Chapter 501 (2/2)

“...I suspected as much,” Hank said with a sigh, shaking his head.

Randidly considered the man. Based on his intuition, this man was the strongest here, but the girl with the cane was a close second. He wore a cowboy hat and a pistol at each hip. Nathan had already sent him several excited messages about the man’s Class, expressing his deep interest in it. At the time, Randidly was too busy fighting against the ogre to pay much attention, but now Randidly couldn’t deny his curiosity was aroused.

Randidly’s eyes scanned back and forth, taking the rest of them in. He tried not to be too obvious about it because he was still feeling warm and jittery after finding his dad here, and having the man be… almost kind to him.

Perhaps it was the emotional baggage, but Randidly couldn’t guess much about what his father’s role was. The woman standing near Hank he judged to be a support type. As for the human looking robot thing… A tank of some sort?

But then his eyes sharpened. He met the gaze of the robot woman. Refocusing its cameras, the thing began to brazenly scan him. Inwardly, Randidly snorted. It was held together with a thin tether of Mana, that was clearly extending off from it back towards its home Zone. It was interesting, that this was possible, but it also confused Randidly.

The skill of the tether was… childish, even though it followed some of the principles of Aether. Suddenly, it occurred to Randidly that this was similar to Mana Engraving, that it created something like an Aether Connection, done with Mana as the medium.

Randidly didn’t think that the Creature would bother to use such methods as a disguise to gain information on him but wasn’t willing to risk it. A wave of Erode Image slid outwards, passed the people around him, hitting that fragile Mana Tether. It twitched and then dissipated.

His father began to speak. “So what were you saying about potions-”

But all eyes turned as the robot woman collapsed.

There was some hubbub as everyone hurried over. It quickly became clear to Randidly that no one in the Zone 1 party knew that this was not a true human, and they seemed shocked and suspicious towards Randidly’s group when they realized that her body was turning cold. Luckily, Dinesh knew some healing arts, so he went forward and attempted to cast a spell on her.

When it failed, he frowned. “This…. This woman is not alive.”

“You think that fuckin’ helps?!?” Hank said, his eyes flinty, but Dinesh simply made a placating gesture.

“No, you misunderstand. She was never alive. She is a robot. Do you have such cyborgs in your Zone 1?”

Hank opened his mouth, and then closed it. Then he closed his eyes. Randidly wondered how he would check if a woman were a robot. The simplest way would, of course, just be to cut into her body. But desecrating a corpse was never an easy thing for humans, and her abrupt “death” had set everyone on edge. Inwardly, Randidly sighed, wishing he had thought of a more subtle way to handle it.

Still, he couldn’t risk it. And in his mind, it simply reaffirmed that he needed to move as quickly as possible towards Zone 1, and begin to search for the Creature or its tendrils. It would be difficult, especially when Randidly wanted to do his best to keep a low profile, but hopefully, his father would be helpful in that regard.

Knowing that Dinesh would handle this situation far better than Randidly himself could, Randidly walked over to his father and pulled him a bit away, and began to ask him quietly about what the other Zone was like, were there robots there like this, what did Ezekiel do there, etc.

Perhaps Randidly shouldn’t have been surprised, but his dad just blinked, and then shrugged in a very dismissive way that was very familiar to him. “Well… I don’t think so. But I likely wouldn’t know. I spent most of my time in jail, so…”

Sighing, Randidly just looked helplessly at his father. Only this man could seem proud of being placed in jail after the greatest trial humanity had ever faced arrived.

Seeing Randidly’s expression, Ezekiel said “No, not for a crime, you understand. It was more of a holding cell. It was for my own protecting.I’m an important government asset.”

“Sure, dad.”