The end of the battle was inevitable. Roberion dismissed Percival and Shining Crown. The knight was already vanishing into sparks; he only speeded up the process. As for the roothorn, an office was not a place for him unless you wanted some destruction, and Roberion needed to be furtive. Roberion examined the undogs next; maybe their resources could be useful.
Living with the system was really easier. I can’t tell if these undead dogs are useful, and I still need to read that book for transmutation. I will have enough time when we are at the research and development area. Look at these poor bastards. Roberion kicks a nearby undog; they aren’t even worth harvesting. If I could, the only one would be the regenerative undog; there is no way I will keep calling it undog V1, that’s more like a machine name; regenerative undog is way better.
Roberion glances at the massive beast. To fight such a monster, Shade is perfectly healthy; the giant didn’t hurt the giant at any time, not that Shade was indestructible; one hit from this creature and even Shade would probably get wounded. The problem was that the creature fought his nemesis, a person entirely focused on strength and speed. Maybe the armor has additional functionalities; sadly, I didn’t have time to see if Shade was truly hit. Maybe the armor absorbed the impact. I need to know more.
Walking near the beast, Roberion tries to analyze the corpse of the regenerative undog. This one would be harvest material, for sure. Maybe I could ask Shade.
“Hey Shade, nice job. Can you give me any info about this guy here? What is his weakness? How does he fight?”
Shade keeps looking at the beast, not taking a glance in Roberion’s direction. The entire body aside from the head is without bruises, with the musculature contorting itself, looking like abstract art. There was no doubt that in the last moments of the regenerative undog, he didn’t have any movement, accepting all the punishment on its head. Its cancerous regeneration is both a boon and a curse. The beast was almost like a monster with a use limit. It didn’t matter when, but the wounds would accumulate until the creature was like this. Maybe the only salvation was a new incarnation.
Shade answers Roberion, its mechanical voice still the same, hiding any kind of strain the giant could have.
"Just look at it; its body is still intact; if I wasn't careful to attack the head continuously without letting the beast regenerate, it wouldn't die. The problem is, why is the mana reserve of this thing so high? During the fight, undog v1 showed the prowess of a being at the end of the Touched incarnation; it was raw, but it existed, like an untrained animal."
Shade continued after thouching the headwound of the regenerative undog."From a tactical point of view, the beast was completely lacking, but the instinct and common animal rationality were still there, much different than when I analyzed the humanoid undead. How was your fight with the undead dogs? Did you notice anything?"
Roberion remembered the strangeness of the fur of the beasts, "Actually, they had sections of their bodies without fur; the sections seemed to be artificially made with clean precision; I never saw lines like that in a body; it made me wonder if they were like that because it was sort of an experiment."
Shade answered after vanishing with the regenerative undog, "Your suposition is not far off; it seems that something was indeed made in those beasts; the undog V1 regeneration is abnormal; if it were in a natural habitat, his species would become one of the noble beasts of the area, possibly surpassing its limits of Touched. If the regeneration of the undead behemoths is like that, we will have problems; that beast was hypothetically the same incarnation as me."
Roberion paled after the answer; they hadn't even reached their first stop, and these beasts had already shown up. It could only get worse from now on.
"You don't need to fret, Roberion, I said hypothetically. I'm more trained than that beast and have many tools at my disposal to kill it easily if necessary. This battle was to collect information. It seems that you already learned that from the analyses you made of the undead dogs. The undead behemoths are a problem, though. I won't fight them without necessity, so you will need to use this", Shade said, handing over a vial of an unknown gray substance.
"This is a speed potion; it will give you the speed you need to avoid the behemoths if they are far away; if they get near, I will try to distract them. The potion will increase your endurance, movement, and leg strength, but it will only last for an hour. When the effects of the substance stop, you will feel its side effects; your body will become exhausted for a day, and it will receive some impurity."
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Roberion looked at the vial; it didn't have any information on it, only a normal glass bottle with gray substance on it; the stopper was a blue one; nothing was engraved on it. He didn't know how Shade could know what this was. But there is something more important to ask.
"This one hour should be enough to reach the place, right? And what is this impurity?"
"It will be enough if we don't find the undogs V1 and undead behemoths in every corner we go. But as I said before, we aren't alone; we just need to run and let the nulls, staff, and anything else alive deal with them; we aren't here on a rescue mission. As for impurities, any type of medicine or drug you take will have impurities. For this one, I only had the need to say it because it's really a lot of impurities, especially for someone who started the Touched incarnation just now. The only choice you have is to drink it or die", Shade kept collecting the corpses; even the weaker undead dogs weren't safe from vanishing to the giant hidden space compartment.
"Did you feel anything wrong with you?"
"No, why do you ask?"
"Nothing; we need to be careful. Let's go. I found a route. Drink it and run as fast as you can."
"Wait, I need to summon Percival, I can't let the Jubilant Choir be summoned while I'm running; it would only get in the way", saying that Roberion activated the die. It took two tries for Percival to be summoned.
"Hello, Sir, where are the undead corpses, if I may ask?", Percival asked the question as he looked around, the unique automaton mouse already jumping in his head.
"Shade picked them up. More importantly, I need you to be here, or better yet, stay at the entrance before the gates. To reach the next stop, I will need to run; there is no time for battles, which means there is no time for the die to activate when I am avoiding it.", Roberion looks at the automaton mouse; everything he talked with Percival, Shade will know, but the giant would know either way; more importantly, he could still communicate with Percival, right?
"Hey Shade, can I use the earbud to speak with Percival?"
"One moment…done, you will feel a second connection when using the earbud."
Roberion was sure that Shade's armor was the main weapon of the giant, and more than that, the technological item that made possible all that Shade did, or most of them at least.
"Testing…"
"It's working, Sir. It's weird hearing you in double, but it's working; the mouse is even imitating your voice."
"It's not imitating; it's reproducing what Roberion said", Shade made the unnecessary correction.
"Alright, Sir, I will go there with this…metallic creature as company."
Percival started walking slowly, as if in fear of something. Percival knew that being alone with that automaton mouse was a dangerous situation; his patron must be unaware of the danger such creatures are; if he could, he would explode all of them. For that, he needs to learn the secrets on [Bombing Tamer Kit 101th Edition, 101 ways to bomb away], even the name shows power and promise.
"I will name you [Sacred Bomber Kit].", Percival said, full of happiness. He knew that the weapon would be happy with the new name, amplifying its damage to the heavens, even this metallic mouse couldn't dim his mood.
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Percival reached the entrance; it was the same thing as before: the corpses of the undead were all sprawled on the floor, and no creature or insect was feasting on their flesh. He thought it was opportune to inform Roberion of this information.
"Dear automaton mouse, could you say to my master that we are already at the entrance, near the gates?"
"You don't need to talk with the mouse. Percival, I heard you. Alright, keep there, and try not to fight anything; you need to be intact for at least one hour, but I feel it will take more; we both know how my luck is."
"Your luck is splendid Sir, you found my dear weapon that made our encounter possible, and we will soon rise to our true rank of noble knights. You just need to wait!!!"
"Alright, Percival, if anything happens, I will call. As for you, only use the mouse in emergences. See ya."
Obviously, I will talk only in emergencies; why would I talk if it is unnecessary? One hour without talking would be really uncomfortable; I can't even speak with my lonesome self?! I won't for sure converse with this metallic beast.
Percival tries to look at the automaton mouse, but the beast takes the spot he for sure couldn't see, above his head. When the time comes, he will defeat this miscreant.
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"Alright, he is already at the entrance, by the way. Why wasn't any monster here before, and at the entrance, aside from the undeads?"
"I know the whole situation is suspicious; my automaton mice didn't know about the undead dogs until they were near enough. Something is not right. But we don't have time to ponder. Drink the potion and be prepared; in 10 minutes, we will see our first confrontation between the undead and the survivors. Remember to run from everything; only fight if necessary to keep running. So just run."
"Yeah, run, run, run. Got it", Roberion was apprehensive; it had been a long while since he hadn't seen his fellow nulls; he was almost nostalgic, if they weren't a threat to him, that is. What the fuck does that quest mean? It means something about the nulls; it is better to evade them until I reach the first stop. When I reach the research and development area, it is training time. And obviously there is time for some compensation; if it is in the form of weapons, the better.