I went back to Doc Jackelope, found him sitting back at his desk, working on another sandwich, and I just stood, staring at him until he noticed and turned to me.

I sat on the floor, covered in bits of eel and blood and dead leaves, parts of me chipped and dented, and just generally looking kinda bad.

He shifted his goggles at the sight of me and sighed. "They told me there was a commotion by the forest." He nodded. "Bravo."

Hmmmm-click.

I drew out the shredded napkin, and it read, "UPGRADE."

He stared, his eyes trailing off to find an answer, and he nodded when he found it. "I currently only have the skeleton limbs ready, but I suppose I could outfit you with them for the time being."

My arms snaked up to the table and pulled me up. There, I sat patiently while Doc stepped around the room, grabbing armfuls of tools off their spots on the walls, reaching out to one before pausing, then nodding to himself before grabbing it, almost like grocery shopping.

He poured out the tools to clink and clack around in a metal tray beside the bed, and he told me, "Lay back and relax, please."

I did so, but only as well a trash can could lay back without rolling off the platform.

He snapped on some gloves, made sure his goggles were snug, and shook out a real nasty piece, a massive caliper-dagger hybrid with serrated blades that were coated with--oh man, is that blood?

Am I gonna be okay?

"Worry not, Redrim," he said. "I will induce a small electric shock that will put you to sleep."

Wait, what--

And as I felt the explosion of electricity ripple through me, the world went black.

Skill tree unlocked: Mecha Frame.

I blinked.

And I opened my eyes to a dim workshop ceiling, some unknown amount of time had passed, some light of the day gone forever, and the Doc right back at the bench fiddling with something that I somehow knew was another sandwich.

I groaned and wiped my face.

Wait...

Fingers wiped my face. My fingers!

As I laid back on the table, I stared in awe at these bony, metallic fingers that moved and stretched and danced as I moved them, just as real and vivid and reactive as a normal pair of hands. If, of course, a pair of hands looked like they were ripped right out of a human body and painted black.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I sat up. My legs were just the same. Skeleton frame legs, and looking at them, I wondered if Doc just dug up a grave and glued the bones to my bottom half.

At this point, I was just a trash can torso with limbs, and when I looked around the room and spotted the mirror, I saw that it was the case.

I struck a pose.

I looked fuckin' ridiculous.

I was a trash can torso.

"Bravo. You're awake," said Doc. "For a few hours, there, I thought you might've died."

I looked into my hands. They were so bony and frail that I couldn't even hold water.

"For us to move forward," he continued, "I'll need more resources." Without looking, he handed over a list.

I stomped over, clumsily, my legs going viii-vrrr-viii-vrrr, and my body swaying like a drunk, and I snatched it. My invisible garbage can eyes drifted along the zeroes following zeroes after each element, and I just glazed over the rest.

It would take an imperial fuckload to get it all.

Inwardly, I checked what I had in stock, which wasn’t much of anything.

There was a bit of a weight cap increase, which was nice. It hadn't been a problem so far, mostly because I found myself using resources as fast as I could get it, but now it was more of a tangible stat.

And the more I thought about it, the more excited I became. There was just something about the idea of load balancing on my now-skeleton legs, managing weight distribution, and maybe even outfitting that seemed really cool.

"Cassandra," I said. "You alive?"

"I am," she said.

"What changes have been made to my progression system?"

"Analyzing."

I waited. Doc stared at me with impatience. I noticed I was staring at him, and I stomped out of the workshop before pausing, stomping backward, and giving him a sloppy thumbs-up.

He smirked, went back to his sandwich, and I walked off.

"Confirmed," said Cassandra. "Your body has unlocked a secondary class tree."

"Really? Show me."

In my mind's eye, a skill tree popped in.

It was... a bit underwhelming, but seeing as my body was still just a literal headless skeleton with a trash can torso, I expected as much. What really set my blood on fire was the existence of a voice box.

As soon as I could get my next level up, then I could--

"Imsi," said Cassandra. "You already have a class point."

"Wait. Can you... read my thoughts?"

"You were thinking out loud," she said. "You never not think out loud."

I deflated, somehow mortified that this eavesdropping AI had been listening to my most secret, my most lewd thoughts. How terrible.

"I understand that you want to think more about the sexy lamp," she said. "But to be concise, you currently have one unused class point remaining. Shall I invest it for you?"

"Uh, yes. Go ahead."

Speech Enabled

Something crackled to life with static near where my throat would be, but realistically, it came from a small box that had been nailed to my inner wall. It crackled to life and changed form when I cleared my throat.

"Testing, testing, one, two, three."

It was my voice! A bit tinny, maybe a little robotic, and if someone I had known as a paladin heard it, they probably wouldn't recognize me, but it was mine! I could speak again!

I marched right the fuck back in the workshop.

Doc had just laced his sandwich with pepperonis, shook his head, and pulled them off with a pair of tweezers when he noticed me.

"Hey!" I shouted without meaning to. "Thanks!"

He shook back. "Bravo, Redrim. I see you've already activated the voice modulator."

"I appreciate it," I said, somehow still forceful and angry.

I gave him two thumbs up--he nodded sagely and went back to his work--and I marched out, arms swinging joyfully, comically, legs taking elongated, meaningful, clankity steps.

It was shaping up to be a fantastic, busy day, and the first thing I set out to do, was to march right the fuck up to that dipshit officer to tell him to go fuck himself.