So this fiction is going to be a little different from my other works, in that it is more light hearted, putting more focus on slice of life and comedy rather than action and magic. Of course, while the MC is OP, as per usual, he will not be taking part in any epic battles of that sort. I'm just trying to write a new genre, hoping to see how it goes, and wanting to stay away from the usual BAM, BOOM, out of commonsense power way of solving things.
----------------------------------------
“Hey guys, thank you so much for the past few days,” Harvey said gratefully as he prepared to leave the workshop. It had been 3 days since he had been restored to prime working condition and he had spent that time busy collecting information.
Having spent most of his time browsing through the market place, Harvey managed to record and catalogue a wide array of plants, meats, spices, herbs and even literature. He found a rather rare merchant who happened to have 3 leather bound books for sale, which Harvey had scanned and recorded without purchasing. He also found a simple map which a passing adventurer showed him out of goodwill.
The map was very vague and less than helpful, only pointing the positions of landmarks relative to the city. However, Thanks to that, Harvey had a very basic, if not a little shaky, foundation to explore the world outside the safety of the city walls. Most of the plants and herbs he observed resembled the data he had from earth, but the meats seemed a little different. Nonetheless, he assumed they were safe for consumption since they were being hawkered to everybody who passed by.
Harvey had learnt that this city was one of 5 within the country of Grakili. Grakili itself was part of the empire, ruled by humans, which had 8 countries within. This world had only 1 continent, or that’s as far as its inhabitants had explored. With 4 major races ruling over this continent in peace. They were the demon race, occupying the southern half, the Anima beastmen race occupying the northern half, and the humans who were sandwiched in between and surrounded on all sides. There was also the elf race, which were as elusive as they were powerful. They were spread all over the continent, known to wield powerful magic and an endless lifespan, they chose to stay away from the other 3 races, only appearing when times were dire.
The 3 races had kept their peace with each other for almost a century now, although not as harmoniously as their respective leaders would have liked. Grakili, one of 8 human countries was situated near the eastern borders of the empire’s territory, and was a hotspot for all 3 races to convene and interact. The city of Thoreni was located right along the borders of the 3 big races’ borders. Here, there was little discrimination, but that was not the case the deeper one went into each race’s territory.
Given that he was in one of the outermost border cities of the empire’s territory, not only did he fail to obtain detailed information of the other human countries and their respective cities, he also could not get much information about any of the other races. Harvey could not even tell how many countries the other races had, their locations and their cities.
All he could find out was that amongst the 4 races, the Anima race had the poorest affinity with magic, followed closely by the humans. The Demons were almost on par with, but not quite there yet, the elves, which were considered masters of magic. The anima race however, had boosted physical attributes based on their respective tribes, making the human race the weakest of the 4, with almost no affinity for magic and weak physical stats.
To prepare for his trip, he had a full battery, full matbank, and a simple cloak to cover the majority of his body. His robotic face could easily pass off as a really weird mask as long as the hood was thrown up. Even with the hood down, he might still be able to get by with saying it was a full helmet. He thanked the trio who had brought him to the city, crouched down a little to get through the workshop’s door and began his first steps towards a life on his own.
“Hey! Take Marcus with you! It will make things easier at the gates!” Hamal yelled as he shoved Marcus, who was a full head shorter than him, through the door.
“Nice move. At least it will give our ears a rest,” Grendor whispered, smiling at Hamal for his brilliant idea.
It was already well past sunset when they left the workshop, and by the time Marcus and Harvey arrived at the city walls, it was closing midnight. Throughout the slow paced stroll to the city walls, Markus did not seem to run out of things to say, always finding a new topic of conversation. Be it the rising moon, the rising costs of alcohol, or just the lack of rise in his height, his mouth never stopped moving. Taking the occasional break to drink a sip of water and wet his throat were the only brief moments of reprise for Harvey.
“Oi… is that who I think he is?” One of the guards nudged his partner who was on the verge of dozing off. He was one of the 4 guards on duty at the gate tonight. Throughout his many years doing his job as a guard, he had come to know most of the residents in the city, especially those that he cannot afford to offend, or those that were definitely up to no good. However, the one that he will forever remember, is the one from the legends that his captain, and the captain before him warned them about.
“Shit! Fuck! Quick! Hide!” He whispered in a hurried tone as he warned the other guards. “if he catches us, we will never get a wink of sleep tonight! The others will not want to switch shifts with us and we will be stuck here till dawn!”
As the guards spotted Marcus strolling down the main road, his voice ever becoming louder and morbidly terrifying, they all rushed to leave the gate unguarded, quickly shutting the door to their guard post and locking it. Considering it was the middle of the night, doing so did not pose as much of a threat as any other time of the day since almost no one would choose to travel at night under the risk of attacks by wild animals. Therefore, there was usually nobody entering the city that needed to be checked.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
As Harvey stopped at the gates, he looked around quizzically, surprised that there were no guards. Meanwhile, Marcus had already moved on to the topic on the history of the world and how all three great races joined hands to defeat and evil demon god. Harvey had heard it before, but only considered it as useless chatter, a myth at best. As he switched to infrared vision, he could clearly see the 4 guards hiding behind their respective guard posts in pairs, half crouching and pressing their ears against the door.
“Hello?” Harvey called out, projecting his voice towards the guard posts. “I want to leave the city. Do I need to go through any procedures?” he asked again.
“Shhh!” one of the guards whispered to his partner who was hiding behind him.
“Ummm.. I know you are in there, so is it fine if I just leave like this?” Harvey asked again, his voice clear as day.
“Hurry! Shoo him away!” One of the guards whispered to the squad leader, who was visibly sweating despite the cool night air. The decision was his to make, and their rest for the night hung precariously on the balance he he swallowed a lump in his throat, making his decision.
“J – Just go! We will overlook it this once!” The leader stammered back, praying to the gods that Markus would follow this stranger and leave them be.
“Donner!? Is that you? What are you doing in there? Come out and have a chat with me!” Marcus’s face lit up as he recognised the voice of the squad leader. “Well I guess this is it then Harvey! I hope to meet you again real soon!” He waved at Harvey who was already making his escape hastily.
Harvey shook his head silently, praying that Markus would soon run out of topics of conversation, while secretly apologising to the guard captain. He could have walked out of the city while ignoring the guards, but he had to be sure that Markus would not follow him. Therefore, he had no choice but to pass the baton over to the guards, whom he knew were weeping silently at this moment.
Making haste through the forest, Harvey headed straight for a landmark that he observed on the map. A Waterfall. It was a fair bit away from the city, but closer than he had expected. The map was clearly not drawn to scale as it showed the river flowing past the city. At the pace of a slow jog to conserve energy, Harvey arrived at the waterfall by sunrise.
It was much bigger than he had expected, considering he had downplayed the exaggerated map quite a bit. It was a straight 637m uninterrupted drop from the top to the lake at the bottom. At the top, the river was quite deep, and water velocity was very high. As he looked around, his feet were covered by the wet undergrowth and his cloak had long since become soaking wet. The brand new cloak was already tattered by constantly snagging on branches and thorns in the jungle.
The river was 145m across at its furthest based on KAOO’s scans and only 100m at its narrowest. However, the most eye-catching unique feature of this waterfall is that the fast flowing water had cut into the stone riverbed before bursting out the side of the cliff wall. Hence, there was a natural geographical bridge that made passage over the river simple, but dangerously slippery.
And so, Harvey began working on his project. Over the past few days, he had realised that as he became more familiar with the AI matrix of KAOO, KAOO became increasingly quiet. It was almost as if he had become KAOO, able to simulate and calculate probabilities, scan his surroundings and control his body modifications without the help of KAOO. Fabrication of items came naturally him to him as he is able to bring up blueprints and specs of various objects of interest.
In under a minute, he was holding in his hands a chainsaw. He could instantly tell that the fabrication process spent 5% of his total battery, but he was constantly charging it during the day. Within minutes, logs were felled from the forest nearby and he was carrying the tall trees with ease back to the riverside. Shaving off the branches and creating a neat stack of wooden logs, Harvey brought up a plan for a simple wooden cabin to reside in.
The first step was to create a temporary lodging, from where he could begin collection of materials and the fabrication process. Taking into account the geography of the surroundings, the weather and the frequency with which he encountered wild animals that seemed warry of him, Harvey could envision his future living quarters where he could research on a way to return to earth.
Without the need for constant fabrication, the simple log cabin was completed by sunset the next day. Then, he finally began his first steps into building his home – the fabrication of the very first stainless steel I-beam. The log cabin only served as a shelter from the weather and the elements. Even though it had almost non-existent detrimental effects to his robotic body, Harvey could still feel the water on his skin and the heat from the sun thanks to the wide array of sensors all over his body. As such, familiar feelings from when he was a human resurfaced, making it uncomfortable to work under bad conditions.
And so, he continued to work away in the forest, secluded from most civilisations. While there would be the occasional adventurers passing by and spending the night in his cabin, Harvey paid them no mind and kept working at his goals. Ironically, within the next year and half, this once secluded spot out in the middle of nowhere, would become the most technologically advanced place on the planet.