Taking the girls back, we proceeded back towards the castle of the Sheikh. There, I delivered the relic, and both he and the attendant used 2 different artifacts, that could be considered as printers, since they simply plugged the relic on it, and it started to print things.

There were Spirit Language, Divine, Ancient, English and even Japanese on the inscriptions. Someone like to mix languages huh? With lots of papers, with different things on them, I heard what I was expecting to be, well, bothersome.

“With this, we can start translate. It’ll take sometime though.”

“Excuse me, how MUCH time?”

“Uuuhh… For these three, a week, but for Divine Language… a Month.”

“A MONTH!?”

Suzuki shouted. But I agreed with her, it would take too much time. And none of us knew if something bad was happening with those 2, and this wasn’t helping at the moment.

“You can’t understand these?”

And Lucy asked that to us. It took us sometime to notice what she was referring to. Oh! That makes things easier!

“You can read Divine Language?”

“A bit. There is some words that I don’t get it, but others I do.”

“Hunh. Well, well. We have all the holders of these languages right here in this room then.”

“What you mean?” The Sheikh asked.

“This. Is Spirit Language, which Kasumi can translate, together with Amara. This. Is Japanese, and this one is English. Which Suzuki can translate. And THIS! Is Divine Language, which Lucy can help to translate. We have a translation team! And an Explorer.”

“I’ll buy them.”

“Oh, now they have value! They were useless no? Besides, they’re not for sale.”

I say it again, with a bit of [Killing Instinct] behind my words. They simply nod and back away.

“Now, back to main topic. While you guys translate all of this, I’ll be going out there. No. Excuses. That double serves for you 3.”

“But!”

“No buts. The fast we finish this, the fast we can get the shock outta here. If anyone tries something funny, you 3 can kill them, m’kay?”

The Sheikh and attendant gulped audibly, and we proceeded to decide where should I go first.

With that out of the way, they were deciding a way for me to reach the place as fast as I could. While they were deciding that, I was on the guild, with a letter from the Sheikh. The letter had a simple objective, help me in finding good materials.

“So. Let me get this straight. You’re going there. Out. Alone. Are you crazy?”

“Why’d you think I’m asking for these materials specifically?”

The GM of the city was adamant towards her decision. She didn’t wanted to lose another high-ranked adventurer.

“To hell with that. I need to go to the north and I will. And you gonna help me out. Like it or not.”

I tossed the letter on the small table between us. I didn’t used the letter yet, hoping she would cooperate. Alas, that was for nothing. She took the letter, read it, sighed, asked for someone to fetch the things I asked and we waited for them.

Soon, things were brought. And I even whistled to what was brought. An SS-Rank lightning core, some of medium to high purity magma stones, and lastly 2 medium sized S-Rank fire and lightning core.

“Zowwie. How much for these?”

“What? The letter said the Sheikh would pay.”

“Nuh-uh. No way in hell I’m gonna have a debt to that bastard. Once again… How much?”

She sighed and passed me the value. Well, there it goes my whole economies. Meh, with what I’ll kill, I can get this back pretty fast. I had in hands, if I could put in gold coins, would be more than 10’000 now. Platinum coins sure are nice. And these 3 would use all of those.

After paying that up, I got out, and back to the castle.

Okay, SS-, S-Rank cores, and some Magma Stones. So, what can I do with it? Ohohohohou~ A lot of things.

The first SS-rank would be used on a new weapon, while the S-rank one, I would use to power Strafe up later. Why not now? Cause I need to depart soon. And I bet I wouldn’t be able to change it soon.

Well, anyway, let’s start with the first project, shall we?

The first one, was a missile launcher. What? Too exaggerated? Nah, it’s just my intuition. Consider the Intuition like a, well, whispers that are giving advice. Constantly, to tell you the truth. Some are nice, some are interesting, and some are completely stupid. Like buying corn to make popcorn. Seriously, what the shock?

Anyway, my project for my missile launcher, again, was based on the Lock-on function, targeting heat signals. Of course, they would have a function to just shoot directly ahead, without a lock-on, and in the future, I could even upgrade it further beyond that.

Well, design wise, would be shaped like a triangular pillar. With 3 big nozzles, launching 3 missiles per trigger pulled, and even with the same function as Strafe.

“You know what? I’m gonna use both Fire and Lightning core on this thing.”

Would be a waste, but I could afford it. Anyway, the missiles, would have 5 more inside. In total, each shot, 3 big missiles, with 5 more on each one. In total, that was 15 missiles? Wrong, it were 18. You think I would waste the 3 big ones into just a cargo bay? Nah, I would make use of everything.

Not only that, but with the Fire and Lightning core? Plasma as far as I could think of it.

I used Mondálium and Adamantite Alloy on the build. With the 2 cores together with the magic HUB I made, this thing was super powerful.

“A name now, huh? How bout Ansturm? It can mean a lot things, but in this case, it means Stampede.”

With a gray light, the 2 cores melted into the weapon, and soon, everything was in place. Quite big, if I say so. With almost 2 meters in length, with one trigger, and a holder on the barrel’s length, this thing was a beast.

Missiles were made with Black Caidrum ore, since it could retain heat with ease, and made with lots, and lots, and LOTS of Mana Infused Powder. I didn’t mention it, but the Magma Stones were what I used to make the HUB. They were quite easy to turn into powder, and infuse on this thing.

I based Ansturm on this design: 1024px-APAR-Animus-newsletter.jpg (1024×576) (starcitizen.tools)

“Should I start on the next one? It’ll be better. Yeah, let’s make this thing done.”

My next project, was even more better. You see, Ansturm would be used on big and heavy monsters. Strafe would be used to precise shots, and had powerful piercing capabilities. Satz and Schicksal for close shots and what not. Zerstörer, for any situation that had barriers or something in my way. Well, that’s what I hoped for.

But this new one? You could say this was made for this occasion. Why? Think about it. Lots of mob monsters, coming towards me. And this weapon was made to deal with a cluster of mobs, and would deal with them, before they even approached me.

If by now you didn’t got it, let me tell you what I’ll build: A Mini-gun, duh. Well, mini… is a bit of a stretch.

The mini-gun I would build, would have 3 main nozzles, with 3 barrels where the bullets would come out. This… cannon of bullets, would have 2 functions.

The first function, would be a FMJ mode, where it would fire bullets, much like Satz. For the second function, it would fire beams of energy, much like Schicksal.

Why the 2 modes, when 1 is already too powerful? You see, firing too many bullets sure would make things easier, but making them all? That’s too much of a bother… and effort. It takes time for me to make Satz and Gemetzel bullets alone, and now I have to make bullets to Strafe and missiles to Ansturm? Do you have any idea of how much time that would take? Yeah, lots of.

So, the 2 modes weren’t mainly to cause damage, but to spare me the trouble. Why I didn’t gave this mode to Ansturm as well? Kinda stupid. Energy dissipates the more it moves, so the energy missiles would be very useless. Also cause big monsters have protection against spells, which the energy would be basically mana, shaped differently.

Okay, back to the board, or, paper. Anyway, this weapon, like Satz, would be connected to my Digi-Storage as well. The 3 nozzles, would start to spin, and then, move backwards, where the bullets would be loaded. Once again, construction out of Adamantite alloy, AND black Caidrum.

“Black Caidrum is finding its uses here today.”

With the SS-rank core, this made things easier. Bullets would be powered by Plasma, and shot in high speeds up ahead. Again, since this weapon would have a high fire rate, no accuracy was necessary. Putting everything into place, and with the core right besides the weapon…

“Okay. A name… Well, since this thing packs a punch much like Zerstörer, why not call it like it. Well, in another language that is. Ravager.”

Yellow colored light covered everything, and soon, the core vanished, giving way to a big Mini… I mean, how can this be classified? Oh yeah! This isn’t a mini gun! It’s a Gatling gun!

As for Ravager, I based on this design, with, of course, the 3 nozzles instead of 2: FOC_X18_Scrapmaker.jpg (355×266) (tfwiki.net)

“Well, I’m ready to travel.”

Packing things up, cleaning myself off of the sweat and everything, I reached the search room, where everyone was located.

“Did you find anything?”

“Why’d you paid the guild?”

“Doesn’t matter. Again. Did you found anything?”

The Sheikh sighed, and walked to the table. He explained everything that they found in the time I was making my weapons. Fun fact, it was already night.

“We translated some of the lines, but they did not help much at all.”

“What’s it say?”

“It says something about a riddle, Kenji-Sama.”

Lucy answered me, and I was still confused to where to go. From the 3 ruins, we didn’t know where to go exactly, and after a few minutes talking about lines not even translated, we finally reached a consent.

“Alright. Let’s do this. Does any of the ruins are located close to settlements?”

“This one.” The Sheikh pointed to one close to what looked to be, a monument. “This one is close to where 2 of the monuments that an ancient hero made. We buried him there.”

Seeing the small image on the map, albeit strange and bad made, it looked exactly like a…

“A Pyramid?”

“Yes. The hero also build that close to there.”

And the guy pointed towards a small painting on a shelf. Well, it was very small, but what it had on the painting really made me sigh and hold my temples.

“A sphinx. Seriously? The guy couldn’t be a bit more creative?!”

“Why would someone build that here?” Suzuki asked.

“I bet the guy looked to the desert, and thought: Hey! This will match with this place!”

“You seriously gonna think that?”

“Wanna bet? I bet you’ll find something on these things about that.”

“What will you bet?”

“Dunno. Some clothes for you? Like mine, or even Lucy’s?”

She glanced at my Odyssey Outfit, and then on Lucy’s Valkyrie’s Embrace.

“Then, it’s a bet.”

“Anyway, I’ll go towards this Sphinx, and then towards the ruins on west. Is there any objections?”

“Yes. Aaaah… To make things easy, I’ll help you by sending a Sand-Skiff.”

“Sand-Skiff?”

“It is a boat that uses floating stones to move on the desert.”

“Zowwie. That’s interesting. Okay. Tomorrow we’ll continue this work, and I’ll start traveling early in the morning. Is that okay?”

Everyone nodded, and we all got to our own rooms. Tomorrow will be a busy day.

After a good night’s sleep(I got to sleep!), we all met at the room again, and the attendant took me outside, where a boat, or better, a three-masted Carrack was waiting.

“Wow. This is incredible! This is an artifact right?”

“Indeed. It was based on a relic found on one of the ruins. This one was the first, so we won’t be missing it, even if it is destroyed.”

“Nice. If some monster destroy it, it won’t affect you. Nice plan.”

“Here, take this too. We’ll be in contact with you constantly, so to not be on dark about what you find.”

The guy gave me the same Relic from before, the one that let you talk with people through mana. The more I think about it, the more I see this as a Walkie-talkie.

“See ya.”

Climbing the Carrack, it starting floating with some difficulty, and then, we set sail towards the place we discussed before.

The carrack flew by the sands with extreme ease, no moment did we hit a rock, or even the ground. There was a total of 9 people, 10 if you include me on that. The men we’re all… on edge. Ah, they’re slaves… And criminal slaves no less. Yeah, this isn’t JUST a job, this is a death sentence.

It was like: Go, and finish the job. You may die, but if you return alive, then you are free, situation. The guys looked like they wanted to finish the job as fast as they could, and they really wanted to live.

We kept moving on a steady, but slow pace, and I think 2 hours or more had passed, since we left Xerssas. As we were moving, I kept glancing around, and finally could see some ruins that had a path towards the sphinx and the pyramid.

“Wow. Things are really- GAH!”

Back at the room where the translation of the inscriptions was happening, the relic for communication on this side, was on the middle of the table. It was glowing with a pale light-blue color, when suddenly, the light faded, giving place to a complete gray to black color to it.

“No. It can’t be.”

The Sheikh glanced at the device in disbelief. The girls glanced at the device and at the Sheikh. And Lucy, noticing something wasn’t right, asked in a bit of rage.

“What happened?” Her breath started to get ragged. “WHAT. HAPPENED?!”

“The device only gets darker when either the other side is lost, or-”

“DON’T. SAY IT.”

Amara glared at the Sheikh with some mana pressure on him, and the Sheikh only gulped. Everyone on the room locked their eyes on the device, and after a few minutes of anxiety for something happen, the device got the light blue shine to it.

Suzuki was the closest to the device, so she grabbed and started talking with Kenji, who finally picked up.

“HEY! KENJI! WHAT HAPPENED?!”

“Uh, lots of things! The ship was blown to bits, lots of enemies killed and the ship is destroyed. Not completely, but yeah, not usable.”

“Well, it’s good to see that-”

“Uh, hey Suzuki. I’ll call you in a minute.”

“Kenji? What is happening?! He hung up.”

““He’s alive.””

Kasumi, Amara and Lucy all breathed in relief, and settled down on some chairs. They waited even more, and after a few more minutes, Suzuki called again.

“Kenji! Can you hear me! We’re-”

“CAN IT WAIT! I’M STILL WORKING ON SECURING THAT BIRD!”

“But I thought-”

“NO TIME TO TALK!”

“He hung up again. What the hell is happening out there?”

No one had a clue. Let’s go to the other side, when they lost sign of Kenji, shall we?

It was an impact. Something big hit us. Could it be a rock, magic, or even monsters. What surprised me though, was… I didn’t felt any danger. And I had Danger Detection full time. No danger, and even the Intuition Skill didn’t gave me any insight.

Coughing the sand out of my mouth, and clearing some of the dust on me, I looked around, searching for anything on my line of sight.

“Well, aurgh! This is not good. Probably monsters will appear. So I’ll- EH?”

I tried to grab Satz and Schicksal out of my back, but they weren’t there. They were not in their respective holsters. I had my full suit, but no weapons on my back. Well, let me grab the others th-… No weapons on my Digi-Storage as well. And it didn’t took much to the monsters to notice me.

“Great. Monsters. SO GREAT!”

Activating the Agility Mode, I started running through the sands, I avoided Sand-Sharks, and some insects, sometimes even using my gauntlets waves, and blades. Thankfully, Intuition was guiding me around, in the search for my weapons. The funny thing? JUST my weapons got lost. Materials and other things? Were still there.

“HAMMERTIME!”

And the sledgehammer was still with me. Smacking things around, I simply made my way, avoiding and hitting the monsters around me. Some died, and were instantly stored on my Digi-Storage. How? GAH! WHATEVER! NOT THE MOMENT FOR IT!

Intuition guided me towards Gemetzel, that was, buried on the sand. Just as I grab it, a Sand-Shark jumps and tries to bite me.

“SAY AH!”

Gambler on the face! This thing is completely stupid! Should I give all my weapons this effect? It sure would- Hm? What is this?

TURURURURUN~

The ground started to shake, and I glanced behind me. Something was coming through the sands. And it wasn’t small. Sand-Whale… SHOCK! Without a blasting thought I started running as fast as I could. I wasn’t able to use my [Flash Step], don’t know why, so I needed to run normally.

But of course, I tripped, and rolled on the ground. Turning around, a Sand-Shark jumped out of the sand, and was coming in my direction. I put Gemetzel in his line of way, but before I could shoot, the Sand-Whale appeared. It was huge. Seriously huge. With simply coming out of the Sand, the Whale devoured the shark in one go. And it didn’t even needed to chew. It just, swallowed whole.

“Okay… Calm down… Phew! Next thing is… My visor. I lost that too. It’s close by? Nice.”

Getting up, I rushed up ahead, using my waves, and avoiding the most I could. The only way to kill these monsters, was to use the Waves at full power, or a snap point blank range. After jumping some kind of Antlion on the sand, I rolled and grabbed my Visor, and was finally able to use [Flash Step], reaching another set of ruins.

Walking more ahead, I found Schicksal, and… well, the remains of the body of someone.

“Guess the Works only with its creator function wasn’t good for this guy.”

Well, not my problem. Grabbing Schicksal, I clean it from the dust and blood, spin it around my finger, and starts shooting more insects around me. Some more goblins, AND Kaze-Goblins, together with a few Sand-Sharks here and there.

“Blast! Where’s Satz now?!”

Making my way through, you guessed, more sand, I end up finding an Oasis. It had a part of the ship right at the middle, with some clean water around. The part of the boat, looks to be the bow of it. Before checking for my weapons, I analyzed the water, and took a small sip of it. Hm, it’s just water. Clean water. And! A guy holding Satz, with another one…

“Zerstörer charges! Good! Thanks for grabbing them champ! Actually… what are the possibilities of such thing happening?”

Grabbing the charges, and Satz, I clean them, and start another section of pest control. Hm? Black-Bulls? HOW THE HELL THE WHALE DIDN’T NOTICED THEM!? Wait. Why the whale is so close here? Its territory was further away. There were some Black-Bulls rushing towards me, and I avoided them by either sidestepping, or jumping out of the way. The whale thingy was still bothering me though.

A few shots of Gemetzel, and I killed them all! Restoring the bodies, and storing them, I proceeded ahead. Defeating more Goblins, and Earth Elementals. AND Fire Elementals. They look like a ball of lava with arms. They look more like Magma Elementals than Fire, so why’s that?

Satz bullets were useless, and Gemetzel didn’t helped. So, I finished them with Schicksal, proceeding further ahead.

Climbing some more ruins, I look up ahead, and got impressed with view. The ruins gave a charm to this place, don’t know why. Feeling the wind brushing my clothes and face, I breath in, and open my eyes… just to see a Manticore flying towards me.

“AAAAH! I NEED A VACATION!”

Sliding through the sand, I descended into more of the ruins, this time buried on the sands. And I end up finding yet another guy, this time! HOLDING SOMETHING GOOD FOR ME!

“HEHAHAHAHAHAHA! WHO NEEDS A VACATION!? WHEN YOU GOT A GATLING GUN!”

Ravager was there. Also, I didn’t scanned Ravager before, but its capabilities were outstanding!

► Mob Decimator Ravager ◄

A Gatling gun, that doesn’t have anything of ‘mini’ in it.

Firing rapid bullets, as fast as a speeding jet or anything like it, this weapon decimates mobs, and whatever it finds on its way.

This weapon’s special effects, are that it can shoot solid bullets, much like it small sister Satz, AND can shoot mana beams/bullets, much like its friend Schicksal.

Albeit it has these 2 functions, this weapon is much stronger than Gemetzel. Not as much as its Big Brother Strafe, but it does make dealing with mobs of enemies much easier.

Why are you still reading this? This weapon is, of course, again, and once more, a Relifact. It still can only be used by its creator, Kenji, the Technological Anarchist.

“Let’s use the bullets on this guy and… THERE ARE 2 MANTICORES!?”

Avoiding spikes of poison… nevermind they’re acid, I kept running through the underground ruins, and when I got out, I turned towards the 2 Manticores. One was yellow, while the other was red. Male and female? Well, guess what?! You both gonna go to hell!

The 3 barrels spun in high speeds, and when they retreated and connected with the charger of the bullets, all the bullets got out. At a so high speed, that even I was feeling the recoil of them. Guh! Better make something to relieve the recoil of this. It’s just too strong.

The bullets hit the first Manticore, shredding its wings and tails to nothing. Yeah, the price would go down, but hey! Restoration’s OP! So who cares?!

After the first Manticore got destroyed, the second thought that approaching me was a good idea. Small point: Ravager bullets accuracy, unfortunately, are really bad. So, most of the bullets will never hit the same place. But if you approach it in a front rush, well, let’s just say that more bullets will hit. And boy, sure they did.

The other Manticore got completely destroyed too.

“Can this even be restored?”

Scan shown that it could not. The wings and tail? Sure. Hide? Less than 40% of it.

“Still, these things should sell for a penny. As for the organs… No use huh? Meat is too toxic to eat, and what grade the cores are~?”

Cores are graded as B-rank.

“You know, for a monster with high magic resistance, and found only on the desert, this grade sure is shocking stupid.”

Storing them, I kept moving ahead, reaching the last set of ruins before the Sphinx.

“Shock… I’m tired.”

Resting at the entrance of the ruins a bit, and then moving forward, I reach the middle of a big area, with pillars around, and the remains of the ship right at the middle.

I walk towards it, and check for any weapon. Intuition guided me here for a reason, right? Checking the remains, I found the relic device, and supply it with mana a bit. And as soon the device is back up, I receive a call.

“HEY! KENJI! WHAT HAPPENED?!” Suzuki called.

“Uh, lots of things! The ship was blown to bits, lots of enemies killed and the ship is destroyed. Not completely, but yeah, not usable.”

I start walking away from the ship, towards an exit that could lead to the sphinx. Whoever this guy is, he really build a sphinx on another world. As I walk away, I hear the wind sizzle, and a boom sound. Looking behind me, back to the ship, some kind of black blob of, what? Another slime? Attached itself to the remains of the ship. Tentacles wriggling on it, fixing some parts, adding some more, and in the end, a strange one eye appeared right at the front of the ship, and fixed its line of sight on me. The ship didn’t had any cannons. AND SURE AS HELL WASN’T MADE OUT OF METAL!

“Well, it’s good to see that-”

“Uh, hey Suzuki. I’ll call you in a minute.”

“Kenji? What is happen-”

It started to make a strange sound, and the ship floated above me.

“HEY! That’s my ride! Well, it isn’t but, you got the idea. Oh!”

The ship, monster, whatever, shoot one of its cannons at me, and floated right away. I tried shooting some of Satz bullets on it, but…

“NO DAMAGE?!”

The bullets simply ricocheted away from it. Point. They RICOCHETED AWAY! They didn’t broke nor smashed, simply were tossed away.

“Well, since it’s not attacking me, I’ll- UOU! NOT ATTACKING MY ASS! C’MON!”

And as soon as I thought I was free to search for my last weapon, the thing simply decided to come back and attack me. WHAT THE BLAST!