Chapter 33: Its not chocolate but it will do

When Ice woke up a couple hours later, he was much calmer and felt better. He looked around and saw the D.O.G standing exactly as before. The small industrial drone, however, had been extremely busy. It had dismantled all the automatons, leaving just the heads in a neat row on the ground. He looked where the bones had been but there was nothing;just dark colored glass the dirt had become.

As he turned his head, the industrial drone crushed one of the heads. The squeal of tortured metal sounded obscenely loud in the quiet.

Ice flinched away from the sound before shrugging and standing up, stretching his arms above his head. He looked down expecting to see the slight gut he had gained since highschool but instead saw a flat stomach.

He poked himself. It wasn't a six pack but he was in much better shape than he had been even just a day earlier.

"Raven…. Am I getting fitter?"

"Yes, all system user's will have their muscles worked while they sleep to remain in top physical condition. You've got a few days before you arrive at that condition but you have made much progress."  

Well that explained why he felt slightly stiff every time he woke up.

Ice just accepted this with the modicum of decorum.

During their conversation, the industrial drone had finished taking the heads apart. It now had a small pile of glowing marbles just like Ice's.

"Raven, can I do anything with these? I mean I'm all about collecting shiny things but…."

"After sometime in your possession, depending on the number of points contained, you will be able to gain a portion of points."

"Ah… and is there any way for me to tell how long that is?"

"No."

Ice shrugged. It was still free points after all.

He looked around and saw a flash of light in a thinner part of the forest between the trees.

"Now what could you be…?" He muttered softly as he walked over to it. 

As he got closer he could see it was a black metal pole with a small dome at the top. As the trees moved in the breeze it would get hit by a shaft of light and the reflection was blindingly bright. That must be what caught his attention in the first place. He touched the pole and it swayed slightly.  

It wasn't straight up and down. In fact, it looked like it impacted the ground, instead of being placed there.

Ice wrapped his hand around the pole and gently tugged. He felt it give. He pulled harder until he finally had a six and a half foot pole in his hands.

He poked the bottom against a tree to get the dirt off. It was remarkably sturdy.

"Raven, what's this made of? It's not like any metal I've seet's too light." Ice could barely feel any weight from it but when he tried to bend it, it wouldn't even flex, no matter how hard he tried.

"Hold it out for a moment and let the drone scan it."

Ice held it out towards the small industrial drone, watching the blue light go over it.

"It's star steel. It's used to armor battleships. Only a system user could use this weapon."

"Why? Because it's expensive?"

"Because creating something small is nearly impossible due to the requirements of a small sun to forge it."

"Oh." Ice looked at the pole with new respect."So…. What does it do?"

"You hit things with it and it hurts them." Raven said. It sounded sarcastic. 

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"Ah, so it zaps them or something?"

"No."

"Oh.." Ice sounded disappointed at this news.

"It also makes for a very good walking stick." 

"So it's a fancy stick?" 

"Yes."

Ice shrugged and, still holding onto the stick, walked back to the glassy ground. He looked at it for a second before hitting it as hard as he could with the stick.

There was no damage to either one.

However, the vibration that went through the stick into his hands hurt. Alot. It was like he tried to catch a major league baseball pitch barehanded.

As he was rubbing his hands together trying to get the stinging to stop, Ice heard a noise.  

Clank. Clank. Clank.

And it was getting louder. It didn't sound like one thing but like a group, in near perfect sync, the sounds overlapping. 

Ice quickly ducked back behind a tree and ordered the D.O.G to hide nearby.  

He hoped the C.A.T was close; whatever was coming sounded big.

As it got louder, it got more distinct. He also swears he heard a ticking sound.

Ice finally looked around the tree when it sounded like it had stopped nearby.  

It was a group of automatons. Similar to the ones he had found, but they were smaller.  

The automatons were standing just outside the glass circle. They weren't moving but you could still faintly hear them.  

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

Ice stared at the unmoving automatons; not daring to move.

After a few minutes they turned in perfect sync and started marching back 

Ice waited a few minutes and then followed them through the woods.  

It must have been about an hour of following them,when they stopped. He couldn't believe his eyes. It was a factory. Groups of automatons were coming and going at intervals.

Parts of the factory had collapsed and it was walled in. However, the wall was different: it was made of concrete and surrounded the factory in a wide circle. The trees were cut back away from it in all directions.  

On top of the wall, Ice could see several searchlights at intervals and he assumed they went all the way around. Near each searchlight there was a railgun turret the barrels short. They had long ammunition belts leading out of sight below the wall. On the corners of the wall we're towers. Each one looked like they were manned by even more automatons armed with everything from small rifles to crossbows. The technology he saw seemed strange because of the mix of types.

Above the large heavy gate there was an arch. Engraved on that arch was one singular word.

Francis.

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