Meanwhile, in East America Talos and the others were still busy trying to figure out the entire mess. So far, they have had little to no success. However, it wasn't surprising. After all, an investigation from a remote location with no access to the crime site was a pain in the butt for starters.

But Arnold had given them explicit instructions not to leave the base under any circumstances. So it wasn't like they had a choice in the matter. Even though they were using drones and other automated means, they could not find much.

Talos even deviated a bit from Arnold's orders and sent a couple of automatons to investigate as much as they could. But their fate was just like everyone else before. However, they did not disappear like everyone before because Talos was able to get a clip from one of those automatons through the cloud network that the automatons shared. 

From the clip, Talos could determine that the unsuspecting automatons were attacked by some kind of a horde. But it all happened very quickly. As a result, the cameras weren't able to catch a lot of things. Not to mention the call he received from Arnold who wanted to know about how the Automatons got destroyed.

Talos was about to blurt the truth as he wasn't proficient in lying. But Amanda saved the day and made up a story about new weapons being tested, which was true, and how the automatons got destroyed in the process. Thankfully, Arnold already had too much on his plate, thus he did not bother about getting the details, but told them to tone it down a bit. By his tone, it was clear that he did not like the fact that his automatons were being used as test dummies.

Following this, Talos and Amanda doubled their efforts. They were trying to do whatever they could to find out more about this mysterious horde. However, no matter what they did, wasn't efficient at all. They were standing at a dead end.

They couldn't do much anymore. They gave it all but there was a limit to even what Talos could do. In the end, they decided to drop it all and focus on defending the zone instead. After all, their main priority was to defend the zone in the first place, but Talos decided to investigate because in Arnold's words: It's better to know who your enemy is before exchanging blows with them.

Another reason for investigating was because Talos wanted to end the fight as quickly as possible. thus knowing the enemy would help in that. Also, the investigation could disclose not only the identity of the potential culprit but also their location. Which would allow Talos to bring the fight to the enemies rather than waiting to be attacked. He wanted to finish the fight as soon as possible so that he could go and aid Arnold in his fight against Hercules. Talos was worried about Arnold as he was not allowed to kill anyone. While the same did not apply to Hercules.

However, it did not seem to be possible for him to investigate any further. So, Talos was forced to dive headfirst and fight anything that showed up, with all his might. That was his only option at this point. While the other elite summons were busy training along with Yu Zhung, Talos decided to give the base a facelift in terms of its defensive strength.

Now all he had to do was to test the new defences while they wait for the culprit to show up at their doorsteps. It was something that could take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks or maybe even months. But they didn't have a choice in the matter.

"It doesn't matter how soon they show up. We'll just have to take them down quickly before anything could get out of hand." Amanda mumbled as the two were going through newly installed defences, "The lack of information is a bit concerning, I'm not a fool who would lie about it. However, I believe in master. He had sent all of you here because he thinks you can handle this on your own."

"You're giving us too much credit. We might be strong, but there's always a bigger fish in the sea." Talos replied, "But these flamethrowers do reassure me that those fishes would end up becoming our dinner if they show up."

Saying so, Talos nodded and the next second, an automaton open fired on the bunch of monsters that had shown up just in time to test their new type of turret. A jet of blue flames spewed out of the turret as if it was not a weapon, but a part of a fountain show. 

The horde of goblins stood no chance against the flames and was soon reduced to ashes as their cries of pain drowned among the cheers of the soldiers. Talos was impressed by the successful demonstration of the turret. In addition to this turret, he had also made and installed a couple of other turrets across the boundary of their base.

Firstly he had reinforced the preexisting turrets while upgrading them. They could now fire elemental bullets alongside the usual ones. He had also made a couple of automatic grenade launching turrets to deal damage over a wide area.

He had done so to complement the pin-pointed attack of the turrets mentioned earlier. While the turrets were capable of handling hordes of monsters, these grenade launchers were more efficient in doing so. Just like the turrets from before, these launchers could also be used to throw elemental grenades alongside the usual ones.

As for the question of how Talos was going to get so much supply of this elemental ammunition. Arnold had gone all out to support them in any way he could. As a result, he had opened the armoury inside his domain and told Talos to take whatever he needed. And that's exactly what he did, even though it might've been a bit unnecessary.

"As master would've said," Talos smiled, "Now, we wait for those basta*ds to show up."

***

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