Chapter 24 - Working Together

"Ahm, Let's put that aside for now." Jackson put on a poker face but his red cheeks can't be covered. Seeing Jackson trying to cover his embarrassment, the girls giggle and quietly talk.

Jackson turns back to Bell and changes the topic, he is still not prepared to handle his wives just yet." Bell gave me the report of the ants' combat gear during their field exercise."

"Reporting to Master, the ant's combat ability increased by 3 times the original and is still growing with more field combat experience. The ants almost have zero casualties, only 2 ants died due to slow reload time at the start but as Henry gave out new tactics for the ants, they adapted fast and became more skilled in hunting beast 2 times higher than their level." Bell reported

"Cuprite children are very capable soldiers, they are loyal and unafraid to follow orders to the letter." Bell added and complemented Cuprite children's.

Ants are always hard workers, all their lives they work and die for their colony making them a perfect workforce. Without Cuprite ants Jackson base might have finished later rather than sooner.

"Good, any issue with the gear?" Jackson continued to ask Bell.

"So far nothing, everything works as intended." Bell replied.

Jackson was satisfied with everything so far. It was all going according to plan and no issues. If this continues like this they might be able to make more ant gear.

The current materials are being used to make traps. Tool maker was tasked to make 5000 traps to be placed around the rocky mountain.

"Now I just need to finish making guns for my girls." Jackson shamelessly added 'my girls' now that he is somewhat comfortable with their relationship. Hearing his words the girls slightly blushed and Lili raised her hand up.

"Oh, Let me help. I want to see how you make these weapons or guns." Lili wanted to continue playing around with Jackson but she was not the only one.

"Me too"

"Yes, I'm good at forging I'm sure I can be of use"

"I'm good at formation"

"sadly I only know alchemy"

The girls voiced out what they were good at, Jackson was happy that they want to help him.

"Sure come to my lab I still need to see what I can do to make this gun stronger and to try out other arrays" Jackson happily called all the girls over.

When the girls went into the lab they saw many weird machinery mixes with array formations made by Jackson and Tool Maker.

What Jackson lacked in technology he made up with spirit formations and what they couldn't do with spirit formation they covered it with technology.

The scene right in front of the girls was very alien to them. They have never seen an alchemy or blacksmithing workshop that looks like this.

The floor is clean and shiny, the machinery is flush in and no cracks or gaps can be seen. Everything looked like it was a well polished sword, some of the girls are in awe that they can see their reflections everywhere.

Lights ran through walls and ceiling, there were no shadows everywhere they looked yet the light never blinded them and felt just right.

"What is this?"

"What is that?"

"what does this do?"

"how do you craft this?"

The girls ran throughout Jackson Lab like little children on a field trip. Jackson followed in and smiled, he finds it funny and adorable that girls their age act like this but what Jackson didn't know was that the average lifespan of a cultivator is 500 years in this world therefore 19 to 21 is still a child through the eyes of this world.

"Welcome to my Lab, that is my tool for my work. Let me show you how they work while I prepare another nitro express rifle."

Jackson welcomes the girls to his lab, they have never been to any other sections other than the living area and garden.

Jackson went to one of the machines and started to melt beast bone to create a barrel, then moved to another one to give the barrels rifling and polishing. Jackson moves around his lab like walking through a park. It was smooth and there was no pause.

Soon the barrel for the Nitro express rifle was finished but Lili stared at Jackson with a disappointed face.

"This thing is what you use for your weapons" Lili said while Jackson felt like he was being stared at by a strict teacher.

Jackson was about to answer her but Lili and Lulu inspected the barrel and said.

The form is good and strength is okay but. "

" But it has no spirit or craftsmith soul into it. "

Both the 2 sisters voiced their opinion about the barrel.

" Husband, I saw ants carrying spirit iron around somewhere, why are you not using them? "

Lili asked Jackson.

"Iron is weaker than this beast bone," Jackson replied.

"It is if you use it alone but if you mixed it with beast bones and refined them together you can make a spirit steel." Lili Leactured Jackson on creating stronger metals.

Jackson was shocked by this information before the beast was far stronger and lighter that earth steel so he ignored mixing beast bones with other material and iron was used elsewhere.

Jackson only knew about steel of this world and how easy it was to make. "Did you not read any of my father's blacksmith techniques?" Lili questions Jackson.

Jackson didn't have any time to look through other techniques, only array formations. "No, Not yet. I did not have any time to look through them."

"Then you are a very lucky husband . My sister and I are trained by our mother. She was the best blacksmith in town."Lili proudly raised her chin.

Lulu only nodded at the side agreeing with her sister words.'' That right husband, you can use our skills to assist you with this weapon. "

" Us too, both me and Hope, are trained on array formations by our mother."

"sign, sorry husband, we only know alchemy."

Faith dragged her sister and happily jumped in with Lili and Lulu, ready to assist their husband. Unfortunately Ann and Anya only know alchemy and can't help Jackson with his work but Jackson cheered them up. "Okay please help me. Ann and Anya don't be sad. I still need a teacher for alchemy later, please help me with that later."

Both Ann Anya just smiled and nodded but never said anything, they both wanted to help him too.

Jackson saw both sisters still a little disheartened." Come, I still need more hands for this project. "Jackson smiled and held the sister's hands and gently pulled them towards the machinery.

Jackson and the girls began their work. Jackson listened to Lili and Lulu on how to create stronger metal, what materials needed and how to refine them with Jackson tools inside the lab helped accelerate the process.

Days gone by Jackson learned a lot from the sisters and to apply them into his works. New array formation and metals thrown into the database.

Today Jackson and the two sisters Lili and Lulu were the only ones inside the Lab. They were in the process of creating a metal called black tempered steel. This steel was made from black iron from a beast called anteaters.

These beasts live underground near dampy places. They like to eat ants and have a weird aroma that attracts them.

These past few days, the ant army and Henry with Bunker hunted many types of weird beast for Jackson to experiment on. Spiky boar, water log snakes, deep cave red bats and anteaters. All of them are considered common beasts and can be found easily around the forest.

With the never ending supply from the 2 teams outside Jackson and the sisters studied and crafted many types of prototype.

Today was the fourth prototype they will make Nitro out of. Black tempered steel are very durable metals and are used to create siege weapons. Jackson needed the barrel of the nitro express to be very durable because he was able to invent another way of making stronger bullets with the help of Faith and Hope.

At first Jackson, teached them his way of making new arrays by reassembling the array and turning them into something similar to coding languages.

The sister never knew they could lay arrays formations this way and was enchanted by it. They started studying and creating their own array formation using Jackson methods.

Black tempered steel required time to make. One needs to continuously pour blood of level 4 beast onto the heated metal while slowly letting the metal cool down. This process required hours of waiting, Jackson had machinery to help him pour the blood at the exact time but in order to not fail the refining process Jackson needed to turn the heat up or down to keep the temperature almost the same.

"Only this part is very boring. I usually like blacksmithing but just staring and pouring blood onto something is a very boring process." Lili complained. She was hugging Jackson's right arm while Lulu was Hugging his left arm. They both stayed with Jackson to give him some company with this process.

"Yes, I agree, I don't know how mother always calm when blacksmithing, even when working on this part she's always so serious but I can never keep my eyes open." Lulu agreed with her sister.

Jackson, seeing the lifeless bored eyes of the two sisters, couldn't help but smile."It is indeed very boring to just sit still and watch. Why don't I add some spice to help chase away the boredom." Jackson turned away and called Bell over. The sister wanted to know what Jackson wanted to do.

"Bell please come here for a bit."