The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

After recovering from the party, Gold and Weslie headed to the Research Instance where Ayse and the other fellow Humanoid researchers were doing work. Gold introduced Weslie as the inventor of the Steam Technology which made Ayse incredibly furious at the sound of that.

"YOU KNOW HOW DIFFICULT IT WAS TO SORT YOUR STUFF!!" Ayse voice boomed, but Weslie stood her ground without wavering. That was when she calmly asked the Head Researcher to show her the inventory. Even the Scholar of the West was baffled by the number of parts salvaged by the System.

But with a quick glance, Weslie understood how Ayse sorted them and realised what she had done was too inefficiently. "I see where the problem is. You are sorting base of similar designs, but that is not the underlying concept of Steam Tech. It will give you a headache considering how much the System had accumulated. So instead of that, sort via this particular serial number instead." Weslie said and explained that while the serial number and the designs of the Steam Tech differ, the materials used as well as the engine used were the same.

"In that case, System is able to sort the various Steam Tech Parts for the Research Team without too much of a hassle as compared to the previous iteration of sorting." The System replied and lifted the entire warehouse worth of Steam Tech. Suddenly, everything disappeared in a blink of an eye and appeared again within a moment's notice.

Now, the Steam Tech parts were placed according to their serial numbers as suggested by the inventor and Weslie showed them how the various editions of the Steam Tech items were improved. Some of the Humanoid Researchers were interested in combining the Steam Tech and the Lost Tech together so they could use it for Jin's new Mecha if it were possible for the Mecha World.

Surely, if Jin would to accidentally 'kidnap' someone from the Mecha World, they could utilise the Mecha World's knowledge as well and further enhance the machines. But for now, it was meant to improve the engines of Sandroku Golems or for future designs.

In the meantime, Ayse had a few questions for the Weslie since ever since she had begun tinkering with the Steam Tech. But the first and more pertaining question was that one Steam Tech Part that the Goblins had found.

The bug looking Steam Tech.

Weslie took a long time to inspect it and then recalled making this particular steam tech part. "Isn't this from one of the specialists? One of you managed to defeat a specialist?" The Scholar of the West was in awe that this new Master she was serving had minions powerful enough to rival one of the elites that the North and South Scholars had to offer.

"Indeed, not just one, but two of them." Ayse smiled as she brought out the Steam Tech items that were related to those two Elite Demon Rats.

"I see…I did some individual tweaking for them, but I produced it under a spell so I could not remember much. I can try to reverse engineer this particular Steam Tech to the best of my ability." Weslie said, and Gold felt suspicious about what she just said.

"You were under a spell?" he asked with some concern.

"Yea, there was a period where I refused to do under their bidding, seeing how they had so much firepower in their hands already. North and South used more of their necromancy magic to control my emotions and body, demanding me to fulfil their orders." Weslie said, and at that moment, Ayse was curious.

"I wonder…why do you two speak as if they were still revered as the Scholar of the North and South? Can't you just say their names." Ayse asked as she walked them out of the warehouse and back into the main lab.

"For me, it simply infuriates me to use their names. That's all." Gold said, and Weslie nodded her head in agreement. "If you wish to know. Nathan Welihelm for the North or as I called him Whinyhelm. Douglas Olgret for the South. Did not expect Douglas to collude with Whinyhelm. I thought he had more backbone than North." Gold felt as if he had said some taboo words and refused to speak more about them.

Ayse somehow understood what they were going through and kept quiet until they reach the front of a locked room within the main lab.

"I had placed whatever Gold taken from the basement of the factory to this room. While we initially wanted you to continue spying for us against Nath- The North and South Scholars, we figured it would be useless since Gold literally TOOK everything from the basement before returning back to the System." Ayse complained while eyeing at the guilty werejackal.

"Ehhhh, when Kraft and the System said to take her stuff, I did assume everything I deemed valuable and throw them in the storage ring…" Gold replied while scratching his head.

"Besides, when Kraft killed both the demons, they should have known that you would have defected or at least not survive since the link to keep you alive was destroyed."

"Sorry Ayse, he can be quite dumb for a scholar at times. I do not mind either way. At the very least, I can work the stuff I want in peace." Weslie replied with a relieved smile.

"Just not this piece of junk…" She said as she held the bug looking Steam Tech. The Scholar of the West did at least promise that she would look into it and reverse engineer if possible.

"What are you previously interested in? You seem well versed in mechatronics, and so I assumed you would want to work more with it." Ayse asked which Gold sniggled and shook his head.

"She liked to rear animals. The Western Region of the Farming World is famous for its quality of erm…animal meat." Gold said and as if the System were eavesdropping from plain sight, spoke out of hand.

"System wished to fund Scholar of the West her research should she able to increase the yield and quality of the animal products." The System said which frightened Weslie as it came out of nowhere.

"User or in your case, Master had created a sector solely for animal rearing. Should Scholar of the West able to increase the rearing capabilities of the Agriculture Sector, it would be greatly appreciated. Rewards shall be given out appropriately as well." The System added, and Weslie agreed to it without any hesitation.

"Then I shall hurry the reverse engineering of this Steam Tech." The new girl in the block replied while turning back to Ayse and told her that if she needed any help with the Steam Tech, just holler for her.

The System then quietly asked Weslie if she was able to continue engineer the Steam Tech for other purposes, it would increase the rewards for her as well, though it was not a priority. Weslie said that she would not rule it out entirely and get back to the System in the near future once she had familiarise herself with the new environment.

As she bid Gold goodbye to perform her research, Ayse pulled him to the side. "So, any progress? You guys did wake up in the same bed, right? Or that was what I heard from Milk."

"Nothing happened!… yet." Gold said in a shy tone. Ayse smirked and used her elbow to hit his arm.

"Heh. That's a decent enough response from you. Looking forward to seeing progress in the future. I heard that Kraft have some psychedelic drugs that might induce an increase in hormonal response. Love Potion if you are not as dumb as Weslie says. You can ask for it from him if you want to …you know speed things up." Ayse said with a wink before leaving him.

"I would love to… -WAIT! I AM NOT DUMB!" Gold shouted before looking far into the glass door where Weslie was wearing a new lab coat and noticed that he was staring at her. She pouted and demanded him to shoo off which he shyly waved and walked away. (Oh that jackal did blush a little too.)

"But first, let's end this terrible Demon Rat occupation and make sure no one else will suffer like we did." Gold said to himself as he returned back to his mansion to coordinate the next stage of operations.