Overhaul

Evolution.

A terrifying prospect, something that few people should attempt in their lifetimes. Evolution in nature is something that is meant to happen slowly, over millenia. Restructuring your entire body was not natural, and it had many hidden secrets Lua didn't know yet.

Of course, he already expected that the evolution process might end up causing him to lose his humanity, but he wasn't too worried. After all, his father had evolved up to Grade 8 and was doing quite fine.

He felt every single cell in his body gain sentience, rearranging themselves to accommodate the new power that was incoming. He fought against his own body for what felt like hours, until he calmed down, and opened his eyes.

He was standing in the same spot, and the sun hadn't moved at all. The time was the same. Relaxing, he sat on a chair, taking in everything that his evolution granted him.

Most importantly, he was now physically stronger. He was built for iron-working, and felt like he could slam a hammer into a piece of steel for hours at a time. He had gained a certain "instinct" that let him control his machines to a certain extent, letting him nearly read their thoughts to their fullest extent.

He looked at Arc, and realised he had learned a few more tricks to improve his creations. He grinned, and spoke to Arc.

"Let's get you a jaw. I want to hear you speak for once."

Lua immediately felt an excitement coming from Arc. It was so powerful that it almost made him excited as well. He couldn't help but grin at Arc's impatience.

"I'm going to need to power you off for a bit. The experience might not be pleasant for you if you're aware of it." Lua didn't want to disable the senses of his friend, but he had no other choice if he wanted to finish this as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Arc nodded in understanding, trusting Lua fully. As Arc didn't have a "power off" button, Lua had to resort to twisting a few wires into weird positions. That way, turning him off wasn't permanent.

Lua grabbed the rough piece of steel that he had made, and mixed with some of his left over iron, creating enough metal to produce a full jaw and additional components to produce a voice.

After an hour or so of shifting the metal into an acceptable jaw-like structure, Lua felt confident in the final version of the mouth for Arc. Dislodging the metal that previously covered the bottom of Arc's face, Lua was overjoyed to have some more metal for later tasks.

He placed the jaw, and wired the voicebox for Arc into his "nervous system", placing the last few screws into Arc's jaw.

Untwisting the wires that he had used to disable Arc, he saw Arc's curious eyes light up again.

Although Arc's wires didn't carry anything, they acted like more of a skeletal and nervous structure that connected to Lua's soul in the center of it all. By twisting these "nerves", he could effectively shut down every sense of Arc.

"Try speaking." Lua asked, excited to see the result of his handiwork.

Arc's jaw opened, yet no sound came out. Worried that he had messed something up, Lua picked up his screwdriver again.

"Testing..." A harsh metallic sound was heard. Lua immediately dropped the screwdriver and looked at Arc, who had just spoken.

Lua smiled, overjoyed at having succeeded in granting his best friend a voice. "How does it feel?"

Arc contemplated for a moment, clearly not used to being able to speak. "Rough.. but it works."

Lua sat back on his chair, relaxing after hard work. He rapped the edge of the table, thinking of ways to improve the voice box, but he couldn't think of anything. His level was a bit too low level to proceed further. "We'll figure something out later. At least you can speak now.."

Arc nodded, agreeing vehemently. "Thank you. This is wonderful."

Lua smiled, not responding to Arc. He got up from his seat, wondering what he should do next. He felt he had completed a few objectives at once, and was left feeling a bit empty. Yet, he knew he needed to push forward.

Realising the date, he decided to contact his father, both to update him on the situation and to ask for the method to proceed forward from this point.

"Dear father,

I have arrived safely, and I have been given a workshop to make machines on my own accord.

...

I have recently evolved to Grade 12, and would like to learn from you how to evolve up to Grade 8.

Much love,

Lua"

After finishing the letter, he decided to summon the only Wanderer he knew, Vision. Grabbing a pen, he drew the vertical eye on the floor, and cut his finger on a piece of metal he found conveniently.

Writing Vision's name in blood, he began to feel a bit faint. He shook it off, and saw that Vision had already warped in front of him. "What is it?"

Lua took out the letter, handing it to Vision. "Can you take this to my home?"

Vision stared at the letter blankly for a moment, confused. "Do I look like your messenger?"

"It's important." Lua emphasized. "Father said he'd send out a search team if I didn't write every two days."

Sighing, Vision pinched the top of his nose. He seemed to understand that he'd have to do this every two days. "Fine."

Bwomp! Vision warped away, leaving the dust around him hanging mid-air. The dust got Lua confused. "Didn't we just clean this place? I guess having the windows open all day does make a place dusty.."

Looking out a window, Lua made up his mind. Looking at Arc, they both understood each other.

Illusion Castle was too scarce in resources. Even if he wanted to stay here and continue making machines, he'd run out of resources eventually, and have to do absolutely nothing for days.

He had gotten a bit of money from his savings, and he planned on using them to get a room in an inn in the capital of Hunn, the largest city in the Kingdom of Dernf.

He would tell this to Vision the next time he summoned him. He looked at Arc, and simply asked him. "Do you think it's a good idea?"

Arc nodded, indicating yes. "We'll get nowhere if we don't take this risk."