บท 5: Chapter 5: Working at the Workshop
After convincing Livre to let him help around the shop in exchange for a toy in stock, Carman walked back to his hideout. Looking up at the sky he was surprised by how much time had passed as it felt like it was the afternoon just a few moments ago. Carman was exhausted from acting like a child, but it was better in his opinion to dumb down his intelligence and maturity unless someone finds it suspicious.
Getting back to his little hole in the wall, Carman sat down on the bundle of cussions he called his bed and went to sleep for the night.
Waking up the next morning, Carman gathered his daily necessities and left the hideout. Walking towards the workshop, he passed a few men as he turned to the side street and continued walking to his destination. Arriving at Livre's workshop he entered and rang the bell again and waited for Livre to come out.
"Please wait a moment dear customer, I'll be out in a moment, do not rush me lest I be crushed by... Hysterical Hilichurls!"
Hearing a bunch of thuds followed by an odd utterance regarding hilichurls, Carman carefully walked around the desk and through a doorway into the backroom of the workshop. Following the sounds of shifting metal and cursing Carman located Livre in what looked to be a storage room. Livre seemed to have knocked over a few boxes of various supplies and was digging himself out of a pile of gears.
Quickly moving to his side, Carman helped Livre lift some of the bigger gears off and pulled him out.
"Ah so it was you, sorry you had to come and rescue me, I was just visited by some fellows and had to get parts I need for a few orders ready since the deadline is coming up. I swear I told my brother to help organize back here, but as you can see, notuch has been done."
Carman nodded while looking around the disheveled storeroom, he felt his eye twitch as he looked at the haphazardly placed boxes and schematics laying on the ground.
"I've been meaning to get everything sorted but since I need funds to return the loan I took to open up shop, I haven't had time to optimize the placement for everything yet."
Livre noticed Carman's eye twitching and said "to think even a child would be annoyed by the state of this room. Come to think of it, I agreed to let you work here temporarily yesterday didn't I? Would you mind helping sort all the small stuff, don't bother trying to lift the heavy boxes and gears, I don't want you to hurt yourself."
Carman nodded and started making a beeline towards a broom and started sweeping up all the small gears off of the ground. After he got all of them into a pile, he took a few boxes and started sorting them by type some gears were the size of a tick, some were bigger close to an adult's fingernail in diameter. There were gears with rectangular teeth, some whose teeth were rounded, and others had slanted teeth.
Initially, Livre watched Carman work, interested in seeing how well he could tidy up and was surprised to see that Carman noticed the difference between the gears and cared enough to keep them separate. In his opinion most kids wouldn't have noticed a difference and even if they did they would likely just toss them into the same box. Figuring that Carman had everything settled, he left the room with the parts he needed and walked to the workroom to do some assembly on his commissions.
After spending an hour sorting all of the gears into sepperate boxes, Carman walked over to the schematics that had fallen on the floor, he noticed that several of them had notes scrawled on the side denoting who had commissioned each machine detailed on the schematics.
Uncrumpling one of the schematics which seemed to be the one that caused Livre to slip and fall he came face to face with what seemed to be an older version of the dog modeled gardemeks.
After sorting through the schematics, placing the ones with future completion dates on a stack of crates close to the door, Carman looked over the schematics, hoping to learn more about the intricacies of clockwork machines.
Most of the designs flew over his head apart from basic mechanisms such as the use of Ousia and Pneuma infused parts or canisters to generate rotational force similar to how electricity could be used in electrical motors. Pneuma and Ousia, when smashed together at certain ratios caused varing amounts of energy to be released, there were cores that used this energy to turn water into steam which was used to power the various Meka.
Knowing that Indemnitium would eventually be replaced he skipped over the parts of the schematics that included power cores running off of it. Delivering into the details of the schematics and trying to understand their principles, Carman lost track of time and his surroundings and was surprised when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"If I didn't already know I don't pose a threat to any big wigs of my line of business I would have thought you were a spy looking at those schematics with that intensity." Livre said with a kind smile.
"If you are that into clockwork mechanics I could talk to you about the principles behind these creations, but I'll want you to work for me when you grow up since this information wasn't cheap for me to learn either. Normally you'd have to attend a medium to high class school and then get into the Fontaine Research Institute to learn about some of these components."
Livre was shocked by the conviction Carman had on his face as he nodded his head in understanding. "When can I start?" Asked Carman in a serious tone.
Livre, surprised yet again by Carman's certainty said,"well, I guess since you've cleaned up most of this room already, I could take you back to the main work area. So long as you don't touch anything I can explain anything you might have questions about."
Carman followed Livre to the back of the store where a cramped workroom was located again there was tools strewn all over the place, tables, shelves, the floor, and even on top of some mekas in various state of construction.
Seeing a humanoid gardemek laying on the main work table, Carman walked over to it and inspected the components he could see from the places where its armor plating had been removed.
"Ah figures you'd be drawn to one of those, seeing as they are almost everywhere in this city. Not so scary now that is laying down right?" Livre asked.
"While I understand the idea on making it so intimidating for catching criminals, their appearance does tend to scare kids, and yet they also use these mekas to search and catch lost or runaway children." Livre continued.
"I was actually wondering where it does it's thinking, and how it can see."
"Ah, well to start these machines don't think the same way you or I normally do, they have an area here," Livre pointed at the gardemek's chest,"that basicly has a series of dos and don'ts that the meka has to follow, this includes the laws of Fontaine and what the Meka is allowed to do when it sees someone break the law. As for the second part of your question, I am not really sure myself, all I know is that the component was developed by a person from the Institute when they took part in an exchange program at the Akademiya in Sumaru."
Continuing to talk with Livre for a while, asking a few questions. Which elicited answers longer than Carman could have expected, Livre eventually informed Carman of his need to return to work in order to meet his deadlines. He stated that Carman could stay and watch if he wanted, but that Livre didn't have much for him to do at the moment.
Not having anything better to do with his time, Carman sat on a crate and watched Livre work. When it was heading towards evening, Livre was pulled away from his work from his work hearing a stomach growling behind him.
Turning around he saw a slightly embarrassed Carman, "you've been here this long, don't you have...." Realizing what he was about to say, Livre stoped in the middle of his sentence. "I don't think I've seen or heard you eat anything all day, come on, let's go out, as your boss, I'll treat you for your first day of work."
Carman was hesitant to follow Livre at first, but the offer for freshly cooked food that he didn't have to hunt or scavange for and Livre's nagging eventually broke down his resistance.
-Semi Livre's Pov-
Carman followed Livre to an outdoor cafe where Livre ordered a few light dishes for both of them, a bottle of sunsettia juice for Carman and and a coffee for himself. He watched amusidly as Carman did his best to maintain his manners while devouring the food in front of him.
Vaguely Livre pondered if this was what a father would be like, he had never been in a serious relationship before having mostly devoted himself to his dream of opening a clockwork toy store. He thought that seeing the smiles on kids faces, but having hung out with Carman all day and interacted him similar to how Livre did when he visited his father's work when he was little, Livre didn't think that being a father himself was a bad idea.
-Carman's POV-
Having finished his meal, Carman helped tidy up, and said his goodbyes to Livre as they went their sepperate ways. Carman had been out in the open longer than he had liked, however it didn't seem like anyone had been paying him or Livre any attention. Still being careful to avoid being followed to his home, Carman made it back safe and sound.
Wriggling through the crack and I to the room, Carman used a burnt pice of wood to write a few notes on a misprinted steambird paper being sure to write down the key mechanics he had learned from Livre durring the time they spent together.
Finishing that task, Carman finally went to sleep for the night.
-to be continued.
บท 6: Chapter 6: Budding Clockwork Engineer.
Over the next few days, Carman continued working at Leschots's Clockwork Workshop, helping Livre with various tasks from sweeping, dusting, and sorting of materials and products in stock.
Every time he finished early he would spend the rest of the day having around Livre as he worked. Livre was happy to teach Carman what he knew regarding clockwork engineering. He explained the concepts of various configurations of gears, some of whitch's utilities were verry similar to that of a computer components.
After a few weeks, haveing run out of things for him to do, Livre let Carman start helping him with building and repairing simple toys. After getting tired of using the simple screwdriver, Carman made a ratcheting screwdriver using some scraps and a few machines in the workshop.
-ding-
Having forgot his quest to complete an engineering project, Carman was surprised by the system window popping up.
[Quest Complete: Complete your First Project]
[Generate Rewards? Yes/No]
Selecting yes, Carman received another notification
[ Congratulations to host for receiving 25 Exp, 15,000 Mora, Generating random F-D Rank blueprint...Congratulations to Host on receiving E Rank Blueprint:[Basic Kinetic to Electric Generator]. Check [Item Storage] for details.]
"Huh interesting, seems that I now have a way to convert kinetic energy into electrical" Carman muttered under his breath.
Carman took his new tool to work the next day, Livre was surprised by the effectiveness of the tool and asked Carman where he had gotten such a device. Chuckling, Carman responded that he had built it himself after getting tired of having a sore wrist from constantly adjusting his grip on the old screwdriver.
Livre saw the potential of such a tool and asked Carman if he could barrow it while Carman was away from the shop. Seeing an opportunity, Carman said, "I could make another one, but it took some time and resources I had gathered myself. I could sell you this one for now and use the Mora to get the materials I need for a new one."
"How much do you want for it?" Asked Livre interested in seeing how reasonable Carman's pricing would be.
"Just 1,500 Mora." Said Carman, he knew this wasn't much compared to the value of this tool that could revolutionize the clockwork assembly industry, but in the other hand that's all he needed for his quest and, Livre had pretty much been taking care of him and teaching him things since day one. Carman had lost track the Humber of snacks Livre had brought to the workshop for Carman and the overalls and shirt he had purchased for Carman under the guise of a store uniform.
Livre was shocked that Carman was offering the tool for such a low price, reaching into his wallet, he took some Mora out and put it into Carman's hands. "I'll have to teach you how to properly price products, here's 3,000 Mora."
-ding-
Carman heard the noise from the system as he exchanged the Mora and screwdriver with Livre.
However as to not interrupt his conversation with Livre, he mentally closed the notification before reading it.
Carman spent the rest of the day learning what he could from Livre and helping with the commissions submitted to the workshop. Livre even showed Carman some trick on how to work on hard to reach areas of Mekas using tools like screwdrivers that ranged from a foot to meter in length and long tweezers.
After finishing for the day and helping Livre tidy up the workshop, Carman left. Using some of the money he had saved up from what Livre paid for his work, Carman bought some chicken skewers and sunsettia juice from a nearby stall on his way home.
His measures to ensure nobody followed him home had become second nature, and no casual pedestrian noticed as Carman Stealthily moved to the usual stack of crates.
Once he was in his home, Carman dropped off the empty juice bottle in the space allocated for glass objects. Moving to his "bed" Carman sat down and opened his system pannel and navigated to the quests tab.
The only quests left avalable were:
[ Main Quest: Achieve Level 1]
[Quest: Earn 1500 Mora]
[Host has completed Quest(s): [Earn 1500 Mora]. Generate rewards?
Yes/No]
Finally clicking the yes button, the system responded with.
[Generating rewards]
-ding-
[Congratulations to host on receiving: 100 System Points, 50 exp, and a pouch containing 50,000 Mora]
"Finally, now I should have enough to level up" Carman said as he finally navigated to the [Status] tab
[ [Status]
Name: Carman [removed]
Titles: [locked]
Level: 0
Exp: 0/100 [+]
Avalable Exp: 100 [+]
Stats:
Str: 5
Dex: 7
Con: 5
Int: 20
Wis: 22
Chr: 4
[Avalable stat points: 5 (locked)]
[Skills: Locked] ]
"Huh so that's what my stats are, kinda weird to see my mental stats are that much higher compared to my physical ones, but I guess it makes sense since I've been reincarnated and have experience and thought processes from my past life." Carman muttered to himself as he observed his stats. "Whelp, let's get this over with"
Clicking the [+] button next to the Exp tank under his level Carman was greeted with another system screen
[Add Exp: 000 [↑] [↑ Max] [↓] [↓ Max]
[Confirm]]
Selecting the [↑ Max] button followed by the conformation button, Carman was greeted with another pop up.
[Host has accumulated the amount of Experience needed to level up to level: (1).
Do you wish to level up now?
[Yes/No]]
Clicking yes, Carman was blissfully unaware of what was coming for him.
Another window popped up. "Damn this is getting annoying," Carman muttered regarding all of the popups.
-Ding-
[Congratulations host for reaching level 1, host has unlocked additional [Status] functions, you have earned 1 Special Gatcha ticket and 3 free stat points]
-Ding-
[Host has earned the title(s): [Descender], [Clockwork Engineer: Trainee], [Clockwork Engineer: Apprentice], [Survivor], [StreetRat]. See [status] pannel for details]
-Ding-
[Host has learned skill(s): [Glass Chipping(E): LV: 0→3], [Stealth(E): LV: 0→ 5], [Hunting(E): LV:0→3], [Clockwork Engineering(D): LV:0→2], [Elemental Sense(S): LV:0→1) [Descender(EX): LV: MAX]. See [Status] for details.]
Having his vision almost completely obstructed and almost deafened by the amount of dinging from the system, Carman swiped all of them away.
-ding-
"F%¢£!!!" Shouted Carman from the sudden pop up, "I thought it was over."
[Congratulations Host for completeing the quest(s):[Main Quest: Achieve Level 1]
Generate rewards?
[Yes/No]]
It's finally over, just one or two more pop ups for now. Thought Carman, half muttering while recovering from the spamming of notifications.
-Ding-
[Congratulations host on receiving: Welcome Package [300 Skill Exp, Skill:[Steady Hands LV: 1], 30,000 Mora, 15 Special Gatcha Tickets.], 300 System Points, 10 Special Gatcha tickets. New quests are avalable in the [Quests]tab.]
"It's finally over." Muttered Carman, "That was exhausting, I wonder what the Special Gatcha is. Might as well pull these in celebration, I'm not really the type of guy who saves up for those things anyway." Said Carman half mocking his past self who was too impatient to save intertwined fates and wished in every new banner he could.
Pulling up the [Gatcha] tab, he found that it was unlocked and navigated from the [Normal Gatcha] which seemed to give him random items from around Teyvat with a cap on 4* items. The [Special Gatcha] only said, "Pulls items, any star or rank, there is no limit to what this Gatcha can draw. Underneath, there was a tag saying.
[First 10 pull, get one free>
Might as well thought Carman as he pressed the 10 pull option.
[Pulling (10)(+1) items from the [Special Gatcha] please wait.]
-Ding-
[Host has received:
[10x small brass cogs (f)]
...
[E Rank Blueprint: Steam Sewing machine]
...
[3* Spear: Black Tassel]
...
[30x 3* Slime Concentrate (Electro)]
...
[30x 3* Condessence Crystal]
...
[40x 3* Iron Ore]
...
[6* Irminsul Resin Receptacle]
...
[5x Greater health Potion]
...
[3x 3* Chaos Circuit]
...
[1* Dull Blade]
...
[Pulling extra Draw]
...
-Ding-
[EX Rank: Initial Y-Series 001 + Containment Unit]
Please refer to [Item Storage] for further details.]
Intial Y-Series, why does that ring a bell... Thought Carman as he dug through what he could remember from his previous life. It wasn't from his memories playing genshin impact that he found his answer though, and after he gave up and was about to go to sleep he got his answer.
Wait... Wasn't that from the first anime I watched. What was it... Bah, it's been so long that I've forgotten the name, but wasn't 001, supposed to be a cold yandere maid? Crud, whelp I'll deal with that tomorrow..
To be continued...
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Blasopher
Blasopher
Hello everyone,
So my exam happily did not mess with my posting schedule too much, thank you for all the well wishes and support so far. A Happy Easter to anyone who celebrates it, even if you don't, I hope you have had a pleasant weekend.
if you are interested where "Initial Y-Series 001 is from, she is from a manga and anime named "Clockwork Planet." Which just so happens to be the first anime I watched, and damn looking back as an adult, there were so many messed up things in that show that flew over my naive mind back then. While the version in this story will start out the same as the one in the manga and show, I plan to have her take a different development path, as it progresses. Please wait for the next chapter to see how Carman handles this situation before passing judgement.
Best regards to everyone, and as always please comment on ways you think I can improve the story. I am always open to feedback and advice.
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