SlaughterBot

276: Emerging

Nicolai turned away from the collapsing shrine. With his internal system complete at last, it was time to leave the cave—which was no longer a cave.

The clean, well-lit, secure, secretive bolt-hole he’d imagined upon first finding this place had come into fruition. The walls were squared and solid, and had Rituals scrawled over every inch. These were to reduce Aura ripple leakage, tho...

275: Completion

It took five days. Nicolai would’ve been done sooner, but the damage from the Tribulation delayed him.

But, inevitably, he’d gotten it done.

Within him there were now a total of thirty Nodes. Twenty two of them Minor, and eight Major. His mind spun through his body.

In each of his arms, there was a Major Node in his hand, and two minors—one near to his elbow, the other i...

274: The Aura Mind

Both Nicolai and Cyberwarfare were increasingly interested in Intent. One of the Memory Discs went into detail on it, and as he’d read through, he’d realised that mastering it could be very, very useful.

There were two layers to Intent. The first, he’d already been making use of. Intent could be read through the thoughts and emotions leaking from someone’s Soul or mind, and also t...

273: Trolley Problem

Over the next days, Nicolai continued to build his Node system and A3 continued to sponge up everything it was taught. It worked with one of the other construction bots, who it named “Quiet Brothers” because the other bots never said a word. A3 would stand and observe how the others built. Later, it joined in. The Modules taught it many things, and the Mask attempted to impart moral philoso...

272: Teachers

That first morning after A3’s creation, Nicolai rose from his bed—the same mat he used to sit on in the cultivation cubby—and regarded the bot, but saw it was still “sleeping.” He got on with his morning routine as normal.

While engaged in his stretches he saw it wake. For a time it watched him silently, then the bot rose and trundled over, to stop just metres away. Still silent...

271: The Leader

Kleos and Maric were swiftly led through the town, to the larger building Kleos had noticed upon first arrival. He didn’t recognise the assault-rifle bearing guards either side of the entrance, but they recognised John, Jo, and the others, nodding and exchanging greetings.

The building inside was all narrow hallways peppered with open doorways, the rooms within full of busy people. They...

270: Toymakers

The new Cultivation cubby was a room rather than a cramped cubby. Concrete walls, ceiling, and floor, all lined with detailed ritual scrawlings by the construction bots. He’d also gone a step further compared to the old cubby, where he’d simply had metal sheets affixed to the walls with the rituals scrawled on, turned outwards to prevent them from being damaged.

Now it was more solid....

Touching Base

I'm putting this up just before the chapter will go up, so the chapter will show first. Read the chapter then come back to this if you're seeing this first!

So, PipiPupu commented on yesterdays chapter:

“I don't think this is the direction most readers would want Nicolai/story to progress in, this just isn't why people picked up your story at least that's what I think, of course s...

269: A3

A3 has spoken its first word… murmured Threat Analysis, awed, as Nicolai and the others gazed down at the bot.

I am so proud, said Cyberwarfare, generating an image of a killbot wiping a tear from its eye.

The Modules spoke back to A3 over Local. They said it was a good boy and told it to stay still.

Nicolai’s smile had broadened at A3’s response. ‘A ...

268: Nicolai's Monster

After surviving the Tribulation, he alternated his time for the rest of the day. At first, between the Assembler and the bot. Repairing one, feeding the other. He found the simplest method of feeding was to simply open the bot up, exposing its processing units, and carefully nestle Oma crystals around it in reach of its Soul. As its Soul continued to spread, this became easier and he was able t...

267: Tribulation!

He lunged forward and grabbed at the piece he’d thrown, which was skittering along the ceiling back towards him and the Assembler. It tried to dodge but he slowed at the last moment, seized it from the air as it moved to evade.

He dragged it down, away from the ceiling and toward his Cultivation cubby. A flick of one of the Spectral Claws fingers against the handle opened the cubby, and...

266: Repair Work

Nicolai was forced to cut short his lengthy Rotation-Orb-making-and Tournament-perusal-session early, before seeing the ultimate victor of Tournament Two, when one of the construction bots became damaged. A chunk of rock had fallen from a wall it’d been working on, and a manipulator and some minor components were broken.

By now, he had a total of four Miners and four Constructors. The d...

265: Post-Tournament Review

[Retcon alert!

Back when I first introduced the Tournaments, there was a bit where it mentioned that any items/resources used would be restored after each round, and people would kind of be reset to the same state they were in when entering it. I've decided to change this after someone brought it up, because it will lead to these fights working in quite a different manner to how I want. E...

264: A Highly Accurate Retelling

‘So, what of here?’ asked Maric. ‘We do not know what happened above, with all of you.’

‘Weeell…’ began Beth. ‘Let’s see. Uh. At the end it was all big fights between Coalition and Chosen. Surprisingly, not that many people died. Only say one in ten. I reckon most people just found a chunk of wall to hide behind then shot over it without paying much attention to where th...

263: Experiment

Nicolai’s waking experience was consumed by the creation of Orbs and Nodes. He slept when he was tired, and never for very long. As the process continued it gained momentum, and he increasingly obsessed. Each time trying to make the next Node better than the last. Completing them all so quickly gave him a kind of constant high that pushed him on to the next.

However, increasingly his bo...

262: Main Girl

[Author Note: trying something new for these next bunch of chapters. In the past 2 weeks, I did the alternating viewpoints where there are 2 Nicolai chapters, then 1 alternate pov chapter, but just for how the content is with this portion I've decided to flip back and forth throughout each chapter. Well not all of them but most, you'll see. Also it's kind of weird because in Nicolai's chapters,...

261: Trade Link Tower

Jo came down to walk alongside them, while the rest of the humans remained spread out, peering warily over the ruins around them.

‘How the hell did you two end up like this?’ she asked immediately, staring at them. ‘Huh, I never realised you guys were actually human. I thought you were from this place, like the People or something.’

‘We are not human,’ blurted M...

260: Node Builder

Now that everything immediate was out of the way, Nicolai began the process he knew would consume him for the next few days.

Leaving from his Heart Node, the Yin-Yang Rotation Symbiote swam up his chest and down his arm, entering into his Hand Node. Pale mist puffed out from his palm and coalesced into the Symbiote.

It was a pair of worms. One black, one white, twisted around one an...

259: Therapising

The components of the Spectral Claw were broken-in, but Nicolai had encountered a problem.

The full set of Symbiotes included the full Fingers set, which went into all the subsidiary Nodes in his digits—not an issue—then the Phantom Clawer, which went into his hand’s Major Node, next the Spectral Mantis in his forearm Node, and finally the Long Stick Symbiote, in his shoulder Node.<...

258: Resurrection

‘Gahhh,’ huffed Kleos, sucking in the delicious air, staring up. Then he let out a yelp of confusion and pain as bright sunlight dug into his eyes, made them tear and blink. He held them closed as strange purple shapes danced over his vision.

With Soul Sense, he was still able to see, and he enjoyed the sensation of the sunlight warming his flesh. Opening his eyes warily, he found it ...

257: Utterly Sane

Nicolai stepped out of the portal into his base in a state of alert, holding his assault rifle ready as he scanned the dimly lit cave room, Soul Sense spreading to peer around the Assembler.

His wariness had no basis. He hadn’t noticed anything or sensed anything. It was simply protocol to check anywhere he came into. Even if that place was a cave into which he’d blown up the only ent...

256: Mutual Gains

[Author note: I'm away for a week, gone on holiday to Croatia. So, don't expect to hear much from me, though I will be around a bit ;o just thought I should let you guys know! Hope you enjoy this weeks chapters ^_^]

Nicolai had no compunctions about sharing what he knew. Gaining an ally amongst the Cultivators would be very beneficial, and the best way to gain such an ally was by a...

255: "Partner"

He wore a dark blue robe, one that was of Earth make, of course, but it had a Cultivator-ish look to it. Underneath that robe was a tight fitting body-suit, one which covered his entire body except for his head. He wore it simply to ensure he didn’t shed any skin or hair, now that he wasn’t wearing his skinsuit.

Over his head and neck, he wore a piece similar to a balaclava which when...

254: Bartering

‘And what would these recordings comprise of, precisely?’ asked Nicolai smoothly.

‘I have the vast majority of fights from all Tiers.’ Starz tapped a finger to his nose and winked savagely. ‘I managed to work out the ones who looked most likely to win in Tournaments One and Two from their performance in the Free For All round. As to Tournament Three, there were fewer competitors...

253 (251): The Champion Meets His Fans

[Author note: once again I split some chapters when posting to RR, mostly around the Questions area as some of those ended up very long. You guys got the extra-long ones but for RR I chopped them to match the typical chapter length. Anyway, end result is that Patreon is now 15 chapters ahead, so I have to shuffle these numbers around again to make it all match up properly. Thus this was chapter...

250: Jobs

A total of five Simple Hits have been taken out on you via the Scoundrels Guild, for a combined payout of 572,832 points.

Nicolai looked up at the others, and saw Shark grinning.

‘You’ve been bad,’ she purred. ‘What’d you do?’

‘He cheated in the Tournament,’ said the tall Cultivator, smiling. ‘But there is balance in all things,’ he intoned ...

249: Slayers Guild

As one of the top-ten finalists in the Tournament, Nicolai had also received the other item he was after.

Entrant’s Token (Tournament)

This Token was given to one who finished in the top 10 of the Low Level Tournament. As such they have earned the right to join the Slayer’s Guild, Bounty Hunter’s Guild, or Scoundrel’s Guild. It may only be used a single t...