I have devised a bold plan of action. I fear it might be too bold. If it succeeds, though, I will have my power source... -97.7 Seconds Post-Integration.

  Clark took his shower and spent a long-time luxuriating in the hot, soothing water.

  As he showered, he wondered if, and when, SIMP would contact him regarding changes in the Dwarven Pod.

  It turned out, it took several days.

  Days he spent working his tail bones off because -- what else -- a sale happened to transpire. Ninety percent off ALL Heavily damaged goods!

  It was a nightmare.

  Customers fought each other like chimps over territory; yelling, screaming, and more than a few thrown milkshakes. Where they were getting the milkshakes who knew but the point was, he had to clean it up. A rare instance of him needing to don the custodian role. Still, it could've been worse. He could have had to clean the bathrooms.

  When SIMP contacted him once the fourth of these shifts ended, he couldn't have been happier.

  Beep: "Clark, Team: it's happened -- assembly at the Dwarven pod ASAP!"

  Clark threw on some clothes, grabbed his satchel, and was out the door.

  At the Dwarven Pod, the backroom more specifically, which he had seen several times over the last few days when it was his turn to pull the charged Power Core from the toaster-slot and stick it with the rest on the rack, SIMP continued: "With your cleansing of the node some days ago, I have finally been allowed access to the part of the Pod's memory banks dealing with schematics."

  Happy to hear they were making progress, he clapped his hands. Theo joined him but Hera abstained. Religious reasons, no doubt.

  "Heck yeah! What does that mean? That we can now start making stuff and put those Cores to good use?"

  "That's correct, Clark. For the moment, only two schematics have unlocked for us: blueprints for a basic grenade-type weapon and blueprints for a drone machine. Each of the schematics look basic in regard to construction. I think only minimal intervention will be required on your part during this construction process to properly create these tools." SIMP explained but he still didn't fully understand.

  "I'm sorry but how are we going to make these things? Drones and grenades sound above our paygrade to make..."

  SIMP had them exit the back chamber and re-enter the primary chamber where, not long ago, held the pulsating sphere of magi-ants. Here, now, were two work benches. Each bench had an array of levers, gadgets, and more upon it. Underneath the workbench was a load of raw material which hung on a girder mesh.

  "See those tables? That is the workbench you will use to manufacture these goods. Upon the unlocking of the Grenade and Drone schematics, these tables automatically activated as well. I ran a diagnostic before contacting them and found the process for each of the schematics were mostly automated. As I said, minimal intervention on your part."

  "You would like us to train on the manufacture process, then?" Hera asked. "I think I can manage. Will you, though, Theo?"

  "Of course I can!" Theo was indignant, not realizing Hera only said that to goad him into productivity. Lately, he had to admit his friend was getting on the lazy side of affairs. He wondered what that was about and figured he should look into it.

  "I think that's a great idea. I will take on the grenade first. Theo, you can do the drone. Once I finish the grenade, Hera can take my place as I switch to the drone, and so on. Sounds good?" he asked to crickets. "Great!"

  SIMP wasn't wrong, the process was nearly automated.

  He stood before the table wondering what he needed to do. SIMP told him when he was ready to press the large, red button in the desk upper-lefthand corner. He took a deep breath and did so.

  All at once, the machinery activated. Lights blinked, gears turned, and little levers pushed and pulled as material from underneath the bench was brought up to the workspace. It was a bit of a racket but not overly so.

  As the raw material from below was brought up, it slid through several stations. Each station did a different thing to the material, whether that was soldering, cutting off pieces, attaching electronics. The pace of the automation was so fast, until the machine stopped, he had trouble keeping up.

  Once the table stopped for the first time, he wondered what to do: SIMP intervened and said, "Remove that piece on the end. Then, take that piece to the side and attach it where you removed the first piece."

  Clark did as he was instructed. It weirded him out seeing how the table automatically generated the pieces he needed based on the build, especially as the piece to the table's side had not been there when the process started. It was a 'smart' table, apparently.

  Once the piece was attached, the process resumed.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  And then, with a ding, the process ended.

  Before him was a shiny new grenade.

  "What do I do with this?" he asked no one in particular.

  "Whatever you want. You are the leader. That grenade is blessed with holy radiation. All you need to do is pull the pin and throw it. Note: although the main blast is deadly to monsters, the shrapnel poses only a small hazard to humans as the pieces dissipate upon explosion. Stronger grenade models exist but it must be understood those stronger models pose a higher risk to humans," SIMP said, teacher mode on full blast. "You may carry the weapon with you as you carry your dandies, or you can stockpile them by placing the grenade into the nearby allocation bin."

  He spotted the allocation bin and placed the grenade into it. He didn't need to be carrying around live ammunition. Not right now.

  After he deposited the grenade into the bin, the drone table finished its first construction. Theo looked befuddled. Despite that, there was a built drone on the table awaiting dispersal.

  SIMP asked him what they should do with it -- practical use now or storage. He elected for storage -- after its Power Core had been installed, that is.

  "How was it?" Clark asked the befuddled Theo.

  "Fine, I think? It was all so weird!" Theo laughed. "Neat, though! I'm going to like doing this! Reminds me of working, in a way."

  He took Theo's place at the drone table as Theo took his at the Grenade table. He saw another red button in the upper-lefthand corner and pressed it.

  Much like the grenade table, the automation process for the drone followed the same routine. Lots of blinking lights, gears and levers, and auto-solders, but little input from him. The drone had more in the way of manual instruction, but it wasn't any more complicated than the grenade. He simply removed that bit, added a piece the table created for him, sometimes applied some amount of liquid flux. That was it.

  Like the grenade, the process ended far quicker than he thought it was going to need. On the table was another assembled drone.

  As with the previous drone Theo had made, he placed it into storage after inserting the power core.

  "Okay, Here. You're up next." Clark took note of Hera taking notes on the process.

  "Very well! Should be fine."

  It was fine, of course. If he and Theo could follow along then he had no doubt Hera could as well. She was undoubtedly the smartest and most experienced of the group.

  Hera finished the Grenade and then the Drone.

  "We still have a few Power Cores left," Hera indicated the rack at the end of her trials. "Should we continue manufactory?"

  He didn't need long to think about it. "Yes, we should. All of us should become well acquainted with the process so we can do it in our sleep. So, we could teach it to others, even."

  "Teach? Plans, Mister Champion?" Hera looked at him like he was a very fascinating passage from her Holy Book.

  "Hypothetically speaking -- of course!" he quickly mentioned.

  "Of course..." Hera still looked at him with fascination. "That being the case, shall I take the first shift?"

  Clark considered taking the first shift. Once he looked at how many Power Cores they still had to use -- four -- he thought better of it. "Absolutely. While we're here talking through object creation, I assume no one has objections to our schedule on pulling the charged Power Cores? Now that we have the ability to produce schematics, we have to be even more focused on getting these Cores out on time."

  No one said a word. Not unless one counted Theo's eye-rolling as 'words,' or Hera's warm smile.

  And, personally, he did not count those, linguistically speaking.

  "I'm hearing we're all fine with it still. Great! I'll leave it to you, then, Hera."

  He left with Theo.

  Which was rare.

  Typically, he was the one who was staying late at the Pod. Theo normally left with Hera as he remained back grinding the work. Being with his buddy now was truthfully speaking, a little awkward. It made him realize Theo and he hadn't spent any quality time together in a good bit.

  They walked back through the Dungeon Interior in silence. Their footsteps the only sound penetrating the socializing null.

  What should he say? He should just say something. Something was better than nothing. Why was he overthinking this?

  "So, uh... how was your search for the other Sigil Stones been going?" He had to hand it to himself; he was impressed how he remembered the term. With so much going on, he sometimes forgot the shirt on his back.

  Theo stopped walking and looked at him. Then resumed his march. He spoke with hardly a whisper. "Fine. I guess..."

  "Doesn't sound fine..."

  "Well, it is, Clark!"

  What did he expect? He had pushed it. Theo wanted to keep things hidden and he wanted to reveal them. Anger would be the result.

  Now what? Talking to others in a thoughtful and understanding way wasn't his strong suit. He also wouldn't say it was his weakness as he hadn't much experience in it either way. It was something he didn't know how to do. Should he press the issue, let it slide, ask Theo to hang out?

  If bluntness won't help, he thought, then I will go to the other end: "I'm pretty beat but I've also been pretty lonely. Want to hang?"

  Theo looked at him with a mixture of anger and desire. Maybe those weren't the right words, but Theo had a lot of strange emotions cross his face. Clark wasn't a genius when it came to divining said emotions, either.

  "Sure," Theo replied, his tone a bit defeated, though maybe he only imagined it in such a lackluster way.

  They settled on Theo's dorm.

  When they got there, they sat weirdly on Theo's bed and made small talk. First about work, then about the process of working.

  "Does your body hurt all the time?" he asked.

  Theo laughed. "Yeah. All the time. Not hurt, per se, but sore, like I'm constantly bombarded with fits and kicks from little elves or some shet."

  Clark laughed at the notion of magical creatures pummeling Theo. "What would that look like? An elf asks you where the lotion is, but here the lotion is, is a mystery, so it starts ineffectually whacking you with its tiny fists! And you're just like, 'is a mosquito biting me?' Which only makes the elf madder, so it calls over its buddies to help in hitting you and before long you have a dozen elves attacking you, slowly draining your health bar like it was a video game?"

  Theo's laughter increased as he imagined the ridiculous scenario. "And then, I say, 'Sir! Attacking an Augustford Employee is against regulations and might result in your banning!' But the elf says, 'I'm too rich to have rules apply!' So, I go and find a manager. I find a manager and talk to them while the elves are hitting me and ask for them to be banned but the manager takes one look at me and them and says, 'Sorry, Theo: Augustford's definition of assault begins with human-sized fists, not elven. You should get back to work before I have to write you up!' And then I die and write me up anyway!"

  At that, he and Theo shared a boisterous laugh. Dark though the sentiment was, it somehow brought them together.

  "Feck! It's been a while since I laughed like that! Let's order a pizza and some soda. Oh! And fries too! This new place has the BEST garlic-chili-butter fires -- SO GOOD!"

  Awkward as it was to (re-)break the ice with Theo, once the first crack appeared, it was back to old times.

  They eat junk food, watched crummy films which Theo insisted were 'B-Rated Cult Classics,' and gossiped about their jobs.

  It was a good night.