A head slowly formed, rising from the puddle of melted metal.
It began with what 6 assumed was a nose.
The tip of it peaked up through the metal, stretching it thin but not breaking the surface tension.
After a slight struggle, it finally broke through, an audible pop resounding through the room.
Following the nose, the rest of the head became visible.
It was animalistic, but unlike any animal that 6 had ever seen.
What 6 had believed to be a nose was a strange beak-like formation on the back of this metallic being's head.
As it raised its head, the face of the creature came into view.
The entirety of what should be its face was just one massive beak comprised of four sections.
It had no eyes, no nose, and it was unclear whether the beak on the back of its head was the mouth of the creature, or the beak that took the place of its face.
The body of the creature took form quickly after the head was completed, as if the head took up much more energy and time to form than the rest of it did.
On all fours, the freakish creature made of metal pounded the ground.
6 slowly walked up to the creature, curious about it.
He knew it would attack him, but he wanted to pretend to be oblivious to see if he could get close to it without it on guard against him.
[Intensified Blood Flow] was ready to be activated, as he hadn't had it activated for very long while in the cell.
6 still hadn't perfectly gotten the hang of how long his heart would beat heavily upon the end of the skill, but it seemed to be around the same length of time as the skill was active.
As long as his heartbeat was steady, he could use it, but 6 didn't intend to make that clearly obvious.
If he used it now, they would know he could his buffing skill with as little of an hour between uses.
'Hey Triv, is the steady heart rate thing a more difficult issue for stronger adventurers? Seems like a pretty basic requirement.' 6 thought.
'Fine, I guess if you were just giving me the silent treatment you wouldn't be dumb enough to answer an unexpected question.'
As 6 neared the metallic creature, it kept its sharp beak pointed at him, wearily watching his movements to see what he would do.
Though it had no eyes, it used its beak to sense its surroundings in a way that gave it a keener view in the area around it than the eyes of regular creatures.
The beak on the back of its head increased these senses even more.
It remained still as 6 moved toward it, waiting for him to show aggression so that it could pounce on him.
Looking at 6, who now stood just an arm's reach away from the creature, the researchers sitting in a room, watching from behind a massive display of floating screens, each showing a different angle of the arena, were discussing what the new adventurer's action would be.
They had watched his first interaction with Vian, and they listened to the following conversation between the two as well.
"He has already shown that he can disguise his intentions, and he is smart. I vote that he attacks once he feels like the construct has dropped its guard." The short researcher cast his vote.
"He was much too excited about the construct; I vote that the same." Another researcher voted.
"No, I think that is too simple. He is so lightly equipped, but his intelligence in entrapping his cellmate with just his words as he did, all while applying pressure with his attacks shows that he thinks before he acts."
"You've got to vote! You cannot not vote! Vote! Vote!" A floating mouth began screeching as the researcher stopped speaking.
As it opened, every single researcher in the room began groaning, several of which plugged their ears before the voice ripped through the room.
"I vote he will attack, but it won't be in a typical way! I voted, blast you, shut your trap!"
"I vote he antagonizes the construct into attacking him first." Unbothered by the loud complaining still echoing throughout the room, a large man who all of the other researchers seemed to respect spoke, shutting up the loud screaming of the floating mouth.
They turned toward the man sitting in his chair.
"Why do you say that?" Someone tentatively asked.
"He has already done so in similar manners twice. First to his cellmate, acting as if he didn't understand who was speaking before he struck, and again to Rufes and Notkt as they led them here." The man spoke with a gravity in his deep voice that weighed his words down.
One could see in the face of the researchers that every word was taken seriously, as if they were hungry for his knowledge.
"I suspect he has a skill that only works when someone else attacks him, a counterattack of some sort. He is probably overconfident in the skill."
"Haha, then he will definitely feel the sting of regret once he realizes the construct can hold its own against an intermediate adventurer."
"He's just a beginner. I doubt he will be able to tell." Another researcher responded.
In the arena, 6 remained unmoving in front of the construct.
Finally, he took a light breathe, and then slowly removed his knife from his sheath.
There was no sense of urgency to his movements.
His knife wasn't even directed toward the construct.
Instead, he was flipping it in his hand, messing with it idly like he was baiting the construct to attack him first.
The researchers laughed at his actions, mocking him as they had mocked all of the adventurers who came before him.
The only one who did not laugh was the large man in the center of the room.
There was only a shadow of a smile on his face, while the rest of his body remained entirely immobile, his eyes fixated on the man flipping his ornate knife in the arena.
As 6 caught his falling knife once more, he finally ceased his continuous tossing of his knife.
The researchers, confident that the man had gotten impatient, typical of beginner adventurers who were full of themselves thanks to their newfound powers, unaware of their weakness in the grand scheme of the world were looking forward to seeing his useless attack.
Reaching out the arm holding the knife, 6 slowly extended it toward the construct, until the knife was just millimeters away from touching the construct.
Then, in a shocking scene that caused every researcher's draw to drop, 6's knife touched the construct, sliding into the head of the construct all the way down to its hilt.
The large man was no exception.
Though he had been looking forward to seeing what surprises this adventurer would bring him, in no way had he expected to witness a beginner adventurer not only penetrate the defense of an intermediate construct, but to do so with ease.
Every single researcher, the large man included, shared the same thought in their mind.
They needed that knife.
There was no other explanation for how the weakling in the arena was able to do that with such ease.
It had to be an intermediate weapon, if not an advanced.
No basic weapon could ever possess the damage needed to pierce an intermediate construct like that without extreme conditions, and those conditions could never be present in the hands of a beginner adventurer.
6, who was similarly starring at his own knife with confusion, slowly pulled it out.
He had been expecting to merely tap the construct, not to directly stab his knife through its head.
In a brief moment, many thoughts ran through his head.
Perhaps his knife was ridiculously overpowered and he never realized it, perhaps this was some sort of test that would continuously bring out stronger opponents over and over, and this was merely the weakest of the group, or perhaps he was just being pranked, and this stab was completely harmless to the construct.
Seeing that the construct remained stationary, 6 stabbed his knife into its head once again, with more force this time.
The knife once again slid in with ease, and the unmoving construct finally reacted.
It twitched its leg, just a slight twitch.
6 jumped back, on high alert as he prepared for it to retaliate.
He activated [Intensified Blood Flow] as his feet hit the floor, as a protective measure in case he couldn't handle whatever attack it was about to dish out.
With his knife crossed in front of his chest, poised to defend or attack as needed, 6 watched as the construct fell to the ground, the entire body melting into a puddle of bubbling metal.
'What. The fuck.' 6 thought to himself.
"Congratulations, 6, adventurer of Trivrium. You have been rescued." A voice said in 6's mind.