Kain needed a weapon. That much he knew, but he had no idea about what weapon to make. He needed something powerful because most things in the area could shrug off bullets. He needed something cheap because he had no clue if or when he may need any of the things he had gathered from the Dragonoid Tower. He needed something reliable because he did not know if he would have any time to maintain a weapon, especially if they met the one-eyed monster. On top of all of everything else, he needed something simple to use because he could not control weapons remotely like Luna could. Once he had ripped Luna’s attention away from her new weapons, he listed what he needed from his weapons and asked her for any ideas. He had plenty of ideas, but he knew that she had much more knowledge about energy, so he consulted her. [Maybe something similar to what you were using before.] She pondered. [Like maybe you use your… um… fire sticks?]

[Guns.]

[Guns as a template, but modify it based on what can be done with the energy around us.] She began to play with her weapons again. [This isn’t Earth, after all, so you don’t have to restrain anything by Earth’s logic.] She began to float away before she paused and looked back at him. [By the way, I am pretty sure that the issue with your guns is that they don’t possess enough energy to make an impact around here.]

Kain looked up at her in confusion. [Wait, how does that work?] He was only good at making energy constructs, so he had no clue what she was talking about.

[Do you remember when I told you about the time after the forest got to wherever this place is?] He nodded. [Well, I told you that after the event, everything in the forest gained power and everything evened out, so I think that there is something about this place that, when things absorb the energy in the air, makes them so powerful in a way that outclasses anything not from here. Does that make sense?]

[So you think there’s something about the energy in this place that is not only making everything the same strength, but is also making everything incredibly strong?] He asked. She nodded her head. [Also...] He smirked. [You were just acting like a kid in a candy store but now you're all serious and smart. It gives a bit of tonal whiplash. That or you’re bipolar or something.] She gave a pout to which he chuckled. He took out Dea and began to examine it. It had indeed become a bit more blue than it was before, which came as a surprise to him. With his surprise, however, came the possibility that he could modify Dea to use for later.

Despite him learning of the new possibility, he still put the knife into his amulet. He needed a new weapon, and a knife was not what he had in mind. He thought back to what Luna had said about modifying some of the design concepts from Earth to suit the energy-based dilemma he was facing. ‘A gun using energy as its propellant would be a good idea, but I think that I need something more to get a good edge. Maybe I can implement something like an elemental feature… no, that wouldn’t be very useful and would only make this more complicated. So I need something simple, reliable, powerful, and somewhat cheap. I am sure that hydrogen-based explosive propellant would wear out the barrel, reducing the reliability and simplicity. Other than that, the best propellants would be steam, air, or just pure energy. Maybe I could use something like a magnetic system, but it would no doubt require a ton of energy which would come in the form of rose-red metal based storage. That would make it hard to replace and more complex than I want.’ He pulled out a bar of black metal to begin shaping. He made a simple barrel with a grip on the end. It looked more like a child’s imaginary gun than a real firearm, but it was a good start for Kain. ‘A decent start, but out of my three options, I think that making it a steam-based weapon could be better. If I use a clip system of feeding for more simplicity and use the space in the grip as water space then… Wait, why do I even need to make it like a normal pistol? I can just make a full hand guard and put the water storage next to the magazine.’ He modified the crude shape, making a grip that he could easily use. He surrounded it with a fist-sized ball of metal that surrounded his hand but left enough room for comfort. He connected the grip to the barrel, which stuck out of the ball in an odd manner. From there, he added a boxy protrusion to the bottom of the barrel and split it into two parts, one of which, which was closer to the hand, could be accessed by a cap on the side of the barrel. He would then lead a ‘pipeline’ from the top of the water storage to the back of the gun. The other compartment was given a spring, a spring follower, and a bolt on the top of the gun. Once he had added a bit of rifling, the gun was assembled and all he had to do now was add the energy constructs.

Luna was still playing with her new toys, so he did not disturb her. They had finished a few projects that day, so he thought that they could save the gun for when they woke up. He pulled his cloak over his body, making it into a makeshift blanket and soon fell asleep. Before long, Luna stopped playing with her weapons and cuddled up in Kain’s lap.

*=====*

[... Alright, you got all that?] Kain asked, waving the piece of metal around. [I think I’ll use thin spikes as projectiles. Apart from that, do you understand what is going into the gun?] He asked.

Luna nodded. [Yep! It’s a simple construct that will allow you to heat up water, draw the steam into a condensed state, and then release it, sending the spike forward. Okay, that makes sense.]

[Your curiosity satisfied?]

[Yep!]

[Alright, this shouldn’t be too hard, so let’s go.] Despite their initial thoughts, the constructs were very difficult to make. The major issue was that there was too much going on in a small area, which led to there not being enough room for certain constructs. They were able to fix the issue by taking the propellant system step-by-step. Kain had originally wanted to move the water to an area next to the opening to the barrel, boil it, trap it, then release it all in one area. The problem was that there was simply not enough room for all of the functions to fit. After a bit of deliberation, the two found a solution: they would do each part in a separate area. The water would start by being drawn in from the reserve using a movement-concept based system and would travel about a third of the way to the opening before it was stopped and quickly boiled. Luckily, the metal was very heat resistant and they had found a way to put almost all of the heat into the water, giving it even more energy. The cloud of steam would then be pushed a bit farther into the pipe where it would be surrounded by an energy barrier and further condensed. Once that was completed, the energy shields would move the steam to the area right behind the next shot, where it would await the user to shoot. When the user shot, only the barrier next to the spike would break, which would send the pressurized steam out into the barrel and would propel the spike at a deadly speed. The next spike would be loaded, and the next steam payload would be prepared.

The whole process was quite slow by firearm standards, each propellant burst needing a full second to prepare. This made the fire rate very slow, which was only saved by the fact that it was incredibly powerful. It could cut through the trees of the forest like nothing else they had created, cutting through many dozens of feet of dense wood before being stopped. The other downside, however, was the small magazine size. Once loaded, the gun could only fire six shots before needing to reload. Apart from that the gun was meant to be clip-fed, but Kain had not created any clips to stick the spikes on. The last major problem was weight. The gun held a generous supply of water as well as six medium sized spikes. The two combined to make the gun very heavy, but Kain was luckily able to hold it due to his energy reinforcement.

[This calls for a celebration. I’ll go get the meat, and you prep the pot!] Before Kain could even get a word in, Luna shot into the forest on her black deer skull. Kain sighed, happy at both her happiness and the new weapon. They had tested it earlier and he was happy with it. He could even carry it in his amulet, which negated most of the issues of the weight. He picked himself up and left to go get water and prepare the fire. On his way out, he looked into the energy collector, which had been sitting in the corner for a while now. The sphere had barely collected 5 percent of its energy capacity, which made him sigh. He left and returned in five minutes, and when he was about to start the fire Luna rushed in.

[Oh, that was fast. Did you g-]

[Not now! There’s some flying monster out there!] Luna dragged him outside and pointed up to the sky. What seemed like a half a mile above them, Kain saw a 30 foot long monster diving down, and heading directly to them. The energy collector was sitting right next to the entrance of the cave, so he picked it up, storing it in his amulet.

[Well, looks like we have a target for this thing, now don’t we.]

[Either way, we should be careful, okay?]

[Yeah. We’ll be careful.]