“How do you like the vie-huh?”
“Achoo!" Karma let out a cute sneeze.
We hadn’t even spent a minute up here, but the cold was killing her.
I guess her type of dragon can’t survive in cold environments. Either that or being so young meant she shouldn’t be so high up.
I shrugged and teleported us into the dungeon master’s room of the Fortress of Solitude. The room was still a mess, littered with craters, wires, and broken machinery. I was expecting the dungeon to fix itself up, but I guess for that to happen, I needed to insert a new dungeon core.
Weirdly enough, there wasn’t another one in here.
Does inserting any random dungeon core work?
<
How so?
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<
So what? Kaleb Zen just randomly found a way to produce these things on a whim and gave such a valuable thing to whoever beat the Forbidden Dungeon? Seriously, I get that he was being sent to Horizon forcefully, but couldn’t he have at least thought of the possible consequences of the things he left behind?
Wait, no. Those consequences are coming to my benefit now.
Never mind what I was just saying. Thank you, Kaleb Zen! I’ll make good use of the precious treasures you left behind.
‘Why are we here?’
I dropped Karma to the ground so I could pick up Yurei’s body.
“For the exploration of science, Karma.”
‘Science?!’
It seemed excited.
“You like science?”
Karma shook its head.
‘Master told me I’m the result of science, so I…’
The little dragon didn’t finish its sentence. It looked away, as if embarrassed by how excited it sounded. It was trying too hard to not open up. Heh.
“What kind of science?”
Karma refused to respond. It was being difficult for no reason. Rather than no reason, pride might be a better answer.
Even before reaching adulthood, dragons are too prideful.
<
…
<
Hmm, so it’s an artificial soul. You can analyse it, right?
<
Can we actually find out how they work?
<
I can’t help but feel you’re making it much less of a deal than it actually is, but I appreciate that.
Anyway, how does analysing this help us out in the future? I can understand the other resources, but the creation of artificial souls simply feels unnecessary to me.
<>
The holographic projection of the inner workings of the automaton popped up. Reading through her analysis, I could tell that this Kaleb Zen guy was just far too gone! Her build was the epitome of inefficiency! She was weak and slow, just like an actual little girl. Her only ability boosts came from the military-styled gear she wore, but I was certain that was merely due to Kaleb’s fancies.
Tch. Hm, wait. What’s this?
I zoomed in on the little egg-shaped thing that was sticking out of the automaton’s chest.
<
Really? Just looks like an egg, ha. That’s quite different from the other cores I’ve seen. Guess Kaleb was going for something new?
<
Agent?
<
W-What’s going on? Agent? Speak to me!
I didn’t get a response for another few seconds.
<
Oh? Oh! Oh... Hmm, I still don’t get it.
<
Don’t sigh. You can’t even get tired!
<
“Karma?”
‘What?’
Oh, not you. Well, you, but not... What did you find, agent?
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<
What?
<
Wait, wait, wait!
I looked at the little familiar.
You mean to tell me Karma’s an automaton much like Yurei?
<
Eh?
What’s this? The almighty, all-knowing agent doesn’t know? Did you scam me, agent? Did you?
<
He seemed like a pretty chill guy.
<
T-That bad?
<
Oh, so like Prometheus.
<
Wait, I... yeah, that’s not important. So, we won’t be experimenting with artificial souls?
<
But you just said, Ah! You know what? To hell with it. Let’s go crazy.
<
Idea of mine? You little… ah, whatever. Still, what does this mean for Karma?
<>
Sure. But I guess I’ll play around with the other automatons till then.
I walked further down the dungeon hall until I came into a room. A vault of sorts, with piles of precious crystals on either side and mountains of gear. Without a doubt, the highlight of the entire vault were the 4 little girls, standing up lifelessly in little cubicles. They all had various characteristics, with their names written above them.
I walked up to the automaton with the name CATH: Tatianna.
It was a little girl with auburn red hair, covered in oversized black furry coats, leggings, and high punk gothic boots. Her metallic skin was pale and soft to the touch. I was having a surprising amount of fun poking her cheeks.
She looks like she’d be really fun to have around.
<
None, huh? So, they are all actually children, huh?
<
That so? But I don’t have any souls I’d like to... Oh, there is one!
Yep, one that kept resurfacing and causing problems whenever there was a war happening. I’d managed to calm it down, but that was only a temporary solution. She must have been taking a mental toll on Tsuna for how long she’d been active.
<
Yeah, let’s do that. We’ll put her into Tatianna.
The agent went to work immediately. In a matter of seconds, I held the wicked witch’s soul in my hand. She was screaming and wailing, begging me to let her go, but I ignored her pleas.
How do I insert it into the body?
<
I followed the agent’s orders to the letter. The automaton’s chest opened up, revealing the egg-shaped core. Unlike Yurei, this core hadn’t nurtured a soul, so placing a new one in it probably wouldn’t change much. Even if it did eventually nurture a soul, this could have unexpected consequences. And for a scientist, there was nothing more exciting!
Let me pretend I’m a scientist.
Tatianna’s chest closed up, and her body pulsed, like new life was being breathed into it. Get it? I’m getting better with these puns!
<
Oi, agent!
Her eyes creaked open, revealing little pearly almonds.
Tatianna took steps forward, so I backed away to allow her to move around. She looked around, taking in her surroundings, before eventually settling a dauntless yet lazy gaze on me.
She took a yawn, covering her mouth, before sleepily muttering,
“So, yer my new master, ey? Get me some food, I’m starving. Also, it’s cold, I want a warm bed.”
“Huh?”
‘Why is she so impertinent, Hinotori?’
“Don’t ask me, kid. I’m just as confused as you are.”
Tatianna walked over and hugged me, rubbing her cheeks on my stomach.
“Yer warm. Want me to call you master too?”
Wait, is this how the wicked witch used to behave? Was she this high-handed?
A/N: It’s been a weird last 2 weeks. Definitely not how I expected my year to end, but whatever. We’re in 2024 now! On to better things! Hopefully I can end the story this year too, haha. To do that, I’m setting a goal of 30 chapters each month, let’s go
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