TtOW! - Chapter 37: Side Quest: Termination! (Patreon)

[Level up!  Your Dungeon level is now 32!]

The man led NSLICE-00P to the wooden part of town.  In particular, this section seemed built entirely haphazardly.  There were no neat rows of pristine stone structures, laid out along straight, perpendicular roads.  The buildings here looked like someone had just tossed a lumber pile together and left it there.  And said piles of lumber were tossed randomly into the air and left wherever they happened to land.  There was one, main stone road cutting through the center of the area, but beyond that the area was a twisting labyrinth of dirt trails, curling through and around the haphazard structures.

The man had led NSLICE-00P into the slums, it appeared.  Where everyone in the province with nowhere to go huddled under the shadow of the Legion, hoping that the Legion might need them for something and so tolerate their existence.

The effects of NSLICE-00P’s improved Dungeon Field Generator made themselves felt almost immediately.  She could perceive all the structures around her and all the individuals living within them.  The flow of mana into her core intensified as the amount of people within range shot up.

The man grinned at her.

“It’s just this way.  Now stay close, it’s a poor place to get lost.”

“Affirmative.”

Well, NSLICE-00P was recording their route and mapping out the town’s structure with her sensors, so there was no chance of that, but she did not feel the need to inform him of that.

The man led her through the streets in a roundabout fashion, constantly taking turns and corners.  NSLICE-00P was curious about the inefficient path as they arrived at their destination, but not enough to ask.

And so the man led her inside another dilapidated structure.

Inside the house appeared messy and haphazard to the untrained eye…but closer inspection would reveal a lack of dirt coating the floors, or the fact that the wood of the furniture was brand new.  NSLICE-00P also noted several signatures in the room adjacent to this one, reading slightly higher mana levels than the average person she had observed thus far.  They started to stir but the man tapped his foot in a certain pattern and they remained in their room.

The man took a bottle and poured two cups, handing one to NSLICE-00P.

“Here, have a drink.”

“Negative Response: This unit does not require hydration at this time.”

The man locked eyes with her for a second and then shrugged.  He took his own cup and sat down at the table, motioning for NSLICE-00P to follow.  She took a seat across from him.

“Straight to business, then?”

“Affirmative.”

“Alright.  My name is Cassius.”

“Greeting: This unit is designated NSLICE-00P, it is nice to meet you.”

“…nice to meet you too.  So, this is the situation, miss knight.  Did you know that the Legion has recently left town?”

“Affirmative.”

“Did you also know that most of the Exploratores went with them?”

“Negative.”

Cassius nodded grimly.

“Scary stuff for the common folk.  No one guarding the countryside from monsters or marauders.”

At that point Cassius grinned.

“But you aren’t so common, are you?”

“Analysis: This unit is an anomaly compared to the average citizen of this nation according to her observations.”

“Um…right.  Which means this is instead, an opportunity for you.”

“Requesting Elaboration.”

Cassius nodded and pulled out a map of the region around the city.

“There are certain monsters who live in the areas around Castra Turannia.  Certain monsters with certain parts that are extremely valuable to certain people.  Certain monsters that are generally hunted by the Legion or the Exploratores to keep control of those certain parts.  But neither the Legion or the Exploratores happen to be here at the moment.  So if an enterprising and altruistic knight were to hunt some of them down….well I’d say she was just doing society a bit of a favor.  A favor that should be rewarded, don’t you agree?”

“Response: This unit will, in fact, request compensation before conducting any missions unrelated to her primary directive.”

Cassius stared at her for a second, then heaved a sigh and pointed at the map.

“Ok look, there should be a Felis Pluvia living around this area. Go hunt it down, bring us the liver and the core, and then we’ll talk.”

“Requesting Elaboration: Please provide all available intelligence on entity ‘Felix Pluvia’, as well as compensation details.”

“Big cat, level twenty or so.  Water and air attributes, so avoid using those.  And we’ll pay you 500 Idrint for this.”

“Objection: This unit thought compensation would be assistance in locating persons of interest.”

Cassius narrowed his eyes at her.

“Look, miss knight, I don’t know you and you don’t know me.  If we’re going to work together, we have to know if we can trust one another.  So look at this as a test.  I want to see you if you can deliver, and then you’ll know if I’ll do the same.  Once we’ve established that trust, we can talk about things like searching for people.”

NSLICE-00P’s robotic eye flickered and spun, causing Cassius to swear and nearly fall out of his seat.

Cassius’s words were reasonable, he was not at all trustworthy.  Analysis of his body language indicated he was mostly telling the truth, at least on the relevant mission details.  Mutual completion of smaller contracts would hypothetically build some of that trust, perhaps enough to arrange another magic contract.

Likewise, hunting down a monster would be a good opportunity to field test her latest upgrades and identify areas for improvement.  She could also take the opportunity to upgrade her subordinates, who had recently proved vulnerable to predation.

Above all, her primary mission was already in progress, waiting on Ateia and Taog to complete their training, at which point they could provide access to government resources and intelligence.  So even if she spent some time on tasks unrelated to the primary objective, her mission success rate would not be impacted either way.  She couldn’t determine any other task with a higher mission relevance at present.

She would treat this as a training exercise.  And besides, there was still a non-zero probability Cassius would in fact help her with her primary objective.

“Acknowledgement: This unit finds these conditions acceptable.  Initiating search and destroy protocols.”

With that, NSLICE-00P rose from her feet and turned towards the door.  Cassius stood back up as well.

“Well then, let me show you the way back.”

“Negative.  Statement: This unit has recorded the course taken.”

Cassius raised an eyebrow but shrugged as NSLICE-00P walked out of the door.

“Ah well, not my problem if she gets lost.  The slums can be a…tricky place to navigate after all.”

Once NSLICE-00P was out of the building she moved so that her subordinates would be in range of the Dungeon Field Generator, and sent messages directly to them, using her perception from the Dungeon Field to hear their responses.

“Command: Friendly Lilussees, keep an eye on this location.  Prioritize safety, then observing conversations.”

“Ok.  I guess I can, like, do that, or something.”

NSLICE-00P perceived Lilussees and her subordinates crawling onto the building, making their way through a gap in the walls.  She scanned the structure but found no mana signatures that would threaten the spiders besides the humanoids, so she calculated the risk to be minimal as long as Lilussees and her bunch stayed quiet.  And Lilussees and her spiderlings hadn’t had any trouble moving through the town thus far.

“Command: Friendly Rattingtale, please have subordinates covertly converge on this unit’s location and prepare for extraction.”

“E-Extraction?  W-What manner of torture-horror is extraction?”

“Explanation: This unit has determined it is not safe for friendly monster rats to move through the area.  Upgrades are necessary to enable mission completion.  Friendlies should return to the monster hangar for safe transit to upgrade location.”

“O-Oh, why didn’t you say-speak that?!”

And so NSLICE-00P made her way to an unoccupied alleyway as the rats scurried towards her.

***

As it turns out, it was not particularly tricky for NSLICE-00P to follow the course she had recorded and leave the slums.  Perhaps the twisting paths and constant turns would have disoriented a normal organic, but not NSLICE-00P.  She considered taking a more straightforward route but there was always a chance Cassius had been specifically avoiding something dangerous on their route.  In fact, there were several individuals with somewhat higher mana signatures located throughout this part of town.  So, until she had more intel, it was best to follow the confirmed safe route, even if it was somewhat less efficient. She gathered Rattingtale and his subordinates into the monster hangar, then continued on her way.

Of course, it was raining.

But after the altercation outside of Magnumiter, she and her allies had decided not to deploy casual barriers or engage in flight near populated areas.  So NSLICE-00P just wrapped a cloak around herself and walked out of the city.

Once she was a decent distance down the road, she took off running, as fast as her bionic prosthetics could move.

And so NSLICE-00P set out to terminate the monster.

Author’s Note:

I’m back!  …spending all day on flights is ‘fun’.  But it’s ok!  I’ve successfully moved and I got some time off of work now so we good to go!

As you may or may not have noticed, I have moved several time zones back, so posts may come a bit later in the day now.

Now back to the story!

Ah see, no problem!  Cassius is just a normal person requesting monster termination!  There is nothing at all sketchy about this and I’m sure everything will end totally fine.

Anyways!

Can NSLICE-00P terminate the Felix Pluvia?  Will the Great-High King be able to endure the horrors of extraction?  Will Lilussees…oh she’s already asleep.  Well for the other questions, tune in next time, to find out!