Kenji led me through a maze of hallways. Lectures could be heard coming out of each classroom. Some doors were propped open with a book or wood wedges so as we walked by I peaked inside and Kenji would wait for me to peek my head in. Some of the classrooms were large lecturer halls with stadium seating from what I could see. The doors were normally located behind the teachers' podiums and to get to the seating you would have to walk in front of them. Some classes had five rows of seats going up while others had ten. I noticed the five row classroom doors were all located on one side of the halls packed closely together while the ten row classrooms were on the opposite side with larger spacing.

  “ The smaller ones are used for electives mostly while the large ones have general studies in them all day. The schedule's are off set so not every classroom has someone inside it to minimize the noise and try to prevent other classes from disturbing one another.” Kenji said.

  “Makes sense. I got a question on my schedule there's one class after another with no time in between what's that about”

  “ Oh that's simple, most classes will end around fifteen some time thirty minutes early to allow students to get from class to class or ask the teachers any questions they couldn't before. In some cases if the teachers themselves have to move from class to class they will cut off questions around the five minute mark.”

  We quickly arrived at our technomagical studies. Mr.Dunths was inside sitting behind a desk sorting some paper work. He glanced at the both of us and stood up meeting part way.

  “Wezts, Iwatani, glad you could make it. You are about fifteen minutes early and no one else has arrived. Wezts I hope you had a productive talk with the founder.” Mr.Dunths gave a half smile. He seemed to have a laid back and lazy demeanor. It was startlingly different from the stern man I had met this morning.

  “I did. Thank you again for stopping me. I let my anger get the better of me.”

  “Good now.” He paused looking at Kenji before proceeding. “I understand your situation and I am willing to fill in the gaps of your knowledge. Give me by the end of the school day and I will have a comprehensive study sheet for both general studies and technomagical studies.” Mr.Dunths put an emphasis on the situation.

  “Thank you.”

  “ Iwatani here is one of my best students and I am sure he can be a trusted individual and a good friend to make.”

  Once class started in earnest the day went by very quickly. I hardly understood what we were learning in technomagical studies but I was able to parse the information fast enough and get a grasp on it it wasn't to unfamiliar I had worked on pumps in my old job and a lot of them had magic to enhance them that was a similar concept to what we were studying in this class, however, where the pumps were enhanced by magic. Technomagical was the concept and idea of technology and magic being crafted into one harmonious construction. We had a lot of examples of this already and I had actually used a few such as the maglock I used to climb and repel off power lines. That device used the electrical current in the power lines to power a magic circuit that allowed us to control whether we climbed up or down at a steady pace since it was a primarily technology-based item, it required little to no mana control to use it. Another example I was able to find and was actually used by Mr.Dunths in his lecture was cars. Most, if not all the vehicles we use today were crafted with magical use in mind, a lot of lower end cars reserved mostly for use by the general public. Required a variety of fire and wind crystals to work. The metallic frame was engraved with words of command that allowed the vehicle to both propel itself through the air and provide magically enhanced safety mechanisms. It was apparently possible for someone with enough mana control and reserves to actually fly a car without crystals. Knowing that I would have to be very reliant on crystals. This gave me hope and a lot of ideas. I just needed to learn more.

  My next class was just labeled as, shop class. I didn't know what they had meant by that until Kenji led me outside into the courtyard and down to a row of buildings set into the courtyard walls along the North East side. Inside a man in a dirty white shirt and blue denim jeans wore a thick leather apron. He was standing over a pile of coals wiping sweat from his brow. He wasn't large but his muscles were well defined. A bell rang as we walked past the room's threshold grabbing his attention.

  “Ahhh Kenji my boy you are just in time. Grab that sixteen pounder and help me form this into a barrel.” The man who I assumed was Mr.Woodicker used a pair of tongs to grab a large piece of hot metal from the coals, bringing it over to a square block with what looked like a bunch of holes and half circles cut out of it. He took a hammer in his other hand and began shaping the metal casually folding it into a round shape. Kenji without a word moved to do as he was told, grabbing a large sledge hammer and a leather apron for himself getting ready. Kenji seemed in his element here. Once the tube shape was mostly formed Mr.Woodicker took a long road and pushed it thru the center both him and Kenji went to work. It was impressive seeing these two men work with such proficiency and precision. They finished the task quickly and Mr.Woodicker took the Newly formed Barrel and dropped it into a vat of something.

  “Thanks Kenji, that's a pain to do by yourself.” His gaze shifted and locked onto me.

  “You must be Mr.Wezts. Happy to see you made it after your ruffle this morning.” I groaned even he knew. Word must travel fast or most likely he was told about by Mr.Dunths.

  “ Thank you, I'm excited to be here.”

  “Now since today's your first day in class, I'm not going to require you to do anything or start to work on a project, walk around and observe the other students or myself in our work. Come up with something you desire to bring to life and begin building it.” Mr.Woodicker picked up the barrel from inside the vat holding it up to inspect it.

  “ Mr.Woodicker.” Kenji said. “ Prefers for students to help themselves first before he helps them. Some of the Richer students come into this class expecting to breeze through it and they don't really put in the effort and when they complain he kicks them out “

  The rest of the class showed up and every student went to work on their own project sharing tools, resources and even assistance when others needed help. I stayed near Kenji for the most part. It wasn't because I felt uncomfortable talking to new people. It's just that what Kenji was working on interested me.

  “What are you building?” He had a variety of chains laid out in front of him using a strange tool he was testing each chain.

  “ I'm finding out how each chain reacted to the magical solution I put them in on friday.”

  “I'm just gonna pretend I know what you're getting at.” Kenji laughed.

  “Basically trying to discover a way to infuse these chains with elemental mana. Since they're not one continuous piece of metal, you can't just carve in some words of command on one end and expect it to work through the whole thing but if we can infuse the metal with some form of mana that might work. There are a wide variety of research papers trying to cover the topic, all of them fall short. I'm basing my experiment off of Doctor Alverezs last research paper. These three chains had shown the most promise.” I latched onto the only thing that I understood.

  “Oh I know Alverez, tall ork man wears a lot of jewelry.”

  Kenji slowly set his tools down and turned to me. He looked like someone just told him his mother died from a bad seating assignment on the bus.

  “What? You said Alverez right? He is the one who removed my implant.” Kenji jaw worked his mouth open and closed but no words came out.

  “ You're not gonna tell me he founded this school as well are you.” He groaned letting his head drop and hitting the table the chains clattered loudly in response. He turned his head still on the table.

  “ Doctor Alverez is a renowned researcher. Both him and the founder were on the same adventuring team. I can't…just…ughhh” Kenji, seeming to have resolved something, went back to work.

  “Mind if I look at that alchemical solution?” Without a word he handed it to me.

  Throughout the day I found my interface could give me basic descriptions on general magic items if I focused hard enough. However this isn't what occurred when I viewed the crystal infused chemical solution

  [Wind crystals infused alchemical solution. The alchemical solution is only ten percent complete. Please correct the ratio amount to the finished crafting process.]

  I assume that this description was more detailed due to my artificer skill. It would make sense and I really didn't have any other explanation for it.

  “Kenji I don't think the solution's going to work the way you want it”

  “ Yeah I can already see that it's a failure. How can you tell?”

  “ Ummm. The alchemical solution isn't complete. I think you need to add more crystals to it.”

  “How could you know that just by looking at it? Are you some savant for magical solvents.”

  “ No, I just can tell. I can tell you about it later. I promise just trust me on it okay.” Kenji eyed me suspiciously before smiling.

  “ Okay man I'll trust your judgment. It's not going to hurt to experiment. Anyways. Just promise me that later will come sooner rather than later.”

  “Sure.”

  Kenji and I got more wind crystals from the teacher. He showed me the process of grinding them up into a powder. It was relatively easy and I got the hang of it pretty fast. When I had asked him how many he originally put in he told me he'd only put it in five. I did some quick math in my head and figured we might need about forty-five more. After crushing all forty-five crystals, he began adding it to the solution after weighing the powder

  “So where did you get the original formula for this stuff?

  “It was in Alverezs research paper. It called for a one to one solution.”

  “What would you call this?” Kenji exhaled through his nose with a laugh.

  “Insane. After we add the rest it will be one part chemical solution to ten parts crystal powder.”

  As Kenji added the powder he began rambling on and on about the notes inside Alvarez's research paper apparently, Alvarez included that the attempt to infuse metal via magically fused alchemical solutions was a promising field of study. However, he believed that the proper ratio of chemical solution to Crystal powder had yet to be found, he noted that he believed a higher concentration of Crystal powder was required, but he was unsure and unwilling to continue the experiments as he had lost his interest. This was the main reason Kenji was so willing to experiment and go along with what I said. The description kept changing. By the time the solution was completed all the crystal powder was gone. The once green liquid filled vat was now filled with something closer to a slime; the viscous solution had a faint green glow.

  “Now what?” I asked

  “Now you pack up and head to your next class.” Mr.Woodicker said as he walked up behind us I looked at the time and realized we were already half an hour late for our next class.

  “Don't worry you two I contacted your teachers and told them what was going on. looking at your results you might actually have accomplished something significantly important.”

  “You think so?” Kenji asked

  “Sure do if it works that is. Now go get to your next class.”

  I didn't share my next class with Kenji so we separated after he showed me the way. Advance combat techniques was exactly what it sounded like. When I arrived the teacher nodded to me and pointed towards a group of students practicing some kind of martial art. I joined in copying the way others moved. I wasn't good at it but it did feel good to exercise. By the end of class my body had a lot of bruises as I failed to block oncoming attacks from other students. The class didn't allow me to really talk with anyone aside from a few passing jabs as we would all spar with one another but I never really caught any names.

  A new message window appeared in my view as I was walking back to my dorm room.

  [Kenji Iwatani: Hey, meet me outside the campus, you can use the sky bridge on the west side. There's a small park just on the other side. I will meet you there.]

  What the? Is this another function of the tablet? I turned around and made my way to the park while i was walking i found out i could place a static map on the screen and that helped a lot by the time I made it there Kenji was already waiting sitting on a bench that was set facing away from the chasm he had his tablet out and was playing around with it.

  “So why did we meet out here?” I greeted Kenji as I sat on the bench and jumped at the sudden sound of my voice.

  “Holy man don’t scare me, how can a guy so large be so quiet.” He placed his hand over his heart trying to steady it. “ My sister agreed to pick us up so we don’t gotta walk or take a bus. She should be here soon.”

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  “You have a sister?”

  “Nine actually” Kenji went back to looking at his tablet.

  “Nine!?”

  “Yeah nine, not that many. I'm the youngest by the way” it was my turn to look at Kenji slack jawed.

  “ Nine sisters is a lot. Dude your family could field a whole split ball team with two bench seats.” Kenji set his tablet on his lap and considered it for a moment.

  “Well when you put it like that I suppose that is a lot. It works out well for my family. All my sisters are cooks and more than half have gone off to start their own restaurant. The three youngest still work with mom tho. If you ever get the chance to visit Belldora City you should visit my oldest sis. She has a pretty upscale restaurant there.”

  “Belldora? I never heard of it. Is it a bubble city somewhere around here?”

  “No, it's on the planet Tresh. It's another space port city like this one.”

  “Ahh.”

  Kenji and I didn't have to wait long for his sister to show up in a lime green car. The car was more of a large box with a gate in the back for hulling supplies with a small section in the front for people to sit. Kenji's sister pulled up on the edge of the building still floating over the chasm other cars drove around her with ease. The passenger door opened unlatching from the top on folding down to make a ramp connecting the car to the building. We both boarded the car and Kenji introduced us.

  “Hey sis this is Rin, Rin you can call her sister number nine or s nine for short.” I could see his sister roll her eyes in the rearview mirror.

  “Nice to meet a friend of my little brother you can call me sis if you'd like or Yue.”

  “Uuuhh. I think I'll just call you S nine.” Yue groaned her derision, shaking her head Kenji had turned into a ball of laughter as his sister drove away.

  At Kenji's family restaurant Yue pulled the large vehicle into a garage. It floated just off the ground while we all disembarked before slowly setting itself down. Yue led Kenji and I to the front where she placed us at a booth. As we walked past the customer I noticed something. Xulun was a predominantly Human city however there were other races present Alverez being an ork was just one example however there were plenty others. Seated eating bowls of ramen, plates of dumplings, and whole dishes made of some kind of fish was the most racially diverse group I had ever seen. There were dwarfs dropping shot glasses of a black liquor into large cups of beer before chugging it down. Elf’s who ate whole plates of fish and kemchi, there were even a few halflings sitting at the bar. Kenji must have seen me gawking.

  “ The restaurant here is cheap with good food. We get all kinds of people coming in to blow off steam. Feel free to speak your mind at this booth. By the way, there's a ritual circle around it for privacy.” Kenji said as he pulled out his tablet again, placing it down to face me.

  “I have been reading through a lot of research papers in regards to making a crystal infused alchemical solution. Most of them stuck with a one to one ratio like Alverez had but I did find this one right here interesting.” I took the tablet and read it over. Most of this stuff was still so foreign but somehow I could catch a glimpse of meaning here and there.

  “ This guy made a two to one ratio while crafting health potions on accident resulting in a completely different potion?” I more asked them stated

  “Yeah he stated that the health potions he was trying to craft turned into regeneration potions, however they were very unstable and had about a fifty percent chance of poisoning the person who drank them. After that he hypothesized that a higher ratio of crystal powder could have dangerous effects.”

  “ So fingers crossed our vat of highly concentrated crystal solution didn't blow up.” I grinned at Kenji “ So I said I would explain why I told you we should use a higher ratio.” I spent the next half hour explaining everything to Kenji. It felt foolish to trust him so readily, however Mr.Dunths said he could be trustworthy but that was another thing. Why did I trust Mr.Dunths. Kenji's mother had shown up to take our orders but let us know that she was gonna prioritize the paying customers.

  “ So in short I'm fucked unless I can figure out a way to leverage these abilities to my advantage. I've had some ideas through the school day but none have really stuck out to me.”

  Kenji sat there and I could see the gears turning in his head. When our food arrived being delivered by a woman I hadn't seen yet he didn't react. I started eating my miso soup, picking up the bowl and drinking straight from it.

  “ That's a good idea, yes!” Kenji's sudden outburst startled me and I jumped launching the soup out of the bowl and all over my face. The man across the table from me. Swiping fiercely on his tablet didn't even notice he placed down the tablet so it was facing me and tapped his finger on it.

  “ Look look I've had this idea for a long time I based it off of….” He paused, finally noticing that I was covered in soup.” Uhhh the food is supposed to go inside your mouth, not around it.”

  “ Thanks.” I had grabbed a napkin and was trying to dry myself off. “ The idea?”

  “ Ahh yes, right. So basically every planet in our solar system has an army that uses guns that are all magically enhanced and are good against low to mid rank monsters. I always thought it would be cool if we could develop a gun that could output more firepower. So I came up with this design and I'll admit I was still a kid so it is kind of crude. But imagine this with your ability to use mana crystals and even overclock them. I bet you we could develop some sort of gun that uses mana crystals. That's a sort of ammunition then you would have a way to leverage your ability in a way that benefits you in combat.” I thought about it for a while and then nodded all the school yard fantasy of being some sort of gun-slinging lawman that travels the roughs filled my mind.

  “ I see what you're getting at.” I said excitedly “ dude could you imagine if the magically infused alchemical solution actually worked. We could use that to infuse magic into every part of it and with the mana crystals being intrinsically designed into the gun, I could probably cast spells like how certain magical items allow people to cast spells outside of their elemental affinity.”

  “Yessss!” Our food was forgotten as we discussed details and fantastical ideas on how such an item could be used.

  In the coming week Kenji and I had brought the idea up to Mr.Woodicker he seemed intrigued and was willing to let us come in after classes were done to continue working on it. On our first day of working, we managed to discover that the alchemical solution had worked and every chain we placed in there was magically infused through and through certain metals had shown better results. Steel from which Alvarez's research paper had declared The most resistant, metal and the most likely to be unreceptive to further experimentation had come out the strongest and most magically infused. While Kenji and I worked in the shop. I would help him from time to time with forging or fabrication of certain parts, mostly helping him do a lot of the manual labor. Mr.Woodicker would pull me aside from time to time and give me fairly comprehensive lessons on the words of command and how to engrave them into whatever surface or material I was working on. I would spend most of my free time studying the materials that Mr.Dunths had provided me. Along the way at some point I had risen from level two to level five. I was unsure what I was getting experience from. One level came from when I was helping Kenji forged the barrel. Another came from a particularly hard sparring match I had. The last one simply came while I was studying. I had taken each stat point and allocated it to intelligence and strength. The more I raised my intelligence the easier it was for me to comprehend the materials I was learning and I could actually feel the impact from the increased stat. At some point during the week our little project had turned from something just Kenji and I was doing to a class project everyone seemed to have specialized in something where Kenji and I came up short. The other students would volunteer their time almost all but abandoning their other projects. I had found out that I could use my interface to create sketches that I could then use to engrave words of command onto any surface I could physically work. The words of command was a guttural language when spoken most new to spell casting needed to learn how to speak this language in order to shape their spells a proficient user could speak them in their mind but otherwise it has to be spoken out loud. The written form was more beautiful. It was angular with an artist touch to it. Each word had its own symbol and harder more complex words would often combine small easier words.

  By friday we had found success in our endeavor: an adequately forged revolver laid on a cloth pillow. The gun has turned an ebony black from the magical infusion. Words of command written out of silver wrapped around the uncommonly large gun from tip to bottom. The cylinder that would house the special made ammunition sat in the open position slightly propping the gun up. The cylinder had five holes crafted into it each was larger than the common 10 gauge shotgun shell used by standard planetary response forces. Next to the gun was a wooden box. It was opened to show off what was inside. Four rows of five all filled with the custom ammo. Fire,water,earth, and wind crystals all peeked out of the glass and metal shells. In place of gun powder was the crystal solution each she was filled with its respective elements. One last shell was placed in its own row separated from the others four jagged peaks poked out of the shell each one a different mana crystal element. The alchemical solution inside swirled and pulsed with energy. Hues of green, blue, red, and brown swirled around each other.

  “ Are you up for testing it today?.” Mr.woodickrr asked. It was already well past the start of my advanced combat class so I nodded.

  “ Yeah I want to shoot it..if you don't mind Kenji.”

  “ By all means I don't want to hold it if it blows up. “ Kenji said with a smile and I grinned back. The whole class followed Mr.Woodicker as he led us to the magic practice range. There was already a class here but they were all seated in the observation booths or on benches set to the side. I set both the gun and ammunition box on a small table before looking around. I could spot both Valder and Alverez standing on the side watching me and occasionally whispering something back and forth. Next to the two of them was a girl I had met before. In my mind she was, oatmeal girl. Seeing her now I was reminded how strikingly attractive she was. She wore the normal school uniform and was normally unflattering however the way she presented herself turned the drab uniform into a ball gown dress. Our eyes meet. Ugh fuck her. Everything nice thought I had about her was thrown out the window as her eyes stared into mine. She looked me over and then immediately wrote me off, her face turning into a frown.

  “ Man whats up with her you can't just stare at someone like their a cockroach you just squished.” I asked out loud and Kenji heard me.

  “Huh?”

  “ Nothing. why don't you go stand with Alverez.” Kenji stiffened and looked around. I pointed at the ork man.

  “ Can I?”

  “Don't see why not. You're the man that designed this gun, he might want to ask some questions, so.” I pushed his shoulder nudging him towards the sides. He walked over awkwardly. He paused half way towards Alverez.

  “Mr. Iwatani, why don't you stand over here? I might have a few questions.” Valder waved Kenji over, moving aside so Kenji would have to stand between Valder and Alverez.

  I took a deep calming breath. I hadn't expected there to be a crowd but that won't change anything. I'm just testing out a new magic tool. I picked the gun up and was met with a window

  [Name:Unknown]

  [Status: Unfinished]

  [Completion: one hundred percent]

  [Crafted by:Rin Wezts,Kenji Iwatani]

  [please name this artifact to complete the crafting process.]

  Artifact? Not a magic tool. Guess I need to name this.

  “I declare that this gun shall be named.” A single word appeared on my tongue and I said it. “Malice.”

  I got to work loading shells each with a different element. I load the quad element shot into the cylinder last. Clicking the cylinder into place. A small icon of my gun appeared in the bottom right corner with smaller icons representing each element type I placed inside. I couldn't feel the mana inside malice and inside the bullets but it felt instinctual like they wanted to be something

  The words of command urging its shape. I formed the image of a fire bolt in my head and pulled the trigger. Malice rocketed back in my hand almost smacking me in the face but I managed to control the recoil. A line of red fire shot out and burst into a large arrow like projectile. The fire arrow hit the dummy dead center exploding but doing almost no damage to the dummy. Focus the magic and let's try again. I willed the mana from the crystal inside the shell to form a compressed ball of energy. Malice’s barrel glowed red hot. I expected the recoil this time, controlling malice much better than before. A small ball of fire shot out rocketing towards the training dummy. The fire bullet embedded itself inside the dummy before exploding, destroying the entire top half. I could hear whispers of astonishment coming from the crowd. I didn't stop firing, unleashing a barrage of fire bullets. Some missed landing in the dirt behind the dummy exploding and sending chunks of earth flying small rocks pelted around me. I could instinctively tell that the fire crystal and the alchemical solution inside was spent. I turn the cylinder with a thought, malice reacting to my will. I continued with a barrage of ice bullets. The ice bullets didn't penetrate stopping against the surface of the dummy exploding into mist of chilling air freezing the dummy. By the time I made it to the earth element shell I had begun experimenting. Oh the earth bullets shout out of malice in a similar ball form to the other two elements. However, they quickly formed into large drills spinning as they flew through the air. By now, the training dummy was completely destroyed and I was hitting dirt. The large drills dug deep into the earth before exploding into walls of spikes. This began to feel like an exceedingly exorbitant display. I didn't care. Is this what it felt like to be able to cast magic at a whim holding so much power in the palm of your hand? It was intoxicating. I changed to the final element of wind. I held the trigger down a torrent of wind spat out kicking up dust all around. I concentrated. Reigning the mass torrent into a blade. The blade was flat on top reaching a point three feet away curving back towards and past malice forming a hand guard. I broke out into a sprint flying towards a set of three training dummies that were untouched one hundred yards away. My new strength gave me far more speed then I would have ever imagined reaching the dummies in a short time. A quick slash sending a blade of wind out cutting into the dummies. Two more rapid slashes sent out more wind blades, rending the dummies into thirds.

  Valder was the first to approach me Alverez right behind him. Valders had a slight smile on his face like a proud father. Alverez was clapping with a big grin. He slapped his hand on my shoulder, his assortment of accessories jingled.

  “ I have to say I am impressed Rin.” Alverez said. “ I have seen many magic items that could produce similar effects but none that seems so reliably useful for repeat use.”

  “ Thank you Alverez but the credit isn't mine. Kenji was the mastermind behind it.”

  “ Yes. He told me none of it would have been possible without you figuring out the proper ratio for the crystal solution.”

  “I had some help.” Alverez nodded and grinned. Valder stepped forward and placed a hand on my shoulder.

  “ Excellent job. I hope you are adjusting well to the academy and your new skills?.” Valder asked

  “ I am, it's almost unreal. I feel like maybe I died when the skreen attacked me and this has all been a hallucination during my last moments of life. My life was never easy but now it feels like I'm breezing through it.”

  “ I understand.” Said Valder “ Your situation is unique but not too unique.”

  “Valder is right. After you two left my office I started doing some research. It is more common than we had both initially thought. There have been hundreds of documented records of men and women surviving tragic events before their implant is removed. In those cases the affected individual typically gains a second elemental affinity. It's similar to how additional elemental affinities are gained normally that a connection was made here and there but dismissed as inherent talent of the individual.”

  “Was that meant to make me feel better because it didn't.”

  Valder stifled a laugh and Alverez groaned Kenji and the oat meal lady were walking up to us.

  “ Rin this young lady is Sophia.” Sophia walked with elegance, her steps each seemed planned, stopping a respectful distance from Valder.

  “ Founder.” She smiled and then turned to me giving me a smile that stopped at her mouth. Her eyes bore into me. What was her problem?

  “ Nice to formally meet you Sophia.” I held my hand out for her to shake. She did not take it.

  “ Sophia, you shouldn't be so openly hostile towards your new team member.”

  “What!?” Both Sophia and I exclaimed our voices in sync.