"Nexus, explain, why?"

[/Secondary_hull_deployed]

"Replica of native lifeform, less alien, more familiar, more suitable for negotiation, diplomatic works. Must have to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding and confrontation."

Nexus replies with its toneless computer generated voice as its watches Pioneer's back opened and dropped a small humanoid type drone, at 1.40m height and has a rather lean, compact build, the drone's silhouette resembles a youngster of the outsider's species somewhat. The drone's body is protected by multiple layers of overlapping armor, the outermost layer is a 7mm thick composite hard shell which covers the drone's head, torso, lower arms and its legs while the innermost layer is a flexible and durable skinsuit covering the entire drone's body. The design of the drone's armor also reminded Pioneer of what some of the adventurers is wearing by some degree.

"Explain to me why you designed it like this, Nexus"

Pioneer replies as it pushes the small, tiny looking drone toward Nexus while looking at the machine.

"Unit design parameter, small, compact, must fit inside the hull and take little space. Simulation data of the native lifeform suggested the overall design. The unit has the same color scheme as all the drones for recognition on the protective shell, combat is not a primary parameter, the defensive system will only sufficient for small scale self-defense. To make unit looks familiar to Lifeform5 , inner membrane is engineered to look as similar to Lifeform5 as possible, overall head structure is based on the inhabitants of the shelter as we don't have enough data for facial creation system, hair fiber is made out of refined Hirudocrystallus, good for data transmission, collecting energy, more durable and flexible than thin structural nanite strings. Synthesized voice and facial expressions are based on available subjects in the shelter for most accurate and convincible result."

"Why didn't you tell me about it before hand then, Nexus?"

Pioneer inquires the overseer drone after it finished as the small humanoid drone steps aside to make way for a group of General Purpose Drones passing by.

"..."

"Why didn't you tell me, Nexus?"

"..."

"Nexus. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Projected production cost, 900 kg of Hirudocrystallus, 400 kg of Viricrystallus."

Pioneer is shocked after hearing the expensive cost to produce a single humanoid drone standing nearby. With that much resources, Pioneer can build at least 5 to 7 standard drones or thousands of ordnance ammunitions. The secondary body's production cost is too freaking high!.

"Nexus, detach your head and reattach it on your hips, your punishment is 50 hours of working in that state for unscheduled and unauthorized access into an important project."

Pioneer grumbles as it picks up its secondary hull and leaves the colony while Nexus is carrying out its Maker's order. Since the core does not want to scrap such an expensive piece of equipment, and beside it ss something Nexus spent a lot of time and efforts on. Pioneer decides to keep the thing for now as it travels to the Adventurer's shelter to check them and test the unit. Since Pioneer can get direct access wirelessly to the small drone, the main body can wait outside while the secondary hull is doing Pioneer's bidding in the shelter. If the core is lucky, maybe things won't go sideway and it will forgive Nexus later on.

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

Erika the wandering Ethereal Knight.

Erika and her adventurer colleagues are slowly enjoying their simple meals in the eerie, but brightly lit room. Slightly burnt, but well-cooked meats are what they are eating, they all know where the meat come from pretty well, but they don't have any complaint because the things kept them captive here do not understand them at all anyway.

"Carius. Do you have any story to share?. It's quiet here."

"Erika, your hand got a cut there."

"Eeh?. Really?"

As Erika raises her hand up to have a look at it after hearing Carius's words, the experienced warrior gleefully pushes Erika's hand toward her face, one slap later, everyone in the shelter begins smiling and laughing lightly at the scene.

"WHY YOU SH-"

Carius places his hand on the smaller knight's head and keeps her fists at bay effortlessly while laughing relaxingly at the scene, the quiet and heavy mood in the room is lifted for now, they need to keep the atmosphere less tense and more relaxed like this to keep their head clear and free of negative thoughts as much as they could.

"RELEASE ME YOU MUSCLEHEAD!"

As Erika pushes Carius's hand away, the young knight feels something big and heavy moving toward the shelter, she thought that her actions had attracted the drones.

"...This feels a bit different...Are you feeling it too, Erika?"

"I feel an odd disturbance in the mana flow...Erika."

Carius and the Mage in the group whisper quietly as Erika nods to confirm their discoveries, the footsteps is indeed very different from the drones and the 4 legged rock golem, but it is also very familiar, it reminds Erika of the old undead legend she once met.

"...What is it doing? Erika?. Know anything to share?"

"Urm...I don't know...Maybe it just passing by?"

"Ma-Hey, look!"

Erika focuses on the figure who just entered the shelter and being pointed at by the Mage, the black knight is once again surprised by Pioneer's creations, what she sees in front of her is more or less a recreation of Erika's suit of armor on a smaller scale and less focused in raw defensive capability.

"...So is this a dwarven creation?"

"No dwarf could create such thing, Carius."

"But that thing looks so tiny..."

"...I know...Let's just see what this thing came here for..."

Erika nods slightly while looking back at the adventures before she gets up and approaches the humanoid figure slowly, as usual, she will act as the group's representative until either Pioneer found a way to communicate with others effectively or the group learned how to make Pioneer understand what they wanted.

"Pioneer...Food? Water?"

"Heh?"

Erika watches the thing claims its name to be Pioneer as it turns to the meat and water dispensers to get a few strips of dried bug meat and a bowl of clean water for her, Erika has never seen neither the humanoid figure nor the dried meat served in the shelter before, maybe Pioneer was being considerate enough to change its appearance and expand the menu for the adventurers to stay calm...Or perhaps this is the real Pioneer, the one who started everything, from the unknown legend to the one ordered its servants to keep everyone captive here for some reasons. Either way, Erika does not know the correct answer, and she does not want to cast Greater Appraisal right now as she has to focus dealing with the thing.

"Food, water. Do you want them?"

Erika observes the shorter humanoid figure raising up the food and drink in front of her as she guesses what the thing just said earlier, maybe it wanted her to taste them?

"Ah...Okay. So...this is 'food'...and is this...'water'?"

Erika points at the two things separately with her right hand before trying out a strip of dried meat, the thing tastes salty and kinda funny, as expected for something which considers zapping food is the same as cooking them.

"...Yes, food...Water."

Erika takes note of Pioneer's nodding gesture as she takes the bowl of water and drinks it slowly, from this point on she will be able to ask for more food and water directly since she has learned those two words.

"...Erika...Pioneer...And those are?"

Erika watches Pioneer points its hand at her, then at itself before pointing at the rest of the adventurers, it seems like the thing wanted to know their names.

"So you haven't changed all that much, huh?"

Erika chuckles lightly as she looks back at the adventures behind her for a few seconds before turning her attention back to the humanoid figure.

"Uh...Before that...Ah...Helmet...This, this thing, take it off first, will you?"

Erika runs back to her helmet and picks it up to use it as a referral object to speak with Pioneer, she thought it would be a better idea to tell Pioneer to remove that creepy helmet and maybe reveal its true face...Or at least just the face of the current humanoid figure standing in front of her.

"...Understood, head mo-...Helmet will be removed."

Erika watches Pioneer nods slightly before the thing starts taking off its helmet, other adventurers in the back also gather around and carefully focus onto the humanoid figure's face.

"Wha...What the..."

"Erika...You sure you are the only child?"

"..."

Erika's eyes widened and her mouth drops agape after the humanoid figure removes its helmet, long purple hair, dimly glowing cyan eyes and face of a young girl is indeed shocking for someone working with the unliving creatures crawling left and right. But what stunned her and the rest of the group most is how similar her face and the young girl's look, not exactly two drops of water, but enough for even Erika herself to think the girl is related to the young knight.

"I see that your blood pressure is becoming unstable, are you sick?"

As the young girl's voice suddenly become more human like and less eerie monster like, Erika slaps herself so hard that she almost faints immediately, it seems like this is not a dream after all.

'What other legacy had you left behind, father...'

The young knight thought to herself as she wobbles around before fainting for real, and Pioneer does not react to that event at all as the young girl simply watches Erika falling down and hitting her head against the hard alloy floor, this gonna takes a while for Erika to regain her consciousness.

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

Meanwhile, on the surface area, Emperor Hito and the Demonic King have joined the fray and started pushing back the bugs considerably, soon the temporary alliance army will march into the tunnel to defeat the bugs once and for all.