"May I see that piece?" he asked.

"The knife?" the smith asked.

"The piece that fell."

"Oh yeah, it has those strange markings on it, nobody has been able to tell what those mean."

"That's what I am interested in."

Jack recognized those markings. Something he had read on the internet when he was researching materials for a quality replica sword.

"Do you have any more of those bars, and longer pieces?" he asked.

"Yes there is a whole fag of those in the corner. I had the wizard cut this one with high intensity magic, because I could not cut it on the anvil even when red hot. Must be enchanted in some way."

Jack crouched in the corner, felt the bars bonded together and finally dragged it out and lifted it onto the heavy table in the forge. He cut the black plastic straps and lifted a single bar in the air. Each bar was about five feet long, 4 inches wide and about 7 millimeters thick. These unused bars also retained all their makings, both those pressed into the material and those printed on it.

"Yes, this blue writing burned off when I exposed it to the flame."

"Yes, no wonder."

"So, young master, you know what it is?"

"Master? Are you here?" he heard a familiar voice stepping into the forge.

"Yes, Mike, come on in," Jack answered.

"What we have here," Jack turned over the metal bar, "is what you would refer to as an otherworldly artifact."

"An artifact?!" the old blacksmith took a few steps back. "Those bars are artifacts?"

"Yes."

"Are, you sure?" Mike asked, "about this? They look normal to me." Jack did not respond but he flipped over the bar exposing the blue text to his friend.

"I see, master."

"Do you have some quick way to contact master Arandas in the academy?" Jack asked.

"No, I don't," the old man said, "is it really this serious? I just found those bars by the wall some years ago. I never knew these could've been artifacts!"

"Its okay, they are harmless, but it is better to notify Arandas anyway. Nevertheless an artifact has appeared inside the academy walls."

"Right," Mike said, "I'll go get him."

"Thank you."

"So what is it?" the old man asked, "what kind of artifacts are they? And how do you know about it?"

"I know about it because it is my job to know about it." Jack answered, "and as for what it is.. it is high-strength steel. I'll explain more once Arandas gets here."

"That explains why I could not forge it," the old man sighed, "it was from another world."

"Not quite, it is of a special formulation that is resistant to wear even when glowing red-hot. It is usually used to cut other metals."

"A metal that can cut metals?!" The old smith asked in wonder, "without any magic?"

"Without magic," Jack responded, "all is technology, precision engineering and smithing."

Soon visibly tired Arandas arrived along with Mike and surprisingly, Diavella.

"Why did you bring her?" Jack asked.

"I needed a quick way to contact Arandas. She had the appropriate magic. But of course she would not leave me alone after she helped me."

"Never mind that!" Arandas interrupted, "young master, you said you found an artifact?"

"Yes, though it is not what you've been used to. The steel bars here," he let his fingers run across the steel bars, "are not of this world. The markings are not of this world."

"I see. How dangerous is it?" Arandas asked in a serious tone, "I can flood the school with magic knights within seconds."

"Not dangerous at all." Jack answered, "this is known as tool steel. Metal-working tools are usually made of it. In particular this is M2 HSSE High Speed Steel made for cutting other metals. Usually it is used to make small drill bits and cutting heads. It is probably superior to most weapons-grade steels in this world."

"I see."

"What is more problematic in this, is that according to this man he found them in the courtyard some years ago. Which means an artifact appeared inside the school."

"Yes, that is more concerning. I will make the arrangements to move those bars to A-10 immediately."

"Could you leave one or two longer bars here?" Jack asked, "I have something i want to try to do with them."

"As you wish, young master," Arandas laughed and turned around to face a visibly horrified and paled Diavella. It seemed as if she had frozen into that state.

"What wrong, miss Morgenstern? The artifact is not dangerous, you can rest easy."

"Master Arandas, how could you!?" She finally managed to get her thoughts out, "how can you, a master in this field, treat some knight-errant upstarts who can't even read, with such humility and respect?! Who are they!? Why are you addressing them as "master"!? What-what.. what is wrong with you!?"

"Miss Morgenstern," Arandas' tone grew cold and strict, "in face of this event, I will overlook this act of disrespect on your behalf, and I will not let it reflect upon your family. Miss Morgenstern. You must forget everything you saw and heard here today. This meeting never happened. Should you tell anybody about what you witnessed here, you will be arrested, tried for artifact related crimes and executed as a traitor to the crown. I hope you can imagine what it would mean to your family. Is that clear?"

"Yes." She muttered quietly.

"Excuse me?" Arandas asked again.

"Yes, master."

Arandas left. Then Diavella raised her head and threw a gaze filled with bottomless hate towards the two, staring at them for a few moments. Then she, too turned and left.

"I feel kind of bad for her." Jack said.

"We can't help it. This is how it is now. Master, we still have that evening meeting at the compound."

"I know."

*

An "evening meeting" was a code Arandas and Jack had set up for describing his nightly activities ever since he had appeared in this this world without any explainable cause. It meant that Jack would be escorted by magic soldiers from the school into the A-10 compound. There Jack would have to go through mounds and mounds of items from his world, helping the assistants catalog everything, with pictures, explanations and connections to other items.

The compound itself was actually an old fort in the middle of a dead and barren forest. The castle itself looked very much like a traditional Roman castrum with the rectangular layout, 4 gates, 4 square layout inside the main gate and a central castle structure for the lord in charge. What made the castle different were the extensive underground vaults, which seemed to span at least 4 times the area of the castrum as well and possessed several levels deep into underground. Thus Jack was hesitant in even theorizing what the actual use of the whole fort had once been.

Jack looked about on the first level, the one which also housed the A-10 Warthog. Only for the first few days he had been allowed to roam the place freely. After that, real work started. The clerks working under Arandas carefully divided the floor full of stuff into a grid using white line and some pegs, so that with the help of Jack they could clear one square after another, cataloging everything with a purpose, a short description of materials if possible, and an image drawn by hand.

Strangely, the clerks were forbidden from using almost any other magic on the artifacts, besides the one which preserved their current form and status. Jack had asked about it in the past but was only cited a list of some weird accidents from people using magic and causing unintended effects. This was also the reason they all wore similar unadorned gray robes with hoods.

At first Jack had been excited to sort through the random crap in the vault floors to seek out stuff that could help him on this weird world, or just interesting stuff like weapons. But it seemed as if the contents of the vault were strongly tipped towards stuff that was of no interest or use to him. Also there was at least one other pile forming, of things Jack had only limited knowledge of, or of stuff Jack could not identify. Some of the latter stuff was so weird that not only was Jack unsure if it had come from his world, he was pretty convinced that some of the things were from a time period even he himself would consider far future.

"And..! Our lucky hand has produced another treasure! Master Jack, can you identify, what it is?"

The head clerk, permanently stationed at the compound was named Anton Julius. To Jack, it seemed quite and eccentric man. Tall and lanky, looking almost unhealthy in his thin figure, yet very uncharacteristically lively considering his age of nearly 70 years. With it was accompanied an almost unbelievable amount of positive attitude and energy for working. It was an open knowledge that Anthony Julius did not sleep more than 1 or 2 hours per night, keeping himself up with coffee and other sleep-depriving aids, be they mundane, magical or alchemical. This may have contributed to his overall emaciated looks, including the fact that he was unable to grow healthy hair on his head nor on his face.

"It is a mop." Jack said, taking one look a the item held in the hands of an assistant. "It is used to wipe floors, much like a person without magic would, having wrapped a wet rag around a broom."

"Interesting, very interesting." the head clerk mused. "So what is is made of?"

"As you can see, it is made of strands of large diameter cotton rope, which is fastened to a plastic base. This base can be screwed on top of a wooden pole. This one, of course is made of plastic as well."

Just as Jack was explaining what the thing was, another one of the clerks was writing down what he said, and the third one was finishing a drawing of the mop.

"You know, this would go a lot faster, if I myself did the sorting." Said Jack.

"Nonsense!" master Julius barked back. "What if you come across something that poses immediate threat to your health? Or some weapon you have no knowledge of?"

"What if one of your clerks comes across something like that?"

"Our clerks all wear magical artifacts which provide protection against all sorts of poison, including auras and alchemical compounds. So if you do not personally handle any artifacts then you cannot be in danger."

"I can still be in danger."

"In your absence, we have gone through the vault and separated anything we have come across which has borne the markings you yourself set out. Only dangerous items left are ones that did not bear the marking. And for that, we are here."

Jack sighed and waved his hand, letting them continue. On his first days he had drawn up a paper with the common warning symbols for different dangerous substances, from biological, chemical and nuclear to explosive and damaging to the environment, plus some extras, like 'corrosive', and 'flammable'. So before even starting he had the clerks separate anything bearing those symbols. According to the reports, there were not many, but there were some.

But with that, there still remained items that were dangerous but did not possess the symbols, and against that, Jack was really as powerless as one could be.

Despite spending many weeks in here he had not yet come across anything useful that would allow him to mitigate any of the dangers. No dosimeters, not even hand-held detectors of ionizing radiation. Also plenty of electrical devices but no batteries which had a charge. And not a single rechargeable battery appeared, as if what was pulled into this world was mostly the contents of a landfill, from which everything dangerous and easily reused and recycled was already extracted.

The only think Jack was in awe of was the amount of different things or items his modern world had produced. Many of them completely useless in this new world, useless even as raw materials.

Jack was about identify a few lamps, a bicycle wheel and a box of nails, when Arandas appeared, followed by some magic soldiers. He was accompanied by a young man of no more than 25, with deep blue eyes, healthy skin and flaxen hair, who looked like he was in excellent physical condition, despite being only slightly taller than Arandas and much shorter than all the soldiers with them.

"Master de Lune!" Arandas addressed him right away. "There has been a development. And it seems that your presence is required."

"What's going on?" Jack asked.

"This here is Johann Gottlieb Fichte. The young commander assigned to lead the magical knights division assigned to this castle." Said Arandas, introducing the young man. "Don't be discouraged by his looks. Master Fichte is an exceptional wizard with a massive mana pool so he is much more powerful than you can imagine."

"And this is Jack de Lune, our new resident artifact specialist." Arandas introduced him to Fichte.

"So what is the development?" Jack asked.

"Coldwood," Fichte said, eyeing Jack suspiciously. "We had a detachment of magic soldiers in Coldwood following a gathering of people suspected of being members of a dark cult. They were supposed to check in 6 hours ago. But as of now there has been no contact. I have dispatched another group to see what has happened. Should we lose contact with them as well, then I want to go in personally. With you handling the artifacts."

"Artifacts?" Jack asked. "Which artifacts? Other than some kitchen knives and general furniture, I do not think there is much that can help you here. Unless you mean the aircraft."

"You haven't told him?" Fichte asked, looking at Arandas and Julius.

"Our masters thought better of it, ever since he recognized that steel bird and explained what devastating firepower it carries." Anton Julius explained.

"Well, I need his expertise, so as commander of the magic soldiers here I order you to unseal the vault!" Fichte raised his voice in a resolute tone.

"Very well." Arandas gave a small bow and then turned to Jack. "Master de Lune, we have not been completely truthful with you. In addition to the vaults that you are familiar with we also have a number of secret vaults here, containing dangerous items. Fichte has ordered us to unseal one such vault. Please come with me."

Arandas led him onto the spiral staircase of dark stone which was used to traverse between the levels on which different vaults were located. The descended only half a level and stood before a non-discriminate section of wall. Arandas tapped the wall with his wand and an area of stonewall turned into fine dust falling to the ground. Behind the wall there was a pair of massive bronze doors.

He then simply pushed the door open, revealing a pitch black vault. Jack could not see a thing. Though, until the door behind them closed, he could make out something black glistening in the dark.

Arandas tapped the something once more and sickly yellow magelights started appearing on the high vaulted ceiling. What they revealed, left Jack wordless.

Before him was a sea of guns. Literally a sea, as the vault was at least 30 feet high and it was uniformly nearly half-filled from end to end. But instead of water or some junk, it was small arms. Rifles, pistols, revolvers, shotguns and even some mounted guns. everything piled together in a beautiful mess, reminding him very much of that one scene in Lord of War with a sky-high pile of M16s in a warehouse in Afganistan.

Arandas, seeing Jack's frozen gaze, gave a small cough.

"The weapon you used to threaten the High King, was taken from this vault. This is one of only three vaults in the empire which is secure and remote enough for storing such artifacts."

Jack advanced slowly, trying to take in all that was before him.

"And you haven't tried sorting or cataloging them?" Jack asked. "Why?"

"These are considered dangerous artifacts. All clerks have been forbidden from touching the artifacts ever since an event many years ago when several clerks in another vault were killed due to improper handling of the artifacts. Even the perpetrators died, so there was no way to definitely say what happened or who made the mistake."

Jack pulled a weapon from the sea. This was a quite a regular assault rifle in AR15 pattern. With a short barrel, collapsible stock and a foregrip. Even a short scope was still on it. From the the condition in which the weapons were kept he would have expected the optics to be scratched to hell, but to his surprise they were spotless. He pulled the magazine, and noticed that it still had some rounds within. Likewise there was a round in battery.

"I sort of have an idea why what happened, happened." Jack said. "All these guns are likely hot. That is, loaded and ready to fire. Thus, somebody who has no idea how small arms work, can easily injure himself or the people around him."

"Do you know how to handle such artifacts?" Arandas asked.

"Yes." Jack nodded. "I am probably the most qualified person present."

"Can you find the artifacts necessary for accompanying us to Coldwood?" Fichte asked.

"I think I can." Jack replied.

"We are going to sort through dangerous artifacts?" Anton asked with a perverted delight. "Very well, master de Lune, what do you need?"

"I need buckets." Jack said. "Empty clean and dry buckets, as many as possible. I also need something to sit on and probably some of that medicine, Anton, that you use to stay awake and alert."

"Wonderful!" Anton clapped his hands. "I'll go get the drones. I want every detail about every item."

"Yeah, that's not going to happen." Jack replied. "I am going to pull the weapons, unload them and then set them aside. I need buckets to put the ammo in. I may explain what each weapon is named, what ammo type it has, but anything beyond that will have to be left for some other day."

"I can do that. As long as I get to put them all in a big book, so we can recognize them later on our own."

"Fine then." Jack sighed, set aside the rifle and started to empty the magazine.

*

In the end he spent more than a day working on the sea of guns. The potions Anton Julius was using to stay awake were truly wonderful. As Jack had learned later, the main ingredient of the potion was really a bean from a magical plant, called Augustus bean. There was one other ingredient to bring the magical effect out and then a bunch more to presumably get the taste out. Sad to say it did not work and the thing still tasted like cheap Indian coffee with mayonnaise.

During this day he had no idea how many guns he had cleared, but there was a sizeable little crater at one corner of the vault. At first he had only cleared the guns and unloaded the rounds into different buckets, but after an hour or so, he had glanced at the array of empty guns neatly set on the ground and just thought about the pain of sorting through them again with Anton. He then asked for some paper and also started labeling them, as he cleared them. Noting down the name, caliber and in case of rifles, the barrel length, and whether it had full auto capability.

Most of the weapons in the pile were military rifles, shotguns and hunting rifles. Most of the stuff was clearly from the 20th century, as well as early 21st century, but there were some that Jack was not so sure about. For example an AK type or AR type rifle of even a Saiga-12 was relatively easy to identify, but Jack was pretty sure there had been no rifle in his timeline with an integrated ammo counter in the optics. Likewise electronic targeting was at its infancy and not yet at the point where the gun could calculate the proper arc for over-the-horizon shot. Next to stuff like that, not even an H&K G11 or a Steyr flechette rifle or anything else caseless or with a plastic casing would be surprising.

But those were merely the most striking examples, there were other stuff, which was more subtle, like weapons chambered in rare or wrong calibers. Having a .45-70 or .450 Marlin revolver was rare but not unusual in Jack's home world. But Jack was certain there had never been a full steel double action Chiappa with 7inch barrel and chambering in .45-70. And then there were the true artifacts. Large frame and large caliber automatic pistols which looked straight out of some anime. Literally too big for a human to wield. Designed for somebody with a hand at least twice as wide and fingers twice as long, never mind the muscle strength required to control gun capable of firing a double stack magazine of what looked like 12 gauge slugs in brass cases. And it didn't even have some gas impingment system like a Desert Eagle. It was just a simple blowback, with the slide so heavy it was fit for an old anti-tank rifle.

The interesting bit was, that handguns was not the only thing that the came out of the pile. Some weapons were still with their holsters and belts. But there were also crates of flash and smoke grenades and even fragmentation grenades. The most unusual find however was a crate of military grade plastic explosives and of course blasting caps for said explosives.

Jack looked at tagged rifles laid on the ground side by side. Altogether there were two rows of them, almost spanning the half-width of the vault. Most of the ammunition buckets were taken away but Jack had ordered them to leave behind one bucket of each type. To be selected for the night's mission. Of course, from the bullets he had collected from the weapons it was impossible to tell about the loadings and weights, other than military rifles probably had worse ammunition.

"Hey, Jack." Mike arrived, carrying a few scrolls. "Fichte has finalized his plans for the evening."

"The second team has also failed to make contact?" Jack asked.

"Yes, as if they're all gone." Mike nodded. "Fichte wants a covert approach, under the cover of darkness. He wants every precaution to be taken."

"Every precaution, huh?" Jack asked. "Do you know what the weather is going to be like?"

"There might be a chance of rain." Mike said. "But honestly I have no idea how they can tell that."

"Rain, huh?" Jack's eyes stopped on specific few rifles on the ground.

Rain was actually exactly what he needed, the more the better, the louder the better. This meant he did not have to worry about noise, or shooting long distance. Jack's eyes quickly focused on two rifles with iron sights, which he then picked up and set aside. He then scavenged suppressors as well as bipods for them and also a pile magazines.

"These." He said confidently. "iron sights, good to about 350 yards if no practise and 550 with decent skill."

"OK..?" Anton said having seen the whole sorting and labeling process.

"But there is something missing." Jack continued. "Ah, that's what i was looking for!"

From over a hundred different weapons, he picked out a very specific item. Something that looked weathered, old and to Anton, nothing about it looked beyond what the best weapon-smiths of the empire could achieve with a little encouragement.

"Why did you pick these weapons?" he asked.

"Simple really." Jack replied. "We have to engage mages in dark in the rain."

"I am not understanding the simple part." Anton said.

"We need something that reaches our target despite the wind and the rain. And we also need something that incapacitates a possible mage before he can counterattack or heal. At closer ranges, .308 is perfect for that. And this very rifle I have chosen, can do the same work at 1100 yards."

"1100 yard!? But that is beyond the maximum range of magic, unless one uses specialized targeting spells.." Anton quipped.

"Which is why I keep telling you that this isn't magic." Jack replied.

"Do you know what the farthest recorded killshot is?" He asked. "It is almost 4000 yards. Compared to that, 1100 yards with this ancient gun and surplus hunting rounds is simply a matter of practise and skill."

Jack handed the assault rifles to Mike, while he himself carried the Mauser resting on his shoulder.

"OK, let's go." He said.

"Go where?" Mike asked.

"Outside." Jack replied. "This is not magic. One still needs to practice to get good. Well, I am already quite good, I just need some time for the feeling to return."

Nobody stopped them as they climbed up the spiral staircase to the keep and then left through the main courtyard to the dead forest surrounding the castle. The dead forest was full of dead gray and black trees. No leaves, nothing alive, even the dirt on the ground had everything living washed from it and had turned into grayish sand. Jack looked around. Setting the firing range anywhere near the road would have been too dangerous, thus he needed to find a different location. And he had already something in mind.

Every time during the past weeks when he had climbed on the defensive wall of the castle, he had noticed a large barren area to the left from the castle and to the right from the road that snaked through the dead forest reaching the castle. It was roughly rectangular in shape with barely any trees in it. It also seemed to be fairly close to the castle. Maybe less than 200 yards away.

"So?" Anton asked. "What do you have in mind?"

"You're here?" Jack asked.

He didn't even notice how Anton Julius had snuck along with them.

"You said that you were going to test out the artifacts. How can I not be there?" He asked.

"Almost everybody since the beginning of time has considered those things dangerous, if not because of their direct lethality then due to the sheer number of variation in their shape, form and instrumentation. And yet you sort through them like it is nothing, even uncovering some of the items thought lost forever and considered myth amongst the clerks."

"Just how long has it taken to accumulate all those guns?" Jack asked.

"About 400 years." Anton answered.

"400 years!?" Jack was speechless for a moment.

"But with your help we will have sorted through all of them in a month on the outside. This is truly a blessing!"

"Can you use magic?" Jack asked.

"Yes, I can." Anton nodded. "earth and wind."

"Good. I need you to level the trees in a ten degree cone from us to about a mile out."

Jack revealed something else he had brought along. A box of white chalk and a large roll of measuring tape.

"This is chalk and.. what you called a tape, right?" Anton asked.

"Yes, get on with the leveling." Jack replied. "I thought initially that I would need to use trees of branches for targets, but this allows us to form a firing range that everybody can use."

"Interesting." Anton nodded and then produced two wands.

He started with the slimmer and more elegant wand by drawing pattern into air with his right hand. This pattern was suspended in the air as if by magic. Looking like faintly blue spider silk, impervious to wind.

Having finished the complicated pattern, he rose his other hand with the thicker and cruder wand and just started pouring energy into the pattern, which became more and more visible with all of its intricacies and started glowing and giving off light.

Soon, the process was complete and a small tornado formed not 50 feet from Anton. The tornado started clearing up the area, moving at a considerable pace while pulling dead trees from the ground and shredding them into firewood. One could even see a slightly darker conic cloud around the main body of the tornado, which contained the falling wood chips. The tornado moved across the forest, cutting out a perfect triangular area with no trees about a mile long.

Just as the tornado destabilized and disappeared, Anton fell weakly to his knees. Jack and Mike rushed to help him up, but he simply waved his and to signal that it wasn't necessary.

"I have about 800k points of mana. This just depleted 75% of it, so my body need to catch up with the depletion." Anton explained.

He pulled a small opaque vial from his robe and poured the contents to his mouth.

"Does that replenish your mana?" Jack asked.

"Oh no, I cannot afford such potions. This just gets rid of the fatigue caused by mana depletion. You need some more magic work?"

"You said your other specialty is earth magic, right?" Jack asked. "Can you transmute the sand in the earth into glass?"

"Transmuting sand into glass?" Anton asked. "Is such a thing even possible?"

"Glass is made by melting sand at high temperatures. So one could also use fire magic, but since sand is earth, i imagined it to be possible." Jack replied.

"Glass is made from sand?" Anton simply could not get over this thought.

"How do you make glass then?" Jack asked.

"We mine it. From volcanic rock. And then fire mages heat the mined pieces to a melting point, and separate the impurities and variations."

"Okay then, no sand into glass." Jack sighed. "Can you turn earth into a mud brick wall?"

"That I can." Anton nodded.

"Good. I need about 12-13 sections. Each placed a certain distance apart."

*

One of the clerks rushed into the small office in which Fichte and Arandas were planning the raid.

"Masters.. master Julius just caused a massive mana reaction outside the castle!"

"So that's what it was." Arandas nodded. "It is some sort of experiment?"

"It is.." the young clerk tried to catch his breath. "It is landscaping. It was done on the request of master Jack."

"Oh, that is certainly interesting."

He looked at Fichte and his two adjutants.

"Shall we?"

"What for?" Fichte asked. "I don't think anything they do will affect tonight’s mission. They might as well not come along, that way I have less to worry about securing some mundanes who cannot even fight."

"I must disagree." Arandas said. "You have no idea how young master Jack's mind works. It is most peculiar, compared to anybody else you've even known."

"I'll come." Fichte reluctantly got up from the sofa. "But I tell you, it may just be an ungrounded flight of fancy by a disconnected knight-errant."

"Hey, you." Arandas turned towards the young clerk. "Could you explain what master Jack asked Anton to do?"

"As much as i could see, he asked him to make a massive triangular clearing in the forest nearly a mile long. After that, they started measuring something."

"That is certainly interesting."

Arandas and Fichte were led by the young clerk from the back of the keep onto the top of the outer wall, where there were already some soldiers spectating what was going on.

"Ah, master Arandas, master Fichte." the soldiers and clerks took notice.

"Can anybody explain, what is going on?" Arandas asked.

"First, master Julius cleared the area with a massive tornado and then they started erecting these sections of mud walls, each placed about 130 steps further than the last one and offset from the last one."

"Ah, they are making a target range!" Fichte realized. "But for what, I cannot tell. Ultra-long distance magic does not need linear targeting, just precise knowledge of the distance. And regular long distance spells may fly maybe half the distance, but the accuracy really does not allow any practical use."

"What you have to also consider, is that Jack is not planning to use magic, but artifacts."

"Yes, but even artifacts have their limitations."

*

"Okay, thank you Anton."

Jack looked over the shooting range.

"We have 13 walls, each a hundred meters apart. Could you also put a raised platform right here, about 10x10 feet, and 5 feet high?"

"No problem." Anton replied, starting another spell.

"Also please put a small ridge in the front of the platform. Maybe a half a foot high, made of hard-packed dirt."

Jack observed how a 5 foot tall platform of hard dirt rose from the ground and then a small ridge formed at the forefront of it.

"Very good." Jack nodded. "Thank you."

"I fail to see what was the aim of all this." Anton replied.

"You will see." Jack gave a slight smile. "Mike, give me a rifle."

Jack took one of the FAL battle rifles and climbed on top of the mound. He took a position lying on his stomach, rested the gun on the ridge and looked through the iron sight at the nearest wall, seeing the marking he had drawn on it. The inherent accuracy of the rifle was about 3-4 arc minutes, so he needed the group of shots to fit inside a circle 3-4 inches across at 100 meters.

He shouldered the rifle and, breathing slowly and calmly, he pulled the trigger. There was nothing to panic about, nothing to worry about. And by the time the recoil hit him, the bullet would have already left the muzzle.

*

A single shot of supersonic rifle fire rang out. Followed by four more shots.

"That is quite loud isn't it?" one of the soldiers said.

"It is, but it could be louder." Fichte replied. "And if you listen carefully, there are actually 4 different sounds. First is the projectile leaving the artifact, second is it literally tearing through the air, the third is hitting the target, and the fourth is the metal moving parts colliding with the metal stationary parts."

"That is quite a good result, huh?" Arandas said.

As a mage, his eyesight was already beyond the level of normal mundane humans, so seeing the target at more than 300 meters with a naked eyes was not an issue for him, even at his age.

"All shots within a 4 inch circle at 130 paces, that is good, but the loudness of the weapon is still very impractical." Fichte replied.

"Hey, Mike. Hand me the other rifle."

Jack took the other FAL and similarly made a five shot grouping on the first target. Both rifles had similar results, 3 shots within a 3 inch circle and all five shots within the 4 inch circle. That meant that the iron sights on the weapons were pretty accurate. Jack continued, now taking aim at the 200 meter mark.

Fichte and Arandas as well as the soldiers still observed from the walls. Most of them could see the targets very clearly even at 500 meters. And when they no longer could not, a special spell formed a lens of air in front of them, bringing everything into sight once more.

So, what are your thoughts now?" Arandas asked, once Jack had finished shooting at the 500 meter target.

"2 shots out of 5 inside a 2 foot circle. It seems at this distance, the skill of the user starts to play a greater part." Fichte replied. "I can admit that this could be useful, if catching the enemy unaware. The projectile seems to have enough energy even at 670 paces to cause a lot of damage to soft targets."

"But it seems he is not finished," Arandas said.

Jack finally took the Mauser bolt action. In shape, this was a bolt action gun, made in the pattern of the classic Mauser Kar98k. But from the materials and the finish, it was more likely that this was not a century old sniper rifle, but a modern hunting rifle made with modern technology. The fact that he could put a universal .30 caliber suppressor on it, was a dead giveaway. And thankfully the ammo was still the same. Just the name and designation had changed. So he could tell from the primer face markings whether the round would be an old 7.92 military surplus round, or a modern 8mm hunting or target round.

As he could not find any stripper clips, he had to load the rifle one round at a time. He then chambered a round, and opened the optical sight covers. The sight was a 3-12x with a fairly large diameter, so it had some good light gathering capability.

"Now this could be interesting." Fichte said, observing Jack. "Remember, when I said that the gun had 4 distinct sounds? This is a different design. There will be a slight sound from the projectile leaving the weapon, the sound of it tearing the air, and the sound of it hitting, but no sound from the weapon parts moving."

Jack trained his sight straight onto a 200 meter target and squeezed off 5 shots. He then used binoculars to observe the grouping, made some adjustments to the scope, and fired another 5 shots. After a few times of repeating this, he was finally happy and continued on to the farther targets.

"What is he doing?" some of the people wondered.

"Oh, now that is interesting," Fichte said. "less than 10 inch grouping at 530 paces. That is certified decapitation, before the opponent even understand what's going on."

"I don't think that is a limit in either the weapon or in the person." Arandas remarked.

"I hope so." Fichte continued. "If he can do the same at a 1000 paces, then we have something to talk about."

"I don't think 1000 paces are an issue." Arandas said. "After all, he marked out the range to 1700 pace maximum. So that may be the practical limit of the weapon or the operator."

"1700 pace killshot?" Fichte asked. "If he can achieve that reliably, then we are truly in trouble. That is two thirds of a short mile. I think even 1000 paces is more than an accomplished proto-sorcerer level wizard can detect passively. So a single operator with Nighteye magic and strength upgrade can become quite a danger to anybody who is not a sorcerer, hiding at night in a foliage. If one doesn't have any magic active which constantly heals them, then a single shot anywhere in the torso may be enough to incapacitate a person so he cannot heal himself."

Jack finally reached his limit at the 4th target from the end. The 1000 meter mark. This was the last target where he could reliably put 2 out of the five rounds inside the white 24" circle. Beyond that distance he could hit the wall no problem, but the accuracy suffered. With the proper ammunition the gun could still do sub-arc minute shots, but Jack himself was simply not good enough.

"Okay, Mike your turn!" He got up from the platform and turned around to see a sea of people on the walls of the fort, observing.

*

"Whatever you do. Bring that one artifact and plenty of projectiles."

These were the precise words that Fichte gave him about the mission in the evening. Apparently him practicing shooting was enough to convince Fichte to allow them to come along, and furthermore, left an impression of him as an asset, rather than a burden.

"So how does it look?" Mike asked, standing besides Jack.

"Just fine," Jack replied, pointing at a table. "Here's your gear."

Mike's eyes drifted to a table in front of them. On the table there was a rifle with the can at the end, as well as four additional boxes of bullets. There was also another gun, a a black pistol, also with a strange can at the end, more bullets for the small gun, as well as a rucksack and some weird black straps.

"You added one of those... pistols?" Mike asked.

"Yes." Jack replied. "In .45 caliber with a suppressor. A 45 is already a subsonic round for close range encounters, so although the suppressor throws off the balance, it may be useful if it come to that. Especially since these are SA/DA pistols, capable shooting from a closed bolt."

"And these are?" Mike continued, pointing at the straps.

"These are to attach the weapons and more importantly the ammo to your body. So when you run out of the rounds in your magazine for any reason, you don't have to go rummaging through the bag for more. Also these."

Jack produced two black combat knives with semi-serrated blades.

"For absolutely last resort."

"You are not leaving anything to chance, are you?" Mike asked.

"On the contrary," Jack smiled. "I am giving chance every consideration. Meaning that everything that can go wrong will actually go wrong."

Jack put on his own straps, with the pistol being on his right hip, the pistol ammo on his left, the knife also on his left, while above that on both sides were additional magazines for the FAL, as well as pockets full of Mauser rounds, each pocket containing 10.

"There is just one more thing to sort out." Jack said, producing a small metal container and a slightly larger wooden one

"Luckily this world of yours has drama and theatre. So here is some military black masking cream, and also some white stage paint. And I also found some small brushes."

"I know stage actors use them." Mike said. "I've even seen the traveling troupes give performances in the village square. But i don't see how this could be useful in what were about to do."

"I will show you,"

Jack found himself a mirror and soon his face was covered in black and white paint. The way it looked made Mike recoil in horror before realizing that i was Jack. In truth, Jack had gotten really good at doing corpse paint faces, and this time he had went for one of his all-time favorite: a technique which left his face looking like it had been cut into pieces in a meat grinder and then glued back together like a broken bust. The cleverly drawn lines making him look like his mouth and nose were crooked and the sides of his face not quite lining up with each other.

"That is frightening!" Mike said, laughing.

"That is the point." Jack replied. "would you like something similar?"

"I think at least one of us should look like a normal person in this. So that is a no." Mike replied.

"Normal, huh?" Jack took some of the black cream. "Normal would be to cover your whole face with it, down to your clothes so you won't be visible even if light briefly shines on you."

"That sounds good." Mike replied.