The Last Guardian

Into the village Part 4

Sophia wasn't sure if the day was turning out to be a complete bust or the most amazing day ever. As she was honestly just struggling to process everything. Instead of going out or weighting like she originally thought. The guards recommended they returned to the village to inform the village leader as well as the village mage what had happened. She had to struggle to adjust the moth as she was afraid for her mom if she let it go. Though to her surprise when she had managed to get to her feet the moth had wrapped its legs around her chest. It was surprisingly comfortable, a bit like wearing a reverse backpack. Regardless she wasn't letting go of the moth if she could help it. If that wasn't weird enough the strange beetle had started following her again. Now that the guards allowed it into the village if followed them on Its weird rollie legs.

Its legs made no sense to her, they weren't cartwheels, but they also weren't legs, at least not like any legs she had seen before. How it got around was beyond her, it just did and surprisingly well so. It clattered along behind her quieter than any wagon but louder than she had heard any insect ever move.

At first, she was content to follow the guards. That was till they were about to pass the herbalist hut. She wanted to go see her mother but when she tried to turn towards it. One of the guards, a bully named Ashton tried to shove her along with the butt of his pole arm. He was nearly sent flying like the batch of barrels the large beetle plowed through to protector. Sofia couldn't help but gawk as three barrels she knew was a lot heavier than her clattered down the road. She looked over her armored companion It was then she made her decision that regardless of it or whatever the guards or what anyone else wanted. She was taking this moth to see her mother, and no one was going to stop her.

Austin on the other hand wasn't having a very good time as he simultaneously ran the translation software well printing and programming more ants. While also dealing with another and larger wave of beetles and some sort of nest of actual giant ants. His mining team had accidentally punched into one of their tunnels. Why they also had metal exoskeletons was puzzling but in this case, most were made of copper but he had seen a few iron and even a zinc and aluminum Ant in their mix. Though he had yet to kill any of them as unlike the copper ants they seemed far more intelligent. The turrets he had established could handle any push the ants made unfortunately any attempt at his own push was met with similar results and were overwhelmed by the sheer number of bodies the ants could throw at them.

He finally got the new fabrication Bay online, this one feet would be a severe boost to his fabrication capabilities. As with a fully functional Bay online he could print entire drones without requiring any outside force to assemble them. The only two problems where he was currently down to forty eight percent power, and he had already emptied out almost a fourth of one of his three supply rooms. His refineries were spitting out resource blanks as fast as they could but between the rubble the beetles and now the ants, he was running out of room to cram all the junk into. His next priority, which he was currently working on, was a new reactor to power the facility. Well in the short term, in the long term he would require a lot more power. Especially if this was going to be a primary resource and production facility. Regardless, he set the fabrication Bay to print out the needed components to finish the assembly of the reactor. He could get the components by disassembling an existing reactor, but he did not have any place to safely store any radioactive material. So, for the time being it was better to make a new one than crack open a damaged one and cause a radiation leak. Once he had the power source, he was going to repurpose the remains of any turrets he was not currently using to begin the production of more beetle bots. It was about time for a counterattack. Sadly, this would take more time, so he returned his attention back to the village.

Frederick had been a guard for eight years another two and he'd be twenty one and planned to go join the adventuring Guild. Anyone could join at the age of sixteen, but he wanted to get the pension for ten years as a guard to buy proper gear and equipment. Where most of his fellow guards were quick to spend, their earned coin, he'd pinched every copper he could for his future. So, when the small girl approached him and the other guards to teach her how to survive in the forest. To go harvest herbs to help her mother despite the monsters that recently moved in. Most of the guards had simply laughed her off and told her not to waste their time. He, however, had seen a bit of himself in the girl's desire to look ahead and prepare properly before heading out. So, he had decided to help her and when she hadn't come back the night before he had tried to convince a few of the other guards to go looking for her. He had only managed to get two others to agree, one of whom he had the bribe with dinner and beer at the tavern much to his chagrin. Only for the village to be attacked by a dungeon wave of all things while this did explain the new monsters it didn't bear well for the village.