The harsh sunlight was beginning to overcome the thick curtains in Gaius’ room when he finally stirred. As he yawned, a wooden figure jumped off his chest, dropping into a roll when it landed onto the bed. The boy muttered some choice words, and then forced himself to a sitting position.

“Morning, Master Gaius.”

The boy glanced at the wooden sculpture. “So, what’s new with my body?”

“Well, the new tests have shown…” Nexus faltered, as a set of predatory eyes fixated themselves on its little wooden frame. Gaius, whose eyelids were twitching, reached out and grabbed Nexus, before shaking the sculpture violently.

The little boy tortured the little sculpture in such a fashion for three minutes, before dropping it on the bed. “So? What did you find?”

Nexus tried to get back onto its feet, only to trip over itself. Eventually, after three bouts of stumbling, it chose to sit in a dignified fashion and said, “The Stellar Core has merged with your body entirely. Whatever pathways that used to belong to the Engine has integrated fully with your body, right above the heart, as a self-contained set of pathways.”

“That sounds neat, but what point are you trying to make?”

The sculpture shook its head, and then stood up with a determined effort. A few seconds passed, in which a bout of wobbling afflicted it, but Nexus managed to overcome the sensation. “You might be able to equip a second Engine.”

“A second Engine?” Gaius looked at the sculpture, his eyes sharpening into an intense focus. “That’s unheard of.”

“Indeed.” Nexus slid down the bed and got onto the floor. “In fact, if my suspicions are right, you might be able to integrate anything with an energy pathway into your body, given long enough contact. It’s a feature of —”

Gaius frowned at the pause. “Go on.”

The sculpture shook its head, and the boy groaned audibly. “What’s with this restriction? What’s even restricting you?”

Gaius devolved into a few minutes of incoherent gabbling, before regaining his wits. He laid back down on his bed again. These ‘energy pathways’, as Nexus put it, were channels that were half a centimetre tall and wide. Energies like qi would course through these pathways when an artefact, formation or Engine was activated, and depending on how these pathways were laid out, resulted in different outcomes.

The Straight Shot, for instance, was literally a straight pathway one metre long. If one really wanted to, they could carve a wooden straw with a single energy source at one end of the straw’s opening.

For a moment, the boy wondered if he could integrate a Straight Shot into his left hand, and then remembered that his arm was not one metre long, and at the point of firing it probably wouldn’t be straight.

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

“In that case,” muttered Gaius, “whatever I want to integrate should be a small, compact artefact.”

“Like an Engine,” Nexus piped up.

“You’re unmuted now, eh?” Gaius glanced at the wooden sculpture curiously. “Now that I’m in the middle of remembering the lectures about artificing, I’m suddenly interested about how this sculpture actually works.”

“I got Nakama to carve in some pathways,” said the artificial intelligence.

Gaius’ mood darkened for a moment. It must have reflected on his face, because Nexus apologised immediately afterwards.

“It’s okay,” said Gaius. “I wonder what kind of dream is she having now? It should at least be a happy one…come to think of it, how is Isabelle? Is she in denial? Or trying to find ways to leave the Library?”

“Still in shock, Master Gaius,” Nexus replied immediately. “It seems that you…we might have overdone it when we told her about the news, especially when we never did confirm her family’s death.”

“That’s a new item on my to-do list, then.” The boy levitated off the bed and got himself into a standing position, before pulling on his clothes. The inn had provided a comfortable set of sleepwear, which looked like a deluxe-room only perk. After making sure that the room was nice and tidy, he left the room and headed downstairs.

The receptionist he saw yesterday — Gaius had a feeling her name was May — waved at him when he came downstairs. The inn’s first floor was visibly less crowded than last night, which was to be expected, since most of them were probably at work during the day.

“Would you like breakfast, erm, milord?” The receptionist looked at the boy, her words somewhat awkward.

Gaius wanted to raise his eyebrow, but such a sight would probably strengthen the receptionist’s expectations about his status. “Set B, then.”

“Coming right up.”

It didn’t take long before a tray of bacon and eggs was laid out in front of him. His breakfast felt a little anachronic, but it was decidedly better than Odd Morsel A and some mouldy bread.

The boy looked around at the inn again. There were only two other groups of people eating, and both of them were engaged in whispered conversation. A flash of irritation crossed the boy’s face — there was no way he could overhear anything.

“Milord, are you wondering where the others went?”

“Huh?” Gaius turned back to his tray, only to see the receptionist sitting on the other side of the table. “Uh, yeah, I guess.”

“Looks like you really are new here, then. I’m not sure about the other cities, but the Adventurers’ Guild of Elinaris renews their job lists every day at 9a.m.,” replied the receptionist.

“Adventurers’ Guild?” Gaius looked at her, intrigued. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“As expected of a noble scion!” Her eyes glittered. “Well, I won’t mind giving you an introduction…”

Gaius smiled wryly, and slid a gold coin over to her. “Well, you can also give me more information about the upcoming events in this city, while you’re at it. I am staying here for a week, after all.”

He tapped the table lightly. “And a place that sells things like artefacts, if there’s one in this city.”

“Of course, milord.” The receptionist inclined her head. “I’ll start by talking about the Adventurers’ Guild, then. It was an organisation that the Cardinal Champions created shortly after they banished the demons, which aimed to create a place where requests like monster subjugation, material gathering and relief efforts could be accepted by the willing and able. That said, monster subjugation is a thing of the past, as…”

The boy speared a piece of bacon and placed it into his mouth, while devoting one part of his mind to the receptionist’s explanation. It wasn’t a good one, if he went by the expectations of concise prose back on Earth, but even explanations were rare enough in Orb.

   Hopefully, the information broker’s way of presenting information is better than hers…