In Loki's Honor Life 35 - Chapter 20230401003

We rode the elevator to the third floor. Nero ushered us into a workshop lab. Arbitrium devices in several states of assembly were strewn on the workbenches.

"You ca in at the right ti," the young man said. "I was working on a batch of new Arbitrium. We need about two hundred of these ready to ship next week."

He explained that young adults usually bought one such device as a rite of passage. The device allowed them to use the cards and earn perks like Classes, Skills, and summon equipnt. It was also needed to enter Dungeons and fight monsters inside.

"I would love to show you their inner workings but I'm rather busy as you can see."

"We can help," Garfield said. "Both Haru and I have so technical expertise. We can make it worth your ti."

"I need to check with my superiors, sorry." The guy fidgeted.

"Nero," I approached. He took half a step back. Though I didn't want to na-drop, I pressed on. "Guild master Amaryllis sent us here. She assured us soone here would help us."

"Godmother?" He blinked at . "Oh. I don't think the professor will be mad at if you were sent by her."

"No, he won't, I guarantee it," Garfield said.

I noticed several components disappearing and then reappearing all over the workshop. The damn Dungeon was already at work stealing the natives' trade secrets.

"Well, let show you the process of assembling them," Nero acquiesced.

"Before that," I interrupted. "May I ask what is your species?"

Nero blanked and fidgeted... "I'm a hairless ape-kin, ma'am."

I exchanged a glance with Garfield. Nero looked human enough for .

"You an fur-less, right?" I glanced at his head. "You seem to have quite a lot of hair up here."

"Yeah. Though... never mind."

"Please accept my apology. We were just curious. I guess your people suffer from so prejudice, right?"

"Sure. And yes, the other kin doesn't like us very much," Nero replied with a sigh.

Oddly enough, I didn't think my Matriarch Perks were working on him or any of the kin in this world.

*

*

An hour later, the three of us were hard at work assembling the gadgets. The parts ca in crates and it was not hard to put the thing together, though the fittings had to be exact.

I asked the Dungeon telepathically.

He sent the ntal image of a giant cha fighting a tentacle monster.

Garfield chuckled.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to for the genuine story.

"Is sothing the matter?" Nero asked.

"No, nothing," I replied.

He sighed and lowered his tools. "Look, I played along. Did I pass?"

"What?"

"This is clearly a prank set by Bezzias and Amaryllis, right?" He waved at the two dozen finished Arbitrium bracers we crafted in the last hour. "There's no way you know nothing about this. I tested the units you built, and they are flawless. You are using an illusion card to hide your bracers, right?"

He sounded offended. If I had to guess, this guy always felt he had sothing to prove to the world.

"Nero, we're sorry. This is not a test and not a prank. We t Amaryllis for the first ti today. And we don't have an Arbitrium either."

"I don't get it! How..." He stared at the workbench we were sitting at. "How can you be so good at putting them together?"

"Okay. Though we are not gadgeteers like you or professor Bezzias, we still have a lot of expertise with enchantnts and machinery," Garfield said.