The Return

by Nathan Valerio

  You have earned +150 points in willpower for surviving a race transformation.

  Willpower

  A stat given to those who press on through difficulty, is inflicted with pain and still survives with your mind intact.

  This stat increases your strength and agility when you're in a situation where you express your will to live to its extreme.

  Willpower. Incredible. It’s one of the rare stats everyone wants. To get it, you must live through hell. It’s been around since the first VRMMO game but only those who truly suffered in the game could actually get it. It was a stat that made a huge difference in a fight. If I didn’t want to lose in an important fight, it would increase my overall power like a limit breaker or adrenaline rush.

  I’ve seen videos of old games where someone was fighting a dragon and he had the stat. They were on a rare difficulty A quest and it would have caused serious disasters if they lost. The guild was trashed by the dragon and it still had 25% of its life. The man who had the stat didn’t give up and got a boost from his high willpower. He gained a huge boost in speed and the dragon couldn’t even touch him while it was being chopped up. Eventually he beat it and they completed the quest but the man died soon after because of a huge rebound from the boost.

  It was this video that made the stat so sought after.

  To have it and gain 150 points in it from the get go. I felt too lucky.

  As I thought that, my mind faded and I was forced to log off since my mental strength finally gave way. My parents were there when the capsule opened and I was taken to the doctor for a checkup.

  I was only told I needed sleep and rest. Besides that, nothing else was wrong.

  I happily fell asleep and drifted off into my own little world.

  CHAPTER 17 The Real Boss

  Gaia PoV

  It had been quiet for the two days. Since Delta told me about Techno’s group, I’d been having less trouble with my work or maybe simply less work. It seemed more awakened had been working and building small junk ships for 5-10 people and leaving. Considering the time they took compared to Techno, he was probably the strongest awakened at that moment.

  I got kind of pissed off thinking of that. Then again, he is a mechanic and a mechanic knight. The weakest kind of knight class I knew of. A mechanic can make a large number of robots to fight for him while he controls them and he gains the experience but since he isn’t a full mechanic, he can’t get the full power of one.

  I could only find satisfaction in that.

  “Gaia, have you seen what’s in the sky,” Rust suddenly messaged me.

  “Is there something I really need to care about?” I replied with a frown.

  “Definitely.”

  I narrowed my eyes and got up from my chair and walked outside. I walked slowly because I wanted to preserve as much of my sanity for when I saw that idiot. As I opened the door, I saw everyone looking up and pointing at the sky so I walked to the front of the mob and turned around.

  My expression stayed blank as my eyes fell on the monster sized whale slowly appearing from the clouds slowly showing its massive earth made body.

  It was extremely far away but the massive size made it quite easy to see especially when it was high above the huge mountains of scrap.

  “Hoho! Menthol made some good time. I thought he would arrive at least at night but to think at noon he already arrived. Hahaha I can’t wait to see how things turn out,” Delta suddenly said.

  “Shut it! I don’t need more of my patience wasted before Techno arrives!” I roared mentally at the irritation at the back of my head.

  I walked into the central office building and slammed the door shut, trying to calm down. After sitting down on my chair in my office I spun around and stopped looking outside the window behind the seat. Outside was a clear visual of the rapidly approaching whale.

  I scowled looking at him. Besides Techno and Delta, now I had to deal with ‘him’ too. Why was it that Techno found only people I hate? Though it was fun to tease him as much as those two idiots did to me.

  I let out a sigh of defeat after a while. I simply went to work since I knew when they arrived I would be busy doing something with them.

  Rust PoV

  As expected of Techno’s crew. To be lucky enough to encounter Menthol and not be killed, even convinced him to make a peace treaty with the crew and set up a home for the elementals. Only he could do that.

  It really riled things up in town. Everyone was thinking he was a boss monster or something but soon, I and several others calmed them down saying it was an ancient friend of Gaia and he was there carrying two races rescued by Techno. They were coming for negotiations and so on.

  It got instant results. Because of their fame everyone instantly believed it since he was known for his crazy results.

  I stayed on the dock and after an hour Menthol reached the town. He stopped overhead, casting his shadow over the land. Some moments later, I picked up Techno’s signal and my scanner picked up his ship heading down.

  I connected to Techno.

  “So, another adventure and another few races saved?” I said.

  “Don’t remind me, I went to the whale to do some dungeon grinding and ended up saving the draconian race and the beast man (tiger) race. They were freaking annoying. They forced the daughter of the chiefs from both races to be my companions.” I could feel the immense irritation through his text.

  I started to laugh hearing that and knowing his personality.

  “Getting along well with them?” I asked.

  “Eh, they are better educators than Gaia that's for sure. With all her weapons locked from disobeying me these two have taken to educating her like they were taught everything. At least that is something off my shoulders.”

  “What did she do?” I asked curiously.

  He explained it to me and I almost fell over laughing. I laughed for a good minute before I calmed down and saw the ship approaching from the south coming down from the sky whale.

  After a bit, it reached the docks and I guided them in. When the ship reached the dock, I left empty for them, several mechanical arms closed on both sides of the ship and the ship was lowered so it would be level with the pier on both sides of it.

  When the ship finally docked a small bridge went to the side and let them cross. Those who came out were Victor, Nova, a draconian girl, a tigress girl and finally the two fire elementals. The next ones to come out was a huge knight much bulkier than the few I knew. My scanners showed me it was Bulk but aside from the name I couldn’t see what his class or stats were.

  Then came out a reddish six-armed knight which held a rather distinctive angry face at its most neutral. A bit bigger than Bulk, the knight held a strange feeling about it. The name I got was several question marks as it couldn’t be identified for some reason.

  After him came a four-armed bluish human sized clockwork who had a much calmer look to him and gave a somewhat gentle air and easier to approach sensation. When I scanned him, the same thing happened like when I scanned the big one.

  “Hey Rust, been a while,” Bulk approached and said.

  “Yes, it has. Can I ask, who are those two?” I asked.

  He looked back at the clockworks.

  “Huh, that’s Techno, both of them,” Bulk said confused.

  My eyes widened and I look at both. I then locked on both of them and scanned at the same time and finally I got the name Techno over their heads. I simply facepalmed seeing that.

  “Seriously, how can you go and make a set of bodies for yourself so easily? How did you even figure out the programming for it?” I asked.

  “I just made the brain with motherboards with the same programming and software. I then made a permanent connection between them,” he said simply.

  I simply sighed hearing him say it so easily. Then I was approached by the two girls.

  “Good day, I’m Annabeth, the daughter of the village chief of the draconians,” the draconian said.

&n
bsp; “Hi, I’m Greer, I’m the daughter of the leader of the tiger beast men tribe,” the smaller tiger girl said somewhat shyly.

  “Good to meet you two. I’m Rust, I’m the one who helped out those three when they first woke up during the first awakening,” I introduced myself.

  “Wow! But why aren’t you traveling with them now?” Annabeth asked.

  “He is the main helper of the biggest pain in the ass you will ever find on this planet,” Techno said.

  The two had a helmet like Victor’s on so when they saw this they started giggling.

  “Wow for Techno to display so much displeasure for someone. What did this person do?” Annabeth asked.

  “She is an ancient clockwork and really strong. When she wanted to bring gnomes to this city Techno was against it because of… well you saw right. Well he started to fight her and it ended with her doing a backflip over Techno and flipping him high into the air before he crashed down,” Bulk explained.

  Everyone was silent after hearing that. Victor and the girls were more than shocked finding out someone would do that so casually to Techno.

  “Don’t get him wrong. Techno more than got payback for it,” Rust said.

  “It’s not enough though, but if I try more, then I wouldn’t get anything off that bitch,” Techno said.

  We could only smile warily.

  “Anyway, what do you guys need?”

  “Um... two ships so our friends and family can come down here when Menthol passes by so we can gather scraps. We agreed to not mine the minerals from him but that leaves us without anything to work with,” Greer said.

  “I get it already. But it would take negotiations with Gaia so we should go. I’m sure she would want any new tech you guys came up with,” I said.

  “Can’t that lazy bitch figure things out alone? She is older than us and lived during the time the world was at its technological peak,” Techno grumbled.

  “You know data is scarce at best from that time and technology info has mostly been destroyed even from here, Delta was built near the end of the war and as a weapon and not a…” I stopped mid-way because I touched sensitive info.

  The dwarf walked up with narrowed eyes. “Who is Delta? The way you speak makes it seem he is a huge figure just like Gaia,” Victor asked.

  Thankfully clockwork can’t sweat because it would have been a dead giveaway.

  “Yeah, he is an ancient clockwork we found some time ago. He is fixed to a single location but is really powerful,” I replied.

  I really needed to be careful.

  He bought it but he was still looking at me with a frown.

  “We should go. Gaia is probably already waiting since we saw Menthol a long time ago.” With that I diverted their attention to the task at hand. I led them through the streets to Gaia’s home and office.

  A few of the people noticed us because of me and soon after they saw the others. Chatting soon erupted about the crew since everyone had heard about it. Unfortunately, before we could reach Gaia’s house, we were stopped by someone of the ogre race. The man was a bulky and muscular type. The ogre race doesn’t acknowledge anyone unless they are stronger which was probably what led to this.

  “ohh! Look here! The Clockwork Crew. Hmph you are all weaklings. Which one of you weaklings is the leader?!” an ogre suddenly said blocking our path.

  The smaller Techno walked forward.

  “He is our captain,” Bulk said simply.

  “Hehe, pathetic. To have such a pathetic captain! Fight me weakling. If you lose, your crew is to disband and stop the annoying chatter of all these people about your fictional doings,” he said.

  Techno shrugged and nodded. He accepted the challenge. In seconds, the ogre grinned and started running at him. They were about 20 meters apart but the three-meter-tall ogre rapidly covered that.

  “perfect! now die!”

  When he was within range, he sent a punch towards Techno but what met him was a much larger red fist coming into contact with his own fist stopping it completely. The impact lifted a cloud of dust blinding us

  When the dust from the impact finally cleared, we saw the six-armed knight in front of Techno with a single arm perfectly in contact with the ogre’s huge fist.

  “don’t interfere!” the ogre roared in rage.

  He sent his other fist but that was stopped in the same way but instead of a punch, Techno simply grabbed it and held his hand in a death grip.

  “Hey, forgot to tell you, but our captain is made up of two bodies. The little one is a mechanic and the reddish one is his fighter,” Bulk said grinning.

  His eyes got big but it was too late. Techno had already wound up his second right arm and threw it in an upper cut at his chest. To make it worse, it seemed he installed a pressure fist and he made sure to activate it.

  I cringed when I heard the heavy cracking from the ribs that were being crushed by the heavy blow.

  The knees of the ogre buckled under him and only his right arm which was being gripped by Techno kept him up.

  Everyone stared in shock at the easily defeated ogre. Ogres are known for their strength and endurance to pain and can take a heavy beating before falling, but to be defeated in a single punch wasn’t something you would think possible. The ogre that challenged Techno wasn’t just any ogre. The ogres were part of the city’s guard unit and he was one of the captains already level 110.

  To cause so much damage that he nearly fainted wasn’t something to scoff at.

  Techno released his hand letting him drop face first to the ground.

  “Rust. Call someone to pick up this trash. We will meet you at Gaia’s home. Let’s go guys,” Techno told me simply.

  I sighed as I watched all of them walking off.

  As merciless as ever. I connected to the commander of the guards and told him to bring a mage that could use healing magic and someone strong enough to lift the ogre.

  Soon enough a group appeared and started to treat the ogre and I explained what happened. The ogres in the group went wide eyed and the clockwork that came with them all started laughing. I was sure it was because ogres and clockworks had been having lots of arguments about Techno’s real strength.

  The clockworks were all built as small child bots and had the personality of one and they considered Techno a hero while ogres trash talked him. Demons were less cocky and had done some investigating into his doings. They didn’t respect him but they didn’t trash talk someone with physical and political strength like Techno.

  It didn’t take long after they took the ogre away for word to spread.

  Even before I reached Gaia, I could already hear the word spreading.

  I started to chuckle but that was only until I reached Gaia’s place. The reason was that I saw a large hole on the third floor and in the front yard were both Techno’s fighting it out with Gaia. Both had swords in all their arms and he was skillfully working them while Gaia used a sword in each hand and was on the defensive due to the sheer pressure and a number of swords.

  I worked my way around them and walked to the door where the others were watching casually.

  “So, what happened?” I asked the group.

  Blaze hovered over. “We arrived at Gaia’s office and started talking. Techno, in all his bluntness, told Gaia to prepare two ships for each of the races up on Menthol.”

  “He said he would give her the plans to a new clockwork engine that uses less fuel and can handle more heat,” Ena continued.

  “Did she accept?” I asked.

  “HA! Yeah right!” Victor laughed sarcastically and slapped his hand on his thigh. “It’s two ships we are talking about. She wanted the program coding and connection setup Techno used to make his two bodies. When he didn’t give it up, she started insulting him and after a bit more.” He lifted his hand pointing at them. “This.”

  I simply nodded a few times understanding what happened. I could only sigh at how things escalated.

  I then connected to all three of
them.

  “City administrative command activated! Ceasefire command sent! Weaponry restriction activated! Combat mode disabled!” I said out loud.

  At once all their weaponry deactivated and the swords were withdrawn into their bodies.

  The three were shocked and confused for a moment which I capitalized on.

  “Alright, now that your little exercise is over let’s head inside for business,” I said.

  They both scoffed, but after a bit of trying to activate their weapons ending in failure, they gave up and walked inside.

  “Wow… Who would have thought that anyone could control them,” Annabeth said wide eyed.

  “Don’t underestimate him. We only left him behind because he is too important to the city for us to take,” Bulk said.

  I turned around. “Don’t use flattery I don’t deserve,” I replied.

  “Come on Rust. You are probably more important than Gaia. She is the face of the nation but you are the bulk of the system programming that support the nation,” Bulk said.

  I feel like I’ve been sighing too much today. We go back to the office with the hole in the wall. I could only face palm and breathe to calm down. I was going to have to deal with this as well.

  “He was the one that made the hole,” Gaia suddenly said as I walked into the office.

  “Yeah right bitch! You’re the one that pissed me off and then flipped me again through the wall but after that you met the bottom of my right foot for that,” Techno said grinding his gears.

  “quiet… both of you!” I shouted.

  They both tensed up while I breathed deeply. I contacted the people responsible for building materials and put an order of the amount needed to repair the wall. Then I called a constructor to fix it up for me as quick as possible.

  When I was done, everyone was waiting.

  “Ok what was the argument about?” I asked.

  “She wanted to know the programming for making two main bodies,” Techno said.