I climbed back inside of Carnivac for the remainder of the trip back, this close to the town, I didn’t want to get spotted in my true form. I was quite a ways up ahead so I don’t think that the others saw, it’d be better that way, and I could operate Carnivac better if I was inside. I’d have liked to finish repairing his leg before reporting at the Guildhall but I had to settle up this escort quest with George.

As we walked, we didn’t run into any more problems, which was welcome, so I used the opportunity to practice with my Shadow magic. Eventually, I was able to craft a shadow around my exposed leg to hide the Automata parts. It didn’t look perfect, but as long as no one stopped to inspect my leg, it should be passable. I saw the gate ahead and stopped to let the carriage catch up, then continued walking alongside George.

“Where’s your real self, Automata?” Lily asked, her voice dripping with vitriol.

“Already in the city and headed to the workshop”, I lied, “I don’t think I need to tell you the seriousness of my secret, right?.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Not at all, but you’ve decided that I’m an enemy for some reason, though I would prefer not to see you as one. I’m hopeful it can stay that way.”

“I don’t owe you anything!”, she snapped.

“That’s enough!”, barked George. Lily shrank back like a scolded child. “Regardless of his race or circumstances, this man protected us from several monsters that would have certainly ripped us to shreds and eaten us.”

“Mom...”, both Jacob and Joshua were looking at their mother with pleading eyes.

“Fine...”, she said, defeated, “We’ll keep your secret.”

“I appreciate that. As promised, I’ll be happy to introduce you to my acquaintance at the Guild. I’ll need to settle things with these quests first but if you want to stop by Jada’s Junk Shop on the east side of the market district tomorrow, I’d be happy to take you over there.”

“Hmmph,” she snorted, “If I have time. We’ll be pretty busy not moving to Trone after all.”

“Yeah, well... you guys will be better off here, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, this place is great. That’s why we were moving away.”

“Oooookay... and on that note, lets get through this gate, right?” George offered.

“Mister... Prime?, are you still going to make us those action figures?” Jacob asked.

“You got it Jake, I’m not sure when I’ll be able to work on them but I’ll let you know when they’re ready. Don’t worry about calling me Prime, unless you’re talking to my little robot body, when talking to this handsome wolf, stick with Carnivac”, I said and gave Lily a wink; she frowned and looked away.

“Ma, why’s your face all red?” Joshua asked.

“Oh shush”, she scolded.

I showed my Adventurer tag to the gate guard, who confirmed my ID and waved me through. George had his own ID and explained that he was providing transportation for Lily and the boys while I was providing security. Once everything cleared through the gate we headed to the Guildhall to sort the escort quest. Lily and her children didn’t need to be a part of that, so they bid their farewells and headed off into the town. Since they had been planning on moving to Trone, I was curious if they were going to try to get their previous lodgings back or find a new place to stay, but it wasn’t really any of my business.

George said that he needed to take what was left of the carriage back to the transportation guild and that he would meet me over at the Adventurer Guildhall when he was done. I returned Shrapnel to my [Inventory] and headed over to the Guildhall on my own, it was already getting into late afternoon so the hall had a number of Adventurers coming back from local quests and reporting in, so I had to wait in line.

Finally it got to be my turn and as luck would have it, Talios was on duty.

“Done”, I said, pulling out my Adventurer tag. “Two Flame Centipedes and a nest with several hundred eggs. I ran into a transport carriage being attacked by one and helped them get back. Also, we ran into a Wyvern. I have all the corpses.”

Talios just stared at me with wide eyes. “You mean you killed two Flame Centipedes and a Wyvern all by yourself?”

“Not all at the same time... but yes. You said you had faith in me”, I said with a sly smile.

“Did I really say that? I’ve really gotta stop playing with the new guys like that”, they said biting the side of their lower lip. “Well, um... well done not dying!” Talios touched my tag for a moment then went to retrieve the quest sheet and then touched the tag to the sheet. The seal over the sheet changed from In Progress to Quest Complete. “Okay, that’s done. Here is the reward plus your deposit”, they said handing me a stack of gold coins. “As said when you left, we’re happy to purchase the materials you gathered during your quest, just go around to the back and talk with Nagina.”

“Got it. And this security quest?”

“We’ll need the Quest sheet for that before you can collect your reward. For your sake, I hope they turn it in. Sometimes they don’t for these in-field quest requests and the Adventurer ends up getting the short end. Usually the Transportation Guild has their own security forces, you see, and will rarely contract an Adventurer to help.”

“I see, guess I’ll take a walk over there when I’m done with Nagina, if he hasn’t dropped by yet.”

“I wish you luck”, they said with a wink.

I wasn’t sure which part they were wishing me luck with but decided not to pursue it further. After a promise to return after selling my materials to Nagina, I headed out the front and walked around the building to the back. It seemed dumb that they didn’t have a public way to get from one area to the other, inside the building. On the other hand, maybe they did and Talios was having fun at my expense. When I got to the back door, I found it already open and a group of Adventurers waiting their turn to sell off the materials that they had gathered on their quests. All of them had carts loaded up with dead animals, bloody crystals, plants, and raw ores. I did spot a few Adventurers with bags slung over their shoulders, which I assumed were [Inventory] bags. I, however, clearly forgot all about the fact that I didn’t have a bag with me to pass off my [Inventory] skill as an item. By the time I realized this, my turn was next and Nagina had noticed me and was giving me odd looks.

Nagina was busy writing down lists of things given to her by the different Adventurers along with their quality and value. She looked like she had her hands full, despite having six arms. I put my hands up and gestured that I could come back later, in return I got a glare that pinned me to the wall.

“You! You wait there till I’m ready.”

“Yes’m.”

She then took the next one in line and skipped over me, which was just as well since I hadn’t thought this fully through, to my shame. Each time I made to move I got a look, or an “Oy”. Once I found a knife magically sprout near my head though she gave no indication of noticing me at all. When the last Adventurer cleared out, she had a mountain of materials to go through and it was getting dark outside.

“Always this busy?” I asked

“It comes and goes”, she said as she closed up the door, “some days it’s nary a soul, and others it’s like today. All depends on how successful you Adventurers are on your quests I suppose.” She bolted the door and turned to look at me. “So who and what are you?”