Project Overworld

BOOM! The sound of an explosion reverberated in the whole forest.

"Now that's what I call a weapon!" Keith exclaimed.

With just a bullet, he managed to seize the thin trunk of a tree from around thirty foots away. The recoil was strong, but it was still manageable.

As for the aim, Keith was really proud of his work.

His first three shot didn't even come close to hitting the tree. He felt that his aim was a bit off, but more because of him than a defect from his rifle.

However, on his last try he took a deep breath, and while leaning his head on top of the rifle, he took his time to aim properly. The tree did not have any chance and the shot went through the trunk with a huge crackling noise.

He improved the rifle quite a lot. He made a little sight at the end of the barrel to help him aim and he added a few iron plates here and there to make the rifle heavier and therefore more consistent with the recoil.

Now that he finished both his latest projects, Keith started thinking of what he should do next. He now had access to electricity as well as powerful machines to help him in his tasks.

Thus, he finally decided to upgrade his base. He was lacking some space and, as he saw with Amber's frequent investigations of his base, it was not secure at all. Furthermore, he wanted to move his machines in the cave so that no one would keep an eye on them.

Back to base, he started by making an expedition towards the depths of the cave to bring a lot of iron ores.

An hour and an half later, he started a fire in his furnace to smelt the iron he just collected.

He was planning to mold a huge iron partition to block the cave's entrance and make sure his resources were kept safe.

Keith smelted then transported the iron with a bucket. At the entrance, he would wait for the iron to cool off a little so its consistency was oozy before pouring on the ground to build the wall.

However, it was a really difficult task because his furnace was quite a bit far away from his base and the amount of iron he needed exceeded his initial thoughts. Indeed, for the wall to hold without breaking and defend from attacks, it needed to be quite wide : 'at least a few inches wide', according to Keith assessment.

Thus, he started using sturdy rocks to block off the entrance, only letting a hole that could fit two persons standing next to each other.

As for filling up the height of the entrance, he couldn't do much about it yet except build his wall bit by bit.

After a few hours he only molded some parts on the sides of the entrance. He didn't want to start at the center because he still needed to make a door to let him in and out of his base. His final plan was to have a security system, such as a padlock, only letting him get through.

The next few days were consecrated to building his iron partition. Unfortunately for Keith, it also revealed he had large access to iron.

When Amber first saw this, she was a bit confused. But before long, Amber's requests became wider and asked him to craft iron broadswords and shields, as well as some medieval armor for the New Dawn guild.

Keith knew its construction would lead him to troubles, but he had planned quite a bit of things for the future and he needed to expand and secure his base. Fortunately, Amber did not see his generator and various electrical installations because Keith hid them very well. As for the rifle, it was resting in his inventory so there was no way she would find out about it.

However, the wall progressed quite fast. Indeed, Keith managed to make a four-foot-high wall with a rectangular entrance in the middle. He did not start working on the door yet, as he did not know how to make the hinges. He had a few idea, but it would be hard to do with iron; however he could not change the materials he was using now that the door was well advanced.

In the meantime, at the New Dawn's base.

Alan was examining various plans of construction in his office; temporarily built in a small cave until the foundations of their actual base was finished. Suddenly, a voice made him raise his head towards its origin.

"Chief, I heard that the Pioneers' guild was forging quite a lot of equipment with various metals. They are also expanding really fast as they are making outposts on the potential resourceful areas."

Alan gave the scout a stern look, organizing his thoughts over the slightly concerning news.

'Shit, and I thought we were finally out of troubles... Our equipment quality seems better than them according to what Lockvir just said to me. However, it seems irrelevant to the mass of people the Pioneers have gathered. After relying so much on Keith's various crafts over last few weeks, we still are quite far from secure.'

Alan had to admit that Keith was a manufacturing expert. He was far ahead of everyone else and yet the Pioneers, who had a lot more workforce, were slowly catching up.

The scout was still waiting for Alan to give an order, so this one had no choice but to say : "Thanks for the report, go back to observing them and tell me if they make any move towards our location."

The scout quickly nodded in reply and left Alan to his reflections.

'How did they progress from basic weaponry in the middle age? Aren't we in dire need of firearms now that the situation evolved this quickly?' He then thought, while a small ray of hope illuminated his face.