Writer’s spot: Greeting friends! A crafting chap… An assembling chapter today!

SO, firstly, I am warning you guys that this is a “crafting” heavy chapter, much like Insania’s. But, I know a lot less about how clockworks work than I do about blade-crafting, so I had to… Improvise a bit around it. Okay, not a bit. A LOT… I REGRET NOTHING!

BESIDES, today’s chapter comes from the fact that I didn’t have my afternoon class, so be happy. Can’t promise a chapter tomorrow, though.

Beep, and enjoy your story!

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As he rolled around the broken robots. He couldn’t help but watch in wonder at the sheer amount of wreckage around him. A good part of the swarm was completely unusable, thanks to either an exploded pressure tank or simply a huge hole caused by the dwarf’s own shotgun. Said Dwarf that was cheerfully approaching some of the most intact robots and turning them upside down before starting to take apart their jumping mechanism and remove the piston for himself.

[Hey… Don’t you feel bothered by that?] He asked her within his mind.

[About?] She asked a bit confused.

[The whole robot hunting thing. I mean, you did create them, right?] He asked as he watched the dwarf take out a small piston from the robot while shouting happily.

There was a brief moment of silence as the goddess stopped to think. Gaz patiently waited for her while looking around.

[If I said that I’m not bothered… I would be lying.] She said with a mental sigh. [But it’s not like I don’t understand why they are doing this, at least.] Gaz felt confused at her words, but she soon went on. [Did you analyze that piston he took out?]

[Yup.] He answered

[If you look at the data, for such a small piston, it’s capable of holding some very high pressure without much problem, giving them their wonderful leaping prowess.] She said in a proud tone. [It would take many years of technological evolution to reach something like that in an artificial way. But they had it available since who knows when, just by hunting some robots...]

[Hmm… I think I see where you are going.] Gaz said as he analyzed some of the motors of a broken leaper. [Basically, you are saying that their technological advance came from hunting these robots for their parts, and then building something of their own?]

[That is what I guessed.] She said in agreement. [If possible, I would rather that they didn’t hunt them at all, but the way things are, it should be almost a need by now.] She finished with a last sigh.

[Well, on the brighter side, at least they aren’t treating them as an enemy, I guess.] Gaz said after some time. Sensing her confusion, he quickly went on. [I mean, some movies and games I saw back in my world, sometimes depicted the robots as enemies of the humans, but in this world, it does not seems to be the case. At least they are treated more as a… Animals… Which isn’t great… But at least works…] He started fumbling when he noticed that he wasn’t exactly helping and decided to shut up. At least she seemed to understand his intention as he heard a slight giggle in his mind.

[Thanks, Gaz.] She said trying to cheer him up slightly. [It IS better than having them hunted down indiscriminately.] She said in a slightly awkward tone.

[I’ll shut up and go back to working on my new body, ok?] He said sullenly, earning a new giggle from her. [But I must say that for someone who knows nothing about the world, you are a lot more mature than what I expected.] He added lastly.

[What do you mean?] She said annoyed, but Gaz had long since turned his attention to the pile he had collected using the cable tools from his body.

And he was quite surprised with all the material he had gathered while being distracted by his talk with the nameless goddess. A quick sigh deciding that he had to find a name for her sooner or later, he quickly put himself to work by sorting all the items he had gathered.

Many pieces of surprisingly thin armor plating. Many still working treadmills, thanks to Yllivia precise strikes. Some still unexploded steam tanks. MANY, MANY different pistons and blades. Even ‘manyer’ cogs of every possible size imaginable, seconded only by the amount of pipes and springs. A couple of somehow intact motors and some intact head/neck thingy.

Of course, many of the robots were almost completely destroyed, but almost is the key word. Different from the dwarf, who looked for specific pieces, Gaz was accepting pretty much anything that he found, so he gathered his pile much faster than Ross gathered his piston.

The fact that he pickpocketed one of his pistons could of course contribute to this, but that does not need to be mentioned, of course.

That aside, while taking a closer look at the robots, he noticed that they weren’t all that similar to one another as he had first thought. Some of them were bigger, others were smaller, some had a wider treadmill and others had bigger motors. Almost as if they were living things themselves and this made beepy feel that they were a bit more alike living beings than he had first thought.

[So, what are you going to make?] She asked him as he analyzed the pile.

[Not sure… Probably a brand new body. This one is too fragile to even think of traveling alone.] He said. [No offense, though.]

[None taken. It really isn’t very resistant.] She said with a sigh. [I should have worked a bit longer on it, I guess… But at least I can help now!] She said cheering up. [What would you like your new body to have? Tell me and I should be able to design something.]

[Ooh… That’s handy!] He said cheerfully. [Well, I guess that we should focus a bit more on being a bit more resistant rather than going for the offensive.] He said while thinking on the dent in his armor, which came from pretty much an accidental bump instead of a full on assault. [But losing my mobility would be bad too…] he said thinking for a bit longer.

[Are you sure about that? I’m starting to think that having some weapons would be a good idea…] She said a bit worried.

[Well… If this was a game, then I would have gone the all-offense path and reset whenever I died.] He said in a pensive tone. [But since I will die for good if I take a strong hit… I’d guess I would rather increase my chance of survival…]

[So, defense and mobility, right? Leave it to me!]

It didn’t take long for the information to start flooding his head and plans to appear in his visor. Looking at them, he whistled in his mind impressed as some parts were highlighted and the goddess showed what each part was and how it worked.

Getting pumped up, he immediately started working on the new body.

…

Firstly, he started with the body. On an almost automated pace, he started welding the armor-plating into two layers to compensate for the lack of resistant of the leaper’s armor. Making the rough shape of the armor they had planned, a simple squarish shape with some elevations on the border and a circular hole in the middle. He also made a pentagonal-shaped armor plating with a slight slope on the edges and a flat top. Only a single cut on one of the borders.

The leapers had a single motor for both of the treadmills, but to compensate the extra weight they were going to add, they put one motor for each treadmill. But these were far too fragile for their tastes, so they exchanged the gears of the piece for some bigger and tougher ones, but had to compensate with a bigger tread. After quickly taking two pairs of treads and fusing them into a single pair with some nimble welding. Taking inspiration from the Leapers design, they added two pairs of piston on each of the treadmills in such a way that once activated, they would allow the new body to jump just like them. The downside was that it would temporarily disconnect the treads from the motor, but they could work on it later.

But they met a small problem here.

When they started to put the treadmills under the armor, they didn’t have a way to lift the armor since it was so heavy.

Luckily, help came from a sudden dwarven hand that lifted the armor for them. After quickly pulling the treadmill/motor combo beneath the armor, he turned to the amused dwarf and gave him quick nod as his thanks and went back to work.

Motors installed, he quickly went on to work on the springs, gears and steam tanks that would power the new body. Using his scanner and the flexible cable-arm, it was a lot easier to work on it than he had initially expected, even when all the gears went beneath the whole body.

Making a ridiculously complex arrangement with the gears and other pieces that is far too complicated to be explained on a light-hearted story like this one, he configured it in such a way that he could also power the treadmills with another motor. With this, he also added two of the smaller steam tanks to power the motors as well as the pistons. Finally, he added some large pipes on the back that led up as exhaust for the excess steam. Due to size constraints, he could only add one small furnace for the steam, but that wasn’t much of a problem for the new body.

On the top of the armor, between the central hole and the slots for the treadmill, he installed the neck/head thingies after quickly readjusting the head so that it would be easier to access the tools. They were laid in such a way that he could use them to repair the treadmills or each other if needed, and once deactivated would lay low besides the body.

Around this time, the whole trio had already gathered to see the work of the little robot, as he cheerfully welded and moved around some pieces. The tree of them sitting a few meters away and watching curious. Of course, they kept an eye out for any possible swarm, but luckily, the only one that appeared passed far away from their position.

Focusing back on his work after watching the dust cloud pass away, he started working on the center of the new body, preparing to receive his core and camera once he was done. The leaper’s cameras were far too weak when compared to his.

At least SOMETHING of his was better than theirs.

They planned on eventually, adding a system that would allow the center to spin around, just like a tank turret, but for now they were content on simply making it able to expand upwards like a large piston. Finishing the slot, the quickly checked to see if the pentagonal plating would fit nicely on it.

After complaining in his mind for his hasty decision, he threw away the plating and started to work on a new one, since the slots were misaligned. But by then it was already night, and just when he finished the new plating, he felt someone grabbing him and taking him away from the armor.

“!#^%$!Sleep.!#&^$!beepy!” Yllivia said while taking him back towards the forest, limping whenever she supported herself on the now bandaged injured leg.

Beepy made a long beep of protest as he tried to release himself from her grasps, but since he was still in his weakling body, he found himself unable to, and had to let himself be carried with her towards their camp.

They almost immediately went to sleep save for Sorius, who kept on watch with his book. This time he didn’t use his lightning to light up the bonfire, so he probably was still suffering some kind of backlash from overusing his power.

The cat-girl went to sleep while holding a frustrated robot in her arms and for the first time, Ross didn’t try to take him away from the girl. At least something good happened.

Many excruciating hours afterwards. During which he spent most of his time revising his next steps with the goddess, since they needed a lot more precision than before, he immediately dashed off from the camp the moment they let him, running back to find the scrapyard and the new body still intact.

Immediately he started with some final adjustment on the inner side of the body before starting to prepare himself for the transfer. After quickly installing an extra camera on the new body’s arm, he took on a deep artificial breath and started the dangerous procedure.

He ejected the right side of his armor.

“BEEPY?” Yllivia said worried, but he simply beeped in response.

He had a strange feeling the moment his core became exposed. According to the goddess, this core was the only thing both the androids and clockworks had in common. This is where all the data processing and storage happens, as well as the material conversion that happens when the robot eats or create a new part. The moment a robot dies, the core shatters into dust. It looks like some kind of crystal ball that had a strange light within.

He pulled a few hose from the center-piece of the new body and lightly stuck them to the center of my core, feeling a strange sensation when they touched it and slightly sunk on its surface ,like some kind of new limb suddenly appeared on his body.

Then he pulled an electric cable, the only non-steampunky part of the body, and plugged it on his core. Universal socket of convenience for the win!

A few seconds after the cable was plugged in, he started to feel slightly dizzy for a moment before a new vision appeared in his mind. It took him a moment to understand that it was the camera he had installed on the clockwork body’s.

Feeling satisfied, he had to cautiously control the new body’s other limb to remove the core from within his old body and gently put it on the new one. Not that the core was fragile, as it was resistant enough to receive some mean impacts, but it’s difficult to not be careful when you have your life literally on your mechanical hands, if you know what I mean.

The moment the core fit perfectly within the slot, he suddenly blacked out.

GAZ.OS have detected a new body and is now rebooting.

The best Goddess-saving OS. ever made.*

Gaz.Os is the only goddess saving Operational system built, and thus is considered the best Goddess saving operational system as up to this day. Should another Goddess saving O.S appear, this statement may no longer be considered valid.Loading: Steam_cont.sys (100%)

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“y…” Gaz heard something, but he felt too lightheaded to understand what it was. “ee…” Again, the sound came to him and he felt that he knew from where it came, but couldn’t quite remember. “…eepy…” Still, he couldn’t help but feel that a he should answer to it…

“Beepy?”

He suddenly woke up, receiving an immediate double vision that made him have some slight headache before he could quite understand what was happening. He took a few seconds to try and process the data he was receiving before seeing Yllivia crouching in front of him while lightly nudging his new body.

“beeeeep…” He let out a long and weak beep as he was still recovering from having booted up. But since the beeper was on his other body, this left Yllivia slightly confused on where to look. At least this seemed to have calmed down the cat-girl, who let out a short sigh before gently patting his new and old body and saying something he couldn’t quite understand.

[How long have I been out?] He asked groggily.

[Around twenty seconds.]

[Hmm… less than I thought…] He said as he saw some new data slowly appearing on his vision, indicating the state of his new body-parts and the steam-tanks level as well as other things. Thankfully, they felt mostly intuitive, thanks to his new reboot.

After beeping once more and using the non-camera hand to point at the old and slightly smaller body, Yllivia nodded and gave him some space, walking back to the others who were watching everything in a mix of surprise and interest.

He quickly went back to work, since the steam-levels were low and threatened to finish soon, so he quickly put himself to work, by taking the smaller motors from the old body and plugging it just above the core and fitting it on the gear-mechanism.

Then he took out the battery and the solar panels, that looked like small black stripes on his old body and gently put then on a small slot in the back of the new one with the help of the cable-hand, which he directly attached to the core.

A few minutes later of some finer adjusts, he placed the old camera down atop the old motor and removed the cables that still linked to his old body before closing it on the plating.

His body finished, he now looked a miniature tank without the canons, but with large exhaust pipes on the back. Having a square shape with sides around one meter long, he was only half a meter high with the treadmills going slightly higher.

He quickly took his new body for a spin, testing the various functions.

First, he tested locomotion. He could either use the old solar motor for some more silent and slower movement, or the steam ones for high speed, this way he could economize on the steam. Having one piston on each edge of the treadmills allowed him to both jump or simply tilt the body backwards and upwards, a nice trade for now being only able to spin the camera slightly upwards.

The centerpiece could be lifted so that he could have access to the cable-hand in case the two repairer limbs would prove to not be enough or even if he needed to eat something and process something to transform into fuel for the furnaces.

Lastly, he added a pair of small blades beneath his body that would eject forward with the help of a piston as an offensive measure. Not the best, but for his actual body, it was enough with what he could do with the parts without sacrificing his defense with.

Going for a larger and more complex body would require him to get some other finer pieces later, as these were a much better fit for a small and simple body.

He started moving around cheerfully as he got used to the new body, only stopping when he noticed the trio clapping at his success. He felt a bit embarrassed with the sudden attention and immediately stops, moving his camera inward as if looking away.

“!#@Beepy!#^[email protected]$leapy!” He heard Ross say with a laugh.

“!#@$Beepy!#Beepy” Yllivia said to him while slightly frowning.

The dwarf laughed loudly again at her words.

[So… you got your new body…] The goddess suddenly said. [What are we doing now?]

[Eeh… I don’t know. We have to find a way to find you first, right?] He said after some thought. [Any idea?]

[Hmm… Maybe get something that can detect electromagnetic waves?] She asked.

[Eeh… Works for me…] He turned back to the trio. [Then maybe it would be better to stick with them for some more time?]

[Seems like a good idea. They do know more about the world than we do…]

[So, find electromagnetic detector added to the list, then.] He said as he drove back to the trio.

As soon as he got closer to them, Sorius asked something to Yllivia, who then turned to him. Probably wondering if he was asking whether he would stick around or no. He decided to imitate a nod by moving his camera up and down. The trio seemed to take this correctly as they all turned back through the way they came.

Ylliva had to take some support from Ross since her limping was pretty bad, but she took a brief moment to come closer to him.

“Beep.” She said lowly.

Gaz stopped for a moment and immediately turned back to his old body, and started to remove a small piece from it and install on his new body.

[Let’s also add: Finding something other than the beeper to communicate.] He said with a mental sigh, earning a cheerful giggle from the goddess.