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Quick Hare gently set us on the ground. She grabbed her rabbit ears, detaching them from her head to transform them into a pair of long blades glowing with pink light.
"Okay then... L-Let’s... do this!"
"SHYEEEEEHHH!"
CLAAASH!
The Hive Drone roared, slashing at her with its long claws and forcing her back. Quick Hare countered with a powerful kick from her legs, damaging the monster’s tallic exoskeleton. Its green, acidic blood leaked, slightly burning her leg.
"Ouch! Damn it, their blood is acid! This is so annoying!"
"SHAAAAH!"
The creature shoved her away. As Quick Hare fell to the ground, it unleashed a series of sharp claw strikes, which she barely blocked with her blades and arms.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
"Um, mom, can’t we help?" Nyx asked.
"..." I watched her struggle until it seed hopeless. "Fine..."
RUMBLE!
Nyx instantly soared toward Quick Hare, shattering the ground beneath her with a powerful leap. The robot lady panicked.
"N-No! Don’t get closer, girl! You’ll lt with its blood!"
"GRRR?!"
The Hive Drone glared at the approaching Nyx and opened its mouth, spitting green acid at her.
SPLASH!
The potent acid released steam as it struck my daughter’s body.
But well...
It was just acid, right?
"Noooo! Why did you let her co?!"
Quick Hare panicked as the beast munched on her blades, starting to break them with its sharp mandibles.
However...
FLUOSH!
A formidable figure materialized, startling Quick Hare. A black-scaled dragon with scales of dark diamonds and glowing red eyes appeared. Her long, silvery-white hair waved in the wind as she spread her blazing wings, wreathed in phantasmal flas.
"Huh?! You can transform like us?!"
My daughter was unscathed. We had faced deadlier substances and survived, like nightmare void miasma, which consus matter and souls.
"RAAAAHHHH!"
With a mighty roar, my daughter unleashed a blazing breath, striking the Hive Drone and sending it soaring through the sky.
FLASH!
She pursued, striking the monster down with a single swipe of her tail. The crab-like creature crashed to the ground, half its body crushed and shattered like a waterlon, splattering acid everywhere.
BOOOM!
She finished it with another breath attack, vaporizing the creature until only lted fragnts of its tallic exoskeleton remained, burnt to a crisp.
"W-Wow!" Quick Hare exclaid, clapping. "Incredible! That was truly amazing! You little people really co from the upper floors! You’re so strong! It usually takes many of you to defeat a single drone... this is why we try to protect you so much. You die so easily all the ti."
"Is that so?" I asked. "Even the granite people?"
"Even the granite people!" Quick Hare confird with a nod. "There hasn’t been a Player immune to their acid... that I recall! But I’m pretty young, so I don’t know everything. I’m only four years old, after all."
"Four years old?!" we all gasped in unison.
"Wait, you’re our age!" Celes said. "I didn’t know you were a kid too!"
"Kid? Oh no, we have a process for learning customs, speaking, and everything. Our ntors transfer the data to us, which takes about a day," Quick Hare explained. "But we don’t experience childhood like little people do. We’re adults from birth! And ready to fight—err, well, not really."
"Oh..." Celes fell silent.
"Mamaaaa! I brought you this! I wonder if it’s a rare material?" Nyx asked. "Sorry, I think I vaporized it. I don’t think we can turn this into an Undead. The soul is gone too. It felt like it got sucked sowhere else before I could turn them."
"I see," I nodded, examining the tallic exoskeleton for its durability and properties. "Ohh, it does seem quite hard. Do you people use these for anything?"
"Yes, the armor of Hive Drones or other higher ranks is valuable, stronger than most tals we can mine," Quick Hare said. "They fetch a high price in the market, and I could even... I could even get so nice armor from it! It’s especially resistant to their own acid."
"Well, aren’t you lucky? It’s yours," I said. "Right, Nyx?"
"Sure! I don’t have any use for it anyway," Nyx shrugged. "You can have it, Quick Hare! With this, we’re now friends, right?"
"F-Friends?! Really? Well! I’m so flattered! Of course, let us all beco great friends! I’m so happy!" Quick Hare exclaid. "Now, shall we go before more co? We’re already fighting them elsewhere—Ah, right, that was a surprise! Let’s go!"
She swiftly grabbed us, placed us on her back, and rushed across the tal-covered landscape. Nyx returned to normal just to ride her again. She enjoyed it.
As we traveled through the landscape, we noticed ruins of ancient civilizations and large, destroyed spaceships, seemingly empty, where Hive Colonies likely once resided.
"So they ca from spaceships, not teors?" I asked. "Those creatures know how to travel through space. Why do they bother so much with this world?"
"For food, of course. We are their food," Quick Hare sighed. "I don’t think there’s another explanation... Well, so Players have said they’re the Calamity of this world, and every world has a Calamity that threatens to destroy it. It’s supposed to be our duty to defeat the Calamity, the Hive Queen, but she’s always escaping and creating new colonies incredibly quickly. It’s been like this for hundreds of years."
"I see," I nodded. "Can’t you grow stronger? Can’t you level up and gain skills?"
"Of course we can! Our strongest mbers can easily defeat Hive Drones on their own with good weapons and armor made from their exoskeleton," Quick Hare explained. "But... well, their acid is a problem for us. Even our most experienced veterans must be cautious. No amount of Defense Stat seems to mitigate this issue."
"What about an Acid Resistance Skill?" I asked.
"Healing Magic doesn’t work on our tallic bodies, so we can’t gain resistances by using it or any potion," Quick Hare said. "When we lose a limb, we must replace it with a new one... and it doesn’t help gain experience with resistance skills. We’d lt to death before acquiring the skill, which is really sad."
"You say healing magic doesn’t work?" Eraldine asked. "Let try sothing."
She touched Quick Hare and cast her healing magic to nd so of the wounds from fighting the bug.
FLASH!
However...
"It really doesn’t work! I suppose healing magic, even at the divine level, is only effective on organic beings?" Eraldine mused. "I never considered it like this..."
"There was soone who could heal us," Quick Hare explained. "A chanic from Floor 38. He wielded Nanomachines, which could nd our bodies and even strengthen us. But after helping for a while, he left."
"Nanomachines..." Alma murmured. "If you’re made of tal, maybe tal magic or earth magic could work?"
"We’ve t Earth and tal Mages before, but aside from controlling our bodies, they can’t do much," Quick Hare said.
"I suppose they didn’t know how to apply the magic correctly," Arthur said, gazing at the horizon. "Is anyone here skilled with Earth Magic? Anyone?"
"Never touched it," Lucifer said.
" neither, sorry," Jonathan said.
"Nope," Partner said.
"I think I could learn it. It’s not too far from nature magic," Eraldine said. "But it wouldn’t be easy. I’ve specialized quite a bit already."
"I mostly wield wind," Nia said.
"And I wield water!" Celes declared.
"I dunno if I ever could..." Nyx said.
"Hmm..." I rubbed my chin. "I haven’t used that elent either. But maybe I could learn it with my system. I might try later if it’s needed."
If I could use my power to heal them, perhaps they would follow as a leader and join my alliance of worlds to challenge the upper floors and liberate the worlds from the tower.
But first, let’s see what this city looks like.
"Aha! There it is everyone! The Zodiac Throne, our largest city and shelter from the outside world!" Quick Hare announced as we approached. "Gaze upon its beauty, carved eons ago by our ancestors. It depicts the twelve beasts of the Zodiac. Each Zodiacron is born blessed by one of these beasts! If it wasn’t obvious, I was blessed by the quick and nimble Rabbit! ...Not the strongest out there, but it’s better than the Rat."
"Hey! Rats are cute!" Celes said.
"And they’re tasty too!" Nyx nodded.
"...Tasty?" Celes asked, making a weirded-out face.
"Nyx, you ate rats?" Alma asked.
"Yeah! Mama has a farm inside a dungeon, and I used to clear it of critters. I rember eating rats, bugs, worms... all the tasty stuff, small and crunchy. Sotis you’d get a really juicy one!" Nyx said, licking her lips. "I haven’t eaten any for a while, though. My palate’s beco more refined, hehe."
"That’s a relief..." Celes sighed. "They’re full of infections and diseases..."
"Sure, but don’t we eat giant bugs from the desert anyway?" Nia asked.
"But they’re different!" Celes cried.
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