Ryan pushed the oiled-up ball joint into place, and then used this to connect the right thigh with the right shin. As he did, he glanced over at the hobgoblin sitting next to him.
"Oh come on, is that really something to pout about?" Ryan asked with a laugh, but Vanda just glared over at him.
"I'm not pouting, I'm just... trying to mentally catch up to everything," she pointed out, "Like, what the hell are you three? A unique class, a prodigal magic engineer, and a famous fucking awakened artist? Seriously?"
"I mean... she's not famous for being an awakened artist yet."
"Right... but she's already a famous artist without even having awakened at that point, so- You know what? Let's just... move on. This is making me feel kinda crappy..." Vanda groaned, scratching the fur on her nose nervously.
Ryan raised his brow, feeling that something was a little off, "Is... everything going alright for you?"
Vanda looked over at him hesitantly, and Ryan quickly realized that it might be overstepping some bounds between them. It wasn't as though they were 'friends'. They were on good terms, obviously, but maybe talking about this kind of thing was still a bit too much right now. But to Ryan's surprise, Vanda responded anyway.
"Not really, I guess. Like, yeah, Energiser 2.0 is well on his way of being fully finished, tested, and fine-tuned, but I don't even know if this is going to be useful for anything in the end. Richie basically fully disappeared from the club, so nobody knows if the showcase is actually happening again?"
Confused, Ryan's hands stopped moving, which they hadn't at all until now, "What do you mean, he disappeared?"
"Well, he hasn't come back at all. He started his job and then dipped," Vanda explained, "Though, I guess that's not totally true... He did come by once sometime last week, but he seemed so... greasy? I don't know, like... that kind of 'Riverian Psycho', slicked-back-hair, finance-bro type?"
"... Seriously? Richie?"
"Right? He so didn't seem like the type. But I guess he just gets along really well with people at his new job. Plus, it sounded like he's-" Vanda started, but she soon stopped. Though, clearly against her will. She just wasn't able to continue talking along the train of thought she wanted to, and Ryan widened his eyes confused. Though somehow, it seemed like Vanda herself hadn't noticed that she mentally drifted off.
"Excuse me? Richie's involved with- Wait, do you know what company he started working for?"
Vanda was taken aback, looking up at Ryan, "Uh... it was Bluesky Industries, I think?"
Closing his eyes, suppressing a groan, Ryan started tapping his foot on the ground. In itself, there wasn't anything wrong with that. It wasn't as though Bluesky was an 'evil' company through and through. There were normal employees and normal projects that were completely unrelated to the White Shadow Society. So just because Richie was working for Bluesky, that didn't mean that he was involved in anything sketchy.
But Ryan's gut was telling him something different. Especially after that brief call with Richie earlier, he felt like there was something wrong. Of course, him and Richie weren't close or anything, so it wasn't as though Ryan had an obligation to help him out or stop him from making mistakes like that, but it still felt off. Really, really off.
"Is everything okay?" Vanda asked, not sure what was going on with Ryan all of a sudden. He just slowly nodded his head.
"Yeah, sorry... I just don't really like Bluesky all that much. They got really, really annoying when I awakened and sent this weirdo after me to try and buy my class..." Ryan explained with a long sigh, "I still get daily letters from them, visits at least every other day, and phone calls from random numbers that I've blocked a dozen times already."
"Oh, gods... That sucks."
Ryan nodded his head and laughed, "Yeah, you could say that."
"But... I'm sure Richie isn't doing that kind of stuff. I mean, he's a Technomancer, so I'd be a little shocked if that's what they used him for," Vanda pointed out, and Ryan nodded. Of course, there was no way that was the case. But there were plenty of other shady parts of Bluesky that Ryan now knew about.
"Yeah, you're probably right," Ryan responded, hoping to move on from this conversation. He didn't want to drag Vanda into all of this any more than she already had been in the first place. But knowing that Richie worked for Bluesky now was definitely useful. Maybe Runar could have someone look into that a bit more. Maybe it had something to do with why Richie sounded so weird during that call earlier.
For now, Ryan focused on finishing Gregor's body. That's what Vanda was here for in the first place, so he shouldn't waste her time too much. He was lucky she even had the time to come and help him out at a moment's notice.
Through some awkward silence, Vanda continued to explain where all the individual parts of Gregor's body should go, and how they fit together. Like that, Ryan soon built up the automaton, limb by limb. Though, different to Maximus and Gaia, this automaton had four arms instead of just two. Plus, inside of each of those arms, as well as in his legs and parts of his torso, a number of small tools were hidden that Gregor should be able to make use of quite easily. The parts connecting the wooden plates to the outside of Gregor's body were hanging on hinges that could be flipped up if a lock was released, and Ryan was sure that Gregor could control all of this freely so that he could access the parts and tools stored in the hollow parts of his body.
And then, hidden behind the chest's plate was a slot for the spirit core. Ryan carefully pushed it into place, and immediately, the core began to glow. Though, different to the way the others glowed. It gave off a dark red glow, like it was heating up intensely. The heat quickly travelled through Gregor's body, heating up the different liquids inside of him. Hot steam flowed out of the automaton's mouth with a high-pitched whistle, as Gregor began controlling his new body.
The automaton looked down at his hands for a few moments, before staring up at Ryan. He briefly held his lower two hands behind his back, and then formed a fist with his upper right hands, which was quickly pressed over the spot where one's heart would be, while the edge of his left, flat hand was pressed vertically over his forehead and nose.
"Uh... what's he doing?" Vanda asked, a bit confused, and Ryan quickly smiled.
"He's doing an old salute from the time of the western independence war," Ryan explained, "The country doesn't exist anymore, I think it was called... Karia?"
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Immediately, Gregor nodded his head in confirmation, while Ryan could feel Vanda's stare.
"How'd you know that?"
"Oh, well..." Ryan quickly stood up and walked over to his shelves, grabbing one of the models standing there. It was an elvish knight wearing armour made from wood and roots, with branches and leaves sticking off of it, "This is a Karian knight from the same war. The brand that made it modelled it after a real historical figure, so there was a small booklet that explained some stuff about it all."
Vanda raised a brow and stared up at Ryan, "So you like building toy models, you know a ton about classes and system stuff, and you're a history nerd? And you're also known to be extremely violent and a great fighter?"
Ryan stared back at her for a few moments and then shrugged, "People can have hobbies."
"Right, right... But... what now? What's this guy's deal?"
"Well, he'll have to tell me about that, hold on" Ryan responded, quickly pulling up Gregor's status window. Of course, Vanda didn't know that the spirits had classes and skills. But of course, spirits did tend to have special abilities, but they weren't directly connected to the system in the same way that the spirits that were with Ryan were, so he was trying to keep that on the down-low as he looked at Gregor's status.
All the system windows relating to the spirits were dyed in the colour and texture of their mana. Maximus' was smooth and red, while Gaia's was green and seemingly made of tightly interwoven threads. And Gregor's seemed to be a metal pane with bolts at its edges holding it in place. It wasn't even translucent like other system windows.
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[Gregor]
[Artillerist | Level - 1]
[MP - 32.5]
[Stats]
-[Dexterity - 0.85]
-[Invention - 0.75]
-[Mana - 0.80]
-[Physicality - 0.69]
-[Spirituality - 0.77]
[Skills]
-[Artillerist's Construction | Level - 1]
-[Artillerist's Invention | Level - 1]
-[Artillerist's Drunken Stupor | Level - 1]
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Ryan stared at the window confused. He knew about the 'Artillerist' class; he had only just looked it up the other day after learning that Gregor was one, but the stats were different. Replacing the Artillerist's 'Perception' and 'Intuition' were the stats 'Invention' and 'Physicality'. Invention was a stat that basically supported the creation of new concepts and ideas, as well as the combination of old ideas. Engineering classes often had this, but the artillerist shouldn't. Similarly, physicality didn't make much sense here.
Physicality showed one's ability to move their body as a whole; their flexibility and mobility. Dexterity was basically a fine-tuned version for the hands, combining it with one's level of hand-eye-coordination, but that should be all that was needed here. Plus, those skills, 'Invention' and 'Drunken Stupor', those weren't in the skill lists Ryan looked up.
Immediately, Ryan pulled up all of Gregor's skills.
----------------------------------------
[Artillerist's Construction]
[Level - 1] [Proficiency - 0%]
[Allows the user to construct and deploy machines using registered blueprints]
[Effect - Create up to three machines]
[Artillerist's Invention]
[Level - 1] [Proficiency - 0%]
[Allows the user to develop new machine blueprints]
[Effect - Artillery Invention]
[Artillerist's Drunken Stupor]
[Level - 1] [Proficiency - 0%]
[Allows the user to have their constructed machines enter a rampage by overloading their internal systems]
[Effect - Boosts machine effects by 25% for 10 Minutes]
[Cost - 20 MP] [Cooldown - 12 Hours]
[Activation Requirement - State of Drunkenness]
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The first skill was the same as Ryan remembered it, though the scale of the effects was different as well. Usually, only one machine should be deployable at level one. As for the invention skill, that seemed to explain why the stat was there; different to other artillerists, Gregor was able to develop his own machine blueprints from scratch. Usually, that was something a separate engineer would have to do together with an artillerist.
And that last skill... 'Artillerist's Drunken Stupor' was obviously a weird skill. Plus, how did a starting skill have an Activation Requirement? Those were supposed to only come into play at higher-grade skills you could get starting level 30.
And most importantly, how the hell was Gregor, a literal robot, supposed to get drunk?
"U-Uh..." Ryan stuttered out, "He's got abilities related to machines and stuff, like, artillery."
Vanda curiously leaned forward to the robot, "Oh, seriously? That's pretty cool... Can you show me?"
Ryan looked at Gregor, raising his brow, "Well, Gregor, can you build something? Do you have any blueprints registered?"
Immediately, the automaton nodded his head, as a window popped up in front of Ryan.
----------------------------------------
[Gregor is requesting the following materials:]
-[200g of Brass]
-[10g of Gunpowder]
-[200ml of High-Proof Liquor]
-[350ml of Motor Oil]
-[100g of Rubber]
-[1kg of Steel]
-[500g of Wood]
----------------------------------------
Ryan immediately stared at Gregor, and then let out a long groan.
"Yeah, sorry, it looks like we won't be able to show you right now... Gregor needs me to prepare the materials for him so that he can actually build things," he explained, quietly ignoring the requested liquor on the list in front of him.
"Aww, alright... And you don't have any of it around?" Vanda asked with a dejected expression, and Ryan slowly shook his head.
"A bit of it, but not everything, no. We should have some steel rebar laying around, but we don't have brass, gunpowder, or the motor oil he's asking for. But we should be able to get all of that relatively easily," Ryan explained, "If you want, we can meet up in a couple of days and I'll prepare everything that he needs until then?"
Vanda thought about it, and then quickly nodded her head, "Sure! Let's do that. I only really have time on Saturday, though... does that work for you?"
A bit hesitantly, Ryan nodded. By then, he should be able to level up to 10, so he would have the time to take it a bit easy and hang out with someone, "That should work, yeah."
"Alright," Vanda got up from her seat, grabbing her bag, "In that case, let's just text later and figure out a time and place?"
"Works for me," Ryan agreed, guiding Vanda to the flat's front door, "Thank you so, so much for the help by the way. I don't think I would have been able to finish today without you."
With a smug grin, Vanda looked back at him, "And don't you forget it. That means you owe me one."
"Oh, 100% I do," Ryan responded without a moment's hesitation. The quick reply almost surprised Vanda, "If you have anything you need, just let me know. Uhm, again, my uncle has some money, and he's pretty well-connected... I did tell him about your Energiser before, and he sounded curious. I think maybe I can get him to let you present Energiser and the tech you developed for him to some companies."
Completely taken-aback, Vanda stared up at Ryan, "Wait, what?"
"Yeah, uh, I think he said something like that machines using Energiser's tech would be really useful in construction. And you know, my uncle has some pretty big pull, so... while I don't think you'd want him to just get you a job, I'm sure he can set up a meeting with some people at companies that could properly help you develop Energiser's technology into something really useful."
"I... uh, I... I was joking, you... you really don't need to do anything, so I... Ryan, are you serious about that? You could make that happen?" Vanda asked, blinking like a drake in headlights. Of course, Ryan knew she wasn't totally serious about that, but he felt like that was the least he could do. Frankly, Ryan already meant to ask Runar to help out with those sorts of showcase events at university anyway.
There were a lot of incredibly skilled people at university, whether they were Awakened or not. And they deserved to be able to do something good with their abilities, knowledge, and expertise. And if Ryan could somehow make that happen, then he didn't want to hesitate for even a moment.