Seras set down a glass bottle on a rock some fifty meters away from where Martin stood. She then walked back. “The rifle technically has of around a thousand meters. But without and scope and training your unlikely to ever hit anything that far out. So we’ll start with this short range.”


    “Alright” Martin said awkwardly.


    “Relax, the worse thing you can be right now is tense.” Seras said as she stepped up to Martin. “these two metal bumps on the end are your sights, line up the bottle in the sights, then slowly pull the trigger back.” Seras instructed.


    Martin closed one eye and then lined up the barrel, steadied his aim, pulled the trigger back, and…


    CRACK!


    The barrel went straight up, and the bullet flew off to who knows-where as the recoil ruined his aim.


    “Danm!” Martin cursed. “You were not kidding about the recoil.”


    Seras nodded “Yup. Back home we had a bunch of little tricks the reduced the effects of the recoil, but nothing I could recreate here. A smaller bullet would have less recoil but also wouldn’t do shit against a monster, this is about as large as I can make the bullet before needing to redesign the whole gun.”


    He rolled his shoulder to work out the pain of the recoil, opened the breach like she had showed him and reloaded. This time he better braced himself for the recoil, shifting his feet, widening his stance.


    CRACK!


    This time the barrel stayed level, but the shot was wide.


    “That’s the second issue with trying to equip normal rankers with a rifle. It takes time to learn how to aim. And if you were fighting monsters you would be on Heidels, whose galloping would making aiming just about impossible.”


    This part was the truth, but not the whole truth. People could train, and iron rank essence users wouldn’t have much trouble with the recoil. The reason Seras was trying to dissuade Martin from pursuing guns was because Seras wanted to keep control over the technology.


    Introducing guns to this world would have serious consequences, an while Seras wasn’t sure if guns would ever fully replace magic weapons, she was sure that this world wasn’t ready for this kind of deadly force. Essences were rare and expensive, and knives required someone to at least risk their own lifes in the fight. But with guns murder, at least in the normal to iron ranks, was stupidly easy.


    Seras had plans to one day sell her creations. But only after lots of refinement and proprietary enhancements. She wanted to make it into a fairly expensive commodity that was difficult to reverse engineer to fund her search for a cure.


    That said, she wanted to t least create a bit of interest in the weapon and that meant sowing seeds early on.


    “Here” Seras said as she stepped up close to Martin. “Use this hand to steady the barrel, and put the stock right here.” She instructed.


    Martin got a little stiff and his breathing hitched. But once Seras was done she stepped away and he seemed to relax.


    He pulled back gently on the trigger.


    CRACK!


    The bottle exploded.


    Martin smiled. “Danm that’s satisfying.” He quirked his head to the side. “And loud. I haven’t heard my ears ring since I hit bronze.”


    Seras had a system for automatically dimming her hearing to protect her eardrum. But she still remembered the near constant ring she had before getting them replaced. “There’s ways to make it quieter, but I’m not at that stage in development yet.”


    He gave the rifle one last look before passing it back. “Despite all the issues I’d still like a couple of these, any chance your selling?”


    Seras smirked “Not at the moment. Too many issues that need to be worked out, and this model is just a basic proof of concept. But when I’m further along I wouldn’t mind reaching out, any way for me to contact you?” Seras asked.


    “Hard to reach me since I’m always on the road. But when you’re ready the Adventure society can pass along a message. It just won’t be fast.” Martin said.


    She really missed texting. This would have been so easy if she could just give him her contact information.


    Martin scrathed the back of his neck “So, I talked with Dustin and heard you guys were heading in the same direction. If you want I know an excellent restaurant, its in the entertainment district so we might be able to catch a play as well. Dustin said you liked watching plays.”


    What was he on about- oh. He was asking her out. Shit!


    “Look, Martin, you seem nice. But ah, your not really my type.” Seras said, trying to let him down as easily as possible.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    He looked crestfallen. “Ah, type?” he asked.


    “Yeah, you’ve got this whole having a penis thing going on, and I’m not really into that.” Seras explained, trying to add a joke on there to relieve the tension.


    Martin looked confused. “What?”


    Seras frowned, so much for subtlety “I’m not into guys.” She said bluntly.


    Comprehension dawned on him “Oh. Well dang. I thought I had a good chance too.”


    Now it was Seras’ time to be embarrassed “Even if I was my life’s a little too complicated for any sort of romantic entanglements. I’ve only been on this world for a little over two months, and things haven’t been easy.”


    Martin considered what she said. “Yeah, I guess that would be jarring. I’d only ever heard of Outworlders and the trouble they cause, I’ve never even considered how awful it must feel to be torn from your home and abandoned on a strange world.”


    Seras gave him a reassuring smile. “It hasn’t been all bad. Dustin and his crew welcomed me in, and have accepted all the weirdness that entails. And the air here is a hell of a lot better than my worlds.”


    “The air?” Martin asked as he looked around the desert. “Does your world smell?”


    “Like you wouldn’t believe. And the air itself hurts to breath. So its been nice to get up every morning and suck in a deep breath of clean, albeit dry, air.”


    Martin nodded, though she could tell he didn’t get it. “Well, I had been hoping to give this to you during the date, but now seems as good a time as any.” He reached into a hip bag and pulled out a palm sized stone that looked to be made of glass fractured in thousand different ways.


    Awakening stone of Ruin 3 star rarity. Grants the user the power of Ruin.


    “Well now, that’s ominous.” Seras said out loud.


    “Dustin said you have an identifying ability, what kind of stone is it?”


    “Ruin. Grants the power of Ruin.”


    “Is it a three star or four?”


    “Three.”


    Martin nodded “I knew it wasn’t a two or one star, I’ve seen enough of those to know them by sight.” He then did something that surprised Seras. He chucked it into the air and towards her.


    Seras caught it on reflex and gave Martin a puzzled look. “Are you sure about this. Three-star stones go for a hefty sum.”


    “You saved my life, twice. That’s worth more then money. I got this from the one Ostryx I killed, its only right that it goes to you.”


    “Martin. I was just following Dustin to try and get some kills. You don’t need to thank me.” Seras tried to hand the stone back.


    “Yes I do, as a man it wouldn’t be right for me to hold on to that.” Martin crossed his arms. A clear gesture that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.


    Seras sighed.


    Would you like to convert into an appropriate form. Y/N


    Flint and Dustin had a serious chat with Seras about the need to be careful with which awakening stones she used. Since they had no idea which way her abilities might trend they needed to do careful research. But Seras had read many times that there were no bad abilities, just ones that took a bit of effort to use correctly.


    And there was something about using a Ruin stone that felt right. Seras was from the world of Ruin after all. It seemed appropriate.


    She selected yes and the Awakening stone turned into a shard. She made sure her shard port was facing away from Martin as she slotted it in.


    You have awakened the Avatar ability Aura of Ruin.


    Aura of Ruin: Enemies within the user’s aura receive a stacking affliction (enfeeblement) whenever an attack is landed. Enfeeblement slightly reduces an enemies speed, and power attributes.


    “Well danm.” Seras said as she read the description.


    Martin also looked intiggued. “Did you just absorb an awakening stone without a ritual?”


    Seras waved it off. “Its an Outworlder thing.”


    She felt like something had changed. It was like her special awareness just got a lot sharper, she could feel Martin and the waves of curiosity coming off him. As well as the slight sting of rejection. He had played it off well but he was still disappointed.


    Further out she felt other presences. Some lesser ones that radiated very muted and simplistic feelings, as well as three that felt like a steel barrier.


    So this is what aura senses felt like.


    Something noticed the shifting in her aura and turned its direction towards her.


    Back by the campfire Dustin stood up and began to walk over. “So that awakening stone gave you an aura power?” he said in lieu of a greeting.


    “Seems like it” Martin said. “Is it just me, or is it a but strong for an iron ranker?”


    Dustin peered at Seras and nodded his head. “Seems like those exercises paid off after all. Do you remember what I said about retracting your aura?” Dustin asked.


    Seras frowned, but eventually nodded her head. Nothing about Dustin’s lessons should have made her aura stronger, but instead of questioning it he gave her a quick excuse. They would discuss it later.


    Seras closed her eyes and reached out with invisible mental fingers and tried to pull back her aura. It kept slipping through her metaphorical fingers, but eventually she got it retracted. Though it didn’t feel like an unassailable steel wall like Dustin’s.


    “Good enough for now.” Dustin said with a grunt. “What kind of aura did you get?”


    “Aura of Ruin.” Seras answered.


    “Well that’s a bit on the nose.” Martin said.


    “Yup” Seras agreed. “It says it provides a stacking affliction called enfeeblement.”


    Dustin summoned up a tablet from his personal storage power. Seras had already looked it up on her own, but she didn’t want to reveal to many of her strange abilities. “Found it. Seems to me like this power revolves around slowly chipping away at tough opponents. Making them slower, weaker, and eventually it’ll cause disorientation. At silver it even weakness healing powers and cleansing powers.”


    Seras considered that. “Does that mean my abilities might trend towards afflictions?”


    “Maybe.” Dustin said. “But it also seems like it might favor a combat style with consistent, continuous attacks. You might be an endurance damage dealer. Or even a skirmisher like me. My aura makes my enemies more susceptible to fire and burning.”


    Seras was sort of hoping it would be the later options. She had looked up affliction users, and they were all about slow, inevitable, wasting deaths. Necrosis, hemorrhages, diseases, or even growing plants within their blood veins. Which was gross.


    Seras wanted no part of anyone that.


    “Seras, Petra was having trouble with one of the tents, mind giving her a hand?” Dustin asked.


    Seras could read between the lines, and knew that he just wanted her to leave so that he could talk to Martin in private.


    “Kay, see you later Martin.” She said with a wave.


    ~~~*~~~


    Martin glanced nervously at the Blazing Outrider. The man had been perfectly friendly and helpful, but a part of him still felt nervous around him. Martin had only recently reached bronze and started doing his own trade runs.


    Dustin Westbrooke had been doing this for longer than Martin had been alive.


    “Uh sir-“ Martin began.


    Dustin held his hand up, his eyes going serious. “So you went ahead even after she turned you down?”


    Martin gulped. “She said she wasn’t into men.” He said carefully.


    Dustin nodded “I had wondered if that was the case. But even if she did I doudt she would have said yes.”


    Martin shifted uncomfortably. He felt like he was a teen again, he had experienced talks like this from fathers when he came to pick up the girl. Though he hadn’t been expecting to get this from Dustin Westbrooke. “She said her life was too complicated for that sort of thing.”


    Dustin’s eyes bore into Martin’s. “And you still gave that stone.” He said slowly. “Did she try to reject it.”


    “Yes” Martin answered.


    “Then why’d you insist on it. Are you hoping to persuade her later on, or are you just looking for a favor.”


    “Neither.” Martin said. “As a man there are certain things you just gotta do. She saved my life twice, i’d be a piss poor excuse of a man if I didn’t properly thank her.” Martin said firmly.


    Dustin held his eyes for a long moment, then huis stern face melted into a smile. He patted Martin on the back “You got a good head on your shoulders kid.”


    Martin blinked several times in rapid succession. That was a dramatic change in attitude. “Uh, thank you sir.”


    Dustin hand remained on his shoulder “Your new to running your own caravan. Otherwise you would have noticed that the Ostryx’ attacks were too spread out to be one group. How about you ride next to me until we get to the next rock, I can give you some pointers and maybe teach you some trade secrets.”


    Martin was stunned. His last boss had never been so generous, and Martin was quickly learning that he just didn’t have enough experience to make it in this business. “That would be amazing.”


    “Good” Dustin said as he patted Martin’s shoulder. “It would be a shame for a good lad like you to fail early on because no one showed you the ropes.”