Journey of Robotics 8.2

Hey Guys! I saw a lot of people were wanting Journey, it wasn't on purpose but I accidentally put it on hiatus. I was able to sit down and write on it so here you go!

Z2 POV~~~~~~~~

The group spent roughly a week at Steel Spire, as Father started calling it. After the horde we had all learned or changed in some way, so the break helped us adjust. Even though the change went down to what felt like my soul, I was still getting used to this new body. Azra was constantly with Zuthon, the land dragon that took up residency near the town at Father’s request, as she learned more about Terra mana. 

If there was a gap between us due to my transformation, she was quickly closing it. Puppet was often in his own world, usually playing with his drones. Last I saw they were getting quite deadly. I felt that he didn’t want a repeat of the Lean incident, so he was making sure he fully understood his powers. The two siblings were off doing whatever they wanted. They were relatively self-contained.

We were set to leave tomorrow, for the nearest village. It was a few days away for most mortals, but we had Father’s bike. Puppet and Father modified them, so they used a simple version of whatever was making Puppet’s drones and Father’s ships fly. They would stay roughly 20 centimeters of the ground, without any control and could fly if given some extra juice. 

I tried to spend as much time with Father as possible, but given all the things going on, he could barely spare a few minutes let alone an hour for us here. I don’t think it bothered the others too much as they were created in this world, so while they were attached to Father, they treated him more like a creator that they needed to listen to but weren’t worried if he left them alone. 

On Earth, I only physically saw Father once and I was forced to kill him. Before that however, I was always around him as he worked on my programming in his tower. I wasn’t sure how long of a gap there was from when I was uploaded to the point I was downloaded into the android. Either way, I learned about Earth culture, then came to see Regan as my Father, as he created me. Thus, I was sad that he couldn’t spend much time with me. 

I was sitting on platform of the tower, watching the sunset. The sun was beautiful in this world, unclouded by thick black clouds from the large explosion Father’s death caused. I wasn’t able to move easily with the mission Father gave me, so I stayed near the ruined city. Every day had been dark and dull, so I enjoyed many things about this world. 

Now that I have a synthetic mortal body, as Father called it, I was able to eat food. While this was certainly a more recent development it did add one more thing to look forward to. I was examining some of the clouds floating across the sky when Lean landed next to me. 

“Z2, I finally found you! I found the most interesting thing!” Lean exclaimed. 

I resisted the urge to sigh as he found something more interesting than the last at least twice a day. I turned to him and asked, “What was it?”

“Two mortals were putting their lips together, I asked if they were trying to eat each other, as you have told me that is bad, but they just laughed and said they were sharing a kiss. What is a kiss?” 

I stared at him, at a loss of words. I struggled for a moment as I tried to explain the concept of love to him. It seemed that after every sentence he got more confused. I saw why Father had given up on trying to explain it to him the first time. 

“If love is so important, why are more people not out trying to find it?” Lean asked confused. 

“Love isn’t an item or object. Its spontaneous and strikes when a person least expects it. At least that’s what I have learned from… another place,” I explained. I wasn’t sure how to mention Earth without him raising a hundred more questions. 

Lean stared out in deep thought. The sun almost completely set by this point, but Father’s platform city has enough lights to keep it almost daytime. From what I understood; he created a spell that kept the light from spilling over, so it was still dark from the city on the ground. I was always amazed at the power of Father, even on Earth he had done something that most humans only considered for horror movies and books.

I looked to Lean then said, “I think that’s enough for today. We are leaving tomorrow so let’s go get some sleep.”

“Together?” Lean asked innocently. 

I smacked his shoulder, “No!”

~~~~~~~

The forest flew by the next morning as we made our way towards the village of Guin. It was the nearest village to the forest and would be our first time interacting with people that were basically not under Father’s control. It would be interesting to say the least. Though the visit would only be temporary to find the best place to set up as adventurers in the Lecazar Empire, it was necessary.

We passed hundreds of people on the road heading to the Valley. When we stopped to help a caravan that had a tipped wagon, they had tried to go around another caravan, they told us they were glad to have a place that might mean new fortunes. It made me wonder if we shouldn’t just turn around and go back to Father, since everyone is already heading to him. 

That was how we passed the next two days. Our vehicles let us make the trip in what took people several weeks to attempt. The village actually appeared to be in the middle of a boom. With all the merchants and adventurers coming through they were able to make some good profit on the ones that wanted a roof over their heads. It looked like there were three or four new inns that were already open for business. 

“Z2, you come with me since you can actually eat and will go see what we can learn in one of the inns,” Puppet said once we stored our vehicles, “Azra… watch those three,” Puppet added with some worry in his voice. I couldn’t blame him as Lean was already trying to wander away.

“Got it. Lean be good for sister Azra!” I said, grabbing his shoulders. 

He looked at a group of women pass by that were dressed for a business that took place at night. They were wearing very colorful clothing and that seemed to be what caught his eye. I placed my hand on his face and forced him to look at me. He sighed then agreed, but I could tell he was clearly upset. 

Puppet and I made our way over to one of the inns that was busy but not quite the busiest of the establishments. Once me squeezed our way in, he ordered us some of the ale that everyone was drinking and whatever they were selling for lunch. We looked around for a spot to sit and managed to find a spot next to a rather old man in the corner. 

“Is it alright if we joined you sir?” I asked, trying my best to keep my voice sweet like I heard some of the women back at Steel Spire do. 

The old man laughed, “You don’t need to try so hard with me little miss. Please feel free,” The old man said seeing through me instantly. 

“Thanks,” I said with my normal, much colder tone. 

“You two heading for the new town like the rest of these folks?” the old man asked gesturing with his ale cup.

“No, the other direction actually. We wanted to leave home and try and make our name elsewhere rather than ride the coattails of our parents’ newfound success,” Puppet said once he sat down. 

“Ah! A plan that suits youth, if only I were thirty years younger. I would be at the forefront of this wave plunging headfirst into the new dungeon,” the old man said with a faraway look.

“You don’t look that old,” I said looking him over. Sure he was old, but it appeared his body was still plenty strong. 

“Tryin to brown nose me child? HAHA, I have an old injury that keeps me from cultivating. Nearly killed me, but my last act as an adventurer was long ago.” 

“I’m sorry to hear that sir,” I said.

“Bah, I moved on long ago,” The old man said. 

The waitress finally brought our drinks and food over while we chatted some more with the old man. I looked at the ale with some hesitation. Since getting my new body I have only drank water, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I moved the mug to my lips then took a sip. The flavor almost hit me harder than some of the attacks I had taken from my enemies. I immediately started to chug it and it was gone only a few seconds later. 

I slammed the mug down then grabbed Puppet’s and chugged his too. It was amazing! I wouldn’t quite say it tasted great, but the flavor was so robust, that it seemed to seep into me. I heard laughing and turn to the old man that just finished chugging his. 

“I see someone hasn’t drunken TearFall ale before,” he said still laughing. 

“Tearfall!? Is that where this is from?!” I asked excitedly. 

“Aye, TearFall creates some of the best ales, spirits, and liquors on the continent. Its about two months by carriage from here,” the old man answered tapping his chin.

“How’s work for an adventurer out that way?” Puppet interjected before I could jump up.

“Decent, you won’t have much luck with wild areas like this area, it is a city after all, but the Scarlet Knight dungeon is only a day from there which is how they make most of their money.”

“Thanks old man!” I said happily. 

“No problem young lady, now if you’ll excuse me I need to get back to work,” the old man said then made his way to the bar to pay his tab.

Puppet wanted to gather some more information and I wanted to drink some more ale, so he waved down a waitress and got her to bring me a few more mugs. The food paled in comparison to some of the things Father’s chef made for me, so it didn’t leave much of an impression on me. 

Finally, when Puppet decided he had enough information we decided to leave. There was a small mountain of mugs on the table from how much I drank and some of the people near us looked at me with either an impressed look or a worried look. As soon as I stood up a wobbled for a moment as the world seemed to shift in front of me for a moment, but I channeled some mana and it quickly went away. 

I wasn’t paying too much attention and didn’t notice I was literally causing the humididty in the air to freeze until Puppet yelled at me to tone it down. I looked around at all the patrons that now possessed a thin covering of ice. 

“Sorry!” I shouted then ran outside. 

Puppet joined me a moment later, “Its alright I ordered a round for the whole place and they appeared to calm down.”

“Sorry…” I said weakly. 

“Well, we learned that alcohol has an effect on you. Next time keep it under control,” Puppet said patting my back. We made our way over to the group. We accidently made them wait nearly an hour, though it looked like Azra kept everything under control. 

Azra waved at us when she saw us then asked, “so where we going? And can we leave soon, someone has already offered to buy the twins before I ran him off with a bit of persuasion,” she added, tapping her mace.

“After listening to everyone and asking some question, I’ve decided we should head to TearFall. It is a large city so if we plant a core there, Father will get a nice dose of mana, plus there is a dungeon and Father wanted to have us dive a few to see how others made their dungeons. As well as try and meet the host if possible.”

“Sounds good!” Azra said and jumped up from the stump she was using as a seat.