The smell of wet cement filled the air as I started shovelling it out. A foundation the size of one and a half football stadiums had been dug up by hand by myself. Carefully following the blueprint in both my head and written down, the foundation had been carefully separated into dozens of sections, with lead ins for water, electricity and trash done and the piping for those already installed underneath the foundation, leading upwards.

Moving section to section as I carefully lay down cement, I had spent a week straight already out here. Not accepting any help, I had decided to build this completely myself and with the foundation slowly being completed it meant I could soon start the actual workshop itself. All of the materials had been delivered, including all of the wiring, circuit boards and so much more, like the mithril metal. I even had welders, smouldering machines, power tools and many more building machines set aside. I estimated it would take a few months to complete this building by myself, but was prepared for it.

The overall building would have dozens of different machines built into it, such as assembly lines, automated machines to build components, wielders, workbenches and much more. It all combined into a large machine, known as the Machinist Workshop. It’s not known if other Jobs had similar workshop blueprints, but we were prepared to support those that needed to build one if required. Laying down the cement of the last section a full day later, I look up and stretch.

“Well, I suppose I need to wait for it all to dry. Oh, right, I need to head to the office.” Looking down, I found my clothing and skin covered in cement and dirt. Deciding against a shower and change of clothes, since I’d be back out here after heading to the office, I make my way into the base.

The roll out of the contribution system had started, with Isabelle and a small team under her working on cataloguing everyone’s information. We had announced to the base that they would need to have their information captured and where to go. As a way to assist Isabelle’s new position and to ensure others trusted her and her team with information about our Jobs and Classes, we had scheduled the officers and leaders to go there and participate at random times.

Seeing the line coming out of the first floor of the office, I stood in line behind someone who looked at me with surprise. They turned around quickly, but their actions were repeated by others who were waiting in the line and hearing the whispers, I knew that my presence here had an effect.

Surprisingly I had a high reputation amongst everyone, though it’s not as surprising when I was reminded that we had saved Trinity’s group with only four of us and seeing the progress we had made here only furthered my reputation, along with the time I had fought with the Void Legion Captain to the brink of death to protect the base. I knew that I wasn’t exactly the most pronounced leader at the moment, due to relying mostly on Sheep and Aerith to handle a lot of the leadership duties, but seeing that others still respect me as the leader made me feel satisifed.

The line progressed rather slowly and with more people lining up behind me, I heard more whispers from them, mostly comments about how even the leader of the clan was lining up to have her information taken. I had enjoyed the attention at first, but slowly I became a bit bothered, mainly because I’m used to being in the background and leading, rather than being the centre of attention.

After another hour of waiting, I finally entered the office and upon seeing me, Isabelle called me over and I sat down in front of her. After confirming my name, she handed me a slip of paper.

“Once we’re done here, head to the other room. They’ll take your picture there, Madam.”

She then started asking me questions, which I answered honestly. My profile had already been filled, all of this is just to show others that the leaders were also taking this identification process seriously. Once done, she thanked me and I left the room. I waited for another short amount of time before getting my picture taken and leaving the office.

Others that were in line also saw me and knowing that just my appearance here had its intended effect, I made my way back to the location where I am building the workshop. The first few sections would’ve already hardened enough to use, though it wouldn’t be fully strengthened for another month, it’s enough to start leading in the various wiring.

Since reaching Lvl 3, I have yet to sleep except for the time I exhausted myself on top of being critically injured. The same went for the rest, our need to sleep seems to have disappeared. Another week quickly passed by as I installed all of the various wiring, lead ins and ensured that the foundation had turned out good. Heading towards a certain area next to the foundation, I found piles of metal, wood, boxes of components and much more. It had all been sorted into a specific arrangement, ordered by what I needed to build first.

Dragging the first set of materials over to the makeshift workbench, I noticed the spirits start to come over, bouncing happily, with some of them sitting on the materials I planned to use. Upon seeing this, I couldn’t help but smile as I lifted a hand that a few spirits had sat on.

“Do you all want to help me?” The spirits slowly swayed happily in response. For some reason I felt like their help wouldn’t actually affect the quest and would also benefit me greatly for some reason. “Alright, we’re going to be working around the clock, okay?” Still swaying happily, the spirits floated around my workbench, the number of them increasing steadily.

As I started to build the first machine, a welder that would be inbuilt into the workshop, I started to feel strange. My hands started to move by themselves as I felt mana stir within me. My mind started to drift, feeling at ease. Time seemed to both stop and move quickly as I allowed myself to fall into this strange state of mind.

It felt strange, like I had taken a seat mentally as machine after machine was built. The spirits happily glowing, everything they touched seemed to have a strange glow, myself included. I knew what this state of being is, but I avoided thinking of it, keeping my mind from thinking at all as I fell deeper into this state.

I don’t know how much time passed, the machines were all built and before I knew it I had started to build the workshop itself, moving as if I could easily build it. Everytime my mana fell to zero it would bounce back up to half way. I worried that Rebecca might suffer from this, but without pause my mana would refill easily. I had no idea about the drain, whether or not it’s fast or slow.

Before I knew it, the walls of the workshop had been finished, the machines sliding into place, the wiring being connected smoothly. My hands and feet never stopped, the spirits happily swarming me and the workshop as we worked, the spirits seemingly helping by using magic on the workshop itself. I felt a very strange connection to everything, to the spirits and the workshop, to the machines and even myself.

It’s like I was in a dream the longer this feeling happened, the workshop nearing completion and in what seemed like no time and after a long time I started to place the final piece of mithril plating, standing on top of a beam with ease as my hands used a power drill to tighten the roofing in. Afterwards, as if on autopilot, my body moved to another section of the workshop and started building another machine, the dismantler, and an assembly for it.

After finishing the last of the assembly line, I felt my mind start to slowly clear as the final piece was placed down. As I felt myself ‘return’, a large amount of fatigue and exhaustion hit me like a freight train, causing me to buckle and fall to the floor as sleep started to take over. I saw the spirits floating above me, as if concerned about me as I sent out a thought.

‘Babe, I’m finished…I’m tired…’

As my eyes started to close, I tried to resist to at least move to my house to sleep on a comfortable bed, but it was useless as sleep quickly took over. Seeing the spirits land on me, my final thought came to me as I fell asleep.

Just what am I to these spirits, to the point they’re this concerned about me?

***

A lone female with long, red hair stood on top of a large tower, surrounded by hundreds of buildings of different types. Hundreds of spirits surrounded her, sitting on her or floating nearby. The base under her, which spread out as far as the naked eye could see, had thousands more spirits wandering it. The female looked like a normal human, she lacked the elven ears that I had gotten used to. She stared into the distance and turned my sight there, I somehow saw what she was focusing on.

A large army stood there, far from the base, as if positioning itself to attack. A mix of human and different humanoid races stood there, anger on their faces, as if eager to charge in. Tanks, weapons, flags and more stood proudly and before them laid a massive wall, hundreds of people manning various weapons. It’s as if a war was about to break out, and as if on queue the army started to approach as the red haired female yelled out.

***

You have glimpsed into one of millions of possible futures or realities.

Talent Progress: 50%

You have made progress towards an unknown talent. You will be given more details upon fully unlocking this talent.

Jostling awake, I felt myself in a comfortable bed. My eyes slowly flicker open as my HUD comes up. I had two hundred mana remaining, and with a bit of relief I found no signs of my mana being overdrawn. Slowly sitting up, I found myself alone in my bedroom, and getting up from the bed, I felt my strength quickly return.

Walking into the kitchen, I found Rebecca sitting there, reading one of the manga she had brought back. She looked up and met my eyes, smiling as she put the manga down and came over to me, embracing me.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Morning Rubes. Did you sleep well?”

“Mm, I had another future dream…”

Rebecca quickly looked me over and nodded. “I see, at least it didn’t take all of your mana and more this time. Come, Dawn cooked a few meals for you, you didn’t eat for nearly two months. Well, two and a half months.”

“Huh?” I sat down as Rebecca took food out from the freezer and started the oven.

“I take it you entered a trance building your workshop? You started using my mana, thankfully only drawing from me once a week. You were in that trance for nearly two months, we prevented anyone from coming over to you to ensure you remained in it. Then you slept for another half a month.”

Blinking, I just stared at Rebecca with shock. Two months passed while I was in that strange trance? She handed me a jug of water and realising I was thirsty, I down the two litres in no time before turning my attention to the System.

You have constructed your first Machinist Workshop!

You have built a Purple Grade, Spirit Enchanted, Machinist Workshop.

As a result, this Workshop will have the following benefits:

While accompanied by Spirits of this World, all machinery built will be further Enhanced and the chance of machines being Graded is increased.

The Spirits of this World will be naturally attracted to the workshop, taking up residence in it.

All machinery built within this workshop will have higher durability.

Whilst in your workshop, you will receive bonus mana regeneration.

Your workshop is immune to any decay effect.

Your workshop is immune to the void.

The Machinist Queen Updated (3/6):

Create Advanced Machines: Done

Build a Machinist Workshop: Done

Create a Machine with a least Blue Grade: Done

Rewards available.

Next Quest:

Build three Blue or higher Grade Expert Machines.

“Well…shit…” I slowly told Rebecca about the dream and the completed workshop. She looked stunned at the details of what the Workshop had become. It was, after all, a large machine, so it made sense it could be Graded.

“Hot damn, let’s hope my workshop is that badass.”

“I can ask the spirits to help you. They seem to like you after all.”

“Nah, spirits are your thing. I’ll do it with my own efforts. Even if it’s just an ordinary workshop it’ll still be a huge boost. I haven’t finished it after all, I had to make sure you didn’t just use all of my mana.” Fetching the food from the oven, we both ate while chatting and joking.

Rebecca also told me that Isabelle had finished within a week and a half. At first a few people were uncertain about providing so much information, but after seeing the leaders and myself willingly giving such information they eased up. Whether or not the information is truthful will be proven with time. From what Rebecca told me, Isabelle had taken very well to the role of supervising in place of me.

After a bit of flirting with Rebecca, I headed out to take a shower at my office while she went to start building her workshop. If she entered a trance I’d have no choice but to remain in Lux. Opening the Survival Basics Final quest, I looked at what I had left to do.

Survival Basics: Final

Survive Nexus Event, One: Complete.

Obtain a form of motorised transport: Complete.

Kill a Husk Dragon: Complete.

Reach Lvl 2 in your Class: Complete.

Craft an Advanced Machinery Blueprint: Complete.

Kill 15 Unique Types of Husks: Complete.

Kill a non-Husk type enemy: Complete.

Learn an Expert Blueprint: Complete.

Establish a complete base: Complete.

Select a Job Specialisation: Complete.

Advance to Lvl 3: Complete.

10/10 Tasks Completed. Rewards are available.

“More rewards, huh?” Drying myself, I stood naked in the bedroom of my office before taking a seat. Relaxing, I brought up Machinist Queen which also had rewards available.

Survival Basics Final completed. You are the first Entity to complete this quest, rewards have been provided.

1x Fragment of the lost Machinist Kingdom.

1x Random Expert Machinist Blueprint

+10,000 Prime Coins

1x World Map

1x Orb of Mysterious Wonders

A small pile of rewards appeared in front of me. Before looking through them, I turned my attention to the Prime Coins and more specifically the shop. We hadn’t really bothered with this recently, after all we had been busy getting ourselves to a level where we didn’t really need anything. Even now looking through what is available it wasn’t really all too attractive. Deciding against spending anything, I turned to the rest of the loot.

Once again experiencing the jumble of junk information, I saw the counter go up to 5/16 for the fragments and then used the blueprint.

Expert: Mechanical Armour - Chest Plate (Customisable)

“Huh? I wonder, is the armour an entry level expert blueprint or something? No, I got the tunnel digger as well…” Picking up a folded piece of paper next, I found it to be rather big. Unfolding it, I quickly regretted my action, the map is massive! Folding it carefully, I set it aside, planning to find a place to pin it.

Picking up the Orb, I tilted my head a bit as I looked at it. A peaceful green and blue mist swirled within, giving off a gentle calm that made me feel at ease, as if it was erasing all of my worries. Looking at the System information, it didn’t exactly give me anything except to say it’s a mysterious orb. Deciding to keep it in the office for the time being, I set it aside.

Leaning back, my eyes saw the picture frame that Mum had given me, with the ring meant for Rebecca next to it in its box. They sat on my office desk, a reminder to myself as to why we need to survive. The letters Dad had written to Mum were in a drawer, locked tight. Watching as the pictures scrolled by, I couldn’t help but smile sadly at the thought of how long it will be until I could see her again. Maybe in the future I could build a machine that lets us open a passageway to our world. Well, that’s something that would take years.

Looking back at the System, my finger moves towards the Machinist Queen rewards and upon clicking accept two blueprints appear in front of me. Seeing these two blueprints, my thoughts started to move towards the fact that I am once again not able to build anything without the help of the System. In fact, everyone had become too reliant on the System.

“The System provides everything we need, as long as we continue to fight it’ll help us…But if it’s true that previous iterations all failed at a point, wouldn’t that mean we’ll arrive at a point where the System might not know what is coming? Assuming that the System only knows this much because it’s learnt from the previous iterations…” Muttering to myself, I pull over a few slips of paper and start writing.

“The System provides us with strength, knowledge, spells, mana, items and a shop with more items. All of these are things we can do ourselves. Strength we can obtain by training ourselves physically, knowledge can be obtained by…well, not every Job but surely there are those with knowledge from our world and I have the machinist for dummies books…

“Spells may need work but there is no reason why we can’t make our own. Mana I have no idea if we can obtain or expand on it, same with health. Items we can make and the same goes for the shop items…Maybe we need to start looking at training our bodies and expand the research into spell creation?” Tapping the pen on the piece of paper after writing everything down, I scribbled some more thoughts down before putting it aside to discuss at our next meeting. Picking up the blueprints, I found them to be addons for my workshop.

1x Blueprint: Machinist’s Workshop Addon: Parts Assembler

1x Blueprint: Machinist’s Workshop Addon: Furnace

Learning both, I figured out that the Parts Assembler would allow me to automate creating parts, but I could only make one type at a time, for example it could take the components from the dismantler and use them to make a piston or other parts I need, but I’d need to program it first. The furnace allowed me to melt things down.

“Ah, right, power. The workshops are going to drain a lot of power, we need to figure out and ensure we have enough power for both to be operational. If I add more machines to the workshop it’ll have more drain…”

Sinking myself back into writing my thoughts, I kept myself busy with the ideas flowing in. Ideas that will improve our lives, and even bring more benefits.