Step by Stumbling Step

He spent the next few months trying to equip himself and work out his gifts.

He decided to armor himself since he was not invulnerable. He could be hurt like normal and he could even die. The thing is, with the type of immortality gift he was given, death wouldn’t be a permanent problem like in his world. Correction, his old world.

He spent the majority of the first couple weeks creating a set of black leather armor consisting of leather pants and vest and a long leather coat resembling a cowboy duster. He lined the leather with a layer of fine mesh titanium then a layer of silk against his skin.

The creation of the leather armor was pretty straight forward for the most part once he got the hang of it. The more difficult part? Through trial and error he worked on enchanting this armor with runes in order to make it comfortable and practical. This was what took the most time because he was still having a hard time getting the whole use of runes down. His original attempts were disappointing to say the least. One set, for no apparent reason began to smoke and then vaporize.

It was late in the first week when he realized the use of runes in both enchantments and spells were very much like computer coding. He wasn’t sure why he had his realization, but he did.

Considering his vocation at the time of his “Death” was a computer coder for a small video game company, once he found a way to visualize them like code, he was able to work out how to make the runes work.

His final product was both comfortable and practical. It also offered excellent protection and maneuverability. He was able to work out how to use runes to enchant the titanium mesh to spiderweb the impact spreading the energies perpendicular to the body. He was able to also make it so it was self-repairing to a point. However, it would be very slow so repairs will take time. Something about the rules of three which was holding him back he thought.

Remembering his frustrations and final breakthrough with his first few creations, he knew moving up the scale in complexity to metal objects would be long, frustrating, and taxing, but he really needed the tools. Fortifying himself both physically and mentally, he plunged ahead. Knives came quickly, but when he tried to extend his design to full size swords, he struggled with adjusting it for balance and usability. Some were too hard, becoming brittle. Others were too weak and bent. Finally, he had one he was happy with, one which would cut, slice, and not break.

"Shit! No wonder all the really powerful wizards are always old and grey. It takes forever to get good at this!" He said in a moment of frustration.

After that realization he was wondering if he was going to be able to equip himself enough to get anything done.

That night, in his dreams he saw a double barreled 20 gage shotgun pistol with break action. He also saw the makeup of double odd shot and rifled slug shells.

So far, his attempts at a double barreled shotgun hadn’t worked very well. The outside was fine but the tolerances and scale of the innerworkings were proving difficult. He had resorted to a simple external flintlock falling hammer design for a test bed. The first one was ok, but his second attempt was working better and smoother.

He made several different attempts at shotgun shells. The first ten were weak and underpowered, with a great deal of smoke. The second ten seemed to be better. For now, he could use these two like Blackbeard did with a brace of pistols tucked into his belt.

He then tried to create the version of the shotgun from his dreams and it flowed so much easier and took less focus to create it.

The new version seemed better and had internal hammers making it faster to use than the external flintlock style hammers he had on his previous two.

Towards the end of the second week, he examined his work and thought, “Well that’s good enough for now. I guess I’ll only get better as I go.”

He removed his leather and placed it over the foot of his bed he had made first thing. He dressed in his warm pajamas and prepared for bed.

He looked around the cave he had been dwelling in ever since he was brought here to this world and he said, “Maybe tomorrow, I’ll make myself a better shelter.”

He made sure the tarp stretched over the opening to the cave was secure and he then went to bed, making sure his shotgun was in reach.

He hadn’t been sleeping well over the last few weeks because he didn’t really feel safe here in a cave on a snow-covered mountain but tonight, he was so exhausted from mana use and lack of sleep he didn’t think sleeping was a problem.

His dreams were restless and chaotic. He couldn’t make sense of them, but he felt like he was in danger.

He had a feeling like someone or something was breathing on his neck and part of him fought to wake himself up but due to his fatigue he wasn’t able to wake up until it was too late.

He felt the teeth sink into his skin on the left side of his neck forward of where his trapezius attached to his neck. This part of his neck also included his jugular vein and carotid artery.

His eyes flew open and he looked into the wolf’s eyes. This was unlike any wolf he had ever seen before. Coal black fur and red glowing eyes. This wolf was huge. Must have weighed 300 pounds or more.

When the wolf realized he was awake it sunk its teeth in deeper and began to twist its neck in order to break his.

Rowen also noticed there was another wolf about half the size of the wolf currently killing him. The other wolf looked like it was timidly waiting for its leader to finish and eat its fill before getting its own fill.

He grabbed his shotgun and put it to the side of the black wolf biting him and pulled the first trigger. He heard the report of the gun and he saw the black wolf’s eyes widen as if surprised by what was happening.

It seemed to try to tighten its grip on Rowen but then after a moment it released its grip and fell off the side of his bed.

The other wolf seemed to freeze for a moment in surprise but then lowered itself as if it were preparing to jump at him, but Rowen aimed and fired his second barrel at the second wolf.

The wolf tried to jump sideways to avoid the shot, but it wasn’t fast enough. The buckshot ripped its throat and chest up and the wolf fell to the floor of the cave dead.

Rowen tried to get up to look around the cave for other wolves, but he got dizzy and felt his blood leaking from his neck.

He knew his life’s blood was leaking out of his neck and he did his best to grab and slow the bleeding as much as he could. He thought about casting a healing spell on himself, but he hadn’t worked out the syntax of a healing spell nor an expedient way of casting said spell.

In truth, he really hadn’t spent much time working out spell casting yet. For the last few weeks he had been so focused on using runes in enchantments. He thought there would be time for learning spells.

He hoped that what the guardians told him about his immortality was true because he thought that this was a pretty lame way to go out after being transferred to another reality in order to fulfill a mission.

If what they said was true, then he also really didn’t like the idea of his body just laying around for whatever scavengers to feast on while waiting for the three moonrises for the green moon to finish its orbit.

He had been toying around with the idea of an automaton or robot/android of some kind to watch over his lifeless body, but he hadn’t gotten around to doing that yet either. In his dying fugue state his thoughts drifted to what he had envisioned for said robot/android and he began to visualize what he had been thinking about.

He thought about making the skeleton of the “Protector” as he was thinking of calling it as being made from Mogdantium, the strongest metal on this world. How he knew that he didn’t know, he just did. He figured it would be too conspicuous to be traveling around with an obvious automaton, so he thought of making it an active mobile suit of armor. However, that too had its limitations.

He had already decided he would make it grow artificially, self-repairing skin to make it look human so it wouldn’t get any undue attention.

While his logical, analytical part of his brain was considering this, his libido said, “Why not make it easy to look at?”

His analytical brain said, “Yeah sure, whatever.” The analytical part was more worried how to make growing skin.

His libido went about designing how slight the frame would be and what the end product would be. The perfect female figure which came to mind was Karen Kim, his biggest crush during high school.

His conscious part of his mind considered, “I haven’t thought about Karen for years. I wonder what she would think if I made my personal android look like her.” With her dark tan skin, almond eyes and other classic Asian features which made her such an exotic beauty.

His libido said, “Oh yeah, now that’s what I’m talking about!”

The analytical part of his brain said, “Now to build an artificial intelligence in order to make this tool useful for more than just something to look at.”

His libido said, “You know that you have to make her with the appropriate lady parts?”

His consciousness said, “That’s hardly relevant but I guess so. I’m not really into just having a blowup sex doll. What I think we need is something which can think, problem solve and grow in intellect with experience. But loyalty would be important too.

Analytical part said, “Yes, indeed.”

Libido, “Now that’s what I’m talking about. Make her want us.”

Consciousness said, “Since when do I refer to myself in the third person plural or whatever?”

Analytical, “Blood loss does strange things to one’s psyche.”

“Oh.”

Libido, “Yeah, God only gives us enough blood to think with one head at a time.”

Analytical, “That is not what I am talking about. Now you’re distracting us from getting what we need done here. Shall we continue?”

Consciousness, “Of course. I don’t know how much longer I’m gonna be with you so you two work it out.” Then he shook his head and said, “Now I know I’m losing it.”

Analytical, “Here is what the skeleton and runes will look like.” And he visualized a silver skeleton which stood about five foot six with a slight but solid build with black runes engraved all over the frame.

When his consciousness tried to focus in on the runes, he almost passed out, so he had to take a step back and focus on fighting losing consciousness as long as possible.

But he asked Analytical, “Are you sure that this syntax and structure will work?”

“Well, it may have its quirks, but I believe that it will be functional and look quite human. The personality may be flat at first, but it will be loyal to us.”

Libido, “Come on. Since we’re a virgin, this might be the only way to get us laid. So why not make her want us?”

Analytical, “That is irrelevant. The purpose for this tool is to protect our body when we’re dead and to serve and protect us when we’re alive. I have built in fighting features in its intellect and mastery in martial arts, so that it will have stealth and can serve as a deadly weapon when necessary.”

Libido, “How sexy is that?”

“That’s irrelevant.”

Consciousness, “Will you two quiet down. I’m starting to doze here. Maybe I’ll feel better if I get some sleep.”

Libido, “So are we at least agreed that she’ll look like Karen.”

Consciousness, “Sure, why not.”

Analytical, “There is no reason why not.”

As Rowen started to lose his final grip on consciousness, he began to see the metal skeleton shimmer into being.

However, as his vision faded his last sight was a dark-skinned woman with jet black hair, and almond shaped golden eyes. There was something reptilian about those glowing golden eyes and the woman looked nothing like Karen Kim.

The woman with reptile eyes said in a soft smokey voice, “Don’t worry Rowen, everything will be fine.”

He said, “That’s nice…” and he died.