Sven started with the easier, more recent stuff and told us about his life as an Automata.  He had woken up in a factory room of some kind, all of his senses were dulled, and he was unable to tell what was going on around him; it was a very confusing time for him.  It seemed to go on for a long time; there would be periods of murky light and long periods of darkness with occasional vague feelings of being transported from time to time.  Then one day all of his senses came alive and he was able to see and hear and feel what was going on around him.  This rush of sensation felt like joy to finally experience things.  He found himself in what he now knew to be the living room of the local lord.  Before him was the lord’s son, age 6 at the time, and he could feel a thorny tendril of magic connecting him to this child.  The magic wrapped itself around Sven’s mind and bound him and searing pain blinded him, but it only lasted for a moment.  When it passed he could feel the will of this child crushing down on his own, telling him that his name was Sven.

Over the years, he had functioned as the child’s attendant and playmate.  Though the child could be kind to others, he liked to break his toys and would often vent both frustrations and his sadistic impulses out on Sven.  Any time that Sven would think about resisting the orders of the master, that searing pain would return.  It wasn’t until Prime gave him the Freedom.exe package that Sven began to think on his own again after such a very long time.

For his time before becoming an Automata, there wasn’t much to tell.  He had been born in the kingdom of Trone to a poor couple that could barely keep themselves fed, let alone a child.  His parents had given him the name Shiro, but not much more.  When the man from the Automata factory came, he offered to buy Shiro from his parents.  The man said that Shiro would be taken care of and wouldn’t have to worry about being hungry again, but that he would be working for the company.  His parents agreed, assured that Shiro would be taken care of, and accepted the meager payment.  Shiro was allowed to say goodbye to his family and was taken to the factory.  Once there, he was brought to a dining room where many other children were sitting and waiting.  They were brought bowls of soup and told to eat; all of the children were from poor families and hungry so they didn’t question it.  He remembered feeling very sleepy as they were led to a large room filled with beds.  He laid down, fell asleep, and that was the last thing he remembered before waking up as an Automata.

Elita and I sat and absorbed Sven’s story. After a while I asked him: “what would you like to be called? The name you have now, Sven, or the name you had as a child, Shiro?”

“Sven is the name that my former master forced on me.  I think I would prefer to use the name that my parents gifted me, Shiro.”

“That settles it then.  It’s nice to meet you, Shiro.”

“That’s me! I’m Shiro!” Shiro started shaking again in that way I now associated with his body trying to cry.

Morning came and shortly after I could hear the sounds of Shea moving about upstairs getting ready for the day.  Elita would be going with her to the Guild to pick up more quests; I was intending to go with them as Carnivac to register and join their party, but that would have to wait till I got Shiro settled.  Now that Shiro was here, I had to figure out what to do with him.  I’d give him a body upgrade and change, of course, so that he could move about without having an issue with his former master.  I wasn’t sure what to do for him yet, though.  Shiro wasn’t a fighter and had spent his whole life as an attendant, so it would be hard to give him combat abilities and expect him to be an adventurer.

My thoughts must have shown on my face, though without expressions I’m not sure how.

“I’m afraid I don’t know anything about fighting,” Shiro said, “but I’m an excellent cook... though Automata don’t eat...”

The poor guy wanted to be useful, but I assured him that he still had a lot of emotional baggage to unpack, so there was no need to rush into anything.

“I know, but I can’t just sit around doing nothing after all that you’ve done for me.”

“Hmm, how would you feel about minding the shop? You could be our front clerk and be in charge of dealing with customers, making sales, keeping things tidy, and so on.  You could also be our purchasing representative for dealing with the Guild to get materials for magic tools.”

“I think I would quite like that.  Though wouldn’t they take issue with having to deal with an Automata?”

“That’s true, and you’re too tall to fit into a Pretender shell like Carnivac here.  I could rebuild your exterior with a Cloak() disguise like Elita, but it uses up a lot of mana to keep it going...”

I tapped my chin thinking about it, and then I remembered seeing a dragonewt in the market the other day and got an idea for how I could rebuild Shiro’s body.  I told him about my idea and he was interested, though skeptical; now I just needed to get my hands on a fair amount of fresh lizard skin.  In the meantime, I gave Shiro a simple faceplate swap and some minor tweaks so that he wouldn’t be immediately recognized if someone came in the shop.  I introduced him to Alfred, Rom, Ram, and Shrapnel and explained how they were remote proxy bodies for me so that even if I went out as Carnivac, I’d still be here at the shop with him.  At first it freaked him out, which was to be expected, but then he found it reassuring that he wouldn’t be left alone.

I suited up as Carnivac and headed out, while Alfred showed Shiro the store and got him acquainted with how things worked and what our inventory was.  Shiro was eager to learn as well as eager to please, but we took it easy. Later, Rom and Ram would show Shiro how the magic tools were made.

As Carnivac, I made my way through the market; it was still mid-morning, but there was a lot of activity.  People were buying ingredients for tonight’s dinner, or buying new equipment before they headed out on their quests.  It was interesting the looks I got.

As Prime, I would get a glance or two at most, but any sort of meaningful looks were all from other Automata.  As Carnivac, on the other hand, I got a lot of looks from a lot of people.  Some of admiration, some of fear, some sizing me up and deciding if they could take me or not.  I was approached by a group of dog children, at least I think they were children, that asked me all sorts of questions ranging from my weapons, to my Adventurer rank, to if I ate people.  I decided that Carnivac would be the strong silent type, so he mostly ignored them or gave them short answers.

By the time I got to the Guildhall, they had dispersed.  I went inside, but most of the Adventurers had already cleared out and had gone on their respective quests.  The receptionist welcomed me and waved me over; it was quite different from the last time I was here.  I walked over and leaned down on the counter to talk to him.  I had never seen his type of race before; he looked mostly human though with a glittery, golden hue to his skin, bone ridges along his forearms and brow and tiny horns protruding from his forehead.  Rather than hair on his head, he had golden feathers.  It was as if someone started out with a demon but was trying really hard to make it look angelic.

“Welcome to the Urd Guildhall, I’m Talios, how can I help you?”

He was beautiful, really there was no other way to say it, and his voice was sweet and effeminate.  Maybe I was wrong about the “he” part?

“My name is Carnivac, I’m from a village in the mountains beyond the forest.  I’d like to register as an Adventurer.”

“Of course, Mr. Carnivac.  Please place your hand upon this crystal and channel some of your mana into it.  It will determine your magic affinity as well as create an impression of you that we will embed into your Adventurer tag.”

I placed my hand onto the crystal as asked, but I couldn’t help being nervous about what it would find.  I gave it a bit of mana and it glowed and swirled before taking on a dark black color.  I looked at Talios, but this didn’t seem to concern them in the least.  Talios then took an ornate metal plate that was attached to a thin chain and touched it to the crystal.  Again, light swirled around and all of the dark color seemed to seep into the metal plate.

“All ready, Mr. Carnivac; that will be a two gold service fee.”

I had expected a fee, though I didn’t realize it was so expensive.  Still I paid the required amount and he handed over the plate.

“That is your Adventurer tag; be sure to keep it on you, as it will serve as your identification as well as show us your status.  You’re all set as a Rank E Adventurer.  Would you like me to explain how the ranking works?”

“Um, no, that’s fine.  How does it show you my status?”

“Please channel a bit of your mana into the tag, Mr. Carnivac.”

I did as asked and a status screen appeared above the plate, not unlike the screens I saw when I used [Console].

----------

Name: Carnivac

Magic: Shadow

Health: 50/50

Status: Available

Strength: 5

Skills:

Titles:

----------

It was pretty neat to see it all summed up like in a video game, and I was really relieved that the crystal only seemed to be able to read the status that I’d given Carnivac and not my own.

“As you can see, all of the basic information is included.  If you have any other questions, be sure to ask.  Most of the quests have been snatched up already by our morning crowd, so I don’t have much available for you.

“You seem like you’d be more interested in subjugation quests rather than gathering quests.  It’s above your rank at C, but you look strong and I have faith in you”, (S)He said with a wink, “There is a Flame Centipede that has been attacking travelers on the road to Trone, near the far edge of the forest.  It should take you a couple days to get there and back, but the reward is five gold and fifty rank points; we will purchase any materials you are able to bring back.

“There is a one gold deposit for each rank above yours, so since this is two ranks higher than yours and it will be a two gold deposit.  The deposit will be returned upon completion; however, if you are unable to complete it or die, then the deposit is forfeited.  Would you like to accept this quest?”

“One gold deposit per rank? What if the reward is less than that?”

“The deposit remains the same, but the trade off is that the rank points double for every rank class above your own, so taking higher rank quests is the best way to rank up faster.”

“I see.”

“So... Do you feel up to the task? A big guy like you, I’m sure you’ll have no problem with a little centipede.”

“Sure.”

“Excellent.” Talios produced a paper that had all the quest information on it and indicated that I touch my Adventurer Tag to the page after collecting my deposit.

When I did, the page changed to show that the quest had been taken on by me.  The status on my tag screen also changed to On Quest id8846465.  It was a neat system, and I wouldn’t mind inspecting it some time to see how it was set up.

I bid Talios goodbye and headed back home.  I wanted to team up with Shea and Elita, but I’d have to officially join their party first and they had already headed out on a quest of their own.

In no time, I was through the gates and headed towards the forest on my first proper adventure in this new world.  I couldn’t help but be excited and told Shiro via Alfred where I was headed and how long I expected to be gone.  When I returned, I’d have a nice surprise for Shiro, so he should look forward to it.  I took off running at full speed through the forest.  Since I didn’t need to eat or sleep and had nearly unlimited mana, it shouldn’t take me nearly as long as an organic Adventurer.  I should get there in no time, ready to take on this Fire Centipede.