Chapter 26 - Dissection and Inspection
Red runes began forming across
With a powerful leap, she propelled herself forward, spinning her spear to deflect an incoming punch from the mutant before impaling it deep into its chest.
Chloe wasn't far behind, darting to the side to flank them. Her agile movements made her a blur as she weaved between the creatures, slashing at their flesh.
Every slash left a deep gash, oozing black ichor profusely.
Meanwhile, Lucas casually strolled toward the mutants, not with his assault rifle, but with a shotgun. When he saw one closing in on Samantha, he raised his shotgun and fired.
The shot instantly decimated the creature's neck and above, sending it crashing down like a ragdoll.
“Thanks!” Samantha shouted, swinging
Pumping the shotgun, Lucas shouldered it against a giant mutant and pulled the trigger, demolishing its torso. Then, again, and again, until the shotgun's chamber was emptied.
Briefly glancing at Lucas, Chloe was pleasantly surprised. Her
Before she could admire further, Lucas shouted, “Ghost enemies! Samantha!”
Several pale, translucent creatures floated through the air, screeching as they advanced on the trio.
As if on cue, Samantha smirked and intoned, “Aibarkyra.”
Purplish chains erupted from the ground, tightly binding several phantoms in place. Then, a bluish spear with streaks of red light swept across the phantoms, disintegrating them instantly.
One of the phantoms took the chance to ambush Samantha from behind. However, a wire dangled directly in its path, seemingly harmless as it phased through it.
The moment it made contact, a surge of high voltage jolted through the wire, shocking the phantom. It screeched in agony before disintegrating.
When Lucas was reloading his shotgun, Chloe called out excitedly, “Hey, Lucas! I think your shotgun is better than mine. Let’s trade!”
Raising an eyebrow, Lucas finished reloading and casually tossed the shotgun to her.
“LB-12 Bustercall, gas-operated system. Custom barrel to minimize heat distortion and a custom bolt carrier for increased shooting speed. Textured grip in case your hands get wet,” Lucas explained briefly.
“I didn’t really mean it!” Chloe exclaimed, treating the shotgun like a hot potato. Still, she couldn’t help but steal glances at its description.
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LB-12 Bustercall
Rank: Uncommon+
A shotgun designed by LoongBek Arms for managing civil unrest within its home country. Its internal components have been upgraded to higher-quality versions by a Talented Crafter.
Special Effect(s):
Armor Buster - Inflicts additional damage proportional to the target’s VIT and Defense.
Precision - Enhances the accuracy of projectiles.
Thoughtblast - Residual psychic energy imbued in the barrel augments projectiles to inflict additional psychic damage on enemies.
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Surprised by the stats, Chloe hurriedly shoved the shotgun back into Lucas's arms.
“I thought you wanted it?” Lucas asked, amused.
Out of curiosity, Samantha grabbed the shotgun and inspected it. Surprise spread across her face as she pointed at it. “Hey, why does everything you make have residual psychic energy?”
“It just happens naturally,” Lucas replied with a casual shrug. Before he could elaborate further, the ground shook once more.
Three rows of five gray, robot-like golems marched into the lobby. Each stood at least five meters tall, their frames resembling humanoid machines. Instead of hands, many had spinning saw blades or muzzle-like weapons protruding from their forearms.
A single glowing red eye glimmered on each of their metallic skull-like faces.
-DETECTED BIOHAZARD OUTBREAK-
Red beams shot from their eyes, scanning the entire room in sweeping motions.
-SCANNING-
-DETECTED INTRUDER-
One of the beams locked onto Samantha. In an instant, a golem with dual saws bent its legs and launched itself toward her at blinding speed.
Reacting instinctively, Samantha raised her hand and intoned, “Aibarkyra!”
From the ground, countless purplish chains erupted, shooting toward the airborne machine.
But then, an abrupt announcement rang out.
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-DETECTED MANA FORMATION-
-ACTIVATING DISPERSION BARRIER-
A burst of invisible energy radiated from one of the golems, connecting with the others to form a massive, translucent barrier.
Samantha’s eyes widened in shock as the chains she summoned dissolved into thin air. “Wha-?!” she exclaimed, frozen for a moment as the golem closed in rapidly.
“Samantha!” Chloe shouted, sprinting forward. But before she could reach her, the golem landed with a deafening crash right where Samantha had been standing.
A cloud of dust billowed outward as the golem stood upright, its red eye scanning the area. Yet, Samantha was nowhere to be seen.
Chloe’s instincts kicked in, and her gaze darted to where Lucas was. Relief washed over her when she saw Samantha standing safely next to him.
Refocusing on the golem, Chloe’s expression darkened. “You’re dead,” she muttered, her grip tightening on her weapon.
“Dover-style, Rend!”
Chloe turned in a blur, thrusting out her
Blue and purplish energy converged into a sharp thorn, instantly carving a hole through the golem's torso with an explosive blast of energy.
Chunks of metal scattered as the machine staggered backward, a smoking hole in its chest.
Meanwhile, across the lobby, Samantha was still on the ground, staring blankly at the golems ahead.
“My spell failed...?” she murmured, disbelief and frustration clear in her voice.
“Yup, those are definitely the golems you girls mentioned earlier. Anti-magic types,” Lucas nodded thoughtfully, watching Chloe blast another hole into a golem's chest with her new Skill.
Instead of despairing, Samantha's expression shifted to determination. “Fine,” she declared, gripping
“Huh. Guess I don’t need to give her a motivational speech after all,” Lucas muttered, amused, as he trudged toward the golem horde.
He glanced at the girls and was pleased to see them handling the golems without much difficulty despite the earlier incident.
As for himself, he had another goal in mind. He was going to dissect them in the name of science.
‘I mean, they’re literally a treasure trove for me. If I can reverse-engineer them, I could make my own robots. Nay! My own mechanical legion!’
***
Chloe gracefully somersaulted, dodging another saw. Midair, she slashed her sword.
“Severing Aria.”
The blade hummed rhythmically, forming an elegant arc as it sliced through the golem's metallic head.
Even with its head severed, the golem remained standing. Chloe clicked her tongue, twisting her body midair before leaping away.
A laser beam swept across where she had been moments before, leaving a deep scorched mark on the floor.
“Cutting their heads won’t work!” Samantha shouted from across the room as she fended off the golem in front of her. “Aim for their power source in the chest!”
“Power source…” Chloe muttered to herself as her lips curled up.
Pushing herself off the ground, she dashed toward the headless golem. Ducking under its spinning saws, she lunged forward, her sword glowing faintly with a purple hue.
As her blade cracked open the golem's chest, she smirked at the sight of a glowing blue crystal embedded within.
“Severing Aria.”
Her sword flashed across the crystal, cleaving it in half.
The moment the crystal shattered, the golem's red eye dimmed, and its movements ceased entirely.
“No problem,” she smirked in triumph.
Her victory, however, was short-lived as another laser beam fired at her. Pivoting on her feet, she launched herself toward another golem.
Taking a stabbing stance, blue and purple energy coiled around her sword. In an instant, her figure flickered.
“Dover-style, Rend!”
A burst of energy blasted through the golem, leaving it to collapse with a gaping hole in its chest.
“Chloe! Behind you!” Samantha suddenly shouted.
Chloe turned her head, and her eyes widened as a spinning saw rapidly filled her vision. Instinctively, she attempted to leap over it, but her movement was disrupted by a laser beam cutting dangerously close.
“Crap!” she cursed under her breath, staring helplessly at the incoming saw.
Suddenly, an unseen force yanked her away, pulling her to safety just in time to avoid the spinning blade.
Momentarily stunned, Chloe quickly recovered and dashed forward, driving her sword into the golem's energy source.
Before long, both she and Samantha had defeated eleven of the golems, albeit with minor injuries.
As they turned to face the remaining machines, they froze in surprise. The remaining golems were suspended mid-air, with Lucas casually tinkering with one whose back was cracked open.
“The hell is this? They didn’t teach magic in engineering,” Lucas muttered under his breath, inspecting a strange magical component inside the golem.
Noticing Chloe and Samantha approaching, he greeted them casually, “Hey there, are you girls hungry?”
“What exactly are you doing?” Samantha asked, her eyes shifting to the other three golems suspended mid-air, completely immobilized.
“Research,” Lucas replied simply. “Phillip got some food and drinks. Go grab it from him.”
Hearing the term 'food’, Chloe bolted toward Phillip, leaving Samantha to stare after her helplessly.
“The next wave won’t start until all the golems are dealt with,” Lucas added, gesturing toward the immobilized machines. “These tin cans won’t be doing anything anytime soon, so take a break.”
“Erm, okay then. I’ll see you later?” Samantha said hesitantly, glancing at Lucas, who was already engrossed in examining the golem's internal mechanisms.
Back with Lucas, he had already disassembled a saw-golem into pieces while the girls were still fighting.
Despite the presence of magical components within the golems, Lucas managed to deduce how they operated.
His hands moved deftly as he examined the exposed mechanisms, mentally noting his observations.
“Alright, let’s see. This must be the mana crystal the energy source,” he muttered, extending a tendril of mental energy to carefully extract the glowing crystal embedded in its containment chamber.
“Hmm. Looks like some kind of mana-conversion parts to convert mana energy into electrical energy.”
Lucas pried open a compartment near the golem's neck, uncovering a complex arrangement of circuitry and wiring leading to a black metallic core.
“A neural processing unit?” he murmured, carefully pulling it free. “This must be where the autonomy comes from.”
Holding it up, Lucas examined the intricate neural-like pathways etched into the surface. “A pseudo-AI, perhaps?”
He traced the connections branching out from the core. “It’s linked to an array of sensors, visual, auditory, and motion. Inputs from these feed into the processor, and the algorithms make real-time decisions.”
“So that’s how they navigate and fight.”
Moving on, he followed the wiring to the golem's limbs and weapons. “Motorized servos for precision, hydraulic actuators for strength, and… the hell are these?”
Lucas frowned when he noticed several small nodes embedded in the joints.
“Some kind of magical amplifier? Is that how they achieve that kind of speed and flexibility?”
Finally, he focused on the optical system, a single red lens embedded in its head. “A multi-spectrum camera with LIDAR for spatial mapping, and.… a mana-sensing module?”
“It’s scanning visible light while also detecting mana fluctuations. That explains why Samantha’s spell failed. They detected her spell activation and countered it in real-time.”
Lucas gestured to a cylindrical device near the processor. “And this… probably is the barrier generator. That’s how they nullify spells. Definitely effective against magic users.”
“Autonomy is achieved through self-learning algorithms paired with sensor integration. Science powers the brain, while magic enhances the body. If I can reverse-engineer this, I could build my own robots.”