It had been a week since Frank had been under Hank's hospitality. The man was caring to say the least. He told Frank the story of how he went to war at the age of 16 and how he came back home battle-scarred and a changed man.
Hank told him many things about his long-passed wife Anna and his two children. His eldest, Elizabeth, was learning to be a mage at some far away school. Whenever he mentioned Hank II's life to Frank he used words like "you" a lot.
A combination of factors aided the image that Frank was Hank's son—a constant look of parental love, and the fact that Frank looked incredibly similar to the actual Hank II, based off of a family portrait. The resemblance was uncanny; the only difference was the color of their hair and eyes.
This was something that Frank could now easily change, and did so regularly. It helped not only train his spell, [Alter Self], but to also make Hank feel better. The man was kind, too kind for his own good. Frank was thankful for Hank, and even a little envious of how much he loved his son.
More often than not it bewildered Frank—the lengths this man would have gone to help someone that wasn't his own flesh and blood. Frank wouldn't just take advantage of his kindness. He would take everything to heart and learn.
And learning is exactly what he did. Hank, besides being an old war vet, was a gold adventurer. From what Frank remembered, the ranks were copper, iron, bronze, gold, diamond, mithril, and adamantine.
The man was strong, absurdly so. On top of that, he had a wealth of knowledge that greatly enlightened Frank. Currently, Frank was being trained by Hank. It took a lot of begging, but after Frank crafted a prosthetic leg for himself and showed how much he could already do, Hank gave in.
"If I can't stop you, I can at least teach you to be safe." Frank thought back on those words as he finished off his last set of push ups. Physical training was tough, but it needed to be done.
Frank wanted to just level up and put points into his stats, but he had been chastised by Hank. He then explained that he shouldn't rely on the system. It was a tool, nothing more nothing less. He had to be the grindstone that sharpened it.
Further making Frank's training harder, Hank forbade him from putting points into any stat other than luck. It sounded bewildering to Frank. Why should he waste his points?
Of course, Hank had a good reason. He likened the system to a game character. "Just because your character is smart, doesn't mean you're smart too." It was odd he used just modern terms. The ideas he proposed held a lot of wisdom, though.
Frank had been pumping points into his constitution, intelligence, and wisdom, yet he didn't feel tougher, smarter, or wiser.
"5-500! GRAAA!" Frank pushed out the last rep and grinned when he saw it was effective.
[Strength is increased by +1]
The change his body had undergone had been a drastic change compared to how he was before. Previously, Frank was mostly skin and bones, only as strong as the average person. Now? He was twice as strong and looked like he belonged to the marines.
His strength had increased by 11 points, his dexterity by 15 and his constitution by 2. The latter was much harder to train because it was much higher, but he actually felt healthier with these increases.
Frank had done a combination of strength training and running. It was a crawl at first, but as he saw and felt the improvements, his motivation to train grew exponentially. After all of his efforts, he now had the body of a martial artist.
Speaking of martial artists, Hank had gifted Frank a few books on two styles and a breathing technique. The latter was incompatible because he had mana but the two fighting styles were amazing.
[Stone Skin] and [Rock Crushing Fist] were excellent additions, not to mention the earth theme they had going on. The first style was a method to train one's skin to be as hard as stone. It hurt like hell to train, but the toughness he was starting to see was worth it.
The fist skill was useful, but until he could figure out how to use it with mana instead of ki, it was just a technique. Trying to convert the fist skill also gave Frank the idea to convert the breathing technique into one that drew in mana instead of qi.
He had learned from Hank that qi and mana were two similar but conflicting energies. One belonged to heaven and earth, and the other something mystical. Qi belonging to heaven and earth sounded very wuxia but he accepted it.
"Finally finished?" Frank looked over and saw Hank standing at the edge of the training field.
"Yeah." Frank walked over to a bench and grabbed a towel off of it. He wiped off as much sweat as he could then walked over to Hank.
"I hope you'll be alright alone. The guild's requesting me to clear out a crypt a few days' ride from here." Hank looked a little sad at the thought of leaving.
"Don't worry, Dad. I'll be fine here. I won't even leave the city." Frank had gotten used to referring to Hank as his dad, so he more often than not said it without thinking. He offered the older man a reassuring smile and patted him on the shoulder.
"I'll be in the workshop after I take a bath. I got an idea that I want to work on anyways. There's no need to leave." Frank then walked past the man and entered the bathroom. He washed off the sweat and grime from training all morning and quickly got dressed.
As he passed the mirror he examined himself. Currently, Frank's dirty blond hair and green eyes were replaced with black and brown. The constant use of [Alter Self] had gotten it to level two and allowed him to keep his look much longer without having to recast the spell.
Frank's eyes drifted down to the part of him that wasn't flesh. His half-metal, half-wooden leg stood out from the rest of him, but it worked perfectly. It moved just like his old leg, albeit probably a lot more sturdy.
Proud of how much he changed, Frank moved to his workshop. He still had to wait to use [Settle Down] again, but the old storage shed worked for now. Frank sat down at this workbench and got to work.
He was going to finally create a gun. He had, with a small loan from Hank, obtained enough raw materials over the week to slowly craft his weapon. He would have tried to make it outright with his [Crafter's Blessing] but he found there was a daily limit as well as a cost limit.
Frank was limited to making a single item or, in his infinite wisdom, a part that was worth no more than 100 gold pieces. Another thing Frank found out was that guns existed in this world. They left much to be desired, but the fact they existed made his life much easier.
The best they had was a musket, priced at 500 gold. It was ridiculously expensive for something so terrible, but it sort of made sense. Because of the price, it caused his weapon to shoot up in cost.
What would have taken maybe 20 gold in materials if he could forge or fabricate normally, would cost him 750 gold. "It better be worth it." Frank mumbled in disappointment at how much of the 1000gp he borrowed was whittled down.
"Okay, last part, then I can assemble it." As Frank began to clear his mind to concentrate, a knock sounded at the entrance of his workshop.
"Son? I'm heading out now. You behave, alright?" Frank turned around and saw worry still covered the man's face.
Frank got up and hugged the man, patting him on the back to try and put him at ease. "Like I said, I'll be good. Won't leave the city. Don't worry and get back safe."
Hank smiled and kissed Frank on the forehead. It still felt strange, but he allowed it. It wasn't like the old man was growing on him or anything. Definitely not.
"I'll be back soon." The hug broke and Hank turned around, leaving the workshop.
Once he was out of sight, Frank spun around and sat back down, beginning to channel his skill. Exactly an hour later, the last component was done and it was time to assemble the gun. Frank let out a breath of air and thanked the system that it didn't require exact knowledge on what he wanted.
He just had to have an idea, and the rest was taken care of. First, Frank started assembling the body of the gun. It was a combination of three wooden parts: the butstock, lower receiver and forend.
The next part of the construction was fitting in the trigger guard and trigger assembly. With that done, the magazine was added and then the barrel. Once the barrel was in, he attached the handguard and slid in the already assembled bolt assembly.
[[Arcane Crafting] has become lvl.4. Two unselected options.]
[Created an epic weapon. Name it to see its stats.]
Frank began to laugh crazily at the sight of "epic" and named the heavily modified Lee Enfield, Giantslayer. He added the same enchantment he always did and inspected the weapon's stats.
[Name: Giantslayer
Type: Epic Rifle
This rifle was made with the intention to fell giants. What was once a simple firearm became a masterpiece thanks to the infused emotions. With the addition of an enchantment, the rifle now automatically reloads and refills ammunition. Additional damage is dealt to targets larger than the user.]
"Fe-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of a giant man."