Apocalypse: Generic System by Macronomicon (shoe dog free ebook TXT) 📕

an empty spot on the fringe of the Safe Zone, and dropped his duffle bag, using it as something to lean against as he pulled the Noxious Flame lens out of his pocket.

Time to get to work, he thought, drawing the Myst in.

Mystic Trigger.

He took one of the springs, straightened it out by hand, then bent it around the lens until it was securely bound, then he tied a decent amount of Myst to the wire with the instructions to enter the Lens the moment it became more than ninety-nine feet away from him.

The trigger after that was bound to the activation of the one before, and so on… Gradually, Jeb covered the entire spool of wire with linked activation conditions.

It was tedious, mindless work that reminded him of braiding a rope.

There was no arbitrary limit to the number of triggers Jeb could make, but he did need to stop after each one and draw in Myst, keeping his star burning and expanding. This took only a minute or two, given the light workload.

The only limit was time and patience.

Patience, Jeb had, but time was in short supply.

After he’d linked fifty consecutive triggers to the lens, he stuffed it back in his pocket and pulled out the golf-ball sized lump of Pure Flame Lens.

Let’s see, the flame is either created at the focal point, or where it intersects with a solid. Either? Both?

Jeb pulled out his new file and was about to get to work when he realized a test run would probably serve him better than just going gung-ho on his fanciest lens and possibly destroying its value or incinerating himself.

Jeb pulled the worm lens out of his belt and sawed off the end of the stick, a chunk of rotten wood about the size of the pure flame lens.

Cutting a lens for the first time was interesting. It looked like a rotten stick, but when he cut into it, it didn’t have any kind of grain, and the resistance was uniform. The pieces that came off of the stick as he sawed were a fine dust, almost like he was cutting through chalk.

The ease at which his saw bit through the lens was informative. He’d have to be careful not to let his lenses get dented if they were this soft, but that also meant they would be exceedingly easy to work with.

That explains why they bury them in wands. They’re protective casings.

“Okay, let’s try this,” Jeb muttered, pulling out his file and going to town on the piece of wood, forming it into a rudimentary lens shape in a matter of minutes. Once it was close to being complete, he polished it up with a piece of leather and held it to the light to study.

It wasn’t machine perfect, but given the speed with which he’d created it, it was damn good. Jeb was actually fairly proud of himself. He’d never been particularly ‘crafty’, but the passive bonus from his class stacked on top of his Nerve seemed to compensate for his lack of experience.

“Alright, let’s try this out.”

Jeb held his hand out and pointed the worm lens in front of him, drawing Myst in, burning it, then siphoning it out through his palm, straight into the lens.

Let’s start with just a little bit, he thought, throttling his output way down.

A worm the size of a goddamn boa constrictor appeared in midair and flopped onto the ground in front of him.

It was at least five feet long and as big around as his wrist.

“Holy shit!” Jeb scooted back from the worm, which was wriggling around in confusion. It was so big, Jeb could see its little mouth opening and closing as it searched for the safety of the earth.

It still couldn’t hurt anybody, but who ever heard of an earthworm with a mouth big enough to stick a finger in?

“Okay, so the focus point is where the effect manifests.” Consistent with what he’d seen so far.

Then why did the annihilation lens destroy everything in a sphere? Too much Myst caused some kind of explosion? Maybe Jess saw a cone of destruction and attributed it to a sphere? Well, I’m sure I’ll find out.

Now, how much Myst can a lens this size take? Jeb had cut it about the same size as his pure flame lens for that express purpose. He didn’t want to break the thing, or make it blow up like the annihilation lens, so stress-testing it was a priority.

Jeb got up and walked out into the forest, setting the lens on a tree branch before walking back about fifty feet. Hopefully outside the range of the explosion, but still with decent visibility.

Jeb threaded his Myst across the distance and started making worms, doubling the output every time, until the lens failed.

Somewhere between creating a worm the size of a horse and the next step up, the lens cracked, sending a sensation back to him through his Myst, and to his ears. Instead of creating a worm the size of a city bus, the lens exploded and every surface within thirty feet of the lens was covered in writhing worms.

And that answers that, Jeb thought, paying close attention to the feel of the LSA, or ‘Last Safe Amount’.

Jeb mentally made a note never to go over the LSA with his Pure Flame Lens.

Hell, I probably shouldn’t even get close.

Still, I wonder how much fire a worm the size of a horse converts to? What’s the standard unit of measurement?

There were so many unanswered questions, and no time to answer them.

Jeb glanced up at the sun slowly marching inexorably across the sky. Not enough time at all. He had to shelve the lens experimenting until after the assault on the World Tortoise.

For now, it was time to get Ron his