I thought it was kind of strange that the Guild would let a newbie rank E take on a rank C quest right out of the gate, but I guess with the deposit it became a quick and easy money maker for them and weeded out the weaker Adventurers. I was running at, what felt to me, the speed of a galloping horse. By the time that most predators or beasts were aware of my presence, I was already past them, so the trip was rather uneventful. The Adventurer tag included some extra functions in addition to tracking stats and identification. It seemed to have a calculator and exchange rate function to help with finances and trading money across borders, a member’s guide to various taverns and inns across the country where you could get Guild member discounts, a simple compass, and even a basic distance tracker to your target quest start point. I really needed to figure out some sort of mapping software. If I could combine the two functions via some sort of API—or Application Program Interface—call

“Good Morning Miss Shea!” Shiro called out to Shea as she came down stairs to the shop with her coffee in hand. “Were the eggs to your liking?” “They were absolutely delicious! I can’t believe you were able to make such tasty food from what I had in my kitchen.” “All the ingredients were there, just waiting to be put together”, Shiro said with a smile in his voice. “So, what are you guys working on today?” Shea asked Ram and Rom. Ram and Rom looked up from their work at her and shrugged slightly before going back to work. Via Alfred, I answered for them, “Much of the same, I’m afraid Miss Shea. We are crafting the weapons and daily tools that Miss Jada suggested and showed us but sales have not been great.” “Yeah, the location isn’t the best for a store. We’re a couple blocks away from the market district so we don’t get too many people coming this way.” Elita, who had been sitting in the corner honing her blade, stood up. “Shea, we need to get going to the Guild if we’re go

“Ridiculous!” Jada shouted. “Both those Automata girls are gone? Who’s going to do the forgin’ for today’s products?” Shiro looked around at the fully stocked store, loaded with unsold goods, but said nothing. Alfred raised his hands, defensively. “We will be fine for today, Miss Jada. We have plenty of stock, and few customers,” he said. “Well that’s true enough. Just my regulars from before I was run out of the Artificer’s Guild... We need some fresh customers. How’s that Automata, Prime, going to make that happen?” “We need some unique products that people want but can’t find at other shops”, Shiro offered. “Everybody wants that!” Jada snapped. “It’s the comin’ up with what that thing IS that’s the hard part. It’d be pretty easy to come up with something unique that no one wants to buy.” “Miss Jada, are there any local toy shops?” Alfred asked, tapping his moustache. “Toys? Hmm, not really. There’s a shop on the south side of the market district, close to the Upper R

Finally! I was back at the shop. It felt like it had been ages since I was here. Now that I was back, I brought Rom, Ram, and Shrapnel back out so they could resume their shop posts, and greated Shiro and Elita. I had been keeping them updated via Alfred so they already knew what had happened but it was good to see them in person. I got scolded by Elita for a while when she saw the state of Carnivac’s leg and my arm. For the rest of the night I chatted away with Shiro and Elita about what they’d like in the future while I made the repairs. Since my arm would need to be rebuilt from scratch, I took the opportunity to install another weapon into it. I had the arm cannon on the left but didn’t have anything for melee range so I added a blade transformation. The blade was a simple double-edged type that extended out of the forearm after the hand folded away. This way, I’d be able to punch out the blade if needed. I was also able to include an internal mana crystal port, just one

We loaded up all of the supplies we thought we’d need, to include plenty of hot food for Shea, into my [Inventory] and set out from the city gate. Anything else that we might need, Shiro or Alfred could send us by way of an [Inventory] plate that I had made for the shop. It functioned the same as the bag, but required a small command to be sent via mana to activate so that things couldn’t accidently get stored. Once we were out of sight of the town, Shea stopped and asked “So what’s the thing that you spent all day and all night working on? This is going to really stink if I have to walk the whole way.” I climbed out of Carnivac and put him into storage along with the girls’ packs and weapons, and retrieved Cyclone. Cyclone was covered in heavier armor than even Elita had been when we met and was over eight feet tall. His foot falls had a satisfying “thump” to them, this was a proper robot for me. I couldn’t help but laugh like a little kid to see him powered up and ready. “It