Chương 380: A Little Bit Of Me Everywhere

One of the greatest advantages of having the Mindscape and Gravescape at my disposal was obviously the fact that it allowed me to meet up with Mari, Leou, or Glown at any given time, no matter where I was, despite the fact that I could just pull them out of thin air like I could with the other members of the family.

I got the feeling that a particular kind of upgrade, one that I had never seen amongst the various lists which had been presented to me in the past, would be of great use right now, and so I went and found my lovely personal mechanist, who got to work immediately… Whilst Mari was working on the upgrade, Leou kept me updated on what was going on outside the realm. …

In my eyes, it wasn't too surprising how quickly people had accepted that there was now a massive barrier protecting them and that the continent beyond said barrier was now a constant battlefield. At the moment, it was pretty much solely a battlefield between the sapient survivors and my sweet anomalies.

I am sure the various sapient species would have loved to face each other for resources and territory instead, but they were instead stuck dealing with creatures that ranged from the typical aggressive beast to the nightmarish entity that could get into their heads at a moment's notice. Indeed, one of my favourite things to hear about from Leou were the reports of some of the more 'unusual' anomalies that were either spotted or encountered by brave–Usually reckless–Groups deciding to venture out.

Some were strong and menacing in very typical manners. Some others were far more elusive, and many people even seemed to believe that some of the anomalies were straight-up unkillable. Admittedly, from what I could hear, most of the so-called 'invincible' anomalies were also incredibly easy to avoid.

Perhaps, because most of them came out of nightmare trials, many of them followed unusual rules or decided to stick to very specific areas, meaning that not getting killed by them was ridiculously easy, but of course, exterminators, monster hunters, and other adventurers only saw it as a challenge. … And also as an opportunity to make money. Leou informed me that anomaly parts were the new rage amongst blacksmiths and alike. Especially for the more esoteric sorts…

I guess my anomalies were walking piles of gold, which encouraged people to actually seek them out, which ended up growing the kill count of my anomalies. I suppose it wasn't that weird. People threw themselves into the maws of death all the time for the chance to make good money. Though some of the news Leou brought me was a bit eyebrow-raising, as some of the anomalies seemed to be completely removed from the nightmare aesthetic and instead followed other of my own aesthetics.

I am well aware of the transformation some of my decoys have undergone, as I am sensitive to the souls and spirits under my control, but the decoys definitely weren't the ones Leou caught wind of. Some of the anomalies were straight-up mimicking some of my forms, or using the same theme in a different way… Such as the first, and currently only, anomaly that has been reported to have managed to enter the barrier. It looked like some tall woman with thin, pointy fingers that looked almost as long as she was tall.

She would use those fingers to weave and create plushes, as if she had crawled straight out of a fairytale. She would give the plushes to children who behaved well, and would turn misbehaving children into plushes by digging out bones and organs and replacing them with more appropriate materials for a plush. There had apparently been several sightings and victims already. Though she seemed to be nicer than me, considering that she had given out a lot of regular plushes.

I definitely doubt that there were that many well-behaved children around… Regardless, I may be in a completely different realm, but my presence was stronger than ever in the main world. Something that was easy to confirm, since the mass of negative emotions sent my way kept on growing, with the emotions contained within the flow becoming darker and more extreme.

Mari finished the upgrade installation, which was my cue to transform into my 'Gynoid Form' for a few moments to give my two girlfriends a quick kiss–Or that's how I imagined it. They didn't let me leave so quickly… … … I returned to my body in the infernal realm five hours later than I should have. It really is a good thing that I don't experience any kind of fatigue. These two-on-ones are really getting unfair. Their teamwork is bordering on damned symbiosis.

I might genuinely have to come up with special upgrades for my 'Gynoid Form' to keep these two in check. I promptly returned Nara's right of view and ignored her pestering for details that she had no business knowing about. Instead, I focused on the upgrade I had received.

Container - Your body forms a special container that can be filled with a variety of substances I had been a bit worried that an extra upgrade would be required to expel the substance, but much like 'Machine Blood', the method to eject what was absorbed was built in. In fact, it seemed to be the exact same way in which 'Machine Blood' was spewed at the target. I just needed to open my maw and puke away.

I felt a strong tingle upon acquiring this upgrade, and a smaller one went through my bones as I filled the container with the liquid form of the toxin. It could also be filled with the gas just fine, but I felt that it would be more useful to have the liquid, since the gas seemed to be a result of the liquid getting closer to the surface and evaporating. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

In any case, the 'Container' could actually contain much more than what its size would suggest. It seems like it could compress what was stocked within to an impressive degree. Nonetheless, no new form or variant form was acquired. I was still missing something…

I decided to rip out and regrow the 'Container' a few times, stocking the extra ones into the Gravescape before resuming my journey–It goes without saying that after I left the mining area, it didn't take long for the ground to swallow me up once more, but apart from this natural trap that had already gotten old, I was able to travel without anything noteworthy happening, allowing me to finally get close to the iron castle. … This thing was absolutely massive beyond belief.

Whether I was close or far, it still felt like I could not even begin to guess how large it truly was. Not to mention that the castle, which had to weigh enough to send calamitous earthquakes throughout this entire realm if it were to fall, was on stilts. Of course, the stilts here were humongous pillars of solid steel, but it was nonetheless insane to imagine that this megastructure would be built in such a manner… Clearly, the Molten King hadn't been messing around.

I can tell at just a glance that the enormous magma lake he had built over was the hottest this realm had to offer. I had fallen into pits near this place, and although they had definitely been way worse than what had come before, they couldn't compare to this. If it wasn't already incandescent, just being near it would be enough to heat my steel bones. Not just that, but if not for 'Flame Resistance' being as high as it currently was, the sheer proximity would probably be melting me.

Superior Flame Resistance (General IV) Indeed, this upgrade of mine was awfully close to turning into a full-on immunity, and the progress had gone by with me barely even noticing it. Truly, adverse environments like this one were perfect for growing such an upgrade. I wasn't even trying to grow it. In fact, I've been doing my best to avoid falling into pits, but it has nonetheless gotten to this level. I looked around. The surroundings of the castle were surprisingly unguarded.

I hadn't run or spotted the sapients from the beginning at all, but they had to be around. I suppose they don't need to do many patrols here. The realm is under the control of an incredibly powerful dragoness, after all. All intelligent life is surely bowing their heads to her, so an attack was surely something rare, and certainly telegraphed, since they could apparently know when something entered the realm anyway. Yep, I guess I wouldn't bother with patrols in such a scenario.

It would be like having patrols in the Gravescape… I actually do have spirits guarding the Gravescape, but that's because I am a bit of a paranoiac. Since the place wasn't tightly guarded, I walked around until I found a pillar that was close enough to the 'shores' of the lava lake. I carefully and slowly put one foot into the lava, finding solid ground swiftly enough, though the submerged steel was definitely softer than normal.

It wasn't completely melting away, though, which prompted me to take the few steps required to reach the gigantic stilt. Both of my hands pressed against its surface, and… Well, shit. This crap isn't letting itself be devoured easily. I tried to bite into the steel, but my maw bent before I was able to even leave a mark. Not only was my body weaker due to the extreme heat of the lava lake, but the steel itself had the quality of a living being.

It was like when I tried to devour the flesh of something that was still alive and, well. There was something blocking me. Isn't the Molten King dead, though? How come his creation still retains such an effect? Was he simply that powerful? The tools I devoured earlier were probably created by him as well, but they had behaved like regular steel. … Oh. I spat the grey toxin at the pillar, but unfortunately, whilst it improved things a little bit, the effect was meagre.

Not only was the steel resilient, but it was incredibly dense. Even the effects of the grey poison were basically useless. Well, well, well… How am I supposed to approach this, then? I was hoping to just bring the whole thing down to cause some chaos, but it seems like that just won't work out. Even if I somehow manage to eat through a portion of one stilt, the castle won't topple over. I would have to take out a lot of them, and I would definitely take too long.

Someone would absolutely notice something is off before I can accomplish my demolition plan. In this case, it is time for plan B. Where do the sapients of this realm live? Do they all live inside the castle, or do they have some town somewhere? I retreated from the stilt, leaving only a barely noticeable indent in its surface as I began circling around the castle, which was a whole trip in and of itself.

The one good thing was that the ground didn't split open around these parts, but I did eventually spot a flying cavalry once more. There were three of them, and they spotted me almost immediately, but the first negative emotions I sensed from them weren't aggressive ones. They probably don't have a clue that I am the intruder and are just curious about what kind of creature is wandering around the castle, and they fearlessly landed right in my path. Not even one remained flying overhead. …

Looks like a mistake to me. Thankfully for them, I bear no intention to kill them–I do bear ill intentions, though. I acted as if I didn't care much about their existence at first, but their mounts, which looked like some sort of subspecies of dragons… Which was interesting, as these people look like dragonfolks themselves. The mounts recoiled as I got close. The natural instincts of a beast were always quite refined, and those creatures could tell that I was bad news even if they didn't understand why.

The riders said something to calm their mounts in the language I couldn't understand, and one of them got down, spear in hand. These ones seemed to only speak the tongue I didn't know, but I could understand what they were saying well enough by reading their emotions. I kept walking, showing my back, before using 'Steel Bender' to rotate all of my joints to immediately turn around, grabbed the fool by his shoulders and slammed him into the ground.

The other two naturally moved in to help their fellow, but their spears bounced uselessly against my incandescent body. The one in my grasp screamed loudly. It seemed like the heat trapped within my steel was too much for even a native to handle head-on. I let go of the man and proceeded to strike at the other two, throwing them to the ground as well before targeting their mounts as well. I did not hit anyone hard, and simply ran away once I shook everyone up a bit…

A little bit of physical contact was all that I needed to apply 'Remember Me?', after all.