Kaleb put his welding torch down and checked the seam. He wasn't that great at welding, apparently, but he was just doing a few touch up jobs on his car's frame. Daivor would come in behind him and smooth out his work with magic, anyway. Really, Kaleb was just hoping for a welding skill or something. But he had mostly completed the job and still had received nothing.

He checked the length of the car's frame as he stretched his legs a little. The solid hunk of metal that was the skeleton of his old car was sitting proudly on the ground in front of the hangar. An enormous pile of metal by its side. He and Roy had moved the interior of the car inside as he got to work. Meanwhile, his two other apprentices helped as well. Terrance had taken apart the old engine and salvaged what he could. While Marie took the excess metal and used it to forge the orders that had come in.

He spread his arms wide and leaned back, stretching his body as he envisioned the work ahead. He was sure the other members of the guild had taken it easy on him with the patrol schedule. Either to facilitate his fulfilling of the NPCs orders or so he could focus on his car. He was both grateful and annoyed at them for it. He was happy to focus on his crafting for a bit, but he also wanted the patrols to break up the monotony a bit. But he got what he got.

Now he was stuck waiting for his first patrol of the day while he puttered away at odd jobs. The scanner was with Farrah now, so that job was close to completion. The kids were handling the NPC orders, so that was also not something he needed to worry about. But his workshop was now an active forge dedicated to fulfilling weapon and armor orders. Both a blessing and a curse. If he was going to rebuild his car, he was going to need to work some metal. But that was out for now.

Of course, there were dozens of little things he wanted to add to his new vehicle as well. Things for Milly. He had planned to build his new car out with the little marmot in mind. Something she could really settle into and boost to her heart's desire. That meant better shocks, better insulation, and an engine that wouldn't fry once the little critter got her power into it. Said critter was three feet away from Kaleb, laying next to the tarmac and basking in the sun. He could see her stomach rising and falling as she took her nap, and Kaleb grinned.

"Lazy diva." Daivor grumbled.

Kaleb rolled his eyes as he returned his glance to the skeleton of his car. There were so many little things to do with the car that Kaleb really didn't know where to start. Fixing the frame seemed obvious. But now that it was done, he couldn't decide if he wanted to begin by rewiring the internals, washing off the seats, or hunting down a new engine. Not to mention the other minor jobs that needed to be done to get the car back in shape.

He glanced down at his Familiar. "What do you think?"

"I think you need to pick a spot and settle in already. It took you ten minutes to start welding because you were overthinking things. No one is saying you have to eat the whole elephant, but you at least have to start taking bites! Seriously, pick a section of the car's console and start there. Or maybe go through the salvaged metal and see what can be reused to enclose the frame."

"What about the drive-line and the transmission?"

"The drive-line, differential, and shaft are fine, if a little scorched. The tires are fucked, and the transmission imploded or exploded depending on how you want to describe what that varmint of yours did."

"So we need a new transmission as well." Kaleb groaned, thinking of his dwindling credits.

"Yes! We already knew this was going to be a big job, boss! So all we can do is get to it! What in the hell is the holdup?"

Kaleb sighed as he put his hands on his hips and looked at the frame of his car. "I'm just not feeling it. I mean, this is fun and all, but that thrill isn't there right now. That spark."

"Oh, I'll give you a damn spark." Daivor growled, producing a flame on his forefinger.

Kaleb raised a hand as the diminutive gnome approached. "Hey now! Relax. I'm just saying the mood isn't right or whatever. You know, you can't force these things. Work forced is work done badly. I mean, just look at those welds. We both know I have steadier hands than that, but for some reason, my heart just isn't in it."

Daivor stopped creeping closer and snuffed the fire out of his finger. "Fine! Then what is his lordship going to do today, I wonder."

Kaleb searched his mind and scanned through his many projects. He could also rush to help the kids finish their workload for the day. But that felt kind of like the teacher doing a kid's homework. Even as he brought things to mind, nothing sparked that special feeling he was searching for, though. So instead he brought up his character sheet to glance over things. Maybe something there would jog a feeling loose. As he looked over things, he decided it had been too long since he checked in on his stats.

He hadn't received any big boosts in skill level or stats. But something he had been neglecting was his Research Point total. Normally, the points were spent as he built gadgets and other things. But Kaleb had just let the number rise and fall as it would. Now, however, he felt like his eyes were drawn to the number sitting there, writ large under his Defense total.

"125 points." Kaleb whispered to himself.

The number stuck with him even as his feet turned him back toward the hangar. He gave a little whistle as Daivor swung up to perch on his arm. He felt Milly grumbling as she ran after him and then merged into his arm before going back to sleep. Kaleb carefully navigated around the NPCs in the hangar as he walked straight for his workshop and opened the door. He closed his status window out as the door swung shut behind him and walked, in a fugue, toward his workbench. Getting himself seated, Kaleb brought up his terminal's screen and scanned through a few old ideas he had.

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As he scrolled around, he found the old notes he and Daivor took on the various cybernetic arms they'd acquired. He turned to his right and glanced at the well-stocked shelf. Immediately, he spotted the bin full of arms just sitting there. From his shoulder, he heard Daivor grunt as the sound of a match echoed in Kaleb's ear.

"You are past due for an upgrade. Even more so than your car."

"And they are both for Milly."

"Don't ruin this," Daivor grunted again around his pipe.

"Seriously, you two are going to have to make peace at some point."

Daivor scoffed as inside him Kaleb felt Milly's emotions didn't veer far from Daivor's own. He rolled his eyes at the pair and quickly crossed the room to collect the bin full of arms. Roy and Terrance gave him odd looks, but Marie stayed focus as she worked. Kaleb waved the two boys off as he upended the bucket on his workbench. He cross-referenced what he had versus what was in his notes and quickly started separating things. Daivor moved to the tabletop to help as Milly phased out of his arm. The gnome and the marmot ignored each other as they each examined the collection of arms. Daivor was clearly checking for damage while Milly…

CRASH

BANG

CLINK

Kaleb hurried to catch the falling arms as Milly batted a few more off the desk. Daivor dove at the rodent and pulled her back away from the pile. Milly squeaked and whistled angrily as Kaleb waved the others in the room off. The marmot had clearly disliked the arms for some reason. He put the small collection of robotic limbs back on the table as he glared down at the still-struggling creature. Daivor had a triumphant look on his face, even as the critter tried to wrestle away from him.

"I told you, boss. She's a menace."

Kaleb rolled his eyes again. "Daivor, we both know she didn't do that without cause. Let her go."

Daivor growled as he released the struggling marmot. Milly got up on all four paws and then gave the gnome a withering look before turning her ire on the collection of arms Kaleb had put back on the table. Kaleb put his own robotic arm in her path as he tried to find an explanation in the Fulgravit's feelings. Milly, being the smart cookie that she was, immediately picked up on what he wanted. So she stood back on her hind legs and glared angrily at the arms she had kicked off the table. Then she sniffed the air and pretended to smell something bad. Her tiny pink tongue stuck out in disgust as she fell back to all four paws and pretended to dive into an arm. But instead of phasing into the cybernetic device, Milly bounced off it and pantomimed staggering away drunkenly.

Kaleb slowly nodded as he started to get it, while Daivor scoffed in derision.

"Of course! Little miss furry britches has standards." The gnome said, biting his pipe.

"Well, it makes sense. It is, technically, going to be her home. But what if she does to my arm what she did to my car? She's literally the best one to tell if the thing can handle her… power." Kaleb nodded as Milly continued to go through the arms, sniffing and miming disgust.

Kaleb quickly got another empty bin and put the discarded arms away. Milly whistled happily as she turned and started scrutinizing the rest of their collection. Daivor grumbled continually, but Kaleb could see that the gnome was watching the marmot closely to see what she preferred. Soon, between Milly and Daivor, they managed to collect seven cybernetic arms together and present them to Kaleb. He looked over the collection and quickly discounted two, as they were more frames than arms. He set them aside, hoping he could pull something from them later. Milly watched the pair with her beady blue eyes before she glanced at the remaining five. Immediately, the rodent dove toward the largest of the cybernetic limbs and crawled on top of it, clearly showing her choice.

Daivor bit down on his pipe and scowled. "That's the one I would've chosen too. It'll take some work, but a lot of the synth-muscle is already installed, and the actuators look brand new. In fact, if I was a betting gnome, I'd say that it was a prototype Mil-spec arm."

Kaleb looked at the deep black coloring of the arm and the corded synth-muscle that wrapped around the metal armature. A part of him already knew, but he just had to ask.

"K-Tech?"

"The one and only." Daivor grinned. "They sure have their color scheme all picked out, don't they?"

"You know, that means we'll have to scour the damn thing for any bugs, trackers, or magical glyphs."

"We did that already when we brought the stuff in."

"Yeah, but I'm not taking any chances. I'm gonna wanna take the damn thing apart and build it back up again. Just to be sure."

At his declaration, Milly whistled in a way that almost sounded indignant. She hopped on the arm, teetering dangerously on it, until she got his attention. Kaleb gave her a disarming smile and tried to explain.

"Milly, K-Tech are some evil bastards. I don't want you going into that thing without adequate protection."

Milly sniffed and sat back on her hind paws. In an all-too-human gesture, she crossed her upper arms and looked away from him. Still pouting. Kaleb blinked and the rodent's antics and glanced back at Daivor. The gnome was scowling at Milly still and seemed unfazed by her human-like gesture. Kaleb waved a hand at the saucy Milly as she huffed in annoyance. But Daivor seemed to miss the meaning of the gesture.

"He's right, ya rat! No sense in you getting hurt in a new system. Let us tinker with it and then you can move in."

Milly whistled loudly and then fell onto her front legs again. With a final chitter, she dove toward Kaleb's arm and fled home, sulking. Kaleb rolled his eyes at his overly dramatic pet before returning to Daivor.

"I'm gonna need the…"

Before he finished speaking, several of his tools were carried over by the shop Homunculi. Kaleb rubbed his eyes as he remembered the little critters were always around. He heard Daivor chuckle as the pair of them began to work on the K-Tech arm. Their first step was to take the thing completely apart. As they started work, Kaleb felt Milly in his arm, watching with interest and pouting.

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