Adrenaline Junkie [Book 2 Complete]

Archie strolled leisurely toward the Basic Workshop – Blacksmith, the afternoon air was warm with the scent of smelted ore and dirt.

Behind him, Volos padded along, his antennae swishing contentedly, his mandibles flecked with translucent brown crystal-like shards as he happily crunched down on a Burrowing Bunny Beastcore. The core's faint, earthen glow pulsed with each bite, earthy mana curling up from it like steam, drawn into Volos' body with each and every mouthful.

'Volos, slow down before you make yourself sick if you eat that fast,' Archie signed with a small chuckle, not bothering to turn around.

A gurgling snort was his only reply, Volos clearly too delighted by his meal to care.

Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that he'd found his Information Crystal (Common) – USL Language somehow rolling in the dirt, now down two more charges, and had actually seen Volos and Arsenic attempting to communicate with each other using their feet in some form of sign language, he would've assumed he was in the middle of an acid trip and would never have started to sign to them.

Especially since, not long after that, they started throwing up Multiversally recognized gang signs…

How did it get out of his spatial storage? It was probably one of the things he tossed out of it when looking for Beastcores, Insectoid Cores, and Elemental Cores due to their similarity in color and size.

Walking alongside him was Arsenic, feet stained a mix of dirt and dried venom as he gnawed with unbothered precision on the cracked shell of a Venomspitter Ant Insectoid Core.

With the way the two of them were devouring their core-snacks, he was glad that he was able to stockpile quite a few Burrowing Bunny Beastcores, as they contained earth mana, and had nineteen Venomspitter Ant Insectoid Cores left to work with until he ran out.

The trio arrived at the Basic Workshop – Blacksmith a few minutes later.

Let's get to work, he thought to himself, his feet leaving the grass of the forest and stepping onto the stone flooring of the workshop with Volos and Arsenic a few feet behind him, still trailing behind, but still blissfully chewing while rolling their snacks forward with their heads.

Reaching into his spatial storage, he took out a dozen Beastcores and carefully arranged them beside the already half-filled tray of Beastcores, Elementalcores, and Insectoid Cores.

Next, he took out a crate of Meteoric Iron and placed it on the desk, beside the cores.

Archie rolled his shoulders and moved to the back of his workstation, where the floating mana construct Tool Rack hovered silently behind the Obsidiansteel Anvil. With practiced motion, he reached up and grabbed his Steel Tongs as well as the single-sized crucible that was hung beside it.

Returning to the table, he selected a Sugar Glider Beastcore from the new pile, its pulsing, soft, light green glow fluttering faintly like a heartbeat, and dropped it into the crucible.

He brought it to the Inchoate Titansteel Forge and placed it off onto the outstretched lip of the forge as he'd activated Forgesmith's Flame inside the forge.

Archie grasped one of the Meteoric Iron bars with the Steel Tongs and held it over the flame within the forge.

Volos and Arsenic rustled quietly nearby, their chittering and crunching the only sounds outside the forge's gentle roar.

Archie narrowed his eyes at the bar within the forge, the edges already beginning to lose their rigid sharpness. Alrighty then, he thought with a deep inhale, stepping back slightly to monitor the temperature and the core's melting rate as Gaze of the Forgefather activated. Let's see if this new batch turns out better than the last.

Another explosion snapped through the air, sending a bright flare of blue mana arcing across the cave ceiling.

Archie winced and ducked slightly as the volatile mana sizzled out overhead. The Meteoric Iron sheet he'd been fusing was now split clean down the center, edges blackened with unstable residue. He let out a long, tired sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose.

And that's the last of the Duskrat Beastcore batch, he groaned. Just brilliant.

He glanced down at the five distinct containers arranged neatly on the side table, each labeled in his precise, neat handwriting. All five cores had failed in spectacular fashion, none of them even remotely stable once bonded with the Meteoric Iron.

The Duskrat Beastcore exploded instantly on bonding, the Glinting Tortoise Beastcore vibrated so violently it cracked the moment he attempted to bond it with the metal, the Flatheaded Hound Beastcore… just melted, somehow, and the Frosttoed Chicken Beastcore froze the iron, then shattered both itself and the sheet.

Archie groaned and slumped forward onto the worktable, resting his forehead against the scorched edge. All that work for … and all I've gained from this all was just more time being wasted.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He rubbed his temples, then slowly pushed himself upright. All right, fine. Screw it. I'll just focus on making the frame of the teleporter.

Can't teleport anywhere without a frame anyway, he grumbled, walking over to the forge, holding a Meteoric Iron bar within his tongs.

The only thing that will use cores will be the Spatial Dish… and I'll just be using the runes to make up for the lack of cores. He decided as he moved the molten-red Meteoric Bar to his anvil.

Behind him, a faint chittering noise came from atop his desk.

Volos and Arsenic watched from the corner, the infant centipedes perched atop a makeshift perch of scraps that remained from the experiments, their antennae twitching curiously at each spark that flew from Archie's hammering.

Archie glanced back once with a tired smile. 'You two enjoying the show?'

Volos waved a stubby foreleg and signed back, 'Yes,' while Arsenic just tried to bite a floating spark.

The hiss of the heated metal and the low, pulsing thrum of his non-attuned mana imbuing itself into it with every strike of his hammer. Once uniformed, he moved on to the next bar, pulling it over to him with a practiced flick of his wrist as he cast Spatial Pull and catching it with his Steel Tongs as it shot toward him.

Okay, one down... nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine more to go.

Hearing frustrated and concerned chittering behind him, he glanced up from his work and immediately cursed.

Arsenic!

The baby centipede was halfway up the side of the forge, antennae twitching, mandibles clicking with excitement as he prepared to launch himself straight in.

Archie dropped his hammer, lunged, and caught the tiny creature just as he pushed off with his back legs. He held Arsenic up by the scruff of his thick carapace, the centipede wriggling with zero sense of remorse or understanding of danger.

'Do you have a death wish?!' Archie furiously signed before letting out a groan. 'Why the hell would you jump into fire?'

While Forgesmith's Flame says it can't be used to kill or harm, I don't know what it could do to a spirit beast. I've never used it on one.

Arsenic clicked twice and gave a little purr-like noise, curling slightly as if offended by the interruption. Volos, perched nearby on the crate of Meteoric Iron bars, let out what could only be interpreted as a judgmental chitter at his brother.

Archie sighed, sat down on his stool, and held Arsenic close to eye level. 'You've got too many legs and not enough common sense. That's what's going on here.'

He gently deposited the centipede on top of a scrap pile far away from the forge and then covered him with his headdress and placed half a sandwich beside him. Arsenic squirmed into the fabric and started chewing on said sandwich.

'Volos, you're in charge of keeping him out of the fire. You're older by, what, fifteen seconds? Use that wisdom.'

Volos did a little wiggle in what Archie swore looked smug. Archie rolled his eyes and got back to work, placing the next plate onto the bench and grabbing yet another Meteoric Iron bar.

He paused halfway through hammering said bar when he heard a skitter-skitter-thud followed by a muffled squeak.

...Now what?

He turned around to see Arsenic lying on his back, legs twitching in the air after having launched himself off the scrap pile this time. He'd landed in an empty crate and was now stuck, flailing like an angry noodle.

Volos stood at the edge of the crate, clicking repeatedly. Was he laughing?

Archie groaned again and pinched the bridge of his nose.

I'm building a teleporter. A machine to defy space and all make sci-fi a reality, and I'm being distracted by toddlers with a collective IQ of 1.

Still, he stood up and gently plucked Arsenic out of the crate. The baby's antennae drooped apologetically. Archie exhaled through his nose and patted his tiny head.

'No forge diving, or anything of the sort, and maybe I'll give you another Venomspitter Ant Insectoid Core?'

Arsenic chirped once. Archie squinted at him – Arsenic didn't sign a yes... I'll take that as a maybe.

With the centipede twins safely relocated to a modified drawer he lined with old cloth, gears, and a pile of sandwiches, the closest thing to a playpen he could improvise, Archie got back to work, mentally promising himself to do something as he went back to hammering.

I swear, once this thing's built, I'm creating a childproof playpen and sticking you both in it until you're both the size of a car.

He adjusted his grip on the hammer, then brought it down with a solid clang, channeling his mana just as the forge's resonance reached a harmonic pitch.

The ringing noise vibrated through the workshop like a bell made of molten metal. The plate took shape under the strikes of his hammer.

He was well into the rhythm now: heat, shape, cool slightly, adjust, hammer again. Rinse and repeat until the hexagonal edge-locks were uniform, their lattice etchings aligned for mana integration.

A soft scraping sound behind him broke his focus.

Archie paused, shoulders tightening.

Another scrape, followed by a faint plink.

He turned slowly.

One of the drawers, the drawer, was slightly ajar. A glint of green-black chitin peeked out, followed by a wriggling antenna. Arsenic's.

Archie's eyes narrowed. 'Don't even think about it,' he wrote using a mana construct that appeared within the drawer.

The antenna froze.

'Back in the drawer.'

There was silence. Then, with painfully exaggerated slowness, Arsenic retracted his head back into the drawer like a guilty spirit beast-shaped turtle. A muffled chirp followed – possibly a curse, he couldn't really tell with the high pitchiness of Arsenic's voice.

Archie let out a low breath, more amused than angry. I really need to make a playpen for them.

Volos chittered softly in agreement. He was perched neatly atop the lid now, sitting proudly like a noble guardian atop a throne of sandwiches.

'Good lad,' Archie signed. 'At least someone takes supervision seriously.'

He returned to his work, now shaping the curved frame brackets, which would be the top arcs of the teleporter. He adjusted the forge's flow with a flick of his fingers, narrowing the flames to a concentrated point as he superheated the bracket's inner edge for etching.

Halfway through shaping the curved frame brackets, he heard a sudden clattering sound.

Arsenic, I swear–

But it wasn't Arsenic.

It was a thump, followed by urgent skittering, and then the unmistakable scraping of something climbing up the forge's side again.

Archie spun just in time to catch Volos this time, Volos aka Lazy, halfway up the rear lip of the forge.

You too? he mentally shouted, grabbing the centipede by the back with his tongs like a misbehaving sausage.

Volos chirped indignantly, legs flailing in protest. From the drawer, Arsenic let out what might've been a triumphant chitter.

Oh, you're real funny now, huh? Archie grumbled, glaring at both of them.

He gently set Volos down next to the drawer. 'Both of you. Inside. Now.'

The drawer creaked open again, this time wider, and Volos obediently climbed in. Arsenic scooted over, making room.