“Excuse me?”, I asked, “I’m Carnivac, a Rank E Adventurer.”

“Uh, huh. I’m sure that’s what your tag says, but that’s not what you are, is it?” accused Najii.

“What do you mean?”, I asked, backing away and idly resting my hands on the pommels of my swords.

“You came in here, with no cart, no bag, no materials of any kind; your leg wrapped up in shadows; and you’re wearing the skin of a Shadow Wolf I recently dismantled. How are you related to that Automata, Prime?”

I sighed and relaxed my hands down to my sides before squatting down to rest against the wall. “Nothing gets past you Najii. I didn’t consider you were this observant. It’s impressive. The skin? Really?” I dispelled the shadow around my leg, revealing the damaged and partially repaired Automata leg in its place.

“Wow, so you’re an Automata too?”

“Sorta. I’d like to show you something, I feel like it might be okay if you know... but please promise not to let others know about it?”

“Okay? I’ll keep it to myself.”

I nodded and leaned back against the wall before opening up the hatch. Najii gave out a cute shriek and fell over backwards. Which, now I think about it, is kind of amazing for a snake woman. I climbed out of Carnivac and closed him back up, then held out a hand to Najii.

“What, in the name of tandoori and naan is that??”

“Well, that’s Carnivac”, Carnivac gave a little wave, “He’s like a puppet shell that I can use to get by as an Adventurer, since being an Automata in public presents issues.”

“That’s why you wanted the skin as intact as possible and left moist... how are you sustaining it?”

“I have a thick layer of mana paste formed from mashed mana fiber and medium grade mana potion between the skin and the Automata plating that supplies continuous mana to the skin.”

“That won’t last forever, the skin will age a lot faster than if it were on a living creature.”

“Really? Huh. okay, good to know, thanks. So, the reason I’m here is I got back from my first quest and I’ve got some materials.” I then pulled the corpses out of my [Inventory] for her to inspect.

“I’m guessing you want to keep the mana crystals from these?”

“Please, as well as the skin from the wyvern and the armor from that hippo thing.”

“Another shell?”

“Sort of, yeah.”

“Do you need them right away?”

“If possible, but I can see you’re pretty busy”

“Yeah... things have really picked up. I could use a couple of extra hands, even if it’s just dealing with the Adventurers.”

“Oh, that’s good news actually. On my quest I helped out a woman looking for work that was surprisingly deft at butchering a boar. Would you mind if I introduced her tomorrow?”

“That’d be great, I can’t make any promises but I’ll try her out.”

“That’s all I ask. Oh, do you want the Flame Centipede eggs? I gathered about three hundred of them. I also have the remains of all the people and animals that were in the Centipede’s food store.”

“I don’t know if we would be able to identify any of the people but we might be able to put to rest some of the missing persons reports. I have a [Inventory (large)] bag that you can transfer them to. We can hand them over to the Knight Watch to sort, they deal with those sorts of things. What’s the status of the animal remains?”

“I’ve got some kind of elk, a lesser basilisk, and a big spider type thing... I think most of the kills were pretty recent as they were likely stocking up for the babies to be born. The victims were probably alive when they were dragged back to the nest in order to keep them fresh for longer.”

“Yeah, sounds about right. Okay, I’ll take the lot along with those eggs, we’ll put those in my bag too and I’ll get to them later.”

I transfered over the requested items along with the victim remains and we settled up on a price for everything. Najii would get to my request for the wyvern skin later in the week so I removed the mana crystals from it and the two Fire Centipedes on my own before heading out. I asked if there was a route back to Guild Reception inside the building and she just snorted and told me to “go back the way you came”. I climbed back into Carnivac and was about to leave when Najii stopped me and wrapped my damaged leg in some thin fabric scraps that she had laying around. I guess because this was the dismantling department, the scraps were actually a bit bloody. Gross.

“You may look like you should get to a healer, but at least you don’t have that weird shadow thing clinging to your leg.”

I nodded my thanks and gave her a little salute before heading out the door. According to my internal clock, it was already past 8PM, but thankfully reception seemed to still be open. Talios was still behind the counter but they looked like they were getting ready to pack up for the day.

“You’re here late, what time do you usually get off?”

“Carnivac”, they said slyly, “are you asking me out?”

“Ah. Sorry, I was just thinking this is a pretty long day for you, eh?” I realized too late that I’d gotten comfortable around Najii and forgot that Carnivac is supposed to be a man of few words... ah well.

“It is”, they sighed, “We could stand to hire some more people to cover multiple shifts, really... but enough of that! Did you get everything sorted with Nagima?” As they talked, they got a small bag packed up and locked up the counter, walking me to the main door.

“Yes, thank you, though she made me wait till everyone else was done.”

“That sounds like her, I’m sure she had a reason though”, as they said this, they looked down the length of my body and stopped at my bandaged leg. “Oh my, is that why you had the shadow wrapped around your leg? Do you need healing? I have very reasonable rates!”

“Heh, no thanks. It looks worse than it is”, I said putting my hands up defensively.

“Maybe some company would help? You sure you don’t want to ask me out for a drink?”, they said, locking up the Guildhall door.

“If I decide to take up drinking, you’ll be the first to know.”

“Oh foo.”

“I’m sorry, this is horribly rude of me... but are you male or female?”

“Yes. Do you have a preference?”

“Um... not in particular, no.”

“Neither do I”, they said with a rather radiant smile that I was certain was giving off actual light.

“Okay. Good to know. I better get home and get this leg fixed up, I’ll swing by in the morning to see if that escort quest sheet got filed. Try to get some rest before then”, I waved as I headed back in the direction of the shop.

“Toodles”, they called after me.