The Assistant

Chapter 3 - Apprenticeship

God damn this apprenticeship thing is hardwork.

"Hey, can't you help out a bit Assistant?" I complained. Well I got back my body for this job, so that was a plus. Yeah, a plus for carrying logs from a forest back to the wood carpentry shed!

Well, I'm teaching you magic and how to create mechanical beasts.

"Fair enough, Assistant."

Back at the shed, I let the two logs join the giant pile of other logs by throwing both of them in a reckless manner.

Good! Now get me a few boulders.

"What? Boulders now?"

My apologies. About 1 ton of igneous rocks will do.

I grunted and went on a short journey to a nearby quarry.

The entire process of carrying the logs were laborious. I had to make over, forgive me I had lost count, trips back and forth from the quarry and the shed!

Say, where did you obtain this near supernatural strength? Alchemy? Sorcery? Magic? Witchcraft? Voodoo? Dark Arts? Devil Contract? Or maybe-

"Okay that's enough. All of them were wrong. I'm a carpenter by trade, and because I do not hire suppliers to obtain wood for me, I naturally acquired the wood personally. Through the carrying of gargantuan logs day by day, I became possibly the strongest man in Italy!"

I then realised I had said that out loud in the middle of the town square. Everyone around me was giving me weird looks. I walked off quickly.

Arriving back at the shed, the Assistant overtook my body and started to use magic to isolate a log for use.

Hey, you could have done that earlier!

"Two words. Epitome laziness."

The Assistant then took 100kg of igneous rock and shifted them next to the log.

"From this moment on, you will become, a blacksmith."

The Assistant drew a circle around the igneous rock, and then proceeded to add symbols of things I could not, try as I might, decipher.

"Roccia Distruggere Riforma Ferro Contraffare Trasmutare"

The rocks formed a transformed into a furnace and other blacksmithing tools.

The Assistant then took another 100kg of rocks and repeated the process but with slightly different symbols on the circle.

"Roccia Distruggere Riforma Rame"

The rocks transformed into a brown substance.

Yet another 100kg of rocks.

"Roccia Distruggere Riforma Ferro"

The rocks transformed into silver essence.

"And we are done with this."

The Assistant proceeded to teach me both basic and advanced blacksmithing skills. I soon acquired decent mastery in the profession.

Over the course of two months, the Assistant taught me all I needed to know. I was churning out creatures at a steady pace. The gist of the assembly for one creature was :

1) Form the outer wood covering

2) Attach silver essence joints for mobility.

3) Pour the brown essence in molten form into the shell to draw the lightning

4) Summon controlled lightning to power them

I, Vittorio De Sica, had learnt how to make mechanical monsters.

From Ragno. Terrifying spider creatures with capturing nets to snare an enemy.

To Sopportare, vicious bear monsters with sharp claws and a magic sound stones so a single shout from the blasted thing would cause a destructive shock wave.

I had it all.

Vittorio. I will be back soon. Continue to make the machines. Thank you.

"Of course Assistant. Anything for a friend!"

Then he left my body for another.

Luigi Quintillo.