Its been a few days since the Tower of Paradise blew up and Serabane gave us the hihi'irokane. One of the more amusing things to happen was finding out that there were a bunch of wanted papers with a picture of Serabane on them and the reward, a years worth of Zhongyang's budget. People got really excited seeing the reward for her but the excitement quickly dropped once they realised who was actually on the poster. Of course, her name isn't there since our group is likely the only ones to know it and people can't even pronounce, let alone write the name she used to give out, so they just called her the Mountain Destroyer.
As for today, we are finally going to assemble the robot. The mech is supposed to follow soon after, but we chose the robot first since its design is close to the original Big Metal Dragon and doesn't need an area for a cockpit. I had previously asked about how intelligent the automatons area and after a long yet short conversation with Hakase, she said that they can only follow basic commands. I was a little disappointed that I could have a small version made with higher intelligence to have as a servant but it's not a big deal since I can get an army of giant near-indestructible robots pretty soon.
In the large testing area of the Manor of Erudition, I begin creating the various parts and put them together under the instruction of Boshi and Gyosu while everyone else is just watching with the exception of Hakase who's asleep.
Bit by bit it's all coming together, starting from the body I attach the legs. The shins extend pass the knee and shape into a sharp edge making them the primary weapon of the legs. Much like the original design, each arm has a different function, one has a large shield on the forearm for defence while the other has a blade that extends past the hand. But unlike the old design where the tail was meant for stabilisation, this time the tail is being used as a weapon with the end of it being a spiked ball. The final part to be attached is the head, while humanoid in shape, it has two sharp horns protruding from the top as a potential weapon, but it's mostly just there to look cool.
As the final step, Hakase hand me a crystal ball, saying to put my Divine Energy into it so it can record my signature. I question her as to what this is and she says it's what will turn the lump of metal into an automaton. I should be able to create crystals now with my Earth Creation & Manipulation.
"If I eat this and recreate it, can it still be used immediately?" I ask.
"No... I need... to write... the script... into it... I have more... eat this... make lots... and I'll... sell them... and share... profits..." Hakase says, handing me another automaton crystal.
Taking the spare crystal, I immediately consume it and soon I understand how to recreate it. Without much thought, I make four more of them and hand them over to Hakase before moving to my giant robot. I climb on top of the torso and open up a deep hole to the centre of the body, just large enough for me to place the automaton crystal in. Once I make sure it's secure, I close up the hole and within seconds the Big Metal Dragon begins to stand up on its own.
"Hmm... I've got it! From now on this will be known as the Burning Metal Dragon," I declare.
"A fitting name, given its appearance," Aurelia comments.
With the name decided, I shift to my Dragon form to swallow and place the Burning Metal Dragon into my stomach storage since no one wants to see me do it while I'm in my humanoid form. Once that's done, I return to my humanoid form as Boshi brings over the design for the mech version.
Due to it being a pilotable one, there are significant differences with the inner structure. But it only took a couple of tries for me to make each part while successfully matching the design specifications. At the end of the day, the actual setup wasn't very different from the Burning Metal Dragon.
Other than the obvious cockpit, the other most notable design change is the addition of mythril wiring, although that probably isn't the best term, it's what I'm going to call it. These mythril wires are connected to rods inside the cockpit that I can send various types of energy through, to release an attack similar to my breath attacks but through the palms of the mech. But other than this additional weapon and the cockpit, there isn't much else that has changed.
As for the cockpit itself, there isn't any actual entrance to it, so it can only be opened by me making a hole then closing it. The problem of sight that had stopped me previously from making a version of the Big Metal Dragon with a cockpit has been resolved through the use of a special crystal embedded into the head of the mech. It relays everything that is happening around it with a 360° view to the cockpit. I have no clue how this actually works and the explanation that Boshi and Gyosu gave was too complicated and technical so I zoned out while listening to it before, but it works and that's all that matters.
"I'll name this one the Blazing Metal Dragon."
"I think you need a new naming sense, Teacher," Wanjing says.
"Yeah, isn't that a bit too similar to the previous one, and why Metal Dragon? Can't you come up with something better?" Aurelia says.
"I think it's a fine name," Lia says.
"I'm sure that as long as Cordelia suggests it, you would be fine with a name like I don't know, bucket head," Aurelia says.
"That's one's a little... I don't think even I can agree with something like that," Lia says giving me a worried look.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Aurelia's the one that brought it up not me, not even I would choose a name like that."
"It's good to know that the two of you aren't so crazy to either suggest or go along with it, but the real question is, what do we do now? I mean, Cordelia's pretty much completed her goal and Lia's unlocked her bloodline as well as Wanjing."
"That's a good point, what should we do now?"