"Your Majesty, I need to speak with you about some similar matters soon. What should I be doing about the Linnaeus"?" Mike had a brief question before he was ready to leave, He had been delayed and unable to partic.i.p.ate in the discussion.

It was approaching the evening, and the Sun would set in less than an hour.

"You should just stand ready at the lab to contain damage if they should come. You"re becoming quite the Statesmen, We will talk more in the morning."

Prince Troeg finished speaking and walked around the corner.

Mike held his breath just a moment longer and then heaved a huge sigh of relief. If Mike was somehow stripped of his right to control his own life, he would definitely rebel. But mike couldn"t find a reason to rebel, He had become a slave himself to some degree. Even if he didn"t have a contract he would never be allowed to change allegiances.

Mike raided the magic section at the castle again. While on his return trip to the lab, he finally found the girls. They had all hidden their seed packs in a special place that no one else could find or know about.

"This is our secret. People are already trying to kill me for those seeds, If they somehow manage to destroy or take everything in the Lab we can start over." Mike was still a little out of breath and in some amount of pain.

"Mike? Are you okay?" Cara ran up to support him, she was quickly followed by the others and the helpful thought soon turned into a bickering match over who got to help him into the building.

"Knock it off!" Cara was moody.

The girls were getting out of hand, Cara had heard enough. Raising her voice to get them to stop was a matter of course.

Mike sat down without anyone"s help, like Cara he had little interest in that behavior. It would never be discouraged, who was he to tell them how to act.

Believing in the basics of human rights didn"t necessarily mean it should only be applied to humans, Mike wished he could remember any of that doc.u.ment. The best he could do was to picture the paper it was written on. Mike considered writing down some fundamental rights from Earth, but it all became complicated when some species could easily wipe out another. Mike himself was among the squishiest of species that he had seen around.

The Linnaeus", The Poocha, The Baste. Mike was sure that a great number of species were walking upright, It was evolution on a monumental level. Behaviors and certain physical traits would carry over into the next generation. Some species had evolved to a point where they had even lost the ability to reproduce, or even age. They would not die from natural causes but were highly frail in some respect.

Otera were a well known species of water breathing ocean tyrants, they had control of much of the waters between the lands. They were particularly nasty about their territory and would fly into a nightmarish rage that robbed them of their higher brain function. Their movements would become frenzied and undirected, even clashing out at their own from time to time. It was hard to find a way for "rights" to fit in a category with something that behaved like that.

Mike placed his hand on the next book in his stack. The images of equations filled his view, He was seeing things being sucked into another place and occasionally getting stuck near an aperture

"Suction magic?" Mike spoke lightly then lifted his hand and pulled the spirit sense from the book. Picking it up, Mike noticed it had a cover that said Slick Magic.

Mike opened the cover and looked at the words printed. He put his hands on the side of the book and watched the watermarks turn to symbols. They were almost the same as the ones for a sticky magic. Grabbing the page to turn it, Mike could feel the pull of gravity crushing down on his hand. He withdrew it in a hurry and closed the cover again.

Fumbling with the book in his hand for a moment, March came up and asked what was wrong.

"I think I"m seeing things, Look over this book but don"t open it. Tell me what you see." Mike said softly.

Handing the book over to March, his hand connected and her inner ears showed a bright shade of red. Placing her hand on the book, March reviewed what she could see and find with Mike. He was right, there were some differences in the text and the spiritual connections to the books.

"I wonder what other spells I"ve missed out on." Mike had an excited look on his face he just found another project.

Rissa came up and sat on Mike"s lap for a moment. The white lab coat gave her a bit more allure than others because of her pet.i.te figure for her species. All the girls were just a bit taller than Mike, he had gotten use to the fact long ago.

"What"s in the box?" Rissa said what everyone had on their minds.

Mike took a drink from his cup, kissed Rissa gently and sat her on the table. Getting up he brought the box out of storage and opened it up for the girls to see what was inside.

Making sure to speak before confusion set out, Mike started to explain.

"These are magic crystals, pour power into them and they direct beams out. I have a toy I"ve been having the blacksmith make. It will be a little bit longer before he gets back, but I guess there isn"t much harm in telling you." Mike pulled out some more drawings he had made and laid them out.

"This is called a Rifle." Mike went through the mechanics of how they worked and what they did.

The discussion about Bows VS Rifles was of particular interest to the girls, they had used bows before and retrieving arrows was never a fun task. Sometimes climbing would result in falls and people would vanish. Rifles were different, On earth, except for perhaps the sh.e.l.ls, retrieval of bullets was not even considered in most cases. Just the change in battle preparedness would revolutionize their approach to hunting.

"I want a Rifle." Mona spoke up, she had been pretty quite since she had instigated an argument in front of him.

"I think its better If I work on the first one and if its doable I"ll make more." Mike needed a tool that he was familiar with, but bullets and black powder were not in the books he had read. Nothing existed that even came close.

When Mike came to that conclusion, he started to think about learning archery or advancing his magical power somehow to help give him a fighting chance if he found himself with a problem.

The Aerial Cavalry had swords, and Mike had considered learning from this worlds armies as well. The issue that came up with that thought, was that if he trained with the military of the kingdom directly, his swordsmanship would probably push him into battles and military service; a.s.suming he didn"t die.

"Careful, don"t let someone from California hearing that you want one." Mike slipped and let his personal feelings leave into the world.

"Why?" Jodi asked.

After hearing about how Rifles didn"t need to be reloaded as often, she was deeply interested in hearing more.

Mike, in all his frustration came up with a way to make it easier to understand.

"Too many people had them, and the Poor were worried that the rich would use them against the people. So the people of California set out to take them from everyone in the kingdom. They called them weapons of war and started to put people in jail for wanting to defend themselves."

"Eventually, none of them could defend themselves and they became a population of peggers and trolls. If they couldn"t have something, No one could."

Mike finished his rhetoric that didn"t even matter in this world and looked back down at his book.

"What"s a Pegger? We have trolls here, but its easier if you just set them on fire." Rissa stuck her nose into the conversation and asked.

"HAHAHAHAHA" Mike was laughing inside at Rissa"s comment and question.

Leaning over to whisper it into her ear, he told her what the definition of Pegger was. Rissa blushed, then felt confused. They were mostly unaware of words that had multiple sayings and meanings. The word "f.u.c.k" for instance had a myriad of uses.

Kissing Mike gently on the cheek she whispered back,

"You can peg me anytime." A gentle aroma of her body lingered nearby and Mike felt like he could take her right then and there.

He looked over the rifle plans that he had drawn up. Mike had seven kinds of crystal, each one was roughly the same size and none of them were easily replaced.

"Fire, Sunlight, Ice, Water, Mud, Sap, Poison." Mike read the list of crystals to the girls.

Mona decided to ask the question no one had asked yet.

"Exactly how did you know the kingdom had these?"

Mike saw the opportunity to show off, so he spoke clearly.

"It was in the first book they handed me, Prince Troeg wanted to get me to work for them. So when they saw the chance to gloat about treasure they readily put the list in my hands."

"I suspect they never imagined that I would have a use for them, these crystals have been in the Royal Collection for Decades."

"I wasn"t sure what was going on at the time, So I just read whatever they threw at me earnestly. I won"t be able to recreate a Rifle from my homeland, but I think that I can make it work with these."

Mike picked up a the Fire crystal and pointed it toward the sky.

"I read that If i focus my energy into the crystal it will begin forming the element and then fire off when I stop."

Pushing his power into the crystal he could see a circular buildup of the Fire element, the Heat was intense and when it got nearly too hot for Mike to even hold the crystal in his hand, he released the energy. A wild and uncontrolled flame burst out and toward the sky. The rising conflagration was quickly burned off and the sky over the Lab was clear again.

"This might just work!" Mike was thrilled at the outcome of the test, but It would take a lot more to make him feel like it could be used in combat.

I"m going to go talk to the Blacksmith and then I"m going to the Herb Market. If anyone"s brought herbs back to sell, I want to snag them up. I can"t be working with Cannabis alone if I"m going to be considered an Alchemist.

Alchemists did a lot more than just one thing. Mike wondered if he could be like King Midas and forge a Philosophers stone to change lead to gold, but with his state funded pocketbook he didn"t have to worry all that much about money.

The Girls all loved walking around with Mike, they would get presents when they saw it and he was always praising their ability to help in out when he didn"t understand something. Feeling useful and part of the team was extremely important in both worlds, Mike led them out the doors and dropped them at the market on his way into the blacksmith.

"You"re back. I was wondering if you would return for these." The Blacksmith walked over to a box on the table and spoke.

The blacksmith handed a bunch of rough pieces that resembled handgun and a rifle parts. Barrels, a trigger, a hammer several levers and a main body that had s.p.a.ce inside.

"These aren"t exactly what I needed, I"ll bring back what I need adjusted. You can expect me to return in about a week, if its longer I"ll have one of my a.s.sistants bring by the details." Mike was a little disappointed that it wasn"t put together, but he would have to modify them significantly.

Mike put another 10 gold coins on the Blacksmith"s table and wished him a good day.

The girls were busy picking up trinkets and materials that Mike had spoke of before they left. When they finally met up with Mike, Mona and Cara showed him the baskets of Herbs and he was quickly overpowered by their fragrance.

"What are all of these?" Mike hadn"t had a whole lot of time to go over indigenous plants.

Mona took out a book she was carrying for reference before showing it to Mike.

"These are the plants you asked for right? Medicinal Herbs and materials that we didn"t have?" Cara picked up a Rosemary looking herb, its tiny leaves were full of different effects.

Cara continued by pa.s.sing the herb from her hand and the book from Mona"s hand to Mike.

"You always make us read, You read this while we go get herbs." Cara kissed Mike on the lips and went onto the next stall with the girls.

Mike didn"t know what to say to Cara, He put his hand onto the book and drove his spirit into it. The pages came to life and he spent the rest of the time they were in the market to review it. A lot of recipes came up and Mike understood the desired outcome, but the processing for the herbs was basically non-existent.

Questioning what they could be used for, Mike opened the book directly and started to read aloud in his head while the images played. "I get it, somewhat. This herb increases the active temperature of a mixture or adds the fire attribute."

"What herb is this?" Mike was about to grab a particularly pretty looking herb when he was stopped very quickly by March.

"That one is poisonous, pick it up with something else and don"t let it touch your skin. You"ll vomit for hours." March saved Mike from a long annoying time later on and he thanked her from the bottom of his heart. The herb was beautiful looking, It was true in both worlds... beautiful things were often times poisonous.