The Legendary Junkmaster

Jason sighed as he glanced over his shoulder at Bridgend fading into the background. 'Only eight days left...' Sentinel had given him a gift of a ton of resources for his leaving. They were loaded up on five different carriages that were pulled by domesticated beasts that looked like large goats with six horns. They were meant for him to use for his business, but Jason had other plans.

With his time limit drawing close he intended to create a bunch of items for Syssie's evaluation. The time to play it safe was over, he was already certain that he could not solve their problem with his current knowledge. He would have to take the risk and dump a bunch of PP into new skills. He could only hope that it would be enough.

Syssie refused to even show her avatar around him just now. She thought there was more risk involved with this plan than trying to deal with it as they were. Naturally, the resulting argument had sent her off in a huff. But Jason was feeling the pressure too much to cater to her feelings right now. The sound of the rolling wheels on the broken road and the mechanical legs of the ANT-V provided the background noise to his thoughts.

'I'll definitely have to increase my electronics and computing skills... Maybe biology as well?' The whole thing was giving him a headache. He did not know what skills had been fused together to create Syssie in the first place. So he could only make an educated guess about his requirements. 'Or should I focus on one thing and hopefully fix most of what's broken to buy us more time?'

"Hey! Jason, right? Don't suppose you'd be willing to sell that contraption of yours to me once we reach Highrise huh?" Zach Speirs, the merchant who owned this caravan asked from the back of a waggon.

Jason frowned as he glanced at the short man with a side parting that tried to hide his balding head. "I'm afraid that's not possible... As you can see, I need it to get around."

"Hm? Then perhaps you'd be willing to accept a commission to make one for me then?" Zach's tone was a little pushy, but Jason paid it no mind. After all, the man was a merchant, so he knew fine well they had to seize any opportunity that they saw.

"I'm not sure I'd have the required materials. You'll have to forgive me but I'll have to check my store before I can agree to anything." Jason was sure that Zach knew he was stonewalling him with half-baked excuses. However, the latter had enough sense not to push any further on the matter.

Jason felt a little isolated, despite travelling with the caravan. The guards would often stare at the ANT-V with a look of mixed curiosity and horror. At the same time, he would often catch them staring at him as if he were some kind of monster! This was ironic, considering one of them had wings in place of ears. Only they were not strong enough to actually let him fly.

Time passed slowly as they followed the broken road left behind by The Old World. From time to time they would leave the road for water sources dotted around the landscape to let the beasts rest. It was on occasions like this that the few passengers travelling with the caravan would get off their waggons to stretch their legs. However, they all avoided Jason like the plague.

He thought they were just like the guards, but it turned out that they were aware he was connected to powerful people in the Empire. So they were actually afraid of accidentally insulting him. After all, they had no idea what his personality was like. When Zach made him aware of this he could not help but sigh. In such a short time his position had changed drastically.

It was not that long ago that he could have been considered to be well below these people. After all, it was rather expensive to get a ticket to travel in a merchant's caravan, so none of these people could be considered simple. Jason edged the ANT-V towards Zach as he sat by the pond they were resting at while chewing on some dried meat.

"What can I do for you?" Zach asked before Jason could even reach him. 

"How long will it take to reach our first stop?" Jason asked curiously as he had the ANT-V lower its height so it did not appear as if he were looming over Zach. 

"Hm? We should reach it before daybreak tomorrow. Why?" 

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"Just felt like doing something. Will we be there for long?" Jason wore his best poker face as he replied. 

"We'll rest there for about a day, maybe two. Depending on what deals I can dig up. You're not fooling me with that face of yours. You're thinking of doing some business right?" Zach laughed as he saw the dumbfounded expression on Jason's face. 

"Yeah, something like that. But I don't have a workshop and it can take some time to even make two or three things..." Jason sighed as he glanced towards the waggons carrying his resources.

"You know..." Zach chewed thoughtfully on another piece of meat as he glanced at Jason. "Maybe I can help with that."

"How so?" Jason did not like where this conversation was going, but Zach's intuition as a merchant was just too on point. 

"I know some people, and it's not impossible to rent a workshop at our next stop. Hell, if you're willing to compensate me, I won't mind delaying our departure..." Zach rubbed a thick thumb and finger together as if Jason had not already gotten the point.

Jason's eyes narrowed as he stared at Zach. The merchant had clearly recognised an opportunity to get some money out of him, but Jason really had no other choice. Who knew when they would find another safe place for him to make an attempt at fixing Syssie up...