In the darkness just before dawn, a small figure tossed and turned in their bed, breathing heavily, fists clenched white and frown very apparent. 'I can't sleep...'
Reluctantly getting up, Matthew yawned and stretched. This night in particular had been extremely hot, that coupled with the events of yesterday made things even harder to sleep. The events kept running in his mind: Matthew got his first mission, made the kid cry, got into trouble and was put in charge of the whiny brat. He sighed when he remembered why Constance had given him the task.
"He isn't what he makes himself out to be," Constance turned away to look out a window, "as you can tell, he's a bit of a crybaby. Prince wasn't given access to this place because of his parents, but his situation. Harold won't tell me or anyone much because of confidentiality, but apparently he suffered some type of trauma."
Matthew's frown deepened. "And? Why do I have to deal with it?!"
Constance chuckled lightly. "Dunno! Ask Harold the next time he's in school"
"Ugh, fine. How long will this stupid mission last?" Matthew relaxed his features a bit.
Turning back to face him, Constance pointed to the calendar, "For a month, just until after the excursion. Not too bad, right?"
"..." Matthew closed his eyes in thought. Cringing, Matthew sighed, "eeehh...aaahh...damn it, why me..."
Back to the present. Currently, Matthew was in the kitchen making himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. If he was waking up this early, he thought that he might as well get something to eat and use his time productively. His mind wandered back to his successful experiment with the pressure gun.
'The design is too big and takes too long to form, not to mention slower and...clunky.' Matthew sighed, he needed to read a book about it.'
Later that day, after the bell for lunch rang, Matthew went to the library.
"Unhand me peasant! What makes you think you can-"
Matthew glared daggers at Prince, stopping his whining instantly.
"O-okay..." Prince lowered his head and fiddled with his fingers.
Entering the library, Matthew ordered Prince to sit down and be quiet while he went to go find his book. By chance, he stumbled upon Gordon.
"Oh, hello Matthew!" Gordon whisper shouted, "what brings you here?"
Matthew smiled, his answer a bit cheeky. "To read."
Gordon visibly shuddered, "Please no, your reminding me of June...this place is my only re-repr-reprieve from her."
The two shared a quiet laughter with each other.
"I'm looking for a book on machines or long ranged weapons," Matthew answered after wiping a tear away. "Do you know where to find something like that?"
Gordon pursed his lips in thought for a moment. "Sure, let me show you."
"Thanks," Matthew followed Gordon a short distance behind.
After walking a bit around, Gordon reached into the bookshelf and pulled out exactly what Matthew wanted.
'Long ranged weapons, their effect in history and how they work, signed Julius Zoran...' Matthew read. "I didn't know Mr. Julius wrote books."
Gordon guffawed at that sentence, being almost sent reeling back in disbelief. "Matthew, have you never touched a book in your life?! Mr. Zoran is the single best seller in Ilgrim! His non-fiction historical and education books are less popular, but he is nonetheless really credible! You have to of heard of his most popular book, turned into really good tv animated series, turned into a way worse live action, turned into the most popular but still bad live action movie! You know? World of Light!"
Matthew's face was blank, full of air. "Uhh..."
After a solid minute of ranting to Matthew about how much of a rock he is, Gordon noticed the weird guy with golden eyes fidgeting alone at a table.
"By the way? Who's that?" He pointed at Prince, who shrank inwards on himself in an effort to look small.
Matthew sighed, immediately frowning again. "He's an annoyance that I have to deal with."
Gordon looked at Matthew, then to Prince, then to Matthew again, and then to Prince again. "He looks sad, don't be mean to him."
A muscle on Matthew's face twitched. 'What?'
After exchanging minor farewells, Matthew returned to the table and started reading. Sadly, he couldn't get very far as Prince was ruining his mood. Agitated at the rich boy's constant fiddling and puppy dog eyes, Matthew stood up, walked over to the fiction isle and picked out a random book.
"Here, read this," he put it on the table, going back to reading.
Prince stared at the book with big eyes and carefully read the title. The Lonely Statue.
After school, Matthew left his home and ventured deep into the outer city. Living close to the border between the city and the slums was quite convenient. Rent was cheap, if he wanted to he could rummage around the city dump and find cool things, and he didn't need to keep up appearances with the slum folk. Matthew fit right in. His hair was still long and unkempt, only really brushing it before school, his clothes were still tattered aside from his school uniform and his small stature kept him consistent with most kids who grew up in the slums.
Matthew effortlessly dodged a stone that was flung at him.
"Its you! Get out of here, filthy earth mage!"
Sadly, some things stayed consistent no matter where he went.
Matthew smiled brightly at the person who had thrown a stone at him. "Good afternoon, Grandpa Kirk!"
"W-wha! How do you know my name! I'll have you know I'm a rich and powerful noble!" The old man waved a metal pipe he used as a cane at Matthew. "Martha, get Bartholomew!"
Matthew sighed. There was no way that the dirty old man wearing only a loincloth could have been a noble, that and Matthew had never seen who this Martha person was. Kirk had always been the crazy old man of his neighborhood, and although he was nasty and rude, he was the only one who gave Matthew a stick of bread when he was hungry.
Moving on, Matthew finally arrived at his usual spot. It was an abandoned construction site too dangerous for people to wander on. The reason it was so dangerous was because the ground was unstable, easily collapsing if any amount of weight was applied to it, so it was akin to a field of pitfalls. It was dangerous for the normal person, but for earth mages, it was a non threat.
Matthew sensed the ground, closing his eyes and seeing with his feet. He easily avoided the unstable grounds and made it deeper into the site, where a massive hole loomed like an abyss.
"Wheee!" He jumped in without a second thought.
Moments before impact with the ground, Matthew willed the earth below him to soften, nullifying the damage he would have taken.
Matthew grinned, laughing at the thrill of the drop. He looked around at his own personal oasis.
It was a large opening in the ground with many signs of mining. Abandoned excavators littered the place and massive holes in the ground where machines burrowed in were plenty.
Conjuring himself a chair, Matthew immediately got to work.
Using his newfound knowledge on long ranged weapons and firearms, courtesy of Mr. Julius, Matthew had made a breakthrough. He was on to something the last time he attempted to make a gun, but where he went wrong was the unnecessary length of it. He could skip the gunpowder stuff, the smelting, the forging and go straight into the mechanics due to his magic. The trick to the gun was the pin that struck the primer, causing the gunpowder to ignite and explode forward, shooting the bullet at sonic speeds, but without gunpowder how was Matthew supposed to replicate that? Simple, springs! He would just have to make it a spring loaded gun rather than use gunpowder.
The idea was simple: create a small handgun following the design in the pictures showed in the book, create a spring that could retract inside the gun from the outside, make sure the gun is durable enough to not explode.
'First experiment, Love Tap'
Matthew created a small handgun, doing exactly as planned and created a small handle he could pull, pulling the spring back. Creating a spring was a bit complicated, as he needed to make the earth malleable but hard, something that was difficult to do...luckily, he had the perfect way around that little hiccup.
The stone that Mr. Julius gave him. A rare, refined piece of mithril.
Matthew shivered as he felt the previously hard and uneven stone form into a ball at his whim. Throwing away the earth gun, he replicated it exactly, with the spring in place. Pulling back the handle, tightening the spring and creating an earthen bullet to place in it, Matthew took aim and-
BANG
...
Matthew coughed, waving the dust away and as it cleared, his eyes widened. Slowly, he started to chuckle to himself, clutching his limp shoulder.
There ahead of him, a tiny hole pierced through the excavation machines, burrowing deep into the earth beyond it.
Matthew peered into the hole, creating a long, thin line of earth to measure the distance. 'ten feet.'
Mission success.