Chương 198: Solving A Problem

Vilador did a double-take before pulling his head out of the trapdoor and turning to the wooden mixture of a golem and spirit. The two constructs acting as his bodyguards weren't the strongest by a long shot, but they had the most refined senses out of anything he had ever created. Their job was to detect threats and intercept them long before they could get close to their creator, thus allowing the elven mage to bring out more combat-oriented constructs without having to worry about getting attacked.

As such, the only explanation he could think of was that the thing inside was not dangerous, and possibly inactive or otherwise dead. Which would be a good explanation why his construct did not deem it dangerous for its master to enter this place… Nonetheless, Vilador was confused as to why this thing was here. He couldn't help but be curious about its origin… He sent one construct ahead before entering, just in case, then entered himself with the second construct following closely behind.

He left one to guard the entrance, hiding behind the other as he approached the bizarre being.

"Oh… That's steel. Is this an automaton? No wonder you didn't register it as a threat then… It doesn't have any power source" Placed in a sitting position against the wall directly in front of the trapdoor was what he now recognised as an automaton. It was a bizarre one. He had taken a keen interest in the concept of mechanistry, or mechanistery, depending on who you were talking to… Regardless, Vilador found himself suddenly very interested and intrigued.

He nearly forgot that his cache had been visited by an unknown individual. The elven mage had always been interested in the creation of beings. It was why he had focused so much on golemcraft and spirit creation out of all available disciplines to him, and recently, having learned of what mechanically operated automatons could do, he took a keen interest in the practice as well. He believed that by fusing it into what he was already an expert in, he could finally create more than mere servants.

Indeed, he was seeking to create something that could pass as, or genuinely be considered 'life'. Some of his creations could express themselves to a certain extent, but they were limited by their functions and by their own creator in this regard. However, mechanistry did not have this problem at all. The process involved no usage of energy–There was nothing 'personal' about the outcome in a direct sense. He wouldn't be literally infusing something that came from him in the process. It was more impersonal.

More free, in a sense. Alas, he found his skills still to be lacking. He could create individual parts of an automaton easily enough, but assembling everything into something that could function properly was still a challenge, and his few successes could only be attributed to dumb luck rather than skill. He understood a fair amount, but his understanding wasn't yet intricate enough for him to truly comprehend when something was right or wrong about his automatons.

Not to mention that while he had seen a few successes, they hadn't lasted long. He did not have the knowledge to create parts that could work for more than a day. The different parts did not interact well. They would damage each other, and sometimes, the parts would simply damage themselves due to some mistake he could never figure out. Vilador had originally believed that his great mind would help him in figuring out this new practice, but he had been wrong.

Truly, Leton Nebulo was a genius unlike any other to be able to manifest this entire practice from the ground up.

"If only I weren't a wanted criminal, I might be able to contact him for assistance…" The mage grumbled to himself as he knelt in front of the automaton. It was definitely a weird one in several aspects. He had studied many of them in view of creating his own, and even disassembled several, but never had been any like the one in front of him right now. It was clearly not an entertainment automaton like what was most common. If anything, it was most definitely a combat or war bot instead.

It had a jaw akin to a bear trap… Just looking at it felt dangerous, and its limbs were oversized, absolutely intended to crush and tear limbs. The inactive robot's lower jaw was slack, and its head was tilted to the side–Speaking of which, Vilador found the entire structure of this steel construct most curious at a closer glance. It was simultaneously inhumane, but also deeply… Life-life, in a sense. It felt like a cross between a machine and a living being.

There were mechanical aspects to the skeletal structure, but also aspects that were useless for such a thing, and would instead be more at home in a creature of flesh and bones. Nonetheless, he could tell that this thing was only made of steel. The only oddity was that there were small holes in parts of its steel bones, almost as if thin objects had once been inserted into the steel for some unknown reason.

He looked at the machine's feet and quite easily confirmed that this was indeed not what had left the footprint outside.

"Where is your creator?" He mumbled to himself, taking a closer look at the head and face. It was oddly lacking in details. In fact, if one removed the impressive maw, it would look completely bare. The eyes seemed to be only two minuscule dots, which was certainly interesting. From what he knew, optical sensors were typically a very complex portion of automatons and were thus often quite large. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. …

But from what he could see here, not only were the eyes themselves minuscule, but the skull wasn't filled with anything either–At least, not anything linked to the eyes, as the skull seemed to be filled with steel rather than hollow. Had he actually just stumbled upon a rare creation? Had an unknown mechanist master left behind one of their projects?

"Did they leave anything else?" Vilador stood up so quickly that he almost lost his balance for a moment, but he almost immediately found something else. It was hidden under a dusty sheet, but a bunch of what he assumed were internal components for the automatons were laid out alongside a whole bunch of wires. It seemed like the builder of this robot had been planning on activating it…

There were even a few pieces of paper detailing things about the automaton and one of the internal components in particular, what was dubbed the 'battery' or 'power module'. Vilador had never seen a battery that resembled this. It was spherical and quite smooth… it could be opened up, as it currently was on the table, revealing a rather complex interior–He had definitely struck gold. This automaton and these parts were unique.

"Mmh…" Reading the pieces of paper, he learned more about everything. Automaton was stuck in its attack mode. I had to pull the battery out. I figured out the problem. It was, in fact, the battery. It produces too much energy and overstimulates all other components, which tricks the automaton's MI into believing that its attack mode has been enabled. To solve the issue, I will simply need to add a function to the battery to disperse its lightning when it reaches a certain level.

The automaton can handle being shocked to much higher levels, so simply allowing it to be dispersed through its steel body will be sufficient, and might even prove to be a useful feature. I will have to run tests once I am done. Judging by the fact that there were no entries after this, it seemed like the modification to the battery was never completed… Vilador puffed his chest.

"I can do it. Just making it so the lightning can escape in a burst past a certain level? Doesn't sound like it is all that complicated…" The elven mage wanted to see the automaton in action, but although he didn't know what the creator had meant by 'MI', it seemed to imply that the robot was somewhat capable of analysing its surroundings and was aware of certain things relating to its own state. …

Since he wasn't the actual creator, he deemed that simply putting everything back into the automaton and letting it enter its attack mode would just make it attack him on sight. Which would be bad, as he didn't want to damage it in the least. He wondered whether he should try moving the automaton, but upon asking one of his wooden constructs, it failed to actually lift it. It was actually incredibly heavy. Even the two constructs together could barely move it around.

"... I can't move it without having some of my strong constructs out…" He did not want to attract attention, especially not by showing off what he was known for. The mage was a wanted man, and he would rather avoid conflict. So he decided to remain here until he managed to fix up the automaton and make it work. Once he achieved this, he would be able to bring it with him more easily. He was certain that it would allow him to make progress in his skills as a mechanist.

"Alright then… How does this battery work, exactly?" From the looks of it, the power module was clearly supposed to be hooked up to wires, and probably linked to all of the other internal components in the same manner… It took him a while to get a grasp of how this thing even worked, but as expected, it was most definitely a work of genius.

His first move was to close it back up again and observe how it functioned–Which led him to realise that this battery looked different because it indeed had nothing to do with any other battery. This one actually produced lightning on its own, and at a rather frightening pace at that. An automaton equipped with this would be able to never run out of energy, but indeed, it allowed Vilador to understand why the automaton would experience overstimulation of its components.

The battery produced so much lightning to the point that it was too much.

"I'll just need to find out which part is in charge of the output, and tinker with it to add a fail-safe that will increase the output into a separate port from the usual route, electrifying the steel frame rather than the more fragile components…" Perhaps calling them fragile was an overstatement. They were less durable than the frame of the bot, but they were abnormally resilient as well.

Vilador soon understood that the original creator had probably first enhanced the internal components to be capable of handling the absurd amount of lightning before realising that while they could resist it and function under pressure, they were nonetheless overstimulated by the output of lightning. As such, the solution of just letting the battery unload the excess in a single burst made sense since it wasn't a threat to the automaton at all.

The elven mage spent days without eating, only drinking infrequently to quench his thirst as he worked without rest to fix this one issue. He knew he could do it. It was just one minor adjustment that needed to be made. As long as he managed it, he was certain that his dream of creating something real–Something alive would come to fruition. He couldn't let this stroke of luck go to waste.

He might have suffered some loss due to his cache having been unfortunately sacked and the contents of everything replaced with rocks and dirt, but misfortune had given way to fortune. Vilador had no idea how much time had passed exactly when he recoiled as the battery suddenly surged with lightning–Only a small amount since he was just running tests, but the surprise gave way to celebration.

"I did it! I am a genius, ahahahah!"

"I, Vilador, will be the one to make history!" All that was left was to assemble everything and make the automaton work. Then, everything would be perfect.