The camp was not at all what Melody had expected. She had figured there would be some tents and a fire pit. She had gone camping on one of the resource floors in Banue with her parents. It had been fun if a little boring. This was not that. First of all, there was a wall. Not some dirt wall or wooden stakes in the ground, but a proper metal construction, thrumming with mana. It was dozens of feet tall, and judging by the guards standing on it, several feet thick. Cornered with actual guard towers, it was an imposing construction.

"Oh. That… That's way more than I thought it would be." Melody was stunned.

"Ha! Bet you were expecting some flimsy tents and a fire pit?"

"Well, yeah."

"Oh, no," Loghain shook his head. "These Harvesters will be out here for the better part of a year, doing their rounds through the surrounding biomes. This is a relatively safe central location to stage from. This all will come down when they're done. C'mon now. You should see the inside." Both he and Arainell started walking toward the gate that Melody just noticed. Looking at the open doors the rest of their convoy was currently rolling through, she saw they were indeed a few feet thick.

"Hurry along, little bird."

"Right!" She charged after them.

Walking through the gates, she saw the mechanisms that would snap them shut in an instant, should they need to be closed in an emergency. "This all moves?"

"What? No, no. It comes down in parts and gets loaded onto the cargo carts with whatever materials were harvested. These long-term, scheduled Harvester groups meet a certain quota for the type and weight of materials before they come back. The kind of camp you were thinking of would be for a rush order for a specific resource. These are much, much safer."

"So they set this up, then send people out? All over the place?"

Loghain nodded. "Yup, pretty much. There are four separate teams here, each specifically chosen to handle their own Mana Beasts in their own biomes. They just stage out of here."

"I've never met actual Harvesters before."

Loghain barked out a laugh. "Sure you have, little miss. They just weren't armored to the gills and ready to kill some Beasts. Many of the people your father does business with are from the guild."

"Oh." Melody became distracted, looking around as they finally passed through the gate. The line going in was pretty slow. On the other side, she saw why. The carriages they had come through with were threading their way through narrow gaps between buildings. All the construction inside the wall was wooden, with accents of metal and bone, with several gems or crystals placed strategically.

"What's up with the gems?" It felt weird that every building had a few.

"Holds physical magic well. The more delicate stuff. Bigger stuff gets laid straight into the wood. The more intense work goes into the metal and Beast bone. Lastly, it all ties into the gem work, which holds it together. Lots of those gems are made of crystalized Beast blood mixed with Alchemical agents."

"Wow. Does all this come down too?"

"Nope. Each of these buildings is actually either a personnel carrier or cargo transport. They just change shape. Part of the physical magic they put in 'em."

"Woah." Melody felt a bit shell-shocked. She knew that a lot of money and effort went into these trips, but she hadn't ever seen where that money went. Seeing all the magic that was just part of the operation was amazing.

"Yeah, woah. Now, your mother says you had some plans for how to use your Calling? Got something special, did you?"

"It's a class, not a Calling," Melody said absently. She was still gawking. There were men and women, some of them armed and armored, some in casual clothing, walking around. These were Harvesters, going about their business. "This is so cool."

"Mmm." Loghain didn't respond to that. "What's a class?"

Melody shrugged. "I don't really know. Lots of it seems like a Calling."

"Well, what did you want to do?"

"Ahh," Melody dragged her attention back to Loghain. "Where'd Mom go?"

"She had some people here to meet."

"Oh, ok. Where do they keep all the… bodies?"

"What?"

"Like, the Beasts they get, where do they keep them?"

Loghain paused for a moment. "I'm not familiar with every step of the process, but they should all be dropped off at a central point. What do you need?"

Melody shrugged, smiling. Her earlier enthusiasm for her class overcoming her awe. "I have a lot of things to try. It's going to take a while." Now that her mind was turning back towards what she was here to do, Melody's smile grew. "Can you take me?" She grabbed one of Loghain's gauntlets.

"Of course. I'm here to escort you in the first place. Though I'm not sure how much you'll like this…"

"Not you too! Mom and Dad haven't let me do anything lately. C'mon! It'll be fine!" Melody pouted, tugging at Loghain, to no effect. In his armor, the man probably weighed over five hundred pounds.

"Fine, fine. But don't say I didn't warn you." Loghain caved.

"Woo!" Melody immediately began charging off, almost running into someone immediately. Before she could slam into their shin, she felt herself go weightless as she was lifted into the air.

"Hold up. You don't know where you're going, little miss." Loghain placed her on his shoulder, which was more than broad enough to act as a seat. With one massive hand sitting on her legs, Melody was in no danger of falling anytime soon. "How about I take us there, hmm?"

"Ah, t-thanks, Loghain." Melody stuttered. She hadn't been looking at all. More than that, seeing all the people milling about was a bit unnerving. Melody had never been in a large crowd before. She wasn't sure how to handle it. Luckily, Loghain's solution was perfect since everyone made way for his gargantuan frame. Though, from her current vantage point, Melody noted there were more than a few people that might give the big man a run for his money. In size, at least. Melody had never seen the professional bodyguard in action, but her parents said he was the best of the best. In fact, they had told her that the first thing she should do in a dangerous situation was to find Loghain or her mother.

Melody sat idly watching the people as her mind spun up different plans for how to test her Nano-Swarm. There was so much she didn't know. It was like playing a brand new game for the first time, trying to find out what worked and what didn't until she found the playstyle that she liked the most. Except what little she had understood from the Interface made this look a hundred times more complicated than anything she had played before. And she had played a lot of games.

After a few minutes, they ended up in front of a large building of similar construction to the rest, except for the larger garage door next to the normal one.

"They have a car in here?" Melody had thought only cities had cars.

"Nahh, that's for wheeling in larger Beasts. You should see the disassembling center they have for behemoth class Beast excursions. Could fit your mother's Beast form through those doors if she had her wings open."

"Woah."

"Down you go, little miss" He plucked her from her perch and placed her on the ground like she weighed nothing more than a piece of paper.

"Thanks for the ride, Loghain." Melody giggled.

"Tis an honor," He gave a deep bow, looking very stately and refined, only to ruin the image as he winked at her, causing Melody's giggle to evolve into a laugh. She darted inside the building.

"What are you doing in he- Sir Loghain." The man at the counter, who looked like a worn piece of leather given human form, started to question Melody, only to spot Loghain following after her and bowing his head toward the giant. "What can I do for you?"

"This," Loghain directed the man's attention toward Melody. “Is Melody vonShodenburg. Heir to the family. She is here because she has a Calling and requires access to our stock of resources. You are to assist her to your utmost." He stated in the most serious voice Melody had ever heard him use. Around her, he always acted kind of like a silly uncle.

The man's deep tan paled, realizing he had been about to scold his boss's boss's boss's daughter. In front of the head of security, no less. "Ahh, right. What might you need for your Calling young miss?" He said in a much more respectful tone.

"It's a class, not a Calling. Where are all the bodies?" Melody stated bluntly, completely oblivious to the man's discomfort.

"I-The bodies? I'm not sure I follow."

"Um, when the Harvesters kill stuff, they bring it here, right?"

"Yes."

"So, where are they?"

"Do you mean the Beast carcasses?"

"Yes."

"...Right. Back this way then." The man gave up. He didn't want to know what a little girl wanted with the bodies of dead animals. Considering who she was, that was waaaaay above his pay grade. Plus, if Sir Loghain wasn't worried about it, he wasn't going to say anything.

Leading them behind the counter he had been standing at, he led them into a much larger area, with high ceilings and several workbenches placed uniformly around the room. Each bench had a wide variety of cutting tools on a frame attached to it, and at each bench was a worker, taking apart the carcass of various Beasts. There was blood and viscera all over the work surface of every bench, although the floor was surprisingly clean.

The man, whose name was Henry, watched the little girl, waiting for a reaction. Most Harvesters threw up the first time they came into the disassembly room. It was incredibly grotesque to watch, after all. That is not what happened. Melody looked around the room as if searching for something in particular before marching across the room toward a series of tables in the back that held carcasses waiting to be worked on.

As they walked, she suddenly looked at Loghain. "I thought it would be smellier." Loghain shrugged and turned to Henry, who had followed along, mostly out of curiosity.

"Ahh, there are physical magics in the workbenches to contain any airborne particulates. Considering we have a wide variety of Beasts being processed at any given time, even small particles of blood or other detritus could cause violent reactions if the mana in them were to mix. It also means no smell."

Melody smiled. "That's cool." She then turned back to the table.

Henry sidled up to Loghain. "Sir, I hate to ask, but is she…Alright?"

Loghain looked down at the older man before responding in the same hushed tone. "Well, her mother is an eighth-tier Transcendent Beast, so I'm not that surprised."

"Eighth tier… But isn't she…" Henry was at a loss for words.

Loghain nodded. "Yes. I never asked, but apparently, it's very rare. You should see her mother's human form. They could be twins."

"Incredible. A Beast mentality in a human body." Henry shook his head.

While the two of them were talking, Melody was focused on the wide array of Beast carcasses in front of her. All of them were obviously damaged in some way. Melody ran through all the ideas she had been coming up with on their walk through the camp before settling on the one that would be most convenient to her. Calling up the Interface and holding it in one hand, she reached out and touched one of the corpses. Looking at the experience counter, nothing changed. Darn. I guess that would have been too easy.

"Ok, harvest." She said, focusing on the Beast she had just touched. This caused a message to pop up on the Interface.

No unoccupied nanites

"Need more nanites then, duh." Melody rolled her eyes. She hadn't been sure how much the class would line up with Warlord, but this was actually something she was familiar with. Whenever she built something using the Nano-Swarm, that would occupy a portion of the nanites in the swarm. Since she had the Interface constructed, there were no more nanites to do anything else. Dismissing the Interface, Melody had the Nano-Swarm start assimilating several of the creatures on the table.

"This is going to take a while." She turned back to the two men talking quietly behind her. "Hey, mister!"

"Ahh, yes?" Henry replied.

"These three," She pointed to three of the carcasses, "Are going to disappear in, like, a few hours, I think."

"Ok?" Henry was just as lost as he had been the last time he tried talking to this strange little girl.

"Great! Loghain, I'm hungry. We didn't have breakfast, and it's already lunchtime. Can we get some food?"

"Of course, little miss. Are you done here?"

Melody shook her head. "Nope. We have to come back once the Nano-Swarm is done assimilating all the bodies."

Loghain just laughed a bit. He had no idea what she was talking about, any more than Henry. "Alright, we better get some food in you before then. Melody smiled and nodded.