The death flag of testing grounds was so strong, that every person save for Lance, Charlene and Sera died.
In the game, Sera lives by failing the test after staying on mother ship. Or, with the paid game, she buys a super powerful mecha with money, continuing the test. The mecha does all the work.
Now, she has to live on the backs of her teammates.
Eileen Tucker had been bullied throughout the first year. The perpetrator was her ex boyfriend. She was threatened with a sex video. When she overhears a conversation on the starship between the traitor who worked for Tanaka corporation and the field guard who worked for their OakRiver college, she decides this is her chance.
They were testing illegally made beast beacons. The most harmless mutant beast in their eyes is the Ribbit, as the frog mouthed rabbit in the testing grounds is called. Almost any student mecha could withstand their teeth. Thus, they painted a part of every mecha with this beast attracting power.
They forgot these are students, not war veterans. If a war veteran's entire mecha was covered with Ribbits, he will still walk steadily, compensating for their shifting weight, and return to the safe area.
Students Panic. Mechas are balanced finely. Some of them could not move at all when the Ribbits swarmed their Mecha. One mecha collided with another, and the panicked students released their hatches in their hurry to escape from a disaster.
Only, their safest bet was to stay within Mecha.
It was a completely human made tragedy, on all counts.
Eileen was a pretty good mechanic. She loosened the knuckle joints of her boyfriend's mecha.
Betty on the other hand, could only be called an innocent disaster.
First, she panicked and rolled into a ditch. She screamed for help, attracting all sorts of attention. When a light mecha came to her help, she scrambled to hold the mecha's hand, like the drowning person choking the savior who had come to save them. This upset the balance, throwing both mecha's down the ditch.
When the other person's friend came to rescue them, she held the leg of the light mecha, and refused to let go. Eventually, this led to a tug of war, as the students tried to rescue the good guy.
Had she exerted a little bit of brain to at least make her mecha stand, the entire problem could have been avoided. Only, she's the type who panics at first sight, gets a trauma at second sight. Her mentality is absolutely not suited for combat. Only, she had the highest force density. This is the only college to give scholarships, so Oakriver college it is…
Neither is a person she could rely on, but neither deserved to die.
This way, she saved the well deserving students, a talented mechanic, all at once.
When the Ribbits come running to the edges of the field, they will definitely be able to catch one. She is the one who needs to worry about her safety at the time.
Thus, she told them, when they asked what they had to do; set the traps.
No Ribbits got into the traps even after an hour.
Eileen was pissed at her careless attitude.
" Sera Dustwood ! You may be rich enough to attend college only to chase men, but some of us want to have a career. I don't want to fail the test. " she snapped at Sera.
Sera did not even pay attention to her.
Just as Eileen is getting angry enough to consider hacking Sera's mecha into shreds, she answers.
" If you really want a career, what are you doing following a low life like Kruger ? I thought you would appreciate getting away from him for this task, so I chose you. Why ? you wanted to accompany him on all his haunts ? " Sera asked nonchalantly.
Eileen's anger sputtered out like fire doused in cold water.
She wanted to see the end of Kruger with her own eyes. Ensure he dies in this mess using her own hands.
However, she can not say ' I planned a murder. I wanted to watch it work ! How dare you get in my way ? '.
At the same time, Sera was coming from a good place. It's not like she has done major harm. She's not holding them back, she's not making them run errands, nor is she making them hunt for her.
Right on the cue, Sera spoke.
" You guys, help me move the mecha body towards five O'clock a little. " She asked.
Eileen took back her words. ' Sera Dustwood is a selfish bitch ! One day, she will definitely get back at her. '
" Ooooph ! " Eileen grunted as she felt the weight of Sera's mecha.
The wood looks like it's lightweight, but it's the exact opposite. She could not lift at all. She reevaluated the shabby looking mecha.
Just in time, Betty returned. Sera directly opened the driver's window shield to take the supplies. After all, her mecha has lost power, she could only do some things manually.
Sera placed the box aside, while Eileen and Betty moved her wooden barrel room with great effort a little to the left. Sera removed the floor panels at the strategic locations to see the ground. This way, she could use energy transfer to kill a mutant plant, pass the test. With the shifting of the barrel, she was able to see the plant she suspected was the mutant.
Sera was able to see the little grass underneath.
[ Gigantea ( 50 % similarity detected ) ]
[ Sproutlings are considered F-rank, if the root is longer than 2 meters, it's considered D-rank monster. ]
' Jackpot ' Sera thought as she looked at the little plant.
Though the monsters give points, the unidentified plants, and killing plant monsters give more points. After all, Drones could kill the mutant beasts, but they can not fully identify mutant plant monsters. Humans are needed for that.
Now, all she has to do is sit beside the devil plant. Then transfer its vitality to the world tree seed. She will be done in no time, then she will walk straight back to the safety of the spaceship.
Since she wanted to finish this work in style, she even placed the opened supply box beside her, so that she could drink juice and transfer energy at the same time.
" You guys ! If you want to, go hunt or something, but do not go more than five hundred meters away from me. " Sera ordered.
" You are not our leader. " Eileen snapped.
" Ah ! But if I die, you will fail the test. You don't want that, do you ? " Sera said just nonplussed.
" We will not go far. Let's not go far. " Betty begged Eileen. She's really useful at times like these.
" Hmmph. " Eileen scoffed, before moving forward.
Sera set up a foot table beside her, and arranged the supplies. She has to lie down like a frog to hold the plant. She already retracted the legs of her Mecha. Ribbits can't get to her unless they dig through the ground.
With everything set up just the way she wants, she began to transfer the vitality from the mutant plant to the world tree seed.
For this, she needs to maintain physical contact with both objects.
Sera knew from her stint in the game it's possible to lose physical contact with one of the items, and suffer backlash. In game it appears as debuff, draining her own vitality. She did not want to face that sort of situation here.
So, she tied the world tree's seed to a leather cord like a necklace, then stuffed it in her bra.
Even if she gets physically tossed around, the seed will be securely held and held in tight physical contact to herself.
Then, she started absorbing the vitality from the seed and transferred it to the world tree seed.
After fifteen seconds, the message showed up.
[ Innate ability energy transfer leveled up. ]
The energy absorption rate doubled. After a minute, she saw the level up message twice.
Sera did not think much of it.
After all, whether she's absorbing 2 hp for a second, or 32 hp for a second does not make a great difference.
After five minutes, she leveled up once more.
The energy absorption rate doubled again.
Sera's first doubts came at fifteen minutes … when she realized the little grass seedling still had vitality left.
Her absorption rate should be about thirty two thousand now !
That's the amount of vitality in a small tree…
What she sees in front of herself is but a small seedling.
Her ability has leveled up about sixteen times now. The time between each level increased.
At first, she leveled up in seconds. Now, she did not see a single level up message in fifteen minutes.
[ Your innate ability leveled up… ]
What the ? …
Sera had the strangest feeling she might have bit off more than she could chew.
She held the juice packet in her other hand, and seriously considered whether to drink it or not.
Could she finish absorbing the vitality of this superweed before she feels the urge to piss ? What is she going to do if it continues onwards for more than eight hours ?
Then, she thought of the most important question she should be asking in this situation.
How long could she hold it in ?