In order for 615 to produce the mechs, she first had to absorb one through the dungeon interface. Produced by the dungeon, every kill would help produce DP, while simultaneously strengthening our forces. We designed two models last night, then manufactured the first copies using the autofactory before feeding them to the dungeon. Designed with the world’s system in mind, they held a mix of conventional and unconventional weaponry.

I stepped deeper into the dark rooms of the ship. Blue latticework continued to spread out as 615’s Dungeon Influence grew. She could still control the rest of the ship through conventional means, which means she had access to the design rooms for producing the first versions of her mechs.

The first 4 iterations of her own designed stepped out of the dark.

Two of them were the HAMMERHEAD model. Instead of featuring a head for human comfort, a gun turret occupied the top of its body, the front and back of the weaponry stretching over either side of the mech’s hunched form. It had no arms, instead having a scorpion like tail emerging from near its four legs. Finger’s stretched from the end of the tail for manipulation.

A dozen hooks hung from the mech body’s back and sides, ready to attach living mana batteries to. Fortunately, it wouldn’t even be necessary to kill and resuscitate the mechs to grant them [Energy Drain] — they had come equipped with it. The two mechs walked past me and into the ship’s corridors, heading towards the main hangar and the exit.

Tailing behind them were two mechs designated HIGHWALL. They didn’t boast any weapon designs looted from 615’s database, instead possessing massive tower shields that retracted and folded along their left arm. 615 didn’t waste resources giving them hands or heads. Their right arms ended in a staggeringly large sharpened piece of metal, sufficient for the system to recognize them as [Mechanical Swordsman] in their status pages.

Embedded directly in one function for a hand, the sword was part of the mechanical frame, operating on an articulated joint.

For day 1, I would oversee the mechs in clearing the first floor. By day 2, it was probable we would have found a second dungeon.

Tavi met us in the hangar, halfway to the exit. 615 had awoken him, auto-starting the lights in the room and playing a message before having breakfast delivered to him already cooked. She was now tracking the progress of every Acolyte, each one working their way through the books. Like a teacher, she made recommendations or lessons on the tablets, using the accumulated data of what they had accessed. The ship’s barracks were finally looking like a factory.

Tavi joined us without a word, casting awed glances between me and the mechs 615 produced overnight.

Outside, 2 more autofactories were under construction. They were towering cubes of steel designed to fit in standard storage places like those aboard the M1 carrier. For now, they were mostly towering skeletal frames. A hundred spider mechs were crawling along the frames, dragging wire and part made it look like the frames were alive and writhing.

03 send an /ACK over radio, a greeting only we heard. 03 was already preoccupied building more temporary structures and mining drones to expand their resource collection. A dozen towers now belched smoke, columns of black draping over the sky.

03 froze in his roaming pattern, sending another message.

/ CONSTRUCTION OF NEW WAGON: COMPLETE

/AI615: ACK

A ping lit up in my vision, directing me to where a convoy of vehicles fitted with off-road treads waited for us. Ramps lowered off the sides up to platforms fitted with spots to sit for humans. There was no control station. Instead, we fit each one with basic intelligence to be controlled by wireless communication. Tavi joined me aboard along with one mech. Because of the size of their frames, the other 3 had to be loaded onto different wagons. Once they were aboard, the ramps that had lowered to allow access to the top folded up, becoming guardrails to stop passengers and cargo from falling off.

Once Tavi sat, the convoy took off, tearing across the terrain like it was a flat road, much faster than any mech would be able to. It still took us minutes to hit the area where the forest was still standing, plowing through fields of stumps — or holes where we ripped them from the earth, burning them down to the roots where the effort was worth it.

“We’re not bringing any undead with us.” Tavi said. It was the first time he had spoken today. He was twitchy, casting sporadic glances around. I turned my display towards him to acknowledge his statement. Strangely, he displayed signs of discomfort as I continued to face him in silence. Instead of letting my display activate, I offered him a statement of my own.

//You have been studying the control bindings.

“Uh — yes!” Fear flashed in his eyes, then he laughed nervously, brushing black hair out of his face.

//Good. You can put your study to good use.

I leaned back, facing away from him, and we sat in comfortable silence for the rest of the trip to the dungeon.

I recorded the telemetric data from the 4 mechs during the trip and as they pulled themselves over the wall. The wall to the dungeon was not a straight staircase; instead, it comprised uneven blocks of stone that required normal people to slowly climb over, one by one. Tavi lagged as I led the mechs up the slope.