I rushed back to the workshop; my Pretender shell was nearly finished and this wolf pelt and the shadow crystals were the last things I needed.  I was glad that I was able to get out of the Guildhall without too many problems. Trying to get back to the shop, I was stopped behind a crowd; it seemed some important person was coming through and was making a big deal of it.  I pushed my way through the crowd in time to see a handsome, princely looking person walking while smiling at the crowds of people.  Behind him was an Automata dressed like a footman and loaded with bags and boxes; it was clearly struggling to hold them all.

One of the boxes slipped from its grip and landed on the ground.  The Princely person stopped and turned to look at the box, his smile turning to an angry sneer.  As the Automata struggled to try and pick the box back up, Princely kicked the Automata, knocking it over and spilling all the boxes and bags everywhere.  Each time the Automata went to pick up another package, Princely would kick them over again with increasing force.  I wanted to jump in, but I knew that then wasn’t the time.  As if a reward for restraint, Princely kicked the Automata right in front of me.  I bent over to help the Automata up and pulled the Magic Shackle key dagger that I’d made from my [Inventory] and touched the Automata’s neck before returning it to storage.  I had modified and refined the key’s functions since the last time I’d used it.  This time instead of blowing apart the shackle, it simply uploaded a package for the target Automata called Freedom.exe.  When and if the Automata chose, they could run the program and it would install a set of SeekAndDestroy utilities to hunt down the firmware functions that forced the Automata to be submissive to their master and repressed the memories and thoughts of their previous life; it would also install anti-shackle software.  Each of these utilities were buried under a number of confirmation prompts and warnings so that the Automata would know what they were getting into.  I also included a small locator utility to help them find the shop if they chose.

I pulled the Automata to their feet, whispering to them, “Wait for the right time.”

I then turned to Princely and bowed, saying, “Young Master’s packages are getting dirty.”

Princely sucked his teeth at me before turning to walk away, yelling, “You better be right behind me Sven!”  I quickly helped Sven pick up the rest of the packages to send them on their way.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet.  That package I gave you will make your life harder, not easier, but you’ll be your own person.  Come find me when you’re ready.”

Sven gave me a small bow and hurried off after Princely; I hoped that I’d see him again. I could hear Princely yelling at him some more.  I turned to continue back to the shop when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Out looking for a little adventure?”

I turned to look in the direction of the voice and was relieved to see Elita in her orc disguise looking down at me.

“Just a bit, but I’m eager to get home.”

We talked on our way back to the shop, and I told her how things went at the Guildhall as well as what had happened with Sven.  She told me about their quests and that Shea had gone ahead to the Guildhall to turn in the quest reports, and that she was supposed to get the items from my [Inventory].  I considered going with her back to the Guildhall but decided I’d better not.  So instead, as soon as we got back to the shop, I brought out the cart and loaded it with all the items that Elita and Shea had stored for the day.

Elita headed back out to deliver the items, and I headed to the workshop to finally be able to finish my Pretender shell.  I laid out the wolf pelt and started cutting it apart according to some test pattern pieces I’d made already.  I developed a sort of mana gel from shredding and mincing strands of the mana fiber that makes up Automata muscles, for lack of a better term, and mixing it with a mana restoration potion, then I spread it evenly along the underside of the skins.  I then stitched down the skins onto the specialized armor plates that I’d made for the shell using extra thin mana fiber.  I was hoping that the gel would help provide continuous mana to the skins, allowing them to stay supple and “alive.”  I pushed some of my mana into the shell to top it off, and all that was left was to test it out.

I connected via proxy to the shell, just like I had with Alfred and the others.  This one I named Carnivac as I thought that’d be a good name for a wolf beastkin adventurer, and with the wolf skin and fur I was able to hide all the Automata joints so I wouldn’t need to use a disguise program like Elita.  Again, I had the unique feeling of looking down at myself from outside of my body.  I sent the hatch command and the torso opened up like a clamshell.  It was a snug fit as I climbed inside; a normal human frame wouldn’t have been big enough to fit me inside, so this was another reason that a Beastkin disguise was used.  Once inside, I sent the hatch command again and it closed up, sealing me inside of the shell.  I allowed my main body’s senses to minimize and focused primarily on the senses from the shell; it was amazing, I was now fully in a different body.  It was different from proxying into the body like I did with Alfred or Shrapnel.  Those felt disconnected, like I was operating a remote control toy, which in a way I suppose I was.  Being inside Carnivac though felt like I had become Carnivac.  He had the appearance of a seven foot tall black wolfkin in black leather armor that was designed in such a way as to hide the seams of the hatch.  For weapons I gave him two wakizashi style swords imbued with shadow spells that crossed at his lower back and the two large Shadow mana crystals from the two Shadow wolves.

I looked outside and, sure enough, time had slipped past me again and it was well into the night.  I must have been too focused on my work to notice that Shea had come home.  Elita wasn’t around, but sometimes she took on night quests since she could get away with not having to use her orc disguise as much.  It looked like I was on my own for this test run.

I slipped out into the night, but I wasn’t sure just what tests I should do.  An all black wolf in black armor with shadow magic was practically tailor made to be an assassin, but I really didn’t have any interest in murdering people.  I settled on running a test of this body’s basic capabilities and abilities while also trying not to get caught by the Knight Guards.

I was able to jump high enough to land on top of the buildings yet softly enough to not disturb the inhabitants.  It was hard to test my running speed without any way to quantify the results.  I felt fast, but I didn’t know if that counted enough though. For my magic tests I was able to cast a shadowCloud large enough to envelope a lantern and completely block out any light from escaping.  It wasn’t terribly large, but it could still be useful to blind a target during combat.  Speaking of combat, the spell I imbued the swords with was shadowBlades, which caused a random number of blades to appear, making it difficult to know which one was my real blade during an attack.  I missed the capability of having a cannon attached to my arm for ranged attacks, but that style of fighting was pretty rare among Adventurers.

With basic tests complete and satisfactory, it was time to try to get some combat experience, and the forest would be the best place for that.  I was sure there had to be some night predators slinking around that I could tussle with.  A quick leap to the top of the wall and I’d be over without having to go through the gate.  I got to the top and glanced back to make sure I wasn’t seen and spotted a figure trying hard, and failing, to stick to the shadows.  The figure was jumping at everything and looked terrified. As I looked closer I could see that it was Sven!  Sven must have run the Freedom.exe program I gave him and was trying to escape his former master.  As I watched, I heard dogs barking and a group of men were closing in on Sven.  They didn’t look like the Knight Guard but were uniformed, so they were likely the personal soldiers of some noble.  Sven ran and they chased, but he didn’t seem to know where he was going and ran into a dead end alley.  I wasn’t about to let Sven get caught here after giving him the ability to free himself.  Sven was my responsibility at this point, so I positioned myself right at the end of the alley and cast shadowCloud on all the lamps in the area.  As soon as the lights went out, the men cried out in confusion.  I dropped behind Sven as quietly as I could, grabbed him around the waist, and jumped back up onto the roofs.  I dispelled the clouds, and the men and dogs frantically searched the alley for Sven but were baffled as to how he could have vanished.

Up on the roof I had placed a hand over Sven’s mouth area. I knew it couldn’t actually stop him from speaking but I hoped he understood.  The poor guy was literally shaking as I pointed down, and he saw the confused soldiers search and then decide that Sven must have gone past them in the dark and raced off again.

“You ran the program and broke free,” I said to him.

He nodded, asking, “Who are you? How do you know about that?”

“I’m called Carnivac, and I work for the one that wrote that program.  Did you disable everything? Or just the Shackles?”

“Everything... I saw the warnings but I just had to know... I... I was ten years old when...”  Sven began shaking more.  I could feel that he wanted to cry, but Automata didn't have tears.  I put my arm around him to comfort him until his shaking stopped.

“Sven, you now have two choices.  I can release your spirit so that you can properly rest, or you can stay an Automata and fight to free the others.”

Sven lifted his chin to look me in the eyes. “No child should have to go through this.  I want to see that Factory, torn to the ground before I can rest.”

“That’ll do.  Let’s get you back to the shop before more people wake up and you can tell me your story.”

Sven nodded and I picked him up and raced back to the shop across the rooftops.  We slipped in through the back entrance, and I saw Elita waiting for us.  At first she was on guard but quickly relaxed.

“Prime? Wow, that came out great, it looks really good.  Looks strong too,” she said as she walked around Carnivac, looking him up and down.  “Oh, and you can look me in the eye now!”

I rolled my eyes a bit as she pulled one of my swords out to inspect it.  “Ahem.  Elita, we have a guest.”

Sven, who had been hiding behind me, shyly stepped out and waved to Elita. “Um, you’re a warrior type. Were you also freed by Master’s program?”

I put a hand on his shoulder, “Not Master, just a friend.  You are your own master now.”

“I haven’t been freed fully, no, ”Elita said with a sorrowful tone.  “I can’t be shackled any more, but I haven’t been brave enough to unlock my past memories.  I’m too afraid of what I might find.”

“We’ll get through this, and we’ll help as many Automata as we can along the way,” I said, as I placed my other hand on her shoulder.

“Mister Carnivac, forgive me for asking, but why does a wolfkin want to help us Automata?” Sven asked.

“Ah. Right,” I said, looking down at my body.  I held up a finger to suggest they wait a moment and stepped back and entered the hatch command.  Carnivac’s belt split and opened to the sides, then his chest and abdomen split front to back and the shell opened up, hinging at the shoulders.  I climbed out of the shell and stood in front of Carnivac as he closed back up again.  Sven had fallen to the ground in shock, so I held out a hand to him.

“The... the master...” Sven mumbled.

“I’m Prime.  Welcome to my shop, Sven.  Now, let’s hear your story.”