Uscfrea lined up the warriors on the beach. As the Home Fleet had already been making for the shore, all the Dobhar left behind quickly noticed, and turned their attention towards him.

NSLICE-00P patrolled around the fleet for a few rounds, ensuring there were no hostiles in the area and that none of the Dobhar were in critical condition. She then began flying back towards Uscfrea to state the battle's conclusion.

Once she came near and began descending from the sky, Uscfrea let out a mana-infused shout.

“ALL HAIL THE RIGHTFUL QUEEN OF THE DOBHAR!”

With that, Uscfrea and every warrior on the beach bowed to NSLICE-00P. The Dobhar of the Home Fleet stared in shock…before they, too, started to bow.

And so the Dobhar were introduced to their new queen.

After that, NSLICE-00P patrolled across the fleet once again. Uscfrea had gone off with the elders to report on the situation in more detail. He stated it would be good for NSLICE-00P to wait on the beach, allowing the Dobhar to present themselves to her, but NSLICE-00P found that inefficient. After all, she had repulsors and was capable of flight, so if she needed to interact with individual Dobhar, she could simply travel to them directly.

Likewise, the Dobhar had already come under attack once. NSLICE-00P’s sensors were not particularly well-suited to detecting underwater targets at range and the ocean was wide open, so there was a chance a hostile could launch another attack before being detected. As such, NSLICE-00P decided to patrol around the perimeter of the fleet.

The Dobhar on the ships gazed up at her as she passed by. The warriors on the perimeter ships, particularly the ones who had been healed, lowered their heads and struck either ships or the ocean surface with their tails as she passed them by.

Then she noticed one of the Dobhar waving to her from a raft. She moved down and landed on the raft to investigate.

“Query: Does the friendly unit have a report or query for this unit?”

The Dobhar who had waved bowed her head. She was the mother from earlier, still gripping her pup in her arms.

“Hail, My Queen. My name is Aethelu Alkelddaughter. I just wanted to thank you. You saved my Aldreda. I will be ever grateful to you for that.”

“Acknowledged.”

In that moment, NSLICE-00P’s robotic eye began flickering. She focused on the pup in the woman’s arms. She held out her hands.

“Statement: This unit has detected an anomaly, and would like to conduct a closer investigation of the friendly. Sensor readings indicate the friendly unit may require maintenance.”

Aethelu’s eyes widened.

“Aldreda? Yes, of course, My Queen.”

Aethelu handed over her pup.

Which was, unbeknownst to NSLICE-00P, perhaps the greatest sign of trust and respect a Dobhar mother can display. But NSLICE-00P had earned the right as far as Aethelu was concerned.

The pup cried at being separated from her mother, as NSLICE-00P held her with cold, metal hands. NSLICE-00P ignored the cries and focused in on the pup’s body.

There was something strange, an anomaly in the pup’s physiology. It seemed to reduce the body’s efficiency, like a disease, but NSLICE-00P couldn’t detect any pathogens or injuries that would cause it. Admittedly, this was a new species NSLICE-00P did not have specialized medical data for, which is why she decided to investigate more closely. If she focused her sensors at this close of a range, she could analyze the friendly’s tissue itself, and attempt to identify the issue.

And then, she found something. The issue wasn’t actually biological at all, but rather in the pup’s mana. It seemed that some foreign mana had infected the pup’s own, and was now seeping into the pup’s body. The foreign mana seemed to be malignant, and was reducing the pup’s biological efficiency. Nothing as overt as a pathogen or an injury, but all physiological functions appeared to be suppressed in the area of effect. The pup’s body was just moving slower in the affected places.

“Engaging organic repair protocols.”

NSLICE-00P formed a magic circle and cast a Heal spell. But there was no effect, the mana passed through the pup’s HP and body and then left, leaving the foreign mana behind. Next she tried a Cure spell, but again the problem remained.

Aethelu’s eyes widened.

“My Queen…is…is something wrong?”

“Answer: This unit has detected a foreign effect reducing this friendly’s efficiency. Attempting to adapt organic repair protocols.”

NSLICE-00P focused on the pup’s mana once again, cross-referencing her sensor readings with all her records. Comparing it to the data she had gathered, the foreign mana was not acting like a foreign affliction in the first place. It was not like how Poison mana could infect HP or how Uscfrea’s axe had assaulted her directly. Rather, the mana appeared more like when she infused an attribute into her mana beams…and so perhaps wasn’t being considered ‘foreign’ at all, despite its deleterious effects.

She likewise identified the mana as the same type that the Dread Orcas used.

Aethelu gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. Tears began to fill her eyes.

What had happened, unbeknownst to NSLICE-00P, was that the Dread Orcas surrounded themselves in an aura of cursed, Dark-attribute mana. They used this aura to spread terror and curses to their prey and render them helpless. And this young Dobhar had come into very close contact with a Dread Orca. Under normal circumstances, the effects of a Dread Orca’s aura would be temporary, but this was a young Dobhar with no levels under her belt and no affinities for her mana. As such, her mana had been ‘infected’ by the Dread Orca’s and was trying to take it on as an attribute, but since the pup was too young and Dobhar do not have innate immunity to Dark-attribute curses, she could not resist its effects. Her body was being cursed directly from her own mana.

Aethelu hadn’t yet noticed…but now that NSLICE-00P had spoken, she realized her pup was afflicted with the Dread Plague, a malady experienced by young survivors of Dread Orca attacks, and the reason they were one of the most hated monsters in the Northern Seas.

If the pup managed to gain some levels, she might one day adapt to the mana and make it her own…but she was far too young to join the hunt. And the curse would sap her body’s strength, leaving her unable to seek the very levels that might help her counteract it. Not to mention...in that case her mana would spread curses all around her much like a Dread Orca. So even if she managed to survive and grow, she would be isolated by the Dobhar...if not exiled outright.

The pup had not survived the attack, not truly. She might be alive, but her life was over before it began. Aethelu closed her eyes to hold in her tears, gripping her hands tight.

Well, NSLICE-00P didn’t fully understand what the situation was, but she did have a potential method of solving the issue, based on the observed data.

She attempted to infuse her own mana into the pup’s. The pup cried out and its mana resisted at first. However, NSLICE-00P had a decent number of records in this area. She had her own diagnostics that recorded how the mana from her core and the mana from her organic components intertwined, and how it interacted differently with each. She had the Infused Mana Beam and the Fusion Light Beam along with the Spell Fusion skill, all of which displayed different methods of harmoniously combining separate types of mana. And she had multiple subordinates of different origins all of which were magically bound to her, which meant her mana was flowing through them and interacting with their own.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

So she was able to adjust her own mana and establish a connection.

[You have learned the spell Mana Transfer!]

[The spell Mana Transfer has leveled three times and is now level 4!]

[The skill Arcane Magic is now level 11!]