Generator

A wave of raucous laughter rose from the group.

They start to jeer, working the lynch mob mentality to its peak.

Another man steps forward "He killed my brother; I want the little Olim bitch as compensation".

It seems like I offended a rather large group here.

"Before I am captured and sold or presumably killed may I ask if this is everyone in your party"? the crowd grows silent.

No one wants to answer, they didn't want to lower themselves to answer an idiot who has no idea about the situation he is in.

I sigh again, 'seems like they won't just make it easy on me', I find myself sighing more and more lately.

"Something is off," one of the women says, her green eyes peering at me.

"It's just a slightly stronger kid, all of these Olim are built that way, like a bunch of beasts" another voice rang out.

I am exhausted by their banter and draw my sword.

"Something is really off about this kid guys, we shouldn't be rash" the same woman piped up again.

She was right I can not leave any survivors, first I don't want any more attention brought on myself.

If these people run and start spreading rumors of a ten-year-old battle maniac who took out nearly fifty people alone, I am sure to be getting that unwanted attention in droves.

Secondly, these people are a threat to my life, I can not let them exist.

Drawing my dagger with my left hand I step with my right foot forward and fill my body with mana.

I throw the dagger like a baseball, it moves at a speed the eye can barely follow and embeds itself in the woman's heart with a 'thud'.

She looks stunned and in disbelief, how could she see that coming?

I had to kill her before her words make the group hesitate and disperse.

I didn't want to use mana so close to the town, call me paranoid but I have to insure my anonymity.

"Damn it"! screamed one of the other women pulling out a crossbow and sending out three arrows consecutively.

The arrows look like they are sailing over to me with my vision.

I catch them in midair and fling them back placing one in her neck and the other two in the chest of the two men next to her.

"Since no one is going to come to me…." I say before darting into the crowd to my right, the same place I threw the arrows.

Blades come at me from all angles, I dodge with minimal movement countering with each strike at exposed vitals.

Tendons, muscles, and arteries are being slashed and bleeding out.

If I couldn't kill them right away, I made sure to leave them bleeding.

When the running starts this should slow them down.

I bring down two people before they react and start surrounding me, I dance between blades and gain some distance towards the lake.

My sword is slick with blood after I bring down the eighth body, being surrounded they push the encirclement inwards.

I drop my sword and roll backward hooking my arm around a body's leg, I bring it over myself as a shield.

Two full swings meet their mark and slice at their comrades' bodies, as I grab the dagger sheathed in the body's back and continue my assault.

"Stop"! a voice rings out.

It is Deed who has Isla surrounded by eleven men, I had already noticed him moving around the pack and getting to her.

I don't even look over, some of the people who thought I would stop let their guard down.

They were brought down in three fluid motions.

One knelt clutching his bleeding throat the other clutching his bleeding chest.

The wound was deep, the blood gushing out even with both hands covering it.

"Kill him"! Deed screamed in frustration, Isla took this chance to throw a rock she was using to write at the closest man to her.

As he ducked to the left, she slashed at his knee bringing him down and using him as a stepping stool to jump high escaping the group of people.

At this point, I am well into the twentieth body rolling in between legs and using bodies as cover I was doing a lot of damage to this group until someone decided to run.

Like a hunting dog, Isla broke off from the two she was exchanging blows with and darted in his direction.

Striking him in the neck from the back with her blade, she instantly kills him but not completely decapitating him, leaving his head tilting slightly as he falls.

Her mana-filled body looks imposing as she turns and glares at the mob behind us comprised of eleven people.

Pulses of energy can't be contained and reached the group.

Everyone backs away from, me they were surrounded by the lake to their left.

Isla to the rear and me in front of them leaving them only one route to take out.

"He… he killed Uma first because she was warning us," said a thinner man with two daggers and a bleeding tendon, getting paler by the second.

Not even Deed and all his pompous nature could reply to this.

Everyone was scared out of their wits and all their instincts are telling them to run.

A stifling silence fills the air, everyone wants to run but no one can move as my serene face stared them down.

'Cold' they all thought at the same time 'it is extremely cold'.

One man stepped off and tried to break into a run and was met with a dagger impaling his neck.

No one turned around to look at Isla because they are all watching me, they knew she killed him.

"You have some options," I say to them slowly.

"Kill each other here and the last one surviving will be able to leave, if you don't I kill everyone".

"I won't do th- "The man was cut off by a woman who screamed as a sword pierced her chest from behind.

And so, it began.

This group of mercenaries who worked together for years, who knew each other's families, and even saved each other's lives at some point started killing each other off.

Some who were already injured were targeted shamelessly.

Isla and I stood still watching, when one tried to leave in the madness, we would instantly kill them with one of the blades littered across the ground below our feet, thrown accurately to their neck or head.

Two died this way.

Finally, it was the last battle between three people, they spent a whole ten minutes in this fight to the death.

One was killed by the two and the last man had more energy because he avoided fighting early on.

Cleaving in the man's head with his sword the tall well-built Terran looks at me.

"You may leave, I won't kill you" I promise

He started running as his Skile had long since abandoned its master.

I wait for him to get about forty yards away before I open my mouth "Kill him".

Isla jumps into action going for the last of the hunter-turned-prey and I go after all the Skiles.

I think it's doubtful, but I don't want someone to read the memories, my paranoia ever-present.

When we complete our task, it is well into the evening and dusk was settling in but we travel through the night putting distance between us and the massacre

I don't go and work on my project instead hunting deep into the eastern forest, getting all sorts of pelts.

Bringing them back to the Village only after three full days of hunting.

After getting back, the massacre of Deed and his mercenaries was all that anyone was talking about.

"There were clear signs of infighting," said one man to another while drinking in the Hunters Guild.

"I heard that they were ambushed by another group" replied another also taking a swig of his ale.

"Bah, what do you two know it was a beast! A beast I tell you they were all mangled beyond recognition" The rumors where through the roof.

As I get to the counter Alma smiles at me and before I open my bag, she says "Bund would like to trade your goods directly, would you mind going upstairs to the same room"? she asked me politely.

I was more curious than alarmed I went up the stairs and into the room with a stoic expression Isla following closely behind.

Bund is sitting on the table drinking and staring out of the window.

"I honestly don't know what to make of you".

He says without turning his head.

"First you hunt those absurd creatures and then you kill a man who claimed to be one of the best swordsmen in the Village and now I hear of this massacre while you are on your hunt and I can't help but think you are involved".

"And why is that"? I ask him.

"Because that man's brother was amongst the people that were killed and with his temper and attitude, he wouldn't settle down knowing that his kin was killed so ruthlessly by an Olim let alone a prepubescent one".

"What I am trying to say is that I have my eye on you," he said finally turning around.

I respond by opening both of our packs filled with exotic creatures.

He tallies it all and places two thick leather pouches on the table.

"Have you considered joining the mage association?" he asks me.

"I hadn't thought about it much" I lied.

"I would like to recommend you, although I can't guarantee you will pass the test, I can at least help you skip the assessment that is taking place here in the Village in a little over nine months".

"And what do you get out of it"? I ask him with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, nothing much I just get to brag that I know a mage, they are some godlike existence here in the Village, above nobles and on par with royalty".

I think about it before saying "For Isla also" he nods with a smile as I collect my money and head out, I hear him muttering under his breath "Interesting boy".

We wait for a week before heading out, we wanted to let the rumors die down and wait to hear if anyone suspects us.

Due to the way they died, most people suspected infighting or some sort of beast.

Heading back to the lake where my construct was, I begin the process all over again.

Blowing up rubble, sifting it, and then heating it until it melts.

I make granite tubes that connect to the nodes of the construct laying them down I make sure they are all hollow and have been filled with water to cool evenly.

I connect them to the corners of the lake, running along the bottom, hidden in shrubbery.

I also build a chimney connecting it to the surface.

it is wide enough for all the horses, Isla and I to jump into to reach the center.

After everything is built, I leave only a few nodes open but plug them up.

The whole construct was still full of water.

I even make a bathtub and set it inside the construction.

We hunt and head back to the Village, where we sell our wares and then begin to study like mad.

I burn through the little geography and history they document and work my way through the compendium of beasts.

Oddly enough there are dragons in this world, the siting is rare but they can be found in the far south of the Olim kingdom.

Through my studies, I begin to piece together the kind of world I am living in.

Apparently, I am in a continent called Zefria with the two major Kingdoms being Olim and Terra but others lived on the fringe.

I am currently residing in the central-eastern part of it.

It spans over eight thousand miles across and much of its topography has not been explored.

Religion is ever prevalent with many around, but the six major ones belong to the six kingdoms each claiming their monarch is a descendant of the gods.

I am sure they do not correct them and even feed this lunacy.

When the month is at its end, I purchase a cart and head to the blacksmith.

In his backyard all sorts of raw ores and metal that he processed are lined up and organized for me, he helped me and Isla load everything into the cart.

It took up most of the space and I even bought another half a cart of coal laying the bags on top of the different metals.

We depart from the town and head to the lake to continue working, this time I gave Algom a heads-up that we won't be back for a long while.

Getting to the lake was tough for the Skiles with the cart of metals.

Every once in a while, I would lift the cart with mana giving them a break or allowing them to run to their heart's content but it was so heavy I would soon run out.

When we reach our lake I get to work.

Separating all the material I begin to melt the Iron first.

Because I am not melting a huge part like before the process is a lot shorter but it took a long time to get it to the right temperature, melting metal is different from melting ore.

I begin to create a large rod about 12 ft wide creating a volute that connects to the rod.

Shortly a centrifugal pump is built, I use thin sheets to make the blades and connect them to the volute making the exit for the water pointing downward.

The idea was to harness the pressure from the bottom of the lake by using the volute.

The water comes in through the eye in the center it would rotate and exits through the valve pointing downwards.

I use the same process to create a few more parts.

I carefully connect a motor and rotor to the volute dipping into the water.

I connect it to the construct through one of the unused hollows placing the pump outside and motor inside connected by the shaft.

Building this took me half the day.

I create a faucet and place it over the hollow pointing at the tub I made previously.

I then make sure that everything is closed, and I push all the water out via the faucet and chimney.

The meticulous demands of the task exhausted me as waves of mana came bursting out of my body near the end.

Bringing the horses along with the cart down to the bottom only in the morning after I rested.

Isla was stunned.

It looked like a four-thousand-square-foot warehouse completely empty besides the faucet, the chimney we fell from, and the holes all around us with air flowing through them.

"What are you doing now"? Isla asked me excitedly.

"Connecting a generator to that rotating shaft," I said pointing at the rotating shaft coming through the wall.

She didn't even pretend to know what I was talking about.

I begin to melt the copper sheets that Reem made for me.

Turning it into fine strings that I cool down and coil around the center of the shaft at the same time explaining the electromagnetic theory to Isla.

This was the simple part, after finishing it I connect copper cables to the generator and bring them around placing them in a circle not far away from the generator.

I then build a pentagram on the floor made of gold and once everything is done, I release my mana from the pump and allow the water to come through.

Everything works seamlessly.

An electrical current started running between the copper coils and flowed into the golden circle.

Isla was still confused as she watched my contraption work.

I send my mana core which was illuminating the area for us over the golden array.

Slowly it started to absorb energy, 'better than nothing' I thought.

"I did a lot of experimenting," I said to Isla as I stared at the golden pentagram.

"Metals like Iron and even steel can't handle mana well the best conduit for mana is silver but gold on the other hand…" I reach out and touch the hot pentagram.

"Gold completely rejects mana; I can't even lift it with mana it just doesn't conduct it at all unless it is being heated up that is".

What happened next confused Isla even more.

My mana core that was floating slightly above the pentagram started expanding and contracting, instead of mana being sent through the golden pentagram, the pentagram sent energy to my mana core

A homemade mana generator.