I had dealt with those bullies for years. When I was a kid, we were all friends even. Just like everything else, the change happened after my mom died. Needam, the leader and the smallest of the bunch, was the one who commented about being injured. Even though he was the smallest, he was also the meanest. Even when we were kids, we didn't get along too well. He could never do anything about it until he pulled the others to his side.

Of course, none of that would have been a problem if I had gotten my robot six months ago. I was the oldest of them all. I would have been the only person eligible to get one last time the sphere was in town.

"What's the matter? They didn't let you get a robot? Probably because they knew you were too dumb," Needam sneered. His oily hair was slicked back, probably with sweat, and who knew what other type of grease. His hair elongated his pimply forehead and made his pointed nose stick out even further.

"Yeah, right," chimed in Phal, a taller sandy haired-boy that hovered over Needam's shoulder. "The sphere itself probably didn't give him one. The first in history." He guffawed loudly as if he said the funniest thing known to man. The group members laughed too, but without as much enthusiasm.

They all tried to make their own jokes, and Needam began to walk forward slightly as they did. He was feeling bold with his posse surrounding him, but he walked too far forward. I saw my chance and sprinted forward. I cocked my arm back and swung mid-run. Needham didn't even see it coming, but he didn't have to.

My fist slammed into a shiny piece of metal before it contacted Needam's face, and the impact rang loudly from the blow.

I yelled in pain and sprang back, ensuring I didn't get too deep into the alley. I cradled my hand as I quickly inspected it. My knuckles were bloody, and my fingers were slightly numb. However, the numbness was swiftly fading, and I could move my fingers just fine, so I didn't think they were broken.

I looked at the group; standing again right behind Needam's shoulder was Phal. His left arm was in front of Needam's chest, and a small round shield manifested on his forearm. Phal's pocked-marked face didn't belie the pride he showed at the display of his robot.

The fact that he had a shield protruding from his robot armor stunned me more than my fist striking it. He received a Martial Class robot from the sphere if he had a shield. I let my shock show as I mumbled out, Martial Class, a little too loudly.

"With a guard Subclass. Jealous?" Phal barked in laughter. "I'll be leaving for the closest training garrison within the week. Maybe when I'm done, I'll come back here and arrest you for being too stupid to live."

"With such a good class, why are you defending him then?" I asked, still confused.

"Because that's what guards do; they defend people from dumb criminals like you."

"I'm not a criminal," I growled, no longer stunned and tired of his insults.

"Sure, you are, you idiot; you just attacked a Technician," he said smugly.

I took another step back at the revelation. A Technician Class robot was the one I wanted. I couldn't believe that Needam got that class. He got the type that I wanted before me.

"You lie!" I yelled.

All my anger boiled over and out of me. I didn't care anymore that they had robots or I was outnumbered. The others must have noticed that I was becoming unhinged, and I don't think they liked it. Sure, they had robots, but not for very long, so they couldn't be too adept at using them, which was why they felt they could gang up on me.

"You wish, criminal," Phal said. "I'm not waiting for later. Jed, go get the guards." One of the others stepped from the shadows and began to move.

"Don't bother…It doesn't matter." Needam waved him off. "We'll be gone next week and never see this loser again. The worst thing we can do to him is let him stay here. He'll just go back to his farm out in the middle of nowhere and fade into nothing. Isn't that right, hick?"

I didn't say anything to him. I didn't have anything else to say to any of them. The threat of them getting the guards sobered my temper, though, and I knew a setup when I saw one. I had already made a huge mistake by letting my anger get the best of me. Had they wanted to, they could have dragged me into that alley and beat me senseless.

My temper made me think that I had a chance. With each of them having robots in Symbiotic Mode and me with nothing but a small knife, I had zero options other than turning and walking away. I didn't even want to give them the satisfaction of knowing how mad I was, so I just turned to go finish my task for Jonas.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

This was turning out to be the worst day ever. I was beginning to think Jonas was right, and we should have just stayed at the farm. Sure, I wouldn't have had another chance to get a robot for six months, but had I waited, I wouldn't have had to deal with those jerks.

I could never understand why they were always so mean to me, I knew a portion of it was because their parents mostly disliked Jonas, but I also didn't know why that was. The supply store was the only place Jonas liked to go in town, so he sent me to the grocer. I asked him a year prior why everyone seemed mean, but he never gave me an answer.

The other boys all laughed as I walked away, and clenching my fists in anger was all I could do to stop myself from making another poor decision.

The grocer was in an extra foul mood when I walked in there and gave him the list of foodstuffs that we needed. I also handed him the bag so he could pack it all in there. It wasn't a lot of stuff, and I was sure he was cheating me when he told me the price of everything. Since I didn't bother to look at what was on the list, I just forked over the money.

When I left the grocer, Jonas was already waiting outside on the wagon. I threw the bag in and jumped in next to it. Without saying a word, he spurred his robot down the road toward the side exit of town.

As we left, a guard was stationed at that gate too, but he didn't even look our way as we went. He and his robot were in Companion Mode, unlike the guards at the front gate. As I briefly glanced back, I thought I caught a glimpse of a red light coming from the ocular cavity of his rotund robot. It could have been a glimmer from the sun, though, so I didn't give it much more thought as our cart continued down the road in a direction that wasn't toward our home.

"Where are we going?" I asked after about ten minutes of silent travel.

"You'll see when we get there," Jonas grunted.

We traveled down the road for another two hours, mostly in silence. I was just about to ask Jonas again where we were heading when he pulled off the main road. I hadn't even noticed the slender trail since it was covered in overgrown brush. We didn't travel very far on the slight path before my father stopped the cart, and we got off.

I walked around the area a little, mainly to stretch my legs and look around. A minuscule, barely visible foot trail appeared to go deeper into the woods and between the hills. I looked back to where Jonas was.

He was packing the items I bought from the grocers into two similar bags. Behind him, the way we came was almost invisible due to the brush. Since the path turned a little, I couldn't even see the road we had been on.

"What are we doing out here?" I asked. Jonas finished packing, picked up the bags, and shoved one in my hands.

"We're going to get you a robot," he growled. Without explaining further, he turned and started to walk down the foot trail I had noticed earlier. As he continued to walk, he called out to me without turning around, "don't forget your spear. You might need it."

Jonas' robot was moving in front of us on the small foot trail we had been following for a couple of hours. I tried asking where he was taking us numerous times, but after the first time he said he was taking me to get a robot, he didn't answer me anymore.

I didn't understand how he was taking me to get a robot in the middle of nowhere. It's not like there was going to be a magical hidden robot sphere in the middle of the mountains that could dish one out. My other outlandish idea was that he would fly us up to the starship docked on the moon. All the scenarios I could think of were equally fantastic, and I couldn't figure out what it was.

Occasionally, Jonas would stop us on the trail and command his robot to scan that area. I was surprised because I didn't know his robot possessed that capability. I didn't even know that a Labor Class had that skill. I thought it might be for scanning an area for supplies that could be used to complete any tasks that needed to be done. Although, it seemed like he was using it to check for any monsters in the area.

It had been a while since the last time he scanned the area, and just as we entered a small clearing, the bushes to the north started shaking, and the sound of loud clopping could be heard getting closer. Before we could do anything else, a family of boars came running out of the trees and shrubbery straight for us.

"Move," Jonas yelled.

I jumped out of the way, barely missing the lead boar. I hit the ground hard, but the ground was soft, and I managed to flip and roll until I stood again.

"It's not over yet," Jonas yelled again. "Get ready. There's a monster in the area. Buy me a couple of seconds."

Jonas whistled, and his robot came closer to him.

"Lesser Symbiotic Mode," he yelled.

The robot's legs tucked up underneath it, and the top portion of its body opened to reveal a recess. Jonas swiftly rammed his arms into the body of the robot. It seemed like he grabbed onto something, and then he pulled up, lifting the entire robot off the ground.

As he lifted the robot off the ground, I could see that metal gauntlets and bracers were already wrapped around his arms, but the robot continued to shift and change as it worked its way around his body. I wanted to continue watching the transformation. It had been so long since I had seen it, and I didn't know what a lesser transformation was, but I didn't have that luxury. What I thought was a more enormous boar emerged from the same direction as the other boars, but I quickly realized it was so much more.

Most monsters in the world stem from other creatures that live in harmony with nature. Since our world is heavy with De, an anomaly every so often occurs within a normal animal, and the De runs wild. It morphs them into entirely different creatures. That anomaly doesn't just warp the animals' bodies but also warps their mind. They go crazy from the De running rampant in their bodies and lash out at everything they can.

Before the robot-giving spheres arrived, we had a difficult time defending ourselves from those monsters as a species. We were winning, but they were long-fought battles with even the weakest monsters. A creature of this magnitude, probably a class D, would have needed an entire platoon or two of soldiers to stop.

Now, even with only a Labor Class, I wasn't worried about us winning the fight. I was concerned because I didn't have as much protection as my father did, but I knew that he could defeat it, and he would try to protect me.

I was still scared, nearly out of my mind.