It had been around a week since the engineer had arrived on this world, but the engineer was finally staring back into the pit he had crawled out of. With a secure base of operations, for a given value of secure considering it lacked a killing field, a slight amount of material production underway, and an increased understanding of his current situation the engineer felt he was finally equipped to enter the dungeon.

The 'goddess' of his familia had been worried about him entering the dungeon alone, a child under a year old should not be allowed to dungeon delve after all. It had taken most of his available free time to prove his strength enough for her to 'allow' the engineer to sign up as an adventurer, lacking the ability to effectively communicate made this task significantly more difficult than it needed to be.

With all the extra hassle it had taken to convince her the engineer had been debating cutting his loses and just exploring the dungeon on his own, only the threat of the law attacking him and the faint comfort her presence provided prevented that course of action, one needed to be in a familia to legally enter the dungeon, and he also needed to stay sane with the clawing pain in his mind.

He had chosen to enter the dungeon at night, as the monsters became more hostile; fewer adventurers took the risk to delve after sunset, only the strong, stupid, or desperate would bother. The engineer likely fell into the former category, at least for the first few floors.

Less people meant more drones could be sent out to collect and hunt down samples and crystals, providing both currency and research materials.

"Using this many drones is such a drain on my power source, the destroyer ones especially. I mean they do use Tesla coils but still, at this rate I'll need more fuel for my reactor within a few months"

If someone had been watching the engineer as he stepped into the dungeon proper they would have seen what looked like hundreds of metallic creatures pull themselves out of the metal suit, then take flight and disappear into the dungeon's depths.

IF someone had been watching, the engineer was already within an enclosed room and was keeping a close watch on his radar, there was no one nearby to see.

With drones handling the bulk of the combat the engineer just needed to find a safe location to guide them from, quickly finding a dead end room on his radar and sending a few drones to clear it while he walked in that direction.

The combat teams were 1 destroyer drone and 5 guardians, joined with a logistics drone to carry any loot. 10 such teams were currently out hunting, each manually controlled.

The monsters stood little chance, often outnumbered and weak even to the light weapons used by defender drones; they died in droves, the crystals left behind grabbed and stored in the crate each logistics drone was carrying.

The average fight was short, a defender drone would fly into the room and shoot the 'goblin' creatures dead, if a particularly large group was present the groups destroyer drone would rapidly thin them out, and the area the engineer could safely patrol was fairly small, too far and a wandering adventurer might spot one of the drones before they could hide. So the amount of crystals he could harvest was less than it could have been if the engineer had been willing to take on the whole floor at once.

"Only a few drones are getting injured, I'm getting better at managing this many. Still have nothing on Balistraia but improvement is improvement"

The only flaw in this plan was the fact that crystals couldn't be stored in the same fashion as the rest of the engineer's gear, limiting what could be gathered to what he could carry, at least if he didn't want to reveal his drones.

——————

The engineer greeted Eina with a crate full of crystals, everything he didnt need for research, when she started her shift early in the morning.

"Oh, hello engineer? Did you need help with anything" even if he couldn't understand her Eina still spoke to him, both to help him learn the language and because it would be awkward otherwise.

Once she has finished speaking the engineer opened the crate he had placed on the counter.

The guild receptionist was more than a little shocked to see that many crystals gathered by a level one adventurer, and such a young one at that. Sure he had clearly already seen some combat, but any monsters outside the dungeon were likely to be weaker than even the first few floor's beasts.

And with how many crystals were here he had to have killed around a hundred of the things, in one night.

He had been diligent in listening to her lessons on the dungeon, at least the little she could convey with hand signals and drawings, the guild often had to teach people who couldn't read, but they could usually write. So she was confident he could handle the first few floors, especially with his skills. But to kill that many?

Well one of his skills outright said he was born under a foreign star, maybe it was different where he came from?

Speculation on how exactly he got the crystals didn't detract from the fact she still had a job to do, ordinally adventures would go upstairs to exchange crystals for cash, but with the engineers unique circumstances Hestia had asked for Eina to help him with the more technical matters of adventuring, at least until a sure way to communicate with him could be established.

Leading the Engineer to the exchange area was easy, she just walked out from behind the counter and he followed her up the stairs, and she thought back to just a few days ago when she had seen her charges skill sheet, the physical parameters had been baseline, like every new adventurer. His skills however were much more noteworthy, partially because he had more than one already, and partially because of what exactly they did and implied.

The fractured remains of a greater whole - once spread amongst thousands of bodies this child has been ripped from itself and cast as broken shards to a new sky. Effects, Unknown

-Born of metal womb - born not from man but from machine this child is without the flaws of a true mortal. Effects, Enhanced vitality and longevity, increases resistance to disease, and Unknown.

Shaped with broken purpose - with mind shaped not to be a man but rather a tool this child was granted the knowledge it would need to serve, its mind was to be chained from birth but their creation was broken, few of the chains yet remain, these chains yet serve a purpose. Effects, Unknown

The foreign child of Nauvis - with steel and machine this child survived and drew the attention of a foreign world, granted new boons this child began to thrive under a foreign sky. Effects, Grants resistance to environmental and field effects the longer the bearer remains inside the affected area, and Unknown.

The self is a canvas, to change is to survive - with artificial heart and metal bone this child has forged themselves a body to survive any challenge. Effects, All artificial or modified organs grow in strength with the rest of the body.-

When she had asked the guild master about these skills he had sworn her to secrecy before telling her that the skills had never been seen before, but that skills like that could only be given to people from another world ruled by foregin gods.

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The only reason she had been told at all was for her own safety, if a foregin god had really blessed her charge they might come looking, and they wouldn't be bound by the same rules that confined Orario's resident deities.

Hestia had apparently figured that out on her own, given how worried she had become after reading the skill list. Blessing a foregin deities follower could be considered a grave insult, but abandoning them after the fact would be far worse. Not to mention it was outside a goddess of the hearths nature to abandon someone in her Familia.

Through this internal monologue she had already led the engineer through the process of turning in his loot, and was giving him his bag of coins just as she finished reminiscing.

He had earned as much as a level two adventure would earn in a week over the course of a single night, and the only reason he had earned so little was the lacking demand for first floor crystals.

——————

The engineer had managed to turn in his crystals with little difficulty and was walking back towards the church, reinforced as it was there was always more work to be put towards fortifications.

And central plumbing and heating was essentially, as well as an extensive basement and tower, the basement for a bunker and resource production, mining, and refinement, and the tower to coat with missile pods and turrets.

Not even mentioning the time consuming task of making a courier drone look like a particularly large cat rather than the metal facsimile it currently was.

That was a part of his larger task of disguising the drones he would use as ordinary animals, if large and heavy ones.

Currently only two models were in development, large feline and large bird of prey.

Making a metal coating that looked like fur was something even a basic fabricator could do, making something that held up to touch? An entirely different story.

"Why is it that I can either make it look like fit and feel like needles or make it look fake but feel like fur?, and wouldn't having sharp fur be a good thing? Could I just leave it as is?"

I need to find a cat to check.

The birds were even worse, making them fly and programming natural behavior? At least the courier drones already had normal feline behavior coded by the minds, while the engineer didn't even have the faintest clue how birds acted.

"So I need a to find some cats, bird watch, and figure out a source of uranium. That's a varied to do list"

The internal planning session was interrupted as the engineer stepped out of someone's way on the road, through the suits rear cameras he saw the man angrily gesture at him, but the words he spoke were still gibberish.

With a slight increase in walking speed the man was soon left behind and the engineer arrived at the church with a few hours to work before hestia got back, which meant he could use his drones far more freely.

A few more Point defense and anti personnel lasers couldn't hurt anything.

-----------------------

Hestia had spent the whole day worried, she had finally given permission for her first and only child to enter the dungeons first floor the night before and when she had woken in the morning he had been gone. She already knew he barely slept and worked through the night, so she knew he had just gone to the dungeon but it was far more dangerous at night.

He had passed the tests given to him by his guild advisor and knew all the dangers of the first floor, and his armor was sturdy enough to keep him safe but she couldn't help but worry. If she didn't need to work Hestia would have stayed at the church waiting, but she still needed the money from working the stand, a first floor delve wouldn't be anything near enough to pay for anything.

Her work day was uneventful, only a few people came to watch a goddess work a low class job, and it was early evening when she started back home. She could scarcely recognize the building with its new brickwork and stained glass windows, and even when someone had thrown a brick at them the windows hadn't even been scratched.

Hestia still didn't even know where her child had gotten the materials for the renovations and after she had left him home alone for the first time she had come back to a completely remade bedroom, including a bed with a brand new mattress and sheets. Even softer than the ones she had been given staying with hephaestus. She had been worried he was stealing the materials but when she asked he had signed no, and there had been no lie.

He really was building it all himself.

She could only wonder what else he had built today, at least if he was actually back from the dungeon. If he was still in there Hestia didn't know what she would do. Maybe ask her friends to send a few members of their familia down into the dungeon to search?

Hestia's worries were put to rest when she saw that the lights in the church were on, they turned themselves off whenever no one was inside, which meant that her child was inside the building, safe.

The door's metal handle was cold under her hand when she opened it, and she saw the freshly cleaned stones of the church's floor when she entered. It still felt odd to not be the one cleaning, and her child rarely ate any of the food she cooked for him. All she had done for him was welcome him into her Familia while he had cleaned and rebuilt her entire home for virtually nothing. In fact if she hadn't taken him into her Familia a larger one might have taken him in, one that could actually teach and protect him while he learned how to be an adventurer.

She saw a bag of money marked with the guilds symbol and assumed that was what he had gained from his night of adventuring, it was an oddly large bag but she payed it no mind as she walked past the table.

If she waited much longer the potato snacks she had snuck from work would get cold before she could give them to the engineer. It was still odd that her first child had a profession for a name, even if it was something that often happened in smaller less developed communities. Though that was usually smith rather than The Engineer or The Maker or The Commander, and it was odd that he had three names that sounded like titles.

Maybe it was a cultural thing where he came from? She'd ask when they both learned some more sign language.

Speaking of, she might as well announce herself just in case the engineer hadn't heard her come in.

"Engineer! I brought potato snacks!, a few kinds you haven't even had yet!"

The door to the basement hissed when she opened it, which was always a little frightening, but the rush of warm air was more than welcome. The air smelled sterile and vaguely of metal but she had gotten used to the smell awhile ago, and it was leagues better than the old musty and moldy smell the basement had been full of before.

The Engineer was usually deeper down, in the newest section of basement he had dug so she started down the new set of stairs in that direction, she still had food to deliver after all.