It took a week for Reid's broken arm to heal, which was about six times faster than the average humans of before the forging. This was one of the benefits of having soul power, even if extremely low.
During Reid's healing week it went almost like any of his other weeks.
Almost...
[[Scan]: scans beasts (including forged beasts) at the same rank as you to create a blueprint for their creation.]
This was a new skill that Evo unlocked for him as a reward for completing his first quest.
Apart from that, a couple of other interesting things happened during the week. Firstly, Mia insisted on bringing Reid food until his arm was completely healed. Even though Reid denied the offer, she still did it anyway.
Their daily interactions helped them become friends, at least Reid thought so.
The second—and one of the most interesting—things happened just a day after Reid came back from the cave. He got a visit from the twins.
---
Reid could be seen lying on his sofa, going through the notifications Evo had sent previously.
He couldn't check them the previous day because his entire body was screaming in pain, especially his broken arm — which was now in a cast thanks to Mia.
He pulled up the screen to see his rewards.
[ [Mission Log]
Emergency mission (completed): survive against the four beasts and get to safety.
Reward: x10 Bronze-tier alloys.
Optional Mission (partially completed): defeat the beasts and extract their cores.
Beasts killed: 2/4
Reward: Blueprint for an Iron-tier forged beast, +25 Bond stat for all your beasts. (Due to the mission being only partially completed, your rewards have been halved). ]
[All rewards have been sent to your [Forge Lab]. Would you like to see them?] Evo informed and asked.
Reid stared at the notification screen for a moment; he was hoping to get the Silver-tier forged beast blueprint.
"Alright, Evo, show me the rewards in the Forge Lab," he said mentally.
[Accessing Forge Lab...] Evo responded.
The familiar tab opened before his eyes:
[
[Forge Lab]
Available Materials: [Iron-tier Flame cores x2, Iron-tier Time cores x2, Bronze-tier alloy x10, Bronze-tier Time core x1, Gold-tier Time core x1, Gold-tier Void core x1]
Blueprints: Iron-tier Axolotl.
[Rusty Upgrades]: 5 Energy cores from beasts and alloys.
[Nyx Upgrades]: 5 Energy cores from beasts and alloys.
Progress: [0.00%]
Note: The abilities of your evolved beasts will highly depend on the materials used ]
"F*cking hell, that's a lot of cores!" Reid couldn't help but scream in shock. "And gold-tier ones too?"
[Yes. After scanning them, I discovered they came from a gold-ranked beast. I suspect they may have come from beasts of higher rank, but because of the amount of energy lost to the rats—which caused one of them to evolve—its rank dropped to Gold.] Evo clarified.
Rusty and Nyx were playing somewhere in the bunker so Reid had nothing to do right now.
"I see, then let's check out the Forge Lab," he said, preparing himself to be transported, but was interrupted by a knock on his bunker door.
'That must be Mia,' he thought; she was pretty insistent on delivering him food which, although he didn't mind, was a little awkward for him.
Reid walked up the stairs and opened the door, but instead of Mia, standing outside were Tommy and Timmy, the last people he expected.
Seeing what they were holding, he understood why they were here but still acted ignorant.
"What do you want?" he asked, keeping a neutral face.
"F-fix them," Timmy, the grey-eyed twin, ordered, presenting his forged beast to Reid.
"Really? Is that how you ask for a favor?" Reid asked, raising an eyebrow. "From the guy you've been bullying for two years, no less? I'll pass. Come back when you've learned how to ask properly."
"You—" Timmy started, but Reid closed his door before they could say anything else.
Knock knock
A knock came again and Reid opened up fully expecting another trash talk from them but was surprised when he spotted the twins again.
This time they were both bowing with Tommy pressing down his twin brother's head.
"I apologize for what my brother said and for the way we've been treating you all these years," Tommy spoke; sincerity could be heard in his voice. "I promise we'll try and make it up to you, but please help us fix our forged beasts."
Tommy was scared that without their forged beasts, they'd be seen as useless, especially by Alex.
Reid was the only person who could fix broken forged beasts, as evident by his two forged beasts.
In order not to be seen as useless, the twins were ready to do anything—even if it meant apologizing to a person they clearly knew Alex hated.
"Fine, put them inside," he said, moving away from the door and walking down the few steps, "but I'm not doing this for free."
"We understand," Tommy answered. Timmy didn't look happy at the arrangement but swallowed whatever he was going to say.
The twins entered the bunker and were letting out awe at how the bunker was set up.
The bunker was not too large but it houses a sofa, a working TV that Reid fixed, and some lights that emulate the lights above ground.
There was a small kitchenette with a stove that seemed to be powered by electricity and even a fan. In a place like the Scrapyards, Reid's bunker was absolute luxury.
"Stop drooling all over my floor and put your beasts by my work desk," Reid interrupted, snapping them out of their reverie.
"You made all this?" Timmy asked after they placed the forged beasts on his desk.
"Yes," Reid answered, not changing his expression. "Now leave—come back for them tomorrow."
The twins looked reluctant as they left the bunker.
Reid sighed after he saw them go.
"Glad that's over," he said. "Evo, can we put the cores back?"
[Yes. All the tools needed can be found in the Forge Lab], she answered.
Although it might seem like a soft-hearted decision to fix the forged beasts of his bullies, Reid had other plans.
He just gained a chance to get a blueprint for a flame forged beast without risking his life.
"Send me to the Forge Lab, Evo," he requested.
[Acknowledged. Initiating the process.] Evo said, and Reid was suddenly blinded by a bright flash of light.
He opened his eyes to what he could only describe as a sci-fi lab from movies of the past.
The lab had white walls with a hexagonal design on them. The floor was also white but had black lines in it, through which a bluish-white light was passing.
A couple of steps from Reid was a table and on it lay a pair of glasses and gloves. In the center of the lab was a circular platform with lights on it.
"Umm, Evo?" Reid was currently feeling confused so he asked, "where are the tools you mentioned?"
[They're on the table.] Evo simply replied.
"There's nothing here except glasses and a glove."
[Just put them on.]
"Okay," Reid said and approached the table. He soon put on the gloves and glasses when Evo spoke again, but this time from within the glasses.
[Forge tools activate. Please select a mode:
Forged-beast creation
Forged-beast evolution
Forged-beast repair
Beast scan
Note: more options will unlock when you increase your soul power.]
The options were displayed in front of Reid.
"AR?" he asked, a little surprised.
[Exactly, you'll use AR to create and fix forged beasts.]
"Sweet," he said and raised his gloved hand to click on [forged-beast repair].
[Please put the forged-beast(s) to repair on the circular platform.]
Reid did as instructed and moved back a bit. He observed a light pass through the beasts before a 3D image of them was displayed in his vision.
[Forged beasts successfully scanned.
Problems discovered: Missing core, worn-out alloy, inefficient energy systems....]
A long list of problems was displayed and almost the entire body was highlighted in yellow, except the location for the core which was highlighted in red, showing the parts that need fixing.
Reid moved his hand and clicked on the missing core problem. "We'll just fix this."
A white podium-like object rose from the floor next to him. It had a hole in the center in which Reid was instructed to place the cores.
After he did, the podium sunk back into the floor. Reid just clicked fix and robotic arms descended from the ceiling above the circular platform unto the beasts.
The arms dismantled the beasts, gently placed in the cores, and closed them again. The process lasted no longer than ten minutes.
"I've never felt so useless while fixing something," Reid said with a small chuckle.
[You can switch to the hands-on mode, but I wouldn't recommend that given your current situation,] Evo said, referring to his broken arm.
"Fine," he said. "Use scan on them and create a blueprint."
The same blue light passed through the beasts again.
[Scan successfully completed. Do you want to create a blueprint of the Flame Cat forged beast?] the glasses, Evo, asked.
"Yes," he affirmed.
[Blueprint created], she informed.
[
[Forge Lab]
Available Materials: [Iron-tier Flame cores x2, Iron-tier Time cores x2, Bronze-tier alloy x10, Bronze-tier Time core x1, Gold-tier Time core x1, Gold-tier Void core x1]
Blueprints: Iron-tier Axolotl, Iron-tier Flame Cat.
[Rusty Upgrades]: 5 Energy cores from beasts and alloys.
[Nyx Upgrades]: 5 Energy cores from beasts and alloys.
Progress: [0.00%]
Note: The abilities of your evolved beasts will highly depend on the materials used ]
Reid closed all the tabs that popped up. Feeling a little lightheaded, he asked Evo what was wrong.
[Staying here requires energy from your soul power. The higher your soul power, the longer you get to spend here,] Evo explained.
"I see, then please send me back," he requested.
With another flash, Reid was back in his bunker. He immediately plopped down on his couch and mourned the day away.
He was only awoken by Mia, who came to deliver him food and check up on him—something Reid was definitely not used to but could live with.
The twins collected their forged beasts the next day, with them owing Reid.
---
Apart from those incidents there was nothing noteworthy, but today was going to be a big day for Reid, Nyx, and Rusty.
Today he was going to evolve them and he couldn't wait....