No Step On Slime

Chapter 17.5: Chilly Wonderland

The weather had gradually cooled down as it neared Autumn.

One particularly cold night, a white blanket draped itself over the town. The snow was beautiful — it glistened in the moonlight, waiting to present itself as a pleasant surprise to the still-sleeping residents of Tempest.

One particular Automaton was not enjoying that very early morning.

"F-f-fuck, it's freezing."

Talleigh was shivering. She was in the machine shop, trying to get the coals to light up, but the freezing temperatures and her shaking hands prevented her from getting the warm coals to begin burning.

Another attempt at getting some firewood alight ended in a bunch of ashes and the firewood clattering all over the ground.

"Wh-why did the t-t-temperature drop all of a sudden?"

This made absolutely no sense to the Automaton. She didn't feel any pain or discomfort from high temperatures. Why didn't the same apply to the cold?

She picked the firewood off the ground and opted to start a fire from scratch again. Stuffing some firestarter and dried leaves in the furnace, she struck a piece of flint to ignite the fuel.

A small flame lit up, and Talleigh did her best to prevent the cold from snuffing it out.

There wasn't much else she could do, as she tried her best to warm up.

She had plans for today, but the snow threw a massive wrench into it. There was some steel that had been air-cooling outside. Needless to say, it was most likely probably already cooled. And buried beneath a good layer of snow.

The Automaton had her work cut out for her.

Once the inside of the building was sufficiently warm, she figured that she should get to work on something to wear while clearing out the snow. But then came the main problem of how she was going to stay warm when working outside.

It wasn't like Automata generated body heat.

Wearable firesteel was an idea... but how would she do it? Talleigh wasn't sure if she could hammer it into plate armor, so there was only one other option.

A plate carrier.

That was, undoubtedly, an unconventional way to keep oneself warm.

Talleigh used the drill press to punch holes through a plate of firesteel. Taking a coat that she didn't use all that much, she shoddily stitched the firesteel to the inner side of the jacket.

It kinda worked. Better than nothing, at least.

The Automaton directed a small amount of magicules into it, just enough to barely push the firesteel over the edge. She certainly didn't want to overdo it and have it release a massive amount of heat at once; the best thing that could come out of that would be the entire building burning to the ground.

The Automaton stepped over to the door, shovel in hand. She pushed against it, only for it not to budge.

Talleigh pushed against the door harder. It still wouldn't move.

She gave one final shove, and the door gave way. Literally.

"Shit."

. . . . .

Talleigh now had to dig through a pile of snow that was at her front door, along with the splinters that were what remained of said front door. Once she was out, she took a good look at all the snow she had to sift through.