Hestia woke in her bed, that would not ordinarily be a problem. It's just that she did not go to sleep in her bed last night. If she was remembering correctly, and she likely was, she had gone to sleep cradling the head of an injured man while sitting on the floor.
That meant her being in bed was probably a good sign for the man's recovery, and him having put her in her bed fully dressed after waking was a good sign of his character, not that she was particularly concerned about that after seeing his soul, it had been free of any current malicious intent or history of malice, which was the sign of a truly good person, or at least a person who had never harmed another being with a soul.
It was commonly known that you could not lie to a god, it was less commonly known that this included hiding your nature or intents, gods saw you as you truly were. And Hestia had seen nothing but a young man with the desire of safety being his one driving goal. Which now that she thought more on it made sense, if the man, or boy if she was being honest, was in enough pain his soul's true desires could be overwritten to desire an escape from the pain.
Still the fact that one of the first actions the odd child had taken once he had woken were to put her back in her bed only made her choice of trusting her sense a good one.
Finally, working up the energy to open her eyes, she looked around her room and she immediately noticed that the room was noticeably warmer and cleaner, all the dust and smaller bits of trash she had neglected to clean out of her room were gone, which only raised her opinion of the child higher. And once she had gotten out of her bed and into the bathroom she saw that it was cleaned as well.
She did have plans for the day though, she had spent the night before she fell asleep thinking on what she was going to do with the child, her first thought was to take the child to her friend hephaestus as even if the boy didn't come from her familia she should know where the armor the boy wore came from, which would significantly narrow down her search.
Her second thought was to take the child to the adventures guild, they would probably be able to identify what monster had affected his mind and treat it, or they would have him on record as an adventurer and could contact his familia, and considering she didn't want to go back to her friend for help just after she had been gifted a house she had decided to head over to the guild first.
It did mean she couldn't go job or familia hunting for most of the day but taking care of a lost child was more important anyway.
Starting up the stairs Hestia immediately notes that the old and creaky floor boards have been replaced, this was getting a little odd, she couldn't have been asleep for that long, and the fact that she hadn't woken while he was replacing the floor boards? Where did he even get the new wood?, well those were just more things to ask him.
Pushing up the hatch hiding the stairwell from the rest of the abandoned church hestia stuck her head out and immediately spotted her mysterious guest, seemingly filling in the cracks coating the bricks of her new home, and if her eyes weren't mistaken he was doing it with another solid brick, somehow smearing it into the cracks. Immediately hestia assumed this was a skill of some sort.
Seeing as he hadn't turned when she opened the hatch Hestia assumed the boy hadn't noticed she was up so with a quiet but still noticeable voice she called out, so as to not startle him, "hello I see you're awake, are you feeling better?". Before her first word had even finished the boy had turned, glanced briefly in her direction and then turned his attention back to the cracks in the wall.
Her bright smile shrunk to a more modest grin, and her hair lightly drooped before her bright smile returned once again, "it's fine if your don't !, you were in pretty bad shape last night, I was thinking we could head to the guild today to find your familia if you don't already know where they are?", the boy didn't respond for a few seconds as he kept patching the cracks in the wall, finishing up the last few cracks on the section, before he stands up and turns towards her.
Hestia immediately notices that he looks much larger in bright light, and with a closer look at his armor she can see there are no gaps showing any skin, and with a few of the odd protrusions on his shoulder the armored child reaches nearly 7 and a half feet, parts of the suit were even covered in crystals, armor that expensive looking had to come from some high ranking familia.
The child stops a few feet in front of her and just stares at her, and despite the lack of a visor for him to see through Hestia has the distinct impression he is staring at her. With a slightly less sure smile on her face Hestia speaks up again "I take it you're ready to go then?", before reaching out and grabbing his hand. Seeing that this does not prompt any negative reaction, in neither his body language or soul, she begins pulling him towards the door.
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The engineer was honestly kind of stressed, he didn't exactly have experience interacting with other people, and he had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to be doing. There wasn't anything he could really do about that though, besides watching and trying to learn.
The pain had faded considerably throughout the night, it was still ever present but it was significantly more manageable so he had a better idea of what he wanted to do. He needed to find a way to link back up with the minds and the greater factory, and to do that he needed to explore the location he arrived at and study how the effect had worked and how he could replicate it.
Though he wouldn't be going back into the cave until he figured out more about both the cave and the modifications the people here underwent to survive it, the level of strength exhibited by the group that had followed him far exceeded what would have been needed to deal with any of the caves inhabitants, that either implied that the modifications were common or easy enough to be used when they weren't needed, in which case he wanted them, or that the modifications were needed and he just didn't know why, In which case he needed to learn before venturing back into the cave.
Hence his 'recon" mission with his small host, well he was calling it a recon mission, it was more just following her as she led him through the city, this had started with her making some vaguely encouraging noises in his direction before she led him from the church, which led to the pair walking the now lit worn and stone paved streets.
Now the engineer may not be well versed in anything social but he did have a brain, those noises she had made were presumably a form of communication, which meant that either he did not know her language or that he used to know it and lost it with damage his brain took on the trip over, what exactly the reason was didn't matter though as the solution was the same, learn the language.
So as he was walking down the street he turned his suits audio feed to a higher setting and began cataloging what he heard and in what context, there were numerous people walking through the streets, some with and some without modifications, still mostly consisting of cosmetic changes like animal ears or tails, though based on reactions to audio and physical stimuli they were functional as limbs. And without more in depth scans the engineer couldn't check for augmetic organs or less obvious hidden weaponry.
Not that there wasn't unhidden weaponry, knives and swords abounded, and the engineer could see them whether they were hidden or not, still the engineer did not really categorize a knife as a weapon, more a tool that could be used as one, like a blow torch. And swords were more of a hold out weapon for when you ran out of ammo, and considering half his weapons ran off his suits reactor actually running out of ammo was a difficult prospect.
So there weren't any true threats, disregarding the few human shaped forces of nature he had passed, but that wasn't a problem the engineer could currently solve, so no threats. Letting him spend his walk taking notes on the language, tech level, behavior, and living standards of the city.
Already he had learned a few words, mainly when someone had expressly pointed or directed their attention at something, though a fair portion came from when his host would talk to him, pointing and gesturing at various things. A few of the words were even about him and his host, which meant he probably now knew either her name or title, actually turning the knowledge into anything useful would take more than knowing what sounds someone made when they tripped or met a friend, ate a snack, or other banal things, he only knew part of the context, not the whole picture.
Referencing his rather bare bones map the engineer did note that they were seemingly heading in the direction of the cave again, which raised a few concerns, but without knowing enough of the language he couldn't decipher what exactly his host was saying as they walked, or wether her various hand gestures and facial expressions had anything to do with it.
Nothing she had sad had been with a hostile or negative tone at least, or he hadn't noticed if they were. Considering his lack of practice his assessment of tone had a fair chance of being inaccurate. He found his worries were unfounded as instead of heading into the caves, or really more of a paved tunnel entrance, they instead went into a building relatively near it.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
There was an exponentially higher amount of more blatantly armed people the closer to the tunnel entrance they got, but that wasn't necessarily surprising, nor was the uncharacteristic strength, speed, and reactions shown by people entering the caves, though that did seem to vary wildly from person to person, maybe based on where they were heading a certain level of augmentation was required? More theories to test.
Now there are some things about the engineer one needs to acknowledge, one of those is how he sees the world, an ordinary human mainly relies on sight, with all other senses being used to supplement them. The engineer's armor does have optical sensors, yes, but those are the least of how he sees the world. The engineers brain takes all the information his armor and body supply to him and it puts it together into a cohesive image of the world, every scent, energy reading, odd vibration, light distortion, temperature, and other esoteric or mundane senses are all turned into a constant awareness of everything around him. If the engineer decided he wanted to see through you and look at the painting you were hiding from view he could do so easily, if he wanted to see inside a building with no windows he could.
This is important to note because while an average human might pan their head to take in an entire crowd and still miss the majority of it the engineer doesn't even need to move to have categorized and noted every single individual he had passed, and considering it was fairly early in the morning and everyone was rushing to get to there jobs the engineer had seen thousands of individual people and had made profiles depicting where they were, what he suspected they were doing, and what threat they could pose.
So by the time his host had opened the door to the building the engineer knew there were 26 people in the building, and the 10 of them were lightly armored, and that 22 of them were armored with some form of weapon, usually a short sword or something similar. The engineer being intelligent finally put together the fact that this building was probably some administrative body for the modified humans who explored the cave, or at least an establishment that catered to them, based on how he had seen those augmented humans trading the crystals they left the cave with for something he could only presume to be currency.
Then taking this chain of logic one step farther the engineer realized that the woman who had led him here probably thought he was one of those augmented humans, and had either brought him here to be identified or treated, though the latter was unlikely considering the building lacked any medical facilities.
Considering the average technological development of these humans the engineer doubted they had anything resembling a full database of all their clientele, though an identification badge or marking was not out of the question. But cooperation here would probably be key to getting access or information on the extensive tunnel system, so cooperate he would.
If things went poorly, running was always an option.
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Entering the building the engineer noticed that while the conversations didn't stop a fair portion of the room's occupants glanced first at him, then at the diminutive woman in front of him. Here either the previous conversations resumed or the conversation shifted to him, if the more hushed dialogue was any hint. Still talking quieter was not nearly sufficient to prevent him from hearing, his lacking comprehension of their language did however stymy his efforts to eavesdrop.
His guide did not react to any of the conversation though, so he had no reference for their content, usually he could determine something about a words meaning based on her reactions to it, here either the distance or amount of conversations apparently prevented her from reacting at all, meaning she either couldn't decipher it all, a weakness, or she was choosing to ignore it.
The engineer followed the woman as she walked up to the desk, where another more mundane but still slightly modified person was waiting, they made more unidentifiable noise, with a few of the words being things used in reference to both himself and his guide, presumably descriptors.
Then the lady at the desk started making noises with a questioning tone while staring at him, presumably trying to communicate with him rather than with his guide for some reason. The lady's tone slowly shifted from questioning to concern before she once again started talking with his guide, now with much more urgency.
The engineer's lack of understanding was beginning to significantly annoy him, based on contextual cues he knew that they were talking about him, his guide, presumably his identity and what to do with him, and maybe even discussing what could have happened to him. But knowing that that was what was probably being discussed did not really help his growing concern, so reading a few extra disposable swarms of drones for rapid deployment seemed like just the thing to ease his numerous worries.
These simple precautions were what led the engineer into following the pair of women behind the counter when his guide pulled him, instead of just sprinting away. And when the trio entered a room with a few couches lined with shelves full of books the engineer was vaguely relieved he didn't just blow up the building. This definitely wasn't a prison cell or an ambush, not that the building even had a prison cell, though it did seemingly have a fair few escape routes. These were noted for potential use.
The pair of woman turned to face him, and even though with his armor he had multiple feet on both of them he still felt a small part of his brain begin to ramp its worry back up, this only increased when his guide mimed for him to remove his helmet, which A. did not detach from the rest of the suit in the first place and B. would leave him without his armor, which even if it was still in the room and capable of defending him left him uncomfortably vulnerable.
Still when needs must, setting the armor to stay open for a rapid retreat the engineer ordered the suit to peel open, revealing his somewhat bare flesh, he did still have a thin undersuit on, to unfiltered air for what felt like the first time in months. Not really used to actually needing his own eyes to see, the engineer just decided not to use them, taking his attention from his own sight and instead continuing to rely on the suits sensors, letting him see himself in high detail.
The suit covered most of his scars, but his augmetic fingers were still visible, along with with scarring from where his skin had been peeled back across his entire body to allow the wires to run through it, which meant his exposed skin was covered in light scaring and all his veins looked either purple, gold, or silver though he knew only the purple veins actually flowed. His facial scarring was lighter but still present, with the same multi-colored veins seemingly framing most of his facial features.
His eyes also seemed to shift in brightness based on where in the room he was facing, modulating themselves to allow greater clarity of vision. Using the armor's sensors to position himself he turned his body to face the two women, and while his facial expressions didn't change and his heart rate remained at steady 60 beats a minute his mind began to once again stress.
They both just stared at him for what his suit told him was 5 seconds but his body told him was hours, before they both started bombarding him with questions that he still couldn't understand so he just sat there and tried to piece together what they were saying which didn't actually lead to any more understand on his part.
Eventually they seemed to remember that he couldn't understand them and started talking to each other again, seemingly arguing or just talking loudly and frantically at each other.
The engineer was beginning to wonder if it was even possible for them to talk any faster when they both suddenly stopped talking, at which point his shorter guide began to walk gestured for him to sit on the couch with his back to the side, deciding that anything preventing them from once again beginning a chaotic bombardment of noise was a good thing the engineer compiled, at which point his tiny host sat on the couch behind him and tried to pull down the back of his suit, the engineer possessing no social skills and regarding the suit as nothing more than a way to retain body heat allowed this.
When she saw that his back was bare save for the scarring and veins the two women both began talking again, though at least they were talking significantly slower this time, the engineer took this as a win.
The argument seemingly ended with his host victory as she made one of her odd gestures towards the ceiling before rapidly pricking her nail on a pin and dropping a tiny bit of blood on his back. When the blood hit the engineer back a bright light flashed and a bunch of symbols appeared, which was a thing apparently.
The woman still crouched behind him seemingly started to read from his back, causing the other woman's expression to rapidly shift, it was not that the engineer could tell what any of the facial expressions meant though, so he just filled them to be reviewed later. Which was honestly what he was doing with all of this.