Chapter 20 - The Robomechanic Crafter

"Your tribe has earned 300 XP. Splitting it over the group, giving everyone 60 XP. Snuggly has leveled up to level 6, rewarding all tribe members with 200 RTP each.

With the mystery about the system and the world it created still in the air, Collin commanded Snuggly and Chirp-a-lot to be on guard and patrol around a bit, just in case the system was bored and wanted to throw some secret bosses in their path. Collin, Maya, and Samuel went to the treasure chest and stood around it in a circle.

"This is my favorite part!" Maya said while shaking from excitement.

"You know that greed can be fateful, right Maya? Before you know it, you jump off a waterfall because you see a treasure chest at the bottom of it, only to end up as a puddle of blood without even having seen the contents!" Samuel warned.

Maya crossed her arms and tilted her head. "There is a fine line between curiosity and plain idiotic behavior, Samuel."

Collin ignored their idle chatting and opened the treasure chest. Inside, they found 20 magic screws, which obviously made Collin happy; it's always good to have a pile of those damn things with him. There was also a pouch inside the chest, which Collin opened and looked into excitedly, hoping there were even more components inside for him to craft his heart out. But he was quickly disappointed when he saw the actual components.

Inside were about 50 knives that seemed to be in between the small and medium size. The handle was made of an orange wooden material that they didn't recognize; it certainly didn't grow within Lareyville, at least. The handle itself seemed to have been made for a large hand, resulting in a pretty big handle. The blade itself was made of steel and went from large to thin, much like a needle at the pointed end. There was an amber inserted between the blade and the handle.

As Collin looked further through the chest, there was a metal rod with engravings of a strange mythical creature that none of the trio had seen before. This was pretty strange, given how many mythical creatures there were in the Lareyville province. This mythical creature, in particular, had a vulture-like neck, the head of a disfigured man, the bottom of a chicken-like creature, and two huge human-like arms, which were about the same size as the bottom of the creature. Those arms held the handle of the rod, which was simply a long handle that could hold two hands.

Collin inspected the weapons:

Bull's Eye: throwing knife (50/50 uses), gold, 5-8 DMG A throwing knife that can also be used as a normal knife if needed. The tribe of the Golden Chance found it after defeating the infamous bull of Merry Ranch. Ability: If used as a normal knife: 20% chance to not consume a knife when attacking with it. If used as a throwing knife: increased chance of hitting a critical hit.

The Rod of Herding (Magnage's Rod): true gold, deals damage that's about 50% of the ATK stat. A staff once used by a common herder, it is decorated with a mythical creature known as the Gakala. It was originally engraved into it to protect the farmer's herd from being attacked by vile birds. However, in the new world, this particular staff gained a special power that can be unlocked only by a skilled mage in the art of metal.

"Hmm, it's pretty strange that we haven't really seen any armor pieces so far," Collin said to himself while looking at the contents of the treasure.

Sandy pardoned herself and activated herself, and started talking.

"Armor pieces? Why would you want to walk around in iron bars on a hot day? With your small body, it would likely hinder you more than it benefits you."

"So, no, the system hasn't yet introduced a clothing system in their ecosystem just yet. But just expect it to be jeans and shirts with special stats, really."

Sandy went back into her device form.

"Thank you, I suppose. Either way, Maya, Samuel, those are for you."

"Really for me? I thought you would like to play a little mage and give that class a try." Maya joked while poking Collin softly with her elbow.

"Haha, very funny, Maya. Let's keep it going, shall we?"

Maya nodded and equipped her new rod and looked at it in amazement. She started swinging it around a bit and planted it in the ground, accidentally hitting Samuel, who ended up falling over from the unexpected impact.

"Woah, woah, careful there, lady!" Samuel said while standing back up to his feet again, holding the implanted rod.

They then followed Collin, who was heading towards the shack they got for reaching the golden clearance reward.

However, it was then they realized they had no clue where this shack was supposed to be.

As they looked around the first floor where the fight just happened, they found a door at the right side of this room with a keyhole in it. The key was luckily hanging beside the door, so they decided to open it up. To their surprise, it was actually a balcony, so they put their hand onto the fence and started looking around.

There was the muddy road that they walked onto to get to this farmhouse, which went straight through the farmlands beside this road. It was weathered corn plants, giving the area quite the somber sight. At the end of the mud road, they could see the concrete road, which they crossed before to get here. This road actually connects Lareyville to Greenspar, which was another big city nearby. But putting their focus back on the farmlands, they managed to see an old black shack standing in the middle of the dead plants.

They walked downstairs while the stairs were creaking. Collin wondered how they hadn't fallen through them just yet. They opened the door to the basement and walked down to the basement. They wouldn't stay here too long and quickly went upstairs once more, while Snuggly and Chirp-a-lot were still holding their guards up.

They walked around the outside walls of the farmhouse and walked to the left patch of farmland. They were able to see the balcony they had just stood on, confirming they were at the right spot. They then pushed through all of the rotten crops. The shack was farther than they expected, and the walk took a good ten minutes.

It was a small wooden shack, but the wood had become almost black from the many rainy days they had seen through their lifetime. At the top of the shack, there were some creaks, but not big enough to sneak into it from there. So they walked to the door, which also had some holes in it, and pulled it open.

Inside there stood a workbench below a small window near the roof. There stood a chest on it. There was an axe, a pickaxe, and a shovel hanging above the workbench. So Collin took them and put them in this portable storage he had called an inventory, which went easier than expected. Sandy just scanned it, and slowly it broke into particles, which then got vacuumed inside of Sandy.

Collin opened the chest on the workbench and found a few items inside. There were a few old books, so he decided to read through them. However, the book suddenly vanished from his hands, which spooked him slightly. He then received a system notification:

"Congratulations, host! You have successfully learned the recipe of the robotics workbench."

Collin realized that there was an entire system behind the world and felt foolish for being spooked by something predictable. Of course, the world would have recipe books, skill books, and spell books.

He opened the second book and received another notification:

"Congratulations, host! You have learned a new skill set called the Robomechanic skills."

Collin scratched his head, wondering if this was similar to the lifestyle system in many MMOs. With a robotics workbench, it seemed logical.

He read the final book in the chest and received a third notification:

"Congratulations, host! You have learned how to craft basic parts for your minions."

Collin grabbed the bag in the chest, which turned out to be a basic robotic crafting kit containing a bunch of components and a new robotic crafting components pouch. He was pleased with all of this and tried to theorize what he might be able to do now when another notification appeared:

"For clearing the old farm and your outstanding performance in this structure, the platinum clearance reward has been unlocked. You will have access to a secret chest."

Collin was excited to hear this and realized there was still one more reward waiting for him. However, Samuel quickly brought him back to reality.

"This is what I meant by greed taking over, Collin. Sandy didn't warn us at all when we entered that farmhouse."

Maya agreed but pointed out that they were all still alive and had received nice rewards. Collin was angry that Maya didn't seem to care about Pillow, who had died in the structure.

Maya wanted to leave the shack to look for the platinum chest, but Samuel suggested they search the shack first. They found another bag in the right corner, which Collin inspected. It was called the basic robotics upgrades bag, containing even more components and a robotic upgrade components pouch.

Samuel had sworn that there was nothing in the right corner when he had checked earlier, but Maya, Collin, and even Sandy laughed at him. They all exited the shack.