2022-07-25 22:00:05I climbed back inside of Carnivac for the remainder of the trip back, this close to the town, I didn’t want to get spotted in my true form. I was quite a ways up ahead so I don’t think that the others saw, it’d be better that way, and I could operate Carnivac better if I was inside. I’d have liked to finish repairing his leg before reporting at the Guildhall but I had to settle up this escort quest with George.
As we walked, we didn’t run into any more problems, which was welcome, so I used the opportunity to practice with my Shadow magic. Eventually, I was able to craft a shadow around my exposed leg to hide the Automata parts. It didn’t look perfect, but as long as no one stopped to inspect my leg, it should be passable. I saw the gate ahead and stopped to let the carriage catch up, then continued walking alongside George.
“Where’s your real self, Automata?” Lily asked, her voice dripping with vitriol.
“Already in the city and headed to the workshop”, I lied, “I don’t think I need to tell you the seriousness of my secret, right?.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Not at all, but you’ve decided that I’m an enemy for some reason, though I would prefer not to see you as one. I’m hopeful it can stay that way.”
“I don’t owe you anything!”, she snapped.
“That’s enough!”, barked George. Lily shrank back like a scolded child. “Regardless of his race or circumstances, this man protected us from several monsters that would have certainly ripped us to shreds and eaten us.”
“Mom...”, both Jacob and Joshua were looking at their mother with pleading eyes.
“Fine...”, she said, defeated, “We’ll keep your secret.”
“I appreciate that. As promised, I’ll be happy to introduce you to my acquaintance at the Guild. I’ll need to settle things with these quests first but if you want to stop by Jada’s Junk Shop on the east side of the market district tomorrow, I’d be happy to take you over there.”
“Hmmph,” she snorted, “If I have time. We’ll be pretty busy not moving to Torne after all.”
“Yeah, well... you guys will be better off here, I’m sure.”
“Yeah, this place is great. That’s why we were moving away.”
“Oooookay... and on that note, lets get through this gate, right?” George offered.
“Mister... Prime?, are you still going to make us those action figures?” Jacob asked.
“You got it Jake, I’m not sure when I’ll be able to work on them but I’ll let you know when they’re ready. Don’t worry about calling me Prime, unless you’re talking to my little robot body, when talking to this handsome wolf, stick with Carnivac”, I said and gave Lily a wink; she frowned and looked away.
“Ma, why’s your face all red?” Joshua asked.
“Oh shush”, she scolded.
I showed my Adventurer tag to the gate guard, who confirmed my ID and waved me through. George had his own ID and explained that he was providing transportation for Lily and the boys while I was providing security. Once everything cleared through the gate we headed to the Guildhall to sort the escort quest. Lily and her children didn’t need to be a part of that, so they bid their farewells and headed off into the town. Since they had been planning on moving to Trone, I was curious if they were going to try to get their previous lodgings back or find a new place to stay, but it wasn’t really any of my business.
George said that he needed to take what was left of the carriage back to the transportation guild and that he would meet me over at the Adventurer Guildhall when he was done. I returned Shrapnel to my [Inventory] and headed over to the Guildhall on my own, it was already getting into late afternoon so the hall had a number of Adventurers coming back from local quests and reporting in, so I had to wait in line.
Finally it got to be my turn and as luck would have it, Talios was on duty.
“Done”, I said, pulling out my Adventurer tag. “Two Flame Centipedes and a nest with several hundred eggs. I ran into a transport carriage being attacked by one and helped them get back. Also, we ran into a Wyvern. I have all the corpses.”
Talios just stared at me with wide eyes. “You mean you killed two Flame Centipedes and a Wyvern all by yourself?”
“Not all at the same time... but yes. You said you had faith in me”, I said with a sly smile.
“Did I really say that? I’ve really gotta stop playing with the new guys like that”, they said, biting the side of their lower lip. “Well, um... well done not dying!”
Talios touched my tag for a moment then went to retrieve the quest sheet and then touched the tag to the parchment. The seal over the sheet changed from In Progress to Quest Complete.
“Okay, that’s done. Here is the reward plus your deposit”, they said, handing me a stack of gold coins. “As said when you left, we’re happy to purchase the materials you gathered during your quest, just go around to the back and talk with Nagina.”
“Got it. And this security quest?”
“We’ll need the Quest sheet for that before you can collect your reward. For your sake, I hope they turn it in. Sometimes they don’t for these in-field quest requests and the Adventurer ends up getting the short end. Usually the Transportation Guild has their own security forces, you see, and will rarely contract an Adventurer to help.”
“I see, guess I’ll take a walk over there when I’m done with Nagina, if he hasn’t dropped by yet.”
“I wish you luck”, they said with a wink.
I wasn’t sure which part they were wishing me luck with but decided not to pursue it further. After a promise to return after selling my materials to Nagina, I headed out the front and walked around the building to the back. It seemed dumb that they didn’t have a public way to get from one area to the other, inside the building. On the other hand, maybe they did and Talios was having fun at my expense. When I got to the back door, I found it already open and a group of Adventurers waiting their turn to sell off the materials that they had gathered on their quests. All of them had carts loaded up with dead animals, bloody crystals, plants, and raw ores. I did spot a few Adventurers with bags slung over their shoulders, which I assumed were [Inventory] bags. I, however, clearly forgot all about the fact that I didn’t have a bag with me to pass off my [Inventory] skill as an item. By the time I realized this, my turn was next and Nagina had noticed me and was giving me odd looks.
Nagina was busy writing down lists of things given to her by the different Adventurers along with their quality and value. She looked like she had her hands full, despite having six arms. I put my hands up and gestured that I could come back later, in return I got a glare that pinned me to the wall.
“You! You wait there till I’m ready.”
“Yes’m.”
She then took the next one in line and skipped over me, which was just as well since I hadn’t thought this fully through, to my shame. Each time I made to move I got a look, or an “Oy”. Once I found a knife magically sprout near my head though she gave no indication of noticing me at all. When the last Adventurer cleared out, she had a mountain of materials to go through and it was getting dark outside.
“Always this busy?” I asked
“It comes and goes”, she said as she closed up the door, “some days it’s nary a soul, and others it’s like today. All depends on how successful you Adventurers are on your quests I suppose.” She bolted the door and turned to look at me. “So who and what are you?”
“Excuse me?”, I asked, “I’m Carnivac, a Rank E Adventurer.”
“Uh, huh. I’m sure that’s what your tag says, but that’s not what you are, is it?” accused Najii.
“What do you mean?”, I asked, backing away and idly resting my hands on the pommels of my swords.
“You came in here, with no cart, no bag, no materials of any kind; your leg wrapped up in shadows; and you’re wearing the skin of a Shadow Wolf I recently dismantled. How are you related to that Automata, Prime?”
I sighed and relaxed my hands down to my sides before squatting down to rest against the wall. “Nothing gets past you Najii. I didn’t consider you were this observant. It’s impressive. The skin? Really?” I dispelled the shadow around my leg, revealing the damaged and partially repaired Automata leg in its place.
“Wow, so you’re an Automata too?”
“Sorta. I’d like to show you something, I feel like it might be okay if you know... but please promise not to let others know about it?”
“Okay? I’ll keep it to myself.”
I nodded and leaned back against the wall before opening up the hatch. Najii gave out a cute shriek and fell over backwards. Which, now I think about it, is kind of amazing for a snake woman. I climbed out of Carnivac and closed him back up, then held out a hand to Najii.
“What, in the name of tandoori and naan is that??”
“Well, that’s Carnivac”, Carnivac gave a little wave, “He’s like a puppet shell that I can use to get by as an Adventurer, since being an Automata in public presents issues.”
“That’s why you wanted the skin as intact as possible and left moist... how are you sustaining it?”
“I have a thick layer of mana paste formed from mashed mana fiber and medium grade mana potion between the skin and the Automata plating that supplies continuous mana to the skin.”
“That won’t last forever, the skin will age a lot faster than if it were on a living creature.”
“Really? Huh. okay, good to know, thanks. So, the reason I’m here is I got back from my first quest and I’ve got some materials.” I then pulled the corpses out of my [Inventory] for her to inspect.
“I’m guessing you want to keep the mana crystals from these?”
“Please, as well as the skin from the wyvern and the armor from that hippo thing.”
“Another shell?”
“Sort of, yeah.”
“Do you need them right away?”
“If possible, but I can see you’re pretty busy”
“Yeah... things have really picked up. I could use a couple of extra hands, even if it’s just dealing with the Adventurers.”
“Oh, that’s good news actually. On my quest I helped out a woman looking for work that was surprisingly deft at butchering a boar. Would you mind if I introduced her tomorrow?”
“That’d be great, I can’t make any promises but I’ll try her out.”
“That’s all I ask. Oh, do you want the Flame Centipede eggs? I gathered about three hundred of them. I also have the remains of all the people and animals that were in the Centipede’s food store.”
“I don’t know if we would be able to identify any of the people but we might be able to put to rest some of the missing persons reports. I have a [Inventory (large)] bag that you can transfer them to. We can hand them over to the Knight Watch to sort, they deal with those sorts of things. What’s the status of the animal remains?”
“I’ve got some kind of elk, a lesser basilisk, and a big spider type thing... I think most of the kills were pretty recent as they were likely stocking up for the babies to be born. The victims were probably alive when they were dragged back to the nest in order to keep them fresh for longer.”
“Yeah, sounds about right. Okay, I’ll take the lot along with those eggs, we’ll put those in my bag too and I’ll get to them later.”
I transfered over the requested items along with the victim remains and we settled up on a price for everything. Najii would get to my request for the wyvern skin later in the week so I removed the mana crystals from it and the two Fire Centipedes on my own before heading out. I asked if there was a route back to Guild Reception inside the building and she just snorted and told me to “go back the way you came”. I climbed back into Carnivac and was about to leave when Najii stopped me and wrapped my damaged leg in some thin fabric scraps that she had laying around. I guess because this was the dismantling department, the scraps were actually a bit bloody. Gross.
“You may look like you should get to a healer, but at least you don’t have that weird shadow thing clinging to your leg.”
I nodded my thanks and gave her a little salute before heading out the door. According to my internal clock, it was already past 8PM, but thankfully reception seemed to still be open. Talios was still behind the counter but they looked like they were getting ready to pack up for the day.
“You’re here late, what time do you usually get off?”
“Carnivac”, they said slyly, “are you asking me out?”
“Ah. Sorry, I was just thinking this is a pretty long day for you, eh?” I realized too late that I’d gotten comfortable around Najii and forgot that Carnivac is supposed to be a man of few words... ah well.
“It is”, they sighed, “We could stand to hire some more people to cover multiple shifts, really... but enough of that! Did you get everything sorted with Nagima?” As they talked, they got a small bag packed up and locked up the counter, walking me to the main door.
“Yes, thank you, though she made me wait till everyone else was done.”
“That sounds like her, I’m sure she had a reason though”, as they said this, they looked down the length of my body and stopped at my bandaged leg. “Oh my, is that why you had the shadow wrapped around your leg? Do you need healing? I have very reasonable rates!”
“Heh, no thanks. It looks worse than it is”, I said putting my hands up defensively.
“Maybe some company would help? You sure you don’t want to ask me out for a drink?”, they said, locking up the Guildhall door.
“If I decide to take up drinking, you’ll be the first to know.”
“Oh foo.”
“I’m sorry, this is horribly rude of me... but are you male or female?”
“Yes. Do you have a preference?”
“Um... not in particular, no.”
“Neither do I”, they said with a rather radiant smile that I was certain was giving off actual light.
“Okay. Good to know. I better get home and get this leg fixed up, I’ll swing by in the morning to see if that escort quest sheet got filed. Try to get some rest before then”, I waved as I headed back in the direction of the shop.
“Toodles”, they called after me.
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Automata Prime 1.17: My first upgrades
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
Automata Prime 1.18: Making deliveries
Thanks to the partnership with the Haz Brothers that Jada had secured, we would be working with the Haz team to create a new line of Illusion Stones called Battle Beast Discs. The plan was that Haz would handle the physical production of the parts and materials, to include the physical models to be scanned for the illusions, while we would handle the magical software end of things. With two of the brothers freed from having to transcribe MagiCode spells or from having enchant the stones with those spells, they could triple their output of materials ready for enchanting. We had delivered two of the prototype discs to the Haz Bros. workshop and they were impressed with the result. After hearing about Shiro’s concept for starting the Beasts as eggs and leveling them up, they got straight to work on creating the physical models needed for multiple stages of growth for each Beast. Merrel had suggested that rather than a simple Fire, Water, Wood combat system, each Beast should have a s
Automata Prime 1.19: Cyclone, roll out
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
Automata Prime 1.20: Evil Chocobos
The cry from the first bird was followed by a cacophony of squawks as all the birds began shrieking. The birds rushed at the two Automata shells but split around them, blinking out of the way or staying out of reach. These things didn’t seem particularly interested in them and were actually avoiding them. A huge straggler was rushing straight for them, it seemed to be hemmed in by other birds and had decided to barrel straight through the pair. Suddenly a lightning bolt cracked straight through the thing and it fell to the ground, slumping up against Cyclone’s metal foot. Cyclone looked around and spotted Elita. She had her lightning sword over her shoulder and gave them a little wink and salute as she calmly sauntered over. Cyclone looked down and nudged the possibly-dead-but-definitely-slightly-smoking bird, while Carnivac kept an eye on the other birds. The flock had mostly run around them and into the village, the sounds of things being knocked over and smashed-in erupted f
Automata Prime 1.21: A flock of wyverns
While the wyvern was still stunned, I rammed my shoulder into it, knocking it back. Over and over, I plunged my free blade into its throat and chest. As the thing crumpled to the ground, another wyvern hit me from the back-right with its talons in a dive bomb. This time, I was on more steady footing than in bike mode so it only knocked me a couple stumbling steps. I whipped around and slashed at it, catching it across the stomach as it tried to flap backward. Cyclone wasn’t great at jumping but I could get high enough to grab the beast by the leg and pull it back down to the ground. Both blades were out now and with a quick scissor motion I separated its head from its body. A blast of wind magic hit me but at the angle and my current weight, it didn’t do much. I looked up to see the wyvern that had blasted me, holding off at a higher altitude. These things were smarter than I thought. Thankfully they didn’t seem to be pack hunters, just more opportunistic, so there wasn’t any
Automata Prime 1.22: A evening stroll
Though it was late at night, the workshop never slept. While Automata needed neither sleep, nor food, the mind couldn’t stay focused forever. Because of this, Alfred, Ram, and Rom, would spend their nights quietly working on side projects or an artistic distraction. Shiro enjoyed watching them work, but since I was controlling all of the others, his attempts at group discussions would fall flat. Alfred had been shut down so that I could free up a proxy slot, and Ram was working on sculpting a clay model of my main body, it wasn’t anywhere near as good as Merrel’s work though. Shiro would watch and interrupt with questions from time to time, which usually earned him a side-eye from Ram. Shiro insisted that we needed an Automata hero in the Battle Beast line-up, and that it should be me, but I wasn’t so sure about it. An action figure of me would be great though. Rom had been working on prototype action figures of the Lion Knight and the Tiger Ranger for Joshua and Jacob but had
Automata Prime 1.23: Attack of the clones
I managed to dodge to the side and grabbed at the cloak pulling the thing back and slammed it to the ground. The thing didn’t seem to register the attack at all and fluidly ripped off the cloak to spring back up again. It came at me again and this time I could see that one of its arms ended in a massive spike with some additional prongs coming out of it and hoses leading around to its back. It was quick but this thing really wasn’t trained to fight. Its attacks were obvious and telegraphing so I was easily able to avoid it again. This time I was able to grab a hose and pulled it back toward me while burying my sword through a rear canister and into its back. The thing continued to flail a bit so I wrenched the sword free, sideways, nearly cutting it in half. It fell to the ground and didn’t get back up, the red light of its eyes fading. My sensors detected a rush of something that had escaped from the torn canister, and then nothing. I rolled it over, this thing was an Automata
Automata Prime 1.24: Aftermath
I closed the [Terminal Window], picked up the sister’s core, and cracked it with my arm blade. I sat there for a long moment before taking a deep, metaphorical, breath and connecting to the next one. Carnivac brought me all the loaded cores that the murder bots had collected as well as any intact cores from the murder bots themselves. I continued connecting to them and talking with these people through the night. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything so emotionally draining as telling these people what happened to them and being with them in their final moments. Some were sad, others were angry, some pleaded while others were resigned. In the end, between the eleven villagers that were murdered and bound to cores and the seventeen out of twenty one murder bot cores that were recovered, sixteen chose to continue living on as Automata. The other twelve wanted to be released. Most of the twelve were at peace with moving on but a few refused the idea of becoming “abominations” and
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3.9: Infiltration
After my update, I got all of my proxies powered back up and back to whatever jobs they were in the middle of doing. The exceptions being Carnivac and IronHide. Those two got the honor of hanging out in my [Inventory] as I prepared for my mission to Trone.I thought about also packing Cyclone but I got this strange feeling like the proxy shell wanted to stay behind and hang out with Sentinel and keep an eye on the village. I couldn’t really explain it. It was the same sort of feeling that I’d gotten with Carnivac the night before. By this point I had dedicated subroutines that I partitioned for each proxy. Since each on
3.8: Upgrades all around
The princess told me that in her previous talks with her brother that they’d heard rumors that the countries to the east and beyond the Northridge mountains were forming an alliance. The eastern coastal countries were the Principality of Kokoli, Yliasi, Jalagrorun, and the Maxorian Theocrasy.The Northridge mountain range created a natural border between the Fangwell Empire and countries to the north, acting almost like massive fortress walls. Kokoli was positioned at the southern edge of the range and was the first of the eastern countries with access to Fangwell without having to worry about those walls.I believed the former Auto-Knight Number 19, Kalua, was originally from a mountainous tree village in Kokoli while Number 18, Alika, was a soldier for their southern neighbor Yliasi. Princess Relena explained that
3.7: A check-in with royalty
I got everything cleaned up and snuck back into Carnivac without anyone noticing. Shiro had prepared some breakfast from the leftovers along with a thick, black drink called caff that I assumed was like this world’s coffee. I didn’t bother to ask though.When the parents were ready, Carnivac and Shiro adopted their running forms and were back on the road, such as it was. We stopped twice for breaks, but finally made it back to AutomaTown by lunch time. I don’t hold any ill will towards Shiro’s parents, I think they’re lovely, but I was determined to build an airship of some sort if it meant that I wouldn’t have to stretch a five hour trip into twenty-five. Especially if I wouldn’t have to carry people on my back that needed potty breaks
3.6: Camping overnight
The tiger thing recovered quickly and took a swipe at Carnivac’s head, which ducked back down and out of the way. When it poked its head over the edge to check on Carnivac, he grabbed a fistfull of fur on the side of its head, then another on the other side.The creature jerked its head back in surprise but wasn’t fast enough. With his full body, Carnivac planted his feet near the top ledge and shoved, pulling the creature over the lip and flipping over Carnivac’s head. At that point, gravity kicked in and Carnivac sailed right off the cliff face after the tiger.Keeping a tight hold on the shocked tiger’s face, Carnivac allowed the momentum to pull him on top. The tiger smashed into the ground on its back with Carnivac landing knees first into its chest and stomach. All of the air escaped out of the tiger with a crunching sound.Carnivac climbed off of the creature as Dad wandered over to have a look.“That was quite the move,” Dad complimented Carnivac. “You’re pretty comforta
3.5: Meeting the parents
Shiro and Shrapnel were waiting in the market place and they had brought Shiro’s parents with them. They didn’t have a whole lot to pack up to begin with and it looked like Shiro intended to bring them back with us right away. By normal carriage the trip from Trone back to AutomaTown would be about four days, so I wasn’t sure that Shiro had thought it through for his ancient parents.“Ah, Mister Carnivac, there you are,” Shiro said in a cheerful tone.“We need to leave. Now,” Carnivac responded, shepherding Shiro and his parents towards the city gate as he took all of their belongings into my [Inventory]. At least Shiro had remembered to turn his disguise back on.“I thought you wanted to do some shopping for supplies.”“I found some good deals already, but I have a feeling that things might get a little rough soon.”“What? Why? What happened,” Shiro argued and slightly dragged his feet.“There may or may not have been a slight accident at The Factory. Just to be safe, I’d rather
3.4: The Factory
“Lord Jhiax is amazing!” Traluna shouted, sitting up straight in her chair for the first time. “He’s the kind of genius that the world has never seen before! The things he invents and comes up with are like from a whole other world.”“Traluna,” Gree warned.“Lord Jhiax is on a whole other level than us!” she said, getting more excited.“Traluna!” Gree snapped. Traluna shrank back down again at the rebuke.“He’s an artificer, eh?” Carnivac probed.“He’s so much more than some artificer. Lord Jhiax is a god among us!” she shouted, perk
3.3: Welcome to Trone
Carnivac and Shiro passed through the gates and into the city of Trone. Shiro let out an imitation of a sigh of relief and placed a hand on Carnivac’s shoulder and leaned over.“I am so glad that worked. I have to admit, I had my doubts,” he said, regaining his composure.As Carnivac looked around, he could see a large variety of shops. Most of the shops near the gate were food based but as you got further into the city you could see many different specialty Automata shops. Unlike the magic tool shops in Urd that might have a selection of Automata, here in Trone there were entire shops devoted to just servant type Automata, or warrior types, or labor types. There was even a shop that specialized in Au
3.2: I should do some shopping
I climbed inside of Carnivac and tried moving around a bit. Everything had been properly repaired, though the shoulder joint felt a bit loose. If he had been an action figure, a couple of drops of floor polish would have done the trick, but I doubted it would help much on an action figure that was seven feet tall with a magisteel exoskeleton covering a mana fiber musculature.Shiro and I left my shop and headed over to the village Inn. Shea was staying there along with the two Adventurers from the guild, Shiro’s organic helpers from the nearby town of Thompson’s Fork, and Princess Relena. Being an Automata now, the princess didn’t really need a room since she didn’t need to eat or sleep, but it was still nice to have a space to call your own to have some down time.A small communal eati
3.1: Slowing down?
My shop was starting to feel more and more like a doctor’s office than a machine shop. Though when you’re a being made out of magic and metal, I suppose they’re one in the same for your species. Scara, from our construction team, had built me a lovely reclining chair. It wasn’t soft or cushy but it was solid and strong enough to handle the added weight of an Automata.It reminded me a lot of the chair at a dentist and was super useful for being able to examine my fellow Automata. Today, I was the patient though. After a mishap on my part, I’d done considerable damage to myself that included destroying half of my face and losing an eye.I sat in the chair and my proxy, Ratchet, set a pin in the chair to recline me back. Ratchet had been designed expressly for handling r
