Hello Everyone. Sorry for this upload being a little late. It's been a pretty crazy week. I wish I could have kept the streak of on time uploads, but all good things have to come to an end. Unfortunately, I will not be posting next week due to previous obligations.
"Talking"
Thoughts
'Mental Communication or using a magic item'
[Debuffs]
Skills/Systems
Chapter 8 – Hunting for Metals Pt.2
Pilot, Crescent Rose
The eighteen players sat around their campsite at the base of Arvest Mountains. Due to their effort, they were able to complete a day-long journey in good time because one of their members, Mad Mall's Embryo, Mímisbrunnr, was a Type: World that increased the MP regeneration of all those within its area of effect.
She reminded Crescent of her neighbor, Madame Mallari, but it couldn't be, she was visiting her grandkids this week.
Java was looking over the items they had acquired along the way. Between Sweet Treat and Skirt Keeper, they acquired nearly ten times more items in a day trip than Crescent had seen in all of her time playing Infinite Dendrogram.
"That reminds me," Crescent spoke up, as she and Wotan were enjoying bowls of soup, "Before you called the Trihorn Dragons "Demi-Dragons", what is that exactly?"
"I've heard the term, but not what it means." She further explained.
Mr. Fox was the one to answer, "Are you asking about the type of monster or the type of boss monster?"
"I'm not sure what the difference is."
"Demi-Dragon monsters are either dragon type monsters with low stats or a monster with some kind of dragon in its lineage."
"Whereas Demi Dragon class, is a type of boss monster that typically has most of their stats, STR/END/AGI, around 1,000 that would take an entire party of low-rank job holding tians, or a single high-rank job holding tian to take it down."
"Then what is Pure Dragon class?" Crescent asked, "I think I remember someone bragging about getting a drop item from one of those?"
"Pure Dragon class are boss monsters that have stats around 5,000-6,000 which takes an entire party of high-rank job holding tians. They can give even high-rank job holding Masters a hard time, but are nothing for those with either a Superior Job or Superior Embryo."
"This game loves the word 'Superior', doesn't it?"
"Oh yeah." Java inputted. "FYI, above that there are Legendary class monsters that have stats over 10,000. and supposedly Mythic class which has stats over 100,000 with HP in the millions."
"Although, neither of those can stand up to a Legendary or Mythical UBM, respectively."
"I get Masters are stronger than tians, but how have they survived with monsters like that roaming around?"
"It's a mix of stubbornness, location, tian Superior Job Holders, superior strategy over brute force, and the fact the last two are pretty rare."
Crescent could only nod. Looking back, it seemed like the first boss monster, the Twin-Headed Lesser Chameleon Basilisk, might have already been injured whereas her first real fight with a boss monster had taken her and Wotan everything they had and that was on top of already having a Magingear.
And both of those seemed to have only been Demi-Dragon class. If she fought a Pure Dragon class monster, would she be able to survive?
Just as that thought crossed her mind, Wotan took her hand in her own and reassured her.
She really did have the best Embryo.
Snapping her out of her thoughts, Java clapped her hands drawing everyone's attention. "Alright, everyone, we made it farther today than anticipated, so this will make things easier for us. We'll reach the mountains tomorrow before dawn. The search team will locate any veins of metals within the permitted area."
Crescent raised her hand.
"Crescent, you don't need to raise your hand, but what's your question?"
"What is the 'permitted area'?"
"Excellent question. The land is owned by the Imperium, but due to one reason or another, they haven't been able to send out a survey team to locate any mineral veins. Our job is to inspect a select area, in this case, the three mountains behind you", she said gesturing to the three large mountains behind Crescent, "map any mineral deposits and mine what we can before going back to show the results. Which is where our Mr. Fox comes in." she said gesturing to the multi-eyed man.
"His Embryo, Eyes Beyond Sight, Butatsch Cun Ilgs can see through objects."
"Pervert!", Wotan shouted knocking Mr. Fox out with one punch while covering her chest area with her other arm.
"Um…Wotan, his Embryo isn't that precise, he can see items or hidden weapons, even your skeleton, but I have confirmed he can't see your skin or muscles. Do you think I or Bun-Bun" she gestured to the blonde rabbit faunus who was dressed in black and white armor styled like a maid's attire, "Would let him stay in the clan if we thought he was ogling our, admittedly hot, bodies?"
"I wouldn't let him keep his manhood", said Bun-Bun who, for emphasis, manifested a liquid metal chainsaw and every male player covered their groins and took a step back from the scary bunny girl.
Players could turn off their sense of pain, but nothing prevented the psychological damage of seeing their groin eviscerated.
"…oh." The wolf/raven girl said before looking down on the unconscious man. "Ooooh."
"She did it." The Embryo said quickly pointing a fuzzy finger at Crescent causing the whole expedition team to laugh out loud. Sans an indignant Crescent.
"Is that how he saw the monsters from so far away?" she said trying to contain her blush.
"Yes and no. His Embryo does have a skill called Longsighted, but that only goes as far as 4,000 metels. His job, Sharpshooter, focuses on extending your range of sight and long-range shooting capability. Combined with his Embryo, his range of vision is extended to over 5,000 metels."
"I wish I had that kind of ability when I went on my last shopping spree. I would have been able to snag those cute pumps before they ran out."
"So he's a sniper?"
"Pretty much."
/-/
Pilot, Crescent Rose
Crescent knew they would be looking for ore deposits. She knew that in addition to lir and EXP for taking the quest, she'd be given a portion of the metals they excavated.
She also expected she would need to fight a LOT of monsters. Given the fact, they had nearly a quarter ton of Ironhorn Goat meat, not to mention horns made of iron and enough goat pelts to cloth half of Patch for the winter, this was proving to be true.
Mr. Fox led the location efforts while Skirt Keeper, with her Embryo, Nakshatra Meenu, and Java opened up the mines.
What she had NOT expected was the excavation method.
Given that she was in Dryfe, the Land of Machines, one would expect excavators, maybe a modified P-5000 Powered Work Loader, a giant robot with a drill, maybe a giant robot with a car for a head, or given the possibility of Embryos maybe a mechanical brontosaurus acting like an excavator.
But giant ants?
Okay, that was both on point and not what she was expecting.
One of the excavation team; Aunty M, was a sweet woman who loved to talk about her nephew.
Supposedly he was in the same clan as Crescent, but she had yet to meet anyone with the username of Pine Tree.
What surprised her though, was her Embryo: Formica Aurum. They were giant ants nearly three times bigger than her dog.
Granted he was a corgi, but there was something VERY wrong about bugs being bigger than dogs of any breed.
Let alone THREE times.
She may or may not have been hiding in her mech or behind Wotan whenever Aunty M's Embryo was out.
This proved much harder than she could have ever believed given that Wotan kept trying to cuddle one or more of them.
She thought Embryos were supposed to help their Master, not give them heart attacks.
'I can do both and more Master.' Wotan sent through the bond, much to Crescent's chagrin at having her mind read, again…again…again…however many "again"s it is at this point.
Though she did learn something about Gardner Embryos from it. There were two evolutions to the Gardner Embryo; Guardian which was a single powerful creature that had independent movement and Legion which was either a small number of powerful creatures or a disposable army of weak ones.
Somehow, Aunty M's Embryo was the latter.
And she could only call it a FREAKING LIE! While digging a subterranean monster known as a Excavator Mole came out of the tunnel. It was the size of a bullhead, but her ants ripped it to shreds.
Just going to repress that image.
How is THAT weak?
'Embryos all have different strengths and weaknesses. Taking out large numbers of weak enemies or ganging up on a single enemy in a confined space are what make Type: Legion's dangerous.'
'There is also the matter of job compatibility. Aunty M has jobs in both Commander and High Tamer, both of which give buffs to their subordinates making each ant individually stronger and multiplying their combined strength several times over with good teamwork and coordination that comes with its hivemind.'
'Wotan…how did you know all of that?'
'The ants told me.' Crescent couldn't see Wotan at that exact moment due to her being an energy cape, but Crescent could have bet her last cookie her Embryo was grinning smugly.
Not even going to acknowledge that her Embryo can talk to bugs.
…Moving on.
She did get to know the members of Coffee Lock a little better. Aside from Sweet Treat, Mr. Fox, Java, and Bun-Bun, none of their Embryos were above their fourth form.
Well, that wasn't entirely true, LtG and the other guy who were PK'd yesterday both had fifth form Embryos. Though Java was the only sixth form and Bun-Bun the only seventh form.
Still, they were a really interesting group that sort of led the entire clan.
Sweet Treat was a nice guy, if a little dense sometimes. Keeping Wotan from abducting him had become a full-time job during breaks.
Mr. Fox was a little mischievous but tended to tone it down around Wotan. Especially when Crescent's Embryo tried to apologize for knocking him out and he replied by making the mistake of making a joke about Wotan's suit….
…it took three people to get Wotan off of him, but thankfully a potion was enough to make the bite marks go away.
She still didn't know how he managed to guess Wotan was a secret stacked short stack, but given how he avoided her, she probably never would.
Java was super cool. She was so confident and so awesome. Especially since her Embryo Fabulous Explosion, Bellerophon could turn into things like a bazooka or a rocket launcher.
She said it was a Type: Weapon Fortress that not only fired different types of explosives but also became a lab that allowed her to feed it metals to produce different types of highly customizable explosives.
And boy were they AWESOME. Flash bombs, explosives loud enough to rival a sonic boom, rockets that release ninja star shrapnel upon impact, a rocket that explodes into a soft liquid metal that quickly solidified trapping or just encasing those caught in the explosion, gas grenades where the gas is mostly metal particles that shred a target's lungs to pieces, napalm grenades, and her personal favorite, the plasma grenade.
Okay, it was actually "plasma" like the state of matter, but it exploded in a blue flame that coated any creature within its area of effect before spreading the blue flame along the other creatures until it covered enough of the creature to detonate and repeat the process.
It was like the zombie plague of explosives. And. It. Was. Awesome!
Then there was…Bun-Bun.
Crescent honestly and truly did not know what to think of the woman.
One minute she was sweet as can be, the kind of maid anyone would see and think "She is the perfect maid" complete with making the best tea Crescent had ever tasted. The next she had Crescent almost wetting herself in Terror. That's right, that wasn't a type-o, the "T" is capitalized!
This terror mainly stemmed from her Embryo; Master of Metal Crafts, Lugh.
At first, Crescent had thought the blonde maid's Embryo was a Type: Arms, but it was actually a Guardian. A gigantic metal slime that could break off into countless smaller, but still controllable versions of itself that can change into different types of weapons, but a Guardian nonetheless.
Though its main ability wasn't one she would have expected from the number one in the Kill Ranking.
One would think Java, with her explosive-producing Embryo, would be pretty high up on the Kill Rankings, especially given that Bun-Bun's Embryo specialized in processing metals.
And she would wholeheartedly admit it was a good ability. Lugh could process and refine metals to more than 10 times their durability and purity which was normally not possible even if someone had her Superior, Job Metal Princess. Despite the name, it was the Superior Job for the Engraver grouping, a job focused on refining metals.
What made her and her Embryo dangerous was that Lugh could absorb those processed metals into its body and then produce a literal armory- Crescent just that second got that was why people called Bun-Bun the Endless Armory- of any weapon made of said 10x durable weapons and then fire them at supersonic speeds while using the rest of its mass to defend Bun-Bun.
It was like the ultimate spear and shield.
This was proven even truer when an Earth Dragon showed up.
Their excavation (read: use of Java's explosives) had disturbed its nest and it wasn't happy.
Despite being called a dragon, Crescent couldn't help but see it as more of a giant alligator or crocodile with abnormally long limbs and a stone-like hide.
Crescent hatted to admit it, but because it had snuck up on her, it had managed to get her alone before the others could help her.
She tried using Runic Script on a metal combat knife for her MG-250, but the blade snapped like it was made of pretzels.
That cost her the MG-250's right arm.
Out of desperation, she even tried Runic Script on a grenade.
The skill worked on the explosive, the blast was almost like something from one of Java's rockets…but it barely scratched it.
And then stepped in Bun-Bun. Before it could even finish roaring, it was turned into a spray of pink goo before being converted into an item.
The mountain behind it, however, was reduced to dust in the wind in an instant.
According to Java, who apparently could see what exactly had happened, Bun-Bun created thousands of tiny hair-thin drills out of high-quality Adamantine, fired them at supersonic speed while having the rotational frequency to drill through a mountain, and a supposedly harder dragon, like it wasn't even there.
Yang had mentioned that Superiors were so OP that most people called haxs when fighting them. Normally, if they were acting within what was possible for the game, she would have said they were acting like spoiled kids and just needed to get good, but in this case, she would make an exception.
According to Mr. Fox, whose Scout job's Reveal skill showed a target's stats, the Earth Dragon had been level 80 with an END stat over 20,000 and the rest of its stats in the 5,000s. that meant it was Pure Dragon class and with a Legendary class END…yet Bun-Bun had all but vaporized it…faster than she could truly see.
Yeah, she REALLY didn't want to think about what Bun-Bun would have done to her if she had tried to skip out on paying for those tarts.
She shivered. Just going to repress that thought.
/-/
King of Waves, ShayD
Shay was not a good man, he never was and never would be. That was fine by him.
What he couldn't stand, was his boss. She was an arrogant, stuck-up, GRRRRRR, HE HATED HER SO FUCKING MUCH!
She wouldn't know the first thing about running a lemonade stand without him holding her hand.
If he was in charge, things would be different.
But sadly, he didn't have the same clout she did.
That nice ass of hers had a lot of sways…also just sway in general.
But right now, his clan, Black Cauldron, would be doing things right.
He had heard the sixth place nobodies called Coffee Lock was going on a mining expedition for the Imperium.
Everyone knew the only people who chose Dryfe were weak Atlesians and those spoiled brats from Vale.
And even the latter mainly went to either Huang He or the Kingdom of Altar.
Even if it was a game, these soft brats wouldn't know the first thing about fighting.
Which was a-okay with him.
He was the type who liked shooting fish in a barrel without any water.
He chuckled at the irony of the thought given his job and Embryo.
He and his clan were already in position. He even went to LMS to buy some info on his targets.
That blue-haired guy with eyes coating his body was annoying. They needed to be at least 6,000 metels away to not be seen by him.
Not an easy task while moving through a mountainous area full of monsters, but his clan pulled it off.
He would like to see that woman try coordinating all these people with that pole up her ass.
Holding up his crest, the image of a puke green eel, he called upon his Embryo; Rotting Flesh of the Water, Hrökkáll.
A giant zombie eel, at least twenty feet long, with chunks of flesh missing revealing the rotting and decaying gore-soaked remains of its organs and skeleton. Its scales seemed as hard as steel and its fins sharp as blades.
His Guardian Embryo could make any water it touches induce a debuff known as [Rotting] while anyone dumb enough to ingest it gets a fun little debuff known as [Melting].
When combined with the ultimate skill of his Superior Job Tidal Surge, it could wipe out an entire army.
As he began to chant for his job his Embryo began to retch like he was going to vomit, when ShayD released the tidal wave his Embryo released a projectile stream of what looked like bile and vomit, mixing with the water and turning it into a matching color.
The valley Coffee Lock was digging in was directly down the mountain from him. The wave would hit them with the force of an avalanche and those that didn't immediately get the death penalty would be wiped out by his clan and their gunfire.
It was so simple.
[Party Member "Roch N Roll" Has Died]
[Resurrection Period Expired]
[Due to the Death Penalty, "Roch N Roll" was Logged Out]
!
[Party Member "Kotten Kandi" Has Died]
[Resurrection Period Expired]
[Due to the Death Penalty, "Kotten Kandi" was Logged Out]
!
[Party Member "Drunk Mann" Has Died]
[Resurrection Period Expired]
[Due to the Death Penalty, "Drunk Mann" was Logged Out]
!
[Party Member "Drinking Buddy" Has Died]
[Resurrection Period Expired]
[Due to the Death Penalty, "Drinking Buddy" was Logged Out]
!
[Party Member "Sickly Sweet" Has Died]
[Resurrection Period Expired]
[Due to the Death Penalty, "Sickly Sweet" was Logged Out]
!
He had formed a party of six with each of his commanders as a way to keep track of how things were going. They each had a Telepathy Cuff.
How could someone take out his clan so quickly?
Was the plan leaked?
If so when?
He looked down at his now completely gone shadow…why was it suddenly dark out? It was just mornin-
Before he could finish his thought he was drenched in a familiar vomit-green liquid.
[Fatal Damage]
[Party Eliminated]
[Resurrection Period Expired]
[Death Penalty: 24 Hour Login Ban]
/-/
An Apartment in lower Mistral
Shay D. Mann threw his VR headset against the wall with a growl causing it to shatter against the wall.
He would have to pay for a new one.
…and the dent in the wall.
"They had to cheat! They had to! I call hax!"
Before his tirade could continue, his scroll began to ring.
The text read "BITCH". Sighing he opened his scroll, "Yeah boss-"
"Where the hell are you? You are THREE hours late and all of the work you claim to have done yesterday is either half-assed and needs to be done, or hasn't even been done yet."
"I did my best." He offered weakly.
"Your best? Your best! Your best involves either saying you'll do something and not doing it or whining and begging to have other people do your work while you eat corn chips!"
"You know what, don't even both coming in today, You're fired!" She said hanging up the scroll.
Before the echo of her voice was gone from his small apartment, his scroll crashed into the window breaking it and his scroll went out of the second story into the parking lot.
…then he remembered he would have to pay for that.
…" FUCK!"
/-/
Pilot, Crescent Rose
"So, do I want to know why you had Bun-Bun use Lugh to create a cartoonishly large and twisting funnel with several branching spouts in the sky?" Crescent asked Java while they were setting up for dinner.
The plan was to mine the whole day, camp the night at the base of the mountain, and then return to the capital the next day.
They had originally been planning to stay longer, and send a party back for more supplies and to pick up more clan members because some had odd schedules and the area was technically not owned by any nation due to the number of Earth Dragons that inhabited the area. As a result, most operations to locations like this were only for a few days.
However, the day had a better yield than anyone expected, and their inventories filled up to max capacity.
Nearly sixteen tons of Mithril, two tons of Orichalcum, and even a kilogram of Adamantine.
All of these were processed by Bun-Bun and her Embryo and divvied up.
Crescent herself got sixteen kilograms of mithril. It wouldn't be enough even for all of the joint components, but it was a start.
The veins they had discovered early on in the extended longer than Mr. Fox could see. So that meant more quests like this would be given.
"Nah, just wanted to swat an annoying fly," Java said like she was making a joke, but Crescent didn't get it at all. What kind of fly did you swat with a giant metal funnel?
" can be helpful like that," Java added while slipping some of her caramel brown-tipped hair behind her ear.
"Is that why the irises of all of his eyes have turned green and the sclera turned black?"
"Kind of. His eyes can only do one thing at a time; long site, x-ray vision, thermal, night vision, heat ray-"
"He has heat vision?!"
"Pretty much, but he can only use it when he uses his ult. For the rest of his visions, he can extend double their range of sight."
"Wait, so he can see for over 10,000 metels?!"
"Yep. That's why we tolerate foxy loxy." She said humming.
"I still don't like him." Wotan huffed while sitting down, cradling a sleeping Sweet Treat like he was a baby.
"If he says anything like before, I'll rip out his eyes and hit him until he forgets who he is," Wotan growled, her teeth taking on the distinctly canine form Crescent has come to associate with her Embryo being angry…or when someone makes fun of her suit. She wasn't sure which it was.
Regardless, the two women took a step back from the wolf/raven girl.
/-/
The trip back to the capital wasn't as exciting as it was leaving the capital. Sure, some monsters tried to attack but between Sweet Treat's Behemoth and Skirt Keeper, they weren't a problem.
Upon getting to the gate, and having to store her Magingear in her inventory because she didn't have the permit needed to drive a Magingear in the city, she heard someone call out to her. "Crescent?"
Turning it was Duncan Royal, the tian she had met when she first logged in.
"Duncan?"
"Yeah, it's good to see you." She said smiling, the faint scar on his neck peeking up from his collar when he did so. "Who is your…um friend?" he asked looking at Wotan.
This wasn't anything new for Crescent, while some people truly didn't seem to care or were at least polite enough to not point it out, it wasn't every day, even in Infinite Dendrogram, that you see a cute girl with blonde locks poking out of the mouth of a black wolf costume's mouth with raven wings on the back wearing an eyepatch.
"She's my Embryo, Wotan."
"Nice to meet you Wotan." He said shaking her Embryo's hand, "I had heard Embryos could take on just about any form, but I think you're the first humanoid I've seen."
"Yep. Nice to meet you." Wotan shook back before a mischievous grin crossed her face causing ice to form in Crescent's stomach.
She leaned in close, next to Duncan's ear, and spoke in a tone all could hear, "I can see why my Master thinks you're cute." The traitorous wolf/raven grinned before walking off.
Once again, Crescent found herself blushing, stuttering, and completely speechless all at once at her Embryo's antics.
For his part, Duncan had a noticeable blush across his face.
Before Crescent could get a word out, "Crescent, we need to get all these ores back to the ministry or we don't get paid.", Java saved the day, "You two can have all the time you want for your Dendromony later." She said tipping her sunglasses and giving the two of them a very suggestive wink.
Getting redder than her suit, Crescent gargled out an excuse before running off.
/-/
Assault Gunner, Duncan Royal
His head had been in a fog since earlier that evening.
Dendromony.
That was what some Masters referred to as a Master and tian falling in love.
Even the thought of that made his cheeks color.
He would admit that Crescent was indeed nice to look at. But love wasn't something he had even thought about.
Only two and a half years ago, Masters were relegated to myth and legend, and then they started appearing en masse.
He would admit, even if they weren't gifted with Embryos, that granted god-like powers, they would find a place in this world due to their looks alone.
Especially the women, he had chanced to see the current Imperator's granddaughter, at the time he thought she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. (2)
However, since the arrival of Masters, he had seen women, and even some men, too perfect to be real.
Did he like Crescent like that?
He'd only met her twice, it must have just been teasing.
But if it could happen to others…he wouldn't object if it happened to him. Even if she occasionally did vanish from the world to go to another, there were far worse things for a partner to do.
And it wasn't like he was a slouch either. He was only twenty-three and he was already level 250 with a high-rank job. Typically, most tians stayed with only a handful of low-rank jobs and even those that obtained high-rank jobs typically did so between their late twenties to early forties.
"Snap out of it Royal." His captain said as they rounded another corner.
Captain Stone was wearing his Legendary Special Reward power armor, Power Suit, Gamma Ray. Despite how often he got on his case, Duncan respected Captain Stone. He was only in his early forties but had already obtained a Superior Job, something most tians went their whole lives without accomplishing. On top of defeating a Legendary UBM in single combat, something only a small handful of tians in history could ever claim.
"If our informant was right," the captain said in a hushed tone as their forces surrounded the building. "Then the ones starting the fires should be in here." He said gesturing towards their destination.
It was a warehouse that was typically used for storing decommissioned Geist.
Shaking his head, Duncan focused. While Masters killing Masters wasn't a crime, it technically wasn't murder if the victim came back to life three days later, but the arsonist has been destroying buildings throughout Vandelheim, including the ice cream parlor he went to as a kid. That was HIGHLY illegal and thus the Master(s) in question could be punished.
With luck, they could either run them out of Dryfe or identify who they were and let Masters handle them. Either way, they were going onto the wanted list and almost certainly this 'Gaol' Masters talked about. He didn't know what it was, but if Masters, who were so powerful, seemed uncomfortable with it, then the Embryos must have cooked up a fitting punishment. (3)
Blasting open the doors, the main force rushed in, weapons drawn…only to see nothing but a young woman with patchy shady green scales all over her body and face and some barrels in each of the corners of the room.
A reptile faunus perhaps?
"You boys certainly kept me waiting." She smirked, clearly amused by this situation, "Didn't your mothers teach you not to keep a lady waiting?"
"Miss…?"
"Tick." She replied.
"Miss Tic, my mother also told me to follow in my father's footsteps and arrest criminals." Captain Stone replied. The weapons on his armor pointed levelly at the woman's head. "And that is exactly what I am going to do."
She had the image of a red snake within a fire on her left hand. So, she was a Master like Crescent.
No that was wrong. Something about this woman had the hair on the back of his neck standing on end.
"And what are the charges?" she asked grinning.
"Arson, destruction of private property, the destruction of public property, and trespassing." Captain Stone answered her as he went to put handcuffs on her.
To which she spit on his uncovered face.
"Now listen yo-*BOOM*
In an instant, half of Captain Stone's face was blown off. His special reward armor disappeared as he died.
Then two of the guards beside him burst into flames.
Then two more.
The six more.
Not knowing how she was doing it, Duncan ran out of the building to get back up, only to see half the forces outside die in fire and lighting from some type of dragon in the sky while the others were butchered by flying circular blades wreathed in flames.
*BOOOM*
"GAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Duncan cried in pain as his legs were blown up from under him. As he dropped his rifle.
Barely preventing himself from passing out due to the pain, he crawled as far as he could. Debuffs such as [Missing Leg], [Missing Leg], [Hemorrhaging], [Blood Loss], and [Burn] were visible in his window.
By chance he spotted a small piece of wood, knowing he was about to die.
With the last of his strength, he took out the pocket knife his father had given him when he turned fifteen and scratched into it his last message before stuffing it into his armor.
As his life faded, he hoped his last action would at least help before his mind briefly flashed to an image of the young Master he had only met a few days ago.
"Take care Crescent." He said with the last bit of his life.
In the next instant that followed, countless fires began to spring up all across Vandelheim.
(1) Referencing different construction equipment in fiction and a few mechas. In order: Alien Franchise, Guren Lagan, Megas XLR, the idea is from The Flintstones.
(2) The time for the fic is set before the first SUBM drops, the Imperator, Zanafold Wolfgang Dryfe, doesn't die until after the third SUBM, Gloria, is dropped. At least in the source material.
(3) As far as I can tell, only a small handful of tians are aware of the Control A.I.'s so I think its safe to say that anything that happens in the world relating to Masters, tians just assume it's the Embryo's work.
Mad Mall = Madame Mallari. A neighbor to Ruby and Yang from the comic book RWBY series. She seems like a sweet wise woman so why not give her an Embryo that's a literal well of wisdom with a sweet effect? (Yeah I couldn't help but make that joke, I'm sorry).
Aunty M = Oscar's Aunt…who we still don't have a name for. We don't know what she looks like or much about her personality, so I kind of winged it on this one. Given that so many of those related to Ozpin are based on characters from the Wizard of Oz, I thought it'd be fine to name her "Aunty M", a pun on the character Aunt Em. Following the Aunt Em motif, in the original book, Aunt Em was rather down about being the wife of a poor farmer in the blazing Kansas heat, so I thought what a woman like that would want…and came up with treasure-digging ants. Yeah, my brain works in ways I don't fully understand.
ShayD = Shay D. Mann. Sometimes I think people at Rooster Teeth think in terms of gamer names and bad puns. Shay could be both. This one wasn't even a hint, it was his first name and middle initial. Oddly enough, some people do use them as their screen names. If you didn't know, he's the blonde-haired bandit Yang beats up in the first episode of volume 5. Given how 'well', he performed in that fight, I thought his Embryo should be something as effective…like a giant rotting eel with the power of vomit…yeah, I may need medication.
Roche N' Roll = Roch Szalt. A…less than intelligent former huntsman who gets fired due to not thinking about collateral damage and despite being competent enough to put Roman Torchwick in a tight spot, is dumb enough to create an opening for him to escape due to aforementioned not thinking of collateral damage. The partner of Kandi Floss in Roman Holiday.
Kotten Kandi = Kandi Floss. A…less than intelligent former huntsman who gets fired due to not thinking about collateral damage and despite being competent enough to put Roman Torchwick in a tight spot, is dumb enough to create an opening for him to escape due to aforementioned not thinking of collateral damage. The partner of Roch Szalt in Roman Holiday.
Drunk Mann & Drinking Buddy = Drunk Mann & Drinking Buddy. I needed two random guys for some gag Embryos based on some of the dumbest mythological creatures I could find, which was a surprisingly long list, so I picked the two drunk guys who show up sporadically in Mantle during volume 7.
Sickly Sweet = Honey Wine. Another character from Roman Holiday, a former turned not-former member of the Spiders, who uses her voice-based semblance to lull people into a state that is easier to pickpocket or, in Roman's case, kidnap. I have plans for her Embryo that relates to that all-important, for a singer, silence where their voice can heal.
Tick = Tock. The scaly reptile faunus that blinded Maria is trying to relieve her youth via online gaming.
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