Chapter 36 - New Weapons

"It's about time you got here, what took you so long!?" Exclaimed Ruby, as she pulled me in and shut the door.

Ow, my neck...did she have to grab my collar so hard? I glanced at my I-Watch...it was a couple of minutes past 6 PM...

"Well, I didn't say I'd be here precisely at six, I'm pretty sure I wrote 'around 6', which usually entails a margin of five to ten minutes," I replied with a shrug, as I rubbed the back of my neck.

"...okay, maybe I kinda overreacted, it's just that I finished up this morning, so I've been kinda...impatient," She laughed sheepishly, before linking her arm with mine and leading me to her workspace, "First things first, though, let me show you the fruits of my labor! After that...well, you know, we'll hash out your payment."

I had to admit...I was kinda flattered. Also, she's really close right now...she was distractingly soft, and her scent was really pleasant too. It was hard to tell by looking since she was wearing that baggy black hoodie, but she had some rather...ample curves.

"Your, uh, fashion sense is pretty minimalistic, huh?"

"Hm? Oh, I only dress like this at home...not that I leave this place much, I usually just order whatever I need, be it food or parts for my inventions. Wait, don't get the wrong idea, I don't wear the same hoodie everyday, I have eleven pairs of this hoodie, so yeah. It's super comfy and I like dark colors, and I liked it so much when I first bought it that I went back and got ten more."

I wasn't really sure what to say...I had several sets of the battle outfit I used for when I go to the Academy, but that wasn't quite the same thing, it was because it was inevitable that they might get torn up, so I needed spares. I didn't have multiple sets of any of my regular clothes though.

"Oh, uh...that makes sense," I replied, nothing else coming to mind.

"I may be untidy, but I'm not unclean, there's a big difference!" She huffed, before laughing playfully and pulling my arm closer towards her, my bicep on her chest...okay, this is pretty nice. She then led me to the front of her workspace, to the desk, where several sleek gadgets were spread out...

"Are these the weapons I requested?"

"Yup, feel free to give them a try...well, except for the wrist-blasters, I don't want any holes in my walls. Try out the blades, I made them just how you asked, it was kinda tricky to figure out initially, but once I did, everything else went super smoothly!" She declared with a proud look on her face.

"Alright, let's have a look," I remarked, picking up one of the handles.

Pretty cool design, way better than the bland, simplistic designs of the X-Blades found in retail...these handles were black with a red streak vertically down the length, and the bottom of the handle was slightly curved. Now, then, for the important part...

I ran my XFE through it, activating it and forming the energy blade from the top end of the handle. Wow, she made it perfectly to my specifications, maybe even better than I'd hoped. I had asked her to make me blades that would give me a longer reach than my current X-Blade models, but without consuming XFE at a greater rate.

I'd initially thought of two ways to do that, the first would be to make the energy blade manifest a lot narrower, but I decided against that. So, instead, I went for the second method I thought of...thinning out the middle of the blade. Basically, the tip and sides of the blade would form normally, while everything within the edges of the blade would be in a honeycomb pattern. It was like a net, with only the sides and tip fully formed.

In other words, it spread out a small amount of XFE in a web instead of using more XFE and filling out the entire shape of the blade, giving me a longer reach while consuming less XFE. I mean, it's not like I need the flat sides of my blades to be fully formed, I just need the sides and tip to slash and thrust. I swung the blade a couple of times to get a feel for it...yeah, this should cut nicely, it sliced through the air really smoothly.

"You like it? It consumes XFE at half the rate your current models do, and I made it so that the edges and tip are super narrow and incredibly sharp, you could even split a sheet of paper into two, assuming you have the skill to do so, of course!"

Woah, no kidding, half the XFE consumption rate!?

"Not gonna lie, I'm kinda geeking out over here, these have longer reaches than what I'm currently using, and they're twice as XFE-efficient? You're amazing, Ruby!"

I wasn't just trying to patronize her, I was genuinely impressed...this is fucking awesome. The length of the blades were about the same as the length from my elbow to the tip of my middle finger when I stretched out my fingers.

"Hehe, thanks! Now, onto the next one, the wrist-blasters...like I said earlier, you can't test them out in here, but I'll explain what it can do," She replied, before starting her explanation.

These wrist-blasters were a lot sleeker and lighter than the models I was using, I could barely feel their weight at all, and they were pretty sturdy too. They had four settings in total...first, was short-range mode, which shot out wide blasts that weren't very penetrative or fast, but would do some substantial external damage, good for using in duels where I don't need to kill my opponent, so long as I kept the output low.

Second, was mid-range mode, which narrowed the shots and increased their speed, but were still fairly wide and not all that penetrative. Third, was long-range mode, which fired narrow and highly piercing shots, with an effective range of upto a hundred meters.

And finally, fourth was sniping mode, which was for when the target was just barely within sight. It worked in tandem with an addition she had come up with, she stuck what looked like a transparent screen-protector onto the right lens of my glasses, and when I switched the wrist-blasters into sniping mode, my right lens would light up like a scope, letting my aim and magnify my line of sight by about five times.

Oh, and as for the shots fired in this mode, they were in the form of a spiral shape that spun rapidly as they were fired, meaning that for within a certain range, their speed and penetrative power would keep increasing.

I had only asked for the first three settings, sniping mode was something she came up with on her own. Oh, and regardless of which mode the output was set to, every shot would consume half a percent of my XFE on the minimum output setting.

The maximum output setting was five times the minimum, so any shot fired with the output set to max would take two and a half percent XFE per shot. And at the maximum output, I could deal significant damage to even K-Ranked Mutants at any range settkng.

Close-range mode was ideal for distance within ten meters, while mid-range mode would be best suited for within fifty meters, long-range within a hundred meters and for sniping mode, I could theoretically hit a target from five hundred meters away, though I wouldn't know whether or not I could actually do that until I practiced with it.

"Wow, I don't know what to say...this is way better than I asked for."

"Don't mention it, I had a blast making them...oh, try these next," She said, handing me a couple of bracelets.

I clipped them around my wrists and looked at her inquiringly.

"Cross your forearms across each other, first with your right arm in front of your left, and after that, try it the other way around."

"Alright, here goes..."

I crossed my forearms with the right one in front...and a barrier formed around me.

"This is about twice as sturdy as the barrier you're used to, but it also consumes double the XFE. I could have built it into the wrist-blasters, but then, if one of them breaks, you won't be able to use the barrier at all, so I figured I should seperate that function. Hope you don't mind."

"Of course I don't mind, and I certainly won't argue with the expert...alright, let me try crossing my arms the other way now..."

I shifted the positions of my arms so that my left arm was in front...the moment I did, the walls of the barrier turned into a honeycomb pattern.

"This mode consumes just a third of the amount of XFE your previous barrier does...of course, if you're facing an attack like, say, a Mutant spitting out a wave of acid or venom at you or something like that, then you shouldn't use this barrier, since it'll just rain down on you through the gaps. But against an attack like someone swinging a large weapon down at you, this mode is the better option, it's just as sturdy as the gapless barrier, and consumed only a sixth of the amount of XFE."

...man, was I grateful to have gotten in contact with her, she's insanely talented.

"Heh, I'll probably never go to an X-Weapon store ever again."

"As an inventor, that's one of the highest compliments to get, I'm kinda embarrassed," She grinned, her face slightly red.

"Seriously, though, I'm beyond grateful...well, that leaves one more thing that I requested, right?"

"Yup, this right here!" She exclaimed, holding out what looked like a metal square with a handle on top.

It looked almost like a small, narrow metal briefcase. The handle had a red trigger along the inside, around where my index finger would be when I took hold of it. As for the metal square the handle was attached to, it was about ten inches long on each side, and about three inches thick...despite that, it was surprisingly light. It also had a long, narrow display just below the handle, you know, like the gauge-type bars you see in video games.

"Okay...so, uh, how does this work?" I inquired curiously.

"It's pretty simple...you requested a weapon that you could fill with XFE ahead of time, which would allow you to fire off powerful blasts during a fight without using so much as a drop of the XFE that's inside your body. To fill this weapon with XFE, place your hand on that bar below the handle and run XFE into it...the bar will start turning green bit by bit as you fill it up, like the loading bars in games and stuff. The amount of XFE it can hold is about two times the amount of XFE in your body and has three output settings, the minimum lets you fire twenty shots if you've fully filled it, the mid setting lets you fire eight shots, and the maximum setting lets you fire four shots, which are insanely destructive, by the way. Oh, and when you want to use this weapon, run your XFE through the handle. Since it's currently totally empty, you can try that now, hold onto the handle and run your XFE into it, just a tiny bit will do."

Can't say I'm not intrigued, let's give it a try...

I ran my XFE into the handle, and the instant I did, the metal square extended out into a rectangle shape, with a slit along the end of it. Oh, I see, I probably had to press the red trigger on the handle, and it'd fire out the slit.

"Nice, it'd be kinda bulky to carry it at full length, but it's a lot more compact in the square form...wait, how do I retract it?"

"Oh, just run some XFE through the handle again. I call the square form hibernation mode, and when it extends to the rectangle shape, I call it active mode. Though you don't have to use those terms if you don't want to."

"Nah, I like them, nice and simple. Gotta say, I'm really blown away by all of these, you've way surpassed my expectations-."

"Hold on, I'm not done yet, there's one more thing I made for you...hehe, check these out," She remarked with a grin, opening up a box filled with metal spheres a bit bigger than marbles.

Each sphere had an oval shaped glass spot on them.

"Cool...so, uh, what are these?" I inquired curiously.

"Bombs! You fill them with XFE ahead of time, I'd say each one would take about three percent of your XFE. The glass spots are fingerprint scanners, you press any of your fingers against it, and the moment it starts blinking, you throw it at your target, and it'll explode in five seconds after it starts blinking. But it's not an explosive bomb, it's a smoke bomb...each ball is filled with a fine powder that'll absorb the XFE you transfer into it, this powder enhances the toxic element of your Dark Attribute, so when it explodes, it'll burst out a cloud of black smoke that's highly toxic to Mutants, it'll instantly kill any J-Ranks, Q-Ranks will probably take about ten seconds to succumb to it, and K-Ranks about a minute."

Woah, for real?

"Of course, using multiple bombs will speed up that time. Oh, and you should be totally immune to the smoke, it'll have no effect on you. You're the only one who can activate the bombs by the way, and the same goes for all the other X-Weapons I made, they'll only respond to your DNA signature, no one else can use them."

"...are you a goddess?"

"Wha-!? Wh-where'd that come from?" She stuttered, her face turning red.

"Well, it's just...these are all incredible, once I get some practice in with them I'll be able to deal way more damage than I could before. I would totally pay a small fortune for these!" I replied with a grin.

Just thinking about what I could pull off using these weapons got me all giddy, this was like a dream come true.

"Hehe, you really know how to flatter a girl, don't you...mm, and speaking of payment...," She whispered seductively, placing her hand on my chest and blowing into my ear softly, sending shivers down my spine, "Let's take this to the bed."

...I definitely wasn't going to turn that down. Impressive, I was so giddy over these weapons, and she took my mind off them in an instant. She pulled me along into the bedroom and pushed me onto the bed, before pouncing onto me with a glint in her eyes and a lick of her lips, pulling off my jacket and undershirt with a look of desire.

"You're, uh, pretty aggressive, aren't you?" I inquired with a smirk.

"Hehe, maybe...and lemme tell you, I'm really good with my hands, and I'm also pretty good with my tongue...see for yourself..."

She then lowered her head towards mine and pressed her lips onto mine, kissing me fervently while her hands hungrily ran over my torso...wow, she's really going at it with her tongue, she wasn't kidding about being good with it. She pulled away to catch her breath, a trail of saliva between our lips as she did, her face flushed and her breathing heavy.

Before she could finish catching her breath, I wrapped my legs around her waist and swiftly flipped us over so that I was on top. I nibbled on her ear as I unzipped her hoodie, slowly tracing my fingertips across her chest, before cupping her boobs in my hands and massaging them as she let out a stifled moan and arched her back up, while placing a hand on my chest and slowly moving it down.

"You're pretty aggressive yourself, huh...mm, now then, let me show you how good my hands are, m'kay?"

"Be my guest, I sure as hell won't be stopping you," I replied without a shred of hesitation, as I kissed her neck lower and lower.

Well...this brought a whole new meaning to the phrase 'a pleasure doing business with you'...emphasis on 'pleasure' and 'doing'...I didn't leave her place until more than two hours later...

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