“Alright, kiddos, bugger off and enjoy your weekend. Try not to do anything me and Yuu would,” Alex said as most of his class left the testing room.

“Now they’re gone; we have you two lovebirds,” Alex said, turning his gaze to Bea and Gunter.

“SIR!” Bea cried out in shock as her cheeks began to redden.

“We are just friends, chief,” Gunter added, also blushing a deep shade of crimson.

“Yeah, Gunter is right. We are just friends,” Bea repeated in an almost melancholic tone.

“Fair enough, I was just teasing. Anyways shall we get your new toys sorted?” The pair nodded.

“Cool, we can get Bea’s finger sorted first, as I‘ve got a whole box of fingers in my personal workshop that I made for Alex,” Yuu said as she led the way with Freki scamping beside her.

“I’m going to the big chief's workshop?!” Gunter asked, excitement already overtaking him.

“Big Chief? I like that. I’ll make sure my students call me that from now on,” Yuu said as she glanced back at the pair following her.

“Good thing I made a fair few fingers considering Nicklas removed one of the fingers I made you. I consider that a bit of a quiet experiment by your standards if only two fingers were lost.”

“About that, Yuu. How did Nicklas do that? My fingers should’ve been made of sturdy stuff?”

“Oh, that…” Yuu’s voice trailed off as she avoided eye contact with Alex.

“Yuu??? Tell me why the fingers I paid premium coin for got cut easily.”

“Ok, promise you won’t be mad.”

“I will reserve my reaction for when you explain yourself.”

“I spent it all on booze and just hammered out some cheap metal I found in the scrap pile,” Yuu rapidly explained as she manoeuvred Freki between herself and Alex.

“I would say I’m surprised. But I’m not.”

“Sorry, chief. But did the big chief say she used metal from the scrap pile?” Gunter asked with a shocked tone.

“Yes, she did,” Alex said, shooting a glare at his friend.

“But they look so high quality?”

“That is just how skilled Yuu is. She can even make scrap into absurd-grade gear. It’s one reason why we never really hurt for funds. Yuu is my personal piggy bank.”

“So you’re a freeloader?” Bea asked, looking at Alex with a hint of admiration.

“What?! No, of course not. I did my fair share. I was a test subject for her experiments. Her clown who blew himself up. Her research partner, her best friend and her…” Alex trailed off as he had run out of fingers to count on.

“Sounds like you guys are really close,” Bea said wistfully. “You ever fancy one another?”

“Eeew gross,” Yuu said before making retching noises.

“Yuck, me and her?” Alex, likewise, was making retching noises.

Gunter paused in his step with Bea on his shoulders as they both watched this over-dramatic display.

“Guys, me and Yuu are more like siblings,” Alex finally explained after he finished his show of disgust.

“I’m the older one!” Yuu quickly added.

“Only by a few hours!!”

“Wait, for you two have the same birthday?” Bea asked as they now continued their way through the various workshops, some of which were still active, towards Yuu’s personal workshop.

“Yeah, October Eleventh. Through a soul reading, we found out Yuu is technically the older one.”

“And you will always be like a baby brother to me,” Yuu teased before stopping as they arrived at a pair of metallic doors covered in strips of what Gunter recognised to be Adamantine.

“Here we are,” Yuu said as she gave the doors an almighty push letting them easily swing open.

“Those look heavy,” Bea muttered as she looked up at the towering doorway.

“They are, but I got them engineered onto the hinges so finely that even this weak dork could open them without his magic helping,” Yuu explained, gesturing to Alex with a thumb.

Walking into the workshop, the pair found a large forge in the corner with an anvil in front of it. A plethora of tools were strewn about the workshop, and every surface had some piece of work in all manner of levels of completion.

“Where did I put them?” Yuu muttered to herself as she clambered under a table and began throwing out boxes.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“No, these are the anti-mana grenades,” she said as she threw a box out.

“Not these either,” she said as she threw out another box that spilt out its contents. Inside was a collection of small clockwork butterflies that began to flutter up and fly around the room as soon as they were free.

“Ah, here it is!” Yuu exclaimed as she shuffled back out from under the table and presented a small lockbox.

“Made these when Alex kept getting bombed by Maxwell’s dick of a brother.” She explained as she put the box on a table. Opening it up inside were enough fingers to kit out a hekatonchires, the hundred-handed monsters.

“Ok, you first, Alex, as it should just be a quick switcheroo,” Yuu said as Alex stepped forward and offered his hand. With quick motions that seemed like a blur to Bea and Gunter, she disconnected all three of his fingers and the half of his palm that was missing.

“Then the actually good material stuff,” Yuu muttered as she began to attach the new set of artificer parts. Linking up a shiny silvery palm and three fingers from his middle to his pinky.

“Give ‘em a whirl,” Yuu said, leaning back as she admired her work. Giving them a few test squeezes, Alex seemed content with them.

“Far smoother than the old ones. It’ll take a little getting used to. But smoother is better,” Alex said, giving his seal of approval as he knelt down to stroke Freki, who seemed to be becoming anxious that half her master's hand was casually removed and replaced.

“Ok, now you,” Yuu said, turning to look up at Bea. Understanding her unspoken request, Bea hopped down from Gunter's shoulders and approached Yuu holding out her hand.

“Ok, do you know how artificer limbs work?” Yuu asked to which Bea just shook her head.

“Well, they run off, mana. You’ll need to get used to flowing mana through it on your own. Enough practice; you won’t even realise you are doing it,” Yuu said, giving Bea’s hand a reassuring tap.

“Ok, you got little hands, so I may need to alter one of the spare pinky fingers to fit,” Yuu said as she took out various pinky fingers and held them against Bea’s stump.

“Ah, this one is close enough; one minute and I’ll get it altered,” Yuu hopped away from her desk and approached her anvil, picking up a small jewelsmith hammer. As she began to hit the digit, a melodic ringing began to echo around the workshop. After a few minutes of this music, Yuu spun back around and approached Bea.

“Ok, just check this,” she said, holding the smaller finger against the stump. This time it was a perfect match for the hand.

“Damn, I’m good. Ok, now for the painful bit,” Yuu said. Before Bea could react, Yuu took out a small circular strip of metal with spikes on it and shoved it into the stump.

“ARGHHH!” Bea screeched in agony as she retreated behind Gunter.

“What did you do?!!” Gunter demanded, a scowl firmly on his face.

“Mana port. Any artificer limb needs one. You stick it to the missing location and boom any engineered part stuck on can be used. I knew one weirdo who would swap his arms and legs as a party trick.”

“You could have warned her,” Gunter continued, unwilling to let the matter drop.

“Sure, but then her mana channels would’ve been tensed, and she would’ve been in pain half the time she used the digit. Surprise installation is actually the norm for first-timers.”

“She’s right, you know,” Alex added in Yuu’s defence.

“Here, just stick it to the little joint on top of the mana port, and it'll start working,” Yuu said, chucking the finger to Bea.

Reluctantly, Bea caught the finger and followed Yuu’s instructions, attaching it to the still throbbing port. The pain in her hand vanished when she connected it, and to her surprise, the finger flexed like natural.

“Better?” Yuu asked to which Bea just nodded.

“Good; with you sorted, you can go back to your dorm while we sort out bird boy here.”

“I’d like to stay if that’s ok?” Bea asked. Yuu just looked to Alex.

“Bea, you may not feel it right now, but you are on the verge of going mana out,” Alex explained.

“Installing a new limb basically causes your mana to go crazy. You will mana out if you cast even a single spell right now. You’re better off getting some rest.”

“But sir, I want to watch Gunter and Yuu make the cage,” Bea whined.

“Fine, but don't blame us when you have a mana hangover tomorrow.”

“Righto, the first thing we need to do is test out the metals we got to see what Nicklas can’t cut,” Yuu said as she walked over to a table with a few ingots on it.

“Ok, place Nicklas onto the table, and we can let her poke around the metal.”

Following up behind Yuu, Gunter placed his new familiar on the table. With wobbly feet, it walked over to the bronze ingot, which quickly had a shallow cut in it.

“Ok, Bronze is no good.”

“But, big chief, it is only shallow?”

“On an ingot. I don’t know about you, but typically cages have skinnier bars than that block. Especially for a pet. Or are you going to keep her in a jail cell?” Gunter quickly shook his head.

“Thought not. Ok, come on, Nicklas, flap against the steel ingot.” At Yuu’s encouragement, the bird flapped against the bar again, making shallow cuts, this time shallower than the bronze.

“Better but could be even better. Ok, flap away against the shiny bar, will you?” Nicklas woggled over and flapped her wings against a faintly glowing bar. After a solid minute of flapping, the bar remained unmarked.

“Perfect, I’ll get it sorted out of that one.”

“Uh… Yuu, what is that metal?” Alex asked, peaking around Gunter at the table.

“I call it Dumbassium. It is an alloy of various metals that one of my students made because they were being an idiot and chucked in a bunch of metals. You’d like him, Alex; he has a similar kind of curiosity you have.”

“So you going to make the cage out of that?” Yuu just nodded.

“Will get a few of the ingots and create a mesh cage. It’ll take all night, so you guys get out. I need to get in the zone while I work.”

“Come on, guys. Yuu gets stage fright,” Alex said as he took Gunter by the shoulder to guide him out of the workshop.

“I DON’T GET STAGE FRIGHT!!”

“Gunter, be sure not to let anyone interact with your little girl there.”

“Bea or Nicklas?” Alex paused for a moment before answering.

“Yes.”

“Gotcha, chief,” Gunter said as he crouched down to let Bea clamber up and made their way back to the dorms.

“They gone?”

“Yeah, Yuu, they’re gone,” Alex replied with a nod.

“Whew, that was stressful. So I’ll just get the golem to hammer out the cage, and we can head to the pub while it does?” Alex nodded as Yuu set off to program her personal workshop golem to do its thing.