Solomon's Crucible 62. The Home Front (3) (Patreon)

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Solomon could announce that he wanted to leave. In the face of his parents, though, he couldn't just walk out the door just like that.

His mother insisted on at least taking a good look at his missing hand. He detached the hook to prove to her that the wound had healed cleanly and didn't hurt. That wasn't quite true. Using magic to attach it to his skin and then binding the thing as tight as he could had led to a constant low level ache and had probably occasioned some stray HP losses, but Solomon had found that he could work through it.

His mom had a few good ideas for making the attachment more comfortable. He'd have to look into them when he had the time. As her plans grew increasingly elaborate, Solomon finally moved to escape her gentle inquisition by turning her attention to Kanmi. Once she had started in on asking Kanmi about his personal life, Solomon was able to slip away for a private moment with his dad.

Leaving his mother alone with her prey in the living room, Solomon led his dad out to his workshop in the garage. As a child, he'd always enjoyed sitting and watching his dad work on one project or another, always jumping at the chance to fetch a tool or operate something simple like the vise. Now, he hoped his dad would take on a project for him.

Solomon drew one of his pistols and set it on the table. "This is how I've gotten this far."

"This piece of junk?" his dad asked, picking it up and looking it over with a critical eye. 

Solomon found himself noticing every rough point in the gun's construction all over again, but he pushed aside the embarrassment. He wasn't going for style points.

"The important thing is that the gunpowder works," Solomon said. 

He pulled out one of his spare cartridges and tore the paper, allowing a little of the purple powder to fall out. He pulled a sliver of metal out of his inventory and touched it to the little pile of powder, producing a bright flash. After he explained how it worked, his dad looked a little more impressed with the gun in his hand.

"I guess it's not bad for something you made in the field," he said, grudgingly. "It'd be better if you could just swap out the powder in modern ammunition. Setting it off would be a pain. Maybe you could put some of that magic metal in the brass so a shock sets it off?"

His dad shook his head. "I wish we could bring Hank in on this."

"Hank?" Solomon asked. He vaguely knew most of the people in the neighborhood, but mostly by last name.

"Lives down the street, reloads his own ammo," his dad said, before wincing and shaking his hand in remembered pain. "He loads 'em hot."

"Sure, get him to help. We'll need everybody pulling their own weight one way or another out in the forest," Solomon said. "Just don't tell him where the powder comes from."

His dad had a gleam in his eye as he nodded. He could see as easily as Solomon that getting a gun industry going would be a huge boon, but it would be much more valuable if they could keep a monopoly on the powder.

Solomon reholstered the gun and headed back to rescue Kanmi. He left the powder behind for his dad to study, along with the enchanted metal.

By the time he made it back to the living room, it sounded like his mom was starting to poke around the question of whether Kanmi would be a good match for any of the young women who'd grown up in the neighborhood. Solomon cut in, apologized for being abrupt, and insisted that they head out to check on Tiffany. It took a little bit of doing, but soon enough they were on their way.

"Your mom's really something else," Kanmi said, almost as soon as they were out of earshot of the door.

"I know, she's great," Solomon said, before turning to the matter at hand. "What do you think's happening at the college?"

He hadn't wanted to press Kanmi for details in front of his parents. No sense adding yet more stress to an already stressful situation when there wasn't anything they could do about it. The news of a group keeping people from moving in or out of the campus had set off alarm bells in his mind, though. He hoped Kanmi would tell him his fears were overblown.

"Could be nothing," Kanmi said, frowning. "Could be a problem. That many people packed into the area, it's probably a hundred man dungeon."

"What's the big deal?" Solomon asked. He opened the gate and stepped out onto the street, pulling it closed after Kanmi passed through. No raccoons troubled them on the way.

Solomon understood the basic idea that finding a hundred exceptional people would be harder than finding one or five or ten. The whole reason they needed the hundred, though, was because there were so many people to choose from. All college age. He didn't think it would be that hard to field a formidable group, especially if any of the sports teams had been caught in Tiffany's area.

Kanmi hesitated for a moment before he spoke. "Anybody that can splash out for a hundred man license is going to be making a run at taking over the whole region. They aren't playing around."

"Yeah?" Solomon asked. 

He activated the mount token and pulled himself up on top of the horse as soon as it materialized. He'd thought about trying to sneak around, but it wasn't like the two of them were ever going to blend in with the locals. Better to make an entrance. Kanmi followed his lead and mounted up on his own horse.

"If somebody activated the arena early," Kanmi said, "this whole area is even more screwed than everywhere else."

Solomon shrugged. He had never planned on sticking around Eugene anyways. He just wanted to grab his sister and get out. Maybe bring some of her friends along, too.

He had no doubt that a hundred alien warriors would make short work of him in a straight fight. But he refused to believe that a hundred people, however strong, would be able to lock down a whole square mile.

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