"Hemet! Are you done yet? Where are the mithril rods I asked for?"
The youth held a protective face shield polished from transparent crystal in front of his face, while his other hand gripped a welding torch purchased from the Goblins.
The torch hissed and crackled, spraying scattered golden sparks like fireworks.
"Crackle... pop, pop, crackle..."
After a cloud of smoke cleared.
"Crooks! A whole bunch of damn crooks! 'Goblin technology will blow your mind,' my ass! I should throw every last one of those little greenskins into Ayou Farm to feed the pigs."
Roaring, Al threw the third ruined Goblin dragon gun onto the ground and stamped on it several times in frustration.
Kainar Flamesun: Is the competition this fierce? I don't even get a turn feeding the pigs anymore...
"Thirty-two more, Lord Al. Please wait a little longer..."
Hemet stood beside the furnace, hammering away with a smithing hammer nearly as large as his head. Deafening clangs of metal alternated with the dwarf's heavy breathing.
"And the gyroscopic stabilizers, too. What idiot compiled this damned advanced engineering book, anyway? Does a kinetic device really need parts this precise?"
The youth eyed the [Master Engineering] in his hand dubiously and muttered to himself.
"Forget it. I'll make all the parts first.
"If I find out that little greenskin gave me this book to fool me, I'll capture him and make him my new research material... heh heh."
The youth gave a sinister chuckle, then threw himself back into his work.
Half a month later.
"Kinetic system check."
"Kinetic system functioning correctly."
"Core component trial run."
"Core components showing no abnormalities."
In front of Mosh's enormous corpse, the dwarf and the elf nervously fiddled with something, muttering all the while.
"Now, the final step..."
Al anxiously wiped the sweat from his forehead and took out a crystal radiating four-colored light.
As for this crystal, Al had discovered it while studying Mosh's corpse. He had found the four-colored crystal, brimming with powerful energy, in the behemoth's stomach.
While Hemet was fighting Mosh, Al had noticed that the behemoth possessed only immense strength and no other abilities. That did not match what Nablya had said...
Only later had he discovered that Mosh had merely swallowed the crystal without digesting it.
Thus, Al unraveled every mystery one by one. Mosh had discovered this crystal somewhere in the Titan Testing Grounds and swallowed it. The tremendous energy within the crystal had left him delirious and on the verge of madness.
And so it had rampaged along its way until tragedy struck: it encountered Hemet's party. Bloodthirst and a deranged will drove it to kill everyone before it.
Just as it was about to kill Hemet, the crystal in its stomach was jostled by the violent movement, and Mosh vomited it up. Only then did the old dwarf escape with his life.
After obtaining the crystal, Al discovered that these crystals were worlds apart from ordinary crystals, because it could automatically absorb the energy drifting through the air and recharge itself.
For a time, this led Al to suspect that all the crystals in the testing grounds might have proliferated from this original stone, and that this crystal alone had been created by the Titans themselves.
This gave Al an interesting idea. He decided to use the original stone to modify Mosh.
"Hemet, leave this place first, just to be safe. I don't know what's going to happen next, either."
"But... Lord Al, you..."
The dwarf spoke hesitantly, but the youth's resolute gaze cut him short. He could only leave for the time being and stand with the watching adventurers at the foot of the mountain, gazing up at the colossal figure.
With trembling hands, the youth inserted the four-colored crystal into the behemoth's spine.
"Thump... thump."
The enormous artificial heart-or rather, power reactor-began to beat, and the bionic hubs embedded in the behemoth's joints began operating as well.
Mosh's entire head had been forged from thorium ingots mixed with large quantities of mithril. These rare magical metals conducted magic exceptionally well. His head no longer resembled its original tyrannosaur form; the youth had given him a new look.
A massive horn stood on his forehead, and magical radiance emanated from his polyhedral metal head.
Mosh's two eyes were Stars of Elune that Al had brought from the Sun King's treasury. These teardrop-shaped sapphires were said to have once been sacred relics of the Kaldorei.
But as time passed, that rumor had fallen apart on its own. Even so, there was no denying that Star of Elune was an exceptionally rare treasure.
Al had embedded the Star of Elune in Mosh's pupils not because of the Quel'dorei's innate artistic sensibilities, but for another purpose.
Mosh's entire body had been transformed. Perhaps the only things left untouched were his original bones. The bones of this behemoth had once left the old dwarf helpless, but now they had become the toughest material in Al's hands.
In short, the once bloodthirsty, savage behemoth was gone.
It had a long, straight humanoid body, and its horned head bore a strange face with a metallic sheen.
Its arms had been modified into two enormous blades. Hemet knew that these blades were not fixed in place; they could change shape at any time.
If any part of this colossal figure could still be connected to the original Mosh, it was only its backward-curving feet.
Its backward-curving feet, bearing the wild style of a tyrannosaur king, were terrifyingly powerful, and enormous barbs protruded from the joints. Anyone taking a knee strike from this big fellow would surely end up pierced clean through.
The colossal figure also had a pair of enormous white mechanical wings on its back, gleaming brilliantly in the sunlight.
Mosh had been painted gold and red all over. Yet these bright colors, so clearly reflecting high elven tastes, had not made it elegant or noble. Instead, they made it even more ferocious and terrifying, a contrast that struck anyone who saw it.
The adventurers had never seen such a strange robot. In their minds, all robots ought to look like Goblin shredders.
Sharp weapons, a bulging belly belching black smoke, and a cockpit that could make you throw up last night's dinner when you sat in it-this big fellow before them completely overturned everything they knew.
Its strange fusion of savagery and elegance, together with its streamlined appearance, left the adventurers at the foot of the mountain marveling and crying out in unison.
"By my Earth Mother... I never thought much of it before, but after seeing Mosh, I finally realized all that Venture Company scrap metal is garbage..."
Will Heavyfist wiped away his drool and gazed longingly at the enormous robot on the mountain.
"Slurp."
"Slurp, slurp."
The adventurers beside him had eyes shining with golden light, their expressions no different from the Tauren's.
After all, giant robots were a man's romance.
"His name is Type Zero."
Hemet spoke as though he shared in the honor.
His words immediately caught the adventurers' attention. They surrounded the old dwarf, chattering noisily as they peppered him with questions.
"I said, his name is Battlecast Behemoth - Type Zero!"
Looking thoroughly pleased with himself, Hemet announced proudly:
"Lord Al and I developed this Type Zero together!"
"Pfft."
"You're just a heartless tool. What are you so smug about?"
"Just a damn screw tightener..."
The adventurers took turns ribbing the old dwarf. Far from angering him, their sour tones only made him look even more pleased with himself.
Hmph. Lord Al and I are fucking awesome.
The old dwarf thought to himself.