"That's your first concern here? No spare thoughts for the Dragon that almost killed you not ten minutes ago?" A bit absurd to move on so quickly, I think. And I'll certainly have to complain to Granzine for saying that there wasn't anything dangerous out here. "Don't you at least want to see the corpse?" No need to mention my own reasons for wanting a look.

"Haah, what for? The Trees killed it. So we can't exactly loot it now can we?" Fair enough, but thats not the point. He turns away and his eyes take on a distant look. Guess the Wise Balms are talking again. Then he turns back to me. "Well, they say you have a reason. Seems they don't really get it though. Care to explain?"

"Mmmm." Kinda don't wanna say exactly. "Lets go with, studying the corpse to learn how to make better Automatons?" That should be enough of an explanation for it. He grunts in affirmation, then starts walking back the way we came. I tilt my head, then scratch at my cheek and follow along.

When we return to the location of the Lesser Dragon's fall, an interesting sight awaits us. Its head is fully detached, but there isn't any blood on the ground, instead it seems like a large section of its neck was incinerated instantly, as there is nothing but ash between the bulk of the body and the head. Despite that, there isn't so much as a scorch mark on the forest floor.

I stare a moment, a bit in awe of the power and precision of whichever tree cast that spell. Then I go ahead and scan the corpse. {Lesser Dragon corpse identified. Generating randomized partial blueprint. . . . Component blueprint [Mechanical Dragon Wings] generated} Eh?! Why'd that happen?! . . . Is it, because I wasn't the one who killed it? Er, no I definitely have some blueprints from the others' kills. Did that still work because they're closely related to me and my skill? I slump slightly. "I think, I'm done here for now."

"That was pretty fast. Guess you just needed a closer look at it?" He kicks at the head lightly. "So, off to the Napalm Balm?" His single mindedness is almost admirable, if a little unsettling. I straighten up, and start walking north, figuring I'll find the way when we get near the clearing.

I keep my eyes open for any sprites or Ampagu as we walk. "If you're in such a rush to get to it, why didn't you just ask the Forest about it?" Chatting while we walk again. Something to pass the time. He seems caught up in thinking about that for a while.

"I tried to. They're just, not very good with details like directions." He waves his hands a bit dismissively. "O'course, they never really travel much. Ahho! Also, I'm not even certain they can see the same way a Dwarf might."

"Did you really have to make that joke?" I give a melodious sigh. Then, decide I might as well try to get some information that has been bugging me a while. "Setting that aside. Do you mind if I ask some questions about being an adventurer? Guildmaster Granzine, kinda signed me up without asking me or explaining anything."

He snickers briefly. "Sounds like something he would do. So, what do'ya need to know? I'm an E rank, and passably experienced as such go. Probably could have moved up to D rank by now if I focused on business instead of pleasure." His hand moves to his woodsman's axe at the word pleasure.

"Well. Theres a solid starting point. How do the ranks work. I have, some of my own assumptions on that already, probably matches monster rank, goes from F to at least A. Likely has some qualifiers beyond just combat ability. But it would be better to know for sure."

"Well, technically there are also G ranks. For monsters and Adventurers. In an unofficial capacity anyway. Basically, thats what you call kids who hang around hoping to become adventurers and occasionally help out in little ways, but can't actually sign up yet. And A isn't the highest. It goes A, then S, then X. Though there aren't any X rank adventurers in the Bedhal kingdom."

"Monsters too? How would something be a G rank monster? Goblins are really weak and still manage an F. Are Slimes G rank? I guess those are the weakest monsters I've met so far." I pause, then hold up a hand. "What rank are Lesser Dragons?"

"Lotta questions there. Okay, so Slimes are F rank. Pretty sure. G rank is just for monsters that are too weak to have a status at all. Like, mutated bugs and stuff before they evolve enough to be dangerous. And, Lesser Dragons are technically E rank, but they're on the high end of E, and their stats grow quickly when they level up, so they often end up stronger than most D rank monsters."

"So, the ranks only indicate the starting point? So, could you, in theory, encounter a high level goblin thats stronger than a low level Lesser Dragon? Probably not likely though. It should definitely evolve well before then. Though I guess Evolution is usually something where you have the choice whether to do it or not, so if it opted out and just kept leveling up. . . Weird." I pause and start doing the math. "Ahhh. A goblin would have to be around level one hundred and twenty to have stats about as high as the level twenty five Lesser Dragon we just met. And thats just the difference of one rank? Yikes. Dragons might be an exceptional case, but. The power escalation at the higher ranks is probably insane."

"Oh hoo. You're probably right on that. Never gave it much thought. Anyway, back to adventurers?" Woops, went on a tangent there. I nod. "Right. Well, the ranks aren't purely about combat, like you said. Its all about merit I guess. The amount of work that you've put in individually or in a party. Though if you're solo or a direct combatant such as a Warrior or a Mage then you'll have combat tests between ranks. Other classes will have their own tests, but I don't know too much about that."

"Lessee, since you just signed up you'd be F rank for sure. So you'd need to complete fifty rank appropriate quests, and the test will probably be a fight against an E rank monster. On top of that they'd probably pick something to challenge your specific fighting style." He moves a hand up to tap at his staff. "For instance, my test was a fight against a Big Fire Slime. Slimes are hard to damage with melee attacks, doubly so with blunt weapons. And Big Slimes are ten times the size of normal slimes, so hitting the core through the body is a lot harder. Lastly, the weapon I was using at the time wasn't fireproof."

"Which means that I'll probably have to fight something thats just rather strong huh? Since I use both a sword and magic it'd be hard to find something that I'm a bad match up for. So, that Lesser Dragon was a preview of what I have to look forward to." I snicker, then move on. "What about the relationship between the Adventurers Guild and the Kingdom?"

"Pretty good? What did you expect?" He looks over at me, wondering what I'm about. That aside, I think I've spotted the edge of the clearing now.

"Well, thats. Not quite what I meant. Like, is the Guild beholden to the Kingdom, or does it extend to other nearby Kingdoms? Does every Kingdom have their own Guild? That kind of thing."

"Ohh, that. Kinda goes both ways really. All the Adventurers Guilds are connected, but there are like, divisions based on Kingdoms. And the Guilds pay taxes to the Kingdoms they're in, but aren't counted towards the Kingdom's military power. Since Adventurers are prone to traveling, often even across countries, keeping them a bit separated is important." His hands fidget a bit. "There are other kinds of Guilds though. For instance, I'm also a part of the Carpenter's Guild, though the town doesn't have a branch of that. Which works a bit differently. From what I understand, any group of people working towards a similar goal will end up becoming a Guild according to the System."

"That sounds interesting. And I take it that Adventurers are considered a rather broadly defined group relative to most others? Hmm. Could a group within one Guild form a sort of Sub-Guild?" We walk into the clearing, then, instead of answering my speculation and the question that followed, he rushes forward to the tree in the center. "Of course."

"Ho ho hoo! I've never seen a dead Napalm Balm with so little damage on it!" He easily scales the side of the tree to take a closer look at the holes from my pressurized Aqua Shots. "So this is what that spell you used could do huh?" He drops back down and approaches the spot where I had shaved away some of the wood to get to the magic stone. "This spots a little weird though." His index finger prods around the divot from the stone. "Magic stone? How'd you find it so easily?"

I walk over, noting that the flammable sap has already dried up as I approach. "Playing around with Magic Perception. I could probably refine the trick more. But it worked pretty well in this case."

"So, not something I could learn very easy? Damn. Getting the stones out before cutting up the wood is a pretty valuable thing to do. Normally I'd be reasonably likely to break the stone, and even mess up the wood a bit when I'm trying to cut it." He shoos me away and pulls out his axe. "Still, this is a decent starting point to cut, so the little bit of extra damage is negligible."

He starts chopping away at the tree. It seems to be going very quickly to me, just a few swings have already left a deep wedge almost a quarter of the way through the thick tree. But thats probably from a Woodcutting skill, and maybe that Axe? "Say, whats your axe made of?"

"Oh, this old thing? Bone Wood and Mithril." He takes another swing at the tree. "Its pretty sturdy. The Mithril cost a fortune to buy and get forged into an axe head, but I cut and carved the Bone Wood myself."

"Bone, Wood?" That sounds like a weird tree. "Is that a tree made of bone or just one that looks like it is?" He repositions and starts hacking away at another side.

"Its from a Marroux. They're pretty small trees. This axe was carved from a whole trunk of one. They sort of grow in clusters. Though not quite a bush. Anyway, they take root in skeletons almost exclusively from gigantic monsters. Though huge piles of smaller bones left out can sometimes grow them too. I'd guess the latter then, since they're eating the bone, instead of breaking it and covering themselves with it. Oh, also. Nobody knows quite how they actually reproduce. They don't have seeds or anything." Spores then? Or do large quantities of bone just turn into trees on their own in this wild world? Theres a creaking splintering noise. "Timber! Ho hoo!"

Flynt jumps away from the tree, and I take a couple steps back as well. The tree is rather loud as it crashes to the ground. Once its down, he steps back in, chops a bit more to make sure its fully separated, then taps the trunk once, the bulk of the tree simply vanishes. So thats what Warehouse skills look like from the outside.

"Alright, so on to the lumber for your workshop? A hundred treeeeeeees. Yeah!" He grips his axe and looks around at the trees around the clearing. "Can I count on you to keep watch? Shouldn't be anything properly dangerous this close to the deep woods, but I'd rather not have my ass bitten by a dire wolf while I'm caught up in my passion for wood."

"I kinda figured that was half the reason we both came out here instead of just you. But, don't you want the tree stump here?" I gesture towards the remains of the tree.

"Haah? I'd love to take more of the Napalm balm. But I don't have a shovel and actually digging out a complex root system is pretty hard in the first place."

"Well. Sapph and I could try using Earth Magic to move the soil away from it? Plus, I wanna see if theres any evidence of whatever caused the tree to Mutate."

"Eeh?! Doesn't Earth Magic just make rocks and stuff? Dwarvish Mages are best known for Earth Magic, and I've never heard of them trying to use it that way." Despite his doubt, he is staring at the stump with a bit of a goofy grin.

"I, don't know. I guess I haven't tried it before. But I don't see why not. In fact, since it wouldn't be breaking the laws of conservation of both mass and energy it should be a lot easier. Seriously. Even basic Magic just flips the bird at the laws of physics, so using them in ways that doesn't do that should work great."

"I have, literally, no idea what you're saying. But if you can get the stump out, I'll be sure to put my all into building your workshop!" He's so excited he throws his hands in the air, which is slightly terrifying while he's holding a bone white axe in one hand.

"Okay, calm down. I'll need a bit to come up with a spell for it." I think through it a bit, coming up with a, perhaps slightly lazy, but passable chant. "Alright, Sapph, if I use a spell, do you think you could copy it?" She flies off of my head, turns to face me and shows a determined expression while projecting affirmation with her telepathy.

"Here goes something then. Ehm. . ." I draw out fifty points of Mana and convert it into the petrichor sensation of Earth Mana. Then I sink it into the soil around the stump and move it outwards in a slowly spreading spiral. "O Earth hear my call, act as water and flow away from all other things. Mudslide!" 

The ground ripples, then seems to slip away from the focus of my magic, pushing outwards and piling up in a circle beyond the spell's range. In practical effect, I seem to have created a ten meter sphere where soil is broken down into a loose texture and repulsed, though the spell's effect comes to an end before all of the soil in that area of influence makes its escape. Still, it has dug up a fair portion of the roots already. [Earth Magic 1›2]

"Not bad, but I should be able to do better. Somehow? I don't know exactly. Maybe theres some way to give the spell a consistent flow of mana instead of just the amount released to cast it?" 

"That was crazy! Uhhoo! Can you cast it again?" He stares over the edge of the small hill surrounding the crater around the stump.

"Gimme a second. I did use a fair bit of my mana, you know?" I pull my feet up out of the disturbed soil and shake them off lightly as I ponder the idea of a continuous spell. I repeat the spell, and release more mana into the active area of the spell as it works, which does end up keeping the spell going, though it seems like the effect of the spell dipped a bit after it burned through the initial MP investment. The soil down this deep looks, richer? And, I'm starting to see areas where the roots are wrapped around something white, and a bit, gross looking. There are also some rather, large worms around. At least, I think they're worms? Not terribly active though. Most of them seem undisturbed about the soil moving away, with only a few writhing sluggishly.

"Looks like that's about as good as the spell will get. Sapph, can you start on the roots that spread further out while I keep going down at the main trunk?" She nods then starts casting a smaller version of the spell around one of the larger roots. I wait a bit to recover most of my MP, which seems to recover at a rate of about one point per second. I figure I'd waste a bit of time by scanning the worms. Though just using scan gets [Gluttonous Lumbricus] so its stats are, probably too weak to count, like Flynt had said before. Deep Scan's results are a bit different. And more interesting. [Gluttonous Lumbricus: A Mutated worm that feeds in shallow soil and rests deeper down. Tends to hibernate for days after feeding]

Once my MP is capped off, I cast again, this time, aiming to unearth the white thing I saw before. Unsurprisingly, as more of it is uncovered it becomes clear that it is a mostly rotted corpse of something. Mostly just the skeleton with some still visible ligaments and a few muscle scraps left on it.

It takes over an hour for the two of us to completely unearth the tree's roots and the large skeleton of, whatever. Flynt helps to untangle the roots from the remaining bones. Whatever this creature was, its several times larger than the Lesser Dragon. And it had three heads, each one having its own completely different structure. "Don't suppose you can guess what this was?" He shakes his head, so I go ahead and use deep scan.

[Grimm Chimera Skeleton: The remains of a wretched amalgamation of multiple monster corpses, created by the foul magic of the Cursed Bloodline of Grimm]

"Grimm Chimera? Whats the Bloodline of Grimm?" Flynt shuddered when I asked the question. Then he furrows his eyebrows in confusion. "I take it you don't know either? But your immediate reaction implies that its something pretty bad. Even if you don't know." I use deep scan on the phrase 'Bloodline of Grimm'

[Bloodline of Grimm: An ancient bloodline that has spread throughout many races, cursed by the Goddess Orian for their sins]

"Yeah. I'll have to look into that more later. Seems like it'll be important." Yeah, thats got Big Bad vibes. I shrug, then wave at the tree stump and roots. Flynt gets the point and stores it. Sapph flies back to my head and collapses up there, apparently she wore herself out. Flynt and I climb out of the crater, then I turn to look down at the skeleton. "So. Dunno bout you. But I think we should burn that thing."

"I guess. It is kinda creepy. And its much too small for a Marroux to grow on it. . ." Geeze, how much bone are we talking for those damn things?! "So, do you know Fire Magic too, or do I need to take some actually flammable wood out of my Warehouse?"

"I do have Fire Magic, but I could probably do with a little help. Like, one of the leftover flammable fruit from the Napalm Balm?" His eyes pop open, apparently he hadn't thought of that. He moves away, takes the tree back out, plucks one of the few remaining fruit, stores the tree, then carries the fruit back over and throws it into the center of the crater. I draw out some mana, convert it to the fire element, and cast the spell "Fire Bolt."

A ball of flame about the size of a softball flies down onto the splattered fruit, catching flame and spreading quickly through the crater. The Gluttonous Lumbricuses start writhing and burning up quite quickly. The bones also burn much quicker than I expected. In ten minutes, theres almost nothing left of the skeleton.

"Well then. On to collecting the wood?"

After Flynt fills his Warehouse up with wood from a little over sixty more trees we head back to the town, and into the Adventurers Guild to talk to Marel.

My first question, right away, "So, who do we talk to about the zoning for the construction?" 

"I'd say you can just build it wherever you like. The town doesn't have any proper city officials. The Guildmaster and I are just about the closest thing to such. And as far as city planning is concerned, there's nothing currently in the works. So as long as its at the edge somewhere out of the way its fine."

"I see. . . Then, since the Guildhall is to the north, and the dungeon to the south. Perhaps to the east or west? If it's to the east it'd make it easier if we need wood for anything, though Goibniu and I will mostly be working with metal, there's no harm in using the workshop for other things."

"That sounds good to me!" Flynt cuts in, apparently liking the idea of borrowing the workspace for some of his projects involving wood from the Balm Forest.

"I see no reason to object to that. Though that does bring an interesting point. What precisely do you intend to contribute to the town with your workshop?" Marel adjusts his glasses. "There are already several independent smiths living here. Granted, most of whom would love a larger workspace, and the chance to get a look at you Automatons. But, still. We are pretty much set for tools, weapons, and armor. Bedhal is particularly known for its armor. Even in a small, nameless town like this we've got about all we need of such things."

"Well. . . My Class is Machine Smith. So I guess I'll work on creating machines? My main goal is more Automatons of course. But, I'm sure I can think of other things that would be helpful." In a bit of a panic for something to contribute, my gaze trails around the room, looking for a topic. Then I settle on the magic lantern things on the wall. Ahh. Electricity? Lights? Might even be able to recreate other things. "How about lighting? Those lamps on the wall. They're probably a bit expensive yes?" He raises an eyebrow, then gives a short nod. "I believe I can make an, alternative light source cheap enough to set up throughout the entire town. Streetlamps to light the public areas throughout the night, or even home lighting, if you think such would be useful."

"I see. Magic lamps are, costly to make. At least a gold coin each. Though even the magic stone from an F-Rank monster could light one up for a day." He thinks another moment. "Still, lighting the full town would be, quite the accomplishment. I think. Now, have you given thought to how to get a forge and fuel for it, as well as other tools?"

". . . I have a Tool Warehouse with a Magic Powered Forge in it. As well as a Smelter, and a couple other tools I need to make Automatons. I can do quite a bit with that. Though I don't know much about other tools. Might need some lessons eventually. So, I guess I'll start doing some quests while Flynt is building the Workshop to save up money for whatever I need? Though I'll likely leave that side of the business to Goibniu when the time comes. I like to think that I'm more the, Inventor, where as he could be considered the serious Craftsman. Get what I mean?"

"Ho ho, you're head is too in the clouds to handle money?" Flynt smacks my back jovially. "Guess we're not too different after all." I regret this already.

"A Magic Powered Forge? Just having that around would be enough of a contribution. Something that was in your dungeon tower then? Mmm. That aside. There is something else. Important for you to see. I think." He stands up and walks to the Guildmaster's door, and waves us over. He knocks lightly, then leads the way in.

In the room, Granzine is standing over a goblin corpse, one with a metal arm. . . I rush in at that point for a closer look. "Thats how the dungeon made Components into loot?! Ohhkay. Not quite what I had in mind. Still potentially workable though? . . ." I look up at Granzine. "Say, if it works for a goblin. . . Would you like a new arm?"

"I don't want a goblin's arm you crazy kid!"

"Well I didn't mean that! I just meant if I figure out how the arm works for a goblin, I could make one that would work for you. For starters, the one on this goblin wouldn't match your body at all. Too short and much too thin. You'd look ridiculous if we could even put it on you." I sigh softly. "Anyway, is it okay if I tear this apart a bit? Try to figure it out."

Marel cuts in. "No. You'll have to have your friends bring you one for yourself. We need this one for our report to the Capital's Guild about monsters with these, uhhh. Automaton parts? Since one dungeon is doing it, its only a matter of time before other dungeons do similar things. Besides, we can't have a bunch of blood spilled on the Guildmaster's office floor from you pulling apart a corpse."

"Other dungeons? Right, the Dungeon Avatar said something about a Dungeon Network. . . So, any dungeon monster could be, Mechanically Augmented from here on out? Yikes." But also a potentially beneficial development. "I guess the basic Automaton technology will be, hard to keep a lid on. Still. There are a couple things I think others won't have an easy time copying." Namely, the animation. And of course, the fact that my skill can research things I likely couldn't do on my own. "I guess, for now though we'll go back to working on my Workshop?" I look over at Flynt, and he responds with a nod.

We discuss the specifics of the potential Workshop as we swing by his house to gather more of his tools, which he happily has me carry with my Warehouse. By the time we settle on a site, we've already covered the basics of what the building will be. So he sets to work immediately, managing to use most of the wood we had already collected by the time night falls and he has to stop working. So the structure has already really started to take shape.

After another night reading randomly through Marel's library I make a second trip to the Forest with Flynt to collect the rest of the wood we'll be using. This trip goes much faster, given that we need fewer pieces of lumber and don't need to go deeper to speak to the Wise Balms or collect a special tree from somewhere out of the way.

Upon returning to the construction site, we get back to the construction. During which Crimson and their group come by, apparently having dropped off some loot at the Guildhall, I ask them to bring an intact dungeon goblin with a Mechanical Augmentation to me next time they come out. Aside from that, I assist Flynt as I can, even giving him some new ideas, like explaining how to build a large rolling garage door type thing. As well as segmented sliding doors for separating parts of a large room into effectively smaller rooms.

All told, it somehow only took him two days to complete the building. He insists that he still needs to apply some fine details, but the actual structure is definitely complete.

The building is even larger than the Adventurer's Guildhall. Much of the space is occupied by a huge workroom that I estimate to be about a hundred meters to a side. After that, Just to the north there is a storeroom about half of that size, then beyond that is a private living space of similar size to the storeroom.

The workroom has a large rolling door facing south, as well as a regular sized door facing the town on the west side's southern end. The Living space also has a door facing the town, but the storeroom doesn't have external doors. Only connecting to the other two sections.

The inside of the workroom has its own segments, it can be divided length wise into three sections, one that takes half the space furthest to the north, and the other two that are each half the size of the first. The workroom has an overhead space of about three stories, and the living space has three floors. 

Since Automatons don't need sleep, its more like a secondary storeroom for personal possessions. Kind of. It mostly has several large benches, as well as at present, twenty small storage lockers. It also has a few details that won't be useful, possibly at all, for us, but should be useful if we ever have any guests. For instance, a fireplace on the first floor. And a small kitchen on the second. The third even has a small guest room with a bed and everything.

Once Flynt has left for the day, I get to thinking, and decide. "Well. Now, all that's really left is to put a soul in it, I think." I look around at the existing structure, pondering where would be a good place to try such a thing. And my gaze settles on the fireplace. That seems a good a place as any.

I approach the cold hearth, then, set one of the logs Flynt provided for fuel on the metal log holder in the center, almost as a sort of, offering. Then I snag one of the Soul Cubes from my Soul Siphon and hold it out to the space under the log, I imagine the hearth in a more, metaphysical sense, as in the heart of the home, as I do so. Not sure if my intention will make a huge difference here. But why not?

The Soul Fragment almost seems to jump from my hand and settle down under the log. After a moment, the log catches with a dull red flame and the Soul Piece takes on a new form. That of a small red girl wearing a black dress. Kind of similar to Sapph of course. I go ahead and scan her.

Deep Scan. [Hearth Sprite: A lesser spirit born of a soul offered up to the idea of a home. Cannot leave its territory, but gains various benefits from those who live therein]

Sapph, who had been sort of wandering about investigating everything within ten meters of me suddenly notices what I had been up to and flies in front of my face, expressing her irritation both through her Telepathy and by flailing her arms and pouting. "Ahh~ Calm down Sapph. Shes, more like your little sister than anything.  Shes even a lesser spirit compared to you. Plus, she can't leave the building." Her pout remains, and she crosses her arms, then flies down to the floor to take a closer look. After a moment she seems to relax. Then she tilts her head. Though I can't tell what shes thinking.

Chaos_Sinner777

Woof. Hoping I can take things in a more adventurous direction soon. Excepting the research Anima still needs to do. Anyway. That lore dump sidestory I was thinking about is up now. For anybody who is interested but hasn't happened across it yet.