“Ephkarn, what’s all of this about? Are you harassing the new girl? That’s not very nice you know, and some might even spread rumors if they knew.”

The sarcasm mixed in his voice was so indistinguishable from his normal tone that it was almost seamlessly incorporated. The golden kobold didn’t flinch, instead his head tilted to the side in a fake greeting smile, his eyes going half lidded as he tried to redirect the conversation in his favor.

“Actuall~y, I am here because of rumors circulating about you sir. I was told that yesterday you had a bit of an outburst in your office, and some of the upper floor members were worried that you were coercing this poor girl to slave away in her cage down here on your behalf. Truapar was s~o worried that he even volunteered to come and document the area on my behalf. Tell me, how accurate are these claims, hmm~?”

Vynrashu just rolled his eyes and smiled even wider.

“Not very, it was just a little motivation. She was lagging behind, and the policy that you set up is one that doesn’t tolerate lateness. I’m just keeping things going and making sure that we stay afloat, just as Qori wanted. After all, this is just a business, isn’t it?”

“You’re much too~ cruel for this line of work, Vynrashu. These are people after all, not machines you can just break and replace. Just look at this poor pup, she’s too petrified to even speak.”

Vynrashu pinched at the space between his eyes, his mocking smile now looking more forced than before.

“Ephkarn, she’s a voiceless one. For someone so in touch with their supposed compatriots, you sure don’t keep up with their issues and shortcomings.”

I turned my eyes away from their conversation so I wouldn’t have to watch their faces or glances. Truapar was still hiding behind the shelf with the camera in his hands, and even his pompous self looked uncomfortable with where the topic had gone. I just had to remind myself that this was just an act, but even that didn’t take the sting of his words off. He continued speaking before Ephkarn could capitalize on the momentary lull.

“Furthermore, you are the one who needs to be called out right now. We’ve already got enough problems around here without you halting production and changing budgets. Now you’re getting in the way of my crew as well. Not exactly professional behavior.

“I’m just getting things in order for when I take over~. You are right that this is a business, so it would only make sense that we optimize things. You say that she is voiceless, another of your crew a cripple and a few more having other issues~. It seems to me that you’re working against the nature of the workshop’s goals.”

“I value talent and resourcefulness, things that get real results. Half of your crew is in the running for lesser elder positions. You can’t really expect them to meet the production requests we’ve got lined up.”

“Reliability and experience have more credibility in my eyes. These are kobolds that have earned their right to be here through hard work and dedication.”

“Because you won’t let any new blood earn their way to success. It’s not a sustainable plan that will keep this place standing.”

There was a long pause as Ephkarn strode close to Vynrashu. I turned to look at them, the burly and tough overseer standing proud before the scrutiny of the wiry overseer. The melodic voice that was once here went dark and cold as Ephkarn revealed his true colors in a soft growl. Not once did his face change from that eerie smile or half-lidded stare.

“Oh Vyn, you really are your father’s boy. Greedy, selfish, headstrong… and a liar. Go ahead and keep up the act, but I know that you care about your lessers. Enjoy this last stretch of your authority. Because once it’s over, i’m going to-”

He whispered these next few words to the point that I couldn’t hear, but not once did Vynrashu allow himself to be shaken. In fact, his brazen smile seemed to only deepen.

“How colorful. Now, is this little inspection over? I’ve actually got something I need to return to our inventor here, and you and I need to go and see the grand merchant. Someone’s been embezzling funds again, you know how that goes. Oh, and there’s also some matters we need to discuss regarding the major projects your guys have fumbled with. Actual business stuff, yeah?”

Ephkarn’s smile twitched, clearly displeased that he couldn’t get some kind of reaction. The songbird once again sang as he turned to the side to adress me.

“Of course Vynrashu, this inspection is more than over. Come along Truapar~, we need to get those orders placed before the shift ends. You may resume your… whatever is was you were doing in here little pup, there is no reason to inconvenience you any further~. I shall see you before the mercantile elder later Vynrashu, do take care!”

With nothing left to say the golden kobold turned on his heel and strode away with confidence, followed hastily by his little lackey. Good riddance. Vynrashu waited until they were well beyond earshot before picking up his hammer and creeping close to me. He still had that irritating mask of confidence on, and right now I couldn’t stand it and was scowling at him.

“Hey Kayrux, I just wanted to-”

I put up a hand between us, a clear sign that I wasn’t in a talking mood. I know it was just an act, but saying that my being mute was an ‘issue’ or a ‘shortcoming’ still hurt. Just give me a while to chill out.

He thankfully took a step back and bowed his head slightly, then grabbed something from his bag and set it on my table. It was my saw, back from his mysterious friend with a few loose iron blades. Vynrashu reached over and carefully pulled at my slate on the table, wrote something on it, then turned to leave. He was well and gone on one of those lifts before I turned and read what he had said.

“Sorry.”

Asshole, you don’t get to just apologize like that. I couldn’t help but sigh and clear the slate of his writing. Look at it from his perspective Kayrux, he’s got to deal with an entire team of people like Turapar every day, and the guy they want in charge is a blatant sociopath that refers to you as a child: Ephkarn. I’d rather channel lightning through my eyes that let him boss me around.

Ugh, and this inspection scheme was so obviously an attempt to steal information. I thought they would be subtle about it and use those flying camera drones to sneak into my lab when I wasn’t around, but instead they took a direct approach and brought a camera with them and were bold enough to root through my storage? Jokes on them, I keep all of my important things at my main table and I was right there to keep them from getting close to that box. Still, this was a bad sign of things to come. I need to make progress while also keeping it on the down low, the super secret level of hidden that even they can’t discover.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Hold on, my lab is already half sunk into the wall, so who’s to say I can’t just make a hidden room just for my stuff? Vynrashu did say that I could do whatever I wanted with my lab, so maybe a few expansions might be in order. I know he said to keep my whole lab blocked off, but maybe just keeping one small room inaccessible would be easier than this shoddy cage. I could see it now, a thick copper door with the black lock on it hiding a small armory of my inventions. As for the raw materials, a simple inventory sheet and a lockbox would keep me from being unaware of any theft that went on, but those would have to be done tomorrow.

You pricks want to play dirty, well you better be ready to see just how petty and cautious I can be. No more miss nice mechanic.

…

The rest of my shift was spent making exactly what I had wanted: an armory. My dad was the only kobold around that could mold the stone the way he could, so making a bunker sunk five feet into the cave on all sides made the place more secure than a bank vault. The door was a lot simpler than I thought it would be, as it turned out that the lightning runes could be used to make a welding current, and as a plasma cutter when managed carefully. Trial and error taught me that my new control over electricity could be focused into a single charge, meaning that I could force objects to have either positive or negative energy stored in them. Five years of welding experience made the task a breeze, and using sensor runes in place of my eyes helped me keep my vision intact as I made the thick slab of metal into a door shape.

Incorporating a lock onto the door was the tricky part. Because I wanted the most secure door with as few moving parts as possible, everything was set into a single hinge on the top of the frame, and the lock was set into the stone of the floor with great big anchor pins. Opening the door was a bitch, but if someone broke the hinge to get it the racket would tell the whole workshop and floor below that someone was up to no good. As an added bonus the door could work as a trap for any would-be thieves, as a simple bar could be wedged in at the bottom to lock it shut from the outside.

Nothing important happened at home, just a nightly check to see how Mibata’s mana was healing, feeding Tim, stuffing a lot of my buildable designs into my bag and a night of dreamless sleep. Actually, that was a slight lie as I did have a lot to eat for dinner. Now that I thought about it as I was devouring my breakfast, my metabolism was through the roof lately. Oh no, if that meant what I think it meant, then something weird is going on. I went and checked in the mirror before going to work, but no matter where I scanned with my eyes or runes there was nothing new or different. Hopefully it was just stress eating.

Regardless of whatever my increased appetite meant, I still had work to get to and a lab to reinforce and perform an inventory listing on. The noisy, steamy workshop was just as crowded and busy as it usually was, though when I got to the rear of the place and approached my lab I noticed two red Kobolds waiting in my lab. They turned to face me once I had entered, and as usual I needed to brace myself for impact as Vimna shot at me like a red bullet. She managed to squeeze me hard enough that my spines began to stick out, one of them poking her arm and making her drop me from the surprise. Please stop crushing me, my poor bones aren’t made for that kind of abuse.

“Kayroo, are you okay? I not mean to hurt you.”

I waved that worry aside and returned her hug in a much gentler way. It’s okay kid, I just need to catch my breath. Looking over her shoulder I noticed that the other kobold wasn’t Dobo or his sister Gerch, but one of the siblings of Vimna’s. Let’s see, those lighter scales meant that it was one of the boys, and the lack of any blotches or spots meant that he was that one with the funny name. That was it, his name was Sheep. I backed away from Vimna and pointed to her brother, a silent way of asking her to reintroduce us properly.

“Oh, this my brother Sheep. He say he want be a machine maker too, so I brought him here. He nicest brother, teached me many things about surface places.”

The pinkish-red kobold stepped closer and made that same eccentric hand motion that his mother had done when greeting me, and I was unsure if I should try and mimic him. No, best to not do something embarrassing and just nod to him as a way of acknowledging his expression.

“Hello, I am Sheep. Vimna spoken highly of you as good teacher in written ways. I just wish to watch you doing some work and see what an inventor do. Is that allowed? I not wanting be in the way or make mad.”

I nodded a yes for him to stay while offering him one of the chairs by the table. I had no problem in letting a curious little guy see what I do. Actually he might get confused by what I wanted to do, so maybe I should write out an explanation so he can read it, or just let Vimna translate if he can’t read it. I wrote it down on my slate before passing the wooden plank to her and fetching that old hunk of rusty iron I had gotten for dirt cheap a while back.

“Kayroo going to use special magic to make tools from metal. My job is take notes on what I see or hear, but if anything goes wrong I’m gonna toss water over her or any fire. She says we need two buckets of water, one for fire and one for dangers. Come on, we can get those from dad!”

They scampered off excitedly to go and get the water, all the while I just watched them with a smile on my face. Okay, let’s dig out the casting sand recipes from before and see what the best one for Iron would be. Hmm, looks like the one with the strongest shape holding ability uses that powderized mushroom dust. A pinch of this, a bit of that, and once they get the water I’ll add just a bit of that to make the right kind of sand.

As for what I would be casting, I do believe that it’s time for proper wrenches and measuring cubes based on my Otes system. One of each should do the trick, and luckily I already had the wooden blocks to use as molds for the latter. Making molds of the wrenches wasn’t as easy, but a little clay around the blocks would work fine for the crude version one wrenches. The water was brought in, and after mixing the casting sand and preparing the molds I could now focus on actually melting this iron down.

First off we clean it with the refinery rune on 40% power. The rod hissed as all of the oxidized rust burned away, leaving only a pure iron rod in my hands. The noise and shimmering around the object caused both of my audience members to let out oohs of amazement. Hold your applause kids, this next part is where things will get interesting. I had only really thought of this idea based on some stuff I had watched online back on Earth, but with the power of magical lightning I could possibly perform some rudimentary induction smelting. Oh yeah, it’s magic magnet time!

First we start with a thunder rune, not a lightning rune because we don’t need that kind of power right now, and we just focus on moving the parts inside of it to prioritize the magnet component. Once the thunder rune had been turned into a magnetic flow device, I then focused on directing them to make a magnetic ring of sorts aligned with my index fingers and thumbs. Can’t forget those emergency shutoff switches or power controllers, and to be extra safe I will be doing all of this with a thick leather sheet over my hands in addition to keeping all of the iron inside of the crucible. Oh, but how am I going to pick this thing up and pour it into the molds? Be right back kids, I need to ask Dobo for some kind of tongs.

Luckily he did have tongs, but he also insisted on being present for whatever experiment required his tools. Vimna filled him in on the details as I set everything up next to the mound of wet sand with tool shapes pressed into it. Alright me, it’s time to finally make good on that promise of innovating here, so let’s get this show on the road already! The iron saw blade was able to cut a good chunk of the rod off, and into the pot it went to be melted. I made my hands into a ring around the crucible from beneath the leather flap, readied myself for the mana draw, then flipped the circuits on.

The iron chunk in the crucible spun around as my magnetic powers pulled at it, and soon enough I realized that I wasn’t heating it so much as I was just spinning it. Crap, what was it that made these kinds of smelters work? Something told me it was repeated pulls from the magnetic field, but another stage of it was missing. Crap, if only there was some way to dredge up that memory.

“Greetings Kayrux, Charles can assist in recovering dormant memory. Alternate magnetic polarities rapidly, this will have better results than circular rotation.”

Oh wow, that’s a really handy skill Charles, can you just do that all the time?

“No. Memories must be intact, detailed, and have usable pathways. Integrity of this particular memory is low, but the needed details were recoverable.”

Huh, that’s still really neat. Thanks for the assist. Well crap, now I have to rethink how this magnetic contraption is going to handle this task. Maybe it was time to design a new rune, something that would take the constant flow of mana and make it wavy like an alternating current. A magical inverter, for lack of better words. Please hold, red trio, I need to figure this one out for a minute.