"Little bit of salt and herbs to the boiling water inside the pot, add the mashed, then vegetables stir until it turns red."

Lia is in her kitchen, cooking a simple dish using what she gathered from her garden and things farmers gifted her on her visits. The food she cooks is a soup made from a mix of mashed and cooked vegetables and chicken broth.

"I wonder what Lex is doing outside." She began thinking while stirring the soup.

Lia is curious about this stranger who dropped, literally, into her life. She sensed the moment she saw Lex that he carried a touch of her divineness in his soul, and the loud portal opening in the sky indicated that he wasn't from this world, but even then, she had some suspicion. Thankfully, Lex risking his life for her made her more relieved.

"Maybe I am too suspicious about him. Lex had many chances to attack me, yet he risked his life for mine. Perhaps I shouldn't worry this much." Lia put a lid on the pot and started searching drawers in her kitchen.

Lia is searching for the dried meat a hunter gifted her as a show of gratitude five days ago. She helped that hunter by healing his wounds for free. She knew the man had a bad week, missed several hunts, and had no money, but just after a week, the man knocked on his door with one kilogram worth of preserved meat and a pouch of herbs.

While giving the meat and herbs, the man was very emotional about the act done by Lia. Of course, not many people do such a thing, and even the temples cut a price for their services, but Lia, and the soft-hearted idiot she is, prefers helping others even if they can't pay for it.

Lia thought about what the hunter said that day. "Thank you because you healed my wound I managed to hunt a big game. My family is grateful, and if you ever need help, my door is open." She smiled and began cheerfully dancing while searching.

"Meat, meat, meat... There you are!" She grabbed the large piece from the drawer and placed it on a cutting board. "He shouldn't have to give me such a big piece." She grabbed a sharp knife to cut the meat into thin pieces, then grabbed the slices and added them to the soup.

"That should be everything, maybe for now." She moved towards a clock-like mechanism on her wall and turned a lever on its side three times. Each turn sets the mechanism inside the thing, and it rings a bell every ten minutes for each turn. "I have three ticks. That's enough time to see what Lex is up to." She removed her apron and hung it on a curved nail on a wall that she uses as a hanger.

But right before leaving, she threw one more piece of wood into the oven. "Hopefully, this will burn long enough." And finally, exit outside.

Lex is right outside the garden, ordering the metal thing random things and trying to learn how to use his god-given ability to the maximum extent.

***

"Move three steps forward," I shouted, and the copper recruit immediately executed my order by moving three steps forward.

"Now, turn to the right." Again, it executed the order and began turning right but didn't stop. "Okay... My orders should be more detailed. Perhaps I should give exact amounts. Now, stop, and turn towards the house."

With a more precise command, the copper recruit stopped its act, executed the new order with no mistakes, then halted, waiting for my orders.

I began stroking my chin. "Now, you can follow orders pretty great, but I wonder, if you could attack and protect me without any order, like against that beast, doesn't that means you also have an ability to take independent decisions." Perhaps I should test my hypothesis.

But, what task I can give it to try its intelligence. I need something multilayered, an example would be ordering it to bring me something, but that bringing process must have separate steps like opening something or finding it.

"What are you doing outside." Lia's gentle voice came from the house. She was on her usual priestess dress but without the staff this time.

"I am testing this thing, and it is doing great. Well, mostly. There are slight problems, the biggest being certain orders need to be carefully given because this thing lacks common sense." I pointed to the recruit.

"So, what sort of problems." She said while moving next to me.

"For one example, when I order it to turn left, it turns without a problem but doesn't stop. It keeps spinning. I must tell the exact amount to stop it from doing something stupid as that." I clapped my hands. "Copper recruit, please turn right."

The metal thing began executing my order by moving towards the left, then started its operation on embarrassing me by keep turning.

"Oh, I see now, but it was making lots of decisions on the fight two days ago? Were you constantly giving commands on that day?" She asked with a curious voice.

"No, you know, I was actually thinking that too. But nothing came to my mind when I wanted to test the thing's ability to make decisions without my command. I need something more complex than turning left but also nothing too complex. Am I asking too much?"

"Well, I can't think of one too. Perhaps we can think of something later on."

"I have all the time in the world now, I don't have any obligations like the school I must attend, but that doesn't mean I am slacking on learning these machines limits." Heh, she will be shocked when she sees this.

"Machine, thing, recruit." Lia asked with a confused voice, "What exactly is this thing?

"I dunno, but look at that." I pointed to the copper recruit. "Recruit! Attach." And with my order, copper recruit liquified itself and began flying towards me. I feel like a magnet in this process. Then when it reached my body, it slipped right through my skin and entered it. Of course, the whole process of attaching, no matter how it sounded, didn't hurt. It relieved me a little even.

Lia gasped. "Wonderful!"

I began pressing my chest with my thumb to show the pride in my achievement. "Yes, that is quite wonderful. And that's not all." I smirked. "Copper Recruit, I command!"

The same liquid from before slipped out of my skin and solidified when it touched the ground. Slowly, every piece created from the liquid merged like legos and turned into the thing before.

"You see, I can both summon and desummon this creature as I will. There are certain limitations to this skill, like the time it takes to reshape itself from a pile of liquid and the whole process of attaching and de attaching takes. Perhaps I can decrease this time by mastering the act and making small changes in the process, but even then, I don't have a guarantee for it. But when I was playing the game, my abilities were open to upgrades by grinding. I am unaware of the summoner skill tree, but samurai could decrease the time window between its attack animations, though it is possible I can do the same."

Lia began patting my back. "It is okay. It's okay. You can improve it anytime. Please take a breath first. Now, I don't want to be harsh, but I didn't understand the slightest thing about what you just said."

Of course, she is right. I overdid and connected the whole thing with the game I used to play. I mean, what was I excepting.

"Okay," I smiled. "Do you have any task to give me? If I am staying there, I want to help?" Of course, by using my new friend, but if I didn't have it, I would still help.

"Oh, that would be very pleasant!" Lia ran back to his house and came out with the ax used by the beast in her hands. "I was in need of some firewood. If you and your metal friend could give it a hand, that would be very helpful."

With pride, I grabbed the ax from Lia's hands but studied as the tool's weight far surpassed my expectations. "Isn't it a little too heavy?" I tried to smile while lifting the ax.

"Sorry, is it. I am unaware of that, I usually ask the lumberjack working in this area to help me rather than doing it myself, but since we got our hands on this ax, I thought we could use it to do it ourselves. If it is unfitting for the job, then."

"No, don't worry." I stopped her apology combo. "I can lift it, and weight probably means better strike power. Now, show me where that wood is, and I will bring the justice of this ax."

"Thank you, woods are on the back, and perhaps you can see the cutting board. It is the big one marked with green stripes." Lia bowed and moved back to her house but right before entering. "Also, I am preparing a meal, don't do it too much and miss it."

"Good, I can eat a meal." I looked at the recruit. "Follow me, minion. We will be delivering our divine power to these pesky logs!"

I lifted the ax into the air but almost fell to the ground because of the little show I tried to give. "You know what." I looked at the recruit. "I give you the honor of carrying this ax, recruit. Take this from my hand and follow me."

The thing grabbed the ax from my hand and began following me to the backyard of Lia's house, where stacks and stacks of logs. "Now, we need to cut much as we can in this short amount of time. My plan is this. You place the log, and I cut the log, simple."

Recruit dropped the ax and grabbed a log from the stack, then began waiting.

"Oh, you place it on that stripped thing." I pointed to the big green marked log.

Recruit immediately followed my order and placed it on the cutting board.

"Good. Now go prepare the next one because I will finish this in a blink of an eye." I grabbed the ax with both hands and moved next to the log. "Now, I only need to strike once. With the weight of this thing, it will split nicely." I raised the ax above my hand and slashed it forward.

The power of the impact nicely split the wood into two but, at the same time, almost displaced my arms. I inhaled in pain. "Fuck! This job is worse than I thought." I looked at the recruit. It was standing there with a log in its hand. I have a weird feeling, like for a second, I almost saw it laughing at me.

"Good, now I showed you how to chop wood. Take the ax and chop whatever I place here." I dropped the ax to the ground and grabbed the log recruit carries from its hand.

***

"Here, let me take it." Lia picked up the empty bowl in front of me. "I hope you enjoyed the meal, it wasn't too fancy, but I tried my best.

I made a gesture with my hand, indicating the food was good. "Meal was perfect. You don't need to worry, and now I am filled, I can go back to cutting wood. Well, the recruit can go back to cutting wood."

"No, I might need your help outside. I will be visiting a nearby town, and the beast from two days ago, I am not going to lie, scares me a little. Perhaps you and your buddy want to protect me."

"That wouldn't be a problem." I looked at my hand. "Also, do you think there will be a job for someone like me, who can summon a metal robot?"

"Perhaps we learn it when we arrive there, so are we heading out?" She asked.

"Of course, just let me grab the ax from the backyard, then we are ready to go." Even though the copper recruit would be the one who does all job, I want to end up with nothing to help in case of emergency. Hopefully, that scenario will never happen again.