Automata Prime

1.8: I met a large snake

For the next several days I continued to work on my exo-frame project while Elita and Shea went out on quests to earn money while also gathering up materials that I’d need in the shop.  I began crafting simple magic tools to populate the shop with items for sale.  I upgraded Rom and Ram to be able to craft the simple items and had them working on that while Alfred managed the store front.  From time to time Jada would pop in to see what we were up to and to collect her share of the profits.  We got some customers from time to time but not a lot.  So far we didn’t have any must-have items that couldn’t be found at other shops.  Hot plates, cold boxes, various armors and shields resistant to different kinds of magic effects, that sort of thing.  Jada showed me how to easily make these tools and took care of arranging a contact in the Guild to purchase the required mana crystals at wholesale.

I was just about finished with the exo-frame, when I felt some new items enter my [Inventory].  The girls had been making good use of the satchel I made to store anything they came across on their quests.  They couldn’t retrieve the items, so it wasn’t good for weapons or items they would need, but it was useful for getting large items back to town without having to carry them.  They would just put the item in [Inventory] then retrieve it from me when they got back.

I’d set up a small watch program that kept an eye on the [Inventory] and would give me a sortable list of what was in there, and with a pseudo-database I was able to auto-tag the items going in to make them searchable by a category or a keyword.  The program also gave me a little notification when new stuff went in, letting me know what the thing was and how it was getting sorted.  All day long I’d get notifications for this kinda root or that kinda grass, and sometimes I’d get alerts for ores or the carcasses of beasts that they killed, so I had stopped giving them more than a passing glance.

This time I had to do a double take and opened up my [Inventory] screen; I’d just gotten two large Shadow Wolf corpses. I hoped they were in good condition and that they weren’t needed for a subjugation quest.  A short while later another item popped into my [Inventory], and this time it was a note.  I pulled the note out and took a look at it.

Prime,

We came across these two shadow wolves by chance.  Hopefully, they’ll work for that new project of yours.

Elita

This was great news and exactly what I’d been looking for.  I went out the back door to the workshop where we had a small patio area and unloaded the wolf bodies.  They were massive.  Way bigger than what I had been expecting based on wolves from my previous world.  One of the wolves had been stabbed through the throat, its head barely attached; the other was soaking wet but not a mark on it.  Upon further inspection it looked like it had been electrocuted.  It was nice to see the girls working together to bring down prey, and I was glad that I’d given Lightning crystals to Elita to compliment Shea’s Water magic.  It would be perfect for my Pretender shell once it was processed.

I had been a pretty smart guy in my old life and knew a wide range of stuff, but I didn’t know squat about dismantling animals, so best to leave this to the professionals.  Thanks to Jada, I had a contact at the Guild I could talk to.  For appearances sake, I’d made myself a fake Mana Shackle and keyed it to Jada’s magic signature in case I was inspected.  I put both of the wolves onto a small cart that we had and put on my fake collar and headed over to the Guildhall.  It had been several weeks now since I’d escaped from that magic tool shop, and according to Jada I looked like a mass production model, so the chances of being recognized dropped.  Still the fake shackle would help prevent people from realizing I was “Unclaimed.”

Walking through the market area, it was amazing to see so many different kinds of races of people going about their business.  Aside from humans and races that looked like humans with different ears or shorter bodies, there was a wide variety of demi-humans.  I saw a dragonewt haggling with two ratfolk over the price of fish, a beautiful feathered woman that may have been a harpie with glittery purple and pink feathers, and a huge minotaur loaded with bags and packages following after a centaur in a sundress.  I noticed a handful of Automata on my way too; some appeared to be bodyguards while others appeared to be attendants, but all of them were dutifully following after someone wearing ridiculously expensive looking clothes.  I noticed that all of them also had a red glow to their eyes and I wondered what that meant.  A couple of them watched me suspiciously as I made my way through the area, maybe because I was on my own?

Before too long I made my way to the rear of the Guildhall; I’d been instructed not to come through the main entrance with deliveries and drop-offs. I knocked on the rear door and soon the slide hatch opened up and I saw a reptilian eye and an eye patch.

“You the Automata running errands for Jada?”

“Sure.”

“Heh. Sure... okay, yeah.”

The hatch closed and the door opened up, revealing a large, well-muscled naga with six arms.  She had dark chestnut colored skin and deep black hair that went past her waist.  Two of her arms were folded over her chest while another pair was on her hips and the last set was holding long blades at her sides.  She towered over me and looked rather fearsome, but I got the impression it was more for effect than an attempt to intimidate me.

“I’ve got two large Shadow Wolves to sell,” I said, thumbing over my shoulder to the cart.

She looked past me at the cart and nodded, opening up the adjoining door to let me pull the cart inside.  Without waiting for me to unload, she easily pulled one of the wolves off the cart and tossed it onto her table and started flipping it over and examining it.

“Not bad. Looks like it was a pretty clean kill.  Let me see the other one. Ugh, it’s all wet.”

“Combination of water magic and lightning magic.”

“That’s the Angel party that’s working for Jada’s shop, right?”

“Yeah, this is their handiwork. Other than being wet, this one is in quite good condition and should sell high.”

“Is that so? Because when I examined it, there were scorch marks all over it and the meat was already partially cooked.  The other one was shredded and barely usable, and both of them had cracked mana crystals. You’ll be lucky to get a handful of coppers for this mess.”

“Ah.  So that’s how it is?” I asked the snake-ish woman, skeptically.

“That’s how it is,” she replied, folding both sets of arms and raising an eyebrow in challenge.

“Too bad, I rather like your type too. Ah well, guess these won’t be going into your [Inventory].  Later.”

I turned and started to walk away, waiting to see how long it took her to notice that I’d retrieved both wolves and the cart.  She started laughing in that way that people who think they have all the cards normally do.

“Of course they’re going into my inventory, how do you think you’ll ever get them back? Tell Jada I’ll send over a messenger with the couple coppers at some point, if I feel like it!  Thanks for gifting me these wolves!”

I stopped in the doorway and turned to look at her.  “What wolves?” I asked innocently.

She looked where the cart was and just saw a puddle from the wet wolf, and her smile immediately vanished.  Then she whipped her head around to look at her table and saw it was empty too.  In the blink of an eye she was on me.  She’d coiled her body around me and had both of her blades at my throat.

“What did you do? Where did they go?”

I gently prodded her ribs with the end of my arm cannon. “I’m currently loaded with magma stones.  The exit wound should be quite impressive.”

She looked down at my cannon poking her and started to chuckle.  Gently she set me down and withdrew her blades before giving me an icy look.

“There’s no way that half-rate artificer Jada built you, and I know for a fact there’s no way she could afford you or steal you.  She couldn’t have found you in a labyrinth or something, she’s too old.  So just how did she possess you?”

I calmly walked up into her personal space and looked her in the eye.

“You seem to be making an awful lot of assumptions about my status and who my master is.”

I couldn’t give too much away here, though; I would be in a lot of trouble if the Guild knew what I really was.  She backed away from me to the other side of her table, and I could feel the situation getting away from me; this really wasn’t where I wanted to be. I still needed the wolves to be processed.

“Just what are you?  You don’t talk like a normal Automata...” she asked with equal parts fear and curiosity.

I looked at my arm cannon then back at her. I’d have to tread lightly.  “Are you going to give me a fair price for these wolves?”

“Sorry, yeah, of course! Jada and I have been friends for a long time, I would have given her the proper amount.  I was just having some fun at her Automata’s expense!”

“You’re that kind of person, eh? I can’t say I hate that if it doesn’t go too far.  Let’s start over, my name is Prime,” I said, as I converted my cannon back into a hand and held it out to her.

Slowly she came out from behind her table and took my hand in one of hers. “Nagina... but my friends call me Najii.”

“Good to meet you, Najii.”  I put my hands up to her table and dropped the two wolf corpses on top.  “I need the mana crystals from both of these and the full skin from the wet one, as intact as you can.  The rest is yours.  Please deduct the dismantling fee from the sale of the rest.” 

She looked over the bodies again and absently twirled her blades in the same way that some people twirl pens or coins over their fingers.  It was kind of mesmerising to watch, honestly.  “There’s a lot of meat here, and the fur from the dry one is in good condition; the bones are strong too.  Okay, it’s fine. I can get those crystals and skin now if you want to wait, or do you want to come back later?”

It was amusing to see her switch to full business mode; she clearly knew her trade and didn’t even question my use of [Inventory].

“Now would be fantastic. Do you mind if I watch?” I asked, genuinely curious.

Her eye looked over at me, searching for something.  “You’re an odd one, aren’t you, Prime? Are you really an Automata?”

“As far as I know.”

She shrugged and got to work.  It was pretty amazing to watch her; the hands holding blades made quick and accurate cuts as open hands pulled open the incisions and another hand reached in to pull out the mana crystal while the last hand was ready and waiting with a cloth to clean it out.  It was like watching an expert surgeon with a team of assistants all working in perfect sync.  The amount of time it took her to extract both crystals was less than a minute.  With the same practiced efficiency she quickly had the wet wolf skinned and was even able to dismantle the meat and bones as she went.  It was like some sort of butcher ballet.

In the span of about ten minutes she had completely broken down the wolf and had all the parts neatly arranged and ready for weighing and further processing; even the blood had been neatly collected.  She was now at a washing station and was carefully cleaning the skin and fur before setting it on a rack near the fire and holding her hands out to it.  I couldn’t really tell what she was doing here and didn’t want to give myself away by [Inspect]ing for magic.

“Wind?” I asked.

“Yeah, I know some Wind magic, so I’m circulating the hot air from the fire around and through the skin to dry the fur.”

“Oh, I see.  If you could keep the underside from drying out, that would be helpful.”

“Sure, that’s easy enough, but that’s no good if you are planning to use the pelt for leather.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve something else in mind for this pelt.”

Again, she gave me that look that said “are you being serious right now?” “Okay.  I guess it’s done then.”

“Great work, thanks,” I said as I put the mana crystals and the cleaned pelt into my [Inventory].  As I walked out the door, I turned and raised a hand to her. “It was nice meeting you Nagina, I expect that you’ll send the payment over to Jada by courier.”

“Yeah... you too,” she said, confused, shyly waving a single hand.