When we enter the workshop, Sergu runs further in, towards the sleeping Flynt and unnamed mannequin. Crimson, their troops, and I stop in the northern section of the shop. I take a closer look at the other Automatons. One of them has gloves with four blades jutting forward from the knuckles on each hand, and the other is wearing a chain around their waist that has a handheld scythe on one end and a solid looking weight on the other. "First order of business, are those the finalized weapons for them?"

Crimson looks between the two of them, the one with the kusarigama just nods, but the one with the claws speaks up. Their voice is a little gruff. "I like these as a weapon, but they're a little inconvenient." They fumble around a bit with some straps to get one of the gloves off, showing the point.

"Hmm. Oh! I could build the claws into your arm with a mechanism to extend and retract them. Buuut, then they'd be part of your body? Might not be able to make them into spirit arms at that point." I grab the free glove and take a closer look. The glove is mostly leather, with some metal to help hold things together. The blades have rods running through the back of the glove, but otherwise just look like knives. "Mmm. No. I think, it'd be better to redesign your hands and the claws a little. Then just, clip them on. Won't take up as much space. Pretty much just need to alter the surface that way."

I look over to the forge, when I spot Goibniu I point towards them. "Ask Goibniu to take care of that part, then I'll handle the soul stuff when they're done." They nod and run off. I turn to the other one. "And, are you ready now?" They remove the chain and sickle from their waist and hold it up. I grab a wisp of their soul and drop it into their weapon. When the darkness spreads across the weapon, I turn to Crimson. "So. Have you thought of names for them yet?"

There is a slight waver in their normally monotone voice. "I tried. I want to name them after colors, like you did for my name. But I don't know what to call them with just that idea." They fidget with their assassin's kit, occasionally pulling out small weapons like throwing knives or caltrops.

"Alright, I'll think on that myself. I even have a bit of an idea already after seeing their chosen weapons. But I'll need a bit to be sure. But, speaking of weapons, how many have you put in your kit?" While waiting on their answer, I restock my soul siphon from the soul fragments in their's.

They drop the weapon in their hand back into the kit. "Seven, including the first two. After I talked to the dwarf selling weapons, I figured I'd let the others go first so we wouldn't run out of money before they could get theirs." They take a moment to show off the other five properly. A set of a couple dozen steel caltrops, a pair of throwing knives, one made of magic iron, the other of steel, a long straight edged knife with a slight green tint, Scan labels it as an alloy of steel and mithril, and lastly a weighted net.

"Interesting. I'm not sure a net counts as weapon, exactly. But that should be useful all the same. Specifically with what I want you to do next." I tug at the netting slightly and mutter. "We could probably have made one with mana threads. . ." I shake my head and straighten up. "To get to the point, I need some more slimes, preferably intact. So could you go catch a few for me?"

Before they can respond, the minion with the claws comes back over. Their hands are a bit bulkier now, but they show off the claws, then release a mechanism to pull out the two sets of claws. Each set is now connected in a brace instead of just mounted in parallel on the back of the gloves. "Goibniu wanted to do it fast, to get back to work on, whatever they're making."

"I see. Guess it was a little rude of me to push that off on them. Much like it was rude of you to cut in so quickly there. We were having a conversation, you know?" They sigh and rub the back of their head bashfully. "Oh well. It's good that it was fast. Means you can go on the mission I have for Crimson too."

I grab ahold of both sets of claws, and set them together in one of their palms, then reach out with a spectral hand to grasp at their spiritual body. When a wisp pulls free, I drop it into the claws, when darkness spreads over both sets I nod and look back to Crimson questioningly. "Yeah, we'll catch some slimes. And avoid killing anything if we can."

They wait till the claws have settled before moving out. When the claws are reattached to the automaton's hands, the blackening spreads across their hands about to the wrist. They seem a little concerned about it, but when it stops there they shrug. I look over to the one with the chain and sickle to see how that turned out. The blackened chain is longer now, the weight is blunter, and the scythe part looks a little bigger and spikier for some reason.

I watch as the three leave, my gaze lingering a moment after they're out of sight. Finally I turn to look at what Sergu has done so far. Flynt's shirt is off, and the green paste is smeared on his chest and forehead. I turn my gaze away from there and consider what I'll do while waiting for Crimson and co to come back. Suppose I'll try something else first? Hmmm. One of my wisdom boosting ideas? I think I'll go with the newer idea I had, and if that doesn't pan out, then I'll try the first one. So, let's see, I don't have silicon on hand, nor do I even know how microchips work. But maybe I can make the magic equivalent to that?

I start by taking the leftover topaz from Sapph's staff, and using the gem binder to fuse them together into a single sheet about the size of a credit card. After that, I look through the gems for a pointed diamond, when I find one small enough, and with a sharp enough end I make a simple pencil sized rod of molten metal, and stick the diamond on the end of it. I use my spiritual hands to firmly mold the metal around the bulk of the diamond, leaving the pointed end out, as well as make a small, spoon like structure on the other end of the rod. Once that is cooled, I retrieve a small container with some magic dust in it.

I use the crude diamond stylus to scratch a simple circuit pattern into the card. Then use the spoon end to pour magic dust onto the card. I shake it carefully to let the dust fall into the crevices, then tilt the card over the cup to dump away the excess dust. I flash a wave of mana through the card, fusing the dust in the pattern into the card itself, but doing so quickly enough that the gemstone doesn't convert the magic dust into more of itself. Thus leaving golden circuits on the card. Then I repeat the pattern on the other side.

I take a moment to look it over, then extend my mana threads to connect to the nodes on the card. After that, I feed mana into it through my threads to see what happens. I watch carefully as the mana flows through the pattern, but, about halfway through the circuit seems to suck the mana up instead of letting it go the rest of the way through to the other end and back into my threads. I increase the mana to see if anything else happens. It seems to become saturated at about twenty points of MP, but still isn't doing anything.

I hum slightly, disconnect my threads, then use both forms of Scan on it to see what I can learn. [Magic Topaz Circuit(Incomplete): Water Attribute Resistance +10%, MP -20: A Magichanical tool that consumes MP to provide beneficial effects. Made from Topaz, it grants water resistance, but due to an unfinished design provides no further bonus] So, I made a fancy accessory? Might be exclusive to automatons at least. Not, exactly what I was going for. But maybe if I finish it, it could do what I was after. Taking a hit to my MP would kinda defeat the purpose though? No. Expending a little MP for extra spell power would be worth it. That said, more water resistance? Geeze, I'm gonna have to become an ocean explorer at this rate.

I reconnect to the circuit and check my status. It seems to just keep my MP at 220/240 instead of reducing the cap. I hum again, then disconnect. How do I complete it? The only thing that comes to mind immediately, is that I need to find the appropriate pattern for a given effect. . . Artificer, research Magic Circuit patterns? {Begin research for basic Magic Circuit Patterns(Y/N)} Yes. {Time for current research topic and queued research topics 354.4 hours} "That's like two weeks! What the hell?!" No wait, still had research for the Napalm Balm type machine. Either way, damn.

"What are 'weaks'?" I jolt and almost drop the Circuit. Apparently Sergu snuck up on me while I worked. And from her pronunciation, it seemed like she was copying the word, instead of saying the dwarvish equivalent and having that translated.

"I was reacting to a skill of mine. Weeks are a measurement of time equal to seven days. Do the dwarves not use weeks? Or do you just not know that word? . . Huh. How long did it take you to learn Dwarvish?"

"Uuuu, a season or so? Before that it was pretty hard to communicate. Ended up having Marel use scan to read things I wrote in Koboldese, but that only worked one way. Still helped though." She looks thoughtful, the wags her tail excitedly. "Wanna hear me say something in my native tongue? Haven't had much reason to use it lately!" Without waiting for any response from me, she makes a noise like a cross between a snake hissing and a bird squawking. {Language detected: Enlightened Koboldese. Begin tuning Voice Box (Y/N)} Sure. Why not? {Tuning time: 20 Hours}

"No idea what you just said, but I'll learn soon enough." I walk to the storeroom to grab more materials and stash the incomplete Circuit. "But I think I'll keep working on my experiments for now. . . Unless I need to pay you for the spirit stabilizer or something?" That was intended more to ask why she's still here, but if need be, I will.

"Nah, I just added it to his tab. But it looked like you were doing something interesting, so I thought I'd watch. You watched me making a potion after all, so it's totally fair, right?" She seems pretty self-assured about that, and she isn't wrong, per se. "Also, I introduced myself again there."

"I see. Well. I'm not going to embarrass myself by trying to repeat your name right now." I throw a batch of gems into the binder and fuse them into a small automaton's brain, about a third of the size of the normal one. Then I connect my threads to it and check my stats. It didn't make a difference. "Damn, I'd hoped a second brain would raise my wisdom. The bigger brain from the giant body does a little? Not as much as you'd think, but still." I disconnect from, and set aside the smaller brain. "Suppose I'll need some other way to innovate."

"You're not going to draw those lines on it? They looked pretty cool on that little thing before." Could be interesting, once I actually have usable patterns. For now, I shake my head in response. "Well, can I try drawing on it then? I wanna try."

"That's a slight waste of resources, but I guess I don't have any other plans for it now that it's already assembled like this and not useful for what I wanted. So, knock yourself out? I'll make some more magic dust for you." I return to the store room to grab a couple magic stones. When I do, I pause while staring at one. What happens if you put a soul in a magic stone? I laugh aloud at the idea, then drop a soul fragment into the one I stopped to look at.

A black light forms in the center, then starts to spread out, almost seeming to devour the faintly golden tone of the near translucent crystal. After a bit, the darkness swirls into a uniform sphere, compresses until it's smaller than the magic stone had been, then hardens? After the black ball has settled and not changed for a few seconds, I scan it. [Dire Wolf Soul-Stone(Dormant): A soul that has taken on the traits of a monster by usurping its core. Currently inactive] "I've, just done something crazy again, haven't I? Oh well. How do I wake it up?" After a few seconds of drawing a blank, I hold it up for Sapph to see. "Is it okay if I put this in your pouch? I'd like to keep it close until I figure out what to do with it."

She flies over to the small sphere, looks over it curiously a moment, then touches the top of it. Her hand rubs across it as if she were petting it, but that doesn't seem to do anything. She looks up at me and nods slightly, though she has a pensive expression. I loosen the top and stash the soul stone in the bag alongside Sapph's gem. After cinching the pouch, I grab a pair of magic stones and return to the workshop.

 When I walk back up to Sergu, I see that she has already finished etching what I can only describe as, tribal tattoo patterns onto the brain? A sort of cross between thorns and flames printed on each side. Or perhaps like branching horns. I hold the magic stones over the cup and compress their mana fields until they break, then I hand the cup over to her. She has me hold the brain up as she carefully pours dust onto it, keeping the cup under where she is spilling it to catch whatever falls. She starts wiggling and whistling as she works. Once all the marks are filled she straightens up and plunks the stylus into the cup before setting it on a counter. "Aaaaaaallright! Can you do the last part? I'm not sure I could do that quick thing with my mana."

"Sure, sure." I hold it up and pulse my mana through it. The brain looks kinda cool when the gold ripples through the marks. "Though you should have decent mana control skills. At least two of your magic skills are at level five, right? None of mine are over level two." 

"No, my mana control skills are both at level two. I haven't really put any work into them. I just cast a lot of spells of each element to grind up the magic skills to use them for my alchemy. Though it seems like that doesn't work after level five." She takes the brain back and turns it over a few times. Then holds it up for me to see. "So, what do you think?"

"You can, level those up just by casting a lot of spells? . . Huuuu~ That works well with an idea I had a while back." I shake my head and look at the brain. [Raging Automatons Brain: Attack +20, HP Regen+.5 per second, Bestows Skill[Berserk] as a Class Skill when installed, MP -50] {Raging Magic Circuit Pattern Identified} "What the hell!? Why'd your first attempt get such a useful result?! Mine didn't do, anything!" I sigh, then share the displayed information with her.

After she's had a moment to process it, she speaks up. "I just kinda copied the war paint I used to see some of the warriors in my old village cover themselves in." She traces the now completed lines on the brain. "Looks like they had the right idea that this sort of thing makes you strong? At least for automatons."

"Suppose you're right. I should use it for something after all." Let's see. Do any of my blueprints work well for a smaller brain? {Automaton-Kobold Type, Autotéras-Dire Wolf Type} "I could make a Kobold Type Automaton, or a Dire Wolf Type one. Which would you prefer?"

"Whaaaa? You're letting me choose? Well. It has to be the Kobold type! I'd love to have somebody to chat with." That's not quite how that. . . Ah well. I'll just do it. I nod, then look over to make sure Goibniu isn't actively using the forge. Once I've confirmed that, I let my skill take over for the creation of the body.

While I'm working on that, Crimson and crew return, three slimes, and a big slime in tow. "Why'd you bring one that big? Actually. That's good, I suppose I can use it like that still." This design actually has a mouth, likely because the teeth are a passable weapon, much like the claws. Once the body is assembled, I put the magic stone from the Kobold that had Claw Arts and Slow Regeneration into its heart, and animate it. When they come to life, I scan them.

I Deep Scan the Berserk skill, for safety's sake. [Berserk: A skill that consumes VP to raise strength, attack, and HP recovery, if it remains in effect after VP is exhausted, it will consume HP instead. Level 1: Rage: Enter and exit the Berserk state at will.] "Not bad. Suppose we'll have them level up a while with some of my group, then they can hang out with you most of the time as a body guard. Or, for company, if you prefer."

Sergu waves her hands in front of the new automaton's face and makes a growling noise. When they don't respond to that she switches to dwarvish. "Hey hey, you awake? . . . Animaaaaa, they're broken."

"No. It's just like the soil sprite earlier. They simply don't have enough SP yet. Once they level up five times they'll be more self aware. Mmm. I could probably speed things up? But no need to hurry." I walk over to Crimson to grab the big slime. "Thank you. I'll go ahead and make them all into Ferrofluid Slimes, starting with the big one. After that, feel free to go to the guild and look for a group to clear the dungeon with."

With a little help from the assassin, I throw the big slime into the gem binder, then grab a mass of metal, and some gemstones. After that, I repeat the process used to turn a normal sized slime into a ferrofluid slime, it works just the same, as expected. I use my spiritual energy to lift the big ferrofluid slime out, and place it in a basket to get it out of the way until I need it. Finally I repeat the process with the other slimes. After also setting aside two of the others I set the third on the floor in front of me and sit down to stare at it.

"Whoooa, it's like, a metal slime? Made of magic iron I guess. That's pretty weird." Sergu pokes at the dark metallic slime curiously. "Are you gonna wake it up too?"

"Not exactly. I'm going to try this body out for myself. And after that, I have a. Rather different use for them. Assuming I can use them the way I want. Though both will probably be pretty weird for me too." I laugh slightly then lean back. "Welp. Might as well get on with it then."

I change my pose to make sure my body will stay in place without me. Then I stand out of it and dive into the Ferrofluid Slime's machine core. I sense a vague charge of mana, then feel a shifting sensation all around. A bit like pulling on a latex glove, but I am both the hand and the glove? I shake that off and try to look around.

Naturally, I don't have eyes, and thus see nothing. There is some sort of sensation when I ignore the idea of sight. Something like a bubbly cloud near me. It has a sort of, curious feel to it. Going by the positioning, it has to be Sergu. I try adding my mana perception. The bubbly cloud feels more energetic after that. Easier to sense. I decide to ignore that and turn my focus inwards.

It takes a moment, but I manage to recognize my own perspective point as another bubbly cloud. Feels a little like trying to look at my own nose though. The bubbly feeling has two focus points this time. I'm guessing, the core itself and the magnetic field manipulator. Right, I can use that to move around. Somehow?

I focus my mana onto the manipulator, I can feel it energize, but can't tell what's happening. I feel a slight vibration, like the sensation standing too close to a speaker causes on skin, then the bubbly sensation from Sergu moves slightly further away. I keep my mana steady, and use mana perception on the metallic slime the same way I focus on my threads when I want to touch things. And, as I hoped, I gain a sense of touch. As well as an impression of the shape of my body, which is currently spiked out like a hedgehog.

I spend a few seconds shifting my mana around the manipulator, causing the shape to change at random. When I tire of that, I force my mana through the manipulator and use it to move the magnetic field around instead. Which works fairly well to smooth out the process of changing the shape. So I take it back to a sphere, then try to move. I sort of lean the way I want to go, and that does, sort of work out. That's, enough playing around for now.

I transfer back to my favored body, stand up, and reach down to the slime body with my magic threads reaching out. My threads burrow through the inert slime to connect to the machine core. Then I assume control of both bodies at once. I grip the small core in my hand, and use the magnetic field to reshape the metal into a simple sword. I raise the metal slime sword aloft and gaze up at it with a sense of accomplishment.

"Now, a few repairs and an upgrade, and I'll have a convenient weapon for that body." I take a moment to store the core in an open space in my arm before retracting the liquid metal into my body as well. Then I turn to Sergu. "Sorry if I startled you while testing out an unfamiliar body."

"Ah! No. It's fine, I was leaning in too close anyway." She waves her hands and shakes her head. "That was really interesting though. I'd love to see you trying out other bodies sometime."

"If you like. I'll keep experimenting. And upgrading what I've got at times. But for now, I've got a lot of relatively uninteresting work to do. And after that, I think I'll work on leveling up. So, if you'll excuse me?"

She snickers a bit at that, but then nods. "Alright. See you later Anima, and you too Sapph." She waves, then walks back towards Flynt, checking on him once more before leaving. After that, I take the giant body out of storage, drag the basket with the big ferrofluid slime over to it, and stare a moment at the damaged arm. Now, how can I do that slime welding trick myself?

Chaos_Sinner777

Now they are both machine and slime! Ha ha ha. Hua hua hua! Wha ha ha ha haaa!! No but seriously, for some reason, it seems like this sort of chapter is my favorite to write.