TtOW! - Chapter 3: The Spoils of War (Patreon)

NSLICE-00P stared at the quivering ratkin.

[Rival Dungeon Master Rattingtale has offered to surrender.  Accept?]

She ignored the notification from the foreign program and scanned her past records.

NSLICE-00P had only been the first cyborg the organization that created her had built.  And, of course, eventually they had realized there was no reason they had to use a normal human as a base.  They started building super-cyborgs out of superpowered beings, the very ones NSLICE-00P was specialized in hunting.  So, eventually, they had adjusted NSLICE-00P’s protocols to take prisoners whenever possible.

She was no longer beholden to those protocols or that mission set, of course.  But without any commanders to follow, she had no other way to make decisions besides mimicking her past behavior.

And because of those protocols, all of her past records displayed her having accepting all offers of surrender, whenever encountered.

“Acknowledgement, surrender accepted.  Please stand down and prepare for transport.”

NSLICE-00P’s gun-barrel transformed back into a hand.  A panel opened on her wrist and a wire shot out, wrapping around the rat.

And while this was happening, the notification changed…

[Surrender accepted!  Rattingtale has become your subordinate!  Subordinate dungeon core acquired!]

[You have accomplished the feat: Dungeon Victor!]

[You have accomplished the feat: Dungeon Overlord!]

[You have accomplished the feat: Raid Boss!]

[You…what have you done?!  You just had to go and do something dungeon-related, didn’t you?!  Come on, I was just about to get away with it!  And now it’s all complicated and they’re going to make me work.  Ugh.]

[You have conquered the Rat Cave dungeon!]

[You have accomplished the feat: Dungeon Conqueror (Rat Cave)!]

[You have accomplished the feat: Solo Conquest!]

[Shut up, you lazy bum!  If you had just reported this when it first happened, we wouldn’t be in this situation!  But because you didn’t, now she’s gone and leveled up on both statuses and gained a bunch of feats, so now we can’t do anything about it!]

[Ahem, I’m sorry you had to see that.  So, um, looks like you sort’ve already made it work yourself and doesn’t look like there will be any major problems, your experience was low because it’s being split between two statuses and someone wasn’t updating you.  Well, no problems besides the fact that you have two statuses that are not supposed to go together.  We’re going to try and unify things for you.  Um, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do anything extraordinarily bad with all this, ok?]

[Would you like to absorb the Rat Cave dungeon core, or manage it as a sub-core?]

Rattingtale’s eyes widened.

“S-She’s a dungeon master?!  How?!  The royal records said she was a man-thing!  They lied to me!  Ah, although, that explains-clarifies a lot, yes yes.  W-well, I guess this is better than the alternative…”

NSLICE-00P tried to dismiss the stream of what she now classified as malware, but the final pop-up wouldn’t go away.  It seemed the program was forcing her to make some sort of choice before it could move on.

Well, in this case the decision seemed related to something external to herself and the malware still hadn’t interfered with her function.  So once her latest attempts to eject or quarantine the malware failed, she gave in and analyzed the options.

[Absorb: Utilize the dungeon core to strengthen your own.]

[Manage: Leave it as is, to manage as a secondary dungeon.]

It seemed she had a choice to upgrade her own core, or else leave the dungeon as is.  She, of course, had never encountered anything like a dungeon core in her past, and had no protocols on the subject.  So she did the next best thing, and tried to analyze the situation against past situations.

What she knew is that the dungeon core was a significant source of non-standard energy, mana specifically.

And in all previous situations, she did not allow non-standard energy signatures to remain at large.  They were either terminated or apprehended.  Of course that applied to living beings in her past but she had to make do with the records she had.

In this case, the Absorb option seemed to match best, as it would allow her to take the non-standard energy source with her, while it seemed manage would leave it behind.  Combining it with her own core was somewhat risky but she had never left a non-standard at large, no matter how risky the scenario, so as far as she could tell the risk was acceptable.

She selected Absorb.

The glowing crystal at the center of the room started to bright, melting into light.  The light then streamed straight into NSLICE-00P’s core.  She felt a surge of mana flowing through her circuits and veins, and additional data entering her memory from the malware program.

There was a flash of light that blinded her vision.  When it faded, she was back in the forest.  No trace of the cave remained.

[You have absorbed a dungeon core (Rat Cave)!]

[Gained 5 status perk points, 5 dungeon perk points!]

[Gained Dungeon Affinity: Rodent (minimum)!]

“Ah…”

Rattingtale stared at where the cave once was before shaking his head.  At that point, NSLICE-00P walked over to him.

“Greetings: This unit is designated NSLICE-00P.  Requesting designation.”

“Designation?  Um, well, do you mean-suggest my name?  I’m His Royal Majesty, Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third, the Great-High King of all the land, yes yes.  Well, at least until you destroyed-ravaged my domain…”

“Acknowledgement: His Royal Majesty, Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third, the Great-High King of all the land, designated as prisoner.  Command: Please stand down and prepare for transport.”

Then NSLICE-00P picked him up and started walking.  Rattingtale started trembling.

“Um, boss-queen, t-this isn’t necessary, yes yes.  Y-You can untie-release me now.”

“Negative.”

“W-Why not?”

“Explanation: Hostile non-standards are to be apprehended and taken to processing.”

Rattingtale started to squirm about.

“Processing?!  What do you mean processing?!  What are you going to do with me?!”

“Unknown.”

“Unknown?!”

“Explanation: This unit has no records of processing protocol.”

Rattingtale tilted his head.  The man-things manner of speaking was a bit confusing.

“T-Then where are you taking-dragging me?  Who does the, um, processing?”

“Unknown.”

Rattingtale froze.

“Um, what?”

“Explanation: This unit has been forcefully relocated and lost contact with all friendlies.  This unit is attempting to reestablish contact with friendlies or with designated targets”

“U-Um, how did that happen?!

“Unknown.”

“S-So…um…you don’t know where you are going?”

“Negative.  Answer: This unit has calculated this direction has the highest probability of re-establishing contact with civilization.”

“B-But…you don’t actually have-known someone to do, um, processing?”

“Affirmative.”

Rattingtale heaved a sigh.  Well, he didn’t know what the man-thing meant by ‘processing’ but he was still relieved to hear it wasn’t happening anytime soon.

And then he thought of something…

“T-Then, couldn’t you, um, release-untie me?  I know the area better than you, yes yes?  So, um, I could help-assist you?”

“Negative.  Explanation: Prior statistics indicate a 97.43% chance of escape attempt or betrayal by any prisoners offering assistance in exchange for limited freedom of movement.”

“T-That’s not true!  Look look, I’m your subordinate now, so I definitely won’t betray-cross you!  J-Just check your royal records, you’ll see!”

“Requesting Clarification: What are royal records?”

Rattingtale froze once more.

“You…you’re a dungeon master, aren’t you?  How do you not know what the royal records are?”

“Error: This unit lacks the data to explain why she lacks data on ‘royal records’ entity.”

“Um, uh…”

Rattingtale blinked several times as he processed that statement.  But then, he had a sudden epiphany.

What if she called it something else?

After all, this man-thing was something strange.  And of course, only Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third was the noble and rightful Great-High King of all the land…current situation notwithstanding.  It would only be appropriate if he was the only one to refer to the royal records as, well, royal.

“H-How do you command-manage your realm?  Identify-locate intruders, yes yes?”

“Response: This unit is equipped with a full sensor-suite to scan for incoming hostiles.”

“Um…then…how do you request-obtain additional bestowals of sacred power?”

“Response: Command and maintenance personnel are responsible for upgrades to this unit’s capabilities.”

“But, um, I thought you don’t know where those, um, personnel are?”

“Affirmative.”

“So um, they can’t request-obtain additional bestowals of power for you, can they?”

NSLICE-00P’s robotic eye flickered and spun for a second.

“Analysis: Prisoner His Royal Majesty, Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third, the Great-High King of all the land is correct.”

“T-Then, shouldn’t you choose-decide the bestowals of power on your own?”

“Negative Response: This unit does not possess self-maintenance protocols.”

Rattingtale started to tremble.  This strange man-thing…didn’t know how to access the royal records?  Acquire the sacred bestowals of power?

“So, um, you don’t know how?”

“Affirmative.”

“T-Then, I could teach-instruct you?”

“Why?”

“Hm?”

“Analysis: His Royal Majesty, Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third, the Great-High King is currently this unit’s prisoner.  Voluntary information transfers are not to be expected or trusted.”

“Y-You see, that’s what I’m telling-informing you!  I’m your subordinate-servant, yes yes?  T-There’s no need to process-torture me, yes yes?  You can even release-untie me!  If you just check the royal record, you will understand-acknowledge that, yes yes?”

“Analysis: So this is a ploy to persuade this unit to release the prisoner?  Understood.  Information transfers from prisoner His Royal Majesty, Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third, the Great-High King designated as non-credible.  Proceeding with primary directive.”

“Hey!  How dare you?!  I’m His Royal Majesty the Great-High King, you know?!   You will give-offer me proper respect, yes yes!  I’m the most credible-trustworthy!  Cease-Stop ignoring me, you stupid man-thing!”

And so NSLICE-00P made her way through the forest, carrying a squeaking former Great-High King.

Author’s Note:

Sorry all I wanted to give you guys the status, but we have to convince NSLICE-00P it’s not malware first.  Which I wanted Rattingtale to do, but he has to convince her to listen to him first lol.  Because yes, trusting the intelligent rat dungeon master is totally the smart thing to do!

So yeah, looks like we’ll need a bit more work before we can get NSLICE-00P to check her status.

I’m not just putting it off because it’s a lot of work to figure out, trust me.

Anyways!

Will NSLICE-00P ever check out that malware?  Will she trust the words of the ska…err…’Great-High King’?  Will Rattingtale be subjected to…processing?  Tune in next time, to find out!