Chapter 28 - Trial Debrief (Patreon)

The surrounding wulver began to quiet down as the sky lit up with magic circles.  They went silent completely as Solamh was bombarded with beams, unable to approach his foe again.  Their ears drooped as Solamh made his final assault and crashed to the ground.

Meanwhile, Ateia and Taog watched these things with wide eyes and dropped jaws.

“Seero’s…really strong, huh?”

Taog did not respond.

He was no mage, but he was fairly certain something like what NSLICE-00P was doing was not common.  They had heard stories of strategic magic, massive rituals that could destroy entire armies.  But those were conducted by entire teams of Imperial mages working together in long rituals.  This was not that.

To be fair one hilltop is not an entire army, and he knew for a fact that Turannia was a backwater compared to the Empire proper.  For all he knew, any old Imperial Mage might be capable of such a feat.  Still though, he hadn’t heard many stories of single Imperial Mages holding off entire incursions alone.

And until now, he and Ateia had assumed NSLICE-00P was a wandering knight on account of her armor.  Yet, she fought more like a mage, or maybe an Elven spellblade?

Combine all this with all her eccentricities, her complete lack of basic common knowledge, and the strange claims like not being able to remove her armor or not needing to sleep and eat…

He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, a cold fear that sent his heart racing.

Just what exactly was this girl?

Because there were stories of beings who matched that description, who could do what she did and who could go for long periods of time without food or rest, who wouldn’t know much about the Empire or anything in it.  Who wore armor like a knight and casted magic like an archmage.

And not a single one of them was something he wanted to consider.

NSLICE-00P lowered from the sky, landing in front of the pair, the wulver shuffling to give them a wide berth.  Taog jumped and took a step back.  Ateia rushed forward, her eyes widening at the gashes in NSLICE-00P’s armor.

“Seero!  Are you ok?!”

“Status Report: All systems are operating at acceptable efficiency levels.  Repairs are already underway.”

“D-Doesn’t it hurt?!”

“Negative.  This unit thanks friendly Ateia for her concern.”

Ateia just stared at the twisted and jagged metal with her mouth wide open.

“...knights are amazing.”

“I don’t think she’s a…”

Taog shook his head, dropping the words he was about to say.

Whatever she was, she was their ally, for now.  What good would it do to air his doubts?

And what could he do if they were true?

Besides…he and Ateia would be dead or wulver captives if she wasn’t here.

“Seero…are you sure you’re alright?  You took some heavy hits there…”

She turned to face him.

“Damage Report: Damage did reach heavy but non-critical levels.  This unit is currently employing HP Regen and Recovery Magic repair protocols and will return to prime condition shortly.”

In fact, NSLICE-00P received a message from the foreign system as they spoke.

[The spell Heal (Minor) is now level 4!]

“Right…well, that’s good…”

Meanwhile a single wulver woman stepped forward, approaching the group.  She stood up straight, making sure her stomach faced NSLICE-00P.  She opened her mouth, speaking with rumbling growls underpinning her words.

“...you have triumphed in the Trial of Claws.  To you, the rightful chief, I offer you this tribute, in exchange for the right to leadership.”

“Affirmative Acknowledgement: This unit agrees to the exchange of authority for material gain.”

As Taog had explained earlier, the Trial of Claws is often used to determine the leadership of a wulver pack.  However, in a case like this, where the leader of a pack falls to an outsider in the trial, such an arrangement is generally not acceptable.  As such, the wulver have come up with this tradition, to offer payment to the victor to return the right of leadership.  If accepted, this allows the pack in question to honor the Trial without subordinating themselves to a foreigner.

Well most foreigners have no idea what’s going on in the first place but few in this world would turn down free loot!  That or they were intending to wipe out the wulver pack in the first place and didn’t notice the whole Trial at all.

So this wulver was noticeably surprised when NSLICE-00P not only accepted the offer, but did so without waiting for interpretation.  She quickly turned around and barked at the wulver behind her.  They brought up a wooden chest, opening the lid to reveal some Imperial gear.  Ateia and Taog made a face at that.

“The trophies of one of the Warchief’s hunts.  May your hunts succeed as his.”

NSLICE-00P took the chest.  With that, the wulver turned around and rejoined her pack.

The entire warpack then began to disperse.  Solamh had, of course, defeated and slain all the chiefs of the packs he subordinated, so the group was left without a clear leader in the midst of enemy territory.  As such, they quickly separated back into their original clans and made their separate ways, most heading back towards the Forest of Beasts where they made their living.

And so the latest wulver incursion ended before it began…as far as the Empire was concerned at least.

Leaving Ateia and Taog to wonder…

Just where was the Empire when an incursion reached this far past the border?

Meanwhile NSLICE-00P was looking at the box in her hand.  Her voice rang out inside the monster hanger.

“Requesting Elaboration: According to this unit’s records, friendly Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third utilized a method to store and/or transport storage containers, correct?”

Rattingtale was currently trembling in his room, his eyes glued to the screen of the feed ever since NSLICE-00P started her mass light beam barrage.  He jumped at being addressed and fell over.

“Y-y-yes yes, w-whatever you say-request, great-mighty boss-queen!  Y-Y-You should have-possess an ‘Inventory’ section on the royal records, yes yes.  I-I-If you bring an object-item to your core, you should be able to store it.”

NSLICE-00P indeed located the tab in question, and brought the chest to her core.

[Store Worn Chest in Dungeon Inventory?]

“Affirmative.”

With that, the chest vanished and the UI updated.  Taog jumped at that and started to tremble even more.

[Inventory]

• [Total Items: 1/100]
• [Items]
  • [Worn Chest]

It seemed she couldn’t view or interact with the contents of the chest after storing it all at once, but that was fine.  She only accepted it as Taog stated doing so would end hostilities with the wulver warpack.  She didn’t actually have any plans for what to do with said tribute, but since it was safely stored away she categorized the issue as low priority.

For she had more pressing matters to analyze…

***

The trio traveled in silence for the rest of the day, each lost in their thoughts after the battle.  Ateia wondered how an incursion of that size made it past the patrolling Exploratores.  Taog, much as he wished not to, could not help but theorize on NSLICE-00P’s identity.  As well as what that would mean for himself and Ateia, should one of those theories prove accurate.

And as for NSLICE-00P…

Later that night, as the group made camp and NSLICE-00P took up the watch, she concluded her post-action analysis of the conflict.

She had nearly failed.  It was an unacceptable performance.

She once again miscalculated the threat.  The battle came down to the wire as a result and she had missed the opportunity to retreat with mission-impactful friendlies intact.  If her organic components had not come up with a viable solution, if she had not been able to spare her organic half from the defense, or if her cybernetic half had not put up a sufficient defense, she would have had to abandon the field, and her allies along with it.  In fact, she had already sustained heavy damage at that point and Solamh was about to inflict more.  There was no guarantee she would have been able to successfully retreat.

“Requesting assistance from friendlies Lilussees and Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third.”

“W-W-What do you need, great-mighty boss-queen, yes yes?”

“Ugh, like, can it wait?  I was, like, about to go to bed, you know?”

“Query: Do hostiles Ursanus Alpha and Solamh Greumach represent the greatest threat level of non-standard in this region?”

“U-Um, are you asking-wondering if those were the strongest-mightiest?”

“Affirmative.”

Lilussees tilted her head inside her room, rubbing a leg on her mandibles.

“Um, like, probably not?  Like, I haven’t encountered much myself but like, there should be stronger stuff?  Like, dragons, or something.  If I had to say…those guys were just a bit strong but not, like, particularly special, or something?”

“Requesting Clarification: Are the friendlies aware of the upper-bound of the threat level?”

“Um…like…what’s the strongest thing, or something?”

“Affirmative.  Addendum: This unit requests as much specific detail regarding the threat as available.”

“Um, that’s, like, hard to say.”

“Everything can keep growing-strengthening with the bestowals of power from the royal records, yes yes?”

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

It seemed she had a fundamental misunderstanding of her circumstances.

She had been operating under a mission-focused, organization-based upgrade scheme.  Upgrades were to be handled by centralized maintenance staff after she located a new commander, with her arsenal tailored to whatever mission set they assigned for her.  But unexpected and immediate threats had necessitated improved capabilities for safe transit, and so she had compromised and conducted the minimum required upgrades to carry on with her mission.

But that might not be sufficient.

Her arsenal had proven lacking once more.  Foes like this, while not the average, were apparently not unprecedented.  And they were apparently not the upper bound of what she could encounter.  She couldn’t even calculate what the upper bound was at present, and therefore what the minimum required upgrades would be.  Even if she could, she had not considered that the independent upgrades offered to her by the foreign system would also be available to the wider population.  A potential hostile’s capabilities could increase before she ended up facing them.  They could even increase in real time.

And there was no guarantee she would be able to conduct upgrades mid-fight if this happened a second time.  Her focus had been pushed to the limit trying to survive.  She had been forced to rely on her organic components in an untested scenario.  If either half of her had proven insufficient for the task she would have failed.  She could not allow herself to fall into that situation again.

And above all, she didn’t know when or even if she would locate a suitable commander, or if that commander would have maintenance staff and infrastructure to manage her arsenal.  And her previous commander had instructed her to assume wholly independent action until she found someone.

In other words, she could not be satisfied with singular, limited upgrades based on past encounters.  And she could not wait for a commander or maintenance staff to manage her arsenal as per prior policy.  She was no longer a single unit amongst an entire army.  She was her entire organization now, and the success of her current mission rested solely on her own capabilities.

So she had to continue growing her capabilities, until she found a commander or she had proven able to handle all possible threats.  And she needed those capabilities improved before she encountered situations that required them.

So it was time for another round of upgrades.

Author’s Note:

Don’t worry Taog!  It’s not like you signed a contract with a literal demon lord who you are leading to the province’s main population center or anything!

…

Um…

A-Anyways!

What upgrades will NSLICE-00P choose next?  Is Taog right to worry?  And just where was the Empire in all this?  Tune in next time, to find out!