Leon’s new workshop sat at the heart of the city, a large warehouse that was in the underground basement of a skyscraper.

Within a single day, under Colonel Alphonse’s orders, the city’s best interior designers turned the warehouse into a state of the art Mechanist workshop with the best cutting-edge equipment and machines available.

Stepping inside, Leon inhaled and for the first time since leaving the fringe of the Wastes, he felt like he was home again.

Inside, the air carried a layered scent of hot metal, machine oil, ozone from circuits, and a faint antiseptic note from automated cleaning systems that swept through the floor in quiet intervals.

"Ah...," he inhaled greedily with a grin. "The scent of creativity".

The space inside is compact but efficiently organized.

The floor is a grid of dark composite panels that were scuffed and heat-marked from years of work. Embedded tracks ran along them, allowing heavy equipment and vehicles to be repositioned with minimal effort.

This is a workshop that is created for all types of work projects, including heavy-duty and expensive projects.

Along the walls, there were modular tool racks that shifted and reconfigured themselves depending on the job- from robotic arms quietly sliding out specific instruments when required, to precision laser cutters and to even old-fashioned torque wrenches.

The lighting was almost perfect, comprising strips of cold white LEDs overhead that were supplemented by focused task lights that snap on automatically when movement is detected.

In some corners, holographic displays float mid-air, cycling through diagnostics, schematics, and parts inventories.

Their glow reflected faintly off the polished metal surfaces and the occasional puddle of coolant.

And at the center sat the main work platform, a low, reinforced slab that was capable of elevating, rotating, and locking vehicles or machinery into place.

Its surface is etched with calibration lines and magnetic anchors, while suspended above it is a gantry system that formed a network of articulated arms fitted with interchangeable tools, each capable of delicate micro-adjustments or brute-force repairs.

Currently standing on the main work platform and locked in place was the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame.

This was Leon’s work focus this time.

Apart from all this, the storage in the workshop is vertical to save space.

Transparent cabinets line the back wall that were filled with labeled components such as synthetic pistons and fiber-optic bundles, each softly illuminated for quick identification.

More valuable and sensitive items were locked behind opaque panels requiring biometric access, Leon already left his biometric imprint yesterday.

Also, considering the nature of work that Leon intended to do and the level of knowledge that he was going to be working with, this workshop was completely isolated and insulated from the outside world with 24/7 cyber-protection by Colonel Alphonse himself.

It was impossible to infiltrate to spy on Leon’s work unless a C Rank NetRunner was the one doing the hacking.

And finally, a small workstation occupied one corner, cluttered in a way the rest of the shop isn’t.

It comprised a standard office chair, a keyboard, and a multi-screen console that suggested that the previous Mechanist who worked here preferred hands-on control over full automaton.

As for the soundscape, to Leon it was perfect- constant but subdued with low mechanical whirs, the occasional hiss of compressed air, and the soft chime of systems completing tasks.

Nothing is flash, just practical.

Leon grinned. ’Alphonse really went all out, this is impressive!’

He walked towards the workstation and dropped his backpack, and then without hesitation he walked towards the main work platform where the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame stood waiting for him.

There was no time to waste.

The moment Leon stood in front of the towering war machine, he placed his hands on it and instantly his grayish white ADE flared, spreading out tendrils that infiltrated into the machine.

Bzzz!

Deconstruct!

This was going to be the greatest and most intricate work of deconstruction and reverse-engineering that Leon ever took on.

This time, he was trying to Deconstruct and reverse-engineer one of the core components of a D Rank Mechanist construct.

...

7th September, Year 714 A.G. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Deconstruct!

...

8th September, Year 714 A.G.

Deconstruct!

...

9th September, Year 714 A.G.

Leon knew it was going to be hard to not only Deconstruct the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame, but to do so in a way to single out just one component of the massive war machine, with it being one of its most important and intricate components even.

He always knew it was going to be hard, he expected it to be hard, but not even in his wildest dreams did he expect it to be this hard.

Before now, the most time that Leon had ever spent Deconstructing any tech was a few dozen minutes at most, and that was when he was not even yet D Rank.

And yet, now, he’d been working on this for 4 days already!

And despite this, Leon felt like he was not even halfway towards his goal yet.

"What the actual f*ck!" He was almost crashing out.

The only reason why he was not losing his mind yet was because though Tyla didn’t like staying in the workshop with him, she visited him occasionally every day while bringing home-made food for him every morning.

He also understood the reason why he found it so hard to Deconstruct this specific tech of the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame, it was the same reason why Kain called him a freak when they first met.

The reason why he was so good at deconstructing and working with regular machinery was because of his past identity as an engineer, his instincts were intimately honed to appreciate and easily work around machinery.

But clearly, Leon had never come into contact with something this high-tech before now. He was finally faced what every other Mechanist in the world faced.

After 4 days of such slow progress though even with a dedicated Class ability for it, Leon knew he couldn’t take the normal route anymore.

He decided to cheat his way around it.

Leon decided to use his Neural Overclock ability for the first time in a long time to double the ChronoSystem Processing Speed.

The ability was a big ADE drainer, but Leon was prepared for it.

Neural Overclock!

BZZZ!

With the help of the ChronoSystem, Leon’s deconstructing speed increased significantly.

By the 6th day on 11th September, he crossed 50%.

4 days later, on 15th September, Year 714 A.G, after 10 days of locking himself inside the basement, Leon finally got tangible results.

DING!

...

[Special Appreciation to MachaMarvelous, ImperialJadeDragon, r03n, Yametekudastop, Adamantis, Tsuyoi16, and Knightngale for the Golden Tickets! Thanks for the support even while I didn’t update for days, I truly appreciate it. I love you guys man.]

[Later once I’m back to 100%, I may do a mass release to appreciate the consistent support, but I’ll do it by adding a new privilege tier.]