve the soldier''s armor and weapons. They were left undefended, which Lucius took the opportunity to use the Blast Crystals to blow them up.


    He continued to fire off the Blast Crystals until most of the cavalry was gone. Soldiers were screaming in pain as they were thrown off their horses or as their limbs were ripped off.


    "What is this?!" One of them yelled. "How are we losing?!"


    While the cavalry was being blown to bits, Fourth General stared at the situation in horror.


    What is going on?! How is the cavalry losing to a mere town? What is going on? He thought. He could feel the use of magic, but it was too small compared to the damage that was being done.


    Lucius looked at the army now. The majority of the foot soldiers were starting to come into the clearing, and since the cavalry was pretty much wiped out, Lucius loaded up the big guns.


    He slid on the cartridge that had the <<Nuke Crystal>> onto the turret and took aim at the soldiers.


    "Cover your ears!" Lucius yelled at Tethla and the soldiers next to him. They nodded and pressed their hands to their ears.


    Lucius pulled the turrets trigger and felt the recoil as the <<Nuke Crystal>> flew out of the chamber. It was obvious when it hit the army.


    BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!


    Lucius winced as the sound penetrated the air and as the heat stung his face. Even though they were far away from the explosion, they still felt part of the shockwave of the explosion and the heat. Lucius waited for the light to die down and looked at the damage.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    More than half of the army was gone. Their limbs weren''t even in the area: they were either blown off or disintegrated in the impact. There was a massive crater where the <<Nuke Crystal>> struck.


    There was a moment of shock and silence for both sides, then, with another battle cry, the rest of the army surged forward, but Lucius could tell that their moral was badly hurt.


    Spells littered the air as Tethla fired off her spells and the spellcasters on the other side casted theirs.


    Then, one of the soldiers went up to Lucius. "They are using the last resort formation!" He said. "They are only focused on penetrating the defenses of this town and won''t stop. The spellcasters are using high tier support magic and are preparing their ultimate move, <<Forbidden Sun>>!"


    "What does it do?!" Lucius yelled as he switched cartilages to the Thunder Crystals.


    "It created a massive ball of plasma and fire that vaporizes everything its path! It can only be stopped by a physical attack that is stronger than it, which there are few of."


    "That''s fine," Lucius heard Luna say. "I''ll deflect it. Focus on defending the town!"


    The formation worked. The soldiers got right up next to the wall where the turret couldn''t reach. Lucius cursed and grabbed his sword.


    "Attack!" Lucius roared to the beast men. With a savage roar, the beast men surged through the gates and attacked the soldiers. Lucius jumped down from his spot on the wall and ran to join the fight.


    Balos was already there, cleaving the soldiers. He waded through the ranks and with every sword slice, he killed three or more soldiers. The wolf-people killed the humans without hesitation and refused to even get hit by one soldier with their massive dexterity and speed. The Royal Slimes were literally flowing through the soldiers as one unit, breaking armor, weapons, and sometimes taking the soldiers in their travel, which they used as a battering ram.


    Lucius fought too. He dueled soldiers with accuracy and speed, taking one out every ten seconds.


    But even though the beast-men were strong, it would be impossible to avoid injuries. Blood stained the air as humans and beast-men alike were getting ripped apart. Lucius saw some wolf-people getting injured under the attacks of the soldiers, but most of the casualties were from Voxis Kingdom.


    Soon, the soldiers were wiped out and the last of the army were the spellcasters in the far back. Lucius ordered everyone to go back inside the town.


    Lucius climbed back on top of the wall and grabbed his sniper. His went prone and rested the gun on the ground, aiming at the spellcasters. He changed cartridges to one that just had Brightmetal bullets, similar to his handguns. Looking through the scope, Lucius took aim at mage and pulled the trigger.


    The mage was shot in his leg, making him fall down and scream in pain. Lucius pulled the trigger out and took aim at another.


    He continued to shoot the spellcasters until there were only five left who were chanting. Before Lucius could fire a shot at them, they raised their hands.


    Out of nowhere, a massive, glowing, orange and yellow ball of fire appeared above their hands. It rose up and flew at Baylight.


    "Shit! Is that the <<Forbidden Sun>>!?" Lucius yelled.


    The soldier rapidly nodded. "Yes, it is! We need a physical attack that is stronger than it!"


    Lucius looked at Luna. "Can you take care of it?"


    She cracked her knuckles. "I''m sure I can, but if I don''t be prepared to catch me."


    "Yes, ma''am."


    Luna rose up into the air and flew straight at the <<Forbidden Sun>>. She raised her fist.


    Lucius held his breath.


    "UWAHHH!" Luna yelled and drove her fist straight into the middle of the ball of fire.


    A shockwave erupted out of the impact that was much stronger than the <<Nuke Crystal>>. And then, Luna spun around and kicked the sun as hard as she could, making it go in the opposite direction....


    Straight into the camp of spellcasters!


    The Fourth Commander looked at the <<Forbidden Sun>>, their best move, slowly fly back toward them.


    How did they know? He thought, enraged. He scanned the walls in his retreat and noticed five people standing on the wall next to the person doing all of the damage. After looking at them a little bit, he identified them as some of the soldiers from his unit.


    Those soldiers! If I live, I will--


    But they were too slow. The <<Forbidden Sun>> crashed into the camp and detonated, triggering a massive explosion that completely wiped out the rest of the army.


    Then all was silent. No one moved or made a noise as they took in what just happened.


    Then, a loud cheer erupted as the beast-men celebrated. They didn''t expect to win at all against a thousand soldiers, but they managed to dodid it.And even better, there were no casualties. There were some people injured, but it was nothing un-treatable.


    Lucius kept his eyes on Luna. Something was wrong. She wasn''t flying back. She was just floating there, unmoving.


    Suddenly, her eyes closed and she started to fall. Lucius cried andattempt to get someone to save her, but he knew that it would be too late.


    However, the Royal Slimes also saw this. In a wave, they melted together and surged out of the gates of Baylight and in an instant, caught Luna. They brought her back into the town and rested her on a patch of grass. The healers from both races got to work, healing her.


    Lucius sighed in relief. "We did it!" He cheered. He looked to where Tethla was and noticed that she was gone. Then he looked for his sniper and saw it was gone too.


    Quickly, he scanned the forest for her. Lucius saw her running with his sniper and once she was far away, she threw something at her feet. She disappeared in a blue flash.


    Oh, my, GOD, Lucius thought, enraged. He ran to Balos.


    "Give me two Transportation Gem that leads to the inside of Poris Kingdom. Now!" Lucius yelled.


    Surprised, Balos dug around in his pockets and held the Transportation Gems to his head, which made them glow blue. Then he handed it to Lucius. Without hesitation, he threw it at his feet and got engulfed in blue.


    She DARES TO TAKE MY TECHNOLOGY?! Lucius thought. His vision cleared up and without hesitation, he pulled both of his handguns out.


    He was inside the palace room where Tethla and the Queen were.He pointed his guns at Tethla, who was still clutching his sniper.


    "Give it. Now!" Lucius yelled. With trembling hands, she handed the sniper back to him. Lucius yanked out of her hands and put it on his back.


    "Now," Lucius turned to face Queen Peluna. "You dare send me only a single mage, whom just attempted to take my weapons?!"


    "She did it on her own accord--" Queen Peluna started.


    "No, she did not! She wouldn''t have known about it and wouldn''t have taken it unless you told her too," Lucius yelled. "You could''ve helped Baylight by sending more than one, single, incompetent mage that dared to take my technology."


    "We were almost overrun because of your decision of not sending soldiers to assist us," Lucius fumed. "It wouldn''t''ve have been hard to do so."


    "You do not underst--"


    "Shut. Up," Lucius interjected with such venom that it made Queen Peluna surprised. "I fully understand your situation. Now, let me ask you a question, Queen Peluna, why did you make the treaty with our town?"


    The Queen looked a little uncomfortable being talked down to. It seemed like the royal advisors sensed that too and spoke.


    "You have no right to talk to the queen like that," one said.


    "I have every right to," Lucius said, deadly and quiet. "Now, answer the question."


    "I thought it would be beneficial to both sides," Queen Peluna said. This made Lucius even madder.


    "I understand now," Lucius said.


    "You do?"


    "Yes, I do," Lucius said. "That you were using me! That this was all for your, own, damn, benefit!"


    "Now, where is the treaty paper?" Lucius asked in a much calmer voice. Nobody dared to talk. The Queen rose her hand and a blue light appeared from it. It took the form of the treaty that Lucius signed with his blood.


    "Let me see it," Lucius said. The treaty floated down to Lucius which he grabbed out of the air.


    Without hesitation, he raised his handgun and shot it. Not once, not twice, not even five times. He shot it twenty times.After that, it barely resembled the original treaty. With his final act, Lucius tore the treaty in two and dropped it on the floor.


    "We are done here," Lucius said andthrew the second Transportation Gem at his feet.

 Chapter 25

    "Sir! Fourth General and his army have failed to return!" The scout reported. Third General slammed his fist into his chair but didn''t seem surprised. He had didn''t expect Baylight to actually defeat a whole one thousand soldiers, but he knew how incompetent Fourth General was.


    Now he was just plain frustrated. Third General rubbed his temples.


    "I think it''s time that I take things into my own hands," Third General said and stood up. "We won''t attack immediately, but we will in due time. And when we do, I will be the one leading the charge."


    "Yes, sir!"


    <hr>


    Queen Peluna rubbed her temples and sighed. The destroyed treaty started to smolder and soon, it burst into flames and burned to a black crisp.


    "My Queen," one of the advisors said. "I have to inform you, that it is not too late to fix the treaty and repair the bridge between Poris Kingdom and Baylight."


    "No, it is far too late. It was over the instant I ordered Tethla to steal his weapon. There is no repairing anymore. He was right: I was going to use him and manipulate him," The Queen admitted with another heaving sigh.


    "But it was for the benefit of the kingdom, right?" The other advisor asked.


    "Yes and no. It would benefit us greatly if we learned to create and use weapons like that, but unless Baylight willingly gave us their technology, any attempts to take them would be acts of theft and ultimately break ties, like what just happened," Queen Peluna said. "Now, he must think that we are his enemies and won''t hesitate to attack us."


    "I-I''m sorry! It was all my fault for being too careless!" Tethla said and got to her knees. "Punish me in any way you need to!"


    "It wasn''t your fault, Tethla," Queen Peluna softly said. Tethla looked surprised, then gratitude covered her face. She bowed even lower.


    "Moving on to more important topics," the first advisor coughed and looked distastefully at Tethla. "Are we now considering Baylight to be on our allies list or enemies list? Or do you wish me to move them to the undecided group?"


    Queen Peluna thought for a moment. "Keep them on the allies list. They might consider us their enemies, but we won''t. If it is possible, I want to attempt to recreate ties in the future."


    "Yes, Ma''am."


    <hr>


    Everyone was still in good morals when Lucius got back, and frankly, he was in good spirits too. He got rid of something that potentially would''ve killed him in the future.


    So, to celebrate the victory, Lucius planned a feast that would occur on the same day. It would include all of the fruit that Lucius grew and much more. So generally, everyone was excited.


    But first, Lucius and the healers took care of the wounded. They carried all of them to the hospital and treated their wounds with bandages and herb remedies. One thing that Lucius realized that none of the beast-men used any form of healing magic like the one Olive used on him. He asked one of the beast men this phenomenon.


    "Us beast-men are incapable of using any form of magic, but we make up for it with strength and speed!" He answered, puffing out his chest in the process.


    "Can other races use magic other than humans?" Lucius then asked.


    "Yes. Demons and High Destruction Beasts."


    According to other beast-men that chimed in, High Destruction Beasts, or HDB, are intelligent beast-men that have insane destructive power. Not only are they able to use magic, they were also able to shapeshift and destroy anything within their reach. Even the weakest HDB''s are able to fight over fifty soldiers at once. They are something like gods to beasts and beast-men alike. They lived all over the world, but they stayed hidden. Even though they were powerful, they were hunted for materials that would greatly boost the damage output of weapons.


    Demons were a mysterious race. They were stronger than humans and beast-men, but they rarely interacted with them. Unless there was a war that involved them, they would stay on their continent. They were both strong with magic and physical skills and they were smart. Not much was known about them.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    After the wounded were taken care of, Lucius went to his underground garden and picked raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. He still hasn''t planted the watermelon seeds or the elderberry seeds; those would be a little too complicated to just put into the ground.


    After he filled several wooden buckets with them, he set them aside and went into the forest.


    There were a few hunting parties out already hunting for meat and the Royal Slimes were diving into Sorus Bay for fish. Lucius cut down a few trees and created a long table and dragged it to the middle of the town. Immediately, the table started to fill up with all different types of food. Lucius, being relatively new to this world, was amazed by the variety. He went back and grabbed his fruit, setting it down on the table along with the rest. The beast-men were delighted to see all of the food, especially the fruits.


    Then Lucius spent the next few hours just milling around. He didn''t really need to do anything else and he didn''t know where Balos and Luna where.


    In the meantime, he just chilled inside Sorus Bay.


    <hr>


    As the sun slowly fell, the entire town of Baylight started to stir. The table that Lucius made was packed with all sorts of foods and some people were even dragging out tables to fill them with food too. Torches were being made and lit, giving the feast a festive mood.


    Lucius made a quick speech, thanking the bravery and the fighting of the beast-men. A cheer went up, and the feast began.


    <hr>


    The next morning, Lucius was confronted by Balos and Luna.


    "We have both decided on something, Lucius," Balos said.


    "Hm?" Lucius asked.


    "We have decided that it would be a good idea to send you to a school," Luna said. "You currently don''t know much about this world at all, and there is only so much that we can teach you. Also, you have good techniques in fighting and all, but we think that it will be a good idea for you to learn more."


    "Uh... so you''re sending me away?" Lucius asked.


    "Not really," Balos said. He held out a large pouch. "This is filled with Transportation Gems. When you need to, you can use them to come back here, but you need to make sure that you get crystals to come back."


    "Ah, okay," Lucius said, still a little uncomfortable with the idea that he would be traveling away from Baylight. "So, uh, when do I leave?"


    "Oh, not anytime soon," Balos said. "The start of school starts in about two weeks, and it is in Trupe City, so there is not much need to rush."


    "Okay," Lucius said. "What about you guys? I reckon that Voxis Kingdom wants to attack again."


    Luna waved the question off. She quickly made a full recovery after she was hit with the <<Forbidden Sun>>. The only thing that changed was it seemed like she was a little more careful with what she did.


    "Don''t worry about us," she said. "We can take a lot more than a thousand soldiers."


    Lucius grinned and nodded.


    "So, do I need anything to go?" Lucius asked.


    "Not much to bring," Balos said. Lucius was a little surprised that Balos knew so much about the school, but he didn''t question it. "You only need to bring your weapon of choice and some money. And unless you are local to Trupe City, you need clothes and other necessities."


    "Alright," Lucius said. "Do I need to sign up or anything?"


    "No," Balos confirmed. "Well, not at the moment. When you get there, you will need to sign some papers, and then there will be an entrance exam that will decide what classes you will be taking."


    "What will I get tested on?"


    "That, I am not sure," Balos admitted.


    "I''m sure that there are tests about swordplay and magic display, along with other things," Luna chimed in.


    At the word "magic," Lucius pipped up. "Oh yeah. Do you guys think that it would be possible for me to learn magic? With me, like, being from another world?"


    Balos scratched his chin. "I''m not very sure. You are the first person that I''ve heard of that came from another world, so I''m not exactly sure. You can try, but if you can''t grasp how there is always plan B."


    "What''s plan B?"


    "There is a potion that exists that converts a small amount of blood into Glim, and if you don''t know, Glim is a, thinginside your body. You can''t really describe it, but it is there. It is what fuels magic."


    "Uh," Lucius said, a little skeptical about that. "How much blood?"


    "I''m not entirely sure, but maybe about four pints?" Luna shrugged. Balos didn''t know either.


    Four pints?!?! Two more pints and then I''m dead! That''s pretty close...


    "I think I''ll pass on that for now. So, how do I learn magic?" Lucius asked.


    "We don''t know," Balos said. "We are beast-men, so we don''t exactly know how to do it."


    "Oh. So, will I learn it if I go to the school?" Lucius asked.


    "Again, we don''t know," Luna said.


    "Oh," Lucius said, a little deflated. "Well, I''m going to pack now."


    Balos nodded. "I have made something for it. It is already in your room. It''ll help you pack."


    "Thanks," Lucius said and walked back. When he went inside his room, there was a well-made leather backpack. It had two pockets; one bigger than the other. As there were no zippers, Balos used buckles instead.


    In the small pocket, Lucius put in most of his gun cartridges. He threw in some magnets and other supplies, just in case he wanted to do some tinkering.


    In the big pocket, he put in a roll of white bandages and a few herb potions that were left over from the war. He even wrapped those up so that they won''t break.


    Then... he was done? He didn''t need much.


    Then, he waited.

 Chapter 26

    "Ah, I''m finally here," Lucius grinned withanticipationhearrived atTrupeCity


    "Yes, finally," Luna said. She vouched to come toTrupeCity with Lucius for protection but to also do some sightseeing. Her wings were hidden from view so she appeared as a normal human.They stopped by assorted clothes and armor shop.


    "Uh, why are we here?" Lucius asked as they stepped inside.


    "I''m going to spice you up," Luna said. "Appearance will help you with a lot of things."


    Lucius couldn¡¯t imagine what appearance could be used for, but he went along with Luna. She grabbed a long, black trench coat that looked like it would be on an anime character. She threw it over Lucius and looked at him.


    "Perfect," she said. Then she grabbed apair of black pantsandquickly paid for them. A little confused, Lucius put the pants on,strapped his katana to his belt,and concealed his two handguns under the trench coat. When he looked in the mirror, he looked more... powerful. Slightly intimidating.


    I look like aglorifiedanime character,Lucius thought, but it still looked really cool. The pants and the trench coat didn''t constrict his movements at all.


    "Now you look better!" Luna proudly said.


    "Whatever. Let''s go to the school now," Lucius said. They weaved through the streets and soon arrived ata large building. It stretched extremely far into the distance. A sign read, FORAGEBLADES, A SCHOOL OF COMBAT.


    "Guess we are here," Luna said. "Make sure you come back soon!Time for me to head back! Have fun!"


    "Wait... what?" Luciusstarted to say, but Luna threw aTransportation Gem at her feet anddisappeared.


    Well... okay then,Lucius thought and stepped inside the front entrance. The place wasn''t full, but it wasn''t empty. There were people milling around checking in, signing forms or talking with other people. The floor was covered in a carpet and strange looking lightbulbs gave the building a cheery feel.Lucius went into the line that trailed to the front desk.


    "Hello there. Are you here to apply for school?" The front desk said.


    "Yes," Lucius said. The employee handed Lucius a form and a pen. He took them and walked to a nearby desk to fill it out.


    NAME:Lucius Avalon


    AGE:17


    GENDER:M F


    BIRTHPLACE:N/A


    DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY):03/04/XXXX


    WEAPON OF CHOICE:Katana


    YEARS ATTENDED:0123456+


    And that was it. Lucius turned it in.


    "Thank you," the employee said and looked over the form. He looked a little confused by the N/A that Lucius put, but he didn''t question it. "Please go into room 156 where the sword users are being tested."


    "Alright. Thank you," Lucius said and walked to the room.


    When he stepped inside he noticed the sheer number of students that used swords. They were all waiting for an opening for an arena to open up.


    "Hello," someone said behind him. Lucius turned to face someone that he assumed was theinstructorof the sort. He had thick arms that rippled with muscle and had the same build thatBaloshad. His skin was tanned and his hair was white; an odd contrast."You must be Lucius."


    That was quick,Lucius nodded. "Yes, sir."


    He laughed. "Ah, it has been a while since I''ve heardformality. That''s good. Also, you are a katana user. Not many people use that, so I hope that you can wield it well.By the way, call meInstructorDemios."


    Lucius gave a small nervous laugh. He was looking at the arenas, wherepeople were hacking at each other with swords. When one was either knocked out, forced out of the arena, or surrender and drop their weapon, then the other would win.Evaluatorswould write something down and a new matchup would start.


    "I think it is your turn, Lucius," instructorDemiossaid. "Go to that arena," he said and pointed to a just opening one.


    "Alright," Lucius said and walked over. He climbed into the arena and rested his hand on his sword. Another person climbed into the arena. He was in a full suit of armor and had a broadsword in his hand.


    "Start!" An evaluator said.Lucius didn''t move and just waited as hisopponentinched toward him.


    The instant Lucius predicted that he was within lunge range, Lucius leaped at him and jerked his katana out of its sheath, ramming the hilt of it into the armor of the person. But it didn''t really do much other than knocking the other person back.Lucius jumped back to avoid a heavy swing from the sword, then he went back and stabbed at him with his katana.


    The katana cleanly pierced through the armor, but it stopped.


    Is this more armor? How much protection is this guy wearing?!Lucius jumped back. He tried to break through the defenses a few more times.


    Soon, theopponentwas chucklingslightly. When he spoke, his voice was surprisingly deep.


    "This armor ismade fromBlackmetal. You''ll never pierce it with that cheap katana of yours!" He laughed.


    Lucius grit his teeth. "Oh, really?" He didn''t give him a chance to get a response. He slid his katana into his sheath and dashed around him. Wearing two layers of armor made him bulky and slow, which gave Lucius the upper hand.


    When he was at his back, he planted his foot into his opponent''s back and pushed. Hard. He stumbled forward, which gave Lucius the chance he wanted. He pulled his katana out of his belt and slammed the hilt into hisopponent''sback, which made him fall to the ground.


    Then, Lucius put his katana into his belt and pressed one of the buttons without anyone noticing. Even through the sheath, Lucius could feel the heat coming off the heat from the tip of the blade. Very quickly, he slashed as fast as he couldand he could feeltheBlackmetalarmor meltunderneath.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    "Halt!" A voice came out from the sides from the evaluator. Lucius jammed his katana back into his sheath and reverted it back to normal. The evaluator didn''t seem to noticebut if he did, he didn''t care.


    He wrote a few more things, then nodded at Lucius.


    "You are the victor of this match, so here is this," he said and handed him a slip. It had Lucius'' name,the date of the match, and a room number.


    "Before you head to your classroom, head over to theinfirmary. You''ll need to get background checked before you get accepted."


    "Alright¡ªthanks," Lucius said and walked away. Hisopponent glared at him when he was standing up. There was a trail of smoke from his back which burned Lucius'' nose with an acrid scent.


    Lucius walked into theinfirmary, where he was greeted by a nurse. There were a fewpeople here and there.


    "Slip, please," the nurse asked. Lucius handed her the slip that the evaluator gave him. She looked over it and handed it back to him.


    "Now, have youever done a background check before?" The nurse asked. Lucius shook his head.


    "Well," the nurse went over to a table with a small needle. "We take a drop of blood and use Rank 4 <<<<Analyze>>>>. Rank 4 lets us see your history and to see if you''ve done something wrong. Out of the five ranks of Analyze,Rank4 is the most useful for usdoctorsand nurses."


    Lucius broke into cold sweat.I did kill someone. Does that count?


    The needle gently pricked his skin, and it absorbed a single drop of blood. The nurse put it on a glowing red stone, where it sizzled.


    The nurse raised her hand.


    "<<<<Analyze!>>>>" she said andthe drop of blood shook violently.


    The nursestudied the drop.


    "Hm... inconclusive..." The nurse said. "This is rare, but it usually means that you are clean."


    She smiled at Lucius as he visibly relaxed. "Well, I guess it''s time for you to head to your first class. Good luck!"


    Lucius thanked her and went out.


    Inconclusive? I wonder what went wrong?


    He thought about it as he studied the numbers above the doors.


    This school is huge! How am I supposed to find my class? There is like a million rooms here!Good thing I''m quite early. Any later and I would be late for sure.


    After about five minutes of searching, he gave up and went to someone. He tapped on her shoulder.


    "Excuse me, um--" Lucius started.


    The girl turned, revealing Setsu, the girl that assisted Lucius in finding the stores. Also, the onewho''sfriends tried to take Lucius'' guns.


    "Lucius?" She exclaimed. "Oh my god, it is you!"


    Lucius grinned. "Hey, Setsu!"


    She hugged him. "I was so worried about you! When my idiot friends chased you off, you didn''t come back and I didn''t hear anything from you at all!"


    "Yeah, well, I was busy. What happened to your ''friends''?" Lucius asked, a little cautious. Setsu might not have been involved with the attempt attheft, but she was still friends with them at the time.


    "I ditched them. They always seem to do all of the wrong things at the wrong times. Plus all they want is money. I mean..." Setsu started, then she shook her head.


    "''I mean'' what?" Lucius asked.


    "Never mind," Setsu said. Lucius hated that phrase. It meant that they were hiding something from him, but he didn''t press it. It was obvious that it made Setsu sad.


    "Well," Lucius said. "What is your first class?"


    Setsulooked a little happy at the change of subject. "Well, my weapon of choice is swords, so I obviouslystart with sword work. The other classes I signed up for was monster taming, magic, and lore."


    "Wheredid you sign up for classes?" Lucius asked.


    "If you wanted specific classes, you were supposed to comein a week in advanced," Setsu said.


    "Oh," Lucius said.Balosdidn''t tell him that. "What happens if we didn''t come in?"


    "I''m pretty sure that you would automatically get assigned to other classes based on your performance at the entrance test and the application."


    "I hope I''m fine then. I did pretty well at the ceremony," Lucius said. They walked down the long hallways that seemed like they stretched forever.


    "By the way, where do you keep your sword?" Lucius asked Setsu. She didn''t appear to have any weapons on her.


    "I have an Item Box," Setsu said.


    "What''s that?"


    "You don''t know?" Setsu asked. She sounded surprised.


    Lucius said no.


    "Well, an Item Box is--" Setsu reached into the thin air. Her hand disappeared into somethinginvisibleand it slowly reappeared with a long, thin sword. "-- an item that bonds with you and it is basically a storage that you can use anywhere."


    "Cool," Lucius said. "How do you get one?"


    "Well, you can buy one. It''s pretty pricey though. The cheapest ones cost about 500,000 Orbs. The one I have would''ve cost over a million Orbs, but I got this one for 200,000 since I wassponsoredby the school."


    Sponsored? Then she must be pretty good then to get an 800,000 Orb discount.


    "Is that the only way you can get one?" Lucius asked.


    "You can make one, but it is very, very difficult


    They stepped into the classroom. Without Setsu''shelp, Lucius was sure that he was going to be late.


    "So, is this your first year?" Setsu asked.


    "Yeah. What about you?"


    "Third year."


    "Ah, okay."


    They sat next to each other in the back of the class. The tables looked like the ones at normal schools, but the chairs were made out of wood. The areas where the legs met the seat wasseamless.


    "Since the day of the incident, I was wondering, where do you live? You went into the South Forest, and the closest civilizationis over fifty miles away. So, where did you go?" Setsu asked.


    Lucius shook his head. "Sorry. I can''t give you that information." Before Lucius leftBaylight,Balosspecifically told Lucius not to tell anyone aboutBaylight.


    "Why not?" Setsu asked. "It won''t doany harm, right?"


    Again, Lucius shook his head. "It actually might. You never know what that kind of information could do."


    Setsu sighed. "You''re right. Sorry."


    "It''s fine."


    They sat in silence for a little bit, then Setsu broke the silence with another question.


    "Sorry again for asking, but what was that metal rod thing that you had? Was it an artifact?" She asked. Lucius'' body went a little tensed up.


    "You''ll see later," Lucius said and cut off any chance of her pressing.


    More people were coming in. Lucius recognized one of them.


    "Lucius!" A person said. It was Tres.


    "Hey Tres," Lucius said. "What''s up?"


    "Nothin'' much," Tres said.


    "I''m surprised you actually still go to this school. You seem like someone that would have already graduated," Lucius grinned.


    "Nah. I''m younger than what I appear, plus this school accepts people of any age. It doesn''t matter how old you are; as long as you didn''t graduate already," Tressaid and took the seat next toLucius. "Thanks for saving me when we attacked the Grade B monster."


    "W- wait," Setsu stammered. "You fought a Grade B monster?"


    "Yup, he did. And he beat it alone, too," Tres said proudly. Lucius smacked his arm.


    "Shut up. Don''t get other people interested--" Lucius started.


    "You fought a Grade B beast and beat one alone?" A girl slammed her palms into Lucius'' desk, startling him and the people around him. Lucius looked up.


    She had long, pink hair that flowed down to her hips. She looked at Lucius like he was some sort of science specimen that was interesting.


    Lucius sighed. "Yeah, I did."


    "What year are you?"


    "This is my first year," Lucius said.The shock was evident on her face, which kind of made Lucius satisfied.


    "I don''t believe it," the girl haughtily said. "Beating a Grade B monster alone would be impossible for even me, much less a first year."


    "Alright, believe what you want to believe," Lucius said and tucked his arms behind his head. He had to admit, the trench coat did make him looksophisticated.


    "That, I will," the girl said and marched to her seat. Lucius leaned over to Setsu.


    "Who''s she?" He asked.


    "That''sFylusDesgredin. This is her..." Setsu thought for a moment. "Fifth year, but even then she is one of the strongest people in the school. She is nicknamed the ''Sword Legend'' since she canoutduelalmost everyone in the school."


    Lucius eyed her from the corner of his eye, then he sighed and slumped in his chair.


    "Welcome to your first class of the day, students!"

 Chapter 27

    I wonder what this class has in store for me?Lucius wondered.


    "Listen up cupcakes!" The teacher yelled. He was really stocky and had a massive sword strapped to his back that was bigger than the one that Tres. "Your schedules are being handed out, so wait patiently and don''t make a ruckus on the first day!" He clapped his hands and a stack of paper suddenly floated of his desk and started whisking around the room, dropping a paper or two on the desks as it went by. When it passed by Lucius, it dropped one too.


    He picked it up and scanned it.


    Hmmm... seven periods, just like normal school,he noticed.


    P1: Combat


    P2: History


    P3: Magic


    P4: Crafts


    P5: Free Period


    P6: Monster Taming


    P7: Potions


    Ooh, I like the sound of monster taming, but magic?Lucius shook his head.Hopefully, I can actually do something in that class.


    "What''s on your schedule?" Tres asked.


    "Eh. It''s just the basics. Nothing real special," Lucius said.


    <hr>


    The first period went by quick. It was just basics and introductions, so Lucius didn''t pay much attention. As for history, well, no one really paid any attention. Even the teacher seemed bored- his expression said, "I''m being paid to do this so..."


    Time for magic class,Lucius grimly thought and headed to the classroom alongside Setsu.


    The room was dimly lit by a few torches that burned green, which gave the classroom an eerie yet cool feel to it. Lucius chose a random spot and sat in it. The instant he did, a red fire burned into the table and etched out his name.


    I guess that means that this is my table now, Lucius thought. After most of the class settled in, a loud voice echoed in the room.


    "Welcome to magic, students," said the voice. The first years looked around, confused or scared, while the second years and up just snickered.


    There was a loud boom! in the center of the room which erupted in a white fire. A figure stepped out.


    It was someone dressed like a witch. Her staff had a red crystal on top and she radiated a powerful feel around her.


    "I would do introductions, but that will have to wait. Since there are a lot of you, I will need to get through this as fast as possible. Plus, what I am doing will cover introductions anyway," she said. She walked over to a clear crystal ball.


    "You put your hand on this and it will change color based on your magic affinity. For the first years, magic affinity is your ability to use stronger magic. The darker the crystal ball gets, the stronger it is. I will demonstrate." The witch rested her hand on the ball and it began to change color. It started off a bright yellow, then graduate became purple. It continued to darken until it was nearly black.


    Some of the students clapped in awe.That''s cool, Lucius admitted.


    "You will touch this one at a time based on your last name," the witch said. "No pushing or shoving."


    The students talked and figured out their order and made a neat line, and one by one, they started to touch the orb. Some people couldn''t make it past the shades of red. The talented people would get in the range of a bluish-red, but no one made it even close to the witches'' level.


    Not long after, it was Lucius'' turn. He didn''t think much of it as he rested his hand on the ball. He waited.


    Wait. It started changing colors immediately for everyone else, so...Lucius thought, a little confused. He looked at the teacher for help, but she looked as equally confused as he felt. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    "Let me try," she said over the murmurs of his classmates. The witch rested her hand on the ball and it changed into a black. "Try again," she nodded to Lucius.


    He attempted again. The same result. He took his hand off and rested it on again. No reaction.


    He realized what was going on about the same time as the other students. They started laughing and insulting him.


    Lucius had no affinity for magic. He couldn''t even cast the weakest of magic.


    "T-this has never happened before, but I''m sure that..."


    Lucius didn''t bother to listen to the rest of what she said. He walked back over to his seat and thought about it.


    Balos knew, huh? Since I''m not originally from this world, I can''t control magic.*Sigh*,that sucks, Lucius thought.And here I was thinking that I could, like, have superpowers or something.


    A jarring laugh jolted him out of thought. It was from the girl that questioned his credibility when he took down the Rank B best, Fylus, and her friends.


    "Hahahaha! And he said that he could beat a Rank B monster all by himself! Hahaha!" Fylus howled with laughter. Then, realizing that Lucius was looking at them, she said, "Don''t make me laugh so much. Without magic, there is no way that you could do something so, impossible," she sneered.


    Lucius sighed.Nothing gets through her thick head, does it? Oh well, it shouldn''t concern me too much.


    Talk of Lucius spread throughout the school. Apparently, no one in history had a nonexistent magic power like what Lucius had.


    I wonder if the potion that Balos told me about would work?Lucius thought as he headed to the Crafts class.Well, blood is blood, so I bet it will work.


    Again, like his other classes, there was no seating arrangement. Instead of loitering in the hallways like most people, Lucius headed straight into his classes, he had a wide variety of seats to choose from.


    About five minutes before class started, a pretty big group of people came in. Lucius knew that they were going to give everyone trouble. They snarled at the teacher and some students and were very, very disruptive.


    They obviously wanted to sit next to each other in one big group, but there weren''t enough consecutive seats to do so. So, they resorted to booting people out of their seats. One of which approached Lucius.


    "Hey kid, get out of my seat," he huffed. He was big, but Lucius faced bigger opponents.


    "Nah," Lucius said and turned away. He didn''t feel like moving as he already got really comfortable in his seat.


    "I heard all about you kid," he continued. "You have no magic power, so don''t even bother trying to act cool. It''s not like you can actually fight or anything."


    At that, Lucius noticed that the people around him looked at Lucius and the other person nervously and some started shaking. He didn''t know why, but:


    "I really don''t care. Go find someone else''s seat before I have to kick--"


    The goon''s head snapped back and he levitated in the air. Behind him was another student that had his hand in the air.


    Whoa, it''s like using the Force from Star Wars or something, Lucius watched as the student moved his hand and deposited the goon into another seat.


    "You good?" He asked Lucius.


    "Yeah, I''m fine," Lucius replied. The people around Lucius stopped shivering but they looked at Lucius a little strange.


    "Did his Aura not affect you?" The student asked. He had blond hair and looked rich.


    "Aura?" Lucius asked in confusion. "What''s that?"


    "What do you mean, ''what''s that''? Do you not know what Aura is?" The blond hair guy said.


    "Nope."


    "I''m not even sure how that''s possible, but..."


    He explained what Auras were.


    Huh, so it''s basically the killing intents that are in all of those light novels and manga''s, but I can''t feel them myself. That''s pretty neat, which means that I won''t get intimidated by other people,Lucius thought.


    "That reminds me," the blond hair guy said. "I can''t feel yours."


    "Really?" Lucius asked.


    "I''ve only heard about a few people that could actually suppress their Aura, and those people were legends in history."


    "Can you feel everyone''s Aura at any given time?" Lucius asked. He nodded.


    "Yeah. But it''s not strong enough to cause any distractions," the blond-haired guy said. "By the way, I''m Cohren. You?"


    "I''m Lucius."


    "You don''t look like you''re from around here," Cohren said. "Where are you from?"


    "Well, uhm..."


    The bell rang, saving Lucius.


    "Well, it seems like class started," Cohren said. He looked a little disappointed, but he went to a vacant seat and sat down.


    <hr>


    Once the Crafts class ended, Lucius had a free period. He decided to use it looking around the school.


    It was pretty big compared to the school that Lucius went to in the real world. There were directories around, so it was hard for Lucius to get lost.


    There were over a hundred classrooms, so Lucius figured that there were a lot of people. In fact, a number of people that had a free period along with Lucius made up about the same amount of people in his grade.


    Eventually, Lucius ended up at the library. It was pretty big, but not something that crazy. He wanted to do some research about several things, but mainly the Item Boxes. He figured that it would be really nice to have a storage around him at all times.


    It didn''t take him long to find a book talking about them. He read about them, then checked the time.


    Hm... I have about half an hour left, Lucius thought.I can make it there and back.


    Lucius dug through his bag and found his pouch of Transportation Gems that Balos gave him. He threw it at feet and was engulfed in a blue smoke.


    Once it cleared, he was standing back in Baylight.


    Man, that''s convenient, Lucius thought as he walked as quietly as he could to the house. He entered.

 Chapter 28

    "You''re back!" Luna exclaimed.


    "Not for long," Lucius said while he took a seat. "You guys didn''t get me a lunch, so I came for one. Plus, I have a few questions."


    Lucius grabbed a few of his strawberries and ate them like an apple. "I''ve heard that there was something called an Item Box. What exactly is it?"


    "Well," Balos started. "It''s a storage only you can use. It bonds to you and it is with you anywhere. The better version of a box you have, the bigger it is. And you can bond up to three to you, but you can''t unbind them once you are bonded."


    That''s really cool, Lucius thought. "So how can I get one?"


    "Well," Balos thought. "The easiest way is to purchase it, but they are quite the pretty penny. And we are definitely not able to just toss around funds. Making one is also an option, but..." Balos shook his head. "The things it needs are insanely hard to get. For one that will give you a decent amount of space, you need the hide of a Rank B monster, the blood of a Rank A monster, a Diamond Bone from a Draconite, and a Crystal of your choice. The Crystal will determine the ability of your box and it can give it various effects."


    "How do you know all of this stuff?" Luna interjected. "It sounds like you have no end to your knowledge."


    "Well, back when I was younger, I did travel quite a lot. It is also hard for me to forget information I''ve already learned." Balos said while sounding pleased.


    "Anyway," Lucius started. "We have the hide of a Rank B monster, getting the blood of a Rank A doesn''t seem that hard to get, but how do we get a Diamond Bone? What exactly are Draconite?"


    "My despicable cousins," Luna grumbled. "They are these big ol'' lizards that are spew fire. They fly around so, unmajestically, and can barely make out us Dragon-kin."


    So, apparently, the things that we would call dragons are actually called Draconite here. That''s cool, but...


    "How do we get a Diamond Bone?" Lucius asked.


    "Every single bone in a Draconite is made out of enchanted diamonds, so it is near impossible to get. They are stronger than normal diamonds and are extremely valuable," Luna explained.


    Lucius became disheartened. "Aw, man. I wanted one, but as I am now, I don''t think I can."


    "If we can get money, we can get you one. But as of now, just focus on learning. That''ll be more beneficial to you," Balos said.


    "Alright," Lucius said. "By the way, can you turn this into a Transportation Gem to get me back to the school?"


    Balos sighed. "I thought I told you to get a return orb to get back here from the school."


    Oh yeah. Oops... "Sorry, I forgot," Lucius managed a small laugh.


    Balos sighed again. Lucius handed him a Transportation Gem, which Balos quickly routed it. Handing it back to him, he said, "Come back anytime. But next time, get a Transportation Gem routed before you come here."


    "Yes, sir," Lucius said and threw the gem at his feet. In a moment, he was back at the school. Looking back at his schedule, he found that he had monster taming class.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    This is going to be really interesting. Even if I don''t have any magic power, I should be able to tame a monster, unless it needs me to have magic to do so... Lucius thought as he headed there.


    To his surprise, the directory led him into an outdoor field that was next to a forest. I hope I''m in the right place, Lucius thought. There already were a number of people that were waiting around.


    "Lucius!" A familiar voice called out. It was Cohren. "How ya doin'', man?"


    "Pretty good. This is the monster taming class, right?" Lucius asked.


    "Yup, it is!" Cohren confirmed.


    Good, Lucius thought.


    "Are you good with the sword?" Cohren asked.


    "I''m okay, but I could be better," Lucius replied. The last time Lucius practiced with his sword, his attacks were quite swift, but nowhere near Balos'' skill.


    "I don''t use any weapons other than my hands," Cohren said. "I don''t need a staff to use magic, which is pretty neat if you ask me."


    Soon, the teacher came.


    "Hello future monster tamers!" She said. "I am Eliza Tolson, your monster taming teacher. You may just call me Ms. T, if you want. I will teach you all of the basics of what you need to tame monsters that come across your path, so you may use them as companions!"


    That sounded extremely clich¨¦, Lucius thought. Might as well play the theme song to Pok¨¦mon while you''re at it.


    "Today, we have an extended period, so we have time to do what I planned," Ms. Tolson said. "You will be going into the forest to find a monster, and maybe even tame it!"


    Why so much on the first day? Lucius sighed.


    "In order to tame a monster, you must be able to subdue it," Ms. Tolson said. "We have a wide variety of beasts in this forest, so it should not be hard to find a monster for you to get. Once you weaken it, you have to pour magic into it. That will make it so it will be unable to refuse your commands."


    Guess I can''t do it...? Lucius thought. I can''t pour magic in it if I don¡¯t even have magic power of my own. But, man, this is looking more like Pok¨¦mon every second.


    "It may sound simple, but once you get into the combat, it is a lot harder than you think. The contract that you signed when you registered doesn''t hold you accountable for your own deaths. If you die, it is not the schools fault."


    "Now, on a happier note, get out there and start taming!" Ms. Tolson said energetically. The class broke and dispersed into the forest.


    Lucius went into a direction of the forest that practically no one went to. Lucius didn''t know why, but he felt compelled to look there.


    Well, since I''m here, might as well try out some hunting, Lucius thought. He crept through the forest and kept his senses alert.


    The only sounds were the shuffling of Lucius'' feet. Five minutes passed, yet Lucius hasn''t encountered a single beast.


    Maybe they don''t live in this part of the forest, Lucius speculated. Maybe that¡¯s why no one came in this part.


    Just as he was about to go back to where he started, he heard a loud crash in the forest.


    Leggo, Lucius thought and headed in the direction of the sound. He crept along the brush and peeked to see what was going on.


    Two beasts were fighting. One looked to be a pure white rabbit with wings, and the other resembled a hawk. The rabbit was severely battered; its wings were battered, and its coat was stained red with blood.


    Lucius rested his hand on his katana. He pressed one of the buttons to unhinge the blades.


    As the hawk came in for the finishing blow, Lucius swung the katana and the katana went between the hawk. The hawk squawked and backed off, seeing that it wouldn''t be able to kill Lucius. It flew off.


    The rabbit looked at Lucius with grateful eyes that glinted with intelligence.


    It would be so cool if I could tame it, but unfortunately, I can''t, Lucius thought and sighed.


    "Sorry, but I can''t do much for you right now," Lucius said to it and turned around.


    He began to walk away when there was a small squeak behind him. He turned.


    The rabbit was quivering a little bit, so Lucius went over and kneeled. But, to his surprise, it mustered up the strength to hop into his arms. It burrowed itself into Lucius'' chest and lay there.


    It seems like it likes me... does that mean that I can tame it without actually using magic? Lucius thought in awe. Then he looked at the rabbit and his bloodstained shirt. Whatever. Top priority is to get this healed!


    Lucius sprinted back to the open field.

 Chapter 27

    Lucius burst back into the clearing and ran to the teacher.


    "Ms. T!" He called. She turned around and saw what was in Lucius'' hand. "I need medical treatment for this!"


    "Is that your tamed animal?" She asked.


    "Not exactly, but I''ll deal with that later. Now isn''t the time!" Lucius said. "Is there someplace where I can heal this?"


    "Well," Ms. Tolson said. "Bring it to the infirmary. They should be able to heal it."


    "Thanks," Lucius said and took off. He turned corners and burst into the infirmary.


    "I need to get this healed!" Lucius called out. A nurse came running out of the back room. She saw the condition on the rabbit.


    She raised her hand and begun to cast a healing spell, but the instant her hand started to glow, the rabbit squeaked and hid itself under Lucius'' arms.


    "It doesn''t seem to like magic at all," the nurse said. "We can''t force it, so we have to use regular methods." She grabbed some bandages and some antiseptic cream.


    Soon, the rabbit was cleaned up and bandaged. "There," the nurse said. "That should stop it from dying. You ought to head back to class."


    "Thank you very much!" Lucius said and hurried back to the class.


    There were a few students that returned back from the forest. Some had beasts following them, some were wounded and were heading to the infirmary. Lucius approached Ms. Tolson.


    "I''m back," Lucius announced. Ms. Tolson turned around and saw the rabbit in Lucius'' hand.


    "Why didn''t the nurse heal it using magic instead of using bandages?" Ms. Tolson said.


    "Well," Lucius said. "I''m not sure. It didn''t seem to like magic and it got scared when the nurse''s hand started to glow."


    "May I see it?" Ms. Tolson asked.


    "Sure, but be gentle," Lucius said as he handed the winged bunny to his teacher. It clearly didn''t like it, but it waited as she turned it around, examining it.


    "You may have tamed," she said as she gave it back. "A Winged Cotton Bunny, an untamable animal."


    "Really?!" Lucius exclaimed. "I managed to tame something without using magic?"


    "Most likely. You have no magic power, right?" She asked. Lucius nodded. "That explains a lot. In the past, a lot of people have attempted to tame a Winged Cotton Bunny using magic, but no one ever succeeded. And judging from its reaction in the infirmary, it seems that it is impossible to tame it using magic. Well, it is impossible to tame something without magic. It is more like a friendship between you and the bunny."


    "That''s great!" Lucius said as the bunny snuggled into his arms again. A person with no magic was able to tame something this great! "Is it strong?"


    "Not very, from the observations of the people that studied it."


    Ah, well, that''s fine, Lucius thought. I''m just happy to see that something has taken a liking to me.


    Lucius walked away and sat on the ground. The bunny hopped on Lucius'' shoulder and balanced there.


    Then, it did something unexpected. It rubbed its nose into Lucius'' neck. It tickled at first, but it eventually started to feel numb. Lucius started to feel drowsy. Before he knew it, he was asleep.


    <hr>


    Lucius woke up on the grass with the bunny sitting by his head. Ms. Tolson was standing above him.


    "You good?" She asked. Lucius sat up and stretched.


    "Yeah. I just got a little tired and took a nap," Lucius said.


    "That was no nap," Ms. Tolson said. "That was a marking. When a tamed beast accepts you, it will mark you. But it usually never puts you to sleep." Then, she took out a small mirror. "Look at your neck."


    Lucius took it and angled it. On his neck was a small tattoo in the shape of a starflower.


    "That''s the mark it left?" Lucius asked. Ms. Tolson nodded. "So, what exactly does this do?"


    "It should allow you to do some mediocre communication with the beast, based on its intelligence. Most beasts will only be able to relay sensory information and feelings."


    "Okay, but how?" Lucius said.


    "Just think of the message you want to tell it, and then it''ll get across. It won''t be able to read your mind unless you want it to, and you have to want to send the message in order to actually say it."


    So... Lucius thought. "Hello?"


    "Hello," a voice came back.


    "Whoa, it talked!" Lucius said. Ms. Tolson furrowed her brows a bit.


    "It talked?" She asked.


    "Yeah. I said hello, and it said hello back."


    "That''s unheard of,"Ms. Tolson said.


    "I''m not surprised she doesn''t know much," the bunny said. The voice was definitely feminine. "You''re the first human any animal has ever encountered that doesn''t have any magic power, and to us ''Winged Bunnies'', magic is deadly to us."


    "You just said ''Winged Bunnies'' like that isn''t your animal name," Lucius observed. "What is the name of your actual race?"


    "We are called Lucent Kanin."


    "And do you have a name that I can call you?"


    "You can call me Eza."


    "Nice to meet you, Eza. I''m Lucius."


    "And you aren''t from this world, aren''t you?"


    Lucius coughed when he heard this. "How''d you know?"Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    "When I make the mark on you, I''m able to get your info."


    Lucius sighed. "Aight. That''ll do."


    "Finish your conversation?" Ms. Tolson said. "It seems like you were holding an actual conversation with it."


    "I was," Lucius said. "It is as intelligent as us, and it can communicate pretty well."


    "Interesting," Ms. Tolson said. "Anyway, have fun with your pet. I need to check up on the other students."


    The rabbit hopped on Lucius'' head. The class didn''t seem to be doing anything, so Lucius turned his mind to the real world.


    <hr>


    Lucius immediately went to the school bathroom and checked his neck. There was the identical scar on his neck. By puffing down his hood, he was able to hide it.


    "So, this is your world," Eza said.


    "You can look through my eyes?" Lucius asked.


    "Yeah. As long as you allow me to, I can."


    After ensuring that his scar couldn''t be seen, he left his classroom and headed back to class.


    "Your world is very different from mine," Eza noted.


    "It''s very," Lucius agreed. "In this world, there''s no such thing as magic. We have to rely on our own hands and tools to get things done."


    "That... sounds pleasant," Eza said. "Where are you right now?"


    "A school," Lucius said. "It''s also very different compared to schools in your world. Since we don''t really use weapons like swords and magic, we don''t learn that in school. We learn the fundamentals: math, science, history, language, and other peaceful things."


    "Aren''t there conflicts?"


    "Yeah, but it never happens with the kids. If we want to learn how to fight and handle weapons, we have to be a lot older and then take proper training outside of school."


    "Your world seems... peaceful."


    "Compared to yours, it is," Lucius admitted. "There aren''t any extremely scary animals in this world, and the only intelligent race is humans."


    Soon, the final bell rang. Lucius grabbed his bag and headed home. His mom and sister were supposed to come home today.


    "Eza?" Lucius asked. "Can you explain how the mark thing works and our bond?"


    "Sure," Eza replied. "We are able to communicate like this from basically anywhere, and we can share each other''s senses and feelings. Most beasts can''t do this, but the intelligent ones like me can..."


    A ball of light began to appear next to Lucius. It slowly molded itself into a particular winged bunny. "...can teleport straight to our owner."


    "Eza?" Lucius asked in wonder. The bunny nodded and hopped into Lucius'' arms. It even had the same bandages that were wrapped around the wounds. Its wings shrunk into the bunny until it was indistinguishable from any normal bunny. "You can enter this world?"


    "Yes. However, unlike you, I don''t exist in both at the same time. It must be very confusing to be in both at once."


    "No. I''m quite good at multitasking, so while it was really hard to work out at first, I eventually got used to it. Also, how old are you? You seem very mature," Lucius asked.


    "In human years, it would be about seventeen years. Our years are much longer, so I would be about eight years. We live for about fifty years if we have a healthy life."


    Lucius sighed. "It''s still a wonder how someone like me managed to befriend something."


    Eza didn''t reply. But Lucius felt something from her that made Lucius feel happy.


    <hr>


    Lucius headed out of the school and into the forest. He threw a Transportation Gem at his feet and headed back to Baylight.


    Once he got there, Eza teleported over to Lucius and hopped into his arms. Lucius headed over to his house. He opened the wooden door.


    "Hello!" Lucius called out. He heard the familiar heavy footsteps from down the hall.


    "Lucius!" Luna greeted.


    Lucius sat down and sighed. "Ah, it feels good to be home."


    Luna sat down. She saw the winged bunny on Lucius'' lap. "Did you tame that?"


    "Not exactly, but it seems to have taken a liking to me," Lucius said while petting Eza. "Her name is Eza and actually has the same intelligence as us. It hates magic, so I guess it would be fine living here. By the way, Eza, this is a town that composes only beastmen. I founded this when I first came to this world."


    "That''s nice," Eza said. She hopped over on Luna''s lap and snuggled there.


    "How did you manage to befriend it?" Luna asked.


    "It was being attacked by a hawk, so I saved it. After I got it bandaged up and it just stuck with me," Lucius explained. Then, he looked around the room. "Hmm... this room could use some refurnishing." The chairs were showing signs of deterioration and parts of the table were breaking off. "I''ll work on that soon."


    Lucius and Luna went outside.


    "Whoa, you guys did a lot while I was gone," Lucius exclaimed as he looked at the village. Trees were being grown on the sides of pathways, watchtowers were being thrown up, and more facilities were being made. It was generally beginning to look nice.


    "Yeah," Luna said. "After our war, the residents got really motivated and just started making Baylight look like an actual town."


    Then they went into the secret garden. The mini dams were holding up and were sending a steady amount of water into the plants. The plants were full grown and were blossoming with plants.


    "Balos and I have been maintaining the fruits while you were gone," Luna said. "They''ve been growing nicely for a while now. The only problem is that we have to consume them before they rot. Normally, people would just use magic to preserve them, but we can''t. So, we''ve just been gifting them to villagers and making sure they don''t go to waste."


    "Hm... in my world, we have this thing called refrigerators that use cold to preserve things. I might try to make one, but it''s going to take a while. In the meantime, just give them out as gifts. The plants are probably growing way more than we need."


    "Alright," Luna said. They headed back.


    "We build another storage to hold the things that the Royal Slimes have been finding at the bottom of Sorus Bay. The number of things down there is immense. We''ve found... actually, it would be better just to show you."


    Luna led Lucius to a large wood storage. It didn''t have a door, so they just walked in.


    There was a number of Orbs that were stashed up in an improvised container. Lucius estimated that there were about five hundred Orbs.


    But the main attraction was the amount of stuff piled up. There were weapons of many kinds, equipment, crystals, and much more. They were clearly attempted to be organized, but there was still a mound of things.


    "Wow," Lucius muttered in amazement. "That really is a lot amount of stuff."


    "No kidding," Luna said.


    Lucius went and dug around. In the crystal box, he found so many crystals that he didn''t know about. He recognized a bunch of them, but at that time, he realized what he knew was lacking.


    He found armor that would fit many different sizes, but Lucius didn''t really have a need for them. He would do a lot of his fighting at a long range anyway. The weapons consisted of many swords, but again, Lucius would do a lot of his fighting at a long range and already had a great sword.


    Lucius didn''t find many things that he could use well, but he did find a small container of seeds.


    Hm... I wonder what these could grow? Lucius wondered. He took it with him.


    "Luna?" Lucius called out to her, who was digging around in the equipment piles. She poked her head up. "Before you leave, I think it would be a good idea to bring the box of Orbs to our house. Someone might come along and take them. I''ll be going on ahead."


    "Alright," Luna said and continued her scavenging.


    Lucius went out and went back to the house. There, he grabbed his hoe and shovel and went out.


    He put the container of seeds on the ground and took some more from his pocket. When he was inside the forest, he found a number of seeds and decided to take them.


    Time to figure out what these do, Lucius thought. He started to claw out rows in the ground to plant, but changed his mind. Chances are, half of these seeds are going to blow up or something, Lucius thought grimly. He couldn''t trust the seeds in a different world.


    So, he spaced out the seeds a few yards from each other and planted them in small craters. It was backbreaking work as he had to dig out every crater, but he got it done.


    After he finished planting the seeds, he watered all of them and sat down.


    "Whew," Lucius exhaled. He sat there, resting, before getting back up and entering his house. He flicked on his small lights and sat down.


    Eza was fast asleep on Lucius'' bed. He made a small smile.


    Hm... storing food... how would I make something that functions like a refrigerator? Lucius wondered. I doubt a Cold Crystal exists because cold doesn''t really exist, but... hmmmm...


    Lucius had a plan for the exterior. Using the internet, he found that using glass would be the best way to keep the box cold. He could cover the glass with wood or metal to keep light from warming up the box.


    But still, Lucius doubted that perfect insulation existed, even in this world. He couldn''t think of anything that would constantly emit coldness to cool down his little box.


    Then Lucius remembered his katana.


    He walked to it and picked it up. Unsheathing it, he pressed one of the buttons to get part of the sword cold.


    Lucius tapped the cold blade. Lucius gauged that it was around thirty to forty degrees (Fahrenheit), which would be enough to cool a fridge.


    But he needed the sword. He wasn''t planning to just keep it lodged in a box for the rest of its life.


    Stumped, Lucius went to sleep.

 Chapter 28

    Now to figure out how I''m going to hide this tattoo, Lucius thought as he looked into the mirror. If people find out, there''s going to be a lot of commotion from everyone.


    He tried puffing up his clothes in a way that would hide the tattoo, but after moving for a little bit, it would just fall back down to reveal the tattoo again.


    Why couldn''t the tattoo be somewhere that''s less obvious? Lucius sighed. Maybe on my arm or leg or somewhere that I could easily hide.


    Another idea came to mind. He went into his mom''s room and grabbed some of her makeup that was a similar color to his skin tone. He applied it over the tattoo, hiding it.


    Well, that worked pretty well, Lucius said. I should take some with me just in case. He divided what he could into an empty makeup tin and put a small brush inside. He dropped it into a plastic bag and stuck it into his pocket.


    Eza was resting on his bed, staring at Lucius while he was concealing his tattoo. "What are you doing?" She asked.


    "Tattoos are not natural things in this world," Lucius said. "In fact, my family or I could be arrested if they found out I have a tattoo. That''s why I''m keeping it hidden until I turn eighteen next year."


    "That''s a good idea. Sorry that I put the mark in such an obvious spot," Eza apologized.


    "It''s no problem. I only need to conceal if for around a year," Lucius said. "Wanna come meet my family?"


    "Sure," Eza said and hopped to Lucius.


    They went out to the kitchen, where his sister and his mom were eating breakfast.


    "Mornin''," his mom said through a mouthful of food.


    "Good morning," Lucius said. He seemed like the only one that was awake. His sister had dark bags under her eyes and his mom looked like she wanted to go back to sleep after she ate. "I got a pet yesterday."


    "Can you take care of it without making a big mess?" His mother asked.


    "Yup! It won''t be hard!" Lucius responded.


    Especially since it''s intelligent and I can properly communicate with it, Lucius gladly thought.


    Lucius set it down and went and grabbed breakfast. When he looked back, it looked like his sister found some joy in it. She was petting it while eating, and it didn''t look like Eza minded.


    Lucius smiled.


    After he ate his breakfast, he went on his computer. He loaded up one of his games, a sci-fi first-person shooter. He didn''t play many video games, but he did pay occasionally.


    As he was playing, he thought about how the technology worked. Ammo was a big restriction in combat, and reloading wasted a lot of precious time.


    It would be really cool if I could make a weapon that didn''t rely on ammo, Lucius thought. He was thinking about it when an idea sparked in his head.


    He quit his game and grabbed a piece of paper and pencil.


    For the bullet part, I could have a Mana Crystal absorb a crystal, then put an AE Crystal on another end. It would launch it at a high velocity. I don''t need to shoot crystals; I could fire what the expel, Lucius thought as he sketched a design for it. I can figure out what crystal it would absorb later.


    For the body, I could use Brightmetal-if I have any. If I want a strong weapon, I could make multiple barrels since all that would be inside the barrel would be an AE Crystal. I could make something where the Mana Crystal would be spinning pretty quick and constant so it would be automatic. It would be too wide for a normal gun, so I could make it into an arm cannon.


    For the inner mechanisms, I could have an AE Crystal in each of the barrels and Mana Crystals right behind all of the AE Crystals. To keep it spinning, I could... uh... erm.... make a continuous circuit with crystals to keep them all spinning. If I want to use it, I could pull a string or something that would spin a Mana Crystal infused with a Wind Crystal, then that would hit an AE Crystal which would hit two crystals. One would be the Mana Crystal in charge of producing the bullets, the other could be facing the opposite direction. It would be a Mana Crystal with another Wind Crystal that would turn the starting Mana Crystal, and the cycle would just repeat itself. Yeah, that should work. Might work, Lucius theorized.


    I''ll just set these aside for now, Lucius thought. Making a refrigerator should be top priority right now. He grabbed more paper.


    "Eza?" Lucius asked. She was still being hogged by Lucius'' little sister.


    "Yes?"


    "Is there such thing as something that cools down the place around it? Something like ice that won''t melt."


    "Let me think," she said. She went quiet for a little bit. In the meantime, Lucius on his computer and searched up how fridges worked.


    But it was confusing. It was by far the most confusing topic he tried to wrap his mind around. It didn''t matter how many times he read a page over or how many web pages he went to, he couldn''t understand it. However, he did find that silver is an extremely good conductor of heat.


    "There is the fang of the snow baboon that is constantly radiating chills, even after it is removed from the body. There is also an ore called Cooling Ore that will cool down its atmosphere at a crazy extent. If you rest it outside, say, at around fifty degrees, it will drop the temperature to around ten degrees." Eza finally responded.


    (AN: Note, this is in Fahrenheit.)


    "Ooh. Where could I get that?" Lucius asked.


    "Most alchemy shops sell it," Eza said. "Also, the school can probably loan you some if you can''t get your hands on any, but I recommend you go to shops if you want a new one."


    "Alright. I''ll head there soon," Lucius said. He finished the design for the fridge.


    It would be encased in a layer of wood, and underneath would be a thick layer of Blackmetal. Two side walls would have indentations that would contain a total of two Cooling Ores that will bring the temperature down. Lucius figured that it would be enough to keep food from perishing.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Lucius set the papers in front of him and turned his attention to Zenos.


    <hr>


    Lucius woke up and went straight to his workshop. He looked at what materials he had. He about seventeen chunks of Blackmetal, and he estimated that it would only be enough for about one side of the fridge. He needed a lot more, plus, he also needed Cooling Ores. He also wanted to start building his weapon, so he needed more materials.


    He headed to the storehouse and dug around to see if he could scavenge any materials. He dug around in a bin full of crystals, being especially careful not to break any of them, and found useful things. He found plenty of Mana Crystals, Wind Crystals, AE Crystals; he had enough to finish a prototype and a final design. Digging around in another bin, he found a few pieces of what he thought were Blackmetal, but it still wasn''t enough. Wood wasn''t a problem, as the town still had a massive stockpile from clearing out the forest before the Voxis Kingdom waged war.


    After depositing all the useful materials in an empty bin, he grunted as he lifted the box up and carried it to his workshop.


    Making wheels would be extremely good, Lucius thought as he began to just drag the box. I feel like making something like a bearing would be weird. And difficult.


    As he dragged along, he passed by the mysterious seeds that he found. They finished sprouting and it seemed like they were growing at a slow yet steady pace.


    Careful not to drag his cargo over the plants, he made his way to the workshop. He slid open the door and set the box down. Wiping the sweat from his face, he grabbed his pistol, katana, his pack, a decent amount of money, and left. He grabbed two pre-imbued Transportation Gems- one led to Trupe City, the other lead back to Baylight- and cracked one at his feet. He was engulfed in blue smoke as he was transported to Trupe City.


    Once it cleared, Lucius got his bearings on where he was and headed to Market Square. He arrived and looked around for an alchemist shop. He found one and entered.


    The interior looked like a witch house. There was a big cauldron, potions of multicolored liquids; anything that you would think that would be in a witch shop. Lucius carefully looked for the Cooling Ores.


    After browsing the sections, he found them. There were several pieces of Cooling Ore with the price of twenty-five Orbs each.


    That''s actually pretty expensive, Lucius thought grimly as he grabbed two off the shelf. He looked at more shelves for Blackmetal.


    He quickly found them amongst other metals, such as Brightmetal, Steel, and common iron. Unlike the Cooling Ores, Blackmetal was much cheaper. They were only five Orbs for a decent size ore. Lucius grabbed a bunch of those. He also grabbed alloyed Brightmetal, which cost more, but Lucius needed them.


    He paid, put the ores in his pack, and left the shop. His pack was heavy from the ores, but he wouldn''t have to walk far. Just far enough to use the Transportation Orb without being seen.


    Lucius approached to gate to the forest. The guards were monitoring the crowd that was both entering and leaving. The guards winked at Lucius, as he was the one that took down the Grade B monster, and let him through. Once he was a distance away from the city, he threw the Transportation Gem at his feet.


    <hr>


    Lucius headed to his workshop with his materials and set them down. He removed everything from the pack and set it out on a table.


    In total, he had enough ores to build the fridge and had enough Brightmetal to build a prototype for his new weapon, if his estimates were accurate.


    Without further time to waste, Lucius began the build the fridge. He lit a fire, tossed in some Fire Crystals and stabbed the heated edge of his katana in to get an extremely hot fire, and put the Blackmetal in a Brightmetal container to melt.


    Once it was a raging goopy inferno, he carefully removed it from the heat and poured it into a rectangle of extremely damp dirt.


    Unlike normal dirt, the dirt on Zenos was far more resilient and didn''t start combusting if it was heated to high temperatures. It was able to hold molten Blacksteel until it cooled. He repeated this process to form two squares and four rectangles of molten Blacksteel.


    He couldn''t do anything with it while it cooled, so he moved his focus to the Brightmetal. He had no idea how he was going to shape the metal into an arm cannon. He had the shape, but there was no way to make the shape; he wasn''t skilled enough with metal to do it, plus he didn''t have the proper tools.


    Lucius went outside to take a breather, making sure to keep the door open, and thought of some ideas.


    He could dig an indentation in the ground and fill it with molten Brightmetal. However, it would take a really long time to dig out the indentation he wanted.


    So, he just worked on the inner mechanics. After spending some time cooling outside, Lucius went back inside the heated workshop and dug some materials out.


    On a slab of wood, he began laying out the innards. Three AE Crystals spread an equal distance apart with an empty Mana Crystal behind them. He put another empty Mana Crystal next to it and put the Wind Crystals into position.


    The final layout wasn''t that big, but it was a lot bigger than what Lucius planned out. Along with the shell, it would be massive and bulky to wear and use.


    So, Lucius spent the next hour experimenting with different setups for the crystals. It took some time, but he got the layout tighter and more compact by tinkering with the Mana Crystals.


    It turned out that the Mana Crystals were highly moldable. Lucius was actually able to cut and reshape the crystal using his katana, and after letting it absorb a crystal, it produced the same effect. Since most of the mechanics relied on Mana Crystals, the bulk of the innards were just those.


    However, he couldn''t infuse an AE Crystal with a Mana Crystal. The Mana Crystal would just shatter in his face when it tried, so he gave up on that. Nonetheless, he managed to get it to a decent size that wouldn''t be too heavy or awkward if he got the shell big enough.


    Whew, Lucius thought as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. The cooling metals were beginning to harden, but it still dumped loads of heat into the workshop. Lucius thought of making an entire new ventilated room for cooling metals so that the main part wouldn''t become an oven. Now for the biggest challenge. How am I going to mold metal into a shape so specific?


    He pondered it for a while before an idea sparked.


    Why don''t I just go to a blacksmith or something and have them make it for me? Lucius thought. They can probably make one without problem since they have magic and the proper tools at their disposal.


    Lucius drew the design on a scrap of wood and headed down to the village. Most of the population was out, running shops or working. It was nearly noon.


    Lucius headed to the blacksmith that Talis owned, the beast man that gave Lucius the piece of Brightmetal. He opened the door, felt the familiar heat blast, and entered.


    "Ah, Lucius!" Talis called out. He was tending the fire with an air pump and adding fuel. "What can I do for you today?"


    "I was hoping that you could turn a piece of Brightmetal into a quite complicated shape for me," Lucius asked. He showed Talis the design.


    "It might be doable..." Talis said as he looked at the designs and measurements. "No, never mind. Not for me at least. I don''t have the proper tools to make something that small with those holes."


    "Alright," Lucius said. "Sorry for taking your time."


    "No problem," Talis said as Lucius was leaving. "Hey, make sure you bring some of those tasty fruits over sometime!"


    Lucius cracked a big smile. "Don''t worry, I will!"


    Lucius went and grabbed his gun. He would take his katana, but it was currently covered in molten metal. He couldn''t bring it with him before cleaning.


    He grabbed some orbs and threw a Transportation Gem at his feet. He was transported back to Trupe City.


    Back here again, Lucius thought and headed to Market Square. He headed to the shop "SMITHING AND METALS" and pushed open the door.


    "Oh, it''s you again!" The clerk said and waved. "The only one that returned conscious after the Grade B monster attacked."


    "Is that known everywhere now?" Lucius groaned.


    "Pretty much," she said. "Don''t tell anyone that I told you this, but there is another rumor about how you were the one that injured everyone, killed the Grade B monster, and used magic to escape with it."


    "That''s a load of horse shit. I can''t even use magic!" Lucius exclaimed.


    The clerk laughed, but abruptly stopped when she realized that Lucius was serious. "For real?"


    "Yeah," Lucius said. "I have zero magic power, and I''m not even exaggerating."


    "Well... that puts a new light on things," the clerk said. "Where did the beast go then?"


    "I''m not sure," Lucius lied. "I left to tell the guards in a rush, but I didn''t take anything with me."


    "Oh," the clerk said and scratched her chin. "Anyway, what can I do for you?"


    "I want a design like this made," Lucius said and handed her the paper. She looked it over.


    "This is odd, but I can make it pretty quick. How soon do you want it?"


    "As soon as possible. How fast do you think you can make it?"


    "In a few hours," she said. "Are you supplying the materials?"


    "Yeah," Lucius said and pulled out the alloyed Brightmetal. "Would this be enough?"


    "Plenty," the clerk said. "That reduces the cost and my troubles greatly, so thanks."


    Lucius paid in advance.


    "Thank you," she said as she slid the orbs in a drawer. "I recommend you don''t wander off far because it won''t take long."


    "Alright," Lucius said. "I''ll see you then!" He left the shop and went around.


    He ended up in a library and read about many things while he waited.

 Chapter 29

    <div>


    Just as the clerk predicted, the shell was completed in three hours. Lucius walked in with the shell gleaming on the counter.


    <div>


    "Nice," Lucius said. He walked over and picked it up.


    <div>


    It had a shiny, smooth texture to it. It had no jagged edges, and when Lucius slid it over his arm, it fit perfectly. It was about the size of an oversized glove with three holes in the front. It curved over his fingers to protect them. There was space where he could slide in his innards mechanics, so he estimated that everything would fit.


    <div>


    "Why is it so light?" Lucius asked as he waved it up and down as if it was just part of his sleeve.


    <div>


    "Oh, I infused the Brightmetal with another ore that was much lighter, but not nearly as hard," the clerk said. "You shouldn''t worry about the hardness of it. It would still be hard enough to block several hundred sword strikes," she reassured. "Since the holes made it look like you were going to use it as a gauntlet, it was going to be pretty heavy if it just consisted of Brightmetal."


    <div>


    "That''s awesome," Lucius said and removed it from his wrist. "Do you want extra money for that?"


    <div>


    "Nah," she said. "Just let me keep the rest of the Brightmetal. Those scraps could be useful for projects that don''t require an entire ore."


    <div>


    "Sure sure," Lucius said. "Fine with me. Anyway, thanks for the help!"


    <div>


    "No problem," she said as Lucius left. "Come again!"


    <div>


    Lucius carried the shell outside and headed to the gates. He got a lot of curious looks, so he quickly left the city. He got to the green outskirts and threw a Transportation Gem at his feet.


    <hr>


    <div>


    Lucius carried the shell back into his workshop and gently set it down on the table. He checked up on his metal, which hardened but was still extremely hot. Lucius planned to set it to cool overnight.


    <div>


    He grabbed a sheet of metal from one of his previous projects and began to finalize the inner mechanics. He infused two of the shaped Mana Crystals with Wind Crystals, used sap to glue them on, and glued the AE Crystals to it.


    <div>


    Then he ran into a problem. He didn''t have an idea what he could shoot. The Wind Crystal would just be annoying, the Thunder Crystal would electrocute him, the Fire Crystal would just turn it into a short-ranged flamethrower, and so on. He had to be creative.


    <div>


    However, creativity was failing him at the moment. Lucius was tired from running back and forth getting things, so he decided to take a from hand-cramping labor.


    <div>


    I wonder what happens if I combine Blast Crystals with a Mana Crystal? I probably should figure that out. Heck, there are a lot of things I need to try with crystals. I should do that.


    <div>


    He dug around in his box of crystals and brought out tons of them; some of which he didn''t even recognize. He set aside any of the crystals which he knew what it would do if he let a Mana Crystal absorb it and focused on the new ones.


    <div>


    First, he tested the Light Crystal. He set the two crystals next to each other watching them meld together. Then, he propped it on a tripod and carefully spun it.


    <div>


    It did what he predicted. It emitted a small amount of light that steadily increased the faster he spun it.


    <div>


    This could be useful for making an adjustable lightbulb, Lucius thought and set it aside.


    <div>


    He was looking through his crystals when he noticed something. There was a crystal that looked similar to a Blast Crystal, but it had a much richer color and had a small, glowing, orange pulse in the center.


    <div>


    Hm... what''s this? Lucius asked as he examined it. I should probably ask Luna or Balos about this, along with the other crystals I found.


    <div>


    Lucius gathered up the crystals and went out to find them. He found Balos on the edge of the forest, hacking away at the trees.


    <div>


    "Hey, Balos!" Lucius called out. Balos nodded toward him. "Can you help me identify these crystals?"


    <div>


    "Sure," Balos said and sheathed his sword. He walked over.


    <div>


    When he caught sight of the Blast Crystal, his eyes glistened.


    <div>


    "It has been a while since I''ve seen a tier two Blast Crystal," Balos said. "Unlike common Blast Crystals, tier two is much more useful for weapon crafting. If you break it, it will make a pretty big explosion. But the more useful use is if you let a Mana Crystal absorb it. You can control the crystal to do what you want it to do, minus some limitations based on the crystal."


    <div>


    Lucius was confused. "What?"


    <div>


    "Let''s say you want the crystal to emit a steady stream of fire when you rotate it," Balos explained. "You would put a small drop of blood on it and state what effect you want. If you did it correctly, your blood should get absorbed and emit what you want it to do. High tier crystals allow you to have more control over it."


    <div>


    "That is really convenient," Lucius said.


    <div>


    Balos identified the rest of the crystals, proving them to have useful effects. There were a few other tier two crystals amongst the pile.


    <div>


    "By the way, what happened to the soldiers from Voxis Kingdom?" Lucius asked. "I forgot to ask."


    <div>


    "Oh, they went to be a spy in Poris Kingdom," Balos said. "They have proven to be quite useful for that. So far, the Queen hasn''t announced anything about Baylight."


    <div>


    "That''s good to hear," Lucius said. "The last thing we need right now is another war."


    <div>


    Lucius left Balos with his training and went back to his workshop.


    <div>


    Now to see how this works, Lucius thought and combined it with a Mana Crystal. He gingerly poked his finger, drawing blood out. He let it fall onto the crystal.


    <div>


    How would you describe the motion of a bullet firing? Lucius thought about it. He envisioned a bolt firing from the crystal and when it hit the target, it would explode.


    <div>


    Suddenly, the blood on the crystal crackled and was sucked into the crystal. Lucius flinched back and looked at it.


    <div>


    Huh? Did it work without me saying anything? Lucius thought and picked up the crystal. One of the ends seemed flattened while the other was sharper. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    <div>


    Let''s see what happens when I spin it. Lucius turned crystal horizontally and spun it.


    <div>


    From the sharper end came a red bolt streaking out, and when it collided with a tree, it detonated and obliterated the tree.


    <div>


    Oookay... Lucius thought. This is a bit much. This is more like a missile than a bullet. I could make a missile attachment to the main body though.


    <div>


    Among the pile was a couple tier two Wind Crystal. Lucius knew what to do with them.


    <div>


    He dropped his blood on all three and thought about what he wanted. A solid wind bullet would fly out of the crystal extremely quick that would hit the target with insane velocity.


    <div>


    The crystals simultaneously crackled and abided to Lucius'' wish.


    <div>


    If it''s like this, then I have no need for the AE Crystals, Lucius thought.


    <div>


    He had to completely redesign his circuit, but after two hours of tinkering with it, he figured it out. He added a trigger that would control when the crystal would start to spin. If he depressed the trigger, it would start spinning the Mana Crystal and fire off shots. Once he released it, it would stop the spinning and thus stop the firing.


    <div>


    He slid it into the shell and held the trigger. He could hear the hum of the Mana Crystals all spinning.


    <div>


    Then, out of the three barrels, bullets began to fly out non-stop. It was quite inaccurate and the bullets did not have that much impact strength, but it was enough to shred the trees to bits.


    <div>


    "It worked!" Lucius yelled out. This is absolutely strong. If I put the Blast Crystal attachment to it, I don''t think this is beatable.


    <div>


    Lucius had a lot more ideas for attachments, but he put those on hold. He was exhilarated with the success of the creation and had to show someone.


    <div>


    He ran around to find Balos, who was resting on a demolished stump.


    <div>


    "Balos!" Lucius said. "I finished my new weapon!"


    <div>


    He looked amused at the massive metal fist on Lucius'' arm. "Let''s see it in action."


    <div>


    Lucius grinned and raised his gun to the forest. He pressed the trigger.


    <div>


    Instantly, the sound of wood breaking was heard. The bullets flew straight from the barrel and smashed into the trees.


    <div>


    After nearly thirty seconds of firing, he could feel the crystal spinning faster and faster, and the bullet speed began to increase. The slight recoil of the gun became stronger and stronger.


    <div>


    Hm... this is feeling a little dangerous, Lucius thought. I wonder if this could brea--


    <div>


    Suddenly, Lucius could hear the audible sound of a crystal cracking.


    <div>


    Shi--


    <div>


    The sound of a crystal shattering was audible. The inner mechanics stopped spinning.


    <div>


    "Uh..." Lucius said and slid the weapon off his hand. "That wasn''t supposed to happen."


    <div>


    "I can see that," Balos said with an amused smile on his face. "Still, that was quite impressive. Is that weapon concept something of your world?"


    <div>


    "Nope," Lucius said. "Making something like this in my world isn''t possible."


    <div>


    "I see," Balos said. "Is it similar to your guns?"


    <div>


    "It uses similar concepts, but I took it to a whole new level," Lucius said while he cleaned off the debris inside the gun. The crystal that broke was only one of the crystals that would keep the circuit running, not the crystals that were in charge of firing bullets. It would be an easy repair, but it was unsettling.


    <div>


    That means I can''t just keep firing this thing, Lucius thought. I guess it has to have a drawback. I wonder if I can figure out a way to keep the rotation in check. But for now, I guess I can live with this.


    <div>


    Lucius sighed and sat down on the damp grass. "So, how is Baylight coming along?"


    <div>


    "It is peaceful at the moment," Balos said. "But I fear that the war will only cause more hostility between us and the outside world. I assume news of Baylight has already reached most of the world, so be careful when you are out there. People don''t talk about us in the friendliest of manners."


    <div>


    "I''ll be careful," Lucius said. "At least, I''ll try to be careful."


    <div>


    "That''s good," Balos nodded. "And try not to reveal your weapons and technology too often. Because when people see it, they make connections. When they make connections, they will most likely recognize you. That''s when trouble starts."


    <div>


    Man, Balos is really concerned about my safety, Lucius thought.


    <div>


    "Now, in terms of the actual town, the population is increasing. It is a good thing, but housing is starting to become a problem. I and a few other people were thinking about demolishing parts of the wall to expand."


    <div>


    "That would work," Lucius said. "But couldn''t we build houses over the water? There isn''t a wall that blocks off Baylight from Sorus Bay."


    <div>


    "I haven''t thought of that," Balos said. "But there are problems with that. Wood that sits on the water will quickly decay, and stone will sink. Unless you can think of some clever way to keep the material either afloat or not decay, then that will prove the be quite a problem."


    <div>


    "True," Lucius admitted. "For now, I guess we could break and reuse the wall. But that¡¯s going to leave an opportunity for people to sneak in. We have to be really quick if we want to be safe."


    <div>


    "Don''t worry," Balos said. "I''ll have a team of people scouting for outsiders. We should be safe..." He frowned and looked into the forest.


    <div>


    "What is it?" Lucius asked.


    <div>


    "Nothing... I thought I saw something move," Balos said. "Probably just a wild animal."


    <div>


    "Mhmm. Well, I guess you should start with the construction as soon as you can," Lucius said. "The sooner the better."


    <div>


    "Might as well start now then," Balos said and got up. "I''ll gather the crew to start up."


    <div>


    "Alright," Lucius said. "I probably should repair this. After, I''ll come and help out."


    <div>


    They parted ways. Lucius headed back to his workshop and fixed the crystal. Then, he checked up on the metal.


    <div>


    It was still hot, but it was workable. Lucius grabbed a rod and jammed it under the sheet and plied it out of the ground. Using a glove, he brushed off the dirt the best he could and leaned it against a wall.


    <div>


    When he finished, he was ended up with the sheets of metal where one side was flat while the other had several dirt spots, but Lucius didn''t mind. He was planning to encase the final design in wood so his fingers wouldn''t freeze when he touched it.


    <div>


    Using a mallet, he carefully hammered out a small indent in two of the long slabs of metal and fit the Cooling Ores in them to cool them quicker. Then, he started to assemble the structure.


    <div>


    He mixed a mud-sap mixture and glued the pieces together. Everything went somewhat smoothly until it came to the last part: the door.


    <div>


    Lucius had no way to make a hinge, so he used his old ideas for doors. It didn''t take long for his idea to take shape.


    <div>


    After he was satisfied with the functionality with the door, he glued on the wood and cleaned it up. The finished result was satisfactory; it didn''t look half bad and it worked well. It leaked some cold, but it was bearable. Inside, the temperature was quite similar feeling to fridges on Earth.


    <div>


    Lucius crafted some small platforms for shelves and slid them into the fridge. He shut the door and looked at it, proud of himself.


    <div>


    Two great inventions in one day, Lucius thought. What a great day. It took me about three hours to finish, but hey.


    <div>


    He grunted and shifted it over to the corner of his workshop and put in a strawberry.


    <div>


    Time to see if this works, Lucius thought.


    <div>


    Then, he went and helped out Balos. Most of the wall was taken down already and was being assembled out. Wood piled lay throughout the site and more of the scales were being plated onto the wall.


    <div>


    "Wow. Things are coming along fast," Lucius said to one of the wolfmen.


    <div>


    "Yeah," he replied. "Taking down the wall was simple enough. Rebuilding is going to take a bit though, so we have quite a lot of security around. So far, we haven''t seen anyone."


    <div>


    "That''s great!" Lucius exclaimed. "Anyway, where can I help out?"


    <div>


    They went off, but they failed to notice something.


    <div>


    Four shadows dashed into Baylight undetected.

 Chapter 30

    One moment Lucius was happily doing labor work. The next moment consisted of explosions.


    Hm? Did something go wrong with the construction? Lucius wondered as he put down a mallet that he was working with.


    Something was clearly amiss. There was a moment of confusion as people began to stop working and look around.


    Then, there was lots of shouting.


    ¡°There¡¯s a fire at the main house!¡± someone yelled. Lucius whipped his head in the direction of his house.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Balos yelled and yanked Lucius to his feet. ¡°Something is wrong! That is not an ordinary fire!¡±


    ¡°Magic?¡± Lucius said as they sprinted back to the house.


    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure,¡± Balos said. He held a big, rudimentary metal hammer that the slimes put together quick. ¡°However, I¡¯m not exactly sure what happened. Someone trying to sabotage?¡±


    When they arrived at the big house, Luna was already there, putting out the fire.


    ¡°Luna! What happened?!¡± Balos said as he observed his surroundings.


    When she turned to face them, she was clearly injured. Cuts ran along her body, and her breaths were ragged. She collapsed to the floor, panting hard. Lucius rushed over and helped her up.


    ¡°People... people somehow snuck into here and set it on fire...¡± She feebly said. ¡°I was taken by surprised. The best I could do was lock them in the basement and cover it with heavy stuff.


    The basement... that¡¯s where my fruits are! ¡°Are they still in there?!¡± Mute asked.


    ¡°They should be...¡± Luna winced.


    ¡°Balos! Get the Royal Slimes to me A.S.A.P.!¡±


    ¡°I cannot leave you two alone!¡± Balos argued.


    ¡°Hurry! I can defend myself!¡± Lucius said. ¡°If they break out of the basement, it will become much harder!¡±


    ¡°...Understood,¡± Balos said and rushed off.


    A few moments later, a large group of Royal Slimes came rushing up the hill.


    ¡°I need you guys to rush into Sorus Bay and find these indents in the wall in this are in around this area,¡± Lucius said as he gestured to the bay. ¡°Swim in, and push on these things that stop the water from going in. Then swim the hell out before you get sucked in. Got it?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± The Royal Slimes collectively said before they rushed off.


    Other beastmen were running toward Lucius. He waved them over. ¡°Help me get everything out of the house! We need to hurry!¡±


    They all jumped to it. They pulled out chairs, tables, beds, and anything else that wasn¡¯t attached to the floor. Within minutes, everything was pulled out.


    Then, Balos dropped a whole bookcase on top of another bookcase that covered up the entrance to the basement. ¡°This should stop them from coming out. Are you going to let them drown?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know...¡± Lucius said. ¡°It seems so inhumane to do that.¡±The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°Then what else do you propose?¡±


    ¡°Um... how about letting them go unconscious then getting them up here?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s still technically drowning,¡± Balos said and raised an eyebrow.


    ¡°Well, at least they won''t die from that,¡± Lucius said.


    There was loud pounding that could be heard from the basement.


    ¡°Lucius! Get away from the basement!¡± Eza urgently yelled in his head.


    ¡°Get away from the basement!¡± Lucius screamed and jumped back along with several beastmen.


    There was a high-pitched whistle in the air¡ªand the bookcases exploded.


    Balos thrust Lucius behind him. ¡°Where are your weapons?¡±


    ¡°In the workshop,¡± Lucius shakily replied.


    ¡°Go get them,¡± Balos said. ¡°We¡¯ll hold them off, but they are magic users. Luna is injured. We need your help.¡±


    ¡°Got it,¡± Lucius said. ¡°Just... please don¡¯t die.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t plan to,¡± Balos smirked.


    Lucius sprinted off. His workshop seemed untouched, as it was a quite a distance from his house.


    He burst the door open and grabbed his katana. He quickly strapped it to his back. He grabbed his two handguns in their holsters and belted them on. He was about to leave when he remembered something.


    His newest weapon. The metaphorical ¡°Fist of Death.¡±


    Lucius fitted his hand into it, then ran out.


    He could hear fighting. Loud clangs rang out that pierced the air, and wails were heard. He doubled his pace.


    He approached the house quickly, but at the same time a figure crashed through the wall and collapsed on top of Lucius.


    It was Balos. He had cuts and injuries throughout his body.


    ¡°Balos!¡± Lucius screamed. ¡°Are you okay?!¡±


    His eyes cracked open. ¡°They are strong... you must run...¡±


    ¡°Shh, don¡¯t waste your energy speaking,¡± Lucius said.


    ¡°Oh, there you are,¡± a voice said from the house. Lucius looked up.


    ¡°What the hell did you do?¡± Lucius yelled at them.


    ¡°Oh, nothing much,¡± the voice said as they stepped out of the shadows. They wore black cloaks that concealed their whole body. ¡°We¡¯ve been ordered not to kill anyone, but to bring you back. If you come with us peacefully, you probably won¡¯t get killed.¡±


    ¡°Like hell I will,¡± Lucius growled. He stood up, gently rested Balos on the ground, and aimed his fist at them.


    ¡°Hm? What does tha--¡±


    Lucius pulled the trigger. There was a quick hum, then a barrage of wind bullets appeared.


    It immediately shredded three of the people to bits. The last two had quick reflexes and put up a magic shield that was able to block the wind bullets but immobilized them from using any other magic.


    With his free hand, he pulled the katana from his back and pressed both of the buttons on the hilt. The top of the katana began to glow red and it unlatched.


    I need to finish this up quick before my gauntlet breaks again! Lucius thought.


    He began to swing the katana in a circular motion to get as much momentum as he could. Then, he whipped his arm back and lashed it forward.


    The sword whipped forward and smashed right through one of the magic shields and stabbed someone. With another press of a button, he tried retracting the blade. However, it was firmly lodged inside the person.


    The person was yanked forward by the sword and collided into the leader¡¯s shield. It disrupted it for the slightest second, but that¡¯s what Lucius needed.


    A couple bullets collided into his body, but none of them were fatal.


    ¡°Guh...!¡± He collapsed on the ground while clutching his chest. ¡°What... what the hell is that?!¡±


    ¡°Why should I answer you?¡± Lucius said. ¡°You come here and try to take me. Who sent you?¡±


    ¡°Heh... you won¡¯t get any information from me!¡± he said and crunched on something. He began to foam at the mouth, convulsed on the ground, then fell unconscious.


    Cyanide pill? Or something like it? Lucius thought.


    ¡°Lucius? Are you alright?¡± A voice said from inside the house. A figure hobbled out.


    Luna looked even more injured than before. She had a multitude of additional cuts and bruises, as well as a long gash down her arm.


    Lucius shook his head in disbelief. ¡°Never mind about me; are you alright?!¡±


    ¡°Not really, but I¡¯ll recover,¡± Luna said. Lucius scavenged for some bandages and wrapped up the injuries the best he could. Then, he found a small potion and made Luna drank it.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Lucius said as he was fixing up the unconscious Balos.


    ¡°They somehow slipped inside Baylight and started looking for you...¡± Luna said. ¡°They caught me by surprise and hit me really hard with magic, so I had no time to defend myself.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, and we don¡¯t even know where they came from,¡± Lucius bitterly said. ¡°At least that we know that we are being targeted somewhere. We need to finish construction quickly.¡±


    ¡°A lot of people actually don¡¯t know what happened. Most of them resumed construction, so a good chunk of the wall is going up.¡±


    ¡°Well, they need to know,¡± Lucius said. ¡°Later though. Maybe sometime tomorrow, but today is just about rebuilding. Who knows what¡¯s going to happen in the future."