The four of them walked into New Eden with heads held high. They found George waiting for them near the edge of the clearing flanked by two rifle wielding gunmen. Andrew recognized the one on the left with the sport sunglasses and backwards blue cap, the one on the right he was less familiar. He was wearing leather trousers and a baggy T-shirt with a faded design of an eagle superimposed over a U.S. flag with cracked text across the bottom and top. The top line was weathered to the point of being nearly illegible, but the bottom was large and thick enough to remain clearly legible. 'SNOWFLAKE'. At least they had good trigger discipline.

"Afternoon George. Here's the spear you asked for." Andrew said, holding it out for him to take. They agreed to be as kind as possible when dealing with George in public. They had no idea what kind of things he might be telling his people while they were out of earshot, but he didn't need to give them any extra reasons to distrust him. They would never get anywhere with his 'flock' if they thought they were openly antagonistic.

"Ah, thank you for honoring out deal. Some people had their doubts, but I knew you to be a good man." George said, his sickeningly false smile plastered across his face as he accepted the spear with false reverence, taking it with both hands and giving Andrew a tiny bow before handing it off to sports-sunglasses. He grabbed it and turned off, heading towards the cabin directly across from George's.

"Of course, what a terrible accident Steven had. I'm so glad we could do something to make it up to him. Now, where do you want the log drying circle to go? I can see you've already started to fill in the wooden parts of your mansion's foundation." Andrew said, nodding to the shallow pit behind the stage which was about halfway filled with logs cut and laid in the same way as their own foundations.

"Mansion? Well it is a house of god, I suppose you could call it that if you'd like!" George said with a laugh. "Ah~, that was a good one. Please, follow me I'll show you to the log drying area, we can start there."

He led the group of four over to a large flat packed section of earth near the stage where several stacks of logs were piled up, their bark already stripped. "Here, around those logs will do. However many you need to do to get them all. I don't mind if you have to do more than one. "

"Oh don't worry about that, we'll be able to get them all with one big circle. I'll be starting here. Do you have a long stick around here somewhere, we'll need three if we want to get these done by the end of the day." Andrew said, stepping forward and looking around the flattened earth with a critical eye. They were in the heart of the little town now, and George was clearly trying to milk as much out of their deal as possible. Well he would be getting exactly what he asked for today. The circle Andrew planned to make would require an absurd amount of mana to run with any kind of efficiency. It would probably drain his mana pool entirely to run it for a handful of hours. George sent his snowflake toady out to fetch them sticks, and Andrew used the time to explain his plan to Tyler and Rowan. He would carve the first major rune in the series where they were standing now, then Tyler and Rowan would start filling the circle out starting with the connector runes on either side until they met in the middle on the opposite side.

When the sticks were delivered and Andrew was finished with the initial rune, he left Tyler and Rowan to their work and headed about fifteen feet away to start the circle around the mansion's foundation. It wouldn't be nearly as obscenely large as the other one, but a circle of this size would still take a considerable amount of mana to operate. Andrew wasn't sure how exactly the Conman expected to run these things long enough for their effects to show, but that wasn't his problem. George was standing there watching them intently the entire time they worked, but Andrew wasn't the least bit worried. The two circles were some of the simplest he had in his arsenal, and he knew exactly how impossible it was to extrapolate the other base runes from there. The spear was a concern, but the lines on those inscriptions were tiny and the Metal accumulation, battery, and bridge pair runes on it were significantly more complex. The battery, bridge pair and bridge pair connector runes in particular were highly customizable, and therefore extremely finnicky. They would be able to make an exact copy, at the absolute best, and frankly Andrew didn't really care if they did that. They would need the weapons to fight off the inevitable hobgoblin response.

It took them the better part of an hour and a half to get the two circles done. Andrew was nearly finished when sport-sunglasses came running out of the cabin across from George's in a panic, face pale. "George! George! That spear did something to Jack! He's passed out!" The shouts drew the attention of pretty much everyone in the clearing, Andrew included.

Fuuuck. What is it now?

George turned to Andrew with very real surprise. If this was another ploy the man was a whole lot better at acting than Andrew had thought. "What did you do to him!?"

"I don't fucking know! I've been here the whole time! What happened sunglasses?" Andrew said, turning to the man who was in far too much of a panic to acknowledge the accidental nickname.

The man started to speak, then stopped himself short, looking at George. "He was, uh, just doin his thing, uh, but it was takin him a lot longer than usual, and then all of a sudden his nose starts bleedin and he just passes out right there on the table. He didn't even make noth- His skill didn't- I mean. "

"It's fine. Wait here. Andrew, come with me would you? This is important." George said, rushing off towards the building before Andrew could even respond.

Everyone was looking at him, Rowan and Tyler stopped dead around their nearly finished final rune. "Okay, you two finish these circles up, I'll go see what's going on. Stay here, wait for me to get back alright?" Then he was off, jogging to catch up to George who was already throwing open the door to the cabin. Andrew was right behind him, peering around George and into the dimly lit room.

It was filled with small wooden boxes, some with the lids off revealing piles and piles of bullets in a variety of calibers. In the center of the room was a wooden table and a single chair with an extremely athletic looking individual slumped across it. The dude was wearing a tight green 'marines' T-shirt, and had a scar running up his right cheek. His left cheek was pressed against the table, and blood streamed from his nose and his eye lids were twitching, as though he was fighting to open them. His left arm was extended out across the table, the palm of his hand pressed against the metal tip of the spear, which looked to have lost some of it's bright silver sheen somehow. What Andrew could see of the accumulation circle on it's face was glowing bright hot white, far brighter than he had ever seen before.

Andrew tapped George on the shoulder and he wordlessly stepped into the room to allow Andrew in.

What in the fuck was going on here?