^^ Guard's Armor ^^

--- 77 Days AD ---

I snarled softly and stalked around her, focused on the frozen man, who's knees were shaking. I bared my teeth, licking my fangs until they were gleaming white with a fresh liquid coat, and then lunged.

---

I pinned the man down quickly, and lunged for his throat, only for Jazz to tackle me, pulling me off of him. She was the same size as me, and built thicker, as a Tiger was simply stronger than a leopard, so I couldn't fight her like this.

I hissed, and tried to go around her. Tizzy ran up, fuming. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!?" She yelled at me.

I pinned my ears back, hissing louder, and leapt over them Both, launching my giant body at the man.

Jazz crashed into me midair, again saving the man, and then pinned me, roaring.

I shifted human for a moment, slipped out from under her, and darted at the man, drawing a knife.

This time, Tizzy stopped me, blocking my path before I could react. I growled, and she punched my mouth, barely fazing me.

"Why are you attacking my brother?" She hissed.

I paused. "You have a brother? Oh... Ooooh, this makes sense. You spend time with your brother on Sunday's... Okay... Hmm... What's up, guy, sorry about the whole killing  thing. Instincts, you know? No hard feelings?" I grinned at her 'brother'.

He fainted.

I hummed. "That wasn't my fault. I didn't do that. Making it clear now."

Tizzy was fuming. I hummed again and hugged her, kissing her deeply, and she slowly relaxed, her arms wrapping around me reflexively. I released her, and Jazz caught her.

"Thanks for making sure I didn't kill her brother... That might've been a situation." I smiled, unfazed.

My instinctual rage was gone as soon as it'd come, leaving me just as zen as always.

I poked the guy, and hummed. I clapped, and nothing happened. I grabbed a pail of water, and tossed it on him.

He snapped awake, and I helped him up. "Hello, I'm Caleb, how do you do? You had quite the spill there, you alright?" I asked.

"You, you attacked-"

"Me? That doesn't sound like me. I was about to introduce myself when you fainted. Are you alright? Any fever, sickness?" I asked, avoiding the problem.

He hummed, pressing his forehead. "I do feel a little dizzy..."

"Hmm. You might want to get that checked out, man. What's your name? You're Tizzy's brother?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm Achtis... Uhm... Yeah, I think I'm going to go get my head checked out... Bye, Tiz, see you next... Next week..." He slowly walked away.

I hummed. "That was a big misunderstanding, wasn't it! Eesh. Overreaction... Tern warned me, but... Wow. That was a rush. Hmph. What were we doing?" I asked Jazz.

"We have a meeting with the Emperor, of all people. Let's go before we're late." She warned.

I nodded. "Tizzy, you alright?" I asked her quickly.

She nodded slowly. "Yeah... Just... Wow. That was equally awesome and terrifying..."

I nodded again. "Okay she's fine. Let's go."

---

I stepped into the throne room, and walked forward, kneeling before the throne. "Hello, Emperor. How does this morning find you?"

"Weary... And slightly annoyed." He hummed.

"I am sad to hear it, Emperor. Tell me of your grievances, and I will do my utmost to address them." I responded, bowing my head to hide my calculating eyes.

He hummed softly. "Someone is selling high-powered weapons across my city. And several of my guards have already lost their lives."

"I am sorry that my wares are being used in such a way. If it pleases you, I could easily arm your guards with better armaments, and that should prevent any more... Horrendous loss of life." I said simply, not even denying it was me.

He blinked slowly. "I enjoy your honesty... It brings me a small amount of peace that a man of your quality is among my nobility. I appreciate your offer, and accept. Talk to my master of coin about the Monetary arrangements."

"As you command, Emperor. And are there any other grievances I may address, Even ones not related to me?" I asked boldly.

He chuckled. "Indeed, you seem to wish to be an advisor of some kind..."

"No, emperor. I simply enjoy solving... Problems. Of any kind." I said, raising my cold eyes to meet his own calculating ones.

"We are of one mind, it seems... I do have certain issues you could address... I will send details with a courier, and I would wish them solved by the next Jyardan." He nodded.

"Of course, my Emperor... I live to serve." I bowed and stood slowly, walking backward out of the room.

--- 78 Days AD ---

I finished my draft for the guards bulletproof armors, and their rifles, Which I would make capable of firing tranquilizers, smoke bombs, and 9mm cartridges. I was thinking something like the standard issue SWAT rifles back home.

There would be magnetic traction assistance, mechanically assisted movement, and the standard White and Blue colors of a Police Officer. The visors would include scatter vision and infrared, as well as a connection to a database on all the criminals in the city, which I currently had Tizzy building manually.

Our Applied Research class had allowed it to be our Semester Project, so we had help; at least, with the Database.

I set about with plans for a connection to the Database in the City. One of my lots was still empty...

I drafted plans quickly for an antenna, hidden in a glass pyramid, like in France. The Louvre, I think it was called. Except that was a museum, or art Gallery... Whatever.

I calculated its reach to be a stable seven miles, meaning it wouldn't cover the whole city... Dammit... I needed it to be twenty feel taller... Well, I'm sure I can explain it someway. A lightning rod? Yes, that's what it'll be.

I added the twenty feet, adding five extra just because, and it stretched over the city walls, strong enough to reach through stone, the actual signal would spread, thinly, for at least 125 miles, but it wasn't crystal clear, like I wanted, and it wouldn't reach through a stone wall outside of the city.

I nodded and finalized it, then secured a shipment for the metal and glass.

--- 80 days AD ---

I tightened the last bolt, finishing my spire atop my pyramid. It isn't have all the glass on yet, but that was for aesthetic anyway. Soon it would be ready for visitors, as a sort of resort for nobility and high-class merchants. Each level would have all the amenities of a penthouse from my Home, and the top would become my permanent residence outside of the College, instead of the inn in the slums, though I enjoyed it.

It was the smallest, at 2,500 SqFt, but it had the best view of them all, overlooking the bay on one side, the river on the other, the farms beyond the City Walls on a third, and the market on the fourth, though I would have holographic Windows on all sides, for everyone else, showing beautiful views that my Familiar's had gathered, either flying or swimming or slithering.

I tested the signals strength, and grinned when all five dots lit up on my signal counter, sitting down in my newly wired Study. I was the only radio signal on the air, so I could conquer the radio empire, if I wanted.

I was going to push this world into the platinum age of technology, with no Fossil Fuel Age to ruin the planet first. Everything I was doing was non-damaging to the environment, which was important to me.

I took a break from my plans of world domination, and looked at my 3D World Render. It was 92% finished, and the Aerial renders were done for all the habitable planets in the solar system.

I sent the Roc's further, telling them to explore the Solar System to its fullest, but not to leave it just yet. I sent just one to the center of the Galaxy, to check out the Black Hole in the Center.

As magical being's, unaffected by gravity, they wouldn't be crushed by the Black Hole's gravitational tides, and could research the inside of a black hole with no worries. It would be a Decade or so before he arrived, even at the Roc's full speed of around 1,000,000 Astronomical Units a second, far faster than light.

I also researched ways to halt the planet's gravitational decay. The sun and planets were slowly slipping out of a synchronous orbit, and that wasn't okay.

So if I could make glyphs to force one object to stay in the exact same place for eternity, then I could use that on the solar system to make its orbits perfect forever, and they wouldn't de-sync that way, at least.

I started researching that, and sent the proposal through my new wired connection to the Nova Core, sending it to my Glyph's teacher for my Semester Project.

The Semester Projects were basically the replacement for the 'Tournament' for all non-Combat Oriented subjects.

So far I had Three already complete, out of my Eight Subjects, Two of which were in the Tournament, Physical Warfare and Magical Warfare. We still hadn't been told what the format for the Tournament would be, which annoyed me.

She quickly replied, telling me it'd been tried before. The Glyph's weren't powerful enough, and no one knew how to amplify them, and the last twenty or so mages to try had died.

I smirked and replied. 'If I can solve that, will I pass?'

About four seconds later, I received another E-Mail. '... Yes.'

I laughed. 'Be right back. 😘😎😋'

She replied again. 'Did you just... Use little yellow smiling faces to send me a message? I don't understand.'

'It's nothing important. Give me a Moment.'

I started writing a formula to push motion energy into a glyph, so that any energy spent trying to break the glyph just powered it. So, if the planets tried to move, they'd power the Glyph's that stopped them from doing so.

I sent the basic idea to her, though not the specifics, and she took a full hour before responding. She responded by suddenly knocking on my door, and busting in, huffing in effort.

"You know, you're pretty spry for an elderly lady." I laughed, surprised.

"Shush, ya Punk Kid. Now. Explain who taught you this theory?" She demanded.

"No one. I came up with it just now as we were talking, see?" I showed her my notes, then put them away. "I'll call it... Hmm... Ah! 'The Law of Magical Surplus'. Get it? Because excess energy is turned into magical power." I grinned.

She sat down in my spare computer chair heavily, still huffing for breath. "What are you?"

"Tired, hungry... Oh, and a genius." I raised an eyebrow.

She laughed weakly. "Arrogant little Druk... Alright, fine. Fine. Make it happen, and I'll pass you all the way to Master in Glyph's."

"Sounds great." I grinned. "Now get out of my house, please. I'm not even sure how you knew where I was."

"I'm a professor. I know where all my students live." She shrugged.

"That's not creepy at all." I said sarcastically.

"I don't care." She shrugged again, walking out at a more reasonable pace.

--- 84 Days AD, Jyardan ---

I handed the rifle to the Head of the Emperor's City Guard, and he hummed.

"Interesting... I've seen something almost like this before... But never thought I'd hold such expensive equipment..." He hummed.

"The Emperor asked me to arm the Guards appropriately, as reparations for arming the men who took some of your men's lives." I said clearly.

He nodded. "Ah. So this isn't an act of philanthropy."

"Not even close. I'd also like any critique for the equipment. Any way it can be improved. This is only the primary weapon. There's also a sidearm, armor, and a communications device, that will connect to a central sever and Crime Database. I'm also upgrading your base of operations. After I'm finished, you'll be as ready as I can make you. Any questions?"

"No... Sir." He shook his head slowly.

--- seven hours later ---

"Alright, you're all online, yes?"

"YES, SIR!"

"Alright. Access the Current Criminal Database, by looking at me and accessing it mentally. It will show you a false criminal record attached to my face, just for the purpose of the Exercise." I said.

They contacted their database, and I grinned. "Perfect. Has anyone not found my record?"

"NO, SIR!"

"Good. Now I'll remove that, and try it again, to show you what a normal citizen looks like." I said.

--- 1 Hour Later ---

"Alright, and this will let you tell the guards about any crime you witness on these cameras, and give them a location, so they can solve it. Got it?" I asked.

The woman, a graduated Mage from the college, nodded. "I understand it, yes."

"Alright, then get to work." I grinned.

--- 2 hours later ---

"Alright Chief. All yours, once again, go on and patrol the streets or whatever." I shrugged.

I walked back to the Palace, and eventually made it to my Island, falling into my bed next to a steadily Sleeping Jazz, and the studiously Reading Tizzy.