Garrett stared at the metal unit that came to life in front of him. A soft hum came from within the machine. "WHO... ARE YOU?" It spoke in a deep robotic tone. The green light, which was its eye, stared at Garrett, awaiting a response.

"I am Garrett," Garrett replied, holding onto his sword tightly. He couldn't tell if this was about to attack him or not. All he knew right now was that he didn't have any Helioxene, so if he died, that was it. He braced himself for any sudden movements the metal being might make.

The metal unit hummed softly from something deep within its chest, as if lost in deep thought. "NO REGISTERED HANDLER FOUND IN DATABASE," it said. "REGISTER GARRETT AS HANDLER?"

It stood, waiting for a response. Garrett gulped and held up his shield to protect himself if anything happened. "Yes, register Garrett as handler."

Steam hissed from the joints of the metal being as it stood up straight, slightly taller than Garrett. "HANDLER REGISTERED. BEGINNING BOOT SEQUENCE." It hummed and shook, causing Garrett to brace harder. The green glow from within shifted to a soft blue color. Slowly, it stopped shaking and it looked at Garrett with its glowing blue eye. It stood at attention and saluted.

"Greetings, Boss! How are you today?" The entire tone of the robot shifted completely. Before, it spoke very artificially and unnaturally. Now, it spoke with a more organic tone. It also stood more lifelike and animated than before. Garrett looked around the empty room before pointing to himself. "Yes, you Boss. How are you today?"

"Uh, I'm good," Garrett replied, still keeping a tight grip on his weapon.

"Affirmative. I standby for your orders, Boss." The robot saluted again before taking a more relaxed pose. "I tell you, this rust does terrible things for the joints." It slowly flexed and unflexed its arms, trying to overcome the resistance of rust.

Garrett stared, stunned at the sight that was before him. Sure, a large leopard man was strange, as was a talking hat, but a robotic golem here in a fantasy world was too strange. "What are you?" Garrett asked, looking over the strange metal man.

"How wonderful you asked. I am an artificial animated being. My programming tells me to listen to, support, and aid you, my Boss," the robot said, gesturing to Garrett.

"Uh huh," Garrett said, slowly nodding. He looked around the robot, now that he could more safely get a good view of everything. "Do you have a name?"

"I do not."

Garrett looked closer at the markings on the robot. Most of it had worn off, and the only bits and pieces of it remained. Any parts of it that he could possibly read were written in a text he didn't recognize. As he examined the parts of the robot, he could clearly see the details and craftsmanship that made up this robot were highly advanced, but not sci-fi advanced. "Who or what created you?"

"I..." The robot paused, lost in thought again. "I do not know. That information appears to be missing from my database."

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"Do you know of anything before you woke just now?" Garrett asked.

"Negative. I have no memories of anything prior," the robot replied. As Garrett looked closer near the head, he could see that there were slots in the robot's head, similar to something you'd stick a computer chip in.

"What do you know?"

"I know that you are my Boss," the robot said, "And that we appear to be in a cave. My programming is allowing me to pick up information based on my surroundings, but I do not know where the data is stored within me."

Garrett waited for a bit for the robot to say anything further, but it didn't. "So, that's all you know?" The robot nodded. "Well, it seems that I have a robot for a companion. Still not as strange as Zerat. Speaking of," Garrett said as he turned to the robot, "What combat capabilities do you have?"

"I am able to perform quick and powerful maneuvers as well as utilize weaponry such as: knife." Garrett again waited for the robot to say anything more in the list, but it didn't. "Observe." Before Garrett could react, the robot's arm quickly brushed by his side, then returned to the robot, holding the empty pouch for Helioxene.

"Wow, that's impressive," Garrett said, surprised that a machine of that size would be capable of moving both quickly and accurately. He took the pouch back from the robot and put it in his backpack.

Now that he wasn't distracted by the robot, Garrett looked around at his surroundings. The room had old bones scattered around, some snapped in half and others in disarray. There was a singular door leading out with a large stone staircase behind it. There didn't appear to be any other entrances or exits besides the one in the wall Garrett came out of.

"Well, we better get a move on then," Garrett said, heading towards the exit. The robot followed behind, making much less noise than Garrett thought that it would have made. Garrett was about to take the lead when he got a much better idea in his mind. "How about you go first. I think if we encounter anything, you'll be better off handling it first." The robot nodded and took the lead up the stairs with Garrett behind.

"Boss, the hallway splits in two directions, left and right. Which way shall we go?"

Both directions seemed the exact same with no sounds coming from either path. Garrett bent down, finding a smooth rock and marked one side of it. He flicked the rock into the air, catching it in his palm. "We're going left."

"Affirmative."

The robot marched forward with Garrett behind until something made Garrett stop. It wasn't anything that he had seen or heard, but rather something that he smelt. He gagged and had to hold himself back from vomiting. The smell was absolutely atrocious and unlike anything that he had smelt before. The scent was like a mixture of rotten meat combined with sewage, lingering in the stagnant cavern air. "What is that horrific smell?" Garrett held his breath as the two of them walked forward, eventually coming across a room covered in blood and corpses. This time, Garrett couldn't stop himself from vomiting.

"It would appear that some adventurers had been slain here," the robot said, looking around the battlefield. There were Illimas, elves, lizards, and plenty of goblin corpses scattered around. Most of the non-goblin bodies appear to have already been looted by goblins, save for one. This one appeared to have been badly burnt beyond recognition, and yet the clothing seemed no worse for wear.

"I didn't think a fight against goblins would have created this much carnage," Garrett said, gagging, but holding back a second wave of vomit.

The robot bent down to the burnt corpse and examined it. "It wasn't just against goblins, but something much more fierce." The robot took off the clothing from the corpse and put it on.

"Hey, why'd you take that?" Garrett asked, more confused about why a robot would want clothing than the ethical ramifications of looting a corpse.

"It seemed like a good idea," the robot said, also taking a large number of knives from the body. "Now, I am capable of carrying more weaponry. Shall we continue?"

Before Garrett could respond, a scream echoed from a hallway on the other side of the room. Before he could think about it, Garrett had already taken off, running towards the sound of the voice with the robot trailing behind.