Alex stepped through the portal as soon as it opened, glancing back at his friends. Fufi nodded in encouragement. He disappeared into the darkness and reappeared in front of the strange doll shop with a clockwork workshop in the back.

The shop was empty, just like before. He stepped inside and found the same single room with displays and shelves of books. The counter was still unmanned, and the large display case was empty. The dolls had been taken to the basement.

Alex saw no one, so he went to the bookcase and put back the book he had been reading. He pulled out another book, "The Art of Clockworking," which seemed relevant to his task of creating clockwork dolls. The book contained many interesting drawings showing how to make various types of automata by combining parts from different mechanisms.

After some thought, Alex decided that his first creation would be a simple doll that could shoot a bow and arrow.

Alex was doubtful of his ability to succeed. He had been tasked with creating functional robots, but he lacked the essential components like computer chips, electrical motors, or digital sensors. In his old world, there had been mechanical attempts at creating computers, but they were all very limited or outright failures. The more complex something became, the more ways there were for it to go wrong. A bolt too tight could cause a malfunction, or a cog on a gear that couldn't take the stress might break off. Even a spring that was too loose could cause problems. There were any number of ways for a robot to fail. Some of the examples in the books he had found had detailed schematics, but to his untrained mind, they looked like witchcraft.

Alex walked down the hallway, past the mannequin, and began creating a few pieces as practice at one of the workshop stations. He wanted to get a feel for the process before attempting to build a full-size model.

The first step was to create a mechanism for pulling back the bowstring and aiming the weapon. This took several hours, as he had to carefully assemble the gears, cams, levers, springs, wheels, and other small moving parts. Once the mechanism was complete, he attached it to the bow.

Next, he attached an arm holding an arrow in place in front of the bow. He made sure that the arm was loose enough so that the archer would have to pull on it each time they fired their weapon. Alex was pleased with his progress.

The following task was to design a complex mechanism that would release the string and allow it to fly. When released, the mechanism would snap forward, sending the arrow flying with great force and speed. This involved dozens of screws, springs, shafts, and connecting rods, but once completed, the entire thing fit neatly inside the arm and hand of the doll.

The next step required even more delicate work. He designed a way to allow the fingers of the hand to move freely while keeping the wrist locked. He spent hours building the hands and wrists before putting them both in the doll to test if he had gotten everything right. Satisfied, he went and put the doll on a testing mount similar to the tower it would be defending on the game table.

His first doll looked like a cross between a watch and a terminator.  Well part of a terminator.  Only the arms and torso had gears.  The legs and head were solid pieces. He wasn't proud of it.  The doll was the opposite of cute, it was scary. It was covered from head to toe with various metal parts, cogs, sprockets, and plates all connected together by screws, bolts, and pins. It had no features on its head. The limbs were far too long for any normal person and the legs ended at spear-like points at the end instead of feet or boots. The fingers looked more like claws than something that belonged on a doll's hand. Even though Alex knew his design was only for practice he still felt a bit disappointed.  He placed it on a testing fixture and slotted some toothpick sized arrows in a quiver he had created earlier under a magnifying glass.

The prototype was only a partial success. It could fire the first arrow, but the rate of fire was not as fast as anticipated. The shaking of the tiny arrows sometimes caused the grasping motion to fail, similar to a claw machine game. The arrows did not fly straight, and the fletching was not uniform enough, causing them to wobble and tumble mid-air, landing in random spots. It took him most of a day to get the arms to work properly, only to realize that the force of the snapping bowstring would jostle the doll and ruin everything. However, he learned a great deal during this time, such as the importance of taking breaks when creating clockwork pieces to avoid tunnel vision and confront issues that could have been easily resolved in the early design. He created a second version of both the quiver and the arrows. Mechanical hands are not the same as human hands, and they cannot reach behind them and feel around for the next arrow. The arrow had to be in a precise spot. So he created a slotted quiver with a honeycomb pattern. For the arrows, he weighted the front a bit more with an arrowhead and used clamps and actuating arms to put the fletching on so they would be at the correct angle in the correct place each time. The prototype worked, but he was still not satisfied with it.

Alex returned at dusk to discover Fufi and Merumeru playing with dolls. In the rift room, a new stone table with a tiny tower on it had been placed. Fufi was holding a doll in her beak at the base of the tower, while the little slime girl was holding a doll at the top of the tower with one hand raised and the other on her chest. The scene reminded Alex of an opera, with the two characters close but also far apart. He held the mechanical doll he had made behind his back, unsure if he wanted to show them. When he did, he found himself facing Fufi, who appeared to be quite surprised that he had brought something handmade into their home. They stared at each other for a few moments before she gently placed the puppet in her beak, leaning it against the tower.

In addition to seeming happier than usual, Merumeru appeared to have benefited from her day of rest. She ran up to Alex and leapt into his arms, giving him a hug. The force of her jump caused him to stumble back a few steps, and he had to use both arms to catch her. He almost dropped her, but he quickly regained his balance before falling over. However, he did drop the clockwork doll, which clattered against the stone floor. Fufi jumped off the table, picked it up, and placed it next to the tower beside the other doll.

"Hmmm, so this doll is what you were working on today?" Fufi inquired, scrutinizing the prototype. The prototype appeared even creepier in the sunlight, with all of its components casting shadows that shifted across its face as the mechanism shifted slightly. She walked around the doll, inspecting each part. 

Alex observed her intently, anticipating her response to his work. 

Merumeru had climbed onto Alex’s shoulders to get a different angle to observe the doll. She patted his head several times, then burst out laughing. She then hopped down and joined Fufi in inspecting the new doll.  "Meru..." the slime girl said, scrunching up her face. 

"What's wrong?" Alex regarded the slime girl. "Does Merumeru seem scared?"

Fufi came back over.  "I don't want to discourage you... I know it is your first try, but that doll is a bit scary. It doesn't have a face, clothes, or hair."
Alex noticed that he had not yet added any features to the face. It was bare and featureless, like the creepy mannequin wearing women's clothes that he passed by every time he walked down the hallway to the workshop.

Fufi reached out with her beak and gently touched the hand of the automaton. She turned to Alex and smiled, then leaned in closer to inspect more of his creation. Alex knew his project was not going well.  Fufi said in a low voice, "Alex, this isn't finished yet."

Alex nervously replied, "It's just a prototype. Why can't it be a spring-loaded cannon? It would be so much simpler to just fire little metal balls that way. Arms, legs, hands, they're all incredibly complicated."

Fufi shook her head with disapproval and asked, "Is there nothing in there that can be used to make an outfit for a doll?" She sat on her haunches and gave the doll a critical inspection. She pointed to the store-bought doll she had been playing with earlier, which was sitting next to the clockwork doll.  Apparently Fufi didn’t care if it had a cannon or a bow, so long as it had cute clothing.

Alex acknowledged the presence of a sewing station and bolts of fabric, but he was too ashamed to admit that he hadn’t attempted to sew and created something that appeared strange. Even after seeing Merumeru's reaction, he was too headstrong to admit it. However, there was another reason he had approached the sewing station.

Fufi looked at him appraisingly. "I'm guessing you didn't try sewing at all. I wonder why?"

Alex sighed and relented. “All right,” he said. “I was concerned that if I made doll clothes, the system would give me a sewing skill. I already have skills to cook and clean, and it’s embarrassing.”

Fufi gave a knowing nod. “You understand what that means, don’t you?” she said. “Cooking, cleaning, and sewing are beneath you.” She spoke deliberately, as if to drive her point home. She jabbed him with her wing tip to emphasize her words.

Alex laughed, conceding Fufi's point. If this world did not grant him specific skills, then perhaps he should just go with whatever worked best. He knew Fufi was right. A normal human could likely acquire some form of cooking or cleaning ability when they prepared food or washed dishes, or even when they removed blood from their hands if they had the right class. In this society, attempting to avoid gaining skills would make him the odd one out.

"I understand," Alex said. "I told myself I'd try my best, and skipping out on things for such a reason is immature."

The rest of the day was a bit subdued. Alex cooked dinner for everyone and washed his and Merumeru's clothes in cold water. The slime girl watched his washing intently, and Alex was a little worried that she might be getting some strange ideas again.

The following morning, Alex prepared breakfast for the three of them. After they ate, he bade them farewell and entered the rift, promising to return before nightfall.

The dungeon was as he had left it, with the shop empty and the books on the shelf. He did not need to dust before getting started. He pulled out a book titled "The Dwarven Artisan" by Tanir Ironbeard.

The book described in detail how dwarves used clockwork mechanisms in their mines, workshops, and even their homes. It also explained how each device could be built differently depending on its function, and how much time and effort went into making sure everything fit well inside its housing. The book was also halfway a religious text, as Nidarom is the dwarven god of craft. Any great work would start with a prayer to Nidarom.

Alex set the book back down, as he had already caught the attention of two deities. Learning traditional prayers to Nidarom might risk getting the attention of a third.

Alex walked down the hallway behind the storefront and into the workshop, nodding at the mannequin as he passed. He had seen it so many times that it no longer seemed creepy to him. He also admired the Victorian clothes that were on it. One thing that could be said about women's clothing from the Victorian era was that it was incredibly elaborate.

Alex sat down at the fabric station in the workshop. He saw a couple of sewing machines, but he didn't know the difference between them. "What in the world is a serger?" he asked in the empty room.

The sewing machines were completely mechanical, as evidenced by the gear shaft protruding from the wall into them. They didn’t plug into the wall like the ones from his world.  Weird.

Alex wanted to finish the test as soon as possible to demonstrate that a cute doll would not perform better than a functional one. As a result, he chose the toga outfit. He cut a few pieces of fabric with a pair of scissors, placed the toga over the doll's head, and tied another piece of string around it to form a little belt. He drew a smiling face on the ceramic plate that served as the doll's face using an ink pot and quill. His new toy was ready to be tested. He placed it on the testing bench's mount as the gears locked it into place. It began to spin and shoot arrows. Alex watched with interest, attempting to spot any variations from the previous day's tests. After watching the entire cycle, which lasted twenty seconds, he gave up. “Ugh, this is not simple at all.  Hopefully it is good enough.”

Alex pondered the significance of attempting the first wave of the tower defense game. He observed that his phone was completely charged on the mount situated on the table. He found it peculiar that a dungeon had the ability to charge his phone, but he chose not to question it. The phone displayed the words “Wave 1” and had a start button below it. If he pressed the start button, the wave would emerge from the chute at the end of the table along the rail that led to the dollhouse-sized castle on the opposite side. Alex decided to delay things a bit longer by taking some photos of the castle and the rest of the game table. He could show them to his friends later. He placed his doll in the tower nearest to the chute and returned the phone. He hoped that wave one was extremely simple. Typically, wave one was intended to be “baby’s first dungeon” difficulty. His finger hovered over the start button. He pressed it.

The table started making a whirring and ticking noise and gears, drives, and shafts started moving. The automaton drew an arrow and knocked it in its bow, then rotated to face the chute. A blue-skinned female doll attached to the rail emerged from the chute. She was much cuter than Alex's archer clockwork doll, with long cyan hair adorned with seashells and a thin, sleeveless dress that revealed her cleavage. Alex was captivated by her. The doll then placed both hands on her chest and began to sing a wordless song, whose enchanting notes washed over him.

[Alex has been charmed] his phone rang out.  It should just shut up.  

He was busy listening to his mistress's song.  He felt like she was his everything.  He would do anything she asked.  His only desire was to please her. The archer started firing from the little tower.  The first and second shot missed as the siren got closer along the rail.  Alex panicked.  He wanted to make the doll stop.  How could he create something that would hurt his mistress?  However, he dared not even move unless ordered.  He knew his place and mistress knew best. He watched the battle intently. Then the archer struck the doll in the head with one of the toothpick sized arrows.  Alex was horrified.  Then he was not.

[Alex is no longer charmed]

[1 monster defeated]

Alex fell to his knees.  He felt violated.

melchi

Edited 9-2-2023