This was a workshop, a mechanism workshop. The sounds of machinery with unknown purposes echoed throughout the workshop. Giant gears on the ceiling meshed together, slowly turning. The air was filled with the smell of lubricating oil, and a large pile of inexplicable metal fragments lay scattered on the ground.
Dorothy walked through the workshop curiously, observing and looking around. She saw many strange small mechanisms placed on the tables, including automatic dancing metal figurines and mechanical birds flapping their wings.
'A mechanism workshop... This is also an'Shi' (Stone) Extraordinary. Compared to Aldrich who carves stone statues and Deer Skull who makes bone monsters, is this one more skilled in metal mechanisms?'
Looking at the surrounding scene, Dorothy pondered in her heart. Just then, a female voice with a hint of strangeness suddenly sounded from a corner.
"Excuse me, could you lend a hand?"
Hearing this voice, Dorothy was slightly startled. She then looked towards where the sound came from, but saw no one.
"Who is it? Who's there?"
Dorothy asked further, and the voice replied.
"I'm right here. Could you please lower your gaze a bit? I'm on the ground."
Listening to the words, Dorothy lowered her gaze, and indeed, she saw a bizarre object on the ground there.
It was a head! The head of a young woman with short gray hair and a beautiful face! One of its eyes was covered with a round lens, the skin on its face was largely damaged, revealing the yellow metal underneath, and the severed neck also displayed intricate and complex mechanical structures.
"A... robot head!?"
The moment she saw the head, Dorothy blurted out, and the head responded with a hint of displeasure.
"That's rather impolite, guest from Igwinte. My name is Beverly, not some robot head."
Hearing the other party's response, Dorothy was slightly stunned. After calmly adjusting her emotions, she spoke again.
"Ah... then... Miss Beverly, how should I help you?"
"Please pick up my head and go to the bookshelf on the right side of the workshop. There's a lever next to it; pull it." The head named Beverly said this. After a moment of hesitation, Dorothy decided to do as she was told. She walked over and cupped the lifelike female head in her hands, immediately feeling a sense of strangeness.
Next, Dorothy, holding the head, began searching for the mechanism, while the other party continuously guided her.
"Yes, yes... over there, next to the bookshelf, a lever mechanism. Just pull it."
Under Beverly's guidance, Dorothy found a lever mechanism next to the bookshelf on the right side of the workshop. After pulling it down forcefully as she was told, the wall next to the bookshelf slowly opened with the clicking sound of the mechanism, revealing the scene behind it.
Behind this wall, lined up side by side, were a row of female bodies dressed in simple clothes. None of these bodies had heads. Looking at the scene before her, Dorothy was stunned again.
"Just find any body for me and attach my head to it."
"Uh... how do I attach it?" Hearing Beverly's words, Dorothy asked back in confusion, as she didn't understand mechanical assembly.
"You just need to place my head onto the interface."
Beverly said this. Dorothy, half-believing, did as she was told. She found a body, placed Beverly's head onto the vacant interface at the neck, and then let go.
Then, Dorothy saw the mechanisms at the severed point begin to automatically connect. Beverly's head also rotated left and right on the new body, eventually correcting to a normal posture. Behind Beverly's new body, a large wind-up key automatically popped out and inserted itself into the hole behind her, and then, driven by the workshop's mechanisms, it wound up with clicking sounds, turn by turn.
Finally, Beverly's new body began to move with a series of mechanical sounds. After mechanically moving her limbs for a bit, her movements became increasingly fluid. Eventually, she walked out from among the row of headless bodies and came before Dorothy.
Aside from the skin interfaces on her face and a ring of copper-colored connection marks on her neck, she now looked like a rather attractive girl of about seventeen or eighteen years old in all aspects.
"Phew... Thank you so much, Miss Meisihuos. If it weren't for you, I might have had to stay there bored for another two hours until someone returned."
Letting out a long breath, Beverly sat down at a table and spoke, while Dorothy tilted her head and responded.
"You know my name?"
"Of course I do. That old man wrote to me and said you would come, so I've been waiting for you."
Beverly said this, then picked up a cup of pale yellow 'drink' from the table and gulped it down. From the smell it emitted, Dorothy could clearly confirm that it was lubricating oil.
"Are you a robot?" Dorothy continued to ask, and the other party, after finishing the oil, wiped her mouth and responded.
"More accurately, I should be called a fully autonomous mechanism automaton. You've certainly broadened your horizons today; beings like me are extremely rare in the world, perhaps you could count them on one hand."
"Automaton?"
"They are the constructs of Automaton Masters. The path of'Shi' (Stone), with'Stone' as the primary and 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) as the secondary, is the branch path of 'Automaton Master'. Its characteristic is the creation of various semi-autonomous or even fully autonomous automatons. For example, me; I am that old man's creation from his peak."
Beverly sat at the table, speaking while using a special gel to 'touch up' the damaged skin on her face in a mirror. Her words made Dorothy pause again.
"What? You said you are Aldrich's creation? Isn't he a stone carver?"
"Yes, that's right. So when I was first created, I was also stone, not only lifeless but also ugly as death."
"You didn't like it?"
"Of course not. That old man's aesthetic is terribly rigid. He always likes to carve things like knights, fierce beasts, heroes... I prefer youthful and beautiful girls, so I was very dissatisfied with my initial appearance."
Beverly said this. Listening to her words, Dorothy began to recall that Aldrich's aesthetic did seem quite classical, preferring to carve solemn and majestic or brave and fearless male figures, mostly kings, generals, knights, and so on. Furthermore, there were some fierce beasts; it was rare to see him carve any female figures.
"It seems Aldrich's aesthetic is indeed like that. He created you, but you didn't like your creator's aesthetic and were dissatisfied with the appearance he gave you?"
"Yes, that's right. So I tried to carve myself with a carving knife, wanting to change myself into an appearance I liked, but my carving skills weren't as good as that old man's. I messed myself up."
Beverly said this. Her touch-up work began to become more detailed; she had already started using some commercially available women's cosmetics, while Dorothy, who was listening to her words, stood with her mouth agape, dumbfounded.
At this moment, Dorothy was imagining a stone sculpture of a formerly majestic knight or prince looking in a mirror and meticulously carving himself with carving tools, attempting to transform himself into the image of a beautiful girl, but ending up messing it up due to lack of skill, carving himself into something that looked like neither one thing nor the other.