Chapter 570 (1/2)

Ghost’s sensors were temporarily distracted by an explosion of energy. But after identifying it as an anomaly, Ghost dismissed it; the ambient energy was largely positive. It could wait until the tests had concluded.

“Begin.”

The Hunter-Seeker drone made by Baloo Erickson powered on with a cool buzzing. Then it began to move. Its legs were small, but its arms were large and each composed of two connected appendages. As Ghost engaged the drone and began to control it, he opened the arms and revealed the turbines hidden in the arms.

It was a masterful piece of work, hiding the turbines in the arm and creating them so they could be folded and compressed for storage while the drone was in battle mode. But it was only one of so many strokes of genius. If Ghost didn’t know better, he would think that this Erickson had stolen the technology somehow.

But from who?

The drone quickly rose into the air and flew quickly North. The target was a bird type Raid Boss that had settled in the cliffs near one of the lower tiered cities. Even the Hunter-Seeker’s flight speed was impressive, and within 10 minutes it had arrived, diving straight towards the base.

Based on the specifications provided by the maker, Ghost had already created several subroutines to govern how the drone would fight. But Ghost hesitated as the drone dived towards their nest. The specifications… Ghost thought of them as quite optimistic. But perhaps they would be fine for the first battle.

Ghost was simply worried about damaging the drones. For all that they weren’t as powerful as the specifications claimed, they were still invaluable. Ghost had no doubt it could destroy the nest of about 30 of the bird creatures. But it was a question of cost.

Still, Ghost wasn’t perfect. So he allowed the subroutines to engage.

The Hunter-Seeker landed at the entrance to the cave, and its arms compressed, becoming bulky, but powerful. Two drills revealed themselves at the front of its arms, and the drone walked into the low cave.

Immediately, a monster spotted the drone and squawked. It flapped its wings and charged toward the drone. It was a cross between a crow and an ostrich and quickly accelerated towards the drone.

The drone simply swung its arm in a backhand blow and knocked it sprawling, ignoring its momentum. It was simply a matter of density; the bird creature was nowhere near as heavy as the drone. As the monster attempted to struggle back to its feet, the drones arm stretched out and the drill was driven into the monster’s heart.

It collapsed without a sound.

Ghost paused. That was… an excellent result. But-

Two minutes later, Ghost would be gaping if he had a physical body. The Raid Boss and its minions were dead. He had obtained invaluable data, but it was best to bring this model back to the base and see if it was damaged in any way by the exercise.

“Alright, proceed with the next test.”

The Stalker-Reaper was even more starkly successful. Its smaller, more deadly arms didn’t even need to be used. The goblin variant Raid Boss Ghost had sent it against were ripped to shreds simply by the set of four larger legs that ended in a brutal iron point.

Reaver-Crusher…

Well, Ghost certainly believed it had destroyed the target Raid Bosses. It was only difficult to tell because the force of its strikes had caused the ground to crack. The battleground fell into a collapsed cave. But the Reaver-Crusher had pulled itself out, and the sensors indicated that the Raid Bosses had not survived the brief, frenzied, clash.

Note, plasma was extremely destabilizing as a weapon. Take account of geography before deploying plasma-based weaponry.

But overall…

Even so, Ghost forced himself to focus. There could be drawbacks. High energy costs, high repair costs…

But in the end, there really wasn’t much. Investigations into the state of the drones revealed that the creator had made some small errors in construction that meant some parts would need to be switched out after every engagement to ensure full combat capabilities, but very quickly, Ghost realized this was purposeful.

The parts that failed were often pieces that were holding the different pieces together. The weapons and runic motherboards were largely undamaged. Even if the drone were to fall to pieces, at most it would have to disconnect a limb. The internal integrity of each piece wasn’t shaken in the least.