TtOW! - Chapter 49: The Great-High King's Terrible Mistake (Patreon)

Rattingtale shuddered as he watched his disloyal subjects access the sacred records with glee.

This was bad.

The subjects were gaining on him, with all due speed.  They had been granted royal titles by the boss-queen, elevated to positions of authority and clout.  And though the authority and majesty of the Great-High King of all the land was self-evident, he could not trust these treacherous rat-things to remain loyal.  Yes, even now he saw it.  The wretched 01R sought to supplant him, that he might manipulate the strange man-thing for his own nefarious ends.

Which would, of course, threaten the Great-High King’s plan to manipulate the strange man-thing for his own nefarious ends.

So he had to stay ahead.  And fortunately, by the boss-queen’s foolish gifts of experience, he had a solution for the problem.

All he had to do was evolve his form and he would immediately become superior to the would-be usurper!  He could reassert his dominance over his disloyal subordinates, and claim a greater share of the experience and boons going forward, securing his place in perpetuity!

[Available Evolutions:]

• [Ratkin: A rat monster that has begun to gain a more humanoid form. Increases size, strength, durability, and intelligence. Unlocked by default for rat-type monsters.]
• [Cyber-rat: A basic rat monster upgraded with advanced components.  Boosts performance all around.  Grants access to Implants. Unlocked by contracted dungeon’s primary affinity: Cyborg.]
• [Monster Rat+: Defer evolution and gain additional perk points instead.]

Rattingtale’s ears fell against his head.

That…wasn’t a lot of choices, was it?

The Aesdes could not be deceived and there was no such thing as a free level.  Even if one received the levels, the manner in which they did so still ultimately mattered.  In fact, he knew this is one reason most dungeon masters don’t bother to grant their subordinates free kills like the boss-queen.  Monster evolution options, like many other things among the royal records, were earned by feats and achievements.

So…say a particular monster didn’t actually achieve very much on their own, was gifted practically free kills by a powerful benefactor, and delegated most of the work to their subordinates?

Well…

Then…

Rattingtale trembled.

It was only natural! A Great-High King like himself, a dungeon master, of a lord of their realm, was not expected to fight in the mud with the lowly servants!  That was simply inefficient!  The master of the dungeon could not be risked in open battle, should they fall the entire realm would come to a halt, left without guidance or purpose!  And any points put into the dungeon master's combat prowess would reduce the power of the dungeon as a whole, concentrating its strength into a single individual who could be overwhelmed, distracted, or bypassed!  It was simply poor strategy!

So it was only natural!

Even now that…the Great-High King had temporarily been deprived of said realm…

Rattingtale shook his head.  It was fine!  No one would dare impune on the privacy of the Great-High King!  His achievements and glory were self-evident, the Aesdes themselves must be restricting him to prevent his rise!  Yes!  This was confirmation that he was a threat to the Aesdes themselves!

So…he should…continue his rise.  By…choosing the best option.

There must be something here…

Well, there was really only one option.

Cyber-rat would make him more like this strange man-thing.  Perhaps it would even unlock for him the secrets of her strength, and enable him to gain the kind of powers she possessed.

The Great-High King of all the land made his choice.

[Evolution Cyber-rat chosen.  Awaiting approval by Dungeon Master.]

Rattingtale trembled.

He made a mistake.

None of his own subordinates in his former realm had proven effective enough to reach this point.  So he hadn’t realized something like this would occur.  But it absolutely made sense when he thought about it.

Stronger monsters meant more mana required to maintain them.  So of course monsters wouldn’t be allowed to just evolve as they please.

Which Rattingtale had just attempted to do.

And the boss-queen was just alerted about.

He crouched down, as low as he could go as he awaited his doom.  He had signaled his intentions, his deceit was now apparent.  So what would this terrible and cruel man-thing do…

[Evolution approved.]

Rattingtale froze.

Wait, what?

But he had no time to think as his vision went white, mana surging through his body and setting his veins ablaze.

[Evolution to species Cyber-Rat successful!]

When the pain and the light finally faded, Rattingtale lay on his back, breathing heavily.  He tried to scramble to his feet but all his limbs felt heavy, as if weighted down.  He struggled to lift his head and glance at them…

He froze.

His limbs…and his entire body…were now encased in metallic armor.

He smiled.

He had succeeded.

And then frowned.

The metal armor was very heavy…how did the strange man-thing move like this?  And why couldn’t he see out of his left eye?

Just then, mana poured out from his monster core, spreading through the metal armor.  His other eye began to see.

But there was a problem.

Rather than the world around him, he saw red light…and then his vision went black again…

And then words started to appear on his vision?

Not from the royal records?

And a voice sounded in his head, similar to his own, but without any inflection or emotion, and with a metallic echo.  It repeated the words that appeared in his view.

“Systems booting…”

“Systems online.  Running diagnostics…all systems normal.  Techno-organic integration confirmed.”

As the voice spoke to him, his armor began to hum and glow.  Strange contraptions spun to life around the joints of his limbs.  The mana and…lightning of some sort surged through his head.  Rattingtale screamed.

And then it was done.

He lifted a paw to check his head and found no wounds.

Then his eyes widened.

He was moving his paws, without feeling the weight of the armor any longer.

He looked at them in shock.  The armor was now moving itself, responding to his commands like his own limbs.  No, it was beyond that.  The armor was assisting his limbs, he felt as if they were lighter than before.  He swung a paw experimentally.

Metallic claws extended from his fingers and cut through the air.  It was a powerful swipe, much like that of the vicious cat-thing.

Rattingtale grinned.

Yes, this is what he hoped for…

“Network connection online.  Establishing connection…connection established with Master Unit designation: NSLICE-00P.”

Rattingtale blinked as he tried to parse the message.  But before he did…he felt something.

More mana and lightning surged into his head.  He felt…as if there was another presence there, looking around.

A voice sounded directly in his mind.

A voice he recognized.

“Compatible components detected.  Connection established with Friendly Unit, designation: Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third.  Observation: Friendly Unit Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third has installed compatible upgrades in the course of independent upgrades, and can now interface directly with this unit.  Establishing loyal wingman connection.”

Rattingtale trembled.  He willed the presence to leave…but his own mind did not comply.

And then…

The strange man-thing took control of him.

He could now see out of her vision directly from his own eyes.  He could feel her presence.

And worst, she could do the same.

In fact, his armor began moving without his command, as the boss-queen experimented and moved it directly.

“Diagnosticiagonostic Results: Loyal Wingman connection established, friendly unit integrated, unit designation updated.  Gratitude: This unit was not aware foreign system upgrades could install compatible components.  This unit thanks NSLICE Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third for his discovery.  Checking unit logs for intel on relevant upgrade.”

Rattingtale didn’t respond, trembling in place.

He made a mistake.

A horrible mistake.

And now he knew why this deceitful man-thing had allowed him to evolve.

The boss-queen could now access and control him directly, even beyond the stipulations of the dungeon contract.

She could send messages directly to his mind.

She could see what he saw directly.

She could check his memories, at least those recorded within these…these foul things.

He had enslaved himself to her, even more deeply than before.

He gnashed his teeth.

Just how deep did this man-thing’s treachery and planning go?

Just how long would it take to return to his rightful place?

Meanwhile, all the rat monster stared at the cyber-rat writhing on the ground.  01R gnashed his teeth as well.

This treacherous thing…was the first to evolve?

Not only that…he had become like the wise-powerful-gracious boss-queen?

That unworthy one had ascended into a being like her?

01R swore in his heart that he would redouble his efforts.  That next time, it would be one of the boss-queen’s loyal servants who grew closer to her.

***

NSLICE-00P’s robotic eye was spinning, all her processors calculating.

This changed everything.

Not only were NSLICE Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third’s components of a sufficiently high technological level to interact with hers, they were patterned directly off her, down to the techno-organic interface.  The bonded AI wasn’t as advanced as hers, the foreign system didn’t fully replicate it so it contained only the most basic protocols, but that was fine.  NSLICE-00P had the ability to connect with autonomous warbots and integrate their AI with her own, so that they could benefit from her more advanced and flexible combat protocols.  Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third was already a connected subordinate of hers in the foreign system, so his systems had responded positively and integrated well.  She could provide him with protocols and assistance with her AI until his own had developed sufficiently.

But most important was that she could now interface directly with him, with massive implications for coordination, communication, combat efficiency, and intelligence gathering.

She was not a solo unit any longer.

She now had an NSLICE network to support her, if only of two units.

And now she knew how to expand it.

“Command: All units should apply ‘Cyber’ upgrade if or when available.”

“Ugh, like, fine.”

A few minutes later, NSLICE Lilussees had joined the network as a second Loyal Wingman for NSLICE-00P.  It turns out there was a Cyber-Spider upgrade available to her as well.

Which meant all of NSLICE-00P’s subordinates could hypothetically join the network.

NSLICE-00P’s robotic eye flickered repeatedly.

And…her heart rate increased slightly.

Her mission success probability had just risen substantially.

***

Meanwhile, Lilussees crawled out of her room on armored legs, crawling over to the snack room.  She stuck her head in the door.

“I, like, hope you’re happy about this, snack.”

Rattingtale’s head spun to face her.

“S-Shut up, wretched spider-thing!  I didn’t know-predict this would happen!”

“You, like, don’t know a lot of things, do you?”

“S-Silence!  The Great-High King of all the land will not permit-allow such slander, yes yes!”

Lilussees tilted her head.

“But aren’t you, like, a ‘loyal wingman’ or 'NSLICE' now, or something?”

“S-Shut up!”

Lilussees turned around at that.

“Well, I’m, like, tired from evolving, so I’m going to take a nap, or something.”

Just then, a message appeared across Lilussees’s sight.

“Self-Diagnostic Log: Organic components have requested rest cycle. Organic components deemed at fully efficiency. Applying stimulating countermeasures to ensure ideal operation.”

Her new parts analyzed her body as she spoke, and reported back to her.  Then a jolt of mana shot through her, energizing her body to full alertness, removing any perception of fatigue or sleepiness.

Lilussees froze.

She started to tremble.

She slowly turned around.

“...kill you.”

“What did you say-speak?  Speak up, wretched spider-thing!”

“I SAID I’LL KILL YOU!”

Rattingtale squealed.

“You’ve gone mad-insane!  Minions, boss-queen, help-assist the Great-High King, yes yes!  The wretched spider-thing is attacking-assaulting me!”

Author’s Note:

Assimilation successful.  And so it begins.

I wonder what other cyber creatures NSLICE-00P might have access to? What other methods she might have to improve the capabilities of her NSLICE network?

Anyways!

Can the Great-High King find a way out from this enslavement and surveillance? What will NSLICE-00P do with her new network? Can Lilussees find a way to restore her naps?  Tune in next time, to find out!