TtOW! - Chapter 40: Termination on Demand

NSLICE-00P arrived at the target area after a bit of leveling for the rat subordinates.

It was a swamp.

A damp, wet, swamp with murky, muddy, smelly water up to an adult man’s thighs.  Which meant noticeably higher on the shorter teenage girl cyborg.

NSLICE-00P scanned the area and confirmed no signs of intelligent, humanoid life within her sensor range.

As such, the risk of detection was minimal.  And she was entering a combat zone, where keeping capabilities confidential was lower priority than maximizing effectiveness.

As such, she activated her repulsors and flew several feet above the swamp.

She was, of course, designed to remain fully functional even if submerged in muddy swamp water.  But there was no benefit to increasing risk factors to her components, particularly when she lacked access to maintenance facilities and spare parts.

The foreign system might be repairing her components to mint condition in real time…but she shouldn’t overly rely on it if she could help it.

And the water decreased visibility.  Remaining physically present within it would present a risk of ambush.

The fact that her sensors could in fact account for this depth of water and her Dungeon Field provided a perfect awareness of the immediate vicinity was no excuse for negligence, after all.

And so NSLICE-00P’s calculations determined flying above the water was simply the best way to maximize the probability of mission success and minimize risk.

Yes, this was simply the most efficient course of action.

And so NSLICE-00P flew through the target area, locking onto stronger mana signatures to investigate.

Soon, she found it.

“Warning: Environmental toxins detected.”

A large area of the swamp was hidden by a cloud of noxious green fog.  Fortunately, NSLICE-00P was equipped with the latest in atmospheric filters and a fully sealed combat mode…

[The skill Poison Resistance is now level 2!]

Her organic components suddenly reported damage, her HP ticking down slightly.

NSLICE-00P immediately boosted with her repulsors and shot back out of the fog.  She then analyzed the data and her organic components.

It seemed the toxin was boosted by mana, and so a few particles had managed to slip past her filters.  Likewise, the toxin had not only attacked her biological components, but infected her HP barrier itself with a magical effect.  Fortunately, her filters reduced the efficacy of the attack, and her HP itself seemed to be fighting back against the effect, likely due to the poison resistance field.  Likewise, her implants included boosted blood filtration, so the biological component should be handled without issue, especially with the HP barrier repairing any actual damage.

Still, the cyborg saw no reason to let the situation continue.

“Deploying Cure countermeasure.”

The healing mana surged through her body, purging the toxic particles remaining in her body, as well as clearing the mana infection in her HP.

[The spell Cure is now level 2!]

With the toxins handled, NSLICE-00P turned her attention to the fog itself.  She could simply travel through it, relying on her filters, implants, Poison Resistance skill, and Cure spell to counterattack the toxin as it assaulted her.

But there was no reason to intentionally endure damage.

So NSLICE-00P rose high into the air, above the swamp.  She looked down and mapped out the area covered in the fog, searching for the strongest mana signature held within.

And then she formed her massive magic circle once again, triggering the Aurora Barrage.

Beams of light struck down into the swamp.

And then stopped.

NSLICE-00P watched as the beams refracted and weakened as they traveled through the fog.   The fog had some similar signatures to the Felix Pluvia’s rain, which NSLICE-00P judged as water attribute mana, along with the poison attribute she could identify from her own spells.  And its mana density was even stronger than that of the rain.

She could, in fact, cut through the fog if she fused the Aurora Barrage beams and boosted them with Spell Penetration and Supercharge, but she thought this could be a good opportunity to trial new capabilities.

She held out her hands, her core lighting up.  Her organic components had chosen the Infused Mana Beam specifically for use with Light Beam…but the description implied she was not limited to that spell.

So she converted her mana into various attributes and tried to fuse it into her energy channels.

A small red beam fired from her left hand while a tan beam fired from her right.  Then a purple beam and a green beam.  Followed by a soft white beam and a bright yellow beam.  All the while her robotic eye flickered, recording and analyzing the performance of each beam as it traveled into the fog.  She rounded off the test with a simple unattributed beam, as well as a shot from one of her assault rifles.

The Fire attribute beam showed no improvement on the standard beam, performing slightly worse.  It seemed to interact positively with the poison attribute but was subsequently dampened by the water attribute mana in the air.  The Earth attribute beam showed some promise, but was hard to infuse into Mana Beam to start with and so started off weaker than the others.  The Poison beam battled head on with the poison mana, each trying to overpower the other directly.  The Nature beam absorbed the water mana, empowering itself, but was weakened by the poison.   The Recovery beam was interesting, it reacted strongly with the poison attribute, stripping it away, but did not remove the mana itself, and so made no impact on the fog besides the removal of some toxins.

The Light attribute mana-beam was cast without the Light Beam spell to provide a standardized comparison with the other attributes, which formed the control case along with the unattributed beam.  Finally, the Arcane School of Magic utilized unattributed mana to begin with, and so provided no element to infuse into Mana Beam.

From her test, it seemed a combination of Nature and Recovery attributes might perform best.  But she did not possess significant offensive capabilities within either of those schools of magic, so she would be limited to infused Mana Beams if she wanted to go that route.  Which ultimately would be less efficient than clearing a path with the Equalizer.

And above all, the fog did nothing to stop the bullet from her assault rifle, which subsequently performed better than all the beams and struck the swamp with a splash.

So NSLICE-00P dropped the magic, and opened fire at the strongest mana signature with her assault rifles and missiles.

A toad the size of a car leapt out of the fog into the air, puffing its cheeks.  It pulled back its head and spat a huge glob of toxic acid at the floating cyborg.

She boosted out of the way and kept up her barrage.

And magic circles formed around her, launching light beams and magic missiles as the Giant Toad left the safety of the fog.

The creature had impressive health reserves, but few ways to combat a foe who could fight beyond the range of its fog.  And it was not fast enough to escape the flying cyborg.

This contest could only end one way.

[You have slain Giant Toad (Level 24)!]

[Gained 10 Personal XP and 3 Dungeon XP!]

***

Cassius raised an eyebrow as he heard a knock on the door.  He walked over and peeked through the hole once more and froze.

The knight was back.

The knight he sent against a Giant Toad.

A notorious swamp dweller surrounded by a dense, poisonous fog that disoriented the senses.

A monster the Legion generally handled by bombarding the area with siege weapons until the tanky creature would run off to somewhere less inconvenient.  Or by sending in a team of extraordinarily high leveled elites who could wipe out the beast quickly with a full team of recovery mages to heal them back up once the job was done.

A monster that a lone knight whose level was in the twenties should not have been able to handle.

Cassius gulped as he welcomed the knight back inside…

***

Whipping vines cracked through the air as NSLICE-00P boosted out of the way.  She faced a living willow tree, its hanging branches moving more like whips and limps as they tried to grab the nimble cyborg.

Her bullets and missiles made little impact on the monster tree’s solid bark, its HP regenerating the damage with ease.

And the Aurora Barrage failed entirely.  The tree simply absorbed any light mana, using the mana to heal itself even.

Panels slid open on NSLICE-00P’s wrists and magic circles formed around her.  Jets of flame surged out as she activated her flamethrowers and Fire Blast spells.

She heard something like a high-pitched shriek as the vines caught fire.

“Observation: Weakness detected.  Adapting strategy.”

A hail of wooden thorns soared through the air as the tree tried to drive her away.  NSLICE-00P threw up mana barriers and took evasive action, but was unable to close the distance.  The tree itself was still out of range of her fire jets.

Which meant this was an opportunity to try something new.

NSLICE-00P activated the Spell Fusion skill.  She selected two spells, observing with interest as the magic circles overlaid in the air.

A dense ball of fire shot from the circle.  The tree managed to move a vine in the way before the ball reached it.

And then the ball exploded into a large sphere of flame.

[The skill Spell Fusion is now level 2!]

[You have learned the spell Fireball!]

[The skill Fire Magic is now level 7!]

She had combined the Dense Magic Missile and Fire Blast spells, hoping to stuff the Fire Blast into a projectile with greater range.  She did have the Fire Bolt spell already but the other two spells were at much higher levels, and she wanted to observe the effects of the Spell Fusion skill.

As it turned out, the combination was not only compatible, but basic enough to exist as its own spell.

And the process gave NSLICE-00P another idea.

She rose high into the sky, outside of the range of monster tree’s vines.  She formed a the Aurora Barrage magic circle in the sky once more.

But this time, she overlaid it with the new Fireball magic circles, covering each of the individual Light Beam magic circles that existed within the larger spell.

And then she activated the Spell Fusion skill.

The magic circles flashed…and fused together.

[You have learned the strategic spell Rain of Fire!]

[The skill Spell Fusion has leveled three times and is now level 5!]

[The spell Fireball has leveled four times and is now level 5!]

[The skill Fire Magic is now level 8!  Spell choice available!]

[The skill Strategic Magic is now level 5!]

Balls of fire began to rain from the sky, burning trails following each as they plummeted.

And the monster tree was engulfed in fiery explosions.

An ear-splitting screech filled the air as the entire tree went up in flames.

[The strategic spell Rain of Fire is now level 2!]

[You have slain level 25 Strangling Salicum!]

[Gained 10 Personal XP and 3 Dungeon XP!]

***

Cassius was sweating as a chill went down his spine.  The Strangling Salicum.  Monster trees in general were tough targets.  Their bark became like armor, their sheer size provided strong vitality, and nature attribute plant monsters are well known for having powerful regeneration.  They are especially strong against physical attacks like an armored knight should have relied on.  And the Strangling Salicum had countless whip-like vines to attack with, and entangle its target.  A lone attacker should have found themselves assaulted from every direction, unable to advance, unable to escape.

A monster tree generally requires a large group to deal with.  Preferably a group that had access to either siege weapons or strategic magic.

A lone, level 26 knight should not have had access to either of those.

Yet here she was, with a big magic core and the heartwood of a Strangling Salicum.

As he struggled to find another target on the map, Cassius screamed in his heart.

By the Aesdes, who or what was he dealing with here?!

***

“Yay, like, free lunch.”

The rats had grown significantly in level, so NSLICE-00P swapped them out for the spiders on this trip.

Besides, they were somewhat appropriate for this next target.

A colony of monster wasps.

Lilussees clattered her mandibles as they approached the target area.

“Um, like, I’m going to sit this one out, boss.  Monster wasps are, like, my natural enemy, or something.”

Or not.

NSLICE-00P formed an Aurora Barrage spell as the air filled with wasps the size of large dogs.

As it turns out, monster wasps are not particularly strong against light magic.

[You have slain 30 Monster Wasp Drones, 10 Monster Wasp Warriors, and 1 Monster Wasp Queen!  Compiling experience…]

[Gained 128 Personal XP and 123 Dungeon XP total!]

[You have leveled up 2 Personal levels and 2 Dungeon levels!]

[You are now Personal Level 28 and Dungeon Level 34!]

***

Cassius was now openly sweating and trembling slightly.

“Observation: This unit and entity ‘Cassius’ have now conducted several successful transactions.  This unit is requesting Cassius provide details on potential assistance with this unit’s primary objective.”

“T-That’s…um…”

This was dangerous.

Very dangerous.

“J-Just one more?”

Well, he had been trying monsters with lower levels than the knight to avoid suspicion, but she seemed to be capable beyond his wildest imagination for her level.  So he’d send her after something big this time, something beyond her current level.

That is, if he could convince her to go on any further missions.

“Negative Response: Returning to this location solely for monetary compensation has been determined as inefficient.  Please provide this unit with detail on assistance with primary objective or she will resume independent action.”

“This is the last one!  Turns out there’s an Ursanus Alpha that made their way down here, probably lost a territorial contest with the Tyrant of the Beasts.  It’s…probably pretty high level, so if you handle this we can…hey, what are you doing?!”

The knight’s helmet slid on out of nowhere the moment Cassius said the monster’s name.  Cassius held up his hands, ready to plead for his life.

“High Priority Target identified.  Request: Please provide target location.”

Cassius blinked, then slowly shuffled over to the table.  He kept one hand raised as he pointed on the map with his other, trembling as he did.

“Target location confirmed, engaging termination protocols.”

With that, the knight marched right out the door.

Author’s Note:

Also known as the training montage…but with termination!

Anyways!

Can Cassius continue to handle this strange, increasingly abnormal knight?  Will NSLICE-00P terminate another Ursanus Alpha?  Have her subordinates grown enough to conduct intelligence?  Tune in next time, to find out!