Writer’s spot: GREETINGS FRIENDS! A new update, some crafting, and ideas.

SO, an average sized chapter with around 3k words today. While It has been some time since I last wrote this, I’m starting to think of a way to possibly get a bit more frequent, or at the very least regular updates. I’m not making promises, but I am making some plans. For now, the idea is: IO will be written during weekends, with my other two works alternating every week. Whatever time I have left after finishing the chapter I’ll take writing what I feel like writing. HOPEFULLY, I can stick to this schedule, but we’ll see.

BESIDES, on today’s chapter I start some explanations on a certain person’s problems, get a bit of crafting done (Not on the new body, mind you) and prepare the field for some moar crafting later on.

BESIDES(2), as usual, I have the feeling that I was supposed to say something else, since I can’t remember, I’ll go with something amusing: QUESTION, To whomever read both this and IO, who do you think is stronger, Yllivia or Yuu? While I do have the answer in my mind, I’m interested in seeing you guys reaction.

Beep, and have a good read!

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With the remaining of the afternoon spent on simply planning their needed pieces and bits, the time between the sun going down and the whole group going to sleep was spent on working on what they could. With most of the pieces for the new project needing some extremely precise handling of the pieces, and some kind of lightweight alloy that they didn’t possess, they had to resort to simply repairing the wolf’s body.

Going to the garage, where Ross had already set up his basic engineering machinery, they started working on first repairing the damaged body before moving on to the upgrades. Thankfully, they had some spare parts from the drones that attacked them during the escort that could be used. Managing to quickly adapt the scraps of metals to a more useable shape, after they were done with repairing the main body, there were still a few hours before their usual time to sleep.

Under Gaz’s request to make an upgrade to his offensive capacities, they started with building a new leg from scratch. After a quick sketch of its shape, they decided to scrap the internal piston that he used for the high-powered jump and exchange it for a reworked version of the shotgun box that Beepy stole from the Boar-like robot.

With the help of the dwarf’s expertise in firearms, they managed to quickly dismantle the mod and separate a two pair of buck-shots barrels. Afterwards they set on to work on building a pair of legs that was big enough to fit the whole shooting and roughly made reloading mechanism, compromised of a reworked break-action mechanism that would, in its default state, stay open.

Setting the barrel of the gun on the foreleg part, using its strength to also support the body as a bone-like structure. To help with the movement, seeing how the extra parts weighted down on the limb, Ruby also added a pair of high-pressure pistons to help the motor. While these pistons were capable of applying greater strength, they weren’t capable of as much explosive power as the previous one, greatly reducing the agility the older setting offered.

To protect the new system and take advantage of the stronger front paw, they added some extra armor on the leg, leaving it even more resistant than the main body’s system.

Using pressurized air to push the bullet into the barrel, the setting required Gaz to extend the leg forward and lower the bigger and sharper claws to shoot, as the movement would close down the break-action mechanism and isolate the firing chamber from the rest of the inner part of the legs.

“…It’s late.” A quiet and solemn voice echoed, snapping the quartet of goddess, robot, scientist and Engineering mechanic out of their crafting fever state. Turning to the newcomer, the group looked surprised towards the lynnian, who looked sleepy.

“Huh? Is it?” Ruby asked surprised before looking around searching for a sign of something she could use to refer the time.

[It should be around midnight by now.] Ekis said slightly embarrassed. [I… Kinda forgot to warn you.]

Looking around for a moment, Ruby finally nodded and let out a long yawn, as if only now she was remembering how tired she had been the entire day. Feeling as the energy left her body now that her enthusiasm had been broken, the small morphian started feeling drowsy once again.

However, looking at the almost completed leg behind her, she felt a bit hesitant to leave the project she had started working on before finishing.

“Go sleep, lass. I’ll take it over from here.” The dwarf said amicably while patting her in the back. “We just need to make the tests and all, aye?”

Looking at the dwarf for some time, Ruby finally finished with a brief nod and a small smile before making her way upstairs. Nodding, the dwarf went back to adding the finishing touches to the limb before setting it up for the fire-test.

Meanwhile, Beepy followed Yllivia as she made her way to her own bedroom. Already wearing a simple yellow pajamas, the Lynnian awaited until beepy took his place besides the bed before finally laying down.

Kind of used to this scene after his time living with the Lynnian, where she would, some times out of nowhere, look for him so that he could be nearby before falling asleep. While he wasn’t quite sure what was the reasoning behind this, he couldn’t really bring himself to deny her request.

[Sometimes I feel I’m becoming more and more like a pet…] He commented.

[A multi-use and extremely versatile pet.] Ekis added.

[…Motor synchrony should… But there’s the helixes… Pressurized air below 0.2….]

[Looks like she’s out, huh?] Gaz said while hearing Ruby’s sleep talk. Another thing he had slowly grown used to in these last days.

With Ekis agreeing with a wry feeling, he saw as the lynnian turned off the lights from her place. As the silence fell not only on the physical world around him, but also in the mental link, Gaz prepared to change into his sleep mode.

“…You really are different…”

[Huh?] “Beep?” Gaz turned surprised towards the Lynnian, who said so surprising him.

“…The others still run away. Only you stay by my side.” The Lynnian said in a strange and slightly melancholic tone. Hearing as she moved around in the bed and ended up turning to him, turning around and looking at her, he saw as she stared at him for a few seconds. “It’s almost like…” The lynnian trailed off before shaking her head.

“Beep?” Gaz asked a bit confused by the strange atmosphere that Ylli had this night.

“Nothing.” She said briefly before approaching the edge of the bed and gently putting her hand on Beepy’s top. “…Nighty night.” She said while petting him.

After a few seconds, Gaz could hear as she drifted asleep. Confused, he stayed where he was, avoiding any movement so that he wouldn’t risk waking her up by moving her hand.

[Why did she say that?] Ekis asked after some time, sounding just as confused as Gaz himself.

[…I don’t know?] The robot replied. [Maybe it’s because of the other robots in the house now?] Gaz said while tilting his head in his mind. [She did seem kinda down when they ran away earlier.]

[Hmmm…]

[And why are they so afraid of her anyway?] He finally asked the question that had been in his mind. [Do you think you could find out?]

[To be honest, I did look into it already. It’s just that…] She hesitated, as if choosing her words. [They seem to fear her in an instinctual level.]

[…Instinctual?] Gaz said a bit confused. [The robots… Have instinct?]

[Of course! Why wouldn’t they?]

[Well… they are pretty much animals in this world, so it does make some sense, I guess…] He said in an amazed tone. [Even though it sounds somewhat bizarre.] Sighing he let the idea sink in for a moment before sighing and continuing. [Anyway, why would they fear her that much?]

[I don’t know.] Ekis said dejectedly. [They just seem to treat her almost like how they would treat an apex predator or something, with a mix of fear and wariness.]

Gaz thought for a moment, trying to understand why the robots would treat her like that, but remembering how she literally left a crater in a concrete wall with a punch back at the bandits hide out, he kind of started to understand why they would do that should they really have instincts.

However, that idea didn’t exactly match something else in his memories.

[Then what about back at the leapers swarm? Why didn’t they avoid her?] He asked confused.

[That’s…] The goddess hesitated for a moment. [Maybe they considered being in a group a sign of strength, so they didn’t feel as threatened? They do seem to be naturally aggressive, after all.]

[I guess that would make a bit of sense.] Gaz said in a pensive manner before sighing. [Why do I have the feeling that thinking too much about this will make things even more complicated?] He complained loudly.

[Well, it’s not like…]

[NOISY!] They heard a grumpy Ruby over the link, surprising the two who immediately stopped their talk and dropped into a wry silence.

Seeing that there wouldn’t be much for them to talk about, Gaz decided that it was as good as any other time to enter sleep mode. So he did.

…

The next morning was a bit hectic. With Ross having finished the fire test of the mechanism for the leg deep into the night and tweaked the last adjustments himself, the morning after they started making the pair of the leg, the one that would fit o the opposing side.

Being basically a mirrored copy of the first leg, the work on this side came much faster, and they managed to finish their work just about the time the clock hit lunch time. Deciding to go grab their lunch first, then test the firing mechanism later, the group quickly left the assembling of the leg to Gaz, seeing how he was more than capable of making that by himself.

“Why didn’t I get an assistant like da two of ya sooner…?” The dwarf complained quietly to himself, receiving a small wry smile from Ruby and a beep from Beepy.

Seeing as the two went away after leaving the pieces he needed on the ground, Gaz quickly put himself to work. Using the two claw like attachments to raise the robot main body and then remove the already attached legs and remove the scraps of the damaged leg off. Having done his job in a few moments, he quickly set up to work on attaching the new leg.

[Hmm… Maybe we should start working on modular attachments…] Gaz suddenly commented as he worked on welding the motors cables together.

[Modular… attachments?] Ruby asked confused.

[Yeah. Pieces who use plugs that follow a certain standards that can be easily exchanged by connecting or disconnecting.] Gaz explained briefly. [That way we would have a much easier time exchanging pieces and even could leave some parts with different specs ready to be used.]

For a moment there was a silence in their connections, which made Gaz think that Ruby was probably considering the idea. Nodding to himself, he quickly went on to prepare the body to be connected.

[…Preparing a body specifically to be modded… That’s too crazy to even consider, seeing how most robots would…] They heard as Ruby started muttering as her engineer mode started to activate. [What you are saying is simply too crazy, insane and irrational. No one would ever think of doing such a thing to a robot, it’s simply too… Too… Too… Genial.]

At her sudden last words, flooding their link with excitement, the duo became stunned for a moment as they heard the pitter-patter of Ruby’s shoes as she ran back to garage, only for it suddenly stop.

“Where do you think you are going, young lady?” They heard the faint voice of Lunn as she intercepted Ruby.

“Beepy… I mean, I had this idea… And…”

“No. It’s time to eat now. You can play with your machines later, okay?” The elf replied.

“But… But… modular… Adaptations… Work…” With that they heard the sound as the elf almost literally dragged the hyper-active scientist back into the house so that she could have her lunch.

For a brief moment, there was some silence as the duo tried to wrap their head around what was happening, before a few giggles escaped them as Ruby kept on rambling in annoyance and grief as she was dragged away from her fun-time.

While enjoying himself with her state as he finished installing the first leg, he quickly went on to work on the second one.

Taking around thirty minutes to weld and get done with one leg, by the time he was finishing the second one, the others had already finished their lunch and were relaxing a bit on the outside while preparing to leave to go and see the scientist that Ruby had mentioned earlier.

[Still…] Gaz said as he took a step back to get in the sights of the completed work.

[What?] Ekis asked confused.

[Doesn’t it seem… Odd?]

[How so?]

[I mean…] He looked all over the new and partly fixed wolf body. With the chassis and such done, now all they needed to do was exchange some of the inner parts that had been broken, most pieces being easy to find in the market. That meant that the outer look of the new body was already done, however… [don’t the back legs seem kinda puny right now? It feels really odd…]

[Now that you said it, it really does.] Ekis agreed awkwardly.

With the new legs being almost double the size of the previous one, the front now had a much bulkier appearance, and thanks to the increased length, it also left it higher, with a much more imposing and intimidating rather than simply dangerous and sleek. However, with the back legs still being the original one, the rear part of the robot looked oddly small and weak, to the point that it even stood lower than the front part.

Laughing wryly at the unexpected problem that had appeared before them, the duo quickly shifted gears once they felt a surge of surprise coming from Ruby. Seeing how she didn’t seem to be scared, they didn’t felt worried.

[Waah… A saron…] The morphian said surprised.

[Whazzat?] Gaz asked curious.

[It’s a really rare animal.] Ruby explained, these words being enough to spark Gaz’s interest. [I heard some places consider finding them to be a sign of good luck.]

[Eeh? Is that so?] Ekis said surprised. [Gaz! Let’s go see it! We’ll get better luck at finding me!]

[Is it only me who finds weird that the god of machines is actually counting on luck?] Gaz said amazed.

[Hmm?]

[Nothing.] He replied before turning away from the machine and rolling over to the outside of the house while hearing some giggles from Ruby.

Starting his motors, Gaz quickly drifted away towards the door and upstairs before leaving through the front door, seeing how he didn’t have a way to open the garage door on his own. Leaving through the front door and finding as the small morphian and the pink-haired elf both stared at a creature hiding in the edge of the forest.

Zooming in on the creature with his camera, Gaz became a bit surprised by what he saw.

It was a large reptile looking creature, with its whole body covered in scales. However, different from the usual flat-look of crocodiles, snakes and lizards, or rounder appearance like tortoises and such, the creature had a more fuller appearance, with six legs and more cylinder-like body that reminded him of mammals instead of reptiles.

The tail was long and scaly as usual, however, the head was triangular with what looked like a small pair of horns on the top of its head and a pair of frills that opened and closed as the creature looked at them curiously.

[That’s a dragon. That’s eighty eight point twenty seven percent a dragon.] Gaz said in amazement. [Wingless and weirdly six-legged, but definitively a dragon!]

[[Dragon? What’s that?]] The two girls asked confused.

[That’s…] Gaz started saying but soon gave up. [Nothing. Forget it.] He said as he approached the elf and morphian, watching as the two tried to beckon the creature to come closer. [So… Should I worry about it trying to eat the two of you alive, spit fire on our face or go megalomaniacal and start stealing all of our gold?]

[WHAAAA? The saron aren’t that dangerous! They are perfectly docile] Ruby said angrily. [Though they do tend to steal shiny things…]

Smiling wryly in his mind, Gaz watched as the lizard slowly took a step forward and hesitated whether to approach them or not. Although a bit strange looking, the large-dog sized lizard didn’t seem to be aggressive at all, and in fact looked timid.

After some seconds it finally started approaching them, taking one step at a time until it stopped right in front of Ruby, who held a small fruit in her hand, offering it to the dragon.

Despite it slightly dangerous look, the creature timidly approached them while smelling the fruit in her hand before opening it and taking a bit. Surprised, Gaz looked at them in curiosity.

However, before he could enjoy the sight, the animal suddenly became startled and looked over him, towards the door where he laid. After a brief second of staring, he turned and ran away back into the forest, not forgetting of taking the fruit with it.

“Huh?” Ruby said surprised while a gentle sigh escaped from the Elf.

“Are you ready, Ylli?” She asked while turning back and looking at the Lynnian who watched the scene in a mix of surprise and shock.

“…Sorry.” She said briefly in a sad tone, receiving an awkward smile from Lunn and a confused glance from Ruby. “…Ross and Volgoff are ready.” She said after taking a brief time sullenly. “We’ll leave soon.” Lunn nodded as she saw the garage door opening and the large truck started driving out from the house. “At least we know we’ll be lucky.” She said while motioning to the dragon-like being that spied them one last time before running away.

However…

[She totally jinxed it, didn’t she?] Gaz said with a tired tone.