Chapter 18: [Arc 1] Chapter 12: Of Demons and Mechs

"Here's another branch, boss." - Stickman-ish robot

"I can see that. So why are you not clearing the Quest with it?!" - Black-uniformed man(?)

"So sorry sir. It will be done right away." - Wheel robot

...Now I've seen it all. An army of small, ball-shaped robots with arms and legs are swarming the Dungeon in the hunt for tree branch-OUUCH!!

*Wheeze, wheeze*, sorry about that. My left eye's killing me. After I picked the Evil Eye skill of my choice, an intense pain assaulted my eye. I think it got crushed, then recreated, then crushed again, for then recreated, etc, etc...

This continued for around half an hour before I had adapted to the pain well enough to move on. And by "adapting" I mean that my newly acquired [Pain Resistance] reached a level well above Lv.10. It'll probably reach Lv.20 before the day's over...

See! And the worst part is, the skill only allows you to resist succumbing to the pain. IT DOESN'T REDUCE THE PAIN AT ALL! What a sham! Ugh, sorry about this, but could we rather focus on the bots instead of my lamenting and pain? 

The ball-bots, as I call them, are busy searching for trees... and aren't there too many of those ball-bots? I mean, it feels like they're multiplying by the second. I have a birds-eye view from the cliff I'm at now, so I'm sure that their numbers are increasing.

!? What the-? A large... printing press? It had that shape, but it wasn't making newspapers. Instead, tons of ball-bots were ejected outta the machine. Where do they find all the materials needed for this mass-production... rocks!? Simple rocks!? The older ball-bots are feeding the printing press with rocks they've broken off the Dungeon walls into the printing press, then a new ball-bot pops out a few seconds later.

So, it's not a machine, but some alchemy-item? I almost forgot; this is supposed to be a fantasy world, not a sci-fi one. Wonder what their stats are. With my current level on [Identification], I should reach... just barely...

I reached it. And the reward is... the strangest status page I've ever seen?

Its magic-related stats are zero, its INT is unnaturally low, its level is 10 despite being newborn... newmade, and its skills are unnaturally high as well. Then there's the strange race. "mdl" must mean "model", so the ball-bots are Machinerz of model BB.Sb-008? The eighth version of the BB.Sb series? I identified the rest of them, but they all had the same status page, all the way to their LUC. 

If these are supposed to be... magical robots... then the low INT must be 'cause they're only supposed to follow the orders of their programmer... I think. In that case, the levels and skills these things have must be something like static levels. They're high-leveled the moment they are... made, but they cannot grow any stronger. Unless they get some upgrades.

The skill list mentioned a [Aether Engine] skill, so they could gain a "Rocket punch" skill if their inventor decided to add something like that. For them, skills equal functions.

There are some guys down there that look like commanders for the ball-bots... the Machinerz.

One is a slim robot with huge, halogen lamps for eyes on his slim face. I think it would be better to say that he was made of sticks. I call it a "he" due to his voice being masculine. The materials used on him looks like some rusty-yellow metal. His stats are...

*Collapse*

OOOH!! Why does the first skill I've ever seen at the highest level has to be [Clumsiness]!? And wasn't the skills for these guys supposed to be static? According to his name, you would think that they would rather focus on the [Battle Continuation] skill, instead of [Escape]. 

Guess I'll never reach high as a scientist. At least, not someone that makes good hypotheses. 

"Eh, boss. What's the point of getting the branches again?" - Scarecrow

"Scarecrow, didn't I explain it before we started all this?" - Black-uniformed man(?)

"... I forgot." - Scarecrow

*Clang* *Crash* *BANG!*

Ouch, that looked like it hurt. A whole toolkit right in the face...

"Seriously, Scarecrow, you need to stop bothering the Black Baron all the time." - Wheel robot

"And you need to stop slacking all the time, Breaker." - Black Baron (?)

There I got their names, but I still wanna see their stats. First is that "Breaker"-bot. The one who shifts from a humanoid robot into a robotic wheel when moving around.

He kinda looks like those wheel robots in the movie of a galaxy, far, far away. Even if he's only half the size of the Scarecrow guy, who should be around 180 cm, give or take. 

"Breaker"'s torso is a disk with a silver outer rim and black sides. His head looks like it's part of the outer rim, along with two grey-famed, blue eyes. His neck is connected to the front of its torso and it looks like he can retract it to form a wheel with the rest of the disk-torso.

His shoulders are placed in the middle of the disk torso and the arms look like those mechanical arms that you see in factories, with four fingers. His legs are similar to the hindlegs of animals such as jaguars, probably to make it easier to withdraw if he goes into wheel form. His feet look like claws by the way. And his stats are...

*Collapse*

Wait, "Breaker" as in "taking a break"!? You gotta be kidding with me! Just forget it.

Then there's the only... fleshy guy in charge. the "Black Baron", as the bots are calling him. It looks like he has a well-built body, around the same size as Scarecrow.

He's wearing militaristic garments, including a navy-blue jacket with gold buttons and two flaps hanging from the back, grey pants, black leather boots, and a black leather aviator cap, along with huge goggles that cover the upper half of his face. The lower half is covered with his grey beard and mustache.

And the "Baron"'s stats are-

"Sir, Assault has come over a problem." - Breaker

"Ugh. What does that bucket of warmonger-bolts have to say now?" - Black Baron(?)

Oh? Sounds like something important happened. Let's eavesdrop.

"Well, there is a problem with the final tree, located in the center of the floor. A group of what appears to be the evolved form of the raptor-like dinosaur monsters we have encountered on this floor have gathered in that area." - Breaker

"So, the Floor Boss decided to take matters into its own claws. Just have Assault crush them all." - Black Baron (?)

"But sir... all those evolved specimens are classified as the Floor Boss." - Breaker

"WHAT!?" - Black Baron(?)

EEEEHH!? How did that happen!? Is the Floor Boss some hive-mind with the other evolved dinos?

"Hehehe. Even the big bad Assault can't do anything about that." - Scarecrow

"As if you could. Wait a minute, that's supposed to be no challenge for that mechanical muscles for brains." - Black Baron (?)

"It seems his logic circuits cannot decide which dinosaur to target first, as they all have the same amount of strength." - Breaker

"Now that's just... they're the same?" - Black Baron (?)

"It says so in the report." - Breaker

"Damn my luck. Tell that idiot that I'll go and take charge, so just shoot whichever of those monsters he gets his sights on. Urgh, I should have just left him here instead of trying to 'optimize' his punishment. That's what I get for not installing a better Intelligence Chip into that guy." - Black Baron (?)

"Why didn't ya do that boss?" - Scarecrow

"Because, if someone with that much firepower gets too smart, there will be a robot uprising! You don't need to be a genius to understand that." - Black Baron (?)

"...... Robot uprising?" - Scarecrow and Breaker

"Yeah. What about it?" - Black Baron (?)

"... Nothing...*Grin*" - Scarecrow and Breaker

"And don't get any ideas or I'll recycle you both into waste-management-bots." - Black Baron (?)

"Eww." - Scarecrow and Breaker

I concur. Eww at the highest level.

The Baron then bordered a machine that was hidden behind the bot-press... is that an airboat? It looks like a cross of one and a car, except for being a one-seater. The wheels look like propels as well...!?

The wheels changed position, turned into... some sort of anti-gravitational propels or something. It's a real, deal, hovercraft!? Oi, why are someone like that baron allowed in this world!? He should rather be in some sci-fi one instead!

"I'll go and take command over Assault's troop myself. You two nincompoops can start readying the explosives across this floor. Activate them when I give the order." - Black Baron (?)

"Roger!" - Scarecrow and Breaker

Wait! I haven't identified the baron yet! ..."Explosives"? Ah, the baron's getting away! Come back!

"Alright, bomb-bots. Place the spheres all over the floor." - Scarecrow

"You're talking backward again." - Breaker

Argh! I need to stop those bombs first! Grr, just you wait, you stupid baron! The next time I see you, I'll wrap you up like a bagworm!!

---

The Black Baron's PoV:

Where's that stupid hunk of junk? 

*KA-BOOM!!*

"Ah, there he is. And a note to self: even if I can't give him some extra INTs, let's try to add some patience into that trash-heap when I get back to the lab." - Black Baron

I steered the Hovermobile to the explosions, and guess what I found: A yellow and black humanoid robot, looking no different than a human wearing full-plate armor. Armor with huge barrels attached to the gauntlets, a huge jetpack, and claws for feet.

It's Assault, surrounded by the remains of my Spherebots! Who did that? Oh, the answer's obvious. The army of evolved dinosaurs. They look like bigger, more feathery versions of the small raptors that kept on trying to eat me when we entered the floor. 

"AETHER BULLETS INEFFICIENT ON ARMY OF OPPONENTS. MOVING TO 'GUNS FESTIVAL' MODE-" - Assault

"Stop that, you scrap-for-brains! Those aren't even real. They're avatars made of magic. Why else do you think you're the only one unscratched?" - Black Baron

"THIS ASSAULT IS LEAGUES OVER SIMPLE SPHEREBOTS. THERE IS NO WAY I COULD BE DEFEATED BY SOMETHING OF THIS LEVEL." - Assault

"That's because of the-! Tch, forget it! Just aim for the real Floor Boss and ignore the trash." - Black Baron

"NEGATIVE. THIS UNIT SHOULD NOT PERFORM SUCH A COWARDLY ACTION." - Assault

"Do you wanna be recycled into a non-lethal machine?" - Black Baron

"COWARDLY ACTION INITIATED." - Assault

Assault has finally started to search for the real pest-boss amongst the pest-boss-counterfeits. If he only stopped wasting ammo on blowing away the copies he easily could slip through... no matter. We'll be finished before dinner at this pace. Just you wait, Glavras. Just you wait!

"Just wait till I get my hands on you, you damn, backstabbing, debt-escaper!!" - Black Baron

"What debt?" - ???

"The debt that snake of a rat has with me after I modified that Dungeon Core of his! If he's not gonna pay me back, then he can say goodbye to his precious Dungeon! O-hohohoho!! ...Huh? Who was-?" - Black Baron

*KA-BANG!*

"Giyaaaa!! Who's firing magic on people right in the middle of a question?!" - Black Baron

Was it the floor boss? No, it's occupied with Assault. Then... ah! That knight armor!

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"You're Percel! The no-good knight that was kicked out from Avalar." - Black Baron

"Watch your words! You make it sound like they kicked me out because I was useless, not because I left due to their horrible treatment of non-humans." - Percel

"Good point. But whaddya want anyway?" - Black Baron

"Let's see, looking for the cause of the drought that terrorizing the region, taking down this Dungeon, trying to haul the main culprit for this whole shebang to the court... you know, nothing much. Right, mastermind, the Black Baron?" - Percel

"Whoa, whoa, whoa there. It's the guy, er, the snake that made this place that you should have a beef with. Don't invite me to any grill parties I have nothing to do with." - Black Baron

"Yeah, right. And your modifications aren't what made all this happen?" - Gauntlet knight on Percel's team

*Beep*

"We-he-he-he-ell, don't say it like that..." - Black Baron

Seems like I can't fast-talk myself outta this jam. Better try to drag this out until the Spherebots around the floor react to the homing beacon...

*Ka-BOOOM!* *Ra-tatatatata*

"DESTROY! DESTROY!!" - Assault

That guy's not gonna be of any help before he's tired of playing with the Floor Boss. Urgh, this day can't be any worse than this.

---

Garami's PoV

I quickly stepped aside for the rolling robot and turned around to face it. The bot stopped its roll to reposition itself, so I'm doing my attack before it can do so. The thread in my hand made a sharp sound as I whipped it towards the head. The ball-bot tried to catch the incoming thread as if it was a sword. Can he do it? Can this no-name robot manage the impossible?!

*Slip*

*Crash!*

Nope. No good. The thread's too thin to be caught by someone as uncoordinated as the ball-bot. And I used both [Whipsmanship] and [Threadsmanship] to help me maneuver the thread. And even if he did catch the thread, I could use [Thread Control] to wrap him up in a moment.

Just add some [Cutting Thread] to the binding... not that I didn't use it from the very beginning. Whip-users around the world would kill for an ability like that. There's probably something similar already out there though. And more importantly...

*Crack*

There goes the detonator. As one could expect from a robot-making, mad scientist. Even the bombs are high-tech. They look like capsules with a timer attached. Thank god that the design is kinda similar to the ones from Earth. 

And with that, the third bomb's taken care of! ......They're gonna explode before I reach all the bombs, right? I mean, there were more than 100 of those ball-bots that were armed with these bombs... I'm getting the shivers of having this thing out in the open, so let's seal it in the Storage.

As for the current problem, what shall I do? Just why did that stupid mustache-face have to order the demolishing of the Floor? Wait, wasn't there something else? Think Garami, think!

...That's it! He said; "Activate them when I give the order". Why did he order the bots to do it instead of doing the honor himself? With that get-up, I wouldn't be surprised if he had a serious case of vanity. 

Considering the facts I have on hand, the answer must be that the Black Baron can't detonate them due to some security issues. Meaning that either the place the Baron was heading for was too dangerous to take the detonation switch with him, or the two sidekick bots have the power to safely guard the button... nah. That last one's impossible. It's better to expect that they have some sort of bodyguard with them.

Bodyguard or not, I need to take that switch from them, or else I can kiss this Floor goodbye. And the Chain Quest with it!!

---

"Rock-paper-scissors, shoot! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!" - Scarecrow and Breaker

Someone's having a lot of free time, despite others (meaning me) had to run all the way back here! 

"Shoot! Shoot-!? Aw, nooooo!!" - Scarecrow

"I win. Therefore, I shall activate the detonation switch." - Breaker

The detonation-, that remote control there? Where did I put my lasso thread?

"But, buttons..." - Scarecrow

"Now, now. Remember who won the game-" - Breaker

"I don't care. Button!" - Scarecrow

"Give me that back!" - Breaker

"Button!" - Scarecrow

"Back!" - Breaker

"Button!!" - Scarecrow

... Now they've started to fight over the remote control... I better steal it at once before they accidentally push the button.

I swung the thread over my head to gain more momentum, aimed at the controller, and when I saw the perfect opening, I threw the thread towards it. One detonator switch, coming-!

"Buttooooonn!!! *Splatt* Yiew! I've got slime on my beautiful face!" - Scarecrow

Damn that idiot! He got in the way for the remote!

"What was... Monster! Printerbot, get it!" - Breaker

And now they've noticed me... "Printerbot"?

I shouldn't have asked. The printing press that had produced the ball-bots before deformed itself, revealing its identity as another robot! Hey, you better be ready for the lawsuit regarding any copyright laws, you hear me!

And it's strong!? What's powering it up? The power of journalism?

Jokes aside, this thing's not that difficult to evade, even if I can't beat it. It's SPD and DEX is garbage compared to me. I just need to watch out for any surprise attacks, then find a good chance to go for the remote when that thing's losing its balance.

*Vrrrr...*

And what's with the lame-old machine sound? Is it an old model... why are you aiming your fist at me like that? There's like, a 20 meters length difference between the two of us.

*Ka-chang* *Crash!*

I called it! It was a freaking rocket punch! I saw it in your skill list, so don't try to act all innocent on me here!

The Printerbot retrieved its right arm through the cable that connected it to the rest body while making a stance for another rocket punch with the left. Screw SPD, that attack doesn't care about the stat at all! Time to get drastic.

The moment Printerbot shot out its left arm, I made a jump to dodge it and landed... on top of Printerbot's still withdrawing arm. I hitchhiked up to the big guy.

*Vrrrr!?*

It managed to make a "surprised" sound, but I haven't gotten the time to think about that. I jumped up to the bot's shoulder and leaped off the moment I reached it. I produced a new cutting thread, and with that in hand, I swung towards Breaker on the ground. Banzai!!

"Eek!" - Breaker

The bot dodged my slash, but he lost the remote while doing so. I tried to catch it, but Printerbot turned its torso 180 degrees around while keeping its left arm stretched out. I would have been swatted like a fly if I hadn't ducked at the right timing.

The remote was sent flying due to the force of the arm so I threw a new thread while keeping an eye on Printerbot and Breaker. Scarecrow was still blinded by the thread on his face, so no worries there.

"Oh no, you don't." - Breaker

Whoa, careful, you Sunday driver! That Breaker-guy used his wheel form and almost ran me over. These machines are heartless. I tried to move to where the remote should land, but Printerbot threw another rocket punch at me so I had to focus on dodging it.

While I was busy with the punch, Breaker used the bumps on the Dungeon floor to jump up in the air. I want to throw a thread his way, but Printerbot is in the way. Time for my secret weapon. Open the flood gates!

I activated [Spatial Storage] and released all the river water I had stored in it towards Printerbot. The pressure of the current was kept from when I stored it, so the force pushed Printerbot backward.

I opened another Storage, this time towards the ground where Breaker was running. I couldn't have the remote broken by the water pressure, so I had to be happy with a slippery floor instead.

"Whoa-whooooaaaaaa!!" - Breaker

Success! Now to take the remo-

"Got it!" - Scarecrow

Wha-!? Where did he come from!?

*Beep*

Huh?

"Touchdown!" - Scarecrow

*Crash!*

Wha-!?

"Eh!?" - Breaker

*Vrrr!?*

"A-ha. Oh yeah. Scarecrow's the best! ...What with you guys?" - Scarecrow

He-he threw the remote at the ground... and that sound before...

*Beep*

*Beep, beep*

*Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep*

... Is that the bombs? Please don't tell me those echoes are from the bombs.

"What? Weren't we playing rugby right now?" - Scarecrow

...... I can with certainty say, that all three of us right there with a working brain thought the same thing right then:

WHAT A ASTRONOMICAL IDIOT!!!

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