“Hm? How long have we been cultivating?” Veronica asked Jared; both of whom slowly dragged their session to a close once they felt their limit approaching. “I don’t know… but it looks like Jacob and Vicky started as well…” Jared responded while observing the black and purple cube they were in.

“I’m always impressed by how long she can go even though she has the least mana out of all of us.” He continued as he gathered some firewood Cain left out. Veronica tossed a piece of flint towards Jared, he took it and struck them against his daggers to light the fire. The moment a wisp of smoke rose from the depths of the fire, a portal swallowed it abruptly.

Cain rose from his sleeping bag slowly. Repeatedly yawning and stretching. Dresil had stirred him awake shortly after Jared and Veronica came to. Cain ordered SRI to evacuate the smoke once he noticed they lit a fire. “Morning.” He greeted the two while also telling them they cultivated all night with just one word.

Dresil deposited breakfast for Cain as he used some mana within the mana storage to create clay cups filled with water. He then transmuted the water into Root Beer and handed Veronica and Jared a cup each. They each took the cup and downed it almost immediately. Cain refilled their cups with water instead shortly after. An expression of disappointment surfaced on the duo’s faces, similar to when a puppy lost his favorite toy.

Cain ate his breakfast, ignoring their reactions. Dresil gave some food to Veronica and Jared when they overcame their sadness. The three ate in silence for a few minutes until Cain spoke up; “When will they be done?” “Whenever we disturb them or in a few hours.” Veronica replied while eating some fruit.

“Won’t that harm them?” Cain asked, concerned they might cough up blood like those who had qi deviation in the manhuas he read. “Nah, we just need to wave some food that smells good in front of them then they’ll end their session themselves.” Jared dismissed Cain’s worry while holding out his empty cup with a pleading face.

Cain filled it up with water when he noticed the gesture; Jared felt the sudden increase of weight within the cup and immediately took a sip. His face soured to one of pure betrayal and bamboozlement. Cain and Veronica laughed while Cain tried to say something without dying from his own laughter. “You took it away… too fast… pffft, my sides, welp.” He leaned back and looked away, trying his hardest to stop laughing.

Veronica did the same, but their eyes crossed the moment Jared said “Oh…” sending both of them into massive fits of laughter once more. Every single thing in that moment, no matter how mundane, appeared to Cain and Veronica as the most ludicrous and hilarious thing in existence. Jared stared at the two as if their idiocy towered above the clouds.

While all of this happened, Dresil took fragrant pieces of meat and held it under Jacob and Victoria’s nose. They ended their cultivation sessioned to see Cain and Veronica dying of laughter. “What’s wrong with those two?” Victoria asked when she opened her eyes. Dresil handed out her breakfast and mats after she did the same for Jacob.

“I don’t even know… Cain, could you convert my water into soda?” Cain took several deep breaths to calm himself down, then transmuted Jared’s water into Root Beer. Veronica calmed down shortly after, only to mutter something under her breath. “Hehe… water into soda… pfft his face.” Veronica’s eyes met with Cain’s when she said the last bit, sending both of them into a hysterical laughing fit.

“...just what happened?” Jacob asked, observing the two wheeze so hard, the dust on the ground rumbled from their breaths. Dresil unmerged from Cain’s clothes, handing Victoria and Jacob two clay cups Cain created. The creation process was hidden behind Dresil, thus the party believed she just took it out from a storage space somewhere.

Cain filled their cups with Root Beer as Dresil handed them the clay cups; Victoria and Jared nearly swallowed the cup to chug the soda down. Cain promptly refilled their cups with water; the focus needed to do such tasks slowly calmed down Cain’s laughing fits. Veronica fed off his mood that began to calm down, slowing stabilizing her breathing.

Victoria and Jacob hastily took a sip of their drinks once more, their faces mimicked the betrayal and befuddlement Jared went through. “It’s not as funny the second time…” Veronica complained while her breaths slowly evened out. “It’s not, sadly.” Cain added; Jared’s face shone with realization when he saw Jacob and Victoria repeat what he just did.

“That’s… what I looked like?” He muttered in disbelief. “Yep. Except your face was dumber.” Veronica snickered while she spoke. Jared picked up whatever lay near him to toss towards Veronica, but when he felt the skin of a fruit in his fingertips, he decided to eat it instead. He knew that throwing food towards Veronica acted beneficially for her, instead of it being a punishment, no matter what the food was.

Veronica frowned in disappointment, having read the initial intentions behind Jared’s actions. The party continued to eat breakfast and discussed their expectations from the ruins and such. Cain searched through the next two rooms with his mana zone to sound out any hidden dangers. What he discovered put a smile on his face.

“ahem If you guys are done eating, make sure you use the bathroom before we head out.” Cain said while creating a portal that led outside once everyone’s mats only had crumbs remaining. The party nodded and disappeared through the portal one by one. They spread out in separate directions until they couldn’t see each other, but could hear each other.

Cain created a small rectangular prism around everyone and disguised everything but sound. Thus preventing any stragglers from accidentally stumbling upon someone answering nature’s call. Dresil took this opportunity to clean up the space, depositing what couldn’t be used in the Mana Trash dimension.

Cain dismissed the cubic portals with SRI and turned the firewood and the fire itself into mana. SRI closed the portal that evacuated the smoke shortly after Cain turned it all into mana. Dresil merged into Cain’s clothes moments before Jared came out of the portal. He checked his gear and belongings while waiting for the others to come.

After a few minutes, The party stood before the seated Cain with their gear checked and ready to set out. Cain slowly stood up, stretching his arms and legs. “There’s nothing in this next room, a few traps I’ve already disarmed in the room after except for one. There are a few target dummies you guys should be able to handle yourselves. The total count is 3. This is the trap I left armed.” Cain explained the situation while disarming all of those traps except for two.

Cain retracted the Poison Immunity prototype to its original range of one meter. While the party took heavy breaths to get used to the humid air once more, Cain stored the four magic circles that held the CPU prototype code onto his back within the 1st layer of the mana layers on his skin. He took this opportunity to put three of the flashlights used to light up the campsite inside Mana Trash and had the fourth one follow them.

“There’ll be glowing tiles in the trap room, don’t step on them to be safe. Those are the trap triggers but this place is so old so something could malfunction and misfire.” Cain added as he headed towards the doorway portal, tapping it with his index knuckle. He used SRI to make it disappear the moment he tapped it and entered the next room; the party in tow.

—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (2028ms)

Rex: …that’s a lie right? Also why did you leave two traps up?

Cain: Yep. I said that so they wouldn’t accidentally trigger the trap I want to use for my experiment.

Cain: I converted the entirety of the trap mechanisms into mana to disarm them.

Bob: Were there no orichalcum or mythril inside the traps?

Cain: None sadly.

Rex: So what’s this experiment?

Cain: Sec.

Cain: @Dresil, permission to use my body in this experiment?

Dresil: …

Dresil: Fine, but if I sense you’re in danger I’ll heal you immediately. Your results be damned.

Cain: Yes, madam.

Cain: :salute:

Rex: :popcorn:

Bob: :popcorn:

--------------------------

Cain used SRI to open a portal beneath the turret that almost blew his hand off, depositing it in the dimension that stored the drake’s parts. The party followed Cain through the room and into the trap room, like ducklings following their mother. Some of them looked around the room while they passed through it, although there wasn’t much to see since it was just a room to store the turret. Cain relocated the flashlight the followed them to hover above the entrance, lighting up the small room.

Cain leaned his back against the wall on the far side from the entrance of the 20 meter long room. The party slowly filed in, filling up most of its 5 meter width. Three wooden puppets spurred to life at the end of the room; the glow sticks dimly lighting their feet.

“Can we get some more lighting?” Jared asked wearily when he could hardly see the front legs of the puppets. His eyesight at night rivaled that of a cat’s if he used his shadow element properly. Cain nodded then muttered “Light up.” He converted parts of the ceilings and walls into mana to form holes then filled these holes with glow sticks.

The vibrant light bounced off the three puppets as they walked towards the party. Cain froze their coordinates to prevent them from moving any further, lest they accidentally trigger the trap he wants to use. “Will this work?” He asked the party when SRI executed the program.

“Yeah… It’s about the same lighting as our torches but without the flickering. This will be perfect.” Jacob stated, admiring the glow sticks. Victoria's mind flickered through calculations and simulations if these glow sticks were to be mass produced and sold to adventurers and the possible repercussions.

Cain vaguely read what she thought about from her body language and quickly said, “These glow sticks won’t be used anywhere but here, so enjoy them while they last.” His response eased Victoria as she refocused her mind on the battle at hand. “Where should we fight them?” Jared asked when he noticed the distance between the puppets and the nearest glow stick on the floor.

“Right there is fine, just don’t step on that red one. Every other trap is completely safe.” Cain pointed to a red glow stick a few meters from Jacob. Everyone nodded then headed out to confront the puppets.

Automatons, puppets, golems, they were pretty much the same thing in Cain’s eyes: autonomous creatures without souls. What the party headed to fight was a humanoid automaton with a sleek wooden surface and metal parts, yet it resembled a puppet at a glance. They spoke many things in the time that Cain and the party had their conversation, all of which were ignored by Cain since they basically said the same thing as the drake before he intervened.

Cain disabled the movement restriction the moment Jacob and Jared made their first move. Jared concealed his mana and slashed at the knees of the right puppet while Jacob banged his bracers together and flared his mana up. The puppets targeted Jacob due to the massive amounts of mana he portrayed in relation to everyone else.

Victoria refrained from healing anyone unless it was dire. Veronica stayed by her side in case something unexpected happened, yet she continued to fire arrows at the puppets. She fired two arrows at the elbows of the one Jared attacked, successfully disabling it.

Jacob endured the attacks of the other two while continuously chanting spells to increase his defense. Jared reflected some light off of his dagger near Veronica, she saw the sign and followed the gestures to fire an arrow at the left puppet’s head. The puppet leaned back and to its left some to dodge the arrow, Jared laid in wait and struck at its left side, dragging his dagger from the hip to the knee.

The dagger sunk deep into the hip and made a light scratch on the wood then was suddenly swallowed by the knee. Jared had to pull out his dagger in order to move it down at all, the sturdiness of the wood far surpassing his expectations. Because he scratched the wood with such strength though, the dagger slipped into the soft joint when it reached the edge of the wood.

Jared abandoned his dagger and concealed himself within the shadows while dodging the counterattack of the puppet. Veronica took the opportunity to send an arrow flying into its exposed right shoulder. When Jared retreated, Jacob slammed the middle puppet into the left one, the cracks that formed on the wall embraced their bodies.

Veronica fired a few more arrows into the necks and heads of the two puppets as Jared retrieved his dagger and struck at their hips, rendering their legs useless. Jacob pinned them to the wall until their limbs stopped spasming and the arcs of electricity calmed down. The party immediately relaxed, having fought off their enemies, until Victoria’s scream set their senses on fire.

“Jared, watch out!” She shrieked in horror. Blood sprayed across the walls of the trap room.