Chương 199: There's Only Room For A Single Genius

Although he was all alone, Vilador felt quite embarrassed following his grand speech about his genius, since it actually took him a while to put all of the pieces together… He had believed himself good enough at that, but the way this particular automaton was made diverged from the norm, so he ended up having some trouble and required several more days to actually put all the internal components in and hook everything up with wires.

He was uncertain if the kind of wires was correct regarding the precise components, but he was certain that it would work out regardless… Now, he just needed to put the power module in and watch the wonders of mechanistry happen!

"Alright, show me what you can do, automaton!" The battery was placed, and for a few moments, the elven mage looked anxiously in complete silence, until–There was one twitch, and the dot-like eyes of the bot lit for a split second, and then several times more before a more firm twitch happened and the robot straightened its back, looking directly ahead for a few moments before rising to its feet. Its joints clinked and groaned as it appeared to go through a set of movements to test or demonstrate its own state.

Everything was fine with it, although the articulations resisted a little bit. It was just due to not having moved for a little while. A little bit of motion was all that was needed to solve the slight issue.

"Can you… Can you hear me?" The automaton looked at him, but did nothing else whatsoever.

"Huh… Crap, I didn't think about whether or not it could take spoken commands… I hope it isn't the kind that needs to be hooked up to one of those… Huh… Computer things to function" Vilador's understanding of machines was already limited, but when it came to computers, he knew nothing.

He had never gotten to even see one up-close, but he had heard that quite a few automaton makers tended to have their prototypes and early designs only work by being directly linked to a computer to test their functions as some sort of advanced means of maintenance. The elf scratched one of his pointy ears, trying to figure out if there was a way to get the automaton to move, but was interrupted as he heard the sound of stampeding not just outside the cache, but above it as well.

"What the…? You, go check out what's happening" As per usual, he sent one of his wooden creations as a scout and kept the other close to him for protection, but this time, he used another one of his spells to see through the eyes of the one he sent outside, only to see a most bizarre scene as dozens upon dozens of translucent sheep were just walking through the area in a great mass of wool. The only sheep to somewhat acknowledge the presence of the wooden constructs were ghostly rams passing nearby.

They would bleat its way as though telling the construct to get out of the way, despite the fact that they could phase right through the construct just fine…

"... What the hell is happening? A freaking phantom troop of a giant herd of sheep?"

"Well, they don't seem aggressive at all. I guess it's just a thing that happens in this forest? I would have expected a bunch of ghosts to be a bit dangerous, but I guess they aren't evil spirits or something…" Vilador shrugged, cancelling his spell to return to his own eyes before turning around to look at the automaton again. He was more interested in that than a bunch of ghosts belonging to farm animals. He saw the inside of the robot's maw.

"... Huh?" His split second of confusion gave way to absolutely nothing as he was bitten with the sharp slamming of the two beartrap-like jaws, his arms fell disembodied and bloody to the ground as his head, shoulders, and a portion of his torso were simply torn off in the blink of an eye. The death of the mage was so brutal and sudden that the wooden construct supposedly present to protect him did not show any reaction.

It had failed to recognise that the silently approaching mass of steel was a threat, and worst of all, its master had died so quickly that it didn't even register the elf as being attacked. One moment, its master and creator was alive and well… The next, he was gone, and his construct felt something snap. They did not need to be near him to operate, but they had nonetheless been created using his inner mana for the most part, due to half of them being spirits he himself created.

When he died, his mana did not linger. It died with him, leading to his constructs falling apart like cheap statues. The one thing he had been trying to guard himself against had happened… He had been ambushed by something far stronger than him in the physical department and subsequently been slaughtered instantly due to his lack of reaction speed. Meanwhile, the automaton was laughing maniacally…

Ahahahah! Am I a genius, or am I not a genius? The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I must admit, this was pretty damned smart. Though I have to wonder how you are so good at understanding people. How could you know that his interest in mechanistry would be so great that he wouldn't be able to resist trying to 'repair' you? It's just the usual stuff, Nara. My good old, trusty guts… And I mean, the information Leou gave me also helped a fair bit.

This guy is clearly the kind to only partake in stuff he is obsessed with, so him adding working with machines to his roster alongside golemcraft and spirit creation was a dead giveaway, in my opinion. I wasn't expecting him to fall for the first distraction I had prepared, though. Thank you for telling me that he was using a spell, by the way. I wouldn't have been able to tell by myself. It's my pleasure to be of help, Big Sis You little cutie…

In view of assassinating this elf, I had done quite a lot of things, and most of them had been rendered somewhat useless since he had fallen for the very first things and allowed me to silently close the distance without him noticing a thing… For example, a wide area around the cache was rigged with a whole lot of my jaws acting as beartraps in case he were to figure something was wrong and attempt to make an escape from here.

The footprint had been Elowen's and had seemingly worked well in making him believe that I was a simple automaton and that I had a creator. The herd of sheep had been sent by Ophelie. The animals of the ghostly farm listened to her completely, and of course, my other little sisters were hidden in the woods, ready to use their abilities to mess with the mage.

I had frankly thought that he would be more aware of his surroundings, but I guess he tired himself too much while working on trying to repair me and was too excited about succeeding. In any case… The point of this lengthy trick wasn't just to set him up for an unexpected sneak attack, but because I had been interested in seeing if I could use his supposed skills as a mechanist to help me with something. I had been correct–And this was exactly why I was completely serious when calling myself a genius.

You have acquired a new upgrade: 'Overcharge' Overcharge - Faraday Box Upgrade - Let the lightning course through you, the lightning coats your body entirely and grants you increased power on top of electrifying the surroundings Heheheh… Turns out I really don't have to be directly involved to get new upgrades in this way. I can use other people skilled in machinery to do things for me… Of course, this case was a particular one.

I was aware of this upgrade since I had seen it before when picking upgrades, and the concept was simple enough for me to direct Vilador to add it to my 'Faraday Box'. As such, anything too complicated was unlikely to be possible since most mechanists weren't worth much, and mostly upgrades I had already seen could be guessed and explained for someone else to add. An upgrade that was built on top of another upgrade, like this one, was definitely easier to add than a brand-new one…

Nonetheless, it was a great achievement in my eyes. Unfortunately, I wasn't given any other hints as to how to unlock the 'Wire Mess Form', despite the fact that I was ninety-five per cent certain that the 'Faraday Box' was linked to it. I mean, the main point of the wires is to conduct lightning from the box, so it made sense to assume that it would play a major role in the form as well. …' Overcharge' was an interesting upgrade, however. The description was a little bit bare, but the concept was simple.

It was a way to strengthen myself and add a new way of attack at the same time. I could shock people without even touching them by using it. Additionally, as I was getting a feel of it at the moment, I could tell that it wasn't as cut and dry as the description presented it. The lightning could be more precisely directed, telling me that the strengthening effect could be focused and localised. Not quite into limbs like I was imagining, though… But in particular parts like my hydraulics, for example.

So, I could either use the global enhancement accompanied by a lighting attack that only required proximity, or I could empower other upgrades in particular. This will definitely require a lot of testing to see what it does to each individual upgrade. For now, I called back my ghostly little sisters alongside all of the other ghostly servants I had deployed in the area, put my clothes back on, and devoured the remains of the elf in full. In terms of flesh, he wasn't worth much. A weakling of body…

But I hadn't thought about it until now, but this guy had actually been worth an impressive amount of experience. I might actually get a new pick of upgrade via the system if Leou gets me to assassinate strong people like him. Even though killing him seemed easy, in the grand scheme of things, Vilador was a genius mage whose creations could prove to be a real threat to people stronger than me…

And since THE system did not take into account how a person was killed, it awarded me the full worth of his experience in its eyes. I probably shouldn't dream too much, though. Leou probably wasn't going to have technically powerful targets that I could kill in droves, but with my track record, she should feel confident assigning me decently powerful targets who would be worth a lot in terms of experience.

Heh, me and those system fanatics are probably the only people in the world who actually care about how much experience something is worth… Anyway, I don't even know why I bothered to get dressed again. I warped away using one of the plushes stored inside my room at Leou's tower, causing my attire to fall into a pile on the ground. The trip took a little while, but I eventually found myself back in my latest home.

I once again waited to return to my 'Base Form', and after throwing on another attire, I went to find Leou, who wasn't as surprised as before, but still nonetheless curious about how I was seemingly teleporting around.

"Hello, Leou… May I touch–ch your tail as pay–ment today–ay?"

"The tail is–It's a bit too personal, alright? It's hard to explain when you don't have a tail yourself, but it's just a very particular body part that feels weird when touched, so…Huh… I guess I can let you touch the top of my head alongside my ears""Great!"

"... What about the actual payment, though? Do you have anything in mind?"

"I do have–ve one thing. It might be–be–be a little compli–plicated to set up, however–er""Mmh, I can figure things out, surely. What is it?"

"It goes something–thing like th–is…"