Four

A desert burned under a blue sky and a piercing sun. The winds rolled, moving masses of brown sand from moment to moment. Under the glare of the heat, a dune-buggy bumped along a rocky terrain. It was scrapped here and there, in terrible shape, but it scattered dust with a dilapidated elegance.

A young man rode in that transporter. A head of dirty-blonde hair covered his head, a soft grin spanned his face, and a pair of brown goggles were strapped upon his eyes. He relaxed into the chair of his vehicle as a building came about the horizon of the desert, tapping a floating screen at his front a minute amount of time.

Soon, the motor bumped up to a domed structure that had once been at a distance. The thing, constructed entirely of metal, released smoke from a hole atop its form and the heat of the furnace it surely had prickled the skin of the man even while he sat outside. His vehicle pulled to the place and he parked among other scattered cars and vans that looked like garbage trucks or motors scrapped in the same state as his own. Then, there was a beep.

Hopping down from his dune-buggy, the young man took off his pair of goggles, angled them above his eyes, and dusted himself and his blue jacket, then wore the black, leather, gloves strapped to his waist.

"Alright!" He psyched himself up. "Hopefully my luck is good this time. God let there be a Shattered Core at least."

His stash of those things was nonexistent. He needed them, badly, to fix her. He wasn't wishing for a jackpot, but a handful of shards would be nice at least.

He made his way to the building with hope in his steps.

"Fee, please." A guard stretched a hand while he stood by a large, open, door of iron.

The young man's eyebrows twitched. "Can't let a loyal customer get a peek or two before paying?"

The guard laughed.

"Even I have to make a living."

The man tsked, 'Everything is trash anyway. Would it kill you if we didn't pay?' This was the result of living in the slums and that of his failure. In the end, he could only blame himself and tapped on his bracelet, bringing up his pad. He linked his with the guard and, a few taps later, transferred a hundred lixels to the man.

'I'll bleed dry at this rate,' He thought, pursing his lips.

Still, the thought of the possibility of fully fixing his lover remained in his head. Shedding any amount was worthwhile to him.

The blue-dressed protector of a garbage dump allowed him inside with a grin. "Nice doing business with ya, Lux."

"Yeah yeah." He mindlessly mumbled.

The first thing he noticed when he stepped inside the compound was the crowds of people piled to a corner or two, rummaging through the trash that came from the city. They were all dressed shabbily and focused on their 'work.'

At the center of the place, a giant hole filtered smoke of gray and black into the air and he could see the burning, orange hue of flames. To the right of that, he saw a space littered with corpses. The bodies of homunculi were strewn about and he only had maybe an hour or two to rummage through them before they would be cremated, so he moved fast.

Yet, not a second after he walked closer did his eyes drift upon a doll in which most seemed to ignore.

It was a female creation dressed in a charred, black, clothing that had all but burned off—which he assumed had once been a perfectly fine dress. Unlike the rest of her kind that laid bare upon the cold stone of the floor, however, this one held no missing limbs, no shattered skulls, and above all. . .it was a beautiful doll even whilst dead.

"What's with that one? She looks in perfect condition!" He exclaimed as soon as he saw her body. Even covered in dirt, it was clear that thing looked perfect.

A few snickers followed his words as most disregarded him. One of the scavengers pitied him enough to peek a head from his rummaging.

"But her core is shattered, Lux, real shattered. We couldn't hear even a bit of a residual hum. You know how hard it is to find a new core for a homunculus, right? Or even to fix it? Which mage is going to help you out? Those high-class rich folks won't lend a hand to us," The man scoffed, then shook his head in lament, "This one here doesn't even have a marking! She's definitely a Noble Series, a pricey shit that just makes it ten times harder, especially if there happens to be problems with her body. Who knows what made them throw her away! Tch, wasted my bloody time thinking I could savage her but her body looks like it was made where one wrong move could rupture everything. . ."

The man sighed. It was the bain of all scavengers. A homunculus with a fail safe, a truly shattered core, and the unknown of whether or not it had unforeseen problems with its body or coding. With those things stacked, it was unfortunate, but trying to take it away and sell it wasn't worth their time. Few people dealt with homunculi parts in the slums, after all.

"Better get on with your day," He said, returning to his work, moving body parts and figures here and there. Looking and inspecting for anything worth taking or cutting.

Lux, on the other hand, kept his mouth shut after that ordeal and ignored the heads shaking in his direction.

'This is my chance!' He thought.

It was a real, perfect, N. Series Homunculus and he believed he had the ability to bring her back to life, even with his shoddy skills. 'It's just creating a new core isn't it?' He thought, how hard could it possibly be for him?

Sure, he might have failed the academy. Certainly, he had disgraced his family. Still, however, he had learned the art for 3 years. That was real. That was concrete experience. All he would need was some parts, his trashy but working Constructor, and a fitting Mana Orb, even a low grade one would do. Hell, he didn't even really need to make a new core from scratch, he could repurpose an existing one or craft another from shards of a broken one.

It could shatter his finances, but it was doable. Anything was worth a homunculus of that level and beauty.

He looked over the other broken dolls and decided they weren't of much use, anyhow. It was best he took this one, hurried and hopped on out before some other hidden mage scooped her up before his eyes. These scavengers didn't understand worth when they saw it, but another person like him would.

"I—" He spun his brain and gulped. "I'll add her to my collection."

Under the curious eyes of everyone, he placed a wry smile upon his lips and took her—leaving her ragged clothing behind. It wasn't odd for scavengers to make a collection of dolls, broken or otherwise; to merely gaze upon or. . .for other, less ideal, means.

A dune-buggy rolled next to a one-story house made of wood and iron scraps. The place looked like it would collapse at any moment but Lux hopped quickly from his car, took the body from the back of the thing, and went to his door.

"Maria! Make me supper and keep it warm!" He announced as he entered the place, dragging the doll with him, "And don't come into the workshop less I tell you!"

He took a left turn from the kitchen-living room and closed the door behind him with a sharp bang. Lux found himself in a room littered with metallic items, two boxes directly next to a wall on his left, and to his right a desk, chair, and a Constructor—a silver, rusting, box like thing that sat there with a hole atop its curved structure.

He took the body and sat it upon the wooden desk, leaned it up, and placed himself upon the chair before it. Then he un-equipped his gloves and focused. There was a silent hum and he could feel the invisible energy in the surroundings follow his command. Lines of mana, wiggling blue tendrils like that of strings, soon weaved from the tip of his fingers.

He stared at the doll once more.

She was young, but exceptionally beautiful nonetheless. He could see it all. Everything from her clear skin, her conservative breasts hidden beneath hair of black, to her pale thighs. He could see it all and it was all too stimulating, enticing, and distracting.

He gulped.

"Fuck. I can't focus with this thing naked!" He cursed, recognizing that whichever Mage made this produce was definitely a master craftsman, leagues above him at the very least.

He stood and scrambled among the clothes he had on hand, rummaging through a bin at the back of his workshop and quickly returning to his seat.

He fitted her in nothing much but a ruddy sweater of blue that managed to reach to the doll's thighs and, although her curves still showed, blocked off the most distracting areas. He looked her up and down, a part of him wanted to taste her, but he decided that was better done with it working again—they might not be human, but he didn't fancy himself a necrophiliac.

Renewed with concentration, the male summoned his mana strings again and controlled them till they attached to the chest of the product, passing through her clothing. A dull, blue light shined and soon, he was reading the signatures that had been left upon her core.

He tilted his head in disbelief at how quickly he had reached the core.

'The hell? I thought at least a Master Mage made this thing, but her barrier is too easy to crack,' He wondered aloud, oddly, but soon smiled at his luck.

A couple seconds passed by and his strings continued to vibrate within the air. The next moment and his face elated.

'There it is,' He thought, breathing out as he heard a low hum in his mind. The scavengers were wrong, they hadn't been able to hear it with their weak aptitude to mana, but he could. 'It hasn't fully shattered at least.'

His mana strings latched around a blue orb in his mind and he quickly dragged it out as it seamlessly passed through the skin of the homunculus, its clothing, and floated into the world.

He released his strings and looked at the thing. It was cracked here and there, like a glass ball that had been tapped with a hammer, shattered, and would definitely break down with one wrong move. Still, though faint, it glistered with a pale, luminescent light of blue.

'Now. . .this should take me a couple months at best. . .' He estimated. On his skills alone, it would take a few days to weeks. But, he lacked the required materials.

Yet, a white light came from the object and blocked his eyes. The shattered core broke away, falling into fragments that met the ground but revealing a smaller orb within that hummed gently in the air—in perfect condition.

"My god!" Lux collapsed into his chair, heavy breaths flowing from his lips and his eyes mesmerized upon the product.

'A dual-core system! It has to, has to, have been made by a Grandmaster at least!'

That type of new-age system was as rare as a Phoenix Core. Fuck, he thought, which fucking idiot threw this in the trash?! Being a mage himself, he was almost furious at the thought, but, either way, luck shined upon him today!

Yet, his surprises were not over.

His eyes almost fell from their sockets as the orb floated back into the doll. A murmur followed that action and he looked to see the lips of the product quivering. Eyes blinked open. Emerald irises scanned the room before his trembling body and turned to stare at his figure.

'Jackpot! She's already alive!'