21

Night was coming, and in the distance, Charles could see the heavy rain-filled clouds that loomed over the city. From up there it was quite a sight, seeing the rotating supercell of the incoming thunderstorm.

“Let’s move.” He said.

He had been sitting there for a while, looking at the crooked remains of the tower. In his head, a swirl of emotions that could barely be held at bay was just growing and growing. He could not stop thinking about what he lost in there, all the wonders he could have learned about, all the awesome discoveries and the story of a man who was just like him. So similar, and yet coming from a place that was so different.

But that was no more now. There was no longer anything for him here, and soon his head returned to the one task that he needed to complete. He had to go back, and put the newly acquired magnets to use. At least he had the tapes with him, something that survived the destruction of the Factory. A meager thing in comparison, but better than nothing.

There was a tavern, on the south-eastern side of the town of Unica. The river was close by, and the sound of sailors and boats unloading their cargoes was so loud that it could almost be heard from inside. The stink of fish, both freshwater and saltwater, was nauseating.

Under the creaking roof of the tavern, the tables were messy and misshapen, made of a casual assortment of various styles, colors and materials. It didn’t matter how they looked, all that mattered was that there was always some ale in large wooden mugs on top of them, and that it was cheap.

Thunder rolled in the distance, and the sky was so dark that it was almost black. Cold wind howled and swept through the room, coming in from a large hole in the ceiling, a messenger that told everyone that winter was coming. Right under that hole, many sailors were happily drinking all their worries away, after a long day at sea. The rain was not a problem despite the broken roof, as the tavern was built inside a small cavern, along the banks that the river carved in the ground. The city, above, was not a concern for those who were passing their time here.

“News is there’s some big shot roaming around town.” One of the sailors said.

“Bollocks.” Another replied, and slammed his mug on the table. Some foam spilled out. “You know the boys; they’d talk about their mothers if they were even worth the time to make a sentence.”

“They don’t talk about their mothers because they said all there was to be said about them already!” A loud roar of laughter erupted, as the man laughed at his own joke.

“Jokes aside, though.” He continued. “I too heard there was some new guy who made quite a ruckus.”

“A ruckus he says.” A long-bearded man chuckled.

He went to sit at the table with the other, younger, men. He refilled his mug from the keg that was weighting on the unsure planks of the table. He took a swig, then put back the pipe in his mouth.

“And what a ruckus it was. Aye, mate. There’s some new guy who’s been roaming the place like he owns it. But let me tell you something: he does own it. Don’t cross him path.” He looked at the others dead in the eye.

“He does? How is that possible?” A laugh.

The old man did not laugh. He only stared for a moment, then sighed a heavy sigh.

“Shot a gold ranker dead, he did.”

“He did not.”

“He did. Saw it myself with these two eyes.”

The others were listening intently, but one still did not believe the old man.

“Shot with what? You can’t kill one of those monsters with a crossbow.”

“I know not what it was that killed him, but killed him it did.”

“Shit.”

Quite far from the loud group, a shadow was sipping at his ale. He spat, and he walked away.

It was still raining when Charles arrived at the workshop. The rain was coming in from the missing windows, carried by the strong, chilling wind. Everything was wet, inside the small concrete structure. The wood, the tools, and even the forge.

The door creaked as it closed behind the elf, but the wind still swept through the place, coming from the other open holes. She stared at the mess of things that were on the ground and on the walls, and took in the view like it was some sort of crime scene.

Charles just paced around, stepping over the orange leaves that made small lumps on the floor here and there, and avoiding the fallen tools and scattered coals.

“Well, then. It’s my bad; I did not take into account the weather.” He said. His voice was relaxed, although his face was not. “Time to get to work.”

He activated the LAI, and started working. He was not willing to have the AI take control of his body yet, and in fact during the walk back home he even had to actually sleep at night. And it would be like this at least until he managed to figure out exactly what was happening.

“Are you actually sleeping tonight?” She asked him, back in the forest, after he told her to keep watch.

“Yes.”

“Why? What changed?”

“Too many questions. I’m gonna sleep now.” He said, and then slept.

Without the option to have the LAI do all the work, and without energy in the suit to help him, repairing the damage the rain caused was going to take a long time. But it was necessary, because he could not work like this anymore.

“Uhm… Charles?” Eereen said timidly, and he just turned around to look at her.

“Yes?”

“I need to go now. I’ll come back by evening.”

“Sure. Better, even, I can fix the whole place in peace.” He said, and then just kept working.

She left, walking slowly towards the door while Charles sucked inside his ring all the items in the room one by one. She turned around one last time, and then she was out.

“Good grief. What a fucking mess.”

Eereen walked for a while, because the tangled mess of overgrown plants and roots on the road slowed her down despite her racial affinities. If she was to hang around at Charles’ base, she had to make some adjustments for herself. One of them would be to ask for a proper bed, maybe even a room. At least get permission to have it built, if Charles was not willing to do it for her.

She shook her head lightly. He would never allow that. Either she managed to convince him to build a room for her, and in that case she needed to find something to pay him with that was not money, or she had to build it herself.

She arrived at the meeting point, where the man was already waiting for her.

“We can’t keep meeting like this, you know?” She said.

“Why? Afraid that Charles will get suspicious?”

“You know him. He is already, but he does not care. No, it’s not him. It’s the others. They have eyes everywhere, and if I’m seen with you, then it’s going to be a problem.”

“I’m disguised, come on. Relax, I took care of my tail.”

“Alright, then. I say he passed all of your… tests, as you called them. And that ring he has: I now know for sure that it’s what we were looking for.”

“Perfect. The priorities have definitely changed now. It’s a good thing, perhaps, that the ring has managed to fall into his hands of all people. Take him to the library as soon as possible.”

“How?”

“Well, that’s up to you. If I know him well enough, then all you need to do is mention it and the potential knowledge he might find inside.”

“Alright.” She turned around to leave, but then stopped herself and came back. “Did you know that the Metalmancer left the Factory at some point? He didn’t die there. I checked.”

“Of course, I know! I suggested him to leave and head to the mountains. Has Charles figured it out yet?”

“He suspects, I believe. But he has other priorities for now.”

“Perhaps all he needs is a little push in the right direction…”

She walked away now. Her steps were slow and heavy, and her head was covered by the heavy wet hood.

Charles sat on his wooden chair, and heaved a sigh of relief. The deep breath made his head almost spin, while the sweat on his forehead had wetted his eyebrows and was slowly making its way down towards his nose and chin.

“Damn. Even at… what level am I?”

166, Charles.

“Right. Even at this level, fixing all the damage and building decent windows has proved to be quite tiring. And we still need glass. Make a note to buy some. Or not. I’ll make my own glass later. Now, onto the important things… I want to read the rest of the tapes.”

He got up.

“Construct a simulation space.”

Done.

“Do we know the code they are written in?”

Negative. We need more reference data to be able to read the tapes directly.

“Then simulate the whole calculator, starting from the schematic.”

Working on it. Meanwhile, I can scan the tapes.

“Perfect.”

He took out some metallic tapes and placed them onto the table, until there was no more space available. He then stared at them until the LAI was satisfied.

“Need more?”

Simulating the calculator’s reaction to these tapes is very inefficient, sadly. It will take approximately 8 hours, and most of my computational power, before I will need more tapes. We will have to repeat the cycle at least three more times after that, before being able to decode the machine language of the Metalmancer.

“Okay. You do your thing. While you do that, I’ll build the generator. I just need to be able to see the blueprints.”

The AI did not respond, but Charles could feel that it allocated some of its resources to help him. He approached the table, and took out the copper coil.

Eereen returned, late in the evening, to the sound of metal being hammered without pause. She quietly entered the workshop, and saw that Charles was working on his anvil, straightening a large metal rod, with a wide grin plastered on his face. She could also feel that the blows were much stronger than they used to be, courtesy of the many levels he gained after he killed the two robotic enemies inside the Factory.

Thinking of that reminded her of what happened after. How she almost fell into that pit, and how he saved her without even thinking twice.

“Good! You’re back.” His voice shook her out of her reverie.

“Yes, all done!” She said chipperly. “Having fun?”

“What can I say… I’m having the time of my life! I never thought that basic engineering could be so fun!”

The huge table next to the window, which now featured wooden blinders, was full of components. There was a large metallic container, which Charles was working on at the moment, and a smaller one. Next to those, stacked against the wall, there were a lot of pipes and valves that looked very similar to those of the Factory.

Many of the designs, in fact, looked very familiar.

“Are you trying to build a Factory here?” She asked.

“Ah, you noticed. The things here do look a lot like the ones back there. I think it’s because of convergent design, though. Basically, this is the most efficient way possible given the tools we have. And, of course, it’s also because I’ve deciphered a couple of the tapes and they were full of schematics and designs. Fascinating, how some of them were even better than the ones from my old world. Well, I guess that when you have fusion you don’t need to improve a wood combustion engine, but still.”

She just looked at him. He laughed.

“I know. Random nonsense. Now, be quiet and let me finish, it’s important.”

He yawned. Soon, he would have to make a decision on whether to trust the LAI or to sleep. But, for now, he could still work a couple more hours and just decide what to do later.

Another tape has been deciphered. This one is a schematic for a worker automaton that runs on compressed air.

He waved the notification away. And proceeded to dip a red-hot chunk of metal in the icy cold water of the river he had in the ring. A loud hiss invaded the room for a moment, and then faded.

In the end, he decided to trust the LAI and let it operate. When he woke up, most of the tedious work was done and all he had to do was to assemble the whole generator. He made a hole in the wall and ran a pipe through it, for the air intake, and then did the same in the ceiling for the exhaust pipe.

He then assembled the boiler and the burner units, and finally connected the turbine that would make the magnet spin. Everything was just about done. All that was left, was to put in the wood and coal, and wait.

As he waited, he went over the last information the LAI provided him. It was the results of a whole night and morning spent decoding the data, and it bore fruit. The amount of knowledge the Metalmancer had was astonishing. He was an excellent blacksmith, with in-depth knowledge of the metals and their alloys. The names he used were odd, but the descriptions were often enough to know what he was talking about.

But that was only the tip of the iceberg, he noticed with glee. Inside, there was a large amount of research on cybernetics, advanced weaponry, and everything that had to do with how to harvest steam power and transform it into usable energy.

It was evident that, on these tapes, there was much more than he thought at first. Perhaps, then, the destruction of the Factory was not the tragic event that he thought it was. Because, even if the physical was no more, Charles had everything he needed to make the legacy of the Metalmancer live on.

Not only that. There was something else on his mind, now that he thought about it. There were no remains that he could identify with the Metalmancer inside the Factory. There were tapes missing from the walls. There was the issue with the destabilization of the whole place, an impending doom that surely loomed over that man like Damocles’ sword. Maybe, then, there was another place. A place where he went to after he abandoned the Factory. 

Another notification came from the LAI. Another tape was ready. Charles looked at the generator, and saw that the burner still needed some time to get up to temperature, and so he opened the report.

He read it all, carefully. When he was done, he just sat on his chair, wide eyed, for a moment.

“Arcane magic.”