It was a shame that I couldn’t go with them to the market, I was really interested in seeing more of this city and its people. At present, I wasn’t in a position to move freely around. I’m sure that the Adventurers that sold me to that Magic Tool Dealer would be around town and recognize me; the Magic Tool Dealer or his staff would likely recognize me too, and the fact that I was an ownerless Automata would have any musclehead that thought they could take me down trying to grab me. I looked down at my hands and my body. Compared to the warrior frame that Elita had, I wasn’t very big at all. In fact, I was only just a bit taller than the dwarf Jada. I had been nimble enough to get around that Thunder Bear to help Shea, but bears weren’t really known for their agility. This wouldn’t do and I wasn’t the type to just sit around while others went on adventures in the marketplace.
I took a look at the human armor we’d stolen and got an idea. This was going to take a lot of work, but I was getting pretty excited as the idea took shape. I cleared off the workbench and put down some parchment; even when I would work in CAD in my old life, there was no replacement for sketching your ideas out on paper first. Of course, these double thumbed hands were clearly not designed for sketching anything, but I did my best. I started sketching out my basic frame and making some modifications that would be required later, then building out a larger frame that would go over top. Elita wasn’t really a Pretender in the way I’d meant it, but it did inspire the idea for this project.
By the time the girls got back from the market, it was late at night and I was nowhere close to being finished. I really didn’t even have anything to show off at this point other than a pile of sketches and a rough exo-frame. Now that the girls had gotten back with the requested mana crystals, I’d have to put the breaks on this. So many ideas and so little time. Thankfully as an Automata I didn’t need to eat or sleep, but Shea looked exhausted and climbed upstairs, mumbling that she’d tell me all about it in the morning. Elita handed me a bag with three lightning mana crystals in it, a fire crystal, and an ice crystal.
“I’m sorry, we weren’t able to find five of the lightning crystals in the size you wanted. Hopefully, this will still work for whatever idea you have?” she offered.
“Maybe. We won’t know until we try.” I told her what I intended to do with them and how I would have to augment her systems. Hopefully, this upgrade would let her pass for an organic that has a little magic ability. “Okay, take off the bracer on your sword arm and hop up on the table. How’re your mana levels? You were using [Cloak()] all day, right? Did you run into any problems?”
“My mana levels are low, it was pretty draining... but the disguise worked. Even close up no one suspected anything. I even had a couple of bearmen try to solicit me.”
“That should have been interesting, I told you that you were beautiful. Honestly, I was pretty worried about you going out on your own like that. I’m quite relieved that you made it back okay.”
She looked at me sideways, punched me in the shoulder and told me to shutup. I opened up my [Console] screens and opened up her forearm and disconnected her hand at the wrist.
“Would you like me to shut down your systems so that you can rest and recover your mana faster?” I asked.
“No. I’m okay. I think I’d like to watch you work. If that’s okay,” she replied. Her tone was almost shy.
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I nodded and continued working. She didn’t say anything but just watched me with curiosity and interest. I supposed after the first conversion I’d done on her, this wasn’t as big a deal. I could feel that she had absolute faith in me at this point and I was humbled by it. Her conversion was mainly aesthetic, but this time I was completely disassembling her forearm, and her sword arm at that. Thankfully, being an Automata, everything was reversible so if this upgrade didn’t work then I could simply reinstall the previous arm design.
Once I got her arm apart, I crafted new parts that would integrate into the arm and embedded new magic circuits and firmware code into the parts. I worked on through the night and she just silently watched. It was kinda nice being able to just work and be in each other’s company without having to talk.
Shea came down the stairs holding a mug of something hot and looking like she’d just woken up. It was then that I noticed that the sun must have been up for a couple of hours already, but I was just finishing up Elita’s upgrade and closing everything up.
“So, what ya working on, Prime? Is this what you needed the mana crystals for?” Shea asked while absently scritching Sparky under the chin.
“Yeah this is it, and you’re just in time.” I held Elita’s arm with her palm facing upwards. “Okay open your [Skill Menu] and look for the [Mana Conversion Proxy] submenu then [load()].”
As she did so, hidden doors opened in her arm revealing a long channel with five nested compartments. I took each of the mana crystals that they’d gotten and placed them into the compartments. As I placed the last crystal, the doors closed with a soft whirr and a click as they locked in place.
“Okay good, now under that same submenu, use [initialize()].”
We couldn’t see anything outwardly, but I could tell from my diagnostic screen what Elita was seeing as the mana crystals were registered by the new system.
“Now you should have some new commands that have come up in that submenu. Let’s try [flame()].”
As she tried it a single small flame, like from a candle, ignited over her index finger.
“WHOA! She can do fire magic now??” Shea yelled in surprise.
“Not quite,” I answered. “She’s basically got something like your Heat Plate built into her arm now. This little flame is the extent of what she can do with fire. Her mana is pushed into the crystal which then triggers the small spell. Elita, let’s try [ice()].”
Elita complied and this time we couldn’t see any difference, so I asked Shea to let Elita hold her mug for a second. As soon as she did, the liquid cooled and stopped steaming. Elita handed the mug back and Shea took a sip.
“Wow, that’s cold. Like the river in winter cold, but not enough to form ice. I don’t see that being very useful in combat, but it’ll be nice in the summer,” Shea said.
“That’s true, but these aren’t really for combat. They’re more to convince people that she can do a little magic, since everyone can at least do a little, right? Elita, now try [lightning()].”
This time the effect was much better and arcs of electricity danced in her palm. It still wasn’t what someone with a true affinity for lightning magic could do, but it would certainly be enough for her to use it like a stun gun if needed.
“Elita, I went with the lightning magic as our focus because we had all the Thunder bear stuff to work with, is that okay? We can always switch you out with other crystals as desired.”
“No, lightning is fine. It should pair well with Shea’s water magic.”
“Great! That concludes the demonstration. With this, you should be fine going to the Guild and getting Elita an Adventurer’s license. Now, if you can get me two more lightning mana crystals instead of those fire and ice ones, then she’ll be able to use lightning-based magic weapons.”
“Really?” Elita asked, looking shocked. “That’s... that’s amazing. I think I’m the first Automata in history to ever be able to do magic. Even if I’m a Pretender.”