17 Time Gap

Vin's breakthrough went exceptionally smooth as the trio cleaned up those who still pushed their luck.

All sorts of creatures attacked at one point with varying amount of legs, the highest one was a 13-legged creature that only had one arm.

Nathan wasn't even sure if that was an arm as it was placed precisely where a four-legged animal's crotch would be.

But then again, if the crotch is always in between the legs, having thirteen, would that mean having one crotch in the middle of all or one crotch each pair for a total of twelve?

Such questions invaded Nathan's mind but quickly got over it as he deemed their current situation as extremely dangerous.

Nathan and Himel just felt small compared to the seemingly infinite numbers of species they encountered just at this battle.

Aia had the look of a workaholic as she stared at the different species that attacked them, especially for the ones she was completely unaware of. In her mind is a bestiary with all sorts of annotations according to her observations.

In the last 5 minutes of the defense, there were no more creatures lunging themselves towards Vin.

Not only were the trio defending strong, but they also held the absolute advantage in terms of the location since a white orb intercepted.

Also, since they can already feel the absorption weakening, it'd be unwise to stay, especially if they have to fight four level-two humans with a terrain advantage.

Completely absorbed to the sensations of breaking through, Vin stopped observing the fight as he placed his full trust on Nathan when the two newcomers came. Hence he was not aware of the identity of the two.

As time passed, Vin's area of absorption shrunk as he finished up with a satisfying snap.

Tense and tired, hearing the snap brought calmness in the trio's hearts. It's finally over.

While they can regenerate mana, the exhausting battles hit more than their mana capacity. The mental and physical fatigue immediately set in for Nathan, Himel, and Aia as they finally relaxed and let down their guard.

The trees that were overgrown and formed a dome began to shrunk down back to how they were before.

Trees that moved from their original positions shifted back once again as the debris and terraformed earth were shattered, making way for the trees.

This phenomenon caused a weak earthquake.

But that earthquake felt like a massage to the four as the remaining creatures who were observing scampered away.

"You did it!" Nathan shouted as he ran over to Vin.

"All thanks to you," Vin answered with a bright smile as he caught Nathan for a hug.

Nathan was a bullied loner who never had a close friend besides his brother.

Vin was meant to conquer unexplored lands by himself as he was trained by the experiments of the third generation colonizers.

In all of their lives, this was the first-ever hug they gave to a stranger.

It was a sign of absolute trust.

Himel approached with a smile while Aia followed.

When Vin saw the two coming over, he broke off the hug. Nathan introduced the two.

When he heard the name of the girl, he couldn't help but stare at her.

"HQ Brain, connect," Vin said.

As if jolted by electricity, Aia stood up straight and said, "Command received, connecting to G03-023... neural device missing, connection failed."

"As I thought," Vin said in awe.

"What happened?" asked the perplexed Himel.

"She's the augmented intelligence brain for the first generation of space colonizers all the way to the third," Vin explained.

"What does that mean?" Nathan questioned.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you later," Vin answered.

"Yes, the correct path of action right now is to find a safe place," Aia answered with her systematic sounding voice.

"You sound like Siri," Nathan couldn't hold himself and muttered.

Vin looked at Nathan incredulously, in terms of intelligence, Aia is literally an enhanced human with all the modifications aimed at improving her brain. From her mental capacity to the amount of process she could do per millisecond. Siri was absolutely a relic compared to the bio-quantum computer that is Aia.

Vin just shook his head at Nathan as no one bothered to reply at his remark. The ancient Himel just stared at the two boys with his forehead, basically shaping into a question mark.

"We should go to our place. Let us be your host for the day." Said Vin to Himel and Aia.

Himel then looked to Aia, then back to Vin with a nod.

"I'm surprised to learn that not all creatures here are hermits. More importantly, I'm surprised as well that you two could build a house. In my time, boys would rather use hammers to smash the heads of the Turks than to nail wood," Himel said.

Vin looked at Himel with awe. While history was mandatory to avoid repeating mistakes, it was nonetheless dull. However, hearing it from a man written in the annals of history suddenly makes it sound more exciting.

Nathan felt the same. Whenever it was the history class, he couldn't help but doze off. Now that it's coming from a man of the past, he suddenly had an urge to recite to ask for more questions.

Along the way, Nathan and Vin asked Himel about the past, while Himel asked the two about the future.

In Vin and Nathan's head, all they could think about were the swords, shields, bows, and trebuchets they used at the way.

Whilst in Himel's head, the number of impossibles and witchcraft he screamed exceeded the number of stars in the observable universe. Forgetting that him as of now, carry the impossible and quite literally the weapon of witches. Magic.

Once he heard the downfall of the Roman empire, Himel couldn't help but think of his family and the soldiers under him.

He revealed that he was a soldier in charge of fending off the Turks that made advances towards their capital. His entire squad fell the enemy's arrows as he fell to the enemy's sword.

Aia remained silent as she kept following Himel. She also felt compelled to follow Vin as he was the closest to him in terms of the overall. She locked on to Vin, trying to remember the circumstances of the loner colonizer in her head with her empty stares slowly filling with wonder.

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