Go Big To Go Home: A Kaiju-Fighting Isekai LitRPG (Book 1 Complete!)

Allis leant on the lecturer's Engraving Table. "Before anything else, you all need to learn how to use this thing,"

Well. It had only taken two months of staring at the antique Engraving Table that Mikayla had entirely legally recovered from Astralia's Spear to get here. She leant forward in her chair.

"It might seem like it is as simple as infusing your Mana into it and letting the magic happen, but don't be fooled. It is

infinitely

more complicated than using any mere Core Controller or Cores. Could any of you replicate that little display I just showed you?" Mana shot from Allis' hands again, forming letters that read 'I DON'T THINK SO'.

No one tried to disprove her. Glancing down at her own hands, Mikayla conjured a spark of her red Mana and tried to extend it into a string. It stubbornly refused to travel more than an inch from her skin, and pushing it to do so felt like trying to throw a rock hard enough to reach orbit.

"Yes, you see the problem," Allis gestured at Mikayla. "Fortunately, Engraving Tables are made with the same Mana Channels as Core Controllers. So as long as you know how to use those without Mana Assistance, you should be able to at least try. If you can't do that much, then leave now before you waste more of my time,"

She reached under the table and pulled out a stack of what looked like thick sheets of baked clay, fired into a sort of ceramic. They had identical and complex designs on them, like topological maps charting a series of canals.

"For your first Core, we're going to be using a mould. Moulds are the bread and butter of Engraving, they record your actions and make it easier for you to replicate them. And if you break one of these, you're paying for it," Allis handed out the sheets, and Mikayla accepted one and inspected it.

It was annotated, thank whatever god was appropriate. (She'd heard 'Mother of Learning', right?) The mould, despite its name, seemed to be more like a sequence of instructions on how to etch the channels into a Core that would allow it to function. Like a program etched in clay for her, the metaphorical computer, to follow. The sheet of baked clay was covered in inked notes that explained mathematical formulas, defining the ins and outs of how a particular notch there was translated into a curve in the shape projected by the Core.

"What kind of Core is this? A sword? A gun?" one of the other students asked.

"You all can read. Or so I hope. Figure it out for yourselves. I'm not letting you touch the Tables until you can tell exactly what this mould will let you make. Read the lines. Draw it in your mind. If you're too stupid to figure it out, this is a waste of both our time," Allis blew him off.

Stifling the urge to grumble about the lack of explanation, Mikayla started parsing and tracing the lines in her head. It had a long central shaft that widened at one end - no, at both ends, into an arch that contained a cylinder on the one side and the other was a large curved surface? The instructions almost made it look like a giant spoon, but that couldn't be right, especially not given the second handle at the end. Some kind of gun? Not complex enough, there was no trigger. No, maybe it was actually . .

"Is this a

shovel?"

one of the other trainees asked disbelievingly just as Mikayla cottoned on.

"That's right. Thanks for giving everyone else the answer, by the way," Allis rolled her eyes at the girl who had spoken

"Why are we making a shovel? Who needs a Core Shovel? Cores are for weapons, armour. Useful things,"

"Because you idiots aren't skilled enough to make Hoe Cores yet. And I

know

you're an idiot, because you don't think a shovel is useful,"

Allis folded her arms, tail flicking back and forth. "I know, I know, the Goliath Guard get all the glory. The big shiny armour and weapons, the endless horde of Kaijus to slaughter. Sure, killing monsters is important. But so is

farming

. It's boring work, to be sure, but the food those heroes eat comes from somewhere, and a Shovel Core is the tool of the trade for about a hundred million farmers and labourers in this country alone. If you don't even know that, then you don't deserve to wield an oh-so-glorious sword,"

"Excuse you? I don't care how important you think you are, I do not have to sit here and take such insults!"

"Then leave," Allis challenged. "If you're too proud to learn how to make a shovel, then clearly you're too proud for this whole profession," She looked around the room again. "Take that as a lesson too, kids. Engraving is not glamorous work. Sure, sometimes you get to make the fun things. But doing it for a living means churning out shovels and hoes, trains and torches, raw Companion Cores, all the dull and tacky stuff that no one wants but everyone needs. You are not going to become some famous Core artisan, you're not going to be the next

me

. This is a job, and we do it to get paid,"

Most of the noble scions were giving her stink eyes, but none of them made to leave. Mikayla could barely spare a thought for their circumstances, though, as Allis waved them off. "Alright, pick a Table and take a crack at it. There's a pile of uncut Amber Cores at each workstation, they're cheap and disposable so don't be afraid to break them. And if you're stupid enough to object to starting with Ambers, leave now and don't come back,"

No one spoke up, and a slight smile tugged at Allis' lips. "Do not expect to succeed on your first try, or your second. You won't. Make mistakes and learn from them. If you're struggling, I'll come and help you. If you're too proud to accept my help, then do your best to not need it. Go!"

Needing no further instruction, Mikayla hoisted her mould in both hands and stepped around her chair, making for the closest of the twenty Engraving Tables.

This one wasn't the same as Astralia's antique Engraving Table; not only was it smaller and more modern, it had a prominent slot underneath the hand-shaped indents for the ceramic mould to slide into. Once she'd done that and placed her hands in the grooves, Mikayla noticed that it was designed for yaoguai, with extra spaces to accomodate claws. Her hands looked undersized in the grooves, but it seemed receptive to her Mana just like a Core Controller would be.

"Don't forget to slot a Core, unless you want to try Engraving

thin air,"

Allis was suddenly leaning over her shoulder, and Mikayla jumped. Before she could say anything, the yaoguai was whisking herself away to one of the other students.

Her eyes fell on a small pile of yellow crystals, each sculpted into the curved top and cylindrical screw that she recognised from every other Core she'd ever seen. But where cut Cores had intricate designs like artisanal keys protruding from their bases, these had plain cylinders of yellow crystal. Like a block of ice that had yet to be carved into a sculpture.

There was a hole between the two handprints that was exactly the right size for a Core. Mikayla slid one of the Ambers straight into it, then put her hands back in their positions and let her Mana flow into the table.

The internal circuitry of the Engraving Table put a Core Controller to shame. There were dozens of channels lined with runes, each ready and waiting to accept her Mana. The inside of the machine lit up, letting Mikayla see exactly what she was doing to the Amber Core through a pane of glass. There were a dozen tiny mechanical arms contained in rows within the Table, each seeming to have a different function. From different sizes of picks and blades, to a diamond file and a welding torch, and what seemed like a hot glue gun. The ceramic mould was at the bottom of the workstation, and her Mana flowed into it.

There were etchings in the ceramic that she hadn't noticed before, numerals that she could feel with her Mana, like braille. Touching them was disorienting, because they seemed to project information directly into her mind. It wasn't that she was touching a number 3, she was touching an entirely different little squiggle that she somehow knew meant 'do this part third'. Was the Ataraxian System's translation function involved? It had to be.

Whatever the case, the etchings told her where to start and what order to do things in.

The first step was to shear off about one-fifth of the Core's material from the left side. Mikayla channeled her Mana into a tool that she knew was probably not named Exact-O-Knife and lined it up carefully.

It twitched.

She frowned, and it shook more.

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Her metaphorical Mana 'hand' controlling the tool wasn't steady enough.

Mikayla took a deep breath. Willpower was her highest stat. She could do this. Her grip tightened against the pads transmitting her Mana into the Engraving Table, and she pressed the knife against the Core in just the right spot. Before her focus could slip, she slashed right along the line indicated by the mould, putting as much force as she could into the motion in her urgency.

The Amber Core shattered into pieces.

A voice in her ear alerted Mikayla to the fact that Allis was leaning over her again, and exactly when her teacher had gotten there she couldn't say. "Too much force! I know Ambers look like rocks, but they're basically just dried wax. Try again!"

"Uh, wait -" Mikayla tried to speak up, but Allis stalked away without paying any more attention to her. She sighed to herself, extracted the broken chunks of amber from the Engraving Table and tossed them in a nearby bin, then slotted another Core.

She successfully made the first cut on the second one, but her attempt to chisel an incision broke it in half.

On her third attempt she picked the wrong size of drill bit and made a hole that was too large compared to what the instructions called for. At least this one hadn't broken into pieces.

Her fourth attempt went awry when a shout from behind her ruined her concentration. Startled, her Mana twitched sympathetically, causing the drill bit to press much harder than it should have and crack off a much-too-large portion of the Amber Core.

"I've finished! On my first try! Behold, perfection!" Petras was shouting for the whole class to hear, and Mikayla wasn't the only one looking up from her Engraving Table with a frustrated scowl.

Allis' tail twitched violently as she approached. "I highly doubt that. But alright, I'll have a look,"

"It's perfect, I tell you!" Petras barked.

"Let's find out," Allis plucked it from his fingers and made for the display table at the centre, casting a quick glance at the Core as she went. Whatever she saw was enough to make her roll her eyes and make a face, even though it didn't look any different from every other Core to Mikayla's untrained eye. Allis screwed the Amber Core into the table and twisted a dial.

Lines of Mana floated in the air, forming a long, thin cylinder. It forked at one end and started to grow a horizontal handle, but the handle just kept going, stretching past the edge of the display table, knocking over a chair and finally stopping when it hit the wall. As the head of the shovel was filled in, the flat part of the blade bent inwards into a giant spike, while the two halves of the curved rim grew past each other and started twisting into spirals.

Mikayla could barely think how to describe the warped monstrosity Petras had created, but it definitely was not a shovel.

Allis turned the display table off, looked at the Amber again, then dropped it to the ground and stamped on it several times, crushing it into dust. "If a person tried to activate that Core, it would keep growing and twisting until it had sucked out all of their Mana. Try again, and this time make sure you properly match the directional grooves so that they don't extend exponentially. Oh, and even if you do succeed, there's no need to

yell

about it,"

Mikayla winced at the inadvertent memory of exhausting her Mana reserves - something she'd learned from Nya's tutoring sessions was actually very unhealthy, as being completely empty of Mana could cause a person's veins to tighten up and restrict their blood flow. She couldn't help but keep a careful eye on her slowly dwindling Mana bar as she slotted another Amber for her fifth attempt to create a Shovel. Fortunately, there were Mana Potions on offer.

<=====}—o

Eighteen tries. An hour and a half crouching over the table and getting more and more frustrated. But finally,

finally

, Mikayla had managed to follow all of the instructions to the letter and complete a Shovel Core.

Two of her classmates had managed it faster, and each time Allis had told them to test it on the display pedestal. So Mikayla did the same without needing any prompting, taking the Amber to the centre of the room and plugging it in.

She'd never imagined that it could feel so good to look at a completely ordinary shovel being woven from hardlight magic.

"Adequate," Allis stood next to her. She inspected it critically for a moment, then removed the Core again and offered it back to Mikayla. "Try using it yourself,"

"Yeah?" She winced, remembering the warning Allis had given earlier. "Is that safe?"

"If you have so little faith in your work, then don't,"

Mikayla's jaw firmed up, and she nodded, screwing the Core into her Gauntlet and letting her Mana flow into it.

[EQUIPPED AMBER OF SHOVEL (CORE)]

It felt different to every other Core she'd ever tried.

Better.

Her Mana took to the lines she'd carved with reckless abandon, flowing with ease through the grooves and holes. Almost before she knew it, the shovel was in her hands.

Reverentially, she swung it back and forth. The shovel felt like

part

of her, like it was fundamentally attuned to her being. "This is great," she murmured.

"Yes, it is," For a moment, Allis' voice softened. "Good. Now make another one," she commanded, as though her little slip had never happened.

"Huh? You, uh, don't have anything else I could try?" Mikayla could already picture the difference it would make in combat if all of her Cores felt as good to use as this one did. If she could make a Sword or a Shield, then -

"An amateur practices until she can get it right. An Engraver practices until she never gets it wrong. When you can succeed nine times out of ten at making a shovel, then you can have something else to play with,"

Mikayla blinked. ". .

Ranger's Apprentice

,"

Surprise filled Allis' eyes. Surprise and

recognition

. "What?"

"An archer practices until he gets it right, a Ranger practices until he never gets it wrong. I've read those books. That was a quote,"

"Was it? Coincidence. Are you here to talk or to Engrave?" Allis waved her back to her Engraving Table, stalking away. Mikayla considered forcing the issue, but it wasn't worth it. She needed to be patient.

Another hour passed, and amidst several more failures Mikayla managed to create two more fully functional Ambers of Shovel. Amber of Shovels? Whichever it was. The daylight coming in through the windows had dimmed to nothing when Allis finally declared, "And that's our class!"

The other students all immediately dropped what they were doing, but Mikayla was in the middle of carving a line. She hesitated, hating the idea of leaving the Core unfinished, but prudence won out over perfectionism; she couldn't lose track of Allis before talking to her properly.

"Most of you performed adequately enough I guess. I'll see you all next week. Or not. I don't actually care whether you come back or not," Allis waved them off. "Have a nice night or whatever,"

And with those lacklustre parting words, she abandoned the class and vanished through the staff door.

"Ruogang! Allis! Wait!" Mikayla burst through the door and found herself in another corridor, where Allis was already powerwalking away. "I'm from Earth!"

A slight but noticeable twitch ran through Allis' body and down her tail. "Is that supposed to mean something to me?" She didn't turn back, but her stride slowed.

"Of course it does. It's where you've been getting your ideas. I mean, seriously, you're not even subtle about it. Literally calling them steam trains? Really?"

Allis rounded on her, eyes darting back and forth. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said defensively. Too defensively.

"Worried we're going to be overheard?" Mikayla raised her eyebrows. "Stop feigning ignorance, your designs are too close to technology from Earth for it to be a coincidence. You've made trains, cars, motorcycles. What's next, a helicopter?"

For just a second, something flashed in Allis' eyes. It vanished like a ghost, but Mikayla knew what she saw. "Yeah, you know that word. So, come on. What's your connection to my world?"

Allis wrestled with herself for a long moment.

All the tension drained out of her body, her shoulders visibly falling as her chin tipped upwards, relaxing the muscles in her neck and letting the weight of her horns tip her head backwards. "Fine. Come with me. I'll tell you all about it,"