Wandering Agent

Machinist of Mana Chapter 79 A Good Day

A/N: My apologies for the recent disturbances in chapter releases, but worry not I plan to be back to my normal four a week starting this week. Of note there will be a small disturbance near Christmas, not only for that vaunted holiday but because I will be leaving the country on Christmas Day. I hope to hear from you all, and all the best!

I awoke excited, for today was the day, the day I'd been waiting for, the day I'd spent years preparing. My clothes were laid out the day before...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 78 Stressed

“You could have at least been here on time,” grandmother complained, interrupting my attempt to change the subject.

“You were early, that is hardly my doing. I also would have liked to have been here to meet you, but as I said I had a number of unexpected meetings. Not ones I particularly enjoyed either.”

“Your teachers?” she questioned.

“No, everything at the school is... well busy, but fine. I did quite well on my exams.” 2024-11-13 19:23:34 +0000 UTC View Post

Machinist of Mana Chapter 77 Coming Home

Ignus seemed less than enthused when I shared with him my interaction. It was at least nice that he'd made a hole in his busy schedule for me, but that was sort of expected, after all it wasn't like I spent a lot of time bothering him, and never did we meet for some needless thing. Once his people had relayed who was here he'd quickly made the time, and seemed satisfied that he had.

“It was good of you to try and convince them to surrender.”

“I'm assumi...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 76 Meeting on the Road

I pointed my weapons as the goblin slowly emerged from the brush. Behind me the horses and the driver slept, clearly knocked out by some spell or other.

“I didn't come here to fight,” she said, hands open to show she had no weapon, as if she needed one.

“I've heard that one before,” I replied.

“Fair, but if you kill me my siblings will destroy your home. They know I'm here, and they know where you live.”

I felt a ...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 75 Tests

Word by word I worked, pen scratching, ripping into the paper before me. Beads of sweat rolled down my forehead, for I'd been at this for hours, and while I loved this sort of thing, it was mentally taxing. My hand was cramping, eyes bothered by the constant staring at papers, for this had been going on for days. I thought I'd had it bad before, but this was simply pure torture.

All around the the other students were also crouched over their papers, eyes locked onto question ...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 74 Season Approaches Again

I put the final one of the many, many documents Mrs. Rider had provided to the side. Over the past months the housekeeper had done a magnificent job, at least so far as I could tell. The books were in order, nobody was complaining about her behavior in any way I cared about, and things were running smoothly.

“Well, I would have liked to have finished sooner, but it's nice to finally be done with this chore,” I said to her and I put the papers away.

“Oh ...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 73 Days of Peace

“I like your sister, but she's running me so hard I'm exhausted,” I said to Lucas as I tossed the ball we were throwing around to him. Simon guffawed from the far side.

“I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that,” Lucas deadpanned.

“I'm not,” Simon said as he caught the projectile that had been aimed at his head.

“Don't tell me you're thinking of reneging on your agreement to help her with her studies?” the brother asked with a ...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 72 Date

I sat looking at the small box that I'd designed. It'd taken work from both Simon and myself to bring it to existence, but it was something special, something worthwhile, something I was just a little bit proud of. It wasn't my normal work, or like it at all, but it was something I rather liked.

Simon had liked it too, but I'd convinced him his gifts for his crush were more than enough. It would also be completely tasteless if we gave girls the same thing. Not that I'd not do...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 71 Magical Item Creation

My hands tingled as the lathe spun to life. It didn't have the hum I was so used to from Earth, the gears being run by magic instead of an electric motor, but it did make a slight sighing noise. The machine was so quiet, nearly a whisper, a whisper of what it could do, what it could make. These were the tools of civilization, of the bringing of people from the medieval era to the modern one.

There was no doubt in my mind that the metal lathe had been the key, the absolute key...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 70 A Bouquet

Simon and I had to wait a bit to really get to work, mostly because I was too busy to do much more than I was. That said I did give him a few tips on what he should look for in features, and even loaned him a couple of my schoolbooks on programming. The latter would help for looking up commands and useful sequences, but didn't really contain anything groundbreaking in it.

While he did that I thought about some shell designs and how I'd go about making each, along with how I'd...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 69 A Proposition

A/N: Sorry for the slow posts over the past week, between the hurricane destroying several cities in our state and family staying with us because of said hurricane I've been a bit out of sorts.

I didn't just care about Simon because of golems, sure I could in theory come up with some great ideas of what to do with them, but more importantly, he had access to an actual core. One of those was illegal to have around, a tool of extreme danger, the other, the other was ...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 68 Not My Fault

School was, well, schooling, even if a number of the subjects were different it remained much the same from my previous life. Sure, there were no computers to write our reports and essays on, and sure, we had much more gym, and it was significantly more violent, but boys were boys regardless of the time period or place. The administration was always trying, and failing, to enforce discipline, the students always determined to get into one or another of any number of bits of trouble.

2024-09-28 02:10:30 +0000 UTC View Post

Machinist of Mana Chapter 67 Paperwork and Encouragement

I did not aim to cause the family's staff stress, but I did so with aplomb anyway. Mrs. Rider, the housekeeper for this particular home soon found me where the maid had, looking a bit surprised, but well composed. She looked at me, and at the small bag the coach had left before departing before speaking.

“Lord Percival, I wasn't expecting you at all, was there some issue?” she asked with a rush.

“Not a particular one, but did you get a letter from my pa...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 66 Change of Plans

I passed along the halls of my school, an academy for young knights. Outside young men sparred in one of the fields, others studied on the grass in the summer sun. Now well into my second year of school I had today off, time to relax and kick back.

Months passed since our last encounter, but still my green-skinned enemies didn't make themselves known. Some things of minor note happened of course, but nothing so serious as it could have been. That was good, for my teachers wer...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 65 The Unknown Enemy

Southern Elazia

Nicon- Palace of the People

High Leader Scoran

I laid back as the girl dyed my hair, one at a time, careful, painfully so. There could be no room for any mistakes, it had to be perfect, look perfect. It was well known how fast an ancient's hair changed from the normal color to white, not that one of those had been born in centuries, but it was important people at least thought I was perfectly pure.

It was almost true tha...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 64 Ignus

Ignus

I shifted through the city's offices, eyes peeled for whoever and whatever might be a threat. The city was always under threat of some kind, be it bandits, organized crime, corruption, or something like the monsters now growing in our underbelly. Though none of those compared to the fact that otherwise well known men had betrayed the city.

“Report,” I said as I entered a meeting room.

“The undercity is still quiet. We know they're...

Elevation of Mana Chapter 146 Bouncy!

“Why, why would you get this stuff!?” Chien fumed, trying to cut the sheet of rubber back a bit.

“Goodness, use magic, this stuff isn't that bad.” I of course was using only magic, because it was in fact that bad, the material was like trying to cut through wood, which made sense, since it was bark.

“Do you even know how to use it?”

“I've got a few ideas.”

He made a chopping motion, sending a magical blade to ...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 63 Cleanup

My conflict with the over-sized avian was disappointingly short. Sure, it was big, and fast, but as most people who studied such things could tell you, when a mammalian predator gets hold of an avian on the ground, it's pretty much over for the bird. There was still a fair bit of blood though, and two very scared children, who'd somehow come out unscathed.

There was shortly screaming as a hysterical woman, my guess was the mother of the kids, ran over to and embraced them. Th...

Chapter 62 Meeting in Bamblebrook

My carriage dropped me off just outside the gate to Bamblebrook, this choice was made because the streets inside were apparently painfully small and while they could be taken I didn't have anywhere in particular I wanted to go. Since it was easier on everyone involved I'd opted for this measure, and as an added bonus I got to see the little town from the point of view of any other visitor.

The walls were aged, and well built if a bit old in style. It always surprised me how m...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 61 Time Off

With the holidays ending I found myself returned to school, which was a mixed bag. I liked my school and my friends, and being around them, but on the other hand there was the scheduling. At the end of every day I was exhausted, broken, and ready to fall into my bed only to have to wake up and do it again the next day.

Professor Killic, who I'd met on my first trip here met me after class one day.

“How are you finding your second year Percival?” he asked ...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 60 A Greater Future

Sasha

I looked at my sister, having felt off for the past several days. While I leaned up against the door to the warren, tapping my fingers in thought. Beside me my most common companion tinkered, playing with some mechanism or other.

“Do you think father was... wrong?”

“How do you mean?”

“He told the humans they'd be let go unharmed if they didn't attack, but...”

“No, they were clearly trying ...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 59

There were few things in this world that I really truly loved. My family, some of my friends, and my new workshop were all among them. During the days of my break I might have expected to have an actual break, but I would have been wrong. I needed to get things done in my shop, I needed to keep up with social events in the evenings, and my mother was insistent on me keeping up with my sword practice. There was a change at least on the last of them.

“Yours again,” mother s...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 58 Business

“Don't we have enough problems?”

“Probably, but as I said, I don't believe it is related to our local problems.”

I leaned back, blowing out a sigh. First goblins and now elves, if we got dwarves next I was starting a riot. I didn't even think dwarves were a thing, but with us exploring all of the small areas of the world now we might well find some one day. I mean, there were tiny people back on earth in little pockets, but were those more like dwarve...

Elevation of Mana Chapter 140 Seaside Village

“Good that you removed the flesh when you did,” the elder of this little village said. He barely had a white hair upon his head, but was amenable enough. “It's not that dangerous, but it attracts the crabs and they'll swarm. They're persistant too.”

We'd arrived here a few hours ago, and while we spoke a child with spots all along her skin sat by us in the elder's home. The glowing bits didn't seem to hurt, but there were only two choices, to let the venom fade on its...

Elevation of Mana Chapter 139 Seaside Passage

There waas a certain light joy to this little coastline. It was odd to me that it was so small, barely going up to the mountains before steeply climbing, but I knew neither enough about geography nor about how magic might interact with it to know if that was normal. It was pleasant though, for you could always smell the subtle salt on the wind and always find nearby shade. Odder still was that the floor of the forest wasn't all sant, though that was more welcome than I could easily state; I s...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 57 Ducal Visit

Responding to the duke was quick, finding a date was even quicker. Mother had several potential candidates in mind, but honestly, there'd only really been one. After all, they'd been insisting that I have the same companion for almost every formal dinner for most of my young life, so having someone I knew for this event would be the best idea.

“This is so exciting, I can't believe you managed to get an invitation to the duke's residence? I've never met him of course, was wa...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 56 New Workshop

My father, who spent so little time around me or dealing with me at all came through quite well. He ordered a number machines for me, powered by mana, that I could use. The ones from the school that were so convenient were very expensive, and useful for some purposes, but not for all of them. Sure, if you put in all the math and directions perfectly they worked exactly as advertised, but for more complicated mechanisms that required small changes here and there they were hardly helpful. If yo...

Elevation of Mana Chapter 138 Off the Ice

After weeks of travel we discovered a few things. One, that riding on the sled was far, far, faster than any other method of travel, and two, I really needed to work on doing more magic. There was never enough, and the only way to get better at it was to do more. Using the sled was tiring, exhausting even, but with the speed it was so worth it that none of us wanted to stop.

Even Chien got in on the sledding action, but we found that he was much weaker than I something I'd ex...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 55 Unhappy Parents

“So, mind not telling mom about this?” I asked my grandfather after I'd gotten healed and seen to.

“Oh, I'm telling her, some things,” he affirmed.

“She'll skin both of us, you know that right?”

“I'm telling her, but we're leaving out a few key facts, like the broken ankle, or the fact that you were ever in real danger. I cannot believe how irresponsible you were Percival, as soon as you fell through that floor you should have d...

Machinist of Mana Chapter 54 Contact with the Enemy

The first shot landed squarely in the middle of the goblin's chest, tossing him back like a ragdoll. That was refreshing, so very refreshing, to have something I made work just perfectly. The smell of powder burning, the kick back as the recoil hurt. The sound, actually the sound hurt like being stabbed in the ear, super hearing, firearms, and confined spaces really shouldn't mix.

There was yelling, though I couldn't tell what, and the fighting began. My hope was to disable, ...