[Bonus Chapter thanks to Castle from VokayroK <3]
The matter of Brad and Mauve’s foundations were only really one issue. Fixing it was almost too easy for Grey, so much so he felt like if he had more time, none of those alien bastards would be able to fuck with him.
Building the mech wasn’t difficult for Grey. With the silver grill as a foundation, he already had a lot of what he needed down, especially since he had seen the grill after it had been changed by the Mechanical Jaw Spirit as well.
Following that, all Grey needed to do was try and translate the feeling he got from his incomplete Mechanical Jaw Frame and his Vampire Lord Frame to the mech itself.
This intent and the circuitry needed to help something drink and digest blood was the hard part.
The thing was that doing something like that from scratch should have been impossible without a great bout of enlightenment. But the thing was... Grey was a walking ball of enlightenment.
His body itself had all the secrets within him that he needed.
The cherry on top of all of this was that it only needed to be a Proving Class mech. This time, he didn’t need something great or fancy, he just needed something good enough.
Even if he did make a stronger mech, Mauve and Brad were not him. Their bodies couldn’t withstand mechs that were beyond their Classes. But this ironically helped.
Since Grey didn’t need to make it too complicated, it was even easier.
It didn’t take him more than a half hour to finish the blueprint, and when he ran it through Prometheus and his Cyber Space for improvements, he quickly got the feedback he needed.
After going through the blueprint crafting process once with a far more complex mech, Grey already knew the ins and outs of the process.
Now, all he actually needed were the materials to make them and the Spirits to complete them.
He got the materials that very day for pennies on the dollar. The Spirits were trickier.
Getting a Spirit that was in line with what was essentially Dark Kin Abilities from a place that especially hated Dark Kin was well... difficult. Super difficult.
Luckily for Grey, he had already accounted for all of this.
Before he even started drawing the blueprints in his Cyber Space, he knew which Spirits he wanted to use for the two of them. Back during a previous loop, he had already looked through almost all the Spirits the guild had so he knew exactly what he was building around before he even went to pick up the items.
He was so quick about it all that he was in and out within what felt like seconds, so much so he wasn’t even stopped.
Though, it helped that the hotel and guild were attached to one another, something he had definitely done on purpose.
The two Spirits he picked were both wolf Spirits. Of course, they weren’t the same kind of wolf Spirit as his Crimson Wolf, but the overlap was enough that Grey was already sure they would work.
In the end, Brad and Mauve didn’t disappoint him.
After joining Ma Famille, they caught wind of Grey’s insights into the Old Ones and then began their first tempering.
Though they only survived a single heartbeat, and they didn’t even have the strength to bite into Amunet’s arm on their own, their stats experienced the largest increases they had ever seen.
The +100 to their Stamina was especially shocking.
Now, they lay on their beds, a bit pale faced. Because they were relying on mechs to bridge the gap instead of their own internal abilities, even though they had digested the blood they were still taking more time to recover.
But that was fine by Grey. Right now, they were still too weak to help him, and this was just the beginning.
Changing their foundations was step one, but the two still didn’t even have true Perfect Frames. That would also have to change, but Grey didn’t want to put his eggs into one Dark Kin basket.
But Ma Famille was helpful to him as well.
If he gave one of them the Blood Witch Tome, maybe he could finally learn from it without having to waste his own time at the same time.
Barkeep Ji had told him a long time ago the difference between skills and abilities, and had also pretty heavily implied that learning from the tome would improve his Vampire Lord Frame greatly.
He just... hadn’t had the time. It was hard to find time when you were always dying and apparently always gaining new abilities too.
He still hadn’t figured out quite yet how to get the Abilities for his Mechanical Jaw Frame, so time really wasn’t on his side.
If, however, he gave the tome to one of them, they could learn and benefit from his comprehension at the same time. Then that feedback would get back to him and he would be able to rapidly improve from a hands off approach.
But for now, they were too tired to do anything else. Their bodies were still slowly piecing themselves together.
So, instead...
"Ready?"
Grey said, looking at Amunet.
She was the only one of them that hadn’t gone through the baptism yet, and if all things were equal, she should undoubtedly perform the best. After all, it was her bloodline that was helping them do all of this in the first place.
Amunet pursed her lips. "How did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"The mechs."
"Because I’m a genius, we’ve been over this."
Amunet’s eyes narrowed. It was clear she didn’t believe him. There had to be something else going on, but she and Grey also didn’t have that close of a relationship either, and maybe never would. If he had secrets, why would he tell her?
In the end, she dropped it.
"I’m fine enough to go." Amunet said calmly.
"Well then, show the class what you can do."