32 A new toy

Keeping up my rounds and walking through my 'labratory', I walked back over to the first and largest table in the small underground room. On it lies a long metal staff next to a three pronged spear head. Several other miscellaneous components laid scattered about the table.

It looks fairly similar to the metal pole I picked up from the bandit leader that attacked us in the city. The colour is like polished steel and it's cool to the touch.

This is one of the things I've been tinkering with over the last few months. Having a masters degree in mechanical engineering really helped in keeping me busy. I couldn't just spent all day everyday training after all. Everyone needs some down time.

In my first life, after my mom died, I needed something to keep me occupied and to stop my darker thoughts from crowding my mind. That's where engineering came into play. And robotics was something I couldn't help but try my hand at.

I even took place in elimination style Battlebot tournaments. Many of which I won. Designers would come together from all over the world to build, operate and battle the destructive robots they designed. The winners of each tournament then gather and duke it out until a single champion is crowned.

I only ever managed to earn title of Battlebot King once, but it was still a crowning achievement. I even used the prize money to design and built the ship I used to sail the world. Though I guess that's not exactly something to brag about it considering I died in that same boat.

Smiling wryly I refocused on the task at hand. My personalize weapon, or at least the components for it, is what's laying on the table before me. And it's nearly finished too. I just need to put the finishing touches on it's more finer mechanisms. And with the tools and components Jeffy brought my, I may just finish it tonight.

With that thought in mind I went to work, sitting down at the table and tinkering until I felt satisfied. I took my time with every part, carfully inspecting each piece , cleaning and testing the components before moving on to the next.

Once everything was laid out, clean and in as perfect a condition as I can get them, I moved to the last step. Ensuring each piece slotted perfectly into place, connecting together like a puzzle piece. The watcher makers tool kit really came in handy at this point.

With morph's aid and these intricate, specific tools helping me my work was son completed and I was left staring at my first invention in his world. A foot long silver tube.

"Now to test it out."

Gripping it in my left hand I clicked a button, one of three hidden in a fold of metal. Causing the inner mechanism to shift and allowing it to extend outwards like Goku's power pole.

A moment later three shinning metal prongs sprung forth from the sides at the tip of the now 7ft foot staff, extending out from within its centre. Forming a polished, silver coloured trident.

"Ok, first test was a success. Now onto phase two."

Walking towards the waters edge I placed the base of the trident in the water. The mechanisms immediately drew the water into the hollow tube in the centre of the trident through the small hole in the base.

Pointing the weapon at the wall like a rifle, I pressed the second button, a soft vibration travelled up my arm. When I focused my power on the water inside the trident and stabbed it forward, a dense stream of highly pressurized water erupted from the tips of each of the three prongs. Blasting three bullet sized cracks in the solid stone of the cave wall.

"Hmm, not bad. It has quite a bit more power than I expected. I wasn't even trying that hard." Content with the way this has gone so far, I moved into the final test.

Pressing the first button once more in the small groove in the handle, I smiled when the entire trident collapsed in on itself. The two metal prongs on the outer edges folded inwards, sliding into the middle of three before the trident head collapsed into the shaft. Before long it had shrunk down into the steel coloured cylinder roughly a foot long.

"All tests turned out with good results. Now, I just need to test it in combat and give it a proper christening." I said while Morph hovered enthusiastically around my head.

This is just the prototype. One day I'll create a trident that can collapse and fold itself into something small, inconspicuous, and easy to carry, like a pen; similar the sword wielded by both Percy Jackson and Poseidon-Riptide.

I had based the design of the collapsing mechanism off the pocket staff that's popular among some stage magicians. I was never the best at slight of hand magic. But I loved the gadgets Magicians used in some of their more unique magic tricks. The hard part was adding the prongs.

Holding the newly formed, collapsable trident in my hand I critiqued my own handy work. It's much sturdier than you would expect for something made from trash, but it's still quite flimsy. It took months to get it this compact and even longer to make the mechanism for it to extend like that. The problem is that in order to have it collapse and fold in on itself, it needs to be hollow, which compromises the durability.

To fix that I filled the shaft with water through a small hole at the base of the handle. By flowing the water through the staffs interior and then freezing it, the staff becomes far better at absorbing impacts and no longer breaks with every swing.

I'm still not very proficient at manipulating the various forms of water. My control over ice, steam and snow is significantly weaker than my power over the sea itself. But I can still change water between its various states with enough ease.

That being said, the most impressive mechanism within the trident isn't its ability to store water, or collapse in on itself. It's the mechanisms within its interior that make it so special. A little something I rigged up to mimic a device from earth. Basing the design on the high powered water jets used to cut through metal, and even diamonds, I did my best go build a similar structure into the prongs of the trident to work in tandem with my ability.

The mechanism works when water is funnelled in through the base of the trident, flowing up through the interior towards the prongs. As it reaches the top of the shaft the water will be focused and sped up as it flows toward the three points at the end of each of the tridents prongs. Once it gets to this stage I use my ability to further compress and project the water outwards. The test proves my theory correct and I was able to create three compressed beams of highly pressurized water when damaging the cave wall in my test earlier.

And because its ammunition is water, I can fire it as often as I want; as long as I'm near a body of water and have enough energy that is.

An interesting side effect of building it this way is that when it's filled with water it's light enough that I can control it with my mind. Doing so by manipulating the water inside, allowing me to mimic telekinesis and summon it like Thor's hammer.

Though perhaps I can increase the power if I reduce the number of prongs. In that regard maybe a spear, or a harpoon would work better than a trident. Channeling the water through one focal point instead of three. Stabbing underwater would also be easier with less drag thanks to the smaller surface area. I'll test it in combat to see how it functions first before I make any further adjustments.

I'm still not quite used to fighting with a weapon, I'm pretty much a beginner in that regard despite my prestigious talent. I don't really know which weapon suits me best. The reason I chose a trident is due to the abilities I posses and the god who sent me here, but it may not be the most practical weapon I could choose. A glaive, spear, or halberd might be something to consider, and I should definitely start thinking about wether I want to use a gun. Sighing to myself I looked down at the results of all my effort.

"No need to be a perfectionist. I'd say todays experiments were a resounding success. I just wish I had a sturdier, more workable metal. Getting all the parts go fit the way I wanted was a real pain in the ass." I remarked off handedly while morph hovered next to me playfully.