Solomon's Crucible 54. The First Contact (4) (Patreon)

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The conversation wound down not long after Kanmi's ominous proclamation. He'd given the people of Glide enough information to make a plan without jeopardizing the bonuses they could earn from the system by discovering things on their own. Once that was done, there wasn't much left to say. Sitting out under the night sky with a total absence of electric lights or electric screens had everybody ready to turn in early.

Solomon had had the chance to ask Kanmi why he hadn't felt sleepy. As it turned out, the system could heal up the physical symptoms of fatigue. Not all of the HP that he had lost on the ride out had been due to his clumsy seat on the horse. The cost would increase over time. More pressingly, Kanmi had told him that people who pushed on for too long without sleep tended to go a bit funny in the head. Some of them got better after a good night's sleep. Some didn't.

All he had to do was request that the system stop healing up fatigue and he'd be able to fall asleep like normal. As he sat on the bed and thought, though, Solomon found that there was a bit more that he wanted to accomplish before he tucked himself in for the night.

The locals might find their own unique advantage within the system. They might get lucky. He had. But when he thought about the future of what were essentially his new neighbors, he didn't want to leave it up to chance.

Solomon sighed, then started pulling materials out of his inventory. He'd stocked up with the thought of arming his family once he found them. He hadn't realized that the situation Glide faced was quite so dire until Kanmi had laid it out for everybody to hear.

At least he could always buy more materials. His inventory was limited by some formula based on his strength and body weight, but the basic materials should be cheap and freely available at any dungeon store.

He used his molding ability to break off four lengths of pipe, roughly equal to the length of his own gun barrel. Dale had volunteered that the dungeon for this corner of Glide expected them to show up in a four man party.

He crumpled the back of each gun barrel, smoothing it out as best he could by hand. He then shaped four wooden frames to match. Once the pieces were put together, he had four guns that were each a close match for his pistol.

The next part was going to be tricky. He was nowhere near capable of making a trigger that worked with a tidy internal mechanism like modern firearms used. He could still rig up something better than a metal "match" that wasn't even connected to the gun.

It took a little trial and error but eventually he found a method that worked. Two L-shaped pieces of metal, one on either side of the gun. He had attached a little post on either side of the rear of the gun barrel. The corner of each "L" had a little ring that fit over the post. One leg of each L came together where a trigger finger would naturally rest while holding the gun, while the other legs met at a magically charged spike that fit neatly into the touch hole. 

The trigger pull was a little wonky, but by tightening the rings around the posts he was able to at least make it so that the spike would only drop into the hole when he made a concerted effort to pull the trigger. He rigged up a little swivel cap to block off the touch hole and act as a safety and called it a job well enough done.

Once he'd finished up four of the new model pistols he went ahead and turned off the system's fatigue prevention. It turned out that Kanmi had undersold the effects. Solomon was barely able to crawl into bed before he passed out.

Despite everything that had happened to him, he slept like a baby. 

He woke to sunlight shining in his face. He waved his hand in front of himself, vaguely wishing he could hit the snooze button on the sun. When that didn't work, he managed to pull himself together enough to ask the system to start healing up systems of fatigue again.

Three HP later, he was wide awake. Just as well, considering that coffee was going to be hard to come by in the future.

He wandered out into the living room to find Dale sitting on his couch. He looked to be staring off into space, or perhaps a blue box was hovering in his vision. Solomon sat down on the love seat and rapped his knuckles on the coffee table. Dale started a little, then looked at him with a question in his eyes.

"Looking for that stroke of luck?" Solomon asked. He pulled one of the pistols he'd made out of his inventory and set it on the table. "Maybe I can lend you mine."

Dale picked up the pistol and studied it for a moment. "What is this?"

"The system messes with gunpowder," Solomon said. "But when a door closes, sometimes a window open. You should take a look at what's for sale in your own dungeon shop. This is all I can spare."

He pulled out the other three guns and nine paper cartridges. It only took a few minutes to explain the nature of the magical gunpowder and how the pistols worked.

"Pick three other people who are solid," Solomon said. "Do all you can to get as many grid points as you can this week and clear the dungeon and the outpost, like Kanmi said."

He reached out and picked up one of the pistols, tapping against the coffee table a couple times.

"Then, everybody takes one of these and finds some little monster to shoot. That'll give you a skill and open up the grids that let you juice up your shots," Solomon said. "Get what you can, and take that edge into the arena."

Glide itself occupied four square mile zones. If the human residents could claim solid ownership of one zone, though, it would give them a foundation. With that, maybe the next month would be enough time to build up and take on the alien invaders, even if they did have an extra grid to draw on.

"Why share this?" Dale asked. Solomon couldn't blame him for his surprise.

"I'm heading to Eugene, but I'm coming back with my family, maybe a few other people," Solomon said. "I just want to fort up in the wilderness and stay safe. I figure it'll help if we have some friendly neighbors."

Solomon's generosity had its limits. He was happy to give them the guns. If they wanted more powder in the future though, well, he had a feeling he was going to need all the resources he could get if he wanted to make a go of things out in the wild.

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