Wandering Agent

Elevation of Mana Chapter 184 Getting the Basics Down

Chien

It took us a few weeks to get deep into the subject of magic, but it was fun. I got to teach little Adia not only what I knew about her powers, but what I knew about the wilds. Perhaps I was no master woodsman, but over the years I'd at least learned a good bit about how to live out here, what plants were edible, where to find them.

“I can't believe you didn't know any of this, even I knew some of this at your age,” I said as I shook my head one day.

“Daddy doesn...

Elevation of Mana Chapter 183 Beginning Instruction

Chien

I looked at the child and her small satchel.

“So... you have everything you need?” I asked.

“Mommy helped me pack it, said not to bring much though,” she complained.

“We won't need much, mostly we're going to be doing magic.” There was no need to hide that from her.

“You're actually going to teach me? Mommy just told me to be careful and not do it right now.”

“Yes, and she was right to,” I leaned down to get on her level, rememberi...

Elevation of Mana Chapter 182 Getting A Tutor

Isha

“Whatever we choose, she needs training,” I informed my husband after we'd put our child to bed. There were things you simply didn't need to discuss before them.

“Yes... I could.”

“Justin, you spoil her more than you would ever admit. I know you love her, but she needs someone who can discipline her properly.”

“So you?” he asked, not denying it at all, merely offering another solution.

“I'm unsure, what about finding someone professional.�...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 120 Epilogue Book 2

A/N: Hi everyone! I'm here to let you know that I'll be slowing the rate of chapters for Machinist slightly over the next bit while I work on the storyboarding for book 3 and give Elevation some much needed TLC. They won't stop, and we'll be back soon enough, but don't be surprised if there aren't as many. Book 3 is planned as the final book and I really want these to be good.

Southern Elazia

A certain agent

People cheered as several ships came returning to the ha...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 119 An Offer

The soldiers were unamused by my joke, but I was clearly no goblin, and grandfather soon landed near us. It seemed I'd actually lost him for a bit there, the plane not being quite as fast as the out of control train, surprising honestly.

“You're absolutely sure you got them all?” a man in an officer's uniform repeated for what had to be the fifth time.

“I counted each one, and even looked for other survivors. We still need to pull whatever is left of their leader out of that...

Elevation of Mana Chapter 181 A Worried Mother I

Isha

Thankfully Adia was alright, finding her out cold on the ground had nearly made me faint. However she was merely asleep, unlike her friend, who was crying up a storm. A quick once over had shown that he was the one covered in blood, not her.

“I was playing, and running, and I fell, and...” he trailed off with a bawl, thinking she was hurt or we were angry.

“Calm,” I told him, looking around at his head. “Where are you hurt?”

It was clear he had been th...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 118 To Finish It

There was no wind in my sails for my grim work. I reloaded and moved to the next cart, cutting one more free. I'd considered leaving it, but that was senseless, what if one of the goblins got back in there and did hid or something else foolish? No, it was better for me to make their area smaller and smaller as I went, preventing me from having to deal with any issues from behind. The better option was to take away their places to run, like rats in a trap, then slaughter them.

As for the...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 117 Children at War

The train lurched as the first of the cars fell away, the reduction in mass noticeable throughout it. That had not been intended, nor was it welcome in the least. Had I known... no, I probably still would have cut the car away, no need to expose those people to any further risk.

It did however make the people in the car before me now scream though, and look about in panic as I entered from the back.

“Is anyone hurt?” I asked as I strode in, looking for enemies and finding none...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 116 Rescue Begins

It took only minutes for the plane to be back in working order and I looked at our runway.

“It's short,” grandfather said.

“It's what we have, and it should be long enough,” I returned, but he was right, it was shorter than I'd have liked.

“We go then?”

“We go.”

Things were worse here than I could've feared. They'd been caught just as unprepared, and 'Father' no, Parkov, hadn't held back, he and his group had slaughtered dozens and dozens, bodies ...

Elevation of Mana Chapter 180 Disappointment and Tears

Adia

I sighed as I looked around at all my friends, and our one open chair. Lunch was so long ago so where was he? Daddy always came to see me after lunch for tea, always. Well, I guess sometimes he missed it, but if he did he would tell me in the morning that he was going to, but he hadn't today I was sure, so where was here?

Mad? Sad? I didn't know, but I was unhappy, and no matter how hard I tried I still felt the frown pulling at my lips, pulling me down. There was even a tear...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 115 Exiting Exion

Our plane ate the miles as fast grandpa's flight had, and significantly more comfortably. It seemed one moment we were in the hangar, and the next we were over the city, looking for our landing place. The men there had been kind enough to lay one out for us, right before the building I assumed had to be where the portal lay, one I'd never been through before.

Lights guided us in, pulling up right at the large entrance to what could itself have been another fortress. People weren't stupi...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 114 Emergency Takeoff

“What's going on,” I asked as we escorted Ignus into the hall.

“The short version is this, they made it through the portal and managed to escape the fortress on the far side. I'm still unsure how they knew, but the gate was scheduled to open so the people on the far end didn't immediately sound a full alert, a miss on our part. It was enough, and those goblins made it through another city.”

“Going where?” Grandfather inquired.

“I'll let his Grace give you the f...

Elevation of Mana Chapter 179 Snacks and Thinking Rocks

Adia

I crept from room to room, looking, watching. Mommy was somewhere, and if I was going to get to the kitchens and get any snacks I'd need to keep her from seeing me. She didn't like it when I got snacks in the middle of the day.

Daddy was helping too, with all the noise and trouble he was making, breaking whole walls while people tried to pull out... big long things, and take them out of the house. He was silly, always doing things like that.

I wanted to move around his ...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 113 Big Reveal

Time seemed to slow to a crawl. We had nothing we could do, nowhere to go, and other than comforting each other there was no action we could take that would accomplish anything at all. My grandfathers were too old to join in the fighting, myself too young for me to volunteer. The ladies of course weren't expected to join, so we just stayed here.

Mother had settled upon a couch and was deep in her grief. In time I knew she'd get past it, but for now she needed time to heal. I spent a few...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 112 News

The fighting lasted for seconds and nothing more.

“Another strike?” one of the men nearby asked.

“Much closer than the previous ones. That way?” I told them, pointing.

For a moment I saw the duke pale, eyes following my hand. “The portal nexus is that way.”

“Well, sounds like they won,” someone said.

“The leader of the goblins is a death priest. That much is known.” Ignus didn't hold back, making the whole room fall deadly silent.

“I'l...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 111 Delivering the News

“Greetings,” Ignus said, meeting us at the entryway to the duke's palace. He didn't look particularly pleased.

“Good day, before we continue, could you please ask your men to lower their weapons.”

Behind the leader of the duke's investigative squad stood a full squadron of men, all angry looking, all pointing various rifles in the direction of my companion. Behind them were men who could only be magically empowered soldiers, looking no less unhappy about the whole situatio...

Elevation of Mana Chapter 178 Oversized Issues

With my wife now aiding me I gave her a lot of documentation and got back to what I was currently actually doing. I felt bad about having to put together and then dump upon her so much info, but she had asked for it. It also wasn't like I was actually expecting her to do anything more than whatever she felt like, if she took years to read these that would be perfectly fine with me.

There was ultimately no reason for me to tell her no, it wasn't like I didn't trust her with anything. Eve...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 110 Turncoats

I moved along the rooftops, something normally quite frowned upon. There were many people who could've done it but running along the tops of people's houses didn't make you many friends. However now was an emergency, so rules were quite a bit looser.

We were together in the quiet for moments, letting them slip past before Kaylee spoke.

“Is he going to be okay?” she asked innocently, hopefully.

“I...” There was a roar of fury that echoed behind us.

Before I coul...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 109 Arthur's End

Arthur Shadestone

As my boy carried the daughter I'd never known nearly well enough away I watched, pushing back the tears. What was done was done, and it was time for me to go, to finish this. Steeling my resolve I began to cast like never before.

The magic was so easy right now, coming to me in waves of power, moving to my will like instruments in a concert. With a wave I sent forth hundreds of missiles, slaughtering every one of the goblins nearest me. They didn't get one or tw...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 108 The Man I Should've Been

I'd never managed to own an M2 back in my previous life, but the Ma Deuce was legend. A weapon that had served in war for almost a century with no sign of stopping any time soon. This weapon wasn't exactly that gun, sizes between worlds were certainly a bit different, and I couldn't remember the design exactly, but it was damn close.

With a heave I brought the machine gun to my side, the strap tightened, the sights... well not usable from this angle, but at this range it wouldn't matter...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 107 The Forgotten Maid

Kaylee

I waited in the odd, machine-filled room. Something must have gone truly wrong for lord Percival to have run off like that. After the explosion it had gotten all quiet, not that you could hear anything down here, but the silence was a bit grating. Really, I could just peek upstairs... but he must have thought there was danger, and he had kept me as safe as he could.

Lord Percival, it was so odd thinking of him as anything else even now. For years he'd been my employer, a bi...

Elevation of Mana Chapter 177 Another Set of Hands

Isha was mostly uninterested in my fabrication facilities, such as they were. Most of the things I did I did with purely magic, having neither the know-how or the tools for machining things. Instead a lot of my work was cast or forged, shaped by will and hard blows.

However she was interested in the materials, of which I had many. I'd searched my memories for anything useful, any recipe that I might manage to remake. Most of those had been abject failures, with no ability on my part to ...

Elevation of Mana Chapter 176 Reactions

As the scout finished we all stood stunned. Beasts that seemed devoted to nothing but killing, and ones that were of the size he described, almost unheard of. Sadly almost was an operant word in that, as there were monsters like that in this world. Large monsters came and went, mostly sticking to defined, remote territories until and unless they were in some change of their life.

The killing was the most concerning part. To many it might have seemed as if it was just random, but to thos...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 106 Invasion

I held Kaylee for just a moment as the first screams of panic reached me, then I looked her dead on and spoke.

“Stay here, something is wrong.”

She made a move to grab onto me, to keep me from going, but I was far faster than her and in a moment I was out the door. Nothing in our house was burning or on wrecked, so whatever happened must have done so outside. I wasn't the only one to think this either as our housekeeper Mrs. Rider must have been at the door because she had som...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 105 End of Year

A/N: Sorry for the delay everyone, was traveling and had some internet issues, dropping multiple today

Weeks passed without incident, turning into months. My infrequent breaks sadly didn't coincide with a good chance to return home. While I wasn't that far Rowenna was beginning to make noises and through letters I could tell that Kaylee didn't need my immediate help.

My personal project, the one I'd been working on in my basement for almost a full year finally finished as ...

Elevation of Mana Chapter 175 Beasts of Blood

Construction of my first flying machine was proceeding apace, and by that I mean slowly. There was so much that went into any sizable build that it took time, time and patience. Oddly some of the other elders in the city had too little of the latter, which you think wouldn't be the case for people who were literally ageless, but it was.

I got almost daily questions on what I was doing and how it would work, and when it would be done. Eventually I just stopped even bothering to pretend t...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 104 Wrong

Sasha

The nest was always growing, always expanding, but I was getting worried. At first I hadn't noticed, but it seemed Father had been allowing some of our brothers and sisters to breed unchecked. Our hunters had of course been going out for big food hauls, but I'd thought that had been mostly stored, stored in case enemies attacked us.

It had not been stored, not at all. No, the newest generations were growing like weeds. Most of them were of the old kind, not special children ...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 103 Distractions

“OOF!” I flew across the arena skidding along the ground painfully.

This wasn't the first time I'd missed a strike today, in fact there'd been several now. It was however the roughest one I'd taken, as it seemed Sir Kendrick was getting quite tired of correcting me.

“You're distracted again,” he said with clear irritation on his face.

“Apologies sir,” I replied.

“Don't apologize, fix it. In battle not paying proper attention will get you killed.”

...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 102 Arthur

Arthur Shadestone

I sat in my office, unable to even wish my son goodbye as he returned to that school of his, unable to face him. It wasn't fear, no, for I wasn't afraid of what he would do. That boy had known about my indiscretion and kept his peace for years, taking his time and doing what he thought was right.

No, it was shame, shame for the things I'd done. I'd betrayed my own wife, whom I'd loved without end, and while I doubt she understood it, that had been the reason for ...

Elevation of Mana Chapter 174 Catching Up

There were different levels of elders, and while it was a group I'd just joined Jina was an old, old hand to it. That was a good part of why I needed her.

“So you want me to reinforce our entire border?” she asked as we moved through the conversation. “I don't hate the idea but I believe you're overestimating my abilities.”

“That's because I don't want you to do it alone. If we've got waves of monsters coming in, we need to stop them, and the council needs to be convince...