“You’re quite useless”

[I do not understand your reasoning]

Seven shook his head in disappointment. He put his hands on quite an interesting bit of information, but other than surprise it did not give him any other feeling.

“I’m not yet in the part where I make a big revelation in the story, so this feeling is needless right now...”

Ai couldn’t detect anything strange about Natalya, which meant whatever secret she had, it was something even the Main System it spoke of had no knowledge of.

“No use dwelling on it, I might as well head to that 4th Research Station... Not”

With just the distance shown on the map, it would take him an entire week to reach the place, and that’s without accounting for external threats and time spent resting and possibly recovering from injuries.

On the plus side, on the way to the 4th Research Station, there were other 3 stations. They were arranged around a circle, in a way that the 1st, 2nd and 3rd were aligned on the left, the 4th at the center and the 5th, 6th and 7th at the right. Each one of them had a string of characters with some sort of meaning behind them, but since their names were supposedly related to the “hint” dropped by Ai for the players to discover, he couldn’t fathom what sort of test happened on each place.

“Whatever Natalya is trying to cover, is something that already happened on her side. Did she appear in the other labs, too? Would it be of any use to try and hide something, when people keep getting kidnapped?”

Either she was working with a group to suppress the truth, or she was accumulating enough rewards to accomplish her objective. He couldn’t think of anything else at the moment.

“Before I leave this place, I have to check the other sections”

Natalya’s message cautioned him not to perform a biological alteration, one of the options available in the bio lab for becoming stronger.

What other kind of DNA could they input other than their own? The only creatures they came in contact with, thus far, were the ants.

To see what else could be done about his current strength, he had to visit the other sections of the lab. He had managed thus far with his wits and copied martial arts, but if the scales were upped by just a bit, he would be another goner.

The rest of the afternoon and the earlier parts of night-time were spent in pursuit of a way to turn stronger with acceptable repercussions. Everything had a price to pay. It was an equivalent trade as viewed by the mastermind, but in reality, it was relative to what you wanted to achieve in comparison to what you could afford to give up.

While in the Advanced Chemistry section, he also managed to discover the identity of that powerful acid capable of erasing a human from this plane of existence. The procedures to make it was very simple and the recipe was the first thing one could see when entering the lab.

||The ingredients required for compound C49 are distilled water and blue essence in the liquid state||

||Distilled water can be found most conveniently at the taps in any room, but it is also present at the storeroom in any lab, the distilling room, in filters, can be distilled from outside water, among other choices||

||Blue essence is rare. It makes for more than 50% of the world’s atmosphere, but underground it is very scarce. To transform it into the liquid state from the gas state is very difficult as it cannot be achieved through changes in temperature. Some special creatures possess a crystalized version of it, although mixed with impurities. In that case, the crystal should be boiled at 1537K and filtered to at least 95% purity. Powerful entities have blue essence in the liquid state flowing inside their bodies, but the purity will be 80% to 90% at best||

The problem was the next sentence.

||Blue essence composes 82% of the Human System’s crystal. With a simple thermic treatment, about 96% purity can be achieved with little loss to the properties||

||Water and blue essence should be mixed at a rate of 1:5 grams and subjected to a thermic treatment. First, elevate the temperature to 1537 K and maintain it until all the essence is in the liquid state, then cool it to 567 K with the “pattern change” option and let it rest for 24 hours. The compound should be collected using hardened skin with the inscriptions of The Watcher. Please refer to the Obscure Technology section for more information||

The biggest weapon against the ants was made of their own flesh.

Coupling that with the fact humans could turn into beings such as the abandoned Queen Ant, He could already envision the hell that occurred on the 4th Research Station, and maybe it had something to do with the threat they were currently facing.

“I’ve only faced the abnormally weak version of a Queen Ant... That aside, it’s been bugging me for a while... This is magic, isn’t it, Ai?”

[Please elaborate]

“Obscure Technology section. Blue essence and it being a component of 50% of the atmosphere. It being not easily extracted from the air. Isn’t it the perfect setting for a magic system?”

[What you call magic is no more than a mechanism of this world that you cannot understand with your current knowledge on the field of physics, amongst others. You will have to consult with books originally of this world to have a better grasp of it, but for simplicity’s sake, the recommended books have only the information considered most relevant]

“Indeed, if it turns out to be too complicated, I don’t think anyone would have the time to study magic. Still, although so far you didn’t present any lies, you cannot be trusted, I’ll read away”

[You are a walking contradiction]

Seven snorted.

"I don’t mean to compliment you, but your program was well designed”

[Naturally]

“Now, before I leave here, I should do some enhancements”

Although there were instructions on how to make use of the laboratories, Seven didn’t like taking uncalculated risks.

Who in their right mind would meddle with Nuclear Engineering with blind trust in the procedures? Not him, at least. As for the Advanced Chemistry section... It was almost like the entire theory behind chemistry had been broken down and rewritten to include magic essence, he would need to further his studies in the area before he delved into that. Advanced Programming? He didn’t even bother looking.

The Materials Engineering section was the most useful one, in his opinion. As the name implied, it served the purpose of developing materials and testing their properties. It also had installments used to create elaborate equipment.

“It would take some time, though... When I have a clear idea of what I should make, I’ll go there”

The most intriguing one was, without a doubt, the Obscure Technology section. Unlike the other laboratories, it looked more like an Esoteric's refuge from the outside world than an actual laboratory.

“Occultism Research Lab is a more fitting name...”

Most of the rooms were empty rooms with varying levels of light, shape or size. They had placeholders for incense and sets of candles on the walls, scents of different flowers, mostly rose species, wafting from the wax. Attached to the walls, hooks for a purpose he could not imagine, and blank portraits that could be easily changed or removed. The color of the room matched its mood or was the reason it existed, dark colors imbuing a gloomy air and brighter colors a light or cheerful one.

There were only two places that had more interesting items. One of them was in complete disarray, the storage, and as he couldn’t make sense of how to traverse the place, he chose to ignore it for the time being.

The other was the main hall.

A lantern with green fire, that emitted no heat and never seemed to fade in the lack of a power source, burned brightly on the wooden table, which was made of a fragrant and lustrous purple wood, gently attached to the back end of the hall. Unlike the other laboratories, it wasn’t too big, but it gave the impression of having secrets unopened, enticing one to explore the rows of books both new or smelling of mold.

Like a piece of scenery from Victorian London, a lounge with beautiful curves that showed the expert handcraft, small cups for tea and, of course, a teapot with a strange but enticing smell that evoked only darkness. Breaking the scenery, a vacuum bottle with a modern design struggling to hide the scent of fresh coffee, for nights of binge reading and heated discussions.

Paintings that described fantastic creatures such as fairies, demons, and angels, amongst those that he could effectively name, were most common hanging from the walls, but even more frequent were the portraits of important figures, no doubt to be from this circle of shady activities.

Grabbing all attention, a Grandfather Clock, functional and pleasing. Beautifully carved with cloud shapes that kept hidden the creatures of the night, with only their captivating tails, wings and claws appearing as if growing out of the wood. Seven gazed at it for a few moments as the pendulum swung to announce a new hour, along with a tune that sang of tranquility and peace of mind.

For anyone else, the knowledge held there was useless.

For Seven, however... A treasure trove.

“I didn’t think that all those interesting books on the occult would ever be of any use in my life.”

He scanned the books with the corner of his eye, trying to find the things he had read before, and finally stopped on a promising piece.

||The Butterfly Chapters, Author Unknown||

***

Kate jumped down the hole and landed on top of a wall, the Queen’s eyes focusing on her insignificantly small figure. It let out the nastiest high pitch scream that would shatter their ears into nothingness and the nearby warrior ants turned her way, the distant ones making haste to swarm her.

-Kate, what the fuck are you doing? I’ll throw you a rope, come up!

Instead of taking the rope, she instead tugged on it and the three people that were holding onto it all fell to her side.

-What the hell?

-Kate, are you insane? - Arthur had to ask.

-It’s been a while since I heard that one...

-What?!

-Nevermind. Hey, you guys! - she turned towards the rest of the group, still astonished at the sight – there are only two options for you! First, return to the Terminal and be terminated!

-Who the fuck would do that?

She grinned.

-Great! The other option is... Get down here and kill this thing.

-This... Who else could do it other than Natalya...?

-I guess you’ll have to die of starvation then. Oh well – she pouted and made a gesture as if there was nothing she could do about it.

-I... I’d rather die here than be eaten by that monster!

-T-T-That's right!

Kate’s expression on hearing that was unreadable, her eyes seemed to be looking at them from below, but it was as if she was staring at an object.

A complete lack of emotion.

-Well, if you’re set on dying, you might as well die while being useful, right?

From her backpack, she took a crossbow and aimed it at the first person who proudly gave up on living. The bolt was rope attached and it ended on a barbed hook.

Shoot.

The woman had no time to scream before Kate tugged harshly on the rope and pulled her.

Arthur finally broke out of his stupor and ran up to hold her down, but Kate showed dexterity and agility vastly superior to what she had exerted on the previous days.

“It’s like I’m facing Natalya...”

Kate held the crying woman in one hand and threw her at the approaching ants. They immediately turned their attention to her as Kate made her move to kill them.

-Kate... Please, stop this!

As she quickly disposed of three warrior ants before their eyes, she turned back to Arthur with a confused look.

The woman was still alive, but not for long.

-Stop what?

-What the hell are you doing? Answer me!

He didn’t even know how to phrase the question fermenting in his mind.

-I’m just making use of something she discarded. It’s called making the best of what you have. We can’t be picky, now can we?

-This makes no fucking sense! It’s not like you to do this!

Kate gave him a simple smile.

There was nothing to be said.