Chapter 150: My Rifle Was 51% Stable and Already Trying to Kill Me

Hadrik appeared around sunset.

Not because Raven had called him.

He had been listening to hammering for hours and wanted to make sure his workshop still existed.

He stepped inside.

Looked at the table.

Then stopped.

"That’s a weapon."

Raven raised his head.

"Not yet."

There was enough provisional structure now to recognize the shape.

A long frame of partially worked Black Mithril rested on supports. It wasn’t a finished barrel. The biological components were still mounted around it, exposed and connected through conductive filaments and temporary clamps.

It looked like a dissection trying to become a tool.

Hadrik moved closer.

"Where does the string go?"

"It doesn’t have one."

"Levers?"

"Some."

"What propels the projectile?"

Raven pointed at the Pulse Core.

Hadrik stared at it.

"That used to be inside something alive."

"Yes."

"And you intend to put it inside that."

"Yes."

The blacksmith looked at Valeria.

"Is he insane?"

She considered the question with unnecessary seriousness.

"Not in any clinical sense I can confirm."

Raven looked at her.

"Thank you."

"You’re welcome."

Hadrik approached the Black Mithril.

That finally caught his professional interest.

"This is too pure for a test piece."

"I know."

"If you ruin it, I might cry."

"So would I."

"You don’t look like someone who cries."

"Then try not to find out."

Hadrik let out a short laugh.

Then he pointed at one of the joints.

"That’s going to twist."

Raven looked at it.

"FORGE marks the joint as stable."

"I’m not talking about the joint. I’m talking about the support."

Raven leaned closer.

Hadrik touched the temporary steel piece holding the assembly in place.

"You push from here, the force travels through this, and all the weight ends up concentrated at this point. If what you’re saying about the pressure is true, the main metal isn’t what you need to worry about. This bends first."

Raven studied the architecture.

FORGE reacted.

[Structural Observation Received.]

[Secondary Frame Weakness Detected.]

[Predicted Deformation Under First-Cycle Stress: HIGH.]

Raven looked up at Hadrik.

The blacksmith smiled.

"I’m not an engineer of strange weapons. I’m still a blacksmith."

"I need a new piece."

"Naturally."

"Spring steel, if you have an equivalent."

Hadrik frowned.

"I have no idea what that means."

Raven thought for a moment.

"Flexible steel that returns to its original shape after being placed under stress."

"That we have."

"Perfect."

Hadrik walked out while muttering something about foreigners inventing new names for perfectly normal things.

Valeria waited until he disappeared.

"You just needed help from a blacksmith."

"Yes."

"Does admitting that hurt?"

Raven looked at her.

"Why would it?"

"I don’t know. You seem to enjoy doing everything yourself."

Raven returned his attention to the joint.

"I enjoy things being done properly. If someone knows something I don’t, ignoring them because of pride would be stupid."

Valeria fell silent.

Raven looked up.

"What?"

"Nothing. I was expecting a shorter answer."

He exhaled.

"I’m going to start charging you every time you say that."

"You already said that."

"Then you’re accumulating debt."

"You can try collecting."

Raven decided the conversation was no longer improving his concentration.

The replacement piece took an hour.

Hadrik forged it according to measurements Raven and FORGE adjusted as they worked. It wasn’t beautiful.

It didn’t need to be.

It worked.

When Raven integrated it into the temporary frame, the number increased.

[Assembly Stability: 49% → 55%.]

Raven stared at the result.

For the first time, they were above half.

It still wasn’t enough for full construction.

But it was enough for something else.

FORGE presented a new option.

[Partial Internal-Cycle Test Available.]

[Projectile Required: NO.]

[Reduced Mana Input Recommended.]

[Purpose: Validate Activation Sequence, Mana Transfer, Kinetic Conversion, Pressure Containment, and Preliminary Stabilization Response.]

[Structural Risk: MODERATE.]

Valeria stood.

"I don’t like that expression."

Raven checked the fastenings.

"We can test the internal cycle without a projectile."

"Fire it without firing it?"

"More or less."

"That explained nothing."

Raven pointed at the assembly.

"A small amount of mana enters the Reservoir. Activation starts the sequence. The Pulse Core produces a minimal discharge. The Pressure Chamber contains and vents it. The stabilization architecture records how the force travels through the barrel. Nothing actually leaves it."

"And if it fails?"

"It’ll probably break a secondary component."

"Probably."

"That’s why we use very little energy."

Valeria looked toward the door.

"How little?"

"Enough to learn something."

"That answer has injured me before."

Raven almost smiled.

"Stand behind the wall."

"You too."

"I need to activate the system."

"Use a rope."

Raven paused.

Valeria pointed toward the mechanism.

"Black Hound used traps, didn’t it?"

"Yes."

"Then don’t put your face next to something you just described as a possible explosion."

Raven studied her.

Then the mechanism.

"Good point."

Valeria’s satisfaction was unbearable.

"I’m going to remember this."

"Don’t."

"For years."

Raven installed an improvised remote trigger.

They positioned the incomplete prototype behind a stone barrier inside the workshop.

It wasn’t a weapon yet.

More like an experimental assembly held together on supports.

The Reservoir received a minimal charge of mana.

Impulse Spark ready.

Pulse Core aligned.

Pressure Chamber connected to two venting paths.

The unfinished stabilization channels ran along the Black Mithril barrel.

Raven and Valeria stood behind the side wall.

Hadrik refused to enter.

A prudent decision.

"Ready?" Raven asked.

Valeria looked at him.

"No."

"Good."

"That wasn’t an affirmative answer."

Raven pulled the rope.

The Impulse Spark flashed.

Blue energy passed into the Reservoir.

Mana traveled toward the Pulse Core.

For half a second, everything worked.

Raven knew because FORGE began recording each transition.

[Activation Successful.]

[Mana Transfer Stable.]

[Kinetic Conversion Initiated.]

[Stabilization Response: PARTIAL.]

Then Raven heard something.

High-pitched.

Metallic.

Wrong.

"Down."

Raven grabbed Valeria by the shoulder and pulled both of them lower.

CRACK.

A piece tore free from the assembly.

It struck the opposite wall and embedded itself in the stone.

The system shut down.

Silence followed.

Then a small cloud of vapor escaped through one of the valves.

Valeria remained crouched.

"Did that count as working?"

Raven waited for the evaluation.

[Internal-Cycle Test: FAILED.]

[Primary Systems Preserved.]

[Secondary Pressure Regulator Destroyed.]

[Failure Cause: Asynchronous Vent Activation.]

[Pressure Containment Engaged 0.18 Seconds Late.]

[Projectile Stabilization Response Incomplete.]

[Structural Cascade Prevented.]

Raven looked at the hole in the wall.

"Partially."

Valeria slowly stood.

"A piece just tried to kill us."

"It was secondary."

"That does not improve the experience."

Raven stepped out from behind the barrier.

The five physical components were still intact.

That was what mattered.

The secondary support had failed exactly where Hadrik had warned that small structural weaknesses could become larger problems.

Not because of strength.

Because of timing.

The Pressure Chamber had worked.

Late.

The Pulse Core released force before the valve was ready, the excess found the weakest point, and a piece of metal became a projectile.

The incomplete stabilization architecture had also failed to distribute the initial force evenly along the frame.

Raven approached the assembly.

He wasn’t disappointed.

Well.

Maybe a little.

Mostly, he was interested.

Now he had a real failure.

A failure was information.

FORGE integrated the test data.

[Failure Data Integrated.]

[Vent Sequence Correction Available.]

[Projectile Stabilization Model Updated.]

[Assembly Stability Recalculated: 55% → 51%.]

Raven frowned.

Valeria leaned over his shoulder even though she couldn’t see the interface.

"Did it go up?"

"Down."

She blinked.

"How?"

"FORGE had an incomplete estimate. Now it knows we were more wrong than it thought."

Valeria looked at the piece of metal embedded in the wall.

"That is painfully reasonable."

Raven exhaled.

Fifty-one percent.

Only thirteen points above where he had started.

Hours of work.

One destroyed component.

And he still didn’t have a rifle.

Hadrik cautiously opened the door.

"Is the building still here?"

"Yes."

The blacksmith looked at the wall.

Then at the fragment embedded in it.

"Was that originally on the table?"

"Yes."

"Then I’m increasing the deposit."

Raven didn’t argue.

Night settled over Kharad while Raven dismantled the provisional assembly.

One piece at a time.

Without rushing.

He had learned enough to know that immediately trying to fix the system while exhausted would be stupid.

Valeria had returned to the bench.

This time, she wasn’t touching anything.

"So five pieces weren’t enough."

Raven carefully removed the Pulse Core.

"The five components are enough."

"But the weapon isn’t."

"Not yet."

He placed the Core inside its preservation container.

Valeria watched him.

"So the sixth system really is the problem." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"Yes."

"Projectile Stabilization."

"Yes."

"And you can’t simply ask FORGE to make it."

"If I could, we wouldn’t have put a piece of metal through Hadrik’s wall."

Valeria smiled.

"Fair."

Raven secured the Reservoir next.

Then the Impulse Spark.

Finally, the functional section of the Pressure Chamber.

All intact.

That was a victory too.

Small.

But real.

Valeria stood and approached the table.

"What are we at now?"

"Fifty-one percent stability."

"And how much do you need?"

Raven looked at the incomplete architecture FORGE projected.

There was no mandatory number.

He had one in mind anyway.

"Much more."

"That’s very specific."

"I’m not putting my face behind the barrel of something that has almost the same chance of functioning as it does of becoming a grenade."

"I’m glad your safety standards are finally evolving."

Raven started putting the tools away.

"Tomorrow we correct the vent timing, isolate the Reservoir properly, adjust the Pulse Core orientation, and finish solving Projectile Stabilization."

Valeria raised an eyebrow.

"’We.’"

Raven stopped.

He had said it without thinking.

Valeria was smiling again.

"No."

"I didn’t say anything."

"You were about to."

"I was only enjoying the fact that you finally admitted I’m helping."

Raven looked around the workshop.

The Coppervein tendon had been Valeria’s idea.

Hadrik had identified a structural weakness FORGE hadn’t initially accounted for with enough precision.

Maelor had found them the workspace.

Even Valeria had been the one to suggest triggering the test remotely instead of standing beside it.

Weeks ago, Raven probably would have categorized all of that as necessary interference.

Now it was simply shared work.

He wasn’t sure when that had stopped bothering him.

"Yes," Raven said.

Valeria seemed to wait for more.

Raven continued.

"You’re helping. A lot. Try not to make it unbearable."

The smile he received made him immediately reconsider the last sentence.

"That was almost kind."

"I already regret it."

"Too late."

Raven extinguished the last lamp over the workbench.

The improvised plans, one broken component, and five physical sources still refusing to become a functioning weapon remained on the table.

FORGE stayed open at the edge of his vision.

[PROJECT: PROTOTYPE RIFLE.]

[Core Systems: 5/6.]

[Projectile Stabilization: INCOMPLETE.]

[Assembly Phase: ACTIVE.]

[Assembly Stability: 51%.]

[Prototype Construction: NOT RECOMMENDED.]

Raven looked at the percentage one last time.

He had spent weeks acquiring the components.

Now he finally understood the problem.

Five pieces had given him five completed systems.

The sixth was something he would have to build himself.

And so far, all he had really constructed was a more sophisticated way to make the rifle explode.