Chapter 18 - Crafting

Jack was enthusiastically looking at the weapon that Rynold was currently holding. It looked perfect for him since he's the only one that had any actual firearm experience in the group. Too bad he didn't know that Rynold and the rest were having their own doubts about whether to trust him or not.

Regardless, Rynold was still focused on the weapon before him, trying to picture what the weapon would normally look like before it was disassembled for improvement. He started by trying to list off what he can from the information that the window provided.

Energy Conversion Mechanism and Trigger Mechanism were both missing to make this one weapon usable.

Going by what the rifle was actually called, Rynold assumed that Mana was needed to fire the gun. That was the energy source that Rynold hypothesized but he needed a way to trigger the actual firing of the gun.

He needed a way to change mana into the shape of a bullet for the gun to shoot.

The more he thought about it, the more he tried to recollect what he saw in the vision when he acquired the Mana Crystal. One of the things that the previous owner was working on was actually this rifle, but Rynold couldn't understand what he was doing.

The movements were swift and precise, the certain craftsman was capable of doing so many things to a single object without making any excess movements whatsoever. At the end of the memory, the weapon was disassembled and once again put up for display. The weapon looked like the way it was right now.

Rynold grabbed whatever was around and tried to fit it onto the weapon. Using random parts and pieces to put the rifle together, unfortunately, none of it seemed to fit.

Although the components appear to be made of similar materials, the way that it's made looks like they don't conventionally fit at all. The designs were just too complicated for Rynold to understand. Regardless, he tried and tried. It took him a good chunk of the day to finally fit a single piece.

On the grip of the gun, a component was added to the wooden hilt. It was the trigger mechanism — or it looked like a trigger mechanism, but it was entirely different. It was a shiny metal component that wraps around the grip, forming a solid handle, and it looked like it complemented the gun completely.

With the newly added component, Rynold tried to pour mana from his hand into the gun.

The metal hilt shone in response to the mana but it didn't fire any bullets, it just sucked the mana from Rynold. Drained, he knew why it didn't work. There was no way for the energy to convert.

The energy conversion mechanism was something of a confusing item. It could literally mean anything in the world, so long as it had the properties of converting Mana into a bullet. While the others were taking a rest, Rynold pushed on.

He looked and referenced the diagrams that he saw that were left on the table. Unlucky for him, the language was different but the images were relatively understandable. He spotted the original plans even before putting random components onto the gun but the diagram was completely old, making a large part of it unreadable.

Regardless, he saw that the handle was different from the diagram — it looked thicker in fact and more profound. Apart from the standard and plain-looking metal barrel, the diagram shows that there was a small part added that connected the grip to the barrel. He just didn't know what it was.

Rynold looked around once more and saw nothing that mimicked the shape of the component. Thinking of possible options, Oliver approached him from behind.

"You know you can make a new thing all on your own, right?" Oliver startled Rynold with the remark.

Placing his hand over his chest where his heart is, Rynold flinched before giving a response. "I guess that's one way to do it."

"Look, there's actually a workbench over there and some smithing tools that looked something straight out of a sci-fi movie," Oliver pointed at the workplace that covered a large part of the room. "I'm gonna go play with stuff on the other stands and see what I can come up with," Oliver added with a cheeky smile.

Rynold laughed in response as both guys went their separate ways. He made his way into the workbench and started to get to work, that is until a new message appeared.

[Crafting Unlocked!]

Rynold opened the crafting menu and had high expectations for it, only for it to come back shortly.

What the crafting menu actually looked like was just a list of things that you can make with the steps and equipment that's required to make them. 'Eh, I guess it's better than nothing.'

As for what he can make now, Rynold struggled as the window only showed that the things he could make were very simple things like knives and whatnot. The most useful thing that he saw was a simple bladed weapon.

'Hmm... Maybe this time will be different.'

Rynold grabbed the diagram and tried to integrate them into his crafting window.

[Recipe Unlocked!]

The Mana Rifle recipe came to his crafting window just like that, simple and efficient. The parts that he needed to craft were also shown on the window, materials and all. Lucky for him, the weapon that was left behind was already halfway built, he just needed the last component.

Weirdly, though, he wondered as to why the recipe was fully unlocked in the crafting menu when most of the diagram was already gone. The blueprint was practically a relic at this point but it didn't necessarily matter to the system, since Rynold was physically holding the weapon. It was probably the combination of both the weapon in hand and the blueprint that made it so that he had the completed one in his crafting menu.

Moving forward, Rynold looked at what needed to be done for the Energy Conversion Mechanism. The only material needed was an item that can convert energy to whatever property the base material is. But the actual process of making the material was complicated, to say the least.

The process was to smelt the materials without burning their properties and then forging them into the mechanism that is in the shape of an attachment that acts as a bridge between the hilt and the barrel while being connected to the trigger. Afterward, intricate magic arrays are drawn in the bridge so that magical energy would flow smoothly.

Looking around, the forge wasn't lit up and there didn't seem to be any material that can be used for this particular purpose. It seemed like the Energy Conversion was the most important part of the gun, especially now that Rynold actually checked what was needed to make another one.

'Great,' he thought to his dismay.

The scattered materials around either didn't seem enough to last an entire forging process or didn't have any unique properties that would be useful for additional options for the rifle.

Having no other choice, Rynold took the only thing that he had left that he could use. The Poisonous Spider Fang.

He grabbed it from his inventory only to realize that the so-called fang was actually huge. It was practically the size of his hand but it was relatively light considering its size.

Rynold once again checked the crafting process of the mechanism and got to work.

He first lit up the forge by asking help from the last person he wanted to talk to, Elle. As awkward as that conversation was, the fireball she shot made the flames of the forge light up with scorching heat. He grabbed some dry wood lying around the room and fanned the flames, heating it up until the fang started to be malleable.

Then, he grabbed the scorching hot material and started banging wildly. The sounds of the metal against bone were heard in the room, annoying most of the people there. He repeated the process until the shape took form without reducing the poisonous properties of the fang.

After which, Rynold called over Skye. He certainly wasn't going to be the one to draw magic arrays knowingly that he'll do a horrible job at it.

He got Skye to get over to the workbench and taught her the recipe to make the mechanism and the magic arrays that needed to be put in. But one thing stood in their way, however.

"What material are we going to use for the magic array?" Skye asked.

Rynold thought for a split second and came up with an idea. Without giving a response to the question, he grabbed up some random scraps and pieces and threw them all in a ceramic pot just lying around, and begun smelting until it was a liquid.

Although the random materials were of different shapes and sizes, Rynold realized that they are made of the same material.

As soon as the metal melted, he gave it to Skye who was holding a quill, and started drawing up the magic array.