Runar put down the crate in the centre of Ryan's bedroom. It was filled with the various materials that Gregor had requested in order to build his machines.
"Alright, is that all? Or did you need anything else?" Runar asked, and Ryan quickly looked around the wooden box.
"I think that's all... Oh, wait, actually, it said he needed liquor, you didn't bring that," he pointed out, and Runar raised a brow.
"You were serious about that? I thought that was a joke."
"Nope," Ryan scoffed, looking over at the desk where Gregor was currently seated. He seemed to be pretty interested in the computer, so Maximus was showing him how it worked right now, "One of his skills is called 'Artillerist's Drunken Stupor', so I guess he likes alcohol?"
"How would a robot..? Wait, is that a normal artillerist skill?" with a deep frown, Runar looked over at Gregor as Ryan quickly shook his head.
"I actually wanted to ask you about that. Like... what's the deal with that? Maximus' skills are normal, but two out of three of Gregor's skills are ones that I haven't heard about yet."
Runar thought about it for a moment, "Well... They're Spirits, so there's no telling what kind of changes that has to their classes."
"... Well, I guess so. But that means we won't really be able to count on things like wikis to prepare for other spirits as much," Ryan groaned loudly.
"What, have you been doing that?"
Ryan looked at his uncle with a raised brow, "Of course. I read into any and all Knight skills that are known about and the ways different knights tended to fight and make use of those skills... I looked for any botanical classes that seemed like they had a similar skill profile to Gaia's... I looked up growth-methods, skills, stats, and such for the Artillerist and Harlequin classes, and I tried to figure out as much as I could about classes that could match the info you gave me on Violette and Morgana."
A bit surprised, Runar nodded his head impressed, "Well, fair enough. Though, I don't think you need to worry all too much. I'm sure everything you learned about those classes will still come in useful. It's just that you can't fully predict everything. In the first place, it's possible that some of them have unique classes like Gaia does. Having some unique skills is certainly much easier to handle."
"It's not just that, it's like a whole different class. Gregor's stats are different too. Until now, classes could have had similar names, but never the same name. And that's weird," Ryan pointed out, and Runar stopped for a few moments. He didn't know exactly what to say to that.
"That is weird. But still... I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just keep doing what you're doing, and tell me whenever you need any help."
"Yeah, alright. You're right," Ryan said, looking over to Gregor, "Though, I do think we'll need that liquor. It says 'high proof', so..."
"We should have some in the kitchen, hold on," with a sigh, Runar turned around and walked out of Ryan's bedroom, who quickly started to take all the materials from the box that Runar brought. Seeing this, Gregor turned around toward Ryan curiously. He jumped from the table and walked up next to the materials, taking a closer look at them.
"Are these what you need?" Ryan asked, and Gregor immediately nodded his head, though he was clearly looking around for something. With a sigh, Ryan explained, "Runar is picking up the alcohol right now, don't worry."
At that moment, Runar stepped back into the room and put a bottle of high-percentage whiskey down onto the ground. Immediately, Gregor seemed to grow excited, looking at the bottle curiously. He stared over at Ryan, as if waiting for him to let him have a drink.
"Alright, alright, well... show me what you can do."
The moment Ryan said this, Gregor turned toward the materials and a message appeared in front of Ryan's eyes.
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[Gregor has confirmed the materials for the -Woodlands Cannon-]
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The moment this happened, Gregor got to work. Ryan could see a wave of mana flow out from the automaton, latching onto all the materials, before Gregor pressed his hands onto the pieces of metal in front of him. A strong heat flowed out from his hands as he practically cut out the pieces that he needed from the metal, each one of his four hands moving independently at an extreme speed.
Before he missed it all, Ryan quickly pulled out his phone and started recording. Since Vanda had helped out so much, he wanted to at least send her a video to show her the process.
Gregor walked around all of the materials, grabbing what he needed and neatly placing it all down to the side. Of course, he was particularly careful around the gunpowder and alcohol. The gunpowder was still in small ampules for now, and the bottle was closed. Though, that last part wasn't the case for a lot longer anymore.
With a quick jump, Gregor leapt up to the top of the bottle, opening it up faster than Ryan could ever hope to do himself. The automaton reached one of his arms down into the bottle, and his wrist folded open. A metal pipe flowed down inside, immediately starting to suck up some of the alcohol, filling the large liquid container in that arm.
"... That's what that was for?" Ryan asked, as Gregor the container basically popped out from his arm before the wooden plates covered the hollow space back up. Treating the container like a bottle, Gregor pressed the opening against his mouth and just chugged it a few times. Remembering the automaton's structure, Ryan knew that the alcohol should basically be flowing into a small chamber directly adjacent to the spirit core that only became sealed once the core was set into place. That meant that the alcohol was flowing directly against the spirit core, and was probably absorbed somehow.
But the moment that this happened, something changed about Gregor's behaviour. Before now, he was always moving in a very clearly 'robotic' way. Stiff and rigid, with sharp motions. But now that he had something to drink, he immediately seemed to slow down to some degree. Ryan was worried if Gregor would be able to properly work like this, but just a moment later, he realized that he didn't have to worry at all.
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The automaton approached all the parts that he had cut out in a relaxed manner, and with three of his hands, as one of them was constantly holding onto the small 'bottle'. Whenever that bottle was empty, Gregor would refill it on the larger whiskey bottle, and to make it easier, Ryan poured it into a glass that the artillerist could quickly reach.
And at this point, Ryan finally understood why Gregor had the 'physicality' stat. He was truly using his whole body to work. His limbs twisted and turned to give the automaton more leverage as he was putting everything in place, certain parts of his body opened up automatically to provide tools that were needed, and Gregor walked and jumped around the carefully-constructed machine with precision. And all of that was happening despite the fact that he was very clearly getting more and more drunk.
"Well, I guess you two are gonna get along, huh?" Runar asked with a laugh, "Though, if his class is related to building these machines, what do you think the best way to help him level up would be?"
Ryan thought about it for a moment, "One of his skills lets him make his own blueprints and invent new machines and guns and stuff, so I guess that would be a good way. Obviously, beyond acting as combat support for Maximus."
"Wait, if he can make his own things, then... You know what, I'll go grab some stuff from downstairs, I'll be back in a bit," immediately, Runar turned around and left Ryan's bedroom, rushing downstairs to the basement.
Ryan kept watching Gregor work, as the cannon that he was building was slowly but surely coming to be, built from different materials just as Gregor himself was. Wooden plates covered the cannon, almost as if hiding it. Before long, the whole thing was put together. Despite the fact that Gregor's stats were so low, he was working at an incredible speed and with ridiculous precision.
Though, looking at the machine, Ryan kept getting a bit surprised. He knew that there was a lot of incredibly advanced technology during the western independence war that was then later lost up until a hundred or so years ago, but seeing a cannon from that time being built in front of him was shocking. Despite being so old, it seemed weirdly modern.
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[The -Artillerist's Construction- Skill has levelled up]
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Once the cannon itself was finished, Gregor moved on to something else. He sat down in front of the gunpowder ampules and the brass bullet parts that he had prepared earlier.
He carefully assembled about two dozen bullets, filling each of them with just enough gunpowder. However, these bullets were practically the size of regular bullets. If you scaled them up ten times, they were basically the size of small cannon balls. They were carefully filled into a hollow section at the bottom of the cannon. With a last swig of his bottle, Gregor turned toward Ryan.
"Are you done?" Ryan asked, taking a look at the cannon curiously. Immediately, Gregor nodded, and a broad grin formed on the spirit keeper's face, "We should go test it out later."
The moment he said so, Gregor walked over to the cannon, clearly getting ready to load and turn it on. Ryan freaked out, not wanting a gun to be shot inside of his home, and tried to press a hand between Gregor and the cannon.
"Not like that! Please don't blow up my room," Ryan clarified, "We're heading out to a place where we can properly use them soon, so calm down. Can we move this?"
Quickly, the automaton nodded his head. He moved around Ryan's hand, unloading the bullet that he had just placed inside a moment earlier, and then started folding up the cannon into itself. More and more, the reason for the almost randomly placed wooden plates became apparent, creating a box around the small cannon.
"Alright, that means we can carry them around and deploy them as needed," Ryan muttered, though he was thinking about the wording of Gregor's skill. It said that he could create up to three machines right now. So what was going to happen when a fourth was created?
"... Do you think you can create a couple more? And maybe prepare some more ammunition before we go?"
Gregor didn't hesitate for a moment, quickly walking up to the materials again.
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[Gregor has confirmed the materials for the -Woodlands Cannon-]
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"Hm... Is that the only blueprint you have right now?" Ryan asked, and Gregor slowly turned around and nodded. If that was the case, then Ryan should make sure Gregor had everything he needed to develop new blueprints as well. And that was exactly when Runar came back, carrying a number of briefcases in his hands.
"Alright, let him take a look at these later. It's fine if they break or aren't usable afterward, they've just been laying around anyway," Runar placed the briefcases onto the ground and opened them up. While Gregor was preparing more parts for another cannon, Runar placed a number of different guns down onto the ground nearby.
Pistols, machine guns, there was even a disassembled sniper rifle.
"... How many guns do you have?"
"A handful. Before she settled on the ones she has right now, Yamada used a lot of different guns. Plus, it's always good to have a couple different things laying around in case something breaks or we get someone assigned here that has a gun-related class or something," Runar explained, "Now, there are a few that are standard-issue, but there's also a few that were reinforced through magic engineering, as well as some that are magically strengthened through my runes."
"Do you think he can replicate your runes?"
"Well, anyone can, technically," Runar explained, "I can do a couple of things with my runes that others can't, plus they're more effective than for others, but as long as there's a supply of magic and the runes are set up properly, anyone can use them to some degree. Especially for making magic items, runes are a go-to for a lot of people. The main difference is that I use a larger variety and some ancient lost runes."
Curiously, Ryan took a look at the weapons that were laid out in front of him. Gregor also seemed curious, but for now, he was still working on the second cannon, so he would just take a look later. Hopefully he wasn't going to be far too drunk later on. After all, if he made two more cannons, Gregor was going to drink more than half a litre of high-proof liquor in effectively one sitting.
"We'll see what he can do with the guns, then."
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Not long after, they had made it back to the amusement park dungeon. Runar would be watching from afar again, while Ryan and the spirits would try and get used to having Gregor join their combat. There was actually something that worried Ryan a bit; usually, an Artillerist would have a skill that allowed them to practically remote-control everything they built in the middle of combat, but Gregor didn't. Instead, he had that 'Drunken Stupor' skill that, while increasing damage, didn't seem quite as useful when the cannons had to be triggered manually.
Though, in the end, this was just guesswork right now. How well Gregor would do in combat was yet to be seen. For now, they would seek out some of the petting zoo monsters and have Gregor act as support using just one of the cannons he built.
Using the same tactics a usual, Ryan used the Spirit Link skill to connect to Gaia, and with that, the two sub-golems, using them as scout. Since they were ignored by the monsters as long as they stood still, they were perfect for that.
Once they then found some monsters that seemed like good targets, Maximus would usually ambush them to get an initial attack in. Though, in this case, that was going to be a little different. Since they now had Gregor, it seemed like a better idea to let him shoot at one of the monsters first.
Ryan placed the folded-up cannon onto the ground, and then watched as Gregor properly unfolded and anchored it into the ground, loading a bullet into it. After getting everything up and running, Gregor aimed the ancient cannon toward the target with extreme speed and precision in his movements. And with a swift motion, he slammed his fist onto the trigger, shooting a bullet at the first monster.