“What is the purpose of your actions, Reavius?”
Azim was curious about the old blacksmith’s methods, as he had gathered a plethora of resources from around his shop and placed them in piles around the robot. There were scraps of wood, iron, steel, silver, stone, coal, and glass. The metal man was still damaged, and the two had yet to make any significant progress towards repairing him. Azim appreciated the effort that Reavius was putting into helping him, but still failed to see any help that he had actually received.
“This, my boy, is step 2,” the terram blacksmith responded, grunting as he lugged the materials over to the android. “I’d like to test something first. But after, we’ll deal with all this.”
The terram rummaged through a drawer for a few moments before pulling out a rhombus-shaped stone. The gem was translucent, with a clear, pearl color. It was about the size of the old man’s hand, and sleek along each edge. He then pulled out a roll of thick, tan paper and stretched it along the countertop of his work desk. He set the pearl gem down on the paper and called Azim over to where he was standing. “Come here, son,” the blacksmith beckoned. “You need to be the one to do this.”
“This is a simple test. A little measuring device, which picks up on the magic level of the one being tested. It doesn’t pick up on any specific art of magicraft or specialty that one might be enhancing through potions or the like. All this is used for is determining the natural baseline level of someone’s magic.”
Azim stared at the paper and diamond, then back at Reavius. “What is it that you would like me to do?” the robot asked. “And how will this help my current condition?”
“I’m sorry, my boy, I really am,” Reavius replied sincerely. “I don’t mean to keep you suffering longer than you need to be. But you seem to not be taking to traditional magic. I’m afraid there’s never been a case quite like yours. And yet you say you have magic. That only makes the case more peculiar.”
“Please forgive any rudeness you might find in my words,” Azim prefaced. “…But you are a blacksmith, correct? If you work with metal and know how to work with a forge, I do believe you can help me. I do not need magic. I only need to be repaired.”
“Well, son, if I’m being honest, I think what you’ve already done for yourself is about all I would be able to do myself. I mean, I could probably clean up the patch a little, and weld some armor so that it covers any gaps in your… chest… but there’s more to it, isn’t there? There’s more on the inside?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Well, I won’t be able to do anything about all that. I know about metalwork, sure, but whatever fancy stuff you got inside of you, I have no idea how to work with it. If it will give you some piece of mind, I can weld your armor to look a little nicer, but I don’t want us to forget about the problem underneath.”
“I understand. I will wait then.”
“Right then! Well, son, take hold of the magem for me. Let’s see just what we’re working with here!”
Azim looked down at the materials once more before picking up the pearly diamond. He held it in one hand and stared, unsure what to do with it. “Oh, that’s right. I didn’t tell you how it works, ha, ha!” the terram chuckled. “Alright, well… Just hold the magem in both hands and place one of the points against the paper, gently. Then, just focus and channel any magic you have through your body. The magem will harness power equal to your magic level and will tear through the paper. The higher your baseline magic level, the farther the tear will reach. If you’re only level 1 somehow, the gem will simply poke a small hole in the paper, but leave no tear.”
The metal man looked down at the paper intensely. He held the diamond against the desk and thought. He was not sure how to make any magic come out, especially if he wasn’t trying to cast a spell of any kind. The android thought about what he had been told before about magic, and how it was connected to the soul. The stronger and brighter one’s soul, the stronger their connection would be in turn. Being a robot that had no such soul, he was not exactly sure how to “connect” to any magic inside of him. Then he remembered the words of Orvo back in Welstom. Think without thought.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
His eyes started glowing as he gripped the gem tighter. The robot could recall the power he had used against the raiders and the toned-down level he had used against Leone. He let any connection he could thoughtlessly feel surge through his hands, as if he was about to blow the minds of everyone around him as he had two times now.
But nothing happened. He lifted his hands, moving the magem away from the paper, and saw that it was undamaged. Not even a hole, as Reavius had described. The paper was perfectly intact, with not a single blemish. “Now that,” the blacksmith reacted, “is peculiar.”
Reavius explained to Azim what the test effectively demonstrated. As far as the universe knew, and any magic-detecting method that existed could tell, Azim did not have even the slightest connection to magic whatsoever. He had, by all means, a baseline magic level of 0. Reavius then asked Azim what he meant when he said he had acquired magic "as of recently", but the answer Azim gave was not that helpful. All the robot could express was that he did not have magic until he showed up in Irvana, though he did not know how he had obtained it. Despite the metal man’s stories and the obvious spell that he had used on hismelf, Reavius could not help but be perturbed by it all. Still, he was persistent in finding out the truth.
The two walked back over to the piles of assorted materials that Reavius had organized. The blacksmith then asked Azim to show him any magic he knew, offering the idea of basic levitation spells first. After teaching the robot Levitatus and sending pieces of coal, glass, and iron into the air, Reavius invited the android to do the same. While Reavius’ levitation skills were level 7, one only needed to be level 2 at a minimum to lift something small. However, when Azim incanted the same spell, nothing happened. He tried the spell on every material sitting around him and was met with silence. The two weren’t entirely surprised. Then Reavius bothered to ask the robot what magic he did have. Azim looked over at the mound of scrap metal, raised an arm over it, and chanted, “Return”.
As he did, several pieces at the top of the pile floated up to his hand, which he then handed to Reavius. The old man was shocked. Before the blacksmith could respond, the android continued. Casting Metal Charm, the remaining scraps in the pile began to spin around in a circle, dancing, as if caught in a miniature tornado. A few seconds went by and the robot incanted, “Release”, letting the scrap metal fall back into place.
Thinking about the possibilities for a moment, Reavius asked Azim to try the levitation spell again. This time, however, he wanted the robot not to think of the process as a general levitation spell, that was targeting any specific object. Instead, he wanted the metal man to focus first on the metal, as if he could do whatever he wanted to it. Then, once focused on it, Azim would think of levitating.
Trying once more, Azim looked at the metal pile, doing his best to connect to the components of the pieces. Once settled on his subject, he tried again. Think… without thought. Slowing down his processors and shutting off his external receptors for a moment, Azim thought of levitating the metal scrap pile. Levitatus. A moment later, he allowed himself to perceive his surroundings again. When he did, the metal man saw, in front of him, the entire pile floating in a congealed, ball-shaped mass. The blacksmith was elated. Somehow, the android had pulled off the spell. Despite not being able to use Levitatus in the traditional sense, applying it to anything the user directed it towards, Azim was able to use the spell as an extension of metalmancy. Fascinating, the terram thought to himself. Truly fascinating!
Just then, Azim’s stasis spell given to him by the mayor’s assistant wore off. He dropped to one knee, catching himself from collapsing completely. As impressive as his homemade patch-up spell was, it did not do much to stop the effects of the damage that had already been done. Its purpose had only been to protect the exposed part of the robot’s armor. Now that he was in safe company, protecting was not what the metal man needed. What he needed… was restoration.
Reavius pulled the metal from the pile close to Azim and kneeled beside him. “Alright boy, I have the materials I think you’ll need,” he said in a hurry. “But I won’t be able to do much beyond that. You know more about how you work than I do. You’re gonna need to do this on your own. If you can fix yourself up on the inside, I can patch you up and clean up the edges on the outside. Okay, son?”
The android clicked.
A small burst of electricity and smoke shot out of Azim’s exposed armor. He stumbled, but caught himself and sat in a cross-legged position. The robot tried to focus. He could feel the metal around him. He did not know how. Nothing in his processors gave him any kind of awareness of nearby metals. But somehow, he could still feel them around him. Another small explosion. He was lying on the ground now. Whatever had happened to him was really starting to overtake his systems. He did not lose focus. Lying on the ground, he let his steely fingers feel the stone of the floor, and the metal around him touching it. The android was not sure what to do, but knew he had to be the one to figure it out. He let whatever “nonexistent” magic he had connect to the scraps surrounding him. And then he had an idea.
“Reavius, do you have any methods by which you could provide me with electricity?”
“As in a Lightning spell?” Reavius asked in response. “You want me to shoot lightning at you? Are you… sure that’s a good idea, boy?”
Azim was slowly starting to fade, reverting back to the place he had been before those 14 seconds had been rewound. He was starting to short out, but managed to voice in a weak, monotone pitch, “I-I.. do acknowledge the risk involved w-with this… s-strategy… however despite t-the u-uncertaint-t-t-ty… I b-believe it will… … I believe it will have the greatest possible outcome if it succeeds.”
The terram blacksmith went back to his workstation to rummage through another drawer. “Alright, well, I don’t know that much about lightning magic,” the old man began. “But I try to keep a few different positions and spell bottles on hand. I should have a lightning something.”
A few moments later, the blacksmith managed to find a bottle with a stormy black mass burrowing around inside it, with neon blue streaks that sparked every other second. He ran back over to Azim, ready to try the metal man’s plan. “I got it, son, I got it,” Reavius assured. “Boy. Azim!”