Chapter 8 – Hot and cool

“Anyway, I meant to ask, but we kinda got derailed. How is it to play as… actually, how does it feel to have a body made out of metal?” I ask Levia curiously.

“Hm, it’s… hm, it’s hard to describe. I can’t really compare with humans because I don’t know how you feel in your body.” She says uncertainly. “Generally I… don’t think there are many differences. The only major difference that comes to mind is that I don’t have full senses that humans do and have a couple more. I for one don’t have proper sense of pain, I have it simulated but it’s just information and not something unpleasant, and instead I just… if I get damaged, I feel what is missing, if you get what I mean?”

“Um, I guess. Like having character overview in games where you can see your state, just much more detailed?”

She stays silent with open mouth and wide eyes for a moment, then shakes her head and nods just after. “I… didn’t even think to put it this way, but it kinda makes sense? Though it’s not exactly true as well, but close enough, I think."

"Well, I guess new perspective can always help." I giggle.

"Mhm." She smiles lightly. "Anyway, going on, my sense of smell is also kinda… different, because I have more of a sensor that detects what’s in the air in general than normal nose. It’s similar with taste. Then there’s sight and hearing, and I have both much better than humans, not to brag, but I just have much wider spectrum of light I can see and much wider range of frequencies I can hear on top of having them both just more sensitive. So, yeah. And it's very similar in this body.” She indicates at herself.

“What about thermovision and the like?” I ask curiously.

“Uh, I have it, and a few more, but I rarely use them because they aren’t useful enough most of the time.” She glances at me with pursed lips. “If you ask about how it feels to have a body made of metal though… I guess it’s much easier. I don’t have health problems, no illnesses or anything of the sort, the only thing that might happen to me is mechanical damage and some kind of failures, like a few days back my cooling system got funky, but generally I get to fix anything of the sort within minutes.”

She looks into the distance, seemingly pondering about something. “I am also much stronger, though my body obviously wasn’t made for that, but I’m still stronger than humans, and like, by a large margin. I could overpower any normal human and most of those who train their bodies. But there are also downsides, because it just doesn’t feel like… Damn. I don’t know if that was intended, but this body.” She gestures at herself one again energetically. “Is just much more sensitive than I’m used to. I have read some novels, and I never really got to experience what was often described there, but with this body it feels much better than I ever experienced normally and closer to what I have read. I’m really happy to play like that, to be honest.”

“Oh, good for you. I’m a bit similar in this matter, to be honest.” I answer offhandedly, but she picks it up instantly and excitedly, much more so than I would expect. Not on the level of a little kid, but still.

“Hm? How? By the way, how do your horns and feet feel?” She asks with expectant eyes, asking another question before I even process the first.

“Um, hm. I’m much more flexible than I was before, that’s one. I haven’t tried everything yet, but during that fight before I didn’t hit a limit in my flexibility. Another thing is that I am much stronger than before, and that’s definitely a positive. And I guess… this body just feels better than real one, you know? Just the general feeling, how it all shapes out. My horns though… hm. It’s not really noticeable, I guess?” I shrug, sliding my hand along one of them. “The rest of the body is still too much of a deal for me to pay much attention to horns, and they are much lighter than you would expect, so I hardly even notice them.”

“Oh, okay.” Levia looks at me with a frown and asks somewhat uncertainly. “I wanted to ask before, but why do you have ashes on you?”

“Oh, hehe.” I giggle, looking away. “I burned the blood covering me, but I couldn’t get the ashes that remained off me.”

I glance at Levia, shrugging to indicate it’s not a big deal, and notice her looking away into the forest and raising her arms, not in embarrassment though, or anything close to that, but in alarm.

“What is it?” I ask, immediately changing my bearings and preparing for a fight, because I have no idea what else would prompt such reaction from Levia.

“I’m not sure, I think that’s a monster, and a larger one than usual.” She says quickly.

I frown and look into the forest, searching for anything suspicious, and I notice a shadow moving between the trees just at the end of my vision, which should be a few hundred meters with the trees blocking most of the view, and closing in.

“Yep, there’s something moving for sure. If it’s a monster, you stay back and look for an opening while I take it on.”

“But-.”

“Nope.” I interrupt her. “First, I have already fought here and you haven’t, second, real life experience is not very relevant here, and third, you definitely look weaker than me physically. Prove me wrong later if it’s the other way around, but we have no time to waste. And, most importantly.” I look at her with a wide grin, stars probably shining in my eyes. “I haven’t had a challenging fight since I came here, so I’m really itching to punch something.”

“O-oh, okay…” She says somewhat uncertainly, but backs away nonetheless.

I look back into the forest and now I’m sure it’s a monster, a large, gray thing weaving through the trees rather nimbly despite its size reaching almost four feet in height and significantly more in length.

I can’t tell how much more though, because for whatever reason it’s headed almost exactly in our direction, as if it was targeting us from the very beginning.

What I can tell is that it seems to move on four legs and it’s more on the heavy side, not the agile type, if only judging by how its body heaves up and down as it runs.

“Do I kill it quick and safe or we get some experience fighting together?” I ask quickly. I don’t think there is something strong enough for my Stellar Flame not to turn them into ashes, and most definitely not on this level.

“I’d like to fight a bit, feel things out. Kill it if it gets too dangerous.” Levia answers equally quickly, her somewhat both meek and confident attitude replaced completely by coldness and focus.

“Sure.”

The monster approaches us relatively quickly, now is less than a hundred meters from us, and I can now tell what it is.

“A Stone Aberration.” I say, glancing at Levia, and she nods.

A monster I have read about, because it was among the enemies showcased in the info they released a week before. It has varying appearance, but generally it can be described as a small, simple chimera covered by jagged stone plates.

This one I now see has six strong legs, the front ones a bit longer, with thick, short claws, slender body, disproportionally large head of a bear and a long tail. Its whole body, with at least three meters of length plus tail close to that, is more or less covered in stone, especially the head and its spine where a line of spikes protrudes.

And as the stone suggests, it’s a quite heavy thing, so it will most likely try to defeat us with its durability and momentum.

As it nears us, the monster lets out a deafening roar that makes me wince, but I don't lose focus.

From up closer I notice it has four yellow eyes in narrow sockets of stone, though I have no time to appreciate the view because the monster pounces on me, something I absolutely didn’t expect, jumping at least a meter into the air.

I guess it has more from its build than the stone would suggest it is capable of.

If I’m hit by that, I’m a goner for sure. This thing has probably well over a ton in weight.

I drop to the ground, making sure the Aberration can’t reach me with its claws, and slide forward, then as it is passing above me I kick upwards with my foot, hitting its hind leg and producing a small cracking sound, most likely breaking the stone covering its knee.

I notice a long shadow twisting in the corner of my eyes and jump sideways as quickly as possible as the tail whips into the ground just where I stood a moment before.

Damn, this thing is hard. Although I didn’t hit it with my claw, but it took a strike into the knee with my full strength and didn’t even cave in, just its protection broke.

I spring onto the ground and turn around quickly to notice Levia running by the side of the slowing beast and slashing with her sword, severing its front leg with a spray of blood and stopping at the second one.

That’s a… sword made with nanobots, right? Neat.

Levia doesn’t wait for the blade to dislodge and instead immediately jumps backwards, the monster’s jaw snapping a foot before her. The next moment the Aberration screeches in pain and anger and violently rotates its body, its tail extending into a damn whip and tearing the air with such speed it whistles through the air, and we both duck down as fast as we can, barely avoiding what would have blown our heads off.

I quickly rush forward with an excited grin I only now notice, mindful of the monster’s moves, and spin on the ground, packing the strongest kick I can manage into the same knee I hit before. It snaps with a satisfying crunch and the monster staggers with only three functional legs left, since the middle one Levia hit seems to corrode slowly and is unusable. Would be good if we did something about the tail.

I jump backwards once again faced with the head of the monster as it reaches out to me and notice Levia creating another similar sword and swinging it sideways with all her strength onto the neck of the monster.

It buries itself deeply into the meat, but is stopped quickly by the stones, and the monster lets out another screech and abruptly turns around a fraction of a second after Levia lets go of the blade. But it turns in another direction I anticipated, not to us, but away.

“Down!” I shout a warning and jump forward after its head.

I glance sideways to see the tail of the monster tearing the air harmlessly above Levia’s head and turn back to my enemy, twisting my right foot and kicking my heel straight into the eye that has just focused on me.

It pierces inside, crushing the stone edges and shredding the eye inside to pieces, and I sommersault using the head as my foothold, just barely dodging the leg that swishes under my head and sends an excited shiver down my spine.

I plant the same heel into another eye, taking it out in the exact same manner as the first one, and spring upwards, pushing againt the monster's head. It attempts to attack me, but in the corner of my eye I catch Levia timely slashing its remaining hind leg with another sword and severing it, and the monster, up to now unsteady, loses its balance and its back falls to the ground heavily, its jaws snapping harmlessy in the air.

I land safely on the ground as Levia backs down. “I don’t think we can kill it quickly this way. Should I finish it?”

She glances at me and shrugs, the monster meanwhile attempting to stand up and attack us unsuccessfully, roaring. “If you’re satisfied, then sure, I don’t mind.” She says as it stops making noise for a while.

“Good.” I grin, igniting my fist and taking a stance.

I then launch myself as fast as I can into the monster and notice it turns its head to my fist and screeches in fear, attempting to dodge futilely.

Its scream is cut short as I drive my fist into the head just after passing the front leg it attempted to defend itself with, vaporizing both almost instantly, and stop sharply in place.

I turn to Levia with a grin on my face and see her looking at me with mouth wide open, blinking.

I walk to her as she composes herself and look over myself, noticing a few splashes of blood on me and igniting them offhandedly.

“Wow.” She says finally with awe. “What the hell was that? You just vaporized it.”

“Stellar Flame.” I say with a grin. “Not sure what exactly that is, but combined with demonic energy seems to be quite powerful.”

“Yeah, quite.” She muses with raised eyebrows and looks at the monster laying motionless on the ground. “Are we taking any materials from it?”

I glance at the corpse and shrug. “Feel free to. I didn’t memorize all the good parts, and I don’t think it had something worth remembering, so it's all yours. Oh, and you can take the core if it hasn't evaporated.”

“Mm.” She answers with a sound I’m not sure what to make of, approaching the corpse.

“By the way, what you used were nanobots or something?” I ask.

She glances at me with a gaze I can only interpret as slight wariness, but it fades quickly replaced by a small smile. “Um, yeeeah.” She stretches out the word as if uncertain. “Well, I’m not sure if you can call them nanobots, but for simplicity you can see them this way. It’s my affinity, it’s called Abyss, but it’s apparently adapted to my race and works more or less like nanobots, so… yeah. No building things out of thin air though, these swords were pure nanobots. They are more for consuming than building, I think.”

“Oh, cool. It suits you. Just like Stellar Flame matches me, I guess. I didn’t tell you, did I? My race is called Star Demoness.” I say with a smile as Levia makes a sort of a knife and starts cutting the monster. “You’re cool, I’m hot, huh?”

Wooow, I really did say that out loud, didn’t I?

Good she has her back to me, because she would see my embarrassed face I didn’t manage to hide in time. At all, actually, until a few seconds later when it didn’t matter at all. Even flirting has its limits beyond which I get embarrassed.

“Uh, I… guess?” Levia says somewhat uncertainly and giggles, the sound almost making my face crumble once again after I got it under control, this time from completely different reason. “I didn’t think about it, but matches quite well.”

She finishes quickly what she is doing and puts something in her inventory, though I don’t pay attention to what it is since it isn’t of any concern to me. Probably it's a mana stone.

Afterwards we continue our journey till we reach a stream sometime past noon.

There were no significant interruptions past a few small monsters we took care of as easily as Levia took my heart.

“Would you mind waiting a bit here? I’d like to clean myself somewhat properly. Unless you wanna come with me?” I ask as we stop for a moment by the stream, looking at her with a teasing grin.

“Sure. I imagine that ash must be uncomfortable. Uh, what? Um, maybe later…” She nods in my direction with a faint smile, then stammers with her face reddening, her mind catching up to the last part of what I said.

“Okay, I’ll be going for a while then. It might be a long while though, I want to see my body properly since I didn’t have a chance earlier, and check out a few things.”

“Oh, I don’t mind. I’ll also need to do that sooner or later, so I might as well now.” She says.

“By the way, do you, uh, need to wash yourself? I mean, does your body clean itself or something?” I ask without thinking before I realize what I just did.

“Um.” She stumps for a while, her face still red, probably even more considering she turns her head around. “Actually I’m not sure. Normally, I mean out of the game, I don’t really need to wash myself, but still do since it makes me look better, mainly hair since it’s hard to maintain properly by the mechanisms alone. I’ve no idea how this body works in this matter though. W-why do you ask?”

I have turned around and started walking away slowly a while ago to hide the light blush creeping up my face, and only getting more visible as she asks me for the reason of my question, before an idea pops up in my head and I need to execute it.

Without hesitation I turn my head and smile wide with what I hope is a twinkle in my eye. “Well, that means we can bathe together, no? I was afraid you wouldn’t want to.” I say in casual tone.

I turn around, just barely catching her cute face heating up, and walk away deeper into the forest to clean myself and check out a few things.