14:00 AT, Day Three | Arce Lunae / Mess Hall

  We arrived back at the castle a while ago. Since then we have been cleaning up, polishing weapons and such. Of course, I made sure to give Ray plenty of headrubs and kisses during such a time. She is just too cute not to.

  Currently, I'm about to serve up an absolutely massive amount of pancakes. Turns out, several peak-performance warriors can consume quite a lot of food. We do have a few chef drones that can help with the basics at least.

  I carry out Ray and my plate, stacked high with at least a meter of pancakes. Of course, I made sure to include my super special ingredient for these two stacks. A drone carries the other three plates to Emil and Rigar, who are also ready to engage in some pancake time.

  Unfortunately, Linda is still in the respawn cooldown thing, it'll be a few hours before she is fully recovered.

  I set the plate down in front of Ray and a giant grin spreads across her face. She reaches for the syrup and drizzles it in a quite absurd amount.

  “Slow down, or you're going to choke on all that syrup. Potian stuff is quite a bit thicker than the stuff we are used to.”

  She mumbles through a mouthful of food "It'll be fine.”

  I make sure to place the glass of water right next to her for the inevitable.

  I take my first bite of the pancakes, with only a reasonable amount of syrup.

  The rich fluffy texture suffuses through my mouth. Practically melting, almost like its heaven on this Arena. The syrup does a nice job of holding it together and adding a nice sweet kick to the end of every bite.

  I take a few bites, and surely enough. Ray starts to choke on a bite that was way too big. Thankfully it seems the kit kicks in to disable the gag reflex and enable her exosuit’s automatic blood oxygenation system.

  She grabs a nice drink of water to help wash it down. Even though it's not strictly necessary, it is still unsettling not being able to breathe. Some fundamental instinct baked into all breathing organisms probably.

  “Told ya so.”

  “I guess you did. But, these things are just so delicious, I can't stop shoveling them in! Even though waffles and pancakes are the only thing you can cook, they are like, legendary tier.”

  “Hmm, maybe it's just a talent I have for no reason. You seem to like them, so that's good enough.” I say, as I stare into her endless blue eyes, they seem to ask me to look at nothing but her. Which I'm glad to do, for the rest of eternity if necessary.

  Emil and Rigar also send their compliments about the food. Which is nice. I'm honestly surprised they opted to join in, rather than go off training somewhere. Their vessels don't need food, so I guess they just wanted to try the cuisine that Ray so often compliments.

  16:30 AT, Day Three | Arce Lunae / Recovery Bay

  All four of us are gathered in the recovery bay. A pretty fancy place. Medical drones line the wall, ready to patch up any fleshy or mechanical bodies. There are also a few comfortable seats, perfect for awaiting someone to exit the recovery tubes.

  Five of them line the wall, one for each of our ‘core members.’ Currently, Linda is resting inside one of them, a timer on the panel displays that she will respawn in 3 minutes. 8 hours after she was ‘killed’ in the Legend Raid.

  Currently, Ray has made herself quite comfortable on my lap. Brushing her fingers through my hair while we wait.

  She could have chosen any of the several other seats in the room, but she chose my lap instead. Which I am thankful for.

  “Your hair has grown out a bit, darling.”

  “Yeah, it's getting close to ear length now. Perhaps I should give it a trim soon.”

  “Hmm, it kinda looks nice a bit longer, but it could definitely use some touching up.”

  “Wonder if they have any hair stylists in this part of the universe.”

  We burst out into a fit of laughter at such an absurd idea.

  It's at this moment that Linda awakens and walks right out of the tube.

  “Bloody canopies, that wasn't a very comfortable death.”

  “Oooo dear Linda! You're finally awake again. We were just so worried about you, we couldn't do anything else.”

  “By that, my lovely Ray means that we had a lot of fun, ate pancakes and engaged in general leisure activities while you were out.”

  “That sounds exactly like what you two would do. I'm not sure what pancakes are but I feel like I should be disappointed you left me out.”

  Emil: "Don't worry, I made sure to save some from our lady’s ravenous clutches.”

  “I would try to argue with that depiction, but it's too true for me to do so. Emil, have you been learning from Ko and I?”

  “Ive picked up a few things here and there.”

  “Wow look at that darling, it seems we've got a protege in the art of being pains in the rear.”

  “Ko, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Aren't protogees a lot of work?”

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  “I don't think Emil will be much work. In fact, it seems he can learn all on his own without us doing anything. The best kind of student imaginable!”

  “That does sound like a good deal. We get all the credit but none of the work!”

  “Now that my new status of protege pain in the rear has been established, I think we should go check out the equipment drops that we got.”

  “Good idea, Emil. C’mon Ko! Let's get some cool rewards.”

  We head into the main throne room and take out our equipment drops that we got from the raid. Each of us gets one, plus we get five to split.

  “So, we are just going to do two each then?” Linda asks.

  “Yeah, that sounds about right. Got any better ideas, darling Ko?”

  “Nope, that seems to be the most reasonable method.”

  I walk up to one of the equipment drops. It's a fairly large crate, perhaps two by two meters or so. As I get near it a screen appears, how typical.

  ‘Welcome to Legend Loot O Matic, please select the type of gear you wish to receive.’ Then it follows with a bunch of icons. Everything from large rifles, armor, even spears and knives.

  I could definitely do with some better armor, that seems very important. So for the first drop I choose armor.

  A hologram of a fancy ball appears above the crate. It spins around, changes color and does a bunch of fancy things. After a few seconds, it stops and forms into a set of armor.

  It looks fairly basic looking, but it's completely purple with some nice black highlights between the repulsor plates. The armor seems to be quite a bit thicker than my current armor, which is basically just a bunch of repulsor field generators layered over my normal exosuit.

  I reach out and try to take the armor, but the moment I touch it it seems to get absorbed into my hand. I get a notification telling me to check my inventory. Low and behold, there it is. ‘Armor of the Swift Lightning Beast’ is its name. The armor rating says that it is at great-level (my current armor is medium-level). Which I supposed makes sense, since they were great equipment drops from a great-level Legend.

  Perhaps stronger legends will drop better equipment drops? That'd be cool, and likely necessary as things get stronger and stronger.

  I equip it from the inventory screen and a couple drones come out of the wall. Each holding what appears to be half of the armor. Another drone comes and removes the armor that I currently have on.

  Then, they fit the new armor nicely and tightly to my body. It makes a strange secure sound and then I feel strange. It feels as though my nerves are cracking with a strange energy. It also feels like I could run for the rest of eternity if necessary.

  I look back and see a section I missed. It says that the armor ‘grants the bearer speed and energy like that of a swift lightning bolt’. Neat, so it isn't just cool-looking, it has some other effects too.

  I look over and it appears Ray also chose a suit of armor. It's in a nice silver color, and while similar, it has what looks like fins on the boot area.

  “Looking snazzy, darling. Silver really suits you!”

  “I know, right! You look awesome too. Did you get any special bonuses with yours?”

  “Yeah, I have better agility and have more stamina I think. What’d you get?”

  “Apparently it allows me limited flight. Something about lightning arcing through the sky. It's called ‘Armor of the Weightless Lightning Beast’ apparently.”

  “That's so cool! Now we both have some form of flight, I no longer have to carry you around.”

  “Hmm, I think I'd prefer to be carried around in your nice and strong arms. You've gotten quite toned if you haven't noticed. Starting to see the beginnings of some delicious muscles.”

  “Oh c’mon, that can't possibly be true. Now, let's open up the last drop.”

  I go through a similar procedure for the other drop. This time I chose a spear, it seems more important than a shield. There are also what appears to be rings, necklaces and other accessories. Which makes sense, in the inventory screen I can see spots for such things. But, I think my main weapon is more important.

  I get something called ‘The Spear of the Legendary Lightning Beast.’ It is also rated at great-level. But the cool ability it has is strange, ‘one possess dominion over the power of the sky.’ Perhaps it means I have some control over lightning? That would make the most sense.

  Ray, of course, chooses a fancy railgun. ‘Railgun of the Almighty Lightning Beast,’ its effect is fairly simple; before impact, it discharges a bit of lightning. Seems useful for piercing through tough shields.

  Naturally, Rigar, Emil and Linda each chose their stuff. Rigar with Armor (it has some heavier shielding than normal) and a warhammer (much larger, and sparkier than the one they had), Emil gets a fancy katana and some sweet looking armor (supposedly, it makes him a really fast runner), and Linda goes with a fancier sword and a nice earring. Apparently the earring improves her sight and general perception drastically. Which could come in handy for a sharpshooter.

  After that, we get to do yet another fun thing.

  “Darling, is it just me, or is it getting a bit lonely in this arena?” I ask.

  “Yeah, we should do some of those things where we get more people.”

  “Yeah, let's. Hopefully we get some good rolls.”

  I opened up the gacha menu. Greeted by the wonderful area where we can spend Ri, to roll for various qualities of human beings. Which when then put in vessels (sold separately) which can do stuff in the arena.

  We've got a decent amount of Ti, so I converted a bit into Ri.

  I press the button to spin our first time. Each spin gives us 10 options to pick from, from which we get to keep 5. A pretty balanced system, though gacha for human beings does feel a bit weird.

  A fancy animation plays, yadda yadda. I don't know how exactly to describe it.

  After a few seconds, we are given our selection. We managed to get 1 high, 3 mediums and 6 low levels. Better than the projected rates, but still well within reason.

  “Hm, we did decently with our first pull! Does this mean we are destined for greatness?”

  “I think so darling.”

  Naturally, we decide to keep the high, mediums and a low level.

  We spin it a dozen more times and end up getting slightly-above average results again. Our total is now 6 high, 23 medium, and 36 low. Unfortunately, we didn't get lucky with the 1 in 500 chance of getting a great one. Oh well, I'm sure we will get a few in time. They will serve as great commanders and overall powerhouses on the battlefields. Plus, they will likely be essential for future legend raids.

  Now, just to be clear. It's not like those at the lower levels are useless. Far from it in fact. We need engineers, logistics personnel, chefs, etc. to fuel our war machine. Armies cannot be run by only a few people. They are massive, well-oiled machines with many specialized parts that all work together.

  Soldiers are only a small part of the army, relatively speaking.

  Given our remaining funds, we choose to purchase 6 Enhanced Vessels (High-level), 10 Standard Vessels (Medium), and 20 Basic Vessels (Low).

  Just a thing to keep in mind, we won't lose the beings inside. But if one of the vessels should die, we will have to repurchase it. So, we will want to equip our more expensive ones well.

  Within short order, the Vessels are delivered into the barracks of the castle. Which are quite extensive, but not infinite. In the shop there are extra shelters and such that we can buy to place outside the walls. We don't need to worry about food and stuff, but these are still humans. They need to relax and such to keep up morale.

  We install the first few beings into their vessels. It's a pretty simple process, we can just drag the beings into their vessels via the menu. Apparently in the future we can set permissions to allow others than us to to manage designated beings and such. Which will be important to allow more self-sufficient outposts and such. After all, we can't control every facet of everything, especially across such a vast arena.

  Our map has only been about 5% revealed so far. There is still undoubtedly far more to discover out in the fog of war.

  I'm sure that no matter what awaits us, Ray and I shall overcome it, together. So, bring it on.

  End of Chapter 90

  Next: Chapter 91 | Vision Expands