The sun was just starting to set when Gerhardt returned. Stepping through the portal and closing it behind him, his sensors immediately detected the presence of Pixel along with an Earth Pony in the recreational area of his lab. Curious, he made his way over to see who it was and why they were here. As soon as he reached the living room, his eyes immediately dimmed to the point they were emitting barely any light at all as he saw the state Pixel was in. Her robes were shredded, her exterior was covered in very deep scratches, and one of her arms was missing. It appeared as though it had been forcefully ripped off. Applejack was sitting on the bench next to her.

“Pixel?! What happened?! Who or what did this to you?!” He demanded immediately running over to her.

Pixel looked up with a miserable expression on her face before getting up off the bench and running over to him, and wrapping her one remaining arm around him in a tight embrace. “Daddy!” She cried. “I… I didn’t want to hurt it, daddy! I was just so scared and I cast a spell and… and…”

“You didn’t want to hurt what?! What did this to you?!” Gerhardt demanded, his concern only continuing to grow.

“I don’t think she’s in the right state of mind to explain right now, Mr. Mechanica… I’ll tell ya what happened for her.” Applejack stated.

Gerhardt immediately looked over at Applejack, waiting for the explanation. To say he was furious was an understatement. He was so unbelievably angry that the emergency cooling systems installed in his head were forced to activate just to prevent his E.P.U. from melting. When he found out who was responsible for this, he was going to make them suffer as they died! Perhaps he would even go so far as to install an augmentation into their head that would force them to experience agony beyond anything even remotely achievable by a fully organic brain. Then he would vaporize them so their corpse could never be found and nothing could be traced back to him so he couldn’t be arrested for committing torture or murder.

“Earlier today a manticore attacked Ponyville… At least seven ponies died in its rampage. Possibly more, I’m not entirely sure. It also ended up attacking Pixel. In fact, uh… I got nothin’ to prove this but, I think it may have been huntin’ her specifically. You see, when she was first attacked, Twilight saved her and brought her over to my farm so I could take care of her while she and Fluttershy dealt with the manticore. But somethin’ was wrong with it. It’s eyes were glowin’ green and later on It looked like it was usin’ magic, but I’ll get to that in a bit. So even Fluttershy couldn’t get through to it.” Applejack explained.

“After that it started runnin’ to my farm. Twilight teleported over again, told us it was comin’ and that she would deal with it. She failed. Then it got to the farm, I fought it for a bit, then it got the better of me and stabbed me in the back with its stinger before throwin’ me into a tree. Pixel came out of the barn, pulled it off of me before it could finish the job, and tried to use magic to stop it but nothin’ she tried worked because it seemed to be usin’ magic to counter everything she threw at it. So eventually she ended up blastin’ its head off with some spell, though, uh… I don’t think she meant to do that.”

Gerhardt frowned. “I see… I can think of a few things this could be. It sounds a lot like possession but I am unaware of any spirits that have any reason to attack my daughter like this and as far as I am aware no spectral undead exists in this world. Thus possession seems unlikely to me. So it must be something else, though I have no idea what that could possibly be… Gods damn it, if only I were here I would be able to know for certain! Regardless, Pixel, why didn’t you try to contact me?! You have a built in communication system for a reason!”

“I… I don’t know… I was so scared… I… I didn’t think of it… Please don’t be mad at me, daddy!” Pixel cried.

Gerhardt sighed. “Of course I’m not mad at you. However, you should have contacted me! I would have dealt with it myself and you wouldn’t have had to kill it. I would have done so for you… Oh well… It’s too late now. I’m just glad you’re still alive and are in good enough condition to continue functioning, scratches and missing arm aside… You know, now that I think about it, I suppose this may be a good thing in a way. You got your first kill out of the way. That is a very important lesson for you in and of itself. You didn’t enjoy killing the manticore, did you?”

Pixel’s embrace grew slightly tighter. “No…” She muttered, sadly.

Gerhardt kneeled down and put a hand on her one remaining shoulder. Looking her directly in the eyes he said, “Good. You shouldn’t. Killing should never be an enjoyable experience. If one ever starts to enjoy it, then that is a very good indicator that there is something very wrong with them. However, sometimes it is necessary, as it was in this situation. Think about it. If you hadn’t killed it, would you have been able to get it to stop any other way? Would you have been able to calm it down or negotiate with it?”

Pixel said nothing and just shook her head.

“Exactly. If you hadn’t killed it then I guarantee it would have killed you. Or at least it would have tried as it likely wouldn’t know how to kill you. No matter how painful it is to harm or kill another living being, if it‘s trying to kill you and there is nothing else you can do to stop it then defending yourself as you did today is perfectly acceptable. And while I know it may be hard for you now, I promise you after the first few times it starts to get much easier. Also, keep in mind that this was just a simple animal. It wasn’t even truly sapient. Killing an actual person is a hell of a lot harder than killing an animal. I should know. Back in the Human Kingdom I was in the military thus killing was an everyday occurrence for me.” Gerhardt told her.

“Alright daddy…” Pixel mumbled sadly.

Seeing her still sad Gerhardt sighed. He had no idea why she was so broken up about this. It made no sense to him. A threat was a threat, and threats needed to be eliminated one way or another. One need not feel anything over eliminating a hostile force.

Yes he himself had been quite upset after his first kill, but his first kill had been an actual person rather than an animal. And that had been a very long time before he even invented brain augmentations thus his memories of that time were foggy at best. He didn’t really even remember what it had been like, he only knew that he had felt quite upset and had nightmares for quite awhile afterwards. It was like having been told a story. It was as if he had never even experienced it in the first place and just knew what happened on an intellectual basis. For all the kills that he truly remembered he had felt absolutely nothing. So he honestly couldn’t empathize with what his daughter was going through at the moment.

Though even if he could empathize with her, he really didn’t understand the emotions of others and thus wouldn’t know how to comfort her to begin with. Such things had never been a part of his duties as a technomancer. He built machines, killed things, sabotaged enemy equipment, managed communications and supply lines, got civilians to safety, and that was it. He wasn’t part of the medical branch so empathy and understanding was not in his skillset. Ironically in that regard he supposed that made him less human and more of a machine than Pixel had or would ever be.

So he did the only thing he could really think of and wrapped her in a hug. He honestly had no idea what else to say or do then what he already had. He was never cut out to be a father and he knew it. The fact this was the only thing he could think to do for his daughter given what she was going through at the moment was evidence enough of that. After a moment he put an arm under her legs and picked her up, being sure to use both arms so she wouldn’t slip and fall since one of her arms was missing and she wasn’t able to hang on to him as well as she usually could.

“Thank you for trying your best to protect my daughter while I was gone. I owe you and Miss Twilight a favor for this, even if you weren't terribly successful. Speaking of which, you mentioned she failed to stop the manticore. So, am I to assume she is dead or just seriously injured? If she’s dead, I suppose the favor I owe her will simply have to go to her family instead.” Gerhardt inquired in a grim tone.

Applejack looked off towards the side. “Oh… Er… Yeah, she survived… Barely… She’s in Ponyville hospital right now… The doctors give her a 65% chance to live… Um… Apparently after Rainbow told Spike what happened and he finally calmed down enough he wrote a letter to Celestia tellin’ her what happened. Then Celestia apparently wrote letters to Shining Armor and Cadance and Twilight’s folks. So Spike and the rest of Twilight’s family are at the hospital right now. I think the Princesses may also be comin’ by soon to check up on her.”

“I see… Very well. I suppose I’ll leave them be then. I’m sure this is a very difficult time for them and I wouldn’t want to intrude. Perhaps if she does end up surviving I’ll visit her in the hospital to offer her my thanks when she is in a bit better condition. If she doesn’t I will have to offer my condolences to her family. Specifically Spike, Prince Shining Armor, and Princess Cadance as they are the only members of her family that I am truly familiar with. What of the rest of your friends? Were they also injured in the attack?”

Applejack shook her head. “Fortunately not. Apparently Fluttershy came pretty darn close but Twilight managed to save her before the manticore could get her. Though about seven other ponies died in the attack last I heard, but uh… There may have been more and I just don’t know about it yet.”

“Well, I suppose that’s good. It could have been a lot worse. Anyway, I assume that the barrier generator I built for you is still in good condition? You haven’t had any issues with it?” Gerhardt inquired.

“Oh that? We usually only turn it on at night since that’s usually when the timberwolves come out, but yeah it works just fine. We haven’t had a single issue with it yet. The drones work great too. We’re still considerin’ whether we want to buy a truck or not. Big Mac is okay with the idea but Granny Smith is worried it might be too dangerous. For my part, I honestly don’t care either way. It’s just a fancier cart that we don’t have to pull ourselves.” Applejack explained.

“That’s good. Well, if there is nothing else, I would like to attend to my daughter’s injuries.” Gerhardt stated, glancing at the severed metallic arm that was laying on the bench next to Applejack.

Applejack nodded and got up off the bench. “Fair enough. I’ll get outta your way. See ya later, Mr. Mechanica. You too Pixel.” With that she turned and left the lab.

When she was gone, Gerhardt looked at Pixel and sighed. Her clothes were ruined. He would have to commission Rarity to repair them and possibly make her a second set of clothes just in case something like this ever happens again. As for the damage to her body he could fix it but the machines he was making to produce artificial skin and hair were nearly complete. He only needed to do a couple more things and they would be done. He estimated he could probably get it done by the next morning. As such he decided that repairing her current body would be a waste of time and effort since it would be being replaced soon anyways. Still, he decided he should fix her arm at the very least so she would have one in the meantime.

“Alright, dear. It’s time I fixed your arm. I won’t do anything about the scratches in your exterior because I will be having my factory build you your new body tomorrow morning. But I can’t just leave you without an arm until your next body is ready.” Gerhardt stated.

“Alright… Daddy, can I keep my old arm?” Pixel requested.

Gerhardt blinked in surprise. “Er… considering the damage it has suffered, it would be quite difficult to repair. It would be better if I just had the factory build you a new one.”

“No… That’s not what I meant… I just want to keep it… It doesn’t have to be attached to me.” Pixel stated.

“Oh. I suppose that would be fine.” Gerhardt said, still surprised by the request. He had no idea why she would want to keep it but he had no reason to say no.

“Thank you…” Pixel muttered.

It took about an hour for the factory to finish making the arm. Then it took another hour for Gerhardt to install it. However, almost as soon as he finished attaching it, his sensors detected the presence of a demigod outside his door. Then there was a knock. It was obviously one of the princesses but he had no idea what any of them could want from him at the moment.

He and Pixel walked over to the door. Opening it, he saw Celestia standing there and she looked quite distraught. Her eyes were a bit red like she had been crying. Gerhardt assumed this was because she was upset about what had happened to Twilight. “Greetings princess. What brings you here tonight?”

“A few things… May I come in?” Celestia requested, her voice sounding quite upset.

“As you wish.” Gerhardt stated before stepping off to the side to let her enter. As soon as she was inside he closed the door behind her and said, “I apologize for the lack of proper seating but I do not require furniture and I rarely have guests so I generally have no need for it. Had I known you were coming over I would have gone out and bought some. Regardless, try to make yourself as comfortable as possible.”

“Thank you, Gerhardt… First, I heard what happened to Pixel earlier today and I wanted to come check on her and see how she was doing…” Celestia explained. She glanced at Pixel and winced slightly. “I’m glad to see your father managed to give you a new arm. How are you feeling though?”

Pixel looked down at the ground and mumbled, “Bad… I… I didn’t mean to hurt it… I was just trying to get it away from me…”

Celestia gave her a sympathetic look. “It’s alright, Pixel. You did nothing wrong. Quite the opposite. You did a very good thing. It killed eleven ponies and severely injured Twilight… So, while I wish you hadn’t had to resort to killing it, it had to be stopped. It was extremely dangerous and given the situation you were in I believe you did the right thing.”

“Thank you…” Pixel muttered, not raising her head.

She gave Pixel a sad smile. This smile lasted for only a few seconds before she let it fall and said, “My sister and I visited Twilight in the hospital tonight… Her surgery was already over an hour or two before we got there…”

Gerhardt was completely unsurprised. “Yes, I expected you would do so. I assume her family was there as well. I can’t imagine that it was very easy for any of you to see her in such a condition.”

Celestia shook her head. “No… It wasn’t… I’ve known her since she was just a filly… Seeing her like that... Sweet harmony… Her wounds were horrible… And her parents… They were devastated… Shining Armor is taking it particularly hard…”

“Hm… I see. Well, for their sake I pray she will make a full recovery. No parent should have to outlive their child. You also have my deepest sympathies. I personally never formed any sort of emotional attachment to any of my old apprentices despite having known many of them since they were children. So while I have been in similar situations many times over the centuries I won’t pretend to know what you’re going through because I simply don’t. Even so if there is anything I can do to help, you need only ask.”

Celestia looked at him and said, “Gerhardt, do you remember what we talked about back in the Crystal Empire? About friends being there to listen to each other help each other through whatever it is that may be troubling them? Right now I just need a friend to talk to.”

Gerhardt knew he was the wrong person for this. Just like he couldn’t help Pixel with what she was going through, he knew he wouldn’t be able to help Celestia either. But it wasn’t like he could just say “No.” and turn her away. So he sighed and said, “Yes I remember. Very well. However, it is getting late so I would appreciate it if you would allow me to put my daughter to bed before we continue. She has had a rather stressful day and while sleep is unnecessary for her, I believe some rest would be good for her. It should only take a few minutes.”

“That’s fine, I understand. I can wait a few minutes.” Celestia stated.

“Thank you, princess.” Gerhardt said before taking Pixel by the hand and leading her back up to her room. After she took her boots off and climbed into the bed, Gerhardt said good night and began humming her his lullaby. It took about five minutes for Pixel to fall asleep. Though when she finally did, Gerhardt got up and walked back down stairs.

He and Celestia spoke for a little over an hour. Gerhardt tried his best to help her with what she was going through, but he strongly doubted he was of much assistance. Eventually she said goodbye before teleporting back to Canterlot.

Once she was gone, Gerhardt opened a portal to his factory and got back to work on the devices that would produce synthetic skin and hair. By the time he had finished it was already mid morning. He then had the factory begin building Pixel’s new body. It would take a couple hours but that was fine. In the meantime he went back to his lab, both to check on Pixel and to spend a bit of time experimenting with this world’s magic. He was getting closer and closer to developing a functioning arcane equation for teleportation.

It was a week day, but he told Pixel she could stay home that day rather than going to school. Partially because she had just been attacked by a manticore, partially because he needed her there so he could remove her brain and put it into her new body, and partially because her clothes were absolutely ruined. Instead he had her assist him in his experiments and took the time to give her an extra long lesson in technomancy.

Once her new body was finally finished, he had her go into low power mode as he removed her brain from her current body and placed it in her new one. He also had to take her clothes off of her old body and put them on her new one despite the state of disrepair they were in. By the end of it she looked just like a little human girl. The only things that really distinguished her from a human were the pure white wings on her back, her metallic silver hair, and her solid pink glowing eyes.

When that was done he was about to go to Rarity to commission her to make a new set of clothes for Pixel when he heard yet another knock on his door. This time his sensors detected the presences of both a demigod and a unicorn. Walking over to it and opening it up he saw Cadance and Shining Armor standing there. Shining armor looked like he hadn’t slept all night and his mane was a mess. Cadance was in a very similar state.

“Greetings.” Gerhardt said, waiting for them to explain what they wanted from him.

“Hey Gerhardt… I really wish our first visit to your house was under better circumstances but I assume you've heard about what happened to Twilight?” Princess Cadance inquired.

“I have.” Gerhardt confirmed. He then stepped to the side and said, “Please come in.”

They did so and he closed the door behind them. “Hello.” Pixel greeted them in a somber tone.

Princess Cadance frowned upon seeing the state of Pixel’s clothes. “Hey, Pixel. I see Gerhardt has finally made you your new body. It looks great! Though it’s a shame about your clothes…”

“Thank you. I really like looking human.” Pixel said with a somewhat forced smile on her face. “Everything feels so much different through skin. It’s just so much squishier than my old body.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet! Anyways… Gerhardt, Shiny has something he would like to ask you.” Princess Cadance stated.

“You have to help Twilight!” Shining Armor pleaded in an almost desperate tone.

Gerhardt blinked in surprise. He hadn’t been expecting this. He supposed he probably should have, but he hadn’t. “Prince, while I am in the business of giving people augmentations I’m afraid that’s really all I can do. I am no medical mage. My biomancy is average at best which isn’t sufficient for something like this.”

“I know, but please! There has to be something you can do! Anything! I don’t care what it is as long as you can keep her from dying!” Shining Armor pleaded.

Gerhardt sighed. “Prince, there is much I can do but I am not a miracle worker. There are limits to my abilities… That being said, do you know what her injuries are specifically? I may not be able to guarantee her survival but I may be able to increase her chances a bit.” Well, technically he could give her a few brain augmentations, remove her brain from her current body, and put it into a completely new body altogether. However becoming fully artificial did come with a few downsides and to some it would be more of a curse than a blessing. So he would have to get her direct permission before conducting such a procedure. Plus he would much prefer to limit such extensive augmentations as much as possible as making too many people immortal would rapidly lead to even greater issues in the future. Besides which he wasn’t entirely sure Twilight would even want to be immortal in the first place. She really didn’t strike him as the type to want to live forever. So he kept that option to himself.

Shining Armor’s horn began to glow and a small stack of papers appeared next to him in a flash of pink light. He then levitated the papers over to Gerhardt. “Here, I asked for a list before coming here. This is what the hospital gave me. It should have everything you need to know on it.” Shining Armor explained.

Gerhardt took the papers and looked them over. After he finished reading through them he frowned slightly. Her wounds were worse than he expected. “Hm… I’ll be honest Prince, a 65% chance of survival seems like a very generous estimate to me. Though, as I said, I am a technomancer not a medical mage so I could very easily be mistaken. Regardless, I suppose there are a few things I could probably do such as replacing a few of her damaged organs and giving her a new horn. This will probably increase her chances of survival and let her continue on as usual after her recovery if she survives. However, as I said I’m afraid I can not guarantee anything.”

A pained look crossed Shining Armor’s face. “Even increasing her chances of survival is fine. Please just help my sister. Whatever the procedure costs I’ll gladly pay for it.”

“As you wish. I’ll try to do what I can. However, it will take between two to three hours to have my factory make the augmentations. After that I’ll need you to come with me to the hospital to inform the doctors I have your permission to operate on Miss Sparkle. Does that sound acceptable?”

Shining Armor nodded in confirmation. “Of course… Thank you so much, Gerhardt.”

So Gerhardt went back to his factory a second time that day and had it build the augmentations he would need. While those were being built, he and Pixel went to Rarity’s boutique to commission Pixel’s new clothes.

“Greetings, Miss Rarity.” He said as he and Pixel entered the building.

“Hi Miss Rarity.” Pixel greeted, though her voice lacked its usual energy and cheerful tone.

“Hello, what can I…” Rarity started before she noticed the state of Pixel’s clothes. “So… I suspect she will be needing a new set of clothes then? Oh, and your new body looks wonderful by the way, darling!”

Pixel gave Rarity a somewhat forced smile at the compliment. She was still very clearly upset by the events of the previous day.

“Indeed she will. Though, this time I will be letting her decide what she wants her new clothes to look like.” Gerhardt confirmed. He then opened a portal back to his lab and grabbed a blank sheet of paper before handing it to Pixel. Taking out her fountain pen and creating a shield in front of her, she began drawing what she wanted. A few moments later and she had drawn a very simple dress and a pair of shorts. She then levitated the paper over to Rarity.

Her eyes widened in delight for a moment as she realized Pixel wanted a new dress. Then She frowned in disappointment as she took in the details of the dress. “Er… Are you sure this is what you want? They’re rather bland.”

Pixel looked at the ground in embarrassment and muttered, “I don’t really know how to make things pretty.” This was correct. She understood fashion about as much as Gerhardt did which was to say not at all. She didn’t know the first thing about aesthetics in general. Gerhardt had only taught her how to make things functional, not good looking.

“I see… Well in that case would you mind if I improved on your design a bit? I’m sure I could make you something absolutely gorgeous!” Rarity inquired.

“Okay. Thank you, Miss Rarity.” Pixel said with a slightly more sincere smile on her face.

“You’re welcome, darling! I should have it ready in a few days. I’ll deliver it to your house when I come over to buy more material this week.” Rarity told them.

“Very well. Do you have an estimate on the cost?” Gerhardt inquired.

“Hm… I haven’t quite decided on a particular design yet so I’m afraid not. We can discuss the price when I come to deliver it later this week.” Rarity told them.

“Very well. Thank you. I suppose we will be taking our leave now. Good day, Miss Rarity.” Gerhardt said before he and Pixel turned to leave.

A few hours later and Twilight’s augmentations were complete. Thus he met Shining Armor at Twilight’s library and the two of them went to the local hospital. After Shining Armor told them Gerhardt had permission to operate on Twilight, he was led to Twilight’s room. Apparently she was already on a surgical bed since the doctors had needed to conduct surgery on her due to the severity of her wounds and they didn’t want to risk moving her any more than necessary. Entering inside he saw her covered in bandages and stitches with her horn broken in half. One of her eyes was missing and from what he read from the papers Shining Armor had given him, she was lucky to still have all four of her limbs. That manticore had made quite the mess of her.

Reaching through a portal to his factory he began grabbing all of the augmentations and laying them out on an empty surgical tray. Once that was done he picked up the sterilization ray and used it to sterilize himself, the augmentations, the tools he would be using, and the room as a whole. Then he set the sterilization ray down and got to work.

Unfortunately he had no choice but to remove some of her bandages and slice through some of her stitches so he could conduct the operation which meant he would have to replace them after he was finished. He started with the internal organs since those were the most important part of the entire thing in regards to increasing her odds of survival. After that he sewed her back up and replaced her bandages.

After that he moved on to both her broken horn and her missing eye since he was going to have to remove portions of her skull to replace both of them. This was quite possibly the most dangerous part of the entire operation since removing portions of her skull meant parts of her brain were going to be exposed and if he made a single mistake he could end up injuring her brain. So before doing that he re-sterilized himself and his tools just to eliminate any chance of bacteria or whatever else he got on his tools or hands from the surgery to replace some of her internal organs causing infection since infections in the brain tended to be quite lethal. The parts he used to replace the section of her skull that he had to remove were made of magically reinforced silver that had been enchanted to ensure it would never corrode. Her new horn was also made of magically reinforced silver and it was slightly sharper than her previous horn. Her new eye was a purple sapphire since that was the closest he could get to making it match her other eye without replacing both of them.

Finally he attached a layer of synthetic skin covered in synthetic lavender fur to hide the metal that would otherwise be exposed. It blended in perfectly with her actual skin and her fur hid any seam that may have otherwise been slightly visible. And with that, after making sure the synthetic skin was firmly attached, he was done. The procedure had taken five hours in total.

Casting a spell to remove the leftover blood from his hands and robe, he exited the room and walked back out to the lobby where Shining Armor, Cadance, and who he could only assume were Twilight’s parents were waiting.

“Well? How did it go?” Shining Armor inquired in a very worried tone.

“Well, she’s still alive so I would say it went well enough. With these augmentations in place I would raise her chances of survival from a very generous 65% to a much less generous 80%. It’s more likely than not that she will survive, but there’s still a chance something may go wrong and she might not make it. Still, I did everything I could. If she survives she will still need some time to recover but after that She should be able to continue on like nothing ever happened.” Gerhardt informed them.

“… And if she does survive you’re certain she will still be able to use magic?” Twilight’s mother inquired with tears in her eyes.

“I guarantee it. I have replaced several other unicorns horns already and they work quite well. Infact, since silver is a better conductor of arcane energy than the material your horns are made of, her magic should have somewhere around a 15% increase in efficiency.” Gerhardt confirmed.

“Thank you so much! You have no idea how much this means to us!” Twilight’s father exclaimed. “When… When we saw the state she was in… We were so worried.”

“Well you shouldn’t stop worrying just yet. As I said, there is still a chance something could go wrong and she might not make it. An 80% chance of survival is not a 100% chance. I apologize as I prefer to be brutally honest in situations like this rather than trying to make things look better than they are just to make people feel better. I feel that doing such a thing would be disingenuous.”

“It’s alright, we understand. Still, thank you. Even increasing her chances means a lot. Anyways, how much do I owe you for the procedure?” Shining armor inquired.

“Given the material cost, about 520 bits.” Gerhardt informed him.

Twilight’s parents seemed shocked by the price. Shining Armor and Cadance also appeared surprised but less so. “Wow. Your prices really are low. Alright, I’ll have the bits delivered to your house later today.” Shining Armor stated.

“Thank you. Well, if that’s all I suppose I will be taking my leave now. Good day.” Gerhardt said before turning and walking away.

Author's Note

That's another chapter done! Hopefully I did this one a bit more justice than the last one but if you spot anything you think may be an issue please let me know so I can try to go back and fix it. Thank you!

Fun Fact: Mages in the Human Kingdom are never allowed to leave the military or integrate into normal society, thus they do not get payed. Instead they receive a monthly budget and are allowed to requisition anything they want so long as it doesn't exceed their budget. Obviously, higher ranking mages have larger budget than lower ranking mages. Gerhardt rarely used his budget unless it was to requisition extra parts or materials. Thus he has no idea how money works. He doesn't understand basic economics like supply and demand. If he did he could actually be making even more money than he is now by having higher prices and selling cheaper or more expensive models of augmentations.

Anyways, as always, constructive criticism is more than welcome. Please, tell me what you guys thought of this chapter and how you think I could improve if at all. I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter as much if not more than I enjoyed writing it!

Stay safe out there everyone!