《Mechanization against magic》


 Chapter 0: When robots come to life

    "Professor! The defenses won''t hold! We have to surrender!" A strange creature shouted out. It resembled a human, but had metal features covering parts of it''s body, such as nails, teeth, chest and a two horns coming out of it''s head. It also had 4 spider-like limbs coming from it''s back, one of whom resembled a spear, one a flamethrower, one looked to be a machine-gun and the last one had two rockets on each of it''s sizes.


    A man similar to it, but with 8 limbs on his back shouted back "Krakou, we won''t survive this. You of all people should know this full-well. Humans fear us for our powers, even if we surrender we will all face death anyway. Those people want nothing but our death, so it''s much better to die fighting. Please, hold the line for a whilst longer though. I''m almost done with our last hope." The creature, Krakou, grit his teeth.


    "... Fine you rotten piece of metal. I''ll order our brothers to defend the line. If we ever meet in the deepest parts of hell, I''ll personally punch you for making us do this!" Even though it said that, Krakou clearly had a small smile on it''s face. It known the professor for centuries, and they had many adventures togheter.


    They had led their small species to greatness. They even successfully conquered a world called Earth a couple of years ago, but the strange unadvanced creatures had been somehow able to push them almost to extinction. They called themselves ''human'', truly fearsome creatures. They''re ability to adapt and invent was astromical.


    They''re initial momentum had been stopped when a human scientist had invented a strange weapon capable of actually killing them. It is to be noted that the creature''s race, the Asylum, were immortal to aging. They considered themselves at the epitome of science, as they were literally borned with machines inside of themselves. They had immense regeneration capabilities, a multitude of weapons, tools, and tricks at their disposal inside of their bodies. Despite all of this, the humans had still been able to somehow push back their invasion...


    As the professor began recalling his species past, he turned back and looked at what he hoped to be his species'' last hope and strongest individual. He had programmed inside of it a gigantic amount of weapons, given it all the secrets and knowledge of all science known to them. He had spent the entirety of it''s species immense resources on it to create what he called ''Project Asylum''s Hope''. Everyone laughed at his naming sense...


    Shaking his head to get rid of his thoughts, the professor concentrated his 8 limbs into the small child that was his hopes and dreams. He fused, cut, injected, compressed, fired, burned, melted, cooled and froze for hours. After 4 hours, he was finally done. The child was ready for it''s journey. It was clear that it would die on this planet, so the plan was to send it into space where it would hopefully one day land into a habitable planet. He had programmed the spaceship with extremely complicated requirements for which planet the child should fall in.


    First of all, the planet should be habitable, which this alone required immense amount of coding to determine. Then, it needed beyond-bacteria level of life, as the childwould otherwise starve. There were many other requirements, but those two were the main ones.


    He gave the child a small kiss, and put it inside of a small spaceship. Just as he began to hear battle sounds, meaning that the humans were closing in, he quickly activated the launch and watched as the ship flew out, into the sky. Several missiles flew towards it the moment it left the main ship, but it successfully evaded them all and reached outer space, where it will one day find a place to bring back the Asylum''s glory.


    The professor then heard an explosion and slowly turned around. There stood 6 humans, the considered ''Heroes'' of the humans. He looked at them and said in a deep voice "Well? Expecting a last speech from me? You killed all of my brethren, but I understand your actions. If you expect me to surrender and be humiliated, you''re in for a suprise."


    The professor then turned his operational limbs into warfare limbs, creating 6 limbs with laser-like guns and two machine-gun limbs.


    One of the humans stepped forward and shouted "Are you the ''Professor''?" The professor nodded, a human sign that he learned meant approval. The same human said slightly sad "Well, one of your brethren called Krakou said to give you it''s regards. It said that may you two meet again in the afterworld". The professor visibly cringed, and tears began to stream down his eyes. He then slowly said "... Well... I really do hope to meet you again... Krakou... Wait for me, as I''ll be coming with you soon, my dearest friend."Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    As if on a prearranged agreement, the two parties started a furious fight. Streams of blue, made by the professor''s laser guns and hundreds of rockets exploded everywhere inside of the lab. The humans kept firing their weak guns, that were somehow able to seriously injure the professor. They''re battle raged for an entire hour, in which the professor successfully sucked out the life of two of the humans. He fed from their life and regenerated himself, but it was not enough.


    The humans eventually overtook him, cutting off his weaponized limbs. They then pinned him into the floor, and he smiled slightly and weakly said "Huh... It seems that the ''Heroes'' are truly monsters. To be able to defeat me, considered the strongest of the strongest with merely six of you... Haha, you will go far in life... Well, it''s not the end of us yet, but for us it''s the end of our hopes of establishing our own planet... Kill me, please." The professor said and closed his eyes.


    A human girl looked at him with teary eyes. She slowly brought her pistol up to his face and pulled the trigger, finally killing the monstrousity known as the professor.


    It is to be said that an average Asylum is capable of taking on thousands of humans alone, and this was the strongest of them. To be defeated by six humans alone, and not with any cheap tricks meant that these guys were truly experienced and strong. For an Asylum, strenght was obtained immediately from birth thanks to their mechanical bodies, and through the centuries they''d gain the knowledge and experience.


    However, an Asylum''s strongest ability is what they call ''Soul Trivia''. They are able to take away a creature''s ''soul'' by stabbing them with any of their limbs on the back. They can then use this soul to regenerate themselves or store it for later usage. Their immortality came exactly from this power, as unlike all other living beings, their bodies naturally created soul through the ages, whilst other races only had a set amount from birth and once used never came back.


    The Asylum''s second strongest weapon, their limbs on the back. They''re number corresponded to how strong an Asylum was. If an Asylum was born with 4 limbs, it would never be able to create more. They were able to retract those limbs inside of their bodies or sprout them in a span of 3 seconds. Otherwise, they had the appearance of a human, but with ears like a wolf''s on their heads.


    For an Asylum, their bodies would usually be created already in adult form, else they remain child for the rest of their lives, as an Asylum''s body does not age. They also lack a clear gender, due to their lack of sexual interaction. For them, creating a child is done through the use of science.


    When the humans finally won the decade-long invasion, they celebrated and peace lasted for an entire generation, before wars broke out again, as the humans no longer had a common threat that would unite them. However, the weapons that were once developed to only kill the Asylum were now modified to become weapons of mass-destruction. The nations through the world competed and fought over resources, as they slowly deplorated.


    After 80 years, the Earth exploded into all-out war, lasting 20 more years. This war effectively brought an end to the human''s reign, as hundreds of bombs multiple times more powerful then nuclear bombs were launched all through the world.


    Meanwhile, the spaceship that was launched by the professor soared through space at 300km/h. Inside of it, a child of perhaps 13 years calmly slept, ignoring the world outside the spaceship. This child, if examined closely, had 10 very small bulges on it''s back. It continued to sleep for hundreds of years, indisturbed.


    After 600 years, the spaceship entered the orbit of a planet closely resembling the Earth it had once escaped. The ship sped up as gravity pulled it closer.


    From the planet, many living beings looked up at the sky to see what resembled a falling star, coming towards them.It looked as if it was going to slam into the planet, however, the ship''s AI detected it, and forcefully slowed down the spaceship using up all of it''s power. The ship still slammed, but only creating a small earthquake and no bigger damage.


    The ship had dug into a mountain, resembling what could be a cave. The ship patiently waited, obeying it''s program, for someone to come near it. It had been programmed to do so, as the child would need someone to either help it or feed it.


    Sure enough, after spending another 20 years inside the cave, the ship detected 3 presences, and released what would come to be called the ''Golem of Destruction''.

 Chapter 1: Awakening

    Just outside of a small village, three small figures could be seen fleeing for their lives. One was a girl had cat ears and tail, another one was a boy had long and pointy ears and the last one was yet another boy, but this one had a horn on his forehead, a devil-like tail and two small wings on his back.


    Their village had been attacked by slavers, and they, alongside a couple kids, had been forced to escape into the forest by their desperate parents. They were told to run to the mountain range to the north of the village, where hopefully the slavers wouldn¡¯t chase them.


    Their hopes were in vain though, as they knew the slavers were on their tracks by the smell. Desperate, the kids continued to run despite their aching legs.


    They kept running for hours and hours. Soon enough, an entire day had passed and they hadn¡¯t had a moment of sleep. They had indeed arrived at the mountain range, but they knew the slavers were close to them.


    ¡°Syria, Albert, let¡¯s at least try to find a safe place. Maybe they won¡¯t find us?¡± Asked the elf in a pained voice. The other two nodded and slowed down their run. They were merely 16 years old, but they were still quite strong. After all, the elf was an acknowledged genius in magic and Syria and Albert were quite good with the sword. Thus, they afford to run for an entire day, but they were extremely tired.


    They found a cave after 10 minutes of searching, and entered it. They vigilantly looked around, as the cave almost seemed suspicious. It dug deeply into the mountain¡¯s side, and seemed to go down for hundreds of meters into the ground.


    ¡°Guys, I can¡¯t¡­ do this¡­ I¡¯m too tired¡­ will they catch us?¡± Asked Syria, obviously frightened and tired. The two males looked at each other sadly. They indeed did not have many hopes of escaping anymore, and they certainly didn¡¯t want to be caught, only to be sold off as labor slaves themselves and let Syria be assaulted.


    ¡°Let¡¯s search deeper into the cave. Perhaps they won¡¯t find us there¡­? Zander, help Syria, I¡¯ll be the vanguard.¡± Zander nodded and helped Syria stand up. They kept walking inside the cave, the atmosphere getting scarier by the second.


    After 10 minutes of walking, they arrived and found something¡­ strange.


    It was a coffin-like object. It had strange things all around it, and looked quite battered. Albert tried to carefully examine it, however, the moment it got close to it the thing suddenly started to move, which caused Albert¡¯s heart to leap out from his throat from the scare. He backed away and got in front of Syria and Zander.


    The three of them were on full alert, with magic ready to be cast and swords drawn. The strange object suddenly stood up, and the coffin¡¯s door-like part started to slowly come out. They watched it warily, but slowly got more and more curious. After all, they were merely teenagers, and despite their training, they were never in any life-or-death situation, so they were quite innocent and naive.


    After a couple minutes, the door fully opened and mist came out from the door. As soon as they touched it, they felt that it was extremely strange. It was cold and felt somewhat like milk. It soon dispersed, and they looked again inside the strange object to find a¡­ kid. He or she looked quite young, however it¡¯s age wasn¡¯t all that clear. It had beautiful snow hair going down all the way on to slightly beyond his shoulders. Two horns came out from it¡¯s temples, and it had wolf-like ears on it¡¯s head.


    The child slowly opened it¡¯s eyes. One burned a deep ruby red color whilst the other was a deep blue just like the clearest parts of the ocean. It had completely white skin, without any imperfection. It¡¯s chest was flat, but it¡¯s butt slightly came out. It¡¯s face also looked angelic, with a small nose and sharp eyes. It was wearing nothing but a pair of panties.


    It looked over at them with a completely emotionless expression. The three teenagers took a step back, slightly scared of the weird child who came out of a weird box. After a bit, Syria asked ¡°Uh¡­ Who are you¡­?¡±


    The child looked at her, but didn¡¯t reply. After about 5 minutes of staring, his eyes suddenly opened wide and they began to shine and he said, almost like a golem. ¡°Greetings. This is a pre-recorded voice-over. This child has been sent here by me, a god. It requires an offering of life, so may you kind people who found him tell it where to find any living being? Any help will be rewarded by me, the great and powerful god~.¡±


    The three teenagers looked at the kid, who¡¯s eyes stopped shining and who still had an emotionless expression, but one could tell he was slightly confused. They whispered to each other ¡°I don¡¯t believe the kid¡­ Just who is it?¡± Said Albert, and the other two nodded. Syria also asked ¡°Uh, is he a girl or a boy? I can¡¯t tell¡­¡±


    The kid then moved for the first time. It slowly took a step forward, almost clumsily. Once it had made the step, it made another one, slightly faster. After it had done this most basic thing, it looked quite satisfied.


    The three kids soon heard footsteps resounding from the entrance of the cave, and all turned around, with fear clear in their eyes.


    After a bit, a group of adult humans arrived. They were all muscular, and looked like the typical knight. One of them stepped forward and said ¡°Well, if it isn¡¯t some survivors. We¡¯ve been on your tracks for quite a while. We¡¯d like to have you alive and uninjured, so could you kindly surrender?¡± He asked in a sweet tone, riddled with arrogance. Albert couldn¡¯t help but grit his teeth and shout ¡°As if! You¡¯ll just sell us! We¡¯d rather die here then be taken by you scum! The kingdom will find out about this and take revenge for us!¡±


    The leader snorted, and then ordered his men ¡°Capture them alive. It¡¯s better if they¡¯re uninjured, and keep the girl for me later.¡± His gaze then swept over the three, no, four kids. He raised an eyebrow at the addition of a random kid.


    He was only supposed to be chasing down three non-humans, not four. However, this was quite the nice addition, as the additional kid looked quite good. Perhaps he could play with it if it was a girl, which he was having serious trouble discerning wether it was or not.


    The men surrounded the three kids and blocked all of their attempts at defense, and soon neutralized them and tied them up. They ignored the fourth kid, who was just standing inside of a weird box.


    One of the men began to grope the cat-girl, who screamed out. ¡°Let her go you bastards!! I¡¯ll kill all of you!!¡± Screamed out Albert, almost going insane from the rage and powerlessness he felt. The leader laughed and said ¡°Haha, that¡¯s what you deserve you non-human scum. Men, I said to keep her for me. Do you want me to punish you!¡± The captain said and the other men nodded.


    However, a voice soon resounded through the cave. It was emotionless, as if a golem was speaking. ¡°Initiate pre-arranged birth protocol: Save Finders. Objective: Eliminate possible threats.¡± Everyone turned to look at the strange kid, who had spoken those strange words. He slowly began to walk forward, a strange, cold aura emanating from it. After a couple steps, the kid stopped.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Everybody was frozen. They could almost feel the aura touching against their skin. It was cold, emotionless. The aura of a killing machine, ready to inflict sure death upon it¡¯s enemies.


    As if on clue, two giant metallic limbs erupted from the kid¡¯s back. They pointed against the men, who immediately tried moving away, but didn¡¯t do so fast enough. The metallic limbs soon began to rotate, and fired an immense volley of tiny blue things. The men were shredded apart the moment it hit them, and the remaining ones threw themselves at the small child.


    It looked at them, still completely emotionless. Four new limbs came from the kid¡¯s back and swiftly impaled the four men closest to it, who screamed as they began to turn into skeletons. They¡¯re flesh looked as if it was being sucked into the strange metal limbs.


    The remaining six men and the captain began to tremble at the display. This child was a complete monster. They were by no means weak, but they knew their limits, and this kid clearly surpassed them. They tried to turn around and flee, but again, four new limbs sprouted, totaling 10. All of the limbs then transformed and gained a spear-like tip at the end, which looked extremely sharp.


    The limbs then sped towards the men like snakes and stabbed into them. The men screamed out, and visibly began to age, and after 10 seconds only bones remained of the men. The limbs then retracted and returned into the kid¡¯s back.


    It slowly turned back towards the three shaking kids. They had never seen a person dies, furthermore, the kid terrified them. His heartlessness and cold aura alone was enough to make them cry, but they all held back the tears.


    ¡°Terminate protocol.¡± The kid said slowly and he stood there, motionless and emotionless. 20 minutes pass and the kid still hadn¡¯t moved, so the three other kids looked at each other and slowly retreated. He was blocking the exit, so they couldn¡¯t escape.


    They waited for hours for the kid to finally move, and only after 4 hours did the kid finally decide to slightly move. It began to walk, carefully watching his steps, as if trying to learn. It spent another hour walking in circles, sometimes almost falling down.


    Then the kid slowly turned towards the three kids and opened his mouth, and nothing came out. The three kids looked at the weird kid baffled. What was this kid doing? Just who was he/she?


    [¡­¡¯s Pov]


    I think, therefore I am. This is a saying I somehow know. I know not who I am, but I know my race. I am an Asylum, the last surviving member, shot into space and landed upon a foreign planet.


    I know that this information was programmed inside of me by my creator, the Professor. However, he must have messed something up, as I know everything about science, machines, programming, souls and for some reason, cooking, but I have no idea how to do the most basic things like walking or speaking. I do know how to speak, and my programs allow me to communicate with my soul, making it possible for me to speak and understand any language, but how do you emit sound from your mouth? How do you take steps forward without falling down?


    Luckily for me, the Professor did program into me some protocols for emergency occasions. One activated when some weird humans came and tried to harm the other 3 bipedal. They shouted something about chasing, but I couldn¡¯t follow their conversation. Why would the strange human save the weird bipedal for later?


    My protocol activated, and I killed all of them using my soul absorption. They tasted quite good, I have to admit. After I killed them, I stood there, thinking about myself and trying to reach conclusion. It took me a while, but I eventually figured out who I am by going through all of the programs inside of me and sorting them out.


    I am an Asylum who was sent away as the last hope for it¡¯s race. I am also the single strongest Asylum to ever be alive by a wide margin, considering all of the resources Creator invested into me. He designed me as a cute child in order for me to get into a school of this world and hopefully learn common sense, which he didn¡¯t input into me so that I could fully comprehend the common sense of this planet.


    However, I still can¡¯t figure out what Creator wanted me to do. Did he want me to live my life happily? But what is happiness? What are emotions? I can¡¯t understand several things inside of my coding for some reason, and some words just don¡¯t make any sense. What does he mean by ¡®mercy¡¯? It seems as if it¡¯s somehow related to fights, but I can¡¯t understand it¡¯s meaning. Also, what am I supposed to do about these three weird¡­ somethings? They seem humans, but are clearly not judging by the smell of their soul. I tried talking to them after I finally figured out how to walk, which came pretty quickly thanks to my advanced brain, that can be considered monstrous even by my fellow Asylums. However, I still needed to learn how to speak. I kept trying for some hours, after which I finally said ¡°Greeting. I am me. Who are you. Can I go outside. Why were those humans attacking.¡± I asked, and the three had a weird expression on their face. Are they angry?


    ¡°P-please don¡¯t kill us!¡± One of them asks. She has a limb behind her butt, and has ears similar to mine, yet a bit different. I look at her and say ¡°I won¡¯t.¡± She still shrinks back at my words for some reason. Is that a sign of aggression? Does she want to attack me? No, that can¡¯t be right, otherwise why would she ask me if I¡¯d kill her? So many questions¡­


    I wait for the three strange weirdos to speak. They keep looking at each other, as if trying to decide something. Do they want to attack me? Should I really kill them all? Maybe I should do that¡­


    Before I could do anything, a different one from before asks ¡°Uh¡­ Can you let us go outside?¡± I look at him and say ¡°Why should I let you go outside?¡± The boy was about to say something, but shut up when I added ¡°Can¡¯t you go by yourselves?¡±


    The other boy looks at me and raises an eyebrow. He then says ¡°You¡¯re blocking the exit.¡± I look at him and he takes a step back for some reason. ¡°I¡¯m clearly not blocking the exit. My frame is only 163.421141512cm tall. I¡¯m not large enough to block the exit. Your argument is therefore incorrect.¡± They were all looking at me with weird expressions. I wonder why they do that, maybe I truly should kill them? But then having spared them till now would go to waste, and I could get them to help me.


    The three look at each other and walk past me, always keeping an eye on me. I just stood there, waiting for them to do their things.


    They stop when they¡¯re outside the cave and they look back at me and one of them says ¡°¡­ So, what are you going to do?¡± I look at the person speaking, who had long and pointed ears and say ¡°I will follow my program and deconstruct my spaceship and use it to initialize my systems. Afterwards, I will hunt down all the living beings around my landing point and take their souls. By doing so I will gain the necessary experience to turn off the pre-made programs and a bare minimum of soul.¡± My mind goes into one of it¡¯s pre-arranged programs and I begin to explain. I wonder why Creator would make me want to explain this¡­


    The three weirdo¡¯s eyes were wide open and the one with a limb on her butt says ¡°U-uh, what do you mean by taking t-their souls?¡± I look at her and answer after a while ¡°Souls. Essence of life. Without it, nothing lives. I can feed off of other¡¯s souls.¡± The three kids start shaking, but I ignore them and turn around, heading back into the cave.


    I spend the entire day savaging all usable materials in the spaceship. I used my tool-mode limbs on my back (I¡¯m going to call them mech-arms for convenience¡¯s sake.) and tore apart my ship. From my programs, the doctor tells me that me having 10 mech-arms signifies I¡¯m the strongest. I suppose they are strong, but right now I don¡¯t have enough soul to use them to their fullest. Even just using the machine-gun drained me of half of my soul. Thankfully, those humans were enough for me to gain enough soul to save some. I can store soul inside of my heart, and I can make it into set amounts in order to calculate how much I have. I created a blueprint of the sizes and shapes I want my extra soul to be in beforehand, in order to save time and be organized. They¡¯re going to be like a star system, with a huge ball of essence at the center and many other orbs circling it. The huge ball is my last reserve, and my plan is to always keep it full no matter what, least I fall into a dormant state during battle.


    It takes me 6 hours alone to dismantle the ship, and 6 other hours incorporating those pieces into my body in order to finalize myself. After I finished, I could feel myself thinking faster, moving faster and stronger, but the main upgrade is the downgraded expenditure of soul from using my body weapons.


    I walk out of the cave and begin my mission. My objective is to hunt down all living beings in an area of 5 kilometers squared around the landing point, afterwards, I will head towards the most advanced race in the area and possibly learn from them what this world is like. My design will make me most suited to be a mercenary or something similar, so I shall do so. ¡°Initialize protocol: Hunt of dawn: Begin.¡±

 Chapter 2: Golem

    [¡­¡¯s Pov]


    ¡°Y-you monster!! Get away from me!¡± A weird bipedal screamed as I absorbed the soul of another bipedal. I suppose I should explain the situation a bit.


    I had been hunting creatures for 4 days now, when I found a technologically retarded car with horses pulling it being attacked by a group of humans. They were fighting with other humans, and I could sense two presences inside the car.


    I attacked the humans and began to kill them. For some reason, the ones defending the cart thought I was going to help them when I showed myself, and they shouted at me to help them. I simply stabbed two people using my mech-arms and absorbed their souls. After killing everyone and taking their souls, I knocked on the carriage and first a person wearing a gold-filled dress came down and then another one came down, this one had only rags for their dress. They looked around and the gold-wearing one asked me ¡°Uh¡­ Where did everyone go? Also¡­ thanks for saving us!¡± She says and tries to touch me with her mouth. I open my mouth and fire a gatling barrage at her from the gun on the back of my head. The girl is ripped apart in a mere second, and only gore remained. The other girl fell on her back, shrieking. I take out a mechs-arm and stab it into the girl¡¯s remains, absorbing the soul in them. Satisfied at the quality, I stab the other girl as well and absorb her too. It feels quite nice to absorb healthier and alive beings, as their souls as often stronger and tastier.


    I walk away from the scene. I finally finished my protocol, so my next objective is to find civilization and learn their ways. I heard from a human I killed afterwards that the city should be to the north, just following the road. How convenient¡­


    I follow said road for a couple hours before some strange humans approach me. They were wearing ragged clothing, and looked quite the violent kind.


    ¡°Hello girlie, would you mind coming along with us?¡± I look at the weirdos for a second before saying ¡°¡­ What¡¯s a girlie?¡± The guys had their mouths open, but one of them says ¡°Hehe, let me show you~.¡± And walks up to me and tries to grab at my chest.


    I immediately fill him with bullets from the gatling gun in my mouth. My program says to do this to people who forcefully attempt at grabbing me, and I just follow itsince it never let me down before.


    The guy quickly becomes mincemeat under my rapid fire, and all the other men had their eyes open wide and took a step back. I take out my mech-arms and stab the 6 of them and absorb their souls too. They¡¯re quite tasty¡­


    I continue down my path and after a couple hours I arrive at what I think is a city. It looks... Undeveloped, to say the least. The walls have cracks going through them, the roads are merely flattened ground and they look quite dirty.


    I try to walk through the big door in the walls, but I''m stopped by a strange human wearing armor. "Hey, kid, what happened to you? I''m sorry to ask but where are your parents?" I look at the strange human and answer "My parent is dead. Nothing happened to me."


    The weird human had an even weirder expression on his face, and said "Uh, okay. I just wanted to warn you to be careful in the city. People generally dislike non-humans, so I thought to tell you." I look at him but don''t answer. After a bit of staring, he started getting a bit unconfortable.


    I stopped looking into his eyes and entered the city. The human was indeed right, as I could feel disgust coming from the humans around me. Well, for as much as I''d like to return my disgust due to them destroying my race, I can''t. They were only defending themselves, just as we were only attacking because we wanted a home. I know this due to my codes, so there''s no doubt it''s true.


    So I ignored those gazes and kept walking through the streets. I kept walking around, memorizing the layout of the city, as I intend to establish a base here. After perhaps 8 hours of speed-walking, I had completely memorized every nook and cranny of the city. It was night by now, so I sat on the corner of a remote street and waited there for the sun to come out.


    I focused my attention inside of my inner self in order to improve my system, but I was interrupted when I felt something poking me. I looked up and found a human with bulges on their chest. She was looking at me strangely, and for some reason she was wearing a robe.


    "Hello! Uh, I''m Lilly! What''s your name?" She asked, her eyes were attached to my ears for some reason. I looked at her curiously and said "... What''s a name?" She looked shocked at my answer, and said "U-uh, a name is a thing your parents give you when you''re born. Where are your parents..." She trails off for some reason, but I answer "He''s dead. Never met him in person."Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    The strange girl had her mouth in an ''o'' shape. Water droplets came from her eyes for some reason, and she hugged me and said "Ah! Don''t worry, I can help you! Dad is very nice, and I''m sure he could employ you to work for us!" What a strange girl. She suddently appeared, asked me my name and parents, and now she wants to employ me? It''d be nice though to have someone giving me resources in exchange for my work. I could really use some Xenomium and Soulstone.


    She suddently grabbed me by my arm, which almost cost her life had I not forcefully shut down my auto-responde system. I don''t think she means harm, but to suddently grab me is still not proper.


    "Come on! Follow me! I''ll bring you to dad and mom and I''m sure they''ll help!" She pulls me away from my corner and begins to run, dragging me along with her. I allow her to do as she wishes, as she seems like a nice human since she said she''d help me.


    She keeps dragging me for 10 minutes, until we arrive in front of a big stone building. The armor-wearing humans look at us for a second, but when Lilly screams out "Hi! It''s me!" Their eyes open wide and they look confused. As they were about to say something, Lilly also asked "Can you let us in? I need to see dad right away."


    The armor-humans nod and open the doors that lead into the stone building. Me and Lilly enter, with her constantly asking me random questions like my favourite color, what ''clothes'' I like... As we arrive at a door from whom I can hear voices inside of, the girl turns to me with a serious look and says "Okay, this is the most important question." I just keep staring at her, so she says "What gender are you?"


    I keep looking at her for a couple seconds, trying to understand the meaning. I thus ask "... What''s ''gender''?"


    The strange human somersaults and almost screams "How do you not know what gender is?? I mean, are you a boy or a girl?" It takes me a bit to digest her answer, so I ask again "... What''s a boy and what''s a girl?" The girl had her mouth hanging, but said "Uh, if you''re a girl you have a... hole here, and if you''re a boy you have a thing that... you put in a girl''s hole." She said blushing, whilst pointing at her lower abdomen. Really? I don''t have anything there.


    "... And if I have neither?" Her mouth was hanging open, so she took a deep breath in and said "Whatever. You''re a girl since you''re face looks like a girl''s one. Yes, you''re a girl." Oh really? That''s nice. Didn''t those weird humans say something about me being a girlie? Is it related to ''girl''? So many questions...


    The girl pulls me again and we finally enter the big room. In said room were 14 people standing in front of 3 people sitting on a high chair. They were all discussing something, but I don''t know what. When we arrived, they all turned to look at us.


    "Dad! Mom! This girl here had her parents killed! Can I keep her here as a maid!" I look at the two she''s talking to. They were sitting on high chair made of gold, which sounds like a terribly uncomfortable material to use for a chair.


    "Lilly! How many times do I have to tell you not to interrupt our meetings!? Also, why would you employ anonhumanas a maid!? They''re filthy and disgusting." He says and then looks at me with sharp eyes. I simply continue to stare at the weird human who considers me disgusting. Yeah, I haven''t cleaned myself with oil in a while, but I don''t think I''m disgusting, I mean, my engines all work perfectly and they''re not too dirty.


    "Dad! Hero-san says most non-humans are respectable and nice people. It''s because we treat them like this they''re so aggressive." Lilly says with a pleading voice. The ''girl'', since Lilly said they usually have bulges on their chest, says to the aggressive man "John, that''s enough. I know how much you dislike non-humans, but at least let our daughter keep one as a slave. Lilly, where did you buy her from? She looks quite expensive."


    "Mom! I didn''t buy her! She was sitting on a street, just standing there! And there were shady men near her!" There were? I didn''t see them...


    They continue discussing for quite a while. The 14 other people were staying silent with their heads lowered for some reason. Why do they lower their heads? Is it a sign of disgust? Is it a challange?


    Finally, the man who''s name is John I think says "Fine! Keep her, I don''t care. Maybe you''ll make that retarded ''Hero'' happy as well. Leave!" He shouts and Lilly swiftly takes my arm and leaves the room. As we walk away she begins to grumble "Huff, my father is such a short-sighted moron. He doesn''t care about the kingdom and only cares about his own power. How is he even my father!? He never talks to me and only stays on his bed with mom and her maids by his side. What a lazy-ass! I mean, can you believe it?! That man is actually the king and my father!!! Arghhh, I hate him!!"


    She continues to complain for the 5 minutes of our speed-walk. Finally, we exit the building from a different door then the one we entered from. I look around and find a courtyard-like space filled with what I think is training equipment, swords, bows, lances, spears, axes and a running area. In it were 5 people. Four had flat chests, and one had slight bulges on it, so I assume it''s 4 boys and a girl.


    Lilly drags me over to them and shouts out "Hello, ''heroes''. Look! Father allowed me to keep a non-human maid! Isn''t that awesome!" One of the five humans answers "Yeah, Lilly. That''s awesome, but did you get her to agree with you?"


    Lilly had what I think is a look of realization on her face, then a saddened look. She turned to me and slowly said "U-uh, d-do you want to w-work for me?" She said and began fidgeting. I simply continued to stare at her and said "If you''re willing to pay the proper price for my services, then I will serve." She smiled and said "Sure! What do you want to be paid?"


    "Your soul. I will collect it at the end of the designated contract." All the human''s faces were in an ''o'' shape for some reason. What? I want her soul, and I''m even willing to work for her if she gives it to me. I don''t think it''s such a bad deal...