Completely unexpectedly, the closest armor segment was back the way it had come. Apparently the other four pieces had been launched in ninety degree angles to each other, and one was still moving. Concerning, particularly if it took too long to find the legs, but they were making decent progress even without mechanical transportation assistance. The sun hadn't risen even the slightest bit, whereas they had moved enough to almost put it behind the mountain.

Ideally, this would be the torso part of the armor. Or a leg. It would need the torso to connect absolutely anything else, and that particular segment has the battery in it. Without that, all of the parts would be limited to what could be powered through passive bioenergy collection. With the Torso, the helmet would have access to the more advanced sensors, communications, and the eye beams.

“I have questions.”

It was nice not being the limiting factor in how quickly they were moving. The human had a way of realizing when it was getting distracted and about to wander off in a haze of shiny. On the other hand, it had unlimited stamina, whereas humans did not. That led to slow parts like here, where they had to slow to the point where the human could recover, instead of just fast-walking the whole way to the mountain.

“What are you wondering about,” it asks. If it’s already distracted, it can’t get double distracted. That’s just how science works.

“When I scanned you, there were only four entries. The farm supervisor had six. Why didn’t you have SP or HTH?”

Oh, that was an easy one.

“HTH is just a measure of how well your body does against disease, exhaustion, bleeding, managing not to die when critically wounded, and that kind of thing. SP is energy reserves for when you’re going above and beyond, like when you’re tired but keep running. I’m immune to all of those things, so the helmet doesn’t bother displaying those.”

They walk in silence for a good five seconds before the human has another question.

“So what does INT measure?”

That one was more complex.

“INT is not knowledge, it’s not how good you are at thinking, it’s just how much processing power your mind has. A normal human has a ten. The highest the normal scan has found was a fifty when the person was just walking around. That particular individual got up to a one hundred when using some… less than ethical methods. It was just to show it was possible, too.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

One would be best served by avoiding that particular individual at any given time. The fact they could survive his attentions just made everything worse.

“Do you have any tips for getting stronger?”

“Uh.”

The human had seen its stats, right? They were pretty hard to miss. Humans were much more physically able than most of its experimental group. Most of the experimental groups, to be honest. The only one really physically inclined would be the forty-two series. That was mostly an optimization of their primary ability though, and came at the expense of their processing power. They gave the best hugs though.

“No.”

Silence descended once again. It had managed to kill the conversation quite easily. If only these plants died so readily. They were a slow drain on its energy, a somewhat annoying interaction that offset its natural regeneration rate. It would take a while to get back to the point where it would feel fine moving at full speed, but at least it would have its arm back in a couple minutes.

“So what is a forty-five, and why should you seek its attention?”

That was new.

“What did it say, exactly?”

“That the statistics have been reset to original levels.”

Apparently it wasn’t all in its mind that it felt weaker than normal. It had worked hard to build up its stats, and if it had lost all that progress… it would have to go to a forty-five for medical attention to see if they could trick its biology into getting it back. Dang creator, building things that worked correctly and gave useful advice. Why couldn’t it be useful advice it could use?

“Forty-five is the class of healers. They would be able to bring back my lost physical power.”

Not that said power amounted to much. It had gotten an increase of two strength and one dexterity, and that had been rendered negligible once it had gotten a suit. Technology was great, especially items specifically designed to offset all the trade-offs inherent in their biological design. It should definitely work on its HP stat though.

“Last question I can think of. Why is your arm gone?”

Simple answer was that it got hit by a rock and blasted off. It was just lucky that the guy hadn’t tried that again, and just stuck with punching it in the torso and face. That level of force wasn’t enough to separate any limbs, and thus could be ignored. On the other arm, it could do this the dramatic way, and that was always the correct option.

“It’s not,” it says, a wave of regenerative energy flowing into the stump. Flesh erupts from the dismember, a whole arm growing out of nothing in less than a second. It took about seventeen minutes for any particular severed limb to absorb enough energy to do that, but it was a nice party trick if you could time it right. Fortunately, its series had processing power to spare.

Of course, it ruined its display by getting its foot caught in a root and falling forward onto its face.