The Return

by Nathan Valerio

  They might not have been considered a monster race anymore or the god’s magic simply was gone. I think the lack of followers could be the answer. Not enough power was flowing to them.

  It was fine by me. It made things easier since the rank ups sometimes turned somewhat sentient creatures into mindless monsters.

  When I met them, we found out they wanted to join our ranks. It seemed they saw the goblins and saw them prospering and growing stronger and wished to join. Soon after the tribe arrived and some went to South Gate City by ship.

  The last race was the genie race. They were quite unique, very powerful magic users whose main body was a small lamp. They carry it on their person at all times. They are generally human in looks with males being nearly two meters, muscular and pale blue skin. The females are beautiful like dancers and have light pink skin. They normally wear cloth or silk cloths which are woven from their magic somehow. They also have a racial trait allowing them to turn their legs into mist which lets them fly.

  They are a neutral nomadic race that only attacks when threatened. They also hold a grudge like no other and will never forget someone who has wronged them, but they will also never forget a benefactor.

  Genies, as said, are nomads and have no real home since they always travel. When they arrived at Shipyard City, they were quite interested, and I met the leader. After talking a bit, they decided to leave. It seemed they prefer nature to technology. Obviously not wanting to lose such a powerhouse race, I suggested having a few men take them to the elf city.

  They liked the idea and we prepared a ship to take them there.

  They ended up staying with the elves and with a spell they knew to call their kind, slowly more began appearing at the elf’s home.

  After advancing so much I was standing at the top of the scrapyard wall. I was looking down at the bustling town that had grown very large. Lights lit the stone streets and came out of the stone and metal houses. At the center was the council hall which stood three floors high with the most refined look being made with a skeleton of steel and stone covering it.

  It had been a rather long time since I woke up. One reason or another I was always flying from one city or another. Several smaller cities were made near some new mine within the mountain range or near some dead forest closer to the elven homes. From those, the woods were restored, slowly bringing life back.

  As I looked up at the clear night sky, with the stars shining brightly trying to outdo the lights of the bustling town, I noticed Rust arriving.

  “So here you are?” Rust said and sat next to me.

  “You’re back. How were they this time?” I asked without looking.

  He sighed. “The rapid rusting is a pain. As soon as I attach a new part, the rust begins eating away even if its magic alloys. They lose their magic and turn to regular rusted iron,” he said.

  “Must be a god level magic on their bodies to keep them like that,” I said.

  “Yes it is, I feel it. It is fading though. The spell is consuming itself faster because it must almost be time for their second awakening,” Delta said to us.

  “So it’s almost time to have fun again?” I asked smiling.

  “Sorry to burst your bubble but it's not like you can leave. Queen,” Delta joked.

  “Tch, who are you calling queen!” I snapped at him.

  “He is right. What will the nation do if you leave? You're the most qualified to run it.” Rust agreed.

  “Like hell, I want to travel,” I said snorting.

  “So does Lyra but you see her sucking it up and doing her work,” Delta said and laughed.

  “Fuck.”

  I looked dejectedly out towards the scraps. The direction was towards the clockwork base which was turned into a town.

  We just stood there in silence when Delta broke the silence.

  “I feel it… the spell rusting the kids is broken,” Delta said.

  I nodded, and then something caught my attention. Falling from the sky like a shower of meteors were bright lights. A large shower of light was falling over the dwarf’s mountain while a spread-out shower was over the scraps outside of the South Gate City.

  “What the… they have awakened?” Rust asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah, get ready for a huge number of pains in the ass because things are going to get busy. Rust, go get Techno. Delta keep him there,” I ordered them.

  “He is having trouble moving so it’s no problem,” Delta said.

  I nodded and looked to Rust. He nodded and ran off down the wall. Soon a small ship that was attached to the docks made into the side of the walls began flying towards the mountain that hid Techno inside.

  “Guess I should get going. They are waking up and they are made from trash. Need to get the dwarves on max output for iron parts,” I muttered.

  I walked down the large stairs until I leave South Gate City and walked towards the dwarf town.

  CHAPTER 4 Return

  Nathaniel/Techno PoV

  It was the last day we would stay in the virtual space. Sasha and I were enjoying some TV before we would be entered the game again. It would be four months in game before we would get a break. While she was watching, I went over the notes I had made. The notes contain several basic blueprints to improve our weapons and some possible new ones. Some of them held complete sets of codes that would replace our corrupted ones. I had also remade the targeting, scanning, and mapping system on my laptop here and improved on it as I learned more about programming.

  Besides those, I had also made several body blueprints for myself and Sasha, each more complicated than the last. This was so we could be ready as we leveled up.

  I also took the time to learn to make some engines similar to car engines but still steam based. Mainly engines with pistons. The pressurized vapor enters pushing down the piston and escapes into a secondary tank, which is where the water cools and returns to be reheated. The first tank would hold the steam and go to the whole body to move it around and any possible tools that would use it.

  I had made it a pure mechanic body. It had a knight like body but only had swords as weapons. I trained in the gym to be able to use both arms, I normally use my right arm so with training I started getting used to using my left hand. I also wrote with my left hand so I could become better. All this so I could work faster with the swords, in case I ever needed them as well as controlling the robots better. I could also become more flexible while tinkering if I used both hands.

  With everything checked, we were told to get to bed before noon as we would be sent into the game while in bed to avoid any complications since we were still laying down in the game. We both cleaned up our rooms putting all the books away and cleaning the rest of the junk. We would still have access to the books, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to be neat and it’s possible that the app works only with books on the bookcases, so I won’t be taking that chance.

  With everything ready I put Sasha in bed and told her not to get up because we would be back in the game soon. She just nodded and started playing with the virtual space system. I had made sure that she wouldn’t have any authority to actually buy anything unless I allowed it, but she liked to look at the items.

  I left and headed into my room, put the remaining books away and then went to my desk and grabbed the pile of blank paper and put it in the bookcase. Next to it I put several cups with pencils, pens and markers. After a bit of testing I found out the bookcase system took whatever I put in it and made it available to use so if I had a pencil or pen in it, I could use them in game through the app.

  I laid on my bed and a timer appeared.

  3 minutes before launch

  I nodded swiping the window away. I thought about what had happened during the time we were in Virtual Town. It was a nice rest from constantly needing to look over my shoulder to be careful of anything sneaking up on us or to make sure Gaia wasn’t about to fuck something up.

  I really hoped that idiot put herself in such a high place that she w
ouldn’t be able to escape from it when I return and get Rust back before we hit the skies or road.

  When the clock finally clicked the time, my vision darkened, and I found myself in space. Floating next to me was Sasha and in front of us was the same goddess we first met when making our characters.

  “Hey kid, good seeing you again,” Ariel said with a smile.

  “Can’t say the same though,” I thought knowing she was reading my mind.

  “That’s mean, and here all of us gods were so interested in you. We were all so intrigued by how grand your adventures were during the first awakening, but who cares.” Ariel pouted.

  “Hey lady stop reading bro’s mind and speaking just with him!” Sasha complained.

  Once more, just like the first time Sasha made a few veins appear on the goddess’s head.

  “I guess that brother of yours still hasn’t taught you manners huh. Let me do that for him,” Ariel said. She raised her right sleeve and started floating over to Sasha with a somewhat evil glint in her eyes.

  Before she could pass me, I got in her way which made her look up pissed, but she took a step back when she saw me getting annoyed. Seems she had an idea of how much I cherish Sasha and was probably giving up on doing anything.

  “Tch, and here I thought I could fix that rotten personality of hers,” Ariel muttered.

  “Try fixing yours before others.” My comment makes her brows twitch with anger. “Can we move on or we will never get down to the planet?”

  “Fine kid. Do you want to continue with your characters from before or make a new one? Remember that continuing with your old character will cut your levels in half and put a debuff on your body to compensate,” she said.

  “Same ones,” I said mentally.

  “Good, now shoo. Oh, and it’s a good idea to make your adventures just as exciting. Most of you players were really boring so most of the gods have their eyes on you,” Ariel said.

  “I don’t really give a damn but just know I won’t be some scapegoat for restarting your long forgotten religions.”

  She shrugged and waved her hand. Our bodies began glowing brightly and fell down towards the planet like meteors.

  We weaved through the skies and soon we could see the scrapyard from above. The light we were in veered off from the main bulk of the lights descending around the city that had appeared around the South gate.

  We flew far off straight into a mountain of junk through everything and finally impacted into our bodies.

  The moment we hit our bodies everything went dark except for the digital window that appeared showing the booting up process.

  Just like the first time, the booting went ahead and scanned my body but unlike the first time the scans showed all my body parts were functional, but they had taken large damage from rusting.

  Your steel body has aged tremendously and has been reduced to rusty steel.

  Power of steel has dropped to rusty steel.

  Stats have been reduced by 60%.

  You have gained the Rusty Body Trait. Until you repair all the heavily rusty parts in your body, your stats will be halved.

  Your level has been cut in half. Your current level is 24.

  Because you didn’t use your extra stat points no allocated points will be removed. You currently have 21 free points remaining.

  Seeing the windows, I grimaced seeing that irritating trait had returned. I started moving my body but it instantly started to creak and I felt several major faults in my gears around my arms and joints.

  “Good to see you’re awake boy,” Delta transmitted to us.

  “Oh? You're still stuck here? I would have thought you might have escaped by now,” I replied.

  “Because Gaia and Rust went out into the world, I've been able to spread my program to other clockwork and machines. So I'm pretty satisfied as I am. I can see what they see so it isn’t bad,” he said cheerfully.

  “And what about talking with others?” I asked.

  “Well you don’t speak with anyone else either,” Delta said.

  I shook my head and actually chuckled hearing that. I really can’t reply.

  “Rust is heading over with parts for repairs,” Delta informed me.

  I nodded and then slowly turned my head around.

  I quickly spotted a few drones and connected with them. My systems were still offline, and I was running on battery power, so I needed them on.

  I connected and activated a few of them and ordered them come over and climb up my back. A few of them opened my head cap and another went in. I searched around until I finally found the start button for my engine and pressed it.

  I heard the engine roar loudly to life. The noise from it was rather disturbing. Seems several gears that made the process quieter were also broken.

  I then looked to the side and spotted Nova. She was already on, but like me she was having trouble moving so I sent a few drones over to start her up.

  I then move a few drones to the gearbox we had while others headed into my body to see the parts I needed to repair just so I could move around.

  I found several broken gears inside my body. It was from the startup. They were rusted too deeply and broke from the pressure. It was this that caused my arms and legs to stop working. They were major gears since they transferred the power down the gear line.

  I removed what remained and brought a new gear in. After shutting down the engine I replaced three gears that were like that and turned the engine back on.

  With the gears moving in my arms and legs, I could sit upright and move my arms.

  At that point I laid back against the ship behind me. I needed more parts than what survived there. I fixed Nova to a greater degree than myself, getting both arms and legs all working so she was walking about already.

  After she fiddled with it a bit, she turned her protector back on. It was much less degraded to the point that it only had a few spots of rust that I could see.

  “The rust we had must have been accelerated to give the debuff.” I thought.

  Realizing this I growled at the gods, but then I sighed because it would have happened anyway since the game went into full release, so we needed more even footing.

  Though I don’t know if letting someone start off with a ship can be called even footing, but who cares.

  I opened my status to see how much I lost.

  Status

  Name

  Techno Gear

  Race

  Clockwork

  Class

  Knight Mechanic

  Level

  24

  Free Stat Points

  21

  Durability

  660/660

  Energy

  400/400

  Strength

  39(/2)

  Agility

  42(/2)

  Toughness

  30(/2)

  Dexterity

  44(/2)

  Intelligence

  36(/2)

  Wisdom

  38(/2)

  Charisma

  38

  Leadership

  10(/2)

  Luck

  30(/2)

  Traits

  Rusty Body

  Being offline has degraded your body to scrap.

  -half to all stats until the respective system or parts are replaced.

  Parental Control

  A system skill that lets you teleport your child or sibling that is below age and has wondered a certain distance away back.

  Clockwork Scanner

  A basic system in a clockwork’s body that allows them to scan their surrounds and check tools and parts.

  Also allows them to identify items at a certain range.

  1 energy every 15 seconds.

  Skills

  Clockwork Body Construction

  Intermediate 1

  Being of the clockwork race you instinctively know how to make parts for your body.

  +7% increase in ability when making a body
or body part.

  Scavenger

  Intermediate 1

  Able to find useful scraps and parts from trash.

  Increases chance to find something by 20%.

  Tinker

  Intermediate 1

  You have the natural skill to tinker with any machine.

  Increases ability when tinkering with a machine by 5%.

  Dwarven Blacksmithing

  Basic 1

  The most coveted blacksmithing art. The techniques of the dwarves are passed on in the family and even after the industrial age appeared, it was still at the top for being able to make higher quality goods than industrial goods.

  The techniques this form implies are all primitive but can easily be adapted to any form of blacksmithing and to many different conditions. Even when using a poorly made clay forge you can produce good quality metal items.

  In the past it was kept a trade secret kept under tight guard. It was once even considered a race only art that only dwarves could learn because of their open minds towards blacksmithing. Today though with so few people remaining to keep the art alive, the arts were spread among the dwarves and to those they trust, or if ever a need great enough arises that warrants the trade of the arts.

  +10% when blacksmithing anything.

  Blunt Weapon Mastery

  Basic 1

  Using a blunt weapon or club has given you some understanding of such weapons.

  +3% damage when using a blunt weapon.