"So what are two handsome lads doing here in this mouldy old rank hole of a scrap heap?" Nuecus, the Thaumaturgic, asked as he twirled a miniaturised carriage around his finger.

Derrick, dressed in his shiny new armour, surveyed the scene in front of him. By his side, Nuecus stood garbed in his fancy miracle robes. There was no argument about it. They were definitely overdressed for the occasion.

Ahead lay the ancient scrap heap of Bluehill town's oldest construction yard. It was the oddest collection of rubbish, jumble and scrap Derrick had ever seen. No respectable builder would be caught dead in a place like this. There wasn't a single item suitable for building, only jagged offcuts of splintered and rotting wood that lay scattered among metal monstrosities. Derrick smiled from ear to ear. He was in his own private heaven.

There were piles upon piles of old metal; the remnants of mechanisms that must have been abandoned many years ago. Derrick was astonished to see that the vast number of these items had little to no rust on their surfaces. 'Some sort of ancient coating or special alloy,' he mused.

Derrick eyed Nuecus as the latter stood swirling the miniature carriage and pondered the intricacies of inertia within the shrunken transporter. Unfortunately, even his dwarven logic couldn't understand any of it. Nuecus’ type of miracle magic seemed far too outlandish. Instead, Derrick considered the old man's question.

"Scrap heap!" Derrick repeated as he looked around them and smiled at all the tiny and not so tiny treasures his sharp little eyes had spotted. "Well, before we get on with that quest business with the Fredreek fellow, I decided a brief field trip was in order. Your miracle trick with the carriage has given me an idea!"

Nuecus smiled. "And what, might I ask is that shorty?... Is it a mighty fine idea?"

Derrick beamed. "You may. And it is! I want you to help me create a tinkering workshop within the confines of this!" With a flourish, he produced his magical multi-tool and flicked it over to his companion. Nuecus snatched it out of the air and examined the intricacies of the device.

"What a horribly splendid idea!" he said with a rather mischievous grin spreading over his features. "I see that you and I will get along like crap and pancakes."

Derrick's face screwed up.

"Poor example!" Nuecus shrugged, defeated by his own curse.

"It's ok, I think I know what you mean." Derrick tried to dampen the flame of his new friend's embarrassment. "Great minds think alike."

Nuecus cheered up. "Yes!"

"Can you use your thaumaturgy and create a void in here so I can store parts?" Derrick asked, curiously.

Nuecus grinned and pulled up his sleeves. He held the multi-tool with one hand and drew a line down its length with the other. As his skin brushed the metal, a flourish of sparks flickered out in all directions.

"Done yet?" Derrick asked, clearly fascinated.

"Nope," the Thaumaturge replied quickly. Nuecus then savagely clawed at the object with strained fingers. His nails dug into the small crack, which quickly transformed into a vibrating fissure. Derrick stared in awe at the creation of a void, the inside of which looked like an expanse of endless darkness. Just enough space to contain the universe.

Bing!

A blue light flashed. The discombobulated far away voice of Fairy the fairy sounded from somewhere above.

"Nuecus the Thaumaturgic has enchanted the item Derrick's Multi-tool. The weapon has been upgraded from epic to legendary quality and has been given the enchantment: void storage."

"Sweet! Thanks, Nuecus!" Derrick cheered.

"You are most welcome!" the Thaumaturge smiled rather smugly at his own success.

With that sorted, Derrick set about delving into pile after pile of seemingly useless junk all the while extracting an assortment of bolts, screws and Samophlanges. Nuecus followed him silently, catching the items Derrick threw his way and putting everything into the device.

"Do you think we will need this strange black cloth material?" Derrick asked. "It looks way too tough to make anything clothing related."

They shrugged and threw it in. Neither of them particularly minded. Rather, they were more curious to find out just how much 'junk' the void storage enchantment could handle.

Their two brilliant minds had somehow merged as they searched for more and more interesting gizmos and gadgets. Without words, they progressed, enhancing the newly enchanted contraption. Whatever the result, one thing was for sure, this device would have the mechanical engineering power of a tinkerer partnered with the impossible magic of the miracle inclined thaumaturge.

"Oh, look! A box of used springs!" Derrick chirped. "Now all I need is a capacitor," he muttered as his greedy eyes ranged over the field of metallic dreams lying before him. Ideas for distinct possibilities and inventions popped into his head as he spotted fittings and clinkers.

"There!" he said as the green tint of glass caught his eye. Whatever it was, it had been partially hidden from sight by an enormous wall of debris. Derrick and Nuecus scrambled over the hump only to spot one of the most peculiar sights that they ever had the misfortune of witnessing.

Standing a little taller than its erected border stood a colossal statue of what could only be described as a mutant rat lady. The figure had the torso of a rather curvaceous woman and yet it was the face that made it so repugnant. It had a long snout complete with whiskers and tiny eyes. It also possessed a long rat-like tail, but the arms and feet were those of a normal person.

"What a beautiful divine statue of utter grotesqueness," Nuecus commented, clearly in awe of the bizarre artwork.

Derrick nodded in agreement and then pointed at the statue's beady, rat-like eyes. "That's what I'm after!" on top of the statue's skull was a large emerald crystalline mass. Derrick knew it was an old container for the working parts of a capacitor used in an age long ago.

Deciding that there was no other choice, he hiked up his socks, tied his beard in a knot and frog jumped into the air towards the rat statue.

He groaned as the hard metallic shell of its torso clanged against his armour.

"Careful!" Nuecus warned.

Derrick ignored him and scrambled up the neck of the metallic creature. "Here we go!" he grunted as he sat on its shoulder. "Pass me my multi-tool back so I can chop off its head," he called down.

"NOOOOooOOOOooooOO!!!" A little squeaky voice roared. A tiny figure blurred into existence from under a mass of boards and rags.

Derrick looked around wildly as he fought to focus his eyes on whatever just screamed.

The little fuzzy brown figure bounded forward in a blur of motion and flew up the statue lightning quick.

"You will NOT hurt, my, QUEEN!!" It's shrill voice commanded.

Derrick's jaw dropped as the small creature lunged at him with a snarl and knocked him off the statue.

"What the!" Derrick screamed mid plummet.

THUNK!

He hit the ground hard.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" he yelled, holding his now semi- concussed head.

The little brown creature cheered in triumph. "For my queen!" It jumped off the statue and dived directly towards Derrick's prone form.

Nuecus moved swiftly towards his new friend and scooped up the fallen multi-tool with his aged yet highly skilled hand.

"Nuecus has gained Derricks Legendary Multi-tool." Fairys voice reported. Its voice sounded far away still.

"Multi-tools cannot be customised by a non-Tinkerer."

"Multi-tool has been set to random output."

A split second before the creature was about to connect with Derrick a large round shape flew from the end of the multi-tool. It was covered by the strange black material they had just found and bordered by what looked like every spring they had just collected. In its centre in white was printed the words.

JUMBO TRAMPOLINE.

Derrick watched in pain and astonishment as the strange round object grew into a sizable black barrier which effectively shielded them from the rabid creature's attack.

BOING!

The trampoline flexed momentarily, and the little rat-like creature rebounded towards the hard statue.

"What?? Noooo!" The creature shrieked as it flew back through the air and slammed with considerable force into the unyielding sculpture.

Thud!

"Arrghhh!" the creature bellowed.

"What on green earth is that freakishly nimble thing?" Nuecus asked, his jaw dropping in astonishment.

Derrick sat up to get a better look as he felt his own jaw slacken.

What lay before them was a miniature version of the statue. However, this one was male, and every inch was covered with mottled brown fur.

"Ugggh!" it writhed on the ground in agony.

The strange round trampoline contraption wiggled and vanished out of existence. Nuecus offered a hand to Derrick. The dwarf scrambled to his feet, then stumbled towards the rat creature.

"Oi!" He spat and kicked a stone at it to get its attention. "Who or what are you? And why did you do that to me? It really bloody hurts!"

The little rat man-creature looked up and jeered at him. "This one is Scarnoot. Scarnoot's my name. Go die in a fire ya strawberry Garden Gnome."

"You little!" Derrick shouted and lunged for his throat, but before he could connect, he felt the old man pull him back.

"Calm down." Nuecus sighed. "The little rat is not worth it."

Scarnoot gave the old man a snide squeak that was all too easy to understand.

"You will not hurt my! QUEEEEN!" Scarnoot squealed as he scrambled off the floor and back up the statute's shoulder.

"Gimmie my Multi-tool back. I want to kill this little vermin." Derrick demanded Nuecus.

"Kill me?" Scarnoot laughed hysterically. "My Queen will kill this Garden gnome!"

"I'm not a damn garden gnome!" Derrick snarled back at him. "Why does everyone keep calling me that?"

Nuecus shrugged and passed the irrational garden gnome his magical shiny beating stick.

"Kill them, my Queen!" Scarnoot squealed once again.

"Hahaha. Stupid rat. That's only a statue...." Derrick spoke only to be cut off when Scarnoot pressed a hidden button. The eyes of the so-called Queen turned on and looked down.

"Brilliant. The disgusting statue is a giant robot. We are going to die! How fascinating," Nuecus said.

Bing! A blue light flashed.

"The quest. Scarnoot's girlfriend has been activated. Would you like to accept this quest?" Fairys voice reported, still sounding far away.

"Sure!" Derrick screamed gleefully.

"Kill them! Kill them all!" Scarnoot ordered.

The giant robotic girlfriend took a step forward.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" A robotic voice reverberated from the Queen.

Derrick harrumphed and flicked his multi-tool in his hand. A long axe blade extended from its end. Nuecus clapped his hands together and produced a long staff out of thin air.

"Lightning bolt!" Nuecus shouted as he lanced a tiny tinfoil ball towards the giant robot. But it bounced harmlessly off the machine and fell to the ground with no effect. "Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!"

"Seriously?" Derrick asked in alarm. "Not Helping!"

He ignored the useless attacks from the old man and bounded forward. As he dashed for the humongous leg, he slashed at it as hard as he could. The Axe blade bounced harmlessly off the outer shell of its robotic limb.

"No effect!" he gasped.

"Kill them! Kill them!" Scarnoot cried out again.

The robot lifted its unscathed leg and stomped down narrowly missing Derrick's tiny form.

"Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!"

"SHUT UP NUECUS!" Derrick demanded.

He jumped back out of the robot's reach and examined their situation. He eyed his multi-tool and then looked back at the useless layer of tinfoil that obviously was not lightning.

"Ah-ha!" he cheered triumphantly, as a wicked thought flashed through his mind. The Axe on the end of his multi-tool vibrated, and a layer of rubber coated itself over the handle between his fingers.

Click! A big red button popped out of the multi-tool and a blue glass power gauge slotted itself next to it.

"Derrick has levelled the skill Tinkering." Fairy sang.

"Multi-tool has gained the ability, lightning conductor."

A rumble of thunder resounded from the clear sky. A line of pure electric light rippled above. Energy instantly surged down to the scrap heap and collided with Derrick’s axe. The metal glowed white, and the blue power gauge glowed with supremacy.

"Lightning bolt?" Nuecus asked.

"Lightning Axe." Derrick corrected. Without another thought, he tore forward and swung his new weapon at the shins of the giant robotic rodent girlfriend.

"No!" Scarnoot cried in anguish as the Queen stumbled forward.

The blade had passed through its lower ligaments as if they were made of silk.

"Kill! Kill! Keeeelll!" the robot repeated as it attempted to keep upright.

Again, Derrick lunged forward and lopped off an outstretched arm, and then the other, in quick succession.

"Keeeel! Krreeeell! Queeeel!" the robot continued.

"Shut your trap!" Derrick commanded as he decapitated the Queen. Its head bounced on the ground all the while making weird beeping sounds and inaudible versions of 'kill'.

"Noooo!!! My Queen!" Scarnoot cried once more. "You cheat! Why you cheat? What have you done to my lovely?"

"I've killed it."

Bing. "Derrick has completed the quest, Scarnoot's girlfriend."

"You receive the loot, head of the Queen."

"You gain one thousand experience points."

"Nuecus has levelled up."

"Derrick has levelled up."

"Okay?" Nuecus questioned, not yet fully educated in the entire experience and levelling business.

"My queen," Scarnoot mumbled as he crawled towards the head.

Derrick released the tension on his lightning axe and the multi-tool faded back into its usual form.

"What?" Scarnoot cried out in shock. The head was hovering.

"Well, isn't that awful?" Nuecus commented.

Before any of them could react, the head darted towards Derrick. He raised his arms instinctively. Scarnoot squealed, still attached to his girlfriend's head as both he and the loot shot towards Derrick.

Birrrrr!

The end of the multi-tool opened automatically, and the Queen's head, with Scarnoot in tow, disappeared into the depths of the infinite void's storage facility. Pop!

Bing! The blue light flashed overhead once more. "Derrick has looted the item, Queen Capacitor."