Chapter 137 - 47: [Demon Insect Bone Severer and the Shadow of the Antlers]

Chapter 137: Chapter 47: [Demon Insect Bone Severer and the Shadow of the Antlers]

TAP, TAP, TAP.

CLANK. The slight sound of colliding metal Armor mixed with cautious footsteps, echoing through the deathly silent Rusted Copper Forest.

"It’s so quiet..." Samael said in a low voice.

"They’re all hiding," Talia replied. "I can sense a few Magical Beasts in the surroundings—they aren’t just afraid of me; they are far more afraid of the Undead."

For some reason, most of the Magical Beasts here seemed to possess powerful mimetic and cloaking abilities. Perhaps the indiscriminate slaughter of all living creatures by the Hai Xin Undead had caused this sort of natural selection and adaptive evolution.

Under the dim skylight of the Heart of the Remains, the space between the vertical shadows of the Rusted Copper Trees was astonishingly empty. The Magical Beasts remained hidden through mimicry, while the Undead were suppressed by Samael’s aura, also entering a dormant state. It was astoundingly quiet.

"Do you mind if I summon a few Undead from the area to take a look?" Samael asked.

Talia shook her head.

"Why are you being so polite to me over such a small thing?" She actually seemed a little displeased and gave a soft hmph.

Samael shrugged his shoulder Armor.

[Nether Copper Resonator activated.]

He raised his Hand Armor. SNAP. He snapped his fingers, and a tiny cluster of ethereal green sparks flew from his fingertips.

RUSTLE! A pile of fallen leaves in front of them violently burst apart. A rotting, deformed, human-like figure stood up stiffly. Its movements were bizarre, resembling a twisted marionette.

On its face—or rather, where its face used to be—a rotting human hand and half the body of an avian creature were haphazardly fused together. An eyeball was embedded in the palm of the human hand on the left half of its face, while the broken, folded wing of the bird body covered the right half.

SQUAWK! Spitting a human tooth from its half-rotted beak, it let out a hoarse, low, and eerie cry. The beak and the tattered, face-covering wing were only a dozen centimeters away from Talia’s helmet.

Startled, Talia nearly swung her Hammer Spear in a horizontal smash, but stopped halfway and slowly lowered it.

"Alright... you probably should give me a heads-up for something like this," she stammered. "The Undead don’t have heartbeats or breath. When they lie dormant, they don’t move at all, making them incredibly hard to detect under normal circumstances. Combined with that appearance, having one suddenly stand up is definitely a bit scary..."

Samael shrugged his shoulder Armor again and spread his hands.

He stepped forward to examine the Undead before him. It was a rotting monster haphazardly pieced together from a hodgepodge of corpses. Half a Beaked Dog’s paw and two sharp insectoid appendages hung from its chest. Its left arm was a massive, deformed bone blade woven with twisted flesh, while its right arm was a rotting, scaled giant claw resembling a reptile’s. Its legs consisted of a human leg wearing a rotting leather boot and a thick, fleshy tentacle. Despite this chaotic amalgamation, it somehow barely maintained a vague humanoid shape.

"A Corpse Demon," Talia took a half-step back in disgust. "A monster haphazardly glued together from rotting flesh and humus. Initially, it’s just a normal animated corpse, but they hunt living creatures on their own, sticking the fragments and severed limbs of their victims onto their bodies to fuse together. Over time, they end up like this. The Undead are always so disgusting..."

Samael turned his head to look at her.

"I wasn’t talking about you! You’re different..." Talia explained in frustration. "Other than your Armor being a bit cold, how are you like the Undead at all?" She hopped up, wrapped her arms around Samael’s neck from behind in a quick embrace, and rested the chin of her helmet on his freezing shoulder Armor.

[Scanner activated.]

[Spiritual Construct (Primary Material: Organic Matter)]

[Construct-type artificial lifeform. Manufactured through biomass recycling, retaining the original biological structure. Has a probability of generating a small amount of biological stance materials. Cheap and extremely easy to generate in Spiritual Energy environments. Capable of undertaking simple tasks.]

[Possesses a low-level circuit infiltrator. Can manufacture simple organic Spiritual Construct parts for autonomous modification and splicing. Lacks intelligence.]

[Methods of compulsion include but are not limited to: Nether Copper Resonator signals, Spiritual Implant modification, and forced circuit overwrite via Ethereal Spiritual Signals (Difficult, as Spiritual Energy Circuits possess self-repair capabilities and can break free from the control of Ethereal Spiritual Signals).]

[Target Origin: Naturally Generated]

[Status: Good]

[Structural Integrity: 93%]

[Stamina: 97%]

[Can engrave biological stance materials. Total engraving slots: 10]

[Engraved biological stances: Frenzied Dance Stance, Snatch, Nightmare Sprint, Condemnation (4/10, Incomplete)]

[@Refresh@]

[Biological Stance Detected: Nightmare Sprint]

[Utilizes any number and type of limbs to sprint wildly in random movement patterns. Movements are chaotic and unpredictable, falling somewhere between sprinting, crawling, writhing, convulsing, and tumbling. Possesses powerful deterrent capability, chaotic destructive power, and unpredictable random trajectories. Commonly used in biomass weapons.]

[Movement speed is extremely fast and actions are highly unpredictable.]

[Can be used by any biological form.]

[Database supplemented.]

[Engraved into "Artificial Biology - Biological Stance Materials" content library.]

[Available for chassis use.]

Samael froze for a moment. He thought, "What... what the hell? What does it mean by ’available for chassis use’? I can use this Nightmare Sprint too? Crawling all over the ground on all fours?"

However, the scanner pop-ups in his helmet’s UI hadn’t ended yet; they continued to display even more bizarre descriptions.

[@Refresh@]

[Biological Stance Detected: Condemnation]

[Targeted destruction based on anatomical principles; requires the use of sharp tools for cutting and limb excavation. Suitable for crude dissections, organ harvesting, dismemberment, and amputation.]

[Low precision; unsuitable for the medical field. Typically used for slaughter, corpse recovery, corpse dismemberment, and rough biomass processing.]