Chapter 36 - Exploration
Lucas stood before the corpses of the Fleshhounds, rubbing his chin as he examined them.
“You’re not thinking of eating them, right? If so, do it yourself,” Chloe said, her nose scrunching up at the sight.
“Why would I want to eat them?” Lucas’s mouth twitched at the question. “Besides, I don’t want to grow an extra pair of legs from eating.”
He added, “I’m just considering which parts of them can be useful for making stuff later.”
“And? Which part is useful?” Her brows arched when she heard Lucas’s words.
“Bones, claws, and teeth, maybe. I’ll just pull them out first,” he said as the bones within the Fleshhounds erupted from their carcasses, floating in the air.
Slowly, the bones began morphing and compressing themselves into small cubes. Similarly, the claws and teeth of the monsters pulled themselves out, hovering in the air.
Lucas looked around and saw several spider bots with greenish backpacks. He willed the collected material into the backpacks before the spiders scuttled away with the cargo in tow.
“Wow, they’re rather smart, huh? They even brought you a bag,” Chloe praised as she watched the spider bots.
Nodding his head, Lucas explained, “Yeah. They can understand instructions quite well. And they’ve already scouted this entire floor, so we don’t have to.”
Chloe glanced around the room, then back at Lucas. “So, is there anything else we need to do here? Or do we move on?”
Lucas gave the room one last look, his eyes briefly scanning the holographic directory displayed on the console earlier. “Nope. The spiders already scouted every corner, and I’ve got all the useful materials I could get from these dogs. We’re done here.”
“Bummer,” Chloe sighed. “I didn’t even get to fight. I’m hoping the next floor gives me some action.”
He smirked as he walked toward the elevator. “Oh, absolutely. According to our spiderlings, a bunch of mutated creatures are prowling downstairs. Once the elevator carries us down and opens, we’ll meet them right away.”
As they approached the elevator, Chloe gestured to the biometric scanner. “What about this? We’re not exactly ‘authorized personnel.’”
“Are we not, Miss Matcha’s Empress?” Lucas smirked, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
He aimed his palm at the biometric scanner, sending a streak of Psionical Force into it. After a few moments, the scanner beeped, and the elevator doors slid open.
“Identity confirmed.”
“Clearance Level 10.”
“Welcome, Mr. King of the Eurobeats, Miss Matcha’s Empress.”
Lucas bowed slightly and gestured toward the elevator. “After you, Miss Matcha’s Empress.”
Chloe rolled her eyes but smiled. “Why thank you, Mr. King of the Eurobeats.”
The two stepped into the elevator, the doors closing behind them with a soft hiss. Lucas pressed the button for the next floor, and the elevator began its descent.
As they descended, Chloe leaned against the wall. “So, what’s the next floor? Any news from your Spider-Army?”
“Apparently, it’s the general R&D floor, but with magic. Probably where they were testing with the Mophalite’s properties,” Lucas replied, rubbing his chin. “I want to head there and grab their research data on the Mophalite. It might be useful for experimenting with magic stones later.”
“And the monsters down there?” Chloe asked.
“Some Crawlers, Fleshhounds, and a couple of other weird ones,” Lucas said with a shrug.
“Great,” Chloe smirked. “Finally, some mutant monsters for me to deal with.”
The elevator came to a stop with a low chime, and the doors slid open.
The instant the doors opened, Lucas fired his
Before they could examine the room, countless Crawlers hissed at their emergence from the elevator and charged. The Crawlers split into groups, some clambering up the walls and ceiling while others rushed directly at the pair. Their movements were erratic, almost insect-like, as they darted between pillars, making them harder to target.
“Here we go,” Chloe muttered, gripping her
Lucas took a step back, raising his
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Facing the swarm, Chloe brandished her sword as a screeching noise rang out. The sound caused the Crawlers to moan in pain as they faltered momentarily. Some of those crawling on the walls fell to the ground, clutching their heads with their monstrous claws.
Seizing the opportunity, she dashed forward with her sword humming through the air, severing the head of a nearby Crawler before slashing a second one, then a third. Each of her swings carved through a Crawler, leaving their lifeless bodies in her wake.
A Crawler lunged at her from above, its claws aiming for her throat, but she twisted out of the way and slashed upward, slicing it cleanly in half.
“Looking good,” Lucas muttered, occasionally glancing at Chloe single-handedly overwhelming the Crawlers while keeping his attention focused on a dark corridor.
Through the vision provided by the spider bots, Lucas could sense six
Lucas smirked at the sight of the approaching Fleshhounds. He willed several spider bots in the vicinity to weave a net of wires along the corridor. Then, he sent a pulse of Psionical Force through the wires to strengthen them.
As the Fleshhounds drew closer to the battleground, their glowing eyes glinted with bloodlust. The scent of spilled blood urged them on as they kicked off the ground, bolting toward the source of the carnage.
The first of them burst through the wires, only to find its momentum cut short. The wires sliced through its body like a hot knife through butter, severing its flesh and bones.
Chunks of meat and splatters of dark, viscous blood painted the corridor walls as the lifeless remains of the first Fleshhoun> collapsed to the ground. The second and third suffered the same fate, their bodies shredded mid-stride, leaving a grotesque mess of limbs and entrails scattered across the floor.
The remaining Fleshhounds skidded to a halt. Their eyes narrowed as they growled and sniffed the air, their bloodlust replaced with caution. Their noses twitched, but they failed to detect anything.
Lucas, observing this through the eyes of spider bots, smirked. “Always wanted to try this.” With a single thought, he commanded the spider bots to strike, killing off the remaining Fleshhounds.
Then, another group of spider bots sent feedback to him. At the far end of another corridor, there was another group of Crawlers, at least thirty of them, idling about, ignorant of the battle occurring in the central room.
From another group of spider bots, they told him there was another pack of
Information about enemy locations on the second level was flooding into his mind through the spider bots’ vision. Some of them were even in the vents, prowling about.
Instead of being overwhelmed by this information, Lucas grinned. He glanced at Chloe, finishing off the last Crawler in the room, before calling out to her, “I’ll lure another group of Crawlers over, get ready.”
Chloe nodded at his words and clenched her
After some time, the couple finally killed off every monster that had been lingering on the second level. The entire central room was brimming with the carcasses of
Huffing and puffing, Chloe sighed, “That was intense. Do you know how surprised I was when this lizard popped out from the vent? Why are they so good at healing?” She kicked at the reptile’s carcass.
Lucas took a closer look at the grotesque reptile monster. It was eyeless, had a huge maw, its ribs were exposed, and it was the size of a giant crocodile.
“This thing looks like that giant crocodile SCP. What kind of crazy things were they doing here?” he muttered, scratching his head as he stood before the Lurkers.
As before, he sent his Psionical Force into the monsters’ carcasses, ripping out any usable parts and letting the spider bots store them.
After Lucas and Chloe caught their breath, they began to explore the second level. According to the feedback provided by the spider bots, the layout of the level consisted of a central room surrounded by a circular corridor, which connected to various facilities, such as the labs, storage rooms, and a meeting room.
Their first stop was the lab area. Entering, they couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe. Despite the chaos outside, the laboratories were surprisingly well-preserved.
Each lab had its own set of testing equipment, with scattered papers and strange runes on some devices.
Several small pieces of Mophalite were scattered across the lab. “Wow, this place is more un-dungeon-like than I expected,” Chloe muttered as she picked up a piece of Mophalite and examined it.
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Fragment of Mophalite
Rank: Common++
A fragment of lowest-grade Mophalite.
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“Lucas, let’s take these. These are those magic crystals, right? Maybe Samantha could use them?” she said, waving them at Lucas.
“Sure,” Lucas replied, his attention focused on a terminal. “Interesting. So, they’re using Mophalite as a form of battery? That explains why some parts of the facility still have power. They built a reactor using Mophalite.”
“Even a fistful of lowest-grade Mophalite can power the world’s largest mall for three days straight,” he mumbled, doing some quick math.
Going through the research data and schematics in the database, Lucas was pleasantly surprised. “Some of these designs are actually good. Especially the Mophalite reactor. They even had a design for a portable one.”
“Hey, Lucas! I found the storage room,” Chloe called out to him.
Looking at Chloe, Lucas replied, “Yeah, coming!” He approached her and entered the storage room.
Rows of shelves were neatly arranged in the storage room, with a sparse number of cylindrical containers resting on the shelves.
Chloe raised an eyebrow. “There goes the dream of striking gold.”
“Looks like they were robbed clean,” Lucas mumbled as he picked up one of the containers and looked at it. Inside was a chunk of blue crystal, pulsing faintly.
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MophaliteRank: Uncommon
A low-grade Mophalite. Can be crafted into magic items.
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“I guess these are all of them,” Lucas said as he willed the spider bots to work.
All the spider bots in the area began scurrying around, picking up the Mophalite and stashing it into the backpacks they carried. Even the fragments used for experiments were kept as well.