[/Converting_data]

The machine has been walking around the dark tunnels for an hour, so far, the machine has been very lucky to not encounter any of those bugs, it did almost lose its balance a few times as it stumbled onto soft ground though.

The machine sometimes wonders where have all the bats gone, the machine has not seen any bat since its feeding experiment two days ago. The machine wonders if the bugs had invaded the area and chased all the bats away or the bats just went away by themselves to mate, a breeding season some may call it.

The machine slows down a bit as it waits for the radar navigation system to fire another nav burst, the machine also tried to listen for its head beacon, the signal is weak, but it not distorted anymore, that's mean the machine is going the right way and it will be able to retrieve its head sooner and later if it keep up the pace.

The machine slowly resumes its search for the head after it done converting the raw data from the radar navigation system and saved the data into its data drive to make a crude map so it can backtrack to its base safely and quickly, then the processing core shifts its attention to the unfinished powerplant design work, no need to waste time going idle for the whole trip. After all, the machine needed to prepare for the worst, which is its head is permanently lost and the machine will have to rely on the secondary processing unit in the hull until it can create a new, proper head for itself.

The machine had been doing some basic simulation experiments with its secondary processing unit ever since it lost its head to optimize the processing unit through trial and error method, most of the time the machine just tries simulating its maker's brain to ask itself what the machine need to survive and push back hostile lifeforms aside from weapons. The machine thought of armour, not that the current hull is weak or anything, the machine just thought adding another thin layer of applique steel to lessen the damage would be a good idea, but it was only good when the machine's evaluation criteria is based on the criteria used by its maker back on Earth.

Here in this odd world, the machine could not use those things as a guideline, after all, Earth had no oversized bugs capable of ripping through highly durable alloys with ease, if the machine wanted to put some armour on itself to defend against the bugs, the machine would turn into a heavy tank of some sorts, a tank without any guns that is.

The machine also tried to think of a way how to improve the spear it wanted to make, clearly holding it on two hands and mimic fighting moves like its maker is no good as the bugs are too tough and strong, instead the machine thought of a retractable and reinforced blade protected by thick metal shield that uses a pair of hydraulic compressors to force the blade out of the shield with great force to impale objects or keep the blade extended to slash around like the Plasaw blade, the machine could try adding in some electrical conducting wires along the blade body to add shock damage upon contact with its target, the blade would consume some of the machine's internal power reserve, but the added shock damage would be much more important than saving a bit of power when it comes to fighting giant bugs.

The machine's efficiency has definitely gone up quite a bit comparing to the time it first awakened, it seems like its self-learning capability is improving the machine's much faster than the machine predicted based on the old data its maker once used back in the testing lab, the harsh, uncontrolled environment is much better than the synthesized scenario in the lab, it seemed.

The machine notices this, but it does not go deep into it as the machine does not really care about it, or rather, the machine does not have enough intelligence to see that data meaningful, for now it just a small bit of data like a simple numeric value that the machine uses to calibrate its AI to adapt the situations at hand.

[/Estimated_mission_timer: 7:12:22 0/5/0/0]

[/System_power_level: 11%]

[/System_efficency: 74%]

The machine checks some basic status as it slows down again to scan its surrounding, there the machine finds some odd anomaly in the image feed, it looked like something is floating in mid air for some reasons, the machine does not know what it is so the machine evoked its Lesser Magic Sense to get some more detailed information about the environment.

The machine sees a big ball of blue-ish light covered in blue fog moving around and at a group of smaller blue orbs covered in their own blue fog, the scene reminds the machine of something...A group of bugs attacking some animal, maybe, the machine does not know what is that animal, but if it is able to hold against the bug, the thing must be quite strong and brave. The machine observes the scene for a few seconds before it turns off the Lesser Magic Sense and moves away, the machine has no intention of intervening nature works and its head has higher priority, the machine is certain that it won't be able to help the animal in its current state anyway.

However just before the machine leaves the area completely, the machine, the machine plants a marker on the map as it wants to return to the area at a later date to investigate the aftermath of the battle, maybe the machine will learn or discover something useful by inspecting the area. The machine is eager to retrieve its head to complete itself once again and resume its construction and exploration duty.

[/New_secondary_objective: Inspect marked area.]

----------------

Arc the Human adventurer.

"Rally!. Rally!. Don't let that thing separate you!"

Arc shouts out his order as clearly as he could while jumping around to dodge the leaping Hivewarriors and Evolved Hivewarriors, his target though is not them, this time his target is a Hiveravager. A big, extremely strong bug that looks like a Hivewarrior but with more pincers and a hard, durable carapace covering its head, the bug isn't as compact, fast nor smart as the Evolved Hiveravager the machine fought, but its large size and incredible strength is imposing and dangerous to Arc's team. Even the Hero himself might won't be able to win against such creature.

"Lightning, consumes my magical power, focus and leap far, strike down my enemies, Chain Lightning!"-Lilica casts one of her favorite spell at the bugs, the spell created a bright, powerful and very loud lightning strike that hit and bounce between multiple targets, cooking most of the weaker Hivewarrior alive, but it is not enough to bring down the Evolved Hivewarrior and only stunt the Hiveravager for a few seconds.

"Such beast!. Arc!. We can't fight it here!. We don't have enough supply, we should withdraw!"-The elven archer shouts clearly as she passes Lilica a mana potion while the Priestess conjures an orb of light to illuminate the area and recover some of the party's stamina. The bug seems to hate the light too, so the Priestess can feel a bit relieved that the bug won't come crashing toward her anytime soon unless it is provoked too much.

Thekeg and the human archer aren't in the fight at that time as they are trying to gather all the metal shards and odd looking metallic objects they found earlier, they believe it will have something to do with the undead legend roaming the area or cue of a hidden civilization deep in the cave, whether it is, it will worth the time and effort of the entire team to try bringing it out of the cave.

"Done digging there?!"-Arc asks loudly as he performs an Auraslash on the Hiveravager, but after witnessing the attack just dissipated harmlessly after it touched the bug's hard carapace and strong pincers, Arc decides it wouldn't be a good idea to provoke the thing further as he jumps back and makes some distance between him and the bug.

"Almost...Done! Lilica, take us out of here!. Use the scroll!"

"But it's expensive!"

"Use it or else, little girl!"-Thekeg and Lilica shout back and forth at each other as they gather around, then Lilica pulls a rolled up scroll of paper from her satchel and pulls the side of it to unroll the scroll, revealing many dimly glowing inscriptions and a magic circle in the middle of the scroll.

"Arc, come here!. We're bailing out!"-Thekeg calls Arc as he looks around and brandishes his hammer with one of his hand to guard the group while Lilica reads the inscription on the paper to use the scroll.

Arc looks at his companions for a moment before he turns back to the angry Hiveravager, the bug is still very angry and about to make another charging attack with its pincers and hard head, if Arc approached his party, the bug would be able to wipe the entire team out with its charging attack if Lilica is unable to cast the spell in time. Arc knows this, and his team also know it, but the thought of abandoning each other for their own good is not something to be taken easily even in this situation.

"Time for me to shine~!. Come forth, my protector, Greater Crusader!"

The Priestess's voice and sudden conjuring magic surprised everyone, including Arc, as the young looking woman summons a shiny black knight, a strong and reliable looking fighter has come to their aid as the summoned knight recklessly charges at the bug. It took Arc a moment to get out of the surprised state before he quickly runs to his party and gets in the magical circle created by Lilica.

Before Lilica's teleportation scroll comes into effect, the party witnessed the great golden knight battle with the bug as their sword and pincer clashes loudly, a second later though the pincer just cut through the golden sword with ease and decapitate the head of the knight as the Priestess shocked by the event.

""WHY HE IS SO WEAK?!!""

Arc and Thekeg shout loudly while pointing at the scene just right before they got teleported away and out of the cave, leaving the frenzied Hiveravager behind in the dark cave as it screeches loudly and runs around to find its prey.