Emperors War

Aker had been practicing his drawing and painting every day in order to be able to create designs and models that were accurate enough to actually forge. When Aker first began drawing his skill with a brush and pen was border line disgraceful.

Back when Aker first showed his design drawing to Mavis, Mavis threw out random guesses at what the design was supposed to represent. He shouted out an obviously incorrect guess which drove Aker crazy. Aker was constantly frustrated by Mavis"s lack of seriousness and huge ego, but this time Aker was truly trying to test his ideas. So, him giving Aker a hard time seemed even more frustrating than usual. The only time Mavis would act serious was when he had a hammer in his hand and a hunk of metal in his face.

"It"s an Inferior Vulture...No wait, it"s a Blue-Scaled Kangaroo....hahahahahaha.....I was just joking, let me see it...." As Mavis spoke, he grabbed the design and looked it over carefully as he nodded his head. With one hand holding the design and the other holding his chin Mavis resembled a failed scholar. "No doubt about it, after looking it over carefully it"s for sure a.....Angelfish-Guppy....hahahahahahahaha...look at your face, you thought I was being serious."

Aker had enough, he reached out s.n.a.t.c.hing back the design and was prepared to turn his back, pick up his hammer and get to swinging. Before he could pick up his hammer Mavis called out "Boy, if ya handed these drawin"s to any reputable blacksmith they would toss em right back in yer face. If ya truly want to build in a forge ya can do it with the picture ya have in yer head but that"s p.r.o.ne to mistakes and never works. Ya know what it takes to mold out a new weapon or armor. This is no different except it requires a different kind of precision since its mechanical. If ya don"t have someone to draw it out for ya then ya have to improve yer drawings."

Mavis was speaking to Aker in the same manner a teacher would speak to their student. He explained the problem and gave him the solution. As Aker listened to Mavis speak his frustration ebbed and he calmed down. Just as he was prepared to thank Mavis the big bearded Mavis slid in "but I don"t think there is any hope for your skills after seeing this Angelfish-Guppy....hahahahahahahaha"

Forgetting about thanking him Aker made a promise to himself that he would practice his drawing and painting skills to the point that Mavis couldn"t tell the real from the drawing.

Aker who had already committed to improving his drawing skills when he had first thought about testing his magical engineered designs out just wanted Mavis"s thoughts on what he had originally done. No matter what Mavis was a master blacksmith and he would be able to tell Aker about the feasibility of his design and the ability to create it, well at least a rough idea was what he hoped for.

After being embarra.s.sed to such a degree Aker made sure to practice his drawings every day before he began absorbing nature particles in the evening. Originally, he had planned to spend just a few minutes practicing his drawings but after Mavis made fun of him to such a degree, he was determined to embarra.s.s Mavis, if it was possible, Mavis seemed to have skin as thick as a rhino"s.

Initially Aker started his painting and drawing practice with a small and relatively easy item to draw. He began his drawing practice with his throwing darts, every day for several weeks he just drew them over and over again. Each time he would finish he would hold his throwing dart up next to his drawing and shook his head "another failure" was his only thought before trying again.

Starting out Aker didn"t understand the concepts of shading, blending, depth, angles, proportion, and how to capture the form. When Aker first started, he would just draw straight lines and fill in the open areas. Originally, he started with the throwing darts as they seemed simplistic to draw as they were just a flat piece of metal about 2.5 centimeter in width, were about the length of a palm and came to a sharp head.

As Aker first looked at the throwing dart before he ever put pencil and brush to paper he thought "should have this mastered in one or two hours and then I will move on to the next weapon". Several weeks later he was still trying to master that throwing dart, he wanted it to look and feel as real as the one he could actually throw.

Finally, after nearly a month he had perfectly drawn his throwing dart. The depth, the way the light died as it hit the metal, and more importantly the feeling of danger it gave as a person looked at it.

Aker realized at some point that the drawing wasn"t working as he didn"t portray its essence. As Aker looked down at the throwing dart, he understood that a throwing dart was used as a surprise attack, it was quick and hidden. It wasn"t particularly lethal however it was exceedingly freighting. Anyone fighting against someone who excels in the use of throwing darts would always have to be weary of when the dart was going to come flying for an eye, a leg, a shoulder or anywhere else it could diminish the fighting capability.

The first part was always the hardest. After Aker had learned some basic shading and blending, he moved on to drawing a knife and then a sword. He had learned to build in depth, capture the angles, scale and proportion and blend it all together.

It took Aker six months but he was finally able to draw the design he had in mind to improve the efficiency of the magic converter. The basic premise behind the design was a funneling system.

Aker would insert a funnel system between the two existing magic converters that were working much like a circular system that he and Sneed designed. The funneling system would take the existing magic particles and condense them. This would create a more explosive power source without the waste of the magic drive found in the X-4 that the pirates used.

Aker"s design utilized several different funnels as he processed them through several different conditioners to maximize its effect. The purpose of the conditioners was to prevent the loss of nature particles and prepare them to move to the next funnel. As the magic converter had a limited number of nature particles due to the density of it in s.p.a.ce that it could collect the system couldn"t afford any waste unlike the magic drive in the X-4 which had a thirty percent loss of nature particles from the magic crystals.

As Aker implemented the new funneling and conditioning system into the magic converter circular system he ran into a few small problems, but he was able to easily overcome them and integrate the two systems seamlessly.

Of course, before Aker could fit the new system into the magic converter, he had to build them in the forge. The look on Mavis"s face when he first saw the design drawings for the funnel system was exactly what Aker had hoped for. Several times Aker laughed and said "Does it like an Angelfish-Guppy....."

Aker had no explanation for it and to be honest it slightly bothered him. Aker didn"t consider himself a braggard, however, when he was around Mavis it was as if he had no control over himself. So many times, he said and did what he would consider stupid stuff all because if he didn"t Mavis would give him a hard time or make fun of him for it. Aker had begun to feel that he needed to beat Mavis to the punch and so he would say or do some embarra.s.sing thing.

When Aker first handed over his drawing for the design of the new funnel system for the magic converter Mavis laughed, his belly and shoulders moved up and down, "What could you possibly draw and design today after only a few months that you couldn"t before." Mavis was perfectly prepared to give Aker a hard time for another failed drawing.

When Mavis looked down and saw the exquisite drawing before him his heart palpated and he felt as though he could reach out and pull out the drawn design and use it. While Mavis was not an art connoisseur, he had seen more than his share of design drawings in his time. What reputable blacksmith hasn"t seen tens of thousands of design drawings and what reputable blacksmith hasn"t tossed ninety percent of them back in the face of the person who wanted it made.

Every blacksmith took each item they made with the highest consideration once they reached a certain level. The work that was done was a reflection of your abilities and a failed work could ruin a blacksmith. Trying to use subpar designs and drawings had ruined countless famous blacksmiths.

That"s why as Mavis stared down at the drawing Aker handed over his heart skipped a beat. Mavis could practically pour the metal into the drawing and build the item.

"Boy who ya have draw this really?" This drawing was so incredible that after Mavis"s initial shock he found himself not believing that Aker was capable of drawing it.

"Of course, I didn"t have anyone draw this, I know that the skill isn"t great and I"m almost ashamed to say it, but it was done with these hands here." Aker spoke with a grin on his face as he held up his hands. It was obvious to Mavis that Aker was making fun of him.

At one-point Mavis had even told Aker not to ruin paper with those hands of his and just focus on blacksmithing. Aker"s remark about being ashamed to say it was his hands was a direct contradiction to Mavis.

Mavis stared down at Aker with his questioning eyes and simply said "Prove it...."

They both moved back to Aker"s room where Aker picked up his brush and pencils then began drawing. As he did his very rough sketch Mavis was laughing internally thinking "This boy thought he could fool me, trying to convince me he did this drawing. Look at his drawing, it doesn"t resemble anything, hahahahaha....when he"s done I won"t let him live this down for years."

Mavis had already made up his mind that Aker would end up in failure. In all fairness how would Mavis know any different he didn"t know the first thing about creating a new drawing. Aker would first sketch an outline before he started drawing or doing any real detail.

Slowly Mavis"s smug look of knowing Aker cheated and had someone else do the drawing turned down and became a look of puzzlement. As he watched Aker turn a blank canvas into the second piece of the design, the conditioning system his breathing turned heavy. "How is it possible for someone to become this good in such a short amount of time?"

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Mavis was awe struck. He had seen Aker"s first drawings and to say they were garbage would be a compliment to them. However, now he watched as Aker"s hands moved fascinatingly across the paper, the inanimate object being drawn was coming alive right before his eyes.

Aker who was consumed with his design drawing didn"t notice when Mavis left. After he finished, he showed up at the forge and saw a busy Mavis creating the funneling system that Aker had in mind. Not saying a word Aker set down the conditioner design that worked with the funneling system and proceeded to forge out his design.

After three days Aker"s designs had truly come to life. As he held up the newly created funneling system and conditioning system next to his design drawing, he couldn"t tell any difference at all.

As Mavis had helped forge the new system, he would also go along to help install it into the magic converter. Originally Cap was nervous about the idea of letting Aker mess with the magic converter system while they were in deep s.p.a.ce, but she thought about how many times she had said to herself "is there anything he can"t do" and ultimately gave him the go ahead.

In order to install the funnel and conditioning system Aker had the ship come to a standstill and he spent one full day integrating his design into the existing system.

When they fired the ship back up, he felt confident but nervous. When the ship started moving forward slowly his first thought was that it didn"t have any noticeable effect, which admittedly was not the worst-case scenario. In the worst-case scenario, the whole system broke down and they would be stranded.

After roughly one minute the ship had a sudden jolt and began accelerating quicker and quicker and within ten minutes the ship was steadily moving six times its previous speed, which of course would be twelve times the normal speed of an X-1.

Cap who crunched the numbers had a pleasant smile on her face as she told Aker, Mavis and Vance "With the improved speed of this garbage can we will reach the planet in just about two weeks."

They had essentially cut six months off the trip with Aker"s new design.

Aker who wasn"t paying attention as they spoke was staring down at the magic converter and watching as the nature particles moved through, everyone who saw him could tell he was contemplating his next design change.