Reborn Sword (Sallin Kari)

[porne]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Golems require a core to act as their brain. The house is actually unique in that it's one of the only places that has golems that don't require cores to function, but Ayla basically found a work around where she can have a core that has a remote control to operate bodies without physical contact. Next time you go question Hestia about the house defenses, remember to ask about it, or remind me, and I'll describe it more in detail in universe.

I was planning to do the common racial mixing, where they can be halvsies, but nothing below that, same as I usually do, but Johan doesn't contribute anything besides some basic silvery phenotypes.

One of the nameless students that Ayla had way back when tried to create a sex bot program with super duper realism. Wayland was going to create a body for himself once he had the golem brain thingy worked out, but assassins interrupted. Hestia used the most advanced/responsive body she had on record to build a new body for Wayland, which was the sexbot.

"You have non humanish forms? Fascinating." She says, clearly distracted by what's being discussed. "And you say you provided the sperm for her? Why does the child have no construct like traits? This bears investigation." It is a curious subject, and you do recall the rather lifelike dildo you made. Could you create a pair, or more, of testicles to go with it? You hadn't, out of fear of what might happen to Karina, but you could always experiment.

"Master Johan~~~~" Karina calls you, mimicking the way that Hestia uses your name. "Are you ready to go out and find someone to take care of our baby, so we can get back to the task of making money and more babies?" She titters at you, clearly enjoying herself.

[Sallin_Kari]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Okay... so if all cores come from dungeons then no golems there should be no natural golems. Here is the thing. You set up a rule already. That there are some monsters that don't come from dungeons. If that is the case, adding the no core thing means that all golems have to be either made utilizing a captured core, or wandered out of a dungeon.

So could you have a half monster, half not then? Or what?

Okay, it was just this student wasn't mention before yet you just started referring to him as 'that student' so I wanted to know what you were on about.

"Anything I have consumed the core of, I can replicate the form of," I explain, "I stated I was the father, so yes. As for your second question... I don't know."

"Yes dear, I'm finishing up with Miss Ayla," I call back, "I'll be with you in just a moment."

[porne]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Hm, an excellent point, I wish I had thought of it. I'll need to think on how I want to answer that question, and if I want to have golems be a subset of alchemical monsters that are created by people to mimic alchemical life, and thus require a core to act as their brain. Maybe alchemy can create brains, however due to some construct rebellions, the techniques for doing that have been lost to the ages, and everything left over is just from that time period? Maybe we continue this discussion in pms.

I want to say that it's going to depend on the type of monster. Fully sapient monsters might have dominant components (ie: orcs will produce orcs 9/10 and half orc 1/10), while non-sapients will always produce pure monster types, unless you want that to be a thing? Hm, I think I'll go with the child being the race of the mother, but have physical coloration of the construct. IE: a clay golem x human woman would produce a human child, with clay like colored skin. More chance for prejudice?

I'm fairly positive I mentioned the student way way back when Ayla first got her body and asked Hestia about it. viewtopic.php?f=36&t=9073&start=340#p744368 Whoops, I used the term 'assistant' there and 'student' here. We can go either way.

You decide it's best to keep the child's silver eyes a secret for now. Finishing up with Ayla, you head out to meet Karina at the carriage. It's the same one, and you are almost sad that you don't get to test the new one. Eitherway, the ride into town is uneventful unless you give in to Karina's offers to let her test your 'attachments'.

Arriving in town, you find that things are a bit more interesting this time. You could head to the adventurers guild, maybe meet someone a bit more open minded there. You could look directly for a childcare business, assuming you don't care for what service Hestia might offer. You could rummage through a bookstore, finding any updated books or possibly child rearing guides, which you're sure that Hestia and you could use. You could also try to find the four women who dived into the dungeon with Karina, as the bonds formed risking your lives for money should count for something.

[Sallin_Kari]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Okay, let me know what you are thinking on it, cause this will be a plot hole otherwise, which is why I brought it up.

How ever you want to do.

Okay... but one off handed mention with a different word, a while ago isn't enough to me recall it.

Considering the electric motor is by no means ready for testing... Hell the engine hasn't been finalized yet. I still have to test how much power I can consistently pull from a lightning core and how effectively my engine can power it before I could even start prototype it.

"So... Do you have any idea where to start? Not being of the world, I can only speculate what might be the best course of action," I mention to her.

[porne]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

I'm really goddamn tired right now. I'm probably going to need to sleep before I put much more thought into it, but I'm leaning toward my current explanation. Alchemical magic is available in a wider variety, including most of the 'possessed by spirits' type of monsters, as well as things like mimics and such. Golems are the manmade versions, and while a golem core is necessary for crafting properly, they can be built with brains but it's either illegal, or the brain design is completely lost.

Sure.

Okay, that's fine. I might bring them back as a villain or something at some point, but I doubt it'll matter beyond flavor text.

Karina taps her lip, thinking for a bit. "Weeeeell, I don't know exactly where to find someone for what we need, but I suspect I know where to start looking." She tells you, super mysteriously. She whispers to the carriage and begins, which begins to take her down a few side roads, heading to something very like an orphanage. "I think, if we offer them a place to stay, we might be able to get a few people to raise any babies we might have." Which makes some sense. You'll be picking up a few extra mouths, but the amount of field being run by Hestia should take care of their mouths.

[Sallin_Kari]

"So we're stealing employees or looking for teenagers who need a job?" I ask cheekily, "Regardless, it's worth a shot."

[porne]

"Maybe. Teenagers tend to be a bit more open minded." She tells you, looking around, and trying to recall the layout of the town. "I think that's the way to go." Karina gestures down a particular road, and the carriage begins to head down that way. Eventually, it stops in front of a slightly dilapidated building that has a number of children playing in the yard. They've mostly got sticks, and seem to be of highly mixed races, a little bit of everything. Most likely, these are the children of adventurers who didn't come back.

You'll need to figure out how you want to go in, as well as what kind of approach you and Karina think will work best.

[Sallin_Kari]

"Fair enough," I nod, letting her lead the way. As the orphanage comes into to view, "Looks like they are running into hard times... Got a bunch of different races of kids so that's encouraging."

Pausing for a moment, "Alright, so what do you think is best? I would suggest we leverage our living standard. We're going to come off as suspicious regardless so we need to counteract that by showing them that they're not likely to have a better life than this."

[porne]

Karina listens to your suggestion, and nods. "Yes, I think that would be best. Hiding you is for the best as well, but an adventurer that had a bit of luck and picked up a kid along the way isn't terribly odd. We just need to make sure that they can handle any particular race." She tells you, wanting to make sure that she'll not be worrying about your children. As Karina steps out of the carriage, the children begin to gather around the gate, watching her with interest. None of the kids are 'shadow blessed' but you think you spot an orc in there. Not for sure, it could just be a green skinned kid.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Any requests for race of care giver?

[Sallin_Kari]

"Yeah, but my point is that it is strange to go to an orphanage and go for someone who is barely an adult with very little experience than someone who is use to such a thing. That is the suspicion I'm talking about," I explain, "I'd like to interview multiple candidates and pick the best if we can."

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

I'm not picky.

[porne]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Fair enough. I'll leave the cow girl for Dragonborn, so what species is well known for motherhood?

You shift into a ring to ride on her finger, letting her take you in to the orphanage. After some brief back and forth, she begins to discuss the possibility of transferring the existing children and adding new ones, and the angel winged woman seems to understand that she might wind up having to take care. The fact that there'd be servant golems to handle much of the physical labor as well as provide protection catches her attention immediately, and she seems to be in favor. She's quite pretty as well.

[Sallin_Kari]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Echidna? The mother of monsters? I mean yes, a half-snake woman might be a bit too monstrous for this setting to accept but it's the only thing to come to mind... On a side note, I personally would find that highly amusing.

And yes, I know that wasn't what you meant but... Never ask me a rhetorical question if you don't want to hear the answer.

I listen in on the conversation. I ponder what her race is... Is she an angel or Seraph or what ever that type is called here? Likely. [Well she sounds pretty good, but how does she feel about other races? Perhaps you can even ask about Shadow Blessed kids if you play it off as hyperbole.]

[porne]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

That's fair, I figured I'd go with something simple, and we've already had a Seraph.

[Right, I'll see what we can do. I take it you like her though?] You can hear the smirk in Karina's comment. The conversation eventually drifts around to what kind of races the Seraph has experience with, and it does indeed seem to be a very wide variety. When Karina drops the comment about 'Shadow Blessed', the woman looks uncomfortable, like she knows this is a trick question. "All children should be cared for. No child should go without love because of what they were born as." Which seems to satisfy Karina. That's probably about as good as you're going to get. You'd bet that the woman had to grow up in an orphanage much like this one, and either had a friend, or was a victim herself of that kind of persecution.

[Sallin_Kari]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Picture for her then?

[Well, she seems to be what we hoped for.] I reply [Besides she's easy on the eyes, and that's always a plus.] She is reasonably clever, but answers straight despite the trick question, so that is promising. [Looks like she is a keeper.]

[porne]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Sure, let me get home where I can browse images freely. A block of text isn't a big deal, but I don't want to rummage around somewhere that's not home. I'm thinking she'll have black or red wings, rather than pure white, so that she had some of her own runins with prejudice.

Karina agrees with you, and suggests that you bring the Seraph on a tour of the mansion if she'd like. She hesitates, possibly thinking this is some sort of trap. She stares deeply into Karina's eyes and mentions that she'll take her own carriage. Karina smiles at her, knowing full well how dangerous life can be for young women, and drops a few coins in her hand so she doesn't have to go out of pocket. "If nothing else, kids love going for rides." She says, giving her a wink. "We'll be there tomorrow so you can set things up." She says, before getting up and letting the small children play around her again.

[So, did you want to look in on the party? You seemed a little interested in them as well. Or are you completely tapped out, mister fifteen minute wonder?] She's begging to see what you can do with that dildo, isn't she?

[Sallin_Kari]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Sure, that makers sense.

Seeing her hesitate, I announce [And... this is exactly the suspicion I was referring to.] Still Karina manages to cinch it still.

[I take it you wish to see my 'dildo' creations then?] I cut through her vagary, [If you want to check up on them, feel free. We might need them as I think we're going to need to do more dungeon runs.]

[porne]

[Yes, I think we should. I don't know if want to invite them over to my place just yet, but I would like to check in.] She tells you. She begins to head out, toward the guild again, and asks the guild guide for contact information, before she sends them a note asking for a status update.

Having finished up, you head back to the mansion, and have some discussions with Hestia about the proper assembly for the motor. She's using a rather high level chemistry core for the experimentation, but that's just because she hasn't 'programmed' a lower level one. As best you can discover, Hestia has the ability to enchant cores like a computer program, so she keeps a very advanced, powerful set for herself, but once geometry or other components are worked out, she can enchant a lower level core to take over it, like an independent PLC.

The motor she constructs uses a lightning core as the power supply, but it needs a few other components for a car. A level two or three core is all you really need to get the ~10 horses you need out of a drive system powerwise, but you need a more powerful core to either store the energy, or you need an alchemical core to imbue the carriage with a solar collecting skin. With the very lightweight vehicle, limited power and such, you're confident you can use a mere level 3 lightning core and a level 5 alchemical core. The lightning core provides the power for the motor, as well as conversion of the energy to mana. The alchemical core acts as the brain of the system, providing all of the decision making processes, as well as providing the senses and the 'skin' effect to gather energy for the system.

The lightning cores themselves aren't going to be difficult, as you found plenty level fives in the dungeon nearby, but you might have to dive deeper to get ahold of those alchemical cores unless you can come up with another solution.

[Sallin_Kari]

[I agree, too many questions if they realize you suddenly get a mansion... And considering I'm assuming you've never showed them your true face, I wouldn't want them to get any ideas, like wanting rooming with you.]

Being in gauntlet mode for writing, I tap my thumb as I consider my experiments results. "Hestia, about how much would it be to buy an alchemical core of sufficient level? And would you happen to know where you could farm for such things?" Looking over everything I consider my options. A solar array would be useful, but unless they have an understanding of it, that will cause too many questions there, besides, having it only operate during daylight hours is... disadvantageous. "The automatic carriage that we've been using to go back and forth from the mansion and town, how is that charged?" One possible way is to have a... processor, utilizing mana crystals to feed the core. I need to experiment on other things as well... Perhaps if there is a way to convert thermal energy into something usable for the core, I could have something like that to charge it. There is likely some sort of cheap fuel around.

[porne]

"Based on the amount of mana crystals you provided earlier, approximately two days full completion. The cores themselves come from, I believe, floor 10 of the local dungeon along the commonly referred to 'golem route' if my information is up to date. You could engage in a purchasing agreement with the local adventurer guild to commission a raid on the floor if you desired, however this would require a significant investment." That sounds like you might be able to get through it yourself, possibly with Karina to help. Hestia doesn't realize exactly how powerful you are, just that you've got some abilities she doesn't recognize.

"Our carriages primarily recharge from the house supply, the roof of which has enchanted wood to feed on sunlight, as well as some harvested plant matter. There is also a small hotspring that can be tapped as needed. Wood golems, such as the various maintenance golems are relatively easy to give that particular enchantment, and in many cases, a day of rest will get an hour or so of work." Interesting, it's like there are special enchantments that allow you turn input energy into mana to power other features. That's probably one of the spells that is being mounted to either the golem core, or the lightning core.

[Sallin_Kari]

"I can give you more if you need," I inform her, listening to more... before letting out a sigh, "I need to take a break for a bit and change topics... You did suggest that I talk with Karina about the stealth right? I think I should do that."

Breaking from the work, and heading to Karina's room. "Sorry to interrupt, but I have a few questions I need to ask you, for security reasons. As you are aware, assassins managed to sneak in and kill the master and damage Hestia, causing it to be in the state we found it in. I'm concerned with a repeat of that potentially happening, so we need to develop a counter measure, but to do so I need to understand how stealth magic works."