Wiping the sweet from my forehead, I stretched and looked at the sun rising in the distance before turning towards the sound of footsteps coming towards me. Seeing Aerith, I smiled and waved at her as she looked up and smiled back, a bit more confidence shining on her face.
“How are you feeling, Kate?”
“Good, very good. I woke up a bit ago and learnt my first spell, Frost Orb.” Holding out her palm, I saw a swirling ball of white-blue mist appear in her hand. “I also received a Class quest! I have to completely freeze five unique types of Husks as well as freezing at least fifty Husks in total.” The frost orb dissipated. “I also got a wand!” Pulling out a wooden stick, I saw it had a bit of detail to it, symbols that looked like magic circles winding up to a gem on the top, which is deep blue in colour.
“Very fancy. Does it do anything for your magic?”
“Yes! If I cast with the wand, my magic is enhanced by thirty percent! Though it increases the cost of my spells by ten percent.” Storing the wand back in her pocket, Kate sits on the ground next to where I’m standing before pulling out a can of food from her other pocket. Giggling at the sight of her utilisation of pockets, I sit down next to her and pull over the machinery parts I’d been working on.
“What are you building, Ruby?”
“Oh, nothing. We dismantled a few machines earlier, I’m just sorting the parts out so Sheep can turn them into components. I can then make the parts and they’ll have seventy percent durability, regardless of how rusted or degraded they are now.” Filling Kate in on the Machinist’s Soul I’d received, she nodded thoughtfully.
“As a Builder, I can use the System to make hinges, nails, door handles and more. I wonder if I can increase the durability of those? Well, at least so they won’t have issues quickly.”
We talked for a while as more footsteps rang out and turning my head I saw Jupiter and Silver walking over, each holding two coffees. Jupiter hands me one while Silver hands Kate the one as well. Thanking them both, they also sat down, introducing themselves once more to Kate.
“Ah, so you chose Ice Magician? We nearly selected it ourselves, but I chose Fire Magician instead.”
“Jupiter, did you ever receive a wand as well?”
“Staff, actually. I lost it during the Nexus event, it’d been crushed by the horde that overran us.” Looking a bit grim, Jupiter shrugged. “Once I advance I’ll get another, so it’s all good. Did you need any help learning magic, Aerith?” Jupiter offers as Aerith thought about it.
“I don’t know how to fight…”
“Oh, is that so? I could grab Melody and Dawn and we can teach you. Dawn’s able to shrug off spells because of her Warrior Class and Melody can shield her for extra protection.”
Aerith looked at me with a bit of uncertainty, as if seeking my permission. Smiling at her, I nod and tell her to join them. “It’ll be good practice, they’ve fought Husks as well and will be a big help, especially Jupiter since he’s a magician like you.”
“Alright, I’ll train…t-thank you.” Giving Jupiter a small smile, Aerith went back to drinking her coffee while watching me work.
“Silver, are you going to ask?” Looking up from the various parts in front of me, I saw Jupiter poke the quiet Silver, who shrugged and looked at me.
“Miss Midnight, is there a source of ores around here?”
“Uh, I’m not sure. We came here for the water so I have no idea about ores…you’re a Miner, right?”
“Yes, and Jupiter is a Smelter. After seeing the progress here we wanted to also provide, but our Jobs are limited to me finding ores to mine.”
Leaning back and thinking it over, I look at Silver again. “Did you get anything to help you locate ores when you selected Miner?”
“Yes, a strange device that let a sound out whenever it detected anything underground. It looked like a metal detector, just more…bulkier.”
“I don’t suppose you still have it, do you?”
“What remains of it, I do. It was trampled by the Husks like Jupiter’s staff, it’s in the semi.”
“Mind showing me the device? Perhaps we could fix it.” Though I didn’t know how I could achieve that, it’s possible we could just dissemble it and rebuild it, though it would depend on how broken it is. Silver nods and walks away while Jupiter leads Aerith towards the others for training, leaving me alone for a moment. After about ten minutes of sorting out various parts, I heard more footsteps and turning my head I saw Silver and Sheep heading over.
“Yo, Mid.” Sheep waves to me and after returning a wave of my own, I glanced at Silver and the device he’s carrying. He handed it to me as both of them sat down, with Sheep grabbing parts to break down through the System as I inspected the device.
The description had been spot on, it reminded me of a metal detector, except the bottom part is a large disk, about as thick as a large book while the top reminded me of a tablet. The damage done to it however is mostly centred on the middle rod, where wiring and circuit boards were sticking out, cracked and snapped.
“I can’t fix this, I don’t know how.” Shaking my head at the damage, I looked at the bottom and top parts and seeing no damage to them, I tilted my head for a moment. “Does it turn on?”
“No, nothing happens if I use the power button.” Testing it for myself, I see no reaction before nodding slowly. Reaching into my toolbox, I undo the screws holding the top and bottom to the rod and check both spots, careful to not pull it apart completely.
“Rubes, if I dismantle it completely, you might be able to reassemble the tablet and disc. The rod doesn’t seem to add functionality and seems to only extend the device for ease of use.”
“Yea, with any luck disassembling it is the best shot. Are you okay with that, Silver?”
“It’s useless as it is, go for it.” Silver shrugs. Handing Sheep my toolbox and the device, he gets to work as I completely focused on how it all came apart. We were used to this, and after thirty minutes, everything had been pulled apart. Sheep moved the damaged parts of the rod to the side while I started to slowly reassemble everything with Silver quietly watching.
Ore Detector (Incomplete) Created
+5 Job Points
1/1 Job Points Earnt from Ore Detector (Incomplete).
This is the first time you have constructed this machine.
+10 Job Points.
Seeing the label of Incomplete and that I could only earn the Job Points once, I knew that we had to build the entire thing. The System saw it as three different entities so I turned my attention to the tablet. Carefully putting the tablet back together, I held my breath as I screwed in the last plating.
Ore Detector Component: Display Unit Created.
+5 Job Points
1/1 Job Points Earnt from Ore Detector: Display Unit.
This is the first time you have constructed this machine.
+10 Job Points.
The knowledge flows through my mind as I look at the two before turning to the rod. “I don’t know how to connect them.”
“We can try the rod.” Sheep gathers the parts of the rod as I put it back together, but due to the broken wiring and circuit boards, it didn’t register. Frowning a bit, I leaned back a bit, not sure on how to proceed.
“Mid?” Glancing at Sheep, he looked at the two devices we put together. “How do the circuit boards work? Like, do you need to program them?”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Sorting through my mind, I filtered through everything and found the answer. “There isn’t really any programming needed, the circuit boards are parts I can craft and come in various types, like display circuits, power circuits and so on.”
“Can you tell the difference?”
“Yes, the patterns are different.”
“What if you were to just replace the broken circuits and have Lemon make wiring for you to replace the broken wiring?”
“That…might work. These are all power distribution boards, the power supply is the battery in the display unit. I can make a battery thanks to the blueprint I received long ago, I just need the parts, which we have…” Sheep gets up and runs off. A moment later he drags Lemon over and Ghost, for some reason.
Explaining the situation to Lemon, he sat down and looked at the wiring.
“It’s wiring for signals and power distribution. I can make both as long as I have the materials, let me go check the box.” The box is what Lemon affectionately called his ‘box of everything’. Ghost looks over what we’re doing and looks a bit bored. He heads off the other way, saying he’d go rest for a while.
Lemon comes back carrying a big box filled to the brim with various parts of wiring, cords and circuit boards. He hands Sheep the circuit board, who then works on disassembling them into components while also disassembling the rod while I took those components and turned them into circuit boards that we needed. Lemon digs through the box, pulling out various types of wires before putting the box to the side.
Slowly, the three of us work on replacing the broken circuit boards and wiring, taking our time. Another person had come over, and from their presence I knew it was Winter but not wanting to disturb my focus I ignored her for the moment as we carefully reassembled the rod, making sure everything fit.
Ore Detector Component: Connector Created.
+5 Job Points
1/1 Job Points Earnt from Ore Detector: Connector.
This is the first time you have constructed this machine.
+10 Job Points.
As the knowledge rushed through my mind, it included how to connect the base and display unit, and working slowly, I connected both to the rod.
Advanced Ore Detector Created.
+40 Job Points
1/3 Job Points Earnt from Advanced Ore Detector.
This is the first time you have constructed this machine.
+80 Job Points.
“Holy hells…” As I finished the ore detector, the System displayed the message as the full knowledge connected in my mind. It’s an advanced blueprint, and the sheer amount of Job Points I earned from it was more than enough!
Telling the others, including Winter who sat besides me and looked at the ore detector, we felt a bit excited. Turning to Silver, who had been watching us this entire time, I saw his face had turned to awe, the first time I’ve seen his facial expression change.
“All done, give it a go and see how it goes.”
“I’ll come along and see if it’s good.” Sheep jumps up in anticipation as Lemon gets up, excusing himself to return to what he had been doing before, planning out a water pipe system. Suddenly it had become just me and Winter.
“Well, that all seemed very exciting, didn’t it?” She gets up and stretches, holding a hand out to me. “Wanna go for a walk?” Taking her hand, she pulls me up onto my feet.
“Sure, I could do with a break. Did you see Aerith?”
Going for a bit of a walk, while ignoring the cries of the others training, we held hands as we walked down the road for a while, doing nothing but chatting about random topics, joking about wanting to find a beach to walk along, even though we barely ever went to the beach in our world.
After walking for two hours, we arrived back at the base and separated. We went back to what we had been doing for the day. Winter was currently reassembling our weapons, including Sheeps, and making more of them with the limited materials she had. According to her, she’d be able to make one of each, but could make two shotguns if she ignored Sheep’s shotgun handgun. Sitting down once again, I continued sorting and making the pile of parts and components, which had once again grown.
As night settled in, Aerith flopped down beside me suddenly and with an exhausted sigh laid on the ground, sprawled out. Looking at her with a chuckle, I put down the last of the components that I had sorted.
“Did training go well, Kate?”
“I think I see stars.”
“It is night.”
“Oh yea…”
After a few minutes I heard her breathing turn soft and once again looking at her, I noticed she’d fallen asleep. Shaking my head slightly, I picked her up gently and carried her over to the campervan, placing her on the bed and once again tucking her into the sheets. Leaving her to rest, I walk about the base to find almost everyone else had gone to sleep, excluding Winter and Sheep, both doing various tasks around the place. Returning to my pile, I started to place everything into various boxes before moving it all into the semi, ready to take to the town. Just like that, the three of us continued to work through the night, with Sheep depositing more dismantled parts.
The next morning after a quick breakfast, everyone got into a vehicle of their choice with me selecting the campervan, along with Melody, Aerith and Dawn. The three chatted amongst each other, and seeing that they had become quick friends I left them to it while I focused on driving…or rather felt bored out of my skull.
After an entire day of driving, we arrive at Beta and work on unloading the semi. I begin dividing up my sniper ammo and with around seven hundred rounds remaining, I give two hundred to Winter who would assign weapons once they arrived back in town. Placing down a generator, I connected it to the campervan, filled it with a bit of fuel and made coffee.
As night settles, I finish unloading all of the machinery parts and as I’m walking back I see everyone sitting around a campfire, eating a bowl of rice each. Being one of our only constant foods, we had grown tired of eating it every day, but we endured because it’s the only thing keeping us from starvation. We had plenty of rice, but at this rate of consumption it’ll be all gone within two or three months. Watching from afar, I couldn’t help but worry a bit about the food situation, and seeing everyone barely eating I knew they were all nervous about tomorrow.
“Just this once…” Making up my mind, I decided to uplift the mood and give everyone something to celebrate. Opening my System and navigating to the Shop, I purchased the ‘1x Assortment of food from your world’. At first, I had thought it would be a small box of food, but what I hadn’t expected is a massive box the length size of the campervan dropping in front of me, giving me a fright and drawing the attention of everyone else.
The box’s height comes up to my stomach and is sectioned off every metre with six sections in total. Nervously looking at the box, I heard a shout from the group.
“Did you get another reward, Mid?” Hearing Sheep’s amused voice, I saw Winter moving over while everyone returned to eating.
I opened one of the sections in front of me and hissed at the sight. Stacks of drinks were in there, ranging from cola to lemon flavoured drinks to even iced coffee and mochas. Slamming it shut as Winter arrived, I looked at her in horror.
“Mm? Rubes, you’re pale, is the loot really that good?” Before I could stop her, Rebecca opened the section next to the drinks before hissing under her breath, her gaze locking onto mine. Within the section she opened are packs of lollies, hard candy, chocolate and more. Slamming the box shut, she looked at me in horror.
“We need to hide this! We can’t let the others see our snacks!” Urgency in her voice, she barely whispered those words. Rebecca had been a massive snack goblin along with me in our world so seeing all of these must’ve triggered a deep response to hide them all for ourselves.
Before I could utter a word, I heard another section open. We both slowly turn to see Brian standing there, looking into one of the sections, mouth wide open, shocked beyond words. His eyes turn towards me as he points at the box.
“M-m-meat…” Barely a whisper as well, Brian just dumbly pointed at the contents. Quickly moving over, I slammed the box lid down and hissed at him.
“Shut…up. I screwed up, we don’t have a fridge or freezer!”
“Well make one, you know the blueprints!”
“That’s not the point, Brian! I didn’t know we’d get this much with 150 Prime Coins!”
“You bought the assortment?! Why didn’t you tell us!” Ghost looked mortified as he realised that without a freezer it would spoil.
“Because I saw you all sitting there looking miserable! I wanted to surprise everyone with maybe a few snacks or a bit of meat, I didn’t think we’d get all of this!”
“Oh, is the reward that good? Let’s have a look.” The three of us jumped and turned to see Deven opening yet another section, our reaction was too slow, we couldn’t stop him in time!
Deven looks at the section absolutely stunlocked. I quickly move over and slam the section closed, but not before seeing what’s inside. Hundreds of packs of jerky, biltong and various types of dried meat were inside. He slowly looked at me, lips flapping as if trying to speak before pointing at me.
“Y-you…”
“Shut…up.” As I’m about to grab his shirt to drag him closer, with the intent to threaten him to not say anything, I heard another section right next to him open. Turning, I saw Kate standing there, eyes wide as she trembled a bit. Spinning as the sound of yet another section opened, I saw Damien, Lemon, standing there, reacting exactly like Kate.
In the section that Kate opened is fruits and vegetables of all kinds. In the section Damien had opened laid spices and seasoning of various kinds. Unable to contain this anymore, I gave up and dropped onto my butt, head in hands.
“Ahhh, I wanted to sleep tonight, not build a fucking freezer!” Softly punching the ground as the others laughed, I looked up to see Jupiter, Melody, Silver and Dawn join us. Deciding against hiding it from them, I told them what I had bought, all three looking shocked before Deven looked at me.
“What are you sitting around for, Ruby! Go, get the parts, we need to make a freezer, now! Store as much of the fruit and vegetables in the fridge in the campervan.”
“It doesn’t have a fridge…” Kate’s soft voice rings out as my stomach drops.
“Alright, plan time. Everyone helps Midnight to gather everything we need to make a freezer and fridge. No one is to leave each other's line of sight, those that do will be banned from anything in here.” Everyone gets up, with us all scrambling to gather all of the parts and components, relying on me to build a freezer and fridge late into the night. Thank god we ended up bringing along a generator.