Chapter 4

Rishido here. During breaks, I enjoyed relaxing inside my room and eating snacks while listening to my favorite music. But sometimes, I conducted research about clockworks or the likes of it. Maybe i`m getting caught up being a clockwork. I really should take a day off but I can`t.

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“Open it! The excitement was killing me already.”

“Alright, alright take it easy okay. I`m getting nervous you know.”

Leyla was like a kid that ate tons of sugar and started running around the house. Would you please calm down for a minute!? You`re making me more nervous.

At least Servira was here and hugging her so she won`t be flying around from excitement. Still she stoic as ever but I guess it was for the best. A hyper active one and a nonchalant unexpressive one… very balance.

The key took days to be made so all my hopes were here.

As I put the half of the key I turned a full counterclockwise and heard a rusty movement of gears and a click meaning I went through. Then pushed inside with the remaining half and do a half clockwise turn and with a clicking sound I knew that I unlocked this rusty music box.

The atmosphere was getting heavy as I start to lift off the lid and what came to our view was.

“Was this all we got from stressful days?”

I could see the disdain looked of Leyla as she saw what`s inside. Even I got surprised about it also.

It was just a wrought iron that looked like leafy picture frame while inside that frame was a sketch of a mountain. I shouldn`t expected too much, it was very disappointing.

“It was a music box after all, not a treasure box.”

I tried to comfort her but she`s fuming right now.

“The owner should at least put a ring, necklace, or any jewelries for the one that could open this stupid box.”

“What do you think Servira?”

“If the music box was repairable then we could use it but if not, I`m storing it on the miscellaneous box right now.”

She was really into working even her comments shows it. Even if now that we confirmed that it was just an old music box the runic writings still bugged me.

“Weren`t the music ox suspicions that after all the effort we gained nothing even though this box showed signs that it was treasured so much it even had weak runic barrier to begin with.”

“Now that you said it, you were right about that one. Why would one protect it so much over nothing?”

So we`re getting on the same page now. Good.

“Master, if you dismantled it or repaired it, you might find what you are looking for.”

Then I asked why quizzically to Servira`s remark. Why would she say that?

“I could see something inside the music box that wasn`t a part of the mechanics, it was more like, it was intentionally put there for safe keeping.”

Wait an item? I take a looked at the box and confirmed that she was saying the truth. Then all of the hard work won`t be wasted.

I got fired up again and began meticulously disassemble it parts by parts. As I do my work, Leyla watched me like a child waiting for her birthday gift to be opened. While Servira assisted me not to mixed up the parts that I took out.

While disassembling it, I took pictures of what was inside so I could put it back. It was one of the basic knowledge that I learned from the restoration shop.

“It is…”

I couldn`t believe what I saw inside.

“It is a valuable? Tell me, tell me.”

“Milady calm down please or Master won`t able say it.”

Then she stopped pestering me. She`s really helpful in cases like this.

“Thank you Servira, anyways if I would evaluate this. It won`t be a valuable one for you.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because it was a memory chip of a clockwork. And my only hope was that I could scrap some information out of this.”

I saw a disappointed look from Leyla`s face as she land on her butt in the work table. Hey don`t be down too much.

“We still got this music box and it was repairable.”

Still even if I said that looks like it just passed her ears. Guess I should cheer her up with something late on.

“Master, if you`re going to test that. May I be the one to view it first for safety?”

Huh? Why would Servira distrust this chip? Owh it might contain a virus or something. I scanned the chip and it didn`t some a violet coloration meaning it was safe.

“Don`t worry about it, Servira. It was safe when I scanned it again.”

“Is that so Master.”

I reassembled the music box but this time I put some missing parts, repair broken parts and other things it needed to be operational.

After the successfully repairing of the music box, I received bonus for repairing it and got proficiency on body engineering, tinkering, and programming. Hhmm… didn`t know that programming could receive some by just repairing this music box. Maybe it was when I tone it or organized the pins of the rotator.

I installed the chip inside me quickly as Leyla kept on urging me to do so as she said “That might be a treasure map.” What`s up with her.

Wait a minute. I had a skill that could point out stuffs like treasures. What was it again? It was on the tip of my tongue but I can`t really spell it out. Never mind.

As I got access to the chip, what I got was another video clip again. Now that I mentioned videos clip flashback, I played a game one time that had a similar thing but I needed to absorb people and monsters. I loved the sequel also.

This time it was just cut parts by parts like 10 – 15 seconds then jump to another one.

War just ended few years but it feels like yesterday. Many of us the ‘Prime’ as what we called to ourselves after we started to create inferior ones the ‘Ersatz’ during war. They`re far behind us in every angle but unlike us, they can be easily made and operational.

Still the numbers have a say during wars. At least the plans of the Guardians did worked out just right and helped to end the war in favor of the greater good. But still, some of us didn`t make it till the end.

We lived for a few years with the natives of this world but the rest of us knew that one day there might be another war that would broke if we stayed in wide open. So we decided that to seclude ourselves from everybody and even the so called Gods that was trying to communicate to us were shut down.

A clockwork or a construct was the only one that could use this chip so I`m not afraid to send some images but my wish was that keep this as a secret for your safety also. I don`t know how much years would pass but I know that one day we could live freely again.

I don`t know on where or when but my hopes were high. We knew that there would be other clockworks that would appear besides us. That`s why I`m making this Time memory for you to look for us but you need to know that we won`t be easily convince.

If you want to learn more then, backtrack us. I`ve shown you hints. But to make it easier, we first arrived at a dukedom near the mountain ridge that`s inside the Aurum Kingdom.

Be safe young one, this world had what they called bad people that hide under the skin of great people. We had innate intuition, use that to be guided to the right path. I`m trusting all my hope to you and the gift I gave you may guide you with your travels.

Then it was cut. I haven`t seen the face nor the name of the narrator but what I`ve seen was his past experience. From their arrival to the dreadful war and even when they got enslave to make armies of what they called Ersatz.

Now that I think about it, I made Cerous and Mabby that was inferior to me. Does that mean they`re Ersatz? Servira was not an Ersatz as she was the revived one from the original clockwork. But was one before. Uh… very confusing.

Then Leyla pestered me with questions about what I saw. She falls in silence as what I told her about the memories but I leave the names because that might affect Servira`s disposition.

“Don`t worry about it Leyla, years had passed and people had change somehow so cheer up. Besides, we will go for another adventure.”

I cheered her up because she was too affected with it. She slapped her both cheeks and become energetic again. Hhmm... Guess I don`t have to worry too much but she needs to rely on others with her feelings.

Then I opened my quest log. Owh! The Cycle of Life just got updated. Great isn`t it.

Cycle of LifeYou`ve just discovered different things about your race from the black card and discovered a time memory chip that have shown you some hints about their pass location. You need to discover where they stayed and find clues in that place to where to find them.

Difficulty: Unknown

Time Limit: Unknown

Conditions: Clockwork only, received an item created by the clockwork

Failure: Unable to discover it before going to any Capital or beta test end

If failed, the clockwork race will be locked until it was discovered and finished the race quest.

That was harsh for failure. No time limit. Tsk, I only got until beta test time then. Wait, no freebies? Ow, come on really? Great, after doing quest mission I`ve got no compensation except what I discovered.

*sigh* it would be good if at least there was a free item or something.

We just ended our day by cleaning and repairing old items. It was a good relaxation and I gain stats with quest being discovered but they don`t have ‘unknown’ on the time limit. I`ll do this quest later or after beta test.

Hhmm… how could I keep my item if they would be wiped out clean after the beta test. I need to find some loop holes inside the system.

*

“Got any clues?”

“Yeah, a cavern near the small hill top just north of the dukedom.”

Days after the music box event, I`ve been researching about the places they could have stayed. Incidentally this dukedom was established just after the war for travelers’ reason.

The map from the video or the terrain was almost the same somehow, things could change, but not an entire mountain could disappear in a blink of an eye.

I`ve got a map of the dukedom and the surrounding area that was under control of the dukedom was included. Currently, we`re preparing to travel towards the northern cave called cave of memories.

As the name implies, it was full of antic items from the first settlers here but got buried because of the earthquake happened decades ago.

It wasn`t popular nowadays as it was plundered and excavated by earlier adventurers but still, I`m still hoping that we could find something inside that was helpful.

Going to the northern part of the dukedom was the same as the southern part where everyone from the starter village would enter but the situation here was better.

It go some pricier shops with good quality. Most shops here was a branch store from the southern store, guess they predicted this situation.

Right before we exit the northern gates, we`re told by the guards that we need to be careful going to the cave as there were powerful monsters that`s roaming around.

What could be that monster anyways?

*

Traversing up towards the mountain was easy as most residents were only animals, even the predators don`t set a threat to us as they back away once we`re getting closed to them.

I`m still wondering if that monster was true or just an urban legend here.

Inside the cave was pretty normal for me, I mean no odd things inside like wooden supports, carts or anything just a normal cave entrance that have some plants around.

I didn`t detect any monsters inside even if it was a cave that was deep according to the info we`ve collected. The cave was like a mineshaft but don`t have any shine stone, the stone that I discovered from the scrapyard dungeon.

It was pretty wide actually as Cerous could fit inside and even to turn around. There were some small room caverns but it was empty. I almost forgot my title skill.

There are signals deep down the cave but we`re facing a dead end now. So I just activate the driller of Cerous and starts to dig more to discover what was on the other side.

After about 20 meters or so, Cerous broke an earth wall as the drill pass through it, intriguing.

I`ve stop Cerous so he won`t be overworked up for safety purposes if that urban monster was true. He will guard the tunnel as we will continue on searching this newly discovered cave room.

“Do you think we could find your legacy here?”

“I don`t know Leyla but the signals keep blinking as we got closer. Whatever that was, it might be important to be stored far from the entrance.”

“Master I think we reached our destination.”

We both stop as Servira called me. What we saw were buried crates and jars. Too cliché, a treasure chest? Really?

Leyla quickly hover on top of the buried containers but my guess was there would be more if we dug them up. Servira and I was doing manual labor while Leyla was enthusiastically using her Earth manipulation magic that she got from Master Pad.

I put away the excavated containers as Servira kept on digging them out one by one. It was good to have a fast pace but if this fast, I guess she would trouble her companions. Wait, i`m her companion.

After we dug out the last chest, all in all we`ve got around 10 containers, 7 for the chest while 3 for the jars. What was the jars for, is it for wine, vinegar, or pickled foods.

As expected, the chest had some runic symbols to them but became weaker. Oddly enough, when I inspected the lock it has the same mechanics as the music box. Could it be?

Quickly opened the box and I was in shocked. I shouldn`t get shocked, i`m technical a robot right?

“Is this what I wasted my magic for?! Was there somebody that`s playing pranks to me? If it`s your doing Florence, I`m telling that you`re going to had very bad day, i`m telling you!”

“Calm down Milady, the items inside was useful so don`t frustrate yourself so much.”

Good call Servira. I don`t know who this Florence was but I don`t think that they were friends. I sympathies that it wasn`t money, jewelries and other treasure items but a bunch of books, antic magic tool and other old stuffs.

As I opened the other antic chest that also had the same lock mechanism, we assessed that the chest got books about history of different races including the war, antic magic tools that was the very first one to be created…maybe. Old magic weapons and armors that have the same design that I saw from the video clips.

What caught my attention was the scrolls and manuscript with pictures drawn to it. It was all about making an energy efficient self-sustained core. My hard work was paying off big time now.

I even saw a book about repairing a construct which I really needed.

There were also some common clothes, crafting tools like for blacksmithing, and vanity items that cheered up Leyla when Servira hand it over to her. It was a perfume I guess but I couldn`t say if it was good or bad, I only got was bunch of details, then again, Leyla was happy so it was a good perfume.

When we check the jars, the first jar was full on ingots and trinkets for a clockwork like gears, but the thing is when I check up on the purity of the ingots through metallurgy, it was a whopping 95% and the rest was mithril. A freaking mithril was compounded in this ingot.

Rapidly checked the others and my mind was blown away by the ingots.

“Looks like antic buying and repair give good profits, don`t you think?”

Leyla nodded eagerly as she hugged the perfume bottle while Servira just answered me with a yes as she started to organized the items we`ve got.

Suddenly a thunderous roar rang all over the room. It had a disembodied like sound of a lion, an eagle and a gorilla.

“What was that Raiser?”

Leyla asked worriedly as she flew over to me as I looked back to the tunnel.

“I don`t know Leyla but what`s beyond that tunnel we create might be the owner of this place and we just made a hole inside his home and he`s not happy about it.”

Damn it. The connected sensor from Cerous that it was a Level 6 threat. Tsk, field boss class monster.

We could deal with it but the space was the problem. I checked my escape rope but it was blocked by that monsters mana.

“The escape rope was no good also, we`re trapped.”

“We need to get out somehow, right? Could Cerous dig another hole for us to escape?”

“That was possible but that might be our end also as that monster beyond the darkness was approaching us fast. Bet it was digging the hole we made.”

I needed to think of a plan or else we would become a part of the past right here.

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this will be the last item for this week hope you enjoyed this.

if there are any errors please bear as i`m still a newbie and any suggestions are welcome.

this next week.