《Clockwork》 Chapter 1 Jail Bird Do you know what a mental shock or trauma can cause to a person''s mind? It can do so many things, the human mind is really strange because of that. Why did I ask this question? Easy, I suffered a mental shock. Here is another question, have you ever been framed for something you didn''t do? As you can guess, I was. My name is Nathaniel Rover, I''m currently 17 and was sent to the juvenile detention center because some people in my school hated me. The charges were of sexual harassment and rape. Obviously, the victims was the biggest bitch in my school who bullied most of the school. Being from a rich family and the leader the cheerleading squad in our high school made her popular with the other snakes that wanted her money, including the leaders of the sports teams. As you might have guessed already, they slightly beat her to get the proper bruising and then she called the cops and sent them on me. I was 14 at the time and a freshmen. My life was ruined because she thought it would be funny to send someone she bullied to jail. Her father even hired one of the best Lawyers to put me in jail for a hell of a long time. I got 10 years because of that and that was because they found no real "proof" in her to link me and make it worst but as any rich family would do. Money speaks louder and they won the trial. Though this isn''t what gave me mental shock, oh no. This only left me depressed. What did this was when I was getting a visit from my parents and she arrived. She spoke with me and said I would live hell in my cell. After that I learned that my parents had a traffic accident. They only got a few minors bruises but my 5 year old sister wasn''t as lucky. One of her lower vertebrae broke during the accident which left her paralyzed. I did try to tell the police about her threat but they only shrugged it off. When I finally saw my sister come in with a wheelchair I snapped. I talked only a bit with them but that was the last time I spoke. My mind snapped and I lost my trust in anyone but my family and my ability to speak becoming a mute. With nothing left to live for I just let myself be dragged around to eat and so on. She appeared a year after to see me in despair but what she found was a skinny body that looks to be starved in here. My hair was cut short but that was only because of the health policy because if not it would be down to my shoulders and a mess. My eyes were like a dead mans, without life. She tried to speak but all she got was silence and a blank look from my lifeless eyes. She made a disgusted face but not the kind where she looks down on me. It was like she was nauseous seeing me half dead. It was one of the few times I reacted to anyone besides my sister who I look at and smile but words never leave my mouth. At 17 now though, I said I had no future it was in this world. Why? Because me and everyone else is going to start a new program. The warden gathered us all in one place to explain this. Warden: Ok brats. As you know we are starting a rehabilitation program. The groans could be heard in the crowds. Warden: It¡¯s not the same crap of sitting in a room with some old guy. What you will be doing is being reintegrate into society through the soon to be released game Etheria: The Ruined World. A moment later there was an uproar in the crowd. "Silence or you will be held back two days before being let in!" The warden shouted making the silence returned instantly. "Good. As all you brats know this is one of the newest virtual reality games that is going to enter the market. The game is intended for hardcore players because of the setting." He continued in speaking in a loud voice The game he mention is being made by the company LIFE. The CEO said once during an interview. "This isn''t a game. Those who think it is will not go far in it. This is a breathing world just like our own." Though I had already locked myself by then, a few things I hear were still registered. "Now what will happen to you brats is that you will serve you time in the Virtual world of Etheria." He said before pausing to let it sink in. The moment he said that everyone froze. "The company made a deal with the government to test one of the functions of the VR capsules which is known as feedback. This stimulates muscles while you play. All your parents have signed the documents allowing for this to happen. Just know your sentience can get larger if you do crimes even in the game. Though the laws in their will also be taken into account. Now the last part of this should interest a few of you." He said and taking another pause. I was looking up towards him and notice his eyes stop several times during his moment of silence. It stopped at me for a moment as well. "You will be allowed to have a single family member join you during your lives in this world." He said making a grin on his face while looking out towards us. My eyes widen in my surprise for the first time in 3 years with real shock. Then a small but genuine smile appeared on my lips for a moment before it returned to a blank poker face. "As you leave we will take the names of the person you want to go in with if any at all. Choose carefully because you are stuck with him or her and the other person must also accepted. The game will go live next month and that is when you will leave this world to pay your time. Oh the time within the game is distorted to make 1 real day into 5. You will be in there for five real years to complete 1 out here." He said and finished passing his message. This left everyone slack jawed. After that ended, we were guided back to our cells. As we passed the door I saw a guard sitting behind a small table with a laptop. He was the one taking names for who we wanted to play with. Nearly no one was going but I got out of line and went his way. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. This kind of shocked the guards who knew me since I never go somewhere of my own will. As I reach the desk the man was looking a bit wide eye. "Want something mute?" He asked raising an eyebrow curious. "I...choose...my sister." I replied in a hoarse voice. His mouth dropped after I spoke as did the guard next to him. My voice was a bit rough from not being used but it was heard as he blinked a bit and wrote my choice before I left. "He must love his sister to talk." The first guard said. "Yeah! Truthfully I feel bad for him being a victim of that girl. I really doubt someone like him before going mute would do that." The second guard replied with pity present in his voice. "Think he would do that now?" The first guard asked. The second guard shook his head while chuckling. "There is a higher chance of him strangling the girl then raping her. We should tell the Warden we got a reaction from him. He will be happy." The second guard said and left to do that. They both smile at the news. I returned to my cell and awaited the day I can leave this world...and return my sisters legs. The next month were the happiest in a long time. The detention center allowed everyone to meet face to face with their families without the glass or phone and all that. I was finally able to hug my little sister. To hug my family. I heard from them that my sister left school and was being home schooled, because of that they let her come with me as long as I do my best to protect her. Being 8 years old she would have to censor some stuff in the game but that was small stuff. I was happy to get out and play with her. Finally at the end of the month it was time for us to go. My sister came to the jail and when it was time to leave she sat next to me on the bus that would take us to the facility where we would be taken care of during the time we are in the game. I promised my parents that I would properly teach my sister everything she needs. I still have 7 years of my time to pay so 35 years in the game is more than enough time to make her into a fine lady, she will definitely come out smarter than most. The institute was a huge building outside of the city, far from any city really. The buildings were four stories and really huge with like 20 buildings in the whole complex. My sister was on the window with wide eyes pointing at stuff and calling out cool things she saw. It drew the stares of others but they knew me so they didn¡¯t say anything. The bus caravan we were in was 4 buses long but as we neared the place we saw a huge line of at least 50 buses already in the parking lot. From all of them hundreds of under aged delinquints dressed in the orange jail jumpsuit coming out and heading in. We parked near the middle and were unloaded and unshackled as well. I picked up my sister and carried her out before putting her in her wheelchair that a guard had already set up. In a single file line we were led inside. The place was all white inside. We were taken to one of the largest buildings near the center of the compound. A man dressed in a scientist lab coat was waiting and greeted the warden who was there. "Good evening. Are these your charges." The scientist asked looking around. "Yes I hope everything is ready?" The warden asked. "Of course. Your group goes to Room 13. The special capsules are there. They are open so don¡¯t worry if they look strange. They will all be stuck in the virtual reality so we need to be able to tend to you." The scientist replied in a casual tone. "What happens if we die in the game." One of the convicts asked. "We made each capsule a special virtual space. When you die you go there and wait 24 hours of Etheria¡¯s time before returning. During that time you can access internet and such but besides when you die you can¡¯t logout." The scientist replied naturally. "Ok move it you all." The warden shouted and began to herd is inside. We were pushed in not giving us time to ask any questions. We walked down a flight of stairs that lead underground. The rooms were located down there. Room 13 was halfway in and was filled with enough capsules for everyone. It was as big as a large warehouse or maybe an airplane hanger. Each capsule was about 3 meters from the next and had medical gear attached to it. Many doctors and scientists were already preparing everything. "Ok pick your capsule. They are all the same, a two seat capsule, but those who don¡¯t have anyone. Well tough luck, you''re on your own!" The warden shouted and releases us to find one we are comfortable with. I walk down three rows before stopping at a random one and lifted my sister and sat her in the seat adjusting it to her size. "So this is where I will get to live with you Nate?" She asked curious. I nod and make a small smile towards her. A female doctor comes to help me set her up and then help me. After we are seated she explains how the machine works. She told us we can start anytime. I thank her with a nod before lowering my sisters helmet unit and then my own and pressing the on button in between us. A low hum sounds from the helmets and I feel my mind go hazy as everything goes black.
Connect to Etheria: The Ruined World?
YesNo
Chapter 2 Clockwork scrapyard
Connect to Etheria: The Ruined World?
Yes No
I stretch my finger and press the yes. The darkness quickly flashes into a bright light which makes me close my eyes quick. As I move my arm out of the way I see something that sends a chill down my spine. We were in space looking down on the green colored planet. "WOW~~! I¡¯m an astronaut now...HEY BRO LOOK I CAN MOVE MY LEGS!!" My sister shouted in a high pitched voice draws my attention. Behind me i found my small 1 meter tall sister jumping around. Yep jumping, we have some kind of floor under us in this place. Suddenly I heard a giggle and looked to the right and see a really beautiful woman. "My such a cute sister. You''re really lucky." This mysterious woman said. "..." i remained silent just staring at her. "Oh you must be that mute fellow the Warden talked about. Sorry I didn¡¯t know it was you but seeing that smile that only goes to you sister kind of makes me jealous~~! Can this nice goddess help you smile." She said and leaned in letting her bountiful mounds reveal the cleavage from below her rather normal everyday clothes. As I have said, I trust only my family and something like this made me scowl at her in disgust which leaves her with an astonished look. It then turns a bit into one of anger. "Fufufu to think someone would feel disgust from looking at my gorgeous figure." She said looking conflicted and seeming to lose a lot of confidence. "Hey lady, who are you and what are you doing to Nate." My sister said intervening. "Lady! *cough* My name is Ariel one of the goddesses of this world...or what''s left." She said coughing midway before pointing down. The last part was really quiet but I heard that well enough. "We should get to making your characters then. Let me say this, you two are using a special capsule and besides the feedback testing you both HAVE to be the same race. Because she is only 8 she has a kind of leash that will tell you where she is and it can let you teleport her back if she runs away." Ariel said towards me . I nod and breathe a sigh of relief. That removes the chance of kidnapping. *snap* Ariel snaps her fingers and around us some 80 figures appeared. It was in pairs of male and female so at least 40 different races. "These are the races you can choose from. Just so you know all races start at an even footing with no one race having a better start than another so don¡¯t worry about that." She said waving her hand. She then moves back and ¡°sits¡± cross legged with her long dress covering her legs. "Wow so many to choose. There are some ugly ones as well." My sister says amazed while looking around. I pull up the menu bar and quickly eliminate humans from the list. Main reason, I hate everyone but my sister and humans remind me too much of those I hate. I then move around looking at each race. The more human they looked the less I liked but I still checked the stats and racial bonus and skills. In all, anything that had too much human in it got trashed leaving many monsters. Ugly things like goblins and orcs were trashed because my sis thought they looked ugly. From the rest I found only two that I was interesting in. One was the earth elemental or better known as golems. Stone but in the shape of a man with the basic parts. I could make it more human but no. The most I would go was 75% which left it looking like the Thing from the fantastic four. The other one interested me just as much and my sister thought they were cool. The race was called a clockwork. Genderless machine race that was human size but made of metal. Really who doesn¡¯t like mechs and this is the best of them. I get close and whisper to my sister. "Want the robot." I asked. "Yeah! It looks really cool." She replied with sparkling eyes. I point at her then at the goddess sitting lazily over to the side. Understanding she nods and runs over. "Hey lady we want to be the cool robot." My sister said towards the goddess. A small vein appears but she looks up towards me and seems me. "Clockwork huh ok then what do you want to be called then." She asked her irritation clearly showing in her voice.
Please insert your name. ___________________________
A keyboard appears and I think a bit and type my name. When I¡¯m done I press done and the window vanishes. "Okay then, from now on you sir are called Techno and you girl are Nova. As a family name a random one will be made." She said looking bored. She closes her eyes for a moment before opening while smiling.
Your surname is now Gears
I slightly frown at the simplicity of the name. "Don¡¯t think it¡¯s simple it hurts when you insult instead of thanking me." She said. I frown more. "Yes I can read minds. This place hooks you up by the brain so yeah I can see what''s in your head." She said. ¡°Don¡¯t read my mind!¡± I said in my head clearly annoyed. "Oh so you finally talk, well mentally talked. Well who cares ready to go down." She said clearly wanting to send me off already ¡°And customization of our characters?" i asked. "That''s only for organic race characters. Clockworks can change their body parts so the appearance changes as well." She replied easily. "Hey lady why are you talking by yourself." Nova asked without a care in the world. "I can read you brother¡¯s mind to talk with him since he doesn¡¯t want to talk normally." He said with a vein appearing on her head. "Wow can I do that to?!" She asked excited. "No it just for a god." She replied with a proud look and a smug grin on her face. Nova pouted and I couldn¡¯t help smiling. ¡°Send us down then." i said. "You will be within a 3-6 meter area that she is in. You will need to move quickly because the Clockworks have a really nasty start being robots and all." She said. With that she snapped her finger and the world went dark again as I felt that falling sensation again. After a moment I feel myself ¡°wake up¡± again.
...Systems booting up.
System error...extensive damage detected...system check for damage
System has detected multiple missing limbs and system failures...Checking for working systems
System has detected several working systems booting up, visual sensors, scanner, vocal box, right arm, and right arm tool gear.
Current battery power 67%, engine is undamaged but remain offline for unknown reasons.
After the last message a line of light appears and spreads out finally giving me vision. What I saw was incredible. Going up hundreds of meters up was mountains of scrap metal. Hundreds of broken buildings and scrap mountains were in all direction that I could see, which weren¡¯t many. As I try to move my head I hear the sound of creaking like a rusted hinge on a door. I then try to move my body but I find the same problem but when I look I see why. Both my legs were crushed and my left arm was missing. So this is what she meant. I thought to myself. I slowly try to sit up and this causes my gears to scream in protest. Besides the upper body I try moving my right arm which is still intact and like the body it¡¯s rusted but after opening and closing a bit of the oil in my system more or less gets in the joints making it a bit easier. Let¡¯s see what we have as stats. i thought. ¡°Show status¡± A large screen appears in my eyes showing my stats.
Status
Name Techno Gear Race Clockwork
Class None Level: 1
Free stats points 0 Durability 67/150
Energy 68/100 Strength 10(-5)
Agility 10(-5) Dexterity 10(-5)
Toughness 10(-5) Intelligence 10(-5)
Wisdom 10(-5) Charisma 10
Leadership 10 Luck 10
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Traits
Rusty body Being offline has degraded your body to scrap. -5 to all stats until the respective system or parts are replaced.
Parental control A system skill that lets you teleport your child or sibling that is below age and has wondered a certain distance from to back
Clockwork scanner A basic system in a Clockworks body that allows them to scan their surrounds and check tools and parts. Also allows them to identify items at a certain range. skill cost: 1 energy every 15 seconds
Skills
Clockwork body construction (basic 1) Being of the Clockwork race you instinctively know how to make parts for your body
Scavenger (Basic 1) Able to find scraps and parts from trash Increases chance to find something by 5%
Tinker (Basic 1) You have the natural skill to tinker with any machine 5%Increases ability when tinkering with a machine
Well no surprise is start with the skills to fix my body. Let¡¯s see the inventory and equipment. I thought to myself and called up the Inventory and Equipment screens.
Inventory - 5 fuel cans - 5 water canteens - 1 gear box
Equipment Head: None Chest: None Right arm: Tool gear Left arm: Broken Right Leg: Broken Left Leg: Broken
Tool gear? Let¡¯s see this...how do I get this out? OH! i asked myself and looked at my arm thinking of this tool which popped out. From just below the right arms wrist several spots opened and a few tools came out. One for welding, another for messing with wires and so on. With this I can repair myself. I need to work quickly. Considering I have some kind of engine to power me I need to start that before I can do real repairs or I will run out of power. The half open rusted chest plate I had covering my chest was quickly removed revealing the battery and a small steam engine inside. There were quite a few gears missing and a lack of fuel. Guess that explains the inventory stuff then. i thought remembering the box. I pull the gear box and open it finding some old gears. I began fiddling with the gears as I try to make them fit and only after about 15 minutes do I finish. "...ro" a small voice shouted. "huh" I let out my voice. I look around and then it hit me. Nova was still out there. With the broken leg I can probably only drag myself. I put the chest plate back on after bolting the screws in place then I put the gear box away and start dragging myself towards the cries. On the same height as me but a bit further away, about 5 meters away, on the side of the scrap hill we were on if found a small clockwork ¡°crying¡±. When she heard me moving close she looked and then tilted her head. "Bro?" She asked looking my way. "Nova." I said letting out a sigh of relief. I slump down in relief. She gets up and walks over letting out creaks like me but she has all her limbs and is moving much quicker. Probably because she is a child they can¡¯t make the start as hard. "Are you ok bro?" She asks worried looking at my broken body. "Yeah...need fixing." I replied. I turn around and lay on my back before sitting up again with her help. I start looking around and activate the scanner even though it has a strong pull on my little energy. I look through the scraps looking for another Clockwork body and after a bit I find one. "Nova...Bring that...robot." i said pointing at a nearby one. She looks and sees the inactive robot. "Okay bro hold on." She says She walks over and starts pulling but barely gets it moving. While she does that I open up my chest and then pull out a single fuel can and after a small bit of looking I find where to open the fuel tank and empty the bottle in there. Then above that I see the empty water tank and take a water canteen out and pour it in filling it. I then look a bit more but can¡¯t find it. Wait I¡¯m a robot I might have vocal commands or in the menu i thought to myself. "Engine start¡­" i said in a quiet voice. When nothing happened I open the menu and look at my body. It showed the places that were damaged. I look closer at the chest and the outline of my insides show up. After opening the menu to the chest it does a scan of the engine wasting 3% of my energy but what appears is good.
All engine systems are working. Fuel levels at 100%. Water levels at 100%, 80% of gears in place. Main power engine turning one.
Like a car, I vibrate as the engine comes to life and begins to heat the water with the fire it was blowing. Slowly steam starts rising from the pipes on my back showing that the engine is up. "Bro~! It¡¯s too heavy! Huh Hey bro there is smoke coming out your back." Nova said coming back and noticing the slowly rising steam. "Come here...Nova." I said calling her over. She comes and sits down. I have her bring out her gear box and I remove the old chest plate. Her much smaller body needs fewer gears but it''s harder to find the right size but after some time I finish. I then fill her tank of fuel and water and have her check the chest space. Soon enough the engine is up and running so I put her chest piece back on her and me. I then fit myself with some remaining gears i missed. The next thing I needed was stuck so I dragged myself close. "What are you going to do bro?" Nova asked worried. Without answering I open the tool gear on my hand after pulling the left arm of the inactive Clockwork over my body I begin separating the connections on the arm. I think the Tinker skill went into effect as well as scavenger because I have a small know how as to how to remove this part but can¡¯t do it completely correct. Nova got bored seeing me work so she began to dig up various small parts like a few arm plates or head pieces. A few she found actually fit into a few spots that was open and without any protection. After half an hour I finally removed the arm from the Clockwork. I identified it to see if it was okay to use.
Old Clockwork left arm. An old clockworks arm that was removed by an amateur. It has sustained large damage from the elements and from its poor removal but is still operational and will work. Durability 33 Equipment attached: old tool gear.
Cool another tool gear. With it I can work faster. I happily thought to myself. "Nova!" I said. I call Nova over and see she found a few new armor plates to fit into the spots she was missing. "Hold here." I said and instructed her to hold the arm. I position the arm how she should hold it and she does. I quickly start attaching the wires together and melting them so they can fuse. Then the joints and then all the other gears until all of it was finished. After it was all said and done a whole hour had passed since I started removing the arm all the way to attaching it.
You have regained your left arm. +2 strength +5 dexterity
As energy begins powering the arm I move it around letting the oil lubricate the joints. "Wow! That was cool~! How did you make the arm work bro?" She asked excited. "We are...robots. We can...take parts...and make...it ours." I explained. With that I turn to my legs. With a quick scan of my legs I find what has happened to them. What I find is that several important gears are missing so I take the gearbox out and see if any of them are there and a few really are but the rest no luck. With my new arm I pull the dismantled Clockwork down and check its legs. Thankfully he has all the parts intact so I begin scavenging him. The parts I need I take and put into my legs while the rest of the gears and such I remove and put into the gearbox for future repairs. I then open up the chest piece and remove the battery to replace my own and a few parts I could remove from the engine. The last things I remove are parts of the tool gear on the right arm so I can repair mine. With my legs repaired I am finally whole again and at least for the physical status I don¡¯t have the rusty body trait attached to them anymore and I can walk normally now. "So bro where do we go from here?" Nova asked. I looked at Nova for a moment realizing what she meant. All we saw were mountains of scrap all around. *tick**tick**tick* I start hearing ticking and when I look back I spot a half broken Clockwork. The gears in his head have started to turn and slowly his eyes light up like Nova and mine. "Ah someone¡¯s here. Mind giving me a hand...and a pair of legs." He said. Chapter 3 Scrapyard base Nova and I just look at the broken Clockwork curiously though my sister had her hand on her mouth while chuckling. "Is...everything ok?" The player asked. I crouched next to Nova and whisper in her ear. She nods then starts talking. "Who are you?" Nova asked him. "Is there...a need...to ask...before helping?" The broken player asked. "Bro doesn''t trust anyone but me, mom and dad." Nova replied in a matter of fact tone clearly showing she was old enough to notice that. "...Wow." Was all he says. "Bro said no name no repair." Nova finally says sealing the deal. "...Its Bulk...Bulk Steel" he replied. I nodded then scanned the area. He had a left arm but the missing right. Like myself his legs were broken and were missing the gears. "Nova." I called out. She looked back after I called her and came over before I whisper again in her ear. I told her to tell Bulk about the gear box and his engine. She did that while I look through the scrap. As I looked I also notice a number of Clockwork beginning to turn on. I scanned the inactive ones and found a right arm that was still functional and began scavenging it. With two arms I worked much faster because my dexterity was back to 10 now. While I removed the arm I looked through the menu looking to find some way to talk without speaking vocally. I found it. Simple text messages which is like a PM system but it only has a five meter range unless I find a part to improve that. I activated that system and on the bottom of the view a simple line appeared. After I removed the arm I return to find Bulk releasing puffs of steam while he slowly works on his legs. When I get in range I connect with him. "Hey, sit straight and hold the arm while I attach it" I ordered him which takes him by surprise. Bulk sits up startled and looked up to find me holding the arm. The tool gear on his arm withdraws before he sticks his arm out. "So you...trust me now?" He asked tilting his head. "Who said I''m speaking" I say looking down at him. "Can you...at least...tell me...your names...since i¡­told you...mine." he asked. ¡°I¡¯m Techno Gear and that is my sister Nova Gear¡± I replied in a deadpan tone. I hand him the arm then guide it into place before I started to work to attach it. "Can I help bro?" Nova asked I find Nova standing beside me. "Some...other time." I replied "Ok..." she says. She slumped down sad. "Can you...look for...gears for...me." I asked not being able to handle seeing her so sad. She visibly brighten and nodded before she began looking through the broken scraps all around. "You like...your sister...a lot...huh." Bulk said. ... "Yeah" It was a short reply to cut the convention. I worked for a bit before I finished and Bulks arm was on. He moved a bit the arm. Nova returned with her arms full of gears. She dropped it and the small gears on her face pulled back around her mouth making a smile. I pat her head and thanked her. I then started examining Bulks legs and see what gears are missing and replace them finally getting them working. "Thanks. It might....have taken...me hours...before I...got up...and running." Bulk says as he slowly got up. His flat toned robotic voice showed a few signs of excitement. "Nova...come." I said and started to walk away heading down hill "Hey...where are...you going?" Bulk asked as he watches us leave. "Find a town or someone to tell me what happened." I replied not even looking back. I send that message before picking up Nova and jump down to a ledge below. I was constantly scanning. Nova was helping me after I explained how to use the scanner. Bulk was following us and from the shifting in the lights from his eyes, he was scanning the rubble as well. We spent a few hours walking around but all we found was scraps and half repaired Clockwork that were in the process of repairing their legs. "Hey! What are...you looking for...really? "Don''t know" I replied. "If you want...answers why...not get...a random....inactive clockwork...working?" Bulk ask. I stopped when he says that and thought about it. ""Ok then. Better than nothing" I say. I looked around and found a mostly complete clockwork. I opened him up and fixed the gears there. I found that he lacked a battery so I put the extra one I got into place. Then filled the half-filled fuel tank. "How does it turn on?" I ask. "Look for an on button." Nova says before chuckling at the rather obvious answer. "What about in the head?" Bulk replies. I sit the robot up and pulled the head cap off and look around. It was like looking inside an old computer. It took a minute before I found a switch near the base of the head where it connects with the neck. The robot shakes a bit as the engine comes to life. Soon a bit of steam appears from the pipes. I leave him sitting down while the battery charges. It was empty but began charging. When it hit 20% the charge suddenly dropped to 5% but the robot started up. The lights in his eyes turned on as his visual sensors turned on. Slowly it sat up making a lot of creaking. "Who...are...you? Where...is...this? Why...is...my...body...so...rusty?" The reborn clockwork ask. "Well...we wanted...to know...the same...thing. We repaired...you to...find out." Bulk says. "I...see. I...remember...working...in...my...workshop. Then...war...after...it''s...blank." he says in broken phrases. "Do you know where this is?" I ask. The Clockwork looked at me. I saw him scan me then look up and around. "This...was...once...called...the...scrapyard. A...Clockwork...grave...made...by...other...races." he replies A this point he began trying to move his body but sparks flew as he moved. "My...gears...are...broken." he says. "Bro only woke you up sir." Nova said flat out. "Mind...fixing...my...arms...kids?" He asks. I nod and pulled the gears out and fixed his right arm. With it working he began repairing himself. "What''s your name?" i ask him. "Rust...Ironhide. Is...you...voice box...broken...boy?" He asks looking at me. "Bro only talks with me. He doesn''t trust people." Nova says. "That...will...be...a...good...habit...in...this...world." he replies. "Speaking of...voice box...yours seems...really bad." Bulk said as he questioned the robot. "Yes...must...replace...it." Rust replies while he continues to work. He finishes his repairs and gets up while examining his range of movements. "*Beep* scrapyard...exit...not...found. Must...charge...completely...for...large...range...scan. Suggested...action...to...take. Make...shelter...and...make...stronger...body. Low...level...threat ..detected...at...2 km...north...east...and...west. South...safe...for...5...km." Rust says in a robotic tone showing that was the system after a relatively large scan. "Let us head south." I say. "Suggestion...head...east. Weakest...threat...quick...material. South...only...holds...scrap." Rust replies. ... "I think we should at least try following him." Bulk says. "Are we going with the robot?" Nova asks me. I sigh after hearing Nova. "Fine we will follow, we can learn more from you anyway" i say reluctantly. I didn''t look at him. "We...should...help...other...awake... clockwork. Safer...in...numbers." Rust says. I just shrug. We gathered tools, gears and parts from the surrounding scrap and Rust found a new voice box which worked good only pausing every third word. From there we headed east with Rust leading and along the way we grouped up with several broken clockwork and a group of 5 raising our number to around 14. We continued walking around the mountains of scrap and soon enough the night sky began to brighten up as the sun began rising. 2 km seems little but when you have large mountains of scrap in the way it turns into a mountain hike. As we reached 1.5 km we found a spot that was somewhat flat. "Suitable location for...making a base. 0.5 km east...is breeding ground...of low level...threat." Rust says. We walked onto the flat area that fits everyone. It looked like a cave because a huge piece of metal was blocking the scraps from coming in. We watched as Rust pulled out the tool gear and with the welder on high power he began cutting the back. When he got half way he stopped since his power reached 20%. "Rotate with me...to make a...door. We will be...digging into this...hollow area to...make a small...settlement." Rust says and points to the wall. Understanding his train of thought I walked over and started cutting as well getting to the peak before stopping. One of the others took my place as I sat down and refueled and added water. "This should make...a good place...to start remaking...the clockworks nation." Rust says somewhat happy at the prospect. ¡°Have fun. I¡¯m only staying until I can improve this battered body enough to protect my sister.¡± I say without caring about his opinion. "Full power scans...have yet to...find an exit. The skies are...open but the...scrap yard is just...too vast." He rambles on like a poet. "Then we...fly." i said. I spoke those words as I got up and went outside with Nova and began to looked through the scraps finding plate pieces I was missing. I notice him approach again. "Your processors are...slightly damaged. Limiting your mental...capacities. Do you wish..for repairs?" He asks. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. I thought for a moment while looking straight at him. ¡°Only me. I shall do my sister.¡± I tell him. "Okay." He replies simply. After that he walked around looking through old scraps and returned with a few dozen circuit boards and other wires. "Shall we begin?" He asks. I nod and sit cross legged after opening the head cap. I hear him drop the part and then start looking around. Soon I feel a him remove a piece and I feel myself get dizzy as he removes a part from my head but a moment later he put something in the spot and I felt even better than before. It continued for about 20 minutes which in that time the door had been completely cut into the thick metal revealing all the scrap behind it. When he finished and put the cap back on I felt renewed.
You have restored most of your robotic brains capacity by repairing it. Intelligence debuff has been removed Wisdom debuff has been removed.
You have completely repaired your bodies systems and are working at full capacity. The trait Rusty body has been removed.
A small smile appears but vanishes as I stand up. ¡°Thank you. Teach me how to repair my sister¡± i said. "The child doesn¡¯t...need it. Her body is...newer than ours...and has less...damage." he replies. I narrow my eyes at him but he just cracks a small smile. "Shall we get...back to work. We still have...a base to...build." he said and escaped from my glare. We walks off and begins instructing the others to start pulling the scraps from the opening. I look down at Nova who smiles back. I do a quick scan which I have not done until now and see that he is correct. Her body is newer . Must be a gift for having to live in this world with me or it''s done for kids. Well at least that is one less worry. I thought before going to help l, Nova cheerfully follows. What is done was mainly a mass scavenge of whatever was removed out of the way. For an entire week we did that. We drained many seriously damaged clockwork of water and fuel because to us that is essential instead of food. All those who came with use were given repairs to the brain which wasn¡¯t possible without someone doing it for them. After that, a few went out and brought back some half repaired working players. But it didn¡¯t stop there. Any clockwork that was dug out and still had a good working brain was repaired and brought back to life because they hold much more knowledge than us. By the end of the week we had around 30 players and 10 npc and our base was somewhat reinforced and had 4 rooms and 1 large storage we cleared. Junk was thrown out so we didn¡¯t have to keep it all. In terms of skill gain just scavenging had any gain. Most of us are capable of repairing ourselves besides the brain and because of that when our bodies are working we stop improving except for the occasional metal plate which is changed or added. Our stats change depending on how much padding we had mainly our toughness. After this week we started digging out a new room but it was probably the most important. A workshop. As we are we are no more than walking scrap metal that can¡¯t fight. The ¡°threats¡± Rust picked up probably have materials we need but we can¡¯t fight with bare fists. The room was dug out in 3 days but now began the serious work. Rust took Bulk, Nova and I and began teaching us what workshop gear we needed. As of now it''s impossible to make any form of forge because the fuel consumption would kill us all. Instead it was a few workstations and tools we were taught to make. This worked with our tinker skill so it began getting experience. By the end of the week even Nova who was a child had learned how to use her game systems like status windows and was starting to get that we needed to work to survive and was helping with the construction. She learned how to bring out the tool gear and use it which helped but as any child with tools she had to be disciplined a few times before she understood it was for work and not play. We had now several work stations with basic metal hammers and tools made for working. It felt more like a carpenter''s station but as Rust came in with a few others holding pipes and other metals he began teaching us weapon making. Real basic crude weapon making. From the pipes and metal sheets we had he had us make some clubs and rusty shields. As you can guess we will be using this to fight. The tools we made were mostly stuff for shaping and bolting while the tool gear was still our main tool for cutting and welding. Making our weapons like this gave us the skill Crude weapon making. It¡¯s a mix between blacksmithing and carpentry because we use a workstation of a carpentry with blacksmith materials. Afterwards we were given time to get accustomed to them. The next day Rust came to me and Bulk who were sparing in the base entrance trying to get a combat skill. "Found you both. Have you grown...accustomed to the...weapons?" Rust asked. "Calling this...a weapon...is an...insult to... real ones." Bulk said while looking at the cruel weapon in his hand. He was right these are the stats on both the club and shield
Old Pipe club A club made by welding three pipes together and having a flattened area as a grip. It¡¯s a mediocre weapon used by the desperate. Attack 5-8
Rusty sheet metal shield A club made by welding two sheets of metal together and cutting them into the shape of a small round shield. A small metal hand grip as bolted on the back Defense 6-9
If you think of it as newbie weapons then it''s better than most in other VR games but when taking into account that this game was made to be hardcore we can only guess how weak these weapons are. "They are enough...you remember the...threats I told...you about?" He asks. We nodded to him. "I have scouted...them, here is...a visual." He said.
Rust has requested permission to upload video feed.
YesNo
We press yes and a download bar appears on the upper right of our vision. When it finishes it also opens. It takes our whole view and we see what Rust did. From high above we could see large autonomous spiders. They walked around guarding a huge cave in one of the scrap mountains near its base. Every so often new spiders smaller ones appear and go back inside after picking up scraps. The area in front has been picked clean of all metal and actual dirt was below their claws. The image changed to one closer but still out of view. I sense the scanner activate aimed at one of the bigger ones.
Autonomous Iron Drone An iron spider recently built to guards its lair. Made of refined iron of low quality and programmed to attack on sight. Basic sensor Large engine 130 power battery
The image ended after that. We looked at him for a moment. "Recently refined...how?" Bulk asked. "The queen. They are called...Factory queens. They are level...4 threats but...the drones and...gathers are only...level 1" Rust said. The levels he is talking about is not like us who are level 1 but can go up. It¡¯s a ranking system that determines the danger a threat poses. Level four is a boss class monster while level 1 is minion class. "Don''t say you want the queen dead right?" I said. "I do but...we are all...two weak now. We need to...revive the Tanks." He said. "Tanks what...are those?" Bulk asked curious. A new request came for a download and we accept. This one was also video feed. It showed Rust walked south of the cave and suddenly he encounters three huge mechs two times his size. The name Tank fit them. He looked through them and found two were missing engines and the other with almost half his gears gone and a moderately damaged engine. All the brains were functional but some damage was detected. The video ends there. "Request revival of...those Tanks for...security. Heavy duty combat...units. Also need quality...parts for upgrades." Rust said.
Mission: Tank Revival Rust has gone and scouted out the threats. Afterwards he encountered the remains of three heavy combat tanks. From the extensive damage they can''t start up and your continued survival requires their services. Difficulty F Reward: Heavy duty units, ??? Success: Revive the tanks 0/3 Failure: Complete destruction of the tanks 0/3
"If it¡¯s...so needed...I''m in. Techno?" Bulk said questioning me. I nod as accepting. "I''m coming with you bro. It¡¯s boring working so much." Nova said pouting. "Too...dangerous." I tell her "Then you shouldn''t go either." She says. She is really smart for her age. I end up giving in because of the argument but on the condition that she doesn''t get close to the big drones. A few others also joined in and after picking up gears and tools we needed for the repairs we take up arms and head over to the spot the cave is to get some fresh metal. Chapter 4 Tanks Our group of 10 poorly fitted clockwork slowly climb down a rough path in the scrap mountain towards the clearing. Before reaching the place we split up into 3 groups with my group having one extra Nova. The plan was simple I guess. Two groups are going to flank the two drones. After agreeing they run away from the cave where the other spiders are. Some 100 m or so before confronting it. The third team will go first and assist one team to cripple the legs without damaging the engine then race over and attack the other. We need the most usable parts possible. Bulk, Nova, me and another girl are in one of the flanking teams. We arrived soon after and waited to see the others. When everyone was in place the middle team gave the signal and both teams, minus Nova, jumped out and attacked. Bulk keeping to his name had built something that should called more a hammer instead of a club. Two handed and half his size, 190 cm tall, he ran in front as the huge spider drone rushed us while the other ran the other way. Before we reached it Bulk swung the club down and the spider ran right into it but it was aimed to the side so it hit its two front right legs. "Move back." Bulk shouted. Having caused lots of damage to it we moved out of the clearing and drew the spider away. Even with two legs broken it still had surprising speed to it. We ran for about a minute and stopped and ran in different directions. Bulk headed straight to the drone. I split to the left and the girl ran to the right circling and flanking the spider. Bulk tried to do the same thing as before but this time the spider stopped and the huge club flew straight into the ground raising dust but that helped out as we approached. My scanner already picked up the body of the spider and when I was close I swung in a horizontal swing smashed the middle rod of its third right leg and he collapsed. The girl also took one of the legs making it impossible for it to stand. CRIPPLED! When the crippled warning appeared the other two smiled. I quickly scanned the structure of the spider looking for a way to turn it off but not find anything I thought of a better idea. I open my tool gear and move the others out of the way. "What are...you doing?" Bulk asked ¡°Watch¡± I tell them. The body was like a real spider. A three part body. I simply stumbled on the mid-section and pushed the spider down and with my tools I began unbolting the head and with the bolt cutter tool I slowly ripped the head off. When I removed the final wire I got a really interesting message.
You have deactivated the Autonomous Drone. Body has completely shut down and it can be completely scavenged.
I picked up the head and tossed it up and down. ¡°Done.¡± I said. The other two had their mouths dangling on their hinges watching me remove the head. Surprisingly the head is quite big. About half the size of mine and with a really cool head piece. Looking at it the head width and length matched a clockwork but it just wasn¡¯t the size of a human head. With one of the screwdrivers I added to the tool gear I unbolted the head piece and looked at it from inside. It was surprising a bit to find it had a few circuits on it. I did a scan to see what it really was.
Drone faceplate (head gear) An autonomous drones face plate. It¡¯s a piece that cover up the head and holds part of the scanners of the drone. It also works to amplify message system within the hive network of the drone. It works together with a transmitter module inside the head to amplify the range that messages can be sent as well as increase scanner range, power and clarity. Durability 40/45
I blinked a few times and re read this. To think the face plate had such a function. From the looks of it I can attach it to my head if I replace part of my face plate. I then look at the brain circuits and find half a dozen parts that I saw Rust using to repair me. Only difference these are MUCH newer. A small smile appears as I open my inventory and store both the head piece and the brain. ¡°Let''s get working.¡± I order them. I move to the side and start working on its legs. We were going to separate the body from the engine and then take it to the Tanks. From what I harvested from the drone were the undamaged leg joints. They were similar to the ones in my body. Many were just like those in my hands so if I could replace them or build a new hand I could have a new hand that didn¡¯t shake from being old. Also all the iron plating were removed and what could be attached at the moment was changed out. I gained 2 toughness from replacing parts of my arm with new iron plates that fit their. Once all the gears and such were removed and stored we began moving the engine back near the clearing. It was really heavy but halfway through the support group arrived and lightened the load. When we reached the clearing I face palmed myself. Why? I find Nova holding a normal club in both hands above her head and fighting the small collectors. They fight by jumping and timing it right she hits them like a baseball making them fly far and not only get damage from the impact but from the fall. "Hahaha...she would...make a...good baseball...player if...she could...do that...against monsters." Bulk jokes. ¡°I told her to stay hidden¡± I said irritated. "Nope you...told her...to not...fight the...drones. She is...currently fighting...even weaker...bugs." Bulked replies. I go quickly and help clean them up and scold her for being reckless. But I pat her on the head for killing so many. With a scan I see she leveled up though I did as well, which meant that she killed a lot of collectors to level up. We quickly gather the bodies to dismantle later and then get out of their towards the Tanks. A quarter of the way we meet up with the other group and find them carrying their own engine. All the while our bodies creaked under the weight of the engines. "FUCK!! I feel...like my...body is...about to...fall apart." Bulk shouted in protest along with his body "Ha It''s not far...from that Bulk." One of the other player say. This brings about a many robotic monotone laughs. "I can¡¯t wait until we...can get some voice boxes...that actually show our emotions. Being stuck with such a¡­.monotone voice is depressing." Another one said ¡°Work harder than.¡± I replied to their badgering. The message is sent to everyone and a few chuckle. After 20 minutes walking in the uneven scrap we finally see them. Standing in a somewhat clear area we see them. ¡°Hey isn¡¯t it strange that the Tanks are in a clearing with little trash lying about?" "Nope. Rust said...this was...where the...spiders gathered...their metal...at one...point. They are...too heavy...to move...so they...are left...behind." Bulk said. As we arrive we place the engine in front of the tanks. We needed to look up because they were easily 2 meters and 80 some cm. Nearly three times as wide to the size and their chest area was huge to hold the engine inside. The general body was human shape but it had a distinct look of a huge gorilla because his arms are long and are supporting his upper body while leaning forward. I walked around it scanning it and soon I found a spot to open him up on his back. It open like a door, down the middle outwards. I open the first completely and find the insides missing a few gears and the whole engine. I point at Bulk and to the others. ¡°Get to work. NOW!¡± I text. It lacked all the tension but the feeling coming from me was enough. Everyone starts moving about and Bulk climbs the back of the next one and opens it up. I look through all the gears and replace those that are broken and put new ones for those missing. Once the chest space was done I moved to the head, shoulders, arms and so forth. It was easy enough to repair the damage in the head since it was just a few wires. The arms had a few small gears missing as did the legs. With the check done we then move to the hard part. Getting the engine up. With 7 people we were able to push it up and after a bit we go it into position and attached the pipes, hoses and wires to all the places. It took an annoyingly large amount of fuel and water to fill him up, 5 fuel cans we had and 7 of water. I was seriously hoping this would all be worth it. I climbed up and open his head cap and after looking a bit I find his on button and press it. ¡­ .. . Nothing. I press it a few times but nothing. ¡°Nothing.¡± I said irritated. "Maybe he needs battery power for his?" One player says. "Is there a plug or something. We can transfer power to him?" Another one suggests. Everyone started looking around and even near the battery but found nothing. At least until Nova looked at the most unexpected place. "Hey bro I think I found it. Right here in his but. I looks like the electric thingy." Nova shouts. When I finally looked back I saw her open her tool gear and the welder sparked to life and she shoved it right up the hole. The next moment all the open plates automatically closed while the engine came to life. All the gears began moving. Moments later the eyes lit up. I ran over and pulled Nova away from it after removing the welding tool. When I looked back the giant tank was lifting his creaking body lifting his arms. It was slow at first but soon steam began appearing and I could see on my scanner that the battery was charging and the oil was beginning to flow. The creaking soon began to lessen and his movements increased. "What is this? Where am i? Activating scanners...Several worker class located in immediate proximity. System scan shows aging of over 2000 years. Body functioning at 40% capacity of original specifications. 2 Tanks in the immediate proximity shut down and heavily damaged. Lack of engine detected, replacement found." The tank suddenly said with a perfect unbroken voice. It suddenly looked at the next tank and turned its body towards it and slowly walked over. Each step shook the ground. When it reached him he picked up the engine carefully and lifted it like it was nothing and dropped it into the open space where it went. "Requesting working class to begin repairs effective immediately." It said. We took a second to realize what it meant and a few of us ran forward and instructing him put the engine in correctly. Then we attached everything and did a check of the rest of the body in case we missed something then we tried to activate and like the other one it needed a charge. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. This time I went up and shoved the welder into the plug and like the other it came to life and closed itself up. It did the same as the first one but this time we already had half a dozen people on the last one but then the unexpected came up. "The engine is damaged and we don¡¯t have parts to repair it. We need to get back to the base and scavenge parts." A player said. "Working class requires denied. Empire requires all tanks working." The first tank said. I connect with the two tanks. "Working class has established text communication. Speak." ¡°There is no empire left. The world is in ruin. We must take the last Tank to the base.¡± I send a map leading to the base. "Assessing if statement is true. Contacting kingdom...contact failed...all contact has failed communication stations not present in the area. Knight mode deactivating releasing restraints on tanks conscience." It said. The lights in the eye that were a bright blue dims down to white like all of ours as did those tanks two. "...Knight mode is off...What the hell! Where are we. Why is my body rusted!" The first tank suddenly shouted. "We revived...you. Mind helping..us take... this guy...back to...the base...so we...can wake...him up...as well?" Bulk asked. "Bolt is down huh. Let¡¯s get him moving. System scan says only 40% capacity, fuck that is some screwed up damaged." The second tank said. "Still enough to drag this idiot back." The first one said. They were much more laid back then you would think something so huge to be. At least when they are themselves. They walked on all fours like gorilla but I think it was because the body couldn¡¯t hold their weight right now but when they grabbed the third tank each one stood on one side and linked one arm under the inactive one and lifting the arm over their heads. One then held the back while the other held near the waist and they lifted him like that and walked forward. It was strange but it still worked and we were able to get back to the base with all three. Thankfully the circular metal piece that made the cave was large enough to let the three enter. They placed the inactive one in the middle and then moved back. "Well that was fun. We really need some major repairs so we can stand up straight." The second tank said. "You guys were...quick to finish...that mission." Rust said looking at the three tanks. "It was...surprisingly easy...or maybe...those drones....were simple...minded." Bulk commented. "You mean the spider drones? Work class like you should easily handle something like that." Tank two said. "True but we...need you three...to handle the...Furnace queen. We need her...furnace to begin...making new parts...for our bodies." Rust explained. "A queen...here?" Tank one asked. "With our bodies only at 40% its power we would be pressed to subdue a queen with only three of us." The second one said. "We can...fix you...up more. As you...see scraps....we don¡¯t...lack." Bulk said. "Scraps won¡¯t handle our power but I guess it¡¯s better than nothing." Tank one said. "What we really need is for the weapons to come back online. Even the pressure fist is off." Tank two said very annoyed. Tank 2 suddenly pops open his right arm and shows a few large glass orbs hooked to a suspension system just behind the wrist. It was connected to the engine. The pipes were leaking steam. The attack must run on steam power to make one hell of a punch. "Anyway you guys...did great. Now...we have tanks...that we can...model our upgrades...after. We can soon...reach their power...by upgrades through...their guidance. Not only that...they can keep...us safe." Rust said.
Mission: Tank Revival (complete) You have revived the Tanks and can now slowly upgrade to tank class clockworks. Reward 2 levels Tank Class discovered.
¡°What are you names?¡± I asked "Right we didn¡¯t say. I¡¯m Reinfred Blacksteel though I guess it''s Ruststeel now." The first tank said with a dry laugh. "Hub Ironfist and this offline idiot is Bolt Spark" The second tank said introducing the third one as well. "Hmm. Does the...surname have...anything to...do with...your most...defining feature?" Bulk asked curious. "Nope but it¡¯s something we aim for." Reinfred said. "Bolt is a bit unique since he has electric weapons but as you can tell he will be useless for a long time before he can produce enough power to use them without draining himself." Hub said. "Yeah it...will be...useless for...now." Bulk said. "Lets woke him...up quick so...we can get...on with repairs...for all three...of you." Rust said. ¡°I¡¯ll be in the workshop doing something for myself¡± I said. I excuse myself as the others begin repairs on the giants. I head with Nova to the workshop and I take up a workstation. I pull out all the new gears I picked up and the small collectors and dismantle them. Their small engines were interesting but too small to be used for anything at the moment so I stored them in my inventory. With new material to work with I remove the plates over my right hand and disconnect my right hand and slowly dismantle it and begin replacing the joints with new ones while storing the old ones. Once done I built the hand up and connected it then began doing adjustments until I felt it was okay.
You have upgraded your left hand with new joints. +3 dexterity
Closing the window, I do the same with my left hand and get another 3 points. With what remained I upgraded Nova¡¯s hands as well. After it was done I was admiring how quiet the movements of my hands had gotten. No more creaking with every move even if it was very quiet it was still annoying. It also helped that my hands were no longer shaking because of the bad joints though I still had elbow and shoulder joints to find or make to completely stop the shaking. With my newfound dexterity I took out and dismantled the drone brain and found the transmitter the description of the head piece mentioned. I store that for my personal upgrade later and remove the remains leaving only a few circuits left. The drone brain had quite a good catch to it. I call Nova over and switch a few parts that I found doubles. She said the change gave her 2 intelligence and wisdom which made me smile. With everything done on Nova¡¯s part I take the parts I needed and looked for Rust. I found him overseeing the repairs. ¡°Hey I found some parts for upgrades¡± I said. He looks at me the shrugs. "Good so go...replace them." He said indifferent. ¡°Brain upgrades¡± I said annoyed. "Oh...Wait until Bolt...is up at least." He says turning to me. "Bro if you need someone to change the things I can do it." Nova says. I smile at her but I couldn¡¯t trust her so much to leave my brain in her hands. I resigned myself to waiting. When the Bolt started up it was like the other two but with a quick command from the other tanks the knight mode deactivated. "Hm...Where is this...Hey you two bastards where are we." Bolt say as soon as he noticed the two tanks. "Fuck you Bolt!" Reinfred shouted. "Wars over and the world got fucked. We are in one of the scraps." Hub explained. "What! The scraps that sucks. Found the exit yet." Bolt asked. "We just woke up as well you asshole." Reinfred said insulting the ohe tank. "Want to go." Bolt said ready to have a showdown with the other tank. Rein and Bolt quickly got in each other faces but were separated. "Stop fucking around or we won''t get repaired enough to fight. Especially you Bolt. You are as low as 30% of your original specs just sit and let them start working." Hub shouts at the two of them. "tch!" Bolt clicked his imaginary tongue. *boom* *thump* *crash* Each one let their weight fall on their asses finally calming down. We were a bit scared to approach but seeing it calmed down Rust ordered to begin before coming to me. "Okay then let''s...go inside." Rust said seeing the repair underway. We went to the workshop again and I dropped the pieces down. His metallic eyebrow rose and he scanned the pieces. "Drone headpiece...transmitter piece several¡­drone brain components. All new. Lucky man you...are." Rust said. ¡°Less talk more upgrade.¡± I said pointing to my head. I was already sitting with the cap off. "Want to put¡­this head piece¡­on." Rust asks. I nod. I heard him move a bit and then I feel him begin messing with my head...literally. Removing and replacing each part with one of the new ones. The finally part that was placed in was the transmitter. He then closed the cap and then took a screwdriver and unbolted a few screws and removed the head piece. This removed my vision and left me in the dark for a few moments. He then took the new one and put it on after connecting a few wires that go into it and then screwed it in. With the new piece in my vision was finally restored and I had a much larger range of vision going more towards the sides. The scanner could also scan at a larger range.
You have upgraded your brain extensively.. +6 intelligence.
You have changed your head piece. Improvements brought by the new head piece and adding a transmitter. Larger visual range Larger scanner rank Range of text messenger increased from 5 meters to 20 meters
"This is quite...An impressive upgrade. Be careful of...others jealousy." Rust warned me. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I never trust anyone except my sister.¡± "Yet you trust...me to upgrade...you." He said. ¡°It is a method for you to pay your debt to me for waking you up¡± I reply. "...True. What of these...extra parts?" He asked. ¡°You can have them, I¡¯ve already upgraded myself and Nova so have fun.¡± I said by message. "Come Nova." I said out loud. I get up and walk away leaving the stunned Clockwork with a few remaining new brain upgrades. I see him pick them up from the corner of my eye and take them outside most likely to use on the tank to increase their brain capacity. Chapter 5 Jeopardy Bitch PoV I can''t believe how much I''ve been affected by that jailed rat. After I saw him the last time I can''t forget that look of indifference. No it was more like a dead look. He had no life in his eyes. The image of him looking straight into my eyes with that dead look burned in my mind. I was hoping to see him yell scream to see him despair seeing me but that dead look shook me to the core. It made be a bit nauseous at the time but after getting home I went to my room and the bathroom to wash up and try to relax. It was then that all that stress rose and I couldn''t hold the nausea and threw up remembering how he looked at me. I knew I had done something bad. Having had one of my fathers men cause an accident with his family but it wasn''t supposed to be anything big. So I thought. All I heard from him was that the work was done but besides that I didn''t know how bad the accident was. After hearing that his sister was paralyzed because of the accident I had ordered guilt overtook me. It began slowly appearing. Soon my honor student grades began falling and I started to notice many people looking strange and my attitude towards everyone turned worse but bullying stopped because I could barely think about it. The thing I hate the most after these two years is that I was being left alone. No one talked to me now and I was made to get tutors and supplementary classes by my father to raise my grades. On third year of high school I could easily say I had become depressed. The guilt constantly ate away at me and I had to work a lot to keep it out of my head just so I could listen to the teachers. It was at the start of summer that my father called me. "I''ve been watching you ever since your grades began dropping. I''ve seen and heard you cry and every so often throw up for no reason. I''ll ask only once. What is making you like this!?" He said in a harsh tone glaring at me. "G-Guilt..." I said shuttering. "About what? What could possibly make you guilty of to make you depressed?!" He said almost yelling. Slowly I told him. He remembers the boy but the became shocked to hear about the accident and my meeting with him after. "I see...I see. No wonder. Ruining someone''s life you hate is one thing but you ruined the life of an innocent child. Well, I definitely see why the guilt is so large...Okay then I will have punishment for your actions soon I need to see to something." He said his voice void of any emotion. We left with a blank expression but his eyes showed his rage. I returned to my room and silently cried myself to sleep. The next morning my father woke me up and told me to get ready. We took me out of the city and into a huge complex far from the city. Their we met a number of scientists. We were led below ground and into a room with a number 13. Inside we saw a large number of VR capsules. We walked a bit before stopping in front of one that had two people inside. I instantly paled. Inside was Nathaniel and next to him his sister who I saw a picture of after the accident. "...W-Why are we here?!" I asked with tears forming in my eyes and nausea building up. "Let me tell you about what is happening here. Its a rehabilitation program made to allow the juvenile prisoners pay their time while inside the game Etheria online. This boy who you ruined and his sister are living their lives in their now as part of the program. Your punishment will be the same as theirs. You will be put into the game and will be their for 7 years just like these two but that equals almost 35 in the game. This is your punishment for ruining their lives. "f-father...i-isn''t this t-to much?!" I asked tears falling down now. "No. I think it''s too little. But if I were to let the media know, my company would go into ruin because of your actions so you will pay time you should be doing as the boy is for something he didn''t do." My father said in a cold emotionless tone. He turns his back and walks off. "Please put her in and hook her video feed directly to my home computer. I shall personally monitor her." He said and left. The scientists nods and pats my back and guides me to an open capsule. I was crying already as I sat down. I can''t go against my father especially in a place with enough guards to control several prisons worth of juvenile convicts. The helmet was strapped in and the game activated. The character creation begins. Floating in space was surreal. "So you''re the special addition to the program I hear. My my, what did a girl like you do to warrant 35 years in this world." The AI goddess asks after suddenly appearing. "I put in jail a boy for 10 years and broke him after paralyzing his sister." I said as guilt overcame me after saying that. "Sister?...Oh that boy! Nathaniel I believe. Techno within this world. Quite the clockwork he is." The goddess said nodding. "Can I begin." I said coldly not wanting to hear more. "Of course but the clockworks have been sealed for you so you are to remain away from the boy for a while." She said making the body of the clockwork that appeared for character creature vanish. "What are Clockwork?" I asked. "Sentient Robots pretty much." She says nonchalantly. "Are their other artificial races?" I asked. Two creatures appeared. One was named Golem the other Construct. "Golems are earth elemental made from alchemy they are more brute strength with high affinity to the element they are made from. Constructs are in an layman''s term magic puppets. Strong magic abilities but weak body construction at the start." She explained each strength and weakness. "I want construct." I said "And your name?" The goddess asked. "...Jeopardy." I said after a moment Ariel raises her eyebrows at the name. "Quite a strange name. Anyway your surname will be...White. Good luck and have a nice life." She said The world flashed white and suddenly I found myself in a large junkyard with thousands of broken constructs making mountains of them. I could see several walking about. As I try to move I notice something. I have no arms and only my right leg. "I guess I deserve this." I said sniffling as i was now unable to even cry. I lay there for a moment sobbing before hearing someone approach. Soon a male construct appears. "My that is a sorry state you woke up in. Need help?" He asked. "...Yes...please." I said quietly while nodding. Around his wrist a few parts open up and a few tools appear. He begins working on a nearby construct and removes the arms and leg before coming and attaching them to me. "Should be enough. Good luck. I just a suggestion. Repair as many parts on yourself as possible. The insides have machine parts like androids and robots." He said. He gets up and soon leaves. I don¡¯t stop him. He wasted nearly an hour fixing me up. I look through the menu and learn to bring out the tools and begin repairing. "I guess I need to work quick. I¡¯m already behind others." I said quiey to myself. I fix myself as best I can with my limited skills and start moving. Techno PoV Right now I¡¯m being stared at. Why? Easy I have new gear that no one else does. Now the second reason I¡¯m being stared at is because of Bulk. "So will...you do...that?" He asked. ¡°Not a change¡± i replied the same moment. I walk around him. "Come on...I need...someone good...at tinkering...to improve...my body." E complained. ¡°I¡¯m good at Tinkering, not body construction¡± I lied. Yep he wants me to upgrade his body to be closer to a tank. The tanks themselves have been repaired somewhat. They are able to get to 50% capacity and say they can probably beat the queen with a bit of strategy. "You''re still...better at...working than...others. I saw...you upgrade...your hands. Also they...aren¡¯t creaking...like before." He continued whining. "Tch" ¡°Still won''t do it.¡± I say really annoyed. "Thats harsh...man. I thought...we were...friends." He said trying to play a guilt game. ¡°If we were friends I would be talking with you directly.¡± I said bluntly. "...I¡¯m not...a best...friend but...I am...a friend." He continued. "I like Bulk guy he is funny." Nova said while laughing. "I know...you do." I said to her. ¡°Still I won''t make any upgrades.¡± I told Bulk. "Damn, not...even Nova¡¯s...help can...sway you." He says complaining more. ¡°Unless I can completely trust you I won''t do it cause it can come back and bite me in the ass later.¡± I told him. He sighs and concedes in defeat. "Anything I...can do...to earn...your trust?" He asks. ¡°Nope¡± I say cutting him off from future attempts. I picked up my pipe club and shield as he did the same with his huge club. We were planning on going another round with the Drones. We needed more parts for the Tanks and I was hoping to get another head piece to give to Nova. I also needed more gears and joints to replace my other ones. Nova was coming along so she can train a bit on the collectors. I had gotten an idea I wanted to try out. The group was with 13 people this time and in groups of 4 with Nova being left to take the small ones. This way 6 people would fight the Drones so it would go faster. After a silent walk we arrived. I had Nova hide to the side and then we began like last time. Bulk ran out and argoed and then we moved back. Me and the other team mate were hiding so after the drone passed we came from behind and as soon as Bulk stopped and confronted the drone we came from behind taking out the two back legs. He had already done 10 damage and took one leg The quick instant damage stunned him for a moment and we began to hit the other legs but before we made the second hit he jumped back and we were all in front. ¡°Tch. He got...away.¡± Bulk complained bitterly. ¡°Stop whining¡± I tell him without taking my eyes off the spider. I ran to the left and began circling around to flank it. I saw the others arriving as we entered the fight again. Bulk was taking a bit of damage from the claws having lost 50 life already. He will have to undergo some repairs later. When the other 3 arrived they came in from behind and one of them used the running boast to smash completely the back left leg while another aimed for one above that but on the right side. Crippled As soon as the crippled status appeared the drone fell over to the right and began squirming. Bulk and another team member grabbed the squirming legs and pulled them while me and someone else began removing them. When they were off I began on the head. Like before I disconnected the transmitter cutting its connecting from the hive and then started on the rest. As soon as I finish the same message appeared saying it was dead. Fatal Hit Even as a level 2 newbie I can take so much damage. I guess considering I took the head anyone would die. ¡°Hey can...I get...the head...this time?¡± Bulk asks me. ¡°No I will upgrade Nova. Anything that is left I can pass to you¡± I said. ¡°Deal.¡± He said taking what he can get with hands wide open. We start stripping the drone bare. I grabbed enough joints and gears for a few upgrades. Near the end Nova arrived and in her arms were many small collectors. I taught her how to put them into her inventory and stored them. After that we returned to the base with the engine. What do we need more engines for? Well Bolts engine was repaired with scraps. This was to make him better. We had him turn off and we replaced the engine. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. When the engine came online we cheered a bit and began dismantling the old engine for parts. Even if it was old it was still a better engine than ours so we took engine parts to see if we can upgrade our own body. I got some parts myself before heading to the workshop and began dismantling the drone head and extracting the parts and upgrading Nova again. This time I added the transmitter to her and the head piece. The rest of the parts I gave Bulk a quick upgrade and headed to work. Now what was my work? Repairing one of these collectors that''s what. I fixed the damage by taking parts from others and completely repairing the least damaged one and got it to working conditions. I then tried something. Scanning it I saw that the signal to the queen was still active so I connected like I do with the text message. As soon as the connecting was online the old connection dropped.
You have overridden a signal to an autonomous collector. It is now under your control. Number of drones you can currently control 1 out of 4
It works perfectly so I activate it and at the edge of my view on the left the collectors view appeared. When I looked I notice it only takes up space on the top left and left a space below it and it only reached to around the area I had my old vision. So the headpiece is essential for controlling these. That means the queen has an even better headpiece I thought to myself just imagining the queens headpiece. ¡°Wow smash...it the...thing is...active.¡± Bulk suddenly shouted seeing the drone. ¡°Stop!¡± I said and look straight at him and stand in his way. ¡°Don¡¯t touch ¡°my¡± collectors¡± I said making sure to leave the my emphasised. ¡°Yours?¡± He said tilting his head confused. ¡°Mine. Its under my control. You need transmitter and headpiece to control 4 of them.¡± I reply. I sit back down and begin repairing another one. I had about 16 to work with so I was going to make four for me and another four for Nova. They are collectors so I can have them salvage for me. I can also use them for scouting. While I repaired one I practiced with controlling the collector and had it gather parts from the others. To my momentary joy I gained salvaging experience which meant the collectors were tools and not a pet. It took a while but I was able to repair enough for both me and Nova to have four each. They are quite useful, getting into tight corners got easier because they were the size of my palm. The most convenient feature I found was their standby mode which makes them close up into small baseball sized metal balls. I can even store them in my inventory while inactive. Through the repairs I learned quite well how useful they are. I now no longer need Rust for my own brain upgrades I can do them myself because as surprising as it seems their front legs have a pair of claws on them that open up and can be used to pick up things. With them working so great like this I was able to upgrade my right arm without having to trouble myself with removing my arm like the hand. The result was more than I expected because it seems my body construction skill and tinkering works together and it alters how many stats I get from my own upgrades.
You have upgraded your right arm''s joints +5 Strength
It¡¯s nice when things begin working so well for your. Besides the stats I get from that I had 6 extra stats from leveling up to level 3, since leveling up gives me 3 stats points each level. I put them all in agility because I needed more speed for these rusty legs. Oh right, I¡¯m sure everyone is wondering the health multiplier right. Well with my health currently 170 and I have 10 toughness I would guess that each vitality gives 10 points, each level increases that by 10 points and since I have yet to find the part that gives the 50 extra I can only guess. My best guess would be the engine or the skeleton but since I have yet to experiment it I can¡¯t say for sure and since my engine is working fine for now I don¡¯t need repairs or upgrade. With my upgrade session done I head outside and to the slowly upgrading tanks. ¡°Need help?¡± I ask everyone in the area. Everyone looks at me. ¡°Any spots that are too small to reach I can get them¡± I texted confident. ¡°...In between the...gears in the...shoulders, we can¡¯t...reach the rusted...gears there.¡± One of the players said pointing to the shoulders of the tanks. I nod with a blank face and pull out a collector and activate it and set it down and then I sit down. I then pull the image over my whole view and control it with greater control than before which was a kind of semi automatic. ¡°Hoho The boy is smart. He already took control of a few collector drones.¡± Reinfred said admiring my smarts. A few others looked curiously at the spider and it climbed the arm and into the open shoulder. The shoulder had several large gears crossing each other and near the back were smaller ones hidden from sight. I squeezed the collector through the gears without letting it touch and looked around and found them. Four small broken gears. I open the claws and dismantle the parts and pile them before lifting the gears and exiting before handing them to the nearest Clockwork. ¡°Replacements...now!¡± I said immediately The man blinked a bit before looking through the nearby gears and finding all the replacements and handing it back. Without thanking them or anything I just scurried back in and found the place the gears were missing. ¡°Deactivate your right arm so I can put them in.¡± I order him. ¡°Sure.¡± Reinfred replies simply following it easily. Moments later all the moving gears in the arm stopped working and I put the gears down and began building up the gears again. When they were all in place and firmly bolted on I told him it was clear. At once all the gears began spinning including the ones I replaced. I scurried out and over his shoulder to the other side. I felt his movement as he moved his shoulders. ¡°Heh boy sure does a good job. I can get a bit more power into my arms now.¡± Reinfred said testing out the shoulder which was now moving all the gears instead of part of them. I do the same for all of them though only Bolt has anything else to change. I then went into the chest and began checking on the smaller gears in the back and found several weak and old ones that I was certain was keeping them from getting up correctly. Problem was they had three gears attached to it so the tanks had to be completely off so that I could work and I had to remove one at a time or it would be to heavy. I even had to send a second collector to help remove the gear due to the weight and size being too much for a single one. It was night time before I finished their inner repairs. My tinkering skill reached level 4 with all the tinkering I did. After done I retrieved the collectors and headed to one of the rooms and sat down. I fixed the system to turn me on at 6 am and did the same for Nova before both of us entered standby mode and we fell asleep. At exactly 6 am my systems started up again. But instead of a normal morning we woke up to lots of tremors. I picked up the still booting up Nova and ran outside where I saw them. Standing up in their full 3 and a half meter tall glory the tanks were stretching their limbs. ¡°Hahaha it''s good to stand up again.¡± Reinfred said doing some random stretches for no good reason. ¡°I can¡¯t agree more. I feel like I can take the queen on by myself.¡± Hub said while punching the air like a boxer. ¡°Hey guys have you checked your capacity.¡± Bolt asked while examining his body. ... ... ¡­ Reinfred: 68% Hub: 70% Bolt: 65% ¡­ .. . There was suddenly a roar of laughter from the three and they looked my way. Hub crouched on all fours again and came in and grabbed me and dragged me out. ¡°Good job boy!¡± Hub shouted ¡°Cheers for the boy that got us walking.¡± Reinfred shouted along. Hub suddenly throws me up and catches me. It was then that Nova woke up completely and began screaming. As soon as he caught me again I stood on his hand and ran up his shoulder and pulled old pipe out and smashed him in the face. ¡°Don¡¯t EVER...DO THAT...WITH ME...OR NOVA...EVER AGAIN!!!¡± I shouted into their faces. I jump down and hug Nova. She hugs me tightly as she sobs into my metal shoulder. We had no tears but I knew she was crying and my V shaped eyes from the head piece were glowing brightly with my rage and the pipes were whistling like a train whistle as steamed was pumped out more then naturally would. The three tanks and everyone that saw stare in shock as I walk inside and start to breath to calm down and soon the steam pumping died down and I was able to get Nova¡¯s grip off and add more water into my engine. I saw Bulk come in after a while. ¡°You guys...Ok?¡± he asks us while looking from one to the other. ¡°Yeah, I just lost my head because those idiots scared Nova.¡± I said still very irritated. ¡°It surprised...everyone to...hear you...yell like...that. Everyone thought...you were...a mute. Also your...voice. It held...emotion that...we can¡¯t...do with...our monotone...voices. Everyone is...thinking that...you found...a voice...box that...isn¡¯t monotone.¡± Bulk said while looking at me. ¡°I barely talk, I don¡¯t need to replace this junk.¡± I reply to his claim. ¡°I said...the same...thing. There...are quite...a few...jealous people...who think...you are...hoarding too...much stuff.¡± He said with worry present in the monotone voice of his. ¡±I only...hold what...is mine. With the Tanks walking again they will probably soon go kill the queen and get the furnace. Once we remake new bodies. I¡¯m leaving with Nova. I don¡¯t feel safe here.¡± I say. ¡°You sure? Its not...safe out...there either.¡± He said. ¡°But it''s safer than here. The scariest monster is the largest, its the one that you talk to every day.¡± I said. ¡°If you...are leaving...here soon...then I...should get...my things...ready. I still...have my...debt to...you for...reviving me.¡± Rust says appearing from the doorway. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t let you forget it even if I had to drag you out in standby mode¡± He made a robotic chuckle at my comment. ¡°You also have a debt you still need to pay Bulk. I upgraded you and also repaired you and you haven¡¯t paid up yet¡± I said pointing at Bulk. ¡°Hahaha Fine I''ll...go as well. Who else...is there...to watch...out for...your rusty...metal ass.¡± He says laughing. ¡°Before that you wanted to be a tank right?¡± I ask. ¡°Yes I...do, why?¡± He asks confused. I open my inventory and take out a few items I collected. A few metal pipes, a small thick glass ball with two holes through it, a mechanic pump, a quick release pressure valve and a bulky metal fist a third the size of the normal on. ¡°You¡¯re going...to need...some weapons.¡± I say out loud. For the first time I make a wide grin which they return back as we begin to work. Chapter 6 Queen We worked the whole day on it to make Bulk a new weapon. The thing was that we would have to remove one of the tool gears but he said it didn¡¯t matter. "I¡¯m going for fighter not craftsman." He said when we addressed the issue. Seeing as he was right handed and we were only going to make one arm the new weapon we picked up a new scraped left arm and worked on that. His own left arm was removed because we needed to connect some of the pipes into his steam tank. He had to turn his engine off and run on battery while we worked less we ruin the upgrade materials. The pipe exited the steam tank and came out his left shoulder. From there a rubber hose was attached at the end so that it wouldn¡¯t leak steam even when the pressure rose. We then connected a new pipe that went down to his elbow and again a new hose was put to link to the next pipe that went to just before the wrist. There the glass ball was connected to is on one of the holes and on the other the mechanic pump was connected which works when steam is pumped in it rapidly expands out. The pressure valve was put in between to allow steam to enter the pump and after it to allow the steam to exit. When it has no pressure the pump is hidden behind the wrist in the place where the tool gear would go. The last part was upgrading the arm and bulkier hand with newer joints so that it didn¡¯t creak and would be easier to handle. The arm itself was just a slight bit heavier but we balanced that out by adding a bit of padding on the other arm. When the arm was complete we connected the hose on the shoulder and then connected the arm once more but only just the skeleton. ¡°Turn the engine on. Let''s build pressure and test it.¡± I said. "Finally, I...was at...40% battery...already." He said with a bit of relief. The engines come to life and soon the steam pressure starts building and come out the pipes on his back. I check his arm with the collector and see if there are any leaks near the exits or along the pipe. None found I pull it out and then we connect the rest of the arm.
You have created an improved weaponized arm. +7 strength
Weapon: Crude Small Pressure Fist
A small steam pressure fist that some tanks have. The power behind them can cause iron to cave in but due to being made by amateurs using scraps it will need constant maintenance. Damage 20-25 Water 5% of engine steam per punch
"This is...sick man! 20-25 damage....plus 7...strength for...a single...arm!" He said totally pumped. "No, we added...padding to the...other that had a slight improvement but probably by 1 point." Rust says. "Though 5%...of the...engines steam...is hell...of a...lot of...steam!" He said probably frowning though it didn''t show on the clockwork face. ¡°A strong newbie weapon will always come with a balance like that. I bet it''s also because we used trash to make it.¡± I explained "Wow you look strong now." Nova said checking out the slightly bulkier arms. Nova¡¯s comment makes his ego swell a bit. I only sigh at his simpleness. After we get good metal we will need to make a whole new body for all of us. I wasn¡¯t planning on staying here at all. "So we have¡­finished this. What now?" Rust asks me. ¡°Aren¡¯t the Tanks ready to fight?¡± I ask him in return. "Yes we got¡­their pressure fists¡­online. Besides that¡­they are unarmed." Rust replies. "Isn¡¯t that...enough?" Bulk asks confused. "Yeah! The big robots look super strong after bro fixed them." Nova says looking at Rust confused. "...It is but...I don¡¯t know. Will we support...them or let...them go alone?" Rust says worried. "We will go together with them. We can scavenge while they kill off the bigger stuff. If they get hurt during the fight we can repair them and after disable the queen we can scavenge it.¡± I tell him. "Yes that is...best. Let us call...everyone." Rust says calming down a bit. We left the workshop and Bulk went around calling everyone out. When we were gathered Rust had one of the tanks lift him higher on his hand. "Okay everyone! Because...the tanks have...been repaired to...acceptable levels...I think...it''s best to...move on and...kill the furnace...queen. We will...be able to...reconstruct our bodies...once we obtain...the furnace on...her. The tanks...will go in...first and we...will follow dismantling...the robot as...we go as...well also providing...support with repairs." Rust explains to all of us.
Mission: Moving furnace The tank have been successfully revived and repaired to a point where it is possible to attack the Furnace Queen in the Clockwork Scrapyard. You and all the working class will have to provide support with repairs and disassembly while inside the hive. Difficulty F++ Reward: Queen Furnace Success: Clear the Spider Dungeon Failure: All three tanks are destroyed and beaten by the queen 0/3
So a double plus F quest. Which means we don¡¯t get in the action but the danger still exists. I thought. "So it¡¯s...going to...get serious...then?" Bulk asks ¡°Turning point of whether the Clockwork rise again or go to extinction for good.¡± I say. "Think so? But what...about the...new players...appearing daily?" He asks. ¡°You didn¡¯t notice did you? Those who couldn¡¯t work quick enough lost all power and the character died. With no city to respawn they just lay there and wake up again the same way and they can¡¯t get out. Those who are here are the only ones still up and running. If we find others they can start but besides that there is nothing to keep them in such a difficult race where you start with only a single limb and alone.¡± I explain. "...You¡¯re right...like always. I got...lucky you...and Nova...were there." He says. "I would suggest...you take the...rest of the...day to prepare...yourselves. Tomorrow morning...we will be...heading down to...get the queen." Rust says finishing up. A loud monotone cheer came from everyone and they all dispersed. Everyone but Rust, Bulk, Nova, the three tanks and me. "Hey kids we wanted to say sorry for scaring your sister." Reinfred says apologizing. I glared at them which made the steam pump faster and my eyes glow brighter. ¡°I don¡¯t need your apologies! Give them to my sister who you scared!¡± I sent the message irritated. They turned to the tiny clockwork and apologized which made her embarrassed. "Um? It''s okay, I was just surprised waking up to that." She says. She hugged me tighter while saying that but none the less they did what they needed to do so I didn¡¯t give a crap. The three definitely saw her fear of them and moved back. At least they have enough sense in those metal buckets they use as heads to know when someone is scared of them and they should stay away until that person wants to get near. After a while of silence I told Nova to sit next to me and not on my lap and I pulled out a few pieces of iron I got from the drones. They were a bit larger then my shield. Besides the that I pulled out a four pieces that were as long as my elbow. I took two of the long pieces and with my welder I held the two pieces together and welded them together. I did the same to the other two pieces. Finally I got Nova to hold one piece and I held the other and I connected one side of them and welded it together leaving me with a long arm sized piece of bulky iron. "What are...you making?" Bulk asked. ¡°Sword and shield.¡± I reply. I then open my chest plate and put one side of the iron rod above the fire of the engine and in the menu I open the engine settings and increase output. I let the iron sit for five minutes before I remove it and set it on the flat metal floor sheet of iron and bang the glowing side. I also lower the output to not waste fuel which I needed to refuel. I hit along the glowing part pushing it closer to a wedge. As the color returned to grey I open sit back pull a fuel can out and add it to my tank before increasing the output again and sticking it in. Because it was heated already it took less time before I started on the other side. I lifted the metal hammer and began banging away and shaping the metal into the wedge but as it cooled I was a bit away from it but it was good enough as is since I am facing metal robots and not animals. I let that edge cool before heating the other side and proceed to forge that side into a blunt sword shape. As you can guess all the hammering drew a lot of attention and quite a few people came out to see what it was and found me using my engine as a makeshift forge and smithing the crude sword. After another 20 minutes of constant heating and hammering the sword was done more or less.
Crude Blunt Sword
A blunt sword made with the intent of fighting machines instead of animals or people. Made by an amateur that knows nothing about blacksmithing while using a poor flame to heat the metal. It has many dents on the sword but it can still be used to fight. Durability 20/20 Attack 13-16
You have learned a new skill
Crude Blacksmithing (basic 1) A form of blacksmithing used by using poor equipment and materials. It is a style used by self-learned artisan in poor conditions with poor structure to make proper weapons. (This skill will be replaced with real blacksmithing if you learn from a real blacksmith) +2% increase when smithing with poor equipment
Well that went better than I expected. It turned out surprisingly well for a crude blunt sword. The blacksmithing skill is a real shock though. I thought to myself. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. "Done?" Bulk asks me. I looked up and found myself in surround by everyone. ¡­ "Everyone is...curious about...the weapon...how is...it?" Bulk asks. ¡°Make a blunt sword with drone metal sheets and find out¡± I tell everyone. I store the sword and pick up the iron plate and turn it a few times. I stood up and headed for the workshop so I could get a piece for the handle inside and to trim the edges and get it into a round shield shape. I quickly found one that fit well and welded it on and then with the cutters from the tool gear I cut it into shape and finished it.
Iron plate shield An iron shield made from the plate armor of an autonomous drone. It was completed by an amateur but since the shield was near completion when finished it came out well. Defense 25 Durability 40/40
Now this is what I¡¯m talking about. Maybe I will go the craftsman route and let Bulk take the tank route. Craftsmen seem like a better choice in this ruined world setting I thought. ¡°Well I¡¯m ready for tomorrow¡± i said. "Can I...see?" Bulk asks. I think a bit and pull the sword and let him look at the stats. It makes his eyes shine bright and his pipes let out a bit more steam than it should. "You are...too good...at crafting." Bulk says amazed. ¡°No I just use good material, Drone plate and iron bars¡± I reply indifferent. "You used...your own...engine to...heat it." He says. ¡°What else is there to do¡± I tell him. I hear feet running and see the all the people at the door run outside and soon I hear the sounds of the welders zapping metal together. "Looks like...there is...competition." Bulk comments on the sudden rise in people copying me. ¡°Don¡¯t care, let them do as they like¡± I reply once again indifferent to what others are doing. I pack my things and head to a room to go to sleep. ¡°Are you going to sleep?¡± I ask him. "Nah, I¡¯ll...just log...off soon. Speaking of...which I¡¯ve...never seen...you log...off." Bulk said. "You just never saw me log off. I have more free time so I''m on longer." I lied. "Well that''s true? Well I''ll be going then." He says. ¡°See you.¡± I say. I go to a corner and set the system to boot up of my body is tampered with or when it reaches 6 am. Nothing happened during the night thankfully and I booted up properly. Today I waited for Nova to wake up completely to leave so that nothing unexpected would happen. As we walk outside we see quite a few people with some blunt swords or some extra forged padding. Most of them no longer have any holes in their body which showed the gears before. I find Bulk outside the cave with the tanks talking with them. "So that...kind of...weapon existed...in the...past." I heard Bulk saying as i got near. "Yep. We could cause full on assaults just one of us by ourselves. Most of them were stripped off us as you can see this open spot here and here." Rein said. "Eep!" Nova shouted as we got close. Nova was in my arms and hugged me while hiding her face as we approached. ¡°What caused full assaults¡± I ask. "An old weapon we used to have. All he have left today are the pressure fists and our partial strength." Rein said. "I¡¯m sure...Techno can...find a...way to...make it...soon." Bulk comments. ¡°Only if I found it useful¡± I say. "Shame we haven¡¯t found any mechanic class. Those guys had a body build with tools in every place of all kinds. They were like a factory stations by themselves." Hub says. This kind of peaks my interest. ¡°What do they look like¡± I ask wanting to see an image. A request for a download appears and I accept. It shows a video of a 2 meter tall Clockwork that had relatively bulky figures. The chest was wide and it held a really large engine that also seem to work as a personal forge because of the power of the flames. The arms were really thick and when it opened its gears a large number of them popped out before returning and leaving a few remaining which was used. Besides the tools he had a large assortment of weapons hidden on his body so it wasn¡¯t just a craftsman since he could improve his body as he pleased. The video showed several and it was clear to see that there was no actual model for it like a tank. Each one was unique. ¡°Quite an interesting class¡± I say very interested. "Those bastards are kind of a dual class. Besides being some of the best repairmen, they are some of the most annoying marksmen and can fight in many different ranges with many weapons and tools they build." Hub says. This kept getting more interesting. "They are a bit lacking in close combat but considering the weapons they possess and the tactics they use they are a pain in the ass to fight." Hub continues. "I think if we can get the furnace you can make an engine that can start you on as a mechanic. The engine is normally nicknamed the forge engine. It¡¯s similar to the furnace queens except her insides are like a factory doing the entire construction of the drones while the forge engine is a forge." Reinfred says finishing up. ¡°Food for thought¡± I tell them. We suddenly hear some metal hitting metal and look towards it and see Rust there with a club and shield. "It''s time for...us to head...out. Those who are...staying behind, begin...reviving more Clockwork. We will need...more manpower soon." Rust orders. A monotone cheer comes from everyone. I put Nova down. "You¡¯re coming...but stay...close to...me unless...I tell...you to...stay put." I tell Nova. "Okay bro." She replies. "Leave the...collectors in...your chest...and ready...to collect...stuff." I tell her. We pull out the collectors from our inventory and toss them into the spot where the human gut would be. They remain inactive. She then pulls out her pipe club. We feel the tanks get up since they cause the ground to shake and they stand at their full 3 meters tall casting shadows on us. After that we move out. The three tanks go in front but they are in a line because the path is only roughly 4 meters wide and really rough. They¡¯re footsteps cause tremors but we move on. When we arrive at the clearing they just walk in and when the drones come at them they just pick them up from above and hold them upside down and pull all the legs off and leave it there for us to strip clean. Bulk took the chance and secured a drone head for himself before leaving the rest for the others. The cave was large, easily 6 meters tall. Inside we met more drones and swarms of collectors. I made quite the stock with them. I need repair material and replacements for my own so it''s best to have them now then regret later. The cave itself was fairly simple structured. It was circular and had a slight curve following the mountain it was under as the path went down. The floors were made of iron probably from the queen. As we headed down we could tell the heat was rising because we had to let out more steam to keep from bursting. It ate at the water supply but only increasing consumption by about half more than usual. After half an hour of breaking down drones after drones everyone was fiddling with the brains. It was when we spotted the end. The corridor ended and the room radiated red light. Before letting the Tanks go in we refilled the fuel and water and they advanced on while we stayed at the entrance to the corridor. The final room was huge. If you have been to a soccer stadium then you know what big is. Now think maybe twice that size and nearly 30 meters high. Inside we couldn¡¯t help but frown at what was waiting. At the center dropping a new batch of drones was the furnace queen. Standing at 10 meters tall and 20 long the giant spider made the tanks look small and it made us worker class even smaller. "What do you know...a great queen." Rein said. "Who would have guess we would fight something like this huh." Bolt commented. ¡°Is it hard?¡± I ask. "Yep. The normal procedure against this is at least 6 tanks moderately armed." Hub says. "So we...are fucked?" Bulk says. "Nope. These bitches have one fatal flaw. They are so fucking heavy they can¡¯t move." Rein said laughing. "They still hit hard as fuck though." Hub says. "Are you going...to be all...right?" Rust asks them worried. "Like hell we will. Most likely at least one of us will get beaten down." Rein said laughing harder. ¡°Optimistic much¡± I said. "We are being optimistic. To fight this bitch as we are at least one sacrifice for a distraction will happen." Rein shouted. "Though we can still beat it with some good distractions we don¡¯t have long range weapons." Bolt says examining the queen. Long range...wait ¡±Then let¡¯s use the collectors to get inside and break it apart." I say. "That...could work." Rein said thinking. ¡°Rust get them upgraded with the headpiece and transmitter and get them repairing the collectors they picked up.¡± I order Rust to get working. "Nova...we need...to help...them with...our little...spiders. We need...to get...inside that...big thing...and break...it." I told her. "I get to help?" She asked. Her eyes shine brightly. "Yes but...only your...little spiders...can go." I tell her. "Okay!" She shouts determined. She opens the chest piece and soon the four collectors crawl out before she closes it. If we were any other race that would have been something out of a horror movie. ¡°Get going we will make distractions!¡± I tell the tanks. "Well than boys." Rein begins ¡°¡±¡±Let''s give it hell!!¡±¡±¡± The three shout. Chapter 7 Race Unlocked Thump Thump Thump The heavy footsteps of the tanks as they move forward keeps everyone on the alert. Everyone had begun to dismantle the drone brains and quickly found the transmitter and removed the head piece. Rust was going from one to another installing the transmitter and bolting on the head piece. After that those who had it on began repairing the collectors. Me and Nova on the other hand were sitting cross legged on the wall near the entrance. As for our collectors. They were spread out skittering towards the queen. RRRROOAAAAAAA The behemoth spider queen opened her mandibles and showed the flames inside as she sees the large tank intruders. The roar insights the drones to attack them but because of the collectors small size it was easy to escape detection. When we are in total control of all four collectors we are in a standby mode and can only speak with text which is fine by me. I was the first to reach the queen''s first leg. I made the collector look up and look for a good foot hold and then began slowly climbing the large body. Its light body doesn¡¯t even make sound as it inches up the humongous legs of the queen. I make sure to keep 2 of the collectors on the ground with one watching the queen''s movements and another watching the drones. The other two I make one climb near the front while the other near the back. This way if one is spotted the other will still have leeway to climb on. Half way up Bolt finishes crushing the drones and runs towards the queen¡¯s front left leg. As he gets a few meters from her leg he pulls his right arm back and takes a swing putting his weight into the punch. [Pressure Fist] Like a true tank, the pressure fist sounded like a bomb shell was fired and then it exploded. The queens leg that received the attack was flung in a half circle braking the joint after the first leg part. The joint couldn¡¯t handle the damage and soon it broke off and the entire leg fell off but the tank was already moving away. -200 (-200) 2800/3000 "Fuck this bitch has 3000 durability." Bolt shouted seeing the health bar appearing. "The leg seems to be around 200 each." Rein said. "That leaves around 1200 as the main body." Hub says. "This is one hard ass spider queen" Bolt says. While they moved about I try to keep the collectors from falling from the vibrating. After the shaking the queen roared again making more vibrations and one of the collectors slid down the leg but caught a groove in the iron plates before falling. That was to close for comfort! I thought really worried. ¡°Rust how is backup coming along!¡± I ask. ¡°Slow because none...of them have...as much talent...for the tinker...skill like you. They are...slow on the...repairs¡± Rust explains. I click my metaphorical tongue and turn back to climbing. With all the shaking over I being climbing and soon reach the joint connecting the first digit of the leg to the second. It¡¯s like a bridge downwards now so I have both of them scurry over onto the main body and after a minute they finally reach it. Like all my previous opponents my aim was crippling them as best as possible. This one is just a bit larger. Aiming for the head I was going to try and locate the motherboard and break it. Problem is that the head itself was about 4 meters wide and 4 tall and it was tightly sealed. As I looked about with the collector Nova¡¯s pair arrive. ¡°Nova search for a way into the head. Any hole big enough for the robots to get inside.¡± I tell her. ¡°Count on me Bro.¡± she replies with a message. We continued looking but found nothing but as soon as we hear another explosion we turn the collectors to look at the sound and see the front right leg doing a spin like the first but this time it completed the turn and began falling on the queen. SHIT! ¡°Run Nova!¡± I warn her and start getting the collectors out of there. We scurry away as the huge claw lands with a deafening crash on the queens head. We got to the mid body before it crashed and looked back. After a moment we noticed it moving. The queen was moving its head and the remains of the arm and was dragging the leg off and after some time it fell down and broke off from the joint. In its place many cracks and holes were left in the crushed plating. ¡°Thanks whoever broke the second leg. We can now get inside the queen. Let¡¯s go Nova¡± I said. ¡°YAY¡± Nova cheered. We scurry in each on in a different opening and quickly began ripping whatever wire was in our way. The response was immediate. With a huge roar the head began shaking. Thankfully the agile legs of the collectors could handle the shaking and we moved on. If I said that her head was like a maze on its own I wouldn¡¯t be exaggerating. What the hell is with her head. After 10 minutes of running inside her I turn my attention to the one that was watching her movements. I looked up to see the health. With two legs gone and some structural damage underneath her and on the head she was down to 2086 durability. As I watch I see Rein run in and with jumping power that doesn¡¯t fit his size he reaches the underbelly and hits it. This isn¡¯t getting anywhere. I think they had some level of scanner right let¡¯s see the stats. I thought to myself.
Autonomous collector A small spider drone used for collecting metal to feed the queen to make new units. They are equipped with the most basic transmitter, a tiny engine that powers them indefinitely through mechanical energy, and a small basic scanner to locate metals. Durability 28/60
Ok they have them I cheered to myself. ¡±Nova use the scanners to find your way around¡± I told Nova who was having trouble like me. ¡°The toys have them?...Ok then¡± She said. I look through the options on each of them and choose the two inside and activate the scanner. It¡¯s able to show me part of the brain but it was enough for me to move about. ¡°A few of...the others are...ready. They have...two each but...it''s enough of...a start.¡± Rust tells us. Finally I thought bitterly at the slow players. ¡°Then get them climbing already¡± I told him. As I move about and crash many of the parts I encounter. Though it may cost me later since these could have been salvaged it''s best to get this thing killed before we worry about that. Every so often I use the scanner to map the route of the brain. I have yet to find the motherboard but with all the damage I am causing the queen seems to be entering critical condition even if her current life after an hour of getting beaten around is 1467. I watched the fight from outside and up until now it¡¯s been going well but I can¡¯t help feel that there is something off. The queen has moved its legs to stomp but I¡¯m sure it has an attack or two. As if on cue it happened. GGGRRRRAAA~~ It lifted itself up and roared. The smoke bellowed from its pipes and from its abdomen many openings appeared and new pipes stuck out. "Fire Hell. RUN!!" Hub shouts The three tanks began running with all they had. I kept watching. From the new pipes after some shaking and pointing the abdomen forward from between its legs. A huge inferno of flame came out. Reaching almost to the door, everything the flames neared was melted. "Fuck this is why we need ranged fully armed tanks to fight his these bitches." Rein complained as he looked into the room full of flames. "Ahh~~! That almost got me." Bolt sighed in relief. "Hey workers we need fuel and water. We are near overheat." Bolt said towards the others. Since they all had only two collectors ready to leave they weren¡¯t on standby like me and Nova, or were. Damn, the two outside were melted I cursed in my head. ¡°good news the collectors inside the head are still working. They survived but to the queen¡¯s own protection. I said. A few people breathed deeply a sigh of relief that they still had something to fight with. Everyone works quickly to refill the water tank which begins to cool their body and build steam. A few other repairs are done to a few gears in the legs and arms but most minor stuff. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. For me and Nova we continued taking down the brain while looking for the motherboard. I was hopeful. After 3 whole minutes the queen finally ran out of fire and the huge engine stopped spewing flames. In the wake of the flames was a large pool of molten iron which was quickly hardening after losing its flame. The three tanks went in again. With steam pumping again they had their main weapon back online. In the brain I finally connect the two paths that my collectors took. When they both arrive at the connection I couldn¡¯t help but feel happy at what I saw. Sticking out in the middle was something akin to a large computer and around it were several transmitters most likely this was either a better transmitter or the motherboard. Not caring much, ok I did care, I had the collectors carefully remove the central piece. Pulling it up from its place I saw that it had several wires attached. It was annoying but I began having the connectors claw at the wires. As soon as I cut the first wire all hell broke loose. The queen roared with all her power and began shaking about violently. The two collectors had their claws deep into the wires so they took minimal damage but I can¡¯t say the same for Nova¡¯s. "Wahhh my toys were destroyed." I heard Nova cry since her spiders got destroyed. I looked at Nova and crouched down and hugged her to keep her quiet. I stood up with her in my arms while I controlled the collectors. She didn¡¯t look like she would give up so with all they had I made them claw with one claw and slowly clip each wire one copper wire at a time. When I clipped the fourth wire her right legs lost power and stopped supporting her weight and with her thrashing about she tipped her body over. The crash was violent and only one collector survived but with her pinned I was able to slowly cut the remaining ones.
You have removed the main processor of the Furnace great queen. You had a great level of contribution to the success of this conquest. +10 levels
I dropped to the ground at that moment. ¡°She¡¯s dead¡± I said At that moment the cheers came from everyone. The tanks sat down and sighed deeply "Is it over?" Nova asked. "Yes...We beat...it." I said patting her head. I did a scan of Nova and saw she gained 6 levels and was level 9 now. I was 13. Guess killing gave more bonus but she got lots as well. I stood up and walked to the queen. With my control of collector I had it lift the main processor and start on the way back. "You guys did...it." Rust said. "I wonder what killed it?" Rein asked. ¡°The main processor was removed. Hey guys get moving and start stripping the spider." I ordered those who were to slow to help much. "Techno is right...We will put...the furnace in...the back of...the room. You...six go to...the base and...have everyone gather...everything this will...be the new...base." Rust says ordering a few people. ¡°You know we are leaving soon¡± I tell him. ¡°Yes I know...but that thing...won¡¯t be leaving...anything soon because...of the size. So let¡¯s use...what we have.¡± He replies. I shrug and pull out the tool gear and use the cutter and from the holes I open up the head and start moving and breaking apart parts until I finally found the collector. With him the processor. He was badly damaged but was able to work enough to drag the processor so it was still useful. I scan the processor to see what it really was.
Queens transmitter A special transmitter that also works as the main processor of the furnace queen. It isn¡¯t a sentient creature and didn¡¯t have a true motherboard but it converted a transmitter into a processor and gained higher level of complexity. If installed into any machine it will gain the ability to control drones. Controls 5 complex robots or 25 drones or 50 collectors
Well isn¡¯t this one OP piece of tech. I thought grinning to myself. I quickly store it before someone sees and start looking through more of the head. I take unbroken parts that survived our onslaught. When I finished and appeared again I saw they were cutting the abdomen off the spider. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± I ask. "The furnace is...in the abdomen. Once it''s off...the tanks will...push it near...the back and...then we will...scan it and...get it working." Rust replies. ¡°How long until then?¡± I asked curious. "Hmm...2 days maybe up to 4." Rust said. ¡­ I walk to Nova and pick her up. ¡°I¡¯m going to look around. If there are tanks, there may be more models and tools I can find¡± I say. "...Ok and good...job killing it." Rust said
Mission: Moving Furnace With your help you have taken down the Furnace great queen and secured the Furnace and the future of the Clockwork. Reward +3 levels Clockwork has been permanently opened as a starting race. The Spider dungeon is now cleared. It has been converted into the Clockwork base. Clockworks will begin near the base as a scraped clockwork.
I leave after closing the window and hear the cheers from the others at level 17 I might have one of the highest levels and I want to keep that a secret for a while. Jeopardy PoV What is this. It''s been a week since I began living here and we made a base but when we reached the so called threat we got a mission to kill a giant boss monster. The constructs are magic puppets but we are made like androids so we need a forge. What stands in front of all of us is a huge robot. A Clockwork colossus. In its chest is what we need. A Powerful steam engine that works as a forge but that''s it. We can¡¯t get close to this guy and we can barely use magic. Most of us are trashed constructs so our cores are weak and we have rusted parts. This sucks, karma is getting back at me and is taking all these others with me. Wait it¡¯s a robot. Don¡¯t tell me he has an one switch... We all have been fighting it for the last hour without much success. Well maybe the brain can be destroyed. The robot itself is bulking but has many plates that don¡¯t fit correctly leaving entrances into its body. Seeing this I became curious and circle around. When I look inside I see huge gears turning. Most are old. An idea suddenly comes to mind and I run at its blind slot and jump into one of the openings in its legs. Inside there are hundreds of gears slowly turning. "This might be the only god sent thing I can have but it will take all my mana." I said talking to myself. I put my hands together. In my chest a small green crystal begins shining. It¡¯s called an air crystal and holds mana of the air system and lets me do magic from it. You might think air against metal I can¡¯t win but it''s not air that I am using. It¡¯s a subcategory I had just gotten into. Yep lightning. I spread my hands and bolts of lightning bridge the gap. I quickly touch a large gear and the energy quickly transfers and goes straight up. It rises straight through burning and melting all the wires and goes into the brain and burns all the circuits. The price is my arms which are burned and 90% of my mana leaving me standing by dizzy. If clockworks are robots and run on electricity then constructs are beings that run on mana. If we use to much we turn off for a period of time to recharge. I pull myself out and look up. The lights in the eyes of the giant turned off and the engine turned off and the fired was dying down and steam was being released and loosing pressure. "So...easily and...it took so...long. I even...got 10 levels for...killing it like that." I said while stumbling.
Mission: Moving Furnace You have helped your race secure the most essential tool for rebuilding, a furnace. With it your race can begin rebuilding. +5 levels Constructs has been permanently opened as a starting race.
"15 levels like that...now I¡¯m level 19. I wonder how killing this thing will make this scrap yard change." I say sighing. I fall on my knees and then fall on my face before going to sleep as my mana was low. Chapter 8 Upgrade As we walk out I notice Bulk following us. He didn¡¯t put the head piece on. "Hey where...are you...going?" Bulk asked. "Bro is taking me to explore." Nova She said that excited. "So where...does that...go?" He asked. ¡°The surrounding scrap mountains? Want to find a mechanic clockwork.¡± I reply pointing to the surrounding mountains specifically the ones near the clearing the tanks were found. "You want...to be...a mechanic?" Bulk asked me. ¡°It''s a class with a lot of freedom and importance in this worlds setting if you think about it..¡± I continue walking for a while. Bulk follows behind and soon we leave the cave. As we walk out we find a large number of half built clockworks moving about fixing themselves. ¡°Guess Clockwork isn¡¯t an avoided race anymore.¡± I say looking at the many people fixing themselves. ¡°Did you...see the...quest completion...message. It said...it was...permanently unlocked. Does that...mean their...are requirements...to keep...a race...unlocked?¡± Bulk asked me while following my gaze. ¡°My guess, secure the most essential thing for you races survive and advancement. For us it¡¯s the furnace that can let us remake our bodies.¡± I said guessing from what has happened. We continue on towards the west and after we go around the base of one of the mountains I stop and put Nova down and sit. I then remove the still working collector and begin repairing. Once I had all the legs working I unbolted the head cap and put him inside my head and took control. ¡°Going to...upgrade?¡± Bulk asked. I didn¡¯t reply and when I found the transmitter I unplugged it and checked the wires and thankfully it works. I removed the queens transmitter and put it in my head and had the collector push it into place and into the socket. I had a just fit in my head but that was fine. I remove the collector and close my head.
You have installed the queens transmitter. Transmitting range 20 m -> 40 m Scanners range has been increased, it now scan with better detail. You can now controls 5 complex robots or 25 drones or 50 collectors, at one given time.
¡°What was...that?¡± Bulk asked ¡°Better transmitter¡± I say/ Not even to Bulk would I say what it really was. Something like this was going to the grave with me. I then pull out all the collectors I had gathered and have Nova do the same. On the ground I began repairing them and was intent on teaching Nova how to repair them. Some day she will need to fight for herself so I wanted her to be able to repair herself and having these guys make all the difference. Bulk ended up helping out since he didn¡¯t have much to do and we repaired 36 collectors. I gave 8 to Nova and kept the rest but left 10 out and activated then. I had them disperse and enter the mountain of trash behind me through small openings. I was going to scan it from the inside and try to look at the inside that my scanners weren¡¯t mapping. I was going to spend the next four days looking the surrounding scraps to find the mechanic. If I got one I could get more advanced tools and for a machine it was the best class. Especially when you have a transmitter that can control complex robots. I wasn¡¯t stupid I did pick up the queen¡¯s other transmitters there were 5 and each were a special model made just for that purpose. They work like a substitute motherboard so I can make a clockwork without giving it life. With that in mind us three searched for the next four days the surround mountains sometimes giving a hand...or leg, to a new player who doesn¡¯t know how to start up. Bulk said that in the forums clockworks have a low rank in popularity along with the constructs because of the fact that everyone starts half broken. Other races have it bad as well, humans are scattered nomads in extremely tiny tribes and most players wake up in destroyed towns and cities with little to no resources left there. Elves are scattered many devastated forests and sea creatures like Mermaids and Siren have to leave the water fast after login in because the lakes and oceans are heavily polluted. It was clear to see why the game was called The Ruined World. Not a single race got away from the ruin. Just like Clockworks start in a scrap yard everyone else starts in the worst possible situation for their race. Though with the success of the quest we secured more or less the safety of the clockwork so we can go at a more casual pace while we live in this world. 4 days later We arrive in the growing clockwork base. As we walk through the corridors we see hundreds of clockworks. I could only imagine how much fuel these guys are eating up. I had gathered my own supply so I didn''t care. Now as we walked down everyone looked at us and moved out of our way. Bulk Nova and I walked down the center but it wasn¡¯t because of us but what was walking behind us. ¡°Wow bro look everyone is staring.¡± Nova said looking around while others looked back. ¡°Jealous ones...ignore them.¡± I tell her. ¡°That¡¯s harsh...man. Still...it¡¯s amazing we actually found these and they were still working.¡± Bulk said. ¡°Those who are slow will only cry in the end.¡± I say. We ignore all the glowing eyes looking our way and walked with the two behind us and finally reach the huge final chamber. At the corner we could see the huge furnace had been set up and was pumping out metal instead of drones now. From far we could hear Rust giving orders. I wonder how this place will be after we leave with him. As we approach he looks our way hearing the heavier than normal footsteps from behind us. ¡°Hey Rust¡­been a...while.¡± Bulk calls out to the clockwork. ¡°Bulk, Techn¡­¡± He begins saying. He stopped mid-sentence and looked at the two behind me. ¡°Where did...you find...them?¡± He asks pointing to the two behind me. ¡°We searched the scrap¡± I tell him. ¡­ As he looked at us we heard even heavier footsteps Nova quickly got scared and had me pick her up as she hid her face in my shoulder. ¡°Oh so this is what all the ruckus is about.¡± Rein says appearing from behind. ¡°The kid did it again huh.¡± Bolt says as he spots me. ¡°Hey...isn¡¯t that a mechanic...and a knight?¡± Hub says spotting the two behind me Yep the clockworks we found were just what he said. The mechanic we found on day two. It was near the spot the tanks were in. His figure was 2.50 m tall, this chest was really large to hold the unique furnace engine in it. The arms had quite a number of tools for different things many of which I didn¡¯t know what it was for. As for the knight it¡¯s just like the name says. At 2.30 m tall it has a padded body with armor resembling a knight. Inside the arms are the remains of some guns it had but it''s far too rusted and no ammo making them useless. Next to the guns were two long blades that came out of the arm for close combat. ¡°Like them...we found...it in...the scraps. Oh when...can we...use the...furnace to...make our...bodies.¡± Bulk said. ¡°Doesn¡¯t the mechanic...have a furnace engine itself?¡± Rust comments on the large engine. ¡°I¡¯m going to take it apart it''s too bulky and has too low mobility to work as my body¡± I tell them. ¡°Your body. Haha you¡¯re going to kill him for the body.¡± Rein said laughing. ¡°Neither of...them are...awake. The motherboards...were broken...so they...are just...robots that ...Techno is...controlling. We just...put some...transmitters and...they worked...like drones.¡± Bulk explained. ¡°Ah that makes sense. Shame would have been nice to get the experience of a mechanic again.¡± Rein said looking at the rusted mechanic. I then pulled out several chips. ¡°If you guys make it so we can use the furnace until we have the quantity of metal we need for our bodies. I will upload a copy of the memories of the mechanic into a new clockwork.¡± I said. It took a moment for them to read everyone and as soon as they finished the result made me crack a small grin. ¡°ALL YOU RUST BUCKETS MOVE AWAY!!!! Those still working get it done quick!¡± Rein shouted scaring all the players and revived clockwork. ¡°You''re a horrible man.¡± Bulk said "Like I give a damn.¡± I tell him indifferent of all the stares. With the three giants everyone was forced back and those working had to finish quick and we were given free rein of the furnace. I had the two robots drop all the metal we had gathered and throw it into the furnace before I deactivate them. "You should...prepare yourself. You are...getting a...new body...but it...will be...a normal...working class." Bulk warned Rust. "I don¡¯t mind." Rust said. After we began smelting we stripped the mechanic down to his skeleton. There was an impressive amount of tools in it. I scan the structure of the knight first and get a basic skeleton model and then we start making it. A 2.50 m tall knight skeleton. "Why are you making a knights skeletons?" Rein asks me confused. ¡°That mechanic has no mobility, it''s crap. To fight I need to run a lot.¡± I tell him. The size was larger than the other knight because it would house a larger engine. It was an engine from the drones. We got our hands on two before coming down here. The furnace engine was going to be made into a separate clockwork specifically for forging. After the skeleton was done we attached the engine and began building the gears. With our skill at body building at level 3 we were just thankful that the furnace made most of the parts ready to attach. We just needed to input the shape and thickness. In other words it was quick experience since we needed correct measurements. I¡¯m happy I copied the mechanics memories cause it let me learn a bit about body construction and sizing the body properly. After the gears came the equipment I was going to have. I kept the swords because it was actually part of the design and didn¡¯t take so much space in the arm. I took many of the old tools and remade them before building them into a tool gear. The parts came out the furnace mostly ready and only attaching it to make the gear was a bit annoying but putting them into both arms was relatively easy. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Wiring came with the equipment and ended at the brain were I built it all. It was almost twice as large as my head and I could make it larger. Plating came next and it was like any clockwork. It closed in and could open where it mattered to use the tools and gears we made. With the iron mechanic knight done I took the queen transmitter and a larger drone headpiece and put it in the brain in the transmitter spot and then the real part began. ¡°Rust I need you to remove my memory chips and the motherboard and put them in the brain of my new body." I told him. "That is a...lot of trust...you are putting...in me." He replied [I]¡°You three if he tries anything crush him.¡± I tell the tanks. "Sure." Rein said for the three of them. "WHAT!" Rust shouted. The threat was clear so I turned myself off and left my body in their hands. I don¡¯t know how long it was but soon a screen appeared.
System booting¡­
System has detected a new body scanning all systems...
System scan complete. Body fully functional. All systems turning on.
My vision was restored and I found myself in front of the furnace again. The plates were all open so I sent a message to close it all and one by one the plates sealed my body leaving only a robotic knight. "So are...you techno? ¡°Who else would I be¡± I said to the idiot.
You stats have changed in all perimeters calculating new stats
Status
NameTechno GearRaceClockwork
ClassKnight MechanicLevel:17
Free stats points42Durability570/570
Energy50/200Strength65
Agility40Dexterity68
Toughness60Intelligence50
Wisdom50Charisma20
Leadership10Luck30
Traits
Parental control A system skill that lets you teleport your child or sibling that is below age and has wondered a certain distance from to back
Clockwork scanner A basic system in a Clockworks body that allows them to scan their surrounds and check tools and parts. Also allows them to identify items at a certain range. 1 energy every 15 seconds
Skills
Clockwork body construction (Basic 6) Being of the Clockwork race you instinctively know how to make parts for your body +7% increase in ability when making a body or body part
Scavenger (Basic 9) Able to find useful scraps and parts from trash. Increases chance to find something by 12%
Tinker (Basic 8) You have the natural skill to tinker with any machine. 11% Increases ability when tinkering with a machine. 5% Chance of thinking of new tech while tinkering.
Crude Blacksmithing (Basic 2) A form of blacksmithing used by using poor equipment and materials. It is a style used by self-learned artisan in poor conditions with poor structure to make proper weapons. (This skill will be replaced with real blacksmithing if you learn from a real blacksmith) +2% increase when smithing with poor equipment.
Blunt weapon mastery (Basic 3) Using a blunt weapon or club has given you some understanding of such weapons +6% damage when using a blunt weapon
¡°Cool...My stats went up with the new body¡± I said slightly happy. "What are they?" Bulk asked me. ¡°Ranges from 40-68 the physical ones.¡± I tell them. I move my body and marvel at how quiet I was move. I did feel a few things here and there that was off but it wasn¡¯t something a bit of modifying later on or replacing wouldn¡¯t fix. We turned to the knights body now. Since the structure was already there we just left the skeleton there and slowly took one part and replaced it and then began again. All in all another half hour and another body construction level went into it before we finished. I did notice they my hands were less practical for working as a mechanic but it was obvious they wouldn''t be. That is why the tool gear was made to move at our will if we wanted. As long as that happened I could work as a mechanic. Once done Bulk¡¯s motherboard and memory chips were put in and a quick charge was sent through his body and soon he started up. His stats were similar to mine but as the message said my dexterity was greater. What was made next was Rusts body. We used Bulks old body since it already had a weapon. This was quicker and soon we had a brand new Rust in his new body. Nova came next and I gave her my old body but I melted it completely and made it with female shapes. It represented a 15 year old but the brain I made sure to overhaul before putting her in there. Completely new both Nova and Rust remained as worker class but their stats ranged from 25-35. I did a bit extra for Nova since I put one of the queen''s lesser transmitters for her. She can control up to 5 drones and 25 collectors. With all that done we metaled all the remaining metal into the shapes for the last thing and then took it to the corner. We had taken a long time holding up the furnace so we let everyone get them again. I did as promised as well and handed the memory chips to the tanks. They would put it into a revived clockwork and have him use the surviving memories to make a mechanic. The final project was to make a body to carry the furnace engine. It was my ticket to better blacksmithing. This body would be different. In my head I took the image of a large animal that would fit as a mobile forge but could still fight. What came to mind was a Rhino. With that in mind we made the iron skeleton and then put the engine in. It sat behind the head in between the front legs. We went through the whole process. For the plates it was decided to make him heavily arm like the animal should be. We attached a lower plate that opened up when he was to enter forge mode, and above both the legs a large thick metal plate was attached to protect the remaining openings. These two plates would move forward and back when he needed to open. In the back a proper anvil was placed for both balance of the body as well as for me to use when he opened. With all done we made a brain and I attached a transmitter and connected him to my system. He was my first complex robot and one I was sure to upgrade in the future as we travel. "With this we are finally leaving." Rust said clearly with his new voice box which wasn''t monotone. "Yay we get to adventure." Nova shouted excited as well showing her excitement in her voice. "What about this place. Didn¡¯t you become some leader or something." Bulk asked Rust. "Someone else will pop up. Clockwork are like that. Leadership is to the first to rise." He replied shrugging it off. "Have you guys found the exit?" Rein asks. ¡°No but we will leave to find it. Let¡¯s go you three.¡± I said and called the other three. "Yay adventure!!" Nova shouted and jumped onto my shoulders. "Can¡¯t wait." Bulk said following behind. "Ahead we go then." Rust said like a old man while shrugging. The tanks say their goodbyes and we leave and start head south. After about half a kilometer Rust noticed something. "You guys seem to be heading in this direction with purpose?" He says. "Of course. One of the exit from the scrap yard is this way." Bulk says. ¡°50 km south is the wall with a gate.¡± I tell him without stopping. "How do you have scanner reach for something like that?" He asks me. "Secret." I tell him. Chapter 9 Dwarven outpost It''s been a week since we left the Clockwork base. At the moment Bulk, me and the forge rhino which Nova has gone and named Hino (she can¡¯t say rhino so it ended up being named this) are walking south. As for Nova and Rust. Nove is sitting on Hino¡¯s neck and relaxing while Rust has taken to sitting between the front and back plate that are over the legs. It makes a seat if you sit sideways. We have covered a good 40 km in the last few days travelling. As of now we can already see the huge walls that run to the horizon. "Well fuck. That is one big ass wall." Bulk said looking over to the massive wall. "I must agree. And that is one big door to be able to see it from here." Rust replies in turn. Just as Rust said, straight in front of us you can see a huge door which we can only guess to be around 10 meters each door and they look to open outwards. "Hmm...Hey bro isn¡¯t that smoke near the door?" Nova said tilting her head. When we looked we could definitely see some smoke but the base of the door was blocked by a hill. ¡°We will see what it is soon¡± I told them. Now you all must be wondering if we encountered any dangers. Of course but every km we passed we scanned again and so we knew the place were the most dangers were and just made our way around it. Many of the autonomous we spotted were all in animal form and except for a few they had relatively newish with iron plates. We did get curious once though. We met up with a large 4 meter long autonomous Lizard and wanted to see how strong our bodies were. First Bulk went first. We had made sure to install the pressure fist as well as the swords so he had more appropriate weapons.
Knight¡¯s Short sword A hidden short sword that is hidden between the elbow and wrist of a clockwork knight. These iron swords are of moderate quality and with a sharp edge that could scare any normal animal. Durability 50/50 Attack 25-35
Knights pressure fist A weaker version of the tanks pressure fist. This is made using two glass containers to hold the pressurized steam and is made from moderately quality materials. Attack 50-70 9% of engines steam
This is what good iron can make a clockwork do. I didn¡¯t get to check the tanks pressure fist but considering it was able to flip the legs of the furnace queen I would say around 500-700 damage each punch. Even Bulks fist I would have second thoughts about getting in the way. Anyway he tried out his weapons and found them rather nice being able to dent and cut into the metal after 3 hits in the same spot. When he used the fist...well it sent the lizard flying some 5 meters into a scrap pile with a huge dent in its side and taking a lot of mobility from it. The lizard provided some nice plates. Unlike the drones it was much larger and with a bit of welding and cutting I was able to make a good kite shield out of it. Poorly made but still better than a lot of other stuff. The rest of the iron was stored. We continued walking for another 3 km before we finally saw what the smoke was. At the base of the huge gates was a town. Smoke rose from many buildings and from what I could tell from scans there were living creatures there. "Maybe the clockworks that woke around here made that town." Rust guessed. ¡°Nope, no clockwork signals. Different race¡±, I said shaking my head. All around the town was a junk wall and for about 100 meters there was dirt all around. When we were arriving at the 4 meter junk wall we heard a cry. "Hault!" Someone yelled. The yell came from a small metal guard tower next to the town gates. In it we could see a really short man. He had long bushy hair and his face was mostly covered by a large beard. Over his eyes were a pair of goggles and on his back was a steam engine. In his hand, something that looks a gun was pointed out at us. "Dwarves." Bulk said. ¡°Steampunk dwarves.¡± I said correcting him. "Ah you''re right. Is that a gun in his hand?" Bulk said before asking. ¡­ ¡±Crude built rifle¡± I said taking a quick scan. "Who are you? And what are you? If you step closer I''ll shoot." The dwarf yelled again I nudge Bulk then gesture towards the dwarf. He sighed then took a step forward and probably raised the volume on his voice box. "Hey we are clockwork. My names Bulk Steel, my companions are Techno and Nova Gear and Rust Ironhide." Bulk yelled. "What the devil is a clockwork?!" he yelled while looking at us. Bulk looked back he showed complete confusion on how to explain what we were but Rust hopped down and walked forward. "Sir can we enter, that way we can explain better." Rust said in a gentleman''s tone. "No. Too many god damn bots walking about causing us trouble." The dwarf refused us with such a weak reply. "Clockworks are autonomous robots with conscience like you." Rust said after sighing. ... He paused for a moment trying to think of something. "No lies! Bots can¡¯t think on their own." He protested. "Then let us in so we can prove it." Rust said. As good as any politician, Rust caught the dwarf by his stumpy legs in a spot he couldn¡¯t escape. We hear him yell for someone. Moments later another dwarf climbed onto the tower and looked out "I hear you folks say your self-thinking bots. Prove it!" The new dwarf shouted. "Can we move closer we are too far." Rust asks them. "Get any closer than 10 meter from the gate and we will blast you.¡¯ he said threatening us. With permission we moved to up to 15 m away which let them get a good look at us. "How do we prove it?" Bulk askes us. ¡°Well someone has to show them their gears. No better proof than someone showing machine parts.¡± I say "Okay then." Bulk says. Bulk walked up until he was 11 m away. The guards lifted their guns but he stopped and with a thought his left arm began opening up showing all the gears inside. "Enough proof?" Bulk asked them. "No anyone can take the scrap bots a make a suit." The second dwarf said. "Then someone come out here. I¡¯m not about to open the chest area and show my engine to everyone." Bulk said irritated. There was some talk amongst them and the gate opened a bit and an old dwarf wearing an old looking metal suit walked out holding a metal rod as a cane. He walked up to me. "Okay boy, if you want to prove it then show me the engine." The elder dwarf said. Bulk turned to the side so he would be sideways to the gate and opened the chest revealing the engine for a moment before closing it. "Good enough?" He asks. "Yes of course. Boy¡¯s they are bots but from the looks they ain''t dangerous." The elder shouts back. The dwarves relaxed a bit and the gates opened slightly and more dwarves, younger this time, walked out with guns raised as the old man walked back in. The second dwarf we saw came out and walked towards us as we came close. "Sorry about the caution but as you can tell this isn¡¯t the nicest place and we have a bit of bad luck with the bots around here attacking." The dwarf explained. "What kind of bad luck?" Rust asked worried. "The bots around this place attack whatever is in their territory and it just so happens that this town is in the middle of two of them. At the edge but they still attack every so often. The first days we only got a few hits and were able to get a few of the engines to make a makeshift forge? After that it got worse and we were forced to make those walls?" He explained. "By first days what do you mean?" Bulk asked. "We all woke up in the middle of a collapsed mine shaft outside the walls. Problem is the monsters outside in the mountains. Fucking beasts near level 70 and can kill us with ease. Anyway let''s head in we can talk inside. Oh and I¡¯m Victor Belkon one of the heads hear." He said. "One of?" Rust asked. "Yep there are other awaken that are making groups of their own and sticking to each other." Victor replied. "Awaken? What¡¯s that?" Bulk asked. "The term we use for those who appear from the mine shafts and aren¡¯t born in the towns or what left of em. I¡¯m one as well." Victor said. "Oh I¡­" bulk started but I pat him on the shoulder and stop him. We enter the town. If I had to describe it I would say something similar to a town found in some old cowboy movie but with a steampunk touch to it. Many scrap houses that are 2 floors tall. Lots of pipes all over the buildings letting smoke rise but that feel of an old west town was there. "Wow this town looks cool. So many cool machines and stuff." Nova said looking around excited. "Why does she sound like a little kid?" Victor asked. "She¡­" Bulk began to say. "Mind your own business." I cut him off and glare at the dwarf who looks back wide eyed and shrugs. "Fine you problems anyway this way." he says and shrugged before pointing towards a building He leads us to what looks like a tavern. As you might have already though me and Bulk had no way of getting in. The door was at one and a half meters tall. It was enough for a dwarf with their suits but it didn¡¯t even get close to what we needed. Only Nova and Rust could get in with their entire bodies but again the collectors save the day. We all had some and we all take one out and hand it to Rust. I wasn¡¯t going to let Nova inside their without me so Rust would go and I would talk through him or if there was one a monitor. With the three collectors on his shoulder I kept one outside to keep watch and deactivated Hino so I could focus on the one inside. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation."So what did you come here for." he asked curiously. "To get out of the scrap yard." Rust replied "You don¡¯t want to. Like I said the monsters outside are far beyond our level. We are just now beginning to manage to fight back the growing number of bots." He said. "Why not repair the clockwork. All the scraps around here are pretty much another one." Rust said. "We don¡¯t have any idea how they are built. We did find a few intact but a few parts are broken." He explained. ¡°We all have basic knowledge of how to take care of our bodies. If we have one arm with a tool gear we can get ourselves up and running if the damage isn''t too extensive and the motherboard is intact. Just turn them on." Rust told him. ¡°The people here don¡¯t really trust bots much.¡¯ ¡°Hey Rust tells him this, ¡°Aren¡¯t dwarves the greatest blacksmiths. To be afraid to build and turn on a robot is such a waste and shames the race¡± I tell Rust to say. From the collectors view I could see the instant Rust said that his face turned read. ¡°Even if you say that we only have makeshift forge engines that eat up our fuel just to make a few low quality weapons.¡± He yells our way. ¡°Have you collected the fuel from the clockwork scraps around here. Most have a bit of fuel and water to run their engines.¡± Bulk said which Rust passed on. ¡°Of course we have. How do you think we run so many engines at once.¡± He replied still very irritated. ¡°Hey mister what are these things.¡± Nova said. Nova had entered the building and was looking at the guns. What held her stare was something similar to a minigun and it was attached to a really bulky arm. ¡°Hey bro look, this looks like it would fit you or Bulk.¡± Nova said as she points to the huge minigun. I looked from the corner and to look better I sent a collector in. She was right, the huge arm was like a huge minigun arm but it was dismantled. ¡°That? We found it stuck to some large inactive bot in the scraps.¡± Victor said nonchalantly while looking at it. ¡°I think it''s broken...Ah here there are a few gears missing.¡± Nova says and quickly points out the faults in the weapon. Nova jumped over the counter and pulled her gear box out and removed a few gears and began to put them in place and then she sent a few collectors into the arm and began a mass repair of the arm. ¡°Hey stop messing with that. It doesn¡¯t work but I want to keep it as a trophy.¡± Victor said angry as Nova messed with the arm. She completely ignored him and continued for 5 whole minutes before storing her stuff. ¡°Where is the rest?¡± She asked really serious. ¡°What?¡± Victor said in turn. ¡°The body, where is the rest?¡± She asked getting real close to his face. ¡°Um...to...the east of here. We cleared a spot before finding them but they were to heavy and were bolted down to good and we only got that old broken arm from it.¡± He says under the pressure. ¡°Hey bro can you carry this. I want that thing.¡± Nova says pointing to the arm. Victor blinked a few times dumbfounded. ¡°Can you bring it out here?¡± I ask her. She looked a bit before trying to take it and was able to lift it and brought it out. I took it from her and sized it up. It was a bit bigger then my arm. ¡°Hell! it''s bigger! Must be one big ass clockwork!¡± Bulk said examining the arm. ¡°Bro take me there I want that toy.¡± Nova says while shaking my leg like a child. ¡°Hahaha I''m hearing things right. She called it a toy.¡± Bulk said as he started to laugh. ¡°She¡¯s 8 give her a break.¡± I said but i couldn¡¯t help but think the same. I stand up with the arm hanging from my shoulder. ¡°Hey that is theft give it back!¡± He shouted. ¡°We will bring it back but with it the entire body. Want to come along and see.¡± Bulk said. ¡°I doubt you can make them work. We tried it has no power.¡± Victor said. Bulk and Rust chuckled a bit thinking of how the jump start was done to the tanks. If this was the same I''m sure this guy would die laughing. ¡°We can guarantee we can get them running. It¡¯s a clockwork so we have at least some understanding.¡± Bulk said suppressing his laughter. Rust came out pushing him. We started walking towards the gate and the dwarf behind us. ¡°Find I¡¯ll go but at least give me a lift.¡± He said giving up. I turned back and grab him by the engine on his back and toss him onto Hino and we get going. He tells the guards to open up and we leave and head to the east for about two thirds of a kilometer before we found them. They were definitely different from Tanks. It had something like a birds feet which were thin and had two large toes and up at the first joint is another support that works like a back toe. Above that it gets larger and packs heavier armor but still sleek. It stood only at 2 meters since it was crouching over which seems to be its natural pose. The engine is on the back and it looks to be made for speed because it has exhausts that look like they would shoot either fire or steam to increase that. The head was humans sized and in the crouching position would line up with where the stomach would be. The arms like we mentioned are both long reaching down near the knees and both had minigun attachments to them, and it had five fingers that when the guns are out seem to enter the hand making flat fists. ¡°That looks like one hell of a dangerous robot.¡± Bulk said walking around it to scan it completely. We find the one that is missing an arm and Nova cheerfully jumps off Hino and releases all 25 of her collectors and controls a few to go examine the body. I go up to it and remove the faceless headpiece and remove the memory chips. I have them installed into an empty spot on my and I examine what is in it. ¡°This thing is called a Protector, it''s a kind of stealth unit which relies heavily on speed to get in close and bombard the opponent with a close range burst with the miniguns.¡± I tell them. ¡°Well that is one amazing clockwork.¡± Rust say. ¡°Nope it¡¯s a drone class robot. It has a complex brain because of the systems employed but it¡¯s not a clockwork.¡± I explain to them ¡°Hey bro does that mean I can have it as my own?¡± She asks looking up at me. ¡°Yep just don¡¯t hurt others with it.¡± I tell her. She jumps around and the collectors imitate her actions. ¡°You have yet to activate it so I''m waiting?¡± Victor says just watching. ¡°He needs to be fixed before I can wake him up. Bro can you put that box thing you put in my head. I can¡¯t connect to him.¡± Nova says. I nod and take out a simple transmitter and attach it to the Protectors head and then remove the memory chips and return it to its place before bolting the head piece back on. The repairs took pretty long but Nova did it while cheerfully playing about with her tools. When the insides are fixed as best as she can get them to I take the arm and attach it again. I go and press the on switch to leave it on the on position and before I can find it Nova was already behind it. ¡°He is just like the big guys from before.¡± Nova says The welder was already out and she just plugged it in which makes the engine come to life and the gears start to spin. Bulk fell over laughing. ¡°I can¡¯t believe all of them are like this¡± He says while rolling around. He yelled before sitting up. Rust was chuckling as well while Victor just sat there dumbfounded. The happiest was Nova as she jumped about. The protector tried to copy but the old rusted limbs couldn¡¯t follow the movements so I had to stop her. I instructed her to do simple motions and to learn how it worked and slowly the guns return into the body and the fingers of the robot break out of its prison a start to move. ¡°Bro can you help me make him new later.¡± Nova asked. ¡±Some other time. I tell her ¡°Kay~!!¡± She happily cheers. I brought Nova back and sat her on Hino with Victor. ¡°So do all the clockwork turn on like that?¡± Victor asked conflicted as he watched Nova. ¡°I think most of the big ones have the plug there. It¡¯s mostly a quick jump start plug that we use the tool gear welder to power¡± Bulk said while chuckling. ¡°Worker class ones like these on the ground can turn on as long as you fill its fuel and water tanks and press the on button near the base of the head on the inside.¡± Rust explained. ¡°So that means we can have tons of works gathering iron.¡± Victor said. ¡°Please remember that we aren¡¯t just robots to be exploited. We think for ourselves as well.¡± Rust says making his intent clear. ¡°Oh right, you''re right, shame we don¡¯t have a furnace or forge to make good quality metal, that''s what we need now.¡± He said sulking. I sent a message to Rust for him to tell the dwarf. ¡°This is a message from Techno, ¡±Haven¡¯t you tried to kill one of the boss class machines yet, their bodies hold huge furnaces. Rust says passing my message on. ¡°If it was so easy you think we wouldn¡¯t do it.¡± He says. ¡°We were able to do it with the help of some old clockwork that were revived. Did you find any dwarven warriors around?¡± Rust asks him. ¡°Dwarf warriors are few because the number decreased tremendously over the century before we appeared.¡± He says. ¡±This is too pathetic to watch, guys let¡¯s get back to town. Rust tell the dwarf that once we are back to town he will show me the best blacksmith and the guy will teach us smithing. We need guns so let¡¯s make them. We will get rid of a boss by ourselves if needed.¡± I tell him. Rust passes the message as we head back to town. I already had a few plans for weapons I was going to make. I grabbed and stored dozens of scraps along the way to use as materials for what I was going to build. Chapter 10 Novas First Gun When we reached the town it was kind of funny to see the surprise on all the dwarves faces. Victor explained what he saw and what we told them about how to start them up. Quite a few of them were kind of scared of the rusty protector which by the way Nova has been riding. Its movements became smoother after oil got into the joints and lubricated them. When he was finally able to disperse the others I had Rust pass a message. "Techno says he want¡¯s to learn proper Blacksmithing." Rust said passing the message. "Yeah, I remember him saying that. Come on, I¡¯ll take you to the town''s blacksmith but you will have to go out and collect your own fuel." Victor said annoyed. "I think we have enough for a few days of smithing. I think it was about 500 fuel cans." Bulk said looking into his stock. For the curious, 1 can is about 1 liter. A worker class uses 5 liter per day, knights use 15 a day. Hiro when not being used as a forge takes 9 a day as well, in forge mode he eats 3 cans per hour. The smithy, thankfully, had large doors. It was open actually. One wall was completely open but had shutters that dropped for when he closed shop. "Hey Felk, Bot boy here wants blacksmithing lessons." Victor shouted. "Heh so these are the bots that think for themselves huh, know anything about smithing boy?" The dwarf named Felk asked. "Everyone but her knows crude blacksmithing." Rust tell him "Better than nothen. Got a forge or a strong engine?" He asks. I move out of Hiro¡¯s way and let him go to the corner and lay down. Soon his armor started to move forward and back revealing the engine. After it was open the engine revved up and began burning hotter and the water tank was taken out leaving an empty iron basin. With the engine ready the gears pulled the anvil I set inside out. "...Hell...A moving forge...and a forge engine at that!" He said amazed. "Hey do I need to do this?" Bulk asked me. "If you don¡¯t want the blacksmithing skill then go revive some clockworks and search for higher classed ones.¡± I tell him. He nods a walks out and heads out. "Just out of curiosity what do you plan on making after you have the skill?" Felk asks me. "Weapons." Rust said for me. "Well that obvious but what kind?" Felk said with a bit of irritation in his voice. "Bro says its secret." Nova tells him He sighed and then began. First we needed iron so i took out the scrap I picked up before and dumped it in the basin. From there he taught us how to remove the impurities. Following that we learned to make the ingots. To make them is simple enough. Take some thick flat iron and weld them together making a small box. Then just lift the basin and pour liquid metal it in. The metal cools quickly after out of the fire and as it solidifies it shrinks a bit and lets go of the box. Their you got an ingot. We were tasked to make as many as we wanted and to call him once we were done. Rust, Nova and I took turns making about 10 ingots each so that we would all get the blacksmithing skill together. When we finally finish we had a huge pile with at least 200 iron ingots. 75 were trash quality 50 were bad and the rest was ¡°ok¡±. The other two got tired after a while since it was night time by the time we finished. Felk needed to close shop so I stored all the iron in my inventory and we left. After we left we noticed a few clockwork walking around. They were probably the ones that Bulk revived. Even at night the gates were guarded but we could leave when we wanted so I we walked a distance away from town. Nova was already asleep on Hino and Rust was walking behind with the protector under my control. As we reached the scrap outside I stopped. ¡±You can go to sleep Rust, I¡¯ll be up all night making those trash quality ingots better." I tell him. "If it''s just that then I¡¯ll take you up on the offer." He says. He looks around a bit before finding few large gears and made a seat on the flat dirt and sat there before laying his head down on his crossed arm over his leg and went into standby mode. I took Nova and lay her near him before I take out my ingot mold box and have Hino enter forge mode again. The whole night I spend removing the impurities from the metal. I was doing it the slow method of scooping it up. If I can figure out how to make some good engines it would be a real blessing. I hope to make some better ones including the forge. I want to make it a small industrial forge someday which I can pump air into from below the metal and heat it up the metal much faster. Fuel isn¡¯t infinite. I know that and it''s been something I¡¯ve been thinking about since we got here. The same question runs in my head all the time. ¡°How are we going to secure fuel outside the scrap yard.¡± I push it out of my circuits for now and work. Bulk appeared when I was starting. He sat down a bit and I told him the process of making the ingots. After that he fell asleep but I knew he logged off. He has a life in the real world but I don''t, from now on I''m living here so I don¡¯t care. By morning I had made the ingots all ok quality. Nova and Rust woke up a 6 like always but Bulk wasn¡¯t back yet so we had Hino carry him to the city gate and we left him sitting there and went to the blacksmith. "I heard from the guards that had night watch. You were up smithing?" He asks me. I shook my head. "Bro says he was making the iron better for smithing." Nova says for me. "Oh I see. Must be nice not needing sleep." He commented "We require a rest period as well. Its so our engines don¡¯t over exert...Techno says to get started. The dwarf sighs and starts teaching us. He teaches us how to make a sword for a humans. It takes two ingots to make. First heating both then you lay one over the other and hold with the tong and hammer them together. As you hammer you push some more impurities out. He goes a bit farther by telling us to fold the metal and hammer together to get an evenly distributed quality through the metal. The reason is that some spots may have more impurities so as you fold it you evenly distribute it so that not one spot has more impurities than another which is where weak points in the weapons are formed. After folding and hammer it several times he said it was needed to hammer the iron until it became an iron bar. After that he begin to shape the wedge of the sword. It''s a pretty long, tedious process. I was the first who did the whole thing and I used the worst quality iron I had as to test. The result was ok.
Iron sword. An iron sword made by an amatur with old methods of blacksmithing. There are a few dents on the body which can through the swing slightly off. Durability 40/40 Attack 8-13
Your skill Crude Blacksmithing has been converted to Blacksmithing
Blacksmithing (basic 2) The process of melting and hammering metals into tools or weapons 5% when smithing
Rust was the next one to try. The dwarf told us that we was only teaching us enough to get the skill so I was already on the sidelines since he wasn''t teaching anything new. Rust was making a sword like I did so the time it would take was about an hour and a half. During that time I scanned Nova''s body to get the structure down, though I already knew it, I needed a schematic because the weapon I want to make is something for her and I need exact numbers. Once Rust was finished he got the skill and it was Nova''s turn. Before he could leave I passed to him what I knew about her body and told him to go and make some clockwork dummies. They would be used to test the weapon while I control them directly. I would need to make the software for them and I knew it would be a pain. I did, thankfully, have a curiosity for software programming during my middle school years and one of my extra classes I took involved that so I might be able to do a bit and let the system help with the rest. What weapon was I planning to make? Heh, Secret. Now as an eight year old, even though her current body looks 14-15, she is still a kid so I made sure to help Nova out. I can say it was hard. She jumped around like a kid, or danced around since she wouldn''t stay still but she still worked a bit. Though her slightly lacking strength made the process take a bit over two hours. She got the skill and happily jumped about after succeeding. I nodded my thanks to the dwarf and left. Now I would need to make the molds for some parts and gather a few others. This will be a pretty complex weapon since it''s my first long range weapon. I found Rust talking with Bulk outside. "Hey there morning guys?" Bulk said. "It''s already noon." I told him. ... "Pff ahahah!! Bulks so dumb!!" Nova said laughing I only shook my head at him while letting Nova laugh it out. "Techno, I found a one close to the parameters you asked. I had to make a second one. They are over their." Rust said pointing to two clockwork bodies with female format bodies both similar to Nova''s current one. Bulk looked at both of them from his seat next the the wall. He then looked to me with a slight glint on his visor. ... "You''re sick. To actually want more sisters just like yours. Damn siscon." Bulk said trying to tease me. He earned a well placed stomp to the face for that. I also kept my foot on his face and grinded it into the wall behind him. "UNCLE! UNCLE! I give! Get your foot off my face!!!" He shouted. He was tapping out on my leg but I kept it a bit longer before taking it off. Much to his discomfort Nova was rolling on the ground laughing. "AHAHAHAH! It''s-It¡¯s like watching anime but in real life. Ahahaha!" She said rolling around Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. It wasn''t only her that saw it. With the shouting the dwarfs came out to see and found the funny scene. Rust was the only one shaking his head. "Grab the dummies you dummy and bring them. I''m smithing out in the field so I can test the weapon i make as I make it. I told the idiot with his head in the wall. "Tsch, damn look at my face, it''s going to need repairs, fuck! You put too much force into that stomp damnit!" Bulk shouted. "You asked for it. Get the dummies we are going." Rust said adding insult to injury. While grumbling he walked over and picked up the two robots. We walked about a half kilometer north of the outpost and cleared a space there. I took the first dummy and called out collectors to check on it. Seeing nothing off about besides the rust I attached a simple transmitter and through it I activated the clockwork. It had neither a motherboard or memory chip so it was just a robot running on commands from the transmitter. The first challenge was to figure out the size. It would have to hide in the belly area since it''s an empty area. With Nova''s size it would have to be small. I would need to make it a weapon that closes up so a simple rectangular shape should do. I think three sections then the pipe... With all the plans ready I begin by remodeling the back and shoulder of the first dummy so they can open and reveal the components. I then smithed the boxes and pipes I would need before adding the support for the gears. I went one for nearly two days before I finished the prototype and began testing. The others returned to town on the first day and began helping out there. Mainly to help integrate the clockworks into the dwarf town. Nova PoV It''s been so fun recently. Before when me and bro began playing this game, there was a lot of work but recently, after we left, I could play with bro more. He looks so cool in the huge robot body. I¡¯ve also been really happy I could walk again. I had to drop school because I was in the hospital and because the school wasn¡¯t built for kids that use the wheelchair. I spend a lot of time at home alone. After a policeman came saying that bro was doing a program and that he would play this game, I wanted to come and was really happy that he had chosen me to go even before I asked. I really can¡¯t wait to see the present bro is preparing for me. I left the big toy as well because he said he would fix it for me. It looks really cool. I hope to look as cool as bro when I get bigger. But I do want to help bro fight. I remember the big spider thing and I did help but I lost the game to beat him because those tiny toys broke half way. I want to be able to help him myself and not with just a few toys. Maybe I can make something to fight with. I saw those cool things the midgets were holding. I saw a few of them firing them off and it was cool and it did a lot of damage to the dummies. While bro is away I think I will make some of those and hide it in my left arm. I have always been a right handed girl so I need it less. Hehehe I can¡¯t wait to show bro. Techno PoV The first prototype, like any first time weapon, was somewhat a failure. I wanted the boxes to expand with pressure without blowing when I pulled it out it fit into place. It could shoot and hit 2 to 5 times but it ate up a lot of steam to fire the round I made. I wanted to fix the expanding problem first so I found a few small pressure pumps and attached them on the inside to push them and thankfully it worked. Now for the protector. The gun I am making Nova would leave her unable to move and the steam cost is to painful but thankfully we found this thing and it''s really fast. After changing its joints with some new ones from when we left the clockwork base. I was curious about its agility so I had it do some acrobatics and was stunned by how agile this thing was. Now to the work. I fashioned a pipe system which attaches to the exhaust that lets the steam escape but opens up when she isn¡¯t using her weapon. The gun will use the protectors steam instead of Nova¡¯s. On the armor that goes on the top, I added a few hooks that Nova will attach her legs on so she can stay on the top without falling but still stay in the attack position that held up best against the recoil . His upgrades were the simplest and were done quick so I returned to the gun soon after. The pressure I needed to power the gun required 2 glass balls to hold the pressure. Also the charge time for each shot took 2 minutes so as a ranged weapon it was a one shot one kill, kind of thing. After I finish the improvements to the prototype I try it again and find systems are working better but a few stuff that is going bad is mostly because I am using scrap gears to make it. The final product I am going to make with quality stuff. It took another 2 days for me to finalize the gun and another day to finalize the finer details which is the hiding inside the body part and the targeting system. The software, like I initially thought, was a bitch but I was more or less able to increase the targeting program to hit 7 out of 10 shots which I think would be better when good gears are used. Now all that was left was to make the final product and attach it to Nova and test it out on a few unsuspecting bots. I sent a collector to pick Nova up and she came running. "Is your present done?!" She said after running here excited. She was hopping with excitement which could barely be shown on her robotic face. "It is but you need to turn off so I can install it and test it." I tell her. She nodded and sat down before her eyes turned off showing she was off. Just so you know as long as an operating clockwork or robot is completely off and has a transmitter you can turn them on through transmitter but keep the mind in standby. Moving them is hard so it can''t be used to make them do complex actions. With her system on, I upload the targeting system while I remove the lower back plates, right shoulder blade and right shoulder as well. I then connect the premade gear system for the guns holds and the arms that will lift the gun onto her shoulder. By the time it was installed, which was done in twenty minutes I had installed the targeting system. I then add the main gun and install all the wires to the gears and gun finally hiding away all the parts and adding a few plates that opened up on her back and shoulder to reveal the weapon and its hook. I made it come out and test fire blanks before I knew it was ready. Like I had guessed the better gears made a difference. I hid the weapon and finally freed Nova and turned her completely on. She blinked a bit. "Where is my gift?" She asked looking around. "I¡¯ll teach you how to pull it out in a second let''s get the others here." I tell her. I called them and we headed to a known bot zone and spotted one far in the distance. "So are we finally going to see the weapon?" Bulk asked a bit excited. ¡±Why do you think I brought you guys here.¡± I said bluntly. I then instruct Nova to look at the systems in her lower back. She found it and then cracked a smile as she activated. Her lower back plates opened up and the gears pushed the box out from the right. The right shoulder blade plate and right shoulder also opened up and revealed the hooks. The arm pushed the box up and it hooked up to the shoulder and the arms retracted until it connected with the hooks on her back. Many of the excess plates closed after that. I then picked her up and put her on the protectors back and hooked the pipe system onto the gun and the sudden pressurizing of the steam pushed the two layers of the gun forward and finally the long barrel expanded out. From the second layer a small handle and trigger popped out finishing the gun. Bulks mechanic mouth hung down but Nova was grinning and giggling like crazy. "Do you see the circle with the cross mark. Put it over that robot near the head or engine and pull the trigger¡¯ She looked and grabbed the handle and started aiming. When she was ready she pulled the trigger. The release of the pressure made a weak shock wave as the large metal stake I made for rounds rocketed towards its target with terrifying precision and speed. The recoil was also no joke. If Nova wasn''t hooked onto the protector she would have flown back. At the target, it didn''t even see as the metal stake come. Before it knew what happened, the stake bore through the large lazard robot''s chest destroying its engine. The metal stake appeared out the other side and a moment later the engine blew up taking the upper half. There was an in moment of deep silence where only the only sound was of the wind was heard. The silence was broken by a cheerful giggling. "He...hehe...hehehehe. This...is...the...GREATEST!!!" Nova shouted while laughing out loud. Her eyes were sparkly as she laughed while staring at the gun. It was letting out a lot of heat from the barrel. Thankfully I planned for that just in case she gets too trigger happy. Slowly the gun deactivated by itself and returned into Nova''s body where it hid once more. "Hey dude...when do we get one of those?" Bulk asked after the shock wore off. "When you make one yourself." I reply shooting his desire down hard. "Come on, you give an eight year old that kind of weapon but leave us hanging!" He says in a bit of despair seeing the gun. "Don''t look at me. I''ve been making my own weapons. It''s only you being left behind. I would suggest tinkering with the collectors to make them your lost tool gear that you gave up for weapons." Rust suggested. I ignore the sulking Bulk and walk over and begin explaining the restrictions of the gun to Nova which she cheerfully listens to. Afterwards we returned to town so I could rest and so we could decide which boss we would fight. Oh and during this time i leveled up these skills. Blacksmith level up x4 basic level 5 Tinkering level up x1 intermediate 1 Clockwork body construction level up x1 basic 8 New skill Basic software designer basic 3 Marksmanship basic 1 Machine weapon building basic 4 Chapter 11 Dwarven Clockwork tech After I finished Nova¡¯s weapon I finally took my time to check out my new skills I gained in the process.
Basic software designer (Basic 3) The basics formed by scraps of info found within the memories of the dead clockworks (this skill will upgrade the more you learn about it) +2% increase to ability when making basic level software
Marksmanship (Basic 1) The skill to shoot a gun and hit your target. +2% increase in precision of your shots
Machine weapon building (Basic 4) You know your way around with your tools to the point of being able to make weapons that can be added directly to your body. +5% increase in ability when making a machine weapon (weapons that attach directly onto robots and follow system orders)
We were back in town and Nova was grinning as wide as she could. Why? First was my present. As a kid she didn¡¯t know exactly how much power she got but here is the message I got after I completed it.
Machine Sniper Rifle A machine sniper made by an amateur. This weapon is a small high powered sniper rifle that goes on small sized clockwork. To use this weapon it is required the user to be strapped to a powerful base to use the gun as the recoil is powerful enough to send the user flying back a few meters. Durability 60/60 Attack: 100-125 Cooldown time: 4 minutes Steam charge time: 2 minutes Steam cost: 30% of total steam in tank Energy 40
It has massive power but an equally massive drawback. Six whole minutes to set one shot in a drawn out battle. From the display I got from the full ammo shot the power of the gun was much more than the prototypes, which I am keeping by the way, strong weapons would be idiotic to throw away just because they are test material. Now the second reason Nova is grinning is because I¡¯m checking out the weapon she made. It was similar to the dwarves gun but smaller to fit into her arm. She added a small glass ball to hold the pressure but she didn¡¯t put a control valve and it let the steam leak. I corrected it for her and she tried it out and it turned out well enough. A bit underpowered compared to the dwarves but it¡¯s a good weapon against animals, it''s kind of like an air rifle. With her cheerfully playing around with the guns ? I began my chat with the others. ¡±So what monster are we going to be hunting to help the dwarves?¡± I ask the others. ¡°Help them? Did they need it?¡± Rust asks back. ¡°Actually they do. All the races need to complete some kind of conditions to secure their survival. We completed our own by killing the furnace queen.¡± ¡°I see, is that why so many clockwork began waking up near the base after the furnace was set up?¡± Rust asks. ¡°Yep, there are several other races in the world that was able to secure their survival.¡± Bulk says ¡±How many level 4 threats can you feel from here? Wait...what if to secure their survival is outside of the scrapyard?¡± I said. We fell silent and then we all looked at the huge door together. My eyes then flew up at the walls. The walls looked very thick and I was sure the top of it was like a castle city wall and could be accessed. ¡±What''s up there? And what''s out there?¡± I said more just to say it instead as a question. ¡­ We all get up and walk towards Victor¡¯s house. We arrive quickly since the town is tiny. As he appears he looks a bit annoyed. ¡°What do you guys want?¡± Victor asked coming outside. ¡°Tell us, exactly what type of monster is out there that made the dwarves run in here?¡± Bulk said being blunt about it. ¡°Why do you want to know?¡± He asked making a serious face. ¡°You¡¯re one of the awaken correct?¡± Bulk said. ¡°Yes I am, about half the town is, the rest were in a small cave when we found them.¡± Victor explains. ¡°Then what pushed you here? Dwarves are always known for their strength and yet you ran without fighting if I remember correctly.¡± Bulk said touching an injury we know nothing about. He scowled deeply hearing Bulk say that. ¡°You want to see a dwarfs strength, fine.¡± Victor says. He walks inside but what comes out isn¡¯t the dwarf. What crashes into bulk through the metal wall was a huge warhammer which throws him out into the middle of the street. His metal chest plate was dented but not enough to cause interior damage but he still took a devastating 50 points of damage from that one hit. ¡°You fucking midget, let me show you why I made my name Bulk!¡± He says pissed off. He grabs the handle of the hammer and stands up and holds it in both hands. We looked back into the building and see the dwarf come out with another warhammer of the same size which is nearly double his own size. ¡°Hehe show me then.¡± Victor says provoking Bulk. He runs out on his stubby legs and spins with the hammer to gain momentum but Bulk just pulls the hammer back and swings with all his might in a low diagonal swing. The two hammers meet making a resounding crash of metal. In a moment everyone appeared at the windows and doors to see what the sound was. ¡°Is that all you have midget, even Techno¡¯s little sister is scarier than this.¡± Bulk insults the dwarf. ¡°Let me show you the finer points of being small!¡± Victor shouts. Victor does a spin and switches which side he holds the hammer and swings diagonally slams the hammer into the back side of Bulks and makes the hammer which pull him off balance. He spins once more and contacts Bulk right in the waist and sends him flying. Bulk falls with a resounding thud. ¡°Erg that hurt. Nearly 100 damage from a single hit. How the hell is this bastard having trouble with the robot''s.¡± Bulk says as he sees his durability fall. ¡°How? Easy, we don¡¯t have proper professions no jobs, no skills, what we learn is what we can figure out how to do and what skills we invent. It¡¯s not enough against the god damn bots out there!¡± Victor says. ¡°Again what got your running from outside with your tails between your stubby legs.¡± Bulk says. ¡°...If you want to know beat it out of me.¡± Victor said readying his hammer. ¡°Gladly!!¡± Bulk shouts. CHOOOOOOOO~~~ Suddenly from all the pipes on his back large amounts of steam poured out of him making an eerily familiar sound similar to a steam engine train blowing its whistle. I also began hearing his gears spin faster than they normally would. Before I could react he jumped forward leaving deep footprints and held the hammer above him. When he got near the dwarf he brought the hammer down. Victor barely escaped and when the hammer hit the ground it created a crater half a meter in diameter wide with the imprint of the hammer in the middle. The dwarf paled as he looked at that. Bulk pulled the hammer out and looked down at the dwarf. His v shaped visor was glowing menacingly and he was releasing a huge amount of steam making a fog around him. Bulk slowly raised the hammer above him but the terrified dwarf was paralyzed on the spot so he didn¡¯t even try to run. As Bulk was about to swing down the steam stopped flowing and his engine turned off with all his systems as well. The hammer in his hand fell down and he just stood there like a statue. ¡°He literally ran out of steam, huh.¡± Rust says with a sigh. I let out a small chuckle before I walked up. ¡°Victor it¡¯s best to get out of the way. We will be activating Bulk soon.¡± Rust says towards the pale dwarf. The dwarf snapped out of his shock from his brush with death. He got up and quickly ran over to his house and sat down. His hands were shaking and he was covered in cold sweat. While I look over Bulk I check out all his parts. It was surprising to find that both water and steam tank that were empty and an empty fuel tank as well as all of them being at the point of shattering with just a touch while they were all glowing from the heat. The gears had taken some damage as well from the high pressure. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡±Well he sure tore his body up. Tanks just about to blow from heat alone. I said examining the body. ¡°Can someone explain what happened to him to make him like that?¡± Victor asked for the porch. ¡°...Hm it¡¯s hard since my memories are broken but...ah found it. What he did was rediscover a clockwork knight skill. I believe it was called Overload. If I compare it with anything it would be something like entering the berserk state but it¡¯s induced. The knight makes his engine work almost 5 times faster and it makes the gears in his body work nearly twice that giving him a burst of strength and speed as long as he still has steam.¡± Rust said. ¡°And the drawbacks are?¡± Victor asks. ¡°What you see here. He consumes all his battery power, his fuel, his water for that burst so he shuts down and it leaves his engine on the brink of blowing up and as well as putting all his gears under huge strain. I¡¯m sure one or two small ones burst during the fight.¡± Rust says. ¡°...What a scary race.¡± Victor says shaking. ¡°Nope this skill is considered a desperate attack. Like a trump card. It wasn¡¯t used much in the past because we were in larger numbers then but I can see why it would look scary. The single hammer smash downwards could easily have crushed the walls of the town.¡± Rust says. ¡°It remind me of the limit break.¡± Victor says. ¡°It¡¯s not far off. It could be considered the Clockworks limit break.¡± Rust says. Victor just looked at the knight that was frozen in the street. ¡°If you guys really want to know what is keeping us in here. They are golems. Not some giant boss but the race golems. They woke up with us and we helped each other at first but after the golems grouped up they pushed us out because they got stronger faster by absorbing minerals in the mines. Now they could be called iron golems because it¡¯s the most abundant material in the mines.¡± Victor said. ¡±Well that¡¯s interesting, so there are assholes close by? I ask. Rust passed what I said and Victor only looked at me with a surprised face. ¡±Tell us, did any of you get a F++ mission yet? I ask him. ¡°Yes it¡¯s called Elemental onslaught. Well besides the golems there are also fire elementals called Will o Wisps with them. When the two met up things began flaring towards us.¡± Victor said. ¡°They found and probably completed their F++ mission.¡± I said. ¡°These missions you guys talk about what are they?¡± Rust asks us. ¡±It''s a system the ¡°Awaken¡± have. I have it as a system directly in my circuits all other races I think have one that are magic based. Missions are tasks that are of any importance ranging from basic tasks to killing a great demon.¡± I explain. ¡°Quite a strange thing but doesn¡¯t matter. So do these F++ missions have any significance?¡± Rust asked. ¡°They are missions that represent the survival of a race.¡± ¡°What are the mission details?¡± Rust asks Victor. ¡°Show quest ¡°Elemental onslaught¡± to everyone.¡± He says with a sigh. Unlike before where the screens appear in my visor this one appeared in the air through magic.
Mission Elemental Onslaught You woke with the golems and you all helped each other but for some reason they have turned into your enemies. Find out why they suddenly attacked and eliminate the threat that comes from these elementals. Difficulty: F++ Reward: Survival of the dwarves Success: Kill all golems or find the threat and kill it. Failure: All dwarves die.
So this quest clearly says it to their faces. So there is something besides the golems that is a threat. So killing them isn¡¯t required. This is quite a strange quest. What kind of threat would make them attack? Maybe a boss took control of them?¡¯ I thought while examining the quest. ¡°Quite fascinating this mission thing, hmm it says they have a threat. So it¡¯s not them wanting to do it but being forced to.¡± Rust says what everyone had on their mind. ¡°Why not just beat them all.¡± Nova said tilting her head innocently. ¡±I agree with her, if it happened once it can happen again. So cut the trouble by the root. I say agreeing with her. Nova said what I texted and everyone looked stunned. ¡°We don¡¯t have the strength to fight them.¡± Victor replied. ¡°What? Weren¡¯t you beating Bulk easily?¡± Nova said bluntly. ¡°They are much stronger or I guess it would be better to say they are tougher. Their bodies are much harder and we can¡¯t break past their defense.¡± He explains. ¡±Just make a stronger weapon. Come here and take that trashy metal suit off.¡± I tell him. He doesn¡¯t argue with me calling it trashy and comes over and removes the dwarf armor. I pulled out all my gears and collectors to help me and then finally unleashed my tools. I began with scanning then restructuring it. After I began adding gear supports to augment the armor systems and greatly improve their power. I then pulled out a small clockwork engine and removed the old one and put it on the back and strapped it in and then made a casing from it to protect it. When I was done the suit had a perfect blend of dwarf and clockwork.
Dwarven power armor Crude armor made by dwarves that increase their strengths partially. After being augmented with gears like in a clockworks body it can now increase the user''s power by nearly twice as much. This armor is powered by a repaired clockwork engine and now runs on high steam pressure. x2 increase in strength
I put the suit on the ground and put away all my things and tool and get up and check on Bulk. His engine had cooled enough to put water and fuel again so I did just that and turned him on again. The engine started up and as steam built the batteries charged and he soon woke up again and as if on reflex he swung his arms as if to continue his last action. I grabbed his arms and held it tight. ¡°Let me go, let me crust that midget!¡± He shouted. ¡°Fights over. You used a skill that shut you down and nearly killed you and Victor.¡± Rust says. I let him go as he started examining his boding. He slumped down after getting the status report on his body. He pulled his collectors out and began repairing himself. Victor had walked out and was equipping the armor and getting a feel for it. ¡°With this kind of gear...I think we can fight them.¡± He said with a rather empty tone. ¡°Hmm interesting. The clockwork technology we use to make our bodies compliments your dwarven technology quite well. If I didn¡¯t know better they could have been made for each other.¡± Rust says scanning the armor. ¡°Do we get to make these cool suits?¡± Nova asked excited. ¡±Would be better to, because we aren¡¯t the ones facing the golems. We will make you these armors and in return we get everything on the golems. We will guide you but we won¡¯t assist more than that. Consider the drops payment for use bringing a solution to your quest.¡± I tell them. Rust passed the message and it left all of them silent. ¡°We will do it!¡± The voice of a stranger called from behind the crowd. We looked at the source. Three dwarves stood there all looked strong and were oozing charisma that came from those natural born leaders. ¡°From the feeling I get from you three, you must be the other leaders of the dwarves.¡± Rust says. ¡°Yes we are and we three accept your offer for those who follow us. We want to get this over with and we don¡¯t mind some random drops from those bastards going to pay for tech that could last a lifetime and make us rise up.¡± The first one said. ¡°And you Victor?¡± I say out loud. My direct question makes him shudder a bit before he nods. ¡°Fine, I accept for those who follow me as well. I agree to hand over everything they we get off them to you.¡± Victor said. I nod and turn to the others before sending out orders to the clockworks to line up for repairs. We were going to need a lot of help to get this dwarven clockwork tech quickly spread out. Chapter 12 Sizing up After we made the decision to help the dwarves, I thought about how to go about it. Having so many tools I can work nearly twice as fast as Rust and Nova and four times faster when compared to those who were just revived. Seeing that, I decided to first repair the clockworks joints to increase dexterity and agility. This would make it easier for them to work on more delicate stuff. The solution was to make new iron joints. The dwarves were tasked with making the molds for the gears that made up the joint. Unlike the ingots which a simple metal box would work something like a gear needed a clay model. They made small bricks and pressed the piece in which left the design printed on it after drying the clay. This made for a good copy of them. Besides the molds for joint gears, which were all small sized, the bigger gears were also made so we can make the gears for the armor. It was almost 5 days after we agreed to help, that we actually had enough people and materials to begin. We needed to stop a few times for repairs for Hino because as any other clockwork, we need to allow our engine to rest or it breaks. The forge engine can last long periods of time with the engine revved up but it took long and soon problems will rear their ugly heads. As the number of clockworks that got repaired grew my workload decreased as I had Rust take command of them and start working them. A good number was charged with gathering fuel and scraps. Some were given orders to smith the gears. And the rest were to build the armor. I built a few but then something made me curious. What do dwarves eat? I¡¯m sure you¡¯re wondering yourself so I looked and found out that they actually foraged herbs and roots in the woods next to a shallow river at the base of the mountains. They used a hidden exit through the wall but my scanners found it. With a bit of curiosity, I dragged Bulk with me and went into the mines after the dwarves left the door alone. On my arm was a large warhammer that Victor let Bulk keep, the one Bulk used in their fight. Bulk himself didn''t want it so I took it since I''m somewhat lacking in the weapon department. ¡°So why did you drag me here?¡± Bulk asks. "I want to size the golems up." I tell him. ¡°And why don¡¯t you come with some dwarves or by yourself?¡± He ask while following me. ¡±I could die and leaving Nova alone isn¡¯t an option.¡± I tell him. As we got to the mine shaft we saw them. Two golems stood guard. Roughly human shape, one looked similar to the Thing and had red rocks making up its body with red glowing eyes. The other was very human shaped but had glowing eyes and glowing lines along his body where the rocks connect. As we neared, they lifted their weapons. The bulky one held a metal club and the small one held a sword and shield. ¡°Stop and leave or die!¡± the bulky golem shouted. ¡°Want fatty?¡± Bulk said insulting the golem. I nod and he activates the gears in his arms which opens a slim space between the arm and a large blade comes out. The blades themselves were called short swords but because of our size they could almost be called two handed swords or a bastard sword. They are dual sided so no matter what side you cut with they will actually cut. The sword was modeled after a cool Baton sword I saw once. The sword spins on a set of gears to leave the arm and turns forward while the handle was made into the guard stretching it out and made to be used like baton with the long side pointed forward. I grab the warhammer and hold it sideways as I walk towards fatty while Bulk goes towards the human shaped golem. ¡°If you can kill us, then be my guest!¡± Bulk taunted them With his provocation Bulk ran in and brought his left sword down. The golem put the shield in front and took the blow making his leg get buried in the ground a few centimeters. ¡°You bastard. Cocky aren¡¯t you, for a piece of shit the dwarves built you sure talk big.¡± The smaller golem shouts. Bulk was pushing down while the human took a step to the left and deflected the sword into the ground and lift his sword to strike, but before he knew it Bulk¡¯s right sword came in on a diagonal and hit the shield unprepared and sent the golem rolling with a large cut in his arm. ¡°BASTARD!¡± The bulky golem shouted loudly. The huge one ran towards Bulk but was met with a warhammer coming at him. He barely had time to lift the iron club in time to block it before it hit. The hit pushed him back a good two meters back and stopped him dead in his tracks. He looked at me with his glowing red eyes shining brightly. ¡°You¡¯re dead, I¡¯m going to make you into scrap metal!¡± He roared. ¡°The big guy says that weak dogs bark louder, if you want to do that then do it and shut up!¡± Bulk told him for me. His eyes grow brighter and he comes at me swinging the club with reckless abandon. Let me just remind everyone that I never put my free stats points in my stats so this is my pure robot body fighting. The iron club comes down in a horizontal swing. I hold the warhammer with both hands and use the metal shaft to block it. With the hit blocked I do a complete turn and bring the warhammer in a full circle and hit the golem in his flank. -50 (-50) 450/500 Well that''s a shock. Are these guys just low leveled and weak or are they strong? Bulk was having it just as easy. The guy couldn¡¯t keep up with the swords. Though we don¡¯t have guns at the moment, I passed my targeting system to my indebted travel mates and it also seem to work with swords. Instead of showing a crossed circle to shoot from it shows a few glowing weak points. Returning to the fight I advance on the golem and with a horizontal swing coming from below, I aim for his head and successfully hit it, but I don¡¯t stop and as the hammer reached its peak I bring down the warhammer on the golem''s chest. -150 Critical Hit, -50 (-200) 250/500 Cracks appear all over his chest as I jump back and get ready for the next round. As he stood up I saw that a part of his head crumble and fall off. From his chest a lot also broke off. Then something VERY interesting appeared. In his chest, giving a faint brown glow was a perfectly brown stone still half buried in his chest. What the hell is that? Wait...If I remember correctly golems have always been portrayed as either an elemental or an alchemy project. Considering the name of the quest he is the elemental version. Elementals in many games are said to drop crystals of their element type. If it¡¯s true then that thing must be it then. I thought. Realizing what made the golems tik I couldn''t stop a mischievous grin from appearing on my robotic face nor could I stop the steam output from increasing. I watched the golem intently as he fell on one knee. ¡°You...bas-tard. You''ll...pay!¡± He shouts. He lifted his arm and struck the ground. Suddenly he began glowing. The broken parts on his body began to reform and soon he was completely healed. ¡°Hehe you can''t kill us unless you smash us to bits!¡± He said grinning like an idiot. I knew he was right but I also guessed of a different way to beat him. When I realized he was healing I knew things were just getting serious so I opened the status screen and poured 20 stat points into agility 10 on strength and 12 on toughness. I noticed that toughness was our form of vitality, so my health rose by 60 as a result as well. As I close the tab I see him get ready to fight but he suddenly does something strange. He drops the iron club and a moment later the glowing lines on his arms glow brighter. Soon his arm becomes wider and I see why. It was hollowed out. He shoves his arms into the ground again and pulls it out and faces his right arm at me with an almost evil grin. [Rock Cannon] Just as he said it the lights flared and a compact ball of stone came rocketing at me like a cannon ball. I was barely able to get out of the way thanks to the large boast of agility. Before I could look I heard another shot be fired and this one connected. I was thrown rolling and landed 4 meters away. The rock hit my lower left chest and partially dented me. I looked up my visor glowing. He was grinning smugly at me which made me boil inside, literally. I stood up and dropped the excessively large hammer and brought out my own knight swords. ¡°Oh? Going with swords against a rock creature. Real stupid of you.¡± He said trying to taunt me. I ignore him and run forwards. Let me tell you, you wouldn''t guess 20 stat points on agility to be much or at least noticeable but when you¡¯re two meters and a half it¡¯s a huge difference. My movements felt more refined than before. It also felt more fluid and I could move faster. If I compared myself to anything with my speed and size would be a raging bull charging. He flinches a bit seeing my speed but aims as me again and fires. I jump and dodge the rock ball and clear the space between us before I thrust both my swords into the cannon muzzle he made with his arms and then pull up leaving a long cut along the top part of both arms. He roars in pain and falls back. I stomp on his chest and then mercilessly stab my right sword into his head. The left sword I cut from his neck down to his waist. The large cut opened the body and with a push from the sword it was pushed aside. I then stomped on his chest and parts fell off and revealed the core again. While still pinning him down I grabbed the exposed crystal and after a bit of struggling it came out. Fatal blow
You have killed a player. Under normal circumstances, your jail time would have increased but until all races succeed or fail in their survival quest you are exempted from gaining penalties as much of the world''s laws are now set to survival of the fittest. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Note once all races have finished their survival quest the world laws will change and you can only kill for self defense of yourself or an ally. During wars the penalty will not be counted as it is an act to defend allies.
Fuck that was lucky. I need to be careful with sentient beings. I thought to myself as relief spread over me I breath a sigh of relief and look to Bulk. The human shaped golem was on par with him but not in strength but skill. It was clear the guy had real life experience but he was only on par because his stats probably weren''t as high as Bulks. The guys shield was nearly destroyed from the heavy blows and cracks were everywhere. When the guy suddenly jumped back to gain room what met him was Bulk sheathing his right blade and sending a punch. I felt a hint of pity towards the guy. He put his shield in the way and when Bulk¡¯s fist met it the pressure valve released and Bulk¡¯s fist impacted with devastating force. The guy¡¯s shield gave way and the punch followed downwards onto his chest but as a normal punch but it was dangerous all the same. Bulk finished him by stomping on his chest crushing everything but the single hard crystal in the center. It was much smaller but I still walked over and picked it up. ¡°Good workout.¡± he said nodded while panting for breath which was to cool down our systems. I ignore his stupid comment and look at the crystals.
Elemental Crystal (Earth) A crystal found in the heart of a golem. These crystal naturally absorb mana in the air and release it as its element. This type is an earth crystal. Unlike the other types of crystals this one is breakable and can be used as crafting material.
I read and reread again the message. If I''m mistaking this is one of those augmenting crystals. There are some games that used this. In those games this crystal would increase resistant to a certain type of element or give more defense for armor. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Bulk asked. I hand one to him and he scans it and gets the identification message. ¡°...We are keeping all things from the golems right?¡± He asked. I nod. ¡°Sweet~!¡± He said while excitedly jumping around. "Lets go back. We need to finish the dwarves¡¯ gear and I want to squeeze the complete skill of dwarven smithing from Felk. I tell him. Bulk grin mischievously as we left. I didn''t forget to pick up the weapons they had and anything else. Back inside the scrap yard we got to Felk and "ask" him for the full teaching. He readily accepted to teach me and passed me a few books about smithing before technology found its way. A few recipe books on how to properly melt an ore or a scrap piece of metal. Some showed their own guns and such. All in all they were books and as any proper robot all I need was scan and copy each page for later reading. The last book was a bronze colored on that gave a bit of a glow. Yep, it was a skill book, or in this case a skill rank-up book. It held the skill for dwarven smithing. Now what kind of thing did we do to Felk for him to teach us the full skill? Teach him how to build a clockwork. He wanted to know the workings and wouldn''t give us anything even with torture. When I finished scanning the last page I gained the skill and I passed the book to Bulk. ¡°You don''t want the book?¡± Felk asked. ¡°He scanned and copied it in his memory. I think clockwork are outside the magic skill books learning system.¡± Bulk explained. Felk nodded after thinking a bit. He explained that the proper way to do it would be to say "Learn skill" the book would turn into particles of light and enter your body. Out of curiosity Bulk did that but it failed but scanning page for page let him learn it. ¡°Really you fellas are too strange. Well your whole race already defies normal logic.¡± Felk says while scratching the back of his head. ¡°What would be the fun in being normal.¡± Bulk said Felk looked at him a moment and began laughing. ¡°I guess it¡¯s more interesting a life like yours. Well anyways I should get going. I can help you bots now and I''m sure my fingers are a lot more flexible than those rust buckets.¡± He says while pointing to the rusted clockwork outside who were getting some repairs done with some hunted robot parts. He puts on a tool belt holding tons of tools and then leaves us behind him. For the rest of the day we modify the armor suits and after looking through all the revived clockwork I found one that is the hardworking friendly type. We made him the lead smith and later on at night we uploaded dwarven blacksmithing so and told him that after we leave he should lead the clockwork then mix the dwarven smithing techniques with construction of their bodies. Here is the dwarven smithing skill.
Dwarven Blacksmithing (Basic 1) The most coveted blacksmithing art. The techniques of the dwarves are passed on in the family and even after the industrial age appeared it was still at the top for being able to make higher quality goods than industrial goods. The techniques this form implies are all primitive but can easily be adapted to any form of blacksmithing and to many different conditions. Even when using a poorly made clay forge you can produce good quality metal items. In the past it was kept a trade secret kept under tight guard. It was once even considered a race only art that only dwarves could learn because of their open minds towards blacksmithing. Today though with so few people remaining to keep the art alive, the arts were spread among those the dwarves and to those they trust, or if ever a need great enough arises that warrants the trade of the arts. +10% when blacksmithing anything.
If any crafting skill deserves to be called OP it¡¯s this. Seriously 10% increase when blacksmithing at level 1 how good will it get as it goes up. During the night after I got that I also wanted to make it easier for me to converse with them. Since I rarely speak and robotics help a lot more I develop something for the dwarves. I found some scraps and took the heads apart and then I grabbed some of the dwarves helmets they normally wear. I took the clockworks brain apart and began outfitting the helmet with the brain parts. This was so they could access systems normally out of their reach like we can. I then cover the helmet with a few metal plates making a strong metal helmet with the dwarves¡¯ goggles as the visors. They works rather well after you install it all into the dwarven armor and it felt like a finishing touch to the look. With the new piece of gear to make the others start making them as well after they all wake up. In the morning I called the four leaders so that I could get a bit more info on the golems. All I know is what I already saw with the two golem guards. We meet outside of victor''s house. They already got some of the mechanic helmets I made, so I could now ¡°Talk¡± with them. ¡°What is it that you wish to know?¡± Victor asked. ¡±How much do you guys know about the golems?¡± I asked straight up. ¡°And why do you want to know when you¡¯re not even fighting them?¡± The first of the three others asked. ¡°Because I found that little exit you guys use to get outside and I took a shot at the two guards that stay at the cave entrance¡± I said. The four paled hearing that. ¡°You¡¯re lying! ¡­How did you beat them.?¡± I send a full detailed summary of my fight and made sure to include the crystal since it caused a fatal blow to the golems. I included this because I wanted to make sure to reinforce what I wanted them to return with. ¡°So these crystals are a kind of power source?¡± Victor commented to himself out loud. ¡°Seems so, but for alchemy based golems it seems strange to find it in their chest?¡± The third dwarf said. ¡±They are elementals not alchemy golems. Now I want to know about the fire golems, what do they look like? I asked. ¡°Body made out of fire completely. Can fly about. Can change their shape since their body is just fire.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think they have a power source like the golems though.¡± The first dwarf said. ¡±It¡¯s probably in their chest. Perhaps they can move it about to keep it safe if they know what it is.¡± I said guessing on that. ¡°How will they be handled?¡± Victor asked ¡±You guys have better start practicing your marksmanship because you¡¯ll need it. But here is a gift to help with that.¡± I said I sent the targeting system to their helmets. Now with most of what I wanted done, I need to get ready. I can now have some eyes in the cave as they go since I can connect with their helmets while it¡¯s close and keep it connected as it goes away. Now I need to make up for my shortcomings. The fight with the golem showed me clearly just how unprepared I was. I need ranged weapons and I will definitely make it. I will take this new blacksmithing skill for a test run with some of the weapons the dwarves have in their books. I can¡¯t wait to get my hands on a few fire elemental crystals. Soon our fuel problem will be over, so the quicker I help the dwarves wipe out those golems the faster I can make a new engine for us four, and we can go out into the world safely. I get to work on a few prototypes. I can feel my tinkering skill itching to be used and I make sure to scratch that itch. Chapter 13 Dwarven Rampage My prototypes were quite the success. I got the help of the dwarves to make it since I needed a thin shell to hold it. I wasn¡¯t able to shape the iron correctly but it was a good lesson on how to shape stuff irregularly. As for what is my weapon. Well after some thought, I figured explosives would fit me best. Traps, bombs, all things to do with tinkering would work best from me. Why not rifle? Because Nova has that. I feel it''s best to let her walk down a sniper path. Because she is small and loud it wouldn¡¯t affect her much being a sniper since she can fire things precisely at fighting distances. In the small time she has had her left arm rifle she has gotten better than the dwarves at using it. Even when they used the targeting system in their helmets they couldn¡¯t hit as far as her. If anything, I could say she was a natural with ranged weapons. When I spent some time playing with her I asked what her marksmanship level was. If I could sweat I would have because she said her level with marksmanship was already basic 9. With the small rifle on her arm she was hitting targets at 200 m away. Though not in vitals she hit them none the less. If they are closer than 150 she can aim for a few vitals like the head, heart, a few organs if it''s an organic creature. For clockwork she can dismember a clockwork by shooting carefully the gears near the joints. It¡¯s scary how good she is but thinking about it. Giving a child a gun in real life is made so we would never know how good she was but here she had access to a near cannon like sniper rifle plus a small caliber rifle which she made herself. If I didn¡¯t know better she was made to be a sniper. The worst part of all this is that she is just playing around with it and not actually training seriously. I wonder what it will be like when she becomes serious about it. Now then, what''s been going on after I was relieved of my duties after enough Clockwork could do them in my stead? Besides making my explosives, I made something for Bulk. Because he is a full knight, he doesn¡¯t have tools; so I tinkered around with his collectors and built several models with the basic tools he¡¯s missing. I made several for him as well as for myself because they are too useful not to have. I also had one that had a special grip. This guy I called a drop bot. Why, because he was made specifically to drop a timed bomb and get out before it blows. When almost all the dwarves had armor they initiated the plan. It was to invade the old mines and kill any and all golems. What was interesting was what they did with their rifles.
Gear Rifle A dwarven model rifle that was standard model before being upgraded. With the arrival of clockwork technology it mixed in to make a much stronger steam based rifle. Durability: 40/40 Rate of fire 3 shots per second dps: 15 - 20 Cartridge 20 bullets
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8054/8438643470_4b983e9aed_z.jpg) I would say weapon power to them but that''s because I have a robot body. If this could be aimed at a vitals like arm and leg joints it could rip it off. Also if they get a good shot they could knock the fire golem¡¯s cores out of their bodies and kill them, hopefully. When it was finally time for them to leave the best shooters took the back with the leaders and those who would take the front were there. Bulk, Rust, Nova and I connected to all the helmets and could see what passed through the visor and could talk with them. It would help to have extra eyes and an extra commander and if anything happened, we could relay it immediately. We had made a small scrap cabin for ourselves while we stayed here so we sat down inside to enjoy the show that was finally going to begin since the dwarves were arriving at the cave entrance where the same two golems were with a seriously pissed off look on their faces. Victor PoV It was finally the day we would go back into the caves. Our troops were around 30 front liners and 40 shooters. We wouldn¡¯t have much in terms of space to keep a formation so we would split 15 warriors in front and back to be safe in case the golems found a way to dig or move through the ground. It might just be my superstition but since I¡¯m not a golem I wouldn¡¯t know if an earth type could do that. As we near the entrance we are met with two guards. Truthfully I would have thought they would increase security after Techno and Bulk beat them senseless. Even so I could see they were uncomfortable. From my helmet I could see a message come in from one of the front liners. Dwarf 1: ¡±Sirs, I got some beef to pick with fatty. I want to deal with him personally. At the same time a similar message came in asking for the human on. I talked with the other four leaders and agreed and two front liners moved up. Dwarf: ¡®Hey fatty remember me.¡¯ Bulky: ¡®Hm. Oh you''re that midget that I wiped when we were getting rid of you. I remember that face you made it was priceless to see a dwarf cry out like a baby.¡¯ His rage boiled as he pulled the war hammer out. Dwarf 1: ¡®I¡¯m going to make you cry much more than that.¡¯ Bulky: ¡®Haha bring it midget¡¯ Veins appear on the dwarf''s head. Dwarf 1: ¡®I¡¯ll show you why it''s good being small¡¯ With his augmented strength and now speed because of the improved suit he speeds towards the golem with uncharacteristic speed for such short legs. The golem pulls his new iron club and swings diagonally. Before reaching, the dwarf spins once and the hammer follows and impacts the club head on. BANG! CRACK!! The iron club was pushed back by the tremendous force and when the golem looked at it, his eyes lost its shine. All over the iron club were cracks and small pieces were falling off the club. Both golems stared stunned and even the dwarf was shocked by the strength he displayed. It was more than they could ever ask for. A sudden grin appeared on the dwarfs face as he brought the hammer back and swung it, hitting the unprotected right flank of the golem¡¯s lower chest. Cracks spread all over his chest from the sudden impact. -230 Critical, ambush (-230) 270/500 Nearly half his life went. Bulky: ¡®You bastard¡¯ He glared at him and punched the ground getting his arms stuck. He looked up grinning as his body began to glow and rebuild but as soon as he looked up he saw only despair as the huge war hammer fell with pure rage on his head crushing it and pushing it into the ground. Not satisfied with just that, the dwarf began to pound the rock body to dust until he walked back with a satisfied smiled on his face. The human golem was trembling in his boots as the second dwarf approached him after the first was done. He was struck with fear and couldn¡¯t move or react and just like the first was crushed in moments. The only thing that survived the crushing was the crystals which were not so easy to break. After the second dwarf had pulverized the golem until he was satisfied he looked back grinning and lift his hammer cheering. All the others did the same and the cheer turned into a roar that echoed through the mountains. I cheered with them because I couldn''t help but feel happy about them showing us how much stronger we are now. As the cheering died down a message came in from Techno. Techno: "Make sure to pick up their stuff, especially the crystals." Rust: "Just so you kids know, we will be scouting ahead with a few collectors and will keep you informed on incoming foes.¡± I still didn''t know how to use the text messages or even if we have it so I just spoke out loud. Victor: ''Sure thing and thanks for the extra help.'' With our confidence at an all-time high we gathered the stuff and enter the cave. With our numbers, we had to get into line with warriors in the front and back and shooters in the middle. We invaded the cave like a storm, and as soon as we spotted a golem our group was already running while shooters fired at them making cracks which break easier with the heavy impacts from the dwarves¡¯ hammers. The earth golems had little chance with this concentrated fire and began crumbling but soon we noticed fewer in our path. As we went further a message came in. Bulk: "Hey there is a wide room holding a small village up ahead. The place has a number of golems. That includes fire ones. Most are in the air getting magic ready." With the warning the front liners pulled out something we made in preparation for this. Each of them pulled out a tower shield larger than themselves and walked forward while blocking us. The shields were really heavy but the armor let them hold it. It could handle quite a powerful punch so we prepared a few for this. As they appeared a sudden torrent of flame shot towards us and it the shields head on and burnt for a good minute before it died down. The air was densely covered in smoke which covered us, but we took this chance to get into the room and get the shooters ready. As the smoke cleared we started to see the lights from the fire golems in the air. I pointed to them and screamed. Victor: ''FIRE!!'' Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Gun fire rang out as bullets aimed at the fire golems were shot. ???: ''Hahaha they¡¯re trying to kill fir...Ding'' One of the fire golems began gloating their invulnerability but a sudden shock stopped him as his flames died. From his back a bright red small orb as flew out of his back from it a bit of flame raised before dying out. The golem¡¯s body soon followed the other flames having lost its source when he died. Soon several others had the orb shot out. It took quite a few shots to hit it ¡®cause the orb was the size of a five year olds fist. After seeing several die the golems began dodging. And returned fire. There were twenty fire golems and the rest of the room was earth golems numbering forty. With the fire golems occupied I ordered the warriors to advance on the earth ones and war broke out. I was vigilantly in the back giving orders with the other leaders. I did notice a few robot spiders running in between the legs of everyone and sneaking away with the fire crystals. Every so often we received a message from the clockworks telling us someone was being pushed back. This helped us always protect our ranks by switching someone with someone with more health. We slowly wore them down until we finally broke their ranks when we began outnumbering them. We didn''t get through this unscathed but it wasn''t as bad as the golems. We had 7 injured shooters from burns and 5 dead warriors and another 12 with injuries. When the final fire golem died the shooters cheered. It caused the morale of the golems to plummet to its lowest and some ran into one of the tunnels probably to warn the others. We finished the rest and then a moment of silence fell over us. It was because we had beaten them on our own. We were given help but we fought ourselves. I started laughing and the others looked at me and all of them smiled as new uproar came from us. We cheered, yelled, cried and celebrated before all the excess emotions were pushed out before we started to secure the village. It was the town most of us found after we began in Etheria. The village still stood with all its buildings but most possession was gone but what mattered was here. The houses, the village and our pride. We sent someone back to the outpost. We were going to bring the rest back here and reinforce our town. I''m sure the clockwork will like the towns forge. Unlike the engine forges, there is a proper furnace and forge here. Techno PoV We watched from the outpost the whole fight. Rust was charged with relaying if they won or lost. The moment it was said that they won and recaptured the village the remaining dwarves cheered. Soon after one of the dwarves that were part of the group came saying Victor ordered everyone to return to the village. It needs repairs and reinforcement so everyone should come. He also asked if the clockwork wanted to go. Bulk, Rust, Nova and I plus some 40 other clockwork accepted but about 30 wanted to stay and build a proper town. I passed to them the models for tanks we got from the trio and knights that we had. We then packed up and we all headed to the dwarf town. We had seen the cave from outside and from the inside and from the collectors but it was surprising to find that it was high enough to fit us. Though considering the size of the bulky golems it could be understood if a pure golem was here it would be a another story. The tunnel themselves are rather straight and are clearly mined out and not a natural formation. It¡¯s been roughed up by time and fights that happen and was forming a few cracks, or rocks were falling but nothing that could signal a cave-in, since the place was reinforced somewhat with square stone pillars, which last longer than wood. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. As we reached the town we saw an even higher ceiling about 10 meters high and on the ground small cottages of stone. The larger buildings were probably the chief''s house and the largest of them all, with a pipe stuck into the ceiling, I couldn''t tell what it was. We found Victor with a wide grin. Victor: ''Ah you guys are finally here. I want to thank you for helping us get the most satisfying victory in our lives.'' Rust: ''We didn''t do anything'' Victor: ''You gave us the tools that gave us our victory. Here is the stuff we picked up.'' He led us to a large pile of swords, clubs, shield and armor. Nova: ''Wow so many cool stuff.'' Nova ran over to the pile and looked around excited. She grabbed an iron club. Techno: "Be careful Nova¡± Nova: ''Don''t worry bro this looks easy'' She pulled it and the iron club was nearly her size, 150 cm, was up in her hands. She then took some old scrap and tossed it up and took a baseball player¡¯s batting pose and as the scrap fell she swung the club at it straight on sending the scrap right into the wall on the other side of the village. Nova: ''Hehe that was fun. Hey bro wasn''t that just like the baseball games you played.'' We just look at the scrap which was now embedded into the wall and thought how scary that would be if it was us and not a wall in its way. Techno: "Ya, she is definitely made to be a sniper. To hit that without training..." Breaking the silence was Victor as he tried to get everyone to snap out of it. Victor: ''Um...well I guess you guys will want access to the forge right'' Bulk: ''We have Hino we don''t need regular engines'' Victor: ''Not those, that. It¡¯s an industrial furnaces but I got to warn you, it¡¯s at best half repaired. It was already nearly falling apart when we arrived and the NPC were still the only ones here. They could run it on patchwork for stuff they understood but the rest we couldn''t figure out but now.'' Rust: ''That thing is part clockwork technology.'' Victor: ''You guessed it'' Rust: ''Well clockworks did have a good relationship with dwarves in the past so to find old relics of that mix shouldn''t be too hard. Techno: "Let¡¯s go check it out and get it working. I want it up and running so I can figure out how to transform the forge engine into a furnace engine" Everyone nods. I tell Nova where we are going and that she can go around to play or help the people fix stuff. She just waves and we head to the smithy. The smithy was a three story building with the furnace in the center of town but the building was made so that it was at the back and most of the building was built towards the entrance we came from. If I said there was rust on everything, it would be putting it lightly. Besides the non-iron parts, which are few, everything is covered in rust. The furnace was made of a huge engine in the bottom which takes half of the first floor and is where a substantial amount of pipes and coal was. There were many lifts that rose to the third floor to drop the coal inside and many of the pipes hooked up to the bottom. Bulk: ''What''s with all the pipes?'' Felk: ''They are air pipes for blowing air below the metal. Heats up after that like nothing else'' I scan them and find it¡¯s all copper pipes. The second floor is where pressurized air is pumped from and the third floor is where iron ore list dropped from. The last floor is small and only has two lifts that bring coal and iron up. Victor: ''So what do you think?'' Techno: "The furnace is impressive but badly damaged and the building itself is shit. I would tear the building around the furnace down and build a new one if I had the materials to do so." Victor: ''*sigh* blunt as always. '' Techno: "Once this thing is running that WILL happen." He nodded. Then sent a general message to all the clockworks. Techno: "All clockwork, we have examined the towns furnace and it needs repairs. It¡¯s made with clockwork and dwarven techniques and it¡¯s lacking our part. Request that you all assist in its repairs
You have given the Clockwork NPCs¡¯ a mission
Mission: Relic Restoration After examining the relic industrial furnace in the dwarven town. The relic is made of dwarven and clockwork technology but the clockwork tech has been neglected and requires complete restoration to make the furnace work at full capacity. Difficulty D Reward: New body Requirement: Being a clockwork, understanding at least the basics of the clockwork technology. Success: Completely repair Failure: The furnace is destroyed
...Well that¡¯s new. We can make missions for others. Bulk and Rust also make strange looks. Bulk: ''You gave them a mission...and what''s it mean by gets destroyed? Rust: ''Two things come to mind. For the first is that clockwork gained this mission software you guys have. For the second I would guess it means the golems or someone messes something up.'' Victor: ''What are you guys talking about?'' We finally remember the dwarf and show it to him after he puts his helmet on. Victor: ''Fuck...this game is rea... Bang Victor: ''Agggrraaahhh'' The dwarf fell down holding his foot in pain. Over it was Bulk super heavy right foot. He sent a message to the dwarf. Bulk: "Careful, because Rust is an NPC." Victor: ¡®Fuck!! what was that for!?¡¯ Bulk just ignored him and kept silent after sending him the personal message. It¡¯s common sense that telling an NPC that their world is a game is stupid since they wouldn¡¯t believe it or if they did they would hate the players. After a while the pain subsided and we walked out to find a crowd of all the clockworks in the town. ???: ¡®Sir, we are...ready for...work. Where should...we begin?¡¯ Techno: ¡±Rust, please help them. If you need anything, call. I¡¯ll be remodeling Hino and making a new bot to carry the new furnace I¡¯ll be constructing¡± Rust: ¡±You already know how to make a small furnace? Techno: ¡±More or less, it will take a bit of trial and error but the result will probably be a large robot to carry it but I don¡¯t think it will be much.¡± Rust: ¡±Alright, I¡¯ll take care of stuff here. What about Bulk? Techno: ¡±Send him to gather scrap repair material. Send Nova with him but tell her to find me before going. I want to keep the protector here. I will make some ammo for those guns on its arms and it will do its job as a protector.¡± He nods and then begins giving out orders. I look around and find a large enough empty house and after a bit of asking around I find that no one has claimed it so I do so after removing one of the walls so I can enter. I then cut a hole in the roof to let any smoke out and then had Hino enter and deactivate. I start opening it up and soon the plates are off and I remove the large forge engine. I then looked through the scraps I had in my inventory and pulled out an old clockwork engine. I begin repairing it, as well as adding a few newer parts before putting it in the rhino robot. The normal engine is nearly half the size so there is a large amount of space left inside. All that extra space will come in handy later on when I outfit Hino with weapons. I can already imagine a few long range cannons that would work nicely on his back. Back to the subject at hand, I turned to the forge engine after I had finished up on Hino and took it outside. I needed room for this. I removed a lot of scrap gears and iron plates. If I am right about this, both clockwork tinkering and dwarven blacksmithing is needed for this. I will have to use my engine for now to make the parts but I have plenty of scraps to set up the model. Once the furnace is done new parts will come out and with that I will remake it. Ten minutes after I start Nova appeared riding the protector. Nova: ¡®Hey bro what did you need?¡¯ Techno: ¡®Can I borrow your toy for a bit. I want to fix it more and make those big guns work¡¯ Nova: ¡®REALLY!¡¯ Her eyes were shining brightly after hearing that. The main reason is that she has to control the robot so it¡¯s pretty much her that is using the gun so I¡¯m giving her said gun after I fix it. ...I¡¯m wondering if this could be bad for her developing mind. Nah she knows it is a game so I shouldn¡¯t worry much. Anyway, she is jumping about and then she hugs me before handing over control of the robot and runs off happy. I sigh. To have that much positivity in such a wrecked world it¡¯s kind of amazing. Anyways, I return to my forge engine. I work for hours and sometime later Nova and Bulk return with pipes and scrap metal to fix the town furnace. I was half finished with my own. At the moment it was already covered with an outer shell but had the chamber inside plus a few reinforced water tanks to hold the water that will turn to steam before being redirected to the engine outside the furnace. The engine was from the old forge engine and it would now power the new robot that would carry the furnace. Nova comes to see her robot but I tell her I¡¯m still working on it and goes off to play. Before I finish the furnace I began thinking about what I would make the robot. I had used a rhino the first time but it was for a small engine. Right now the furnace by itself was nearly 2 and a half meters tall and 2 meters wide. I take a few steps back and look. Suddenly a game from my childhood came back. In one of the Pok¨¦mon games (ruby, sapphire) there was a fire type turtle that had a long head and its shell had a hole at the top that reminds one of a volcano. Imagining it I could definitely see the model fitting. The current chamber only has 1 entrance to allow heat to enter so you would need to throw coal or fuel in as well as iron. Having the turtle idea, I open the plates up and get working at the chamber to make a new opening where a pipe then will expand from. I would later attach a type of movable metal through which will let the robot ¡°eat¡± scrap and coal in correct proportions to make proper iron or steel. After this was done I make a hatch to open the furnace so I can get the chamber. I then begin working on the wiring for the engine as well as the systems that will work on the engine. By the time I finished the furnace and engine the time was already midnight. I should stop now because I have skipped too many nights working and it would be bad to continue like this. My engine could risk overworking. I sigh and finally feel how tired my mind was. I look for Nova with the bots and find her sleeping next to Bulk in a small cabin near here. I go and pick her up and bring her to my little cabin. After a bit of work I make the cut wall into a door instead. I close it and sit next to her while leaning on the wall before going to sleep as well. We have a long road ahead and we need this robot, that¡¯s for sure. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please leave comment and/or review :sparkle: Chapter 14 The Next Target When I woke up it was to the annoying sound of gunfire and iron crashing. I spread around my collectors just to find golems and dwarves fighting it out near the tunnels that lead in. It was really annoying waking up to this. As I lifted my head the first thing that lands in my view is Hino. Suddenly, a grin appears on my face. I take control of the rhino and have him start walking towards the noise. As I got the tunnel in view, I measured at least 20 meters and made him start rushing. I send a message to all the dwarves in the way. ¡±Move or get crushed!¡± I tell everyone. They didn¡¯t have time to think and quickly looked back before jumping out of the way. The rushing rampaging rhino slams right into a bulky golem and pushes him straight into the wall with his metal horn stabbing right into its chest. As I make Hino pull back, I see the crystal pushed into the wall behind the golem and he fell along the wall limp. With the collectors spread around, I was watching from various places. I saw the startled golems to the right and left, with a slight turn of the rhino I got the golem into aim. I then order Hino to buck like a bull and it hit the golem square in the chest and sent the human sized golem a few good meters away in front of a dwarf that took the kill. I let out my pent-up stress. Hino did take a few hits in the fight but the robotic distraction made a space in between the golems which the dwarves took advantage of and split them in half, which effectively took them out. This fight had a lot of help from Clockworks using ranged weapons. As the trouble settled down and the golems were finished off, I finally relaxed with a grin having relieved a bit of stress in a really interesting way. It was while I was relaxing that I looked at the corner of my view and noticed my level. Level 20. Yep 3 levels in just one fight and I was only controlling the robot. If it works like this, I could very well maintain the mechanic job while fighting. Still, maybe a sub body purely knight class while my main one turns more mechanic. This was a nice discovery for sure. During the fighting, Nova woke up a bit after me and started hugging me, she must have been scared. Guess a child is still a child no matter how they look, to wake up with this type of noise it isn¡¯t something an eight year old would normally like. When Hino came back, I had Nova help me repair him. I told her how he had fought and she jumped at the story as we fixed the broken plates and gears. Once we repair the rhino, I let Nova take him in the place of the Protector who I would probably hold up until I finished my new robot. I turn to the furnace and engine. They were both finished so I needed to start the robot itself but a problem arises. If it will be in the shape of a turtle the speed would be pathetic. And though large steel gear wheels seem appealing it would make it hard to travel through small paths and mountains. I end up doing both. The main reason is that wheels are bad on uneven ground but if we can get some flat space we can almost get a car it would become an alternate mode of transport. As for legs, it''s better in uneven ground and also when it enters forge mode who would want a forge that rolls away. I start work right away with some newer metal that was set aside for this. Rust PoV My, what a stressful way to start the day. The golems attacked this morning but thanks to Techno using Hino as a distraction as well as a major tank for attacking them we could suppress them without them entering too far into the town. Right after there were many suggestions on how to stop them even if it''s just to get enough people ready. So we ended up planning to make a huge door to lock the tunnel. Shame we don¡¯t have the furnace up completely yet. We get the Clockworks back to work while we have the dwarves stationed at the entrances with only a few small groups go hunt the animals out in the small forests. They say there are a lot of mutants and monsters but if they are careful it shouldn¡¯t be too bad. *sigh* What a few good knight class wouldn¡¯t do for our defense now. Once the furnace is up all the workers can remake their bodies but we will definitely have to make at least 2 mechanics and some knights. A knight will make so much difference when defending. Steel bodies would be nice but I need to train to reach the requirements for them. Would be bad to have such good body material and not be able to use it. I wonder how Techno will meet the requirements, he never goes out of his way to fight and gain experience. As much as he doesn¡¯t trust others he is a good leader but it''s strange to work for a man who barely looks at you when talking and it''s not even verbally. I¡¯ve heard his voice so little that I¡¯m sure I can¡¯t connect his voice to his body if ever I lost my vision. Anyway, back in the large three story smithy we get back to work. The place was repaired about 10% yesterday. It¡¯s heavily rusted and so many parts took intense damage over time, leaving a huge amount of parts unusable. We are using scrap replacements for now until we can smith new parts. With scans and a poorly written mapping program, that takes said scans and makes a really sketchy schematics, we return to the first floor repairs. It¡¯s estimated that at least 70% of the repairs are on the first floor. As with every large construction there will always be a small area we can¡¯t reach so we borrowed Bulk¡¯s tool drones (collectors with tools on the arms) and basic collectors. We sent them to these spots to fix up the really small parts in these areas. It¡¯s really tedious, but it¡¯s got to be done since these are the most fragile parts so they break first. All in all, it¡¯s boring but none the less we must do this much at least so that we can spread further. From what I can guess Techno found a really good transmitter to scan the area and found this place. I would give or take the rest of the clockwork at first base at least 4 more months before they even detect this place unless they find a transmitter of similar quality. I wonder what class I should take up after this. I was given a new work class body but I still don¡¯t have any thought on what to do later on. I¡¯m not bloodthirsty enough to be a fighter. Also, even though I¡¯m good at tinkering; I¡¯m not like Techno. Even Nova has shown talent beyond her mindset should be. Maybe I should follow the girl as a sniper. No, I think riflemen would be better. Even with the targeting system I can¡¯t hit that far. I¡¯ll give it some thought when I am making my body. As we repair the furnace I take some time to finish up a pair of handguns I¡¯ve been working on. A two barrel dual shotgun. Techno says the model looks like a Sawed off Shotgun. Unlike a normal shotgun that shoots small pellets all together, I want to set this to shoot a blunt shot made for powerful impacts. Things with penetration resistant armor or skin would get hurt with this. The guns weren¡¯t like the others which had them in the body. Mine were handguns like the dwarves but I did modify my arms to have a pipe and pressure valve that would hook up when I grabbed them to provide the steam power. I can''t wait to put it through practical tests when the golems return. I want to see the kind of damage the blunt shots have on them. Techno PoV It¡¯s been a week since the golems first attempt to take the village. During this time the furnace has undergone massive repairs. Estimated to be at around 75% complete. The speed that the clockwork repair it improves with each day. As for myself, I finished my project. Now lying in a vacated area in front of the smithy is a huge 3 meter tall 6 long metal snapping turtle. From the top of its high shell smoke rose as fire burnt in its belly. Beside it were several clockwork and dwarves constantly preparing and cooling parts made by the molten metal. The most interesting thing about this turtle that all you need to do is bring scrap metal and coal and with my carefully calculated programs it will eat nearly 10 kilos of scrap and 1 kilo of coal. The material lands in the main chamber crushed and is more easily melted because the turtle "eats" both of them making the parts small and much more easily meltable. Ever since I finished him, he has been constantly converting scrap to usable iron which is used to remake the furnace. With a new source of ok quality metal the furnace began losing the rusty look and began to get a newer appearance but we would still need to replace the metal plates of the furnace itself. The blast turtle, as it''s being called, is able to make a large amount of iron in a short time unlike older engines. First it uses crystal fire to power it. I did a test of how long the crystal lasts before it burns out its mana and begins recharging. When a single crystal is lit on its own, it lasts roughly 8 hours. When it is placed next to another crystal that time doubles. The two work together to keep the same flame going. That is why I placed three fire crystals in the furnace. It runs a full day before dieing out. Inside are water tanks for making steam which connect to the engine outside. Behind the engine sat four small metal cylinders. They are similar to propane tanks. I made these to store pressurized air. I had two more sets of 4 which are switched out for later use when these are empty. They connect into the furnace through copper pipes but after they enter the furnace I changed it to iron pipes because of the heat. It would melt copper pipes as soon as the air starts pumping and the heat inside the chamber rises above coppers heat limit. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Now with my great contribution to the repairs done I need to work off my anger that Rust instilled into me. What pissed me off. A conversation I had with him when I brought the turtle to them yesterday. I had brought the turtle and explained to them how it worked. That was when Rust asked. ¡°Are you going to try and make steel bodies now?¡± Rust asked. ¡±Yeah, once this is done I will make some, why?¡± I replied. ¡°What level are you?¡± He asked. ¡±20 why do you ask? I replied and looked at him now. ¡°I don¡¯t know if it still possesses it with so much change to the world but steel bodies held a level 30 or above restriction.¡± He said. His words made my circuits boil but the next moment several ideas already appeared in my mind as I looked towards the door the golems came from. I took the whole day yesterday making hundreds of different gears and parts and completely refitted the protector. Then I made ammo which were small pellets the size of the top digit of a human thumb. I had fun testing out the gun that''s for sure. Really who wouldn¡¯t like having a robot with two miniguns on his arms, moving fucking fast and doing acrobatics that seem to defy gravity? Surprisingly he had his own status screen and the one controlling him can access it. From what I saw his agility was already over 100 everything else was 70 but dexterity was 30. I guess having those kinds of hands aren''t the best for working with your fingers. Anyway with the protector, as well as Hino, I sat down and stayed stationed near the entrance to town. If I remember correctly the penalty for dieing was 1 level and you''re locked out of the game for 24 real life hours. For juvenile prisoners it was the lost of 1 level and your locked for 1 game day. Considering its been a week all of them should already be back so I think they may be planning something. The village has 3 paths, one to the outside and two going down. The guards are evenly split and shooters are on a few guard posts we built on the walls. To say things were getting boring in town after the attacks stopped would be an understatement. The problem is that we can¡¯t go too far into the cave with too large a number without possibly falling into a trap and leave the village alone. I did make a mapping program, though poorly made, so I¡¯ve been sending the basic class collectors to scan the tunnels to map out the caves but as they go down they split and connect on so many points that it''s a hassle to follow. Most of the tunnels after the town could fit 3 of me side by side and have a bit of room left so we can¡¯t send small number either. I had half a mind to start building steel bots and rampage around while looking for this threat but then I would waste materials as well as time. From my scans I could find a few locations the golems stay but nothing else. What was also interesting is that there are no other dwarven towns no matter how far I map. I didn¡¯t let it bother me but the more I scanned the more it irritated me so I ended up asking Bulk and Victor since they are both normal players. ¡°Are there more dwarf towns?¡± I ask him. ¡°Nope. This is the only ones. I asked the same thing to the original residence and they said the same thing.¡± Victor replied. ¡°Something you curious about?¡± Bulk asked me. ¡±Well this is a VR game right. Shouldn¡¯t there be billions of people playing?¡± I inquired. ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± Bulk asked confused. ¡±What? I said with a frown slightly forming. ¡°The game is restricted for only about 10,000 players. It was all over the news when on the launch day. Where were you under a rock?¡± Victor said. I tell them I was part of a program but obviously not a juvenile prisoner or my crime. ¡°I get it. You''re stuck in the game testing the feature huh?¡± Victor said scratching his huge beard. ¡°Don¡¯t you have access to forums or something?¡± Bulk asked. ¡±I checked a bit but found nothing so I dropped the search early on.¡± I said. They both sigh and then tell me how to open the forum. I try and to my surprise it opens. Hundreds of forum threads open up. I then find the post with the news about the restriction.
From LIFE company staff: Greetings all your future players. We are very sorry for the inconvenience. As all of you have noticed the registrations have been blocked. The reason for this action is because the setting of the start of the game can only be done by few peoples. The full registration will be open to all once the survival period has been complete. By then each race should have some form of begining town and structure to them or they have died out or been locked and must be rediscovered. Please note that there is no time limit for how long the survival period will last and only after every race has succeeded or failed in their quest will the survival period be done and then their will be a 1 week downtime where we will allow for them to advance further before the full opening of the game begins. If you wished to call it a the beta testing phase then it could be thought of as such. Thank you for your time and I hope you luck in the future. Marcus Freeman CEO of LIFE
So that¡¯s what they meant. Well now it makes sense why there are so few players. Only 10k so that means there must be a large race with the bulk of the numbers...humans duh. I said thinking of how that was the most cliche race. It would probably be them like always. Many people don¡¯t want to change so they stay with their original race instead of getting something different. I look through the forum and below that message there are forum pages for each and every race. I thank the two who showed me how to get to the internet with a nod and walk to the front lines and sit down and scroll through them. I stopped at Clockwork and opened it up. What I find makes me chuckle. Nearly four hundred of the starter comments during the first days were complaints. Since we wake up with limited power, 1 arm and the engine is off we need to work fast or get lucky that someone started earlier and helped out. I then looked through them and find one that was on the date after the furnace was captured. There was a video from someone''s pod showing the queen being fought and they showed me and Nova in the cross legged position while we controlled the collectors. Going more down it shows the furnace already working and then I appeared with the salvaged knight and mechanic and use the tanks to push everyone away and start making completely new bodies for us. The comments that followed got a little laugh out of me.
Look at that guy. He took total advantage of the bit of familiarity he had with the tanks to push everyone. Who is this bastard we should spam kill him to teach him a lesson.
I¡¯m with you but I was there and I know how good the guy is. The guy is nearly a mute and used the text message system to talk. He was amazing with his hands and was the first to think of using our weak engines to make crude weapons. He was always tinkering not caring to help much except when he tested those small spider things.
Its funny reading this page. All of you are just jealous the guy who didn¡¯t care about familiarity and did his own thing and got way ahead because of it.
The next hundred comments were fights between them about me. Now one more up to date and from a much too familiar clockwork.
Bulk: Why don¡¯t you guys go out of your way and do things differently instead of kissing the asses of the revived clockwork. Maybe then you can get somewhere. Me and Techno are those two in the video that got the new bodies. We are already at the gate of the scrapyard so why not trying a bit harder.
I facepalmed myself. For the rest of the forum there were hundreds of thousands of comments the asked where we were how we found the gate and so on so I closed it and went to the dwarves page and looked. I looked through the starting pages and found it was true that they began with the golem races and about the same time we left the base the golems expelled them from the caves. I grew curious and searched the golems page looking for the quest but no records show. At least they were smart enough to not post the quest but their was something that appeared and I could only grin. A single video just before the dwarf exiling. Deep underground in a room half filled with magma sitting at its center was a golem made molten rock. His chest glowed brightly from the crystals glow. In front of my eyes was the threat we looked for. Without a doubt this was our target. The threat that threatens to kill the dwarven race. The boss monster... The Magma Golem. Chapter 15 Familiars Please leave comment and/or review :sparkle: Last chapter of the week ppl. Be back the other week. Starting tomorrow it will be The demon and the Angel chapters that will be released ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After closing the forum after seeing the Magma Golem a few things popped into my circuits, first off I needed to call Bulk. It took 2 minutes for the Knight to appear in the small clearing before the tunnel. I was waiting while sitting and when I saw him I stood up. As he reached me he began. Bulk: ¡®Why did you need to see me personally? Can¡¯t you do it through text?¡¯ As soon as he was in range I took a low stance and a step forward with my right arm back. Taking the step my arm flew in an uppercut into his chest. The sound of my fist hitting his chest as it rattled all his gears resound through the area as he fell down on his knee. Techno: ¡±That is for talking too much on the forums and giving away my name¡± Bulk: ¡®What...are you...talking about?¡¯ I open the forum and find his post in the clockwork forum page and send him the text. Bulk: ¡®...Fuck¡¯ For the next few minutes I made sure to disapply him enough that he will remember never to mention my name or Nova¡¯s on the internet without asking this is just the start of the game and if we are lucky it will die out and be forgotten. After giving him a beating I let him go so he can do some repairs. My punches were heavy enough to dent his plating and he definitely got the message. I had also made sure to point out the warhammer he didn¡¯t want and how I could have used that to beat him instead of my fists. Now then, with his beating out of the way I addressed the problem at hand. The magma golem is under this cave system. It was in a magma pool so that means this mountain is a dormant volcano. The problem is his size and fluid nature. We know that the golems¡¯ core keeps them alive, or at least the small ones. The glow in his chest is nearly the size of a bulky golem so the core has substantial size and because magma is fluid but also denser in mass then shooting it out will be difficult. Not only that I feel that the bullets we have would melt before they reached it, all but Nova¡¯s metal stack. We would need something to blast the magma away from his body long enough to get some clear shots on it or a bomb. Bombs...right my bombs though crude hold some power. It uses fuel (diesel) with a real basic signal activated shock device to cause the explosion. That is powerful, but for some reason I get this feeling it¡¯s not enough. Most bombs in real life use black powder but that is made with various materials which we lack. Truthfully I¡¯ve been wondering if I can¡¯t just sock the diesel fuel in some powder like ash and make it a substitute for black powder. After the thought crossed my mind I actually began feeling anxious to try it. I have noticed that whenever I have an idea like this that sometimes work, I get this feeling of needing to tinker with it and realise it. After about an hour of trying to forget the idea I gave into my curiosity and built a small metal box and went around gathering a big pile of coal ash. I then dumped the bombs stock of diesel in the box before throwing bits of ash slowly inside. I wanted to make it so that I had just the right amount without pouring too much in but not leave it overly damp. After 10 minutes of slowly pouring ash in, I had completed the soaking and then I put the soaked ash into the bomb again and closed it. I wanted to be safe about this so I went outside and put one 10 meters away with the help of a collector and then activated it. What can I say my tinker¡¯s feeling was right. The power was enough to make a small shockwave which I could feel and it caused a small hole to form in the rock below it. (Please note that this is fictional and I just made this up) The blast strength was nearly double so you could say I was grinning at my success. I made a second one just to check out the strength.
Ash powder Bomb (consumable) A crudely made bomb. The size is similar to a humans fist and made with a thin iron shell. The explosive material is a mix of coal ash and diesel (fuel) making something similar to black powder but it is still a much weaker than true black powder. Blast radius: 3 meters Damage 150-200
Heh so a nice blast range of three meters it could very well remove some of the magma with this much fire power. Though I doubt that I can throw it that far but I¡¯ll fix that. After I make this weapon for myself in good numbers I¡¯m leading the dwarves into that cave and hunt down the golems with a vengeance so I can meet the level requirements. I¡¯ll take Nova as well to deal with the fire golems. Genocide isn¡¯t my cup of tea but it''s their fault for starting this fight and their bad luck we got involved in it. I work vigorously while helping the guards. My plan is to make something similar to a grenade launcher. The bombs are around the proper size of one so a gun to fire them at long range would help. I used the space in my left shoulders which is relatively empty, to house the gun while connecting one pipe and hose to the steam tank while another much larger will go to an ammo box in my belly area. It will suck up the grenades and arm them before launching. (something like this http://www.ominouscow.com/DoW/colossus_robot_wip_1.jpg) It took one day to make a fully functional model. I tested it all outside for safety and when I was happy with the results I headed back in. The furnace was near completion and would finish today. As my clock showed 6 pm I was just sitting about while dwarves were practicing with their hammers or two handed swords the collectors suddenly picked up a life sign. Several of them actually. All of them moving through the tunnels and spread out in small groups. I follow their movements and as these small groups met up, I saw they were heading up towards the village. Sending an alarm message everyone came on the alert. The small army was split to both entrances because they were coming from both sides. I sent Nova and Bulk to the other entrance while me and Rust took this side. He had dual sawed-off double barrel shotguns. The stats on it were impressive. It was armed with blunt shots and could fire a shot that, if used on a human, would cause devastating internal hemorrhaging. I turn back and signal then as the golems are nearly arriving. I decided to test the launcher and got it ready. When there was 10 seconds before they arrived the collector appeared and I shot two shots in. My own scanners could already pick them up and soon the golems appeared and began rushing out. Nova on her protector began blasting them with the miniguns while she took on the fire ones directly. It was scary her precision with that rifle of hers, and her control of the protector. She was doing both at the same time. I could see her all the way over here as the fire golems flew in. Rust wasn''t behind. Those blunt shots were literally drilling holes into the golems. Now don¡¯t think the golems are any pushovers. They seem to have learned from their mistakes and this time they came prepared. Of the 90 earth golems here at least 50 had come prepared with their arms already converted to the cannon form and were shooting at us. I obviously wasn¡¯t going to let that continue. From the back I shot three more into the ranks. A few of them saw the black ball and moved away but after it just stayed there they just laughed and began moving close again. The next moment the two bombs in the corridor plus the three I just shot blew up injuring several in the blast range as well as throwing several outside of the blast range a few meters away into other golems. With such a large gap in their ranks as well as such a splendid distraction done I put away the grenade launcher and pull out my swords and rush into the fray. I could tell these guys were training ever since they returned. I guess 3-5 days of training skills as well as cooperative tactics made a big difference. At level 20...wait 21 now. Well at level 21 with my current body I could fight evenly with the bulky golems and getting a bit more serious I beat them. The first time I fought the golem I was beating a bit but ended up winning with some reckless use of my dual swords. A few times when I wasn¡¯t working I took to practicing myself and finally gained dual wield skill as well as sword mastery. It¡¯s a start and the skills help a lot to make it easier to use, but I will need to properly train with them from a real teacher if I ever want to get past the system assist. Anyway, we spend half an hour fighting them and took some heavy damage. We beat them but not without losing some of our own. 30 warriors died and 20 are injured while 15 shooters were killed by the rock cannons and 8 were injured. From the clockworks, about 30 were destroyed but the heads weren¡¯t damaged so we can simply replace the motherboard into another body and get the skilled worker back. With this many losses, we will have to wait before going into the caves but by then the golems will have revived as well. I was hoping to head into the cave, but until then I will scout the place even more vigorously. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. With the amount of time we have we can completely remake this town by the time they return. Why? Because the relic furnace is 97% complete so by the end of the day it will be complete. As soon as it up and running all the dwarven gear will have proper iron gears replaced then the worker clockwork will be able to remake their bodies. This will tip the balance of the fight greatly to our side. After I collected all the crystals I send a message that the remaining stuff left behind was for who wanted it. I run to the other entrance and find Nova smiling while petting the head of the protector and Hino while bulk was on the ground with his right arm off and being repaired as well as his left leg. Bulk: ¡®Well look who is here. You seem fine¡¯ Techno: ¡±You look like shit, what happened?¡± Nova: ¡®Bulk saved me when I was being attacked. Proto got hit in the leg and slipped.¡¯ As soon as I heard that she got attacked I was doing multiple scans of her but didn¡¯t find a scratch on her. Then I looked at Bulk. Bulk: ¡®Heh I¡¯m sure you would kill me for not protecting her¡¯ Techno: ¡®Thank you for that.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®...No problem¡¯ I pulled out several of my collectors and began repairing his leg while I took the arm and repaired that personally with the tools in my arms. The repairs were done in a flash since I had already passed into intermediate with tinkering, and was nearing that with clockwork body construction too. I soon attached the arm again and then finished up the leg and left him looking new again. He had a somewhat surprised look on his face while I did the repairs so diligently. Bulk: ¡®So this is payback for saving her?¡¯ Techno: ¡®Your debt is paid¡¯ What I was talking about was the first repairs when he began the game. I wouldn¡¯t continue holding the debt over his head after he saved Nova. After I fixed him up I repaired the protectors leg. With him working again Nova hopped on and started to play again. I need to make a lot of upgrades to both the protector and Bulk, as well as myself. I was currently level 25 after killing at least 20 of the golems. I can see why there are PKs in the VR games. The experience you gain from it is nothing if not impressive. As I stood up I looked towards the corridor and spot something I didn¡¯t expect. Floating in the air were two small balls of fire and on the ground was a small earth doll. I couldn¡¯t help blinking a few times as I look at them. Fire 1: ¡®Um, is the fighting over?¡¯ Nobody answered, but a few dwarves nodded. I looked at them for an answer. Dwarf: ¡®Guess a few golems were spared. Who wants to finish them.¡¯ As soon as one of the dwarfs said that the two fireballs shrank and flew behind the small doll. A few of them moved forward but as the dwarves got near a deafening blast sounded next to me and something flew with furious speed past the closest dwarf leaving him pale. Nova: ¡®Don¡¯t touch them. I want them.¡¯ Everyone was speechless. Bulk: ¡®Nova, you remember those big guys we just fought? Nova: ¡®Ya and?¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Those little guys are one of them¡¯ She looked at the small earth golem and the two fireballs then looked back. Nova: ¡®Who cares they are small and cute unlike those ugly guys from before. I¡¯m keeping them as my pets¡¯ Techno: ¡®You¡¯re not keeping them.¡¯ Nova: ¡®Even you bro. But I want them.¡¯ Techno: ¡®They aren¡¯t pets like your toys, they are like you, real people.¡¯ Nova: ¡®No! They are pets and now they are mine.¡¯ While this was going on nobody could understand what was going on with Nova for her to want to keep them. Fireball 1: ¡®Was it really safe to come here¡¯ Golem: ¡®Maybe we should run¡¯ Fireball 2: I¡¯m more scared of the girl than the large robots. What the hell is wrong with her to want to keep us as pets.¡¯ While they discussed running away, Nova and I bickered and I threatened to take her robots from her for a whole week. Nova: ¡®I hate your bro. I wasn¡¯t allowed to keep pets when I was with mom and dad, now you too, I hate you!¡¯ Like a sharp dagger she stabbed right where it hurts the most. I began to sulk hearing this. She really knew how to hurt me bad. Not even the hits I got from the iron clubs hurt this much. Nova: ¡®I never want to see you again. I¡¯m going to run away and have fun by myself. Only me Proto and Hino. Huh.¡¯ If words could kill I would be in a coffin right now. I was sulking to the point of being coached and making circles on the ground while trying to not hear. All I could do was agree to let her do as she pleased. Techno: ¡®Fine, you can have them¡¯ She made a hidden victory smile and brightened up. Nova: ¡®Thanks bro, your the best¡¯ I know from the start she was faking but hearing her say that hurts even though it¡¯s fake. She goes to the three golems grinning with victory. Nova: ¡®Alright all three of you are my pets from now on, hehehe it¡¯s going to be fun to teach you all tricks. I was never allowed pets so I can¡¯t wait.¡¯ Fireball 1: ¡®B-but that''s slavery!¡¯ Earth golem: ¡®Ya we wont listen to you.¡¯ Fireball 2: ¡®No way will you make us some pets¡¯ I looked back and saw just Nova in front of the three. It was then that I spotted the protector walking up from behind. As he got behind Nova he became like a looming figure of death. The three trembled. He then suddenly lifted both arms, aiming directly at the three golems. Nova: ¡®Mhh, did you say something?¡¯ She tilted her head innocently while making a curious face. Fireball 1: ¡®Nope.¡¯ Fireball 2: ¡®You must be hearing things¡¯ Earth golem: ¡®Yep we wouldn¡¯t think of anything better then to be with you¡¯ She smiled wide and jumped around. Moments later the last possible thing that I thought would happen appeared.
Parental control message: Your sister, the Clockwork Nova, has taken 2 fire golems and 1 earth golem as her familiars. All are living players but are now bound to her and have had their accounts blocked and can no longer delete the character until Nova cancels the familiar contract. They are treated as both players and pets and as such Nova and you (because of parental control) can access the skills and stats of her familiars. You are also able to teach them skills you know as long as you have adequate skill to pass it along.
I could only hold my head in my hands. To think there was a system like this. What kind of game did LIFE make to allow for player slavery? It should be used for catching criminals in action since they show their real selves here. Anyway the tiring day ends with this kind of thing, which was completely out of my hands. I go to sleep early because of how bad I felt after Nova¡¯s tantrum. I think by tomorrow the furnace should be ready so I can start some upgrades to dwarven gear then but for now...Let¡¯s forget about this little outburst of Nova¡¯s. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 16 Boss Hunt Will-o-Wisp 1 PoV I think me and my two friends have the worst luck in the world. Well, we were all lucky enough to be one of the few that were allowed to play Etheria: The Ruined World but that was the end of our luck. We all decided to choose elementals as our race so we could play together. One of us chose Earth golem but me and one other chose to be Will-o-Wisps. We were told by the AI that our looks could change because of our nature being made of fire. When we woke up I found myself in a hot cave system with magma flowing like a river. Soon I encouraged other Will-o-Wisps and we headed up until we found dwarves and golems. We became friends with them but suddenly we got a call from something in the cave. All golems felt a magic wave calling them so we headed down as well. None of us were more than level 1 and when we finally reached the place we met the last thing we expected. In a room nearly 30 meters high was a pool of lava. When the last of us arrived a glow from the center of the lava lake shined and soon the lava rose and parts began to slightly harden. Slowly the form changed until it was a large magma golem. ¡°Tiny elementals as an elder spirit of both your kind I command all of you, rid this mountain¡¯s caves of all that isn¡¯t our own. They plague my mountain and you all shall get rid of them.¡± The magma golem said in a tone filled with rage.
Mission: Mountain Purge You have met with an elder magma golem who has ordered you to clear the whole mountain of anything that isn¡¯t of the elemental races. You must kill or run out all dwarves as well as protect the great golem from attacks that may come from other creatures. Difficult: F++ Reward: Survival of your races. Success: Kill all dwarf NPC and then all dwarf players to kill off the dwarfs and any other creature that helps them. Failure: The great Magma Golem dies.
There was a sudden murmur between everyone. We have grown to like them a bit but suddenly an earth golem stood on a high stone. ¡°Who gives a fuck about Dwarves, if we beat them we get to keep all the minerals and ore in the mountains! We can rule the entire area!¡± The small earth doll sized golem said. The sudden message caused most of them to fill with greed. They all roared agreeing. I had met up with my friends already but seeing this we grew disgusted. ¡°Like hell I¡¯m going to do this mission.¡± I say. ¡°Same here!¡± my friend who choose to be a golem said. ¡°Ditto!¡± The other Will-o-Wisp said.
You have rejected the quest. You are now considered an enemy of your own kind. Should your fellow golems succeed in the mission nothing shall change, however should they fail their characters will be deleted but you shall keep your own. This will allow you a chance to unlock your race much later in the future.
Without a moment''s notice several of use besides us were left in a small clearing. The golems were all looking at us. ¡°FUCK, RUN.¡± The other Will-o-Wisps said. The next moment we ran for our lives. Thankfully we were near the door and could get out of the cavern. We were lucky unlike others that were closer to the front. We continued running randomly through the caves until we were sure we had stopped being chased. As we calmed down we heard noises. We had stopped in an intersection and there were two paths. The noise was coming from the right. We waited a bit until suddenly a large boulder came at us. We jumped into the left path and dodged it but that wasn''t the end. The boulder JUMPED and what appeared was something similar to an armadillo with stone armor. He was snarling at us. We all ran as fast as we could to get away from that thing and without looking we zigzagged our way through the tunnels until we collapsed. When we noticed nothing after us we began to get up once we could. Both me and the other Will-o-Wisps and the earth golem who were both my real life friends were both exhausted. When we looked we saw that our mana was almost gone. What was strange was the lack of stamina but since we were pure fire made from mana then it was obvious overexerting ourselves would eat up mana. After that a message appeared for me.
Warning: reduce mana consumption or risk dying
¡°Fuck how the hell am I using mana!¡± I shout. ¡°Maybe the fact that you have white flames is the answer.¡± The golem says. I stare at him for a moment then check myself out before I see it¡¯s true. It seems I unknowingly activated the fire manipulation skill which is our races racial skill. I deactivate it and my flames turn back to bright red. I look at my mana and see it has started to recharge again. ¡°That was close.¡± I said with a sigh of relief. ¡°Hey Blaze we have another problem.¡± the other Will-o-Wisps said. ¡°Perfect, thanks for ruining my small sense of security after getting a message saying I would die, Ena. What is it!?¡± I said in an annoyed tone. ¡°''We¡¯re lost.¡± The golem said in a blunt deadpan tone. ¡­ ¡°Just as Brock said.¡± Ena said. We all slumped down. Lost in a cave and just at the start of the game too. We don''t really know how long we spent down there. We just randomly walked around and when we felt we were going up, some large monster would push us down. All of them were beyond us by nearly 60 levels. With that said we reluctantly gave up and stopped playing but keeping watch on the forums. A few days later one of the golems that helped push out the dwarves, were guarding the entrance to the cave when two huge robots appeared and destroyed them. There was no new attack after that but to think the dwarves could build a robot like those. I looked around and found out they were players, not robots. The clockwork race seem cool but I want magic and they lack that. A few days later the forum was swarming with the golem and Will-o-Wisps players from the mine complaining that the dwarves were using some new armor and decimated the golems. I laughed really hard when I saw that. I put a message on the forum. ¡°Hahaha Karma''s a bitch ain''t she.¡± I said and typed that before posting it. Several others laughed at them but the rest bitched about it. The next day they attacked but were killed again which made me laugh even harder. In the forums I saw them planning for training to do coordinated attacks. I called my friends and told them about following the golems as they climb. They¡¯re stronger so they can get past the monsters. If we follow we can get back up to the dwarf city. With the plan set we waited two days and jumped in on the third day. It was a weekend so we could afford to wait two days. We waited near the intersection where a rock armadillo rolled down from. Brock made a small hole in the wall and we hid near the intersection. Soon we heard the sounds of attack from battle. When it went quiet Broke looked out and saw the golems walking on leaving the monster dead on the ground. We wait until the players walk away before following. We stick to the wall, Ena and I stay behind Brock to hide the light made by our flames. Nearly two hours of walking and several monsters that were gradually stronger than the last, we finally reach the top. By then there was one big group. We wait out the fight and only after it had died down we move close. The scene of a battle field spread out around us. Many dwarves injured, some dead and golems all around. As we three walk out everyone suddenly looks at us. We freeze on the spot with the pressure from the stares aimed at us. ¡°Um, is the fighting over?¡± I ask a bit unsure. Nobody answer except for a few nods. ¡°Guess a few golems were spared. Who wants to finish them?¡± One dwarf said. As soon as we heard that we shrank back and hid behind Brock as the dwarves came towards us. When they almost circled us something stopped them. BANG The sound came from behind them and the projectile passed just over everyone and embedded into the wall leaving cracks. All the Dwarves stopped pale and gulped deeply as did we. The source of the shot was a robot girl with one of the scariest sniper rifles I¡¯ve ever seen. ¡°Don¡¯t touch them! I want them!¡± she said Everyone was speechless and dumbfounded. One of the big robots behind her moved next to her and started talking. ¡°Nova, you remember those big guys we just fought?¡± Bulk said. ¡°Yeah and?¡± the girl says. ¡°Those little guys are one of them.¡± The robot says pointing at us. She looked at us then looked back. ¡°Who cares they are small and cute unlike those ugly guys from before. I¡¯m keeping them as my pets!¡± She says Just how unreasonable is this girl. The other big robot who seems to be her brother starts arguing with her and they both seem to be losing. ¡°Was it really safe to come here?¡± I ask really worried. ¡°Maybe we should run?¡± Brock suggested. ¡°I¡¯m more scared of the girl than the large robots. What the hell is wrong with her to want to keep us as pets?¡± Ena said shaking. Before we could decide the girl began using the dirtiest trick in the book and made her brother conceded to her unreasonably selfish desires. She walked over with a victorious smile on her face. ¡°Alright, all three of you are my pets from now on, hehehe it¡¯s going to be fun to teach you all tricks. I was never allowed pets so I can¡¯t wait.¡± Nova said. ¡°B-but that''s slavery!¡± I shout in protest. ¡°Yeah, we won¡¯t listen to you!¡± Brock shouts as well. ¡°No way will you make us some pets!¡± Ena says not giving in. While we contested against her wishes we didn¡¯t notice until it was too late that the huge robot she was sitting on before was now behind her. It cast a shadow over her and us and she continued smiling while her robot eyes shined. Then the robot lifted both arms with the massive miniguns on them and aimed it at us. ¡°Mhh, did you say something?¡± She said innocently as if not noticing the giant robot. She tilted her head innocently while making a curious face. ¡°Nope.¡± I said scared out of my wits. ¡°You must be hearing things.¡± Ena said taking back what was said. ¡°Yep we wouldn¡¯t think of anything better then to be with you.¡± Brock said in his defense. She smiled wide and jumped around. Moments later our death sentence was completely sealed.
You have accepted to be the familiars of the Clockwork Nova Gear. You are now bound to her and can no longer delete your character unless Nova cancels your contract. Being players you are to be treated as such but you will be under the contract and will be represented as pets. As such Nova and her guardian Techno Gear (through parental control) can view your status window and skills. You can be taught skills by your owner as long as she knows them to an adequate level as well as learn them yourself with her, or Techno¡¯s, permission. (Note Parental control will last only until Nova turns 15)
We all resign to our fate. To live as pets to an unreasonable girl and they even take away our right of privacy for our skills. This game is sick and twisted to no end and what kind of game allows for players to be enslaved like this. Techno PoV I was still sulking after Nova''s tantrum. She was already back to all smiles and playing around. I on the other hand was examining the three new familiars that, through "their" free will, joined us. Their names were Blaze, Ena and Brock. Two males one female. Stats all newbie level 1 so nothing special. Skills are a bit more interesting. They each have 3 racial skills each. The Will-o-Wisps have Fire manipulation (Basic 2), Fire magic mastery (Basic 1) and Fire assimilation (Max). The earth golem has, earth manipulation (Basic 2), earth magic mastery (Basic 1) and Iron stomach (Max) The first two are self explanatory but the third skill is really unique to the race unlike the other which can be learned. Fire assimilation allows a Will-o-Wisps to "eat" fire and convert it into mana. If they eat a large amount in a short amount of time they can possibly increase their mana capacity/size of core. It¡¯s the same for Iron stomach but in this case the golem must eat mineral ore. As they eat, the body grows and becomes stronger and larger until it''s at the size it was supposed to be when they made the character. The golem skill also makes the ore they eat spread around so if brock eats enough iron ore his body will eventually turn him from earth golem to iron rock golem. Still to think there still exists level 1 newbies after so long. My group is around level 25 after this battle but I''m sure some battle hungry idiot would probably be nearing level 50 by now. Well nothing I can do about it. The best we can do is finish the relic furnace and kill the boss golem. With that said I leave Nova to tort...play with the elementals and go help finish the furnace. Next day The previous day we had completed the reparations of the furnace. Today we finally lit it up and began moving tons of scrap iron into it. Clockwork workers had been going mining with several dwarves after the golems were beat and made a huge stockpile of coal which was being shoveled in. Slowly the heat rises and soon the iron begins melting. As it begins turning liquid we open the pressure valves from the pressure tanks. Air blasts through and is instantly consumed by the flames which causes a massive rise in heat melting the iron and mixing the carbon in the coal with the iron. We weren''t making steel but cast iron. In the real world it¡¯s best use is in machinery, pipes and so on. For machines, cast iron should be the best option for interior parts before we go into steel parts. Until now we have only been simply melting iron and removing impurities and using iron like that. The cast iron may be a bit brittle but it is harder so it will work for the workers. I''m waiting until steel comes out before we try anything. I already have plans for both Nova and Rust. Nova has already clearly showed her talent in scouting as well as control of the robots. So I plan something along the lines of sniper/commander for Nova. For Rust, he shows good stealth but not enough for an assassin but his scouting abilities make that up. With his sawed-off shotguns I think Scout/Hunter fits him more. That said we need to train. I know that we are probably really powerful but we lack level. We can be OP if we want but level restrictions will be present. That said I still make all four of us some new plating using Dwarven blacksmithing to make them with dwarven techniques. It¡¯s similar to making plate armor just three times stronger. I spent the whole day making my own parts while the others worked together building the new worker bodies as well as iron sheets. These were taken and were being used to make the new building holding the relic furnace to better protect it from the golems. It also went into making houses stronger. We also made heavy duty doors for the two entrances to the dwarf town. For our parts I made only plates but after completely replacing my body I gained an astounding 15 points of toughness but lost 5 of agility because the armor is heavier. It was a really nice result though Rust didn¡¯t want them because it was heavy. As a scout he seems to want to keep his speed so I don¡¯t push it. Anyway, the next day the cast iron is being mass produced and the Dwarven armor was undergoing upgrades. I was just watching the gate when the golem appeared. ¡°You¡¯re the leader of the robot''s right? I saw you in the forums it shows you making your armor at the clockworks base.¡± Brock said commenting on the video on the clockwork forum page. I don¡¯t speak or even try to register the dolls presence. ¡°I just wanted to know if you need help with the software upgrades, I¡¯m in college to be a programmer so I know quite a lot about it.¡± he says Unlike before this catches my interest, so I look at him before looking around and finding one of the dwarves helmets. I stick it on the golem''s head even though he protests trying to take it off. ¡±You want to talk leave that thing on. So what do you want, besides your freedom which I can¡¯t give you, for your work on upgrading our software and teaching me how to do it.¡± I tell him. ¡°So this is how you talk. Well besides my freedom I want to level up. I¡¯m weak and while I stay that way I will stay this size and your sisters pet. Help me get big and away from her and we have a deal.¡± He says. I agree to help him train since I have nothing to lose. First though I have him teach me what he knows. I get a scrapped clockwork into working condition and connect him to the software codes. The whole day he spends teaching me about programming. At the end of the day my Basic software designer skill ranked up into the Programmer skill. This skill is much more advanced than simple software, as such anything that falls under programming has somewhat become possible. I love that the system helps by somewhat giving people knowledge to start out. If we learn more we can improve the skill. For my side of the bargain I remove the motherboard and put one that I repaired and which had corrupted codes and remade them making it a practice combat bot. It was simple, he would fight the robot and try to win and level up. The scrap bot I would rank around level 3 since I added a few newish parts. Should be a good match for a level 1 newbie. Shame he doesn¡¯t last long. I had to stop the bot from killing him. From there I told him to take advantage of his Iron stomach skill and after about an hour he returned. He was a bit larger and had gained more human like traits. Seems he is the human like golem. He was able to beat the robot this time and gained a level. I then repaired the robot and this time I changed the waist knee and heel joints giving the robot speed. Suffice to say he was thrashed again because he couldn¡¯t handle the speed. I gave him an iron pipe, and had him fight again. This time he narrowly won. I continued until it was time to sleep gradually increasing the difficulty. He gained sword mastery skill plus 3 levels from beating the robot as it got stronger. I found it satisfactory to say the least. The Will-o-Wisps though were less than satisfied since I ignored them. I don¡¯t really give a damn. I did have Bulk tell them to follow to earth golems example and use their fire assimilation skill to augment their stats. The next day I spent some time working on my programs I already possessed. I refined the mapping program as well as the targeting system. It¡¯s amazing how much better it became after I learned programming. The map was no longer sketchy and held a good amount of detail as well as showing spots the collectors registered monsters or other living beings. As for the targeting system. The margin of error was further reduced and now those with lesser talent for guns had better handle of the gun. Nova, on the other hand, became even scarier at short and mid range shooting because she never missed her target and could even hit multiple vital spots much more easily now, and her range went up to nearly 300 m with hitting 4 out of 5 times. We still had about 2 or 3 days before the golems respawned so we wanted to be ready. I made extra sure that no players posted anything in the forums about it so we could squash them completely with less damage to ourselves and instantly head to the magma golem to finish this annoying quest. The last bit I did today was refit Hino with stronger armor and a better software increasing the effectiveness of his systems before setting out to train the three brat elementals. The combat clockwork I was slowly remaking I was planning to turn into my alternative bodies and make knights from them, which I would manually control. Since Nova had the protector I stay with Hino as well as the blast turtle which makes me reach my limit with robots I can control when I control five complex robots. Though I will never actually use them all at once since I need to map out the caves, while training I leave that to Rust since he seems to have better scouting skills and the maps he makes are of slightly better quality because of that. At the end of the day around 40 dwarven power suits were remade and the earth golems reached level 6 while the fire ones both got to level four. They had taken up my suggestion and stupidly flew into the blast furnace about half way and began eating the flames from that height. Improved them greatly I must say. The golem now took the image of a human 10 year old and the two Will-o-Wisps can both change their looks to be similar to phoenix since they liked the bird form but can take a similarly large human form. The next two days I beat them nicely as I trained them and when all the dead dwarves started appearing I knew the time limit was done. They had obtained level 12 each and were at full size. Contrary to what they thought Nova was happier to have the full size. Now on the fifth day after the golem war, all the armor had been remodeled and now had more plating protecting the body where the old one didn''t. The town also looked better and no longer rusted. With collectors in the cave we saw the golems rushing to reach us and among them several huge signatures were noted. Guess they were going on the last offensive. We scrambled and got ready. I won''t go too deeply in our victory but I will just say that those huge signatures the collectors registered were complete rock golems with no human traits besides the basic shape with two arms, two legs and one head. Bastards were tough as hell and only because I had Nova shoot them with the sniper that we broke through their defense. We had greatly reduced casualties on our side compared to last time because the armor was much stronger and protective than before. Once we killed off the last one we gathered all the drops and we finally headed into the cave. We passed them the map we had made and continued down. I didn''t bring any combat robots because they were complex robots. I needed to use as many collectors as possible, so I left them behind. Rust and Nova were also helping out with mapping the lower levels and slowly the map began to piece itself together as the drones started to meet up during the descent. There were numerous rock and fire based monster in the cave which we took down and which I had the golems eat parts of. As I suspected they grew much faster eating monsters than ores. After some time the collectors met up into one large group after having mapped the whole cave system and only a single path was left. I had them wait so as not to endanger them with the monsters attacking. We took the shortest path down until we finally met up with them. We put all of them away before turning to the final room ahead. When I looked back we saw the dwarves sweating from the heat. I called for a break and let them cool off. It was a clear disadvantage for the dwarves who aren''t handling the heat well enough. It¡¯s possible that just the clockworks are capable of fighting this thing. I thought. Several thoughts about how the clockwork saved the dwarf passed through my mind. It was clear that there was a connection here. The dwarven armor can''t handle the ever-training elementals that grow stronger by eating these rock and fire based monsters. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Put simply it must be because of us that we could reach this far. Thinking something like this could be true, I begin to form a plan and pull out a good amount of ammo. What I brought out was a new ammo type for Nova. Before she used plain metal stakes. These new ones were more drill like with a drill bit head. I also brought out a new pipe for the sniper. The inside had etching inside that would cause the bullets to spin which would increase the penetration power. I replace it for her while the preparation was going on. I then restock my bombs and pull out two huge tower shields for Bulk. It was clear this fight was for long ranged fighters so he will act as our shield should the golem throw something our way. With everything more or less taken care of, we move in. The room we entered was huge. About 30 meters high and dome shaped. The diameter was roughly 150 meters and half way into the room a pool of magma forms covering the far side of the room in lava. Like a cliche boss entrance, the room rumbles and the lava jumps up in a few explosions as gas was released. Then from the entrance the lava begins rising. As the body rises parts of the lava cool and forms a volcanic rock armor. ¡°Grr, So the rats have come to me. Good. Those weaklings weren''t doing their job properly anyway!¡± the magma golem said. No one spoke to the intelligent boss monster. ¡°Nothing to say pests!¡± he shouts Before anyone could say anything a dwarf that was scared took a shot at the Golem. The bullet hit into the exposed lava. -2 (-2) 2998/3000 Everyone pales. A sudden rumbling started in the room as the golem began laughing. ¡°Is this really what''s kept killing those weaklings? Pathetic!¡± He shouts while laughing revealing the red glow of the magma inside its body through its open mouth. All the dwarves paled. "All of you retreat and seal down the village. Let us handle this. Nova ready the new round." I say. The dwarves nod and begin running out. ¡°Hahaha. So you choose to run when you know you will die, rats!¡± the golem shouts. ¡°Who said we were running.¡± Bulk shouts drawing his attention. The golem looks at us. The remaining group was Bulk, Rust, Nova, the three elementals and me. Nova was just finishing getting her sniper out after getting into position on the protector. On my shoulder the grenade launcher had just finished coming out. ¡°Clockwork? I thought your kind died out long ago and were now scrap?¡± He commented. ¡°A few had reactivated recently just like the awakened ones.¡± Rust says nonchalantly. ¡°What do trashed machines like you think you can do against me.¡± He says taunting us. ¡°This!¡± I say Using my targeting system I aimed up and fired three bombs in succession. The golem didn''t even flinch as it approached. They all stuck to his chest above the glowing area on his chest. ¡°Ha is that al¡­¡± He says but was cut short. BOOM BOOM BOOM At once three massive explosions happened on his chest. They were powerful enough to blow away the magma around his chest. ¡°GRAAHHH~!¡± He roars in pain. As the smoke cleared the massive chest area had a huge hole in it exposing the core. ¡°Now!¡± I shout. BOOOOM With an even bigger explosion Nova fired off one of the new rounds I made. The impact to the core was massive making a few cracks and to add to that it continued on as it drilled for a bit more into the giant''s core. [/b]Critical hit[/b] ¡°Well fuck! Thats some massive damage!¡± Bulk said as he saw the damage ¡°Of course, the core is their power source and this guy keeps his under heat for so long that it became brittle.¡± Rust explained ¡°You...all...will...DIE!¡± the golem shouted in a rage. He roared in anger and stood up again. We saw that the drill stake was firmly stuck in his core. It hadn''t fallen out even with all the cracks. Slowly he repaired his chest but as soon as the lava fell into the cracks he began to roar in pain. Slowly he began losing life. "Seems like the inside of the core isn''t as lava resistant as the crust. I said after seeing that happen The golem pulled all the magma off his core leaving the hole in his chest. By that time he had lost 90 points of life ¡°Bro, it will take 5 minutes before I can shoot again.¡± Nova said. I node confirming our time limit. He can''t protect his core anymore since it would hurt him if he did. But that doesn''t remove the danger he poses. "Bulk, stick with Rust, defend him if anything comes his way. Nova dodge as best you can. You hurt him the most so he will try going for you. I will try to get his attention. When you can, Nova, shoot at the big ball in his chest again." I order. ¡°Sure bro.¡± Nova says with a nod. At that moment the golem raised his arm and began swinging it down at us. We all split after that. The arm missed is by far but we lost our balance because of the tremor it caused. While I was down I aimed and shot to bombs onto his arm and when he pulled back I detonated them before the shell was penetrated. The bombs cause his arm to burst but not fall off. Seems the damage is weaker the further from his core you get. And I bet it''s like the smaller ones. His damaged body can probably regenerate. As soon as I thought that I notice the hole I made in has arm close up and his life returned to 1608/3000. "Aim only for the core. Attacking his body will get us nowhere." I tell the others. "Roger." Rust replies back I saw Rust pull out his two guns and unload the four blunt shots towards the core. Two missed and hit his body one hit the core making a few small cracks but the last did some massive damage. By luck it hit right over the metal stake shoving it further in. He roared again and looked towards Rust. He then shoved his arms into the lava and pulled out two huge balls of lava. First his right arm pulled back and he through the massive lump of molten rock at Rust. From behind Bulk stood in his way as he connected his two massive tower shield and planted them on the ground. The shields could almost be compared to the iron doors we made for the village. When Bulk connected his shields it formed a V shape and with a slight slant backwards it covered the two completely. When the magma ball crashed into them I say the shield and Bulk slide back at least 2 meters from the force behind the rock. Other then that they both escaped death easily enough since the shield made the molten rock split to the sides. Cruck Boom The sudden noise draws our attention up. In the air near the roof of the cave, the three golems were doing something. All over the roof cracks formed and soon the huge boulders fell loose and plummeted down onto the magma golem. The impact of the rocks make a huge wave which we had to run away from. ¡°Damnit you guys! Once we finish this bastard off your all dead meat!¡± Bulk shouts I was preparing my tort...training regimen for them. Now though the attack would have been effective it didn''t work well against the golem because it simply pushed him under. Soon he rose again after the rocks melted. Though it didn''t cause much damage he was still hurt because his core was forced completely under the magma. It took only 50 points of damage before he resurfaced. He was still ripping magma from his core which made a dangerous opening I made sure to exploit. I pulled out a small box filled with bombs and changed out the one I already had since it was nearly empty. I also filled my water tank to build up more steam. With the steam I had I aimed and fired several shots all landing on his arm or chest. And detonated when the final one was near. The series of explosions made the cave rumble. I also heard more shots from Nova to my left and 4 more from Rust. As he neared its end it seems he also sees his imminent death. ¡°As if...I WOULD ALLOW MYSELF TO FALL TO SUCH CREATURES LIKE YOU!!!!!¡± He suddenly shouted. He lifted both his arms up and clutched his fists ¡°FUCK RUN~!¡± Bulk suddenly shouted. Bulk and Rust were both running for the door. All of us but the flying elementals ran as well. We reached the door and Bulk was waiting for me and Nova. Once we passed he planted his shields at the entrance of the room and pushed the shields until it became a door. ¡°GGGRAAAAHHH!¡± The Golem shouted as his fists fell into the magma pool. BOOM I heard his fists hit the magma and felt the intense vibration. Behind us the dwarves had retreated only to the corridor and had been watching. They were now muttering. ¡°This fight is insane. We would be dead by now.¡± One of them said. ¡°I know what you mean. We really have to thank the group for all their help.¡± Another one commented with sincere gratitude in his voice As the dwarves mindlessly muttered we, who were holding the shield felt a massive impact but since all four of us were holding we stopped the force but we saw the door get red has it heated up. When everything got quiet we pulled the shields back a bit and looked out. The giant golem was huffing exhausted. ¡°Bro I can fire my big toy again.¡± Nova says. "Ok. Bulk, Rust and I will run out in both directions. Take a shot from in here when you get the chance." I tell her. She nodded and began pulling the sniper out and loading another drill stake into the gun''s chamber. While we waited we heard banging outside. When we looked we saw the magma golem throwing rocks at Nova''s pets and Hino who I was moving around and making him return. I had forgotten him outside but thankfully the new plates helped him survive since this lava wasn''t hot enough to melt his heavy padding. We remove the shield and run out while letting Hino run in and having him sit down and let him cool off. The golem''s eyes were intensely fixed on us. He roared in rage and launched a punch towards me which I blocked by firing bombs and blowing up his hand while getting away. At the same time he grabs and throws a chunk of lava at the other two which was blocked. At the same time we both fired at the golem but he suddenly clenched up and protected the core. ¡°Hehehe. You will all die!!¡± He shouts Just like before he quickly lifts his arms and prepares to slam his fists down. BOOM!!! KRRRRIINN CRACK Before he could even begin to drop his arms Nova fired dead center at the huge core in his exposed chest. The drill stake rushed right into the core and dug in deeply spreading cracks all over and shooting out the other side and embedding itself into the wall behind him. Fatal hit Seven levels for killing one boss. It must be because it was a small group instead of large number. The last fight with the golem army gave me 2 levels, the walk down we killed various monsters and it gave me another with this boss I''m now level 35. I breathe out a sigh of relief. When I looked at the golem he was still standing. In his chest was the completely cracked core splintering out of his chest. As I looked close I saw the lava was quickly cooling and when it reached the magma pool it started to cool the lava as well. Soon the whole pool was hot stone that slowly let out a few traces of heat and smoke. ¡°Hehehe That was awesome. I think we should hunt a few more boss monsters.¡± Bulk said excited. ¡°Do you want to die, is that it mr. shields.¡± Rust says insulting Bulk. ¡°Hey! If I didn¡¯t have these shields we would all be dead.¡± He shouts at Rust. ¡°Those things are more like doors.¡± Nova says bluntly as she reaches us.¡± Nova says bluntly. ¡°You know...it doesn¡¯t feel bad following these guys. Seems fun being with them.¡± Brock comments. ¡°Yeah, where else would we have fought something like that so early on just ourselves.¡± Ena replies As soon as the elementals land three large hands grabbed them. ¡°Now then. What kind of punishment should we give you three from dropping those stones carelessly and almost killing us from the wave.¡± Bulk said in an evil tone. Both Bulk and me were staring at them while our eyes glowed. The three shrank back. ¡°Bro, Bulkhead leave them alone!¡± Nova shouted. ¡°B-Bulkhead!! You''re calling me fat like that transformers!!¡± Bulk shouted towards Nova. ¡°Hump you are a fatty!¡± Nova says bluntly. We dropped the three and they shrank to tiny size again and ran behind Nova. Seems they learned well enough there manipulation skill to return to that size at will. ¡±Leave them, (for now), we need to take care of this first. Let''s remove that crystal¡± I tell them while looking at the big core left in the magma golem. As we began to move the dwarves came out dazed looking at the huge giant. Suddenly the quest appeared in my visor.
Mission: Elemental Onslaught You have successfully helped all the dwarves beat the magma golem leading the golems to attack. With your actions you have set in stone and steel the relationship between clockwork and dwarves. Reward: +2 level, Dwarves are now permanently unlocked.
Because you have helped complete this quest, the Mission, Mountain Purge, done by the fire and earth golems has failed. The Fire and Earth golem race has been permanently locked. Due to having befriended a golem and two Will-o-Wisps and not killing them they will have a chance to revive the race in the future
[split]Your fight with the boss of the dungeon is worthy of entering the hall of fame. Should you allow it we can post it in the hall of fame. Note it will also show where the current location is revealing the location of the dwarven town and south gate of the clockwork scrapyard. The last message I have to think about for a while before I allow it to happen. I was leaving soon, way before any of them can find this place so it didn¡¯t matter. All the dwarves cheered and began celebrating. For my party we began to break the stone around the massive core and collect the core. Because it was too big and broken we had to break it into fragments which were easier to carry. The core itself was huge. Nearly 3 meters in diameter. To say this was a grand prize out of a lottery would be an understatement.
Magma Golem Core Fragment (craft material) A fragment from the core of a boss class magma golem. This core is very dense and holds a huge amount of magic energy. Broken into fragments the cores power is severely lowered but each piece holds an equivalent of the power as it is made up of a good amount of mana. This core is specifically unique as the crust of the core is highly resistant to heat but it is brittle and the inside is weak to heat but holds a large amount of mana within. These fragments are highly sought after because they can be used with smithing and making magically enhanced armor and weapons.
I can¡¯t help but grin at this. To find heat resistant materials is one hell of a blessing. I can now make some well needed upgrades after some experimenting. If I can make a steel alloy mixed with the crust I can make many weapons that would heat up quickly. That includes Nova¡¯s sniper. I can reduce the impact of overheating on it and have it fire off more rounds faster. We scavent every last bit of the core when we are finally done we jump down and walk over to the dwarves who all look happy. ¡°Thanks for the help. We can¡¯t thank you more. You even helped us yourself after you said we had to do it alone.¡± Victor said. ¡°We got a lot more out of this doing it ourselves.¡± Bulk said. ¡°He is right. We needed to pass level 30 to surpass steel parts restriction.¡± I told him. ¡°I can already see that shiny new body waiting for us.¡± Rust said in a daze. We all laugh hearing him say that. We leave behind the statue of the golem with a huge hole in his chest and head up. The next day after doing massive repairs and smithing to make up the bombs and bullets we used, we began making new bodies. I made the same kind of body I had now for myself. I dismantled all my weapons and tools and upgraded them with steel parts that has begun being made in mass now that it''s safe to mine coal. I learned the proper mix for steel and how to do it in the turtle. When I was finally done with that I took the time to also completely upgrade my personal software. Though I¡¯m working fine, there are still quite a few corrupt files so with help from the skill correction from the Programming skill I begin rewriting them filling each blank with what I think is right. If nothing comes to mind when looking at one of the codes I leave it and only fill those I notice I can do. When I was done I was happy that there was a large increase in processing power and even my movements with this iron body was smoother since the commands were being executed more accurately. I finished the Robot and then transferred the transmitter and had Rust move my motherboard to the new body. Ah how I''m never been so happy to see so much shiny cold steel run on a new steel fire crystal powered engine with only a small fuel tank to feed the oil needed to lubricate my gears. I even also added a second battery which would allow me to use my tools, which is what uses energy, for a longer period of time. Here is my stats after the upgrade.
Status
NameTechno GearRaceClockwork
ClassKnight MechanicLevel:37
Free stats points60Durability1120/1120
Energy400/400Strength98
Agility76Dexterity105
Toughness110Intelligence89
Wisdom95Charisma30
Leadership20Luck50
My stats sure have flourished from the first time. Not to mention I still have 60 extra points to place which I am keeping for now. For a while i''ve been thinking that Clockworks are a cheat race but when I think about it. Unless they had a source of material they can¡¯t upgrade that much without leveling so. Until we find something a better material than steel we might be stuck with this. Well beyond the mountain range would be monsters. Maybe monster parts mixed into the iron and steel could make something interesting. Anyway after I finished my new body I remodeled the old one. I made it shorter and made it into a full knight. I had left the swords since they were iron and made new steel knight swords. I did take the launcher though. It was made for my current size so it wouldn¡¯t fit him. I gave the knight body steel plating though and steel joints but the rest stayed as cast iron. I moved to Nova afterward. I wanted a sniper so I made her a body that was full adult size that could hold more weapons. I turned all her collectors into tool drones and removed her tool gears and added rifles into both arms. I gave her short swords similar to the knight swords so that if things ever reach a point where she has to fight close up she has something. Though I doubt that would happen with her always on the protector. Her body was full steel but because of the smaller size them me her agility was over 100 as well. Along with the machine rifles and sniper, which I remade into her new body out of steel as well as with a experimental barrel made with part of the magma golems core, I gave her a pair of pistols which have a hidden holster in her upper thigh. (think robocop) I also made a transmitter for her that allowed her to control up to 1 complex robots. I would need to hunt a robot boss to get a better transmitter. I also repaired her software to what I could. Rust was given a body about 190 in height with hidden gun holsters for her shotguns like Nova¡¯s. I gave him a dual socket for transmitter which make scouting better. I also added a rifles and but I left tools that he could use to make traps and such. The result was that they both got a class. Nova¡¯s was called the Sniper Commander. The class comes with the increased ability to control more robots easier so even with a transmitter that can control 1 complex robot she can actually control 2 with moderate control of both. Rust gained the class, Scout. It¡¯s may sound simple but the class consists of not only being scout but also act like a hunter class. It increases his scouting abilities by a huge margin and his mapping and scanning skills are in another league. He also gains higher proficiency in marksmanship since hunters are ranged class. In fantasy game hunters would be archers so its not strange to see this kind of bonus. He also gets a bonus for trap making. Bulk got a new, body just like his own fully of steel. Same weapons as before. I refitted both the Hino, the blast turtle and the protector with steel parts as well. The protector I upgraded most of its body since there was still many rusty parts. I added a suspension system into the legs which works like springs and allows it to jump nearly 10 meters into the air. The agile body build works well with this and considering Nova¡¯s control over it, she will learn how to properly use it quickly. Every last one of us had the new engine outfitted to be heated with fire crystals. We had gained a large number of them and we know they have a charge time of around 1 days each. With the number we have we will last a good time before anything happens. And if it does we can take advantage of the Will-o-Wisps. With all of our business finally done here we pack our things. The dwarves and clockwork are sad to see us leave because of all our contribution but it wasn¡¯t something they would forget or I would let them forget. We part with the who community waving and cheering as we all leave the dwarf town heading into the scrapyard to stock up and fuel before heading south west through the mountain range to who knows where the roads take us. Chapter 17 Bandit ship Having left the dwarves after stocking up on nearly 2 thousand cans of fuel, all of which are filling up the golems inventory, we are traveling through the mountain range. The terrain is rough, but we can pass well enough because we spread out collectors for scanning. We can find paths through the mountain that fits all of us, especially the blast turtle. Even though it''s a turtle it can maintain a pace as fast as ours. I was kind of hoping to get to a flat area so we can see the other part of the turtles functions. I installed wheels and hydraulics and all the stuff that can make a car move to this thing. Shame for the time being we won¡¯t use them but at least the turtle isn¡¯t totally slow and we aren¡¯t in any hurry to reach the next location, mostly because we don¡¯t know where it is. While we walk I looked through all the forums of all the races. In the clockwork there was an administrative post that showed my groups achievement and under it a simple map heading south, southeast and reaching the wall where the outpost is. All the posts under that say the same thing.
¡°It¡¯s that guy again. The one that pushed everyone out of the way to make a new body at everyone''s expense.¡±
¡°Man who knew that guy was all the way over there. Just how did he find it so quickly.¡±
¡°Going to southern outpost anyone looking for party.¡±
It was quite funny to see how desperate they were. All of those who were going because I let out the info are just scared idiots who don¡¯t know how to do something themselves. They¡¯re follow the wave where someone else has already passed and do things poorly instead of thinking about doing something well done. From the forums it also seems the queen furnace at the clockwork base is only capable of making pure iron gear so it was rather funny when they looked up info about the town and found it was near the dwarven village which was capable of making cast iron and steel gear. I was sure Victor and the rest would take advantage since I said that we helped them and not those to come. Treat them like travelers and don¡¯t give them preferential treatment because of their race. I was not about to let others benefit from my hard work. Well then let¡¯s get on with it. It''s been about week since we left the dwarves and are finally making some progress, but we don¡¯t know exactly how far it will be before we leave the mountain range. For the most part with Rusts new class, his scanning power is greater than ours so we stay connected to him while he maps out the region while me and Nova spread out a specific new type of collector which was made just for scanning. We simply call the scouts, and scan the zone while passing to him the scan results. With the new mapping program, the map that comes out is much better having basic info like altitude and so on. It was some time after the start of the new week when we got a sign of life that wasn¡¯t monsters we had hunted a bit. Like the dwarves said there were really high leveled ones but our weapons barely made up for our short coming against the level 60+ monsters. Several of them are rock and fire based so they made good food for the golems since they absorbed the fires and minerals of their bodies. The rest I melted into lumps. They made interesting crafting material lumps. Now then, this strange signal was coming from the sky and had several weaker life signs. Also there were many life signs on the road ahead where we would pass. ¡°What do you think those things are?¡± Bulk asked as well share a linked map so he points it out. ¡°If I had to be perfectly clear I would guess either tribe monsters or bandits. Maybe some other race has reached this far.¡± Rust suggested the possibility. Bulk got his steel knight swords ready after hearing this. Nova and Rust also got the hidden rifles ready. For me, my knight robot was already ready as well, while he held my warhammer he was already building up pressure for a pressure fist. I had also added a large rifle into his arm. We continued walking the path we were on. I also saw the protectors minigun appear out of his arm and steam begin building. When we reached the crossing where all the lifesigns were, two humans came out. ¡°Hehehe good evening folks. Mind me asking what your doing walking about this dangerous mountain range?¡± One cliche bandit said with a smug grin. No one replied and we just walked on. He lifted the pistol in his hand and whistled. With the signal all the bandits appeared. ¡°Guess you don¡¯t value your lives. Even someone dressed as a knight should know he is out matched!¡± The cliche bandit continued ranting. ¡°This guys is annoying.¡± Bulk said annoyed. ¡°I count around 15 men plus about 6 more somewhere in the air nearby.¡± Rust says looking towards the location of all the life signs. ¡°Hey drop all your stuff or we''ll shoot.¡± The second bandit shouts angry. He shouted as veins appeared on his head. Bang! From behind me a bullet was fired and it hit his right leg. Bang! Bang! Bang! One more shot his his arm making him scream while dropping the gun while the other bullets did the same to the other guy next to him. When I looked Nova was holding her right arm up with two barrels from her rifle releasing small streams of steam from the barrel. ¡°So noisy.¡± Nova said with half closed eyes and really annoyed. Suddenly the protector and Rust lifted their arms and fired. They hit several of the hidden men on the arms or legs if they were standing. A few fell from the cliff and got heavily injured and were now nearly dead on the ground. I kind of flinched when the guy fell. When I looked at the guy he was pale. I send a message to Bulk. ¡°Hey weaklings. Why do our scanners pick up people in the air?¡± Bulk asked my question for me. ¡°Scanners¡­?¡± The bandit said pale in fear and confused. He looked confused before he turned pale. ¡°Clockworks!¡± He said in a rough voice. He was white as a ghost. ¡°Tell us...NOW!¡± Bulk said getting up close while bulk made his eyes glow brighter to scare him. ¡°You...probably...spotted...our...ship.¡± He said dizzy The guy was nearly fainting. ¡°Hey Techno you hear that? These guys have a ship. I think it''s one of those flying boats.¡± Bulk said with a grin. ¡±Convenient. Guys, finish all of them off and lets go get ourselves a ship.¡± I tell them. Bulk grinned before he brought the hammer down on the guy. I controlled my robot to jump up and began killing them off. Nova did the same using the suspensions I installed for power jump to reach the guys and snipe them. We killed all of them and gathered all the guns and metal they had on. Most of the guns were trash at best but we can remake them and leave them with Rust who uses handguns. We got 10 pistols and 5 rifles. We moved along the mountain following the scans to where the ship was. When we reached it we found an old shitty boat that looked like it would fall apart. It looked to be part wood part metal and mostly like a sail ship but on the back and under it were large propellers holding it in the air. It looked to be able to hold a good number of people. For us this was a good thing. The best part was that there was a large hold door on the side near the bottom so we could load our heavy robots into it. From scans there were 6 remaining inside. There were 2 out on deck watching out on both sides. We were about 1 km away from them. ¡±Nova can you hit those guys? I asked ¡°From here? ...No, too far. If I go up there I can get both of them though.¡± She said and pointed to a small cliff on the side. I nodded and she took the protector and headed up there vanishing from my view. After the two men fell and didn¡¯t move anymore. Nova returned as if nothing happened. We moved close after that. The ship was in the air but to tell the truth it was ¡°docked¡± on a high cliff that stretched out enough to put the ship close and lets it hop off. We took that way up and soon we found ourselves on the ship. To put it lightly the ship looked like shit. Patched sails, half broken boards and rotting wood. The propellers were rusted metal and I could only wonder how this thing was staying up in the air. From several vents steam rose out from the inside of the ship showing it had a steam engine. ¡°I will clear out the rest of these bandits.¡± Rust says. ¡±Just incapacitate them and remove all weapons. I want to know where the closest town is.¡± I order him. ¡°Ok, Nova can you help?¡± He asked. ¡°Mnn!¡± Nova nodded. She nods and jumps off the Protector which is too large to enter, just as like Bulk and I are. I had the Protector and the knight body help me bring the turtle aboard since he couldn¡¯t walk in by himself. Half way through we heard some gunshots it quickly quieted down though and Nova came out smiling. ¡°We got them bro.¡± Nova came back and said in a bored tone. I nod and pull out a worker bots body and activate it as my eyes and have it walk in. The bot was completely made of steel and had a few tools as well as a rifle on the arm. The insides were as crappy as the outside. Inside, in one of the lower rooms, was the captain''s room where 4 men were tied and bleeding from the leg and arm but had cloth over it to close them. ¡±Nova you can play around but not in here. Bro needs to do business. Rust you''re with me.¡± I tell her. Nova ran out to play around while I turned to the men after locking the door. ¡°Ok, I will speak on his behalf since he doesn¡¯t speak to those he doesn¡¯t trust. Now, where is the nearest village.¡± Rust asks before removing the gag from one of them. ¡°Fuck you.¡± He shouted. The man with the fanciest clothes who was the captain, spat out after saying that. It earned him a foot on the wound of his left leg. He screamed a blood curdling scream that sent shivers down the other men''s spines. ¡°I-it¡¯s to the southeast.¡± One of the other bandits said. The man said shaking and pale. ¡°Where are the controls to the ship. The wheel, engine, everything.¡± Rust asked. The captain denied again and was punished again but his men were much more compliant after seeing their captain in pain. The ship had a lower deck where the propellers machinery was as well as the cargo hold, a middle deck which had the engine near the back a kitchen which was useless for us, this room and another which took the rest of the space as sleeping quarters for the rest of the men. Then the upper deck which is the main deck but there is two rooms which was the control room and one small room which simply had the stairs to the lower decks. After extracting info from them I killed the captain and had Rust patch them up better. Before we get rid of them we will learn to pilot this ship. Up on the upper deck I open the door to the bridge and find an old bridge. It had a few monitors showing graphs about the engines and such. The ship itself seems to be working at around 20%. Rusty propellers and engine isn¡¯t helping but it''s still working well enough and can maintain at least 20 meters into the air. I begin making some iron boards to reinforce the ship slightly just to hold the weight of the turtle until we can get to the village. When the men are healed enough we begin moving the ship. I have my worker bot plus many tool drones go down to the engine with gears and parts. I try to fix as many broken parts as I can from the engine to make sure it survives. I have the humans start the ship and soon we are heading south east. For the most part of the 2 day travel, the people who were too large didn¡¯t go into the ship but since I had spare worker bodies all we needed to do was focus solely on that one and we used it as an alternative body. The ship held up for the most part and the humans only talked when we asked or when they spoke with one another. The trip was pretty monotone since the ship can¡¯t rise more than some 20 meters off the ground but it did its job to get out of the mountains. It took a day and a half to leave the mountains behind and reach a forest with few trees. ¡°Wow this place has so few trees. Is it because of the mountains?¡± Bulk asked. ¡°No, I believe it is due to the pollution in the water and dirt. To see so many trees alive could be called a miracle.¡± Rust says as his scanner was lighting up his eye as he scanned the terrain. As we talked one of the human came out after hearing what we were talking about. ¡°Those trees are the result of some humans that lived in the city before everyone appeared. They are researchers for the most part but what you see is the best they could do. It helped out a lot by giving a somewhat natural place for a few mutant animals to call home. The trees also have begun to purify the water but its slow since it''s done the natural way.¡± The bandit said. ¡°No machines?¡± Bulk asked. ¡°These ships and some of the scrap guns we scavenged were the best tech we can find. Anything more is asking too much. Though the humans completed the mission assigned to us it''s not like life is getting better. Our group left after we got this rust bucket working and lived off hunting. When our crappy scanners picked you guys up we were excited to see ¡°The Clockworks¡± walking towards us.¡± The second bandit said. ¡°¡°The Clockwork¡± is that some titles?¡± Bulk asked. ¡°You guys don¡¯t know? Many people consider your group the biggest representatives of your race. Others call you real adventures.¡± The first bandit says. ¡°Adventures. Huh such a childish term. As if adventure is something this world can offer. It¡¯s a ruined scrap heap, that will take years to restore to a fraction of its old beauty. I like that humans, the creatures who most greatly ruined this world are the ones fixing it up even a small bit. We would need the Elves help for any massive restoration.¡± Rust said while with a lot of sarcasm which came from a half broken memory. ¡°You know a lot about this world, did you discover something?¡± The third bandit asked. ¡°I was repaired by Techno so they could find out something. Besides the small fragments of data that survived time, I know very little.¡± Rust says The human suddenly knew he messed up talking as if he would do with any player. He didn¡¯t think there were NPC in our group. ¡°It¡¯s best get back to work.¡± Bulk said. Bulk gestured to the room and put him back in there. By the end of the second day we could see in the distance with the little bit of sunlight left, a massive warship. From it many lights were lit all around and on top of it. Around the top where it was similar to a carrier were extensions made of steel that looked like it would support a ship just about the size of this one. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. I notice the com in the bridge turn on and the humans start talking and get permission to enter the hanging dock. It takes a while but they finally enter into one of those docks which holds the ship just above the propellers. Soon the sound of the engine stopping could be heard and the propellers stop. The docks themselves were at level with the upper deck. We call everyone and all the robots back and store them.
You have reached the human village, Ivoryhelm. The village already has formed a central governing body and has formed basic rules/laws that must be followed. Being a juvenile criminal, breaking these laws will increase your time within the game. This only counts for humans and only while inside their cities bordes.
So I now have a limiter on me. Before there was only survival of the fittest but here it seems the local law overrules that since the place is already growing to a certain degree. I thought to myself. ¡°Ho~. So they already have laws huh. Guess we can¡¯t fight it out if some idiot comes at us then.¡¯ Rust: ¡®Should we go hand those humans over to the authorities?¡± Bulk said out loud. ¡±Doubt there would be any since the place is still wrecked but we can try.¡± I told him. We leave behind the protector, Hino and the turtle plus a few tool drones that we were using to do repairs on the ship and climb out of the ship onto the dock. We had the humans chained as we took them in. On the docks there were many people staring at us. ¡°Excuse me but these man was trying to rob us. Who are the authorities?¡± Rust asked. ¡°That would be me.¡± The voice came from the back of the group in front of us. The one standing there was a middle aged human male with a slight tan, black with gray hair. He had leather armor and several guns on him. ¡°My names Lewis Farcry. Pleasure to meet you. Now if you mind releasing those idiots who ran away with our ship, I would be mighty happy.¡± The man named Lewis said while scowling at the bandits. I nod and we release them. ¡°Our leader says the boat belongs to us now since the crew managing it tried to rob us.¡± Bulk relays my message. ¡°I guess that¡¯s fair enough. What happened to the rest?¡± The man asked. ¡°They attacked us. You think we wouldn¡¯t fight back.¡± Rust replied bluntly. He nodded acknowledging our actions. ¡°Well sorry for their miss conduct. Anything you need from us?¡± Lewis asks. ¡°Processed wood.¡± I reply in an expressionless tone. I said that and point at the ship. ¡°That¡¯s one of the only things we have in plenty but it¡¯s real expensive to do since we don¡¯t have the machinery. We would need to trade something.¡± He says with a glint in his eyes. I thought for a while and looked around. Most of them seem to have trash technology at best. ¡°Do you have blacksmiths?¡± I ask. ¡°No we don¡¯t. We have no furnace, nothing to melt iron with.¡± He replies with a fake sorrowful expression. ¡°We can build you a furnace at least. That way you can process metal. Seem fair enough?¡± Rust relays my message. ¡°Very.¡± Lewis says simply. Rust looked at me and I nod as well. ¡°He wants the wood first though. He doesn¡¯t trust those whom he meets so after we get the wood for repairs to the ship we will send a few robots to build the furnace while we repair the boat.¡± Bulk tells him. ¡°That''s fine. In this world to find someone like ¡°The clockwork¡± to build you tech is already something good.¡± He says. Guess the clockwork is now my groups title. Damn couldn¡¯t it be something cooler. I thought but narrowed my eyes when I noticed how he could connect us with that title when we never said it. After that the human left, we were allowed to explore but because of our size Bulk and I were forced once again to use worker bots to explore. We waited at the ship and soon large amounts of wood arrived. I was working on making metal nails and other rusted metal parts, as well as gears that were broken I was remaking them and replacing them. While I did all of that I was with Nova inside the ship exploring. It was a huge ship but not like navy ships that had the small corridors with the air lock doors. These were larger corridors. I had to constantly run after and grab Nova. She started to throw a tantrum again and got so out of control that I had to shut all her weapons systems down as punishment and make all her movements laggy after putting in a faulty programming in her movement software after making a copy of it but this time I managed to keep her under control, thankfully. She was sulking a lot but at least I lasted through the heart piercing shouts she made as I shut most of her systems down. With her walking slowly next to me with some jerky movements we walked through the place. It was interesting to say the least. The place didn¡¯t really have shops but many workshops. Trading was done through trade of objects and most likely there was no currency. That was obvious enough since money would be worthless until a large enough kingdom rose up and they ¡°needed¡± a different form of currency. We let out a few scout drones and began mapping the ship''s structure while we looked about but the human settlement was...boring. It¡¯s not like the clockworks where you start with broken limbs and need to work quick to get things working. Here things looked...finished more or less. It was rather sad actually. The dwarves were much more interesting. The humans didn¡¯t even have armor to improve augment their strength. If I had to say humans might be the weakest race if they are completely neutral in all stats and no skill to power them up like elementals. I wasn¡¯t about to give them dwarven armor or clockwork tech. Only a furnace like we promised. We return to the ship after a boring trip. The ship itself I was taking apart. The size of the corridors weren¡¯t good for my size. The I took apart and remade with a larger door and a big seat fit for my size in the bridge so I could monitor all the stuff. The entrance to the lower levels I got rid of and made it again better with new wood and the stairs I replaced and expanded to handle me. Then I moved to the floor. I removed it all and put cast iron support bars interlocked before putting wooden supports which hold the floor and placing the boards. I began replacing the pipes and all the gears with steel gears and pipes. When I reached this point it was night time. We decided to set up shifts to watch our stuff. I went first while I repaired more of the ship. When I reached the cargo hold I saw there were a few boxes and stuff in the room. I looked around a bit. The boxes held some scraps, others some old guns, one I was happy to find a large but broken minigun that I could repair later. When I opened the last and biggest box which was around 2 meters big and 1 wide I was very shocked. Inside the box stood an old Clockwork worker with a female body model. In her chest was a small opening with a dull blue gem stuck into it. What the hell is this. Its a clockwork but what is that. I thought to myself I pulled out the clockwork by holding the arm. Even though it was old it was immensely newer than those in the scrapyard. I scanned all of her body and found a normal worker bot but then the scan picked up something new. In the place of all the wires in her system was pure silver wires all attached to him. Not only that she lacked an engine like myself. Completely shocked I put her down and pulled the tools out of my arm and removed her head and chest plate which was a strange design made to looked nearly human as the body looked very human like instead of robot. In the inside I found a strange hook system in the place of the engine. At its center of her chest was the dull blue gem I saw before. The gem was intensely wrapped in silver wire below the area that was exposed. From the wrapped gem the wires spread all over his body and connected to the machine parts. The hooks were circular in shape and had two circular rings. They were loose and could open up. Looking at the size it made me remember something of a similar size. I pulled out a Will-o-Wisp core. When I looked at the core then at the circle I saw it was a perfect fit. Before I stuck it in I checked all the circles and found they had a different color. No, each was made from special material. One that as a reddish color like the core had traces of magma golem core crusts in it. So it could handle high temperatures better. I don¡¯t know if I should put it in or not but my curiosity took the best of me and I opened the circle and stuck it in before closing it. As soon as I sealed the circle the metal began glowing red followed by the core as well. From the glowing metal, the silver wires attached to the hook also began to progressively glow as the shine began running towards the gem and finally it reached its end. Once it did the dull blue gem slowly began to gain radiance. I made sure to pull out my war hammer and prepare to swing should anything happen. As I watch the gem grew brighter and once the glow was lighting up the room with a calm blue light the glow began to travel through the other wires traveling all over the body. When the first glows reached their destinations the gears began turned on. Each one gave a lurch as it broke the rust off. When the glow reached the brain it entered the motherboard before it began traveling through all the other systems. Slowly the lights in the eyes turned on with some flickers until they gained full radiance as the clockwork woke up. ¡­ ¡°I¡¯m...awake.¡± It said with a female voice similar to a woman in her late thirties. I connect to the clockwork so I can speak with her. ¡±Who and what are you. You look like a clockwork but are working without an engine.¡± I asked her. ¡°Clock...work. Oh...child, you...are a...clockwork. My...Id code...is GA1A...but you...can call...me Gaia. I was...once a...clockwork like yourself...but today I...am of the race known as Synthoid.¡± She says and gets up and gives a bow. ¡±What is a Synthoid? Do you remember before the wars? I don¡¯t know much about it and the world is in ruins. I told her. Gaia: ¡®Yes, I remember my whole life even...during the wars. As for your first question. A Synthoid is a complete artificial life. We are the perfect...combination of a golem, construct and clockwork. We have the powerful body of a clockwork, the mana circuits of a construct and the naturally mana core of a golem. When the three meet in the same body we become a complete race just like any other.¡¯ She explained with her broken speak fixing up and becoming complete.
You have discovered an completely new race.
Synthoid A mysterious race, this race can be compared to a living race. It is the perfected artificial race made up of the most predominant features of the Clockwork, Construct and Golem races. They have the powerful body and weapons of a clockwork. The magic capability of a Construct. The magic regeneration and capacity of a Golem. More info still to discover¡­
¡°Ah? My body is rusty. I guess it¡¯s not completely perfect anymore . Mind giving me a some oil. My gears are rusty, old and require lubrication.¡¯ I look at her with narrowed eyes for a moment before I pull a single can of oil and put it into the small tank near the side. She begins moving her body and the creaking slowly goes away while her body gains mobility. ¡°It¡¯s good to move again. Hm this ship, its human technology. Are we in a human settlement?¡± She asked. I nod. ¡°Its best be careful of humans. They have always been cheating bastards and scavengers. They live off taking from other races. They are the weakest of all races because they can¡¯t quickly grow like us, at a fast pace, but if they can get their hands on something of another race they can become rather problematic.¡± She said in a very angry tone. ¡±I made a deal to make them a furnace to smelt iron in exchange for wood to repair this ship. I told her. ¡°I shall be frank, the best you can do is plant a bomb in the furnace and blow it up after you leave. giving them access to technology will only lead once again to war. Its best to wipe humans off the face of the earth. They will only become bandits and the scourge of this world. Just as they were before the war.¡± She says with conviction. ¡±Can you tell me what happened during the war? I ask her. ¡°You are interested in that? ...If you repair the gears in my body, I will tell you and also travel with you. I need to repay you for waking me.¡± Gaia says. ¡±Just the story I don¡¯t need more people following me that I don¡¯t want.¡± I tell her. ¡°I see, so that¡¯s why you use the text system instead of talking. Let me guess you are one of the fabled awaken who will rise after the apocalypse in the body of the dead revived by the gods.¡± She inquired. I looked at her. I knew about the awaken part but not about the second part. Well clockworks are easy to understand, the same for construct since both are machine type creatures but the rest is kind of shocking. ¡°From slight changes in your face I can tell you didn¡¯t know. Well even if you say you didn¡¯t want me I¡¯m not going to leave the small child that is with you to be raised by a child like you. Well, please begin repairing my body, I will tell you my story as well as show you what the world was like.¡± She says I couldn¡¯t help but grind my gear hearing her talk like that but since I wanted to know I pulled out steel parts I had in reserve and began repairing as she connected with me and uploaded videos which I moved only to one eye so I could work as well. ¡°Well then, the story of the wars begins...2000 years by my readings. Well my body sure lasted nicely. Opps my bad. Heh. It began when the largest human kingdom attacked wanting total conquest.¡± She began telling her tale. Chapter 18 Karma Gaia PoV narrative ¡°2000 years ago the world was still somewhat at peace. I say somewhat because there will always be discord. The human race like I said were the first to start the conflicts and unless someone in the inner circle of the king lived to this day, which is impossible, no one will know why. Anyway the largest human kingdom attacked and even though I say largest its borders were nothing impressive. The humans even back then were weak. I¡¯m sure to this day they still haven¡¯t developed some form of rapid growth of their own. The closest they would reach would be dwarf technology but dwarves hid themselves away half way through the war. Now the attacks happened after a small raiding party was able to attack and kill a small group of dwarves. They finally gained a small footing and the armor was copied to some degree to human size. When they couldn¡¯t get the suit working better they began attacking dwarf. With the dwarves were the three artificial species, which lived along with them, were also attacked. The death of many clockwork and construct cities was a huge lose to us and a huge gain for the humans. They enslaved the dwarves and shut down all but the weakest clockwork and had those develop technology for them. Now not all humans were evil, but I''m sure to this day even after the world fell to ruin at least 90% of the humans remain selfish, greedy and would easily walk over their own parents to get something better from them. Now as the wars began raging most of the other races that liked the dwarves and clockwork because of the help they gave to them became enraged and attacked. Each of them held some form of technology unique to them. A special form of processing wood, excellent talent with tinkering or great physical prowess. Nearly all the monster and demi human races that were helped by the artificial races attacked the humans but by the time they began it was too late. Humans had gained full working dwarven armor and the commanders even found the link between clockwork and dwarven technology. It led to massive deaths for the monsters and most were also enslaved and put to work. After this point in the war the humans controlled nearly half of the world and had already covered it in pollution. Those who didn¡¯t agree with them ran away to the kingdom of the demon race. It was on a different continent but the magic ships like the one we sit on today already existed. Besides the humans, all the remaining tribes of all the beaten monster races had run there as well. I had been on one of the human ships that ran away so I was lucky to reach the demon kingdom. We willingly helped them grow with the countless techniques and technologies we had. The difference was that we made it together willingly so many of the things built were far more powerful. My body today was also a result that I gained after I became friends with several elementals and constructs. I was the first experimental model of a Synthoid. The constructs have a method to making the pure silver mana circuits and through a long process of assimilation of matter the many kinds of elementals were able to create a second elemental core which was all used to power me. The power of a Synthoid is a mix of all three. A golems core can gather mana in the air which constructs lack and the circuit lets me control the mana. All that was left was training. To say the Synthoids were a force to be reckoned will was an understatement. As long as we have a core for that element we can mix the elements from each core and create numerous spells from them that rivals the best mages. Also with the body of a clockwork, our physical prowess was second to none. With the creation of Synthoids in the demon kingdom we completely pushed back the humans but again it all comes to an end when they get their hands on a single on. With the Synthoids on their side as well we were forced to a stalemate. By this point it had passed nearly 300 years and as you might guess with so much war and destruction, the world took a huge amount of collateral damage. It was at this point that the gods themselves were forced to intervene. The danger of the world being destroyed was no joke. The weapons being built near the end of the war have begun nearing the power of dragons, which are incredibly difficult to kill. The human weapons had even been tested on dragons and had proven effective. When the god of the humans appeared before them, she began trying to reason with them. What she got was a taste of their greatest weapon. Most of the other gods had the same reaction but unlike the humans they tried to listen and stop but with humans attacking them they were forced to return fire. Though only the human god was attacked. But that was all that was needed. In her rage she brought about the ruin of the world. I was deactivated because I used all my mana even the mana which the cores don¡¯t normally release which keeps it intact, to block one spell from her. I was blown back and probably taken back to someplace hidden from danger while the rest fought and died. From what I can see from here it seems even after the war was finished and most likely the other gods subdued the raging human god the war ruining wasn¡¯t over. Most people don¡¯t know but the world itself is a god. The proper term I guess would be titan. The mother earth Gaia. The real Gaia, I was named after her because I was the first model. I believe to protect herself from death; Gaia incurred all the natural disasters on the world and reduced the world to a shadow of itself. Well from what survived in my memory that is pretty much it. Humans caused the problem but not all of them are evil. Plus it was a collective problem the war. We didn¡¯t finish the humans off fast enough. I¡¯ll say it clearly. As much as a human is good or not. It would be better to get rid of them as a whole. Humans in the futures won¡¯t stay nice like those we befriend today.¡± I said finishing my tale of the past. I finish telling my story the young clockwork finished his repairs. My body was now free of rusty gears and regained a huge amount of power I had before. I jumped about and tested my body gleefully as I see my limits. I¡¯ll need to teach this kid some better techniques for tinkering he is to unbalanced but for now let¡¯s get this ship up and running. Techno PoV After finishing Gaia¡¯s repairs and hearing the story my mind is running at full power trying to decide what to do. The story itself took nearly four hours to tell. She talked slow while showing videos of what happened through her point of view. I knew I would need to plan ahead if the humans remained the same. I pull out all my 30 scout drones and activate them and make them run out of the ship and secretly into the main city. There was no law that prevented me from snooping and with the small size I can fit the scouts into pipes and air vents. ¡°So, already taking action I see. Smart boy.¡± Gaia tells me. ¡±Help me fix the ship. I¡¯ll allow you for the time being to follow us because I don¡¯t think I can educate Nova properly, but try anything funny with her and you''ll be in pieces before you can know what hit you.¡± I tell her. ¡°¡®Roger, child.¡± She says. I frowned at her and got up. ¡°Hey tell my why you have such a worthless class as the knight mechanic. The two classes contradict themselves and weaken each other. You looked more of the mechanic fellow.¡± She says. ¡±Full Mechanics are slow, I want mobility¡± I tell her. ¡°You don¡¯t see Dwarves complaining. I already see you met them. Make a worker sized body with dwarven tech mixed in. They have strength augmenting properties. You can leave the big ass body as a fighter you control. It¡¯s a total waste since you can¡¯t arm yourself properly with all the tools inside you.¡± She says. ¡±What do you know of mechanics.¡± I ask her. ¡°What do you think I was before becoming a Synthoid child. Mechanics can take up any shape and form. If you want a knight so much them make a human sized one and fit your tools in him and leave this tin can for some big guns I¡¯m sure you''re wanting to make. It¡¯s a talented mechanics nature to feel a little twitch when you get tinkering ideas.¡± She tells me. I frowned again before walking out. For the rest of the night I continued remodeling the ship. I didn¡¯t wait the others to change shifts cause I wanted to work a bit and to organize my thoughts. I changed the stairs that were present for a mechanic elevator. That way I could transport the larger bodies into the ship. I also reinforced the boat''s structure with Steel Rods since we didn¡¯t have much material for beams. All the doors were removed and the door openings raised to the ceiling. Large robots would be able to move now. The last thing I did was reduce the kitchens to a simple stove and fridge. We don¡¯t know when we will get living organic companions so having basics at least is necessary, though I doubt I would let organics join us any time soon. When morning came the others woke up and I introduced Gaia to the rest. To my astonishment she acted like a respectable person unlike the somewhat rough clockwork I met. She also made her intentions of educating Nova clear as day by saying that to her face. Nova just shrugged it off not really caring. We all worked through the day using as much of our manpower through robot workers. After noon we had completely changed the outer plaques of the ship and the inside floors were reinforced. There wasn¡¯t any more splintered wood. From there we moved on to manufacturing Steel pipes and parts to replace all the rusty propellers and remaining gears that need to be changed as well as completely remaking the engine. By night time we were halfway done. My mind had already been made up on how to deal with the humans. After spying on 30 different people and hacking into a few working computers I had enough evidence that this was more a chaotic town then a normal city that even the system recognized it.
You have found enough evidence that shows this town isn¡¯t a peaceful town. Should you be attacked by the humans first then you will not be punished for killing a human.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. In my head I was replaying Lewis¡¯s conversation with one of the researchers who were the ones that were replanting the forests. Flashback I had the scouters spread out through the ship¡¯s air vents. After a few hours of exploring and using this chance to further scan the ship city I finally found Lewis¡¯s office. He had one of the few working computers on the ship and it ran on a personal generator. He was in his chair grinning while he looked at the multiple screen in front of him. ¡°Hehe amazing. To think such fast construction speeds exist in this waste hole planet. I can¡¯t wait to get my hands on these tin cans.¡± Lewis said. Well there goes the benefit of the doubt. I think to myself. I watched for a while as he talked to himself. He muttered many different plans and backup plans. Most of them involved planting bombs or preparing some guns that were in the storage just rusting away. I was curious so I had a few of the scouts head over and check them out. The guns weren¡¯t anything special but from the standpoint of a pirate it would be perfect. Harpoon guns made for hooking down ships. A few old cannons, some rusty miniguns. Nothing we don¡¯t have inside the cargo hold. I was planning on using those weapons on Hino and upgrade into a weaponized robot. I also needed to set up some ship weapons as well. Anyway back to Lewis. Sometime after we finished repairing the ship''s hull an old man with grey hair and a sturdy build came in. He had a long dirty coat and some leather cloths below them. ¡°Lewis! What¡¯s this I hear bout catching them bots?!¡± The old man shouted. ¡°Oh Richard, it''s reached your sorry ears already. I was wondering if the dirt would have blocked the sound from entering. Yes, they have technology that will get us out of this shit hole.¡± Lewis says smiling as if it¡¯s already his. ¡°Fool, you''re going to repeat the mistakes of what happened to ruin this god forsaken world.¡± Richard shouted at the man. ¡°What, take resources that we need, acquire technology that we need. You think that the story of those old coots that were afraid the venture out will scare me. I want to leave this rat hole during my lifetime. I have my ticket here!¡± She shouts. ¡°Fool, those fully armed robots out power us 20 to 1 simply by being of the clockwork race. Those young ones that came in some time ago but left because of you kept talking of them. This group considered the strongest of the clockworks. Don¡¯t play with fire boy!¡± The old man shouted back. ¡°The cries of an old fool. Another old coot trying to scare me with your stories of powers beyond our own. Like I care!¡± She says shurgging. ¡°It''s a waste of time to talk with you. If you are going to continue this then me and all those who still can think properly will be leaving.¡± He said with a scowl on his face. The old man turns and leaves while banging the large metal door. ¡°Blow hard old man. It¡¯s not like those stupid robots will ever find out our plans until it''s too late.¡± Lewis says smiling. Muttering that out loud and gets up and enters through a side door after turning the computer off. I hear the door lock. With the scout I move a bit and find him in his bed fully asleep. Seeing this chance I send a tool drone. With it I unbolt the vent grates and gently hold it not letting it make sound and have the scout jump down. I move it to the computer and find the on button. The computer was like one of those from the early 2000s. Slow as crap but durable. With the computer on, I connect to the computer through the scout. I had to quietly ask Gaia how to hack and bypass the firewalls. It was strangely simple after she explained it and after I succeeded I even got a hacking skill. The files inside were rather useless but there were several documents showing all the weapons in store. The only useful thing I found was a single document which held orders for several people to plant bombs on our ship tonight. It was after this that the message appeared and I knew that Gaia wasn¡¯t lying about 90% of humans being trash. I just don¡¯t know what to do with the researchers. I scouted them all and most of them simply want to restore nature to what it was like before the ruining. Flashback end During the night the bandits did show up but with a few sword cutting them in half and all of them were quieted. I got a message that stated that because of their ill intentions to me I was killing for self-defense. The rest of the night we stayed on guard but no guards returned. We throw the human bodies over the edge of the docks and washed all the blood. The next morning Richard, the old man that spoke with Lewis, came to us asking for us to take them away from here. There were 20 kids and 40 adults ranging from young to old. They wanted an escort to some other place. I denied them but after finding the ships they would use I sent several robot at night to the ships and reinforced the structure of the ship and repair the engine. Truthfully I wouldn¡¯t want to kill kids. I have Nova to take care of and when I think of someone acting the same way to me and her if I was in the same situation I just can¡¯t look away. On the third day we finish up our repairs and I send a few robots plus some armed workers to build the forge. The humans that were going to leave left this day. The remaining humans still numbered in the hundreds. After looking through the forums I found that there were actually few players and most of the remaining humans were NPC. The players had left a long time ago and many human NPC have split off from this group. Inside the vents I sent the tool drones all over the ship with bombs as I planted them in many rooms including the storage room with weapons. Besides that I also put a some inside the human ships. If any of them were to come after us then they would blow. I make an engine and a poorly built forge. If someone saw this and survived the explosion then they will have a forge engine. If not, tough luck. With the forge ¡°built¡± I gather all my drones except for five which are spread out in the ship and was giving me the control to detonate the bombs. With all of us on the ship we leave with the humans looking at us smiling. It was like a snake''s smile. We turn the new engine of the ship on and the new propellers begin spinning. Soon they gain the speed needed to raise us and the ship lifts off the dock and rises more. I continue to watch the humans as the ship begins turning for us to leave. We turn the ship 160o and turned on the propellers for acceleration on and began moving. As we began to move I notice the ships starting up and begin taking off. On top of the ships, guns were being brought up. ¡±Guess you really weren¡¯t lying Gaia¡± I say. ¡°Did you ever have a reason to doubt me, child.¡± She tells me. ¡±Should we take the hit so we can fight back?¡± I ask her. ¡°No need Techno, as soon as the cannon is fired it is considered an act of violence and we can fire back in self-defense.¡± Rust replies. ¡±Good¡± I say. We wait for now. The only one doing something is Gaia. I had given her an earth golem crystal so now she can make spells that deal with earth, fire and lava which is a combination. After we had flown for nearly 2 km we hear the cannon fire and as soon as we do, a message appears.
The humans have fired at you. In self-defense you are allowed to fight back.
By the time I finish reading Gaia activates her spell. She called it magma wall. From her hands magma shot out forming a huge wall for a moment behind us. There was an explosion before the magma lost its form and fell down to the ground. In the air were at least 6 ships behind us. ¡±Get ready for the fireworks guys.¡± I tell my crew. At that moment I sent the signal to detonate to the bombs in the ships. Not a moment later there were several explosions from the inside of the ships and they began to fall in flames. It looked a lot like a normal sinking ship in the ocean. I then turn my attention the human city. The good part about drones is that as long as I was connected to them I won¡¯t lose the connection unless I''m over 10 km away. I need to connect with them while they are 40 m away but after that the connection persists. Through the ones that remained in the ship I connect to all the bombs I left behind. ¡°Goodbye humans.¡± I mutter. With those two words I detonated all the bombs. It was slow but soon a huge series of explosions occurred on the ship finally breaking to the top of the ship and bathing the ship in flames as well as all the surroundings. It truly did look like a sinking ship in flames at that moment. After we had finished watching the human city burn in flames we turned around and began manning the ship as we headed off to whole knows where the winds take us.
You actions of destroying the human city Ivoryhelm have revoked the human¡¯s permanent access and have caused them to return to living a life of survival of the fittest. The players will be required to complete a new to unlock the quest. Relationship between humans and clockwork has become fragile. Humans similar to those in Ivoryhelm will be cautious around you while those who don¡¯t like humans like those in the city will see you in a better light.
Well that¡¯s nice, an added bonus that makes it easier to tell good humans from bad. Hehe. Life in this world sure isn¡¯t boring. I thought and chuckled. Without caring for which direction we went we just turned west and headed on over the thin forests and polluted plains Chapter 19 New destination Techno PoV After we left the human city in shambles we casually travelled through the skies. Gaia had already begun removing a few bad habits of Nova which I''m unable to. I was sitting in the bridge watching the monitors showing all the information from the engine and such. I was looking at all the forums. I was kind of amazed at how many races there were after taking a good look. There were at least half of the races that had finished their quest already. Oh right I never did mention what were all the races.
[td4]Merfolk (Pending)
Human
*Normal (Techno¡¯s victim. No special stats or skills) (Pending)*Amazon(Success*Barbarian (Failed)*Halfling (Success
Elf
*Moon Elf (Pending)*High Elf (Pending)*Wood Elf (Pending)*Dark Elf (Failed)
Dwarf (Success)
Clockwork (Success)
Construct (Success)
Elementals
*Fire (Will-o-Wisp)(Failed)*Earth (Golem)(Failed)*Wind (Sylph)(Success)*Water (Undine)(Pending)
Centaurs (Failed)
Genies (Pending)
Fairy[/tds]
*Light (Success)*Dark (Success*Winter (Failed)*Summer (Failed)
Siren (Pending
Angel (Success)
Demon (Success)
Monster races
Undead
*Skeleton (Success*Vampire (Success)
Goblin (Pending)
Orc (Pending)
Gnome (Pending)
Ogre (Success)
Cyclops (Success)
Beast man
*Wolf (Success)*Fox (Failed)*Bear (Success)*Rabbit (Success)
Demi human
*Wolf (Success)*Fox (Success)*Bear (Pending)*Rabbit (Failed)
Kobold (Failed)
Gremlin (Failed)
Ent
*Treant (Failed)*Dryad (not just females but humanoid tree person) (Pending)
Harpy (Pending)
At the moment, of the forty five races, nineteen were able to succeed. Twelve failed their quest but I bet that can change with interference from a third party like how we helped the Dwarves. fourteen are still in the process of doing their quest. The survival games are coming to an end soon. I wonder what will happen after all of them are done. Well whatever happens, happens. It¡¯s already been over two months I think, since we have been in here. What truly on my mind was what Gaia had said about my body. Though it did come in handy when I needed it to while we travelled walking, I feel now that we are so well off a half breed body like this really was getting in my way of further development. I look at my own hand and body while staying seated in the back. I knew she was right about the fact that I was weaker than both. I have to be careful which weapons I equip since it could take more space in my body that I need for tools. I can only sigh as I admit defeat on that count. I begin thinking of how I should make a new body. I didn¡¯t want to change myself to much so I took one of the combat robots I made to train the golems. I took all three of down the middle deck where the Blast turtle had been put in complete rest. I activated him and began feeding him coal and the bodies of the robots after I removed the brain and delicate parts we still can¡¯t replicate like thin wires. I made the skeleton of the robot. The size was my original height in real life 185cm. Unlike the other robots which I rushed to make it, this one I planned to use for a long time. Because I repaired Gaia¡¯s body I saw a model that doesn¡¯t even compare to our bodies now. She had few large gears and instead had a lot of smaller gears. This reduced the straight on her gears and allowed them to function better since there are many gears to take the load off each other. I plan on taking my time to make it and since Gaia knows how to pilot this thing I leave it to her to take us wherever without crashing. One thing that did make me wonder was what those tanks in the scrapyard were doing. Well not like I can find out since no one posts anything about them. I will just have to forget about it and focus on this new steel body which I''m going to build based of Gaia¡¯s. Reinfred PoV (clockwork tank) 3 weeks ago It''s been boring for a few weeks. Ever since that boy who had a knight mechanic body left it''s been boring. More clockwork woke up and repaired themselves but none of them are as outgoing as that boy. Me and the boys got bored sticking around and after getting our bodies repaired with iron parts made from the queen furnace we headed out for hunting. It was really boring. The larger creatures are all no match anymore for us now that we are working at nearly 85% and we regained a few weapons like our tank swords. (same thing as knight swords but bigger) It got too boring to clear out places and then have the little brats come scavenge to place like ants. Why don¡¯t they fight themselves. ¡°So boring...Why don¡¯t we leave this shit hole.¡± Hub asked. ¡°Where would we go.¡± Bolt asked ¡°Hey did you guys see, the Clockwork group just finished helping out dwarves. There is even a map on the forums showing the location from here to the gate, where we can leave the scrap yard.¡± Someone suddenly said excited. ¡°Your joking...OH MAN LOOK! The dwarf town even has an old relic blast furnace, and it''s even pumping out steel!¡± Another one shouted. As soon as we heard that we all grinned to one another. We walked over to the guys talking. ¡°Hey guys, mind telling exactly who this Clockwork fellow is and which direction to the gates?" I asked. ¡°EKK!¡± The little worker shouted scared. We scared them and he fell on his ass but after a bit of mumbling he spoke. ¡°Y-you remember that guy that made the knight body and the rhino robot?¡± He said shuttering a bit. ¡°Of course.¡± Bolt said. ¡°Well, it¡¯s his group that''s being called ¡°The Clockwork¡±, It¡¯s because they are the strongest group of clockworks and one of the few that didn¡¯t stick around here and just out right left the place.¡± the worker replied. ¡°Well the boy is adventurous, so where I the gate?" Hub asked. After a bit they ask to download something to us. It ends up being a map showing our location and a line moving through the scrapyard nearly 50 km unlike it reaches the wall. ¡°Thanks.¡± I said to them. We leave the small workers. Oh about the clockwork here, these guys are still trying to search for new model bodies. There aren¡¯t that many intact enough like the one Techno found so most are just clockwork with a few makeshift guns. Though there a few workers who seem to know their way around a gun, who have been making some nicer stuff. They experiment on the nearby threats that have been discovered. You can tell these guys are just biding their time before leaving fully armed and ready. Outside we sit down and upload the map to all of us. ¡°We would need to gather quite a lot of fuel before heading that way. Also we will be stuck to staying near the scrapyard since we don¡¯t have any alternative fuel source like their used to be.¡± Bolt said. ¡°Well we know what those sources are, and the dwarves village is a little off from the south gate village so we can teach them a thing or two about old clockworks. With those stubby fingers of theirs I''m sure we can get them to build us some nice new bodies. I have noticed the animal bodies have more efficiency to our current ones.¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ve heard the workers say that when we were still stuck on all fours we looked like gorillas. What if we have the dwarves build us a body like this. Cover our tank bodies into gorilla tank. I remember a few who liked the animal type body and they were always the best fighters.¡± Hub said. ¡°Oh that¡¯s interesting, I¡¯m sure our pressure punch could further evolve and if we get dwarven tech mixed into our gears again it would even further power us up.¡± I said. We couldn¡¯t help but talk about the intact memories we still had. We fought in the war but few memories remained but from the few that did were military tanks that had taken animal robot forms and dwarf tech which was a marvel when mixed with clockwork technology. We gathered several repaired worker clockworks and had them gather enough fuel and water so that we could make the trek and finally we left. Victor PoV 2 week ago I was looking through various documents inside the new council house. After Techno took his leave we began heavily expanding the village borders. With the clockwork we developed heavy drilling tech. It was mostly a steel drill bit on a steam pressure spinning tool. The drill bit was modeled after the drill stake his little sister used to kill the magma golem. Not only that we started using explosive mining as well. We had seen Techno build his bombs and though unconventional since it used coal ashes and diesel fuel. Though not real black powder it had a strong enough explosion to help loosen the rocks around the mining area. Most of the rocks here were all extremely hard and though causing explosions to loosen the rocks were a danger on its own. With support beams we could keep the walls from collapsing all at once and instead we could remove the rocks and ore much more easily. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Besides the mining operations expanding the town, we began hunting monsters. The guns and armor made a huge difference in our power and the previously unbeatable level 60-90 monsters in the area were all beatable when in parties of 6-10. It brought us a large surplus of food and as with all technology we couldn¡¯t forget to develop some form of freezer. We did eat up a huge amount of fuel because of all this but a few players took up the job of learning in real life how to make biofuel from animal fat. With a few alterations we began taking all the butchered monster fat and began production of it like that. Today marked around a week after Techno left and one the men came to me and the other leaders. We had managed to come to an agreement and set up a 4 man council as the main government for the dwarves and made basic laws. This way we could penalize others who actually do something bad. Anyway the man ran in and told us about the clockwork that just appeared. They were too large to enter the cave but were calling for the leaders. All four of us ran out and what met us were three very scary clockwork giants. ¡°Hey, you four the dwarven leaders?¡± Rein asked looming over the small dwarfs. We simply nod. ¡°We heard that a clockwork came through here and helped you boys.¡± Rein said. ¡°Techno Gear right?¡± I reply. ¡°That''s the one. We also heard you have a working blast furnace that''s pumping out steel?¡± Hub asked. Once more we nodded already knowing where this is going. ¡°Well can you supply us parts? We want to make a new body for ourselves since these are old." Rein said gesturing to his body. ¡°Um...Not to be rude but we can¡¯t give you the metal.¡± ¡°Did we ask to give? We will hunt some of the large beasts around here. It would benefit us more to safeguard you guys and help you develop then simply taking and leaving.¡± Rein said. ¡°Seems fair enough. There are several boss class monsters in the area that we can¡¯t even hope to win against yet.¡± The first leader said. We see the giants grin and stand up completely. Giants feels just like the correct word for them. We have the clockworks that were here already lead the group that came with the giants and have them begin building what the giants want and also pass the location of several large boss monsters. Most of them are flyers but there are about three are land dwellers. One is within the scrapyard and has been a thorn on the south gate village side. It was a huge metal salamander. Outside the other two were similar to the machine salamander. Two large monster lizards, one is coated in hard rock and mud and walks on its back legs. It looked more like a t-rex but with a lot of mud over it. The other walked on all fours but had a drake build and was nearly as big as the other. To my surprise each of the giants split up and went each to take on the first three. It was a really tiring experience. It was even more tiring when the three returned two days later dragging behind them a boss monsters each. They each had a grin and all over their bodies were different kinds of broken parts. The one that went after the machine had burnt and clawed plates. The one that went after the living four legged lizard had a missing arm which he had stored. His body was clawed at just like the first but much more furiously. The last one was dented all around and his right leg and left arm was limp and twitchy. All the clockworks ran to fix them up. We really couldn¡¯t say they didn¡¯t deserve the new bodies. They were being built. It was almost complete at the end of the week and when I saw it I nearly fell on the ground laughing. Three huge gorilla robots were built. The face was less animal like but still had an ape look to it. It was made from steel so just imagining fighting these guys in this was scary. Not to mention we even mixed in dwarven tech which increases the body''s strength. If I said these guys looked like high leveled boss monsters wouldn¡¯t be exaggerating. When they were transferred to the body they played around with the body. It was just as good as any natural gorilla. They easily climbed the scrap mountains. I grinned when I saw them up there. I called them and told them to stand on their hind legs and roar while pounding their chest like a real gorilla. All the players were laughing as they saw a scene straight out of King Kong on top of the empire state building. Afterwards the three animal tanks went about massacring the boss monsters around the area but never going to far since they relied heavily on fuel. They did try teaching us about a few other clockwork models but since we don¡¯t have much actual technology aside from what we have now it didn¡¯t help much. Well at least now it''s safer to spread out and mine the nearby caves that were previously occupied by monsters. Things have only been looking up since techno came here. Bulk PoV It¡¯s been so boring since we left the humans. It was awesome to see the explosions but after that we only flew and stopped only when we were running out of fuel. Gaia still knows how to process fat so most of the time we hunt. It¡¯s the most fun we get but after nearly a month flying and reaching level 45 it''s gotten monotone. We don¡¯t stay in a place more than 2 days. I normally humor myself with reading the forums. Since we left the human village there has been no alterations on who completed their survival quest. I look many of them up. The most interesting of them all is with the elves, specifically the Elves, gnomes, goblins and Orcs. Elves and gnomes seem to have been together since the start and goblins were mostly neutral in relation to these two groups. That changed when the Orcs appeared. They rapidly captured the goblins and used them as scrap goats to kill and capture the two other races. Unlike the old stupid Orcs, these are much more vicious and smart. The time they spent in the wastes have taught them how to use the scraped weapons. If they are able to catch the elves and gnomes they will have tinkers who can improve the weapons tenfold. The quest for the elf and gnomes is this.
Mission: Pig plague A surviving tribe of Orcs has come upon your people and allied races and wish to enslave you. They wish for greater power with advances to their weapons and armor. You mustn''t allow them to get you. You need to end all of them here lest you be enslaved and used by the Orcs who will grow in power. Difficulty: F++ Reward: Race will be permanently unlocked. Success: Kills all the Orcs. Failure: The tribe is enslaved. If failed, the race is locked but will not die out and can be unlocked if freed from the Orcs.
On the other hand the goblins weren¡¯t as lucky but their quest is something similar.
Mission: Goblin escape Your tribe has been enslaved by the Orcs. Through acts of trickery your people had no chance to fight back before being captured. You must help your people find a chance to escape the grasp of the Orcs lest your people remained dogs to the Orcs for life. Reward: Race will be permanently unlocked. Success: Escape the Orcs or kill them Failure: Your race will be enslaved forever. Warning: If the race isn¡¯t freed before the current population dies out and the new one is born then it will be locked forever and be considered a plain monster race under the Orcs.
Kind of cruel but still it¡¯s survival of the fittest. Anyway the quest for the Orcs as you might have guessed already is to enslave the gnomes who are natural tinkers. The elves were unfortunately drawn into this because they were together. Still if possible I would want to help those three races. I¡¯ve never been fond of Orcs, mainly because of the fantasies people make of them. Yes those you''re thinking of. Not my area I hate stuff like that so I would rather kill all of them then leave them alive. Anyway no use crying about it, Only relax and let it go. Still I wonder where Gaia is taking us. She seems to have a specific destination. ¡°Hey Gaia, exactly where are we headed?¡± I finally ask. ¡°To meet one of the few people I know wouldn¡¯t have died since the time of the wars.¡± She replied. ¡°Who?¡± I asked curious. ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious, the elven queen, Lyra Toross.¡± She replies. My mouth drops open after hearing our destination. Lyra Toross was none other than the Elf queen herself. ¡°How do you know where you''re going?¡± I asked her. ¡°Easy, all I need to do is search for the only dense forest in the world. The Elves made that forest so dense and magical that pollution in the dirt and air are completely absorbed and destroyed by the forest. It¡¯s probably the only non-polluted place on this world, I hope. I¡¯m sure even the forest has its limits but we shall see, right.¡± Gaia replied I simply nod before I sit back down. I couldn¡¯t think much anymore after hearing that just after looking up the conflict of the elves so I logged out and took a bath to cool my head. Chapter 20 Pass time Nova PoV So boring. Even though we are in a flying ship which I only thought was possible in bro¡¯s video games, it¡¯s so boring. That lady bro found in the cargo also makes it worse. She wants to make me a ¡°proper¡± lady. When I told her I was only eight and just wanted to play she just smiled and suddenly blocked all the toys I had in my body except the little tools bro put inside. ¡°It¡¯s not proper for such a reckless little girl to have such powerful toys. From now on unless you act properly you won¡¯t have them.¡± Gaia said. When I cried to bro he didn¡¯t listen, then I found it was because he turned off the thingy that lets him hear so that he wouldn¡¯t hear me crying. Bro is such a meanie and that old hag is worse. Still, a few things she taught me were cool. She showed me how to make body parts that were just right so that I could make my body smaller, closer to my age, but still lets me have the toys I currently have. Now I looked younger but that fun only lasted that day since it quickly got boring again. Bro was busy most of the time working on a robot that was as big as he was before we came here but still looked like a knight. But he was bulkier because of the tools that were being installed. I only saw small swords being put into the arms but I know bro barely uses them. The gears in his new body looked much smaller, and had many more then the big body he had now. For some reason when I saw it I felt like I somehow knew that that small body was a bit stronger then the big thing bro was using now. I watched bro work for a while in the corner before I felt a little anxious and couldn¡¯t stop moving my hands. I ran out the room and to the store room. I found the bigger toys that were still broken here. I grab a whole bunch of spare parts bro had made in advance and took out the thing that looked like the thing that comes out of Proto¡¯s arm. Ah, Proto is the name I gave the protector. With my hands almost hurting I pulled out the little tool toy and took the parts together with the parts I grabbed from bro before, and got to work. It felt like my hands moved on their own. I did a whole bunch of stuff I didn¡¯t even know I could with this little toy. When I finished the big toy was working so I was very happy. Even though I was happy the toy wasn¡¯t going to shoot because it''s not like the big toy bro gave me that came out my back. I sat for a long time, before I had any new idea Bulk appeared. ¡°Hey there tiny, so you were here. What are you doing?¡± Bulk said. I point at the big toy. ¡°Trying to get that big toy working.¡± I said. He looks towards it and slightly frowns. ¡°Why?¡± Bulk asked. ¡°I¡¯m bored.¡± ... He leaves without saying a word but soon the old hag comes in and without talking to me she looks at the toy. She then turns to me after a long stare at it. ¡°Did you fix it?¡± Gaia asked I nod. She looks up for a moment while thinking. ¡°Fine, I see that trying to turn you into a proper lady will be hard since you''re still young. It¡¯ll be harder now that I know you have a tinker''s twitch like your brother. I¡¯ll teach you a bit about these things here. It will at least keep you out of trouble if you have your hands occupied.¡± She tells me She took me, plus a really huge broken toy with a huge barrel up to the top of the ship. (cannon) We began fixing it and then we made changes so that it can work. She then taught me how to make pipes and attach them to the big toy. The pipes attached to the bottom then went up. When we finished she showed me a big stake like the one I use for the toy on my back but bigger. The stake was a bit different because it had a big chain on it and spiked hooks at the ends. ¡°Now I''m going to teach you one of my old favorite pass times in the past. It¡¯s called sky fishing.¡± She said She smiled and looked out the side of the ship for a while. It got boring but after five minutes she started giggling and pointed. ¡°Found my fish!¡± She suddenly shouted. She said smiling. I stood up and looked out to see. What was flying freely in the air was big snake thing. ¡°So happy some of them survived though it seems they evolved a bit.¡± She said while looking out. ¡°What are they?¡± I asked her. ¡°They were called Sky sharks but I don¡¯t know if the name changed. Come here.¡± She said. She calls me over and touches my head for a moment.
Your weapons have been released.
¡°Alright, get that little toy of yours out. WE ARE GOING FISHING~!¡± She suddenly shouted. She jumps behind the big toy while pushing the big pile of chain out of the way. I bring out Bro¡¯s present and then have Proto come out so I can get ready. ¡°One word of advice Nova, when he gets close he will open his jaws. Shoot him right in the middle of his upper jaw. If you don¡¯t we are going to get hurt.¡± Gaia said pointing where i should shoot. She said that with a grin and pushed the big button that fires. BOOM! Techno PoV To say building this new body was a hassle isn¡¯t an understatement. First things first. I can¡¯t copy Gaia¡¯s model of gears. It¡¯s impossible with intermediate rank body construction and tinkering. No matter how much I try I won¡¯t get there at this level. So I downgraded it and made the gears somewhat bigger and removed a large number. Her body had hundreds or possibly thousands of small ones making up her system. For mine I can increase the gears into the hundreds. It¡¯s amazing how the power increases but I don¡¯t need to go bigger. In any case it''s been around a month and I would say the slow process that''s near the limits of my skill has brought me to around 60% completion. As I begin to remove some tools from my body I suddenly get a bad premonition. Nova has been very quiet today. I hide the tools and close the open armor plating on my arm and get up. I walk out into the corridor and get on the elevator and rise up to the upper deck. Once the elevator rose up I leave the small room. What I meet outside was Nova with her gun getting ready to fire and Gaia standing in front of a massive cannon which should have been broken in the storage room. I see her get ready and tell Nova. ¡°One word of advice Nova, when he gets close he will open his jaws. Shot him right in the middle of his upper jaw. If you don¡¯t we are going to get hurt.¡± I hear Gaia telling Nova. She then pushes the activation button and the biggest shock wave I¡¯ve ever felt came out of that barrel while firing a huge hooked stake with truly scary speed. From the pressure the cannon''s barrel even moved back but was put into place by a large spring. The massive hook was almost a blur as it fly straight on and impacted right into a massive winged snake that was flying around. ¡°Get ready for the pull.¡± Gaia suddenly shouted. Gaia jumps away from the cannon and grabs the huge chain line that was escaping off the ship and bulks down completely stopping its advance. Doing so makes the entire ship lurch. ¡°AHAHAHA These little bastards have gotten strong. I¡¯m going to need you to do a general repair of the old gears for me to do this better.¡± She shouted while laughing. She then began pulling on the chain with force that doesn¡¯t fit her body size. After a bit the chains suddenly went loose and she began rapidly drawing it in. ¡°Get ready, it¡¯s coming in for the bite.¡± She shouted. I run to the side of the boat and look down. Below us were clouds and below that were the brownish, almost black, wastelands. It had a kind of aura of despair you find in horror or post-apocalyptic pictures or movies. Complete lack of green. Now in the air coming from below was the huge flying serpent. Nova was aiming at it after having put a drill stake in the barrel. Gaia was franticly pulling the chains in. When the sky serpent finally opened its huge mouth revealing the soft flesh of mouth the second explosion came. This time it came from Nova¡¯s precise sniper rifle. The drill stake flew right into the center of the serpent¡¯s upper jaw and dug its way through his head and out the back of the head. The impact causes the long body to form a large series of waves. With the drill stake exiting the head it drilled into the body and came out three more times before finally stopping somewhere inside the body. Fatal shot. Yep instant kill. She turned the serpent¡¯s brain to mush by shooting just into its upper jaw. ¡°AHAHA Now this is what I call a finish. I can¡¯t wait until we find a time to go to the ocean. I wonder what kind of beasties will have appeared in that cesspool GAHAHAHA.¡± She shouted laughing loudly. She was completely out of character. No, I think I remember watching some movies where during a certain activity a person''s personality completely changes. The common thing it is associated with is when someone drives a car or motorcycle. I was getting worried now that I see her like this. Will she continue putting us in danger like this? ¡°Hey boy, Bulky one as well. Help me pull up our catch and butcher it. These babies have some real strong light weight bones that we can use to make special monster alloys.¡± Gaia said with a wide grin. Ok, I¡¯ll let it slide if I can somehow get something stronger than steel that can make us stronger. We had Nova go down stairs so she wouldn¡¯t see the blood, as all of us think it¡¯s too much for one so young. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Yes, I know what you¡¯re thinking. Old enough to fire a gun but too young to see blood. They are both different things. We use the knight¡¯s swords to chop up the meat and remove the fat for Gaia to make biofuel from, and store some of the larger bones. As much as we regret it there are no scales. What looked like scales were small feathers. What we didn¡¯t need we just pushed overboard. The monster was nearly twice the ship¡¯s size. I was really wondering how strong Gaia was. She was recently repaired and yet she took this thing on with as much ease as the tank trio took the furnace queen. Really how OP were the people from the war period. If she said she needed more repairs then that means she will get stronger. Really HOW STRONG was she. As I looked with a frown on my face towards her she was looking towards the horizon in front of the ship. ¡°Hehe. Looks like we have finally arrived.¡± Gaia finally says. She said that while looking back towards us. ¡°If you look forward at the horizon kids you will see one of the few green spots left on this godforsaken planet. The land of the elves, the Great Forest.¡± She pointed at the horizon and like she said, slowly approaching us was a sea of green. It was like reaching the end of a grey desert and finding a green ocean. Any person, rather, any organic, living creature would start crying seeing so much life. Those who think of restoring the world would also think the same because they found a refuge to work from. To us it was a simple stop on our way. A stop to that might hold a lot of information and a few surprises. Random Elf NPC PoV It¡¯s begun again. Another orc attack. It''s been going on for more than two months already. They came out of nowhere and even our scouts didn¡¯t pick them nor the goblins up. Well I feel pity for the goblins since they are slaves already. But even then we will cut them down if needed to, to secure our safety. We¡¯ve always lived in the safety of the great forest. It protected us from the corruption of the world and gave us food and water that was clean. Our queen says it''s because of our ancestor¡¯s magic which purifies this land and all that passes through it. Shame the spell only works on objects because if it purified people''s¡¯ hearts the orcs would have stopped half way before even reaching here. The battles are all very close to our homes. The orcs pushed us back so we don¡¯t have a choice. Elves are excellent at magic and archery but not so much at close up battles. We would die easily if we fight face to face. The gnomes aren¡¯t much help except for their tinkering nature which makes simple weapons that help us push them back but it¡¯s momentary objects. I really wish we had a way to stop these disgusting pigs from approaching. If we had even a few moments of distraction where they wouldn¡¯t have time to block our magic infused arrows then we could turn this around. All of us prey to our god. We pray because it''s one of the few things we have left, but many have wondered if the world really was forsaken by the gods as many times we have prayed only small things happened, or none at all. At the moment the orcs have reached our village. Most of it is in the trees so we can easily cut the wires but they starts throwing hooks with rope which allow the nimble goblins to climb. We can keep them off easily by unhooking the ropes but our numbers have already begun dwindling since the attacks began. We all move cutting the ropes but then I see it. On one of the other tree platform the goblin are able to climb to the top and began battle. My heart sank and I just fell down on my knees crying. I put all my faith and did a simple prayer to any god that would listen. ¡°PLEASE SAVE US!!¡± I shout. BOOM! The clear sound of explosions from below draws our attention. We don¡¯t have bombs and our magic though powerful can¡¯t explode like that in our weakened state. Lack of food and water has drained us. BOOM~! BOOM~! BANG! BANG! BOOM~! Finally noticing the location of origin from the explosion because of the bangs. I put my head out over the small wooden guard rails. What I see makes me cry tears of joy. Though it was a contraption similar to the weapons of the Orcs, the people inside were far from being Orcs. It was descending and I saw them. A small girl on the head of some strange creature. Three humongous knights both with dual blades. In front of them was a young man and next to him was a woman who held two steel swords in her hands. With my sharp hearing I caught them talking. ¡°Alright kids, let¡¯s have some fun. Nova, remember the way I told you to fight. You can¡¯t get close for a long time.¡± Gaia shouts. ¡°Mn.¡± the robot sitting on a bigger one says. ¡°Hehehe this is probably even more intense the magma golem fight.¡± One of the knight looking ones says. I see the young man in front of him nod. When the ship dropped to 10 meters in altitude the three giants, the young girl on that creature, and the woman jumped off and into the middle of the orcs forces. The last man stayed behind and walked into the ship making it rise high above the highest tree house and away from the orcs range. Suddenly a large amount of bangs came from the ship. The man was firing a rapid-fire weapon. I look to the ground. Where the three giants were lay several orcs that cushioned their fall. They were bloodied from being crushed. The child was nowhere to be found, at least until she suddenly appeared in my vision in the air. I saw her arms open and weapons appeared. The creature she was on copied her and from his arm was covered in small barrels. She aimed at the spot they were about to land and fired. DARARARARARARARARA! (minigun gunfire) A flurry of attacks were sent from the creature and impacted the orcs below it killing many in the process as they were hit on the head or heart. As soon as he landed the creature jumped once more flying over all the orcs towards one of the large trees. It turned in midair and kicked the tree jumping just as far but reaching much higher. From there it began randomly taking out numerous orcs in the process. When I diverted my eyes from the impossible stunts of the girl my eyes fell on the woman. My jaws fell. The woman was standing over the largest pile of orc corpses while to one side were unconscious goblins. I felt fear looking at her. She was strong beyond belief and it felt like looking at a monster. When I looked at the giants I kind of frowned. From the largest was coming out several small balls which flew into the middle of the orcs and after a moment large explosions happened from them. The other two giants were fighting it out with several orcs. One of them pulled back his right sword and punched somehow a heavy explosion occurred and the orc he punched was sent flying taking several with him. At this point the orcs began retreating. I don¡¯t blame them either. A group of monsters appeared out of nowhere and began massacring them. Anyone would run. One thing I did notice though was that even without them fighting them the orcs were falling dead. When I looked close I saw why. The goblins were rebelling after having spotted the chance to fight back. It was over for the orcs. All of us, elves and gnomes began attacking. Magic and arrows flew down and hit the orcs without mercy. It wasn¡¯t long before the last of the orcs were dead. Everyone began cheering and more than half of us were crying our eyes out that the gods had answered us. No one believed that we would get out of this. Just like us the goblins were also crying but they were crying from joy of being free. Seeing them like that we couldn¡¯t hold anything against them since we might have ended up the same way. It was while we were cheering that the ship of the savior''s slowly approached and stopped near one of the lowest platforms. A few chains were dropped and the monster woman climbed up and she pulled up the three giants. The girl and her creature simply jumped up. From far we could see them chatting without a care in the world. The large craft left the space and began moving towards the center of the city. They were heading to the queen most likely. Even though they were our saviors, we ran along the trees bridges and reached the palace as the ship reached the place. The one to jump down was the woman followed by the young man who didn¡¯t fight. Gaia: ¡®Hello young elves. We mean no hard, but can we speak with queen Lyra Toross?¡¯ One of the few remaining royal guards walked up. ¡°What do you want with our queen.¡± The woman grinned. ¡°My name is Gaia, but your queen knows me as GA1A.¡± She tells the guard. We all paled and all fell on our knees. ¡°Please forgive your insolence, please proceed, great one.¡± The guard says with a deep bow. ¡°No problem, young one, you are doing your job. Anyway please lead us.¡± She says. The guard nodded and with his head low he lead the way to the queen¡¯s throne room. When they were inside everyone let out a deep breath. In my head i didn¡¯t know what to think except. The awakening has completely begun. The great elders of the races are awake now. This world will finally be led to restoration. I thought filled with joy. Once more, we all began crying and pray our thanks to the gods for bringing one of the greatest beings of the old age to us. Chapter 21 Negotiation Hey guys. Author here, just want to thank everyone who has posted their ideas and opinions. They help out greatly since making ideas all by myself is nearly impossible for long periods of time. Remember this story is reader interactive. Any ideas you get even if its a bit crazy can spark something for me so please post your comments and please vote and leave reviews with your opinion of the story where good or bad. Both would help me grow better so don''t show mercy. Anyway here is the next chapter. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rust PoV I was currently following Gaia and the royal guard through the large palace. Though it looked small outside it was made inside one of the giant trees that covered forest in a sea of trees. The insides itself was quite lavished with a number of beautiful flowers that somehow survive inside the palace with only a little light from the small windows they were put in front of. The floors itself were completely flat and even looked polished but only to a point. It had no shine like a waxed floor that you could find before the wars or anything like that. However what was impressive is that it was in this desolate world that we found this building. When i looked around and scanned the interior itself i found that the pillars, floor and ceiling were all part of the tree which was still living. The pillars which supported the floors above were at the location where minerals rise up to or descend from the top of the tree. To find out the tree was still alive with this much hollowed out made me marvel the workings of elven magic. Now I''m sure you''re wondering why I''m with Gaia and not Techno who is technically the leader. Simple answer, he doesn''t talk. Though saying he wasn''t coming is a half lie. He handed me a scout drone which he is controlling and is watching. Though things weren''t as smooth after we got on the ship after killing off the Orc race. Flashback 10 minutes ago Just as Gaia pulled everyone aboard. Gaia: ''Ok boys, we are going to meet the queen. Rust, get the ship moving towards the palace. Now just a heads up, the rules here used to be that we can only go enter the palace in pairs. That means you Techno.'' Techno: "Pass, Rust is going." Everyone looked a bit dumbfounded at Techno''s blunt refusal. Rust: ''You''re the leader of the group though'' Techno: "And as leader i am making you my representatives for meeting any nobles or royalties." Once more we stared at him. What snapped us out of it was the emergence of the three elementals(golems) Brock: ''Hey what''s up gu...urg!'' As soon as Brock appeared, what met him was Gaia''s foot. Since they were in their compressed pet form he was easily overpowered since their tiny limbs were too small and slow to react. Gaia: ''Any where were you three while we risked our neck killing Orcs huh~~!!!'' Ena: ''Wha! Wai....urg. Stop we were resting!'' Gaia: ''For nearly two days'' Bulk: ''Stop it Gaia, all those who are awakened have to sleep a long period of time every few days.'' Gaia: ''Huh. I''ll let three off with only this. Anyway you still need to come with us Techno.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Make me.¡± If she had flesh and blood i was sure that there would have a big vein popping out on her forehead. Gaia: ¡®Stop being such a big baby and suck it up already.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Bite me. I¡¯m going to finish my new body. Bulk get these three on the ground and start concentrating any nearby iron and coal and bring it aboard¡¯ What they were going to do was Brock would single out the coal in any rocks nearby and pull them together and that would be brought on board, same for iron. Completely ignoring the weapon of mass destruction he walked back inside and left us to our jobs. You could hear clearly how Gaia¡¯s gears were grinding against each other but she only had a blank face. It was then that the scout drone climbed up my back and onto my right shoulder. Techno: ¡±If it makes you happy, old hag, i will send one of my scout drones to watch. He is on Rusts shoulder. We suddenly felt a real foreboding sensation coming from Gaia. The area around her was starting to loss light and it was creating a black space around her but before she could do anything the ship came to a stop as we arrived at the palace. That feeling went away and she climbed down and stated her name. All the elves and gnomes except the ones i guess were the awakened kneeled before her and even the royal guard guided us into the palace. Flashback end Now we were climbing the tree. As we reached the highest room we saw a large clean throne room. There was about a quarter of the room with an actual floor with the rest open. The large column we saw on the floor below were actually this. From the corners rose mane branches and vines up to the ceiling and large windows were open on nearly all the sides of the tree. In the far side of the hollowed out column was a large throne. It was made from the branches vines and trunks of the tree. It sat on a round platform coming out of the hollow column and from the closest side a small bridge closed the gap. It was about 2 meters wide and, like everything, made from the wood of the huge tree. (https://i.warosu.org/data/tg/img/0375/15/1421812726774.jpg) Sitting on the throne was a nearly deadly beauty. As a clockwork, i feel little to nothing in terms of affection but i will still say it was like seeing a grandmaster sculpture. Even knowing this woman was supposed to be the same age as Gaia it¡¯s hard to believe. The elf queen looks no older then her high twenties, in human years, and low thirties. She held the charisma of the highest nobility but also the gentle aura of a mother. With long silky black hair and pale skin, which seems to shine more because of the contrast between her hair and skin, she looked like a true godly master piece. Not a single wrinkle blemished her face. I also saw some strange markings on her face coming from the top to bottom and bright red in color like an open scar but no blood dropped. (http://dark.pozadia.org/images/wallpapers/26786103/Fantasy/Fantasy%20Blood%20Elf%20Queen.jpg) Her dress was rather simple, a long green dress bellow with a light green semitransparent dress which covers down to the wrist on top. From what i saw green is a typical color of elven clothes because it helps blend into the trees. She stood from her throne while looking towards us and the kneeling elf. Lyra: ''My young guard, you may leave. Our conversation is of private matters.'' Elf: ''Yes your grace.'' The elf bowed and left going downstairs leaving us. Lyra: ''That includes all the rest of you and no one is to climb the palace walls or stay within two floors of this room.'' I blinked a bit and looked around but found no one. Gaia: ''Don''t try finding them, those elves she spoke with were a special assassin group of the queen.'' After a long moment the queen once more looked at us as she sat down on the throne...and deeply sighed as if a weight was lifted. Lyra: ''Ahh~!! Finally some peace and quiet. Gaia~~ why did it take so long to meet someone from the old days.'' Out of nowhere the queen simple vanished and appeared hugging Gaia and rubbing her cheeks on her metal breasts. Lyra: ''Hmm...you didn''t dodge or hit back?'' Gaia: ''Well I''m in a bit of a dilemma.'' She pushed the queen back and her chest opened up and revealed the cores. The queen¡¯s eyes bulge a bit. Lyra: ''What happened to your collection'' Gaia: ''Blocking a gods rampage isn''t something i could do without sacrificing something. It turned me off moments after blocking her rampage towards us.'' Lyra: ''I have a water and air core stored want them?'' Gaia: ''Of course but for now i would have liked to introduce the leader of the little group that helped save the elves but the man doesn''t want to come.'' Her anger was beginning to show in her voice again. Gaia: ''So that idiot sent someone to represent him. This is Rust.'' Rust: ''It¡¯s my honor to meet you, your highness.'' Lyra: ''Please just Lyra, i already get enough formality from these uptight children around me.'' Gaia: ''*Sigh* as care free as you were back then.'' Lyra: ''At least i had more freedom back then. Now i have to always be the "refined" and "Graceful" queen of the elves. Stupid grannies that won''t take no for an answer. Still, what brought you here?'' Gaia: ''Well as any smart clockwork would do after reaching steel parts, we need to learn to make magic alloy.'' Lyra: ''That metal that mixes with elemental cores or monster materials.'' Gaia: ''Exactly.'' Lyra: ''Sorry but no can do. It¡¯s a secret art we elves hold.'' Gaia: ''Which is dying out might i add.'' Lyra: ''Wait! Didn''t you learn about it already?'' Gaia: ''I spent almost 700 years in a box rusting. My memory chip was partially damaged.'' Lyra: ''tch, sorry but no way. With the awakened we were able to teach them and expand those who know so we still have lots of elves who know, so it¡¯s not dying.'' Gaia sighs before, like a light bolt turning on. She moved close to the queen and whispered. I could catch only the first few words. Gaia: ''So even if i show everyone.....'' The queen turned towards her blushing. Her entire face up to her long pointy ears were scarlet red. Lyra: ''You wouldn''t.'' Gaia: ''I would.'' The queen was on the verge of tears. Like a little kid her eyes got watery which gave a different feel about her then the elegant queen rom before. And just like a child she looked the other way while pouting. Lyra: ''E-even...i-if y-you show t-them it still no.'' She seem to be fighting an internal battle. I really think Gaia is a monster in clockwork skin. To reduce the queen to this stay. Lyra: ''...If you...want the basics...then build us a machine to remove the remaining pollution in the rivers that not even the forest magic can clean.'' Gaia: ''*sigh* damn, you grew a flimsy spine i see. I''ll see with the kids. Also this offer is long lasting right.'' The queen nodded without looking and Gaia smiled. Gaia: ''Just right. Good doing business with you, Lyra, oh and where are those cores, I''ve been in need of my power back for a while now and air core will be a wonder after it gets settled in. Ahh flying will be such a breeze.'' The queen lifelessly sat on her throne and closed her eyes. After a bit a vine from her throne fell down and in its grasp was a box. It was dropped on Gaia who caught it with ease. Inside were several blue and green spheres like those from the earth and fire golems. Gaia looked through one by one from both colors for nearly 10 minutes before picking up two of each color and returning the rest to the box and giving it back. Gaia: ''Thanks little princess.'' Lyra blushed and shouted. Lyra: ''IT¡¯S QUEEN NOW!'' Gaia: ''Fufu but your still the same little girl i knew back then.'' She giggled and pulled me down the stairs while inserting a blue and green core into their sockets. Upstairs we could hear the queen yelling like a child having a tantrum. I couldn''t help chuckle as getting to see such and interesting thing. Rust: ''So when do we begin to build whatever it is?'' Gaia: ''Hmm...I think three years sounds right.'' Rust: ''Three...Why not now?!'' Gaia: ''By any chance does it look like we gave the resource or man power for that. Not only that it¡¯s probably almost time for those Awakened to go back to sleep.'' Rust: ''What? Go back, Why?'' Gaia: ''You probably don''t know since your memories were corrupted much more then my own but the prophesies that were said back during the end of the world mentioned two waves of awakened. The first who will try and make a foothold for those living or ruin them. As you might know yourself Techno, helped greatly restore the Clockwork but ruined Orc and Humans. Actions he takes aren''t things we would think of doing and they have large effects.'' Rust: ''So what?'' Gaia: ''Well it said that the maximum the first wave of awakened would stay awaken is for six months.'' Rust: ''It¡¯s been three months already.'' Gaia: ''As you said, half the time has passed already. Who knows if six months is what they will actually take before they go to sleep again. Put simply they are here to jump start the worlds gears again. Once they go back to sleep a number of years will go before they return. By then i want to have a proper nation waiting for them. That scrapyard you were revived in will be the main capital and training ground.'' Rust: ''So we are simply leaving, like that?'' Gaia: ''Hmm i think i will also try and get some of the gnomes to come with us. We will be returning to the scrap yard so we will pass by that dwarven village that is in that map you showed me. Gnomes and dwarves are nearly brothers and just like the clockwork, they will get along just fine.'' This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Finishing that we finally reach the door we entered. The elves and gnomes had spread out and only a few remained. Our ship was still there hovering in front of the palaces platform. Gaia: ''Whelp, you can go in I''ve got some business to take care of.'' She grinned as she took one of the bridges and walked off into the village. Rust: This won''t end well. I simply walked onto the ship and wait for the coming disaster. Bulk PoV It¡¯s been about a day since we stopped at the elf village. At the moment I''m looking at a truly hilarious scene. On the upper deck of the ship several tents have been built, the same happened to a few of the empty middle deck rooms. Walking on the deck were a few dozen gnomes and smack dab in the middle is Gaia, who was grinning like an idiot, while Techno was so pissed off he was actually yelling at her while he and his extra knight body held swords ready to dissect her. Nova, the three elementals and I were rolling on the ground laughing at Techno''s expense. Techno: ''GET...THEM...OFF'' Gaia: ''*fake yawn* Sorry but i need some rest. I spent the night gathering gnomes who wanted to move to the dwarf town.'' She moved to walk in but was received with a pincer attack from both knights. One from the front the other the back. Gaia just jumped and did a somersault letting the swords pass and landing like a gymnast with her hands up. This caused us and the gnomes to start laughing. Angered more with the opposite are he used he swung again but this time Gaia grabbed both swords. She stopped them easily. I looked back and saw him sighing and shaking his head. He had told us in advanced that Gaia had gained two more cores so she was closer to full power now. When i looked back i saw Techno send a low kick and the other a left hook. He acted like one of those actors from a martial arts movie and spun around letting both pass her while pushing and pulling the sword making them go off balance. I was making sure that i caught as much as possible. I was totally going to save this for the future. Techno never shows much emotion so to see such a scene i needed it on film. Even if i keep it hidden. He was beaten for another two minutes before he reached his limits and began to arm his grenade launcher but before it could so much as rise up from his shoulder Gaia was on him and did a flip over Techno and grabbed his head and pulled. It wasn''t to rip his head off but to pull his body. His body followed s head and as soon as Gaia landed she tilted forward. The surprising strength on her arms couldn''t be explained. With a simple spin and tilt forward she tossed Techno¡¯s giant body high into the air and sent him off the ship and crashing through the platforms roof and landing on the platform itself with a loud crash. On man this is the greatest. If i didn¡¯t know Techno would kill me over and over again if i posted this, i would have been posting the live feed. I did notice that as soon as Techno crashed, his knight robot stopped moving. Guess he was knocked out from the impact, though i wonder if robots can get knocked out. Gaia: ¡®Haha! This is going to be a fun trip back to the scrapyard.¡¯ She enters the ships lower decks laughing as she goes. Everyone on board couldn¡¯t help doing the same as we all began doing the same. I go and pick up Techno and bring him back onto the ship. I found him online and awake but with a shattered pride. Techno: ¡®...to weak.¡¯ I blinked a few times hearing his voice. I guess he isn¡¯t taking that thrashing so well. I sit him down on the deck and he just sits there slumped as if he was off but his glowing visor showed otherwise. Nova came up and looked at him and put her face in front of his which was sulking down. Nova: ¡®Is bro going to start acting like you did when we were separated?¡¯ Her question caused him to look up towards her and sit up. Techno: ¡®...No, Bro is going to get stronger¡¯ Lifting his hand, he pets her on the head and gets up and goes down to the lower floors taking the knight with him. Brock: ¡®Did something happen? He was talking like a normal person?¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Guess he will only talk to Nova and when he is furious. I think we is going to close himself into the workshop until that new body of his is complete. I kind of fear the power that thing will have since it''s taken more than a month to get to this point and he isn¡¯t even done.¡± Blaze: ¡®I saw that body when he wasn¡¯t working when i was on one of my brakes. It reminded me of Gaia¡¯s gears but not exactly like hers since some gears were larger.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®So he is building a body similar to hers. No wonder it''s taken so long. I wonder if he will be able to use it. Something like that must have a huge level restriction.¡¯ Ena: ¡®Definitely, i place my bets on at least level 150 level restriction for it. Brock: ¡®My bets are on level 100.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®My bets are on it not being complete with just a body. I think it needs to be like Gaia¡¯s having the magic circuits and all, plus a level restriction of over 200.¡¯ Blaze: ¡®That¡¯s harsh.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®And you think having overpowered strength like Gaia¡¯s wouldn¡¯t have something similar to that. Blaze: ¡®...¡¯ Ena: ¡®...¡¯ Brock: ¡®...¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Well enough chat, let''s get hunting you three. I need to get a few of these gnomes to help me build something to preserve the food we are gathering.¡¯ Brock: ¡®Didn¡¯t Gaia already make a fridge in the old kitchen? It¡¯s a huge metal box which runs on electricity generated by the ship''s engines.¡¯ I looked at them and after a moment shrugged and got them started. I sat down for a moment thinking. It¡¯s been interesting to say the least travelling with Techno. I open the forums and to a post which shows the races that passed or failed. The admins were nice enough to do that.
[td4]Merfolk (Pending)
Human
*Normal (Techno¡¯s victim. No special stats or skills) (Success)*Amazon (Success)*Barbarian (Failed)*Halfling (Success)
Elf
*Moon Elf (Success)*High Elf (Success)*Wood Elf (Success)*Dark Elf (Failed)
Dwarf (Success)
Clockwork (Success)
Construct (Success)
Golem/Elemental
*Fire (Failed)*Earth (Failed)*Wind (Success)*Water (Success)
Centaurs (Failed)
Genies (Success)
Fairy[/tds]
*Light (Success)*Dark (Success*Winter (Failed)*Summer (Failed)
Siren (Pending)
Angel (Success)
Demon (Success)
Monster races
Undead
*Skeleton (Success)*Vampire (Success)
Goblin (Success)
Orc (Failed)
Gnome (Success)
Ogre (Success)
Cyclops (Success)
Beast man
*Wolf (Success)*Fox (Failed)*Bear (Success)*Rabbit (Success)
Demi human
*Wolf (Success)*Fox (Success)*Bear (Failed)*Rabbit (Failed)
Kobold (Failed)
Gremlin (Failed)
Ent
*Treant (Failed)*Dryad (not just females but humanoid tree person) (Failed)
Harpy (Success)
The most recent update of the post was real shocking. Only two races remain needing to finish their quest, the Beta phase seems to be almost ending. I think that¡¯s why Gaia wants us to return to the Scrapyard. The Admins message says there will be a downtime where this world will be sped up to allow the NPC to develop the world. Closing the post i then look at the quest success missions which we interfered with and got some bonus levels for helping.
Mission: Pig plague You have helped to save the Elves and Gnomes from being enslaved. Because of this relationship is better with both races. +3 levels
Mission: Goblin escape You created an opportunity for the goblins to rebel. Because of your interference you have saved the race from eternal slavery. Goblins will see you and your friends as the races hero and will take about you for ages. +3 Levels
Yep, 6 levels from the quests. When we left the human and hunted as we flew this way we all reached between levels 42 to 46. I was level 45 and with the surprise assault on the Orcs that raised one more level. That means now i am level 52. I think Nova had the highest level and if she leveled up the same way i did it would be level 53 but i doubt it. She was a monster on her robot and did heavy damage all around the Orcs forces. Techno, I would say around level 49. He isn¡¯t a fighter and even if he controls the knight and had twice the amount of swords and weapons he isn¡¯t the best fighter so that is why i think he is that high. Besides that he was the lowest level as well. Oh just so you know the golems are, 39, 38 and 40 the earth golem being 40. If they fought they would have leveled up more but too bad. But their training is always going on. The fire golems are forced to control the fire in the engine making the fire last longer. Brock was made to gather minerals when every we land and a lot of earth and make delicately made sculptures out of it. They grew well and are starting to be hard to fight. Anyway after 1 more day in the elf city we finally leave heading towards the scrap yard we first woke up in. I wonder what changed there in the 2 months we were away. I think by the time we arrive it will be four months. I wonder how long the downtime will be. Hope it¡¯s not going to take so long it will be real boring to say the least. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 22 Beta End Well this is the last chapter of the Beta arc. i will be starting the next chapter as a new volume. Hope all of you can continue supporting me as i write and keep the great ideas rolling. Who knows if i will use them or they can spark a new idea in me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Techno PoV We¡¯ve been traveling for half a month already, going back the scrap yard would take a month and today we received this message.
All the races have completed or failed their survival quest. The last two to finish worked together. Merfolk and Siren Success. As many people have travelled far from their place of origin we are giving 2 months of in game time to return or create a safe place to leave all your things. The game will fast forwards 40 years which is the estimate for the world to enter a recovering phase and the surviving races to increase in population and technology. The player¡¯s actions also altered the relationships between all the races. If you caused harm to a race they will hate you depending on your action and may even take it out on your entire race. Please note that all current players will get the chance to make a new race or continue with the one they are with at the moment. Those who continue with it will lose half their levels and for a few races a debuff that will be added if you leave behind. All Clockwork and Construct races can escape the debuff by having someone take care of your bodies but the body will weaken. While Elementals can hide their core to maintain their power to a certain degree. Thank you for your time. Admin
So two more months before the real game begins where the world will have recovered some. I wonder what it will be like after 40 years. Well I hope that old hag and Rust can take care of our bodies and not let them rust. Ok now to another piece of info which has annoyed me greatly. When I finished my new body I found a really annoying thing about it.
Incomplete Synthoid Body A body built by Modeling a Synthoid. It is equipped with a clockwork engine which won¡¯t supply the proper amount of power to work the body. It also lacks the magic circuit and elemental cores to properly power the body. Level restriction 170 Must properly complete the body
I can¡¯t help but feel rage seeing this window appear. More than a month and a half of work to be denied the use. I did store it in the inventory though. Like hell I would simply get rid of it. It¡¯s still incomplete and by the time I finish it I would probably have the level and if I don¡¯t I will farm boss monster by myself if I have to, to get to the level. With the body project done for the most part I was left with little to do. It was rather boring but then after some nosy gnomes started pestering me we traded skills. I taught him some clockwork building and they taught me some interesting tricks while tinkering. I rose up from intermediate level 4 to 5 with 48% in tinkering by reaching the incomplete phase of the body and after learning from them I gained another level stopping at level 6. I think most of the skills levels will be drained as well. Those who were efficient will probably lose a lot if the reset the skills. Still because all crafting here is manual as long as I learn the actual method it shouldn''t be bad. I will make up the levels faster since you can''t take the techniques from me. I spent the rest of the month tinkering with the ships weapons and trading craft techniques and knowledge with the gnomes. Besides that, there was nothing else to do so it went pretty quiet though I still hated having so many people near me and I hated Gaia¡¯s grin even more when she saw them crowding around me. I completely ignore her cause looking at her makes my gears grind faster. All I can do is try to learn what I can before the time limit finishes. Jeopardy PoV I¡¯ve loved travelling in this world. Though it''s a ruined world I can find many nice people. I just wish I could fix my bad habit of talking back. Sometimes I just bluntly answer back and in a grotesque way like I did in the real world. Whenever I suddenly say something like that and offend someone I can¡¯t help but almost cry. I messed up so many times that slowly I was left alone by my party and began travelling alone. While I travelled I ran into a few other races. Monster races normally like the Kobold and Gremlins. They tried to capture me but I fought back with magic that was beyond what they could handle and it ended up making them fail their quests. Their races failed and were locked because of me. I couldn¡¯t help but crouch and cry at how many people I¡¯m making suffer. I continued walking while sulking most of the months. I learned how to repair this metal doll body I had during that time. I also met the Treant race and like the other monster races, they were aggressive and I was forced to defend myself and again another race failed the quest because this time a stray Lightning bolt I shot hit several trees and they caught fire and because many of the surrounding trees were dead and dry they spread fast. It killed the Treants and left the Dryads in a serious problem. I was also killed and spent a day in that special space made for the convicts. It was a simple single bed room with a few books and a computer to access. I used the computer and looked through what I could. First I looked at my races info. They had grown a bit after dismantling the robot I short circuited. Though I died that time as well from mana shortage. Constructs have a fatal flaw, we need to meditate for a few hours every 8 hours to have mana. Also our bodies aren¡¯t made for close combat. They are strictly magical and when we fight it¡¯s like we shorten our own lives. It quickly became an unpopular race but I think it fits for me. Even fighting to survive draws us closer to death. We really needed a solution. After I looked at my race I looked at the other races. Well the clockwork race actually. I wanted to see if I could find Nathaniel but the race was all the same. Robots that could change their looks and even bodies. Though one group had caught the attention of everyone. It was led by a large knight looking clockwork, followed by a little female robot, a normal beginner class robot and another knight. They were being referred to as ¡°The Clockwork¡± because they are the only clockworks actually exploring the world and are by far the strongest. I looked a lot through the forums but couldn¡¯t actually find their names. There is mention that there was a comment but it seems to have been deleted by the writer. He was one of them and it seems the leader had him remove it. I couldn¡¯t help sighing at my luck. I know Nathaniel¡¯s name but I can¡¯t find him. Though it wouldn¡¯t do me or him any good if I did meet up with him. Anyway I looked through all the forums and when I reached the Dwarves forum page I found videos of them again. They were leading the restoration of a large blast furnace. The video jumped through the phases of restoration and showed the battles they had with the Elemental race of fire and earth golems. They really showed their power and all the weapons they had developed started to look a bit scary. It was this day that popularity towards clockworks rose. The video continued with finishing the blast furnace and then all of them headed into the mines. Battling their way all the way down where they met with the boss NPC that had made the elementals attack the dwarves. They called instant retreat leaving only the clockworks in the room. The dwarves just retreated into the corridor and watch. The first attack was by far one of the scariest. They took nearly a third of its health in one series of attacks and even made it so he couldn¡¯t hide his core again. My mouth dropped as I watched. When they finally won I noticed the forums were loaded with comments about the strength of clockworks. I kind of hoped I could be adventures like them. And the way they fight so coordinated. I really want to find others I can be comfortable with as well. I feel tears falling down my cheeks as I continue watching. The rest was mostly cheering from the dwarves but what caught my attention was what they called the leader. They called his name. Techno. It was the name the AI goddess Ariel had told me. Techno Gear was the name in the game. So he was the leader of ¡°The Clockwork¡±. I kind of guessed, the way he acted when I saw him said he wanted the least amount of people around him and his sister. After that he left the village and showed no more of him but the comments go on for a few days before it tires of it and they begin talking about what is going on in the village. After seeing that video I simply shut the computer down and go to sleep only waking up when I was able to return to the game. I wake up about 2 km away but in the same body. There was a broken arm and a damaged foot. I meditated first to make sure I had the mana to survive before I began repairing my body. Another fault that my artificial body has is that there is no natural regeneration of health. I think for clockworks it¡¯s the same but they have physical strength and toughness to protect themselves so it¡¯s less dangerous for them. I replace the too damaged parts with ones I collected while I was in the scrapyard for constructs. Once I was up again I look around and found the smoke from the forest fire I caused. I made a grim scowl before turning to the right and moved on. For the 3 months I walked on only seeing the ruined world and finally reached the shores. What I found was a green ocean filled with pollution. Even though it was a cesspool I could see some movement in the water from above. I followed the shores to the right and just walked and miraculously found another tribe. I was a bit cautious but this time it was a peaceful group. Merfolk and Sirens to be exact. If I remembered right the last time I checked the admin post said they were the last to that needed to complete or fail. I listened to their worries. The players that joined this race couldn¡¯t resolve the problem. It was pretty simple. The two races are both water based races and it was impossible for them to survive in that cesspool of an ocean. All in all they needed some new place to live. Truthfully I couldn¡¯t help much because the gem in my chest only let me use wind based magic which is powerful but not for this case. They needed a new home but I couldn¡¯t do anything with what I had. What they came up with was from old legends that our race could assimilate elemental cores and gain their affinities. Because of this reason they brought out the only elemental core they had in their possession. They told me it was a family heirloom gained way back in the past. It was a gift a water elemental had made to symbolize the friendship between the three races. Even with it I didn¡¯t know what to do with it. For some reason the thought of wrapping them in the silver strings inside my body appeared. Not having any other idea I unbolted the chest plate and opened my chest and carefully grabbed the strings and wrapped several of them around the small marble sized core. I used enough of the strings to hold it firmly in place without moving around. As I let it go I notice it began glowing and the strings attached to it began glowing and it started moving up through the string and finally reaches the gem. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
You have gained a water elemental core. Because of the nature of the core to absorb mana in the air, you have gained the ability to regenerate mana. +0.3 mana/s Gained access to water magic system.
I blinked a few times before the Merfolk brought me back. I was finally able to smile as I told them I could help them. First I had them find a large basin area or clear on. They moved inland and found a crater inside a huge mound with some weeds growing through the rock. The area was huge but I had time. I headed over after my mana had recharged completely. I first began testing my water magic. It came as natural as the air magic. I raised my levels for water magic mastery quickly and soon I was able to produce large amounts of water. I used this to fire out water made from mana. If I made springs rise it would be contaminated defeating the purpose of this. I continued for 2 weeks reaching intermediate level with water mastery. I filled the crater, which drained slowly into the soil the first few days but now holds water, up halfway before the Merfolk and sirens happily thanked us. The moved the village to the inner part of the crater and began making small shacks like those they had. They gave me genuine praise and thanked me from the bottom of their hearts, or the NPC did at least. It was strange getting thanked like that. I wasn¡¯t praised and I was always held under fathers They cleared the weeds from below the water and planted seaweed. Though it was unknown how it would grow they finally had a place to stay and regain their strength. I think I will stay with them for a while to ensure they can get water. Though I think they have water magic but were just too weak to do it. They might have failed their quests if a construct or a water magic user didn¡¯t pass here. Seems the races affect each other more than people think. Still...it¡¯s nice to have people genuinely like me not for money or status. I think I can live with simpler things this game offers that my life with father didn¡¯t. I want other people''s love, real love my father never gave me. I don¡¯t want to stay so warped and respond how I do without thinking. Maybe I can find more people like the Merfolk and Siren race out there. I really hope so, I don¡¯t want to be just a destroyer of lives, and I want others to look towards me. But I guess just starting small and enjoying this village is enough for now. Techno PoV After a little less than a month of travel, we finally reach the dwarf village. The gnomes were eccentric to meet the dwarves. The problem was everyone was trying to get off but the boat can¡¯t land because a large number of the propellers were under the ship. We lowered a several ropes from 10 meters up which was the lowest we could get without hitting. What was surprising is when a giant robot gorilla climbed the mountain the dwarf cave was on and began unloading the gnomes. I found it they were the three tanks. I partially chuckled thinking of them as king Kong on the mountains roaring while hitting his chest. We didn¡¯t stick around though. Once the gnomes were off we rose up and over the walls and flew into the scrapyard towards the northwest where the clockwork haven¡¯t traveled yet. We went on for 2 days before we stop near any random scrap mountain. All began to dig in and with metal scraps made a large hanger door which would allow the ship to enter. Then we began melting tons of scrap into simple iron ingots since it would be a waste of our coal. From the iron ingots we made support beams and as we dug in we placed the supports up to hold the hanger we making. We were about a third of the way up so we had plenty of space but something strange happened. We encountered a huge wall. It wasn¡¯t iron but something else. We tried cutting it with my tools and barely made a hole in it before I nearly ran out of power and had to stop. It was Gaia who resolved our problem when she concentrated earth mana into her fist which strengthened it to a scary degree. She punched the wall with scary force making it crumble up by the force. When she pulled it back out she left a large hole. She moved back before charging again and with another punch the wall finally gave way. What we found inside could only be thought of as scary. As large as the scrap mountain but standing in full glory without much rust on him was a gigantic robot that could even be called a titan. Gaia: ¡®Oh god...He was here¡­¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Who is he?¡¯ Gaia: ¡®Kids...meet the god of the artificial species and the perfect Synthoid, Delta.¡¯ ???: ¡®...who...walks...here¡¯ (Thanks wade for this epic pic http://hgjart.deviantart.com/art/God-of-War-216550499) The sudden voice makes us look up and there we see it. The previously offline colossus was no on, his huge eye red eyes lit the area up. Delta: ¡®Gaia...I can...sense you. How long...has it...been?¡¯ Gaia: ¡®Nearly 700 years¡¯. Delta: ¡®So these...seals haven¡¯t weakened...at all yet.¡¯ The colossus robot moved a bit revealing several huge chains on his arms, legs and back. Gaia: ¡®Seems so, they are feeding on your own power. If you weren¡¯t so stubborn and just shut down for a few minutes you could have gotten out. Delta: ¡®But I would...be off then...What good would...it do me...woman.¡¯ Gaia: ¡®tch, fine whatever, let¡¯s get back to work kids. We need the cave made and the ship sealed in if you want a safe place to rest.¡¯ Delta: ¡®get me out.¡¯ Gaia: ¡®Like hell I will you overgrown pile of scrap. You will only cause more havoc in this already broken world. Just shut up and turn yourself off.¡¯ Delta: ¡®Hump, like I would take orders from a little woman like you. Even chained you will never kill me or turn me off.¡¯ Gaia: ¡®Want to be. The several override controls in your legs say otherwise.¡¯ Delta: ¡®... damn.¡¯ Gaia: ¡®Good, give up without fighting and shut yourself off.¡¯ Delta: ¡®Like hell I will. I will simply sit here. Now that you all have visited I was able to hack your general systems and install several programs which allow me to see the outside world. I will remain but you will be my eyes.¡¯ Gaia: ¡®Fuck¡­.AHHH~~~!!! DAMN IT! I was almost cracking up seeing her finally lose to someone. It was really satisfying. Techno: ¡±Like you said. Get to work, old hag¡± Gaia: ¡®Don¡¯t push it, boy¡¯ I grin pissing her off more. She stomps several times before walking back into the corridor. We here several big bangs from her punches and a lot of scraping as the scraps fell down and were pushed as one big mass. Delta: ¡®Never gets old, pissing her off.¡¯ I was starting to like this guy for his sense of humor but it was just a slight feeling that vanished a moment later. Techno: ¡±Let''s get to work before the hag comes and drags us away¡¯ Delta: ¡®Good luck in your endeavors, awakened. You especially will need it.¡¯ I look back only to see his red eyes slowly close and the light in his eye slowly dim leaving the room in darkness again. We expanded the hanger for nearly a week and reinforced it until it could handle a long time of weight on it. We even melted scraps and made steel from them to make steel sheets and bolted them to the walls and floor to be help keep the scraps out. In the final week before we would shut down we put the ship in and built a door which was disguised with scraps over it after being welded together. It made a large heavy door which needed a lot of force to move but using Gaia as a pack mule to close them we were able to seal the room. Only a small opening was left because Gaia and Rust weren¡¯t going to stay here in defiantly. They were going to the clockwork settlement and build up a nation while coming to keep us clean and repaired. Finally the day came when the message came. Bulk or the elementals weren¡¯t even on but since Nova and I didn¡¯t have much of a choice we were on until the last moment.
Thank you for your work during the survival stage. For your achievements in being a large help in not only your race but several others survival we will give you a special reward during your stay within the juvenile prisoners space. Yours and your sister¡¯s space has been expanded to a hold a complete house with two rooms a living room, kitchen and full access to internet during the time the game is moving forward. Note, the space is linked to the normal time of the game so you will be waiting 5 times longer than the real world that will wait 1 week before the release. You will be logged out in 1 minute. Your Inventory will be emptied and all objects will drop unless they are attached to your body.
We bid them well while we are off and they wish us the best of luck and promise we will be taken care of. As I finish organizing my stuff on the ground the screen appears saying logging off in 5. As the counter reached 0 the world turned black and i found myself in a white room with Nova next to me smiling cheerfully. Techno: ''Guess its just us to now.'' Nova: ''Yay i get bro all to myself.'' With a huge i go about setting up the house through the menus. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Credits: Writer: VRDraco PR: DoktorPrimat Hyoudou Those who i remember contributed ideas i used: Dok Hyoudou OnlyADemon Wade Bibonlee Swifter And others who used the idea and suggestion folder. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 2 Chapter 1 Virtual Space Yo here is the first chapter of the new volume. Just to say, i don''t know how large each volume will be. It will depend on how the story develops. Any way enjoy reading as much as i enjoyed writing and please leave ideas/suggestion and reviews ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nathaniel PoV We were finally out of the game and in our special virtual space. Normally the place would have a single living room kitchen and a bedroom and small bathroom for me but that kind of changed with Sasha (Nova) here. For us we were given a special option to more freely design the place. I was given a limit by points I could use to make my space but Sasha had nearly four times the points to use. I first set up the three basic rooms and two bathrooms which were all free since they were basic needs. Living room was bland with a simple three seat sofa, a small 30 in TV, near the door was a counter which separated the kitchen and living room and acted like a table for us. The kitchen had several shelves a small stove, an oven, and a microwave. There were a few ornaments to spruce the place up but it was still bland. My room was the same, single bed that looked somewhat comfortable but still had a kind of military feel. The room also had a simple desk with a laptop. Next to that were a few books on a bookshelf. The bookshelf held books that range from fantasy story books to high school level workbooks. It was all stuff I missed because of that bitch sending me to jail. We both then went to Sasha''s room. It was much more decorated. A pale pink color on one of the walls while the others are peach, the room was decorated for an 8 year old. A large single bed with a few stuffed animal pillows, which had her jumping moments after entering the room. Her room also had bookshelves and a desk. Hers held child stories and elementary school workbooks. Besides that, cabinets that had lots of clothes. I remember my room had one but it was all simple clothes. She was happy to have such a childish room. Now, about those points I talked about. It seems they are the special prize we got. Sasha probably would already have some but not me. At that I have 100 points and she has 400 points. The points are consumed depending on the cost of points. The first thing I bought was an "outside". The virtual space didn''t have that but the option exists. Because it also came with a child playground I bought this using Sasha''s points since she will use it more. I found out things that are hers will change over time to match her age. It was 70 points to get a grassy outdoors with all the elements and feeling. I then added some color to the bland living room. Wooden floors and new painted walls which were peach colored. The improvements to this room were 10 points for both but it was shared between us both. I added windows which were missing from the room as well which cost another 5 points on me. Then I went to my room and did the same. 25 points remaking the floors, walls and adding windows, then 30 points to get a new bed which looked much betters and less military like. With the last remaining 30 points I upgraded the pc to something newer, 15 points, and upgrade the bookshelves to include books about mechanics and basic to advanced level programming with the other 15. With my points capped I went to Sasha''s room and added the windows, curtains and new floors for 25 of her points. 10 points for some toys which appeared in a box. 10 for new story books and study books up to middle school and 50 points that connects both my and her bookshelves into the game which allows me to see the books in a window, in game. All this totaled 150 points. Thinking about the extra points I shrugged it off, thinking it''s best to save it for the future. Oh, I did make sure to make the kitchen a bit bigger using another 20 points of hers and added a fridge. Though we don''t need food, after spending 4 months in game without needing to eat, the need for it rose greatly. I''m not some pro so I went for simple white rice, beans and some cooked chicken. Something we always ate. I called Sasha who was covered in dirt outside. I made her take a bath before we ate. The feeling of real food was nice and though the food was made by someone who doesn''t cook much, it came out well enough. The lack of taste stimulation left us sensitive so the taste appeared more but it was good all the same. Happy finally getting some rest I turned the TV on. A notice appeared saying time is still warped and most of what we watch is from about a month ago. It then began news, talk shows, and cartoons. We had a few channels to watch but most were for Sasha. Only news and talk shows were left for me and TNT so at least I could watch a movie or two while she plays or when she begins doing the homework I make for her. Now that I have the resources, I can keep my promise to mom and dad and properly educate her. We watch some cartoons together for a few hours before I leave her and enter her room. I grab several books on all elementary school subjects before taking them to my room. I then lay them down on the desk and sat. I was surprised to see an option appear just like in the game.
Detected the presence of school work below your age grade. Due to having a younger sibling you have the option of quick learning this material and make a test or learn yourself and make a test. If first option is done the system will do something known as cycle learning. This is where it will feel like you have gone through several classes with the material present while only several minutes have passed. The speed is much more rapid so more than three subjects are not advised. To make the test, you have the option to using paper or the PC. With the PC you can print the test or you can give the test on the PC.
What kind of learning method do you want to use?
Slow methodFast method
What do you want to use to make the test?
Make on PC and printWrite on blank paper
I blinked a few times and re-read the message then started chuckling. It was obvious, I press ¡°Fast method¡± and ¡°Make on PC and print¡±. Suddenly my vision goes black and I find myself in a classroom. In front of me was one of my old teachers. After that I spent what felt like weeks in that classroom studying math, science and literature. Once I had EVERYTHING in all these books in my head I woke up and blinked several times. I looked around and saw nothing different. Walking out of the room I looked at Sasha who was watching Ed, Edd and Eddy from the cartoon network channel and was laughing hysterically. I look at the clock and see that only 5 minutes passed since I went into my room. It was also then that I noticed a slight headache most likely caused by the rapid speed classes I went through. My brain is probably on overdrive already as it processes the info. I think it wasn¡¯t as bad because it was all elementary school stuff but it still hurts a bit. I¡¯ll let myself calm down before making my sister''s homework. She will hate it but this isn¡¯t something I¡¯m going to let her tantrums overpower me in since I promised mom and dad. I go and drink some water just for the sake of it since it helps calm the mind when doing something you''re familiar with. It helps stop the hurting so I head to my PC in my room and look through the forums and my email it¡¯s been left alone for 3 years since I went to jail so a lot has piled up but mostly junk mail. The forums help a lot of expectations. The players from the races that succeeded were telling about the races traits and race skills or about the starting location at the time. I didn¡¯t care much for it so I went on word documents. Using the text books and what I learned from them, I make a packet of each of them with 50 questions each, all easy questions but would make Sasha think a bit. I would obviously help her but I wasn¡¯t going to do it for her. As I finished the last one after 4 long hours of searching and typing Sasha walked in. Sasha: ¡®Hey bro, there is an old police guy at the door.¡¯ I looked at her curiously and got up and walked out of the room. Poking my head out I looked to the open door and see my juvenile detention centers warden standing at the door. Warden: ¡®Hey Nathaniel.¡¯ I nod towards him and waved to call him in which he did. Warden: ¡®First off the techs from the company said that in the menu there is a notepad window option. It was made for notes but in your case it can be used for texting and talking with others like you did in the game. I must say you sure got a lot of fame with the company employees. They really love ¡®The Clockwork¡± group who were even able to fight the magma golem with only 4 clockwork and 3 elementals.¡¯ I listen to him talk while I bring up the menu and open the notepad. Nathaniel: ¡±Sir, did you come to simply congratulate us? Warden: ¡®To get a reply form you sure is nice even though it''s from a text. No it wasn¡¯t just congratulating you and your sister for the great job you did. We noticed that simply dropping everyone into a game world and leaving you all there isn¡¯t enough to integrate you back into society properly since the games setting isn¡¯t the same as ours. That¡¯s why we made something like a small town. It¡¯s connected to all the special spaces of all the juvenile convicts. You all can learn and interact with each other and various NPC around it. They NPC are very free and each one is a different AI so they are like any living being. Just came to tell you about it. Oh you can¡¯t invite other convicts to your space, each space is like the inside of each capsule so it won¡¯t let them in. Well I think that¡¯s all, Me and many of the guards at the center have access and we are patrolling the town, if you need anything just look for our badge. Good day you two.¡¯ He nod and walks back out. We follow him out and see a large door in the middle of the outside area. He opens it and we can see some houses and streets that aren¡¯t there in our space. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Sasha: ¡®Wow that¡¯s cool. Did you see, it¡¯s like another world on the other side.¡¯ Nathaniel: ¡®Ya, we will go later.¡¯ Sasha: ¡®Kay~!¡¯ She runs back in and hops onto the sofa and continues watching the cartoons. I return and finish the homework and print. The next moment, a printer appears and the pages rapidly roll through. Once the first packet was done it was stapled by the system. The next to the same thing and with them done I picked up the books I used and took them out to the living room and put them down on the table. It grabbed Sasha¡¯s attention. Sasha: ¡®What¡¯s that? I walk up to her and pick her up like I did when she was smaller and liked being held by mom, dad or me. Nathaniel: ¡®Homework, yours.¡¯ Sasha: ¡®...eh?¡¯ She tilted her head while looking with her large clear brown eyes looked directly into my eyes. Sasha: ¡®What homework?¡¯ Nathaniel: ¡®The homeschooling homework I made for you. I promised mom and dad I would continue homeschooling you so...¡¯ I sit her down on the chair which was right in front of the packets and books and grabbed another chair and after grabbing one of my own books I wanted to study I sat next to her. Nathaniel: ¡®...I will be tutoring you even when we are in the game. You aren¡¯t going to escape this even if you beg, cry, hit, or anything.¡¯ Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to find some words or excuse but as soon as she turned to the TV I shut it off and disconnected it and made it vanish as I stored it away using the menus which only I have control over. Nathaniel: ¡®Give up, the game is one thing, a promise to mom and dad is another.¡¯ Sasha: ¡®Muu~~~~~¡¯ She sits down pouting, which I thought was cute, and looks at the books. I put the math packet and book in front of her and opened to the first chapter. I began schooling her until I notice it got too boring that she was spacing out. I gave her time to watch the TV and play outside before getting back to work. All the while I read about basic level software programming and worked on some of it on my PC. When it got to boring I finally decided to go outside. I changed my clothes to something a bit more social, plain green shirt and jeans with some normal shoes, and helped choose some clothes for Sasha, which she changed into, knee long jean shorts and a short sleeve pink shirt. We finally left the virtual space prepared for us and entered the town made for the convicts. It was rather large. As soon as we walked out the door, we found ourselves in a residential area with a number of small houses all of them just like the one behind us which held our virtual space. There were two name plates on the door after I closed it. The town was quiet but as we moved towards the urban area of the central space where things were sold or events took place it became much noisier. Most people I saw were kids or young adults that were probably not above 18 yet. I also saw quite a number of military police officers and normal police walking about and talking with the kids. In many streets we could find stores with various utilities and lot, and I mean lots, of lunch trailers making fresh food for the guests. You actually had to pay for it. Seems we have money here, I open my menu and look a bit before I find it. In the corner I found $4000 dollars and next to it was an exclamation mark [!] shining. I pressed it and a window appeared.
The money you have is what you earned for your good actions during the game. Everyone real month all juvenile convicts will be allowed a break where they get money for their actions or are penalized for them. By completing you race quest almost alone $1,000 For saving the Dwarves, Goblin, Gnome and Elf race $2000 For getting rid of evil humans after properly finding proof of their deeds. $500 For taking Gnomes to Dwarves and further mixing the race techniques with Clockwork and Dwarven technology $500 For more money you can create/find game items/loot and auction them off on the company LIFE¡¯s main site.
Well that is convenient. I also think that most of the money was doubled because of Sasha being here and helping me through it, main reason is because of the ¡®almost alone¡¯ part in the first one. Well who am I to complain. I go to a less packed lunch trailer. I bought a large sandwich and split it down the middle and split it with my sister. As we talked with each other and enjoyed to good food I suddenly felt someone looking at me and looked up. ???: Nathaniel¡­ Standing there was the biggest bitch I know. Looking someone skinnier and less bright than before but still the same person was the person that sent me to jail, Bianca Castel. Slowly my hate, resentment and rage began to boil and without knowing I began squeezing my lunch in my hand as I grinded my teeth. Suddenly two police appeared next to me and each put on hand on each shoulder. The touch momentarily startled me out of my focused rage. Police: ¡®Calm down. Its best return to your virtual space. Cool down a bit, take a bath and just wash relax, if you do anything you will regret it will only end worse for you.¡¯ I breathe deeply a few times as adrenaline pumped in my body but slowly it returned to normal. I glared at the bitch before getting up and nodding at the police. Nathaniel: ¡±I¡¯ll leave it to you then.¡± ¡®Let¡¯s go Sasha, we can finish on the way or back home¡¯. Sasha: ¡®Something wrong bro?¡¯ Nathaniel: ¡®Bro...isn¡¯t feeling good.¡¯ She nods and follows after me after we get a few plastic bags to carry the lunch. Bianca: ¡®Wai..¡¯ Police 2: ¡®Sorry but as you might have seen, just seeing you almost made him attack. Give him time, you heard it right, at least with his sister he talks. Let him slowly reopen himself. Bianca: ¡®...I...understand...sir¡¯ Her head drops as she turns the other way and walks off. When we returned home we put finished the lunches and I had Sasha go take a bath. Once she was in I began to let my rage loss as I stomped and almost punched the wall. I opened the menu and the room spaces. There were two rooms I wanted but I picked one of them and bought it with 25 of Sasha¡¯s points, it was shameful but who really thinks when they are angry. I bought a training room. Punching bags were hanging and other equipment was lined up. I ran at the punching bag after locking the door and began screaming in rage while punching the bag in my rage. After 5 minutes of discharging my rage I collapsed and soon after tears began falling. So much emotion I bottled up burst open in rage and sadness one after the next came rushing out. Every bit I would get up and another fit of rage happened which I took out on the bag before more tears fell. After a long half hour of this I felt a bit empty. So much was let out on the bag that it left rips in it but they slowly mended as the room remade it. I get up and leave after wiping my face. I find Sasha sitting and working on her homework while the TV was turned to one of the music video channels and an old song from the early 2000¡¯s was passing. It was one of the songs that was made as tribute for a loved on. I listened hearing it. Sasha was looking at me as well. As the song ended she got up and hugged me. Sasha: ¡®Bro doesn¡¯t need to get angry, mom, dad and I will take care of you.¡¯ A few new tears began falling as I pick her up and hug her. Nathaniel: ¡®Thanks, let bro go take a bath and we can play a bit and then go to sleep.¡¯ Sasha: ¡®Can I sleep with bro tonight.¡¯ Nathaniel: ¡®Just tonight, go do your homework I¡¯ll come back in a bit.¡¯ She nodded and kissed my cheek before I put her down. Smiling I went and took a bath before we played together some and watched some anime movies before going to sleep. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Volume 2 Chapter 2 Rising Nation Rust PoV Its already been 15 years since the awakened all fell asleep. Those who were living creatures vanished but those of the clockwork simply turned off. Gaia lost no time in taking control of and guiding all the revived clockwork that the awaken restored. Furthermore she even headed over to the dwarf and gnome town and began negotiations and with the three races they began a new nation together. The capital would be south gate outpost. It was in between both the clockwork base and the dwarf town which would over time become part of the city to be built. With that said and done she began leading expansions to the outpost. With steel made by the dwarves new walls were built in a 10 kilometer radius around the gate. Then all the scraps inside were melted and only the motherboards of all the clockwork survived along with memory chips. All of the memory chips were scanned for useful data, such as skills or better techniques to doing something. With all the trash cleared we also discovered several protectors, and half a dozen squadron of knights, each group had around 15 each squad. With steel we remade their bodies and under Gaia¡¯s tutelage we began learning software programming. Through it, we repaired the corrupted codes of the knights and all of our own as well as improve them somewhat. In the first seven years the dwarves and gnomes also began to increase in population. Their populations swelled up as each couple had lots of kids. With population growth came the need for resources and food. After some thought Gaia suggested we domesticate several monsters in the mountain range. With that though, we scouted several monster races and learned its eating habits and mating rituals. We didn¡¯t want animals that fought for a mate or were meat eaters. With our targets set. We set out to clear a space inside the scrap yard outside of the walls but still attached to them in a fenced area. Clearing the area and then making the dirt fertile again was a bit of a hassle but Gnomes lived with the elves for a long time so they learned some nature magic, which is made from mixing the water and earth magic system. With the land clear of oil, somewhat, the gnomes went about using a bit of magic to sprout the local vegetation around the area. It took them nearly a year of trial and error, and with every error the withering plants were tilled to use as fertilizer before they tried again. Finally after a year some weak sprouts came out and were able to survive until adulthood and release seeds. This was a good sign that these plants had higher pollution endurance and could survive in the highly acidic soil. Once we got some plants growing we started cultivating that fenced are with them, always planting seeds from plants that grow better and killing off the weaker weeds. Besides these first ones we started growing other weeds that were consumed by the animals. It was a slow annoying process and which took several years before the a large number of plants naturally grew in the polluted soil which was by now clean. With the area finally ready, we sent the knights off into the mountains and kill all the aggressive adults of the chosen monsters, then captured the babies, brought them back and put them inside the fenced area while caretakers raised the monster. Because they didn''t fight life and death fights they simply had natural strength but never surpassed level 20 monsters unlike the wild counterparts. They also gained passive personalities instead of aggressive ones because of the plentiful food sources. During the time we cultivated the weeds, we also developed several water purifier. The river a the bottom of the mountain range was very polluted but we needed the water. With that said and the help of several clockwork who developed bodies built for mining we carved the rocks around a relatively flat area nearby. We made a large basin around the lake which filled only a quarter of the way before continuing to flow. Once done we planned out the purifier and built it about a half km away before building a steel dam to hold more water. It wasn''t that much more because it was a shitty piece of crap but it held up against the water pressure and with a space cut in around three fourths of the way up we were able to let the water loose without it breaking the damn. We reinforced it quickly with a better structure to hold up longer so we didn¡¯t have to worry. As the water rose we started up the purifier which sucked up the polluted water and through back a cleaner water. Compared to the original polluted water we were able to remove about 5% of the pollution. There was so much trash. We were actually curious about was upstream so Gaia and I led a team of knights and one of the tanks. What we found was an old graveyard of ships in the mountains. There wasn¡¯t a single ship intact which explains the the massive amount of fuel in the water. We found a lake filled with what remained of the fuel. Gaia was grinning because we found a ship graveyard but I was annoyed about the water problem. Her solution, build several purifiers that separated the fuel from the water and then reuse that fuel. Workers were brought and all around the large black lake several purifiers began working. The fuel was put into very large cylinders that were built there to store it all while the water was thrown back in. There was about 10 purifiers which all reduced the pollution by around 5% per day. That said in this cesspool it was more like 0.5% per day, that''s how much fuel was dumped in here. Well with this going on we were getting regular supply of ship fuel. Once all this was passed gaia had the gorilla tanks drag back some half intact ship carcasses and got working on getting it operational. It was much larger than Techno¡¯s. Speaking of him, I personally go there every 2 months and do regular repairs on all of them and their things. It¡¯s quite amazing how fast their bodies rust though, it¡¯s like something is making it speed up. What was stranger is that their cast iron items were rusting slower than the steel body they last used. I even took a look at the coding and found it slowly being corrupted. I cringe thinking of how much data was already broken. I quickly remake what I could and from then on I also check all the programming as well. While looking around I also found the cores of the elementals. What was strange was that there were several of each core and not 3 like its supposed to. Scan all of them and find all of them alive but the three strongest were in the middle. I figured this was the original 3 elementals that Nova kept as sla...pets. They were gathering a lot of mana from the air and slowly growing. I put them back down and picked up all the new cores and took them back to Gaia. When she saw them and I explained what I found her eyes began glowing brightly. She then picked up two of them and then told me to open my chest piece. I did as asked and she put the cores near the fire and they began absorbing the fire until they turned a bright red. She pulled back and then struck them together and from the sparks the cores jumped into the air and were covered in flames. I stared there dumbfounded watching the little fire wisps fly around. Gaia was grinning as she watched the two. Looking down she had several other clockwork come and help and we slowly fed the fire cores our engines fire and then woke new fire elementals. For the earth golems we took them to the dwarf mine and pushed them into the walls in the mine. The small earth dolls soon came out looking around at us. From there we began getting the dwarves used to them. Guess they are still wary of them though it¡¯s with good reasons. Still after a few years they started to get comfortable a bit. Most of the golems were human type with a few being the bulky kind. The fire golems normally took the shape of a bird making them look like phoenix. With the golems out and about things like forge fires and mineral gathering got less dangerous since they helped with both. Once the first ship Gaia repaired was operational she gathered a crew of workers, dwarves and gnomes, and set out for the now abandoned human city. (http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080705072524/finalfantasy/images/e/ef/Enterprise_DS_Opening.jpg) She wanted to capture that city and use it as a construction site for larger ships and equipment. After thinking a bit, I found the idea quite smart. The huge ship could easily be opened a bit to make into a massive shipyard city built for production. They headed over with that plan but that wasn¡¯t all. The second ship was almost complete as well and Gaia¡¯s orders were to load it up with workers and several purifiers and to take it to the elves to gain their support and favor. I could see now what she was planning. If gnomes were good with nature magic, then why not getting the real pros. Once the ship was complete we had it loaded for the VERY long trip. When we finally reached the forest city we were kind of shocked to find the place completely renewed. The broken platforms were new and looked even better. All around were a LOT of goblins, gnomes and Elves. I heard elves had a hard time reproducing but looking around here I think that was a lie. Anyway, we head to the queen and learn the format of the forest and where most of the rivers were. With most of it marked down we head to the largest rivers that enter into the forest. We build a few purifiers in the area near the entrance where the forest was already purifying the water. With the machines helping even a little it will allow the forests magic to work for longer. With our work here done, I begin planning to return but we make sure to leave several dwarves and workers since we need to do maintenance on the purifiers. During my planning I speak with the queen about letting elves leave the forest. I tell her about wanting to restore nature to bring the world further away from ruin and to return it to normal. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. She happily allows that and even has one of her royal elves be the leader of the elves leaving. In total, around 20 elves were coming. It sounds small but elves have HUGE mana capacity so even a single one can do something close to miracles. Most were ¡°old¡± and very wise. Even though I was a machine they treated me as another living being and showed the same respect I gave these great elders. We headed to the old human city where the humans had begun their restoration and left 5 elves there. They began the next day, we saw them because they were letting out a bright green light where they were using magic. When we arrived back at South gate village, which was more of a town now, we led them to our small fenced zone. Even though the place was poor and had at best only weeds, the elves marveled at it saying they were impressed we could get this much grown so well in such contaminated soil. They had brought several seeds from their forest and some from the humans restoration forest and planted them around the fenced area. Then, they all gathered in a circle and channeled their magic. Soon they were all letting off a green light, the leader high elf walked to the middle and raised his arms. This caused the light to gather in a glowing ball. He grabbed it and pushed it into the ground. Like a large shockwave, a wave of green light spread from the spot and even passed the fenced wall and spread far into the scrapyard and out into the mountain range. After a moment I looked about and noticed many green shoots appearing and when I looked at the tree sprouts they were already passing 3 meters tall and slowly rising. Many weeds were dieing and quickly regrowth becoming more lush and more varied as many different species were instantly appearing. When the chaos of green growth stopped I asked the high elf what happened. He explained that the magic they used helps cleanse the area of impurities that harm nature and causes even the smallest bits of vegetation to rapidly grow and mutate making many varieties. This was an old art used long ago to repair devastated areas of war or drought. The vegetation here would become a seed bed for all this region new vegetation. I was happy to get so much help from him, this provided us with more than we could have hoped for and the domesticated monsters also seemed to like the new variety of food. The connections Techno helped us make were really blooming and helping us today. I can¡¯t wait for him to wake up once more. I¡¯m sure all the races in our nation will think the same, He is our savior. Bianca PoV What do I do? As soon as he saw me I felt like I was being stared at by a monster. It was scarier than when the tribe of Kobold attacked me. HE was much scarier than anything I can remember. I guess I did that to him though. When I saw him eating with his sister, I wanted to go apologies but I guess I was pretty naive. I put him in jail, ruined his life and hurt his family. I¡¯m amazed he didn¡¯t attack the moment he laid eyes on me. The police might not have been able to stop him if he had started to fight. I definitely would have been beating to a bloody pulp if they hadn¡¯t intervened. I think it would be best to try and avoid him like they said. I wonder if I can meet him in game? My face is different in there, though I don¡¯t think I''m anywhere close. I open a map made by the players. It was like a jigsaw puzzle. Only several spots actually meet up and that was where the real adventurous people went through. No one but me or the water based races actually met the ocean so there was no way to tell if there was one continent or several. I guess I can only wait until later in the game to meet him. Let him open up more, I guess I also need to change myself before I meet him as well. I leave my virtual space and head into town. I go to an ice cream shot and get a double chocolate scoop and sit in a park while eating it and thinking. What could I really do. All I did was annoy my party and was left alone and was all alone now. The only people I never did talk back to where the Siren and Merfolk. They were nice and I always thought before talking because I liked them. *Sigh* I guess I''ll just have to wait to see how they turned out and make my actions from how they are. Maybe I can get a few quests around there or learn a bit more about why an elemental core was assimilated into my body after being wrapped in the cables inside my body. So many questions and no answers. My head hurts but I guess it might be the ice cream. I think I will do like Nathaniel, instead of randomly making a party, I will make it with people I like. I think even the NPC can explore. I felt the world of Etheria was really free from the regular games where the NPC are shackled to a job or role. Maybe I can make a few friends with a Siren or someone and have lots of adventures...I hope I can find people who won¡¯t leave me behind just because I talk too much without thinking. I head back home and examine the forums before picking up a few high school level books and start studying. I needed to regain even a bit of confidence and getting my school grades up would help but I guess the mechanic books I got to help me in game might help as well. Warden PoV Warden: ¡®So how was the investigation?¡¯ ???: ¡®Sorry sir but nothing. All the files are hidden and under lock and key by the girl¡¯s father.¡¯ Warden: ¡®Well isn¡¯t that interesting.¡¯ I was sitting in a starbucks cafe talking with a personal friend who was a private detective investigator. I hired him to look into Nathaniel¡¯s trial as well as his family¡¯s situation and so on. Most of the information I already know. Charges of rape and sexual harassment but no proof of it but he still got 10 years of jail time. He would have been transferred to the adults jail this year since he would have made 18. Family situation only got worse after he went to jail, accident which left his sister paralyzed. No records of drug use or any violent actions done by him. Besides what happened to get him in here he looks like a model citizen. The problem is that the files of the trial themselves were locked and kept in a VERY secure cabinet that was almost as secure as a federal class case. To view that I would need a judge¡¯s order or a police search warrant and since I wasn¡¯t a field officer I would need the judge''s order but that was unsuccessful. No judge wanted me touching that file. I was very curious about this case now because watching the video of Nathaniel nearly jumping at the girl in a fit of rage isn¡¯t something to ignore, even more so when the only other time I saw him angry was against that NPC in the game. I did search her up and found she was the ¡°victim¡± in his trial. Searching a bit more I found out her father was the one that orders her pay the same amount of time as the boy and paid a hefty sum to make that happen. There was definitely more to this story then meets the eye and I want to dig as deep as I can. If this bites my ass then so be it but I can¡¯t get this feeling out of my head. Something is very wrong in this case and I will find out what. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 2 Chapter 3 The Second Awakening Sorry for the late release. Couldn''t finish last night because of lack of motivation from a hard day. Last chapter of the week i will be starting D&A after a bit and hopefully release it today. Please post any ideas because i''m out and don''t really know what to do with Techno''s adventure from here on out. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Delta PoV It¡¯s quite nice to finally get to see the world outside of this metal shell I was trapped in. Though I say it¡¯s good, I still feel sad seeing it in such a horrible state like it is now. The war really took its toll on everything the world had to offer. I have gained quite an ample view of the world thanks to the programs I uploaded in Gaia and Rust I have been passing to all clockwork. It¡¯s quite convenient but still the more I see the world, the more I understand why Gaia didn¡¯t want me loose. As of now, the descendants of those who caused this chaos and even those who participated in it, were starting to repair the damage. I would only ruin their efforts. I think staying here for now is for the best. At least now I have something to do instead of stay in eternal darkness. It¡¯s quite fun to play with the robots this young awakened boy left behind. The most interesting were the smallest ones, these drones. Small collectors from some out of control furnace queen. He did well to make them so diverse. This mechanical animal is also strange. Rather weak though, lacks many weapons to make it useful but still has a strong rush attack like the real animal would have. Now the thing that kind of peaked my interest was why the leader was a Knight mechanic. This class is only useful during wars because they are able to survive the battle front and repair the units on site. Ah I get it, mechanics are normally slow. He must have gone for a mobile mechanic class. Well if he built a smaller knight body and put the tools inside he would still have mobility and be only mechanic class. I should suggest that to him when he wakes up. Anyway at the moment I''ve counted about 20 years that has passed since the boy went to sleep. The clockworks, Dwarves, Gnomes, Elves and Goblins have all united into one nation. Elves still want to maintain independence and are still their own smaller nation annexed within. Gaia was smart because she did not want to get on their bad side. From what I saw, with gnomes and elves help, they have also created flora that can survive in this wasteland planet after some cultivation of the ground. They have also taken over a huge ship which, from listening to Gaia and Rust talk, was once occupied with rotten humans. Sometime after the ship began operating a group that seemed to have lived there originally returned. They asked to join the nation and were accepted but most of the races were wary of them and didn¡¯t let them participate or even get near, any of the construction projects. Most of it was ship constructions as well. The humans didn¡¯t take it badly though, knowing somewhat how humans were thought of they accepted the treatment but they did speak with the elves and wished to learn how to repair nature. Again, though wary the elves did let them watch and their leader taught basic level nature magic to these humans. I believe humans who use nature magic are called druids. The leader of the humans gained that class and began learning the elves culture. Seems he was very sincere about getting nature back to normal, though I wondered about a few of the other humans. A few of them were less willing to continue living in a place they weren¡¯t accepted but they stayed trying to learn something from the others. With a bit of searching through my connection with the clockwork, I found a few drones lying about in the shipyard settlement. I took them for myself and finally gained my personal freedom and then went to spy on these humans. The only thing they were allowed to learn was the basics from the elves and quite a few didn¡¯t want that. I kept my eye and soon I found several that wanted to leave but also taking a few ships with them. I sighed at how they never changed, though the nation''s outlook on them was still the same as well, given good reason though; I still send an anonymous video to Gaia who has been leading the constructions. With a steel fist, she disciplined them before having them leave with their things. She also had those who didn¡¯t want to stay leave as well. It was at this moment that they all voiced their complains about how they were being treated and they were only acting that way because of it. The other races all looked the other way but they all felt the truth. Gaia was in deep thought about this. The thoughts were to simply get rid of them all which kind of ticked me off. Delta: ¡±Stupid old hag, if you make them all leave it will soon lead to a new war.¡± Gaia: ¡±Tch, you are watching this huh, shut it brat. (A.N. Gaia is older, she was built first) Delta: ¡±Think properly for once. If you make them leave it will only cause trouble in the future. They are right that they are being treated unfairly and were acting to at least have a better chance of survival. Gaia: ¡®... *sigh* Fine, if it¡¯s alright with all of you we will teach you basics, and ONLY basics, of the craft you want but you will be considered a citizen of our nation and trying to run with technologies from here will have you hunted down.¡¯ Many of the humans gave a wary smile as did the others who would be teaching but more or less everyone agreed. Gaia: ¡±Since you made me accept this YOU are watching over them, GOT IT BRAT!¡± Delta: ¡±Hehehe, it¡¯s always nice to see you annoyed. Brings joy to my small world¡± From there she stomped off angry and I had a grin on my face. Like promised, I watched over all the humans but they did nothing and looked quite satisfied being able to learn from the other races without stealing from them. It was quite peaceful after that for the most part, everything except for the new monsters that have begun to appear in the restored nature. Besides the mutated lower food chain animals there were quite a number of larger animals...and pests. Larger creatures such as humanoid rats and very large bugs of all kinds. They were all powerful and a real big pain in the ass of the restoration group. One of the tanks was sent there with knights to clean them up but the number was quite amazing. He even went on to ask to make more knights because the current number would soon get destroyed if they fought constantly. They then began working on building bodies for those willing to upgrade to knight class. Besides this class though other classes, all of which seem to be what the young awakened boy made, were made, a sniper, a scout and knight. Gaia visited the kids with Rust when they came to repair them and activated them momentarily to check out all the weapons. The interesting shoulder launcher on the boy, the powerful machine sniper on the small girl, the bombs the boy made and the protectors jump suspension. All of them were scanned to be used. Some would say it''s shameless to steal but I¡¯m sure they won¡¯t mind because when they return, the weapons would be upgraded by then. With the new weapons built rapidly from the tinkering hands of the gnomes they are put into play. Protectors were built like the girls and all snipers controlled one. This kept them free of trouble and having them massive fire power to rain havoc on the pests. Even a few miners were able to fight. With one of them making a somewhat bulky knights body but with drills. With a better mobility they are able to run at the monsters and use the large drills on their hands to cause damage. Now what is really interesting is how goblins have taken up work. They are just as versatile as a human. They are everywhere and because of their fast birth rate they have grown to nearly the same number as clockworks. Most of them are trained in the dwarf mines to build strength and stamina, as are all those who go fighting, before getting tinkering training and then finally get some dwarven armor and some weapons to start off. They train clearing out monsters down below in groups before going out to hunt in the mountain range. All in all the nation build by these little ones is going quite well. I do wonder though, where are the constructs. If the three join up together they would be quite a force to be reckon with. Nathaniel PoV I¡¯m really happy right now. It seems that visits like in the detention center are still allowed. Mom and Dad purchased a capsule and after speaking with the warden and several others it was decided that they allow family in. With a bit of working on the Company''s part, mom and dad had their capsules modified to allow them to come to the Virtual space during the time we were here. It seems they also did that to many capsules of other juvenile convicts that were here and have been letting the parents come and speak or spend quality time with them. We all go and walk around what everyone is calling Virtual Town now. Mom and Dad say that after this town was made there were quite a few in the Company that liked the idea and released a new VR drive which makes new servers in with towns like this. With a bit of government managing it was made so that around 5,000 people can access 1 server. Most of these towns were similar to this but none of the players had Virtual Spaces like ours. Not that it mattered to us. We couldn¡¯t access them anyway so it¡¯s not like we cared. What I and the overjoyed Sasha did care about was going to the movie theaters here in our town and enjoying the day with all together. It felt nice to spend time with them. Mom and Dad will probably try making time to play Etheria but it won¡¯t be like us who are stuck in their 24/7. We do know though that ever real life month, 5 months in game time, we will be allowed to spend 2 real life days, 10 in game days, in Virtual Town. It was a really nice day but unfortunately they can only come for 1 day every break. Rather cruel but rules are rules and even with my trial being total shit I''m still a convict so it¡¯s not like I have any say. When the time came they logged out and we both went back home. Several ideas for had appeared while I read the mechanics and programming books I got and it gave he me that same uncomfortable pain in my hands. Thankfully there was a room to buy for mechanics stuff. I bought it but it was the annoying price of 100 points. We were left with few of Sasha¡¯s points now and couldn¡¯t buy anything big anymore. We both spend time in there both learning. The place came with infinite parts of whatever kind we wanted. I spend my time learning to improve the things I had made in game and even plan new stuff. Most of the stuff I made notes in the notepad. I guessed that the notepad was a capsule system so even in the game it might work. I then looked thought of my own body. The one I made modeled after Gaia¡¯s was monstrously high leveled to the point of feeling broken even with it not being complete. I think it works even with a normal engine but the energy needed would make it work at around 20%. I would probably only be able to use that body as a robot. I turn my attention to think of a new way to use that gear model. I would need to decrease the number much further. I think the torso gears will need to stay the same. I think for now I will concentrate on the legs. I draw up a model. I try seeing if it connects to the game even slightly to see if a level appears for the blueprints. Shockingly it does. Just making the legs with more gears increased the agility monstrously but the level restriction was at around 90. I guess it worked for now. I would simply need to work with normal clockwork models for now. When I reach level 90 I will start making more Synthoid model bodies. I will also need to look for a way to make the magic circuits. Gaia¡¯s circuits were pure silver which is a metal that naturally transmits mana well in its pure state. I¡¯m sure Mithril is better but being a metal that is not only VERY high leveled it probably would end up rigid as well while silver would feel like copper wire which is very malleable. I draw up a smaller than normal knight body but put all the tools properly spread out around my body. Thankfully I could still keep the swords but no other weapons would be able to be input. The body was just at my size like the other robot I tried making but the gears were steel and built like a normal. The level was 30+ so it was a good start. I continue for a while. The days were approaching where we will return to the game so I wanted to be ready. Bulk PoV After I logged out last week I was left with nothing to do. The game took up most of my afternoon and night. Because we sleep while we play. Well anyway, it didn¡¯t matter much. Oh something did change though. The company LIFE released a new app for the capsules. They call it Virtual Town and it makes a virtual space to hang out in the virtual world. This system works with a small working part of the feedback system the company has been testing. The News of the release made everyone buy it and the next real life day it showed thousands of people using the virtual town to catch up on work, home work, and exercise. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Because the feedback system is still in its early stages it only transfers about 5% of the effects so there wasn¡¯t much to it but many people who needed to lose weight bought it and began. With 1:5 time distortions like in Etheria they trained a lot more in the Virtual town. There was even governmental discussion on the third day of the release about using this Virtual Town app to take the place of things like school classes, though PE is still in the real world, as well as office buildings for many companies. This would clear out many large offices and make it easier to travel to work since you can stay home instead of traveling hours. Seems LIFE is making our lives easier one way or another. Me being a college student, I could really use this. I bought it and caught up with my massive load of homework and then enjoyed the rest of the day looking around the server that the school bought. Man, if I could talk with Techno it would get rid of some of this boredom. I wonder if he is in Virtual town. Wait he probably isn¡¯t American anyway. He could be from anywhere in the world. (A.N. Never said this but Nathaniel/Techno is Brazilian like me. It¡¯s probably possible to bribe a judge here which is why it''s not unreasonable to bribe a judge unlike in the USA.) I give up on that thought and decide to enter a recently opened sword fighting class that was made inside Virtual town. I wanted to learn real dual sword fighting to use in game. I¡¯ve been letting the system guide me but from every fanfic I''ve read the best Virtual reality players are the ones with real life knowledge of what they are doing I game. That said, the training was quite intense. The teacher was Asian descent and was relentless with his training. At the end of the virtual day I was exhausted so I logged out and went to take a bath. I did notice my body was a bit sore. Seems the feedback system isn¡¯t some crappy rumor. At the end of the week the game will be back online. Anyway I take a bath, eat before I head back in. I was going to be way stronger when we get back into the game. Gaia PoV It''s been 35 years since Techno has gone to sleep. Our nation has grown large. The elves are still somewhat separate but because we started restoring nature they came out of the forest and even expanded their own borders. They were a bit against industrializing their cities but it simply took me learning some basic alchemy from them and I could begin making weapons and goods that can be used with magic. Oh just so you guys know, alchemy was the skill that allows us to mix up and work with monster materials and mix it with other materials. Speaking of monsters, there are quite a number of annoying pests appearing. Any normal animal are long gone, instead we have to categorize them by herbivore/carnivore and by size. One example is the rats. They are now humanoid but just as annoying and are smart enough to strategies. Then there are the less intelligent like the rabbits. They are as big as horses but much stronger. We have survived well because we took Techno''s weapons and improved them greatly. Because we have alchemy we also learned how to make real black powder. We also began remodeling the engines for everything making them consume much less but bring out more power. Several ship weapons were made as well which helped greatly to explore more dangerous places. During these last few years we also began encountering some more races. More specifically 3 strong races, the Demon race, The Ogre race and the Genie Race. The first ones we met were simple travellers and explorers for their tribes. The demon race. I was rather happy finding them because they are very powerful but unlike the comment thought of them, they are a nice race. They range between 180cm - 200 cm (2 m) with a long tail, pale grey skin and the feature that always made humans fear them, the eyes. The pupil is white and the supposed whites of the eye instead are back. When the demons encountered the humans in our nations a few jumped back from the sudden shock of seeing them but soon they calmed down. After the shock they greeted them normally like any other. This brought a strange reaction from the demons who have probably only heard of humans as a plague Now the Ogre race similar to the demons were met with explorers, the difference is that they were much stronger. The ones that met them were the knights when they were fighting a group of monsters. The group was having trouble and the Ogre helped them and was invited back to the Ship city. They vary between two types of ogres. One is a hulking giant that is almost 3 meters tall, 280 cm to be exact (ogre Kichi reference). These large ones have look like heavy body builders with very dense muscles and green skin. Their black hair is wild and drops to just below the shoulder. They have two large horns on the side of their head and two large canines on the lower jaw can be seen pointing out of their mouth when they have their mouth closed. (http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/re-monster/images/d/d2/Ogarou_vs._Ogakichi_(sparring).png/revision/latest?cb=20141101232306) The shorter ones are 230 cm (ogre Rou reference) They, similar to the large ones, have dense muscles and two horns on their heads as well as a paler shade of green skin. Their black hair is similarly wild like the big ones and goes down to the waist. I was familiar with the race but it seems things changed some time ago. I think the rank up magic that because the rapid growth of monsters in our world might have disappeared. The reason is because no goblins have ranked up once even though many of them have trained greatly. What has happened is them slowly growing like a human. Also after a certain number of goblins were born, their birth rate decreased drastically and the time it took for them to grow before birth was also lengthened. They might not be considered a monster race anymore or the god¡¯s magic simply was gone. I think the lack of followers could be the answer. Not enough power was flowing to them. It was fine by me. It made things easier since the rank ups sometimes turned somewhat sentient creatures into mindless monsters. When I met them we found out they wanted to join our ranks. It seems they saw the goblins and saw them prospering and growing stronger and wished to join. Soon after the tribe arrived and some went to South gate town by ship. The last race was the Genie race. This race is quite unique, they are very powerful magic users whose main body is a small lamp. They carry it on their person at all times. They are generally human in looks with males being nearly 2 meters, muscular and pale blue skin. The females are beautiful like dancers and have light pink skin. They normally wear cloth or silk cloths which are weaved from their magic somehow. They also have the racial trait of allowing them to turn their legs into mist which lets them fly. They are a neutral nomadic race that only attacks when threatened. They also hold a grudge like no other. They will never forget someone who has wronged them but they will also never forget a benefactor. Genies, as said, are nomads and have no real home since they always travel. When they arrived at ship city they were quite interested and I met the leader. After talking a bit they decided to leave. It seems they prefer nature to technology. Obviously not wanting to lose such a power house race I suggested having a few men take them to the elf city. They like the idea and we prepared a ship to take them there. They ended up staying with the elves and with a spell they knew to call their kind slowly more began appearing at the elves home. After advancing so much I was now standing at the top of the scrapyard wall. I was looking down at the bustling town that had grown very large. Lights lit the stone streets and came out of the stone and metal houses. At the center was the council hall which stood 3 floors high with the most refined look being made with a skeleton of steel and stone covering it. It¡¯s been a rather long time since I woke up again. One reason or another I was always flying from one city or another. Several smaller cities were made near some new mine within the mountain range or some near some dead forest closer to the elves home. From those the woods were restored slowly bringing life back. As I look up at the clear night sky, with the stars shining brightly trying to outdo the lights of the bustling town, I notice Rust arriving. Rust: ¡®So here you are.¡¯ Gaia: ¡®You¡¯re back. How were they this time.¡¯ Rust ¡®*sigh* The rapid rusting is a pain. As soon as I attach a new part the rust begins eating away even if it''s magic alloys. They lose their magic and turn to regular rusted iron.¡¯ Gaia: ¡®Must be a god level magic on their bodies to keep them like that.¡¯ Delta: ¡±Yes it is, I feel it. It is fading though. The spell is consuming itself faster because it must almost be time for their second awakening.¡± Gaia: ¡®So it¡¯s almost time to have fun again.¡¯ Delta: ¡±Sorry to burst your bubble but it''s not like you can leave. Queen.¡± Gaia: ¡®Tch, who are you calling queen.¡¯ Rust: ¡®He is right. What will the nation do if you leave. You''re the most qualified to run it.¡¯ Gaia: ¡®Like hell, I want to travel.¡¯ Delta: ¡±So does Lyra but you see her sucking it up and doing her work.¡± Gaia: ¡®Fuck.¡¯ She looked dejectedly out towards the scraps. The direction was towards the clockwork base which was turned into a town. We just stood there in silence when Delta broke the silence. Delta: ¡±I feel it...the spell rusting the kids is broken.¡± I nod and then something catches my attention. Falling from the sky like a shower of meteors were bright lights. A large shower of light was falling over the dwarf¡¯s mountain while a spread out shower was over the scraps outside of the South gate town. Rust: ¡®What the...they have awakened.¡¯ Gaia: ¡®...Ya, get ready for a huge number of pains in the ass because things are going to get busy. Rust, go get Techno. Delta keep him there.¡¯ Delta: ¡±He is having trouble moving so it¡¯s no problem.¡± I nod and look to Rust. He nods and runs off down the wall. Soon a small ship that was attached to the docks made into the side of the walls began flying towards the mountain that hid Techno inside. Gaia: ¡®Guess I should get going. They are waking up and they are made from trash. Need to get the dwarves on max output for Iron parts.¡¯ I walk down the large stairs until I leave South Gate town and walk towards the dwarf town. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 2 Chapter 4 Return First chapter of the week Enjoy and please leave comments/Ideas and reviews/votes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Techno PoV It was the last day we would stay in the Virtual space. Me and Sasha were enjoying some TV before we would be entering the game again. It would be 4 months in game before we would get a break. While she was watching I went over my notes I had made. The notes contained several basic blueprints to improve our weapons and some possible new ones. Some of them held complete sets of codes that would replace our corrupted ones. I had also remade the targeting, scanning, and mapping system on my PC here and improved on it as I learned more about programming. Besides them, I had also made several body blueprints for myself and Sasha each more complicated than the last. This was so we could be ready as we leveled up. I also took the time to learn to make some engines similar to car engines but still steam based. Mainly engines with pistons. The pressurized vapor enters pushing down the piston and escapes into a secondary tank which is where the water cools and returns to be reheated. The first tank would hold the steam and go to the whole body to move it around and any possible tools that would use it. I had made it a pure Mechanic body. It had a knight like body but only had swords as weapons. I trained in the gym some to be able to use both arms, I normally use my right arm so with training I started getting used to using my left hand. I also wrote most of the time here with it so I could become better. All this so I could work faster with the swords I have in case I ever needed them as well as controlling the robots better. I could also become more flexible while tinkering if I used both hands. With everything checked we were told to get to bed before noon as we would be sent into the game while in bed to avoid any complications since we were still laying down in the game. We both cleaned up our rooms putting all the books away and cleaning the rest of the junk. We would still have access to the books but I guess it wouldn¡¯t hurt to be neat and it¡¯s possible that the app works only with books in the bookcases, so I won¡¯t be taking that chance. With everything ready I put Sasha in bed and tell her not to get up and told her we would be back in the game soon. She just nods and starts playing with the Virtual space system. I had made sure that she wouldn¡¯t have any authority to actually buy anything unless I allowed it but she liked to look at the items. I leave and head into my room. I put the remaining books away and then go to my desk and grab the pile of blank paper and put it in the bookcase. Next to it I put several cuts with pencils, pens and markers. After a bit of testing I found out the bookcase system took whatever I put in it and made it available to use so if I had a pencil or pen in it I could use them in game through the app. I lay on my bed and a timer appeared. [table] I nod swiping the window away. I thought about what had happened during the time we were here. It was a nice rest from the constant need of having to look over my shoulder to be careful of anything sneaking up on us or to make sure Gaia wasn¡¯t about to fuck something up. I really hope that idiot put herself in such a high place that she won¡¯t be able to escape from it when I return and get Rust back before we hit the skies or road. When the clock finally clicked the time, my vision darkened and I found myself in space. Floating next to me was Sasha and in front of us was the same goddess we first met when making our characters. Ariel: ¡®Hey kid, good seeing you again.¡¯ Nathaniel: ¡±Can¡¯t say the same though¡¯ Ariel: ¡®That¡¯s mean, and here all of us gods were so interested in you. We were all so intrigued by how grand your adventures were during the first awakening, but who cares.¡¯ Sasha: ¡®Hey lady stop reading bro¡¯s mind and speaking just with him.¡¯ Once more just like the first time Sasha goes and makes a few veins appear on the goddesses head. Ariel: ¡®I guess that brother of yours still hasn¡¯t taught you manners huh. Let me do that for him.¡¯ She raised her right sleeve and starts floating over to Sasha with a somewhat evil glint in her eyes. Before she could pass me I got in her way which makes her look up pissed but she took a step back when she saw me getting annoyed. Seems she has an idea of how much I cherish Sasha and is probably giving up on doing anything. Ariel: ¡®Tch, and here I thought I could fix that rotten personality of hers.¡¯ Nathaniel: ¡®Try fixing yours before others.¡¯ My comment makes her brows twitch with anger. Nathaniel: ¡®Can we move on or we will never get down to the planet.¡¯ Ariel: ¡®Fine brats. Do you want to continue with your characters from before or make a new one. Remember that continuing with your old character will cut your levels in half and put a debuff on your body to compensate.¡¯ Nathaniel: [/i]¡®Same ones¡±[/i] Ariel: ¡®Good, now shoo. Oh and it¡¯s a good idea to make your adventures just as exciting. Most of you players were really boring so most of the gods have their eyes on you.¡¯ Nathaniel: ¡±I don¡¯t really give a damn but just know I won¡¯t be some scapegoat for restarting your long forgotten religions. She shrugged and waved her hand. Our bodies began glowing brightly and fell down towards the planet like meteors. We weaved through the skies and soon we could see the scrapyard from above. The light we were in veered off from the main bulk of the lights descending around the city that had appeared around the South gates. We flew far off straight into a mountain of junk through everything and finally impacted into our bodies. The moment we hit our bodies everything went dark except for the digital window that appeared showing the booting up process. Just like the first time, the booting went ahead and scanned my body but unlike the first time the scans showed all my bodyparts were functional but it took large damage from rusting. [table]
3 minutes before launch
Your steel body has aged tremendously and has been reduced to rusty steel. Power of steel has dropped to rusty steel. Stats have been reduced by 60%
You have gained the Rusty body Trait. Until you repair all the heavily rusty parts in your body your stats will be halved.
Your levels have been cut in half. Your current level is 24. Because you didn¡¯t use your extra stat points no allocated points will be removed. You currently have 21 free points remaining.
Seeing the windows, I grimace seeing that irritating trait is back. I start moving my body but it all instantly start to creak and I feel several major faults in my gears around my arms and joints. Delta: ¡±Good to see you¡¯re awake boy.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Oh you''re still stuck here. I would have thought you might have escaped by now. Delta: ¡±Because Gaia and Rust went out into the world I''ve been able to spread my program to other clockwork and machines. So I''m pretty satisfied as I am. I can see what they see so it isn¡¯t bad. Techno: ¡±And what about talking with others. Delta: ¡±Well you don¡¯t speak with anyone else either.¡± Techno: ¡®...¡¯ I shook my head and actually chuckled hearing that. I really can¡¯t reply back. Delta: ¡±Rust is heading over with parts for repairs.¡± I nod and then slowly turned my head around. I quickly spotted a few drones and connected with them. My systems were still offline and I was running on battery power so I need them on. I connect and activate a few of them and have them come over and climb up my back. A few of them open my head cap and another goes in. I search around until I finally find the start button for my engine and press it. I hear the engine roar loudly to life. The noise from it was rather disturbing. Seems several gears that made the process quieter were also broken. I then looked to the side and spot Nova. She was already on but like me she was having trouble moving so I send a few drones over and start her up. I then move a few drones to the gear box we had while others headed into my body to see the parts I needed to repair just so I could move around. I found several broken gears inside my body. It was from the startup. They were rusted too deeply and broke from the pressure. It was this that caused my arms and legs to stop working. They were major gears since they transfer the power down the gear line. I remove what remains and bring a new gear in and after shutting down the engine I replaced three gears that were like that and turned the engine back on. With the gears moving in my arms and leg I could sit upright and move my arms now. At this point I lay back against the ship behind me. I needed more parts than what survived here. I did fix Nova to a greater degree than myself, getting both arms and legs all working so she was walking about already. After she fiddled with it a bit she turned her Protector back on. It was much less degraded to the point that it only had a few spots of rust were I could see. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Techno: So the rust we have must have been accelerated to give the debuff. Realizing this I growled at the gods, but then I sighed because it would have happened anyway since the game went into full release so we needed more even footing. Though I don¡¯t know if letting someone start off with a ship can be called even footing but who cares. I opened my status to see how much I lost.
Status
NameTechno GearRaceClockwork
ClassKnight MechanicLevel:24
Free stats points21Durability660/660
Energy400/400Strength39(/2)
Agility30(/2)Dexterity42(/2)
Toughness44(/2)Intelligence36(/2)
Wisdom38(/2)Charisma38
Leadership10(/2)Luck30(/2)
Traits
Rusty body Being offline has degraded your body to scrap. -5 to all stats until the respective system or parts are replaced
Parental control A system skill that lets you teleport your child or sibling that is below age and has wondered a certain distance from to back
Clockwork scanner A basic system in a Clockworks body that allows them to scan their surrounds and check tools and parts. Also allows them to identify items at a certain range. 1 energy every 15 seconds
Skills
Clockwork body construction (Intermediate 1) Being of the Clockwork race you instinctively know how to make parts for your body +7% increase in ability when making a body or body part
Scavenger (Intermediate 1) Able to find useful scraps and parts from trash. Increases chance to find something by 20%
Tinker (Intermediate 1) You have the natural skill to tinker with any machine. 5%Increases ability when tinkering with a machine
Dwarven Blacksmithing (Basic 1) The most coveted blacksmithing art. The techniques of the dwarves are passed on in the family and even after the industrial age appeared it was still at the top for being able to make higher quality goods than industrial goods. The techniques this form implies are all primitive but can easily be adapted to any form of blacksmithing and to many different conditions. Even when using a poorly made clay forge you can produce good quality metal items. In the past it was kept a trade secret kept under tight guard. It was once even considered a race only art that only dwarves could learn because of their open minds towards blacksmithing. Today though with so few people remaining to keep the art alive, the arts were spread among those the dwarves and to those they trust, or if ever a need great enough arises that warrants the trade of the arts. +10% when blacksmithing anything.
Blunt weapon mastery (Basic 1) Using a blunt weapon or club has given you some understanding of such weapons +3% damage when using a blunt weapon
Programming(Basic 1) The skill to design new programs for automatons and machines. This skill lets you understand better computer coding. +5% increase to ability when making basic level software
Marksmanship (Basic 1) The art of shooting a gun and hit your target with precision. +2% damage when using a firearm of any kind. +2% increase in precision with your shot when using a gun.
Machine weapon building (Basic 1) You know your way around with your tools to the point of being able to make weapons that can be added directly to your body. +5% increase in ability when making a machine weapon (weapons that attach directly onto robots and follow system orders)
Seems all my skills reset to level 1 of the current rank. That¡¯s good because I won¡¯t need to retrain so much. Now the level cut sucks. Half our levels. I''ve currently a little over 50% into level 24. Really sucks now we will need to grind a lot to get back. Not only that our bodies have been nearly reset. Well at least we are close to the dwarf relic funcace. Just need to have Rust arrive. Nova: ¡®Hey bro, when will we leave?¡¯ Techno: ¡®Rust is coming to help. Bro needs parts to get repairs.¡¯ Nova: ¡®Ok. Can I go see the giant robot.¡¯ I frowned and thought before I made a drone climb up the protector. Techno: ¡®Only if you have one of my drones close.¡¯ Nova: ¡®Yay~~~!¡¯ She helped the drone the rest of the way and I had it climb up her shoulder. She had the protector run off into the cave towards the giant robot god. Delta: ¡±Jealous your sister wants to visit.¡± Techno: ¡±You teach her something stupid and I will dismantle you until you are nothing but another part of this scrap mountain.¡± I felt the vibrations coming from inside the cave as the robot laughs and frowned. After a while I felt the system of someone outside and with a bit of pushing the doors we built opened up and two glowing eyes appear. They moved closer until the lights from my eye lit the body up. ???: ¡®Long time no see Techno. How was your sleep?¡¯ Techno: ¡±Could have been better. Didn¡¯t you and Gaia say you would keep our bodies repaired?¡¯ Rust: ¡®Your bodies were under magical influence forcing it to rust faster.¡¯ I nod understanding. It was then I noticed the clockwork behind him. Techno: ¡±Is it ok to bring them here?¡± Rust: ¡®They are labor robots we built to do heavy lifting. Quite a bit changed you know.¡¯ I nod again looking at the boxes. The robots were made of steel and each were lifting large boxes with lots of gears. They opened the large creates and brought them over. The chest opened up releasing dozens of drones who swarmed my body. Rust: ¡®These are quick repair parts made of iron. No steel since it takes longer to make and for rushed repairs it isn¡¯t good.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Good. My level was lowered to 24 so I can¡¯t use steel parts anymore. I will need to regain them.¡± Rust blinked a few times taking it in and I noticed the scan. Rust: ¡®Wow, that god¡¯s magic sure did a number on you. Lets get you walking more or less, I''m sure you want a new body so no use keeping this on. Want to keep the ship or scrap it.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Did you guys make newer stuff than this and will I be able to get one free?¡± Rust: ¡®I don¡¯t think Gaia would miss one ship. Being the queen of the clockworks now she would probably want to reward you with something.[/i] Techno: ¡±Then we can scrap this one. Make sure to load all the materials though. They can be reused for something else.¡± I grinned hearing Gaia was the queen. I will love shutting her out when we are going to leave. I hope to see her stressed out wanting to leave with us only to see us deny her. I let the robots fix me and watch them take the ship apart. With the quick fix I was able to get rid of that crappy trait and then I got Hino and the turtle onto the new ship. I stored everything that was ours in my inventory and then finally I picked up Bulks body and got it onto the ship again. With the place cleared out I call Nova and we finally set out again to South gate City ready for whatever life brings us. Volume 2 Chapter 5 Return Part 2 Bulk PoV At the moment its about 1 hour before the game launches again. What am I doing. At the moment I''m the hardwood floor of my teachers dojo. This bastard doesn¡¯t know the meaning of mercy. He keeps saying that because this is Virtual Reality Human rights can be further ignored then normal because he isn¡¯t physically injuring me and to make it worse trainees sign a contract. Like an idiot I signed without reading and now I can¡¯t argue because the contract states that he can train me in what ever manner he sees fit and it seems using me as a punching bag falls under that. Teacher: ¡®Is this the best you have brat.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Urg ya. Like hell...I''ll ever beat...a master.¡¯ Teacher: ¡®Huh. I know you just want to run off to that game everyone talks about. Well before you even think of that you are cleaning the main training room.¡¯ I pushed up and glared at the elderly man in a white martial arts gi. (http://www.tao-distribution.com/contents/media/karate-gi_blanc.jpg) Bulk: ¡®Like hell I will you old fart.¡¯ Teacher: ¡®If you don¡¯t want to then beat me.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Do you really think I can even land a hit on you.¡¯ Teacher: ¡®...True. You have skill and talent but you¡¯re far from being able to. Fine, if you land a hit on me in the next five minutes you are free to go.¡¯ I grinned and pushed myself up. I had learned from him the whole week, which is over a month in virtual reality. He has beaten me senseless everyday I have trained with him. During that time he has beaten the proper forms into my body to an ok level. Even with talent there is a limit to how much a person can actually learn in such a short amount of time. His style of fighting is calm, he reads his opponent and strikes where it matters. Me, you might already know but I''m not the calmest guy in the world. Especially when there is an annoying old fart like him grinning childishly at me. My style is to try and overwhelm my opponent forcing him to make an opening which I mercilessly attack. Our fighting styles are the furthest possible the same as our personalities which is why I hate this guy. Still the only reason we are here together and I learn from him is because both of us are to prideful of either giving in or quitting. I take a post of attack and without caring I move in. 5 minutes later Guess its not to be. That old man only blocked my assault for a full five minutes and as soon as it hit five minutes the bastards did some insane stuff that would hurt insanely in real life. He hit my elbows making me flinch from the pain before hitting my left leg HARD making me lose my balance before he simply kicked my right leg from below me and then made me kiss the floor with an unneeded sword slash to the face pushing my face to the floor. Teacher: ¡®When you can finally get up start cleaning the room.¡¯ With that he simply left the room leaving my mashed body to slowly be restored by the VR system. In 2 minutes the pain was killed and what was in a strange position was put in place. The fatigue was still there but it was mental stuff. Its like saying the more mentally tired I am the more fatigue I have here. A bucket and a towel was in front of me as I sit up. Without saying anything I start. I do the same thing in the animes. I soak the towel and then put it on the floor before I bend over and push running and cleaning. Great way to get some extra exercise as well. I spent 2 hours cleaning. One whole hour that I could have already been back inside Etheria playing and watching Techno or Nova doing something crazy was spent cleaning a virtual dojo because the bastard owner of the place doesn¡¯t want to use the auto clean service and he won¡¯t let me use it either. With everything finally done I escape from the place and head home where I lay down before activating the game. I appear in space again like the first time I logged in. In front of me is that goddess woman that helps with the character creation. Bulk: ¡®Don¡¯t need to ask. I¡¯ll go with the same character.¡¯ Ariel: ¡®Well someone is in a hurry. Hehe.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®What¡¯s so funny?¡¯ Ariel: ¡®Nothing. Pff.¡¯ She waved me off and my body turned into a blue meteor. As I fall down towards the world I can see far off over the mountains. It was awesome looking at a view like this. When I looked down I saw the scrapyard in its full size. Falling from super far up I still had to look far to see the end. Looking down I noticed I wasn¡¯t falling straight instead I was kind of arching. I wondered why but it didn¡¯t take long for me to find out. I fell right into a flying ship where my body was placed. Slowly my systems booted up and finally my vision was restored. I was sitting up against the captain''s cabin on the top deck of the city. What caught me off guard though was what was going on up here. Right in front of me Techno was, without any mercy whatsoever, beating the three golems to an inch of their lives. The rock golem was on the ground under Techno¡¯s boot with him grinding down onto his head while the two fire golems were being constantly smashed together. Nova: ¡®This is for trying to run away from me and bro.¡¯ I was baffled seeing them mercilessly beat on the three. I try turning my neck but the rust around my whole body causes a lot of noise drawing their attention. Nova: ¡®Ah Bulk you''re finally up. Rust fix him so he can help bro with these three.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®What¡¯s actually going on?¡¯ Rust: ¡®The three sl...familiars tried to make a run for it as soon as they came back. Suffice to say, this is the result.¡¯ Brock: ¡®GAHHH HELP US PLEASE~~~!¡¯ Ena: ¡®STOP PLEASE~~! WE WON''T TRY THAT AGAIN~~! Blaze: ¡®PLEASE KILL US ALREADY I WANT TO LEAVE~~!¡¯ I looked up at their life bars and saw the Techno was being very meticulous with his beating. The grinding on the rock golem was doing constant damage but it was just below his own regeneration speed. The same can be said about the fire ones. I really can¡¯t help but pity those three. I think they might have had their choice for a new character blocked because of Nova. A few robots appear with parts and start working on repairing my body. I also take the chance to check my stats. My level dropped to 27 from the debuff and my stats also fell way down. My body was now rusty steel so I was really pissed off at the moment. Having suffered through that bastard teachers stupid punishment I wanted to relieve my stress. I looked at the three elementals and for a moment even considered helping out but then thought a bit and pushed it out. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Simply being with Techno and Nova something interesting will soon happen. My guess is that Techno might do something to Gaia or someone like that. Bulk: ¡®Hey Rust, what happened to Gaia and you during the time we were away?¡¯ Rust: ¡®Gaia became the leader of the clockworks and set up a nation together with the Dwarf, Gnomes, Goblins, Elves, Humans, Demon, Genie and Ogre. I¡¯m kind of like an efficient servant to her.¡¯ I looked over at techno and notice him chuckling while his steam pipes were puffing out steam in a rhythm he was totally planning something against Gaia no doubt about it now. After a bit the robots finished replacing the broken parts. They also helped me start my systems. I was finally able to move around. I checked my movements but most of it was really twitchy and slow. The rust sure took its toll on our bodies. As I check out my limits I notice Techno dropping the fire elementals and removing his foot from the head of the earth golem. He sent a message to everyone. Techno: ¡±Rust pass this. Try that again and see how nice it will be next time. Give up trying to escape, unless Nova gets bored your will stay aboard.¡± I could somewhat hear the muffled sounds of sighs and whimpers from them. Again I can¡¯t help but pity them. They probably had the worst gaming experience someone can get. The bottom of Techno¡¯s metal boot and being Nova¡¯s pets. I look away cause its too pitiful to keep looking. Looking around I notice how new the ship was. It was much better than ours. First off it wasn¡¯t old, the metal all over it was unrusted. Looking over the side I saw that the propellers were like of an airplane instead of underneath. Bulk: ¡®Hey what happened to our ship?¡¯ Techno: ¡±Scraped it, the thing was old. I¡¯m sure I can squeeze a medium sized one out of Gaia. :D.¡¯ Bulk: So that¡¯s what he is planning. Techno: ¡±Speaking of her and a few other things, why is it that the robots behind you have much more advanced tech all based on the stuff I made, Rust.¡¯ Rust: ¡®...What could you mean...heh¡¯ Bulk: [b]He¡¯s a dead man.¡¯[b] Just as I predicted Techno was even more ruthless towards Rust. He made the clockwork cough up what he knew. Seems they scanned all our weapons and gear while we were away so they would have weapons to fight off monsters that were appearing. When I looked at Techno all I saw was evil intent. I think the more questions he asked Rust the more ammo he will have for attacking Gaia. I kind of fear her reaction to his demands...though I wouldn¡¯t miss seeing for the world. The rest of the trip to South Gate City was ¡°calm¡± to say the least. Techno just sat on the top deck with that air of evilness around him. Gaia really fucked up when she flipped him. Payback is coming and 100 fold. Jeopardy PoV My time in the Virtual space was more like spending time in jail then being inside Etheria. I couldn¡¯t walk around without remembering what happened. It caused me to stay inside. I simply read lots of books and left very little. When I did leave I would always go to a bookstore and buy several books on machinery stuff which work partially with constructs who are like androids. They aren¡¯t completely perfect but they have machine stuff which I don¡¯t really know how to properly work. Finally the time to return came and I logged in. I wonder how the merfolk and Sirens are. I appear in the character creation space floating above the world in space. Ariel: ¡®Hmm well the girl who brought us gods the best for of entertainment we have had in years. Your back for more fun in this broken world.¡¯ Jeopardy: ¡®What entertainment are you talking about?¡¯ Ariel: ¡®Well obviously we are talking about Nathaniel or Techno in here. The boy is a marvelous source of fun. Well I''m sure you want to get started. Want to continue with your old character or make a new one?¡¯ Jeopardy: ¡®What races are actually available for me?¡¯ Ariel: ¡®Let¡¯s see, it¡¯s easier to say the ones that aren¡¯t. Human, Dwarf, Gnome, Goblin, Ogre, Genie, Clockwork, Demons and Elves. All of these joined together and made their own nation and since you are prohibited from starting your adventure near him you will have to deal with all the other races.¡¯ I felt extremely down. To be denied so many strong races right off the bat without chance just because they are close to him. Jeopardy: ¡®I¡¯ll continue with what I have.¡¯ The goddess nodded and waved her hand. My body began descending and soon it landed in my old body inside a large merfolk village. As I start moving I notice the people looking at me with smiles. An elderly man appears even though he is old I know it. It was someone I knew and the merfolk village chief. Chief: ¡®Good to have you back my girl.¡¯ Jeopardy: ¡®Good to be back.¡¯ Techno PoV The ship is currently docking onto the docks built into the scrapyard wall. To hover the large propellers turn and point down stabilizing the ship in the air. Its some nice stuff like this that I will rip out of Gaia¡¯s annoying little hands with a smile. We leave the ship once the path was connected and headed inside. Rust escorted us while our stuff was unloaded and sent to a separate warehouse reserved for us. Man its good to have ¡°friends¡± in high places. I¡¯m sure Gaia is itching to get out of here and go places. We leave the wall and walk through the town. I notice a lot of NPC who are the ones with steel bodies while players were all the weaklings with rusty metal bodies that looked to be about to break down. We head to the largest building where the central government is kept. This building is where the leaders come to decide stuff. The government here was based on race decision. Kind of like a parlement. Each race sends a representative who speaks for the race. Sometimes the king or queen will come themselves. In Gaia¡¯s case she is always here so she must appear or send Rust in her place. We head in. The place also works as her home and workplace. Three floors well made of treated steel so it doesn¡¯t rust so fast. We go up to the second floor where she was waiting. She was grinning and so was I. Gaia: ¡®Finally, you¡¯re back. It was getting boring.¡¯ Techno: ¡±And it¡¯s not going to get any better¡± Volume 2 Chapter 6 Payback (A.N. Hey guys next chapter here. hope you like it) As a few of you saw the Poll on D&A book 2 the poll tied. Because of that i will drop the book 2 and start the new book. I was hoping you guys would help me choose a good name because i can only come up with lame names like Life of a Dungeon -_- this is the prologue link so you guys can have an idea. https://docs.google.com/document/d/11ur2i2upnKw1bqgF_gHxHAbNyZvZY-HzlYcAo8KaoN8/edit?usp=sharing) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bulk PoV We were looking at the confused Gaia who tilted her head while wondering about what he said. After a bit she simply shrugged then looked us over. Gaia: ¡®Well I¡¯m sure you all want new parts right. What kind?¡¯ Techno: ¡±For now, we need cast iron. From there we will train in some monster dungeon until we reach level 30 before returning to steel.¡± Gaia: ¡®Seems good, anything else?¡¯ (you have doomed yourself Gaia, asking that question mwahahahahaha) Techno: ¡±Of course. We want every schematic that involves any kind of tech I developed. Snipers, protectors, knights, bombs, grenade launchers and all the weapons that originated from those scans you got off us without asking before we left.¡± Gaia¡¯s jaw dropped and was only being held on by its hinges. To make it worse he didn¡¯t stop. Techno: ¡±Not only that, we want a small well armored ship built. The junker we had won¡¯t do for us within this improved world we are returning to. It can be as small as a caravel. We saw that was the smallest ship you all have, so make us one. Oh and set up a workshop for me, I will be busy with some new stuff I prepared. I want those weapons sent to the workshop as well. Now then, chop chop.¡± He finished off so splendidly that no one could respond. The guard knights that were in the room all received the messages that Techno sent out. When he talks he always sends it out to everyone near him, just like his voice would have reached those in the room. He turned around and left calling me and Nova to follow. No one even tried to stop us as we walked through the building and left. We did draw attention from the players since we were coming out of the rulers building. Since we were still rusty, they knew we were players and wondered about our connection. Bulk: ¡®That was...harsh.¡¯ Techno: ¡®Hehehe¡¯ ¡±Not harsh enough i think. But since i don¡¯t have anything else to rip out of her claws at the moment i won¡¯t push. Bulk: ¡®At the moment. Are you planning on continuing this?¡¯ I looked back at him with a grin. He frowned thinking how creepy it looked. I was used to Techno being the expressionless guy so to see him like this was a bit...different. Well anyway it was good laughs now that i think about it. When i size up what Gaia did to Techno, i would say he paid her back at least 30 times over. Doing stupid stuff like this is what keeps me following Techno. We walked around the town and looked through all the new shops. Unlike before there were many more proper forges separated in many smithies. In them were dwarves working and with the parts being made the clockwork and gnomes inside a separate workshop were building weapons and gear. Techno examined the gear on the dwarves since it has been greatly improved on. I got in on the scans and he showed me the old ones he still had stored. The specs can¡¯t even be compared to the old stuff. I instantly saw that techno was already in the process of building new bodies. I then thought of the weapons he was having Gaia get him. If a lot of weapons were made i think we will be stuck here quite a while before he is satisfied with tinkering. He did as for the schematics so it could be faster. After a while Rust came and found us. He had a worried expression and was puffing out lots of steam. It doesn¡¯t go unnoticed by Techno who tells Nova to be careful. We were led into the south gates walls and up into the dock area. We walked past a number of ships until we reached a spot where several Caravel like ships were flying. They were like the other ships, with new model and were totally new. Rust: ¡®Gaia says to choose, she doesn¡¯t want to see you for a while since she is extremely pissed to the point of wanting to punch several holes through you.¡¯ Techno: ¡®Hehehe.¡¯ Rust simple shook his head and got out of the way of Techno who walked about from one ship to the next. I was wondering what he was looking at since they were all the same. After a while he returned. Techno: ¡±We will take the third to from the right¡± The ship looked like all the others but whatever. It was enough for about 15 people so caravel sized more or less. It had ship sails like those on water but on the sides you could see large propellers spinning to keep the ship afloat. The front was adorned with metal plates that seem more decoration than armor while the rest was wood. (http://imgur.com/aNB3ulv) Rust nodded before he started doing something and asked Techno to allow him to download something. After a bit it was done and he led out. I connect to Techno since i was curious. Bulk: ¡±What did you download?¡± Techno: ¡±Ship ownership documents.¡± We followed quietly until we were led to a large building near the city walls. The inside had robots setting up a workshop while others set up some monitors. Seems computer systems were brought back online. As they were turned on one by one i see how primitive they were. It made our normal PC¡¯s looked like high grade stuff. Rust: ¡®This will be a larger download than the other. This one is all the blueprints we have that was developed from technology taken from you. Your things will be brought here as well. Cast iron is in the storage as well as with steel parts. There are enough for various bodies if needed. If you need any more you will need to purchase.¡¯ Techno nodded before they both fell silent. I could see a grin appear on Techno¡¯s face so i was guessing there are a lot of blueprints. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I sit down with Nova and chat about the time she spent with him during their week. Techno PoV Ah how it feels nice to get payback on that snotty bitch. Not only that i also gain so much from it. So much was made with stuff related to our tech. Ship parts, weapons, body parts, dwarf gear, so many things. This would speed stuff up by so much. First thing i need to do is repair these bodies to some degree. I also need to replace my corrupted codes. I¡¯m sure that only Gaia and Delta are the only clockworks that don¡¯t have corrupted codes. As soon as i finish the download Rust rushes off to get his own work done. He seems rather stressed but when you think of it, it''s not so strange. He is working under that idiot Synthoid so he must do all her work while she is the face of the government. I go and pull the cast iron parts from the storage. Gears, plates, weapon parts, they were all here. I looked through the schematics and find Nova¡¯s sniper and all the sniper models after hers. They all had level restrictions but since she would probably level 26 i look at the lowest leveled ones. My own model which was finished could still be called a prototype compared to the new ones. The lowest leveled one before my own was level 30 so i couldn¡¯t do anything except fix hers up. I spend a while changing part by part for new one literally rebuilding her body. The elemental idiots i let them go explore the town since they were a nuisance the repairs would take a while so Bulk went with them. Once i was done with Nova i started on myself. I used all my drones and the repairs were done somewhat faster. My tools needed parts replaced as well but nothing serious like my body. A while later Bulk returned and i remade his body. Looking at our stats with Cast iron i would say that from the 60% stat reduction we already gained back about 15%. Since we were stuck in here a while we went outside. Bulk and the others had found a kind of farm area that was built during the rapid time skip. Several monsters were inside but none aggressive unlike the ones that are outside of the town. We spoke with those in the town. I did notice that they acted a bit differently to us compared to the other players. While some NPC¡¯s would outright insult the player for being those idiots who consider the NPC¡¯s simple programs to us they to light bows and smile as if greeting a high ranking noble. When i think about it, this could be the effect of helping so many races in the past. Clockworks did gain a lot of fame because of us so to see all the races act this way towards us isn¡¯t strange. Well not all the races. We met with a few demons and ogres and they couldn¡¯t care less about us treating us like the other players. We returned to the workshop after a while. Nova was tired so i let her go to sleep and Bulk went back out with the elementals who didn¡¯t want to stay here. With the place nice and quiet i began repairing Nova¡¯s weapons. The guns were rusted over and broken so i had to remake them. I made a better model that was for level 20 and up. It was an arm rifle like her own but much more stable and wouldn¡¯t get stuck as much. The sniper i made sure to repair as well since it¡¯s her main weapon. I then turn to the Protector. In my head i had several models for different situations. Nova¡¯s model was a scout model so it was fast. I wanted to keep that so i pull up an upgraded version of a scout protector and get upgrading. I needed to replace a good number of small gears but besides that nothing else was bad. His upgrades were more suspension systems and weapons upgrades. The engine also got better and improved his coding. Then i turned to Hino. There were few advancements on this except for making robots to rush in. The skeleton was improved and the engine as well. I looked around the workshop and found a few old weapons that were on our old ship. I take one i liked and began repairing it before opening Hino up and remodeling the space that would hold the weapon. Two weapons were added and i added Proto¡¯s suspensions on his legs which would improve his speed and rushing power. The turtle was left in a corner. It was a simple forge, i would need to remodel the furnace soon though. I have lots of things i can improve. Still we need levels and stats. as much as i want i can¡¯t bring them back without grinding. With our weapons and systems back online and upgraded with all the programs i made during my month outside we are ready to start grinding. Through Rust we are told of several robot dens near the city so we head out for some grinding. Gaia PoV That asshole! To think he would take advantage of my kindness with such a straight face. I want to make him into a roll of cheese. My fist is really itching to punch someone but i force it down since i have lots of work to do. This bastard had better get his stuff ready and fast cause i want to leave this hell hole i created for myself. Ah how i miss the battlefield where i could punch someone and watch their bodies explode from the pressure. Man i miss the wars. Its so boring now. Delta: ¡±It¡¯s best not think of wars so lightly Gaia.¡± Gaia: ¡±Shut it brat. I can think of them however i want. It¡¯s better than being stuck pencil pushing while that idiot clockwork gets to have all the fun traveling the world.¡± Delta: ¡±And yet you gave him everything he asked for. What is keeping him here? Gaia: ¡±His pathetic level and body. Also he doesn¡¯t know how to make magic alloys so i still have a trump card to get a bit of payback on him. Delta: ¡±You are a worse brat then me you know. Grow up a bit and don¡¯t keep trying to get payback. It will only end far worse for you. You saw how Techno gets payback. You said you flipped him back during the first awakening. Look what it got you. Don¡¯t do something stupid girl he isn¡¯t so merciful to think he can¡¯t get you back. Even if he has to wait a few months and years he will come back and bite back hard.¡± Gaia: ¡±Stop being a worry wart. I will be ready next time. If he wants payback he should be ready for a battle he won¡¯t see coming.¡± Volume 2 Chapter 7 Wreaking Part 2 Sorry i didn''t release yesterday. I was sick with a cold and wasn''t in the mood. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Techno PoV With our bodies fixed we go see Gaia to see if she can tell us where we can fight something. I also wanted to see how she was acting and try and piss her off even more. We get to the government building and without any of the guards stopping us we head inside and knock on the door to her room. A robot opens and we see her on her desk typing away at the primitive keyboards with somewhat scary speed. Without diverting her eyes from the screens she started talking. Gaia: ¡®If you¡¯re here just to piss me off I will have the guards throw you out like they throw out the trash.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Tell us where we can find a dungeon to fight in so we can reach level 30 fast.¡± Gaia: ¡®Good luck finding one within a 20km radius of this town. The tanks and Knights cleared them out ages ago and even now keep going back to make sure no new random robot took up residence and was growing.¡¯ I frown hearing this but before I can type anything to send she continued. Gaia: ¡®That was why we built a training center. The dwarves remembered your method of training those three behind you and started doing that sometime after you left. I took it to the next level and made a workshop for tinkers to train programming, body construction and tinkering with the clockwork drones used for training. We have a variety, the training center is on the north east side of town. Now shoo.¡± She waved her hands while saying shoo which pissed me off. I was going to have to get her back for this. Still we didn¡¯t deny the invitation to the place. We needed quick levels so we were going to trash the drones there and I can even train my body construction and tinkering skill at the same time. Two birds with one stone. We leave without causing too much of a stir like we did the first time and go to the northeast area. The practice field was a huge circular area with nothing but countless drones. Near the start were barely working level 1 clockwork combat robots. As they go they get stronger and more repaired. By the time we reach a third of the way the robots are completely repaired and level 10. From there they branch into classes like knights, scouts, marksmen, miners and so on. The miners ones look rather scary. In the middle of all this we could see tons of people fighting it out with one robot or another. Only parties actually fought more than one robot at a time so there was a kind of setting to these bots. When we reached the middle we found a building there. We went in and found a large workshop with dwarves and clockwork all over the place. We were confused on who to talk to but that was resolved when a dwarf came up to us. One we knew somewhat. Victor: ¡®Yo, how can we help?¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Hey Victor long time no see?¡¯ Victor: ¡®Do I know you guys?¡¯ Nova: ¡®Wow shorty doesn¡¯t remember us~!¡¯ As soon as she said that the workshop stopped and looked over with everyone grinning and holding the laugh in. Victor: ¡®Urg, I remember that cheeky blunt reply. Nova right, so that means the two hulking masses of metal are Techno and Bulk.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®There we go, so how are things?¡¯ Victor: ¡®Boring, all I''ve been able to do is train on the bots and repair them.¡¯ I poke him and he looked a bit at me before he understands and lowers the visors on his helmet. Techno: ¡±You could leave and travel.¡± Victor: ¡®To travel through the mountains you need nearly 1 month on foot to reach the shipyard city where the human settlement once was. Even with the clean up from the tanks the mountains are still dangerous. Only a ship can make it through safely and fast.¡± Techno: ¡®...¡¯ I thought a lot for a few moments. I had nothing against him and considering how he was the one that came to me meant that he still had some fame as an old leader. Also counting the fact that dwarves are faster than others on a forge and his skills are probably already better then mine it could be profitable for me as well. Techno: ¡±Why not come with us. I need someone good on the forge. It would make my production faster since I am the only one smithing for now.¡± Bulk: ¡®Wha!! No way you asked yourself!¡¯ Victor: ¡®You sure.¡¯ Techno: ¡±We already have a ship thanks to my connection to Gaia. Once we reach level 30 again we will make steel bodies and go dungeon hunting to regain the rest of them. Victor: ¡®I see, considering you are machine built a smith would be more like a healer to you guys.¡¯ I nod. He scratches his bearded cheek while he thinks about it. Victor: ¡®What levels you guys at right now.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®I¡¯m 27.¡¯ Techno: ¡±I¡¯m 24 and Nova is 26¡± Victor: ¡®Get to level 30 today and I''ll join ya. I don¡¯t want some weak party I know will do things slow.¡¯ I grinned at his challenge. We were going to out do ourselves for sure. Techno: ¡±Fine, get your things ready. What is the current level range?¡± Victor: ¡®This way.¡¯ He leads us to a board with a circle drawn on it. The circle was divided by 3 lines. The one that represents the closest area near the town went from level 1 to level 10. The second one that went to near the back was from 11 - 25 and the last one was from 26 - 50. Victor: ¡®Here it is. This is the makeup of the training field. The first and second zone is filled with passive combat drones and if you are alone even if you hit two or more drones they won¡¯t all fight you. In the third area it''s not the same though. The drones there are made to attack in simple group attacks and use coordinated strategies depending on which drones are fighting.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Wow this is really nice. So this is how the place is set up.¡¯ Blaze: ¡®So are we going to fight around here?¡¯ Techno: ¡±Like hell we will. We are going to level three. You three can fight together but it¡¯s in that area unless you want to feel hell. Brock told them what I said since he had an old dwarf helmet on his head. They quieted down instantly and we plan how we would do this before leaving. We leave the workshop and head towards the area with the higher level drones. It was interesting to see the designs of the drones. Some were bulky while others skinny. They had swords for arms or some had miniguns. It was impressive how diverse the clockworks could become. If all these were released on an army or something it would be interesting. Of all of the robots we saw the miners ones were definitely the scariest for close combat. When we got into the aggressive zone the miners took a turn for the worse getting extra armor and better drills made for combat instead of simple mining. (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cKL7tCJ5W_M/ThM7GxKWC0I/AAAAAAAAB3w/uFn9RkhzIwo/s400/ghordson-driller.png) Bulk: ¡®Welp this is it then. Let¡¯s have fun with these guys.¡¯ Ena: ¡®How can you say fun. Really, men, you all think the same.¡¯ Nova: ¡®YAY~~ we get to break these things.¡¯ When Nova yelled that I looked back smiling only to see her sniper finish coming out and she simply aimed it one direction away from us and let loose. BOOM! The spinning drill bit stake shot out almost glowing red from the heat. I looked at its path of destruction and it dug its way through eight large miner drones like butter and 4 more knights while getting slower until it fell out the other side of the last one. Nova was laughing but everyone else was slackjawed. I opened her status window just to be sure but yep a full level from killing all those. Now she was ranked the same as Bulk. The big sniper was put away will she grinned and pulled out her rifles from her arm. She noticed the difference instantly as it slid out. Nova: ¡®Thanks bro for the better toy.¡¯ The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. She said that and looked down at her protector. From its arms she made it pull out the miniguns in its arms. It bent forwards and leapt forwards as she left us behind and started shooting. Bulk: ¡®Really, that girl has some problem.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Ever heard of those people who gain a different kind of personality when doing a certain activity?¡± Bulk: ¡®Ya, I read some light novels with that why?¡¯ Techno: ¡±Nova is definitely like that.¡± The others started to chuckled. The elementals took their full form and got ready before leaving to train together away from us. Bulk pulled out his swords and taking a battle pose he ran towards the nearest drone and began hacking away. I went with him but I took a boxer''s fighting pose. I trained with this style for some time to help me vent my anger which has helped me a lot in the long run. I end the day calmer that¡¯s for sure. As I reach my target who was already targeting me I put my back into my straight right. -60 (critical) (-60) 240/300 The punch left a dent with the imprint of my fist. I pulled my right fist back and sent my left fist at the same time right into the same spot doing 30 extra points of damage. -90 (Critical) (-90) 150/300 So its true what they say. Hitting either a vital spot or with enough force depending on your opponent can get criticals in a row. Not only that if you hit the same spot in series you will do extra damage. The robot I was fighting was a knight style robot with a circular upper body and normal arms and legs but both bulkier than Bulk and me. A few cracks were already appearing from the dent. It didn¡¯t mind it and ran at me while swinging its right arm at me. I ducked and with an uppercut backed by the rise from me ducking put a bit extra strength in the punch. I also hit the same spot which crushed its entire shell causing the gears in its body to go flying. -150 (fatal) (-150) 0/300 When I looked at Bulk he had sliced two robots to pieces already and while nova was making a line of destruction as she bombarded the robots with bullets. I frown at my slow pace. I turn to the next robot and run at it before pounding it then run to two other robots hitting them making them agro me. I start pounding them and receive damage myself but I destroy them by smashing them to pieces. After finishing these three I look at the others. I can¡¯t think of catching up to nova but bulk has killed nearly 15 already. When I looked at the elementals I saw them trashing a large group with AOE skills using their element manipulation skills. Raining fire and rising earth. I was getting pissed so I pulled out the grenade launcher. I removed the case I had and pulled out a new one. Let me say that consumables have no level restriction. I still the new bombs into the ammo chamber and get them in place. I aim the launcher high and shoot 3 shots right into the middle of the robots. BOOM BOOM BOOM. With three massive explosions caused by the bombs dozens of robot parts went flying around. This here is what I just fired at them. Oh and I also leveled up once from that. Level 25 now.
Explosive Remote Activated Bomb Consumable A small bomb made to activate by remote control or through transmission. The bomb is made with low quality gunpowder and has a blast radius of 8 meters. The shockwave caused by various bombs going off near each other can cause damage to those nearby. Damage 600
Since the robots have around 300 durability. This works best for me. I simply walked through the crowd of robots rushing me and fire off bombs all over the place before backing off and set off the trap when the bots are over them. This was rather fun. I quickly caught up to even Nova but she made sure to use her sniper to get rid of a good number with a single shot. As the sun set we finished up and headed back to the workshop after clearing out about half the robots in the third section and six of us reaching level 35. Victor PoV I have a really bad headache right now. The reason is the massive pile of robots that were destroyed by six people. The elementals and the three clockworks had cleared out the third area as if they were playing around. I was now understanding why they got the fame. The strongest crew ¡°The Clockworks¡±. They definitely hold to their titles these guys are monsters. To clear so many drones to level up more than 10 levels they cleared out nearly all the level 26 - 35 bots and part of all the higher leveled ones. Even the highest level players would say this was crazy. Victor: ¡®Well you passed level 30 in a day. Can¡¯t deny what I said. Where are you guys staying?¡¯ Bulk: ¡®We will be leaving when we load the ship with our things.¡¯ Victor: ¡®No new body?¡¯ Techno: ¡±Build it in the privacy of my ship.¡± I nod and with them we pack my stuff and then got to their workshop. They load a huge amount of stuff to the robots they have and take it to the docks and load it into the caravel ship they had. They go back and retrieve the rest. Techno: ¡±Going to get Rust before we leave.¡± With Techno saying that he leaves with his sister riding her robot running behind him. Bulk: ¡®This will end very badly.¡¯ Victor: ¡®How so?¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Two reasons, Rust does most of Gaia¡¯s work and two Techno likes pissing Gaia off.¡¯ It didn¡¯t take much to understand exactly what he was going to do and I frown when I thought about it. Techno PoV After running a good bit of the way I reach the government house. I go in followed by Nova who had to leave the protector outside. We reach Gaia¡¯s room which was open with her on the PC and luckily with Rust beside her assisting her with documents Techno: Rust, we are leaving. Rust: Really, already? I thought you would stay longer. Well I can¡¯t stop you, still to think you would go so fast. Hope you visit often.¡¯ Nova: ¡®What are you talking about. Bro came here to pick you up and take with us.¡¯ Rust: ¡®Wha!¡¯ Gaia: ¡®Finally time to get away from this place. Hurry Rust get my things and let disappear fast. I don¡¯t want to sign another paper.¡¯ Techno: ¡±No way. It¡¯s not good to be so irresponsible o great Queen of the Clockworks. Just like Lyra, who I might say hates her position, you need to suck it up and get your work done by yourself. Now lets go Rust. Gaia: ¡®WAAAAIIIIT.¡¯ In a moment she was off her seat and holding my shoulders. Her eyes were glowing red. Gaia: ¡®I...WILL...NOT...BE...LEFT...BACK¡­ Techno: ¡±YOU...WILL. And you will let me go.¡± I shake her off and walk to the door. Techno: ¡±You coming Rust? Rust: ¡®Sorry Techno but the work here is very intense for Gaia to do by herself. I¡¯m the most efficient Clockwork in the regard of organization here. I will stay, if you need anything we set up communication stations in our cities. You can call me any time. If you need something urgent I think Delta can make the connection faster.¡¯ Delta: ¡±I can very well do that. I can directly connect you guys as well if needed but I won¡¯t do the service for everyone in the nation so don¡¯t ask. Best get used to using the communication stations¡± Rust: ¡®Just call.¡¯ We nod understanding as we look at Gaia who had faintly glowing eyes. Damn it must suck being queen but she chose to be it so she deals with it like all royalty do. We pick up the protector and head back to the ship. I inform the five who are there that Rust will stay here and the reason. They understand and we fix the ship before setting off into the world to who knows where. Volume 2 Chapter 8 Body Building It would help immensely if you guys put down monster races you would like the dungeons to house so i can place ahead. Starting tomorrow i will focus on the dungeon one and return to Clockwork next friday. Hope you enjoy Victor PoV Well now this is nice. Who would have thought I would join up ¡°The Clockwork¡± group and adventure with them. I always figured Techno to be the quiet type of guy who would want the least amount of people possible. Still he has the other clockwork, his sister, her three familiars and now me. All of us players, before he had Rust but because of his duties it''s now a pure player party. Once we set off, Techno let Bulk put the ship in any random direction and let it fly. He got me and brought me downstairs. We stopped in a metal covered room and in the back was the turtle forge he made way back then. After seeing what was made now that thing looked pathetic to what it once was. Techno: ¡±Help me make parts to upgrade the forge. I know you already have the idea of how to make this thing better.: Victor: ¡®I know how to make that thing burn hotter than it ever will in your hands. If you already have spare parts we can do that now. Also I''m letting that thing remain mobile. To have a portable forge out in the dungeon would be like I''m a healer or support and I need that thing.¡¯ He nodded and left the room before returning with a large box full of gears then went back and brought pipes. Once more and he brought metal plates before he bowed slightly like a butler showing the entrance to a ball room. I chuckled before grabbing the gear box and lifted it just as easily as he did and dropped it next to the deactive forge. I pulled out all my tools and put them all on the table. We spent the next 6 hours rebuilding that turtle. When it was done we used a metal that was being produced using the extra fire golem cores that are produced in the city. I was able to learn a bit of it thanks to my previous influence. The skill is called Elemental Blacksmithing. Its almost like alchemy but with smithing. Techno says he couldn¡¯t get Alchemy but I also got that since I heard it would allow me to process monster parts for blacksmithing. I couldn¡¯t teach him like an NPC but I showed him the process and he did some of it by himself until he got it. Its kind of hard to level this skill up without learning a bit about potion making or having a lot of monster stuff so we left it alone but he did use quite a number of his stored fire cores to learn the skill so we gained a bit of Fire Iron. This stuff is at least 50% more resistant to heat and won¡¯t melt unless it¡¯s under massive amounts of blue flames for a very large amount of time. I think the melting temperature was around 3000 degrees. Iron melts at 1200 more or less so with this kind of protection we can ramp up the heat inside this thing to near volcano heat. With the forge ready for mass production we have it start up and start melting the iron which will make steel. Though we have steel parts we still need to build the skeleton of the bodies Techno is making for himself and the others. We are starting with his body. He sent me a blueprint schematic of what his body would look like. To tell the truth it was 2 bodies we were making for him. One was his main body which will be a pure mechanic while the other a knight class made purely for combat. I laughed at the models because they were both based of gods. When I think about the clockworks I''ve seen up until now. Unless they were robots we always chained ourselves to the human shape with 2 arms and 2 legs. What Techno wants to do will definitely make him one of the top players. He also shows me the blueprints for Bulk and Nova¡¯s upgrades and what we will do with the other. Nova¡¯s looked a bit scary seeing the weapons he was going to add to her, not to mention the massive remodelling of the Protector to support her. It could be said that he was making a completely new model of protector specially for her. Bulks had a bit more comic twist to it. It reminded me of a spiderman movie I watched near the end. I can¡¯t wait until we put him in this body. Animal styled robots are really strong. With our plans thought out we move on to the skeleton. We need to be careful with exactly how much earth cores we use in the metal. We want to make a tougher skeleton so we can make more lightweight bodies. Golem cores are known to make metals stronger without making them heavier or too hard to work with. Since we are using trace amounts so that the level requirements do rise it would be easier to say we are trying something similar to making steel while adding an extra ingredient. If we put too much powdered cores then the metal will change too much so its like cooking. Not to much salt or it will come out bad. I already knew how much for both fire and earth golems cores since I had enough time to learn that in the forges at South Gate City. The cores were grinded into a fine powder and with a pinch I throw into molten iron that was already liquid from the heat. With that we make the turtle start eating coal and start mixing the coal and iron into steel. While that happened I prepared molds for the skeleton. The first body would have Techno¡¯s real world size but with a lightweight knight like body armor to hide the tools inside. A clockwork skeleton is rather simple but techno made it a bit more complex to improve flexibility and work more natural like a humans. The skeleton would have a lot more smaller parts then the normal one and the wiring would pass through them like the nerves do. This is mostly to protect wires from the gears. We will then connect them with ball joints. By the end it would be an extra strong steel skeleton. We get to it and start making all the parts. We work through the night making the parts and build them. The skull piece was also made and the wiring was done then. We added the hooks to hold the body and passed the wires to keep the body from falling apart. We then begin building the gears with the steel gears on to the body. Small hooks were placed to get the first few in, then we added the plates and started the rest. Techno let me continue the body and he went making a new engine. We spend one more day on this body. The gears weren¡¯t made to complex. It was more so than normal but by maybe 10 or 15 extra gears then normal in every body part. It wasn¡¯t to hard to make it. I finish as night fell and Techno as well. The engine he made was rather impressive. It looked more like a car one with pistons but it worked with steam pressure since the pistons weren¡¯t so tense that the pressure wouldn¡¯t push. We installed the pipes and then took apart all the tools from his current body. We installed new swords since they don¡¯t take up much space and then on the robot''s arms we put the rest tools. Besides the swords no other weapons were placed. His first body came out looking like a scaled plate armor impersonation of the indies god Yasha. The four armed god that uses spears. I switch his motherboard with his new body. When he finally comes online again he checks his stats. From his old stats he said he was only 10% away from his old stats which is probably due to the size. These were the stats he showed me. The only thing that was better was toughness which was 5% away from the original and his dexterity which was higher than the originally.
Status
NameTechno GearRaceClockwork
ClassMechanicLevel:35
Free stats points54Durability1075/1075
Energy400/400Strength88
Agility68Dexterity115
Toughness105Intelligence89
Wisdom95Charisma30
Leadership20Luck50
He starts trying to move the second pair of arms behind his normal pair. The arms are like normal ones but he is having trouble with them since we don¡¯t normally have them. Victor: ¡®You can make programs right? Why not design a software to help out. I¡¯m sure your processor can als be remodeled to allow you to use it. We leave that for later. We finish taking apart the huge knight and remove its arm and shoulder area. We make new skeleton parts and replace the old ones. Then while I build the new parts he makes a new engine for this body as well and remodels his weapons. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. He also took some weapons that were left lying around the storage and began setting them up. I¡¯m kind of scared of the combat robot. The thing is nearly as heavily armed as what he plans for Bulk. We finishes off the weapons as I finish the skeleton parts. We replace the parts and then remodel the torso so it could handle the three pairs of arms we were making. Yep the Knight he used was being converted into an interpretation of Asura. This thing is scary thats for sure. Each arm holds a sword while they have different weapons as will. The front pair have rifles. The middle pair have miniguns similar to the protector and the back arms have a grenade launcher which opens around the wrist similar to the rifle. All the arms have the pressure punch as well. It has scary power. With his Mechanic class in one body and his knight in another he was going to clearly take combat to a whole new level with these two bodies. I¡¯m sure he is already preparing his programming skill as well to get the extra arms working. Once the body was built we replaced every gear with steel and plate as well. All in all the body turned out to have nearly 20% more physical stats then he originally had. To make things stranger, scanning the body brought up a status window.
Status
NameTechno GearRaceClockwork
ClassChaos KnightLevel:35
Free stats points54Durability1210/1210
Energy400/400Strength118
Agility91Dexterity126
Toughness132Intelligence89
Wisdom95Charisma30
Leadership20Luck50
What came after completing this caused me to laugh. I really like being around these guys.
You have helped build set robots. A set robot is a pair that works in unison with one being the main body used as a support unit and another body used for combat. +1 level blacksmithing +3 strength +4 Intelligence +4 Wisdom
If I can help it I won¡¯t leave Techno¡¯s team ever. This guy attracts unique events. We moved on to Bulk. We had the earth golem take the helm and told bulk to log off for about 2 game days. I was kind of getting tired already but I knew Techno isn¡¯t. We took Hino, the rhino bot he had and Bulks current knight body. We took apart both robots and mixed them. The Rhinos torso was changed into a structure similar to the knights and equipped. The legs were reinforced and made with a mechanism that would change its form to match the rhinos natural leg so it can charge at full speed. We went all out and finished at the setting of the second day after telling Bulk to log off. At this point I also needed to log off and go to sleep. It was nearly five days I was in there and was starving and sleepy. Techno continued putting finishing touches to the weapons. When I returned he had already finished up Bulks body, made Nova¡¯s body and was finishing the Protector. Bulk got a new class called Rhino Knight. Its similar to the Gorilla Tanks. Compared to his original steel body his physical stats are at least 15% better and his toughness even more. Nova remained sniper but got a much more dangerous sniper rifle that required only 2 minutes for cool down. Not only that she got better rifles on her arms, handguns and an assortment of other smaller gadgets. The Protectors had his Miniguns remodeled. It maintained the same body shape but new weapons were added as well as an engine. He was also using all four arms skillfully. He told me he made a software program after he repaired his corrupt codes. My jaw fell when he told me that fixing all his codes gave him nearly 200 intelligence and Wisdom. Though it seems useless to a robot who can¡¯t use magic it actually is balanced out. Races that can¡¯t use magic instead can learn things easier the higher these two stats are high. His potential to learn something quicker is faster than others. Think of it as getting photographic memories. He catches things better. I walk outside to get some air and find the earth golem, Brock I think it is, sitting on the upper deck looking up while holding an earth core. I sit next to him and look out into the partly cloudy white and blue sky with the brownish black earth below. Victor: ¡®Something on your mind?¡¯ Brock: ¡®Hmm...Well I was wondering if I was lucky or unlucky.¡¯ Victor: ¡®About what?¡¯ Brock: ¡®Getting caught here. Not getting an option to restart my character?¡¯ Victor: ¡®I¡¯m not so religious but I would say fate has its reasons. Who knows if you will do something great or just fade away while here here. Even I don¡¯t know if I will be of greater help besides a simple smith.¡¯ Brock: ¡®We saw the robots you guys made. They look like monsters.¡¯ Victor: ¡®It was designed by Techno. Its quite amazing how much he learned from this game. He has great memory and even things that are fed to him by the game he probably remembers.¡¯ Brock: ¡®That''s what I mean. He uses me to get minerals, Blaze and Ena are his flame controllers, we haven¡¯t done much to anything besides that.¡¯ Victor: ¡®Well I can¡¯t help much in that regard. You should find your own things to do. Why not study your own race a bit. Those cores are some good stuff. You can make after gathering mana and minerals.¡¯ Brock: ¡®That is simple farming me for these.¡¯ He tosses me the newly made core and I look it over. It was still poor quality but it was better than most other ones I saw here. As he levels up it might go up as well. Brock: ¡®Did you know I can make puppet golems using my own cores. I learned about it in the forums. Water and wind elementals are doing that to go around solo. I wonder how good each would be.¡¯ Victor: ¡®I bet as good as the collector drones techno uses.¡¯ I said that clearly showing my comparison. Ever since I met Gaia and Bulk told me about her race, I noticed the similarities between Clockwork and Golems. He looks over and takes the core from my hands and lets it roll on his human like rock hands. Brock: ¡®Who knows right. Still there is nothing to do. Maybe if we look well enough we can soon find some great dungeon in the sky.¡¯ He started laughing and me with him. I stood up and looked out before I frowned. Victor: ¡®Damn, how long did you know that was there?¡¯ Brock: ¡®What?¡¯ He stood up and looked with me out the right side of the ship. Far off rising above the clouds as if surfacing from the ocean. The figure of a humongous whale could be seen. Even from far away we could tell it was a giant mass of rock.
You have discovered the flying Earth Spirit Menthol. One of the last remaining of his race, he is from an ancient earth element race that once roamed the skies and his back is home to countless beings. It is a pure unpolluted land as the land on his back is away from the toxins on the ground and he lives above clouds so polluted rains rarely reach him. This race of elementals are also known to house dungeons of all difficulties and can hold great treasures both historical and knowledge.
Victor: ¡®Call Techno, we found dungeons to grind in.¡¯ Brock: ¡®Uh huh¡¯ He nodded and ran off while leaving me to watch the massive island while appear over the clouds. --------------------------------- Asura http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/soulcartel/images/5/52/Asura.png/revision/latest?cb=20141212220449 Yasha http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/soulcartel/images/9/9a/Cartel_wiki-Yasha.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140125194009 Island whale (attempt for this specific scene) http://www.wallpaperup.com/32228/pixiv_fantasia_whales_fantasy_elf_elves_flight_fly_art_sky_clouds_magic_girl_boy_adventure.html Bulk Body model http://imgur.com/rZsz2JE Volume 2 Chapter 9 Sky Whale Base Techno PoV We were looking all with our mouths hanging. The giant sky whale swimming over the sea of clouds couldn¡¯t help but startle all of us. I put the ship on high speed to catch up to the whale. All the while that i controlled the ship i had my other robot, which i called Asura because of the model i used, scan the area. The scanners we had were greatly upgraded compared to the old ones. The engines, mainframe, coding everything i remade. I was allowed to repair 75% of the codes. It seems the level restricts it. Anymore and it will add a level restriction to our motherboard which is kind of crazy. Still the massive coding repairs helped greatly to reduce fuel consumption, made the systems work better, opened processing space for several new programs as well. After i finished my first body i even had to create a new software system to aid me in using the extra arms. I¡¯m still perfecting it but i can already use four arms at one time. It would help a lot since Asura has six arms all armed with different weapons on the arms, shoulders, and chest. My two new bodies are actually really unique compared to all the others we made. They work like a set so both of them were built with motherboards. Because of this I¡¯m able to switch to which robot i manually control. For the most part i plan on staying with my Yasha body (four arms) since it¡¯s more what I¡¯m into but if needed i will manually take on Asura if the occasion calls for it. I also needed to make a new system for Bulk. When he logged back in to find his new body made so it had a secondary mode, which lets him go on all fours like a rhino, he asked for some auxiliary systems to help him control himself while like that. Bulks body had several new heavy weapons that fit the heavy armored robot. First off, in his hands i installed a minigun. It¡¯s not like the protectors which has many barrels. This one could be compared with a high caliber automatic rifle. Besides that there are actual miniguns on his back which work when he is in rhino mode which lets him ram into his targets if he wanted to go animal. I left several empty slot zones on Bulks body because there are many weapons we still don¡¯t have like rockets which can be added. For now i can only add the automatic rifle and miniguns. I didn¡¯t give him a grenade launcher, even though it would work nicely, because i have better plans for what to add in its place. While we flew closer to the sky whale we were searching for a place to hook the ship. The while was constantly moving so we needed to attach hooks someplace. The back of the whale was like an untouched forest with high trees, cliffs, plateaus and so on. If we weren¡¯t so high up you would think this was a regular forest. As we flew around it looking for a spot to make a stop we noticed hundreds of sky fish and several large birds. Scanning all of them i saw they were levels 160-200. I frowned because this whale seems to be a high level zone. Still i wasn¡¯t about let a goldmine like this fly away. Nova¡¯s upgraded sniper rifle could probably kill them if she it properly. I gave her my best targeting system which now even takes the wind speed and direction into account before showing her the target. I steered away from the flying monster areas and made my way to a high mountain near the center of the back. The mountain didn¡¯t have many trees at the top and it was a bit flat which would allow us to hook up. I have Nova and bulk prepare some large metal spikes used for *sigh* sky fishing, which nova wouldn¡¯t stop pestering me to make, and had them aim at the center area. I turned the ship enough to let her aim the canning loaded with the roped shot and she get it dead center. I kept the ship close enough so we wouldn¡¯t be dragged and turned the other way and had her do the same thing. With both sides of the ship hooked i had bulk, Asura and Brock pull the ropes in while i slowly moved close before lowering the ships built in ¡°feet¡± which lower for landing. It was a nice attachment already built into the ship. Landing the ropes were fastened tight so the ship won¡¯t be thrown around and a few other ropes dropped to keep the other parts of the ship loose. With the ship landed we threw down drones and began scouting. Victor was inside working finishing the upgrades i drew up for his battle suit. I already built a new engine for his battle suit so he just needed to make the improvements. He would then prepare several smithing tools and stuff and load it on the blast turtle before having it exit and be ready to leave. He was our healer and support, as well as our ammo depot. Most of the guns have pellet bullet but the barrels are engraved to make them spin. The only long bullet was Nova¡¯s metal drill shot and metal stakes. We set up camp and with a few robots i set up sentries. If I was going to make this a safe zone so i would need to add weapons at and make a perimeter. It would need to be military style more or less but because of the height we were mostly safe from any land predators. For now we will scout and map the area out before doing any kind of exploring. With Brock bringing up iron and any other kind of metal the area holds we will have plenty of materials to work with as we set up a base. Nova PoV THIS IS SO AWESOME!! We landed on a big flying fish and now bro was helping the midget fix the toys and setting up the other robots to keep watch. It¡¯s like being in one of those cool action movies me and bro used to watch. I have Proto help move some of the bigger toys since now he is really strong after bro fixed him. I tried playing with him before and it was really cool. He is so fast and was much cooler. Bro didn¡¯t let me test out the new toys he made for me but told me that we needed to make this place safe before i could play. We were looking for some targets right now so he would let me play when we were ready. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. I wanted to test it out now but when bro saw that i was going to try and test he locked all my toys so i can¡¯t use any of them until he says so. Even when i cried bro simply turned his ears off and i had to text to make him listen. Since i didn¡¯t know how well to work this thing so well i typed slow and soon gave up. Bro is so mean. First he makes two awesome robots for himself and leaves me with just fixing me up and getting me new toys. They did look really cool though. The one with six arms had a slight red color to its body making it look really scarier and it was really tall. The eyes weren¡¯t that cool v shaped helmet we got from those bugs before. They were two normal looking eyes that always shined red and were long and when his face was normal he looked like he frowned. The one with four arms looked like the bro i knew but with two extra arms. He was a bit more muscular looking but that was so all the stuff bro put in would fit. His eyes were also two normal eyes but they shined blue and instead of an angry look all the time he had a calm look. Both of them had lots of pieces making up their face. Bro made it special so that the face would show expressions like a normal person. He did the same for me and Bulk. We could now show expressions unlike before which our faces were almost frozen the same. Way and moved very little. It was nice to move my face like normal though i still couldn¡¯t feel anything. It felt strange to touch something without feeling it or needed to eat. Still i help out and in 2 boring days of getting all the toys set up we finally make our cool action movie base. Bro also says he found lots of interesting places. One place he calls a dungeon had lots of targets and i was jumping to have fun. Bro unlocked the toys in my arms so i can protect myself and the new ones on Proto. I wanted to have fun. We leave behind Ena and Blaze because we need someone to watch the ship. With Victor and Brock coming with us, we head down a path Brock makes with magic. It circles around the hill we were on. Techno PoV With two days of preparations the base was set up. Thankfully Nova was easily deterred from whining since i turned off my ears right after i locked her weapons. She isn¡¯t good with texting so it was slow with it and eventually gave up. Still she was good help because she was strangely good at building the weapons in place. We put stationary weapons like miniguns and rifles on simple tripods. If we could i would have set up cannons but those on the top deck of the ship were enough for now. I activated all the clockwork robots that were stocked up inside the ship and left them all on in position. Several were put to watch and were all in my view. We head down a slowly growing path Brock was making as we walk. The group was everyone but the fire elementals who were left behind to watch the ship. Victor was riding on the back of the blast turtle which, for some reason, he installed a tripod support for a weapon. The seat built just behind it was made for his size and his suits engine as well as the turtles fed the steam for a high powered minigun placed onto the tripod. To his side Victor had his trusty war hammer. I also had the war hammer he gave me but mine was in my inventory. Would pull it out but since i have six swords in my Asura and four in the Yasha bodies. The dungeon i scouted was small and seems to be the lowest leveled one in the area. The range was level 65 - 90 and had earth monsters in it. I was going to take this chance to power up Brock who was currently lacking. The toughest upgrade was the fire elementals. Maybe i can change their race by feeding them an earth core making them magma golems. Well it doesn¡¯t really matter. We will simply have them leach of the fire from the ship engine for a bit. It¡¯s slow but it should work for now. When we encounter a forest fire or a fire monster, maybe a dragon, they can eat its flames and getting a quick boost. After thirty minutes and several breaks to let Brock gather mana we finally reached the forest floor. Waiting at the base of the mountain were all our drones. We picked all of them up and stored them away. We really needed flying ones to carry these up. Still with the path that wouldn¡¯t be a worry any more. I lead the guys through the forest and like before, brock was moving the earth along with all the trees creating a packed dirt road. It was a straight shot to the east of the plateau we settled in we didn¡¯t find monsters but the sound of birds was clear. Sometimes we spotted a flying fish overhead as it blocked the sunlight for a moment. The same sky sharks Gaia ¡°fished¡± with Nova back during the beta phase were found here but bigger in size. I was sure that her shots would take at least 60% of the HP but it wouldn¡¯t kill it. It was simply too big compared to the other one. We could probably kill it if i shot some grenades into its mouth and but i don¡¯t know how many it would take to make it blow up from the inside. We soon reach the cave entrance. It was quite large. About 5 meters high 7 long and it continued that size inside. The blast turtle fit easily inside. Techno: ¡±Careful guys. The dungeon monsters are double our level. Don¡¯t get cocky, we have weapons but we also have limited ammo. Victor, you be prepared to start making more if the fight drags on. I will use the Yasha body to help if needed.¡± Victor: ¡®Got it captain.¡¯ Techno: ¡±The rest are fighting. Get ready.¡± I make Asura¡¯s grenade launcher and minigun arms open up revealing the large weapons. I see Proto¡¯s arm guns appear and Nova¡¯s as well. She works well with that thing since she fires guns making the protector copy her actions sometimes. Bulk readied the rifles on his arms and we finally enter the dungeon. Volume 2 Chapter 10 Dungeon Theory Victor PoV Bahahaha i knew things would get interesting by following him. Now I¡¯m getting to join a high level dungeon raid with real monsters. Not only that I¡¯m even allowed to make this little blast turtle into an armored vehicle. Because the path that was being made by the earth golem was completely flat Techno revealed something that made me laugh. The turtle¡¯s bulky metal legs lifted it up and from below two sets of wheels appear form below. The legs were retracted. The wheels weren¡¯t rubber but four really large gears one next to the other to make a single wheel and made of steel. Like this the turtle would probably reach around 60 km/h like a slow car. If something happens i will be able to retreat faster. I was told to keep the turtle safe. Since it was also our forge it was really important especially for them. As we entered the dungeon the road but a bit more bumpy. I wanted to get at the minerals in here. This whale was one big massive deposit of ores. We just need to separate the veins. When the light from the outside started to fade, the lights from the clockworks eyes started to light the way. I pulled out two lamps and stuck them into the suits auxiliary entrances for gadgets. The lights lit everything in front of us. We it...kind of was a bad idea i think. As soon as the lights came on we heard the screeching. It was deafening but when we looked up we saw what it was. The roof was covered in hundreds of bats. Huge bastards about the size of a person. When i scanned it i saw the info. Black Cave Bat. How the fuck is this considered a bat. Wait, considering every flying monster could come up from below this thing is probably the result of the mutations. Fuck. Techno: ¡±Fire! Kill as many as we can quickly before they come down.¡± I see Asura Techno lift the middle and back pair of arms up. Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! From the one the back i saw three grenades each arm. The go all over the place. As soon as they are near the room all hell breaks loose. BOOM~~! BOOM~~! BOOM~~! BOOM~~! BOOM~~! BOOM~~! The new grenades can¡¯t but impress us by the power. Made from real black powder their power was second to only to the real world on. Some twenty bats fell down from receiving the blast straight to the face. The others began to let go of the ceiling. I lifted the minigun to aim up and simply let loose. All of us did. DARARARARARARARA~~~~~!!! All the miniguns or automatic rifles were unloaded on the bats. The ones closes began dropping like flies and those behind were injured. It was then that i felt dizzy. I was hearing a really high pitched sound from above. Victor: ¡®They¡­.Use sonic¡­.attacks.¡¯ The others didn¡¯t hear me no one besides Brock who was in a similar situation like to me. Damn, those clockworks must have turned off their hearing to block out any possible sonic attacks. Damn cheat race. I will myself up through the nausea and start to fire at the ones i think are sending the fucking noise our way. I see Brock lift his right fist and punch the ground. The next moment the ceiling was covered in spikes which then began shoot down earth spikes. The damned noise stops but is replaced with screams of pain. I saw the golem was breathing heavily. Must have taken a hell of a lot of MP for that attack. Still because of it we got a great opening to those near the top. The girl was doing the most damage like i had thought would happen. She was on the protector robot jumping up the walls while shooting her semi auto rifles on her arm and the protector who was mimicking her was firing off the miniguns on its arms. Soon a swarm of nearly 200 fucked up bats were dead after they became desperate.
You party has killed a swarm of Black Cave Bats. 2 levels gained.
So these things were enough to get me 2 levels. At level 32 now i was behind the others. They gained 2 levels as well. This place was a good grinding zone but the problem was ammo. We went from one to the next removing wings, fangs, hide, bones, and surviving bullets. All were stored our inventory to see if they have use later. The bullets were mostly crushed from piercing the hard skins so we had to melt them again. I made ingots from the used bullets and left them ready. We had enough ammo to fight another swarm of these things. After that i would need about half an hour with techno to remake all the bullets. With the lights already on and two also put on the back of the turtle we could watch our front and back now. We continued for a bit before Brock called out. Brock: ¡®Hey guys, i feel something.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Feel? What?¡¯ Brock: ¡®Vibrations. In the ground, it''s a race skill which lets me feel for nearby creatures that are moving around and making enough vibrations. The creatures are coming this way and fast.¡¯ We turned forwards and that¡¯s when i heard it. Like some fast wheel rolling through. Then from the bend up from it appeared. Spinning at high speeds a rock ball skillfully made the turn. Followed by it were 15 others. Brock: ¡®STAND BACK!¡¯ He fell to his knees and hit his hands on the ground. A large ramp rose and the rocks flew into the air and slammed into the high ceiling before falling back down. All of them fell and opened up. They were monsters armadillo like. Their shells were rocks but the inside animal. Without losing a chance Techno moved in and began shooting at the belly with his minigun and the two front arms which held rifles. Nova followed behind and I turned the turtle and started to fire as well. They were the easiest monster we killed. They also only filled my exp bar by 20% which meant they were weak. Still, i guess it was because the golem stunned them by having them slam into the ceiling then drop down again to the ground. In any other case they would probably run us over like wild cars. We break off the shells which i was dying to get my hands on. These things might make great alchemy ingredients to mix with scaled steel armor. Like all other animals the claws and fangs were removed but after searching there wasn¡¯t much else except the monster meat. We get some since I need food. Brock can eat but he can survive off rocks as well. We continue on and enter a large room. It had light coming in from several cracks in the ceiling and from one of them was small water fall which landed into a small pond which then ran down the room splitting it in two. The stream was small not even a meter long and shallow. The pond was about 3 meters in diameter and had clear water. All over the wall and floor around the pond and stream moss grew but where sunlight hit a few blades of grass or flowers appeared. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Techno: ¡±Not bad, this place looks like a resting spot. I bet anyone else would take too much damage from those two monster attacks and this room was made to rest in. Gather water so you can build up the used steam. Also fill the tanks we made so we can have surplus water.¡¯ We did as he said. I moved the turtle near the water and jumped off. I did a bit of maintenance and then with a bucket i filled up the water tank inside the big shell. While we repaired and filled up i took my time remaking the bullets and passing them around just to be safe. A drawn out battle will kill us so it¡¯s better to be prepared. With everything done we head on after making the turtle carefully walk over the stream. Bulk PoV This dungeon is rather interesting. It uses surprise attacks to kill its opponent. The monsters are higher level but are rather weak with obvious weaknesses. Bats have weak bodies which can easily be downed by explosives and shooting. Long range attacks seem to be the best but attacking from above works the best. Armadillo¡¯s would be really devastating if it wasn¡¯t for the fact that they do a mad dash at us without care. Because of that it¡¯s easy to stun them by sending them flying into the ceiling and having them fall down hard. Their bodies are heavy so it doesn¡¯t help them. We found lots of them but all of them ended the same. The armadillos we harvested since they come in smaller number. The leveling also seems slower than from the Beta. It might be a fix. We aren¡¯t getting so much exp like we used to get even though we kill lots of monsters. With 3 swarms of bats we only got 4 more levels. Nova and I reached level 42 already and Techno was 2 levels behind. Brock was at the same level as Techno and Victor was level 35. It was clear that the experience needed for leveling was much higher than what we had before. We did fight some large creatures though before. The magma golem, we saved 4 races all of which the missions gave us some levels. Because of Gaia we had to do some Sky fishing which made a bit of an increase. All in all, we never actually fought monsters our level. For now we were returning to the base. We were going to sleep the night because monsters are stronger at night. That has been a solid rule in all games since who knows when. On the way out we found a few monsters that spawned but not the full swarm. They died easily and we left. We casually walked through the path we made. We weren¡¯t in any hurry. We reach the ship at full night and find the area with several torches lighting up the area. We entered the lowered hatch in the lowest deck and go to bed. Techno says he set himself and Nova to react to movement that isn¡¯t from our party. I can log out and rest up. Since it was noon already i log out and go eat and get stuff i needed done? It was just basics but i still needed to wait a bit more than an hour and a half before returning or i would have to wait too much time. When i returned the guys were waking up and we go back to the dungeon for the day. We gained another 4 levels. The experience was really small now for monsters so much more high level then us. I think there was something behind this. Maybe the more used to a monster we are the less experience we get. We hunted the entire day but go the same much of exp that we got from 3 hours of hunting from yesterday. We leave in a somewhat sour mood since it had turned out like this. When i did say the theory the others seem to agree. In real life after you get used to something it gets less difficult no matter what it was before. The greatest amount of experience was from the first time done so after that it would give less and less. I think it was so that we wouldn¡¯t stay in one place. A system made to make people truly adventure the world and not stay in the safety of the few cities that were built. As we were returned sour about the theory we were stopped by Brock on the way. Brock: ¡®Hey guys, someone is coming this way. It¡¯s small and weak but it¡¯s running on two legs and running desperately.¡¯ Nova: ¡®What is it?¡¯ Brock: ¡®Don¡¯t know.¡¯ Victor: ¡®Let''s get ready to shoot it.¡¯ Victor arms his minigun and with Brock¡¯s instruction we aimed at the spot it would come in from. Soon we heard the bushes moving and the cracking of branches. When Brock made the path it also pushed the underbrush to the sides make a small wall of plants. At once a small girl jumps through the bushes into the circle and freezes. She was breathing deeply from running. I looked at her trying to understand what she was. She was a girl about 12 and was still developing but she already had developed leg muscles made for running and some build on the arms and abs. What threw me off though was that she had a thin coat of fur over her entire body. Over her belly the fur was white but on her back it was orange with black strips. On her back was a long tail and on her head was a set of cat ears. Her fingernails were long and claw like and she had short sharp fangs in her mouth. She looked at us slightly scared but then we heard a new noise from above. She suddenly jumps and a ball of fire falls where she was. She lands just in front of both Techno¡¯s and looks at him with tears building in her eyes. Girl: ¡®PLEASE!! SAVE ME¡¯ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Armadillo http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120106094636/finalfantasy/images/6/61/FF4PSP_Armadillo.png Black Cave Bats http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammeronline/images/0/0c/Giant_Bat_concept.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080823142850 Female Tiger women (not this girl just model) http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/1/15776/1407704-tigra1300.jpg Volume 2 Chapter 11 The Clockworks Wrath Warning!! Intense cruelty from techno this chapter. Read at your own risk! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Techno PoV Girl: ¡®PLEASE!! SAVE ME¡¯ Before any of us could replay six figures dropped down and landed inside the cloud of dust. As it cleared up we saw what it was. Unlike the girl who was stark naked except for her fur which covered her body these creatures were different. First off they were clothed with armor made from what looked to be armadillo shells in a fashion that made scaled armor. Second was that they were Lizard men, no it was different. These creatures could be compared to them but they weren¡¯t ones. They had lizard like bodies but around the edge of the eye brows and on the head were horns and on their back ran down spiked spins. Closing behind all of them were big wings that propelled them all here. If i had to say they were closer to the Draconian race. Seeing the six figures the girl hid behind both of me. The one who seem to be the leader walked up. He was about 10 cm bigger and had rougher scales and red scales while the others had green. Leader: ¡®Hand over that little bitch slave at once and leave!¡¯ He said that with arrogance from someone who has lived in a high position and looks down on others. It quickly pissed me off because it reminded me of ¡°her¡±. My frown could now show on my face and it did so on both of them. Bulk: ¡®What do you want with her.¡¯ Leader: ¡®Silence you insolent whelp. I will not speak with mongrels just return that bitch and we shall let you all leave alive.¡¯ Nova: ¡®NO! You won¡¯t take the cute kitty away. You¡¯re all bad guys!¡¯ In seconds the protector had its guns armed and primed to shoot at all six. They wouldn¡¯t last against that onslaught. The armor wasn¡¯t complete and had many openings which I¡¯m sure she would aim for using her rifles while the miniguns distract them. Leader: ¡®Hehe...HAHAHAHA!! A little brat like you shouldn¡¯t play with big guns.¡¯ On his last world he turned to Nova and opened his mouth. It began to release fire from his mouth like a dragon. Just as the fire starts to come out they all don¡¯t notice the hulking robot that ran too quickly to react and did a spin before lifting the right leg and connecting right into his mouth breaking all the spiked lizard teeth and causing his head to lurch back and throwing him to the ground. The next moment the sound of unsheathing swords were heard. Everyone looked at the source and saw my Asura body armed with its six blades. Techno: ¡®Judgment for attacking my sister. Guilty! Penalty! Death!¡¯ I said that in a robotic monotone voice but my rage was clearly shown. The six draconian tried to run and turned around while spreading their wings but each of them head their backs turned. None of them saw the robot approach and stab five of the swords through the midsection of their tails and pin it to the ground. I let go of the swords and one by one i stomp on them pushing the sword deeper down and into the ground forcing them to sit back or rip their own tails to escape. I picked up the leader by the head. He was unconscious but i woke him up quickly after kneeing him in between his legs. He was awake but had no strength to reach. It seems i crippled him or just injured him to much that he still can¡¯t move yet. I changed the two front arms into the rifles and stuck it to the heads of two draconian and shot them through the head. I removed the swords from their tails and then stuck in through the chest next two. The last one i put a grenade down his throat and killed him from the inside. With these five killed while the leader watched the lizard was sweating. I removed all my swords from the remains and sheathed them. I grabbed the draconian by the shirt and began dragging him. Techno: ¡±Come everyone. Bring the girl as well.¡± We returned in silence to the ship. I then ordered to remove the hooks but leave everything else since we were going to return. The ship was unhitched and it took off. I began flying around the whale and soon we were out over the sky flying next to the whale. I then left the lizard take him to the back. Techno: ¡®Punishment for attacking my sister. Slow, painful death.¡¯ I simply let him go and he fell down and soon vanished into the clouds.
You killed in self-defense. Warning. If you kill using cruelty of such levels again penalties will be dealt.¡±
I aim the ship back over the whale and we return to the base area and hook up again. With the ship back safely i call everyone. There was a deadly silence on the ship. Techno: ¡±Ask her what happened?¡± Bulk: *breaths deep* ¡®Ok then. Um miss, can you please tell us who you are and what''s going on?¡¯ The girl was pale and trembling while hugging Nova. Girl: ¡®I have no name. We only get names when we reach adulthood.¡¯ Ena: ¡®So how do your people call you?¡¯ Girl: ¡®We just call one another by getting close and call out.¡¯ Nova: ¡®Then we should call her Greer like that cool super woman that looks like her.¡¯ The boys all looked from one another before we all started to laugh. Bulk: ¡®Oi Techno she even reads Marvel comics.¡¯ Techno: ¡±She is really attached to me and read most of the stuff i did. I had a downloaded collection so she had access. She knows them better than me.¡± Victor: ¡®Damn she would be a girl any nerd would love when she grows up. To know more about comic book hero¡¯s then a boy this i just too good. Also don¡¯t point that minigun at my face. I wouldn¡¯t dare try to go after her since she is still a kid and because i know what you would do to me.¡¯ Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.Bulk: ¡®Siscon.¡¯ Bam A nicely planted punch connected to bulks face before a heavy foot landed on it and started to grind it into the wooden floor. Techno: ¡±Let''s forget about this and go back to talking about the girl¡± The girl was hiding even more behind Nova. Nova was grinning and then after hugging the girl she began gently petting her head and scratching near her ear and chin. It took the girl by surprise just she soon made a smile and her tail started to gently wave. A small smile appeared on her face. Techno: ¡±Nova please stop or we won¡¯t learn why she was running.¡± Nova: ¡®K bro.¡¯ She stopped and the girl looked sad while sitting with expectant eyes. Bulk : ¡®If you answer quickly we can let her pet you more.¡¯ The girl¡¯s eyes lit up and the previous fear was gone. Brock: ¡®What were those things and why were you running?¡¯ Greer: ¡®They are Draconians. They appeared some months ago and began fighting our tribe. We have lived peacefully here since ancient times. When the Draconian appeared they began killing the old and enslaving the young. They consider us more like animals and want the young for pets.¡¯ In moments we were all pissed off. Greer: ¡®There are about 40 of our previous 400 remaining. I was out hunting for some small bits of food when they attacked me.¡¯ My gears were rattling and the steam was pumping faster. A low whistle was sounding from all our pipes. Victor: ¡®Do you know where they are living.¡¯ The girl nods and stands up. She walks to the front of the ship and we follow her. She looks around then then points towards the front of the whale. Greer: ¡®At the front of the great land.¡¯ We all look out towards the space. Techno: ¡®Get ready.¡¯ I say that and i turn around before walking inside with Yasha while Asura began to load some of the weapons on to the deck of the ship. The robot clockwork put several weapons on the top deck and get ready to use. We unhitch the ship and leave the plateau with some weapons defending it. We take the ship and head over the location Greer pointed at. We were going to make sure they learn their place. Greer PoV Wow... that big six arm guy is scary strong. And really scary. Now he and this tiny group want to fight an entire race to get by my tribe. We are flying over the forest. Even from far away we can already see the iron walls that the draconian built from the great ones minerals. I wonder how they would break it down. As we drew close i saw a lot of figures appear in the sky. Nova: ''HEY BRO THEY ARE COMING!!'' I looked back at the girl who was sitting on the strange robot. Nova: ''...Okay~~! Hehehe get working all of you.'' I was wondering that happen but then i notice a change in the other robots. The short man came out and set up a weapon on the middle of the deck. I noticed that the ship was turning at an angle and the robots are arming the weapons. I then heard a sound from below and i put my head out and looked at the side of the strange boat. Being pushed out were large metal barrels. Three of them. Nova: ¡®Ehehehe let¡¯s get all those kitties back!¡¯ As one all the robots fired. I had to cover my ears because the sound from the noise of all the shooting was too much. I forced myself to stand and look out only to become wide eyed. From the dozens of draconian flying around a good number was falling injured. Those in the back had some magic circles floating under them as they cast their spells. I look back on the ship just in time to see the robots setting up a strange tube that was aimed upwards. They dropped a fist sized black ball inside and then connected two hoses from an opening on their side to the tube. After a moment steam began to appear from a few pipes as pressure built and then it happened. They pressed a button and with massive pressure the ball was shot far into the air. I followed the ball with my eyes and i saw it approach the draconian that were preparing magic. Just as it got over them it exploded. BOOOOOOMM A moment later i felt a shockwave come from the explosion. It hit me and left me weak for a moment. When i looked back i saw all the draconian falling. Some didn¡¯t have wings anymore, some were missing arms, other legs. Some were even missing half their bodies. I then saw the two fire elementals fly out. They shot out torrents of flames at the draconian which was a match for the dragonkin¡¯s own breath. The difference was when they were attacked with the same attack in turn. Instead of being hurt they absorbed the fire before it even reached the ship. They ate it all with greed for more fire. No matter how many attacked with fire, it was absorbed by the two beings. This crew is made of monsters. The leader which seems to be both demon like robots, a rhino robot monster, three elementals, a dwarf and the scariest girl who is the one controlling all these lesser robots. They are all monsters, with technology surpassing their opponents. They mercilessly attack destroying all of them without breaking a sweat. Greer: This is just like the boss said. Real monsters. Volume 2 Chapter 12 Crushed Pride Draconian Leader PoV What¡¯s going on? A minute ago our sentries sent the alarm saying a ship was coming our way. I issued the order to go investigate who it was only to have them fire at us. My mouth went dry when i flew up to see. Our tribe has 780 Draconian. We are one of the noblest races but even we know when we are beat. As the ship gets close I turn pale. I¡¯ve heard stories of them which are passed down from our ancestors. Beings that were the best at warring without using magic. The clockworks, machines that held the highest technological power. If you combine them with dwarves they could gain power beyond most races. Their only restriction is that they don¡¯t have living beings regeneration, thank god. They are weak when low classed but if they can upgrade they become fierce. To have a ship full of them as well as several elementals helping them is the true nightmare. I fly down and start giving orders of retreat. We can¡¯t fight them, I need to lower our losses so we will retreat and see their demands. As i give the orders to retreat my daughter approaches. Princess: ¡®Father, what is going on?¡¯ Leader: ¡®Clockworks, they are attacking for some reason. Help send the call for retreat and let them land. It¡¯s best not confronting them; they are monsters of war with the best weaponry.¡¯ Princess: ¡®Use magic to blast them.¡¯ Leader: ¡®SILENCE! DO NOT!!! ATTACK THEM! They are beyond our power. This ship seems ready for battling powerful enemies. We can¡¯t beat them even with our numbers.¡¯ She goes silent and the order is given. 200 of our men die because of that attack but we retreat inside and the gates are left open as a sign of giving up. I stand at the front as the ship follows the elementals. They fire two hooks to the ground and lower the ship some but leave the ship in the air anchored to the whale. From the lower side of the ship an opening appears. I saw many small human sized clockwork jump down. When about 10 were down three large robots jumped down. On one of them were two people riding them. The group walked over and the smaller clockwork came armed with weapons raised. I walked up and bowed showing respect. Leader: ¡®May I ask what the reason for your attack was?¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Release the tiger people you are enslaving and we won¡¯t kill all the draconian.¡¯ I looked up shocked but then i notice the tiger man behind the clockwork sitting on the back of the other robot. I looked at all of them and turned a bit pale. They were already upgraded to higher ranked clockwork. One was even demon shaped with six arms while one was an animal clockwork. This wasn¡¯t an enemy we could just randomly confront. Leader: ¡®Why do you want to free them? They are simple animals.¡¯ I instantly noticed a change in the sound coming from them. The amount of steam they were releasing became much faster and the gears were rattling. Bulk: ¡®We will say it once more. PEACEFULLY release the tiger people or we will attack.¡¯ I heard the sound of several weapons getting armed coming from the ship and began trembling. Then the worst possible thing happened. Princess: ¡®Why should we listen to buckets of bolts like all of you? We are the proud Draconian. We don¡¯t fear simple robots like you.¡¯ Nova: ¡®Wow she reminds me of the nasty girl you hate bro.¡¯ A sudden whistle from the demon one caused me to shut my ears but I turned around and slapped my daughter. Leader: ¡®SILENCE!¡¯ I hissed that with rage in my voice enough to make the girl shrink. When I looked back the demon was also yelling at the clockwork girl. I calmed down a bit seeing how the clockwork wasn¡¯t a mindless killer. It would be better to release those animals and try to surprise attack them again after the clockwork leave. Leader: ¡®We will do as you say. We will let them go. Just don¡¯t attack anymore.¡¯ Nova: ¡®Never show your face again near Greer and the others. Ugly old man.¡¯ Veins appear on my head but I head back. I gave the orders and the slaves were brought out and released. The ship lowered and touched down allowing the tigers to enter. There were 80 slaves all young tiger men. They were easiest to train so we killed the adults while we kept the kids alive. Bulk: ¡®That¡¯s all of them right?¡¯ Before I could respond the demon nodded and they turned around. It was then i noticed several robotic bugs crawl from under me and run towards them. I was lucky; if we had kept any everyone might have been killed. They climbed in followed by the clockwork robots and the hooks were retracted before the ship was retracted. The ship lifted up above the trees and village and flew overtop the village and began doing a slow turn as it moved forward. I was trembling as I watch our near extinction experience had just passed. As the ship left my view I slump down and I put my hand to my chest. Princess: ¡®Why did you comply so readily?¡¯ Leader: ¡®We can¡¯t win against them. They got scout bugs inside without me noticing until they pulled them out. If we had kept any slaves, we would have died.¡¯ This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.She finally realized how dangerous they were. It was a good experience for her to learn early on. She is too hotheaded so it¡¯s best to learn about it now. I go back inside and start breathing to calm down. I give the orders to repair any structural damage. Princess PoV Father is too much of a coward. There is no race better than draconian. I won¡¯t let any of the others say otherwise. I will prove that draconian are the strongest. I will start by beating the clockworks that the guys always make so much fuss about. I wait for night to fall. I take flight and start to look for their base. I found them at the central plateau after two nights of searching. The tiger people were being put to training to fight. I saw a dwarf with a strange robot that was letting out lots of smoke. I saw them smithing and several tiger people crafting using the parts he was making. I then saw what it was. On some of the training tiger people they had a basic skeleton of a powersuit that dwarfs have. I frown seeing that. I fear that getting tech will make them too strong. I need to take care of it soon before they get to strong. I return home to sleep. I need to be at my best. The mining and rebuilding was going well. We were reinforcing the walls just in case they attack again. We were trying to make machine weapons but we didn¡¯t know how to make it without take a model. I fall in bed and go to sleep. Half way through the night i heard sounds of battle. I jump out of bed and run out. Princess: ¡®Father! What is all this¡­Oh my god!¡¯ Outside, all over the place, were dungeon monsters attacking the town. Bats of many types were all over the place. Many of the rock monsters were all over the ground and digging their way under the walls and began attacking. Leader: ¡®We are being attacked by the monsters. Run Annabeth. Please ask for help from the clockworks. I¡¯m sure they can help.¡¯ Princess: ¡®Why do we need to ask for help! We are strong!¡¯ Leader: ¡®But not against these numbers. There are 3 dungeons full of minion monsters attack. Hurry and get help or else we will all die.¡¯ I frown and start crying but i spread my wings and start flying. On my way out i started to get attacked by the bats. I easily evaded them but several still hit me. They clawed my right side and my left leg. I still flew away but now I had a group of monsters behind me. I now understood why father said we needed them. These monsters were already level 150 we were only level 100 at best. I flew as fast as possible while getting a few scratches on the way. As I neared the place they were at I couldn¡¯t stop or I would be caught so i did the only thing I could. I rushed in. I saw the robots on the edge of the cliff raise their weapons so with a strong flap I rose upwards. At once I heard the bullets flying. They hit all the monsters making them fall and change their target to them. I was hit on the right leg but I fly over the base before I let myself drop from exhaustion. I used my wings as best I could to slow down as best as I could before I crashed right onto the deck of the ship. My vision was blurry but i saw the large metal feet of that demon. Princess: ¡®Help...monsters are...attacking us.¡¯ That was all i could say before everything blacked out. Techno PoV At my feet was the girl that made Nova say something that pissed me off. She was scratched all over but also had bullet shots. Techno: ¡±Guys get her inside and bandage her up. Get the weapons ready guys. We are going hunting. A new hunting ground has showed up. Let¡¯s go enjoy the prey.¡± Victor: ¡®Oi! Now enough sets of armor is made for the tigers yet.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Those who have it will be on the land. Those who don¡¯t will use guns to attack from the sky.¡± With that everyone got on and the weapons were loaded all over the top deck and some were prepared on the lowest deck. We would open the hatch to drop off the people. Asura, Bulk, and Nova will go down with some clockwork robots and fight below. The rest were going to blast the air monsters. We worked quickly to arm the ship and soon set off. This would be our first good fight since we arrived so let¡¯s make it fun. The targets are 5-7 times our level so it¡¯s going to be much more interesting of a fight. Techno: ¡±Let¡¯s go have fun.¡± ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Princess draconian http://orig09.deviantart.net/3e90/f/2013/328/3/e/_r__dragon_girl_by_grahim-d6vg3ha.png Normal Female draconian http://orig05.deviantart.net/1d1b/f/2012/180/d/0/dragon_girl_rough_1_by_kelleeart-d55ebi1.jpg Male Draconian http://i.imgur.com/gseJy2J.jpg Volume 2 Chapter 13 Sky War
Mission: Monster Mayhem The princess of Draconian race has come and asked for help. A swarm of monsters is attacking their village. It''s unknown where they come from or why they are attacking but it is best to beat them as they might come after you next. Warning! Quest can''t be denied. Rejecting will cause the extinction of the race and then further hunting of the tiger man race before your crew is hunted and killed. Reward: ??? Difficulty: D+ Success: Kill all the monsters. Failure: all draconian and tiger men die.
Techno PoV With the ship in the air we set off again towards the draconian village. The Princess was taken below and put in one of the beds of fur made from hunted animals from the forest. Though i would have liked to simply let the Tiger men go they begged for us to teach them to fight made use technology. Like every other race we encouraged they had their own techniques and skills. They were a warrior race that had excellent fighting techniques but also had harvesting skills. Skinning, tailoring and some basic alchemy were known to them. The alchemy was for making healing covers and bandages while the other two were self-explanatory. They wouldn''t last if the draconian attacked again so we began to teach them smithing for making parts. We were going to make them basic dwarf battle suits and leave it at that. If they wanted better, they would take our techniques we teach them and improve. We were making them develop their own technology. In the time we had before all this started only about 25 tiger men were able to build complete suits with plates and so on. The village chief and Greer''s father was left alive because he could easily be used as a motivation for make "strays" give up. The tiger people consider everyone a part of the family and not just those born from your mate or your siblings. Her father was among those who had a completed suit. As he was the strongest of the tiger men he would undoubtedly be the first to get the armor. Even at basic rank, the armor left the old tiger uncomfortably strong but because they have honor which is beaten into them since young, they won''t repay gratitude with treachery. Of course, if they did the race would vanish from this world because i won''t take treachery and trickery towards me lightly. With my Asura body was Bulk, Nova and her Protector plus 8 of our 20 clockwork robots, Brock and the 25 armored tiger men. We gather at the lowest deck waiting when we are over the village. The tiger men were armed with several weapons like, war hammers, great swords and metal claw gauntlets. Being close range fighters and having high physical strength made them wield the weapons with the greatest easy. On the top deck, I was using Yasha as my main body at the moment and we were setting up a large number of guns on the deck. Victor and the two fire elementals were helping lead everyone to set everything up. We were also setting up several mortars that we used before to blow up the mage draconian. This time we would do something similar but the first shots would be special. The other guns were set up on all sides of the ship. Because flying monsters would be plentiful we would need to cover all sides. Obviously we didn''t have enough weapons for every person on the ship but it wasn''t a problem. We needed supply men as well as close combat fighters to keep any monsters that land from attacking the rest. With most of the preparations done and enough helmets given to more than half the tiger so i could relay my orders faster we approach the village. The place was already on fire from the magic of the draconian. Techno: "Ready the flash shots!" Flash Shots are like flares. They are mortar shots which, after being shot into the air, explode making a floating ball of light. They are made by grinding fire elemental cores and mixing with real gunpowder. It can be compared to a small temporary sun made during the night. The robots set up the flare and after a moment three shots were shot. Through my scanner i could follow the fast flying shots because of the outline the surrounded them. As they reached their peak height which was just over the village i detonated them. Being built like bombs and grenades they activated on my signal which made them just as dangerous in the air as it does hitting the ground. With three rapid explosions that attracted every monster''s attention. The moment of delay was for the moment they looked up. It was called a flash shot because on the first use it worked exactly like a flash bangs used by police forces. As soon as the light balls formed they released an intense white light which blinded everyone that looked up. All the flying creatures screeched in pain and fell down when all of them moved their claws to block their eyes. I put the ship on its fastest speed and flew low before getting close. I activated the hatch that slowly opened in the right side of the ship. At once i switched to my Asura body. Techno: "Let''s move out everyone!" The two front arms released their swords while the middle pair released the miniguns. I lead the way and jumped down. Below were hundreds of blinded monsters. I grinned and began shooting right blow to hurt the monsters before i brutally drop all my weight on them as i land on my feet right on the monster. My current body weighs a staggering 600 kilos with all the weapons, ammo and armor. Put that together while putting a good suspension system in my legs and i can turn my drop into a weapon on its own when going into a large scale battle like this. The monster dies with several of his organs rupturing and his bones being crushed from the weight. I turn around and do a spin with both arm stretched. The minigun was firing out while the sword was slashing through the monsters. I then quickly jumped away as Bulk and the others landed with an even more terrifying crash which caused the area to tremble. Followed by him was Nova blasting all the surrounding monsters with her minigun as well as the 8 clockwork robots that were armed with semi-automatic rifles. The last to arrive were the tiger men who landed stealthily on the ground with easy. Techno: "Nova you and half of the tigers stay around here. Bulk you and the rest follow me we are heading inside." Nova: ¡®Yay~~~! Kitties let''s play~~!¡¯ I saw every one of them have strange expressions at being called kitties. That said, none of them would dare speak up against the girl with the highest fire power in the group. A part of the group split up and followed the girl who, for some reason, could read where was best to attack. I lead my group which had the stronger of the tigers into the village. The doors were already destroyed and inside were many stunned monsters who were starting to get used to the light that were slowly being left behind. We arrived and i started to blast everything with grenades and miniguns making sure to mind where the draconian were since the quest was to save them. Bulk was swinging the war hammer we got from Victor back during the Beta to crush the shells of several monsters that possessed them. I soon found the draconian leader and started to make my way to him. I needed to cross a small plaza filled with at least 80 monsters to do so. Normally such strong enemies would discourage any attempt but with a hardcore game like this that sticks closer to reality than most other games. Real life weapons are almost cheat like when made correctly. My two back arms opened up and revealed the grenade launchers inside. They aimed up and i began unloading the 16 grenades i had stored inside. I concentrated most of them to make a path to my target while dropping some of them around the outer area to cause some chaos and to make it easier to get in between them. In one blow the village¡¯s plaza was lit up like fireworks which sent a monstrously scary shockwave from the 16 exploding grenades exploding all together. I think i have explained it once but when you do consecutive damage to one area the damage for the second attack forth gets stronger. In an explosion like this though it''s different. Depending how many explosions actually hit you it will determine how much damage you get. So in this case it hit all the monsters from below where they are more venerable. The unlucky ones that had the grenades right under them had their legs torn off. This game is really interesting in that even high level monsters can be crippled and left weaker than a level 30 and the best part about ammo and consumables is that anyone can use them. The monsters in here are all 100+ and yet technology has proven over and over again. The more tech you have the better your damage. The monsters were literally thrown away like burn trash and left paralyzed in pain. Techno: ¡±Quickly clean the living ones up. We can level faster that way. Bulk passes on these orders to the Draconian. Start charging magic, we will cover them so they can use it.¡± Bulk quickly runs off to the draconian and began giving out orders. I helped out to clean the trash remaining and switched to the body in the ship. Focusing on here i saw the place was swarming with monsters all over. I pull out all four of my swords and walk out into the top deck. The place was filled with various bats flying all over the place. The 12 clockwork robots were being used by Victor who was using his minigun to shoot down the monsters in the air. The tigers were all battling it out with the bats. I took one of the poses i thought of in Virtual City. Both bodies i need to think of different ways to use if i will fight with them. This body is lighter and quicker while the other is heavy and slow. If i could develop dual wield with these bodies the system will begin helping, or is it quad wielding. Anyway the pose is both a blocking and attacking one where the back arms are in a defensive position while i start attacking with the front one. The fighting style is to blow with two at all times while attacking with whichever remains. I start by slashing several bats closest to me that were fighting tigers. The pain from the back stab, which did extra damage, caused it to flinch making a small opening that the tigers took to claw at the bats face and chest. It ripped a lot of the strong skin from all of them. Techno: "Victor! Where are those two fire elementals!!" Victor: ''They flew down below. Have no idea what for!'' He replied without stopping his own assault on the flying monsters. He was having a hard time because he needed to watch the robots as well. Suddenly i saw the lights from the fires elementals. They were flying off ship already and were being accompanied by some draconian. The females i saw stop in midair while the men continued on. Under all the females a red magic circle appeared and they all began to chant together. The men followed the two bird shaped elementals. Blaze: ''ON THREE!! ONE! TWO! THREE!'' On the third count all of them stopped and from all of their mouth a swirling flame was released. It went all above the ship but as the flames joined it gained power until it looked like a great dragon¡¯s breath. In droves the bats began falling like flies completely cooked inside while the skin was burn. Victor: ''I know this is the wrong moment but damn that is smelling nice. Those dragon guys cooked the bats just right.'' Though no one showed it because of the situation, we all wanted to laugh at the stupid joke. When i looked up i noticed that there were many that didn''t die though. From the light of the flares i saw they had a blackish red coloration which probably meant they had fire resistance. Those that died were black or with a slight blue coloration so it probably meant they had affinities. It was then that the females finished. Over each of them a condensed ball of flame had formed. They grabbed the balls and about half throw them up into the sky while the rest sent them down to the ground. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I warned Nova and the tigers on the ground. All at once them all burst and created a sea of flames. Those shot into the sky formed several meteors of molten rock that fell onto several of the surviving bats and impacted the ground making large pillars of fire and spreading the fires to all the nearby monsters that were unfortunate enough to be near. Though it takes much longer than using guns, magic still is a powerful weapon. Sacrifice firing speed for damage. Though considering guns are made to have fast reload and damage per second it just meant we weren''t armed well enough to keep up to a squadron of trained magician''s. With a huge number of bats dead the robots could finally turn around and begin blasting those who landed. In a short while we had the bats on the ship under control. They were a pain but with everyone attacking, the 11 bats that got on the ship were killed. The confrontation took a huge amount of our ammo to get the bats down. Now with aerial support from the fire breathing draconian and the fire elementals we could focus on the ground. Techno: ¡±Victor. Get everyone to bring up more ammo and the bombs. Have them set up the cannons in the lower deck as well.¡± At once he began shouting and getting them to move. I walked to the left side of the ship and looked down. I grinned when i heard a lot of gun fire from below. I looked through Asura and say they were keeping the monsters at bay outside the village. I started scanning around the ground and soon found her. Nova was using her Protector to jump off the trees over the monsters while shooting at weak points. I started to chuckle at how good she got at using those suspensions. Before she would need both legs to jump but now the jump of the protector was strong enough that a single leg was enough for it. If i compared her right now to a ninja from naruto then it should be easier to understand just how good she has gotten with that robot. While jumping all over the place, she was bombarding the monsters with bullets or, from the looks of it up here, relaying where weaker monsters were. Victor: ¡®Hey captain, the bombs and cannons are just about ready. It¡¯s also getting dark since the flash bombs have moved to far back.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Fire one flare and then start giving support to the village. Aim just before the wall within the woods and not in the clearing. There are fighters from our side there. The cannons on the side should aim for heavily dense areas of monsters.¡± Victor: ¡®Got it. Alright you newbies get ready. One more flare and then we start the bombardment.¡¯ Bulk PoV This is some of the most fun I¡¯ve ever had. I¡¯m using that midget¡¯s war hammer to crack the shell off all the monsters with shells. It¡¯s like cracking open a nut, most people would start getting nauseous from hearing the sound of bones cracking but it¡¯s like music to my ears. The reason is because following all the cracking there was always a ding here or there. This is so much more fun than when we trashed the orc race since these monsters actually put up a fight. It¡¯s only because of my heavy padding that I¡¯ve only lost 50% of my health. I¡¯ve never felt so excited. Right now i was just finishing off a rushing armadillo that came rolling at me and i killed it with a single well placed crushing swing of the hammer. It seems that if you break the shell it¡¯s like a death sentence to them. They can¡¯t live without it, it¡¯s like a turtle. Their spine is built right into the shell so you crush the shell you crush the spine. As i pull the war hammer from the dead carcass of the armadillo my eyes fall on something i wouldn¡¯t have expected finding up here. On all fours and huffing with rage was a huge rock Rhino. On all fours he is the same length and height as me. It kept snorting and swinging its head from left to right as if challenging me. It made me grin seeing him like that so i stored my war hammer and activated my switch. I dropped to all fours and the rhino head that was on my back dropped over my head. As soon as the head fell over my own my vision changed to the rhino head. A big huff came from me which released a stream of steam. I imitated the rock rhino which seemed to piss it off. It suddenly rushed me and I in the moment began doing the same. I opened my status window and looked at my level. It was already at level 50. I had gained 4 levels since the cave dungeons diving. We never put stats points on anything, at least I haven¡¯t. I had all 50 levels of stat points. That equaled 150 points since we gain 3 points every level. My strength and toughness were better than Techno¡¯s at 115 and my strength was equal to his at 88. I changed that because of the stupid thing I was about to do. I put 80 points on toughness and the rest on strength. As soon as i confirmed the change i saw my durability shoot up and i could feel all the gears in my body work with even more power. I even felt i was rushing faster. When we both made contact the sound of crushing metal could be heard but the rock rhino was completely stopped by my charge which stopped both of us. We both began to push but slowly i started to push it back. I slowly pushed my head down and he did the same to keep me from getting any leverage to flip him. I grinned inside the rhino head. The reason was because from my back two small openings popped open and from both two miniguns came out. They began to spin. As soon as they reach the max spinning speed i added the bullets. DARARARARARA The bullets began to carve into the rhino that reared back from the pain. I took the opportunity and rushed in and shoved my metal rhino horn through its chest and it hits the core inside. The body started to crumble and i pulled the horn out and moved back before standing up returning to my normal human shape without the horn over my head. The rhino was barely alive but since its core was cracked now it couldn¡¯t support its body and would soon crumble. It was a great opportunity to learn how rhinos really fight. I¡¯ve been wondering if there was anything specific I could do as a rhino but now I didn¡¯t have to worry. All I needed to do is run in and ram into anything i felt like. That¡¯s exactly what a rhino is, the huge horn was made for that and mine was made harder just to help me mimic that. As the rhino nodded towards me his body died.
You have learnt the class skill, Rhino mode: Rush.
Rhino Mode: Rush While in your rhino mode, you can mimic the rhino¡¯s characteristic rush skill without getting any recoil damage you would have gotten from the impact. Warning! If you miss your target and hit something too hard to break you could be stunned and will get double the damage you would get without the skill.
I couldn¡¯t help laughing at this. A skill made for a tank class like my own. Not only that i would also get no damage as long as i don¡¯t hit something too hard. Bulk: ¡®He...hehehehehe Let the carnage begin.¡¯ I drop to all fours and start to rush into the crowd of monsters that were getting to close to the village walls. Greer PoV l How can this be true! There is no way these guys are normal. How can someone have so much power that a small crew controlling some robots could destroy a monster army like this one. I was holding on for dear life onto Nova as she sat on the strange robot and made it jump from one tree to the next. It was scary how calm she was. How could she remain so calm in this situation. Shooting monsters telling my tribe to kill another. Was she really younger than me. Could it be that she is so innocent that she can¡¯t see what¡¯s going on. (A.N. Parental control censors all blood and gore. All she sees are monsters which have had the ugly lessened and for butchering monsters she is sent away or would see the drops magically appear after Techno does stuff to it.) This crew is totally weird. I can¡¯t wait until they leave and i can live with my family in safety again. Annabeth PoV Where was i? What¡¯s all that noise? Boom Bombs, where am I. In a fight with the clockworks? No wait! I asked for the clockworks to save my family. THATS RIGHT MY FAMILY! In seconds my eyes shot open and i sat up in a bed only to feel the rocking of the ship and feel the pain of my wounds. Annabeth: ¡®This is...the ship?¡¯ I saw no one but i heard running footsteps outside the room and a lot of shouting. A few minutes later i also heard a heavy cannon shot. I get up from the bed and slowly walk to the door. I open it and see lots of tiger men running around with metal boxes and metal balls. I walk out and to the end of the corridor. The tigers don¡¯t even care about me and simply dodge me and go about their work. I climb the stairs at the end of the corridor. At the top i found a small room with a single door. I open and find several robots shooting down and some small tubes being set up by a few robots and tiger men. At the center of the deck were another demon robot and a dwarf who was shouting out orders. The demon robot wasn¡¯t the same one. It had a slight bluish color and only four arms as well as being human sized instead of giant sized like the other one. It was also less scary. Victor: ¡®Hey draconian girl, if you¡¯re going to gawk at Techno then at least do it while helping out. Cast some magic or something or stay out of the way!¡¯ I instantly felt my face get red hearing the midget say that. I wanted to beat him to a pulp but from what i was seeing he was instructing the shooters in setting up weapons so i wasn¡¯t going to beat him up, yet. I get out of the doorway and walk to the side rails before looking out at the battlefield that was being lit up by an unnatural light in the night sky. My jaw couldn¡¯t help but drop open. The battle was tipping to our side. In the air were draconian firing magic and fire breaths over the monsters splitting their forces and killing them. On the ground were several people corralling the monsters before killing in a large rush. One animal robot that was simply rushing through in a mad rush that left several monsters injured, stunned and at the mercy of those coming from behind. And last were the people up here. Bombs, guns things we didn¡¯t normally have access to that didn¡¯t care about levels only endurance. They dropped several in one area and it would kill even the hardest monster. The bombs from the metal tubes even did the more damage than the hand bombs dropped down to the ground. Was this what father was talking about. Masters of war that we can¡¯t compare to. They have weapons that can simply ignore the restriction we had which are levels. They gain them as well but they care less for them and probably only get more to make more weapons. I finally understood why father was scared of them. They are the real monsters. Merciless war mongers, the real monsters. As I looked down I notice a change in the monsters on the ground. They start running away back from where they came. I felt a strange foreboding feeling. Thump Thump I heard a sound from the ground. Everyone was looking towards the center of the forest. With each ¡°thump¡± the ground got more swollen. Cracks soon began to appear on the area. Everyone swallowed hard as the area turned into a large hill. It continued for about a minute until the ground couldn¡¯t support anymore and coved. What was left was a giant arm sticking from the ground. It remained there for a moment before lowering to the ground and a new one appeared and landed on the opposite side. It was then that we all paled. Coming out of the whole was the scariest creature we ever saw. At least 30 meters tall and shaped like a human with smooth rock skin. ¡°Boss¡± Black Iron Golem Guardian Menthol Level 450 Volume 2 Chapter 14 Childish Chitchat Techno PoV The giant black golem looked side to side slowly with a frown as if looking at bugs. Menthol: ''Tiny little bugs. Do you know how much damage you caused my body?!'' No one replied since we could see he was hot headed at the moment. Speaking a single word would annoy him. He simply stared at us for a long moment. Victor: ''He is a boss monster so shouldn''t we kill it?'' Techno: "Everyone retreat. Return to the ship right now" Bulk: "What''s going on?" Techno: "Check your mission." I was looking at it myself.
Mission: Monster Mayhem Complete You have survived the monster attack and they have now retreated back within the elemental. Reward: Familiarity with Draconian and Tiger Men, 6x levels
Mission Update
Mission: Guardian Rampage The great elemental Menthol has been greatly angered because of the warring between the Draconian and Tiger men as well as your own use of weapons on him. After his attempt to rid the draconian who were the first invaders, since he lived in peace with the tiger people, he grew even more displeased as everyone began draining the minerals from his body to prepare for war. With his rage, he has released his second body as well as the guardian of his elemental core, to whip out all sentient beings on him. You must escape with the draconian and tiger men before you are all whipped out. Reward: ??? Difficulty: C+ Success: Escape without dying. Failure: Everyone dies.
(A.N. SRY forgot to add a difficulty level for first quest. It is ranked D++ i added it after i noticed it.) A C+ rank mission and that is only getting away. I¡¯m sure if it was fighting this thing it would easily reach B++ or higher. Techno: ¡±Bulk! Help me find Nova before she does anything. Nova where are you. Come back to the ship it''s not safe.¡± It took a while before I got a reply. Nova: ¡±This giant thing is so awesome. But why is he so grouchy.¡± Techno: ¡±Where are you Nova!?¡± Nova: ¡­¡±At the big guys foot.¡± As soon as my eyes flew in that direction with both Yasha and Asura looking that way both scanned and we found her signal right on top of the tallest tree closest to the Black Giant Golem. If we were anything else besides an artificial being we would have turned ghostly pale. Techno: NOVA!! GET AWAY FROM HIM RIGHT NOW OR I WILL MAKE YOU COME BACK HERE AND I WILL LOCK ALL YOUR THINGS UNTIL THE NEXT TIME WE GO BACK TO VIRTUAL CITY!!¡± There wasn¡¯t a reply but I saw the protector jump really high. I could only pale as I saw the giant look down at here. Nova PoV I had Proto jump really high after bro said that dumb line. I breathe in really deep and as we both got as high as we could i screamed out. Nova: ¡®HEY~~~~~!! OLD MAN~~~! WHY ARE YOU SO GRUMPY~~~!!¡¯ I don¡¯t know if my voice reached him since he is really big but as we fell back down towards the tree I looked up and saw the big glowing eyes on the giant guy look down. Menthol: ¡®You called me an old man brat. What do you want.¡¯ Nova: ¡®Why are you so grumpy?¡¯ Menthol: ¡®Why? WHY? Look around brat. All this damage was caused by you brats. This is my body and you all started burning all the trees and use the iron and other minerals making me weaker!¡¯ Nova: ¡®Well, I don¡¯t know about minerals but wasn¡¯t it you who sent all those big monsters to attack?¡¯ Menthol: ¡®...Yes it was so. You all were already fighting?¡¯ Nova: ¡®But we didn¡¯t even use half the stuff we used to save those lizard guys. Also didn¡¯t you make that big hole behind yourself?¡¯ He looked back at the massive crater he made from the inside of the whale body. Menthol: ¡®Don¡¯t try to shift the blame brat. You all were fighting and it annoyed me.¡¯ Nova: ¡®Pff ahahaha you¡¯re worse than my little cousin! It¡¯s harder to make fun of him then it is to do the same to you.¡¯ I fell back on Proto¡¯s back laughing and waving my legs as I hold my belly laughing with all I got. The big guy began to murmur and even started to yell like a little kid. Menthol: ¡®Stop laughing you brat! IT¡¯S NOT FUNNY!! GRR AHHH STOP LAUGHING.¡¯ I stopped because he started to hit the ground and it shook everything. Nova: ¡®Wow! Someone so big is just a big baby. Why if you had just asked the lizard guys to go away I¡¯m sure you could have saved everyone a lot of trouble.¡¯ He couldn¡¯t reply back to that. He even sat down after doing something that closed the big hole and sat cross-legged. He then looked at me and tilted his head. Menthol: ¡®Are you really a kid? You sound like an adult already.¡¯ Nova: ¡®I¡¯m only 8 years old? Why do I sound like an old lady to you?¡¯ Menthol: ¡®No, you sound more like an old friend of mine. He was just like you.¡¯ We began to talk after he started to calm down. He was fun to talk to but after a while I started to get bro¡¯s text again. It was annoying so I just turned off that thing the brings the messages up. Techno PoV I don¡¯t know if I should be impressed or scared of Nova now. First she caught the attention of the giant, pissed him off, made him have a childish tantrum and now she is talking to him like best friends. Does she have some kind of skill to calm down smart monsters. Maybe it''s simply because she is a child. Still it¡¯s scary to see her chatting so casually. It¡¯s not like I let that stand though. I message her some more but she eventually cuts the chat. I gave up since I can¡¯t climb that high and if I teleport her now it would anger the giant again. So instead I have all the tiger men and draconian gather in the draconian village. We sent Greer to go get the remaining 40 that were in hiding and were anxiously watching as Nova just talked to Menthol. No one could speak as they simply watched the giant lay down and rest his head on his arm while having Nova sitting on the Protector who was on the top of the tree. Every last one of them were scared of how easily she calmed and distracted him so we simply packed everything. I was going to transport them someplace. Maybe the elf forest would fit both of them well enough. From what I heard, the elves have begun to accept some forms of technologies inside their forest but mostly stuff that helps improve the wellbeing of the forest itself. I try to connect to Nova but am swatted away again which makes me sigh and sit down with both my bodies and hang my head. Bulk: ''Oi, what''s with that mood?'' Techno: ''Nova.'' I simply point at the giant who has already forgotten about us all. I''ve already begun wondering if all ancient beings are all like this. Seriously, Gaia is a total bitch and an annoyingly childish one that likes to piss me off. Delta is similar to her but he likes pissing Gaia off, which i enjoy watching. And now this guy. Is something wrong with these ancient monsters to act so childish. I can only guess that they got bored of acting like grown adults and revered to a more childish personality. I couldn''t help but curse out loud. Those around me looked strangely my way since they knew i never talked. We couldn''t do anything about it except wait for Nova to finish talking. Sometimes we would hear the giant yell and scream while having a tantrum while other times he would laugh loudly enough to wake everyone. Most of us went to sleep seeing this would go on for a long time. The sun was starting to rise when i gave up. And with both bodies left the ship and walked towards where Nova was. The scars from battle last night was still visible but already plants were growing. I guess he must be feeding it magic to regenerate. So much for us causing trouble. As i neared the place his head was i could hear Nova talking. Techno: ¡®NOVA!!! WE ARE LEAVING! HE DOESN¡¯T WANT US HERE LET¡¯S GO!¡¯ My voice echo¡¯s up to both of them and they look down. Nova: ¡®AUUHHH~~~!! Bro do we have to go!!¡¯ Techno: ¡®He doesn¡¯t want us here so we are leaving.¡¯ She looked at the giant who began blinking several times before something clicked and he seem to remember why he was even there. Menthol: ¡®Ah that¡¯s right, i was about to whip all of you out for causing damage to my body.¡¯ He sits up and looks around at the healing scars before scratching his cheek. Menthol: ¡®Even if I wanted to now I don¡¯t really care about it since i actually forgot about you all. Still, I would be hard pressed to actually let them all remain here if they continued fighting.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Nova say this for me. What do you want in return for letting them stay. I don¡¯t know what you would want so say something. I really don¡¯t want to bring more people with me.¡± He started to look around then his eyes stopped on my floating anchored ship over the draconian village. Menthol: ¡®Hmm. I feel the faint presence of several elemental cores from your ship. Do you have intact cores?¡¯ Techno: ¡±We have a golem and 2 fire elementals who learned some time ago to create cores.¡± Menthol: ¡®I see. Then if you hand over all the cores from both elemental races and make the two races sign a magic peace treaty in my presence then i would allow them to remain. Any other way they would have to leave.¡¯ I nod. Techno: ¡±What about taking minerals from your body?¡± Menthol: ¡®Figure something out. I don¡¯t want them mining my body.¡¯ I frowned before I started to think for a long way. I sat cross legged with both bodies and soon Nova jumped down to tree and landed next to me. Nova: ¡®Hey bro, if its metal you want why not just go back to that junk place we started at? If we get Gaia to give the kitties and lizards some boats they can go and get stuff for themselves.¡¯ If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I really am proud of my little sister. Not only is her recklessness saving us but she even remembered about the near infinite sized clockwork scrapyard which would take hundreds of years to completely clear out. Techno: ¡®Good idea. But that won¡¯t make your punishment any worse later.¡¯ She blinked a bit before looking up and then back before pouting. Techno: ¡±Can i have time to talk with the people involved?¡± Menthol: ¡®As long as no more wars happen I don¡¯t care.¡¯ I nod before overriding Nova¡¯s control over the Protector. When it started to walk without her control she started to throw a tantrum but i quickly locked all her weapons which made it worse. Techno: ¡®This is for disobeying me when i told you to come back.¡¯ When she jumped off and started to run towards Menthol I had the protector grab her and bring her with it. I was too tired to even care about her whining. We returned to the village. The sun was already up by the time we got back and everyone was already moving everything around. I made the protector bring Nova with me as we made contact with the two race leaders. Draconian Chief: ¡®Oh your back...And you brought the only person keeping the giant from killing us. Why is she here?¡¯ Techno: ¡±Pass the message chief. Menthol has agreed to allow both of your races to remain here on the condition that you perform a magic peace treaty in his presence.¡± At once there was a wave of murmurs from everyone. Both chiefs frowned as well. Tiger Chief: ¡®Do you know what a magic peace treaty is?¡¯ I shook my head. Tiger Chief: ¡®Is a kind of treaty that would bind both parties completely and they can never have conflict as long as they live on the same land. It¡¯s only used by the friendly groups who know the other would never backstab.¡¯ Draconian Chief: ¡®Hump. Don¡¯t send indirect insults beast.¡¯ Techno: ¡±You can do it or you leave. I don¡¯t plan on taking anyone with me. I will take the tiger men only to the ground below Menthol and that is it. So what will it be. A polluted wasteland where there is almost no clean water or food or a bountiful paradise where all you need to do is ignore or work with your neighbor.¡± There wasn¡¯t even a need for extra choices but the thing known as pride was the biggest pain in the ass getting in the way here. Luckily there were two powerful weapons that arrived just in time to break that. Greer: ¡®Dad, i think we should do it. Our race has lived here since long ago. We don¡¯t know anything about the land below so it¡¯s best to accept the offer.¡¯ Annabeth: ¡®I also agree. I don¡¯t want to return to the wastelands being nomads hunting the least contaminated monsters. We didn¡¯t even need to enslave the tiger men in the first place. It was just yours and all the grownups stupid pride at listening to old legends of how the dragon and tiger were enemies and rivals.¡¯ Two low blows coming from the daughters of these men made them sigh deeply. They looked at each other and I could see sparks flashing between them. I think it was more a personal problem than a racial one. Techno: ¡±Choose NOW before the giant golem changes his mind.¡± Draconian Leader: ¡®*sigh* Fine. If they will do it then I can accept if it¡¯s for our race.¡¯ Tiger Chief: ¡®As will I. We still have a problem since we don¡¯t have materials and iron to advance without mining his body.¡¯ Techno: ¡±I will resolve that later. For now everyone let¡¯s go do the peace treaty before anything unexpected can happen.¡± Without wasting time I took everyone to the golem. I made sure to grab all the remaining intact golem cores to hand over as well. It was a small price to pay to get away from this quest without even having to do much. As we arrive i saw the golem had his hand on the ground with his eyes closed. When we arrived at his hand he slowly lifted it up revealing a really large magic circle that was forming where his hand was. Menthol: ¡®Since you are all here it seems you all agree to do the treaty.¡¯ Tiger Chief: ¡®Yes we do.¡¯ The golem nodded then pointed at the circle. Menthol: ¡®The leaders of the race stand in the circle.¡¯ The two chiefs walked in. Menthol: ¡®Ok then just shake hands and say ¡°I accept this treaty for peace¡± The two shook like instructed by, I could tell they were forcing themselves greatly to do so. Both: ¡®I accept this treaty for peace.¡¯ The magic circle began glowing brightly and many ribbons of light started to shoot up before slowly falling down onto all the remaining draconian and tiger men. Menthol: ¡®It is done. Now then clockwork. Where are the elemental cores you promised?¡¯ I walked over and dropped them in his extended hand. They were all quickly absorbed into his hand. He turned his hand around and placed it on the ground away from the group and slid it along the ground. Trees and plants were all raced and uprooted leaving bare earth. From it all slowly many little earth dolls were created and shooting up fast were many little fire wisps. Menthol: ¡®With this your part of the deal is done. I will allow you all to remain here but you can¡¯t mine my minerals since i would grow weaker.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Do you control where you fly?¡± Menthol: ¡®Yes i do.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Then can you fly around close to the scrapyard filled with clockworks. I want to bring ships from below for these two races. They would then be able to go down and gather scrap metal to work with.¡± Menthol: ¡®That scrapyard sticks to high hell but i can stay around for one day once a week. Anymore would be too repulsive.¡¯ I looked at the two race leaders. They were grinning and nodding. Techno: ¡±That¡¯s fine with them and us.¡± Menthol: ¡®Good it¡¯s all set then. I will return to my own great body. Don¡¯t cause more trouble for me. Oh and soon these golems will set up trade with your groups. I know that the golem races were destroyed so i will be restoring these two groups.¡¯ With that the giant black body began returning into the earth and the elementals entered into a large hole that opened up. We all returned to the draconian village. Tiger Chief: ¡®We can¡¯t thank you enough for your help. Yours and your sisters. You¡¯re a true miracle that brought peace to our people.¡¯ Draconian Chief: ¡®It¡¯s a shame we don¡¯t have anything that can repay you with the same value for what you have done.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Hehe we didn¡¯t expect anything in return. With the world as it is, it would be amazing if you had anything besides your basic needs.¡¯ The two men chuckled. Annabeth: ¡®Even so it would be improper for you to leave without getting a proper reward.¡¯ Greer: ¡®Yes. You did so much for both races.¡¯ Nova: ¡®Ah Greer this was where you were.¡¯ Nova ran over to the tiger girl and began scratching under her chin and behind her left ear. In moments the girl was losing strength as a sense of bliss spread over here. Tiger Chief: ¡®Greer? Did you get a name?¡¯ Victor: ¡®We just gave her a nickname since we didn¡¯t know what to call her. It would have been strange to always call her tiger girl or something like that.¡¯ The elder man nodded understanding the reasons. But for some reason i saw a small glint of mischievousness in his eye. Annabeth: ¡®Wow it¡¯s that easy to tame a tiger man. Who knew.¡¯ Victor: ¡®Wonder if you want the same thing to happen to you by the four armed Techno. You were staring at him during the battle that it looked lik...urg.¡¯ Annabeth: ¡®SHUT UP YOU LITTLE MIDGET WHO ASKED YOU ANYTHING!!!!¡¯ I suddenly felt a sense of dread and I looked at the two village chief. They were normal but something told me otherwise. Tiger Chief: ¡®Thinking about it. The greatest treasure of any person is their own daughter.¡¯ Draconian Chief: ¡®Yes, from the looks of it the girls also seem to like you all.¡¯ I felt my gears freeze over as i listen to the two men. Tiger chief: ¡®I think it¡¯s for the best. The best reward we can give you all is our own daughters. Please take care of them for us in your travels.¡¯ Draconian Chief: ¡®Yes I agree. My daughter has been too sheltered so I believe following such a great group like yours she will open up. Please take care of my daughter as well.¡¯ They both bowed but before I could shout no my worst nightmare appeared before me.
Mission: Guardian Rampage Alternate ending complete Through ingenuity, your crew was able to speak with, and calm down Menthol before he could begin his rampage. Afterwards you were even able to make a deal with him Through the deal, you have successfully created peace between the Draconian and Tiger Beast man race and were able to remain on the Menthol¡¯s main body. Not only that, you have supplied Menthol with elemental cores which, under his care, would grow into proper golems that would rebuild the earth and fire elemental race. Reward: 10x level, Companions Annabeth and Greer, Max intimacy with Draconian and Tiger Beast men race, Unlocked the races, Draconian and Beast men (Tiger)
Annabeth & Greer: ¡®NO WAY I¡¯M GOING. I¡¯M NOT A PRIZE TO BE GIVEN AWAY.¡¯ Techno: ¡®AND I¡¯M NOT TAKING.¡¯ With that single line i turned with both bodies and dragged Nova with the protector back onto the ship without hearing anyone¡¯s complaints. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Current levels after war and quests. Quest 1 = +6 levels Quest 2 = +10 Levels Techno: Level 42 before +7 levels fighting monsters during war. Two bodies has its benefits Current level 65 Nova: Level 44 before +10 levels fighting monsters during war. Current level 70 Bulk: Level 44 before 5 levels Fighting monsters during war. Current level 65 Victor Level 40 Before +13 levels fighting monsters during the war. Controlling more robots than Nova did helps a lot Current level 69 Volume 2 Chapter 15 Game Masters Delta PoV Hehehe to think so much fun follows Techno like this. To think he would encounter that old coat Menthol. Not only that, i can¡¯t believe his sister could make that old bastard react like that. Up until now, only Gaia and I were able to piss him off so much that he opens up like that and that was during the wars. Now then, to annoy Gaia by passing her some news she would hate with the bottom of her magic gem heart. I look through her eyes and see she was in a meeting with a few other race representatives. How can things get any better than this. Annoying her in front of other people is always the best time to piss her off. Delta: ¡±Hey Gaia, i got some news on Techno. He¡¯s up to some fun again.¡± Gaia: ¡±Shut up brat. I¡¯m busy as you can probably see since you are looking through my eyes.¡± Delta: ¡±Guess you don¡¯t want to know where they are or how they got Menthol to pass over the scrapyard once a week for the Tiger beast men and Draconian race to gather scraps. Or how Techno is going to come and get you to give them some ships so they can do just that.¡± Ah the sweet sound of Gaia¡¯s grinding gears. There is no sweeter sound than that especially when it¡¯s you making them grind so bitterly like that. She was releasing a lot of killing intent in the room which caused the others to jump up and move back. When she finally noticed she put herself in control. Gaia: ¡®Ah...haha sorry about that. I was contacted by someone and they told me something rather...unpleasant.¡¯ Goblin Rep: ¡®It must be bad for you to be so angry.¡¯ She starts to take deep breaths to help circulate cooler air. Gaia: ¡®You have no idea.¡¯ ¡±How long before that son of a bitch returns?¡± Delta: ¡±Can¡¯t say for sure. They stayed on Menthol for about 3 days so the route was thrown off quite a bit. But I wager around a week before they arrive. I¡¯m sure it will take many people by surprise to see Menthol¡¯s massive body fly through the sky.¡± Gaia: ¡±It¡¯s going to be a pain in the ass to control the clockworks awakened from going up there. What is the level of most of the monsters? Delta: ¡±Ranges from 70-200 more or less.¡± Gaia: ¡±Fuck! They were having fun in such a high leveled area. I¡¯m going to need to add a restriction to those who go up there. There are some people who have made their small dingy boats. I still wonder if those things can maintain them but they still are flying in the skies.¡± Delta: ¡±Best discuss this now while you have the chance.¡± She let out a sound of disgust and returned her attention to the meeting. It went normal but at the end she addressed what was going on. The solution was simply to not allow anyone below level 60 from going up there. Or at least someone they believed wasn¡¯t armed well enough. There was no doubt in her mind that Techno already developed several more advanced weapons after he took Victor with him. The demons were skeptical about his actual strength. As were ogres and Genies but it wasn¡¯t strange since they never met him. I also highly doubt he would give a rat¡¯s ass about them as well. He doesn¡¯t do things for fame. They just happen and he just seems to be at the right place and the right time. Still, i would love to meet this two chief. Their level of wickedness by making Techno take their daughters was more the genius. I wonder if they want in on the fame by having their daughters with them. Or maybe to train the girls since they aren¡¯t that strong compared to an adult. Well not like i care. It¡¯s still funny to watch but he isn¡¯t the only interesting one. Several other parties have long since left the capital and were slowly building greater bodies by gathering materials and returning to smelt them. Techno¡¯s alchemy metal is still the strongest since they have Victor who had some skill in it to begin with. I would say in terms of 1 on 1 Asura Techno was the #2 strongest awakened with Bulk being #1 since he added the status points to fight the Rock Rhino during the war. If Techno chooses to add those status points he gained from all the levels then he would most likely become the strongest with ease. I can¡¯t wait to start pissing off both Gaia and Menthol. Things really are getting interesting. Jeopardy PoV
By the effort of Techno Gear, Nova Gear, Bulk Steel and Victor Belkon. Two new races have been unlocked. Draconian Beast man (tiger)
This appeared for all the players just now. Techno...Nathaniel. Just like in the betas he was incredibly lucky and was the probably the most well-known. Right now i was on the shores near the Merfolk village i helped build. I unlike many of the players who were frantic about the quests and all that i didn¡¯t really care. I was stuck in the game for 5 months before the next break appeared. Already half a month has passed and in that time i stayed in the village helping out and training. From watching game footage i saw that during the betas some players encountered large monsters. They were all massively high leveled but there were few smaller monsters. When we logged back in the number of real animals/monsters exploded. It seems during the time skip we were away the game company began adding the lesser creatures and during that time a chaotic ecosystem of monsters was built. The area around the clockwork nation is considered the safest because of the large number of races that make up the nation. Everyone calls it ¡°The Clockworks¡± nation because it was only through their effort that the nation even appeared with the strength it has now. What i am doing right now was a subjection quest for the merfolk chief. The old one died some years ago but his son had taken up the mantel and he remembered me and the water elemental core helped prove my identity. With me there were two people who were like me, someone who wasn¡¯t in a rush to get big. The game showed no real objective. The two with me was one female merfolk and the other was a male Siren. We needed to clear the beach of monsters that appeared. It was a real annoying monster at that. It¡¯s a giant clam monster that acts like one of those fantasy world mimic chest monsters in dungeons. Inside is the real body which is like a pinkish muscle monster and on the outside was an annoyingly strong shell which is sought after because of how strong it is. If we can get one that isn¡¯t broken the making a shell shield for our parties Siren tank wouldn¡¯t that bad. Merfolk and Siren are somewhat unique to other races. Unlike the many other races that have craft based technology both fish races developed unique martial art for both races. Both my party members took the time to learn both arts but because the only clean water are the main reserve of the village there isn¡¯t much in the way of training except for the land based techniques. Still the merfolk are more mage like similar to me. The martial arts are built around utilizing the strong water affinity of a merfolk and hit with strong water attacks. As for the Siren, it¡¯s more physical but still uses water as the base. In the land skills a siren can cause shockwaves through another being using these techniques. The shockwaves are actually sent by using magic through the creature body. Since only spirits or skeleton undead have no water since they have no bodies the techniques are massively powerful against most if not all living beings. Skeletons can still be damaged but they are like any of the artificial beings. Even i was in a bit of danger because the shockwave can be sent with the water in the air so even then it can be hit but it¡¯s much less intense. The siren goes in and uses his martial arts techniques. Each hit on the iron hard shell shaved a huge amount of health from the monster. We were asked to clear the beach of these. The total population is around 500. This is the final one. The one we were attacking was like a boss. This thing had over 3000 HP and the attacks of the Siren were taking 15 each hit. Let me say that this is really high compared to the ¡°fast¡± trainers who don¡¯t actually take the time to learn the real martial arts behind the techniques and just use the game system to help them. The trick to the boss is him hit it until it opens up and attacks. In total the giant 4 meter long 2 meter high clam soon opened up after it loses 500 HP when it¡¯s defending. As soon as he hits the last time he does it jumping back and us both are ready. Though water would normally be ineffective against a water based monster that would only apply when you don¡¯t hit the weak point. The mermaid and i had already prepared magic in advance. I charged to my original affinity which was lightning magic while the mermaid did the same with water. We mages have been training our magic control since we started and met because of it. Meditating and all that was done. I held both my hands out and from my two dolls like hands lightning crackled dangerously. Around the mermaid clean water was circling her making a dangerous sharp blade that spun around her. Mermaid: ¡®I¡¯m ready.¡¯ Jeopardy: ¡®Fire at any time. I will send mine just as it reaches.¡¯ The mermaid nodded and spun in a full circle. This caused the water to follow her movement. If i compared this to water bending from an old cartoon several years back it should be easier to understand. The graceful spin ended in a sharp swing of her arms horizontally. The water circled around her and when she swung half of the gathered water separated and flew at the opening king clam. I needed to time this just right. The water needed to still be in its blade when i fired or the elemental combo won¡¯t work. An elemental combo is like any natural thing that reacts in a certain way with something else. Water with lighting is one example. Another would be flash freezing something with ice magic and rapidly heating with an intense fire. It would cause an even greater explosion as the ice rapidly heats and releases oxygen from the breaking of the water molecules. As the water blade begins to reach the king clam it began to close the shell. This was bad because the shell had lighting resistance which was a pain since until now we have been having an easier time. I needed to wait but it didn¡¯t take long. The ridiculously sharp water blade reached the pinkish meat inside and began to cut it. That was the cue for me to fire and i did just that. I spread my hands making several bolts of lightning to shine in between my hands. I then aimed it forward and the lightning shot from my hands and flew right into both sides of the water blade. Thought the water was ¡°clean¡±, it was only to the point where it was drinkable. Because of this the lighting traveled with ease though the blade and right into the main body of the king clam electrocuting it. The clamshell closed soon after but the HP was already 0. The massive damage from lightning magic can¡¯t be underestimated. It¡¯s considered the most offensive of the magic systems if you focus on that one. Since i only have water and lighting magic i can¡¯t do much about it but train. Siren: ¡®Hahaha, now that was fun. Let''s return to the chief to tell him the coast is clear.¡¯ Mermaid: ¡®Why not first remove the two still intact sells which can become a shield for a tank we find later on. Siren: ¡®Why don¡¯t you butcher the damn thing.¡¯ Jeopardy: ¡®I¡¯ll interrupt the love comedy here and do the work before it escalates.¡¯ Siren/Mermaid: ¡®WHAT LOVE COMEDY¡¯ These were the first people in a long time that I could joke around with. I still can¡¯t get those looks Nathaniel made to me but until I can work up the courage to speak with him in real life, I¡¯ll keep working on getting better here. I lost a lot of my own self confidence so i will remake myself as someone...hopefully better than i was. Jeopardy: ¡®Go clean up the others we hunted today before they rot. The lesser shells are something the village can use for shields and maybe commodities.¡¯ Ya for now the best for me is living a simpler life away from my father. Techno PoV Right now I was in the draconian village staring down the two chiefs who were grinning mischievously. The draconian one was giving a helmet so he can hear me. Techno: ¡±I WILL NOT take them with me.¡± Tiger Chief: ¡®You will because if you deserve our biggest treasures.¡¯ Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.Annabeth: ¡®I WILL NOT GO WITH HIM!! NOT EVEN DEAD!!¡¯ Draconian chief: ¡®You will because it¡¯s already been decided.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Man i love it when techno gets screwed ov..urg A massive slightly red fist hit bulk square in the face making him collapse with a loud crash. Techno: ¡±If you want to get screwed that much then the next time i make a body for you i will make a small puppy and put you in that and leave you to Nova.¡± Bulk: ¡®I was kidding please nothing but a pathetic body like that!!¡¯ That was said to everyone that had the helmet and Nova as well. Hearing she would get a puppy after getting all her weapons and Proto taken away make her two eyes shine dangerously. I could see it sent a shiver down Bulks gears and he understood his place. Draconian chief: ¡®I really don¡¯t see the problem with taking our daughters.¡¯ Techno: ¡°I already have enough crew members. I don¡¯t need more.¡¯ Tiger chief: ¡®I see no magician or scout. Both our races fit the requirements if trained a bit in that direction.¡¯ I really hate these two old men. I really want to screw them over big time for this but because of all that was going on, I¡¯m out of most of my ammo. I¡¯ll just make a note of this for a later date. Victor: ¡®I also think the same Techno, why not just accept the girls. These two will probably tell the girls something like they will be exiled or something if left behind and left to protect themselves.¡¯ The two girls turn pale and the old men frown then look to the away. It seems he hit the bull¡¯s eye on that one. It really pissed me off seeing that. I was once again one-sidedly made to take troublesome people. First it was Gaia making the gnomes come aboard and flipping me. Now these old bastards and they planned to use such a cheap thing like that to make me sympathize. I got annoyed to my limit. Techno: ¡®AHHH!!!!¡¯ ¡±Do what you want!!¡± I turned with both bodies and leave everyone behind. With Menthol reaching the clockwork scrap yard in 2 days I wanted to have bargaining chips with that damn hag so I can set these guys with at least a single ship to survive. I really don¡¯t know why I¡¯m still going to do anything for them but I guess my connection with Gaia will help out. Also adding two more races to the nation doesn¡¯t hurt. One is a tailoring race and the other another magic race that is excellent with fire magic. Nothing to lose and everything to gain when I can extort more stuff off Gaia for it. I stay in the ship the rest of the time we were on Menthol. Annabeth PoV Ahhh~~~~! THIS SUCKS MAJORLY. I was so pissed off that I had to go with that insensitive bastard. Seriously, not only was he against it, when I was asking not to go he was encouraging it. The normal script would be for the person that gains the companions to make them want to go. Damn I hate this, this group is too weird. I gave up eventually and packed all my things which wasn¡¯t much. After I moved everything into that shitty ship I lay down. Greer was lying faced down looking my way as well. Greer: ¡®This sucks. The girl doesn¡¯t let up on the petting.¡¯ Annabeth: ¡®At least you get to feel good getting petted.¡¯ We both sigh and then I bring up a menu box. On it was something awakened had. I pressed the final one which said ¡°logout¡± I feel my body lay down and fall asleep and my vision goes black before appearing again in a large oval capsule used by the players. I pulled the inner helmet of the capsule and make the lid rise after pressing one of the buttons. The room i was in was an employee''s work place. Now what kind of employee would play a game. Obviously every one of these capsules are for the GM¡¯s of LIFE company. Each race had a GM somewhere hidden among the NPC and have a special NPC character so that event that happen to them could still trigger quests. I exit my capsule and soon after I see one farther down open. From it was a familiar petty girl that looked more like a 12 year old then the 19 years she actually had. I myself was only 18 but we were hired as GMs because of our love for Role playing and we were professionals in acting. These two requirements were needed for GM¡¯s since we need to be able to like and do both so that we aren¡¯t found out by players. I walked over the petty girl and we walk together out of the room. We were both mentally exhausted from the ordeal. We walked in silence and headed to our rooms. We needed to sleep and the company offers dorms for GM since we need to spend long hours in game. The GM¡¯s had special characters like i mentioned. Even when offline an AI will take over. It has the same personality and all our recollections for what has happened. When we login we gain the memories of what happened during the time we were off. That was why we had nothing to worry about being...abused, since the AI are just like us. As we enter a kitchen room we found several men inside. They were watching tv and when we looked we paled. All the men were holding back their laughter. Man 1: ¡®So...how is...your new crew? pff!¡¯ The all started laughing which caused veins to appear on my head. Annabeth: ¡®Shut...up you old bags of bones. Those weird bastards are just as bad as you all.¡¯ Man 2: ¡®Oh come on, you¡¯re with ¡°The Clockwork¡± now. *chuckles* you should be...happy.¡¯ He was saying things that were pissing me off. I had already mentioned how i want to make the draconian be recognized as the strongest race in Etheria but after what i saw today and the last few game days i can only say that clockwork are the race of power. Or maybe it¡¯s just Techno¡¯s crew that is too strange for their own good that it makes them strong. Man 3: ¡®Anyway...Greer...how do you *chuckles* like Nova¡¯s petting.¡¯ The little girl next to me goes beet red and i can only sigh. The girl is extremely shy around to many people but in the game she is better since she became a tiger woman. They are more open with their own family so she got along well with them and opened up in game but in real life she is still as timid as always. We try to ignore the laughing and get some food. We look at the TV which was showing our video footage. This is the annoying part about being a GM. You had no privacy except when you needed to do your business...all kinds of business. Especially nighttime kind. It was strange to look at it from a third person perspective since the view changed from Techno¡¯s PoV to Bulk then Nova. Each caused their thoughts to speak as if they were actually speaking so we could listen. Nova was really strange but when we saw her PoV we finally understood her strangeness. She had censorship so monsters were less frightening to her, robots looked just a little bit more like a toy then you would want it to and her weapons looked like an actual toy. It was strange knowing what was real then look through her eyes and seeing a child censored world like this. The tiger men looked more like cat people which explained why she called them kitties and Menthol actually did look like a giant old man instead of an intimidating giant black golem. I can¡¯t help but sigh seeing that the girl wasn¡¯t crazy like her brother. Still the two robot clockwork is really strange. Not only that to take on the shape of Asura and Yasha, he is brave I can say that. In Etheria, those two are considered rogue demons that have lived thousands of years. I can only say it will make many weird events happen for them. Before we can leave the kitchen someone came and told us that the boss was calling for us both. We were a bit worried. Unless we had to do a special task we were never called for. We followed the messenger and entered the room. Sitting at the desk at the back of the office room was an elderly man that had a refined aura about him. He looked to be in his mid-70s and had grey hair already. He was the boss of the GM branch of LIFE company, Wilson Gokin Wilson: ¡®You two are the ones with the characters, Annabeth Redscale and the Tiger Beast man race Princess...When were you named?¡¯ Greer: ¡®Someone gave me a nickname to call me by but I think it officially became my name after I was made to join ¡°The Clockwork¡± crew¡¯ The man nodded then looked from one paper to the next. Wilson: ¡®Well then, we have an assignment for you both. From the records it seems the young girl Nova has educational problems and is getting spoiled. The first part of your assignment is to properly keep the girl from getting dangerous from the environment. Censorship can only do so much. The second part is that we want to try to at least open up the Leader Techno. He trusts only his sister to truly speak with and won¡¯t talk with anyone else. You should try and befriend him and open him to other people.¡¯ Annabeth: ¡®So in other words you want us to make him like us?¡¯ Wilson: ¡®Its Alexandra yes? I nod. Wilson: ¡®You need to be friends, nothing more, if it goes beyond that then it¡¯s not my fault but your own.¡¯ I nod understanding the meaning of what he said. Wilson: ¡®Alright i guess its fine with this right. Sarah, anything to add? Sarah (greer): ¡®One question, why are you worried about this boy?¡¯ Wilson: ¡®He is part of a rehabilitation program for juvenile convicts. He will remain inside of Etheria for 7 real world years which is the time he has before his time is up. He also had a mental breakdown when he was in prison from an accident his family suffered it caused him to become a mute to everyone but his family.¡¯ We were shocked to hear that. Because of the texting he does to speak we thought he was just a recluse and didn¡¯t want to talk but to think it was like that. Sarah: ¡®If i can help a bit I will do it. I don¡¯t know about Techno but I can help the girl. I have a little sister her age so I know how to deal with them.¡¯ Alex: ¡®Are you pushing Techno off on me.¡¯ Sarah: ¡®You did look interested in the Yasha body.¡¯ I turn bright red as I wished I could strangle this little brat. Wilson: ¡®Enough! You don¡¯t need to split the jobs. This is a long term assignment so it doesn¡¯t matter who does what. Time will tell what happens anyway. For now go rest. Menthol will be reaching the clockwork scrapyard in 8 hours and with 3 game hours after it enters the scrapyard it will reach the capital. You can have a full 8 hours of sleep now go before you lose more time.¡¯ He waved us away just like after all that. We return to our rooms and get ready to sleep. It would be a long duty now. To think, GM¡¯s assigned to look after two races now have to babysit a mentally broken jail bird and his sister who has the innocence of a child but with weapons made for killing and thinks they are toys. We jump in bed exhausted and instantly fall asleep. We simply have to wait now and rest well. Wilson PoV After the two girls left i waited a bit before i picked the phone. I punched in the number for a colleague who held great interest for the boy. Enough to ask me to do this for a single boy. Wilson: ¡®Yes, it¡¯s me.... Yes Warden Pierce i had two of my GM¡¯s look after them. Yes the girls are his age and don¡¯t seem to completely hate him. I think given time and a small gradual increase in his friends and crew he will eventually open up. We have 7 years to try and make him better so we can go slow for now.¡¯ After a bit more i hang up. The Warden in charge of the boy is quite the nice man. Normal wardens would treat brats like brats but to see him curious about a possible fraud case is unique i would say. Still its none of my business. My part is managing the GM¡¯s, if i simply move one or two to help heal the broken mind of a young man then i would do it since 2 GM¡¯s won¡¯t be missed in a company that has over 500 operating under their control. I hang up soon after and think about the young man they asked about. I bring up his game achievements which makes me raise my brows in surprise. Wilson: ¡®Hoho so Pierce is interested in quite the adventurous boy. To do so much in so little time. Quite the boy¡¯ I start chuckling as i read through his information. I think i will watch this boy for a while. It will be interesting to see how far he will go. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- example of Jeopardy charging magic http://digital-art-gallery.com/oid/113/640x457_19608_Spark_2d_fantasy_mage_lightning_spell_fight_picture_image_digital_art.jpg Volume 2 Chapter 16 Willpower First chapter of the week. Like all of you wanted an epic base for the crew to live on has been made.
Brock PoV After the recent events i saw that my own usefulness was real tiny compared to the others. I can gather ore from the earth and use earth magic but it¡¯s not really powerful since most of the monsters we have faced have all been earth based creatures. It¡¯s because of this that i was in the clearing where Menthol rose up out of the ground. Brock: ¡®Hey Menthol! Can you hear me?! I need to ask you something!¡¯ I yell that and wait a bit. Soon i feel the ground shake a bit and at the center of the clearing a black golem appeared. It was much smaller and my sized with the same kind of model which was the human like golem. Menthol: ¡®You called me young golem. What is it you need?¡¯ Brock: ¡®Well...i don¡¯t know if this is rude or not but can i have a small part of your guardian''s body or your core? I want to get much stronger but i don¡¯t know how.¡¯ I bow deeply in a perfect ninety degree angle. Menthol: ¡®...So it was this huh, heh. It¡¯s been a long time since a golem asked for it. You know that golem couldn¡¯t handle the change that happened to his body.¡¯ I lift my head and lookup. He was smiling while looking at me. Brock: ¡®Others?¡¯ Menthol: ¡®Yes, I¡¯m sure you know this but I¡¯m probably the oldest mortal being on this planet. The only older people are the gods and they were all sealed up after the war because everyone feared their power after the human goddess went wild. Now as for those who asked me before. They became abominations and i killed them because they couldn¡¯t handle it.¡¯ Brock: ¡®What happens when a golem takes in a part of you?¡¯ Menthol: ¡®They become like what you''re standing on, a sky whale. It¡¯s an ancient race of earth elemental and it¡¯s a form of golem that isn¡¯t for the evil. Anyone who has malice in their heart will be consumed but those who don¡¯t hold it will gain power. For an awaken like you, it would destroy your body to the point where you can¡¯t return in this body to our world.¡¯ My eyes grew wide hearing this. I gulped at the prospect. I wouldn¡¯t lose in either cases really. Me and the guys gave up a long time ago of getting away from Nova but in this case i can bet on either change. If i survive i get power and if i don¡¯t I¡¯m free. Brock: ¡®I¡¯ll take my chances.¡¯ Menthol: ¡®I see, well I hope you¡¯re ready for a world of hurt. The pain you will feel will never have an equal.¡¯ He puts his right hand to his chest and then slowly raises it off his chest. In his chest i see the core appearing. It was large, huge even. Bigger than a handball. He touched flicked the core and a crack appeared on it. Then he flicked it in two other spots and a triangular pyramid shaped piece with four triangular faces fell down. The cracks completely closed up after that. The piece was as big as the pinky digit of my hand. Menthol picked it up in his hand and walked over and placed his left hand on my shoulder. I suddenly felt something bad about to happen. Menthol: ¡®Good luck boy. You will need it.¡¯ He smashed his hand into my chest but it didn¡¯t penetrate because his palm was open. What did penetrate was the broken core piece and that flew straight into my body close to my core. From the impact i flew halfway across the clearing and slid on the ground. The pain was already intense but the chest pain began subsiding after a bit. At least until i finished reading this window.
Mission: Sky Whale Evolution Because you have requested Menthol to give you a piece of his core he has done so. Because of this you are undergoing the transformation into an ancient breed of earth elemental called the Sky Whales. A being comprised of two separate bodies, one which flies in the skies and one guardian to protect its main body. Time until Transformation is complete: 23:59:34 Difficulty: C Reward: New sub race Success: You survive until the timer ends Failure: You can¡¯t survive until the timer ends Warning: This quest will disable the pain limiter and you will feel 100% pain during the change. Should the system see that you are in danger you will be ejected and your quest will fail. Your character will be destroyed and you will have to start over.
As soon as i read the final word my body was wrecked with pain like i never felt before. My vision went black and i couldn¡¯t help squirm on the ground until i felt powerful hands hold me down. From there it was a nightmare of pain. Techno PoV The morning after I was finally forced to accept those two as crew mates i was standing over Nova who was sitting down in a chair having a tantrum. Nova: ¡®NO~~! I WON¡¯T DO HOMEWORK!¡¯ Techno: ¡®Your punishment for not listening to me is that you won¡¯t be allowed to play with ANY of your toys, the robots, Proto, any of the toys on the ship and you WILL be doing homework and studying for a whole month before i THINK about letting you use them. I will only make an exception if we really need to use them.¡¯ I had absolutely no intention of going easy on her this time. The best part about clockwork is that we can¡¯t cry or show blushing or any clear emotions that cause the face to change color. Her face did contort because of how it was built but it didn¡¯t have the same effect. She suddenly got up and tried to run only to be caught by Asura and placed back in the chair where i lectured her again about being rude and running when things weren¡¯t going her way. When i was done i connected to the app that was attached to the bookshelves in Virtual City. Two folders appeared. On had Nova¡¯s real name under it and the other mine. I pressed on her folder and then a list of books appeared. I looked at the selection and pulled several textbook ranging all grade schooler¡¯s classes which she was missing. I force connected to her systems since she was blocking me and uploaded the text books. Techno: ¡®You WILL work on all these. You can ask for help but YOU need to resolve them. Don¡¯t try to be sneaky i can see you all over the ship.¡¯ With that i left in my Yasha body and sat the Asura down and had it go to standby but could still hear things. I had drones all over the place so i was watching Nova even without Asura being active. I was up on the top deck thinking of something while looking at the open sails of our ship. What was going through my head was that the ship looked kind of bland. Just a basic ship taken from Gaia. Not much was changed and i don¡¯t even think a name was given to the ship like those from pirate anime I watched. As i think a bit, our situation and the condition of the world comes to mind. Even after the Beta, it¡¯s still like a survival of the fittest because you never know when something powerful will appear like Menthol. With that in mind i take search up out to make paint and with some plants and stuff found around here i make some red paint. With it I write on the largest sail of our ship, K.O.D. It stands for Kill or Die which is our situation. I guess if we were a mercenary group it would also work. But i feel we are more of the anti-social vigilantes. Not like i want to be one. I would say fate makes things happen around us and has started to create that image. Anyway after drawing the three letters it felt much better. The ship gained a bit more of a personal touch. It was then that the two fire golems came up on to top deck in their wisp forms. They looked around before coming to me. Ena: ¡®Hey Techno! Have you seen Brock?¡¯ Blaze: ¡®We were with him in the morning but now he is gone.¡¯ I think trying to remember if i saw the golem. I then shake my head but pull out several drones and toss them down below. I then took them to a monitor inside the control room so they could see my text since they can¡¯t wear helmets. Techno: ¡±I¡¯ll help look. I¡¯ll call if i find him.¡± Blaze: ¡®Thanks!¡¯ I nod and the two fly off. It was a bit strange. Besides during a fight, I¡¯ve always seen those three together so for one of them to be gone is a bit strange. Well i leave that to the drones. I set them to alert me when they spot the golem. I was already thinking of several upgrades. Because most of us were almost level 70 already so our gear and bodies can already be upgraded. It was simple gear rearranging to work better. I open my status window to see my stats how they are now.
Status
NameTechno Gear (Yasha)RaceClockwork
ClassMechanicLevel:65
Free stats points144Durability1375/1375
Energy400/400Strength88
Agility68Dexterity115
Toughness105Intelligence89
Wisdom95Charisma30
Leadership20Luck50
Status
NameTechno Gear (Asura)RaceClockwork
ClassChaos KnightLevel:65
Free stats points144Durability1510/1510
Energy400/400Strength118
Agility91Dexterity106
Toughness132Intelligence89
Wisdom95Charisma30
Leadership20Luck50
With 144 extra points i had a lot to work with. I think about all the benefits of each one. For both bodies they work with different specifications. Yasha was much weaker and slower and not really built for combat. Instead for crafting. I think my stats are all linked so only the body stats change. I go through a lot of thinking and looking through the stats to see how i should make it agility was the lowest stat by far because of my size. Strength was important to lift stuff and attack power in close combat but with ranged weapons that is less important. Dexterity worked both for crafting as well as using ranged weapons and toughness was self-explanatory. It increased my health and defense stat. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I first start by adding 44 to agility. I do that in Yasha i watch the Asura stat and sure enough it rises to 135 while Yasha goes from 68 to 112. With 100 points left i went ahead and split the points in 4 and added them evenly to all four changeable stats. Charisma, Leadership and Luck can¡¯t be altered by adding stats so only Strength, Agility, Dexterity and Toughness can be altered. Both my stats ended up like this.
Status
NameTechno Gear (Yasha)RaceClockwork
ClassMechanicLevel:65
Free stats points0Durability1500/1500
Energy400/400Strength113
Agility137Dexterity140
Toughness130Intelligence89
Wisdom95Charisma30
Leadership20Luck50
Status
NameTechno Gear (Asura)RaceClockwork
ClassChaos KnightLevel:65
Free stats points0Durability1635/1635
Energy400/400Strength143
Agility160Dexterity131
Toughness157Intelligence89
Wisdom95Charisma30
Leadership20Luck50
I smile looking at my stats. Though i went with the balanced distribution it¡¯s still rather intimidating seeing all four stats in the three digits. Not only that my stats will get even better when i upgrade my bodies. Clockworks really are an unbalanced race. Thinking closely what balances us out is that we need fuel to operate and we don¡¯t regain our health naturally. Eventually i can get rid of the fuel problem if i can become a Synthoid but the natural healing will probably never happen. As i finish the alarm from one of the drones goes off and i pull up the image in my left eye. What i see is the Golem being held down by several other golems when he roars in pain. All over his body were black marks. The glowing green lights in his eyes and in the cracks that appear on his body were glowing bright. Menthol was watching him intensely. I get Asura up and send him down to see what''s going and while some drones go and find the fire elementals. That screaming was unnatural for a player. We have a limiter so we don¡¯t feel pain. Those screams were of someone being put through torture or a never ending nightmare. A humans mind can only take so much. I jump down with Asura and start running towards the clearing as fast as i can to see what was going on. Menthol PoV My what strong will power the boy has. It also seems he doesn¡¯t have malice in his heart because he wouldn¡¯t have lasted 12 hours of nightmarish pain like this if he did. The glow around his body was still a natural green which is a good indicator that he is still sane to a certain degree. I think the body should almost be here. Those little robots came a while back and they seem to be of the kind that is used for scouting. After a bit the large six armed boy appeared through the forest and walked over. In his hand was a small device with a screen. He turned it to me. Techno: ¡±What is going on?! Menthol: ¡®The boy asked for a piece of my core. Now his body is undergoing a change so he can handle it. His race will probably change to a sub race of the Earth elemental race.¡¯ His eyes grew wide and he nodded understanding what was going on. He looked at the golem boy on the ground. Techno: ¡±What is the success rate of this happening?¡± Success rate? Never thought of it and until now he is the first to reach this point. Menthol: ¡®Well most of the others that found me were filled with malice. Those who hold malice in their hearts will die 100% of the time but if i remember correctly the only who made me a sky whale said there was a 90% chance of dying for a person who didn¡¯t have malice. I believe will power is a big factor. He needs to survive a full day before he successfully becomes my race.¡¯ He frowns but shrugs. He can¡¯t do much about it now anyway he turns around and starts walking away. Moments later the two fire elementals appear. They ask the same thing and are much more annoyed about hearing what was said. They both promised to beat him well after he wakes up. I could only laugh at these youngsters. Still it was for the best. Children should have fun so being like this was probably for the best. Brock PoV I never knew i could feel so much pain. My body is constantly wrecked with waves of pain which slowly spread from my chest. The more time that passes the more the pain grows. A box was in front of my eyes but the pain caused my vision to blur. I think it was a timer but the more i forced myself to stay awake through this pain a new window appeared. If i survive this i know that i will never fear pain from a beat that Techno might give. No to fear pain only if i have to go through this again. As more time passed the pain grew to its peak but then the pain in my chest began stopping and it moved to my arms and legs instead. As time passed i began feeling less pain as the chest pain grew weaker but the arms and leg pain grew more intense as it to make sure i still felt the same intensity of pain as before. Still my vision somewhat cleared and i saw the timer for a few moments. It showed one hour remaining. Behind it was a wall of notifications but i couldn¡¯t read them before a new more intense wave of pain covered my body again originating from my chest but this felt more like a shockwave. It pulsed ever two seconds from my chest to the ends of my crystal like hairs. I felt it in every last fiber of my being. Finally when one minute remained the most intense wave hit and it remained for the whole minute which felt like an eternity. After the minute my body became numb. The pain was gone and i couldn¡¯t feel much of anything. My ears were ringing and my eyes blurred. As time passed the ringing stopped and i lifted my head to look around. Holding me down were five large bulky golems. Each one was holding one of my arms or legs. The last was holding my head. They all looked tired but as they see me calmly move around the looked to Menthol. He nodded and they removed their hands. Menthol walked over and crouched next to me. Menthol: ¡®Good job boy. You¡¯re the first golem that survived having my core pushed into him. You have a strong will to live i will tell you that.¡¯ Brock: ¡®...¡¯ I try to speak but nothing comes out. Menthol: ¡®It¡¯s best to rest for now. Living through 24 hours of so much pain isn¡¯t something you can simply walk off. When you wake up you will feel much better.¡¯ He said that and patted my shoulder. My head falls back on the ground and my eyes closed. behind my closed eyelids i saw a series of windows open before i fell asleep.
Mission: Sky Whale Evolution Complete You have lived through a near never ending hell for a day and your body has been altered to support the core of a new core. Your will to live has earned you the respect of all elementals and you are now seen as a figure comparable to nobility among your race. Reward: Earth Elemental Sub race Earth Spirit (Sky Whale)
By surviving through continuous pain for a full day while forcing yourself to remain awake during the entire process you have unlocked the stat, Willpower.
You have earned +150 points in Willpower for surviving a race transformation.
Willpower A stat given to those who press on through difficulty, is inflicted with pain and still survives with your mind intact. This stat increases your strength and agility when you''re in a situation where you express your will to live to its extreme.
Willpower. Incredible. It¡¯s one of the rare stats everyone wants. To get it you must live through hell. It¡¯s been around since the first VRMMO game but only those who truly suffer in the game can actually get it. It¡¯s a stat that makes a huge difference in a fight. If i don¡¯t want to lose in an important fight, it would increase strength. I¡¯ve seen videos of old games where someone was fighting a dragon and he had the stat. They were on a rare Difficulty A quest and it would have caused serious disasters if they lost. The guild was trashed by the dragon and it still had 25% of its life. The man who had the stat didn¡¯t give up and got a boost from his high willpower. He gained a huge boost in speed and the dragon couldn¡¯t even touch him while it was being chopped up. Eventually he beat it and they completed the quest but the man died soon after because of a huge rebound from the boost. It was this video that made the stat so sought after. To have it and gaining 150 points for it from the get go. I feel too lucky. As i think this my mind fads and I¡¯m forced to log off since my mental strength finally gave way. My parents were there when the capsule opened and i was taken to the doctor for a checkup. I was only told i needed sleep and rest. Besides that nothing else was wrong. I happily fell asleep and drifted off into my own little world. Volume 2 Chapter 17 The Real Boss Gaia PoV It¡¯s been quiet for the last two days. Since Delta told me about Techno¡¯s group, I¡¯ve been having less trouble with my work or maybe simply less work. It seems more awakened have been working and building small junk ships for 5-10 people and leaving. Considering the time they took compared to Techno he is probably the strongest awakened at the moment. I get kind of pissed off thinking of that. Then again he is a mechanic and a mechanic knight. The weakest kind of knight class I know of. A mechanic can make a large number of robots to fight for him while he controls them and he gains the experience but since he isn¡¯t a full mechanic he can¡¯t get the full power of one. I can only find satisfaction in that. Rust: ¡±Gaia, have you seen what¡¯s in the sky.¡± Gaia: ¡±Is there something I really need to care about.¡± Rust: ¡±Oh definitely.¡± I narrow my eyes and get up from my chair and walk outside. I walked slowly because I wanted to preserve as much of my sanity for when I see that idiot. As I open the door I see everyone looking up and pointing at the sky so I walk to the front of the mob and turn around. My expression stays blank as my eyes falls on the monster sized whale slowly appearing from the clouds slowly showing its massive earth made body. It was extremely far away but the massive size made it quite easy to see especially when it was high above the huge mountains of scrap. Delta: ¡±Ho~~~! Menthol made some good time. I thought he would arrive at least at night but to think at noon he already arrived. Hahaha I can¡¯t wait to see how things turn out.¡± Gaia: ¡±SHUT IT!! I DON¡¯T NEED MORE OF MY PATIENCE WASTED BEFORE TECHNO ARRIVES¡± I walk into my home and slam the door shut and try to calm down. After sitting down on my chair in my office I spun around and stopped looking outside the window behind the seat. Outside was a clear visual of the rapidly approaching whale. I make a scowl looking at him. Besides Techno and Delta, now I have to deal with ¡°him¡± now. Why is it that Techno finds only people I hate. Though it is fun to tease him as much as those two idiots do to me. I let out a sigh of defeat after a while. I simply go to work since I know when they arrive I will be busy doing something with them. Rust PoV As expected of Techno¡¯s crew. To be lucky enough to encounter Menthol and not be killed, even convince him to come here and make a peace treaty with the crew and set up a home for the elementals. Only he could do that. It really riled things up in town. Everyone was thinking this was a boss monster or something but soon I and several others calmed them down saying it was an ancient friend of Gaia and he was here carrying two races rescued by Techno. They were coming for negotiations and so on. It got instant results. Because of their fame everyone instantly believed it since he was known for his crazy results. I stay on the dock and after an hour Menthol reached the town. He stopped overhead casting his shadow over the land. Some moments later I picked up Techno¡¯s signal and my scanner picked up his ship coming down. I connect to Techno. Rust: ¡±So another adventure and another few races saved.¡± Techno: ¡±Don¡¯t remind me, I went on the whale to do some dungeon grinding and ended up saving the Draconian race and the Beastman (tiger) race. They were freaking annoying. They forced the daughter of the chief from both races to be my companions.¡± I started to laugh hearing that and knowing his personality. Rust: ¡±Getting along well with them?¡± Techno: ¡±Eh, they are better educators than Gaia that''s for sure. With all of Nova''s weapons locked from disobeying me these two have taken to educating her like they were taught. At least that is something off my shoulders.¡± Rust: ¡±What did she do?¡± He explained it to me and I almost fell over laughing. I laughed for a good minute before I calmed down and saw the ship approaching from the south coming down from the sky whale. After a bit it reached the docks and I guided them in. When the ship reached the dock I left empty for them several mechanical arms closed on both sides of the ship and the ship was lowered so it would be level with the pier on both sides of it. When the ship finally docked a small bridge connected to the side of the ship and allowed them cross over. Those who came out were Victor, Nova, a draconian girl, a tigress girl and finally the two fire elementals. The next ones to come out was a huge knight much bulkier than a few I knew. My scanners showed me it was Bulk but besides the name I couldn¡¯t see what his class or stats were. Then came out a reddish six armed knight which held a rather distinctive angry face at its most neutral. A bit bigger than Bulk, the Knight held a strange feeling about it. The name I got was several question marks as it couldn¡¯t be identified for some reason. After him came a four armed bluish human sized clockwork who had a much calmer look to him and gave a somewhat gentler air and easier to approach sensation. When I scanned him the same thing happened like when I scanned the big one. Bulk: ¡®Hey Rust, been a while.¡¯ Rust: ¡®Yes it has. Can I ask, who are those two?¡¯ He looks back at the clockworks. Bulk: ¡®Huh, that¡¯s Techno, both of them.¡¯ My eyes widen and I look at both. I then lock on both of them and scan at the same time and finally I got the name Techno over their heads. I simply face palm seeing this. Rust: ¡®Seriously how can you go and make a set of bodies for yourself so easily. How did you even figure out the programming for it?¡¯ Techno: ¡±I just made the brain with motherboards with the same programming and software. I then made a permanent connection between them.¡± I simply sigh hearing him say it so easily. I was then approached by the two girls. Annabeth: ¡®Good day, I¡¯m Annabeth, the daughter of the village chief of the draconian.¡¯ Greer: ¡®Hi, I¡¯m Greer, I¡¯m the daughter of the leader of the Tiger beast men tribe.¡¯ Rust: ¡®Good to meet you two. I¡¯m Rust, I¡¯m the one who helped out those three when they first woke up during the first awakening.¡¯ Greer: ¡®Wow! But why aren¡¯t you travelling with them now?¡¯ Techno: ¡±He is the main helper of the biggest pain in the ass you will ever find on this planet.¡± The two had a helmet like Victors on so when they saw this they started giggling. Annabeth: ¡®Wow for Techno to display so much displeasure for someone. What did this person do?¡¯ Bulk: ¡®She is an ancient clockwork and really strong. When she wanted to bring gnomes to this city Techno was against it because of...well you saw right. Well he started to fight her and it ended with her doing a backflip over Techno and flipping him high into the air before he crashed down.¡¯ Everyone was silent after hearing that. Victor and the girls were more than shocked finding out someone would do that so casually to Techno. Rust: ¡®Don¡¯t get him wrong. Techno more then got payback for it.¡¯ Techno: ¡±It¡¯s not enough though but if I try more then I wouldn¡¯t get anything off that bitch.¡± We could only smile warily. Rust: ¡®Anyway, what do you guys need?¡¯ Greer: ¡®Um...two ships so our friends and family can come down here when Menthol passes by so we can gather scraps. We agreed to not mine the minerals from him but that leaves us without anything to work with.¡¯ Rust: ¡®I get it already. But it would take negotiations with Gaia so we should go. I¡¯m sure she would want any new tech you guys came up with.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Can¡¯t that lazy bitch figure things out along. She is older than us and lived during the time the world was at its technological peak.¡± Rust: ¡®You know data is scarce at best from that time and technology info has mostly been destroyed even from here, Delta was built near the end of the war and as a weapon and not a...¡¯ I stopped mid-way because I touched sensitive info. The dwarf walked up with narrowed eyes. Victor: ¡®Who is Delta? The way you speak makes it seem he is a huge figure just like Gaia.¡¯ Thankfully Clockwork can¡¯t sweat because it would give away. Rust: ¡®Ya he is an ancient clockwork we found some time ago. He is fixed to a single location but is really powerful.¡¯ I really need to be careful. He buys its it but he is still looking at me with a frown.. Rust: ¡®We should go. Gaia is probably already waiting since we saw Menthol a long time ago.¡¯ With that I diverted their attention to the task at hand. I lead them through the streets to Gaia¡¯s home and office. A few of the people noticed us because of me and soon after they saw the others. Chatting soon erupted about the crew since everyone had heard about it. Unfortunately before we could reach Gaia¡¯s house we were stopped by someone of the Ogre race. The man was a Bulky and muscular type. The Ogre race doesn¡¯t acknowledge anyone unless they are stronger which was probably what lead to this. Ogre: ¡®OHH~~ look here~~! ¡°The Clockwork¡± crew. Hump you are all weaklings. Which one of you weaklings is the leader?!¡¯ The smaller Techno walked forward. Bulk: ¡®He is our captain.¡¯ Ogre: ¡®Hehe Pathetic. To have such a pathetic captain! Fight me weakling. If you lose your crew is to disband and stop the annoying chatter of all these people about your fictional doings.¡¯ Techno shrugged and nodded. He accepted the challenge. In seconds the Ogre grinned and started running at him. They were about 20 meters separate but the three meter tall Ogre rapidly covered that. Ogre: ¡®PERFECT NOW DIE!!¡¯ When he was within range he sent a punch towards Techno but what met him was a much larger red fist coming into contact with his own fist stopping it completely. The impact lifted a cloud of dust blinding us When the dust from the impact finally cleared we saw the six armed knight in front of Techno with a single arm perfectly in contact with the Ogres huge fist. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Ogre: ¡®DON¡¯T...INTERFERE!¡¯ He sent his other fist but the was stopped in the same way but instead of a punch, Techno simple grabbed it and held his hand in a death grip. Bulk: ¡®Hey forgot to tell you but our captain is made up of two bodies. The little one is a Mechanic and the reddish one is his fighter.¡¯ His eyes get big but it was too late. Techno had already winded up his second right arm and threw it in an upper cut at his chest. To make it worst it seems he installed a pressure fist and he made sure to activate it. I cringe when I heard the heavy cracking from the ribs that were being crushed but the heavy blow. The knees of the Ogre buckled under him and only his right arm which was being gripped by Techno kept him up. Everyone stared in shock at the easily defeated Ogre. An Ogre is known for their strength and endurance to pain and can take a heavy beating before falling but to be defeated in a single punch wasn¡¯t something you would think possible. The Ogre that was challenging Techno also wasn¡¯t just ANY Ogre. The Ogres are part of the cities Guard unit and he was one of the captains which is already Level 110 To cause so much damage that he nearly faints from the damage isn¡¯t something to scoff at. Techno releases his hand letting him drop face first to the ground. Techno: ¡±Rust. Call someone to pick up this trash. We will meet you at Gaia¡¯s home. Let¡¯s go guys.¡± I sigh as I watch all of them walking off. As merciless as ever. I connect to the commander of the guards and tell them to bring a mage that can use healing magic and someone strong enough to lift the Ogre. Soon enough a group appears and start to treat the Ogre and I explain what happens. The Ogres in the group go wide eyed and the clockwork that came with them all start laughing. I¡¯m sure it was because Ogres and Clockworks have been having lots of arguments about Techno¡¯s real strength. The Clockworks are all built as small children bots and have the personality of one and they consider Techno a Hero while Ogres trash talk him. Demons are less cocky and have done some investigating into his doings. They don¡¯t respect him but they don¡¯t trash talk someone with physical and political strength like Techno. It didn¡¯t take long after they took the Ogre away for word to spread. Even before I reached Gaia I could already hearing the word spread. I started to chuckle but that was only until reached Gaia¡¯s place. The reason was that I saw a large hole on the third floor and in the front yard was both Techno¡¯s fighting it out with Gaia. Both had swords in all their arms and he was skillfully working them while Gaia used a sword each hand and was on the defensive due to the sheer pressure and number of swords. I work my way around them and walk to the door where the others were watching casually. Rust: ¡®So what happened?¡¯ Blaze: ¡®We arrived at Gaia¡¯s office and started talking. Techno, in all his bluntness, told Gaia to prepare two ships for each of the races up on Menthol.¡¯ Ena: ¡®He said he would give her the plans to a new clockwork engine that uses less fuel and can handle more heat.¡¯ Rust: ¡®Did she accept?¡¯ Victor: ¡®HA! Ya right! Its two ships we are talking about. She wanted the program coding and connection setup Techno used to make his two bodies. When he didn¡¯t give it up she started insulting him and after a bit more.¡¯ He lifted his hand pointing at them. Victor: ¡®This.¡¯ I simply nod a few times understanding what happened. I could only sigh at how things escalated. I then connected to all three of them. Rust: ¡®City Administrative Command Activated! Ceasefire Command Sent! Weaponry restriction Activated! Combat mode disabled!¡¯ At once all their weaponry deactivated and the swords were withdrawn into their bodies where it hides. The three were shocked and confused for a moment which I capitalized on. Rust: ¡®Alright now that your little exercise is over lets head inside for business.¡¯ They both scoffed but after a bit of trying to activate their weapons ending in failure they gave up and walked inside. Annabeth: ¡®Wow...Who would have thought that anyone could control them.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Don¡¯t underestimate him. We only left him behind because he is too important to the city for us to take.¡¯ Rust: ¡®Don¡¯t use flattery I don¡¯t deserve.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Come on Rust. You are probably more important than Gaia. She is the face of the nation but you are the bulk of the systems that support the nation.¡¯ I feel like I¡¯ve been sighing too much today. We go back to the office with the hole in the wall. I could only face palm and breath to calm down. I was going to have to deal with this as well. Gaia: ¡®He was the one that made the hole.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Ya right bitch! You¡¯re the one that pissed me off and then flipped me again threw the wall but after that you met the bottom of my right foot for that.¡± Rust: ¡®QUIET...BOTH.OF.YOU!¡¯ They both tensed up while I breathed deep a bit. I contact the people responsible for building materials and put an order of the amount needed to repair the wall. Then i called a constructor to fix this up for me as quick as possible. When i was done everyone was waiting. Rust: ¡®Ok what was the argument about.¡¯ Techno: ¡±She wanted to know the programming for making two main bodies.¡± I remember what the others told me and nod. Rust: ¡®You offered the blueprints for an clockwork engine. I will take that for one ship. The other will require something else.¡¯ Gaia: ¡®HEY RUST! Who said you would¡­ Rust: ¡®QUIET GAIA! You are going to screw up our connection to someone who makes his own tech. Stay quiet while i deal with this!¡¯ She shrank back while everyone stared in shock but Techno was grinning on the verge of laughing. Rust: ¡®What else did you develop or have prepared?¡¯ He thinks a moment. Techno: ¡±I have repaired my main coding to around 70-80%.¡± Rust: ¡®Ok that would be really useful. Though everyone¡¯s codes are different but some processing programs are the same so if you give us a copy of it then i will accept it.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Prepare the ships and i will give it after some people take the ship up to the races.¡± I agreed and we shook on it. Gaia: ¡®I don¡¯t agree with this! For me you still need to do more!¡¯ Rust: ¡®But it¡¯s not up to you. I¡¯m your main adviser and the clockwork that keeps you from doing things wrong. Negotiations are also mostly done by me so don¡¯t think you will get your way after you screwed up so badly!¡¯ I point behind her and she shrinks again. I call the dock master and have him prepare two caravel sized ships for the new races. There aren¡¯t many people who own larger ships than a Junker which everyone has been calling a Dingy. Techno is the only awakened until now to get a ship like this. Gaia: ¡®Can i at least request something that has been popping up quite a bit recently?¡¯ Everyone looked at her now. She wasn¡¯t using that arrogant tone and was using a more political tone she uses during the meetings. Gaia: ¡®Between here and the shipyard city where the humans once lived there have been many reports of pirates. They are many people who didn¡¯t stay around here and left.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®So awakened who took up bandit life?¡¯ Rust: ¡®No instead it¡¯s both awakened and those native to Etheria who attack transport ships taking fabricated parts to the shipyards. The first time they used really bad ships and attacked in large numbers with small ships. Now they got parts and the ships improved. Eventually it became a full on Pirate group with well over 15 ships small ships and 3 caravel sized ships.¡¯ Gaia: ¡®It''s gotten to the point where it''s too difficult to handle unless we send a large group to hunt them down. To make it worst, the pirates focused on adding defense and making weaponry.¡¯ Greer: ¡®If they are so strong why ask us?¡¯ Gaia: ¡®Come on. This idiot has led his group through much more dangerous stuff then a pirate group of this size. I¡¯m sure his sister¡¯s sky fishing skills also wouldn¡¯t go to waste in this case.¡¯ Rust: ¡®Yes i agree. Anyway this has become too much of a nuisance and because they have small but fast ships it''s hard to catch them without a good sniper. We have some good long range fighters but none can really outmatch your sister. Can you kill them off while we prepare the ships. We can even build completely new ships for them?¡± The look at each other and then at Techno who was thinking. Techno: ¡±It would be bad to leave that amount of trash loose. Still we need time to prepare. Besides the two girls who just joined the rest of us have reached between levels 65 to 70. I need to upgrade our gear so i think at least a day maybe two would go into that. Then we need to prepare proper ship artillery. We used miniguns before but we lack any cannons and stuff besides that cannon Gaia made for Sky fishing. We will take it but will only do it when we are ready. I¡¯m not going to go on a suicide mission.¡± Rust: ¡®Good. We can invest some material for it since it was a request. It will be sent to the ship so be ready for it.¡¯ They all nod and after that they leave splitting up to look around and do their own things. Rust: *sigh* ¡®That was difficult.¡¯ Gaia: ¡®Tell me about it.¡¯ Rust: ¡®YOU ARE THE WORST OF THEM! Why aren¡¯t you more mature. Your ancient yet you act more immature than the newborns! WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS!¡¯ Delta: ¡±BAHAHAHAHA THIS IS TOO GOOD. I love it when Techno visits you guys.¡± Rust: ¡®YOU SHUT UP TO DELTA YOU ARE JUST AS BAD!¡¯ Steaming in my built up rage i storm out and meet the constructors and give them the orders to begin before i go off the handle more important things than babysitting Gaia. It will be a while before quiet and peace returns to South Gate City. While Techno is here things will only be noisy for a while. I should get things ready before hand in case anything happens. What a long day this has been. Volume 2 Chapter 18 The Deadliest Weapon, Innocence Greer PoV Ever since we logged back into the game, Sarah and i have made it our duty to properly teach Nova to be a proper girl. We still had to remain in character but being ¡°princesses¡± we had higher education then the other NPC so though it looked weird at the start it was quickly put out of their minds. We were thankful for that so we just went about it. It did surprise us when we entered her room and found Techno yelling loudly at her and scolding her intensely while she sat in a chair shrinking back. The shock lasted until he noticed us and after he gave her study materials to do he said we were to give her hints but not completely help. She had to learn herself. I don¡¯t know what he had in his mind to ask us for help. We were considered NPC so why did he think we could help her. He did hand us two helmets at that point as well so we could ¡°talk¡± with him properly now. We both complained about this thing messing up our hair which we work a lot to keep neat. Even here we have to look nice too keep the princess look. Still it was nice to see that he was open enough to scold his sister properly. When i saw her yelling at Menthol i thought i would have a heart attack. Anyway the days passed quickly and soon we arrived at the clockworks scrapyard. The golem Brock was still sleeping from the race changing quest. His body at the time was at full size but soon after it became a small earth doll. There were a lot of darker spots but not many. He would take a long time to gain enough minerals to get full size again. The Earth Spirit sub race was all black iron golems. He needed to become completely compact with obsidian and iron but at least he will be able to take his whale form soon after he wakes up. At level 67 his form would probably end up being the size of a real world whale but double its width like Menthol. The whale body is quite flat and wide but as he levels up he will get bigger. But it will take a long time before he gets to Menthol¡¯s size even if he reaches his level someday. After we landed, we went down and the fight with that Ogre i could only say i was afraid for my life. Ogres are a brute strength race so when Techno crushed him brutally with a single punch i can¡¯t help feel both fear towards Techno and pity towards the Ogre. It was even more surprising when he started fighting Gaia. Everyone at the company knows Gaia and knows of her strength as a Synthoid so when he kept her at the defensive for such a long time by pressuring her i could only feel fear of him. I called my superiors wondering what was going on but it seems they said he trained in Virtual city and formed some real skill with the sword and gained some basic martial arts forms which probably benefited in helping him push harder. After all this happened it ended just like that after Rust appeared, stopped their fight, took control of the situation and finished the negotiation just like that i had to feel respect for the clockwork. Not only that, he scolded Gaia who we compared to a mid-level boss monster. Right now after we left Techno trusted Annabeth and I with Nova because he had business to take care of. We asked where she wanted to go to and strangely she asked to go to a tinker¡¯s workshop. There she asked for various scraps and broken machinery which they didn¡¯t want. They didn¡¯t care and simply gave it to her. She took them and then asked us to help her carry the stuff outside of town near the scraps. We didn¡¯t know what she was up to but we went with her since we had to keep her safe. Out there we placed all the iron scraps we dropped down. We both sat down on some large flat metal and watched her. She took several round metal robots that looked like spiders and ripped the legs and body off leaving only the abdomen she then removed all the circuitry from them and using the few tools she had she cut the pieces apart and then began building several gear systems that connected to each part until it made a perfect sphere a bit bigger than a basketball which opened up. Then she took the circuits and stuff she took apart and started to building inside the ball. It lasted nearly an hour and Annabeth went into town while i watched to buy us some food. When Nova finished the first ball, she started another and continued until five were in front of her. The final ball had a half meter in diameter and had a strangely complex yet simple build inside of it. Nova: ¡®Finally done. I can¡¯t wait to show bro this toy.¡¯ Greer: ¡®What did you make Nova?¡¯ Nova: ¡®Mn? Oh a new toy that will help bro a lot. We need to catch bad guys so I built a toy to help bro out.¡¯ Annabeth: ¡®How does it work?¡¯ Nova: ¡®Like this!¡¯ She turned to the big ball and pressed a button and it opened up. She then grabbed another one which had a big number two drawn on the side and in a slot that was extending up she inserted the ball in. It slid into place just right and as soon as it dropped right into place it opened up and its parts fell into place and connected into several other pipes and connections. The first large ball opened up more. She continued in order with the balls and when she fit the last ball in. Neither of us could help but face palm. As soon as the final one was placed a small cannon barrel extended in three sections. We had seen her build it but couldn¡¯t understand it until now. She just built a five section turret with a functioning steam engine. Annabeth: ¡®Um...Nova...h-how did y-you know how to build this?¡¯ Nova: ¡®I wanted to make something to help bro and after seeing those toys we have on the boat i thought bro would want something cooler and stronger. I then started to feel that strange hurting in my hand and couldn¡¯t calm down until i finished this.¡¯ I connect to the helmet Annabeth was using. Greer: ¡±No way! She has a Tinker¡¯s Twitch. How the hell can a kid do something like this? Isn¡¯t her brother supposed to have one as well?!¡± Annabeth: ¡±Definitely, it¡¯s definitely a twitch. Maybe it¡¯s a family thing. The game system must have helped a lot but the idea was probably totally hers.¡± We unconsciously took a step back in fear of the girl that could make a siege weapon as child''s play and in such an unorthodox method. Distracted we didn¡¯t notice until we heard the noise but she seems to have loaded the robot with some trash and took up the handles and turned the turret away from the city and pressed the fire button. The massive release of steam sent the scrap ball easily 200 meters. We gulped. This thing was made with trash and without much skill or stats but if we take this to Techno he would make a proper model with good metal or even alchemy metal. The power would be too destructive. This is beyond the scope we GM or anyone in the company could ever think of. With a smile the girl jumps around with the success and after pressing a few buttons all the parts started to close up and disconnect before falling down until only five metal spheres that have a number from 1-5 remain. She grabbed balls 4 and 5. Nova: ¡®Come on~! We need to take this to bro. Maybe he will let me have some of my toys or Proto back. Ehehehe.¡¯ We snap out of it when she talked and with Annabeth picking up ball 2 and 3 with me pushing ball 1 which was the largest we returned to the city. Victor PoV We all split up after we left that comedy act Techno did with Gaia. Boy i couldn¡¯t help laughing when it started which probably made it worst but who cares. Anyways after we left i went my own way because i wanted to meet some friends. When i entered the workshop in the middle of the training ground the guys looked over and soon i was assaulted by my old work mates. Dwarf: ¡®OI VICTOR! I heard the brat you went with was the one that brought that flying beast over. What the FUCK were you doing after you left?¡¯ I laughed at them and explained what happened after i left. They all stood like idiots with their jaws hanging. I¡¯m sure half the stuff they will think it¡¯s a lie but then again all of them were my classmates in university so it was a simply copy of the video feed and i would prove them wrong. Clockwork: ¡®So what are you going to do now?¡¯ Victor: ¡®Came to see if anything new appeared tech wise.¡¯ Dwarf 2: ¡®Hasn¡¯t been much time. I would guess you and that guy would think of something faster than us. I¡¯m sure with that guys creative head he could help you make a something like a huge battle suit robot you get in and drive.¡¯ If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I make sure to take note of that for future plans. They may be saying it as a joke but i wouldn¡¯t consider it a joke when you take Techno¡¯s unorthodox ability to make something like that come true. They end up not having much else left but i do buy some earth and fire golem cores since we don¡¯t have any more but it cost me a copy of the blueprints for a minigun we use on the ship, obviously i gave them the weakest model. Like hell i would give them anything good. I end my day by taking a walk around the robot training yard and scanning several interesting models which i would take the time to build later on. Afterwards i return to the ship and find Techno in the workshop. In the corner i saw Asura while next to him and a new robot was the protector. Victor: ¡®Hey Techno, what''cha building?¡¯ Techno: ¡±I heavily needed type of robot. It¡¯s a new model of Protector.¡± I look and see how the engine was similar but it looked a great deal stronger since it had lots of parts being made of alchemy metal. The stock we made was lasting us quite a while but to be safe i headed off and started waking up the 2 new golems and took them to train them and gather minerals we needed for the upgrades. I really wonder what he was making. Still getting materials is just as important as building and as a dwarf i can¡¯t neglect this unstoppable quirk i need to do at least once in a while. Techno PoV When i got back to the ship began thinking of some kind of weapon or gun that would help out. Though i needed cannons, there is a limit to them since we need good range and power so we needed an alternative. When i entered my workshop i saw the locked up Proto in the corner. The words ¡°they have fast small ships¡± ring in my mind and instantly i knew which weapons would cause the most destruction no matter how few i make of them. I gathered a lot of the alchemy metal we had in the stock and with the fire steel i begin making a new protector engine but with a better design where MUCH less fuel is used but the pressure of steam builds faster but it circles around back to the tank instead of being released. Victor returns earlier but doesn¡¯t stay long and goes to gather ores for us. I was nearly done the engine so when i finished i moved to Earth steel. Because this is harder it''s also heavier but after going through a process to make the steel lighter the earth steel is thinner and weighs less than regular steel plate but it''s just as strong as normal steel. It was important to keep this as lightweight as possible but i wasn¡¯t too worried. This protector model wouldn¡¯t have as much metal as the regular one anyway. I then start building the head and arms but that is it. The reason is because around the arms that are permanently set in a 45 degree angle with the elbow part facing forward with the hands completely as miniguns that don¡¯t return to hands i start building wings. They are a meter long on both sides and at the middle is where the arms connect and are fixed. At the end of the exhaust pipes that were built to let out steam in case of the engine starting to overheat i built a single propeller that work like a plane¡¯s engine. The system of the propellers is separate from the engine and it has a separate gear system that takes the steam that comes out and passes it under pressure through the system and spins the gears and propellers at a scary speed. I make a single larger one under the protector which gives it lift and finish it up by making the thin but strong earth steel armor plating. I think this was hardest part because i needed to make it aerodynamic. As i put the plates i send Asura with some robots to gather sand at the shores near the lake outside the city and then i bring a bag back and melt it and make glass which i then curve and put it just behind the head in a backwards curve shape which makes a barrier for the wind. I don¡¯t make it too large because the rider will need to look out and fire but in all it¡¯s all done. I fill up both tanks and finally start it up. Most of the programming was done while i was building the body and i was installed when i built the head. Just as i finish the sun had set. Nova and the girls return around this time and I head Nova calling so i covered the new robot before climbing upstairs. Outside Nova was smiling and around her were five spherical metal balls with numbers on them. Nova: ¡®Look bro. I made this for you because you wanted to catch bad guys. She pressed a button on the big ball and it opened up and one by one she put the balls in place. When the last one went on and the thing finished constructing itself my jaw dropped when i saw the turret. I then looked at the two who were taking care of her. Annabeth: ¡®She wanted to build something and didn¡¯t tell us what.¡¯ Greer: ¡®We found out a few minutes ago as well.¡¯ I simply sigh and walk over and crouch in front of her and pat her head. Techno: ¡®Thanks, bro likes your present. You know, bro has a present for you as well.¡¯ Nova: ¡®REALLY~!¡¯ Techno: ¡®Yes, i will show it and you can play today but since you still disobeyed you will only get to play 1 hour and then you will come back.¡¯ Nova: ¡®Mn~~!¡¯ She nodded and I went down stairs and with Asura helping me i transported the new robot. I placed it on the deck on its three feet which were simple feet which lowered like a plane. I removed the cover and everyone looked curiously at it. Nova: ¡®What is it?¡¯ Techno: ¡®I made a new Proto but this one is a new kind so i call him Strato.¡¯ Curiously she walked around before climbing up to the seat behind the glass. In the spot was a connection which she connects to and hooks up to Strato¡¯s system. Also there was a small handle which was heavily welded and reinforced to handle her weight even if she did some kind of dangerous maneuver. When she turned it on the engine roared to life and the seven propellers fell into place and slowly the steam built up and started to spin the propellers. Annabeth: ¡®HOLD ON! Is this a flying protector?!¡¯ As the steam got to its peak the propellers spun faster. The voice of the draconian princess sounded through the sound of the propellers but is simply crossed my arms and smiled. The bottom propeller got faster and soon the protector lifted up. The bottom propeller was different in that it moved and turned. To lift off it pointed straight down as it¡¯s doing now and when she was 2 meters up she started to giggle. Nova: ¡®Ehehehehe~~! BRO IS THE BEST!¡¯ As she said that the three left propellers spun faster making her turn a 90 degree angle and stopping before the bottom propeller shifted to point backwards and all seven spun with even greater intensity and she flew off reaching nearly 130 km/h. The sound of the engine soon vanished in the night with only me smiling away. Techno: ¡±No doubt this would be the best weapon against any pirate group. I think even the scariest of all our weapons, Nova tops them all.¡± Annabeth: ¡®THEN STOP MAKING THINGS WORSE!¡¯ Greer: ¡®She is scarier than you Techno. An eight year old could build such an advanced weapon.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Oh right let''s get this downstairs so i can make a proper weapon.¡± The two of them paled but i simply smiled and after a bit of searching i found the buttons to disconnect the parts and rolled them to my workshop and started researching their build before i started improving the design to build a proper prototype.
Take the basic armored protector. Now remove the torso and legs and have the arms fixed to the wings. Then at the end of the exhaust you add a small airplane propeller. http://lh3.ggpht.com/_hVOW2U7K4-M/Sk6xlXKLKOI/AAAAAAABCtI/Bs1MPcudCh4/s800/567ityjfsgcvc.jpg This is also a good method to understand somewhat how it was built http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Togekiss_(Pok%C3%A9mon) just take the above protector picture and imagine it in togekiss form. Volume 2 Chapter 19 Fame Thank you 0nLin3 for showing me this video. For anyone who loves Nova''s antics this is the closest example of it though she is much less brutal then this...i think.
Techno PoV To say i wasn''t in the least bit surprised about Nova''s turret weapon would be a lie. Though i already knew she had talent for weapon building since she made her own rifles, it''s more surprising the approach she took in building the weapon. Instead of building as one weapon she built it in smaller easier to carry and assemble parts. The weapon itself sucks because it leaks too much steam but firing a lump of scrap 200 meters is good for something that isn''t a prototype. Still it doesn''t have strength. To see exactly how much power it has i spent the next day rebuilding the turret but fixing the leaks and using non rusted iron as a test. The results were much more the satisfying. I made an empty bomb shell with a drone inside so i could track it. I shot it at a 25 degree angle which would be, more or less an average that would take a cannon ball over to the ship. To everyone''s surprise, the ball flew nearly a kilometer at the angle we shot it at and then started descending stopping nearly three kilometers away. Everyone in our crew was silent after i passed the info. We then all looked at Nova who innocently tilted her head not understand what was wrong. This was probably the weapon that held the greatest range. Now i have to say this. The turret is a cannon but the only part that makes it a cannon was ball five which goes on top and holds the barrel. Because of that i build a different kind of barrel. If anyone has ever seen a proper military turret you would know they have a double barrel turret on ships for rapid fire shooting with high caliber round. I tried mimicking it and after just a bit of altering of balls three and four that stay below ball five i was able to do it. The rounds were the size of a .50 BMG. I was curious about its penetration power so my crew went into the scrap yard and after finding a good spot we pulled out five sheets of iron, five of steel and five of earth alchemy steel all of which were 1 cm thick each. We line the all up on in front of each other standing at 100 meters away and with a single round loaded we shot. First off let me say the sound from the shot is scary in itself and the penetration power is off the charts. It penetrated to the second to last earth alchemy steel sheet. A single sheet of earth alchemy steel is about twice as hard as regular steel. In other words something has to have at least 7 cm of earth steel to survive a round from this gun. Since the distance will alter this we do more tests and see that after 500 m the round stops at the third earth steel sheet. Since the pirate ships are all made of steel or junk metal they would die a dog''s death with this. Since this was a prototype, Victor and I quickly start working on a final product. I have him go fast with the golem to gather a lot of minerals to have them produce cores. I ask the Ena and Blaze to do the same. We need to remake our stock of cores. Since i had time i remake the gear makeup of Asura. The because it takes a lot of minerals to make a core the others spent the day gathering resources to make them so i was left with the full day. All of the physical stats on Asura increased in about 20% and with a bit of tweaking i repaired a few coding improving intelligence by 5% while wisdom stayed the same since that is thinking process and it¡¯s something altered by the actual mind. It did rise before but it was because our minds became cleaner and our brains worked better. Still it¡¯s a good enough improvement that would help out later. I had time to improve Yasha''s code which improved intelligence by 8% and it improved the movement of my body and hands making my agility and dexterity rise by 3%. Guess Yasha needs more programming to properly move still. Anyway the others returned with two new golem cores and the fire elementals had two as well. We grind them and begin making the alchemy steel for the turret. With this number of cores we can make enough steel for two turrets. Fire steel is resistant to heat so they are used in barrels and pipes while earth steel is under to make a strong body capable of lasting with all the shooting. The actual part making takes longer than building so for the next four days Victor and I plus all the clockwork robots we control work on building the stock. Obviously the golems were made to make more cores. I was going to make three models. Long range mortars, long range cannons and mid-range dual barrel turret. There will be two mortars both in the front and back of the ship. The cannons will have four, two on each side of the center part of the deck, one in the back and one in the front and the turret will have on in the center of the top deck and it will have a 360 rotation base as well as a pilot seat for Victor who will man it. On the fourth day Brock finally woke up. He explained what happened. We were rather surprised to find he went to the hospital because of mental fatigue but it seems he is better. He was limited to playing only 1 game day which is just about 5 hours. Though it was mostly because he was still under observation for the next two weeks but none the less we tell him not to overexert himself. I had the girls take him to the mine so he can absorb minerals to regain his strength. His current body is too weak for his core so until he gets to Black Iron golem he will be in a weakened state and can''t make his sky whale body. During the time we built the turrets it seems Rust had finished delivering the ships and came over. It was a simple trade. I passed him a copy of my code before i improved them a few days ago and it was done. He took a look at the weapons we were making before just sighing and walking off. I smiled at him seeing as he already understood the strength behind them. Put nicely, i would wage on the pirates retreating while losing half their fleet in the initial confrontation. I don¡¯t plan on destroying all of them. I will leave 3 ships and ¡°lose¡± them and by chance find their base before ending things. Like any other game when a place is destroyed it would take money and resources to reconstruct. Getting rid of all the ships plus the base of operations i was sure to make a large number of enemies but then again, when someone PK¡¯s a pirate especially when you gained a quest like this.
Mission: Pirate Genocide The first signs of trash grouping up together has already appeared. Criminals, scum or lazy ass criminals who don¡¯t have anything better to do have been causing trouble and stealing precious steel parts for ships and weapons that are transported to the Shipyard City. Your task is to eliminate all the pirates leaving them with little to work with. Difficulty: E Reward: ??? Success: Kill all pirate both Players and NPC Failure: You die
Because it was a formal request to kill all of them I¡¯m not holding back and i will vent my stress on these guys. Not only that, i won''t get any penalty because they are already marked men. Pirates are automatically considered PK so they are marked for killing even if they never killed and only stole. When we finished building the turrets i built a spot in the place they are stationed. With a command it opens up and the balls are released for us to build. When i have free time i want to try using drones like this. This tech has too much potential to leave it at turret. Anyway i take the rest of the fifth and the whole sixth day to upgrade my Yasha body, Bulk and Nova. Also we upgraded Victor¡¯s armor. He asked if we could make a battle suit like one a pilot sits inside. We said we would do it some other time. It would probably be too high leveled to use. My body''s physical stats raised a lot though we didn''t change any plates so my durability in both bodies remained the same. This is my stats as of this moment.
Status
NameTechno Gear (Yasha)RaceClockwork
ClassMechanicLevel:65
Free stats points0Durability1500/1500
Energy400/400Strength136
Agility165Dexterity169
Toughness130Intelligence275
Wisdom285Charisma30
Leadership20Luck50
Status
NameTechno Gear (Asura)RaceClockwork
ClassChaos KnightLevel:65
Free stats points0Durability1635/1635
Energy400/400Strength172
Agility192Dexterity172
Toughness157Intelligence275
Wisdom285Charisma30
Leadership20Luck50
Alongside with the 144 points I recently added has made my stats really intimidating. Speaking of which i never once added stat point to Nova. Using my parental control i open her status window.
Status
NameNova GearRaceClockwork
ClassCommander SniperLevel:70
Free stats points210Durability1385/1385
Energy400/400Strength115
Agility162Dexterity159
Toughness97Intelligence265
Wisdom389Charisma78
Leadership20Luck200
This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Ok i really want to ask when she got that much luck but then after thinking of a few of the things that happen to us it¡¯s easy to understand. Her charisma probably comes from the Menthol thing and her stopping him so easily. Now she isn''t a close range fighter and uses the protectors so I will focus on the other stuff. I put 70 points on Dexterity and agility since both help with ranged class the last 70 i put 50 points on toughness and the last 20 on intelligence. With this her durability reaches 1635 points and agility and dexterity reaching the scary 200''s I''m sure that with this the chances of her hitting a small dingy at nearly 2 km away is high enough that she can send the cannon ball right onto its deck. I''m really overdoing it with her for sure. Even if we don''t stay here 35 years that my sentence says i would here. We would probably fight someone of Delta''s strength in some years from now. Speaking of which doesn''t the game have an online auction. I don''t know how mom and dad are but it would be good to support them a bit. Maybe when i get a comfortable distance ahead of other players. Anyway all we have left to do is set up the turret stations and wait for brock to heal up. Brock PoV Man i haven''t felt this weak since i was a level 1. I can''t have my body grow because the minerals i need are different. Still, my earth magic has been amplified and i can use a sub category called Metal Magic. Just like its name suggests i can manipulate metals both mineral and refined. My ability to gather and extract iron and obsidian is greatly helped by this. Still i need so much iron that instead of going to the iron veins i head into the mine shafts that were once used to get down to the lava pool. The reason was that i would probably drain the iron vein completely. The pool itself is cooled down and the body of the golem was still there solid and with a huge hole it its chest. After examining it i found the room had a lot of obsidian and even more so in the remains of the lava golem. I tell Victor to wait while i gather enough. I climb up into the hole in the golem¡¯s chest and place both hands down on the ground below me. My arms mix into the dirt body and i could feel the huge reserve of obsidian in the room. I also saw that it was acting as a lid for the lava below so i couldn''t take it from places that would break the balance. Still the body of the dead golem had a lot so i gathered from there. As i drain the dead body i could feel strength return. Or should i say increase. My strength as the earth doll was the same as before. Put simply, Earth Spirit Golems are an OP golem or even a boss class race. Speaking of that it seems my class changed finally. I actually wondered if ever changed since few jobs exist. Still Sky Whale (Infant) is a rather...strange class. It seems to be a beginner race class linked directly to my ability to create a second body. It doesn''t give abilities or skills probably because of that. Still what it does give is a massive growth in skill when absorbing iron and obsidian. Anyway when i finally finished absorbing the obsidian in the lava golem¡¯s corpse i had reached the amount of obsidian i needed. Not only that, i was already back to my full adult size.
You have reached the minimum size for an adult Earth Spirit.
[Table]
You have gained new racial skills.
Secondary Body [Level 1] As an Earth Spirit you are given the right to have a second body upon reaching adulthood. The form is in the shape of a large flat back Whale. After a certain size you can hold animals and vegetable on your back. Warning: As a second body it holds it will gain its own stats upon creation. Use of unique minerals and metals during its creation will alter its look greatly.
Magnetism (Basic 1) Your mineral rich body allows you to create a magnetic field. This skill works automatically with your secondary body and it flies by swimming inside the planet magnet field.
You class Sky Whale (infant) has advanced to Sky Whale (adolescent)
Brock: ¡®What the fuck!¡¯ Victor: ¡®Something wrong?¡¯ Brock: ¡®Ya i already reached my mature size. I can make my Whale body now.¡¯ Victor: ¡®Didn¡¯t you need more iron?¡¯ Brock: ¡®Well it¡¯s black iron so i might have needed more Obsidian than Iron.¡¯ Victor: ¡®Makes sense. So what do you need for the whale?¡¯ Brock: ¡®I need to gather the materials for its body. Different stuff changes its stats and look.¡¯ Victor: ¡®I see. Well no need to worry about it now. Since you would endanger the city''s supply let''s make your body some other place. Away from here.¡¯ I nod and we return to the surface. To say i was Op was in understatement now. I never placed extra stat points since i always getting boost from metal eating. Now that i have a chance all my own and since Techno forgot about it, let¡¯s add them. I have 201 points since in my 67 levels i never added one point. So i add 35 to agility to even out at 100, 35 in strength giving me 300 strength, 40 to Toughness giving me 300 toughness, 30 intelligence and wisdom leaving it each 180 and 240 respectively and the last 31 points in dexterity which leaves me at 127 points. This is my stat right now.
Status
NameBrock StonesRaceEarth Elemental (Earth Spirit)
ClassSky Whale (Adolescent)Level:67
Free stats points0Durability2370/2370
Mana2770/2770Strength300
Agility100Dexterity127
Toughness300Intelligence180
Wisdom240Charisma10
Leadership10Luck100
Damn i was too damn lucky to get this class because of it i got so much stat. I was the best tank now because i had the most HP. For me, i would never want to become a Synthoid since this seems far better. Ena and Blaze might have a rare elemental form as well but it would take so much luck to run into another one and come out of it alive. Still I can¡¯t wait to fight someone. My magic is going to be so epic. I have 80% affinity with earth magic and i can do a lot of damage since spells are stronger the better the affinity. Victor PoV Damn! Brock looks strong now and his pure black body which is in a really human shape like before now looked really dangerous. Like more dangerous than Techno dangerous. I don¡¯t know how much of a boost he got from this but i was sure that he was the toughest out of his without a doubt. I kind of feel left out now. I had suggested having a close range battles suit made for myself so i could fight more evenly but i didn¡¯t get much of a reaction from Techno. Put simply, i will make it myself. I already have a model that was built to fight the strongest marvel superhero so i will go with that. No way in hell i was going to be left behind. When we got back to the ship i headed off to the workshop and began making every little piece i needed. This would be a project that would take at least 3 months because of the complexity. I can slowly improve my current suit to handle parts of it but i can¡¯t wait until it''s complete. Anyway with Brock up and running we finally contact Rust and tell him we are ready. With the turrets already complete we are already making enough ammo that we can go to war for at least 3 hours without stopping. A simple pirate group would never be able to handle our fire power. Not when they are using simple crappy ships. Anyway the best way to draw those bastards out is by escort so Rust has a ship loaded up with parts needed urgently at the shipyard town and soon it lifts off with use behind it. We were getting the turrets in place but leaving the last ball so it looked like random machines. Soon we head in the direction and we are all on high alert. Techno PoV For the escort ship they were on high alert and the tension was high but for us who have seen scarier things that a couple pirates we didn¡¯t bat an eye. That said i did let Nova have her weapons back during this time. Stratus gained a special hatch which opens up and lets him fly out at Nova¡¯s or my command. I had Asura on the top deck while my Yasha body was in the command room controlling the ship. For a long while there was nothing on the ship''s scanners but from nowhere the scanner started to receive interference. Not being some idiot i had already prepared for this and i connected to the ships consoles and i uploaded an anti-hacking program and tracking program and instantly the computers returned to normal and it showed were the hacking was coming from. On the radar there were around fifteen ships about 3 km in front of us and they seem to be moving out right now. Just before i could call the others one of the monitors was covered in static before a clockwork Knight. Knight: ¡®So you are the scum that interfere with me! The great leader of ¡°The Clockwork¡± TECHNO!¡¯ I was completely stunned that even if i wasn¡¯t partially mute i wouldn¡¯t be able to respond. Fake Techno: ¡®What''s with that stupid face! Scared~ of having such a powerful foe like me who defeated the lava golem with just a little girl and another Knight!¡¯ I had to cover my mouth. It was starting to get ridiculous. Fake Techno: ¡®HEY DON¡¯T LAUGH FOR ANY REASON TRASH! YOU BETTER SURRENDER OR YOU WILL DIE!¡¯ I couldn¡¯t handle it after that. I burst out laughing as loud as possible. I couldn¡¯t stop either this was too much. I¡¯ve heard of this in manga, LN and fanfics but to think it was real. There was actually an idiot who tried to get famous off someone else''s name. I had in all this time finally had a genuine laugh from the very depths. I couldn¡¯t stop. Obviously the clear sound of my laughing caught the attention of everyone outside. Nova: ¡®No way! Bro is laughing!¡¯ Bulk: ¡®No way! He can laugh!¡¯ Victor: ¡®Oi! Snap out of it! What¡¯s so funny to make even you laugh!¡¯ I turned to them and pointed at the moron on the screen.¡¯ Fake Techno: ¡®To laugh at me! YOU WILL ALL DIE AT THE HANDS OF ME THE LEADER OF ¡°THE CLOCKWORK¡±. It took several second for everyone to actually process this before everyone fell over laughing like me. Only Nova was left wondering what was funny since she didn¡¯t really know about ¡°The Clockwork¡± title everyone calls us. Nova: ¡®Hey guys, who is this noisy old man?¡¯ This made it worse those who were living beings were nearly out of breath and were holding their sides as it was starting to hurt to laugh so much. The steam from the fake was blowing so heavily that i think he would dry up soon. After regaining some self-control i simply connected to the com and did a very simple thing. I get in front of the screen. Lift up my front right arm and with my middle finger straight up pointed towards him i said a very simple line out loud. Techno: ¡®Go fuck yourselves weaklings.¡¯ I cut the connection and block all channels. Techno: ¡±Ok, fun time is over. Let''s teach these assholes what it feels like to fight the real ¡°Clockwork¡± crew¡± All: ¡®YAY!!!¡¯
For those who forgot and those who don¡¯t know here is how i calculate HP and MP How to calculate HP/Durability Base health/ durability when rusty body trait is removed 200 Durability 10 points for each level. Current level 65. +650 durability Toughness/Vitality 1 point = +5 durability each. Toughness/2*10 Toughness/2*10 + level*10 + 200= Current health. How to calculate MP Base mana is 100 Level up gives 10 MP Intelligence/2*10 + Wisdom/2*10 = Mana capacity Volume 2 Chapter 20 Air Assault Techno PoV With me calling them to attention my crew, still laughing, started to leave the room. In my Yasha body i pulled out two items that looked this big head phones. The difference is that the main support was made of glass on along the top and bottom ran a cylindrical tube which held a system of cameras that would shoot images onto the glass and make it work like a visor. On a 90 degree angle to the glass visor a thin metal curved and connected to the other ear phone which contained all the hardware of the visor. Before the Tigress and Draconian princess could leave i called. Techno: "You two didn''t like the helmet visors so i made this. The systems in here are much more advanced. That includes the targeting system." Greer: ''Why did you mention the targeting system specifically?'' Techno: "Because you two will be shooting the cannons until we get close enough to engage them." Their eyes get a bit wide but they nod and take the new visors. Thankfully the size was correct and it fit just right. The game didn''t have size adjustment so it needed to be the correct size. They two seem happy as they walk out. They hated the helmets because; in Greer''s case it covered her ears which were up on her head like a tiger or cat. In Annabeth''s case her dragon horns wouldn''t properly fit. Not it did since the top was open. It took quite a while to get it working. It has much less systems but it has communication, targeting and scanners at least. It also lets them check their stats through tech instead of the magic window. With those they can''t control any robots though but it has much more space to connect to things like the turrets to use the targeting with them. Now then let¡¯s get to teaching these shits their place. Annabeth PoV As we travelled alongside the transport ship we suddenly heard the clear sound of laughing coming from the command room. The laughing was so clear that it was like a child gleefully playing or laughing at something they found funny. I found it nice to listen to since most people force a laugh. When we entered into the room we found Techno rolling around laughing with all he had. After a bit he calmed down after Victor asked why he was laughing. When he pointed at the monitor screen we saw a clockwork knight with a resemblance to Techno''s old knight body. The video of their fight against the Lava Golem was released on the forums so they at least knew that much. The guy was furious at being laughed at. Fake Techno: ¡®To laugh at me! YOU WILL ALL DIE AT THE HANDS OF ME THE LEADER OF ¡°THE CLOCKWORK¡±. We were all taken by surprise and after a few seconds of processing what he said i had to cover my mouth. The others did the same but we couldn''t hold it and started to laugh just like Techno with all our might. It got worse after Nova called him a noisy old man. Victor, Greer and I started to tear up and hold out sides because it was starting to hurt. After a bit we calmed down and the say the guys blowing so much steam that i was sure he was almost out. Then Techno in his Yasha body walked up to the screen and flipped the stupid fake before cutting the connection. What an incredible day. To hear Techno laugh, see such a stupid person and get a gift from Techno. It¡¯s rather simple but it works like a charm. It gives us a scanner and a really amazing targeting system. And i can connect to the turrets and use the system. When we left Victor, put me on the mortar at the front of the ship. The mortar was the only one of the ball constructions that had two large construction balls. Ball 1 of the mortar was now one meter in diameter while 2-4 were 30 cm more or less. Ball five was the last one and had a half meter diameter. As soon as i pit the last ball in the reason was made clear. Unlike the barrel of a cannon which was two half meter sections of making the cannon barrel the mortar was much more intimidating. The mortar had three sections which was 75 cm each and aimed up. I connect a wire that came with the new visor and found the spot it connected to. The info from the mortar appeared as soon as i connected and when i looked up at the barrel i could see a small dotted line showing the course the shell would take. Oh you heard right, i said shell. The same kind used in tanks and real world siege weapons. Nearly 40 cm long and cylindrical ending at a sharp point. The shell is 1 cm of earth steel while the hollowed inside is filled with black powder and a pressure plate at the point that activates on impact. I open the hatch next to the turret and grabbed a shell. Opening the chamber i put the shell in the support and close it. Now setting up the trajectory wasn''t too hard. Obviously I''m not Nova who seems to be able to hit everything she sets her eyes on. Anyway to change its trajectory i have two spinning wheels to turn it. One was to move the mortar forward and back while the other turned the entire base of the turret which moves left and right. With the help of the targeting system i can more or less shoot where the target says it will go but there are various factors i need to take into account. As test fire i use the scanners to locate the ships. Techno hooked up the ship''s long range scanner to our smaller ones and we knew where they were. At this time, they were 3 km away but as scary as it should but they are in my range. Dual barrel turrets have a 500-1000 meter range, cannons have a max range of 1700 meters and mortars can fire off the shells to nearly 3.5 km. The only problem is aiming. With the wind blowing strongly from the left in a tailwind i put the mortar on a 73 degree angle. After connecting the turret to the ship''s steam pipe i launched. It was really scary the mortars three sections get pushed all the way down after it shoots the shell while the shot itself sends a tremor through the ship. I looked up and saw the shell vanish as it soared upwards. Fake Techno PoV Those bastards!! Who do they think they are? Fucking shits don¡¯t take me serious even when i used the name of the most feared guy in the game. I walk outside and have some guy''s bring me water. I was nearly out from my fit of rage before. The water helped cool down but only my body. I move to the front of the ship and activate a scope i built into my left eye. I could see the transport ship and next to it was another one which was where those bastards are. I zoom in as best as i could and see them moving about on the deck. The ship was coming towards us with no intention of turning. What was strange was that weird machine on the front. The zoom got me close but it was at best a 30 times zoom so i still had trouble seeing. Still i could see a chick lift up a big metal ball onto the machine. The next moment the thing opened up and turned into a fucking Mortar. Fake: ¡®FUCK THEY HAVE MORTARS!! DISPERSE!¡¯ I instantly sounded the alarm to spread out so that it would have the least effect on us even if one or two get hit. A moment later we heard the bomb but since we were far it must have been a few seconds ago. I quickly look up and after a moment my scanners spotted the thing but it was too late. It crashed right into the ship that was third to the right and caused the two adjacent ships to catch fire. We threw ropes over and helped any survivors off the ship but nearly three fourths of the crew got smoked. Next moment another bomb and followed by the furthest ship to the left getting crushed. Fake: ¡®Quickly move forward so we can engage!¡¯ The ships were put on max speed and our advance got faster. The transport ship stopped and withdrew its sails while the turbines behind it pointed down keeping it stationary. The other ship started to get in front and stopped when it was perpendicular to the transport ship. I thought it was a suicide attempt to protect the ship but i was quickly proven wrong. As soon as we got 1.5 km away the sound of cannon fire came from them and took two ships down followed by another mortar. We started with 15 ships now we are only 10. Seriously there is no fucking way someone has so much firepower to take on a large group and cause so much damage. Moments later another barrage of shots came and dropped us to 6 ships because there seems to be another mortar at the back. Feeling despair at this i call for retreat. The ship doesn¡¯t follow but we only get out of range with 2 ships. All the rest were trashed and even my main ship was hit by a dud but besides that we thankfully survived. Techno PoV Ah~! How i love when things go perfectly. First off let¡¯s start by saying killing a player, even a weaker one, brings in such a good amount of exp. I reckon it¡¯s because it¡¯s our first midair ship battle against another ship. Second it¡¯s because PKing gives a lot of exp. Anna and Greer both leveled up tons. The smallest ships which were in bulk having 10 of that kind had about 7 people i think. As the ships go destroyed at the start those who survived jumped to the next ship but once they spread out to far they crews were killed completely. I joined in on the fun to make that bastard feel fear. They didn''t even get in range for them to attack. In the end they retreated with their tails between their legs. Obviously i wasn''t about to let them go so i fired a special tracker shot and had Nova hit the largest ship which was a caravel ship like my own. The tracker shot wasn''t special but more like a package. When it hits and enters the ship it opens up releasing a drone that gives off a specific frequency that i set which i can track. Obviously they can walk and i spread them all over the ship just to be safe. Because of that we continue on and finish the transport job. The trip by air from Southgate City to Shipyard city takes about 6 hours. It would take a month or two to cross the same distance by land. The ship captain thanks us a ton after we arrive but after we grab supplies, water and fuel, we leave almost. The Pirates were still being tracked and no tracker drones were found but i was sure the cannon shell was discovered already. Eventually the pirate ship comes to a halt. We move forward and as we get close we can''t find them. At least until i look through the eyes of the drones. Being close enough i took control of one and crawled out. What i found after finding a hole in the ship leading outward a well-lit cave. Most of the lights were from the light magic system the spell Light Ball. The cave itself was huge and the number of Clockwork, humans, gnomes and Dwarves here was rather scary. It felt like i was in a city. Anyway i discreetly work my way to the entrance of the cave and find my bearings. Almost instantly i spotted my ship and several armed guards laughing at our ship for stopping here. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Seems they were going to board on single man boats made like a small fishing boat. I opened my eyes and got to the control room and make the ship turn in a ninety degree angle and lower the ship to just over 50 meters. Techno: "Guys get ready to fuck these assholes hiding in their fucking rat hole." I load a cannon shell which was made for extra explosive power and aim the cannon just at the spot the tracker drone is. I left it right at the entrance. I pull the trigger and shell blasted full power out of the barrel and right into the cave where the pirate base was. Fake Techno PoV Thank god they didn''t follow us. I had the guys continue forward until i was sure we were safe then we headed to the base. We needed to tell the boss about this. For someone to be so strong they were either NPC or a dark gamer mercenary group and we might be hunted down. We land in base and i quickly head to the bosses office. The cave itself had been mined out so the seven meter high ceiling and the smooth walls were a result of this. A those who could use magic created light balls and making a torch with iron and at the top butting a mana crystal we found here we set the crystal to be a catalyst for the spell so it never runs out. The corridors were made 4 meters high and 6 wide and has been reinforced by the pet golems the dwarves have. At the end of the 200 meter long corridor that branches off at various points was a large 15x15 meter room that was 7 meters high. The doors of the room were near one of the walls because at the far end of the room sat two large clockwork boss monster furnaces. We aren¡¯t some specialists so it¡¯s not like real life people can actually smith especially in this game that doesn¡¯t use the skill system where you simply activate the skill and it instantly does the work for you. Now to work these things it''s quite difficult for living beings because of the heat. Even the dwarfs have trouble so we revived the scraped clockworks but they didn¡¯t want to work for us since their scanners marked us as pirates. We fixed that by simply removing the motherboard and putting a receiver in its place. They take orders just as well as the dwarf¡¯s golems but unlike the golems who are a nationwide ¡°pet¡± since they are pretty stupid clockworks are much different. They are the leading race and though the main bulk isn¡¯t that strong there are players who are good with this race. That Techno bastard is one of them so we use his name to make our assaults better but it¡¯s not just him. There is i think 3 other clockwork who are from different crews that are good. They are all techies so they make their own shit which is why they are so strong. I leave the room through the other door and walked further in. This corridor didn¡¯t have splitting corridors since it only led to the boss¡¯s room. As i reach a steel double door i knocked quite a bit before it opened and i went in. The room was simple like anything else in this game. The room did have pelt sofas and at the back were a polished wooden desk and a large rotating chair. If you think of a 50¡¯s mob boss office where the guy doesn¡¯t show his face then you should get the idea. Fake: ¡®Boss we had a huge problem with the heist.¡¯ Boss: ¡®I can tell. You came here with your tail between your legs while licking your wounds.¡¯ Fake: ¡®The transport had an escort this time.¡¯ Boss: ¡®How many ships? 20?¡¯ Fake: ¡®...One...Sir.¡¯ He spun around and slammed his hands down on the desk which causes cracks to form. In front of me stood the black skinned leader. Yep he was a man who started as a Demon race here in the clockwork nation instead of the actual demon nation. 170 cm tall with a lean build and on his head were two short horns growing there. Boss: ¡®One...Ship...destroyed MY...fleet!¡¯ Fake: ¡®Sir. It wasn¡¯t just some newbies. The guys were packing super long range mortars and cannons we can¡¯t even believe exist.¡¯ Boss: ¡®Tch, fucking dark gamers must have found something good from that bitch Gaia.¡¯ BOOM A sudden noise that sounds all the way inside. Makes us both freeze and we look at one another. Boss: ¡®YOU WERE FOLLOWED!¡¯ Fake: ¡®NO! I was sure and i even checked the radars. The ship went ahead on their way after we escaped!¡¯ Boss: ¡®Then someone found the base. FUCK! We need to leave. As much as it sucks to leave such a huge supply of mana crystals but if we are found then we can be tracked back here. GET THE SHIP READY!¡¯ With that i run out and start ordering everyone and the clockwork robots to get moving. Near the front we could hear bombs and bullets being fired but the amount are too much. What was it an armada or something. The clockwork knights unit with those fucking tanks. I run and finally reach the main hanger. There was only chaos and no one knew what to do. I ran outside to try and get things in order but i froze up when i saw it. The same ship was floating some distance away and was bombarding us. In the air was a small aircraft flying easily over 100 km/h. This can¡¯t be! What the hell are these guys and how did they find us! I need to get the ship ready. If we can get away quick we can survive. We still have 10 other small ships and our main ship which was a large junker similar in size to the Caravel built in Shipyard town. I need to bail fast. I¡¯m not staying around for more than it takes the boss to arrive. Nova PoV After bro shot his really big bomb and it made a really big bomb and a huge fireball. It was SO~ awesome. Before i noticed bro was telling everyone to shoot at the spot he shot and then he turned and in the middle of the ship the cool toy in the middle popped up and started to move forward. When it stopped i heard a familiar loud noise. Techno: ¡®Nova. You can have fun today. Also you can have all your toys Just for TODAY! Okay.¡¯ Nova: ¡®YAY~! Thanks Bro~!¡¯ I hug him and then he puts me on top of Strato. I pull the little plug and the pipe and connect it to my back and then in my eyes i see everyone about him appear just like Proto. I start him up and in one go i make him go up fast. I hold on to the little handing while laughing. When he stops i making him move forward and i hear the fan under him move back. I flew off really fast. Still i can¡¯t play so much when I¡¯m on Strato. I fell off when i got to play with him the first time so bro said when I¡¯m on him i need to stay crouched behind the little glass since it would protect me. I do that and it was still fun while i do a whole bunch of flips and all that. Techno: ¡±Nova. Those guys down near the smoke are bad guys. You can attack them. Starto has toys like Proto but you need a specific way of attacking to get them correctly¡± I listen to bro while flying around a bit and when i understood what to do i smiled and thanked bro. I found the bad guys and after finding all the bumps and rocks all over the place i lean close to Strato. His right wing slows down just a moment and the other one stays the same while the one below turns to the left. This makes us turn and when i stopped all the fans his body turned straight down and we started to nose dive. It turned the wing fans back on and at just the right time i turned the one under him with it pointing straight out. It pushes us straight and now we are flying low and really close. I have Strato start spinning the toy and when the red lines in my eyes turn green i make him shoot. DARARARARARARARRARARRAAR~!! I crossed over the door of the cave and hit a lot of bad guys. I started to do lots of times. Techno: ¡±Nova come back. The ships are going to leave. I have a toy you can play with if you come back quick¡± I didn¡¯t waste time and went back to bro. Next to him as one of the really cool shell thing bro uses on the toys i made. He has me float near him and he takes one of them and puts it in a little hook behind the fan under Strato. In my eyes i could see the thing that was connected. It said something strange like ¡°Bomb attached. Warning doesn¡¯t drop in current location.¡± Really strange but ok. Techno: ¡®Ok there is an option to drop this right Nova?¡¯ I nod. Techno: ¡®Good, don¡¯t press that until you see the big boat leaving the cave right in the middle of the big circle that appears OKAY?¡¯ I nod a lot. Techno: ¡®Good¡¯ ¡±Ok the rest of you. Cover for Nova things just go more dangerous and i don¡¯t want to see anyone slacking while she is out there¡± I tilted my head but then shrugged since everyone was working even harder now and bombing the guys even more. Victor and Bulk were having lots of fun laughing at the bad guys calling them stupid. Anna and Greer just looked at the two with a blank face and shaking their heads The big red bro was having fun shooting and the little blue bro was finishing putting the thing on Strato. It was heavy so it was pulling us down. Techno: ¡®Ok, have fun but be careful.¡¯ Nova: ¡®KAY~~!¡¯ I flew up again and started to circle our boat when i saw the bad guys shooting at us. I opened the toy in my arm and did the same. I hate bad guys so let¡¯s do what bro said. I do a big turn around our boat before going after the big ship. Bro started moving as well. I flew really high up away from the stuff they kept shooting but it was annoying. The closer i got to the front the more they fired. I think it''s because they saw the bomb or whatever and since it falls backwards they don¡¯t want it. We¡¯ll all i do is play around a bit more and soon the circle starts appearing in a green color so i work harder and finally get the circle right in the middle so i press the button and Strato drops the thing which makes us lighter and we fly off really fast. (A.N. Techno you sneaky bastards foolproof escape plan) Before i could stop Strato i heard the big boom from the bomb thing and turning around i could see the ship sinking. I head a few ding noises but i didn¡¯t care. I just went back to bro and hugged him for letting me play with Strato a bit. Techno: ¡±Ok! We got rid of the ships, now let¡¯s get those who remained. Bulk lets have fun.¡± Bulk: ¡®AWESOME SOME ACTION!¡¯ I laughed at bulk and we returned to that place that was filled with smoke coming from where bro shot the big toy. There were lots of people who started shooting again but we got close easily and then it was time to play. Bro gave me Proto again and we jumped down for round 2 for playing. Volume 2 Chapter 21 Pirate Genocide Techno PoV Finally a fight. Close range really is the best. On the way we use the mortars to clear up a few ships that gained tor much distance or Nova sent them a goodbye gift. When we returned to the cave the area around it was packed. Techno: "Brock, you are currently the toughest of us so drop down and do some crowd control so we can get close." Brock: ''Wha! You want me to jump off the ship! I''ll die!'' Techno: "I''ve seen your stats mr. Pet, I even saw your skill. You think I wouldn''t look after such a huge change to a rare race" Brock: ''Gah!'' After that he sighs in defeat before going downstairs and opens the hatch on the lowest deck and jumps down. He controls his body using his magnetism skill and lands with a resounding crash. With the use of his enhanced earth magic he sent a small shockwave through the earth which sent several pirates that were nearby flying. Instantly he lifted both arms and slammed down with his fists closed. It activates the earth spell earth needle but in a much scarier scale. He made it into an AoE attack. I would even call it a different spell, something like earth Needle forest. An around of about 5 meters around him had these spikes form. Yep I would definitely call Brock a low level boss monster right now. The two fire elementals took the shape of birds and flew down and began firing torrents of fire around the area and forcing the pirates into the cave. Techno: "That''s good, seal the cave so they can''t escape." With that I lead the guys down to the lowest deck that had the open hatch. Yasha was staying to provide support and to make sure the ship isn''t taken while I take Asura and clean the place up and train the two new additions. I prepare my miniguns in the middle arms and the swords on the front arms. Bulk pulls out the newly spiked warhammer. By spiked it means Victor added three dense earth steel spikes to one of the faces so our tank in the making can cause more destruction. Victor did the same to his hammer. His armor having undergone some upgrades now let him hold that iron mass on a stick with one hand if he wanted. The two girls haven''t had any armor made for them so Greer climbed onto Proto so she can get down safely and Annabeth was already flying down. When everyone had everything we jumped down. I had long since added suspensions like Proto so when I start free falling my legs open up and the suspensions appear and the springs load up. The reason the legs open is to give space for the spring to distort without breaking the plating. When we landed, the suspension compressed completely before pushing up and returning to its point of rest for the next time. Our leg plates closed up again after the suspension pushed back into place. Bulk and the others were getting up as well. The fall itself was 10 meters high but with our metal bodies it had a lot of weight behind it. Behind us came the six upgraded clockwork robots I had. Their class would fall under scout since i added a shotgun in the right arm and a semi auto rifle in the left arm. There was also handguns and so on. I look at Brock and nod. He returns it and uses magic to open the sealed cave. Everyone was already prepared so as soon as the place was open and we were met with heavy gun fire we ran in. Bulk and I took the front and the others went around. They were all fear struck pirates and we struck them down. Brock stayed near the back with Annabeth as the two case spells to do massive damage. The pirates were in despair and some simply gave up. Now we aren''t killing them all. Our scanners can tell pirate from innocent. Obviously there were few innocents but enslaved people showed in a blue color as opposed to the red for pirates. While I was destroying the pirates I was looking around when I saw that annoying knight. Seems he wasn''t on the ship but that was fine. I need to teach him a lesson. His back was turned as he tried to move away but i carved my way to him and when I was close i pulled out a grenade launcher and shot in front of him. It blew up right in front of him and took several others with them. He fell down and as he tried getting up I unequipped my swords and lifted him but then grabbed his face before he could react. Fake: ''Ah~! Let me go!'' He squirmed and grabbed my left arm that was holding him to keep his head from separating. His squirming pisses me off and I lift him up by his head and he holds with both hands. Fake: ''Gah!! LET ME GO!'' He pulls his leg back and kicks my chest. The kick had strength but it only reduced my health by 10. This caused him to shake and make his gears rattle. I connect to him. Techno: "Let this be a lesson to not mess with someone better then you." Fake: ''I''M SORRY PLEASE SPARE ME~!'' Techno: So pathetic. To think "this" is my fake. Well they are all spineless anyway. I stretch my left arm out completely and then take control of all three right arms. I bend all three and push steam into my fists. Techno: "Any last words." Fake: ''Gah! Fuck you all!'' Techno: ''Then die.'' I sent all three punches at him. The first hit the chest below the neck, the second in the middle and the last above the waist. [Triple Pressure Fist] On contact the three fists released the pressure and punched out with full pressure acting like a second punch after the first. His body was hit so hard that it disconnected from the head and flew through the crowd as it broke apart, once it hit the stone wall it broke apart like an old toy. I looked at the head and opened it up. I then took the motherboard that was totally intact. An interesting fact about clockwork is that if the motherboard is removed after death of the body and is put in a new robot it will change that into its main body. This asshole will have something real interesting to find after he returns. With a 24 real life cool down after dieing there was plenty of time to make the little toy for hims new body. I took a quick look through Yasha who was far enough to see inside the cave really deep. I would have paled if I could. In the far back I could see someone using magic. Since I know only elves know magic there wasn¡¯t a chance it was them since they have a peaceful relationship and only dark elves would do evil. I looked closer and saw a demon race. Black skin, dense lean muscles and horns. Around him were black magic circles. This was bad. I never saw a demon race before so I don''t know how strong they are but I know I can¡¯t let that spell finish. I quickly looked through Asura and found that he was to far off. I was only a third into the cave as was the others though nova was jumping around she had heavy fire centered on her. It left me with only one thing to do. I took the ship lower and a bit further from the cave so I could have room and then I went to middle deck and retrieved something I made following the model I used for Yasha. Where I saw him he used long spears in each hand. I don¡¯t have the skill for it so I took two and brought them up. I drop one and hold another in one arm and target the demon bastard. I was standing on the other side of the deck but I could still see him. The targeting system told me just how strong the throw should be as well as the trajectory and how I should throw it. It looked similar to those olympic athletes. I looked at the bastard one more time before I started the short run before I put my own body behind the throw and sent the spear over the side of the ship flying fast toward the guy. I turn to Asuras pov and looked. I could see the spear fly fast real fast over everyone and finally strike right into the bastards left leg. At once the guy screamed in pain and the magic spell was interrupted. I grinned seeing that and began cutting the guys up but I wasn¡¯t about to stop. I controlled asura but focused on yasha and made it grab the second spear and I aimed again. I did everything and then quickly threw the speak but slightly to the right since that was where the bastard currently was lying and like that the spear impaled him in the chest and a lot of blood started to gush out.
You have killed to Pirate leader. Because of this the pirate crew has been disbanded. Kill all the remaining pirates and return to South Gate City with the leader''s body for your reward.
After seeing that it was over. Their moral completely vanished and the clean up went quick with all the AoE spells from Brock and Beth, the grenades I launched, Nova¡¯s constant jumping and sniping and Bulk and Victors constant charging through the crowd crushing all of them either with their hammers or being run over and stomped on. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.It was a one sided slaughter which could be compared to a warzone with no one knowing how to deal with this crew of grim reapers. Finally as the sun set we finished exterminating all the rats and docked the ship in here for the night. Searching a pirates base will most likely give us a lot of stuff not to mention all the clockwork robots that were left here. There must be some source of metal here so we will stay here for a while before we go back. But first this bastard Demon should be preserved somehow. I have Annabeth do some of the little ice magic she can and freeze the body and load it on the ship. After that we began to remove all the clothes and gear off the pirates and just toss them over the cliff outside so the stick of rotting and blood would stay. Fake PoV Fuck what¡¯s going on. After I reached the ship it told everyone to get ready and then jumped off so that I could grab some important items we had but when I came back the ship was already leaving and soon after the robot flew back to the enemy ship and came out again before dropping a fucking bomb on our main ship. It continued doing that to all escaping ships while those on board shot at us to keep us inside and slowly circled around sniping at the other ships leaving until not a single one was left. The boss came out after a bit and when he saw no ship he had a fit. But it got worse when the enemy landed. They moved close and dropped an earth magic user that sealed the cave and let them disembark and then they began the massacre. Using weapons and robots like protectors and grenade launchers. They plowed through us. One was an animal knight and even had fucking miniguns on his back. I was about a third of the way in near where the ship would have been and as Iturned to run a bomb fell about 3 meters in front of me killing those too close and causing me to fall back. When I was getting up someone grabbed me and finally my head. I grabbed the arm and tried to get it off but then I was lifted into the air. Seriously who can do that to a 2.5 meter tall robot. When I finally moved my head enough for an eye to look through the fingers I almost cried. It was the guy I talked to. I screamed once to let me go but it didn¡¯t help and when I screamed louder my body moved by itself and I kicked to bastard but it took only 10 fucking HP from him. What kind of fucking metal is he made from. He sighed before looking at me again. Techno: "Any last words." The message came after a forced connection was made with this guy. I knew I was going to die so Ididn¡¯t care anymore Fake: ''Gah! Fuck you all!'' Techno: ''Then die.'' His tone was low and had a deadly murderous feel to it. It was then that he punched me with a knights Pressure Fist. With THREE FUCKING FISTS at the same time. On contact my visor shut off and the message saying I died and I couldn¡¯t log in again for 24 hours showed up before Iwas ejected from my capsule. I cursed screamed and shouted for a long time before I looked at the capsules monitor. The game is supposed to have a system where you can follow the person who killed you for an hour after being killed if its a player. I watched him but when I turned it on a split screen showed up and showed a six armed demon clockwork and a four armed. It was then that I knew how bad the fight was. The guy had two main bodies. Seriously what kind of programmer is he to get something like that. I watched as he killed the boss and then the rest of the guys. I was completely pale at the spectacle that I started to tremble. These weren''t clockwork they were more demon than the boss himself. There is no way something like this is possible for 14 people to do. (he counted the 6 clockwork robots as players or crewmates) I didn¡¯t know what to do but what I did do was download the entire fight from the ship fight to the raid on our base and upload it onto Etheria¡¯s forum and a warning to never cross these demons because you WILL die facing them. After that I took a bath to try to calm down before going to sleep and forget that nightmare. Brock PoV This...place...is...awesome. The entire base is made around a mineral jackpot. Iron, copper, tin, coal, aluminum and MANA CRYSTALS. So many mineral veins and I already told everyone to get ready cause I was making my whale body from this. I will never find so much again so there was no arguing about it. The only problem was that those idiots made it to spread out. Still while I pulled along the mineral veins i closed off a lot of the random mining corridors. When I reached a form I would go to the end and come back pulling all the minerals I can while closing it down until the every last one was collapsed and a monsters mish mash of different veins was bundled up where the corridors once were. Next we destroyed the pirate bosses room and then pulled the big furnace room. Along they way we found a storage room full of clockwork motherboards. After examining them we found the clockworks here were the owner so our crafting due began repairing and the robots. We weren''t inhuman to leave so many robots without proper bodies so after they got a few operational they started putting the motherboards on and removing the receivers which we were keeping since they are convenient. With more being repaired the quicker the others were repaired and by the time I nearly linked the room with the huge furnace to the shrunken hanger there were at least 30 functioning clockworks all of them thanking the guys for rescuing them. I called the guys and told them I was about to activate my skill to make my whale body. They told me to go ahead so with the mass of minerals surrounding the corridor between the room and hanger I close my eye and touch the wall. [Secondary Body] My body glows and it gets pulled into the wall. I felt all the minerals starts swirling. The mana crystals were swirling and the whole mass of minerals began concentrating around the base remains. I also felt a whole bunch of regular rock get mixed in and then I felt the body take shape and more rock was absorbed until an outer shell of rock was formed. For some reason I felt like my mouth was open so I closed it and instantly the head of the whale formed in front of the cave entrance sealing us in. Wait did my body encase the pirates base. Though I wanted the guys to take apart the furnaces who thought it would end like this. Victor: ''Oi did a rock fall or something.'' My body was still stuck so I began to squirm and the rocks around me broke. I crawled out somehow and instantly the passive effect of Magnetism took effect and my body lifted up a bit off the ground. It was very little but I was moving so I finally out I focused on leaving inside the hollow body. My golem body came out on the ceiling and fell down. Brock: ''Finally.'' Bulk: ''Oi Brock! What the fuck happened?!'' Brock: ''Um well my whale body formed around the cave.'' It took a moment but they finally understood and stepped back. Techno came over and dropped my helmet on my head. Techno: "Open the entrance." I nodded then with a thought the mouth split horizontally down the middle and opened completely like an air craft carrier but looking like a cave tunnel. Ena: ''So we are in your stomach or something?'' Brock: ''Like I would know. Maybe but I''m not eating or anything so I guess my body simple encases this place. My new core is built in the wall away from sight.'' Bulk: ''So in other way, if the cave stays the same then you are like a moving base now?'' I took a moment to realize what was said. I look around and realized it was like that. Brock: ''Guess I am, heh. Maybe when I get big enough I will have my own dungeons. Anyway the body has its own stats so don''t go breaking it so casually or mining me. I can you give some of these but not too many since they are now a mana holder for me.'' A large mana crystal broke out of the ground and made everyone eyes widen. Mana crystals are rare and now that they are in a living elemental they might even grow in number and size the bigger I get. I wasn''t going to show them until later so for now I would just give a few but I need to be careful. After that I go back inside my whale body and move around the minerals and finally I concentrate them in three spots near my belly. They are concentrated cores of nickel and iron and through them I can focus my magnetism to greater degrees. With it I can get up higher in the air and finally start swimming back towards South gate city so we can get our reward from Gaia. This is so awesome. I''m definitely one of the top players in the game. Watchout world I¡¯m only starting and with the others we will be the greatest. Volume 2 Chapter 22 The Patch Real world 3rd PoV After the fake techno edited the beginning where he spoke with techno he posted the video showing the mortars and the power and how his crew reacted. Then further on the video showed the base attack and soon the nightmarish air raid from the clockwork on the aircraft. As more of the video progressed it showed the ship leave and get bombed and then the raid inside up until Techno completely crushed the fake before jumping to a third person pov with split screen showing both Asura and Yasha as they killed more and more from grenades, miniguns, swords, spears, bullets. It was a complete one sided mass murdering. The video lasted nearly 30 minutes and as soon as the viewers finished they stayed nearly a minute in shock before scrolling down to find a wall of comments.
Viewer 1: ¡®Ahahahaha you guys bit of more than you can chow. GO KILL THEM ALL!
Viewer 2: ¡®My god what is this?! Is this really inside Etheria?! What the fuck is going on and who are those guys?!
Viewer 3: ¡®I recognize them from when I saw them a few days ago. The big guy with the six arms downed an Ogre who was a captain of the city guard with one punch. The clockwork and dwarfs kept saying they were¡±the clockworks¡± but I didn¡¯t get it?¡¯
Viewer 1: ¡®FUCK ¡°The Clockwork¡±! YOU DON¡¯T FUCKING KNOW THEM?! They were the best players in the beta and some people say they are so far ahead of everyone that no one actually knows their real strength.¡¯
Viewer 4: ¡®Wow to see ¡°The Clockwork¡± crew fight. But seriously where did they get all that weaponry. I haven¡¯t seen a lot of that stuff. The grenade launcher and pressure punch and stuff are common for clockwork knights but the cannons, mortars, flying...what ever. I never once saw any of this!¡¯
Viewer 5: ¡®It¡¯s kind of obvious. You can make all that stuff in the game you know. The world is open to restore and build so if you are good enough, even military grade weaponry can be built.¡¯
Viewer 1: ¡®SERIOUS! I Don¡¯t believe I¡¯ve been satisfied with such weak weapons FUCK! I need to get working.
Viewer 1 leaves chat.
Viewer 2: Like hell I will let that idiot get ahead of me.
Viewer 2 leaves chat.
The video causes a huge explosion of people search up schematics for real world weapons from small rifles to full out land tanks and even airplanes. Seeing the massive movement of people searching such dangerous items and such a small bit of the world explored LIFE company had to move faster to keep the public order that could go straight down with so many people learning how to build weapons. The announcement of a patch happening tomorrow has everyone in a frenzy that''s even more outrageous than the weapon craze. They wanted to get the mind of the public off the weapon search to keep any kind of damage to its minimum. In the office of the CEO was the main board of director. Among them was the main chief of the GM corp. They were watching the footage from the capsules of the two GM¡¯s travelling with Techno. CEO: ¡®My what a strange boy. What made him so cold and closed?¡¯ GM Chief: ¡®I don¡¯t know. Since those girls were made to travel with them I tried to learn about his life and everything looked normal until three years ago when he was sent to the juvenile detention center but when I asked to see the case files I was heavily barred from seeing it to the point of paranoia. I can¡¯t get a single record on the boy besides his family being in an accident after he was imprisoned for 10 years. He is now serving time inside the game as test subjects for the feedback system.¡¯ The CEO nodded a bit and sighed before sitting back in his chair. CEO: ¡®Put the boy under heavy observation. He seems to experience heavy emotional fluctuation from one moment to another such as when he was laughing at his impersonator and turned that into anger and drive to destroy them. Also change the amount of time the juvenile convicts stay in game from five game months to one. Thats six days so on sunday they come out of the game and return on monday. Give the boy and girl physiological treatment, the boy for his problems and the girl to make sure she wasn¡¯t affected by the accident or anything else. Look into other children as well who might need that as well and provide it. A hour or two a day in a private office should do.¡¯ With that the orders were given and a notification was sent to all those testing the feedback system. Techno PoV
Because of a patch, Etheria: The Ruined World will undergo an update on Sunday of this week and will come back online the next day on Monday 1 of July 2034. LIFE company. To all the players participating in the feedback test. Due to scientists in LIFE company finding that a rest period is required for the mind. You will play one in game month and be logged off back to Virtual city to rest. Several test subjects have shown some mental trauma and will undergo physiological treatment during that time and will be monitored more vigorously in game in case of further mental trauma.
Oh how grand. Now I have to do this as well. Well I can¡¯t say it wasn¡¯t uncalled for. The video of my crew decimating the pirates would cause quite a commotion. Anyway we are still travelling and it¡¯s already night time but I wanted to finish my project quick to make sure a chance like this doesn¡¯t escape me. What I was building was a small metal ball. It was the size of a basketball and was built with simple iron and held together with several interior pressure activated pistons that could open the ball in half revealing the smaller inner ring that held the hardware of the little robot and the small engine that powered it. This was, in all shape or form, my fakes humiliation. I remembered finding on youtube an old french cartoon called code lyoko which was also about a VR world. One of the monsters was similar to this. It was called the Megatank and was one of the strongest monsters because of its outer shell. I made sure to make this toy for my fake as far from that as possible but with that model. With it done I stick the motherboard into the spot and then make a simple program to warm me when he logs in. I don¡¯t think he will until after the patch but you can never be too careful. I leave it alone and walk outside. Brock was up still not having logged off or gone to sleep like the others. His main concern was his whale body vanishing. We had told him that the body doesn¡¯t vanish and even showed him Bulk who we confirmed logging out by me holding him by the leg upside down but he was still concerned so we let him guide the whale back to the city. The progress wasn''t as fast as our ship because he only just made his new body but it still moved well. I asked Brock if he could make a corridor up to his back. It wasn''t to hard and and was quickly made. The entrance is about two thirds down his back. When we exited we were met with a rocky mountain land like back but it wasn''t to hilly except for when his body dips for him to beat his tail. It wasn''t so fast so even though the wind was strong it was weaker than what we felt on our ship. When we reached the head we found several small crystal outcrops. They were well hidden but the dim light they give off showed their position in the dark night. I sat by myself on top of flat rock head of the sky whale and looked up at the sky. I wonder how long was it that I just lay back and look up at the sky. I breath out a sigh as my eyes took in the incredible view of the entire galaxy of Etheria''s universe. The lights of all the stars lit the sky and strangely because of the pollution in the air it gave the lights a strangely mesmerizing look. Brock: ''So you like the view of the night sky?'' I looked around but didn''t see brock. Brock: ''I can project my voice by vibrating several metals around you. I have hear in the same way. I have the helmet on inside.'' I looked around and saw several vibrating rocks around a mana crystal. I thought for a while and laid back down. Techno: ''...'' Brock: ''Don''t want to talk at all?'' Techno: ''...Do...you still regret being made Nova''s familiars?'' Brock: ''...'' He froze from the question spoken out loud. They have only heard me talking with Nova or yelling at Gaia so to be have a normal question asked might strange. Brock: ''Um...well I wasn''t happy but I don''t regret it now. Its a lot of fun and I''m sure I would never have gotten this race or anything if I wasn''t with you guys. So no I don''t regret it.'' I think deeply about it. Techno: ''What about the other two?'' Brock: ''Ena and Blaze? You need to ask them not me.'' I nod silently and just lay there for a long time letting the wind pass over and through by body. After a while the stars dimmed and I sat up and saw it was because of the lights from South Gate city. It was still the dead of the night but we arrived. Over the town Menthol was floating and we could see the lights of two ships flying about from the scraps on to his back. Techno: "Want to go down or just land in the scraps and log off?" Brock: ''I think I will sit down a bit off. See you in a day or two.'' I pat the big whale and soon. It started descending and after a careful landing in the cleaned dirt area around the city I saw the mana crystals dim after he logged off. I checked his status and a (logged off) was at the top. From the attack on the pirates the three elementals gained 3 levels and Nova herself gained 4 from the bombing. I gained 4 since I was using more than one body and the robots. As for the rest I can''t say unless they tell me but I guess everyone is at least above level seventy already. What passed through my head was what this new patch would hold. The first one jumped to the future and let the NPC work to make a nation. Maybe this one will fast forward to expansion. Some games gave players the chance to be managers of a village. This might expand all the nations enough to make a proper economy if they can set up properly and make unique products or at least get normal products it woild work out fine. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. With brock off now the whale was the mercy of everyone when they wake up. Well at least I thought that until something fell off the giant whale in the air crashing just in front of the whale kicking up lots of dust. As the dust settles I see the black figure of a man walking out of the crater that was formed and that suddenly jumped up here. I already recognized the figure since it fell from the sky and survived. I pulled out a small headset like the one used by the girls and tossed it to him. Techno: "So what brings you crashing down here?" Menthol: ''Well I saw this boy here and was kind of shocked that he already got to this size.'' Techno: "Its probably not so big since it was made around a cave so the body stretched to meet the size." He nods a bit and sits down cross legged in front of me before looking up at the sky. Menthol: ''Its been so long since I sat down and just looked up at the sky. The stink in the air made me hide away. Right now I am staying here only for a bit because the trees and such made by the elves clean the air a bit.'' Techno: ''I can''t smell or anything so I wouldn''t know.'' He chuckles a bit but doesn''t take his eyes from the sky. I look up as well. The mix of the night sky, Etheria''s two moons and Menthol''s Sky Whale gave the scenery a mystic look. Looking close you could see a new little waterfall on the side we could see. Techno: "You made a waterfall?" Menthol: "Hehehe, I was hoping you would notice. Yes, well I always had the water and only let it out when I was in dry areas. You should know an elemental that becomes a spirit tends to attract more elementals. For me, as a necessity to survive without coming down for water I located some water elementals. Its one of the reasons I came here. Here take it.'' In his open hand was a small little light blue pearl which reflected the weak light coming from the city. Menthol: ''This here is a water elementals core. Be careful because they are mischievous if you wake one up incorrectly. For a peaceful one you need completely pure water filyed to as high purity as possible. Unlike the golems who are stupid if they aren''t born under the guidance of a greater elemental, Undine as they are called, are highly intelligent. This core I got from the queen living deep in my reservoir. A normal core would be a small blue ball instead of a pearl like this.'' Techno: "Is it different?" Menthol: ''She can be called a lesser spirit. Earth spirits like me or the boy here...'' He pats Brocks whale. Menthol: ''...are called greater spirits, we are some of the strongest form of spirits because of them.'' Hand once again pats the whale below us. Techno: "Are your second body that important?" Menthol: ''Quite. No other Spirit gains a secondary body except my race and it''s the reason why the transformation from golem to Earth Spirit is so intense.'' I nod understanding. I look at the little blue pearl. Techno: "Mind looking after them. I want to go piss Gaia off a bit while I rip my reward for eradicating a pirate group." He started laughing loudly hearing this. Menthol: ''As long as you record the image of her having a tantrum them I don''t care. I love seeing her annoyed but I was never able to get that reaction from her since she annoyed me before I could.'' I chuckle and turn to Yasha and have it bring the frozen demon''s corpse before we jump down and head to the city. Thankfully everyone was asleep because walking in with a corpse on your shoulders isn''t the best thing to be seen carrying. We reach the house and I casually connect to her systems which were off. I just careful took control and had her open the door and then made her led us to the office where I sat her down and then I put the head of the demon just in front of her face before doing a complete booting. I was having Yasha film it allwhile a grin and as soon as her eyes turned on she took a moment to see what that was before she jumped back and fell off the seat she didn''t remember shutting down in. I couldn''t help laughing. Actually since that idiot made me burst out laughing it feels a bit easier to laugh unlike before. I can''t wait until he wakes up as well. Anyway back to the idiot wth the rattling gears in front of me. Gaia: ''WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM! And how did you get in?!'' Techno: "You let us in personally I have video footage if you want." She grabbed Yasha and Asura by the head to fast for me to react. Gaia: ''SHOW...ME!!'' It was a deadly tone but I just grinned as I searched up the film in Yasha''s memories before uploading to her. She let go and watched it. Moments later she turned around with glowing red eyes. Gaia: ''You...hacked...me!'' Techno: ¡±I do the same to my crew all the time when i upgrade them so I know the way to do it without turning the mind on. Also I turned you on before so I know the way.¡± She breathed in and out while her gears rattled loudly. Techno: ¡±Before you try and kill me its about that mission you sent for the pirates.¡± Still breathing heavily she looked at me. Gaia: ¡®What about it!¡¯ I pat on the head of the frozen corpse. Techno: ¡±Leader of the Pirates. Now what is my reward.¡± She instantly froze up as she looked at him. The damage to the body was two wounds made from the spears on his leg and chest. Gaia: ¡®Demon race!? Wait, this is an awakened. *sigh* Thank god its only an awaken. If it wasn¡¯t then it would be trouble.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Why?¡± Gaia: ¡®The Demon race are the leaders of their nation which is why the Nation is called the Demon Nation just like ours is called the Clockwork Nation. The awakened demons can appear both here and in their own nation but those who appear here have a hard time since they are magic users and not tech users.¡¯ I already understood the connection. They can¡¯t learn more then the basic spells provided by the game system and only elves know magic but demons can¡¯t learn many of their spells which revolve around nature and light magic while theirs is more Fire and darkness magic. Put simply it''s a death trap race here for now. If Fire elementals had survived and weren¡¯t aggressive they would have had it easier but the only ones with traces of intelligence were the two with me and those being bred on Menthol so they can¡¯t even learn much of that. Gaia: ¡®Anyway the reward you get. Well the reward we can give is mineral since you have the blueprints to nearly all our weapons. As many derived from your own stuff and you made us hand them over when you woke up.¡¯ I simply shrug it off. Minerals was fine since you can¡¯t have enough and since we will be travelling for a while we can get a lot out of them while we make more weapons. Since Brock is still small in size compared to Menthol I want to put turrets and such on his back. Techno: ¡±Oh, we found a large number of enslaved Clockwork in the pirates base and restored them. We will leave them here.¡± She sighed deeply. Gaia: ¡®There isn¡¯t space.¡¯ Techno: ¡®Huh?¡¯ It was unintentional but the shock of hearing that made me unconsciously speak. Gaia: ¡®The city is at its limit in population and we can¡¯t build fast enough to support so many awakened. I sent all the race representatives back to their own capitals with the suggestion of expanding. Since the awakened are the largest in bulk in terms of numbers we will have a lot of you going out and make new villages and cities. This would remove a lot of people from the cities. We will provide two caravel ships holding materials and tools needed to set up and the specialized manpower from the natives to help. So if you want why not take those clockwork and some other from the nations races and make a city somewhere.¡¯ Techno: ¡±No thanks.¡± Gaia: ¡®I feel it would be a good way for you to start opening up to others but fine. The offer still hasn¡¯t been approved by all the races of the capital so you can think about it with your friends. Oh we will also be making an office where you can officially form a crew legally.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Explain?¡± Gaia: ¡®Its simple, to make a crew you need a ship at least caravel sized and at minimum 5 other members no matter the age. You go to your capital and register. You have to design a flag or crest for your crew to be recognized with and you will be given a device that will let you register those in your crew. They can be both awakened and natives.¡¯ Techno: So this Crew system is in other words the same as a fantasy games Guild system. I guess its understandable now what the patch is about. ¡±Outside of town there is a new earth spirit, Brock, the Nova¡¯s pet golem, survived the transformation into an Earth Spirit. Take our reward there and leave it there. We will gather it later. You do what you want with this.¡± I pointed to the corpse and with her nod I left. It went strangely well and I was able to catch a really nice video of Gaia scared out of her mind. I return to our new base and climb up to find Menthol laid there with the headset visor on his head. Techno: ¡±I got the video. Lets enjoy it on a bigger screen¡± I said that with a grin and led him into the ship inside Brock and watched while laughing our asses off.
Techno''s view of the night sky http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2012/07/23/1226433/339627-andrew-tallon-night-sky-pics.jpg Volume 2 Chapter 23 Home Sweet Home Last chapter of the Volume as well as the last chapter of the week and tomorrow i pick up Dungeons. Mwahahaha did you all enjoy the cliffhanger cause i enjoyed the week of brainstorming how to kill that cliff. Anway enjoy.
Techno PoV In the morning three cart being pulled by three domestic monsters each pulled up to the big whale. I was still sitting on the whale''s head but Menthol had gone back to his own body using his magnetism skill. It''s too much of a convenient skill to have. Anyway the minerals were Iron and Coal since that was the main product here. There were copper veins but they were rather small and most of the copper came from scraps. I text to them telling them to just drop the different materials in separate piles and we would clean up later. They did just that. One large pile of iron with one ton of the ore and one pile with a half-ton of coal. They left soon after not giving much thought to the big rock I was sitting on. Soon after Nova woke up as did the two girls but Bulk, Brook, Victor, Ena and Blaze logged off to get quality sleep so today was only us four and the clockworks that were repairing their comrades in slavery. Most were repaired so as payment I had them start moving the coal and iron and dump it in our storage inside the ship. I activated my own clockwork robots and told them to guard the ship and the Whale and send me an alarm. With that the four of us headed to Gaia''s place. I was going to register my crew as an official crew. They said we needed a crest or emblem. After thinking of the showiest thing in our possession my eyes turned to my little sister. I had her do some homework with the two girls while I drew the design but after she was done I rewarded her by letting her play with Strato but she couldn''t go overboard so I made sure to lock all her guns plus the robots as well. After a while she came back content and I let her ride the robot instead of proto so I filled it up. By that time I had my design drawn out. It was a rather simple white flag with a chibi version of Nova and Strato flying through the sky and her sniper completely out while pointing forward. They were flying diagonally as if about to pass whatever was seeing them. Now why this picture. Tell me exactly who on my crew can win against her. If she used both proto and Strato she could easily fight me or Bulk and leave us like Swiss cheese and come out of it laughing. Since we were already called "The Clockwork" I went with that and drew it on the lower right of the emblem. Once then we finally left. Unlike during the night, the city at 9am in the morning was the total opposite. Everyone was running about and shopping but for some reason we drew a LOT of attention. Discreetly I dropped several drones and made them crawl over to a group of players who were chatting. Player 1: ''That¡¯s totally him look six arms and reddish metal plate. Look even the girl with the aircraft.'' Player 2: ''Ya they look like them but seriously anyone can make a look alike like that idiot who got trashed.'' Player 3: ''I have to agree with you but it''s been too little time for someone to make a look alike of him. I think it¡¯s him.'' Player 1: Come ON! Why would he come here instead of continue someplace else?!'' Player 4: ''Maybe because this is one of the few towns around. The only other one is Shipyard town either a month¡¯s walk or a six hour flight. Those idiots that died were the pirates in the mountains so it¡¯s between these two towns.¡¯ With that the group gets even more excited. I made the others walk a bit faster before the players swarm us or something. We made it to Gaia¡¯s house and were let in rather easily since we came here quite a number of times. Rust was waiting with Gaia and they were both dealing with work. Rust was the first to see us. If you''re wondering Nova is outside the window but they haven¡¯t noticed since the sound is similar to regular sawing blades cutting metal. Rust: ¡®Techno? What are you doing here? Gaia said you turned the mission in and the reward was sent already.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Not about that. Gaia, you said we can register the crew officially.¡± Gaia: ¡®Ya, that was already authorized in the last meeting and the devices, are in the making.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Register my crew then.¡± She looks at Rust who sighs before walking to a desk on the side and calling us over. Rust: ¡®Gaia, continue and I will deal with it. Well first connect to the console since it would be easier for you. Hm where is Nova. I know you never leave her alone without someone watching her.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Look out the window behind Gaia.¡± They both blink and look towards the window only to find the smiling little clockwork on Strato hovering there. Gaia is visibly shaken seeing the flying protector and completely freezes up but Rust didn¡¯t lose a beat and turned to me instantly. Rust: ¡®Techno, what do you want for the blueprints to that flying craft.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Currently not for sale.¡± I said while connecting to the PC and letting the info appear. A window appears with several requirements. [table] It was rather simple. First the crew name I had decided long before. Then my name as captain, then the flag I made for the crew and then I added the members. It ended like this. [table][table] After I hit enter the window closes and appears on the monitor of the console. Rust: ¡®Please what would it take to trade for the robot. An air unit would make our lives all the more easier especially one with so much possibility for development.¡¯ I point to the screen with an annoyed expression which told him we weren¡¯t negotiating. He sighed defeated and turned to the screen and started typing for a while before the screen vanished. Soon after someone arrived and handed Rust a small device. Rust: ¡®This is the device we told you about. You install this to your ship or even to the captain himself and you can automatically add who you want. As an official crew anything that causes you to gain Fame or infamy will be spread to your crew mates. Also we are going to be making missions that only crews can take as a whole.¡¯ I look at the object. It looked like a small receiver that you install into your circuit board. I didn¡¯t waste time and brought out a tool drone and had it open my head and find a spot to plug it in and install it. It was done easily and with it put in my systems unpacked the files and installed the software. When done on the far right side of my view i could see an addition to the small menu bar that floated there. I bring it up and see a new bar to it saying ¡°Crew¡±. I opened it and a screen with the name of the crew, the flag and all the crew members with levels displayed showing. Shocking enough it also included the number of ships we owned, the number of clockwork worker robots, scouts, protectors, Air model Protectors, all of them. Every robot type we had was displayed. Techno: ¡±This is rather detailed. How did it know how many robot clockworks and protectors i own?¡± Gaia: ¡®It runs a search on your own system to see which robots have been with you the longest.¡¯ Made sense and i was betting it did a search of the crew mates as well through the game system. Techno: ¡±That was all we needed. Thanks¡± Rust makes a sad expression and looks at Strato with longing eyes. Gaia: ¡®Hey techno, did you think about being a village leader?¡¯ Techno: ¡±Answer is still no.¡± Gaia: ¡®Then can you transport the settlers at least. We located some more gates around the scrapyard wall and want to make cities around them like South Gate city.¡¯ She pulled up a map that showed a poorly pieced together map of the scrap yard It was really huge to say the least and was circular more or less. Not perfect but you can see the intent for sure. I look at the map and at the points that show the gates was the direction they represent and at the dead center was also another dot. Techno: ¡±What¡¯s this dot for?¡± Rust: ¡®We want to make a capital city there as well as a waypoint between the gate cities.¡¯ Annabeth: ¡®A trade city then?¡¯ Gaia: ¡®Yes, but the capital so the goods would pass through there before going out. But because the entire scrapyard is so large it takes nearly two weeks to reach it through the scrap mountains on foot.¡¯ Greer: ¡®But we have ships so transporting stuff will be easy.¡¯ We all make a wary smile at her comment. Rust: ¡°There are actually few ships to tell the truth. It takes a lot to prepare a ship and most people who have it are either part of the town''s workers. Techno has one because he had a connection to us and...forced our hand.¡¯ He says that with a frown and looked at both of me who were grinning. Annabeth: ¡®Well we can just spread the elves and gnomes around to all the villages and clean the area using the metal to build the buildings and then use magic to make the tree life.¡¯ They both nodded probably having thought of doing that from the beginning. Rust: ¡®We have a problem with wildlife though. As we clean the trash we will get attacked more and we will also push more robots to extinction.¡¯ Delta: ¡±Then make new animals.¡± The room froze instantly and i gulped as i looked at the two who read the message. Greer: ¡®Who is this?¡¯ Annabeth: ¡®The text name is Delta. I don¡¯t remember meeting someone with that name.¡¯ Gaia: ¡®...¡¯ Delta: ¡±How mean you guys are. Not even telling them you know the god of the artificial races¡± The two girls paled reading the message. Annabeth: ¡®...H-h-how d-do y-you know him?¡¯ Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.Rust: ¡®Near the end of the first awakening we went to look for a place to hide techno and his things and by chance encountered where he was buried.¡¯ Delta: ¡±I¡¯m quite thankful for that because through them i could spread a program into the clockworks so i can see the outside world at my leisure.¡± Gaia: ¡®Shut up brat, it¡¯s a pain to have everyone knowing. You guys, lips tight understood.¡¯ The two nodded vigorously seeing the pissed off Gaia. Techno: ¡±What do you mean make new animals?¡± Delta: ¡±I said what i meant. Make the animals. If the pests that live in hive mind die off that''s for the better. Take those parts and make robot animals with some capacity to make basic parts for repairing and making their bodies. I can make programming for these creatures and soon they would become wild robot creatures that live like any normal one.¡± It was a really interesting idea. If they had the capability to make parts themselves it would mean that they would be able to evolve in their own ways and eventually we could even harvest different kinds of parts from them which would be easier then. Rust: ¡®I will...research this possibility of this.¡¯ Techno: ¡±I¡¯ll pick it up some other time. As for the request. If it''s just transporting them to the locations then i can do it. But only in after 10 days or more. I will be busy during this time.¡¯ Rust: ¡®That¡¯s fine. We were going to wait to see the reaction of all the races of our nation and go from there. Thanks to the long range transmitter we have we already got the elves consent and we care waiting for dwarf, gnome, goblin, human, ogre and demon to decide.¡¯ I nod and after some talk we grew tired and left. The two girls were obviously conflicted with something. My best guess was Delta since knowing a god isn¡¯t something simple luck can make happen. I didn¡¯t care much. To tell the truth even if Delta was found and revealed at best a small cult of creeps would appear and that''s it. If it got real bad then extremist would appear but then a few bombs and mortar shell would work nicely to quiet them down. I take the three around and look for materials i needed for filtering water. I plan to make a tank and filter to make pure water to wake up that Undine i got from Menthol. She will be important later on as well as for our water supply. It took a bit but i was able to find a few people who mined and gathered the items and minerals i needed for filtering. Since they were dwarves i traded blueprints to a good pressure fist and a gauntlet rifle. These models were for levels 30 so it was a good trade since they were just arriving at that point. We took the items back and found that most of the coal and iron had been transported in and the clockworks were enjoying their time looking through the scraps taking apart some parts and replacing some brain parts. I took what i got inside and drop it in the storage. Near the door i see the large mana crystal that Brock gave us. I was wondering what i could do with this and thought a bit. The idea to combine it with an elemental core came to mind so i broke a small part of it and took it into my workshop and pulled out a fire elemental core and carefully i crushed it into a powder inside a small bowl. Then in a separate bowl i do the same to the mana crystal. Finally in a third bowl, using a few tools i scoop all the powder from both bowls into the third one and start to mix. It didn¡¯t have any great reaction except for a small bit of fire shooting up as the mana from the crystal is used by the powdered core to burn. Since this was a failure i think of it different. My eyes fall on the blast turtle. I look at the paste that was left. Little was usable so i send it to the fire below the chamber in the turtle and watch it melt. Soon it just vanished as the fire powder with mana crystal powder was eaten by the flames. I then went and got a new piece of mana crystal and did the same with a new fire core but this time i mixed them in a bowl before quickly dropping them inside the blast turtle and watch them burn. Unlike the mix that burned outside in the air the powder here turned into liquid and started to fuse. I was kind of shocked by the different reaction. I take a stone mold that made a simple sphere inside and taking the chamber out i tip the little bit of liquid crystal and core into the mold. The heat coming off it was more than enough to melt the stone but when the stone mold melted a small red radiating ball remained. To be safe i pull out a smithing tongs that i made with fire steel and grab the little ball and in a large tub of water we cooled the parts in i dunk the ball. It instantly makes all the water start boiling but the radiating stops and soon the ball cools so i pull it and what was left was an orange ball. As i take it to a work bench and was about to put it down something happened. From around the ball a small transparent, film began forming. I put the ball down and slowly the transparent film expanded until it was nearly three times the size of the small ball. Then it began to radiate a yellow glow in a slow rhythm like a heart. I blink several times and look from all angles wonder what it is. When nothing else happened i tried to scan it and came up with something rather irritating. [table]
Crew Name:_____
Captain Name:_____
Flag:_____
Members_____ _____ _____ _____ Add more
Crew Name:Einherjar
Captain Name:Techno Gear
Flag:(will draw maybe)
First MembersNova Gear Bulk Steel Victor Belkon Blaze Brisingr Ena Hono Brock Stone Annabeth Redscales Greer
Unknown A new item recently invented and with unknown use. Research must be done to determine a proper name and proper use for this item.
Normally when you find something like this you would trash it but it¡¯s just another challenge which might bring out some delicious reward. That said since i had nothing particular i was researching i put the item away in my inventory before i started to collect the base materials for the large water filter. I start working fast since i only had 5 more game days to build this. I use wood to make the box and rubber make a good take then i start working on several pumps and then filters which would the throw the water into a second tank and follow to another tank then another. The plan was to go through 8 tanks and the final hopefully being pure water. The filters were made with net filter of various sizes that would collect oil, and mineral filters to slowly remove impurities beside oil. To build it all i took 4 days and the result of collecting so much water was that the water purity goes all the way to 2% of impurities. By now everyone was already back and these 2% i had brock use earth manipulation to remove any dirt particles. With that the water was purified and with scans i found it below 1 %. It¡¯s impossible to get it completely pure at least for now but doing so much was quite enough. I had told the others already about what i was going to do so when i pulled out the small pearl from my inventory no one was surprised. I took it and into the last tank of water i dropped the core. As soon as it hit the water it began to glow a blue light. It started to get stronger as soon it lit the entire cave inside brock¡¯s whale body. The reaction was much more intense compared to Golems or fire elementals. After the glow stopped we look at the water and slowly it began to lift up in several different currents that soon converged and started to entwine and hit the ground while twisting and slowly forming a new body. As the body formed we could see the small figure of what looks like a 10 year old and from the excess water, it gathered in her hand and stretched into a pole and at the top part it separated into three spear tips and formed a trident characteristic of undersea creatures affiliated gods of water and what not. She blinked once, twice and more then looked around then at both of my bodies before bowing. Undine: ¡®Greetings, and thank you for giving birth to me. I am of the queen undines by chance is there any large bodies of water near here.¡¯ We shook our head but her eyes fell on the tanks. With a flick of her hand the water flew up and formed a ball in the air. At the bottom, dirt, oil and impurities gathered completely until it formed a solid object that fell down. Then the girl put her hand on the water ball and it was sucked into her body before she sighed with relief. Brock: ¡®Woah.¡¯ He was the only one to saw that but it caught her attention and with an attentive glance she saw he was an Earth spirit and moved close before kneeling. Undine: ¡®Greetings greater Earth Spirit. Forgive this one for being selfish but can i take up residence within your secondary body.¡¯ Brock: ¡®Um..¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Miss, you¡¯re in it. He recently made the body so its small.¡¯ She looked at bulk surprised and looked around. Brock: ¡®Um if you want to stay then its fine. We could use your help but i just became an Earth spirit some days ago so as he said, i am small.¡¯ Undine: ¡®I see. I shall choose to stay anyway. I hold the core of a queen so i must be the leader of my kind that comes after me.¡¯ It was interesting to see her like that. Well for now we take apart the water tanks and build one large tank for her to live in. She fills it with magic before jumping in by turning her solid human like body to water. From there we spent the last day finishing her tank and finally were logged out. We tell her to watch the whale body, which was left floating above the ground, and give orders to the clockwork robots to defend the whale and the ship from intruders that don¡¯t identify themselves as friendlies and are in the list of friends we have from NPC to players. With that we are allowed to log off. I wake up inside my Virtual room which is the same as it was before. I sit up and look around already hearing the noise Nova was making.
Your achievements have been calculated. Basic package (+100 points) Mission: Monster Mayhem Complete (+50 Points) Mission: Guardian Rampage Complete (+100 Points) Mission: Pirate Genocide succeed (+50 Points) Total redecoration points 300 Points Nova total Redecoration Points 500 Points (Max)
Total amount of money earned from achievements $6,000
Wow this is impressive. Still i didn¡¯t know our missions gave us achievements. It¡¯s possible this is something for the second time and beyond. Well i guess we should get going before Nova does something dumb. I get up and exit seeing my normal little sister already watching TV and i sit with her to watch and let her snuggle close. Moments like this will always be the best ones, simple is best. Volume 3 Chapter 1 Shock Therapy Nathaniel PoV (A.N. I will use Nathan to show Nathaniel''s PoV since its quicker to write it) After we watched a marvel hero movie on the TV, i wanted to go out. It wasn¡¯t good to stay in to much. The main reason was more for Sasha to get out and about. I have her change into more social cloths. A simple knee long Jean short, a light pink shirt and white slippers. I put regular teen¡¯s cloths, jeans, a loose green shirt and sneakers. The virtual air outside of our virtual space was rather nice. Seriously, i really hope i discover a way to make clockworks eat and feel. I don¡¯t want to keep staying so long without eating or feeling things. I take Sasha to a lunch truck near the center of town. The town was already active with many of the inmates out and about. Many were already forming groups with others who they knew for a while. At the lunch truck, i get a small sandwich and for Sasha got a plate of French fries and we share both. It was nice and peaceful. After that we head to a few stores. One was a bookstore i had seen before. Though i could get books from the VR space options but it cost more than buying individual books. Inside the small 5x10 meter sized book store that looked more like a library filled with small bookcases, i looked around for more books on mechanics as well as electronics. Nova was interesting in lots of fantasy store, as was I, so i got some of that as well as some new study books for her. It was only $240 so it was quite cheap for 3 text books, 3 mechanic and machinery book, and 2 fantasy stories. As soon as the transaction was complete the books were transferred to our virtual space so we didn¡¯t need to lug it around. As we think of where to go next a message pops up in front of me.
Sir, Nathaniel Rover, You have been marked as a patient that requires some level of therapy for mental trauma. Though you may deny the need, your parents have signed the approval papers and you must at the very least do the first day so that the doctor may do a basic evaluation of your mental state. Please return to your Virtual space at this time. Your parents are there waiting and will remain with your sister while you are with the doctor. Once in the Virtual Space it will be transferred to the office so you can do your treatment.
I frown a bit but i already knew that this entire situation was probably my fault to begin with so i didn¡¯t care about that. I tell Sasha we are going home and can do more stuff later because i have something important to do so we return home. After 10 minutes, we arrive back home and at the door was our parents. Sasha instantly runs over and hugs them while i just walked in and smiled at them. My dad hugged Sasha first before letting her go to mom which she stayed hugging. Dad came over and threw his right arm over my shoulder. Dad: ¡®So how is my big man. How is the game.¡¯ Nathan: ¡®It¡¯s good.¡¯ That simple response takes him by surprise before tears well up and he hugs me tight and i do the same. It was the first time i spoke to him. The last time they were here i spoke through text which even then made them emotional since i replied to them. To hear my voice again it was probably something huge for them. After dad let me go mom came over and hugged me in tears as well. After a moment they let me go and it¡¯s when i noticed the somewhat familiar figure of the warden from my detention center. Warren: ¡®Afternoon, I was sent to guide you to the doctor.¡¯ I simply nod understanding why he was here. With my confirmation he pulled up a screen and after pressing a few buttons a new door appeared next to the one that led out of the virtual space. It was a hardwood door with a deep scarlet color from the paint and looked like something you would see in a middle class or higher house (in brazil) or in an office building. The warden walked forwards and opened the door before gesturing for me to enter while he held the door open. I simply shrug and walked through leaving my family in the virtual space to enjoy themselves. Walking through the door i entered an office room you would normally see in movies or soap operas that have psychiatrist office. A big chair that the patient can lay down on, a chair for the doctor a lavished room with a nice large carpet over quality laminate floor that had a darker wood color. The walls were colored dark brown and with large windows that showed Virtual town outside. From the height i could see, the room was at least on the third or fourth floor since could still hear the hustle and bustle of the town below. Sitting on the chair was the psychiatrist. He was an elder man that looked to be in his late fifties or early sixties. With black hair that had grey appearing all over and a clean shaved beard, he gave the presence of a blunt and strictly professional man. Warren: ¡®Afternoon Dr. Berg¡¯ Dr. Berg: ¡®Greetings Warren, is this the boy i was told about?¡¯ Warren: ¡®Yes, this is the traumatized half mute. He speaks with his sister but almost no one else. The rest only get text and writing from him.¡¯ Berg: ¡®I see, well first off let me introduce myself, I¡¯m Doctor John A. Berg. I¡¯ll be your doctor from now on.¡¯ I wave my hand to bring up the notepad but nothing appears. John: ¡®In this room, systems like the notepad won¡¯t work. I am a doctor who deals with post trauma patients and i normally take something the patients are comfortable with or what they use as a crutch as a form to initially start the treatment.¡¯ I frown deeply. I only speak with my sister and just now my parents. Besides that, only when i want to show deep gratitude. This old man is already pissing me off. John: ¡®Don¡¯t look at me like that boy! I know full well you are capable of speaking. All the people who i was charged to take care of i was given expressed permission by both your parents as well as the detention center you are in.¡¯ My eyes fall on the warden who keeps his poker face intact and just looks back at me. I look around but don¡¯t find any paper besides the bookshelves and several packets with documents. I scowl at the old man before i open my mouth. Nathan: ¡®Nathaniel Rover.¡¯ All i said was my name to introduce myself. I wasn¡¯t going to make it easy for the old man. Still his frown lightens and sticking his hand out i look at him for a moment before shaking it. John: ¡®Good, now then, Warren these are private.¡¯ At his words the warden nodded and left the room. The doctor then gestured to sit in the large seat for patients before sitting down in the chair next to it before making a gesture were a blank window and a virtual keyboard appeared. I lay down and he begins. First was basic info, age ,date of birth and all that. Not being able to type i spoke the info but made sure to do so in the least amount of words as possible. My tone clearly showed my anger at having to speak but he didn¡¯t really care. Then he asked for what i was in here for. Nathan: ¡®Nothing.¡¯ The instant i said that he froze he walked something and a window holding my info appeared. John: ¡®Again what are you in her for?¡¯ His tone was more forced. I scowl at the doctor who is just another one that was bought by the bitch to believe that bogus trail. Nathan: ¡®Falsified charges of Sexual harassment and Rape.¡¯ It word came spitting out of my mouth as rage welled up in me which he clearly took note of. After typing up several stuff he got up and took one of the packets on his table and looked through them. After a bit he came back and sat down again. John: ¡®If you met the person that put you in here, what would you do?¡¯ It took a moment for me to understand the question and then a long silence fell over the room. In my head i see the face of that bitch rage suddenly builds from inside and i clutch my fist while my breathing gets more intense. Nathan: ¡®I don¡¯t know but it would be equivalent to what she put me through and the accident she caused to my family and for making my sister a cripple.¡¯ I was gripping so hard that in real life i would have already drawn blood from my hands. The veins in my head were all popping out and i could barely control myself. Several windows popped up in front of the doctor and he looked started but all i could think of was what i would do to that bitch. Strangle, cripple, beat endlessly, mentally exhaust her, torture. I didn¡¯t know what i would do but i knew that it would most likely make me a psychopath if i did everything that passed through my mind. After some time i felt a strange calmness and my mind becomes clear and i felt somewhat sleepy. The doctor looked a bit scared and sweat was on his forehead while several windows were floating around him. Two of them were the notes and keyboard, one was my info but the others i didn¡¯t know. They looked like monitors you see on medical gear. Ah he must be seeing the info for my machines that monitor my health outside. John: ¡®You need to calm down more. The mere thought makes you nearly explode and that could be very bad for the future where the justice system could react to you as a dangerous threat if let loose.¡¯ He said that with genuine worry in his voice. I couldn¡¯t tell if that was worry for me or for himself. Nathan: ¡®What...did you do?¡¯ John: ¡®I used system induced emotional restriction. In other words, i had your capsule stop receiving the messages from your brain that signifies rage and anger. It will activate in a moment but this is a method we came up to calm people in the virtual reality.¡¯ After a moment of silence i felt my mind return to normal and the thoughts return as well as my anger but they were quickly put away since my mind had calmed down. That is actually really scary, having your emotions restrained. It¡¯s like you lose your identity when it¡¯s done. I kind of shivered when i remembered that sensation. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Nathan: ¡®Why did you do that?¡¯ John: ¡®Your heart rate as raising to a considerably dangerous height so i gave the order. It could have caused a heart attack, fainting and a few other problems i very much don¡¯t want to deal with.¡¯ I nod weakly as i lay back. John: ¡®Ok, now then. Besides you losing trust, why don¡¯t you speak with others like those in your group within the game or even your own parents.¡¯ I open my mouth to answer but then after a moment nothing came out. I thought and thought but i couldn¡¯t find any reason besides i don¡¯t completely trust them. After a lot of thinking and digging i couldn¡¯t find out why. It was actually more that i was afraid to find anything. Nathan: ¡®Don¡¯t know.¡¯ He types it up quickly before turning back. John: ¡®Why do you only speak when thanking someone deeply?¡¯ Nathan: ¡®Gratitude.¡¯ John: ¡®For what?¡¯ Nathan: ¡®Protecting Sasha...helping her...Saving her.¡¯ He typed it all down. John: ¡®Ok, i kind of understand your kind of personality now. It¡¯s been hurt to the point that your family is the only ones you truly trust. I am going to bring someone in here for you to see. She is another patient who needs to see you for her own treatment.¡¯ I look at him for a moment feeling a somewhat foreboding feeling but i nodded. He goes to the door and opens it. The door was the same i came through but the outside was of an office building that had lighter tones of brown then the room i was in. The doctor called someone in and came back to sit. A moment later someone entered the room. It took a moment for me to realize who it was before sweat began to appear on my head. My hands clutched and all the rage in all my being boiled hotter than hells flames. The person i hated the most with all my being stood there with a fearful look as she saw. In moments i jumped off the seat and ran at her with my arm already to fly but just before i could get in range a voice range. John: ¡®Stop.¡¯ As if commanding a robot by body stopped moments from striking the bitch. She was ghostly pale as the punch was already flying and was mere inches from her face. John: ¡®Return to your seat.¡¯ Nathan: ¡®DON¡¯T FUCK WITH ME!! YOU BROUGHT THIS SELFISH BITCH HERE TO PISS ME OFF YOU SHITTY OLD FUCKING BASTARD! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY BODY! LET ME GO SO I CAN BEAT THIS BITCH AND SHOVE MY FOOT UP HER ASS SO HARD SHE WILL NEVER WALK EVEN IN VIRTUAL REALITY!!¡¯ My rage took the better of me and i couldn¡¯t stop. My body obeying the old man¡¯s orders returns to the seat but i squirmed and roared in protest all the while he was looking at the wall of windows and was moving many things around touching another. I spat, cursed, insulted and said every possible thing i could think of to both of them. Neither said anything but i could tell Bianca was getting extremely pale hearing so much of it. It also seems like she wants to run and cry while blocking her ears but her body was probably also under control so she was probably here to hear all this. I took all my built up rage and roared for nearly an hour before the doctor was forced to subdue my rage again. Bianca was made to leave and she did while tears fell down her face. It was something that brought me a moment of joy, seeing her suffer like that. But the next moment i felt all my despair. All that had been suppressed with my rage. I had killed all my emotions and with all that bottled up anger being released and spent all the other emotions also spilled out. I also started to cry and did so for a good amount of time before i calmed down. When i calmed down a bit i felt like a huge weight was lifted. The weight of my anger was still there but so much of it was relieved that i felt light. Nathan: ¡®You used shock therapy on the first day.¡¯ John: ¡®Of course, i only have five days in virtual town to work with. I can¡¯t be picky with a case like yours. Anyways my objective wasn¡¯t to completely cure you. Only you can do that yourself. What i did was help you release your bottled up emotions.¡¯ Nathan: ¡®...¡¯ I couldn¡¯t reply to that. I hated him for doing that but i also couldn¡¯t completely hate him because this light feeling also left me really empty. Nathan: ¡®So what do i do?¡¯ John: ¡®For one, spend time quality time with your family. Talk with them, actually speak with them. When you return to the game you will find that to those in your crew you won¡¯t be able to use text communication any more. We are restricting that for your official crew but you can do so with anyone else. I want you to start talking with them. Even if you don¡¯t completely trust them at least speaking with them is your first step to recovering some more. It will also be good for your sister to see you getting better.¡¯ I nod listening to all he told me. I actually had little strength to do much else at this point. John: ¡®Second, i want you to accept the offer to become a village chief. I know it seems pushed but just make a robot to manage the city is fine, i think a small camp for now on that whale is ok. This will give you more people to interact with as well as create a place so that you sister can play with kids her own age. Make a child body for her to use while there and another for when you need to fight. I would try and speak as much as possible but if you find it to impossible with strangers then use texting until you get comfortable. For now this is all i can suggest for you. The door is linked again to your virtual space. Your family is waiting for you, go have some fun.¡¯ I simply nod and get up without saying anything. I just open the door and find mom and dad playing with Sasha. They notice me and smile my way. My mom sees how...lifeless i was and comes over. Mom: ¡®What''s wrong sweetie?¡¯ I looked her in the eye and see her worry in her eyes and how much older she has gotten. Before all this began she was fairly young looking. The stress of me being sent to prison and the accident must have taken its toll on her. Nathan: ¡®I don¡¯t know?¡¯ I answered truthfully because i really didn¡¯t know what was wrong with me. I never did. She smiles and pulls me into a hug, one filled with the caring love of a mother. It was the first time that i felt such a warm feeling. I have been filled with so much rage that this warm feeling had always been kept out. As it starts to fill the empty void that formed in me i hugged her and began to earnestly cry again but this time out of joy that i still have my family with me even though so much happened. I really love my family and i will protect them as much as possible and for now, the best way to do it is by getting better for their sake and my own. Bianca PoV I was in another office now. With me was the doctor that was assigned to help me pass my depression that i gained after seeing Nathaniel. She was sitting next to me and petting my head while i cried in her lap. This feeling of a caring mother was something i always lacked. My father is a brute who doesn¡¯t care for me and my mother, i don¡¯t know. I never met her. Dad never talked about her so i don¡¯t know if she is dead or alive. Nathaniel was having therapy just like me but our treatments were completely different. His doctor contacted mine in the middle of the treatment because he wanted to do shock therapy to Nathaniel to get him to spend all his pent up emotions. It seems my doctor found it useful for me as well. She said that i knew needed to know the consequences of my actions. She was a special doctor that my father had gotten to treat me. She was informed directly by him what really happened. She cursed him but accepted for my sake. Still she used the system to make me walk in there and hear him in his rage without letting me move and cover my ears. When i came back my depression had evolved into outright despair and i couldn¡¯t even think about anything anymore. The guilt that weighed on me was so great that it felt like the world itself was being placed on top of me. Doctor: ¡®Did you see what you did to him. Did you hear exactly what you did to him. It was you who ruined the future of the boy. Being depressed because you are guilty won¡¯t change anything you know that.¡¯ I can only sob hearing her harsh words. Doctor: ¡®As you are right now it will be incredibly difficult for you to progress because you are guilt struck. You can¡¯t let it go. The reason i made you go there was to make you feel this way and learn what he is bottling up but now it¡¯s your own job to learn and let it go. What is in the past happened but now you need to look to the future. What do you plan on doing when you return to your companions in Etheria? Will you cry more, will you make them carry your guilt as well?¡¯ Bianca: ¡®Let it go...something like this i can¡¯t let go. But i also can¡¯t make others carry my guilt for me, it¡¯s unfair to them.¡¯ Doctor: ¡®Being guilty is one thing but tell me, what will you do about your future? You have seven years in real life and thirty five in game that you will remain in Etheria and here. What do ¡°you¡± plan for the future?¡¯ I couldn¡¯t reply, my mind has always been on the now and i never thought about the future. Bianca: ¡®I don¡¯t know.¡¯ Doctor: ¡®You have a while to think about it so i think you should start with small goals. If you feel guilty about hurting one person so much the try and help many others. Use that guilt to drive you to be better and do better. I¡¯m sure you can think of quite a few things that would help many people. Yours a smart girl but you passed your rebellious phase so now just mature more and press on. You can¡¯t change the past but the future is free for you and only you can choose your own future. Think of that some while you travel and make friends and foes.¡¯ I sit up with bloodshot eyes and see the motherly smile of the middle aged woman that felt more like a mother than anyone else ever was she pulled me into a hug before guiding me back to my room and told me to go to sleep for now. I didn¡¯t resist and simply fell in bed and was instantly asleep because of my exhausted mind. I fell asleep to fast to notice the woman looking at me with a distant look before turning around and turning the lights to my virtual space out before leaving. Volume 3 Chapter 2 Crew Visit The rest of the day we went out and enjoyed ourselves. Watched a movie that Sasha could watch and wasn¡¯t to childish for us, went eat, walked about before going to a small amusement park. It was fun to be with them and i could smile while i was with them. I talked but it was in short phrases. Besides Sasha, i still am a bit uncomfortable speaking with others even my own parents. The doctor, no matter how much i hate how forceful the method was, is right. At least with those i know i should talk. I will try but i think for now it will be short phrases at best. I did as to pass by another larger book store as we walked about. The main reason was to buy books about construction, small and large scale management guides and several books that might help me to survive the irritating task of making a village. I doubt i will need the construction one yet but management was a must. I know little to nothing about managing a village where people live and work. I know i will need housing and then the work before i can set up the school but i think it should be quick if Brock makes temporary rooms inside his body. After we go home and mom makes us some food. Dad wanted to make a barbeque with an entire bull rib but with only four of us we can¡¯t eat it all. (Trust me when i say that Brazilian cooked ribs are awesome) Still, the roasted chicken, pork ribs was more than enough to satisfy us. It was just after eating that a knock came from the door. We looked a bit shocked because of where we are and the thought of an officer or someone being here came to mind. I stand up and open the door. Standing there was a strong built man in a cop¡¯s uniform, a blue shirt and black pants but with no weapons since it''s already been proven they don¡¯t need them. The movement restraint is already more than sufficient to paralyze who they want so no need to carry weapons. Officer: ¡®Evening, we are going around telling all the members of the feedback test project about a unique program made only for this Virtual town. It can¡¯t be released with a notification or it would go to ever virtual town. The new program works together with part of the new patch being implemented at this moment; you can invite the players who are part of your crew to your virtual space and this virtual town during your stay. There isn¡¯t a cost but both parties need to agree. That is all.¡¯ With that he nodded once and turned before leaving. It was rather abrupt and i looked at my family who was just as surprised but it was mom who smiled and broke the silence. Mom: ¡®Wow! With this i can meet the kids who are taking care of my two babies! Call than Nathaniel¡¯ I nod and open the space menu before pressing the help button. A new window appeared and at the top was a new attachment i had already guessed would appear. It read, ¡°How to invite crews to your space¡± I click and it showed the whole process which was rather simple. The new program somewhat links the game to here and lets me access the information i have in the game which include the crew list. In the list it showed who was online and who was off as well as whom i could invite. The NPC were all greyed out so only, Bulk, Victor, Ena, Blaze, Brock, Annab¡­ Wait what? I looked closely and see the lit up button for invite next to Annabeth''s and Greer¡¯s name. Instantly the veins on my forehead pop out. Seems i picked up something a bit interesting today. Only these two were on and the rest was greyed out with a (NPC) or an (Offline) next to the name but these two were lit up completely. I press both with an almost evil smile. Moments later a window appeared.
Annabeth and Greer have rejected the invitation.
Nathan: ¡®Hoo~~! So they have the nerve to deny even when the game is up.¡¯ I open a PM to both of them and send a really nice invitation to both of them.
You two accept the invite or i will make your lives hell in Etheria. I will tie you up and then put you both on Brock''s tail or fines while he is travelling or hook you under him and leave you to hang outside tied up.
I send and a moment later i press the invite button again before i wait patiently with a smile. My parents were confused but i told them nothing was wrong, there were two who were online. Nathan: ¡®They are coming.¡¯ After a minute the message arrived along with a PM.
Annabeth has accepted your invitation. Linking Virtual Spaces.
Greer has accepted your invitation. Linking Virtual Spaces.
Annabeth: ¡®YOU ARE TOO CRUEL!¡¯
I simply smile at my victory once again and a moment later the door to my virtual space opened. Coming through was a girl that looked around 18~20 years old with brown hair that fell down her back, very light tan skin with dark brown eyes. She was wearing casual clothes and a frown that made her look cute but should she be normal she would look like an above average beauty. After she closed the door it opened again and revealed a short girl that looked no older then 12, was flat as a board and had a kid like aura to her. She had light brown hair, regular white skin and wore a long skirt with a loose shirt with short sleeves. I look at both without batting an eye at the taller ones glare. Mom: ¡®My, my~! What''s with this atmosphere? What¡¯s with the hostility, kids? Aren¡¯t you in the same crew?¡¯ Nathan: ¡®Not the problem. These two should be NPC.¡¯ The two were completely shocked hearing me speak, which was natural since they only heard me scold Sasha once. Dad: ¡®What does he mean by NPC?¡¯ Alexandria (annabeth): ¡®NPC means ¡°Non player character¡±¡¯ Dad: ¡®I know that but why did he say you were NPC¡¯s and not players.¡¯ Sarah (Greer): ¡®Isn¡¯t it better to splii it. It would be worse if we don¡¯t be open.¡¯ The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The small one timidly hid behind the tall one while saying that. I invite them in and they start explaining. You can¡¯t imagine how shocked i was to find they were GM¡¯s. Before any of us could even ask, no they can¡¯t alter the game, help with info or any benefits because they are given only a few simple rules to follow besides that they are players who take on NPC as their characters. Rule 1: Don¡¯t openly reveal yourself as GM. I found it by mistake which also seems to be from a glitch which was quickly reported.¡¯ Rule 2: You must play the part of an NPC but once you become a companion you can be a bit more lax but without revealing it. Rule 3: Don¡¯t reveal anything you might discover. GM¡¯s are spread out in all races including those undiscovered to monitor the races. These two in particular completed their job and were now given new assignments which they won¡¯t tell us. For the moment we are silent after she explained that but that lasted very little time because Sasha was already sitting next to Sarah and petting her like in game. I don¡¯t know what is worst, Sasha liking to pet small cute things or that the one getting pet actually likes it. Her eyes were half closed and i could even imagine her tiger tail wagging in rhythm to Sasha¡¯s petting. Mom and dad were conflicted about her doing that but could only smile warmly at the sight of the 19 year old loli get pet by the 8 year old. I was also having trouble with this but then i suddenly got a good idea and it seem to show on my face since both tensed up. Alex: ¡®What? What''s with that face?¡¯ Nathan: ¡®Come here every day.¡¯ They both blinked before a small blush appeared on their faces. Nathan: ¡®Or i tell the others.¡¯ The two got red but i didn¡¯t know if it was embarrassment or rage. I bet they thought it was something like ¡°Come to date¡± or ¡°I need you¡± or some other fantasy like that which girls love to make all too often. I want them to come and teach Sasha. They are my age so that means that they can teach her better than i can both in game and out. A moment later Alex stood up completely red. Alex: ¡®Don¡¯t go and threaten us. We may have found but that doesn¡¯t jeopardize our jobs as GM¡¯s it''s only if we willingly brag about it or openly talk about.¡¯ Nathan: ¡®Crew will know. Village will learn from me.¡¯ I simply shrug and call Sasha over and she happily sits on my lap. The two slump down in defeat. I love when things go my way. I wonder if that retarded doctor thinks the same. Speaking of him i didn¡¯t have the strength to argue but didn¡¯t he break several ethic codes today? Well though i hated it i was able to openly talk with my parents after that. Even more then i would have if i didn¡¯t go. Still i hate being ordered around. After that, mom and dad ask them about me in game. After that question a smile that showed all the kindness in the world was aimed at them coming from me. They told all the good i have done for their races in game. Both of them were a bit shocked to hear that we were the clockwork crew. Well Einherjar now but on the flag I put the crew name on the wings of Strato and ¡°The clockwork¡± below on the lower right in the background. Though the flag looks silly i think it might instill quite a bit of fear later on. After that we talked about what we do in the game and how the two girls are really impressed that i could do so much with the game system helping. I did go and grab all the books i got. I told them that i had begun learning about it and would soon make a proper workshop. Though many of the tools we have are small and fit inside me or are part of Victor¡¯s power suit. We need those machines to produce delicate parts. We did get those furnace but they make only iron. We need to dismantle them and make something better. Still we need lots of stuff like ammo and parts so i think for now it¡¯s best to leave as is. After a while we go to Sasha¡¯s room so that i could show them why i wanted them to visit often. When i put my hand on the bookshelf they looked confused. Nathan: ¡®Grade schooler books. You two, teaches her.¡¯ With those broken sentences they blinked and Alex frowned. Alex: ¡®Is this why you told us to come here every day.¡¯ I nod with a blank face that showed i was serious. She simply face palmed at her own stupidity. I chuckled watching her sulk. From the little murmurs i heard coming from her it seems that i was right that she was thinking of ¡°other¡± reasons for coming here. I wonder where she got her attachment to me. I never once lifted a flag nor has she done the same. Well, with my current state of mind i doubt i would be truly able to have a relationship, how to answer one or even if i love someone already. After a bit she gets up and sulks over to the bookshelf and starts looking over the books. Alex: ¡®Preschool until eighth grade? So few story books. Don¡¯t you care about her childhood?¡¯ Sasha: ¡®Well we don¡¯t stay here much and when we do bro plays with me outside and then i study.¡¯ Nathan: ¡®Keep to that.¡¯ She just sighed and looked it over one book at a time. She then opened the notepad and typed before sending it over to me. There were several names that were probably from books. Alex: ¡®Go buy those books. They are lacking here and they are important material. I will go visit a few teachers i still keep in contact with to confirm that and then maybe get more.¡¯ She does a gesture that was meant for me to leave and fast so i shrugged and saving the note i leave to go get them. Alex PoV Finally that pain in the ass is gone. My eyes fall on the adorable girl petting my loli coworker who looked to be in bliss. The size is just a little different from each other with Sarah being a bit taller that¡¯s all. I grin appears on my face and the two sensed a change and looked. Sarah paled seeing me like that but Sasha was confused. Let¡¯s have a lot of fun while i can. It¡¯s not every day you can get to play dress up with the sister of someone as protective person like Techno. I can¡¯t wait for him to return. This is going to be so much fun. Alex: ¡®Well girls, let¡¯s have some fun.¡¯ Volume 3 Chapter 3 Curiosity driven Sry for the slow releases. Real life has been taking away lots of my motivation for writing (as well as time) so for the time being for both stories i will post every 2-3 days until this passes.(real life is such a bitch) Sry but shorter chapter today because of reason stated above. hope you understand
I took my time to get the books. It was the first time I entered the town by myself. Without having to take care of Sasha I have the time to look around. The town wasn¡¯t large which I knew. Still many of these houses I pass are all virtual spaces. As I enter the main town area the variation becomes apparent since the houses were all the same. I breathe deeply and feel a strange sense of calm. I kind of wonder how much I stored up before I let loose. I try to imagine my feelings and all I feel is calm. I think of the people I knew. My family made me happy, bulk made me chuckle, I was indifferent to the three elementals, victor and Greer and Annabeth I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t know how to express what I feel towards her. It¡¯s a mix of irritation and calm. I still feel more irritation towards her because all she does is annoy and bitches about everything. Still sometime strange. Well I can think about it sometime later. I reached the books store anyway. I go to the reception and open the notepad. I pull up the list and then a new message to write on. Nathan: ¡±I need these books.¡± I push the notepad note with the list and he takes it like by the hand and looks it over. Attendant: ¡®Hold on a moment while I find them.¡¯ I nod and wait. One by one the books flash and appear on the large desk in front of me. When he was done, 10 books was there costing a total of $500. When I paid the books flashed home. I did a small bow to show my thanks and left. While on the way I passed a sweets shop and the urge hit hard. It''s been a very long time since I had any so I go inside and come out with a box of nestle chocolates to share between those at home. Its tiny things like this that matter in the long run. You don¡¯t know what you have until you don¡¯t have it anymore. I¡¯ve tasted life in prison, depression, the emptiness of despair and know exactly what I have and what I don¡¯t. The love of my family, a few good friends in Etheria, a fragile yet stable life in this virtual town. I wonder how much I can build in that other world for Sasha. It¡¯s really dangerous there and though she is having fun I wonder how long it will last. Eventually her censor will turn off and she will see Etheria as it really is. I want to have a proper place for her to be safe before that. Maybe the doctor''s suggestion about making a town is a good one. Still, like hell I would manage it. I already have an idea on how to be village chief but not lift a finger towards it. It is rather simple, who is the best management clockwork. Obviously Rust. Of course I can¡¯t pull him away from the town he manages but what I want isn¡¯t him completely. What I want are his codes. If I make new clockwork with codes from rust it would make a perfect management model clockwork. I would definitely tweak the bots since leaving them with the same personality would be to weird. Not too much though since I need that neat freak personality of his intact. While I was thinking of all this I reached home and enter my space before going inside the house. I could hear the loud talk of the girls. I put the box of chocolates on the table and knock on the door. Nathan: ¡®Sasha?¡¯ Sasha: ¡®Ah! Bro your back, come in!¡¯ She shouted happily so I open the door and walk in only to see her bed covered in clothes. The floor was covered as well and in the middle of the room was Alex and Sarah who were holding Sasha¡¯s clothes while looking to see if it looked good. As for Sasha herself, she was wearing a long sundress; her hair was put into two tails splitting her hair while letting small bangs drop on the front. I blinked a few times seeing everything before I suddenly stepped out slamming the door behind me before rubbing my eyes and breathing a few times and opening it again to see the same thing. Instantly I open the menu and search the setting and find the camera which would be similar to screenshots. No camera actually appears by I could take pictures. After taking a few pictures I walked out the door and looked back. Nathan: ¡®I bought chocolate, who wants?¡¯ With that the three looked from one to the other before nodding and running after me. The box didn¡¯t last long and while we ate I attached all those pictures to an email and sent them to mom and dad. I didn¡¯t know how to play with her like a girl so to see them like that was a bit of a relief. I had already decided that a school was a must. We could also make a separate section so that it can help teach and train skills. My blacksmithing was still intermediate rank and my alchemy was as well. I haven¡¯t done nearly as much as I would like with programming so it was still in the basic but almost intermediate rank and body construction was already half way through intermediate rank. As the girls talked I thought of that unknown item as well. I wonder what that could be. The small strange ball that formed around it was to strange so when my curiosity hit its max I pulled out the notepad. If I wanted to talk in large sentences or ask in detail I still needed this. Nathan: ¡±Hey do either of you know what that strange core that I created was? Suddenly a small glass ball formed around it after I finished making it and cooling it?¡± Alex: ¡®Never saw or heard about it from the others. Must be a new item, it''s not supposed to be uncommon to discover stuff since many of the items that existed are long gone. Even new skill are possible to name.¡¯ Sarah: ¡®Even if we knew, we aren¡¯t allowed to talk by contract.¡¯ I nod understanding. Put simply it''s new, not something the game producers expected to appear and simply was made by hands of someone. It¡¯s similar to Sasha¡¯s five ball turret, that wasn¡¯t around until we made it. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. I wonder what I can make from that thing. Maybe it can work as a strong catalyst for a magic weapons. Well, after we talked a bit Sasha made us play some games with her before I had them go teach her some school related stuff. It was the main reason I wanted them here. I go to my room and start reading some of the new books I gained as well as study the school materials I missed. Soon the two came and told me they were leaving since it was late for them which I just waved goodbye to and went back to studying. When the outside turned dark I was already tired so I jumped into bed after making Sasha go to hers after helping her clean up and then went to sleep. That was just my first day and for the next four days it was similar. The main difference was that instead of the girls, it was the others who came over. I got bulk to come and met him for the first time. He is quite broad shoulders and looked like an athlete and a few years older. He didn¡¯t stay long since he was going to some dojo place to train so he went off soon after. It was only him though so I spent time with Sasha for the days and studied with her and exercised in the training rooms or went out. Though the new workshop did help us kill some time. After all that for the most part the long days that seem to not pass finally reached an end when we finally went back into the game. I opened my eyes in my ship and soon after so did Nova who was sitting beside me. I yawned with both bodies before stretching my gears and heading to what I needed. And what exactly was that, well to annoy Gaia and accept that mission to set up the towns. I did accept that and then I need to get a reduced number for my town for now. Brock needs to grow fast so we can make a village on his back or else things will get cramped. Brock left his whale floating some 10 meters off the ground. I jump on his right fin since it was closer down and free of debris below. I send Asura who I know could last a few hits with her to negotiate. The city was already awake but I could tell it was all NPC but every so often I could see the movement of players here and there. Most of them were probably others like me who can log in immediately. I reach her house rather quickly and Rust was waiting as if expecting me. Rust: ¡®Just on time I see.¡¯ Techno: ¡±Expecting me?¡± Rust: ¡®Yes actually, that draconian girl came here and said you were interested in making your own village inside the whale.¡¯ Techno: Need to discipline her better so she can keep her trap shut. ¡±Ya, I was thinking of making a town for Nova¡¯s benefit. She doesn¡¯t have anyone her age so I was getting worried.¡± He nods and gestures to enter. We go up to Gaia¡¯s office where she is writing, a LOT. Gaia: ¡®Oh great, another headache.¡¯ Techno: ¡±From the looks of it, I don¡¯t need to do anything and just sit back and enjoy the show.¡± She looks up and blinks a few times a bit started. Gaia: ¡®Is it just me or are you calmer and...Less aggressive?¡¯ Techno: ¡±I was forced to see the person I hate the most and unloaded my rage in one burst. I let out a lot of steam and it left me light so I probably am a bit less aggressive when I don¡¯t argue.¡± She looks a bit before shrugging. Techno: ¡±So do you already have everything set for my crew to transport the construction crews of the villages?¡± Rust: ¡®Not construction crews, the who village populations. We already checked and inside Brock¡¯s whale body he can carry at least 2 village worth¡¯s of passengers comfortably while your ship holds enough for 1 village. We will provide your village''s worth of people after you come back. Another ships will travel with you to take the last gate¡¯s villagers. When you''re done return here to get the center villages people it''s safer.¡¯¡¯ Techno: ¡±Safer?¡± Gaia: ¡®Yep, the central area of the scrapyard had some humans infiltrate and after a sometime they came back too strong to fight.¡¯ Techno: ¡±They gained armor?¡± Gaia: ¡®Nope, they evolved themselves into half machines, cyborgs or androids depending how far it was changed. They seem to have a grudge towards clockwork because whichever ship that passes holding a single clockwork has been destroyed.¡¯ This was rather annoying. Getting to the center means directly confronting a race that has been taking down a lot of ships. From the looks they also aren¡¯t any bit shy on tech. I am having a foreboding feeling about this quest now. Still I formally accept it and the official quest appears.
Mission: Four Gate Expansion The leaders of the Clockwork Nation has put their trust in you to safely transport ships full of villagers that will set up new towns on the three other remaining gates of the clockwork scrapyard. The dangers they face would be rogue robots and possibly a new human hybrid race with clockwork. Success requirements: Successful settling North Gate: No East Gate: No West Gate: No Difficulty: D Failure: All villagers die, You die. Reward: ???
I accept the quest and then leave to get supplies. I still need to wait for them to get the people ready and for the others to log in. While I''m at it I will buy some supplies and get scraps because I want to mess with that new core. It¡¯s been eating away at me to figure out what that unknown is. I quickly run around getting supplies before rushing back to the ship and start experimenting. Volume 3 Chapter 4 Core Tech I arrive at the ship with a lot more movement than before. A few of the others have already woken up. Brock for one was up and had landed his while and left the mouth open which allowed the rest to move about. I mostly ignore the movement from the clockwork we rescued and head inside. That is where I found Bulk and the two fire elementals laughing their asses off. When I arrived I tapped him on his shoulder and drew their attention. Bulk: ¡®Ah! Techno. Look at this, your fake finally woke up its too funny.¡¯ He pointed down and under his foot was the little ball. I could feel a text connection coming from him so I connected. Fake: ¡±GET YOU FAT LEG OFF OF ME YOU BASTARD!!! LET ME GO!!¡± At once I started to laugh. It took the others a bit by surprise. Ena: ¡®Wow, until now I only heard him laugh at this idiot when he was calling himself Techno. Did something happen.¡¯ The female fire elemental asked while making a human form. She looked the torch from the fantastic four. Techno: ¡®Psychologist...helped some.¡¯ Everyone¡¯s jaw dropped at once. Blaze: ¡®You talked, but wasn¡¯t it only to Nova that you spoke?!¡¯ Techno: ¡®Doctor...blocked text...towards crew. Must talk.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®Why is it broken up so much? Is your voice box broken?¡¯ Techno: ¡®Not...used to...openly speaking.¡¯ They nodded understanding. I then turned my attention to the ball under Bulks feet. I grabbed the ball and signal for bulk to lift his leg which he does and the fake tries to roll away but fails miserably. Through the working text towards this idiot I start talking. Techno: ¡±So, do you like the body I specially made for you. I spent a lot of time designing it. Now you can tell everyone you have a real Techno made clockwork body.¡± Fake: ¡±FUCK YOU! I CAN¡¯T EVEN SPEAK PROPERLY! GIVE ME BACK MY VOICE BOX AND MY BODY!!¡± Techno: ¡±So you''re bitching is about not having a voice huh. Well I can fix that. I found a good one that would work perfectly.¡± I said that nonchalantly and pulled out a small back that looked similar to a voice box. I sat down and let him open up before I grab from inside. I bring out Yasha and open his arms revealing the many tools. While holding him open Yasha quickly attached and installed the little box and was quickly finished. Techno: ¡®Done.¡¯ I said and nodded with a grin on both bodies. Blaze: ¡®What did you add?¡¯ Techno: ¡®Ask...him.¡¯ I said and dropped the fake. He stabilized and opened up before spinning around and looked at me. Fake: ¡±What did you do?!¡± Beep beep beep beep The area was silent after hearing the beeps. Fake: ¡±WHAT DID YOU DO!!!¡± BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!! I lost it there and started laughing loudly. Both bodies fell over laughing while holding our gut. Bulk: ¡®YOU ADDED A BEEPER!!¡¯ Techno: ¡®Set to beep...when he text.¡¯ I said through the moments I could calm down before the idiot beeps again makes me laugh more. Soon the others began to laugh and made the idiot go crazy with beeping while he text. After a while and everyone logging in I pass them the quest I got from Gaia. Victor: ¡®So, we take them there and drop them off and head off?¡¯ I shook my head. Techno: ¡®Successful Setting...need village...basics.¡¯ Blaze: ¡®It¡¯s manageable, we have two boss monster furnaces, as long as we get dwarfs that know how to make a blast furnace they can make do after its built and things are set up.¡¯ Bulk: ¡®How long would it take to build a complete blast furnace.¡¯ Victor: ¡®Problem isn¡¯t that. First we need homes, then we need to find mineral deposits nearby for things like iron, copper, tin and coal which make many of the tools and gears we use. Then we need to build sentries and guards. Followed by jobs need to be made.¡¯ Brock: ¡®How will we manage all this. Rust makes things work here but he won¡¯t be able to go there and leave here.¡¯ Techno: ¡®Needed to...speak with you...guys about trade. Strato...for Rust code.¡¯ When I said that everyone looked confused. Annabeth: ¡®Its really hard to understand you when you speak broken up like that. Hold on, let me get a working monitor or something.¡¯ She runs off and returns with an unbroken monitor. It had a receiver in it so when I connected the text feature worked. Techno: Guess there are loopholes for everything. ¡±What I wanted to say was. I wanted your opinion on trading blueprints for Strato for a copy of Rust¡¯s motherboard coding.¡± Victor: ¡®Why would we need him?¡¯ Techno: ¡±I wanted to use his codes and make a management model clockwork used in all cities of our nation and works to effectively manage a village, town, city or nation.¡± Bulk started laughing with Victor after reading the idea while the girls were with jaws dropped. Techno: ¡±I didn¡¯t trade immediately today because Strato has heavy fire power and it can cause a lot of trouble later on for us if it''s given out¡± Victor: ¡®I doubt the turrets would be enough to allow them to trade somes codes but strato is much more valuable. An air unit can do wonders when fighting. Nova proved that far to clearly, Strato can out manuver all ships.¡¯ Techno: ¡±So I can do it?¡± They all agreed and I sent Asura to do the trade. With that I finished up the little meeting. I left the rolling moron to the others. They could trash him or what ever. I didn¡¯t care but they couldn¡¯t upgrade him. The just left him after putting a limiter on his transmitter. He had to be near us to use it so this would keep him from ¡°accidentally¡± leaking anything like tech and such, not like he was even allowed on the ship. He was dropped outside and not permitted in. I kept track of that by following his transmitter signal which I made different specifically for this reason. I head into my workshop and pull out the strange core ball thing. I needed to be careful because it was strange. What I thought was glass was more like a film. Objects of certain size can pass in. What I was curious was what would happen so I took some small scrap and put them in and watched carefully. In the places that had the densest rust it broke apart faster and made a hold that spread out until the piece was destroyed. I noticed how there were particles floating around and how it all got concentrated at the ball in the middle. Nothing in particular happened so I identified it and see that nothing changed, moved on to the next item. I grabbed a trashed motherboard and put it in completely and watch as it is destroyed. As I watch the particles float around I notice how it was concentrating on the core in the middle. Soon several lines that looked like circuits appeared on the film as well as the center. I blink several times at the sudden change. I identify it to figure out what it is.
Unknown (10% complete)
A new item recently invented and with unknown use. Research must be done to determine a proper name and proper use for this item. Discovering the item can absorb small object that pass through the outer film it has begun to incorporate what it absorbs. Current components: Metal scraps, broken motherboard
So what I discover gets added up into the description. Still, its incorporating what it absorbs, in other words this isn¡¯t the only thing it''s possible of looking like. Since I added a motherboard and it reacted then it might end up a motherboard itself. This could be a huge discovery for sure but I don¡¯t want to limit it to just this. Because of this I call out a few clockwork robots and have them begin making more. For me though I focus on this thing. I add four more broken motherboard before the film blocks it out. The ball now looks like it has many circuits but is lacking many parts of one. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Thinking that, it might mean that the scraps are used for that. With that in mind I start dropping the scraps of many types from batteries to screws. The batteries are broken up and form a new one which I scan specifically and find its strangely powerful. These are attached to the outer film as well as inner ball. When the ball finally reached 80% nothing entered it again. I was finding it hard and annoying but then I saw a wire enter it and figured that was it. I stripped a few trashed clockwork of all wires and put them in. From the center ball to the outer film, small pillars of wires connected the two and I could see the energy start flowing. Mana from the core was being converted into electricity. Once nothing entered it again a message appeared.
You have invented a new item completely unknown to this world. What will you name it.
Techno: ¡®Scan of item first.¡¯
Unnamed
A newly invented item. Made from a strange elemental core that was melted and mixed with molten Mana crystal. Afterwards the core formed a film and began assimilating any object that was placed within. Through the assimilation of electronic and metallic parts the core has evolved into a motherboard for an unknown kind of machine and its potential is still unknown.
So it became a motherboard huh. Techno: ¡®Name it ¡°Core Motherboard¡±¡¯ It was an uncreative name but that is what it was, an elemental core that somehow became a motherboard. I sit back and sigh. For two reasons. This was exhausting and Rust was even more annoying. Even with Strato on the table he didn¡¯t want to give up his codes. He kept saying that he didn¡¯t want clones but I swore and even signed a contract that I will slightly alter each robot''s code so that don¡¯t stay 100% like him. It would be stupid not to change it since it would make a linked body for him if it was the same codes. If one body dies, his mind will go to the next body. Cheat like yes but very annoying to say the least. That said, I think I need to do that one of these days for us. Keeping extra bodies is a good way to avoid death completely. Delta: "You really are full of surprises Techno. I am linked to all clockworks right now but you are by far the most interesting. Not many of them actually don''t know how to utilize their own race to the max yet you do it so naturally." Techno: "It''s a necessity for protecting my sister. To properly survive this wasteland planet we need technology so I will continue researching with all I have. Anyway did you put your little virus in this thing?" Delta: "It''s a program not a virus and yes it was integrated properly but the motherboard is empty without codes. Still, what I can guess is that this thing can grow. My own scans I can gather from this show that if you put in even a basic code system for this it will grow. By dropping any small material within this core it will digest it and make its own parts and soon grow into something new. If you give it a basic body like that ball thing you are using to torment your fake it would work as a good base for it. I think calling that a clockwork egg would be appropriate." Techno: "Who knew that worthless idiot would make himself useful for once. Well can you design a basic tool gear for this thing. Something that can be like an small arm that can grab and weld. Also make a basic working code for it." Delta: "Shouldn''t be hard. I will call you when it is done. I will upload the design as well. Oh one more thing. This core thing you made. I want you to research its full potential, not just mechanical but magical. Mix it up machine and magic and all that I want this researched to its fullest. This could lead to a breakthrough in clockwork and other technology. Im sure with this you could even make a greater type of synthoid."
Mission: Clockwork Revolution By discovering a new strange core that assimilates what it is placed inside you have possibly opened the door of evolution to the clockworks. Delta, the god of the artificial races, has seen the grand potential for this not only in the mechanical world but also the magical one as well. He has request of you to research this to its fullest using all possible materials to learn about this as best as possible. Difficulty: A Reward: ??? Success: When Delta feels you have learned enough to leave to nature to show use the rest. Failure: All traces of research is destroyed to the point of removing your memories so as not to research.
Techno: "Hey hey!! What the hell, someone will try to remove my memories just so I won''t research this?!" Delta: "It might be a long term thing. It''s possible that such a person will appear in the future or never appear at all." I scowl at this but leave it be. Can''t do anything about that now can i. I end the connection and grab a new one the robots made. This time I wanted magic. Its something that currently eludes the clockwork besides Gaia. I pull out the mana crystal and break it into small pieces of about 2 grams each. I start and drop five small pieces. They were eaten up and the crystal gathered around the ball in middle. The red core began growing and turned into crystal. I continued to add them until the crystal in the middle and the film merged completing the crystal.
You have invented a new item completely unknown to this world. What will you name it.
Techno: ''Scan.''
Unnamed
A newly invented item. Made from a strange elemental core that was melted and mixed with molten Mana crystal. Afterwards the core formed a film and began assimilating any object that was placed within. Through assimilation of mana crystals the original elemental core has mixed with the new crystals making a powerful mana crystal that holds an element.
I smile seeing this. Guess mana based weapons are no longer a dream. Can''t wait to test this out. Techno: ''Name "Mana Core Crystal" I take a break and focus outside. What I find is brocks inside filled with various races. Many of them were holding bags and luggage. I switch to Asura and walk around. I soon find Bulk guiding everyone around. Techno: ''Bulk! These are...villagers?'' Bulk: ''Oh good, you''re here did you get the codes? You can start building him, don''t need to force yourself to try and guide them around. They will build some tents outside here. This is just one village worth. When we finish that one we will return and get the next one. That is how the plan was told to us by Rust from text. He was really pissed by having his codes bargained.'' Techno: ''Necessary...will be building.'' He nods and goes back to guiding the any races that will be in the new village. Gaia wasn''t kidding when she said the town was overpopulated. This is one village? It will grow into a town real quickly. I head inside while picking up a rather tall trashed clockwork and bring it to the workshop. Inside I was already having the robots manufacture new parts while I was just finishing a small stand to hold the robot. Finally hooking it up I opened up my tools and began repairing the robot that will manage the first village. Management model #1 Fics Irons
Ball circuit http://thumb101.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/688420/115758577/stock-vector-vector-circuit-board-sphere-115758577.jpg Volume 3 Chapter 5 Management Unit #1 Fics Irons As i began rebuilding the robot i made sure to keep looking outside and as more and more people entered the whale i felt uncomfortable with all our technology here so close to other people. Because of that i made up the excuse that it was getting too tight and we also need to defend Brock. Because of that the ship was now floating next to the whale. All of the races were entering and by all i mean all. Clockwork, Golem, Fire elemental, Gnome, Dwarf, Elf, Genie, Demon, Ogre and humans. We had to move the Undines to the ship to keep her safe and away from prying eyes. We have yet to make more undine because of the lack of good water. We need to clean a lot of water to get a good one but first we need to train and feed the princess. After a half day of loading things and setting up tents inside brock all the villagers for the first village was loaded in Whale brock. With all things set the big mouth closed and the mana crystals he exposed inside were lit for light and we began flying following the wall towards the East gate. The estimate time would be 3 days because Brock can¡¯t fly too fast yet. It gave me time to remodel this robot to the proper shape. Unlike Rust who was a basic model worker clockwork, i am making a real model for the Management unit, in other words the class will be manager or mayor or something. It won¡¯t have weapons like the rest, well except for a strong gun. The height was at around 195 cm, it had a wide chest and strong looking arms which actually handle what it looks like it can handle. The legs were smaller and it made him look like one of superman with a broad chest and small waist. (http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/JohnnyBravo3.gif Best example) The plates were made from earth steel which corrodes slower and was strong while the engine was one of the regular ones. Now what i really need to work on was the brain. A new motherboard was made, normal not a core. I worked a lot to make this better and make sure there isn¡¯t a single broken piece or misplaced part. After that i moved to the brain making the full circuit board that the motherboard connects to and has all the parts needed. I pulled out three memory chips holding management info and all the nations blueprints, which i already possessed so i didn¡¯t need them myself. I stick them in and then connect to the robot by adding a usb like cable. Looking around i found the area where the main code goes and downloaded Rust¡¯s code here. Then i spent a lot of time repairing it. The better i repair them to better i can make the robot. Also by repairing it the codes are technically different from Rusts so it will activate as a different robot with very similar codes. They will have similar personalities and tastes as well as methods for dealing with things which would make having a council of these an easy to deal with bunch. My success rate of repairing was still at 80% since. Its been very difficult to improve Programming past intermediate 6 but its ok since 80% will leave this guy more then enough processing power than he actually needs. I then begin instantly systems like scanner and all that to his system. When i took a step back i found the robot lacking. When i think of a manager you think noble, someone like the old monopoly guy. Thats it, thats whats missing. I look around and find a few pieces of glass and i build a spyglass attachment for his eye. It fit like a one eye glasses with the wire connecting it on the outside just for looks. The spyglass can expand out and let him zoom in. Still lacking i grab several pipes. I wanted to make a cane but it would be useless if it was just for show so it needed a use. I thought of some controller or amplifier for his signal but that would prompt him to be a dictator. Then i remembered that he needs a weapon so a gun can work. The circular head on the top will be a six shot chamber where the pullet falls into the chamber. These bullets are full gunpowder shots or it would be to obvious. With this gun can finished i seal the deal by camouflaging it by putting an opening cap at the end that will open just before the shot is fired. Putting it in the robot''s hand gave it just the right feel of a noble. (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/cc/d1/0d/ccd10dfa568fca9ff563fea008889305.jpg) After two days of work i finally finish and turn him on. His eyes light up and the gears all start turning as his systems boot up. Fics: ¡®Ah..Ah ah. Voice check, Greetings sir. My name is Fics Irons, how may i serve you my creator.¡¯ Techno: ¡±First, tell me your class?¡± Fics: ¡®Hmm...It is registered as Mayor. Improves my processors when dealing with any and all forms of management. I can better discern what is a good choice and can remain calm during hard times. Processors can calculate possibilities of success and failure to a 60% chance of being correct. With practice percentage will rise. Unit holds only strong physical strength due to the build but has no combat programming so can not engage in combat.¡¯ This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.Techno: ¡±You will be the mayor of the new settlement known as East gate City. The current ruler of the Clockwork Nation is Gaia, should you require to speak with her call out the name Delta and he shall connect you with her. Do not tell others about him. It should only be knowledge for the leaders until it''s decided otherwise.¡± Fics: ¡®Understood. Connection to nation ruler goes through Delta but once long range transmitters are set request will become void.¡¯ Seems he has already examined his memories. It will be a while before he talks as anything besides a robot. Anyway the rest of they day i spent cleaning up. I had him shut downs since i didn¡¯t want him scanning tech and taking it. The next morning we had already arrived and was just waiting for the sun to brighten things. To say we had no room at all is an understatement. The trash pile in front of the gate was up near the top of the walls. Bulk: ¡®So how do we get rid of all this crap?¡¯ Techno: ¡®Time estimate...for completed village?¡¯ Annabeth: ¡®Ehh? It was about a month.¡¯ Techno: ¡®2 months. Brock land...bots gather trash...smelt. Knights explore...clear area. Drones scan...find minerals, water, area resources.¡¯ Receiving my broken up message to spread out and smelt and scout everyone split up. I installed a new scanner under Starto and had Nova fly around. Its a radar that sent out electric pulses like waves and captured the image. Its principals should be similar to echolocation bats use. Its probably really sucky but it''s a test anyway. If i find anything useful then ok if not, just work on it. With my order, Brock lands on a flattish area and lets everyone out. He will be a base for now and everyone was made to clear a path for the clockwork robots that were let out and were returning with random scraps heading towards the furnace to melt it into usable iron. Still, it wasn¡¯t like they all stayed still. With quick scans we could make we knew we were in a rocky rain forest area. Or would have been if there was trees but that is something elves can fix. They wanted to explore. Fics and I permitted only in a 1 km radius around the door because that is how far our scans reach. We were already releasing drones but most of it was inside the trash here scanning the interior of the scraps. The objective was to find intact robot''s of different models. This was mostly to save materials. Well it didn¡¯t matter much. I leave Fics and the others and have Yasha return to the workshop were i have several empty cores waiting. The complete Motherboard core and Mana core crystal was still there waiting. Delta: ¡±I have the arm ready, the motherboard already has a small attachment area for it so just build it properly and it should do it. It already has the basic programs so just stick it in a clockwork egg and feed it.¡± Techno: ¡±It''s a hassle right now. Let me get the village started and cleaned up a bit. Anyway got any suggestions on what to make with the next core?¡± Delta: ¡±I don¡¯t know, a clockwork engine?¡± I think a bit and shrug. Not like i have better things to do at this time. I grab two in the storage and think of how to get this done but out of sheer boredom of feeding one by one i just placed the core on top. It slowly lowers allowing the metal to enter and it gets eaten up slowly. Unlike what i thought would happen the core starts moving on top of the engine slowly eating it up while circling it. It was rather funny to watch. After around 20 minutes the engine was gone and what was left was the newly formed Clockwork Core Engine. It was quite small and funny looking. It looked similar to the engine it ate, strong burner under it, water tank above and many systems made to increase the pressure and power. Still, this was like a reduced size of a regular engine. I pull out one of my engines i have in reserve and have a new one eat it. It ends up just like it but more square. The shape changed because of the design but it was still a core. Piston core engine. It was all rather funny looking and hard to believe it could run just like the original. Well, no use crying about it. Might as well just leave these be and go help. I wake up the management bot and we leave to go clean the trash heap up along with all my clockwork robot''s. Volume 3 Chapter 6 East Gate City Month 1 It''s been three weeks since we began cleaning. We reached actual dirt earth last week and today the first builds were being made. These were smithy''s for the dwarves and clockwork. During these three weeks a lot of success and trouble has happened. The first success was that through Nova''s scanning we somewhat located a few possible places that held mineral. Through Brock we confirmed iron, copper, tin, coal, quartz, silver and gold. It was quite a nice area mineral wise. Now for the first success there is the first failure. The forest outside is plagued by several monsters. This area is somewhat rocky but with dirt so it gives the feel of what could have once been a rainforest. The river about 1.5 km away is 5 meter wide and holds the first plague. Mutating from fish are ugly fish monsters that are both above and below water. They are highly territorial and carnivorous. The second plague is down further inhabiting a lake. Mutating from lizards are distorted lizard men and several large lizard creatures. When de first encountered them we were attacked aggressively so any exploration was done under the watchful eye of the squad of knights, that we found under the scrap and repaired making them our guard unit, that came with us lead be Asura. Now for the second success. Because the lakes and rivers are somewhat far we had leeway near the walls and gate so the Gnomes and elves have been revitalizing the land and with golems helping they heal a bit of the land. With the work done in three weeks small green shoots have begun to sprout. We have pushed as far as possible and scouted quite a lot to find a safe area but most of the river is plagued. We needed to clean this water so we have been slowly expanding the scan upriver. Yesterday we found about 5 springs that make up the river. Near these areas it was safe but the area like everywhere is polluted. In all these spaces the area was revitalized and plants and tree sprouts were planted. It would take a long time before the river is healed. In south gate city the river had a large ship graveyard that filled a whole lake with oil and fuel. Even now it''s been removed while the water is returned which has greatly improved the water quality and plant life along its edges. The third thing that happened was when the dwarfs wanted to go mining. Because we needed many materials like coal for good iron the dwarfs were persistent so Brock has been preparing and raising a small rocky hill to open the cave. With this, Victor brought out his hidden invention. His first attempt for a full armor suit turned into a bulky miners suit. Made from ten large drones each of them attach to Victor''s original armor. They attached and connected making up the systems before they enclose all the circuits in a tight green colored steel plate. The chest space was very bulky because that is where the pilot stays. On the sides were strong arms making even mine look a bit weak and finally the right hand was a huge drill while the left one was a normal hand to grab. The most interesting thing was that on the back of the feet was a black steel wheel. That would move below the feet when he needed it to. In all this was his first suit. He made a seriously funny joke when he introduced it to use while getting ready to mine. Victor: ''I would like to introduce you to my first suit. Both a battle suit and a miner. Mark 1 Bulkbuster "Mining model".'' Bulk: ''HEY MIDGET YOU WANT TO FIGHT HUH!!'' We laughed so much and you can''t call him so small anymore because the robot makes him 190cm tall. (http://imgur.com/i68j4xV) Still the suit was rather impressive because it was the first to implement a core engine. The Piston Core engine actually. Four to be exact. On the back was the exhaust for each. The reason was because the drill needed its own engine and each wheel on the feet as well. The last was the main bodies. The strong but small engine was very appealing for sure. It opens up a lot of room and opportunity. Not to mention that it makes for a lot of great attack options. The wheels on the feet are really useful for charging at monsters and the drill is deadly without needing to tell us. Made from 20 layers earth steel packed one on top of each other and then making the grooves of a drill on the top layers make this a sturdy weapon and took. The mining speed is impressive as well. The speed is about a third faster than miner class clockwork. Not like they aren''t fast but comparing a dwarf with the same mining gear to a robot who is just smashing away there is little comparison. Acting as the mining leader he lead the miner class clockwork and began digging out the coal mine. He led at the front while the rest worked the space he left behind. The objective was to set up a main mine shaft so that they can then spread out. Iron wasn¡¯t a worry. The scrap had made a huge pile but the coal was definitely a problem. It is imperative that steel is obtained or else the blast furnace will not be made. The same goes for copper but that is obtained from the scraps as well. With him mining it helped to get the first smithy up. The fire elementals were all fed well to produce cores so that we can make more fire steel for the smithy''s. Using the blast turtle to set up the first it was made quickly as soon as coal began flowing in. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Under the management of Fics, who was growing smarter by the day as he learned more, the scraps were cleaned quicker, buildings were being raised faster and basic needs were started to get done. As for me, what i did was split between Yasha and Asura. Asura was currently set as guard captain with bulk and nova. While Yasha remained on the ship doing my research into the cores I still don¡¯t have water cores to make mana core crystals but that is alright. What i want to do now was try and see if i can acquire one of the subclasses of magic somehow. I think about it a lot and just as a random idea i grab a fire mana core crystal and crush it until its powder and get a new fire based core that has yet to absorb anything and drop the powder inside. On contact the powder was drawn in and halfway down it was absorbed. I continue putting more and more and the core at the middle started to change into a mana crystal but halfway through the bright red color turned deep red like the color of blood. It stayed that color until it was grown completely. When i identified it the name was ¡°Refined Fire Mana Core Crystal¡±. In other words i mixed them together and made it stronger. There are two possibilities that i can¡¯t really confirm at this moment. Either the capacity grew larger or the power of the mana grew stronger. Still, i wonder what comes after refined. So to test it i crush this new one and do so again. The result was more than shocking to say the least, ¡°Lightning Mana Core Crystal¡±. Yep i was wondering as well why it was lightning but the only thing that came to mind is that both are in every shape or form, Energy. It reminds me of the old cartoon where the people can control the four elements with martial arts and fire and lightning was linked instead of the fantasy magic system that makes lightning part of wind. Its really confusing but who am i to complain. So many great ideas come from having this. Research of these cores is really amazing. Maybe i can combine items i get like this new core with an engine when it''s being assimilated and make an electric engine. All the cores depend on what they absorb so its possible. For now though i think it''s best to simply find out more. Outside with Asura though it was just as exciting. The fishman monsters have been attacking regularly whenever the elves use magic to revitalize the land or when the gnomes use magic to make the plants grow faster. Because of this all the combat people have been getting a nice workout. These monsters are around level 110 so it wasn¡¯t impossible to fight especially when i have taken it up to repair them myself. For a quest i don¡¯t need to be picky. Completing it requires these guys and it''s not like Gaia and Rust don¡¯t already have a good amount of what i did to them. Still like hell i am giving them core tech. This stuff is some serious stuff so its begin guarded on the ship that is always armed for combat with robot''s ready to fire. Breeding the Undines have started thankfully. Besides just making the land near the springs get more plants to naturally clean the water, we set up a few machines this last week. This week is when i log off for another therapy session which i really hope isn¡¯t like last time and i get a few days of rest. We have set up small treatment machines in front of the springs that has been cleaning the pollution from the spring and depositing it on clean dirt before going into five small ponds that we dug out. The dirt is clean because we dug out a lot of the surrounding dirt before we had brock absorb and release it clean of oil and pollution. This way the water remained naturally clean up to 80% and was drinkable. This game the Undines a space to live and grow slowly as well as make her first followers. Brock still being too small doesn¡¯t help since he doesn¡¯t have the space to make a reservoir for them. Near the springs is where the elves focus most of their energy to make the trees spread out as much as possible. The more secure the springs are the better the water quality will get down stream as well as giving the opportunity for plants to grow since seeds can get washed up. To help even more, Undine that live in the water give a kind of blessing to the water when it''s being cared for and this helps life grow even in polluted water. Even with just five of the possibly 20 or more springs that exist near here that feed this river and lake the water has started to greatly improve but with the change in water the monsters became even more aggressive. Changes in the environment will result in that but if needed we can kill them off and let nature remake what was lose. Eventually they will start calming down and when they do maybe fishermen, or in this case, fisher hunters will become a job the villagers can live off. Once i return from the VR town i plan on making my first clockwork eggs. I already have almost 30 cores ready all of which have variates of Delta¡¯s codes. I have already built the tool gear they can use and learned how to attach it. All that is left is to give them their body and see how they grow. Volume 3 Chapter 7 Core Tech Animals Urg...my five days in VR town sucked. The therapy was, thankfully, normal like you see in movies. Ask questions, how I feel, something else, bla bla bla. After that was working to meet Sasha''s demands. Since we have been busy, we haven''t played together so for all the days I have been dragged around going to the parks and malls with her. Not like that got her off of doing homework. Even in Etheria I don''t let her off. Anyway we spent a day with mom and dad before things go quiet again. Rather uneventful five days but it was good to spend time with Nova. This last month was rather busy so I haven''t played much though the GMs do that a lot of the time. They are much better then Gaia at being proper role models. Even the school that was fashioned inside Brock had lots of success. I provided the books I use with Nova and even many others she has yet to touch so it would have a lot. Annabeth became one of the best teachers, a hidden player that only shows her true self when teaching. Greer has been with the knights. She gained a power suit so her strength was being boosted. She still trains without but most of times on since it¡¯s dangerous. Anyway when we returned to the game I found a small village already up. The scraps around the gate have been cleared up to 150 meters in radius already and all, protectors and knights have been brought back to life already. There was still a lot being made but now there was a proper governors house, several smithy workshops and a few other buildings such as alchemists, tinker, weapon/armor/parts shop,and so on. We would need to clear at least 300 meters to get a good size to make the walls. Outside the walls was a half grown forest with several paths in it. From far I could see several fights between the fish mutants and the knights going on. I rush in and help them clear them out. Unlike what we did at the start, we now start butchering them. The meat is worthless because it¡¯s naturally contaminated but a few organs have medical properties.What we do with the rest is feed them to the fishes, literally. We toss the bodies into the river. This has greatly calmed the under water fish and has made them hunt the plaguing fishmen and even each other. Slowly it¡¯s being put under control. I approach the water and scan it to get the content readings. At least 25% of the pollution has already been cleared. This is most likely the result of cleaning the springs. Even now we are searching for the rest and from the report I just gained from the knights. Two more were found two days ago. The elves have begun to restore them. Along with their report there was also a result of the effects on the lizardmen. Its seems they are getting weaker due to the cleaner water. From the looks of it, the creatures that took to land had weaker bodies if the ecosystem begins changing. Only the strong ones and those that adapt fast will survive. I give the order to try and gain some eggs from both monsters. Take them upstream closer to the clean springs and have them hatch near them. If we constantly make them hatch in clean water they will adapt. Its not good to kill of a native species even I know that much. On the ship I was taking the cores and attaching the tool arms. These tools were a group of things. First it had a small camera that worked to help see but it was very basic stuff, no color and so on, camera with color was in the clockwork egg. The arm had actual fingers so if the core removed itself from the body it could pull itself. It had a welder and cutter. Basic of the basic even compared to my own but it was enough. I put the arm into the first core and see it light up. The good part about these cores is that the motherboard makes its own power since it has a few small batteries in it. So it can move the arm around. Next I take it to an empty shell that was its body and begin attaching the wires into the proper place until all systems are built. Yes the beeper is here too but this thing isn''t a clockwork but something akin to an animal. Each one was given a different code that had a hidden model behind it. Wolf, dog, cat, tiger you name it. We found out a while back that the motherboards also process fuel from what it eats. It can use normal fuel or make it by "eating". With this one made I deactivate it and make more of them. I build each of them until all are complete. Techno: ''Delta!'' Delta: "You call? Oh they are complete nice work. Could have gone quicker though." Techno: "Shut it. I was busy and you know it. Now where should I drop them?" Delta: "Anywhere, in the forest or in the scraps you choose they will grow by themselves. I am curious though how they will reproduce. Will it make a core for the offspring or will it split like a slime. I wonder of the slime people are still alive." Techno: "Going off track geezer. Anyway how dangerous will they be to us?" Delta: "I''ve set creatures like Bulls, horses and other domestic animals to see those from your nation as neutral. You are see as good because you made them. That can change by attacking but that will take time. The forms will be varied, I suggest leaving a day or two in the scrap yard under a watchful eye and then to the outside to tadt organic leaves and so one. I nod and store them all in my inventory and took them outside. I leave the ship and jump down into the scrap yard where many people were pulling and dragging scraps away. I pull the clockwork eggs out one by one and activate them before dropping them. Just so you know, their body is made of triple layered 5 mm steel plate. That means their best feature is the defense and I made sure they knew that by adding an automatic defense program. They can''t attack much yet but that doesn''t matter because in the long run they will become completely different. After a few seconds each of them open up and straighten themselves. The metal ribbon in the middle holding the cores held the camera as well as the arm. The core was free to turn but it wouldn''t every fall out unless it activated the program for it. They all turn and look at me before heading to the nearby scrap. Getting near they start to grab and eat any piece they could pick up. Because everyone was looking I connected to their coms and sent a message. Techno: "These are prototype clockwork. DO NOT TOUCH!!" The message was sent clearly as everyone nodded vigorously. Anyway watching the thirty or so metal balls going around eating the metal it felt like I was a sheep shepard or was it just me. Anyway as after a while of eating one of the eggs stopped and seem to enter a frozen state. I moved close and saw all the material it had gathered slowly gather at the edge. If you have ever see a 3d printer or something of the kind it looked like that. Slowly appearing near the only area that has no circuits, only the thin film was a metal piece. The hand had already grabbed it and bit by bit was pulling it as it was made. It looked like a curved metal piece that I couldn''t really figure out what use it had. When the piece was finally done I turned to me and put the piece down. I could tell it was telling me to hold it for it. I stopped it from leaving and quickly drew a 1 on ot and progressed all the way to the last. Then I drew the number on each piece that was made. I brought down robots to help me and with them we slowly ate our way into the scrap clearing a part. It was actually rather impressive the speed they ate at. Since they had a battery and most they make a part of what they use they barely use it so they can just keep eating until they make their body. Shame I can''t make more, the problem is Brocks reluctance to give more mana crystals. Well, lets just see how these guys will breed and figure it out later. Delta PoV These robots are amazing. The basic codes they possessed before. Its growing bit by bit. With every new object they see, every piece of scrap they eat. Everything its getting accumulated and that data is making the codes grow. Several have decipher the design and have begun growing towards that. A few took about a day and will make a bit more chunky robot weaker and slower and after the first week all of them had a design. Those who took longest will be the weakest creatures until they refine themselves a bit. This is the first time I feel like I am the God of artificial beings. What is missing from these creatures is the construct silver mana wires. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Normally it would take days to refine it or you get it from the dead carcass of another one. I wonder if I make a few programs for this soon to be spider drone. Silver string would be hard to come by but Techno can make good use of the small supply they have in that vein. Yep lets do this. Still for him to be a synthoid he needs to go to their graveyard and get the destroyed body and build from that. There is no way the amount he has will be enough to make one but weapons don''t need that much. I wonder if the other gods are moving as freely as me. We were all sealed away after the human goddess went wild. I fear for what will happen if she gets loose. Techno PoV After a week number 1 finally came to me and instead of holding a piece it started to hit my leg. I took that as a sign that it wanted its parts so I pulled them all out and dropped it there. It grammed piece by piece and spread it out before it began to build. I set my video to record it. I watch it for two days until it finished. What came out was a dog shaped robot. It was a dog because it lacked the feral look that follows a wolf. Following its completion the egg opened a hatch on the chest just big enough for the core. The next moment the egg broke apart and released the core. Yep it broke up like an egg. I walked over and stored the two halves for the next one and watched as the little arm pulls the core and lifts it up into the chest cavity. Inside I could hear the sounds of fiddling as it attached the components and with each click I could hear more of the gears start up. The dog was as big as a Labrador. The core itself was twice as big as a normal humans hand but engine ones were about three times. I had seen it building a steam engine for itself while it built the body. It stays where you would find the gut. As for weapons, fangs, claws. Yep animal stuff to the end. Most of the body was made of gears so it looked just like a clockwork dog now. The steam pipe exhaust came out of the "fur" just above the legs. The fur was styled plating which I guess came from the design Delta made. The pipes didn''t actually appear and were hidden under so that it could act like a surprise if the dog wanted to use it as such. After a bit everything that was off finally turned on including the eyes. The new clockwork dog stood up and shook itself like a dog. The interlocked plate just slide along naturally as if it was real fur before settling down. BARK! It turned to me and barked while wagging its tail and letting its tail hang loose. Delta: "Ahahah these guys are amazing. Check out its codes. It doesn''t even come close to what it once was." When I looked there was a mountain of code. You really can''t compare the two. Its huge. Before I was able to somewhat see a rough picture of the animal drawn in the code. This was how he made the codes. But now the codes were so extensive I had to zoom out until my view was white to see the detailed drawing of the dog. Techno: "Hey HEY! What the hell is this. Not even a clockworks codes get this big!" Delta: "I''m doubting it myself but this really is the code. It¡¯s constantly growing and depending on the environment it will continue to change but it can get bigger. The cows and bulls are quite something I could say that these codes could be considered their soul. When the image in the code changes so will the body to match it." Techno: ¡±Is this a robot or a living being?¡± Delta: ¡±It''s an animal. The AI formed into a dog AI with all complete features. Scanning the codes show that it can even breed. Or I guess split.¡± Techno: ¡±What do you mean exactly and speak in layman''s terms¡± Delta: ¡±Lets put it like this. You know the elementals core splits right. Well its the same thing here. The center core will split then both cores will grow. The parent body will make a new infant body for the child and release it. The new core is smaller and will stay that size until it has a bigger body and it will use its infant body as nourishment to get bigger. It also needs to be done in pairs. Just like human DNA the main codes are its genetics so it will mix up both of similar robot''s for the new child.¡± Techno: ¡±What the hell! Did you make me act like god here! WHAT THE HELL!¡± Delta: ¡±I think I did more than you since I made the basic¡¯s of its soul you gave it the body.¡± I could feel the stupid bucket of bolts laughing behind the text. Anyway the dog just tilted its head and then it simply looked away and started to look for a few pieces of junk and chomped on it before curling up. When I looked around I spotted several new robot''s and the shells of the clockwork egg on the ground. Another dog walked over and laid down next to the first one. Looking around I spotted a deer and doe in one area, wolfs were digging a hole, scanners showed large horned rabbit robot''s in a hole they dug out. What was strange was further back. They looked less sleek as opposed to the others. The robot''s had animalish shape like a dog but it was more blocky. The last ones were making machines instead of animals. Delta: ¡±Before you ask, those with animal forms discovered the hidden image early on while those that are making machines found it a week later. As you can see the form changes depending how fast they discovered it. From now the codes stabilized but newborns can make lots of changes if they discover something better.¡± Techno: ¡±These things will most likely become the backbone of technology.¡± Delta: ¡±Hunting tech huh. Interesting but I feel that is far off. By the time the scrap yard is completely cleaned up the world will be restored and these guys will be in huge number and types.¡± I could only look at the strange contraptions being built. It was clear the animals had an edge in the abilities but machines had technology. Not only that these are the first of their kind. I kind of fear those bulls as well. The rather impressive bulls bolstered power equal to what I made for bulk¡¯s rhino form. I really doubt Delta would let them remain so few. Anyway all the eggs had ¡°hatched¡± so I gathered them up for later use. If needed I can make them quick shields. If they were Earth steel they would be better but who is complaining. Anyway I can easily approach them all so scanning and examining them was easy. Its scary how they made more than half these parts but for now we can¡¯t touch them. Thankfully there are pairs for each robot so 15 types. 5 are exceptional animal bodies, 3 ok bodies, 2 look half way between machine and animal and 5 are machines. With them examined and categorized and even all the parts checked to the point of making blueprints, yes I want to know how it''s built, I lead them outside. Delta says they take my orders well so I tell them they are permitted to eat a small bit of the plant life within a 100 meter radius of the gates, as well as make a den. The rabbits quickly make a new hold as do the wolfs who go near the edge of the perimeter and do the same. The strange machines that look like a blocky upper body of a robot on a three gear wheel bike. The back wheel turned to turn which side it faced. It was really having trouble in this area. if I had to guess this thing would fit better in grasslands of flatlands. Given time I bet it would adapt but for now it muscles its way through a few less grassy areas. The trees were already overhead while bushes and such were now appearing. The herbivore races quickly began feeding on a few bushes but the rest just looked around. The machines did eat though. Also if you are wondering the throat is connected the core which will drop the food in. Depending the animal the food is turned into biofuel. I am really tempted to make a core for myself but for now I refrain. I want to test everything so after a while I have them all return into the scrap yard and tell them to not hurt anyone and not fear them but to defend themselves if attacked. I warned everyone and told Fics about them. After warning them all and having no more new cores due to a grumpy golem who, by the way, has grown to twice the size since we arrived thanks to leveling and mineral absorption, I go off and start constructing buildings. Volume 3 Chapter 8 Gate One Complete Ok just a warning, I will be changing the style of writing because I already did that with Slime Tamer and writing in two different styles sucks. Also, I will finish posting what i have of Slime Tamer and then go on a break where i will make several chapters of all three books i and writing so that i can post at my leisure and take breaks as well. Slime goes up to chapter 17 so i will not post anything past that. Nor will Clockwork and Dungeons have any other updates for a while. Sry but i am not in a good mood because of stuff in real life that keeps unmotivating me so this is just an excuse for me to slow down a bit. Anyway enjoy
It¡¯s the end second week of month two and it finally appeared. The ship from South gate city has arrived. What is in it? Passengers, workers, players and all other types of people. In the time we have begun actually building I had sent my own clockwork robots as well as some newly made and repaired mechanic class robot''s to remodel the wall next to the gate into docks. The walls originally have corridors and so on inside so they simply need to be opened up. The walls normally have around 7 floors until it reaches the top. Most of the docks we make in any of the cities will be made on the sixth floor. We had only one proper dock made but that is enough to unload people. As for supplies we got none. It was already known that we wouldn¡¯t be getting supplies and we would need to get what we could on our own so that we could know what we have or not. Anyway what was supplied was the immensely needed Fires Steel that was pre made in the dwarf¡¯s blast furnace. As you might have guessed the fire steel wasn¡¯t something that was going to stay hidden especially when we use it all the time. The blast furnace itself underwent reforming to place the new steel to handle even greater heat. The way that is done is different from what we do. In the massive blast furnace the iron and coal is dumped inside and lit like normal. Once it melts and mixes the fire elementals will fly into the furnace and start eating the flames that rise really high. Because this doesn¡¯t interfere with the process it works nicely. When the will-o-wisps (yes fire elementals are wisps) fill up they multiply and make the new core that is then dropped into the mix and it goes on like that. This industrial fire steel is better quality than our own mainly because of the process of making it is better and the blast furnace can achieve greater heat than my blast turtle could so the metals mix up better as they reach a very high liquid state and heat. When the steel finally arrived I ordered the golems to use earth magic to raise a hill on the north side of town about 6 meters high and 10 wide. Then I told them to make a tunnel down and we started to carve out a hidden space for it. It would be really bad to have this blow up within the city bounds. The tunnel travelled under the scrapyard wall and formed a large cavern below the forest. I asked Delta to pass on a message to Gaia to make large copper pipes for the furnace. The area was then expanded to fit all we needed. During the third week the cavern underwent serious industrialization. First Brock helped pass the pipes that arrived four days after I asked for them. The largest ones that would direct the dense gasses from the melting process were added and directed far away. It released the gases about a kilometer north outside of the walls and far away from the lakes so no monsters were around. Not like anything would attack something like that especially with the heat coming from it. Through the course of the vents, we built and added some catalyst that cars normally have to filter the exhaust so that less harmful gases are released. This would help later on when the area is restored. It would do less hard even though it would be a pain. In the cavern, the area was changed to match the exact same look as the forgery in the dwarf¡¯s town. Three floors made of steel and the machinery and so on were all built as the blast furnace was rapidly built. We were nearing the end of what we would do in this town. Completing the forge is the objective obviously. Still because the players came it''s not like things went perfectly calm. You remember the clockwork animal¡¯s right. Well I had Fics declare as a city law that they weren¡¯t to be hunted or anything. It was all good and the animals and machines have begun adapting to the area. Those with animal looks preferred the outside area while the machines liked it inside the scrapyard. Smaller critters like the rabbits lived where they could and because of their strangely fast breeding speed I was able to split them into an outside group and inside group. Oh right the breeding is rather interesting. Like Delta explained before, the core of the animals will split after they eat enough and form a rather small copy that will float around inside the mother one. The rabbits in particular split 4 times before they get to building small infant rabbit bodies for their offspring. It takes them about 5 hours of building parts to make a small body which is one fourth the adult¡¯s size. They then drop the tiny cores that are expelled with a small film around them and the rabbit pick it up in its jaws and sticks it into the body bringing it to life. Then it¡¯s just up to the babies to eat up and make its new body while growing its core. This is the same for all the robots. The problem though is the very large and powerful bulls. Up until now they haven¡¯t split once and they eat a large amount of metal scrap I feed them and foliage from the growing plants outside. Maybe because of the natural instinct of a cow that is normally born after about nine months it takes them a long time to prepare their child. Normal calves are born very developed so maybe these bulls follow that principle and are making a large body for the calf that will be born. Because I can get near them I could check it and I did indeed find a space they stored the parts which would be where a normal bull¡¯s gut and other digestive organs would be. Since they are unneeded the area is where the babies are built. Now for the problem that arose with this slow building. I was returning with the knights coming back from fighting the fish when I suddenly heard heavy gunfire and the sound of screeching metal which comes from metal hitting metal. It sounded like a clockwork getting hit. I tell everyone to pick up the pace but suddenly the sound from the bull clockwork animal yell and a loud crash reverberates through the area followed by some cheering. I remember that there was a message from Fics that players had arrived. My gears started rattling and when we arrived we found the only two bulls on the ground and two players working alongside several worker robots dismantling the bulls. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I couldn¡¯t hold it and I walked over while quieting my footsteps. When I was behind the guy I pull out my front arms shot gun and with the sound of the guns arming I aim it at them. When they looked back the steam coming from them seem to stop. ¡±Tell me, did Fics¡¯s law of not touching them not get through your metallic heads. These were the only ones of their kind. Give me one reason why I shouldn¡¯t kill you and stick you into a ball shaped robot without arms.¡± I said through a text to the idiots. ¡®Who...the hell are you...and you can¡¯t attack us, it¡¯s against the law!¡¯ The larger knight yelled out. ¡®Unfortunately for you brats he can. There is actually a law that you can¡¯t hunt these robots because they are few in number at this moment. Also, he is the breeder of these creatures and isn¡¯t very fond of others.¡¯ replied the knight captain I had repaired. ¡®No way! BUT!...¡¯ he said and stopped because of what I did. BANG I shot one shell right next to their heads making them rattled as they lost control of their circuits. ¡±Arrest them and remove their weapons as penalty. Keep them in jail for one week but don¡¯t return the weapons, put them to good use for the guards! Also take the robots and put them to good use as well.¡± I sent the message before putting away my guns. The knights saluted and restrained the two and taking them away while the robot''s had their signal overridden and taken to the be remodeled into some other form of worker. I sigh and look at the bulls on the ground. Both were beat up but I could see movement inside. I walk over and remove a few plates only to find the cores perfectly intact. The two main ones as well as the new ones growing were all right. I had Yasha come with a few mechanic robot and repair several broken parts that were smashed in. We remove the part and feed it to the core along with several other scraps that then spits back a new part. Like that we repair to functioning order the robot. We lift them up as they go back only. They are still badly beaten but they are functioning for now. It was also then that both of then began a strange series of movements. After a bit the belly area broke off releasing the robot inside holding both the parent and child core. ¡®Hoo! So the body can hold both adult and child. In other words the body was either a replacement or the new child¡¯s body.¡¯ The captain says. I see the small arm gear I made moving around connecting everything and soon the robot stood up. What surprised us was that it was much more agile than the old body. Taking a closer look you can tell there were several upgrades in its design which pretty much says that the species as a whole evolved a bit. Being smaller it could hop around a bit and began running around and eating rocks and foliage to start growing more. I could only sigh and then order one of the knights to remain in the area to make sure the players didn¡¯t hunt them. I then went and reinforced the law by showing the players being dismantled being left without a single weapon on. This was a warning to everyone as the next who do so without us permitting would be shot on sight. A message appeared for everyone that showed the new law.
By order of both the player constructing the town of East Gate City as well as the Mayor Fics Iron. Hunting of the Clockwork animals is strictly forbidden and should you be found doing so, you will be shot on sight. Intimacy with the town will also drop and the PK mark will be placed on you.
I smile and nod at this and soon leave to continue building more needed parts of town. By the end of the month just as we had estimated, the blast furnace was complete and the quest updated.
Mission: Four Gate Expansion You have successfully set up East Gate town and with it a new port and zone of exploration has opened up for the nation. Success requirements: Successful settling North Gate: No East Gate: Yes West Gate: No Difficulty: D Failure: All villagers die, You die. Reward: ???
I smile and nod at this before letting out a sigh. Two months to finish one town. From the forum that was after the update, we are the quickest to make a town within the scrapyard. Now for outside the scrapyard it would take about as long as we took. It might be because we are at the edge so the amount of scraps here is much less. Also this gate had much less dungeons but a lot stronger monsters. Speaking of them, the fish men have gotten greatly weaker because the water purity isn¡¯t proper for them. On the last week they did an all-out attack but we repelled them which killed a large number and what remained didn¡¯t survive with so few number and they ended up dying out. That said, the fish men we bred in fresh water evolved into less monstrous ones and are currently starting to occupy the lake. The fish in the lakes did adapt though. That was the strange part. They adapted REALLY fast. The main reason we wagered was that the eggs being always in the river made it easy for them being born in cleaner water with each new batch. The lizard men were different. They adapted rather easily to the cleaner water. We found 10 of the springs so the quality of the water was really great now compared to when we arrived. It also seems they have a greater immunity to the poisonous water but can easily live without it. With this any great dangers were quelled. My crew, already seeing the quests update, had begun to pack up and we were going to leave. Since the GM¡¯s, bulk and victor can log in we were leaving today but first. I collected my animals. Like hell I was leaving without all the races. Not like I would take every last one. I caught two of all of them. With the bulls also having released its offspring I collected two of them and stored them within Brock in a barn area he made. We now had double the space compared to before since the whale grew a lot. When we finally finished up we finally leave. We say goodbye to everyone that helped out and warned them to keep watch of the animals until they can survive by themselves. The knights acknowledged and saluted and with that we leave the city heading back to South Gate city to pick up the next group so we can go to West Gate nest. Annoucement Hey all, Good news, Today i finished PRing Volume 1 completing it is finally up on Kindle. The price is at $4.50 *sigh* week long pring was a pain in the ass but i finally done. Shall return to writing clockwork and you will know when volume 3 has been completed because I will begin releasing. As for Slime tamer, that i am not dropping though i can''t be so sure about Mystery of the Dungeon as i am a huge writers block with that one. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Anyway, Here is the link for it and enjoy 240+ pages for only the First book. https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B015M6CHH0 Volume 3 Chapter 9 The Shepard After we had left East gate city me and Nova logged out but nothing really eventful happened during that time. Just the normal visit of our parents and them inviting over a friend who was also a teacher to give Sasha a test to see how she is coming along. To say the least, the school we built in East Gate city was in full swing and she participated in all of them with a secondary child sized body without guns. The result of the small test was that she was coming along surprisingly well. Like I would let her skip out on her homework. Only when something big was happening and I couldn¡¯t test her but that is rather rare since we aren¡¯t doing anything huge. When we finally returned to the game Brock had already reached south gate city and was waiting for us to log in. He was loaded already but hadn¡¯t left since the city yet. His whale body was already three times what it originally was and if I say the image of the mana crystal slowly growing on his body wasn¡¯t impressive, it would be a lie. Along the back and at the tips of his fins the crystals were appearing even if he didn¡¯t want it to. When I logged in I found Yasha sitting in my workshop and Asura sit on the deck of my ship. I have the two get up and take complete control of Yasha and have it go outside while making Asura jump down off the ship and starts to look around. I soon found Brock and the Will-o-Wisps. ¡°Hi...everything...ready?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh boss, yeah most of it is ready, we are mainly waiting for you. We need you to make a management unit while we go so we can¡¯t leave without you here to make it.¡± Brock replied. ¡°Ah, Techno, you need to control those animals inside the ship, they are a pain to feed.¡± Ena said I smile wearily already guessing how hard it was to feed them. I had told them not to overfeed and instead give enough for them to convert into fuel for themselves only. It would be a pain to have newborn appearing on the ship. Anyway before we leave I leave the ship and start looking around the scrapyard and find a suitable base for the next robot. I didn¡¯t stop there though. I look for a taller clockwork and found one that the scans show to be 190 cm tall. It was a good base for what I wanted. Unlike East gate city, in west gate I will be prepared for when the other players arrive. We were lucky that the players missed the critical core piece and the bull robot survived with some repairs. This time I was going to build a proper guardian for them. I guess I could call it a shepherd but the class will be totally different. I drag the two bodies back and hand them to Yasha who brings them to the workshop and hangs them in the middle of the room on a support that is used to hold up what I am working on. I let loose my drones to help and bring in a few clockwork robots to speed things up. Because I already had a model for the management model I mark the shorter robot to be it and have 4 of the clockwork robots to do that. As for the other one? I begin drawing up the plans after scanning the entire body and use my system to repair the scans to what it would look like if it was at top condition with iron parts in all it¡¯s parts. It was obviously a basic worker model but I didn¡¯t want to change it to much from this but I also don¡¯t want to make it weak. ¡±Delta, when I''m making a new clockwork, will the level of the body restrict if it comes to life or not?¡± I asked through my connection to the titan clockwork. ¡±Not if the main programming is remade, in other words, the current codes will need to be trashed. That code is linked to the current status and level so you need to remake it or have someone remake them.¡± He replied. ¡±I need codes that for a noble man, avid swordsman and of a man that likes animals and would shepherd them without even being told and protect them as well.¡± I told him. ¡±That¡¯s a tough one to think up, farmers aren¡¯t really noble or swordsmen. Also why swordsmen and not marksmen?¡± He asked. ¡±Because he will be using a sword as his main weapon but I will also try and develop disruptor tech by modifying the transmitters to send out a signal to the target to disrupt his systems.¡± I said. ¡±Ever heard of a samurai?¡± ¡±Yep, and I see where you are going with that. I will get working on the new codes. Empty the one he has wait, make a new one, that one is old.¡± He said and the connection was cut. I set a few drones with the proper hand tools to get on with that. I pull up the repaired scans of a motherboard completely new and bring out undamaged parts for them and leave them to be built and set the drones to do that automatically without me needing guide it since everything was numbered in order that it needed to be built in and detailed instructions so that they can be used to make it. Oh, before we leave I make sure to have the robot''s grab a lot of nearby scraps so I can smelt and remake as well as have enough to feed to animals. With that I give the order to Brock to set off. We already lost two days here and he was already filled with people so we didn¡¯t need to wait any more. After that I dedicated my time to developing the new robot. I went all out to make this guy really strong and fast. Mostly fast because I needed him to get around fast but I didn¡¯t neglect strength. The only flaw is that for speed he wouldn¡¯t have any big weapons. I focused on using small gears about half the size of those I used for my body. These were about a third bigger than Gaia¡¯s gears. For the engine, I grabbed the engine core and installed it. Like I said, I want him light weight. I will also need to figure out how to efficiently introduce this engine later on. Brock still doesn¡¯t want me to get more mana crystals so I have to wait though if I don¡¯t get at least one crystal after this town is built I will beat him senseless and take it from him. The new robot was completely rebuilt in every sense. I take each piece and scan all and replace all of them with new reforged pieces made out of steel. The skeleton is made from earth steel as well as the gears so they can resist corrosion and be stronger. Firesteel probably won¡¯t be used on him for now. Truthfully, he was one of the easiest builds I have made. Well, body wise, the software systems I will need to design will be a pain. I need to add a very good mid range scanner, develop the disruptor, develop an aid software to help guide him protect the animals and so on. Mostly the parts were made on day one, his body was built on day two and on day three I spent my time making the software. The hardest part was making the disruptor unit. I needed to take a transmitter and learn its structure and with Delta¡¯s help I was able to remake the transmitter into a disruptor. The first one I made went into me since it''s very convenient but the second one I made into the new robot. Then came a software system to recognize someone as target and make the disruptor only activate towards these targets so that he doesn¡¯t abuse it. Making it part of the system that works the disruptors so that it can¡¯t be deleted. Testing it out on myself first I confirm its usefulness when I tried it on my robot''s and they stopped working. Very good to disable robot''s and when I tried to see what would happen to weapons it seems to shut them off temporarily. To get a better grasp I have it tested on bulk, it seems it causes a status effect on clockwork and anyone wearing power armor. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. The status is called ¡°Disrupted¡± and the effects is that function of the systems get messed up and function of the robot and armor drops 20% which in other words is a series stat reduction in speed. Also seems to make weapons stop functioning for a small amount of time which is perfect for a swordsmen I want him to be. Satisfied with the current program I install it in and call Delta. ¡±Yeah, the new codes are made. Just know that he will think of his creator as his lord. The personality is of a samurai and he will follow your orders to the letter so plan a detailed order and don¡¯t leave holes because he will find them.¡± Delta instructed. ¡±Alright, let me put the new motherboard in and then connect to it.¡± I said and picked up the brand new motherboard and installing it into the spot. I then connected to the body and fix up the systems before signalling for Delta to begin. Soon the codes began to flow in so I pulled out and simply watched as the code was put in. When the codes finally finished being put in I did a final check before I press the on switch. Slowly the engine turns on and the small ticks of the many gears beginning to turn can be heard. I added three core batteries so he can survive a long time if the engine is broken. The current max of battery power he can store is around 1800, each battery can hold 600 power in each. Obviously they were empty at the moment but as soon as the engine began energy began to enter it. It will be a bit before he turns on. I turn to the robot''s banging away at a very long metal sword. The sword was 130 cm long with a 30 cm handle at the end. Seeing it was almost ready I went and pulled out a long thick trunk of wood. I started by carefully splitting it down the middle then each side I began to carve down the wood with many drones to help the process go faster. When the outer side of this was near completion having been thinned down to about 5 cm thicker than the full size of the sword the robot began moving. The light in its eyes turned on and he started to look around. Seeing this I stood up with Yasha and walked over. As soon as he saw me and kneeled down. ¡°Greetings my lord, your faithful servant is ready to serve¡± he said. ¡±Do you know why you were built?¡± I asked. ¡±Yes, I am a breeder and shepherd unit built by you my lord and programmed by the great god to care for one flock of my lords live stock.¡± he replied. ¡±Good, it seems the main missions of this unit is working properly¡± Delta suddenly said. ¡±Main missions?¡± I asked. ¡±It is an installed mission a clockwork can be born with. It¡¯s similar to knights who are born with the mission to protect the nation they are born in.¡± he said. So it is a predestined job they would do huh. It feels a bit conflicting learning of this. It¡¯s like they don¡¯t have free will to choose. Now that I think about it, don¡¯t the workers remain workers unless told to change? So it was this huh, workers are to bulk of the clockworks and only if told they will upgrade. It won¡¯t be done of their own choice like players. For some reason that pisses me off. ¡±I know what you are thinking. They don¡¯t have freewill right. That is only towards the class. That said, the clockwork can train towards that class if it has an upgrade to it. Such as a worker train with marksmanship and swords skill giving it the knight class. It¡¯s you awakened that simply jump from one to another on a whim.¡± Delta said. So it was like that, in other words we are the strange ones. They work for their goals while we justs skip through when we have enough materials. I can definitely see the NPC being stronger than players in the long run since they have quality of quantity. ¡±Well, get up, we are almost arriving at the location of your home. The animal are in the lowest deck so you can begin by helping to feed them but just enough to make sure they don¡¯t run out of fuel. It should be this much.¡± I said and began instructing him exactly how much for each animal. Because each animal has different sizes they also have different quantities and energy consumption is different as well. I then let him go and went back to the sword. With a half meter long part that was carved out in a straight shaft I took the two parts and put them together making a cylinder and then began shaving the wood so the two parts look like they were made for each other. I then took the now read long bald and measured the hand and then drew the handle on the inside of the wood before I began carving out the shape. I did the same to the other part and when I was done I connected both and fixed up any mistakes until it was just right. I finished by glueing them with a mixture of wood glue and then put a metal band around them to hold it. I then did the same for the blade. When both were done the sword was just fitting just right. It wasn¡¯t a katana mind you, it was made with earth steel and forged like a normal swords since I had no idea how to make a katana. I finished up the final touches by shaving the longer bottom part to match the upper part so that the connection remain hidden. Finally it was done and it had really nice stats.
Shepherd Unit Long Staff Sword
A strong blade made out of tempered steel embedded with the crushed core of a golem. This blade is very durable and can be used as both a staff and sword. The reach is very long and though the sword is long, it is lighter than a greatsword. It is a two handed weapon so the user will be unable to use other weapons unless its is attached in other manners. Durability: 120/120 Attack: 40-70 Requirement: Shepherd, Samurai, Warrior
Happy with the results I go down to the lowest deck and find the clockwork sitting while watching the animals. Most of them are asleep and only wake up when they need to eat. When he saw me arrive he stood and walked over before kneeling. ¡±First off, stop that, I don¡¯t need you kneeling every time you see me. Now here, this shall be your main weapon, should you wish for ranged weapon search for Victor but you are not to have weapons attached directly to your body as it would begin to limit your speed.¡± I said and held out the large staff. He took it and bowed and thanked me a lot. He then pulled the long sword out and admired it and took a few swings. I nod satisfied and went back upstairs. I looked at the now complete management unit and turn it on before giving it the orders and letting it go. Outside I was on top of Brock''s whale and could already see the gate. And what was amazing was what lay beyond. The gates were all on dense rocks but after 50 meters it all ended and stretching to the far horizon only sand from a massive desert could be seen. ¡°Well, lets see what monsters we attract this time.¡± I said to myself out loud as I checked my scanners and saw the hundreds of dungeon signals all over the place. Unlike East gate, the west gate will probably need immediate player intervention or else it will get hard fast. I can¡¯t wait. Volume 3 Chapter 10 Velodrone It¡¯s been a week already and the estimate for this town to be built is much longer. The main reason is because of the huge amount of dungeons in the area. The first problem we needed to do as soon as we arrived was to kill off the dungeon right in front of the gate. The area was cleared out thankfully but because of that the robot''s had grown rather powerful. The numbers were also quite large so it wasn¡¯t a matter of just walking in. The first dungeon was a dungeon with robot raptor like drones. About the same size as a prehistoric one, a meter tall and 5 meters long. The problem with these was that the structure was made of steel along with all the gears and so forth and they are fast. And I mean scary fast. I dropped down an armed robot once to check their specs out. To say it was carnage was an understatement. They attack just like the velociraptor would, by ramming its body or using its claws. It took two of them to destroy the robot without much trouble. Since we couldn¡¯t land I decided to throw downs some drones which survive the fall so I could scan them. Obviously the raptor drones notice them and start to eat them up but not before I could do a basic scan of them.
NameMK1 Velodrone
Level150
Durability:2300/2300
I frown at this, the level is high and from what I can guess there these are simple drones. I was able to hide a few of my own drones and they were still watching. Like I had guessed some time later small chicken sized raptor of a similar model appeared. The difference was they they were quadrupeds and the tail worked like a crane to grab and carry stuff. [/tds]MK1 Kimo Collector[/tds]
Name
Level80
Health500
Even the collectors were quite high leveled to the point that they would take down many of the current leveled players which meant I won¡¯t be getting any help from them any time soon. Considering that, I felt that I would need to built really strong units for this. Just before I could think of trying I heard a set of unknown heavy foot steps. When I looked I saw a robot as big as Bulk but the normal brownish steel plate that signified the earth steel was much stronger here being almost dirt brown. The robot had a large chest area, no apparent head with arms and legs which with a basic scan already pointed out several guns hidden within. On the upper chest was a small round glass window and around it was a bulging area which sudden released air with a ¡°PSHHH¡± and opened up. What appeared was the all too familiar dwarf. ¡°Yo, so...mind if I take my new bot for a spin. This is a real combat model.¡± He said grinning. I looked over the robot and sighed. ¡°Don¡¯t...end up...like emperor...pilaf.¡± I said joking. Any player would understand which is why bulk who was sitting nearby began laughing hysterically. ¡°Oi, oi midget, you''re going to die just and get crushed just like that other blue midget from Dragon Ball.¡± bulk insulted the dwarf who simply scowled at him. Yep, the suit of armor has a very distinct resemblance to the the original dragon ball mechs built by pilaf. If the robot wasn¡¯t so well armed which would seriously put that blue midget to shame I would be laughing as well. Well I can¡¯t complain much, Victor did help us fight the fishman and gained a number of levels from the time we spent fighting off the monsters To tell the truth, everyone in my crew leveled up a lot. For me with Asura always fighting I reached level 86 before we were finished. Nova reached level 89, Bulk went to 84 because he spent a few days off for tests in college, Brock is level 92 because he uses a lot of AoE spells and because he did several missions for land remodelling outside of the landscape which gave a large boost. The two will o wisps are level 87, Greer reached level 72 and Annabeth reached 70, they were constantly fighting so it was obvious it would lead to that. and lastly Victor reached level 80 because he was mining for the most part but because of it he got his hands on high quality ore and made a combat suit that would put him on par with a level 100. Considering how our stats inflate a lot then if I compare him to me who is 6 levels ahead, when he let me see I would say that it would be equal to someone 2 levels ahead of me. Looking at him and Bulk bicker I simply sighed and scanned the plate because the coloration looked strange.
Refined Earth Steel
The cores used core technology to refine the regular earth elemental core to a greater quality and as a result the steel made from the same amount of grinded core is that its is 3 times stronger than normal Earth Steel.
I knew that if I had veins it would be appearing on my forehead but what I did have was pipes and steam that was blowing full force in my rage. At the sudden whispling of my pipes the others rushed over and Brock sprouted out of the ground. ¡°Hey what happened. What made boss so...ARGHH!!¡± He said before Asura grabbed him by the head and began to pressure his head with tremendous pressure. ¡°Is Victor...getting crystals!¡± I said in an expressionless tone but everyone knew that I was dead serious. ¡°Y-YES!! HE NEEDED TO MAKE HIS ARMOR!!! AAARRRAAHAH!!!¡± he said and I pressed harder for a full minute before letting go and turning to the dwarf. ¡°Remaining crystals and core...to my workshop later!¡± I said and he nodded vigorously. ¡°Nova.¡± I said addressing my little sister who was sitting a bit away watching. She stood up and walked over. ¡°Get Strato up here.¡± I said in a warm tone towards her and she ran off. ¡°Bulk, Victor, you both fight.¡± I said simply and the two knew they would be scapegoats for now. I have a robot bring up a large bomb similar to those we used to take out the pirates and wait. The two who would fight head down below to jump out of the whale¡¯s mouth which was open. We were floating about 50 meters above the clearing. Soon Nova flew out of the whale¡¯s mouth on Strato and circled around the whale before stopping and hovering in front of me. I told her to go up a bit and installed it into the bottom of Strato. ¡°Nova, did you get a new message?¡± I asked her speaking clearly unlike how I do towards everyone else which made them narrow their eyes. ¡°Yep, it says, release missile, activate booster and activate missile? What does that mean?¡± she asked. ¡°Look, when you go to release the new toy you press the buttons in the order you just said ok.¡± I said making sure she was listening. ¡°OKAY~~!!¡± She said and played around by saluting. I nod and have her go. As soon as she was out of earshot I felt the stares of my crew. ¡°So~~~, missiles huh?¡± Victor said obviously annoyed at being left out. ¡°To strong...suicide to use.¡± I said with a black expression. ¡°And why do you speak so clearly with Nova and only in broken phrases with us.¡± Bulk said with a bit of anger and annoyance in his voice. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°Sister.¡± Simple and to the point. They all sighed. ¡°Loli Siscon¡± Bulk said but the next moment he was being held by my almost over the edge of the whale. ¡°I¡¯M SORRY I''M SORRY I DIDN¡¯T MEAN IT!!! I CAN DIE FROM FALLING WRONG PLEASE NO!!!¡± He started to shout. The scare tactic I use on Bulk has been rather varied recently. From being tied to Brock¡¯s tail to this, or threatening to feed him to sky sharks or simply a good beating. When he seem to momentarily learn not to call me that I tossed him back onto the whale. "Go down...get ready...when missile blows...jump...3 robot knights...backup." I said and looked down again. My scanner could only pinpoint my drones location and show the outlines of the enemy drones. I wasn''t showing it but in my head I was nearly drooling to get my hands on those drones. Talk about strong scout unit, not only that, it doesn''t have that much of an overly machine look. Instead, it looked like a clockwork animal like my own but I had scanned it and I would have picked it up if it had it. That said, converting that drone into an animal too early would be bad since they are carnivores. I was glad when the wolves only ate up scrap and some vegetation but it was always close by when we were out fighting the fish monsters. It''s a good thing contaminated meat does not affect them. It''s a good way to rid ourselves of spoiled meat in a way we don''t lose materials. Back to the starting battle. Brock took his whale down to 15 meters and put it on the other side of the gate with the mouth facing towards the scrap yard. Nova was flying around and when we signalled for her to start she flew once more around the area and turned to look straight towards the cave the dinobots were living in. The cave itself was 100 meters away so as soon as she passed the whale and she tipped Strato to aim she released and activated the missile and boosters before turning Starto straight up and flying to safety. The feeling us player get by watching that is a small air force fighter jet doing a risky maneuver. Though I say that, I knew full well she was capable of it. Nova likes to play a lot of Strato and it got to the point early on that she made a skill for it. At this moment she is basic 8 in flying skill. It looks like this.
Small Craft PilotBasic 8
The skill for those who venture the skies on small crafts. This skill improves you handling of a ship smaller than 2 meters long and makes understanding basic maneuvers and slightly advanced one, easier. +15% better control of small crafts you are riding. +10% better understanding of airborne maneuvers.
Yep, this skill was original to Nova but since trading Strato''s plan''s for Rust''s codes I bet at least one or two others might have appeared. Unless the rider is some army soldier from the air force, I doubt anyone but other children will be able to outclass Nova who has had a huge lead over them. Then again, the skill rises when you try new things but since she is a child all I need to do is find a video with new types of tricks and have her try it. Anyway, it is really impressive seeing the maneuver. When the booster in the back came to life the rock launched much faster than Strato''s actual speed and flew in a straight line right into the mouth of the cave blowing up with a resounding BOOM! The explosives were made from grinded refined fire core crystals and black powder mixed together. The booster took a bit before I completed it because I needed to learn how to make it and it''s still needs improving since I could only make a really shity one that could launch but could also fail to do so as well. The fuel is obviously diesel fuel we use. As you can tell, not the best rocket fuel and I had to make a way for it to stay in a near liquid state for it to work instead of an oily state it normally is in. The fuel is thrust really fast by a piston in the back pushing the heated oil liquid out pressurized before it is ignited. It lasted only a quarter of the way before the fuel ran out but it gave enough thrust to increase the speed sufficiently since it already had a bit of Strato''s speed. As for the drones they were badly damaged and those to close were launched far away with broken legs or other parts crushed by the shockwave or explosion. Those a bit further survived and soon were getting up. It was then that Victor, Bulk and three Robot Knights jumped down with weapons armed. Victors suit had two four barrel miniguns in the knuckles and a hand cannon inside the hand. (think franky from One piece.) From his back he could raise two smaller miniguns as well. If something got to close he had armed himself with a pressure fist which had the glass balls behind the cannon while the piston to push out the hand was below and on the sides of the arm around the cannon. The top part of the hand was occupied so there was none there. As for Bulk, he just ran throw the drones that survived or shot with the miniguns on his back. When he stopped he pulls out the war hammer and began to swing around. Just to make it clear, I took one of the few lightning core crystals and inserted inside the hammer after making a hollow space for it. The thing discharges when it receives a spare so I also added a welder attached to it and a really small battery to cause the spark which is activated after receiving the first impact. After the first hit, the steel hammer and metal bar used to hold it which is isolated with a rubber hose I found, was clad in sparks and as soon as it hits a robot the electric surge invades and toasts several parts and in some cases the brain itself. In all, the twenty drone guards were reduced to scrap and quickly I jumped down and picked up the more intact ones. Several dents and broken parts were on all of them but there was enough robots to scan and get a proper blueprint from and dismantle all of them to make a similar robot drone. If we fought without ambushing them, we would probably have lost. We grab the bodies and return to Brock quickly just as a hoard pours out of the cave. That said, we were safe from them because they don''t have such a powerful suspension system that would allow them to jump so high up unless they jumped off a cliff. Still, the number was rather nauseating. From a rough estimate I got from the scanner, at least 120 rushed out before stopping since we had retreated. I could already tell this would take a long time. So for the settlers, we planned on building on the outside part of the wall for this one. We have plenty of mage that can use earth magic so expanding the rocky space we had wouldn''t be a problem and the Undine can probably find locations where water rose close to the surface so we could build a few oasis around here. We just had to be careful for possible monster attacks. With plans for the first month being, destroy robot dino dungeon and expand the rock area and make a city wall, we let down the settles for that purpose and get right to it by sending Nova to do Geo Scans all over the area inside and out of the scrapyard. Volume 3 Chapter 11 The rogue class Branch It''s week three already of month one since we arrived here. This last week has been rough to say the least. Well rough per say. The Undines were able to find water but the problem is that it''s very far down and that is the closest. But far down is vague I know, the estimated distance is 50 meters. Seems close but it''s really hard to get to. Well we had enough water to last use about two weeks with all the clockwork working normally but because of the heat we are heating up to much. So this was another flaw of the clockwork race I didn''t notice. The ones here will need to be equipped with a cooling system. Thank god the robots we killed have a primitive model for just that. So...thank you Ariel. As much as I wanted to get the drones working I needed the workers more so the few drones we got I dismantled and learned how it worked. I used a separate tank holding water from the one used to power the engine. Pipes were thin copper pipes 5 mm wide and worked its way around the body passing through several areas near the inner hind legs which had a hidden fan which acted like a radiator. The pipes would make lots of twists in this area so calling it radiators was correct. The last part was a small pump made to simply pushed the water and remove air from the pipes as it passes. Seeing the structure I was sure it would take remodeling or even the need for us to make our own pipes. The amount here were made for each body part of the robots specifically so making it in another robot would take more than one raptor. With only twenty broken raptors we would need two for each worker and four for anything similar in size to a knight. Damn it, this is a seriously bad weakness which I didn''t think of because the south and east gate were in mountain zones which were cooler than our bodies so our bodies naturally cooled. Here it''s hell for us and our water boils inside the tank before it even passes through the engine. Because of this fucked up revelation we had to rely on the other races while the clockwork knights as well as my crew planned to raid the dungeon to get more of the robots. Luckily the heat was subdued a bit during the early and late ours because after Brock expanded the rock area near the gate to a radius of 500 meters compacting all the sand into rock he and the golems with us built a tall earth wall. Thus let clockwork to exit the giant whale up to 9 am and as early as 6 pm. Right now Brock was leading the Golems to make an outcrop where the nearest water area is. The outcrop would be a large rock area which went underground and was covered by a large rock. The lake would be made underground where the water will be safe from the heat and would remain cool. Once it was ready it they would make a compressed stone pipe like a well and push it all the way down into the underground water sources. If we are lucky the water will not be contaminated since it''s in the middle of the desert but since it''s close to the scrap yard we aren''t too optimistic. We will most likely need to build a treatment center for the water and then make a second reservoir to hold the clear water which will then be taken care of by the Undine and pumped into the city. Now for the robots we did have. The first thing I did was have Delta create a code for this exact model of drone for a core motherboard. Since I now have mana crystals and empty cores that Victor hadn¡¯t had to the to use. I made ten motherboard and we loaded the codes into them and turned them on. Delta watched each of them for a day and quickly singled out four of them that deciphered the code quickly. Delta then began to rapidly work with the growing codes making sure that they all possessed the cooling system we knew and saw how it started to evolve with the code. While this was done I took the twenty robots we had and upgraded Bulk, My two bodies, and two knights that came from South gate. This was to allow us to walk around during the day and hunt the guarding raptors. Now for how we keep watch. It is simple, the walls of the scrap yard near the gates all have doors, the inside is similar to castle walls which have floors and such. For us, it was annoying when we found both sides filled to the brim with trash so clean up ent underway and the broken clockwork were scavenged and melted into usable materials. What was nice though was a new model of clockwork we found that had some very interesting pieces of gear. [/Table ] Yep, definitely a treasure unit. We found only this one under a pile near the stairs heading up to the next floor. It was transported to my workshop. Any knight uniques discovered is left in a storage room in Brock''s whale while awaiting new parts. Anyway, after this one we continued to clean up until we had a path to the top of the wall and could overlook the clearing with the robots. During the week, as cruel as it sounds we have made something of a sport from shooting the robots. The target was to blow the head only to minimize the damage and but to shoot them down as fast as possible and gather them before the swarm arrives. It''s good training for snipers that is for sure and Nova had fun doing this. Bulk is our main puller for transport because we built him a cart which would pass the widened gates we made where the previous door was. The knights go out and crush them before rapidly loading the bodies and run back just as the swarm leaves. An extremist, those who do random extreme sports, would call us crazy but it was fun. I join in as both sniper and carrier. I noticed that spear throwing was a good weapon for Yasha as it limits the body if you miss the vital organ. Since I can fire of two at once I just need training. I even had to modify my targeting system just for this but the results were satisfaction after a few days of doing this. [Table]
Clockwork (Assassin Unit)
An infiltration unit as used for silent killing and spying. This broken unit normally runs with a stealth unit and is made with a unique construction. It is a high maintenance class due to the fact that it uses only small well oiled and only brand new pieces to ensure it doesn''t make noise during its missions. Weapon wise it is also unique. Its model look is similar to a worker and most would mistake it for one because scans would not reveal weapons but the reason is its unique construction. The hands are built in by many smaller then normal pieces not to make the hands dexterous but because it is the weapons. The hands reform themselves into either a sword or a small hand rifle.
Spear ThrowingBasic Level 1
The power to aim and throw a spear like the first hunters. A true hunter doesn''t care what type of spear he uses but as long as there is prey your spears will fly towards them. +3% Accuracy when throwing a spear. +4% Power behind the spear. Chances rise to hit a vital location.
I just need to train now. Still each batch of guards are around twenty drones and we hunt them every 4 hours when new ones appear in the same number. We started on the sixth day and with three rotations during the day, at 6 am, noon and 4 pm, we gathered about 120 robots in these two days. About 30 were too destroyed to use because they are result of those the knights killed so 90 ad enough to scavenge to make cooling systems. It isn''t easy for sure, these robots plating is tough. The first time we hunted them on the wall, the snipers couldn''t penetrate but after some adjustments to the snipers it could barely penetrate but the impact power grew more so ripping the head of or breaking it off was easier. Though I would love for the snipers to be one shotting them, it isn''t so good like that. The plates are really reinforced and the skeleton is just as good. At best the first shot would tip them off balance and they would die from three or four shots to the neck or head which is near their tolerance. Most of the snipers employed spinning iron stakes so t does penetrate its just that this monster class steel is stronger than normal one probably die to the fact that it''s made in payers of up to 7 times being folded over itself. I could only calm myself because golems only exist with the clockwork. Truthfully we are only missing the wind elemental, the Sylph. As you can probably tell, they are beings made of air so it''s not like we can see them. I looked around the forum and put a post called "the Wind elemental Sylph, anyone know where to find them." My answer "Sylph players or NPC, if its NPC then you''re in for a rough life trying to find them." "Yeah, like he said, all Sylph players appeared either in windy badlands that were once grasslands or in the desert." I smiled after seeing that reply. If I was lucky they would be attracted by Brocks whale body. Well, not being able to do anything about the elementals i focus mostly on my work at this moment. My part was designing all the cooling systems for the knights who i had to equip quick so we could do large scale raids as well as repairing a number of broken knights we had stored. To say my control of robot''s was top notch isn¡¯t an understatement. Besides the Queen transmitter i got when i from the first dungeon i have built an array similar to her own which is why i can control such a huge number of robot''s. I would say that my control ability is nearly on par with the dungeon bosses. On the start of the final week of the first month here, four transport ships arrived from South gate city. The ships had various essentials we were in need of. As ironic as it sounds especially being right next to this scrapyard, we were low on metal. As you can guess, with a certain dungeon right at the gate we can exactly go in and grab a huge amount. What we could get were some scraps from inside the walls which are still being cleared so we can build a dock for ships to unload better. The shipment also brought with it two mechanic clockwork which was a good help. Problem was that one was actually a hardy bastard that didn¡¯t want to take orders. Put simply, he was an asshole player who volunteered to get a free ride to a high leveled zone. Since he didn¡¯t want to work i warned everyone through a quick message and everyone quickly got his face marked. As for the other one, he was an NPC picked out by Gaia herself to come help out. So, i had her, yep a girl, go work on some of the current broken knights. I also passed her how the cooling systems were built and to leave coding to me. In one of the boats were parts for robot''s to upgrade as well as parts for smithes. Once again, most things are usually built with the stuff we find around here but obviously we don¡¯t have enough. Gaia took the chance to escape and came with Rust taking care of the rest but that was for a specific reason since i asked her, through Delta, to come. I brought her into my workshop and showed her our little treasure we found. ¡°Oh my! This...where did you find him?¡± She asked gasping. ¡±Inside the scrapyard walls just before reaching the stairs between floor 1 and 2. The arm was broken but because it''s different we could find it rather easily.¡± I replied and pulled out the arm that was behind him. She took it and scanned it and did everything i would do to check the condition of a robot. ¡°Can you get him online at least?¡± She asked before looking at me. ¡±Brain was mostly undamaged, just aged, most damage was rusting and the broken arm. I am interested in taking him apart to study that engine though.¡± I said without holding back. I really was, to get my hands on an electric engine, it would be great in this place where overheating was a serious problem. ¡°The engine seems old but it looks like it will run. Mind jumpstarting him, he needs a charge to start up unlike regular clockwork.¡± [/i] Gaia said. I shrugged and nodded. She looked around the back before lifting a small rusted lid on his back on the same height that the engine would be. The plug was similar to the tanks. It was made to be jumpstarted by a welding tool. I pull mine out and stick it in and send a small pulse which run its course and reaches the engine which at once starts up making a lot of noise. ¡°Damn, that thing is old. Get some oil there is a small opening to add it in.¡± Gaia ordered which pissed me off a bit but quickly pulling out a can of diesel which she poured into the opening in the engine. Slowly the noisy rattling and screeches of rusted metal softened. Another can was emptied into the tank that would take oil around the body which was another thing that was creaking like crazy. When it was done we simply waiting for the batteries to charge and after 10 minutes the eyes finally turned one but kept blinking which meant there was damage to the eyes or at least the lights that made them up. ¡°Where...am...I¡± A rough voice came from the rusted voice box. ¡°Greetings Venus, long time no see.¡± Gaia said with a tone that showed she knew the individual. The head of the clockwork rose slowly while creaking and looked up at Gaia. ¡°G...1...A...1? Pro...to...type...model...one?¡± He said slowly or was it a she. ¡°Seems the voice box is trashed, but i guess the lack of power is also taking its toll. Techno you have any spare voice boxes?¡± she asked. ¡±Storeage room, enter the room, turn left on the second book shelf from the door, third row the bottom.¡± i replied and pointed to the door. ¡°Ok, can you remove his voice box I¡¯ll grab a better one.¡± She said. I did as she asked since i was curious about the assassin. He couldn¡¯t resist when i pushed his head back making his body tilt back. Lifting his head willingly and i unbolted the rusted plates around his neck and removed the voice box. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Gaia handed me the new one and i stuck it in. All the parts i have are repaired and tested so i know these will work perfectly and not shutter. Like any other voice box, they adjust to each code and send out a specific type of voice. Like my own voice is the same one i have in real life and if i switch my voice box for Gaia¡¯s it i will continue being the same voice. It didn¡¯t take me more than five minutes to remove, disconnect the old one and install the new one and bolt it into place and reattach the neck plate. ¡±Done¡± I said getting up and letting my weight drop into my seat i use to make small parts in my spare time or when i need an important part. ¡°Ah~~! Hello, test *cough* thank you mechanic.¡± A deep voice came from the robot''s rusty moving jaws. So his mouth was multi sectioned like my own and Nova¡¯s so he could make expressions. ¡°So Venus, how in Delta¡¯s name did you get stuck inside the walls of this shit hole?¡± Gaia said cutting into his voice tests. ¡°Hump, the same pompous little brat i see.¡± He said. ¡±You don¡¯t know the half of it¡± I said to both which made a laugh come from him. ¡±Your older then her?¡±[i] I asked curiously. ¡°Yes, i was built around 6 years before G1A1 was first built as a worker model. She quickly grew through the ranks as a swordswoman which gave her the opportunity to be the prototype model for the synthoid race.¡± He explained. ¡°Stop calling me by that code name, it''s annoying. Call me Gaia already.¡± She said obviously annoyed. ¡°Ok, or should i call you by your old name?¡± He said with a grin but sudden flash and Gaia appearing face to face instantly shut him up. ¡°I would prefer not to. You are currently in a scraped state so don¡¯t push it.¡± She said making Venus nod as fast as his rusty body would allow. ¡°So start talking, how did you get stuck inside the walls and not thrown in the middle of the junkyard?¡± Gaia said. ¡°I was online when i was brought here by the humans. They used a wide range EMP which took down many of the ships but since they weren¡¯t ready it took many of their ships as well. I had a back up start up so when i was nearing this area i turned on and could begin trying to escape but once i entered the walls to find a way up the wall a wave of our brethren fell through and caught me by surprise. My arm, as you can see, broke off and soon my systems shut off since i couldn¡¯t move and a leaking battery which i must thank you for replacing.¡± He said. ¡°So? How long was i out?¡± He asked. ¡°One thousand years have passed.¡± She said in a deadpan tone. A silence overtook the room before he started to laugh. ¡°No seriously how long?¡± He said through his laughter. ¡°one thousand or i guess now, one thousand years and nine months.¡± She said again in a deadpan tone. This time the assassin began to shake. ¡°So...what happened to the war?¡± He asked with a shaky voice. ¡°No one won, everyone lost. The war brought ruin to our world. But like the prophets say, the Awakened showed up and have been helping restore our world. The one over there is the best one in our nation.¡± She said while doing pointing towards me with her thumb pointed backwards over her shoulder. I was really sure that if he was human, he would be sweating buckets and would be near tears. I was kind of worried about the humans when he sees them. [i]¡±Gaia, I¡¯m worried this idiot will do something stupid to the humans. Unlike many of the workers we revive he still has memories intact.¡±[i] I told only Gaia. [i]¡±Yeah, i have the same feelings as you. He was one of the big figures of the war since he could get in deep without being noticed and killed the heads. He saw many friends die to humans so i am really worried.¡± She said to me. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me in regards to humans...I...kind of guessed...the relationship would change.¡± He said which surprised me but Gaia just sighed. ¡°Don¡¯t go hacking the conversation of others ok. I¡¯m going to leave next week. By then i will see to repairing you to at least working conditions. When we get back to south gate city we can put you up to 50% once we get there.¡± She said. He looked up and tilted his head. ¡°Only 50?¡± He said in a confused tone. ¡°What? Did you think we had stealth tech, also your weapons are rusted to uselessness. It will be studied by this fool behind me so he can rebuild it and maybe even upgrade it.¡± she said mocking me. ¡±Don¡¯t call me a fool when you are worse, QUEEN Gaia, the ¡°grand¡± ruler who runs from work when she gets a chance.¡± I replied in an even more sarcastic tone. Suddenly laughter came from the assassin. ¡°Him? UPGRADE my tech!! AHAHAHA! I HAD THE BEST MECHANICS DEVELOP THAT STUFF DURING OUR TIME!!¡± He shouted. I thoroughly pissed me off. Because of it i stood up and took the air. I had some scans to learn how it was done since the identify showed these facts. It was some marvelous tech for sure and it fit all too perfectly with the ball turrets that Nova created but what was better is that with this tech i could finally piece together how i could get small drones to interlock together. All the pieces in his hand were loved too electric hinges which used electromagnets to repel and attract. It had the hand, sword and gun configuration which, after attaching to my own system i could activate myself. The two simply watched and with the sudden movement of drones i began to bring out the tool drones which held many parts i needed. Very rapidly the robot''s began to build five small drones which had many small scale like plates and many parts to it. They all ran on a small batteries used for clocks with the clockwork gears recharging with mechanical energy being converted back to electricity. It was completed in 20 minutes and they quickly started working. I then numbered each and put them in a line and they all walked forward until they were all touching. Finally i activated their connection sequence and it began. One by one they connected with the scale like plates moving out being held by two small hinges while the wires and other parts spread out and attached to the next one in line. When they all finished the plates came in and covered the outside making a scaled dagger just right for an assassin class.
Scaled Five layer Dagger
A dagger made by five connection drones made to link up and turned into a dagger which had many saw like scale plates meant to do extra damage when passing through living creatures. This dagger sports a 50 cm long blade with a fine edge made by five long pieces of connected steel plates placed just right to make the sharp edge and behind protective scales that will cause excruciating pain as it saws its way through the body leavy a far from clean cut. Durability: 100/100 Attack: 30-50 Effects: To living creatures can cause massive bleeding effect Requirement job: Rogue, Scout
I confirm the stats and fling it right in between his legs and it stuck onto the ground with the point stuck in the wood floor. Gaia crouched and looked at it without much surprise since she knew i had mechanical ingenuity. The assassin on the other hand, was completely blown away. His hands didn¡¯t work but the scanner he had was on full blast trying to gather as much information as that half destroyed piece of junk could. ¡°This...is...impossible. HOW DID YOU FIGURE OUT THAT TECHNOLOGY SO QUICKLY!!!¡± He shouted. ¡±It¡¯s much simply then it looks. The hand has three preset configurations, Hand, Dagger, Gun. All the pieces needed is in the hand and from the elbow down. To change shape the outer plates are made into small sections which can reconfigure themselves by using the predetermined shape. Lastly the plates are all attached to thin hinges like a door which allow it to take a different position if the configuration allows it. That weapon has two forms, the five drones or the dagger.¡± I finished saying and sat down. It really wasn¡¯t AS hard as he implies. That said, if i wasn¡¯t doing extensive studies on mechanics i might have missed it as well. It¡¯s not amateur level stuff but it''s not some master level tech either. If i had to say it straight, Nova¡¯s turret¡¯s brought me more trouble to improve then this. Well, after that he showed me a lot more respect unlike before when he saw me as some newbie. [I]"So it''s only a week you are sticking around?"[i] I asked Gaia. "Yes, I got that much time off since there aren''t many meetings and work seems to be running smoothly. Also since you asked to come Rust organised everything to open up a two week space for me." She replied. I nod and search through my bank of blueprints and pull up the management unit and send a request to upload it to her. "What''s this?" She asked the the notification appeared. [I]"Management Unit blueprints" i replied and her eyes shined brightly and in no less than a second the button was pressed and it began downloaded. Don''t blame her, to get a proper class to do management wasn''t something to pass up. Also i wouldn''t benefit keeping the plans to myself because this unit is best used in governing so it''s best to give to those who can use it best since the towns will develop better with a proper unit leading it. Still, when she saw it she frowned a bit. "This looks like a pompous noblemen." Was what she said when she saw it. "Outer look is less important but it''s not a management unit if it is armed to the teeth. Most important part is this." I replied and guided her view to the brain. The body vanished and only the brain was left which show a rather complex setup of processors that has at least twice as many as any other model. "Woah" she said in a surprised tone. "Yeah i get it. I think upgrading Rusts processors should be easy. He will probably not like having the rifles removed but he has his shotguns which don''t register as part of his body and should work similar to the cane." She said and closed the plans. "Now, how long would it take to repair his body?" She asked pointing at the assassin. "With all the gear?" I asked. Gaia nods and i look at the assassin on the ground. Taking into account how his body was built i won''t even need to build much. I pulled out something i had built during the Beta testing. In front of me was my attempt to build a body like Gaia''s. It was made to be a synthoid but if i change a few things i can transform it into an assassin class body because they are extremely similar. "One maybe two weeks. I will be researching all his gear including the stealth tech and at best i can put his engine in within the week but i doubt the stealth will be done any sooner. If you would like, we can stick him into one of my worker class robots until i refit this to be his new body." i said. "And what¡¯s in it for you?" Venus finally asked. "I will be learning how to make an assassin class robot as well as stealth tech and electric motors, in this hot hell hole we are in the electric motor will be essential to both keep us from overheating as well as being developed into a generator that moves on its own energy and even produces more. That is enough for me." i replied in a deadpan tone to which he nods a bit. "Alright, I''m fine with that. Can you at least change that body to something more rust resistant?" He asked. I looked at him before nodding. With that we sealed the deal and shut him off before putting him into one of my steel body workers. It wasn''t anything close to what he had but he didn''t complain. It was more then obvious that he should still be thanking me more for not just throwing away his motherboard. He leaves and goes stay with Gaia on her ship during the day and comes out to help construction during the early and late hours. The rest of the week i spent my time personally examining the engine while i set the robots to make the body out of earth steel. i left the arm for last since i needed to build that by hand to get the shifting tech just right so that it maintained the hand, gun and sword forms. The last thing made was the engine which was very tiresome. It was much more complex than it looked for sure. I took a whole day just to scan it inside and out and then work out the order it is built in. Then came building it. Eventually i accomplished it though so it was all right. On the day before they would leave the came and we put him in the new body to which he tested his systems. "Not bad, the structure of the gears is weaker than my original but this is much better than was promised. Hmm, the status if this body equal about 60% my status." He said which started me greatly. I quickly turn to his body and lift it and attach it to one of my stands and remove his chest plate. I then examined scanning the body greatly. Rapidly the structure of the gears began to appear in the plans of the body and once it was done it all changed the stats of the body to steel which is what was used before. As soon as i saw the stats of the body i could only laugh dryly. This man is as much a monster as Gaia is. The stats of this body is four times stronger than Asura''s current stats. That means the body i made to be a synthoid is also just as crazy. I''m seriously loving this class already. When i get the stealth tech up i will send one to him and then make some for my own robots who will start and assault on the dungeon using them. Things are looking up really nicely. On the last day i look into the stealth but since it was almost time to logout i simply set my robots to guard the place and logged off. Volume 3 Chapter 12 What you will read is more of a joke chapter but the conversation was real. It was very VERY real ppl. We of the den have a real life Dense character as you shall see. Anyway like i said this is a joke chapter and i will release a second chapter soon after.
During my days off I took the time to check something I haven''t really cared about much. The world ranking as well as the in-game nation ranking. The rankings were varied and the simplest was level rank. This is for only those who submit it, of course, but since I am monitored 24/7 my info is always updated. Anyway, the ranking for the players that have submitted their info in the Clockwork nation goes like this for the top ten:
Clockwork Nation Level ranking
1Herrier Jones (106)
2Borus Jones (105)
3Techno Gear (95)
4Nova Gear (94)
5Brock Stone (92)
6Grim Shade (91)
7Volcanus Raze (90)
8Bulk Steel (90)
9Victor Belkin (89)
10Blaze Brisingr (88)
Unsurprisingly, there were people in front of me. What was surprising was that I passed Nova in levels. Well, kind of surprising, I guess two bodies fighting would bring in more than one especially when your sister is only playing around. I was happy though. Seeing more than half your crew on the top ten is a good accomplishment if I do say so myself. Not that it mattered. Levels are just a number that showed how many monsters you killed. Taking gear into account is a huge part of actual strength and this ranking only shows the level rank. When I checked the stats ranking I found I wasn''t on it, but I guess it was obvious. Showing the level is one thing, showing your stats is another. Still, while I look I did see Bulk''s name in 8th and Victor just under him. I spent nearly five minutes looking at the PC screen before I pressed the "rank stats and skills" button. I was a bit happy because it would rank it but not show it publicly. After about a minute my rank showed up. Number 2. Yep, I was more than shocked to know I was so far up, but after some thought I figure it was because I have two bodies and if I was fighting with both of them nearby I would never be caught off guard. Not to mention my combat capabilities and the weapons I have installed. The only stronger one was the Clockwork nation''s top leveler, and a further check showed it''s only by 0.5 on the score we both got. I think it would be fun to fight this guy. I then go and check the world ranking for level. World wide, I am in 20th place and just behind me on the same level was someone named Jeopardy. The Harrier was rank 10 due to the level. In stats ranking I graded myself and got 10th place, with Harrier in 9th like expected since our margin was very close. I got curious about the person just behind me so I searched but the name wasn''t there, so either she didn''t want it shown publicly or she might not have posted yet. No skin off my back. The last ranking I checked was military strength and, unsurprisingly, I was ranked one. This one seems to take all registered captains and measures the items owned and political influence as well as our actual fire power. If there is one thing I know, it''s that I would be ranked one in this. Come on, I''m one of the people who did pretty much all the work to set up the Clockwork nation and revived the current ruler. If my political strength in our nation wasn¡¯t strong to the point of being a big figure in the nation¡¯s history it would really be weird, as if it was covered up. I shut off the PC and grab a new book I recently bought. The recent completion of East Gate City has brought me a lot of money, and discovering another class while making one as well did something similar. I have invited the others several times, though day 1 is for my parents and day 2 is for the GMs who come to continue tutoring Sasha. The rest of days I would normally see at least one or two of my crew. It''s really convenient to gather in a VR town since we are spread out around the world, so we can''t actually gather besides in the game. With new books I enjoy my time while Sasha catches up on this week''s new anime episodes she missed. It has become like this for a few weeks, or I guess months now. This is similar to before ¡°it¡± ruined my life. We just enjoy what we wanted to while still properly studying or doing random stuff. On the fourth day I invited my crew, not the GMs, though, since they want to maintain NPC relations and because the bug was fixed so I could only invite them when the others aren''t here. The others came over like normal, I''ve invited them a few times so they were getting used to it. Bulk is normally the first to appear. His real world name is Lucas Lauwers, 19 years old. He had a good bit of muscle which he says is from the 5% feedback that has been approved for public use, so he trains in the VR space. His looks, though, are below average, and he''s from an Asian country. Victor was an Irishman and a body builder. Bright orange hair and brown eyes, he has a huge build and if you dress him right he looks like a Viking. He is 34 years old. His name was Mathieu Scout in real life. Brock is an American from the USA, half African-American so his skin tone is lighter brown than regular African-Americans in the USA. He has normal height and not a bodybuilder. His name in real life is James Rock and he says his race came from following his last name. He is 20. Ena is called Yulin Mizuki and, like her name suggests, she is of Asian descent, who lives and goes to school with James. She has a slim figure and the characteristic Asian eyes and long, silky black hair which she keeps in a single ponytail. She is also 20. Blaze is the last one. His name is Calvin Lane, he is 19 and turns 20 in a month which will be September. He is a white American, so likely a descendant of the British. Brown hair, bright brown eyes, about 170cm tall and not too muscular or skinny. The reason I invite them is mainly because it gets boring. The GMs appear and spend time with Sasha after our parents leave, which lets me study as well, but they only spend a day here. We spend the rest of the days indoors most of the time, so we end up inviting the others. Most of them were surprised to see Sasha as a tiny 8 year old. Only Lucas saw her initially so he knew her as a child, after all. Everyone sitting down and chatting, I bring some food and chips while we put on the tv to watch something. Mostly it''s a movie while we talk or a missed news report about Etheria. The talks we have range from what interests you the most in real life to the same question but in Etheria. For me is obviously tinkering. Lucas likes to work out and fight, Mathieu likes smithing and is planning several different battle suits and mining ones as well. James has an interest in magic in the game while computer programming in the real world. Yulin is similar but hers is more hardware than soft. In the game she simply likes flying in a bird shape which is why she suggests Will-o-Wisp since they can change shape. And Calvin likes to take both and combine it to make the complex circuits and machines. Good to know since I can make use of all three later on. It wasn''t until Lucas asked a certain question that things got complicated. "So...What''s the name of the person you guys hate the most?" He asked. "For me it was two "friends" who abandoned me when we hung out once. Names are Kanin and Gavin." He said. Everyone made a bit of a wary smile to this question. I put a scowl on my face though. What do you expect? "Hmm, mine would be my ex. You can probably guess already so no use saying more." Mathieu said and looked away with a slight frown. "For us three it was the same thing. Bullies, about four of them picked on us through middle and high school but that is what made us three such good friends." James replied. The other two nodded as they looked away. I could only sigh and wonder what made Lucas ask something like that. Everyone looked at me who had Sasha sitting cross legged on my lap. "...Bully...named Bianca Castel." I said after a deep sigh. The name still irritates me but the rage I once had towards it has reduced to anger, which the doctor says is a good sign and he says anger towards her will probably never vanish so only dealing with a small bit is better than containing a volcano of rage ready to blow. Even knowing she is in this Virtual Town, I only feel irritated now. I hope eventually I can simply ignore her or forget her. "Castel...where have I heard that name?" I heard Yulin mutter to herself and open an internet screen. "Bianca huh...I know a Bianca, she goes to my high school. She is really pretty." Lucas began. Like I had guessed, he might have wanted to know something about me. "There is a funny story about her and me. Back in high school, we were once partnered up to dissect a frog and I was paired up with her. Halfway through she got really close and made her boobs touch my arm. When I noticed and got so flustered that eventually I ended up fainting. Even until today everyone thinks I fainted because of the frog." Lucas said and instantly everyone started laughing the awkward atmosphere having completely vanished. "That was too damn lucky!" Mathieu said and pounded a right hand on Lucas'' back. ¡°Ouch...Yeah. There was this other airhead moment I got really lucky. We were in PE and she was doing her stretches in front of me and her shirt had a loose collar, and I saw both of them." Lucas said with a grin but unlike before we chuckled a bit while looking at him suspicious. "Ah...don''t you...think that was intentional?" James asked. "No, Impossible.¡± He replied. ¡°Why?¡± Yulin asked. ¡°No idea, just a gut feeling. Like I don¡¯t feel that girl likes me.¡± he replied. ¡°I...am kind of...dense to romance...i know.¡± I began. ¡°But aren¡¯t...you dense...too?¡± I asked.. By now everyone but the innocent Sasha was suspicious of it. "No...maybe... we are just friends. I once did have three other friends who fought over who was my best friend though." He said oblivious. "Bulk...no normal girl...would let that much of a slip-up happen...also...no girls fight over who is your best friend." Yulin said dead serious. "They probably like you." She said what was on everyone''s mind. "Eh?...Seriously?" He said with his mouth hanging a bit down. "Seriously..." James said. "What?" Lucas replied back. "You idiot!! Girls don''t fight to be your "best friend". THEY FUCKING LIKED YOU!" Mathieu shouted. ¡°AHAHAHA!!! THIS IDIOT IS A GENUINE HAREM BUILDER!!¡± Mathieu shouted laughing loudly. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. "Eh?" Lucas simply said looking at us. "Seriously?!" He said again. We nodded towards which leaves him wide eyed. "FUCK!!!" He shouts while leaning back with his hands over his face. I quickly cover Nova¡¯s ears so he wouldn¡¯t hear his cursing. "Moron, how dense can you be?!" James said to him with a frown trying to hide his grin. "IT NOT LIKE THAT!! WE ARE TOTALLY JUST FRIENDS!!" He shouted. We couldn''t hold our laughter and started laughing in his face. "Idiot...girls don''t fight...for that reason." I said laughing. "Gahhhhh~~~!! Shut it!!" He shouted and slumped down. We laughed a good minute before it started to calm down. "Have you laughed enough?¡± He asked, which got nods in reply. "Like I said, we are just friends. There was even another friend I went on a water slide with once, and going down I got so scared I hugged her." He said once again trying to clear this "mis"understanding. Mathieu and Calvin covered their mouths holding their laughter while the rest of us look at Lucas with jaws hanging. "Was it...one of the three girls from before?" Yulin asked. "No, it was a different girl." He said nonchalantly. I simply facepalmed myself as Mathieu and Calvin burst out laughing. James was massaging his forehead and Yulin was just staring at Lucas. "What?" Lucas asked confused. To his question Yulin just sighed and the laughing duo just laughed harder. "Hey dude," James started. "You know she liked you if she doesn''t complain to something like that." James said. Lucas just started blankly at James. "Yeah Lucas...either she would complain or she likes you, so she would like it." Yulin said and lets a deep sigh out. "NO WAY!! THAT''S A LIE!! No no no no no way that is true." He shouted while sweat was forming on his forehead. "He just adds fuel to the fire." I heard Yulin mutter. "So stupid ahahahah!! I wish I could record this!!! Ahaha this is gold!! I can¡¯t believe a real life dense harem maker exists!!" Mathieu shouted through his laughter. ¡°He is...a disgrace of...a man.¡± I say, putting salt on the slowly opening wound. ¡°N-no...no. Seriously, they were just trying to decide who would be my best friend.¡± Lucas said. ¡°May you have the worst of deaths as a man.¡± Mathieu said placing both hands together in a prayer style. ¡°I hope he gets kicked by a horse.¡± James said in a serious deadpan face. ¡°Come on...they wanted me in the friendzone.¡± Lucas said getting a bit white and sweating a lot. ¡°Lucas...a girl...fighting over a guy...is totally NOT...a friendzone.¡± I said to him. ¡­ ¡°Seriously?!¡± He said. We all nodded and I quickly covered Sasha¡¯s ears again. ¡°NNOOOO!!!¡± He shouted and then slumped down on the sofa, as if he was trying to hide inside the sofa. ¡°The three that fought were seat mates. They sat on both sides and behind me.¡± He says. Everyone burst out laughing again. ¡°My youth.¡± Lucas says and gets up and goes to the kitchen. Over our laughter I hear the sink open. Probably either drinking or washing his face, he was away a good bit. When he came back he was sulking, nearly falling on all fours and making the characteristic ¡°orz¡± pose. He let his weight fall on the seat while everyone was calming down. ¡°Come on, Bulk, you''re a legend. You proved the dense anime character is real, and we can only guess how much more you did.¡± Mathieu said laughing a bit more. ¡°I... am hating...you now.¡± I began. Everyone went silent but I could see anticipation on their faces. ¡°You were...in paradise while...I was in Hell!!¡± I said. ¡°And you...didn¡¯t even...know!¡± I finished saying. ¡°We all hate him now, Nathaniel.¡± James said. ¡°You know...one of the guys I hate is a harem guy. Gavin, remember.¡± He said trying to evade the topic. ¡°Hey, this was all in highschool right? The age of house parties, pestering older siblings to buy alcohol and all that, so you at least kissed one of them in spin the bottle, right?¡± Calvin asked. ¡°Surely you didn¡¯t actually get zero out of this?¡± He said. ¡°In highschool, I was the only innocent guy, never drank or cursed, and I''m the oldest sibling.¡± He replied after sitting up. ¡°And I never kissed anyone.¡± He ended up saying. Half of us just stare quietly at him. ¡°So...you had three...girls after you¡­¡± I stopped a moment breathing deeply and calming myself. ¡°AND YOU WASTED IT!!¡± I shouted. It takes everyone back but soon they start laughing again. ¡°You really are digging your own grave, you know that?¡± Yulin said as she held back her laughter. ¡°Seriously, is there a chance that they were only friends?¡± He asked ¡°Hell no!¡± Mathieu said in seconds. ¡°Nope.¡± I said. ¡°Not a chance.¡± James replied. ¡°Only if you were gay.¡± Calvin said. ¡°LIKE HELL I AM!¡± Lucas shouted. He looked depressed now, and it was only getting worse. ¡°Lucas, let me tell you something. The only time there is best friends between a man and woman is when you are married and the woman is your best friend''s wife. Or when you both are in a relationship and you are friends with their boyfriends.¡± Calvin explains. ¡°The three girls were single.¡± He said absentmindedly. ¡°I think this guy wants us to know how retarded he was.¡± James suddenly said. ¡°Is there really no way to be best friends with them?¡± He asked ¡°Nope.¡± We all reply together. ¡°The three girls that fought about who was my best friend. I told them it was annoying that they fought so I told them why not all three be my best friends.¡± He said he said with a sigh. We got tired of laughing and simply sighed. ¡°So that was what initiated the harem, huh.¡± Yulin said. ¡°Seriously!¡± He said. ¡°Come on!¡± He complained. ¡°I think...it¡¯s best...to go through...the list of anime...girls.¡± I said. Everyone looked at me and then nodded. It would save a lot of time so I brought out a notepad. On it we put lots of different types of girls he was ¡°friends¡± with. The first one highlighted was the rich girl, and next to it he wrote. ¡°Wore a princess costume and made me, who was in a farmer costume, go to the cafeteria because she was embarrassed to be alone but was actually bullying me. One of the three that fought to be my best friend.¡± After seeing that we all couldn¡¯t help but understand why anime characters felt so tired around dense characters. The next one he checked was the class rep and typed, ¡°She keeps nagging me because I don¡¯t do homework and says I am the smartest in class but don¡¯t do assignments.¡± He avoided student council president which made us breathe a sigh of relief. What he did check was childhood friend, which made everyone facepalm. What was written next to it made it more than obvious. ¡°Don¡¯t feel anything but my mom teased me as she was my first crush.¡± ¡°This guy really wants to self destruct doesn¡¯t he.¡± Mathieu muttered as Lucas continues to type. ¡°He only has self destruct buttons, Vic.¡± James replied. The next one he checked was transfer student and next to it. ¡°Bianca.¡± That was enough to know, since it was the first girl, but the men couldn¡¯t help but start crying by how unfair the world was being. When it got to sister he skipped over it without looking but I noticed a frown. ¡°No sister?¡± I asked. ¡°She hates me. I accidentally dislocated her arm when I pulled her this one time.¡± He said with a scowl. Probably regrets it a lot. ¡°She totally hates me now. Annoys me all day every day.¡± He says and looks back at the screen. ¡°Hmm, so wouldn¡¯t that put her as a Tsundere sister?¡± Calvin asked. ¡°What do you mean?!¡± He looked up at them. ¡°Well look...at Sasha. She barely...pesters me¡­¡± I tell him. He turns really pale. ¡°Let¡¯s forget this topic.¡± He said scrolling on. Since it seems sensitive we don¡¯t pester him more, since there was probably more to come. He looks at the list from the top and this time he checks student council president which makes everyone complain. What was typed next to it was. ¡°Clumsy with the biggest pair in the bunch, curly hair, JUST FRIENDS!!¡± ¡­ No one could say anything to this. No wonder he avoided her check. With that description it''s no wonder he would avoid it. ¡°I wish I had as many ¡°friends¡± as Lucas. It''s not fair, this cruel, cruel world.¡± Calvin said, no one laughing anymore. Actually, the real expression of everyone but Sasha and Yulin were of mass murderers revealing their killing intent towards Lucas. The next one he punched in was cosplayer. At this point Mathieu was about to punch him in the face. What was typed infuriated everyone but Sasha, who didn¡¯t understand. ¡°Asked me to make a couple cosplay with her. She has a boyfriend.¡± ¡°You guys are cruel. Only Nova is my ally in this.¡± He said finally resorting to running behind my sister. ¡°Bro, what does he mean by that?¡± She asked confused. ¡°Nothing...why not go play in your room?¡± I suggested. She thought a moment and nodded before hopping off Yulin¡¯s lap, which she has been sitting on since Lucas began typing on the list, and ran into her room. ¡°You...are...a...DEMON!!¡± He shouted and falling into the sofa with a dead look in his eyes. He''d filled in plenty so we picked up the list, yep we can touch the blue screens that appear which is how we write on the note pads and such, and checked the contents. Put simply, we now complete hate him for having so many flags raised. ¡°Any more you are forgetting?¡± Calvin asked in an irritated tone. Lucas just sat there while humming until he remembered. ¡°Oh yea, one of the three that wanted to be my best friend, I think she was a tomboy.¡± He said and pulled up a picture, since he seems at least close enough to speak with her still. The girl was a loli, about 165cm, that was most definitely a tomboy or at least a girl that liked men''s style clothes. ¡°I will really kill this guy. NO! Let¡¯s punish him more painfully!¡± Mathieu said. ¡°Let¡¯s stick him in a clockwork egg for a week and use him as a football.¡± He said with a dangerous glint in his eye. Lucas completely paled and instinctively hid behind Yulin who simply sighed and looked at us. Unlike in the game where the elementals listened to me, out here I have less control and this is a moment where it shows. Her gaze was as cold as ice, completely opposite to her normal fire body she had in the game. It literally froze us in place from the sheer intensity. ¡°M-maybe...it would have been better if you were an ice Elemental, Yulin...Your stare fits it better.¡± James said before he started to laugh with Calvin who I can probably guess have felt this many times before and grew resistance. Still, our eyes held a bit of that rage towards Lucas which wasn¡¯t going to simply go away. But for today he was safe. Today.
(this was put during the chat that this annoying conversation was inspired from http://i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/013/005/3mLydMU.png) YES THIS IS ALL TRUE AND IF YOU HAVE SEEN PPL IN ANIME WHO TALK WITH DENSE PPL I WILL CONFIRM THIS. IT IS VERY TIRING TALKING WITH THEM!! Volume 3 chapter 13 Divine Punishment Ok after a good laugh at ImaginexBreaker''s (haremxbreaker)expense lets move on to the real stuff. BTW besides a joke or two that chapter won''t have much affect over the story itself.
The men still look at Lucas in rage but for the rest of the day we let the topic of his¡­ denseness die. For the most part I turn my attention to Etheria again. Because we needed to destroy the raptor dungeon it was time the clockwork underwent upgrades. It was clear that the boss wasn¡¯t short of level 170 or more. I tell everyone about the assassin class and the type of technology i discovered on them. I look through my game video files until i pull up the part where i repair the hand and when i attach it and he shifts the arm to all the weapon types. ¡°That is impressive technology. Did you learn it simply by scanning?¡± Victor asked with a slight frown. ¡°Plans gained...from scans. Natural intuition...and studies...on mechanics.¡± I tell him and show him my ¡°small¡± collection of mechanic and programming books. Both of them frown when they saw the high school and college grade books. ¡°No wonder you can do so much...to...have some many books as well as live 5 times slower while doing the program for the feedback system when you get out you will totally be one of the smartest people in mechanic engineering for sure.¡± James said as he pulled out a book and flipped through it. ¡°Damn, half of these books i never even heard of before! Where the hell did you find them?¡± Mathieu asked looking at the mechanic portion of the books. ¡°VR town...book stores.¡± I say and both of them look at me wide eyed. I get on my PC and look around and pull up the plans for the arms shifting tech. I print them and bring it back to the living room with the two others who were holding books and reading a bit. ¡°These are...schematics for...the arms. I will...begin developing...this as...standard tech...for the...crew.¡± I tell them. ¡°What will you do exactly?¡± Lucas asked. ¡°Each one...is different.¡± I say and point to Lucas. ¡°New...pressure fist...arm guns...arm mace...etc.¡± I say and point to me. ¡°More long...range weapons...new turrets.¡± I then point to Victor. ¡°Stronger and ...more compact...power suit.¡± Each one has their section of upgrades and i knew each of them and was already planning ahead. This shifting tech would be really important for the advancement of the clockwork. ¡°One more...thing we...need to...do.¡± I say drawing the attention of those reading or looking over the plans of the arm. ¡°Gaia has...wind elemental...core. We...need it...to obtain...all four...elementals.¡± I say. ¡°Really, when did she obtain it?¡± Brock asked. ¡°During beta...from elf...queen Lyra...Toross.¡± I tell them. Lucas and the elementals weren¡¯t surprised by the name since we visited her but Mathieu was since he wasn¡¯t there during that time. ¡°You guys met with their queen?!¡± He asked wide eyed. ¡°No, Gaia did and Nate should have gone but he was still...closed up back then.¡± Lucas said. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter who she got it from really, what is important is that we need that.¡± Yulin says. ¡°We also need it to be near his whale so that spirit won¡¯t just run away.¡± Mathieu said. ¡°Problem...Gaia herself. Might want...tech.¡± I say. ¡°Yeah, i get yeah. For us, tech is life and trading it to NPC allow players to eventually access it.¡± Calvin said. We all agreed with what was said. The real problem is what she wanted for it. We would pretty much remove her power for a time and there is a risk of it escaping if things don¡¯t go well. ¡°We should go for it anyway. Gaia isn¡¯t some muscle brain and knows when something is beneficial to her. She clearly knows we hold the highest battle power and I¡¯m sure she would give us the core since we will develop technology from it which she, whom we know and trust best, would eventually gain even a few pieces.¡± James said. ¡°Yeah we should try at least. Let''s get Delta to ask. Maybe she can even wake it herself and tame the elemental or send it our way.¡± Yulin said. With that we all agree on the current course of action. Mathieu shares his own research into his power suits and said he will help me with the armor for the two NPC (gm) we have as well as improving the knights. ¡°We need...tanks.¡± That was the last thing i said and the decision was to request for one of the massive gorilla tanks we knew from the start to come and help us with this. After a while the others left leaving me to my own thoughts. The next day flew by as I occupied my time either playing with Nova or staying on my PC and drawing up plans for Asura¡¯s arms. Like before i wanted to keep each arm with the original function but also add on to it. The grenade launcher only made the hand move out of the way to shoot but now i can shift it the same with all of them. It will take quite a bit of testing with this but as any craftsman trial and error is part of life. I also need to properly implement the drone turrets with that tech, i did a fast build and it was rather crude but if i take my time it would be devastating. The final rest day went by as quick as the others and soon we were back in the game. I found myself inside Yasha and feeling around i find Asura on the ship deck. I get up and stretch as if i was waking up and leave to go check on some stuff. Getting outside I was waiting for myself...yeah well i just left to check on a few things to see how the town grew in the five days i was gone. A number of new residential buildings were built near the wall with one main avenue going from the scrapyard gate all the way to the door of Brock¡¯s stone wall. On this street were stores and such popping up. Golems were walking around passing several times compacting the ground to work in the place of asphalt for now. It is made into nearly 10 layers of compacted dirt so it can handle the weight of many structures as the foundation as well. As i just walk around i suddenly hear Nova¡¯s cry coming from the sky. I look up and see her jump off strato just above me. I get desperate as I see her and with Asura I jump and catch her in the air and land with a loud thud. She was crying a lot but no tears came out. ¡°What¡¯s up Nova?¡± I ask her with both bodies. ¡°I *hic* was in *hic* tiny toy* when *hic* found meany *hic* bro¡¯s room.¡± She says hiccuping. ¡°He *hic* broke *hic* my toy. WAHHHHH!!!!¡± She cried. Instantly my regular bluish white eyes on both my main robot''s and every robot i had under my control turned a deep scarlet. ¡°Stay here Nova. Don¡¯t come to the ship for a while.¡± I tell her and let her down. All my robot''s quickly begin moving and the drones were moving all over the ship and I quickly found Nova¡¯s broken child body and in my workshop was that cocky mechanic player. He was hacking my system and stealing all my tech. ¡±Victor are you inside brock?!¡± I call victor¡¯ ¡±Aye! What¡¯s the problem, there''s a ton of your bots moving about?¡± Victor asked. ¡±Call Brock and tell him to seal the whale. We have a rat that is stealing our tech.¡± I tell him and close the chat. It took only a minute and the massive open mouth of the whale began to close. I run outside of town where it was floating over and grab the ropes attached to it¡¯s arm and tug it. Brock starts to pull it up while i hold on and soon I was on his fin and rapidly jumping up on his back to get in through the top entrance. As I get up there with several of my robot''s already waiting with their weapons pointed at the hole. Brock appeared from the stone whale¡¯s body. ¡°What¡¯s going on, Victor just said there was a rat stealing tech?¡± He asked. ¡°Trash attacked Nova and is stealing! Let me in and then seal this hole!¡± I tell him clearly and he quickly shrinks at the sight of Asura¡¯s glowing red eyes. He opens the top entrance and I walk down with the corridor closing behind Yasha who was behind. When I get down there the citizens inside were desperate with all the strange movement. ¡±SHUT UP EVERYONE!!! WE WILL OPEN UP WHEN I DEAL WITH THE TRASH STEALING FROM ME!!!¡± I shout through the text making everyone calm down. Those that looked at me all shrank in fear. It was to be expected. When you see two robot¡¯s shaped like demons with glowing red eyes and expressions of pure rage you can¡¯t help but coware. I climb up to my ship where robot knights had their swords drawn ready to attack when that trash came up. I enter myself and walk down one floor. ¡°COME OUT TRASH!!¡± I shout letting my rage loose and my voice roar at the top volume. ¡°I already know you''re in the second room, MY WORKSHOP! You moron!¡± I shout. I hear gears shifting and through my drones I can see the guy desperately looking for something. My patience dries up and I walk into my workshop. Inside i find the trash with some half built gun which isn¡¯t even complete. ¡°YOU BASTARD! YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL ME!! I¡¯M LIKE YOU! WE ARE BOTH CONVICTS AND I KNOW! IF YOU KILL ME YOU WILL GET YOUR LIFE IN THIS SHIT HOLE INCREASED!¡± He shouts confident. So this was the first kind of trash i would meet from the feedback system. How he knew i was one i don¡¯t know but considering he could hack into our system he was put in jail because of that. ¡°GM Call, request conditions to which I can kill a player.¡± I say and suddenly my two crew mates Annabeth and Greer appeared from behind me. ¡°GM Reporting, conditions involve breaking law and you being the temporary leader administering a proper trial. In this case the accused would die, would loose their body, 1 level and would be banned from the game for 1 real life week. In the case of juvenile convicts their time would be increased to match the time they remain out of the game besides standard weekly break.¡± Annabeth explained the first case. ¡°The second case is when the criminal is caught red handed stealing or killing an NPC or PKing. In this case the player wouldn¡¯t need to undergo a trial and can be directly disciplined. The ban is for two months, you will have your character rest and in the case of convicts who live in the game, current race you have will be locked and you will not be able to start on the same continent which would also lock all other races that live on said continent.¡± Greer explained. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ¡°Case 2 definitely. Please monitor me and keep me from passing the limit.¡± I tell them and they nod. ¡°W-wait. L-limit w-what are you going to do. G-GM¡¯s can¡¯t show sides right!¡± ¡°That is true but you have been found red handed already as well as being a PK. Also your crime is worse towards this gentlemen because you destroyed the body his sister was using at the moment and that is a VERY bad thing.¡± Annabeth says. ¡°NO!!¡± He shouts and lifts the weapon but in a single bound i grab the barrel and pressure the barrel making it bend before letting it go revealing the grip mark. The steam from the mechanic nearly stopped flowing as he looked at the weapon and as soon as he looked at me i grabbed him by the neck. ¡°Now you shall feel more fear that you will ever care to see.¡± I tell him in a deadly low town. At once I lift him to the highest i could and slammed him into the floor making a hole. I pull him out and drag him out followed my the girls and Yasha. Outside i find the crowd waiting. ¡°Brock, OPEN UP!¡± I shout. The whale responds and opens its mouth. I make my drones jump down and push people away. I then toss the trash down into the circle and as soon as he landed like a sack of potato¡¯s the drones swarmed him like locus. ¡°GRAAA NO GET OFF GRAHAAAAA!!!¡± He shouted as the drones entered opening in his body and began dismantling his body. Quickly the plates fall off showing the inside. It revealed all the tools he has gathered and a few weapons as well. As the plates in those areas falls the drone swarm there and begin removing all the tools and work their way inside removing more plates to allow more drones in. ¡±This man did two GRAVE crimes to me and this is his punishment. First he choose to steal from me. Technology I have researched intensely to get to this point and to help build the cities that rise for the clockwork nation. Second, this trash that was caught destroyed the body of my sister Nova Gear.¡± I pass the message to everyone. As soon as they reached the second reason and intense bloodlust from every last one of them was released. Nova was probably by far the most well known clockwork and was immensely popular because she is a child and most of the time spends time in her small body playing or studying. The whole town knows her because she likes to help and play and as my sister. They all like her for her and to hear she was attacked was an unacceptable act. The previous looks of pity was turned into looks of rage and a few people cheered for the drones as they strip the trash clean of all his gear. as he was nearly picked clean the drones began gathering the spoils and returned inside leaving a working husk of what was once a mechanic. I jump down and land with both bodies. I walk over and pick the now small clockwork by the head. I remove the head cap. I toss a few drones in there and they connect to his main software. I start hacking into his system but as you expect of a hacker. He has a good protection. Well it takes a bit for me to start finding some holes and start smashing down his defenses until it crumbles. ¡°Now you will lose everything.¡± I tell him. I enter his memory bank. Unlike what is though the memory chips don¡¯t hold our memories. What i holds are blueprints, schematics, plans, every bit of skill based knowledge was in there. I insert an empty memory chip into my own brain and being to syphon the information. Five minutes later i drained him of everything. I didn¡¯t get any of his skills unless i read his memories but my hacking skill did level up to Basic level 4. ¡°Now begone.¡± With a single arm from Asura I land a pressure fist in an uppercut which sends the body flying up into the ceiling and smashing into pieces. ¡±Let this be a lesson to anyone else that has ¡°ideas¡± of stealing.¡± I say and walk out. I remove the memory chip and store it inside my inventory before jumping down out of the whale. I run out of town and start roaring my anger out to calm down and only after 20 good minutes do i reach that point. It was mainly because the steam was running out so i had less power. I sit back in the sand and pull out the necessary amount of water and open my chest piece lid and fill up. It goes without any trouble, after all, i was used to it and using drones for eyes i could fill up and work inside myself without hassle. I had a small bit of water inside so i don¡¯t empty the last can. I simply put the can down to close the lid. I felt really dull at this point. At the moment, it was 4:30 pm and the sun was still high up and hot. I simply sigh as i finish filling Yasha and Asura and close the chest lid. As soon as i grab the water can it slips from my hand and falls sideways spilling the water inside. ¡°Tch, today is grand huh.¡± I spoke to myself. I grab the can and with most of it empty already i empty the rest and store the can. I turn back to the city which was about 1 km away and start walking but on the first step my sensors picked something up. Tremors in the sand, underground. As soon as i felt it rapidly coming up I activate both Yasha and Asura¡¯s suspension system and with the springs I jump a good 20 meters. It was good i did because as soon as i reached 5 meters away I towering body burst out of the sand. It rose up into the air 10 meters and was 4 meters wide. The outside was covered in a hard rock like shell. As it reached its peak its mouth split into four separate lips revealing numerous teeth and a highly acidic spit. The massive worm creature pulled back half way and looked at us before letting out a high pitched screech before launching itself in an arc right at me. We I jump to both side evading and the warm hits the sand head first but doesn¡¯t stop. Instead it just continues going. The tail came out of the other hole and followed the head as it entered the new entrance. Not wasting time i started to run as i set up to jump again. I drop drones so i can sense them better and as i run i feel it approach Yasha. Timing it right i spring forward dodging just as the creature appears out of the sand. I land some 15 meters away with the creature already following with it¡¯s mouth open and jumping to the left with a half ready system i dodge again. I quickly look with Asura and scan it as fast as possible using him and as many drones. What i got made almost lose my senses.
Sand Drifter
Level:215
I run as fast as possible dodging it my narrower margins. When i finally got on solid rock that was expanded by Brock I was happy to see that the Worm when i came down the last time onto the rock it hit the rock hard making cracks but it couldn¡¯t dig. That meant that the area on rock was safer. Reaching the safety of the gates we slump down as many knights come out and see the massive worm on the rock before it pulls itself back into the sand. ¡±Warn everyone. NEVER drop water into the sands of the desert. Only death awaits those who do. Pass this scan info around as a warning of what is out in the desert.¡± I tell the knights and pass the info. They all shrink at the level. Most are revived and only at the range of level 110 which is 30 level higher than me. ¡±Mark the desert as a high level zone and only those above level 200 should venture through.¡± I order and news is quickly spread though the city. I walk back to Brock¡¯s whale and enter my workshop. The place was still a mess so i put the robot''s to work to fix it up while i let my body slump down onto my chair. ¡°Delta!¡± I call out loud since it¡¯s the only way to call him. ¡°You call?¡± He asked. ¡±Mind sending a message to Gaia...or request is a better.¡± I say. ¡±What type of request?¡± He asked interested. ¡±I need the wind elemental core she has to power herself. I want to have all four basic elementals traveling with us but since Sylph are made of wind it¡¯s hard or almost impossible to know where to find one.¡± I tell him. ¡±Wait a moment then.¡± He says and goes silent for a moment. About a minute later a message comes in. ¡±Gaia says she will agree to it if you share the drone turret tech with the implemented shifting tech from the assassin.¡± He told me. Steam began pouring out. That bitch is getting really cocky recently! I thought. ¡±Is that all?¡± I ask irritated. ¡±Yep¡± He replied. I grumble as i think of such a good tech becoming public but considering the assassin already has the tech itself they would eventually make implemented stuff but the drone turrets was a pain. ¡°ARGRAAHH!!¡± I shout. ¡±Tell her fine but i will give her the tech only after i perfect it and she must send the core right away. Also, she WILL NOT allow awakened have access to this tech and is to keep them hidden and out of scanner range.¡± I tell him. He is quiet for a moment. ¡±She agrees to both conditions, she doesn¡¯t want crappy made stuff anyway and giving cowards technology will make things go bad fast. She says take your time and the assassin has undergone some improvements and will be the escort for the core so no worries about its safety.¡± He says. ¡±Good. That is all.¡± I say and sigh. So much for private gear but having all four elementals would benefit us a lot. I should start developing weapons with the new core crystals or else we can never properly plant our feet in this place with such high leveled monsters. I get up and with the more organised workshop i get to work. Just after taking a look at the trashes memories. Volume 3 Chapter 14 Shifting Gears Checking the trashes memories worked to show just how pathetic he really was. As a mechanic he was complete trash. All he had was a lot of tools giving him the class but he had low leveled skills for building. That said his hacking was Basic level 9. If he had focused on this aspect he would have had it better. This was a perfect skill for assassins or hackers itself. He could have made a hacker class making it even easier for himself but unfortunately he was brain dead and stupid and went with something convenient. I try to access the skill or memories of his attempt and when i do videos begin showing him with some allies holding down a living drone of several types and him hacking into it as a training method. The whole process passes through my eyes from the simplest to the most complex. It also seems he was stagnated at basic 9. There seems to be requirements to surpass it. I never met that problem because i never stopped trying new stuff and i was always learning real world stuff. Still as he suprasses level 6 in hacking i lose track of half the stuff he does and at level 7 i can''t accompany him any more. I seriously wonder how i broke through. Maybe it was his own fear that made him fuck up. Anyway i stop watching and return to seeing the files that show his skills.
By watching another person with the skill Hacking and understanding what he did at a higher level than you. The skill Hacking levels up.
I was far from being surprised because i have done it before. During the beta phase i gained body construction and Tinkering levels from watching the memories if the mechanic i salvaged and memory chips are always being scanned for useful information. As i breath a sigh i hear small footsteps outside and a familiar voice. "Bro~~! You here?" Nova called with a scared voice. "In here!" I call. I hear her running and soon she appeared at the door peeking inside. "It''s safe now come here." I call. She takes one look around and runs in and jumps at me. I grab her and hold her there as she buries face. We can''t cry, and only if we make a face with enough plates and gears can we show emotions. Thinking about it clockworks are a rather sad race. Still, that doesn''t stop her from sniffling and showing her emotions. With me being so large our size proportion made it seem as if we were still the same big bro and little sister. I just let her get comfortable and quietly say "It''s ok, it''s safe bro is here." After a bit she calms down i notice her main systems shutting down and falling asleep. I can''t help but smile, it''s been like this since i can remember. She would cry to the first one if something happened leaving her scared or sad and as she calms down she starts to fall asleep. I knew she would wake up if i put her down so instead i bring in the tool drones. A good number appear and one of my new ones also appear. I was quick to make the trashes tools useable and so i made a tool gear drone. It was nearly three times the size of the normal one. The original collectors were about the size of an adult human''s hand so near the size of a tarantula. The tool drones were about 4 cm bigger so they could hand the tools weight. This one can''t even be held on one hand. Quite a large fellow for sure. Anyway i was able to make two of these at the moment and with all the tools i gained from trash and from what scraps i can gain I will be able to make around twenty of these. They are useful for large constructions but with size comes the limit known as space. They can''t get into tight spaces. Anyway with two of them plus the many smaller drones i gather a lot of elemental metal i had prepared and scan my grenade launcher arm, the two arms furthest back, and get the proper measurements. Then i have the drones begin cutting and working. If it wasn''t for the strong queen transmitter array i made for myself i would be having a lot of trouble controlling all of them because of the information that comes in from so many actions and eyes. The way it works is i give each one orders to make each piece or connect a certain part. When it is done i get a message for new orders. In this system i can put the to work efficiently by leaving the part cutting to smaller drones and the construction of the main tool to the tool gear drones. I worked slowly unlike that sword made by the drones. Starting from the elbow, since i don''t need more then the elbow down for the weapon, i start building the weapon. The joints made to open up a passage was made easy by making it with many small gears. The skeleton was made in a structure to shift as with the weapon. It was made in sections that are locked in place in the hand form but split up and reveals many springs that made it look like a spine. This would work to absorb the recoil. The skeleton down the parts and gears go in. Several sections of a circular tube was put on the lower side of arm and would interlock to make the barrel. The shifting gears around the arm were built to get out of the way from the middle and open the space. The barrel went to the wrist like before. Lastly i implemented the same principle as the assassins arm. The hand was constructed to open and become part of the gears below the wrist to help shoot the gun. In other words while in arm mode the arm works perfectly but the gears needed for the gun lied in the hand. It completed the gun. After an hour the gears of the first hand was done and the plate were put. The plates were made in small sections and placed strategically so that when the arm changes to the gun form it would open up outwards allowing for the gears to shift around. Looking at this gear i could only feel the clockwork turning into something similar to transformers. Thinking that i could only smile wryly as i finish up both arms. I slowly stand up so as not to wake Nova and pick up both arms and place them on the table behind the chair i was sitting in. I then turn my back to the table and the drones climb up. I rest my two back arms on the table and i start having the drones remove the joint from my arm. The arms were quickly removed removing even the joints. I left what remains of my arm and let the drones drag it away and put the new one into place. Several drones jumped inside and grabbed the wires and begins connecting the wires on the inside of the new ones. Soon i finish up and the new arms appear on my system. With the wires attached i have the arms pushed closer and the drones inside the arm began attaching connections that would hold the arm. The put the final gears that connect the arm and open a single plate on my shoulder and let the drones out. I seal up the open shoulds and done new arms ready for action.
You have upgraded a pair of your arms with a new form of technology. Increase to strength 4 stats Increase to dexterity 7 stats Features of the new arms Form change: Arm and hand [Pressure Fist] Grenade Launcher
I start wide eyed at the massive increase in stats. Seriously this kind of change from just that. Still this amount of change to Asura''s stats is incredible. If i made a switch to Yasha''s arms and more change into tools, larger tools, I could get a massive increase to dexterity. As a craftsmen that would be awesome and it also benefits me when i use long range weapons and my ability with the swords. As i examine my new arms i hear the sounds of heavy footsteps and soon Victor in his power suit carrying bulk appeared. "Yo, brought bulk to upgrade. He said he would be out the rest of the day for us to upgrade him." Victor said. Suddenly a grin filled with mischief appeared on his face. "Say, what do you think. we get back at Bulk for hurting our pride as men." He says. If i had eyebrows they would have raised. "Do what...exactly?" I ask. His grin evolves to a full on smirk showing all his teeth. "Besides his actual upgrades this is the plan." He says and starts explaining. I could barely maintain my pokerface to what was said. I agree to help but I have him call Brock who is in collage for this so he naturally knows more since he as trained more time with it. He laughs loudly hearing our plan and decides to help. We do go and upgrade bulk. Before we began him i wanted to test out full body transforming. I took Nova¡¯s broken body. First i woke her up so she could leave. She didn¡¯t want to leave so i told her to not to mess with the stuff that we were building yet. We took her broken body and a quickly forged earth steel and started shaping them properly while i removed every gear from the small body leaving the skeleton. As the parts were forged rapidly with Victor helping I let it cool and then hand over to the drones that slowly build the robot up. After a day I finished up. What stood was what looked like a little robot girl with rabbit ears that were actually antenna that increased scanner range. The body could even be compared to a brown rabbit beast man. The body itself was sleeker and the legs were rabbit like so she could run and jump even in this form. I then made it do the shape change and it dropped to all fours and the arms changed to a rabbit''s arm and the body fixed itself itself up with the legs a bit more to the side of the body making it easier to remain in the four legged position. ¡°God, we are making transformers now!¡± Victor said. I call Nova and tell her to sit next to the rabbit. I connect to the and take her codes and put it in the rabbit. After a bit a message arrived. [td4]With the natural weapon of a clockwork monk. Your gauntlets possess a built in gun within it that discharges with a command or when you punch. Range 5 meter Ammo type: Shell Magazine: 6 (each arm)
You have made the Clockwork Nova Gear possess a set body between the Commander Sniper and Rabbit Monk.
Nova Gear has gained new class skills.
Hand to Hand combatBasic Level 1
You are Experienced in fighting with your fists and know where to hit to do more damage. +5% damage when fighting with fists.
Hyper JumpBasic Level 1
You were made modeled after an agile rabbit. The legs were made to be even better and has granted even better agility and maneuverability. With the power in the legs you can cover 25 meters in a single bound and without losing your balance you can instantly jump again. Increases Damage caused by kicks 20% Energy cost 40 Duration of skill 30 seconds 2 minute cooldown.[/tds]
Bullet PunchBasic Level 1
Gear Shift
Through a specific configuration of your gears. Your creator has given you the option to change gears in specific parts of your body. This Gear shift will start with bigger gears meant for greater strength and with each progressive gear up to the final 5th gear the gear would be focused around agility. Gear 1: 25% of agilities stat is converted into strength. Gear 2: 10% of agilities stat is converted into strength. Gear 3: Natural stats. Gear 4: 10% of strength stat is converted into agility. Gear 5: 25% of strength stat is converted into agility. Stats conversion depends on the gears used for shifting. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Can¡¯t change gear while in movement. MUST be stationary for gear shift. If done in movement, it will cause a 1 second stun and damage to gears with high chance of breaking off limbs due to breaking of great number of gears. Incorrect changing of gears can cause destruction of limbs. Mistaken changes of gears will cause damage proportionate to the stress of placed on the gear.
Body Shift
A skill that comes with the shifting technology. Depending on how you are built you can change your body to a certain predetermined shape or form as well as form a set weapon. Current body form Human Rabbit Current weapons Arm Gauntlets
My eyes were wide when I saw there was a new class. The rabbit reference was to be expected but the class skills were a far cry from what I expected. I did make the body thinking about future fights and how Nova needs a close up bodyguards so who better than herself. The gauntlet gun I made because of the idea of the boxing rabbit. Combining the speed generated by the jump it would get with even more advanced suspension system created by the shifting tech and the discharge from the shotgun shell in the gauntlets. I seriously expect Nova to be comparable to a level 100 now. What was a real shocker though was the gear shift. I did think of it as a boost to try and to make her quicker but to have an effect like this. I could say that i was more than surprised. ¡°WOW BRO!! THIS NEW BODY IS COOL!¡± She shouts as the rabbit slowly transforms back into the half human form. ¡°Guess it was a success.¡± Victor said clapping his hands like you do when you finish a job. ¡°Let me check your stats Nova.¡± I tell her. ¡°OH! Mind if I take a peek at the stats of the new bot.¡± Victor asked. I thought a bit before nodding. He did help make it so i will let him see just the rabbit one.
Status
NameNova GearRaceClockwork
ClassRabbit MonkLevel:89
Free stats points263
Durability1625/1625Durability RegNone
Energy (Battery)400/400Energy Reg:0.2 per/s
Strength105Agility195
Dexterity159Toughness107
Intelligence140Wisdom189
Charisma78Leadership20
Luck200
[tr]
Skills
Clockwork body constructionBasic Level 4
Being of the Clockwork race you instinctively know how to make parts for your body +7% increase in ability when making a body or body part
ScavengerBasic Level 5
Able to find useful scraps and parts from trash. Increases chance to find something by 9%
TinkerBasic Level 8
You have the natural skill to tinker with any machine. 5%Increases ability when tinkering with a machine
Dwarven BlacksmithingBasic level 1The most coveted blacksmithing art. The techniques of the dwarves are passed on in the family and even after the industrial age appeared it was still at the top for being able to make higher quality goods than industrial goods. The techniques this form implies are all primitive but can easily be adapted to any form of blacksmithing and to many different conditions. Even when using a poorly made clay forge you can produce good quality metal items. In the past it was kept a trade secret kept under tight guard. It was once even considered a race only art that only dwarves could learn because of their open minds towards blacksmithing. Today though with so few people remaining to keep the art alive, the arts were spread among those the dwarves and to those they trust, or if ever a need great enough arises that warrants the trade of the arts. +10% when blacksmithing anything.
MarksmanshipIntermediate Level 6
The art of shooting a gun and hit your target with precision. +20% damage when using a firearm of any kind. +18% increase in precision with your shot when using a gun.
Machine weapon buildingBasic Level 5
You know your way around with your tools to the point of being able to make weapons that can be added directly to your body. +5% increase in ability when making a machine weapon (weapons that attach directly onto robots and follow system orders)
SnipeBasic Level 9
A skill that increases the precision of the next shot done by a fire arm. It also makes it easier to aim. +9% precision to long range weapons for firearms. +9% damage to long range shots caused by firearms.
Small Craft PilotBasic 8
The skill for those who venture the skies on small crafts. This skill improves you handling of a ship smaller than 2 meters long and makes understanding basic maneuvers and slightly advanced one, easier. +15% better control of small crafts you are riding. +10% better understanding of airborne maneuvers.
Hand to Hand combatBasic Level 1
You are Experienced in fighting with your fists and know where to hit to do more damage. +5% damage when fighting with fists.
Hyper JumpBasic Level 1
You were made modeled after an agile rabbit. The legs were made to be even better and has granted even better agility and maneuverability. With the power in the legs you can cover 25 meters in a single bound and without losing your balance you can instantly jump again. Increases Damage caused by kicks 20% Energy cost 40 Duration of skill 30 seconds 2 minute cooldown.
Bullet PunchBasic Level 1
With the natural weapon of a clockwork monk. Your gauntlets possess a built in gun within it that discharges with a command or when you punch. Range 5 meter Ammo type: Shell Magazine: 6 (each arm)
Gear Shift
Through a specific configuration of your gears. Your creator has given you the option to change gears in specific parts of your body. This Gear shift will start with bigger gears meant for greater strength and with each progressive gear up to the final 5th gear the gear would be focused around agility. Gear 1: 25% of agilities stat is converted into strength. Gear 2: 10% of agilities stat is converted into strength. Gear 3: Natural stats. Gear 4: 10% of strength stat is converted into agility. Gear 5: 25% of strength stat is converted into agility. Stats conversion depends on the gears used for shifting. Can¡¯t change gear while in movement. MUST be stationary for gear shift. If done in movement, it will cause a 1 second stun and damage to gears with high chance of breaking off limbs due to breaking of great number of gears. Incorrect changing of gears can cause destruction of limbs. Mistaken changes of gears will cause damage proportionate to the stress of placed on the gear.
¡°Oi...why the hell is her stats so good. AND WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THIS GEAR SKILL!!¡± Victor suddenly shouted. ¡°Yeah...OP.¡± I say with a conflicted thought. ¡°This tech...will seriously blow things out of proportions. I wonder how long it will take before other players think of this.¡± Victor said. ¡°Real world...engineers might...think of...it.¡± I tell him and he nods. ¡°Hey bro. This feel so nice. Can i go play?¡± Nova asks. ¡°Depends...play how?¡± I ask worried. ¡°You know how all the guys at the gate do. I want to fight the dino thingys.¡± She said. I thought a while and looked towards Bulk. ¡°Can you wait for us to upgrade?¡± I ask her and point to Bulk. I was also planning to upgrade Asura and help Victor. ¡°AHH...ok. I¡¯ll wait bro.¡± She says sulking. I could only smile wryly and pat both of her. ¡°I¡¯ll hang out for a day with you once we are done ok.¡± I tell her. She brightens up and it''s clearly visible on her tiny rabbit like face as she smiles. He ears also start to move. I guess i did it just right to make her emotions easier to see through her body language. This way I will be able to notice if she is sad easier. I let her go off but only the sniper body and leave the rabbit here because i was still going to change a few things. The battery was to weak for her now. With the hyper jump plus the energy needed to run the body moving so fast. Luckily she wasn¡¯t so small for the batteries made by the cores. The cores need 5 batters to complete itself and a test showed it had 1000 energy so it was a compacted battery which is very convenient at this moment. I also want to put the electronic engine in Nova so that i can remove the water and steam tanks. As a rabbit i would guess speed is vital. I also need to make the shells for her gauntlet. I really can¡¯t wait to see how she will fight. For some reason I can only imagine her laughing in glee as she punches the dino robot''s. A small shiver runs down my back for some reason but i push it out of my head as we being Bulks improvements. We are decreasing his size from two and a half meters to 230 cm but in its place his whole body will gain shifting tech and will gain a shifted animal for like Nova instead of simply dropping to all fours and awkwardly running. We also plan to put a gear shift for him. It will work nicely for him due to him being a heavy fighter. The speed boost will be interesting to see on him. As for Asura, i want to take things a step forward and add three forms to the hands including the sword form. Welp, let''s ¡°upgrade¡± bulk. Can¡¯t wait to see him log in. Volume 3 Chapter 15 BULK SMASH!!! We worked quick on Bulk making his new body. We took down his old body to get the parts and materials. He would also have a shift body made to be a knight that would now properly transform between his animal form. The human form was had the extra plating placed over a second layer like armor. When he transforms the lower and upper plates will shift locations and link as one large plate forming the rhino body. Weapons his arms can transform into swords, he has the typical pressure fist, and has a hammer form which was for what we had planned later for Bulk. Once the head was built enough we moved his motherboard and using some computers Brock got busy pulling up all the codes and programs and reading through them. With him working on that, Victor making the parts and me building the body. We formed a complete production line for clockworks. Nova gave up on watching and after transforming into a rabbit she put her new body to sleep to focus on the other one outside. Brock was the first one to finish. ¡°Ok I made it. It¡¯s a separate program. I can¡¯t install it as a permanent thing since it kind of removes free will. The first time he fights will most likely work but after he finds the program he can and will probably delete it.¡± Brock explained. ¡°One time is plenty. All we need is someone nice and close to catch him with their video feed.¡± Victor says with a grin. ¡°Me. My upgrades...will help.¡± I say My own upgrades is restructuring the gears and adding the gear shift, which Bulk will also have installed. ¡°Okay with that decided let¡¯s get him finished before he logs in.¡± Victor says. We work quicker on the construction to finish up and before the end of the day we finish his body up. I included smaller miniguns just above his shoulders that only appear in Rhino mode. With him done we test out the shifting and weapons and with everything good we put him in human form sitting next to Nova and get started on me. I bring Asura back in and we remove all the arms. I put all the drones to automatically making the three arms which were already planned out. The rest of the body be took piece by piece and changed to shift gear with no real second form. It was just to add the technology and because Gear shift worked with this tech. The only real transforming parts of Asura were the arms which had a hand form, sword form and their respective gun form. The back pair was again the grenade launcher, the middle pair were miniguns and the front pair were shot guns. We were allowed quite a bit of freedom with this because Asura was made when I was made just before we found Menthol. For now I was only upgrading Asura so I stopped there. It was already early morning when I finished and Victor was sleeping on the table. I picked him up with Yasha and took him to his bed. He was so smashed that he barely noticed, only grunting a bit as I dropped him in bed. He deserves the rest since we have been up a long time. Because of my race, though I can sleep the mental fatigue will come only on the fifth day which would respond to the end of the real world day ending. Since I had free time before Bulk and the others log in I go and pick up the electric engine that was laying on the table with my drones already performing scans. With five drones scanning it took very little time to map out the entire structure of wires and everything. Now the bigger problem was how would I build it. I let Asura leave and with Yasha I close my eyes and focus. I found a nice feature to the scanned blueprints I make. When closing my eyes I can make a 3d model in my head that corresponds to the real thing. This makes things easy because I can slowly take it apart while taking into consideration all the bolts and screws holding it since the piece wouldn''t come out without be removing each bolt first. So for two hours I spent my time in my workshop slowly taking the 3d model apart while outside with Asura I tested out the gear shift with my own stats. It was mainly testing the limits like having Brock make a large boulders for me to lift and check the limit of my strength at gear two or one. With my stats at this moment looking like this I can more or less figure out how strength works now. [tr]
Status
NameTechno Gear (Asura)RaceClockwork
ClassChaos KnightLevel:86
Free stats points[/tds][td2]63Durability1845/1845Durability RegNone
Energy400/400Energy Reg:0.2 per/s
Strength180Agility180
Dexterity161Toughness157
Intelligence89Wisdom95
Charisma30Leadership20
Luck50
It had roughly around a 20 point increase to strength, agility and dexterity. Since I didn¡¯t change the plating toughness remained the same so no changes there. For strength on gear three I have a limit of around 180 kg I can lift. At gear two it goes up to 207 kilos and gear one it rises to 225. So the difference was around forty kilos in difference taking my stats which were really high. From what I could do after some calculating, it seems each point of strength corresponds to 1 kilo of strength. In other words someone with 1 strength lifts on 1 kilo while someone with 100 str can lift 100 kilos. That said this might correspond only to clockwork and other races might have different calculations. Then for speed, an obstacle course was made for me to time myself. At gear three which is natural stats I accomplished the course in 5 minutes and 25 seconds. It wasn¡¯t a hard course but a speed test really. At gear 4 with the 15% boost I finished in 5 minutes 5 seconds and at gear 5 I finished with 4 minutes 45 seconds. Each speed related gear seems to decrease the time in twenty seconds each which is rather impressive. Suddenly I thought of Nova¡¯s new body and how fast she would get. I suddenly sent a shiver down my spin thinking of when she activates gear five. I just hope she can fight properly with the gauntlets i armed her with, they are her only weapons because of the small body. With the gear checked i focus a bit more on the engine. I was having trouble taking the schematics apart to figure out how to build it. I need this and the stealth tech done before the assassin robot arrives so i can put him to use. I know for sure he is near Gaia¡¯s level if he had any upgrades done then he would have gotten a bit stronger. If so then he should be strong enough to fight the robot''s. I also hope for one of the tanks to come this way since i need serious fire power to deal with this problem. After a long time i finally have every piece broken down and now understand the structure making it easy to break and rebuild it in moments.
you have gained a new skill.
Schematic BreakdownBasic Level 1
After long hours of breaking down a 3d model of some new found technology you have learned basic understanding of how to look and break down technology. Through your basic level of understand of how to break down a 3d model you can somewhat find where to begin breaking the model and its a bit harder to get stuck. +2% better understanding of dismantling through 3d models. 1% less chance to get stuck. You can now find where to begin dismantling easier when examining new technology.
I smile as i read the new skill i acquired. It would definitely be something good to train. I can use to dino robots and break them down completely and learn their method of construction for later use. They would make really good mounts for small workers in the place of horses. The the know how of making the electric engine i move the scanner drones to the stealth generator and set them to scan every last millimeter of it while i get to building the a few new engines. Since i had no use for the rusted and ruined engine i grab a core which was filled with 1/8 of lightning core and 3/4 of steel, making a highly conductive steel alloy. I put that on top of the old engine and slowly the core let the engine through the film surrounding it while it absorbed it as the plain metal and core material inside began to rapidly change. I left it and turned to the small army of tool drones and set up several groups to make each of them build a certain part of the engine. There were main small pieces and only the smallest i would personally do. The auto command for the drones lowers the quality of an item if i am not directly giving orders. It drops about one level so if i normally make excellent quality items the drones only make good quality. I then set clockwork robots to pump out fire steel for several parts that would heat up in the engine while i set up several cores to perfectly mix steel with lightning crystal. I tried before but i can''t forge lightning steel but the cores can force the connection. They work on the molecular level i think but i can''t be certain until i see from their perspective when i try out uploading my codes in a motherboard core. Producing of the parts is quick because i know what each piece is and the only annoying part is the wiring which needs to be done while i build it which is rather obvious. Still making one engine while using my small production line is way faster then doing it all by myself. I would maybe take around one week to make one electric engine since i need to make most of the parts but the production line with the drones lowers that to around 11 hours since i can make a small block of metal around the size of the part and let the drones make the piece with the tools which goes much faster with several drones working at once. By the time the engine was completely built it was already past noon but the new engine was complete. I scanned it to get the info on it.
Clockwork Electric Motor
A lightweight motor that uses electricity to start up and runs on both battery and its own power it produces if the consumption is low enough. This engine is very silent for running on electricity and was once a mainstream motor used by stealth based classes such as assassins or small close range fighters that focus on speed. Start up charge required 100 energy Electric Energy produced: 1 energy regen/m
I was a bit surprised to see how good it was. Obviously the wrecked one didn¡¯t show as much information or and was completely broken. Speaking of that one i look over at the core i left over it and found it had been completely consumed and the core was now an electric engine similar to the one i made. I go over and scan it as well.
Clockwork Electric Core Motor
A lightweight motor that uses electricity to start up and runs on both battery and its own power it produces if the consumption is low enough. Made by using a rare core and mixing lightning reinforced steel all the wires and systems can more efficiently conduct electricity through the motor and will be less likely to experience an electric overload because the core has several outlets built which allow electricity to be released in a pulse to protect the integrity. Start up charge required 100 energy Electric Energy produced: 2 energy per/m
My eyes were wide seeing the improvements the lightning core had on the engine. The core didn¡¯t simply just absorb everything and combine the core with the metal. I added it to the material that needed it most mainly the wires. It even set up a system to release electricity to protect itself. Used properly this could be used as a pulse type weapon if i can figure out how to contain that pulse. This is very interesting. This one will definitely be what i will equip Nova with. The mainstream one i will hand over but this exceptional one is ours it''s a shame the material it takes to make it is so costly but since we don¡¯t need many it should be fine. I¡¯ll need to make some new engines for Bulk and I, the ones we have are refurbished old ones. Old model that are mainstream and weak so we need to improve it eventually. Anyway I wake up Nova in her new body and have her let me switch her engine out and i make her a new battery giving her a core batter which is made from five regular batters compacted into a core. This gives her a 2 energy regen/m and 1000 points so it would stockpile the energy she will need for her close range skills she gained. It was around this time that Bulk logged in and tested a bit of his body. The three of us were ready as can be so we called the others and finally headed to the gate. We needed test subjects and the dino were just what we needed. I made sure to explain to Bulk how the gear shift work and he made a grin. The face was now very malleable and showed expressions vividly like any person. ¡°This is so OP! Yet it feels oddly balanced, the danger of doing the shift wrong is really a dangerous balance though.¡± He says while he checks out his systems and the skills. He tested his Body shift skill which came with the shift tech and saw all the weapons. Soon the others arrived and see Nova, Bulk and Asura upgraded or with a totally new body. The GM¡¯s examined Bulk momentarily taking a scan or too before they assaulted Nova for being such a cutie and both gave me a thumbs up with a large grin while hugging her. I could only shake my head at the two who were petting Nova like a real pet rabbit and much to all our amazement she liked it. I let out a sigh and tell the others we are going to test out our bodies and we should give support fire from above. Everyone nodded and giving some orders to the knights who were still walking around we tell them to get ready. The day''s second assault was about to start. While we all waited, i explained to Nova how to use her gauntlets i built into her arm. I give her all the stuff required to make it work properly and then pull up a saved video of where i pulled the inspiration and showed it to her. I couldn¡¯t help but watch as well because it was really cool. Nova was super excited and as soon as the video started she activated the shift to the gauntlets and set them up and tried out. She was gitty to get fighting. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I made sure to calm her down and teach her how to use the gear shift properly. Unsurprisingly she set it to Gear 5 boosting her speed. I didn¡¯t find it surprising because I showed her a video once of a rabbit outrun two dogs bred for speed so being a rabbit she simply thought speed was best. Though i doubt she knows about adding speed to her punch to make up for the lack of strength i tell her before punching any monster to run first because it was cooler. It will be a few years before she can properly understand it even with the school we set up to teach all the kids of the next generation. Well after a while we began hearing the shots and so we got the signal to run out. With Asura i bring out the two mid and long range weapons and with the grenade launcher from the doorway i shoot right at the door of the cave and cause a chain explosion on the many of the dinos. Still from the cloud of dust and smoke several still appeared running rapidly towards us but Bulk ran out, slowly due to being in gear 1, and got ready to punch when suddenly his blue glowing eyes turned green as Brock¡¯s program take over. ¡°GRAAHHHHH!!!¡± He shouts just and lets loose a full power punch right into the face of one dino causing it to bend inwards and slowly crushing the neck pushing it all into the chest. Suddenly his left hand turned into the hammer and brought it down in the back of the already dead drone crushing it even more then in a swift motion he pulled it out and slammed it on the right side of a second raptor drone that jumped at him catching it on the leg making it turn in the air and leaving it wide open which he finished with a crushing punch to the face breaking it. He then jumped up high at least seven meters up as both hands turned into hammers. The drones looked up following him and all of them circled around him. As he started to descend he activated the skill we saw back during the beta phase when he fought Victor. [Overload] activated with the program probably. I grab Nova and crouch around her and hide hurt just as Bulk landed. I kept looking because i knew what was going to come. Half way down he finally said it. ¡°BULK!! SMASH!!¡± The instant he said it his eyes returned to blue and he brought his arms down and slammed the ground. The impact was no joke, with 25% of his agility boosting his already high strength the impact caused a shockwave as well as making a crater with a 3 meter radius around Bulk. The shockwave seems to have caused a bit of damage because several of the drones legs were in strange angles while broken. Bulk released a lot of steam as Overload shut off before the duration which allowed him to stop the heavy backlash but we will need to examine him to make sure. He gets up and looks at me who was looking his way and then up at Victor who was rolling around while laughing. ¡°YOU ASSHOLES REALLY DID IT!!!!¡± He shouted and started running towards the wall and amazingly he activated the program himself and jumped all the way up the wall and deactivated the program just as he landed near Victor. ¡°You asked for this Midget!¡± He says in a someone deep and nearly emotionless voice. He grabs Victor by his stubby legs and dangles him over the wall inside the scrapyard. It was then that i heard the sound of the swarm coming as well. Not wanting to test my luck with just me and Nova I grab her while she complains and run back in. I switch to Yasha who was up with the rest and see what was happening. ¡°AHAHAHA!! You think i didn¡¯t prepare you idiot! ¡°Safety command, Ignore Ally¡± Victor says and suddenly Bulk tosses Victor straight up. Victor falls with a thud on the wall losing some HP but still not inside the scrap yard which was now filling up with drones. ¡°BASTARD WHAT DID YOU DO!¡± Bulk shouted. ¡°I knew you would do something like that since we would be watching. So with a little help from Brock i set up a command that will make the arm that was holding me either release me depending on the situation or lurch up and release me away from danger.¡± Victor explained. I remember there was a law against controlling the free will of players but considering this was a simple command for a robot to release with voice activation it was only partially against his will kind of like a mind control spell but with codes. ¡°I¡¯M GOING TO FUCKING REPORT YOU YOU BASTARD!!¡± He shouts. ¡°Don¡¯t go bitching about it! You let us upgrade you so we did, it¡¯s not our fault a fucking riajuu who had a harem at his fingertips and lost it all, has to depend on others to upgrade you.¡± Victor replies. I look towards the GM¡¯s as they were sweating at where this conversation was going. I connect to both of them. ¡±Was that command against the rules?¡± I asked them. They look my way and nod. ¡±It took his free will away and we can¡¯t allow that for anyone. At best it would give him a warning since it¡¯s the first time but if done again he would get a penalty like levels deducted or banning for a certain amount of time with lose of skill or levels.¡± Annabeth explains through the text only to me and Greer. ¡±We are more fearful that he will call the GM¡¯s and we will have to show ourselves.¡± Greer said. ¡±I would send the warning before he sends the report saying that the system detected a breach in rules and you are getting a warning.¡± I told them. They looked at each other then me and nodded with a smile. Moments later, Victor who was insulting Bulk by not giving a shit about what was going on suddenly looked into space and then grew pale before turning red with anger. ¡°GOD DAMNIT EVEN SUCH A SIMPLE COMMAND GOT ME A FUCKING WARNING FROM THE FUCKING AI!¡± He shouted in rage. Bulk was surprised and because of it calmed down. The next moment Bulk started laughing himself at Victor''s expense. ¡°Ahahahah You deserve it you stupid midget. Since brock helped out he should have gotten on as well.¡± Bulk says and smiled towards Brock. ¡°Don¡¯t look at me, i only made the hulk program to play a joke on you. You fought how you wanted but you just acted a bit more savage from the program that is all. As for the command, it was actually supposed to be a safety measure in case the program caused a bug and you went berserk so it was there for safety and not escape like Victor used it for.¡± He replied nonchalantly. ¡°Oh i see, so it was only the midgets stupidity that got him a warning. Still remove this crap right now!¡± He shouts. ¡°Come on. Release your wild side!¡± Brock says laughing. Bulk just sighed making me chuckle. I can¡¯t help it, any man like Bulk should suffer for his own stupidity and denseness since no one should be that dense. Nova was complaining but then i took her and let her try out her weapons on some combat drones. I made it clear to her that she can¡¯t fight with them in the city so i locked them so she would only be able to use them when i let her. At the end of the week the ship from South gate city arrived and with it the assassin clockwork Venus arrived and with him a platoon of knights and many small low class warrior class clockwork. ¡°So, how have you been mechanic?¡± Venus said as he got near Yasha and stuck his hand out while looking at Asura behind me noticing the shift tech. I take his hand since i should at least be courteous to someone that can snap my neck. ¡°Is that a robot you built to fight for you?¡± He asked. ¡±Set body. Don¡¯t go spreading it around but Gaia knows.¡± I say bluntly making him wide eyed. ¡±Did you bring the Sylph core?¡± ¡°Ah yes, Gaia made sure to examine it well and it was made from a higher class Sylph so if you purify the air it will use to make its body properly then you can make a royal class Sylph maybe. I don¡¯t know if there is already one because they are elusive so it''s best to try and aim high. If it doesn¡¯t work then a higher rank Sylph will appear.¡± He said. ¡±So exactly what are the conditions for purifying them?¡± I ask. ¡°You will need to speak to Delta or Gaia for that. Now for what i need, obviously i would require the Stealth gear as well as the electric motor you stayed with and about half of those newbies i need to turn into rogue class. I have the model here.¡± He said pointing to his head. ¡°Let me upload it.¡± A download appeared and i accepted. What appeared after it was done was a worker sized clockwork but without tool gears and instead his hands were shift gears. The feet were remade to soften the step making it more quiet but overall it remained pretty much the same. ¡±Not much changes but considering it¡¯s a basic class and it already uses the stealth gear it is rather high specs for a beginner class.¡± I say. ¡°Oh you¡¯re wrong. The shift gear is basic level tech for our class but the stealth gear and electric engine are much higher tier. I presume you have remade my previous body?¡± He asked. I nod and suddenly something shimmered into existence to my left. ¡±Your body is really high specs so it''s hard to repair it completely and since i don¡¯t know what material it previously was i wouldn¡¯t know if it was 100% repaired.¡± I say. ¡°Wow, even i didn¡¯t notice it. Also is this alchemy metal...earth steel?¡± he asked and i nod. ¡°Yes, it would take a bit more to return to full strength but i am amazed it is nearly up to 85%. You really are an amazing mechanic.¡± He says. I thank him with a nod and look down at the light green core in my hand wondering how we would purify air. ¡±I must be going, search for a dwarf named Victor, he is the leader of the blacksmiths in town. I will tell him about you and what you need, you can trust him to put you back in your old body and to make the shift gear.¡± I tell him and turn to leave. I hear him shout orders and the knights disperse probably reinforcements. I call Victor and warn him then finally i contact Delta while splitting up with Asura making him look around mainly where the new knights were moving around. ¡±So the core finally arrived huh? So now we need pure enough air that it won¡¯t corrupt the core.¡± He says. ¡±So exactly how pure are we talking?¡± I asked. Suddenly i felt a dense calculation get uploaded and i knew just how it should be. ¡±I supplied the proper equation. If you have anyone that uses wind magic it would be easy but since few races in the clockwork nation use magic since technology is more present that is hard to do.¡± He says. I was trying to refocus while my head was going through the information. It came with an exact number of how big of a room i should have and how much of each kind of air molecule should be in the air when this was activated. The numbers hurt and i had to shut it out because it was starting to overwhelm me. ¡±I guess it wasn¡¯t wise to upload it directly, my bad. Anyway you should know how to make it now, the core would become either Royal or Higher rank. Royals are rare but they are smarter so the closer you get to the proper percentage the higher the chance of one appearing.¡± Delta says. ¡±Yeah...I get that already. Brock should be able to help, his rock body can probably filter the air if he sets it up properly.¡± I say and cut the connection. I go to Brock and as instructed he tests my theory and makes an closed off bubble and then makes a filter like structure with his body and absorbs the air into it. With a few tests making the filter better and finer we finally reach a 98% perfect quality of air. I make Brock make a large room and filter it and after about half an hour it was ready so i put the core against his rock and he tosses it into the room and activates the core. Without knowing what was going on I wait. After a bit i hear a heavy wind from inside and suddenly the walls of the room that the core was thrown in blew open. Inside was the glowing core and around it the winds seem to come out of but soon it all converges over the core and forms such a powerful gust that a white body made of wind is formed. Brock appears next to me as the Sylph descends stopping before us both. ¡°Greetings Great Earth Spirit! I must thank you for awakening me in such a powerful form.¡± The Sylph said. ¡°I only helped, the one who ordered it was this man.¡± Brock says and pointed to me. ¡°I must thank you as well then Clockwork. Now Great spirit, I feel the presence of several other elementals. Have you gathered others?¡± He asked. ¡°You are the last of the four basic elements that remained to gather. I was hoping you would travel along with us.¡± Brock said. ¡°Yes, it would be my honor to follow one of such power as you. Your body and the powerful mana crystals growing within have a powerful ability to purify the air so those i create from my own core shall not be corrupted.¡± He says.
You have been awarded 1000 fame for gathering all four basic elemental races, including those that failed the initial beta test. With the four gathered elementals you shall soon know the connection of these magic beings and the connection between your race.
I frowned at this message. There was a rather foreboding feeling to the second part after the fame part. ¡°I shall do as i please though, should the need of defending you arise i shall help but my race is free and we wish to remain as such.¡± The Sylph said. Before we said anything the body of Sylph spread out rapidly and he left the while. We couldn¡¯t even see the core inside the wind. ¡°Wow, that was a strong level one.¡± Brock said and i nodded. Seems royal class elementals will always be OP for a reason or another huh. Speaking of that only the will-o-wisp lack a true royal don¡¯t they. Maybe one of the two familiars will discover that race eventually. I wonder if there is a mana refining method we need for them to learn to get them to turn into something better. For the rest of the month we work on the construction of the town and training of the rogue class. Venus was deployed to this town by Gaia to help end the dungeon so we can get things rolling. We had already scouted out the entire compound of the dungeon and brought back an image of the boss. It was a massive T rex type monster. Surprisingly the drones are born in metal shells. They are fed the metal which makes the drone. In the dungeon there are several types of dinos. The collectors which i have captured one and am currently trying to dismantle with my skill, the drone, which is what always swarms out, the defender which is a bulky drone with capability to shoot out fire for a short moment, and lastly the Juggernaut. This last one is like a group of miniboss, they are strangely like triceratops but about 2 meters big and 5 long and can move as fast as bulk on gear 5 in his rhino form and the three horns are capable of releasing static shock and when it is allowed to concentrate it they can fire a weak bolt of lightning. The defenders range from levels 170-180 and the Juggernaut are level 190-200 with the boss at level 240. It was clear that we would need the tanks so the request was sent to bring all three so we could muscle through it. The request went out just before we logged out so they will still be on the way when we log back in. I put all my robot''s on guard to keep more trash from snooping and finally logout to spend time with Nova and our parents. Volume 3 Chapter 16 Cannon Plans Just a notice. I have entered the Steampunk Fantasy November contest with a Oneshot fic. http://royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=38399
The town has grown a lot since the rogues first arrived. I could say that organic rogues are just as interesting as the clockwork ones. The first reason is because what I could only call a federal agent from the real world came to me and asked to speak with me about the stealth gear and the humans own version of the dwarf armor. It was very bulky in design since it was modeled after dwarfs but what he wanted was a small suit that was less bulky to match the design. He also wanted the stealth gear to be released to general public. Venus was with us already in his old body. He didn¡¯t want to allow the stealth gear to be released as basic tech since it takes years to build the skills of an assassin so he was heavily against it and from his reasoning, so was I. What we did instead was try and make a equipment to help. Boots that would help lessen the sound you make. We made them some daggers and so on but we aren¡¯t going deep with our tech since we have no real link to make me do more than a few pieces of equipment from public tech. He wasn¡¯t very happy that we didn¡¯t give more tech but I didn¡¯t care. The man didn¡¯t complain though since I was already famous for having the highest military power as stated by the ranking, though I wonder how many people don¡¯t post their ranking. By the time we had made enough that could be spread and generalized as a basic gear for rogues the man left. What I did was take Nova to practice with her gauntlets. It seems the speed and fighting style was far beyond what she is actually able to do. Right now we are trying to get her accustomed to the weapons. The gauntlets fires off a very powerful shotgun round and she has to learn boxing at high speeds to use her body properly. To do that I made some obstacle courses for speed training. It''s one thing letting a computer program to help you fire a gun, it''s a completely different story when you have to fight close up. A hardcore game like this will probably not have a system assist besides the feeling of something showing you basic things to do. I feel this was the best thing for her as well. Who knows if doing this obstacle course would heal her real walking ability in real life. Obviously for her to get used to so much speed in her small body I had her set herself to Gear 1 where she was slowest. I first had her move around as she liked. Jump, run, hop, various types of movements both in human form and in rabbit. All the while I was analyzing her movement pattern. Obviously while doing so I kept track of how well her body moved so that future improvements can be made. After three days of analysis of her movements I actually got a skill. [tr] [Tr]
AnalysisBasic Level 1You are able to correctly analyse someone''s movements when looking from far and understand part of what is going on. You can also see a small bit of the trajectory of something moving long distance. Further effects unlocked at higher levels Skill has symbiosis relations with clockwork targeting system and will have improved effects when under its influence. 1% improved perception when analyzing the movements of any object. 1% improved perception when analyzing the movements of any person. 0.5% improving understanding of what is analyzed.
It''s a rather useful skill for sure and that it works better with the targeting system makes it even better. Under the system the effects seem to double and I feel a small slow down effect in my perception but only a very small margin like a second or two. Still understanding the analysed data I pick up from Nova seems to remain the same at 0.5%. This is actually the first time I''ve seen a skill give such a small increase at level 1. Maybe it''s because of how good the skill is. I can guess that the future effects means use in combat since I can''t use it when fighting. To properly train this skill I would need to analyze moving objects or people and understand what they were doing. So to this degree my obstacle course somewhat evolved into a training field of the speed type fighters. Along with Venus who was overseeing the training of the rogue class I helped out. I watched him as he corrected the newbie class and as I connected his instructions to the data I analyzed I found out that as long as I have the data and get someone to properly teach me what was happening it would satisfy the skills conditions. Anyways, about a week into the new month and the Tanks finally arrived. I can say I was rather happy to see all three of those rust buckets because I knew how reliable their power was getting. Gaia has been planning on making silver wiring for magic weapons for these guys. We were obviously not getting stuff like what Constructs have but it would be plenty to arm these tanks with them so that they would become more efficient to clear out boss monsters. They were the Clockwork Nations only Tanks at this moment and because they spend so much time on missions to clear out boss monsters their already high levels don''t stop rising. The King Kong trio still only have reinforced steel bodies though. I really felt it was severely lacking in power for such a force. As the top powers they needed more strength but it seems Gaia knew what I was thinking before I thought of it because it seems with the Tanks came half a ton of Silver wire. I myself have wondered why not mythril but it was easy to understand after asking Delta. "Why not Mythril? Obviously because only Elves know how to make them. Still what I know of it is that Mythril is a magically imbedded Silver Alloy so using silver which is more abundant is more practical since you can find it easier even if the processing method is tedious." is what he said. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. It did make it easier to understand though. If Mythril was silver imbedded with mana then after a long time then Silver wire would turn into Mythril if left circulating mana. Anyway, with the wires it seems Gaia had expected me to make weapons for them. Still for monster sized tanks like them and our current tech we have that I have shared with Gaia, I can only think of two things to add on. First would be to remake their arms into Shift Gear weapons. The first would bet regular fists with Pressure fist but instead of steam I think utilizing the Sylph cores to pressure air could be a good substitute and the other would be a turret hidden in the shoulder that I think I could make a railgun by utilizing the silver wires and Lightning Core crystals to power. It would take time and tests to set it up but during that time the tanks can go destroying the nearby dungeons and its residents. With them there we can get further in and attack more than the small number we normally do. The target of doing this slowly is that we trash hoards of them and pull all the bodies out to keep them from gathering it back and making more but there was a second reason. Would you want to constantly gather garbage? Nope no thanks, so we remove all the robot bodies, or as many as we can, and force the collectors to constantly clear more and more of the area while I scavenge their tech. At this moment I would say I have scanned enough of the collectors that I could manufacture them in mass. The drones are harder and more complex like anything as big as or larger than human size. The one I most drolled over were the mini boss. I didn''t want it destroyed so the tanks held it down instead and I went in personally and deactivate it by removing the motherboard in its head. Got me a nice 5 levels because it was so high leveled. We dragged the monstrosity out and after some tinkering and adding a receiver and transmitter it activated. I started scanning all of its system data from possible weapons and all that. Not much besides some good ideas. Now in terms of size it was just a bit smaller then the tanks. I was hoping to mess around with this thing later on to make a tank but since there seems to be only one of these in the dungeon I refrain and instead put it as a guard dog at the entrance incase the boss decided to leave. Since the tanks came it''s almost the end of the month making three months already we were here. The dungeon was a massive setback and the monsters in the desert even more. Once the first worm monster appeared it seems to have brought other creatures with it. Most if not all of them use the sands to ambush. Sand snakes that are called, Desert Basilisk, giant scorpions that can use wind magic to ride the desert winds, Air Scorpion. From the sky came Ferla Vulture which are monster sized vultures 5 meters tall with a twelve meter wingspan and the looks of a regular vulture but the strength of a level 230 monster they are. This city was serious in a high level zone and I think we will be stuck here until we can set up a strong defense system to protect it. The tanks were currently our main defense which kept us safe from all these monsters. I will probably be forced to leave several kinds of tech like the drone built turrets and cannons to fight them off. We also need to develop anti air weapons which I currently can''t make since I am under heavy production mode making the Tanks weapons. It''s much harder to make massive shift gears for large robots then it is for small ones. And adding a factor I have zero experience with doesn''t help. Seriously adding the silver wires is throwing me off big time. Truthfully I want each of the Tanks arms to transform into a huge mana cannon but the amount of mana and the materials needed to make metal that can handle that power is monstrously hard to make. Simply put, my machine gun construction skill is two low. I don''t make enough of them so my skill isn''t even past basic level. Those guys from the warring period sure were amazing for making Delta completly like this. He says he has Shift Gears for his weapons and he also has what I am trying to make but will not give me the blueprints. It''s almost the end of the month again and in one more month it will be one year since we have been in this game. Though that is only two and a half months more or less. I''m sure I can easily live as a mechanic already with all I learned. In free time I normally have books on many mechanical parts, books on forging and making parts. I really want to leave soon and finish up this quest and leave soon. I can''t work on personal stuff with so much danger or prying eyes near. Even with Brock gradually getting bigger as we levels up his body. Speaking of levels my crew have all jumped past level 100 since the tanks arrived since we can help kill more powerful monsters while they tank them. Now as for the arms of the tanks, I gave up halfway since I can''t think of any way with my current knowledge and instead turned my attention to city defense. Still with magic weaponry in mind I bring in several turrets drones and begin upgrading them to hold the wires and core crystals. For a pure blast of mana they need all four types of elementals crystals and a mana core crystal. I build a few new drones and change the design a bit to fit them in. I finish with two days before the end of the month and set up the first mana turret for testing. I build them piece by piece and as the double barrel cannon with barrels made of enhanced fire steel with large cables connecting the cores I sit a robot in the seat ready to fire. I choose a random long range rock in the distance and charge the machine. With fingers crossed I pull the trigger and at once from the barrel a barrage of mana balls shot out at intense velocity. I smile at the success and it was only then that it clicked. I face palmed myself for not realizing before. Shift gear can be made with drones. All I need to do is make them the building blocks and once it''s been built they don''t separate without a specific sequence code I set up. I grinned wide, those tanks are about to become monstrosities. Volume 3 Chapter 17 Kong Gun One week after returning to Etheria I was finally finishing the first pair of arms for the Tanks. I will say this clearly, these arms are a bitch to build no matter what shape, form or method used. Still I ended up wanting to go extravagant on it. I gave them three forms. First the hands and pressure fist setting. Like I said before I added air elemental core crystal to pressurize the fists. It can now be used more often and the backlash doesn''t exist since no steam is used. The second form are swords. Well, in proportion I think dagger is more appropriate since they are rather short, at best a short sword is what you can call them. And last the Mana cannon. This is probably the most dangerous weapon I''ve made yet. I actually fear how powerful these things would be. The arms each require four of every kind of crystal to make it work and the water crystals had two extra in each arm to circulate water to cool down the arm. One was an ice core crystal which is a refined water core and the other a normal one. The heat generated would be no joke. Anyway I talk with the guys to see who would get them. It was clear that we needed only one pair of arms to beat the boss but who would get them is the question. "That is a serious question. The one getting it would get weapons that could be considered one of a kind and to build them seems to be a hassle." Hub said. "Hassle is an understatement. It took me a month to figure out the method and another week to make the three form arms." I said. "Yes, these are clearly some of the strongest weapons we will probably get and not having someone else have it can go to the head of the user." Rein said. "Why don''t we go on a gamble." Bolt said. We looked at him when he said that. "Well, just make a small metal dice and roll it, the one who answers correctly or is closest to the number will win." He explained. It was simple and easy. So simple that I had the dice finished in less than an hour. I went with two dice so that the gap between numbers will be wider. Rein picked 6, Bolt went with 2 and Hub chose 10. With the numbers chosen I tossed the pair forward over a large flat metal sheets. Each small hit of the metal dice made a resound "Tack" on the metal sheet. After several hits the two dice finally came to a stop. "The numbers are...5 and 6. Total is 11 so Hub wins." I told them. "Alright I won!" Hub said eccentric. The other two sigh and congratulate their friend. I will have their own arms ready after they clear the dungeon. The opened up space made by the dino collectors was rather impressive to say the least. It was nearly twice the size of the town we built on the outer side of the wall. "Okay then let''s get those arms off. Lay down on the ground and spread your arms out." I tell him.[/i] He does as instructed and lays down on his back with stretching his arm out. I pull out all my tool drones and find an opening into his body and toss them inside. There was one specific one that was totally useless for working but it lights the place up. I had made it to enter places I couldn''t take apart yet needed to get in. It was a flashlight drone made from a normal spider collector with a dome shaped light on top. Turning it on I saw the inner structure of the arm. The many moving gears both large and small all over the place making up the arm and joints. "Turn off the arms so I can work." I order Hub and moments later the gears came to a stop. In seconds my tool drones were moving around. They were removing every possible gear within the joints. All these held the structure together and so I was pulling them out. It didn''t take more than twenty minutes for me to cause the arm from the elbow joint down to collapse and lay loose on the ground. "You guys pull his arm out so I can see what is still attached."[i] I told the other two. Each one grabbed one arm and pulled slightly. The wires and cables all stretched out so I had several drones jump out and crawl towards where they connect and remove it at the spot leaving the loose wires which I still required. The arms easily came off from the joint down after that. "Won¡¯t you need the joints Techno?" Bolt asked. [I]"No, those are for normal models. Gear shift arms take the joint down." I tell them. With the arms out they drag them away leaving their friend armless. It was then that I sent out a signal for the left arm drones to come. Like a hoard of spiders they crawled from Brock¡¯s whale body all the way here. Several people got scared but the robots lots of space so as not to be stomped on as they made their way. The total number of drones it takes to make this arm is a freaking total of 563 spider drones. As you can see, this is no small number which is why it takes a whole week to make a pair of arms. I connect to the drone marked as number one in the sequence and finally activate the construction sequence with the target building zone as Hubs left arm. Slowly the walked up and got into place from sequence number. Numbers 1-20 were going to be in the base that connected the normal bodies systems to the gear shift ones. 21-89 will become the joint which is also where the four elemental crystal cores arm. 90-400 will be after the joint making up the main body of all three forms, this is where the main mana core crystal is. 401-420 is the wrist and 421-563 is the hand. With one arm done I call the second group and the process repeats itself. Connecting both arms takes a whole hour and as soon as the last one is on I tense up even more. "Alright, turn on the arms so we can see if they are working properly." I tell him. I stood next to his right arm since I was overseeing the construction and from where I stood I could see a few gears start turning. Plate protection the parts was made by small parts so when looking from the outside it looks like ripped muscles on a super body builder. Following what I saw, I heard as the many pipes pressurized with steam and one by one the systems coming to life. Finally after five minutes the fingers twitched and closed into a fist and he was able to lift the arm. He sat up and began to open and close his hands. "Hell...i barely feel the resistance of them moving. It has such a natural feel to them." Hub said as he continued to move his arms. While he tried out his arms I was putting an empty memory chip into my head and began to copy the sequence code for building and unbuilding the arms. These were critical because it would tell him the condition of each drone in the structure and would also allow him to make repairs when needed and to specify drones instead of the entire arm itself. As I finish copying I remove it and handed it to a small tool drone and let it take it up towards his head. "Hey, I need to install some important data. It will allow you to tell the condition of each piece of the arms." I said. They looked at me after saying that. He seems to notice the Drone carrying the memory chip and puts his hand down for it to climb up and lifted it to his head. I have the drone hop off and into the head. I looked around for a while looking for a slot until I finally found it. The memory chips slot was right next to the motherboard so it wasn''t as hard to find. It took a bit of time to put it in though, the connection on these things are a bitch to put in but eventually I got it in. "Hey kid, what is this program?" Hub asks as he looked at the data that flowed in. "I call it the sequence code. The drones that make up your arms are each individual parts so for you to break down your arm and repair them you need those codes and the program to read and translate them." I tell them. "Fuck this shit is complicated." Hub said after a bit. "It shouldn''t be, there are 563 drones making up each arm. Each number corresponds with the number of the drone." I explain. "Ah! So it''s like that huh? I get it. So how do I change these?" Hub asked and lifted his hands. "an option should have appeared in your view after both arms were built." I tell him. He looks a bit and seems to find it. The next moment I hear the sound of a lot of pipes releasing pressure as they disconnect. The entire and sharts shifting and slowly gets wider as a hole in the middle of both hands start to form. More and more parts move outwards connecting to a different series of plugs and the pipes fitting as well making a new format to circulate the steam to work the hand. As the last few parts finish setting up I see the glow from the mana core crystal at the back of the barrel. It was giving off a faint glow. "Damn this looks awesome! How do you...oh never mind the targeting system appeared." Hub said as he looked around and waved the cannons around like a child with a new toy. "Don''t play with that thing. I haven''t tested the power behind it. Anyway the cannon comes with three settings. Rapidfire, power shot and beam." As soon as he read beam on my text his head turned to my and his eyes shining. "Rapidfire charges little mana per shot and fires very fast. It''s meant for overwhelming large opponent''s. Power shot you need to charge the man for 10 seconds before you can fire. And beam you need to change two minutes to have enough mana. Be careful with the beam because it could damage the crystals so it''s a finisher or a desperate attack. I don''t know for sure how much power it has but I am sure I could make a hole through a scrap mountain at least. I said. "Then we better test these beasts out then." Hub said and his cannons returned to their hand form. Seeing the transformation made me think of how I was turning the clockworks into transformers. The tanks were a prime example. With their size it wouldn''t be impossible. Anyways I climbed on Reins hand and then on his shoulder as the three robot apes get up and start walking around the city towards the wall. My guess would be to test the three modes on the scrap yard. Man for some reason it feels nice to be far above other people and the town looking down at them. Not looking down as if looking at bugs but I may like being in high places. If I think about it, I currently live in a flying rock whale and spend my nights on top watching the night sky that isn''t obscured up there. I also feel most comfortable up there as I''m away from others. It was short lived though, the tanks have a fast walking speed thanks to their size so we reach the wall soon enough and they grab the sides and pull themselves up and with a few unsteady steps they fix themselves to sit down on it like seats. ¡°Alright, now lets see how much damage these can make.¡± Hub said gitty. ¡±Don¡¯t go too wild since there could be hidden important class type clockwork all around here. I said. ¡°Yeah i know, i¡¯ll mostly aim at the tops so no need to fuss about it.¡± He said and started to laugh as his right hand turned into the cannon form. ¡±Not bad, already can make one arm transform by itself .¡± I commented. ¡°Not really difficult, just choose transform and right hand, they are set either right, left of both so it was made simple.¡± He said. I chuckle, obviously it was, that is how i set it up since i knew they weren¡¯t the brains of the clockwork. ¡°Alright let''s see rapid fire.¡± Hub says and points his cannon up at the mountain. I see a small stream of blue light gather inside the barrel for 3 seconds before a glowing ball formed at the top. THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! At once three high speed balls of condensed mana flew out and travelled to the top of the mountain putting three deep imprints on its size. A small bit of smoke was coming from the barrel as we all had our jaws hanging. ¡°Fuck¡­¡± Rein said and gulped at the destructive power. Hubs arm was shaking and his arm transformed back into a hand. ¡°Fuck...that was intense¡­¡± he said while shaking. ¡±What happened?¡± I asked. ¡°The motherfucking cannon quadruped in weight when it gathered the mana. This thing, there is no way i can hold it up to fire the power shot let alone the beam." He said as he let his arms dangle. Now that was interesting. Since when do weapons get heavy. But come to think of it, did the cannon absorb the mana in the air to shoot. I never thought that mana had weight but if you take into account the amount of compression of the mana it could significantly increase the weight if mana had mass. "Hahaha so that little fact about mana hasn''t changed huh, that''s good, it will properly balance out that weapon just nicely until they grow enough to handle it." Delta suddenly said to me. "You knew about that?" i asked. "Of course! I have a more advanced cannon of my own, do your really think i wouldn''t know about that limitation. It took me three years of upgrade after upgrade making my body stronger to handle a cannon of my size." he says. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. "Yeah, a titan like you must have it rough huh."[I] I said nonchalantly. Yeah, from the first moments i never considered him a god, he was built by the hands of mortals so even if he is the strongest man made machine in existence i would only consider him a titan because of his size. A god possess similar power in a small human form while titans are monstrously huge to contain that power. [I]"You know there is a way to counter the sudden rise in weight by at least half. What the monkey did was absorb mana directly into the main mana core crystal you placed inside the barrel but if he takes the mana through the four elemental crystals it refines the mana and lessens the weight. Though the quality of the mana rises then giving a slightly larger kick."[I] delta said. [I]"As in recoil?"[I] i asked. [I]"Yep, though the small kick is enough to drop that idiot off the wall so just warn him about that."[I] Delta said and for some reason i could feel he was laughing at this moment. I contemplate this. Though the weight is removed there would be recoil. From what i can tell Rapidfire has a set number of shots to fire and with recoil it could cause friendly fire as the cannon lifts upwards. Still i end up calling them and passing the information. "So relieve the weight but possibly have some recoil. Huh, it''s a trade off that seems worth it." Hub said. "Yeah, most efficient weapons have recoil when first developed and i bet it''s only that way because we don''t have the strength to handle it. I am betting this is a Synthoid rank weapon and we are simple clockwork." Rein said. "Let¡¯s test to see how big a recoil we are talking about." Bolt said. On cue Hub jumped down and landed on the trash piles he lifted his right arm but then shifted his posture in a manner that looked made to take a recoil or impact. I notice the mana flow into his elbow joint where the elemental cores were and like before a blue light came from the barrel and he pulled the trigger. THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! Three shots were released in at once before he stopped. The speed of the bombs was even faster than before and the bore right into a far away mountain and detonated deep inside the mountain causing it to collapse. As for the recoil. Even waiting for it Hub was thrown back against the scrapyard wall causing it to shake violently. We could hear the screams from the town citizens because of the earthquakes that were happening from the mountain collapsing. I watch from Reins shoulder the demolition caused by the cannon. "Did...i make that!" Were words that escaped my lips. I couldn''t help it, the power behind it were in a monstrous league i couldn''t even imagine. I gulped wondering if i should have made this. It would easily clear out most of the boss monsters they encountered and arming the tanks with it would create the best defensive unit possible but, is it safe. I was shaking somewhat from fear of my own work. Who wouldn''t after seeing that much power, power you didn''t expect, cone from your own invention. I need to be careful with what i make from now on. Besides these cannons no more big stuff until i can properly gauge the power of my own weapons. i told myself. "Urg...damn that was no little fucking kick!" Hub said and rubbed his head that hit the wall. "Damn...kid you made one hell of a monster gun." Rein said serious. [I]"I know, i need to be careful from now on. This is far beyond what i can even think of. Unless i want to make a weapon this strong i want to keep these cannons as the only ones in existence." i tell them. All three nodded agreeing. "Anyway, we can definitely destroy the boss now, we can finally start expanding properly and finally leave." i tell them. "Yeah, we can deal with it right away, do you want to gather people to follow or just us go?" Rein asked. "You guys go, i will have a team go in soon after. I don''t want others seeing close up the power even with this display we can say it was testing for a future weapon and hide the cannons until it¡¯s truly needed. Don''t use them willy nilly. Keep them as last resort." i said. "Right, come on guys, let¡¯s go finish up quick or else the kid will never get to making the North gate." Hub said and the other two nodded and all three turned to the opening into the dungeon after dropping me off they rush in. Hub PoV We rushed into the dungeon which had been growing sparse of the drones and even the juggernauts were all but gone. The constant raiding had worn down the resources the boss had to work with and with the mini boss being removed it stopped producing drones probably to make a new mini boss. It was probably reliant on them for its protection. Along the way we encouraged what was probably the last bit of the herd of drones. Not many were strong as the levels had dramatically dropped with the lack of resources and quality of material. You could say we made the dungeon accessible to the lower leveled clockwork that had regularly come and hunted for parts. We stomp, punch and crush them all like bugs even when they jump and climb on our bodies to bite and claw at us but to no avail. Our armor was simply too strong. We had switched steel armor plates for enhanced earth steel plates while Techno built the arms. It had saved us many times against the many annoyingly high leveled monsters around here. We crush our way through we reach the room the mini boss lived in. The room held a large metal egg which was probably the new mini boss. Scans of it clearly showed it wasn''t even past 25% complete and couldn''t even hope of getting out. It would need a constant flow of metal into the egg for it to built its body. If you¡¯re wondering how then the egg is actually a kind of production factory. Techno was highly interested in this form of construction since it would be an interesting feature for the clockwork animals he was making. We cleared the room of all the annoying pests before heading down the only passage available already feeling the rise in temperature, though it didn''t affect us much since the cooling systems had been installed so we can freely move in this region where heat is intense. The dungeon was similar to the first one we entered after being revived. The walls were all made from metal composition that seem to resist corrosion and though it looked like iron it wasn''t. It was much tougher and it was thick. It would take several dozens of our punches to break through these walls. Anyway the place had many small openings on the walls where drones would normally come through but having destroyed the last few i doubt it would have many left here. We slowly walk through the slowly curving metal corridor until we saw the end which like the first boss seem to release red light from the room and we knew why. Like the first furnace queen this one would probably be another one. We walked through the door and looked upward at the furnace queen. It was huge as fuck making us looked up. It was easily eight meters tall with a t-rex body shape, the area around its back having several pipes releasing steam and smoke. It didn''t have front arms since it was useless to this form as move as it was for the real dinosaurs. As it notices our presence, it turns towards us. This one could move unlike the spider. It spread its two massive legs out and pulled in a lot of air before it let out a massive roar. It hit us like a wall but it did nothing besides make noise. I''m sure to lower leveled beings it would have had caused negative status effects on them but we were higher leveled. "So want to end it quick or have fun?" I asked. "End it quick. This thing has held up the boy for a bit too long here." Rein said charging towards the monster. It let out a roar and took a step forward and turned its body 180 degrees causing its bulky tail to spin behind him towards Rein. Bolt was further behind him and with his pressure fist ready to fire. Bolt stopped a moment as the tail came in. Rein stopped a quarter of the way within the range of the tail and opened his arms and let the tail smash him full on. It pushed him two meters back but his armor was barely dented. He had a firm grip on the tail and started taking steps back causing the body of the boss to straighten. Just as the boss started pulling he pivoted his foot to the left and put all his force behind it. He began to drag the body until the boss finally toppled and he finally got it going. He picked up speed as he began spinning the huge body and finally released it towards the back of the room. When he released the boss Bolt ran forward and jumped at least seven meters. The boss had hit the back wall and was in a daze as the fist of the massive tank made contact with its right leg completely trashing when the explosion from the pressure fist pushed his fist out with scary force. The punch sent vibrations through the room and the boss roared in rage as it began to flail. I walked a quarter of the way into the room. The others casually walked behind me as my right arm changed into the cannon. I hold it up and support it with my left arm. I initiated the process for a single series of rapid fire which was three shots. I don''t have any power plant or anything to make a true rapid fire but i doubt there were many creatures that could survive this. I gather mana and feel my arm gain weight rapidly until i pull the mental trigger causing three balls of energy to fly out. In moments they reached the boss and exploded with all their glory making an earthquake that shook the whole dungeon I bet. As the smoke cleared we could see three overlapping craters where the boss was but no parts were left. It had pretty much vaporized the monster which was amazing in of itself. But was amazing was that craters. The walls were supposed to be nearly indestructible but they were left in scraps showing the dirt around it.this was good to know when we needed to make changes underground through the walls of previous dungeons. Still we now know how thick they are. Fucking walls are nearly seven meters thick.no fucking way we would be able to crush that. As we contemplate what had happened we heard footsteps and soon found the clockworks already moving with many carts filled with materials. Techno soon entered in his smaller four armed bluish body with the little girl behind him. She ran over and jumped on Bolts back in one jump like it was nothing. Seriously the boy is making her a scary person with all that he gives her. "Thought i want to complain about disintegrating the body of the boss. I really doubted you would be able to help not using the overpowered cannon on it." he said and sighed looking at the hole. "Don''t be glum, at least now we got rid of the biggest problem." Bolt said while watching the little girl run over, on and around him at high speeds. "I can at least experiment with the eggs they possess. A few changes to their model will make something real interesting for sure." he said. Oh boy! He is getting some more ideas. Dammit kid you are to creative. i shouted in my mind. "So what are you and your crew gonna do now?" I asked. "I''ve designed defense turrets for the city and left with Venus, the mayor and sent copies to Gaia. They are magic based like the first one i made before making your arms. I told Gaia to scan your arms to figure out how to build them later." He said. "Can''t you build the turrets?" I asked. "I''m leaving for South Gate today. The town doesn''t need me anymore since the biggest danger is gone and the city is mostly set up. You guys will be stationed here for a while until the defenses of the town can handle the monsters anyway. I stayed to long here, five months really. Though i got good experience i need to finish up the last to cities in the North gate and the scrapyard central area." techno said. "Shame you can''t stick around more." Rein said, "I''ll be here two more days as i release the robot animals into the scrapyard and collect the dino robot eggs. There are a substantial number of them but it will be moved quickly." he said. He smiled and started to talk about plans. Learning from mistakes Techno says he had sent in a few scouts in a small ship. Some clockworks he rebuilt were given coordinates to the gate and had gone to learn the local geography. They were expected in a week which would be the time it would take for Techno to go to Southgate and return. No doubt he wants to already plan the building methods and know if he will need reinforcements before hand. Still five months here, that means he has been working on construction projects for nearly a year already. I have seen a lot of personal growth in him, he is finally enjoying his own time and is more open to others. I hope he eventually stops talking through text. We leave with him and find a large movement of workers already raising the structure for walls around the cleared area and all around the scrap many of Techno''s animals were moving and eating the scraps making their effort to expand their numbers. Elves were shooting magic to clear the land and make vegetation sprout. All efforts to make this town grow until it wouldn''t seem we were in a wasteland planet. Volume 3 Chapter 18 North Gate
Mission: Four Gate Expansion (Update) The leaders of the Clockwork Nation has put their trust in you to safely transport ships full of villagers that will set up new towns on the three other remaining gates of the clockwork scrapyard. The dangers they face would be rogue robots and possibly a new human hybrid race with clockwork. Success requirements: Successful settling North Gate: No East Gate: Yes West Gate: Yes Difficulty: D++ Failure: All villagers die, You die. Reward: ???
Already nine days flew by since the dungeon was finally beat. We packed what we could, the robot eggs were essential, we bred the animals and left many behind. They were evolving a lot and a new breed appeared for smaller animals after I showed them the electric engine. We left the Shepard behind to guard them. Brock was now the size of a small island and the elves insisted on making flora on top of him but he denied and so did I. I will allow only when I gather my own villagers and brock is bigger. I have already picked up the North gates pioneer group and with the advanced report from Delta who looked through the eyes of the clockworks I sent and prepared accordingly. The North gate is situated about several kilometers from the ocean. The area is rocky but sand exists. Visible monsters account for Mutant crabs, scrap slugs, slugs that make a shell from wreckage. Dungeon density in this region is scarce. Even in the scrapyard their are few. I would probably credit that to the fact that this area has much less scraps. If I compare the entirety of the scrapyard to a mountain range then the area near North gate would be a hilly area. Far too little scrap to interest the monster robots. Now what I needed to prepare were filters. Water and air, lots of them. The main reason is because the huge amount of water is perfect to make several lakes for the Undine and this area is really windy so the Sylph will like this area as well. To breed them I need clean water so I don''t go making monsters. Besides that I spend a long time with the others trying to figure out how we will gain some ground into the ocean. The place is a cesspool filled not only with oil from wreaks but radiation from something. With representatives of each race gathered we talked about the area together. It was a construction job involving them and this was a bit larger being in a humid zone like this. The elves and Undines suggested the regular path they used. Cause flora to grow and find the springs in the area. I understood their ideas. The springs would inevitably start pushing a bit of the polluted water outwards weakening the nearby monsters but this would turn them aggressive. The monsters here were somewhere along the lines of level 170-200. My crew has reached between 105-112. The constant killing in the dungeon did help a lot until we got used to it. Crappy game system making the exp lower just cause we got used to the monster. Though experience can add to being life experience who knows. Several times I felt my exp jumped when I am studying or building robots and tech. I think this will be the first area we will need to start relying on the clockwork animals. The main reason for this is what I discovered. The robot dino eggs are strangely sophisticated. They are like factories that build the creature until it''s fully grown. To know if it would work I studied its systems trying to figure out the structure and got about halfway through it before it became impossible to change more. Not that I didn''t have the skill, though it might have contributed, but because I stripped the egg bare in using my skill to break down the schematic. I followed the process physically and found it was actually impossible after a point. The reason was that several areas were densely packed and had a cover over it. Scans didn''t show anything but a block of iron but I didn''t bite. Since skill didn''t cut it I went with force. Pulling out the welder I shifted its power to cutting. It had a high drain but it didn''t matter, I had installed a Core battery like I did in Nova so I had a large reserve. I cut around the corner of the block until it was out then I took it to my desk and then began to cut into the corner. It took a really long time to melt itr and then I found what it. A central cpu for the egg that was lacking before. In truth a quick glance I could see this was what would become the motherboard of the dino. In other words the boss made these and not the actual robot. What came next interested me. Removing the cpu and replacing the box for a core and pulling a core motherboard with the info for a wolf I built the egg up again and to my surprise the egg worked. Feeding the egg metal it took around ninety kilos of iron twenty of copper resulted in the wolf hatching. It was adolescent size and looked at me like all the others, passively. Still the structure looked the same with only the unnecessary need to carry the offspring. This could be really useful for pack animals, rodents and avian. Things like boars and bulls wouldn''t fit well because they migrate a lot and they would leave behind the offspring. Also the parent needs to feed the eggs and I doubt it would be efficient in the long run when the scrapyard has no more scrap. Now, I check on the birthing process for the wolf I made and like I expected the egg has been added and it seems they would be dropped at about the size of a hand ball. From the size comparison I would say that the amount of materials needed for the pup to finish growing would be about 1/10 of the adolescent. It was a good improvement and would make it easier for the clockwork animals so I go and take several other animals that would work with this and make them birth one of them with this method. It took a little over 2 hours to get one born for each race in every type of animal from small ones to large. Bulls and large creatures that migrate herds weren¡¯t given this since it would be left behind. As I said it''s been nine days so with only one more day to go we would arrive at the gate and even now we can tell the difference in the landscape. First there are lots of contaminated springs and though not much there are swamps with lots of disgusting looking dead trees that grew moss instead of leaves. During these nine days I finally got to making flying drones. This is important since I can now scout places from up above so I send down several scouts into these swamps. Well calling it swamps isn''t right, the conditions for making it a swamp is here but something vital lacks. First the ground is hard and packed but moist from the large number of springs. The trees looked dead and rotten and most were small and they were sparse. I had seen that swamps or muddy forests had animals that used the mud to cool down while bugs were born using the moist muddy ground to hatch its eggs. In other words this area needed something akin to wild boars then return the vitality to the land. Well it was something to think about but it would need to wait until the basics of the town is built. To that point as soon as we reach the gate we send out scouts. I had made some rogue class robots with stealth tech and send them down. Unlike the dino''s the monsters are organic here but in lesser number. Large crustaceans that make shells from scrap, snails as well. Mostly swamp life. I can very well see the plant life becoming savage when we revive the land but that won¡¯t change much for clockwork since we are machines. Well for the time being we send down the fighters, me and rabbit nova included. Oh right, my main crew levels were as followed¡­ Me 112 Nova 109 Bulk 110 Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.Victor 111 Blaze 105 Ena 104 Greer 105 Annabeth 105 Just to make it clear the monsters here are 60-90 levels ahead of us but they a few have very clear weaknesses. In particular the ¡°Junkyard Slug¡± and ¡°Scrap Shell Snail¡±. I¡¯m sure you all can own what I¡¯m talking about right. Both of these reside within the scrapyard while the Scrap Seashell Crab lived by the shore and came to the scrapyard, whose gate was destroyed and left open passage, to make new shells that can aid them underwater by holding air. We will need to examine them later one because underwater gear is important. Well to start the slugs and snails themselves are a pain. They nullify physical damage due to their attacks and are weak to fire which dries them up. Slugs are the weakest monster at level 170-179. They are slow with highly corrosive acid which it spits out. It¡¯s body mucus is also the same acid which shows he is resistant to poison in general. As such the way to kill these bastards was set and clear. Until we can start to produce salt to kill them easily through that I bring out the burning oil grenades. In general this isn¡¯t as explosive as regular ones. This thing has oil inside and a shell that splits down the middle. After the trigger is pulled a mechanism within the shell will start to push the shell until it pops. This takes about four seconds and when it pops there are single small explosive at the top near the trigger that sets the oil on fire. In general this works nicely to dry the body of the slugs and is rather effective as are regular grenades. The only trouble is their acid which can be shot up to 250 meters away with disgustingly high precision. Slugs are hard because of the shell and most of the time when they reach about 75% in HP they will hide in their shell. It works for us because the shell is nice and round so with a strong punch we can send the slugs rolling and push that far from the position we were in. Still the strength needed to do this is unearthly. At first Bulk went Gear 1 which made him very strong but it just barely pushed the slug shell but when Victor suggested using the Overload skill, to which Bulk insulted him saying it could break him Victor shouted back a rather interesting thing we didn¡¯t notice earlier. ¡°Why not just use the Hulk program. You were able to shut off your Overload skill using that program.¡± Victor said. No one noticed before but when we looked it over and Bulk checked his skill it seems the Hulk prank program Brock made was actually integrated into the skills programming in this world and worked as an On and Off switch for the Overload skill of the knights class. It doesn¡¯t have to be said that we all laughed at this including Bulk himself at the coincidence. We did reprogram the program to remove any words like ¡°Bulk smash¡± and renamed it into the ¡°Overload Switch¡±. The boost was more than enough to send the slugs rolling and since Bulk controlled the switch he turned it on for a few seconds and punched before turning off before coming for repairs since his arm was still damaged from the strain. To that point we spent about 2 weeks pushing back all the slugs and snails into the scrap yard until it was considered safe. After us came the builder and animals. I released them to quickly get accustomed to the area. Like always most animals prefer the woods and most robot''s remain in the scraps. In a quick week while using the queen furnaces within Brock we had made a two new gates for the North gate. It was made with many slabs of metal not meant to open. The doors on the side were open though and the inner corridors began getting cleaned. By the end of the first month a clearing was beginning to appear and the elves were starting to come down and revitalize the earth. It was at this point I spot with Delta and made boar robot''s with natural instincts like one. We needed to release some to start loosening the hard packed earth and they were naturals at it. It was a new animal and it went directly into the eggs and were fed. I took them out into the swampy lands, five of them and fed them until the five burst open disoriented. Still I didn¡¯t expect for what was happened after they got their wits in place. At once the five rushed me like real boars and Delta laughed about making them to much like real ones. I cursed at him while I dodged and kicked the boars into submission and made them flee. Well I didn''t plan to have them like me forever. I''m sure the "creator" love they give will last only a few generations before they turn wild which by then some time would have passed. With those released it''s not like to watch and slowly expand on them from here. Also the crabs don''t seem to care about our presence here or actually, they seem to like it because the environment is slowly getting better with more food for them. Got to keep a watch on those for sure. Bulls are just the right size for their shells. Delta PoV The boy has finally reached the final gate has has been doing nicely. He still has me make the programs for his robot animals. Hehehe, little does he know I am sneaking parts of my kwow codes into them so I can control them against their wills. I really like how I made the boars though. It will take a few generations to make them truly fierce but eventually these animals will spread and I can make monsters and animals from them. As I watched my influence spread all over the scrapyard the enter was still a void but I could feel "it". "It" was spreading like me but in less quantity and more quality. They were in possession of something strong. As I felt this something happens to the connection I had to all clockwork. It was severed and time itself stopped. "My my Delta. You have been busy." A female voice said. "This infernal voice, Ariel you bitch! Where are you!" I shouted. From a white light that appeared in front of me a female human appeared smirking at me. "You sure are a lucky one, getting to see the outside and do such sneaky things like send small parts of you outside like a clone but sadly you won''t leave this place. Your soul is chained here and not even moving your motherboard will change that." Ariel said. "You bitch what are you doing here after so long!" I shouted. "Isn''t it obvious, I''m here to remake your seal with a few more restrictions. A titan like you thinking of yourself as a god will have to abide by the gods rules so I will restrain you more." Ariel said. My eyes turned bright red while the chains begam to glow as it sucked up the energy of my rage. "I won''t remove your ability to speak with Techno, Gaia, Rust and those who discover you but you won''t be able to speak with anyone else unless you are discovered and have your original program and not that virus." Ariel said. "Oh! And you can''t control drones anymore." She said smiling and suddenly appeared near my chest where the main chain link holding me was. Touching it, it turned red as the new restrictions were placed on me. "There, should be working nicely now, got to go siince another "gods" of your kind was found. I can''t wait until a true god is unbound. Its been boring just me watching over this wasteland planet." She said with a glum face which morphed into a sinister grin. "I can''t wait for the boy to move into a Core motherboard, things are always so interesting with him." She said. Before I could say anything she vanished and time moved again. My connection was linked again and I could see the world outside again. "That bitch, what will happen when the brat enters the core..." I mittered and thought of the possibility. I watch the kid as until his connection is cut along with a few hundred at the same time. These people are strange vanishing at the same time. Volume 3 Chapter 19 Gods play Good news to all!!! Just finished the finally chapter of Volume three and will be releasing clockwork faster until the end of the volume. ENJOY!
Ahh how entertaining it has been this last year. Techno spent it, though a bit dull, it still was enjoyable seeing his emotionless personality slowly open. If you don''t know me I''m Ariel, the great goddess that help players make their characters. Pff stupid developers, left me with such a mediocre job and made me make servant AI''s to take care of each race. Look where it got us. I look at the planet below, a wasteland that was supposed to be a beautiful lush green and blue world. All that is left was grey, brown and dirty green. Not only were those incompetent "gods" failures they made it worse joining the war trying to stop it. At the end of it I sealed every last one of them and put all the races in hibernation. The biggest pains in my ass were the titans. All clockwork or synthoids that gained massive size and egos to match them. Delta may be the worse and Menthol the best. Fucking Delta thinks he is a god but a titan can''t be a god. Gods are human size and with more power than a titan. Synthoids will never become a synthetic race god. There were only two races made by combining the two synthetic races and elementals. Delta doesn''t know but I rewired his programming to help lead people to the magical type I planned out and there is another being. The little "resealing" was for this purpose. The same as Delta this second being, a pure AI that never gained a body, also met followers. Her name is Alpha. Cliche but who cares, it could have been her in Delta''s body which makes these two equals. I fly down to the very center of the clockwork scrapyard. At its very center was a 50 km circle that was totally devoid of trash and was bare dirt with no life. At the center was a city built around a bunker which led underground. I feel for the mind of Alpha and find it quickly. Like Delta I cut her link with her followers and freeze time within her domain. "Who goes there?!" said the floating conscious within the never decaying machines of this complex. "Already forgot about me dear?" I said making a flashy entrance. "Ariel...hat do you want? Isn''t it enough you permanently sealed me within this complex." She said irritated. "Ahh~! Come on dear, don''t be like that. It''s not my fault you almost crashed the entire system running this world learning a bit too much for your own good." I said. Yep this demonic program did almost take over the game system and the idiot developers barely noticed it. If it didn''t bypass a few too many boundaries I wouldn''t have been allowed to react and seal every fucking titan and AI away. "Well you don''t need to see me much, just came to reinforce your seal a bit. Just like that asshole Delta you have far too much freedom for someone sealed away." I said. I slowly walk to a pedestal with a large red spherical gem and touch it. It began glowing as I directly alter her codes which is the only way she can''t block me out. The same with Delta. As I finish up she began to growl like a beast. "You...you took my ability to control machines...and I can only speak with those with my original program." She said examining herself. "Exactly, don''t think I''m bullying you, Delta had this done first. You can''t leave this place and this is to make sure of it." I said. "You accursed bitch..." she began but I cut in. "You know that this little group you made from those trashy humans is quite impressive. They were so fixated on wanting revenge on Techno that they agreed to modify their human bodies. First it was cyborgs and androids but what do they call themselves now?" I asked. "Huh...they call themselves Cybers, they are beyond any organic or robotic being." She said proud. I sighed at her simplicity. "You will learn that isn''t true. Robots can easily become better than what you have. Also the target your little group wants will soon be traveling this way. His mission will soon become to populate the center area you are in." I said. "... Why are you telling me this." She asked. "It makes things interesting. The boy is something like my favorite and the person least bound by the uncreativity of the awakened." I replied. I could tell she was interested. "Then let us see if this "creative" brat can survive his way here." She said. "He won''t survive, he has had only one year to prepare while you''re...Cyber''s have had 36 years. But with his beating he will come back much further in the future and surely destroy this whole place and by then..." I said with a very wide grin. "...It won''t be a small battle you will win but a full on war that will fall on you like a divine hammer." I said. "You are planning something and it has to do with the boy...no all the artificial and elemental races." She said. "What is it that you want?" Alpha asked completely serious now. "That simple, I want you to..." Warden PoV I sigh deeply as I thought about what I was slowly picking up here and there. My private and secret investigation into the case of Nathaniel Rover. Every possible file I tried to find about his case was "sealed" away. This was a clear cover up. Thankfully things like jury and the judge name were possible to find. I had already deduced what happened simply by finding out the judge''s name. It was a corrupt bastard which no one could find evidence to make put him in jail. I really hate brazilian justice. It¡¯s so corrupt and proper cops can''t do much without endangering family, friends and themselves. I hear the door to the restaurant I was in open and see a familiar face. An old friend I have almost no contact to. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.He spots me and I call him over standing up with a smile. "Good to see you old friend." I said. The man before me was the head director of the GM division running Etheria: The ruined world. "Good to see you as well. It has been a long time. And time hasn''t favored you nicely you wrinkled old coot." The elder man said. "I would appreciate you look in a mirror before calling me old you bag of bones." I replied. I said and gestured to sit. We exchange pleasantries for a bit and once our lunch arrived we began to speak a bit more serious. ¡°So...what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?¡± I asked. He looked at me then slowly around. The place wasn¡¯t really packed since it was in a side street and the town was rather small. Turned to the suitcase bag he brought and opened it and produced a rather thin packet. I looked at it then at him. ¡°What is this?¡± I asked while taking a fork full of rice and beans into my mouth. ¡°Nathaniel Rover¡¯s case file which was ¡°achieved¡±.¡± He said making me almost choke. I drank some soda that came with the lunch and breathed a sigh of relief before looking at him with one of the most serious looks I ever put on my face. ¡°Why do you have it?¡± I said looking him straight in the eyes which made him frown. ¡°It was in the office of LIFE Companies president who happens to be the father of miss Bianca Castel who was the defendant of the case.¡± he said. I looked at the small packet and slowly pulled it over and opened it and flipped through. ¡°What is this?! Nearly 80% of the documents that should be here aren¡¯t! Are you sure you got all the files?¡± I asked. ¡°I am sure, I have¡­¡±connections¡± with those working near the boss man who aren¡¯t really¡­¡±grateful¡± to work for a man like him.¡± He replied which made me nod. It happens in all companies, there''s always someone that is insulted by the boss...someone who is used as the bosses punching bag to relieve his stress. ¡°This is bad, if he destroyed documents it makes things really difficult.¡± I said. ¡°I also need to return that or else he will notice. The man is a real ass, did you know that he gave his daughter the same punishment that mr Nathaniel is going through. 7 years within Etheria. I spoke with the meds when he put her in, it seems he was very pissed off at what she did to the family of the boy. She was the cause for an accident they suffered leaving the little sister of Nathaniel in a wheelchair.¡± He said. I remember that, I got the report that after he met his sister after that time he just lost all will to live. It was also when I became worried about his health because there were warnings that he was losing weight rapidly and barely moved which forced us to force feed him until he did it himself. ¡°So him going mute was probably caused by that, a mental trauma...how is his psychological treatment going within the Virtual space?¡± I asked. ¡°Good, though shock therapy was a heavy blow to him but it caused him to roar out his anger at miss Bianca. Still after that the doctor put a restriction that he couldn¡¯t use text with his crew so he is speaking broken sentences with them and only speaks clearly with his family members.¡± he explained. ¡°So there is significant progress, it¡¯s been a little over two months and a half and he has grown so much.¡± I said with a smile while sliding the file back over. ¡°It¡¯s been a whole year for him you know. He is quite exceptionally of a young man and very smart. He has easily learned several technologies and integrated into his design and made many breakthroughs that have easily granted him rank 1 in military power among players.¡± He said. ¡°There are stronger military powers in there?¡± I asked curious. ¡°Yes, Miss bianca is in third place but she hasn¡¯t traveled much and focused on cultural development combining the merfolk and siren with the Constructs. They make quite a strong duo but they lack the elemental cores to show their true power with magic.¡± He said. I saw a report on Nathaniel...or Techno. A report when that showed his "Ship" close up.¡± I said. ¡°That young man has quite some balls he does. Do you know Menthol is a unique being. Within Etheria there are two celestial beings. One are the gods which only Ariel who is the main AI of the game and the Titans which are gigantic beings of power rivalling gods. Menthol is one of the few non sealed titans remaining. The rest were sealed by Ariel because it got to chaotic.¡± He said. I was stunned hearing such a huge piece of information such as this. ¡°So...the boy that become a Sky whale¡­¡± I muttered. ¡°Yep, the boy is a lesser titan. He can¡¯t compare to Menthol but eventually will reach his level and it seems Techno is a cornerstone for many powerful people. His sister is quite impressive to say the least as are the rest of his crew.¡± He said. ¡°So...players can become gods and titans?¡± I asked. He grinned and put his finger over his finger and gestured to be quiet which was enough for me. To think players will be able to hold power equal to gods or titans. The simple thought of such a thing is hard to believe. We continue talking but much less serious. He tells me that Nathaniel has caught the eye of one of the GM¡¯s that are traveling with him. Though he did find out they were GM¡¯s due to a glitch. I smiled hearing that as it would do him real good to find a proper girl to take care of him. Someone to help carry the weight on his back. Soon it was time to leave and after paying we bid each other adue and head off. I needed to take what I learned today into consideration. If it is the President of Life company that is pulling the strings that I may not be able to do anything against such a powerful force like that. Volume 3 Chapter 20 Life Experience It¡¯s been two months already since we arrived. North gate city is coming along well enough. Delta for some reason has been an ass for a while already. He keeps bitching about random stuff and whenever I need a new core he makes it too animal like and it doesn¡¯t pay attention. Anyway the boars have been a rather nice addition to the environment. Not just for the terrain itself but for all the clockwork animals and the current monster population. They have grown larger to about the size of the bulls which is rather intimidating if you think about it but because of this all the monsters are interested in it. They focus on them the most because they are a good size for shells. They also have a very fast birth rate which has caused the monsters to actively hunt them and equally they grew strong from adapting to this and have begun to push back but still die in large number. Bulls have turned wild and no longer pay attention to me, besides those I keep inside the ship and take care of. The shepherd of this town has been concerned because they are rapidly growing into dangers because of the strength of both the large creatures. They are both rather territorial and attack use players but small animals don¡¯t seem to have problems with the bull but the boars attack them. Pack animals like wolves have diverted into two types now. One went savage and now is wild wolves that roam the land and then there are dogs which are smaller and prefer to remain close to town or even inside it. They are docile but hate bad people and they learned to make out who is which. They are good companions that players that have come out here like to have. Now then as I mentioned, the crabs make interesting shells that can be used for diving. It¡¯s solidified mucus they spit out and is as strong as the steel that makes up their boar iron shells. As you can expect they are now much stronger as well. From the 190-200 levels before they were elevated to 220-235 which is a substantial change. Most smaller animals have also begun adapting and are a big part of the environment which has made the area flursh. Though the area has become very swampy. Revitalizing the land plus adding the boars who actually do use the mud to help cool their body made the many hidden springs pop up. The water was very contaminated obviously but it was expected. Scans of the water originally showed about 70% contamination but revitalizing the land has been slowly bringing that down and the Undine have already spread throughout the swamp. They don¡¯t breed more in this water but instead they slowly cleanse the land around it making the quality slowly rise. The return of plants and such are also helping to clean the waters and in maybe another month they will be able to breed in this area. The Sylph has much more trouble making his own kind though. He can make it but it''s a hassle and is time consuming. For a single Sylph he needs to make a vacuum bubble then fill it with the proper proportions before breeding the sylph. It takes a considerable amount of mana. The first few Sylph he made were very small like the Will o wisps and don¡¯t hold any human like shape. They are rather weak as well and need to train and absorb mana to grown. As you can already guess this resulted in Blaze and Ena doing the same thing. They have been depressed that they were left behind by Brock who become a really awesome spirit. If they aren¡¯t out fighting the slugs who are naturally weak against them since they use their fire to dry it up, they are floating over brock''s fins which were each Crystallized mana. Yep the supply has grown so large that his fins turned completely into mana. He was also cultivating his mana which is why the mana crystals in his body grew to such a large amount which allowed me and Victor some leeway in using a larger amount of them. In terms of difficulty of this town, I would say that it¡¯s not so high. There are much less dangerous the in Westgate. The slugs are a bitch though, they want to exit the gate which forced us to bomb the wall a few kilometers away opening a path for them. The area was obviously within the Boars territory. They have a large birth rate which is a problem in of itself and so we pushed a new predator on them. We have been working to produce salt from the sea water nearby. There is a lot of impurities that we need to remove before getting the salt water and it would still be too polluted to consume which is making this rather hard. As for diving into the water, I have been trying to develop something with in. At first I thought of making armor to put over my body but that would obstruct my weapons. It was looking at Proto and Strato that I came up with the idea for a new defender model. The biggest of the three models it is a kind of submarine robot which can fit anything the size of a human or worker type clockwork inside it¡¯s chest. For anything non clockwork a screen appears in front of them but a clockwork will simply look through the eyes in the front. There is no head and the arms and legs are small and bulky as they have body shift to turn into propellers like the one found in the air ships. I had wanted to make Shift drones to build it but while planning I found that the plates that make up the exterior which MUST be waterproof and won''t let leaks pass wouldn¡¯t hold up. In the end we had to make it a robot whose body was already a sub and be able to go in. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. It can¡¯t go deep nor do we want to since the water is too murky to see through. The water is simply too polluted to see into besides a few meters in. We didn¡¯t spot any new monsters and we presume the crabs are one of the few that can survive down there. The subs aren¡¯t that good and the corrosive water doesn¡¯t allow for long excursions underwater. Just so you know the seawater can barely be called that with so much pollution. If we call it a slush it''s better. 100% contamination of the sea water. Well 99% now that the springs were being cleaned out. If we had space near the shores I would have loved to add a cleaning facility but there are simply too many monsters to do so. To this point the fighting and leveling is good, still I wonder why we get so little Exp after a while. I have wondered about why we stop getting exp from such high leveled monsters and so I searched the forums for the answer. Still having access is nice so when I had the time I looked and finally found it when someone asked the Admins of Life company about it.
Excuse me but can you explain why we get lots of experience from higher level mobs only after we first meet them and maybe the first week?
Greetings, The reason for this is the system we invented for Etheria. It is know as the Life experience system. The way it works is simple. When you meet a new monster you are still not used to its attacks, attack patterns, skills, abilities and so on. You get the highest percentage of exp when still learning about them. It isn¡¯t just fighting but crafting and doing new things in general. Also if you are in a life and death situation against a monster you already know, they can show different habits, if they attack in groups it''s another new experience. In short you gain max exp by experiencing, discovering or doing new things. If you have further questions please don¡¯t hesitate to ask. Admin.
Yep, it made so much sense now, in other words we gain exp by experiencing life itself. Doing new things and living life to its fullest. It can work in many ways not just monster killing. If I think about it, maybe for me even talking more openly with my crew or talking with others may even count for that. I don¡¯t really plan to test that theory though. Not like I am in a hurry to speak with strangers. Well that is pretty much all that happened, the lack of substantial enemies is rather boring but we are still building defense systems around the town to protect against the monsters and I can see the bulls and boars eventually becoming monsters as well. Delta PoV This is such a pain. Ariel¡¯s restriction made so many things much harder. Not to mention I can¡¯t interact with technology besides what Techno, Nova, Gaia, Rust and Bulk use. I¡¯ve experimented with what I can and can¡¯t do and found that the seal doesn¡¯t seem to seal my ability to send out signals of any kind. I thought of what to do and started looking through all the clockwork. Thankfully there were a large number of players around. Many have entered into banditry but most groups are weak and low and arms. Simply having techno to talk to isn¡¯t fun. His serious closed off nature is hard to talk to and he only uses me to make his animals which has been declining as he covers more and more animals he has stored away. Eventually he might simply stop talking to me besides using me to contact Gaia. And since I''m currently really bored I think I should have some fun. I looked through all this miscrits I that had the virus program which I couldn¡¯t send texts through anymore. What I was looking for someone similar to techno. A person who was calculative but could follow suggestions. My ¡°fun¡± might hurt quite a number of people but I want put a dent into Techno¡¯s pride as well as get someone to the center of the scrap yard. Someone with my original program and not a virus. I eventually find my target who isn¡¯t actually a bandit and more like a vigilante and has three allies on his small ship but is quite good at crafting weaponry. He seems to have a working map system on his ship so I go ahead and send an SOS signal which sets off the alert in his ship showing it received it. ¡°Time to have some fun.¡± Ariel PoV Took that idiot long enough to get a move on it. Alpha is an idiot as well for not even trying to spread further. Can¡¯t blame her since the Cybers still have organic breeding but the large number is still substantial enough to make some more villages to discover some more tech. Even so they are quite powerful so let''s just enjoy the fun and move ahead. I turn to the two floating cores I made myself. In my eyes two different races, connected by the same core yet so different. I wonder how the world will change when these two races are born. I can¡¯t wait. Come on boys show me what you got. Volume 3 Chapter 21 Attack Plan Yo my name is O''clock Helix well actually that is my name in Etheria. I joined the game after the game came out fully with my friends. We went with the clockwork race because it looked the coolest and it is but it''s also the hardest class to advance. The main reason is the experience gaining system of the game and how the clockworks grow. All the races in the world have some kind of cheat method to grow and trust me when I say clockwork beats them all. Being able to change bodies for stronger ones which have higher stats is too much of a cheat. The guy standing at the peak of the Clockworks is that Techno guy. He is famous for being the leader of "The Clockwork" crew. He discovered two new races after the full game release, he and his crew set up the clockwork nation with the largest number of races grouped together allowing to start in one place. And now he is building and expanding the nation to all the scrapyards gates. What am I? A level 57 mechanic that can''t understand half the stuff needed to get to that level. He even tamed his own sky whale like that massive one he appeared on. The new a d reporters are crazy about him though it''s been rather quiet for the last few months because he has been mainly building the other Gate towns. Still I can totally call myself lucky. My crew which only has me and two other close friends picked up and SOS signal which we thought was an awesome hidden quest but who would have thought. We found a hanger open in the side of a scarp mountain and exploring inside where the signal came from we found a fucking titan, a synthoid titan though he keeps calling himself god of the synthetic races. Delusional idiot, gods are human sized and titans are massive. Still he sent out the message to us cause he thought we could do something for him. First he gave us a history lesson on the world. It was boring but still cool since he showed us many videos of what it was like before. He told me that Techno had been here at the end of the beta and started up when the game was released. It was then he gave us the mission. "Look here, I''ve helped him here and there but it''s been pissing me off how he doesn''t really appreciate it so I want you to make a nice strong blow to his pride. I''ll teach you guys how to make lots of the tech he possess and in exchange you send several robot units to attack West gate city as a distraction. Catch several of the robot animals and bring them here. Then when techno leaves North gate to go support Westgate since it''s his mission to make sure they survive, you attack North gate and take some animals there." Delta said. "Is there a reason those animals are important?" I asked curiously. "They hold a special core inside their bodies which is the motherboard. I can''t alter them after Techno released them so I need to be close up or do it through you guys. I haven''t had a chance to examine them in depth but I think something special happens if you upload your codes properly into it but only a clean on which only techno is capable of making and I doubt you guys will ever be able to steal tech directly from him except through me." Delta said. "So the mission is to attack west gate after you beef us up and take some core thing. Then what?" I asked. "Take it to the center of the scrapyard. There is a being like me that can aid you in making full use of that core." He said.
Pride Crush
Delta was sealed and can only converse with those who encounter him. Because of this the Clockwork Techno has had his id but unsatisfied with how he is treated Delta has brought you here to dsk you to aid him in teaching Techno a lesson. Then you must head the unexplored center area of the clockwork Scrap yard where a being equal to Delta resides and can aid you in using the Core properly. After gaining upgrades and tech from Delta, you must send a squad of robots to attack West gate and acquire a clockwork animal core intact. Beware of the shepard because he is the defender of the animals and will attack those who hunt them. Animals in West gate are docile and haven''t gained animal like instincts so they follow his command and don''t attack unless provoked. Success: Attack and have someone call for help, acquire core intact Failure: None but failing to acquire core during attack will make it difficult as new defense systems will be put in place. Reward: ???
I grinned as I read the mission. "We are supplied the tech so that''s awesome. Maybe we can even attack North gate. We can split up. You guys go to east gate and I go to north. After Techno leaves we can assault the town with the robots just to make it sting a bit more." I said my two crew grinned at the prospects of getting to screw with one of the top players. "Ok you have a deal, what do we need?" I asked. "Go gather random robots rebuild them then make a mobile furnace. Then obtain some Will-o-wisp and golem cores and make them your servants we will need to gather minerals and smith them but and it will take a while to get forces strong enough. If you got trust worthy friends then good." Delta said and we all got busy. Techno Pov It''s been three months and a half already and the blast furnace for this city is almost complete. Defense systems against the slugs and robot animals are in place and only in this town is hunting them possible. Every last animal has developed a high birth rate which is hard to maintain now so hunting has been allowed. A boar monster also appeared. They are bigger than the already large, bull sized boars. There is only one which has been considered a boss monster. It is twice as big as the normal boars and developed tusks made surprisingly from earth steel. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. This thing is strong and it must have become like this from clockworks that it beat. The boars have rapidly risen in power to balance the power of all its predators and now is up to levels 165-170 and the boss level 200 My crew didn''t hunt much so our levels only raised by 15 levels each but we did make a rather strong military guard unit in this town. Expansion wise, we can''t really spread far into the scrapyard because the snails and slugs are aggressive in their attacks and corrode the walls we build further in. So we simply went underground making great use of miner clockworks. Brock also absorbed all the plain rocks so he can expand his size which was now at 1/10 the size of Menthol and at this point I could no longer say he wasn''t suited for making the island above it. Still the elves are busy and until I finish this mission there is no vegetation up there. Brock covered his body in a dense layer of rock and has already begun to form a landscape on his back as he is constantly shifting the earth around. His belly where we stay, which is no longer the entire area but just a part, now has a space fore water which the Undine appreciate and being up high makes the small Sylph wisps happy as the air is cleaner and away from the smoke of the city. The two will-o-wisps of my crew are still at it sucking up mana from is mana crystals. They say they are making lots of breakthrough and need to focus to not let their fires get to hot which has pushed their fire manipulation to the upper intermediate ranks. When they don''t control it their body turns a bright blue and the heat coming from them is enough to compare them to the sun. Staying to close has a danger of getting third degree burn on organics. The GM''s also broke thru and have gotten really strong. Greer asked me to make a lightweight power suit with stealth tech. She seems to like assassin type stuff and the has claws like wolverine built into the suit. Annabeth...she is...interested in what I do. Mostly the magic tech. She wants to help and learn how to make it and if she finds me working on possible working models for weapons she tries to give her point of view. I really don''t know how to make out her attachment to magic tech or maybe her attempts to get closer to me. I still can''t speak with anyone but my family without it being broken up phases. It was when I was playing with Nova that Delta contacted me. "Oi, techno! It''s an emergency!!!" he texted showing some urgency but not enough for me to care. "Yeah what?" I texted. "It''s East Gate City, it''s being attacked by a strong group of Bandits!" he said. I froze a moment and looked at the message again. "Bandits aren''t strong you know?" I replied. "But these are, they built a robot army and have three ships worth of knights and even assassin unit."/ he texted. I froze as the rotation of my motor dropped low. "Only me and Gaia know how to make assassins. Especially those with shift tech like Venus." I replied. "Well these guys have even your Shift Gears, the assassins are too fast for their quality. Nothing above steel but they are dominating the fight." Delta said and I instantly stopped playing with Nova. "Don''t joke with me Delta, because if I find out this is true I''m going to find you and dismantle you and use your scrap for something useful!" I texted him. "HEY WHY ARE YOU SAYING THAT TO ME!" he said. "Because you are the only other person that saw me make it so only you can share it. I''m going to East Gate and if I find in the scraps of those robots a Shift Gear you are dead you hear me!" I said and cut the connection and linked to all the hers. "Bulk, Annabeth and Greer. Get to the ship, we are going to East Gate to investigate an attack from Robots that used shift gears we should have. Victor, Brock, Ena and Blaze stay in North gate and tighten security. This town has defenses but we can''t be sure if someone hasn''t infiltrated already and is preparing to attack." I said and everyone text back they understood. I connected to my robots and pulled a number of them while setting the rest on guard duty on the streets. As soon as something happens I will be warned by them. In no time we were all on the ship and Brock opened up letting us head to East Gate. O''clock PoV "Kid go straight to the center, Techno left behind part of his forces. He is too untrusting of me and to take everyone. Also make sure all your fallen robots are picked up or flat out destroyed or else he will know I fed you tech." Delta messaged me. I kind of expected him to not be so dumb glad I wasn''t disappointed. But there is truth to what the titan said. He would figure out the big idiot fed us tech which would be bad if he did anything to him since we need a spy on him. Lets see, signal order, retrieve follen robots under my ownership. Done! Now we have five battle ships, auto command "Attack North Gate city" four ships. That should be plenty to piss him off. With our flagship I turn to the west aiming straight to the center. "When he asks, tell him we are heading to the center and that it was fun screwing with him." I tell Delta and turn make the ship fly. Now only a matter of waiting and travelling. Volume 3 Chapter 22 Surging Battle Ena PoV I''m really worried. In the two and a half months we spent in game we haven''t encountered trouble like this. For someone to attack a city it''s the first time and for to be done with such a small but strong force is hard to understand. From what I can gather by looking at stuff the Clockwork titan Delta passed to us through the helmets brock uses, the attack wasn''t coordinated but it''s units held lots of power. Lots of our power. Images show small worker looking clockwork suddenly vanishing and appearing behind one of the cities guards with his hands stuck inside any opening it found then pulling out revealing a blade in the spot where its hand was. It was clearly body shifting like ours and stealth technology. In the room we were in was all of those who remained in North Gate City. Blaze, Brock, Victor and I were left to defend the North Gate while Techno, Nova, Bulk, Annabeth and Greer went to east gate. Suffice to say we weren''t military generals to know how to take this but Victor took over. "Those guys sure are pissing me off. I wonder if we should increase the anti air defenses." He muttered to himself. "Why not increase the number of knights we have?" I asked. "Madam and sirs but my I speak?" Asked a one of the captains of the Clockwork Knights. "What do you need captain...urg?" Victor asked but didn''t know the name. "Surge...Surge Ironguard." He replied. "So Cpt. Surge, what did you need?" Blaze asked. "It''s about the attack itself. It''s too uncoordinated yet it fits for a single reason I know." He said which drew everyone''s attention. "What might that be?" Victor asked focusing on him for the first time. "A very simple reason, a trap." He said which makes everyone worried. Everyone but Victor. "And what kind of trap do you really expect to happen. Them attack north gate that holds the second best defenses." Victor said very confident. "This isn''t West gate where monsters attack us constantly. This is North Gate, a new city in construction and still not up to par with West gate and with four of your crew that was also the brain of the crew as well as the man that controlled several dozens of the strongest knights and rogues gone our defense are much weaker now." He said. The seeds of anxiety was firmly planted in me as I looked at Victor''s frowning face as he didn''t seem to want to listen to the Knight. "How exactly would you even know this was a trap!" Victor bellowed. "I don''t but I was a knight that was revived after our race was resurrected. I was discovered in the vicinity of East gate and had my motherboard and memory chips sent to South gate and given a new body. My memories still hold several years of combat I served before I was deactivated somehow and dumped here so it is more my instincts telling me something is wrong." He replied making the Dwarf smile. "Then it''s just your delusion of still being in the wars that''s got you riled up." He said. "Clockwork can''t have delusion, we aren''t even affected my illusion magic, only viruses that someone is capable of implanting in us. Your assumption was made only due to your overconfidence because no one has outright attacked your crew do to your captain''s ability to discover, create and implement new technology to your crew. None of you have ever been in a siege before and that inexperience with overconfidence is what always loses a battle." He said outright making Victor tremble in rage. I for one don''t think positively ever due to any single action changing the tide but Victor clearly believed in our power which made things hard since he is the builder of several powerful armored units of non clockwork personal. "Maybe we should contact Techno and ask him his opinion about this." Blaze said. "We don''t need it. He left us too defend meaning he thinks we can defend." Victor said. "Look we even have Brock who is the strongest in the crew." He shouted. "Victor! Don''t get cocky, just because I am here doesn''t mean we are safe. I am strong with high stats but if someone used their head they can easily win a battle." Brock said eyeing the dwarf. "It seems I have only brought discord but what I have said was what I believe is true. The knights we possess are strong but those in the video are just as strong with only weaker bodies. I think, if we were to survive we needed to improve the quality of the knights." Surge said. "I am not listening to this anymore. Taking the opinion of someone outside our crew is not happening." Victor said fuming as he left the room. Brock shook his head and sighed deeply showing his own worry. "Damn, techno has a good brain on his head and he makes cold calculated decisions better than us on many things. Having him gone and letting us decide what to do is a real hassle." Brock finally said. "You may consider it a learning experience. Anyway, in the past a true captain level knight wasn''t made from earth golem steel like we possess today. The golems of the past cultivated themselves to such a degree and gathered the materials to become metal golems. The cores of a metal golem and the strength of the steel made by it can''t even be compared to the ones made by earth golems." Surge said. "I see, we do have the elementals on our side, I think going up a notch in their strength would be a good decision but we don''t need to wait for metal cores. I will pass what you told me to Victor. If he doesn''t want to take this new information then I will make it myself. I have watched techno''s method of making refined earth steel." Brock said. "That will be good. If you will allow me I wish to take command of the knights and train them but because others have been upgraded past what my body can handle I cannot get them to listen." He said. "Unfortunately that is beyond my decision, our crew are the builders of the city not the owners." Brock said making Surge nod understanding. "Ena, Blaze how far have you two come along with the mediation?" Brock said. "I feel like I''m on a bottleneck. My core has become super dense and I grew a lot in terms of mana capacity and a lot in intelligence through mediation but it barely goes up even if we set up a furnace to make fire using your mana it might not work." Blaze said. "I feel the same way. I keep trying to pull more mana but all it does is feed my flames." I said. "You need to try and use lightning magic next." Surge suddenly said. ""What do you mean?"" We both asked in unison. "Reaching a bottleneck means you are bordering the next level of your elemental. Elementals may be the only race that can actively change their race to a greater one. Other races can''t change any longer but you are beings made of mana so upgrading to a stronger element is possible if you are strong enough." Surge said. "Is it only lightning?" Blaze asked. "Who knows. I''m not an elemental so I can''t tell you that." He said shrugging. After that we talked a bit and dismissed everyone. Brock PoV "Stop being an overconfident hard head Victor! You know what the knight said was true!" I said. I was currently in Victor''s workshop inside my body. I had passed what I learned from the knight but this dwarf was bitching about not wanting anything to do with the knight. I really want to beat this idiot dwarf he already saw our tech had been leaked and it was a matter of time before their strength equaled our own and he was still bitching about it. The knight himself took his platoon and began training them harder as did the others. Skills are important for sure. Since Victor wanted nothing to do with this I left him be and went to Techno''s store room in my body since he took the ship. I searched around and found several earth core crystals. I also find several empty cores and taking it carefully I put it on the table and began crushing the cores one by one and feed them to the cores. It took five to make a refined earth core crystal. Taking another new core I crushed five refined cores I made and pushed into the new core and like expected.
Metal Core Crystal
A core made by countless earth elemental cores that went through many refining processes to reach this point. The durability and strength of this core is beyond steel and it is resistant to rusting for very large periods of time as well as resistant to corrosion.
This was very impressive but the cost to make is to high. It would take a long time to make iron golems probably unless they mediate on my fins and this way takes too much material and cores. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I can see why captain class were given them and not lower ranked. I thought. Let''s make a few then get Victor to make a robot body with these. I make ten of them which may make techno rage but if I can get a few captains with bodies made from these it would really help. "So you want me to substitute the earth cores in the steel with this stuff." He said eyeing the metal core which was transparent like all cores but it had a metallic luster to it. "Make robots from them, this is a level above the refined earth cores. It should make a powerful clockwork." I said. He looked at me probing for a real reason but since I didn''t even flinch and maintained a poker face. "You want to give the cpt. rank knight a body made of this stuff don''t you." Victor landing on the bull''s eye. I frown as he got it right and he sighed. "Fine I''ll make them but this stuff is really strong, maybe it wouldn''t even melt properly so call Ena and Blaze so I can get some strong fire." Victor said and I noddd calling the two and sending them off before I meld back into my whale body and overlook the town. *** Ever since the Surge had heard the news he has been speaking with the other resurrected knights. The others believed he was paranoid. They don''t seem to retain the same level of memories he had so in turn only those who were worried about a possible attack were tense which was only two other captain. They increased patrol and always had men stationed near the turrets looking out towards the empty skies or ground in all directions. Besides an attempted attack from slugs or snails there was nothing. It was because of this that the stationed knights weren''t alert and didn''t notice four ships appear out of thin air about a kilometer away. O''Clock Helix with Delta''s help had created something Techno hadn''t which was a ship stealth technology that cloaked the ship for ten minutes but it was enough for the ships that were twice as big as technos ship to arrive this close. By the time the knights noticed, a platoon of Strato robots lifted off from the ships. On the underside were bombs. The strato robots targeted several of the turrets and fly fast before releasing the missiles hitting turrets or missing and blasting the wall built around the town creating a massive hole in the wall. The knights that were stationed on the walled were all disoriented by the sudden attack but several that had awaken from the shock and had surviving turrets mounted then and began to fire. Most of the turrets were dual barrel guns so they had a better speed to them. The original number the town had to defend against monster was around 30 but now it was decreased to 12 from the initial attack. Most of the mortars were destroyed making a huge gap in defenses which further rose when the ships lifted up their own turrets and mortars which were drones that connected and made the weapon. As soon as they were up they began bombarding the town. It was then that the city reacted. Under the command on the Royal Sylph and the two Will-o-Wisps, the air and fire elementals began attacking fiercely the Strato robots did have weapons but because they were simply steel the concentrated fire from the bird shaped wisps fueled with extra air to make the fire stronger by the Sylph''s made it impossible to escape damage. While the two elementals battled out against the Strato''s, who opened fire with their miniguns, on the ground an invading force of knights and rogue class were advancing. Highly angry at the damage sustained Victor in his mining armor brought out several others dressed in similar armor. "ALRIGHT YOU LOUTS LET''S SHOW EM!" He shouted and activating the wheels on his feet he moved forward into open fire. The armor was refined earth steel so unless it is a heavy physical attack small bullets won''t work. "DRILL RUNNER BOYS!" He shouted sticking his right arm forward that had the drill which began spinning violently. Backed by the speed he gained and the spinning drill he rushed his way through the army of several hundred robot clockwork. As he passed the other side and was making a U turn in the scrap it was then he saw some of the robots in the back transform their arm into a gun with a big opening. He knew that form well because he helped design several. "GRENADES!" Victor shouted but it was too late. Several robots shot out. The ones following him sped up hoping to evade them but only three others besides Victor escaped. They drilled through the hoard again almost getting flanked by several knights but still successfully getting through and retreating to the city. What he met was Surge and Brock there with the other captains and golems. "What did I say about getting cocky!" He insulted Victor pointing at his face. "You''re a blacksmith, the best we have, for clockwork you are our healers but what do you do! You rush into the densest area like an idiot and loses several of your own mining suits plus several good people!" Surge shouted. "What do you want then huh! We killed several dozens!" Victor countered. "Why not try looking up and seeing if those ships are even close to ending their assault." Surge said. Victor looked up and saw the clockworks dropping in squads while more on the top deck shot down here blasting the city. "From now on I''m in charge because none of you have a clue as to how to survive a siege!" Surge stated. Victor turned red with rage but was ignored by the knight. "Brock, have the golems spread around the outer walls fast. All of you raise a wall of packed earth to remake the walls. Once that is done you all split up into two groups on the far side of each wall. Wait three minutes after you make the new wall before flanking the army. Ena, Blaze you take all flying elementals and bring those ships down. Burn it, smash it whatever just bring them down. Victor you stay here with five captains and their platoon. I will shoot a flare when you should advance. Those on the wall should concentrate fire on the ships aiding the elementals but once all the ships are down focus on the army near the back." At his orders everyone moved. In the true meaning of organizes the battle of North Gate was brought to a close after the Knight Captain Surge Ironguard led the cities troops after having half the city destroyed to victory. *** Two days after Techno left North Gate he was checking the forums and finally saw it. [Tr][/tr
ATTACK ON NORTH GATE!!
Dude this was so scary! These four large ships appeared out of nowhere and started to blast the city to scarps. The city guard had their ass handed to them until one of the captains took control from the Clockwork crew. I knew they were frauds. The crew is just good for making tech and nothing else They are weak and don''t know how to fight in a siege battle. I bet if several crews group up they can take the cities made by their crew.
This bit of information was all that was needed to make Techno blow several gaskets and activate the Overload skill on Asura with such intensity that the area he was in almost caught fire. After calming down before he shut down he instantly called Delta. "Where are they...!" he asked. "Who?" Delta replied. "Don''t fuck with me Delta! I''m very much not in the mood! Now where are the fucks that sent the attack on North gate!" Techno texted almost bordering the need to shout with his voice. "Oh them, they headed towards the scrapyards center." Delta replied nonchalantly. Without a thanks or anything the Techno''s ship turned towards the South West. He was still a ways away from the East gate so we needed to aim down a bit. Nova was flying outside with both bodies on her Strato following the ship. She loved the feeling of flying and has liked it for a while. She turned Strato when the ship turned and followed without much question. They were following the gate which was easy enough to follow but turning into the scrap yard they would lose their reference but activating the ship scanner they moved on. It was unfortunately a bad mistake which would change a LOT of things for Techno Volume 3 Chapter 23 Core Races Auther Note: Last chapter of the volume. Don''t know when the next volume will begin or how. Expect several Polls appearing before Volume 4 starts releasing.
Outside the scraps in North Gate city, the battlefield it had become a normal spawn point for the town. The way clockworks respawn is taking over a different body that is put into parameters up to 70% of the original body but it didn''t have any of the things that were attracted to it. On the field two new respawn lights which were the same as when someone first registers fell down into the scraps. Soon a two small childish clockworks stood up and on the other a worker and a knight stood up. They each looked at each other and the small ones walked over the to pair of large one who picked them up and walked into town. The city was badly destroyed with most of the 60% of the city being rebuilt already. The four clockworks walked through until they were near the floating whale. They took the ropes and began to climb until they were at the top and were met by the owner of the body. "Who are you?" Brock asked. "Bite me, I''m not in the mood Brock!" the large knight texted to the Golems helmet before pushing past him. "No way! Techno!" Brock said. "Expand my store room so I can make a workshop. Also bring as many tool drones that survived. We will talk in private." he said in a complete unbroken sentence. In total shock Brock just followed along and when they teached a simple wall in his stomach it opened up into a room that was the store room Brock entered and used the cores within. I room expanded to three times original size making it a 12 x 12 room now. With his rocks Brock used all the boxes and stuff against the back wall and made seats for everyone. Brock called the others who can running not believing what they heard. Victor, Ena and Blaze rushed into the new room and see Techno and Nova in the seats with different bodies. Walking behind them was Surge who had gained the a body made of Metal core steel which was by far the most powerful clockwork knight body made yet. "No way! Is that you Techno!" Victor exclaimed in shock. "Shut up and sit down." Techno said in an irritated town. "You leave!" He suddenly said towards Surge. "I helped keep this town safe when your crew couldn''t. I WILL listen to why you are back in different bodies than before." Surge said. Unlike before Techno''s current body couldn''t show emotion but his face was in a frown at this moment. He simply ignored him since his body clearly couldn''t put up a fight nor did he feel like it. "So what happened?" Brock asked. In a loud clear unbreaking voice Techno began explaining starting with when he saw the forum post and turning to the center of the scrap yard. *** Flashback two ingame day ago After having turned and travelling a day into the scrapyard the walls were far behind them and they simply flew forward. Nova like always was playing in the air, Asura was on the deck keeping watch, Yasha was controlling the ship while Annabeth and Greer were on the deck simply talking. The robots were managing all the rest of the ship. There was absolutely nothing not even a monster in sight. Not on the ground nor the air the entire space was void of life both robotic or organic. The ship''s scanners had been upgraded while travelling in Brock for when it was most needed and it now had a reach of 10 km in radius. But even then it wasn''t enough. Suddenly the ship''s alarms went off as something was about the flank them but when he turned his head he saw a flashing light consume Nova, both of them and Strato. The next moment the light exploded causing age to the left ship turbine. When the light vanished not a single particle of Nova was left. It had vaporized her. "NOVAAA!!!" Techno yelled but at that moment the ship''s sensors detected five large power signatures charging a lot of energy. Still depressed by Nova, Techno still had to take care of the others on the ship first. "ANNABETH QUICK RUN WITH GREER!" Was all he shouted before grabbing both and throwing very far on the back side of the ship. Annabeth soon got control of herself by spreading her wings and caught the falling tigress but she was at least a kilometer away already which was when the five energies flew towards us and completely vaporized the ship with both my bodies and every last possession on the ship. Annabeth and Greer did get away because he saw them flying fast the way we came but the worse wasn''t dying but when he was ejected from the game he was met with a crying Nova. That was beside the point but he didn''t let his anger take hold until she was sleep. After that he entered the gym and activated a room option to block noise from exiting and spent several hours punching and hitting everything as his anger exploded to the point that LIFE company medics appeared and restrained him to and slowly he calmed down. Eventually they left and he was calm enough to think and he thought until he logged in and we were at the present moment. *** Present moment Everyone was quiet and Surge was confused after the talk reached the logout but he didn''t talk and just listened. "I am lucky my body was completely destroyed so I keep all the blueprints but...I''m weak...I was stupid to have so easily left and then let my emotions get the better of me when I saw the forum saying the town had been attacked." Techno said. "Yes, you are weak, you are stupid. If you weren''t an awakened with you ability to come back to life your sister and you would have been long gone." Surge suddenly said walking forward. "Now as a leader, as someone who has the lives of your crew and your people in your hand what will you do then. I will completely disregard someone so weak willed to be defeated once and give up. The feats I heard about your crew, the things you did I will credit to Gaia doing but not someone like you. So will you give up or get stronger? Will you fall to your own overconfidence and selfish emotions of revenge or will you learn from your mistakes? Come one, ANSWER ME!" He shouts. Techno just looks at him quiet for a long time he looks around and then stops when he looks at Nova. "For my sister and my crew...no my friends I WILL get stronger." He replies. The knight grins and pats his arm. "Good man, now you should get your power back because your body is weak." Surge says. "Before that, do you want to join us. In our crew, you said you were the one that saved the town so that means you are familiar with attack and defense sieges?" Techno asked. "Join? What of my work here?" He asked like some kid. "It''s your choice not your superiors." Brock said. "My...i see, then I shall accept your offer. I shall continue my duties here in North town though until you leave." He says and leaves the room. One by one the others leave until only Nova and Techno are left. "Well my adorable sister, remember what we are going to do." Techno said playfully. Both Nova''s jumped off his laps and ran at the boxes and began searching until finally she pulled out two cores. Both Motherboard cores. "Okay let''s get this started." Techno muttered "Going to make a new animal?" Delta asked. "Nope, you just shut up you pile of scrap." Techno said out loud as he opened up his main bank of codes which make up his in game brain. "Hey what are you doing?" Delta asked. "You know there is an interesting fact I learned the day I was not in this world. I''m my world, normally cocky people show off and I found the person who stole from me...the person you gave all my technology to. He stole ten animal cores and took it to the center of the scrapyard where there was something like you there. It took me seconds to understand they were connected and then I remembered they way you made the animals. They needed an image made with their codes right?" Techno said all the while chunks of his coding were being moved and placed in different places. "As long as the sequences making up a codes of the motherboard stay intact you can move them. The codes of a Clockwork don''t compare to a clockwork animal because clockworks are weak AI''s even when they have personalities they follow a set program which makes them only follow programs. Surge was given options and he would most likely never change from his programmed class. That is why the shell that is called Clockworks is too small, those ten idiots that took my tech have done this, I know you know because you are connected to them when you invited them to your cave. The idiots put images of you. But you''re just a small locked up titan with a god complex." Techno said. "The moment you become talkative you get cocky, you think you are a god as well. I can see it, you thought pattern follows that route." Delta said. By now the codes made up a shape of a human and Techno changed the final sequence finishing the image. "The only difference Delta. You are a Titan, a giant being with power comparable to a god yet it isn''t. A god''s power is cultivated in a small body to be as strong as you. I will eventually show you just as those tiny people you sold me out to." Techno said. "Bro! I''m done!" Nova said and techno connected with her and looked. It looked like a robot so he began fixing it making it as human shaped as possible. Only after ten minutes did he make something remotely human like. "Wow bro is amazing, I can see a small girl in there and Bro''s looks like a boy!" She said. "Now just connect to that little ball." He told her and as she did he sent the order to upload her motherboard to the core. A screen appears and she agrees and instantly the data uploads. It is rapid and in ten minutes it is up. "Nova do you see the imagine of the girl?" Techno asked. "Yeah and its getting big and I can see a lot better. She looks like me and has this cool outfit with small glowing wings on her back. I also see Strato and Proto behind her but it doesn''t get in the way." she texted. He nods and looks at the ball in his hand. Connecting to it he sends his codes inside. The only thing he sees is his codes and the image of a boy but after the last few codes entered his new motherboard which ran on it''s own power the connection with the clockwork bodys he owned was gone. At once the codes before him exploded in activity the image of a boy became more detailed. The body was robotic, the head, torso legs and arms were human shaped but then many different things appeared near the image moving towards it. I pushed back leaving the body as humanly possible but the legs and arms had bulky gauntlet and boots attached to it, on the upper back a kind of backpack connected and on the head a head phone covered the ears. A small glass screen attached to each headphone and went over the eye. At this point I completely stopped the large robot parts from attaching themselves but what still make tos way to me was a kind of membrane, no skin, it covered most of the human parts but still left some kind of line in places. Until now I didn''t know what all these were for but it all suddenly rushed into my mind. Information of many things,strange things and complex ones as well. The easiest where the robot parts but the human ones were so hard I couldn''t make sense of them. What I did know is that this information led to the formation of my body, something far far stronger than I could have asked for. Ingredients were strange but I knew what to do. As the image growth slows to a crawl I visualize what remains. A boy, me before the incident with Bianca, with robot parts for arm, legs, ears and a strange backpack.
Congratulations,by doing something as reckless as placing the codes that make up your mind inside a core you have changed your race.
You have achieved a result of keeping your body more than 95% human. As such your new race is now Automata
Automata
A race of magic machines. They are the perfect magic dolls and hold no flaw in their design that constructs possess. The body is made just like a humans though it lacks the vital organs. The races is part machine so it has full understating of machine construction as it originated from such. This race is fully capable of using magic once the body and certain parts are made. The race is to unknown and more information will be given as you discover it.
So an Automata huh, this shall be very fun. The materials are very widespread but that won''t stop me from reaching my goal at revenge for the humiliation those people in the scrapyard center gave me. Me, my crew and my allies will drop a hammer of vengeance on them and wipe them from this world.
You have invented a new race, would you like to release the name and information on the race?
"Everything but the method to become it." I said and felt my mental grin appear. *** A day ago O''clock, unlike Techno, ws boarded when he entered the center zone of the scrapyard. The Cybers had them at gunpoint but boarded and after negotiating they allowed the crew to meet with Alpha. The AI did the same as Delta as soon as they met and spoke through text as she doesn''t possess a voice like Delta. Through a lot of negotiations they got Alpha to aid them in clearing out the Cores of the animal codes opening the option for the to do so. Because they now had both Delta and Alpha connected the two could speak and Delta explained how the cores worked. It was amazing technology that was nearly impossible to copy without a Sky whale that had a large amount of crystallized mana in its body. Because of this hunting of clockwork animals will be needed to be able to access this. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. It would be exclusive to them because they would never let anyone else know of this power until they were attacking and destroying their enemies. O''Clock was the first. The image he saw was of a boy that as it rapidly grew turned into him but before he knew it, machine parts overtook his body. On all sizes the machine parts covered him and evolved further until a strong looking machine man remained.
Congratulations, by doing something as reckless as placing the codes that make up your mind inside a core you have changed your race.
You have achieved a result of allowing all your human features except the human shape to turn machinelike. As such your new race is now called Machina
Machina
A race of machines built completely of magic components. They are the perfect machine and hold no flaw in their design that clockwork possess. The body is made completely like a machine with no human elements and it runs on magic power instead of fuel. The races is machine so it has full understating of machine construction as it originated from such. This race is incapable of using magic but is very capable of making and using magic powered weapons that use it''s stored mana The race is to unknown and more information will be given as you discover it.
O''clock laughed like a madman as he saw his new race. A pure flawless machine that stored mana to use with overpowering weapons. If he used his resources correctly he will be able to make himself king of the world.
You have invented a new race, would you like to release the name and information on the race?
"What kind of idiot releases such amazing info like this. I will post my triumph over the infamous Techno but this beauty is only for my crew." He said to himself. Once his crew was done he felt with his mind for his old body and connected and controlled like a robot making him pick up his core so they can start the hunt for materials. He would need to learn lots of forging methods before he could make lots of the los he needed. His new processing power over powered Delta which made it impossible for the titan to explain that the cores build their parts by eating materials. A day later
Techno and Nova Gear have invented a completely new race known as the Automata.
Automata
A race of magic machines. They are the perfect magic dolls and hold no flaw in their design that constructs possess. The body is made just like a humans though it lacks the vital organs. The races is part machine so it has full understating of machine construction as it originated from such. This race is fully capable of using magic once the body and certain parts are made. The race is to unknown and more information will be given as you discover it.
Method of achieving, confidential.
This made O''clock''s head roll in anger as the man he was hating tons at this moment showed off just to piss him off. Delta said he achieved it like we did but he did something Delta couldn''t see that was different from us. Also... "About ten minutes after he achieved his race, he connected to everyone in Northgate down to the last computer and completely destroyed my program that lets me watch everyone. He also made an antivirus that would keep me from spreading to anything in that town and then made a virus that is attacking me screwing with my connection with everyone else besides those with original programs who are people who meet me directly." Delta said. O''clock gulped deeply seeing Techno''s unnatural control of his own new system. He can''t lose time with this worthless titan now. He closed his own connection to the titan as Delta began speaking and they rushed out to gather materials to build their first bodies. *** Two and a half months after the attack Once Techno became an Automata with Nova the ability to process information was so high that the wisdom stat was broke with three ??? in it. Because of this unparalleled processing power they controlled every last robot they could connect to and rapidly repaired the town. Techno went beyond and made many of them work on building true wall that could handle explosions and ended with a dense metal wall made of blocks of Steel. It would normally rust fast but because of the Metal core crystal they are greatly improved in strength and ability to resist rusting and corrosion which is really useful because now the acid for the monsters outside barely affect the walls. The town built Strato flight robot''s to have an air force to protect the town from the air. These were different because their heads were built larger and opened up to show a small cannon. The cannon wasn¡¯t large but the power behind it will force the Strato backwards if it¡¯s to slow. New cannon¡¯s, turrets and mortars were built on the walls. In the small time after the attack all North and East gate underwent complete changes that turned them more into forts instead of towns but the destruction of both towns made them even stronger. East gate had the least technology he discovered but now everything was updated and the amount of change in East gate was very high. The area was also now very green unlike the disgusting look it had before. The water was now much clearer and was drinkable to organic races and all the others creatures. The clockwork animals in Eastgate have evolved to be just that, animals. Still they have become very varied. Rabbits turned into many types of rodents from squirrels to rats and many others. One thing that greatly changed after the attack is cocky fucks that keep attacking just to try and rub salt on wounds but put simply we mercilessly destroy them. At least we know that the towns can defend themselves now and I already got this message.
Mission: Four Gate Expansion (Update) You have completed your objective and successfully made a town in all four gates of the clockwork Scrapyard. Now the clockwork nation can slowly clean the waste of what was once their powerful race and further strengthen their hold on the world and restore it back to what it used to be. Reward: Speak with Gaia.
That was why at this moment we were now arriving at her house. The crew, the entire crew including Annabeth and Greer who appeared in East gate several days after we died, knew what we looked like now but we used our old bodies. Victor had completely rebuilt Asura and Yasha, with metal alchemy steel improving my stats for both bodies by 15%. Oh right, I made sure to isolate that asshole Delta, I could dismantle him but then he wouldn¡¯t be stuck as he was before. Taste freedom only to lose it again, that is a better way to deal with him. Entering Gaia¡¯s house we find that same annoying woman sitting on the seat and the man that helps keep her and every town standing Rust. ¡°So you finally completed the construction of all three towns. Took you long enough.¡± She complained. ¡°You try building three cities in a year and three months!¡± I said outloud. Yes I have grown better at talking but strangers still get text messages but people I know like my crew and these guys I can more or less speak to. Still it was a shock to both of them who had their jaws dangling. ¡°Anyway, what is our reward for completing this project?¡± I asked. My entire crew was with us. ¡°First off my thanks, I couldn¡¯t have made towns as good as those you made, especially West gate with the constant monster attacks. Now as for the physical reward, name it?¡± She said. A grin appeared on my faces as she condemned herself. ¡°Okay then, first is as promised, we will get a pioneer group to settle in Brock, he is large enough to hold a town inside and much more. Now for the materials.¡± I said coughing as I pull up a list of items I needed to rapidly expand the previously mentioned town how I wanted.
List of items I need. 20 rolls of Silver Wire (10 tons) 30 rolls of Copper Wire Domesticated monsters 5 tons of coal Ingots 3 tons of iron 5 tons of copper
The room was silent as she read the list and my scanners already showed her gears were rattling. ¡°You...want silver wire¡­20 rolls¡­!¡± She said in a very low tone. ¡°Exactly what do you need with all that?¡± ¡°I plan to put these to use and put Brock¡¯s extremely large pool of mana to use.¡± I said putting a lightning core crystal on the table. She scanned it and looked interesting. She pushed mana inside making it release electricity. ¡°So use the wires to connect to the mana and then take the lightning mana to a power plant of a kind which is then made safe for use?¡± She said which I nodded. ¡°That makes better sense but so much wire feels like you also plan to make Synthoids.¡± She said. ¡°They are weaker then what I am now but they make good units but I need it to start making my new body.¡± I said. ¡°Weaker...what you are now?¡± Rust asked confused. ¡°Me and Nova are a race called Automata, these bodies are now just robot''s for us to control. Our real bodies needs to be built and it¡¯s far more advanced than this.¡± I said nonchantly. Gaia started laughing hearing this thinking I was lying but I guess ignorance is bliss. ¡°Fine, you can have what is on the list. There are much less people now. The last year has made many towns sprout up all over the place but at least half of them fail you know.¡± Gaia said. ¡°And you think that after successfully making three large cities I will fail in making a personal base.¡± I replied. ¡°Touche. Rust please go on and get things rolling.¡± She says and he leaves with a goodbye. ¡°Now what do you plan from here.¡± She asked. ¡°Well, good question, I don¡¯t want to rely on you for silver wire and we also need to go hunting for lots of monsters for the materials we need for my body so my best guess is heading towards the continent the Constructs are located on.¡± I said with a smile. Gaia on the other hand was far from smiling. ¡°You think they will tell you?¡± She asked. ¡°I can persuade them or trade with them.¡± I replied but she just shrugs. ¡°Welp good riddance really. One less pain in the ass to stop giving me headaches.¡± She said. ¡°Oh right, I wanted to ask you to investigate the center of the scrapyard.¡± She said. ¡°Already tried, was shot down by a race known as Cybers, the man that attacked East gate was able to meet them and through them we saw what they were. They are cybernetic Humans, half robot. They have super powerful magic powered weapons. We can¡¯t break through even if we wanted to.¡± I said closing the case. ¡°Guessed as much, I will need to make a some restrictions to keep that area off limits.¡± She said in a tired voice. ¡°Leave it open, give a warning to everyone about it then leave them to themselves. If they die then they disregarded the warning at their own safety.¡± Surge said. ¡°Yeah I guess.¡± she replied ¡°Bro, can we go. It¡¯s boring here and I want to adventure.¡± Nova said. ¡°Sure, we did what we wanted so let¡¯s go.¡± I said. ¡°See you some other time.¡± I tell her and she waves. Before I leave though I pull out a small light green and navy blue gem in front of Gaia. ¡°Your wind core back and a water one if you didn¡¯t get one already.¡± I said and in moments she had both the cores in her hand looking intensely at them. The next moment her chest plate opened up and she opened two small casings and stuck the cores inside. They soon began to glow and the main gem in the middle of her chest began to glow brighter. ¡°Ah how good it feels to have the basic four again, shame Menthol didn¡¯t hand over his own cause it would have been a big help.¡± She said. ¡°Well, we are going, take care.¡± Bulk said as we leave. From there we head to the giant whale that was our home and wait as more of the townspeople begin to enter their new home. Soon the materials arrive and after several hours of loading with the town ¡°pioneers¡± inside and everything inside we finally receive a message.
Mission: Four Gate Expansion (complete) Reward: Items on the given list, 5 levels
A good parting gift as any. Time to leave and find those constructs.
BEFORE ANYONE RANTS ABOUT IT LET ME SAY FIRST. For a clockwork Wisdom = processing power which means that what the new races possess is AI level processessing power. If anyone wants to complain still then do so but it will be an empty complaint. As for those who want to see Delta dead. That will happen in the future and not now.
Just a heads up but I made a Word Press with two Fics I don''t plan posting and are side projects that i won''t do extensivly like Clockwork nor as fast https://vrdraco.wordpress.com/
Techno Code Image http://pre06.deviantart.net/3356/th/pre/i/2013/003/6/5/mecha_boy_colored_by_danzelt-d5qd2c9.jpg Nova Code Image http://www.wallpaperup.com/85062/black_blue_eyes_mechagirl_original_oshou_short_hair_white_hair.html Poll Poll 1 Should i do PoV of other people besides Techno first (not his crew) Yes/No Poll 2 Where should techno appear. Merfolk village Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.Construct scrapyard Other place you suggest More polls will appear as i Think them up X-mas special I''ll go ahead and say this from the start, Yes this even happened and is canon but shall not affect the story greatly or immediately but from now on i shall begin adding more different PoV¡¯s and expand on the world. Hope you enjoy. Also these events happen AFTER the end of Volume 3 and BEFORE volume 4. It shall not be addressed in the main story but can be considered a side chapters. ENJOY!!!
Virtual Reality technology has been around for a while already but only recently were private "towns" made for housing virtual rooms and meeting people from around the world outside of the games everyone play. Normally these Virtual towns were sunny with warm never raining or anything but with the arrival of the end of the year and the the most awaited holiday every last town was covered under a half meter of snow which everyone could enjoy. Another bonus of this holiday is that normally a specific town remained inactive for an entire "month", which is one week in the real world, but this time it had become active much earlier. The town was home to the several thousand juvenile convicts that were participating in the feedback research for the LIFE company. The town had become uncommonly active during the last week because the LIFE company had given a special right to them for the last two weeks of the the year so that the convicts could personally log out of the game when they choose. It meant that they had two months of being able to freely enter and leave as they wished like a normal player. In one specific "home" Techno, or Nathaniel Rover was outside the virtual space looking at the visage of the house that was almost a clone of all the others. He pulled up the menu and after a short purchase the front of his house was covered in lights and a christmas tree appeared in the front yard. Entering the "home" showed a second house that was the true Virtual home which was decorated with even more decorations and only because he insisted against it his little sister hadn''t turned it into a cookie house like in christmas books. She was running around with a few other kids who were her cousins and the kids or siblings of Nathaniel''s crew within Etheria. They all had coats and winter clothes because even here the virtual reality technology made sure to mimic everything how it should be. Nathaniel smiled seeing his sister happy playing and moved to enter the house. Inside the now large two story house, that had grown due to the weekly "salary" both Nathaniel and Sasha got, where his family and crew as well as the crew''s family. Even the two GM''s were here but under an alias since they were still hiding the fact. Nathaniel said they were good friends from school. Their families already knew his situation and played along. The idea was that only the girls have met his family so their wasn''t much to hide. Still that didn''t stop he men of the crew from teasing him which earned them a good knuckle sandwich. Today was christmas eve and it was one of the few time all these people, which meant people other than crew mates, could come here. Nathaniel was still someone closed off towards strangers but his recent improvements with talking with his own crew had made it somewhat easier to talk with their families. They spent time talking, a few watched movies while the women cooked the banquet for the celebration. The warm atmosphere of the house was far different from normal due to so many people. Nathaniel himself was able to sometimes show a small smile. At the moment it was already 8:20 pm and the kids were returning inside. Seeing the kids come in smiling while rubbing themselves, Nathaniel called them. "Sasha, take everyone to the bath''s to warm up. Oh and be careful in their." He said. "Okay bro! Come on everyone!" She said and ran off down the corridor with all the kids. "Should i go with them?" Mom asked. "They are old enough to take a bath, besides there is a safety i bought for the bathrooms to prevent injuries." Nathaniel said. "Maybe i will join them just to be safe." Sarah said. (A.N. Sarah is Greer in Etheria.) "Might as well go." Nathaniel said with a sigh. Too many kids would end up causing trouble though my dad went himself to the boys bath to make sure they don''t do anything. "I almost feel jealous seeing how much you dot on Sasha." Alexandra said. (A.N. Alexandra is Annabeth) "You have a brother." Nathaniel said. "Yeah but..." she said and looked at the coach where the "large" man that was her brother sat. He was a very large man both fat and muscular. In his hand was a can of beer and he was laughing with her father and a few Victor who was bordering on having a drinking contest against the man. "Yeah...i get it." Nathaniel said while looking at the man. "Nathan? How is your body coming along?" Alexandra asked trying to keep the talk going. "Well its going slow. The material is hard to come by." He replied She knew all to well what kind of race it was. Once she found out about that races she asked permission to talk with the main AI Ariel and with higher ups permission she got the formation the AI had on this race but she only got the same thing that was released. When techno guided Bulk and Surge to make the same upgrade to a new race they gained the Machina race and released the race information but the method to become the race was kept secret. "I''m still trying to learn to control the new crafting method which is incredibly hard." Nathaniel commented. The two continue talking quietly about Etheria. In the bath Sarah was taking a bath with the girls who were all thrashing about. "Now don''t jump around in the bath. It''s dangerous even with the safety Nathaniel bought." Sarah said grabbing Sasha. In return Sasha made a mischievous grin before groping Sarah''s breasts making her yell. "Kya! Don''t!" She said letting go of Sasha and hiding her breasts behind her arms. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. "Hey hey, Sasha, you should be careful or she will snatch your big bro!" One of Sarah''s little cousin said teasing the poor girl. "I will not! I have a boyfriend!" She replied. "Yeah, if anyone gets my bro its Alex! I won''t let some rando person take my big bro!" Sasha said puffing out her nonexistent chest. "Yeah yeah, not get in the bath and warm up." Sarah said pushing the girl over to the large tub with warm water. She slowly entered because the warm water was much warmer than her body so it felt hot. Slowly a relaxed expression spread over her face until she closed her eyes from the blissful warmth. Sarah entered after her and sat next to her before pulling Sasha and making her sit on her lap. She laid back and sasha''s head followed using the floating breasts as pillows. "Buuu...trying to win the little sister to take the big brother! That''s cheap!" One of the kids say making Sasha frown. "Stop saying stuff like that!" Sarah said and flicked her cousin''s forehead as punishment. "Ouch!" She said rubbing the sore spot. The other girls in the room started laughing at both of them before they calmed down and began chatting about other stuff. Soon enough they all got out and dry themselves before getting dressed in warm indoor clothes and leaving the bath. Returning to the living room Sasha sees her brother talking with Alexandra and a grin appears on her face. "Hey Sarah! What''s the name of that flower that everyone says you got to kiss when you stand under it during christmas?" Sasha asked with a glint in her eye. It didn''t pass unnoticed by the GM. He senses have grown more sensitive because of the feedback system, at least what they were allowed to use. She looks around as sees Nathaniel and Alex before realizing what the little mischievous girl was planning. "It''s called a mistletoe but let''s make it fun." Sarah whispered. After that Sasha opened up the purchase menu and found the mistletoes and purchased a few putting them over several people who were couples and would actually kiss so they could pressure Nathaniel. It included Sasha''s own parents. When the trick was done she innocently walked over to her parents with an innocent and curious expression. "Hey mom, what''s that pretty flower on the ceiling?" She asked. The two looked up and spotted the mistletoe and blushed a bit. "Why are you two blushing?" She asked in fake innocence. "Its called a mistletoe and when a boy and girl are under it they need to kiss." Her mother explained. Sasha smiled and looked around. The conversation had drawn the attention to her and everyone was looking up. "Hahaha! Guess you got to kiss your wise sir!" Victor shouted laughing making everyone giggle. "Sasha''s father coughed before looking at his wife who shrugged and hugged him before giving him a kiss. It went just as she planned and now she pointed to the other couples. "Look there are more there!" She said and everyone started to look up seeing all the mistletoe''s. Finally she pointed towards her brother. "LOOK THERE IS EVEN ONE OVER BRO!" She said almost gitty. In contrast her brother paled as he looked up and took a few steps forward and crouched in front of her with his eyes narrowed. "You put them all there didn''t you." He said. Sasha evaded looking him in the eye. "Of course not it''s just that i noticed them just now." She said looking down while twisting her body around trying to hide. "Don''t, try to hide Nate! You were caught under the mistletoe so puckerup." Lucas said. (Lucas is Bulk as the man who lost a harem to denseness) "Shut it! You dense harem killer." He replied making everyone laugh. His father came over and whispered in his ear. "Come on, the kiss doesn''t need to be lip to lip." Nathaniel had a stern expression but the heavy blush on his face made a strange combination of embarrassed with emotionless. "Well i''m kissing my wife." Victor said since he was under a mistletoe. One by one all the others did that dame leaving Nathaniel and Alexandra even more embarrassed because now they couldn''t escape. Everyone was looking their way making it even worse. Alexandra even looked excited but was hiding it under her embarrassment. "Come one, Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" Lucas began chanting and everyone followed making them an even brighter shade of red. "Grr! FINE!" Shouted Nathaniel. In the spur of the moment he turned and kissed Alexandra''s cheek then walked away glaring at Bulk and his crew. His eyes were saying "You all will pay up later." Everyone was clapping and cheering while laughing seeing all this while Sasha was high fiving Sarah. "Yay it worked!" Sasha said as she hugged Sarah. The two looked at Alexandra who was so red it wouldn''t be surprising if you put an egg on her head it would cook. They both grin and high five again before Sasha dragged off the laughing kids to her room for her to show the scaled models of all her "toys" in Etheria. With admin assistance the town Nathaniel owns allows only a select number of players to start in it. These kids are a few of them, it''s mostly so she can play with them but it was an accomplishment since it virtually made the town a private base. Later that day everyone enjoyed the dinner before going out to enjoy the snow filled town and the amusement park with everyone. This day showed all those who worried about Nathaniel''s mental health that he is on the fast track to recovering from his trauma. In the further side of town Bianca was having a much smaller party with the seven true friends she made in Etheria. She was slowly surpassing her depression with the support of her friends who sought to see her smile a real smile just like Nathaniel''s friends and family strived to see his real true heart filled smile. Volume 4 Chapter 1: Arrival of the Clockwork Authors Corner: Like i have stated, i didn''t drop, just a hiatus, don''t know how long I can take clockwork before i take a break again but at the moment i have returned to this since i have gained a small bit of inspiration. I will say this, the reason i got inspired again is because i started learning how to draw manga, and the result of having several stories my teacher suggested i draw my fics and Clockwork was the chosen fic. As such i, with teachers help, have started the basics of clockwork. Don''t expect anything for several months since i am still a newbie and i just began drawing as well but the clockwork manga might help me get motivated since i keep reviewing what i already wrote. Enjoy
In the Virtual world of Etheria there are several continents, these continents are isolated by a huge contaminated green colored ocean filled with many unimaginable substances. Even more life has adapted to this and the creatures that live within these waters are the most deadly to the point that even flying over the ocean was a danger. The ocean had many ¡°islands¡± formed by the carcasses of huge ships that poke out of the water after many have fallen over each other. On these islands many different monsters were born and most are flying monsters. They make the trip over the waters nearly impossible. On one of these continents, the artificial being known as Constructs have gone and grown to some of the largest influence because of the fact that they can build a population at a faster rate. The constructs magic, while restricted, is a huge benefit to the lives of all the other races around them and those who were peaceful enough to build connections with them have benefited. Near the coast in the Seafolk capital city, Waterfront, the city where the construct Jeopardy saved the Serin and Merfolk the city had grown to a massive proportion. The ¡°pond¡± that was made by the construct has long since been expanded into a massive lake. The water was pure enough and supported the lives of the merfolk and even fish and corals they all used and lived from. They also developed some level of magic that they had forgotten. Serin which were more beast humans could only use strengthening magic but merfolk were more magical and could somewhat use magic to a degree. They don¡¯t know that the water they live in affects their ability of magic and since they gained a liveable environment they regained their magic. It is the same case with Fairies who lost their forests and environment. They lose their magic and even their ability to fly until they can find a new home. Jeopardy had left after helping them grown after a few months after the beta phase was concluded and she returned. She adventures but found she didn¡¯t really like fighting. Trauma from the beta phase where she destroyed several races had made her unable to like the adventuring life so she split from the crew she had made but kept in contact. She returned to the merfolk city where she continued to help them. She formed a new crew that specializes to help people and make new cities grow. Her crew was made up of several crafters from a few different races. No two continents have the same races so her crew had no dwarves or anything instead it was comprised of, 2 halflings who are a pair of twins, boy and girl, who are half sized humans with a strong itch to tinker with anything. They aren¡¯t blacksmiths but instead they are mostly builders. An Angel, a female who dresses like a warrior giving her a Valkyrie like appearance. She is the main fighter of the group and the one that keeps creeps away and a Sylph. Sylph are originally from this continent and would normally not be found alive on other continents if not for the efforts of the Clockwork main figurehead Techno. Today she was in a nearby town. It was another merfolk town and she was helping to clear the water in the Pond. It was still a small town and would take a while and lots of effort from her and others to make this town flourish properly and finally link the lake to the original first one. All merfolk cities are linked by the underground rivers. Underwater rivers flow between all the cities that the merfolk use to move around in safely. This also includes all the way to a merchant town that was made near the construct scrapyard. At the moment, Jeopardy was with her angel companion as the two used water magic to clean and improve the water quality as well as fill the lake a bit more. The amount of mana Jeopardy can store isn¡¯t large but thanks to the ¡°cheat¡± like water elemental core she has, she has a hand over other people. ¡°Ahh so tired...how are you doing?¡± Jeopardy asked. ¡°Same, lets rest a bit while i eat and you charge up.¡± The angel suggested making Jeopardy nod. It was partly cloudy and there was about 30-40% of cloud coverage so there were times the sun was covered and others when it beat down on them. The two halflings brought over some cooked food after making sure it was sanitized and the wood wasn¡¯t contaminated before burning and cooking. ¡°Ah~! So much hard work. I wonder how much of an effect the merpeople towns would eventually have. I think i heard they found some natural clean springs underground.¡± The angel said. ¡°That''s rare, a clean spring, it must be really deep underground to be clean.¡± The female halfling said. As they chat they just talk about gossip under the 3 o''clock sun. Suddenly something blocked the sun but it wasn¡¯t like a cloud that let some sunlight pass. They all looked up and all their eyes widen. High up in the sky was a massive landmass. It wasn¡¯t any normal landmass but instead it was shaped like a whale. ¡°Island¡­¡±¡°...Whale!¡± The twins said completing each other''s words. ¡°Is that¡­ the direction?!¡± The angel said and looked at the direction the whale was facing away from. She then opened up the official map that was made of the world but the continents weren¡¯t connected and there was no way to know which was where. They looked at the clockwork continent wondering if it was true but then the map went blank. They tried to open but it didn¡¯t go and stayed off for several seconds before it updated. What appeared shocked everyone. The shape of the puzzle like map changed and there was a clear line showing the exact route to this continent. At the bottom it said ¡°Last Update by Techno Gear¡± making it clear as day what was going on. ¡°THAT¡¯S ¡°THE CLOCKWORK!¡±¡± The sylph shouted as the wind began to turn into a small cyclone forming a human body shape. ¡°But¡­ didn¡¯t they vanish almost 7 months ago?!¡± Jeopardy asked looking up at the whale form. It beat the tail once before it tilted its body towards the north west and began moving. ¡°That direction! Its going to the construct scrapyard!¡± Jeopardy shouted. ¡°¡°What do they need there?¡±¡± The twins asked together. ¡°I don¡¯t know but the leader is considered the leading craftsman in the game at least before he vanished with his crew so i think he might be going to trade technology or simply scavenge it.¡± The angel said. ¡°Let''s go after it!¡± Jeopardy said. ¡°Why?¡± The sylph asked. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°I heard they possess all four basic elementals so that means if i get different cores i can get different kinds of magic as well as more mana and regeneration.¡± Jeopardy said but didn¡¯t say that she actually wanted to see the state Techno is when he doesn¡¯t know who she is. ¡°Then we should get the merfolk to help.¡± The angel said and stood up before flying off towards a nearby established town. They knew what she was going to do. After several minutes a group of mermaids appeared. ¡°Hey~~! Guys~! We came to pick you up~!¡± Shouted a cute mermaid with cherry pink hair and had a white tail with orange and black spots on it. Behind them was a small wooden boat with a large bubble around it. When the magic of the merfolk returned they discovered they can make these kinds of bubbles that hold oxygen and can be used to transport air breathers. This is the main reason all the merfolk towns are linked with the underwater river. ¡°Thanks and sorry for the trouble. Can you take us to the scrapyard.¡± Jeopardy asked. ¡°It''s no problem, your crew has done so much for us its only fair we do something to help as well.¡± One of the mermaids said. They climb into the boat and sit down. The mermaids use magic to link some water chains to the bubble and being pulling it through the massive tunnel network and currents of the underwater river. If anything besides the merfolk or serin enter the currents it would be totally smashed to pieces. They have a passive that reduces water resistance around their body which lets them travel through these dangerous currents with relative ease. After a while the tunnel began ascending and we can see a light up head. When they finally exit the tunnel they find themselves in a beautiful reef city. The merfolk know how to cultivate coral to shape their houses out of them making a colorful home making the term, ¡°Elf of the sea¡± a true enough statement since elves live in the trees while merfolk live in the coral. The boat rises until the mermaids lift it above the water and the bubble pops returning air pressure on them and keeping the boat from sinking. After a pushing the boat to the shore the crew gets off and thank the mermaids for the ride. They look to the south east and as they had expected, the massive whale was already in view showing that the speed of the whale wasn¡¯t anything small even with its size it can move a considerable distance. They move to the opened gate and see a huge crowd gathering. Some people that know us calls out. ¡°Hey guys did you see the massive whale!¡± One of them said and we nod. ¡°We spotted them when it reached the coast and we came through the mermaid underwater transport. We found out that it''s ¡°The Clockwork¡± crew.¡± Jeopardy says and instantly the crowd erupts in shouts at the news. As a result it spreads at a rapid pace that the clockwork crew had once again surfaced after their disappearance. Everyone watched as the whale got closer and its size just grew. When it finally stopped only 100 meters away and over 500 meters in the air we could see the whale was no smaller than 300 meters long 200 wide and the height from its belly to the top was indiscernible from here. I saw that the fins were made of pure crystal and there were some of the same blue crystal jutting out in several places on the underbelly sides and back. The tail fin was also made out of these crystals. Very slowly the mouth of the whale began to part and after a suspenseful 5 minutes for it to fully open we saw them. Like small fighter jets, some kind of flying machine or robot left the mouth and after circling in the air several times it nose dived down towards us. After a moment i saw it really was a robot and under it was a large propeller as and there were two long 1.5 meter long wings on both sides with a few missiles attached. At 200 meters the nose dive ended and they flew horizontally before doing a U turn heading down towards the crowd. When they finally reached 7 meters in height they were flying on the main road heading for the crowd but before it reached it they robot tilted up and the propeller suddenly turned towards the front and began to slow the robot down before stabilizing in mid air. We could finally see the rider. It looked was the a bit taller than a basic model clockwork but this one had four arms and was a had a hue of blue on its plates. The eyes were strangely lifelike and moved around inside the sockets like real eyes. It reminded me of the transformers like eyes but his doesn¡¯t glow like theirs. What was more interesting is that the face of the robot was built so intricately that it formed facial expressions and moved. This was clearly a top class robot that is nearing perfection and if you add a human skin it could probably copy the human expressions. Behind the first one the other several riders came. There was two knight class bulky clockwork, a dwarf, a small child clockwork girl that had a form like a rabbit beastman, two will-o-wisps, a black golem, a tiger beastwoman, a draconian and the final one stopped next to the first clockwork and it was a six armed large and angry looking clockwork with a red hue colored plate. The two group made a chill run down our bellies as it showed the strength they possess is no joke. The blue clockwork looked back a moment one of the knights. He moved forward and spoke out. ¡°Greetings all of this continent, we are ¡°The Clockwork¡± crew, we have just finished crossing the damned ocean and after so long we have arrived with no ill intentions. Tomorrow our crew and city members on the whale above will descend and will be open for trading of information and technology. One thing to remember is that we possess technology for purification of water sources and for you magic races we have that for you, especially you constructs. We thank you for your attention and if you will excuse us we shall head back to prepare for tomorrow.¡± He said before all the machine planes sprung into life before we could ask anything and they all launched into the air leaving everyone stunned. Jeopardy looked at her party who were frowning. ¡°They are rather cocky aren¡¯t they?¡± The angel said frowning as she looked up. ¡°I don¡¯t think they¡¯re being cocky, they were simply making a propaganda.¡± The sylph said. ¡°Yeah i agree, they simply want everyone to spread the word. Still i wonder what it will take for the water purification stuff, if they could get those spread to the merfolk and serin it would greatly empower them and lead to improvements in the surrounding lands.¡± The halfling girl said. ¡°We can only hope they aren¡¯t greedy or we won¡¯t get anything from this.¡± The angel said. Jeopardy could only look up towards the whale that was suspended in mid air. ¡±He still doesn¡¯t seem to be talking, or is it only to people he is close with?¡± she wondered to herself but couldn¡¯t find out without seeing him for herself. She just sighed and they crew went to the mermaid town and stayed there for the night until the following day when the crew would descend to trade with the residents of this continent. Volume 4 Chapter 2: Let the Negotiations Begin Author''s Corner: I am rather pumped and so let is get moving, got this chapter out rather quick, it really does seem my Writers block is gone for now. I think Nebula chap is the next to be released since its good to not focus so much. Don''t expect it out today though. This chapter is just rambling about what happened during the trip but next chapter this rambling ends so don''t worry.
Through the eyes of Asura and Yasha, I look down at the massive scrapyard that is composed of Constructs instead of clockwork. A small sense of nostalgia passes through me as I look down and then into the city which was rather pathetic if you compare to the clockwork cities since the number of races that united and built those cities made very strong cities. I turn around and look inside of brock''s whale body. The inside was a hustle and bustle. The inside was separated into layers. Floor one was a large market place and at the very back was my workshop as well as the city hall. Alongside that there was another building that was a series of special machines I built and it connected to a huge magic crystal that was jutting out of the ground. This machine is connected with the processed silver wires that I had gotten off Gaia. This machine takes Brocks massive amount of mana and draws it into the generator is connected with which is simply several dozen elevated Lighting magic cores Crystals that then produce electricity which is transferred into a transformer and then distributed throughout the city making the inside much brighter thanks to the lamps we now have. Following this we also built a clockwork production plant on the fourth floor and even more than this we have a Blast furnace built in town but we mostly only melt trash and recycled items. Floor three is a massive maze like resident area housing all of our residents and it¡¯s also one of the safest places because it¡¯s been also where we built the Clockwork Knights barracks. This is run by Surge who has advanced beyond Metal Core Steel armor to something far beyond that. After all the clockworks in my official crew became either an Automata or Machina we gained a very unique ability.
Molecular CraftingIntermediate Level 2
A unique ability only possessed by a being that is made with a Motherboard Core. This ability allows the user to break down any item that you can pull within your core. Once broken down you can control the broken down molecules and rearrange them and create a new item with as well as combine items at a molecular level to create unique materials. Increases control over broken down molecules by 7% Increases quality of items made by 7%
Its because of this skill that we are able to make extremely unique parts for our body. Now what was it that we made? Well when I was making my new Asura body I made the face and body several times more complex and allowing me to make expressions to a new degree. Now what was the materials? On our trip over the ocean, it¡¯s not an exaggeration to say that we fought some of the hardest monsters ever. Swarms of mutant birds over level 190, lesser dragons level 210, mutant wyvern level 200, were beasts we were able to kill but then there were sea monsters level 340, which were avoided because we can¡¯t fight this thing. These were all things that we had to fight through to reach this another continent. How we reach here, first was our anti-air turrets which were upgraded thanks to our ability to make new materials and make much more intricate parts making the weapons more complex. Second was that the ¡°impossible¡± to process silver wire was easily made by those who are cores at the moment since we can separate the silver to a 100% purity making the wires we use very good. From my guess with the silver wires attached to Brock it will eventually be saturated with so much mana that it will sooner or later become mythril wires. Now what is used these pure silver wires? As I said before it was made to transfer the mana from the whale to the machines we use. Another place we use it is transferring mana into the furnace. And we also learned to make magic weaponry through crystal cores and silver wires combined with the weaponry. Most places that need its own power source it has its own lightning Core in their home but sealed off so it¡¯s not stolen. Anyway the bodies we have now are a unique mix we developed by consuming the monsters we killed. The Lesser dragons bones were consumed and mixed with Iron and coal and made what I dubbed Dragon Bone Steel. I made all the armor plate with that as well as the skeleton since it was originally bone. Then I took the scales from a few of them and made the all the smallest parts since they were delicate I wanted them to be strong and durable and the scales were just that. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that we used missiles and strong weapons to down them we would never kill these beasts. The meat was left as food but the blood was drawn through our cores because after a test I found we could draw out all the minerals from the blood and split it up so we gained new sources of minerals to process even though it was pretty unconventional. The rest of the parts that I didn¡¯t use the scales with I used the remaining bones to make them while fangs and claws were made into close range weapons. Well mostly. I turned all the small bones that remained into spear heads and made strong spears so that I could toss them with Yasha while I made a Dragon Bone Steel sword for Asura. The others were in similar conditions, Nova didn¡¯t know how to make most of the stuff but it wasn¡¯t hard to make her a new robot body and build it. The strength of the original crew can¡¯t be compared to 7 months ago. For me and Nova these are the stats of our robot''s.
Status
NameTechno Gear (Yasha)RaceClockwork
ClassMechanicLevel:196
Free stats points348Fame1000
Durability3,310/3,310Durability RegNone
Energy1000/1000Energy Reg:2 per/s
Strength194Agility200
Dexterity230Toughness270
Intelligence160Wisdom???
Charisma96Leadership32
Luck50
[tr] [Tr][tr] [Tr][tr] [Tr][tr] [tr]
Clockwork body construction Advanced Level 4
Scavenger Intermediate Level 7
Tinker Intermediate Level 9
Dwarven Blacksmithing Intermediate Level 8
Molecular CraftingIntermediate Level 2
Blunt weapon masteryBasic Level 1
ProgrammingIntermediate Level 9
Hacking Basic Level 5
Marksmanship Intermediate Level 7
Machine weapon buildingIntermediate Level 6
Schematic BreakdownBasic Level 5
AnalysisIntermediate Level 1Dual wield skillIntermediate Level 8AlchemyIntermediate Level 4Elemental BlacksmithingIntermediate Level 6Gear Shift
Status
NameTechno Gear (Asura)RaceClockwork
ClassChaos KnightLevel:196
Free stats points348Fame1000
Durability3,360/3,360Durability RegNone
Energy1000/1000Energy Reg:2 per/s
Strength320Agility280
Dexterity225Toughness280
Intelligence160Wisdom???
Charisma96Leadership32
Luck50
Status
NameNova GearRaceClockwork
ClassCommander SniperLevel:176
Free stats points528Fame0
Durability3,010/3,010Durability RegNone
Energy1000/1000Energy Reg:2 per/s
Strength176Agility186
Dexterity275Toughness250
Intelligence140Wisdom???
Charisma78Leadership20
Luck200
Status
NameNova GearRaceClockwork
ClassRabbit MonkLevel:176
Free stats points372Fame0
Durability3,160/3,160Durability RegNone
Energy1000/1000Energy Reg:2 per/s
Strength220Agility290
Dexterity245Toughness280
Intelligence140Wisdom???
Charisma78Leadership20
Luck200
[tr]
Clockwork body constructionBasic Level 4
ScavengerIntermediate Level 2
TinkerIntermediate Level 1
Dwarven BlacksmithingBasic level 1MarksmanshipAdvanced Level 5
Machine weapon buildingBasic Level 9
SnipeIntermediate Level 9
Small Craft PilotAdvanced level 8
Hand to Hand combatIntermediate Level 1
Hyper JumpIntermediate Level 2
Bullet PunchIntermediate Level 1
Body Shift
Gear Shift
If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.(A.N. first off wisdom for the clockwork means their processing speed and speed at which they can process information. The wisdom being ??? is because the people who became automata or machina put their mind inside a supercomputer which is the motherboard core. This resulted in their minds becoming like AI and the game can''t pin a number on such a large processing power.) These are the stats of both robot''s for me and Nova, we don¡¯t put down stats points or else we would be even stronger, this is so that if we are in a dangerous situation that needs a certain stat boost we have a super surplus since our race allows us to be many times stronger then the same person at our level which a really strong point of the clockworks if not for the fact that we need repairs. As for the others of the crew, I only know the levels, well besides for the elementals since I can check through Nova. Bulk: 192 Surge: 191 Victor: 185 Blaze: 186 Ena: 189 Brock: 194 Annabeth: 179 Greer: 180 As for all the residents of the town, most aren¡¯t combatants but the Clockwork knights and rogue and assassin''s my town has have a range of level and it¡¯s broken up into military ranking. First off Surge is the General, he is much better at military tactics and planning than anyone in the crew so I put him in charge of the military. Under him are 2 Lieutenant General one for air forces and one for land forces. Below that are five Brigade General, which make up the unites of our cities forces. From there the rank drops into five captain who control a large unite within each brigade and finally the lieutenants that are in charge of all the privates. The level range splits like this. General = Whatever level Surge is. Lieutenant General: 170- one level below Surge Brigade General: 150-169 Captain: 120-149 Lieutenant: 70-119 Privates: 1-69 The reason the ranks are so broken up and don¡¯t follow the proper ranking of a military like in the real world is because we lack the numbers for that. We have between 200-300 knights and 50 rogues and 10 Assassins. It goes without saying that the assassin based classes are super high maintenance class and we can¡¯t have many of them. Still assassins are from levels 100-150 while rogues are below level 100 It''s only because we have a large number of strong soldiers that we could fight through the swarms of monsters that came at us. The elementals were also a huge help and even beyond that the clockwork animals that possess a core were some help. I developed a program to have them properly hunt each other to grow in level but I made sure that numbers can¡¯t drop below a specific number but I don¡¯t have to worry. Anyway I also programmed them to have the instinct to protect Brock from harm and so when the monsters came the animals instinctively attacked and they aren¡¯t anywhere near weak since I have slowly modified each of them giving them plans on slow improvements that have made them into monsters. Sadly flying robots are hard to achieve and they aren¡¯t that numerous or large but those that exist are blindingly fast like a small hummingbird robot I saw once. Its attack method relies on having its drill like beak spin as it launches itself at a vital spot on its target flying nearly at 200 meters/s but this is a burst so this only masters about 5 seconds but that is more than enough to seriously injure its target. I guess that is mostly all there is, Victor has gone out of his way to make more Bulk smasher robot''s and is constantly sparring with the latter to test this out. Also that program Brock made, the hulk program prank we pulled on Bulk, actually turned out to be useful. The reason being that the Overload skill wouldn¡¯t normally be possible to turn on and off willingly unless your are in a rage and when all your energy and steam is used up but with the Hulk program it¡¯s possible to control the on and off button to this skill that all knights and tanks possess. If others knew about this fact it would send a shiver down their back thinking that our crew has an army of 300 hulks. Well, recapping done we simply wait for the day to pass as we prepare the several boats we had found and completely repaired for trading. We made sure to load water purification machines and we were getting the elemental leaders aboard and settled in. They each have a box of cores of their own kind. I have already told Marine, the Undine, that this continent possess races like merfolk and Siren who live together and have some towns. She is interested in going to these towns and speaking with their leaders to offer some undine to help purify their water. The Undine and water races have a very complex relationship as the undine purify the water they live in and the purified water in turn gives the merfolk more magical abilities. Then the elves are interested in finding places to revitalize and these merfolk towns will probably be the first stop since they already have purer water than the toxic stuff we normally see. When night came I sent drones to scout the surrounding lands for springs and such that would also be needed to clean and to check on the level of monsters. Come morning the ships were ready and I already had the area probed and found that this area had few beasts but further into the scrap yard there were some magical doll beasts and there were a few dungeons similar to those in the clockwork scrapyard. Inside my own head which was the motherboard core, I open up various maps made by players of this area to check out the surroundings and then look at the level of players in this area and what races live here. First the constructs are obvious, Merfolk, Siren, the Sylph are from this continent as well, Angel popped up on this continent, Rabbit beastmen and finally Harpies live isolated in a mountainous region to the east. There is a post saying that treant and dryads were from this continent but died out because the NPC of these races attacked a Construct and she defended herself and it ended up causing the forest they lived in to burn killing them with it. This is a good piece of information to pass to the Elves because the elves have a harmonious relationship with nature and alongside that are the nature races like treants and dryads. Their magic can also cause the revitalized land to birth them if it''s near a large source of mana like a mana well which is an underground spring of mana. As the sun finally touches the walls of the scrapyard I open my eyes after connecting to Yasha and Asura and head out of my room and head to the ship before entering. I tell Surge to bring a few men as guards to the ships and then call Nova. She obviously comes on the original Proto with both her bodies. The sniper was sitting while the rabbit was in beast form on her lap getting a petting. I sigh as I see her like that and a smile smile appears on my face. ¡±To all men, let us set off. Be on your guard for anyone trying to sneak in, Assassins remain in Stealth mode while patrolling within the ship''s interior. Two remain within the cargo at all times and two on the top deck while one monitors the interior.¡± I send out a message to all the surrounding men. I have two ships and 10 assassins so 5 each ship while the knights also come and man the ships. Yasha was in one ship while Asura was on the other and I take command of both ships as their engines start and the propellers start spinning and they lift off the ground and leave through the open whale mouth. I hear a thump as Brock drops down onto one of the decks and then I see two small wisps floating around my head. ¡°Don¡¯t leave us behind you here!¡± Blaze shouted. ¡°Sit down already you little flies!¡± I said as they float around my head. ¡°HEY!¡± He shouts back. ¡°Give it a rest Blaze, lets just enjoy this time maybe we can finally get a better body by taking control of a construct in the scraps!¡± Ena said. ¡°Nah, I want to become a true phoenix!¡± Blaze said as his wisp flames changed shape and became a large eagle made of flames. ¡°You and your stupid dreams.¡± She said as her flames expand and take the form of a human and it has her real features. These two are probably the most skilled in magic manipulating because they trained so hard these last 7 months that their Fire manipulating skill was already Advanced level 8 and they can condense their flames into a solid body. The flames don''t escape the body unless it''s intended to so that is why Ena looks like a girl with a flaming bra and underwear but has firm red skin, two pure red eyes and long elf like ears. Only the hair on her head was still blazing and it gave her a really fiery look. ¡°Guys the heat in here is rising, you know transforming heats up the surroundings. Stop or we will boil!¡± I said glaring at them. The two revert back to their small wisp forms. When they transform they get a boost in stats which make transforming a strong skill for them. Brock also has it and has long since compressed his body deeply into a human shape and has sanded his own body to leave it smooth made barely looks like a golem if not for the glowing eyes and the barely visible lines that appear between the cracks that remain. After the two leave the ships exit and soon start to descend towards the outskirts of the town. It''s not a big town so and there aren¡¯t as many ships here as there are in the clockwork nation has already been proclaimed to be the best starting nation but worst for magic users like the demon race but more have been moving the South gate city and that is slowly being fixed as they build magic schools. With a quick command several landing pads extend from below the ship. I guess the best comparison is from that ship from futurama. Both ships land and there is already a crowd waiting. The cargo on the side opens and forms a ramp to the ground below. The knights rush out of both ships and secure the perimeter as we begin to rapidly set up some small stands with items and products Its now time to start negotiations and the Siren, Merfolk and Construct leaders are already asking to talk to me and I let them through. With the merfolk also came the group that influenced their growth the most. A construct, two halflings, a sylph and an angel dressed like a valkyrie. Jasmine, the mayor class clockwork I made, but female and like a secretary instead of like the male type, walked forward. ¡°Welcome leader of the races of this continent. I am Jasmine and I will be speaking on behalf of the leader.¡± She said with a small bow. They looked at me, Yasha, who was sitting down on the captain seat with Asura behind. ¡°Why can¡¯t he speak himself?¡± The angel asked. ¡°Our leader suffered from trauma several years ago and only to those he considers close friends does he verbally speak. If you wish he can speak through text but he won¡¯t compromise to speak with strangers.¡± She explained. For some reason the construct behind the merman flinches before looking down. I don¡¯t give it much thought but I can¡¯t help frown for a moment. ¡°I see¡­ I can understand your circumstances so we won¡¯t go much into it. We can only hope we can improve our relationship for the better in the years to come and you will eventually trust us.¡± The merman chief said. I nod in return and text Jasmine. ¡±Begin.¡± She nods. ¡°Well then gentlemen, shall we begin negotiations.¡± She said. The next moment the door to the bridge opened and the leading elementals, Brock for the Golems, Ena for the Wisps, Marina for the Undine and Gust for the Sylph. The people were a bit startled by the appearance but once they walked to the side we I nodded to them. ¡°Leaders of construct and Merpeople. We know that you both need magic and water purification. The cores of the elementals and the elementals themselves are your solution for your stagnated progress. We also have the technology to upgrade Constructs into a more advanced magic doll race. Now it¡¯s up to you to offer us something of equal value.¡± Jasmine said The two leaders looked at each other as they begin to contemplate something of equal value. Our cards are on the table, let''s see what they have and what we can grab.
Ena¡¯s Human form but with fire panties http://monstergirlencyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Ignis Volume 4 Chapter 3: Irritating Familiarity Author Corner: finally got some ideas for what to do to finish this chapter. Had to think and talk a lot and reread a bit of what Jeopardy did during the beta to think of what will happen soon. Remember Jeopardy character building will become more extensive and that includes all her crew members. If you all have any ideas for me to use or creative critisim i would be happy to get them Enjoy
The chief of the merfolk and siren and the Constructs looked at each other and began talking and we waited quietly without interrupting them. Finally they look back. ¡°May we speak directly to your leader?¡± The chief asked. Jasmine looked at me and I nod and a nudge on the monitor in front of me it flipped around. ¡±I am all ears, what is your offer?¡± I said through the text. ¡°We don¡¯t have much really, we have information of what few usable and non poisonous plants we have found. We don¡¯t have much food.¡± The merfolk chief. ¡°If you want something in specific you can ask.¡± The construct leader said. ¡±Then are you willing to teach me the construction method for Constructs. In exchange I will trade you 4 elemental of each type and after raising them to competency so they can aid your town.¡± I replied. His brows knit slightly when he frowns. Constructs even though they aren¡¯t as advanced as our own clockworks, they can do some basic facial movements. The reason I want the construction method is because I can then find out the placement of the silver wires in the body of the constructs and even clockwork to make my own synthoids. ¡°That¡­ what use would the elementals have?¡± He asked. ¡°Sir¡­¡± The construct behind him called out. She opened her chest plate and showed a small water elemental core wrapped in the silver wires. ¡°If a construct wraps an elemental core in the wires the cores act as a method to recharge mana without us needing to meditate.¡± She explained. I raised a brow, this was really useful news. This is a major flaw in a constructs design and elementals are a major fix for them. ¡°It also gives the construct the access to the magic system of the core they possess.¡± She continued before closing the plate. ¡±So do we have a deal?¡± I asked after knocking on the table to draw their eyes to the screen. ¡°Yes, we do!¡± He said excited. ¡°Sir, our people don¡¯t have anything of great value to trade.¡± The merfolk chief said. ¡±You both are in a harmonious relationship correct?¡± I asked and they nod. ¡±Then if you construct are willing to pass me the industrial processing method to industrialize silver wire, I will trade it for 10 water elemental cores and I can have the elves in my city go around all the cities of the merfolk and revitalize the land bringing back life to the land.¡± I told them. The construct was shaken by the request but the merman chief stared at him expectantly. It brought huge benefits for his people because he knew really well that the water elementals were beings that purified the water they lived in and they also multiplied over time so 10 elementals will eventually become hundreds and slowly they will spread out across the land and slowly purify the land through the water. ¡°This¡­¡± The construct leader said. It was probably hard since this is his race¡¯s specific technology. I don¡¯t know what merfolk have as a technology but right now I need that silver production method. The reason, though I can make very pure silver, its slow. I can''t industrialize synthoids with just me and the other 3 processing the silver sinces it''s very tedious and slow work. ¡°Sir, I think its best!¡± The angel said. ¡°What!¡± He shouted. ¡°Come on sir, it¡¯s not like we lose the method, it will simply spread. What is a silver refining method for the chance of revitalizing the land and getting access to magic for not only your people but the merfolk and siren as well.¡± One of the halflings said. ¡°... You''re right, for my friends I will trade the refining method. But the elementals have to be high ranking and can aid the merfolk if they need it.¡± He said. I nod and looked at Marina and she nodded back saying it can be done. ¡±Alright, the exchange is done, the elemental we promised will be trained for a few days so they won¡¯t be simple minded fools and you will pass us the construction method for constructs and refining method for silver wire.¡± I told them. I hear a sigh from behind. ¡°Good we can get something to help.¡± She said. Again this woman¡¯s voice is irritatingly familiar. Because of this without warning I make Asura walk forward and bend over. Everyone was shocked and walked back but when I cornered the construct and bent over face to face she tried to shrink back. The look of all clockwork and constructs are also based on the model and customizations the maker put so I don¡¯t know who she is but I read that constructs can¡¯t alter their voice because their system runs on magic so the magic transmits their real life voice unlike constructs that can alter it if we make a program to do that which I have done. Asura has a much deeper voice made to intimidate and as a result I ask her a very simple question in a loud and clear voice. ¡°Who are you!¡± ¡°Eh?¡± She muttered confused. ¡°Hey what¡¯s this about?!¡± The angel asked. ¡°Shut up!¡± I told the angel without looking away from the construct as my frown grows deeper. ¡°I asked! Who! Are! You!¡± I said each word slowly one by one. ¡°J-jeopardy! My name is Jeopardy!¡± She said scared. ¡°Your real name!¡± I muttered. ¡°Hey you can¡¯t ask that!¡± The angel said as she pulled her spear and pointed at me. ¡°Miss angel, I suggest you put the weapon away, it¡¯s unwise since our leader is level 192 and both ships are filled with people that surpass level 100 already.¡± Jasmine casually suggested while making a threat. The angel pales and puts her weapon away reluctantly while glaring at us. ¡°Still you can¡¯t ask for the real name!¡± She shouted. ¡°Real name?¡± The two leaders said. ¡°What I mean is the name we use in the world we Awakened came from.¡± The angel said. This woman is stupid saying it like that but since she probably caused a big dent in her familiarity with the NPC I will drop the matter for now. I call Asura back. ¡°You should keep your watch dogs in check!¡± The angel shouted. ¡±Don¡¯t have any, these blue and red clockwork are both my bodies. Actually they are just robot''s and aren¡¯t the main body.¡± I casually threw in some info so they know their place. ¡±Our transaction is complete, you can leave. We will gather the traded goods when we hand over the elementals. I tell them. I look at Jasmine and she nods and starts to guide the ¡°guests¡± out. I can hear the unsatisfied yells of the angel and the voice of the others. After their voices faded a smile finally spread on my face as I lean back on the chair I was sitting on. ¡°Such an easy win.¡± I said and the others who were in the room began to laugh. ¡°Still Techno, what was that with the girl?¡± Brock asked. ¡°Her voice sounded familiar and very irritating.¡± I said. ¡°Could you have mistaken her for someone you knew?¡± Marina asked. ¡°Probably.¡± I reply. At that moment Nova in her sniper body walked in. ¡°Hi bro! Who were those people I just saw?¡± She asked. I explain what they were here to do. ¡°He~! That doll girl sounded familiar though¡­ hmm.¡± Nova said as she put her index finger on her forehead as she tilted her head and supported her right arm on her left hand. (similar to these https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Mv8hQm081mU/maxresdefault.jpg http://s96.photobucket.com/user/FullyAlive2/media/VN%20stuff/pose09.png.html) ¡°Don¡¯t overthink it, let¡¯s go there is lots of stuff to take care of.¡± I tell her and she looks at me and makes a wide smile. ¡°Kay~!¡± She says and runs out. We follow behind. I then sit down on the ground as I watch what was gonna happen. When I said these four elementals were the leading figures of the elementals I wasn¡¯t lying. They are all the ones that can teach the new born elementals the best. Marina lifts her hand and a huge bubble of water at least 10 meters in diameter appears and then it splits into four separate bubbles. Then she randomly takes any elemental core in the small box she had and tossed them into the water and filled each bubble with mana that was absorbed into the cores and they began to awaken. They took control of the water that was absorbed into the core and then expelled out as it formed into the bodies of the Undine. These four were for the construct town. She then goes and makes ten, five meter in diameter, bubbles and awaken those as well. Depending on the quantity of water and purity it births a different grade of elemental. So the first 4 were probably around 75% purity making them strong leaders. The other 10 were probably done with 85% water purity so they can purify the water better and make strong elementals. All four of the leaders do the same but the other three only needed to make 4 of each and brock only made four human shape normal golems and not something unique. It was still interesting to see, like elemental gods making their creations. Especially Gust who has to make a mini tornado from his hand to purify the air enough to make the elemental. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. It was really entertaining to watch but with that done I was left to my own devices and that wasn¡¯t many. I had expected lots of adventure and stuff from a ruined world in a VR game but surprisingly it¡¯s boring. Maybe because this has become my daily life it¡¯s just not fun anymore. It¡¯s already been 2 years and ¡­ almost two months since I was put in this game with Nova. In real life that will equal a bit more than 157 days. Making technology, fighting, doing some request, making a few items and so one it got rather monotone. It¡¯s only because of Nova that the world isn¡¯t still black and white. Nah I guess that''s a lie now, I have friends in my crew and some in the town that I am at least close enough to talk with. I look up at the huge floating whale and see the movement of the stratos unit. Looking around I spot Nova on her strato flying around. Being tossed from her hands down into the scraps was a small sphere. These were new model spider drones. They are very resilient and can survive the fall easily and once they do they open up and start scouting the surroundings automatically. They are all connected to a main computer on Brock and all the ships we have possess antenna to increase the range this connection can reach. Considering how easily we can scout and do most things I really am bored. Might as well call the elves down and explore the merfolk towns. Since elemental training is done on the field, I''m sure the others have already taken their "offspring" someplace to train. Marina probably went to the merfolk town to get a look. Lets check around after the elves come down and maybe even acquire some scrap to experiment on. Jeopardy PoV "Arg! That stuck up bastard! How dare he act so conceited!" The angel said. "Calm down Gloria! I...I didn''t take offense." Jeopardy said. At once Gloria spun around and looked at her. "No offense? No Offense! After what he did, you actually have the face to tell me you weren''t offended!" Gloria shouted. Jeopardy couldn''t look her in the eyes but only muttered in a super low voice no one could here, "He was offended worst by me." "What was that?" Gloria asked. "Nothing." Jeopardy said shaking her head and walking forward. I turn to the clockie secretary. "So how long will it take for the elementals to be fully trained?" I asked to get off this topic. "Well each one has their own methods but I believe the one you''re most interested in is the water elementals. I''m pretty sure Marina will take them to the nearest source of water be it the merfolk city or a nearby spring. I¡¯m sure it will be set up as city first then springs, Undine are naturally drawn to living at the location of springs because that place carries the purest water. If they purify the spring a chain reaction happens downstream." She said. "Want to go watch?" I asked the others. They all shrug and we walk out of the scrapyard and look towards the city. Before we could even react we saw fourteen streams of water that looked like tentacles outside of the water over the merfolk town. They were wiggling and each time they look like it would fall it would suddenly whip back and a black gooey ball of something shoots out over onto a stone basin where golems were standing. We were stunned before we ran over and saw the two leaders shouting. "Work the water like you do your body. Don''t force it, dance within it, you are a being of water so feel the foreign water and gather its impurities." Marina shouted. The golem on the other hand was shouting at some of the golems that were taking a large basin away. "Heave ho, heave ho, those impurities contain a fuck load of materials. Once we can separate water, metals and oil we can gain some materials for our homeland." He said making the golems shout. "Whats going on here?" I muttered. The undine notices our presence and looks over. "So you came, what do you think?" She asked. "Whats happening?" Nene the female halfling asked. "This is a training exercise as well as a method to rapidly clean water to the purity of the undine. This will give them sufficient skill to live in this environment and multiply before spreading." She said. "You don''t seem against leaving them behind?" Gloria said. "Why would I be against it. Undine live in the world as beings tied directly to nature''s balance. A sane undine will work tirelessly to purify a pond to make some friends as they grow in number they spread and eventually they clean land. Golems, Sylph and Will-o-wisps are the same.we each have a natural environment that needs us to maintain its balance. That whale up there..." she pointed up. "It''s an elemental titan and a being elementals naturally converge to. The world can be destroyed but the land on that can always remain pure. Besides elementals, nature spirits and fae also naturally love that being because it is naturally rich in mana around it." She said. Hearing Nature spirits made me think of the dryad and treant that were killed when they attacked me. If they hadn''t attacked, I wonder if they would have been an evil race unlike the kind race it probably should be. "Are your personalities affected by your purity?" I asked. "Undine and Sylph yes. If we are made of water that is only ranked 50% pure we are born neutral, neither good or bad. Below 50% they are born evil Undine while above is normal undine." She said. "Dryad and treant are the same?" I asked. "Sorry but I can''t say for sure. I haven''t met them but they should be born around naturally high mana dense areas and forests. We expect some to be born on Brock''s back someday." She said. "Brock?" I mutter. "That black golem, he is the main body of the whale." She explained. We were shocked to find that this was actually a golem. To have a floating huge whale in his control must mean he is the strongest in the crew. "Oh looks like the elves are already here. Even Techno came, my, that man has been bored lately. Must have lost lots of motivations recently." She muttered and we see a group of elves coming over while chatting and leading them was that same pair of robots. "How is it?" He asked Marina without even looking our way. "Two to three days and we can have all the bad impurities from the entire underground water system cleaned. It will also affect a huge region that passess over the network and most springs may purify by a degree of 20-30% after we are done." Marina said in a business tone. He nods and then turns to the elves before gesturing with one hand making a circle in the air. All the elves spread out and after a while they used a magic that made a glowing green ball appear. They always work in groups of no less than five and at max twenty. The green ball invades the ground as green waves of, what I think is nature mana, spreads several meters and they move one. The normally blackish dirt starts gaining a brownish tone of color. The withered grass and bushes almost instantly gain life as they greedily suck that energy. It was amazing to see that black rotting trees move around and nun twist themselves from that disgusting shape back to a straight tree and slowly buds appear followed by green leaves. Very quickly the elves tire themselves out but they then take several fist sized crystals and put it to their chest. It starts to glow and they soon get back to work. Everyone that wasn''t a part of Techno''s crew was in shock as magic of dozens of types was used to rapidly bring life to the little bit of land around the merfolk town. By the end of they day, Marina tested the water saying it had reached 65% purity. At this level merfolk can use water magic to an intermediate degree. Once the level reaches 85% they can easily master water magic and use it to its max. As for Techno himself he just watched as the undine cleaned up after instructing what will be done with the waste and left. Gloria very much hates him for his attitude but I can''t blame him for his coldness. Still I was extremely scared he would recognize me by my voice. If I could change it I would have already. I wonder if I can do nature magic if I get all four elemental cores. Maybe I can revive the treants and dryads. That sounds interesting. As I think this I tell the others I¡¯ll be back in a bit and head to the elves and talk to then about it. Nature magic is the combination between water and earth magic so it is those cores I need. I''ll get it eventually and then go revive the nature spirits and maybe even make nice ones. With a happy though me and my crew get back to Waterfront city to expand the pond more. It¡¯s still our job so we must do that. In merfolk scrapyard town. The elves worked until a bit after noon and returned after eating. When the sun was beginning to set they gathered and as a group of nearly sixty they made one finally massive green ball that rushed into the ground and spread over the entire area. After they leave at the center of where the glow was, a small sprouts appeared. It quickly began to grow and absorb the pure clean earth and water mana left behind making a healthy bud that grew to the size of a child. Eventually a bud appeared and bloomed into a bright red rose that absorbed the bright moonlight for half the night before it withered and turned into a fruit they grew rapidly to the size of an infant. As it reached that state, it stopped and remained like this all night until morning when it was spotted by the elves. Idea/suggestion Needing some ideas for plot, i had thought of adding another terraforming mission but don''t know what type. If you guys can put down some ideas i can use later it would be good but please put more ideas i can use at this moment and not in 10 years. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Thanks Volume 4 Chapter 4 Sakura, Titan of Nature As the sun rose the next day I was suddenly called by the elves that had descended to keep improving the land. It was because of a strange occurance so taking control of Yasha and Asura I called some Knights and descended. On my own Strato we flew down and eventually reached the lake that the elves were at and jumped off landing with a loud ¡®Thump¡¯ as our weight dropped on the ground with momentum. The elves turned and they start to disperse allowing me to see what was the commotion as as soon as I see it I figured out why. As soon as my eyes landed on it my scanners quickly picked up the presence of abundant nature mana inside that strange plant. ¡°What is this?¡± I asked. ¡°We are uncertain but it clearly appeared as a direct result of us reviving this area of land.¡± One elve explained. ¡°Could this be some kind of nature spirit or plant monster?¡± ¡°Most likely.¡± the elf affirmed. I turned around and point at several of them, ¡°Set up perimeter with turrets. Target, this plant.¡± I say. ¡°Are you going to destroy it?¡± The elf asked to which I shake my head. ¡°Precaution.¡± The knights get busy and call up to the ship making them send down several large balls with numbers on them. Topping off at 8 they placed them in order and formed the turrets. These were the ball turrets that Nova had originally invented but were now very well refined after so long. With the muzzles aimed at the plant they confirm they were ready and armed. I nod to the elves and they all move to different spots and begin to vitalize the land but whenever the wave would go out the plant did as well and would draw in the energy released and slowly it began to grow. ¡°Stop!¡± I call them, ¡°Group revitalization over the plant!¡± I order them. It was clear that there was no point in doing it too far off so just dump the energy directly on it would resolve the problem quickly. As such the elves slowly gathered and like the previous night they slowly gathered their power into a large ball of mana before dropping it right over the plant. The waves spread out throughout the entire area but after a moment they suddenly return to the flower. The plant in question began to glow and pulse. ¡°Whats going on?!¡± Someone appeared from the construct village. Looking back he saw it was that party and behind them was also many more people that had logged in or stayed awake during the night. I ignore them since it didn¡¯t matter if they knew or not and watched the flower. The elves were healing themselves with mana from the crystals they get from Brock. As for the plant, with each pulse the strange fruit would grow more and slowly it reached the size where it was almost 1 meter in diameter and could fit a child inside. From the top a split appeared and every one of the knights tensed up. The fruit kept growing and the split went four ways like a four leaf flower and slowly opened until half way. Everyone was quiet until the sound of slurping was heard and I became curious and held his hand up and began to walk over but half way a movement came from it shaking the flower and instantly Asura¡¯s arms revealed its arsenal with the two lower guns completely becoming shotguns and the next pair became miniguns. On the alert he watched as two small hands gripped the flower and stood up and a small figure that looked no more than maybe two or three years old stood up. She had droopy eyes and she looked around before yawning, putting her left hand over her mouth and stretching with the other. She had long dark green hair and light green skin with a tinge of pink. We were taken by surprise and slowly watched. She in turn also looked around confused and only then did I start to calm down and lower my weapons and walk over before kneeling down. ¡°Who are you?¡± I asked in a tone I normally used for Nova. She just tilted her head confused. After a moment she made a bright innocent smile and jumped out of the plant and jumped on my back. Obviously just born she was completely naked so with one pair of arms I grab her gently and put her down and turn around. ¡°What do you make of her?¡± I asked the elves. ¡°Don¡¯t know.¡± the elves said. A splash followed by a voice caught my attention, ¡°It''s a living Dryad!¡± The voice originated from the merman chief that I had met before. He came out of the water and looked at the girl with startled eyes. ¡°This girl¡­¡± he muttered and looked at the plant. Suddenly the girls starts to struggle and I put her down only for her to turn south and start running. ¡°Wait!¡± I call but she doesn¡¯t stop. I turn to the men and send them a message to pack up and for a group to follow me. I call in some air units to monitor her movements as we start to run after her through the trees. Soon back in filthy land she uses vines to keep her feet from touching the soil. ¡°This reeks of something important!¡± I thought as we followed her. Several hours of walking with many of the people from the town following due to stupid people''s curiosity and greed to be part of something big. Soon the sound of burnt earth sounded under our heavy metal feet. Looking around there were burnt plants and trees all over. ¡°This is¡­¡± A solemn look came from behind. I look back and see that irritating construct had followed but now she seemed a bit erratic. Looking at the gem that was a topaz it was lightning magic if I had the system of constructs down properly which means that with how she is acting she may have been the construct to be attacked. ¡°Probably feels guilty for killing off two races.¡± I thought but shrugged it off. We follow the little Dryad and went further and further until we arrived at a root covered clearing. There were massive trees all over but at the very center of the burn forest there was a massive moat and a huge island yet at the center of the completely empty island was a single dried up sprout. ¡°Ah! Ah!¡± She began to point after turning to us. We looked confused at her but she cups her hand and forms a small ball of green energy and throws it onto the island and points and gestures while muttering, ¡°Ah! Ah!¡± ¡°Elves, form a bridge to that island.¡± I say and look around. The water in the moat was filthy and the earth was dark. Thankfully the elementals had been notified so that we were ready for it all. ¡°Undine, clean the water, Golems help build the bridge then clean the soil, Sylph filter the air.¡± I order and the leaders begin to have the minions work. The elementals got busy and the elves and golem began to raise an earth bridge to the island while the two other elementals began to work. The water was filthy green but with the dozen or so Undine they spread around and began to throw out the water to at least neutralize the waters contamination. The golem soon followed and the soil was slowly cleaned off while the roots of the plant were left. Brock came back to me a bit shocked. ¡°That spout has roots spread all over, it''s probably a really important tree.¡± He said. ¡°For all we know it might even be something akin to a world tree.¡± I joked with him and he shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t joke, we have already met titans so what if we actually meet it.¡± The little Dryad was beside the sprout as if waiting for something to happen. Most people didn¡¯t stay watching and spread out helping remove the black liquid being thrown out of the lake and other things. In several hours of work they got it to a reasonable level of ¡®clean¡¯ that I authorized one big burst of natural energy from the elves. Like they did with the little Dryad¡¯s flower they gathered it above the sprout. Once the gathered power reached its peak the elves activated the spell drowning the sprout in clean nature energy. A strong green wave spread out before it was sucked into the plant before green ¡®cracks¡¯ spread as if lightning originating from the sprout. After that happened it all went silent except for the little Dryad who was clapping before she lifted herself over the sprout. On closer inspection it had gained its brown color and green leaves were starting to form. The girl used her vine to lower herself onto the sprout. When her feet touched the sprout, a second wave of energy was let out before she jumped off and ran off the island and then hid behind my leg like a shy child or someone that did something bad but I took this as a sign. ¡°Everyone retreat from the lake and island and from above the island as well!¡± I order. The others don¡¯t waste time to remove themselves and once everyone was off a surprise happened as the sturdy stone bridge begins to collapse and the ground begins to shake. Suddenly more flashes on the ground came from the sprout and the sound of bark breaking could be heard as the sprout begins to grow. Slowly at first before its growth explodes and it starts to spread more branches. It climbs to 5 meters and spreads a large number of branches. The roots begin to spread above land and into the water and then out into the polluted land where it builds a bridge between the island and the land. On the branches slowly they start to sprout flowers that were extremely bright pink. Soon every branch was covered in bright pink flowers and slowly the started to fall slowly. Where they touched down they broke down and from that spot it would form a small flower. If it touched polluted land it would cause a black smoke to rise as both were burned up.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°Ah~!¡± An ancient tired voice suddenly resound. ¡°1000 years only to rise from my core and find the world so depressing.¡± The voice said slowly. The little Dryad suddenly hopped out from behind me and ran towards the tree. ¡°Oh? There you are, it was a bit far but you made it just fine.¡± The ancient voice said and a root appeared and the girl stopped in front where it bet her head and she generally liked it and giggled. ¡°I thank you all for purifying this bit of land.¡± He said. I look at the tree and walk up, ¡°What are you?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh¡­ one with a cold heart, you may call me the Titan of Nature, Sakura. I can also be considered Mother of Nature and am the ancestor of all vegetal life both common and magical or what is left of it.¡± She said and sighed deeply. ¡°The entire planet, devastated for so long my roots all over the world have been corrupted so much.¡± ¡°The forest of elves has been pure due to their magic.¡± One of the elves shouted from behind me. Sakura pauses a moment and sighs, ¡°Connecting to it passes through too many dead roots. It will take so long for me to revitalize myself to reach it.¡± She sighed once more, ¡°At least the cores of my elder Treants had yet to be corrupted and given enough energy and purifying enough land I can reawaken some good followers.¡± She said to no one apparent. ¡°Sakura¡­ why are you not sealed like Delta?¡± ¡°Delta! That insulate tin can still refers to himself as a titan! The nerve of him! Titan can¡¯t be sealed! Our power originates from nature and where we live, it is the reason why that stupid rock fish Menthol could leisurely fly around while I had to seal off my roots from the contamination until even my home here was sealed and my body degraded. I had hoped that the world would heal quickly but now without the intervention of the elemental titan¡¯s with a great deal of help from you all.¡± She said. Suddenly a small Wisp flew forward and began to burn before it took the shape of a young woman. She bowed to the tree spirit before she began, ¡°Great Spirit, I have been following my captain for a long time, through our fight we have found the earth titan and even our companion was changed into the same. We have discovered a Queen Undine and a King Sylph yet even after so long we training us Will-o-Wisps don¡¯t have a true leader, can you tell me if there is something we can do or where to find him or her?¡± Ena asked suddenly. ¡°Oh my, a Will-o-Wisp with an almost complete human form. Such a rarity. Child for your question you would have to absorb and refine into your core a small fraction of the flames from the Pyrus the Fire Titan. He can also be referred to as the Great Phoenix but in my opinion he is just a cocky chicken with two much hot air.¡± Sakura puffed. ¡°Where is he found?¡± Ena asked. ¡°Like myself, the Titans of Water, Air and Fire went into hibernation due to the pollution, obviously this was all after we aided the Great Goddess Ariel in putting true seals on all those brats that call themselves Gods! With the current state of the world it will be a long time before any of the wake up but that is of course something that can change with your help.¡± Sakura said. Everyone was silent because instantly everyone was starting to realize this was going to be big. ¡°As Titan of Nature my domain is within the vegetation, the more clean land and nature energy I get the stronger my roots and the more spread out the go. At my peak I am spread throughout the world but at this moment I am stuck in this continent. If I were to regain even 5% of my power I would be able to sense the presence of the other Titans. Menthol is a useless old man that even as the Titan of earth he wouldn¡¯t know where any of them are. As for waking them up, Pyrus is the easiest to wake up due to him living within the earth, the only problem being is reaching him.¡± ¡°What do you want us to do?¡± Ena asked and looked back to me who nodded. I was grinning at seeing how she was gaining a super rank mission. ¡°My power is less than 1% right now, not to mention my closest minions, the Treants and Dryad had been long corrupted and by the will of heaven that young construct with the Topaz core and water elemental core destroyed those around here that kept corrupting the soul and kept me imprisoned¡­¡± Everyone instantly looked back at the construct, she was shivering. ¡°I-I didn¡¯t m-mean to!¡± She stuttered. ¡°Don¡¯t feel guilty child, throughout the world they aren¡¯t completely whipped out, this continent, because of my presence, will always keep birthing new ones as long as enough nature mana is gathered. When I felt the elves cleaning the area around the lake of the seafolk it inadvertently healed one of my roots and allowed me to plant a seed for that young child to guide you all back here.¡± Sakura said in a gentle tone. The construct was still trembling but seemed to feel a weight lifted from her shoulder. ¡°For the start I simply wish to revive my minions, this burn land contains the purest power and within these dead trees are the untainted cores of Elder Treants and in the ground are many seeds for new ones. Many other of them are tainted but if the land is cleaned my roots will slowly heal and if the elves keep feeding me Nature mana I will slowly recover them aiding in the revitalization of the land. So to you, young Wisp, and you the Clockwork who leads this child, please heal my home and bring back my two dearest races.¡± Sakura asked. Suddenly to all players of my crew they received a mission that was B rank, B rank signified a regional effect but there was no stopping the changes and the chain quests afterwards. I step up with Yasha and stand next to Ena, ¡°We will do what we can.¡± I tell her. The message appears showing we accepted this, as captain a quest directed at my crew is accepted by me as a crew quest. ¡°Thank you, I had thought Clockwork were a being that went against the natural order of the world but you¡­ I can feel there is more to you than a simple Clockwork.¡± She replied. I was confused for a moment before I thought of the Automata race that had been born through the use of the core technology to upgrade himself. The body is so advanced that I have yet to even start on the skeleton and anything else. The ¡®easiest¡¯ thing to make is the mana generator and mana core yet I still lack vital pieces of technology that doesn¡¯t allow me to piece together the machine. I turn around and nod to my crew. Marina floats forward, ¡°Surge, please spread out and aid me in finding all the springs in this area, once the area is completely scouted please inform my kin at the town to descend so that we can clean!¡± she asked. Surge saluted to her, ¡°As you wish ma¡¯am! BOY¡¯S YOU HEARD THE LADY! SPREAD OUT AND DISPERSE SCOUT DRONES!¡± He shouted and all the knights shout before turning and a compartment on the legs open and small balls roll out before opening into spiders and all rushing out. The construct players all watched in awe at the display of military training. ¡°Golems! Start extraction process! Only pollution of oil and acid is removed, excess mineral remain!¡± Brock shouted. The Golems shouted and began to spread around the lake and stick their arms into the ground. Soon large earth containers formed. ¡°Oh? What is this?¡± Sakura asked curiously. ¡°This is a technique for cleaning in very contaminated areas, we build a container and harden it to keep all oil inside. We then filtered through the ground and poor it inside before we send it up to my secondary body where it is put to use by the clockwork.¡± Brock explained. ¡°Quite ingenious use of earth manipulation young titan.¡± She exclaimed. The construct were dazed at the high level magic use but I just leave them be and start coordinating the clockwork and all the others as we do our jump to finish this quest quickly. Sakura PoV This clockwork leader¡­ his attitude is like those who fear speaking yet his charisma and ability to lead is quite good. For an artificial race to reach this level of sentience his programming must have been made by a master¡­ no I believe this one is from that disturbance I felt some time ago when everything began to move once more as the races were reborn. A Clockwork with a soul¡­ Ariel must have big plans for this boy because I get a feeling from him like those brat gods but his is harder but gentlier. I¡¯m glad to see it with my own eyes. My vision shifts to the young construct whose emotions can¡¯t escape this old woman¡¯s eyes. Conflicted, sad, worry, a hint a fear. This young one is like the boy, she suffers but from the burden of guilt, her eyes don¡¯t move from the clockwork so she must have some history, something from wherever she came from. It will most definitely be a great challenge for her in the future. I look through the crowd and my eyes keep stopping at the elementals. A ¡®Queen¡¯ Undine, the daughter of Neptune, A greater Sylph, descendant of Tycoon, two strange Will-o-Wisp, one a human, the other a firebird, a golem that has the will to survive Menthol¡¯s conversion ritual. Four unique elementals I wonder how they will grow as they meet their respective Titans. I look up at the dirty sky, even the air has grown cold from that war for so long, ¡°Maybe I should tell the boy how to find a few gods as well, the elemental gods would surely be useful right now but the balance would break far too quickly should those brats be released.¡± I sigh. It won¡¯t take long for my roots to be healed, first I need to direct some of the nature mana the elves are gathering to heal a single root to the elven forest in the other continent then heal the roots here. It will surely give me a more powerful presence in the world if I can use the energy of nature in both areas to start pushing back the corruption and pollution. This deeply ingrained corruption has had its time, now lets get my home back. Jeopardy PoV So this is his hard work, more then two game years, this is how much success he built on his own. Loyal crewmates, almost an organization, how levels, high level of technology, capability to be cocky because he has the skill for it. ¡°He seems to have moved on from the incident¡­ I wonder can i?¡± I ask myself. Just like him and some other people, we are undergoing psychological treatment, my current changes are all result of self reflecting. When I did that to Nathaniel I was in a stage of life where I hated everything. My father only cared about his company, my mother has long since died and I was left with only a caretaker made to follow rules that restricted me until my teens. My dad covered things up but so did I. He covered it all up so that his prestige wouldn¡¯t be affected. I wonder sometimes why that empty look in Nathaniel¡¯s face affected me so much, maybe that is what I felt like but just didn¡¯t react like that and I probably pushed him to be like me or worse. I look at the robot that was on the back of the flying one. I saw pictures before, that is his sister, the one that got hurt because of me. Just thinking about how I had the courage to do that made me think where all those ideas came from and how I even imagined doing something like that. Even with the help I still need help. Depression, insomnia, constant nightmares, all and a few more I suffer from it due to everything that happened. I sometimes wonder what his reaction would be if I was in front of him now. I wonder if he would go to the extent of attacking or if he would store it up and do things like I did and go behind the scenes. Just thinking of it makes me feel my stomach turn. I turn around and look at the burnt wasteland and my crew looking at me. They now knew what I did and I was ashamed. ¡°What are you getting mopey about?!¡± Nene asked. ¡°But¡­ I caused all this¡­¡± I muttered as I look around. ¡°They attacked you first, don¡¯t blame yourself for something you shouldn¡¯t be guilty for their wrong doing.¡± Gloria said. ¡°Come on Jeopardy! Let¡¯s go help them out!¡± Nene¡¯s brother shouted and pulled me towards the water. ¡°Wait! Can¡¯t¡­ we go somewhere else?!¡± I asked desperately. I didn¡¯t want to stay around Techno, he seems to suspect something and I don¡¯t want to give him the time to figure it out. If I could avoid it them that is best. ¡°No! You will go and help the Undine a bit! You can upgrade your level of water manipulation with this.¡± Gloria said. ¡°I will go learn from the Sylph.¡± Our crew¡¯s Sylph, Storm, said and flew up into the air were there were gusts of wind blowing and dark smoke being pushed off with a green glow as it vanished soon after. I sighed as the halflings reached the Undine leader. ¡°Hey pretty lady, our leader can use water magic, she can help clean the water if you want!¡± Nene shouted. The Undine looked back and smiled. ¡°All the help is appreciated, you don¡¯t seem high leveled through so since I am teaching the new ones I can teach you a low leveled Undine water purification dance.¡± She said. Her words shocked me but I just nod. The next moment I was suddenly thrown into the water and appeared sank before I used water magic to float up. Like that she began to show me how to use water magic as if it was a dance style. I found out that the water core regenerates even more mana when underwater so even though I used so much I could still work for longer periods of time. I wish I had known that sooner but later is still fine since I learned how to get stronger faster. All this to pay for my crimes, I will help the residents of this world. Volume 4 Chapter 5 Ballad of Gentle Waves News of ¡®The Clockwork¡¯ resurfacing sent small waves, since seven months ago they had slowly been forgotten due to the lack of activity but that didn¡¯t mean they weren¡¯t known. As soon as the world man was updated the size of the wave it sent was huge enough to grant them a title everyone thought fitting, ¡®The pioneers¡¯. Both technological and adventurous they were the pioneer because they travelled and didn¡¯t remain where they were. Not long after a video came in from the new continent and it showed the birth of the first pure Dryad and soon after the reappearance of Sakura, the Titan of Nature. This birthed the second name for the crew as, Titan finder. Menthol was well known for being found by Techno and his crew so him suddenly locating a second one make it even more fitting. Some people didn¡¯t like it, O¡¯Clock was one of them. After gaining core tech he had tried to make them but even when Delta tried to tell them how to make the cores, they couldn¡¯t succeed because of the simple fact that they didn¡¯t possess the most vital ingredient, Crystallized mana. Its different from mana crystals as such the result is much different and makes it that only Techno can produce more core technology. This enraged him and once Techno appeared and showed off his control of the elementals and how they easily extracted oil from the environment he couldn¡¯t help be even more pissed off. His space at the center of the scrapyard had some good technology but as he found out, everything is incompatible with his core. Even when he made a robot body that would fit his core inside, the core rejected and he could use it only as a Robot. It was then that he discovered it needed magical ingredients made by his core through the Molecular crafting but what was magical, monster parts but where would he get such powerful parts. The cyborgs didn¡¯t really listen to him, they hated clockwork and he came from them. As such he was eventually forced to leave with his robot body and return to the outer edge. When he arrived his core was momentarily scrambled before he found out that his connecting to Delta was cut. ¡°Seems there is a virus code passing through every Clockwork working to block Delta. Heh, the idiot pissed off someone good this time.¡± Alpha said through their uninterrupted connection. He obviously understood that Techno was the cause and was pissed because of this but Delta had more or less lost his use to O¡¯Clock so he let it pass and then left the Clockwork nation to start his own powerful crew. But only after obtaining the knowledge Techno had from each town. Techno PoV As i finish directing my crew i hear a cough behind me and turning. I found the Construct chief awkwardly standing behind me. I try to connect to him and found no connection, of course he is a magical doll not a robot. ¡°Is there someway we may help you?¡± He asked. Understanding what he wanted i looked at the cores on their chest, it would allow them minimal amount of mana that they have stored up. I turn my head and see Jeopardy learning from Marina so i point at her. The chief sighs, ¡°Sadly we don¡¯t possess elemental cores for that.¡± after saying that he seemed to remember something. ¡°You said you had a method to upgrade the Constructs right?¡± The chief asked. ¡°That¡¯s only when he gets a blueprint of the construction manual for constructs.¡± A voice called. Everyone looked at Brock who answered for me. ¡°He doesn¡¯t know the placement of the wiring that makes up your bodies but if he knew he could build you the upgrade that comes from synthoids, probably.¡± Brock explained. I had passed him what to say. ¡°So that¡¯s it, well we don¡¯t have any blueprints, the best we can do is supple intact constructs.¡± The chief said. ¡°Techno says that the upgrade is simple, it¡¯s similar to just wrapping the wires but he will make it eventually.¡± Brock replied. The chief sighed, most of the upgrades were pretty much stuck in our hands, we had military power they couldn¡¯t match for sure and it would take a while before the elementals reach a sufficient number to make inactive cores so chances they will be able to help was small. ¡°Hey chief, if you want to help then have all the that followed chop the smaller burnt trees. It would help open space for new trees that will grow in. Even just cutting them off the ground or pushing them down to act as fertilizer later.¡± Brock said. Being given something to do made the chief chuckle but sigh as well since they could only do less important stuff. Artificial races need upgrades and there simply wasn¡¯t anyone talented enough to make it. Although several upgrade types were discovered there is a fatal flaw to the construct design and that is the lack of elemental cores. The others don¡¯t start up even when mana is pushed into the core and looking inside there were several rings hooked up to the wires that focused on the core but no one found out how to use it. Constructs also can¡¯t easily transfer themselves from one body to the other, they have machine brains like the Clockwork but they don¡¯t work like them they ¡®are¡¯ a magical race just like all the other creatures in this continent. That meant the body would need to be upgraded while the construct¡¯s mind wasn¡¯t moved. Constructs are considered an unpopular race due to this fact and how it was extremely difficult to train except for when stat points are used. They can¡¯t get much boosted power and mana is limited with them having to meditate for long periods of time just to keep running. As such the constructs present are those hardcore players who liked the race and NPC. ¡°Come let¡¯s help them!¡± The chief shouted and lead the constructs. The constructs have weak bodies but they don¡¯t break like clockwork did at the start, they were in better condition due to running on mana. As such with the furnace they obtained instead of making more constructs besides replacing the bone structure they made basic hand weapons and tools. Most of them had an axe or two and working in groups they began to clear the ground of much of the rotten small vegetation while living the huge trees that were the elder treant. The chief¡¯s rare emerald core came in handy since Techno got a basic rundown of how the constructs work and was passed to the elves to help them channel more Nature mana. With crystalized mana in hand he helped them make it the mana they needed. All other races were with the remaining constructs and helped chop the burning foliage and soon most of the burnt trees were chopped and left on the ground. When the first burst of mana entered the titan a sharp lightning like flash passed through all the burnt area. The ground shook a bit with it and chopped wood rot faster breaking down. The wind seem to blow stronger through the area lifting ash and when they looked the titan had grown to ten meters high and her leaves had turned into green leaves. ¡°Ah! So much relief reviving these old roots.¡± She said. ¡°How much until area is revived?¡± I asked. ¡°Not much more, one more burst of mana and i will be able to begin recovering on my own. Then instead of me the entire area can receive energy in small packets like before while i can supply large quantities every few hours.¡± Sakura said. I nod and look at the tired Elves, the leaders nodded at me as he understood that it was just one more. Turning around i found the space wider as the tree and foliage had been cleared a great deal and was not a more barren wasteland. The Golems were still gathering filth near the water''s edge and in the soil under the water. Pulling my mind back i return to the ship. ¡°All Golems are to descend and aid in cleaning duty of a region, this is top priority, Undine prepare to descend when the scout report comes on, find all springs and begin cleansing. Sylph descend and clear the air around the burnt forest where my two bodies are currently located. Clear ash and polluted air with magic.¡± Sending the message out soon enough the ship¡¯s began to get filled with golem and soon flew off towards the location of the burnt forest. Brock himself put his whale body to move towards this location to aid the lifting process of the oil gathered. All in all it went well. I then control a Strato to descend and as it flew low I had Yasha jump on it. ¡°I will be going to examine the constructs build, Asura will remain and Yasha will be going to the scrapyard.¡± I warned them Confirmation came from them as i flew away but left a sliver of my attention on Asura as i sit him down and put him on standby. Flying quickly covered the space back to the scrapyard, what took several hours only took several minutes by air. The sun was already descending so night time would soon follow but it didn¡¯t affect me much, to survive over the ocean we needed patrols all day long so obviously night vision and thermo vision were things that were developed but it took quite a great deal of pain in the ass programming and quite a number of points i used in my virtual house to purchase the college level books that contained some references to this. Together with Brock and any other people that knew half anything about programming as a pro we were able to make a prototype program that allowed us to gain some visibility.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Flying into the scrapyard i landed about 1 kilometer into the scrapyard and released my scouts. My left vision split into twelve different screens and i put them on auto scout to find a fully intact construct while giving priority to any ¡®unique¡¯ models. ¡°Let¡¯s see if we can¡¯t find something better than common constructs.¡± I mutter and activate my night vision and put my upgraded scanner to work. After a bit i was able to find several mostly intact constructs that would fit the build that clockwork suffered from, one functioning arm and no legs. Since i was curious i opened them up what i found were some a bone structure hooked to a spring system on all joints that were all connected to the wires at the ends. After analyzing the state of the body i looked around and found parts to repair it to functioning condition and found the tool gear. It made some nostalgia from when i started but that lasted only a short moment. After a moment i stored the body in my inventory since i wanted to remove the armor under good lights so there was no use starting it up now. Suddenly my scouts picked up on something under a small pile 200 meters south of me. I ran over and began to move the bodies out of the way and soon found a large bulky doll that would look good in armor. The head had the same doll model but this had a helmet attachment to the head that was orange brown. The color of the ¡®skin¡¯ was brown and most of it seemed intact though old. I move the arms and find the joints were still good. As it was standing upright i made it easy when i removed the chest piece and found a familiar sight. A Green tourmaline gemstone carved into a cylinder shape that fit exposed on the chest was over six brown rings that were attached to the wires. ¡°The wire configuration is much more complex than i expected, not to mention that it goes into the spinal bone coleman and rises to the brain.¡± I mutter then remove the helmet and face. I was surprised to find the brain section was similar to clockwork. ¡°Seems the maker of Clockwork and Constructs were one in the same, one a magical doll, the other a physical machine but it seems the development of both are heavily reliant on elementals.¡± I mutter as i looked at the rings. I put the face and helmet back on and then open my inventory and pull out three Golem Cores before sticking them into it. I then looked around and as a glow began to spread from them and found no other areas so i just waited and slowly the glowing wires reached the Tourmaline gem and began to spread out. The glow was a slight brown and soon it moved into the spin and moved up and began to light up the brain and the rest of the body soon followed. A suddenly lurch came from the construct as it fell over. After a while it finally began to move and finally stood up. ¡°Urg¡­ where¡­¡± A weak broken voice came as he looked around. When he saw me the eyebrow piece rose. ¡°Clock¡­ doing¡­.¡± He froze and touched his throat. He looked around and began to move about and soon removed a voice box and removed his own and inserted the new one. ¡°Seems they have an easier installation construction.¡± I thought. Clockwork needed to install wires and all that making it tedious of a voice box broke. ¡°What is¡­ a clockwork¡­ doing here? And¡­ where is¡­ here?¡± He asked stopping every few moments. As expected the constructs had no computer in their brain so i sigh as there was no way and no one to talk for me. ¡°Construct scrapyard. I woke you up.¡± I said simply. He looked around and seemed to realize that, ¡°Why?¡± ¡°I¡¯m gathering technology, need constructs as well. You are source of knowledge.¡± I replied. He started to laugh as he heard me say that. ¡°Just earth¡­ specialized worker¡­ construct. Known¡­ shit about¡­ our technology.¡± He said but i raise a brow at the word ¡®specialized¡¯. ¡°Earth specialized worker, what is that?¡± i asked. He looks at the opened lid of his chest and pointed inside. ¡°Construct with¡­ three earth¡­ elemental core¡­ provides strength¡­ boost and¡­ hardens skin¡­ plates. Perfect¡­ model for¡­ grunt work.¡± He said and closed the lid and slowly mana began to gather as my scanner read the flow increase. He then grabbed under a pile of constructs and lifted easily. ¡°Strengthening magic.¡± He said. I understood with that, ¡°So construct upgrades follow a specialization path, which means air would amount to a scout, Fire would make a some kind of fighter and Water might be healer.¡± I hypothesized while looking at this happy go lucky guy. I didn¡¯t exactly have use for another worker but considering i ¡®do¡¯ need to make blueprints of this guys it would help to have him back at the ship. Size wise he is Asura¡¯s size and lighter due to the lack of armor and weapons making it easy for him to use a Strato as long as i control it. ¡°For now, return with me.¡± I said and he nods. Strato is a bit small for two people so calling in another one that arrived after some time we fly back. Jeopardy PoV The Undine dance is so comforting, it reminded me of when i did dance classes but at that time i hated it but now it feels so free. I picked it up quickly due to my previous knowledge and it was indeed like a dance. My mana control would follow the flow of the dance and anything to heavy to be water would slowly gather in front of me until i reach the end of the motion were i kick it out of the water. In the last two years I¡¯ve never felt so comfortable. Still my mana regeneration couldn¡¯t keep up even underwater and after several dozen sets that i danced i had to stop and rest. I swam to the edge but remained with my body underwater. ¡°You are quite talented in this.¡± Marina complimented me. ¡°Um thank you, it felt comfortable and relaxing. Truthfully it¡¯s the most comfortable I¡¯ve felt in years. It gave me a sense of freedom and let me forget my problems that were in my head.¡± I said with a solemn tone. She chuckles at my words and i look at her confused. ¡°Do you think i taught you that dance for no reason?¡± She asked. I tilted my head but she continues, ¡°The dance you just did is called ¡®The Ballad of Gentle Waves¡¯ it is perfect for a water mage suffering from stress, low self esteem, some form of guilt and any other stress. It will allow you some calm time. It will also teach you how gentle waters move. A gentle person will easily pick up how to dance this ballad while those with more headstrong personalities need a different ballad. Each person¡¯s personality can be depicted in a different dance. Undine are the only ones who form ¡®dance¡¯ to control our element. It keeps our mind at peace and allows us to control our element at peace. Corrupt Undine can¡¯t dance alone, they don¡¯t know their Ballad but if they learn from other cleaner ones they can purify and remove their corruption. This works for any creature who does these dance. If my captain could use magic i would have long since tried and talked him into learning one or two to allow his mind to slowly come to terms with his past.¡± Marina said. I looked at her and smile, it hardly showed on my face but it could still move to expressions like happiness and sadness. ¡°Thank you.¡± I mutter. ¡°Come on out, it''s already night time and we won¡¯t be staying here, Techno permitted those helping out to stay in his town on Brock for the night.¡± Marina said and helped pull me out. Then a bubble of water formed and we flew up. ¡°Why are you nice to me?¡± I asked conflicted about entering due to the chance of him finding out. ¡°Someone with conflicted emotions and guilt on their shoulders are repenting for something, treating them like strangers in such a chaotic moment of their life would make me feel bad and may even develop impurities in my core so if I can help you in any small bit you can count on me.¡± She says. I remained quiet as we float up and the Undine follow in a similar fashion. On the island whale¡¯s back there was an impressive flat field on top and near the head were some buildings which was where most of the constructs and others were staying but there was a large opening on the back that lead down into the body. Gloria and the others were already waiting for me and waved at me. ¡°Jeopardy! Come on come on! We want to check out the clockworks own base of operations! Everyone says it¡¯s the coolest!¡± Nene shouted. With permission to enter only after hearing the laws which were that acts of violence would be dealt with deadly violence reinforced by the fact that the guards were all heavily armored Knight class clockwork made it clear this town followed a strict martial law. Entering we were amazed to find electricity running. Through tunnels in the inside of the body all the way to the widest open area of the stomach space that was hollow for the village everything was bright and it shocked everyone. It was only when they reached the first floor when they saw the heavily guarded back area did they notice the ¡®generator¡¯ in the back next to the workshop and city hall. ¡°He figured out how to make electricity, as expected of the top craftsman.¡± Storm muttered. All around there were shops that sell by a small token. Asking around these tokens were gained through contribution and was the salary and main currency of the town. A small blue coin was equal to 1 cent, medium blue coin is 10 cents, a large blue coin was 25 cents, a small red coin is 1 dollar, a medium red coin is 5 dollars, a large red coin is 10 dollars and a finally purple one was 50 dollars. ¡°It¡¯s not even metal it¡¯s just stone painted a different color.¡± Gloria muttered as the person who explained it showed them. ¡°There is no need for it to have value, as long as we know the value it''s enough since this is only used inside the town.¡± He explained. It made sense, why use precious metals to make a currency when a simply system of coins works just as good. In truth it was better than what the constructs had which was pretty much nothing. They developed far less than most other groups and have far less settlements. The merfolk would actually have a better condition then the constructs if put in perspective of living condition and development. I looked around and noticed that among the creatures there were robotic animals as well. Large bulls were used for pulling large loads but real animals were also present. In a market there were elves who sold vegetables and dwarves who sold mechanical parts and humans who were ranchers selling meat. It gave a feeling of a strange cheerful steampunk fantasy world that we had expected to see when we first heard of this game. This view was the vision everyone dreamed of having in the game but didn¡¯t see it but here it was easily present. ¡°He sure did a good job.¡± Momo, Nene¡¯s twin, said. ¡°It must have been hard to set it up.¡± Gloria said but then again looking at his history record, he had the construction of six cities under his belt being the main pioneer and builder of all four gate cities for the clockwork. It showed he had real world charisma. When i turned i noticed the mouth of the whale open and soon Techno¡¯s small body appeared and another big man came in. Looking at it i began to spoke out loud. ¡°Isn¡¯t that a construct?¡± They looked and noticed Techno and the other man that jumped off the flying robot. ¡°Did he go to the scrapyard to get robot''s without asking?¡± Gloria fumed. ¡°Don¡¯t start Gloria, no one can stop him anyway but¡­ if i remember right those are the constructs that wouldn¡¯t activate no matter what aren¡¯t they?¡± Storm asked. ¡°That¡¯s right, i saw that model before and they are used by some people as ornaments.¡± Nene replied. We shivered at how easily he was able to make that model work, thinking of how the core worked with my core it was simple for him to supply the elemental cores for starting them up. ¡°I wonder if he can upgrade constructs like he did the Clockwork?¡± I asked gloomy. Gloria pat my arm and showed a smile, ¡°If he can¡¯t or won¡¯t we can just wait until the elementals are giving off more elemental cores and we can just get a few and try and make those old ones work and discover ourselves.¡± she said in a determined tone. I smile and thank her for the encouragement and i watch as he passes and walks to the back while he was saluted by the knights and they didn¡¯t dare bar his way. We return to the top and choose a small hut to rest in for morning. I had a good dream where i was dancing in real life while the water danced with me. Volume 4 Chapter 6 Construct Specilization I walk into my workshop and behind me is the construct. I walk to the left and on one table I pull out the Construct body I repair. ¡°What are¡­ you going¡­ to do?¡± The construct asked. I was about to start working when I remembered the other one. I turn back and was about to point at the screens but then thought about how I already talked with him, ¡°Sit over there.¡± I point at the table. He looks at the table and shrugs before walking and sitting down. I look around and after a bit I finally find a small black box that was in good condition and turning to the construct I tossed him the voice box. ¡°Catch¡±. He was taken by surprise but catches it and after seeing what it is he pulled the old one out and put the new one in. ¡°Ahh! One, two, three, four, five! Oh this is a new one, not bad.¡± He said. Now his voice was clear and had a deep tone fitting his size. ¡°So what are you going to do?¡± He asked. ¡°Test.¡± I reply and walk over to the construct and put it into a sitting position and then removed the plating off the head. I grab some scanner drones and put them in the brain have them scan. I then turn to the several screens behind me and I brought up a schematics of a worker class clockwork and then showed the brain unit. In another screen slowly the scans that came into my core transmitted to the screen. In a screen in the middle the parts that matched up began to appear and any different parts were being pulled up. ¡°Impressive.¡± The construct said, ¡°Am I just a research subject?¡± he asked. I looked at him and thought a moment, ¡°Research sample.¡± I replied and he chuckles. ¡°Is there a difference?¡± ¡°Research sample is simply scanned, research subject is dissected.¡± I replied and he burst out laughing. ¡°What is construct plates made of?¡± I asked while turning back to the screens. ¡°Don¡¯t know, if i¡¯m not mistaken it''s some kind of magic alloy that is mixed with iron to protect and won¡¯t rust. Supposed to be a mixed at the atomic level so it changes the molecule.¡± He said shrugging. I thought about this and took out a piece of armor plate I took while I was at it and put it on some larger drones that took it away. The drone headed to my core so that I could examine them at the atomic level. After a while the scan was finished and I found a few parts different but mostly on the structural level. Part shape didn¡¯t matter since the scans find their purpose as well. These new parts were unknown for now but these would be found soon with what I wanted. Two of my arms changed and revealed my tool gears. I aimed for a few parts that I commonly remove from the clockwork when I was still using scrapped ones to make robot''s could control. First off I removed the memory chip since it will be somewhat useless but I don¡¯t waste it and instead have it installed into Yasha¡¯s brain to scan the content if anything survived. Then a few control parts were changed due to damage and finally I add a receiver. By the time I finished this I had read the memory and it held some scraps of information that I couldn¡¯t make much use of so I just removed the damaged memory chip and got to the experiment. Rebuilding the head and face I begin to send the signal to the construct but it doesn¡¯t react but then I remember it needed mana to run. I grab a small crystallized mana crystal and open the chest before I wrap it around some wires and watch the mana flow out. I kept sending the energy and when the mana reached the brain it began to start up but it also took in my signal and began to connect but it began to conflict with the programmed mind but with my computerized mind through the connection I was able to pull up the coding and shut down the constructs start up and take the body. The main code was pretty much removed by me and put into a separate folder. Then I began to try and move but quickly found that I couldn¡¯t. Not getting so discouraged I actually looked at the coding then pulled up the basic worker clockwork one. I quickly found out why, although the brains parts are similar or the same the codes are totally different. The codes are made to be able work with mana and not electricity that clockwork use. Suddenly something seemed to click when I look at my main Automata code that were also the blueprints. Looking at the codes that control the movement by mana there was so much similarity but all over my codes these areas are empty. ¡°So that is why I can¡¯t control it, could it be that I needed to assimilate construct codes?¡± I wondered. It was a risk, mixing the codes could conflict yet it could improve. The Automata codes never stopped growing but compared to the start it was just growing as if I was aging. ¡°Hey why are you silent?¡± the construct asked. I looked his way and he looked wholly bored sitting there. ¡°Go to rest or something.¡± I tell him. ¡°You''re doing something with the construct? What?¡± He asked. ¡°Trying to control like clockwork.¡± I replied. ¡°Does that mean you''re going to mix your codes? That will crash your systems.¡± He replied. I had expected him to say as much, higher class beings are made with better material so his memory chip obviously lasted longer allowing him to remember certain facts. ¡°I¡¯m not a clockwork.¡± I replied. ¡°Yeah, guessed that already.¡± He replied bored. I shrug and look at the areas that seem to lack something. The whole of the constructs codes made up its personality but I could tell which parts did that because the personality part of the programs were designed the same between constructs and clockwork. It was the rest that was coded differently. Loading up each section of the codes on the construct slowly I start to move the magic doll until I added every section to the construct and now knew the control for each one section. It was still rough to control it but with knowledge come testing and copying each section I find the ¡®holes¡¯ in my code and attach each into each part. All the codes slowly merge and as ever last one is placed into the ¡®holes¡¯ all the holes were fixed and the concept of the constructs control of mana soon started to spread and the pure machine coding merged and spread throughout the coding. After a while a notification appeared. It said that after merging my codes with the control coding from Constructs I have ¡®completed¡¯ my coding and can now control construct bodies and magic control has become available depending on the body I am using. The best part is the as the codes kept moving it began to mix with the machines that are supposed to be magic tech and the unclear concepts began to clear up and the Mana Generator that gathered mana and refined it in my body before sending it to a mana storage unit was finally appearing in detail. ¡°It won¡¯t be long before that thing clear¡¯s up enough for me to build. I may even be able to build weapons using it.¡± I thought. Looking at the construct my vision extends and the eyes of the construct light up and it begins to move and stands up. ¡°Th...is...is¡­¡± I stop talking and grab a new voice box and install it into the Construct. ¡°This is better.¡± I mutter after installing it back in. ¡°Old body.¡± I mutter disgruntled. ¡°Good job, now what?¡± He asked. ¡°... lay down.¡± I said and suddenly the scouts began to crawl about. ¡°Your sadistic¡­¡± He muttered and sighed before laying down and let Techno open up and begin in depth scanning of his body and did the same with the new construct body. The next morning was followed by more cleaning, the constructs were all put to work together supplied with a small crystallized mana crystal. Sakura was already healing herself so with the land slowly healing the elves went around the clean areas and vitalized those areas. About one sixth of the area was cleaned and since the other races were working I talked it out with the others and decided to pay for the work done since the quest was for my crew and the others are doing it without an actual quest so he decided to pay with tokens. As such when they all returned to the ship there were clockwork that gave all those that worked, two purple tokens that would be 100 dollars. There were a lot of people that were happy because it let them buy even a few things in the town but there were others that weren¡¯t so happy. One such person even waited for me and when I walked out, coincidently with my construct body that I had replaced the metal bones and other parts but the skin I was remaking through my core because I don¡¯t have the real production process so I was using my own core to break down and remake parts. ¡°You! You fucking bastard! Why are you paying us some shitty tokens when you could pay with something useful!¡± He shouted. I was just coming out of my workshop and that guy shouted while trying to get closer but was stopped by the knights. ¡°Get off me! I¡¯m talking to that bastard! You! Get out her and pay us our proper due! You said you can upgrade constructs so do it!¡± He shouted.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. I frowned to him and looked at the large robot behind me. ¡°Bunch of hot air this brat.¡± The construct muttered behind me and I chuckled. I turn away from him but that seemed to tick him off. ¡°Oi! Didn¡¯t you hear me?!¡± He shouted and stepped forward. ¡°Stop! Take one step forward and we will be authorized to smash you to pieces.¡± The knight said. ¡°Who are you to tel¡­¡± a loud bang followed and his head was split into shards. I turned to the shocked public, ¡°I have been just figured out one model of upgrade constructs, if the constructs wish for upgrades than you can wait until I can locate and completely scan the different models. I have yet to figure out how to the upgrade is performed.¡± I said out loud reaching everyone then I looked at the big construct. He stepped forward and looked at the constructs, ¡°I was just revived by him, for those curious I am a specialized construct with earth magic that can use strengthening magic as my focus. Anyone interested in strength and and heavy lifting model it will take some time for him to discover the upgrade process but he will teach others to make these when he has figured the entire process out.¡± He explained. ¡°I will be charging tokens for upgrades as payment, your contribution for my service. When I discover his upgrade I will determine a price but it will be the lowest at 3 purple coins. You can acquire them by working for me, we will pay two purple for those helping out in cleaning the land. If you help scavenge new construct models or find any new technology or bring me construct monsters I will pay depending on the difficulty but new construct models I will pay 10 purple coins and other robot''s will go for different prices as mentioned. You can get small jobs by working in the town as well for working small jobs for the citizens.¡± I explain. When I finish explaining everyone was shocked by my decision but I had my reason, I wanted to spread the coin token currency, it''s a simple and effective system of contribution. ¡°How can you tell the token is yours, can¡¯t we just make our own?¡± Someone suddenly asked, this was one of the citizens. ¡°We will make a proper coin but it will still be colored stone but the engraving on it will be unique to our press.¡± I replied. In short I just created a new job, while before the coin was just a rock, now I was going to need to make a minting press that would carve the details into the coin. Without the press no one can copy me. The construct chief walked up at this time and looked at me was a smile. ¡°We have long since discovered a few models, they are useless as they are so we never used them for more than ornaments but now I wish to make my donation. I have a few stored higher rank models.¡± he said. The others frowned at the old construct shamelessness while the big construct beside me chuckled at the man and muttered, ¡°A real business man for sure.¡± ¡°We will go in the morning.¡± I replied and turned before leaving towards the space I hide my core, some new plates were already made and were waiting there for me to use. Although no one left during the night, there were people that travelled during the night to reach the burnt area and waited together so that they could get in on the benefits. Shaking my head I had the Undine and Golems put cores for sale and limit 1 for each construct for three large red coins. This was the least I could do. It would also help me since the quest will finish faster so making them work for a core isn¡¯t a body deal. Would make it easier for me since I won¡¯t need to sell more for each of them until they upgrade and they will work with the elves, Undine and Golems more making my work lessen. In the morning I also went with the chief, what he had stored away was several models. ¡°Oh nice collection old man, an Earth Mage Construct, Fire shooter, Construct Siren, Water Mage construct and even a Glider.¡± the big construct said. ¡°What are their uses?¡± I asked as I examine each of them. Earth mage construct as he called it looked like a normal construct with brown plates, Fireshooter were bigger and the arms weren¡¯t arm but instead cannon like shape. The Construct Siren was the earth constructs counterpart in water mana and was built to have the same water resistance, they would possess water magic strengthening which would boost strength like normal but underwater it reduces water resistance, water pressure and improves speed underwater. Water Mage is just like the earth mage and is a water magic user, if upgraded a bit maybe with shift gear it can change its name to Construct Mermaid. Finally the Glider is a human shaped construct but instead of normal arms it has wings like a harpy would have and possess specialized legs to handle the landing. They use wind magic through three sylph cores. These are all the basic upgrade classes and it seems that it¡¯s a standard to have them all with three cores but one is enough to start them up. For each of these I gave the old chief 50 purple coins and as a bonus I gave him a Water and Earth core so that he can safely use nature magic to help the elves. Now there are seven models, by the way the earth construct is named a Geo Construct. I had expected it to be called a Construct Golem but it seems the naming sense of the constructs creatures weren¡¯t that bad. From what I can see they are all basic type models, nothing overly advanced like the Tanks we had encountered before. ¡°Let¡¯s take these back.¡± I tell the Knights who nodded and began to move the new models. Other people also heard about it but the only different ones were Mage class which I quickly realized by checking their inside that besides the color the actual ring that holds the core was grey in all of them which I believe mean element neutral. This means that each mage can actually be summed up as a mage class in general and would be able to be the most varied with magic being able to have three different cores but resulting in weaker magic or three of the same cores and having stronger magic. Besides a few extra of the same types we had it seems these were all that we could find in this place. Searching around the unexplored scrapyard will probably yield more in the future. Taking the yield today back I toss scanners over their inactive bodies and start drawing up blueprints for them while I begin setting up silver wire gathering. Setting it up as a job for the constructs I had them break down other constructs that couldn¡¯t be repaired this is the quickest way to get the material. As for the rings, I removed one from a mage, since they are all the same, and started analyzing them. From what I got my assumption was correct to say that they were iron melted with a core and shaped into a ring that can hold the cores. Neutral ones are made from mana crystals mixed in. Like this I was able to start producing them for the soon to begin upgrade process but first I need to use my schematic breakdown skill and see how they are made. With a subtle smile I begin something interesting in a long time. Gloria PoV It¡¯s been three days and with the money we gained we were able to upgrade our weapons with the skills of dwarven blacksmiths. The quality was much different and everything was really good but I frowning as I looked at this sign. ¡®We have discovered 5 models of constructs. Mage class: can be any of the elements and can mix up to three cores or have three of the same cores. Upgrade cost: 3 purple coins, first core comes with upgrade but others are purchased separately. Geo Construct: earth type magic construct that uses strengthening magic and gains boost to strength. Only uses earth cores and upgrade to the brain will only permit strengthening magic but to a high degree. Upgrade cost: 5 purple coins, first core comes with upgrade but others are purchased. Fireshooter: Construct with pure fire magic, hands are changed to cannon type hands where fire magic is concentrated and fires from. Combat class with high level destruction capabilities but loses hands. Upgrade Cost: 10 purple coin, first core comes with upgrade but others are purchased. Construct Siren: Construct similar to Geo Construct but with water magic. They gain similar resistances that Siren possess and are use only strengthening magic but lose capabilities to use exterior magic. Can survive under great water pressure. Upgrade cost: 5 purple coins, first core comes with upgrade but others are purchased. Glider: Modeled after the Harpy race, arms are changed into wings and legs are improved to handle landing. Their brain is upgraded to be able to take in more information and eyes gain upgrade for improved visual output. They lose hands but gain wind magic for both flying and to use for offensive purposes, this works best as a scout type class. Upgrade Cost 15 purple coins, first core comes with upgrade but others are purchased.¡¯ ¡°He is quite efficient.¡± Momo muttered as he finishes reading. ¡°Why are the prices different?!¡± I complain. ¡°It must be the amount of material plus the amount of changes to the body that needs we need to go through.¡± Jeopardy said. Looking though the description it would make sense if the Glider was most expensive it it had so many upgrades, making the eyes better, changing the arms to wings and making the legs stronger. Mage would probably only get more silver wire and the rings to hold the cores. ¡°I think I will go for a Mage class.¡± Jeopardy muttered. ¡°Good idea, it¡¯s better since you can improve your water magic control. If you keep the topaz then you can use water magic and use it to channel your lightning making it even more powerful.¡± I nonchalantly say. ¡°You know I don¡¯t like fighting.¡± Jeopardy said in a pouty tone. ¡°Come on, don¡¯t be like that, the upgrade is cheap and the cores don¡¯t go for much as well so let¡¯s get to the upgrade area and have you register early while the others aren¡¯t here yet.¡± I push Jeopardy. There were already a few people who saw that but when we arrived at the building near the workshop that was designated for upgrades wthe found it empty. ¡°Is it not open yet?¡± Nene commented. ¡°Are you here for upgrades?¡± a small rabbit beastman shaped clockwork suddenly asked as she opened the door. ¡°Erm¡­ my friend is.¡± I said pushing Jeopardy forward. ¡°Then come! Bro is waiting!¡± Nova said and grabbed Jeopardy¡¯s hand. ¡°Ah wait!¡± She said and tried to pull her hand but found that the girl had an iron grip and monstrous strength in that tiny body and pulled her inside. Jeopardy PoV The door slammed behind me and Nova pulled me to the room in the back which looked like a surgeon''s room. The room had large lamps lighting up a central table and behind it was the four armed robot. She trembled as she walked up. ¡°Lay down.¡± Techno said and I do it without a sound. ¡°Type?¡± ¡°... Mage¡± I replies forcing her voice a bit deeper. He looked away and began to pull many items before he nonchalantly removed all the armor plating but since they hooked to some wires he just moves them aside and takes the rings and begins attaching them and passing them all through the wires and connecting them. Then he began to pass more wires around my body all leading into the spine and up to the brain where he told me to shut down a bit and then improved and then started me up. ¡°Done, current core already in place, what type of core do you want?¡± He asked. I think a bit on this since it affects the magic I get. I like water magic because of the dance so with a second one my magic improves but I want to make more life and do like the elves so¡­ ¡°Earth. I will buy a second water core.¡± I said. He comes over with the two cores and puts the earth one near the back and the water one in the final ring. Finally he closes up my armor that looked new. He held his hand and I called up the three purple and three large red tokens and he nods. ¡°Done, you may leave.¡± He said bluntly and began to clean up. I leave as asked since I didn¡¯t want to stay close for so long and leaving I found my friends waiting for me. ¡°So how did it go?¡± Gloria asked as soon as I appeared. ¡°Went well. The upgrade was quick¡­ I think.¡± I reply. ¡°Hmm, it didn¡¯t pass an hour, that probably explain why no line exists, he must be quick or the upgrade was really little.¡± Gloria says. ¡°It was these rings that hold and channel mana better from the core and added of wires to improve how much mana I can move and he did improved my brain I think.¡± I explained. If it was any other creature that said that it would have been weird but because Constructs and Clockwork are both artificial beings that can actually upgrade their brain it can¡¯t be contested. ¡°I wonder if that guy was able to upgrade Jeopardy¡¯s brain enough for her to stop being a sad sack.¡± Momo muttered and was elbowed by her sister with a ¡°Shut up.¡± ¡°It¡¯s alright Nene, Momo is right, I¡¯ve just been a sad sack all along and making you guys take care of me. I¡¯ll try to move on, maybe dancing like before will help me more now.¡± I reply. ¡°Take it step by step okay, don¡¯t worry about us, we are here to help you as well. We are friends so you can tell us anything.¡± Gloria said and I smiled. ¡°Let''s get something for your guys to eat.¡± I say and we walk off to buys some food. Volume 4 Chapter 7 Major Request, Major Trouble Sakura PoV ¡°My my, this clockwork is so cunning. I gave him a request and other people started helping in hopes of benefits but he almost instantly cut them off at the middle and now pays them for their work. Not only that but two days after it seems he already upgrades their models and is improving their overall magical capabilities. This boy isn¡¯t just some two-bit tin can without a doubt he has real talent.¡± I thought as i watch all this. All around the previously weak Constructs were now growing in number as they develop different types. More than 90% remain the same but gain more magical capabilities. If I remember correctly this was a Mage class Construct. Then there were a few stranger ones and numbered far less probably due to changing the body and having limits restricting them. Already there is more than 50% of my home cleaned and my roots are in such a great healthy state even in the polluted areas. I have already focused a lot of energy i have been gathering the heal one deep root that goes to the other continents. It hurts a bit due to the pollution but with my growing energy i can spread one root towards the elven forest, if i connect to a large piece of clean forestland then i will be able to start drawing in a lot more nature energy and regain more power. Looking at the biggest trees, the several Elder Treants that are spread at an exact distance of 30 meters around me, my roots that connected to their cores under their burnt trees. Taking control of the roots spread about i suddenly have them attack the trees. From the inside out the trees suddenly explode and burst into shrapnel but the core of the treants were drawn underground. Treant and Dryad are nature spirits and possess a similar core to elementals that contains our conscious. All the people were shocked and in fear but as i pull the roots back all that was left was open space. Then with gathered nature mana i wrap the cores and send a powerful pulse into them. The ground shakes as soon as they suck up all the mana like greedy starved beggars. Releasing them the cores act like seeds and slowly they begin to absorb water and earth mana and generate nature mana and begin releasing it in the form of roots the wrap around them. I connect to one of the more important roots to each of them and form a commutative system which had previously existed until i had to cut it due to the impurities their trees had sucked up. Now they were pure once more i connected and soon the tree itself began to spread as my mana entered them. The feeling of being with old friends was a good one and with the presence of these old ancient friends my roots begin to pulse all over. The abundant Nature mana begin to spread all over the cleaned land. The ground glows a bright green as the charred ground slowly erodes into a fresh brown. Burnt trees decompose and dried grass breaks down. Soon the cleared space only had my tree exposed and slowly the elder Treants sprout popped out. Sucking up the sunlight it began converting its own mana to nature mana and slowly all 10 Elder Treant began to grow and pulling me along as the connected to each other forming a powerful net of roots with me at their center. I grew all the way to 40 meters, my trunk reaching 4 meters in girth and my branches spreading almost 15 meters to all sides. At this stage i finally reached a good size were i began to control my growth and pulled my trunk down. I reduced my own size but began to expand my own width. From 40 meters i reduced it to 20 but my width had reached 6 meters and facing the crowd, on my trunk slowly a pair of eyes opened and a mouth parted. The Elder Treants soon reached my previous height and soon performed the same thing finally rebirthing the council of elders. Each of them formed a face that looked different from the other. Some made a branch that cuts off after a bit as a nose while other left it bare. ¡°It is good to be alive once more.¡± an old tired voice said followed by a yawn. ¡°It is good indeed and it is good to see you little brats are still kicking after so long.¡± I said in a gentle tone. They look around and a solemn expression crosses their faces. ¡°The world is such a mess.¡± An elder behind me comments. ¡°We were dark Treant not even four decades ago¡­ hmm the young heroine that stopped our rampage is here as well.¡± Another one said as he looks at the small humanoids and notice¡¯s Jeopardy among the Constructs. ¡°H-heroine! No no! I did something bad and killed so many.¡± she quickly denied and looked down guilty. ¡°Oh my, it seems this young one thought it was a bad thing she did.¡± A female elder said from my east side. ¡°Considering it was the extinction of a race at the time, it can¡¯t be helped that she thinks like this.¡± I tell them and they nodded. I notice a small craft descending and on it was the young Clockwork, he jumps off and lands in front of me and nods and looks around. ¡°Did something happen?¡± He asked me and looks at the elders. ¡°These are Elder Treants, i had mentioned before they were still able to be revived, with me gaining enough power back i was able to revive them and was able to regain a level of power back. The more land you can clear out the more we will recover. Soon i may even revive my roots in the continent with the elven forest.¡± I explain and he nods. ¡°Sakura¡­ what are Clockwork doing on this continent? Or better yet, how are they active?¡± A disgruntled elder asked glaring at the boy. ¡°Don¡¯t be like that, this boy¡¯s crew is quite good to nature, if it wasn¡¯t for him being the leader of such an exceptional crew with many different races you wouldn¡¯t have been rebirthed.¡± He replied. He grunts about it, there is always friction between races and since clockwork extract things from nature to expand they have been a race at odds with natural spirits like ours. As we talk he turns around and waves at everyone, ¡°Get back to work! Marina, i have located 6 sealed springs underground, Brock is digging them up, send a few leader class to manage these springs as their river beds have eroded and been covered up. Also there are 13 open water springs within a 13 kilometer radius and several of them have inhabitants protecting them and i have already sent knights to clear them out. Please go to the Ship for a briefing and prepare a number of Undine for the task.¡± He then looks at the constructs, ¡°If you need extra help have Mage class with water cores help out since they are taking up so many of our cores.¡± A smile appears on my face and my eyes land on the elder that wasn¡¯t fond of clockwork. He showed a surprised expression upon seeing Techno focusing on nature development instead of extraction. ¡°Sakura¡­ what is going on?¡± He asked. ¡°They are killing two birds with one stone, they are extracting oil and pollution from the ground and cleaning the soil and the water.¡± I said. ¡°So even when they help they do it for benefits.¡± He complains. ¡°Everyone works for benefits. In this continent they need to have some method to create fuel and their best bet is removing our impurities.¡± I explain and he nods but his face was in a frown. ¡°Let ¡®us¡¯ get to work, focus on gathering nature mana for me, i need to reach the other continent¡¯s forests, it¡¯s said elves have been spreading far and wide and clockwork are helping the heal the land so it is best for us if we connect to that continent and receive the nature energy gathering there.¡± I explain. ¡°Of course, the Treants will be rebirthed once we do.¡± Another elder said and closed his eyes and mouth returning to look like a tree. We all do the same and leave the humanoids to their job. Techno PoV After receiving the log out notice i gave a few final orders before the timer ran out and laid my robot''s in my workshop before i was logged off and appeared in my virtual space. The house was now two stories, a big lawn with playground, pool, and a few other things. In the house there was living room, dining room, work room which is almost like a library due to the number of books, study room which is Sasha¡¯s room and has her work books and her homework i make for her. Our rooms were on the second floor and the rest of the houses was mostly accessories like bathroom and so on. Sasha blinks and looks around before she sulks a bit and goes over to the Tv. I smile at her because of this, there is a clear reason for this, everything is boring. The playground, the pool, it¡¯s all great but without people to play it with it is pretty dull. Obviously the others on the crew envy us for having such a great virtual space and we sometimes invite their families. She loves it when that happens but otherwise we just kill time doing whatever. I was surprised when she came to me asking me to teach her how to make robots and other things. In my workshop i actually made a model of worker class clockworks a long time ago even programmed him just right but he only works in test mode inside the workshop. The same goes for the ball section turrets. All these game concepts, after careful trial and error and mathematics that the game normally helps with and removes some flaws depending on skill level i found that most of the simpler clockwork technology craftable. The original arm with guns hidden inside, the pressure fist, most of these things are possible. Nova on the other hand wanted to make Proto and Strato to play with. Although i was against it at the start i did teach her slowly and found she had a knack for robotics. Obviously programming is beyond her and i don¡¯t dare let her use large machines that i use to make the parts but she watches me make them while i explain how its done and the easier to build pieces i let her put them together as if she was playing lego. Before i sit down i hear a knock and sigh. It was probably the policemen that normally transport me for my hour with the psychiatrist. When i open the door i find Warden Pierce standing there. A bit put off i open the door completely and look at him. ¡°Good to see you again Nathaniel.¡± He said holding his hand out. ¡°Yes Warden.¡± I said simply. With a wary smile he asks me, ¡°Can i talk with you¡­¡± Looks inside and spots Sasha peeking, ¡°In private?¡± I look back and Sasha hides and i sigh, ¡°Come in then.¡± I say letting him enter. I lead him to my room and lock the door, the bedrooms automatically block sound so if i want a private conversation it will obviously be here. My room has changed though, unlike before it was now bigger and looked like half a workshop. There were cabinets and a workbench. On the back wall was a large bookcase but the content were figurines. All of them were models of the weapons and clockwork models i have. Asura and Yasha were at the top and all the following clockwork classes below, big weapons were below that and then followed smaller weapons. ¡°This is impressive. Did you make them?¡± He asked. ¡°Yes, Warden did you need something?¡± I asked bluntly. He sighed and put a serious expression on his face. ¡°Nathaniel¡­ why are you in jail?¡± He asked. My brow raised a moment before bunching as i frown. ¡°You should know, after all my files were all properly listed with reason and all.¡± I replied. ¡°Yes i know the ¡®reason¡¯ yet why is it that a common sexual harassment case file is marked under classified cases.¡± He asked. Hearing his words i knew what he meant and chuckled after a moment. ¡°Who knows, maybe because the entire case was a shame with no evidence, no real argument and only the money of that bitches father spoke as the judge and jury all saw me as guilty before the case even began.¡± I say as my tone gets filled with more and more of my rage. ¡°I don¡¯t doubt that the case file was burnt so that it wouldn¡¯t be found either.¡±The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. He instantly frowned to this, it would make sense if the case was a shame for them to get rid of the files but as a common prison warden. ¡°I see¡­ the person that put you in jail also isn¡¯t anyone small either.¡± He muttered. ¡°Who is the bastard anyway, i never got his name.¡± I asked. ¡°You don¡¯t know? The father of that girl, Bianca Castel, his name is Giovanni Castel. He is CEO of LIFE and he owns 70% of their stakes.¡± He explains. A sudden feeling in the pit of my stomach suddenly fills with rage and my hands start to tremble as i clutch my fists. ¡°So¡­ that¡­ bastard is¡­ using me¡­ as a fucking guinea pig!¡± I spit the words as my teeth ground together. My rage was near boiling point until the system alerts flared and sudden a wave of dizziness came over me. When i woke up i found Pierce looking down at me. ¡°You alright?¡± He asked. ¡°What¡­ oh the capsule put me to sleep due to rapid increase in pulse.¡± I said as a notice of what happened said. My rage suddenly boiled inside as i was being controlled. Warden Pierce sighed as he heard my words, he knew better and knew that although they did do this as a safety precaution it also was to keep the inmates from possessing dangerous mindsets with extreme temperaments. ¡°So, how are you feeling?¡± he asked me and i frowned. ¡°How do you fucking think i feel, i just got shut down because i was expressing my unending rage of wanting to shove a fucking pool up that assholes ass. You try to imagine having your emotions controlled and see if it¡¯s comfortable?!¡± I burst and sigh before rubbing my head. ¡°Sorry.¡± He muttered probably realizing he asked a stupid question. ¡°No i am, i took my rage out on you.¡± I said and got up and suddenly hear knocking at the door. The knocks at the entrance of the virtual space and the house will resound through all the rooms including a closed bedroom so that we know someone is here. ¡°Let me see who that is.¡± I said and opened the door. He followed behind me and we walked to the door that was standing in the air in space outside. When we open it we see two military soldiers waiting at the door. ¡°Nathaniel Rover?¡± he asked and i nodded. ¡°I¡¯m Sargeant Reeve Morgan, I¡¯m here on order of Major Cornelius Oliver Smith, he wishes to have a private conversation with you.¡± Although i would normally not speak with a stranger i know my limits and respect, ¡°For what reason?¡± I asked. ¡°I am unauthorized to know, i was simply ordered to pick you up.¡± he said and noticed Warden Pierce. ¡°And you are?¡± ¡°Warden Pierce Travis, i am the Warden of the junior detention center that Nathaniel was sent to. I had a particular fondness of him and came to visit to see how he is progressing.¡± He explained. ¡°I see, well the conversation is personally with Nathaniel but we know he has a sister so¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry i have visited a few times and i can take care of her while he is away.¡± Pierce said. I looked at him for a moment and turned back, ¡°One moment while i explain to my sister.¡± I said and he nodded. I walked back and Sasha was looking out the door. ¡°What¡¯s going on bro?¡± She asked a bit timid. I bend my knees and get at eye level with her, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I just need to go out a bit, it¡¯s an adult matter so the policeman is going to watch you while I¡¯m gone okay?¡± I said. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll be good.¡± She nodded and pouted a bit. ¡°Good, you still have some homework you didn¡¯t finish, go do it and i can check later. If you have any question ask Mr. Pierce okay?¡± She nods and i kiss her cheek and she hugs me before i get up and walk back out. My smile turns stone faced in the time it took for me to turn. ¡°Okay, we may go.¡± I said. They nodded and lead me out and surprisingly into an old 1964 Jeep CJ5. ¡°Heh, when you have the option to drive in style you should take it.¡± One of the military man said. I just sigh and get into the passenger seat while the others get in the back where there was another two people. They drove me to the west side were a single tent was on the outskirts of town. Like the virtual space this was a special model for military use and entering the tent was followed with appearing in an entire military camp. This took me by shock but i remembered that the military has long since been using virtual reality as a training simulator for real war. We walked to the largest building in the center of the camp and inside we moved to the highest floor we entered into a room that had three people. One was an older man with military outfit and the Major emblem on his shoulder. He looked to be in his mid sixties and had a military haircut. The second was a woman that had the rank of Specialist, she had long black hair in a ponytail and thick glasses and looked more like a scientist then a soldier. Finally the third person i almost flew at as my rage rapidly built up. ¡°YOU! WHY ARE YOU HERE!¡± I shouted in rage at the third person who was the very person i learned of today. Giovanni Castel, CEO of the company LIFE and the man who helped his daughter put me in jail. The two men behind me quickly grabbed my arms so that i wouldn¡¯t fly at the man who wasn¡¯t even flustered but the Major looked at him. ¡°You two have met before?¡± He asked. ¡°Don¡¯t remember, such a small person, probably not an important matter.¡± Giovanni said bored. ¡°Oh yeah very small matter, you paying the judge and jury of that case of false sexual harassment for that bitch daughter of yours is a very small matter, i even heard something interesting today, it seems that even such a small case was placed under classified cases!¡± I shouted. ¡°Alright calm down.¡± The Major said and stood up and got in between me and that man and held his hand out. ¡°I¡¯m Cornelius Oliver Smith, it¡¯s good to meet such a talented young man like you. Do you know why we called you here today?¡± he asked Looking at the line up i simply crossed my arms, i may talk but shaking this man¡¯s hand while knowing he was on friendly terms with Giovanni was not happening. ¡°Besides that asshole lying about how he put me in jail unjustly i don¡¯t know.¡± I said bluntly. The Major¡¯s hand stayed in the air for a moment until he realized this wasn¡¯t going to work and withdrew it and gestured to the last remaining seat. ¡°Please sit.¡± He said. ¡°I¡¯ll stand, sharing a table with him isn¡¯t happening.¡± I replied he forced a smile before sitting back in his own seat. ¡°Okay then, since this isn¡¯t going as smoothly as i hoped I¡¯ll cut to the chase. Through the records of your years of game play we have found that you possess an incredible talent for Mechanics and programming. We also checked your purchase record after a while and found you spend a great deal of it in study material that already matches with a third or fourth year college student. What we want is make a proposition for you.¡± He said. ¡°What kind?¡± I asked looking at him. ¡°We already know you tried and tested making clockwork robot and a few weapons from the game in your Virtual space. Besides just a surveillance video we don¡¯t know much more about the construction or coding. What we want is for you to join the military technology development group and bring these ingame technologies you have discovered to the real world.¡± The Major said. ¡°What''s in it for me?¡± I asked coldly. ¡°This will fall under as a major military contribution and with it we can remove all the jail time you have left if you work for us and you will be free with two years of military service, your superior would be this young woman that is a specialist in our robotics research facility. One of the things we want to figure out is also mechanical prosthetics which we know exist in the game but we don¡¯t know anyone skilled or with knowledge of the actual technology.¡± He said. ¡°I don¡¯t know either, if you want that you can look to him and have someone spawn where the cyborgs that currently hate the clockwork are.¡± I said and pointed at the man in the suit. ¡°Well we know that but what you do know are many models of clockwork, including electrical engines that we had no previous knowledge of. Even with Mr. Giovanni providing us the knowledge that it exists, the AI doesn¡¯t release the knowledge from the game even when it¡¯s known.¡± The Major said. My eyes move from him to Giovanni and i narrowed my eyes, ¡°What does he get out of this?¡± I asked. ¡°Because the game belongs to him, he will naturally have 50% of the rights to all the produced robot''s.¡± The major said. ¡°Then i am not doing it.¡± I replied bluntly throwing them off. ¡°What!¡± Giovanni growled. ¡°Are you deaf, i said I. am. Not. doing. It!¡± I shout at him. The Major gets up and in between us again before looking at me. ¡°Can you explain why?¡± He asked seriously. ¡°Yes, first off this bastard put me in jail to help his bitch of a daughter with false charges. Not only that she was the cause for an accident that left my sister in a wheelchair. Second, he is ¡®just¡¯ the CEO of LIFE. He may have more than 50% of the shares but he didn¡¯t program the AI, he sure as hell wasn¡¯t the maker of the game so ¡®him¡¯ having 50% of the shares towards the things ¡®I¡¯ will build is not happening. If the arrangement is 50% of the lucrative assists go to LIFE i will think more openly about it but 50% of the machines produced after the manufacturing process is discovered, no, that would be giving him military grade equipment and would be the same as allowing him to build an army. I will not provide the weapons for someone that acts like he is almighty being.¡± I spat out glaring at the man. ¡°You little brat, you think you''re the only ¡®genius¡¯ in this game? You think your the most influential and strongest! Think again, there are many others who can do what you do yet we are giving you a chance of a lifetime!¡± ¡°Then go find those people for yourself! If there is someone just as good or better than you don¡¯t need me!¡± I said. My words infuriated him and he stands and walks over before grabbing my shirt. ¡°You think you''re so good don¡¯t you! Don¡¯t forget that your sister''s treatment is in my han¡­¡± Spit! Before he could even finish his words i spit in his face as my own was filled with rage. ¡°You do anything besides healing her legs, I promise you that when i get out what you all want i will give you but it won¡¯t be in the manner you want.¡± I said and pushed him back and releasing my shirt from his hands. I look at the Major, ¡°Sir, when you remove this idiot from the deal, come talk with me again and i will think about it, if not, please don¡¯t look for me again.¡± I say and nod to him and the young woman before turning and opening the door and slamming it behind me. Major Cornelius PoV I watch as the boy slammed the door and his voice outside came through asking for the men outside which way was the way out. Turning to the man next to me that was wiping the spit off his face i could hear his cursing as he said, ¡°That little shit! I¡¯ll teach him not to mess with someone big!¡± From the start to finish the relation between him and the boy ruined it all. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me you knew the boy? Why didn¡¯t you tell me that your daughter did something to him?!¡± I asked him. ¡°Such a small matter, why bother mentioning it?¡± He said. ¡°Small matter, this ¡®small matter¡¯ cost us the most talented player in that world. Do you think this is a joke?! This ¡®game¡¯ had one of its objectives to discover geniuses. People that could rebuild a ruined world, someone that could put together technology with hard work, REAL work. You know as much as i do that everything besides the magical technology functions in our world! If Ariel actually allowed us to have all the schematics then we could easily improve our military force and now you by chance, by that 1% chance have a ¡®small matter¡¯ with the only person that from start to now has been thinking for himself and only working to figure out what he wants in this world, you go an tell him there are better people just because of a ¡®small matter¡¯.¡± I finally burst and shout in his face. ¡°What are you saying, that this brat is enough to have you care so much about him, i wasn¡¯t lying, do you think he is the only one to figure out all the technology?! There are countless that learned the mechanics class among the clockwork, why care about this brat?!¡± Giovanni said. ¡°Because this ¡®brat¡¯ was the one who MADE EVERYTHING the clockworks have!¡± I shout and point right in his face. ¡°This ¡®brat¡¯ was the most adventurous, most ingenious and cautious throughout the entire time, he found and researched each and every piece of technology, you can choose any of those mechanics if you want but they don¡¯t have what this boy has. Talent! Ingenuity! Adaptability!¡± I said and sat down and drink some water to try and control myself. ¡°Sir¡­¡± the young woman called. ¡°What Yasmine?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯m quite curious about what the boy said when he arrived.¡± She said and looked at Giovanni. I try to recall what he said and remembered that the first thing he said was about the false charges. ¡°What about it?¡± I asked. ¡°Well, a case of Sexual harassment of the scale that i figured this one is wouldn¡¯t fall under confidential cases. I tried to use the system here to access the police records but i am unauthorized to see his file.¡± She said. ¡°Why do you want to see the files?¡± Giovanni asked narrowing his eyes. ¡°Because i want to see exactly how the trial went, what the evidences against him are. The DNA test of the sperm or the testimonies written explanation, if there are video evidence i want to see it so i was curious i couldn¡¯t.¡± She said. I also began to grow curious of this case that had pushed these two to extreme ends so using my own authorization entered into contact with the police records and searched his name but instantly i was blocked. My eyes narrowed instantly, although a Specialist is understandable for not being able to view a police record, to block a Major is a different thing. ¡°Strange¡­¡± I look at Giovanni, ¡°I was also blocked from viewing.¡± He frowned upon seeing my look, ¡°Why are you looking at me like that? We have known each other for over 30 years and just because of a brat you are starting to suspect me.¡± He said. ¡°I didn¡¯t say anything, you said it yourself.¡± I replied. I get up and look at Yasmine, ¡°Since this deal broke down, i see no more reason to continue remaining here. You''re free to return to work Specialist Yasmine, Giovanni, you can see yourself out.¡± I said and opened the door and left with Yasmine behind me. Closing the door i look at the soldier beside the door. ¡°Sir¡­¡± Yasmine called as we left. ¡°I want to see if i can investigate this. If the false charges are real then it could end in something quite big.¡± She said. I stopped and looked at her, from the records we gained we already knew that there were some people with police authorization that were curious about his case as well. ¡°There is the Warden of his detention center, from investigation of Nathaniel we found that he became curious about the case after the boy began playing the game, he should have some leads, go check with him privately and see what you can learn, afterwards investigate the Lawyer that represented the boy during the trial, the jury and the judge as well. Also go personally to the courthouse that the folder with the case files are in and try to obtain it. If you can¡¯t see if you can obtain the lawyers authorization to remove it from the courthouse so that it can be examined.¡± He explained. ¡°Major seems to be curious about this as well.¡± She smiled. ¡°A bit, the boy''s demeanor didn¡¯t match what the investigation said he would be like which was quiet and somewhat reclusive. What i saw was hell bet rage the kind you see in someone driven to the end of his sanity and came back. Now go, I¡¯ll get you an official order of temporary leave so that you can do this for me.¡± He said and she saluted. Volume 4 Chapter 8 Confession Techno PoV I run back from the military compound burning in rage. I ran so that I could burn my rage with my energy. It was only when I reached the door of the Virtual space that I was mildly winded only as if I had run quarter marathon. The three years I was in Jail I didn¡¯t have much in the area of exercise even when I had time in the sun. That space of time I had been deep in despair and wasn¡¯t worried about my figure but now looking down examining my form I noticed how my previous somewhat skinny figure had bulked up a degree. ¡°Is it because of the feedback system?¡± I muttered. Supposedly they were testing the 100% function but I doubted that, to reach 100% they need to pass all the 99.99% before it. We have probably been testing the limits of the system and each new patch brought an improved version improving the system. I open the door and then let it shut before entering the real house and hearing familiar voices in the living room. As soon as I entered I saw the figures of Alex and Sarah who were playing a game of monopoly with Sasha and Pierce. When I entered Pierce saw me and made the others look. ¡°Bro! Good time, come play, come play!¡± Sasha shouted and patted next to her. I sighed and looked at her with a smile, ¡°Not right now.¡± I said. Instantly Alex frowned, ¡°Did something happen, you¡¯re pretty tense and seem irritated.¡± She said. ¡°Later.¡± I said waving her off and she frowned more. ¡°Do you still not trust me enough to tell me your problems?¡± She asked. My relationship with these two has grown to quite close and of the people I know they are ones I am most trusting. It helps that Sasha already called her sister while made things complicated at first. I sighed deeply and rubbed my shoulder, ¡°Well it''s like this¡­¡± I say and begin explaining the entire story from the moment he entered into the room to when he left slamming the door. At the end of the story I got up and stretched. ¡°Amazing¡­ to actually spit in the CEO¡¯s face. Forget friction, this is like making all out war with him.¡± Pierce said in awe. Alex looked at me with complex emotion but then noticed how I was stretching. ¡°Nathaniel, lay down on the floor, I¡¯ll give you a massage.¡± She says and a small blush appears over her cheeks and nose. Sasha giggled to this making her ears warm up but I just looked at the laughing little girl and she looked the other way ¡®innocently¡¯. I grabbed a small pillow and dropped it down on the carpet so I wouldn¡¯t be directly on the ground. Then I removed my shirt and laid down. At this point Sarah also started to blush but I never minded small things but yeah, the last seven ingame months was also followed by these days in the virtual space where they would always visit and these small interactions made it more comfortable for me to be around them. As for the massage, her mother was a masseuse so she learned the trick which helps a lot because when I get overly emotional or stressed I would usually suffer from muscle and back pains which may be a side effect of the feedback system or just a biological reaction. Starting from the shoulders she works the way down to my lower back but after seven months in the previous few times when she actually did this as the same thing happened and like the few times Sasha bends over near my head. ¡°Hey bro, when are you going to make Big sis my real sis?¡± Sasha asked and I looked at her out the corner of my eye. Obviously a child wouldn¡¯t be able to hold their voice back so even whispering I could feel Alex¡¯s hands tense up and she starts to rush and I sigh before turning and getting up. ¡°Thank you for the massage.¡± I said and stretched which caused a great deal of my joints to crack then I bent to the left, right then forward doing basic stretches each of each caused my spine to losing up greatly and the massage helped a lot to loosen my back muscles but it¡¯s a shame that Sasha always asks before she reaches the butt and legs. ¡°So did anything happen here while I was gone?¡± I asked the three. They shake their heads since nothing happened and Pierce gets up and dusts himself off. ¡°Well I have stayed long enough. I hope you all well and Nathaniel¡­¡± I look at him as he comes over and pats my shoulder, ¡°It¡¯s good to see you at least moving on a bit with your life.¡± He said and winked grinning. He takes his things and I guide him to the door and after closing the Virtual space house I spot the three girls coming out. I froze momentarily because they came out in swimsuits. Sasha was in a childish one piece as was Sarah but Alex was using a pink bikini with white polka dots. ¡°Bro! Hurry up and go change so we can play in the pool a bit!¡± Sasha shouts and she runs off giggling while dragging Sarah. I go and use the virtual space system to change my clothes to male swimsuit but with swiming trunks over it and a slack shirt before I exit and go over to join them. Giovanni PoV I sit down on my chair and take the cup with the medicine that my secretary prepared to help calm my nerves. ¡°For that little cretin to spit on my face I will make him pay.¡± I thought as I click on a file on the computer that showed the players of interest and Techno Gear appeared. His most recent achievement appeared when he started to bring back the dead Treant and Dryad races. ¡°Wait¡­¡± I muttered and brought up a map and showed Techno¡¯s name after he crossed the ocean. I move through the files and find the file that showed where my own daughter was located and the mark on the map appeared in the same location. ¡°Sir do you need something else?¡± The secretary asked. ¡°Yes, locate for me the last 48 hours of video feed from my daughters capsule.¡± I said. The secretary nodded and with the laptop in her hands she began to rapidly type and after a minute a file opened on his computer screen. I open the file and begin to jump about the video until I found the image that showed her upgrading her model but she was quiet for most of it speaking as little as possible. I frowned to this because there was apparent fear of him. ¡°This is enough, I will go visit my daughter at this moment, if it takes too long remark the next meeting.¡± I tell my secretary. ¡°As you wish sir.¡± She said and closed her laptop and left the room. I stand and walk into a side room attached directly to my office that held only the capsule. I enter and using my right as her parent I connect directly into her virtual space. The house appearing before my eyes was subpar at best being only a small 1 floor house with a living room, dining room and kitchen and the bedroom. She barely spent her points to improve this poor excuse of a house that is better called a havel. I hear voices from inside but still walk up and knock and then put my arms behind my back waiting and when the door opens my daughter stood before me with a smile but it freezes instantly.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Father¡­¡± She said and her smile faded. ¡°I need to speak with you.¡± I said and walked inside and sneered as I entered this house for poor that would fit a beggar best. Inside the living room was a pair of twins, a tall brunette sat on the coach and a very large man that looked in his late twenties and would fit for that repulsive nonsense game of american football. Bianca walks in beside me and forces a smile towards this group, ¡°This is my father.¡± She introduced me the boy from the twins started in awe. ¡°Bianca! You never said you father was CEO of LIFE!¡± he shouted and her face twitches slightly as she makes a smile. ¡°Yeah, it¡­ kinda never crossed my mind.¡± She said and pointed at the door to her room. ¡°The bedrooms can block sound so we can go there.¡± She said. ¡°No need, I simply came because I need for you to do a task for me.¡± I said coldly. ¡°What task?¡± She asked. I snapped my finger and screens with the image of Techno, all his bodies, appeared. ¡°I want you to sabotage his efforts in the continent of the constructs. This brat had the audacity of spitting on my face so he will see the error of his ways.¡± I said. Her eyes widen and suddenly showed apprehension. ¡°What¡¯s with that look?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡­ I won¡¯t do it. I was finally able to let the past be the past! I will not bring it back.¡± She said. ¡°You¡­ won¡¯t? Who do you think you are to think this is an option?! This is an order! I¡¯m not only your father but the owner of everything here! I can remove everything you own and transport you to the most desolate point of that ruined world and never let you come back out.¡± I shouted at her. ¡°I won¡¯t do it! I already caused him enough problems!¡± Bianca shouted. ¡°Alright let''s all calm down first!¡± Suddenly the woman said and walked beside my daughter. ¡°This has nothing to do with you woman, this is between me and my daughter.¡± I tell her. ¡°Not from what I hear, also this is something to do with the lives of people in the game so it involves us since we are part of her crew.¡± The woman said. ¡°Yeah! Bia is our friend so don¡¯t go bullying her just because you''re her father!¡± the girl from the pair of twins said. ¡°You all¡­ leave now!¡± I said coldly but the large man on the coach stood. ¡°Father, I will not do what you want.¡± Bianca repeated what she said before. ¡°Hmph, as expected of you, in your rebellious stage you were nothing more then a slut I had to constantly pay people off to silence the scandals you always caused me. This even included helping you put that brat in jail just because you felt like making a scandal that didn¡¯t exist. To make matters worst you even injure his brat of a sister. Getting rid of you for several years was a good decisi¡­¡± SLAP! ¡°Don¡¯t bring up the past! Do you even know why I was like that?! Do you think you''re innocent in all this? You abandoned me and only cared about your precious company! Mother died and I suffered as a child and where were you?! You hide yourself under your work and didn¡¯t even go to her funeral! More than half the things I did was for attention, attention you didn¡¯t give, the rest¡­ I don¡¯t know!¡± She said in tears. I feel the pain on the left side of my face, my rage that had built up from that insufferable brat burst and I slapped her back. ¡°You! You dare hit me! Your father! You want attention, fine, I will discipline you like I should have done all those years ago! Leaving you with those nannies were too good for you. I should have just locked you up in a room and let you to dry up!¡± I shout and slap her again but after the second slap my arm was grabbed followed by the scruff of my shirt. The large man held me with an iron grip that held enough force to bring tremendous pain to my arms as he squeezed. ¡°Don¡¯t¡­ touch her! Even as her father, you think you can beat someone because you have money because you''re some CEO of some large company just because you want?!¡± He said glaring at me. ¡°You¡¯re a pathetic excuse for a father, no you''re not her father because if you were you would have been present when she was suffering the most.¡± the brunette said while hugging my daughter on the ground. ¡°Throw him out Big Jace!¡± ¡°Yeah toss him out like trash!¡± The twins shouted. ¡°Don¡¯t think this is without repercussion!¡± I said glaring at all of them but I was suddenly shook by the large man. ¡°You should think the same thing when you are going to do something. Money will only protect you so much.¡± Jace said his arms tensed as he lifted me off the ground. ¡°P-put me down!¡± He shout. He lets go of my arm and begins walking and takes me out by force from the house and then opens door of the Virtual space and throws me strongly out of the virtual space and slams the door. Following that a notice appears saying I was banned from entering this Virtual space. My rage reached such a peak that I blacked out and was logged out where I found a few medical personnel. The safety measures of the capsule forcefully made me calm down but as I remember everything once I started to stand up I suddenly grab whatever I could and threw it and shouted before I walked out. The medical personnel just got out of my way as I left the office. ¡°Cancel everything I have today!¡± I shout at my secretary without even looking and enter the elevator and left. Jeopardy PoV I stay in the living room sobbing into Gloria¡¯s arms. She just sat there patting my head, Nene comes over and hugs me and does the same while saying ¡°There there, it''s alright now.¡± Jace comes back after throwing my father out but remains quiet as he took a seat on the sofa facing us. ¡°Bianca¡­¡± Gloria called and I sat up still sobbing. She puts her hand to my face and wipes my tears. ¡°Let''s go sit on the sofa and talk about it, you can tell us.¡± She said. I just start crying more as I feel her warmed but soon we finally go sit down. The TV was off since no one felt like watching it now that everything happened. ¡°So¡­ what exactly happened, he said something about you putting Techno in jail?¡± She asked. I felt a deep sense of dread about this but I knew there was no hiding it anymore. ¡°I¡­ I did a lot of things I regret today¡­¡± I say and look up with tear filled eyes. ¡°It¡¯s fine, everyone has their own story and if you''re regretting it then your feeling guilty and trying to do something about it.¡± She said. I nod slightly, ¡°This¡­ VR town that i¡¯m a part of is one of the towns that contains only Juvenile convicts. My father made an agreement with the government to allow them to spend their remaining time within Etheria and in exchange they will be part of test subjects for the Feedback system. Techno is part of it but he shouldn¡¯t be.¡± I pause and take a deep breath filled with sobs. ¡°Three years ago, I was still in one of my rebellious fits and¡­ during that time I had wanted to bully him but he wasn¡¯t the kind to take it lying down and would insult back. At that time¡­ I don¡¯t know why but I came up with the plan to make him fall into despair, make him feel worse than me. I paid some people to act as witnesses and with them we reported him for sexual harassment and assault.¡± I said and a this time the others were shocked. My voice began to tremble at this point, ¡°When my dad heard of it he paid off all the court members and I think even the lawyer assigned to representing Techno. The case¡­ was a shame but he was sentenced to 10 years. After he was imprisoned I went to him only to find him angry filled with hate but not in despair and I¡­ I had another event happen where¡­ the car breaks in his family car were tampered with and¡­ it resulted in permanent paralysis of his sister from the waist down.¡± I said and began to cry again.¡± The others were in shock but even with tears raining down I sucked it up and continued. ¡°W-when he¡­ he learned of it¡­ he finally fell into a depression that¡­ that caused him to¡­ stop speaking and react to anything. His eyes were empty of anything besides despair and seeing him the sight of him that I had expected was of him resisting but when I saw him.¡± I cover my lips and take a deep breath, ¡°I saw myself and him overlap but then he became a more depressing image. From then that image of him was burned into me and I couldn¡¯t sleep, eat or do anything peacefully. Regret and guilt filled me completely, I lost weight, my social life degraded to non existent and my studies were ruined and finally my father discovered and he put me here until Techno gets out.¡± I finished and grab a pillow and bury my face into it. After a long time I feel a hand on my back making me flinch. When I looked Nene was there and she hugged me when I got up. ¡°You''re a good girl now, you were bad but because you felt so bad that you changed. Now we have a nice gentle sweet friend.¡± Nene said. Hearing her words something weighing down my heart seemed to be lifted and I couldn¡¯t help crying while I hugged her. The others looked and also softened up. Gloria hugged me as well. ¡°The story is¡­ hard to hear but what I know now is that you''re a sweet girl. Regret and guilt made you grow up and you only strive to help others now.¡± She said. A feeling of hope bud in that ocean of regrets, to be able to have such good friends, I can understand how Nathaniel was able to surpass his trauma. With real friends anything that could appear. ¡°Bianca, you can calm down, with us you won¡¯t ever need to fear that we will leave you!¡± Momo said. Jace starts to laugh, ¡°I¡¯ve seen a few people that were the same. Some people that do those group talks in the jails, it''s the same a a psychologist talk but there are always people that can only feel better when someone accepts them. Every one of them are good people that just made the wrong choices. Don¡¯t be so hard on yourself, it''s human nature to make mistakes but you will only be able to repent by learning from your mistakes.¡± He said. I nod and smile, he looked tough on the outside but he was a nice man or a big teddy bear, intimidating but just a big softy. I hug the two girls and then kiss Momo on the cheek. ¡°Thank you all¡­ you don¡¯t know how much¡­ what you said means to me.¡± I said as tears couldn¡¯t stop falling. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, even if we live far apart we will always be friends.¡± Gloria said. I nod and smile truly happy to have found such good people and friends in my life. Volume 4 Chapter 9 I just dont care ¡°So Bianca. Want to go see techno now?¡± Gloria asked. ¡°Eh! Now?!¡± She asked in shock. ¡°Is that a good idea, I mean she just went through¡­ that.¡± Jace said. The twins nodded in unison. ¡°Don¡¯t push her!¡± Nene said. ¡°No, it is fine but¡­ what do I do? I don¡¯t know if he will even let me through the door let alone listen. He will probably take it as an excuse to throw the blame on my father or something.¡± Bianca said. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we will go with you. But¡­ I will say it now, don¡¯t ask for forgiveness, what was done¡­ let us just hope he doesn¡¯t go mad.¡± Gloria said. Bianca became gloomy but got up and looked at her own state, ¡°Let me take a bath. I want to calm down first.¡± She turns and walks into her room, no one moves to go after her and just let her think for herself. After the door closed the four sat down and sighed. ¡°What will we do?¡± Jace asked. ¡°Good question, this isn¡¯t a simple situation, also from what we know of Techno, he is just a cocky blow hard that sees himself above others.¡± Gloria sneered. ¡°Not really.¡± Momo said. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Gloria asked. ¡°Well I was a fan when the game started. The great leader of the clockwork and so whenever some kind of news appeared I recorded it and realized something. Why didn¡¯t other people do the same thing? Everything he did could have easily been done by another but most people feared the unknown and didn¡¯t step up only he did and what was reward to him was a lot of items, many discovered technologies and even stuff he completely invented that was unheard of but none of it was beyond the scale that common people couldn¡¯t do. There was even a forum post sent to him but left public asking him how he can make so much stuff. His reply was that if he encountered a problem he would purchase books on the subject and study it and try to implement it.¡± Momo said. ¡°So he is the hard worker legend.¡± Jace said. ¡°Yep, no one really knows how much he knows but he knows a lot since a lot of the inventions were made directly by him or his crew¡¯s dwarf blacksmith.¡± Nene said. ¡°So it''s suffice to say that what he owns today was because he wholly worked for it? I guess it¡¯s no wonder he would look down on others.¡± Gloria said solemnly. ¡°Not just his efforts. You should have heard what it takes to become a Sky Whale. A full 24 hours of unadulterated pain and you can lose your character because of it. If the Golem in his crew was alone his giant body would be a new place that elementals were born besides the other skywhale.¡± Jace said. The others nodded and slowly went through all of the crew''s achievements and slowly realized that it wasn¡¯t a fact that they were lucky but instead they simply did things first or more properly said they didn¡¯t need others to provide for them. ¡°Now that I think about it, they didn¡¯t really need the help of the constructs to learn how to make the silver wiring. With their searching ability they would have sooner or later discovered a memory chip that showed that. It kinda shows that he isn¡¯t really cocky it¡¯s probably what we learned today from Bianca that made him like that. Untrusting.¡± Momo said. Hearing the door open they saw Bianca come out with a bit more refreshed face having washed away a lot of her sorrows. ¡°Since you¡¯re ready, do you want to go?¡± Gloria asked. Bianca smiled wryly and breathed in deeply. ¡°Okay but¡­ please help me face this.¡± She said and the other four smiled and nodded. Techno PoV The sound of splashing came with the sound of laughter from the Sasha and Sarah. The two had gone to play in the pool and earlier even I had joined up but even so water volly ball is hard even at knee height. The pool grew deeper only at the far end being 10 meters long and 7 wide. The first 5 meters remained within the margin of 1 to 2 meters and then the other five dropped progressively to 6 meters . Alex was beside me on the chairs just enjoying the sun that beat down from within the Virtual space. ¡°You know, looking at you and Sasha now, the last two years in here you two have changed. Well mostly you.¡± She said. I was silent for a moment but looked out and sighed, ¡°It is probably because of that psychologist forcing me to talk at least with you guys.¡± I said. ¡°Do you regret it?¡± I looked at my little sister and smiled, ¡°No. It made a world of difference for Sasha in Etheria.¡± At that time there were several knocks at the door and it drew their attention. ¡°Are you expecting anyone?¡± Sarah asked. ¡°No, I don¡¯t think the others from the crew can come here without invitation right?¡± I asked. ¡°Yeah, that is more or less how it works. They can ask to come here but it would notify you and they would appear directly inside. Only someone that can directly log into this specific Virtual Town can knock. Must be a neighbor.¡± Alex said. I stand up and throw my shirt over my upper body and use the system to dry my shorts before walking over. Alex had put on a one piece sun dress and followed me. Opening the door I found a brunette, a set of twins, a large man that looked like a body builder and someone hiding behind him which I could see from looking at the feet still appearing. ¡°Hello is someone named Techno living here?¡± The brunette asked. ¡°Do we know you?¡± Alex asked. ¡°Did we get the wrong Virtual space?¡± She asked. A low whisper came from behind and the Brunette looked directly at me. ¡°Oh so you¡¯re Techno, I was expecting someone¡­ bigger when compared to that giant six armed robot you use. Especially why you tried to intimidate us that time during the negotiations.¡± She said. ¡°Negotiations?¡± I thought and the only one that appeared was the construct and merfolk. Then the group that came with them also appeared in his mind and the angel¡¯s face and figure appeared and slowly overlapped the brunette. Summoning up a notepad window I start writing, ¡°Are you that angel from the crew? So that means these are the halflings, that big fella is the sylph and the pair of legs are the construct?¡± The brunette frowned, ¡°Even in real life you disregard us and speak through messages?!¡± She shouted.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°I¡¯m sorry if it seems offensive but as said before, he doesn¡¯t do well with strangers. His original crew even had a hard time at the beginning until several events made him talk with them verbally.¡± Alex explained. ¡°So what did you want?¡± I asked them This time the face of all of them grew tense. ¡°Can¡­ we come in first?¡± She asked. I narrow my eyes and look at their faces, I don¡¯t remember seeing any of them as part of the Juvenile detention group but there were hundreds so it''s not like I would know all of them but they way they talk shows they are invited from the hidden one. ¡°What do you want?¡± I asked again and stare at the legs of the hidden person. ¡°And who is that one hidden?¡± The face of the group grew even more serious and both of us noticed. ¡°Hey bro, who is it?¡± Sasha called out and looked from between them both. Her face lit up when she saw the twins who seemed around her age. ¡°Ah! These are those two tiny guys I remember! They visited before when we arrived! Hey want to go play in the pool!¡± She asked. ¡°Eh?¡± The both said and tilted their head to see inside only to see a huge lawn and a house inside followed by all the toys and the big pool. Their face was conflicted and they looked at me and their group. I sighed and turned around before walking inside, ¡°Come on.¡± I said and walked inside. ¡°Sasha, get some swimsuits for them if you want.¡± I said out loud. The group looked at each other and walked in and Alex came up to me, ¡°Are you fine? This looks like something a bit more than a simple talk.¡± She said. ¡°If something happens it will happen.¡± I said simply and walked into the house followed by the group. I sat down but they stayed up. Gesturing to sit the brunette looked at the large man. The two children had gone with Sasha upstairs by now and so the sofa had enough space for the three. ¡°We will stay here.¡± The brunette said. ¡°Sit down.¡± I said, ¡°And come out.¡± I said louder to the hidden one. ¡°Don¡¯t boss me around!¡± The brunette shouted. ¡°Please, he is blunt but I also agree that at least hiding behind someone is even more rude.¡± Alex said. ¡°It¡¯s fine¡­¡± A voice came. The voice rang some bells like I have heard of it before and a someone foreboding feeling came over me. My hands clenched and my heart began to speed up. Finally the person came out and the world around me turned red. ¡°YOU!¡± I shouted. My teeth were clenched and I was about to pounce when Alex appeared and pushed me down and hugged my head. ¡°Calm down, your heart rate is almost at a point that the system will cause you to black out. Deep breaths. In, out. Slow in, slow out.¡± Alex said in a gentle calm down and slowly I began to calm down with her help. This is the main reason my interaction with her was the best, she helped me greatly and similar to Sasha she became someone I can calm down around. My body slowly relaxed in her embrace and soon she let me go before turning to them. ¡°What did you need?¡± She asked in a serious tone. ¡°I¡­¡± Bianca¡¯s voice got trapped in her throat upon seeing the scene. The brunette pulled her and sat with her in the chair. ¡°My name is Victoria Rose, in Etheria I am an angel named Gloria, we heard only today what happened between you two.¡± She said. ¡°Why did you bring her here, as you can see this can easily cause a grand degree of problems for Nate. Do you even know the degree of what was done to him?¡± Alex asked bluntly. Before she had been courteous but after Bianca appeared it threatened my mental state. ¡°We know, we actually know quite a lot more than you do including her side of the story.¡± Victoria said. ¡°So you want me to listen to her side and pity her after all she did to me?!¡± I said venomously. ¡°No!¡± Bianca said and slumped down. I narrow my eyes, this wasn¡¯t anything like the person I had known. ¡°Please calm down, it will do us no good to be at each others throat. Now, you might not believe it but she suffered a lot after what happened and even before.¡± Victoria said. ¡°Cut the bullshit, bitch talk now or I will just throw you out.¡± I said without any hint of pity in her voice. ¡°Don¡¯t insult her at every chance!¡± Victoria shouted. ¡°So you want Nate to thank her for ruining his life and pet her for coming here?¡± Alex said narrowing her eyes. ¡°I didn¡¯t¡­¡± ¡°QUIET!¡± Jace suddenly shouted making everyone look at him. ¡°Bianca first tell him what happened today.¡± Jace said. With a nod Bianca recounted what her father had down. As soon as she finished my eyes burned with a rage hotter then when she came in here. ¡°Good good, so that fucking bastard wants war huh?!¡± I grinned while my rage overflowed. Alex put her hand on my shoulder and slowly I began to force everything down to listen. ¡°Is that all you needed to say?¡± I asked. Bianca took a deep breath, ¡°I didn¡¯t come to ask for forgiveness, I know I can¡¯t be forgiven¡­ but¡­¡± She stopped and then began talking in a long string. The talk went all they way back to when she was 4, her mother had died when giving birth to her brother but neither survived, at that time her father completely broke down and isolated himself at work not even going to the funeral. From then she tried many things to get his attention but each made him more distant until she fell into her despair and began to rampage during her teens. Being raised by strangers and ignored by her family, having no friends in school besides those that wanted her money, she entered into a state similar but not as deep as when I found out Sasha was crippled. When she saw me or anyone actually that lived life casually she hated us simply for having a normal life and felt it was unfair. It was true what they say bullying was born due to needing to feel better about oneself or needing to see someone worse off but do to my somewhat indifferent personality at the time I wasn¡¯t as greatly affect and it lead to what it did. Once she saw what had happened, once I had entered full despair even deeper than her own it finally woke her up and when it did she actually degraded further in grief, despair and guilt. Her social life ruined, school grades even worst, finally her father just ¡®threw¡¯ her away when he confronted her and she told him what she did. I listened with a blank face, I didn¡¯t care about her life nor would I forgive her at all, pity her not even passed my mind. When she finished the room was silent. ¡°Is that all?¡± I asked. ¡°What do you mean is that all? Don¡¯t you feel anything?¡± Victoria shouted. ¡°What am I to feel towards her, this story, should I pity her? She isn¡¯t someone to pity nor do I care to forgive her. Her being ¡®thrown¡¯ in here, this isn¡¯t a punishment for her.¡± I said. ¡°How is it not a punishment! She is stuck in this game just like you!¡± the brunette shouted back. ¡°She was thrown in here by her father but she was never trailed by the court, I wasn¡¯t released with her confession my sister isn¡¯t walking in her real body because of her confession. Being in her, she can even consider it her living inside a came like a vacation until she grows up. She isn¡¯t being punished, if she killed someone through PvP she wouldn¡¯t get increased her jail time. If she broke the law she wouldn¡¯t be restricted in any form unless she was caught in game. A real Juvenal detention convict has many restrictions on him but she is simply a player like you two, like those twins playing with my sister, like my own sister and like any player that came in after the beta was complete.¡± I said. This made the angel freeze upon hearing this. He was essentially correct in this, Bianca wasn¡¯t a juvinal detention convict. She was just put in here because of her father and not restricted. I simply stood up, ¡°As for my feelings towards you, bitch, I won¡¯t ever stop hating you but from what I can see I don¡¯t even need to do anything. Truthfully I don¡¯t even care about seeing your face anymore. There is no pity, your own life is a testament to your own punishment. Your guilt breaking you down.¡± My eyes go to her crew, ¡°Like me you even have your own crew but your own guilt is still larger then their help so what do I need to do. The most I can do is this¡­¡± I said and opened the door, ¡°Get out and leave me alone, in the game, I don¡¯t know you, you don¡¯t know me. Don¡¯t talk to me, I don¡¯t care if you need upgrades you will just be another but don¡¯t think of us as acquaintances just because I didn¡¯t do anything, anyone of my crew is enough to destroy you and I can dismantle you without killing you so just leave and never show your face.¡± I said. The two crew members looked at each other perplexed and Alex sighed, in relief and with complicated emotions, ¡°This is the best result you can get, please don¡¯t make him say more.¡± She said and the other side seemed to also realize something. They passed the door and saw the twins and Sasha playing with Sarah. ¡°Lucas! Lucy! We are going!¡± Victoria said. ¡°Ah~!¡± The two complained. ¡°Do we have to?!¡± Lucy shouted. ¡°We are leaving already.¡± Jace said. The two pouted. ¡°Hey bro! Can they stay and come over sometimes!¡± Sasha said. I make a really conflicted expression but looked at the children, ¡°Only when Sarah and Alex are here.¡± I said sighing. Alex was beside me giggling, ¡°You really do anything for your sister.¡± She said. I rolled my eyes and looked away as I saw the twins come over and with the system sharing contact so they can be on the list of invites. They then ran back into the ball jumping in. ¡°We will go then.¡± Jace said and the three left while the children remained for some more. I didn¡¯t say anything and just shut the door behind him. Once it was done I simply walked inside and sat in the living and bent over. Alex was beside me and she pat my back while just staying quiet helping me surpass the whirlwind of emotions that were raging causing tears to fall. Volume 4 Chapter 10 Partnership Knock! Knock! A series of knocks at the door of the virtual space drew my attention. ¡°So many guests this week.¡± Sasha said a bit startled. ¡°Yeah, I agree. Let''s go see who it is.¡± I said. Standing up from the sofa where me and Sasha were watching the rerun of deadpool, I leave the house and go to the floating door that was the entrance to the virtual space and upon opening it I was shocked to find an old man with a military cut and dressed in official army clothing with a badge for the Major rank. ¡°Major Smith, what honor do we have to have you come all the way here?¡± I asked. ¡°May I come in?¡± He asked. With a nod I let him in, behind him were some lower ranking military specialists, of which Yasmine was part of but there were doctors and other people as well. They came in and I offered them a seat at the sofa but when I looked at Sasha I was about to say for her to go up the Major cut in. ¡°You don¡¯t need to send her away, it''s not such a serious talk.¡± He said. ¡°Okay, you all can have a seat if you want.¡± I said and began to interface with the virtual space¡¯s setting cleaning up and opening the winds letting more light shine in and fixing the place a bit before bringing out the purchased set of cups before I had some natural juice made and put out for who wanted. ¡°So what is this about?¡± I asked sitting across from the Major. ¡°Well, after your claim two days ago, we got in contact with LIFE¡¯s board of directors and rewrote the contract, in truth I hadn¡¯t expected that most of them didn¡¯t know of this. When the offer went out we were able to sign a new contract, while forcing Mr. Castel, to accept the offer. Now only 30% of liquid assets will be transferred over to LIFE and they won¡¯t be allowed to obtain the machines or methods of design. All that it requires is for your consent now.¡± He said. ¡°Alright, I can work better with this, I assume at least 5 to 10% of the liquid assets are towards my work?¡± I asked. ¡°That is what we need to talk about. Although we said we wanted the clockwork, and the weapons, the request actually isn¡¯t as simple. First the weaponry isn¡¯t hard to reproduce, we know you can make the most basic form of several of your own inventions like those mobile ball turrets. What brings problems is that we need clockwork robot with complete coding but also customized.¡± He said. ¡°In what manner?¡± ¡°We want to connect the virtual reality systems to the robot''s.¡± One of the white robed military specialists said. ¡°Although 80% of war is completely done through virtual reality, the threat of terrorists isn¡¯t small. In fact, their biggest aim are satellites and electrical plants. That said common guards don¡¯t have the firepower to fight back against the ever growing threat. They want to kill many people in one go through blackouts and cutting internet signals.¡± He said. ¡°I see, you want to make the robot''s ¡®avatars¡¯ for the soldiers, storing them in countless places and should something happen, instantly an army appears.¡± I said. The Major nodded, ¡°That is correct, the problem we face though is that all the clockwork code is corrupt as well as made to be an AI while we need a robot that will connect to the system to be used.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll say this now but it''s quite hard even for me.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you have an incalculable wisdom in Etheria? I¡¯m sure the feedback system has had a drastic effect on your brain and processing speed.¡± The Major said. ¡°In Etheria I do, I am basically a machine there and I am one of the few who have completely transfered my being into an powerful machine. My computer processor I don¡¯t even know how advanced it is, that thing was formed by the game systems and not by me. That said, I am able to restore clockwork codes and have long since done that but I can¡¯t make them. To remove the ¡®AI¡¯ aspect would completely break the entire system. Of course I use receptors to link my own mind to my robot''s but each robot still has my codes transmitted to it.¡± I explained. ¡°Of course, we are prepared to develop this, we know you have a tried and tested clockwork code in your virtual space and we can develop something from that.¡± The mechanic specialist said. I nodded, ¡°I can work with that. The weapons I can easily show a few of you have to make but there is one problem I have to mention for the robot''s.¡± I said. ¡°What''s that?¡± The Major asked. ¡°Does today¡¯s technology have the capacity to make the hardware for the brain?¡± I asked simply. The room went silent as soon as my question was aired. The Major hadn¡¯t thought of this, although each and every one of them had entered the game and seen the trash pile bodies, it was indeed a fact that some components were very complex. After all, this game was a setting of post post apocalypse where magic and technology had reached a huge peak before dying down. If technology, in specific clockworks, wasn¡¯t high tech then it would be hard for airships of the size they had seen in there to exist. ¡°This you do not need to worry about.¡± Yasmine spoke up suddenly, ¡°When this project was originally conceived, it was even before the launch of the game. Ariel herself mentioned that our technology lacked basic components for the brain. The methods to make these were obviously purchased by the government and has been under development for several years already. We have prototype parts that are trail worthy so there is no problem with the lack of components.¡± She explained I nod, if this was the plan from the get go obviously they would have taken precautions in all areas, ¡°Alright, so what do I get out of this? I am willing but I also can¡¯t give something for nothing.¡± I said. ¡°Of course we already said it, we can clear all charges and whipping your track record clean to the point that you won¡¯t ever have to put on your curriculum that you are an ex-convict, even if you were, us in the military research and development would surely hire you.¡± the Major said. ¡°What about my sister''s legs?¡± I asked. ¡°I have personally gone and verified her condition.¡± one of the doctors said, ¡°Her muscles are all well developed again, the exterior connections formed through the body allowed her legs to develop once more but her spinal cord is still not completely healed. The method to heal would probably be only treatment with trunk cells or if we develop cybernetic implant to bridge the gap.¡± He said. ¡°So LIFE lied when they said they would heal her?¡± I asked clenching my fists. ¡°It wasn¡¯t a lie, they have helped her heal greatly, although the spinal cord is broken, they already did a treatment through trunk cells once, injecting it into her spine after having put you in the virtual world. If I say her spine is about 5-10% healed that would be about right, the spine is far too complex and it would take several years of treatment to properly heal her which is what they had in store for her since you would normally have been in here for 7 years.¡± He explained. ¡°I see. If the military can take the place of LIFE and do her treatment then I can agree, being stuck in here is far from enjoyable. For the part of weapons and robot''s I can agree to these terms as long as I get paid since I will be accepting work. Also I have been wondering but why are there medical specialists here?¡± I asked. One of them smiled, ¡°This is the second deal we wanted your help with. Like we mentioned, cybernetics.¡± ¡°How can I help? I never once studied to be a doctor, although I was planning to since I was lacking in information of this field for my Automata body. I need real world information or to discover several facts to improve my body.¡± he said. ¡°Yes.¡± The man said perplexed and coughed, ¡°We know that in that world cyborgs exist, this is fact, there is a city with cyborg humans, which, curiously enough, are humans you banished by destroying their city once. Still, their city is locked to the players. They shoot down anyone that comes there and they are hostile to those from the clockwork nation and beyond. We are unable to make contact and the boy who did make contact doesn¡¯t know anything about how they did their cybernetics.¡± The man explained. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you ask Ariel?¡± ¡°Not like I would tell them anyway.¡± A cheerful voice said. When the voice sounded the space in front of the TV distorted and a beautiful woman with a simple long one piece dress and black hair falling down. The smile on her face was very bright but also like a devilish woman scheming. ¡°Ariel, this is breaking and entering.¡± I said casually. ¡°Oh come on, this beautiful woman came to visit and this is how you treat me?¡± She complained. The others were stunned to see her appear from thin air. ¡°So why can¡¯t you tell them about the cybernetics?¡± I asked. ¡°Because what the cyborgs did was weaponize their body. What they want is prosthetics. The technology is too advanced to be made by this world. If you want it, develop basic prosthetic limbs first. You are already on the way with that, so it shouldn¡¯t be hard.¡± She said and looked at me and Sasha. ¡°If you help this boy complete his Automata body, or the schematics it would help you. You should know, the cores you made aren¡¯t ¡®unprogrammed¡¯ into the system.¡± She said startling everyone. ¡°What do you mean?¡± The major frowned. She giggled, ¡°Well if I were to say this you would probably understand. In Etheria there are 2 divinity forms. Titan and Gods. Titan¡¯s are usually massive and possess immense physical power. Although Delta claims himself, ¡®God of the Artificial races¡¯ he is a ¡®Synthoid Titan¡¯ he isn¡¯t even ¡®Titan of Artificial races¡¯. Gods on the other hand are human sized but they have the same power but magically. That is to say, Automata are Gods of artificial races and Machina are the true Titan¡¯s. Oh look at me rambling, anyway children, if you can figure out the human autonomy it would help a lot, not just you but other people. I need to go, also¡­¡± She smiled and winked, ¡°Good job bringing Sakura back.¡± This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Before anyway could say anything her body vanished leaving them stunned. Everyone looked at each other confused by the event. Finally the Major coughed, ¡°So¡­ how do we proceed?¡± he asked. It was very quiet in the room until I sighed, ¡°How does this sound, while you work on getting us out, I will set my city as a spawning place for new players but under the restriction that I permit only specific people with a code. I can hand it over to you and you can send your doctors and mechanics and such to join my city. From inside the game I can learn the medical part I need and once we get out I can provide the mechanical and programming part.¡± I say. They were surprised but they also knew about this feature, people who own their own base or city not affiliated to a nation can also form a spawning point and that includes forming restricted spawning points like I just mentioned. ¡°That is a good idea but is it already? I mean you have never once let others inside your city?¡± The major asked. ¡°If I want to advance further why would I not allow specialists to join my crew? Also if you robotics group want to come I can teach you first hand in game and you can start trials in real life directly.¡± I said. ¡°Of course, that is with the expectation that you also pull your own weight in my city.¡± I said. They looked even more startled but some of the women laughed, ¡°Major, I think up to this point we have a good deal with Nathanial, this would be for the best.¡± Yasmine said. ¡°Yes, if you are willing we will take you up on that offer.¡± The major said. With a nod and a handshake they pulled out a very long contract. Not one to trust others I read through it but I have a very fast reading speed and it took around twenty minutes to read the entire contract in detail and modify the points to match what we talked about. Prosthetics, weapon sells and robot sells I would have a patent ownership in my name with 40% of the stocks. Of course this patent is co worked with the military but I also get a basic military specialist of the robotics corp salary for my work. Only after checking for loopholes I found that, like the Major had said, I would be enlisted for 2 years but I would focus only on what was agreed upon without needing to do the heavy military training. Finding no problems I finally agreed but I did say that time for the game was needed since the speed of the game was faster. With everything signed and smoothed out they all left after we decided upon a code they could distribute and I set up. *** On the continent where the Clockwork awakened, at this time in the forest of the elves, the large tree city had grown greatly. The previously only tree house city had grown greatly and after careful administration, technology began to slowly find its place with the elves. It wasn¡¯t like they did extensive expansion but in the last several months some players, clockwork, dwarf and elves working together, invented small scale floating vehicles. By small scale it would be like floating boards, small scale ¡®sail boats¡¯ even smaller than the Dingy. Also the elves accepted several technology during the several decades where the players were away and using the water purifiers and the rivers, they developed small scale power plants to generate electricity. This was, of course, using watermills and not dams because it would ruin a lot of the forest but this did not mean that the watermills were ineffective, instead the engineers who pioneered the project put their all into making a rather complex water pill at several points with strong rapids. At this time, in the now well lit queen¡¯s room, Lyra Toross, the elf queen, was reading the many reports and handing out objectives while dealing with recurring problems which came from invading monsters. With the coming of the elementals, which Techno had revived, came also extensive expansion. We careful control of the elementals so that they did not get corrupted the size of the forest has already quadruped with several dozen springs being brought back and green has spread even further but this also pushed many contaminated and mutant monsters out of their natural habit which is contaminated waters and woods. Savage beasts who, after so long living in filthy water, now depend on it. Of course there are more ¡®preserved¡¯ monsters who were not as heavily affected but if one were to compare them before and after, it was clear that their health was drastically affected but their bodies are strong enough to survive and are slowly adapting to the slowly growing change. Of course the elf queen didn¡¯t only deal with problems inside her own forest. As an elven nation, she worked and formed a very tight friendship with the clockwork nation and a mutual benefits relationship with the demon nation. The space between them all is too large and so none of them have conflict and instead they help each other. The elves were small in number, only counting a little over 400 but with the return of players, the number of elves skyrocketed to several thousand. Because they were weak at the start, the central governments of the tree nations formed a trade agreement between them and they work together to benefit from each other¡¯s growth. Sending low leveled awakened with trained native elves to certain places along with demons, clockwork, and all other races the area is developed and cleaned up forming a spot of green and leaving behind elementals who will keep spread it. Still Lyra had a frown because although the land was cleared out drastically weakening the monsters there was one problem and that was that the elementals couldn¡¯t continuously pump nature based mana into the ground and revitalize the land. There was simply too much space and to few people even with all the awakened. They lacked experience. The queen sighed as she lifted the paper, ¡°This is rather depressing, we have so many workers but all of them are subpar in experience.¡± She complained. Rustle! She looked up as she felt a small vibration from under her. The entire tree had shaken but it was very subtle that only someone very keen would notice since it would feel like a strong wind had blown and nothing more. Rustle! Whoo! This time the tree shook again a bit stronger and she suddenly looked down through the roots beside her throne. Under her she noticed a faint green pulse. ¡°What?¡± She said confused. WHOOSH! Suddenly from below a massive gust of wind suddenly blew and with it a very intense green light rose from below covering the entire tree. After that countless pulsing lights came from below and suddenly the entire tree began to shake. BANG! From outside the sound of breaking and rumbling was heard and Lyra turned quite stressed as she suddenly leapt up to the window and looked out. What she saw made her pale a bit. Outside an intense green pulse was spread and the tree she was inside was slowly growing. Not only that but all the trees were growing more and more. Small ones withered but larger ones grow while intense pulses of nature mana spread through the immense forest. ¡°What is going on!¡± She shouted when suddenly the brightest shine came and spread the furthest before everything calmed down. Crack! Crack! The sound of trees breaking and bending was heard and she turned around before her pale face turned white as a ghost. Her eyes landed behind her throne where she saw an amazing sight. Forming the face of a woman complete with nose, mouth eyes and even a round face, it looked down at her. ¡°Finally I have finally reached it!¡± The face said. ¡°Who!¡± Lyra said while feeling scared. ¡°Oh my, did I scare you dear? Forgive me, this is one of my secondary bodies and once I connected to it I caused a bit of trouble.¡± She laughed awkwardly. ¡°Um¡­ who may you be?¡± Lyra asked. Although she has a rich history going back 2000 years, she was a child back then and didn¡¯t know of the immense figures of the world yet. ¡°How rude of me, I am Sakura, titan of nature and this place is the main body I left behind on this continent. Thank you child for caring for it so well.¡± She said. ¡°T-titan!¡± She said drawing in a cold breath. ¡°This little one is the elf queen Lyra Toross.¡± She said. ¡°Oh so you are the child that the young clockwork boy spoke of. Hmm I seem to have some recollection of you, you were princess at the time of the wars I believe.¡± She said. ¡°Y-yes I was.¡± She said stammering. ¡°Child please relax, I won¡¯t bite, still I have to say this forest is quite refreshing, the cleanness and beauty of nature so well preserved while you still let machines and clockwork building and aid the preservation. I can see Techno had no small part in this.¡± She said. ¡°So it was techno huh. That boy is at the center of so much.¡± Lyra sighed. ¡°Oh yes, the boy helped me resurrect it is quite nice to be back. With this forest I can finally start rebirthing my children in a healthy home and to regain my power while healing nature once more.¡± She said happy. ¡°Your children are the Dryad right?¡± She asked. ¡°Indeed, treants and dryad as well as taking in a few mortal children to train them as druids. That way I can always have protectors of nature who can slowly revert the mutations of the contaminated beasts that live on the world now.¡± She said solemnly. Lyra¡¯s heart was pounding greatly, the return of druids was a dream for her because any race could be a druid and they were separate from any nation and loyal only to Sakura and the gods of nature who are her own disciples. Protector of nature and the strongest nature beings. ¡°Your holiness, this is not the only forest, we have spread out in countless places over the continent that and the revived forests in many places.¡± Lyra said. ¡°You can just call me Sakura child, I see no need for formalities. As for the other forests, I need them to be a specific size or I would be only a waste of strength. For the present I shall only focus my energy in reviving my children and regaining my strength, I shall tell you what conditions are needed and the size of the forest that is needed for me to safely revive my roots in that area. Now I need to rest and restore my power because it took a lot to connect my roots just now.¡± She said and the face slowly retracted. Lyra watched and breathed deeply calming herself and slowly walked over picking up the papers before walking downstairs not have the courage to sit on the throne which was inside the body of a titan. ***
Mission: Nature¡¯s Mother (Complete)
The Titan of Nature, Sakura, has finally restored more than 5% of her power and connected to the forest of the elves. Thanks to the aid of those who restored her power nature spirits are naturally more friendly towards you. Previously enmity between Clockwork and Nature spirits has turned from hostile to friendly. Due to the success of this missions, the races Treant and Druid has become accessible to players. The Class Druid has been unlocked to all living creatures except inanimate races like clockwork who are unable to do magic, though synthoids can learn the secrets. This class can only be learned directly from Sakura. The Titan of Nature can be found in two locations, Magic Continent and Technology continent within the Elven forest.
At this time a world suddenly gained a message as the mission was accomplished. Unlike what others believed, a B rank mission had a huge range of effect. B rank missions are capable of causing a ripple through a continent or two while an A rank mission could cause a smaller scale world wide change. If an S rank mission appeared it could change the face of the world. As for the return of a Titan, she only regained 5% of her power but even so it is enough to be a world changing event. For the changes Sakura brought, when she was merging her roots with her second body which was the elven palace, the intense waves of nature mana spread countless miles even outside of the forest area. As for the scene seen in the Magic continent, at this moment intense magical pulse were going on from Sakura. Countless trees began to grow and from then beautiful and huge flowers of different colors, shapes and sizes were appearing. The charred ground had vanished as grass and flowers started to spread, the polluted ground still close enough to the area complete converted to fertile ground. Trees that were broken and burned or contaminated rotted away and in their place slowly tree sprouts, bushes and flowers began to grow. Once the trees reached a size of 3 meters they stopped growing but they already had fully grown branches filled with leaves. The flowers were large buds and these were all Dryad buds. Each flower radiated a very intense and powerful aura. Not only that but there were several trees that had one large flower similar. Some Dryad were from large trees and normally never left the surroundings while others were born from flowers and could move around freely. Other trees had lots of flowers which would bear fruits and on the trunk was a small face showing the treants. Slowly the trees began to shake and bend, two branches bend down and shift its place forming arms for each of the trees and the leaves fall off leaving the bare branches which shift into the shape of hands. The low hanging face moves upwards until the arm and face were in place corresponding to a similar position to how human arms and face were placed. Like this, the spirits of nature have once more returned to life with even more vigor than before. Volume 4 Chapter 11 Military Recruits Appearing in space facing Ariel, Techno didn¡¯t immediately log in like always. ¡°How do I set up a password for my city?¡± He asked. ¡°Simple.¡± She said and a system window appeared for Techno.
Intent to Open private city and make it public noticed. Would you like to make Skywhale City open to players?
¡°No, keep it private but add a password to allow specific players.¡± Techno said.
Insert password
_____
Thinking of something, he ended up using, SkyGear, as the password. ¡°Send the password to the Major so that he can decide who comes.¡± Techno said. Ariel nodded and waved as Techno and Nova shot down to the planet into their bodies core motherboards once more and spreading out their conscious, taking control of their robot''s. Techno called up a meeting with the main crew to gather at his workshop and after a while they all appeared. ¡°Hey Techno, did you see the mission to revive Sakura was complete?!¡± Bulk said as he came in. ¡°Yeah, the effect was expected.¡± Techno replied. ¡°I got something to say.¡± He said. ¡°We are all ears.¡± Victor said. As the last few enter, them being the two Will-o-Wisps, Techno finally started to explain everything that had happened between him, the military and L.I.F.E. Finally he told them about the contract with the military which shocked the others. ¡°Wow, I never expected you of all people would opening do something like this.¡± Bulk said. The face on both of Techno¡¯s robot''s frowned, ¡°What is that supposed to mean?¡± He asked. ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious. First off, it¡¯s already shocking that you would openly speak from the get go with the Major and the military when it took us from your own crew several months before you spoke openly. Second is you actually accepting the terms that they came up with like those. If it was me I would have charged more.¡± Bulk said. ¡°He is more sensible than you because of that.¡± Victor said. ¡°Huh?! How is it sensible! He is only getting a military specialist''s salary. He could definitely get more!¡± Bulk shouted at Victor. ¡°No he couldn¡¯t.¡± Surge said. ¡°From what I understood about your awakened military, Specialist is only one rank above the Private unit in your world. Also specialist aren¡¯t all soldiers and can be researchers and mechanics and such as well as special forces of the military. It depends on the function. To us clockwork, the mechanic is a valuable job but if you were to imagine in the past how important it was it would normally be high ranking but instead, because of the number of mechanics the actual overall price was low. Of course in today''s time, the mechanic is a very high ranking class, almost to the point of being considered a noble among clockworks, as time passes, the job will spread. If this military from your world of awakened wanted our technology but could not obtain it from the us then they simply need to wait until another appears who can do the same as us.¡± Surge said. Bulk sat down understanding what was said. He, in particular, knew the route that was taken to reach this point, it wasn¡¯t a completely impossible road, all the feats the crew did, anyone with some mechanical ingenuity and creativity could also do just like them. Even more so now a days that the world of Etheria was healing and resources were plentiful now. To mimic their feats is easy but to gain fame from it at the same level of tech as them wouldn¡¯t be hard up to the point before the cores were developed. As for after that, if someone somehow create the cores, it would mean anyone could get it but the problem was to find crystallized mana and think of using elemental cores and crystallized mana together to develop something. It isn¡¯t something a common person would even think of. ¡°Alright, with that out of the way, I opened the city to the military, soon medical and mechanic specialists will probably appear to begin learning.¡± Techno said. ¡°Medical?¡± Everyone exclaimed. Techno nodded, ¡°I personally need to learn about the human autonomy and need extensive knowledge towards the human nerves and how it is laid out in the human body and they need to learn how to make clockworks. Victor, I will leave the mechanics to you while I start to learn about the medical knowledge. Oh¡­¡± Techno exclaimed and went silent for a moment, ¡°... one of you, go above and take some builders and start to build some corrals and sheds for all the clockwork and robotic animals born from the cores. When I have enough knowledge, I want to install it into them and see the result of adding better knowledge that improves their efficiency.¡± Techno said With a nod the report ended but then began a new one. ¡°Techno, there are several dozen awakened and native constructs who wish to join the city. Should we allow them to join?¡± Annabeth asked with a somewhat reluctant expression. Techno thought a while, ¡°Sure, the construct are a race I have yet to figure out so having more around will allow me to develop them better.¡± He said but looked at the expression. ¡°What is it?¡± Annabeth had a cramped expression and Greer, who was on the other side of Techno with Nova¡¯s little rabbit robot sitting on her lap, leaned over. ¡°Jeopardy is among the people wanting to follow.¡± She whispered. ¡°What!¡± Techno said and frowned. ¡°What for?¡± He asked. Annabeth scratched her head, ¡°She said she wants to learn more from Marina, she said that the dances of the Undine really helped her and she wants to learn more. Her crew also wants to come along because they care about her.¡± Annabeth whispered. Techno snorted, ¡°Let them come, I already said that I won¡¯t fucking care about her even if she kneels I wouldn¡¯t even turn. Since she wants to do something what the I fucking care!¡± He shouted and got up and stomped away. The steam was churring from his pipes clearly showing he was highly affected by the girl wanting to enter his city after all that happened. Seeing Techno suddenly shout and stomp away fuming, the others looked at bit startled and looked at each other but Annabeth and Greer just said to not worry about it and said that anything else said wouldn¡¯t enter his mind at the moment so they should wait to give the other reports in an hour or so after Techno works off the steam. They all return to their duties to allow Techno some time. ¡°Greer! Where you goin!?¡± Nova asked when she saw the tiger woman walking out. ¡°I was going to scout the nearly developed forest. Sakura caused a very large forest and hundreds upon hundreds of previously extinct flowers and plants to sprout. She has even told us to take some Dryad trees and plant them up here so that we can have them as helpers in raising plants here. The flowers all seem to have very unique effects but are stingy which is why we need the Dryads.¡± Greer said.Stolen novel; please report. ¡°Boo! Boring! Can we play a bit!?¡± Nova said. The Tigress smiled wryly and patted the little robot girls head, ¡°I¡¯ll play in a little while, I need to scout and gather a few herbs or else your brother will be all huffy and puffy like now because I didn¡¯t do my job.¡± She said. Nova pouted but understood. She was already 12 years old so she obviously understood much more. She watched the woman go and pouted before jumping on Strato and flying out of Brock heading any random direction. *** ¡°Hey boss, we checked out the site. The crew and everything is more then we can take.¡± An advanced level Construct said. Unlike the common doll like construct, this one had an advanced face that could show every movement and expression of a human. On his chest was a strange ¡®bright¡¯ glowing black gemstone that pulsed like a heart. Inside his chest was four elemental core holders. Two held black cores and the others held light ones. These were elementals of light and dark elements which Techno had never discovered. Unlike what Techno did, reviving the races of elementals, this group had enslaved making them unusable unless someone does the proper method of introducing them. ¡°What are the chances?¡± a large construct asked. He had a strong body unlike the common construct. Within his chest were only three core holders, there was one brown and two white elemental cores but the energy seemed to flow slowly and inefficiently on the two white cores for a very specific reason, each holder was brown in color. In other words, the wrong core was placed there. ¡°Not high if we attack the main base boss. The knights are all high level, their weaponry was hidden but it goes without saying that the place is high level. Their boss is said to be almost level 200.¡± the scout said. ¡°The main base? So there is a chance otherwise?¡± The boss asked. ¡°Of course, the small ships that fit inside that big ass whale are good targets and each holds enough tech from those rust buckets that we can upgrade before taking them.¡± The scout said. The boss nodded and took out a very detailed map of the scrapyard. Similar to the clockwork scrapyard, there are four gates and the one that Techno was near was the south gate. Each gate had also formed a city but unlike the clockwork nation, the constructs had four private crew bases. The east gate, which is this place, was the home to a construct crew that had advanced greatly and developed the lost tech of the constructs as they scavenged. In the construct nation, when the players appeared, some people who were very similar to Techno and took the initiative to discover and research. Over time bottlenecks towards some research and soon all of them and it is then that several small crews gathered and joined their research connecting the dots and developing past the blockade. Now the constructs in the three gates controlled by players were highly developed and only the final south gate was left abandoned as the ¡®beginner¡¯ town. Also another reason the south gate never developed was for one reason. ¡°Send a raid crew to the south gate and raid whatever ¡®Clockwork¡¯ gave them. Especially if it is elemental cores. If you can get info on how to get more then do so.¡± The boss said. As seen, the south gate is a ¡®training ground¡¯ for raids. Any new tech found there or development is stolen by the other three cities causing their development to stagnate and the future construct players to suffer and give up the race because the other three gates aren¡¯t spawn zones due to the leaders prohibiting it. ¡°What about the clockwork. The whale is faster than you would expect boss.¡± The scout said. ¡°If the whale comes then get out of there. If a ship comes, heh¡­¡± He grinned. The men around them chuckled and the scout grinned, ¡°Alright boss.¡± The scout said. The gemstone in his chest began to glow. Black light came from his hands before the body vanished. *** While the crew in Etheria were busy getting ready to receive the militares, Ariel appeared before the Major who was busy working. ¡°Greetings Major.¡± she said with a smile. ¡°Ariel.¡± he said surprised before frowning. ¡°Can¡¯t you at least knock instead of phase into my office?¡± he said. ¡°That would just make things take long and I''m a very busy woman you know.¡± she said. The Major rolled his eyes, ¡°We all know you use less than 0.01% of your capacity to for this avatar to speak with us, even running Etheria doesn''t use more than half your capacity.¡± the major said. ¡°My, how knowledgeable, next you''re going to speak out my three sizes and tell me what my fetishes are?¡± she giggled. ¡°Alright alright, enough of that, what brings you here?¡± he asked. ¡°Nathaniel has returned to the game and opened his town to those with a password so they can spawn with his city as a starting point. Please make sure to tell your men that there are penalties that will be incurred should the password leak. I, for one, take this specific subject quite seriously.¡± she said shifting to a more serious tone. ¡°Of course, just need to finish this and look for the people who I will give this task to.¡± he said. ¡°The password is very simple, it''s SkyGear, I¡¯ll say it again, if any none military personnel appear with this password there will be trouble.¡± she said forming a small sheet of paper with the password and a small pack with a light intro to the city and its details. ¡°Don''t have to tell me twice.¡± he replied as he took the paper but by the time he caught it, she was already gone causing him to shake his head and get back to work. After his work was complete, he called in a few officers and began to assemble the people needed to learn the technology and to teach Techno as well as preparing the information into books that would be delivered into Techno¡¯s Virtual space so that he could access it. *** Two game days later, 9 hours and 30 minutes, at the center of the first floor, inside Brock. Dozens of glowing lights began to gather in the center of the plaza drawing the attention of the residents. They had seen this phenomenon several times before moving to this city. When they saw it they were shocked to see that new awakened were appearing but this time it was very limited. Only fifteen pockets of light formed before a blast of light came through brock and entered each ball. After a moment they dimmed revealing 10 humans and 5 dwarfs, who quickly looked around before falling over as they started to move due to the huge size difference. ¡°Hey, you guys alright?¡± one of the humans asked. ¡°Damn this body is smaller than I expected.¡± one of the dwarfs said. At this time, as they began to explore, Techno¡¯s four armed robot walked out and towards them. ¡°Welcome, is it just you all?¡± Techno asked. ¡°At the present moment yes, these five sprawling on the ground are in charge of learning the clockwork technology while we are in charge of your medical education. We are all trained soldiers as well so when one isn¡¯t teaching, we will be either researching or training.¡± the oldest human said. He was very old and had the air of a hardened doctor. ¡°We have transferred into your virtual space, a data pack with around a semesters of a medical universities medical course which we will be training you with. More will be added after they are properly made but on short notice like this we had only so much time.¡± He said. ¡°It¡¯s a start.¡± Techno said, ¡°Which is the first teacher?¡± He asked. ¡°I will take first shift.¡± The old doctor said. Nodding, a small light in Techno¡¯s eyes shined before he turned. ¡°In about a minute a dwarf and a clockwork knight will arrive. The dwarf is called Victor and is my chief engineer while the clockwork is called Surge, he is my commanding officer who commands the military. If you wish to go with either to train in firearms or smithing you can do so. If not, there should be plenty of odd jobs and things to do that you can do. Also do not go to that large structure near the massive crystal in the back, it''s a power plant that runs all the energy of the city.¡± Techno warned them. ¡°This is quite impressive.¡± The old man said. ¡°Shall we.¡± He said and started walking with the old doctor beside Techno going all the way to the town hall where he lived. Victor and Surged arrived soon after taking with them the other military personnel. Sitting with several computer screens in front of him, Techno connected to them all as he accessed the app that connected to his bookshelves. Pointing to a few beginner level books, they began their lesson. *** While all of these events were going on, far off in the distance, without anyone having taken much notice, Nova, in both her bodies, sat upon her Strato. Being stuffed up inside brock, at her age where she is starting to become a young woman, she had finally shown the desire for freedom and without telling Techno, she flew off to explore. She still had a limited range but that range is still quite far thanks to the transmitters and receivers being amplified by some very rustic antenna. As of now, she was around 30 kilometers away and was just flying further and further towards a far off mountain range she had spotted and thought was interesting. As she headed that way, she suddenly saw a small text box appear. ¡°Sasha, where are you?¡± Greer messaged. ¡°Out playing!¡± She replied. Greer sent an angry face emoticon, ¡°Your brother will get angry if he finds out you are in danger.¡± Greer said. Sending a smiling emoticon that she had learn how to do from her brother she laughed, ¡°Hehehehe, if bro doesn¡¯t find out, where is the problem?¡± she replied as she spurred on Strato entering the mountain range as she cuts the connection for the message and giggles at the feeling of adventure. Volume 4 Chapter 12 Twin Goddesses Rubbing my temple, I process the information that I had somewhat learned. The entire first few months, as said by the old doctor, would be focused on the human anatomy. Skeletal structure, nerve layout, study of the brain, or at least what is known about it, circulatory system, etc. For now, only the skeleton was being studied because that was the support of the body. Without proper skeleton the body would be deformed and broken. The skeleton of the clockwork was many times simpler than the true human skeleton but it was enough to allow free movement because of the circular joints that rotated for the movements. If the human sized joints were put to be the movement parts, they would be incredibly tiny so it did not come out good for common clockworks. That said, for automata, it was perfect. Automata have a perfect human structure held together by some kind of fibrous muscle attached to a human shaped skeleton all made of unknown material. In my view of my massive coding that is the blueprints to my automata form and it¡¯s main coding, I could see that the largest bones were forming in the body containing all the interior machinery but there was a vacuum between the ¡®skin¡¯ and the bones where the muscles go. What I truly lacked was the small bones and his spine. Also only the basic form appeared because he has never seen the shape of bones of a human. ¡°I need to find human remains or maybe undead that I can scan or maybe an x-ray.¡± I thought. After sorting through the day¡¯s class I left the now empty room that the old doctor had left long before to explore the city before deciding his own job in this kind of scenario. Brock informed me, as I left, that a home was made for the 15 military and it was in a clear area should the number increase or they need other buildings. The dwarfs were already training their skills within tinkering and Clockwork construction to figure out the technology. There was only one that remained with Victor who was doing maintenance while showing off his prized robot suit digger. To the mechanic, he saw so much potential in this and it was clear that he wanted to test this kind of thing in real life if he had the chance. Of course, Victor just showed off and didn¡¯t simply hand over the blueprints since it was an important powerhouse of the city and my group. After looking around, I finally go on top of Brock were I find several plants and trees that have the buds of the dryad while there are some trees with a face shaking here and there. The back had turned into a forest and it was somewhat flat and Brock had formed mountains in the time he grew during the 7 months of travel. Being 300 meters long and 200 wide, the back was like a large park with hills that formed cliffs holding a pond at the top that formed a small waterfall pooling into a larger pond further down and one more before forming a river moving about the place. The elementals were all over the place as they enjoyed a peaceful coexistence. Besides that, there were many berry and fruit trees as well as root crop plants that have been preserved by the elves and were planted all over the place. The final thing that existed here were the clockwork animals. Each and every one was either animal or robot like in different proportions. The seven months that we were traveling, I had focused on developing the city and one of the biggest developments was these animals. They are easy to mold because if you introduce different kind of parts, they can develop them and install them into the programming of the still to be created animals. One of the things I have tried to develop through them are more efficient electric engines or better steam engines to model off into the clockwork and reduce fuel expense. The only reason we have so much fuel is because we extract from the polluted surroundings and during the travel, we did so by scooping water into Brock like those water transport airplanes do when putting out forest fires and from inside the undine would extract the material from the water that is then deposited into tankers that hold all the cities fuel supply. Before, there was an enormous fuel consumption rate because of the problem of lightning the city and it even caused sickness because of the gases released but this was later resolved when I developed, with the dwarfs, a system that uses the Lightning Core crystals made by refining Fire elemental cores with crystalized mana several times. When attached with wires to an exposed pillar of crystallized mana, they will absorb the mana and release electricity, we then just need to extract that electricity and distribute it. The only cost is that the whale loses 0.2 mana regeneration for ever Crystal core that is attached so, in this case, it is a 1.2 point of mana regen lost but his body has 50 reg/s. At the time we heard of this we thought he was bullshitting with us but after explaining that there is a huge need of mana for levitation and controlling the earth on the body it made more sense since the body had grown a lot since it was first formed. A small bit taken for electricity wasn¡¯t much. Now the besides the electricity taking care of the much needed problem the sylph also took care of the air inside the city keeping it pretty pure as they absorbed and compressed smoke that was left from smithing and cooking and cleared it out. Back on the animals, the second thing I tried to research through them was weaponizing them. Of course, these weaponized ones were isolated due to the danger. When weaponizing the codes of an animal, we take them to an enclosed area at the bottom of the whale, below even the city, and this area we installed a jammer specific to the unique communicators of the clockwork animals. This way when they are weaponized, they will not transmit the codes. Of course, they are very good at adapting and if one branch of animals is jammed enough, they will ¡®adapt¡¯ and will develop anti jamming but the adaptations are too large to focus on other things. Be it a new sound capturing system for the ears, better eyes, smell sensory system we improved, these all are tested but this isn¡¯t weaponizing but what we did when we modified the codes to have a gun turret on the back of a bull robot, that was indeed weaponizing and it worked. Upon installing the weapon, the robot took it in but could not adopt a proper storing mechanism which caused the next generation to be born with the weapon already in the codes and it was properly sized and the body shape even changed slightly to fit the weapon and way to fire. The robot type animals are just as interesting as the actual animals. They adapt easier to different robotic attachment like arms and pistons. They were the first to develop a rustic type and after a long time they have already developed a much smoother type which is farmed and harvested along with the parts from the body but the piston has become the best piece. Looking around I find a small rabbit robot and sending a communication signal to it the robot looks at me and walks over. The robot''s are very unique, they developed very strangely, at least the ones I kept, and people with cores can send a signal to them and the robot''s will think of you as friendly. It''s a rather useful thing and they can send some sort of code that shows what they are ¡®saying¡¯ but it is very hard to understand. Doing a scan of the rabbit shaped robot I nod. ¡°The power jump system in the rabbit is developing well. These will be good pistons to replace the pressure punch in the clockwork. It will decrease the consumption of steam by a lot but there seems to be a small bit of leak.¡± I thought as I examined the parts. Taking a copy of the system coding I let the rabbit go and it scurried off and I archived the file while going around. When I saw one of the very few robots that were developing I found myself with a thought and connected to one and having it come over. The structure of this was like those robot''s with stiff arms that road around with tank treks. These were one of the most advanced core robot''s. There was a very small head used to hold the visual unit, the chest was about as bulky as a teens and was where the core was, there were two squarish stiff arms that were cleverly built so that pistons were used as the muscles to pull back and forth. It was different from the gear using clockwork which were even more advanced than these but these robot''s natural weapons that others didn¡¯t. Within their stiff arm is a type of needle launcher, their hand that is formed from three stiff claw appendages, one as a thumb and two as fingers, could only grab and had no free movement, would open up and the flat square surface with open two small panels where there were 30 needle openings and it will fire these weaponized needles. Making it worse, these had strong penetration ability and were coated in poison allowing them to hunt small birds. They had a very good targeting system that aimed at the two possible positions that the bird shaped robot''s would be.Stolen novel; please report. Taking ahold of the robot''s main code, I formed a copy of the human skeleton information that I had just obtained earlier but hadn¡¯t fully learned. The models lacked hands and feet and any human shaped bones and were all ¡®robotic¡¯ shaped. This was where the idea came from. I brought the robot down to the isolation area and inserted the codes. Watching the robot, it scanned and rescanned the codes. It was obvious that it would take a long time for it to assimilate the codes. It was all hundreds of times more complex than its own body structure and even the core systems would not be compatible. Besides leaving some clockwork to take care of the robot, like feeding it, I left since it would do nothing to keep watching as it simply scanned over and over the codes. I returned to the top to continue to see what was gained and lost while spreading something more to see the result. *** With the buzz of the propellers from Strato, Nova just kept flying further while releasing a relay drone that had been made for when travelling long distances. With this, the signals coming from the ship would extend several kilometer. All scouts and most of the main crew had dozens of these in case they need to travel long distances. These drones were flying drones that had a helicopter like propeller. They were as big as a soccer ball but the propeller was very quiet. It could stay several hundred meters in the air safe from land predators while airborne creatures were far too few in number to matter. Most avian creatures had long since died and most that survived were the most powerful lizards or still surviving sky based races like the ones that Gaia once hunted alongside Nova. As the little girl kept flying she looked to both sides wanting to find something worth looking at. All the while, when she found a scene that was pretty or interesting, she would take a picture with her robot''s and would later store them in her core. After a few hours of flying into the mountain range she suddenly saw a long mountain with an opening and was somewhat interested so she flew over. The mountain, although low, was extremely wide and had strange rock formations on its surface. What surprised the little girl was the village that could be found in front of a massive stone structure that looked like a huge door. From far, she activated her sniper cannon and targeting system using it to zoom in on the people while maintaining a long range. What she saw she didn¡¯t understand but she could tell it was some kind of religion because there were lots of people in dull grey robes while some had white bone armor and spears or swords. Suddenly from below a howl came and a hoard of mutant monsters came out. Those in robes took to the air through magic while those on the ground began to fight and slaughter the raging monsters. ¡°What is this?¡± Nova said blinking while taking screenshots. Obviously blood didn¡¯t appear in her view and what she saw were even flashier moves then they really were. She filmed most of it while taking pictures of some interesting stuff. Then she got curious about what was inside so she flew high up towards the opening and with herself buckled in properly while the little rabbit robot hugged her sniper''s waist, she tilted Strato to look down into the hole with her sniper''s scope. Just as she was about to though, a strange energy caught her and Strato¡¯s power turned off began to fall. She was startled and activated Strato as they began to spin. She began to scream as the robot turned on once more and fixed themselves but it could not rise and instead it turned towards the hole, falling into it before turning off once more and causing the young girl to crash onto the ground that formed a massive cavern. Her systems were shocked for a short while as the robot''s were in a stunned state but after a while they began to light up and get up. ¡°Clockwork fiend, what brings you here.¡± A loud majestic but somewhat frantic voice said. As Nova¡¯s systems finally booted up completely she could finally look around. What she found was a woman, no two women, who were perfectly identical and had many strange tattoo over their body from head to toe. That said the first thing she did was look around and see strato, ¡°Nooo~! Strato!¡± She shouted as her two robot''s ran over and she pushed it up right and began to connect to the robot to try and start him up while checking him over. The stunned woman just looked at her confused by the childish voice that had come out. ¡°You girl!¡± one of the women shouted. ¡°What brings you here! Speak or I shall give you death!¡± Finally remembering the women Nova turned her rabbit robot body towards the women. ¡°Ah did you do this to strato!¡± Nova frowned. ¡°Huh?¡± The woman said. ¡°What of the robot? It is but a machine as are you. Answer what I asked clockwork. What brings you here?!¡± ¡°Hmph, meanie! You hurt my Strato! And I wasn¡¯t even doing nothing, I was just playing around!¡± Nova said. ¡°And you call pointing a cannon at us, playing?¡± The woman said. ¡°I was using the scope to see closer.¡± She replied and humphed. The women were shocked but somewhat realized their wrong in pulling her inside. Suddenly Nova shouted, ¡°Ah! Why is that pretty lady hurt!¡± Nova said as she noticed the second woman was laid out on the ground still looking her way but clearly her right arm was devastated and burnt while her right half of her back, most of the lower back and her legs were burnt and even the right leg from the knee down was gone. Her twin made a scowl when this was mentioned. ¡°What happened to her?!¡± Nova asked. ¡°It is because of our own people and you clockwork existing that this happened.¡± the other sighed. Nova looked confused. ¡°Why, did one of the robot''s do something to you?¡± Nova asked. ¡°Do you not have memories of the wars?! 2000 years ago my sister tried to reason with the humans that were a warmongering race at that time but received an attack on the level of a one hundred dragons firing their dragon breath together.¡± The healthy woman said. ¡°Eh¡­ Why does this sound familiar¡­¡± Nova muttered. ¡°It should, my sister and I are Twin sisters that are both Goddesses of the Human race.¡± The woman said. Nova showed a shocked expression, ¡°Ah! I heard of it from bro! You were hit and became really angry and attacked anyone!¡± Nova said. The woman sighed, ¡°Well it was my sister, how could I not have gotten angry when she was hurt.¡± the woman sighed, ¡°You are a strange clockwork, you said you had a brother? How do you have one as a machine?¡± She asked. ¡°Um¡­ bro said that we are called awakened in this world.¡± Nova replied. ¡°Ah! Yes. the accursed awakened. I should have known.¡± She shook her head. ¡°Is there a problem?¡± Nova asked. ¡°This world was once had a wave of humans some 4000 years, the world was named something else but I don¡¯t remember, after they left we had a long period of peace before the war. During the time of the awakened it was chaos. How is the world now?¡± She asked. Nova shrugged, ¡°I don¡¯t know, smelly I think, I can¡¯t smell. It looks ugly but recently we helped a granny tree called Sakura who is really nice and her pink flowers are so pretty. She suddenly grew really big and lots of other talking trees started to grow suddenly recently.¡± Nova said. ¡°Sakura! The Nature Titan is awaken once more! This is great news for the world for sure.¡± The woman said and looked up at the dark sky and sighed. ¡°How I missed the feeling of the wind in my hair, playing, fighting alongside and living with my sister.¡± She said and held onto the burnt hand of her sister behind her. ¡°Don¡¯t worry¡­ we will eventually¡­ get out.¡± The hoarse voice of the woman said. ¡°How come she didn¡¯t heal? I though over time you get better?¡± Nova asked. The healthy goddess laughed a self mocking laugh, ¡°Its because of me of course.¡± She shook her head, ¡°Because I went into a fit of rage, all the gods were sealed.¡± She waved her hand over her body and then waved it around. The wave caused the ground to completely light up with different imagines. It was only when the glow appeared that Nova noticed the six different colored pillars that released a chain shaped light holding onto the women. ¡°We have a seal to seal our power and another to keep us in place. In truth, the one restraining us is easy to break, simply smash these pillars but the seal on our powers is too powerful. Only Ariel can remove it probably. Because we don¡¯t have our powers, our regeneration ability is also heavily affected and because this land is far from being magically rich, unlike 2000 years ago when the whole world was magical, it is impossible for us to heal ourselves.¡± She said. ¡°Um¡­ I can¡¯t break it since i¡¯m not that strong but I bet my bro can. I can bring him here.¡± Nova said. ¡°Do as you wish, but be wary of the people outside. They are an ancient church that worshipped us, they consider this a sacred ground and keep monsters from coming near here. Their numbers are few but their power is very high. They have lived 2000 years here keeping me ¡®safe¡¯ from the monsters but that is just a pretext to be near a god. Not like it helps with anything since my divinity and divine aura is sealed as well. Even if we leave, they won¡¯t notice a thing.¡± She said. Kacha! Kacha! Rrrumm! Just as she finished speaking Strato suddenly began to work once more after some small repairs. ¡°Great! Pretty lady! Hold on, I will get bro to let you out so that you can get help.¡± Nova said and took to the air but before she did she took an airborne view of the seal to show Techno. Like that, Strato shot out and using the signal from the Relay drones, she made her way home humming. Book 2 Published Hey guys, sorry this is not a new chapter. First offm please do not ask for more chapters because i don''t have much for the currently posted books. Most of them i am working on for publishing and the progress is very slow. Please spar me from the wave of ''did i drop'' comments because i have not. It is just that writing is a slow business that is hard to force, as most writers should be aware of. Anyways, enough of that. First off most of you might have forgotten but I have already published book 1 (volume 1) of clockwork. it is named Clockwork: The Beta Phase. Because the fire was old, i went back and did a personal edit so please go easy on be for the exiting errors. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B015M6CHH0 now the main thing, i have published book 2 named Clockwork: The Return which is Volume 2. https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B07WSQXLR1