Mystical Journey

"That is the golden award for the Silver Horn Energy Machinist Competition which our store won!" Seeing Garen looking at it with interest, the girl squeezed a smile on her face and walked over to introduce it to him. She looked like she was only 14 or 15 years old. She was very tired at this time, but she still had to take the initiative to serve the customers.

"I'm sorry, I am not here to buy anything." Garen apologized, and pointed to a job advertisement on the side. "I'm a rookie Energy Machinist, only Level Two. I'd like to get a job to earn some crystals."

After the little girl heard of this, her originally revived spirit immediately diminished.

"Oh, looking for a job...we do need OEMs. You can see that the things on the counters aren't in order. We sell Energy Machine Imprints and auxiliary materials. Many things need to be processed by ourselves after we have purchased them, especially the subtle processing of the materials. The Energy Machine Imprint also requires someone to fine-tune and inspect it. Besides that, the store is also lacking staff. But the wages...is a little low."

"How much?" Garen nodded.

"How about two hundred crystals a week?" the little girl said cautiously.

Garen did not know about the market rate at all, but only frowned and looked at the little girl.

"Can you call the shots here?"

"Yes, this is my shop." The little girl nodded. In fact, in the general market, there were a lot of things that could be done by a Level Two Energy Machinist. The price of two hundred crystals a week was very low as the normal price was four hundred crystals a week. However, this shop was almost unsustainable. It was even almost impossible to preserve this ancestral point and the annual maintenance fee was also unaffordable. Without more hard work, the position in this special ability space might be completely eliminated before long.

"My name is Lan. This shop is under my grandfather's name. He is sick now, so only my senior brother, senior sister and I are taking care of the business together," the little girl explained briefly.

Garen nodded, but what he needed most now was the Energy Machine Imprint. Everything else was not important. Furthermore, the cheapest Energy Machine Imprint was very expensive, something that he could afford at all.

"I am alright with the offer, but I am in some trouble and urgently need an Energy Machine Imprint. I wonder if you can give me an Energy Machine Imprint in advance. The lowest grade is fine too." He had no choice now. The predators may attack the town he was in at any moment. If he did not quickly strengthen his defense ability, regardless of how strong he was, he would still die when faced with an endless sea of predators..

"In advance?" the little girl looked at him blankly. "I'll have to go back and ask...but if you agree, you must come over to finish the minimum requirement of the OEM tasks in a week after signing the contract. Otherwise, the special ability space will regard that you broke the law and you will very likely lose your eligibility to re-enter the space. You have to understand that."

"If that's how it is, then it's not a problem." Garen nodded. He had no other choice. He could not go to any other shops as he was penniless. The conditions here might not be good, but this was his only choice.

There were also two other shops which might offer higher wages but he could not even get in.

He watched as the little girl turned back and walked into the shop.

Garen wandered around in the shop. There were indeed not many things on the counter. There were very little types of Energy Machine Imprint, only five or six types. All were either of aqua category or ground category. There was not the more popular aerial and underground imprints.

Aerial cannon fodder and underground cannon fodder were relatively decent Energy Machine Imprints. For example, the color-changing bat could execute long-distance invasion and its concealing strength and durability were strong. Because it could discolor and be in a stealth mode for a long time without consuming much energy, it was much more durable than the general imprints.

Another example was the underground earthworm, which could go deep into the earth to look for hidden underground bases. It was very popular in some special environments. Its concealing strength was very strong and it had certain toxins.

These were very decent peripheral cannon fodder.

However, there was none of it here. There were only ordinary wild wolf and saber-toothed tiger -- these general power cannon fodder creatures were large-in-size with short endurance time.

Of course, a wild wolf and a saber-toothed tiger will have stronger frontal combat capabilities compared to the color-changing bats. However, in this technological era, you may possess great physical strength, but if you lack the ability to dodge could cause you to be shot down.

Therefore, ordinary, medium and large-sized biological systems were the lowest-priced Energy Machine Imprints.

Energy Machine Imprints called for faster speed, better accuracy, and more powerful.

Garen scanned over them again and only saw the wild wolf and saber-toothed tiger. Others were aqua cannon fodders. This place was a 100, 000 miles away from the sea, so it was only natural that these imprints could not be sold off.

Shaking his head, he heard the sound of footsteps. Looking up, he saw the little girl Lan walking out, followed by a tall, thin young man.

The man was dressed in a white apron, both hands wearing metal gloves that were stained with oil. His face was weary and he looked tired. He looked to be not more than 20 years of age, roughly similar to Garen.

"Hello, I'm the disciple of the boss here, Mincar. Are you the one who want to work as an OEM?" The man came over, opened the counter door and stopped in front of Garen.

"Yes, that's me." Garen nodded.

"So, what can you do? Have you had any prior experience?" The man asked with a hint of expectation. "I'm sorry to ask this although the salary is so low. This is also to make it easier for you to get into the state of working."

"Err..." The question caught Garen off guard. He had not even been inside the special ability space for a few times, let alone what work he had done. "To be honest, I am a rookie Energy Machinist and I do not even have an Energy Machine Imprint, let alone be a helper or held any job before."

He answered frankly. It was difficult to cover up in this kind of place, so he might as well be honest and straightforward.

"A rookie?" A trace of disappointment flashed across Mincar's face, but he also nodded understandingly. "I understand. If you were an Energy Machinist with work experience, I guess you wouldn't come here to work for us that easily."

He paused. "Is this arrangement alright with you then? Currently, there are only me and my other junior sister working in our shop. Lan is responsible for sales, but we are only good at aqua and ground biochemical imprint processing. We don't know other aspects at all. I am now trying to carry out the imprint processing of aerial unit. For the ground imprint processing that I was originally responsible for, I will give you a part of the workload. You just have to complete one piece a week. It shouldn't be a problem, yeah?"

"One?" Garen nodded. The lowest grade of imprint would also require thousands of crystals. It was not what he could afford. Completing a ground imprint a week did not seem to be a difficult task. "I have not tried it before. Could I give it a try first before saying more?"

"Sure."

They took Garen into the inside of the shop and into another workshop-like room.

Inside were some sphere-like floaters. There were dozens of silver spheres hovering by themselves, each of different sizes. They were transparent and their contents could be seen clearly from the outside.

Each of the spheres was like an embryo that was gestating. Inside was a colourful swirl that was whirling non-stop and in it there seemed to be a multi-coloured milky way, which was exceptionally beautiful.

Mincar pointed to the biggest sphere and introduced.

"This is the Energy Machine Imprint that is being processed and nurtured, a lion-tiger imprint. The smaller the size of an Energy Machine Imprint, the more functions it has and the more powerful it is, the more complex the calculations will be. The Energy Machinist must always follow closely the data variation in the Cultivation Sphere to guide and weave the gene strands we need during the pivotal steps and inject our Willpower. The imprint that is finally bred will record all the processes within the Cultivation Sphere."

He tapped the sphere and smiled wryly.

"Of course, in this cultivation process, the fewer the mistakes, the more perfect it is. This is because for every mistake, even if it is corrected later on, the Energy Machine Imprint that is bred out will commit the same mistake when creating cannon fodders in the Biochemical Pool. It will be a waste of time and material. Every time they are wasted as such, through accumulation, the quality of the whole imprint will be greatly reduced."

"That is true." Garen nodded in understanding.

"The general standard is that no more than five mistakes should be committed, either that or the waste rate cannot exceed ten percent," Mincar explained simply.

"When we operate the Cultivation Sphere, all the operations will be recorded by the Energy Machine Imprint. The smoother the process, the more perfect the final imprint will naturally be and the lesser the loss. We are like inscribing sections of programs on the imprint. These programs are irreversible. The mistakes can only be remedied and cannot be altered. Therefore, every mistake will directly determine the quality of the final imprint. This is the making of an Energy Machine Imprint."

Lan, standing on the side, also nodded and said.

"So, during the making of an Energy Machine Imprint, a person usually only specializes in one type. Cross-domain operation is only looking for death. Apart from the old monsters who have too much time to spend, the rest of the people won't even think about it."

"You little girl," Mincar smiled bitterly and shook his head. "Do you think I wish to do so?"

Listening to all these helped Garen to better understand now.

They were like burning CDs. The person who bought the imprint was like playing a CD. Each time they created and bred biochemical cannon fodders, it would akin to them playing a CD. The more mistakes there were on the CD, would affect whether the playing of the CD was smooth or not; whether there would be glitches in the middle; whether the picture was clear or not, or it was blur, et cetera.

"It's good that you understand." Mincar nodded. "If you have agree, you can sign a contract here. We can agree to give you an Energy Machine Imprint in advance. After all, even if you didn't mention it, we will still do the same because the efficiency of an Energy Machinist without an Energy Machine Imprint is extremely low. That is not what we want. As for the type of Energy Machine Imprint, you can pick it yourself. You can have any of it that is in the shop. There is nothing very good anyway. The cost of it will be directly recorded in your pay and gradually deducted from it."

"Alright."

Garen nodded with satisfaction.

"When do I start work?"

"Tomorrow. You can first choose your imprint and familiarize yourself with the use of it today. I will teach you how to operate the Cultivation Sphere tomorrow." Mincar instructed. "How long do you plan to work?"

"Let's try one month."

"Fine. I will prepare the agreement then."

"Alright." Garen agreed and took the contract that soon appeared in Mincar's hand. After reading it once and making sure that there were no traps, he quickly signed his name on it.

Dang!

With a light sound, the contract smoked and turned into black soot in Garen's hand.

"This represents that the contract is in effect." Mincar nodded. "Lan, please take him to choose an imprint. The price will be calculated at the cost price."

"Got it." Lan was smiling. She pulled at her red, long ponytail, turned around and gave Garen a friendly smile. "How do I call you?"

"Garen." Garen smiled. "Just call me Garen."

"How terrific, Brother Garen. At such a young age, you are already a Level Two Energy Machinist. Your teacher must be a very profound Energy Machinist, right?" Lan brought Garen out of the workshop room and returned to the shop outside.