Jared adjusted the gauntlet in his right hand aiming it front of him. A laser pointer marked the dummy twenty meters away from him, then Jared activated the gauntlets. A sonic blast erupted from the gauntlet, precisely striking the dummy and knocking it down.

  With the firing mechanism stable, Jared now needed to do some live testing to find out if the stun functions work. To do that, he either needed to find a willing test subject, find a monster, or get a permit to use live animals.

  “Yeah... I’ll just use monsters.”

  The first option had too much risks that he couldn’t afford to take and the third option would take too long to get approved. Testing on monsters would only require him to head to a low-level danger zone to find a weak monster and test the gauntlet on it.

  “I wonder if the others would like to go too,” Jared muttered.

  If he remembered correctly, Kier was working on repair drones, while Sanie was working on a new type of all-terrain vehicle. Lucas is always working on golems.

  “I'll go ask them.”

  ------------

  Macey had been entrusted with a task that greatly affected the future success of her family. As the daughter from the fourth wife and wasn’t even in line to be the next head of the household, this task was a great honor, so she needed to ensure things went smoothly.

  “You can take a seat,” Lucas Atican said since Macey was standing in the corner of his office while he was working on the cube that forms the golem.

  “I’m fine here,” Macey replied.

  In the course of a month, Macey checked the progress on the golem every other day to ensure things were going well. And thankfully, there was clear progress being seen in such little time. The head granted a period of six months to a whole year, but this wasn’t mentioned in the contract. Instead, it was a deadline set for Macey.

  As Lucas Atican was quietly working on the golem, Macey’s eyes began to roam. She has probably been here in his office more times than she has met her father. And every time she comes here, there would be subtle changes. From new scripts being taped to the wall, or a bunch of artifacts that needed to be repaired in the corner of the room.

  “Ms. Macey. Can I ask what rank are you?”

  Macey raised an eyebrow. “I’m a Viscount-ranked mage. Why?”

  “I need to test the durability of the golem again,” he answered.

  A Viscount-ranked mage is already considered an elite that could destroy a whole town and is commonly achieved at the age of 30, but Macey achieved it at 25. It may seem impressive, but compared to Merida who attained it at 19, Macey was nothing.

  Despite all that, Macey was not envious of her. Merida was the daughter to the main wife that was from a reputable house as well. That put her as a candidate to be next head of the household. But even with her status, Merida didn’t treat Macey as inferior, so Macey only held respect for Merida.

  “Are you okay?” Lucas asked.

  Macey snapped back to reality. “Ah. I’m fine,” she answered, realizing that she got lost in thought.

  “You don’t need to compare yourself to others,” Lucas mentioned, making Macey look at him with a raised eyebrow, confused that he somehow knew what was on her mind. “The only person you need to surpass is yourself. Every step forward will still get you somewhere,” he told her before turning back to his work.

  Macey felt a shiver run up her spine as an unknown feeling wells up inside her.

  ---------------

  “You want to come?” Lucas asked as Macey stood at the door of his office.

  Jared had invited him to join him in a field test in a danger zone. Lucas had agreed since it would be a good chance to test the golem he was working on and Percival could act as bodyguard for them.

  “Yes. You will be testing the golem, correct?” Macey spoke.

  Lucas nodded. “Yeah, but didn’t you check on it yesterday?”

  “There was no field test yesterday,” Macey countered. “So, I will come with you today,” she said firmly.

  “Okay...”

  “Having a mage with us is a good thing,” Jared mentioned as he carried a duffle bag out of his office. “I mean we’re literally going to a place called a danger zone after all.”

  “The more the merrier!” Kier exclaimed as he was pulling a large luggage case out of his office. “By the way we need to hurry since Sanie is waiting at parking.”

  After grabbing everything they needed, they hurried down to the underground parking of the company to find Sanie. He wasn’t hard to find since he was standing beside a car with large open wheels that did not seem to be made of rubber.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “The material of the tires is called Gallo tar,” Sanie revealed as they drove out of the building. “It’s held together using magic, so even if it’s in a semi-liquid state, it stays in one piece and adjusts in shape to the terrain.”

  “Using a liquid as a tire. Unbelievable,” Kier muttered as he stared at the tire that was still spinning like a wheel despite not even being round. “I don’t know what’s real anymore.”

  “Blame Lucas,” Sanie responded while driving.

  Lucas turned to him with a slightly offended face. “What did I do?”

  “I got inspiration for that wheel after seeing you repeatedly try to turn a barrel of tar into a golem,” Sanie explained.

  “He’s got a point. I watched you do that for several months,” Jared added.

  Lucas just gave them a flat look.

  A few more conversations later, they finally arrived at the class 1 danger zone where they were going to do some field testing. Class 1 danger zones only contained monsters that can still be killed using normal weapons like guns and knives. Monsters that even civilians could kill, but even so, the area is isolated by a giant metal wall that’s constantly monitored by the military to protect civilians.

  As they were passing the gates, they were asked to sign a waiver. Once they were inside, they were met with a forest and mossy ruins.

  “Shall we set up first?” Macey asked, recalling the numerous times she watched Lucas do field tests.

  “We got everything mostly ready,” Jared replied, taking out his duffel bag from the trunk if the car and taking out the gauntlet.

  “We’re not allowed to do the same kind of set ups I do in the company here,” Lucas mentioned as Kier took out his drone in the background. “It’s not a controlled environment after all.”

  As everyone got ready for their own tests, monster started to appear. Little gremlin-like monsters with red skin came out of the bushes carrying weapons made of stone and wood.

  “I’ll start us off,” Jared aimed his gauntlets and fired a sonic blast that passed through the monsters.

  Everyone watched as the monsters were stunned in place, their bodies seemingly vibrating. “What’s that?” Lucas asked.

  Jared grinned. “It’s a new rune I made. It sends a signal using sound waves to mess with nerves, preventing them from acting how you want them too,” he explained.

  “Now I understand why you guys wanted to wait for your golems,” Lucas replied. “You want some personal features,” he grinned.

  “You fucking know it!” Jared exclaimed as he fired another shot in the air, hitting a big red bird with horns.

  Lucas turned to Sanie who started driving around the rocky terrain with ease using his car. Thanks to the semi-liquid form of the tires, the car drove smoothly as if the ground was smooth as a highway. The durability of the car was impressive too, seeing as the monsters kept attacking it, but only managed to leave a few scratches and small dents. That’s when Kier’s drone came in, somehow magically fixing any damage done to the car.

  “Their inventions are impressive,” Macey commented.

  “Yeah, and I heard they already got a bunch of them made in the past,” Lucas replied.

  Unlike him, his officemates were all employees of Waywood even before their office was created. Some of them started as a part-time worker, while Sanie came from an entirely different department.

  “Shouldn’t you get started as well?” Macey asked.

  “I’ll need something bigger or a larger group if I want to test out the golem,” Lucas replied. “And we’re too close to the wall. By the way, aren’t you hot?” Lucas glanced at Macey wearing the Winterbelle military uniform.

  “Are you flirting with me?” Macey raised an eyebrow.

  “No, I mean the weather’s hot here,” Lucas stammered.

  Macey just laughed. “Yes, it’s hot, but I’m using magic to keep myself cool.”

  “Convenient,” Lucas commented.

  The group headed deeper into the danger zone, encountering more monsters as they continued. During this, Lucas caught a glimpse of how Macey fought. Unlike Merida who preferred creating walls of ice before attacking, Macey constantly used ice magic in wide burst to whittle down her enemies. But since the monsters here were weak, they all died in one shot.

  Eventually, they spotted a red pillar, signifying that they were heading into more dangerous territory with far stronger monsters. “Should we stop here?” Lucas asked.

  “You haven’t gotten the chance to test out your golem,” Kier mentioned.

  “It’s fine, I could just have Percival go for a round with it,” Lucas replied.

  He didn’t want to risk the others safety just for his own benefit. Additionally, he was already in a streak of bad luck, he didn’t want to test it.

  But it seemed the universe had other plans as a roar shook the area. “Why can’t my story be a romantic comedy?” Lucas grumbled as they turned to see a tiger with green and white stripes running towards them.

  Taking out the marble from his Spatial core and tossing it. Iris: Winterbelle materialized, causing the nearby vegetation to start freezing. At the appearance of the goliath, the green tiger stopped its charge. But the goliath only saw it as an opportunity and fired two rocket hands to grab the tiger.

  Everyone watched as the monster got helplessly dragged towards the golem before its hands locked back in place, then proceeded to tear the tiger in half.

  “...” Everyone watched in silent horror and interest.

  Jared placed a hand on Lucas’s shoulder. “I hereby forbid you of making any form of AI.”

  ----------------

  After leaving the danger zone, the group went their separate ways once they reached the city. Jared took a train home, while Kier had to stop by the market to do some grocery shopping. Sanie had to return his car to the company parking area since it wasn’t allowed to be parked in public places. And Lucas and Macey decided to get some food.

  “This place has nice food,” Lucas muttered as he looked through the menu while Macey sat across him in the restaurant.

  A few people glanced at them since Macey was wearing an unfamiliar military uniform and had quite the intimidating aura.

  “You don’t seem bothered by the stares,” Macey commented.

  “I choose to just ignore them,” Lucas replied. “Besides, there’s only a few people.”

  Macey chuckled. “You would have turned around and left if it was crowded, right?”

  “Wouldn’t have even passed the door,” Lucas confirmed.

  “You don’t seem to like social interactions very much. You only started talking to me comfortably after three weeks.”

  Lucas nodded. “Yeah. It takes a while for me to get used to people.”

  “Dating must be a challenge,” Macey stated as she began pressing buttons on a monitor beside their table to inform the restaurant of their order.

  “I guess? I don’t really know how to tell if a woman is interested or just being friendly.”

  Macey raised an eyebrow. “And what kind of women are you even interested in? Women like Merida? Young and beautiful?”

  Lucas rubbed his chin in thought. “Preferably, I don’t want someone that’s too flashy and popular. I also like them to be a bit older than me,” Lucas added.

  Macey nodded. “I see.”