Authors Corner: Like i have stated, i didn't drop, just a hiatus, don't know how long I can take clockwork before i take a break again but at the moment i have returned to this since i have gained a small bit of inspiration.

I will say this, the reason i got inspired again is because i started learning how to draw manga, and the result of having several stories my teacher suggested i draw my fics and Clockwork was the chosen fic. As such i, with teachers help, have started the basics of clockwork. Don't expect anything for several months since i am still a newbie and i just began drawing as well but the clockwork manga might help me get motivated since i keep reviewing what i already wrote.

Enjoy

In the Virtual world of Etheria there are several continents, these continents are isolated by a huge contaminated green colored ocean filled with many unimaginable substances.

Even more life has adapted to this and the creatures that live within these waters are the most deadly to the point that even flying over the ocean was a danger.

The ocean had many “islands” formed by the carcasses of huge ships that poke out of the water after many have fallen over each other.

On these islands many different monsters were born and most are flying monsters. They make the trip over the waters nearly impossible.

On one of these continents, the artificial being known as Constructs have gone and grown to some of the largest influence because of the fact that they can build a population at a faster rate.

The constructs magic, while restricted, is a huge benefit to the lives of all the other races around them and those who were peaceful enough to build connections with them have benefited.

Near the coast in the Seafolk capital city, Waterfront, the city where the construct Jeopardy saved the Serin and Merfolk the city had grown to a massive proportion. The “pond” that was made by the construct has long since been expanded into a massive lake. The water was pure enough and supported the lives of the merfolk and even fish and corals they all used and lived from.

They also developed some level of magic that they had forgotten. Serin which were more beast humans could only use strengthening magic but merfolk were more magical and could somewhat use magic to a degree.

They don’t know that the water they live in affects their ability of magic and since they gained a liveable environment they regained their magic. It is the same case with Fairies who lost their forests and environment. They lose their magic and even their ability to fly until they can find a new home.

Jeopardy had left after helping them grown after a few months after the beta phase was concluded and she returned. She adventures but found she didn’t really like fighting. Trauma from the beta phase where she destroyed several races had made her unable to like the adventuring life so she split from the crew she had made but kept in contact. She returned to the merfolk city where she continued to help them.

She formed a new crew that specializes to help people and make new cities grow.

Her crew was made up of several crafters from a few different races. No two continents have the same races so her crew had no dwarves or anything instead it was comprised of, 2 halflings who are a pair of twins, boy and girl, who are half sized humans with a strong itch to tinker with anything. They aren’t blacksmiths but instead they are mostly builders. An Angel, a female who dresses like a warrior giving her a Valkyrie like appearance. She is the main fighter of the group and the one that keeps creeps away and a Sylph. Sylph are originally from this continent and would normally not be found alive on other continents if not for the efforts of the Clockwork main figurehead Techno.

Today she was in a nearby town. It was another merfolk town and she was helping to clear the water in the Pond.

It was still a small town and would take a while and lots of effort from her and others to make this town flourish properly and finally link the lake to the original first one. All merfolk cities are linked by the underground rivers. Underwater rivers flow between all the cities that the merfolk use to move around in safely. This also includes all the way to a merchant town that was made near the construct scrapyard.

At the moment, Jeopardy was with her angel companion as the two used water magic to clean and improve the water quality as well as fill the lake a bit more.

The amount of mana Jeopardy can store isn’t large but thanks to the “cheat” like water elemental core she has, she has a hand over other people.

“Ahh so tired...how are you doing?” Jeopardy asked.

“Same, lets rest a bit while i eat and you charge up.” The angel suggested making Jeopardy nod.

It was partly cloudy and there was about 30-40% of cloud coverage so there were times the sun was covered and others when it beat down on them.

The two halflings brought over some cooked food after making sure it was sanitized and the wood wasn’t contaminated before burning and cooking.

“Ah~! So much hard work. I wonder how much of an effect the merpeople towns would eventually have. I think i heard they found some natural clean springs underground.” The angel said.

“That's rare, a clean spring, it must be really deep underground to be clean.” The female halfling said.

As they chat they just talk about gossip under the 3 o'clock sun. Suddenly something blocked the sun but it wasn’t like a cloud that let some sunlight pass. They all looked up and all their eyes widen.

High up in the sky was a massive landmass. It wasn’t any normal landmass but instead it was shaped like a whale.

“Island…”“...Whale!” The twins said completing each other's words.

“Is that… the direction?!” The angel said and looked at the direction the whale was facing away from.

She then opened up the official map that was made of the world but the continents weren’t connected and there was no way to know which was where.

They looked at the clockwork continent wondering if it was true but then the map went blank. They tried to open but it didn’t go and stayed off for several seconds before it updated. What appeared shocked everyone. The shape of the puzzle like map changed and there was a clear line showing the exact route to this continent.

At the bottom it said “Last Update by Techno Gear” making it clear as day what was going on.

“THAT’S “THE CLOCKWORK!”” The sylph shouted as the wind began to turn into a small cyclone forming a human body shape.

“But… didn’t they vanish almost 7 months ago?!” Jeopardy asked looking up at the whale form.

It beat the tail once before it tilted its body towards the north west and began moving.

“That direction! Its going to the construct scrapyard!” Jeopardy shouted.

““What do they need there?”” The twins asked together.

“I don’t know but the leader is considered the leading craftsman in the game at least before he vanished with his crew so i think he might be going to trade technology or simply scavenge it.” The angel said.

“Let's go after it!” Jeopardy said.

“Why?” The sylph asked.

“I heard they possess all four basic elementals so that means if i get different cores i can get different kinds of magic as well as more mana and regeneration.” Jeopardy said but didn’t say that she actually wanted to see the state Techno is when he doesn’t know who she is.

“Then we should get the merfolk to help.” The angel said and stood up before flying off towards a nearby established town.

They knew what she was going to do. After several minutes a group of mermaids appeared.

“Hey~~! Guys~! We came to pick you up~!” Shouted a cute mermaid with cherry pink hair and had a white tail with orange and black spots on it.

Behind them was a small wooden boat with a large bubble around it. When the magic of the merfolk returned they discovered they can make these kinds of bubbles that hold oxygen and can be used to transport air breathers. This is the main reason all the merfolk towns are linked with the underwater river.

“Thanks and sorry for the trouble. Can you take us to the scrapyard.” Jeopardy asked.

“It's no problem, your crew has done so much for us its only fair we do something to help as well.” One of the mermaids said.

They climb into the boat and sit down. The mermaids use magic to link some water chains to the bubble and being pulling it through the massive tunnel network and currents of the underwater river.

If anything besides the merfolk or serin enter the currents it would be totally smashed to pieces. They have a passive that reduces water resistance around their body which lets them travel through these dangerous currents with relative ease.

After a while the tunnel began ascending and we can see a light up head. When they finally exit the tunnel they find themselves in a beautiful reef city. The merfolk know how to cultivate coral to shape their houses out of them making a colorful home making the term, “Elf of the sea” a true enough statement since elves live in the trees while merfolk live in the coral.

The boat rises until the mermaids lift it above the water and the bubble pops returning air pressure on them and keeping the boat from sinking.

After a pushing the boat to the shore the crew gets off and thank the mermaids for the ride.

They look to the south east and as they had expected, the massive whale was already in view showing that the speed of the whale wasn’t anything small even with its size it can move a considerable distance.

They move to the opened gate and see a huge crowd gathering. Some people that know us calls out.

“Hey guys did you see the massive whale!” One of them said and we nod.

“We spotted them when it reached the coast and we came through the mermaid underwater transport. We found out that it's “The Clockwork” crew.” Jeopardy says and instantly the crowd erupts in shouts at the news. As a result it spreads at a rapid pace that the clockwork crew had once again surfaced after their disappearance.

Everyone watched as the whale got closer and its size just grew. When it finally stopped only 100 meters away and over 500 meters in the air we could see the whale was no smaller than 300 meters long 200 wide and the height from its belly to the top was indiscernible from here.

I saw that the fins were made of pure crystal and there were some of the same blue crystal jutting out in several places on the underbelly sides and back. The tail fin was also made out of these crystals.

Very slowly the mouth of the whale began to part and after a suspenseful 5 minutes for it to fully open we saw them. Like small fighter jets, some kind of flying machine or robot left the mouth and after circling in the air several times it nose dived down towards us.

After a moment i saw it really was a robot and under it was a large propeller as and there were two long 1.5 meter long wings on both sides with a few missiles attached.

At 200 meters the nose dive ended and they flew horizontally before doing a U turn heading down towards the crowd.

When they finally reached 7 meters in height they were flying on the main road heading for the crowd but before it reached it they robot tilted up and the propeller suddenly turned towards the front and began to slow the robot down before stabilizing in mid air.

We could finally see the rider. It looked was the a bit taller than a basic model clockwork but this one had four arms and was a had a hue of blue on its plates. The eyes were strangely lifelike and moved around inside the sockets like real eyes. It reminded me of the transformers like eyes but his doesn’t glow like theirs. What was more interesting is that the face of the robot was built so intricately that it formed facial expressions and moved. This was clearly a top class robot that is nearing perfection and if you add a human skin it could probably copy the human expressions.

Behind the first one the other several riders came. There was two knight class bulky clockwork, a dwarf, a small child clockwork girl that had a form like a rabbit beastman, two will-o-wisps, a black golem, a tiger beastwoman, a draconian and the final one stopped next to the first clockwork and it was a six armed large and angry looking clockwork with a red hue colored plate.

The two group made a chill run down our bellies as it showed the strength they possess is no joke.

The blue clockwork looked back a moment one of the knights.

He moved forward and spoke out.

“Greetings all of this continent, we are “The Clockwork” crew, we have just finished crossing the damned ocean and after so long we have arrived with no ill intentions. Tomorrow our crew and city members on the whale above will descend and will be open for trading of information and technology. One thing to remember is that we possess technology for purification of water sources and for you magic races we have that for you, especially you constructs. We thank you for your attention and if you will excuse us we shall head back to prepare for tomorrow.” He said before all the machine planes sprung into life before we could ask anything and they all launched into the air leaving everyone stunned.

Jeopardy looked at her party who were frowning.

“They are rather cocky aren’t they?” The angel said frowning as she looked up.

“I don’t think they’re being cocky, they were simply making a propaganda.” The sylph said.

“Yeah i agree, they simply want everyone to spread the word. Still i wonder what it will take for the water purification stuff, if they could get those spread to the merfolk and serin it would greatly empower them and lead to improvements in the surrounding lands.” The halfling girl said.

“We can only hope they aren’t greedy or we won’t get anything from this.” The angel said.

Jeopardy could only look up towards the whale that was suspended in mid air.

”He still doesn’t seem to be talking, or is it only to people he is close with?” she wondered to herself but couldn’t find out without seeing him for herself.

She just sighed and they crew went to the mermaid town and stayed there for the night until the following day when the crew would descend to trade with the residents of this continent.