Amelia’s workshop was a chaotic mess of gears, crystals, and half-finished golems, but to Julian, it looked like opportunity.

  "Okay," Amelia said, clearing a workbench by simply shoving a pile of scrap metal onto the floor. "Here's what we have. Low-grade iron, some copper wiring, and three flawed mana crystals I salvaged from the trash."

  "It's enough," Julian said, laying out his blueprint.

  The design was simple but radical. Standard spellcasting required a mage to form a mental image, chant the incantation to shape the mana, and then release it. This took time—usually 2 to 3 seconds for a basic spell.

  Julian’s Instant-Cast Trigger replaced the "chanting" part with a hard-wired circuit.

  "We are building a capacitor," Julian explained, pointing to the drawing. "The crystal holds the mana. The copper coil shapes it into a 'Magic Missile' structure. When I press the trigger, the circuit closes, and the spell fires. No brain required."

  Amelia squinted at the runes. "But without a mind to guide it, won't it just explode?"

  "That's why we need this," Julian pointed to a small, intricate rune at the barrel. "A rifled barrel. We spin the mana as it exits. Gyroscopic stability."

  Amelia grinned. "I have no idea what that means, but I can build it."

  For the next six hours, they worked in a trance.

  Julian handled the software—etching microscopic runes onto the copper wires with a needle. It was like coding, but if you made a typo, the code would burn your eyebrows off.

  Amelia handled the hardware. She was a prodigy with a hammer. She forged a gauntlet-mounted casing that fit over Julian’s forearm, integrating the crystal and the coil into a sleek, steampunk-looking device.

  "Done," Amelia declared, wiping grease from her forehead.

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  The device sat on the table. It looked ugly—exposed wires, rough iron—but it hummed with potential.

  "The Capacitor Gauntlet, Mark I," Julian named it. He strapped it onto his right arm. It was heavy, but it felt powerful.

  "Ready to test?" Amelia asked, hiding behind a thick metal shield she had dragged from the corner.

  "Charging," Julian said.

  He slowly poured mana into the device. Unlike casting a spell, he didn't have to focus. He just dumped raw energy into the crystal.

  The gauntlet began to glow. A high-pitched whine filled the room as the capacitor reached full charge.

  [Mana Capacitor: 100%]

  [Spell Stored: Kinetic Bolt (Modified)]

  Julian aimed at a dummy target—a suit of old rusted armor standing at the other end of the workshop.

  "Firing in 3... 2... 1..."

  He clenched his fist, activating the mechanical trigger.

  *THWUMP.*

  There was no chant. No delay.One millisecond, Julian’s hand was empty. The next, a bolt of pure blue force slammed into the armor.

  *CLANG-CRUNCH.*

  The breastplate didn't just dent; it caved in. The entire suit of armor was lifted off its feet and thrown five meters back, crashing into a shelf of potions.

  Smoke curled from the barrel of the gauntlet.

  "Holy..." Amelia peeked out from behind her shield. "That was instant. You didn't even say a word."

  "Velocity: 300 meters per second," Julian noted, checking the readout on his mental interface. "Impact force: Equivalent to a heavy crossbow bolt."

  He looked at the gauntlet. The copper wires were glowing red hot.

  "Heat dissipation is an issue," Julian muttered. "We need a cooling system. Maybe a water-cooling jacket or a heat sink."

  "Julian!" Amelia ran over to the destroyed armor. She poked the massive hole in the chest plate. "Do you realize what this means? In a duel, you would win before the other guy even opened his mouth!"

  "Speed kills," Julian agreed. "But this is just the prototype. The Mark I is too heavy, and it overheats after one shot."

  He unstrapped the gauntlet. His arm was red from the heat.

  "We need better materials," Julian said. "Mythril for the conductivity. Frost-Iron for the cooling. And for that... we need more money."

  "We can sell these!" Amelia said, her eyes shining with the reflection of gold coins. "We can make smaller ones! Wands! Rings!"

  "No," Julian stopped her. "We don't sell the weapon. If we sell the weapon, they can copy it."

  He tapped the burnt-out crystal in the gauntlet.

  "We sell the *batteries*."

  Amelia blinked. "The... batteries?"

  "We make the device proprietary," Julian smiled, the cold logic of Earth capitalism taking over. "We give them the 'Instant-Wand' cheap. But the 'Mana Cartridges'? Those are disposable. And they can only buy them from us."

  Amelia looked at him with a mix of fear and admiration. "You are evil."

  "I am efficient," Julian corrected. "Now, let's draft a patent application. I don't trust the Dean not to steal this."