Chapter 7

'Hello Boren' I said as he walked towards me.

'Hi Frank, what happened?'

'Well, a lot actually, most of it is fixed but the bathroom is still completely full with water due to me puking in the toilet.' I said.

'Yeah I can smell that, I'll fix the bathroom as fast as possible, you should eat some mint leaf to get rid of that horrid smell that you exude.' said Boren as he turned away while holding his nose.

We walked into the kitchen where I went to look for mint leaves in the kitchen menu while Boren went to the door and opened it. He was met by a rush of bad smelling water that spilled across the room.

The rooms defensive mechanism made it that gutters in the floor appeared by floor panels pulling back and the water quickly subsided. The smell however did not subside. Boren ran out the kitchen yelling with a loud voice 'AAAH, the smell, the smell, its off the charts!.'

As he got outside he sent mana into his right wrist and a menu appeared where he lowered his sensitivity to smell. Oh all the perks of being a metal-man. I had to deal with the smell though. So I just kept looking for mint leaves and when I found 'm I set the quantity to max and spread them around the room as I was chewing on a handful. Not sure if it'll help but at least my mouth felt better now.

'Well thanks Boren!' I said with sarcasm; 'This is much better... Sorry though, I should've told you to what extent the bathroom had been flooded.'

'Your welcome, just don't throw up in the toilet again.' as he went back to the bathroom to check up on the toilet itself. There it smelled even worse which forced Boren to lower his sensitivity to smell even further. He then gave a yell, 'Frank! Come see this.'

Wondering what had him surprised I walked towards the bathroom and having noticed that it smelled even worse the closer I got to the bathroom I kept a handful of mint leaves in front of my mouth and nose. As I walked into the bathroom trying to be careful not to slip on the floor I saw what Boren meant. There was a hole in the left wall.

Through the hole we could see bed-rock; when we went to take a closer look we saw that it was a huge cave.

'Where does that lead to?' I asked.

'Well seeing as it is turned to the south I'd say that its an old path to the giants in the lava line. Its dangerous territory.'

'Oh I know the giants, I built mana shields for them' I said; 'Would be nice to go visit them and see how they're doing I guess.'

'But first you must fulfill your debt to us do you not?' Boren said.

'And what happens when I don't?' I asked.

'Then we'll forget about you and you'll never turn back to being a human ever again. Plus its not good to have us being your enemies.' Boren said.

'Fair enough' I said as I looked around thinking of the million and one ways they could force me to do what they wanted me to do with all this technology that they had on their hands. 'not fair at all' I said. 'now that I think about it, can't we use some of this technology to deter any war from happening. I had heard that all major rivers spring from this tower. Why not just stop giving water to whichever nation is at war?'

'We can't do that because of two reasons; 1. The majority of our race wants Jin to win and thus war is temporarily necessary and 2. We have though of that plan but we chose to only use it in the most dire moment; when our tower is attacked for example.' Boren replied.

'Well it was worth a try I thought... So lets check out that cave'

'We could do that or, I could simply close off the cave...' Boren said.

'Nah that would be way too boring, don't you want to know what's down there?' I asked.

'Maybe I don't, maybe we shouldn't waste any more time than we already have.'

'But Boren, what if there is something down there that could help us?' I asked.

'I doubt it but I have to admit that I'm also quite intrigued where this cave leads to, it almost seems as though it was cut out of the bedrock.'

Boren held his left hand to the menu on his right arm as he looked in the database for caves and maps of caves. 'Strange, this cave isn't noted on the database.'

'Then it is our duty to find out where this cave goes so we can add it to your database thingy... right?'

'Sure... lame excuse but you'll keep nagging me about it regardless of my opinion and actions right?'

'true, true' I replied with a grimace on my face as I victoriously marched towards the cave entrance. It was a bit smaller than I was so I turned to my menu as I asked Boren: 'what is the smallest race that I can turn into?'

'You could turn yourself into a Druid, they're a smaller subspecies of the people of the forest. This way the changes to your body will be minimal and thus not as hard to get used to.' Said Boren.

'Sounds logical' I said; so I used my gauntlet to change myself into a Druid. It basically was a smaller version of what I looked like before. I still had scales, leather and skin but I felt lighter; as if I could jump and run twice of what I could before. Given that I was half-size I guess it compensated. 'Ah! I haven't eaten yet, better do that before we go into that cave.' I said as I walked to the kitchen to get myself some food. Boren took that time to fix the toilet. Not that I could've done it since the smell would force me to use only one hand and it was definitely a task that you would need at least 2 hands to fix.

As I was eating and Boren had fixed the toilet we went into the cave, Boren eyes lit up the way as we went down the cave. It spiraled down for several hundred feet till it opened up to a big large cave. From where we stood we could see the base of the golden tower going from the top of the cave all the way to and probably through the ground.

'NO WAY!' Boren yelled. 'Incredible, this is where the database is at. Good thing that we went to check. Do you have any idea what this means?'

'Not yet but I'm sure you're gonna tell me' I said.

'This means that we can upload people into the database without needing to use the interface that the council has monopolized. We can now use the system covertly. Woohoo!'

'I was wrong I still don't know what it means' I said as I made a confused face.

'The database allows you to access any data that we have accumulated plus you can communicate telepathically with anybody who's also got their consciousness in that machine.' Boren turned to me, 'We can upload you too now. The schematics for the necessary cyborg parts should also be in the database. By going into it manually from here we can access even the dark files; files that nobody is allowed to see basically.'

'That sounds interesting. Just so ya know; I have no intention of turning into a machine man. But... Does that mean you'll also be able to access the schematics for the transformation machine that I broke?' I asked hoping that I'd get an early release from our agreement.

'Yes it could be so. I'm not certain what's in the database on that though. But I'll try and find it as soon as possible. But just in case it doesn't work out we better get you up to speed on how to be a proper Tamarin. Also, we could link your bracelet with the database. That way when you're done with your training and in the field you'll still be able to contact us.'

'So how do we do that?' I asked.

'Just a second, I'm gonna go see where the manual database panel is at.'

We walked to the golden towers foundation where the database was supposed to be. Then several turrets sprang out from the golden tower and started shooting mana bolts at us. My mana-shield was able to hold off the first volley but it dissipated after reaching its maximum capacity. Though the mana-shield dissipated it had given us enough time to run for cover before the second volley got shot at us. We were stuck. There was nowhere to run to. After a minute the turrets stopped firing. So Boren peeked over the edge but the volley restarted due to his reckless action. He did duck but one of the mana-bolts grazed him scorching his metal hairs turning them black. He actually looked better now; it smelled bad though.

'so now what do we do? Doesn't look like they want us to reach the manual panel.' I said.

'Well I guess this much is to be expected. So lets think of a way to get out of here. So we're being shot at by automatic turrets that track movement from their own position. Thus if we block their view we should be able to get past. Or we could dig the ground under us and get away that way. There also seems to be a maximum range since it only started shooting as we approached it.'

'So how will we block the view of those turrets?'

'Maybe you can block a few of those mana shots with that mana shield you had just now.' Boren said.

'Sorry but the mana-battery is empty and because it was such a large surge of mana the mana battery went completely dry so recharging it is a real hassle and will take more time. If I had had my equipment with me I would've been able to fix it no problem but I lost those in the transformer machine.'

'Okay, so I thought of an idea; now its your turn. What do you think we should do?'

'Well lets first think of the things we can do before we think of what we should do.'

'You're made out of metal but as long as you stay grounded you shouldn't receive too much damage from those mana-bolts right?' I said with a hopeful look in my eyes.

'Nope, that won't do. My internal circuits won't take more than a couple hits before this body starts breaking down. Also, why is me taking the hits the first idea you come up with?'

The volley of mana-bolts had halted due to lack of perceivable motion.

'My turn for an idea.' Boren said. 'You are currently one of the forest people. You should be able to stealth yourself in order to avoid detection by the mana-turrets.'

'I might be able to do that. But how? I didn't complete any training.'

'Ah, that could be a problem... I guess we'll have to retreat then. I'll ask Mys Tara to try getting through, you should work on your mana shields and learning that stealth skills in the training room.'

'ready? We have to do this simultaneously so that the mana bolts are spread amongst the both of us. That way we will halve the damage and danger done to us. I'll do a countdown, when I say GO we run back as fast as we can.'

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