Arnold

Arnold is Earth's foremost system-era technologist, a machine-focused craftsman whose drones, artificial-soul constructs, weapons, and teleportation infrastructure repeatedly alter the balance of major conflicts. His working relationship with Jake Thayne begins as a straightforward exchange of mana and equipment, then develops into a productive rivalry in which Jake supplies unusual materials and Arnold turns them into increasingly ambitious inventions.

Biography

The Fort and a mutually useful introduction

Arnold first appears at the Fort as the engineer behind nearly all of its advanced equipment, including drones and walkie-talkies. He works with such concentration that the surrounding settlement barely registers to him, and Phillip treats gaining his attention as a problem in itself. His inventions let the Fort combine familiar technology with post-system materials, establishing Arnold as a practical source of power rather than merely an eccentric researcher. (Chapter 169)

After repeatedly requesting the settlement owner's involvement, Arnold finally meets Jake because his experimental mana grenades require an unusually potent affinity to charge them. He proposes a direct trade: Jake supplies arcane mana, while Arnold provides one of his first carbon-fiber nanoblades and adapts its handle for use. Arnold's willingness to evolve his profession without waiting for theoretical perfection reflects the same priority that governs the bargain—lost research time matters more to him than ceremony. (Chapters 231–232)

Treasure Hunt surveillance and the expanding workshop

During the Treasure Hunt, Arnold turns information gathering into an industrial operation. More than a hundred drones scout the Vault, locate groups and routes, and allow him to gather people without exposing himself to the same risks as conventional explorers. The network makes his power visible on a larger scale: he does not need to win every direct exchange when distributed machines can give him reach, awareness, and coordination far beyond one body. (Chapter 327)

Back in Haven, his workshop grows into a citadel-scale complex covered by a dynamic metal dome, scanners, drones, and robots. Jake brings him damaged or obscure equipment because Arnold can diagnose construction principles other specialists miss; Arnold identifies the concealed repair structure in the Altmar Cauldron and studies the methods behind it. He also states when an item falls outside his expertise, turning each limitation into a research boundary rather than bluffing certainty. (Chapters 389–390)

Oras's legacy and autonomous machine souls

By late D-grade, Arnold reveals that his Patron is the Void God Oras and that his most important Legacy skill partitions his attention across his creations. Early machines follow ordinary programming, while advanced models contain artificial soul constructs adapted from the Altmar Census Golem through eldritch scripts. These partitions remain linked to Arnold without becoming competing personalities, allowing him to inhabit a model, process continuous data feeds, and manage a rapidly growing project list through distributed cognition. (Chapter 564)

The Legacy began at legendary rarity and became mythical with Oras's direct assistance and Records, enabling genuinely autonomous machine souls rather than simple simulations. Arnold applies that foundation to weapons as well as robots: he first develops Jake's Blackpoint concept into a void-touched katar with affinity storage and an internal burst after penetration, then later rebuilds the obsolete weapon as the Legendary Voidblade Katar. The result formalizes their exchange—Jake supplies rare samples and extreme field tests, while Arnold converts the findings into tools neither could create alone. (Chapters 564, 606, 914, and 926)

Return from Nevermore and the Prima Guardian

When the Nevermore generation returns, Haven has expanded around Arnold's workshop rather than displacing it. Sandy's attempt to break inside triggers automated defenses strong enough for Arnold to trap the powerful worm without wrecking the facility, demonstrating how far his remote security has progressed. Arnold then takes back the old Blackpoint Nanoblade because his newer methods have rendered its construction obsolete, choosing a full rebuild over preserving a weapon that had merely remained adequate. (Chapters 898–900 and 914)

Arnold joins Earth's Prima Guardian strike remotely through an android rather than exposing his real body. Drones and satellites monitor the battlefield, and his observation that the Guardian adapts locally to repeated damage lets the team vary attack types and target areas. He then deploys an orbital kinetic weapon whose guided rod devastates the battlefield but fails to secure the intended one-shot kill; when the Guardian destroys the apparent Arnold, Chapter 935 reveals the body as an explosive machine, converting a failed prediction into more data rather than a fatal commitment. (Chapters 930–935)

Operation Moonfall and the lunar base

Arnold later proposes removing the Ghostvine Sovereign from Earth's moon while preserving the moon itself as a base. He wants the project partly because a lunar facility fulfills a childhood ambition, but the plan also solves a B-grade threat, creates defensive infrastructure, and advances his research. Miranda accepts the strategic case, while Sandy negotiates participation and transport, producing an alliance in which Arnold's preparation depends on the distinct mobility and authority of others. (Chapter 1147)

Operation Moonfall is designed as attrition rather than a heroic duel: satellites deny sunlight, bait drones expose vines, incendiary missiles force regeneration, explosives collapse tunnels, and specialized golems reach the core through Sandy. Losses come in below Arnold's calculations, Sandy consumes the Ghostvine core, and Arnold preserves the moon's core and part of its ecology while establishing a dome and teleport link. His main base moves to the moon, though the Earth workshop remains; later speculation that he may have evolved is never confirmed in the supplied chapters. (Chapters 1169, 1184, and 1272)

Appearance and personality

Arnold is introduced as a small, thin man whose physical presence is easy to overlook beside the machinery occupying his attention. Later scenes repeatedly place him behind unusual analytical glasses while he studies runes, materials, or live data. The corpus does not establish his hair, eye color, or a consistent clothing style, and his use of android stand-ins makes visual identification less reliable during combat operations. (Chapters 169, 389, 564, and 935)

His manner is terse, monotone, and intensely task-oriented. Arnold values demonstrable results, readily admits the limits of his knowledge, and treats even dangerous failures as information for the next iteration. That reserve coexists with a distinctly playful core: he believes sword-wielding robots are intrinsically worthwhile, pursues orbital bombardment from a childhood fascination, and wants a moon base because it has always sounded extraordinary. He is highly ambitious but usually exposes himself only when expected rewards justify the risk. (Chapters 232, 390, 935, and 1147–1184)

Path, class, and abilities

Arnold's Path combines old-world engineering habits with system crafting, void concepts, and a machine-focused Legacy from Oras. He advanced to D-grade early rather than waiting indefinitely for an ideal profession evolution, judging that the research time he would lose was the greater cost. By Chapter 564 he is a level-199 human, and the supplied corpus later shows him operating as a C-grade; Jake's question about whether Arnold reached B-grade is speculation, not confirmation. (Chapters 232, 564, and 1272)

Machine craft and iterative design

Arnold builds drones, communications devices, robots, scanners, weapons, satellites, spacecraft systems, and teleportation infrastructure. His work is experimental and modular: early nanoblades demonstrate exceptional physical sharpness but perform poorly against magical wards and resist enchanting, while later builds use composite alloys, energy cores, and affinity-conductive coatings to address those failures. He studies foreign craft such as Altmar golems and cauldrons, extracts transferable principles, and replaces obsolete designs instead of treating a successful prototype as finished. (Chapters 169, 232, 389–390, 606, and 914)

That approach has real limits. Arnold cannot infer every function from inspection, explicitly identifies items outside his field, and sometimes requires rare samples or another person's affinity before a design can advance. His strongest custom weapons are also specialized rather than universal: Blackpoint is built to penetrate and release stored energy inside a target, not to serve as a defensive blade, while the orbital rod requires preparation, repeated flight, and manual targeting. Failed assumptions remain dangerous even when they are informative, as the Prima Guardian survives a strike Arnold intended to be decisive. (Chapters 231–232, 390, 606, and 935)

Distributed cognition and artificial souls

Oras's Legacy skill lets Arnold divide attention among connected machines through void-linked scripts without splitting his own soul into independent selves. He can immerse his consciousness in a model, issue and update instructions across a network, and filter or archive constant sensory feeds using learning systems. Less advanced machines still run ordinary programming; the qualitative leap comes from artificial soul constructs that can interpret instructions and act autonomously rather than merely following fixed routines. (Chapter 564)

These constructs originate in Arnold's study of the Altmar Census Golem but depend on Oras's Records for their mature form. Arnold states that the skill began as legendary and became mythical with his Patron's help, so his achievement is neither simple reverse engineering nor wholly self-created artificial life. At the latest demonstrated stage, the network supports independent robots, decoy bodies, remote security, specialized combat golems, and operations conducted from Earth while machines act on the moon. No conflicting personas or loss of Arnold's singular identity is shown. (Chapters 564, 935, and 1169–1184)

Remote warfare and planetary infrastructure

Arnold's combat strength is distributed across preparation layers. Drones provide reconnaissance and bait, satellites extend observation and environmental control, androids can impersonate him and carry explosives, and orbital weapons convert mass and velocity into attacks beyond ordinary C-grade artillery. His analysis also matters during live combat: against the Prima Guardian, he recognizes localized adaptation and changes the team's attack pattern, showing that the machines are not only weapons but a fast feedback system for collective tactics. (Chapters 327, 933, and 935)

Operation Moonfall is the fullest expression of this method. Arnold models the Ghostvine's ecology, identifies light and fire as effective damage types, cuts off its solar energy, spends its vitality through forced regeneration, and uses Sandy to bypass the distance his machines cannot cross efficiently alone. The plan preserves the moon's core instead of maximizing destruction, proving that his control has progressed from building devices to engineering an entire battlefield. His latest known position is a lunar-base operator who retains an Earth workshop and a teleporter connection; his next grade and post-Moonfall upgrades remain unknown. (Chapters 1169, 1184, and 1272)

Power progression

Relationships

• Jake Thayne: Jake is Arnold's most important supplier, customer, and recurring benchmark. Arnold needs Jake's arcane affinity and unusual materials, while Jake depends on Arnold for custom weapons and analysis; their exchanges become a restrained rivalry in which both expect the other to keep producing results that make the last generation obsolete.
• Miranda Wells: Miranda manages the political and logistical consequences of Arnold's projects. She authorizes his expanding footprint when it benefits Earth, negotiates the lunar-base arrangement through Sandy, and remains wary of how much independent military power his infrastructure represents.
• Sandy: Sandy first tests Arnold's defenses by breaking into the workshop and getting trapped. Their later cooperation is more constructive: Sandy provides transport and access during Moonfall, consumes the Ghostvine core as compensation, and enables Arnold's golems to reach a battlefield he can command remotely.
• Oras: Oras is Arnold's Patron and the source of the void-linked machine Legacy that makes true autonomous artificial souls possible. Arnold contributes the engineering and adaptations, but openly credits the god's help and Records for the skill's mythical upgrade.
• Neil: Neil constructs the teleportation link between Arnold's lunar base and Earth after Moonfall, turning a remote installation into part of the planet's usable infrastructure.

Items

• Blackpoint Nanoblade: Arnold first trades Jake a carbon-fiber nanoblade, then develops the concept into a void-touched katar with affinity-storage cores and Blackpoint Burst. After Nevermore he reclaims the obsolete weapon, rebuilds it as the Legendary Voidblade Katar, and returns it to Jake in Chapter 926.
• Rods from God: Arnold's orbital kinetic weapon uses a specially coated, thruster-guided metal rod to build extreme velocity before impact. He deploys it against Earth's Prima Guardian; the strike devastates the battlefield but does not achieve the planned one-shot kill.