Shovels In Spades

"Hmm... I think this bit goes here?" Vanessa asked herself as she attached a small cog to the inner workings of the airship's core with no small amount of hesitation.

She quickly closed her eyes and braced her body but after a few seconds of silence passed she exhaled in relief and smiled. "Yay! It didn't explode for once! I finally have an evening which doesn't have to be spent repairing even more broken parts."

Vanessa wiped her brow then got up and nodded. 'Yup. I don't even care if that cog doesn't belong there. The core is running with it so it's at least not doing any immediate harm. I do need a break for a bit though.'

She clambered out of the belly of the mechanical beast and smiled upon seeing Beta emotionlessly tinkering with some of the airship's outer wiring. "Hey, Beta."

The clone nodded to acknowledge her but didn't stop to talk.

"As focused as ever, haha." Vanessa didn't mind how lifeless Daz's clones seemed at times.

In fact, she found that it made them great conversation partners when she just needed someone or something to talk to. Rimmy was a good choice for that too but a lot of people did that while Daz's clones were a bit more of a... personal confidant.

She frowned as she climbed down the ladder to the ground. 'I've been doing that a lot lately, talking to Beta - Gamma too when he shows up. I'm glad Sandy likes to knuckle down and work on the core whenever he has the chance so he can't pay any attention to my whining... It'd be embarrassing if he actually cared, haha.'

Vanessa grabbed her quarterstaff which had just been resting against the base of the airship's hull and she then held it behind her neck and lazily rested her arms on it with her shoulders raised.

'I guess I miss Rose. It's kinda weird that I don't have many friends here. There's Rose, Sandy, Beta... maybe Daz? Uh... Yeah, one of those isn't a real person and the rest are super busy,' Vanessa laughed in thought before she began humming as she strolled through the outer fort of Fort Skip with no real goal in her mind.

'I'm kinda surprised how satisfying it is having someone rely on you. I wonder why she told me to leave her alone for a while though?' She tilted her head in deep thought. 'She's usually more than happy to see me.'

'Well, she's smart. I'm sure she has her reasons,' Vanessa concluded confidently.

A slow 20-minutes passed as the girl just meandered around the fort doing nothing but greeting people with that warm smile of hers. She was alone with her thoughts, mostly.

"Yeah... I should go check up on her," Vanessa mumbled. 'She may be smart, but she's just a kid and she did rely on me a lot. It'd be irresponsible of me to just ignore her. A simple visit couldn't hurt, could it?'

Daz stopped welding the small bronze figurine of Rimmy that he'd only just started working on this evening.

He took off his welding goggles and gloves - both items he didn't really need but they helped put him in the crafting mood when working with metal.

He then reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "A text from Rose? She didn't just jump right back into her capsule after our talk? What a surprise."

The message read: 'Help! Vanessa came to check up on me and I don't have the willpower to tell her to leave!'

Daz blanked for a second before he began laughing almost hysterically. It took him a good few seconds to eventually calm down. "Hahaha... Why did that tickle me so much? I can basically feel the panic from her text. She's so... normal. This is refreshing."

He replied with a simple: 'Act natural.'

After that, he returned to his crafting and put his phone on silent mode. The last thing the reaper wanted was for Rose to avoid Vanessa and focus solely on texting him. Some time together with her crush would do the girl some good.

A few peaceful hours passed and before long it was midnight. "Hmm?" Daz raised his head and turned to look at the door to his workshop. "Who's banging on the door this late? Not many people even have clearance to enter the inner fort anymore."

He got up off his stool and cracked his back before approaching the door and opening it. A puff of smoke greeted him.

"I had a feeling it was you, Sandy. Need something?" Daz asked as he completely ignored the very rude gesture of the man blowing smoke right into his face.

Sandy chuckled. "Ever the walkin' stone, eh?"

He took another drag from his pipe but exhaled the other way this time. "Just wanted to chat. It's been a while, Kiddo."

Daz stepped aside as he held the door open. "Come on in. I'm not exactly busy."

Sandy smiled and strolled right into the workshop. "'At's a surprise, what with all of this war and Ember nonsense. Figured you'd be up to yer knees in work like a farmer with shit."

Daz narrowed his eyes as he shut the door and followed the short and stocky man. 'Why'd he emphasise 'farmer' with so much hatred? I don't think he has a think against tractors or anything... Hmm... His weapon? It's a hoe if I recall. Is that why he's come to see me? Is he stressed out over his class?'

Daz would get no answers just speculating and he wasn't so socially inept anymore to just bluntly ask.

Instead, he sat back down in his stool and picked up his Rimmy statuette. It possessed many imperfections and had clearly been moulded incorrectly, but it still resembled the Guardian of Fort Skip rather well, Daz felt.

"Ya workin' with metal now, Kiddo? Movin' up in the world I see," Sandy remarked as he found a chair that had been sloppily placed to the side of the workshop.

He grabbed it and brought it to Daz's side before choosing to plop himself right down into it. "Still got yer pipe?"

This tale has been pilfered from NovelFire. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Daz nodded. "There's no reason why I wouldn't."

He grabbed the smoking tool from his Industrial Item Box where he kept it and handed it to Sandy.

The man began filling it with some strange green herb the system called Farom Lucid Dreamgrass. It was extremely potent, apparently.

Sandy handed the pipe back to Daz and then lit it with his lighter. "Go ahead, Kiddo."

Daz took a draw and nodded. "Not bad."

"'Not bad' he says, hahaha! Carl and Bobby both passed out when they took it. Your body must be crazy to withstand it without specific resistances," Sandy laughed.

Daz shrugged. "I have a lot of points in the Immunity stat."

"'At' so?" Sandy seemed to lose interest and an air of seriousness surrounded him. "Kiddo, mind if I ask you something?"

"No, not at all. I assume your question has something to with why you're seeing me so late into the night?" Daz asked.

"Haha, can't get much past you, eh, Kiddo? Damned instincts, right?" He was wrong, but Daz saw no reason to correct him. "'Ave you ever felt like ye got royally dicked over by the system?"

"From time to time, yes," Daz acknowledged, "Though it's certainly helped me more than it's hindered me. I don't trust it nor have any love for it if that's what you're asking."

"Fair. Tell me, 'ave ya ever looked for a certain kind of skill only to be told you don't meet the requirements to learn it?" Sandy asked as he let some anger show on his face.

Daz shook his head. "No. I can't say I have."

"Really? Shame. I suppose ye've really leaned into the whole shovel business, eh?" Sandy asked mostly rhetorically as he took another puff of his pipe.

Daz followed suit then said, "This is about your class, Novice Farmer, isn't it?"

"Well I wasn't exactly hidin' it. Do me a favour, would ya? Try to get a skill meant for a dagger," Sandy requested.

Daz nodded. He trusted Sandy but he was never against proving a point with actual testing.

"System, show me the cheapest skill that allows correctional movement when using a dagger, please," Daz said aloud. 'Requirements, huh? I wonder if any will show up...'