POV Zal-Urk
Inside a cage with thick bars, and covered in some strange runes was a light dark toned man. He was sitting in a meditative pose, it couldn't be seen in the dark cave, but this was no ordinary man. He had black horns that curved backwards, patches of dark scales, and once he opened his eyes, slit purple eyes stared into the darkness. He couldn't see what was going on outside since they placed a cloth over his cage. The collar around his neck also restricted his abilities and power. Listening, he can still hear better than any human ever could, but he can tell that the bandits who imprisoned him here were being attacked.
Half an hour later and stomping noises could be heard coming into where they kept the other slaves imprisoned. Some slaves made whimpering noises, others made surprise gasps at the figures entering the room. A hand removed the cloth on top of his cage, and he got a good look at whoever it was. What stared at him was a tall figure covered in complete metal armor, a strange glowing circle in his chest and blue visor. He was actually surprised at how strong and perfect it looked.
"Hmmm interesting, the monarch would like to see you, gather all the cages and put them outside, the monarch sent transport trucks to take them back." Said the energy mech.
Some other black armored figures started picking up the cages together, making the people inside shocked at their strength. He didn't know where they would be taking him, but his gut feeling said that they would be more reasonable than the bandits. Outside he saw these rectangle pieces of metal, MOVING on their own. Strange soft wheels were underneath it, he has seen strange dwarven contraptions but nothing like this. Being placed in the back of one he was once again engulfed in darkness, another surprise was that the traveling was not as bumpy. A few moments later he was once again covered in a cloth and transported somewhere he didn't know.
A proper meal and water was then given to him. Only this time he was in another room, this one completely white and no seams could be seen. A bit more and finally the door to the outside opened on its own again, this surprised him the first time, but not again. Six of the same glowing knights stepped inside, and at the end a young human boy who had an aura of a leader in him came in. He could immediately tell that he shouldn't take the boy lightly just because he was young.
"My name is Samuel, what's your name? Can you understand me just fine?" Said Sam.
After a while of looking at the strange boy, Zal-Urk decided to speak for the first time since his demise.
"I understand you just fine, My name is Zal-Urk." Said Zal in a deep baritone voice.
"OH! that's perfect then, if you don't mind, I would like to ask some questions about you. Is that fine?" Asked Sam curiously.
"If only I can ask questions about you as well" said Zal looking at Sam with an eyebrow raised.
"Haha sure why not? A trade for a trade."
During the hour long conversation Sam found out that Zal was known as a Half breed, a dragon-kin. His Father was a dragon who laid with a human woman. Unfortunately for him, half breeds were frowned upon in the dragon community, since they like to keep their lineage pure and not diluted. He has been in the run most of his life, he got severely hurt during a fight one time and the bandits found him. They put the slave collar that restricted his movements power. For extra measures they also put him in another specialized cage to keep someone from using mana.
"Well that's quite a story you got there Zal-Urk"
"Same to you Samuel Vanmeister, but why do I feel like you've only told the surface of the story."
"I've enjoyed our little chat, but I've got other people to talk to, maybe some other time we can talk more in depth." Sam said as he was ready to walk away from the room, before Zal called out to him.
"Must be frustrating staying in bronze rank, so much potential, but such a weak vassal." Zal said provocatively.
Sam stopped dead in his tracks, and turned around looking at Zal with a curious gaze. Then left after thinking about what the weird half breed said. He walked towards a another white room, this one had the knocked out bandit leader strapped to a metal chair, with metal cuffs around his legs, arms and waist. He looked down at the bandit leader like a piece of trash on the side of the road.
"Wake him up"
An energy mech walked up to the bandit and gave him a crisp slap across the face.
"Uaaahhh!! Haahaahaa! Cough Cough"
The bandit leader woke up gasping for air, a stinging pain was attacking the right side of his face. When he finally settled down he noticed that he was surrounded by six of the same armored knights he saw that attacked his camp, his camp he thought.
"Whoever you're you better start by uncuffing me and grovel at my fee-"
He was punched in the nose by one of the energy mechs before he finished speaking.
"A person's got many layers, on top we put up a front for people. Just hiding what we truly feel inside, like YOU for instance, you like to put up this big tough and intimidating persona. What you're really trying to hide is that deep fear inside, so why don't we take off some layers." Said Sam as he took out a sharp combat knife. He slowly walked up to the bandit and caressed the knife against his skin. "Until we can get to what you really feel and fear."
"Pfft y-you think I'm afraid of a brat like you! Why don't you come back when you grow some hairs on your ballsack!" Said the bandit, trying to hide his shaking.
Sam grabbed his arm without warning and started cutting a thick slice of forearm skin off. It left a clean pink redish wound. The bandit started screaming in pain, and cursing him with everything he had.
"Ugh ugh I'm going to make sure to break every bone in your body!" Yelled the bandit.
Once again Sam started to skin the bandit in different parts of the body, and eveytime the bandit cursed at Sam. Sam would cut more off, until the bandit got tired.
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"Heal him"
A medic mech walked from the back of the room to the bandit. He sent a pulse wave of healing and the skin that was cut off, regrew back. Seeing that he was gaining his vitality and skin back, the bandit got a deep pit of fear in his stomach.
"Wa-wa-what are you doing to me?" Hesitating to ask he said.
"Like I said, we need to cut the layers until we see the real you" said Sam fiddling with the knife and smiling.
"I-I'll talk! but no more please! No NOOO!!!"
After hours of torture and questioning, Sam asked the mechs to kill him. He found out a big lead on who's been trying to kill him, also that the person in questions has been gathering troops and being on high alert. He was happy with this, a tense enemy is an easy target to predict and scare. He later interrogated the next person, this one going a lot easier, even going as far as to tell him some of the hideouts and people behind him. Walking towards Zal-Urks room he stood before the cage looking at Zal, he's been thinking about the thing he said before he left.
"What exactly is it that you want? Cause I really don't think that you've been completely honest with me, last time." Sam said.
Zal just looked at Sam for a long moment in the eyes, before saying something back. "what about you? What do you want?"
Sam looked deep into Zals eyes and had a feeling that this guy was similar to him so he made up his mind.
"Complete control of the world, I'm going to be the one who will make the world bend to him not the otherway around. I will bring down the ones at the top of the table, the ones who toy around with lives as if they were chess pieces and show them that their little game is nothing but that. This world is extremely bountiful and abundant in resources, but the 1% uses it to fool around instead of progressing their world. I was honestly baffled when they've never explored other parts of this world, obviously it's because of the strong and dangerous creatures that lurk in the ocean attacking anything on site. Did you ever think that the ones at the top could just fly? I know that they are hiding something and for that very reason, they can not be trusted." He paused and looked at Zal for a quick moment. "But I want to know, what you want?"
"My family...for a time in my life, I thought that I've manged to live a happy life, away from the dragons pursuit. In my own naive mind, I thought that I would be safe and not be in pursuit anymore. They killed them and took them from ME!!. So if you want to know what I want? It's to grow strong enough to make the ones who have wronged me, to pay in blood." Zal said with a determined gaze.
Sam ordered the energy mech to cut the cage upen, the metal bars were sliced off effortlessly. Seeing the opening, Zal walked out cautiously before Sam walked up to him and recited a small chant. The collar around Zals neck popped off and Zal just looked at Sam curiously.
"I made the bandit leader tell me how to unlock it." Said Sam, and then extended his arm to shake his hand. "So what do you say? Would you like to join me in my crazy plan? It involves killing dragons."
Sam knew that Zal was the strongest being he has met so far. If he can rope him in and use the resources that he will unlock later on, he wonders how strong he could become. Plus he seemed looked like someone who knew a lot about this world, and he looked like his favorite movie actor Idris elba from back on earth.
"I could kill you right now, why trust me?" Said Zal confused.
"If you tried it you would have been a corpse already." Sam said smiling, making Zal smirk a little.
"You're going to need a lot of training if your going to pull through with that crazy plan of yours." He said as he shook Sam's hand. "Can't rule the world being a bronze rank."
"Well why don't you show me how then, btw how strong are you?" He asked curiously.
"I'm a pseudo black gold." Zal said proudly. Meaning he was halfway from reaching black gold rank.
"Wow, no wonder they needed so much to keep you locked up, anyways follow me. We're going to go have a meeting with the rest of the captured slaves."
Following Sam, they both went to a large hangar where all the rest of the slaves were being fed and kept on watch. Their was humans, beastkin, and dwarves, the humans were timid and scared of the mechs watching over them. Beastkin were like humans but had beast qualities and they were watching the hanzos with focused vigilance. The dwarves on other hand were trying to ask the one energy and titan mech about their armor and weapons.
They all went quiet as soon as the hangar doors opened up, Sam entered with his entourage of energy mechs and Zal next to him. Sam looked at them, a whole crowd of at least 200 or more all with different expressions, mostly fear.
"Before I get started I would like to ask, Is there anyone who knows how to read, write , and educated in here? If so step up." Said Sam looking around the groups, a couple of them started to get up, few beastkins, and all five dwarves went up. "Good good, now I would like to let you all know that you're all very lucky people, but you don't know that yet. I'll tell you why, because you all have an opportunity to become part of something that will change this world forever. You will all be the first citizens of my new soon to be empire."
All the slaves looked at each other and at Sam like he was some lunatic speaking nonsense. A lion beastkin with a large mane of hair and bodybuilder build that stood up with the first group snarled in annoyance.
"Enough with this farce human brat! Just tell us what you plan to do with us or kill me now. I know you don't plan on letting us go, so stop talking nonsense!" Said the lionkin glaring.
"You're right, nothing in this life is free after all. In return for me saving you from whatever the slave traders were going to do with you, I plan on you serving under me as like I said, the first citizens of my empire. You see I plan on not only conquering this kingdom, but all the lands around this continent and across the world."
For a moment everyone stared quietly and didn't say a word. It's like someone going up to you and saying that they were visited by aliens last night. Everyone was just confused and the lionkin was just starting to get more annoyed, Zal just looked at the kid in front of him curiously.
"You all may really think I'm an idiot of some kind so how about I show you a little taste of my capabilities."
He decided to summon an energy and titan mech in front of them. The glowing outlines of the two soldiers and finally their full shape coming into existence. Everyone stood rooted to their spots, just looking at something unbelievable. Zal was even more impressed, the two soldiers he summoned were all gold ranked. Something like this is unbelievable unless you were a summoner of black gold rank, but the kid in front of him was only bronze rank. Then Sam summoned 1000 hanzos, making the hangar half full.
"I will lead my unstoppable army and make a new world order so you have two choices moving forward, join me or go against me."
At the end all of the people agreed willingly, at the end, convinced that maybe he wasnt all talk. Sam gave them all tasks to do in the meantime, while he went back to the main operations room alone. Zal asked to spar with some of the energy mechs to get back into shape after being in a cage for a while.
Once he sat down in his chair, he went through the gains of the day, earlier today he finally messed with the vehicles tab. The free Mark 1 option was a dirt bike, later having a surplus of tier 1 cores he unlocked the two other Mark 2 vehicles. One being an armored transport truck and the other an armored humvee without a machine turret. At the moment he hasn't needed to mess with them, but now that he will soon make a move on the surrounding territories, he will need vehicles to transport troops and resources. A large fleet of trucks and humvees sat in rows inside the base ready for use. From what he's gathered in torturing the two captives, the town of Bryxton should have a population of 100,000 and only 10,000 or more are soldiers. Even with the numbers not all of them are awakened. Only the captains and commanders were silver ranked or bronze rank. The normal soldiers were all normal human beings. With the lowest rank being bronze in his mech army, it will be a one sided battle in the end.
"I overestimated them a little, but it's still good to be on guard for any sudden changes."
POV Second prince Romain
A knight with an exquisite armor walked to the entrance of the princes room. Moaning and sounds of pleasure could be heard coming from inside, the knight knocked regardless.
"Your highness an important letter just arrived from Viscount Conner." Said the knight
"COME IN COME IN!" Said a voice slurring in his speech.
Coming into the room, one can see a handome dark red haired 20 year old sitting in a chair drinking while naked, and watching six women and men doing it on his bed. The knight walked by his side and gave him the letter, reading the contents that were written. It made the prince scowl and growl in anger the more he read. Then he crumpled the letter and set it on fire in his palm.
"What a useless old man, can't even kill that worthless runt. Pfft as if Kalimbor would raise an army in the honor of that trash. Whatever, send a letter back saying, that he can forget about the deal. The family trash is probably already dead and died in the endless forest. You may leave."
"Yes your highness!"
While looking at the back of knight, the prince called to one of the young men in bed to come over. As soon as the young man came over, he lit him on fire. Startling the rest seeing the young man screaming in pain while rolling on the ground, his dying screams scarring them.
"Oh much better, what are you all looking at? KEEP GOING!"
.............
After another week of grinding, Sam finally unlocked the arachno tank mech. All the basic requirements for his plan were in place. He was ready to enact his invasion plans on the Vanmeister kingdom. He walked up to a raised platform, in front of him rows of hanzos, androids, energy and titan mechs stood saluting in place. Over the week the dwarves were introduced to the researcher bots in the lab and together with the iron veins they found started crafting basic metal spears for the androids. As well as finally starting up the mech assembly line, he managed to manufacture 100000 androids at half the price. Since the base was only Mark 1 it can only make mechs at its level. He then summoned 50 mechs of each mark 3. In this invasion he needed to divide and conquer. He would send a 20000 mech battalion to each town in the area. They will occupy the towns and bring stability, then more troops would be sent until enough were gathered to attack the next territory. Ten of each mark 3 mech would go with each battalion as support, as well as their own medic unit.
"You all know what to do once we reach the town, leave the civilians alone and kill the ones who resist. We are no heroes, we are conquerors and nothing else! SO CONQUER!"
"ALL HAIL THE MACHINE MONARCH! ALL HAIL THE MACHINE MONARCH!" Said the Mech army in unison, creating a loud thunderclap sound.
Sam smiled and said, "so it begins."