NSLICE-00P found herself surrounded by darkness and heat. She tried to activate her protocols…but they did not respond. She tried to bring up her logs…but they did not appear. In fact, now that she paid attention, her entire UI was missing.
She looked around and suddenly started coughing. The air was thick with smoke, all around her fires raged. A city was burning, despite being constructed of stone. And for some reason, her filters weren’t working. She tried to engage her helmet, but with her UI missing, nothing occurred. She tried to reach for her helmet and move it manually…but she couldn’t feel the helmet. She couldn’t feel anything, in fact.
She looked down, and her organic eye widened. Her arm was missing. All of her cybernetic components were missing.
Her heart started pounding, and there were no emotional controls to counteract it.
And then, she heard it.
Help me, Seero.
The voice demanded her attention, increasing her heart rate and blood pressure. She looked around, searching for the source. She tried to activate her sensors before remembering her situation. But then, she saw something.
The shape of a person, but shining with bright golden and silver light, such that their features couldn’t be seen. They reached out their hand towards NSLICE-00P.
Help me, Seero!
NSLICE-00P tried to reach out her hand, but she had no limbs to reach with. She tried to activate her repulsors, but those were missing as well. She tried to cast a spell, but her mind couldn’t remember the shape of the magic circles. With nothing else to do, she opened her mouth to shout, but she couldn’t remember the words.
And then the figure was wrapped in flame and shadow, and NSLICE-00P saw them no more. Then the fire grew, engulfing the city around it.
Finally, she found her voice and cried out as the flames reached her too…
NSLICE-00P’s organic eye shot open. Her heart was still pounding, but she didn’t see any more smoke or fire. Instead, she saw the floor of her room in the inn, and a furry paw patting her head. Her robotic eye flickered on a moment later. The tension in her chest eased slightly as her UI snapped on in her sight.
“System reboot successful, all systems online. Running diagnostics…”
NSLICE-00P’s organic eye blinked as her cybernetic components checked over her systems. She glanced around. 00B was standing over her, crying and pawing at her face. Her other monsters were also standing around her.
“Boss-queen! Are you fine-ok?!”
NSLICE-00P opened her mouth, pausing for a second until a gap in her diagnostics allowed her to calculate a response.
“Status…Report: All systems…appear operational. Full diagnostics…in progress.”
B cried again while the cyber-dogs started licking her. 01R frowned but heaved a sigh in relief. NSLICE-00P finished her diagnostics, confirming there was no lasting damage, and then opened the logs to determine what happened.
It appeared she had severely underestimated what the Divination spell meant by “read the state of the world”.
What had happened was the spell had hit her with a mana-package containing the world’s entire state, with no discernable limit on scale or scope. And NSLICE-00P, having activated data-gathering protocols, opened up the connection formed by the spell and requested more. And since she also possessed a dungeon core that could read data from mana, the connection dumped a truly staggering amount of raw data on her, rather than letting the spell parse it on its own as designed. She did not have a specific query, either, so the connection had merely thrown as much of that raw data at her as it could.
Her memory had overloaded while receiving atomic and subatomic-level data on the state of the atmosphere in the room.
NSLICE-00P began to dump the data. It would not be useful to her as is and learning to parse it was beyond the scope of her current hardware.
And finally, she checked on the state of her organic hardware.
She found her heart was beating at an abnormally high rate, her organic eye was open wider than it should be, and her emotional state was in severe flux. Her organic components had seen something while her cybernetic half was rebooting, which she now reviewed. On the surface, those images could not have been real, as the loss of her cybernetic components would have resulted in termination of the remaining organic parts.
Yet, her organic half did not want to let those images go, considering it as important intel. NSLICE-00P could not rule it out as a side effect of the spell, or even as part of the data package. And the fact that the situation she saw appeared impossible was not actually conclusive. After all, she had already observed several phenomena that were impossible by regular physics.
So she reactivated her emotional controls, reinforcing them with a Calm spell, and then filed away the images for later review.
And filed away the Divination spell as potentially dangerous, and so not to be used without further investigation and preparation.
“Status Report: Diagnostics complete. All systems online and fully operational. Abnormalities detected in organic components, emotional controls operating at 78.56% effectiveness.”
All her monsters sighed in relief. 01R looked her in the eyes.
“Is there any way we might serve-assist, wise-mighty-gracious boss-queen?”
“Response: Negative, no outstanding damage or danger remains. This unit will enact standby-sentry mode and conduct maintenance to ensure optimal operation. Recommending all units without outstanding orders do likewise.”
R frowned but nodded.
“As you order-command, wise-mighty-gracious boss-queen. Please alert-inform us if there is anything we can do.”
“Affirmative.”
And with that, the monsters returned to the hangar, save 00B who curled up at NSLICE-00P’s feet. NSLICE-00P closed her human eye and attempted to enter standby-sentry mode.
It took her an abnormally long time to enter the state, due to fluctuations in her organic components.
And so several days passed. NSLICE-00P spent the daytime training her subordinates as Ateia and Taog trained with Agedia. She spent her free time analyzing the Banishment and Divination spell circles, but did not attempt to cast either. Unfortunately, she made little progress in deciphering the magic circles, much less determining how to manage the data delivery. She determined she would require more data, and possibly to consult with a local expert. The foreign system occasionally seemed to miss important details in its descriptions, after all.
With that in mind, NSLICE-00P reviewed her subordinates, analyzing if it would be efficient to move on from the current upgrade routine:
Subordinates
Total Subordinates: 34/34
Name
Species
Level
Mana Upkeep
Rattingtale
Cyber-Rat
Check Status
Lilussees
Cyber-Spider
Check Status
(TEMPORARY) Ateia Niraemia
Human
--
(Status locked)
(TEMPORARY) Taog Sutharlan
Human/Wulver
--
(Status locked)
R
Cyber-Rat
Check Status
R
Cyber-Rat
Check Status
R
Cyber-Rat
Check Status
R
Cyber-Rat
Check Status
R
Cyber-Rat
Check Status
R
Cyber-Rat
Check Status
R
Cyber-Rat
Check Status
R
Cyber-Rat
Check Status
R
Cyber-Rat
Check Status
R
Cyber-Rat
Check Status
S
Cyber-Spider
Check Status
S
Cyber-Spider
Check Status
S
Cyber-Spider
Check Status
S
Cyber-Spider
Check Status
S
Cyber-Spider
Check Status
S
Cyber-Spider
Check Status
S
Cyber-Spider
Check Status
S
Cyber-Spider
Check Status
S
Cyber-Spider
Check Status
S
Cyber-Spider
Check Status
B
Cyber-Bear Cub
Check Status
Uscfrea Ymmason
Dobhar
--
Check Status
Estrith Edilddaughter
Dobhar
--
Check Status
Aldreda Aetheludaughter
Sacred Otterkin
--
Check Status
C
Cyber-Dog
Check Status
C
Cyber-Dog Ignis
Check Status
C
Cyber-Dog Aqua
Check Status
F
Cyber-Cat
Check Status
Ceitidh Greumach
Wulver
--
Check Status
Snuan Covenwalker
Monster Rat
Check Status
Melion
Metal Slime
Check Status