Mage Adam

The test turned out really well. The big iron ore piece Ferroalloy hit glowed bright red all over. He hit it so hard that some of the dirt and bits even came out of it.

Ferroalloy just couldn't let go of the robotic arm. But, he seemed to know it was out of his league, price-wise, so he handed it back to Adam with a heavy heart. Then he said, "Here you go. If you've got any more gear to try out, could you let me know?"

Adam answered, "It's worth a hundred Honor points. You can keep it. Think of it as an early reward from me. Once you're up to Knight level, you just owe me a hundred and ten Honor points."

Ferroalloy might not have been the sharpest, but he could tell Adam wasn't really looking to make money off this. The deal was almost too good to be true. He felt a bit guilty taking advantage of it, but the arm was just too good to pass up.

Adam then mentioned, "There's more than one Graft Part. Feel free to drop by. I'll put together a full set of armor for you, tailored to your needs."

Ferroalloy was deeply moved. If Titans could shed tears, he might have been crying. "Thanks a lot. Now I can head to the front lines. I'll pay you back soon!"

Adam learned a lot about what ordinary, low-level Titans were made of from Ferroalloy. His body had a bit of pure metal but was mostly made up of not-so-good stuff. So, adding Graft Parts was a much quicker fix than cleaning him up bit by bit. Plus, Titans naturally got along well with metal, so they didn't need time to get used to the new parts. And with their inborn talent for fighting, even a small boost could make a big difference in their battle skills.

Adam felt sure about his idea: starting a service for custom gear could really spread his name among the Titans.

After all, he was offering a solution to a big problem for new Titans who weren't that strong yet.

"You're really just making more work for yourself," the devil said, not holding back. "Since you've chosen to buddy up with Titania instead of fighting, why not just call over the transdimensional mages? They could sort things out with the Titan Royals."

"The crystal barrier system of this world is super tough, so setting up spatial anchors is going slow," Adam explained.

Titania wasn't like the Dragon Plane or Cthulhu. There, the world's foundation was broken, so working on the anchors was easier. But here, it was a different story. The core of this world was like it was playing hide and seek on purpose.

Adam added, "Besides, exploring is what I do. It's my job to dig into this world's resources and knowledge first."

The devil just scoffed and disappeared, not buying any of it.

Adam didn't let it bother him. He figured once he advanced into a Commander and got the lowdown on the Metal Eaters and the weird mysteries of this Plane's roots, he'd have a good chance to call on the devil. Adam was kinda looking forward to seeing what would happen when he used the devil as an energy block.

...

Ferroalloy got into a routine of splitting his time between two places. After wrapping up his day job at the university, he'd be all eyes on Adam working on gears in the shop. His excitement was even bigger than Adam's, the one making the stuff.

Adam got him to gather minerals, which saved him the trip out of the city.

In just a couple of days, Adam whipped up a full set of gears tailored to Ferroalloy's body shape.

Seeing Ferroalloy's Flame was pretty weak, Adam skipped the energy blasts and enhanced his physical punch instead.

Adam figured with the whole gear set; Ferroalloy could now match up to an average Knight in strength. Though his staying power in a fight wasn't great because of his level, this upgrade was already enough to turn heads at the start.

Adam also threw in a feature that let the gear melt and mold itself. In a scrap, any part of the motion armor could morph and merge into the best weapon for the moment.

He even boiled down and stuck the fighting moves he came up with into the armor, but that bit might not be all that handy. The auto-fight function would take over, but most folks wouldn't be too keen on feeling like they weren't in charge of their own moves.

Now, Ferroalloy has almost all Graft Parts, except for the Vital Generator and his head. Next to the futuristic and bold look of the new gears, his own frame looked a bit shabby and out of place.

But he didn't mind one bit. After tallying up the Honors he owed, he was quick to bid Adam farewell. He was itching to hit the front lines.

Ferroalloy's makeover had some of the new Titans taking notice over the last few days. Even though he looked sharper, no one was sure if he was actually stronger. The big worry was that this overhaul meant pretty much ditching his original body, which had the other newcomers worrying about possible issues in heavy-duty battles.

Adam got the hang of these worries. So, he told Ferroalloy to swing by from the front lines now and then. The cover story was maintenance, but it was really to show the other newcomers that Ferroalloy was holding up fine, proving the gears were up to practical use.

He also got in touch with Iron 27 and Windflame 222, asking them to keep an eye on Ferroalloy so he wouldn't fall flat in his first skirmish, which would mess up all of Adam's plans.

...

Two quiet months ticked by. In that time, a few new Titans cautiously popped into Adam's shop, putting money down for some kinetic arms, but nobody went all in for a full makeover like Ferroalloy did.

A bunch of Intelligents, impressed by Adam's talent in tweaking and making mechanical stuff, kept asking him to join the university crew, but Adam turned them all down.

He had stacked up a whole storehouse of his creations by now. There was the basic gear for the newborns, and he also had a stash of energy armors ready for the Knights. He was just waiting for Ferroalloy to come back victorious and kick start his business.

"Your stuff's nice. But, whether we're talking about newbies or Knights, they're not the main muscle at the front. The big guns are the Commanders and Warlords. They're tough enough on their own; they wouldn't swap out their natural parts for something they're not used to."

Qi 31 got pretty hooked on what Adam was up to after Iron 27 filled him in on the mission details. He dropped by a lot, sharing his know-how on special metal blends and some basics about the high-level Titans. He wasn't holding his breath on Adam's project, though. It's a common thing in places where personal strength's what counts---the strong ones just don't put much trust in little guys.

Adam didn't argue for that. He figured once Qi 31 got a look at what his inventions could really do, he'd come around from his high horse.

Now, everything was set. Adam was just waiting for the right moment to roll in.