"Test number five, five parts sulfur to a hundred parts rubber," I muttered, grabbing the last band I had made. So far, number two was the stretchiest, but testing helped me figure things out about the process.
With two hands, I grabbed a handful of the rubber and stretched it out. As the sulfur increased, so did the toughness, but in return, the actual elasticity started to fall off. This felt like it was nearing the limits, and I could tell it wouldn't be ideal for something like a slingshot, it just didn't have hardly any give to it at all.
By now, I at least had figured out enough that I could produce workable pieces of rubber. I saved them all, my Secret told me that once vulcanized, rubber was difficult, if not impossible to recycle, as you couldn't melt it down anymore like you could with some resins and natural, untreated rubber.
As such, I had quite a few strips that I kept in a box, ready to start trying to make things out of them. To tell them apart, I marked the strips with little bumps I stamped into them with a carved stick. One bump for every part of sulfur in them per hundred parts rubber.
By now, I had mostly settled on my plan. Three-bumps and below, I would use for my slingshot plans. Anything above, I had... Other plans for.
But that would come later. I was getting bored of tests. It was time to do something a bit more
interesting.
I drew on my power for help with the designs, at each step I asked what I would need to do next, and followed the orders as best I could. The sensation of overuse grew as I did.
Using my knife, three strips of rubber, and two pieces of wood, I started making my first slingshot. It needed to be sturdy, and overbuilt, even if that made it heavier and clunky. I wasn't skilled enough to produce something
good, I knew that, but I just needed it to
work.
First, I started chiseling out the first piece, this would form the actual slingshot itself, a thick and chunky shape, like a squared "Y". It was what my Secret referred to as a [Rambone Slingshot]. Grooves were carved into it to help hold the rubber in place, and at the bottom of the handle, I made it extra long and thick for what I would be doing next.
Once I had the shape roughed out, I moved on to the other key component, a brace for it. I made a simple wooden stick, with a thick bulb at one end, where I bored a hole straight through it, just large enough for me to fit the bottom of the slingshot's handle into it, and I smoothened the top of this, until my forearm rested comfortably on top of the brace when I held it.
Next, the part that would actually make it help me, I prepared a strip of hard rubber, and oiled it with some namana oil, taken from one of the greasy plants that were grown up above in the farms. Tying this around the far end of the brace in a loop, I strung my hand through it, and tested it for comfort.
The rubber still felt a bit uncomfortable, even with a bit of oil on it. It wasn't like leather, clearly. I winced at how it pulled at my arm a bit, and ended up wrapping some rags around my arm as well, to provide a bit of a buffer between my arm and the strap.
'Much better,' I thought, smiling at my creation thus far. Next, however, came the moment of truth.
Dad gave me a scrap of leather that was too small to do anything important with, and that ended up becoming the pouch for my slingshot. Using two holes punched at either end, I strung through the three wide rubber bands, pulling them through, before tying this to the arms of my slingshot. After I tied the rubber to it directly, I went an extra step, and tied some twine around it too, just in case.
It looked ready. My head was hurting a bit right now from the vague stress that came with drawing on my Secrets, but I dared to use it one more time, just to be sure.
"Is there anything else I should do?" I asked.
System Message: "Now you have to name it something badass. That's pretty much a rule for any overpowered hero making some crazy weapon."
I made an incredulous expression. "That sounds made up, but ok..."
I looked at my [prototype]. This wasn't the slingshot I would be giving Mimi, I still wanted to make sure what I had made wouldn't break or go wrong, before I went all-in in making a slingshot fit for a Sired Raviner's strength.
It was my own personal weapon. My first weapon, in fact. This wasn't a toy or a stick, on some level, it was a genuine weapon, however small and humble.
"[Gun]," I decided. That was one of the hardest secrets I had ever had to get from my power. One of the ones that made my power fight the hardest against me obtaining. I only knew the name, but it was the name of 'the most dangerous weapon I could make'.
Because hey, I had to be optimistic, right?
I looked around and grabbed dad's chisel, hammering the letters into the handle, and the slingshot was done!
I grabbed some little clay pellets and, sliding the strap over my arm, I put one in the pouch and drew it back as far as I could, aiming at the wall.
Crack!
I flinched, thinking that the bands had snapped into my face or something, but when I cracked open an eye to peer at the results, I just saw a little scuff in the wall. It worked!
It worked! It really worked!
Through hard work and determination, you have forged additional functionality!
-
Stats
-
Name: Yinam of Two Mesas
Gender: Male
Age: 11 Years (Aprox)
Spirit Rank: Child
Health: Good
Spirit: Severely Depleted
Strength: Child
Dexterity: Greater Child
Speed: Very Very Fast
-Equipped Weapon-
Gun: A crude slingshot prototype, made by Yinam of Two Mesas for his own personal use.
-
Skills
-
★-Secrets: The user's natural talent to tap into a hidden wealth of experiences and knowledge using their spirit.
Work-hours: 450 (Aprox)
-First Secret: The user may try to have a question answered. More power and time are required for harder questions.
-Second Secret: The user may continually draw on some of their special knowledge, consuming power over time to maintain and enhance it.
★-Impish Charm: The user's capacity to endear themselves through mischief.
Work-hours: 1,650 (Aprox)
-Lying: The user may attempt to lie in such a way that, even if the lie is obvious, it remains endearing.
-Odd Scouting: The user may attempt to find a place that would be strange for them to be in.
★-Children's Athletics: The user's ability to run around jumping and climbing on everything like some kind of dubious little monkey.
Work-hours: 4,500 (Aprox)
★★-Tinkering: The user's capacity to work with their hands, their tools, and whatever is available to create functional objects.
Work-hours: 1,400 (Aprox)
★-Woodcraft: The user's skill in shaping wood to their liking, and preparing it for use.
Work-Hours: 180 (Aprox)
★-Gourmet: The user's hunger for uniquely tasty foods, made manifest in various ways, whether by cooking, searching, or critiquing.
Work-hours: 60 (Aprox)
-
Boons
-
None
-
Discoveries
-
-Mechanisms-
★★-Wooden Gearwork: The user has knowledge of how to produce gears via simple carpentry, and the use of gears in creating devices.
★-Basic Propeller: The user has knowledge of how to produce an incredibly simple propeller, and vaguely understands how one functions.
★-Basic Rolling Machine: A crude device using two cylinders of polished wood to roll putty out into flat strips.
Its current best iteration may be powered via hand-crank.
★-Basic Kneading Machine: A crude device using a Rack and Pinion to lift and drop a heavy stone onto a wooden plank to flatten and knead things.
Its current best iteration may be powered via lever and body weight.
-Chemicals-
★-Vulcanized Rubber: A durable, elastic substance, made from the sap of particular plants and sulfur additives. It can be hard and rugged, or soft and stretchy.
-Weapons-
★-Crude Slingshot: An overbuilt slingshot, made thick and chunky to endure the malformities of inexperienced design.
Max Damage: Unknown
It was super early, and I always woke up way before a lot of the other young kids. This, of course, gave me the perfect chance to find the perfect place to reveal my new work of genius!
I had two little sacks, one filled with redberries, and one filled with clay pellets. I considered trying to make darts with some wood and sharp rocks, but I didn't want to accidentally hurt anyone, and I didn't have time anyway.
I climbed up on top of the arch leading into the algea lit cavern that we all liked to play in, and waited...
Soon, a group of kids came in. Mini wasn't among them, but it was a lot of the usual crowd who liked to run around here and play games splashing around the glowing water., and I held back a malicious laugh. The game had begun... I picked out a redberry from my pouch and took aim...
Splat!
"What the heck?" the big kid I hit remarked, feeling at the back of his head, and sniffing at the red juice that stained it.
The kids looked around, but I was invisible in the little corner I was jammed into, it was in the almost complete darkness outside of the cave's glow. A small chortle escaped me as I covered my mouth to try and quiet it.
Over the next hour, I sniped a few more people, missing at least as often as I hit, and they very quickly realized someone was "throwing" berries at them.
"Who's doing that? Show yourself!" the biggest kid shouted, looking around. He had the general idea of which direction they were coming from, but...
I heard something shift next to me, and my eyes widened.
"Gotcha!" Mini shouted, shoving me off the archway and sending me screaming to the floor!
"Yeouch! Mini!" I yelled, rubbing my back as I glared up. She snuck up there just to push me off!
She just cackled, while the other kids started running over.
"You need to find better hiding spots," she remarked, leaping down and offering a hand to pull me up.
"No, you just need to stop being a meddling interloper. I could have been doing this all day if you hadn't caught me!" I complained, setting my foot down as the others crowded around.
"How on earth were you throwing those berries so far?" one of them asked, as two others looked on in confusion at the contraption strapped to my arm.
"I'd like to know that too. Is that your 'magnificent new weapon'?" Mini drawled.
I took the opportunity to build momentum. "Indeed it is! This is the [Gun], my brand new Slingshot!" I announced proudly. Looking around, I spotted an empty wooden cup sitting on a bench nearby.
"Behold!" I exclaimed, drawing out a clay pellet and shooting it at the cup.
...It missed, but after like three more shots I hit it, so it still counts!
The kids looked vaguely impressed, but one of them simply raised an eyebrow. "Is that it?"
I blinked. Everyone else did too, fixing the kid with a stare.
"Well, is it? I mean, I've got a bow, and I could hit something like that."
Another kid spoke up. "Yeah, and my dad's been teaching me how to use a sling, I can fling rocks pretty hard too."
At first, the argument started to devolve into whether throwing, archery, or slingmanship (or whatever it was called) was the best, but the first kid who remarked on my slingshot was also the one to call out over the din.
"I say we have a little competition. See who's the best shot in the village," he said with waggled eyebrows. "Well, Yinam? Think your 'slingshot' can beat us?"
The air was alive with growing excitement, the promise of a fun challenge, to see if Yinam's weird invention was so hot after all, and the chance to prove one's own worth at hitting targets...
I smirked. "Nope!"
The tone of chatter instantly broke into disappointment. "Wha, that's no fun Yinam, you could at least pretend!" one of them huffed, starting to lose interest.
I held up a hand. "Hold on, I said mine can't. I just made this thing today, and it's the first one I made!..."
"But I bet Mini's can," I waggle my eyebrows, recapturing everyone's interest.
"Uhh, I don't have one of those Yinam. What, you got a second one ready for me?"
I shook my head. "No, no, just, cut me some slack guys, I want to make sure this new thing is as cool as I'm hoping, then I'm going to make one so big and beefy that even a Sired could use it!"
That caught their attention. Bows were notoriously hard to make for a Sired Raviner's strength, and while Mini was only eight, (well, nearly nine, but ignore that), she was still a monstrously strong little girl.
The crowd started to disperse since I clearly didn't have anything instantaneously amazing to reveal or boast about, but they did end up setting up targets anyway, kids bragging about how good they were at their chosen weapons of choice.
I joined in, and admittedly, a few people were still very interested in my new creation, not least of which was Mini. I spent the day shooting targets with everyone else. I wasn't much better than some of the youngest kids, who were still new to their slings, but there were two immediately noticeable differences.
I could shoot
fast. Sure, if I did, I literally stopped hitting anything I was aiming at except by pure chance, but after getting used to it, I was starting to throw clay pellets downrange as fast as I could fumble them from the palm of my hand to the sling's pouch between my fingers.
The other thing that was immediately noteworthy was that unlike the sling users, who needed more than an extra arm's length of space in all directions to avoid accidentally hitting someone while they loosed their weapons, and the bow users, who had to go home to actually go get their bows, due to their inconvenient size, my slingshot didn't need more room than I could fit in, and it packed away to practically nothing.
It was a very
convenient weapon.
"Ack!" I yelped as I snapped myself with the band by mistake, grabbing the hurt thumb and squeezing it as if that would help with the pain.
"Okay, my turn," Mini announced imperiously, holding out a hand. I was wary, the reason I hadn't just given her this already was that I was a bit scared she'd break it.
But, then, this was meant to break, if it was going to at all, it was better that this prototype did it so I'd know how.
I slipped it off my arm and unwrapped the cloth that protected me from the strap.
"Be very careful, alright? I don't know how strong it is," I said. As soon as it was in her hands, she grabbed a fistful of the rubber and stretched it like an [exersize band] experimentally.
"H-hey!" I yelled, reaching for it. She lifted it above her head out of my reach.
"This thing's like leather's itty bitty baby brother. It's hard to believe it can shoot anything," she remarked, surprised at how it behaved, and how "easily" it deformed.
"No, it isn't! You're just too strong!" I complained.
Despite my fears, Mini was careful with the slingshot, donning the straps and pulling it back like it was nothing.
Whack! Whack! Thwap! "Ow!"
Mini was a far better shot, with how she had been trained for as long as she had in all sorts of weapons. One after another, wooden slats fell down, and one kid who was scratching his rear got a rather painful reminder to not hang out near the targets as he got a clay pellet shot right at the rear in question.
Unfortunately, she was a bit
too good. She pulled the rubber back, preparing for another volley, when a loud snap rang out, and she looked at the slingshot with surprise.
"I hope that wasn't hard to make," she mused worriedly at the dangling rubber from where the actual bands had snapped.
I ran over and took a look, eyes widening. That wasn't supposed to happen. With three bands, even if one snapped, I could see which one it was, and, with three different grades of rubber, I'd effectively determine which one was the weak point.
When I realized what the problem was, I nearly slapped myself. It was the leather! The hole I had punched into it to string the bands through had snapped at the edges, tearing off and letting the whole left side slip free.
"I know what happened. It should be a quick fix," I explained, taking the slingshot from her and using my knife to trim and cut the leather until it was usable once again. This time, I left much more room in the leather, narrowing how much space there was for a projectile, but giving the hole much more breathing room from the edges so it would hopefully not snap as badly again.
"When I make yours, Mini, I'll probably use way stronger stuff anyway," I offer, receiving a nod from my friend as I tested out the repaired slingshot.
After so long, and so much hard work, I had finally put together a truly wonderful creation, and it had proven a worthy contender for possibly my best one yet!
Now just to work on my terrible aim...
"Let's see... Moss snail burnished rollers are perfect for making the H Slingshot's band run smoothly over the bottom, and the tube-shaped bands last longer, in exchange for not being quite as powerful. That power is easily made up for though, when the extra-thick extra bands are used."
The new, ultra-strong version of the slingshot was coming along well. I had taken what I learned from my original and went even further beyond for the new one. A new design that had the bands go under rollers effectively gave the new version precious extra inches of draw length, while the glass sight I had obtained from our village's resident glassmaker proved to be a clever way of making it vaguely more accurate. (I simply asked the glassblower to fold a red dot into a little piece of glass).
Time had completely slipped me by, as I continued to improve and iterate on the [Gun], and practice my aim with it while also working on Mini's own version. It was on the same day that I produced Mini's own beefy monster of a slingshot that something strange had happened, as the spring started to thaw some of the icy puddles of winter.
I had only just set the new super-slingshot down and tried to wipe the sweat from my face, when a new menu popup had appeared, dominating my vision with gold.
You have gained a [Boon Slot][Omos]
"Happy birthday, Yinam. You've been a delight to watch."
I failed to wipe the sweat from my head, by virtue of the single spiral horn that had apparently sprouted out of it without me noticing as I worked.
The horn that marked the end of childhood for a Raviner.
