56. Summoning Bionic Puppets

The battle against Azhdaha took so long. And unknowingly, the night had changed to dawn.

The gigantic tree, supposed to be Dragon-Queller, was no longer there as if it disappeared into nothing. But Ryūhei knew very well that the tree had become Azhdaha's tail which he had noticed since his fight against him.

Still, he didn't care about that since the one sealed below was gone already.

Ryūhei yawned since he couldn't sleep last night. Yet, he was rather unwilling to sleep because there were several bodies of dead and he felt uncomfortable sleeping close to the corpses.

"Ryūhei, I saw you cut the horn earlier. Do you want to make something out of it?" Kun Jun approached Ryūhei while saying that. Naturally, he saw Zhongli and Ryūhei fighting against Azhdaha especially when Ryūhei started to perform the Hollow Technique.

Ryūhei nodded.

"Well, I need it to forge a katana for me."

Hearing that, Kun Jun laughed.

"Hahaha. Although that horn is decent since it contains elemental energy, it still can't compare to rare ores. But, you're lucky. There's good material near here. Just wait for a bit!"

Surprisingly, Kun Jun rushed toward the cave that was dug toward the entrance of the seal.

"There's precious material over there?" Ryūhei asked Jiu, who stood silently beside him.

"It's Dragonfall." Jiu replied shortly.

"What is that? I heard Kun Jun mentioned it before, but I didn't know that kind of ore."

Zhongli approached from behind, then replied to Ryūhei.

"The majority of regular crystals are formed in high-temperature environments. On the other hand, Dragonfall is an incredibly rare ore used in forging. It is a specific type of elemental crystal formed by elemental reactions."

"Elemental reactions can produce such things?" This was the first time he heard such an ore. Though, this term wasn't really different from chemical reactions.

"Indeed. Dragonfall first emerged in the midst of a great battle thousands of years ago. Powerful clashes of elemental energy gave birth to elemental crystals. When the fighting ceased, these geological remnants were miraculously preserved. And yet, a few hundred years ago, they were virtually mined into obscurity."

"That's cool. But that doesn't tell me why Kun Jun went to the sealed space. After all, we just fought a while ago. There's no way Dragonfall formed in such a short time."

Ryūhei had a doubt if such a precious ore could be formed so easily by fighting against Azhdaha due to his ability to absorb multiple elements. At that moment, Jiu replied.

"There's indeed Dragonfall in my place. It was sealed inside the space along with me. So it was preserved for a thousand years."

No wonder Kun Jun knew about it. Dragonfall apparently has been in that place for a long time.

"By the way, is there any sign of Erosion in me?" Ryūhei asked Zhongli. Although he didn't feel the slightest change, it might be better if Zhongli confirmed it.

"I don't feel any change from you. After all, I have said that you are not a living being that will be affected by Erosion."

"So, humanity can't be affected by it? That's good to hear."

"More importantly, Ryūhei, I have to say thanks to you. I thought I had to seal him once again since he couldn't calm down." Zhongli glanced at Jiu, then returned to Ryūhei again. He added, "You have the power to absorb negative emotions, but his negative emotions never cease even after you have absorbed so much of them. I thought you failed, but your method at that time exceeded my expectations."

Ryūhei chuckled. He didn't expect that as well since he was lucky enough to observe Zhongli when he set up the giant formation from the start.

"Hehe, you're my teacher. Should you praise me for doing a good job?"

"Hmmm. Good job." Zhongli said monotonously, with no change in his expression whatsoever.

"That's not convincing enough. Well, putting aside that matter, regarding a contract to save your friend…"

"Naturally I will abide by the contract. What do you want?"

Ryūhei nodded after hearing that. Then he responded, "I want you to keep my secrets. Not just my powers, but anything I have that may seem foreign to you."

Zhongli widened his eyes.

"I thought you wanted something else entirely. I didn't expect you just wanted to hide your secret. But it's a good idea not to display your power and everything else recklessly." He said.

Meanwhile, Jiu looked at them disdainfully. Something like hiding strength had never crossed his mind because displaying his strength would prove him as a divine being to mortals.

Though he still submitted to the so-called mortal at the end of the day.

Since Zhongli said so, Ryūhei recited "system open" to open the system with a holographic interface while his back was facing them. Apparently, both of them saw the hologram in front of Ryūhei, but they kept quiet to abide by the contract since it must be related to Ryūhei's secret.

[The host successfully completed the task, and the rewards, two multifunctional bionic puppets, will be sent to the inbox.]

Seeing the notification, Ryūhei immediately opened the inbox to claim them.

Then, two transparent oval capsules with the size of a human body 180 cm tall, able to sleep inside each, appeared in front of him with a phew. This alarmed Zhongli and Jiu behind him since they could see two sleeping humanoid beings inside the capsules.

Good thing that Ryūhei formed a contract with them. Zhongli absolutely abides by the contract since he is a God of Contract. No fuckin way he would renegade it. On the other hand, Jiu still has a disdainful feeling about humanity after being affected by Erosion, though he isn't as aggressive as before. So, there was no chance for him to tell Ryūhei's secret to other people based on his character.

Ryūhei turned on the switch in the capsules and opened them. Both of the humanoids opened their eyes. They lifted their weapons simultaneously on top of their bodies to wake themselves from the capsules. After seeing Ryūhei, they kneeled and greeted him at the same time.

"Greeting, Master."

Ryūhei is no stranger to them because he was once challenged by a YouTube subscriber to draw 3 characters from the Nier: Automata game on his live stream while donating $50.

When he saw those two, it reminded him of Katheryne from the Adventurers' Guild, not by their appearances, but by their flow of energy.

"Looks like I guessed right. Katheryne is an artificial human." Ryūhei said inwardly. Then his gaze turned to them.

"Stand!" Ryūhei ordered them.

Both are two beautiful women. If he remembered correctly, they were codenamed. One of them is called A2, and the other one is called 2B. Their names somehow resemble sized paper and a type of pencil which makes them so easy to remember.

A2 stands at a height of 168 cm with her heels. She has long white hair, a pair of cold light-blue eyes, and a beauty mark on the left side of her mouth. Her attire is kinda revealing. A sleeveless form-fitting shirt hanging around her frame with a tattered hem paired with booty shorts. Then her right leg has a stocking-like material barely grafted on, with the left one being almost faded, except for a small splotch on her thigh, with each weathered enough on the foot area to expose her toes. The weapon that she carries resembles a cleaver knife that is about 2 meters long.

Meanwhile, 2B also stands at a height of 168 cm with her heels. The most striking feature is the blindfold that obscures her eyes, just like when Ryūhei arrived in Liyue Harbor for the first time. Her white hair is set in a short bob cut, and she has a beauty mark below the left side of her lips. She wears a high-slit black turtleneck dress. It has puffed sleeves ending in mid-forearm in the form of crow feathers, which may signify death. The dress's skirt is high-slit and is shown to be made of a flowy, flexible fabric bearing a similar texture to leather. And just like Ganyu's attire, her back is revealed, exposing her shoulder blades down to the small space of her back. Different from A2, B2 carries a katana with a white scabbard and white cord wrap handle.

"Do you have names?" Ryūhei asked them. But both of them shook their heads.

"In that case–"

He glanced at 2B. "You're Nibi."

Then, he turned to A2. "And you're Eni."

"Thank you for granting names for us, Master." Both of them kneeled, which was kinda embarrassing since Zhongli was in the back.

He immediately ordered them to get up before turning around to face Zhongli and Jiu.

"Ryūhei, they're–?" Zhongli asked him, although he figured out what those two were. He wanted to know if this was related to Ryūhei's secret that he couldn't tell anyone. And perhaps they were the reason why Ryūhei wanted to form a contract with him.