July 3rd, Year 714 A.G.

[Grand Deluxe Hotel]

Ring! Ring!

The ringing of his smartphone was what woke Leon up.

The moment he jolted awake in his brown boxers and black singlet, even without looking at the time yet, he already knew that he slept late as he cursed. "F*ck, is it 9 already?"

He looked at the contact that was calling him.

[Incoming Call from Sergeant Tyla…]

He looked at the time.

[09:17am]

"F*ck!" He quickly jumped up from the bed.

He didn't pick the call immediately, instead, he rushed towards the water sink in the toilet where he quickly washed his face with water to wipe away the lingering effects of his sleep.

He cleaned his face with a towel, rushed back to the room and quickly wore a familiar black attire before going back to answer the call.

Click!

The moment a holographic projection appeared in front of him, he smiled at the Sergeant and said in an exuberant manner. "Good morning my friend!"

"I've been awake for hours already but you know, as a Mechanist, we need to do a daily sketch and keep an outline of our works, deciding on which research to focus on, which constructs to attend to first".

"Hehe," he grinned. "It's just the life of a Mechanist".

Sergeant Tyla didn't seem like she bought his bullshit as she looked at him in a dubious manner. "Really?"

"Of course, why would I lie to you my friend? Are you there already?"

Instead of answering, Sergeant Tyla turned her phone's camera to show her surroundings, focusing on the door of the caravan.

Leon smiled shamelessly. "I'll be there in a minute!"

He ended the call and dashed to the side of his bed to pick up his leather backpack, and then he quickly left the hotel room.

Less than 3 minutes later, he arrived in front of the caravan.

A familiar brown light-armored military truck was parked in front of the caravan. Sergeant Tyla casually leaned against the truck, looking at her wristwatch occasionally while her 2 subordinates stood rigidly to the side as if they were protecting her.

3 different metal crates were lined up in front of the caravan door.

Seeing the 3 crates, Leon's eyes lit up. 'Is that…?'

He quickly walked in front of the female Sergeant. "My friend, you're here!" He grinned. "I told you I won't waste time, right?"

Sergeant Tyla calmly turned her eyes to look at her wristwatch then she said in a deadpan tone. "You took 3 minutes".

Leon's smile froze on his face, then he chuckled and waved a hand dismissively. "There's no use worrying about the little things".

"All that matters now is that I'm here, right?"

He turned to face the crates. "Are those…?"

"Yes, those are some of the materials that you asked for. The Lieutenant instructed me to bring them assuming that you fulfilled your end of the bargain".

"Of course," Leon smiled leisurely. "Who do you take me for?"

He waved in greeting at the two soldiers standing rigidly beside the Sergeant, then he opened the door to the caravan and led them inside.

Sitting on the long wooden work desk were 12 sleek-looking long black Rifles with a menacing edge to them.

The 3 soldiers stared in wonder, quietly mesmerized. Leon secretly smirked at their reaction.

Sergeant Tyla approached the table and carefully picked up one of the Rifles, observing its sleek design and the slot regulator beside the trigger surface.

On the surface of the Rifle, there were a few inscriptions.

[Terra Nova 71]

[Created by Thomas Riley]

Sergeant Tyla was mesmerized completely as she intimately caressed the surface of the Rifle, then she asked. "It's electromagnetic?"

"Yes". Leon nodded. "It has 2 modes of attack. It can shoot out an electromagnetic pulse that can act as an EMP pulse to disrupt electronics, and it can also shoot out a powerful plasma beam in its second mode".

"Wow". The Sergeant was genuinely impressed.

She looked at the work table again at the remaining 11 Rifles. "You constructed all these Rifles within that short period of time?"

"Did you sleep at all?" She looked at him.

Leon simply smiled.

'I think this is more than the value of materials we're paying him'. Sergeant Tyla thought but she didn't voice her thoughts out.

'And to craft 12 Rifles out of those materials within a single night, he's better than we expected'.

She finally asked. "What are their names?"

"Terra Nova 71". Leon answered.

After that, she didn't dally around. After thanking Leon, she had her subordinates carry all 12 Rifles into the truck and then they drove off.

Finally alone inside the caravan, Leon quickly opened the metal crates to observe their contents.

His eyes lit up. 'I have all the materials to create my first smoke grenade!'

There were also a few materials for his first robot that he requested for, but they were too few for him to start working. Besides, all the materials to create a single robot were not yet ready.

So Leon decided to focus on the smoke grenade.

After opening the crates and demarcating the materials in the caravan, he gathered materials for his first smoke grenade and he immediately went to work.

Construct!

His grayish white ADE flowed, engulfing the materials as it followed the blueprint, creating a brand new construct.

As the creation process continued, Leon used another ability.

Miniaturization!

Within a few minutes, the creation process was completed.

DING!

~----~

[You have crafted a Smoke Bomb!]

~----~

The result was a tennis ball-sized gray circular-shaped bomb.

Standing inside the caravan, Leon picked up the tennis ball-sized bomb and scrutinized it with a smile on his face.

Unlike his jury-rigged bomb that was almost the size of two fists and even after Miniaturization still looked big, this was a bomb that he could conceal easily and carry with him anywhere.

'Success!' He thought.

Leon didn't stop there though.

Instead, sitting down on the wooden chair in the caravan, he set the small bomb on top the table before scrutinizing it carefully.

The reason why he was studying the bomb was simple.

After carefully studying the blueprint of the Smoke Grenade previously, Leon's creativity was ignited again and he had a thought. 'Can I reverse engineer this grenade blueprint to create a different type of grenade blueprint?'

There are different types of grenades- from fragmentation grenades to blast grenades, to smoke grenades, flashbang grenades, incendiary grenades, chemical grenades, anti-tank grenades, and even illumination grenades.

Despite his fragmented memories, Leon had a vague recollection of these core engineering information and the technology needed to create them.

The basic technology used to create a normal incendiary grenade involves fundamental principles of explosives, fuzing mechanisms, and materials engineering.

In the end, no matter how different an incendiary grenade is from a smoke grenade, there are similarities between them.

For example, Leon's jury-rigged bomb utilized principles that are combinations of a fragmentation grenade and an incendiary grenade. He was resourceful, working with the materials he had on hand to create a bomb with maximum power.

But now, Leon wanted finesse.

He already tried modifying the blueprint previously but though he made progress, he couldn't complete it.

But now, with a completed smoke grenade in front of him, Leon had a perfect experimentation target to work with.

After 50 minutes, he made progress but he was yet to arrive at the breakthrough he was looking for, so after hesitating for a moment, Leon decided to leave the caravan and go to the Lower Streets.

His reason for leaving was because he wanted to experiment with the smoke grenade, he wanted to observe first-hand the process of its detonation.

Deliberately moving towards an alley with no police nearby, Leon made sure that no one saw him and then he threw the smoke grenade towards a corner of the alley.

He squatted and watched the tennis ball-shaped grenade, his enhanced perception enabling him to observe any minute changes.

BAM!

The grenade detonated as a cloud of thick black smoke quickly erupted, covering about 2 to 3 meters in width and rising into the sky.

Having observed the whole process of this bomb detonating, Leon's eyes narrowed in thought and then he smiled. He just had an epiphany.

At that moment, he heard the sound of footsteps coming towards the alley.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

'Police?'

He quickly snuck away before the police could catch up. By the time they arrived, all they saw was smoke.

…

Leon arrived at his caravan and immediately went to work.

Construct!

He created another Smoke Grenade and during that process, he finally pieced together all the theories in his mind.

"Davis, project a blank drawing board for me".

DING!

"Yes master".

Leon picked up a digital pen that he bought some time ago and with it, he started sketching a prototype of a modified blueprint on the blank drawing board.

After the first sketch, he modified it again repeatedly, changing a few details and material requirements, and then the System's HUD screen finally lit up.

DING!

~----~

[You have created a Blueprint: Fragmentation Grenade]

~----~

Leon grinned.

With his knowledge and experience from creating his jury-rigged bomb, he easily managed to modify both blueprints to create a pure fragmentation grenade.

He still didn't stop. With the digital pen, he sketched a new blueprint.

This time, he succeeded on the first try.

DING!

~----~

[You have created a new Blueprint: Incendiary Grenade]

~----~

Leon didn't stop, he sketched 5 more blueprints from modifying what he already had and the System lit up 4 times.

DING!

~----~

[You have created a new Blueprint: Blast Grenade]

…

[You have created a new Blueprint: Flashbang Grenade]

…

[You have created a new Blueprint: Chemical Grenade]

…

[You have created a new Blueprint: Illumination Grenade]

~----~

The only one he failed to complete was the blueprint for an Anti-Tank Grenade. It was far more complicated than the others, and it also needed a compatible Grenade Launcher.

Leon didn't give up though. 'I'll work on it in the future'.

With that thought, he finally walked out of the caravan to exercise his sore muscles and take in a deep breath.

'I should get an energy drink to reward myself and to also supercharge my energy levels'.

Having learned his lesson from yesterday, he didn't go to a bar. Instead, he went to a local shop in the street where he bought an energy drink for 7 cents.

Energy drinks were supposed to be more expensive than soft beverages and yet, yesterday, he spent 1 pound and 5 cents for a single soft drink. Once again, Leon confirmed that buying drinks at a bar was a luxury for the rich.

After allowing his brain to rest and reset, he went back inside the caravan and returned to work.

Construct!

Leon crafted 7 more smoke grenades before exhausting the materials. He also crafted 4 fragmentation grenades with the materials that he had on hand.

To craft the others, he needed more specialized materials.

By the end of it all, he was surprised when the System suddenly lit up with a new notification.

DING!

~----~

[You have gained +30 Ascended Essence!]

[Ascended Counter: 196/2000]

~----~

'Huh?'

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