Hearing Master Stone say that the Adventurer’s Guild had skill cores in stock for the combat classes set Dominic’s mind at ease.

Given some time, they would be able to get a well-rounded force, including all of the essential warrior type classes, and mages from the Duskblade Sect.

The Purity Sect might also build their numbers now that they were in town, but from what Dominic could tell, their specialties were much better suited to construction and domestic magic.

They were not trained fighters like the Duskblade Sect, and there weren’t enough of them to run the school on their own.

Besides, Alexis had stolen all their women for her Veiled Maids force.

Being so early to breakfast had advantages, and Dominic was ready to head to the forge before anyone else was up and about, except the staff and the Dwarves.

That might have a lot to do with the fact they were drinking until the early hours of the morning, but it gave him time to play with the goats on his way out to the forge.

The curious animals stationed themselves at the door as he started the fire and let the forge warm up while he gathered all his materials. It looked like he had enough for another week or two, but there was a load of clay in the corner, ready for him to work it into steel.

Now that he had worked his spell book up to a suitable level, [Clay to Steel] would make proper tool steel for the rifles. Not by much, as he was still just short of level fourteen, but the average soldier wouldn’t question the quality of the alloy that he could turn out now.

Using magic to form the parts also saved a significant amount of time, as he could just stamp it in a mould and then clean up the surfaces.

Drying the clay and shaping it would probably be faster, if he had a spell to dry clay. But Dominic was happy with the setup, as he already had jigs made for everything from when he was working with raw blocks of metal in the Royal Forge.

Once everything was in place, he began moving clay to a screen to remove impurities, then into a wheelbarrow, where he mixed in water to get it to a workable consistency.

After that, he filled all his moulds and gave them a good shake to settle out any air bubbles that hadn’t been forced out by the pressure.

Every so often, he would get a defective part still, but those were just tossed into the scrap pile to be smelted down into the small parts or brazing rods to do repairs. It wasn’t perfect, and he did hate to waste material, but there was always a good use for steel bars.

The goats continued to watch from the door, and graze in the field outside as Dominic worked. The noise didn’t bother them, and they were enjoying watching the horned one smashing things.

The improvements that Dominic had made to the last pair of rifles that he made were going to be implemented into the new rifles, which meant that they would need some magical skill to use them.

But it was clear to him that would no longer be an issue here, and that the real consideration was balancing the difficulty to make them against the effectiveness and the likelihood that they would "Mysteriously Vanish" if weapons too valuable made their way into the hands of someone sketchy.

It wasn’t unheard of for someone thinking of leaving a guard force before their time was up to simply sell all their gear to a black market dealer and vanish.

That balance circulated through his mind as Dominic examined the parts for the first batch of ten rifles.

All that was left was the magitech circuitry to charge the pressure tank, and he would be ready for assembly. Which left him little time to decide, as any additional enchantments would have to be factored in now, when the rifle was still open and able to have an extra magitech circuit added.

No, he would leave them just the way he made the last ones. With the option for manual loading or use as a mana rifle, using the mana revolver’s circuitry and enchantments.

The only change that he did make was to add a pair of notches in the top of the receiver, so that a Techno Wizard could fit the rifles with a scope without modifying the rifle itself.

That level of precision grinding of optical devices was not something that Dominic knew how to do, but surely someone in town would. And it might be a popular add-on for sharpshooters and huntsmen.

One of the maids brought out lunch, and Dominic snacked as he finished the assembly, then began to prepare the oil bath to finalize the enchantments.

But first, one final check, to ensure that the mechanical parts were properly functional, and that the barrel didn’t have any interior deformities.

With that finished, Dominic poured out a fresh dose of mana oil into the tube he used for dunking rifles, and then selected a level six Hobgoblin core to grind into it.

Once the first rifle was properly hot over the forge, Dominic dropped it in the tube and waited for the bubbling of boiling oil to stop before pulling it out and attaching the copper stock pieces he had made to replace the wooden ones that took too long.

Copper was easy to work, only a few minutes with the hammer and a form to pound them into just the right shape, far superior to the time needed for even a half decent wooden stock.

There was only one issue with this design. If you fired it steadily, the forestock would heat up. So, you had to wear gloves, wrap the rifle with cloth, or risk burning your hands.

Not a perfect replacement for the wooden version, but the soldiers could swap them if they wanted. The carpenters knew how to make replacements and they weren’t expensive.