"Right as I was finishing my education, this thing called translational research was all the jam then." Wu said, leaning over the table with his One-Shotter Pistol as he slowly unwounded the torn-up paper, "It means that you are bringing basic science directly and quickly into the application." "Right..." Lera said, her eyes focusing on Wu as he slowly peeled back the layers of her Cast around the Gemstone and the wooden piece it's sitting on. She's actually extremely surprised that the pistol managed to hold out for as long as it did, with how damaged everything around it seemed. Perhaps that's exactly the reason why. Wu thought, laying down the Casts written on paper to one side and the original piece of the bow on the other side. "The only thing that's damaged are the inputs into the Inverter and the Amplifier, the ones that receive the bowstring tension and level of wave injection.' Wu said, "What's so great about the bow's remaining parts is that its design is extremely stable. With the level of damage we sustained, the entire thing would simply shut down instead of blowing up unpredictably." "That's a legendary weapon you are talking about..." Ver slouched her back, still depressed, "Of course it's well designed..." "Ver, want me to take a look at the Sky-Splitting Sword?" Wu asked without looking to her. "NO!" Ver jumped up and marched her way out of the main camp with the Sky Splitting Sword carrying in her back, "I...I will go look for food!" "So...what do we do with it now then?" Lera asked, and Wu rubbed his chin and made an inquisitive sound, "How does...writing casts directly on top of the main piece sound? Or even...write the cast on me?" Wu looked down at his hand and the remaining central piece of the bow. Obviously, they couldn't use paper casts forever. It worked well for what it's supposed to do, but as the battles get more and more intense for him, it's likely that they will have to eventually make the legendary weapon actually have a legendary level of durability too. "Uh..." "Did you mention once that people also can embed Casts into tattoos?" Wu asked, looking at Lera with her jaws dropped, "We already know what kind of Casts we need to control the bow, and the source of the energy is from the gemstone itself, so it's not like it's any more than a piece of paper." "That's ridiculous!" Lera said, "If the outputs from the Gemstone exceeded the capacity of the Casts, then your skin will literally be burnt up! There is a reason those that have Tattoo Casts are all Wave users themselves!" Hm...Perhaps that idea will have to wait then. Once he figures out how to make the equivalent of electronic skin safely in this world, then he might be able to control countless Casts using an energy source that will never run out. That will basically make him into the ironman of this world. Not gonna lie, it doesn't sound bad at all. "All right then, let's stick with Casts written on leather for now, following the trends of material science..." Wu said, and Lera agreed at last. The duplication was easy for Lera, and while she's working at rewriting the Cast over a piece of leather from the previous days, Wu then worked on a slightly different control system than the two dials. Instead of having to slowly adjust both dials, he turned it into a set of two switches. There are a total of four possible configurations for the two switches, and he then worked with Lera to map the four configurations with the different desired effects from the pistol. Switch 1 Switch 2 Off On Off A warning shot and a body blast the size and speed of a volleyball spike A large exploding orb that travels slower and has high destructive power On Fastest shot and the fastest firing rate Crater making shot (Shout out to Aya) "It seemed a lot more limited than when we were first experimenting with it?" Lera commented as Wu connected everything all together and place the Mark-II One-Shotter Pistol in his hand. "That's the thing about translational research." Wu said, "Turning fundamental science into direct applications means filtering and keeping only the most relevant of findings for your research, for now." Spinning around, he flicked on both switches and pulled the trigger. A dense orb formed over the tip of the pistol before it was launched forward. The recoil threw Wu's arms back, and he nearly bopped Lera in the head with his hand. The orbs dashed through the air like a silent killer, then they touched down on the ocean surface down below the cliffside before exploding. A bright flash lit up what felt like half the sky before a column of seawater shot straight up and out to the side and a row of waves originated from the point of impact, sending a surge of water crashing into the sides of the cliff. The gusts of wind from the explosion swept through the camp and filled it with the salty smell of the sea. Wu and Lera both watched on with shock as Ver's worried voice came from behind them. "ARE WE UNDER ATTACK?!" She asked, holding onto a dead deer and a handful of vegetables. "No..." Wu said, looking down at the One-Shotter pistol yet again. Now that they have captured the power of the legendary weapon once again, Ver should have no complaints, "This thing. It's powerful as heck." "Damn right it is." Ver said, dropping the deer onto the designated cooking area and started to skin it as Lera reached out her hand and flicked both switches off. "Perhaps I should add a safety," Wu said, swallowing hard and wiping the water droplets that were a mix of the seawater vapor and his cold sweat from his forehead. "I don't know what that is, but it sounds like a good idea." Lera said. Once the upgrades to the One-Shotter were fully done, Lera and Wu then focused more on how exactly the Gemstone was contained within the Bow's main body. The good thing about using leather is that it's extremely easy to take everything apart and putting it back together without worrying about things breaking down. Lera volunteered to look through the Casts around the gemstone while Wu went ahead and checked on Ver. Wu had suspected that the Casts around the Gemstone functioned as a sort of containment unit, and that specific cast may be used to also contain the Fuel Rock Prime, so long as they scale it up enough. "...So, how are you feeling?" Wu asked, approaching Ver as she's skinning the deer and removing the inedible parts. "You meant the eye?" Ver asked, looking up at him when he noticed that she's actually using the Sky-Splitting Sword as a chef's knife. Talk about butchering the legacy, "It's...mostly bearable. As long as I don't overuse it, I can control it." "What aspects of control do you find most challenging?" Wu asked, and Ver sighed before wiping the blood away on the sword. "Don't you have other things to work on now?" Ver asked, her eyes down, "I...you don't have to worry about me now." "Well, a proper scientist needs to be able to compartmentalize." Wu said, turning around and picking up the vegetables and washing it with a bucket of fresh water Ver generated, "Big word, I know." "...It felt I am walking on a tight rope. All the time." Ver said, her voice quiet as she focused on the feeling that accompanied her ever since her manifestation, "And if I am not careful, I will fall all the way down. And the deeper down I go, the higher up Kraken comes. I have to maintain my focus, or it's not me anymore." She undid the eyepatch, and looked Wu straight in the eye as the dark lines around her right eye appeared to be slowly moving underneath her skin. "It will be me." The Kraken's deep voice came through Lera's mouth, and Wu took half a step back, startled. Ver sighed and put the eyepatch back on. "...Sorry. I didn't mean to..." Wu said quickly, realizing that his movement must have been more than rude, and Ver shook her head. "It's fine." Ver said quietly, though Lera could still hear her, "The fact that you said you will help me is enough, even after all that I've done." "Well, of course." Wu smiled, nudging Ver slightly and reminding her that Lera doesn't know the full extent of their deals yet, though at times, Ver looked as if she's genuinely a friend of Wu's, rather than someone that's waiting to take his life in exchange for the token. What is it really though? Wu wondered, and Ver, being the enigma that she is, doesn't really wear her heart on her sleeve. "If it's a matter of containment and control, then we might be able to help you, with this." Wu said, "It might not be too useful within combat, but out of it, it should at least keep things steady." "It would be great because it means I can feel again." Ver smiled as she looked down. That was when Lera made a surprised cheer and Wu left Ver alone with the cooking. It turned out that instead of having a containment unit around the Gemstone, a Cast was written directly into the Gemstone itself. That lines of writing outside of the gem are exactly the same patterns as the lines on the rest of the Casts, and they functioned as nothing more than wires to transmit the Wave. Knowing that, the logical next step would be to try to replicate the same lines of Casts on the piece of paper. Lera did apologize for not spotting this out way earlier, but Wu explained that it was him who asked her to treat the Gemstone as a black box to begin with. Like the opposite of an amplifier, the lines of Cast on the Gemstone functions more like a modified version of the Wave gate used by Wu to control the levels of the input to his pistol. It's like a conditional gate, which only lets the Wave through when certain conditions are met. What's even weirder is that when Lera run some of the Wave through the Cast, they were able to use it to completely halt the flow of Wave as long as she kept a certain flow rate and intensity of the Wave constant. When Ver stuck her hand within the effective range of the duplicate Cast, she felt as if the flow of her blood were all stopped at once. "Holy shit..." The three of them whispered the same thing at the same time before sharing a look with one another. "I have never seen anything like this..." Lera murmured, "If this kind of Casts gets out there...it will change the entire world..." "A Cast that negates the flow of the Wave..." Ver swallowed hard and pondered its implications. "Ok, if a thing sounds too good to be true, it probably is." Wu said, pointing to the piece of paper with the replica of the Gemstone Cast, "It still needed to be powered by the Wave, and it's still highly conditional." Lera nodded slowly and ran her finger over the complex lines of writing. The patterns were intricate, and way too obscure for her to completely decipher. However, with time...anything can happen. For now, this Cast is just going to function as a containment for the Fuel Rock Prime. Initially, Lera didn't actually believe that Casts of that size can handle something as powerful as Fuel Rock Prime. With Ver and Wu standing right next to her as she carved the lines into the Fuel Rock Prime that's still covered with water with the Sky-Splitting Sword, Lera was able to squeeze the special Cast ink directly into the lines she carved and activate the Cast. A small glow lit up the network of Casts on top of the Fuel Rock Prime, and Ver immediately teleported the three of them out of there. However, when they reemerged minutes later, the Fuel Rock Prime was still sitting there in the water at the bottom of the hole. Ver reached out with a massive tendril, and slowly lifted the rock towards the surface as Wu hit behind Lera's shoulder with Bubble bubble cast around them. The top of the rock left the water, and nothing happened. Then, Ver elevated the entirety of Fuel Rock Prime and placed it on the ground. It simply sat there as if it's an expensive piece of jewelry on display. Without the use of those special rocks, and without the submersion in water, they were able to figure out a way to contain the Fuel Rock Prime. Ver turned to look at Wu and smiled, and Lera jumped in the air excitedly before turning around and hugging onto Wu. Now, all that's left for Wu and Lera to do is to decipher the contents of that specific Cast and test for its properties, and they will finally have power over that piece of trouble.