Chapter 603: Suspicious Engineer (1)

Lennok’s assertion, which might sound arrogant, that he could easily surpass most craftsmen. But instead of scoffing, Mouser listened intently with a serious expression and nodded. Mouser knew how powerful a wizard Lennok was, and how capable a superhuman. Mouser, too, understood from long experience that wizards of such caliber rarely spoke idly.

“Yes, with that kind of confidence, you won’t be suspected when you do business. Don’t mind me, just do your best.”

“If anyone comes looking for me, it’ll be easier for you to pretend you don’t know. Or it wouldn’t hurt to think of an excuse, like you were threatened.”

“You speak nothing but ill omens…”

“As you know, Master Mouser, no one can harm me unless I wish it.”

Mouser, sensing the conviction beneath Lennok’s calm words, quietly fell silent.

“So, if necessary, it’s more convenient for me if you deny everything without hesitation.”

“…Understood. If things turn strange, I’ll do so.”

“Thank you.”

Mouser, replying grudgingly, quietly looked up at the workshop ceiling and muttered.

“After all, this workshop I’ve given you was originally just an empty place without an owner. It would be good if someone used it.”

“For being ownerless, it’s very well-maintained.”

“Indeed.”

Mouser said with a slightly heavy voice.

“Because it was the workshop of a fellow who went with me as an envoy to Blaiver Magic Tower.”

“…”

In the end, Mouser was the only survivor among the Machine City’s delegation. Had he been spending his time alone, managing the workshops of the comrades who were with him that day? Lennok began to understand why Mouser was such a well-regarded craftsman, popular enough to be chosen for the delegation, and why he readily helped Lennok even after all this time.

But Lennok, without betraying any emotion, simply nodded.

Mouser stared blankly at Lennok, then snapped out of it and turned to leave.

“Well then, I’ll be going now. If you need help, contact my workshop anytime.”

“Understood.”

Before Lennok could even fully absorb Mouser’s departing figure as he closed the door and vanished, he heard footsteps approaching from the workshop’s workbench area. Not the back entrance used by craftsmen, but the main entrance where the workbench and counter were located. This was where Lennok, having taken up work under a disguised identity, would receive customers who came by word-of-mouth.

The footsteps stopped right in front of the workshop door, a hint of hesitation in their sound. Lennok, hearing the sound of the approaching person’s footsteps, pulled on the hood he had prepared beforehand and slightly lowered his gaze. Combined with the iron mask covering half his face, it was difficult to recognize him, even though he maintained Van’s face.

“This should be enough, right?”

“[I’ll handle the adjustments for the internal components of the mask, so don’t worry, Master.]”

With Davi’s help, he adjusted his appearance to make him unrecognizable as Van, giving him the impression of a cyborg. Since he was receiving help from Mouser, he couldn’t deviate too much from the identity of Van that Mouser knew. Therefore, instead of creating a new identity or name, Lennok decided to operate simply as an anonymous craftsman known in this workshop district.

‘Unless someone has seen my face directly, it’s impossible to know Van’s face from photos or videos.’

Due to his powerful anti-target designation ability, Lennok’s face wasn’t properly captured on screens or videos, and unless someone had met him in person, they couldn’t know Van’s face. Regardless of Adamant Thunder’s fame, prestige, and past achievements, one had to meet Lennok in person to remember his face.

In Vulcan, even if you hadn’t seen Lennok’s face, his distinctive appearance and unique magic meant you couldn’t help but recognize him the moment you met him. Here in the Machine City, let alone Lennok’s face, there probably weren’t many who truly knew what kind of wizard Adamant Thunder was. Merely adjusting and changing his external appearance was enough to pass himself off as a craftsman without creating a new identity.

While he was satisfactorily checking his appearance, the customer waiting outside the workshop seemed to have made up his mind and soon stood before the counter.

Clank!!

Lennok slid open the counter window and greeted the hesitating customer.

“Do you have any equipment or artifacts you’d like serviced?”

It was time to work.

Naturally, just because he decided to work as a craftsman didn’t mean legendary swords or famous relics would suddenly come in for repair. The workshop district of Machina, the Machine City, was full of craftsmen known through word-of-mouth as famous or skilled. In such a fiercely competitive environment, most customers who sought out Lennok were either those with limited funds or those with an unusual degree of curiosity.

And to quickly make a name for himself among such craftsmen, Lennok had no choice but to act as a craftsman in a unique way that only he could.

“I mainly use a shotgun, and it seems like the barrel keeps getting clogged.”

A man with a clean-cut appearance muttered, looking troubled.

Lennok, examining the shotgun the man had placed on the counter while listening to him, asked casually.

“Do you have a particular habit when loading your shotgun?”

“Huh?”

“I think perhaps during the process of loading the shotgun…”

As Lennok spoke, he took the shotgun and lightly spun it once. The partially inserted shell was loaded into the magazine by centrifugal force, and the slide closed.

Clank!!

His weak grip almost made him drop the shotgun on the spot, but Lennok, hiding it, held it with mana threads and said,

“It seems you have a habit of loading it this way.”

“Th-that’s right!!”

The man, who had been looking somewhat bored, widened his eyes.

“The person who taught me how to shoot told me that loading it this way makes the ammunition go in deep and properly…!!”

“That’s not wrong, but if you look at this shotgun, it has four barrels, doesn’t it?”

Lennok calmly placed a finger on the muzzle and wiped away the remaining gunpowder residue, showing it to him.

“Even a double-barrel might not have major issues, but with a quadruple barrel, the amount of gunpowder residue that flows out during loading is significant. It’s not just a problem with the shotgun itself.”

“Hmm…”

“Replacing the shotgun ammunition itself with high-quality rounds that don’t produce much gunpowder residue would likely be the quickest solution.”

“But high-quality ammunition is too expensive…”

“…”

That wasn’t wrong. The ammunition used for such shotguns was likely mass-produced, low-quality to begin with. Under normal circumstances, the gun might have exploded long ago due to the gunpowder residue, but the magic user himself was suppressing the issue.

“Then I recommend this.”

Lennok said that, then abruptly brought an iron rod from beside the workbench to the forge behind him. The moment the iron rod instantly glowed red-hot and he brought it to the underside of the shotgun’s muzzle, thrusting it in—

Sizzle!!

A hole was pierced beneath the muzzle, and gunpowder began to trickle out from it.

“Oh, if you drill a hole in the muzzle, the shotgun will…!!”

“Go test it at a nearby firing range.”

Lennok said that, then adequately cleaned the shotgun and handed it back to the man. Just about ten minutes later, the man returned to the workshop, his expression utterly bewildered.

“The gunpowder residue isn’t left between the muzzle and the magazine at all, and the power hasn’t decreased much… How can this be?”

“By precisely creating a vent where the centrifugal force acts, matching your loading habit, you can prevent the internal components from clogging and breaking down without reducing power.”

Lennok said this, nodding.

“Attempting this without a professional’s help would likely just ruin an expensive item, so I don’t recommend trying it yourself.”

“Of, of course!!”

The man, startled as if his intentions had been exposed, paid for the maintenance with an embarrassed expression and left.

Lennok watched the man’s retreating back and subtly smiled. He could have told him to correct his habit of spinning the shotgun when loading, but for a superhuman going into combat, even such a minor routine could be a sensitive area affecting their condition. Out of consideration, instead of correcting the man’s loading habit, Lennok serviced the shotgun so that it wouldn’t cause problems even if he maintained that habit.

Rustle!!

Lennok pushed the stack of banknotes on the workbench into the safe prepared below and closed the door. While it wasn’t a bad amount of money for briefly servicing a shotgun, Lennok’s true objective wasn’t in that direction. It was to secure enough repair skills to personally fix Kaiser’s pocket watch by directly servicing various equipment here, and simultaneously…

…to gain information about the massive room blueprint remaining in Kaiser’s research log. To fulfill both objectives in his desired manner, the most efficient choice was for Lennok to pose as a craftsman in Machina.

‘There’s no need to ostentatiously show off my repair or modification skills.’

Lennok thought, taking out Kaiser’s pocket watch and habitually fiddling with it.

‘In fact, my repair skills are clearly inferior compared to Machina’s true masters, so it would be faster to spread word-of-mouth by hiding my true essence and demonstrating abilities in areas where I can excel.’

Lennok’s strengths as a workshop craftsman weren’t in his dexterity with machines, or his molding and casting skills. His immense mana perception and mana manipulation abilities, acquired as a transcendent high-tier wizard. The data from the prototype modification blueprint he obtained during his battle with Gearside. Even the ability to directly access the network using the Cybernetic Spirit Davi’s powers.

All of these clearly allowed him to leverage his advantages in indirectly maintaining and modifying equipment or artifacts, rather than directly creating them.

‘If I excel in secondary workshop businesses like modification and maintenance, I can interact with both the masters and their customers simultaneously.’

Most superhumans living and operating in Machina, the Machine City, favored mechanical equipment or artifacts, fitting the setting. If they didn’t use weapons or equipment, it wasn’t uncommon to find cases where parts of their bodies were modified and replaced with magic-engineering devices or artifacts.

In other words, in this city, powerful equipment and elaborate artifacts were indirect means of displaying one’s status and hierarchy. Therefore, if Lennok’s excellent repair and modification skills became known, he would likely come into contact with Machina’s executives without needing to go through complicated procedures.

‘For now, it’s the best choice I can make.’

Given that Machina, the Machine City itself, had a closed-off atmosphere, and Lennok had no particular connections or base other than Mouser, he had no choice but to take on the role of a craftsman to quickly grasp the situation in Machina and gather information in a short amount of time.

Of course, there were plenty of powerful individuals from the Machine City among the countless foes Lennok had faced, but he couldn’t exactly ask Maiya Lonsdale, a former Enforcer, for help. He shouldn’t spend too long posing as a craftsman, but there weren’t any other truly efficient methods available either.

Thinking this, Lennok steadily began to receive customers bringing in their equipment and firearms again. The work itself wasn’t much different from what Lennok considered his essential tasks.

“It’s a folding blade I acquired five years ago from Cluster Workshop. It keeps bending to the left with use, and other repair shops couldn’t find the problem.”

Lennok said, holding and examining the folding blade that looked like a giant utility knife. The lens inside the iron mask covering half his face rotated, magnifying Lennok’s vision like a magnifying glass to closely inspect the blade’s surface.

“The blade is a bit worn, likely from frequently slicing crustaceans, but the structural usage itself isn’t wrong.”

“I see.”

A man with a gruff voice and a thick beard asked, looking amazed.

“But Master, how did you know I frequently slice crustaceans?”

“The very act of using a folding blade implies that you’re prepared for rapid blade wear and regularly replace the blade.”

As Lennok spoke, he flipped over the blade’s joint to reveal it slightly.

“In other words, the user himself knows he needs to slice something hard quite regularly. Usually, people in such cases are engaged in industry or fishing, rather than combat.”

“Huh.”

“The salt residue between the blade makes it difficult to fold and causes it to creak, doesn’t it? If you’re near the sea within the Machine City and need to slice something hard, I merely thought you might be processing nalgaegajae, a famous crustacean from the Sea Area District.”

The man, who had been nodding blankly at Lennok’s articulate explanation, asked.

“Now that I think about it, Master, it seems you should have been a detective, not a repairman!”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

Lennok said that, then casually rubbed the blade a few times before handing it back to the man.

“It’s fixed. Take it.”

“Huh? What, already?”

The man, picking up the blade and sliding it back and forth as he spoke, nodded with a slightly surprised expression.

“Oh? How did you… with just a few hand movements…?”

“I attached a small magnet to the base of the folding blade.”

Lennok said that, pointing to the man’s mechanical arm.

“Measuring and calculating the degree and curvature of the blade’s bend, I estimate it was warped by a strong magnetic field. I suspect you might be processing crustaceans next to some massive machinery.”

“Th-that’s right… I process nalgaegajae and then put the meat directly into a processing machine…”

The man, staring at Lennok as if he were a god, asked with an expression of disbelief.

“Are you saying the magnetism from that machinery is causing my blade to continuously warp periodically?”

“To be precise, it’s not just due to the machinery; I suspect that a peculiar magnetic field is generated as your mechanical arm and the equipment interact somehow.”

Lennok said this, shaking his head.

“I won’t know the details unless I visit the site myself, but simply attaching a magnet of that size to the base of the blade should help balance it to some extent.”

“Thank you!!”

After that, Lennok invested the rest of his time, excluding what was needed to research Kaiser’s pocket watch and acquire Machina’s engineering knowledge, into working as a craftsman.

“[Oh?]”

Davi, who was organizing today’s sales and net profit by tapping the workshop’s computer with her plump front paws, tilted her head.

“[Master, the rumors about this workshop seem to be spreading in a strange way?]”

“What do you mean?”

“[Total sales and net profit are increasing rapidly, but the cause isn’t the kind of word-of-mouth you might expect. I hacked into a paid app that summarizes workshop customer reviews, and every single one says…]”

“This is a consulting firm that diagnoses all my problems just by looking at the equipment, right?”

“…”

Lennok, upon hearing Davi’s words, inadvertently stood up and headed towards the computer, only to turn his head back at the sound of a voice from outside.

“My artifact’s zero point hasn’t been adjustable for the past fortnight. Could you perhaps tell me why?”

Ironically, it was unexpected that Lennok’s intuitive ability to pinpoint the cause, rather than his repair skills, garnered attention. Due to these unique reviews and word-of-mouth, customers with good equipment and valuable information began seeking out Lennok faster than he anticipated.