Genshin Impact: Reborn Engineer

Carman was in his hidden workshop. He was etching two new circles into his work table one for Transformation, and the other Transfiguration. He wanted to get a grasp on the limits of his control over these abilities.

Transfiguration allowed him to change the material and object was made with, while Transformation allowed him to change its shape. This opened the door to many possibilities. If he was proficient enough, maybe he could recreate the parts that Ryuzu had melted in her fight against the Ruin Guard.

(A/N: The Halloween short story wasn't in sync with the current events when I posted it. This is basically the starting point leading up to that part of the story, just wanted to clear any potential confusion.)

Tossing a few objects into the Transfiguration circle, Carman places his hand on the edge and channeled some Hydro energy into the circle. He felt a significant amount of ambient hydro energy flow into the lines as it started to glow a faint blue color. Waves of energy emanated from the circle, as it entered Carman's body information started to flow into his mind about the objects he had placed into the circle.

It was a combination of junk he had kept in his storage, from Gardemek parts to wild herbs, and a few stones he had picked up from the grass in Chenyu Vale.

He could "see" the atomic makeup of these objects, and the amount of energy that they held. Looking at the rocks, he tried to shift the atomic structure around, to change the sedimentary rock into an ignius stone. Since they were roughly made of the same components it wasn't too difficult, as he had also tossed an ignius rock into the pile with the other junk. Using the original ignius rock as a blueprint, he broke the atomic bonds of the sedimentary stones and layered them in a similar pattern.

When Carman was done, he had a large ignius stone that was suspiciously similar to the one he had copied. It seemed that he would have to practice copying the general layout of atoms while also creating flaws and unique inclusions or formations. It wouldn't do if he were to try and duplicate a ruby, only to get refused because all of his gems looked the same.

Then again, why would he try to use this ability to make quick money? Fontaine had strict commerce laws that oversaw trade, a sudden influx of precious materials would likely draw someone's attention. Even then, the Fatui or the treasure hoarders might try to investigate the source. No at least for the moment, Carman swore off trying to use this skill for quick profits.

However thinking of this idea, Carman picked up the materials from the Transfiguration circle and moved them over to the Transformation table. Repeating the process of siphoning ambient energy into the circle he was once again sensing. Using the energy stored in the circle, he shifted the shape of the Brass Gears. He changes them from a collection of mismatched sizes into a small cuboid box that split along its edges to open, on the outside he made the metal twist and deform, making wave patterns with small slots for gems to be inserted. Pulling a sapphire he had looted from one of Vacher's many storehouses, Carman tossed it into the circle. He forced it to split into dozens of pieces and fit themselves into the slots in the box he had made earlier.

Taking both of his hands off of the circle, Carman reached his hands out and picked up the box. It was deceptively heavy but the patterns looked immaculate.

With a simple push with his thumb, the sides of the cube came apart from the edges into three panels showing the interior.

Thinking it would be an interesting box to store fancier commissions in, Carman stored the box in his storage to show Livre later.

Carman then pulled out some iron ore he had obtained. He tossed them into the Transfiguration circle and powered it up again. Using the circle, he removed the oxygen and other impurities from the iron bar. After he was left with a solid chunk of iron and a pile of dust, Carman took some charcoal and tossed it in.

He stripped the Carbon from the charcoal and moved it to the iron. He though that if he could manipulate the atoms of a substance, then mixing atoms from one source to the other shouldn't be impossible.

Carefully, Carman moved the carbon atoms in between the iron ones. He didn't know the atomic structure of steel, but he felt that using the carbon to bind the Iron atoms together was the rough principal. It took about an hour of intense concentration, but at the end of it, Carman had three ingots of a dark silver colored metal.

As he finished, he collapsed onto the nearby chair and breathed heavily. Focusing on the circles for so long without much of a break had been more tiring than he expected.

After about an hour, he picked up the dark metal that he hoped was steel and placed it onto the Transformation circle. Placing his hands into the circle, Carman pulled up the blueprint for a revolver in his mind.

Carefully manipulating the energy, Carman made the metal mold itself into the various parts. When he was done, he took some machine oil and lubricated the moving parts before assembling the weapon. Then he moved on to the Gunpowder, waling over to the alchemy table, Carman placed a few Pryor flower stamens, stems, and roots. Channelling the energy needed to power the table, Carman followed the instructions in us mind. After a while, the flower parts crumbles into a black dust. Carman swept the dust I to the Transformation circle. Alongside the powder Carman placed some silver ingots and electro crystals. Using the circle, he shaped the silver into bullets that would fit into the revolver, placed the Pyro Gunpowder into it, and sealed it with a cap made from Electro crystal that had been planted with metal to prevent a premature overload reaction between the two.

Placing six of the bullets into the chamber, Carman pointed the muzzle at the wall, pulled the hammer back and pulled the trigger.

-BAM-

with a large explosion, red and purple energy swirled out of the pipe as the bullet was flung out too fast to be seen. A hole appeared in the wall and smoke started to clear from the end of the gun.

Dropping the weapon, Carman quickky started to massage his ears.

That was really loud. Probably shouldn't have tested it in such a small space. Thought Carman as he waited for the mild tinnitus to clear.

A few seconds after he had fired the gun, Ryuzu was at the entrance of the workspace looking around. She had heard the gunshot from the apartment and rushed down as fast as she could without breaking through the building and ground.

"Is everything alright? I heard an explosion, do you need medical assistance?" She asked while observing Carman and the revolver in front of him.

"No, just suffering from some mild Tinnitus, should clear up in a bit. I should probably also train my wrists, the recoil was rough." Said Carman

"Why train? Why not make something to stableize your stance? As an engineer you should know that the flesh is weak and crave the strength and certainty of steel." Said Ryuzu with a small smile.

"I never should have introduced you to Warhammer." Said Carman while chuckling. "This is something I can easily train to do. It wouldn't be good to to have to rely on something external to wield my weapons."

Carman didn't mention that he had also increasing his practice time wielding his spear and catalyst. He was sure Ryuzu had noticed his nightly training, but no matter what he did he just couldn't shake the sense of dread he was feeling.

-To be continued