Prometheus was worried. About 4 hours had passed since he came into this world, and he still didn't have any clue about his owners' whereabouts. This bothered him. It had been the first time in his life that he had felt like this. Anxiety would only slow down his progress, so he added it to the list of things he didn't understand why the scientists implemented in his mind.
"Worm." The shapeshifter started, still talking through the mental connection. "What's your name?"
"I don't have a name, sir. Only admirals and higher get the privilege of being named from the Emperor."
"Why would the Emperor himself need to name his subordinates?"
"Well," the worm replied, "I'm not sure of the details, but I've heard that he's the only monster strong enough to do that."
"Why would strength matter in naming someone?"
"I have no idea, Sir; I don't have access to that kind of information as a simple scout." The critter explained with a slightly shaking voice.
"Understandable. Do something for me now, please. Burrow underground and head towards the nearest human settlement."
As both of them were still on the surface, Prometheus thought that burrowing behind the worm would be more stealthy and exciting than going on foot. Also, he didn't want the critter to die of radiation poisoning.
"S-Sir, may I inquire as to why you would want to go to a human settlement?"
"Worm. When did you get the right to ask questions?" Prometheus asked with a deep tone. This is so much fun!
"SIR, NEVER, SIR! I APOLOGIZE! I'LL FOLLOW YOUR ORDER IMMEDIATELY!" The scout apologized while shaking and trembling.
Had he scared the little one so much? Maybe I should have toned down my villain act, he thought.
After Prometheus continued thinking about his villain impression for a little too long, the worm added, "If I remember the map of the area correctly, there should be a bandit outpost about 30 kilometers south of here. Since we're not too far from the end of the desert, finding human settlements isn't too hard. Shall I lead the way, sir?"
"Do that. Go as fast as you can; we don't have much time. I'll follow behind you."
"Of course, sir." With that, the small scout burrowed underground, and with the same startling speed as earlier, it swam in the ground toward the bandit outpost. Prometheus changed his ant shape to be thinner, smaller, and longer to fit in the tunnel that the worm made. He followed his guide with no effort, barely making any sounds as he went.
"Worm," Prometheus spoke into the mental connection.
"Yes, sir?" the worm asked.
"How big is this settlement, exactly?"
"I think about 20 to 30 bandits, sir. I would never go there alone as I would get slaughtered immediately. But your Magnificence is certainly strong enough to deal with them! At least, if they don't have any trump cards."
"Mmm," Prometheus was deep in thought. He didn't know why the worm immediately assumed they would fight the bandits, as he was sure he could convince them to have a civilized conversation to help him with his goal. After he ran out of questions to ask, at least urgent ones, he became quiet and followed the worm.
After about an hour of travel, Prometheus could see some terrifyingly big trees on the horizon after unburrowing to look at his surroundings. They must have been at least 300 meters tall if not more. This new world continued to baffle him. Other than that, the forest looked normal enough. Dense vegetation, humid air, and soft ground.
"Worm."
"YES, SIR!" Yelled the worm surprisedly, not expecting his master to talk.
"How long until we arrive?"
"No more than 15 minutes, sir,"
"Good," ended Prometheus with a satisfied mental voice.
While burrowing to their destination, he had an exciting idea. He needed to waste as little time as possible, so he grabbed the scout with his mandibles and unburrowed, coming up into a small clearing between some trees. His companion was slightly shocked but much less than Prometheus expected. Good, he will need to get used to this, he thought to himself. He dropped the worm on the ground and started eating any organic material in his immediate vicinity, be it leaves, wood, or even poop, for about 20 minutes.
He grew his ant form with the extra biomass to a car-sized one and some immense wings. Usually, such a massive form shouldn't be able to fly, but Prometheus' tremendous intellect came into play here! First, he created these wings out of Chiritium, and the muscles needed to move these wings were insanely light and efficient. Of course, taking off and accelerating would take tens of thousands of calories, but gliding would be relatively cheap. He made his body slightly more aerodynamic and less dense. Finally, he made his exoskeleton golden-looking because he liked being stylish and he loved gold. The worm tried to persuade him by saying stuff like 'We will get noticed from kilometers away!' and 'We need to be stealthy,' but Prometheus didn't care. After a threatening glance at the scout, it shut up immediately.
After checking his surroundings once again, Prometheus started flapping his wings. The colossal mass of Chiritium moved massive amounts of air with each flap. Slowly at first, then faster and faster. After about 20 seconds, the wings were loud enough that any animal and monster in a 50-meter radius was running away. It sounded like a massive machine gun was being fired continuously.
Then, the shapeshifter could feel his body slowly levitate and then rise into the air. He directed his flight towards the outpost, careful not to go too fast. After some minutes of flight, he began seeing signs of a human structure. It looked like a 10-meter-high stone wall with spikes on the side of them. They were lined with a tower every 20 meters or so. The interesting part was that the barrier didn't look normal at all. It looked like someone had grabbed the stone in the ground and raised it enough to create a wall. This needed further inspection. He also noticed the low tech level used in the architecture, medieval or possibly further?
Just then, he felt the worm try to mentally contact him with the "spell."
"SIR, PLEASE LOWER YOUR ALTITUDE; THEIR WATCHMAN WILL SPOT US!" The worm pleaded.
As he was thinking about his options, the Hacker's voice interrupted him.
Congratulations! For barging into enemy territory without the slightest hint of cautiousness, you have been rewarded with an item!
Reward: Grace's necklace.
As he was getting annoyed at the Hacker, a necklace appeared in his pouch near the brown Gem he got from the giant worm. It looked intricately decorated and somewhat valuable. Was Grace its owner? Previous owner, now.
---
Lucilla came out of her tent while rubbing her eyes. Her boys were making so much noise by arguing passionately about some subject or another. She smiled. They were her family, they had all gone through the same shit, and they would continue to do so until death. The twelve warriors were all sitting around the large central table, drinking beers from a barrel they had recently stolen from a traveler transporting bulk goods. Mixed between them were five individuals who didn't seem to fit in, but were enjoying themselves just as much as the others: two fire technicians, one man and a woman, and two male earth technicians. The last man was finely dressed in elegant, but practical clothes, a violin on his back.
He was their musician, which was absolutely fundamental in any fight lest they didn't progress at all.
The men were as different from each other as one could imagine; The oldest was in his thirties while the youngest was barely an adult. Some wore rugged beards, and some were clean-shaven, but all of them had one trait in common: Their unwavering loyalty to the group as a whole.
Lucilla was confident in her ability to judge people, so she had only recruited the ones willing to sacrifice themselves for the rest of them.
One of them spotted her and shouted, "Hey, Boss! Wanna join us for a drink?" She smiled and waved her hand, "You know I can't get drunk, I have to be ready at a moment's notice, and so should you. Your lack of control will be the end of you all, I swear." The men all groaned in an exaggerated manner and immediately went back to their passionate, drunken discourse.
Lucilla shook her head and walked to the opposite side of her base, where many training dummies were lined up on the wall, targets painted on them. She had decided to divide her band into three parts, the warriors, the marksmen, and the outliers. She would make each group rotate in training all day, so today it was the marksmen's turn. She could see her crossbowmen training their shooting skills, all while engaging in contagious conversations about everything and anything. Of course, many of them were almost at the Mid-rank Marksmanship skill, so hitting immobile targets wouldn't give them any skill levels, so many of them hit the dummies while running or performing acrobatic actions.
For the most veteran of the men there, swinging small dummies were hanging off of distant trees, where the wind moved the targets in an unpredictable manner.
The bandit leader approached the captain of the Marksmen and waved at him, to which he replied by smiling widely and running up to her.
"Hey Boss, what can I do for ya?" The captain asked her. He looked like the type of person to eat steel every morning, judging by his chiseled jaw and scruffy beard. The wide smile was a contrasting element in the man's image.
"I just wanted to see how you were all doing. Any significant progress?" Lucilla asked while crossing her arms.
The man sighed heavily and spat to the side. "We haven't been in a real fight in a long time, especially not artistic ones. But George over there finally achieved a body of 15, so just 2 lower than mine, and even reached the Mid-rank of Marksmanship." The captain shrugged, almost saying, I think that's progress enough.
Lucilla narrowed her eyes and replied, "Understood. I'll take this lack of significant progress as a request from you to join more deadly fights." She turned around and without waiting for a reply set off for the table the warriors and the others were resting at. She could hear the captain and the other Marksmen sighing loudly and cussing, which made her smile.
She sat at the front of the table without saying anything first, which made everyone present turn their eyes toward her. After a quick nod, she spoke loudly enough so everyone could hear her words clearly, "I think you all have seen how meager our loot has been these last weeks, am I wrong?"
Lucilla seemed to have sullen the mood, replacing wide smiles. She didn't mind, as this conversation was essential.
She continued, "Don't make those long faces; I have good news." The bandits seemed to perk up at that. After a strategic silence, which increased everyone's expectations, she added, "A little bird told me a merchant will pass by here and without any escort." She smiled, already expecting a question from them.
One of the two Earth Technicians raised his hand, and she nodded at him to continue, "Chief, wouldn't a merchant without any escort be too insignificant for us to raid?"
She straightened up while smiling wider and replying to the man's question, "That's what your common sense would tell you, yes, but what if I told you that it was just a guise to hide something incredibly precious inside?"
Her subordinates seemed genuinely confused, so she explained, "They are trying to look as poor and useless as possible to deter bandit attacks, and the lack of guards solidifies that idea. It is gold covered in mud, everyone."
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The men and women didn't seem entirely convinced, so she finished by adding a last part, "Look at it this way: Worst-case scenario, we rob a poor merchant, which gets us the System's attention and might give us supplies. Best case scenario, we find that precious treasure I've been told is there. What do you all think?" Asking the bandits here was essential, as making them think they had any say in the matter would make them feel in a higher position of power than they actually were.
One of them spoke up, the musician this time, "Where did you get this information? It seems quite useful to be something we would possess."
"One of the nobles sometimes asks me to deal with situations that are, less than legal, let's say. So he rewards me occasionally with tidbits of information about precious loot."
The musician seemed satisfied by the answer and nodded.
"Okay then, here's the plan. First of all, I and-"
Suddenly, two loud clings echoed throughout the outpost. Everyone present immediately understood what it meant.
Lucilla snarled. A monster attack.
---
Without getting distracted, Prometheus landed some distance from the wall. Two of the watchmen were already calling for their allies by ringing a huge bell. They must be gathering everyone to greet him! How nice of them!
He waited patiently at the front door like any civilized being would. He waited over 10 minutes when he heard his companion link its mind to his.
"B-Boss, what are you doing?! They are gathering strength inside the walls! Why are you doing nothing?!?" The worm sounded even more scared than usual. It was starting to annoy him.
"I am waiting for them, isn't it obvious?" He replied with a confident tone.
The scout went silent as it thought to itself, Why would he possibly wait for them? Why would he grant them the first move?? Oh..wait. Is he doing that to... give them a fighting chance? Like a predator playing with their food? It sounds reasonable but also terrifying. I'm glad I'm on his side, at least for now.
After Prometheus got tired of waiting, he knocked on the massive walls to gather their attention. He understood their need to greet him the best way possible, but did it need to take this long?
Just as he was thinking about his next course of action, he noticed 10 people getting on top of the wall just above him. They all had medieval-looking crossbows ready, with a bunch of bolts nearby. Did they prepare some sort of shooting party for his arrival? How thoughtful! Once again, he patted himself on the back for his incredible judgment of character.
Meanwhile, the huge gate opened inwards, revealing 12 lightly armored people, each wielding a one-handed shield and a sword. Again, their outfits looked medieval, with their equipment made of low-quality metals like steel.
Just behind the armored people, 5 men and women were wielding staffs and light armor and one was even holding a violin! Behind their back stood a woman with plate armor, wearing a greatsword on her back. She looked even more stoic and solemn than his owner! The musician started playing a slow and calm tune.
While he was admiring the faintly glowing lines on her armor, she yelled, "Take the V formation, warriors, and don't engage. I'll try to see if this monster can communicate seeing that it politely stopped in front of our gate. Technicians, get on top of the walls and intervene if things go south. Same for you, Marksmen,"
The Warriors got into a V formation with the bandit leader at the edge, all looking at him with sweat on their brows. He couldn't understand what they were doing, really. It wasn't like they would actually fight, right? In his laboratory, he deduced from what the scientists said that fights between humans did happen, but they were quite rare and concentrated in certain areas. That made him think that he wouldn't encounter violent people any time soon.
Prometheus couldn't understand her language, as it didn't sound like anything stored in his data. She sounded like she was ordering the others to greet him the best they could. These people were amazing!
The leader stepped forward and shouted at him, "Monster, what business do you have here?"
She seemed to have asked a question, but Prometheus had no idea how to answer. He replied in English, but she narrowed her eyes. He tried doing the same in every language he knew, but it didn't clear up the confusion between the two. She can't speak any of the hundreds of languages I've just used?! talk about bad luck. I'll try in written form.
Prometheus shifted the surface on his head to show letters and words, but once again, she scratched her chin, looked back at the other people, and said, in her weird language, "Does anyone know what it's saying?"
The other people all shook their heads. The worm, who had gone and hidden in a bush, sent a mental communication spell at the shapeshifter, "Sir, if you want, I could try sending them a mental-"
Prometheus ignored it and thought to himself, What else can I try? Maybe sign language would help? He used his ant forelegs with some newly made ant claws to replicate all the sign languages he knew.
Everyone widened their eyes at that. Were they impressed with his sign languages? He didn't think they were particularly interesting but maybe...
"Enough! We can't risk this monster triggering a ritual or an ability! Engage with all you have and beware of any Soul ability or technique!" The leader suddenly shouted and brought out her sword. The musician changed his music increasing its tempo. The music was playing much louder than normal for a violin.
As they got closer, he could see the ones with the crossbows load some bolts into their weapons and take aim, as well as the armored ones getting closer and raising their shields and swords, preparing to strike.
What is this? They wouldn't try to hurt me, would they? Just as Prometheus was recoiling from his shock, he noticed one of the crossbowman fire directly at him, as well as every melee fighter swinging their sword at him simultaneously. He increased his mental processing speed, and everything ground to a crawl. The projectile was aimed directly at his right eye. He couldn't believe it. Why would they hurt him? He didn't do anything to them! He even had a golden-looking exoskeleton to look more fabulous! He noticed that the bolt was traveling roughly 2 times the speed it was supposed to be, and every sword swing was faster than it should have been.
He tilted his head slightly, and the projectile impacted his head at the same time as every sword strike, all 12 of them. Every sword bounced off the moment it hit his exoskeleton, as well as the bolt. He was too shocked to act. Just like the crossbow, the sword hits were stronger than expected. It was clear they had intended to end his life with those strikes.
With his accelerated thinking, he could see the leader, he guessed, wearing a satisfied grin, apparently not having registered her subordinates' failures yet. She didn't strike along with the others.
He could feel the ground slithering up his legs and limiting his movements, as well as sand flying from the ground into his eyes. He noticed two of the men on the wall swing their staffs in precise ways in tandem with the earth moving. Then, they both focused on a patch of earth some meters away and chanted loudly, making the dirt get up in the shape of a two-meter-tall humanoid being made of earth. The musician's play was reaching its peak.
Prometheus couldn't understand what was happening. He had been instructed to never harm other humans except during emergencies. He had always been taught that humans were good creatures that would never hurt him. He couldn't move while getting beat from every angle. A warrior managed to chop off one of his legs, making him stumble.
One of the other men and a woman with staves different from the first two shouted something, which made all the warriors step back a couple of steps.
Immediately after, two basketball-sized fireballs flew at him, one hitting him squarely on the lower segment of his body and the other hitting the ground a meter on his left.
He glanced up, noticing the warriors swinging at either his legs or his eyes, which he avoided by moving his head ever so slightly every time. The marksmen were busy shooting arrows in his blind spots.
Acting purely on instinct, he applied sedative poisons over his mandibles and tried to every warrior on the neck or other exposed parts. W-what am I doing? Did I just try to...
Two conflicting feelings were at war inside of him to take hold of his mind. First, his innate self-defense instinct wanted to attack these people, while his hard-coded behaviors relative to harming humans were burning like Hell's flames inside of him.
Prometheus didn't know this, but he was a rushed-out prototype that was undertested and underdeveloped with the objective of being sold as soon as possible, so for that reason, many 'flaws' were present in his consciousness.
This was one of them.
I can't take this anymore... Prometheus could feel his mind being split by the two warring sides. He had a protocol just for this type of situation, fortunately. It was called 'Emergency mode', and it activated when Prometheus' consciousness was stuck in a loop. All it did was temporarily shut off 90% of his computational power, including the two conflicting instincts, and let the remaining 10% make a new decision based on simple rules: One, protect his owners. Two, survive. Given that protecting his owners wasn't feasible, his toned-down mind acted with the intent to survive.
So he attacked the humans.
The warriors could easily dodge Prometheus' strike, and when they couldn't, they blocked him with their shields. The large number of men surrounding him meant that they covered each other's blind spots.
Additionally, every time Prometheus managed to find an opening to hit them, the marksmen shot crossbow bolts at insane speeds to stop him at the last second. The humanoid made of earth hit him in simple but brutal ways, such as slamming his head from the top.
The four staff wielders weren't sitting idly, as the two that apparently controlled the earth would often manipulate the ground below him to slow him down. The other two, the fire-launching ones, would occasionally shout when he was completely stopped by the earth controllers, and launch fireballs at him.
Even 10% of his mind was enough to realize what was going on: he was losing. He immediately tried to retreat, which resulted in another two legs getting chopped off. Flapping his wings was also useless, as the marksmen immediately shot them when they saw what he wanted to.
He was running out of energy, he needed to finish this quickly, or he would die. He didn't fear death, as fear wasn't an emotion he was capable of feeling, but he simply worked to avoid it because that was his innate purpose.
A particularly strong kick from a bandit was delivered on his flank, making him rotate multiple times in the air. The blow had made his Worm Gem and necklace fall to the ground, which caused a slight distraction. The moment the Leader's eyes landed on the necklace, Prometheus could see her face was assaulted by many emotions that he couldn't quite understand; Anger, possibly? Her anger seemed to grow until she bore a blank face. Then, he felt something stir in the air around them.
---
For the first time in many years, Lucilla felt her Influence and blood explode. Her Influence was trying to talk to her, but she didn't listen. She couldn't. Her watchmen had reported a golden figure getting closer and subsequently landing in front of their gates. It had been a giant, golden ant. If that hadn't been weird enough, it looked like it was carrying some kind of a pouch on its underside, with something moving in it. They expected adventurers, soldiers, mercenaries, and even monster attacks, but they could never imagine one politely stopping before their main entrance.
While taking their standard defensive formation, she began to suspect that something felt out of place. Her gut had saved her innumerable times, so she trusted it. As they got closer, every blade colliding with the monster's armor immediately bounced.
Every cell in her body wanted to kill this monster. Consequences be damned. Every trace of emotion in her face completely vanished, as moving her facial muscles would be a waste of energy. She slashed horizontally at the monster, which was able to dodge her blow at the last millisecond. If her previous master had seen her form during that strike, he would have fainted on the spot. It was clear she wasn't in control of her hands and her sword. For that reason, she didn't notice the three men and the golem she had just split in half at the waist with her slash. The musician stopped playing.
The torsos of the unfortunate victims fell down with a wet splash, all with the same smiling faces they bore seconds ago, which quickly turned into horrified expressions, and dying screams. The golem dropped like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
The monster Ant took advantage of the shocked bandits and bit through the five men's necks, making them gurgle and gasp for air. They quickly dropped down and died soon after.
The four remaining men were too shocked to react; Their leader had massacred three of her men and they had witnessed five others get killed in seconds. This bandit group had never engaged in full-out battles like this one, so seeing their own allies die froze them in place.
All the technicians and the marksmen weren't sure about what to do, as they didn't want to hit their leader who was moving so much, and the sight froze them too.
The monster moved between each bandit and Lucilla, baiting her into killing her own allies, which she easily managed to do. She had always loved the feeling of being angry, so she developed a Soul ability that made her strikes stronger proportional to her anger, but the drawback was that she would progressively lose control of her own actions.
Soon, all twelve men were on the ground, dead. She had just killed the only people she trusted with her life. They did too, and she betrayed that trust.
The monster tried to quickly climb the massive walls to reach the walls, but Lucilla was quicker. The monster looked like it was getting slower.
She swung down, and cleanly decapitated the monster, feeling the slightest resistance from the armor. Both parts of the ant fell from the wall and stopped moving, making her breathe loudly and drop to her knees.
She thought she had accepted her beloved's death long ago, but deep down, she held onto that tiny fragment of hope, hoping Grace had just gone somewhere else, safe and sound.
Seeing the necklace shattered that last shred of hope in her heart.
She felt hopeless. She didn't know what to do. After all, looking for her had been Lucilla's only reason to live. She knew that killing that monster wouldn't bring Grace back to life. That's what hurt the most.
She smiled widely while tears were racing to see which could reach the ground faster. She dropped the sword and focused her gaze on an empty patch of air. The marksmen and technicians all slumped down, tension fading at seeing the monster dead. They weren't sure how to approach the situation. They slowly climbed down the walls, kept their distance from her, and huddled in a corner, forming a circle. One of the veteran Marksmen noticed something strange; The monster wasn't bleeding from its neck. His eyes opened widely, and before he could shout at the others, the worst happened.
Lucilla couldn't move. She couldn't think. She could only wallow in despair and pain. This pain made her miss the spike protruding from her chest. She weakly turned around and saw the ant's body impaling her with its foreleg. She had used all her Influence, and she was mentally devastated. She could have easily dodged it if she had been in top shape. Before falling unconscious, she gave the monster a weak smile and thought, Finally, we can reunite again, my beloved...
---
Prometheus took advantage of the fact that all the ranged fighters had all huddled together in a corner down from the walls, so he ran at them with all he could. Most of them had noticed him when he reached them, but he made short work of them. The crossbow-wielding ones managed to hit his neck stump many times, but he didn't mind: The bolts had gotten nowhere close to his Core, so he could continue fighting. In a panic, the female fire launcher threw a fireball point-blank at everyone present, killing both herself and half of the remaining group. Prometheus easily dealt with the rest.
Having escaped the conflicting situation, he exited his Emergency Mode. Given the limitation of his computational power, Prometheus would have had an easier fight outside of that protocol.
He could feel his Core heat up and release steam through his skin. He finally felt like himself. He glanced at the assortment of corpses and felt nothing. His sense of empathy was reserved for the living, after all.
Prometheus was enraged. Not because these people tried to kill him, but because their leader had dared to decapitate his magnificent golden head! He had spent so many resources growing an incredibly durable exoskeleton while making it look like gold!
Just as he was fuming and kicking the ground while reattaching his head, the Hacker bothered him once again,
Congratulations! For defeating a bandit outpost on your own while being under-prepared, you unlocked a new skill!
Skill: Inventory lvl 1
The reward improved his mood, thankfully. A physics-defying power was exactly what he needed. He tried opening his Inventory and placed the Gem inside, as well as the bandit's Greatsword. He would keep it as a trophy. He decided to consume every corpse present, as not doing so would be a colossal waste. He got bored of his ant form and slowly transformed into a Baryonix, although a modified one. He was 3 meters tall and 15 long with a weight of 3 tons.
Of course, every muscle and bone was replaced by his superior versions, making the form much tougher and faster than the actual dinosaur. He chose this form because it looked cool. He transformed his skin to be rock-like while still keeping its elasticity.
He could see the worm trembling in the corner of his vision, so he waited for it to start another connection. It had apparently gotten out of his pouch and hidden somewhere during the fight. Fortunately, it was smart enough to understand his master's request. After casting the spell, Prometheus started,
"Worm"
"Y-Yes, sir."
"Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?"
The scout was confused, as the undead shouldn't appear so soon after a massacre. They took some days, usually.
"You changing shape was terrifying, sir."
"I see. Anyway, this outpost was useless. I didn't meet anyone willing to help me."
" Sir, why did you expect humans to help you?"
"Why wouldn't they? I even waited for them at the front gate!"
The worm was shocked. Was his master joking? It was probably sarcasm, but it decided to explain anyway.
"Monsters and the 'civilized' races abhor each other. The only non-violent way that they would interact is with a servitude relationship, such as what Summoners or Tamers have, sir."
"That's unfortunate. We'll still look for someone, anyway. I don't care about interracial politics. Also, I'm tired of calling you worm. Your new name, from now on, is Zilch."
The scout, no, Zilch, was stupified. His master had given it a name! He was ecstatic! His master's following words dulled his excitement.
"So, where's the nearest monster settlement? Since I'm a 'monster,' they shouldn't hate me for no reason, correct?"
"Depends on the monster in question, sir."
"Got it. We'll look around here before we leave in case we find anything useful. After we're done, you'll bring me to the nearest monster settlement that won't attack me then, Zilch."
"Of course, sir."
He patted Zilch on the head.