The two weeks have passed that we were in for. I repaired and improved Gear once again. Sharpening the shield tips, reconnecting and fixing his broken arms. Finally strengthening the joints of the shields, so they don't break as easily. Gear can now walk… I haven't quite figured out if he could drink a false soul stone… Perhaps making the automatons out of tree's that have had their roots drenched would be the only way to ever have them turn into a monster.

Nami didn't have any special gear on her. Only dark colored clothing to help with her remain hidden in the dark. I layered the inside with spider silk for comfort and enchanted all the pieces to increase her dexterity. Giving the set bonus of greater dexterity. I took the set off her doll she uses for substitute. I had beaten her fast enough to stop her from substituting in our last fight. While not nearly as nice as her other set of gear. This set is fine for what I'm going to use it for.

I start enchanting each piece with a different enchant. I enchant this set with helm of distortion, chest of self repair, boots of energy on movement, gloves of void storage. I combine these sets of gear into a set… Then combine the two sets with synthesis… This incurs a month long cool down before I can use synthesis again.

I had done the same thing with my gear. I had enchanted my gear with similar enchants as I had done to hers. The main difference is I combined four sets of gear, strength, dexterity, intellect then the rare enchants for my set of gear. This incurred a 6 month penalty towards my transmutation abilities. I had done it 4 months into the year long period. I could have done if for another few sets but decided to wait. Having an extra stat on a piece of gear won't be that much of an increase. I have been thinking of ways to get around myself incurring the penalty to my transmutation but haven't thought of one yet.

Nami's weapons were… Very well forged… If they had a stronger metal, they would be beyond anything I could make. Unfortunately, they were made from some type of strengthened iron. I had taken 2 of the cold steel swords still remaining and let her replace the 2 short swords she had. After I get out of here, I'll make her a better katana she uses with both her hands. I warn her about how brittle and rare the swords are.

It goes without saying… I could have given this boosted gear to any of my generals… Nami isn't even in my army… Why would I give it to her? She has the most important mission now. She has to save children from captivity… Everyone else can fall back if they are overwhelmed… She cannot… That is why she gets the strengthened gear.

During the training, I attempted to teach Nami the true elementalist class… With no luck, I told her how to unlock awakened classes… What they were about but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't teach her. Gobber was different though.

Gobber managed to learn the hero class with no problems. This dropped his classes from 8 to 6. I taught him the remaining classes he needed for champion to him. With 3 of the 5 he managed to learn champion… Each class involved with the awakened class I had taught him had taken less than teaching Leon or Green. He learned them faster as well… Gobber is just different somehow… Even with 2 awakened classes… He still have 2 more class slots available… I am going to hold back on teaching him more classes until I unlock more awakened classes.

I had already tried to teach Gobber spell based classes. I doubt that he would be able to learn them. I spent most of my time trying to teach Nami… Anything that could help her get stronger… Nothing… She couldn't learn anything I tried… Her classes were far to high level for me to teach her anything. I feel like I failed her in that respect. The main difference is her training with Gobber and me. We trained the majority of the time spend inside.

I had learned my level 10 skills exploit weakness and tracker arrow. Yellow mage is different than most classes. I think because I have an archer class and a mage class. My skills are strengthened. Without tether arrow or tracker arrow merging with any other skills. They were still upgraded to electric arrow and tracker mark. I'm not sure why they were upgraded… But that makes the most sense to me.

Nami is happy with our training… I am not… There has to be something I can do… Something to make her stronger… I've got a few ideas to increase her fighting capabilities. First, shuriken launchers. While she can throw them out quickly, throwing out 10 shurikens at once is still faster.

If I remember correctly, she had 2 belts of shurikens and kunai. Each having 20 on each belt, and a third belt with 40 throwing spikes. So I'll make 5 shuriken launchers… And start to redesign one of the knife cannons. Re-purposing the cannon to fire spikes instead, the accuracy is awful. Dropping the effective range down to 10-20 feet. The biggest difference is that the damage is far more spread out. Each fires 10 spikes at once. This new weapon for her is called a spike cannon and I make 3 for her.

This improves her long range capabilities tremendously. The spike cannon is too noisy to use in most situations and she'll have to avoid using it until her cover is blown. Being quiet normally suits ninjas better. I also started working on a new automaton… One for her to use.

Copying her appearance as I make it. The resemblance is very close, except made of wood. I teach it a few commands such as throw, shoot, fight and hide for it to follow. Nami will be able to use this automaton as a substitute. If the automaton is clothed, it would be very difficult to tell them apart, especially if their faces were hidden. With the substitute being able to move, it can easily increase her fighting and escape capabilities.

I teach it ninja and black mage to allow slightly different attacks to be done by this automaton. It will also never need to be charged. Seeing as Nami doesn't have a very big mana pool. She'll need all of it for her skills, so it being constantly active is a good thing. Normally, automatons make various noises. Whirling and clinking noises of the gears inside rubbing and grinding against each other. I made the gears out of wood so they are far less noisy. It still makes some sound, but far less than normal automatons.

I made her a void satchel. Because the automaton was made of pure wood. It is less heavy than a normal automaton. I doubt I'd be able to make these unique automatons without engineering and tinkerer. It weighs enough for her to store the automaton in a void satchel. She can keep all the shuriken launchers in the void satchel gloves she has equipped.

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Because Nami will be storing her automaton in a void satchel. It can't have a void satchel inside it because it would explode. So it needs a different method to fire the attacks. On each arm, it has five shuriken launchers attached. Making it possible to throw 100 shurikens over a short period of time. Similar to Gear who could throw 60 at once with one in each of his hands.

Finally finishing her new equipment with a cloak. Nothing special about the cloak except it is pure black. I also make around 20 more cloaks for everyone else going on these stealth missions. They are made from spider silk and dyed with my ink. The ones my pets will get are going to be able to change size. Mine goes inside my druid badge with the rest of my gear so I don't need to enchant it.

That is all I can do for preparation. The door opens and we exit. Slowly… No one is here to greet us… I'm a bit sad no one has come to greet us. We start heading back towards Gobber's room. Nami breaks off to go back her village. As we head back… I notice some odd things happening. Several of the gnoll and pirate guards are rushing around with a slight panic.

We make it back to Gobber's room… The door is missing… It was blown off by some type of attack. I start to feel more panicked myself, me and Gobber run inside… No one is inside… WHAT HAPPENED!? I run back and catch one of the panicked pirates and ask him what is going on.

“Hilda's children went crazy and broke off into different directions. I have no idea why. We've formed search parties to look for them.”

What!? We need to find them before they get hurt. The only reason I can think of them separating is because of my pets… What happened… We need more information… I use detective and track to look at the ground for any indication on which way they might have went. Tiny foot prints are heading both ways. Gobber had noticed what I'm doing and also did the same. I yell out to him.

“I'll go outside, you head towards the cafeteria.”

We split up. There is only one clear path to outside… Except for my room, which one of the tiny footprints heads… Looking closer, I do notice another pair of paw prints heading that direction. I head towards my old room first. It still has my old bed… I haven't been in here for far too long, especially since my treasure room is to the side. Heading inside I see a familiar pet hiding poorly under a blanket on my old bed. She is talking loudly to one of the little goblins. I yell out.

“Neko! What are you doing in my old room?”

Her tail shoots out from her behind that is sticking out of the covers. She is scared by my voice and let out a little scream. The little goblin also let out a startled yelp. Her butt goes under the blanket and where it was, her head pokes out.

“Ah… We're just hiding from Hilda so she doesn't take her away… She likes it here and Hilda is a bad mom for trying to take her away!”

“Come on out. We'll find her sisters and have to talk with Hilda. No one is getting taken away… Why does that little goblin have cat ears?”

Ah, I imprinted on her so she gained a part of my powers.”

… WHAT!? That is probably why Hilda was freaking out. What the hell did Neko do? She probably started making a big scene and then all the other children got on her side because she acts like a child still… Even though Neko is an adult, her lack of interactions with people have made her act like that. She gets off my bed but covers the little goblin in the blanket trying to hide her, just in case we run into Hilda… I think that is what she is trying to do… It is hard to tell what Neko is thinking.

We all start to walk outside… I follow the 2 remaining child tracks outside where they lead. Heading outside I see Hilda looking around… She is also a detective so she must have also followed their footprints. She is scouting with her hand blocking the sun from her eyes before she turns around and sees me. As soon as she does, she charges at me. Throwing a wild punch at my face. I dodge but I feel I should have let her hit me, that might have helped her calm down.

“YOU FUCKING IDIOT!”

“W-what happened!? Me and Gobber just got b-.”

She takes another wild swing at me. This time I instinctively push her down once she misses. All this training makes it hard to not automatically counter. This only makes her more furious. I hear her anger under her breath as she gets up. I need to stop myself, if she attacks me again I'll let her hit me. Even with her unwieldy, clumbsy attacks.

“What happened? I just got back and still don't understand what is going on.”

She looks over at the cat girl and little child with a blanket on her head. She points and says.

“That is going on! You're pets bonded or something with my children and they all started acting different. Your pets turned all my children into freaks.”

The blanket slowly comes off of the small child. Hilda must have not realized that the obvious young child covered in a blanket was one of her daughters. A tear forms in the corner of her eyes as she says.

“Y-you… You think we're freaks mamma?”

Hilda's eyes widen. She was so agitated by me she didn't realize something so obvious. Tears start to pour down her daughters face… I start to get angry. She tries to think of something to say. Her mouth opens but nothing comes out. I start following another set of foot prints, ignoring her, I say.

“I don't care how difficult your day has been, we need to find your other children… You watch her until I get back...”

My frustration with her is starting to build. Her actions start to bring back memories of my parents… The feeling of anger boiling in me… In frustration I yell back at her in common so her child wouldn't understand me.

“Be a better mother you stupid fucking idiot!”

She falls down onto her knees with a defeated look in her face… Tears roll down her face as she tries to hug her child. The young goblin repulses back from her... I feel ashamed to have someone like her in my army. A child is something you need to handle delicately and Hilda! She just insulted her own fucking daughter! I have to hold back the feeling to punch her in the face, if I hadn't insulted her I doubt I could hold back… I take a deep breath and get back to my quest. Following one of the footprints to the stables. The head outside the stables exit into the woods.

Following the path… Starts to get a little hard to do. It is like the tiny goblin has changed her foot prints… Into paw prints… I don't understand what happened but I continue following the trail. I start to hear talking. Children shouldn't be wondering around in the forest anyways. While our presence has reduced the amount, there are still a few monsters that show up periodically.

I hear 2 voices from a distance.