A music box? After the first Voice Box is complete, that is my only thought. Having witnessed and indirectly participated in the production, I can say that the pins and the tines are all much more adjustable compared to an actual music box. For instance, the pins cover the entire cylinder and can sink down into it to avoid picking the tines, and the rigidity of the tines changes based on some sort of tension applied to them. All told, it might even be as flexible in the range of sounds it can make as a human's voice box. But even so, it looks like a small, wind up music box, open at the top and walled in on all other sides. Frankly, I can't even tell how its supposed to attach to an Automaton. Or how exactly it operates.

Funnily enough, my Artificer skill sets the first one aside and feeds mana to it from a slight distance to cover the enchanting, while beginning the work on the next one. Right around the time it finishes the next Voice Box, it has finished the enchantment on the first. And that cycle continues until it finishes the sixth, which it holds onto for the duration of the enchanting process. And only then do I regain control. Kinda wonder, can I cancel its actions when I stay conscious? I think I'll try that next time, just in case. Now, how do I use the Voice Box?

{Integrate component (Voice Box)(Y/N)} Yes! There is a clinking noise from the area of my torso, I look down to see my chest opening up like a pair of double doors. Its a little, uncomfortable to see, honestly. But whats that? Mana threads, running throughout my body? Ohhhh. The heart spreads out. So its more like a complete vascular system then? As I look around excitedly, already forgetting my disorientation about my chest hatch, I notice that the threads do still have a bit of a central bundle, right in the middle of my chest. If I were human, it'd be behind my sternum. Quite a bit smaller than an actual heart though.

Setting aside my fascination with my own inner workings, several of the mana threads reach out and wrap around the Voice Box, before dragging it into my chest. It settles into place a few inches over my heart, then the mana threads seem to merge into it, somehow welding it into place at the same time. There are a couple threads fused into the base of the comb, and several lead into the ends of the cylinder. Before my attention can drift off to something else in there, my chest compartment swings shut, then fuses back together into its previous, nearly seamless state.

Goibniu, who had been watching this full process, seems genuinely baffled at what just happened, despite copying some of my previous actions quite easily. Guess the Artificer does have some advantages after all. Well, here goes nothing. "Hello Goibniu. Can you understand me?" My voice has a bit of a melodic flow to it, almost like I'm singing when I try to speak, and it is kind of high pitched, in the range of Alto to Tenor I think. The Smith nods, then looks to the other Voice Boxes with a glint in their eyes. "Aha~ Yes, I intend to give you, and the others, voices as well."

I strike a pose with my right hand held out towards the Boxes, "Alright Artificer, integrate the remaining voice boxes into the other sentient Automatons." After a few seconds without so much as a notification I drop the hand. "Nothing? Well. This is a bit embarrassing. Hmmm. Does that mean I can only 'Integrate' parts into myself?" Can you at least add Voice Boxes to the blueprints for future creations? {Update all Blueprints (Y/N)} Yes.

"Hhaan~ Guess we'll have to learn to do it manually then." I grab a Voice Box, clear some space on the shelf, then wave a hand towards it. "Alright, Adam. Set down the slime and come over here. I'll figure this out and Goibniu can help fix up the others after that." The Automaton I call out to jerks and looks over our way, apparently surprised to be put on the spot like that. Then they set the Ferrofluid Slime next to the other one, then approaches the shelf. With another gesture from me Adam lays down in the indicated space.

"Alright, lets see. Bring up the blueprint for Automaton: Goblin Type?" The requisite info display appears in my mind after that question. "Ah, good. Now just a second so I can figure out how the chest parts fit together." Looking closely at the design I notice several 'Pressure points' that can be touched to cause various areas to open up. "Ah, the Artificer did have upgrades in mind? Or, repairs at least." I make sure Goibniu is looking close, then I reach along Adam's sides to touch the pressure points responsible for the chest cavity. 

Adam somehow looks faint, despite the lack of blood, skin, or detailed facial features, as their chest pops open, similar to how mine did before, though without the mana threads reaching out on their own. After a moment of looking around, I set the Box in the same point shown in the updated Blueprint. Alright, crunch time. How do we do this? . . . "Mana Control External?" I focus my mana onto the nearest segment of threads and sort of, try to drag the thread to the Voice Box. 

The thread branches instead of just moving. It looks similar to several roots growing from the main thread I was aiming for and seeking the mana I used to mark the trail. Once the first of the threads reaches the VB, the others quickly lock onto the target, and some other nearby threads also branch out to touch it, the Box starts to weld itself into place. After that the reaching threads quickly fuse into the Voice Box the same way mine had prior. After watching for a few more seconds to be sure everything has settled, I move my hands back to the pressure points, causing Adam's chest to swing shut again.

"Ah ha haa, that was kinda scary! Not as bad as when your chest opened up and your heart just, grabbed the thing, but still pretty bad." Despite the word choice, the voice sounds cheery, almost jovial. Its also a bit lower pitched compared to mine, perhaps a low tenor or a high baritone. What a peculiar fellow. Did they get that from me somehow? I blink at the smaller machine, then shoo them away and motion Gobniu onto the shelf. "Hey little guy, did you miss me?" Adam has apparently already gone and retrieved the slime.

"Alright Gobniu, I'll install your voice, then I want you to take care of the other three. After that, you can practice enchanting, then build more for when the remaining, currently non-sentient members of our group need voices. Meanwhile, I'll take the others out for to gather more materials." They nod at me and settle down on the work surface. I quickly repeat the process I preformed on Adam, now that I have an idea of what to do, and am less interested in looking around, it takes far less time.

Once I've closed their chest back up, Gobniu speaks, with a surprisingly deep voice, "That sure is interesting, real interesting. Now, how do I practice this, enchanting?" Oh that is bass. Very bass. Like, if I had a sense of touch, I'd feel it across my skin. Probably tickle too? Huh, should I use male pronouns for them? Well, something to discuss at least. I motion for them to move from the slab, then motion Emeth over.

I grab Emeth's club before they lay down, then hold the club over to Gobniu. "Just use mana control to pour mana into weapons and the like and you should get the skill before long." The Smith takes the club and looks at it thoughtfully, then sets it aside to get to installing the Voice Boxes. I move over to the forge to make a few more weapons to account for the extra units, as well as another couple baskets.

For the new weapons, I make two more clubs, two more pickaxes, and a long dagger. The dagger for Crimson, for obvious reasons. The clubs for one of the nameless ones with a normal goblin's stone and the Shaman like one, for close range defense. And the pickaxes for the other two with ordinary goblin stones. Should have used prospector stones, I suppose. But eh, they'll learn mining easy enough I think. The weapons look much better now, likely due to my Smithing skill being clear up to five already.

The Kanabo are straight and the studs are properly shaped and spaced. Now this looks like something an oni would use! Except goblin sized. Of course. Emeth, now done getting an upgrade, and Adam both seem to be staring at the newly made Kanabo for some reason. . . "Aaahm. . . Do you, perhaps want these?" I hold one out to each of them, Adam responds first, quickly grabbing the weapon, then retreating, and now they seem to be showing the weapon off to their slime friend.

"Well, if you don't mind. . ." They seem a little nervous, and their voice is, odd. Almost like they're trying to speak in two different pitches at the same time, both a neutral tone, and a higher pitched one. I roll my eyes slightly, then hold the remaining club out to them. "Thank you." They hoist the new club, comparing it to the old one, then set the old one down with the unworked metal. Apparently they'd rather treat the old one as scrap metal. I laugh softly, then forge fresh weapons for all the others, bar Goibniu, since the Blood-Steel hammer is quite nice actually, and myself, as I am still interested in my Arcane Threaded Long-Sword.

Once Crimson and Number 1 have their voices, Crimson with an oddly monotone, but neutral pitch voice, and Number 1 with a voice almost as deep as Goibniu's. I lead all but Goibniu on an expedition. We head out the front door in search of veins of magic iron. Thinking the goblins we had faced so far wouldn't be a threat at this point, I split the large group into two smaller groups. The other sentients forming one team, and me on the other with all the less developed ones. Besides, it might give me the chance to see what Wind Magic is like.

I lead my group down a path I hadn't traveled yet. This tunnel is surprisingly long, and has a gradual upwards slant. Huh, everywhere else I've been has seemed pretty much level? What's different about this path? After perhaps a kilometer or so and maybe five meters ascent, we come out to a large open space, within the space are multiple ore veins, similar to the gem vein I saw before, I quickly set the two Automaton's wielding pickaxes to mining, then turn my focus to the other thing I quickly noticed. A treasure chest sitting before a cliff. "To leave treasure at the end of a long path. How very, dungeon typical."

As I approach the chest I look down from the cliff to see what I can only assume is the dungeon's entrance. A great doorway with a swirling black vortex contained within, and no other view beyond. I can also see three other tunnels leading different directions, though there might be more I can't see from here. "So, a shortcut back from the end, with treasure. Cool. Bit of a drop, but I assume with the whole, levels thing, people are tougher compared to the humans I know."

Then I see motion from the portal. A short, stout humanoid, with tanned skin, a reddish brown beard, wearing chain mail and a solid helmet, and bearing a large war-hammer in hand, emerges. "A dwarf?" I mutter. Then I duck down to minimize the chance of being spotted. Scan.

Geeze, I'm six levels higher and his strength and vitality are almost as high as mine? And no skills? I don't quite accept that. More likely, I just can't see them for some reason. Deep Scan. [Hill Dwarf: A subspecies of dwarf with Vitality to match their Strength] Huh, guess that means normal dwarves are just known for their strength then? Shali heads off further into the dungeon. I'd rather not try to follow from here and not be able to find my way back to the tower. But. Perhaps we'll run into each other if I go back and explore through the tunnels more?

I look back to the others, noting that they are already done mining. Then turn to focus on the chest again, and open it immediately. Inside are a few things, most of which are interesting. First, an ingot of some blue metal I don't recognize, though deep scan shows it as [Water Iron: Magic iron with a strong affinity for water]. Don't know what I can do with that, but I look forward to finding out. The next item is a dark glass vial scan labels as a [Health Potion], strangely deep scan doesn't add a description to that. Doubt we can even use that, but worth keeping. The third item is perhaps the most interesting [Soul Sapphire: A gemstone infused with some measure of spiritual energy] Maybe I could use this to make an Automaton that I wouldn't need to animate? Aside from that there are a handful of bronze and silver coins, likely the local currency.

I put the items from the chest into a basket that wasn't quite filled with ore, then lead the way back to the tower. In the tower I put the materials next to the smelter, but the items from the chest in their own location. I turn to Goibniu, "Leave these things alone, I'll try some stuff with them later. But for now, I saw a person, and I'd like to look into meeting him." They nod, then return to focusing on the Crude Kanabo in their hand. Apparently they are still working on enchanting.

I lead the group of Blanks down the path towards the Goblin Smith's tent based hideout. We meet a few goblins along the way, though they're all weak, and pretty easy fights. None of us even level up. At the Smith's hideout I seem to hear some loud splatting noises coming from the direction of the Slime Pen. Huh. Do you figure that could be him already? I hold up a hand to get the Blanks to hang back while I head in.

I walk into the chamber just in time to see Shali bring his hammer down hard on a white slime. There are also the remains of several other slimes around. Unlike when I splatted a couple out of curiosity, the other slimes seem intent on moving away from Shali and the slime puddles, but are unable to escape the pen. "Heeeey~ What'd slimes ever do to you?"

The dwarf abruptly turns around with his hammer at the ready. "Rir? Fruy, y sadym syh. Pad E luimt kad y mud uv kumt vun cammehk oui uvv cusafrana." The dwarf says something that makes no sense to me. . . {Language detected: Bedhal Kingdom Dwarvish. Begin tuning Voice Box (Y/N)} Different languages. Should have figured. But a translation app on the Voice Box? Sure. {Tuning time: 12 Hours}

"FAT LOTTA HELP THAT DOES NOW!!" At my exasperated shout, the dwarf becomes more hostile, jumping the fence and approaching me. Oops, don't want my first encounter to go hostile. . . I set my sword down and hold my hands up to show my lack of desire to fight, which does seem to cause the dwarf to hesitate.

"Dnoehk du cinnahtan? Rir, csynd suhcdan ynah'd oy? Un, syopa. Clyh. E lyh caa ouin cgemmc, cu E kiacc oui ynah'd uha uv dra Nylac. Cu E'mm vekrd aedran fyo." After that dialogue, he continues my way with his hammer up, so I grab my sword and prepare for a fight.

I dodge his first downward swing easily, and slash at his torso as I move by. Doesn't seem to have done much damage though. Deep Scan. [Enchanted Magic Steel Mail: Defense +20: A well made, if simple piece of armor, its magical potential has been awakened] Ack! His armor is twice as good as my sword? During my moment of shock he manages to land a hit on my right arm, distorting the shape of the metal a fair bit and causing me to drop my sword. I jump back quickly and take stock of my situation. The first thing I notice, is that I can't move the fingers of my right hand now. Ahhh, a little damage in a bad spot gets in the way of the mechanisms? Shit.

"Urr, drec cfunt ec bnaddo faent duu ech'd ed?" The dwarf is looking down at my sword with a glint in his eyes. I set my jaw and sprint in, kicking him in the face while he is distracted. Then while he is recoiling with a bloody nose I grab the sword with my other hand and bring it up to stab at the unarmored parts of his body. I manage one stab at his throat before his hammer glows and suddenly slams into the side of my head.

I crumple to a heap ten meters away. Damn. He hit me pretty hard. Something feels. Off here. . . My senses are shutting down, and I can't move my body at all. No way, did I just go and die that easy? . . . . . . .

[Conditions met for Spiritual Evolution, due to your death the Spiritual Evolution is beginning automatically.] [Success, Nameless has Evolved into Spiritual Race [Machine Soul]] [Nameless identified as first [Machine Soul] Granting Unique Title [Machine Soul Progenitor]] [Granting Racial Progenitor bonus [Skill [Spiritual Damage Reduction] Acquired]] [To gain further bonuses from Unique Title [Machine Soul Progenitor] Increase the numbers of your race, or increase your race's influence in the world [Initial challenges, 1000 individuals and get your race recognized by the king of an established race]]

Uhmm. Damn. That was a long chain of notifications. Does that mean I'm not dead? I try to sit up and, move right out of my body? I seem to be made of a thin black mist with random specks of color scattered throughout. What?! . . Oh. My body died but I didn't? Uhh. Scan?

Uwaaah~ Thats. Odd. My physical stats are all gone. Guess that make sense. But why is my level back to one? Side effect of evolution? Deep Scan. [Machine Soul: A spiritual entity that can survive for some time without a body, typically dwells within machines] I shake my spectral head, then run past the dwarf towards the other Automatons I brought along.

Once I get within a couple meters of them, my skill acts up. {Transfer essence(Y/N)} Yes. {Select Vessel} The one with wind magic. My misty form scatters and coalesces around the Automaton. I have some sort of view of my essence sinking into the new body. It's, creepy. To say the least. Black mist worming its way into any gaps or openings it can find. Yeah. But after a moment my perspective changes, as I settle in. [Skills [Mana Control(Internal)] and [Wind Magic] Acquired] I shake my head, then motion for the other Automaton's to follow.

We head back into the slime den. Shali seems to have wrapped a bandage around his neck, but doesn't seem too put off by the injuries as he looks over my previous body. Alright, he hasn't noticed us yet. Scan.

Bastard leveled up from killing me?! I hand the club I'm holding over to one of the ones wielding a pick, which I set aside, then I point towards the dwarf. Get him, minions! The three machines charge in. While they are in motion I try to use Wind Magic. The phrase 'Air Slash' pops into my head, so I repeat it. Air Slash! My right hand moves on its own, making a swiping motion, then a moment later, blood spurts from Shali's back though there is no apparent damage to his armor. Apparently Wind magic is invisible, and not fully stopped by mail. He yells, but manages to turn around, just in time to get swarmed by a trio of metallic goblins.

He just barely manages a counter attack on the one still wielding a pickaxe before the two with clubs beat him down. His armor was clearly not as helpful against blunt weapons as it was against my sword. His last breath is choked by blood, and he tries to say something. But it really only comes out as a gurgle. Well. That was unpleasant. . . Say. Do you think?. . . Scan.

{Generating Blueprint: Automaton-Hill Dwarf Type} {Blueprint requires tier two components}

Aha! Neat. But why does it need tier two? Is it because its a person instead of a monster, or just about the stats? I look over the dwarf's corpse, then decide. Waste not want not. I strip him of all his metal gear, as well as some magic stones he had on him. Now what do I do about this? I stare at my previous body, a bit disoriented by looking at my dead 'Self'. {Salvage parts (Y/N)} A LITTLE SYMPATHY PLEASE!! After a moment to calm down, I affirm the action, and my skill dismantles the old body, sorting it into three piles. Reusable components, damaged but restorable components, and damaged beyond use. Funnily enough, the only item in the last pile is my old brain.

Bit of a shame, I was hoping I could at least study the heart and brain now that I'm not using them. See if I could figure out the difference between tier one and tier two. But, theres still the heart. Still, go ahead and integrate the Voice Box. Hope this little event didn't ruin that Tuning thing. I want to actually be able to talk to them next time I meet a dwarf. After the part in question is settled. "Alright, lets head back."

Back in the tower, the others seem to recognize me as, well. Me. Not even questioning my different body. I add the magic steel gear from the Dwarf to the pile of things I want to experiment with myself, then set my old heart and brain in the pile as well. The rest might as well be used as needed. Now, I need to check my status.

"EH?! I didn't use scan. Why'd 'Status' work now when it didn't before?!"

Chaos_Sinner777

Hoo boy, that was a fair bit longer. Also, sorry bout the spotty releases. Writing is a whim, and I also have work most days. Anyway, if anybody figures out the Cipher I used for the Bedhal Kingdom Dwarvish language, they win a digital cookie. Cause its amusing. Oh, and I'll mostly be sticking to chapter titles starting with an "A", with the exception of certain, important chapters.