Walking to the wagon, I watched on radar as Mathias circled out of the building, exiting the side of the church and moving to intercept me.

//MATHIAS

I acknowledged him just before he turned the corner of the building in front of me. He stopped for a second, just leaning his head over the wall, before stepping onto the road beside me.

“What happened to Eve?” Mathias asked.

//STATUS OF EVE: TERMINATED

Mathias squinted as he looked up at me, following along beside me as I reached over into the wagon, grabbing Tobias’s pack and turning to move back inside.

Mathias grabbed it out of my hand, digging into it and pulling out a stoppered glass bottle. Fine dust sat inside, moss green and glowing. Mathias frowned at it, grabbing at the stopper. It was the same substance Tobias had consumed that morning.

//SUDDEN WITHDRAWAL FROM A CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY MAY HARM THE CONSUMER

I grabbed Mathias’s wrist.

“He is going to get us all killed. This shit — he can’t use it anymore. It’s hollowing him out.” Mathias said.

I lowered my volume to prevent Tobias from overhearing. I did not want him to stop me from protecting him.

//What are the drug’s known detrimental side effects?

“Besides the addiction and near madness?” Mathias replied, struggling and failing to pull his arm free of my grip. He stopped, glaring up at me. “This shit slowly kills you. It’s just a matter of time before it takes him. It’s getting worse every day.”

Mathias glared at the bottle like he was trying to destroy it with his mind. Interestingly, his neck tattoo seemed to activate. It was possible that since Mathias did not know removing the substance could harm Tobias; it hadn’t activated when he tried to pour it out. Now that he knew, it was activating. I cataloged this information for later.

//Do not worry. I intend to safely remove the dependency in the next few days. You may relax.

Despite my reassurances, Mathias displayed an elevated heart-rate and quickness of breath. My display activated, showing a smiley face. Mathias broke, looking away and releasing the bottle. I put it back into the bag, moving inside.

I needed to accelerate my plans to protect Tobias. For that, I needed to provide OFF03 with more labor resources, to finish construction. I would have to contact him tonight to see how far he had progressed, whether any of the auto-factories on board were salvageable, and see the status on other operations. The easiest way to create more labor would be to raise more mechs, but I seemed to have hit my command limit.

I could likely raise it by leveling.

MKJ,NMJB

Blood leaked from his nose, hitting the table. He rubbed at it before pulling another reagent from his bag, taking a pinch worth and spreading it onto the plate of liquid metal. Tobias put a finger to it and the metal spun, an image forming of the countryside, zipping in Z movements over the dirt road leading out of this town and away.

I scanned the image with radar and thermal, but to all senses except visual, it appeared to still be little more than a plate of liquid. An optical illusion, likely using magic to project different areas. The image zigzagged down the road for minutes until it hit a city. The image seemed to shake and fuzz at the city’s wall, silver metal showing through in the place of the visual resolution of the walls. It looked like IR blocking on a camera. The image shook for a few more seconds before bouncing back.

Tobias sighed, relaxing and nearly collapsing in his chair. A shake ran through him as he buried his face in his hands.

“We probably have a few more days — “ Tobias said, before turning towards me. He jumped backwards. “Fuck.”

//WE SHOULD RAISE ADDITIONAL MECHS

Tobias laughed, putting his face back into his hands.

“It took weeks just to adjust the math for the sigil placement for your… arm.” Tobias looked at my Nova arm. “Had no idea that was a weapon. The rest of the mechs don’t even have heads. It could take months.”

I cataloged that information. Tobias couldn’t easily raise mechs, but I could extrapolate the position and launch an algorithm to decide the sigil placement easily.

//YOU COULD USE THE BLANKET

“That’s for zombies… not skeletons. And golems.” Tobias said, pulling free a notebook from his desk. He paged through the images. There were several sketches. Notably, there were sketches of my standard frame, as well as less detailed sketches of the other frames. Including an officer whose frame I hadn’t found at the site — OFF02, the combat officer.

//WE COULD HUNT ADDITIONAL CREATURES AND RAISE THEM AS UNDEAD

Tobias looked up at that, then back down at the table, nodding. The scrying pool he created still zigzagged up and down the road. I noted that it also bounced and fuzzed at our location, extrapolating that both positions were likely protected from scrying.

Hunting more creatures and raising them would serve two purposes. For one, it would allow me to gain more levels, which I could use to raise additional mechs of my own, at some point. For two, it would bolster the local forces here, aiding in the primary directive of protecting Tobias.

Tobias still seemed to consider. He leaned in his chair, rubbing his nose. Then he closed his book, tapping his hand on the desk.

“Yes… that could work. There is a more established dungeon to the south — it was a consideration setting up here… the dungeon isn’t valuable enough for any company to hoard it, nor dangerous enough for the guild to destroy it. But first I… I need to rest.” Tobias said, standing and meandering to his bed.