Chapter 16: The Unfortunate Magic Engineer

Chapter 16: The Unfortunate Magic Engineer A young boy fifteen years of age, brown hair and a lean body was working in a basement room, with a wrench in his hands, tightening the bolts on an iron machine. There was a long rectangular concrete table in the center of the room, tools and other iron parts were scattered along the table and the thing he was working on was a long two feet arm like object. It was a machine put together with welded pieces of iron. The whole arm was somehow scrapped together, with spaces left open and long rubber tubes wired inside filled with grey liquid solution for the hydraulics. There were many red lines forming a channel like system, drawn throughout the machine, which were the mana channels. The hand was built with finesse and looked like a machine hand of a human. A red mana stone was embedded at the center of the palm, which was the main energy source for the heavy and complex machinery to move and work. The door to the room opened and a young woman, looking similar to the boy entered inside. She was wearing a white robe with a golden phoenix embroidery and had long wavy brown hair falling on her shoulders and light brown eyes. She was a wizard and a priestess of the branch of Holy temple in the Gemburn city. "Still working on that Shane?" Ruby asked. "Sister! Great timing! I need your help right now!" Shane said excitedly. They were both twins, Ruby being the elder. They both lost their parents at a young age during the beast stampede, and were taken in by the holy temple, seeing Ruby’s affinity to the light element. Ruby worked in the holy temple and supported both of them, especially Shane, since he was a magic engineer, filled with passion and craze for magic and tools, but unable to get admitted in the university, since he was born with one of the rare conditions on the continent. He was born without a magic circle in his heart. "Can you fill the mana stone with some of your mana? I want to test my machine!" Shane asked. "Alright!" Ruby then waved her hands and golden mana started flowing out of her hands and got sucked inside the mana stone. After channeling mana for some time, the mana stone was full and started glowing bright golden, she then stopped channeling her mana. Shane moved towards the mechanical arm and pressed a lever at the elbow region and the mana from the stone started flowing through the red channels drawn on it. Slowly it started glowing bright with the mana flowing through the channels, Shane then moved his arm inside through the gap and wore the mechanical arm as he strapped it tight around his biceps and arm with the belts on it. "Move back a little, sister. I’ll test it now." Shane said and turned towards the wall at his side where a bag filled with sand was hanging from the ceiling through a chain. Ruby moved back and stood behind him at a distance. He lifted that heavy arm and placed it towards the sand bag parallel to the ground and pointed his palm towards the bag. The palm then started making whirring noises as it transformed into a circular canon. A golden ball of light started forming in front of the canon tube. It collected more and more energy as the mana channels glowed before it zoomed away flying towards the bag, pushing his arm back because of the recoil. The energy ball hit the bag and blasted through it, passing out of the other end and hit the wall before being dissipated into motes of light, leaving a black mark on the wall. The sand started pouring out like a waterfall as a huge hole appeared on it. A smile appeared on Shane’s face as he looked back towards his sister, excited at the success. Ruby was surprised as well and smiled back at her brother, but before they could rejoice, the smile vanished from her face as worry took over, as she looked at the mechanical arm. "Shane!!" She yelled out and seeing his sister’s change in expression and calling him out, he followed her eyes and looked at his arm. The mana channels in the arm were producing spark as they were being overloaded. He quickly loosened the belts, moving his arm out and dropped it on the ground. It fell with a thud and bright sparks started coming out as they fried the channels and the tubes, charring them black. Smoke started rising out of the machine, making cracking noises and taking their hopes down with it. Shane’s eyes were glued to the mechanical arm on the ground, he was crestfallen, months of hard work gone down the drain. Ruby sighed and moved towards him. she put her hand on his shoulder, consoling him. "It’s alright Shane! Don’t get disheartened. Great things don’t happen fast, take your time!" she consoled him with her words. "I’ll have to go to the temple. Food is on the table. Eat your lunch on time, ok!?" "Yes sister! Don’t worry. Next time I’ll definitely succeed. I promise you!" he said with a warm smile towards his sister. Seeing him alright, Ruby smiled at him and walked out of the room, closing the door on her way out. Shane picked his machine and put it back on the table. The smoke was still coming out from the inside. He tossed it around, checking its condition. The tubes had burned and the liquid had spilled out of it adding as fuel for the fire. The channels were broken at various places, making it nonfunctional. The ink for drawing the channels was very pricey and he had to fight a war with the merchant to get it a bit cheap. The iron plates were usable again, but he would have to replace the tubes and the fluid. He removed the mana stone and put it on the side and pulled out a folded piece of leather sheet. As he opened it, it covered almost half of the table. On it were a few designs of the mana channels. It was the note he kept while calculating and researching the channels for his machine. He pulled out a brush and a bottle with red murky ink inside. he dipped the brush inside the ink and stared drawing a new channel at the blank space on the sheet.