The stew kitchen was a success. Nero didn't doubt most of the people came driven by curiosity and the wish to see the count's heir, the "young lord Nero" as the townsfolk were calling him nowadays. Thirty Essence - a bit more than the price of a pint of ale - bought you a mug of freshly squeezed fruit juice of your choice among five varieties and a large bowl of pork and egg stew. The only catch was that you had to eat in the hall and return the mug and bowl at the exit. They opened at dusk and sold out before nine o'clock. Some patrons went for seconds and thirds. The booming success let Nero clueless on what to do. He wanted to give the poor people access to food, not turn his enterprise into a networking event.

A very successful networking event. Most people promised to come back tomorrow and he was ninety thousand Essence richer after selling all three thousand meal sets his new employees made. He only had to pay their wages as all the ingredients were shelter-grown. He could get more vegetables, grain, and pastures with a snap of his metaphysical fingers. But true to his promise to Altia, he didn't delve that night.

When he vented out his frustration to his close friends over breakfast, each had an opinion.

"You need to expand your business," Glom said. "The other [Gadgeteers] and I will seek more people to work for you when we activate the Arbitrii around the country. People usually despair when they learn their level cap is in the first or second tier. Knowing they'll have a decent-paying job, mid-grade cards to use, and the cost of their bracer refunded will make them flock to you. I guarantee."

"Move the kitchen to the lower-class district," Crystal suggested. "The guild master can do it for you."

"You could later open two stew kitchens. I don't think you should let go of the building in the central square," Altia said.

Nero smiled back with their suggestions. "Yes, I think I'd be rushing things if I moved now. Let's keep going like that for a while. Finish up so we can go to the capital. We have a long day ahead of us."

Nero could go to the capital in less than two minutes using the map room. He visited only a few times during the winter because he was too busy helping his parents get settled as lords of the fief, doing paperwork, learning how to behave like an aristocrat, and getting enough supplies to help the city make it through winter, Now that winter was over, there was another challenge. The waves of migrants coming to try their luck in the new city and the opportunists that would come along with them.

Crystal's knight scouts and the city guard were in a pinch. Part of him wanted to stay and help but he had previous commitments.

With that in mind, he led Altia and Glom through a portal into the map room. The squiig leaped onto the table and took in the sights. "A marvelous hall! Are all the paintings yours?"

"Yes. I usually spend some time each delve painting and working my devices," Nero replied, proud.

His farming runs in the Goblin's den could be over in a quarter of an hour or less if he rushed the boss. But they wouldn't be farming runs if he did. Nero spent "days" or "weeks" each delve slaughtering the denizens in his [Monster Tamer] build along with his pets. The badgers, the stone serpent, Mr. Peebles, Kefira, and Loolah each could work independently in a section of the Dungeon while Nero went around the tunnels killing what he found and collecting the drops strewn along the tunnels as most of his pets couldn't pick them up. After each day of work in the Dungeon, he could withdraw into a temporary shelter and work on his hobbies.

He was out of painting canvases, actually.

After admiring the paintings, mostly Dungeon scenes but some important moments of Nero's career too, Glom broached a pricky subject. "Speaking of devices, you held it up for too long. Once we are at the Lyceum, you will have to show us the blueprints of your 'Skill Booster'. Maybe even patent it."

"Patent?" Nero asked. "What is it?"

"When you develop a new device, you can patent it. By disclosing the device's functions, you are owed payment for a period of time by anyone that makes your invention."

That meant Nero couldn't copy other's devices... "How long?"

"Forty years. After that, the blueprint becomes public domain."

That was a long wait. Nero was almost sixteen, to him, it was two life-times. "What if I don't? Honestly, the [Skill Booster] is still largely untested. Won't it be a risk for people?"

"Well, we need to study the blueprint to be sure. Don't worry, we won't steal it from you or force you to patent it. Tinkwezisky knows more about it."

"So, let's go. The portal is this way," Nero pointed.

He led them through the portal linked to their dorm room. Their combined status as nobles and research assistants based out-of-town gave them this privilege. Theirs were an apartment composed of four rooms, a large bedroom, a sitting room, a bathing room with a toilet, and an office where they had workstations for alchemy and gadgeteering.

"I came here first to check our mail," Nero said. "We'll go straight to the Gadgeteering building because people didn't see us enter. Just a second."

There was a pile of letters at their mailbox next to the door. A slit on the wall allowed mail to be dropped but not retrieved. Nero split the letters with Altia. Most of them were invitations to some social function by other nobles hoping to network with them. It would be inevitable for them to throw a ball soon but that could wait until summer.

"Royal crest," Altia said, waving a letter. "From prince Ahadi."

"Open it. Let's see what His Highness wants," Nero said with just a glance, still sifting through the mail."

Altia broke the wax seal and read. "He's asking you to visit the palace. He got your reward."

Nero finished sorting the mail and stored the letters in boxes then sent them to his dimensional pouch. "I guess we need to go. I really hope he got both of them."

The thought of getting three Skill slots made him wish to go there right then. But that had to wait.

"We should go. And keep it quiet, I'm hearing movement in the corridor," Glom warned them.

Nero opened another portal to the map room and another to the gadgeteering building. Both portals touched each other in the underground room. From there the trio reached Bezzias' lab. After greeting the bat-kin scholar and his gnomish peer, they headed down to the driveway where Lamuril was waiting for them.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Excited?" Bezzias asked as they crossed the sliding door. "Your own card presses. Do you know what you'll use them for?"

Nero nodded. "Orange Class card, especially [Mage]. I need a lot of them if I am going to make use of [Dual Class]."

"It would be cheaper to buy them," Tinkwezilsky remarked. "Oh, good morning, Lamuril."

The elf driver bowed. "Master Bezzias. Professors Tinkwezilsky and Glom. Lord Nero, Lady Altia." At Nero's puzzled face, he just smiled and opened the horseless carriage's door.

"You are now aristocracy, Nero. Get used to it," Bezzias explained as they got seated.

Nero looked at the dignified bat-kin. "I wanted to ask this for a long time, professor. Are you a noble?"

Bezzias sighed and his gaze wandered into the horizon through the window. "Not anymore."

Next to Bezzias, Tinkwezilsky shook his head, his eyes telling Nero to drop the subject.

The carriage went through the city streets into a district Nero didn't visit. It had large warehouses and walled compounds. Traffic was exclusively made of large wagons full of crates with little pedestrians, and most looked like workers with heavy-duty leather clothes. The carriage entered one such compound and Nero could smell sulfur and ash in the air. Hammers hitting metal and the hissing of massive bellows added to the idea this was a huge smithy.

They stopped and Lamuril opened the door. A trio of people in what Nero thought could be chick craftsman clothing waited for them with big smiles. They were one muscular orc with deep green skin and very prominent tusks wearing work goggles, one mearth beastfolk woman with a long slender body and brown fur, and an elven lady with a tanned complexion and light blue hair. The mearth was a surprise, a very rare race around Bast. Her legs and arms were as long as a dwarf's although she was seven feet tall, the same as the orc by her side. Her triangular head had two pointed ears on top and a short and almost conical muzzle. A long brown and graphite-colored tail swished from underneath her skirt behind her. Altia elbowed Nero because he was staring too much.

"Professors, welcome!" The elf woman beamed and curtsied.

"Miss Arlyana," Bezzias greeted the elf, "It is a pleasure to see you again. Master Hallye, Mistress Cordelia, you surely remember my associates Tinkwezilsky and Glom. These are our research assistants Lord Nero and Lady Altia from Honeywitch."

"Your customers for today," Tinkwezilsky added.

"Yes, the card presses. They are ready for transport and assembly," Hallye the orc said rubbing his hands. "Where are we taking them? To Honeywitch? I heard the train tracks were reopened this week!"

"I think we need a non-disclosure," Glom suggested, looking seriously at Bezzias.

Nero took a step forward, "That won't be necessary. Master Hallye and his associates wouldn't do anything to jeopardize our relationship and lose my future business. Where are the units?"

With all the Essence he obtained from the quartermaster's stash - Aslanbek only took most of the cards back - and Hye-Sung's dimensional pouch, not to mention what he farmed in five months, Nero had enough to buy another set of three units.

Cordelia sashayed forward, her back arcing to level her head with Nero. "We'll sign the nondisclosure. You seem to be a person that likes to go straight to the point. Please forgive my partner, he is too curious for his own good."

"Good," Nero grinned. "Lead the way."

They entered the administrative building of the compound and were led by Arlyana to a meeting room where refreshments - no, a party buffet - was ready for them. They talked a bit about Bezzias and Tinkwezilsky's research, the recent developments in the world of gadgeteering, and the rebirth of Honeywitch. Half an hour of socializing later, the NDA was signed and they went to a warehouse where two heavy wagons made of metal with shock-absorbing wheels and a crew of six technicians awaited for them. They passed by eight oxen with harnesses to pull the wagons and entered the warehouse.

"Everything is inside these vehicles," Hallye explained.

"Ready for assembly?" Nero asked.

"Yes. The boys here can finish it in three to four hours," Cordelia pointed at the crew of five [Gadgeteers]. They had to be to assemble the devices.

"Good, good," Nero pondered. "Can we have a chat in private?" He asked looking at the mearth woman.

Hallye clapped his green hands, "Fifteen minutes, folks! Go get something to drink!"

After they were alone in the warehouse, Nero continued. "We have seven [Gadgeteers] between us here. Can we assemble the machines ourselves?"

Arlyana approached, suspicious, "You don't want our workers to see where you are putting the machines? I can assure them they are trustworthy!"

"Yes on both counts. I believe them to be trustworthy and I don't want them to see it. The place where the machines will be installed is right here. We'll assemble and do a test. I'm going to load some rocks in the wagons and your people will deliver them to the Lyceum. Professor Tinkwezilsky will go with them and dismiss them once the vehicles are there. Professor, tell them that we will assemble the machines ourselves later."

"Can do," The gnome replied curtly.

Arlyana took a deep breath. "Here? In our warehouse?"

Nero shook his head. "No. You signed the NDA, I'll show it to you now. They are going here," He opened a portal to the set of rooms he carved in the shelter's bedrock near the map room but not connected to. The floor was polished white marble and the walls black granite with emerald green and silver veins running in waves across the stone. "This is why I needed secrecy."

The place was a set of three square rooms thirty feet on each side along a corridor ten feet wide and a hundred feet long. The corridor was thirty-five feet tall and had clerestory windows along both sides. Sunlight shone down on the granite from the windows, following the day-night cycle of the world outside, giving the illusion the corridor was oriented north-south.

"A portal to another place?" Hallye asked, curious. Nero remarked to himself he wasn't your average orc and immediately chided himself for his racist thoughts.

"Yes. A place far away. Keep in mind that I intend to fill all the rooms here with your machinery. In fact, once this set is assembled and tested, I want to put an order for two other rooms."

He intended to pay the sixty million down payment and farm the rest of the payment later. That got the three businessfolk's attention.

Smelling the sweet Essence, Cordelia enthused with a feral grin. "What are you waiting for?"

The seven [Gadgeteers] took their tools out of their dimensional pouches. Altia rolled her eyes.

"I'll be outside if you don't mind," She said to nobody.

It took the group three hours to assemble the machines and make them ready for operation. They didn't come with any card in their database but Bezzias assured Nero he could copy the Lyceum's catalog. For a test run, Nero dumped several white and gray cards and the machines greedily destroyed the cards as they unraveled the patterns. After Hallye and Arlyana calibrated the machines to work with his level zero, Nero printed thirty each of white [Permanency I] and green [Enchant +3] cards, twenty from each machine. Each card cost him ten thousand Essence, more than double their market price. As he pointed out earlier, he wouldn't find that many at once for sale. The card presses entered a cooldown of one day.

They returned to the empty warehouse and Nero placed rocks inside the crates on the wagons.

"Why the machines need a cooldown period?" Nero asked, sincerely curious about this quirk.

"They operate with an array of master controllers, like the ones in the Arbitrii we manufacture here," Cordelia explained. "But we force the master controllers to do the opposite of a card read, pouring Essence backward. This process corrupts part of the controllers and puts a strain on their crystal lattice. To avoid a breakdown, the machine is programmed to stop working until the controllers had time to repair the lattice and purge the corruption."

"Card presses were invented by accident," Tinkwezilsky took over after Cordelia stopped talking. "Some crazy guy was tinkering with master controllers and decided to feed it Essence backward through the input channels. The contraption exploded along with his Arbitrium, killing him, They found the body, the blueprints that miraculously survived with a few burns, and a half-formed card. From his notes, they reverse-engineered his blueprint and the card press was born."

"Not unlike some crazy apprentice tinkering with the card readers inside some Dungeon," Bezzias snarked. Nero knew he was mentioning his [Skill Booster] and how dangerous linking foreign card readers to his Arbitrium was.

"Well, it is time to go," Tinkwezilsky said. "Call the lads, I got me a slow ride back to the Lyceum."

The gnome departed in the wagons with the workers and the group returned to the meeting room for the afternoon tea. Nero signed the contract for another six machines. These would be ready only after summer.

"Wait, you said you fabricate Arbitrii in here?" Nero asked, remembering something they said.

"We are the biggest supplier of gadgeteering parts and Arbitrii in Bast," Hallye boasted, proud of their company.

"Those supplies we bought for you in Honeywitch," Glom explained, "Were made in this complex."

"Oh, good," Nero rubbed his hands together. "Do you have yellow-grade parts for sale?"

"That we do, Lord Nero," Cordelia gushed. "We'll even throw in a discount." The woman's whiskers twitched as she exchanged glances with her partners. The orc and the elf nodded in agreement.

"I think this is the beginning of a long partnership!" Arlyana added. "What do you need?"