The man gave another shrug, and led me through the store. On the way, I saw various creatures, from two headed puppies to cats with angel wings. I even saw a turtle that turned into a rock when we got too close to its cage. I’ll be honest… I really wanted to buy the two-headed puppy… It just looked too adorable.
Off in the back of the store, with the ‘less popular’ pets, the clerk showed me another cage, this one with a lone branch in it. On the branch sat an iguana, with large fleshy wings. I briefly activated my Aura Sight, and discovered that the cage was shielded with a series of runes that prevented me from seeing the aura of the creature inside. That made me a bit disappointed, until I saw the price for the creature. They’re willing to selling it for five silver? Even the puppy went for fifteen.
“This really must be an unwanted pet, huh?” I turned my head to ask the clerk, who nodded his balloon head. The balloon head was being very distracting every time I turned to look at him, so I did my best to focus on the lizard.
“That’s right. Most animals in this store have the ability to use some kind of utility ability or support magic. For instance, the stone turtle is able to detect mineral veins, and absorb ores to strengthen its shell. The angelcat is able to use very low level light magic to illuminate a room. However, the flying iguana can’t do anything like that. So, nobody wants to buy one. If we don’t sell it soon, we’ll just have to release it outside the city.”
I thought about that, and sighed. If it were the puppy, I’d have bought it to save it from that fate. But the only thing I wanted this lizard for were its tail and wings. “Don’t suppose you’d let me have a few minutes with it before you do? I’m a druid, and for various reasons, I need to study this animal to learn its aura.”
The man’s pitch black eyes widened a bit, but he nodded. “Alright, but you’ll have to pay the standard fee. Any druid can study an animal here if they pay two silver. Naturally, that’s two silver per animal.”
I nodded my head to him, and pulled out two silver. Then, after thinking about it, I asked. “By chance, what is the special ability of the two headed dog near the entrance?”
He tilted his head sideways a moment, before it naturally gravitated back upwards. I had the distinct feeling that if his body were any lighter, he would float up into the air. “That’s a lesser orthrus. Although they can be raised to become combat pets, their magic is generally not strong enough to support someone. They’re fire and water aligned, with one head having minor control of each element. Unfortunately, that means their strength with those elements is halved compared to their stronger counterpart races.”
I suddenly wanted to buy the puppy even more… However, I simply pulled out another two silver and handed it over. “I’d like to study it as well, after I’m done with the lizard.” Even if it was weak, fluffy, and adorable, it was still a magical animal. And that meant I needed to study it…. for science. Yes, for science. Not at all because I wanted to pet it. I’m not Sharon.
Speak of the devil, and she will send you a whisper. I received a message from Sharon as soon as the clerk had opened the cage to let me study the lizard. “Hey Falenel. I finally made it to the capital. Saw your level increased a bit, so wanted to see if you had already moved on yet?”
I shook my head, replying as I sent my Mana Sense into the lizard, reaching into the cage to grab it. Not only was it a useless pet, but it was too lazy to avoid me. “No, was planning to later today, but had some stuff to take care of first. Your training finish up well enough?” I glanced to my contact list, and saw that she had gained a couple of levels as well since we left, likely from the same method I had.
“Yeah… Finally managed to make the grove big enough to fit everyone inside me. Would you like to meet up?”
I thought about it for a bit, but I had just spent four silver to study a pair of animals. “I’m at the pet shop right now, studying a couple of their pets. I warn you, though, there is fluffiness here.”
After that, she didn’t say anything, so I was able to quickly study the flying iguana in peace. I had already memorized one set of wings, and my ability to memorize things had improved greatly, so it only took me ten minutes to finish up. In total, I copied its wings, tail, and the tiny spines on its back. I felt like it’d be a nice little addition.
“Celeste?” I spoke to my wrist after putting the iguana back.
“Yesss?” She asked in a drawn out voice, a grin plastered on her holographic face.
“You know what to do, I take it?”
She giggled lightly, nodding her head. “Operation dragonfly is a go!” With that, her hologram vanished, and she brought up the image in my Cybernetic eye of the compiled aura I had created before. The four feathery wings were replaced by two large fleshy ones, the wolf’s tail was replaced with that of the iguana, and the spines were added all along its back. “Saving preset as baby dragon. Estimated mana cost, five hundred and fifty.”
I chuckled a bit at her comments, before moving back to the front of the store. Once there, I saw that Sharon had already long since arrived, and had her face plastered against the cage for the angelcat. “I warned you that there was fluff.”
When she heard me speak, she turned her head a bit to look, smiled, and turned back to look at the cat. “It’s so cool… I wish I could afford it… I wonder where they are born.”
“No idea, but you could probably find a job somewhere around here to get the money to buy it. Though, wouldn’t you still need to get both a male and a female one for your grove?”
She thought about it for a second, and then shook her head. “Jarl showed me how to separate my grove into different sections, that way certain animals can live in it without fighting. I can’t do anything about my wolves needing meat, but I can at least keep my favorites safe.”
So she essentially has two groves. Wonder how that works. “Well, in that case, if you earn up some silver, you’ll be able to buy your very own angelcat.” I smirked, before taking the flying iguana back to the clerk, who walked off to put it back in its cage, and then got the lesser orthrus out for me to study next. Naturally, when she saw this, she looked at me confused. “You have to pay, but you’re able to study the animals here to get their auras. Most of them are magical animals, so I wanted to do this while I had the chance.”
She nodded her head slightly, but her eyes were more focused on the two headed ball of fluff in my arms. Smirking, I held the puppy up and studied it with my Mana Sense. It was absolutely necessary for me to pet it behind its ears while I was doing this.
The aura of the magical beast was surprisingly similar to that of a normal wolf, with a few key differences. Most notably, the streaming lights of mana were thicker. Also, I could sense a small part of the aura in each of the two heads that was attuned to one of the elements. I had spent enough time matching my own aura to both water and fire to spot it in something else.
Following the mana paths from the elemental sections of the aura throughout the rest of the head, I nodded my head in satisfaction. With this, I should be able to create breath weapons of any element for my tiny dragon form. Maybe if it were a full grown magical beast, or a more powerful species it would have been more difficult, but studying this little guy’s aura was surprisingly easy.
About fifteen minutes later, I was still petting the puppy and received a message in my eye. You’ve already memorized the aura. I knew that… Reluctantly, I went and gave the puppy back to the clerk. When I did this, both of the puppy’s heads whined pitifully at me, and I almost spent the last of my money to buy it right there on the spot. However, I steeled myself and handed it over. As I did so, I saw Sharon, no longer in front of the cages.
Instead, she was standing next to the clerk, begging him to let her work in the store. I chuckled a bit as I watched her wear him down until he finally agreed to give her a part time job. Though, she was given strict warnings not to use her druid magic to study the animals without paying, since he had overheard our conversation about her
being a druid as well. Seeing her vigorously she nodded her head and agreed to that condition made me smirk. Naturally, I knew that she was only here for the animals, and would likely continue working until she managed to buy both the lesser orthrus and the angelcat. Leaning over, I tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. “If you refine some elemental seeds, the local enchanter will buy them off of you.”
After I said that, she smiled brightly and thanked me, since that meant she had another source of income to speed up her inevitable purchases in this pet shop. Part of me was glad I hadn’t taken her to the store selling combat pets. They would likely be far more expensive, and she would have to work much longer in order to buy one.
As I went towards the starport to head up to the station and bid farewell to this planet, a thought occurred to me. I finally have a dragon(ish) form, but when am I going to get the chance to use it!? I had no idea how long it would take before the ship that left from X-23 would arrive at its destination. Do interstellar journeys take hours, days, weeks maybe? I’d need to find that out once I got up there!
Chapter 35: I’mma Firin’ Mah LAZER!
As I was walking towards the starport, I heard a light coughing sound from my wrist. Looking down, I saw Celeste looking up to me expectantly. “What is it..?”
“Weapons.” She said with a tiny grin, making me facepalm. How did I forget to upgrade my weapons?
“Don’t suppose I can get away with saying that I didn’t think they would let me take it with me?” I looked down to her with one eye, the other still covered by my hand.
The holographic girl snickered, shaking her head. “Nope!” Afterwards, she pulled up another blue path for me to follow. “With your Technomancy and Engineering abilities, I’m taking you to a junkyard. It should be within your power to fix broken weapons, or assemble the parts needed to make your own. Doing it this way would be far cheaper than simply buying new weapons.”
I couldn’t argue with that logic, so I nodded my head slightly. “Alright. But, surely other people can do so just as easily. Why is there even a junkyard?”
The hologram smiled slightly at me. “I do not have all the information needed to provide an adequate answer. However, the guide indicates that any device sold at the weapon and power armor stores can also be assembled with parts from the junkyard. Likely, any weapons there have some defect or missing component, and its owner thought it would be simply cheaper to buy a new one than to get it repaired. However, if you combine the parts from two identical weapons, you should be able to make up for any deficiencies.”
“Fine, fine, I get it. As long as there are people throwing things away, there will need to be a place for it to end up. The island of lost toys.” I chuckled slightly as I walked down the path. I didn’t have much to worry about when it came to picking weapons. I mean, if the battery wasn’t charged, I could fix it with my lightning, or simply replace it with a Seed of Lightning. I might even be able to replace other key parts to devices with similar objects to increase their effects.
Celeste’s directions lead me to the edge of the city, a wide fenced off area with a single gate. Above the gate was a crooked sign, reading ‘Mike’s Garage. Fixer’s Keepers, Loser’s Weepers.’ The slogan made me shake my head with a light laugh before I walked in. A rather round human was manning the counter, and by the oversized nametag on his filthy brown jacket, I discovered that he was Mike. He stood just over six feet tall, and looked as if he hadn’t bathed in a year. However, I could clearly see that one of his eyes were robotic, giving off a distinct metallic shine while a red light emerged from where the iris should be.
“Here to shop around?” He looked at me and smirked, crossing his arms over his chest, which only amplified the awareness I had of his… roundness. “Three silver to get in, but you can bring out whatever you can carry. Ask the AI for help in finding and identifying parts, but it won’t help you put them together. That’ll rely on you.”
I nodded, and handed over the three silver coins. I could feel my funds constantly dwindling today, and it was not a good feeling. After receiving the payment, Mike nodded and pressed a button, opening a door off to the side of the counter. “Have fun.” He chuckled, his whole body shaking with the motion as I walked through the door.
Beyond the door, I came across the real junkyard. I could see rows of broken bows, guns, swords, armors, even a few items that looked like small vehicles, all assorted into various bins. “Celeste, mind giving me a hand here? You know what I want.” I smiled to the AI, and then focused on my Aura Sight.
“Roger roger!” She said in a robotic tone that reminded me of an old movie. Immediately, several of the bins lit up in my Cybernetic eye. “Pistol, rifle, or semi-auto for the gun?”
I couldn’t help but smile bitterly as a bow was not even part of the question, but as it stands a bow would likely do me more harm than good. “Both, pistol and rifle. Want some versatility.” After I said that, a few of the bins that had been highlighted were dimmed.
“Melee weapon, you wanting energy or physical?” She asked again, and I nodded a bit this time. At least she hadn’t taken that choice away entirely.
“Hmm… Energy, I think it would go best with my magic. Same for the gun, if the options are the same.” By the time I had finished speaking, only half a dozen bins were still lit.
“Okay, marked all the ones that seem to have the relevant parts. That Identify software is really something.” She grinned up to me as I approached the first bin. Inside of it was a collection of rusted blade hilts, some broken, while some looked relatively intact. Don’t have anything that can take care of rust, I think… Hmm… Maybe..
I had an idea, but wanted to wait before I tested it out until I at least had a working product. If I was able to do so, even if it was a bit rusted, I could possibly remove the rust afterwards. For now, I looked over the different handles. Many of them had different styles, so I knew they weren’t all the same model. I could only hope that they mostly used the same parts.
Grabbing five at random, I sat down in front of the bin, and began scanning them with my Technomancy to determine their faults and similarities. For the most part, the weapons were indeed identical in function, but had slight differences in design. As for the faults in them, three had bad wiring, one had a cracked power core, and the last looked as if someone tried to break it apart on a rock to get it to work.
Still, that meant all I had to do was replace the bad core with a good one, and that weapon would be operational. Sadly, the type of core that model used was unique among those five. And given its size, I wouldn’t be able to use a seed to replace it, unless I managed to get them much smaller. “Alright, Celeste, we have a winner.” I said as I tossed the other four devices back into the bin. “You able to do a scan for one with the same type of core?”
She hesitated a moment before responding. “Extend your Mana Sense into the bin, and I’ll mark any possibilities.” With her assurance, I did as she asked, and soon a half dozen handles were highlighted in my view. “Each of those have similar cores, but they are all empty. From the scan, I think they should be chargeable with a delicate balance of lightning and fire mana. I suggest practicing with one of the cores before you settle on it.”
I nodded, and channeled my Technomancy through my mana that was already in the bin. Doing so, I grabbed onto the six hilts, and pulled them out with my magic. This was one of the techniques I had learned from Joseph, allowing me to move technology telepathically. Though, the definition of technology was vague, as it allowed movement of almost any manufactured product. The only restriction was the more natural products were harder to control.
Once I had the six out, I used my disassembling spell to break them apart, took out the cores, then reversed the spell to put them back together before discarding them again. The cores themselves looked like small crystal cubes. Once again, Celeste helped me out when it came time to prepare the charge. In my Cybernetic eye, two graphs appeared side by side. Each had
two columns, one with a lightning bolt symbol below it, and the other with a fire symbol. One of the graphs was left unfilled, while the other showed a balance of roughly 6.7:3.3 balance of fire to lightning.
“Thanks…” I muttered softly, and began to manipulate my mana to try to match. As I did so, the second graph started reacting, the lightning and fire bars fluctuating as I attempted to achieve the proper balance. Once I did so, and managed to hold it for a couple of seconds, the graphs lit up green to indicate they matched. After that, I did my best to maintain the feeling, the bars fluctuating slightly while I grabbed the first core. Thankfully, I had a method to cheat here. “Celeste, mark how quickly the energy increases.”
After I spoke, I activated Aura Sight to allow her to measure the climb of energy, while I also Recorded the process of charging the core for two seconds. Afterwards, I stopped recording and pulled my mana back. Seeming to understand my intention, Celeste spoke up. “Five percent charge every ten seconds at that rate, and you are able to maintain that expenditure for up to thirty seconds. The current power level is barely at one percent.”
I sighed, nodding my head. “How long if I also used my staff to support me?”
“You could triple the duration if you did that, but you would need to be out of Auto-Pilot to draw the mana.”
“Alright, so I can get fifteen percent in thirty seconds. That will at least be enough to see if the item works or not.” I smiled slightly, lifting the core again and triggering my auto-pilot program. The next thing I knew, the program had finished, and I heard Celeste speaking up from my wrist.
New Spell Unlocked!
Charge Device – Technomancy – ★
By measuring the type of energy accepted by a device, you are able to charge the device by matching the energy with your mana.
Mana Cost: Varies
“Looks like a success. Try it out and we’ll know for sure.” I nodded to her instruction, waiting a minute to recover a bit of my mana before using my magic to take apart the ideal handle, slip the core in, then put it back together. As an experiment, I turned the device on, and an orange beam of light shot out of the hilt, extending a full meter. Almost instantly, Celeste called out. “Turn it off, quick!”
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