“Ah, there it is,” Maya said.

“What do you got, boss?” Tender asked, looking up from the disassembled motor assembly he was working on.

“The mighty mana-chondria,” she replied as she opened up a window and displayed the image before Tender. “Look at this, it’s like a biological cell, but restructured to be more versatile and obtain instructions. Its like a machine, but also a living cell.”

“Technically aren’t all living cells machines?” Tender asked.

“Beats me, but there is a difference between Tier 2 nano components versus this Tier 1 flesh,” Maya said. She pulled up another image of Tier 2 components. The highest level that system technology could gain was high grade, Tier 2. There were higher Tiers that crafting and building could accomplish, but when it came to system tech, that was it.

“These cells are designed to carry a lot more mana than system tech components can, they’re basically tiny little batteries floating around, absorbing ambient mana and also drinking in mana from the organic mana core,” Maya said gleefully as she pulled up more diagrams. “They’re also immortal. As long as they can draw in ambient mana and are sustained by the ‘blood’ of the machine, they can live for a long, long time. Unlike normal cells that die and are replaced, these cells are here for the long term.

“As you can see here, some of them are even able to communicate with system tech components via a transfer of energy. This is how the miner has system tech components scattered through out it. It allows them to more efficiently do tasks that would be harder to accomplish with solely biotech.

“They even have the Tarvana’s ability to mutate over time, allowing them to reshape to fit the job they need or adapt to changing environments. Which means regeneration and repairs, so that this miner could last decades or maybe even hundreds of years.”

She paused and frowned at the images. “Which leads to the screwed up part of this whole thing. I believe the Omni-miner was actually a person once.”

“As in a Tarvana?” Tender asked.

“Yeah, look at this. This is Tarvana DNA and it pretty much matches the DNA of this machine. From the analysis, this machine is related to one of our meals about five generations back. So the miner is the great-great grand cousin of some poor Tarvana that went into the pot.”

“I do not imagine that a Tarvana gave birth to this machine,” Tender replied, appraising the omni-miner. “All those legs could cause difficulties.”

“Could be, or it could be they’ve got machines giving birth to machines, this is weird biotech after all. Most likely they are taking Fleshy babies and subjecting them to changes they need. Warping flesh and bone, combining it with system tech to create a machine that will mine for them.”

“So this was once a SIL,” Tender said. “I believe such a thing you are suggesting is highly illegal in the Integrated Multiverse.”

“It is,” Sostanio said. “System mutation is one thing, but actively restructuring a living SIL via technology or skills and abilities is considered highly illegal. Tier 1 SIL anyway.”

Maya looked up from the screens she was studying. A chunk of omni-miner flesh lay before her, on a marsani table, with an array of scanning tools scattered about. They had come across what was a doctor’s office in the trash pile, buried deep in and dug out by the omni-miner.

The diagnosing tools were plentiful and their pair of healers didn’t need all of them. It was a boon that they found the doctor’s office, they were already racking up injuries and even with the fast healing afforded to them by the System, they were all still beat to heck.

It didn’t hold a candle to healing potions, but the doctor’s equipment and the skills of the healers helped along many harder to heal injuries. Many orcs, crows, and humans were still bed ridden. The hard fighting was taking its toll, but they were leveling and getting stronger. Such was life in the-

“What’s up, Sos?” Maya asked, shaking her head.

“I’m afraid our time here is up,” she said. Sostanio opened a video screen showing a large mob of Tarvana trekking across the barren RSH wasteland. Maya paused in her experimenting and watched for a moment.

The Tarvana moved in orderly lines. Behind them walked heavy cargo carriers on multiple legs and what appeared to be mobile gun batteries. They were clearly artillery or cannons judging by the long metallic barrels. This was a whole different animal than the Flesh Army sent after Bad Blood, this one seemed more… modern.

They were fewer in number, but from the passive scans and enhancements to the footage; the common soldiers were wearing armor and carrying uniform weapons. They were disciplined and steady in their marching. They weren’t the skinny, starved, and crazed Fleshies sent after Bad Blood.

Had they been fighting a trash army?

“Chu sent this?”

“About five minutes ago,” Sostanio said. “They’re reaching the settlement we raided two weeks prior.”

Maya sighed and pushed away the chunk of flesh. “How long until they get here?” she asked.

“If they do not stop to rest and refit at the settlement, Chu estimates it will be three days at their current speed.”

“Ah, well,” Maya said. “All good things come to an end.”

“Indeed, boss,” Tender said. “We are ready to depart within six hours. There are no high priority needs that have to be finished and most of the equipment and machinery are already stowed and ready to be moved.”

“We were getting to the juicy stuff in the center of the trash pile,” Maya said. “But I suppose there are plenty of other trash piles out there. Alright, begin loading up and break camp. I want to keep that three day head start as much as possible.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Sostanio said and walked off.

Maya looked down at the piece of flesh before her. If Nanaseto were here, she could have probably figured out how to hack the Omni-miner’s programming with ease. As it was, Maya had spent nearly a week working on the miner, trying to tease out its secrets. Operating the machine was easy, but figuring out how it ran, how it maintained itself, and how it repaired itself were all unknowns.

If the power readings were correct, the miner could produce up to three times the power it was using. That corresponded with Chu’s description of the mining weapon that was used to kill two orcs. Although powerful, the mining laser was too slow to be used effectively as a weapon.

But if they could hack the miner and get system tech to talk with the flesh, then that could mean the miner was another source of mana. Maya ran the numbers and with the extra mana the miner was producing, she could install all seven of the railgun turrets onto the miner. Along with some of the system tech shields they had access to.

It would become a walking weapons platform.

If she could hack it.

Which she wasn’t yet able to.

Maya leaned back in her chair and stared at the cracked rainbow sky. She could hear the orders being shouted out, the troops rushing to get things loaded, and the whine of machinery and last minute jobs. She closed her eyes, taking in the noise.

Three weeks.

It had been three weeks since they arrived into the RSH. Two weeks since they raided the settlement.

In all that time Maya had not felt one single trace of the Cage in her Dimensional Awareness. She had been connected to that device since Shen had forced her into it. It was a part of her, but now it was gone.

Sostanio had divulged that Asoltolia had brought in high leveled Dimensional Mages before the fight. The supposed ‘body guards’ that Maya had noted in the control room. She hadn’t given them much thought in the beginning, but now the pieces were all there for her to look at. She had been a big fucking idiot.

Too trusting. Too caught up in her own stuff.

The multiverse just wouldn’t slow down. There was so much to do, so much people were dying on Earth. Breaks were rare occurrences, unicorn four leaf clovers under double rainbows kind of rare.

Everyone wanted something and she could barely keep up with it. That had been her life since returning to Earth, but it was something she had chosen to do. It wasn’t an easy job trying to save an entire planet that was supposedly doomed anyway. No Tier 2 planet was ever tamed in the Integrated Multiverse. Too much mana, too many monsters; all leading to death.

Yet she had been trying. At a minimum, trying to slow down the collapse of the human race enough to get them into space and off world. The multiverse was filled with lower tiered worlds free and clear for the taking. A new home could be made out there.

She hadn’t even gotten to setting up bigger settlements, let alone creating a space force to lead them to the promise land. Maya sighed and rubbed her eyes. There was just so much to do.

But here she was, suffering the consequences of her own failures. Cut off from the Cage. Yosi enslaved. All beings on Earth potentially left to die or be enslaved by the Sword Union. And now the Flesh Army was coming to get them, again.

She had to get the Cage back. She had to open a threshold to the Cage or back to Earth. There was nothing in the manual that said she was only able to open thresholds in the Void. Dimensional Teleportation was a thing and that had nothing to do with Void Space or anything. It was done in Multiverse Space, just a different level of it.

That she could Dimensional Skip meant that the RSH had a different layer to it. When she increased her Dimensional Skip to higher levels, she would be able to unlock other abilities and skills. Perhaps eventually she could reopen a threshold back to the Cage or even Earth.

That was the dream, though. A silly fantasy that kept her going. The other reality was that she would have to create another Cage. A project that had taken Shen decades and scores of other very smart individuals who he eventually enslaved. The creation of another Cage was a daunting task. She had no access to high-grade, Tier 2 components and she didn’t know if her skills were up to the challenge.

Unlike every SIL under Tier 1, Maya did not have mana channels. They had been burned out of her when she had been brought into the RSH during Integration. Whereas every other SIL could level and use their mana channels to increase their leveling, Maya could not. She was stuck with the more difficult method of gaining levels, by doing.

Time dilation, a constant stream of enemies, lower experience requirements to level, and luck had been the only reason she was Tier 2. Her level was standing at 101, but the experience needed to gain another level was double that of the previous level. A square of experience points that climbed into impossible numbers.

What offset those massive numbers was the experience gained by using skills and abilities to do occupations. Maya was technically a Merchant, its how the System and other people saw her, for it was her highest level occupation. Also as a head of a House, she had chosen the Merchant occupation, therefore all of her House were considered Merchants.

In a fair world, she would have been gaining experience points by selling, buying, and trading across the multiverse. She could have been higher leveled now if she had regular old mana channels.

Instead she was given essence channels by the System. The System controlled everything and the RSH was technically its body. In this dimensional plane, it could not use the normal essence mana that made up the rest of the multiverse, therefore it needed her body and channels to funnel in essence mana to run maintenance on the RSH.

She was a piece of wire shorting a circuit. She was a work-around the System needed to dust its old ass body off once in a while. For five hundred standard years, she was to serve as the System’s connection to the Multiverse and essence mana.

All for the price of being Tier 2 and being blessed with essence channels she barely understood how to use. In the entire time she had been gifted with these channels, she had barely managed to use them. Only in times of intense fear, impending death, or desperation could she tap into the channels and use them. On a daily basis, nothing.

So much for being able to warp reality and matter with her powers. She had been sold a load of bullshit.

“Maya.”

Maya looked to Tender as he stood beside her.

“Yeah, buddy?”

“We’re ready to leave.”

“Already? Chu back?”

“Yes and yes.”

“Barely made it back in one piece,” Chu said. He was dusty, dirty, and had several more scorch marks on his armor than he had before he left. “Didn’t think the Fleshies had outriders or screeners. Nearly shit myself when twenty foot snakes with Tarvana riding on them raced up to our positions. Now, I’m not a man who fears much, but snakes, dude. Snakes suck.”

“How does the enemy look?” Maya asked.

“Ugly as hell, but also organized and moving faster than I expected. Once they saw we were watching, they doubled timed it. I think someone there has a skill, because they look like they’re marching at the same speed, but also faster.”

“Double Step,” Sostanio said. “It’s an Army Level Skill. Micro dimensional skipping, as Maya has been experimenting with.”

“So our three days are cut down to one and a half?” Maya asked.

“We now only have a day’s lead on them. If the General of the Flesh Army is high leveled and has a consistent source of mana, then they will be able to maintain Double Step for a long time,” Sostanio said.

“Great. The math says they’ll eventually catch up with us,” Maya said. “Three days perhaps?”

“Yes,” Sostanio said. “Double Step is an outdated skill, but one that’s widely used in ground combat.”

“Fleshies don’t got any air power,” Chu said. “A few F-35s and they’d be paste.”

“Unlikely,” Sostanio replied. “These are not like the Flesh Army we faced against in the Cage. These are of a higher quality.”

“The Home Guard, perhaps,” Tender said. “The Flesh Mother’s high quality troops that protects her most vital areas.”

“Although a line of training in the Sword Union is called the Grind. Where low leveled SIL are sent into battle and those that survive are usually of higher level and suited for more intensive and expensive training.” Sostanio paused as she noted everyone’s expression. “House Revvena doesn’t do that, of course. Each man, woman, and child born of the House can reach great potential and that is what House Revvena strives for.”

“Right,” Maya said with an eye roll. “Alright, load up people. We need to get moving or we’re breakfast.”

Maya used her dimensional skip to reach the omni-miner in a few seconds. She liked the skip, it was like contracting the Cage to make distances shorter.

A chipped beak crow named Sky was the pilot of the miner. She had rated high in the testing and operation of the machine, gaining the occupation of Machine Operator. For all intents and purposes, she was the commander of the miner.

“All set, Sky?” Maya asked, pulling out her tablet.

“Yes, Merchant Sullivan,” the crow said. “We have a course?”

“We head that way,” Chu said, climbing into the control room. He pointed toward the horizon.

“Why?” Sky asked.

“I’m the commander of this whole army, kid,” Chu said. “Don’t ask why.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s the opposite direction from the Flesh Army,” Chu said.

“Okay,” Sky said and began moving the omni-miner.

The miner shuddered and groaned. It didn’t seem like it was going to move all that fast, but Maya had seen Sky put it through its paces. Soon enough the Miner would be moving at running pace, chewing up miles upon its multiple legs.

Around the miner, give vehicles roared to life. Mana motors had been salvaged from the trash piles and a Frankensteinian construction of vehicles had begun. Maya had left that construction to Tender and those orcs and crows and humans who wanted to learn system tech.

A stripped down railgun turrets topped each of the vehicles and they were manned by three soldiers. Chu wanted something fast and mobile to harass enemies if they got too near. As their resource pool was low, he got ugly looking jalopies that at any moment could fall apart, but they were fast.

The remainder of the troops were being pulled along in a series of large sleds, all connected to the miner. Along with the remaining cargo they had collected in the last two weeks.

Maya watched the stream of vehicles, SIL, and supplies leave the small fortress they had created in the shadow of the trash pile. The dead Tarvana had long since decomposed due to RSH wackiness, but their bones still littered the ground, shiny, white, and half buried in RSH dirt.

They moved all day and all night. The need to get ahead of the Flesh Army was enough that the troops and crew slept in shifts and rotated among the sleds and the more spacious accommodations on the miner. The three great bacteria vats occupied the main storage area of the miner, as they were able to use the miner’s energy to maintain the vats.

Emilia and her gang of mages had already topped off all the tesseracts, consuming nearly a third of all the mana stones they had raided. Maya made a note to gather up more stones eventually. Supposedly, the ground underneath them was full of the stuff. If they could find the remnants of a mana lake, the could also mine it very easily. But such a find would be miraculous.

On day three Maya watched as Chu’s scouts came racing back. She could see damage on one of the vehicles and a bloodied soldier was quickly dismounted and rushed to the healers.

“Another fucking army,” Chu said, pulling up a map of the area. It showed the areas his scouts had mapped, small settlements, trash piles, and the status of the Flesh Army marching after them. “Here, moving to intercept.”

Maya traced the line, they were being cut off. They would have to divert at least forty five degrees from their current heading to avoid them.

“Can we rush past them? Get to here and outpace them?”

“Not likely,” Chu moved the map to show a settlement and a trash pile. “If they’ve got two armies moving to intercept us, then there could be a third up here. It doesn’t even have to be an army. Just a lot of Fleshies willing to die. They just need to slow us down. We have less than a day’s lead over the first army, if we even slow down a bit then its adios amigos.”

“We can’t fight them,” Maya said. “We’re just far too outnumbered.”

“Maybe if we backtrack, hit the army that is following us. We don’t need to defeat them, we just need to fuck them up a bit and move on past. If we can sow some chaos among them, it’ll be days before they can even follow us. They’ve been Double Stepping it for days now. Sos says they might be overtaxing themselves, the drain on their mana, stamina, and wear and tear is exponentially increasing. They’ll be shot if they keep it up.”

“How likely is that?” Maya asked.

“Not very,” Chu sighed. “It all depends on levels, skills, and how much mana their general is being fed. With mana stones as a part of their diet, that tosses the usual estimates out the window. If we get caught up in a long battle with the first army, the second one will be on our asses. We’ve been moving for three days straight, the less than stellar accommodations are beginning to make itself known.”

“Then we move here,” Maya said, pointing to the less scouted area of the map. “Avoid contact with them and see if we can lose them.”

Chu grimaced looking at the un-scouted section of the map. “There be dragons here, though,” he said. “Or maybe a fourth army.”

“There’s nowhere else to go, if there is a fourth army. We’ll have to avoid them as best as we can. If we can’t, we fight.”

Chu nodded and closed the map.