Mage And Wolf
Chapter 277

Chapter 277: Chapter 277

After a day of relaxation and planning, Karl returns from his journey out East with a grim face. He looks utterly exhausted and his favorite leather jacket smells like a mixture of human and Beast blood, though it looks freshly washed.

"Did things go that badly?"

"That and worse. The monsters have gathered between the Great Lakes and are moving as a herd to the southeast. They’re being led by some sort of tentacle beast that nullifies everything short of Divine Energy. Without it, the cultivators are helpless, physical strength alone isn’t enough for any Mortal Realm Cultivator to take out a category 4 monster one on one. Most of what used to be Michigan has fallen now, and everything north of that was theirs to begin with. I only found a few scattered outposts like the pack here in my entire trip across to the coast."

At that point he stops to rub the bridge of his nose, relieving tension. That’s my cue, the touch of your mate calms and relaxes you, so I move forward to give him a hug, wriggling my arms under his shirt and burying my face in his chest. The sleeves of my red silk blouse are nice and soft against the skin, but the warm tingle of a mate’s body against you is always the best part of a hug in a Lycan relationship.

"Thanks. I should also tell you, the East Coast Alliance has pictures of us up everywhere. We might be the most wanted War Criminals on the planet. They’ve also recently embargoed everything coming from Arcana or the Dragons, including healers, travelers from cultivation worlds and magical ammunition. They’ll gladly shoot cultivators with regular bullets though. They’re accusing everyone who seems in any way supernatural of being an enemy soldier.

They see cultivators as an extension of their war against supernatural beings, which they doubled down on after we blew up Washington. That’s why they wouldn’t accept cultivation techniques. Most of the small groups that would have been willing to listen to reason have been wiped out, either by monsters or by humans over the last few weeks, and the delegations from the task force are dead or have fled."

That just gets worse and worse as he goes. Category 3 monsters were already outside of the capabilities of most mundane ammunition. Even the gigantic category 2 monsters that were appearing in the Deep South destroyed nearly all technological attempts to stop them.

"Is there any good news?"

"A little. Scientists out of Florida have developed a cultivation energy powered Armor Suit. It currently just walks and has an impressive plasma rifle, but they’re working on a flying version." A small smile finally spreads across Karl’s face at the thought of the armor suits.

"Like Knightly armor or giant robots 2.0?"

"Medium Robots. Condensation Realm volunteers didn’t have the capacity for Giant Robots, and Core Formation cultivators are stronger than their prototypes. So they came up with something about 3 meters tall that the pilot sits down inside.

They used the cockpit from a track hoe with extra armor for the cabin, they’re actually pretty cool. The Dragons are helping them and taught them to make barrier Inscriptions, but those only take them so far, since they use a lot of energy if they’re damaged and the test unit can’t continually feed them monster cores in combat. It would burn more than they gain."

This talk of experimental objects has drawn Elder Song like a magnet, and Karl hands over a roll of blueprints the moment the old cultivator comes running into the room.

"Good man, good man. I know a great many inscriptions for strengthening materials. If we can recreate these with a few tweaks and train fighters to activate them with a large number of inscriptions, we could make Condensation Realm Guards as strong as Core Formation fighters and Category 4 monsters. It will be glorious."

Oh no, the madmen are laughing with each other now, ignoring my presence. At least I thought they were until Karl picked me up to go somewhere. His hand is warm against the leather of my pants, but I can feel his annoyance through the bond. It seems he would have much preferred a skirt so he could get his hands on my bare skin.

"We’re going to build a workshop in the yard and assemble some security bots. Do you want to leave, or am I carrying you all morning?"

That’s a good question. His exhaustion must have been mostly mental, since he’s energized now by the thought of experiments, plus I’ve missed him.

I send a quick thought through the Mate Bond about all the things I could do while curled up in his lap and Karl laughs, giving me a bounce on his hip. "With me it is then. But try to behave, we’ve got a bachelor with us and it’s not nice to tease people."

It barely takes a minute to assemble a metal frame and canvas shed to work in before they’re fully engrossed in their project. The chassis is a simple thing, since it’s going to be powered by inscriptions and not hydraulics like the original. The Dragons suggested this, but none of the Acolytes and youngsters who volunteered had high enough level knowledge to actually accomplish it.

First they create the major assemblies in one piece, then they start designing inscriptions to link them to the controls and power their movement. There’s over forty in total, covering every joint, including articulated fingers.

It has no power source of its own, no sensors, no targeting system, everthing is just an extension of the cultivator using it through the double joystick and pedals system. The foot controls are omni directional controlled by the end of the user’s feet to move the legs. It looks a bit awkward, but seems functional once I understand how you’re meant to control everthing.

By lunch, they’ve got it assembled and waiting on the first test.

"Can I play? Call it an outside verification, proof that others can use what you designed."

I’m going to get to play with that thing one way or the other. If they say no I’m totally coming back early from lunch to play with the robot.

"You know I can hear your thoughts, right? You forget to close the link when you’re excited." Karl’s laughter is contagious and Elder Song understands what I want just by the direction of my stare.

"Fine you can test it first, but don’t break it, we haven’t fully recorded everthing we did yet."

Sweet! I climb up into the cockpit, strapping myself into the seat after adjusting all the control positions for my size. There’s a checklist of over fifty different inscriptions that need to activate in sequence to make this thing work, and I begin working my way through the list, careful not to accidentally allow one to stop functioning as I go.

Each Inscription takes a little energy to keep active, so a fair bit of control is needed to make it to the bottom of the list, a concerning obstacle for the Condensation Realm cultivators they intended to use this thing.

"Couldn’t we group the inscriptions into larger blocks for activation, that way the pilot would only need to keep a half dozen larger inscriptions active which can activate the rest? I’m not sure a Condensation Realm Cultivator is up to keeping all of these active, especially during an intense fight."

"That’s the plan, but first we need to make sure everthing works individually. Try to move for us. Start with the arms, then torso, then we can do a walking test." Elder Song instructs me, one of his beloved notebooks in hand.