We’d come to Damian’s lab.
Unusually for today: me, Novem, Aria, Miranda, Poyo-Poyo, and Clara.
I’d brought Clara because the Third strongly pushed for it.
Damian was looking at Porter, moving him, checking. Today’s purpose: get the opinion of Damian, the Doll-Master.
Whether he was suited to be porter and shield-role for the party — I was checking.
Our party’s weakness was no shield-role in combat. At the same time, we couldn’t move with a heavy load.
When I considered filling the manpower gap with a doll, the first thing I asked myself was — must it be human-shaped?
Damian looked at Porter and asked me —
The three automatons that usually cleaned his lab — [No. 1], [No. 2], [No. 3] — for some reason were on standby beside him.
Their eyes occasionally went to Novem.
“Still planning to change this?”
I nodded.
“I tried him out in the dungeon a few times. I think the size could be larger.”
Porter was unfinished.
I’d tested him in the dungeon repeatedly, listing improvements. Poyo-Poyo had strongly demanded that.
“For a prototype, this is good. But it’s a true Aramsus-dungeon-specialized build. Doubtful it’d work elsewhere.”
Dungeons differ greatly by location. Aramsus’s relatively flat floor was unusual.
But for now, the goal was clearing B30 of the Aramsus dungeon. For that, Porter was fine.
If needed, more upgrades later.
“I’m going with specialization. — Your impressions, having operated him?”
In the wide lab, Damian operated Porter, pushed up his glasses, and said:
“For you or me, no problem. With a mid-tier-plus adventurer support, no problem either… but only a handful can actually use him.”
Damian said the size was the issue.
If I could use him, that should be fine — but —
Voice from the Jewel.
The Fourth, vexed.
“Tch — plans need revision. With Porter, Golem magic would explode in popularity, I thought… so there’s an issue.”
Yes.
The Fourth had been happily drafting a money-making plan.
For that, I’d asked whether other adventurers could use him.
“The library girl, perhaps…”
Damian looked at Clara.
But —
”…No. Adding a shield raises the weight. Or — barely passable…”
Damian sank into thought.
Novem:
“Why not teach Clara-san the Golem magic? She likely has the aptitude.”
Would he teach so easily?
I’d thought it, but Damian:
“Right. Faster to try. — Library girl, I’ll teach you. Use him.”
— That kind of guy.
Clara, sighing:
“Haa… I never imagined being taught in this way.”
Taught, she used Porter on the spot.
Watching, Poyo-Poyo:
“Ahh — Porter — the crystallization of my and chicken-bastard’s love!”
Theatrical performance — ignored. Miranda-san offered her impression.
“Looks good, no? For a first try, moving rather well.”
Damian agreed.
“Yes — as that woman says, talent.”
Aria, to Damian:
“That woman… Miranda was your student.”
Damian looked at her.
“Was she? Huh — feel like I know you, feel like I don’t… someone like you should stick, but — strange.”
To the puzzled Damian, Miranda smiled.
“Cruel, professor. But it’s just like you — I’m relieved.”
Voice from the Jewel.
The Fifth.
“Her aura’s leveled up — eyes follow her. Resembles Mireia… personality differs a little.”
The personality differed, but she’d grown to resemble the ancestor Mireia-san even more.
Clara gave her impressions.
“I can operate him, but the legs? Using him feels heavy. Normally I’d think it fine.”
Damian nodded.
“I remember your ability — mid-tier support, right? If even you are at the limit, ordinary users need him smaller. To reduce mana drain, there are still many points to improve. — But wheels are good.”
Damian praised.
Poyo-Poyo, eyes sliding to the three automatons, smirked.
The three made vexed expressions. Truly meticulous performance.
Damian concluded.
“For general adventurer use, more compact. Stairs… shorten the legs and crawl? Then he barely moves.”
On Golems and dolls, Damian gave better opinions after all.
Miranda-san:
“So for a while, back to the shed for Porter improvements?”
I nodded — but laid out some plans first.
“I’ll improve him, but soon I’ll go into the dungeon too. Don’t move as a party enough and I’ll forget I’m an adventurer.”
Recently I’d been making small change in the dungeon.
If adventurers carrying heavy loads to push deep were around, I’d haul their gear to B5 with an empty Porter.
A silver in thanks, and on the way back I’d pick up returning adventurers. Another silver.
The Fourth had calculated what adventurers could pay and turned it into a N silvers per route service.
More than once, I was seriously offered gold to come along as support.
Seeing that, the Fourth turned to thoughts of productization.
Damian, looking at Porter:
“New stimulation. Lyle, you’re really fun. — Oh, right — about that boss’s armor: one whole set is left. You’re buying, yes? Since it’s in the way, the academy said the price would come down if you’d take it.”
Only enough for research remained; the rest wasn’t needed.
I’d been negotiating to buy the bulk B40 armor through Damian.
The buy was decided, but cheaper was welcome.
Novem:
“Lord Lyle has been earning well lately, so a bit more is fine.”
Novem laughed softly. I wanted to make an excuse but stopped.
A small-change demon was issuing orders, so I’d executed them out of obligation. For me, testing Porter was enough.
The Fourth:
“Still ahead, but improvements mean a hiatus… just when customers were forming.”
The Fourth’s business sense was impressive, but I’m an adventurer. This kind of earning didn’t sit well, and productizing Porter wasn’t on my mind.
(Need a talk later.)
Thinking it, I continued the Porter discussion with Damian.
Miranda and Aria also got to talking.
“Aria, your atmosphere’s changed lately.”
“H-has it! Yeah, a little, as an adventurer—”
“Gotten more manly.”
To Miranda’s smile, Aria:
”…You have a fine personality. I hadn’t noticed.”
Smiling Miranda-san and venom-emitting Aria locked eyes, while Novem, Poyo-Poyo, and the three automatons —
“Um — what is it?”
Stared at by four automatons, Novem tilted her head. Very cute.
Poyo-Poyo:
“That she-fox… cute gestures…”
Nos. 1 through 3:
“By calculation! She’s calculated all of it!”
“What’s this? To carry such rivalry! — Who are you, exactly?”
“An opponent broken Poyo-Poyo cannot beat. — Very well, we will be your opponents!”
The three struck poses. Poyo-Poyo shouted.
“Who’s broken?! Only chicken-bastard may call me broken! I’ll scrap you!”
From somewhere, drills appeared in her hands; she went into combat stance.
Now that I thought of it, while building Porter she’d said drills and robots are romance.
(Lively.)
While the lab got noisy, I was thinking that.
And Clara —
“Um… am I being swept into the party here? Lately I’m being invited rather freely, but I’m basically solo support / temp-party material… — Are you listening, everyone?”
Deep night.
In the Jewel, I asked something that had been on my mind.
It concerned the answer I’d reached.
To clear the Aramsus dungeon, I’d used Golems to make up for low manpower and the party’s defensive weakness — shield-role.
The ancestors had said this is not our answer. I’d heard it then.
So I asked: what had they intended?
The result —
“So — there were multiple methods from the start? And you deliberately stayed quiet?”
The Second nodded and explained.
“That’s right. My pick was the simple one: spend time raising the base, find trustworthy companions. That Clara girl is a target. We weren’t hiding it — I’d thought you’d notice, but you didn’t.”
The Third liked Clara.
“Clara-chan, right? She’s a walking library. Surely loaded with knowledge. — For me, the answer was ‘attach to another party and only kill the boss.’ Finding a party trustworthy enough was the issue — but you could have asked Clara-chan.”
The Fourth’s view was — something.
“Hire by money was also fine. Pay for escort to B30. From my side, getting close to other adventurers and learning that way would also have justified Skill use.”
What I’d been missing.
Just noticing it was enough, the Fourth said. More precisely: under a Skill-locked environment, learn.
The Fifth was close to my answer.
“My thought was Golems to cover the manpower. Shield-role — just the shields — and deploy at combat. Defensive insta-fortifications in the dungeon. Simple, but reliable.”
Put like that, I nodded — true.
Hardly an adventurer’s view, but effective. I’ll remember it.
The Sixth was close to the Fifth.
“My version was the same — easy-to-control simple dolls to make up numbers. Or hire.”
The Seventh, last:
“I watched how you’d clear the assignment, and once you noticed the problem, how you’d solve it… truly. — My answer: post a request for B30 boss assistance. Considered Golem use too.”
I had to push back.
“No — wasn’t the whole point to make me notice party communication and the rest?!”
I’d thought so — but they smirked.
The Second:
“I wanted to see how you’d clear the assignment. Watching you take it seriously was good.”
The Third:
“Lyle — broaden your view. — Yes, I steered you toward thinking that way. But our assignment was clear the B30 boss and return under a Skill-use restriction. Ultimately, you could have fought only the boss yourself and let hired adventurers see you to the surface.”
The Third laughed.
When the restriction came down, they’d said staying as you are is risky. What was that, then? While I was dissatisfied, the Fourth:
“Don’t be so angry. We did want to see how you’d handle it, and you noticed problems more than we expected. And you came up with a new use for Golem, didn’t you? Asking us alone, Porter never would have been born.”
The ancestors had also wanted to see how I’d think. As a result, I’d produced an answer that satisfied them, presumably.
Not that I was satisfied.
The Fifth, in a better mood than usual, said:
“Good thinking. Good that you noticed the importance of shields. — If you clear B30 cleanly, that’s a pass.”
If I clear it.
So I haven’t passed yet.
The Sixth addressed my complaint.
“Lyle, there’s never just one solution. Truly, spending time raising the whole party’s base is a correct answer. Hiring people is also a correct answer. — We did lead you toward a misunderstanding.”
The Seventh apologized.
“My bad on that — but the world is full of side-routes. The frontal approach won’t always work. — And…”
The Second continued.
“The moment you noticed the current problem and decided to improve, our goal was achieved. If you hadn’t noticed, we’d have set you a different assignment.”
Watching me sulk, the ancestors laughed.
The Fifth:
“You noticed your own weakness and improved. Even on a problem we hadn’t flagged, you leaned on Clara and produced an answer. Leaning a touch much was my complaint — but it wasn’t wrong.”
I asked them all:
“So — any method would have done? Even if I’d noticed none of the current problems and cleared the task ignoring them?”
The Third nodded.
“Right. Taken to extreme, even that would have been fine. — If you held enough power not to bat an eye at problems like these.”
The Sixth:
“But if you’d lost your way, we’d never have let you use Skills again. — Lyle, you took our assignment seriously and produced a convincing answer. The rest is execution — show the strength.”
There were parts I could accept and parts I couldn’t.
“Did it not occur to you that I might overreach and fail?”
The Second, serious:
“If you died from this, you were only that much. — Your talent, your companions, your environment… if you can’t here, going further you’d burn out and wipe.”
To the Second’s pressure I went silent. The Third covered.
“Don’t worry. Everyone here has been looking forward to seeing how you’d clear it. We set the assignment because we thought you could. If we’d thought you’d fail, we wouldn’t have expected anything of you earlier than this.”
No, that wasn’t cover.
These guys were leaning on me today.
What had I done.
Last, the Fifth, scratching his head:
“Each and every one of you… Lyle, it’s your life. You have to produce the answer. What you feel, how you respond. You decide.”
The Fifth’s words brought back the First’s.
[Lyle. You… decided on a goal?]
I felt a small pang in the chest.
(My answer…)