[||||=LEVEL 24= ||||]
The bunker was… empty. Eerily so. Quieter than a graveyard with our footsteps echoing eerily down the halls.
"SKREEEEEEE!"
"SPIDER!" Ruby yelled.
"Ruby!" I yelled. "Dust, Ruby don't suddenly scream in this quiet place! It's creepy enough as is!" Ruby looked down embarrassedly. Raven sighed irritatedly and sheathed her sword again.
"I thought you were fine with spiders." Raven said irritatedly.
"Not when they surprise me." Ruby said sheepishly. Raven rolled her eyes and we walked onwards.
With the ice mana so much thinner here I could use my mana sight again somewhat. I could see a good thirty feet now before my head hurt from the mana. If there was anything useful in a room I let Ruby and Raven know before we grab it.
I say splitting up as me and Ruby together since the purple mana was still flowing onto Ruby. It was a little irritating. Like a gnat that was always buzzing in your ear but I kept with it. Being annoyed was better than the alternatives.
While mage sight was useful for saving time I couldn't see everything by a long shot. The bunker was huge. It must have housed at least two hundred soldiers and we haven't even looked at the scientists quarters. We had a destination in mind, after all, and we just had to follow some signs.
"The armory!". I said happily. "It's forward three doors on the left." I was getting so sick of messy rooms with soldiers belongings. It was odd to see the belongings of soldiers from two decades ago.
Remnant used to be a lot like earth except for the complete lack of functional body armor. Everything was made for complete uniformity rather than functionality. Also the dust. That was a pretty big difference.
"The armory?!" Ruby gasped. "Finally!" Ruby raced forwards but Raven caught her by the arm and lifted her up.
"Slow down. The SCARAB blueprints and armor aren't going anywhere." Ruby pouted and Raven set her down with a stern look.
Ruby and Raven made their way to the armory at the normal cautious pace as before. I couldn't see everything in the rooms after all. Sometimes there were larger rooms like a lunch hall. I don't think anything is hiding in the corners after so long but after the strong elemental nobody particularly wants to test that logic.
The door to the armory was thrown open and a door stopper jammed under the double doors. Raven swept it and entered, which meant it was safe for Ruby.
The armory was spacious. Very much so. Large shelves filled with boxes of old bullets lined a wall and the other held guns on the walls and heavy weaponry, meaning old modeled miniguns, assault rifles, shotguns, some rifles, and a variety of other old weapons.
Workbenches, spare parts, bullet reloaders of a few different types, and a small modern forge consisting of only a few pieces of equipment sat in a corner of the room with rubber mats over the concrete floor.
Separating the main armory they were in from another room was a large sort of garage door made of thick steel.
Ruby used her semblance to go to the weapon wall and inspect them with stars in her eyes. But after a moment it was replaced with confusion. She grabbed a sample of each weapon and dashed to the workbenches in the corner.
With an inspecting eye Ruby disassembled each of the weapons and looked over their mechanics. A frown on her face worsened as she looked through them.
"What the… But the trigger could be extended… you don't need the barrel that long… Why is the receiver so… So Criss-crossy! GAH!"
With her frustration growing Ruby shoved all the weapons to the side. "They all suck. Low tech, inefficient, mass produced, horrible garbage! They're just filled with… Things and it's like they're supposed to work!"
"They're standardized military weapons from two decades ago. Maybe three if they were on a budget, though I doubt they were. The real stuff would be behind the doors on your right behind you."
Ruby scowled at the guns like they were at fault for what they were and turned around to the metal door.
"I thought that was a vehicle bay?" Ruby said.
"Why would there be a vehicle bay underground?" Raven asked from across the armory. She was inspecting some crates of ammunitions, probably wondering if it was worth it to take the dust from the bullets. I had wondered the same thing.
"I dunno. It looks like a garage door and I thought the guns here were the advanced stuff until I actually looked at them." Ruby said with a shrug. Valid enough reasoning, I guess.
"Are you thinking of taking the dust from the ammunition in those crates?" I asked. Raven nodded. "Ruby, can the reloaders work in reverse somehow?"
Ruby walked to the reloaders and fiddled with a few pieces. "Um… yeah. This one here can dismantle bullets and turn the dust to another bullet. It's called a refitter. They're not really common but they've got one here. I can just cut the part where the dust is pushed to another bullet and funnel it to something that stores dust."
"There are some empty crates designed for holding dust right here." Raven said, pointing at an empty box. Ruby rushed over to it and looked inside. Yup. No dust there.
Ruby put the crate in the inventory and went back to the refitter, where she let it go. A little fiddling bent a little slide from a funnel that would lead to a bullet casing to instead go into the crate. Easy enough.
"Okay! This only accepts 5.56 caliber but… Actually how many bullets do we have?"
"More than enough." Raven said plainly with a wave to the mostly full shelves of military supplies.
"Right. We'll have to check in on the refitter in a while and replace the crate for another empty one. No biggie. Now about that door…"
I didn't hesitate and sent three dimension slashes at the door, cutting right through it. Then I made a shockwave at the other side but made sure to keep the air all around it except for the door stilled completely.
Ruby let out an "Eep!" as the part of the steel door went flying out. It fell to it's side and scraped along the ground a little but slowed down quickly enough that it didn't mess anything up.
"Done." I said in a satisfied tone.
"You could have warned us." Raven said in irritation.
"Oh. Right. Sorry." I probably should have done that…
"Uhhh okay that's convenient." Ruby walked over to my hole in the wall and walked on in. Raven followed after though she had to crouch under a little.
"Ooooh." This part of the armory seems to have been the advanced section or something along those lines. Another smaller rack of guns lay on one wall, some sort of suits on the other, and at the end wall was… The motherlode…
Dust. So much dust. Oh so so much dust. In at least eight rows coming from the wall back a little were labeled crates filled to the brim with dust! I could last far into my adulthood at my current average rate of dust consumption, which I actually calculate by the way, and have a little bit left.
I'm well aware that Roman stole much more dust in the train job but that was a huge operation. I'm just one guy and I won't be using whole crates anytime soon.
Ruby looked right over the dust though.
"OHMYGODTHEYRESOCOOL!"
The sort of suits were full body sets of armor in a few different sizes. They were full black with numerous armor plates all over it.
"This armor! It's… it's four inches thick of solid steel! They're walking tanks!" Ruby said in awe. "And here!" Ruby gripped the edge of a panel on the left arm I couldn't even see and opened it.
Inside were some labeled buttons and switches like 'open chassis', 'disconnect tanks', and, somewhat disturbingly, 'self-destruct'. Who thought to put that there?
Ruby switched the open chassis switch and the front of the armor suit hissed a little as the chest plate and helmet were pushed upwards by hydraulics in the shoulders and the legs clicking and swinging outwards like a door opening.
"Okay that's awesome." Ruby commented. I was forced to agree with her. That was a pretty sweet if impractical way of opening a mech suit.
"Oh I remember these." Raven said as she approached the suits. "Atlas briefly used them when I was young but discarded them since they have too many weaknesses. If you shoot the tanks in the back the suits are useless and can't open. They only use them for extreme environments now."
"Huh. That IS a pretty big weakness. We'll just use an aura conducting metal and Abyss' aura will defend the tanks." Fatal flaw? Solved in a moment. Good job Ruby.
"But that ignites the dust." Raven pointed out.
"Abyss' aura is laced with his mana. There may not be any aura rejecting metals but there are mana rejecting ones. A layer of mana resistant metal under an aura conductive one would keep Abyss' aura out though it wouldn't stop the auras of others."
"A good start. My aura and mana are too closely intertwined to really separate unless I force them to, which isn't hard but I normally have a little aura with my mana and vice versa."
"Great! One fatal flaw fixed. The weight is a flaw too but we can use better metals than this cruddy steel and add some weight reducing runes."
"Atlas has been trying to better their design for generations, you realize?" Raven said dryly. "Even in the newer models, which they call delve suits since they delve into dangerous environments, have problems with the weight though they moved the tank internally, which caused some problems of it's own."
"Like overheating?" Ruby guessed.
"In desert and volcanic models, yes. In winter models the additional plating increased surface area, straining the heating systems and making the weight problems worse. This all was years ago during my time at beacon, remember. The suits have likely changed a lot since then."
"I'll bet you can tear out a bunch of junk and let me replace it with runes to do the job more efficiently." I commented.
"Yeah… Like an arm mounted minigun…" Ruby fantasized.
"Low hanging fruit. Get a rail gun or at least something with lasers." I scolded her. Ruby's eyes widened and she facepalmed.
"Ugh. You're right. Those are way better. What was I thinking? What about an automatic missile launcher?" Raven looked at Ruby like she was a lunatic.
"I can store the missiles in a pocket dimension so yeah that would work. However, producing the missiles would be a bit difficult with how many we would use." Raven looked at my avatar accusing for feeding Ruby's habit of overkill. Sorry Raven. You should know she got it from me by now.
"Make your parallels do it." Ruby said easily.
"Good point. An area attack is needed but I still say a rail gun is more important… actually, I have area magic already. Oh! If that magical amplifier works out let's put that in a gauntlet."
"Good point. Left hand gets magic catalysts and the right hand… how about auto loading for your assault rifle? Oh! A heavy assault rifle like Mano grabbed. Speaking of…"
Ruby dashed excitedly towards the weapons racks, though plenty of weapons were gone there seemed to be at least one of each type of gun for most of the types.
Ruby grabbed all of them and used her semblance to fly back to the workbenches. She did this a few times happily but… I have to stop the fun.
"Ruby we still have to see the science stuff. You can tear into the weapons later but first we have to check out the lab." Ruby slowed and looked sadly at the weapons.
"Wait for me my sweet." she whispered. I couldn't tell if she meant to just sound obsessive or actually had a concerning attachment to weapons…
Ruby tapped the weapons and they were tossed to the inventory. I saw that Raven had put the crates of dust in it already.
"Get the SCARAB armor too." I said. Ruby nodded and went to the armor. In a flash we looted the four suits that hadn't been used in the past and started making our way to the science division.
[|||| == ||||]
*Shkk* *BOOM*
"... Almost there. Maybe more wind dust? But I need the concussive force. I suppose I'll take away from the burn dust."
"Pyrrha are you done practicing your style yet?"
"Yeah. You can come in again."
"Oh good. You know, I think I'm starting to get why you want to meet this Abyss kid."
"Huh?"
"You've practiced more intensely in the last few days than you have in months. You're actually using dust now - and don't even start on how bullets are using dust. You've warped your entire damned style and I have to admit that it's even better than before."
"Better how?"
"Wide area attacks. You've always had a bit if a narrow range of attack. From your small shield to your short spear they're all designed for single combat. They still are even with the upgrades but now…"
"... Now what?"
"Well… You hit things and they explode, Pyrrha. Not exactly single targets there. You're like the exact opposite of that Mystic guy. He can only target a whole town. You could only target a single opponent at a time before. Now you're somewhere in between wide range explosions and one of the deadliest combat styles in remnant."
"... Should I take it easy on Abyss when I meet him?"
"Hell no. Whup his ass. But you have my permission to go on a date with him. You really seem to want something for the first time in awhile. So go get him."
"I...oh… thank you."
"Now quit talking and get back to wasting my money… Say, do you know if he'll be competing in Mistral or Vale?"
"Oh I have no idea. So I sent him a letter."
"Ah, are you sure he'll find that? He's pretty famous you know."
"Um… I'll find him."
"I'll see if I can pull a few strings if he doesn't respond."
[|||| == ||||]
Sifting through the lab was really really boring. I had all my parallels searching with me but we had only found one useful thing.
Ice mana - concentrated (Extreme)
Rarity: Magical (High)
Ice mana collected from ice elementals and refined to the highest degree. Has various uses.
I don't know what it's used for but I found a few cases full of it. I had over sixty vials now and I could certainly make more if I really applied myself. I'm almost certain that this is the glowing blue goo Mango mentioned, as it was glowing and blue goo. But I didn't want to experiment with it now. I was saving everything for later when we got out. Besides, I could find some uses for the physical mana pretty soon in the tower or among the notes we were sifting through… though that was seeming unlikely.
"Abyss have you ever cut your hair?" Ruby asked. I paused in my work. Gathering up the samples of magical creatures was necessary if not fun. "... Not in a long time. Raven, have you?"
"Over my dead body." she said plainly. "Qrow cut my hair once. He never did again."
"Just wondering since I just realized that it's really long. Do you think you could do something with it?"
I frowned. "Like a pony tail?" Ruby laughed at me.
"No! You would look horrible with that! Like a… Uh… dread - no that wouldn't work either… auntie can you help me out here?"
"I think he looks fine with his bedhead. It works for me. Well, I just comb it but his hair always looks fine as is." Raven then sighed as she came across another batch of spoiled papers from a broken jar of something.
"I mean yeah but… I dunno. It just seems like you always wear dark colors and have a bedhead. You should mix it up a little."
"I wear dark blues, greys, and reds." I defended myself.
"Nobody says it but when you wear red and black you look like auntie had a kid with an emo." Ruby snickered. Raven snorted and glanced at me with a smirk. Oh dust she agreed.
"I need a huntsman outfit… I'll need one before the tournament but I just really don't like shopping."
"Shopping is terrible." Ruby agreed. "But you can't look like that one guy wearing a T shirt and jeans at a regional tournament."
"Yeah." I grudgingly agreed. "But we need the armor first."
"That just means we have to jump right to it when we get back!" Ruby grinned.
"... Alright. That should be everything." I said. "This was far less exciting than I thought it would be. I was hoping for tubes of liquid and bodies suspended in them or something. Not ruined notes and organized samples with obvious observations."
"They know what mana is at least." Raven cut in. "We'll somewhat. 'a typically inert energy emanating from the cryothsnium… I'm almost certain they mean the ice trees and classified them without actually knowing what they were. Anyways, they know ice mana freezes things and they know there's more ambient mana everywhere. They're just here because the mana is unique to them and it's abundant enough to easily study."
I nodded. "I read a mention of other sites. Site hellscape, site thunder, site heaven, and I believe this one is site frost."
"Ooh! I saw a site pocket and site pit." Ruby chimed in.
"Other sites could have other interesting things. Worth a look at least." I said. "but first we have to find the locations of the other sites. If they're classified… Well we can do this the hard way then. I know some people who can throw a line out and see what we find."
"A spy network?" Raven asked curiously. "Where did you get one of those?"
"It's still in the growing phase but I know some people who technically work for me so long as I provide some trivial things."
"I'm in contact with an old Valean field operator who has a lot of contacts and even more experience, a crime family specializing in information trade, a budding assassin or spy - I'm not sure which she could be yet, and a guy who could perhaps be the most charismatic cutthroat I've ever seen. The best part is that he's completely loyal to me. I'm fostering that."
"Smart." Raven said impressedly. "Planning on starting an organization?"
"No." I said. "I've already started one."
Raven stilled and a vicious smirk crossed through her face. "Abyss Mavros… heir to the largest business since the SDC, though you're actually the leader, and shadow leader of the criminal empire spanning… all of remnant perhaps?"
"Of course." I said deviously. "I want freedom. I don't see a good way of doing that without remnant at my back. And as big as the SDC? Don't down talkdown talk me. I'm actually be bigger than the SDC. On a completely unrelated note, did you know Weiss Schnee, the current Schnee heiress, also wants to be a huntress? I wonder if she'll be at beacon."
Raven smirked. "I wonder… won't you be at beacon?"
"Why what a coincidence. If only we were to meet each other. By complete coincidence, of course. Why… what if, and this is simply a thought, but what if nature's bounty were to absorb the SDC and place Weiss Schnee at it's head? It's just a guess but she could be someone sympathetic to the faunus plight and wanting to change her father's company for the better. Why, she's so passionate about it that she could convince somebody like Roman Torchwick to help her!"
"I'm sure she would practically have remnant under her thumb." Raven said with a hint of laughter in her voice. "Ruby might be onto something with that whole looking similar to me thing."
"You guys are scary. Geez." Ruby muttered. Raven and I chuckled darkly. Ruby shivered dramatically. "Welp, I'm out of stuff to sort through so… where else can we go?"
"Well the office of the head scientists is the only place I would bother looking." I said. Raven sighed.
"I'm tiring of this. Could we split up? I can go to the military head's office. If I see anything - even an ice wraith - I'll instantly teleport back."
I frowned. "Well… be careful. I'm more scared of the things we can't see than the things we can." Raven nodded and walked off.
Ruby was silent for a moment. "Do you think that might have been a terrible idea?"
I thought about it and shrugged. "Raven can take care of herself and teleport at will. Not to mention that she's also a maiden and one of the deadliest huntresses on remnant. She can handle herself. Even in a place as terrible as this she isn't going to get really hurt anyways. On the miniscule chance that she's hurt I can heal her right up."
Ruby looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yeah. You're right. I'll have more faith in auntie."
[|||| == ||||]
"Adam!"
"I see training is doing well for you. Truly you seem better than ever."
"Don't make fun of me. I still have bruises on my… well everywhere but my face."
"When Sienna trained me she was more brutal."
"How can she possibly be more brutal?!"
"She didn't touch your face, did she? Also, you can still talk. If you want I can tell her to take your training more int-"
"Dust please no!"
"Heheh."
"… Ass."
"Anyways, I'm here to talk about your mission."
"What about it?"
"Being a public faunus figure is great. Really, it is. But there's a big distinction between pride and inspiration."
"Can't they be both?"
"Yeah. But there's a lot of different ways to go about bringing them to have more pride in their race. Publicly speaking out against the SDC is one thing. But they could support the white fang too."
"That… Adam I like what we're doing but we don't really have a good reputation."
"That's why the company can make it better. People could look at the white fang and see us as people who truly want to support the faunus rather than terrorists and criminals. We fight for a better future. Just let nature's bounty say that if you can."
"Adam I don't like that idea. The company is already an upstanding company that people know about and when they start really putting out, as we all believe they will, they'll show that faunus aren't dumb animals. That we can really do something with ourselves. Telling them to publicly associate with the white fang with a representative was unlikely to work but even now I'm a private representative. I'm not going to be making any speeches. Asking them to actually tie themselves to us like that is…"
"I know, I know. It sounds like a bad idea at first but… just think about it Blake. We've tried peace. Now it might be time to try something else. Just doing the same thing over and over again will get us nowhere. It's time to show that we as a people have power and that we deserve to be respected because of it."
"I know and I agree with you and Sienna but…"
"Just… think about it Blake. Nature's bounty can do a lot of good for a lot of people… but there are a lot of different ways to do good."
[|||| == ||||]
"Ruby. Here. I found something." Ruby's eyes lit up and she quickly walked towards me. "Here."
"-has been agitated for the past few days. We are running out of tranquilizers due to it's hostility and growing resistance to the drugs. Harvesting of it's renewable resources has continued to be fruitless due to hostilities. Due to it's high intelligence and the prevalence of it's aura and chill (technical name still under consideration) the only materials we have been able to retrieve are as follows:
-Saliva
-sheddings (?)
-Auditory and visual recordings (Held at HQ)
Even with the lack of available resources we are certain that the beast is the secondary cause of the chill. The spawn of the beast has emanated a chill as well. Short of a missile strike we have no way of eliminating it without excessive damage to the environment. Recommended course of action is retreat due to the aforementioned increasing chill and growing hostilities or entering of additional assets."
"This seems like it's about the beast thingy. The roaring one." Ruby pointed out.
"Yeah… here. An address on the letter." I pointed out. "8798 Cross street. There's our lead to the Managuard. We follow this trail of breadcrumbs and find a map of the locations… hopefully."
Ruby nodded. "Can you set your spies and underlings on it?"
"Of course." I said easily. "But still… we have two more things to try to find here. A spell tome and something to use for nature's bounty. We might be able to use the trees but… well I just don't see any practical use for them. Hopefully we find a packet of seeds or something." Ruby smiled.
"I'm sure we'll find something! Even if we don't you have all the samples and stuff. I'm sure you can make some plants with super healing properties or something. And the stuff with the purity element doesn't seem impossible to do! You can totally do it!"
Ruby's faith in me brought a small smile to my face. "Thanks Ruby. Come on. Let's find Raven."
"Yeah su-... huh… wait a second." As Ruby was about to walk away she stopped and walked back to the desk. She moved a paper out of the way and looked at a very smudged paper. Age and paper did not work well. Especially in a musty and uncared for office with some hazardous materials spilled over papers in a nearby lab.
"Whoa." Ruby said. "Look at this." Ruby pointed at a piece of paper smudge. I squinted at it.
"What about it?"
"It's a photo in black and white. It's just got a black smudge over half of it and the creature's kind of blobby." I pieced together the photo and my eyes widened.
"Oh! Nice catch." The creature was a sort of squiggly tentacle monster-esque creature. Not very big. The photo included some edited in measurements. It came up to about my mid-chest standing on four legs with a rather small body. Weird.
"Uhm… fourth successful experiment. M I - and some smears and smudges so we can't read and… 'shows high amounts of intelligence and role - and smudges again… there are a few words scattered around but nothing else. Um, art-something, neutral something, and… I have no idea what that word is actually. Something with an H or a B as it's first letter and -gry at the end. Here, look."
Ruby showed me the paper and I took a close look at the words… yeah there was barely any reading this. That Ruby had been able to piece together the words she could was only because she herself had horrible handwriting. It was better than mine at least. Mine always looked like I was writing a ransom note.
I don't think we've seen a blobby sort of creature though. We also haven't seen any cat-like creatures though so I suppose it isn't too far off. Ice slimes or something were in a few video games… I wonder if I can get one as a pet? Or make a freeze gel from it's remains and figure out how to manufacture it's go if it stays cool… or I could focus on the hundred and one other samples I actually have.
"Hm. Interesting but not very worthwhile." Ruby shrugged with her smile on her face and we walked off together.
Out in the hallway I saw Raven walking towards us with a frown on her face her eyes were locked onto me for a moment before she glanced towards Ruby. "Oh Raven. Good of you to get back here. Was there anything in the military office?" She shook her head.
"Nothing worthwhile. A few requisitions for extra cages and ammunition were the most common thing in there. Everything else was just paperwork." Ruby shrugged.
"That's fine. We found an address to the managuard base or an outpost at least. We can follow that trail of breadcrumbs and get the other locations. We also found a goopy monster on a sheet in the office."
Raven nodded and her frown lessened very slightly. I felt something itch in me and my right ear twitched.
"Hm. Well where now then?"
"That dust crate by the refitter should be mostly full by now. We can grab that and dump more bullets in it. Uhh, what time is it?"
I glanced at the clock in my soul space for a split second. "It's almost seven o'clock. Probably too late to get to another location. We'll have to stay the night." Raven shrugged. I felt the itch again for just a small moment. I flared mana sight and didn't see anything around us. I'm getting twitchy. I don't like the confined spaces much at least. Underground in general just smells like death, steel, and dirt. And Ruby and Raven.
"Well let's go then." I waved us all back towards the armory. Raven and Ruby walked in near silence with Ruby softly humming something. Raven kept her eyes on me strangely enough. Was she concerned about me?
As we got to the armory Raven took her eyes off of me and scanned the room, taking a glance at the nearly full crate of dust. Her full attention, however, was on the cut out door I made.
Ruby used her semblance and looked into the crate and inspected the refitter to make sure nothing went wrong. There was a bunch of empty 5.56 casings but other than that the machine was fine. Not that any of us cared about the casings.
I walked over to the ammunition full of dust and emptied them into the refitter. "Ruby how do we shut off the machine?" Ruby ignored my question and just punched a button on the refitter herself. The machine clacked once more, emptying a little bit of dust from the last cartridge into the crate.
"Help me to carry the dust, would you Raven?" Raven sighed and walked over to the crate. Ruby looked at me curiously. I used motion mana to supplement my avatar's poor strength and Raven and I picked up the crate and I walked it into the deeper part of the armory. In a moment we walked through and Raven occasionally glanced around at the few guns we had left on the shelf and the stations for the SCARAB armor. All empty.
"Hold on a moment. I'll get the lid." I said. I placed a teleport marker on the crate of dust and jogged off back to the main room, where I looked for a grenade crate. I found one easily enough with my limited mage sight and stilled the air around me to make my actions muffled. I took the top off and beckoned Ruby closer and put a finger to my lips to be quiet. I placed another marker at my feet.
Luckily in the lower concentration of ice affinity I could teleport. Especially if I had a marker to pull me towards the destination. It was still more expensive with the somewhat higher than average concentration of ice mana but compared to the abundance of ice mana outside it was like comparing the densities of steel to water. I had tested it early on in the bunker with Ruby and Raven and now I was putting it to use.
Ruby still looked extremely confused and a little concerned but followed me anyways. I pulled a grenade out and pulled the pin. In a second I placed it back in. I waited one second and dared another half before I teleported with the crate back to Raven. She whirled around so fast you'd think she'd have whiplash and she stared in surprise at the crate of grenades. It was followed by perhaps more shock at me teleporting back to my marker next to Ruby.
I made a shield of projected mana around Ruby and took my physical body out of her. A massive boom and a fiery roar came from the deeper part of the armory but I ignored it. I grabbed Ruby and whispered in her ear "Trust me." And placed her in my soul space. I hope that was enough.
With as much speed as I could muster I dashed towards the cut in the door. I gave my ice affinity as much mana as I could to seal the doorway. Before my ice touched the floor a shimmering grey liquid shot out from under the ice and I jumped backwards.
The grey liquid coalesced into Raven's form with irritated eyes and pressed lips.
Mimic
Titles: Curious being; Prisoner; Physical Powerhouse; Consumer
Level – 888
HP – 915,860
AP – 4,200
MP - 23,080
STR - 736 (+420%)= 3827.2
VIT - 1991 (+820%)= 18,317.2
DEX - 960 (+420%)= 4472
INT - 577 (+0%)= 577
WIS - 105 (+0%)= 105
LUK - 21 (+0%)= 21
Semblance: Structured being - Your mind and body are completely under your control no matter the circumstances. Mental instabilities such as insanity or ferality are forbidden from you.
Affinities:
Unity (Innate): 8709
Consumption (Innate): 4524
Metal (Innate): 1424
Ice: 489
Perks:
Polymorph - Your form is liquid and capable of becoming various forms via the mana in the air. This is instinctual for you and as such grants naturally high leveled acting and behavioral mimicry skills. Grants polymorph skill.
Mana sensitive - Your species is especially sensitive to changes in mana and aura to a lesser degree. Venturing into areas dense with mana can be harmful or even fatal. Changes may occur to you due to exposure to intense concentrations of mana.
Steel body (Regenerating) - You have the rare trait of your body being made of steel. You take 80% less physical damage (including physical damage to your aura) and 25% less damage from heat (Body only). +400% VIT.
Bio: This mimic was artificially born from a collection of samples by the scientists occupying site frost. It was not harmed but the extremely logical perspective of the scientists at its developing stages stunted its emotional growth.
For the years since the destruction of the site and the absence of the Managuard the mimic has been alone. It seeks escape to learn about the species who made it.
"What gave me away?" The Mimic asked calmly. It's face was kept perfectly friendly with a small smile on Raven's face.
"You have mana that you didn't hide as Raven did." I said calmly. "You lack a heartbeat. Finally, Raven knows my capabilities. She wouldn't have bothered carrying the crate when there are more efficient ways of retrieving it. Now where is Raven?"
The mimic didn't shift it's expression at all. "She is unconscious and safe. The wraiths don't come here. None of their taint."
I narrowed my eyes. Well she was stiff in the bunker. That made this easier. "And what do you want?"
"You." the mimic said simply. "you are capable of shielding the little one from the purple. I want you to do the same for me and let me free."
"What are your intentions with the outside world?" I asked.
"To see it of course. To experience something other than this dreary bunker." it said in a perfectly reasonable tone, as though it hadn't attempted to deceive us and knocked out Raven.
"Why did you deceive us?" The Mimic let out a sad and vaguely mournful look.
"It is saddening… But such an approach was the best way to meet with you. In a position of power, you see. With both your friends hostage I could far more easily control you. I initially wanted to make peaceful contact and I still hope for a peaceful resolution but if I must be hostile…"
It was annoying that the mimic had such good acting skills. All I saw was honesty. I don't know whether I can't read him well enough, if it doesn't reflect human emotions, or if it genuinely was honest.
Trying something a little different I made a heal spell and tried to send it across the shared inventory to Raven. There was a moment of the spell not connecting before it hit her. I felt it connect and tried to heal her unconsciousness.
"I see…" I said with a frown. "Freedom is the most important thing to you, huh?" the mimic's smile almost imperceptibly widened a little and it nodded kindly.
"All I wish is to see all the world has to offer." I looked at him consideringly. Raven had oxygen deprivation and was slowly healing. No permanent damage luckily.
I enhanced her metabolism to compensate for the lack of oxygen. Her aura was either inactive versus mana when asleep or somehow sensed that my mana wasn't harmful.
There was my mana in my runes, actually. It wasn't like I could just scribble something and make it invincible. Maybe Raven's seeing of the runes as good and not fighting their foreign mana allows my mana some wiggle room with her.
Whatever the reason, Raven was getting better fast.
"Alright… And why should I trust you at all?" I asked the mimic. Raven's brain activity picked up from the unconsciousness.
"Good question." The Mimic approved. "It's because I can show you to the tower and the cave without any problems whatsoever."
I frowned. That… That might actually be useful. And with that said befriending the mimic could be a good option. It has advanced mana sensing and is powerful.
On the other hand the mimic I untrustworthy and emotionally stunted. And that power is a double edged sword…
No. I'm not taking that deal. Even if I respect the mimic's desire for freedom I can't help it. With that ice affinity It's accumulating it'll be able to free itself eventually. And it won't be my problem in the slightest.
I stared at the mimic, seemingly considering it, but actually waiting on Raven. Her aura had become more active and was seemingly more alert. I could sense it a little through the shared inventory.
I sighed. "You don't seem that bad. Desperate, perhaps, but I can truly relate to you."
The Mimic gave Me It's full attention… Damn I want him as an agent. But no… He's an unknown and a risk that could blow the whole magic secret wide open.
Well there are apparently cracks in the whole magic secret. The Managuard for example. And these sites. It's not my business to play cleanup but I'm not dumb enough to be the one to reveal magic directly to humanity.
"With that said…" A red portal opened up and, her sword already drawn, Raven emerged.
She looked capital P Pissed. Her maiden powers were acting with her emotions and mana and some aura radiated off of her like waves of physical force.
She had turned her net system off. Even a normal person would be able to feel the mana she was emanating. Aura was just a little extra.
Mimic hissed at the high intensity of mana and I smiled as I let down the hiding part of my own net system. I focused on that cold fury at the mimic that had attempted to harm Ruby and knock out Raven.
It was easy and my aura angrily whipped around me like a violent storm. My mana moved faster and more violently in my soul. I let it all out like Raven. Because of the high intensity of mana I let Ruby out.
Ruby had just barely come out before her head whipped between Raven and me. Something must have occurred to her since she took a few steps back. Good girl.
"Raven." I said coldly. "Let's rip him apart. He can take it." All the mimic's acting skill couldn't hide that small flash of fear in it.
Raven smirked cruelly. "With pleasure."
[|||| == ||||]
"Mom… the villain… is he really a bad person?"
"Crimson… why… how could you even ask that?! He traumatized Lavender and Azure took a year off from Beacon from trauma! He beat mom! He forced me to be in combat!"
"He did but… was he wrong? Even you admit that he was right in a way. Something would have happened eventually. Salem, Ozpin, some shadow faction, or 'Jaune being a dumbass', as Coral once put it. What he did was horrible but in the end he's right. It could have been much worse than it is. Well… not that anything has happened yet but at least you're ready for whatever comes next."
"He didn't have to do it the way he did! He could have warned us! Anything could have been better than rushing in and throwing everything mom hoped for to pieces! Maybe I do want to be a huntsman but I would never hurt my family to do it!"
"... Yeah. I thought you would say that…"
[|||| =NEXT LEVEL= ||||]
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