CHAPTER 29

Analysis and Discovery

Jonde and I chase after Seiya as he heads to the outskirts of town. On the way, Jonde complains:

“Analyzing the enemy is something you do when you’re faced with a powerful foe, so why would you go through all this trouble? The golems were already greatly overpowering the Killing Machines…”

Seiya doesn’t answer but pinches his nose.

“Don’t walk so close to me. Your zombie stench is making me sick.”

“Ack…!”

Sigh. As rude as always, I see. But, well, Jonde is undead, so he does smell a little rotten. That’s when Seiya turns his frown on me.

“You too. Your zombie stench is making me sick.”

“…?! But I’m not even a zombie!”

…Discontent clouds our faces as we trail Seiya until we reach the colossal wall protecting Termine. It’s the innermost of the five layers. The moment Seiya steps before the barrier, he mutters:

“Cave Along.”

As Jonde and I rush over to him so as not to be left behind, we’re suddenly pulled underground.

“Where are we?”

Jonde surveys the cavern created by Cave Along. After lighting up the tunnel, which has a radius of around five meters, Seiya starts striding ahead.

Why is he using Cave Along here, though?

I curiously wonder until Seiya comes to a sudden stop, walks over to the earthen wall before us, and places a hand on it.

“Clear Wall.”

The wall suddenly turns transparent.

“Eeeeeep!”

I scream, taken aback by the sight of countless Killing Machines in swarms before my eyes. Hundreds of machines crowd together in a cavern many times larger than the one we’re in.

“Are these the Killing Machines that fell into the pit?! Wait! A-are we gonna be okay?! They’re not gonna attack us, right?!”

“This wall utilizes Clear Ceiling, which makes the ground transparent, but the enemies cannot see us from the other side. Also, this barrier is two meters thick. Breaking through it wouldn’t be easy.”

Seiya begins planting earth serpents in the four corners of our cavern while explaining.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“I placed special earth serpents in the cavern so I’d be able to hear what they’re saying on the other side. By the way, they cover the full range from low to high and can reproduce concert-like surround sound.”

D-do they really need to be able to do that?! Seiya can be so anal about the weirdest things!

Seiya then pulls yet another snake from his breast pocket and brings it toward his mouth.

“Check… Check… Check…”

He’s talking into the serpent as if he was using a microphone! The Killing Machines on the other side of the wall begin clattering about like they can hear his voice.

“Click! Click! Whrrr!”

“Vrmmm! Click! Bzz!”

The noises they make are pretty eerie.

“Silence. Enough.”

“Bzz! Click! Click!”

But no matter what Seiya says, the machines simply howl.

“S-Seiya! I don’t hear anything besides groaning!”

“Yes… It would seem that they don’t understand human language…and after all that time I spent creating the high-quality speakers…”

After it becomes clear that we can’t communicate with them, Seiya observes the machines in silence. He’s probably using Scan, so I do the same.

KILLING MACHINE
LV: 20
HP: 138,954	MP: 0
ATK: 85,121	DEF: 98,654	SPD: 85,742
Resistance: Fire, Water, Lightning, Ice, Earth, Holy, Dark, Poison, Paralysis, Sleep, Curse, Instant Death, Status Ailments
Special Abilities: Demon Lord’s Blessing (LV: MAX)
Skills: Evil Laser

I’m pretty sure Grandleon’s elite unit had attributes similar to this. They actually aren’t much of a threat to Seiya in terms of their stats. The problem is the sheer number of them.

“I captured all these Killing Machines to study, but…their stats are all identical.”

I check the others as well. Every attribute is consistent, from attack to defense. It’s as if their statuses were all copied and pasted from one to the next.

“By the way, Seiya, what are the golems’ stats like? I tried to use Scan on them, but I couldn’t see anything.”

“I used Fake Out on each golem, but, well…just know that they surpass the Killing Machines in all aspects.”

“Then what’s the point of analyzing them?” mutters Jonde.

“…For future reference.”

Seiya briefly mentions this before he begins analyzing the Killing Machines.

“They’re resistant to water and electricity despite being machines. I was planning on infusing the golems with whatever they were weak against, but… Hmm…”

Before I even realized it, Seiya has already begun swiftly jotting down notes with a piece of paper and a pen that seem to have appeared out of nowhere. Jonde stares at him, incredulous.

“There is something very unheroic about this. Is he really the Hero? Because he looks like a scholar to me.”

Seiya does look pretty studious right now.

“Now, let’s put one in a private room for a detailed analysis.”

Seiya places a hand on the nearby earthen wall, turning it transparent. Inside the small cavern is a Killing Machine that has been separated from the others. Seiya then snaps his fingers, and earth serpents come falling down from the ceiling and rain over the machine.

“Click! Bzz! Click!”

The Killing Machine instantly reacts. It tries to cut through the serpents with its saber at first, but after a while, it starts shooting some sort of beam out of its eye, burning the earth serpents to death.

“That’s Evil Laser. It’s shooting a beam of concentrated mana out of its eye. This must be what they used to tear down the first wall so quickly.”

Seiya snaps his fingers again. This time, the ground underneath the Killing Machine rises as a golem comes to life. Unlike with the serpents, however, the Killing Machine is overpowered by the golem before eating a tremendously powerful punch.

“The subject has shown no activity since its head was destroyed. There have been no signs of regeneration after the ten-minute mark.”

The machine has completely shut down, and yet, Seiya continues to stare fixedly at it. Seemingly annoyed, Jonde growls:

“How long are you going to keep looking at that thing? It’s not going to regenerate!”

“Or perhaps the moment you let your guard down, it comes back to life and strikes.”

“But, Seiya…! It didn’t have the ability Regenerate when you checked its status, right?”

“Its status is only for reference. I can’t rest until I see what happens with my own eyes.”

After observing the enemy for around thirty more minutes and finally appearing convinced, Seiya stops taking notes…and then snaps his fingers again. Out of nowhere, fire comes raining down on the inactive Killing Machine’s head.

“They seem to be resistant to fire, but perhaps I can incinerate them with enough effort…”

“Wh-why would you even do that?! This makes absolutely no sense!”

Ignoring Jonde, Seiya mutters to himself:

“Let’s try water next.”

He continues his analysis and experimentation like a mad scientist, and Jonde and I soon fall silent.

…Another thirty minutes pass, and Seiya’s writing hand comes to a full stop.

“All right, that should be enough.”

“It’s about time! So what are you going to do with the rest of the Killing Machines?”

“Destroy them. They’re no longer of any use to me.”

“Knowing you, you’re not going to go fight them yourself, are you? I assume you’re planning on trapping multiple golems in there with them?”

“No, there’s a quicker way to take care of them.”

Seiya snaps his fingers as usual, causing a giant boulder one meter across to instantly fall from above the massive cavern where the Killing Machines crowd.

“Wh-what the…?!”

Googly eyes! A slit mouth! The boulder has a face!

“I learned how to create other rock-type monsters besides golems. Through combining Valkyrja techniques, fire magic, and earth magic, I was able to create a ‘bomb boulder.’ I trapped the Killing Machines to test this monster’s power in addition to my research.”

“…REEEEE!”

The Killing Machines simultaneously rush in and attack the rock monster after its sudden appearance. However…

BOOOOOOM!!

The deafening roar is followed by a blinding light. The impact knocks me onto my rear in spite of the thick wall separating the two caverns. When I turn my gaze back toward the enclosure, the Killing Machines are in pieces.

“D-did that rock just blow itself up?!”

“Yes. Bomb boulders explode after being attacked enough, and its power…was just as incredible as I predicted it’d be. It instantly turned a few dozen of them into dust.”

A few more bomb boulders then come falling down one after another. The Killing Machines uniformly attack them, but after taking damage, the bomb boulders instantly explode. It doesn’t look like Killing Machines are highly intelligent. They don’t seem to realize that bomb boulders explode after being attacked, which explains why they continue assailing them even after seeing their comrades being blown to bits.

“If I’m successful in creating larger bomb boulders, then I can increase the explosion range even more. That said, I might blow up Termine as well if I make one too big.”

“…?! Don’t even joke about something like that!”

Jonde is enraged by Seiya’s inexcusable remark…but, well…I can’t blame him.

When the explosions eventually take out half of the Killing Machines, Seiya temporarily stops dropping bomb boulders and pulls out his notes once more.

“H-he started his analysis again!”

Jonde ends up lying sprawled out on the cavern floor.

“I’ve had enough of this! I’m going to bed!”

…Who knows how much time goes by after that? Jonde is asleep, and only the sound of Seiya’s pen gliding across the paper can be heard. Without anything to do, I’m idly staring at the cavern of Killing Machines when…

Oh? I wonder what that is.

My noticing it was a complete coincidence. A single Killing Machine in the corner of the spacious cavern is vibrating. I shake Jonde’s shoulders to wake him up.

“Mn…? Oh… Is it finally over?”

“No, not yet.”

“…?! You must be joking! He’s still studying the enemy?! That man is seriously ill!”

“D-don’t worry about that for now. Look over there! Is it just me, or is there something strange about that Killing Machine?”

Jonde glares at the machine I’m pointing at.

“Its behavior does seem strange, but…perhaps it broke when it fell into the pit?”

He doesn’t seem that interested, but I have no choice but to use Scan, unable to suppress my curiosity.

KILLING MACHINE
LV: 20
HP: 138,954	MP: 0
ATK: 85,121	DEF: 98,654…

It’s not broken. It hasn’t even lost any HP, so why…?

But as I stare at its stats, I suddenly notice something. At the very end of its status, it says:

Personality: Kindhearted

What?! Th-that Killing Machine…has a personality?!