After entering the next room, I find a bed and a plate with sausages on it. I'm hungry and tired, so I'll take anything at this point. Somehow, the sausages are still warm too.

I wolf down the sausages down my mouth, barely stopping to chew, and promptly lay down on the bed. The soft, plush bed sinks under my weight. Encapsulating me in its warm embrace. I'm kinda envious that the Archimedes family has access to these beds whenever they want. Actually, knowing them, they probably have better ones.

Sleep embraces me in its warm grasp as my breathing slows almost to a halt. Weird, I haven't felt this in a while. Not the feeling of rest—though that may be included—but the feeling of being asleep while still being aware of my surroundings. It's a calming feeling.

————————————————————————————————————

I blink one eye open. The eye crust refusing my action, but I disregard its existence by wiping it away. I slowly sit up and twist my back, releasing the tension built up with a loud series of cracks.

"Uuh. How long have I been asleep?" I wearily look around the room and gaze upon the now refilled plate of sausages. One of Thomas's robots probably brought out some new ones.

I drag myself over to the plate and slowly eat the meat with much less vigor than I did before. I chew on a sausage link when I notice that I have a System Notification.

[ Through repeated actions skill: Presence Detection(Minimum, Passive) has ranked up to Presence Detection(Minor, Passive) ]

What? I don't think I've had to use this skill recently. At all. Was I subconsciously using it when I was running from Thomas? Maybe it was that feeling I had while I was sleeping. I think I can detect people while asleep now. Camping will be much safer, if I even liked to go anyway.

I do one final stretch before exiting the bed and breakfast room. Hopefully, this is the final chamber. What gives me that clue? I already said why: hope.

The exit from the chamber leads into a round chamber, illuminated with spotlights focused on the center. Right in the center is a robot of some kind. It seems to be about eight feet tall, covered in heavy armor with rivets covering each end of the plates, and two yellow lights illuminating its vision under the visor of the rusty-looking helmet. A massive I-beam is attached to its back using chains. Normally, I would be intimidated by this except for the fact that it has been idle as I inspected it, and it has been hunched over this entire time. This thing kinda looks like a beetle given human form, well, except for how big this thing is. I would need about four times my arm length to give it a hug.

Actually, let's Inspect this.

[ Archimedes Archipelago Construction Heavy Defense Robot - A robot designed by Dr. Archimedes to protect construction sites. It is built with heavy armor and uses heavy weapons. It has traded most of its speed in return for extreme strength. Be wary of its punches as they are capable of turning most living organisms into puddles. ]

Oookay. Okay, okay, okay. So, knowing Thomas, I'll definitely have to fight this thing or I'll die. A very brutal death if this information is accurate. I'd rather not be turned into a liquid involuntarily.

The speaker sparks to life with white noise coming through. "Alright, for the final challenge. Normally, I would fight you personally, but if these recordings are needed, then that means you get to fight Franklin. He's a defense robot that leans quite HEAVILY towards the, umm, heavy hits. Yeah, sorry, couldn't think of anything. Anyway, beware of the I-beam. Unless you like being pulp then go ahead. Let's see, there was something else about him…Oh well. Good luck!"

With the noise cut off, the robot, Franklin, stands up slowly.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Good…evening. I am Franklin. I do not see you as a security breach, but Thomas has decided for me to fight you. Apologies if you die," he says in a rough, scratchy, monotonic voice. Weirdly respectful for the equivalent of a security guard.

He slowly stands up, one foot at a time, each movement shaking the chamber itself with his immense weight pushing the motion forward. This will be tough since I don't have the armor Thomas made. Hmm, even if these movements can kill me with a single hit, that doesn't mean I HAVE to get hit.

Getting hit would be counterproductive anyway.

Franklin releases the chains wrapped around his chest. The I-beam falls with a thud, and Franklin pulls the aforementioned steel with his chains. He launches the beam at me with extreme precision.

Alright, a something ton beam is flying at me. Let's just…JUMP! I bounce over the beam, sliding on the side, and jump off. The chains rattle behind me as Franklin tugs the chains. Shit! He's pulling the beam back towards us!

I Jump again, narrowly avoiding the weapon. Franklin himself catches the beam with a single hand before chucking it to the side. He slowly begins turning. The chains strain under the weight all the while I run up to Franklin.

I throw a punch at Franklin. An honest mistake. I immediately regret my decision to punch solid steel. Steel, apparently, is hard.

Franklin begins to spin faster and faster. The I-beam is helping him by conserving rotational momentum and allowing him to give himself some speed. While I play a dangerous version of jump-rope with the chains, Franklin twists his rotating body, and puts all of his force from his natural strength and rotations into a punch.

I use Acrobatics to flip out of the way, and Jump upwards. Franklin's punch wildly misses me, striking the floor instead, and I find myself in an interesting spot. Franklin looks around frantically trying to spot the limber wolf girl, but he can't look up. If he could, then he would see me—perched directly on top of his helmet.

I activate Rock Hand and my Earth Bone Enhancement on both of my fists and smash the helmet between both of them.

*Thunk*

If only things worked out that well. So apparently, Franklin is much stronger than my earth element strength. Luckily, he can't reach me. I wonder why he doesn't strike me while I'm on him. Unless…

He can harm himself.

Now here's a question: How do you enrage a robot? I would expect that he is slow to anger with not being an organic creature. Let's just punch him again.

*Thunk*

Hmm, well that didn't work.

[ Through repeated actions skill: Rock Hand(Minimum, Active) has ranked up to Rock Hand(Minor, Active) ]

[ Through repeated actions skill: Earth Bone Enhancement(Minimum, Active) has ranked up to Earth Bone Enhancement(Minor, Active) ]

That would be helpful. Would. But, my mana pool and regen are still kinda bad. I mean, even my regen isn't at a single point per minute yet. It's at, uh, about 0.47 per minute. Coupled with a pool size of 51 and these two spells having a combined total of 8mp per second and that means after six seconds.

The spell crumbles apart.

Ugh. Alright, time to play monkey in the middle, but now I'm the ball.

I Jump onto the end of the I-beam, and Franklin shakes the beam like a branch attempting to make me fall. I instead Jump onto his shoulder where Franklin decides to swing the beam like a baseball bat.

A poor decision to swing at your own arm with a bat, I'll give you that. Especially if said bat is made of metal, and if it is used to support buildings in construction. All in all, a bad idea.

The beam plows through Franklin's left shoulder, detaching the arm with several sparks and a thunk as it falls to the ground.

"Hmm. I seem to have made a mistake," comments Franklin. I, in the meantime, jump over to his opposite shoulder. "But, I won't make the same mistake twice!" With his declaration, he swings the beam down at me, making the same mistake a second time as his arm is sheared off at the source.

Weird how his arm can move backwards like that.

The arm, and I-beam, fall to the ground, similarly to the first arm. He stares at it, then me, to his other arm, and back at me. "…I may want to retract my earlier statement," he awkwardly admits.

I give him a small smile as I walk over to the I-beam. I tug off some of the chains that were used to lug this thing around and loop them around my arm. I Jump on top of Franklin and begin coiling the chains around his helmet. Now that I'm not being actively attacked, I can take my time.

"A hanging? Strangulation? Both would work, if I wasn't a robot," he comments on my actions. I just give him a sweet smile in response.

I use Partial Beast Transformation to turn my hands into wolf claws. I've lost my thumbs, but I don't need them for this since the chain is still looped around my arms. I pull, hard. The helmet creaks and groans as the pressure begins prying the head from the body. "Ahh. I see." Franklin speaks his last words before the head flies off the body.

[ You have killed a level 16 "Archimedes Archipelago Construction Heavy Defense Robot" x 1. 400 experience points gained. ]

Finally.