“Aki!” The Grand Forge Master shouts, entering the workshop. “Move your ass, I have job for you!”

  “What happened?” Asked the rabbit beastman.

  “You knew about guns. Yes?”

  “Yes. My father was obsessed with them, and I learned a few things from him.” He shrugs. It was a lie. Just like his father, he was obsessed too. The difference was that his father died trying to create a useful gun. No one knows what caused an explosion in his workshop back then, but it was true that he had many dangerous alchemical compounds there. For everyone, it was another proof that guns weren’t practical. You need a simple fire spell, and you got an explosion. But the truth was different, and only Aki knew it. His father wasn’t an alchemist. He was an artificer, and his goal was to build a magical version of the gun. Now it was Aki’s goal. He needs to prove his father wasn’t a madman.

  “Good. Our Dungeon Mistress built one. And it doesn’t use any alchemical solution. At least, according to adventurers' testimonies and the lack of usual smell on the parts. Probably it uses steam, but it’s hard to say from this junk.” Eriser throws parts on the table. “Try to figure out what is what. You will go on the next expedition, too. We need an intact example of it.”

  “Sure thing.” He shrugs, faking indifference. But his eyes were already fixed on the parts lying on the table. And his mind raced, trying to figure out what was what.

  Eriser found him in the morning, sleeping on the table.

  “Hard night. Huh?” He asked after waking him up.

  “It happens, Grand Forge Master.” Aki yawned.

  “So, what did you find?”

  “It’s a steam gun. We lack a container of the steam and a few small parts, but it could work.”

  “So you could fulfil your father's dream.”

  “Sort of. He wanted to substitute alchemy with magic. But this could help. With time, maybe I could substitute steam with magic? There are spells for throwing things. I was thinking for a long time why my father failed, and now I probably have an answer.”

  “He tried using an exploding spell to push the projectile, but in reality, it’s all about pushing,” Eriser said.

  “It looks that way.” Aki nodded. “Anyway, I need to build some tools for dismantling a new golem. It will be impossible to rebuild it without parts from the dungeon.”

  “Yeah. Even knowing that all this was created by dungeon magic, it’s still hard to imagine the tools needed to build parts with such high precision.”

  “Knowing Dungeon Mistress, I bet she has half of her inner space filled with machines and tools to do that.”

  “She certainly did that. Anyway, we have work to do. You get something to eat, and I will begin forming the molds.”

  “Will I have to help with the steel smelting, or can I work with the dismantling tools?”

  “Work on tools. We need those parts intact. Until now, this one hexagonal wrench was enough. But as the complexity of golems increases, other tools will be essential.”

  “Understood, Grand Forge Master.”

  A few days later, Aki finally saw the intact steam gun inside the golem. He immediately unfolded a piece of leather containing a set of tools he had prepared. There was set of hexagonal wrenches for screws similar to thous holding lid on the forhed of golems heads. Each had a different size, ranging from three millimeters to a whole centimeter. Aki also build adjustable wrench for more traditional screws, and to dismatling pipes. They looked like compass but instead of pointy ends they had jaws to cach sides of the screw. To set the desired width, it was necessary to select a set of holes on each arm and connect them with a crossbar.

  “I will need some time,” Aki told the adventurer assisting him. Usually, in rooms, adventurers move forward after three-quarters of an hour. Fifteen minutes was enough time to leave the room before the reset. But in an open setting like here, it wasn't needed. After you acquire one-fourth of the fallen prey, it will disappear and appear in another part of the floor. Thanks to that, you could take as much time as you need to procure materials. And in deeper floors, butchering animals is sometimes the only way to procure food.

  Late afternoon, leaders of teams gathered to discuss the outcome of the first day of the new expedition.

  “I think those new hammers work.” Nurmela started.

  “Agree. But I wonder if there is an easier way to break the shell.” Achille said.

  “You can unscrew screws holding it,” Aki answered giving them one screw and his biggest hexagonal wrench.

  “You are telling me you could do that and didn’t tell us?” Crall was not amused.

  “I checked this on the last one, and you all had so much fun swinging those hammers anyway.” Aki shrugs.

  “Fair point.” Jilax nodded.

  “How much for one of these wrenches?” Nurmela asked.

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  “Five silver. But to properly dismantle everything, you will need a whole set of tools.” Aki pointed at his folded piece of leather containing wrenches.

  “Great. Now I will need to become a blacksmith. What next, mage?” Crall grumbled.

  “There are two other options,” Aki answered.

  “Which are?” Nurmela asked.

  “The first one is that you could destroy and gut golems like usual. But half of the parts you will get that way will be worthless.”

  “And the second option.”

  “Just hire a young artisan interested in golems. Even an apprentice will do. He will learn things, and you will get parts.”

  “I like that,” Achille said, and the other leaders agreed.

  The second day turns out to be boring. Waiting for Aki to dismantle the shell and anything useful takes time. Whole shell was screwed by twelve screws alone, and there was only one wrench. The adventurers had had enough. With the second golem, they decided to break its armor. Aki laughed, seeing them. However, adventurers slowly get the knack for how to deal with turtles. The general opinion was that this floor wasn’t bad. Strange, and there was a matter of a fight with a snake golem, but golem turtles were an easy target. Afternoon, that opinion changed.

  Iason approached Nurmela and other leaders. He was covered in soot.

  “Iason, what happened? You tripped and landed in a campfire?” Nurmela laughed.

  “No, it was a volcano, with lava and the rest. It’s in the second room.” He quipped, and silence fell over the camp.

  “You are kidding me. Are there more rooms?” Jilax asked.

  “Hard to say if there is a third room. There are just too many of the golem lizards to try scouting. And the air there is so hot and hard to breathe.”

  It took the adventurers two days to reach the entrance to the second room. The long corridor made from black stone was hot, but when they reached the room, they felt like they stood next to a smelting furnace.

  “Shit,” Jilax commented seeing dark cave with only source of light being molten rock.

  “And I was complaining how hot the desert was.” Crall shook his head.

  “Dungeon Mistress stopped joking,” Nurmela said. “Let's head back. We need to think how to deal with this shit.”

  All adventurers agree.

  A week later, Naomi was taking a stroll on the walls of her citadel. She loved looking at the horizon and imagining all the cities and places she had heard stories about from travelers. She knew that she would never see them herself. However, she had ideas and time.

  Her daydreaming was interrupted by a strange but familiar sound and lively discussion. She leaned over the battlements to see what was going on. There was the Grand Forge Master and some of his workers. One of them, Aki, if she remembers correctly, was wearing a strange device on his back and was holding something like a pipe in his hands. At first, she couldn’t guess what she saw. Then Aki raised the pipe to his shoulder, and there was a sound ‘pow’ followed by ‘bang’ when something hit a target a few dozen pieces ahead. Then Naomi realized what she saw. It was her steam gun from the seventh floor. She shouted and waved at the Grand Forge Master. He saw her immediately.

  “I need to talk! Meet me at the southern tower!” Naomi shouted and pointed to the nearest tower. Eraser raised his hand to show he understood, and Naomi ran to the entrance.

  When they met, Naomi observed.

  “I see you know how to handle a gun.” Aki was pointing it at the ground.

  “I think of it as a loaded crossbow, Dungeon Mistress,” Aki replied.

  “That is a good parallel. Did you encounter any issues while rebuilding it?”

  “Only with learning the proper pressure of steam. But after a few trials, we learn how to handle it.”

  “Good. Even in such a small container, pressured steam or air carries a lot of power.”

  “We saw that for ourselves.” The Grand Forge Master said.

  “I hope no one was seriously injured?”

  “We do that deliberately, so we were prepared,” Eraser answered.

  “Good. Can I see your steam gun?”

  “Of course, Dungeon Mistress,” Aki answered without hesitation. “I will be honored by any insight or criticism.” He added and kneeled to make it easier for the Dungeon Mistress to inspect the steam gun. He was much taller than she.

  “Thank you,” Naomi answered and immediately started checking every part. She touched, looked, and even used mana to be sure she didn’t miss anything. Her dungeon constructs always work within perfect parameters. There wasn't material fatigue, no wear and tear. But after being taken out of the dungeon, normal laws of physics started working. And there was also mana. From an engineering point of view, it was a new, unknown force of nature interacting unpredictably with complicated machinery. Yes, there are countless machines in this world, but people believe that building something carefully is enough. No one asked why or observed how mana interacted with those machines.

  “Good work,” Naomi said after inspecting all parts. “I have only one advice, but you probably know it anyway. Safety.”

  Eraser and Aki nodded.

  “Ok. Details then. As we said earlier, keep an eye on pressure. You left my safety valves in place, so you are relatively safe. But they aren’t covered, so dirt or something could block it. The second thing is to find a way to protect the release valve from accidental use. But overall, it’s an exact copy of my design, so it should work as intended. However, my creations don’t have contact with the real world, where anything could go wrong. So until you are sure about the reliability of your steam gun, keep a close eye on its operation.”

  “That is what we were doing right now, Dungeon Mistress,” Eriser assured her.

  “I’m sorry for nagging like old granny, but I’m worried about how my creation will affect people.”

  “Prophecy, yes.” The Grand Forge Master nodded. “It’s a funny thing. Turns out the more complicated thing you, Dungeon Mistress, show us, becomes less likely to breach prophecy.”

  “Why? Shouldn’t be the opposite?”

  “Maybe in your world, Dungeon Mistress. Here isn’t. And for a simple reason. We don’t know how to build it, or lack the necessary tools. I assure you that even the First Forge Master will want your machines from the workshop on the fifth floor. I can’t imagine what tools you are using when building a new golem. And because of that, this dungeon is the only source of your creations. Specifically, the parts of your creations that require repair and assembly.”

  “I see. But what about other dungeons? At least in some whit time there will be golems too.”

  “Aki, scram. I need to tell something private to the Dungeon Mistress.” Eriser turned to his assistant, who ran immediately, not asking. “It won't be so easy.” He whispered. “I got a letter from the Citadel. It turns out that only the head of your golem wasn’t enough. Dungeon Mistress needs a whole, intact golem.”

  “Why? Shouldn’t she be able to recreate it?”

  “If I'm guessing it right, even a dungeon master must understand what he creates. Yes, dungeon magic helps, and you have vast knowledge from your world, but were there golems?”

  “No. Our golems are different. We don’t have magic.”

  “Right. So, to my understanding, another dungeon master will need the whole golem to have a copy of it in his dungeon. And then the local artisan will have the same headache as I, how to rebuild it and make it work.”

  “Sorry.” Naomi laughed.