Journey of Robotics Chapter 2.1

Azra POV~~~~~

As we made our way over to the central building, Puppet appeared and joined us. He reported that all the other buildings seemed to mimic the first building that we examined. As we approached the central building the signs of battle grew worse. Several of the traps had already been triggered and destroyed by whatever force had attacked this place. I noticed something embedded in the ground as we walked and bent over to pick it up.

“Hey, Puppet! This is one of Master’s ‘bullets’ right?” I asked as I made sure to get the word right. Puppet moved over and took the round piece of metal and examined it. He tossed it up a few times as if he was checking its weight. 

“Yeah, this is definitely Father’s,” he said after a moment. 

“So, they were definitely here,” Natsuko said excitedly.

“That seems to be the case,” Puppet said with a nod. 

“The question is how did they get all the way out here,” Z2 tossed over as moved some rubble round with her foot. 

“I feel like the answer is in that building,” I said with a gesture to the central building. 

We made our way inside and looked around. We actually saw something other than rubble. Nearly a dozen bodies were spread in various stages of decay in the room. The smell was horrible just from the entrance. On the wall was a body of a man that had on robes like the necromancers that attacked the valley. He had been impaled through by a spear right through his heart. 

“Well… that looks painful,” Skjold said in the corner of my mind. 

“I agree,” I thought back. 

We looked around after we moved the bodies to a pile in the corner of the room. A giant magic circle was embedded on the floor here as well. This took the most of the floor and had several gems socketed in places. I started to get dizzy just from looking at all the runes. A good twenty minutes went by before Natsuo was able to get a grasp of it. 

“Teleport,” Natsuo said after he came out of the building a while later. 

“I remember Father said teleport magic was rare,” Puppet said with a frown. 

“Ancient cities, or cities that were built before the Demon Wars, have a teleport hub that lets a person travel within 500 kilometers as long as they know the destination. It's a very expensive privilege that nobles get to experience,” I said as I thought of the history lessons from school back before I had become a slave.

“Should we ask Father whether he wants us to put a core here?” Z2 asked.

Natsuo shook his head, “Destroyed, mana… weak, no reason,” he answered. 

“Other than these five buildings, everything else has been reclaimed by the forest. I don’t know how the Necromancers managed to find it, but it's useless now,” Puppet said as he looked around. 

“I think we should make that a permanent condition. This is too close to Master for my comfort,” I said and slammed my shield into the ground.

“I agree, Father doesn’t need this anyways. He can already make his own teleports,” Z2 said from beside me. 

“Azra, try and bring it down,” Puppet said. 

I nodded and moved next to the wall of the building. I kneeled and set my hand on the ground, then channeled my mana into the ground to see if I could affect it. I felt resistance at first, but the magic that would have protected the building was old and underpowered now. I forced my way under the center of the building. I needed to bring it down but also destroy the magic circle inside so that no one could reconstruct it later. 

I got an idea and began to pour mana into the area. I focused on losing the grain that made up the stones and made them as small as sand. The roof which was the least protected now was the first to start to change. It was like watching time go in fast forward, as sand began to fall to the floor below. The process sped up as I got better at it and soon I was at the walls. Barely three minutes passed before a pit formed into of me that would likely continue sinking for a few days. 

“Do the other buildings too, just to be safe,” Puppet said, and I nodded. I made my way to the other buildings and repeated the process, which took less time with each building. When I was down, it looked like a desert that had formed in the middle of the forest. I hoped this didn’t cause any problems for the local wildlife. 

“Babe, can you throw me in the middle of that, of course with a rope tied to pull me back up,” Skjold asked suddenly.

“What? Why?”

“I can absorb the unholy mana still in the area.”

“Why would I let you do that?!” I retorted.

“Umm, spirit in a shield here,” skjold said as if that explained everything, “unholy mana will let me get stronger, which means a stronger shield for you.”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this, but at least it will get rid of the unholy mana from the area so no undead pop up,” I said and reached into my bag for some rope. I had to remember to thank the Master for the space bags later. 

“That’s my Babe,” Skjold said.

“You know, I have a name.” I tied the rope to the shield and tossed it into the center of the sand dune. It sank for a bit but soon hit solid ground. 

“Eh-h, but you have such a rocking body! It would be a waste not to call you Babe,” Skjold complained. I decided to ignore him and just keep hold of the rope. I was tempted to let it go, but then I would have lost the shield Master made for me. After a few minutes, he was done, and I pulled him back up. The shield had lines of green ever since the battle but now they slightly pulsed before they died down. The others didn’t seem too bothered by the event, so I shrugged and turned to Puppet.

“Well, where to now?” I asked.

Puppet closed his eyes, most likely accessing his drones. We waited for a few minutes before he opened his eyes, “The next signal is a few days to the east from here. There are quite a few different mana signatures, so it was hard to sort through them all,” he said then rubbed his temples. 

“Are you telling me that I have to walk more?!” Natsuko said with annoyance on her voice. 

“While in the forest,” Puppet replied with a shrug.

“That babe needs to take the stick out of her ass,” Skjold said from my back and almost caused me to snort with a chuckle.

“Something funny?!” Natsuko demanded.

“Sorry, Skjold just said something,” I said while I waved my hands in front of me. 

“I bet… tell you, buddy, if I find out he’s talking shit, I’ll use him for a table,” Natsuko said with a skeptical look. 

“She’s welcome to try! I’ll take her on any day of the week!” Skjold yelled back in my head.

“He said message received,” I replied instead. 

She ‘hmphed’ and turned her nose up at me, she moved over to Natsuo. I ignored them as we made our way back into the forest. I felt it was a good thing that the others couldn't hear what Skjold said most of the time. Natsuko would probably use him for target practice. 

“They just can’t handle this much greatness,” Skjold said.

“Most of the time when someone can’t handle something they remove it,” I retorted.

“Eh-h, true… true enough,” he said, defeated.

We made good time through the forest, but as I expanded quite a bit of mana earlier to bring down the ruins, we decided to actually rest tonight. The others wanted to do maintenance on their weapons and armor as well. Once it was about to be nightfall, Puppet found a decent clearing in the forest and the House was set up soon after. Z2 rushed inside as she said she was going to send the report to Master. I shook my head it had barely been two days yet since we left the dungeon. 

I moved into a small room that had my name on it and sat my weapons on some hooks that had been prepared. I examined the shield Master gave me again. I wanted to make sure there was no damage before I did anything else. With the size of a small door, it was over a meter tall and nearly half a meter wide. The corners were curved slightly, and there was a symbol of gears interlocked in the center of the shield. In the centermost gear was a crystal that represented the Master.

“You just thought I was fat!” Skjold shouted in my head.

I massaged my shoulder before I said, “yes. Yes, you are.”

I didn’t get a reply, so I knew he must be sulking. I tapped a button on my armor, and the tight-fitting full plates started to draw back until it was just a small box much like House. Master had made one for each of use so that it would be less of a hassle to armor-down while traveling. I grabbed some fresh clothes from the dresser and made my way to the bath that Master had made. I was filthy from walking through the forest all day.