Versatile: Alternate World



I am quite sure Kazuki didn't obtain any sort of armor in that kind in the last timeline so seeing him in a full mecha suit just didn't look right to me. And for him to be wreaking havoc right now, I don't like where this is going.

"I needed to stop him."

"Then what? Expose ourselves to the Nexus users? As much as you wanted to do so, we can't afford to expose ourselves to dangers like this. We barely have been here in this world and have yet to fully accustom ourselves and yet you want to start jeopardizing ourselves here? Manato, think for a bit. If you stop him right now, you will be seen by the people, and Nexus will also notice you due to your combat style. I know you want to do the right thing but right now, it's better to turn a blind eye for now. Besides, the guy might be too overpowered at the moment, and perhaps that armor has had some hacks in them, and with you who just recently recovered partial of his lost levels, I doubt you will have any sort of ways to properly beat his hacks," Pandora berated me.

"As much as I agree with you, Son. Pandora is right. With Nexus being part of this, we can't afford to get revealed immediately. It's best we go back to the mansion. It's not our fight, Manato."

Despite my protests, I decided to just let it go. I thought I have forgotten all of the atrocities that Kazuki did to me but I guess I am just keeping it deep in me but didn't fully let it go. And today ignited my desire to break Kazuki. However, Father and Pandora are both right, I needed to prioritize the safety of everyone. After all, we are like fugitives in the Alternate World with every player as the enemy's surveillance camera.

I can only shake my head in disappointment and anger but for now, we will have to hide and make ourselves scarce. But until then, I will keep this anger within me before I let it all out in the future.

And because we don't have any more business there and we have a high risk of being spotted, we left the area and returned to the mansion. There, we saw Mr. Teddy and Akira helping each other carry the boxes of metal ore that Almira needed for her project.

"Oh, you guys are back. So what was it? Is it something spectacular or what?" Almira asked.

"Nothing much. Just someone I didn't want to see."

I am a bit tired and I didn't bother to entertain everyone. I just went inside the mansion and headed to my room. The situation is pretty much something I want to mull over for a bit and as much as I want to beat up Kazuki right now, I have to keep myself a bit restrained on it. He might be the guy who ruined my last timeline future, but I must keep everyone safe from the Nexus and find the tree.

Because of how tired I was, the moment I closed my eyes, I immediately fell asleep.

...

...

...

...

When I woke up, its already afternoon. I am not sure how much time passed when I fell asleep. I stood up and put on my gear before going out of my room. I was expecting everyone has been up, but I guess most are too tired to even interrupt their sleep. Only a few are currently present here. I guess everyone who is not here is still sleeping soundly in their rooms.

Anyways, I am hearing some loud noises happening outside and so I decided to check it out. There, I saw my Father, Mr. Teddy, Renatta, Labo, and Pandora currently gathered while not too far from them is Almira currently assembling a few stuff on the table she set up outside.

"Oh, Apprentice, you are finally awake. Come, you have reset all of your masteries, right? I think it's time you learn metalworking again. I will be teaching you while you help me with this. The faster we finish this, the better."

"Eh? You still will teach me stuff?" I was surprised since Almira is usually too busy to even teach. I just lucked out before that I managed to become her student in the first place.

"Of course. With you here, not only my workload is lessened by a lot, but also I will gain a handy apprentice that can help me with smithing and metalworking in the future. I don't want to deal with all the repairs and creation of armor and weapons for you all, I would rather spend my days hammering bit by bit and honing my skills rather than waste my time making weapons and armor for you all."

Oh, so that was what she meant. Well, she is not wrong. With my help, her workload immediately gets pretty light. And besides, I also wanted to regain all of my skills as well so her personally teaching me is already a big win.

Almira then looked at everyone as well. "You guys also wanted to learn stuff from me?"

Father scratches his head. "Although I like to learn, I don't think I have the creativity and patience to maintain this knowledge and put it to good use. I would just remain as a bystander for now."

Mr. Teddy only shook his head. Pandora rubs her chin and seems to contemplate her next choices.

"I am interested in working with metals but I don't plan to specialize in it. So I will just be watching things," Renatta explained.

"Is that so? Then feel free to watch and listen. Anyways, we should start assembling this. You should still learn a few skills that I didn't previously teach you. Here are some of these. Now handle that part and we will start."

I know this isn't smithing related and it's more on metalworking but metalworking helps as well since some stuff that is needed to be made in some armor needed some decent knowledge in metalworking. I have decent knowledge about it due to my smithing profession before but I never actually got any EX Jobs related to that so maybe getting Almira to teach me metalworking might allow me to increase my repertoire of expertise in the future.

Almira's work is the best even in metalworking. She has a knack for making different things in different items and in metals, this is honestly kind of amazing. With some of the instructions from Almira, I soon got a new mastery of Metalworking.

"You already got the mastery? That's good. That means you were actually learning from my teaching even though it was pretty half-*ssed.  Anyways, now that you got the mastery, let's finish assembling this leg, shall we?"

As a result, we spent the whole night finishing up the leg. It was a massive leg and even I was surprised that only two people, me and Master, are the only people who made this. No one else helped, although they watched, they definitely didn't help so I wasn't expecting the end product to be this big.

"Next up, we will have to dig up deep underground and attach this leg at the bottom of the mansion and ensure that they will work well when installed. But since this will be the first leg, we will have to repeat the work."

"Since we used up all of the metal deposits and ores we got, that means we will have to gather more?"

"Yep. That's right. However, I won't pressure you guys. I know you all are still adjusting so keep it cool for now. However, the sooner it is done, the better. So once you guys have gathered enough metal ore or more metals to use, give them to me and we will continue the production. Now, go and rest. You earned it."

After that, Almira went inside the mansion and went inside her room. I also didn't realize that everyone else is also back in their rooms as well. The only one who was left outside was Pandora who was currently drinking coffee and watching the moon in the sky.

"You really work so hard today, I thought you would collapse in the middle of working," Pandora smiled as she gave me a space to sit beside her on the bench.

"Heh, I am not that frail to immediately collapse. Anyways, why are you still here? Are you not tired from all the stuff we have finished doing today?" I asked.

"Not really. In fact, I am happy that I am experiencing something pretty new to me. You can say that I tasted my freedom too much and that I am enjoying it too much as well."

"Is that so? Like being able to properly speak and properly walk?" I asked.

"Yes. Not only do I get to do many things I cannot do before, but I can now freely have a good chat with you as well and not just be limited to a sketchbook."

She smiled at me before she watches the sky. Then, her expression gets serious.

"Manato, are you perhaps hiding something from us?"