Ch 113

Chapter 113

Ren yawned

as he sat on a makeshift chair, watching the impatient Yan pace around in front

of him.

“Look,

Mercer is going to be fine. He did say he was going to train in the room for

longer, so don’t worry about him.” The two of them were in the same makeshift

camp outside the inner temple door, with a few townspeople hanging around.

The temple

hall was now fully lit by their mining lights, and the camp had become a sort

of permanent location. The townspeople were now fully aware of how important

the slovesa temple was, especially when many of their own had died for it. With

the ‘collection’ of weapons from the tribal humans’ dead warriors, they now had

amassed significant firepower.

However,

their lack of combat training was obvious, hence the decision by the expedition

and subsequently the town to send people to train against monsters in the first

room. It used to be the case that whichever group entered would have to kill

all monsters to exit, but the discovery of the interaction with the blue orb

that was abundant in the temple allowed them to exit any time.

They also

were stationed here in the event Ceres should return. Despite not having seen

him for a few months, the town never lost hope in their ‘hero’. Also, they had

continuous skirmishes with various groups of tribal humans attempting to break

into the temple, but they were much more prepared now, establishing a secure

path between the town and the temple.

“Ren, he’s

barely an adult! You should have let me go there in with him!”

“And you

have been for the last three months. When are you going to let him go? He’s his

own man now, let him deal with it.”

Yan stared

coldly at Ren who put his arms up in surrender, before stomping off towards the

inner doors. “Hey, where are you going?”

“I’m going

in to check on him! Don’t worry, he won’t mistake me for a monster.” Yan walked

up to the inner door, but she suddenly stopped in her tracks – the inner door

had opened before she even got there.

Out of the

inner door, a lone man in tattered shaman robes walked out with a half-detached

robotic arm and holding a staff in the other. “I’m… I’m free?”

Ren instantly

recognized who this man was. “Shit, it’s Paska!” Ren quickly jumped to his

feet, sounding an alarm through the camp.

The town

had long prepared for this, knowing that both Ceres and Paska had disappeared

into the temple. Seeing Paska exit before Ceres put a dampener on both Ren and

Yan’s hearts, but they steeled themselves before pulling out their weapons.

A dozen

soldiers quickly surrounded Paska, aiming their rifles at him. “Aren’t those my

weapons?” Paska squinted, trying to spot where were the warriors that he left

outside.

How long

has it been? For the last few months, he had been trapped near the ranking

monument, continuously unable to climb any higher in the ranks.

“Your

troops already lost more than half a year ago, surrender!” Ren ordered as he

aimed his rifle sights squarely at Paska’s chest.

Paska

smiled gently, crouching down to place his staff on the floor as he raised his

remaining arm in surrender. “Looks like I lost this time.”

“Glad you

know it. Don’t make any sudden movements or else my trigger finger might get

itchy thinking about all my friends you killed.” Ren motioned for two soldiers

to move up and cuff him.

“Haha,

after growing up in the underground for your whole live, you still care about

revenge and friendship? There’s no such thing in war!” Paska smirked, as the

symbol on his forehead began to glow brightly. The staff he laid down suddenly

came to life, breaking into three parts and immediately flying through the air

at high speed.

Ren and Yan

immediately shot, but one part of the staff spun rapidly, forming a defensive

shield that blocked the rifle shots. The other parts quickly hit the other

soldiers before they could react, knocking them unconscious due to the sheer

force or injuring their hands, rendering them unable to use their rifles.

In a quick

flash, only Ren and Yan were left standing, with the other soldiers knocked out

despite Paska standing there, grinning. Two parts of the staff became cuffs,

wrapping themselves around both their necks and restraining them down to the

ground. Paska slowly walked up to them, as the last part of the staff floated

gently behind him.

The cuffs

had a sort of pressure acting downwards on them and tightening their necks at

the same time, making it hard to breathe and straining their muscles.

“So, it’s

obvious you all want to plunder this temple, and it’s obvious you already dealt

with all my warriors. Don’t blame me for what I’m about to do.” Paska’s grin

became even wider, but it froze as the inner door suddenly opened again.

He quickly

turned, only to see Mercer exiting the inner door. Paska quickly shot the last

part of the staff at Mercer, planning to quickly capture him, but the staff was

suddenly grabbed by a hand before it hit Mercer’s neck. It was Ceres, the

humanoid monster.

Paska’s

face immediately paled, recalling the last fight they had as he quickly dashed

away, running with all his might.

The cuffs

let go of Ren and Yan, flying back to Paska while the third part of the staff

still remained with Ceres.

Through the

last five months, Paska had also been slightly aware of Ceres’s existence in

the temple. It was obvious that there was another individual other than him

climbing the rankings, and seeing Ceres go above him in ranking meant he had no

chance of defeating Ceres.

Ceres

reacted fast and tried to chase, but he did not expect Paska to run so quickly,

making him unable to catch up. Mercer was still shell-shocked as he witnessed a

staff almost hit him without him being able to react.

Seeing

Ceres’s quick reactions, Mercer’s admiration of Ceres became even higher than

ever before.

Instead of

chasing Paska any longer, Ceres decided to stay and help the soldiers who were injured.

Some of them suffered terrible wounds from the impact of the staff, causing

their entire forearm to be bruised heavily. He also needed to learn what

happened when he was inside the temple.

Mercer

panicked upon seeing Yan collapse on the floor, the bruising on her neck

apparent. “Quick, MEDIC!” He yelled as he rushed to her body, ignoring Ren who

was slowly getting up.

“Yea, right,

don’t worry about me or the others, I’ll be fine..” Ren grumbled as he used his

rifle to prop himself up, gingerly touching his neck. If it was not for the appearance

of Ceres, they might as well have lost their lives here. They were yet again

saved by him.

“Thank you,

Ceres.” Ren bowed with respect. Despite him originally not recognizing Ceres

when they first met, the news of what he had done for the town had awed him. Ceres

was undoubtedly a hero in his eyes.

“I didn’t

do anything, really..” Ceres nodded in return while a medical team rushed out of

hiding during the conflict, quickly treating the wounded. He stared at the now

dormant piece of staff that Paska had left behind, wondering about how it worked.

Now that he

had gone through the temple, he realized the nature of control was eerily

similar to how high-rank slovesa could manipulate foreign weapons to attack.

Was Paska a sort of hybrid, or was it an effect of his implants? “I’ll hold on

to this staff for further research.”

Ceres

focused on the current situation, talking with Ren about what had happened.

Ceres did not share the full details of what happened in the temple, as he knew

that an extremely strong slovesa named Goras was still inside. Despite Ceres’s

anger at Goras for dumping him out, he did not really want to fight the rank

one slovesa of the temple. “Most likely he’s at the top of the mythical class

already..”

“Oh right,

your friend is here too.” Ren motioned over his shoulder, pointing to one of

the makeshift tents, where a snoring Halyon could be seen sleeping with his

body sprawled over the tent.

“Ah yes, my

good ‘friend’,” Ceres smirked, surprised that Halyon did not run away. He

actually assumed that the former Keeper would have escaped immediately after he

disappeared into the temple. “Either his level of trust or level of fear is

extremely high of me. Speaking of fear, I could use him to run a few

experiments.”

It’s been

six months since he entered the temple, and the multitude of human emotions

gave new energy to Ceres’s body, making him feel a lot more alive than he was

in the temple.

Sure, he

had forcibly trained his body to absorb electromagnetic radiation, but the

energy conversion efficiency was not high.

His body

was like an omnivore with regards to energy now: emotions simply ranked the

highest in terms of ‘nutritional value’ and allowed him to exert more strength

in combat.

Yan too

finally recovered, helped up by Mercer. “Ceres, you’re finally back,” Yan said

weakly as a medic treated her neck. She was similar to Ren, in that she did not

know of Ceres’s help before they met in the first temple room. “Where did Paska

go?”

“Ran away

at the first sight of me. Even got his staff here.” Ceres waved the last part

of the staff.

“That’s not

good, he might be running to get more reinforcements.” Yan frowned.

Ceres

recalled the conversation he had with Yan and Misa in the labyrinth about a

potential backer behind Paska. They had never heard of a tribal human receiving

cybernetic implants as well, so seeing Paska as a cyborg was fairly surprising

to them.

Ceres was

not worried, however, as the recent transformation of his body had provided yet

another qualitative increase in strength. He had full confidence in his combat

skills now, but he needed some time to digest the changes fully, especially on

the topic of how he could invoke emotions.

Either way,

he would investigate the staff and see if he could trace any relationships. For

Paska to be able to control the staff as a cyborg, the staff itself must be

fairly advanced in itself. Ceres kept a tight hold on it in the event it

suddenly tried to free itself.

“No matter whom

he brings back, we can handle anything.”

***

In a large

industrial complex on the outskirts of Rockhold, a lone man stood in his

office, overseeing the assembly line of mining equipment. Thousands of workers

gathered along the line, working hard as the intense heat from nearby furnaces

caused sweat to coat their faces non-stop.

He swirled

a glass of sparkling water as he enjoyed the cool breeze of the conditioned

office. It’s already been a few years since he had been in this position, but

he still savoured every moment at the start of his workday like this.

[Manager

Olson, your daily report is ready]

A voice

sounded through his desk, prompting him to head to his chair and insert a

nerval cable into his neck, joining a virtual meeting room.

The

fidelity of the simulation was not high, but he was only using it for work

anyway. For more exciting and sensitive issues, he always had his personal

private VR pod to use.

As he

entered a blank white room, the walls were plastered with a single logo of the

company. It was Bee Strathon, one of the major mining conglomerates in the star

system, being among the raw few allowed to mine any part of Athen.

“Show me” he

ordered, as multiple graphs and visual videos popped up in front of him.

[Today is

Council Galactic Year 526.314, and here is the daily news.]

“Skip all

of that. What happened to the small mine that’s been hogging that area on the

outskirts? Outpost Kah-Yul?”

[After the

enforcers sent one Keeper, Kitana, to wipe out all of them, they just ‘verified’

that it had been used as a rebel supply system, just as planned.]

“I assume

you’ve erased all traces of yourselves.”

[Of course.

All low-level agents have had their memories selectively erased to prevent

further traces.]

“Good.”

Olson smirked. While he did not control the entirety of Bee Strathon here on

the planet Athen, he had full jurisdiction over a few areas, most notably large

swaths of areas outside of the city. He was not the only manager on the planet,

but they acted as quasi-independent sections, answering at the end of every year

about their performance indicators.

[There is a

video of the Keeper Kitana interrogating them. Would you like to view it now?]

“Save it,

I’ll view it during my lunch. It’s better that way.” Olson couldn’t wait to see

the faces of those who rejected his acquisition deal.

In his

view, Bee Strathon should be the only company monopolizing the entire planet.

Any small-medium mining groups had to succumb to him.

Alas, there

were a few entrenched mining groups formed by the colonists before Bee Strathon

obtained the right, so he could not wipe all of them out lest he angered the

local population and the Consortium.

However, it

did not stop him from using insidious means to target smaller fishes. It was

one of his key performance indicators after all.

[Updates

from other departments, Manager Yul has discovered a large field of exotic metals,

namely Sturore, currently estimated to be worth 40 years of supply based on

current market demand.]

“Damn it!”

Olson cursed. He was in control of the area around Rockhold, but they had

recently hit a slowdown of mining, unable to find new large mining veins worthy

of development. Sure, there were a few tiny veins here and there, but at the

scale of Bee Strathon, they would be stripped down in a single week.

Right now,

most of his workers and private security forces were tied up trying to exterminate

the local wildlife. The ‘mawsies’ was a notable enemy, and recent months had

shown a marked increase in activity.

Sure, they

were able to harvest the shell, but it was minuscule in comparison to an entire

vein of Sturore. Bee Strathon had better access to composite armour recipes

that integrated Sturore better, so it was fairly low-value for them.

The private

security forces were necessary, as criminal gangs and other departments

continuously tried to encroach on his territory. Olson had placed a lot of

emphasis on hiring ex-military soldiers, ensuring the best.

However, if

this increase in wildlife attacks continued, the other managers would step all

over him due to his security forces being tied up, and his budget would be

reduced.

“No, no way

I’m letting that happen!” Olson shook his head. “Fuck the other departments,

update me on our current progress. Have we cleared the new shaft yet?”

[Negative.

Current expected completion date is to be in two months. The wildlife is

fighting back tremendously, though thanks to help of the local tribal humans,

navigating the caves has become a lot more smoother.]

At least

something was going well. Olson was the backer of the tribal humans. He had

seen a golden opportunity to exchange minor worthless trinkets for localized

expertise. As much of a technological advantage Bee Strathon possessed, it was

not exactly like they could bring it weapons of mass destruction to wipe out

all sentient life underground.

Using the

knowledge accumulated by the tribal humans, great progress had already been

achieved. Without their help, Olson might still be smashing through unknown

caves and waking up an entire nest of mawsies.

That would

be unfortunate, not because of the multiple deaths of his workers and armed

forces, but because of the equipment that would be lost and damaged. More

importantly, his department’s insurance premium would skyrocket again, eating

into his budget.

Thus, as

far as exploration has gone in the past year, Olson had tried to utilize the

tribal humans as much as possible, using them as cannon fodder. If only he

could convert all of them into slave manpower to reduce his operating costs –

but the re-education school has yet to be approved by the higher-ups

officially.

Yet.

[Reports of

insubordination and general riots have reached an all time high due to the

stress in exploration. 34571 complaints on lack of increments in wages and

rising cost of living has been issued to the management, with 65% from workers having

more than a decade in service. Reports of suspected unionization are also on

the rise.]

“Replace

all of them, we don’t need broken parts. Make sure to word it such that they

can’t sue us.”

[Already

done sir.]

Olson

suddenly recalled a previous message from the leader before. “Wasn’t their

leader supposed to report back soon? Did they not have a lead on a potential

slovesa ruin? Something about a functional temple.”

[Interestingly

enough, sir, just as you mentioned it, he’s currently waiting outside the

complex.]

A video

feed of the security camera pulled up, showing Paska waving his arms at the

camera slowly.

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