Celestial Era: The Rise of the Full-Time Enhancer

Vincent's eyes lit up.

"I'll take the Celestial Chamber then…"

Without any hesitation, Vincent immediately went to the corner and stored the Cryogenic Sleep Chamber in his Inventory.

It was as if he was afraid that Vivian would change her mind.

"Alright… Use my Automaton in your first enhancement. I'll see the result tomorrow. If you need more time, just let me know." Vivian said as she revealed her Automaton.

It is a female automaton that seems to be quite similar to a maid…

'A battle maid? I wonder who made it…' Vincent mused. He didn't expect that Vivian would have this kind of hobby.

In any case, he immediately accepted the Automaton… He also appraised it very quickly to see what kind of automaton is this…

He then discovered that it is not a Dormant Automaton. Thanks to that, he can finally see the special ability of this specific automaton.

[ You have discovered a Diamond Paladin Automaton ]

[ Dormant Diamond Paladin Automaton ]

[ Quality: Pseudo-Legendary

Number of Enhancements: 0/10

Durability: 2200/2200

Energy: 14,000/14,000

Description: An automaton with balanced offensive and defensive abilities. It requires a very strong connection to Mental Energy in order to continue its operations. It is mainly made from Refined Crusader Alloy, Arcane Diamond Dust, Night Pearl Power, and ten Virtue Crystals as its core. It uses twenty Barbarian Energy Cores as a source of energy. It has an imprint of four Magic Technicians.

Replenishing its energy requires mana. It can naturally absorb Mana Crystals or receive Mana through Mana Transfer of Mana Practitioners.

Remarks: The Durability and its other attributes will be upgraded with every successful enhancement. The Automaton has established a connection with Vivian Kayser. ]

[ Skills:

Barbaric Roar: It uses 100 units of energy to activate. The Barbaric Roar can paralyze its targets within a 30-meter range and induce fear. During the state of fear, the targets will see the Paladin Automaton as a fearsome being.

Phantom Dash: It uses 200 units of energy to activate. Upon activation, the Automaton's speed increases by 200% within 10 seconds. It has a cooldown of 5 minutes.

Paladin Mode: It uses 3,000 units of energy to activate. The Paladin Mode can last for 10 minutes and during this time, it can fight alone using a set of commands that have been implanted in its Virtue Crystals. A strong connection with Mental Energy is required during the process.

Phantom Mode: It uses 1,000 units of energy to activate…

Guard Mode: It uses 500 units of energy to activate…

Scout Mode: It uses 500 units of energy to activate…

Gentle Maid Mode: It uses 400 units of energy to activate… ]

"So it's really like this…"

Vincent muttered. He realized that although the Automatons weren't sentient, they really do have Artificial Intelligence. Their "Mode" phase, doesn't require precise control since once it was activated, they would simply follow a series of instructions that was "programmed" in their Virtue Crystal.

Aside from the Modes, they could also perform special skills similar to item abilities that can be found in Magic Items…

After a few moments of not speaking, Vivian realized what he was doing and asked.

"How was it?"

"Ah… I was impressed. It has plenty of modes you can choose from."

"Yes… Isn't it amazing? With its Paladin Mode, even a Grandmaster Martial Artist would have to take it seriously…" Vivian explained.

Grandmasters were only below the Paragons so Vivian certainly has confidence in this Automaton.

"It's very useful indeed. No wonder Magic Tools here weren't so popular…"

"Well, Magic Tools can still be useful as long as they have some inscriptions that allow the Automatons to activate their imbued abilities. Without that specific inscription, the Automaton will just use these Magic Tools as blunt objects or something…"

"Ahhh… That certainly makes sense…" Vincent nodded. Automatons weren't living beings after all. So they can't activate Magic Tools if they don't have proper 'programs' installed on it.

"How about if the Magic Tools have Passive Abilities? Those that don't require activation to trigger its effects… Can the Automatons use them?" Vincent asked.

"Ahhh… It's possible to use them…" Vivian replied. She seems like she wanted to add more but decided to just let it be.

Vincent nodded at her answer as he finally understood how the Automatons work.

Vivian then put the Automaton in Dormant State before Vincent stored it in his Inventory…

The two then left the underground facility and returned to their residence.

Vincent was excited to start enhancing them but he was first invited to eat. It's been a while since he ate some decent food so he decided to join everyone before returning to his room.

He checked his Communication Crystal and confirmed that there is still no message from Turhan and Ayla. They have previously entered a dungeon and they should be training their Automatons there.

At the moment, he can only hope that they're doing fine.

He then turned his attention to the Automatons in his room…

He checked his Pseudo-Celestial Energy units and confirmed that he still has plenty.

[ Pseudo Celestial Energy: 2,542/3,600 ]

With this amount, he shouldn't have any problems upgrading two Diamond Tier Automatons at once.

He first started with Vivian's automaton.

He placed his palm on top of its head and triggered his Item Enhancement Skill.

[ No Enhancement Stones found. Do you want to Enhance this item with Pseudo-Celestial Energy? ]

[ Dormant Diamond Paladin Automaton +0 ]

"Yes…"

Ding!

[ Enhancement Successful. ]

[ Dormant Diamond Paladin Automaton +1 ]

'Alright… Continue.'

[ Enhancement Successful. ]

[ Enhancement Successful. ]

[ Enhancement Failed. ]

[ Enhancement Successful. ]

[ Enhancement Failed. ]

[ Enhancement Failed. ]

[ Enhancement Failed. ]

"Hmmm… It's harder than I expected." Vincent mused as he saw that the enhancement had failed three consecutive times even though Automaton is only [ +4 ] at the moment.

He would normally encounter this problem at the sixth enhancement so he was quite surprised. This shows that Diamond Tier Automaton is really a highly-rated item.

"Let's see how tough you are…" Vincent felt more excited enhancing this item as he continued.

After more than 15 minutes and spending over 350 Pseudo-Celestial Energy, Vincent was finally satisfied with the result.

[ Dormant Diamond Paladin Automaton +9 ]

Although he can't make it into a +10 item, he believes that this is more than enough since he'll still ascend and transcend the Automaton.