I do not own RWBY or anything mentioned in this fanfic.
This is my first approach to trying to write something like this. I would appreciate any advice.
It has been almost two months since Chris's thirteenth birthday.
For the first month, he traveled ahead without much purpose, put in points to create this fabricator thingy, organized the main room and did whatever he wanted.
He was no longer someone's property, no one was standing over him dictating what he could and couldn't do, he could do nothing for days, eat whatever he wanted, roll in the snow or just travel ahead. He was free.
He also, in addition to lazing around and making that fabricator thingy, was practicing his silver eyes as well as using his, so far, only offensive spell on grimm which were very eagerly drawn to his locations, like moths to a lamp.
With them so eager to become test subjects, Chris soon learned that in addition to placing fireballs on the ground as traps, he could form them in his hand and throw them at oncoming grimm.
They also learned what changes for the spell come with gained levels. At the first level, the thrown fireball flew at a snail's pace so he must have thinking hard and calculate its trajectory to hit the grimm, but as levels were gained, the fireball flew faster and seemed to burn the targeted grimm quicker. The time it took to create one also decreased from 15 seconds to 8 seconds.
Unfortunately, his carefree days ended around the middle of the second month. His supplies slowly but surely began to run out, and having so far encountered only a handful of wild animals that he could hunt, he realized it was time to start looking around for a settlement.
After a few more days of climbing trees and looking around from their tops for any sign of habitation, he spotted in the distance a few plumes of smoke barely visible against the gray sky. Knowing the location of his target, he moved toward it, planning what to do to avoid being taken for the kid he is.
Even though he has an aura this time and ways to defend himself from possible kidnappers, he still felt fear at the thought of having to be around others.
By the time Chris arrived near the settlement it was already four pm. The sun had long since set and the heavy clouds covering the sky promised another snowstorm. Seeing no point in wandering around in the dark, he set up his backpack under one of the spruce trees growing nearby and then went inside.
The inside of the backpack has changed slightly since his escape. The main room was lit by four lamps placed in its upper corners, on the left wall next to the bed was a quietly ticking clock, the bed, which had been returned to its normal size, stood in the left corner of the room, folded and sorted clothes lay next to right wall and what was left of his supplies were stacked next to the bed. Removing the helmet from his head, placing it on the floor and sitting down on the bed, he began the process of masking his real age from others.
First the easy part, changing the length of his prosthetics with the help of a spell. Four uses later, Chris has grown from one hundred and forty-eight centimeters to one hundred and eighty centimeters. Although he also had to increase the size of his clothes to cover everything and walking in his new longer legs caused him slight problems, in the end at first glance he looked like an adult.
When the looks were ready, Chris got down to the slightly more difficult part, applying the enchantment to the helmet. There were several choice of enchantments on the list that he could put on the helmet but all but one had one disadvantage, they didn't disguise his voice. With little choice, Chris chose an enchantment that changes his voice as long as he is wearing the helmet then set about applying it.
At first he hoped that, as with the backpack, he would get lucky again and enchant the helmet quickly, but after a dozen unsuccessful attempts he realized that this time it would take him a little longer.
After three days of failures, watching his food supply slowly dwindle and practicing what to say to the people he would encounter, Chris finally managed to enchant the helmet. Satisfied with his success and all too tired from everything, he collapsed on his bed and immediately fell asleep.
Chris woke up the next day around nine in the morning, satisfied that he was too tired to have this strange vision where he stood in the middle of the freezer unable to move and the corpses hanging from the meat hooks moaned in agony, without moving their mouths, in a mixture of all the voices he had heard so far, begging him for help.
These 'nightmares', as the advisor called them, happened once in a while, made no sense, and seemed to occur less frequently when he had drunk enough alcohol or was sufficiently exhausted.
He ate a small breakfast of whatever was left over and hadn't spoiled yet, then decided to test the helmet enchantment.
According to the inscription of the enchantment, in order to choose the voice he wanted to have, he had to think about it and hear it in his head. Fortunately, his advisor had no problem lending him his voice so Chris used it.
With a new deep voice and the height of an adult, his disguise was ready. He then took a few handfuls of lien in his pocket and headed outside. With his backpack on his back, he moved toward the settlement repeating in his mind what to say to strangers so as not to sound too weird.
Walking out of the forest and approaching the settlement, Chris saw more of his destination.
The settlement was surrounded by a high palisade, had an equally high gate, two watchtowers on either side of the gate, there was one person standing at the gate and from time to time a light flashed from one of the towers which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be another person with binoculars.
As the people guarding the gate were probably aware of his presence he moved swiftly toward it.
"Halt! Who goes there!" One of the guards standing in the tower shouted at him.
Chris did not see his face the guard from the tower but judging by his voice he was an older person.
"An ordinary traveler looking for a place to replenish his supplies." Chris said the practiced line.
"Yeah, a ordinary traveler. Hey kid, move your ass and go deal with him, I have to watch the surroundings." The guard from the tower shouted to the one at the gate.
Before Chris could do anything, the younger guard was already at his side.
"So... a traveler, eh? Name Erik, nice to meet you." The now named guard, Erik, extended his hand toward him in greeting.
"Christopher" He extended his hand to him accepting the greeting.
"Damn, your hand is tough." Erik said waving his aching hand.
"Can you tell me something about this place?" Chris asked while looking around the settlement.
"Sure, I can, so for starters, the settlement is called Redmore, the closest to the gate is an inn where you can eat and rent a room for the night or longer, further on there is a butcher where you can buy raw meat from him and he will also buy back from you what you hunt for a good lien, there is a general store where you can get everything from dust through books of all kinds, raw and canned food, spices, and other things of that sort, there is a blacksmith from whom you can buy all sorts of ironwork and who can forge something on request and of other interesting things there is also a bullhead station." Erik listed.
"Bullhead, what's that?" Chris asked.
"Heh, you must be from one of those places that rely on caravans for supplies, but anyway, a bullhead is a flying, rather noisy, metal machine that arrives once a month with supplies and for which you can buy a ticket to get to more distant places. It usually arrives somewhere around the middle of the month." Eric said.
"Okay, thank you for the information, I'll be going now," Chris replied.
"Yeah, see you around." Erik said after which he returned to his spot at the gate.
Chris turned on his heels and walked deeper into the settlement in search of his goal, passing here and there people going about their business who, fortunately, except for a quick glance at the newcomer, were not too interested in him.
Reaching in front of a building that above the front door had a sign that said 'General Store'. Chris, taking a deep breath, grabbed the door handle and stepped inside.
The door to the store opened with the sound of the bell, Chris stepped inside and looked around the room before glancing at the shopkeeper.
A slightly graying brown-haired woman sat behind the counter, watching him probably even before he entered. Not wanting to come off as rude, he bowed lightly greeting her.
"Greetings, I would like to buy a few things from your store." Chris said while waiting for her answer.
"Yeah... Welcome to my store, there are wicker baskets for your purchases near the door, payment only in lien, if you try to rob me I'll shoot you dead before you can get away." The shopkeeper said in a bored tone of voice while browsing through a newspaper in the meantime and reaching for something under the counter with her other hand.
"Uh... okay, I assure you I have a lien and I'm not going to rob anyone, I just want to buy a few things and that's it," Chris said uncertainly, reaching for the basket.
With basket in hand, Chris began searching for the things he wanted to buy. He took several cans of red beans and sliced tomatoes, a couple of packets of spices, two bottles of oil, a dozen eggs, a bundle of sausage, several packets of flour, an iron skillet, a cookbook that was fortunately different from his previous one, a small pot, a packet of coffee and several bottles of wine. Deciding that he had everything, Chris headed to the counter to pay for his purchases.
"You got quite a shopping spree." The shopkeeper said after writing down several items in a notebook counting their price.
"I was almost out of supplies and besides that I wanted to buy a few more things I was in need of," he said. Chris said while packing the counted items into his backpack.
"Listen... I'm sorry for the cold welcome, with all the disappearances and rumors that some bunch of nutjobs are chasing around the woods with a grimm by their side it makes everyone kind of jumpy." The shopkeeper said while counting the last of the items.
"Can you tell me more ?" Chris asked while loading the rest of his purchases into his backpack.
"If you want more gossip then go to the inn and talk to Bety. Aside from serving food and beer, she's a hell of a gossip and will tell you anything you want for the right price." The shopkeeper said sitting back in the chair behind the counter.
Chris put the backpack with his purchases on his back, said goodbye to the shopkeeper and, after realizing he had a handful of lien left, headed for the woods outside the gate.
Making sure no one was following him, he set up his backpack then increased its size with a spell to fit in without any problems.
The platform on the bottom of it was part of another spell so the size-changing spell didn't affect it, making it so that in order to get inside he had to take his purchases outside first and carry them in a little at a time.
"I need to get some sort of shopping bag or something." He muttered under his breath after bringing everything inside.
After he laid out all his purchases and ate an early dinner, he set about finishing that fabricator thingy. He only had about a dozen points left to squeeze in so he should finish the same day.
After a couple of hours of exhausting task, Chris squeezed the last required points into the construct, which, after receiving them, blinked and appeared in the corner of the room as a finished thing.
The fabricator looked... strange. It was certainly some kind of machine but he could not see any buttons or anything on it. Not being sure what to do he asked.
"Uh... advisor?" Chris asked hesitantly.
"Scan it and we will find out what it is and what it is about." The advisor said.
As he was told so he did, he used the scanner skill on the fabricator after which he sat down on the bed and, giving his advisor time to study the machine's scan, he began looking through the new cookbook.
He browsed through chapter after chapter, looking at familiar recipes until he came to a chapter he didn't remember being in the book at the manor. The chapter titled 'Desserts' quickly explained why it seemed foreign to him, he hadn't seen it before because it contained recipes that lacked 'pork' as the main ingredient. Instead, in some recipes it was fruits, in others it was melted sugar called caramel and in yet another it was large amounts of something called chocolate.
He planned to continue reading when the advisor let him know that he had finished the analysis.
"So... what do we make of this contraption?" Chris asked in his mind.
"So to start with, the fabricator is a device that is able to create various things, your scanner skill is linked to it so, with some limits, you will be able to create things that you scan, you can't create food, lien or dust but it can create things like gold, silver, copper, iron or even just ordinary boards so it's not that bad. Everything, except raw materials, what you create in the fabricator will be in parts so you will have to put the selected things together by yourself, the fabricator does not provide the manual or tools needed to put things together so you will have to manage somehow and of course a certain amount of sanity and vitality points are required for each project." A wall of text appeared before his eyes.
"Okay, okay, I think I understand everything. Do we have something to start with, some kind of stove or something?" Chris asked after a few minutes of reading the text.
"Walk up to the machine and check for yourself. When you are close enough, an information window with options for creation will appear above the fabricator." The advisor said.
Heeding the advisor, Chris approached the fabricator and, after a transparent window appeared, began browsing through the options.
The main menu had several categories such as raw materials, furniture, storage and weapons.
The 'weapons' category was divided into subcategories such as 'melee weapons', 'firearms', 'ammunition' and 'projectile weapons' and above all the categories was a counter that, after calculating the time remaining on it, marked midday on the first day of the next month.
Finding a simple javelin in the 'projectile weapons' category, he moved on to 'firearms' to find two choices there. He looked at the first option of the weapon whose name was TOZ-106 and as this weapon was, after reviewing its specifications, usable, that to the next option of the weapon named FP-45 he could only react by saying to himself 'what the fuck is this piece of shit'.
This gun was ugly, had a short barrel, was single-shot and to reload it you had to poke out an empty case with a stick. He could already see with his mind's eye how, after a miss, a grimm or other thug would wait politely for him to reload.
"Yeah... there's no way I'm wasting my points on this shit. I hope that guard, what was his name... Erik has some useful weapon that I can scan. For now, I'll look through the rest of the categories." Chris said to himself while exiting the 'weapons' category.
Fortunately, other categories had slightly better options.
In the 'storage' category, he found a refrigerator, a chest, a bookcase and several types of fruit baskets and shelves. The 'furniture' category, like the 'weapons' category, was also divided into several subcategories such as 'kitchen', 'bathroom', 'bedroom' and 'living room'.
In the 'kitchen' category, he found a wood-burning stove and one that used dust crystals as fuel, cabinets, shelves and countertops.
In the 'bathroom' category was a piece of furniture? Chris wasn't one hundred percent sure how to categorize the shower but he knew he wanted to create one.
In how many parts it would come and how he would assemble it as well as what he would connect it to in order to have water he would worry about later.
In addition to several types of showers, there were also bathtubs, sinks, mirrors, washing machines and dryers in this category.
The 'bedroom' category contained beds, closets, armchairs, stools, bedside tables and lamps and the 'living room' category contained tables, chairs, sofas, coffee tables and poufs. in the main menu there was also a category titled 'others' but when he looked into it he understood why it had such a name.
This category was filled with everything from bowls, plates, cups, glasses and cutlery through tablecloths, towels, sheets, pillowcases, carpets, bathroom mats, shower curtains, pillows, quilts, and ending with brooms, mops, buckets, wrenches, hammers, screwdrivers, measuring tape, large and small hand saws, nails and screws, canvas for paintings, easel, picture frames, drawing paper, light bulbs, cables, extension cords, cutting boards, knife sharpeners and stove pokers.
"You don't get the tools for free but at least there's an option to make them yourself." Chris said to himself after which, bored with eating cold food all the time, he decided that he would start by making a wood-burning stove and then when he found out what he needed, he would create the tools.
He got down to work and, after squeezing in enough points, activated the process of creation, which, according to the counter that appeared in the place of the 'create' button, would end in two days. This left him with plenty of time to sit around and laze around or start exploring the area.
Since it was only one o'clock in the afternoon, Chris put on his helmet and went outside to explore the area for dry wood. He was aware that he had the ability to make planks in the fabricator and use them as firewood, but it was enough that to make a simple stove he literally had to slowly killing himself. He simply didn't want to do the same for firewood.
For the rest of the day, Chris roamed the woods collecting smaller branches and cutting larger ones into pieces, tossing everything into his backpack.
When the sun went down he went back inside to clean up the mess that had been made around the entrance elevator, stacking the cut pieces against the wall and sweeping up the wooden debris with a cut pine branch. The next day he woke up at 4 a.m. all drenched in sweat.
He had another wonderful nightmare in which he was running away from the body of the cursed woman slowly walking toward him.
Despite the fact that her head was shattered and her leg was bending the wrong way, she was walking toward him giggling possessively and no matter what he did she was getting closer and closer until she finally caught him in her cold dead hands.
"I see there will be no more sleeping today." Chris said to himself while throwing off his sweaty clothes and putting on new ones. He needs to make the washing machine or at least find a river because it's starting to stink hard here.
Chris turned on the light with a button that was on the wall just below the clock, had an early breakfast, did a series of sit-ups and decided to play the violin until eight in the morning.
When it was several minutes past eight, he took more lien in his coat pocket, put his helmet on his head and went outside putting on his backpack and heading toward the settlement.
Reaching the gate, the guard on the tower paid him no attention, allowing him to enter freely. When he stepped outside the gate he saw Erik petting a small, ginger-haired, tailed creature.
hris did not recall seeing anything like this before, so he approached the gate guard to satisfy his curiosity.
"Greetings Mr. Eric." Chris said standing behind the guard's back at which he twitches and the petted creature hissed.
"Hey Chris, you gave me quite a scare." The guard said turning to him.
"I apologize most sincerely for that, for it was not my intention, I merely wanted to ask what is the name of the creature you are petting?" Chris asked, being unprepared for this conversation.
"Wow, what with the fancy words? But to answer, this gentleman's name is Jumbo," Erik said petting the creature again.
"And what kind of being this Jambo is if I may ask?" Chris asked uncertainly.
"I... er, what? Under what stone have you lived that you don't know what a cat is? Never mind, I've got to get back to the gate or old Marston is going to be pissed at me for slacking off again. Heh what kind of being this." Erik said walking toward the gate, mumbling the last part under his breath with a chuckle.
Chris, having learned of another custom of normal people of naming animals, shrugged his shoulders and directed his steps toward the general store. Entering the store, he nodded to the shopkeeper in greeting then set off to get his purchases.
Since he will have a stove soon, he bought two pots, an extra frying pan, a spatula, tongs, a cutting board, an iron mug, several wooden plates and bowls, a set of wooden cutlery and several cans of cooked chicken meat.
Having paid for his purchases, he said his goodbyes to the shopkeeper and went to check out the rest of the interesting places in the settlement starting with the inn.
Entering the inn, Chris found it quite empty. Only a few people were sitting at tables talking, eating or playing cards, paying no attention to him while the barmaid behind the counter was cleaning a wooden mug with a cloth.
"Well, well,well, I heard that someone new has arrived in our settlement but I didn't expect someone like that. Are you some kind of huntsmen?" The barmaid asked, putting down her mug.
"Nothing of the sort, I'm just a traveler who wants to learn about the surroundings and maybe buy something." Chris said looking at the liquor shelf.
"A traveler, eh? I'm able to share some information about the surroundings and rumors I've heard as well as sell you this and that, but like mead so the information will cost you." The barmaid said tapping her fingers on the counter.
"How much for information?" He asked.
"Hmm... 100 lien for one question." She replied after a second of thought.
"That's a pretty hefty price for something like this." Chris replied trying that whole bargaining thing his advisor mentioned.
"Maybe, but as you probably know, information is as valuable as dust crystals if you find yourself in a foreign place." The barmaid said smugly.
"But,but,but, I am willing to give you a discount if you help me with something." She added quickly.
"What do you need help with and how much of a discount are we talking about?" Chris asked.
"You see, because of rumors circulating in the area as well as disappearances, hunters refuse to go on hunts out of fear that if they go outside the settlement they won't come back. How am I supposed to run a business when there is no meat? Supplies alone which are once a month are not enough. So here's my proposal, bring the butcher four deers and you'll get one question for free and a 37% discount on the next ones." The barmaid said.
"Hmm... deal. How long do I have to complete the task?" Chris asked.
"I'm not giving you any specific deadlines, but I would appreciate it if you delivered the meat as soon as possible." The barmaid said.
"Okay then, I'll try to make it quick, but first, how much for a bottle of mead?" Chris asked, pointing to one of the bottles.
"30 lien" She replied already reaching for the bottle.
"Three please." He said.
After buying and packing the bottles, Chris went outside and headed toward the gate, only to stop after a few steps when an information window appeared before his eyes notifying him of the task.
"Supplies needed."
Hunt and deliver four deer to the butcher.
Reward: 400 xp to the skill of your choice.
"Huh... so besides giving spells it also gives tasks, nice." Chris said in thought.
"You accept it quite easily." His advisor said slightly surprised.
"Eh, it is what it is, besides, it's not like I can do anything about it." Chris shrugged his shoulders then continued walking toward the gate.
"And, another thing. You heard that the guard gave a name to the animal right?" Chris asked the advisor.
"Yeah?" The advisor replied uncertainly.
"What would you say if I gave you a name?" Chris asked as he passed the gate.
"Do you see me as your pet?" The advisor asked sounding slightly offended.
"Of course not. It's just, after all we've been through and how you've helped me, I thought it would be nice if you weren't a nameless voice and had a name. Of course, if you don't want it, I'll forget about it." Chris said.
"Okay then, do you have any names in mind?" the advisor replied after a few moments of silence.
"Oh meaning you agree, okay then, how about Arthur? maybe James, Jeremiah? Sorry, I don't know too many names." Chris said slightly embarrassed by his ignorance.
"Hmm... Arthur sounds good. Yes Arthur." The advisor, now Arthur, replied after a moment's consideration.
"So Arthur, it's time to go hunting." Chris said walking deeper into the forest.
A few hours later, following a barely visible in the snow hoof tracks, Chris came across a small lake from which several other tracks, some larger others smaller, led deeper into the forest. He climbed one of the nearby trees and, sitting down on one of its branches from which he could see the lake, prepared his claws to launch and, freezing in stillness, waited.
After some time of waiting and dozing off, a deer stepped into the clearing with the lake after which it bent down and began to drink. Chris, acting as quietly as he could, scanned the deer getting information about its age, weight and its category, 'animal', after which he raised his right hand aiming at its head, held his breath then shot out his middle claw.
The projectile soared with a swish towards the target hitting it roughly in the middle of the head, killing the animal on the spot. Chris jumped down from the tree and started figuring out how to transport the heavy deer to the settlement.
He could have put it on one of the rags he has in the room and tried to drag it back to the settlement, or gone back and called someone to help but then some animal might eat the deer's carcass before he returned.
Standing over the carcass of the animal Chris scan it because after all, why not, maybe after the scan Arthur will have an idea or something.
In addition to giving him a few experience points, the scan also showed that since the last time he scanned it, the deer from the 'animal' was now categorized as a 'corpse'.
"Arthur, do you have any ideas about how to transport this massive carcass?" Chris asked after a few minutes.
"Hmm... I think so. Your size manipulation spell doesn't work on living creatures but it works on objects and a corpse in theory is an object so the spell should work, but you have to check it." Arthur said after a few minutes of thought.
Chris, hearing the advisor, used a spell on the dead animal's body in an attempt to shrink it as much as he could. At first the spell seemed to have no effect on the target but after a while the deer's body shrank so that it was not much longer than Chris' leg. Its weight also changed to the point where he could take the shrunken deer in his hands and throw it in his backpack.
It didn't make much sense, but he was dealing with magic and it so far didn't make sense either, so instead of being surprised and wondering how it happened, Chris took the backpack with the deer on his back and headed toward the settlement.
Having reached the vicinity of the settlement, Chris took the deer's carcass and a cloth tarp out of his backpack, after which, placing the carcass on the tarp and increasing its size, he began dragging it toward the gate.
The next day he went to the same place but unfortunately his luck abandoned him. He waited all day to not encounter even a single deer.
Returning to his home late in the evening, he ate some rusks and dried meat then looked at the fabricator to see how much longer he had to wait and was pleased with what he saw.
The process of creating the stove patrs came to an end and after checking what tools he would need to put it together he made them in fabricatorand began to assemble the stove.
After some time of struggling with assembling the stove without instructions, he finally finished it, leaving only a few spare parts that were definitely spare and not needed, he sat down in bed to eat something and let his brain rest.
When his break was over, he took to assembling another part called the hood, which had the task of removing smoke and other fumes should something burn. There was also a pipe attached to this part, whose other end connected to the stove's chimney.
Then when everything was ready he took the stove and, according to advisor Arthur's instructions, placed it against the wall and attached the hood over it.
"Arthur, how do we get the smoke out, should I look in the creation menu for some additional pipes?" Chris asked.
"What for? The stove is standing and the hood is attached. Everything is ready to fire up the stove and cook. What else do you want?" Arthur replied.
"Exactly, attached. There is nothing behind the hood but a wall. How is the smoke supposed to not go back into the room?" Chris said confused.
"We are inside a room that is literally in another dimension with an entrance through the backpack, you are able to magically create a stove using your life energy yet you cannot comprehend how smoke disappears from a stove that is standing inside a magical room created using magic..." Arthur said in a monotone tone of voice.
"When you say it like that..." Chris said slightly embarrassed by his stupidity.
"If you have problems with the concept of magically disappearing smoke then wait until you make a bathroom," he said. Arthur said with a chuckle.
Over the next few days, he followed deer tracks, practiced magic skills and silver eyes on grimm, looked around for interesting things and, intrigued by what Arthur said, began creating a new room on the left wall.
As he approached the spot where he would have to put points in, a window appeared with options to choose what kind of room he wanted to create.
Choosing the bathroom, he began creating it and after a few days a white wooden door stood in place of the blank wall.
Opening it, he entered an empty room with a white ceiling in the middle of which was a lamp with a switch by the door, the walls and floor covered with tiles, the walls with blue tiles, the floor with white tiles.
There was only one small problem with the tiles on the floor.
"How did all these squares make a circle!?" Chris screamed, looking at the circle made of square tiles in the middle of the bathroom.
"No, no, it's fine, it's fine, it doesn't bother me, it doesn't bother me... It bothers me, it bothers me a lot!" Chris said trying and failing to accept how the floor looks.
"Bathroom mat! I need to make a bathroom mat that covers the whole floor and that, thing, before I do anything else for the room." Chris said while dashing out of the bathroom.
With the bathroom mat done, Chris set about covering up that eye-stinging abomination on the floor, sighing with relief once it was covered.
The rest of the month was spent tracking down remaining deer, hunting grimm with magic and exploring the area.
On the first of March, he managed to hunt and deliver the second of the four deer needed for the task.
Exhausted by the need to talk to people, Chris returned to his home, ate the leftovers from the previous meal and looked at the fabricator to continue creating the shower.
Sitting and pressing points on a project, Chris suddenly remembered about the counter in the 'weapons' tab. Turning to the tab, he noticed that where the counter was, a card appeared informing him that he can pick up a monthly random package containing weapon schematics.
In the middle of the lower part of the tab was a button saying 'receive' which, after tapping it, the tab disappeared and in its place appeared another one saying 'received: random German weapons schematics pack, part 1/?'.
This card then disappeared, a new counter appeared in place of the previous one, the end of which fell at noon on the first day of the following month and the subcategories 'ammunition' and 'firearms' were highlighted.
Chris stood still for a moment, wondering what the 'German' word could have meant.
Did this word indicate the type of weapons contained in these schematics? Or was the word the name of the person responsible for developing these weapons?
And why, when saying this word, did he see with his imagination's eyes an old guy in an ancient-looking wheelchair sitting in a field of white glowing flowers?
"Never mind, it's time to check out what's new." He thought while entering the 'firearms' tab.
Inside the tab, he found five new options to choose from.
The first weapon was called the P08 Luger, was a pistol fed by a 9mm round, had a magazine that held 8 rounds and was effective at medium and close range.
The second weapon was called the MP-41, was a submachine gun fed by a 9mm round, had a magazine that held 32 rounds and was effective at medium and close ranges.
The third weapon was called the Kar 98k, was a bolt-action rifle fed by a 7.92 x 57mm round, had an internal magazine holding 5 rounds and was effective at long, medium and for obvious reasons a little less effective at close range.
The fourth weapon was called the FG-42n/A, was an automatic rifle fed by a 7.92 x 57mm round, had a magazine holding 20 rounds and was effective at medium and close ranges.
The fifth and final new weapon was called the MG-3 and was a machine gun fed by a 7.62 x 51mm round, it had an ammunition belt made of disintegrating links and a drum magazine holding 120 rounds and was effective at long, medium and close range.
It's too bad that the description of the weapons didn't include what kind of rate of fire or weight they had, but that wasn't important for now.
What was important was that he finally had access to a usable weapon and not some junk like this single-shot pistol.
"I finally have something to hunt with besides my claws." Chris said satisfied.
"Exactly, you just have to make and assemble them. Just which one do you choose first?" Arthur said.
"I think I'll make that Kar 98k first. I don't think I need anything else for deer hunting." Chris said after a few moments of thought.
Having chosen a weapon, for the next few days he pressed the right amount of points to create its parts and when it was ready he set about creating the tools needed to assemble it.
Advisor Arthur also told him to scan the weapon when he put it together without saying why, claiming that it would be a surprise.
Assembling the weapon was a rather interesting.
It required time, patience, precision as well as not being one of the easiest activities Chris has done so far, especially since he had no assembly instructions and only advice from Arthur who knew only a little more about the process than he did, but at the same time the whole experience was enjoyable and satisfying in its own way.
It took some time to put together his first weapon, but after a few days of work, there it finally is, a beautiful bolt-action rifle with a wooden body made of walnut wood.
From just looking at it he felt an uncontrollable urge to use it on some target but he knew that first he had to create some ammunition for it as well as carry out Arthur's request and scan it for the "surprise" that was supposedly waiting for him.
So holding his rifle, Chris used the scanner skill on it.
"Okay, I got a few more pieces of information. Is this the whole surprise you were talking about?" Chris said a tad disappointed.
"Take a look at the 'weapons' tab in the fabricator." Arthur said.
Chris went into the tab and noticed that a new sub-tab called 'modifications' had appeared, but instead of white letters, the tab was written in gray. He clicked on it but nothing happened.
"Arthur, what's wrong with this tab?" He asked puzzled.
"The tab works as it should, to access it you just have to put the selected weapon on top of the fabricator." Arthur instructed.
He placed his rifle on top of the machine and when he did so the inscription of the new tab changed color from gray to white.
Clicking again on the tab that worked this time, he saw a whole bunch of different weapon accessories. Sights, bipods, suppressors, compensators and all sorts of other weapon attachments.
"Surprise, now you can modify your weapons to your liking. All you have to do is select a modification, press the required number of points and the machine will mount your chosen attachment on the weapon no matter if you need to put on and adjust the scope or mount a bipod." Arthur said.
Curious about the new possibilities, Chris began to browse the available modifications for his weapon. After a few minutes of browsing, he selected a scope, rifle sling, a longer barrel and a suppressor, then began creating them.
About two hours later his modified weapon was ready, now all that was left was to create some ammunition for it. Another hour later, Chris had 120 finished bullets in his pockets and five in his rifle.
He was excited to test his new weapon on the grimm but unfortunately it was dark enough outside that he wouldn't even hit the barn. Upset that the sun didn't wait for him to finish, he went back inside and resumed creating the shower.
For the next few weeks, from dawn to dusk, Chris from the tree tops practiced shooting at grimm.
At first it went horribly wrong and even despite his rangefinder skills he kept missing, but over time he became better and better at shooting being able to shoot a grimm from greater and greater distances.
He also learned that he could block the movement of his metal hands with thought, making them the perfect support for accurate shooting.
Being confident in his shooting skills, Chris headed deeper into the forest to hunt the remaining two deer needed for the task. For the next two days he tracked the animal finding it and killing it on the last day of March.
Without much fanfare, Chris delivered the deer to the butcher after which he headed deeper into the forest and set up his backpack and, being inside, set about assembling the shower he had finished some time ago.
After carrying everything into the bathroom, parts as well as tools for assembly, Chris set about setting it up.
First he placed the shower tray whose drain, of course, connected straight to the floor and was supposed to magically disappear the drained water, attached the shower knobs directly to the wall and finally set up the glass half round half transparent shower walls with sliding doors.
It looked nice, but if only to satisfy his curiosity he had to test it. So he turned one of the knobs and after a moment the water gushed from the shower head, gathering in the tray and disappearing down the drain.
"The water disappeared down the drain just like the smoke in the hood. Why am I still surprised." Chris muttered to himself.
Chris then went back to the fabricator and created some towels after which he chose the next project which was a washing machine and returned to the bathroom to take a long-awaited shower.
After getting out of the shower, he devoted the rest of the day and half of the next to creating a washing machine.
He only stopped the process when he received a notification that the next countdown was over and he could pick up the new schematics.
This time, after picking up and letting the next countdown run, which this time appeared in the main menu instead of the 'weapons' tab, Chris received a notification that said 'received: random shotgun schematics pack, part 1/?'
The first weapon was called TOZ-123, was a pump-action shotgun fed by a 4 gauge shell, had an under-barrel tube magazine holding 3 shells and was effective at close to medium range.
The second weapon was called the AA-12, was an automatic shotgun fed by a 12 gauge shell, had a drum magazine holding 20 shells and was effective at close to medium range.
The third weapon was called TOZ-66, was a double-barreled shotgun fed by a 12 gauge shell, had no magazine and was effective at close to medium range.
The fourth and final weapon was called the Jackhammer Mk3A2, was an automatic shotgun fed by a 12 gauge shell, had a drum magazine holding 10 shells and was effective at close to medium range.
"This time four schematics" Chris thought after which he returned to creating the washing machine.
A few days later the parts were lying on the bathroom floor and he was using trial and error to put the washing machine together.
After a few days of work, the washing machine stood whole and ready, and this time it no longer surprised him that the water supply hose was literally screwed to the wall.
The only new thing was that he had to limit himself with the placement of the washing machine so that its cable would reach the outlet in the wall to the left of the entrance.
The socket in the wall had been in the bathroom from the very beginning, and at first glance it looked like someone had stick it to the wall with glue, so Chris had to check if it was definitely real using the best available method.
Sticking his metal finger inside.
One electric shock later, he was sure that in fact the socket was real.
When the washing machine was installed, plugged in and ready to go, Chris took everything off, pulled everything out of his pocket and put the dirty clothes in the machine.
He didn't have any washing powders but water alone should be enough to get rid of the stench. Some time later, the washing and spinning process was over and Chris pulled everything out onto the floor and started thinking about how to dry it all.
He returned to the main room, created a rope, hung it up to around the hood, hung the damp clothes on it and lit the stove, letting the heat slowly dry them.
The clothes slowly dried and he set about his next project, a refrigerator. After a few hours all his clothes were dry, so he dressed back up, pocketed the ammunition, slung his rifle over his shoulder and stepped outside.
The world outside was slowly changing. The sun was shining stronger, the days were getting longer and the snow that not long ago crunched pleasantly under his boots was turning into a muddy wet slush. He had to hurry up with all this hunting before all the snow disappeared and only mud remained.
With this thought in mind, he moved toward a clearing with a pond from which he located several pairs of hoofprints and, having chosen one, followed them.
He managed to shoot the third deer and deliver it to the butcher the same day. It seems that their number has increased with the arrival of spring, it is possible that the last one needed for the task will appear soon.
When he arrived at the gate the guards questioned him as to how he was able to carry such a large deer, which he had by no means magically enlarged, all the way to the settlement.
He didn't answer their questions just nodding his head, doing so not to look mysterious but because he had no idea what to tell them. Besides, too many people in one place, especially when they were all focused on him, made him nervous.
While still in the settlement, Chris bought quite a few supplies and, as he is about to start constructing a refrigerator, he started looking around for refrigerators at the butcher's.
The idea was that if he buys everything he needs now, then later when the snow melts and all that's left is mud, he won't have to leave his home.
That and also the fact that he wouldn't have to talk to people.
The next day, Chris returned to the clearing and began tracking another pair of hooves. He had been tracking them since morning, going deeper and deeper into parts of the forest where he had not yet been.
Around noon he came upon something strange, a person dressed in a brown robe with a hood was standing not far from him.
"What is a person doing so deep in the forest?" He thought.
He was about to get closer and see what was wrong with this individual when suddenly a grimm came out of the woods from ahead.
Chris prepared to use his silver eyes on the creature thinking that the person had fled by now, but upon checking the person, he not only did not flee but fell to his knees and spread his hands mumbling something under his breath.
"Damnation, does this madman have a death wish?!" Chris thought in a panic.
The grimm rushed towards them so Chris, ignoring the bystander, fired a pale light from his eyes into the creature of the grimm, turning it into ashes.
Chris turned around after a moment towards the hooded person expecting questions and gratitude for the rescue but instead of that, upon glancing at the face of the survivor he saw only terror.
"W-what have you done? You destroyed the sacred form of the emissary of the God of Darkness." Mumbled the boy who at first glance was not much older than him.
Before Chris could say anything the boy got up from his knees and pointed at him.
"Blasphemer! Cursed blasphemer!" The boy yelled while running deeper into the forest.
Chris stood still for a moment, asking Arthur what had just happened after which, without getting a concrete answer, he returned to tracking the deer.
He managed to shoot it when the sun was already setting so instead of going straight to the settlement Chris shrunk the carcass, set up his backpack and after throwing it in and went to sleep.
The next day right first thing in the morning he got up and headed back to return the last body.
As he approached the settlement something loud flew over his head, for a moment Chris thought it was one of those flying grimms he had seen from afar several times, but hearing no screams of panic or gunfire from the settlement he dismissed the thought.
Repeating the same tactic with the deer dragged on the rag, he headed toward his destination. Entering the settlement, Chris noticed a large metal-looking thing standing on a landing, the ramp of the thing was open and from inside it people were carrying out crates.
"Is this the whole bullhead thingy?" Chris asked Arthur.
"I guess? I haven't seen one yet." Artur said.
"It's certainly... big, it's got engines and wings and stuff." Chris said, not knowing much to say to his advisor.
"Yeah... Let's go to the butcher already and finish the task." Arthur said.
"Right, let's go." Chris said while dragging the deer to the back of the slaughterhouse.
After handing over the last deer to the butcher whose name he didn't feel like asking, Chris got a notification that the task was complete.
Choosing to have all the xp go to the fire manipulation spell, he saw that he was only a few points short of the tenth level of this spell. Excited by the vision of a new spell, Chris set off running into the woods to hunt for grimm to get those last points.
For the rest of that day and half of the next, Chris threw fireballs to the right and left, burning grimm one by one. Around noon the next day, Chris gained the tenth level in the fire manipulation spell.
After setting up his backpack, he went inside and, sitting down in bed, summoned the menu with a thought to choose a new spell.
The window that appeared informed him of his four options to choose from.
The first spell was called a screenshot, and it allowed him to magically project onto any surface the image he had in his mind of what he had dreamed or what he had seen and knew the details of.
The second spell was called strongman and allowed him to lift twice what he weighs using even one finger.
The third spell was called night vision and allowed him to see clearly in total darkness.
The fourth and final spell was called exterminatus, it was a one-time use, when not selected now, it will never again appear for selection. This spell was capable of completely and forever destroying an immortal person no matter whether that person was cursed or blessed.
Chris pondered for some time, weighing his options.
Night vision sounded ok, but he can put a enchantment with a similar effect on his helmet, so there was no point in choosing this spell.
The strongman spell wasn't very useful either because if he wanted to lift something heavy he could just shrink it with a spell and that was it.
Exterminatus also didn't sound like something he could use. True, he was free for a fairly short period of time and had not seen or heard of any immortal someone, but so logically, if someone is immortal then he probably learned how to get rid of that immortality during the time he was alive as well.
That and also the fact that this spell is a one-time use. It will be ages before he gains another 10 levels in fire manipulation to choose another spell.
The screenshot, on the other hand, sounded like the perfect spell for levelling. A picture from his imagination here, something he saw last time there, and he would be several levels forward. He wouldn't even have to leave the house to accumulate levels.
Selecting the screenshot spell, Chris went to the spells tab and read how to use it. The description indicated that he was to first think and visualize in his mind what he wanted to paint after which he was to touch the surface on which he wanted the image to appear and then use the spell.
He then approached the fabricator, created an easel and a painting canvas after which, setting the canvas in the easel and putting everything against the wall, closing his eyes he thought of his first hole in the ground and the tree growing above it after which, touching the canvas and he used a spell.
When he opened his eyes to see that on the previously blank canvas was now a familiar sight of a spreading tree growing on a hill. The conjured image had a few flaws and blurred areas, but otherwise the painting looked beautiful.
Chris then produced several more pieces of paper and spent the rest of the day messing around with his new spell. The next day he went to the inn to hear the gossip of the area and had plans then to walk around the stores and buy whatever he wanted.
The process of making the refrigerator parts was also almost over so he could begin buying things that don't have a very long shelf life like milk, eggs and raw meats.
Entering the inn he found behind the counter a barmaid whose name, as he recalled, was Bety, at the tables people were sitting talking among themselves eating and drinking and between the tables walked another woman collecting empty plates and cups on a tray she was holding.
At first glance she was busy working but when he approached the counter and looked at her once more, Chris caught her glaring daggers at him, as if he had eaten her mother alive or something.
"What do you need?" Asked the barmaid leaning against the counter.
"I delivered the required number of deer. I would like to ask for gossip from the area. With a discount, of course." Chris said a practiced phrase.
"Heh, with the discount. Took you a while to do all that hunting. After such a long time it may have expired." The barmaid said teasingly.
"We did not agree on any time limits for hunting the agreed amount of deer" Chris replied, thanking himself for making up random conversations while in the shower.
"Someone here has a good memory, eh? Okay then, what would you like to know?" The barmaid replied.
"For starters, what's the deal with the waitress and why is she looking at me like that?" Chris asked quietly so that the said waitress would not hear, putting the appropriate amount of lien on the counter.
"Ah, you're probably talking about Samantha. Don't pay too much attention to her, she's just new to these parts and is still getting used to things. From what she told me, she comes from a village that has recently fallen under the onslaught of grimm. Apparently they called the huntsmen for help but no one came until it was too late, so you can say she's not too fond of them." The barmaid said glancing at the waitress.
"What else can you tell me." Chris said while laying down another handful of lien.
For the next hour, Chris sat in the inn, listening to every rumor and scrap of information the barmaid knew. When she had nothing more to say and he was lighter by a good few handfuls of lien, he found out that most of these rumors were a bunch of nonsense.
Some of them had no use for him or he had already heard them somewhere else and only a handful of them could be of any use to him.
Leaving the inn slightly disappointed, Chris went to the stores to buy more food. His plan was to stock up for at least a month, but if he overdid it and stocked up for longer than that he wouldn't complain. The longer he doesn't have to deal with others the better.
When Chris returned home, he spread the purchased supplies on the floor and returned to the process of making the refrigerator parts.
Some time later, the parts lay spread out on the floor and he, with tools in his hands, set about assembling it. Late in the evening, a tired and frustrated Chris finally assembled the refrigerator, placing it in the middle of the wall between between bed and stockpile.
He still had to plug it into an outlet that was in the middle of the left as well as the right wall and to reach them he first had to create an extension cord or two, but he was too tired to do it that same day so instead he went to bed.
The next day Chris got up,get dressed and, after eating a few things, set about making an extension cord.
Some time later the extension cord, which he had made long enough to run along the edge of the walls, was ready and plugged into a contact, the refrigerator was plugged in and, thank heavens, was working and eggs, milk, cheese and a few other quickly perishable items were put inside it.
Chris then decided that he would look into a rumor saying that a tall pine tree had supposedly fallen over on the road leading west from the settlement, blocking the way.
He wanted to see if it was true or not, not because he wanted to be some kind of hero, but because the pine wood would be useful for his stove, and if he was lucky and that pine tree fell over with its roots, he would also have excellent fire starter made from the said roots.
Choosing to create a handsaw in the fabricator, he packed the ammunition in his pocket, took the axe in his hands, slung his rifle over his shoulder, put the helmet on his head and went outside.
Stepping outside, he walked to the road and, choosing a direction away from the settlement, moved ahead.
It was getting warmer, leaves were slowly unfurling on the branches of trees and bushes, bees buzzed on flowers here and there and the sky had few clouds. Unfortunately, the road as well as its sides were still full of mud and standing water that slowed his movement.
After several hours of steady walking and occasionally sinking into the mud, he reached his destination.
On the road in front of him lay a long tree with its top broken off by the wind. Noticing that the tree had indeed torn its roots from the ground, he took an axe and, after chopping off a piece of the root, he sniffed it.
The root smelled of a beautiful resinous odor that basically promised an excellent fire starter.
He then went to his portable house and started creating a saw, after some time he put it together, sharpened the axe afterwards and, seeing that he still had some day left, went out and got on with the work.
For the rest of the day, Chris sawed the fallen tree with a long hand saw into adequately long pieces starting from the broken top.
The saw was designed to be used by two people, but he managed as well as he could by himself, cutting the tree piece by piece.
The next day looked similar, Chris got up, dressed in his outfit, ate a hearty breakfast, put his helmet on his head and went to work.
Somewhere around noon as he rested, a shiver ran through his body as if someone or something was watching him, only for a moment or two and then it was gone.
Chris, not knowing what to think of this, slung his loaded rifle over his shoulder and went back to work looking around from time to time to see if anyone was trying to sneak up on him.
For the next three days of work, the feeling of being watched only grew. Chris chopped roots and sawed the fallen tree as fast as he could, every now and then fending off the grimm drawn to him by bad emotions.
By the fourth day, the road was cleared, he had chopped almost all of the roots and almost all of the pine was cut into pieces and stacked next to the elevator by one of the walls of his house. Only a small stump with a few roots was left on the side of the road.
He was standing over a stump wondering how to cut it and whether he even wanted to take it when he heard a woman screaming for help from the forest.
Chris wasn't a hero, nor did he see himself as one, but if he could help someone he didn't hesitate too long. So he took all his belongings in his backpack and, with his rifle in his hands, ran toward the screams.
Chris ran through the slowly greening forest, the leaves on the trees and bushes were slowly starting to cover the area so he had to be more careful when running to avoid tipping over something on the ground.
Reaching the place from which the screams seemed to be coming, he came to a small clearing covered with tall grass and flowering berry bushes.
In the middle of the clearing grew a tree which, judging by its flowers and leaves, was an apple tree.
Chris figuring that if something was lurking in the bushes the rifle wouldn't be of much use so he strapped it on his back and prepared his metal claws, slowly approaching the center of the clearing checking the area along the way.
Reaching the tree, Chris noticed a figure sitting behind it, leaning with its back against it.
From where he was standing he could see that the person was a woman, meaning that she was probably the one screaming.
She was dressed in a traveling outfit with a hood covering her face, and was sitting completely still. Chris approached her cautiously extending his hand toward her.
"Hey you, are you okay?" Chris asked nudging the woman.
Instead of answering, the woman slid off the tree falling to the side. Chris walked up to her and removed the hood from her head only to find out why she didn't respond.
She was dead, her throat slit, the blood not yet dried. Whoever killed her had done it not long ago, only why?
His musings were interrupted by rustling sounds behind him, Chris turned around only to get hit in the front of his helmet with a wooden mace.
The visor of his helmet cracked as he flew onto his back landing next to a dead woman, before he could get up several hooded figures rushed out of the woods and bushes, grabbing him by the limbs and blocking them with their weight.
He tried to throw them off and get up but their combined weight was too much, he tried to use fire manipulation but they pressed his hands to the ground causing that if he used the spell his prosthetic hands would melt.
"Well, well, well. And here comes the silver-eyed hero, coming to the rescue of a damsel in distress." Said one of the hooded figures whose robes were different from those of the rest.
"Truly this careless traveler was a veritable gift from the God of Darkness to his worshippers. It was as if her sole purpose in life was to serve as bait for his enemy." The hooded figure continued.
"But enough pleasures. Break his aura." The figure ordered after which one of them, holding an axe in his hands, swung at Chris.
When one of the neophytes returned from his initiation swearing, between gasping for breath, that right before his eyes some person had caused the sacred form of the emissary of the God of Darkness to turn to ashes, the elders did not believe, did not want to believe that the old enemy had returned.
Despite their doubts, they agreed to send scouts who were to look around the area for a person wearing a white helmet and a long coat.
After a few days, the scouts returned with news the elders dreaded.
Silver-eyed is here, he was destroying the sacred forms of His emissaries and was in possession of a dangerous semblance allowing him to control the flames.
So the decision was made that the brotherhood must get rid of their enemy by any means possible.
They were fierce and ready to fight, but before all the brothers and sisters stood up to fight him the elders, tempering their zeal, suggested that they try an ambush.
They were to kidnap some traveler and lure their enemy to the prepared place using them.
The young blood reluctantly agreed to the proposal and prepared the groups for the task.
After observing for some time the roads leading to the settlement at which their enemy was most often seen, they captured the woman.
She begged for mercy and swore she wouldn't say a word to anyone if they let her go, but her fate was sealed the moment they captured her.
They spotted their enemy one day, he was heading towards a tree recently toppled by a storm.
For some time they watched him as he worked cutting the log into pieces hiding it somewhere, and when he began to notice their presence they hid deeper into the forest.
On the day when everything was ready and the brothers were in their places, one of them told their prisoner that if she screamed loud enough, they would let her go.
Hope filled her eyes after which the woman screamed, crying out for help.
When one of the brothers in charge of observing the blasphemer's position returned with news that their enemy was heading towards the ambush, one of them slit the woman's throat.
Life slowly left the woman's eyes, while blood flowed freely from her throat.
Brothers ignoring the death of the infidel, hid in the bushes in preparation for the arrival of their target.
When the blasphemer arrived in the clearing and approached the corpse, the strongest of them wielding his trusty mace crept up to him and, swinging, knocked the silver-eyed one to the ground.
As their enemy hit the ground the rest of the brothers threw themselves at his body, pinning him down like bees pinning down an intruder in their hive.
No matter what he does, he is about to die.
"I'm about to die, these madmen will kill me." Chris thought while writhing in attempts to escape.
He tried to blind them with his eyes but after one time one of them covered his visor with some rag.
He tried to throw them off once more but they held him with all their strength. Hit after hit his aura gradually decreased and all he could do was watch as his aura meter showed lower and lower values.
When, after another blow his counter showed 30% Chris gradually came to terms with the reality that this was his end, but when the next hit fell his world went white.
He opened his eyes closed by a sudden white flash only to see the world from a bird's eye view.
At first he thought he had died and this was the last wisps of his dying brain, but after a moment he noticed a group of hooded figures looking around frantically.
He didn't know much about what was going on until Arthur spoke up in his head.
"I'm only taking a break for a while and you almost die here and gain semblance." Said a slightly irritated advisor.
"A semblance of what?" Chris asked confusedly.
"I'll tell you later, for now you need to get out of here." Arthur rushed him.
"Like how, I can't even move my legs or arms. Where are my limbs?! How can I look around without moving my head?! Do I still have a head?! What is going on?!" Chris panicked.
"Calm down. You are now in the form you take when using your semblance. A semblance is a ability that needs an aura to work, and according to the description of this ability, semblances are different from one another and each has a different effects. Your semblance allows you to take the form of a cluster of white feathers in which you can move much faster, fly, squeeze into small gaps and transport others with you but it requires training to do it correctly and safely." Arthur said reassuringly.
"Your semblance also leaves a trail of white feathers that disappear after a while so I recommend flying over the treetops to lose the chase." He added after a moment.
"Ok I think I understand, now just how to move around in this state?" Chris asked drifting unconsciously with the wind.
"You have to pick a direction with your eyes in which you want to move and think about moving forward." Arthur instructed.
Chris listening to the advisor's guidance did as he was told and began to move towards the settlement, Flying for some time he spotted his destination in the distance, realizing how much faster he arrived this way as on foot.
"Okay almost there. Just tell me how to stop." Chris said looking around.
"Yeah, about that... I don't know." The advisor said reluctantly.
"...You don't know." Chris said in disbelief.
"Hey you know exactly that I know only a little more than you do, give me a break." Arthur said offended.
"Okay, okay, sorry. Do you at least know how to get out of this state?" Chris asked hopefully.
"You can wait for your aura to drain, or you can try to hit a tree and see if that helps." Artur said uncertainly.
Chris, having little choice, directed his gaze to the tree and with his thoughts moved toward it. The impact with its surface was nothing pleasant but at least after that he returned to his natural form and could move normally.
He then set up his backpack, covered it with branches and buried its sides with earth after which he went inside and sat down on the bed.
"I don't leave my house as long as I have supplies." Chris said to himself.
Chris then stood up and slowly counted all his food supplies. After counting in tandem with Arthur in his head for how long he would have enough food if he rationed it properly, he learned that he had food for at least until mid-June.
For the rest of April, he sat and created paintings and hanging them on the walls, made a shelf on which to spread his supplies and learned that he could magically apply paintings to other things not just canvases and walls.
Knowing that he would have to go outside sooner or later he scanned, created and repaired his damaged helmet and using a spell he applied an image depicting lush, green bushes to his clothing and his white helmet in order to better hide in the foliage. When he did it, he began his next project.
He knew that when the supplies ran out he would have to come out of his safe haven and if they saw him, and it would happen sooner or later, he would have to defend himself.
Chris didn't want to kill anyone, but he know that he should arm himself with something other than a bolt-action rifle for self-defense. So last April he began making the weapons of his choice, its magazines and ammunition for it.
On the first of May, at noon when Chris was busy creating parts for his second ever weapon, the P08, when he got a notification that new schematics were available for him to receive.
Returning to the fabricator's main menu, he noticed that the 'others' category was highlighted.
Clicking on the 'receive' button, he was shown a message that he had received a song player. A few days later when he created the parts of the pistol, without even assembling it, he set about creating this song player curious about what it was. After some time the song player was laying assembled in his hands.
It was a compact device with a small screen and a few buttons underneath. On the back of the device were several holes which, upon a scan, turned out to be the device's speakers and at the bottom was a hole for connecting headphones and one for charger.
Turning on the device, he saw that it had a single playlist signed with some strange-looking symbols. Selecting this КИНО playlist with the keys, he play the songs one by one.
Chris didn't understand a word the person singing was saying, but that didn't change the fact that the melody was catchy. With the melody in the background, Chris set about assembling the pistol and creating more weapons.
Throughout the month of May, Chris created parts for selected weapons and assembled them.
The third weapon assembled was the MP-41 and right next to it was the FG-42n/A.
The next weapon was an AA-12 shotgun, on which he stopped for a while to start creating magazines and ammunition for his small collection.
After creating several magazines for each weapon and loading them with ammunition, Chris thought that this number of weapons was sufficient, but every time he was busy with something else whether it was practicing the use of his semblance, cooking or cleaning something kept drawing him to the table he had created to assemble the weapons on it.
Every time he stopped paying attention to what he was doing while thinking about something he would find himself a moment later at a table with weapon parts in his hands.
At first he tried to resist this, not seeing the point in making more weapons, but after a while he stopped fighting it and realized that he just enjoyed it.
Just assembling and disassembling a weapon again and again only to clean and grease its parts started to give him a odd kind of delight.
Creating new weapons, on the other hand, caused him to be literally glued to the table, disregarding whether his stomach was yearning for food or the fact that he was practically falling asleep working.
The only way for him to break out of this trance and stop was for Arthur to take control of his hands and block their movement.
The month of May as quickly as it began so, thanks to his new favorite activity, it quickly ended. At noon on the first of June, Chris got the much-awaited notification of more schematics to receive which this time again appeared in the 'weapons' tab.
Upon receiving the package, Chris was slightly puzzled because this time he only received one schematic.
His mood improved when he saw what kind of schematic it was, he got a schematic for a 28/20 caliber cannon fed with a 28 x 187mm shell.
It was labeled as a heavy anti-tank rifle. Chris didn't understand for what reason he would shoot at water tanks, but he didn't dwell on it too long because the brand-new weapon was waiting to be created and assembled and disassembled and cleaned and put back together and... where did he end up... and yes, a new weapon.
For half of June, Chris did what he did the previous month. He exercised, chopped wood, worked on weapons, etc. but one day he noticed that his supply of meat had completely run out.
So he put on his clothes and helmet covered in leafy green imagery. He planned to hunt with claws but took an MP-41, just in case.
Stepping outside, his eyes were assaulted by the ubiquitous greenery.
Bushes and trees were covered with thick foliage, birds sang their melodies at their best from the branches and the sun's rays broke through the lush treetops.
The view was very pretty but Chris knew that he must not let his guard down, somewhere out there among the green flowering bushes lurked those who wanted only his death for having been born.
He slowly walked through the forest every now and then, flying over the treetops with the use of his semblance.
Landing silently on the ground, he began walking through more brush when suddenly he heard voices coming from nearby.
Curious, he quietly walked toward them and, leaning slightly out from behind a tree, he spotted them.
Five hooded figures with various melee weapons in their hands stood over the battered figure.
The person was light-skinned, with black, short-cropped hair dressed in some sort of white and gray suit and, from what he believed, had a red cape on his back.
As for the last one, he was not a hundred percent sure due to the blood coming out of the wound on the abdomen of the individual that stained the outfit.
"Another one of their victims, pity." Chris thought slowly backing away from the scene.
It was almost all in the bushes when he looked once again at the person and felt it.
Magic.
He couldn't guess much more except that the battered, bleeding person was in possession of some kind of magic.
The person's magic was different in feel than his own but it was there, he was sure of it.
This was the first time Chris had encountered anyone in possession of any kind of magic.
In a split second, a decision was made. He would help him.
"Maybe in gratitude for the rescue this person will tell him more about his magic? Maybe he has connections with other magic users?" Chris mused.
He wasn't sure of anything yet, but he knew that if he didn't take a chance he might never find out.
Preparing his submachine gun, Chris locked his hands and, aiming at the head of one of the hooded figures, pulled the trigger.