Mage Adam

After Ferroalloy finished maintaining his gear, he left York city and returned to the front lines. He said he loved the feeling of battle and that staying in a peaceful place like York city would make him "rusty".

Because he helped Adam promote some gears, Adam gave him a big sword, 15 meters long, for free. The sword had special circuits that made it incredibly sharp, capable of cutting through metal like butter.

After Ferroalloy left, the new Titans quickly forgot the embarrassment of being defeated. They rushed into the workshop, each of them taking a set of Graft Parts on credit. They didn't even care about the debt they owed Adam for the powerful swords, which were priced at three hundred Honors each.

They left happily, ready to head to the front lines.

Two days later, there were voices outside the workshop.

"Is this the place?"

"Qi 31 said it was. I'm not doubting Mr. Qi 31, but are there really gears here that can make us stronger quickly?"

"Didn't you see the change in the new recruits? They did get stronger, didn't they?"

"But they're just newborns. They don't even know how to use their innate abilities. Among us, only you are good at close combat; the rest of us can't even use those things."

"Let's just give it a try. The worst that can happen is we waste some time and Honors. If the modifications really work, maybe they can change the tide at the front lines."

Adam was quietly listening to their conversation from inside the workshop. It seemed Qi 31 kept his promise, as the visitors appeared to be elite Knights with the potential to become Intelligents. The logic in the speech of ordinary Titan warriors wasn't usually this strong.

Adam didn't pretend to be mysterious. He opened the door and invited the five in.

They had heard stories about Adam from Qi 31, so they didn't make any rude comments about Adam's four-meter height. Then, they each told Adam their modification requests.

These Knights had already chosen their evolutionary paths before becoming Royals and started building their Vital Generators and bodies with high-grade alloys. But at this stage, their bodies still had some inferior parts. So, the five Titans wanted to modify their weaknesses.

This wasn't difficult for Adam. After his limits of authority in this world were upgraded, he downloaded the body structures of the four types of Titans at the Knight level from the library and understood their flaws. In the past two months, he had been making gears specifically for these issues.

Soon, expensive gears like flexible shield generators, quad-energy cannons, automatic frequency modulation amplifiers, and high-frequency particle vibration blades were integrated into their bodies.

...

"Looks like you're all quite pleased?" Qi 31 asked with a smile, looking at the five happy Titans at the university.

The five Titans nodded eagerly, proudly showing off their new capabilities. The gears they acquired had nearly perfectly filled their shortcomings, hugely boosting their combat abilities. If it hadn't been for the high cost in Honors, they might have asked Adam to replace their entire bodies with Graft Parts.

Qi 31 was secretly impressed. These Knights now had the combat power of Commanders after their enhancements. If Adam could also enhance the Commanders, it might indeed change the course of this world's battles.

The most attentive Titan had recorded the entire modification process by Adam. As he was recounting it, Qi 31 suddenly interrupted him, asking urgently, "He dissolved part of his own body and merged it into you to help reorganize your Vital Generators and existing energy circuits?"

The five looked at each other, puzzled by his reaction. They honestly replied, "Yes."

"How exactly did he do it?"

"Mithril 99 touched us, and the part he touched opened up. He became smaller and smaller, flowing into our bodies like water."

The Titan remembered the sensation and said nostalgically, "It was even more comfortable than maintenance. He helped us fix the issues in our Vital Generators and energy circuits and removed impurities from our bodies. The Graft Parts merged directly with our bodies... Sir?"

Qi 31 was trembling with excitement. He muttered to himself incoherently and then rushed out of the university towards where Adam was.

...

In the workshop, Adam was continuously taking out standard gears from the storage, installing them on the waiting new recruit Titans. The successful modifications of those thirteen Titans had dispelled the doubts of the rest of the new recruits in York. They were eagerly coming in for modifications, afraid of being left behind.

Just then, Qi 31 rushed in. However, seeing so many people in the workshop, he forced himself to swallow the questions he had and waited quietly.

Adam nodded at him as a greeting and continued to focus on installing the gears for the new Titans.

Qi 31 carefully observed Adam's actions. The method he used to dissolve parts of other Titans' bodies was something Qi 31 had never paid attention to before, assuming it was just Adam using his Flames to forge their bodies. But now, he realized it wasn't that simple; Adam was dissolving his own body to directly modify specific parts.

After the batch of new Titans left, Qi 31 closed the workshop's big door without asking Adam. He approached Adam and seriously asked, "You have the ability to dissolve part of yourself into other Titans' bodies, right?"

Adam was slightly taken aback, not expecting Qi 31 to come for this reason. Although unsure of his intentions, Adam saw no reason to hide this and nodded.

Qi 31, who didn't need to breathe, took a deep breath, creating a strong wind in the room. "Can you fix and repair faults in the Vital Generator and body?"

"Yes."

A series of cracking sounds came from Qi 31's body. He released a large amount of his energy, which dissipated into the air; clearly, he had shattered part of his own Vital Generator.

Adam was puzzled---this seemed like self-harm.

Qi 31 leaned against the wall and sat down, completely unconcerned about his injuries. He looked intently at Adam and then said, "Try it on me!"

Adam looked Qi 31 up and down, vaguely understanding his purpose. "I can try, but I'm not familiar with your structure. You need to give me full access to your body or fully cooperate with me."

Qi 31 nodded repeatedly. He quickly opened his chest, exposing his complex Vital Generator. Then, he relinquished control of his shield and body, answering Adam's request with actions rather than words.

Adam dissolved himself into countless atomic nanobots. Groups of one hundred thousand bots each were controlled by a single thread, turning into a silvery flood that poured into Qi 31.

Adam discovered that Qi 31 was really severe with himself. Most of the alloys in his body were riddled with tiny cracks, his energy circuits were nearly destroyed, and his Vital Generator was almost completely inactive.

Qi 31 was almost paralyzed by himself. Even a level-three Metal Eater could potentially kill him at this point.