Chapter 2 - Start of Mass Production

Natlan

Stadium of the Sacred Flame

Speaker's Chamber

Mavuika inspected the blueprints handed to her by Yaquica, and while her interest lay elsewhere, she had a slight idea what it was. "And this is what, exactly?"

"A mass production assembly. We put in the materials, it automates the process, and we can build thirty grenade launchers and at least twelve hundred grenades each month."

"This is fascinating."

"The only problem is it will take time and Mora to build."

The Pyro Archon began to consider her options. On one hand, if the mass production assembly worked as promised, the results would save a lot of time and labor, but the initial cost was high, and constructing the assembly would take time and trial.

"I'll speak with the chiefs of each tribe and convince them to invest in equal shares to start the production. In return, the first twenty weapons and eight hundred grenades for each tribe will be at cost." Her terms were reasonable, not that Yaquica would put a price on Natlan's war against the Abyss.

He would do it for free if it meant total victory.

"Yes, Archon, but I'll need a bigger workshop to build it." His current workplace was too small to build the assembly.

"I'll talk to Chief Pacal; he'll get you anything you need."

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Yaquica had worked for a month, pulling all-nighters, just to perfect the assembly, and even now as he started to build it, it wasn't easy. Steel was forged and shaped on the forge assembly and then sent onto the next assembly to be put together.

Molten steel was poured into grenade casing molds, and once cooled, they were passed onto the next belt to be filled with the chemicals that were mixed and readied in a large tank.

For the first two months, the production was below what was predicted, but it was still faster than building everything by hand. Twenty guns and eight hundred grenades were distributed to six tribes just for the price of the production cost to pay back the initial investment, along with ten guns and another eight hundred grenades that he made some profit off.

He used the mora he earned from the following sales to improve the production line to increase the output.

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Yaquica had a problem.

One that was named Xilonen.

She was an extremely talented artisan, perhaps the most talented of their generation, even more talented than him maybe, but she always meddled in his work. He wouldn't mind input from someone talented like Xilonen, if only she wasn't always harping about work and life balance.

They had a fight over it actually, with both getting grounded. It was just words at first, with him calling Xilonen lazy, which she responded to by calling him a workaholic idiot, and it snowballed from there.

Soon enough fists were speaking when Yaquica pushed Xilonen back, and she responded by socking him right in the chin.

Lazy or not, she hit hard.

They were rolling on the ground, punching and pulling hairs, when the teachers heard the commotion and separated the two. They were scolded, though Yaquica was reprimanded way longer since he started the fight by pushing her.

As punishment, he and Xilonen had to clean up the classroom and fix the mess caused by the fight.

It took him a week to apologize, and only because the teachers had banned him from the lessons until he made amends.

She just said, "Whatever," and continued to ignore him, and he did the same.

Girls were annoying anyway.

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His weapons were proving highly effective against the Abyss, and wherever he went people stopped Yaquica to praise and thank him, along with gifts. Fresh fruits from the Collective of Plenty, a glider from the Flower-Feather Clan, musical instruments from the People of the Springs, free shipment for anything below five kilograms from the Scions of the Canopy, and most importantly, some ancient diagrams that supposedly belonged to the Dragonlords from the Masters of the Night-Wind that they believed he could put to good use.

But it wasn't long before Abyss adapted to the grenade launchers by bringing a new type of monster, a giant turtle with a shell too thick for the grenades to pierce through in a timely manner.

Which is why the Pyro Archon called him for a meeting. "We need something to use against those new monsters. Can you think of anything, Yaquica?"

Yaquica scratched his head. "I actually have been working on a new type of grenade, one that uses phlogiston." It was an idea he had after seeing the Flamegranates at work, which was the reason he had named his explosives grenades in the first place.

Phlogiston was extremely effective against the Abyss, and the legends spoke of how the Dragonlords had weaponized it against the enemy. Present-day Natlan didn't have their advancement, and the grenades would be primitive compared to their machines, but it was better than nothing.

The explosive chemicals in the compound would trigger the liquid phlogiston to cause a greater yield, one effective against the Abyss.

"Talk to Chief Pacal, and start on them immediately."

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Phlogiston grenades were expensive to make, even with the assembly modified to accommodate the phlogiston. The workers at the assembly had to be careful with the liquid because if it mixed with the chemicals during the production, they would have a mighty explosion right in their hands.

The launcher charge at the back stayed the same, but the explosive chemicals were replaced with phlogiston, which would be detonated with the Phlogiston Engraving he had developed.

The Pyro Archon herself tested the new grenade, firing it at a target made from steel similar in shape and size to the new turtle monsters. She pulled the trigger, and the grenade flew, exploding upon impact and consuming the target in an orange fireball that created a cloud similar to a mushroom.

The front half of the target was gone, torn apart and launched as shrapnel, while the remaining half flew back, warped and smoking, with the edges glowing a dim red from the heat of the phlogiston.

The ruler of Natlan whistled at the sight. "Very impressive."

Due to their expensive nature, only two hundred and forty grenades were ordered, to be used sparingly against the turtles, with promises of future orders.

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Grenade launcher production was stopped as they had too many in stock with no more buyers, and Yaquica turned his attention to making spare parts since they were still necessary, with weapons coming each day for repairs.

To help the tribes save money and time, Yaquica brought willing students from each tribe so they could learn how to repair the weapons and switch the broken parts as necessary, which meant repair orders would stay in each tribe and he could focus on bigger projects.

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Yaquica was sick, burning with fever while the doctor checked on him. "He needs to rest for at least two weeks and avoid overworking himself like this." She warned her aunt and uncle, who looked miserable, knowing they could have put a stop to his workaholism, but they did not because it brought him back to life.

His uncle nodded. "We'll do that. Thank you, doctor."

"I am fine; I need to get to work." He refused to stay on the bed while there was a war going on.

"Yaqu, if you ever get up from that bed unless it is to eat or pee, I'll chain you there. Is that understood?" Sick or not, his aunt's glare was scary enough for Yaquica to nod frantically.

For the next two weeks, he was banned from leaving the bed for anything other than eating and seeing to his needs, with his aunt keeping a round-the-clock watch over him.

Work carried on without Yaquica, but he used the downtime to sketch plans for even more advanced weaponry.

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Finally, he was allowed back to the workshop, with a non-negotiable condition set by the Pyro Archon.

Xilonen, as someone who tried to create a strict balance between work and personal life, would be responsible for keeping an eye on him, and Yaquica would stop working and go rest if she warned him.

"I don't need a babysitter." Yaquica exploded in anger at Chief Pacal, barely holding himself back from uttering a string of profanities.

The older man crossed his arms, looking down on him. "I don't care what you need or don't, Yaquica. Pyro Archon herself mandated this, and you will listen." Chief Pacal might be a chill dude most of the time, as he was called by many, but that didn't change the fact he was still the Chief of Children of Echoes and one of the best warriors they had.

When he talked, people listened.

Gritting his teeth, Yaquica left with a nod, followed by Xilonen, who was grinning at him.

"I told you so." She mocked him, and Yaquica stopped, eye twitching, considering just launching himself at her for round two, but stomped off to the workshop.

He would get in more trouble that way.

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During his sick days, he finished a drawing of a gun, with only one issue. It wasn't that effective against the Abyss.

A bullet the size of a grown man's middle finger, with a slug at the end that was propelled by a small explosion at the back of the bullet, did not have much of an effect on Abyss monsters, not in the way elemental energy or phlogiston did, so Yaquica had to shelve the idea and turn his attention to grander weapons of war.

His next idea came as a result of Abyss changing tactics to counter the new phlogiston grenades by attacking places that were not covered by the grenade launchers, forcing the warriors of Natlan to face the turtles on foot without the mounted grenade launchers.

Yaquica's solution was to build handheld grenade launchers that propelled the grenades with gas pressure created by firing a blank cartridge.

He could have finished it in a week or two, as the principles of the weapon already existed, but Yaquica had to listen to Xilonen, and so it took a month, but he finally had a prototype in hand.

Chief Pacal tested the weapon himself before the eyes of all the chiefs and the Pyro Archon, and he had received orders from each tribe, enough to arm a small group of warriors to neutralize the turtles.

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For his achievements so far, the Pyro Archon had granted him a sum of half a million Mora and access to manuscripts that belonged to the Dragonlords to see if he could replicate any of the machines they used against the Abyss.

"Thanks, boss!" He took the manuscripts and bolted home to go over them, not even realizing what he had called the Pyro Archon, who chuckled in amusement once Yaquica was out of sight.

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Yaquica didn't understand much from the manuscripts. One of them was the blueprints for the Secret Source Automatons, but how it worked baffled him. He in fact went out of his way to replicate the core in his spare time exactly as the blueprints described, but Phlogiston Engravings was unfortunately not enough to replicate the effects, meaning the core was nothing more than a fancy trinket for now.

"Hey, come on, enough with the work. There is a feast outside." Xilonen leaned on the door, waiting for him to get up, which he did after his eye stopped twitching.

Ugh.

"So, how is your research going?" She asked as they walked to the feast celebrating Natlan's latest triumph over the Abyss. "Not good, but it would be a different matter if I could find a way to decipher the Iridescent Inscriptions." People of Natlan had, to a small degree, an intuitive feeling as to how the Iridescent Inscriptions worked but could no longer decipher them.

"Tough call." The Dragonlords were dead, and what remained of their civilization was buried deep inside ancient ruins. Nothing short of finding a Dragonlord or accessing wherever they stored their knowledge could help in that regard.

Yaquica's shoulders dropped, knowing well enough it would be a challenge, if not outright impossible, to decipher the inscriptions. He felt a hand on his back and turned to see it was Xilonen. "If it means anything, though, you might just find a way to do it."

She didn't say these words for the sake of saying them but actually thought Yaquica might have a chance, especially with his creativity.

"Thanks." Yaquica grumbled, knowing full well she wasn't the type to say something she didn't mean.

His stomach rumbled as the smell of the food wafted through the air.

He would think better once full.