Most of the camp was already hard at work by the time Andrew awoke. The steady thunk thunk thunk of the construction team notching logs woke him up. He stood, stretching and taking the camp in around him. The earth accumulation circles around the two still-fusing foundations had been removed already, and the construction team was hard at work hauling dried logs from their water dispersal circle to the wooden sawhorses they had prepared days ago under Jason's supervision. They had a rough idea of how to prepare the roofing, but they were waiting for Jason to arrive for the morning before they got started on that. There was plenty of work to do getting the walls of the next two cabins up anyway. The clearing team was standing around at the edge, axes in hand, seemingly discussing the direction of their efforts for the day. Rowan and Tyler were nowhere to be seen, presumably working on their grove already. Andrew could see Shelby and several of the other day patrol members making loops through the woods surrounding the edge of their expanding clearing. There were one or two people from each team glancing up to look in the direction of New Eden at any given time. That was good, they were keeping his instructions from yesterday in mind. Mark and Steven had visited the camp nearly every day of the past week to help out with construction, and they wouldn't be allowed to stay this time.

Alright. What've I got for the day? New ingots to play with, more metal dirt to source, and I think Jason was asking about a waterproofing solution for the roofing shingles. That should be pretty easy, if time consuming. I could get the construction team set up with some wood chisels and a water dispersal circle. It would take for fucking ever, but it's already starting to get colder out. Heavy rains might be a serious problem soon. I owe Carter a new sledge, but I want to use a bit of kinetic affinity for that. What do we need right now? Clothing? Furniture? Improved woodworking tools? Most of those things don't really need my personal attention, and there are people in New Eden we could likely commission to help us out with. What's out most serious threat right now? Major conflict with New Eden is pretty unlikely at this point, regardless of George's antagonism. I'm more worried about my own people on that front, and they have plenty enough work to keep them busy here for now. Goblin raids, a surprise hobgoblin response, unknown and hostile wildlife. That means weapons then, a cleaner AOE solution for goblin raids than the grenades, and something heavy hitting for the huge threaded hobgoblins. Okay, time to get started.

Andrew scooped up a long stick on his way to his workstation, taking an hour or so to carve two metal accumulation circles each about five feet across in the dirt nearby. Then he popped open the nearby crate of ingots and hobgoblin scrap metal, and laid out all his materials for the day. 'High caliber' solutions to the hobgoblin brutes were first on his list. He could make significantly smaller circles now with Auto Inscription, which meant explosive arrowheads were now in the realm of possibility. They would be low on material, which meant they would have to have high affinity for quick charging and sufficient mana storage. That meant they would be relatively expensive consumables, best saved for major conflicts. The air rifles were a weaker but reusable alternative to small long range explosions. They had to be fired into already existing flames to operate properly though, Andrew planned to fix this problem first.

He cleared the anvil, powered up one forge and grabbed six basic ingots. While the forge warmed up he jogged over to the pile of unworked logs and grabbed one, easily dragging it back to his workstation with an apologetic wave to the construction team. When he arrived he quickly went to work, carving half of it up into three thick rough rectangular blocks with his chisel. He tossed the significant pile of wood scraps this produced into the metal accumulation circles when he was done and set the blocks aside for the moment. He grabbed his tongs and used them to insert an ingot into the forge, heating it completely before pulling it out and hammering it out. He worked through most of the morning, drawing the ingots out into six long thin rectangular bars roughly the length of a rifle. Andrew pulled another pair of ingots and hammered them into thin angled grips connected to the edge of the metal rectangles, then used Mana Welding to fuse them together into the cores for new mana rifles. These were drawn out a bit thinner and longer than the metal cores used in the last pair of rifles, and he finished all six by lunchtime.

They were eating fairly well these days, Kalan had found a good selection of wild plants which had proved themselves safe to eat, and was hard at work with a couple of apprentices cooking them fresh meals each day. Jason was especially appreciative of the food, New Eden lacked metal and most of their food had to be cooked as stews in ceramic pots or on flat stones over campfires. Jack's replicator ability only worked if he had something to copy, and apperently no one from the new camp had come through with cookware. They had plenty of knives to work with though and made some delicious smoked venison. Andrew would have to send them an iron ingot or something soon, it would be an incredible improvement to their lifestyle. He didn't feel comfortable withholding something so basic, and more workable metal in circulation would be an improvement to them all. Andrew wasn't sure why they hadn't already developed forges of their own to melt down metal components of replicated knives or rifles, and he didn't ask. Perhaps it hadn't occurred to them. He would consider the deal more than fair for Jason's assistance anyways. They finished the roofing frames for the two nearly complete cabins that morning, and Jason explained his idea for large flat panels of fused wood that could be used as a replacement for smaller shingles. They would measure out the frames and Andrew would weld them together into a single piece, then they would carve water dispersal circles across them and fit them to the roof frames, before Andrew welded them shut. They would need recharging on occasion, and would be more flammable than uninscribed wood, but they would also be quite watertight.

The wooden panels for the roof weren't quite finished by lunch though, so when he was finished Andrew left them to their work and headed across the river. He found Tyler and Rowan working out there and let them know they might have to carve a few water dispersal circles for the construction team later that day, then headed back to the earliest inscribed portion of the forest. He broke off six air and three water infused branches, wrapped them up and took them back to his workstation. When he arrived he got started with the affinity siphons. First he siphoned the strong fire affinity from three of the metal cores into the other three. By that time they were quite warm to the touch with a ruby sheen. Then he infused the air affinity from six branches into the three plain metal cores until they were significantly lighter and pale white. He grabbed three of the rectangular wooden rifle bases and infused them each with one branch of water affinity before he got to carving.

He used his chisel to split the wood blocks into three lengthwise boards of even size each. He carved channels into the interior of the two exterior boards for the metal cores to sit inside, such that the two rectangular cores would sit on either side of the middle plank when it was reassembled. With some small adjustments Andrew fitted a fire infused metal core into the right channel, and an air infused core into the left channel of each. The metal cores were long enough that inch long prongs protruded from the end of the wooden frames. Andrew inscribed a line of battery, trigger, delay, and expulsion runes across the inside of each core. The addition of a delay rune to the firing sequence prevented the whole thing from just blowing up in the user's face. It would take some adjustment, but was designed so that the bolt of fire mana would catch up to the bolt of air mana at about a hundred feet out. Andrew fitted the wood pieces together again, and used a light mana welding to secure them in several places, though he left a clear seam so he could open them back up again later for adjustment. Then he got to work with the chisel carving the blocks of wood down into the shape of a proper rifle. When he was finished he carved a little window into either side of the grip, exposing a portion of metal core running through the handle. He inscribed a small fire accumulation circle onto the fire affinity core, and an air accumulation circle into the air affinity core. Anyone using the rifle would be able to charge each core one at a time, or simultaneously. He finished the rifles off with a water accumulation circle carved into the wooden stock for adjustable fire resistance. Over charging would quickly result in a damp weapon, but it significantly reduced the chances of the whole thing exploding in the user's hands.

Andrew had to take several breaks from his work through the afternoon to meld together wooden roof tiles for the construction team, but the addition of mana welding allowed him to complete and adjust the mana rifles significantly faster than before. His growing skill and speed with Auto Mana Inscription in addition to this allowed him to finish all three rifles by the end of the day. When he was finished, they had three MK. II mana rifles, each one significantly more mana efficient than the last, in addition to the dual mana firing systems. They worked perfectly in testing, fifty points of mana into each circle resulted in a two-foot diameter fireball at a hundred feet out capable of blasting thick branches in two and cracking stone. He fell asleep under a rooftop for the first time in nearly two weeks that night. It was incredible, despite sharing one of their two finished cabins with roughly a third of the camp for the night.