CHAPTER 298: CHAPTER 298 NYK

The dwarf left the vicinity after a few searches, on realising that there were no living creatures around for him to vent his hatred for the machine race fellows out on.

Kailen, having come to terms with his current situation—that this was no longer just a simulation, and that a single carelessness could literally cost him his actual life—was about to vacate the vicinity and begin his harrowing journey out of the city, when...

" Nyk, is that you?"

A pained, yet relieved feminine voice wafted in Kailen’s ear.

The moment he heard the voice, he turned to look in a particular direction. He saw a feminine figure laying half dead on the ground a few distances from him.

The figure looked like some sort of humanoid creature with a metallic body. However, her body was currently torn into two halves with her upper body lying a few walks away from her lower body. Her eyes shone with blue light.

" Ny-k..." Her voice glitched as she stared at him. " I- couldn’t protect you."

After those pained words, the feminine humanoid creature with a metallic body’s eyes dimmed completely.

Subconsciously, a tear managed to fall from Kailen’s eyes as he stared at the dead mysterious woman.

" What the hell is going on?" he wondered, baffled at his strange reaction to the robotic looking woman’s words.

Did the owner of this body share some sort of relationship with this person? Was the owner of the body he had inhabited called Nyk?

Just then, sudden memories flooded his mind, giving him a clearer picture of the identity of this Nyk.

He was a war slave—a poor, pitiful human child who had lost his parents and everything he held dear to an invasion of pirates on his home planet. Brought to Automarion City by some slave merchants to be auctioned off to the inhabitants 2 years ago, he had almost been bought by some mad machine race scientist for some heinous human experiments, when the machine race woman who had just referred to him as Nyk, won the bid for him and took him home.

Instead of treating him like a slave, the woman had been kind enough to take extremely good care of him.

She later found out from him that when he turned 13 on his home world—the age where those meant to awaken on the planet awakened—he had awakened and managed to reach the rank 1 beginner stage ascendant level, after a long period of 500 years. Despite all the endless financial resources his late family, which seemed quite well off, had poured into him, it was a clear proof of his mediocre breakthrough speed and cultivation potential, despite the fact that he had ascendant level talent.

He had an affinity that permitted him to summon and control vines. However, his mastery over it was mediocre.

Kailen had to admit that like the previous Kailen, in Nyk’s own way, he was an ordinary and mediocre person.

However, Cyralis, the machine race woman who had found him—a prodigeous rank 1 runesmith—started training him in the area of runesmithery.

As expected, Nyk was also a very poor learner in that aspect, having managed to learn only a single rune—a rank 0 concealment rune—as a rank 0 runesmith in all the two years that Cyralis had been instructing him.

However, the woman, good natured and patient, didn’t give up on him, training him in the area of runesmithery.

2 months ago, they were in Cyralis’ residence when the Dwarves invaded Automarion City and some neighbouring cities and started wreaking havoc everywhere in an overwhelming manner, leaving the city in the current situation.

Cyralis, during their efforts to survive this gruesome pandemonium, had protected Nyk from an attack that almost claimed his life.

This was when Kailen found himself falling from the sky in Nyk’s body and crushed into some weakened structures and lost consciousness.

Kailen stared at the dead body of Cyralis. She had died protecting this Nyk huh. Contrary to the emotionless machine races he has read about in scifi novels, this one—and others, from Nyk’s memories—were really capable of emotions.

Brushing these thoughts to the back of his mind, and subduing the emotions of loss, pain, and anger that were welling up inside him as he stared at Cyralis one last time—emotions definitely as a result of inhabiting the body of Nyk, who shared a bond with this machine lifeform—he made a decision to proceed on his journey.

His life was on the line here and every second counted. Every mistake could cost him his life.

He didn’t have shadow sense, his insane perception or endless reserves of universe energy. He didn’t have the lightning, shadow affinity, elemental mirroring or even his infinite Alchemy flames. He didn’t have his Asura Elightenment Physique.

He was trapped in the body of a weak rank 1 beginner stage ascendant level lifeform, who could only summon vines, had no specialty in combat, and use a rank 0 concealment rune that could only last for ten seconds.

Worst of all, he had to take 30 minutes before he could restore his spiritual power to remake the rune again. And his life was also on the line.

He was trapped in a war torn city with defenders being pushed to the brink of the defeat. A city filled with blood, dead corpses, weeping bereaved, angry and vengeful dwarves whose rage knew no bounds, amongst others.

He knew he was running out of time. However, he could not just walk out of his hiding place into the hell ensuing around him.

He needed to plan and strategise—even if it would do no good in the end, he at least had to know how to use the quirks of this Nyk fellow to his advantage.

He had no choice but to find a way out of this mess. He had to get out of this city, no matter what.

One way or the other, he had to survive. He couldn’t die here.

Kailen begun to think of a way out of this mess, each thought a silent reminder that he was probably nearing his doom with each time spent on a thought.

This was no game. This was survival—brutal, merciless survival. And a single mistake meant death... permanent and absolute.