Joel took a long break once he returned from his last trip, where he brought the shelter's newest tenant, Alicia. Perhaps it was the relief he felt at getting her out of that bitter fate, or perhaps simply the weight of accumulated fatigue, but for almost two weeks he devoted himself solely to sleeping and watching Liam and Ariel teach Alicia how the shelter works, while they continued the children's education.

  He was quite entertained by the newcomer's reactions to every detail of the place: the electric lights that turned on with a switch and the various appliances, as well as other devices that run on electricity. The food was another revelation; Alicia savored the flavors with a mixture of distrust and wonder, as if each bite could be a forbidden luxury.

  Ariel seemed enchanted by her. She treated her with an almost childlike effusiveness, clinging to her arm and explaining everything with the patience of someone who has found an unexpected older sister. Liam, on the other hand, remained more reserved. It wasn't hostility on his part, but something more complicated: shyness, discomfort, and nervousness. After all, he hadn't seen Alicia in over five years, and he was no longer the same boy who hid in his teacher's shadow.

  Joel, with his strange and vast background, noticed everything immediately. He had lived too many lives, loved too many women, and raised too many children not to recognize the sparkle in Liam's eyes when Alicia was near, or the blush Ariel couldn't hide whenever she spoke to him. It was almost like reading an open book.

  The problem was that Joel didn't know how to feel about attraction and romance. In his heart, there was a clear place reserved for Liria, but when he woke up some mornings, his mind was a carousel of memories: faces of countless girlfriends, wives, lovers, children he had watched grow up, laughter, tears, and goodbyes that still weighed heavily on his heart. All so real, so vivid, that sometimes he doubted if the life he was living now wasn't just another dream.

  That thought sometimes made him uneasy. On certain nights, while everyone else was asleep, he would sometimes lie awake, staring into the void and listening to the others' breathing, as if searching for proof that they, and he himself, were real. And yet, one certainty continued to trouble him: the memories would only continue to grow larger as time passed.

  Fortunately, with a little effort and a few distractions, Joel always managed to overcome those confusing episodes and return fully to reality. In his mind, Liam, Ariel, and even Alicia weren't so different from the orphans he had taken in more recently: young people with so much to learn, and so much to discover about themselves.

  But Joel was far from considering himself the wisest or most intelligent person. That certainty became evident one particular day, when he watched Liam perform extensive maintenance on his pistol. The boy completely disassembled the device, leaving all the parts on a table to be cleaned later. It was then that a thought struck Joel with absurd brutality: Firearms were disassemblable.

  At that moment, he raised his hand to his face in frustration before slumping against the wall and hitting his forehead with a resounding butt. "Stupid!" he cursed himself, muttering under his breath. "All this time, I could have conjured the pieces individually…"

  It was so obvious that he felt unforgivable having overlooked it. If conjuring a complete weapon brought him dangerously close to his weight limit, nothing prevented him from breaking it down into smaller pieces and then assembling it here.

  From that day on, searching through the memories of the lives he had dreamed, Joel began assembling weapons he knew well and remembered disassembling. One by one, the pieces appeared in his hands: barrels, fore-ends, stocks, springs, triggers, and so on. The process was slow, as he had to distribute the conjuring load carefully, without compromising the daily production of food and supplies on which they had all become dependent.

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  Weeks passed until he finally managed to assemble an M4 carbine. A crude and reliable AK-47 rifle followed, then a classic and accurate Kar98 rifle, and finally a Dragunov rifle, designed for use by snipers.

  Ammunition was another challenge, as he had to conjure a large amount of it to be usable for the automatic weapons, especially considering he had to train extensively to fully master them. Ariel grumbled more than once when she noticed the sudden shortage of her favorite sweets, but Joel only responded truthfully. He had to balance priorities.

  So, little by little, a discreet armory began to take shape in the shelter. A separate room he set up next to his bedroom. Joel sometimes watched it silently, wondering if those weapons would ever be used, especially to protect his loved ones.

  The new weapons represented a tangible advance in the firepower he had at his disposal. The new ammunition Joel conjured traveled faster, carried more energy, and had greater penetrating power and range; the magazines for the M4 and AK47 held 30 rounds and offered the option of automatic fire. The mere thought of this gave Joel a mixture of technical satisfaction and practical coolness: he could now accurately hit targets at a distance of around 400 meters using automatic weapons, and reach a range of up to 1 kilometer with the Kar98 and Dragunov, with their more powerful cartridges and telescopic sights.

  Practice convinced him to make some changes, though. The stocks on the M4 and AK47 seemed unnecessary to him: recoil wasn't a problem at all, considering his superhuman strength. So he decided to remove them, considerably reducing the length of both weapons and making them easier to carry, even allowing them to be concealed under his tunic. Joel was able to handle those weapons with one hand without losing control, as if he were handling pistols. Even so, although they were now more compact, they were still difficult to conceal for long periods of time, unlike his revolvers, which he carried with him at all times.

  Another important aspect that Joel discovered through practice was that the speed of the new bullets far exceeded the speed of sound; if his memory was correct, more than twice as much. This meant that, against unsuspecting enemies, they wouldn't even hear the shot before being hit by the bullet.

  During long-range testing, Joel managed to hit a target the size of an apple at almost half a mile with the Kar98. In the process, he discovered a trick: conjuring the exact same cartridge over and over again ensured much greater consistency in shooting accuracy. From then on, he applied that same principle to all his weapons.

  Confident in the success of his experiments, he decided to go further and conjured the parts needed to assemble two MP5 submachine guns, which he eventually gave to Liam and Ariel, as they were more manageable and easier for them to control. Liam, enthusiastically, tried the AK47, but found he couldn't fully control the recoil while firing in burst or automatic mode.

  Alicia also wanted to learn how to use Joel's new weapons, and ended up receiving a Beretta 9mm pistol from him as a gift. Her physical condition as a level-one mage allowed her to control the weapon with relative ease, although her aim was only sufficient for hitting targets at very short range.

  Soon, the makeshift shooting range that had been set up near the shelter tree became a recurring sight. The sound of gunfire and the enthusiasm with which the adults practiced inevitably attracted the children, especially the boys, who made faces of deep disappointment every time they were told it was too dangerous for them.

  Finally, Joel decided to strike a balance: he asked Liam to organize a special shooting course for the little ones, but using air guns that he ended up conjuring himself. This way, the children could become familiar with these types of weapons from an early age, while also learning discipline, concentration, and respect for them.

  Having resolved the weapons issue and satisfied with the new firepower he had managed to muster, Joel was able to return his attention to the children's education. He resumed preparing new science courses, while Alicia took charge of history and etiquette. She had collected a good number of books in the various cities they had passed through on the way back to the refuge, and now she was ready to put them to good use.

  Alicia, with no experience as a teacher, had to learn a lot from Joel, especially about the importance of preparing teaching materials that facilitated understanding. Her etiquette and manners course became a personal challenge, not only because of the new role, but also because of Joel's vision: he wanted all the children to master these cultural foundations, convinced that this would form an impeccable foundation for the first generation of students.

  In his plan, these first students would not only be apprentices, but also future teachers charged with instructing future generations. It was just a matter of waiting for time to bear fruit, while Joel began to plan his next steps, considering the fact that he might not be able to contact the Dawn Cult for quite some time.