Assimilate All Talents

After his meeting with the Commander later that same day, Sol left the palace to buy supplies, including food and other consumables that he and Amber would need. During this shopping trip, he stopped by Gearworks to visit Fabio and check in on him.

When he arrived, he found Fabio in the middle of teaching his new student, Elizabeth. They were both standing before a table that held one of Fabio's mechanical puppets, its chest open, revealing a mass of mechanical parts and gears that connected to all its limbs.

Fabio glanced briefly at the puppet and then turned to Elizabeth.

"Alright, Lisa, tell me what's wrong with it."

Elizabeth carefully examined the entire machine, from the mana box that powered it to the sensors it used to detect its surroundings. She mumbled as she tested a few parts to check if they were functioning properly. "Nothing is broken or missing. Could it be this?"

She moved her hand toward a tiny cog nestled between two larger ones, which didn’t seem to stand out among the other more prominent parts. As soon as she touched it, the gears began to spin, and the mechanical creation came to life.

Fabio nodded approvingly. "Unlike smithing, where perfection is only required at the level of someone like Taliya, in mechanical tinkering, everything must be perfect. Even a single small error can make the whole thing useless. In this case, that tiny cog was caught between two others rotating in opposite directions, causing the whole mechanism to lock up."

Sol, who had been watching from the start, commented, "Sounds annoying. I can only imagine spending days searching for what's wrong, only to find out it’s something minor like that."

Fabio tsked and shook his head. "Ah, you don’t get it. That’s the beauty of it. Eventually, you reach a point where you truly understand how the world works and how everything interacts in perfect harmony. Just one small part, like that cog, being out of place could send the entire world into disarray."

"That's... surprisingly deep. Didn’t know you had that in you." Sol replied, half jokingly. While he could see some truth in Fabio's words, he wasn’t about to concede without at least one final jab.

Fabio rolled his eyes and turned to Elizabeth. "Take a break, Lisa. I have to deal with an annoying customer."

She nodded and left to work on her personal projects at her workstation.

Once it was just the two of them, Fabio leaned back against the table and asked, "Alright, what do you need?"

Sol smiled wryly, looking away. "Need? Do I need a reason to visit? Haven’t I dropped by just to chat before?"

"You have, but you ain't fooling me. I can see it in your eyes. What's up? New ideas for the Lipon? Does the Tynamo Cannon need repairs?"

Sol raised his hands in defeat. "You got me. I came because I wanted to ask if you could fix this."

From his spatial ring, he pulled out the Lipon, its grip visibly dented. Upon seeing it, Fabio's jaw dropped.

"What the—? This was from grip strength alone? Did you become an A-Ranker?"

Sol nodded. During his attempt to break through Orna's ice, he had used all his strength to slam the stone drill with his Lipon, severely damaging it. Although the exterior only looked bent, the interior was devastated. It was a miracle it still worked.

Fabio sighed. He knew Sol was working on comprehending his law technique, but the speed at which he advanced was surprising. It had taken Fabio two years to reach A-Rank, and he considered himself quite talented.

"I can fix it, but now that you’re an A-Ranker, you’ll need to be more careful with your weapons. If you wield it with the same strength that caused this, it won’t last long in a fight."

Sol could easily imagine the Lipon snapping in two during combat with another A-Ranker if he applied too much force.

"Is there a way you can make it more durable?"

Fabio shook his head. "I’m a crafter, not a miracle worker. This was made with a durium exterior, and you crumpled it like paper. I can try to get Taliya to make a stronger alloy, but unless we can get our hands on another legendary material, it’ll only last a bit longer."

Sol doubted he could obtain something like that anytime soon. He then asked, "What do other A-Rankers do? How do they manage?"

Fabio chuckled. "They come to us for repairs. A lot. Even mages break their staffs often, unable to handle the amount of power channeled for big spells. It's not uncommon for A-Rankers to stop using weapons unless they’re lucky enough to stumble upon a legendary weapon or material."

Sol became pensive, wondering if there was anything else he could do. Without a weapon capable of handling his full strength, most of his melee skills would be unusable. After a minute of thinking, he arrived at the same conclusion as many other A-Rankers: either constantly repair weapons or abandon them until finding a legendary one.

He sighed. "Can you fix it for now? I can’t go all out with it, but it’s better than fighting barehanded. Still, I don’t know if I’ll find someone like you to repair it when I leave."

Without a weapon, he couldn’t use most of his combat skills, which was far from ideal.

Fabio nodded. "Of course, I can fix it in a jiffy. But what do you mean? Are you going on another mission?"

"I can’t really say yet, but I probably won’t be back for a long time."

"I see..." Fabio assumed it was a secret mission and didn't press further. "Well, stick around. This won’t take long."

Sol took a seat and watched as Fabio expertly repaired the Lipon, starting with the outer frame and then replacing the damaged internal components. Ten minutes later, it was done. Along with the repaired Lipon, Fabio presented Sol with four identical spares.

"What’s this?" Sol asked, confused.

"Well, I’m sure you’ll break it again in time. Since you won’t have good ol' me to fix it up, you might as well take some spares."

"Thank you, but I can’t take them. I can’t afford it."

Sol truly couldn’t afford it. The average price of a Lipon was at least 700 gold each, and the total cost for all four would be around 2,800. He only had 1,500 gold left and had given all his merits to Rex and Duncan.

"Take them. It’s on the house. Consider it a congratulatory gift for reaching A-Rank."

"I..." Sol hesitated.

"Just take them! If you don’t, I’ll turn them to scrap!"

"Okay, okay! Thank you, Fabio."

Under both Fabio’s insistence and his own logic that he’d need the spare Lipons, Sol relented and accepted them. After settling their business, Sol spent some more time chatting with Fabio before heading back to the Royal Palace, where he intended to fulfill a promise he had made to someone.